dumbshow | incredibly indulgent shipping post

[Maids are making an effort not to look directly at them, exploding into whispers as soon as they've passed by. Paolo's taken a habit of waving to them up until they step into the elevator, where he of course, is still not letting go of his hand.]

That's a lot of effort to make me not hit my head once. [One time!!] You can't just lock me in there, what am I supposed to do? Talk to your machines? Admire the view without you?

[Jindosh, for his part, is just ignoring the maids. Angrily, but at least he's not yelling at anyone right now. He doesn't yank his hand away from Paolo's the moment they're in the elevator, either—he's going to hold onto him until he can maybe lock him in a room somewhere. That's normal.]

Yes. You can't honestly expect to monopolize my time all day. Read your little book while I'm working.

If I'm just going to read a book while you're working, I might as well have the pleasure of your company. [Paolo leans, but finds he has to stand on the tips of his toes to get even remotely close to whispering in his ear.

He opts to kiss his cheek instead.] Come on. I can be quiet.

[Paolo is so short... Jindosh doesn't make it any easier for him to reach his face, but he can't help the face he makes when Paolo kisses his cheek. It is the face of a man trying not to smile, twisting his mouth around stupidly to resist.

Paolo is dreadful.] One sound from you and I'll lock you in my chambers.

[So... fine!! Pit stop to get him new pants, and then he can sit in a chair in the lab and not speak.]

[Being locked in his chambers wouldn't sound so bad if he knew Jindosh wasn't going to be working the whole time. So he cooperates, changing out his pants for the shortest thing Jindosh owns and shutting his mouth when they stepped into the lab.

He did start out reading quietly. He really, truly did. But there were words he didn't understand, and he didn't want to ask yet again, so he finds himself staring at Jindosh from over the woodworking station, rolling an unfinished piece in his hand.]

[Paolo will have to wait to be locked in his chambers with Jindosh, alright. There is work to be done. Jindosh stands around with his hands on his hips, looking impatient for Paolo to change the moment he lets go of his hand to send him rifling through his clothes. He could have just grabbed something for him himself, but no, he's chosen to do this.

At least he makes a pleased kind of noise when Paolo is fiiinally ready to go to the lab. Jindosh deposits him in a chair and then goes back to ignoring him, but this time it's because of his work and not because he's mad. He's caught up in his work within minutes, occasionally muttering to himself and a few times just stepping back from his work table to pace around the other half of the room, thinking. (He doesn't go near Paolo because he needs to focus, thank you.) Sometimes he even looks at a clipboard, wherever that came from.

By the time Paolo gives up and just stares at him, he's probably moderately smudged with grease and charcoal from sketching between fiddling with machinery. He's even loosened his cravat, because it's warm in here and natural philosophy is really intense.

Still. Without looking up:] Don't touch that.

[Paolo's so distracted by the rare sight that is Jindosh dirty that he almost drops the piece he's not supposed to be touching. He grabs it last second, setting it back on the table such little subtlety there's no point in lying.]

You-- [He starts, but stops abruptly, remembering he's not supposed to be distracting him. He sighs in annoyance, slumping in his chair and just looking at the unfinished clockwork torso across from him. Like it would understand his pain.

He didn't learn his lesson, because he's gonna touch the head anyway.]

[Jindosh actually looks up from his work when Paolo makes a sound, eyebrow raised, clearly waiting to see if he needs to lock anybody upstairs again. Hmm? No?? Okay.

It's back to work then, until Paolo touches the clockwork's head, at which point Jindosh just sighs and puts down his magic clipboard with an irritable little clack.] Come here.

[Paolo freezes with his hand still on the wood, dropping it with the defeated sigh. He stares at the clipboard instead of Jindosh when he crosses over to meet him.

At least he can see how cute he is with the smudges up close.] Yeah?

[Jindosh holds up a finger for him to wait, then circles around the table to go knock some spare screwdrivers off a short wooden stool next to a different table (he will pick those up later), which he then carries back to his work space and plunks down in front of Paolo.]

Sit here. Stop touching things. [Perhaps being closer to him will actually help?? He's hopeful. It's tragic.]

[Paolo blinks, putting a hand on his hip at all the effort he's going through. He shouldn't grin, but he does, and it's a miracle he's not calling him cute again.] Sure.

[He'll stop touching things after he wipes a smudge off Jindosh's nose with his thumb. Focus with his satisfied face as he sits back down, he dares him.]

