Crimson

Whirlwind.

Vita was sure he was not dreaming .

Yet , he stood behind Juno as he tried to open a gate that seemed too heavy for him .

Vita did not offer to help though , Juno was not the type to not request for help if he needed it .

He finally got it open and whirled around to face Vita , his braid that had been struggling to stay still had also finally come undone .

" Let go of any expectations you have ".

He made a blowing away gesture to emphasize his point earning a chuckle from Vita .

" I promise , I have no expectations " .

Juno nodded at this and then turned around , beckoning Vita to come along .

Vita followed him into the wide area the house sat on .

It was not really a house , more of a square building that sat in the middle of the land .

Were houses built in this style ?

Juno turned to him , smiled at his expression and turned back , resuming his walk .

" It is a warehouse , existed since pre - cleansing . Apparently , merchants used to store their goods here , so , they built it with the best of materials to deter all kinds of thieving curiosity . If I am ever in a financial bind , I would sell my gate . It's made out of reinforced Tungsten , what you know as Wolfram , even the Royal Crimsons gate is not as secure as that ".

Vita listened attentively , each word Juno mentioned made him even more curious.

" Why would you need a gate more secure than the Royal Crimsons ? "

Juno stopped moving .

He turned slowly , his expression was unreadable .

Then he smiled , " Have you seen the state of me ? I am extremely fragile , all I need is a thread with caution sticker plastered on my forehead ".

The not so distant memory of Juno holding him at knife - point begged to differ from this description but Vita kept mute .

Juno had always been aloof , he did not want to say something that would lead Juno down that path again .

They finally reached the door to the house which surprisingly opened immediately Juno pushed it .

Well , with a gate of Wolfram he was as secure as possible , another reinforced door would be overkill .

Juno went in and left the door open for Vita to come in .

Vita stepped in , it was utterly dark but the air was surprisingly fresh and smelled a lot like lavender .

" Don't move , there are probably things on the floor ".

Vita stood still , listening to Juno's footsteps and then , moonlight poured into the house .

Juno stood by what was probably the biggest window Vita had seen , post - cleansing had been too dangerous , so , people had gotten used to living in houses with boarded up windows or windows small enough to let in light and keep out whatever was supposed to be out .

He watched Juno move away from the window , he had discarded his shirt somewhere along the way .

He went around lighting fey lanterns that gave off red flares . In Caeso , fey lanterns had been more practical than aesthetical , it was the opposite for Agrippa .

" You can come in now " .

Vita moved cautiously , his eyes gauging every inch of the house , it was the strangest living space he had ever seen and he had seen a lot .

It was just a four cornered , very big space .

Juno's bed occupied one corner , it was in such a way that he could see the four walls of his house from the bed . And opposite his bed , a closet of sorts with a visible vanity occupied one of the four walls .

There were tubes of different sizes , brushes , perfume bottles and a big , oval mirror on the vanity .

Clothes were literally pouring out of the closet . The closet was painted a cream colour .

Adjacent to the closet was what looked like a kitchen space that had not been used in a very long time .

It had cupboards above , they were also painted a creamy colour .

The third space was occupied by a giant , glass box , was that an indoor bathroom ?

It had a shower head , a tub and a toilet .

And the fourth space was something that Vita was still trying to come to terms with .

He had thought that Juno carried blades around and used weirdly dangerous hair accessories because of Agrippas lack of security .

Now he was not so sure , it seemed more like Juno was obsessed .

The wall was decorated with blades of different sizes and shapes , even different colours .

Vita was not well versed with blades but he had spotted a scythe and a double katana .

The shorter blades were in Leather , embroidered sheaths exposing only beautifully curved hilts .

Goddesses , there was even a spear .

A wooden table rested by the wall under all of these .

As if the above display was not enough , the table had needles of different sizes and small pocket knives in detailed arrangements .

" Are you done gawking ?"

Vita turned to the voice , Juno stood by the entrance of the glass box , he was naked with his hair down .

He was wearing no jewellery , only the fading ink of the night before loitered his skin .

For a long time , people had looked the same to Vita .

The only way he had differentiated people was by blood hue .

Yes , the scarlet advisor ,the Vermillion chef and once in a while the tall Vermillion and the short Vermillion .

He had no reason to consider anyone beautiful but that had changed from the moment he had seen Juno .

Now , he considered even the way he walked beautiful .

