Predictable Nightmares Who: Tayne and Dhaval Where: Dhaval's room When: Early hours of the morning
Tayne's feeling of safety only lasted until the dreams finally began. After two and a half days of helplessness and ill treatment, of worry and stress hard after several days of illness, he couldn't hope to escape a nightmare or two. Until almost midnight he slept without dreaming, curled up against Dhaval and letting his body recover.
Not long after midnight, though, REM sleep kicked in at last and everything was disjointed images, harried emotions, images of big cats torn to pieces and his comrades' throats cut in front of him while he watched, bars of cages that kept shrinking until he couldn't move, a trembling tension he couldn't escape from. When the dragon-head breathed a powerful gout water at him, instead of fire, he woke up with a cry and scrambled up and out of bed.
Everything was dark, and he stumbled over first desk, then chair, then wall, feeling trapped and growling in the back of his throat in an attempt to stave off the terror.
Dhaval had put in the better part of a night's sleep by then, and lacking extreme physical stress to recover from, he was dozing pretty lightly. His eyes flickered open as Tayne began to shift, but he'd almost slipped back to sleep on seeing the dark room when Tayne yelled. Quite awake but disoriented, he sat up slowly, rubbing his eyes. It was still completely dark and he couldn't help being scared. He wasn't quite alert enough to put together than screaming and leaping out of bed was definitely a sign of danger, but he reacted anyway. "Tayne? Tayne, what is it?" That growling was really unnerving.
Pressed against the wall, Tayne looked around wildly at the sound of the voice. The very faint light that came from outside the tiny room wasn't enough for even his eyes to see much of anything, and all he could make out was a dark shape. "What-- where--" He was stammering, hardly really comprehending what had even been said much less who had said it, and he ran one hand over his face, half-expecting to feel the dreaded water he'd been dreaming. All he felt was a little sweat, and all he smelled was Dhaval and his own fear.
Dhaval. Dhaval was here. Was he-- he'd been dreaming?
Alright, Tayne didn't seem to be really doing anything, which calmed Dhaval some. The man was too sharp and competent to be dithering if there were monsters or baddies or some other threat at hand. He took a deep breath. "Tayne, um, come back to bed?" Not the best idea, maybe, but it was all he had. He wanted to get over to Tayne to see what was the matter, but by the time he got into his chair and across the room, he'd probably have missed everything. He tried to swing his legs around to sit at the edge of the bed, but he couldn't do more than that.
Yeah. He'd been dreaming. Tayne slumped back against the wall and ran a hand again over his face. It was shaking, but at least he'd stopped growling. "Yeah... yeah. J-just a minute. Sorry, man. D-did I wake you up?" Of course he did. It was still the middle of the night-- or early in the morning; some time well before dawn-- and he'd come clawing his way out of bed out of a deep sleep. Of course he'd woken Dhaval up.
Dhaval didn't really know what to make of this, but he had a sense Tayne was in a bit of a vulnerable place, and kept his voice gentle. Not too hard for him. "It's okay." He tested the floor with his feet. Kind of cold, which was always annoying, but putting the slightest bit of weight on his feet wasn't bad. He could get himself into his chair. Should he? "You know, if sounds kind of funny when you growl while you're human," he offered, trying to lighten the mood a little while he debated. Dhaval groped for the handle of his chair, pulling it closer with a slight squeak.
The squeak was obvious, to Tayne, and he shook his head. Not that Dhaval could see it. Then he pushed up from the wall and made his somewhat shaky way back to the bed, before Dhaval could go through the hassle of getting out of bed. "I bet it does. Not q-quite enough depth to it, right? It f-feels k-kind of funny, too, d-doing it... I almost d-didn't notice I was." He actually hadn't, at all, until Dhaval had started talking and brought his attention back to where he really was.
