the same black line that was drawn on you was drawn on me

[Dakota Choi]

Yeah, that thumping table was kind of a weird distraction but Axel seemed cool with it so Dakota didn't know what else to say about it. Maybe... Maybe he could just make it stop? He was thinking about it, about using some of his abilities to stop the rattling table but he was kinda more distracted by Axel pulling him in closer and embracing him. Ah. Well. He liked that. He couldn't like about that. His gaze shifted as he pressed his face against Axel's shoulder. He could feel Axel talking against his hair and it sent a little thrill down his spine.

"No?" Why? Would a normal vampire lose control of his senses and just viciously rip out his throat? Dakota never even realized Axel was a vampire all this time. Even if he did know and now that he did, it was kind of hard to be afraid. Axel was still Axel, as far as he was concerned. Was that his big secret? That he was a vampire? Dakota could totally live with that, especially if Axel could deal with him being... you know, not human, too.

His eyes half closed as he relaxed against Axel. His hands slid up his back to embrace him in return. He could feel solid muscle, a deceptively warm body for somebody that was supposed to be undead.

"You're good at hiding it," he said back. Or he was until now, since he just outed himself. He has a crush on me too. That made his heart beat harder, giddy, excited. The alcohol made him want to do something stupidly affectionate like... like nuzzle Axel. He might have done that, actually, just now. And his fingers pulled inward, bunching up the cloth of Axel's shirt. They had crushes on each other. Hardly seemed like a problem. Why did he put it off for so long?

He might have berated himself for being a little chicken in that regard buuuuuut. He lifted his head slightly, trying to angle his gaze to look Axel in the eyes.

"I can take care of them," he said with a mischievous light in his eyes. "I told you, I'm not human, either."

The Russian mafia didn't seem like a threat with affection and alcohol replacing common sense at the moment. Right now, Dakota felt damn well near invincible.

[Axel Vasilyev]

No.

Well, so he heard, anyway. Axel didn't know too many vampires that weren't starchildren, so perhaps he was wrong. Non-starchild vampires were said to be dangerous in ways starchildren weren't, because they were, of course, designed around and adapted to hunting humans as a source of sustenance. Starchildren didn't have those sorts of abilities, because they had no real need of them. Just get close enough, particularly to crowds, and that was fine enough. Funny, wasn't it, how starchildren were the opposite of a typical vampire in almost every way imaginable. It wasn't the first time Axel had thought of it; nor would it be the last, even if only because the starchildren and vampires tended to not get along.

Axel snorted, softly. "I've had a hundred and eighteen years of practice at hiding things." He paused a moment, and added, "that's not as old as it sounds. Mikhail's a hundred and twenty-three, and we have friends that are Roman. Like, Julius Caesar Roman." Same time-frame. Wasn't Kassander's cousin the great Julius Caesar? Axel couldn't remember off-hand.

It didn't terribly matter.

"I know what you said," he answered. "But not all of them are human, either. And I might point out," Axel went on, his tone a little more stern, backing up long enough to tap Dakota's nose lightly. "You're not exactly known for being careful. I like to think my concern's valid." Maybe he was just paranoid, all the same, but presumably Dakota wasn't a hundred years old. People, supernatural or not, his age, tended to think they knew everything. Add in Dakota's penchant for rushing headlong into mortal danger in general, and maybe it was a recipe for disaster.

"Also I'm a girl," Axel said, very flatly. "... biologically, at least. I can morph the right parts, they just don't work that way. And polyamorous." Not that he wanted to be having the Poly Talk with Dakota so sloshed. "Are you ever letting go of my table?" he asked, leaning over Dakota's shoulder a bit. The thunking stopped, for a few seconds, and then started back up again. Axel huffed. "He's bored, sorry." Why the table. There were far more interesting things to play with outside.

[Dakota Choi]

"Roman?" As in, Ancient Romans? As in philosophers and gladiators? Was that them or was he thinking Greeks? Same thing? Oh, he should have paid more attention in class while he was in school. Suddenly, history seemed kinda important to know. Like knowing all about where the heck Axel came from and why he might have a Russian mafia after him.

Dakota grinned despite everything.

"You're a geezer." It was a joke, of course. Over a hundred sure did sound ancient, especially next to the fact that Dakota was only in his twenties. Like if he was a real hundred year old mortal, people would definitely be all frowny face about them being friends--or anything more. Luckily, Axel aged gracefully.

