krempuff | dancing in the dark in the pale moonlight [for Thomas]

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dancing in the dark in the pale moonlight [for Thomas]

The heat during the day was getting back up to a place that Krem remembered, that he had grown up in for nineteen years and that he was built for. The past nine years of his life had not erased his need and enjoyment of warm, lazy summer days and refreshing, cooler evenings.

Coordinating schedules with Thomas was, as always, a balancing act. But they managed. Even when they didn't get to see each other for a few days here or there, they sent each other texts, information about nothing at all, just their days so far. Krem texted him, especially, after he'd gotten all of his tattoos done weeks back; the black ink scattered on his skin was still healing, but it was getting close enough to that mark of readiness that Krem felt safe in venturing outside of his regular daily routine.

Today, Darrow had been hot. Krem had worked both jobs and gotten out of Bardolf's later in the evening, around the same time that Thomas normally got off work at Semele's. The evening was still balmy, almost exhaustive, but the ocean called to Krem. The pleasant memory of going out there with Thomas last summer, practicing swimming in private. Tonight, under a nearly full moon, seemed like a wonderful way to repeat the whole venture and put his mind outside of everything else that had been going on recently.

He texted Thomas as he was already on his way down to the boardwalk, contemplating if it would be better to go toward the lagoon that they'd gone to last year, or just swim out in the open. The beach would be nearly empty, since it was night and there didn't appear to be any parties or festivals going on (surprisingly). He decided to let Thomas decide, saying he would see him on the beach.

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Thomas had been out already when Krem's text came in. He'd been walking and thinking, taking advantage of the warm night and the gentle moon. Moonlight spilled down on him, making it fairly easy to read the text.

He sent a quick message back in reply and headed in Krem's direction. It didn't take him long and he found it easy to spot Krem back lit by the light shining off the waves in the distance.

"Hey," he greeted quietly. There wasn't anyone around but everything seemed still and Thomas was loathe to disrupt that.

Krem looked up from contemplating the ocean. It and the sand reflected a bit of the moonlight, enough that the beach was not too dark, and when Krem heard Thomas coming, he smiled over at him.

The world seemed peaceful and calm just then. Krem reached out with a smile, catching Thomas's fingers casually. He leaned up and kissed his cheek gently. "Hey. Good day?"

"Not bad," Thomas said, feeling his cheeks pink up at the kiss. It wasn't unexpected but he was still somewhat unused to such easy affection and it caught him unaware and off guard at times.

"I worked for awhile but that's about it," he said, tucking one hand into his pocket while the other tangled with Krem's hand. "What about you?"

In the dark, even with the moonlight, Krem only knew of Thomas's slight overwhelm by the way he turned his chin down. It was endearing, and widened Krem's smile a little bit. He nodded, pleased to know Thomas had been well, that it had been an easy day for him.

"Worked," he said with a broad shrug. "Both jobs. I'm not sure if I should be grateful to be out off the sun and the heat, or annoyed. It reminds me a bit of home. Except the shops over fans here."

"I don't know how you work two jobs and don't immediately go home and go to sleep," Thomas said, shaking his head. Even the one job he had could exhaust him on the busiest of days. He didn't work directly with the customers but he saw enough of them to know that some of them could be pretty nasty when they wanted to be.

"What brought you out here tonight?" Thomas wondered. "Just wandering?"

"A lack of any immediate need to sleep," Krem said, mostly deadpan about it, because his lack of sleep was often a subject of concern and confusion for most of his friends and the people he cared about. But he hadn't collapsed from exhaustion yet, so he figured he was doing all right.

"I thought," he continued, and smiled a little, heading down the beach slowly and lacing his fingers with Thomas's, "that we could go swimming? It's cooler now, but there's less people."

Thomas raised his eyebrows at the suggestion but he didn't reject the idea. He hadn't gone swimming in a long time, too caught up with work and with the island's machinations to really think about doing much more than running.

"I -- yeah, that sounds good," he admitted with a nod. "I didn't really dress for swimming though."

