nysalogs | (no subject)

No I wasn't!

Is it my face?

No! Your face is beautiful shut up!

_[Wait-]

I MEAN, YOUR FACE IS JUST A FACE THAT'S IT!

--What?

_{[Just. Going to dunk his face into the water again and just...scream.]}

[ this time leo doesn't chase after that, letting elliot stew in the spring because... what. What.

maybe it's the shock. he's in more disbelief than he is embarrassment. more than a little self-conscious. it's something he's never ever heard before in his life, and leo certainly doesn't describe himself as good looking or anything of the sort...

maybe it's the steam. elliot is just having steam vision. maybe elliot needs a girlfriend. ]

_{[Ew he doesn't need a gf get that het shit away from him k thx.

Once Elliot finally runs out of breath and surfaces he ends up swallowing a bit of water instead, coughing at the unsavoury taste that offends his taste buds. This is it. This is how he's going to die.]}

[ by the time elliot comes up, leo's wet hair is over his face again, flopped messily and parted just enough so he could kind of see out of one eye. ]

Are you trying to see if you can breathe underwater?

It wasn't successful.

_{[Yeah, call him stupid. It's fine. He'll take it if it means he can forget the embarrassment he's feeling just now.]}

Of course not.

[ and then leo falls silent once more, for a while. the air feels thick, no thanks to the steam but mostly because he doesn't know what to say. he can't quite look at elliot this way, either, suddenly very aware of their undressed state. the spring is big enough to provide adequate distance, but it's still. awkward.

at least hair over his face once again makes a makeshift cover for his expression. he steals glances at elliot from time to time, but his mind unhelpfully keeps echoing elliot's earlier words.

they can't be true, anyway. ]

_{[There's nothing Elliot wants more to do than erase the awkwardness the both of them are soaking in right now. It's not like Elliot was lying...his face was beautiful, features objectively pretty. At least he thinks so.

Why did he have to make it weird?

It's only after a few minutes of silence between them that Elliot decides to break it. It's suffocating so...screw it. There's a glance to the soap nearby that he brought.]}

...Do you want me to scrub it?

_{[It being Leo's hair, of course.]}

[ leo, who has basically abandoned his hair washing plans and is actually trying to find an excuse to leave the bath, looks back up at elliot and blinking through his wet bangs. ]

Are you sure you want to?

Why would I offer if I didn't?

_{[Really though, he wouldn't if that were the case. Leo should know him well enough to know that.]}

I guess not.

[ a beat. ]

Sure. Come here.

[ at least, when elliot is scrubbing his hair, he won't be looking at his face. leo is unsure what kind of expression he would be making, and that's a little scary. ]

_{[He's...actually surprised that Leo agrees and with a quiet nod Elliot moves to do what he's just offered to. Snagging the soap from the rocks nearby, the Nightray lathers it between his hands before setting it aside.]}

Okay. Let me see...

[ leo has his back turned, busies himself with studying the pattern on the rocks at the edge of the spring. ]

Be careful. I have knots.

[ don't pull his scalp off please... master... ]

I will.

_{[Look, he's not going to rip your hair out okay. With a gentle exhale of breath, Elliot places his soapy fingers against Leo's head and begins to massage the suds into his scalp.]}

[ the feeling of elliot's fingers against his scalp isn't new, but it's rare. it's because leo guards his hair with an almost feral viciousness, and elliot is the only one that has the privilege of touching it occasionally and not get beaten. he can't help the momentary tension in his shoulders when long fingers slide into his locks, but leo does relax after a few moments, eyes closing. ]

It's really dirty, isn't it?

[ he's not sorry though. elliot was the one who offered to wash this matted mess. ]

_{[Elliot's response comes out more like a muffled grunt as he lets his fingers work against Leo's head. To his credit he's gentle, more so than most would assume him to be. That's the thing about Elliot though - for as violent and loud as he could be he had an incredibly compassionate side too.]}

No dirtier than mine. You just got more of it.

[ that much is true. he has so much hair, and honestly leo is pretty happy with it. he's also finding himself in a weirdly contented place right now, with elliot rubbing soap into his scalp. ]

This feels good.

[ elliot should do this for him more often. ]

It does?

_{[Well that's encouraging to hear. Good thing Leo can't see the pink that's creeping its way across his cheeks. Maybe he should do it more often if Leo'll let him...]}

This is the first time anyone's washed my hair since my mother.

[ and it's been so long. so, so long. leo isn't sure if he remembers the feeling anymore, but this must be pretty close to it. he relaxes further, feeling himself get a little boneless in the hot water. a soft noise slips out before he can stop it. ]

_{[That's...not what he was expecting to hear out of Leo, especially during a moment like this. There's no pause in scrubbing but Elliot does make a face at him that he thankfully can't see. It's a frown of sorts, but not born out of distaste. If anything it's confusion and contemplation, if not a feeling of, well, sadness. He doesn't know what Leo's relationship was like with his mother, nor does he dare ask (it never got him anywhere before) but thinking about how his own mother used to care for him has him consciously wanting to make an effort to soothe.]}

I don't have a mother's touch but I must not be terrible either.

_{[Not if he's making a sound like that.]}