citynet | text, un: gautier, cw: some references to alcohol use and sexual content

Everyone seems to be quite excitable about it, and you've earned yourself an acquaintance. So perhaps not all is lost.

[ this is his positive spin on 'well what's new about it then.' ]

Can I help in any way?

yeah actually you can where are you i'll meet you

[ oh. hm. ]

I'll just meet you. Are you at the laundromat still?

yeah

yeah i am. i'll wait for you.

I'll be there.

Do you want me to bring you anything on the way?

just yourself

Alright.

[ he arrives shortly into the laundromat. dimitri is dressed casually, not in sweats for once. he's taking his rest day from working out seriously. ]

Sylvain?

Hey, Dimitri.

[He looks around. Is the coast clear?]

...

[The coast does seem to be clear, so, he pulls Dimitri into a hug, he might need a hug right now, he's getting a hug.]

Oh. Um -

[ okay. they're hugging. it kind of takes a beat for dimitri to reciprocate, but it's not because he doesn't want to, more like he was surprised. ]

- what happened? [ maybe they'll start there. ]

I don't even know where to begin, Dimitri.

[A lot happened! This has been a wild 100+ comment adventure and now he's stuck rethinking a few things!]

I really don't.

[The hug's nice, though. It's familiar(ish, do they really hug all that often?), calming.]

People think I'm nice. [It's really weird.]

[ huh! they are Still Hugging. this doesn't seem to be normal? now it's awkward, and dimitri is Concernicus. sylvain wouldn't do this in garreg mach, guaranteed, and they didn't even do it when his brother died, so ... well, to be fair on that last point, it wouldn't hurt if they did. so ... so ... ?!??! ]

... Well ... I have always said you are capable of being good. It's nice that other people here are seeing that as well.

It helps that you haven't done ... what you are normally famous for in Garreg Mach here. You're a blank slate to them, and since you continue to be on your best behaviour, this is all that you are to them.

I'm not saying this is bad, by the way - I am grateful that you're here. And being nice and helping out others is always good. We are making the best of a situation we didn't choose to be in, in our own ways. Your best is helping people and making them happy. That is admirable, and deserves to be noted.

[ there's a beat, and then he asks, rather uncertain, ] Sylvain?

[ golden retriever is alarmed and licking your face kind of voice. people don't normally go to the prince for hugs. and while dimitri is hug-shaped, he is also not-hug-shaped. he's not going to pull away, but he does stiffen a little bit. ]

[Whoa, okay, he can feel his prince stiffening a bit-]

I actually flirted with a few women here and there. Didn't really go anywhere, though, but, point being: my best behavior's only so good.

[-anyway, letting go.]

-but on the other hand, I've had people look out for me when there's no benefit for them, and it's not like I've got my status to lean on here, and it's strange, Dimitri. It makes a guy think, you know? Probably think too much considering it's a strange city in a strange place, and none of this really applies to Faerghus.

[ he wants to tell him: it's strange to him because that's never been his experience in gautier. care is about as foreign to him as it is for dimitri in some ways. but saying that out loud makes it too sad. it's like when he accidentally said the quite part out loud about what's sad about their existences the first time they came here, and while it's true, it hurts to be spoken out loud. dimitri didn't need to lay it out for him, sylvain doesn't need to tell him how awful gautier can be - he heard his brother talk to him in the tower, after all - and sylvain doesn't need to hear how his uncle and cornelia are like in fhirdiad. he is a very selfish prince, and he notes that with sadness.

dimitri is happy enough to be released. he shrugs when sylvain talks about flirting with women. ]

My problem regarding your vices was your lack of moderation, not that they existed in the first place. I'm not the Archbishop.

[ he knows he's let go of him, but it was nice to be warm. he stays close with him, like a child - ]

We could have Faerghus become like the best of this city, without the burden imposed by the Crests. People could live lives that aren't measured by whether the goddess has gifted their family a boon, or not. You and I would be sons in families that would find other reasons to squabble about beyond names and titles and power.

It is an ambitious dream that I would like to see in my lifetime. [ he's not going to say it's his burden, because, well. they've had that talk already. ]

... anyway, if you're done here, you can come back to the apartment with me? [ dimitri sighs. ] I decided to meet you here instead of having you come back, because I was hoping I could tidy up before you returned. I made a mess in the kitchen in an attempt to follow a recipe .... I opened all the windows after I set off a loud alarm. I'm sure by the time we return it'd smell less like smoke. [ HASTILY ADDING THIS, he can laugh, he's figured out how to set off alarms in their place. ] And quieter.

Otherwise, if you need anything else from me here, I have nothing but time.

Edited 2023-07-16 16:36 (UTC)

[Sylvain wants to say...he's not sure what. He wants to say something, though. There's something he wants to ask, or do, or think, or feel, and if he has enough time he'd just...figure out what it is. Whatever it is.

But Dimitri keeps talking, and, much like marches back home, helps them find their way to steadier ground once more. It's reassuring, to the point in which he laughs, a little disbelieving, at the end.]

Smoke?

[He doesn't quite hug Dimitri again, but he does turn and sling an arm around his shoulders like they do this all the time. Which...

They didn't in Faerghus. Not exactly. Gustave would've chewed him out if he disrespected the prince that much, that blatantly, and after...well. Anyway, might as well make up for lost time, yeah?]

