Private Ahhhhhhhhhhhh

[Lief]

Frustrated.​

​

Defeated.​

​

Hopeless.​

​

Though he daren't bring such up with Starlin, who'd suffered more than enough as of late, Eliphas was admittedly struggling. Running on virtually no sleep, stuck to his hoverchair, he felt as though he was losing his mind. How could one train to be a Jedi if they couldn't even stand upright? How could he ever be the formidable Guardian he'd once longed to be if he couldn't even wield his lightsaber?​

​

A few late nights had been spent working on such in the Temple's training rooms, but with little to no luck. All he'd managed to do was exhaust himself. It all felt so futile.​

​

He hadn't even meant to go searching for The Stardust, and why would he? For all he knew Val Drutin wasn't even on Coruscant anymore. Likely on tour, or something. But as he passed by a few hangar bays memories of the day he'd built his lightsaber came to mind. When he came upon the Opera House and saw his visage plastered on the promo-boards he felt wholly powerless to stop himself.​

​

Eliphas had to find Drutin. Had to know whether it was worth it to keep trying, or if he should throw in the towel now.​

​

He found The Stardust occupying one of the Opera House's docking bays, and for a moment he hovered by the entrance to the hangar. Nerves raced through him, the man in question wasn't exactly the most stable, how he reacted would be wholly unpredictable. Add that to the general stomach-fluttery feeling he'd had whenever he'd previously been around the man, and it seemed best to simply leave.​

​

Only he didn't.​

​

Instead he approached the ship.​

 

[Val Drutin]

Nearly half the ballet company had been crowded aboard the Stardust, celebrating their final performance of the season with drinks. Things eventually started to get a bit crazy—which wasn’t too surprising, given that it was Val Drutin’s ship, but with a few shots of vodka in them the dancers were all just as mad as him.

In fact, Val was beginning to feel a little jealous. Not to be outdone in the insanity department, he had concluded the evening by slapping the director in the face, ripping off one of the ballerina’s tutus and using it as a lampshade, then put the actual lampshade on his head and attempted to convince himself that he was a droid. By the time he gave up on that and lifted the lampshade from his head, he found his ship deserted. Also, his lamp was on fire.

“Oh, shut up!” he shouted at the flame. When it refused to stop burning, he took a pint of ice cream from the freezer and stuck it to the bulb. That quieted the fire. Val sank into a chair, sighing in relief.

A few minutes later, he sensed a familiar presence approaching. Eliphas Dune, Starlin’s apprentice. But why? Val dipped a finger into the melting ice cream dripping from the lightbulb and lifted it to his lips. Hmm. Tasted funny.

Determined to know what was wrong, he shot down the boarding ramp, nearly colliding with Eli. “You look different,” he said, dark eyes studying the boy. “Did you change your playby again?”

Lief​

 

[Lief]

Still trying to decide whether or not he should actually bother the manic dancer, Eliphas' hoverchair lingered on the boarding ramp. Imagine his surprise then when the door opened and Val hurried down toward him, almost knocking him off the ramp itself. The hoverchair wavered and fumbled and barely clung on to the edge of the ramp, before Eli regained control of it and moved it back to more stable footing.​

​

The question was met with sheer confusion, and Eli lifted his hands to look down at them, then back up to Val. "Erm... No..?" he said, raising a hand up to rub the back of his neck. It was true though he did look much different these days. A year in a coma would do that to a guy, leave him gaunt and a shell of his former self. ​

​

When his eyes met Val's he felt the same butterflies fluttering around his stomach as he had the first time he'd met him. A very slight blush entered his cheeks, and he glanced away as quickly as he could to help avoid notice. "Just a little stuck" he confessed, "I... I thought maybe you'd know how to help..?"​

​

Val Drutin ​

 

[Val Drutin]

“Stuck?” Val straightened, continuing to stare at Eli. Gradually, the realization of his current state dawned upon the dancer. “You can’t walk, let alone run, let alone dance. How can you stand it?” Realizing he’d inadvertently made a pun, he smiled momentarily. But then his grin dropped.

