five ○ voice / action

[mylegacy]

Who: Caesar & u
Broadcast: Fleetwide!
Action: Marsiva, kitchens & gym!
When: Ostensibly 11/15, but really whenever

[His voice sounds muted, almost bored, but anybody who actually knows him might be a little worried at the lack of underlying irritation there. There's the clank of pots and pans in the background, also muted.]

Since we're stuck here for the foreseeable future - I understand that people are coping. [As people do. For what good it does.] I don't have the proper augment, but I know how to cook if anyone wants to learn. I don't have anything else to do. [Besides watch The Princess Bride on endless repeat.]

[. . . And then, almost as an afterthought:]

I can fight, too. If anyone wants that.

[Find him in the kitchens, or the gym on request. Close CR can assume a delivery of a comfort food of their choice.]

Comments

[nextlineis]

[This is probably the most Joseph's ever heard Caesar say exactly what he likes in all the time that he's known him, never mind since they've been. You know. Together together. Usually it's little hints that Joseph just picks up on because there's a language between the two of them that neither one needs explained, but he rarely just says it.]

[And even rarer than that is Caesar one to make an explicit demand. Saying what he wants... Well, for Joseph, that's just second nature. He says what he wants and he gets it. Sometimes he doesn't have to, but he does anyway because he doesn't want to change it getting confused or overlooked. But Caesar? Joseph thinks even before Caesar's father left, he wasn't good at that. How could he have been in a family that big?]

That's an interesting coincidence. [And he says it as if it really is just coincidence. Joseph starts running his fingers through Caesar's hair.] I just so happen to want to stay with you. What are the odds of that?

[mylegacy]

[Oh. He leans into the touch. Yes, good, okay, keep doing that.]

I guess I must just . . . be really lucky.

[So goddamn lucky. Pet his hair and tell him he's pretty.]

I like that, too. What you're doing now.

. . . All of the things you're doing. I like . . . you.

[Which somehow, bizarrely, feels more intimate than I love you. He looks down, away, eyelashes casting shadows on his cheeks.]

I like you a lot.

[nextlineis]

[Okay, objectively speaking, Caesar is a very nice-looking guy. Joseph thought that before he came anywhere close to piecing things together because... Well, just look at him. He's got a little more of a mature look about him compared to Joseph. Partly because he just doesn't smile in a lighthearted or mischievous way all that often, and partly because he's simply got two years on Joseph. But he has beautiful eyes with a sharp gaze to match and his birthmarks only serve to highlight his strong cheekbones, and everything about him simply reads strong. It's not something Joseph would have anticipated he ever would find attractive himself because there's something always a little threatening about another guy coming off like that. But it doesn't bother Joseph quite so much and...]

[Well, sometimes there's glimmers like this of something much softer. Shyer. And yet somehow it's not like a radically different person. It's still so very recognizably Caesar, but it's the part of Caesar that belongs to Joseph because he doesn't doubt for a second that no one else gets to see this. No one else gets to see Caesar lean into their touch or look away because what he's saying is such an incredibly good thing instead and maybe a little difficult to say, but not for the usual reasons.]

[Joseph hooks a finger under Caesar's chin to bring his gaze back up. His inarguably handsome Caesar is so beautiful right now in a way that is so different and yet altogether the same.]

I like you more, [he teases.]

[mylegacy]

[It's so strange. He knows this move. He used this move. A lot. He was good at it. And he'd never use it with Joseph, because he'd know, and he'd just start making fun of him, and there wouldn't be any point. And besides, Joseph is - is taller, isn't he. Joseph has a few inches on him.]

[And he's tilting Caesar's chin up until he can't help but look him right in the eyes, and then he has to swallow because, oh, okay. That's, that's what it's like, isn't it. To have someone look at you and think you're the most important and beautiful thing in the world.]

[This is what it's like to be the center of someone's universe.]

[His eyes are a little wide - not quite startled, he's still too dazed to react that strongly - but surprised, yes. It's hard to connect the man in front of him with the boy he met not all that long ago, the one who hit himself in the head with his own weapons, the one he hated. He did, for maybe ten whole minutes, he did hate Joseph a lot. And now - this.]

Jojo . . .

[Never in his life has he been so desperate to be kissed. Never in his life has he ever needed someone else to move first.]

[But there's a first time for everything.]