Dhaval reached out and wrapped his arms around Tayne's waist. "Hey, Tiger." He didn't really know what was going on. Nightmares were, like most things Dhaval was afraid of, rendered almost banal by their consistency. He had them all the time, and aside from talking in his sleep a bit, he almost didn't mind them. Sometimes he got interesting ideas by remembering the worst dreams. "As long as it doesn't hurt your throat or anything, well, nothing wrong with it. I might still laugh, though."
Sighing a bit, Tayne settled his arms around Dhaval's shoulders, back, stroking his hair like Dhaval was the one in need of soothing, not himself. The action helped get his hands to stop trembling, anyway, and he shut his eyes against the darkness. "No... doesn't hurt. S'more of a ch-chest-noise, anyway. Hard t-t'describe how I do it, really.... Don't laugh, though. Might be I'm g-growlin' at somethin' actually d-dang'rous, sometime, and laughin' prob'ly ain't the best reaction then."
"Okay, no laughing at the kitten growl," Dhaval agreed. He didn't mind being soothed at all. He didn't object to Tayne using him as a pillow to snuggle against, but feeling sheltered and protected was rather pleasant, especially in a dark room with his pulse still racing and Tayne definitely upset about something. And he couldn't just not ask what. "So, um, what were you growling at this time?" He nuzzled Tayne's cheek in hopes of calming him, breathing slowly to convince the adrenaline in his veins to knock it off. And that was just from being at the periphery. Poor tiger.
"Just d-dreaming," Tayne said, a little disgusted with himself. Army vets and tigers shouldn't be scared so badly over just a dream-- and not even the "worst" part of the dream, either! A fire hose worth of water wouldn't have scared anyone else. "Woke myself up, and t-took a minute to realize I was awake, is all." He settled down on the bed finally, next to Dhaval, without really letting him go.
"Oh, ok." That was a rather violent response to a dream. He supposed Tayne had had a very bad time just of late, and that excused a bit of acting out, but Dhaval was still a bit weirded out. But he didn't let go as Tayne settled in beside him. He kissed Tayne gently, aiming for his cheek but winding up under his eye in the dark. He was settling down pretty quickly now that he knew he had nothing to worry about, so he could focus on Tayne. "Uh, for a dream, that was... Kind of extreme..." He didn't want to complain, exactly. He just wondered if he should expect it.
"You try having your first real sleep in d-d-days interrupted by dying people and water-spouting dragons," Tayne answered, a little irritably, "and see how you like it." He paused, made another little growling noise, this time aimed at himself, and sighed, leaning into Dhaval and dropping his forehead to the man's shoulder. "Sorry... sorry. I sh-shouldn't snap at you... you didn't d-d-do nothin' wrong."
Well, when he put it like that... He still thought it was an extreme reaction, and remained a bit unsettled, but it wasn't as though there'd been any damage. "Don't worry about it. That's the kind of dream the heroes have, not us cowering civilians." And he kissed Tayne's temple, all he could really reach. "Um, do you want the light on? I can feel out the lantern." Maybe it'd make the room a little less oppressive, anyway? "
Feeling lucky that Dhaval was so forgiving, Tayne gave his shoulders a squeeze, then lifted his head to look around. "We probably shouldn't waste the power," he said wearily, "but maybe for a few minutes...." He knew being able to see for a little while would make him feel better, big damn hero, as Dhaval said, or not. He didn't feel very heroic at the moment; more like a coward.
Dhaval kept his good hand on Tayne's shoulder while he leaned over. A nice gesture of affection and good for keeping him from falling. Sight was a big part of balance, and the darkness and sleepiness and scare were making it hard to navigate. He eventually fumbled his way to the little battery-powered lantern. Its light was yellow and, Dhaval thought, sort of friendly, if a little strange. "There." He straightened and rested his right hand against Tayne's cheek, trying to hold his makeshift cast back a little bit. It was slightly scratchy.
The light immediately dazzled Tayne's dark-adjusted eyes, and he squinted for a long moment before his sight started to clear, leaning his cheek into Dhaval's touch. "Sorry about all th-this," he said unhappily. "And I can't promise it won't happen again, either...." He hoped it wouldn't, but for the next few nights, at least, until his body and mind were both convinced they were safe, he couldn't be sure.