[Don't do that thing that he just did to Paolo an hour ago. Jindosh blinks, bringing a hand up to his face and almost touching his nose and inadvertently smudging it again, but changing his mind and just giving Paolo a look. Stop. Be quiet.

It's back to work, then, which isn't hard to do with Paolo there at all until he realizes Paolo keeps giving him that smug look. Jindosh makes it a few whole minutes before he whaps his clipboard down again.] Don't you have something to read?

Hm? [With how it takes Paolo a few seconds to even register he had a question, it's obvious he hasn't been thinking about the book for awhile. With how he can't touch anything, he's been focused on Jindosh, enjoying all the little details when he isn't being smart at Paolo.]

There's too many words I don't know. [He finally admits, shrugging his shoulders and leaning back.] You're nice to look at.

[It has been maybe 16 hours and already, having a lover or boyfriend or whatever word there is for this is very time-consuming. Jindosh stares back at Paolo like he can't quite comprehend why Paolo wants to stare at him for this long. Look at everything in this room? Can't he stare at any of these interesting machines, as long as he keeps his hands to himself??

This is ridiculous. He puts his hands on his hips again, frowns, then holds out a hand for the book.] Which words? Give it to me.

[Why can't Jindosh let this go like a normal person, it should be flattering!! Paolo blanches, reluctantly relinquishing the book and standing up to look ~~over around his shoulder.]~~

Just uh... It's... [He gulps, flipping through pages until he reached a dog-eared one. It's the last he's touched, and not far in at all. This is embarrassing.] They keep-- they keep saying axles, and in... inclined plans, and I get the springs and bolts but I dunno how to remember what the difference in shit like gears is... and...

[He gets quiet as he goes, realizing how stupid he must sound. It's discomforting, not being at home where all he had to know was how to fix a crossbow.]

[No!! His stupid boyfriend has to be a little less stupid, that's his endgame here. Jindosh frowns at the page he's apparently stopped on, but he'll give Paolo the benefit of the doubt and assume that at least part of his lack of progress is due to how much staring at Jindosh he likes to do.

But wow, it's like explaining to someone that water is wet. He hums thoughtfully, almost like Paolo's ignorance isn't extreme. How does he make these sound... simple...

Ah. He snaps the book shut, tucking it under his arm and gesturing for Paolo to come all the way back to woodworking to look at the clockwork torso. It has plenty of gears, which means it has plenty of axles to point out. He does.] This is an axle. It keeps the gears in place.

[lord help him he was not made to teach] An inclined plane is exactly what it sounds like. [fuck] That is, a... a ramp, of sorts. A slant.

[He'll stare at Paolo until he gets some kind of acknowledgement of understanding.]

[Once again, Jindosh is defying Paolo's expectations. He could have gotten by with a dismissive explanation, or a dismissal back to his quarters until he was done working. He knows these have to be simple, and it shouldn't be something he had time for.

But he does, and Paolo's following with a little dazed look across his face. It takes him a moment to remember to be looking back at the clockwork, but his attention is rapt when he comes to his senses.] S-So-- So it's... uh...

[Give him a minute, he's trying,] Those are... are the regular gears, they aren't curved or anything-- spur! Yeah, right? And the axle just... makes sure they keep on turning.

[That's honestly more than Jindosh thought he would get out of Paolo, so for a moment it's his turn to look a little surprised. It's simple, it's so unbelievably simple that he can't comprehend not getting the basic concepts immediately, so while Paolo sure is an idiot indeed, he's... trying. That has never mattered to Jindosh before; he himself seemed born to take things apart to their most basic components, but somehow Paolo being on less than a novice's level and still trying—

Reading that book, trying to stay within that small space in his heart—suddenly it matters. It feels like he's looking at a different man from the one who angered him with such precision at breakfast; he knows the ins and outs of Paolo's body already, but now a new piece of his puzzle has been turned over. It's another one of those realizations that Paolo is actually serious about this, about him, and Jindosh finally actually believes him.

Terrifying.] That's— more or less. There are numerous other types of gears... [Which he supposes he'll show him as well, taking his hand to lead him to a different part of the workshop where a bunch of unused parts are sitting around. He'll explain, or try to in simple words, and half-walks half-drags Paolo around the lab for a while like this. At least there aren't bloody operating tables on this level—it seems so innocent.]

