[ The mood changes. The atmosphere between them, even across distances they can't cross right now. It's on their shoulders and in their voices and in their eyes. Claude wants to... not just eat him, but have him reside within him, inside his guts, live there, stay. Stay. He breathes out raggedly as Anakin tells him he has to go slow, because he didn't. Impatient, action-oriented Anakin didn't look after himself, but Claude is gonna. Claude is gonna feel him the entire way, until all the other man can feel is himself, inside out. He smiles slowly, softly. Suppresses a what did you do, because he's got imagination enough to think that one up himself, right?
Instead he reaches out one hand and flattens it, palm stretched out towards the other man, knowing they can't touch but somehow craving it regardless. Just the illusion of it would be fine. Only illusion Claude would ever accept, mind. Only one. Only this. ]
I'll prep you good.
[ Fingers curling slightly, Claude tilts his head to one side and looks Anakin over, the tall, strong frame of him. The details. Him. ]
So, you can just tell me when you want it slow or fast, okay?
[ The flush in his cheeks makes him feel burning hot. There's something about this atmosphere that transcends the moment, such as it is, stretching itself beyond the both of them; weirdly enough, it feels larger, timeless, taking a space amongst all the other, timeless things in Anakin's life - the Force, destiny, darkness, lives taken and lost. He swallows heavily, looking back at Claude. Nods.
Then slowly, he reaches for Claude with his gloved metal hand. As he entwines them, blue light bouncing off the buckles of the prosthetic, he closes his eyes and reaches, almost completely by instinct. Claude isn't Force-sensitive but everything is the Force, Anakin moreso than mostly everyone else, and when he finds Claude there, amidst a trillion other pinpoints of living energy, he grabs him.
Like that, for a second or two, he thinks he feels the warmth of his hand as if he's managed to bridge the distance between them, narrowing it down into just another fragment of the world, another touch in the Force.
Something else to bridge.
Around him, the room almost seems to brighten, like heavy storm clouds parting for the briefest moment to let in the light. ]
[ Claude looks at their hands, fingers entwining, but not really, because the sense of touch, skin against skin, flesh against flesh, or whatever is there instead, is nothing. Not just diminished. It's quite simply inexistent. He breathes out long and slow, about to raise his chin and smile at Anakin when he feels it, the slight tug in his entire person, though it feels like more than a physical pull. It feels like the essence and life force of him getting pulled at, briefly, seconds at most. But he felt it. It was there. That contact.
When he looks at Anakin, the other man has his eyes closed, simultaneously the farthest away you could imagine and the closest possible. Claude just looks at him, knowing this is one of those Jedi things, this is the part of Anakin he'll never truly understand in the way you understand something that's also your own. But it's a part of him he respects deeply, although he might be showing it poorly by fucking him, as far as he knows, unbeknownst to the Order.
Yet, Anakin's secrets are his own. He imagines if you own nothing else, you own the truths that are yours. Claude respects that, too. More.
After a while, sitting with that feeling of getting pulled at in silence, Claude lets his hand drop. The smile that he sends Anakin is bright and true. ]
That was nice.
[ The hand-holding, the Force-pulling and the calm it's left him with. All of it. ]
When are you gonna come by next time and touch me for real?
[ Folding his hands loosely in his lap, his cock mostly half-hard at this point, though he's still gonna have a wank in a moment, for sure, Claude tilts his head at Anakin's image that suddenly feels like a more physical projection than any holo image ever has before. ]
[ The moment fades and Anakin blinks, looking up at Claude's words. He can't help but smile back, feeling giddy from the aftereffects of whatever that was, that moment of cohesiveness. He's been a Jedi for more than a decade but he can't remember - not at any point...
He's about to say how about now when he realises that he's got archive duty and that this break has definitely gone beyond the limits of what's deemed acceptable. For a moment, the two conflicting motivations clash and he frowns, realising that on the one hand, he'd really, really, really like to find Claude and get this talk realised as fast as kriffing possible - whilst on the other, he hasn't actually left the Order, has he? Nor been thrown out, however... well-deserved that might in fact be.
His stomach clenches slightly.
Anyway, he's obviously still here and no matter how utterly boring the task, Master Nu is counting on him to help her out.
Pushing the thoughts away along with the residual want between them, he sighs and shifts backwards a little. Straightens. ]
Well, uh. [ He runs his hand through his hair, ruffling it. ] I'm probably gonna have to stage my own escape to manage it. Tomorrow afternoon, if you're free?
[ Yeah, in that time, he can definitely figure out a way to take down a minor system or two and keep the few people available on the premises too occupied to notice his disappearance. The Jedi Temple is well protected over all but there are flaws in all systems and around here, Anakin knows most of them.
Useful stuff for someone with a penchant for sneaking out at night. ]
[ The Jedi ruffles his hair in a very un-Jedi-like fashion and Claude loves it, loves the way he dares being unconventional and vulnerable around him. Loves how he can't be anything else for him, doesn't want to either. Nodding quickly to confirm the date, he makes a mental note to update his official schedule as unavailable from tomorrow afternoon and a rotation ahead, or the Paris councilmen are gonna be mightily impatient when they won't be able to get through to him.
And he really doesn't plan to be available at all. To anyone but Anakin.
