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[withintenfeet]

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[knightbynight]

Bruce says not a single word, just puts one hand on Zerxus arm, slides down to his wrist and puts his hand against the wall. Then repeats the motion with the other hand. Implicit instruction: lean into the wall and don't fall.

He brushes a kiss across Zerxus' neck, from behind.

Then simply gets the soap and gets busy determiedly removing sweat, grime, and blood from Zerxus' skin. He does the back and hair first, then presses against Zerxus' back and does the same for his front.

As far down as he can reach, anyway. On his knees to complete the job is too obviously an act of service, instead of a sexual tease and taking advantage of an exhausted man.

[withintenfeet]

That, he can do; it takes very little active thought to adjust his stance in a way that keeps him rock-steady, or as close as he can get in this situation.

The kiss is such a fleeting thing, and yet it makes him shiver amidst the water and steam, beneath those uncannily warm hands.

It feels good in a way that he knows is dangerous. His thoughts are already going hazy by the time Bruce leans into him, and the only thing that jolts him out of it is the fingers brushing against his necklace. It's not a flinch, exactly, but there's a ripple of tension.

[knightbynight]

He sighs softly, and huffily when Zerxus tenses. "You really need to stop that," he murmurs.

Then hooks his fingers around the necklace and pulls it around so he can look at the pendant.

Does he want to? No.

Is he going to not take advantage of something that overt, given his father's interest to this point? Also no. There are rules. This is one he breaks more than most, but he's not prepared to break it this overtly or soon.

[withintenfeet]

Raggedly soft, "So I've been told." There's no resistance; Bruce already knows that he's a widower.

It's simple enough, on the surface; a smooth oval stone, charmed to be unbreakable, inscribed with an eternal script. The front of it reads, in Elvish, Evandrin Alterra.

The writing on the back is smaller and finer:

First Knight
City of Crowns
EK / B / A

[knightbynight]

Then why did he have to tell you, and risk even giving a warning being a problem?

He looks at the stone, flips it over to read the back and then flicks it back around to settle back where it had been without further commentary.

And goes back to washing Zerxus' front, as though none of it had happened.

"I'm leaving you to finish." Rinse, do the parts Bruce couldn't reach. "I'll be waiting with pajamas. I've decided you're sharing my room for the time being."

[withintenfeet]

Slowly the tension ebbs away again, though not entirely; he doesn't quite reach that dazed level of comfort again, and he should probably be glad about it. He can't forget what he's meant to be doing here, or what's at stake. He shouldn't be disappointed when Bruce pulls away.

...Only to tell him -

"You've what - " He turns around....entirely too quickly, it turns out, and his feet skid beneath him.

[knightbynight]

He catches Zerxus under the elbows and hoists him back upright, to keep him from landing face first into glass or onto stone. "Did I stutter?"

[withintenfeet]

He is entirely too dizzy to be this close to a sassy devil right now.

"What changed in the last - " ...How long has it been? Fuck, he doesn't even know.

[knightbynight]

He turns the water off - or, rather, the water turns off and it is his doing. The heat is apparently getting to the man - the heat and the exhaustion.

"I changed my mind. Lean on me to get out, I don't want you to break your nose." Lean is an order.

[withintenfeet]

He can't resist doing that, but he can grumble "I could heal it" as he does.

[knightbynight]

"You're on the verge of passing out; I have my doubts in your abilities." He gets Zerxus out of the shower and grabs a towel without letting go of him. Bruce just becomes dry - dramatically and with a cloud of steam moving away from him. Zerxus is dried. With a towel. Meaning Bruce's hands all over him.

[withintenfeet]

What he says - "Please. I've knit bones back together half-dead." - is theoretically impressive, but the words come out weak and slurred. The shock of cooler air gives him some clarity, at least, enough to straighten and keep himself upright.

Then, very suddenly, Bruce is dry and toweling him down. He can feel that same simmering warmth through the fabric.

Stepping back is stupid, because he's still more off balance than on, but he does it anyway.

[knightbynight]

He's slurring and dizzy and on the verge of passing out. Stupid doesn't begin to cover what stepping back is. Bruce stops him from going far by grabbing him by the wrist - fairly gently, or at least not with intentional roughness - then bodily picks him up into a 'bridal carry'.

"Stop resisting help." Again with the orders, and he should... actually abuse that more than he has. Then he goes back toward the bed and the pajamas.

[withintenfeet]

...He hasn't been picked up, as opposed to slung over someone's shoulder while he was bleeding out, since he was a child. He's the one who does that.

Ands now he can't even squirm like an angry cat about it.

"Fuck that's irritating." Never mind how much steadier his voice sounds, now that he doesn't need to support any of his own weight.

[knightbynight]

"With any lucky," for himself, "you won't get used to it."

Nice addition to the contract, Dad.

He takes Zerxus to the bed and sits him down on the edge, and holds out the pajama bottoms, open at the waist. "Put your legs in." Still with the compulsion.

[withintenfeet]

On the bright side, he can glare and pull pyjama bottoms on at the same time. Very pointedly, he grabs the shirt before he can be told to.