"A pretty geezer," he added, just in case he wasn't clear about that or Axel thought he was changing his mind over his age. He lightly caressed Axel's cheek for emphasis.

He wrinkled his nose briefly as it was tapped. "Yeah, yeah, it's valid but I'm a sylph. They'll have to try really hard to get me." Not true, actually. While he could shift himself into airy particles, Dakota wasn't particularly skilled at it--he never had a reason to be. He was more accustomed to using his ability to push his speed when he was running or racing... Yeah.

The other part, the last part, though. HUH. It shocked Dakota so much that he actually let out a nervous laugh, thinking Axel was joking with him. Axel liked pink stuff and they joked about that all the time. But Dakota never thought of Axel as really feminine. In fact, he'd be the last person he'd say was a girl or girlish. So... So he laughed but he didn't mean it and he immediately regretted it and he quickly held on tight to Axel as his expression changed to a grim one instead.

"I'm not laughing at you. I'm just... what?" And while he was trying to wrap his head around probably the most mundane of the news Axel gave him, Axel was talking to a moving table. Agh.

"I guess you win the secret contest. I gave you what I got."

[Axel Vasilyev]

"Yes, Roman," Axel answered. "As in, born in 90 something BCE." Kassander had never exactly said when he'd been born, exactly, and Axel had never asked, he just remembered something about Julius Caesar and dying just before Spartacus' War, which meant, if he was 20 when he'd died, then 74 BCE, when Spartacus' War started, plus the twenty, that was ninety something. Like hell was Axel going to outright ask; Kassander wasn't the most open person, about mundane, borish things, Axel wasn't going to push.

Time had done a number on that guy. Axel was pretty sure, someday, maybe he'd be just like him.

"... thanks...?" A pretty geezer? Really? Ah, Dakota was cute. "Oh, really? Aren't you twenty something? So how many of those fancy sylph tricks have you learned and mastered, anyway?" Yeah, the wind in the autumn leaves thing being accurate made sense, now. He did know there was some irony here, in the vampire and the fairy thing, right? Nature spirit, dead guy... polar fucking opposites, damned near. Dead guy that manipulated death energy, even... like, wow. The stark contrast was... it was somethin.

Right. Axel tried not to look upset. It probably flashed in his eyes for a moment, but he didn't say anything. Oh. Well, yeah, probably. Of course, Axel wasn't really a girl, just... biologically. They had surgery now to make that permanent, but you know, he'd done fine enough the last few hundred years, it was just, hey, try and remember you can still get pregnant and whatever. "It's not that different, is it?" he asked. "I'm still me. Just, you know, undead and capable of making children, right?" Something like that. Besides, he'd even designed his physical appearance around Mikhail, so, he had to be somewhat close to what he might've looked like, if fate had been kind and he'd been born male like he should've been. Even the muscle wasn't entirely a lie, just some of the bulk.

[Dakota Choi]

Um, yep. That was some geezer territory right there. Dakota vaguely remembered learning about them in school. Wow. He might have paid more attention if he knew he was going to know somebody from that time period. Now he was going to have to rush to the library and read up on all the things. And even then, there was no guarantee what he read was accurate. After all, Axel actually lived then! He would know way more than some old dusty book would!

"You're welcome," Dakota said, briefly closing his eyes, bowing his head, and flourishing his hand like a proper actor after a play just to add to the embellishment. He thought he could tell from Axel's tone that he wasn't excited about being called a geezer, pretty or not.

"UH WELL," Dakota lifted a hand. Excuse you! He might only be twenty but he mastered plenty of sylph tricks! Like... gently blowing things away. All right, so Dakota's abilities were far from godlike but he wasn't scared. That was one of the worst and best of his traits; he was practically fearless. Which might be exactly why Axel was saying what he was saying. Yeah... Ahem.

"I can do things," he finished off lamely but his abilities or lack thereof took a backseat to Axel's silence for a long moment. Probably had something to do with Dakota's less than sensitive approach to Axel's secrets. It was just... wow. Wow. Never in a million years... He never would have guessed any of these things about Axel. And here he thought his whole wind spirit thing was such a big secret.

Dakota settled his chin in hand and regarded Axel for a moment. Then he shook his head before reaching out and gently stroking his arm.

"Nah," he said in a quieter tone. "It doesn't change anything."

It could have changed a lot of things with some people, Dakota could admit that. And he could see why Axel wouldn't want to share any of what he just shared. Dakota was pretty open though. He wasn't worried about genders or perceptions of them. He didn't really care about that kind of thing. Genders, supernatural stuff. He was secretly glad Axel trusted him with it because that meant he wasn't just anybody. Pleased with himself for some reason, he edged closer to Axel and smiled.