“You’re not bringing that thing aboard my ship,” he said. Grabbing Eli, he lifted him up as easily as he would a ballerina in a pas de deux and marched him up the ramp, leaving the hoverchair behind.

After plopping him down unceremoniously in the chair next to the lamp, Val realized he liked sitting there himself, so he quickly picked him up and set him on the couch, just in case. “There. Now, what was it you wanted again?” he asked.

A clump of green pistachio ice cream melted out of the carton, landing on the floor below with a splat.

Lief​

 

[Lief]

Val's drive-by assessment of Eliphas' present state was a little jarring, but at the same time it was somewhat of a relief to hear someone say so bluntly what he knew to be true. It was easy for others to say it would be okay, that in time he'd be back on his feet, or that it wasn't such a big deal if he found himself forever stuck in the damned thing. At least Val knew it for what it was.​

​

"I can't stand it" he retorted, with a huff. He simultaneously sounded frustrated and relieved all wrapped into one little bundle. "I'm useless, I can't do anything!"​

​

Pulled from the hoverchair, he was reminded yet again of how fragile his present state was. Like lifting a child... It took little to no effort for any who tried, and that only left him feeling more shame. Even more helpless. "But, I nee--" He trailed off, it was pointless trying to reason with a man like Val. He only realized when he was set down into a chair that it was the closest he'd ever actually been to the man.​

​

That blush deepened. Thankfully it was over though.​

​

Or... It should have been. Instead he was hoisted up and plopped down onto a couch instead. He caught a brief whiff of Val's scent, and immediately regretted doing so. Way out of your league he reminded himself, nevermind the fact that Val was significantly older... and crazy.​

​

Now that he was done playing musical chairs they could focus on the crux of the issue, though the sound of dripping ice cream certainly tore his attention away from the dancer himself. He stared at where it fell, then lifted his gaze up to the lamp itself, and the carton of ice cream acting as a shade. Did he even want to know..? It smelled good at least.​

​

Shame that it had gone to waste.​

​

"Oh, yeah, erm... I.. I thought that maybe, you know, you'd know what I could do make the most of ... this..." He frowned, it was easy to fumble through his words when around Drutin. "I don't even know if I can be a Jedi like this... Well, definitely not a Guardian like I'd hoped. Is that it? Do I just give up on it?" He supposed he could become a Consular, focus on helping others in different ways, but even that seemed rather out of reach.​

​

Val Drutin ​

 

[Val Drutin]

Eliphas started whining. Val listened for a few minutes as he sputtered on about his infirmity, before eventually he got tired of it. With a sudden wordless scream, he interrupted the boy in the middle of his meandering ramble, hoping to startle him out of his depression.

“No quitting!” he exclaimed, resting his hands on his hips. “Either you learn to walk again, or you learn how to fly! I tried to get you to float the last time we met, but you refused!”

He grabbed one of Eli’s feet, examining it as if that would tell him what was wrong. Weirdly enough, it seemed to work. “Your muscles are all gone, atrophied. What have you been eating?”

Lief​

 

[Lief]

The scream certainly worked in shutting Eliphas up.​

​

He stared, wide-eyed, at the dancer, as he ridiculed him for his lack of motivation, and the push he felt toward defeatism. Hands on his hip, Val reminded him that there had in fact been a time when a real solution to this issue had been offered before it was even needed, he had once tried to teach Eliphas to fly. Of course, threatening to throw him off the top of a hotel rooftop garden wasn't the most encouraging way to get that job done.​

​

Eliphas realized glumly that Starlin had tried similar too back on Kashyyyk. Managed to get him to float a teensy bit. Either way if he'd worked a little harder on his telekinetic abilities he likely wouldn't be feeling so hemmed in and helpless would he?​