The jeans and tee shirt he wore made for a good work uniform and was light enough that he didn't get too hot when he was outside.

Krem bumped Thomas gently, glad that the idea had gone over well. He'd had other ideas if it hadn't--just walking for a while, until the night was too cool and they needed to head back to an apartment, or seeing if there was some place open for food even though it was getting late--but he was glad that his first idea had gone over so well.

"Neither am I," he said with a bit of a laugh. He was also just in his jeans and shirt. "But if we find somewhere a bit more secluded then just this stretch of beach..." His smile was innocent even around an unvoiced suggestion. "Nobody's going to see us except us, if we get down to our shorts or less."

"Or less?" Thomas repeated, sounding amused. He shot a smile in Krem's direction and shook his head, hair falling into his eyes. He brushed it away and made a mental note to get a trim soon.

"Hope the water's not too cold, then," Thomas said with a snicker. "Wouldn't want to freeze off anything important."

Krem reached up and flipped the hair out of Thomas's eyes, away from his forehead. He let his touch linger there a moment, softly affectionate, before he went back to holding his hand.

"I'll sacrifice myself to the cause off testing the water first, I promise. And I won't even throw you in, though jumping in is the best way to get used to how cold something is."

There was a curve in the beach ahead, an outcropping of rocks. It was not, Krem knew, the little cove that Thomas and he had swum in last summer, nor the one where Balthier berthed his airship, which meant it was likely to be empty. He smiled at Thomas. "But you don't have to take off anything you don't want to. I figure I'll already have to wash the sand out of anything, I don't want to have to wash the salt out too."

"You're so brave and altruistic," Thomas said, following along with Krem as he walked them towards the beach. There was a good breeze coming off the waves, cooling him down slightly. There was still warmth in the air, enough to make him perspire just the slightest bit but not enough to be suffocating and uncomfortable.

Nowhere near the levels of heat in the Scorch.

"We'll see how it feels before I decide what I keep on and what I take off," he decided. "It sounds like it might be refreshing but I'd like to avoid shucking sand in my pants too."

"I think just being on the beach means you'll get sand in your pants," Krem pointed out softly. The waves shooshed softly up against the sand. It was in between tides, and Krem realized he didn't really know if the tide was going in or out and he probably should have figured that out first.

They had to climb over the outcropping of rocks to reach the next little stretch of beach, but behind that, the water was calmer, almost still, a small harbor of sorts. The moon reflected on it and it's slower, lazy night movements.

Krem made sure they were both safely over the rocks and onto the sand before he started to take off his shoes. The sand was still warm from the day, and it felt good against his tired feet when he stripped off shoes and socks to dig his toes into the sand.

"Hey, there's sand in your pants and then there's sand in your pants," Thomas said as he carefully followed behind Krem. It was nice not to be rushed, to just take their time with this, to smell the salt of the ocean and feel the warm wind brushing through his hair.

Once they were on the sand, he unlaced his boots and took off his socks. He took some time to roll the bottoms of his jeans up and wiggled his toes in the sand. "Warm night."

"It is," Krem agreed with a broad smile. The heat of the day was still out on the beach despite the cooling breeze and it felt wonderful. It reminded him in bits and pieces of the best parts of home.

He put his shoes and socks aside and stripped off his shirt next. With the new tattoos, he was back to a sports bra, but he was alright with that for the most part. In the dark, the black in on his ribs, side, and upper chest, his wrist, all looked much darker.

He pulled up his pants as well, far enough that the tattoo on his ankle showed, but not the ones on his calve. Then, he stepped toward the water. "Oh, that's cold though!"

Thomas's attention was pulled away from the prospect of a swim and towards all the new markings on Krem. He tilted his head, trying to make out the patterns in the dark.

He blinked and started to move when Krem did, only going so far as to let the water rush up over his feet. It was shucking cold and he hissed, pulling one foot out of the water and shaking it.

"Yeah, that's really shucking cold," he said, wincing. "I thought it was supposed to be warm during the summer. All the sun does is shine on it all day."

