"Right now, I feel like I would rather send you away for *not* kissing me, than for anything you do."

He was joking, exaggerating to ease the mood, but he instantly worried that he was overwhelming Benedict again.

"Why would you?"

Josef looked around. "I'm not going anywhere. This crooked little house is all I have. And I'm not sending you away, do I?"

"I don't mind it either way. I know you won't hurt me. I like you being close."

Their close moments were still so rare, and so fragile.

"You seem... restless?"

"Like... tasting me."

He followed Benedict's glance with his own. Right, he had started cutting sage when Benedict came in with his skin pealing off his arm...

"Oh... that..."

He didn't know how to word it right away. It wasn't fear it was...

"I think it was anticipation. You were so close, I thought you would... kiss me. Or, you know, kiss me differently. I wanted it. I didn't want to interrupt you."

"Is it so hard to imagine that I don't fear you, even if I'm afraid of flames eating away skin and flesh? It's... a tool you own. Just like I own my saw. We can choose to do good things with it, right?"

Sometimes he wondered if Benedict was afraid of himself, more than anything.

"Have you ever thought about how people fear me? They do. When... someone has gangrene and I take out my bone saw. They are very afraid. But is it really me they fear? Or is it the saw? And the next day, when I bring poppy essence for the pain, do they still fear me?"

A sigh, a hint of mild, subtle frustration.

"At this moment I'm more afraid of you getting in harms way. I'm not scared to get hurt."

Unless Benedict would get the idea to light them both up in flames. But why should he...

< sting of his teeth. But when that didn't happen, he tilted his head slightly, to catch Benedict's lips with his own.

No dying, he thought firmly, aware that Benedict might read his thoughts. Not yet.

< "Your soul. It's still yours, as far as I know. You have thoughts, feelings, memories, which only you have. Your soul seems to stay alive."

The first blood drinkers... now this was new information, which Josef soaked up and made a mind note about. The source of immortality, maybe.

But right now, it was far more important to try and cheer Benedict up, as he seemed to stumble back into his so familiar state of melancholy. >