César Salazar (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
pineapplesalmon) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
ph_logs2024-03-15 08:22 pm
pineapplesalmon) wrote in ph_logs2024-03-15 08:22 pm
1st Contraption: Collartoral Damage [Closed]
Who: Magne (sistermagnetic), Dabi (iamthepyre), & César (pineapplesalmon)
What: Magne and César figure out their miscommunication after César's demonic double bothered him at Merrymeet. Dabi comes to be Magne's emotional support.
When: Day after the potluck
Where: César's house
Warning(s): Discussions/allusions to domestic violence, genocide, slavery, loss of agency, mind control, racism, far-right militias, government sanctioned violence, capitalism, bad bosses, I swear Generator Rex is a kid's show. Starting with an off-comm log and then stuff after.
César cleared his calendar, as promised. He's in the front room's comfy chair reading a book next to the brooder. It's actually possible to read now with noises from the chicks nearby.
Magne has been working flat out since the influx of new people, getting everyone settled, breaking the news about the bathrooms, directing them around the basics of the village so they're not overwhelmed. When she arrives, she's tired, but determined. She lets herself in and heads for the sitting room, figuring she might be most likely to find him in there. First instinct is to give him a kiss hello, but she sits nearby instead just for now, bending to look in at the chicks.
César doesn't immediately rush to greet her, taking in that she's quiet. He shifts closer to the edge of his seat, slides his bookmark in, and watches her for a moment.
"Cute, aren't they?" He asks softly, glancing at the chicks as they start taking notice of her. "They'll know you're safe if you make eye contact without staring them directly on."
Bent in her seat, Magne has a hand out for the chicks to investigate, wondering if it works like it does for other animals that smell is important.
"Very," she agrees, smiling faintly at them as they scatter at what they seem to be a sudden movement. She glances toward the entryway to see where her moral support has gotten to, then looks back at César. "You actually did take a day off though, I'm impressed."
Walking in behind Magne, Dabi actually stops long enough when he notices the extra set of slippers at the door. He takes his time to remove his shoes and put on the slippers that...actually fit pretty well, before following his friend in.
While the two talk about how the the little baby chicks are, Dabi just stands with his arms crossed, watching César from behind Magne.
César laughs softly as the chicks scatter, then looks up in surprise as Dabi enters the room to stand behind Magne. His words die on his lips as he comes to understand what Dabi's presence means (and the slippers mean he's not written César off for fixing this). Immediately, his surprise shifts to worry for Magne, who asked for Dabi to be here for her. A calm washes over him with the strength of his concern for her. Shit. César gives Dabi a brief nod and turns his attention fully to Magne.
"... I should've taken time off sooner, and I will take more time off." César replies emphatically, then gentles his voice. "... Where do you want to sit for this?" She's in a dining chair, and he's in a comfy large chair; it's too unequal for his liking, and he's not going to move her away from Dabi himself.
If she weren't trying to be more informal in spite of having brought Dabi along with her, she might have remained standing rather than taking a seat in the first place. She sits up and laces her hands together in her lap, rather than folding her arms over her chest as she nearly moved to do.
"Good," she replies simply, frowning to one side as she attempts to put words to her thoughts. She glances back at Dabi as he settles in near the chicks, then stands to move over to César and hover just in front of him, nearly reaching out to touch his cheek but stopping herself.
"We can talk right here."
She's so guarded. Making decisions on how to present herself. He'd tell her she doesn't need to do that, but she's doing it to protect herself. For now, she needs it. César tries not to worry more.
"All right." He stands calmly, abandoning his book, and gestures to the couch. "We can sit over here."
Until she knows that this isn't going to end terribly, she's going to unfortunately be very cautious. She has no reason to outright fear him, but the fact of the matter is that this relationship is one of the very few legitimately good things that have ever happened to her no strings attached. She's afraid of what this talk might do to them.
Dabi being there as moral support is less about his ability to light César on fire, and more that she knows he cares about her, and having someone at her back is important.
