[openish] where do you go with your broken heart in tow?

[benhargreeves]

Who: Ben + anyone
What: A catch-all
When: November through December
Where: Anywhere!

[ Poke me at platoapproved#9602 on discord or platoapproved on plurk to plot something, or feel free to leave a starter!]

Comments

[killedwithlove]

The sauna... well, Cole doesn't get it. He hasn't be anywhere so hot and humid, but he has memories from others of rainforests and sticky, damp air that smothered the breathing.

He didn't get the appeal.

He sits next to Ben, smiling faintly at the head on his shoulder but he soon starts running his fingertips over the bench, seeking out information and sensation. "Seeping, sinking, sweltering, seeking stiffness and swelling and soothing. Is that why people like this?"

Cole is getting a little damp from the water in the air but he doesn't sweat. Doesn't feel heat like a living creature would.

[benhargreeves]

Ben, too, is not really seeing the appeal. Maybe it's just lingering weirdness from the moment they'd had in the showers, but he just kind of feels damp and uncomfortable. He gives it a few minutes, though. Maybe it takes longer to have an impact? Or maybe it's an acquired taste. People really seem to dig these places, after all. They pay a lot of money and stuff. Surely there is a reason?

He listens as Cole reads the room, quite literally, pulling information from the experiences of the people who had been here and touched this room. Because Cole can do that. Because Cole is amazing.

"Yeah. I guess maybe it's nice if you've pulled a muscle."

But Ben hasn't, so there's not really any benefit. He spends the next few minutes breathing in that steamy air thinking a lot more about how good Cole is than about how nice it is to be in a sauna. Ben presses his cheek against Cole's bare shoulder. Even in this excessively hot and steamy room, he can feel how warm Cole is, and how nice that warmth makes him feel. But that happiness feels safer, like this.

After ten minutes, Ben calls it. He gives a rolling shrug as he gets to his feet, holding out a hand to help Cole up.

"Not really feeling this one. How about we poke our heads in to just look at the Turkish bath, and then just go back to the hot springs?"

Ben is going to be a complete prune by the end of tonight, but he doesn't care at all.

[killedwithlove]

Cole doesn't get into it.

He tries not to fidget, because Ben is comfortable and there's a thick, heavy presence of Their contentment with Ben's peace. These are things that Cole can enjoy, so he lets himself tune out his own body in favour of those other things.

"What's the Turkish bath? Is it more steam? I don't like the steam much, it's just sticky and hot and it doesn't even feel like being hugged all around, like the hot water. I like the all over hug feeling."

He takes Ben's hand and holds onto it again. He thinks that eventually, They'd like the hot spring too, so different from Their place, but Their weight supported and the warmth more like Ben's body temperature than Theirs.

[benhargreeves]

Aaaaand all over hug feeling just became a serious contender for the coveted spot of 'favorite unusual Cole descriptions of things'. Ben beams, swinging their hands together between them.

"I don't actually know what it is. We won't stay long, I promise. I just want to look."

But their visit is even shorter than Ben had anticipated. When they walk in, there is again a little informational placard, which gives an indication of the layout. It seems to be some kind of progression, from area to area? Except the first area, as soon as they step into it, becomes very hot. Not the humid heat of the sauna, but just... dry, and very intense. It is unpleasant, especially because there are fans blowing the dry air on them, rather like being inside of a hairdryer. Ben wrinkles his nose, shaking his head immediately.

"Naw."

And so they bail, making their way back to the hot spring. It is like returning to an old friend. Ben finds the spot where their clothes are. And seeing Cole's dirty leathers sitting there... that brings up another question he's been meaning to ask.

"Hey, Cole? Weird question. Have you ever... worn anything different than that?"

[killedwithlove]

The dry heat and sharp winds remind him of the Western Approach. Of Adamant Fortress. Despite the heat, he shivers at the memory and is glad to leave immediately.

He's thinking about sharing this insight when Ben speaks and he refocuses. "Oh. Um. Yes. Before I knew what I was I had a shirt and pants but they were part of me, not really clothes. I got these clothes when I left Rhys and Evangeline. When I go out with Cadash, she gave me armour, and she gave me new armour when I got hit and went unconscious. She tried to give me a different hat, but I like my hat."

