JW did not account for their time periods having differing weather, so when the tall man ducked through the passage he was met with a downpour. His sunhat drooped on either side of his head and his backpack grew heavier as it got soaked.
"Serves me right."
He pressed onward through the dead riverbed which was trying very hard to become a creek. Once he climbed up the other side and came into the town, he was pleased to see less people on the streets. Sure, some lingered on porches, but the town was more or less empty. That would make his quarry easier to spot.
It wouldn't take too long for Ginko to become visible. After a few last words with the village elder - going over preventative measures, promising to come back in a few months to see if the wells were safe yet - he stepped out of from under the shelter of the house.
Ginko glanced up at the sky, frowning slightly and pulling his coat further over his head, the fabric draping over the box strapped to his back. He could only hope this didn't keep up all day.
Distracted as he was, he didn't even notice JW at first.
He'd only seen one person in this place with a big square backpack. It looked uncomfortable to wear and suddenly he wasn't so sorry about his canvas one being soggy. James squelched through the muddy street and blew a whistle Ginko's way.
"There's been a very strange man looking for you," said several people in town when Ginko made his way back to the sleepy rice village.
Said strange man wouldn't be far behind.
Three days after the bug master arrived, an ungainly set of legs brought JW through the orange and gold forest. He was dressed poorly again. Japan and America's seasons didn't quite match and while it was chilly in Hawksaw, a nice jacket took care of that. Here? It was just plain cold. It was time to learn how to use an almanac.
His antlers were larger and now free of the dark velvet and they caught on everything. He wasn't used to these low, twiggy woods and he came into the village a mess and swearing up a storm.
It had taken a few minutes for Ginko to figure out what they meant by that, but when he thought about it... well, he did know one strange man who he had met in this area. He thanked the villagers, kept that in mind, and made his way to the house he had already arranged to stay in.
Three days later, Ginko was making his way to one of the wells further outside town, an area nearly inaccessible in the heavier snow of a few days ago - and quietly hoping it wouldn't be frozen over; having to check for Suiko in ice would only make things more difficult.
Before he had even left the village, though, he stopped, turning toward a familiar voice - and raising his eyebrows slightly when he actually caught sight of the source. "JW?"
It was the very dead of winter. JW was bundled properly for once (that dark scarf and all) and tromping through the mountainside. They had camped the night before, the first night he'd spent in Nowhere, Japan. Now it was morning and JW found himself alone in the tent.
It wasn't hard to find the man's tracks in the snow--the snow itself wasn't falling and the world was crusted in a thick layer of white that he crunched awkwardly through. He fell a couple of times. JW was a Tennessee boy. The only snow he was used to was on the side of a coke can.
"Ginko!" He cupped his mouth around his hands and shrank back a little when his own echo was spat back at him. "The hell are you! I wanna show you instant coffee!"
For most people, getting up in the middle of winter before the sun had even risen, heading out in search of any dry wood he could find, would have been a really bad idea on its own. In Ginko's case, given his experience with winter travel and his unusually strong night vision, it was only a moderately bad idea.
On the other hand, even someone with a lot of experience and good vision can take a wrong turn, then a wrong step, then suddenly find himself at the bottom of a steep, rocky slope, scrapes and bruises not really comparing to the gash torn in his leg by a particularly sharp outcropping.
Ginko swore under his breath, pulling off the scarf draped around his neck and wrapping it tightly around his leg. It couldn't stop the bleeding entirely, but it should slow it down, anyway. It didn't take long after that for him to confirm that climbing back up the slope was not going to happen, and then... well, all that was really left for him to do was wait and hope that JW found him.
When he finally heard his friend's voice, he looked up from where he was sitting at the base of the slope, having cleared away as much of the bloodstained snow on the ground as he could in that spot. He braced a hand against the rock, trying to push himself upright and call up. "I'm down here-- I slipped, I can't get back up!"
The closer JW got, he would find Ginko's footprints not disappearing so much as breaking off into a wider swath of pushed-aside snow dropping down the side of the slope. The mushi master was half-standing, half-leaning at the bottom of it, visibly keeping as much weight as he could off his right leg.
JW killed the engine and leaned back so that Ginko could see through the driver's side window. A dusting of snow covered the black parking lot and the letters on the face of Walmart Super Center. A person dressed like Santa was standing in front of the building ringing a bell.
"You won't need that heavy coat in there, no sir!"
