The Showdown [ Locked to Gideon & Ashura ]

[wishmadeinfire]

Who: Gideon & Ashura
When: After Felix is healed/asleep and Howl has left the room in this log
What: Ashura finally has enough and things come to a head between Felix's current lover and his former lover. But you all saw this coming, right?
Where: The boat, in Gideon's room
Warnings: two men fighting, maybe bad language but I doubt it, possible physical violence, awkward moments

Ashura did not remove himself from Felix's side, even once Howl had left, the man looking tired. Later, Ashura would need to thank him very much for what he did, but he thought that Felix should do it also, when he was ready and able to think. For now, though, he remained where he was beside Felix, stroking his red hair, seeming to have forgotten that this was, in fact, Gideon's room or that Gideon was even there. In retrospect that was incredibly rude, but Ashura had thrown out politeness in his anxiousness, even forgetting his own wounds. 

He let out a sigh, rubbing the bridge of his nose, feeling tired and drained in many more ways than one. At least, for the moment, he had forgotten Gideon was there...

Comments

[thraxios]

Gideon raises his eyebrows, giving Ashura an incredulous look. Contrary to your assumptions, we hadn't had much time to discuss before your arrival.

[wishmadeinfire]

No, of course they could not have. But he had hoped for more, had hoped for clarity on the scope of his failure, where he had gone wrong.

"No, of course not," he sighed, fingers curling into the red hair, resisting the urge to tug gently as he liked to. "Why couldn't he have been on this boat instead of out there...?"

He sniffed and paused when he saw a crimson drop bloom on Felix's pale forehead. Another quickly followed and the taste of copper touched his tongue.

Blood.

Startled, he pressed a hand beneath his nose and it came away red. He cursed, rising and glancing at the bathroom, then back at Gideon.

"Watch him," he said softly, going to the room and shifting the door partway closed as he attempting to gain control of himself.

[thraxios]

Gideon looks up and nods when he realizes that Ashura's bleeding. He waves the man away--of course he'll watch Felix, et cetera.

While Ashura is righting himself, Gideon stands and pulls out a handkerchief to dab away the blood that had landed on Felix's head. With that done, he tucks the square of cloth back into his pocket and stares down at Felix's face. Sleep has smoothed some of the pain from his face; he looks nearly as he normally might.

Gently, Gideon reaches out with two fingers and strokes Felix's cheek. However tense things have been these last few hours, he's desperately grateful that the man is yet alive.

[wishmadeinfire]

Ashura quickly made himself presentable again, wiping blood from his lip and nose and cleaning off the wounds on his cheek and arm. He would need to get them seen to, eventually - perhaps as a ship worker if they came by for a kit. He didn't see a need to bother anyone else til the more serious injuries were taken care of.

He opened the door and turned, pausing when he saw Gideon standing so intimately close to Felix, stroking his cheek. It made his gut twist and he frowned, delicate lines forming on his brow.

"Don't do that," he said coldly from the doorway.

[thraxios]

Gideon glances up at Ashura's comment, surprised at its sharpness. He's seen Ashura upset before, if mildly, but it didn't look quite like this. And over what? Touching Felix?

He can't help but find that absurd.

Would you prefer I let the bloodstains dry on him? He holds the tablet out towards Ashura to read.

[wishmadeinfire]

That was not what had bothered him. Dabbing away blood was one thing, stroking his cheek another, especially when he slept - or any time. He was in no mood for this, for these subtle games of touch, reminding him what Felix and Gideon had once shared, a thing that might still be there and he hated thinking about.

"I meant stroking his cheek. It is in appropriate," he said, keeping his hands at his side, lips thin.

[thraxios]

Is it? Gideon raises his eyebrows in disbelief. The gesture was sentimental on his part, admittedly maudlin, but it was hardly something to grow upset about. What are you really accusing me of, Ashura?

[wishmadeinfire]

"I am not unaware of your past ties to Felix," he said shortly, approaching, his mouth thin and tight. "As it is, I would appreciate it if you did not attempt such... intimate gestures around him, sleeping or otherwise."

[thraxios]

Gideon resists the urge to roll his eyes by glancing down at Felix. It's a blessing that he isn't awake to witness this. And if I don't feel I've 'attempted' anything particularly intimate?

[wishmadeinfire]

"Then you should respect the fact you are no longer his lover, and I am and it makes me uncomfortable," he bit out, golden eyes narrowing on the darker skinned man.

[thraxios]

Gideon is well aware that he is nobody's lover, nor is he a simpleton. Being so reminded, as though he might have forgotten at some point, chafes. Especially when he feels he's done nothing wrong. If you're so insecure in your relationship, my actions will make little difference.

[wishmadeinfire]

"I am hardly insecure, but you have made it clear in no uncertain terms you loathe me," he said sharply, picking the words deliberately. "I would think seeing me uncomfortable would give you pleasure, am I right?"

[thraxios]

Once upon a time, in a book far, far away, Mildmay described one of Gideon's facial expressions as "like [the man he was looking at] wasn’t just an asshole, but stupid as well, and somehow Gideon’d thought better of him." That's the face he's wearing right now. No. You aren't.

