selfburn | Open RP Post

"We are lovers," Caleb reminded him gently as he leaned in and brushed his lips lightly against Essek's. If the man thought he wouldn't when they were this close and discussing intimacy he was not paying close attention. Caleb would take any excuse for kissing that he could get.

He made a soft, curious sound as he tilted his head back and closed his eyes. Given how they were pressed so close together, touching almost everywhere, he didn't need his eyes to know where Essek was and what he was doing.

"Why is hair so important to your people?" Caleb cleared his throat. "If you're comfortable explaining."

It was unclear to him just how much Essek missed his home and his people as an exile. He didn't want to make him sad when they were basking in this new, yet comfortable love they had for each other. They were happy and he would like keep Essek happy. If he didn't want to talk about home and traditions, Caleb would change the topic.

They could always discuss what they had found today and where they wanted to go next instead.

"I..." he make sure that every part of Caleb's hair was wet and then he reached for some of the shampoo in bottles, placing a small amount in his palm and then he coated his palms with it before he pressed his hands into soaked locks and started to massage it through strands until a pleasing lather resulted from the fragrant mixture, careful to get the roots and then downward to attend to the ends. "I am uncertain about the cultural significance or where it stemmed from as I was never truly interested in courtship rituals before."

There had been talks and negotiations however he had skillfully extracted himself from them. 10 years ago it had been Adeen and there had been an 'almost' betrothal, but that had bee curtailed due to some things that Adeen had said about him in public.

"I do not miss the Dynasty-- not really, it was never really home to me. I miss my brother, but I have recently discovered that home is people- not places."

Caleb hummed in agreement. Home was the Nein sleeping huddled under a cart in a rainstorm. It was Veth-Nott curled up against him as they tried to hide from the sharp eyes of guards. It was Essek's calm, rational voice raising slightly with the passion he felt for his argument.

"You are home," he mumbled, very relaxed and comfortable with Essek's fingers working at his scalp. This was the nicest sensation. Essek warm and slightly heavy in his lap. His clever, surprisingly strong fingers working through his hair. His voice right there, soft and intimate. This was something Caleb could come to crave like breathing.

Whether he meant he found Essek to be his home or that he was offering up himself to be home for Essek didn't matter. They achieved the same result which was all that mattered for Caleb. Home was the two of them together. That was home.

It was, in truth, both.

There were many different shapes to hope and honestly Essek was beginning to find that out. Caleb was his home, and he slowly attended to the locks of hair reverently, lovingly. It was easy to see in this moment why hair touching was intimate, but also grooming like this-- it also explained why Essek had a singular fascination with Caleb's chest hair, the hair on other parts of his body. He smiled at the way that Caleb seemed to enjoy it, the soft slow blinking like a cat in front of a warm fire.

Caleb deserved a warm home, with good food, a hearth fire in the grate as well as a pile of cats to cover him. He hoped that he could be apart of that vision too.

Essek leaned forward then and brushed his lips against Caleb's forehead; the skin was damp and there was only a little subtle taste of soap, but that was also pleasing. Finally he pulled away so that he could reach for the cup again, dipping it in the waters so that he could fill it and then re-saturate it to get rid of the shampoo. "I want to be your home-- I want you to be mine; I want to return to you again and again."

"You can visit," he mused as he continued to drift in the warm pleasant space created by Essek tending to him. His mind was so calm even though his thoughts still came quickly. "Or stay. I have a home. You can stay with me though... I don't know how often you wish to be under an illusion to hide who you are..."

Because he could settle. Caleb didn't have to travel for fear of his past catching up to him. He was free of that now and could live where he wished. And he did want to be close to the Academy. It held horrible, painful memories, but his love of magic was stronger than those memories.

He wanted to make things better. He wanted to teach. He wanted to find what was left of the Assembly and burn them to the ground. There was much he still wanted to accomplish but he also wanted to have Essek in his life as his lover. His home.

"We will figure this out, Essek. We are too smart not too." He leaned in and kissed Essek softly.

"I have a few ideas, and I would like to discuss them for you. It will take time and work, but I would love to think of a way that we could share the Demiplane spell; or we can attach it to a specific object so that from anywhere that I am, I may access the Tower."

That would be something to discuss but that would also mean times for them to settle together, time for them to research and fiddle with magical physics-- and perhaps dabble in a bit of artificing. Essek knew how to tether things to him, but he also realized that for every magical application, there was an artifice's application to it.

Much like the Sending Stones that he'd tethered to each other due to magics that he'd gone to Pumat Sol about.

"Though I know, Caleb Widogast, that you are ambitious and that you will be quite keen to lend your mind to mine so that we may think of a way to best facilitate the creation of such an item. But it would mean, at least until both the Empire and the Kryn have successfully forgotten about me, I will have to keep ever on the move, for at least a little while."

Honestly though, the purple drow hoped that eventually he would be able to settle with his lover in a sweet cottage somewhere, where he could tend a garden and Caleb could teach classes, and then they could come together in the evenings for dinner and snuggles. It was a beautiful life and a beautiful thought, and certainly not beyond the realm of possibility.

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