So.... sort of, but it never seems to have passed his mind to wear something else unless it's been for a reason.

[benhargreeves]

There was a time in Ben's life when the idea of someone having clothes that were a part of him, of the way he manifested physically in the world, would have been so deeply strange to him. But he knows a bit now about what a messy, confusing, scary time it was for Cole, before he realized he was a spirit. Ben is just glad he'd made it through that time, and that someone had been around to give him some armor afterwards when he needed it.

The flicker of fear that Ben feels when Cole mentions being hit and being knocked unconscious is sudden but intense. He has seen Cole in action, now. He knows that his friend is far from helpless. And yet hearing about him getting hurt is painful. Even if it was in the past, even if Cole himself doesn't seem bothered by the memory. What does that say about Ben, that he wishes he could reach back through time and across worlds to every scary and dangerous moment Cole has experienced and put himself between Cole and that peril, that fear?

He can't, and he knows he can't, but he still wishes it were possible, even as he is setting down his towel and getting into the warm water once more. This time, he doesn't swim around, or start a splashing war. He just sits along the edge of the spring, arms draped comfortably along the edge, and basks.

"I like your hat, too."

It isn't even a lie. Ben really is that besotted. The thing itself is, of course, ugly and absurd, but Cole likes it, and Ben associates it so strongly with him, so how could he not like it? How could he hate something that is in its way a part of his friend. And of course, Ben takes note any time Cole expresses a preference for himself. It is so rare that there are things Cole likes and wants for himself. If that hat's one of them, well, Ben loves that hat.

Though he smiles and adds:

"Even if it's kinda nice, being able to see your face better without it."

Maybe he can coax Cole into taking it off now and then, when it is just the two of them, nobody to hide from. A thought strikes Ben, and he suggests:

"You should try a hoodie sometime. Like the kind I'm always wearing, you know?" And he mimes pulling a hood over his head. Not only is the mental image of Cole wearing a hooded sweater pretty adorable actually, but...

"It's sort of... I don't know. Comforting. Not exactly like shutting out the world, but just- kind of doing that."

Cole had been willing to try warm water and that had paid off in a big way. He had liked showering, getting clean. Maybe the next nice thing Ben can introduce him to will be hoodies, and clothes that aren't just for decency and protection, but ones that are soft and nice to wear. Not tonight, but maybe soon.

[killedwithlove]

Cole gets back into the water and slips into the water again, straight under to get his head wet again and surface to let it stream down his face.

He knows Ben thinks his hat is a bit ugly, but he likes it anyway, so that's the important thing. It is a bit ugly, btu that doesn't make it a bad hat. It's a good hat. It stops his head getting cut and the rain soaking him and he can fold up small and fit all of him under it.

"You like seeing my face?" he knows Ben does, even as he asks, but the human reflex is still there sometimes and right now, it sits close to the surface. "Yes... I could try a hoodie. My clothes are sort of needing repair. I'm not good at sewing. Krem was. He made nugs for the children."

[benhargreeves]

Ben watches the way Cole comes back to the warm water, no hesitation this time, eagerly dunking his head underneath it, surfacing once again. There is something so special about watching Cole enjoy things. Seeing him comfortable. Seeing him happy.

When he asks if Ben really likes seeing his face, Ben's smile spreads slowly over his face, brightening into something wide and warm and full of that particular fizzy happiness that he associates with being around Cole.

"Yeah. I like seeing your face a whole lot."

There is no disjuncture at all, between that soft delighted feeling inside Ben and the smile and outward shows of emotion and the words he's saying. All are in perfect agreement, on this.

And when Cole agrees to try a hoodie, Ben makes the decision then to lend him one of his. He has two good ones, and that's more than he needs. Besides. Cole would look sort of cute in one, he just bets it. And since Cole seems to at least realize his clothes are in need of repair, that should make it much easier for Ben to bring him some alternatives. Maybe he could ask around, see who is good at fixing clothes... he could do that, as a favor for his friend. He would be happy to.

"He made what?"

Obviously it's something that needs sewing, but Ben really has no hope of guessing what a nug might be.