"Pfft, you're worth a couple complications," Dhaval said, even as he tried to steal himself to deal with being woken in the middle of the night by a panicked Tayne. He couldn't help worrying a little, and hoped he could rely on the rather dangerous predator recognizing him as safe. "Here, um, you want to put your head in my lap, and I could read to you? Just to relax you a bit. Seems like you might need a little time out of your head, huh?" He began to stroke Tayne's back gently, feeling tension there and trying to sooth it all away.
"That sounds like a k-kind of awesome idea," Tayne agreed, though he wasn't worried at all about potentially hurting Dhaval. The tiger knew who was dangerous and who wasn't just as well as he did; probably better. A tiger wouldn't be having nightmares, period, and would probably be very puzzled why Tayne was stressed out, at all. He pulled his feet up onto the bed and laid his head down with a sigh. "Jus' make sure you p-pick somethin' with no water in it...."
He didn't know what to make of that, but it didn't seem like the time to pry, so he just nodded. That Tayne didn't care for water was easy enough to grasp, but that even the mention of it was upsetting quite escaped Dhav. He scooted over on the bed to where he could reach the stacks of paper that were his own stories. No significant mention of water in any of those but the one with the pirates, so that was safe. He picked a short story off the top, one about the man who'd created Spring-Heeled Jack and had his life taken over by an independent apparition that gradually took on the appearance and the supposed powers of his hoax. Not the thing, maybe, for an unsettled night. A nice adventure felt much more the thing than psychological horror.
He settled instead on a western featuring the sharpshooting daughter of a Chinese wizard who ran a gambling hall and investigated supernatural crime on the side, one of his recurring characters. She'd really deserved a novel of her own someday. Pity he'd never have time to write it. He shook his head, feeling himself about to float off into his own imagination, and turned back to Tayne. "This should be okay. Here." He moved as far back on the bed as he comfortably could so Tayne could stretch out and smiled.
Scooting with him so he could still lay close, his head against Dhaval's thigh if not actually on his lap anymore, Tayne asked, "So what's this one about?" His request about water was mostly to keep from having to listen to storm scenes and wave-tossed shipped. Maybe sometimes he could handle it, but not after nightmares when all he wanted was to think about something relaxing.
"Well, it takes place in a desert, so there's that. It's about a gambler, a saloon girl, an ex-pirate, and a detective running a bar and fighting off monsters and evil wizards in a Wild West full of magic." Saying it like that made him kind of sound like a moron. Oh, well, at least Tayne was sleepy and probably wouldn't remember details. He propped the pages on his knee so one hand would be free to stroke Tayne's hair as he began to read, mostly to avoid having to explain further. "Mink woke with a headache like a a stampede in her head and a dragon-lizard on her chest. So nothing out of the ordinary there. She hissed at Jiefang and picked him up by the spines, which annoyed but didn't hurt him...." His voice was smoother than usual when he read. Though he was relaxed with Tayne, a few hesitations and a lot of unnecessary qualifiers wound up in his speech. Now he sounded confident and calm.
That sounded right up Tayne's alley, actually-- the Western part of it, anyhow. Throw in some weird, supernatural kick, and hey, it'd be right up both their alleys. He'd never really read anything of the sort, but he was content to listen to just about anything, if Dhaval was reading it and all he had to do was lay there and try to imagine it. He smiled a bit, looking up at Dhaval's face as he read, and just listened.
Dhaval went on with the story, keeping his voice softly measured and with his hand constantly stroking. Mostly Tayne's hair, but wandering occasionally to his cheek or his neck or shoulders. The story was an intricate whodunit about a serial killer who was actually a demon hunter tied in with an attempt to ship out coal from a dragon breeding ground, marked by several gunfights, a bank robbery as a diversion, and a long chase on horseback, smashing several genres together to a decidedly odd effect that Dhaval hoped desperately Tayne would like. He'd read aloud to small audiences, but those were people who'd opted to come listen, to give him a bit of their afternoon. He already knew they liked his stories. But he managed to keep his jitters out of his manner.
