[ He'd have to be an idiot not to realize the extra mile Shouto started going for his sake, and that's a hard thing for Allen to deal with. Feeling guilty and flustering sometimes you didn't have to! while also being so very touched. It's something he already had to negotiate and steel his nerves through, being okay with telling people (Shouto) things that might make them worry about him—trying to separate "being a burden" from "be honest with people you love". Tea parties is something he's just outright enamored with though, even if they aren't exactly that, but Allen isn't one to fuss about details. He'd tell Shouto why too, how he'd had Exorcist friends called Lenalee and Miranda who convinced him to start joining them for tea parties of a sort too when their downtimes matched up. How they'd be joined by someone named Link as well who would fuss over the finer aspects of tea brewing with Lenalee, though Allen is vague and a little quieter on the details about him. His demeanor is serene and smiling when recounting it, lost in fond if somewhat bittersweet memories. Since he's started staying at home more he might even try to bake one of the confections that Viktor showed him how to make to have for it one night, except he is Quite Bad at baking and it's a flat and burnt mess. He's devastated by this.
One of those times when he's brushing his hair he's going to ask Shouto if he likes that his hair has gotten longer? A quietly serious sort of question while tipping his head back to look at him, and if asked why he wants to know he'd say he was just curious. He also lapses into a thoughtful sort of silence at the answer when he gets it though.
The first time Shouto hums around him while making tea Allen might nearly drop Tim in surprise. Just. outright staring. With an absolutely flabbergasted sort of awe though, and if he's caught he'd be quick to say it's nothing and wave it off a little sheepishly. Were Shouto savvy enough to figure out it was his humming that prompted it and asked... Allen would just hesitate and get a shy sort of smile before saying he liked hearing him like that. Whether he's hideously off-key or not.
Kizu is someone Allen actually starts to take more special note of too, and in fact has ever since she spoke to him again in her true voice for the first time since her form was destroyed. In fact he's so stunned when she first joins them in bed and presses up against his side that it almost startles even his eye back into silence. Even he knows better than to reach out and touch her at any point though, just watching her quietly in moments like that as his thoughts turn deeper. And when Shouto is passed out, he talks gently to her like he did once before. Conversationally, the same way he would with Tim, but with a quiet and thoughtful demeanor.
Kizu is getting better, isn't she? is something he wants to ask Shouto, but also doesn't just because Kizu would also hear and... it seems rude to talk about an omen like that in front of them. Now that she's no longer childlike and is becoming aware of herself again. It's a question whose answer is obvious too, and it warms him as much as when he's sandwiched between them and is half the reason for the intensity with which he burrows into Shouto's arms on those nights.
Omens are a part of their Sleepers and their souls, after all. They mirror them.
He pouts a little that the baths they have to use are Sanctuary's—they're communal, after all. Something he absolutely visibly sulks about, but still insists on trying to take them together with Shouto when he can. Although it should be noted that while in public he is a lot more reserved about doing anything more than holding hands—but would be squirrely about even that in a public bath. He's still Victorian you know, even if he's a weird one. Hit or miss.
Kissing the tears from his face Christmas morning though...
It takes Allen a moment to catch up to what's happening when he first pulls him close and kisses him, struggling too much still with trying to reign in his own heart. He leans up into it when kisses his cheek to either corner of his eyes though, tipping his head one way and then the other to oblige him and make the angle easier. A few more tears leak out at that, but they're of a wholly different nature than before.
Are you... smiling? He can feel how his lips curve slightly against his skin, Breathes for a moment a bit raggedly as he blinks to clear his vision to see. Confirming that actually helps settle the raw emotions battling in his heart, like finding the eye of the storm, and he quiets even as a new feeling settles almost a little queasily in his stomach instead. Brings both his hands up to cup Shouto's face, and the next time he leans to pepper his face with another kiss Allen catches his mouth with his own. Leaning his body into it and melding together into a kiss that still tastes lightly saline and leaves even Allen feeling immediately breathless.
