Only one bed

[madmeemey]

there's only one bed!

Two characters have to share a room for the night. Every room is occupied, but fortunately there is one last room available.

There's just one problem — there's only one bed, and the characters aren't comfortable sharing it.

- TV Tropes

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[alivian]

[Alivian carefully tries to focus on Logan's mouth for help, picking up some amount of sound from it, thankfully. He nods and pats his waist once.]

Balance help, please?

[His equilibrium is off, he means.]

Need to lean over to get the water out.

Bunch of the fish at the bottom, so after clean-up, I'll want help one more time with my ears after we get them. Or to lie down on a blanket and roll over a few times.

[Frowning, he lightly fusses with a waterlogged ear.]

[educated_wish]

[ Putting his arms around his waist, he gives the balance help that was asked for. It's easy enough, so why would he deny him? Besides, he's already started to have it bad. He'd help with anything Alivian asked for, as long as it didn't hurt him. As was made obvious by that argument before.

He's already thinking about what it would be like to lay on the blanket with him, holding him close - but that wasn't the topic at hand. Fishing was, after fixing those ears. ]

This help?

[alivian]

Mmhm.

[Time for him to bend over as far as he can, tipping his head as far upside-down as he can to let the water drain out. He groans a little at the awkward sensation.

[Hopefully Logan doesn't mind having that ass and soggy still-soft tail almost perfectly level with his groin.]

Only thing I dislike about swimming. Ruins my balance once I'm out of the water.

[He gently braces a hand on Logan's forearm when he finally moves to stand up after a few seconds of fussing.]

Gonna need to either find a stick or catch 'em with my bare hands. It's also... deep. Thirty seconds down, thirty up. Gives me an additional minute to hunt if I push it. Not going to. Too risky, even without ice in the water. Visual is also bad down there.

[He seems to have forgotten that he's being held as he mulls over his options...]

[educated_wish]

[ Logan grunts at everything, but tries to keep his cool. But he's never been very good at that, so it's obvious he's thinking about something he doesn't think he should. Something very delicate and hot, that doesn't involve hunting at all. ]

Yeah, alright.

[ Is he even listening? Yeah, not really. ]

[alivian]

[Alivian's out of it too, until the sort of... distant sound to Logan's voice clues him in. He blinks once, and then notices where his ass has been.]

Sorry.

[He pulls back a bit. Not long after fighting, and.. well. He supposes they're both touch-starved to be that into each other. It's novel, though... to not be hated for a long period of time.]

Copper for your thoughts?

[He honestly isn't regarding his game plan.]

[educated_wish]

...you don't want them.

[ He's still thinkng about that argument, not anything that was before. Well, that's a lie, he's completely thinking about what was before. But he doubts Alivian would want to repeat it. ]

They're... unsuitable.

[alivian]

[Alivian arches an eyebrow at him, gaze flicking over his entire frame.]

I think I can handle it.

[His expression softens, and he has the grace to look at least a little embarrassed.]

And if it's about before, I'm... calmer.

[Hopefully Logan catches on that he's meaning that he's less likely to react like he did before.]

[educated_wish]

I want to touch you again.

[ Alivian isn't the only one looking embarrassed. But it was to be expected, with how much he fought revealing this. ]

But now isn't the time. We need to find food.

[ For one thing, expending as much energy as he had has him hungry. ]

[alivian]

["You shouldn't," sits on his tongue. His gaze flicks over Logan's thoughtfully, and then he nods once.

...Alright.

Let me catch the fish at the bottom. I don't know their preferred movements when fleeing from predators, but you might have some luck at the mouth of the stream.

[He thinks a moment.]

I know enough on how to skewer them and grill them next to fire, but that's it. My nana likes fish enough that I know how to work with them... in theory.

[educated_wish]

I know how to cook damn well. I can do the cooking. i wasn't bothering much because it was only me.

[ He's had 200 years to learn, though he learned most of it in his early days, when his father was still alive to teach him. He acknowledges the rest of the words and nods. ]

I'll head there. Seperation is - probably good right now.

