![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Church Sourc 8
It's almost forty-five minutes later, when Claude's nicely pruned, that he finally sighs and stirs in the bath. He experimentally tries to pull away from Dimitri, to see if those arms around his waist let him go. (He has his suspicions how this is going to end up, but he can't resist checking. It wouldn't hurt if he could slip out and do some of the cooking while Dimitri gets a well-deserved nap...although, then again, maybe it's better to supervise him. It'd be a shitty ending if Dimitri drowned in the tub.)
--
That's a very optimistic view, Claude.
One that immediately fails as Dimitri's arms fail to unwrap in any way whatsoever, and in fact even seem to tighten. A small sort of chirrup leaves him, and he blearily opens his eye.
--
That is exactly what Claude expected to happen, even if he was going to test the other possibility.
That little, unexpected sound fascinates and delights him, and Claude grins over his shoulder at Dimitri. "I think if we want to eat tonight, we have to get out of the tub. Besides, we'll probably get heatstroke or something if we let it keep simmering us."
--
"...Comfortable..." It's a mild protest, driven more by sleepiness than any sense, and Dimitri even tries to pull Claude back down again more securely against his chest. If any progress is to be made, he may need to wake him up a little more first.
--
Claude lets himself be pulled back, only to turn his head and lean up to press his lips to the underside of Dimitri's jaw. (He's that much smaller than Dimitri, and settled between his legs besides, that this is easy enough.) The feeling of fur against his lips is unusual, but not unpleasant.
Claude's never actually been with an Intseh before, in a romantic or sexual sense, though it hasn't been so much from a lack of interest on his part. (Almyrans are considered the extreme end of what Intseh find distasteful about human culture, which has been kind of awkward for him at times. Fortunately the Intseh aren't nearly as systematically hostile about their intolerance as the church is.) There are things he's going to have to accommodate to here, just as Dimitri has his own things to adjust to. That intrigues Claude rather than worries him, however.
Claude decides to take something of a risk. He lifts a dripping arm out of the water to curve up around Dimitri's head, grazing wrinkled fingertips experimentally along one of the Intseh's horns.
--
Something about the gentleness in Claude's actions, both that soft kiss to his jaw and the fingers at his horn, only seems to relax Dimitri further, and his eye slides shut again. His horns aren't particularly sensitive, after all, being what they're made of. He can feel Claude's touch, faintly... but only so much the movement as it translates from horn down to the rest of his head. Right now, that's faint enough to be relaxing instead of anything else.
--
Claude notes this reaction for future reference. He slides his hand down Dimitri's head from his horn, fingers tracing the point of his ear down along the curve of it...
...and then he slides his wet finger into Dimitri's ear. Grinning like a fiend.
--
WELL THAT'S CERTAINLY ONE WAY TO WAKE SOMEONE UP.
It's a good thing that Claude is between Dimitri's legs, because they promptly go jerking everywhere, much like his arms, and even that might not save him from getting a knee smacking to his ribs depending on how unlucky he is. Dimitri jerks his head away, fangs bared in something more befuddlement than actual threat, and he slaps one hand along his ear. Judging by the wide state of his eye, no one can say he's dozing now.
--
Claude might get jostled, but he doesn't care. He loses it completely. Practically howling with laughter, holding his stomach, having to fight to keep himself upright enough in the tub so that he doesn't get a mouthful of water. Dimitri's never heard him laugh like this and may not appreciate it as much as he could under the circumstances, but - well, offensive as that might have been, that was really pretty mild for things Dimitri has had to endure.
--
It is the weirdest thing he has ever had to endure, which somehow has more of an impact. He was used to the abuse from the church, but.... this... what does he even count this as? Dimitri has no idea, only that Claude's laughter makes his ears flick down even further and his eye to narrow. Too out of it for the moment still, he draws one leg back so that he can push at Claude's chest with one foot until he's pinned at the other side of the bath tub.
"What was that for...?"
--
Claude finally recovers, swatting lightly at Dimitri's foot even as he grins. "I needed to wake you up. It really isn't healthy to be in a bath this hot for too long - probably especially for a guy with fur. Plus I'm hungry, and we've got food to make. We can both sleep once we have dinner - in a proper bed and everything."
His eyes dance. "Do you feel more awake now?"
--
"....You did not need to wake me up that way." His eye is a slit now. "And you are well aware. I see your tendency towards tricks has not lessened at all." Dimitri is positively huffing as he finally pulls his foot away from Claude so that he can get out of the tub. Getting out of the tub does do something for some drowsy light headedness he realizes he was developing.... but still.
An earlier thing he told Claude is coming more into play first, and it's that the feeling of wet fur is the worst. It was one thing when he was just laying in the tub, soaking. There's a difference between being submerged and being wet, after all. Now that he's out... Well, for someone with fur, there's only one action available.
With his whole body, Dimitri gives a shake so violent that water practically coats the whole bathroom.
--
"Ack!" Claude sputters when he's sprayed, even though he's still in the tub himself and not remotely dry to begin with. "Oh man, it's like having the world's biggest dog."
--
"How else do you expect me to dry?" Dimitri asks, working on the hair that's splattered onto his face. Having long hair of this kind is a pain, just a little bit.
--
"I never exactly thought about it before," Claude says, his tone the driest thing in the room. "But I would've thought, you know...maybe a towel?" He points to a couple that are hanging on a wooden bar on the wall.
--
"And I would have thought that you could wake me up with a shake to my shoulders, so I suppose we both now have a lesson to learn here." Still, he does venture over to the towels, picking one between his fingers for inspection. Needless to say, this is also a new concept.
--
Claude climbs out of the tub, making his way over and grabbing a towel himself. He admittedly has a much easier job of drying off to do than Dimitri does, but Dimitri can learn tips about using a towel just from watching Claude dry himself.
He'll also notice that, at some point, Claude took his braid out. This may become most noticeable when Claude absolutely dishevels his hair scrubbing it with the towel.
--
It's certainly very informative, and simple enough that it might actually stick as a lesson... Although it helps that Dimitri has managed to sleep, however a short while, and be woken into sharp consciousness. After a bit of watching, he grabs a towel for himself as well. While most of the water is now clearly off of him, well, some things could use the touching up- mainly his hair and some of his lower body.
At least changing won't take much, with how he only has pants, and he mimics Claude in where he puts his towel as well. Cloak and bag of honey candy in arms, he trails after the other once he's managed to get dressed as well. He'd heard something about food, after all, and he supposes it would be around time... although he isn't entirely sure. Cooking is a mysterious affair.
--
Claude heads into the pantry, grabbing a few carrots, some potatoes, half a head of garlic, a large red pepper, and an onion. These he brings back out into the main room, dumping them on a table. Then he pulls out a couple of knives - one of which he's going to go rinse off in the bathroom, since it was most recently used to cut Dimitri's hand and it seems kind of ghoulish to cut up vegetables with without washing it.
The spices he plans to use, of course, have already been brought out by Dimitri.
He glances at the Intseh. "Mind helping me cut these up? After I wash this knife, of course. I'll show you how, but it's really easy."
--
In the warm light of the cabin, the knife in Claude's hand really does look different, somehow. Strange to think how it was used not long ago to cut through his arm, and Dimitri begins to pick at the wet bandages still wrapped around his wrist. (That it needs changing isn't something he thinks about. The healing he's used to is more of the magical variety instead of natural.) Yet he stops almost immediately at Claude's question, immediately setting what two belongings he has to the side.
"I can?" There's an undercurrent of excitement laced in his voice. There hasn't been a lot he feels like he's been able to help with ever since Claude returned for him tonight, and it's left him reeling a little bit, helpless. The idea he can do something is... It feels like a focus of some sort. Good.
--
"Definitely. It won't even take a minute to teach you." Claude grins. "While I go wash this, how about you take the skin off the onions?" He points to them. "Just pull off the real crispy, papery stuff. It's no good for eating."
--
Truly his waxpaper training has come into use for once. Dimitri wastes no time in coming over, tail flicked up high. It's only onions, yet Dimitri gives a rather serious look to them as he immediately hunches up, carefully working his claws over the skin. It's a slightly new texture for him, but he does his best not to get distracted.
By the time Claude comes back from his washing, he's already managed to get through most of one, and he holds it out for inspection.
--
Claude grins. "You're doing great." He sits down at the table across from Dimitri, content to watch until he's finished. He knows Dimitri wants to make himself useful, to help Claude, and Claude is happy to give him easy opportunities until he's able to handle more challenging ones.
--
Confirmation that he's doing well in this task visibly relaxes Dimitri, shoulders slumping and tail flicking to and fro. "Good. I wasn't sure..." Well, he's not sure about a lot of things now, and he returns to his task. Still standing, admittedly. While he understands the chair... It's simply that he's exhausted, and not used to such things in relation to him. Eventually he'll realize it.... But for now, onions.
Once they're clean of all skin, with Dimitri carefully inspecting each one to his satisfaction, he looks up with another few flicks of his tail. "How do you cut things such as this?"
--
"Regretfully," Claude laughs. "Onions have something in them that makes your eyes sting. I mean, I don't know if that'll bother an Intseh the way it does a human, but it's a fact all the same."
He reaches out and snags one. "Don't wipe your eyes after cutting them until you've washed your hands, just as a warning." Then he cuts off the ends of the onion, brushing them aside, then halves it. Then he cuts it in crosshatch fashion, ending up with small pieces of onion. "If this way of cutting them is too hard for you, you don't actually have to do it this way. They naturally fall apart into rings, see?" He shows this off with the uncut half of his onion. "If you want, you can just cut the rings up into smaller pieces individually."