She sits, perching on the edge of the sofa, reaching cautiously to lay her fingers against the back of his hand. "I need you to know something, first," she says carefully. "You know you've never managed to give me a reason to hurt you. Right? And...I don't foresee that happening, either. So I think what I need most right now is to know what happened back there."
César stares at her, stunned, as he feels his heart break. He sinks more than sits down next to her. Trying to say something doesn't work, as his open mouth won't produce sound.
What gave her reason to say that clicks into place, and he knows the moment her expression changed now. César finds his breath again. He turns his palm upwards on his knee for her to take, expression almost mournful.
"Magne... I looked to you for comfort. I was scared, but not of you. I was scared of what you might think, and my heart and mind were all wrapped up in what happened back home." César has to fight against wrapping her in his arms. "But I couldn't keep that fear in your presence for more than moments. Your strength and power has only ever been a source of safety to me. I've never been afraid of you, not once. You did nothing wrong. You saved me from getting under his thumb. I only didn't cling to you when you sent him flying because I know you want me to keep my hands above your shoulders."
Perching himself in the now vacated seat, Dabi turns his eyes to the little chicks. Seeming to be paying more attention to them he listens to the two on the couch. It takes everything in him not to roll his eyes. This is good for Magne. That's what matters to him.
Time to start mentally naming all these little chicks terrible things.
He looked to her for comfort...that makes this so much worse, doesn't it? She misread his fear, and made an already tense moment that much worse. Still, she pushes past her own sinking feeling at that and nods in her understanding.
"As far as I could tell, I'd just shot a man across a field that was wearing your face," she explains quietly. "I thought that, when you saw that, you thought I'd do it to you."
César wants to wrap her in his arms and never let go. The need is so strong he has to stop himself partway.
"... And there was a part of me who thought I deserved that in that moment, for what I had to do to save lives back home. And another part of me noticed that, wow, he went really far. Y-You might have picked up on those things, even if I didn't want to communicate them. And I wasn't able to be explicit in my emotions like I usually go out of the way to do for you." César can't stand being separate anymore and rests a hand between her shoulder blades, testing the waters. "... couples miscommunicate sometimes. It's perfectly normal."
She's quiet for a long moment. Then, "I didn't hear everything, no. But I understood what he was getting at. Do you have any idea how hypocritical of me it would be to judge you for that, given what we were doing before we got here?" She gestures at Dabi as she says it. "Revolutions are bloody sometimes, and people that want genocide don't listen to peaceful protest."
César's once again stunned, and he almost sags with relief that she understands. Why did he ever doubt her? He struggles with what to say, but the words do come.
"... The ones he talked about didn't want genocide. After Black Knight took control of Providence, she and the Consortium wanted the cheapest solution as the costs of housing life-threatening EVOs rose after Rex disappeared and curing became impossible again." He closes his eyes and passes his hand over his face. "EVOs are without rights. So... they saw 'disposal' as the best option."
The hand along Magne's back slides to go around her shoulder, protective. "And anti-EVO militias were all too eager to go back to open season. EVOs are mostly heteromorph equivalents with a fraction of the population of humans. And they can be detected by their active nanites. Hundreds of thousands of EVOs—people, animals, and even plants—were going to be slaughtered within weeks."
It's hard for her to grab onto any one specific thing about that that makes her angriest, it's all bad.
"It sounds like they didn't give a damn about the environmental impact of attempting to exterminate a massive swath of living things," she notes bitterly.
"They hadn't gotten to that point of discussion before I came out with the collar and control system. Even the militias stopped their attacks overnight, not understanding the lengths I went into designing the systems to reduce the cruelty they thought was there." César wants to be angry, but he's just too... tired. "All the Consortium and Black Knight cared about was their own greed. Another reason I had to remain at Providence—successfully foiling their bid to become gods through the meta nanites."
