Third Gift - Comfort

Booking a hotel room at this hour for two men would have been really suspicious, so Tyki came up with a pretty creative idea.

"We definitely need a room in the royal suites, lady," Tyki sighed, his act of a weary, concerned individual perfect. "I need to be by the side of my dear brother."

He stole a glance back over his shoulder to Allen whose eyelids were dropping with exhaustion. To avoid unnecessary questions and the risk of being identified too easily, Tim had withdrawn into Allen's coat.

"That poor lad, he was born inheriting a rare incurable disease," Tyki said in a sombre voice, his face in a pained scowl. The young lady, if she wasn't horrified and sorrowful hearing his lies, would have definitely be ravished by his mere presence. But alas, Tyki had his eyes on someone else. "He won't have much longer you know. There were numerous times when I almost-" He cut himself off, blinking away imaginary tears. "I, I need to sleep by him to make sure that he… that he wakes up in the morning. I want to be by his side to the very end."

The young lady, Margit, gasped, stealing a pitying glance at Allen before whispering to Tyki. "I- I am so sorry, sir. Of course, you can have the royal suites, and you can share either of those beds, they're both queen sized."

"Another thing, Miss Margit, can we still require room service?"

She nodded, hastily taking out a menu spread. "Of course, I shall forward your order to the chef, what would you like, sir?"

"One of everything." At her shocked expression he leaned closer. "You know, it's part of the symptoms that he can't keep meals down for too long, so he needs to eat a lot to make sure he's not starving."

"U-understood, sir." She nodded feverishly, sending a sorrowful - and perhaps even yearning look in the boy's way. Hoh. Finally someone noticed how beautiful he was. About time, really.

"Allen," he called, still maintaining their roles. "Come, we're retiring ok? We'll have a warm bath, then a nice meal, and you can sleep all you want. Ok?"

Maintaining the sick with half leg in the grave, not as much of a facade as Tyki would have preferred it to be, Allen nodded slowly and replied with a weak "Alright."

Tyki took his hand in his own, the other on Allen's back as he guided him towards the elevator.

Margit helped with opening the machine, letting the two step inside, then closed the metal harmonica doors.

Tyki nodded her way. "Thank you for everything, young miss."

"Of course, sirs. Call me on the landline if you need anything. Have a nice rest." She reached through the bars pressing the button to the top floor.

"Thank you," Tyki replied just as the machine started.

Even though they were out of sight, Tyki refrained from dropping their act until they were behind closed doors. The boy was too much on edge right now to mess with him that much, he looked like the slightest little poke could push him over - and not in the good way.

Once they arrived to their level, Tyki parted the doors, then closed them once he stepped out. He led Allen towards his usual room with a gentle hand between Allen's shoulder blades. Allen in a very deep, secret part of his broken little heart admitted that the touch felt nice. When they reached the door, he momentarily removes his hand to turn the key in the lock and let Allen inside.

As he undid his coat buttons, Tim flew out of his pocket and together with Allen took the liberty to look around while Tyki headed over to the hearth to heat up the room, providing a comfortingly dim light in addition.

The royal label did fit the room description, the room was almost as large as a Master Bedroom, and if he recalled correctly, there was another piece, probably with the same parameters as this one. It was lusciously decorated with soothing paintings of nature as well as china and glass ornaments. The enormous bed was covered with beautiful velvet duvets and pillows - and holy shit was that actual golden thread? He did not know exactly how much this place costed, but he knew that in a mere inn he would have gotten a simple bedroom for a month.

He jump slightly when soft and warm lips settled on his scalp, but he refused the urge to break away and flee; once the initial panic settled and it registered how good it felt, he allowed Tyki to encircle him in his strong arms. He closed his eyes, breath shuddering as Tyki nuzzled his hair.

"Room service will take a while. Let's take a bath."

"Um, you mean, like, together?" He inquired, his voice betraying the light unease he felt.

"If you want to."

"W-well, it's fine. Yeah, let's go."

Tyki released him but not before giving a comforting little squeeze. With the same gentleness, hands joined, he steered Allen towards the bathroom. Lighting candles he saw that it was just as extravagant as the rest of the suite. The taps and the clawed bathtub were all golden and sand coloured, just a few shades lighter than the tiles.