Krem caught Thomas's curious glance, and he smiled about that as well. It was nice, just to be under that scrutiny for a moment. He laughed, softly--the night deserved quietness and softness right now--as Thomas shuffled in the water.

"I don't think the water's listened to your advice on how warm it ought to be," Krem said, voice soft and teasing. He curled his toes into the sand and let his feet and ankles adapt to the water. It didn't take long.

"I bet, by mid August, it will be quite pleasant. If the river that cuts through town were deeper out in the countryside, that'd be nice too, I think."

"I don't know if I'm willing to take off anything more when it's this chilly," Thomas said, kicking some water in Krem's direction. He smirked but hid it by looking at his feet and drawing a random pattern in the wet sand with his toe.

"Did someone draw all over you again?" he asked, letting the question slip out while he tried to adjust to the water's temperature. "Those weren't there the last time I saw you unless I am really shucking blind."

Krem gave Thomas a slightly teasing look, but didn't argue his decision to keep his clothes on. He kicked back gently, then stepped back from the surf for a moment so he could strip off his jeans as well. Now, all the tattoos were visible, including the ones on his legs.

"Someone draw on me," Krem muttered softly. He folded his jeans and stacked them on his shoes, then returned to the surf, going a little deeper this time. "Yes, I got more tattoos. Did I not--I swore I said I got them done, a couple weeks back? It was a few days after the Fourth."

"Oh, you might have but that's -- that's a lot of them," Thomas said, eyes widening. He pushed the sleeves up on his shirt and crouched down, dragging his fingers through the cool water.

"Don't those hurt when you get them?" Thomas asked him, stepping close to get a better look. "Did you get them all done at the same time?"

Krem waded out until the water lapped at the curve of his calves. He watched Thomas, and nodded quietly. It had been a lot. It had taken a long time, and it had hurt a lot to do it. But life was sort of like that.

"Some of them hurt more than others. The wrist ones--" Krem held up his hands, where he had a phrase ringing one wrist and an hourglass on the other; then he tapped the words, Horns Up, on his ribs, "--and this one, they were the worst. Thin skin, not much muscle. And yes. Took about fourteen hours, with breaks."

Thomas winced. For the longest time, he'd had a bar code on the back of his neck but he didn't know how it had gotten there. He couldn't remember getting it, only that it was there and then it was gone.

"Did something make you want to get them all at once?" Thomas asked, reaching for his wrist and sliding a finger along the words. "You had to be an overachiever and do them all at once and not in trips?"

Krem bent down for a moment, wetting his hands. When he was up again, Thomas was catching his wrist and touching the tattoo. It was light, but the sensation was real and visceral, tender in the way that fresh bruises sometimes could be. He enjoyed the feeling of Thomas's fingers on his wrist and he smiled.

"Mostly that, yes," Krem laughed. "I couldn't decide which was the most important to get first, because they all were? So...all at once."

"Overachiever," Thomas murmured playfully, dropping Krem's wrist and shaking his head. "You can cover your whole body or have you had enough?"

Thomas waded a little further into the water, letting the cuffed ends of his pants dip underneath the water. The chilliness wasn't so sharp anymore. It was actually comfortable.

Krem hummed, contemplatively. He stooped down into the surf again, this time lifting the salt water up to his face and hair. It was a shock, but a rather pleasant one now. It beat a laugh out of his chest.

"I don't know yet," he said honestly. "I've been thinking of most of these for months. Some of them are newer ideas than others. But most of them--at least since I got my crook and flail in November."

Krem smiled as he watched Thomas move about in the surf. He stood and crossed over to him, curling his arms around his waist.

"You trying to rub your new ink off on me, shank?" Thomas asked playfully. He touched a few more of the new marks, watching the ink disappear under his fingertips before reappearing when he pulled his hands away.

"They're nice," he said after a moment of exploration and examination. "Better than some of the other tattoos I've seen before. I like them. I doubt I'll ever get any but they look good on you."

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