discomposer | golden peacock inbox

( Oh, he's that easy with it. Esikko smiles, eyes twinkling with the sort of pride that he doesn't know how to hold back, and allows himself a short laugh after a press of a kiss near Leo's ear. He does move, after that, to help get his pants the rest of the way off, wiggling free and shoving them aside, sloppily on the couch. )

You'll have to figure it out as you go. Like you've just found a brand new instrument, you know~?

( Is this speaking his language? He can only assume so, as he leans back in for another kiss, his body looming in and knees touching down on either side of his hips in a proper straddle. )

Do whatever you want, and I'll do the same. Like a dance, we'll figure things out quickly enough, won't we? And I'll answer more after we've had a nice time.

[ It's an attempt at it, a music analogy. A brand new instrument! Leo's the kind of annoying genius who can pick things up without trying, musically speaking. He prefers working with digital, mostly, but his first love was a piano (literally) and if it's musical he cares enough to pick it up and try it. When's the last time an instrument was different enough from everything else it took that much effort?

People are way more effort, even though Leo does think music is a universal language. Emotion and general things get across well - but the fiddly little bits that make up real people can get lost in it sometimes.

But it's cute, Leo thinks, that someone's making an effort to put it in a way he'd maybe understand. Leo doesn't think that's the why exactly - it's probably just a little bit performative, a way to stand out, but he's never minded that in other people. Leo thinks that's cute, too. Or fascinating?

Like a dance and he glances over near the wall, that particular solo penned and ready for someone not around to sing it - but then he refocuses again, hands warm on Esikko's thighs and fingers tapping again to that piano before he lets the thought of Suo fade away, too. ]

Cute. ♪ You're pretty smooth when you're doing that, huh?

[ A little bit manipulative and a little bit earnest, he thinks, slipping in music terms and setting up a scenario that Leo can recognize and finds compelling and entertaining, and Leo just got permission to do whatever he wants again and so he tests those waters by surging back up because really he can only stay semi obedient on his back for so long before he loses interest. He's pretty sure it doesn't matter how much they kiss - Esikko probably won't warm up, and normally Leo hates being cold but he figures it's fine right now. Maybe if he kisses him hard enough Leo can get Esikko on his back, is what he figures as he tries it. ]

Hehe, do you think so?

( But he's kissed again before he can fish more praise out of him. Honestly, it's nice to hear if he's coming across as "smooth" or anything close to it. After all, he started in this place with no knowledge outside of terrible, raunchy smut novels... Maybe he ended up better than he could have, in that regard.

As much as he wants to push back, to to wrestle with it, he's far more interested in the moment in seeing where Leo takes this. So, he accepts the press back, shifting slowly, carefully, and reaching his arms to wrap around Leo as he tugs him along with, even moving one leg up to run along the side of the shorter man's leg in turn.

Another hum, this one pleased and muffled by the kiss, sounds out. It's kind of fun, just messing around like this, clumsily trying things out, seeing where it'll go. And he meant it, when he said they could do anything— and that's the thrill of it, too. He has no idea what to expect, yet.

But it won't stop him from moving on his own, either, the fingers of one hand lacing through Leo's hair once he's settled onto his back enough, fingernails trailing along the side of his scalp as he goes. )

[ Flirting or dirty talk or whatever - Leo probably isn't the best judge of it, honestly. He enjoys it when people are enjoying themselves and being themselves, and even the way people act when they're trying hard not to be themselves because sometimes that's more telling. He laughingly accepts things that sound more like death threats at times and he thinks they're probably charming - his sense of "normal" never has been, and while he actually can turn on a more normal sort of charm, it's just when he bothers to lean into the usual fanservice Knights gives. He does it sometimes on a whim, but when he's being entirely honest what's actually flirting for him is always going to be more musical than it isn't.

The other stuff isn't not real, but it's different.

A different hum, a different meaning. Leo would like to somehow make those sounds physical things with weight he could pick up and pin to the walls, and he actually knows how to do that. He can break any sound down onto paper if he really thinks about it, can create notation that doesn't exist if there's a need. His left pointer finger sketches out how it'd go on Esikko's thighs, notation that won't be understandable as anything other than something specific from the methodical pattern, because Esikko probably cannot actually read music through touch the way Leo is crazy enough to be able to.