It wasn't like Ginko and JW usually saw each other with a lot of frequency anyway. After all, Ginko was only in that particular village once every three months or so, so that was... something of a limiting factor. And sometimes, once he got there, it would be a few days before JW happened to come through the gate to visit.
This, however, was new.
It had been a full ten days since Ginko arrived. He had finished most of his work in the area, been busying himself checking basements and wells and the surrounding woods since then, identifying every possible infestation (which, fine, might have been an excuse to stick around a while longer). But, whatever he did, he was going to have to leave before too much longer to be sure not to cause any infestations.
And yet, there had been no sign of a strange, antlered man. And, try as he might to deny it, Ginko was starting to get worried.
He finally hunted down the gate himself, and, despite his own uncertainties about heading into the future unaccompanied, stepped between the trees, setting out on the walk to JW's house.
Even more worrying: the plastic cooler that JW had firmly tied to the base of a tree near the gate was empty. No note, no bottles of water. There was no snow here in the Mississippi bottom. Only mud, mud, dead leaf lasagna, and more mud.
The only visible tracks belonged to a family of pigs that had gotten loose a few years ago.
Nothing attacked Ginko during his trek and once the house on the hill came into view, the windows were dark and it was quiet, quiet. The wind didn't even stir here.
JW knew that he was being silly for being disappointed that Ginko hadn't shown up on That Day. They didn't even have that holiday and Ginko was a working man who had to walk far and wide to help people. He decided to take the mushi master's absence earlier in the month as a sigh to Get Over It and just enjoy the man's company. The thrill of the chase had been fun, but he was a dog and Ginko was a speeding Lamborghini with one headlight.
S i g h.
But suddenly, one day, while he was in the middle of putting together a sort of tv-stand bookshelf deal he'd gotten for cheap at the hardware store, there came a knock at the storm door and JW nearly smashed his thumb. He wasted no time letting Ginko in.
"Well hey, stranger." The gap-toothed smile was there but it was missing Something. "You wouldn't wanna join me for arts 'n crafts, would ya?"
If he was honest with himself, the eagerness with which Ginko took the chance to return to that little village and hunt down those two particular trees was... somewhat unusual for him. It wasn't as if it was unheard of for Ginko to actually look forward to meeting up with particular people again, of course, but it wasn't all that typical.
He wasn't quite honest enough with himself to think too much about just why he looked forward to the visit with so much anticipation.
But either way, he was there now. He grinned back when JW opened the door; something did strike him as a little off about his friend, but for the moment he supposed he should probably chalk it up to a bad day or something and not push it too much.
To both JW and Ginko's dismay, the stretch of time between their last visit and this one had been much longer than either of them liked. But there had been several storms. JW had been called to do a job. Ginko had been called to do a job. But finally, with the dregs of April snow still on the ground, they managed to catch one another and hop the fence between worlds.
Ginko had been asked to investigate a disturbance at the back of a farming family's field. It was going to be time to planting soon and with a hair thin root network of temperamental mushi running through the rows, it was impossible to hoe. The mushi's grip on the soil was too strong. This unbreakable ground had been what the farmer's husband reported. He had yet to find where the true earth ended and this strange frozen earth began.
JW trailed a little behind Ginko, properly bundled up but still puffing away as he staggered. He sorely wished he could afford a motorbike. He was pretty sure his legs were longer. Why was he still lagging behind WHY WERE THEY GOING UP HILL. GOD.
"Ginko, can y'wait up a minute?" He reached out to try and grab hold of his scarf, his shirt, SOMETHING. "You said this wasn't a fatal infestation, what's the hurry?"
Ginko slowed down, just a little, when JW caught hold of the back of his coat. He gave a quiet huff and turned to catch hold of JW's arm and tug him further up the hill - though he did keep to a slower pace now than he had been.
"It's not fatal, but it's still a problem. And I'm not going all that fast." At least not from his own point of view, which TOTALLY isn't kind of skewed or anything.
"I'll bet you five bucks this ends up a dud. Which is fine with me because I get paid something either way."
The van pulled up to the quiet factory as the sky was fading from purple to deep blue. There was another car parked by the employee entrance and a man was waiting there. A man climbed out and greeted the both of them and he talked in a hushed tone.
Strange Things (tm) had been happening in the factory. People reported seeing figures in areas where no one was on duty, strange noises and things going missing like clockwork. So far no one had been harmed, but when you were a simple cannery in the middle of a field things could get a little spooky. The two of them shook hands and the man led them inside where he turned on a few of the lights and told him that he'd be outside if they needed anything.