He points at his fingers with the knife. "A tip: keep your fingers curled under as much as you can while you cut. It makes it harder to accidentally cut yourself."
-
"It says something that we will eat things even though they actively harm us..." A light sting isn't as bad as some things, Dimitri supposes, but still. Eating it isn't what one would normally do, from what he understands. That's a conversation for another day. Tonight, he leans forward and watches Claude almost more than he really listens to him.
Listening is hard, after a lifetime of not really needing to because no one cared enough to speak to a demon. But watching? Watching he's done so much, both for lack of anything better to do in his cage and because it served him well in the execution ring. This is different from watching an enemy, to get an idea for their movements... but there's still that same base level of attentiveness, of committing it to memory.
"...I see." It doesn't sound hard, although Claude makes so much look easy that perhaps he's simply unaware of the true difficulty. Either way, he accepts a knife and lines up an onion carefully. There's some issues before he even begins, however. Instead of getting right into it, he tests his other hand along the onion, switching from curling his fingers to keeping his claws extended outwards. This happens a few times as Dimitri tests the feel of it, fairly certain this isn't something Claude has had to deal with... But he supposes it can't hurt to be cautious. He finally curls his fingers, claws against his palm slightly, and gets to work.
Not having used any sort of weapon or kitchen instrument before means it takes him a moment to figure out the exact pressure he needs to slice through an onion while also not just... jamming his knife directly into the table, and he jolts in surprise the first time it goes through to hit the table at all. After a while, however, he seems to adjust decently enough.
...Definitely feeling the affects of the onions, however. That much is more than obvious with how his nose begins to wrinkle up more and more, sole eye tearing up. With senses a little more keen than a human's, well... He's. not having a good time.
--
Claude's eyes are burning some, too, and he wipes at them with his wrist. "The good news is that the other vegetables don't do anything like this," he says with a wry grin. "Once we're finished with these, we can go dump them in the pot and wash our hands before we start on the other stuff."
--
"Why does it do this at all?" Dimitri hisses, ears laid flat back and his tail beginning to thrash about in pure aggravation. "What drove people to eat this?" He has a lot more questions on that front, but he doesn't spend as much time asking them as he might otherwise. Instead, he does his best to get through the cutting best he can, deferring to the easier option of cutting the rings individually.
--
"They taste delicious. Even raw, sometimes, although if you're going to eat raw onion it's usually only as a garnish for something else. Like a sandwich topping. It's really strong on its own. But when you cook them, the flavor mellows out and it gets really nice, and gives good flavor to other things." Claude smiles at Dimitri. "You could eat a small piece, if you want. If it's small enough, it won't be too unpleasant. Then you'll see how much different it is once it's in the stew."
--
It's almost a guarantee that Dimitri has had onions in some food or another in his long time in the church. (Whether it was cooked well or to its full potential is another story.) With the way he squints over at Claude, one would never know it, even as he takes just... a whole ring.
Listen. It's easier to pick up.
At least he doesn't spit it out, instead chewing on it while he continues with the miserable task of chopping onions. By the time he's satisfied that he's got all of the taste, he's mostly finished, and pushes the roughly minced onions towards Claude. "...People are strange."
--
Claude chuckles. "I'm not about to argue." He scoops up the onions and dumps them all in the pot. "C'mon, hand washing time. And while we're at it, we can wash the potatoes."
It's only a quick trip to the bathroom to rinse their hands, and the potatoes, under the shower head, and then they're back to the table. "Potatoes are easier than anything," Claude informs Dimitri cheerfully. "Honestly, it would've been better to do them first since they take the longest time to cook and absorb flavors, but since I started you on onions it felt like it was best to finish them up. But really, all you have to do is cut them into cubes small enough to fit in your mouth, which doesn't have to be that small. Look."
Claude cuts a potato in half, then into quarters, and then into cubes. It does indeed look extremely easy.
"Sometimes people peel them," he observes, "but we don't have to. Especially not for a stew."
--
Dimitri has never been more glad to be wet again.
He's still flicking his hands from side to side a little bit as he listens to claude, dead stare seeming just a little bit skeptical after what happened last time. A practical demonstration seems to assuage such worries, however. "It seems... less offensive than the onions."
A potato has never hurt anybody, and so already has a leg up on its competition as it is.
Unfortunately, Dimitri begins to find more practical trouble. Claude's potatoes seem so neat. Dimitri's are... a little rough. A little uneven. Lopsided. His tail begins to thrash from one side to the other again as he glares down at his work.
--
Claude laughs. "Hey, relax. They don't have to look perfect. They'll taste good just the same~." He pulls over a carrot. "Carrots are mostly simple; probably the hardest part is peeling them. You want to take the outer skin off without whittling the carrot down to nothing, you know? But once they're peeled, then you just cut them into discs, which couldn't be simpler." He tilts his head. "You can try to peel some if you want, but it's fine if I peel them and you just cut them up, too."
--
"I want them to be perfect." It's an illogical expectation of himself, he knows that... somewhere in his head. He's only just found freedom again, as much as a lot of it has yet to sink in with how much keeps happening. It's ridiculous to think he can get good at tasks he's had no cause or ability to do. But, then, perhaps that's exactly why he has such a desire.
He's tired, and ill-fitting, and wants to help.
The last one is all he'll be able to do for now, no matter how badly he thinks the job he's doing is, so Dimitri merely nods, taking up his own role as Claude peels the carrots and passes them over. At least this doesn't seem as hard as the potatoes, and the offense of them not perfectly matching in thickness seems to sting slightly less. Something it shares in common with the onions, then. "Then, next would be... either the garlic or the other one?"
--
"Garlic next." Claude grins. "These are fun. What you do is you take one, lay the flat of your knife over it, and - " He demonstrates, smacking down lightly on the flat of the blade. There's a slight crunch; when he lifts the knife, the clove is slightly deformed, but the skin is also much more detached and easy to peel off. "Don't crush them flat, though; that might be the hardest part for you. Once they're peeled, then we just cut them up fine. Honestly, I tend to cut 'em so small that you might want to leave it to me; garlic cloves are so small that your claws'll probably make it hard for you to deal with cutting them."
--
Sure enough, Dimitri's ears snap up at the crunch, and he leans forward to get a better idea of what he should be aiming for either now or in the near future. Although... "Should I not touch them at all, then."
-
"Hm? I can do the others, too, if that's what you'd prefer..." Claude tilts his head.
--
"...You do not think I will break it?"
...
"Or the table?"
--
Claude grins at him. "I think you've got more control than you give yourself credit for."
--
"I will remind you of that when you are lacking a table, then." Still, if he says so. Dimitri takes one of the cloves cautiously and mimics how he'd seen Claude do it. The first hit is far too light, as a result of holding himself back too much, and his mouth twists in displeasure. It takes a couple, steadily escalating, before he seems to find just the right amount of strength.
"....There." It was certainly a trial, but, hey, he managed it. In the meanwhile, he stretches his claws along the tabletop thoughtfully. "...I wonder how other Intseh cook..." He knows they do, after all.
--
"They use a lot of fish," Claude remarks, smiling at him. "Incidentally, I was thinking of catching some fresh fish to eat tomorrow."
One of the nice things about a cabin like this is that it's furnished for cooking. Claude might not be able to afford hauling around things like a cast iron pan or a heavy pot while he's traveling, but such things can be left at a place like this for anyone who uses the cabin. He can't imagine Dimitri will turn up his nose at some nice pan-fried fish.
--
Sure enough, there's a slow but interested swish of his tail visible from where Dimitri is standing. "...I would like to come for that." If just eating fish had been enough to make him so nostalgic... He wonders what other parts of him might be there waiting to be simply nudged.
--
"Okay. I can teach you how to fish, too." Claude smiles at him. "It's easy. And pretty boring most of the time. And if we don't get any bites, I can always use arrows to make sure we've got fish to take home." Claude has absolutely shot fish with a bow before.
--
"We will see." Dimitri likes to think that he's something of an expert on what constitutes as mind numbingly boring, after all, so he'll be the judge of that. For now, he simply draws himself into a low crouch with his arms crossed over the table for his chin to rest onto.
"...What is the red one called?"
--
Everything sounds approximately normal, exactly like one would expert to learn about a vegetable. Yet towards the end, Dimitri realizes that there's something extra, and he does a quick mental rewind. "...Laid flat?"
--
Claude laughs. "Cut it open and see for yourself."
--
Laughing like that only makes him more suspicious, and Dimitri keeps one narrowed eye focused on Claude before he takes the bell pepper. It only takes a short and quick bit of asking before he knows which way to cut. And when he does...
Staring. Just.... staring. His ears slowly lower. "...It's empty, Claude."
--
Claude grins. "That's what they're like. You eat the outside."
--
Dimitri doesn't look distressed. He just looks tired as he stares down at the bell pepper and then over at Claude. "Why."
--
Claude bursts out into full laughter now. "Because life's way too vast and varied to ever be predictable, Dimitri!"
--
"That isn't an explanation, Claude." If anything, it makes him want to go to sleep all the harder, because the night is clearly testing him in ways he's never been tested before, and he experimentally begins to prod his knife inside. "I thought vegetables... were full."
--
"Who says I've got one?" Claude shrugs and smiles. "They just are. And, weird as they might be, it works for them. I assume that, to peppers, that's all that actually matters."
--
"No answer, and yet you are content to laugh at me once more." This is nothing short of bullying. Dimitri surrenders to the fate of vegetables being unknowable. "Then, slice it until I can spread it... and cut it more."