...not that anyone is weird enough to write it, but if they were he could read it.

He forgets a lot of things - names, often times - but as long as he writes down music he'll remember it. It's why it's fine if he writes it on his own skin or someone else's to wash off, or on walls or the floor. As long as he's written it, it exists and he can recall it. So now he has that second hum down forever, and then he annotates the second in nothing more than the same pressure of a warm finger writing on cold skin, trailing up Esikko's thigh in distracted exploration.

He wants more sounds to memorize, so the next time he needs a breath Leo goes about seeking them out. Different kisses in different places should yield various results - everyone always seems to have different likes and dislikes and reactions, and while there's significant overlap in some areas there's not much at all in others. Figuring out what people don't like is less fun than the opposite, but being too worried about that gets nowhere.

Still, he usually is at least a little bit gentle as he figures out the boundaries. So when he nips under Esikko's jaw it's not enough to draw blood or anything, but more the first tuning of a piano. Like that? Less? He listens. ]

( If reactions and sounds are all Leo needs, then perhaps this is a good match after all. Esikko isn't shy about letting his reactions be known, openly and honestly— he only gasps when those kisses hit the right spot, that tender area along his neck, just beneath his jaw and close to his earlobes. The area around his ears seems sensitive in particular, in a nice way, a little less so near his collarbone. The true favorite spot is his navel, but no one's really figured that one out yet.

When something isn't going the exact way he wants, he pushes for it. Greedy hands pull Leo closer when he wants more, which is just what he does in response to that graze of teeth, as small as it is. He breathes out a little laugh, in the midst of it, eyes sparkling even while half-lidded, hips stretching up in an arch of his back that shows clearly that he wants more. He does try to keep his more embarrassing sounds lower, by habit, by embarrassment, he'll find soon enough... but it's just as ease to press a little further and tease them right out.

There doesn't seem to be anything that he doesn't like in this, at least not now, at least not in sight. And it's not that those things don't exist; it's that Leo is so far from them it doesn't matter.

He hooks his leg around the back of Leo's hips to draw him closer still, his face tilting up and to the side to allow for more of that attention, that adoration, content to be spoiled. )

[ He's good at playing chess. Leo is, he can actually casually beat down people who actually play chess except he obfuscates the wins because he thinks it'll just be a bad feeling to be a sole winner like that with the game ending. So when he sees checkmate he makes up stupid rules and messes around like a kid who doesn't know what he's doing, but when he's serious, he's good at chess. He can pick up musical instruments he's never touched and figure them out just by playing around with them. The quality that helps with those things, with similar things, is observation skills he pretends he doesn't have half of the time (neatly hidden behind his disinterest in anything that isn't his current focus and temperamental whimsy) and a sort of patience to try things from any angle until he gets the sound just right.

So he has fun doing this, learning how to make someone happy in a way that means open affection and physical touch. Sound and body language and anything people say are spread out like a composition he has to rearrange, and the fiddly work of shifting everything around to make something entirely new is always, always rewarding.

So, more pressure. He's allowed to bite down, and so he does and wonders briefly if blood from someone who uses blood magic tastes different or something? He still has no idea what's up with that and that means he can still make up a billion stories to himself to chase after and try to figure out. It's nice to have open feedback he can read, even if years of dealing with Sena have made it easier to figure out how to read feedback that's all between the lines of the stuff yelled openly.

A laugh in a lower key than his own, traced onto Esikko's hip this time because Leo thinks it's pretty and that's the fastest way for him to keep it in mind and he hasn't been scolded yet for tracing symbols like that.

Seems like right at the jaw is good but he figures out the nearer the ears faster and decides to suck a mark there to tease it out more. It's kind of a lazy speed to be doing things at, but if he goes breakneck Leo thinks he'll miss things that matters, and he doesn't want to do that.

He tries to find the right pitch against Esikko's skin, humming back the second happier note like that's a normal thing people do. The pitch is perfect. ]

( It's odd, for sure, completely unique and not like anyone else. But isn't that what's fun about it? Exciting, maybe? The sound plays out against his skin and he laughs a little at it, almost like a tickle— it doesn't, but something about it does, in his heart? He doesn't know what that is, but it's warm, so he doesn't really care to stop and think about it for long, either. Just accepts that it's nice, takes it, presses on.

