Accord // Canon

[birdsbirdsbirds]

You'd think he'd be exhausted, given the day he's had.

He'd barely waited until they were in the door to pounce on Tek again, though the addition of four walls made him less violent and a dozen times more confident. He'd dragged him in a slow, indulgent trail across the hideout until they finally made it to the bed they're in now. And who knows how much time they spent there... before they finally settled down to sleep.

The room's dark, now, and quiet. Robin is half-tangled in sheets, his back pressed lightly against Tek's chest. By all rights, he should be fast asleep, dead to the world--but sometime during that darkness and quiet, he stirs. His fingertips twitch, his eyelids flutter with unspoken dreams. He makes the smallest of sounds, a barely-audible whine.

Comments

[heresyandlace]

It's just some subtle revenge, Robin. You know how it goes. Making himself feel better after being put in an awkward place. Just evening the playing field a little bit.

"Oh, I don't know. They're not terribly common, but some people do."

He would know--he can't help but notice these things. It's all part of the job.

[birdsbirdsbirds]

Disgruntled, he reaches up and tugs on a strand of Tek's hair. He doesn't mean for it to hurt, just to be obnoxious. A nonverbal suggestion to cut it out before he rests his head again.

"I told you I'd think about it. Don't be a brat."

[heresyandlace]

"Fine, fine."

He wriggles a little, gets comfortable, shrugs his arms up higher and closer around Robin's shoulders. Going back to something like how he'd been comforting him before.

It's not an apology, but it might be a distant relative to it.

"You should sleep anyway."

[birdsbirdsbirds]

He recognizes that this is Tek giving up without a fight, so he doesn't shoot back. He reaches for the sheets again and pulls them up so that his legs are covered and surrenders with a sinking comfort into the feeling of being held.

"I will."

He closes his eyes. Focuses on the sluggish way Tek's heart beats in his chest.

"No more bad dreams."

[heresyandlace]

Somewhere in there, after Robin settles and drifts, Tek actually manages to find some sleep for himself. Not wanting to do anymore thinking probably helps, forcing his mind to wander until it gives up and rests.

It only lasts until the sun shows its face, however. The light sneaks in and nags him out of sleep, pushes him away from Robin and to the edge of bed. He stretches and hangs his legs down to the floor...

...And that's when he notices the marks on his thighs.

It takes him a minute or so to remember where the deep smudges of black--conveniently arranged like fingertips--could have come from. And when it clicks, he's hissing and shoving himself up off the bed, going right for the little mirror on the table.

He's not amused with what he finds.

"--Nahaa mai, my face!"

[birdsbirdsbirds]

He's awakened by noise, dragged out of a deep sleep by someone shouting. It takes him a minute to realize he's actually even conscious and that the bleary view of the bunched up bedding in front of him isn't a dream.

He makes a non-committed noise, muffled as he drags his arms and legs up towards his chest. Something's going on, he guesses.

So he asks an unintelligible question into his pillow, closing his eyes in the hopes that whatever it is doesn't actually need him around to deal with it.

[heresyandlace]

He hadn't decided on what he was going to do about his irritating dilemma, but seeing Robin try to curl back up and go back to sleep at least gives him a starting point. It gives him a target.

He doesn't really stop to look at what he picks up, aside from vaguely registering the fact that it doesn't seem too expensive or breakable, before he whips it at where Robin is so comfortably resting.

[birdsbirdsbirds]

And then something hits him in the back of the head.

"Fuck!" Shouted from where he's scrunched up, the first nearly-awake-sounding thing he's managed. He pushes himself up while feeling at the back of his head, trying to figure out what's just happened.

"What the fuck, ow...!" He blinks at the room, looks around. "What's going on? What time is it...? What did you--" When he fixes on Tek properly, he squints, "...What happened to your face?"

[heresyandlace]

Oh, that was the wrong thing to ask. He'd almost started to take comfort in Robin's pain and bewilderment... but then he had to go and say that.

So, he growls, and has to grab and throw the next thing he can get his hands on from that table, before he can manage words again.

"What do you think happened to my face? You happened to my face!"

[birdsbirdsbirds]

He reacts much faster than he should. The heavy object is snatched out of the air right before it can hit him in the face, and it's just through force of will that it doesn't get immediately thrown back in Tek's direction.

Instead he tosses it limply onto the bed in front of him, throwing off the covers to stand up and walk over and see just what the hell happened to him. He was expecting bruises, but what he's looking at is darker, like someone smeared ink on his face and the stains stuck around.

"What, really?" He leans over to take a really good look, his face going in all the wrong ways--smiling, where he should probably be concerned. He almost looks proud. "I didn't think you were so delicate."

[heresyandlace]

He just sticks Robin with the most withering glare, and seems very much like he's considering lashing out again... but his attention is inevitably dragged back to the mirror. He literally cannot help it. As angry as he is at him, his focus is his own reflection.

Bites of black and purple lead up his neck like tally marks, from collarbone to too-high up onto his jawline. There isn't a collar high enough that could cover all that up.

And then there's his lip, with a split notched into it. It's a small wound, but by now the little thing hurts.