A pause, then he adds. "... skipping a lot of additional information and events, but... working under Black Knight is what had me in such a state when I first got here. Overworking myself, playing her head games, and doing nearly every horrible thing she said—putting up with all sorts of thinly veiled emotional abuse—were the only ways to keep myself and my true intentions hidden if I was going to save lives and the world. ... And—my Earth knows her status now—the entire time, she was an EVO. The ultimate traitor to her own kind... and my direct boss."
"So you used their egos and their evils against them. I still don't see why I'm supposed to be angry with you. I don't like the idea that in another life you'd have been forced to take that step with either of us, but that's the logical, human reaction to the idea of being put under someone else's control, even for the sake of survival.
"I think, if I'm being perfectly honest with you, that the only thing I'm truly angry about, is that this jackass of a demon wearing your own damned face decided to throw all of this back into your face while using me to make it stick. I am not a pawn, or a piece of leverage, and I will not stand for it least of all from a stranger."
From his seat Dabi can't help but listen discreetly, what else is he gonna do? Other than apparently poke around the chair he's sitting in when he realizes there's a book there. Kinda hard to miss it stabbing him in the hip. He has things he could say, things about how it couldn't have been any worse than what the people of Tartarus had to go through. If you weren't drugged into unconsciousness you were bound and kept in a cell or something, what ever was needed to keep you from using your quirk. He could only imagine what would happen had be been put in a cell there, or what would happen to Magne.
But this isn't his conversation, it's a lot but...it's also between them. So instead he just kicks back and...starts reading the book he had found. What the hell are you reading César and why is it so trashy? And more importantly, why doesn't Dabi close it and set it aside after two pages?
César's arm over Magne's shoulders isn't moving. "And now you know. And now they can't."
He rests his face in his other hand, fingers against his forehead and palm over his eye. "... I know it's not logical for you to be angry with me, given the full story, but—I had to supervise a number of the stabilizer ring deployments so no one saw how powerful the system really was. I had to—" César's voice breaks, and he's clearly hitting some internal limit. "I had to be there for all the worst ones to keep that secret. It hurts if you struggle. Two hours a day and often more, filled with pain and terror and punctuated by screams—"
He cuts it off with a sharp, near hysterical laugh. "Thousands... I never counted how many. I didn't want to know."
César is keeping an arm on her to be reassuring, but the more he talks and relives that nightmare, the more Magne feels like she should be the one doing that. Her hand comes up to gently take the one over César's face and fold it in her own.
"It was throwing back the worst things into your face just to weaken you. I don't know why. If it wasn't for him deciding not to risk coming back I might have asked about it, myself. Maybe he would have given me more reason to shoot him into the ocean, maybe not. Either way, you took precedent. I'm not going to let you look at me and only see the victim I could have been, do you understand me? Not when you've already been good to me for this long."
César gets pulled from his thoughts by her simply taking his hand, and there's a measure of relief. He's been wanting her to touch him this entire time.
Dawning comprehension goes across his face; the genius hadn't realized something so obvious. "... I do. I understand you. ... that was one of his goals, wasn't it? To make me forget how strong and capable you are."
He makes a frustrated noise. "Easy fix to that. Lift me?"
Rolling his eyes from the chair where Dabi is still reading the book, sorry buddy you aren't getting this back any time soon, the guy can't help the gagging motion he makes. Who knew he'd be surrounded by such saps. Okay...to be fair he had to sort of expect it from Magne, she was with someone who treated her how she deserved to be treated. Still.
Gross.
You both are gross.
It's hard to ignore Dabi over there making faces at the two of them, but she can try. César is at least distracting enough to keep her focused on him instead.
The request is met with a sigh and her head butting up against his. Her voice is lowered enough that Dabi can go back to reading his dumb pulp novel instead of harassing them.
"Later, I can hold you up as long as you want."
César grins briefly at the gagging noises, because he remembers Rex making those noises as a young boy.
The sigh makes César laugh lightly, but it's the headbutt that makes him start to relax. He closes his eyes and just stays there, arm slipping around so his hand rests on her shoulder.