Blood, if his skin is broken, is his own kind of unique. The second even the smallest bit of it breaks skin, the floral scent is heavy and prominent, like lavender and chrysanthemum all at once. It's also unnaturally cold, worse than even his skin. Likely the cause of it, in fact. It tastes as floral as it smells, the Divinity laced through it causing that.

The lazy pace isn't bad at all, but Esikko isn't the most patient of men. He tilts his head back a little, arches his back so that they touch in more places, and wraps his arms around him, clawing at his back, dragging fingers to draw him closer. )

Having fun? ( Quietly, amused, and because he genuinely wonders if this is what Leo wanted, if it's something he's enjoying. Because he wants to be, of course, because that's what makes him enjoy it the most, too. Being wanted. )

[ Interesting, weird. Leo bit just hard enough, but he doesn't ask about the taste or temperature for a wonder, even if he draws back slightly because he's a little bit startled and also because Esikko speaks and he wants to watch his mouth. His tongue runs over his own lips as he hums another note, happy enough to be rushed but also not really speeding up because he hasn't been outright scolded about it yet and even though Leo's hard and he gets impatient sometimes, other times he's like this: laser focused on following each and every little new note.

His lips quirk up in a fond smile, at the question. ]

I'm not faking right now. [ I could doesn't get said; it isn't like Leo doesn't lie sometimes, although it's always the kind where he shifts the stuff he's feeling to the side and out of sight behind a smile or an act from the past. He rarely lies outright without genuinely serious reason. But he has lied or not told the entire truth during sex sometimes, rearranging his own tune to fit the listener because he liked them enough to try to tamp down the things about him that are too much or don't fit. ] If you wanna play games, shouldn't you have to learn the rules, too?

[ It's lightly teasing, even though Leo actually will just honestly answer anything he's asked by Esikko just because he thinks that'll be more entertaining than anything else. And so far nothing he's said has really bothered the guy. ]

So pay~ attention~ already~? I'm memorizing everything about you, so keep up, okay? If you catch me in a lie I'll fess up, but if you don't I won't. ☆ [ He slips further down, but it's on purpose this time, apparently still planning to do whatever he wants unless told otherwise because he is having fun. ]

I'm gonna blow you, by the way. ♪ Does that taste different too? Let's find out~.

[ Even saying so, he's taking his fucking time about it, because Leo's still actually doing what he said he was and memorizing the tune on his way down. There's things he wants to know, so he tests them out one after the other, openly experimenting to find the correct path: is the collarbone sensitive? Nipples usually are, but are they when tweaked or with teeth or tongue laved over them? But he's not really sticking to the obvious, either. Fingers ghost down Esikko's sides to find weak points when Leo reaches his abdomen, and he wastes time on his navel for a second because he thinks it's interesting there's proof of being born a human like anyone from their mother when Esikko tastes like something else entirely in the blood.

But he is working down with some kind of lazy purpose, ignoring his own arousal as distracting and irrelevant for the moment. ]

( Another laugh is exhaled out from Esikko, eyes sharp and half obscured by the dip of his own lashes, studying Leo as he lowers himself down his body. Blow him, huh? A nice, relaxing time without too much effort is always fun— being spoiled is fun, getting attention is fun, so of course he likes the sound of it.

But it's right around his navel, his abdomen, where the chain of a navel piercing hangs around his waist like a fancy little crown of the waist, that he slips his fingers up further into Leo's hair, gripping tight and tugging enough so that he's forced to pause. Eye contact is all he wants, in this moment, the muscles of his abdomen still tense from the attention, his face a little heated. )

I'm the one who makes the rules, you know? Leo. If there's any I don't like, I'll change them.

( Just like that, his fingers release, an almost soothing run of them through red locks following as he arches his back a little, encouraging the attention and the mapping of his body on the way down. He's impatient, and he's getting hard just from this, but that's part of the fun. He likes those little tingles, the chases of excitement that run through every inch of him. Even in a sex resort, he still hasn't fully gotten over the novelty of being touched. )

I am paying attention, though, to be clear. It's a nice view of you, like this.