​

Nothing was said until Val prodded at one of his feet and finally realized the state of atrophy which had overcome him. "Pudding" he responded without thinking, before he shook his head and realized it wasn't the pudding's fault at all. "I was in a coma, over a year... It's proving harder than I realized to rebuild any semblance of strength."​

​

Frowning, he flexed his foot slightly in Val's grasp - at least he had some motor control, but it definitely wasn't much.​

​

"And I... I'm struggling to upkeep a connection to the Force." Sheepishly he looked away, clearly ashamed of the state he'd found himself in. "I don't want to give up" he assured the man, "I just... Don't know what to do, Mister Drutin."​

​

Val Drutin ​

 

[Val Drutin]

Val stared at him. “Pudding? Are you crazy?” He poked and prodded Eli’s foot, trying to trigger his reflexes. It looked like the boy’s nerves were all still intact, he was just frightfully weak. “Steak and ice cream. That’s your new diet.”

With that, he plucked the carton of ice cream off the lamp as if he were about to offer it to the boy, but then thought better of it and stuck it back on the lamp, going to the freezer instead. “What flavor?” he asked. “I always buy the entire stock.”

After Eli had chosen, Val gave him a pint of ice cream and a fork to eat it with. “You should’ve slept for a few centuries. The vampires do it, and look at them.” He held up a finger. “The Force is like a muscle too. If you don’t use it, it will atrophy. Now, if you are practicing, but you’ve still got a Force-block, then there may be something else going on…”

Lief​

 

[Lief]

"No," he responded, when Val accused him of being crazy, "I just-- ow --nothing else-- ugh --agrees with my stomach." The prodding was more uncomfortable than it probably should have been, his feet were extra tender and sensitive given how little they were used. "I throw up more than I eat."​

​

Steak and ice cream. That was what Val was prescribing him? Protein and calcium... It did make a little sense he supposed, though the mere thought of meat had his stomach churning. He watched as Val plucked the carton from the lamp, then stuck it back in place. Apparently some semblance of sense overcame him, because he ventured to the freezer to offer out fresh pints.​

​

The whole stock. Why wasn't Eliphas surprised? A slightly crooked smile played over his lips, it was a little endearing wasn't it? The thought of him buying out a shop's worth of ice cream. "Surprise me" he said with a shrug, "I've never had ice cream." He'd encountered a lot of firsts since joining the Jedi. Pizza, holo-shows, sweets. Back on Teta he'd had a much more... refined... palette.​

​

Being handed a fork for what he knew was typically eaten with a spoon (he'd seen some holo flicks with Iris Arani which showed as much, after all) was par for the course at this point. He was frankly surprised it wasn't some other bizarre utensil. He scraped a little off the top with the edge of the fork as Val explained that the Force had to be used just as much as a muscle did, though rather than bring it to his mouth he gave it a little cautionary sniff.​

​

"Something else?" he asked, a very slight waver in his voice. "I keep trying, but... I don't know, it's like wading through water while my feet are stuck sinking in sand. It's there, I can feel it, it's just... clumsy. Hard to grasp at." He didn't know how best to explain it. "I can manage the spells Starlin taught me, for the most part, but every attempt I've made at something else either hasn't worked or has taken several attempts to do something basic."​

​

The training room strewn with training sabers came to mind. He gulped, and looked down into his lap. "I managed it when I was frustrated" he admitted, "But, I don't want it to have to be like that... The Jedi teach peace and serenity, working with the Force not, well, forcing it..." But Val wasn't a Jedi. Maybe he knew something Eliphas didn't.​

​

Val Drutin ​

 

[Val Drutin]

“You’re one of the weirdest people I’ve ever met,” Val said as he pulled out a pint of bourbon blue milk ice cream and handed it to the boy. “Never had ice cream, refuses to fly…”

He got himself plain vanilla and proceeded to eat it with a spatula, his preferred utensil. Eli didn’t seem to have a clue what the problem was. “Sounds like the problem is you,” he remarked.

“Well, why not use your frustration? As long as it works.”

