untameable

sticky situations

Skuld looks over at her friend for a few long moments, smiling softly as she takes in his familiar features, letting all of it really sink into her skin. She knows these words, has heard them spoken to her before, in a vision of times to come. It seems now those times have arrived and Skuld is spending her last moments with Tohil as he is in this moment; the Tohil who will remember her.

She never gets hung up on things quite so bad as other people do, has learned to accept that things happen the way they’re supposed to happen, but this is a parting that she feels to her very core, even when she cannot let him know. There is no point in letting him know, in making things emotional when they shouldn’t be. And so she smiles at her friend when he asks her that sarcastic question and then looks down at the ground in front of them, scorched with the heat of the fire Tohil just had to unleash in order to make sure their little mishap with the dam wouldn’t cost the lives of an entire village.

When she looks back up at her friend, her grin is back in place and she tilts her head ever so slightly to the side. “What else would it be?” She asks lightly. “I’ve done all the things that should be in a fun vacation. There was time to be lazy, there was a walk by the sea, there was adventure~” She motions at the dam that is once again sealed, having been melted closed again, with a big part of the water probably evaporated but that’s a minor detail. “I spent it with someone I love. There really is nothing lacking here.”

She nudges his shoulder with hers and then promptly leans in to press a kiss to his cheek. “There,” she says as she straightens again. “Now there is something to make it worthwhile for you as well.” She grins at him and then casually reaches for his hand, tangling their fingers up casually. “Let’s go home. There’s a bed with my name on it and I’m exhausted. I know you don’t know what resting is, but humour me.”

Tohil had no idea how long he had been gone and back to earth, but heck, it hurt like hell. 

It burned, actually, if he could express how the hot, tingling, aching sensation spreading all over his vessel was making him feel. No hangovers, for recently, he had quitted being fashionably drunk every other night. No overworking, for if there was anything that this job at the fire station gave him, that could be described as a fountain of youth. 

If he carefully thought about it, then there were peculiar chemical reactions inside his vessel, had started since a while ago, even though they had never been enough to knock him out. But it did, tonight it did, and if Ares hadn’t been a random douchebag of a friend he was, Tohil wouldn’t have known how he could get off the floor. 

He got most of what Ares said, if the query about his doings was the only thing his friend had said to him. Tohil took his time to let his body cool down and the pain subsided, before his eyes slowly opened to welcome the sight of his ‘savior’. 

“Be gentle, can you?” His voice was like a leaf that had just survived a storm, barely there to be registered if Ares hadn’t stood close enough to capture it. 

There were times when the fire got blue, so there Tohil was again, in the city council, seeking the sun goddess to whom he barely hide his affection for.

Before her husband could learn about it and come for his neck, it was the purest kind of affection he was able to offer. Yes, he could be inappropriate at times, or most of the time, but Tohil believed he got a decent amount of courtesy in his blood to always keep himself in check while being around Amaterasu. The sun should be given nothing but the best, shouldn’t she?

As she affirmed her alright-ness despite the insane workload she was handling for the council and the museum library, Tohil’s face softened into a surrender smile. “Fine, fine, how dare I forget that you’re one of the greatest workaholics around here?” Genuine care for her wellbeing lay underneath that light-hearted joke, and probably, that was the best way it could be, since Tohil wasn’t and wouldn’t be known as an openly caring being.

He had been all prepared to reply to her, but Amaterasu was always a step ahead. In this case, an entire football-yard-long step ahead. Tohil chuckled, rather loud considering how quiet this whole council building was at this time of the day.

“Excuse my language, Amaterasu-sama, but I can solemnly swear I don’t care about that fucker that much.”

He took the liberty to assume that they were talking about the same unholy individual, for when ‘friend’ and ‘crime record’ were combined in one sentence, that should be the only option that would make sense. Sitting relaxedly on the appointed seat, he offered the sun goddess a friendly, foxy smile; his eyes spoke a ton before his voice did.

Tohil laughed, genuinely laughing, for probably the first time in a very long time. 

@mpxtohil​

He’s home.

It’s not a rarity, Yanluo works from home often. But it’s not everyday he gets to enjoy his humble abode without opening his work computer, or re-evaluating evaluations. Or phone calls—incessant, shrill rings. 