"Me being a fancy sylph doesn't make anything any different, does it?"

[Axel Vasilyev]

Yuhuh. And Axel was a tsar.

No, actually, he wasn't really anyone special, just some punk kid that refused to die, that was all. Still, he didn't much like that answer, but he knew better than to argue with drunk people too long. Generally speaking, it didn't tend to turn out very well for him, to say the least of it, and maybe it didn't really matter right this second. His house was relatively safe, at least. They probably weren't going to run into too much trouble lazing around here.

"Aw, come on," he said, snorting softly. "The only thing it changes is... ... actually, nothing. Hmm." He was going to say, some strains of vampire got horribly and dangerously addicted to fae blood and tended to murder themselves because normal blood wasn't good enough anymore, but the starchild strain was not one. "So there, we've got all the junk onto the table, right? You're not secretly the prince of some odd obscure country somewhere or anything, right? Do you feel better at least?" Axel? He did. And did not.

Wasn't every day he outed with all that in one go. Sometimes, though, you'd been keeping a bunch of things to yourself for so long, it just seemed kind of weird once the veil was gone, and sometimes it was a nice breath of fresh air. Other times, it just kind of had a way of making one feel awfully vulnerable.

Not that Axel'd ever admit to feeling that way even if, for some reason, he did. Which he didn't, right now. Of course. It was all stupid semantics, anyway. Stuff that didn't really make too much of a difference, you know, unless you counted it being somewhat life-threatening detail here and there. Hey, everyone wanted to turn a corner and end up staring down the barrel of a SIG Sauer, right? Why the fucking fuck not.

"Oh, wait," Axel started, "I forgot one. I have a son, now." (Strange things rich dudes do: adopt random Russians. Yolo.) "That one you can ignore, though. Kid won't turn into a snake and bite you. ... I think." He thought.

[Dakota Choi]

Yes, it changed nothing. As far as Dakota could see, there wasn't a difference. Axel entrusted him with his secrets; he supposed that was a change, since before this, Dakota wasn't privy to these things. He thought he could see something lift from Axel's shoulders in telling Dakota about these things, too, and that was all the more reason for Dakota to stick close to his side and gently stroke his arm as if he thought Axel might need the soothing. He nodded. Nothing changed. Axel was still Axel, regardless of the past. Or... because of it.

"Pretty sure I'm not," Dakota said with a slight furrow of the brow. Was he a secret prince? No. He was just an air fairy. A sylph. Nothing too special. And he wasn't the prince of his people, as far as he knew. Just a regular old... fairy. Dakota paused in his ministrations and he tilted his head upward, regarding Axel thoughtfully.

"Yes," he said decisively. He felt better. But he was more worried about Axel. He reached up, his fingertips making contact with the line of Axel's jaw as he considered the question posed. Yes. Yes, he was definitely feeling better but despite thinking he might have seen some weight lift from Axel's shoulders, he also felt as if maybe he was still holding a bit of himself back.

"Are you?" Dakota asked quietly, concerned. Of the pair of them, it wasn't Dakota that had just spilled out numerous secrets. It was Axel that had been holding onto these things for... for how long now? Again, Dakota paused, hand stilling. There was more? And oh. It was another doozy. Dakota lowered his hand and stared at Axel.

"A son? Now? You what?" He tried to wrap his head around that one. "What do you mean, ignore it? That's huge! You have a son? Like... a little boy...?" Not to mention the part where he might turn into a snake and bite him. Somehow, Axel's lack of certainty there didn't instill a whole lot of security in Dakota. And then: "How?"

[Axel Vasilyev]

At least one of them felt better.

Granted, Axel did. And did not. It was a difficult, weird thing. It wasn't like Axel had ever told anyone else this much. Most didn't even get past the 'hey, I'm biologically female,' part, but it hardly ever came up. ... now, anyway. High school was a whole other story... and he certainly didn't go around all 'hello I'm Axel and I'm an undead Russian witch, how're you?' or anything. Of course, starchildren being undead was, at best, ostensible, but none of them ever argued it, more for simplicity's sake than anything. There was really no sense in bothering with that. Semantics and whatever. You'd think the really old ones had the time for that, which, sure they did, but that did not necessarily preclude them having the care.

Axel's give-a-fuck was about run out, he could just imagine what it was like for the older ones.