That same person that had brought a rush of red into his drab life now stood naked before him .

Vita swallowed , the air was suddenly not very fresh and the lavender smell that had been comforting had begun to choke him .

He held back a cough , coughing now would be extremely embarrassing .

He had seen hundreds of naked people .

Juno tilted his head , Vita realized then that his lips had been moving for a while , curving around the words .

" .... you can make hot chocolate , make three cups , that's my favorite . I'll try to wash faster than I usually do ".

Vita nodded , he realized now that Juno had been giving instructions about his kitchen .

He walked ahead to the kitchen , it could not be that hard to avoid looking towards Juno , why exactly was the box transparent ?

A loud hiss sounded and Vita turned his head immediately to the box , steam had filled up the box , covering Juno completely .

Great job at avoiding the box .

He began to open cupboards and shelves , finally he found pots .

Now , water .

A tap caught his eye , that was impossible .

Even in Caeso , access to water in residences was not regulated only by blood hue , it depended on if you had the money .

He opened the tap and water poured out , clean water , he rinsed the pot and fetched into it .

He would save his questions for later .

After going through all of the shelves several times ,he finally had three cups of steaming chocolate .

Juno had to rearrange his house , his sugar had been labeled baking powder and was with the pots while the spoons had been lying in a bag of carrots .

Juno came out then , letting out steam with him .

He was naked again but this time Vita focused on his cup , he only put his head back up when he heard the closets door open and close .

He sighed relieved .

He was barely done sighing when the closet door opened again and Juno came back out .

He was still wet but he had worn a thick cotton robe that he tied on his waist .

The robe was larger than he was , so , it fell back a little exposing his clavicle and a little of his upper pectorals .

His hair had a towel on his head , giving him an innocent look .

He rushed over to where Vita stood and grabbed a cup , sitting on one of the kitchen stools he began to blow furiously .

Vita chose to mind his business and put all of his willpower into focusing on his own cup .

Finally , he stopped blowing and took a sip .

Vita looked up then , just in time to catch the smile on Juno's face .

Good , he liked it .

He smiled down at his own cup and continued to drink .

Juno finished his cup and went for his second cup , he finished that too and suddenly reached for Vita's cup .

Vita grabbed his cup suddenly , surprising both of them .

Juno looked up.

" Did you think I was trying to steal yours ? What do you think of me ? "

Vita was lost .

" I....I didn't think you were , I don't know...I just "...Vita trailed off .

Juno laughed at this .

" You are surprisingly not so nice , Master Cicero ".

Vita choked and began to gasp .

Juno jumped onto the table and slid over it to where Vita stood , he grabbed Vita's face and pushed it into his chest and began to pound at his back .

Vita held unto Juno's robe to stabilize himself .

Juno gradually stopped pounding and switched to slight tappings .

Vita wanted a war to break out now and for him to be the first casualty .

He had wanted to be smooth when he told Juno and he was ruining it every second .

He pressed his face deeper to muffle his embarrassed moan , a second too late , he realized he was pressing his face into Juno's chest .

How much more embarrassing did he intend to become ?

Hoping that Juno had not noticed would be too much and the faint scent of lavender mixed with the heat of the chocolate was not helping .

" Were you pretending , Vita ?"

As he talked , his chest shook slightly and Vita thought about holding him tighter .

" You should have told me you wanted me to remain naked , I might have agreed if it was not so cold ".

Vita let go immediately , his robe fell open .

He had grabbed the ropes of Juno's robes earlier .

" I didn't mean to do that , I'm really sorry ".

Good , a coherent sentence with eyes focused only on Juno's face , a step In redeeming himself .

Juno tied his robe back , his eyes focused on Vita .

When he was done , he reached for the towel that was now lying on the table .

He threw it at Vita .

" Dry my hair ".

He got off the table and went ahead to his vanity .

Vita followed , relieved that Juno was no longer looking at him .

The relief was short-lived , Juno could see him clearly from the mirror .

Vita began to towel his hair , his hair had always been so short , towelling hair this long was new to him .

But , Juno had beautiful hair.

It was silky and heavy and smelled of lemons.

" I was not pretending earlier " , he said.

Juno locked eyes with him through the mirror .

" I know , I just like how flustered you get when I tease you ".

Vita watched him smirk as he said this .

The only thought in Vita's head was that he was in it .

He was totally , completely swept up in this whirlwind that was Juno .