[wishmadeinfire]

"You had me fooled then," he said, shifting, touching his arm where his wound had begun to itch. He brought up his sleeve to look at it, the sleeve itself torn and dried dark with blood, still a bit damp. He smoothed it back down, ignoring it for now, which of course meant the wound on his cheek began the same itching.

"I certainly took your goading in the gardens for that sort of behavior." Meaning when Gideon had told him about his tongue being torn out, but it was not the point now.

"Either way, I appreciate and understand your concern for Felix, but I would prefer you not take liberties." In other words? Don't.

[thraxios]

In the gardens? Fair, Gideon supposes. He did want Ashura to be uncomfortable then, wanted him to regret trying to speak on a topic of which he had no knowledge. But using his own past to strike at Ashura and making overtures to Felix are very different things in Gideon's mind; being accused of the latter makes him bristle.

Perhaps you should tell me what actions constitute 'liberties,' Gideon replies, looking at Ashura as a schoolmaster might an impudent student. I don't share your paranoia and am not familiar with your definition.

[wishmadeinfire]

"Stroking his face as you did," he said, sure the other knew what he meant, sure he was doing it to get under his skin, to drive a wedge between them. As far as he knew, based on their interactions, he would not put it past the other. That Felix had never quite stood up for Ashura when these things happened had never helped, but he was angry, distressed, and he needed a target. Gideon fit perfectly.

"I do not do that to anyone on a whim," he said, venom in his tongue barely restrained. "Especially not with their lover in the room."

Where they could see. Where it could be tossed in his face again that Gideon and Felix shared things Ashura did not, had not, and could not. That some part of him feared Felix turning back to his old lover, a lover he thought dead, a second chance, because he himself could not say he would stand beside Felix if Yasha appeared from the shadows of death.

[thraxios]

I gathered that. Again, he has to resist the desire to roll his eyes at this entire conversation. This all feels patently absurd to him.

Admittedly, Gideon does assume that Ashura has reason to worry about Felix straying--not because of Gideon's presence but because Felix's grasp of monogamy was always more tenuous than Gideon preferred. But Gideon himself will be damned before he serves as someone else's Isaac Garamond. And so all of this is nonsense.

Do you make any other demands of me? Shall I be careful not to look him directly in the eye?

[wishmadeinfire]

"I shall thank you to respect what he and I have," he bit out. "And to stop treating me as the fool."

His glared was narrow now, golden eyes seeming to glow from within, his pupils dilating to cat-like slits as the anger mounted, pushed by tiredness, rage, paranoia, and so many other things. He simply wanted to take Gideon and chuck him over the side of the boat, remove one thing from this moment that did not set him to grinding his teeth.

His mouth suddenly quirked, cruelty springing up, a trait, perhaps, learned from Felix. "I would say never speak to him again, but someone else already assured that particular demand for me."

[thraxios]

Gideon's brow goes up at this remark; he hadn't expected Ashura would have it in him to say it. Ashura's mien has changed in small ways, growing sharper, his eyes looking less and less human.

In the back of his mind, he notes that he may have to speak to Felix about this later. If Ashura is willing to dredge up that knowledge for his use now, it's quite possible that he'll mention it to someone else.

You learned something from that conversation after all. Gideon gives him a cruel smile. I wasn't sure you were capable of such things.

[wishmadeinfire]

"Considering how much older I am than you, you should be more worried about what else I'm capable of," he warned him, his face smoothing, becoming blank, his war face.

The face he used to cut down enemies; the face used to watch them burn alive on the field and ignore their screams.

[thraxios]

Gideon stares back, expression placid. He is a man who has known the spectre of death intimately; he doesn't fear Ashura. I've yet to see reason for concern.

[wishmadeinfire]

He considered this, had met men like Gideon. Yasha had a similar look when they met on the field, and perhaps that had been what drew him to the man in the first place, not being afraid of him. Now, though, it irritated him. He was done with this, with Gideons' sharply written words in his little wax tablet.

Delicate hands reached out, suddenly take the tablet from Gideon. It was an easy thing to summon his gift, to heat his hands. The smell of warm wax filled the air and he watched the tablet soften in his hands. He broke it apart, held the pieces, let them slowly drip down on either side of him.

"Men who do not know when they are beaten are boring," he said, turning his hands over to let the last of the tablet drip down, arching a brow at Gideon, waiting to see how he might respond. The journal was an option, but as far as he could see, Gideon did not use the Castle's little welcome gift.

[thraxios]

Gideon watches dispassionately as Ashura first melts the wax of the tablet and then breaks it in half. Inside, he's furious to see his primary method of communication destroyed, but he knows better than to try and take it back or show outward signs of being upset. That's a lesson he learned--painfully--decades ago.

When Ashura seems quite finished, and the remnants of Gideon's words are beginning to harden on the carpet, Gideon's left to decide what to do. He can't speak, obviously--he uses the journal only in conversing with Mildmay--and he has no desire to remain here when Ashura has the advantage of him. Casting one last glance over at Felix's sleeping form, Gideon turns and begins to walk away; he'll have to find somewhere else to sleep tonight.

[wishmadeinfire]

Later, Ashura would feel somewhat guilty for his actions, but not now. He watched him go, and when the other was fully gone he shifted to sit on the bed beside Felix, not caring that now he would have to watch him all night without rest for his own eyes. It was a task he could gladly undertake. He sighed, smoothing blankets over Felix, and waited for him to wake.