Was he what? A prince? N - ... that was an odd thing to decide was the big deal in all this. Axel just smirked bemusedly for a moment, reaching up and tapping Dakota on the nose. "Slow down there, Oshakota," he said. "Sheesh, though, that's the most mundane thing I've said this entire time." No kidding.

"Actually he's... like four years younger than you, I think. ... try not to squint at that too hard. Not actually mine, I adopted him. Gotta go get him from the airport in a few days. I do that adopting thing a lot. Or, I did, you know before I turned ten suddenly. Met him on a business trip to Russia a few times. Reminded me of me, a little, when I was actually that age. I figured, hey, why not. He can come hang out in House My-Dad-Hated-Me, he'll fit right in." Well, as far as Axel was concerned now, Mikhail was his father. Brother. Father-brother.

You know what, maybe not, maybe he was just going to let that thought train go, now.

[Dakota Choi]

"Eyyy...!" He jerked back as his nose was poked and then he wrinkled his nose slightly in response. What was that for? Oh. Right. He blinked and then looked downward, thinking it over. That... that was the most mundane part of Axel's confessions and yet that was the part that struck Dakota the hardest. He had a son! Why did that part make his head reel? Maybe because he just never envisioned Axel as a father. But then, he never envisioned that he was once a woman and never even guessed he wasn't human, despite being fae himself.

"...good point." Fair enough; Axel was right. He ought to calm down. He just couldn't believe it. Maybe it was how casually Axel threw it out there. Like, Axel was asking him if he was hiding anything else, like being a prince or something but it was Axel that kept throwing out new loops! Raking hands through his hair, he listened and he nearly balked at the son being nearly his own age. He looked up. Ah. Adopted.

Still! And Axel did this a lot?

"Are you sure that's all?" Dakota asked after a moment, waiting for another shoe to fall. How many did Axel have, anyway? A whole closet full of them, probably. If he could casually talk about adopting people, there had to be a lot more things that Dakota knew nothing about. And... to be fair, if Axel was as old as he said he was--and Dakota had no reason to question that--then it was to be expected. He had a lot of life behind him, which meant a lot of experiences.

"No hidden wives? Husbands?" With all that life lived behind him, Axel must have had some of those... right?

[Axel Vasilyev]

Yeah, he was fairly sure he wasn't forgetting anything else. Well, nothing important. They'd even gotten through the Bratva slug, so hey, didn't even have that in a dusty corner, anymore. Hidden whats? Axel almost laughed. Being fair about it, he was all about tappin' that back in high school (weird how high school was maybe a year or two ago, but he'd been over high school age for much longer than that). He supposed that'd be a legitimate curiosity. It wasn't like the Russian wasn't known for his charm (and quite charming he could be, when he wanted to be).

But, no.

Axel'd never been tamed, so to say. No one had ever bound him to them in holy matrimony, or whatever. Back then, you know, before the 2010s, when minds started becoming more open, intimacy had been very dangerous for him. Not too long ago, if he'd admitted to being physically female, he'd have gotten jumped down a back alley, and if he was lucky, shanked, and that was it. Things were a bit different, now.

In recent years, it wasn't like Axel was afraid of anyone. He wasn't even really afraid of Bratva, and he wasn't sure if this made him a brave man, or a stupid one, but the Drago were here. As long as the Dragon was here, he was reasonably safe, and he knew and never did question that.

Dakota, on the other hand, was a bit younger and squishier. ... and didn't always use his pretty head.

Anyway. ... though, this did present an interesting opportunity. "I said I was poly, right?" Axel said, instead. "So what if there are?" Axel did as Axel does, of course. Sooner or later, it'd come up, because Axel wasn't capable of reserving all of his love and affection for just one person. He had too much of it, and he was pretty sure if he tried, he'd smother whomever that one person was, just because of the sheer intensity with which he loved. Sooner or later, there'd be another, and maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to judge how that'd go now.

[Dakota Choi]

"AHHHHMMMmmmmmm..." Dakota leaned back slightly. Did Axel mention that he was poly? Gods above, he needed more drinks. Not to drown out what Axel was telling him but to drown out the other issue, the reason he'd even called together this meeting, if one could call that. Did he already say it? Did Axel reciprocate? Fuck, he never should've said anything. But he... somehow, he didn't regret it. This was great. They were opening up. They were... they were... Dakota reached for a bottle of whatever was closest.

