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Post by Hitoshi Gilespi on Aug 30, 2010 21:03:23 GMT -5
The day had been exceptionally long.
After the ferry, the professors had also insisted on having a group meal at a slightly upscale restaurant. And as if people knowing he and Notos were from the same school wasn't enough, the noise at the table was deafening.
The food itself had taken half an hour to arrive, and though Hitoshi was fairly certain they'd scorched his sauce, no one else seemed to believe him. Of course, Rudeth probably wasn't the best person to ask; his cousin had actually asked the waiter if he could replace feta cheese with cheddar. (The fact that the waiter obliged was only further proof that he knew damn near nothing about food.)
Alex, on the other hand, seemed to have been having an excellent time, so Hitoshi bit his tongue for most of dinner and ate most of his dinner, scorched sauce or no.
By the time he made it up to his hotel room, Hitoshi was tired, irritated, and had more the filled his monthly quota of human contact -- not to mention, he was still very much sunburned from swimming the day before.
Hitoshi threw his bags unceremoniously to the floor, in no mood to bother unpacking, and dropped down on the edge of the bed, kicked his shoes off into the floor, and fell back onto the mattress.
"That waiter was an idiot," Hitoshi muttered.
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Post by Alex Meriweather on Aug 30, 2010 21:37:35 GMT -5
Alex dropped his bag more quietly against the wall, hiding a long yawn behind his hand. As far as he knew, the food was delicious, and he was really getting used to Greek cuisine- if partly because it was far less tempting than at Dunehelden to just grab a hamburger or a minipizza and suffer the consequences of an unusually unhealthy and meat-filled diet later, or something made entirely of sugar and chocolate and... well.
He walked over to Hitoshi and gave the other boy a sad little look; he seemed one sticking door or silly question away from ordering someone's head lopped off.
"Do you need to be left alone?"
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Post by Hitoshi Gilespi on Aug 30, 2010 22:04:23 GMT -5
Hitoshi grabbed Alex's hand lightly and pulled the other boy onto the edge of the bed. "I think what I need is to find something else to think about." He peered back at Alex and gave him a slight smirk. "Don't think I'm letting you run off."
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Post by Alex Meriweather on Aug 30, 2010 22:12:40 GMT -5
Alex's eyebrows raised, and he blushed a little. "When did you get so forward? And aren't you afraid Professor Yogo will come in again?"
He ran one finger down Hitoshi's cheek and smiled. "Or am I misinterpreting you?"
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Post by Hitoshi Gilespi on Aug 30, 2010 22:32:07 GMT -5
Hitoshi went beet red. "That wasn't... ah." He looked away, chewing on his lower lip. "Unless...you want to."
It occurred to Hitoshi that he had spent a rather disproportionate amount of time trying to get Alex's clothes off over the last few days, and he wondered if this might perhaps be something to worry about. He wasn't sure he could blame as much of it on the Achilles and Patroclus thing as he would have liked to.
Hitoshi pulled himself upright and sat cross-legged across from Alex. At very least, Hitoshi wasn't thinking nearly so much about the waiter now.
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Post by Alex Meriweather on Aug 30, 2010 22:53:23 GMT -5
Alex sat across from Hitoshi and spent a few moments pretending the bedspread was terribly interesting.
"I... I don't know. I mean, I do, obviously, on the..." He waved his hand at Hitoshi. "On the level that you're... ah." He blushed harder, not knowing what to say. "This is going to come up, isn't it? Especially if, uhm, if we're really... destined to something-or-other. Whether we should... proceed with the uhm..."
Alex facepalmed. "This should not be this hard to articulate. I don't mind you turning my knees to jelly, metaphorically speaking, but my tongue is another thing entirely."
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Post by Hitoshi Gilespi on Aug 30, 2010 23:33:14 GMT -5
Hitoshi blushed darker and tried to look back at Alex, not quite managing to look him in the eyes. As embarrassed as he was, he couldn't help but feel relieved that the feeling seemed to be reciprocated...and more than a little flattered that he actually affected Alex that strongly.
"It would be nice to have some idea what the hell I was doing before I started doing it." He paused. "And maybe what's okay to do and what's too much." Hitoshi finally managed to bring himself to look back at Alex's face, though only for a few seconds. "I'm... not sure if I trust myself to do this without some sort of boundaries."
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Post by Alex Meriweather on Aug 30, 2010 23:46:46 GMT -5
Alex was having a hard enough time looking at Hitoshi himself.
"I..." he began, then sat and thought about it for a moment. "On my end, I don't really know. I, ahm." On second thought, this would probably be a terrible time to mention Blaise. Think harder, self. "There hasn't been much of a problem, except that... I don't know where this is going."
