(I’m sorry, I hope I’m not repetitive, I hope you like it anyway.!)
“Yunno…grumpy is the new sexy”, started Mephires, a sly smirk painted on his thinlips.
“No,really, really! The mystery, the hard look … it can be quite smiting… I mean,such a complex personality, it shines through your dark, dark eyes… People getsfascinated by the shine of a man who went through hell and back and stillmanages to look like they would do it again just to kick jerk ass.”
“Yunno, “people”.Not, like … me or anything.. Not thatI don’t! I mean … I saw what you did to that guy’s face last night after hebothered that poor girl again. And, Imean, it was cool, but the fact thatyou did it because you were sorry for that poor girl and not just because you like to beat people up?”Res leaned closer, lowering his voice and letting the power of his smirk shine throughhis eyes, “That, that, was sexy.”
20. Carrying while half asleep. Hi dear, I let you decide who you want!:*
@lady-protector
So yeah, its Mephires and Xileh, because I’m also a sucker for them, apparently. And I write them even when it’s not requested. xD
(It’s also super long and probably super messy, and I took some liberties, please tell me if something seems wrong to you with the characters/dynamics. <3)
Xileh was not asleepy-drunk kinda guy.
Really, finding the hunterwith an alcoholic beverage in hand or stalling in a cantina bar wasjust such a common recurrence that basically everyone that even soremotely had to deal with the Chiss knew what kinda drunk Xileh was.
PSA : Xileh was apunching-is-loving-drunk kinda guy.
Or justloving-the-punching-drunk kinda guy.
Or just anything having todo with punching as a dealing with issues kinda guy.
(Even when sober, soreally, that was really no surprise for anyone.)
Mephires had decided, inthe privacy of his own head, that he liked watching Xileh beating theshit out of similary-drunk-but-actually-rotten-on-the-inside-drunkpersons. They were fairly (and stupidly) provoked by the Chiss, andfairly beaten by that quite awesome muscular mass that made theHunter’s physique, so really, they only had themselves to blame afterall. They were probably slavers, douches, killers, foolish gruntsanyway. Res trusted Xileh’s instinct for beating the worth-beating.
He especially liked beingthere for the beating because of that short moment where Xileh,winner, bloodied, breathless and possibly mad, so charmingly mad,would turn back towards him and the bar and their eyes would cross.The Chiss would, for a fraction of a second, look almost lost, as ifseeking something in Res’ eyes, judgment, condemnation or a prize.
And Res would smile,forcing him to share his pride for a job well done.
And the stare would kindalinger, even with them sitting next to each other, subtly drinkinginto each other short-lived naked openness, before eventually goingback to their usual selves.
But he should have knowthat today was going to be different.
°°°
Xileh was tiredly restingagainst his shoulder, letting Mephires half carrying back to theship, his mechanical hand secured as firmly as he could around hisback.
Mephires couldn’t havedreamt of carrying him anywhere if Xileh decided to stop walking orto fall asleep, so he just kept slowly pushing the Chiss forward,holding the armored arm around his shoulders with his free hand, andkeeping a quiet but constant chatter coming out of his mouth.
The hunter’s face wasalmost unrecognizable, caked with dried blood and rapidly fullingwith purple bruises. But what really worried the Rattataki was theempty look his red eyes were showing.
The Chiss had seemedelsewhere all night, not even seeking any fight, just drinking, glassafter glass of alcohol, his eyes fleeing Mephires, his jaw tense, hisshoulders rigid with silent sorrow.
And Res hadn’t dare ask,in the blossoming of their strange and unexpected relationship, Reshad preferred pretending it was nothing, just tried to joke it off,to distract the lost eyes of the man from whatever desperation theywere seeing.
And maybe it would haveworked, if only a douche haven’t decided it was his turn looking fora fight with the Chiss.
Mephires then observedXileh raising, taking the bait, starting pulling punches and thenletting himself being beaten to a pulp. Not a sound coming out of hismouth.
