Considering what it would take for Demodus to get Azune into bed.
In the normal course of things a five year age gap wouldn't worry him particularly. He had been long since an adult at 22, and finds most people he runs into are much the same.
Age gaps the other way are... the opposite of a problem. Azune is fully aware of his preferences for older men. But at the end of the day it's more about the person. Well, the person and how they communicate.
Azune is also aware that this can be a weakness of his. He can be persuasive and charming when he sets his mind to it, and when need arises he has a decent skill in eliciting certain responses from others. But people are so confusing sometimes, and he often finds they don't say what they mean or mean what they say.
More than one person has told him he's too blunt. It doesn't bother him particularly. When it comes to sex, he would rather be turned away for his bluntness than risk causing someone distress.
Sex is good, when there's time for it. Which isn't often. But on the occasions he has the spare time, he knows which establishments he is more likely to find an amenable partner or two at.
Which is what brought him here tonight, where he finds himself unexpectedly sitting across from one young Demodus Blix, doing far more listening than talking. And he really was listening. But he was also studying him as he listened.
Kids shouldn't have sex with adults. It was one of the first rules he has learned from Thjazi. One of the many ways he had had to learn that the Torn Banner was different from the Gallows Choir. It was an easier adjustment than many of the other rules that followed, that everyone should eat, regardless of if they had done anything of use that day, that injuries should be brought to the attention of a healer, that it was permitted to speak to those stronger than you.
He studied Demosus's face. His cheekbones and his jaw, the stubble he was stubbornly growing. It was the soft, pleasant face of a man. A young man, perhaps, but not a child.
He was short yes, even for a gnome, but surely that did not make him a child? There was a softness to him, yes. Around his cheeks and down his body. Azune found himself wondering how that might feel, the looser shirts the man seemed to favor hung in such a way that one couldn't quite tell what you might get to run your hands over if you just tugged the hem up a bit...
"My eyes are up here, lieutenant."
As soft as the words were, a fond smile turning the reprimand into something gentler, Azune couldn't help but blush a bit. Hasn't he heard Murray complain about people looking lower than they ought enough? Was he no better?
"It's okay, I don't mind..... " Again a brilliant smile and warm laugh as Demodus shifted closer, putting his small hand slightly further up Azune's thigh than he felt was strictly friendly, an unaccounted-for move that gave him inadequate time to prepare, biting his lip out of instinct, trying to turn his breath into something steadier than it was.
Adults shouldn't have sex with kids. Thazji's voice clear as a bell in his head. There was a certain tone there when he gave an order that would curl around deep inside Azune, even back then. It was safe, Thjazi would go out of his way to be clear and direct and certain in his orders for the youngest member of the Torn Banner, and that was probably the first spark of safety that made Azune fall in love with him.
He's just a kid, Azune. Murray's voice now in his head, just as strong, just as safe. A statement and warning in one. He didn't know if he was in love with her yet. But it didn't matter. She was his friend and she was safe and...
Demosus's hand slide up slowly, but the easy smile was starting to turn to something else, something that hinted of worry, oh no he was not supposed to be distressing him he was just a kid, he was a kid, he was Murray's kid...
"Hey... water?" A hand held out a glass to him, eyes on his face, but the other hand was still on his thigh, and when their fingers brushed together when he took the glass he stopped, looking at Demodus with a flash of horror on his face.
He wanted Demodus. In the way adults wanted other adults.
Kids shouldn't have sex with adults, Azune.
He's just a kid, Azune.
"Hey... Are you okay? I could get Mr Bolaire?" Demosus's face was worried, his hand now in a much safer location on Azune's shoulder.
Bolaire. Yes. Bolaire.. he might not understand but he could Command him, could make him safe again...
... No. If he told Bolaire, Bolaire would tell Hal and...
"Azune?" The worry was becoming concern, he had to...
There's some things we don't share with the folks back home, kid. It's one of the things we're fighting for, you see. To keep them safe. Sometimes the not-knowing is what does that.
Thjazi had never had to say Hal's name for Azune to understand the order being given.
"..... Murray. I need to see Murray."