( Like a Knight kneeling before a King? A Prince? Haha. Laughable, really, with how much he hates that stupid title— his fingers dance along the edge of Leo's ear, light and tracing, but otherwise content to lay here selfishly and take some attention for a bit. It's good to know if Leo is the type to chase his own needs, after all, or if he really does just find this enough. )

[ He's not going to struggle against that hold, anyway. Leo already said earlier he liked that kind of rough handling - he thinks, he doesn't remember or care - and while his eyes widen there's no other immediate reaction as he tamps whatever it is down because he's more interested in listening and sometimes that means he'll keep quiet so he doesn't miss anything

Though he's chatty, and it takes some effort to stop that. He leans into the touch as it goes slack and then away, then blinks. ]

That's fine. I'm no longer the tyrant King of those wartorn Knights, after all. So my orders aren't absolute now, are they? [ He slips into it when he needs to or when people ask him to, here. Pulling on that old rusty and bloodstained armor isn't difficult in the sense that he can play the part perfectly, but it's hardly something he enjoys - he never liked it back then either. ]

Still, you're not my King, so I don't have to listen if I don't wanna. ☆ Probably I would anyway, but for different reasons. [ He says this like he'd even listen to Tsukasa if he didn't feel like it, which Leo absolutely wouldn't. Sena has the right of it: Leo is sometimes more like an unruly pet than anything else, beholden to whatever he feels at any given moment.

He's curious about the navel piercing so he goes back to that, tugging on it with his teeth for a second but fairly gentle; bleh, metal - and his hands go down further to deal with barrier there.

He does like being watched. When Leo's actively doing something, he has an easier time not getting totally distracted, although there's always a part of him two seconds away from dropping everything to compose. It's happened during sex before, and it probably will again.

It happens less when he hasn't done anything in a while, though. ]

( He's a little like a cat, like this, isn't he? Going where he pleases, trying things and snubbing them just as quickly... The thought crosses his mind only for a moment, because the attention to his skin is ultimately winning him over. The tug, even if short, is enough to make him suck in a breath that's sighed out just moments later as Leo moves lower still. A lazy approach, it turns out, is rather nice when you're someone who does enjoy getting a little frustrated in their own impatience. The longer he watches him, the more he wonders what's next, the more he tries to predict it, tries to see where his fingers are moving, where his eyes will flick next, but—

This guy is a little unpredictable? It's fascinating, exciting, a little, interesting, frustrating... He squirms a little in his impatience, legs sliding against the slide of Leo wherever they can touch to add to the sensations he's feeling, the desire for intensity. )

Mm... I don't want to be a King, anyway, really.

( Distracted, curving his fingers behind Leo's ear to run though his hair, trailing to the end of it. )

You certainly take your time, don't you?

With stuff that matters I do. [ Music, things he likes, people he's interested in. Leo is impatient and flighty at times, but when he's focused on something he devotes himself to it. More than once when he's gone missing he's been found surrounded by scattered papers, working on one song endlessly for days without ceasing just to get it perfect. People sometimes don't expect that side of him because the casual, whimsical part is louder and easier to spot, but it isn't like anyone is ever all just one thing.

The reaction to the piercing thing is noted, catalogued, and queued up for later exploration once in mixing and matching, but for now Leo lets it slip by with nothing more than a glint of amused intrigue. ]

What do you wanna be, Ikko? Besides wanted. [ Again, Leo's grasp on pillow talk is tenuous and seems to mostly consist of saying and asking whatever the hell he likes as he does whatever the hell he likes. This time he's tugging down and off clothes so he can bite again, this time on a cold thigh. He wants to leave marks, apparently. ]

( What does he want to be?

Useful. Worth something. Remembered. Are those all part of "wanted?" He's never had a long term goal besides power, because he's never had a long term to work with. And so as he tries to come up with an answer that doesn't sound pathetic, he finds himself struggling, all coming to a head when that bite at his thigh earns a surprised gasp. )

Ah— well, it doesn't really matter, does it? Is this supposed to get me in the mood?

( It's a bit of a snap, huffy, a little grumpy, but it's because it's a delicate topic, because he doesn't want to appear pathetic. But his eyes slide to the side in his little grumble, indicating that it's not like he means to aim any sort of actual pointed jab at Leo himself. There's nothing wrong with this aimless talking, even if it's... not the sexiest.