"I'll be patient, then." César takes a regulated breath in and out, trying to self-soothe. "Can I get a hug then, too?"
Dabi is nothing if not still a ridiculous young man, and she does love him for it. She puts her nose up in a way that makes it obvious that she's deliberately ignoring him being a child about it, then takes her hand back to instead wrap her arms around César and pull him in with his head under her chin, taking care to gently moosh down the top of his hair.
César relaxes into her hug. He doesn't even care about his hair. All César cares about is hearing Magne's heartbeat for the first time. It's strong and incredibly comforting.
Not sure where to put his hands and not wanting to speak, César goes boneless.
She might have told him that just in this instance, it would be alright to hold on however he could, but it's easier to just let it be. She looks back at Dabi reading his trashy novel and shakes her head. "Hey, would you mind keeping an eye on the chickens for a bit?"
And then to César, "Come on, I think you need to lie down. We can talk more if you feel like you really need to."
César listens to how Magne's voice sounds against his ear from where he is. Oh. She's talking to him.
He shifts, rewinds back what she said, then laughs a little and reluctantly pulls away just enough to sit up, looking at her sheepishly. "I do. I've been working too hard. Haven't given myself a full day off since... that time you needed me." Otherwise known as when Magne came back from dying, and now he's only taken a day off mostly for her sake again.
Looking up from the book, Dabi just arches an eyebrow at the two of them before looking down at the chicks.
"Yeah I'll look after the chicken nuggets, go be all domestic with your boyfriend." It's said without a hint of bite as he hours back to the book with a smirk on his lips.
"Don't do anything cruel to them, that'll actually get your butt kicked here," she chides him, clearly not serious but at least feeling better enough to make a joke at all. With knowing that she's going to actually get to talk this through with César, and still have Dabi out here as something of a rear guard and bulwark, it's safer to just do that.
So she nudges César to stand up, follows suit, and reaches for his hand so they can retire and take all the time they need to.
The joke makes César grins a little. He stands and when she reaches out for his hand, he takes it with a little nod to her. Now that he's said the truth, he won't be able to get out of her helping him through this.
sistermagnetic), Dabi (iamthepyre), & César (pineapplesalmon)What: Magne and César figure out their miscommunication after César's demonic double bothered him at Merrymeet. Dabi comes to be Magne's emotional support.
When: Day after the potluck
Where: César's house
Warning(s): Discussions/allusions to domestic violence, genocide, slavery, loss of agency, mind control, racism, far-right militias, government sanctioned violence, capitalism, bad bosses, I swear Generator Rex is a kid's show. Starting with an off-comm log and then stuff after.
César cleared his calendar, as promised. He's in the front room's comfy chair reading a book next to the brooder. It's actually possible to read now with noises from the chicks nearby.
Magne has been working flat out since the influx of new people, getting everyone settled, breaking the news about the bathrooms, directing them around the basics of the village so they're not overwhelmed. When she arrives, she's tired, but determined. She lets herself in and heads for the sitting room, figuring she might be most likely to find him in there. First instinct is to give him a kiss hello, but she sits nearby instead just for now, bending to look in at the chicks.
César doesn't immediately rush to greet her, taking in that she's quiet. He shifts closer to the edge of his seat, slides his bookmark in, and watches her for a moment.
"Cute, aren't they?" He asks softly, glancing at the chicks as they start taking notice of her. "They'll know you're safe if you make eye contact without staring them directly on."
Bent in her seat, Magne has a hand out for the chicks to investigate, wondering if it works like it does for other animals that smell is important.
"Very," she agrees, smiling faintly at them as they scatter at what they seem to be a sudden movement. She glances toward the entryway to see where her moral support has gotten to, then looks back at César. "You actually did take a day off though, I'm impressed."
Walking in behind Magne, Dabi actually stops long enough when he notices the extra set of slippers at the door. He takes his time to remove his shoes and put on the slippers that...actually fit pretty well, before following his friend in.