--
"Mmhm. Thin strips. You can cut them in half to make them easier to eat once they're in strips, too." Claude rests his chin on his hand. "It doesn't matter how they look so much."
--
"Still..." It makes him feel a little better to try, once he's managed to get the pepper spread out relatively flat. Somehow it's soothing to see his wobbly strips become a little more uniform, with widths that don't go from narrow to wide in the same strip. It means it takes him a little longer than a regular person, but the tension has eased up from his shoulders when he's finally done.
-
Claude is deeply pleased by it as well. "All right," he instructs. "Now dump everything in the pot. Then you can have another nap, if you want."
--
Putting things in a pot is easy. Trusting Claude's particular words in this moment less so, and Dimitri's ears are very distinctly lowered as if trying to press into his head. "Will you wake me as you did last time?"
--
"I'll be nicer," Claude promises, looking mischievous. "Just make sure you actually get up when I wake you, if you don't want me to resort to drastic measures~."
--
That is the look of a man not to be trusted, and Dimitri slinks over to grab his cloak again. Instead of curling up in the middle of the room again, he instead just... slips right underneath the table, wrapping himself up tight.
It is not a lot of insurance. But it is enough to get him mildly comfortable as he adjusts his head against the pile he's made for himself.
--
Claude blinks, then leans under the table. "Dimitri," he says, calmly. "You can use the bed."
--
His eye squints over at him. On one hand, he forgot about that. On the other- "No." There's a light huff. "You are aware of what you did."
--
Claude heaves a sigh. "I guess I'll have to go curl up in that cold, lonely bed by myself then," he says, sorrowfully. "Naked."
--
His tail thumps against the floor a few time. "And leave the food forgotten, then."
--
"It's got to cook for awhile. That's why you can take a nap." Claude looks amused. "I can lie down, too, even if I have to stay awake."
-
"Naked." Yeah, he's calling him out, just a little bit. Not enough to stop himself from stirring a moment, poking his head out from underneath the table with the cloak now gathered in his arm. "...You swear no tricks this time?"
--
"What? That's how I sleep." It should be illegal to sound as innocent as Claude does while being anything but. "I promise."
--
"....You really are a new sin, the worst of them all." Dimitri is interrupted by that by his own yawn, ears flicking back, and he finishes pulling himself out from beneath the table. "...Big enough...?"
--
"The bed? Not really." Claude grins. "But you'll find that's actually a plus." It means they're basically forced to snuggle together. Claude has no objections to this at all.
--
"I meant for myself alone." He has a feeling that Claude would end up that way no matter how big the bed is. (Dimitri himself will actually be the worst offender of this, although he doesn't realize it yet.) Still, he can probably manage well enough either way, he supposes, or at least his brain is too tired to think of alternatives. He begins to make his way towards the bed, tail dragging along the floor.
Blankets, he gets. Any sort of mattress? That's a new experience, and he tentatively presses his hand down against it.
--
Not just blankets, but a pillow and a thick, heavy quilt. The church is much farther north than Almyra, or even the islands of the Intseh; it tends to be colder up here, especially during winter. It's only mid-fall now, but it's getting to be brisk at night; the blankets might be welcome, especially once the fire goes out.
Claude follows Dimitri to the bed, watching him with fond amusement and letting him explore it however he cares to.
--
A lot of care is taken in how he begins to pluck at the quilt with his claws, gauging the weight of it. He remembers being given similar in the church for those exact cold months hunters worry about in the middle of nowhere, although Dimitri is fairly certain this one is of far better quality. Of course it would be. The pillow is a lot more foreign, although it sets off distant memories inside his head, enough to be not entirely strange. It's just a minute of lightly touching things with his hands, curious, before he finally lets the cloak drop to the ground in order to carefully clamber in as if he's afraid it will break beneath him.
It may be a bed, but he lays down much as he does on the floor: curled up, automatically defensive because it's too much a habit to be anything but.
--
Claude, meanwhile, casually strips out of what bits of loose clothing he'd bothered to put back on after their bath - which is to say, just the light shirt and pants he wears beneath the usual leather armor. Then, naked as promised, he climbs into bed and settles himself against Dimitri.
It's not 100% pleasant at first. Dimitri's fur is mostly dry, but still damp enough to be a touch cold. Claude shivers almost immediately, but doesn't pull away; he knows once their combined body heat warms Dimitri's fur, it won't matter even if it is still damp.
--
At least it's enough to make Dimitri shift, adjusting to a new body against his until they're both pressed completely against another. It feels... strange, in all manners of ways- the difference in how his body is stretched out along the bed, the softness itself, Claude's body tucked in against his. So close, and he can't even get to sleep.
...Mostly from the worry. "Are you cold...?"
--
Claude laughs a little, trying to burrow closer in to Dimitri as if that will warm him up faster. (He's probably right, actually.) "You're still a little wet. And I forget if I ever told you, but Almyra's a pretty hot country...we don't handle cold all that well."
--
"Claude." Honestly. "You are so clever, and yet you do such things." Dimitri blindly gropes for the blanket, tugging it closer and around his apparently much more delicate companion. "You should have kept that in mind before."
--
"Oh?" Claude gives Dimitri a sly look from beneath his bangs. "You act as though this situation isn't playing out exactly how I want it to."
--
The quilt is shoved over Claude's face. "You will be sick.
--
"I'll be fine. Once you're warm, I'll be warm too." Claude pulls the quilt down enough so he can at least see.
--
"You should have waited for me to dry." The quilt gets shoved up again.... but while Claude is pulling that down again, Dimitri's arm slips beneath him to wrap around him and pull him as close as possible. Perhaps even just to anchor him there, Dimitri's face pressing down into his hair from above.
--
Claude melts almost immediately. Cold or not, this feels good. "I didn't actually know you hadn't already. You don't look wet still..."
--
"You're a hunter." This close, and Claude will be able to feel a soft rumble every time Dimitri speaks. "You should know better than to just assume things like this..." Down lower, Dimitri wraps his legs around him, completely enveloping him. He's not even thinking about it.
--
Claude closes his eyes. The thrum of Dimitri's words through his chest is soothing - not as much as his purr, but close. And he can feel the warmth starting to creep in. "This was worth any potential tradeoff."
--
"Reckless..." But now that he has Claude securely in his arms- in really every bit of available limb that Dimitri has, including his tail as it flicks to lay over his body- Dimitri is finding it even harder to stay awake.... and that was already difficult to do. With his face buried into Claude's hair, he finds himself beginning to drift, and then falling asleep in quick order.
--
Claude ends up dozing himself, almost as soon as it starts getting really warm under the quilt. In his not-quite-asleep state, he hazily reflects that Dimitri hasn't even been free for a full 24 hours, and yet Claude already feels like so many of his hopes and dreams for what Dimitri's life could be like if he could only be free - and what Claude could experience alongside him - have already been fulfilled.
Granted, it helps that many of those hopes and dreams were basic and uncomplicated.
What eventually stirs him is the enticing smell of the stew, over an hour later. By now it's basically morning - they traveled for some time, and then getting everything settled at the cabin took time too - but it's not as though he and Dimitri can't sleep whenever they want. A normal schedule can reassert itself after today.
He nudges Dimitri. "Hey. You hungry?"
--
Once more, there's that soft chirrup from the base of Dimitri's throat upon his sleep being interrupted, and it takes him some seconds to properly wake up. Fortunately, much like it had for Claude, the smell of food helps speed that process up considerably in contrast to the time in the bath, and Dimitri reluctantly opens his eyes to snuff into Claude's hair.
"...Smells good..." In the church, sometimes he could smell decent food from a distance, depending on if there was some holiday or other special occasion... but it had never smelled as good as this, so near and hot, full of enticing scents mingled together.
--
"Of course it does, we made it." Claude stretches and - with extreme reluctance - pulls away from Dimitri, sitting up. He shivers again when he climbs out of bed, and puts both pants and shirt on not because he feels both are by any means necessary(he'd have been fine with just the pants), but because he's cold without the warmth of Dimitri and the bed and they're at least warmer than nothing.
He goes over to the pot and stirs it, and is quite pleased with what he finds. He scoops out bowls for himself and Dimitri while the Intseh is still rousing himself. "C'mon and tell me if you think spices and onions are worth using."
--
"We did..." That... means something, to Dimitri, as he sits there in the lack of weight and warmth with the quilt draped loosely over his legs and hands. It's a strange thing to think. After all, isn't he only a monster? A tool of the church? That's not true here, the latter one if nothing else, and yet... His fingers stretch and curl against the quilt, as if physically working out the thoughts in his head.
A couple of hours of on-again-off-again sleep wouldn't be enough for a normal sleep schedule but, fortunately, Dimitri's was already rather unsteady in the church. Mostly it's been the mental toll of it all that's really exhausted him. After this much, with some of the best sleep he's ever had in his life, he manages to get up in rather short order to trail after Claude. Accepting his bowl, he glances up over at Claude cautiously before raising it to his mouth.
Spoons are for civilized people. Dimitri does not count himself as such.
Fortunately he doesn't spill any on himself, taking care not to tilt it too far forward, and Dimitri brings it back after getting a small mouthful. As the taste and its corresponding warmth begins to spread through him, his eye closes and he just sits there with a small noise of pleasure.
--
Claude grins. He hands Dimitri a spoon - there's lots of chunks of food that it might be easier to wrangle with a utensil, especially since it's still quite hot - before taking his own and digging into his food with undisguised pleasure.
"My cooking's not incredible or anything, but anyone who uses seasonings could beat church food hands down on the church's best day."
