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oh hi mark
Permalink Mark Unread

Ari has completed the enchantment of a very nice sword for his client. After some cooing over him being cute about a boy and some distress about him being cute about a vampire, Sally taught him the window enchantment (it's actually quite simple, you just jargon jargon wizardry words that don't make sense) and sent him on his merry way. The sun has finally set, and he's strolling past the Magic Box deliberating over whether to go in and see if they'd like some shiny rocks.

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"Boo," says a cheerful voice from behind him.

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He jumps. "How the hell do you move that quietly? Hi!"

After considering Mark for some moments, he asks "Can I scoop you up for kissing purposes?"
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"Trained assassin," Mark reminds him. "Sure you can."

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Ari scoops the trained assassin and kisses him enthusiastically.

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Mark kisses back, also enthusiastically. "I missed you. Which is a little ridiculous, it's only been eight and a half hours. But I missed you anyway."

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"So did I, I wanted to visit but you were probably asleep and I didn't want to interrupt. Did you sleep? How'd you like the renovation?"

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"The renovation is lovely. You're lovely." More kisses. "I may get an actual bed now that I have somewhere worth putting it."

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"I highly recommend beds. They're convenient for several activities, including sleep."

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"Mm. The temptation increases."

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"Oh, I hadn't started on temptation. I think you'll notice the shift."

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Well, then. Mark is just going to kiss him some more, how about that.

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Ari is not inclined to complain about this in the least.

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Good!

"So what does temptation look like, then?"
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"Oh, a bit like..." His eyes shift slightly, looking at Mark with a challenging heat. His lips quirk into a subtler smile, and he does generally look at least a bit more seductive.

Then he ruins it by bursting out into extremely undignified giggles. "Shit, I can't do that long enough for it to work. Sorry Mark, you're going to have to make do with vague implications about beds."
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"I love you," says Mark.
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"It worked!" Ari giggles. This is to be celebrated with kisses! Giggly kisses.

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Giggly kisses are absolutely the correct thing to do here.

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Ari is so glad he agrees! Agreement is positive.

"We're kind of in the middle of the street," he notes after an acceptable amount of kissing. "Do you want to check out the Magic Box? I need some stuff for the enchanted windows."
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"Ooh. Sure, let's see the Magic Box."

But maybe one more kiss first.

Maaaaaybe two more kiss.
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Three more kiss. Then Mark is set on the ground and led into the Magic Box. By his hand, which is coincidentally being held by Ari. How odd.

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Also coincidentally, Mark is beaming delightedly!

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The interior of the Magic Box is, as always, a chaotic jumble of useful components and fakey New Age bullshit, the line between which blurs a little more every day. Ari makes a beeline for the oils, which have always been Sally's preferred medium. He chooses a small bottle of essential lavender oil and, after some deliberation, a larger bottle advertising vanilla scent.

"Is there anything you want?"
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"Nah."

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Ari goes up to the counter and begins haggling with the confused highschooler behind the cash register about whether he can pay in tumbled quartz. She retrieves her manager, who hashes out a deal.

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Mark finds all this incredibly entertaining.

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Ari grins, counts out crystals from a pouch in his backpack, and pecks Mark on the lips before putting the bottles in his backpack and exiting the store.

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Mark follows him out. And then hugs him. Because why not.

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Hugs!

"So, I should really do a proper patrol since I didn't finish last night's. Do you want to come along and we can head to yours after?"
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"Sure."

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Ari doesn't expect this patrol to be any more eventful than last night's; August is a sticky and unpleasant month in which vampires do not enjoy causing trouble. Demons are okay with it, but they don't show up nearly as often.

Except when they do. As in this case, in which several firetruck-red horned musclemen wearing leather jackets are strolling down the street towards Ari and Mark (who are likely still holding hands, because Ari is ridiculous).

Ari tenses. "Ss'alhat. These guys are usually not nice. They will probably try to kill us. Their joints are really brittle and you can kill them in all the usual ways, if it comes to that. Which I suspect it will."
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"Hm," says Mark. He does not tense. He just looks at them appraisingly. "All right."

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Ari barks out a few guttural words to the apparent leader of the demons, whose horns are decorated with intricate copper inlay. The demon responds with a monosyllabic jeer, which sets his companions to snickering. Ari sighs, punches the demon in the face, and when it falls to the ground, offers him his hand to help it back up.

The demon looks at his hand and begins screeching in the unpleasant language. His companions charge. Ari smacks his forehead and shouts "Wrong species! Still kill them!" to Mark, before turning to face the charge.
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So Mark kills them.

