tfln overflow / open post

[superniceone]

(open / overflow)

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[superniceone]

Gustave makes a face at that. "I mean, I feel like you've seen me at my most embarrassing. I might have to ask Maelle what to share."

[recreatable]

"Or," Verso says, in that voice that suggests he's about to be annoying, "you could write your own embarrassing poetry. In the interest of fairness."

[superniceone]

Gustave hums, shaking his head. "No, wouldn't work. I'd find it too silly to be embarrassed about it. I could let Esquie try to teach me that dance? I've always been a 'stand still and sway' sort of guy."

[recreatable]

Hey, don't knock Esquie's dancing!!!

"I don't know who taught him that — it definitely wasn't me." It's ridiculous but charming, like most things about Esquie. For all Verso knows, he came up with the dance all by himself. Probably made Francois watch him practice. "But all right. I'll provide the music, then."

[superniceone]

He's not knocking Esquie's dancing! He's knocking his own!

Gustave tips his head down and laughs, because this is somehow more absurd than letting a gestral cut his hair. "How drunk am I allowed to be for this?"

[recreatable]

"Ah, well, we should be careful." A pointed look. "The last time you got drunk, you made some frankly terrible decisions."

[superniceone]

Gustave tilts his head at the pointed look, both of his eyebrows up. "Don't know about that. Working out pretty well for me so far, I'd say."

[recreatable]

"You got lucky that I'm a perfect gentleman."

He went off with a total stranger!!! Not to belabor the point, but Verso really could have killed him!!!

"But I'm afraid that next time you'll go off with Monoco and wake up with one less foot."

[superniceone]

"Oh, well, you know I have been eyeing Monoco. I've heard all about how warm that fur is." This is the stupidest conversation he's ever had, and his mood is so buoyant for it.

[recreatable]

Somewhere in camp, Monoco's nonexistent ears are ringing.

"Yeah, but he kicks. And gestrals don't need sleep, so he'll talk your ear off all night." Poor Monoco really did nothing to get this criticism, but also, it's true. "Plus, you'll wake up with all that fur in your mouth."

[superniceone]

Gustave is laughing silently again, his shoulders just trembling with it more than anything else. "Are you afraid I'll steal him away? It sounds like you're just making things up now."

[recreatable]

Gustave has made a mistake in laughing at him, because now he doubles down in an attempt to entertain. "Putting aside the maligning of my good name," because he'd never, ever, ever make things up, "you do have me there. I'm actually terrified that you'll usurp my position as Monoco's big spoon."

[superniceone]

Gustave waves both of his hands in front of him, very much a no, no gesture. "Don't worry, I won't be auditioning for the spot. I can't lose an arm and a foot, people will start thinking I'm doing it on purpose."

[recreatable]

"And then he'd be able to transform into you, and I'm not sure I'm ready to contend with that."

You know, as if this isn't already weird enough. But Monoco would (probably...) never, and if anyone's good name is being maligned, it's his. Verso laughs, then throws his own hands up. "All right, fine. You've twisted my arm — I'll get you drunk and watch you try to dance like Esquie." Like it's a favor.

[superniceone]

"Hmm. But only near the end of your trial month in Lumière." Gustave gently jabs him in the rib with an elbow. "Because there is zero chance you're still going to be attracted to me after that."

[recreatable]

"That's one way to get rid of me," he says, not unkindly. He's still attracted to Gustave even after all of the cornball shit he says, so it's highly debatable whether a little Esquie-dancing could change that. "But you should know that I'm actually wildly attracted to bad dancing."

[superniceone]

Gustave laughs again, because this is all so ridiculous, and then impulsively asks a question he'd meant to told onto until it was more relevant. Idly he picks up a stone, chucks it toward the lake. "If I asked you not to dance with anyone else that first month back." Well, okay, it's more of an implied question at the end of a blurted statement, but there's no going back now.

[recreatable]

Verso's eyes flick from Gustave's stone-throwing hand to his face, eyebrows raised expectantly. "—That almost sounded like a question."

[superniceone]

Gustave rolls his eyes, because you know what he was indirectly almost asking!! "Would that be a problem?" he says calmly, after a long pause.

[recreatable]

During that (painfully awkward) pause, Verso's fingers scrabble for another stone. He's still entirely ignorant of the significance behind Gustave's rock-throwing, but he replicates the action once Gustave finally asks anyway, tossing it and watching it descend beneath the water. It's probably the first time he's watched that happen and not fantasized about sinking underneath himself.

Lightly: "That's an awful way to ask someone to be exclusive." Make an effort.

[superniceone]

Gustave likes to tell himself he's gotten better at understanding Verso, but the fact of the matter is that isn't really true. He thinks he knows the answer, thinks that this must be mutual enough that they're on the same page — but he'd sort of thought that before, and then he'd watched Verso leave the fire with Sciel's hand tucked into his elbow.

"I didn't want to make it sound like an ultimatum," he says a bit defensively. "There will be a lot of young, beautiful people in the city, and— I would just prefer it if—"

Gustave groans at himself.

"Is that Maelle calling for me? I think it is." Maelle is currently propped up against Esquie, half asleep.

[recreatable]

All right, maybe that was too glib. It's hard to know where to strike a balance, figure out what kind of person Gustave would like him to be. "Hey," he says, hand on Gustave's elbow, sounding not unlike someone trying to calm a spooked horse. Then, mouth quirking up: "I'm messing with you."

Honestly, he'd thought his feelings on the matter so obvious that they didn't need elucidating. He'd taken Gustave on a date, or at least whatever passes for one on the Continent, and he'd spent the day practically crawling on his knees to try to please Gustave. If he doesn't understand by now that Verso likes him, then Verso has to question if that brain of his is as big as previously thought.

But if it's really that unclear, he'll clarify. "As it turns out, I don't want to dance with anyone else."

He won't ask the same question back, though. He's still half-prepared to have his position usurped by Sophie and her fuckass bob the moment they set foot in Lumiére.

[superniceone]

A date in the woods was hardly a declaration of feelings or intent, especially with someone as chronically evasive as a Dessendre. "I know you're messing with me," Gustave groans, and he gently shakes Verso's hand off. That's why he was embarrassed, actually!! "But thank you."

He's still slightly overwhelmed with the concept of what Lumière, what life in Lumière is going to look like if they're able to return. It's not like Verso had ever been a part of his pre-Expedition life in the first place; maybe it's unfair to expect to use him as an anchor when they return.

"Okay. That's settled. They always say a little post-dinner humiliation is good for the complexion." Hope you never expected him to be a normal, non-embarrassing man, Verso.

[recreatable]

"Humiliation is a bit dramatic," he points out. Don't be like this, chouchou! Shaking off his hand and everything.

Gustave had seemed nervous, and he'd only meant to take the edge off, but it seems more like he put the edge on. He hates the idea of someone being displeased with him, so— "Hey. Ask me again."

It doesn't matter if Gustave actually complies, because the moment he opens his mouth to respond, Verso says (with dramatic flair), "Yes, yes, a thousand times yes."

It's still teasing, but he hopes the crooked grin on his face communicates that it's playful, affectionate teasing, not mean-spirited. "Enthusiastic enough?"

[superniceone]

Gustave— well, he's not any less embarrassed, that's for sure, but the melodramatic way he's groaning does hopefully convey that he's not exactly stressed about it.

"You're... how old, again? You've had a hundred years to stop being such a brat, and this is really where you landed?" His grousing is clearly just as affectionate, and he reaches out to briefly grab and squeeze Verso's knee.