Looping an arm around Dhaval's outstretched leg while he listened, Tayne tried to stay focused. It was an interesting story, actually, and the whole "dragon-breeding ring" and "demon-hunter killer" seemed oddly appropriate to their circumstances right now. But Dhaval was playing with his hair, and he was still kind of sleepy, and he found himself drifting more than once-- not so much falling asleep, but just zoning out, listening to the sound of Dhaval's voice more than what he was saying-- and had to drag his attention back. Once he had to interrupt, terribly embarrassed, and ask Dhaval to reread the last page, because he'd come back to paying attention to find himself severely lost.
It didn't do much for Dhaval's rather shaky confidence, but he reread the page and went on, finishing the story up with a slightly hoarse voice. He'd learned to keep the necessities easily within reach on his desk now and picked up a water bottle to down half of it. He wasn't sure what to say then, so he leaned back against the wall, hoping Tayne would say something nice. He wasn't going to ask. That'd be stupid. But he'd like to hear it anyway. It was still dark, but he didn't want to be wasting the battery on his lantern. After a moment's deliberation, he turned it off.
At least from there, Tayne managed to stay at least focused enough to follow the story, even if he didn't keep his eyes open during it. As Dhaval shut the light off, he blinked his eyes open again, focused on nothing at all since he couldn't see anything, and said, "That was fun. Western plus magic. If more magic-stories were like that, I might've read more of 'em...." Or maybe not. He might not have even thought about it before, actually, and just looked over it without considering it.
Not much, but at least he hadn't disliked it. "Good. Um, most of my stuff is historical. I've done the western setting a couple times." He'd made a decent choice apparently. "Glad you're feeling better." He wasn't sure if they were going to go to sleep again. He wasn't really tired at this point, or at least he wasn't sleepy. But he'd have a really weird sleep schedule if he got up practically in the middle of the night.
"Mmm. You'll have to read me s'more, then. When I'm awake enough to 'ppriciate 'em better." Tayne unwrapped his arm and pushed himself up to rub at his eyes and glance around the dark room. He remembered where his second beer was, right? Of course he did... he scooted around and crawled to the edge of the bed to feel around over the edge. Aha, there it was.... "What else you write, then? If you like historical."
"Bits of everything. Mostly eighteenth and nineteenth century American stuff. Easiest to follow up on with my high school curriculum. I probably should have majored in history, but I didn't have that much direction at that age. English was kind of a default thing for me." Guessing what Tayne was doing, while it was a weird time for a beer, Dhaval decided it was a good idea. "Could you grab mine, too? Um, I kind of like writing stranger stuff now, though. And I don't have my reference books, so I couldn't really do much with history anyway. So what's on the desk now is more out there."
That was another thing to get whenever Tayne finally got back to Dhaval's apartment, with Pepper's help. His walker, and some of his books. As many of them as he could fit in his motorcycle bags. Thank god he still had that.... He straightened back up with both beers and walked on his knees back to where Dhaval sat, turning and sliding into place against the wall next to him with a sigh. "Yours are the bottles, right? Mine're the cans...." He offered the bottle out, resting it against Dhaval's thigh so he knew where it was. "What kinda stranger stuff?" he asked, leaning his shoulder against Dhaval's, liking the skin-against-skin contact.
It was nice to have him there in the dark. The time and place had a very witching-hour feel, and he wanted to be close. "Yeah, bottles're me. Um, well, just my own worldbuilding... I started writing something about..." It was hard to be lucid like this. On paper he could at least make his oddness seem to make sense, give it a world of its own and language that made everything flow. "Well, uh, farms where parts for organic robots were built and a caste system based on what sort of work you're allowed to do..." He almost wished Tayne wouldn't ask, but it was paradoxically nice to know he was interested, even if Dhaval didn't exactly want to talk about it. "You know I'm kind of strange, right?"
