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“I'm not trying to judge you.”
“I know-”
“But what do you mean?” Nico stared down at Eli, big brown eyes peering into his.
Eli stared back, it wasn't like this was making him uncomfortable, it just was a thing. That he experienced. That apparently wasn't mutual to his demon companion.
“I don't like kissing?” He tilted his head back, “being kissed at least, on the mouth.”
Nico leaned forward, resting her chin on her palm, “do you like kissing other people? Or like what if you kissed them on the mouth?”
Eli wrinkled his nose. They were outside Home’s borders, an hour hike away from town, and the day was warm. He was laying in Nico's lap quite comfortably waiting for Josef to join them in the shade–but the conversation, while healthy, felt weird to have.
“...don't really like spit.”
“Oh.”
“Or teeth.”
“Yeah.”
“But anywhere other than my mouth is good,” he smiled, and then, “I—also don't like my breathing restricted.”
Nico hummed, then she leaned forward and kissed the top of his head.
“How's that?”
Eli blushed despite himself, his grin a little wobbly, “Yeah, that'll do it.”
Nico hummed, he could feel her crossed legs wiggle a little under his head, and she bent down a second time, this time nuzzling her nose gently against his own.
“Mmmmnnow that I like.” Eli closed his eyes.
She chuckled and pulled away as Josef finally sat down with them, leaving the Heart of War planted in the ground in the sunshine. He started picking at the snacks Nico had shoved into a sack for them.
“What's it you like, thief?” Josef asked, working open a block of wax covered cheese.
Nico kissed Josef on the cheek, and it was sweet. Eli loved how relaxed the two were with each other, years of intense friendship had turned into, in his opinion, The Cutest Couple This Side of the Unseen Sea.
“She's being nice to me.”
“Eli doesn't like kissing.” Nico told Josef very seriously.
Eli didn't like The Cutest Couple This Side of the Unseen Sea, they were conspiring against him.
“Wouldn't have predicted that,” Josef said around a piece of cheese.
Eli frowned, and sat up.
“What do you mean?”
Josef just shrugged.
“You're a flirt, and you blow kisses all the time.”
“I don't really see the connection, flirting is fun, and there isn't any physical contact with ‘blowing kisses’, so why–”
Josef interrupted him, not purposefully, but he had leaned over the thief to grab at something next to him, and Eli had stopped talking.
He liked watching how the muscles in Josef's back stretched as he did. And he reminded himself he was allowed to watch, Josef didn't mind.
Josef knocked his shoulder against Eli's chest as he sat back up, and handed whatever he'd grabbed to Nico, then he looked at Eli again.
“You don't have to convince me, I don't think it really matters. We can respect that,” he smirked, “not like we think you aren't interested.”
“But you have kissed before.” Said Nico, it wasn't a question but he could tell she was curious.
“Yeah, I'm not one to knock something before I've tried it.” Eli wanted to lay back in Nico's lap again, but she'd sat her snack sack in his spot and was still riffling through it. So he leaned back on his hands and stared at the rolling hills and sunshine.
“Who was it?”
Eli wrinkled his nose, it wasn't enough to ruin his mood but it still tied his stomach to dwell on.
“Benehime,” he said simply.
Josef frowned, and Eli smiled to himself. He also liked how upset his companions got at any mention of the Shepherdess. It reminded him that he wasn't crazy, and that the fact they could outwardly snub her was proof of her death.
And the silence that followed was soft. It didn't feel like he was baring himself, just stating facts and being heard. That was progress he was proud of.
“Have you kissed anyone but her before?”
Now it felt like he was baring himself.
He looked at Nico for a moment thinking, she just watched him while peeling an orange. Her ability to do so without breaking eye contact and without blinking would have been a little intimidating if he wasn't used to her. But, she was just like that sometimes. Like a cat, watching a mouse. And depending on which eyes she was sporting the effect was dramatized. The day was bright, so she peered at him with her dark brown eyes, but every so often the light would catch and they'd shimmer like golden lanterns.
She sure was pretty. And he loved talking to her.
He hummed, “once, when I was seventeen? I think? We were very drunk, so I don't remember how successful we were, I didn't want to risk a second try. Benehime was a jealous jailer.”
Big brown eyes, “would you want to try again?”
“I know what I don't like, Nico.” he said.
Nico nodded, “yes I know, but do you know what you do like?”
Eli rolled his eyes, Josef was watching the conversation switching back and forth between them and that was distracting. He wanted to watch Josef watch them and that wasn't possible.
