It's a jolly holiday with Oswald

[fallingbackup]

Kevin had been absolutely alright with the idea that Oswald needed a vacation from being scary, and was totally glad to go along with him. He hadn't realized at all that he himself really needed the vacation, too. At home -- is it really home now...? -- he's only been off the Baskerville House's grounds once or twice since he recovered enough from his injury. That had been enough to discover that he was followed by whispers wherever he went. He was recognized. He lived with the demon duke. He shouldn't have been alive. No one dared to mess with him, and in a way he'd been glad to be given such a wide berth. Still, it had been weird, and left him feeling unsettled with his position in the world.

Now, he and the Duke of Baskerville are two guys walking down a street the same as everybody else, and he isn't even fully aware yet of the way he's unfolding.

They've been out in town since midmorning and had a wonderful lunch in some riverfront restaurant and now they're approaching the downtown area, and the longer they're out, the chattier Kevin gets. This doesn't mean much on a Kevin -- at his worst he gets up to one short sentence every few minutes, unprovoked -- but after the silence that accompanied getting shot, he's practically blabbing his head right off. He's alert and engaged and interested in what's going on around him. It isn't only that this world is entirely new to him, or that he's starting to get close to turning again and it's perking him up. It's that the stress of being known is off and it's just him and the man he considers to be his dearest friend today. If he were any more relaxed, he'd be half asleep.

Which is why when he catches a sugary sweet scent upon the wind, he thinks nothing of announcing, "I smell maple sugar," and turning on his heel to follow it without any warning whatsoever.

Comments

[redstainedking]

... Well, that was unexpected. Not completely surprising, but unexpected.

Still, as abruptly as Kevin had turned Glen wasn't all that far behind him, catching up easily enough as he remained silent. He'd been silent for most of the walk, yet was sure that the other knew he was listening with the vague sound or nod here and there. Maple sugar, huh.

[fallingbackup]

Kevin is entirely alright with being the more talkative of the two -- if he weren't comfortable with Glen in the first place, he wouldn't talk at all. He also wouldn't have changed direction so abruptly, but Glen has seen him at his worst a dozen times over. Much like with his recent habits of being snuggly and clinging to the other man's sleeve as he sleeps, Kevin is way beyond being embarrassed by his wolf compulsions.

Just now, his nose leads them to a street lined with little specialty shops, many of which feature pastries and confections of all sorts. It's overwhelming enough that the knight has to stop and adjust for a minute, overwhelmed by all the different scents.

"Wow," he mutters, blinking a little. "This must be the Sugar District or something."

Good thing he doesn't know there's a Break here yet. For the moment, he can enjoy himself here without paranoia.

[redstainedking]

"Well, all in one place they are easier to find."

It made... some sense in a place like this? some days they could have been all scattered about the city for all he knew. The air was sweet, almost sickeningly so if one didn't have a taste for sweets at all.

[fallingbackup]

"If we'd kept going the other way we would have found a farmer's market," Kevin says, folding his hands in the sleeves of his coat. "There would have been grape tomatoes. So, this is much better."

Kevin logic.

[redstainedking]

As long as they were not in his room, grape tomatoes could stay in the farmer's market thank you very much.

"Do you know from which store the maple sugar scent you caught was coming from?"

[fallingbackup]

The knight thinks for a moment, rubbing the back of one leg with his other foot.

"...there's cold and milky stuff around it," he concludes at length. He blinks at the stores in front of them, skimming for likely candidates. "The ice cream shop, maybe?"

[redstainedking]

... Why is this man so cute.

His head tilted, catching sight of a particular shop-- "If there is 'cold and milky stuff' around it, then it is very like the ice cream shop, yes."

[fallingbackup]

"Shall we go look? I guess today is a good day for sweet things. Next week, I'm just gonna want steak."

Rare, alarmingly bloody steak, in fact. He figures they ought to take advantage of this sugary discovery while he's actually interested in it. After that Oswald will have to think he's adorable while he's devouring recently dead bovine.