Bryn smiled at her retreating back and then turned to Sebastian with a bright expression. "See! She's nice, I like her a lot." He winced slightly when Sebastian reached for his neck, but he soon relaxed and let out a soft sigh when the collar was off. There was a red mark pressed into his skin. "Thank you."
Sebastian was a bit concerned when Bryn winced, and even more so when he saw the red mark.
"You're welcome," he said, a small amount of when sitting on his face for a moment.
"And I'm glad you like her, and that you're gonna have someone to talk to when I'm gone. I worry about you."
Bryn cracked his neck loudly and then rubbed at the mark with a wince. The skin was chafed, and it stung slightly, but this was still one of the most comfortable collars he'd worn. He laughed at Sebastian's remark. "I'm fine, Sebastian. The babymaid's the only one who comes by anymore, cause the old one thinks I'm… disgusting." He bit his lip. "But! Um! She's nice! And she seems to like me, so that's nice too."
Sebastian nodded. That sounded like the other maid. She'd probably only show up again when she thinks Bryn's guard is down and she could catch him doing something wrong. The concern was still visible when he saw how Bryn winced.
"That's good! I know she won't hurt you. Bailey's not the kind of girl to do that."
Bryn frowned a little at his concern, leaning up to kiss him softly. "Yeah, I figured. Mean people don't give you apples or tell you about their cats." He snuggled a little closer to Sebastian's chest, getting nice and cozy in his lap and then frowning up at him again. What has Sebastian so upset? "Is something wrong?"
"I just don't like that the collar hurts you," Sebastian admitted. Or that you're afraid of me reaching towards your neck. Sebastian blamed himself for that one, but he didn't say it out loud. Both of his arms went around Bryn, happy to have uninterrupted snuggles finally.
Bryn sighed happily as he was pulled closer, nuzzling the undersize of Sebastian's jaw. "All collars hurt. They're not exactly made for comfort, and this one's not even bad anyways. The skin'll toughen up in a month or two, and then I'll be good as new."
"If you say so," Sebastian said, leaning into the nuzzles. His hand came up and began playing gently with the ends of Bryn's hair. His legs came up a bit, holding Bryn even closer.
Bryn curled up against Sebastian's chest, a cozy ball of contented demon, and settled his head on the human's shoulder. "I do say so. Demons are tougher than humans, it's not like I can't take it."
"I know you can take it," Sebastian said. "I'd just prefer that you didn't have to." Sebastian nuzzled Bryn's forehead with his nose, eyes half-closed.
Bryn hummed, thinking over his point. "Yeah," he said, tucking his face into Sebastian's shoulder. "But I do have to, though. People don't build collars for comfort, they build them for control."
Sebastian fell silent for a moment, simply holding Bryn close.
"I wish we could change that. Get people to stop this… madness."
Bryn gave a confused little hum when Sebastian went quiet, automatically cuddling closer and pressing worried little kisses to his jaw until he started talking again. "But we can't though. Humans like hurting demons- most of them anyways. And it's an awful lot of energy to waste wishing we could change the unchanagable."
Sebastian nodded.
"Right. Your right." He looked directly at Bryn now.
"I'm just glad I can make things better for you."
Bryn looked back, shifting nervously under the direct attention. "I'm glad I've got you here to make things better too, Sebastian."
Sebastian nodded, closing his eyes and resting his head lightly on Bryn. He was exhausted, but he couldn't fall asleep yet.
Bryn frowned when he noticed his human's tiredness and squirmed out of Sebastian's grip so he could slip out of bed. He came back a few minutes later in one of Sebastian's white button-ups that fit him like a short dress and a pair of his boxers, chucking some sweatpants and a teeshirt over at his human. "Put on sleeping clothes! Dinner's done, so it's sleep time now."
Sebastian let out a little whine when he felt Bryn pull away, his head falling on his knees before he sat up.
"I can't Bryn, I have homework to do," he mumbled, picking the pants and t-shirt up.
Bryn sighed, eyebrows squinching together in confusion. "What's a homework? Can't you just wait until tomorrow? You're obviously real tired."
"Homework is the school work I have to do at home. It sucks, but I won't have enough time to do it before school, so I have to get it done now." He sighed, slipping off the bed and kissing Bryn's cheek.
"I'll be able to handle it."
Bryn sighed, flopping down on the bed as Sebastian sat up out of it. "Sounds dumb. You do a whole bunch of school at school already, why d'you have to do it here too?"
"Sometimes I think it's cause my teachers hate me." He chuckled tiredly.
"But in all seriousness, it's probably because there is a lot to learn, and it's hard to get it all in in fifty minutes per class." He shrugged, heading over to the desk and pulling out several folders.
"But you go all the time," he complained, rolling over onto his back so he could frown up at the ceiling. It didn't seem fair- school took his Sebastian all the time except for the s days, and now it was stealing him again except he was right there so it was worse.
"I know, it sucks, but I gotta do it." Sebastian stifled a yawn, pulling his math homework out. He'd gotten most of his work done at school, but he'd be an hour at least.
Bryn grumbled, slipping under the covers and snuggling up against the pillows because he had no Sebastian to curl up against. "What is it?" he asked.
"A lot of complicated crap with numbers, and then I have to more crap with numbers for a different class." Sebastian mumbled something under his breath about how it was ridiculous for there to be two different kinds of math.
Bryn sighed, scootching further into his semi-circle of pillows. He liked Sebastian's bed, it smelled like his human and it felt real nice and safe and he just wanted to make a nice little nest and… shit. Whatever he was about to complain about dropped from his head. "Sebastian, what day is it?" His voice was small and anxious.
"Hm?" Sebastian said, looking up from his work. "Thursday. Why..?" He was concerned about the way Bryn had asked the question, but his tired brain refused to tell him what was going on.
"No! Not… not that day, what's the date?" He sat up tearing the blankets off him and tossing away the pillows. Was he seriously nesting!? Now!? That meant his heat would come soon, and then he'd be a clingy mess of hormones for the next week.
"The twelfth- Bryn, what's going on?" Sebastian turned his chair around to look directly at Bryn instead of just over his shoulder, visible confusion on his face.