--
Claude isn't exactly talking himself down or anything, but it's enough to make Dimitri perk up again, hastily swallowing what he had in his mouth. "It is amazing," he says, actually frowning as he looks over to where Claude is seated. "You did well. I... did well?" Even as he tries to remember that it was the two of them, even if in preparation only, Dimitri still doesn't sound sure of himself there.
--
"We did well," Claude agrees, grinning. "The peppers are great, aren't they?" Aka, the vegetable Dimitri did all on his own is great.
--
Claude's agreement is enough to make him relax again, adjusting the spoon awkwardly inbetween his fingers. "I can't tell if I tried yet..." He just shoved his face in, so Dimitri takes a little more care in his first actual spoonful to get as much of everything as he can. This means a little bit of food chasing, but soon enough he's taking another bite and... yeah, there's that same closed eye look of content pleasure as if he'd completely forgotten how good it tasted the first time.
--
Claude watches him with a smile, eyes soft; he doesn't think he'll ever get tired of seeing Dimitri happy or enjoying things. "Careful of the bones," he warns offhandedly. "I cut the meat off them, but the carcasses are in there still because the marrow makes the stew richer."
--
"I thought I had seen that.... I did not know about such a use." One of so many new things he's absorbing now. Dimitri pokes about, curious to find exactly that, but he abandons that in fairly short order to continue cleaning his bowl completely out. There's an urge to just shove it all into his mouth, and yet the taste is so good that he can't help but pause almost every other bite to savor it. It's a similar reaction that he's occasionally had in the past with some food that Claude has brought him in his cage, only considerably more pronounced with the stew.
A warm meal will do that.
Still, it goes quick enough, and he glances back to the pot licking his mouth. "What will you do with the rest...?"
--
"Put it down in the pantry," Claude replies, "with cheesecloth over it to keep out the flies. Then we can reheat it over the fire when we want to finish it." Claude grins. "But it's at its best now, so gorge yourself on as much of it as you want."
--
Don't tell him that, Claude. Dimitri doesn't say as much aloud, yet it seems broadcast well enough as he glances from his bowl to the pot more than a few times with his mouth drawn inwards slightly and his brow furrowed. "Seconds" has never been a thing for him, even with Claude's very generous gifts to him over the course of imprisonment... but he really wants more. His hesitance might also be a great show of restraint as he finally moves over to the pot and begins to scoop up more for himself. Every scoop has him pause, as if debating if it's enough, before he inevitably goes back for more. By the time he's done, the bowl is only barely not overflowing.
Can he eat all of this? Foolish question. He's going to.
--
Claude's finished his own bowl in roughly the same amount of time as Dimitri; he takes another as well, although it's not brimming the way Dimitri's is. By now the stew is more than half gone, which is fine by Claude; they don't keep for that long. They can finish up for one of their meals tomorrow - possibly breakfast, before a day of fishing and whatever other activities they get up to.
"If you want," he says, "you could go get some of the bread from the pantry and dip it in the stew. Although you'll probably overflow your bowl if you dip anything in it right now..."
--
"Did that in the church," Dimitri murmurs from around a mouthful of stew, hunched over his meal and enjoying it with relish. Things seem to be going a little quicker this round. Still, he looks towards the pantry with some consideration. He does remember seeing that when he was poking around... "The bread was always too hard otherwise. It didn't improve the taste." Then again, he's not sure a lot could have improved the taste of anything the church fed him, unless it was actually made more fresh and as though he were a person instead of a chore.
Finally making up his mind, Dimitri takes another bite of his stew before getting up to slip into the pantry. Bread time.
--
"Worse soup and worse bread than you've got here," Claude says, eyes sparkling with sly amusement. "I think you're going to enjoy this considerably more."
Yeah, there's no way Dimitri won't be full after this bowl.
--
Dimitri is already enjoying so much more when it comes to this particular food, and he looks almost tentatively eager as he comes back up from the pantry. He takes care to make sure the bread is as close to roughly half as he can get, sliding one half to Claude's side of the table, before just... digging in again.
Eating bread this good and in this way seems to almost be enough to make him ooze back into his chair. Food... is good, as it turns out.
By the time Dimitri has cleaned out his second bowl, he's looking back to the pot with the gaze of someone who wants to eat more but whose body simply can't keep up with the mind's desire. Partially because so much food makes him want to go to sleep again, admittedly.
--
Claude chuckles. "Don't worry, you can eat more of it tomorrow," he teases. "No point in eating more today if you're going to end up making yourself sick and throwing it all up."
He nudges Dimitri's arm. "Go wash off the bowl and spoon, and then take the pot to the pantry; careful not to burn yourself. There's some pieces of cheesecloth there lying on the shelf, and some twine; tie one of the pieces of cloth over the top and secure it with the twine." The twine will need to be cut, but Claude feels no need to offer instruction as for how a man with fangs and claws should handle that. "Then you can go sleep for however long you want. No more interruptions. I'll join you once I'm finished myself."
--
"But it would taste good," Dimitri says lightly, tone light enough to say he's... mostly not serious.
Still, he likes being useful, and being able to do things for Claude now that there are things he can do for Claude. The sluggishness that comes with a large meal has to be fought, true, but he still forces himself to move. Cleaning things, while a new experience, is easy enough, and so is finding a way to not accidentally burn himself while carrying the pot down into the pantry. That's fine. Simple things that even he can do.
The difficulty comes sometime after that, and Dimitri pokes part of his head up from the pantry in quiet sheepishness. "...Claude. How... do you tie good knots?"
--
Claude blinks, then smiles. "Hadn't even thought about the fact that you've probably never done it before." He's finished eating by now, so he gets to his feet and heads into the pantry with Dimitri.
"See," he instructs, guiding Dimitri's hands. "Tuck one under the other, then pull tight. Then make a loop, wrap the other string around it, pull the loop through, then pull tight...and you've got a super basic knot. It's not the most secure, but it doesn't really have to be for this."
--
"I did so when I was young," Dimitri explains as Claude joins him in the pantry, not wanting to seem completely incompetent. He remembers, in varying degrees of clarity, doing many things with other Intseh, those who were his friends, and he used twine or rope for various little things. At one point, he was a responsible young boy- something Claude would have zero surprise about just from what he knows of him from their interactions as children.
But that was a very long time ago, and the specifics elude him.
Claude's sure guidance of his hands helps bring it all back, with Dimitri watching sharply so that the movements are ingrained to memory. "Other knots for later, then..." He can think of many things knots would be used for. Now it's merely getting the opportunity to learn them.
--
"I wonder what you'll need other knots for?" Claude teases, even as he lets go of Dimitri's hands. "But anyway, we can finally sleep now. You can go back to bed if you want; I still need to rinse off my bowl."
--
Predictably, the point goes sailing right over Dimitri's head, and his answer is one of quiet earnest thoughtfulness. "You tied the horses to trees, didn't you? If one is to be mine, I must learn at least that level of care." He keeps talking even as he goes back up into the rest of the cabin. "It will come in handy when carrying things as well.... For travel. Rope is used for climbing as well, I think." He's cut off by another wide mouthed yawn, and Dimitri takes that as a sign to go slumping back to the bed.
There's no immediate lay down, however. Instead, he sits on the edge of it, loosely wearing the quilt, and watches Claude patiently.
-
Claude isn't surprised Dimitri didn't pick up on the innuendo; he's mostly endeared. Dimitri really is - for all that he's all but bathed in blood over the years - so much more of a good, innocent, earnest person than Claude has perhaps ever been. Maybe the contrast is why Claude likes him so much.
He rinses off his bowl and spoon quickly enough, leaving them on the table as he comes back into the main room. The fire has died down considerably, but Claude sees no reason to stir it back up; he and Dimitri will keep each other warm enough. So he heads over to the bed, shucking out of his shirt on the way and then dropping his pants once he gets there. He stops in front of Dimitri, grinning. "Finally ready to sleep for more than an hour at a stretch?"
--
By the time Claude comes to a stop before him, Dimitri is already reaching out to draw him closer. "Gladly." Sleep has always been an escape for him, in the past, a way to pass through the day in blissful oblivion (on good days). Yet right now, in a place like this, with a person like this... It, for once, feels more like a respite than anything, and he's actually glad for the idea of sleep rather than apathetic.
Now full of food- a wholly foreign experience- Dimitri doesn't curl up on the bed this time. Instead, he opts for his stomach, stretched out so much on a bed that isn't really meant for an Intseh, let alone one so large. He doesn't care that his feet dangle off the sides, however. All that matters is tucking Claude close, nuzzling his face against his hair. Now that Dimitri has had proper time to dry and Claude has had time away from him rather than having to adjust while up close, he'll really get to enjoy the velvet softness of Dimitri's fur, the way it keeps body heat so nicely between them.
--
Claude almost purrs himself as they settle against each other. "You're so soft," he murmurs, in the tone of voice of one who absolutely loves it.
--
Used to his body, the compliment is certainly a new one- or maybe not so much, he thinks, vaguely recalling incidents from when him and Claude first met. He thinks a similar observation might have been made back then, as they examined one another's hands. "Then, you like that?" It's a bleary question into those soft curls, but one he finds important to ask. For reasons.
--
"Mmhm." Claude breathes in the scent of Dimitri's fur; he smells infinitely better after the bath. There's no lingering hints of blood. "Never understood who wouldn't."
Claude sounds like he might pass out first this time. His voice is drowsy, the words already indistinct; he's been keeping himself awake, more so than Dimitri has, and now he can finally crash.