While the two talk about how the the little baby chicks are, Dabi just stands with his arms crossed, watching César from behind Magne.
César laughs softly as the chicks scatter, then looks up in surprise as Dabi enters the room to stand behind Magne. His words die on his lips as he comes to understand what Dabi's presence means (and the slippers mean he's not written César off for fixing this). Immediately, his surprise shifts to worry for Magne, who asked for Dabi to be here for her. A calm washes over him with the strength of his concern for her. Shit. César gives Dabi a brief nod and turns his attention fully to Magne.
"... I should've taken time off sooner, and I will take more time off." César replies emphatically, then gentles his voice. "... Where do you want to sit for this?" She's in a dining chair, and he's in a comfy large chair; it's too unequal for his liking, and he's not going to move her away from Dabi himself.
If she weren't trying to be more informal in spite of having brought Dabi along with her, she might have remained standing rather than taking a seat in the first place. She sits up and laces her hands together in her lap, rather than folding her arms over her chest as she nearly moved to do.
"Good," she replies simply, frowning to one side as she attempts to put words to her thoughts. She glances back at Dabi as he settles in near the chicks, then stands to move over to César and hover just in front of him, nearly reaching out to touch his cheek but stopping herself.
"We can talk right here."
She's so guarded. Making decisions on how to present herself. He'd tell her she doesn't need to do that, but she's doing it to protect herself. For now, she needs it. César tries not to worry more.
"All right." He stands calmly, abandoning his book, and gestures to the couch. "We can sit over here."
Until she knows that this isn't going to end terribly, she's going to unfortunately be very cautious. She has no reason to outright fear him, but the fact of the matter is that this relationship is one of the very few legitimately good things that have ever happened to her no strings attached. She's afraid of what this talk might do to them.
Dabi being there as moral support is less about his ability to light César on fire, and more that she knows he cares about her, and having someone at her back is important.
She sits, perching on the edge of the sofa, reaching cautiously to lay her fingers against the back of his hand. "I need you to know something, first," she says carefully. "You know you've never managed to give me a reason to hurt you. Right? And...I don't foresee that happening, either. So I think what I need most right now is to know what happened back there."
César stares at her, stunned, as he feels his heart break. He sinks more than sits down next to her. Trying to say something doesn't work, as his open mouth won't produce sound.
What gave her reason to say that clicks into place, and he knows the moment her expression changed now. César finds his breath again. He turns his palm upwards on his knee for her to take, expression almost mournful.
"Magne... I looked to you for comfort. I was scared, but not of you. I was scared of what you might think, and my heart and mind were all wrapped up in what happened back home." César has to fight against wrapping her in his arms. "But I couldn't keep that fear in your presence for more than moments. Your strength and power has only ever been a source of safety to me. I've never been afraid of you, not once. You did nothing wrong. You saved me from getting under his thumb. I only didn't cling to you when you sent him flying because I know you want me to keep my hands above your shoulders."
Perching himself in the now vacated seat, Dabi turns his eyes to the little chicks. Seeming to be paying more attention to them he listens to the two on the couch. It takes everything in him not to roll his eyes. This is good for Magne. That's what matters to him.
Time to start mentally naming all these little chicks terrible things.
He looked to her for comfort...that makes this so much worse, doesn't it? She misread his fear, and made an already tense moment that much worse. Still, she pushes past her own sinking feeling at that and nods in her understanding.
"As far as I could tell, I'd just shot a man across a field that was wearing your face," she explains quietly. "I thought that, when you saw that, you thought I'd do it to you."
César wants to wrap her in his arms and never let go. The need is so strong he has to stop himself partway.
"... And there was a part of me who thought I deserved that in that moment, for what I had to do to save lives back home. And another part of me noticed that, wow, he went really far. Y-You might have picked up on those things, even if I didn't want to communicate them. And I wasn't able to be explicit in my emotions like I usually go out of the way to do for you." César can't stand being separate anymore and rests a hand between her shoulder blades, testing the waters. "... couples miscommunicate sometimes. It's perfectly normal."