He paused. "What do you want? If you've got any better idea."
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Post by Hitoshi Gilespi on Aug 31, 2010 21:23:15 GMT -5
"I'm not sure," Hitoshi admitted, finally managing to look back at Alex. "But more than anything, I really don't want to end up doing something that one of us will regret." His hand closed lightly over Alex's.
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Post by Alex Meriweather on Aug 31, 2010 23:33:31 GMT -5
Alex nodded slowly, then moved his hand around to thread his fingers through Hitoshi's.
"It's annoying how much of this relationship thing is learn-as-you-go." He smirked, then bit his lip in thought. "I guess... uhm. On the outer bounds, I don't think we should do too much more than we have. For a good while. We're still not even technically dating again yet," he said drily.
"But... I enjoy things." Alex rubbed his forehead with the hand that wasn't in Hitoshi's. "I mean, I like... touching you and such, you don't seem to realize how attractive you are," he said nervously. "Er. And I wouldn't mind getting to do more than kiss you, but not to the... opposite extreme either. Not yet. If you feel the same."
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Post by Hitoshi Gilespi on Sept 2, 2010 10:50:00 GMT -5
"That...sounds about right," Hitoshi murmured. "I think I can manage that."
He wrapped his arms loosely around Alex's waist, his chin resting on the other boy's shoulder. He really did like this, just being with Alex.
"You still have those pictures from earlier, don't you?"
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Post by Alex Meriweather on Sept 2, 2010 16:37:04 GMT -5
Alex squeezed Hitoshi close for several moments, as hard as he could without hurting the other boy. He couldn't keep a smile off his face; at the same time, it felt like he hadn't been near Hitoshi in forever and that he'd been sitting here talking to him since the world started to spin, though he had no idea what, if anything, in the conversation had prompted this.
"Hmm." Alex shifted to lay back on the bed, feeling a bit tired, but not enough not to try to tug Hitoshi down with him. He reached into his pocket and took out his phone to sift through the pictures, then grinned. "Heh. I still do; I guess it worked! That's... going to make things interesting."
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Post by Hitoshi Gilespi on Sept 2, 2010 21:12:39 GMT -5
Hitoshi curled up against Alex's side, his head resting on Alex's chest. He'd really missed this the last few weeks, just getting to hold Alex and touch him and know he was there. Probably missed it more than the kissing, if he was being honest.
"So what all do we have, then? We have Achilles and Alexander the Great, but we mostly know those already. Did you get any of the others?"
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Post by Alex Meriweather on Sept 2, 2010 22:02:53 GMT -5
"I got a few, though not the entire column of them." Alex ticked the little button, sorting through them and showing Hitoshi. "This last one is us, then I got one of the layout for some context, a few that look like colonial-era Europe or something like that, and I think that's India?"
"Then that one, those are definitely something Asian, given the weapons and clothes, though I can't tell which. Those almost look like Vikings..." Alex shrugged slightly, sliding an arm around Hitoshi's shoulders. "And that's the last one before this, the other one I got all of. They look modern, and not from some non-Western country, but other than that I can't offhand tell."
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Post by Hitoshi Gilespi on Sept 5, 2010 16:16:35 GMT -5
"Hm..." Hitoshi peered more closely at the pictures. They were blurry and not particularly high quality -- there was only so much that could be done with a phone camera, after all -- but it was definitely more than Hitoshi had hoped for. If there was any sort of protection against prying eyes on the tomb, whoever designed it clearly had not expected the invention of the camera.
"My impulse would be to assume it's in the United States, if only because of the time frame, but I suppose there's not really anything to base that conclusion off of. It's just...something about it, I suppose."
Hitoshi closed his eyes and sighed contently. "Still, we can probably worry more about this tomorrow. It's been a long day."
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Post by Alex Meriweather on Sept 5, 2010 16:54:03 GMT -5
Alex kissed Hitoshi's forehead and smiled. "But if we stop talking, we'll need to get up and change and brush our teeth and everything, and then we'll fall asleep and this won't be nearly as fun."
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Post by Hoshi Yogo on Sept 5, 2010 20:01:39 GMT -5
Hoshi knocked briefly on the door, then pushed the door open and peeked inside. "Hope I'm not interrupting anything?" he called.
The professor grinned, then skipped inside the room and tossed his keys and wallet onto the bureau. The day had actually been rather good, apart from the part where he'd thought it would be a good idea to not sleep the night before, since they were waking up inordinately early hour of the morning. If not for the steady supply of European coffee, Hoshi was sure he would have passed out by now.