--
That's all Dimitri needs to lull him to sleep as well, reassured on a simple little basic level. Sleep has often come to him easily, for lack of anything better to do... but it comes easier than most times now, the journey into unconsciousness so smooth as to be almost instantaneous. It's.... comfortable.
--
That's a very optimistic view, Claude.
One that immediately fails as Dimitri's arms fail to unwrap in any way whatsoever, and in fact even seem to tighten. A small sort of chirrup leaves him, and he blearily opens his eye.
--
That is exactly what Claude expected to happen, even if he was going to test the other possibility.
That little, unexpected sound fascinates and delights him, and Claude grins over his shoulder at Dimitri. "I think if we want to eat tonight, we have to get out of the tub. Besides, we'll probably get heatstroke or something if we let it keep simmering us."
--
"...Comfortable..." It's a mild protest, driven more by sleepiness than any sense, and Dimitri even tries to pull Claude back down again more securely against his chest. If any progress is to be made, he may need to wake him up a little more first.
--
Claude lets himself be pulled back, only to turn his head and lean up to press his lips to the underside of Dimitri's jaw. (He's that much smaller than Dimitri, and settled between his legs besides, that this is easy enough.) The feeling of fur against his lips is unusual, but not unpleasant.
Claude's never actually been with an Intseh before, in a romantic or sexual sense, though it hasn't been so much from a lack of interest on his part. (Almyrans are considered the extreme end of what Intseh find distasteful about human culture, which has been kind of awkward for him at times. Fortunately the Intseh aren't nearly as systematically hostile about their intolerance as the church is.) There are things he's going to have to accommodate to here, just as Dimitri has his own things to adjust to. That intrigues Claude rather than worries him, however.
Claude decides to take something of a risk. He lifts a dripping arm out of the water to curve up around Dimitri's head, grazing wrinkled fingertips experimentally along one of the Intseh's horns.
--
Something about the gentleness in Claude's actions, both that soft kiss to his jaw and the fingers at his horn, only seems to relax Dimitri further, and his eye slides shut again. His horns aren't particularly sensitive, after all, being what they're made of. He can feel Claude's touch, faintly... but only so much the movement as it translates from horn down to the rest of his head. Right now, that's faint enough to be relaxing instead of anything else.
--
Claude notes this reaction for future reference. He slides his hand down Dimitri's head from his horn, fingers tracing the point of his ear down along the curve of it...
...and then he slides his wet finger into Dimitri's ear. Grinning like a fiend.
--
WELL THAT'S CERTAINLY ONE WAY TO WAKE SOMEONE UP.
It's a good thing that Claude is between Dimitri's legs, because they promptly go jerking everywhere, much like his arms, and even that might not save him from getting a knee smacking to his ribs depending on how unlucky he is. Dimitri jerks his head away, fangs bared in something more befuddlement than actual threat, and he slaps one hand along his ear. Judging by the wide state of his eye, no one can say he's dozing now.
--
Claude might get jostled, but he doesn't care. He loses it completely. Practically howling with laughter, holding his stomach, having to fight to keep himself upright enough in the tub so that he doesn't get a mouthful of water. Dimitri's never heard him laugh like this and may not appreciate it as much as he could under the circumstances, but - well, offensive as that might have been, that was really pretty mild for things Dimitri has had to endure.
--
It is the weirdest thing he has ever had to endure, which somehow has more of an impact. He was used to the abuse from the church, but.... this... what does he even count this as? Dimitri has no idea, only that Claude's laughter makes his ears flick down even further and his eye to narrow. Too out of it for the moment still, he draws one leg back so that he can push at Claude's chest with one foot until he's pinned at the other side of the bath tub.
"What was that for...?"
--
Claude finally recovers, swatting lightly at Dimitri's foot even as he grins. "I needed to wake you up. It really isn't healthy to be in a bath this hot for too long - probably especially for a guy with fur. Plus I'm hungry, and we've got food to make. We can both sleep once we have dinner - in a proper bed and everything."
His eyes dance. "Do you feel more awake now?"
--
"....You did not need to wake me up that way." His eye is a slit now. "And you are well aware. I see your tendency towards tricks has not lessened at all." Dimitri is positively huffing as he finally pulls his foot away from Claude so that he can get out of the tub. Getting out of the tub does do something for some drowsy light headedness he realizes he was developing.... but still.
An earlier thing he told Claude is coming more into play first, and it's that the feeling of wet fur is the worst. It was one thing when he was just laying in the tub, soaking. There's a difference between being submerged and being wet, after all. Now that he's out... Well, for someone with fur, there's only one action available.
With his whole body, Dimitri gives a shake so violent that water practically coats the whole bathroom.
--
"Ack!" Claude sputters when he's sprayed, even though he's still in the tub himself and not remotely dry to begin with. "Oh man, it's like having the world's biggest dog."
--
"How else do you expect me to dry?" Dimitri asks, working on the hair that's splattered onto his face. Having long hair of this kind is a pain, just a little bit.
--
"I never exactly thought about it before," Claude says, his tone the driest thing in the room. "But I would've thought, you know...maybe a towel?" He points to a couple that are hanging on a wooden bar on the wall.
--
"And I would have thought that you could wake me up with a shake to my shoulders, so I suppose we both now have a lesson to learn here." Still, he does venture over to the towels, picking one between his fingers for inspection. Needless to say, this is also a new concept.
--
Claude climbs out of the tub, making his way over and grabbing a towel himself. He admittedly has a much easier job of drying off to do than Dimitri does, but Dimitri can learn tips about using a towel just from watching Claude dry himself.
He'll also notice that, at some point, Claude took his braid out. This may become most noticeable when Claude absolutely dishevels his hair scrubbing it with the towel.
--
It's certainly very informative, and simple enough that it might actually stick as a lesson... Although it helps that Dimitri has managed to sleep, however a short while, and be woken into sharp consciousness. After a bit of watching, he grabs a towel for himself as well. While most of the water is now clearly off of him, well, some things could use the touching up- mainly his hair and some of his lower body.
At least changing won't take much, with how he only has pants, and he mimics Claude in where he puts his towel as well. Cloak and bag of honey candy in arms, he trails after the other once he's managed to get dressed as well. He'd heard something about food, after all, and he supposes it would be around time... although he isn't entirely sure. Cooking is a mysterious affair.
--
Claude heads into the pantry, grabbing a few carrots, some potatoes, half a head of garlic, a large red pepper, and an onion. These he brings back out into the main room, dumping them on a table. Then he pulls out a couple of knives - one of which he's going to go rinse off in the bathroom, since it was most recently used to cut Dimitri's hand and it seems kind of ghoulish to cut up vegetables with without washing it.
The spices he plans to use, of course, have already been brought out by Dimitri.
He glances at the Intseh. "Mind helping me cut these up? After I wash this knife, of course. I'll show you how, but it's really easy."
--
In the warm light of the cabin, the knife in Claude's hand really does look different, somehow. Strange to think how it was used not long ago to cut through his arm, and Dimitri begins to pick at the wet bandages still wrapped around his wrist. (That it needs changing isn't something he thinks about. The healing he's used to is more of the magical variety instead of natural.) Yet he stops almost immediately at Claude's question, immediately setting what two belongings he has to the side.
"I can?" There's an undercurrent of excitement laced in his voice. There hasn't been a lot he feels like he's been able to help with ever since Claude returned for him tonight, and it's left him reeling a little bit, helpless. The idea he can do something is... It feels like a focus of some sort. Good.
--
"Definitely. It won't even take a minute to teach you." Claude grins. "While I go wash this, how about you take the skin off the onions?" He points to them. "Just pull off the real crispy, papery stuff. It's no good for eating."
--
Truly his waxpaper training has come into use for once. Dimitri wastes no time in coming over, tail flicked up high. It's only onions, yet Dimitri gives a rather serious look to them as he immediately hunches up, carefully working his claws over the skin. It's a slightly new texture for him, but he does his best not to get distracted.
By the time Claude comes back from his washing, he's already managed to get through most of one, and he holds it out for inspection.
--
Claude grins. "You're doing great." He sits down at the table across from Dimitri, content to watch until he's finished. He knows Dimitri wants to make himself useful, to help Claude, and Claude is happy to give him easy opportunities until he's able to handle more challenging ones.
--
Confirmation that he's doing well in this task visibly relaxes Dimitri, shoulders slumping and tail flicking to and fro. "Good. I wasn't sure..." Well, he's not sure about a lot of things now, and he returns to his task. Still standing, admittedly. While he understands the chair... It's simply that he's exhausted, and not used to such things in relation to him. Eventually he'll realize it.... But for now, onions.
Once they're clean of all skin, with Dimitri carefully inspecting each one to his satisfaction, he looks up with another few flicks of his tail. "How do you cut things such as this?"
--
"Regretfully," Claude laughs. "Onions have something in them that makes your eyes sting. I mean, I don't know if that'll bother an Intseh the way it does a human, but it's a fact all the same."
He reaches out and snags one. "Don't wipe your eyes after cutting them until you've washed your hands, just as a warning." Then he cuts off the ends of the onion, brushing them aside, then halves it. Then he cuts it in crosshatch fashion, ending up with small pieces of onion. "If this way of cutting them is too hard for you, you don't actually have to do it this way. They naturally fall apart into rings, see?" He shows this off with the uncut half of his onion. "If you want, you can just cut the rings up into smaller pieces individually."
He points at his fingers with the knife. "A tip: keep your fingers curled under as much as you can while you cut. It makes it harder to accidentally cut yourself."