She's quiet for a long moment. Then, "I didn't hear everything, no. But I understood what he was getting at. Do you have any idea how hypocritical of me it would be to judge you for that, given what we were doing before we got here?" She gestures at Dabi as she says it. "Revolutions are bloody sometimes, and people that want genocide don't listen to peaceful protest."
César's once again stunned, and he almost sags with relief that she understands. Why did he ever doubt her? He struggles with what to say, but the words do come.
"... The ones he talked about didn't want genocide. After Black Knight took control of Providence, she and the Consortium wanted the cheapest solution as the costs of housing life-threatening EVOs rose after Rex disappeared and curing became impossible again." He closes his eyes and passes his hand over his face. "EVOs are without rights. So... they saw 'disposal' as the best option."
The hand along Magne's back slides to go around her shoulder, protective. "And anti-EVO militias were all too eager to go back to open season. EVOs are mostly heteromorph equivalents with a fraction of the population of humans. And they can be detected by their active nanites. Hundreds of thousands of EVOs—people, animals, and even plants—were going to be slaughtered within weeks."
It's hard for her to grab onto any one specific thing about that that makes her angriest, it's all bad.
"It sounds like they didn't give a damn about the environmental impact of attempting to exterminate a massive swath of living things," she notes bitterly.
"They hadn't gotten to that point of discussion before I came out with the collar and control system. Even the militias stopped their attacks overnight, not understanding the lengths I went into designing the systems to reduce the cruelty they thought was there." César wants to be angry, but he's just too... tired. "All the Consortium and Black Knight cared about was their own greed. Another reason I had to remain at Providence—successfully foiling their bid to become gods through the meta nanites."
A pause, then he adds. "... skipping a lot of additional information and events, but... working under Black Knight is what had me in such a state when I first got here. Overworking myself, playing her head games, and doing nearly every horrible thing she said—putting up with all sorts of thinly veiled emotional abuse—were the only ways to keep myself and my true intentions hidden if I was going to save lives and the world. ... And—my Earth knows her status now—the entire time, she was an EVO. The ultimate traitor to her own kind... and my direct boss."
"So you used their egos and their evils against them. I still don't see why I'm supposed to be angry with you. I don't like the idea that in another life you'd have been forced to take that step with either of us, but that's the logical, human reaction to the idea of being put under someone else's control, even for the sake of survival.
"I think, if I'm being perfectly honest with you, that the only thing I'm truly angry about, is that this jackass of a demon wearing your own damned face decided to throw all of this back into your face while using me to make it stick. I am not a pawn, or a piece of leverage, and I will not stand for it least of all from a stranger."
From his seat Dabi can't help but listen discreetly, what else is he gonna do? Other than apparently poke around the chair he's sitting in when he realizes there's a book there. Kinda hard to miss it stabbing him in the hip. He has things he could say, things about how it couldn't have been any worse than what the people of Tartarus had to go through. If you weren't drugged into unconsciousness you were bound and kept in a cell or something, what ever was needed to keep you from using your quirk. He could only imagine what would happen had be been put in a cell there, or what would happen to Magne.
But this isn't his conversation, it's a lot but...it's also between them. So instead he just kicks back and...starts reading the book he had found. What the hell are you reading César and why is it so trashy? And more importantly, why doesn't Dabi close it and set it aside after two pages?
César's arm over Magne's shoulders isn't moving. "And now you know. And now they can't."
He rests his face in his other hand, fingers against his forehead and palm over his eye. "... I know it's not logical for you to be angry with me, given the full story, but—I had to supervise a number of the stabilizer ring deployments so no one saw how powerful the system really was. I had to—" César's voice breaks, and he's clearly hitting some internal limit. "I had to be there for all the worst ones to keep that secret. It hurts if you struggle. Two hours a day and often more, filled with pain and terror and punctuated by screams—"
He cuts it off with a sharp, near hysterical laugh. "Thousands... I never counted how many. I didn't want to know."
