#disregardedscar

[inricochet]

Through The Veil

Once he was halfway through dressing for the first stage of the festivities, trousers on and holding the rest of his garments, Icio glanced at Zuko and remembered to ask, to point out with a slight edge to his voice,

“Are you coming? The ball will begin soon.”

He had been all the more on edge ever since they’d arrived, and now was of course no different... it was selfish, but he wanted the human to come, even if he would be surrounded by strangers, and strange vampires.

They felt like strangers to him sometimes, too.

[dacnomania]

Paranormal Activity

He had only gone out to slake his thirst, a routine that had quickly turned into anything but.

He knew well that the centuries-old vampire’s influence carried far; yet, he had never anticipated coming across someone who had, according to the human’s redolent stench, recently mated with him.

Antonio was disgusted, certainly, unsurprisingly when knowing Icio was involved, but had to wonder why, how — how much the man knew about the arrangement, truly.

If the coitus had been agreed upon by both parties, or forced, as he wouldn’t have put it ( or anything else, for that matter ) past the other vampire.

He hissed as he swiftly shied away from it,

“Did your paramour give you that?”

He inclined his head toward the man’s scar, flicking his gaze to it completely, to see that it covered his entire eye and then some.

[akitosohma]

Reprieve

There were so many people at this banquet, Akito soon felt as though she were suffocating and so she had to lose them ( before she screamed, just to know she wasn’t ) migrating swiftly toward the least occupied space, near a corner where a man was sitting alone, looking bored or, perhaps, even as displeased as she felt.

“It’s too hot, over there,” complained the god as she promptly sat down beside him, thinking the stranger wouldn’t be all that concerned with whatever she chose to do.

If so, he would likely be more pleasurable company than the rest, she thought at least.

[inricochet]

Staking Claims

Icio eyed the other ‘archaeologist’ openly as he approached his partially excavated site, unsure whether to be pleased or displeased to see that he was good looking.

“Ciao. I’ve been assigned to this dig site, it appears, with you.”

By himself, looking for a long lost relic of his own, but yes.

“I can take the night shifts if you prefer to work during the day.”

He had to, in any case.

“Or we can work then, together.”

It might be more amusing with company, at least.

[inricochet]

Overboard & Under The Current

After they had been physically intimate was when Icio chose to bring it up again, after he determined enough time had passed since he had given the man the opportunity for it to possibly have happened,

“Have you found someone else — like me — yet?”

His eyes searched Lee’s face, as he was, altogether, unbearably anxious to see and hear the answer.

He presumed it would happen eventually, even if it hadn’t already, but.... knowing it had was different, even if he would prefer to know.

He wasn’t sure he would prefer to know if it was someone he knew, however.

[inricochet]

An Indefinite Invitation

It had been a few weeks, with a few more, intermittent drinkings — of both kinds — before Zuko’s new clothes arrived by mail.

Icio took them hurriedly from the convoy with the standard offering of gratitude as well as payment, desirous to get them up to the human’s bedchamber as soon as possible, certain that these, however displeasing, would at least be preferable to the dress or robes he’d been wearing his whole time at the castle thus far.

The vampire reached the room in a kind of breeze, noticing no more than the blur he became on the way there.

“Your clothes.”

He placed them — still in their wrappings — carefully onto the bed, hopeful that they would fit well with the measurements they had taken only a short while ago, glad to be able to provide even this, this comparatively small thing for him.

He hesitated, then.

“There... there will be an international ball, so I ordered formal clothes as well, in case you would like to come with me.”

From time to time, Icio had forgotten, or simply ignored that it was coming up again, as it did every century or so.

There would be both humans and vampires in attendance, and of nearly all manner of importance... still, he refrained from saying so, unsure if the addition was necessary, or would help the matter.

[inricochet]

A Persisting Presence

He had drunk himself into yet another stupor, although the unusual bit was neither the dreams that followed nor his reaction to them, but that he had finally lost consciousness over the wooden table in the dining hall and not in his bedchamber.

As a vampire, it was difficult for him to feel bodily pain.... though there was discomfort and pain of another kind when he whirled around awake, expecting someone other than Zuko to be standing there, staring at him.

Icio had backed away before seeing, recognizing what was actually in front of him, knocking the stone glass he’d been drinking from off the table with a force that shattered it.

He didn’t know what he had said, but it was likely something worse than before at the look on the human’s face — and he knew what it was likely about, given his dreaming of her, the Tsarina again... so close to when he knew he would have to see her again.

“...”

He couldn’t muster an oral response, however, still reeling from the terror and shock of it as well as Zuko’s sudden presence.

[inricochet]

Here & There

It was only the day after Zuko had asked for blankets that he noticed him in the main dining hall, around the same time as he went there for more to drink, having exhausted the somewhat trivial, remaining supply in his bedchamber.

By then, it was late afternoon — the human likely hadn’t wanted to bother with eating until then, likely hadn’t been there long; although, if he’d gone much longer without the wraiths might have sought him, which perhaps he had guessed.

The vampire didn’t have to eat, of course, but he could, though almost nothing tasted quite the same as it did when he had been human.

“Good evening,” he told him genially, genuinely, as he unlocked one of the cabinets containing alcohol and removed a bottle from it.

If he didn’t want to talk, he wasn’t going to compel him to, he didn’t have to oblige, but Icio would at least greet him.

He poured some relatively aged wine into a chalice, as he waited to see if he would.