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[hippie_ninja]

This is Jesus. Leave a message.

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[konstant]

K guesses as much, which means when he shows up late in the afternoon the next day, he brings food. He made biscuits, and he's getting a bit better at them, but he bought some fried chicken and a pound cake at a deli and that's in the bag on his arm when he knocks.

Everything about Tumenalia has worn off of him now, and the smile he offers is small and tentative. "Hey," he says, softly, from behind the upturned - but not zipped - collar of his coat.

[hippie_ninja]

Jesus feels...well, not much different from when the festival began. A little more sure of himself is all, which is why he leans up and kisses K in greeting.

"Can I take anything?" His eyes light up when he catches the scent of the fried chicken.

[konstant]

The kiss does wonders to reassure K, the line of his shoulders relaxing until Jesus is stepping back from him. The smile comes easier, too, after.

"It's to share, so," he says, and offers one of the bags to him.

"I thought you might need a restock."

[hippie_ninja]

"I do." He helps K bring it all to the kitchen and he grabs plates. "I've been living off leftovers and the canned food I stocked up on. A lot of peanut butter."

He laughs lightly, self-conscious. "I guess I sort of regressed to Hilltop rules after the fog set in."

[konstant]

"Hilltop rules?" he asks, curious, shrugging off his coat and folding it over the back of a chair. He pushes up the sleeves of a reindeer-stitched Christmas sweater to come help divide out the food.

[hippie_ninja]

"Stay put, eat your reserves, but welcome guests." He hasn't left the house in days, which is odd for him and he knows it, but still. The urge remains: shelter in place.

He pauses when he turns and looks at K. And grins. "What is that?" Nodding at the sweater.

[konstant]

It's not such a strange urge though, given the givens. Except K knows that when there's a problem, Jesus would rather be out in it than hiding away from it.

He's trying to figure out how to respond when Jesus asks, and he looks down from rewrapping the food that's staying on the counter for now.

"It's a reindeer," K says, too seriously, too straight faced, pronouncing the word too clearly and carefully to be serious. "They pull sleighs, historically. And play games."

[hippie_ninja]

Jesus bursts out with a laugh, and there's a flash of that same look he'd given K the night K put him on his back on the kitchen table: simple love.

"So you're Team Rudolph, huh?" He should have guessed K would like Christmas, too. "Do you have a tree?"

[konstant]

"Is there any other team to be?" he asks, but not with the earnest severity that constituted a real question. Yes. Yes he is.

"Sara and I went and picked one out while I was staying with her. It's plastic, in a red bucket, and it has snow painted on the ends."

[hippie_ninja]

He can just imagine K picking out a tree, taking his time, examining them.

"...Who are you staying with now?"

[konstant]

K shakes his head, picking up his plate and leaning his hip against the counter.

"Public quarters in the Down. I haven't seen my roommate yet."

[hippie_ninja]

He picks at his food. He tries and fails to put aside the question he's sure K can see in him.

"Have you thought about signing with Drake?"

[konstant]

K doesn't answer right away. He chews a mouthful of biscuit much longer than necessary so he doesn't have to speak.

Then he nods, picking at his own plate.

"Some. But not - since whatever the festival was doing to me stopped. Not much."

[hippie_ninja]

"He's a great partner. A good ally to have." And. There's more, but he struggles to hold it out as an offer. "You could have an apartment near me. We could see each other without the Zoo as a threat over our heads."

[konstant]

He hears that struggle, that fear lurking behind the hope. He dusts off his fingers, and reaches across to kiss the other man, slow and deep. If he says no, it is not at all because he doesn't want Jesus. Not for a moment.

Which, really, is his answer, isn't it?

"Okay," he breathes on the exhale.

[hippie_ninja]

He kisses him back, expecting this is going to be followed with K explaining why he can't. He kisses K, fully expecting that soon K will simply go back to prison and Jesus won't be able to see him anymore.

Instead he says that, and Jesus needs a moment to catch up, and then he's grinning but he's trying to contain it. To be as respectful of K's wishes as he can possibly be.

"Are you sure?" Never mind that he still has his arms around K, that he's still looking up at him close enough to just go back to kissing him.

[konstant]

It's a long, long moment to K's perception, a moment during which he goes back and forth twice before the grin breaks and K lets it warm and steady him, too. He's going to need it, because it's one thing to agree to it here and now and he's sure it will feel like another when he's sitting down across from Drake and trying to hash out details. When he's holding a contract in his hand and being asked to sign.

"No," he answers, honestly, hand resting warm alongside Jesus's neck and eyes meeting his. "But you are, and I'm only hurting people I care about by being afraid to try."

[hippie_ninja]

"You can use my contract as a template if you want. My friend helped draw it up... She's more protective of me than I am. It's a good template." He is looking up at K, into those blue eyes, and he's certain and excited. "Thank you. For being willing to try."

[konstant]

His smile is smaller than it was, but he takes his time absorbing what he can see there, the excitement that warms Jesus's whole face.

He leans his forehead against the other man's and breathes out.

"We have time. I want to try to do it right this time, not - I don't want Drake to go." Like V.

[hippie_ninja]

"What happened with V was not your fault." He knows saying it won't convince K, but he'll go on saying it if only to be a voice against whatever K is holding in his head.

[konstant]

"I didn't help," he counters, but it's not a real argument; maybe if V had had another option, someone the city hadn't already labelled a problem, it might have shifted the scales just enough. Maybe not.

He had K, and less than even a full month later he was gone. K sets his plate down and turns so he can rub his face with both hands, trying to shake it off. Doesn't matter.

"You're almost up for renewal. Are you going to? With Drake?"

[hippie_ninja]

"Yeah." He runs his hand along K's side and sets his plate down, then urges K to come sit with him on the couch where Nibbles is lounging. "He's a really good partner to have. I like him a lot."

[konstant]

K is happy to follow over to the couch, and he takes a long several moments to devote to crouching down eye to eye with Nibbles to murmur to him warm, fond nonsense while he rubs his ears.

Then he moves up to sit on the couch properly, glancing sidelong at Jesus.

"Did you come out of Tumenalia alright?"

[hippie_ninja]

He sits with a groan. "I came out of it very happy. And very sore."

He was in a fight at the end, the remnants still showing on his face in the shadows of bruises and a scab on his lip.

"Are you okay with everything that happened?"

[konstant]

The comment gets a quirk of a smile out of K, and a long moment of watching him settle, watching that happiness where it sits in his bones - how it's different from before, how it's the same.

"I am," he says, lest that be in question. There's nothing he came back to himself wishing was different, certainly not with anyone he actually knows, even if he wouldn't exactly jump into another orgy now.

"It's - I needed some time. To think."