Broken Boulder and i'll be your fever

 dawn breaks softly over the sanctuary. in the shade of alarian's den, the sun does not reach delight's fur to warm him. this is fine: it is an excuse for him to press closer, stealing body heat from the golden form beside him. his mind, half-awake, mulls the tiniest irony of this. mato had been quicksilver given form, cold and blinding. a silver prince. @Alarian is gold, heat in danger of burning him. not royalty at all? not really. but he likes that. it had been easy to hold mato at an arms length by making him a prince, an idealised figure, a nameless symbol of something delight wanted. alarian is simply alarian, and he is here, and delight's paws curl around him as much as he is allowed, sighing as he brings his nose to rest underneath the other boy's cheek. 

"g'morn," he mumbles, voice rough with sleep, cracking one silver eye open.

Delight, in his den, sleeping— with him. That's a weird one. He's definitely not going to get used to it any time soon, but it's... actually, it's really nice. There's something grounding about waking to warm fur mingling with his own and Delight's scent thick in the air around him; it feels safe and calm, and he doesn't feel either of those things very often.
When he feels his lover press closer, he leans into the touch too, yawning slightly and tucking himself against Delight. The greeting goes unanswered for a few beats. It's too early to be alive, Is his response, sleepy but lighthearted. He shifts to bury his face in Delight's chest fur, effectively blocking any light from reaching his eyes. I'm staying here until one of us dies or has to pee.

part of him feels a little guilty for sleeping here instead of with his children... or near his children, rather. then alarian yawns against him and the guilt melts away with the soft beating of his heart. sleepily he combs his teeth thru his fur until the other man moves, his words making him snort. there goes the mood. "so drastic," he murmurs, finding alarian's ear between his teeth gently. "we can rest for a little longer."

Admittedly, he's mostly complaining because he wants to keep Delight a bit longer; he's probably not as subtle as he thinks, but it's hard to care right now. He's quiet for a little while, content with the silence. He likes this— there's none of the awkward messiness like when they try to talk about their feelings. The touch says enough; it says they're both here, they both want this, and right now that's all they need.
Or, it's about all he can handle. At some point he does feel a little overheated, so he shifts again, keeping contact but carefully pulling back so he can actually breathe again. This is weird, He comments, still a little sleepy, and immediately realizes that isn't the best wording. I mean, it's not, really— it's just weird for me. But— good-weird.

delight is falling back asleep by the time his partner begins to shift, and hears his words through a sleepy haze. "y'make it weird, sayin' that," he grumbles, reluctantly lifting his head to look at alarian as he yawns. slightly more awake (but only slightly), he adds, "i never thought i'd end up with someone who overthinks worse than me, you know." a smirk curls his mouth, softened by the vestiges of drowsiness, "gotta curb that bad habit..." delight leans closer, placing a delicate nip against alarian's cheek to punctuate the thought.

He watches Delight fondly, taking in the sleepy, slightly disheveled sight of him and smiling a little at his yawn, at his words, and he thinks: maybe this is love. It's a fleeting thought, quickly buried under the inevitable landslide of reasons he can't know that just yet— he's made that mistake too many times.
What, and make things easy? His feigned shock is only half-hearted. Delight's right, of course, but it's certainly easier said than done. He responds to the nip with one of his own, immediately following with a soft, playful kiss to the spot. Then you'd realize how boring I actually am.

he laughs, swatting alarian affectionately. "boring," delight tells him, "is good. less near death experiences that way." and, to be fair: "and less need for melodramatics on my part," he adds, faintly smiling. 

awake-awake now, the androgyne stretches out, rolling his shoulders. he could get used to this, he thinks. there'd been a brief period where he and mato had shared a den, but never as intimately as this. he likes it. "hey," delight says playfully, "how d'you feel about holing up for a while?" the puppies can wait sorry he's not the best father. but the idea of getting some real alone time with alarian? too tempting to pass up.

The reminder of his final encounter with Runion sobers him. He still doesn't like to think about it for too long— or at all, really. At some point they should probably have a real talk about it, to clear up his reasoning if nothing else. Thankfully Delight hasn't really questioned it so far, so it's definitely fine to put it off for another day.
I like that idea, He rolls lazily onto his back, shifting a little closer again in the process. Part of him can't really decide if the closeness is satisfying or overwhelming; both, maybe. He wants it and he doesn't. We don't get a lot of opportunities for normal conversation, do we?

amusedly his gaze tracks alarian's movements, making little effort himself to shift, beyond tucking his paws back under his chest like a loafing cat. "we don't," delight agrees, letting himself smirk. for a boy who likes peace and quiet, the androgyne certainly has put himself in so many positions to prevent such things from occuring. "why don't we do that game -- ask me a question and i'll ask you one in return kind of thing?" he is, as always, insatiable in his quest to find out more about his golden boy, despite alarian's continued attempts to thwart him. and it's only fair to share a little about himself in return or whatever.

If wolves could sweat, he would be in trouble. Fortunately, they can't, so the only evidence of his discomfort is a brief pause. He's really bad at these games, honestly; what is he supposed to ask?
Alright, He agrees with a faint grin, pausing again before he adds: You go first. He's admittedly more interested in knowing what Delight wants to ask than anything — he'd suggested the game, after all. And at this point, after all his partner has seen of him without running the other way, Alarian doesn't mind answering a few questions.

lol im torn btwn 'we should wrap up these old threads probs' and 'gdi i want this cute conversation to play out'

oh thank god ali lets him go first -- of course he does not mind sharing whatever his lover wants to know, but -- but! -- he is dying to learn anything about him. hence the game in the first place. the options swim in his head for a moment, so many he's too overwhelmed to pick. "where are you from? no, wait -- what was your childhood like?" he rolls, putting enough distance between them that he can fix his eyes on alarian's face, intense and maybe a little alarming -- but he's listening. intently. very intently.

IM SORRY but also we're keeping this one a bit longer ok

He's startled by Delight's sudden enthusiasm, almost ready to go along with it — until he hears his question, and his expression falls by fractions. Where are you from, he asks first — he's told him that — and then about his childhood, and he never wants to talk about that. It doesn't help that he's staring at him so... intensely. He swallows hard, looking away for a moment, then shifts back to an upright position.
Well, um, He pauses — no, no, you can't get out of this now — It was... pretty fucked up, I guess. My father was — kind of unbelievably terrible to everyone. He was angry about a lot of things in general, and — He pauses again, trying to find the right words. Didn't have many limits. Maybe not any, actually. Um — my mother was... a good person, but kind of broken. I loved her. She didn't want much to do with me, but I don't blame her.
Ah, yes, that little gem — I was just kind of a... weird kid. Wandered off all the time, saw things that weren't there, that type of thing, And we'll never mention it still happens sometimes and it'll all be great and perfect, right? Right. I didn't get along well with any of my littermates, really — Eris, Runion, Shaara. Or my older sister, Iriante — she and Zamael helped raise us. Or, well — Iriante helped my mother raise Eris and Shaara. Zamael raised me. My father raised Runion.
Most of what I actually remember is — just Zam and I, but I know there was a lot more, He shakes his head. I just can't recall anything specific. Not since — Another pause as he sucks in a breath, suddenly feeling a lot less like sharing. Since Zamael left, I guess. Everything before that is — vague and weird, and I don't remember a lot of things directly after that either.

He pauses, sighing weakly after a few beats. So, um, what's your favorite color? He's totally allowed this, after all that — and he kind of actually wants to know for reasons that cannot currently be disclosed.