He'd expected some marks with how he remembers Robin's teeth having felt... but he hadn't expected it to be this bad. The sight of his own face in the mirror causes his shoulders to droop, expression falling to something nearly mournful.

He tentatively touches at the bitemark on his mouth. "I can't believe this..."

[birdsbirdsbirds]

He's torn between sympathizing and wanting to laugh at him for being such a baby. One hand reaching around to his far shoulder, he darts in to kiss one of the bruises along his neck whether he likes it or not.

"I think they're beautiful." He says it without the slightest hint of jest or provocation. He sounds sincere. But he's also biased, being rather fond of the idea that someone who acts as untouchable as Tek looks so thoroughly claimed.

He did all that. And he'd like everyone to see.

[heresyandlace]

Hopefully he darts quickly, because it just so happens that Tek doesn't like it, and flips a hand back to smack at Robin's face as soon as he gets close.

"It's awful."

He groans and tilts his head, one way and then the other, running fingers despairingly along the line of marks.

"I can't go anywhere looking like this."

[birdsbirdsbirds]

He just dodges it. He already got hit by something else this morning; he's done his duty.

"Hey, hey, hey. Stop wilting, I can fix it. Just don't hit me this time, all right?"

He'll then reach over with the intention of brushing his thumb over the split in Tek's lip. Even if he's smacked away again, he'll focus his energy there, carefully sweeping away the dying blood cells and stitching up all of the intricately little things that have been broken.

[heresyandlace]

He doesn't smack him away until he feels something moving. It's like his own blood is crawling, a creeping horrible feeling like bugs in his veins, and that is when he reflexively bats the hand away from his face.

His own hand immediately goes to cover his mouth.

"--What was that?"

[birdsbirdsbirds]

"Fixing it."

He expected as much. But he reaches towards the mirrored hand this time, pulls it back into place so that Tek can see what he's done. He's planning on helping whether Tek wants him to or not, so he wants to at least let him know that he's doing it for a good reason.

"Here. Look."

The split in his lip should be gone. That's always the easiest part. The swelling's going down even as Robin looks at it. Soon it will feel like nothing was ever wrong.

[heresyandlace]

He's conflicted. So, even though he seems to be relieved that the wound is magically disappearing, he grimaces.

"What is that? What did you do?"

So very caught between tentative gratitude... and everything else like disapproval, suspicion, disgust.

[birdsbirdsbirds]

Robin, meanwhile, busies himself with brushing his fingers over the rest of Tek's bruises. Not doing anything, but just memorizing them. Basking in the fact that he's changed Tek at all, even if it's only temporary.

"That? That's just a little trick." He taps his shoulder. "I wouldn't be a good King if it couldn't fix up little things like this, you know?"

[heresyandlace]

Oh, he has got to be kidding him. Tek just turns and fixes Robin with the flattest, most utterly unimpressed look he can conjure.

If he hadn't been so set on leveling the look so directly on him, it would have been an eyeroll.

[birdsbirdsbirds]

His smirk drops when he gets that look. Mostly because he doesn't get what he did to deserve a look like that.

"What?" He makes a face back, scrunching his mouth to the side. "Do you want me to fix it, or not?"

[heresyandlace]

Ah, and there is the eyeroll. And, truth be told, he isn't sure whether he wants Robin to fix him or not. He wants the marks gone, but he doesn't like this--the feel of it, and the self-satisfaction Robin's getting out of it. He's not sure how it all weighs out.

So, he thinks about it. Looking back to the mirror, running fingers despondently along the length of his own neck.

[birdsbirdsbirds]

Of course. Of course. Tek couldn't just make this nice and easy for him--he had to disappear into his own overly calculating head and weigh his options and blah blah blah. Robin isn't really one for calculation. As they established, he's one to float around the surface.

So he leaves Tek for a moment, walks to where his pants are crumpled somewhere near the door, gets them up over his legs. He takes a couple of minutes to at least locate whatever clothes actually made it up here... but eventually wanders back over to where Tek is still pondering.

He sighs. "Tega, just hold still. I'll fix the rest of it."

And with that being said, he'll try to reach for and fix the other bruises along Tek's neck.

[heresyandlace]

He huffs under his breath, looks a little fussy about the whole thing, but doesn't actually carry through with stopping him. His hands hover and mouth presses flat, but... fine. Fix him. Whatever. Get it over with.

[birdsbirdsbirds]

And he does. Goes all the way down his neck and jaw and any other marks that were left there. He keeps a particular one on his shoulder that he really likes, but that'll be covered by a sleeve anyway.

"You'll thank me," he starts to say, finishing up the last of it. But he changes his mind, "No, you won't. But the framework will be there."

Soon he's all done. Tek's precious face is all better.

[heresyandlace]

The one on his shoulder and the set on his legs don't bother him so much, since covering them will be easy. And that happens to be the very next thing on his agenda.

Turning his back on Robin, he goes to collect up his own articles of clothing (though he's fairly sure his shirt is downstairs. And his boots.) and work on covering up the remaining marks.

"Why would I thank you? It's your fault in the first place."