Very quickly. Very efficiently. Kind of brutally. Breaking limbs and smashing heads against the ground, that sort of thing.
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Ari's style of fighting looks, at first glance, amateurish and clumsy. Sweeping haymakers, overbalanced roundhouse kicks, straight-in cross punches. But when someone tries to take advantage of his supposed weaknesses, they turn out not to be there. What's there instead is a close-in strike that crushes bone and sends his foe crashing to the ground. His feet move awkwardly, warping the earth to trip and mire his opponents. And just after he's downed one, a foot comes up and it comes... down.

All in all, it's a very quick fight.
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Mark's style could hardly be more different; he is small and fast and agile and nearly prescient, never there when a blow lands, always there to deliver a swift and vicious counterattack.

When the last horned demon has stopped moving, he looks at Ari and smiles. "I like how you fight."
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"Thanks. Your style suits you. It's... hm." Ari exhales loudly. "I may need to ravish you now. Or you can ravish me. There needs to be ravishing."

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"I agree completely."

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"Your place? Mine? A dark alley, I know several very convenient dark alleys if making it to someone's place is a tall order. Which I think it may be."

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"A dark alley suits me just fine."

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Ari has one in mind. The alleys of Sunnydale were intentionally designed so that one might devour a hapless victim without being observed, but there are other uses for them.

There are also other uses for the vanilla-scented oil Ari purchased from the Magic Box. Ari is known for his creativity with spell components.
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Mark is very much on board with being thoroughly ravished. And appreciates Ari's creativity.

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Ari isn't about to let Mark get all the ravishing, but in this instance he is not complaining because he is too busy ravishing. Hybrid vigor, after all. There is ravishing to go around.

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Oh good. Mark is so pleased. In addition to being extremely ravished.

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Ari is so pleased that Mark is so pleased.

"Bite me," he pants after a particularly energetic stint.
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"Yeah? Fangs or no?" This seems like an important clarifying question.

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"Fangs, very fangs. Just- drink until I say when? There's supposed to be some way to make it nice, really nice, but I wouldn't mind you just gnawing on me a bit. It's- I like the idea. Biting, please."

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Mark grins. "That sounds like fun," he says, and he shifts his face and bites Ari's neck. Mm. Tasty. Yes, this is definitely fun.

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It's not the nice kind of biting, but that hardly matters to Ari.

After a long bit of shuddering there is an obvious cutoff point. "Okay, I'm, I'm good," pants Ari.
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Mark giggles and resumes the appearance of humanity. "I love you." The bite mark is still bleeding a little; he eyes it speculatively, then licks it.

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Ari's blood tastes appreciably different from fully human, but much better than anything Mark may have gotten from the kosher butcher's. Even compared to human, it's not bad, just a bit odd. Like the difference between chicken and seafood.

Ari squirms energetically. "That is- sensitive. God. Oh my god, oh my- god, okay."
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"You're delicious," says Mark. "And adorable." He is eyeing that bite mark speculatively again.

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"I may be... a bit too postcoital for that at the moment. But I can get my bloodflow back in a bit, I think." Ari decides that he is insufficiently flopped on Mark. He corrects this. And he is insufficiently kissing Mark, which is another thing he corrects.

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Mmmmmmm, kisses. Lovely lovely kisses. What a fantastic dark alley this is. Nice and dark and quiet and not egregiously uncuddlesome.

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Sunnydale's dark alleyways are suspiciously well-maintained! It's quite convenient.

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For once Mark is too busy to theorize. He can find out what the hell is up with that later. Right now he is kissing Ari and that is much more important.

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Ari is glad of this set of priorities! It is convenient to his own, which also place kissing higher than most things at the moment.

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Kisses are so good. Ari is so good. Cuddles on mysteriously cleanish pavement in a dark alley are so good. Everything is so good. Mark is very very happy.

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After some time of this, Ari bestirs himself. "We should get back to your crypt for the window thing! And getting you a bed. Let's get a bed and go back to the crypt."
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"Sure." But first, more kisses.

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More kisses! And then a cleaning spell, and then clothing. (Magic is so convenient. Cleaning spells!)

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Cleaning spells are pretty great!

Mark keeps stealing glances at the bite on Ari's neck.
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Ari's hand occasionally wanders to it. It's tingly. And also painful. That's a good combination.

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"I love you," Mark says happily. "You delicious beautiful man."

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That merits kissing! They may never get out of this alleyway at this rate.

