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[canisinferis]

"..."

"..."

"Wait, so do I jus--" BEEP!

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[fanoperator]

After his fun with Ignacio stalking him home at night, Huaisang took care to be much more careful about heading home anywhere late. He had very much enjoyed his wicked little encounter with Ignacio, but he had feared too much that it might be other people intending to do him harm. After the past two weeks, he was feeling deeply paranoid, so he contacted Dirk to come and walk him home from work.

Hugging close against his tiangou's side, Huaisang sighed as he walked, feeling restless and unsettled. "I feel so skittish, puppy. I had some fun with Ignacio a few nights ago."

It's as much as a non sequitur as it seems, though it makes sense in Huaisang's head. "He stalked me home and ravished me. Lots of fun." And yet. Here Huaisang is, in some kind of restless, gloomy mood. "I was so paranoid," he says, as something like an explanation.

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[canisinferis]

Arm lazily around Huaisang's shoulders as they stroll along, Dirk frowns to himself at this little revelation.

He squeezes his Dominant a little, wrapping him up in a little bit more hellish warmth.

"You worried someone else, who you don't like, is going to try something?"

[fanoperator]

Huaisang nods, pouting nervously. The warmth and the embrace does relax him, soothed by Dirk's presence. "I'm going to try to make sure that I contact you every time I come home late from work. And I've contacted a magic user who makes charms so that I can have something to alert you if I'm ever scared and in need of you on an urgent basis, especially if I'm not able to use my device."

Chewing on his lip, Huaisang presses closer. "For the most part I think everyone here likes me, and the SIN guards favor me since I'm a Dominant and I give bribes, but I do have two enemies here, one friend I am deeply wary of, and I've been raped more than once in this place."

[canisinferis]

Dirk sticks Huaisang with a rough little kiss on the side of his head, clumsy since they're still walking.

"Good. You know I'll be there whenever and however you need me."

It gets him thinking, though. The demon is uncharacteristically quiet for a minute or two as he mulls something over in his head. Asking questions is something he generally tries to avoid--he isn't made for it and it generally leads to his life quickly becoming more complicated--but it's getting harder to avoid.

So, a little awkwardly, he eventually speaks up again.

"...I swear, it has been a long time since I've known anyone so popular--in the friends or enemies category. It's kind of crazy."

[fanoperator]

"Mmm," Huaisang replies, thoughtful and quiet for a moment. "Isn't it lovely? Well, not the enemies, but at least one of those is fully under my control. I'm not worried about Meng Yao at the moment. The advantages he gets from obeying me here far outweigh the advantages of betraying me. You're right, though. I've never enjoyed this kind of popularity before. Back home, I went almost ten years without sex at all, and now that I'm here... Well." Huaisang closes his eyes for a moment, blissful and smug. "Awful though this place is in many ways, it suits me very, very much. And I got to meet my puppy here." Huaisang kisses Dirk's cheek in return. "I consider myself very fortunate."

[canisinferis]

Half of a smile ticks up on the side that he's smooched on, but some part of his mind is still distracted by whatever he's thinking about.

"Yeah, I met a bunch of them at your housewarming party. I think that's when I realized the sheer number of people who know and like you." He pauses to scratch the side of his face--a little gesture he tends to do when he's really thinking. "I was also surprised by how many of them didn't seem to know you at all."

[fanoperator]

"Mhm. I've made a great many friends here." Huaisang glances over curiously at the pause and the scratching, watching Dirk with wide, innocent eyes. "What do you mean, Puppy? I mean, I suppose I did have some guests who were friends of friends, but that's to be expected at my parties. I like a great deal of glamour and fuss."

[canisinferis]

Oh, that certainly makes things easier. He gasps and suddenly points at Huaisang's face.

"--That! That look right there. That's it."

[fanoperator]

Brow furrowing with bewilderment, Huaisang pouts slightly, lifting his hands up to touch his own face in order to investigate what it's doing. "What? What have I done? I don't understand."

[canisinferis]

"You make that face and nobody asks you questions, right? Even your friends from home said they don't know you. I thought it was just to keep people from realizing that you're actually kind of a freak, but there's like... way more to it, isn't there?"

And in case Huaisang needs further prodding-- "Like, you're magic! You're magic and you didn't tell me."

[fanoperator]

Still looking bewildered, Huaisang shakes his head. "You didn't know I was magic, puppy? I'm a cultivator, same as my friends from home." Drawing away a little, he reaches into that petite silk pouch at his waist, pulling out a bottle of wine from it that's twice the length of the pouch and gesturing to it by way of demonstration before he puts it away again. "I'm much weaker than the others. Most of them can fly on their swords--and use swords--but I came here without my sword or my saber and I'm terrible at both of them."

Putting the bottle back in his qiankun pouch, he hooks his arm through Dirk's again. "I'm not terrible with incantations and charms, especially if I have the book to reference. I'd rather like to learn your summoning ritual so that I can call you if I ever go home, but I don't want you to feel like you don't have a choice."

[canisinferis]

"...I just thought you had a cool magic pouch. And I still don't know what a cultivator is." His friends had all used that word, and hearing Huaisang say it doesn't make it make any more sense than it had before.

"And I can't teach you the spell, unfortunately... or fortunately." He can't help a short laugh. "Though, knowing you, you'd probably figure out how to track a copy down."

[fanoperator]

"We cultivate spiritual energy, both of the self and of the natural world, toward the goal of immortality," Huaisang explains. "All of us here have developed a golden core, which powers our magic. It allows us to manipulate spiritual energy, to perform some basic charms, and to heal ourselves at an accelerated rate. I have recently learned a charm to suppress fires, since you and Dorian are both so incendiary."

Shrugging innocently, Huaisang rests his head on Dirk's shoulder. "What else do you want to know, puppy?"

[canisinferis]

"I want to know what you're hiding," he answers lightly and casually, reaching around to scrub a few affectionate fingertips against the top of Huaisang's head for a moment.

"And... 'immortality,' huh? That something you're still working on? Because if it turns out that you're immortal on top of being magic, and I had no idea, I might have to resign as a hound."

[fanoperator]

"You're an excellent hound," Huaisang says, pouting some more. "I like you just as houndy as you are. I'm not immortal, though I have the golden core. Maybe if I work hard maybe I will be." Huaisang wrinkles his nose at the prospect of hard work. "The golden core slows my aging. I will probably live to be 200, so I'm longer-lived than an ordinary human, but that's all."

He nudges softly at Dirk. "What else do you want to know, puppy?