[ He’s scattered in his efforts to recall the ghosts in question, less convinced of their relevance for all that it would be easier. Less unsettling.
His eyes tell the story, bright in their sockets, hunted, pulling in light. He looks younger with the flat affect shaken out of him -- more alive.
He has his own reasons for remembering Arima.
Memory is still in the process of being rifled through when he registers Charles’ offer; every fiber in him warms to the affirmative. Stay, drink, spoil his palette with decent liquor. Ultimately it’s caution that holds him up after a sense of uncertainty he can’t immediately place: the fact that he’s reminded at a shadier glance that this is not the Charles he knew however many months ago. ]
I shouldn’t.
[ You’re terrible and hairy but I’ve just realized if I stay I might try to fuck you, he means, and already knows better.
Eye contact after that comes on a delay. It's also tinged with guilt. ]
no subject
His eyes tell the story, bright in their sockets, hunted, pulling in light. He looks younger with the flat affect shaken out of him -- more alive.
He has his own reasons for remembering Arima.
Memory is still in the process of being rifled through when he registers Charles’ offer; every fiber in him warms to the affirmative. Stay, drink, spoil his palette with decent liquor. Ultimately it’s caution that holds him up after a sense of uncertainty he can’t immediately place: the fact that he’s reminded at a shadier glance that this is not the Charles he knew however many months ago. ]
I shouldn’t.
[ You’re terrible and hairy but I’ve just realized if I stay I might try to fuck you, he means, and already knows better.
Eye contact after that comes on a delay. It's also tinged with guilt. ]