"Your dick, my mouth, lets do it."
Wendel's eyes snapped over to Ulvari in dismay. "I... beg your pardon?"
Ulvari smiled. He was leaning on the back of his chair, stradling it as he watched Wendel. His fine, violet-gray skin held an eerie glow in the dim lights of the tavern, made even more eerie by the darkness of the tattoos etched up and down his corded arms. His horns tilted back off of his brow in a sweep, a darkened spiral of ebony in brindling of matte and gloss, ringed in places by hammered metal.
He was a very attractive tiefling. So different in comparison to Wendel; fair skinned, soft brown hair, warm brown eyes, silver rimmed spectacles on a sharp little nose. Among other... differences.
"I was just making a suggestion," Ulvari shrugged, propping his chin on his forearms. At his growing grin, Wendel could see his canines, top and bottom, ever so slightly extended, animalistic. His eyes gleamed opalescent in the dim light, like a spill of oil.
"I -- I hardly think that's appropriate," Wendel stammered, delicately edging his glasses up along his nose, long, gloved fingers dropping back to the book in his lap where they fiddled with the worn pages.
"There's no one else here, I've got a room in the back, if you're embarrassed about it, no one has to know. I won't tell anyone. I'm a gentleman." Ulvari subtly rolled his shoulders forward, like a cat, eyes narrowing ever so slightly as he focused on Wendel's face.
Ulvari was looking at Wendel's lips, the scholar suddenly realized. He licked them, self consciously, and dropped his gaze. Saw his own hands; slender gloved fingers, manufactured to match the rest of his bookishness. A few strands of dark hair slipped free from behind his ear, and Wendel reached up to push them back.
"I'm not embarrassed! It's just -- well, I should be -- and you -"
"What about me?" Ulvari purred. Wendel caught sight of Ulvari's slender tail as it curled around the leg of his chair. It came to a narrow point, elegant and almost whimsical in it's behavior.
"I just didn't think you had any particular interest, that's all," Wendel blurted, shutting his book, and hastily reaching for his watery tea.
Ulvari let out a laugh, straightening in his chair. "Wendel, I wouldn't have offered if I wasn't Interested! Seriously?"
Wendel flushed up to his ears at the sincerity in Ulvari's voice, totally unexpected as it was. Ulvari was -- well he was gorgeous, everyone thought so. And he exercised a sort of sexual freedom that was incredibly intimidating to Wendel.
Wendel was a scholar for Pete's sake, his last romantic rendezvous was in a library. (Not that it wasn't lovely, of course. But anyway.)
Wendel was still having trouble forming words past the rush of heat in his face, so when Ulvari reached out to put two fingers under his chin, he jumped a little.
"Hey... it's okay, really. I won't be offended if you aren't interested, alright? You just... seemed like you need some affection."
Wendel blinked, then jerked his head away, snatching his book to stand. "Oh, so what do you call it then, a pity fuck? As touched as I am by the gesture, I think I will pass, but thank you."
Ulvari struggled to his feet right after Wendel and reached out for his arm, face going from smooth flirt to flailingly naΓ―ve in a shocking instant.
"No! Wait, I didn't mean it like THAT, Wendel!"
Wendel didn't shake him off, but he couldn't bring himself to look at Ulvari either. Instead he looked down at his arms. "It's alright if you did. I understand."
Ulvari looked down at Wendel's arm too. They were quiet for a moment. "Can you... feel that?"
Wendel nodded slowly. "I can."
Ulvari stepped in a little closer, bringing his other hand around to Wendel's arm. The scholar felt his heart trip up and steady at the gesture, at the feel of Ulvari's fingers tracing down his forearm to his hand, before stopping at the end of his glove.
"May I see?"
Wendel nodded. He didn't know why.
Maybe he did need affection.
Ulvari carefully removed the glove, dropped it on the table. Took the book from Wendel's hand and put that down too. Carefully rolled up Wendel's sleeves to the elbow, and stared at the limbs.
They were exceptional pieces of enchanting. Precious metal and porcelain, curved and precise with many moving parts, each controlled by Wendel's own mind, but not flesh.
Ulvari caressed the inside of Wendel's forearm. "You can feel this, too?"
Wendel swallowed. "Yes."
"They're beautiful." Ulvari glanced over at Wendel. "I know it's... I know how you got them was terrible. I'm sorry."
Wendel shook his head. "I... sometimes I admire them too. They are... one of a kind. I guess."
"And they're yours, you know." Ulvari was still holding onto Wendel's arm. His hands were warm. Wendel could feel them. He could feel the faintest brush of a breeze, the callous under Ulvari's thumbs.
Wendel found he couldn't speak. He didn't know what to say.
Ulvari gently released Wendel's arm. "I'm sorry. I do like you, you know. I didn't mean. How I said that before."
"I know."
Ulvari managed a glint of a smile.
Wendel searched his face, confused, filled with longing, but he didn't know how to say it. The offer hadn't been as unwelcome as Wendel had first thought, and now that Ulvari wasn't touching him, he felt so much colder, so much farther away, and he discovered he wanted that closeness more than anything.
"I'll leave you to your reading then, Wendel." Ulvari's tail flickered behind him.
In that moment Wendel's gaze dropped, picked out every piece of Ulvari that his eyes had been drawn to before, assembled them into the image of the man before him -- the curvature of his chest, the lines of his muscles past the dark ink of his clan tattoos, how he was always warm, the way he stood on one leg, a hip tilted in casual ease.