JW hefted his backpack and gave him a nod before motioning for Ginko to follow him in. Ginko did get a little stare, though he was just odd enough to look like he belonged on such a strange late night outing.
The factory was gloomy even with the few lights that hung in the dusty rafters above. Silent machines dozed and cast long, jagged shadows across the concrete floor.
"What makes you think I've got five bucks on me to bet with?"
He followed close behind JW, ignoring any odd looks he got as they headed inside. Once they were inside, though, he slowed down a little, casting glances at the machines around them. "...That's new..."
JW slammed the van door and stood proudly in the parking lot. The weather was growing nicer by the day. He hadn't seen his favorite clover-headed Someone in a long time and now that he'd been able to hop the rift of time and space once again, JW vowed to take him somewhere special.
That somewhere was Wendy's.
The squat building stood before them and smelled of peanut oil and car exhaust.
"Welp, there she is! Best fries this side of the Mississippi."
Ginko climbed out and tucked his hands in his pockets, raising his eyebrows as he looked around. Okay, the car exhaust smell was... a little gross. But there was definitely something else here that smelled like food.
"Well, given that I'm not exactly an expert on fries, I'll just have to take your word on it. But I can't say I don't trust your opinion here.
The sun was high and the woods were full of sound. The world walkers had set out early with their backpacks. JW aimed to show Ginko the lay of the land and where the best NON HAUNTED berry patches were and also he really wanted to get out of the house where he didn't have to feel beady little eyes on him at all times.
It was really hard to initiate a make-out session when you knew a zombie and two fractured parts of your own psyche were watching.
JW paused in a small clearing and dropped his bag, rubbing his lower back and trying to hide it by acting like he was taking a deep breath of spring air.
"There's a little spring out this way that's really nice. You'll have to tell me if there are any mushi in it."
Ginko set down his pack at the same time, casting a glance around the clearing. "Yeah? I'll make sure to check that."
He watched JW with a small frown. He'd known for quite some time that the man from the future wasn't always too upfront about some things, but lately he was starting to put together a somewhat more solid idea about what those things might be. All the same, he didn't much want to call JW out on it and risk upsetting him.
"We should probably rest here for a bit first, though."
Winter in Nowhere Japan was one thing--there was snow. It was scenic. There were weird snow ghost bugs to be dealt with. But winter in Hawksaw was just...brown. Cold for the sake of being cold. There was nothing to be done outside but that didn't mean there was no fun to be had.
At least that was what JW was hoping when he ushered his time-hopping other half in from the cold with a big dumb grin on his face. He'd been planning this for a little while but you wouldn't know it from the shitty decorations.
A dollar store banner hung from the doorway that led from the kitchen into the livingroom. In bold glitter letters (because that was all the dollar store had) it read: HAPPY BIRTHDAY GEENKOW in English. Neither he or Deuteronomy had bothered to wonder how Ginko spelled his name until about four hours previous.
"Surprise, Clover!" Pulling the door shut behind them, JW reached over to the kitchen counter to pick up a thin box.
Ginko pulled his scarf down from over his mouth and nose, looking over the banner with a kind of amused bafflement.
"What's all this?" For one thing, he was kind of wondering how JW decided on that spelling for his name, but that was kind of the last thing to take into consideration here.
A lazy autumn night indoors without ghosts or mushi or angry neighbors was just what you needed sometimes. Sometimes the distant tick of the kitchen clock and the droning of a very small TV-with-built-in-VRC was all you needed.
With Deuteronomy out on a gambling night, and Havoc and Harmony banished to--JW, didn't specify he just wanted them O U T--, they were wholly alone. JW enjoyed the feeling of leaning against Ginko, halfway paying attention to the modern marvel of the television that he took entirely for granted, and breathing in his boyfriend's earthy smell. IT WASN'T WEIRD. Ginko just smelled good to him--always had. Whether it was the tobacco that clung to his clothes or the small of far-away trees, it made James feel at peace. The mushi master's considerable frame was a plus for him as well. He felt safe. If any unseeable ghost bug wanted to drain his energy or steal his skin or whatever the hell mushi did, he was content in the idea that Ginko could handle it. It wasn't often anything made him feel like that.
The turning of the leaves and the shedding of JW's velvet had made him especially clingy. He'd been following Ginko around everywhere for a week and sometimes just kind of stared at him but not really at him. It was kind of a doofy la-la land that he loudly denied he was gazing into when it was brought to his attention.
But the goo-goo eyes were now turning into something else. They were alone. Really really alone. He nudged Ginko's chin with his forehead to let him know he was moving before excusing himself upstairs for 'a minute'.