Lief​

 

[Lief]

Eliphas couldn't decide if it was a compliment or not to be called one of the weirdest people Val Drutin had ever met. Probably not, given that it was due to factors such as his eating habits and willingness to throw himself off high rises for chits and giggles, but then again who knew.​

​

He stared at the pint-sized container and felt his brows furrowing together of their own accord as he read the label. "Bourbon?" he said, though even as he made his skeptical remark he lifted off the lid to reveal the soft blue ice cream inside, complete with some sort of honeyed swirl, "I'm not going to get drunk from eating this, right..?"​

​

Frankly he had no clue. Growing up he'd been permitted a tiny glass of wine here or there during important meals, but it was never enough to get him feeling even buzzed and he had the distinct impression it had been lightly watered down. Still it served to take away any mystery and intrigue when it came to alcohol, there was no rebellious urge to sneak some from the wine cellar or their father's liquor cabinet because it wasn't shown to be some weird taboo thing.​

​

"My mother was pretty conscious about what we ate" he said with a small shrug, as though feeling the need to excuse himself for never having tried the treat before. "We didn't have a single holoscreen in our estate... I only recently learned how strange that is for a developed civilization. We were raised on the theater instead." An appreciative glimmer entered his eyes when he said that, it was truly a treat.​

​

Maybe that explained why he'd felt drawn toward Val, despite his... eccentricities.​

​

"Always dreamed of getting up there myself..." An opportunity had never arisen though, and now it was too late. He was a Jedi, after all. That held his focus.​

​

He realized he was rambling again, and quickly shut up so that Val could say his piece. Eliphas watched as Val scooped his ice cream with a spatula of all things, and finally took a little bite from his fork. That was apparently a mistake, he felt his teeth jolt in response and instinctively dropped the fork. "Gah!" For a moment it might have been easy to assume it was the flavour, but once the sensation in his teeth subsided he discovered he actually rather liked it.​

​

No, it wasn't the taste. "People choose to eat this? I've never had sensitive teeth... How do people bite this?"​

​

His moment of confusion was underlined quite abruptly by Val's suggestion that he use the frustration to his advantage. Eliphas' jaw dropped slightly, and after a few seconds of gawping in disbelief he shook his head. "Doesn't that go against the Jedi way?" he asked, "Aren't I supposed to do away with all of that? Frustration, fear, anger..."​

​

... Probably sadness too, though as of late that had been one of the few things Eliphas had been capable of feeling.​

​

Val Drutin ​

 

[Val Drutin]

"I'm not going to get drunk from eating this, right..?"

Val paused, his mouth full of vanilla ice cream, then nodded his head. “No,” he said after he had swallowed.

While he listened to Eli yak about his childhood, he pulled a piece of steak from the freezer to thaw. “Well, you won’t be doing any dancing if you can’t even stand up,” he remarked. Dancing was all the theater was for, as far as he was concerned. “Maybe eventually we can dance together. That should help.”

He turned around just in time to watch Eli take a bite of ice cream and freak out. Curious, he took a bite himself, and had a similar reaction. “Gah! Why did I do that?! I feel like an idiot!”

"People choose to eat this?"

“You’re eating it because I told you to,” Val pointed out. “And I only told you to eat it because I heard once that when Darth Vader was training someone, he made them eat steak and ice cream until they threw up. Apparently it builds muscle mass, which is what you need.” He tapped his forehead with his finger to show how smart he was.

“The Jedi way? What’s that got to do with it?” He threw his spatula over his shoulder and stuck the remainder of his ice cream on yet another lamp, this time purely for decoration. “There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in Jedi philosophy.” He hopped up onto the back of the couch across from Eli, balancing upon it with the ease of a funambulist walking a tightrope. “Besides, why suppress yourself when you could express yourself? Let it all hang out, be free!” He stepped down onto the cushions, reclining on his side. “Take a walk on the wild side.”

