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Lux leads Jack back out of the Winter Hollow and into the mundane world, eyeing him. "How are you feeling?"
Jack just kinda groans. "Little better? I think? Maybe? Bringing this shit to the Freehold feels...ugh." He leans on Lux as they walk.
They let go of his hand, but just so they can wrap their arm around his waist instead, leading him away from the hollow door. "I know. But it's for the best. We have protection, now."
"I know. 'S just like...a bubble popped. Whatever fuckin'...misconceptions of 'safety' I had, they're just," he opens his hand, "'poof'. Gone. You know?"
Lux nods, rubbing his side. "We'll be okay, babe. We'll just keep our heads down. I'm sure this will be wrapped up pretty quickly. You want me to text Mearcstapa, or you want to handle it?"
"I'll do it. Tomorrow. I just wanna...not have to deal with this anymore today, even if..." He rubs his face. "Fuck, I mean who the fuck knows how much She's already dug into my life, since yesterday. Maybe I should text him now." But he doesn't make a move to take his phone out of his pocket. The more he talks, the more exhausted he sounds.
"You sure you don't want me to take care of it? So you don't have to think about it?" Lux asks softly, looking at him with concern.
"Feels like something I should do. I dunno." Jack? Not asking for help even though he might need it? Never. "I just...wanna go home and have a drink and pretend She can't easily find out where I live."
Lux is quiet for a moment, looking thoughtful. "So... let's not go back to your place. I have a hollow now. It's... kinda small, but... we can hang out there for the next few nights? Until this is hopefully resolved. We know she can't find us there."
"You won't...be able to like...get in contact with Mearcstapa or anything, though. Right?" Jack frowns. "Technology doesn't work there?"
"No, but I've already told Mearcstapa that I'm going to be spending most of my time with you until this is resolved."
"Babe..." He blinks, dark tears welling in his eyes. "I..." he cuddles against them and kisses their shoulder. "Thank you. We...yeah. Hollow's good. As long as...there's a way to set alarms? I can't just disappear from work and shit."
"I have an alarm clock there. There's all kinds of weird shit that has popped up in there! I think I went a little overboard hedgespinning stuff there, and now it just... makes random shit, sometimes." Lux smiles at him. "Let's swing by a store to pick up some drinks and snacks, then your place, so you can bag some things to take with you."
"Look at you, all good at hedgespinning and shit now." Jack smiles and kisses their cheek. "I can't wait to see. Is everything neon? Am I gonna need a mask to fall asleep 'cause it's so bright?"
Lux grimaces. "Uhh... You might..."
Jack chuckles. "I'll just have to steal one of your shirts or something. If...I can find one that's not neon, fuck, I didn't think that through..." He hipchecks Lux gently.
"I don't have a lot of clothes at the hollow... I've mostly just been storing my art supplies there. But there is a bed." Lux bobs their head. "But if you'd rather not go to your place, we can swing by and grab what we need from a store."
"Nah I should pick up some shit. Much as I'm sure you'd like the idea of me having to change into whatever's lying around the hollow..."
"It would be nice but... Not sure I even have anything clean there..." They squint, thinking a moment. Then shrug. "We'll work it out."
It doesn't take long for Jack to pack a bag - changes of clothes, toiletries, a phone charger, his laptop. He's skittish in his apartment, jumping at every odd creak of the building, his mien sketchy and flickering.
Lux watches him with a concerned look and helps him pack, so it can be over as quickly as possible. Lux does stop by a grocery store as well to pick up some things--mostly snacks and soda, and whatever Jack prefers to eat. Even some beer.
Then he's leading Jack towards a... well, it's not as bad of a part of town as their apartment is in, at least. But certainly not... great. They lead him towards an abandoned building. "The door is at the top." Of course Lux built a hollow at the top of an abandoned building. "So a bit of a climb."
"I'm...not even a little surprised." Jack shakes his head with a small smile. It's not as if Jack's neighborhood is all that better, even if he seems to be comfortable there. "Just climbing stairs, or...?"
"There's a fire escape around the side. Easy enough for me to jump up to. I'll get up, then help you. Here." They pass over the couple of grocery bags they're carrying, then sprint the last bit of distance towards the wall, managing to sprint up the wall a few steps and easily grab hold of the bottom of the fire escape. They climb up, then lower the ladder down for him and offer a hand down to help him up.
"I don't think I'm ever gonna get tired of watching you do that shit." Jack hands up the bags with a full-on grin now before staring to climb himself. "'S hot."