-
"It says something that we will eat things even though they actively harm us..." A light sting isn't as bad as some things, Dimitri supposes, but still. Eating it isn't what one would normally do, from what he understands. That's a conversation for another day. Tonight, he leans forward and watches Claude almost more than he really listens to him.
Listening is hard, after a lifetime of not really needing to because no one cared enough to speak to a demon. But watching? Watching he's done so much, both for lack of anything better to do in his cage and because it served him well in the execution ring. This is different from watching an enemy, to get an idea for their movements... but there's still that same base level of attentiveness, of committing it to memory.
"...I see." It doesn't sound hard, although Claude makes so much look easy that perhaps he's simply unaware of the true difficulty. Either way, he accepts a knife and lines up an onion carefully. There's some issues before he even begins, however. Instead of getting right into it, he tests his other hand along the onion, switching from curling his fingers to keeping his claws extended outwards. This happens a few times as Dimitri tests the feel of it, fairly certain this isn't something Claude has had to deal with... But he supposes it can't hurt to be cautious. He finally curls his fingers, claws against his palm slightly, and gets to work.
Not having used any sort of weapon or kitchen instrument before means it takes him a moment to figure out the exact pressure he needs to slice through an onion while also not just... jamming his knife directly into the table, and he jolts in surprise the first time it goes through to hit the table at all. After a while, however, he seems to adjust decently enough.
...Definitely feeling the affects of the onions, however. That much is more than obvious with how his nose begins to wrinkle up more and more, sole eye tearing up. With senses a little more keen than a human's, well... He's. not having a good time.
--
Claude's eyes are burning some, too, and he wipes at them with his wrist. "The good news is that the other vegetables don't do anything like this," he says with a wry grin. "Once we're finished with these, we can go dump them in the pot and wash our hands before we start on the other stuff."
--
"Why does it do this at all?" Dimitri hisses, ears laid flat back and his tail beginning to thrash about in pure aggravation. "What drove people to eat this?" He has a lot more questions on that front, but he doesn't spend as much time asking them as he might otherwise. Instead, he does his best to get through the cutting best he can, deferring to the easier option of cutting the rings individually.
--
"They taste delicious. Even raw, sometimes, although if you're going to eat raw onion it's usually only as a garnish for something else. Like a sandwich topping. It's really strong on its own. But when you cook them, the flavor mellows out and it gets really nice, and gives good flavor to other things." Claude smiles at Dimitri. "You could eat a small piece, if you want. If it's small enough, it won't be too unpleasant. Then you'll see how much different it is once it's in the stew."
--
It's almost a guarantee that Dimitri has had onions in some food or another in his long time in the church. (Whether it was cooked well or to its full potential is another story.) With the way he squints over at Claude, one would never know it, even as he takes just... a whole ring.
Listen. It's easier to pick up.
At least he doesn't spit it out, instead chewing on it while he continues with the miserable task of chopping onions. By the time he's satisfied that he's got all of the taste, he's mostly finished, and pushes the roughly minced onions towards Claude. "...People are strange."
--
Claude chuckles. "I'm not about to argue." He scoops up the onions and dumps them all in the pot. "C'mon, hand washing time. And while we're at it, we can wash the potatoes."
It's only a quick trip to the bathroom to rinse their hands, and the potatoes, under the shower head, and then they're back to the table. "Potatoes are easier than anything," Claude informs Dimitri cheerfully. "Honestly, it would've been better to do them first since they take the longest time to cook and absorb flavors, but since I started you on onions it felt like it was best to finish them up. But really, all you have to do is cut them into cubes small enough to fit in your mouth, which doesn't have to be that small. Look."
Claude cuts a potato in half, then into quarters, and then into cubes. It does indeed look extremely easy.
"Sometimes people peel them," he observes, "but we don't have to. Especially not for a stew."
--
Dimitri has never been more glad to be wet again.
He's still flicking his hands from side to side a little bit as he listens to claude, dead stare seeming just a little bit skeptical after what happened last time. A practical demonstration seems to assuage such worries, however. "It seems... less offensive than the onions."
A potato has never hurt anybody, and so already has a leg up on its competition as it is.
Unfortunately, Dimitri begins to find more practical trouble. Claude's potatoes seem so neat. Dimitri's are... a little rough. A little uneven. Lopsided. His tail begins to thrash from one side to the other again as he glares down at his work.
--
Claude laughs. "Hey, relax. They don't have to look perfect. They'll taste good just the same~." He pulls over a carrot. "Carrots are mostly simple; probably the hardest part is peeling them. You want to take the outer skin off without whittling the carrot down to nothing, you know? But once they're peeled, then you just cut them into discs, which couldn't be simpler." He tilts his head. "You can try to peel some if you want, but it's fine if I peel them and you just cut them up, too."
--
"I want them to be perfect." It's an illogical expectation of himself, he knows that... somewhere in his head. He's only just found freedom again, as much as a lot of it has yet to sink in with how much keeps happening. It's ridiculous to think he can get good at tasks he's had no cause or ability to do. But, then, perhaps that's exactly why he has such a desire.
He's tired, and ill-fitting, and wants to help.
The last one is all he'll be able to do for now, no matter how badly he thinks the job he's doing is, so Dimitri merely nods, taking up his own role as Claude peels the carrots and passes them over. At least this doesn't seem as hard as the potatoes, and the offense of them not perfectly matching in thickness seems to sting slightly less. Something it shares in common with the onions, then. "Then, next would be... either the garlic or the other one?"
--
"Garlic next." Claude grins. "These are fun. What you do is you take one, lay the flat of your knife over it, and - " He demonstrates, smacking down lightly on the flat of the blade. There's a slight crunch; when he lifts the knife, the clove is slightly deformed, but the skin is also much more detached and easy to peel off. "Don't crush them flat, though; that might be the hardest part for you. Once they're peeled, then we just cut them up fine. Honestly, I tend to cut 'em so small that you might want to leave it to me; garlic cloves are so small that your claws'll probably make it hard for you to deal with cutting them."
--
Sure enough, Dimitri's ears snap up at the crunch, and he leans forward to get a better idea of what he should be aiming for either now or in the near future. Although... "Should I not touch them at all, then."
-
"Hm? I can do the others, too, if that's what you'd prefer..." Claude tilts his head.
--
"...You do not think I will break it?"
...
"Or the table?"
--
Claude grins at him. "I think you've got more control than you give yourself credit for."
--
"I will remind you of that when you are lacking a table, then." Still, if he says so. Dimitri takes one of the cloves cautiously and mimics how he'd seen Claude do it. The first hit is far too light, as a result of holding himself back too much, and his mouth twists in displeasure. It takes a couple, steadily escalating, before he seems to find just the right amount of strength.
"....There." It was certainly a trial, but, hey, he managed it. In the meanwhile, he stretches his claws along the tabletop thoughtfully. "...I wonder how other Intseh cook..." He knows they do, after all.
--
"They use a lot of fish," Claude remarks, smiling at him. "Incidentally, I was thinking of catching some fresh fish to eat tomorrow."
One of the nice things about a cabin like this is that it's furnished for cooking. Claude might not be able to afford hauling around things like a cast iron pan or a heavy pot while he's traveling, but such things can be left at a place like this for anyone who uses the cabin. He can't imagine Dimitri will turn up his nose at some nice pan-fried fish.
--
Sure enough, there's a slow but interested swish of his tail visible from where Dimitri is standing. "...I would like to come for that." If just eating fish had been enough to make him so nostalgic... He wonders what other parts of him might be there waiting to be simply nudged.
--
"Okay. I can teach you how to fish, too." Claude smiles at him. "It's easy. And pretty boring most of the time. And if we don't get any bites, I can always use arrows to make sure we've got fish to take home." Claude has absolutely shot fish with a bow before.
--
"We will see." Dimitri likes to think that he's something of an expert on what constitutes as mind numbingly boring, after all, so he'll be the judge of that. For now, he simply draws himself into a low crouch with his arms crossed over the table for his chin to rest onto.
"...What is the red one called?"
--
Everything sounds approximately normal, exactly like one would expert to learn about a vegetable. Yet towards the end, Dimitri realizes that there's something extra, and he does a quick mental rewind. "...Laid flat?"
--
Claude laughs. "Cut it open and see for yourself."
--
Laughing like that only makes him more suspicious, and Dimitri keeps one narrowed eye focused on Claude before he takes the bell pepper. It only takes a short and quick bit of asking before he knows which way to cut. And when he does...
Staring. Just.... staring. His ears slowly lower. "...It's empty, Claude."
--
Claude grins. "That's what they're like. You eat the outside."
--
Dimitri doesn't look distressed. He just looks tired as he stares down at the bell pepper and then over at Claude. "Why."
--
Claude bursts out into full laughter now. "Because life's way too vast and varied to ever be predictable, Dimitri!"
--
"That isn't an explanation, Claude." If anything, it makes him want to go to sleep all the harder, because the night is clearly testing him in ways he's never been tested before, and he experimentally begins to prod his knife inside. "I thought vegetables... were full."
--
"Who says I've got one?" Claude shrugs and smiles. "They just are. And, weird as they might be, it works for them. I assume that, to peppers, that's all that actually matters."
--
"No answer, and yet you are content to laugh at me once more." This is nothing short of bullying. Dimitri surrenders to the fate of vegetables being unknowable. "Then, slice it until I can spread it... and cut it more."
--
"Mmhm. Thin strips. You can cut them in half to make them easier to eat once they're in strips, too." Claude rests his chin on his hand. "It doesn't matter how they look so much."