Lief​

 

[Lief]

Val nodded, and Eliphas made to push the pint of ice cream away... At least until he stated no. It wouldn't. He rubbed the fingertips of his left hand against the same temple, certain he could feel a migraine coming on from mere proximity with Val, all while watching as the manic dancer pulled steak from the freezer and set it to thaw. Oh... He really wasn't joking, was he? Eli would have to eat something proper...​

​

"You'd dance with me?" he asked before he could hold the words back, a flurry of excitement and nerves setting his stomach alight. First he had to walk again though, didn't he? Or... Fly? "I guess that could be fun" he added, trying to force an air of indifference. Val followed suit and took a bite of the ice cream, which also made Eliphas' teeth tingle and his skin crawl vicariously.​

​

"Wait, this is something a Sith Lord suggested?" Why would he expect anything different from this man? It was true though he did need muscle mass. So he scooped another bit of ice cream onto his fork, only this time he avoided biting down on it. Let it melt on his tongue instead as Val questioned his Jedi path.​

​

"Well, I mean, I am a Jedi" he retorted, with a soft frown. His gaze trailed Val as the man balanced himself on the back of the sofa, eyes wide and filled with awe as he was momentarily mesmerized by the sight. "If I let it out, I doubt I'll ever get it back in again" came his quiet confession, "Then the Jedi will expel me, and Starlin will hate me, and I can't go back to Empress Teta because nobody's going to be there anymore, so I'll be alone, and homeless, and aimless.... Probably won't even have the hoverchair. And then what..?"​

​

Eliphas didn't realize he was hyperventilating.​

​

Val Drutin ​

 

[Val Drutin]

“I’ll dance with anybody, provided they don’t have two left feet,” Val replied. “You saw me dance with Tamara, right? Wait, no, that was Miri… Speaking of Tamara, she’s busted. Got hit by a speeder. I’ve had her sitting in bits and pieces in the cargo hold until I can scrape together enough cash to have her fixed. You wouldn’t happen to be good at fixing highly complicated HRDs, would you?”

"Wait, this is something a Sith Lord suggested?"

“I dunno if I could call Darth Vader a Sith Lord. He was powerful, but he didn’t kill Palpatine until he turned back to the Light. Killing your master is part of the process of becoming the new Dark Lord.” Val spoke of all this casually, as if he were simply explaining a job.

"Well, I mean, I am a Jedi."

“Really? I never would’ve guessed.” His tone was not at all sarcastic. “I thought you were a pet food tester. Or maybe a fake mourner. Or a teddy bear surgeon…”

Stretching out on the couch, Val put his arms behind his head and took a short nap while Eli babbled about becoming homeless. “Stop mouth-breathing,” he commanded.

“You do realize that bottling everything up is just going to make things worse, right?” he said. “You can only hold so much before you explode—and then you might hurt somebody. You’ll definitely hurt yourself. It’s better to let it out before the pressure builds up.” He shrugged. “What are you feeling right now? Angry? Sad? Afraid? Frustrated?”

Lief​

 

[Lief]

Eliphas glanced down at his feet and wiggled both sets of toes in unison. One left, one right, certainly not two left feet! Did that mean they could dance, when he was back on his feet? At least try to... Provided Val didn't find him wholly helpless when it came to such things. He'd certainly know, being the manic dancer and all.​

​

"I don't know anything about mechanics, outside of a ship," he explained, a soft frown playing over his expression upon hearing the news. First Teta, and maybe his family, then Nimdok, and now Tamara? Did the Galaxy want to throw anything more his way? "I uh... I have some savings, though. I liked Tamara, she was nice, I can spot you if you'd like..?"​

​

It didn't seem right to let her sit waiting to be repaired like that, not if he had the means to help. Granted he wasn't sure how much longer he'd have any income, but what he did have was safely tucked away.​

​

Val spoke more on Vader, and the fact that he wasn't technically a Lord, which only had Eli shaking his head in bemusement. It wasn't that which elicited a response from him though, it was what came next...​