°°°
Pushing Xileh into his bedRes could feel the hunter’s exhaustion, almost strong enough to drownhis emotional pain. The smuggler could almost feel the Chiss silentdespair at seeing him turn away and seemingly leave.
But Mephires just wentinto the bathroom, wet a washcloth and came back into the room,sitting gingerly on the border of the narrow cabin bed.
“Are you going to let meclean your face?”
For a long second Xilehjust looked him in the eyes, looking lost, and sad.
Than he imperceptiblynodded.
Mephires put himself intowork, cleaning the worse of the blood off, trying to be as delicateas possible.
Xileh’s gaze had wanderedoff, and he was now fixing a dark corner of the room, far from Res.In the silence of the cabin Res almost jumped from surprise whenafter a few minutes Xileh spoke.
“I’m a failure.”
Res let the washcloth dropinto the floor and slid closer to the Chiss. He let his metal armdrop gently onto the older man shoulder, almost reclining on him toforce the Chiss to look at him.
“Xileh-” -my love-,on the tip of his tongue, unspoken-”that’s not true. You are asplendid creature, worth of praise.”
The Chiss met his eyes fora long moment, but then closed them, forbidden by Mephires hand, nowon his jaw, to look away.
The silence that followedseemed eternal, and Res could feel under his fingers, Xileh’s jawworking, as if choking unspoken words.
Eventually the Rattatakilet his hand wander higher, caressing the Chiss’ dark hair.
He was desperate to showhim some affection, but was deadly afraid to be refused, to be chasedaway, to be told to leave, and kept his touches to the minimum,unwilling to push and risk loosing him.
“You want to talk aboutit..?”, he dared whisper, after a second, seeing his friend’sshoulders imperceptibly relax.
The Chiss just shook hishead, a soft breath coming out of his lips. Mephires would have likedto get him some bacta for his face and ribs, but didn’t have anyexpectation on Xileh accepting.
“You want me to stay?”
“You don’t have to.”,he eventually said.
“As if I needed anexcuse to want to stay and bother you to sleep.”
The hunter snorted softlyand grumbled something about not stealing his covers and Mephirestook at as permission to remove his boots and jacket and to carefullylie himself over the older man side.
It was a damn little bed,and Mephires was scared to touche some of the worse bruises, butXileh put an arm around him, pulling him tightly against him, andMephires just let himself be moved around as the Chiss wanted.
A vocal command put offthe lights, and Mephires allowed himself to put his hand over thehunter’s chest, as if checking his heart.
The silence stretchedcomfortably, and Mephires was almost letting himself fall asleep whenhe heard Xileh mockingly muttering in his ear :
“ I don’t cuddle ” - for anyone. And this is former apology, that i didn't do some of your ask, lmao. Ilu.
@lady-protector
(don’t worry lady, I couldn’t hold a grudge. you have the dopiest doe eyes, I just can’t stay mad. <3 )
Mephires (I still hadn’t done a character page for him, so there is it now here) + Xileh
(not actual sex.)
“I don’t cuddle.”, said Xileh, while, obviously, cuddling him.
“It’s alright”, reassured him Mephires, “I won’t tell anyone. It’s a cuddling of convenience anyway.”
He patted Xileh’s shoulder half-mockingly, almost expecting to have it bitted. The Hunter was wearing that kinda face.
It really wasn’t anything affectionate, not really.
Tatooine was just, literally, too hot to function as of now.
Mephires’ cyber-arm had malfunctioned, probably because of the sand, and its cooling mechanism failure almost resulted into the metal melting with his skin.
In addiction to that, his fair Rattataki skin was starting to take on some weird colors.
Mephires just didn’t really had the right constitution for desert outdoors, or just for outdoors, or just for anything.
This health was quirky at best, with the allergies and his body failures in general. But apparently extreme heat was what was going to be the end of him.
That is if not for a non-cuddling mercenary walking freezer.