"I know," Lux says smugly, grinning down at him. They take the bags, then help pull him up. The stairs are old and creaky and wobble in an unpleasant way, but Lux doesn't seem concerned. They head up them anyway and get up to the roof--then start over towards the roof access door that would lead into the building. "Alright, I'll show you the knock. Ready?"
Jack's only slightly out of breath by the time they get to the top, and he takes a short look out over the city before returning his attention to the door. "...You showing me the knock to your hollow feels...like a step. Of some sort. But yeah, I'm ready."
"Uh." Lux pauses, blinking for a moment. "I mean... if you're going to be staying here for a while, you kinda need to know how to get in and out...?" Yeah. Just that. Logical. Doesn't mean anything. Right.
"Sure. Yeah." He nods. Maybe a little relieved? "Makes sense."
"Cool. Cool..." Lux bobs their head, then clears their throat and turns back to the door. They demonstrate a short but complicated rhythmic knock--which causes the door to swing open into... clearly not an abandoned building. There is a lot of color beyond.
Lux steps in and urges him along, then closes the door behind them.
It's a small space, about the size of a small loft apartment, but it does look pretty cozy. ...If you like having your eyeballs melted with neon. The walls look like they've been woven into existence out of multi-colored neon vines, woven in such a way as to create flowing psychedelic patterns, coming together above into a domed roof, which has glowing leaves and various baubles hanging down to give light to the space. There's a bed that looks like it was hedgespun out of the vines, piled with a couple blankets and pillows, looking more like a nest than a proper bed. The rest of the space is mostly taken up by art supplies thrown everywhere and half finished artworks laying around. It's... messy.
Jack takes a few moments to take it all in, visibly relaxing bit by bit as he does. "This's like...what I bet the inside of your head's like, when you're painting. It's the most 'you' place I've ever seen, babe, it's...yeah." He snakes an arm around their waist to pull them to his side, and plants soft kisses on their shoulder, neck, jaw.
Lux smiles, dropping the bags off to the side so they can wrap arms around him. "You really like it?" they ask softly, a little sheepish.
"Yeah. Yeah I do." More kisses, on their cheek and the side of their head. "It's like...being surrounded by...you. And I really fucking like that." One more kiss, and he pulls away to take his boots off.
Lux's lights glow brighter, enough so that the light spreads down from their eyes to glow dimly through their cheeks. "Ah... I'm... really glad," they murmur, head dipping. "If you want anything different, if you need anything--just, um, let me know. I want you to feel safe and comfortable here."
"How dark can the lights go? Just for sleeping, I still wanna be able to see shit right now." He takes Lux's hand and starts to wander the small space, thoroughly distracted from the stress of the past few days by the wonder that is this hollow.
"Oh--yeah, they dim down quite a bit." Lux bobs their head, squeezing his hand back. They follow along, though their eyes linger on him as he looks around. "Sorry it's messy..."
"I'd be worried if it wasn't." Jack flashes them a grin, and picks up the edge of one of the half-finished artworks. "It's mostly your studio...?"
"Yeah... But--uh, I can move shit out of the way, it's cool." Lux gives a nervous glance towards the painting when Jack touches it, but doesn't stop him.
So far Jack has only seen their street art. While it's clearly the same artist that did the art here, similar styles, in the sense of things being very graphic, colorful, and a little messy. But the paintings here have a variety of mediums--some acrylic paints, some inks, some drawings with colorful chalks. Spray paint is kind of mixed in with it all, but they've clearly tried to experiment. A lot of abstract and surrealism, but Jack might catch some more realistic styles poking out here and there. Portraits, maybe.
"Babe, this shit...'s fucking good, it's, I mean fuck, you could fill a gallery with this shit downtown, I bet it'd sell." He glances up at them, but mostly continues to pick through the pieces. He doesn't quite make a beeline for the portraits, but the unexpected realism certainly catches his eye.
"I mean... I sell them. Sometimes. Mostly just on the street." Lux shrugs. "Never was super into the gallery thing..." There's a flicker of panic as Jack gets closer to the figure drawings/paintings, stepping over to shuffle them around in a totally subtle (not subtle at all) way, to hide them behind a larger abstract painting.
"Babe I gotta see. Please?" He's doing the puppy dog eyes, Lux. With just a hint of a grin. Like he knows exactly what he's doing.
"It's embarrassing," Lux whines.
"Embarassing, how?" Jack does let up just a little. But only a little.
"Hnnngh..." Their head tips back to glare at the ceiling, lips pursing. "Fine. Just... don't laugh..."
"I'm not gonna laugh at your art, babe." He actually sounds serious. "'Kay?"
