PSL: For Hermann

[not_kenway]

Ratonhnhaké:ton had left Hermann safely in his locked up apartment, sleeping off the massage and hopefully getting a decent night's rest without his body screaming pain at him.

he slipped back into his routine. Late nights out on rooftops, sleeping not really enough hours to get up and train and get on with his day.

He didn't contact Hermann. He didn't know when Hermann would be comfortable with seeing him again, so he would wait for him to make contact.

Comments

[orthogonal]

Hermann slept for the whole night through, and a few nights beyond that. He didn't contact Connor in that time because, well, he felt so good he got an enormous amount of work done. Still, it would not do to have a friend do all these things for him and not thank him in kind.

So, he showed up at Connor's door, with a bag of groceries and a quick, quiet smile on his lips.

[not_kenway]

Since Desmond had left, Connor had got used to a couple of things, like living alone, however alien it was to him. And before that, he hadn't thought twice about being shy anyway.

So he just yells, "Come in!" from the bathroom when he hears someone at the door. "It is not locked, I will be a moment."

Bracers with knives. Shorts. THEN step out. Just in case.

[orthogonal]

Hermann nodded, before he went to open the door and came in. He closed the door, and called out, "Just me! I have brought food for cooking, and some books!"

Going to put the bag down, he turned as the door opened to the bathroom and then he ... stared. "Aaaaaah. Sorry?"

[not_kenway]

Connor tilted his head. His hair was damp and completely loose, not even the small braid hanging by his ear. He was heavily scarred from a life before modern medicine and fighting in a war, with lacerations, what was probably lead balls from muskets and claw marks.

He had apparently fought a bear at some point from the swipe marks over one shoulder.

"Sorry? What for? Thank you for the food and books?"

[orthogonal]

"I ... didn't mean to come in when you were not ... Ah. Dressed." Hermann cleared his throat, because he was a half naked man with a multitude of interesting scars.

"You're, ah, welcome. I thought you would want to study more history - and I thought I would cook you dinner in, ah thanks." He cleared his throat, as he hobbled towards the kitchen. "You ... look like you took on a bear."

[not_kenway]

"I invited you in." He's covered the important things, and resumes drying off his hair with a towel as he gestures through to the kitchen.

"Dinner would be most appreciated, if you wish to share your thanks. And yes, I did. Two, actually, but only one hit me." He twists and lifts his left arm, showing the underside of his arm. "Wolf bite. Jumped me from behind while I was fending off the alpha."

[orthogonal]

"Which raises a multitude of interesting questions that I am going to assume all end in, 'this is just our way', so I won't ask them." Hermann stated dryly, as he started taking out supplies.

"I would, and ... two bears but only one hit you. Huh." Now that was a new one on Hermann.

[not_kenway]

Connor vanishes back to the bathroom to finish dressing. He keeps talking, voice raised just enough to be clear. "Yes. If they had both hit me, I doubt I would have got back up again."

He had had to bind it shut and limp his way back home in a sorry state to get sewn up properly by Ellen.

[orthogonal]

Hermann let himself have a huge sigh of relief when Connor left to put some clothes on - and felt guilty for it. Clearly this was something that was going to have to be discussed as well. "Well, I am glad they did not both hit you at the same time, otherwise we would not be having this conversation."

[not_kenway]

He had put on shorts! That counted.

Far more importantly, he'd been armed.

"Clearly, no." He came back out, wearing jeans and sliding on a loose tee.

[orthogonal]

Clearly it did not.

He cleared his throat again, before he sighed. "Connor, I have to be frank with you. You wandering around without clothes is a cultural thing, yes, and not a subtle hint?"

[not_kenway]

"... a subtle hint?" Connor just looked confused at the statement. "Of course. You are not accustomed to states of undress. I apologise. I spend much time at sea where modesty is a luxury."

[orthogonal]

Hermann let out a breath he had not known that he had been holding. "As I suspected, a cultural confusion. In our time, if a man wanders around half-naked in front of another person, more often than not he is looking for a sexual encounter."

[not_kenway]

Connor looks vaguely horrified at the idea. "No, no, I would not make such an overture. I would simply ask."

He's a product of his people and time. He would be upfront, but never make an overture without clearly establishing what they both wanted. "In our culture, a body is not inherently an invitation, nor sexual. Unlike the colonists, we do not find exposed skin wicked and tempting."

The colonists are weird.

[orthogonal]

"Oh, thank goodness." Hermann let out a deep sigh of relief, because that straight forward method sounded absolutely perfect.

"Well, in my culture ... when someone is comfortable enough around you to be naked, they either want you to acknowledge they want to have sex with you -- or they are simply that comfortable." Germans were an odd bunch, he'd admit that.

[not_kenway]

"I am that comfortable." It's an easier way to put it.

He starts helping with putting groceries away, or at least spread out on the bench.

[orthogonal]

Hermann gave a quiet, pleased smile, before he started to organize the groceries - which needed to be refridgerated, which could stay out. He glanced up at the other man.

"Now, you never said, but is there any kind of food that makes you ill?"

[not_kenway]

Connor starts putting away the things that need to go away.

"No. Achilles said I had a stomach like a cast iron furnace."

[orthogonal]

"Well then good, you'll enjoy the German food I shall be cooking."

He beams, pleased at that, as he started to take out frying pans and the like.

[not_kenway]

"I do like German cooking." There were a lot of German migrants in the colonies, their food at appealed more than the English fare had.

"A nearby village had a..." He tries to find a word in English, and realises there is none. "Hm. Man-wife? She made sausages like the Germans did, with local meats. They were always heavy and filling."

[orthogonal]

Hermann took out his frying pans, so he could start on the sausages and the potato pancakes. He frowned briefly, arching an eyebrow at Connor.. "Man-wife? What is a man-wife?"

[not_kenway]

"I do not know the English word. I do not know if there is an English word." He hummed softly while he thought about how to explain it. "She is a woman who has a man's body. If there is war, she will take up arms with her brothers, but in peace, she is one of the women of the tribe."

[orthogonal]

"Aaaah yes, I know this word. She's a trans-gendered person. Someone who is a woman within a man's body." He nodded his head, pleased to know that such people were accepted in society - or at least in the tribes - in Connor's day. "Did she make potato pancakes as well?"

[not_kenway]

Not just accepted; there was a special place for them. Connor shook his head and then huffed, pushing his hair back from his face. "No. Not those."

[orthogonal]

"Well, then you are in for a treat." Hermann stated with another crooked smile. "My mother used to make these for my brothers and sisters on every Jewish holiday."