"Actually, I think you did," he said, recalling vaguely that polysexual--the word--had issued forth from Axel's mouth. And he didn't care about that. Dakota never really slapped a label on himself, whether he was this or that -sexual. The thing was, he was young, willing to experiment, and still searching out his identity. He didn't know the full extent of it himself. That was part of why he did this, why he lived on the edge.

There was a kid, therefore, there could be a husband. Or wife? Or... multiples? Dakota had never had occasion to fuck around with more than one person at a time and his relationships were... well. Axel had seen them, hadn't he? Trainwrecks, was what they were. Dakota's risk taking behavior was a turn-on to some but they got tired of it real fast when Dakota decided to lean down while the other person was driving or if he decided to slide his foot along the length of their leg during a dull family event and--well, to be perfectly fair, that last one wasn't Kota's fault. Most people knew better than to take Dakota along to dull family events.

Gingerly setting the bottle down after a nice swig, Dakota turned fully toward Axel, tucking a hand beneath his own chin, then deciding it didn't work there and moving it to his cheek. He tilted his head and examined Axel. What did he think of Axel's potential lovers? Partners? Life partners? Husbands, wives? If they existed, who were they? That was the part that had him curious.

Nodding to himself as if he had answered some big time life philosophy, Kota squeezed Axel's knee lightly with his other hand.

"I hope I like them," he finally said. Didn't matter what they thought of him. But he sure didn't want to spend time around somebody that made his skin crawl. "Doubt I won't," he added. "If you like them, I'll probably like them by, like, default."

[Axel Vasilyev]

"Ey, try not to drink all my gin." It was really the principle of the thing; Dakota'd just drunk a Long Island Iced Tea. Probably something on 22% alcohol, which was quite ridiculous, and the last thing Axel really wanted to deal with right now was this guy ending up with alcohol poisoning because what was moderation.

Axel didn't drink to get drunk, anymore. Once upon a time, that was valid, but it took several bottles to even get a buzz. Nowadays, he could clear out twelve bottles of blue label Stolichnaya and still not be buzzed. Maybe very faintly. By that point, it was a matter of why bother. That'd end up being a lot of money thrown out the window, because it took just so much to even get him a little buzz, so now he drank because he liked the flavours. That was, probably, how he'd gotten so good at mixers.

... he resisted the urge to say the first thing that came to mind, there. It didn't really matter if Dakota liked them or not. Axel wasn't asking him to like them, just accept that Axel did, and those were two very different things. Unless they were also dating each other, they probably wouldn't really be in the vicinity of one other that often, either, so, it didn't even matter merely because Axel didn't want a cat-fight on his hands. (Which would be entertaining, to be honest, not that he'd say that either.) Of course, he'd take Dakota's concerns into consideration, but ultimately, that particular ball wasn't really in Dakota's court.

"That's an inordinate amount of faith in our tastes in people aligning, there, Oshakota." Sure, Axel wasn't a terrible judge of character, but there was a bit more to a person than their morality. People were far more complicated than that, and hey, maybe so and so would have a nervous tic that drove Dakota up a wall, who knew. He was pretty sure everyone he had more than a passing 'oo, they're hot' reaction to had no nervous tics, anyway, but that wasn't necessarily the point.

"But if it makes you feel better, I've never been married," he added. And, truthfully, he didn't intend to get married, either. Maybe in a few more years when polygamous marriages were more acceptable, but, to be perfectly honest, Axel didn't need a piece of paper and a band of metal to tell him who he loved. (And frankly, neither did anyone else. ... what? Axel is not subtle.) "I have other crushes, other people that come to mind as more than fleeting aesthetic attraction, but between this and that, I haven't really had time to pursue any of them, and that's fine." It wasn't like he was in a hurry. Maybe he should be, but, when you were a hundred and eighteen and looked three days out of high school, and felt it, too, you didn't really have much of a sense of urgency in anything.

[Dakota Choi]

"Nhh," was the random sound that left his throat as he made a face at Axel. Would he actually go through all the gin? Naaaaah. Was it even possible? He tilted a look at the bottle and decided that it wasn't. Honestly, he would probably end up passed out before he got much further into the bottle. Some people could hold their drink better than others and Dakota... Well.

It seemed like challenging Axel to a contest would get him killed, though, the way that guy could drink when he wanted. Nothing like Dakota had ever seen. He suspected now that it was because of what he told Dakota. Not fair, really. Dakota should have been better at handling his liquor, thank you.