The giddiness he feels at making plans to see Anakin again after what already feels like too long is almost silly, except Claude doesn't truly think it's silly at all. It's genuine and heartfelt and true, what more does anyone really want from anything they do? With anyone.
But Anakin isn't just anyone. This feeling is specifically tied to him. It's his. Like the secrets. The sneaking out and telling no one and Claude keeping quiet, too, about his new boyfriend, although there are people left he could tell, with or without his parents in the picture. A moment's pause, then he says, voice quiet: ]
My place, then. [ Another confirmative nod, before Claude leans forward a little bit, lowering his voice, the hoarse quality of it more prominent that way: ] I'll think about you in a moment, Anakin.
[ The pull, and the tug of Anakin's hands when he jerks him off, the sucking tightness of his asshole around his length tomorrow night that he has to imagine, because he's never tried it. A smile, more heated this time, and Claude meets Anakin's eyes briefly before ending the holo call, the room going eerily dark around him as Anakin's image disappears.
Like for a moment, he was the sole light in here. ]
no subject
Instead he reaches out one hand and flattens it, palm stretched out towards the other man, knowing they can't touch but somehow craving it regardless. Just the illusion of it would be fine. Only illusion Claude would ever accept, mind. Only one. Only this. ]
I'll prep you good.
[ Fingers curling slightly, Claude tilts his head to one side and looks Anakin over, the tall, strong frame of him. The details. Him. ]
So, you can just tell me when you want it slow or fast, okay?
no subject
Then slowly, he reaches for Claude with his gloved metal hand. As he entwines them, blue light bouncing off the buckles of the prosthetic, he closes his eyes and reaches, almost completely by instinct. Claude isn't Force-sensitive but everything is the Force, Anakin moreso than mostly everyone else, and when he finds Claude there, amidst a trillion other pinpoints of living energy, he grabs him.
Like that, for a second or two, he thinks he feels the warmth of his hand as if he's managed to bridge the distance between them, narrowing it down into just another fragment of the world, another touch in the Force.
Something else to bridge.
Around him, the room almost seems to brighten, like heavy storm clouds parting for the briefest moment to let in the light. ]
no subject
When he looks at Anakin, the other man has his eyes closed, simultaneously the farthest away you could imagine and the closest possible. Claude just looks at him, knowing this is one of those Jedi things, this is the part of Anakin he'll never truly understand in the way you understand something that's also your own. But it's a part of him he respects deeply, although he might be showing it poorly by fucking him, as far as he knows, unbeknownst to the Order.
Yet, Anakin's secrets are his own. He imagines if you own nothing else, you own the truths that are yours. Claude respects that, too. More.
After a while, sitting with that feeling of getting pulled at in silence, Claude lets his hand drop. The smile that he sends Anakin is bright and true. ]
That was nice.
[ The hand-holding, the Force-pulling and the calm it's left him with. All of it. ]
When are you gonna come by next time and touch me for real?
[ Folding his hands loosely in his lap, his cock mostly half-hard at this point, though he's still gonna have a wank in a moment, for sure, Claude tilts his head at Anakin's image that suddenly feels like a more physical projection than any holo image ever has before. ]
no subject
He's about to say how about now when he realises that he's got archive duty and that this break has definitely gone beyond the limits of what's deemed acceptable. For a moment, the two conflicting motivations clash and he frowns, realising that on the one hand, he'd really, really, really like to find Claude and get this talk realised as fast as kriffing possible - whilst on the other, he hasn't actually left the Order, has he? Nor been thrown out, however... well-deserved that might in fact be.
His stomach clenches slightly.
Anyway, he's obviously still here and no matter how utterly boring the task, Master Nu is counting on him to help her out.
Pushing the thoughts away along with the residual want between them, he sighs and shifts backwards a little. Straightens. ]
Well, uh. [ He runs his hand through his hair, ruffling it. ] I'm probably gonna have to stage my own escape to manage it. Tomorrow afternoon, if you're free?
[ Yeah, in that time, he can definitely figure out a way to take down a minor system or two and keep the few people available on the premises too occupied to notice his disappearance. The Jedi Temple is well protected over all but there are flaws in all systems and around here, Anakin knows most of them.
Useful stuff for someone with a penchant for sneaking out at night. ]
no subject
And he really doesn't plan to be available at all. To anyone but Anakin.
The giddiness he feels at making plans to see Anakin again after what already feels like too long is almost silly, except Claude doesn't truly think it's silly at all. It's genuine and heartfelt and true, what more does anyone really want from anything they do? With anyone.
But Anakin isn't just anyone. This feeling is specifically tied to him. It's his. Like the secrets. The sneaking out and telling no one and Claude keeping quiet, too, about his new boyfriend, although there are people left he could tell, with or without his parents in the picture. A moment's pause, then he says, voice quiet: ]
My place, then. [ Another confirmative nod, before Claude leans forward a little bit, lowering his voice, the hoarse quality of it more prominent that way: ] I'll think about you in a moment, Anakin.
[ The pull, and the tug of Anakin's hands when he jerks him off, the sucking tightness of his asshole around his length tomorrow night that he has to imagine, because he's never tried it. A smile, more heated this time, and Claude meets Anakin's eyes briefly before ending the holo call, the room going eerily dark around him as Anakin's image disappears.
Like for a moment, he was the sole light in here. ]