Even if a kiss by definition to Allen is nothing he would ever censor as they express the truest part of him... there is something particularly uncensored about this one. Raw and sweet and laden with everything he struggles with voicing. I want you--
Please keep kissing me.
It ends rather abruptly though as he's either self-aware enough to cut himself short, or running out of breath forces the matter. He sucks in a ragged breath and laughs then, sheepishly and with a light blush as he lingers and stays close. ]
I want to keep kissing you, [ because I've missed it and wanted to so much for weeks, even if he didn't until last night ] but...
[ Allen smiles, demeanor gentling as he brushes his nose lightly against Shouto's. ]
no subject
One of those times when he's brushing his hair he's going to ask Shouto if he likes that his hair has gotten longer? A quietly serious sort of question while tipping his head back to look at him, and if asked why he wants to know he'd say he was just curious. He also lapses into a thoughtful sort of silence at the answer when he gets it though.
The first time Shouto hums around him while making tea Allen might nearly drop Tim in surprise. Just. outright staring. With an absolutely flabbergasted sort of awe though, and if he's caught he'd be quick to say it's nothing and wave it off a little sheepishly. Were Shouto savvy enough to figure out it was his humming that prompted it and asked... Allen would just hesitate and get a shy sort of smile before saying he liked hearing him like that. Whether he's hideously off-key or not.
Kizu is someone Allen actually starts to take more special note of too, and in fact has ever since she spoke to him again in her true voice for the first time since her form was destroyed. In fact he's so stunned when she first joins them in bed and presses up against his side that it almost startles even his eye back into silence. Even he knows better than to reach out and touch her at any point though, just watching her quietly in moments like that as his thoughts turn deeper. And when Shouto is passed out, he talks gently to her like he did once before. Conversationally, the same way he would with Tim, but with a quiet and thoughtful demeanor.
Kizu is getting better, isn't she? is something he wants to ask Shouto, but also doesn't just because Kizu would also hear and... it seems rude to talk about an omen like that in front of them. Now that she's no longer childlike and is becoming aware of herself again. It's a question whose answer is obvious too, and it warms him as much as when he's sandwiched between them and is half the reason for the intensity with which he burrows into Shouto's arms on those nights.
Omens are a part of their Sleepers and their souls, after all. They mirror them.
He pouts a little that the baths they have to use are Sanctuary's—they're communal, after all. Something he absolutely visibly sulks about, but still insists on trying to take them together with Shouto when he can. Although it should be noted that while in public he is a lot more reserved about doing anything more than holding hands—but would be squirrely about even that in a public bath. He's still Victorian you know, even if he's a weird one. Hit or miss.
Kissing the tears from his face Christmas morning though...
It takes Allen a moment to catch up to what's happening when he first pulls him close and kisses him, struggling too much still with trying to reign in his own heart. He leans up into it when kisses his cheek to either corner of his eyes though, tipping his head one way and then the other to oblige him and make the angle easier. A few more tears leak out at that, but they're of a wholly different nature than before.
Are you... smiling? He can feel how his lips curve slightly against his skin, Breathes for a moment a bit raggedly as he blinks to clear his vision to see. Confirming that actually helps settle the raw emotions battling in his heart, like finding the eye of the storm, and he quiets even as a new feeling settles almost a little queasily in his stomach instead. Brings both his hands up to cup Shouto's face, and the next time he leans to pepper his face with another kiss Allen catches his mouth with his own. Leaning his body into it and melding together into a kiss that still tastes lightly saline and leaves even Allen feeling immediately breathless.
Even if a kiss by definition to Allen is nothing he would ever censor as they express the truest part of him... there is something particularly uncensored about this one. Raw and sweet and laden with everything he struggles with voicing. I want you--
Please keep kissing me.
It ends rather abruptly though as he's either self-aware enough to cut himself short, or running out of breath forces the matter. He sucks in a ragged breath and laughs then, sheepishly and with a light blush as he lingers and stays close. ]
I want to keep kissing you, [ because I've missed it and wanted to so much for weeks, even if he didn't until last night ] but...
[ Allen smiles, demeanor gentling as he brushes his nose lightly against Shouto's. ]
...I also want to give you your present.