1324/Take Me Home

Take Me Home
Date of Scene:	17 March 2024
Location:	Mitakihara Ward
Synopsis:	After healing Fuyuko, Mamoru texts Zoisite for company home since he doesn't want to get stabbed by a vampire due to being tired. Because that's totally a normal thing that happens. Meanwhile they argue about princely autonomy and stupidly reckless decisions.
Cast of Characters:	Mamoru Chiba, Zoisite

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Mamoru Chiba has posed:
There's a very tired Tuxedo Mask on top of a seven or eight storey building in Mitakihara, sitting on the gritty rooftop with his back to an HVAC unit. He is texting.

He is texting Zoisite.

    Mamoru TXT: hey can you come find me i dont trust myself to get home

It's only a few hours after the fight with Sunbreaker and that baseball youma that possessed Niji, and the prince's sense of autonomy is still smarting from the push that Zoisite gave him -- but with all the risks he takes, he does know his limits.

He is too tired to fight off a big scary vampire on his way home tonight, so text he does.

Zoisite has posed:
    The fight hadn't done much except get smoke in Zoisite's eyes, by the end of things, so he'd gone home to take a bath and study. There's only a single precious week left before his appointment to take his placement test, and at this point Zoisite might feel confident that he can pass it... but he wants to ace it. Naturally.

    Of course, he hasn't actually made it to the study part of his evening plans; he's still dealing with his hair, which honestly should have been its own bullet point on the list of Things Zoi Is Doing Tonight.

    Brush in hand, he hears the musical note of his text notification, and then he's peering at his phone and starting to tap at the screen with his thumb as he sweeps his hair over his shoulder in a smooth wave. Then his eyes widen.

    What Mamoru sees, however, is just the initial blip of Zoisite typing a response before it goes still, A few seconds later, a cascade of flower petals swirl across the rooftop and Zoisite is at his prince's side, kneeling down, in his uniform. "Are you hurt?" he asks, voice steady despite the inner turmoil of his emotions. His hands reach but don't immediately touch for fear of causing potential further pain, and his gaze sweeps Mamoru up and down.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Nah, just exhausted. Beryl broke one of the HR lady's ribs and since she's Inai-sensei's best friend and I also owe her for stuff from a couple years ago--" 'stuff a couple years ago' almost certainly means the fallout from the Dark Agency fiasco "--I told her sure I'd heal her. I got the rest no problem, but bones take a lot out of me."

Tuxedo Mask tucks his phone in his pocket and briefly pulls his mask off to rub at the corners of his eyes. "And considering the vampire that was strong enough to pin me down, after the last time I healed Yuuhi-san, I thought it would be a good idea to ask for company on the way back."

He glances up blearily, putting his mask back on. "I mean I also wanted to tell you I really didn't appreciate that push back there, but given the fact that Sunbreaker is in Eternal Sleep probably for failing to get the rainbow crystal she gave me and then probably being Sunbreaker and mouthing off, I currently have other things I'm crankier about."

Zoisite has posed:
    Still kneeling, Zoisite braces his arm on his knee, his hands pulled back so he's not invading Mamoru's personal space so overtly. His expression shades a touch as past events are mentioned, but he hardly sees a point in arguing with his prince, of all people, about things like honor and debt-owing and such matters.

    If their positions were switched, things would have happened (or not happened) much differently. But Endymion is the prince, and Zoisite is the knight, and this is how it is. Frankly, it's best this way.

    "I'm sorry your feelings were hurt," which is not much of an apology at all, and by the way Zoisite's lips thin, he knows it. "I was just ensuring you wouldn't throw yourself upon the sword for me again. Metaphorically speaking, since it was a baseball bat of all things, this time around." He pushes himself up onto his feet and then offers a hand down to Tuxedo Kamen, apparently having evaluated him as capable of at least standing on his own.

    Or maybe assuming by Mamoru's previous statement that anything more than an offered hand would be an irritant.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
This time it's Mamoru's turn to color a little, but he doesn't look away. He takes the hand up, then doesn't let go of it, despite the glove keeping them from making skin contact. "I'm sorry about that, still, Zoi," he says earnestly, there's nothing about him right now that's not earnest.

Now Zoi's hand is sandwiched between Mamoru's, held warm in the clasp and then covered over with the other. "I was under a lot of pressure and we were all more than a little insane at the time. I know it might take you a while to forgive me, if ever... but you have to let me do my job, which isn't to be protected from everything all the time. I know when I hit my limits and need company on the way home, and despite not wanting to, I gave the orange crystal to Usako without you even asking me to. Can't we compromise?"

Zoisite has posed:
    Once their hands are together, Zoisite means to pull Mamoru up to his feet. But instead there's another apology being exchanged, the other way around this time, and then there's some serious hand-clasping. So Zoisite stares, his green eyes looking especially piercing in the moment... before he breaks eye contact, looking away with a blush tinging his cheeks.