"...good point." Kota hadn't thought of that. Their taste in people didn't necessarily align, did it? Just because Dakota was playing in the waters of this... thing that he had for Axel didn't necessarily mean that Axel wanted to leap headfirst into it. Or that if he had previous lovers in his life that he expected them to get along with Dakota. Or vice versa, for that matter. Kota's drunken head spun with the thought.

No marriages. It boggled the mind but then... Kota imagined that if he lived as long as Axel, he wouldn't marry, either. He also had no desire to do so. Maybe that was another dot connecting the pair of them. Marriage seemed sticky and unnecessary, even to somebody as young as Kota. It seemed like a lot of work to say we love each other. And nothing really lasted forever so...

Although Axel sure felt like it in comparison to Kota's mere couple of decades. Shit.

"Really?" This piqued Dakota's curiosity. "You have crushes. Do I know any of them?"

[Axel Vasilyev]

Yes, very good point. Axel didn't say anything, just looked bemused, quirked that one eyebrow upward, and smirked a bit. The bright side, he supposed, was even if Dakota did do a stupid, Axel generally knew what to do about it. Generally.

... well, probably not. For a moment, though, Axel's gaze turned to the side, narrowing in thought, as he mentally rifled through the admittedly somewhat short list of people he had more than a passing interest in. Hmm. No, he was pretty sure Dakota wouldn't know any of them.

"Unless you have some habit of hanging around Campanian vampire mafias and didn't tell me, or sociopathic genies, I'm going with no." (It'd absolutely make his year if he could manage to get Kassander into bed with him, but he really wasn't holding his breath. He generally liked being alive.) "... by the way, don't trust a genie. It's usually a very bad idea."

Interestingly, though, now that he was thinking about it, the thunking in the parlor had stopped. Axel turned to look over his shoulder, there, and found his current ectoplasmic friend watching them with rapt interest. ... seriously, couldn't even have personal conversations in peace in his own house? Go figure that.

"What?" he asked.
"Oh no, go on," the ghost answered. "This is much more interesting."
... uhuh. You know what, he wasn't in the mood for that. Instead of saying anything, he arched an eyebrow in irritation, picked the garnet off his chest and held it up between two fingers. The garnet sparked, glowing a deep red, and sucked the spirit into it. Axel dropped the necklace, patting it where it hung around his neck.

"So. Ah, I don't think you'll ever really have occasion to meet them, either. Well, unless you want to. Feel free to get other lovers, too, I don't care." A short pause, and he corrected that. "Okay, I care because you're bad at caution, and you worry me, so try and be like safe about it. The rest is whatever." Yeah, that was more accurate. "If it makes you feel better, I'm really good at facial rearrangement. Really. ... not that this is an excuse not to use your head." Because it really wasn't.

[Dakota Choi]

"Can't say I know any of those... but I didn't know what you really were before now, so let's just say I wouldn't trust my judgement on that."

But Axel didn't seem to think Dakota had come across any of these others. Dakota was so curious now, though. What kinds of people warranted a crush from Axel? Weirdly, Kota had always thought of Axel as cool, too cool to have silly things like crushes. But no matter who he was or how long he lived, even he wasn't immune to the pull of being with another person. Or at least, admiring something about them.

Dakota reflected on that. What kind of people allured Axel's attention? Kota thought he might have confessed to Axel but the alcohol made his memories swim in dizzy, lazy circles--impossible to really hold onto. It was just the last parts of their conversation that made its way through and he kept hanging onto those bits, hoping to remember everything when he was good and sober.

"Don't trust genies. Got it." Had he met one, though? Again, he didn't think he'd know one if he saw one, let's be real.

With great drunken interest, Kota watched Axel with his red gem.

"What, what?" Kota asked, mistaking the question to be directed at him. He could have sworn that the gem around Axel's neck just sparked or something. Rubbing one of his eyes, Kota stared but the spark seemed to be a trick of the eye. Huh.

So he wouldn't be meeting Axel's others. What a pity. Kota thought it would have been fun to get to know some of them. Become one big happy... something together. However, since Axel brought up his headstrong stubbornness, he had a feeling that there would be head butting amongst them or that Axel believed Kota would do something stupid. Which, fair enough. If Axel's other lovers were genies and such, they were much longer lived and therefore, had to be wiser and more mature than a 20 year old fae.

"I haven't had the best track record," he agreed. In just the twenty years he'd been alive, he had picked some real winners. But... Now he was attaching himself to a new branch in the topic. Kota leaned forward.

"So... are you saying... we could be lovers, then?"