--
"Still..." It makes him feel a little better to try, once he's managed to get the pepper spread out relatively flat. Somehow it's soothing to see his wobbly strips become a little more uniform, with widths that don't go from narrow to wide in the same strip. It means it takes him a little longer than a regular person, but the tension has eased up from his shoulders when he's finally done.
-
Claude is deeply pleased by it as well. "All right," he instructs. "Now dump everything in the pot. Then you can have another nap, if you want."
--
Putting things in a pot is easy. Trusting Claude's particular words in this moment less so, and Dimitri's ears are very distinctly lowered as if trying to press into his head. "Will you wake me as you did last time?"
--
"I'll be nicer," Claude promises, looking mischievous. "Just make sure you actually get up when I wake you, if you don't want me to resort to drastic measures~."
--
That is the look of a man not to be trusted, and Dimitri slinks over to grab his cloak again. Instead of curling up in the middle of the room again, he instead just... slips right underneath the table, wrapping himself up tight.
It is not a lot of insurance. But it is enough to get him mildly comfortable as he adjusts his head against the pile he's made for himself.
--
Claude blinks, then leans under the table. "Dimitri," he says, calmly. "You can use the bed."
--
His eye squints over at him. On one hand, he forgot about that. On the other- "No." There's a light huff. "You are aware of what you did."
--
Claude heaves a sigh. "I guess I'll have to go curl up in that cold, lonely bed by myself then," he says, sorrowfully. "Naked."
--
His tail thumps against the floor a few time. "And leave the food forgotten, then."
--
"It's got to cook for awhile. That's why you can take a nap." Claude looks amused. "I can lie down, too, even if I have to stay awake."
-
"Naked." Yeah, he's calling him out, just a little bit. Not enough to stop himself from stirring a moment, poking his head out from underneath the table with the cloak now gathered in his arm. "...You swear no tricks this time?"
--
"What? That's how I sleep." It should be illegal to sound as innocent as Claude does while being anything but. "I promise."
--
"....You really are a new sin, the worst of them all." Dimitri is interrupted by that by his own yawn, ears flicking back, and he finishes pulling himself out from beneath the table. "...Big enough...?"
--
"The bed? Not really." Claude grins. "But you'll find that's actually a plus." It means they're basically forced to snuggle together. Claude has no objections to this at all.
--
"I meant for myself alone." He has a feeling that Claude would end up that way no matter how big the bed is. (Dimitri himself will actually be the worst offender of this, although he doesn't realize it yet.) Still, he can probably manage well enough either way, he supposes, or at least his brain is too tired to think of alternatives. He begins to make his way towards the bed, tail dragging along the floor.
Blankets, he gets. Any sort of mattress? That's a new experience, and he tentatively presses his hand down against it.
--
Not just blankets, but a pillow and a thick, heavy quilt. The church is much farther north than Almyra, or even the islands of the Intseh; it tends to be colder up here, especially during winter. It's only mid-fall now, but it's getting to be brisk at night; the blankets might be welcome, especially once the fire goes out.
Claude follows Dimitri to the bed, watching him with fond amusement and letting him explore it however he cares to.
--
A lot of care is taken in how he begins to pluck at the quilt with his claws, gauging the weight of it. He remembers being given similar in the church for those exact cold months hunters worry about in the middle of nowhere, although Dimitri is fairly certain this one is of far better quality. Of course it would be. The pillow is a lot more foreign, although it sets off distant memories inside his head, enough to be not entirely strange. It's just a minute of lightly touching things with his hands, curious, before he finally lets the cloak drop to the ground in order to carefully clamber in as if he's afraid it will break beneath him.
It may be a bed, but he lays down much as he does on the floor: curled up, automatically defensive because it's too much a habit to be anything but.
--
Claude, meanwhile, casually strips out of what bits of loose clothing he'd bothered to put back on after their bath - which is to say, just the light shirt and pants he wears beneath the usual leather armor. Then, naked as promised, he climbs into bed and settles himself against Dimitri.
It's not 100% pleasant at first. Dimitri's fur is mostly dry, but still damp enough to be a touch cold. Claude shivers almost immediately, but doesn't pull away; he knows once their combined body heat warms Dimitri's fur, it won't matter even if it is still damp.
--
At least it's enough to make Dimitri shift, adjusting to a new body against his until they're both pressed completely against another. It feels... strange, in all manners of ways- the difference in how his body is stretched out along the bed, the softness itself, Claude's body tucked in against his. So close, and he can't even get to sleep.
...Mostly from the worry. "Are you cold...?"
--
Claude laughs a little, trying to burrow closer in to Dimitri as if that will warm him up faster. (He's probably right, actually.) "You're still a little wet. And I forget if I ever told you, but Almyra's a pretty hot country...we don't handle cold all that well."
--
"Claude." Honestly. "You are so clever, and yet you do such things." Dimitri blindly gropes for the blanket, tugging it closer and around his apparently much more delicate companion. "You should have kept that in mind before."
--
"Oh?" Claude gives Dimitri a sly look from beneath his bangs. "You act as though this situation isn't playing out exactly how I want it to."
--
The quilt is shoved over Claude's face. "You will be sick.
--
"I'll be fine. Once you're warm, I'll be warm too." Claude pulls the quilt down enough so he can at least see.
--
"You should have waited for me to dry." The quilt gets shoved up again.... but while Claude is pulling that down again, Dimitri's arm slips beneath him to wrap around him and pull him as close as possible. Perhaps even just to anchor him there, Dimitri's face pressing down into his hair from above.
--
Claude melts almost immediately. Cold or not, this feels good. "I didn't actually know you hadn't already. You don't look wet still..."
--
"You're a hunter." This close, and Claude will be able to feel a soft rumble every time Dimitri speaks. "You should know better than to just assume things like this..." Down lower, Dimitri wraps his legs around him, completely enveloping him. He's not even thinking about it.
--
Claude closes his eyes. The thrum of Dimitri's words through his chest is soothing - not as much as his purr, but close. And he can feel the warmth starting to creep in. "This was worth any potential tradeoff."
--
"Reckless..." But now that he has Claude securely in his arms- in really every bit of available limb that Dimitri has, including his tail as it flicks to lay over his body- Dimitri is finding it even harder to stay awake.... and that was already difficult to do. With his face buried into Claude's hair, he finds himself beginning to drift, and then falling asleep in quick order.
--
Claude ends up dozing himself, almost as soon as it starts getting really warm under the quilt. In his not-quite-asleep state, he hazily reflects that Dimitri hasn't even been free for a full 24 hours, and yet Claude already feels like so many of his hopes and dreams for what Dimitri's life could be like if he could only be free - and what Claude could experience alongside him - have already been fulfilled.
Granted, it helps that many of those hopes and dreams were basic and uncomplicated.
What eventually stirs him is the enticing smell of the stew, over an hour later. By now it's basically morning - they traveled for some time, and then getting everything settled at the cabin took time too - but it's not as though he and Dimitri can't sleep whenever they want. A normal schedule can reassert itself after today.
He nudges Dimitri. "Hey. You hungry?"
--
Once more, there's that soft chirrup from the base of Dimitri's throat upon his sleep being interrupted, and it takes him some seconds to properly wake up. Fortunately, much like it had for Claude, the smell of food helps speed that process up considerably in contrast to the time in the bath, and Dimitri reluctantly opens his eyes to snuff into Claude's hair.
"...Smells good..." In the church, sometimes he could smell decent food from a distance, depending on if there was some holiday or other special occasion... but it had never smelled as good as this, so near and hot, full of enticing scents mingled together.
--
"Of course it does, we made it." Claude stretches and - with extreme reluctance - pulls away from Dimitri, sitting up. He shivers again when he climbs out of bed, and puts both pants and shirt on not because he feels both are by any means necessary(he'd have been fine with just the pants), but because he's cold without the warmth of Dimitri and the bed and they're at least warmer than nothing.
He goes over to the pot and stirs it, and is quite pleased with what he finds. He scoops out bowls for himself and Dimitri while the Intseh is still rousing himself. "C'mon and tell me if you think spices and onions are worth using."
--
"We did..." That... means something, to Dimitri, as he sits there in the lack of weight and warmth with the quilt draped loosely over his legs and hands. It's a strange thing to think. After all, isn't he only a monster? A tool of the church? That's not true here, the latter one if nothing else, and yet... His fingers stretch and curl against the quilt, as if physically working out the thoughts in his head.
A couple of hours of on-again-off-again sleep wouldn't be enough for a normal sleep schedule but, fortunately, Dimitri's was already rather unsteady in the church. Mostly it's been the mental toll of it all that's really exhausted him. After this much, with some of the best sleep he's ever had in his life, he manages to get up in rather short order to trail after Claude. Accepting his bowl, he glances up over at Claude cautiously before raising it to his mouth.
Spoons are for civilized people. Dimitri does not count himself as such.
Fortunately he doesn't spill any on himself, taking care not to tilt it too far forward, and Dimitri brings it back after getting a small mouthful. As the taste and its corresponding warmth begins to spread through him, his eye closes and he just sits there with a small noise of pleasure.
--
Claude grins. He hands Dimitri a spoon - there's lots of chunks of food that it might be easier to wrangle with a utensil, especially since it's still quite hot - before taking his own and digging into his food with undisguised pleasure.
"My cooking's not incredible or anything, but anyone who uses seasonings could beat church food hands down on the church's best day."
--
Claude isn't exactly talking himself down or anything, but it's enough to make Dimitri perk up again, hastily swallowing what he had in his mouth. "It is amazing," he says, actually frowning as he looks over to where Claude is seated. "You did well. I... did well?" Even as he tries to remember that it was the two of them, even if in preparation only, Dimitri still doesn't sound sure of himself there.