Convincing him to undress had not been easy. And really, it would have hurt his pride if only the simple sensation of his hand on his forehead wasn’t just perfection at its purest form.
So, yeah, he probably had sunstroke, and who knows what else. But getting the armor off the Chiss and lying on his freezing chest was going to be the the last thing he did, if necessary, no matter the consequences.
It really was a sign of how much Xileh must have been worried that he hadn’t ripped he head off at the sole idea. If it was in the name of some sympathies towards him or just fear of Mephires’ mother if he came back harmed in any way, he couldn’t tell.
The Hunter was more relaxed now, obviously comforted by the fact that Res hadn’t tried to remove theirs pants too.
They stopped on a small cave, barely enough to make shade for the two of them, and the Rattataki was shamelessly lying on top of him, enjoying the coolness of Xileh’s skin.
He felt the fever of the heat slowly disappearing, letting his thoughts clear again. He still felt weak, and didn’t dare trying to raise up, unsure of how the Hunter would react to being thrown up over.
Mephires actually felt bold, something in the Chiss’ grumpy behavior making him feel playful and more daring that he would have normally ever dared.
He lifted his head from the mercenary’s chest, raising slightly on his elbow to better see his face.
“You know, we could say it was the exception that proved the rule.”
The Chiss leveled him a glare, his red eyes meeting his pale ones.
“You know,” he continued, unaffected. “how you had a hot guy lying on you and you spent your time trying not to look worried for him and how you didn’t try to flirt with him once. And, you know, the cuddling thing.”
The cool hand that was laying on his back froze. Mephires guessed Xileh hadn’t even noticed it had ended up there.
The Rattataki appreciated the fact that the Chiss seemed to like him enough not to rip his head off at that.
His cheeks did gave the impression of slightly darkening, though.
“If your brain wasn’t on the verge of getting cooked in his own skull, don’t worry, I would sex you up good!”
Mephires smirked, but didn’t try to hide his affection and amusement.
“If I wasn’t asexual, I’d happily take you up on it, don’t you worry.”
He saw the realization dawn on him, and the tension in his eyes disappear for a second. Then his usual brassiness and grumpiness took over again, and Xileh was his usual adventurous self.
The Chiss hit him in the head, gently enough not to further damage the goods.
“Than why the hell am I letting you lie on me?! Get out, you cool-freak!”
But the mercenary made no actual move to push him off, and just made the Rattataki rest his head on his chest again, and let his own hand go back to draw invisible pattern on his companion’s shoulders.
“All of this fucking shit was for nothing.” and “I can’t believe I did this fucking shit all over again.” Mephires + Xileg, bc I fucking love them.
@lady-protector
Mephires + Xileh + first meeting, as requested.
(It’s long and probably messy as hell, I’m so sorry. xD)
“Hey, kid, need ahand?”
The more bitter partin him was tempted to sarcastically respond something along the linesof “No, it’s fine. I mean, I’ve been handling myself pretty well withjust the right one all my life, I don’t think I really need anotherhand at this point. A new liver, a new liver I could use.”
But then heremembered that all his bitterness was pretty literally already beingretched into the ‘fresher basin along with his bile, so he reallydidn’t had any more to spare.
He tried to chasethe worst of his nausea off, just to make up the figure that wasspeaking to him.
Tall, blue, armored,scarred, unhappy looking, or probably justconstantly-discontent-looking, late twenties, blaster at his hip.-They didn’t let weapons into cantinas,did they?-, asked a confused part ofhis brain.
Well, it really wasfar from a first class cantina, that was for sure. They probably letyou keep them in case a giant rat attacked you in the ‘fresher orsomething. Who cared for social niceties when risking rabies, right?
Mephires had let hisblasters on the ship just because he had enough potential deathlyexplosives and machinery on him to not even really need a blaster toprotect himself, and, really, it was supposed to be a quiet nightanyway, blast it.