He turned back to Nico, “I like it when you nuzzle me, isn't that enough for you, girl?”
She leaned into him and glanced her nose against his cheekbone, then kissed his hairline, above his ear. Then she resumed opening her orange.
“I like anything.” She smiled.
His ears felt warm, and he squinted his eyes.
“Okay, I'll try anything once, but I don't care if I disappoint you.”
Lantern eyes, “oh I don't know what you mean thief, but see, I'm too busy eating my orange to kiss you.”
Eli snorted, she was just evil.
“I'll do it.”
Eli looked down his nose at Josef.
“Come again?”
Josef grinned, “I'll kiss you, thief.”
“Will you now?”
Josef shrugged, he brushed bread crumbs off his shirt and set his cheese down, “yeah if you want.”
“What is this, charity?” Said Eli.
“Yeah, I can tell you're really desperate.” Josef deadpanned.
Neither of them were like Benehime, and neither reminded him of her, so it would be okay. He had to focus on that sometimes, it still surprised him how often her ghost would haunt him.
And he was sure he could use this as an excuse to feel up Josef, so after only a moment's hesitation he crawled over.
“Alright Josef. You can kiss me,” he winked at Nico, “since she's busy.”
Josef reached out to him, and Eli leaned towards him, but Josef stopped and tilted his chin to look over him at Nico.
“What’d he say he didn't like?”
“Don’t lick him, bite him, or suffocate him.” Said Nico. Eli rolled his eyes.
“You gonna kiss me or not, your Majesty?”
Josef just snorted.
He pulled Eli closer to him, a large hand on his cheek, and bumped noses just as Nico had, and pressed his lips to Eli's. His beard was rough but he was warm, and gentle, and he pulled back just to press against him again. And his hand slid around from his cheek to cup the back of his head, and that was warm too. He kept kissing him, and it was dry and warm and Eli was losing himself.
Josef ran his other hand up his back and settled it opposite the first and tilted his head to the side, holding Eli's face in both hands, and Eli fumbled for something to grab himself. He groped blindly at Josef's chest for a moment before finding his shoulder and using the fabric there to pull the man to him, hooking his arm around Josef's neck he pulled the two chest to chest. Josef pulled back, breaking the kiss, Eli only then opened his eyes, and the moment he noticed Josef watching him with a smug smile on his face, he huffed and glared over at Nico.
“The fuck was that?” he said.
His lips felt sensitive and he was still hanging onto Josef with the arm around his shoulders.
Nico just grinned at him, eyes shining.
“That was kinda cute.”
“Cute!” Eli laughed, “two men are kissing in front of her and she thinks it's cute. What a woman.” He said the last bit sarcastically to Josef, who ignored him, preferring to press grinning kisses to Eli's cheek and jaw.
Nico stretched, like a languid cat in the sun, “You liked it didn't you?”
“I'd say so.” Said Josef, who let go of the thief's face only to wrap his arms around his waist, keeping him close. It was nice, very nice, but it was starting to be a lot all at once.
“If I had known kissing that felt like that existed, I might not have taken such a defiant stance on the topic,” Eli started, not wanting to admit anything, while also refusing to leave Josef's embrace and put an end to the affection the swordsman didn't often show him.
“But it was good, right?” Nico leaned towards him laughing.
Eli pursed his lips, scrutinizing her.
“No,” he said finally, “it was horrible and I don't need it to happen again.”
Nico's eyes widened.
“You lie!”
“I do not, I'm being completely truthful! I did not-” Eli gasped, making a strangled noise as he suddenly thrashed in Josef's arms.
“Josef NO, that–ha! That ticklesss," the thief wheezed.
Josef hummed, continuing to kiss down Eli's neck while the man rocked back away from him.
“Ticklish huh,” said Josef, “no one's kissed you here before?”
“They have!” Eli giggled, “they didn't have your beard.”
Eli struggled on the ground, tears in his eyes as he reached out to Nico.
“Nico please! Save meeeee!”
Laughing, Nico tackled Josef, and they tumbled over Eli, rolling away and leaving him laying there, freed from the endless kisses that he didn't hate as much as he thought.
Eli sat up and watched Nico and Josef, not six feet away from him, kissing on the ground more feverishly than he and Josef had been just before.
“You two age me.” He pointed accusingly at them, “gonna make me go gray.”
Nico made a grabby hand at him, “can I kiss you too?”
El
i crossed his arms, “I don't know, have you finished your orange yet?”
Nico's dark gaze drifted, and Eli followed it to the peeled orange, laying whole in the grass.
“You didn't even eat it!”