--
"We did well," Claude agrees, grinning. "The peppers are great, aren't they?" Aka, the vegetable Dimitri did all on his own is great.
--
Claude's agreement is enough to make him relax again, adjusting the spoon awkwardly inbetween his fingers. "I can't tell if I tried yet..." He just shoved his face in, so Dimitri takes a little more care in his first actual spoonful to get as much of everything as he can. This means a little bit of food chasing, but soon enough he's taking another bite and... yeah, there's that same closed eye look of content pleasure as if he'd completely forgotten how good it tasted the first time.
--
Claude watches him with a smile, eyes soft; he doesn't think he'll ever get tired of seeing Dimitri happy or enjoying things. "Careful of the bones," he warns offhandedly. "I cut the meat off them, but the carcasses are in there still because the marrow makes the stew richer."
--
"I thought I had seen that.... I did not know about such a use." One of so many new things he's absorbing now. Dimitri pokes about, curious to find exactly that, but he abandons that in fairly short order to continue cleaning his bowl completely out. There's an urge to just shove it all into his mouth, and yet the taste is so good that he can't help but pause almost every other bite to savor it. It's a similar reaction that he's occasionally had in the past with some food that Claude has brought him in his cage, only considerably more pronounced with the stew.
A warm meal will do that.
Still, it goes quick enough, and he glances back to the pot licking his mouth. "What will you do with the rest...?"
--
"Put it down in the pantry," Claude replies, "with cheesecloth over it to keep out the flies. Then we can reheat it over the fire when we want to finish it." Claude grins. "But it's at its best now, so gorge yourself on as much of it as you want."
--
Don't tell him that, Claude. Dimitri doesn't say as much aloud, yet it seems broadcast well enough as he glances from his bowl to the pot more than a few times with his mouth drawn inwards slightly and his brow furrowed. "Seconds" has never been a thing for him, even with Claude's very generous gifts to him over the course of imprisonment... but he really wants more. His hesitance might also be a great show of restraint as he finally moves over to the pot and begins to scoop up more for himself. Every scoop has him pause, as if debating if it's enough, before he inevitably goes back for more. By the time he's done, the bowl is only barely not overflowing.
Can he eat all of this? Foolish question. He's going to.
--
Claude's finished his own bowl in roughly the same amount of time as Dimitri; he takes another as well, although it's not brimming the way Dimitri's is. By now the stew is more than half gone, which is fine by Claude; they don't keep for that long. They can finish up for one of their meals tomorrow - possibly breakfast, before a day of fishing and whatever other activities they get up to.
"If you want," he says, "you could go get some of the bread from the pantry and dip it in the stew. Although you'll probably overflow your bowl if you dip anything in it right now..."
--
"Did that in the church," Dimitri murmurs from around a mouthful of stew, hunched over his meal and enjoying it with relish. Things seem to be going a little quicker this round. Still, he looks towards the pantry with some consideration. He does remember seeing that when he was poking around... "The bread was always too hard otherwise. It didn't improve the taste." Then again, he's not sure a lot could have improved the taste of anything the church fed him, unless it was actually made more fresh and as though he were a person instead of a chore.
Finally making up his mind, Dimitri takes another bite of his stew before getting up to slip into the pantry. Bread time.
--
"Worse soup and worse bread than you've got here," Claude says, eyes sparkling with sly amusement. "I think you're going to enjoy this considerably more."
Yeah, there's no way Dimitri won't be full after this bowl.
--
Dimitri is already enjoying so much more when it comes to this particular food, and he looks almost tentatively eager as he comes back up from the pantry. He takes care to make sure the bread is as close to roughly half as he can get, sliding one half to Claude's side of the table, before just... digging in again.
Eating bread this good and in this way seems to almost be enough to make him ooze back into his chair. Food... is good, as it turns out.
By the time Dimitri has cleaned out his second bowl, he's looking back to the pot with the gaze of someone who wants to eat more but whose body simply can't keep up with the mind's desire. Partially because so much food makes him want to go to sleep again, admittedly.
--
Claude chuckles. "Don't worry, you can eat more of it tomorrow," he teases. "No point in eating more today if you're going to end up making yourself sick and throwing it all up."
He nudges Dimitri's arm. "Go wash off the bowl and spoon, and then take the pot to the pantry; careful not to burn yourself. There's some pieces of cheesecloth there lying on the shelf, and some twine; tie one of the pieces of cloth over the top and secure it with the twine." The twine will need to be cut, but Claude feels no need to offer instruction as for how a man with fangs and claws should handle that. "Then you can go sleep for however long you want. No more interruptions. I'll join you once I'm finished myself."
--
"But it would taste good," Dimitri says lightly, tone light enough to say he's... mostly not serious.
Still, he likes being useful, and being able to do things for Claude now that there are things he can do for Claude. The sluggishness that comes with a large meal has to be fought, true, but he still forces himself to move. Cleaning things, while a new experience, is easy enough, and so is finding a way to not accidentally burn himself while carrying the pot down into the pantry. That's fine. Simple things that even he can do.
The difficulty comes sometime after that, and Dimitri pokes part of his head up from the pantry in quiet sheepishness. "...Claude. How... do you tie good knots?"
--
Claude blinks, then smiles. "Hadn't even thought about the fact that you've probably never done it before." He's finished eating by now, so he gets to his feet and heads into the pantry with Dimitri.
"See," he instructs, guiding Dimitri's hands. "Tuck one under the other, then pull tight. Then make a loop, wrap the other string around it, pull the loop through, then pull tight...and you've got a super basic knot. It's not the most secure, but it doesn't really have to be for this."
--
"I did so when I was young," Dimitri explains as Claude joins him in the pantry, not wanting to seem completely incompetent. He remembers, in varying degrees of clarity, doing many things with other Intseh, those who were his friends, and he used twine or rope for various little things. At one point, he was a responsible young boy- something Claude would have zero surprise about just from what he knows of him from their interactions as children.
But that was a very long time ago, and the specifics elude him.
Claude's sure guidance of his hands helps bring it all back, with Dimitri watching sharply so that the movements are ingrained to memory. "Other knots for later, then..." He can think of many things knots would be used for. Now it's merely getting the opportunity to learn them.
--
"I wonder what you'll need other knots for?" Claude teases, even as he lets go of Dimitri's hands. "But anyway, we can finally sleep now. You can go back to bed if you want; I still need to rinse off my bowl."
--
Predictably, the point goes sailing right over Dimitri's head, and his answer is one of quiet earnest thoughtfulness. "You tied the horses to trees, didn't you? If one is to be mine, I must learn at least that level of care." He keeps talking even as he goes back up into the rest of the cabin. "It will come in handy when carrying things as well.... For travel. Rope is used for climbing as well, I think." He's cut off by another wide mouthed yawn, and Dimitri takes that as a sign to go slumping back to the bed.
There's no immediate lay down, however. Instead, he sits on the edge of it, loosely wearing the quilt, and watches Claude patiently.
-
Claude isn't surprised Dimitri didn't pick up on the innuendo; he's mostly endeared. Dimitri really is - for all that he's all but bathed in blood over the years - so much more of a good, innocent, earnest person than Claude has perhaps ever been. Maybe the contrast is why Claude likes him so much.
He rinses off his bowl and spoon quickly enough, leaving them on the table as he comes back into the main room. The fire has died down considerably, but Claude sees no reason to stir it back up; he and Dimitri will keep each other warm enough. So he heads over to the bed, shucking out of his shirt on the way and then dropping his pants once he gets there. He stops in front of Dimitri, grinning. "Finally ready to sleep for more than an hour at a stretch?"
--
By the time Claude comes to a stop before him, Dimitri is already reaching out to draw him closer. "Gladly." Sleep has always been an escape for him, in the past, a way to pass through the day in blissful oblivion (on good days). Yet right now, in a place like this, with a person like this... It, for once, feels more like a respite than anything, and he's actually glad for the idea of sleep rather than apathetic.
Now full of food- a wholly foreign experience- Dimitri doesn't curl up on the bed this time. Instead, he opts for his stomach, stretched out so much on a bed that isn't really meant for an Intseh, let alone one so large. He doesn't care that his feet dangle off the sides, however. All that matters is tucking Claude close, nuzzling his face against his hair. Now that Dimitri has had proper time to dry and Claude has had time away from him rather than having to adjust while up close, he'll really get to enjoy the velvet softness of Dimitri's fur, the way it keeps body heat so nicely between them.
--
Claude almost purrs himself as they settle against each other. "You're so soft," he murmurs, in the tone of voice of one who absolutely loves it.
--
Used to his body, the compliment is certainly a new one- or maybe not so much, he thinks, vaguely recalling incidents from when him and Claude first met. He thinks a similar observation might have been made back then, as they examined one another's hands. "Then, you like that?" It's a bleary question into those soft curls, but one he finds important to ask. For reasons.
--
"Mmhm." Claude breathes in the scent of Dimitri's fur; he smells infinitely better after the bath. There's no lingering hints of blood. "Never understood who wouldn't."
Claude sounds like he might pass out first this time. His voice is drowsy, the words already indistinct; he's been keeping himself awake, more so than Dimitri has, and now he can finally crash.
--
That's all Dimitri needs to lull him to sleep as well, reassured on a simple little basic level. Sleep has often come to him easily, for lack of anything better to do... but it comes easier than most times now, the journey into unconsciousness so smooth as to be almost instantaneous. It's.... comfortable.