Suddenly, before hecould answer, a sharp pain clamped at his neck.
After whatfelt like an eternity, his brain seemed to restart, and Mephires feltthe damp clamminess of his fingers clenching around the ‘fresherborder, the smell of his own retching reaching his nostril andcalling to his nausea again. For a second his body felt totally numb,his head empty, and the heaviness of an unknown hand on his shoulder recalleda strange sensation that sent faint electric shocks to his spine.Then his stomach cramped, the ache in his neck rippled through hiswhole body, the smokey mess in his brained transformed in a bruisingand painful white noise and Mephires knew that his implant had gaveup trying to absorb his allergic reaction. Now, now he needed help.
He brutally grabbedthe hand that he still felt resting on his shoulder and ignored thesound of mixed annoyance and worry that came out of the strangermouth. He tried to explain as clearly as he could what he needed andwhere to find it and who to ask for it, in between big breaths,keeping his nausea away as much as he could.
“And, what, am Isupposed to leave your sorry ass here while you puke your guts out?What if someone finds you? What’s the problem with you anyway?!”
“W-what do youplan to do? Carrying me out? Just .. just l-lock the door of the‘fleshers if it makes you feel better.”
He felt the Chiss’stare piercing through him. He let his head rest onto the wall behindhim. Eyes closed and blinded by the growing pain.
“'ts allergies…It’s fine… just, bring me what I asked, if you want to help .. or,just.. call the cantina patron, ’s fine.. s'fine.. ’ll handle it …”
The feeling of afrozen palm on his forehead shocked his eyes open. The stranger’seyes studying him, inscrutable.
“What’s your name,kid?”
“.. not a kid.‘name is Mephires, a fully fledged adult, thank you very much.”
“You can call meXileh, kid. I’ll go search for your medicine, ‘kay? But youhave to stay awake. I’ll be quick. Now you promise me you stayawake, fine?”
“Yeah, ok.”
“Promise me,Mephires.”
“Yeah, fine, Yes.I promise.. Xileh, just, yeah.”
The Chiss stared athim some more, as if making sure the message came through. Heeventually raised up and walked away.
Res concentrated onkeeping his breath even and in making sure his blood kept circulatingin his head and limps, fighting the painand the vertigo.
He couldn’t believe hedid this fucking shit all over again. It really wasn’t his fault hekept finding new things to be allergic to, even after 19 years oflife experiences. He just wanted to try the cantina’s meal of the dayand then it went all to shit, again. His implant was planned to reactautomatically to his known allergens but he still fucking managed tofind new aliens stuff that got this fucking close to kill him.
And now his life was inthe hands of a fudging grumpy stranger! He couldn’t fucking believeit.
If he survived that damnsure his mom was going to be the one to kill him if she discoveredit.
He must have zoned off orfainted, because the next thing he knew was that he was been slowlynursed back to reality by a sting in his arm and a lullaby off roughfledged curses that sounded weirdly familiar.
“I swear it, kid, if youdon’t wake up and all of this fucking shit was for nothing, I’m gonnabe fucking fucking mad!”
Mephires slowly opened hiseyes and was met with the grumpiest of blue faces.
He raised his hand andclumsily patted his savior’s cheek.
“Awww…. you wwewrewoorriweed..!”, he slurred.
He just had the time tosee the scarred face change from slightly panicking to outraged, andthan he fainted again.
⌖ (hi sweetie, we didn't talk long time ago, hope you are okay! ♥)
(I’m fine, thank you m’lady. ♥ )
Mephires to Xileh
Worry
"I mean, yeah, of course it's funny. But it's also heartbreaking sometimes, you know? How sometimes it feels like hurting people is the only thing that keeps him from breaking. It feels like it's just lose-lose. Like the only thing I can do is watch the show of him walking straight to hell, and how I can just wave him goodbye from afar. It's.. I worry, ok?"