In defiance of the narration, Ari leads Mark out of the alley and towards the 24-hour Bed Bath and Beyond. (Most establishments in Sunnydale are 24-hour, for reasons their managers are reluctant to discuss.)
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Mark holds Ari's hand. And occasionally hugs him. Because he is delightful.

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The 24-hour Bed Bath and Beyond is brightly lit and staffed by nonjudgmental sales personnel! They show the happy couple a variety of mattresses without pointing out their blatantly obvious postcoital glow or the even more obvious hole in Ari's neck.

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The obvious hole and the relevant glow are noticed by some folks who may be more judgmental, though.

As are Mark's satisfied glances.

What the fuck is up with this town?
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Mark cheerfully hugs Ari some more. Obnoxious public cuteness is always the answer.

He does quietly point out, "I don't actually have any money, you know."
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"And I do! Funny how these things work out, me having money and being able to spend it on people I love."

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Aww. Well, now Mark needs to kiss him. Does Mark care about upsetting any nearby glaring lurkers by climbing Ari like a tree in order to accomplish kisses? No. He does not care about that in the slightest.

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Ari similarly does not care! Neither do the indulgent sales clerks. They're used to honeymooners, though rarely such acrobatic ones.

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Johanna makes sure that she glares more instead of acknowledging that the vampire and his weird boyfriend are really cute. She's in character as a bitter homophobic soccer mom, she can't go around cooing at adorable queer demons. And anyway, it is super fucking weird.

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"I love you," says Mark. He gives Ari one more kiss and then drops back to the floor. Time to express mattress opinions! He has many opinions. Whatever they get had better be able to survive the trip over a bloody twelve-foot iron fence.

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"The fence may not be as much of a problem as you think," murmurs Ari. "Telekinesis has a way of making things easier."

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"If you say so. In that case... that one," he says definitively.

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Ari nods to the clerk, hands over a wad of twenty-dollar bills (which, judging by her reaction, are not an uncommon means of payment at this Bed Bath and Beyond) and hefts the mattress over his head. It considerately refrains from wobbling at all. "Shall we, then?"

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"You're so helpful," Mark says fondly. "Yes, let's."

He makes a rude gesture behind his back at the glaring lurking woman as they leave the store.
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Once the gay vampire has left the store, Johanna punches the air. "Still got it!"

To her confused sales assistant, she says, "Oh, yeah, um, that one. Yeah. Sorry."
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Meanwhile, Ari makes his way to the crypt, mattress continuing to cooperate. "Anyway, I think I'll just float it over. Teekay is easy."
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"You are very useful and I appreciate you," says Mark. He climbs over the fence in his usual fast efficient way.

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Ari levitates the mattress over, drops it on Mark, leaps over the fence in his usual ridiculous showy way, and retrieves the mattress.

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"You're ridiculous," says Mark. "It's very endearing."

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"For the leap or for dropping the bed on you?"

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"Both."

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Still holding the mattress above his head, Ari steals another kiss. Then he races off towards the crypt. He's excited! He gets to make a bed! And magic windows!

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Mark follows him. He is so fucking charming. It's absurd.

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Ari manages to finagle the mattress through the door of the crypt, and through the coffin-stair, and begins calling a bedframe out of the stone of the basement. Bed!

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Bed!

Mark is so pleased about his bed. He must snuggle Ari on it. It is imperative.
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No, but there are windows to window!

Ari will snuggle Mark for a while. Snuggling is allowed. On sufferance.
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Okay, there. That is enough snuggle. Ari can escape now if he likes.
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Ari escapes, after a kiss. And then he goes to the windows and starts painting lavendery sigils on them, babbling on as he does so. "The north wall I'm linking up to the creepy old apocalypse temple thing on the cliff overlooking town. East looks into this cool flowery garden in the first Bradford graveyard. The last two I don't have any ideas for yet, you can tell me if you see somewhere in town you'd like a window to."

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"Sure," he says agreeably. "I love you. You're delightful. Every time I look at that bite on your neck I want to have sex with you again."

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"I'll have sex with you in a bit! I'm working!"

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Mark just giggles.

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After a few minutes, the windows are appropriately oiled. Ari raises his arms and chants in a vaguely Germanic-sounding demonic tongue, and globes of light coalesce around his hands and grow into flickering squares showing bits of Sunnydale at night. They meander over to their windows and sink into the glass; the windows now, to all appearances, show the views from their respective spots. All that remains of the oil sigils is a faint smell of lavender.

