Some things still made sense; the slow burn of the sun on his back and the soft splash of water around him, the sound of someone humming to a radio somewhere beside him. Sometimes with his eyes closed and his ears open things still made sense, they weren't frightening and unfamiliar, and he was still himself.
Dave's voice came from the far side of the pool, "You should get out more Seb."
He turned over on his raft, "No where I gotta be dear David, it's the most boring of vacations, blindness."
For a while they said nothing and Sebastian allowed himself back into the dream, the dream that he was just sunbathing on a dull day, his eyes closed because there was nothing to look at.
He wasn't as fond of silence, David, "What were you studying, before the accident?"
"Law," he threw an arm over his face and wondered if he could drift off to sleep.
"Did you like it?"
He shrugged, not sure if Dave could see him from where he sat on the pool steps, "Well enough."
His tone was enough to cut the conversation short but he rolled off the raft for good measure and swam a couple of laps.
"You really should get out more Seb," Dave said again after a while.
He swam over and leaned against the ledge, his arm nudging Dave's leg, "I told you I have no where I need to be."
Dave moved the wet strands of hair out of Sebastian's face. He assured himself that it was just the shock of breeze against his skin that made him shiver, "Maybe if you tried going out you wouldn't be so bored all the time."
Sebastian hummed in agreement, "And you'd get a day off."
"I don't need a day off," he assured him quietly, "you need a day out."
He rested his head on his arms and said nothing while Dave finally went into the water. He didn't swim off, just hung off the pool side with him, "I get hating this place, but there's gotta be something you used to do here."
"Nothing that I could or want to do now," he kicked off the pool wall and swam to the center of the pool. Dave watched as he went under and did some sort of kick flip before coming up to the surface, "Marco!"
He laughed and shook his head, moving quietly to the left of the pool, "Polo."
Seb spun directly to where he was and plunged underwater. He was at Dave's side in a second, "Much too easy with supersonic hearing."
Dave blinked at him. For every cold word on topics he didn't care for, he smiled like a kid when he decided to have fun, the dozens of water droplets hanging from his hair and moving slowly down his cheeks and over his arched lips, "You're amazing."
He laughed at that, tired of floating and deciding to hang off Dave's shoulder's instead, "Yeah I'm a regular superhero."
Dave moved back towards the stone steps of the pool, Sebastian still hanging off his shoulders, floating lazily behind, "Your eyes have no effect on your swimming, Seb."
"Nope," he leaned his forehead against the back of Dave's neck, "but this is fun."
They floated silently for a while, Sebastian's arms around his shoulders, body pressed to the back of his. Dave closed his eyes and tried to decide what the hell was going on with him. So maybe he wasn't the most professional of assistants but the two months he'd been "working" with Sebastian were the two most confusing months of his life.
Sometimes he actually did his job; helped Sebastian figure out the intricacies of his new life, practiced Braille, moved those stupid useless tables out of the way. But most of the time it was this…this… odd dance of friendship and professionalism and flirtation that made no sense and drove him crazy.
"Get off, monkey," he muttered as he moved to sit on the steps, the water sloshing about with their movement. Sebastian decided to only shift along with him and end up with his back against his chest, legs kicking about aimlessly. He said something softly, so softly that Dave almost made a comment about supersonic hearing but decided against it, "What's that?"
Sebastian stopped kicking and planted his feet between Dave's sitting back, "I asked what color your eyes are."
That caught Dave by surprise, "Bit random isn't it?"
"No, it's all I'm missing," Sebastian said causally.
He turned and knelt on the step, his hands reaching up to press against Dave's shoulders, "You're around six feet, you probably look fatter than you are because you're mostly muscle but not the gross oily type and also you wear stupidly over sized shirts. You've got broad shoulders and soft hands. You're chubby cheeked but your jaw line is kind of hot."
Dave sat leaned back, "That's…"
"Impressive? I've gotten my hands on quite a bit of you in the past two months," he smirked, "and I know your hair is dark because Juani let it slip."
"She let it slip?"
Sebastian pulled his hands away and played with the water around him, "I told her not to tell me."
Dave smirked, "So you think you can see me then?"
"What color are your eyes?"
He laughed softly at the childish curiosity in Sebastian's expression, he wanted to brush the water drops from his cheeks, "Brown."
Sebastian can't really justify the skepticism in his voice, "Brown?"
"Alright hazel," he sighs, "people say they're hazel, but it sounds stupid. They look brown to me."
"Hmmm," he sank back into the water, "yeah I can see you."
Sleeping over was probably one of those things that made him feel like he was being unprofessional, but it was a matter of practicality really. When Sebastian's appointments were at seven in the morning the forty-five minute ride from his apartment was just a waste of time. Granted sometimes he stayed over because the Friends marathon on TV had run too long but the guest room he used was already set up anyway, and really what was wrong with that? People got live-in assistants all the time.
The silence here wasn't the same, a forested area behind the house provided lots of random noises from crickets to frogs to the quiet rush of a river somewhere. The silence here didn't keep him awake, but knowing that Sebastian slept just a few doors down did the job just fine.
The first touch isn't unfamiliar to him, even if it's been much too long. It's slow and gentle, the restrained strength of muscled arms exploring curiously, almost too softly. There isn't much sense to be made, like everything else now, it's all feelings, it's all touch. He can feel the scrape of blunt nails along his sides and hot breath against his neck; it makes his back arch up in search of more until the ragged breathing mixes with his own. His own nails begin to scratch down the broad shoulders above him when a flash of light brown eyes startles a gasp from him and-
Sebastian jumps awake with the unpleasant feeling of his stomach dropping and the tingling aftershocks of touch along his limbs. His breathing ragged, he scrubs his face uselessly and tries to concentrate on the night's sounds.
"Get a grip Smythe," he mumbles as he beats his pillow down and lies back, "you're horny, that's it. You need to get out."
He assures himself that's all as he tries to coax himself back to sleep, three months without getting laid has to have serious health effects he's sure he read that somewhere. He shivers in the resonating silence of his empty room, the crickets outside unnerving him. He hums softly, something his mother sang to him when she still liked him, but as he drifts back to sleep only the imaginary feeling of gentle, strong arms around him makes him feel safe.
A/N: Love you all so much, thank you for tracking this fic and I hope you're enjoying it! If you find the time to review it honestly makes my day 3