"Good to see you're not screaming at each other." He smirked, kicking off his boots and plopped down on the edge of his bed. "Or doing anything else equally likely to keep me from getting a good night's sleep."
Hoshi slid back against the headboard of the bed and dug his copy of House of Leaves out of his luggage. Or Kemekin's copy, as it were. He opened the book up to about halfway through, then peered over the top of the book at the two boys.
"I'm going to sleep as soon as I finish this chapter. Don't stay up too late tonight."
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Post by Hitoshi Gilespi on Sept 5, 2010 20:32:35 GMT -5
Hitoshi moved to kiss Alex back, his nose trailing along the side of Alex's cheek. He tensed as the door opened, his gaze following the professor as he entered. While he might not have necessarily been in a mindset to care the other day, right now he wasn't particularly keen on letting the professor see him kissing his boyfriend.
He waited for the professor to open his book, then nuzzled against the side of Alex's neck. "We can probably talk more about that later," he said quietly. "We should probably work on getting ready for bed at any rate, even if we're not going to sleep for a while. Do you want the bathroom first, or me?"
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Post by Alex Meriweather on Sept 5, 2010 20:41:31 GMT -5
Alex raised an eyebrow at Professor Yogo, but decided that he was unlikely to win any sort of sarcasm-off with a teacher. Instead, he kissed Hitoshi again, nuzzling against his hairline as if the room was entirely theirs and he was politely overlooking the indiscretion of Professor Yogo's entrance.
"You can go ahead. I'll need to drag something clean out of the bottom of my backpack, and that might take a bit. Just don't use all the hot water if you're showering." He smiled.
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Post by Hitoshi Gilespi on Sept 5, 2010 21:08:33 GMT -5
Hitoshi blushed slightly and raised one eyebrow, but said nothing more on the subject subject as he hopped off the bed. (And while Hitoshi could think of a more effective way to share the hot water, it was...probably best not to dwell on that at the moment.)
He gathered up his nightclothes and shuffled off toward the bathroom, and he couldn't help but find it just a little strange the way the professor kept looking at him, like he was waiting for something.
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Post by Hitoshi Gilespi on Sept 5, 2010 21:40:15 GMT -5
Hitoshi had slept long past when he had intended to -- or at least, had spent for too long huddled up against Alex, various limbs wrapped around the other boy, not daring to move for fear of waking Alex. This hadn't been the position they'd fallen asleep in, not exactly, but at some point Alex had gotten cold, and...well, Hitoshi certainly liked sharing a bed with Alex far better than sharing a bed with Rudeth.
He felt his arm start to tingle, and he shifted slightly, doing his best to slip his arm out from under the other boy without disturbing him too much.
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Post by Alex Meriweather on Sept 5, 2010 21:56:30 GMT -5
At some point Alex realized that the warmness he was tangled in wasn't- well- wasn't quite what he thought it was- generally speaking, his dreams had been-
He shifted in his half-awake state, rolling on his side to face away from Hitoshi without quite moving away from him. He yawned, and wondered if it was time to get up yet; and not for the first time, whether it had been the best idea to take the same bed together. His embarrassment had faded for the most part, but it had been replaced with somewhat more uncomfortable things.
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Post by Hitoshi Gilespi on Sept 5, 2010 22:29:46 GMT -5
Hitoshi yawned slightly, his arm tightening around Alex's waist. He nuzzled against the back of Alex's neck. A part of him was saying that it was really damn bright outside, which meant it was probably getting close to mid-day, and he really should get up because he never slept this late. Another, much more convincing part of him, insisted that he would have plenty of time to enjoying Athens over the next few days; a few minutes more of enjoying Alex wasn't going to hurt.
Hitoshi let himself close his eyes, though he wasn't exactly tired anymore. "Hey, Alex," he whispered, quiet enough that he hoped it wouldn't wake Alex if he wasn't already, "are you still asleep?"
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Post by Alex Meriweather on Sept 6, 2010 13:48:18 GMT -5
Alex made a happy little mumbling noise and squeezed the hand around his waist.
"If I say no, will you make breakfast to wake me up?" he said quietly, a sleepy smile on his face.
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Post by Hitoshi Gilespi on Sept 6, 2010 16:37:52 GMT -5
"Mm. One of these days I'm going to start making you cook for me," Hitoshi said lightly. He yawned and pulled himself upright, running a hand through his hair in attempt to work out a few of the tangles. He was sorely tempted to call room service, mostly because he wasn't sure he felt like doing anything at the moment, but he supposed he could manage something.
"So what do you want for breakfast?" he asked, looking back at Alex.
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