"Mmmhmm," Tayne acknowledged, opening his can and taking a long, slow sip. Then he added, "You're allowed to be. S'good. It's you." And no, it didn't make the least bit of sense to Tayne, but he didn't really care. Maybe when Dhaval read it to him, if he did, it would make sense. He leaned his head back against the wall with a sigh, and slid his hand down to take Dhaval's, once he found it.
Dhaval squeezed Tayne's hand and then held on loosely as he drank. He was no longer tired, worried, panicking, embarrassed, or lonely, and he took a deep breath to enjoy it for a second. Because curiosity was prodding at him, and it seemed not to be enough to have Tayne home and safe. He also had to have a full dramatic retelling. Or he had to ask. He'd make himself concede if Tayne didn't want to talk about it, but he was still going to ask.
Unfortunately, he was going to have to ask, because Tayne, while he didn't really have any qualms talking about it, hadn't really thought to, yet. He was currently just content to sip his beer in the dark and hold Dhaval's hand-- a novel experience in and of itself. Eventually he figured he'd go back to sleep, but right now he wanted to be awake to enjoy lacing his fingers through Dhaval's and listening to him breathe. To his steady heartbeat, which he could pick up in the silence.
He nuzzled Tayne's shoulder a bit and, on a whim, put his other arm around Tayne's neck and cuddled up under his chin. He understood why Tayne had adopted the habit. Unfortunately, it was a lot harder to hold this position sitting up, and after just a moment he straightened up. His hand was still in Tayne's. "So do you want to tell me what happened?" He still tried to be delicate about asking. It was bad enough to give Tayne screaming nightmares.
"Hmm?" Tayne asked, blinking over at the dim shape of Dhaval. "What-- in the dream?" Or did he mean while he'd been gone? That one would be less embarrassing to admit, telling him about what happened at the mall. A good chunk of it was boring, anyway.
"Uh, I meant while you were gone. Dreams are damned hard to talk about." He'd tried a lot when he was younger. The lack of coherency in the source material made the communication pretty pointless. "You don't have to tell me. Just curious." He should have kept his mouth shut. He could have asked any time. Times when he wasn't pleasantly cuddled up with a half-naked Tayne in the dark.
"Oh, right. S'ppose that's true, ain't it?" Yeah, he didn't really mind talking about the mall. It wasn't that scary, or anything, it was just the feeling of helplessness. "Well, we got there, right? And everything smelled off, but we went in as carefully as we could manage, kept together, all that. Then we saw a couple crows-- actual, honest-to-g-g-god crows. I think, anyway. They bled when I shot one. That was probably a mistake, cuz right after that was when everybody showed up, with all their guns. And when out powers went out."
Dhaval made a face he was glad wasn't visible in the dark. Shooting things was probably a bad response in an unknown situation. And Dhaval was hoping desperately for evidence of more survival, even in animals, and though he was sure the story was going to go in vastly more unpleasant directions, he couldn't help feeling sorry for the bird. He just nodded and leaned a bit more on Tayne. The room was cold the way it got in the middle of the night, deep and very still, and he pulled a blanket over the both of them.
Settling down a little with the blanket, and pulling one of the pillows behind his back, Tayne continued, "There were several of 'em. One of them could control, or at least summon, a pack of monsters-- just like at the grocery store, before, if you remember hearing about that. One of them turned off powers, obviously, and one had ch-changed into having a dragon head and claws, and he breathed fire. One of 'em apparently makes copies of people, or things, or somethin'...." He wasn't sure how that worked, yet. "Anyway. One's the leader, skinny blonde chick, and we're pretty sure she's insane. She was th'one givin' all the orders."
