I kept my hope just like I hoped to // Devin Pony/Any

[Rhaegor]

I kept my hope just like i'd hoped tp
then sang to the sea for feelings deep blue

After meeting with Levi and Magnus, he'd decided he quite liked it here. For temporary purposes, anyway! The volcanic kingdom smelled literally the opposite of home, and he wonders if that's where mother Solace gets her subtly ashen scent. He'd heard mother Kagerus use the word cigarette to describe it to the Tephran-born Queen once, quietly as if he weren't supposed to hear; but he never gave much thought to the other-world noun, preferring instead to now reside in his dam's kingdom to see what he can make of himself.

Today, the princeling (title temporarily on hold) meanders through the northern island of this western kingdom, the one with the volcano on it. It's the closest he's gotten to the thing yet, though he'd seen right into it when he'd flown in some weeks ago; this huge, dark-cloud-spewing thing, though he doubts it would erupt. Or he told himself he doubts it. People wouldn't live here if it was going to blow, right??

Shaking off THAT nagging thought, the buckskin colt - now a strapping two year old, or almost anyway, with sinewy muscles and the narrow, handsome back of youth - meanders around the trails leading to the volcano. Forests lie ahead of him to the left and right, and while he considers them seriously for some time, he ends up lowering his head to eat instead, enjoying the way the salty grass reminded him of home.

Rhaegor

[litotes]

litotes

Tephra is wildly different from Hyaline. It pulsates and heats and practically breathes, while Hyaline whispers and tickles and welcomes. Litotes is just exploring, at least that is what he tells himself after the strange debacle on the beach. Truthfully, Hyaline was beginning to feel a bit . . . cramped - if that is the correct word to use. Lie did not expect to meet so many so fast (to like so many so fast - Kensa, and maybe a certain couple he absolutely refuses to think of). He is not moving, nothing that drastic, just getting a breathe of fresh air - coincidentally (is he really fooling himself here?) the furthest from Hyaline he can get.

It's just a day trip, he tells himself, though seeing Tephra is certainly more than just a day trip - unless he plans on not resting at all. The land’s air grows hot and heavy around him, making him mildly uneasy. Lie has come to see the volcano - he has never seen one and thought maybe that will scare the shit out of him enough to get over any residual embarrassment.

Lie crosses the river (not without a bit of struggle), and finds himself peering up in awe at the frightening monument. He thinks, maybe I'm an idiot, and begins to turn away from the blistering sight when something hits his nares through all the muck. Something . . . familiar? Does he smell Hyaline? Or maybe someone that has not quite shaken the scent of Hyaline, though Lie doubts he would be able to pick it up unless someone had spent considerable time there. Forgetting the looming volcano, he trots after the scent.

It isn’t long before he spots the perpetrator - Rhaegor. One blink, then two - why is Rhae here? A mischievous twinge spreads across Lie’s chest. The multi-color boy has his back to him, so Lie studies him for just a moment. He knows what he is feeling, now (an inkling of attraction - one escaped thought turning into two, and so on). Before he can overthink it, the cremello stallion quietly approaches Rhae from behind. He leans in to shove him as he pulls up next to his side - shocked to find he does not mind being this close to him, does not feel discomfort (perhaps that is the slight petulance from the beach talking, but he is not thinking of that now).

“Hey, Rhae. What on earth is the Prince of Hyaline doing here?” his voice is low, mouth curved in a grin, and eyes sparkling. Lie circles around him, spurred on by his uncharacteristic lack of anxiety, “You certainly don’t look like you’re going back.”

i don't want your pity, i just want somebody near me
guess i'm a coward, i just want to feel all right

@[Rhaegor]

[Rhaegor]

I kept my hope just like i'd hoped tp
then sang to the sea for feelings deep blue

If asked, Rhaegor would be wont to agree with Litotes descriptions of the two kingdoms. The first being the kingdom of his dam; ashen, pulsating, the layer just below the topsoil as blood-like as the fluids that flowed through every living being. The second being his own birth home; ruled originally by his dam, who had brought his sire to rule too, not long before they conceived him and his sister and brother. Hyaline; he would smile to think of it, were he not busy getting to know Tephra. Given much thought, Hyaline is to Rhaegor warmth, and fond memories, and snow capped mountains; laughter and youth and undeniably pure.

Perhaps that is why he left, for now; in light of the chaos of the beach party, and then Ilma's scolding, he'd realized that his childhood was coming to an end. And as the graceful bones of young adult hood began developing in the fine lines of his face and the strong lines of his legs, he'd decided to leave Hyaline with as pure a sentiment as he could. He couldn't stand to mar his memory of it - it represents more than girlfriends ever could. It represent his siblings, and mothers, and all that they built there together.

For now, he needs to be away from that.
And he thought he'd been successful in his attempt - but it would seem that fate yet has other plans for the youth.

His ears flick back to catch the sound of an approacher, their tips flicked distinctively forward, welcoming the idea of meeting someone new who might help ease him into Tephran life. The colt shifts his weight to turn and greet whomever it may be, the narrowness of his hips glimmering in the ash-cloaked sunlight; but it would seem that this stranger has no intentions of allowing him an escape. In fact, his manner of greeting is quite the opposite.

Rhaegor gasps - the loudest sound he will muster throughout this entire confrontation, ethereal and svelte and undeniably boyish.
For he is only that: a boy, tall and handsome, with angular features and cool brown eyes that seems to perceive everything.