​

"A teddy bear surgeon would certainly be easier" he remarked, though his mind was stuck on the notion of fake mourner. He wasn't faking it, even if he was having a hard time letting it all out. He wasn't faking it, right?​

​

By the time the command to shut up came, Eli's eyes had begun to fill with tears. His breathing was ragged, and his body stiff. Val's sudden words snapped him out of his spiral of self-induced misery, but in doing so it pulled at the last of his willpower, that which was keeping the dam from imploding. His head fell into his hands, and Eliphas just sobbed.​

​

"I promised her I'd see her again" he whimpered, words broken up by choked sobs. "I feel awful, I'm the worst. I hate that she died thinking I lied..."​

​

One hand rose and he wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. Another sniffle, and he peered over at Val though it was nigh on impossible to cease the tears by now. Empress, he must have looked a mess. Like a whining little baby. He hid his face again, this time shame was driving him. Shame and embarrassment. He'd ruined any chance he might have had, however slim, hadn't he? There was no way the dancer would ever let him live past this moment.​

​

You never had a chance anyway he reminded himself.​

​

Val Drutin ​

 

[Val Drutin]

“Spot me?” Val echoed. “What do you mean, spot me?”

He sounded a bit paranoid, as if he thought Eli might be watching him. But as was so often the case with Val, his mood swung like a pendulum in a matter of moments.

“Oh, I don’t know. Have you seen all the stuffing in teddy bears? Seems like a lot to rifle through without hurting them.” He smiled. “But you do seem the type for that sort of delicate work. Needles and thread, not lightsabers. Mind the teeth, though.”

To his bamboozlement, Eli began to cry and sob. He wailed about some woman or girl or creature of the feminine persuasion whom he had promised to see again, whining that she would think he lied and blah, blah, blah. Typical. With a sigh and shrug, Val reached down, took Eli’s tear-streaked face in his hands, and proceeded to shut him up by sticking his tongue down his throat.

"Ew," he said afterwards, wiping a bit of blue ice cream from his mouth that had been transmitted via the kiss. "Now pull yourself together! Crying may be a release, but it solves nothing. What are you going to do about your problems, Eli? Are you going to face them, or are you going to cower and whimper?"

Lief​

 

[Lief]

"Uh.. Give you the, um, money..? So she can be fixed..?"​

​

Val seemed wholly suspicious of the whole thing, which led to Eliphas' eyes widening further. Thankfully that paranoia didn't last long, and nothing came of it, so he sighed a breath of relief and focused on the matter of teddy bears.​

​

"I'm not afraid of a little stuffing" he said with a shrug, "Easier to work on inanimate objects than deal with people all day..." Or the Force. Oh, why had it forsaken him so? "I do like sewing..."​

​

But no, he was a Jedi. That wouldn't change, not if he could help it. Besides, if he wasn't a Jedi then what was he? Certainly not a Noble from Empress Teta, not any longer. Likely just an orphan, strewn to the stars. He shuddered at that thought, and proceeded to bawl.​

​

Not for the first time Val was led to more drastic tactics to get the results he sought. Yelling hadn't helped, nor had ice cream, or even the tears themselves. The only logical next step in the manic dancer's mind was to... kiss him?​

​

For a moment the world seemed to pause. No more tears or sobs, he just sat there paralyzed. It didn't last long, of course, certainly not as long as Eliphas might have liked, but it worked to stun him out of his emotionally raw state. He even managed to kiss back, though awkwardly only as Val was already wrapping up.​

​

That the man responded with ew didn't help matters. Eliphas turned bright pink, and this time when he hid his face it was not because he was crying.​

​

"What'd you do that for?" he mumbled, hoping and praying that his reciprocation hadn't been noticed. Eliphas wiped his eyes, removing the residual tears which streaked down his cheeks, then shivered. His mind couldn't quite catch up with what had just happened.​

​

Val had kissed him. Whether to shut him up or otherwise, he'd actually kissed him... The butterflies in his stomach became all the more incessant, and his lips felt alight. Certainly one way to distract from his woe-is-me act.​

​

"I want to face them" he confessed, "But I don't know how..." He paused, then shook his head. No, he knew how. That wasn't his fumbling point. His head hung lower, in shame. "I'm afraid to find out the truth. How do you do it?" Finally he lifted his head again, and glanced over at Val. Even that simple act lit up his cheeks again. "How do you find the courage and confidence to do something difficult? You get up on stage in front of so many people... Doesn't that make you nervous?"​

​

Val Drutin ​

 

[Val Drutin]

"Uh.. Give you the, um, money..? So she can be fixed..?"