Amusement
"He doesn't realize it, but the man is a comedic genius. He just deadpan says the most ridiculous shits, and lucky me I'm here to enjoy it. He's misunderstood, that's it. Probably also by himself."
Love
"I hate him sometimes. I can't explain it, but sometimes he looks at me. In the eyes. And, I just, my heart beats faster and... Blast, sometimes I hate him."
Mephires approached the older man with his stomach painfully tied in knots, his throat drying with anxiety and fear.
“So, here we are.”
Silence answered him, red, tired but intense eye searching his face for an answer he didn’t have.
“Good luck, I guess.” Went on the Rattataki, his head battling between wanting to memorize every particular of the Chiss’ face and running away from there as quickly as he could.
Mephis took Xileh’s face between his hands, surprising himself for his own courage and by the dryness of his eyes.
He slowly leaned on and laid a single kiss on the Hunter’s lips, barely a peck, a soft contact that Mephis put an end to before the other man could do anything.
“Well”, the Rattataki breathed, “you better come back. You better come back alive.”
💬 📖 , again I have a feelin' you know who I want, but feel free do another dynamic, if you had enough ;) (Still grumpy blue boy + lazy pale boy is great)
@lady-protector
(I live to serve.)
💬for a text my muse would send about yours to a third party
Mephires + stalker mom + bad-reputation Xileh
To: [ENCRYPTED]
From: Mephires K'atini
RE: “This “Xileh” person..“
Wut! Mama noo!!
He’s tots nice! harmless! a pup i swear! a huge armed trained-to-kill pup but i’m 23686% sure at lest half of it iz just for looks.
Don’t send papa to "meet” him. or Rhuk. pliz don’t send Rhuk.
We just hang out. like friendly hang out. he’s cool i swear. ask Qijal.
I’m fine, i’ll visit next week if i manage to finish the deal in time.
Hug papa for me,
Love,
Res.
(ps: really please don’t send Rhuk mama.)
📖 for what my muse would write about yours in their diary.
Mephires + sort-of-diary + Xileh
Entry #62
Hey! Mm, hello.
Been a long time uh? What was the last entry about already…?, uhm, “life day good intentions’ hypocrisy”, “random though about asteroidal’s fauna #4”, “my-life-is-a-mess-yet-still-again”?
I’m really not good at the whole diary thing, am I.
But just you and myself to judge me, and you know how much I hold myself at high value, friend, no way I’m pledging guilty.
So, what kind of inspiration struck this time?
Why, don’t look at me! You obviously were the one calling at me from the desk drawer, I certainly did not have the slightest idea about what to write when I picked you up!
Damn you. You are a damn fraud, that’s what you are. Worst diary ever to be written, for sure.
Well, I guess I’ll be doing all the job then!!
What happened worth mentioning recently.. well, let’s see.
Xileh gave me a blanket today, like, as a gift.
Well, neither of us is entirely sure wether it’s a blanket, a rug, a damn curtain or who knows what, but it’s soft, warm, clean(ish), suits damn well the ship’s couch and I darn love it.
Well, he didn’t really admit it was a gift, but he threw it at me the second I sneezed while slouching on his bed -nothing dirty, you perv! We already had the asexual talk like 8 entries ago! Don’t play dumb! We were just talking business.- and when I was about to go he just told me to keep it. And then when Qijal saw me with it she smiled and shook her head muttering something like “of course it was for him”, so yeah, totally on the Xileh’s list of “gifts that aren’t gifts because I’m hardcore and feeling-less and certainly not an overprotective old man leave me alone or I’ll beat you”.
Typical.
No! I’m not smiling! Shut up, you don’t have eyes, you cannot tell!
(Some would say that communicating with inanimate objects is a symptom of loose mentality but those persons are usually grumpy Chiss, furthermore, not to be trusted.)
I think that’s it.
We can name this entry “nonsense #15” or “damn Chiss obviousness”, your pick.
I’m gonna comm mom or something now, you know how she gets.
