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[hippie_ninja]

This is Jesus. Leave a message.

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[hippie_ninja]

It's funny how such a light touch on a part of his body others rarely touch can soothe him.

"This helps." Just so K knows, because he knows how helpless he has felt when other people have said things like this to him. "I think it's one reason I like being with you. Whatever I am now, you're okay with it."

[konstant]

"Whoever you are," he amends quietly, looking up, but he smiles and leaves his hand where it is.

"I'm glad. I was... Concerned that whatever happened to you in the Zoo would make this too difficult."

[hippie_ninja]

"I needed a little time." But it was, in the scope of things, very little time taken to recover. "I decided that I wasn't going to let anything that happens here take me farther away from the people I care about."

[konstant]

"I would still care about you if we never touched again. I would still want you to be happy, to be safe and healthy."

This place might have introduced a new angle K wouldn't have pursued otherwise but it isn't the only reason he's here or wants Jesus here.

"But it's important to me that part of that feeling safe is physical, too. I like that it has been."

[hippie_ninja]

"So do I. And I do want to touch you again." He laughs a little, because the wording is a bit forward, the words aren't ones he ever thought he'd put together into a statement, but it's true.

[konstant]

He smiles, relieved by the laugh, by the statement; by the way he can see both that Jesus means it but that there's no expectation still. He would like to, but he doesn't feel entitled to it regardless.

He traces a bit further along the lifeline of Jesus's palm and back again.

"The injection scared me. I don't want to do that again."

[hippie_ninja]

"I don't want that for you, either." His gaze falls to K's fingertip on his palm. "Or for me. I was willing to see how far I could resist, but I don't want that. But I still want this to feel safe for us."

[konstant]

"I'm glad we decided to stay away from each other for it." Not that he's happy he risked Vrenille, but the other man knew what to expect. He encouraged K, and he was ready after.

"And we have time now. I think I need a bit, to acclimate again."

[hippie_ninja]

"I'm glad it doesn't bother you that I'm sleeping with other people." It shouldn't bother K. They've only slept together once--but it was the one time Jesus wasn't doing it to evade a punishment. "I'm never going to pressure you."

[konstant]

"I believe you."

The other thing - the sleeping with other people thing - still seems strange to K but he doesn't know how to ask about it. Instead he risks sliding his fingers between Jesus's, glancing up at him.

"I don't want there to be pressure here. I want what you want, no more." Less, maybe, sometimes, but not more.

[hippie_ninja]

His expression shifts a little, becomes more distant. The words don't sit right. It's not possible for K to want what he wants; Jesus has no idea what that is. But that's not the only reason it makes him uneasy.

"You want what I want? What about what you want?"

[konstant]

His reaction is immediate: he pulls his hand back, sets it back in his lap. He doesn't know what he said but he's watchful, cautious of that distance.

"I meant - if you don't want something, I'm not going to insist. I don't want something we don't both want." The word has been repeated too many times and he shakes his head, tries to find another way to say it.

"I won't put myself before you. Not in this."

[hippie_ninja]

"We're equals in this." Maybe it needs to be said out loud. "I know that's not how things work where you're from. But I need that to be true here. It's a friendship, a partnership."

[konstant]

K's brow furrows, unsure; he'd thought he understood. He'd thought that's what they both were saying.

Now he's not so sure. "What does that mean to you?"

[hippie_ninja]

"That what you want matters, too." He studies K, reaches for his hand, will only take it if K allows. "I'm not more important."

Which wasn't what K had said, but he knows that's what K was built to believe: Jesus, as a human, matters more.

[konstant]

He turns his palm up as soon as he registers what Jesus is doing, relieved that he does; he is good at reading people but sometimes he gets it wrong.

He doesn't want to get it wrong with Jesus.

"You've already shown me that."

[hippie_ninja]

He pulls K's hand to him and kisses his palm, watching him. It isn't a bid for more, just a little show of relief that he's allowed to do this.

[konstant]

K's fingertips twitch faintly in response, and K himself lets his shoulders relax.

Then he flexes his fingers a bit more deliberately, brushing Jesus's cheek lightly, experimentally.

[hippie_ninja]

He smiles, head turning just so as to catch more contact with his fingertips.

The last time he was here he hadn't wanted any contact at all but now, maybe in part because of how careful K is, he wants to feel K's fingers on his skin, even just his cheek or his hand.

[konstant]

K doesn't take any of it for granted - not that smile, not this touch. He shifts his hand in Jesus's, spreading his palm out over the other man's, and brushing the edge of his thumb just along where Jesus's beard starts from clear skin.

Resting, as gently as the sun through shade, at the edge of his lips where that smile begins or maybe ends.

[hippie_ninja]

These are the sorts of things K does that are uniquely K. Other people would touch his lips, and he'd enjoy that; K touches his smile and no one has ever done that before.

"This is the first time I've felt relaxed since I got out."

[konstant]

Finally K smiles, though it's a little saddened by that fact too. It makes him want to pull Jesus close and keep him there a while longer, to let him relax and know K will do anything he can to preserve this.

"I want that. For both of us," he murmurs, and smooths his touch carefully along the edge of Jesus's lip, unwilling to press either of them for more and break this truce.

[hippie_ninja]

He doesn't know what K is thinking but he can sense a sort of openness, something like a soft invitation.

"Can I stay tonight?"

[konstant]

"I would like that."

They're going to run into trouble eventually, there's always trouble, but just now it feels worth the risk even to him.

"I want that."

[hippie_ninja]

He closes his eyes, the relief the only sign that he'd been prepared to be turned away.

"We don't have to do anything, but can I just" this is hard to ask, "stay close? Like this?"

Touching. Not just near, but touching.