It's still intimate, in a way. Trying to get to know him like that, and it's clear he's getting a little flushed from the feeling of a thigh hickey. And after a moment, with a stolen glance back, he adds on: )

I want to be better at magic, I suppose...

( Not exactly an answer. )

Aren't you already in the mood? I never say anything with that kinda aim anyway. [ Well, he doesn't think he does usually...? Leo is usually pretty direct about hitting on someone by his own standards, he thinks, but he supposes it could seem circumspect or odd to other people. Or sometimes just normal things he says, meaningless, could be taken wrongly. A careless tongue that traces the bite mark as he talks into Esikko's skin, still watching and listening and openly curious.

This whole time his gaze has been utterly devoid of judgement. There's still none there to be found. Even if it seemed pathetic Leo probably wouldn't think that; he's quick to say he hates or loves things and people but the way he views people overall has never been anything other than kind at the heart of it beyond the playacting and mixed honesty and lying masks. ]

It matters 'cause I wanna know, but it's not like you have to be honest. I'll listen to lies and deflections, too, as long as you're saying them in that voice. ♪ Sometimes lies and things people don't say are more honest than the truth is, anyway.

[ Philosophical or teasing or what? Leo's smile is somewhere between soft and carefree, but his fingers are warm and certain as they close around Esikko, too light a grip mostly on purpose. ]

Hey, tell me about the first spell you ever did.

( How is it that he manages to come across as both confident and clueless? It's something of a talent, Esikko thinks, and crossed with the warm feeling of fingers wrapping around him, it's driving him a little crazy. Not necessarily in a bad way, either...

He likes that request, of course. To talk about the thing he's passionate about, the thing he's spent every lifetime focusing on— he wants to. But it's different, the way he embraces his passion compared to Leo. Leo seems to be fine with stopping everything to write on whatever he can at the time and get it out of him. Esikko finds it vulnerable, finds it a little scary, to voice things that he has a great interest in at the risk of them shutting it down like everyone so often does...

Mrgh. He doesn't want to get too wrapped up in thoughts, doesn't want to worry when he's dealing with the tension of a growing arousal and Leo teasing him with a too gentle grip. )

The first spell... Wasn't anything impressive or anything, you know.

( His embarrassment crosses through, in him explaining like that, though his tone also carries weight, like leaning over a railing. He stretches himself a little, pressing his hips up, interested in more. Any more attention that he gets leads to falters in his breath, little pauses, and the like, but he speaks all the same: )

In the gardens of the palace, I used magic to grow a flower. I hadn't grasped what my best method for using it was, just yet, so I drew the patterns in the soil, and I placed offerings, lit candles... but the most that grew was a tiny sapling that withered away within the hour.

Edited 2025-01-14 06:01 (UTC)

You don't think that's impressive? Hm. So Ikko's one of those guys who thinks that it's gotta be big and flashy to impress! I see. [ That is overtly teasing, gentle though it is, but Leo isn't trying to shut down a conversation he opened. His grip does tighten in response to either the movement or the honesty, but he won't clarify which. Maybe it's both. ]

We'll disagree, 'cause the first tiny step is always, in retrospect, the biggest one you ever took. Don't you think? [ His first love was a piano in a music shop. Leo's insane about passions in a distinctly offbeat way, and he thinks he hears something like devotion in a quiet little story about a dying flower. He likes it. The weird intimacy, the distracting conversation, is something he falls into easily and earnestly.

But it's not like he's totally forgotten what he's doing. ]

What type of flower? [ It's asked against Esikko's thighs still but then he shifts in the same lazy and focused way so his breath is more against Esikko's dick like he's debating asking for a magical lecture while blowing him which he. Is. Earlier he got told to earn it but he asks anyway: ]

Wanna see how coherently you can teach me about it while I do this? [ Brightly said, and he does intend to listen if it's agreed to. ]

Don't say it like that...

( Mumbled, at the first part, his hand finally allows Leo's hair to slip free from his fingers completely, running his palm back up and over his own stomach just shortly afterwards. This is getting trickier, trying to focus on this conversation, on being perceived the way he wants to be, and on the blooming sensations of warmth against sensitive skin. )

I— it was a camellia... A red one. Or it was supposed to be. It never even bloomed.

