@riggingswinging is over for the evening.
How does one approach this matter tastefully ?
It starts off simply enough, almost by second nature. Invite a dear friend over — ah, wait, is that even the right vernacular anymore? How do you address that ? Lover ?
.. Oh, lord, this was going to be more work than he thought.
That singular word, the two syllables alone had his mind go numb and his chest feel light. So utterly romantic, sickeningly sweet, he chided himself for such sentimentality. To get so riled up at a word, to merely think about it and feel all kinds of tingling from head to toe, it .. really was absurd, downright laughable. Maybe that’s why his fingers tapped a few beats faster than they should on the tatami they were seated on. Why his lips would occasionally press firmer than normal on the rim of the sakezuki. Why Ieyasu stared when Motochika wasn’t looking.. Well, he always did that, but, more intensely than usual, only to look away when he made to turn back. The sake relaxed him, eased the dense air between them and allowed over-caution to fade. But, still, it would replay in his head, like a stalling record that would come back to life after leaving it be. Lover.
The words had reached Motochika, he had said them, loud and clear. Inviting him over after that .. fiasco (to put it kindly) was strangely more light-hearted than expected. He would have done this anyway, if not for a lingering doubt that had risen from the depth’s of his stomach to settle as a lump in his throat. It should have been reassured, shooed away into oblivion, who needs doubt like this to begin with ? They had come to terms, a verbal pact; they were each other’s. So where was that ease that had come and gone just like that ?
It all came with the fact that they were together. Alone. For the first time since then. In Ieyasu’s private quarters, no less; the room was left decorated scarcely, save for a few heirlooms that took to the walls and some strategy maps askew in the corner. This unifier was a bit more messy than he let on, but certainly no disaster. It didn’t matter when they were seated outside the room to begin with, basking in the night’s cool and letting a moonlit garden serve as a the audience to their sake-driven antics. Neither driven to a stupor, hardly even tipsy, but allowing the flow of the alcohol to carry them smoothly in conversation. They never needed it, but it was a nice vehicle.
The air between them before been light-hearted. Friendly. And it was still that way, but now something weighed in this privacy that neither of them had explored just yet. Neither had made to bring it up. Ieyasu wasn’t even really sure if Motochika had been mulling over it as much as he had. It was silly, he knew that, he shouldn’t be thinking twice this when all logic pointed to the fact that it would go just fine. How could he, when Motochika still laughed with him and clapped him on the shoulder, still called him names and indulged him in stories that seemed never ending.
And yet, he still doubts.
Just a little.
He needs to be patient.
“ Have another drink, Motochika; it’s the last of it, after all. Best savor it. “ He knew Motochika had, there was no need to tell him so; hell, the pirate had drank more than half. Blame it all on the Ieyasu’s lacking tolerance. The daimyo leans over to pour out the tokkuri and render it empty. He takes the opportunity to scoot a bit closer. Just a touch. Just enough so that, if he were so inclined, their knuckles could brush against each other without needing to move out of his way. But their hands still remained shy of each other; rather, Ieyasu was all too conscious of the distance, especially with the brief quiet that took them in the moment he went to relinquish the rest of the alcohol. Rustling leaves replace their subdued bedlam, before Ieyasu speaks again; his tone is dropped, calmer than before, when he was laughing up a storm at some joke Motochika had said that he, admittedly, had already forgotten.
“ .. I don’t think I said it, but I’m glad to have you here. It’s hard to have company over here; I never mind making the journey, I almost prefer it, but .. Home is where the heart is, I suppose ? “ I don’t want to be interrupted, is what he means to say; however, between the turmoil Mikawa is in this time of shifting history and the general roughraff of Motochika’s crew, he doesn’t know which is more likely to interfere now. But with the moon up so high and the dark settled so steep, it felt as if they had all the time in the world together. Finally. “ I know you prefer the sea, so I hate to drag you away like this, forgive me if it’s selfish .. But I do want you for myself this evening, so — “ Did he just say that. Oh, man. “ Ahaha ! That’s even more selfish of me.. “
His finger reaches out. To rub against the pirate’s knuckle. It’s a small gesture, and he doubts his scarred fingers feel good, even through bandages.
“ It’s not a lie, though. Not at all. “
He’s smiling down into his lap, giving a slight breath through his nose in a quiet laugh. He hopes this suffices as a way to start this provocation.
Bluntly, the beginning of a seduction.