Sure, no sense in hanging around here. I'll help you clean. How bad is it?

I believe my culinary creation is a lost cause, [ dimitri says, shaking his head. ] So it's just a matter of ... tidying up the rest of the things I used.

[ it doesn't often happen that someone puts an arm around him. and he can say there hasn't been a lot of instances in the school year for it to happen - even the first day wasn't as jovial, with all of his classmates falling in line despite his encouragement of asking them to call him by his name, something he had insisted on because it was proper, but also, because it felt less lonely in doing it. that sylvain would be the one to do it here is fitting, perhaps, but he also can't help but wonder how he wouldn't do this back home.

he thinks, briefly, of shoving off his arm. he had to fight his good breeding to do it. the result is dimitri reaching up to brush his fingers against his, briefly against the inside of his wrist, before he pulls his hand away and shoves it in his pocket instead.

he glances at sylvain with a smile. ]

How was your day? [ seems like it was rather interesting. ]

[He expects Dimitri to shrug off his arm, as he usually does; he thinks Dimitri's about to, and then his prince...doesn't. Dimitri smiles at him, instead. And Sylvain smiles back, though it dims a little at the question, before becoming...not something sad, something wry, well aware that pretty much all of what happened was his fault.]

Well.

[Well. Where to begin.]

I feel like a lot happened, even though I'm pretty sure not that much actually happened. Confusing. Confusing's a good word for it, I think. Short version is that I found a drunk guy and I felt like I couldn't just leave him here, and kicking up a fuss on the network was the quickest way to find someone who could take care of him, so...

[...yeah.]

... 'Confusing'?

[ huh. not the kind of thing he was expecting from sylvain. ] I know you'd mentioned he was drunk ... was he rude to you? Do I have to talk to him?

[ concernicus! dimitri looks at him expectantly. he'll make a drunk man apologize, just let him at 'em. ]

No- I mean, I guess you can? Midnight was pretty nice. Friendly. Might be too much for you - he was almost too much for me. He-

[Sylvain looks around. Is there anyone around? Anyone at all? Besides Dimitri.

...they seem to be alone.]

Hugged me?

[???]

In a drunk, friendly way, I guess, but I never would've called myself a hug person. Well, at least, not unless it's leading into something else, Dimitri.

[Wink- okay, maybe now's not the time for that sort of joke. Also, disregard the earlier hug, disregard the current drape, that's different.]

I kinda feel like I'm lying to everyone.

[ he's lucky they're friends. dimitri raises an eyebrow in disbelief when he winks at him, because - he hugged him, and he's currently draped on him right now, is there an expectation there? smh. dimitri just shakes his head.

but he thinks about what sylvain says, and how he phrased it, which he finds worrisome, though dimitri frets about everything. he's glad, all things considered, that the problem was resolved amiably, although it was obviously awkward for sylvain, which he is sorry about. but the rest of it - ]

You are the only person who can know who you are, and who you wish to be.

I know it's a bit rich, coming from me, but I think you're overthinking it. [ he says this to him gently. ] And I think you're being too harsh to yourself, when you say it like that. You have your faults, but that's not all that you are - nor is it all that you will ever be.

You're right - I'm not just a collection of faults, I'm a handsome collection of faults. [This is said brightly, firmly, like this is the big takeaway from what Dimitri had told him and he's inspired by the realization that he's a collection of faults in a pretty package, but then...Sylvain laughs. A little shivering laugh.]

Sorry, sorry, I had to. [Arm squeeze!] Thanks, really. You're the only person who really gets me here, for better and for worse.

Where did the handsome come from? That wasn't anywhere near my statement.

[ just kidding. also, don't worry. he's going to - what can he do that won't kill sylvain, his equivalent of disagreeing and arm-squeezing and so on - okay, he's going to shake his head in great disappointment yet again. ]

But it seems like this encounter really affected you, if we're back to your terrible jokes. [ dimitri looks at him thoughtfully, staring at him askance in a way that at least makes his blue eyes less intense at him. ] Do you need to take your mind off things? Want to go somewhere else and kill time before we head back? I'm sure the cleaning can wait.

[ yes, he'll postpone chores for him if it means he'll feel better. ]

[...he's so tempted to take shameless advantage of this.]

...how bad's the mess?

[It might gnaw at him. The mess? It might bother him. He might need to clean it.]

Oh, er - [ dimitri frowns as he tries to remember how badly he'd done in the kitchen, which is hard because he wanted to Block It Out. ]

- well, two of our pots have black char at the bottom, and there's several containers around. [ glancing quickly at his face - ] But I put all of them into the sink, and I wiped down the counter and the stove? So it's ... not too messy, I don't think, it's just that they're all piled up in the sink at the moment.

[ is that ... ok? .... ]

[Okay, he's nodding, he's envisioning it, he's imagining the damage, not too bad, not bad at all. It's workable.]

Let's grab some snacks on the way back and then see how bad things are. [Knight girding himself for battle, let's go.]

It's good to have nice things for yourself - especially after your hard work trying to help someone.

[ dimitri remembers something and briefly tells him - ] I saw a different kind of snack in this one store I went in. It was a chocolate bar, of some sort. The chocolate covered a mixture of granola with nuts and seeds, and it had a chewy centre.

[ a PERFECT mix of textures for him. ] We should try it.

text, un: gautier, cw: some references to alcohol use and sexual content

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whacks this right back

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