( The idea of trying to focus on explaining magic while he gets blown is both nice and not, somehow— it's embarrassing?! It sounds like he'll just mess up telling it a bunch of times, and that puts Leo on top, doesn't it? He doesn't want to just roll over like that.

Even if he did like, literally just roll over, it's different. )

You're just trying to learn about it in an easy way, aren't you? Mm. ( A pause, half to suck in a breath at the one ghosted against his dick, and half to contemplate. ) I can tell you about the method I found works best for me, if you want. My blood.

[ Instead of the "yes" that was probably expected, that absolutely is bubbling up through his veins, when Leo opens his mouth again he says instead: ]

A noble death. [ Never bloomed and wilted - they're similar enough. Leo knows that flowers mean different things in different cultures on Earth, however much overlap there is. How different is the meaning in another world entirely? There's some things that seem to overlap, technology and cultures that match almost exactly or that have one specific linchpin that changes so many other things - it's fascinating, and yet despite knowing it might mean nothing he doesn't really explain it fully. It's just a quiet statement. If his gaze was any less intent it could almost be something said idly, but instead it ends up being one of those things he says like he's trying to pull off someone's skin to see the what their organs look like underneath, seemingly focused on something beyond the words he's listening to even as he drinks them in.

He's been accused of not seeing people like humans when he's like this, once or twice. But Leo thinks maybe it's the opposite thing entirely: he thinks people probably don't like being seen as human, when being seen like that often means seeing all the ugly, grasping bits of people even when they don't want them seen.

He still can't see any of it as ugly. ]

Love and devotion unrealized. [ Because that's for blooming, isn't it? Well, Esikko probably doesn't actually care about this, maybe? Leo knows he gets distracted all the time, and he ends up smiling and managing to get back on task without being ordered around for once. ]

Yeah, I wanna know. You can quiz me later if you want! [ Why he's making some reassurance he's gonna pay attention is really only known to Leo himself, but then he decides as abruptly as anything else to actually get back on topic with the promise of Esikko having to talk to him through it. Which is maybe the other half of the reason why he asked.

His mouth is at least as warm as his hands, and he's not shy about it, licking a curious and testing strip up the side before mouthing the head of it. ]

( Esikko knows flower language better than anyone he's ever met. To him, the feeling comes naturally with the flower, with the plant, a variety of symbolism that he can't escape. While he hadn't chosen the flower with any intention more than it being pretty when he was a child, the irony hadn't escaped him, it's true. But he's shocked, actually, to hear anyone reference it at all to him.

And so it makes him pause a bit, catches him off guard and leaves him unsure of what to say for longer than he realizes, until the warmth of a wet tongue is dragging up alongside his growing arousal in a casual lick, sparking a sensation through him that earns a surprised little breath.

Right, he'd forgotten where he was, for a moment. )

Ah, right. Everyone can do magic, but it's like art and science combined. To find how it works best for you, you...

( This is both harder and easier than he thought it would be. It's easy when he gets into a ramble, focused and a little excited to share, to have someone who cares enough to listen, but then falling into that so much makes the touch of lips around the head of his dick that much more noticeable. Warm, soft, enough to make him want to squirm, when he really wants to make Leo earn those little noises. His breath hitches, for a moment, and then he continues. )

Well, you have to find it yourself. There are methods that can run in family lines, but it's no guarantee, and the practice has fallen out, so it was even more difficult to discover books from that time.

( He watches Leo as he works, his own breaths deepening as he does. Is this really enough? To just blow him and listen to him... yap...?? )

I had tried so many methods, but I finally was able to find the books my father hid away. It's blood magic that works well for my family, so that's what I tried, and it worked for me, too.

[ Whatever warnings Hiyori gave out definitely did not encompass any of this, did they? Esikko had mentioned that Hiyori said Leo wouldn't be dull, which is admittedly the one thing he reliably usually isn't, but "he isn't dull" probably did not adequately prepare Esikko for the whiplash of being cheerfully called out for something that felt like a hidden insult shifting to ranting about music or magic or passion shifting to outright threats and amused warnings to at least a dozen other things before Leo'd ended up casually throwing out something that finally completely threw him. Leo notices it but doesn't really understand it - he doesn't think anything of analyzing the symbolism of something out loud.