When he returned, it wasn't around the side of the sofa with more snacks or a blanket--it was up onto the backrest with a grunt. JW usually didn't display his acrobatics unless he was running away from something but he was feeling unusually spry. JW balenced there like a stone gargoyle--or a frog, which was what he looked like more. He'd swapped into his shorts and a thin shirt that he normally slept in.
"Hey," he said it with half a laugh, knowing he probably looked funny. It was nice not having his bristles out to defend against some comment made by either of his halves or the walking mop that lived upstairs. "Gimmi a kiss."
Ginko only answered JW's signal that he was leaving with a quiet hum and a brief squeeze of JW's hand. Then he stayed where he was, halfway watching the TV and halfway just... he doesn't know. Doing nothing. He's always appreciated chances to just be, to sit and relax without the pressure of needing to get anywhere or do anything for a while. Being with JW just adds another level of security to those opportunities. It's... nice.
He looked up from his thoughts with a jolt when JW returned, hefting himself onto the back of the sofa like that was a normal thing to do. Ginko raised his eyebrows slightly, one corner of his mouth quirking up despite himself. "Alright. Mind if I ask what you're doing up there?"
He won't make JW answer first, though. After asking, he leaned up to press a quick kiss to the corner of his boyfriend's mouth.
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theattic2015-08-13 03:59 pm
Rain
JW did not account for their time periods having differing weather, so when the tall man ducked through the passage he was met with a downpour. His sunhat drooped on either side of his head and his backpack grew heavier as it got soaked.
"Serves me right."
He pressed onward through the dead riverbed which was trying very hard to become a creek. Once he climbed up the other side and came into the town, he was pleased to see less people on the streets. Sure, some lingered on porches, but the town was more or less empty. That would make his quarry easier to spot.
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Ginko glanced up at the sky, frowning slightly and pulling his coat further over his head, the fabric draping over the box strapped to his back. He could only hope this didn't keep up all day.
Distracted as he was, he didn't even notice JW at first.
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He'd only seen one person in this place with a big square backpack. It looked uncomfortable to wear and suddenly he wasn't so sorry about his canvas one being soggy. James squelched through the muddy street and blew a whistle Ginko's way.
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Pumpkins
Said strange man wouldn't be far behind.
Three days after the bug master arrived, an ungainly set of legs brought JW through the orange and gold forest. He was dressed poorly again. Japan and America's seasons didn't quite match and while it was chilly in Hawksaw, a nice jacket took care of that. Here? It was just plain cold. It was time to learn how to use an almanac.
His antlers were larger and now free of the dark velvet and they caught on everything. He wasn't used to these low, twiggy woods and he came into the village a mess and swearing up a storm.
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Three days later, Ginko was making his way to one of the wells further outside town, an area nearly inaccessible in the heavier snow of a few days ago - and quietly hoping it wouldn't be frozen over; having to check for Suiko in ice would only make things more difficult.
Before he had even left the village, though, he stopped, turning toward a familiar voice - and raising his eyebrows slightly when he actually caught sight of the source. "JW?"
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ACHES
It was the very dead of winter. JW was bundled properly for once (that dark scarf and all) and tromping through the mountainside. They had camped the night before, the first night he'd spent in Nowhere, Japan. Now it was morning and JW found himself alone in the tent.
It wasn't hard to find the man's tracks in the snow--the snow itself wasn't falling and the world was crusted in a thick layer of white that he crunched awkwardly through. He fell a couple of times. JW was a Tennessee boy. The only snow he was used to was on the side of a coke can.
"Ginko!" He cupped his mouth around his hands and shrank back a little when his own echo was spat back at him. "The hell are you! I wanna show you instant coffee!"
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On the other hand, even someone with a lot of experience and good vision can take a wrong turn, then a wrong step, then suddenly find himself at the bottom of a steep, rocky slope, scrapes and bruises not really comparing to the gash torn in his leg by a particularly sharp outcropping.
Ginko swore under his breath, pulling off the scarf draped around his neck and wrapping it tightly around his leg. It couldn't stop the bleeding entirely, but it should slow it down, anyway. It didn't take long after that for him to confirm that climbing back up the slope was not going to happen, and then... well, all that was really left for him to do was wait and hope that JW found him.
When he finally heard his friend's voice, he looked up from where he was sitting at the base of the slope, having cleared away as much of the bloodstained snow on the ground as he could in that spot. He braced a hand against the rock, trying to push himself upright and call up. "I'm down here-- I slipped, I can't get back up!"
