Canon: Remove if not applicable.Kouen, with his back against Mu's chest, was looking out the small window by the narrow bed, and out at the stars, far up in the night sky. They twinkled down peacefully at him, and with the warm feeling of Mu's palms against his own, his nose in his hair and his arms against his, they almost seemed friendly. Kouen looked back down, sliding his fingers up and down the back of Mu's hands. He turned his gaze toward the inside of the room, not for the first time noting the differences between Mu's bedroom and his own. In Reim, the bedrooms were much smaller, not as lavishly decorated (they could have carvings and paintings directly on the walls, but Mu's didn't, although he did have a compass made out of different colored stones in the floor), and mainly held only a bed - even the nobility had much smaller beds than those that the nobility in Kou used, and it meant that they needed to lay pressed up close to one another here. Not that he minded, he really preferred this much space. Besides, the beds in Reim were much more comfortable. But perhaps that was because he often shared one with a big wall of warmth. Mu's bedroom was sparse and clean, with a closet for his clothes and a basin to wash in, besides the bed. There was also a coffin at the foot of the bed, which Kouen knew held different kinds of items, such as some books (mostly given to him by Kouen), some pictures drawn by the Fanalis children, a comb and some other trinkets. But everything was clean and plain and, had any of the officials in Kou seen it, they would have called it a commoner's room. Or a soldier entirely focused on soldier life. Kouen had been confused over it when he had first seen it, and had wondered if he had been placed in a small room by mistake. In the end he found out that he didn't mind, though. Least of all when he went to bed in the evening, expecting the bed to be far from as comfortable as it was. Waking up with the sunlight warming your skin was also pretty nice, and he had arranged a window toward the courtyard in his own bedroom later, so he could wake up a bit more easily.
As he had thought back on it, he had started to slide a thumb over one of Mu's palms, and after his attention went back to the dozing man he was leaning against, he pulled his knees up, feet sliding over the bedsheets, and rested one of the man's hands against his knees, palm up. He ran his fingers along the lines in it, gaze following the trail. Probably, Mu's was as well, because Kouen could feel him shift a little, indicating he was waking. "Are you thirty?" he asked, and it took a while and a yawn before Mu answered. "Yes. How come--" He was cut off by another yawn, and didn't continue the sentence, but he didn't have to. Kouen shrugged lightly, feeling some of his hair shift against his neck. "I never really thought about it until now, but ever since I met you, I have always thought you were older than me." There was a slight sound of shifting air, and Kouen heard a silent chuckle against his hair. "I am." Kouen stared up at him with a blank look. "Yes, but i thought you were a lot older than me." He felt like he was given a very confused look, when Mu asked "Why?" and he sighed, wrapping his fingers around Mu's thumb. "Because when I first met you, you were much more mature and taller than people our age."
"I'm actually below average for male Fanalis---" Kouen pinched his hand. "I know that." He sighed again. "Now I know you're also absolutely ridiculous as well, though." He could feel Mu puff his cheeks up in a pout. "I'm ridiculous?" Kouen smirked. "You are very ridiculous."
Mu pursed his lips thoughtfully, then let out an amused sigh. "Very well, I will accept that compliment." Kouen raised an eyebrow, giving him a dubious look. "Really now..." He rubbed a finger along one of the lines in Mu's palm, and blinked when Mu's fingers wrapped around it. "Master Kouen, what made you ask?"
"Well," Kouen wiggled his finger and Mu obediently opened his hand again. "this line tells me how old you are." He ran a finger along the line he was talking about, and Mu peered curiously at him. "It does?" He sounded confused. But when he spoke again, he sounded even more confused. "Wait, Master Kouen, you know palm reading?" Kouen shrugged again, following another line with his finger tip. "I encountered it in one of the texts I read. Why are you surprised?" Mu was silent for a few moments, and Kouen could feel his lips thoughtfully quirked against the back of his head. "It's just surprising, and kind of out of character for you," he said against Kouen's hair. Kouen couldn't see what the problem was. "It was research, it was useful, I picked it up," he explained, and he frowned when Mu gripped his finger once again. "What are you doing?"
"Tell me more?" Mu asked, and Kouen was silent for several moments, until Mu opened his hand again, to let Kouen show him what was what in his hand. Kouen ran a nail lightly along different lines (ignoring the soft whimpers that the man made when his sensitive skin was tickled by the finger moving across it), slowly informing Mu of their meanings. "This tells me that you're a great leader, while these lines says that you are a good speaker and know to motivate people and communicate with them---true, you have the ability to talk me into bed any time that you want to." Though it wasn't as if Kouen objected to it, they didn't see each other very often and he very much enjoyed their time together, sex or no sex. Mu snorted, muffling the sound against Kouen's hair. "You can talk me into pretty much anything, too." There were a few things he was set upon, of course, but there were a lot of things - bed-sport in particular - that he willingly went along with. Kouen smiled briefly, leaning a little closer into him.
"This one says that you have a lot of stamina, which is also accurate," he went on, telling him about a few other lines. But after a while, he stopped, deciding that he had satisfied Mu's curiosity enough for the time being. There was something else he was more interested in. Or rather, distracted by.
"What are you so concerned about?" Kouen suddenly asked, looking up at Mu to meet his eyes. Mu looked at him with much confusion. "I beg your pardon?" he asked, and Kouen was made to elaborate. "This bent top finger of yours, it tells me that you're concerned about something." Mu bent the finger, slowly and in surprised contemplation. "My finger....." Kouen looked up, tilting his head so he could see his lovers face. "So what are you so worried about, Master Mu?" he asked. After several moments had passed, Mu shook his head. "....nothing in particular," he said, and Kouen frowned. "Don't lie to me, you can't fool me with these hands."
The look on Mu's face was one of utter bewilderment. "Master Kouen, what in the world?"
"Tell me," Kouen insisted.
"Master Kouen, you talk a lot today. Did you find something good among your books?"
"Do not try to change the subject, Mu Alexius," Kouen reprimanded him, and Mu winced. "My apologies, Master Kouen." he murmured, burying his face in Kouen's hair. "I simply have yet to sort out my own thoughts, which is why I do not talk of them yet." Kouen scowled at him, turning a little in his arms and moving his free hand to Mu's arm, closing around the mucles to give him some leverage as he turned around. "So you will tell me once you have done so?" he asked. Mu nodded slowly. "I swear to it," he said, and Kouen sighed. Simetimes Mu could be so incredibly tightlipped that he worried more than he would need to, if only the stubborn man could open his mouth and talk about everything that troubled him. And if it troubled him to such an extent that it made his hands change, it must be something very serious indeed.
Mu took one of Kouen's hands in his suddenly, splaying his fingers against his knee, and ran a finger along one of the wrinkles in his palm. "What does yours say, then?" His question was a distraction from Kouen's questions, he knew that, they both knew that. After moments of staring at his lover's face, Kouen turnd back to face their laps.
He was silent, looking down at the revealing lines in his skin. "Not much," he said, and closed his hand to hide the Mars star from his sight, hiding his thoughts along with it.
He pressed his lips to the big rough palm, kissing the pronounced, uneven heart line. He wanted to heal the break in the the line, straighten it out and lengthen it. Wanted to make it as simple as it never could be.
There was one more thing he could read, but he was not going to mention that. Just knowing how loved he was, was enough for him.