César is keeping an arm on her to be reassuring, but the more he talks and relives that nightmare, the more Magne feels like she should be the one doing that. Her hand comes up to gently take the one over César's face and fold it in her own.
"It was throwing back the worst things into your face just to weaken you. I don't know why. If it wasn't for him deciding not to risk coming back I might have asked about it, myself. Maybe he would have given me more reason to shoot him into the ocean, maybe not. Either way, you took precedent. I'm not going to let you look at me and only see the victim I could have been, do you understand me? Not when you've already been good to me for this long."
César gets pulled from his thoughts by her simply taking his hand, and there's a measure of relief. He's been wanting her to touch him this entire time.
Dawning comprehension goes across his face; the genius hadn't realized something so obvious. "... I do. I understand you. ... that was one of his goals, wasn't it? To make me forget how strong and capable you are."
He makes a frustrated noise. "Easy fix to that. Lift me?"
Rolling his eyes from the chair where Dabi is still reading the book, sorry buddy you aren't getting this back any time soon, the guy can't help the gagging motion he makes. Who knew he'd be surrounded by such saps. Okay...to be fair he had to sort of expect it from Magne, she was with someone who treated her how she deserved to be treated. Still.
Gross.
You both are gross.
It's hard to ignore Dabi over there making faces at the two of them, but she can try. César is at least distracting enough to keep her focused on him instead.
The request is met with a sigh and her head butting up against his. Her voice is lowered enough that Dabi can go back to reading his dumb pulp novel instead of harassing them.
"Later, I can hold you up as long as you want."
César grins briefly at the gagging noises, because he remembers Rex making those noises as a young boy.
The sigh makes César laugh lightly, but it's the headbutt that makes him start to relax. He closes his eyes and just stays there, arm slipping around so his hand rests on her shoulder.
"I'll be patient, then." César takes a regulated breath in and out, trying to self-soothe. "Can I get a hug then, too?"
Dabi is nothing if not still a ridiculous young man, and she does love him for it. She puts her nose up in a way that makes it obvious that she's deliberately ignoring him being a child about it, then takes her hand back to instead wrap her arms around César and pull him in with his head under her chin, taking care to gently moosh down the top of his hair.
César relaxes into her hug. He doesn't even care about his hair. All César cares about is hearing Magne's heartbeat for the first time. It's strong and incredibly comforting.
Not sure where to put his hands and not wanting to speak, César goes boneless.
She might have told him that just in this instance, it would be alright to hold on however he could, but it's easier to just let it be. She looks back at Dabi reading his trashy novel and shakes her head. "Hey, would you mind keeping an eye on the chickens for a bit?"
And then to César, "Come on, I think you need to lie down. We can talk more if you feel like you really need to."
César listens to how Magne's voice sounds against his ear from where he is. Oh. She's talking to him.
He shifts, rewinds back what she said, then laughs a little and reluctantly pulls away just enough to sit up, looking at her sheepishly. "I do. I've been working too hard. Haven't given myself a full day off since... that time you needed me." Otherwise known as when Magne came back from dying, and now he's only taken a day off mostly for her sake again.
Looking up from the book, Dabi just arches an eyebrow at the two of them before looking down at the chicks.
"Yeah I'll look after the chicken nuggets, go be all domestic with your boyfriend." It's said without a hint of bite as he hours back to the book with a smirk on his lips.
"Don't do anything cruel to them, that'll actually get your butt kicked here," she chides him, clearly not serious but at least feeling better enough to make a joke at all. With knowing that she's going to actually get to talk this through with César, and still have Dabi out here as something of a rear guard and bulwark, it's safer to just do that.
So she nudges César to stand up, follows suit, and reaches for his hand so they can retire and take all the time they need to.
The joke makes César grins a little. He stands and when she reaches out for his hand, he takes it with a little nod to her. Now that he's said the truth, he won't be able to get out of her helping him through this.
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"A short nap would be nice," she says quietly, though she doubts that she'll actually be able to sleep. Really, she just wants to be still for a while and not feel obligated to do much of anything. The hard part is over now. The weight is starting to lift.
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Lying still with her is exactly what he needs. He sighs and reluctantly steps back enough to actually make that happen, gently dragging her backwards. He hits his bed and immediately loses his balance with a laugh. Which leaves him holding her hands while he's sitting down, and he giggles, tired enough that it's funnier than it should be.
"Oops."
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Magne follows, taking the first steps forward, then pausing as his knees are knocked out from under him. She chuckles when he rights himself, and as he sits there, she moves to lift one leg, sliding her knee along the outside of his thigh, then puts one hand on his shoulder and moves finally to sit straddled across his lap. It's about the most forward she's ever been with him, short of lifting him up and putting him against a wall.
immediate nsfw thoughts
Magne is skilled at shutting César up. It's immediate as her knee slides against his thigh. Then her hand is on his shoulder and she's straddling his lap. César hadn't had any solo adventures for the day, not sure when Magne would arrive, and she's straddling his lap. Now that he knows where he's not supposed to touch, César's hands slide up slowly along her outer thighs.
"Dios mío..." César murmurs in delighted surprise, then clears his throat before his smile starts to widen to something a little more primal and needy. "Well. Making out is another way to stop thinking for a bit." He hesitates. "... if I'm reading you right?"
César's always so careful, and that's part of the problem.
cw continues
His hands move up her legs, and she smiles in kind, eyes half-lidded as she watches him right back.
"If it's not too much for you," she replies quietly, hoping that it wasn't going to end up being too much too fast for him.
yeah they're gonna make out now :)
"We can go slow and keep our hands away from each other's crotches. Keep me talking. And let me have a chance to figure out what's happening." Because he knows that's where things started to get dicey for him. "... I'm going to talk to Erik, too. But right now, I just want to kiss you a lot and maybe touch a boob if I'm lucky."
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"Now that's a boob," César states with an incredible amount of delight.
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"There's more where that came from," she quips, smiling against his lips.
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"50% more." César jokes back, speaking between kisses, shifting his hand to cover her breast fully as he presses harder and spreads his fingers and thumbs apart to give separate points of pressure, moving and adjust the pressure of his palm to work on that nipple, turned on further by being able to feel both layers of fabric moving underneath his hand. "Try the teeth thing again in a minute... I'll need time to learn how to multi-task."
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Of course, the distraction of his palm running up against the now perked nipple proves to be a very good way to break away from the arguing of semantics, and she arches her back subtly, pushing into his hand as her lips press together, eyes briefly closing. "One thing at a time, then... Make sure you don't get too overwhelmed."
I had to reply quickly to dump on César lmao
He's not going to argue semantics because she's right—and also because he forgets that conversation entirely for the moment when she brings his other hand to her other breast. Magne's position on him is a bit precarious, but he trusts in her muscles. Still, he doesn't press hard enough to force her to use them.
Magne's enjoyment of the attention encourages him to work on her other nipple, focusing on running gentle circles with his thumb to have a different sensation than his palm. He watches her for a moment, emotion surging. She wants him to make her feel good.
"We might have to take turns making each other feel good...." César murmurs, leaning up slightly to kiss her gently again. "It's your turn first. Doting on you isn't overwhelming at all...."
Just to demonstrate his point, César moves to kiss the spot where her neck and shoulder meet. It's easier to access with her on top of him. Gentle, slow kisses, and he even experiments, once introducing his teeth to gently press against her skin, sliding them gently off. He's fully erect underneath her, his dick pressed against the seat of his pants and Magne's perineum.
"I've been wanting to touch you for ages... You're so beautiful. Your breasts are magnificent."
César's not very skilled at dirty talk, but he does know compliments are nice.
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