Tyki took the liberty to open the tap and started taking off the rest of his clothes. Allen's eyes followed every moment as Tyki slid his gloves off, exposing the stab scars left by Apocryphos, like that of the Holy Son crucifixed, sacrificed for humanity he loved so much.

Slender fingers slid the buttons out of their place, revealing tanned skin and taut muscles. Then his hands went to disentangle his belt, undo the button and zipper, then he simply stepped out of his clothes, greeted Allen with his stark naked nudity.

Resisting the urge to let his cheeks colour, Allen willed himself to free himself of his clothes the same way. It should alright, even if they were enemies with just temporary truce, they were both men so being naked is no big deal, the Order had public bathhouses as well. Still, there was something undeniably intimate about undressing in front of Tyki, his intense gaze leisurely studied all the skin he revealed with each article until he too was left completely exposed.

Tyki took a few seconds to take in his nudity, only stopping when he saw the boy's golem bare its fangs at him. Tyki then stepped inside the tub, reaching his hand out, beckoning Allen before he grew self-conscious of his appearance. "Come."

Accepting the hand with his right, Allen sat, backing the tap, facing Tyki. It was sort of awkward, having to fold his legs into his hollowed stomach while Tyki's legs were by his side, letting Allen have a nice view of the dark pubic hair and his privates.

"You know," Tyki said carefully, a hint of a smirk on his lips knowing Allen's gaze wandered in not-so-platonic parts with not particularly platonic curiosity, "it would be a lot less cramped if you sat with your back to me."

Allen pondered for a second but then nodded. Sticking his now wet legs out to the side he shifted his hips so they aligned with Tyki's, splashing the water, then pulled his slender legs back. Allen sat there, still a bit tense as Tyki fumbled around, putting different sort of bath oils in the water, then closed the tap. He heard shuffling then an arm presented a bar of soap the other some shower gel. Allen took the solid bar and started to rub along his dried skin, the tiny buds scrubbing off his dead skin along with the filth of many months of insufficient baths. He idly wondered how he was let inside when he knew he smelled.

Behind him, he heard Tyki do the same, wash his arm with the liquid soap. They spent a few silent minutes rubbing their bodies with soap in silence. He raised an eyebrow when the golden golem emerged with a pot scrub - he had no idea where it got it - sat in the Boy's hands who then spent most of his time polishing the thing.

Despite the tranquillity of the situation Allen couldn't help but jump when Tyki spoke up behind him. "This is one top of the line brand of shampoo. Mind if I wash your hair?"

Allen licked his chapped lips. "Go ahead," he said tilting his head back so that it wouldn't get into his eyes.

He tried not to flinch as Tyki's long, slender fingers intertwined with his greasy strands that refused to form foam until Tyki used a very generous amount. Even if Tyki was the last person to complain about it, it was a bit embarrassing to realise how much he neglected his hygiene. The gentle hands massaged his scalp thoroughly, making sure to loosen up the dandruff. Allen arched an eyebrow feelings Tyki separate two turfs on top of his head and curl them around his fingers.

"What are you doing?"

"Oh? I'm wondering what sort of horns would look good the personification of Greed and Gluttony."

Allem snorted. "And what would you impersonate? Greed? Sloth? Lust?"

"Probably Sloth, I enjoy lazing around." When I'm not killing people, he added mentally, but knowing it would kill the mood and shatter whatever fragile trust they had for tonight, he wisely shut up. "Balls are a pain. And my family insisting that I marry is becoming more and more annoying."

Tyki smirked seeing Allen shake with withheld laughter. The Boy tilted his head back so he could meet Tyki's amber eyes with his own amused ones. "Is that the reason why you decided to ditch the party and come here?"

"Yeah, you're great company."

The boy's gaze turned thoughtful. "How did you find me even?"

"My heart led the way," Tyki replied wistfully. The Boy rolled his eyes. "For real though, you have a distinctive presence. It did take a few tries to track you down but I managed. We are capable of sensing each other."