The closer JW got, he would find Ginko's footprints not disappearing so much as breaking off into a wider swath of pushed-aside snow dropping down the side of the slope. The mushi master was half-standing, half-leaning at the bottom of it, visibly keeping as much weight as he could off his right leg.
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TRAUMA NOW 50% OFF
JW killed the engine and leaned back so that Ginko could see through the driver's side window. A dusting of snow covered the black parking lot and the letters on the face of Walmart Super Center. A person dressed like Santa was standing in front of the building ringing a bell.
"You won't need that heavy coat in there, no sir!"
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Missing: One (1) Gangly Deer Man
This, however, was new.
It had been a full ten days since Ginko arrived. He had finished most of his work in the area, been busying himself checking basements and wells and the surrounding woods since then, identifying every possible infestation (which, fine, might have been an excuse to stick around a while longer). But, whatever he did, he was going to have to leave before too much longer to be sure not to cause any infestations.
And yet, there had been no sign of a strange, antlered man. And, try as he might to deny it, Ginko was starting to get worried.
He finally hunted down the gate himself, and, despite his own uncertainties about heading into the future unaccompanied, stepped between the trees, setting out on the walk to JW's house.
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The only visible tracks belonged to a family of pigs that had gotten loose a few years ago.
Nothing attacked Ginko during his trek and once the house on the hill came into view, the windows were dark and it was quiet, quiet. The wind didn't even stir here.
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SPOOK WRANGLERS: REVELATIONS
JW knew that he was being silly for being disappointed that Ginko hadn't shown up on That Day. They didn't even have that holiday and Ginko was a working man who had to walk far and wide to help people. He decided to take the mushi master's absence earlier in the month as a sigh to Get Over It and just enjoy the man's company. The thrill of the chase had been fun, but he was a dog and Ginko was a speeding Lamborghini with one headlight.
S i g h.
But suddenly, one day, while he was in the middle of putting together a sort of tv-stand bookshelf deal he'd gotten for cheap at the hardware store, there came a knock at the storm door and JW nearly smashed his thumb. He wasted no time letting Ginko in.
"Well hey, stranger." The gap-toothed smile was there but it was missing Something. "You wouldn't wanna join me for arts 'n crafts, would ya?"
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He wasn't quite honest enough with himself to think too much about just why he looked forward to the visit with so much anticipation.
But either way, he was there now. He grinned back when JW opened the door; something did strike him as a little off about his friend, but for the moment he supposed he should probably chalk it up to a bad day or something and not push it too much.
"Hey. Sounds good to me; what are you making?"
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1/2
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Buckeyes
To both JW and Ginko's dismay, the stretch of time between their last visit and this one had been much longer than either of them liked. But there had been several storms. JW had been called to do a job. Ginko had been called to do a job. But finally, with the dregs of April snow still on the ground, they managed to catch one another and hop the fence between worlds.
Ginko had been asked to investigate a disturbance at the back of a farming family's field. It was going to be time to planting soon and with a hair thin root network of temperamental mushi running through the rows, it was impossible to hoe. The mushi's grip on the soil was too strong. This unbreakable ground had been what the farmer's husband reported. He had yet to find where the true earth ended and this strange frozen earth began.
JW trailed a little behind Ginko, properly bundled up but still puffing away as he staggered. He sorely wished he could afford a motorbike. He was pretty sure his legs were longer. Why was he still lagging behind WHY WERE THEY GOING UP HILL. GOD.
"Ginko, can y'wait up a minute?" He reached out to try and grab hold of his scarf, his shirt, SOMETHING. "You said this wasn't a fatal infestation, what's the hurry?"
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"It's not fatal, but it's still a problem. And I'm not going all that fast." At least not from his own point of view, which TOTALLY isn't kind of skewed or anything.
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The Turns have Tabled
The van pulled up to the quiet factory as the sky was fading from purple to deep blue. There was another car parked by the employee entrance and a man was waiting there. A man climbed out and greeted the both of them and he talked in a hushed tone.
Strange Things (tm) had been happening in the factory. People reported seeing figures in areas where no one was on duty, strange noises and things going missing like clockwork. So far no one had been harmed, but when you were a simple cannery in the middle of a field things could get a little spooky. The two of them shook hands and the man led them inside where he turned on a few of the lights and told him that he'd be outside if they needed anything.
JW hefted his backpack and gave him a nod before motioning for Ginko to follow him in. Ginko did get a little stare, though he was just odd enough to look like he belonged on such a strange late night outing.