Ari turns. "Now. What were you saying about sex?" he asks, running his fingers over the bite mark and shivering a bit.
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"Oh, get over here and kiss me."

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Ari does so. With enthusiasm.

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Ooh. Enthusiasm.

Mark experiments with licking the bite again, even though it is not so much actively bleeding anymore.
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Ari lets out a deep moan. "Oh my- I think, you know, I think you could do a bit more of that. My blood- oh my god- my blood comes back quickly. D-demon thing. Oh."

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"Maybe I'll try to figure out how the 'nice' version works," he suggests. And licks the bite again, because Ari makes such fantastic noises when he does that.

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"Fuck, yes, ple-ease. Please do that."

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Hmm. Now the only question is, bite the same place again, or start fresh?

After some consideration (and licking), he decides on the second thing. And shifts his face and drags his mouth a little lower on Ari's neck and bites him again. Mmmmmm.

Right, yes, he's supposed to be experimenting here, how the hell does he make it 'nice', what does that even mean, hmm, what if he just... yeah, that, that feels right. Like drinking love.
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Ari wasn't complaining. Now, he doesn't think he could if he wanted. It's- blinding. There's so much, he's drowning in an ocean of yes, please. It's so good, he goes off in two seconds and it just keeps happening.

It is very unlikely that he's going to be able to say when to stop.
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It's so good, so good, it's perfect―

But it can't keep going forever. Mark loves Ari. He doesn't want to kill him.

He's taken about half what he did the first time when he makes himself stop.
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Ari shudders. Well, he's been shuddering more or less constantly for the duration of the biting, but- he shudders more, and then stops doing so.

He opens his mouth to speak, then decides it would be better to kiss Mark with it. Much better. So much better.

He is very sticky now. He'd clean himself up, but he doesn't actually mind.

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Mmm, kisses. Lovely lovely kisses. Mark snuggles up to Ari and kisses him extensively. (And tries very very hard to be good about not touching the bite even though it's right there and still bleeding and he really wants to.)

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Halfway through kissing Mark, Ari latches onto him and falls asleep instead. That was a lot.
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Hmm. If he is asleep, he probably won't complain if Mark licks the blood off his shoulder. So Mark does that. And then cuddles him.

He actually catches himself almost dozing off once or twice, while Ari sleeps. That's surprising. But even if sleeping near Ari is inexplicably possible, if Mark starts sleeping on a human schedule he'll just be awake and bored all day...
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Ari giggles and squirms in his sleep at the licking. Licking is delightful!

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God, he's adorable. He is the cutest fucking person alive or otherwise. Mark loves him so much.

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Ari loves him very much as well! He expresses this through sleepy clinging.

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His sleepy clinging is also adorable.

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He will do more of it, then. (He was already going to do more of it. Cuddling is his way.)

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Ari sleeping gives Mark a lot of time to contemplate Ari's many delightful qualities. That is definitely one of them.



About two hours in, contemplating his delightful qualities turns into crying on him. Mark isn't even sure he knows why. He's not exactly unhappy about loving Ari so much. It's just - the scope and depth of his emotions are totally beyond his understanding or control. And even though it is blatantly obvious in innumerable ways, it doesn't make sense that Ari loves him back. Things that nice don't happen to Mark. Somewhere in the back of his mind he expects someone to show up and drag him away and start doing awful things to him with a shock-stick. Okay, maybe that's a legitimate reason to be crying.
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Ari shifts in his sleep, then yawns. "mmrk?"

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Mark sniffles and kisses Ari's shoulder next to the lower of the two bites. "I love you," he says.

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"Loooove you too. Y'r crying?" Ari kisses Mark's forehead. "Somethin' happ'n? Do I kill someb'dy?"

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"No," he sighs. "I'm just - afraid. I already killed the man responsible; you don't have to."

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"Oh."

He turns this over in his mind.

"I'd hug you, but... I'm hugging you. Want other stuff? Talking? Kissing? Other other stuff?"
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"I like that you're hugging me," he murmurs. "It's nice. I love you. I don't know what I want."

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"I want you happy."

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"I love you," Mark repeats, snuggling him.

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"Love you. Love you a lot."

He starts snoring again.
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And now Mark isn't crying anymore. Cuddle cuddle. Ari is so great.

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He is great! And cuddly. So many cuddles.

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So many. Which suits Mark just fine. He is not going to get tired of them anytime soon. It's very possible that Mark could spend a solid year cuddling and still want more cuddles at the end of it.

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Helpfully, Ari is much the same way! So convenient.