"Wow." It all felt like a bad movie. Dhaval felt uselessly protective again, after the fact and about a situation where he'd have been at best a liability and most probably dead. Which was terribly depressing. He could only ever slow everyone down. He was always faintly aware of that, but sometimes it struck home, and he was miserable for a moment. He still tightened his grip on Tayne's hand in silence. He wasn't the one who'd lived through being, what, imprisoned by a crazy woman?
"And that's not even the half of it," Tayne continued, a little dryly and oblivious to Dhaval's moment of self-doubt and misery. But he did hope to maybe do something about that someday. Somehow. "We got ourselves thrown into an office front, and you'll never guess who we met there. Apparently snake-boy... Erin... he is-- or had-- a clone. Cuz we met him in there, and he knew who he was there."
"Oh." Dhaval had only had the briefest conversation with Erin, and it had, of a necessity, been a very odd one. But he'd gotten the best impression he could have, under the circumstances. That was a strange sort of comfort. If they were talking about the same person, then at least he was a good guy to have around. Assuming he wasn't all mind-controlled. "Better for him, I guess. Uh, so that's what you meant by, uh, multiplying people? Might mean some kind of mental power, too, controlling or wiping memories or something."
"I'm hoping that's not how it is," Tayne said, a little grimly. "I want to be able to let the guy out... but now that I know he was sent by those folks, I j-j-just don't know. The other one... the one who knew his own name properly... he's dead. They killed him when we tried to escape." What he was really hoping was that without the real version, the connection to the fake version would be severed, and Erin would be safe. What he really wished was that neither Erin had come anywhere near his home, so he wouldn't have to worry about it.
Though he was trying to attend, cuddling in the dark was making Dhaval sleepy. He was struck for a moment by how damn dark it was, the absence of cars passing or guttering streetlamps. A city boy, Dhaval found that quite unnerving. "I wish I could reassure you, but who knows? All these things seem to work differently. You'd think someone would have to be close by for mind control to work, but guessing is probably irresponsible." Dhaval sighed. Having to let go of logic was tough sometimes, but at least he was prepared to imagine all sorts of infinite, mostly unpleasant possibilities. Had to be worse for the more sensible people.
"We've gotta make guesses, and keep track of 'em all, in case any of 'em are right," Tayne sighed. "Else we can't prepare for anythin'. And that's my job. Shitty job I've been doin' of it...." That was ending now. Today. Later today, anyway. He was healthy again, he would be rested when the sun came up, and he had some ideas he could implement, if only he got some people organized to help him. He'd have to talk to Andre, Tony, and maybe Taylor-- and anyone else who was on that list he had-- and of course Terry, and get things set up.
Plus he wanted to start that garden before it got too cold. And do some hunting and baking in the next few days. And prep someplace for the eggs, once they hatched. Damn, there was just too much to do.
"I'll write down my guesses, then." Dhaval didn't feel like many of them were worth a lot, but if Tayne wanted a record of vague speculation... "I don't feel like I've had a decent idea lately, but, well, it's kind of hard to gauge things when all your old frames of reference are out the window." He leaned his head back against the wall, a little too hard. Not actually painful, but hard enough for a bit of a thunk. "And you've done as good a job as anyone could ask for. All the rules are different now, and... You've still won more often than lost."
"I haven't hardly done anything," Tayne protested, shifting a little to free up his hand, wrapping it around Dhaval's shoulders, against the back of his neck, instead. "Well, aside from find the gang from the grocery store... completely on accident, and resulting in Terry breaking his goddamn back...." Tayne really didn't like that one. "The guys we met are bringing a healer, they said, but...." He still felt bad. He should've been able to protect his little group and not need rescued, to begin with.
Dhaval's eyes widened in the dark. Terry had... Oh. He swallowed. Well, he supposed he should try and help, in the ways that he could... At least he had a certain amount of experience. But maybe that healer could do something. "How about bringing people back home, or saving Joyce, or, you know, rescuing me from the snake monster?" Dhaval snuggled in a little, figuring Tayne needed a bit of comfort for a completely different reason. "Don't sell yourself short, you big damn hero."