They shift their weight from foot to foot, then huff softly. "Kay." They step aside to let him look through things, arms crossing over their chest tightly.
"Hey, c'mere." Grabby hands, so he can give them a kiss. "If you really don't want me to look I won't. But I love the art you make."
Lux returns the kiss softly. "No... it's okay. Go ahead..." They glance aside nervously.
So what is it that's got Lux so worked up? Jack carefully looks through the pieces, keeping a casual hand on Lux's hip as he does.
There's several that seem to just be of random people--at least they're not anyone that Jack recognizes. These are mostly rough sketches and very loose painting, clearly meant to get down emotion rather than the person's likeness.
But then there's the many portraits of... Jack. And to a lesser extent, Mearcstapa. Mearc's paintings involve a lot of dark colors with splatters of paint thrown over top, layers upon layers, occasionally with swirling dots creating patterns. It's clear that the freckles are the focal point here, and Lux is fascinated with depicting them in various ways. Some focus on his face, with several just depicting his back and arms.
The portraits of Jack vary quite a bit more, and tend to be... a lot more erotic and emotional. There's a lot of frantic scribbling and paint brush strokes, as if Lux were trying to catch the moments when Jack is at his scribbliest, but they're all done with bright color, not with black and white. Several of them are painted predominantly with vibrant green colors. Especially ones that depict Jack in more... submissively sensual poses.
Jack cheeks bloom in a scribbly blush when he gets to the portraits of himself. "These're all from memory?" He flicks his gaze toward Lux, his expression a mix of surprise, delight, and maybe a bit of embarrassment. Nothing like tangible evidence that your partner thinks about you enough to paint portraits of you, amirite?
"They're...I'm...fuck, I don't know what to say."
"Mm... um... yeah. Mostly," they mumble, glowing brightly, arms still crossed tightly around their chest. "Told you it was embarrassing..."
"No babe, I'm...these are amazing, I'm...touched isn't the right word because it's a hell of a lot hotter than that." He takes a step towards them.
They eye him a second, then puff out a breath, arms uncrossing. They grab him around the waist to pull closer, kissing him softly. "I did tell you a while back that I'm... mm... kind of obsessed with you. I... really love painting you. All the time."
"It's...I mean someone can be your muse without you being obsessed with them. Yeah?" He kisses them back, hands moving to cup their chin.
"...Muse... yeah... Yeah, I guess that's... mm... better..." they murmur against his lips, arms sliding around him.
"Does it help to say..." He speaks in between soft kisses, moving from Lux's lips to their jaw and down their neck, "that I am, literally, a Muse?"
Lux pauses, head tilting back to bare their neck. "That... actually makes a lot of sense. And is... kind of a relief?" They let out a nervous not-quite-chuckle huff. "Makes me feel less like a creep, anyway..."
"I'll let you know if it slides into creepy. Right now it's just...'m not used to knowing people think about me like this. This much, this way. When I'm not around." He tugs on the collar of their shirt to kiss down their throat.
Their breath hitches, eyes closing as their lights shift from yellow to yellow-orange. "Do you think you'd be up for, uh... modeling for me? Sometime?"
"...I'd make a joke about being an awkward model, but...I don't think I can get away with that now, can I..." He chuckles, soft against their skin. "I'd be down. I...dunno if I'd want any of it in public, but...just for you, yeah." One of his hands gently scratches the back of Lux's neck.
"Just for me," Lux promises, nails scraping lightly across Jack's lower back. "No fucking way I'd let anyone else see them."
"Need to find a better place to put them in here, 'f you plan on having any other guests..." He's starting to catch Lux's skin with his teeth now, gently nipping their neck down to their shoulder. It almost sounds...like he's teasing them? There's certainly a lightness to his tone, he doesn't seem all that serious about wanting them too hidden here.
"Fuck, Jack." Lux shivers, swallowing. "You are... way too fucking hot for your own good," they murmur, a little breathless. Their hands slip underneath his shirt to caress.
"Mmm?" He laughs quietly and pulls away to give Lux a lingering kiss on the mouth. "What're you gonna do about it?"
"You keep doing this, and I'll be doing... a lot." They return the kiss, hands sliding down to squeeze his rear. "If you're in the headspace for anything like that, anyway."
He presses closer to them with a quiet hum and another kiss, tugging at their shirt and moving to nip their throat. "Yes please."
Welp, that broke the dam that is Lux's resolve. Jack swiftly gets thrown down and pinned onto the bed, and proceeds to get thoroughly ravished.
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