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Together they will cuddle for all eternity. Or at least for the next several hours.

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After several hours have passed, Ari returns from the land of visibly pleasant dreams.

"M'rrning?" he hazards.
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"Good morning," says Mark, hugging him.

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"...shit, s'actually morn'g, isn'it? Wonder I'm so dead. Need t'get back t'a noc- not- day sleeping."
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"Eh?"

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Ari yawns hugely. "I go t'sleep at sunrise us'lly. Wake up in th'afternoon. But I keep-" another yawn. "Keep goin' t'bed with you at midnight. Bad habit."

He pauses. "Not goin' t'bed with you. Goin' t'bed at midnight. You're the best."
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Mark giggles. "You're very cute when you're sleepy."

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"M' cute all the time. An' you're cute too. All the time. You're cute."

Cuteness is rewarded with sleepy kisses.
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Mmmmmmm, sleepy kisses. "I love you."

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"Love you."

Ari yawns again. "I should... get up. Reset my clock. D'you have coffee?"

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"I do not have coffee. Where the hell would I be hiding coffee? In the forest?"

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"I need to get you a coffee maker. An' a generator to run it off. An' coffee to make with it. Until then, I've got instant in my bag. S'disgusting, but still coffee."

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"Coffee is not a part of my daily routine, generally. But if you want to give me a coffee maker so you'll have one when you visit, feel free."

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Ari shambles over to his bag and unzips a pocket, revealing rows upon rows of instant coffee packets. He takes one, rips it open, and pours the powder directly into his mouth. He shudders.

"I can make do with instant, generally. But if I had my way there'd be a Starbucks in every graveyard in the United States."
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...Mark laughs.

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Ari mutters a spell to clean his mouth of coffee residue. With his full mental functioning restored and his mouth now clean and slightly almond-flavored, he returns to kissing. Kissing is important.

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Kissing is extremely important.

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Ari can think of nothing more important.

Well... he can think of a few things that could be as important. (Do vampires even get morning wood? He intends to find out.)
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This vampire is currently getting something, possibly more from kissing Ari than from the time of day.

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Ari decides that a closer inspection is necessary. Perhaps he will involve other means at his disposal. Other senses, even! Taste springs to mind.

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Ari is the best.

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Ari has diverse talents! He has honed them, over the years. A lot of it is just practice. Constant... unrelenting... practice. And timing is important, knowing when to put that unrelenting practice to use and when to just-

let go. And rifle through his bag for a mid-sized bottle advertising vanilla scent. And raise a questioning eyebrow. (Questioning eyebrows. Individual eyebrows stubbornly refuse to cooperate.)
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...Mark smiles.

If he's catching the correct implication here, this is a plan he can get behind!
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Really, it's more a question of beneath.

Ari carefully repositions, and begins to thoroughly enjoy himself.
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Ari is so great.

"I love you," Mark informs him, in case he did not know.
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"Lov-e you too! Love you, l-ove you. Mark, fuck-"

He decides that his mouth is not being useful at the moment. It should be kissing. Kissing seems feasible. (It matters less when his jaw suddenly goes slack if all he's doing with it is interfacing with Mark, rather than trying to say words.)
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Mmmmm, kisses. Kisses are good. Ari failing to say words is very attractive, but if he would rather there were kisses Mark is entirely happy with that outcome.

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It's pleasing to both parties, then! Ari is very pleased. This is a good outcome.

Speaking of outcome, Ari is probably only going to be able to sustain this for so long. Self-control is not his greatest virtue, and he is very pleased. A certain outcome is inevitable.
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Fine by Mark. Outcomes that involve Ari being pleased are good outcomes.

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Ari is glad that this outcome is approved of.

Afterwards, cuddles. Wakeful cuddles, because he's just had coffee, but- cuddles. "It's a good thing I don't have, like, a job or anything," he muses. "This amount of cuddling would probably not be sustainable."

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"And then we might cuddle less and that would be a shame," says Mark.

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"It would! Jobs are terrible, freelance witchery is far better. I just make an enchanted sword or axe or something and hand it over to some rich demon for a couple thousand dollars, it's great. And I can just do that on commission every few weeks and not have to worry about anything!"

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"How convenient. Plenty of time for cuddles that way."

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"Plus I can buy things, like mattresses, for people I love, like you. And have time to cuddle. And various related activities." Like kissing! Kissing is a related activity which he demonstrates.

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"Ooh, related activities."

Like kissing.
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They may not leave the bed for a while.