A medical emergency

[fadingworld]

A deep navy cloak hides his features and the more ornate tunic the courtesan usually wears to greet his clients. Mal hunches his shoulders and slides through the crowds hoping to avoid notice. He keeps his head down until he reaches the home of the doctor and wraps smartly on the door. "Open up," he calls in a voice that expects to be listened to.

How much time did he have? He could not have a client bleeding out. Not this one. Not one who had come to him for help, to be treated privately.

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[mandragoraspiritus]

Regis too smiles, with a slight quizzical quirk of an eyebrow. "What makes you think that you aren't already?"

Still smiling he steps back. Hugs are pleasant, yes, and he has missed touch, but even more his fondness for Mal stems from the man's mind. "It is too early for bed yet. Come, let us find something else to do with the reminder of the evening."

[fadingworld]

He could do so much more though.

Mal smiles and gestures to the book that he had abandoned. "Should I return to study, or may I make another attempt in the kitchen?" So far there had been a few near food disasters in there but he was learning.

[mandragoraspiritus]

"Are you still hungry?" Regis does join Mal for every meal and he does eat, but he has no need to. It's easy enough to eat a certain number of meals at certain times a day, but hunger isn't really something he feels.

[fadingworld]

"Only a little," Mal says easily. "I was thinking I could conquer something that we could use another day." He grins, "I think I am taking easier to learning how to heal then I am to the kitchen."

[mandragoraspiritus]

"So far, yes, I would have to agree," Regis says, humor in his tone. "To the kitchen, then. What would you like to make?"

[fadingworld]

"Something simple," Mal says threading his arm through Regis' to draw him through. "Something that I cannot burn to a crisp!"

[mandragoraspiritus]

They manage a stew that evening, enough for a late night snack as well as to have the next day, even if Regis does have to step in a time or two to keep it from boiling over.

By the time they have washed up it has gotten sufficiently late and Regis has started to catch Mal yawning. "Bed?"

[fadingworld]

Mal replies with an even wider yawn. "Cooking is a very tiring activity," he comments. He looks around the kitchen once more to ensure it's neatness and feels satisfied. It does need a few touches like flowers in a vase on the table which he was planning to bring in next week.


He kisses Regis on the cheek. "Thank you for your patience again. I will meet you in my room when I am washed and ready for the night.


He slips away to get ready and enters his room, perfectly groomed, choosing soft black legging and deep green top to sleep in.

[mandragoraspiritus]

Regis gives Mal enough time to wash up and settle before entering. And, of course, he has to do so in style. He's not above showing off, especially so since Mal is at ease with some of his vampiric traits. Once again it is smoke that drifts in through the crack under Mal's door, across the room to the foot of the bed. Then up, slithering in under the blanket that billows up, swelling over a shape behind Mal that is insubstantial at first but soon takes the physical form Or Regis. He remains clothed, in trousers and shirt.

[fadingworld]

"Show off," Mal says affectionately as he traces Regis' movements. The smoke no longer makes his hair stand on end but he does remain fascinated by it.

"That could have some interesting uses in bed," he says cheerfully as he starts to rest back against Regis' solid form, not to heavily yet, glancing over his shoulder to check that it is okay.

[mandragoraspiritus]

The arm that settles around Mal to pull him back more firmly says with perfect clarity that it is more than okay.

"It can," comes the admission from Regis, in a tone that suggests he has indeed found such uses for it in the past. "If the mood so strikes."

[fadingworld]

After a minute Mal forgets to try and lie gracefully, he settles into the most comfortable position with a hand resting on Regis' arm. He doesn't feel restrained, merely supported.

Mal smiles, "Tell me about a use you've put it too," he pleads. "I am curious!"

[mandragoraspiritus]

It is a comfortable position to be in, with his back against the wall and Mal resting against his chest.

"Are you truly asking me about tales of my past amorous adventures?" He asks, sounding somewhat amused by the question.

[fadingworld]

Mal giggles, the vibrations going right through his body. "You do realise that is quite a normal topic of conversation for me? What else do courtesans have to talk about?" There were others, but with ears in the walls, they rarely talked about much else.

[mandragoraspiritus]

"True enough, I suppose." REgis doesn't linger on that, though he thinks it might be different now that there is a personal involvement. Still, Mal is curious and he will answer him, though he need not go into too much detail.

"While the form is immaterial in itself, I do still retain the ability to touch, if I so wish. Which I'm sure you have noticed." The very first time Mal had seen the misty form, Regis had thoroughly mussed up his hair after all. "It can, I have been told, be rather exciting to be touched without knowing how or where, and without being able to touch in return."

[fadingworld]

Mal cocks his head on one side. "Yes, if you trust your partner, I can see that and what a bonus not to have to do it with restraints and a blindfold." He smiles warmly, "Someday, I would like that. It would be very different... and a game could be made of it in time." Not soon, no. But it is something to look forward to.

"How long ago were you last with someone?"

[mandragoraspiritus]

Regis has to think about that. How many years has it been? Not all of those years had been years he had been aware of much at all.

"Twelve years ago, I think. Perhaps thirteen. An affair started out of practicality during a stay in Beauclair, while friends and I were wintering there during our travels, though I did quickly come to genuinely care for the lady in question."

[fadingworld]

"I can well see that," Mal says softly. "You listen to your heart, you cannot stay clinical about a person. Why did you leave? Was it because you were only wintering there?" There is no judgement there, Mal would find that a perfectly normal reason.

[mandragoraspiritus]

He gives a hum of affirmation. "We were searching for a young lady, the adopted daughter of one of my friends. The stay in Beauclair was more of necessity than anything else, rather than braving the mountain passes in cold and harsh weather. We parted on good terms, the lady and I, and though I was one of the driving forces of our departure, I did silently and privately lament it a bit."

[fadingworld]

Mal turns his head to press a kiss to Regis' arm. "We lose a little of ourselves to those we meet and gain a little of them to take away with us," he says softly.

"There is a little of her spirit or personality that you carry."

[mandragoraspiritus]

"Oh, I lament no longer," Regis assures, bowing his head until he can bury his nose into Mal's hair, drawing in a dep breath to catch his scent more clearly. "I merely think of her fondly from time to time."

[fadingworld]

"You can speak of her any time, or of anyone else. There is so much to learn about you." He shuts his eyes contentedly. "I remember you said time passes differently for you. Does it seem like a long time since you had someone to share yourself with?"

[mandragoraspiritus]

"It both seem like no time at all as well as an eternity," he muses in a far away tone, falling silent for a moment before deciding to honestly explain.

"At the goal of our travel I was very severely hurt. From a human perspective, I died. My body was utterly destroyed. But life and death is not the same for us as it is for you. I still lived, though I was not at all aware of the world. I did no reasoning, no thinking. But, I still was. No doubt, I would still have been in that place and in that state had not Dettlaff found my remains and had he not taken it upon himself to regenerate me in his own blood." He breathes a soft sigh, tightening his hold around Mal just a bit. "Truthfully, I am still recovering from the ordeal."

[fadingworld]

Mal twists in Regis' arms until he is facing him and hugs the vampire close. He can feel the pain as he rests their foreheads together.

"Are you in any pain still?" he asks softly, "Or just recovering strength still?"

[mandragoraspiritus]

"There's no pain," Regis assures, "though I am far from peak form. It doesn't help me that I abstain from blood - for while we don't need it to live it does give us strength - but I am willing to stick to the slow path to recovery to not have to risk another dive into addiction."