[nextlineis]

[Joseph doesn't keep him waiting for that kiss too long. But he doesn't give in right away because yeah, most of the time? Joseph is brash and impulsive. He's quick to move along to the next thing, and he's eager to grab exactly what he wants and not let go rather than taking the time to appreciate the journey from point A to B. But once in a while, he can slow it down. He can take that time to just see a moment from all angles. And this is definitely one of those moments he wants to look at and savor. From the way Caesar says his name to that surprised look in his eyes, he wants to just stay right here for a few seconds.]

[Which is why when he does kiss Caesar, it's something slow and gentle. Rather than something possessive, it's grateful for everything, but especially this moment.]

[mylegacy]

[It's really gentle. And that's - that, more than anything, is what makes him shiver, because he knows on some automatic level that Joseph has grown and changed and become so much, but this is at once a sign of him becoming something brand new and beautiful and something that was always in him that Caesar never reached for before. He needed it, but he never sought it ought, because he was - what? Too stubborn, too afraid? Both and more.]

[But now he needs it, and he's been pushed far enough that he can take what he needs, and he needs this, the part of Joseph that kisses him like he's a precious thing. Something worth being grateful for.]

[So he shivers, and then, when that same wave of gratitude washes over him, the shiver comes with it too, and he lets out a quiet whimper, fingers tightening in Joseph's shirt and pulling him back against the counter. Shorthand for stay here, don't let me go, but also for I might fall and I want you and I love you, of course, which he's always saying these days, in one way or another.]

[nextlineis]

[Fortunately for Caesar, Joseph doesn't have much intention of going anywhere. He knows where he's wanted, so why go or be anywhere else? He lets Caesar pull him and he tries not to smile too much at the quiet whimper. It's hard though. When Joseph is happy, he's effusively so, but he's trying for something a little more subdued, a little more serious, without being any less sincere. It's important, he's finding, to be both for Caesar. He needs to sometimes loosen up, act his age (or even younger than that) once in a while. But he also needs to know just how important, how beautiful, and how precious he is to Joseph.]

[His hands leave the counter, one rests at Caesar's waist while the other strokes Caesar's hair. Joseph hums softly in contentment as he leans close, returning everything that Caesar tells him without a single word being exchanged between them.]

[mylegacy]

[He feels precious. On some level, that's terrifying. He doesn't remember feeling like this consistently before - not ever, and certainly not exactly like this, loved in the way that Joseph loves him. He's never had one person who wanted to be around him all the time, to touch him and hold him and tease him, and even the teasing is nice now, even that he's starting to understand the purpose of.]

[All the niceness in the world doesn't make it any less overwhelming, though. Joseph is framing him against the counter and he has to bite down on Joseph's lip just for something to hold onto - not rough, really, just a small, desperate movement of possession, something that says mine.]

[Bizarrely, absurdly, he thinks nice, and it makes him half-grin and kiss Joseph again, harder, his fingers creeping up under his shirt to trace the line of his spine.]

[nextlineis]

[Joseph jolts a little further forward into Caesar and his hand grips Caesar's waist tighter, a quick and pleasant chill running through him at the touch along his spine. The noise he makes is somehow caught between chiding and pleased. Stop, but don't. He thinks briefly of getting back at him by starting to play hard to get when it comes to their kisses, but that'd mean not kissing Caesar and that seems like too tall an order to ask right now.]

[So, he doesn't. In favor of keeping Caesar's lips on his and his hands on him, Joseph takes one for the team and just keeps kissing Caesar, pressed in as close as he can get. His hand slips from Caesar's hair again, down along his jawline before resting on his chest. His fingers curl, bunching up Caesar's shirt.]

[mylegacy]

[You'd think after doing this for a while, some of the - overwhelmingness of it would wear off, but that doesn't seem to be the case. At least not all the time; not right now. Joseph's fingers brush his jaw, and he shivers again, breaking away for a second to kiss the corner of his mouth, lean their foreheads together. The hand on his chest feels about a million degrees.]

[He's going to die from this one day.]

[Not today, though. Today he manages to survive that brief moment when his heartbeat stutters out of control and finds Joseph's lips again, his focus careful and gentle where he'd bitten before, fingers tracing up and down, up and down the strong line of Joseph's back, the dip and curve of his spine. So pretty, and he loves him so much - and he doesn't so much take his hand as place his own over Joseph's on his waist, slot their fingers together over each other, trace the side of his hand with his thumb.]

[This wouldn't be such a bad way to go.]