That would explain why he could sense Tyki in the metro even when he had yet to reveal himself. However… that also meant that his Noahfication progressed didn't it? The thought made a lump curl in his throat.

"Hey," Tyki called out. "I know where your mind is going but don't let yourself fall into the rabbit hole. Remember this is strategic rest, you need it to regain your strength to fight."

"Easy to say not to think about it," he said.

"Think of something different. At times like this, the best you can do is force your mind to pay attention to something else."

"What do you think I should do then?"

"Talk to me. Anything will do. List me your favourite food, your hobbies, favourite cities, the places you'd love to visit. Make your mind focus on something else."

Allen chuckled wryly. "That will take ages. The water will go cold and our bodies will look like raisins."

"If that's what it takes to make you feel comfortable I don't mind."

Allen paused with the scrubbing and glanced back at Tyki with utter surprise. A rosy flush rose to his cheeks meeting Tyki's intense gaze which made him cast his eyes away.

The man cracked a smile. "I have a habit of falling asleep in the tub anyways."

Allen huffed in amusement and resumed polishing Timcanpy and talked - about whatever came to his mind. Whenever he paused too long Tyki would bring up another topic for him to flesh out while Tyki washed his back.

After a good half hour, the water was deemed cool enough to finish up. Tyki pulled out the plug and helped Allen out. Allen first dried Tim then his own body, while Tyki started to dry his hair with another towel. Tyki just let the water pass through him leaving him completely dry in seconds.

They both wrapped themselves in their bathrobes when the room service finally came.

"I'll go and get it, wait for me on the bed."

Nodding, Allen sat himself on the edge of the queen sized lush bed while Tyki took over the food. Allen's gaze was attracted by the sound of a trolley being pushed in, the sigh and delicious smell of food making his dry mouth salivate.

Tyki didn't even stop pushing the cart when Allen already pounced on the dishes like the starving beast he felt like. For seconds, Tyki could only watch with a nervous smile frozen on his face as the skinny, almost bony young man stuffed himself with an entire turkey in 12 seconds.

There was a momentary, instinctual urge to cry out to Allen to spare him some morsels, but in hindsight he wasn't that hungry, he rather hoped for sharing that oh so romantic meal long overdue from their fight on the Ark. For moments, he could only watch how the young man's face twisted into nearby ecstasy that he was finally able to satisfy his months long famine. Any table manner he might have had had flown out, ungloved hands just grabbed onto whatever and stuffed his face.

Well, the Boy getting in calories and nutrients is more important, Tyki reasoned as he swiped a piece of tuna.

After approximately 5 minutes of Allen shovelling food down his throat at an inhuman speed, his pace started to return to more normal - as in stil too fast to be healthy but not tearing in like a scavenger. "Dish ish sho good," he moaned through his teeth.

Tyki swallowed the juicy morsel in his mouth. "I told you, right? Here, try this," he reached over to Allen, balancing a piece of smoked salmon on his hand.

As both of Allen's hands were holding something else, he all but lurched forward and ate the treat out of Tyki's hand, accompanied with the weird experience of phasing through the digits.

It took Allen a moment to sink in what he just did and next second his face exploded in a deep shade of ruby. "I, uh, sorry about that... I got a bit carried away..."

Tyki waved his drooly hand dismissively. "Nah, it's fine, don't sweat it, Boy, I'm glad you eat. I was worried you'd turn me down again," he teased.

Allen shrugged. "Yes, I figured you wouldn't want to kill me in such anti-climatic way as poisoning."

Tyki laughed out loud at that. "Hah! I'm impressed you know me this well, Boy."

"You aren't exactly subtle about your preferences."

Tyki took some grapes and fit the whole bundle in his mouth, only pulling out the bare twig the grapes hung on. "I'm not the sort of guy who has reservations. I do as I please." With that he tossed the remains on the pile of dirty utensils Allen piled up.

Of course, just one savoury meal after months of starvation wouldn't magically hide the subtly hollowed cheeks, but it gave the boy back a healthy flush of his death-pale cheeks and the shine in his eyes, the relief of the knowledge that for the night, tonight, he could be safe and free of worries.