[Paolo was left with little words in comparison to Jindosh, but it wasn't long before he was taking his book and a pencil to write the differences in things down. He even made little doodles, just in case words weren't going to be enough looking back. He leaned against Jindosh only to point out words he didn't know, for once looking at him like he didn't want anything more from him.

He already had what he needed, and he was trying to pay back for it with showing interest beyond bedding him. He's calm, patience, and only lets anything frustrate him when he realizes how much time they've spent doing this.] Shit...

I wasn't supposed to distract you like this. [He frowns, looking up from his little notes.] I think I have things now.

[Jindosh still is not a teacher, really. He has the knowledge and the know-how, but not nearly enough understanding of how normal people learn to do this whole thing with the amount of efficiency he'd like. He gets away from himself with his explanations, doubles back almost irritably to explain again when he can tell that Paolo doesn't know what he's just said—but at the same time he'll lean over to correct Paolo's notes here and there, like he's actually helpful.

So he's caught up in explaining what a magnetic coil is - sort of, in layman's terms - when Paolo interrupts him to point out the obvious. Jindosh stops mid-sentence to look at him, surprised again. Oh.]

Oh. [nicely done, Jindosh] Then you will have to get back to your reading.

[Hmm... hmm.]

You're a little more far ahead than I am, anyway. [Paolo offers a smile-- a true, genuine smile-- as he set his pencil down, dog-earring the page yet again. The book will no doubt be in a state unreadable to some with how much he's smudged the papers, but he didn't have any trouble. It's not like he wants the Howlers to get their hands on it, anyway.]

Thank you. I... I mean it, Kirin, I know it's-- I'm not all that... but... [He trails off, shaking his head. He was sure there were tons of words to describe how inept he was, but he doesn't know them, so he won't bother. He'll just express it with how he usually does, pulling on Jindosh's collar enough to kiss him.

His hands are covered in lead from writing, so that collar is definitely dirty now, but it's fine.]

[All things considered, Jindosh could have been content to stand there silently for another moment and then go back to his work. But then Paolo is saying things and he's met with the abrupt realization that he's never been faced with this much... genuineness before. He's a member of Duke Abele's inner circle, where even the nicest person is a snake—this messy hoodlum smiling at him and stumbling through thanking him is novel.

Ah, and his collar is smudged now... One of his hands finds the back of Paolo's head anyway, leaning down into the kiss. His gaze is softer somehow when he pulls back, just looking at Paolo again like he hasn't really looked at him after all this time.

All this time...?]

Well. Then it's back to work.

[Ah. There he goes, turning to walk back to the first table he was working at, where his clipboard is—but he stops halfway there, glancing over his shoulder at Paolo from the center of the room. "I'm not all that," was it...] Paolo. You are—you might be... enough.

[That's not vague at all. Nailed it. Back to the clipboard before he has an emotion.]

[Paolo went from stumbling over words to having none, simply staring at Jindosh as he made his way back. He was-- or might be, but let's be real-- enough regardless of all his simple questions, his wasting time, and the lack of memory of long before.

He doesn't remember there being a station behind him. There's noises of stumbling when he back up, followed by pieces falling to the floor with a clatter. He curses under his breath, ignoring the warmth in his face and chest and scrambling to place them back on the table.] Outsider's crooked-- I got it, carry on, goddamn...

[He is not embarrassed when he sits back in that chair, and absolutely not obscuring his face with the book. Shut up.]

[Okay, they were having a moment, but Paolo went and knocked all that shit over and now it's ruined. Jindosh is forced to turn back around and look at what he's done - how much more extra work time is this going to cost him??]

Paolo... [God. Nothing broke? Nothing broke. This is why he isn't supposed to touch anything.] This is why I wanted you to stay put.

[But look, he's just going back to work instead of yelling. Progress.]

[Paolo sighs, but it wasn't long before he was sat back, kicking his feet up and restarting his reading. Of course, there was always more questions, but he could stand to just underline anything for later. He bit his tongue when craved conversation. Jindosh has already spent more hours than he has since... he doesn't know when.

As it turns out, Paolo was still genuinely dedicated without Jindosh's company. He kept truly silent this time around, and only after another hour did he finally take a break. With his stomach growling, he left the room with a touch of Jindosh's arm, saying he would be back soon. Soon turned into an hour, though his movements hadn't strayed from the kitchen.

When he finally walked back into the laboratory, it was with two plates and a bowl with two spoons. Pork and cabbage. Apple pudding. Rather than interrupt with an announcement, he set it beside whatever table Jindosh wandered to.]

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