The factory was gloomy even with the few lights that hung in the dusty rafters above. Silent machines dozed and cast long, jagged shadows across the concrete floor.
"Alright, let's see..."
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He followed close behind JW, ignoring any odd looks he got as they headed inside. Once they were inside, though, he slowed down a little, casting glances at the machines around them. "...That's new..."
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Ginko and JW's Fancy Dinner Date
That somewhere was Wendy's.
The squat building stood before them and smelled of peanut oil and car exhaust.
"Welp, there she is! Best fries this side of the Mississippi."
this sure did take me a week
"Well, given that I'm not exactly an expert on fries, I'll just have to take your word on it. But I can't say I don't trust your opinion here.
IT IS OKAY I'VE BEEN DEAD FOR A WEEK
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You know what they say when you ASSume...
It was really hard to initiate a make-out session when you knew a zombie and two fractured parts of your own psyche were watching.
JW paused in a small clearing and dropped his bag, rubbing his lower back and trying to hide it by acting like he was taking a deep breath of spring air.
"There's a little spring out this way that's really nice. You'll have to tell me if there are any mushi in it."
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He watched JW with a small frown. He'd known for quite some time that the man from the future wasn't always too upfront about some things, but lately he was starting to put together a somewhat more solid idea about what those things might be. All the same, he didn't much want to call JW out on it and risk upsetting him.
"We should probably rest here for a bit first, though."
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Sit, Stay, Beg [POSSIBLY NSFW WHO KNOWS IF THEY MAKE IT THERE JW IS A SHIT]
At least that was what JW was hoping when he ushered his time-hopping other half in from the cold with a big dumb grin on his face. He'd been planning this for a little while but you wouldn't know it from the shitty decorations.
A dollar store banner hung from the doorway that led from the kitchen into the livingroom. In bold glitter letters (because that was all the dollar store had) it read: HAPPY BIRTHDAY GEENKOW in English. Neither he or Deuteronomy had bothered to wonder how Ginko spelled his name until about four hours previous.
"Surprise, Clover!" Pulling the door shut behind them, JW reached over to the kitchen counter to pick up a thin box.
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"What's all this?" For one thing, he was kind of wondering how JW decided on that spelling for his name, but that was kind of the last thing to take into consideration here.
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No Foolin
With Deuteronomy out on a gambling night, and Havoc and Harmony banished to--JW, didn't specify he just wanted them O U T--, they were wholly alone. JW enjoyed the feeling of leaning against Ginko, halfway paying attention to the modern marvel of the television that he took entirely for granted, and breathing in his boyfriend's earthy smell. IT WASN'T WEIRD. Ginko just smelled good to him--always had. Whether it was the tobacco that clung to his clothes or the small of far-away trees, it made James feel at peace. The mushi master's considerable frame was a plus for him as well. He felt safe. If any unseeable ghost bug wanted to drain his energy or steal his skin or whatever the hell mushi did, he was content in the idea that Ginko could handle it. It wasn't often anything made him feel like that.
The turning of the leaves and the shedding of JW's velvet had made him especially clingy. He'd been following Ginko around everywhere for a week and sometimes just kind of stared at him but not really at him. It was kind of a doofy la-la land that he loudly denied he was gazing into when it was brought to his attention.
But the goo-goo eyes were now turning into something else. They were alone. Really really alone. He nudged Ginko's chin with his forehead to let him know he was moving before excusing himself upstairs for 'a minute'.
When he returned, it wasn't around the side of the sofa with more snacks or a blanket--it was up onto the backrest with a grunt. JW usually didn't display his acrobatics unless he was running away from something but he was feeling unusually spry. JW balenced there like a stone gargoyle--or a frog, which was what he looked like more. He'd swapped into his shorts and a thin shirt that he normally slept in.
"Hey," he said it with half a laugh, knowing he probably looked funny. It was nice not having his bristles out to defend against some comment made by either of his halves or the walking mop that lived upstairs. "Gimmi a kiss."
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He looked up from his thoughts with a jolt when JW returned, hefting himself onto the back of the sofa like that was a normal thing to do. Ginko raised his eyebrows slightly, one corner of his mouth quirking up despite himself. "Alright. Mind if I ask what you're doing up there?"
He won't make JW answer first, though. After asking, he leaned up to press a quick kiss to the corner of his boyfriend's mouth.
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realizing my current icon set might be a challenge here lmao I'LL DO MY BEST
same tbh
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