    Honestly he hopes it's dark enough out that it can't be noticed.

    "Yes yes, of course," he says, haughty, but then he sucks in a breath and peeks a look at Tuxedo Kamen out of the corner of his eyes. "You know it's not everything else that worries me, right? There will always be threats, but the thing that you need protecting from the most might just be yourself."

    And, now is the time. Now is the time that Zoisite draws up his knightly strength to heave Mamoru up to his feet, steadying hands coming right after to make sure no one tumbles back down onto the rooftop. "Case in point," he continues, freeing up one hand to gesture around themselves. "You're incapacitated out in the open. Thank you for calling for me, but I just wish..."

    He sighs. Then he straightens up, pulling himself together. "I know one of us can't always be there with you. You're your own person and deserve to have the kind of freedom you once didn't, not just recently but in the past too." Zoisite's sure the emphasis isn't necessary for Mamoru to know exactly how far in the past he means. "But if you're confronted with a situation where you might end up like this, just... you have to know any one of us would be at your side in an instant, no matter the circumstances," he says, and if there's anyone earnest here, now it's Zoi, believe it or not...

    Zoisite purses his lips. Being that earnest makes his skin itch, so he adds, "I mean, I'd rather it always be me so I know you're in the most capable hands, but," he sighs dramatically, "Beggers can't be choosers, I suppose."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"You've felt that way the whole time, I know," Mamoru says after being heaved up -- he's not dead weight, at least, and he can stand on his own two feet, but he looks tired. He looks down at Zoisite now, from up there in very-tall land, and he bends down a little to kiss Zoisite's forehead--

The contact is most of the point, though the sense of a benediction is something that doesn't need contact to pick up either way. The rest of it through the contact, though, that's affection and apology and such a fiercely strong sense of self-- Mamoru is gentler, but Endymion's stubbornness and independence have not lessened in the slightest. The sense of the Earth beneath them is the same, the strange sense of time that mixes the ticking of a pocketwatch with geological epochs, the sense of life that's bright and interconnected all around them--

He is Endymion, and he remembers dying, and maybe that's the problem.

As apologetic as he is, he's willing to compromise but not willing to fundamentally change who he is: a defender of Earth.

It's all a flash in a heartbeat's span of contact, and some things never change, and this maddening prince is one of them. "If you need counseling to deal with me, honestly, talk to Kazuo because he hasn't had a problem -- even the whole time he knew me as Hematite he wasn't freaking out. Maybe he knows something you don't. Anyway I texted you less than a minute after she left, and didn't try and go anywhere!"

Zoisite has posed:
    "Something has to give eventually," Zoisite points out, matter-of-factly. And then a cheshire smile spreads across his face. "You're more stubborn I'll admit, but I'm very clever, so don't count me out yet."

    Either way, despite the impasse they may be finding themselves currently at, Zoisite tilts his head up into the forehead kiss, and he reaches to grip Tuxedo Kamen by the arms, squeezing him gently but with great fondness. That much is transmitted through their brief contact, along with amusement (also fond), consternation (still fond, somehow), and protectiveness (the most fond of all).

    As if Zoisite's feelings weren't already clear about his prince.

    He steps back from the touch after, steadied by it in ways more than physical, and then he offers an arm to Mamoru. Despite their height differences, there's no doubt in Zoisite's mind that he's more than capable of supporting his prince's weight. "Kunzite and I are very different people with very different experiences. And I said thank you for texting! I did mean it."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Yes, but he's also your actual leader," insists Mamoru, "and I think hearing his perspective on my tendency toward behaviors you feel leave something to be desired might help you. Besides, you absolutely need to complain about me and you can't do it at Jadeite or Nephrite, at least not right now."

A beat, and he's holding on to Zoisite's arm, but not in a way that actually requires support. More in the 'I'm about to jump off the side of a building and I'm holding on while I look into the alley for vampires' way. "Okay, down, and then de-henshin, and then public transit. I really just want the company. Thank you for coming when I asked you to, even if I drive you crazy. And if Beryl's curbstomping the Obsidian HR lady and putting a consultant in an Eternal Sleep crystal, things are probably going to get crazy. So I do plan on not going off-campus alone for a while, even if it drives me crazy."

He patpats Zoisite's arm and, if not stopped, he jumps off the side of the building.

Zoisite has posed:
    Zoisite's head bobs in a way that is meant to be outwardly agreeable without actually implying that he's agreeing. -able and -ing are two different things! He gives one last critical eyeing up over Mamoru's form before he decides things are alright, or at least alright enough to let him jump down without assistance.

    "I'll be at your side whenever you need me," he promises, then affects a put-upon sigh, "Even if it interrupts my beauty sleep." Not that he was actually sleeping tonight, but the beauty thing is pretty accurate, even if he'd managed to throw his hair up into a ponytail and teleport looking as flawless as ever!

    Then down Mamoru goes, and Zoisite follows close behind, as always.