(no subject)

[amicably_absent]

Glitch had swum for hours, chasing fish and insects and bubbles and sunbeams. Eventually, worn out and tired, he had swum to shore and curled up on the bank on the sun warmed pebbles, grumbling about his lack of coat until he fell asleep.

He woke up with Rennie shaking him, a scolding voice telling him he had to come in, he was all wet and dirty and needed a bath and clean clothes, and was she going to have to strap him in the chair.

Glitch reacted predictably.

He screamed at her, judo flipped her while sitting down, dove into the water, swam to a far edge and took off.

Rennie asked Cain to go find Glitch and bring him in before he froze or hurt himself.

Glitch had retreated to the rotunda, sitting on the seat and swinging himself back and forth, watching the sun setting on the lake. He was soaking wet again, but his trembling didn't seem to worry him at all.

Comments

[less-hugging.livejournal.com]

"Most people wouldn't bother. Can't say I..."

He catches up with Glitch's random comment, and blinks. First time anyone's called his eyes glowing, and it figures it'd come from the zipperhead with a heart of gold and a zipper that glimmers like the moonlight itself.

"Thanks. You're not half bad, yourself."

[amicably-absent.livejournal.com]

"No, really," he urges. He doesn't think Wyatt really gets it. "They glow, like back lit sapphire, all pure colour and radiance. It's beautiful."

[less-hugging.livejournal.com]

"Yeah?"

He averts his eyes for a split second, scooting closer. "No one ever waxed poetic about my eyes before. Not any part of me, to be frank."

[amicably-absent.livejournal.com]

"I'm not waxing poetic, I'm describing," Glitch says softly, smiling as Wyatt moves closer. "I can wax poetic if you want."

[less-hugging.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, well, maybe I just don't know a complimenting description from waxy poetry."

He winks reaching out slowly to seek out one of Glitch's hands.

[amicably-absent.livejournal.com]

Glitch giggles. "And that's why you shouldn't read at night by candlelight. You'll get your poetry all waxy."

His fingers brush Wyatt's, just touching without holding.

[less-hugging.livejournal.com]

"Not to mention you run the risk of setting your hair on fire." A beat, for comedic effect if nothing else. Glitch has the most heartwarming laughter. "Well, maybe I don't, but with all those curls you most certainly do."

His hand closes in, wrapping itself securely around it's rightful owner. "I like your hands."

[amicably-absent.livejournal.com]

Glitch laughs again. "Maybe. I wouldn't put it past me to do something silly like that."

He colours slightly, looking pleased. "I like my hands too. Especially the one I gave to you."

[less-hugging.livejournal.com]

"I've noticed. But I suppose you're right, it can be real practical. You can do so much with three hands instead of one."

Running his thumb over bony knuckles, he turns his eyes to it. Them. Their hands, one pale, the other one just slightly tan. It makes a nice contrast.

"But I like the other two best. They're good hands. Graceful, animated, calloused in places... They show you're more than just a member of the royal court. You're a hard worker."

[amicably-absent.livejournal.com]

"Mm, you can." And for a moment, his mind clearly wanders off somewhere else, possibly to the thought of a third mechanical arm and how useful it would be.

The touch draws his attention back. "I was always told I had lovely hands and I should stop wringing them and putting creases into them." He flexes his fingers in Cain's grip and then curls them back on Wyatt's. "You're so tan, even after all that time in the case."

[less-hugging.livejournal.com]

"And you're awful pale after all that time on the road."

He smiles, scooting up even closer. "Maybe I just tan fast, and you really don't?"

[amicably-absent.livejournal.com]

"Maybe I wasn't out in the sun lots..." He isn't sure. He doesn't remember. "I don't think I ever tanned up. I burn."

[less-hugging.livejournal.com]

"Then you'd better make sure you don't stay out in the sun too long." The 'or else' should be right there between the lines. He sneaks one of his arms around Glitch's waist, feeling soft skin beneath fabric and liking it very much. He feels strangely liberated, as though letting him out of the iron suit wasn't enough.

"How about this? If we do manage to go to sleep, when one of us wakes up, he wakes up the other. We'll go dancing in the dark, outside. Maybe the moons will still be up."

[amicably-absent.livejournal.com]

"I guess so. Or I'll go bright red and it'll ache. And there's no DG to magic it away." Glitch shifts a little closer, biting his lower lip and then smiling shyly.

"Mm, but you don't sleep well. I'd sooner let you sleep if you manage. I can talk to myself and when you wake up, we can go outside."

[less-hugging.livejournal.com]

He could point out that those of us less magically gifted resort to rubbing lotion all over the redness (and what's a massage between good friends?), but he doesn't want to give Glitch bad ideas. Innuendo is one thing, Glitch burnt to a red, flaky crisp because of something he suggested is a whole different bucket of awful.

He shrugs, eyes drawn to the tempting display of teeth and lips. "But I like listening to your voice..."

[amicably-absent.livejournal.com]

On the plus side, Glitch also has the memory of a headcase and would probably forget the suggestion by morning.

"You can listen all you want when you wake up."

[less-hugging.livejournal.com]

"So you're telling me to shut my eyes and go to sleep?"

[amicably-absent.livejournal.com]

"No, I'm saying I won't wake you up if I wake up in the middle of the night and you're still asleep."

[less-hugging.livejournal.com]

He nods. "I can live with that."

He settles in, does his best to relax with his head resting on his arm. Maybe it'll be a long night of trying to go to sleep, but it'll be fine. Glitch is there.

[amicably-absent.livejournal.com]

Glitch keeps holding onto Wyatt's hand, watching it for a while before closing his eyes. "Night, Wyatt."

[less-hugging.livejournal.com]

"Good night, Sweetheart."

Following Glitch's cue, it isn't long at all before he's drifting off to sleep. Holding hands in the moonlight.