You need to be comfortable with symbolism and literary themes when you write music day in and out, and while Leo definitely wouldn't know every single flower, he knows enough about flower language to call it up to use in music at a need or to debate what this or that flower or color or anything else might be in an art piece with Shu, who's still the most fun person Leo's ever met to argue loudly about such things with. Nearly everything Leo knows can be connected back like that - something useful for composing, something that can help him analyze the works of other musicians, something he thinks would make a wonderful framework for a story in a song.

He's not sure what it was about saying it aloud that got to Esikko at all, but it doesn't matter that much in the moment. Instead, Leo pictures camellias and that's the click that slides it into place in his mind. The hook through his stomach that he never bothers to try to escape as the melody spirals out before him, more defined and less something at the edge of his hearing.

There's a song. There's more than one song. There's always gonna be a million possibilities, and he can only grasp so many with his tiny human brain, which is the absolute worst thing in existence, because for every song finally born into his thoughts and out through ink stained fingers there's another one (another billion) that die as he's working on the first.

There's a song, though, and he even already has some phrasing flickering through his mind. It flows along to the sound of a low voice that's trying to be all controlled, and Leo thinks cute but he can't toss that out when his mouth is full so Esikko is spared another total switch of tone and topic because Leo with his mouth otherwise occupied means Leo not interrupting and throwing them bodily down some other conversational path.

It's easier not to go a thousand miles away when what he's composing is still beneath him, inspiration not yet gone. So he's still in the moment enough to keep memorizing the sound and what he's being told. Makes a mental note to ask about what other methods as he casually and easily takes Esikko in further with no sign of difficulty. A gag reflex isn't an issue he's ever had, and the previous mental notes have his left hand smoothing over the hickey he'd left on Esikko's thigh as Leo looks up at him, working it out.

Like with before, kissing, he takes his time. What pace gets a hitch of breath, or if he presses his tongue here or swallows then can he make Esikko lose his place? Anything that doesn't have one of those minute positive reactions he's intent on is placed aside, and anything negative thrown out, but there's that tenacious and utterly focused kind of energy he only ever gets for music or this which means that Leo's entire focus is Esikko. It's exactly as intense and crushing as he said it would be, but it should be fine, right? ]

It's not this... instant sort of thing, like so many people here think, or how so many people here can do it. It takes work and time, and planning, and creating and undoing...

( The attention is intense. It's the sort of intense he craves, like water to a dehydrated plant, but it's embarrassing all the same, turning his cheeks and ears a little pink as he struggles to keep calm and collected. It's easier when he's the one in control of things, and so that's normally what he defaults to, for his pride— but this place has opened him up to a lot more, and he's learned that it's worth it to suffer a little embarrassment for the sake of the reward that comes after.

Leo can swallow him surprisingly well. His eyes trace his face as he does, feeling the heat pooled in the pit of his stomach tightening, twisting, and resisting the urge to buck his hips upwards impatiently, seeking out more instant gratification rather than the slow build. But the slow build is nicer, even if it's hard to allow for himself, and so he shifts his legs a little to make up for it, hooking one of them around Leo as if to keep him close. )

There are things like magic circles to learn, as bases, but then you just need the materials, the setup, and in blood magic blood acts as a sort of fuel or energy. It became increasingly difficult, since I was born... ill, but—

( He can feel Leo's warm breath against him, especially when he takes him in as close as that, and he hooks his leg tighter to make up for the burning desire to press in deeper still, to completely give in. He exhales out in a soft hiss, an attempt to hold back the groan that wants to slip free, and lifts an arm to rest over his head, like the stretch of his body might help the feelings. )

I can use any blood as a base. ( Even though his blood is Special, technically... That's his secret. For now, anyway. )

[ Composing a spell and composing a song do sound similar, don't they? Even if the end result is wildly different and the details don't quite match up - but the time and planning and effort of putting something down and then realizing it isn't quite right or doesn't properly work and then adjusting it incrementally again and again as you undo things to redo them better until you reach the nearest possible thing to perfection - that matches up, doesn't it?