[ With deliberate and forced movement, he steps away and lets go. ]

[alivian]

[Separation being good gets a very dog-like headtilt out of him (even though it's a perfectly reasonable course of action,) but Alivian lets him go without fussing.

[And so long as Logan is walking away from him, Alivian catches himself staring at Logan's back, searching his shoulders for marks that aren't even there anymore.

[He turns away, himself, takes a breath, and dives right back under again.

[Each dive is at least relatively successful. Given the size of the fish, he they hopefully won't need much.

[He makes sure to dispatch them himself with his teeth before planting them on a relatively clean-looking flat rock. (It's distressing to pull them out of the water otherwise...)

[They're not the largest fish, so he caught more of them, but hopefully, the meat they have will be just enough.]

[educated_wish]

[ Logan, for his own part, is trying to fish by stabbing the water when he sees it moves. This isn't generally productive, but eventually he gets one thing. It's large, it's furry and it lived under the water with a very flat mouth. He kind of raises it up on his claws and looks at it with an odd look.

Why does it have fur? What the hell is it? It blinks at him a few times before expiring gladly. ]

[alivian]

[Alivian happens to be surfaced when he sees Logan catch such a weird thing. With the workout he's gotten by swimming, his filter is... lower. He makes a stupefied face at the fish-thing.]

The fuck is that?

[Hold on a moment while he tips his head to empty his ears again.]

[educated_wish]

[ He laughs at the unexpected comment. He's talked to him enough by now to know he doesn't generally swear. They've gotten to know each other quickly, kind of like a trial by fire, though obviously there's still much to learn. ]

The hell if I know. It was the only thing I could stab.

[ He shrugs a shoulder. ]

Guess it was slow.

[alivian]

Hmmm.

[It takes him a minute to empty his ears on his own, and then wades out of the water to give the fish-thing a closer look, both ears tilting sideways.]

Wonder if other seasons in this place means it gets cold, or... could be a shelter for a symbiotic pair.

[Not that it matters; they're likely going to eat it anyway, unless it's absolutely putrid.

[He makes a note to make the spear they need for Logan, instead. Or hell, make two if there's enough to work with.]

Do we need any more fish than this?

[educated_wish]

Other seasons? Like hell. [ Logan scoffs. ] The weather doesn't change, the seasons don't change. I've been here awhile and I haven't seen it.

[ It was just odd, it boggled logic, but that was what this place was in its core. ]

Probably not. I didn't catch as much as you, but it's bigger.

[ And gross looking. And slimey. And - yeah. He's definitely touching it last. ]

[alivian]

Strange.

[That's all there is to it. It's strange, but he's willing to take Logan's word at face value.

[Reaching out, he pokes some parts of the fish, brow furrowing (and his glare very slightly upticks in intensity.) The slimy texture definitely is... not pleasant. As soon as he pulls his touch away from it, the additional pressure vanishes.]

Want me to prep the big one? I'm curious about it.

[He honestly doesn't mind even though he has decided that he doesn't like its texture. Maybe it will actually taste decent?? And studying its anatomy will also give him a better guide as to where to stab it if he fishes with a spear.]

[educated_wish]

Be my guest.

[ Logan immediately tries to hand it over, figuratively washing his hands completely of the thing. And then literally, dipping his hands and claws into the water before retracting them. He doesn't want to get any of that nastiness into his body, thanks. He'll probably try to refuse to eat it even when prepared, too. ]

I'll get the rest. Show off a little.

cw: monster fish dissection

[alivian]

[Makes sense, given that the claws retract where they do. Still, he watches where they fade into again, and then turns to the dead, slimy, furry fish-thing in his hold. A minor sense of revulsion hits him, and he wonders if Liora would feel the same if she saw this thing.

[Checking its mouth to see if he needs to be careful of its teeth, he holds the thing by its lower jaw and shoves part of it back into the water to try to scrub off the slime and check its fur. No hidden passengers in that pelt, at least.