That wasn't the first time he'd been called that. Big Damn Hero. It sounded like a title. Rather than acknowledging his accomplishments-- which really weren't part of his job, as head of security here, though he could admit they were good things to have done, even though Joyce hadn't exactly needed rescuing-- Tayne asked, "Why you keep callin' me that, anyway? Big damn hero? It from one of your stories or somethin'?"
"No, it's not mine. Wish it was, since it's pretty cool." Dhaval smiled. Well, Tayne would probably have liked Firefly. Not much chance he'd get to see it unless they had reliable electricity again someday. And a DVD player handy. "It's a line from a TV show. A really good one, but I guess it's a little obscure now. But... I mean, I'll stop if you want me to." He didn't think it was too bad, but everyone had their peeves.
"Naw, s'a'ight," Tayne said, pulling his beer up to drain the can, then resting his head back against Dhaval's. "I don't mind. Think it's prob'ly gonna be hard to live up to," he added with a grin in his voice, "but I don't mind. No worse than 'tiger', and you ain't even the only one to call me that." Funnily enough, he probably would have really liked Firefly, if he'd ever been exposed to it.
"Eh, you'll manage." He kissed Tayne gently, nipping softly at his lower lip, a bit of playfulness he could probably thank the beer for. "Tiger works for me. I've been resisting the urge to call you Hobbes. Pretty successfully. ...So far I've been impressed, just so you know. With the big damn hero." Dhaval was thoroughly enjoying himself. Tayne put him at ease better than anyone he'd ever met.
While he could, grinning through it, Tayne kissed him back, and made a nipping motion, teeth clicking together, when Dhaval pulled away again. It was just as playful as Dhaval's. "Now Hobbes, I know. Stuffed tiger with a really annoying human kid for a friend, right? They were comics when I was a kid." He'd always kind of liked them, and while he hadn't been all that imaginative as a child-- rather like he wasn't, now-- he'd still had fun reading them. "Mmm. But m'glad you think I'm doin' good, anyhow." He leaned down to kiss Dhaval, himself, this time.
Dhaval let out a soft, happy sigh. Thick darkness, a soft blanket on top of them, the perfect silence of the abandoned first floor, and the slight haze of beer worked together to chase off every reserve and bit of shyness for the moment. He extricated himself briefly from Tayne's kiss after a moment, though he didn't put much distance between them. "Hey, I liked Calvin. He could be a brat, but his heart was in the right place. And he and I had similar ideas about dinosaurs flying fighter planes." And that was all the talking he wanted to do. He kissed Tayne again, only missing by a little this time, so their lips met a bit crookedly. Stupid dark.
The awkward kiss got a little snicker out of Tayne, but only briefly, before he was setting his empty beer can aside and bringing his now-free hand up to cup Dhaval's face as he kissed, back, settling both of them into better place, now. As long as they stayed together, there would be no more missing the mouth, right? Not unless he wanted to miss. Here in the dark, everything felt a little more, the sound of his own breathing and Dhaval's, the feel of his skin and his mouth, the way Dhaval's heart beat against his own chest. Even more than usual, which was saying something.
Dhaval tugged Tayne's hair lightly at the snicker, even if he did deserve it. But he appreciated the hand. He knew Tayne was better at this and the help was just what he wanted. He'd not had any reason to ask about past experience, but it was clear Tayne had a lot more than he did, and he'd just assumed that Tayne had the same flair for romance that he seemed to have for getting life organized day to day and fighting monsters and carrying heavy boxes and all those other useful things he was so good at.
He was a lot less self-conscious now, though, his hand on the back of Tayne's head and the knuckles of the good fingers on his right hand sliding up and down the other man's spine.
Quite honestly, most of Tayne's experience came from dating girls, which hadn't usually been pleasant, or from hurried, furtive hook-ups in bathroom stalls or behind buildings. It wasn't the most romantic experience with kissing, or other things, one could have, but it was still more than what Dhaval had. Even so, Tayne was going more on instinct than anything else, and pleased that it was actually going okay.