Plates cleared, Allen fell back on the bed, arms spread out, the mattress slightly bouncing under the force. Tyki placed his weight on one arm, twisting his torso to get a perfect view of an apparently satisfied Allen Walker sighing contentedly, eyes dropping. White lashes fluttered open when Tyki traced along the boy's jawline.

"Don't fall asleep over the covers, you'll wake up cold."

"There were times when I had to sleep outside so I'm used to it."

Tyki clicked his tongue. "Perhaps, but this is your hard earned gift. Today after all."

Allen snorted. "Don't tell me you investigated when my birthday is."

Tyki's eyebrows jumped behind the wet curly starts falling before his eyes. "Today is your birthday?" He asked, his lips pulling into a genuine smile. "What a pleasant surprise. So is mine."

Allen shot him a glance behind the back of his hand he covered his eyes with. "For real?"

"Mhm."

Allen glanced away, unease, guilt and shame clawing at his insides. "Wow, now I feel worse for not having anything I could return."

Tyki leered at him with a devilish grin. "I got you, if you ask me that's a pretty sweet deal."

Allen licked his dry lips, attempting to swallow the fluttery feeling in his chest and the burn of his cheeks. "You really know how to roll your tongue."

"I would be unable to strip people of their money otherwise." He winked at the Boy. "And I'm flattered to see it's not completely ineffective against you."

Allen reached behind Tyki's head, right hand cupping his nape, lightly pulling. Tyki allowed the touch. "I guess I'm not so resistant in the end. Don't think that it makes you stand a chance against me in poker though."

Eyes dropping, Tyki accepted and acted on Allen's invitation; slowly, allowing Allen to guide him, he leaned in an breathed a soft kiss onto the revitalised pale pink lips. Allen was tugging more, inviting him for a much deeper and sensual kiss, but Tyki opted to pull away, carving for more reflecting in his eyes.

"You don't have to do this," he whispered into Allen's parted lips that just begged for more. Tyki however didn't want Allen to share himself out of anything other than a genuine desire to be held by him. "I brought you here because I wanted to be with you, I don't expect any 'benefits' in return."

Pale legs slid up as Allen curled into himself a bit. Momentarily they distracted Tyki but quickly regained control and glance back to those gorgeous silver pools. "But I don't want to be selfish and just take all this either."

Tyki snickered at that. "What makes you think I'm not fulfilling a selfish desire now? It's my birthday and I'm treating myself with the stuff I like the most. It's called self-care and you should definitely try it," he smirked, flicking Allen's nose playfully; he was so cute with those pink cheeks. He glanced away briefly to fetch another cigarette, pretending to fumble with it instead of dedicating all his attention to his boy. "You have no idea how long I wanted to just hang out with you like this. And don't worry about the money, it takes only a couple of rounds for me to earn this sum." His hand slid up on the exposed expanse of Allen's throat, settling with cupping his cheek with gentle strokes. "So don't worry about it, ok?"

There was a beat of comfortable silence between them before Allen turned and to Tyki's surprise, Allen nuzzled himself into his hand, his quivering breath tickling Tyki's skin.

Tyki raised an eyebrow when Allen reached for his smoke, but instead of stifling it out, the Boy brought it to his lips, took a long drag and exhaled smoke through his nostrils as he blinked lazily.

"I'm so fucking done."

Whoa. Tyki never thought the Boy would be the type to curse. "Well, you have every right to be. Life isn't exactly easy on you. I didn't know you smoked though?"

The boy held up the cigar back to him and Tyki accepted, inhaling. Allen then pulled it back, taking another drag, sighing out the puff of smoke.

"I don't. I just wanted to know what it's like to do it."

"Ah. What do you think?"

"It scratches the back of my mouth. I'm glad I didn't start with this, it would have been a waste if all that food tasted like ash." Still, he took yet another drag, letting the remains fall into the ashtray Tyki presented. "But the smoke is also soothing in a way I guess. I'll stick to hookah though."

"Hoh. I'll keep it in mind to get my hands on it for next time."

The playful little tone dissipated with Allen's next sentence. "You could put your hands all over me."