[Unlike how Logan has claws to work with, Alivian just has his teeth.

[Once he's satisfied enough with however slime-free it's going to get, he sets about opening up the lower part of the fish. With his teeth.

[Whatever "taste" it has doesn't even register to his tongue, thankfully, and he's able to carefully open it up the rest of the way with careful movements of his fingers.

[It stinks worse once it's opened; Alivian chalks it up to the digestive tract, and doesn't waste further time in working to prep it a little more. What scales it has are difficult to get off barehanded, though.]

Incoming stinkbomb, Logan.

[Still, he works without cease in the hopes that once it's fully prepped, it won't stink as bad.]

[educated_wish]

Ugh.

[ Logan gives the fish a Look that implies he's looking down on it for all its life choices, as these obviously led to stinking so much. Or being so ugly. Or being furry. He shakes his head and sets to work on the normal ones. ]

How can you stand that?

[alivian]

Because it's necessary. If any part of it is useful now that it's dead, it's worth giving it that chance. It could be important to this lake's ecosystem, or any number of things, while it was alive.

[Needing a different sight than the fish, Alivian looks up at Logan next, brow furrowed from being so close to the stench. It's... hard to describe.]

If I threw it away now, it would be wrong.

...Well. Unless it's somehow diseased, or it would harm us to use it. I couldn't get that sort of hint from biting it. Then again, my mouth is meant to filter out some... tastes. Don't ask.

[His mouth twitches up at the corner, and he pauses a moment to use the back of his hand to rub his nose, before sniffing some particularly stinky part in his hand and tossing it away back into the water with a hard click of his tongue. Maybe the other fish will eat it.]

Not like... tasting your blood in my mouth, at least.

[Briefly, his head flits back over to then, wrapped up in Logan with a mouth full of blood, head full of clouds, with every thought blissfully silent and his whole body singing in ways he never knew it could, and aching in new, wonderful ways. He has to take a deep breath (of stinky fish, ugh) but even that doesn't stop his skin from pricking up in gooseflesh from the memory. He shifts a little, bruised hips still aching from where Logan held him.

[Is he still into that, surprisingly? Yeah. Fuck, yeah.

[He drapes his tail over his lap. Gods, gods he's not the only one who wants to touch and be touched more, now that he knows what it's like.]

[educated_wish]

[ Why are they still naked, it isn't helping, he can see all those bruises and they're fucking appealing the way he knows he did that. He needs to wash the clothes, not prepare his own fish. But he's already gotten into one task and can't stop it. So he just takes a deep breath, shakes his head, and tries to concentrate.

Fails, but tries. ]

It could still be poison, even without being diseased to itself.

[ He doesn't ask about the blood. It's common sense it could taste off, considering what's wrong with him. ]

[alivian]

[Alivian doesn't care that they're still naked. It's better than throwing on clothes when he doesn't want to. Hopefully Logan doesn't throw his coat in the water, though. It's still clean and the notebook inside will get wrecked in the process (to say nothing of the medicine tin in the other pocket.)]

That's why the plan is to strip it of anything particularly suspect and cook the rest.

Next case scenario? Snare bait.

Worst case that it is actually poison and I'm about to eat it if it doesn't smell awful when cooked.

[Self-preservation? What's that? Don't know her.]

[educated_wish]

There's the other fish. [ Logan is dry in time when he points this out. He's efficient as he prepared them and is soon finished getting them ready to cook - he has had 200 years to practice this, after all. ] Let the guy with the healing factor eat the possible poison.

[ He doesn't need self preservation, especially when he can force it in someone else by not having it himself. ]

[alivian]

[The quip gets a reflexive eye squint in Logan's direction, but he honestly can't counter that. He lets out a little huff - like something a put-out cat would do than a wolf.]

Of course I plan on eating my share of the other fish.

[A beat, his ears slightly airplaning.]

...I don't plan on actually swallowing anything from this thing if it doesn't taste right. Hopefully, the same goes for you.