(no subject)

[thewidewideworld]

{from here}

To the east of the garden, hidden between the trees is what looks from the outside like small and simple marquee.

But inside it is something very different. Large as any room inside the bar, the floor is covered with richly patterned carpets, as soft underfoot as grass. The walls are draped with the finest silks. Silver lanterns hung from the roof cast geometric patterns from their cut work sides, coloured rainbow hues by glass inserts.

At the room's centre is a raised dais spread with silks and furs, cushions and bolsters; a bed worthy of a king.

Sinric waits by the door, dressed in a flowing silk robe of rich gold and scarlet, his hair elaborately braided away from his neck and a mask of lace covering his eyes.

Comments

[thewidewideworld]

Sinric senses the moment has ended and lays back, pushing his hair back from his face.

He can still feel too much, every strand sliding between his fingers, the stillness of Eric's uprising chest, the furs at his back.

[onceaviking]

"I'll stay till it's worn off, " Eric says.
Stupid, fucking Milliways.

[thewidewideworld]

Sinric can hear the resentment in Eric's voice. He shakes his head minutely, a larger gesture seems pointless. "It is not my intent to trap you. You need not fear to leave. I will sleep and recover. I am not as fragile as I seem." A lie, of course. He is just as fragile and delicate as he seems.

[onceaviking]

"If something happens to you, I will be held responsible," Eric tells him. "And I have plenty of enemies here. I don't care to give them an opening."

[thewidewideworld]

"And you fear I would expose you to that danger?" He nods softly, "If you think it best, I offer you my hospitality. Such as it is." He sits up slowly, giving himself time to adjust to the powerful, drugged feeling in his blood.

[onceaviking]

"Move slowly, " Eric advises him.

[thewidewideworld]

He nods again and sits up very slowly, wrapping his arms around his knees to keep him up. "Is this feeling usual? With your other lovers here."

[onceaviking]

"If I let them drink my blood. Though it affects everyone differently here it seems."

[thewidewideworld]

"How so?" He asks, trying to focus on Eric's words rather than the desire to rub his face against the texture of the fine furs.

[onceaviking]

"I don't know, " Eric says with a small shrug.

"Individual differences in stature and manta little probably."

[thewidewideworld]

"And how deeply you drink?" He doesn't actually want to know the answer to that but he needs Eric to keep talking.

[onceaviking]

"That too," Eric agrees. "And how long it has been since last time."

[thewidewideworld]

"The effect lingers?" He asks, a little concerned.

He can feel it subsiding, little by little but the undertow of sensation is still very strong.

[onceaviking]

"Not as much here as it does at home," Eric replies a little flippantly.
"And there the effect is both ways."

So he is cautious. For his own sake.

[thewidewideworld]

Sinric nods, sensing these questions are making Eric uncomfortable.

So he asks something different. "Did you ever travel to Byzantium in your time? I know you are from the Northlands but did you ever take the trade routes east?"

[onceaviking]

"Not when I was still a human. I have been there later, of course."

[thewidewideworld]

"What is it like later? I have heard the Turks will take it, after the Empire falls."

[onceaviking]

Eric nods.

"They did. It was still beautiful when I saw it."

[thewidewideworld]

"Will you tell me what you saw there? What it was like?"

[onceaviking]

"It was crowded," he replies. "With people everywhere."

Immensely pleasing to a vampire.

[thewidewideworld]

"It was always a city of life. Even at night." He says wistfully.

[onceaviking]

"Night is all I care about," Eric says which is not necessarily true.

[thewidewideworld]

"It is a pity you cannot see it by day. The golden done of the Hagia Sophia shines so brightly at dawn. Like a second sun."

[onceaviking]

"Hmm," Eric says. Noncommittally.

He reaches down again to take hold of Sinric's chin so he can take a look at his eyes. His fingers are strong. And growing cold again.

[thewidewideworld]

He flinches a little from the touch, his soft eye clear than they were before.