[knightbynight]

Preempting an order is still satisfying for Bruce, because it's done to spite him - or maybe he just likes the glare.

That said, he was going to leave the shirt out of the equation. Oh well, he'll 'let' that one slide.

He leaves Zerxus there (with a pat on the head) to go pull a pair of pajama pants on. It's the exact same pair, and he does leave his shirt off.

"Good. Now shift over." Not an order again, this time.

[withintenfeet]

He should not, in this state, be thinking what if I bite him again.

Unfortunately that urge doesn't change when Bruce comes back, just...shifts. In ways he is not going to acknowledge.

He is very quick to shift over.

[knightbynight]

Bruce slides into the bed beside Zerxus without a single word or explanation, rolls onto his side and effectively manhandles the mortal into his arms and curls around him.

The desperation Zerxus has to be touched is obvious. Bruce being fundamentally lonely is (Bruce thinks) less so. His motivation for 'keeping an eye on' Zerxus damn well better not be obvious, to anyone.

That there is any concern beyond the man 'trying something stupid' and a desire to.... acclimate him is not a thing Bruce will look at directly.

Once he is even remotely settled, the lights just go away.

[withintenfeet]

There's some half-hearted, incoherent grumbling but no actual resistance; in fact, once Zerxus actually relaxes he goes boneless. Sleep comes more quickly than it has even after long battles and wilderness treks, and for a time it even lasts.

He'd forgotten how much easier it was, with someone there.

For a long time he is simply drifting, somewhere deep in the sea or far in the sky, the songs of whales and stars in his ears. They are telling him things he'll forget upon waking but know in his bones. He is drifting, and he is -

He is flat on the ground with blood in his mouth, and the stars are falling all around him. He tries to move, but he's trapped or numb or broken; he can do nothing but stare as the skies are torn apart. These were the stars above Cathmoira - is that where he is, the home he couldn't save?

"Stop. Stop, you don't have to do this, stop - " It's his voice, but he isn't speaking. Perhaps this is what praying feels like.

Thank you for trying. He has never heard her voice, and yet it is profoundly familiar. It's the sound of doves in flight and crackling hearths; it's as stubbornly passionate as a dying flame, as fiercely soothing as a parent's final embrace. In that moment, as the stars go out and the sea boils and the grass is scorched to glass, hope blooms in his chest.

Then the goddess of compassion screams.

Zerxus jolts upright drenched in sweat, his throat raw with broken pleas he can't quite remember.

[knightbynight]

Bruce isn't, and has not been, asleep. That's because he isn't human (anymore), and because he is enjoying the way Zerxus passes out in his arms. That it happened without sex happening first and he is going to (can) allow it to continue are novel.

He also wants to watch and see exactly how long it takes before the survivor of a destroyed continent, and widowed man wakes up from a nightmare.

It's longer than he expects.

The wake up is also more dramatic than he expects.

He puts his hand on zerxus' back without thinking about it. "I'd say you're safe, but you aren't. Breathe, anyway."

[withintenfeet]

It is abundantly clear, in that moment, that Zerxus has no idea where he is; he flinches from that touch like it burns, and when his head swings towards Bruce his eyes are wide, confused, horrified.

There are tears on his cheeks, and he can still taste blood - oh. Oh, he bit through his lip.

Somehow, that's the thing that jerks him into something like clarity.

"Bruce." His voice is hoarse, aching, and desperately relieved in a way that doesn't make sense, not even to him.

[knightbynight]

He watches the entire reaction, appearing very much remote and aloof, separated from it and almost coolly interested-- even with the blood.

Then there's naked, raw, relief, that makes no sense. No one should, has ever, sounded that way saying his name.

He's confused, touched, alarmed.

All right there on his face for a moment.

Then just reaches up and drags his thumb through the blood on Zerxus' chin. "Were you expecting someone else?" He still sounds too gentle.

[withintenfeet]

The sincerity, the vulnerability, is another hitch back into reality; it tugs and twist in his chest, and before he knows it he's reached up to cup Bruce's cheek.

"No." He still wakes up, every now and then, expecting to see Evandrin at his side. This time... "You weren't there, in the dream, but I think I knew you were in danger - "

He stops, pulling his hand back and shaking his head, heedless of the blood smearing onto Bruce's skin. "It doesn't matter."

It's the same old anxiety, he dreams of losing people all the time, and the rest of the details are slipping away from him.

It matters far more than he thinks. Don't tell him so. It's the first time Asmodeus has interrupted in a good while, and he's sounding...oddly fascinated.

[knightbynight]

"What could I possibly be in danger from?"

Besides, of course, his father. He may be a little short sighted on that. He is definitely trying to process the tender touch, the fact that Zerxus is having nightmares about losing him -

and the voice of said father in his head.

Of course not, but why? He's not questioning the reasoning, he's trying to work out what in the name of all the hells this is happening and why it would matter. He'd also really like to know what's got Asmodeus' attention. He isn't hopeful on any of those answers being provided.