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[hippie_ninja]

This is Jesus. Leave a message.

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[hippie_ninja]

His hand on K's cheek slides back into his hair. "I need to take care of some other people right now. But when I'm ready to take care of myself, could...could we go back to spending the night together?"

This is such a bad idea, but leaning here against K, smelling his skin and the tobacco he smokes, and he wants so badly to just fall asleep with him like he had before the prison took K away.

[konstant]

K breathes out, quiet but they're close enough it's unmistakably relief nonetheless.

"I'd like that," is the first thing he says, but it's followed by a promise: "When you're ready, I'll be here."

[hippie_ninja]

He smiles and, despite himself, nestles in closer. "You don't make it easy to leave."

[konstant]

"Then don't," he suggests, and tips his head without lifting it or pulling back. His fingertips trace a small, slow circle on the back of Jesus's shoulder.

"Sit with me a while. No one will bother us in here."

[hippie_ninja]

"Just a little while." He still has a lot to do, and he doesn't want to leave Rosita for long.

But he is bone weary, and sitting a while, near enough K they can reassure each other, is too much to pass up.

[konstant]

K can read the exhaustion in him, and he's far from the only one; any time he can get any of his friends to slow down is time well spent as far as he's concerned. Even for a little bit. Even just once.

He hums soft agreement, and moves them both unhurriedly the short distance towards the couch.

"Want me to set an alarm?" he offers, just in case.

[hippie_ninja]

"Twenty minutes," is what he'll allow himself. The moment he's sitting he slumps a little, then shyly puts a pillow on K's lap and lays his head on it.

"This okay?"

[konstant]

It's not a lot of time, but it's not nothing either, and K nods.

"It's fine," he murmurs, shifting a bit himself so they can both be more comfortable. He delicately pulls a bit of loose hair back from Jesus's face, smoothing it into place with what someone else might call exaggerated care but not K.

K, who drapes one arm over Jesus's hip, and settles his other hand in his own lap. "Is this?" he asks.

[hippie_ninja]

He reaches up and threads his fingers with K's on his lap. It's almost alarming how quickly he relaxes, how easy this feels. How safe.

Don't get used to this, he tells himself. And then he kisses K's wrist, the inside where the skin is softest.

[konstant]

K smiles, and crooks his fingers ever so slightly to lock them together with Jesus's. His thumb smooths along the gentle angle from knuckles to wrist and back.

"Thank you," he offers, low but clear.

[hippie_ninja]

"For what?" He peers up at him, tired but so relaxed now.

[konstant]

"For allowing me to be around you," he answers simply, more obviously tracing the tendon in Jesus's wrist now, eyes ticking over to his.

He doesn't take people choosing to let him be near, to be near him, lightly.

[hippie_ninja]

He holds K's gaze, memorizing how blue they are, the particular shade of green in them.

"Why wouldn't I? You always treat me this way." Like something awe inspiring. Something unexpected, something worth keeping.

[konstant]

"For any reason you want; it's your right," he answers, and then hears how generic that probably sounds even if he means it - and he does.

"Because you could choose to be anywhere else right now, but you're here, with me." He means that, too.

[hippie_ninja]

"Well, I don't think you realize how much I missed you." How much he'd worried K would just stay in prison, that this friendship was done because of it. He reaches up with his other hand--the one in a cast, but his fingers are free and he traces K's jaw with the fingertips.

[konstant]

This time K stays absolutely still, unwilling to hurt Jesus but eager for the touch nonetheless.

He'd told Vrenille, told V that he felt better in the cell and he had in some ways; but he did miss kind touch. He missed the warmth of someone even just sitting beside him.

"I'm here now," he answers instead, the best he has to offer.

[hippie_ninja]

He traces the outline of K's ear, thumb brushing the stubble on his jaw, and he tells himself not to get too used to this. But he still hasn't looked away and he's watching now for K's reactions to the barely-there touches he's offering.

[konstant]

There's still a bruise hidden in K's hairline from his treatment at the hands of the guards, still faint mottling under the day old stubble of his beard; none of it hurts him, but it's by far closer to what he's used to than the way Jesus is touching him now.

His breathing evens out and he lets his eyelids go heavy, not closed but making it easier to savor a touch so light it runs a shiver down his spine, teases out something just shy of a smile but still markedly pleased.

[hippie_ninja]

He can't help but think how he'd enjoy doing this, just them with no obligations calling him away. He could spend an entire morning like this, finding ways to make K shiver, to coax a real smile out of him.

"I should go," he murmurs. At this point he'd be lucky to get ten minutes' sleep before he has to get the train home, and ten minutes won't do him any good. "When V is okay," and that might be a while. "We should go do something."

[konstant]

Last month, K might have... not argued, but bargained a little more to keep Jesus here, or offered to go along with him. Right now the latter is off the table and they both know that; the former, though, just feels like something he still wants to tread carefully around.

He'd normally kiss the palm closest to his face, but it's Jesus's bad arm, so K pulls the hand he has in his up to brush his lips along his knuckles gently, holds them so close his lips brush skin when he speaks.

"When do you think we might see you here again?" He hasn't let go yet.

[hippie_ninja]

Anytime you want, he almost says, would almost have offered anything K asked for when his lips are so warm against the bruises on his knuckles.

"Tomorrow." He licks his lips, swallows. "And I'll stay longer. I'll actually nap if that's okay."

If K stays with him like this.

[konstant]

Jesus has people to take care of; more than that, he's getting some fulfillment out of being able to, so K doesn't mind that he still needs to go.

But he feels a lot better now, more settled; Jesus will be back. He smiles.

"I'd like that," he assures him. "And V will be happy to see you too I'm sure."

He still doesn't let go, thumb smoothing over the side of Jesus's hand.

"May I kiss you?"

[hippie_ninja]

"I want you to kiss me whenever you want." K is harder to read than most people, and Jesus is good at reading people. He never knows exactly what K wants; he only knows K always expects worse than he gets. He smiles at him. "Will you do that?"

[konstant]

K was pretty confident of the answer, but he'd still much rather ask than assume; he remembers the way Jesus had withdrawn in the room with the jellyfish the last time they were physically together.

He could say this. Instead he leans down the short distance to kiss Jesus now.

[hippie_ninja]

He needed this reassurance, a little hint of proof that the night in that room hadn't damaged them. That his own hurt at K leaving hadn't got in the way of this.

He kisses him back, and when they break he looks up at K and then sits up slightly to kiss him again. "Mean it," he murmurs when finally he does let go. "Whenever you feel like it."