[semi-closed]

[dehallow]

Who ⬤ Barok van Zieks and associates!
What ⬤ Event things and the immediate event aftermath!
When ⬤ During Tanabata and in the following week.
Where ⬤ Underground, Kaigo no Bou, places.
Content Warnings ⬤ Alcohol, internalized homophobia. More to be added if needed.

[ This is a place to dump closed starters - but if you want a thread you are very free to hit me up on my plotting comment! ]

Comments

this is illegally late, please send me to jail

[dehallow]

[ Whatever he expected Kazuma to say next, it was nothing like this. Barok's eyes widen, subtly but notably. Whether or not Kazuma may be so bold is an irrelevant question now that he has dared it either way.

If he were sober, maybe Barok would have risen from his chair then and there and declared the conversation over. There is nobody, absolutely nobody, in this world who has the privilege of being so casual about his... his... his... tensions.

Unfortunately, he is drunk and as such can't even be 100% certain that a dramatic movement of standing up would have quite the effect he desires.

So Barok van Zieks remains in his seat, leaned in close over a table in a brothel talking to his protegee, and feels like the floor just dropped out from under his feet. After an awkwardly long pause, he clears his throat. ]

I can pardon that the location has lead your train of thought into a rather private area, but such matters are not polite to discuss with those not directly involved.

So unless you intended for this to be a proposition...

[ He means for the word 'proposition' to drip with scandalized contempt, but with the intimate atmosphere it comes out all wrong. Almost like a challenge, like a desire. ]

no worries i am a snail forever

[karumic]

[In other circumstances, Kazuma might be ashamed of having overstepped so badly. In other circumstances, he wouldn't have made the insinuation in the first place. In these, Kazuma can't help but laugh--something about Barok's consternation strikes him as funny. Maybe it's the simple awkwardness of it, the contrast of it in the middle of a place like this, as the man has so dutifully pointed out.

Kazuma stifles the rest of his laugh behind a fist as he struggles to return his face to neutrality. He doesn't mean to make fun of Barok--he really never meant any offense.]

No, you're right. That was--incredibly improper of me. I apologise.

[But--something about the mood is different, now. Maybe it's just Barok having spoken the possibility into existence, but as Kazuma's own expression sobers as he considers the Lord van Zieks from a new angle. There's something very sad, isn't there, about being as repressed as Barok van Zieks seems to be--and he doesn't seem to be a bad man, truly. Kazuma may not know him particularly well, but his impression of Barok is that he's forthright, principled, and dedicated--perhaps a bit self-important, but Kazuma would be a hypocrite to judge someone for that. Certainly, he's not someone who deserves to be shut off from an entire category of feeling. And he's really quite handsome--so Kazuma can only imagine the celibacy is self-imposed. How miserable must that be?

He'd thought there was a note of that misery in Barok's voice, when he'd called it a proposition. An undertone of something the man would never want to admit was interest--not in Kazuma specifically, of course, but in the experience. Is it wrong to feel some sympathy to that? He isn't even sure why he does. Perhaps it's yet another thing lost to the fog of his amnesia, that he relates to that feeling of wanting something badly and not feeling like you deserve it. It doesn't matter why, really--sympathize Kazuma does.

The gentlemanly thing to do, after his earlier faux pas, would be to move back out of Barok's space and let him re-establish healthy boundaries, and let the moment pass. But it's a nice night. The atmosphere is warm, and happy, and fun. Kazuma feels reckless, and sees no reason not to let that feeling take its course. So instead of pulling back, Kazuma leans ever so slightly closer. His face is perfectly blank, free of any expectation. He lets his hand rest next to Barok's where it lays on the table, not close enough to touch, but close enough to be deliberate. An invitation.

The moment stretches. Despite appearances, his heart is pounding and his breath is in his throat. This could quickly and easily go very wrong. After all, van Zieks has already rebuffed this topic of conversation once, and here Kazuma is immediately about to test that line again. But Kazuma keeps his eyes on Barok's, the tone of his voice somber--an unspoken pledge of his sincerity.]

Would you want it to be one?

[dehallow]

[ Barok doesn't think he remembers what it's like to breathe as the seconds tick by and Kazuma's presence pulls at him like the moon pulls the tides. They're alone in this crowded place, one secluded table facing away from the whole world.

Kazuma is a handsome man - he's thought so, shamefully, even when he was hidden under a mask. He'd discovered nothing but horror when the reveal of his identity had given context to that attraction. Once he'd looked at Kazuma's father with that same desire, only more naive and forward...

Genshin looks back at him from Kazuma's eyes. Genshin would never have said this to him. He was a married man, upright, decidedly heterosexual. Barok would have hidden his shame from him until the very end, content to simply glance at him from afar.

But Kazuma... Kazuma is here, insinuating. Kazuma isn't Genshin. The resemblance is purely physical - in personality, in drive and internal ugliness, Kazuma Asogi is much more reminiscent of Barok himself. Kazuma is no incorruptible image of purity, he is no idol on the altar. He is a man, tortured and wrong, and attractive and offering.

Barok's head is swimming. He stares down at their hands, not yet touching. His finger inches just a little closer, but he stops himself yet again.

He wants. ]

... please don't be cruel.

[ Oh, don't tempt him so, when he wants. ]