Never as effortless as it seems, but always worth it by the end.

Leo's got breath control down to an art. Not the kink - he likes it, sure, but usually done on him - but the thing you learn when you're someone who sings professionally on stage while dancing around a lot. It has alternative applications, even though Hiyori seemed kind of offended when Leo flippantly mentioned them. Namely: he's really good at timing his breathing properly regardless of what activity he's engaging in, he has a better than decent lung capacity and can go without a breath long enough for the complicated dance moves and solos he has to work through live all the time, and he's good at not panicking through it.

It helps him out a lot when he's actively starting to deepthroat someone. There's a considering hum as he thinks about asking to see a spell base sometime, but again he holds off his own questions. Just for now. Just for a bit. He'll bother Esikko with all of them later, probably, off and on.

Then, because he remembered his own little mental promise earlier, his right index finger is back up to play with the navel piercing, toying with it before he actually yanks a little. Careful precision because he doesn't wanna actually yank it out. ]

Words... are incredibly important in magic, too. Words and shapes. When I draw something out, it's like writing— each shape carries a different meaning or purpose, and you connect them with the typical connectors to form something like a sentence...

( He's beginning to struggle to know what to go on about, and that's how he knows that Leo is getting to him. He would never run out of things to say about magic. He could ramble about it, excitedly, for hours at a time, for days if given the chance. But right now, it's rising warmth and focused affection without so much as a falter, and Esikko breathes in deeply to appreciate it, tiny squirms trying to relieve the tension that's building. )

The tone of a word can mean a huge difference, even if it's the same magic term. A plant blooming, or dried up roots, for example. It— ah—

( The yank of his belly button piercing after careful toying earns a surprised little gasp, met with the smallest lift of his hips. It means he's pressing himself further into Leo's mouth without any consideration for the rhythm he's set up, and that's enough to earn another little groan from him. Magic, magic, he got the gist of it out, didn't he? And he can expand on so much more later, when he has more focus, more time, less distraction. Right now, he wants to chase this feeling, this warmth, this attention. )

It's... important. ( What had he been saying? Ugh. )

[ Don't laugh with your mouth full, Leo has to remind himself. It would just make this all awkward although there's a stuttered movement of his tongue as he as to suppress it, a warmer huff of air through his nose as his body tries anyway. That little It's important with a distracted flush as Esikko loses his train of thought entirely, like Leo could actually keep playing an entire piece on the piano through someone blowing him. But hypocrisy is fine when it looks and sounds like this, he thinks.

There's no reason to mind the rhythm being messed up because there's never one steady thread for sex. It's give and take and push and pull and stops and starts and Leo gives every sign of enjoyment for it, because a pretty groan and thrusting up is enough to make him groan with it, and he knows he's grinding his own hips down into the couch but he's not bothering to touch himself besides that absent minded movement. It doesn't matter right now. He's focusing on Esikko instead of himself which...is...isn't he the one with a mark that's darker, yes, but Leo likes to edge things out because it's fun and dangerous and because he'd rather see someone else fall apart at least three quarters of the time.

He's still trying to see how rough. He's slept with a few people who don't mind the slightest scrape of teeth like this but it's always kind of a dangerous trick - something barely there, and pulling back if that's bad, but experimental defines a lot of what he does. And Esikko liked some of the other rough stuff. ]

You...

( Still trying, Esikko moves his arm to drape over his own eyes, as if that might help cover the expressions he's starting to make. Leo's groan rumbles from around him, and that combined with the scrape of teeth, subtle as it is, has his body shuddering. It's almost too much, from the way his breath almost hisses out, but then he rocks his hips up again, free hand grasping to find Leo, to find his hair, something to grab onto. It's taking every bit of self control to not flip them onto the floor and start fucking into him, but he's trying to be... reasonable. Patient. )

You get the idea.

( He's done explaining. )

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

sorry for the delays/inconsistency!!

no worries! b4 I 4get, would you mind a late tag to that plant horror log?

I would love a late tag there!!

great, I wanted to get further in here before asking but had it open last month

yay no worries! I am catching up on my inbox slowly tonight so it's good timing

I'm doing tags until sleep claims me, then a round of tag outs tmrw

cheering us on thru tag rounds

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject