A Dorm Room at Voorhees Hall, Columbia University, New York, Sunday

[sampippy]

Xanthippe was officially Stressed Out.

It was all over an essay, which wasn't even due until next Friday, but it was important and she had to get it perfect, because what if she didn't? What if she didn't, and she flunked out of the class, and she flunked right out of college, and her father would disown her and her mother would disown her and then she would have to move in with Kimmy and deal with that whole freak show and she would lose all status and purpose in life and probably, like, end up becoming BFFs with Kimmy's extra-weirdo landlady and getting matching tattoos in a crack den and --

Anyway, yeah, she was currently doing what any self-respecting college student would do in her situation: screaming into a pillow.

Thank Christ her roommates weren't home right now.

[ooc: NFB but open for texts/calls/surprise visits!]

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[vrajna_kralis]

Hyacinthe beamed at her. "Indeed," he said. "A textbook for students entering the service of Naamah, outlining the three thousand basic ways to incite pleasure in a lover."

[sampippy]

Xanthippe's eyebrows climbed high.

"There's no way three thousand things count as 'basic' anything."

Although that really served to explain, again, why he was so consistently disappointed in the quality of guys she met here.

[vrajna_kralis]

"Indeed they do," he said. "Why some of them do not even involve nudity at all. In fact, many do not. Hardly gets into the more advanced techniques."

[sampippy]

Xanthippe shook her head. At what, even she wasn't entirely sure.

"I... would probably kinda wanna read that," she admitted, eventually.

[vrajna_kralis]

"You could, you know," Hya said. "You have but to ask."

[sampippy]

"Really?"

She sounded way too thriled. Maybe it was her nerd tendencies flaring up.

"Okay, I'm asking. Can I?"

[vrajna_kralis]

Hyacinthe hoisted himself up off of her, stealing a kiss as he went, and headed across to where Xan had dropped his bag. He pulled out a thick tome, hand-written and long before the age of print. He brought it back and held it out to her to inspect. "Phedre gave this to me before I came here," he murmured. "'Tis the first book I ever owned."

[sampippy]

In the meantime, Xanthippe pulled herself a little upright, adjusting her bathrobe some as she did. (It was a miracle she hadn't lost it yet, but that probably wouldn't last.)

"Oh wow," she murmured as she reached for the book, treating it with the kind of low-key reverence that she might've something expensive and fragile. Carefully.

[vrajna_kralis]

It was a beautiful object, as most D'angelline things were. The cover was leather, with gilt at the corners, and more gilt shone on the illustrations that accompanied many of the lessons, some innocent, some quite explicit.

"Will you make me a promise, Xanthippe?"

[sampippy]

It took Xan a few seconds to look up at him, and she hadn't even really got past the cover, yet.

"Yes?"

[vrajna_kralis]

"Do I leave this with you until I return to collect it," Hya said slowly, "do you promise to take a break and read a new section each time your schoolwork seems overwhelming?"

He opened the book, flipping to a page that discussed 'The Caress of the Summer Wind.' It was little more than a paragraph of text. "See? Should take you little time, especially in these early pages."

[sampippy]

He was giving her face such a workout, because that had her eyebrows climbing up again way up again.

And underneath them, her eyes were shining.

"Wait, what? You -- you'd do that?"

Leave something with her.

[vrajna_kralis]

"Just watching you these last moments, I have no fear of leaving this in your hands," he told her, brushing her cheek with his thumb. "You will care for this as completely as I could ever hope."

[sampippy]

"Wow." It was a small word. And quiet. Her chin was tilting down again, though more because her gaze was being drawn back down to the book and less because she was hiding the softness in her smile.

Although, let's be real: she was also doing that. Just out of instinct and habit both.

"I mean... I can do that." She nodded. "The reading thing? I can do that."

[vrajna_kralis]

"I look forward to seeing how many you have learned by then," Hyacinthe said, pressing a kiss to her temple. "And that you'll not think less of me when you see how many I have put to use myself."

[sampippy]

Xanthippe snorted and shook her head. "I wouldn't do that." Which was really something, coming from someone so wholly equipped to think less of people at the drop of a hat. "It's more like learning your secrets."

[vrajna_kralis]

"Oh and how you must adore the thought of that," Hyacinthe teased. "I shall come over and be completely unprepared for what it is that you will do to me."

[sampippy]

"Maybe don't get your hopes too high," Xanthippe replied with a drawl and an eyeroll. But she was still smiling, too. "I mean, theory's so different from practice, or whatever. I might just... flail."

[vrajna_kralis]

"You flail less each time we are together," Hyacinthe reminded her. "I love watching you get more comfortable in your skin." He leaned close to whisper, "And not just because I really like it when you tell me what it is you want me to do to you. In detail. Or just what 'tis you wish to do to me."

[sampippy]

Xanthippe turned her head until she could press a kiss against his cheek.

"I mean... It's pretty nice to tell you those things, too?"

Getting comfortable in her skin, she couldn't really comment on.

[vrajna_kralis]

"Then I shall hope that ere I leave, you find the will and time to tell me more again," Hyacinthe said, tucking her once more against his side. He leaned his cheek against her head and sighed.

[sampippy]

"Oh, I so am," Xanthippe informed him with a sigh of her own.

The impending doom of him leaving for good was a powerful motivator. But she wasn't going to say that in so many words.

[vrajna_kralis]

Good. He wished there had been a way to tell her without it hanging over their head for the rest of this visit. He already missed her unshadowed excitement of earlier.

He understood it, though. His chest hurt at the thought of leaving and he, at least, had the joy of homecoming to lighten it.

"I brought spare clothes," he said, practically stumbling over the words. "I mean, not that I wish to outstay my welcome, however long that may be. But, in case you wished me to stay more than just a few hours..."

[sampippy]

Well, he was about witness some excitement right now, unshadowed or not.

Xanthippe huffed out a laugh. It sounded pleased. "Hya," she said, "I would buy you more clothes if that meant I got you for more than a couple of hours."

[vrajna_kralis]

He beamed at her. "Good," he said with a laugh. "I did not wish to seem overeager," he said, "or like I expected to stay if you hadn't wished me to, but I was ready to stay if you'd have me."