The position wasn't the best, though, and he could recognize that, so he pulled his face back a little, slid his hand down from Dhaval's face, over his chest and side-- probably not a bad feeling, he imagined-- and hooked it around his waist to tug him closer, trying to get him to twist around a little so they were facing each other properly. If he got Dhaval half on his lap in the process, well, he wasn't going to complain.
He followed Tayne's lead comfortably, though not as smoothly as he could have with working legs. Tayne's hand certainly felt good, the gentle force and his place, eventually reached, seated comfortably on Tayne's lap. What was almost better was the fact that Tayne apparently couldn't keep his hands off. Dhaval had never dared imagine being wanted like this. He pressed close to Tayne again quickly and attempted again that half-fevered affectionate lick against the side of his neck. Systematic as ever, Dhaval was keeping a mental list of what Tayne seemed to enjoy that didn't look too different from the spreadsheets he'd once stared at all day.
Shuddering a little at the feeling of it, Tayne slid his arms more tightly around Dhaval, hugging him close and nuzzling into his hair, breathing deep. It was different, being able to smell someone so strongly, even in the midst of wanting to do very naughty things to them-- not bad, but different. He nosed hair out of the way and kissed Dhaval's neck, back, teeth just barely finding the skin in the process. Maybe they'd forgo sleeping any further, for a little while....
That shudder was sweet, and Dhaval drew in a little bit. Tayne's reactions were really splendid. He rested his hands on the man's shoulders, his fingers tight, and moaned slightly as Tayne kissed him. His neck, as he was pretty sure he'd already determined, was very nicely sensitive. One hand wound up in Tayne's hair and he pulled, just gently, exposing the curve of his neck to kiss at, not so gently as usual. He wasn't at all tired, he found, not as long as he had Tayne to press his mouth to, warm scent to fill his nose.
Growling just a bit, in the back of his throat, Tayne arched his back and bared his neck for some more of that. "We g-gonna-- take turns?" he suggested with a dark sort of grin audible in his tone even if his face was impossible to make out. Since Dhaval had kissed him, and he'd kissed Dhaval, and now they were back the other way again. His fingers dug into Dhaval's skin, not painfully, he hoped, but definitely putting pressure on him and kneading their way up his sides and around front, over his chest.
"We might have to," Dhaval said into Tayne's shoulder, his voice a bit throaty. "'Cus that's fun." But he supposed as nice as it was, he should try something else. What was handy? Ah. He kissed his way a bit clumsily, looking for Tayne's earlobe. He nibbled a bit, ran his tongue along the shell of his ear. It felt a bit weird, but he was guessing right now. Tayne's hands were kneading maybe a little too deep, but he found it wasn't nearly painful enough to bother him. Kind of nice, even.
"You ain't careful," Tayne said, the growl in his voice now, too, but it was a pleasant sort of growl and he was obviously smiling, "I'll hafta start t-t-tryin' somethin' new, too." The mouth on his ear made him groan and lean his head back against the wall, but his hands were busy, moving down Dhaval's torso, up and down, tracing the muscles there-- he really was much stronger than Tayne had taken him for, from the feel of him; he liked it-- and finding the waistband of his pants. Maybe this time they'd get a little further.
Dhaval couldn't make himself stop immediately, but he pulled back slowly. Just enough. He wound up whispering straight into Tayne's ear. "Worst. Threat. Ever." And then his mouth was back at work, finding the ear very effective indeed. Dhaval braced his hands against the wall on either side of Tayne's head, keeping him there. He shuddered deeply at Tayne's hands, moaning softly. If he was going to stop anything, Dhaval thought he probably should now. Tayne was a good sport, but having the proverbial rug yanked from under him again would be bad. And Dhaval wasn't exactly thinking pure thoughts himself. And he didn't want to stop now, so on his own head be it.