“Oh.” Val frowned. “Well, you could’ve just said so. I’d certainly appreciate it—the ballet company pays me in peanuts and pocket lint.”

He didn’t have much more to say on the topic of teddy bear surgery, and he couldn’t talk while he was kissing Eli. But it seemed to work. Eli was shocked out of his grief.

"What'd you do that for?"

“To get you to stop angsting,” Val replied.

"How do you find the courage and confidence to do something difficult? You get up on stage in front of so many people... Doesn't that make you nervous?"

“You picked a bad comparison,” Val said. A dreamy expression crossed his features. “When I dance on stage, I am in communion with the audience. It’s spiritual, euphoric. Being afraid of the truth is nothing like that.” He seemed to grow slightly bitter at the thought, returning to the kitchen to check the thawed steak. “You’re ill-equipped to face your fears, for one. On top of that, deep down you don’t really want to know the truth. You’ll have to grow stronger, and you need to want to find out what became of her.” Satisfied with the steak, he fired up the stove and tossed it in a pan to cook.

Lief​

 

[Lief]

"Oh..." Maybe he should have said it a little more plainly, though he knew first hand that some people were weird about accepting favours and 'charity'. Frankly Eliphas didn't see it as either, Tamara was a person in his eyes, mechanical or otherwise, she deserved to keep on existing. "Well, uh, when you find someone who can fix her, give me a call. I'll sort out the payment."​

​

It took him a moment to realize that Val likely didn't have his comm details, so he wrote them down on the scrap of paper he'd taken to keeping in his pocket, and offered it out.​

​

That was before chaos ensued.​

​

Certainly the shock factor had helped, but the sadness which had been wrought within him was replaced by sheer confusion instead. How did one respond to their crush kissing them just to get them to shut up? There had been no feelings behind it, it hadn't meant anything. So why did his insides feel all... funny..?​

​

"Do you kiss everyone you're tired of listening to?" he asked, tone unintentionally coy. As Val spoke on the experience he had on stage, Eli's heart skipped a few beats. There was something about that dreamlike look in his eye that was endearing and alluring both. He bit down on the inside of his lip to try and regain some sense, letting out a sigh of relief when Drutin's back was to him while he tended to the steak.​

​

Of course that just gave him a whole different view to-- No. Stop it.​

​

Eli blinked and looked away, taking in all that the man had to say... However painful to hear it was. Was he really so ill-equipped? Was he really so weak?​

​

"I do want to know" he said, a little more firm in his approach this time, "I need to know... Isn't that enough?" How did one become stronger? Heck, Eliphas wasn't even strong enough to stand much less face the reality of his family's fate.​

​

"What would you do?"​

​

Val Drutin ​

 

[Val Drutin]

"Do you kiss everyone you're tired of listening to?"

Val seemed to seriously consider the question, thinking hard on his past exploits. “No,” he finally answered. “You are the first. But since it worked so well, maybe I’ll do it to more people in the future.”

Eli insisted that he did want to know, that he needed to know the truth. “Those two things are not mutually exclusive,” Val pointed out, flipping the steak over. “You may know that you need to know, intellectually, but actually wanting to know is different. Ye ken?”

"What would you do?"

“I would dance.” He shrugged. “I always dance.”

Finishing the steak, he stuffed it into a glass tankard and handed it to Eli. “If you don’t eat this, I swear, I will kiss you again,” he threatened.

Lief​