And, oh, do they perceive the stallion before him.

Litotes.

Heart thrumming in his throat, Rhaegor realizes that the two have yet to break the contact. With wide-eyed scrutiny, the boy steps away in one fluid motion, chin jilting upwards in a show of dominance. But the show does not last long, forced to an early finale as the pale man's words fill the space between them, nullifying his move for personal space. Seemingly growled through lips that begged a different kind of attention than any filly's could, he speaks as if he knows something he doesn't; something he could hold over the prince if he dared to disobey.

He circles, like a vulture - and Rhae realizes that he feels particularly hungry, himself.

With yet an upturned jaw, the golden colt studies his opponent through eyes which seek to leave scalding marks wherever they land on the cremello's well-bred conformation. Let him circle; it will only give Rhae more angles from which to admire the languid stallion. From the drop of his withers, along his broad spanish spine, to the slope of his muscled haunches as they propelled him round and round; Rhaegor drank each part of him in, making a point of finding Litotes' eyes but once or twice - and holding it when he did, a heat growing in the depths of his usually cool eyes. The legs, too, he admires from his slanted vantage point, forelock falling just so across his left eye such that his gaze may wander without Litotes' full knowledge of where its gaze lands.

Lie calls it an uncharacteristic lack of anxiety.
Rhae calls it unadulterated male arousal.

Rhaegor

@[litotes] i warned you my gay smut muse was through the roof. and i am not sorry.

[litotes]

litotes

Consuming - that is what Litotes would describe Rhaegor’s attention as. In a matter of seconds, the perlino’s spark of confidence is stripped away to carnal attraction. He sees his once-competitor now for what he is: melting eyes and sharp lines that speak of powerful lineages (how Lie wants to trace each of those lines right back to the one who showed them to him). Instead of collapsing beneath the lithe boy’s gaze, he swells, matching the unconcealed craving with his own eager appetite. A black hole forms in the center of Lie’s chest, spiralling and devouring any shred of who he thinks he is - nothing exists other than the noose Rhae has around his neck.

Each time their eyes meet raises another challenge. It is not cruel, not quite violent, but beckoning and inevitable. Litotes feels bound to each moment like he will be there for eternity.

Lie stops, planted firmly to the ground as he faces his counterpart in silence. There, in their shared secrecy, he reminisces on their first meeting. It is different in so many ways, both of them other people now; yet, in so many ways it is similar (quiet, stoic, considering). Whatever is teeming between them is now boiling over, something Lie feels may have been heating from the start. Is it fate? He thinks it strange - Kensa passes through his mind, so does Will - and yet Rhaegor stands before him, managing to scorch him with just his eyes. How distinct it is, the ringing Rhae sets in his ears. It is not better or worse than anything he has felt before (maybe more desperate, or more passionate).

Finally, Lie rears his head up to contest the prince’s defiance. He takes step after step, walking one final circle, tightening it as he begins to close. He moves to drape his muzzle just above Rhae’s skin as he passes, breathe tightening as his scent overwhelms. When he reaches his withers, Lie drops his mouth and moves to graze his teeth down his shoulder. Without registering Rhae’s response, or even if his teeth connect, he whips back around to face him.

i don't want your pity, i just want somebody near me
guess i'm a coward, i just want to feel all right

@[Rhaegor]

[Rhaegor]

and I could easily lose my mind; the way you kiss me will work each time
calling me to come back to bed, singing Georgia on my mind

The other moves with a fluidity that Rhae despises, though the hatred configures itself in such away that leaves his gut clenched and ready - for what, he cannot imagine. None of the fillies have ever made him feel this way. Then again, he'd actually had feelings for them. Ever since the start with Litotes, it has been a strictly aesthetic attraction, starting serenely with that sunrise many months ago... Moving on to the beach party, where they had touched in passing and where attraction had been confused for jealousy.

Now, with no others in their way to differ them from their true intentions, the intensity rises to a nearly unbearable level.

His gleaming counterpart elects to stop all of a sudden, when it would seem at last that their potently exchanged gazes have forced his hand. A triumphant smirk curls smokily along the princes lips, tilted chin coloured handsomely by the expression. They stand like that for far too long, silence wrapping around them and begging for something more in its voiceless song. Rhae yearns to step closer to the other, finding himself drawn further and further in by the black hole which has opened in Litotes' chest - but just as he wills himself to step closer, the other moves.

With a toss of his chiseled head, the golden stallion stalks around Rhae one last time before closing the distance between them once and for all. It happens suddenly and is over all too soon, with Lie's mouth seductively tracing the line of muscle from Rhae's shoulder to withers; at the last moment, the prince snakes out his own mouth and bites his admirer's flank, unmerciful in his bestowing of pain and dominance.

The other spins away, though something tells Rhae that it had nothing to do with the bite.

Ears pressing back and a long exhale falling from his lips, the prince takes one final look at the stallion before stepping closer and pressing his mouth to the sensitive fibers of the other's ear.

"You do not belong here."

Satisfied with the way his voice rolls languidly from his lips, Rhaegor in turn runs his mouth along Lie's neck, pausing where the muscle there meets his shoulder; the other tastes salty and yet fresh, like Hyaline. After inhaling a long breath, the boy places on last bite upon the other.

Looking up, he ignores the clench in his gut; they would meet again, but not like this.

Change is upon them.

He turns, and goes.

Rhaegor

@[litotes] this is shitty but I wanted to wrap this up <3