It’s just the sound of smooth jazz, the low boil of his pasta sauce, and the smooth pop of a cork as he opens a fresh bottle of wine. Yanluo presses his cheek to the cold body, a happy purr in his throat. 

He tips the nuzzle, every bit excited as the glug glug means he gets to taste it sooner and sooner. Just a finger deep, he lifts it to his mouth. Tips it by the delicate stem, expecting fermented sweet grapes to burst on his tongue.

It’s the front door to his apartment that bursts open, jolting Yanluo. Expensive grape juice and all spills on his sweater—knitted, expensive, and white. 

There’s only one person that would be brave—stupid—enough to barge into the god’s place unannounced.

“Tohil…”

He gets the primitive urge to throw his glass. He doesn’t, because he has impulse control (and doesn’t want to scrub wine out of his carpet). But he does train Tohil with a severe look, jaw ticking. It’s a wonder he isn’t foaming at the mouth, really.

Well, wherever his hot mess of existence could barge into, then it would be his home. Including this pretty, nicely smelly apartment that has been highly guarded by universal assumptions and fears dedicated to a god of death.

But fire doesn't do assumptions, nor fear, nor care, nor shame. If Tohil had ears like the canine, bet they would perk up in joy as his name rolled off the frigid line of those (tempting) lips.

"Yes, daddy?"

Did we talk about how fire doesn't know or care to know any shame?

Throwing himself on the armchair that had already been his favourite, he waits for Yanluo to seep into his assigned role of this messed up dynamic they share. Yanluo, the neater, stricter, taller, more stoic, more responsible, more everything but the level of craziness between them, always understood the assignment.

To that realization, Tohil beamed the brightest smile he can afford for this gloomy day. Late evening, he means.

With elbows resting comfortably on both sides of the chair and left ankle placing on the right front thigh, Tohil looked up at Yanluo, gentleness in gleaming eyes in stark contrast to the cocky smirk lying just one thumb underneath them.

"Just stop by to see I'm probably in for the right time." He glanced at the wine stains on the probably pricey fabric, the smirk grows wider and mischief flickers in those deep dark eyes.

From where he was sitting on the couch, Tohil saw it all. Osiris’ face, the seemingly chronic sleep deprivation on Osiris’ face and whole being, the tension and awkwardness that were still vague, as if hadn’t fully awakened from the last night’s slumber. “Did you sleep well?” He still asked, just because that was how a normal conversation between two friends should include. 

If the god staying in this vessel was Tohil of a few months ago, things could have been quite different. His reactions to this, whatever they were, would definitely be warmer, more caring, more affectionate, more shameless, more everything. But as he was the Tohil of the morning when his heart had stopped skipping beats seeing Osiris, all he could give the other now was politeness, pure friendliness, and factual responses. 

“Ah, they are here.” He said, standing up to pick up the neatly folded clothes of Osiris from the opposite armchair and hand them to the god. At that moment, his brain, as if sensing that it would be too lame and too out of character for him to just let a friend go with an empty stomach, he quickly added before Osiris could disappear again to change. 

“What’s this? Have you lost your dick and looking to borrow mine?” He says by way of greeting, interest lurking beneath his dark eyes as he entered the room. He wasn’t exactly dressed like any other escort of Babylon. He didn’t change much by the way escorts should dress, not at all seeing the need to do so. The likes of Invidia and Jinny were free to dress how they wanted to, whether it was the request of any of their clients or not. Ares dressed as himself and tonight he looked like sin. All leather and snug dark jeans.

“Tohil, if you wanted to suck my cock, all you needed to do was ask. Why this formal pretense?” He smirked, voice teasing.

The friendly warning worked well, Tohil supposed, for just shortly after the end of his conversation with the poor receptionist, he was led to probably the biggest and best decorated room of Babylon. Privileges of booking the ultimate V.I.P, he believed. 

Tohil was on his mini venture around the well-adorned space, checking out this and that until Ares informed his presence with a really Ares-typical style. The greeting brought a big smile on the fire god’s face almost immediately; it could had happened faster if he hadn’t been momentarily distracted by the way those leather and jeans wrapped around the Greek god’s sinful body.