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Erend eyed the bath with all the caution he regularly applied when encountering Tenakth-related things. Kotallo grunted from the water. “In or out. You’re making me uncomfortable standing there.”
“You’re uncomfortable?” Erend huffed, muttering under his breath. “You’re built like a damn behemoth and you want me to strip down to my hammer and tongs and climb in there with you.”
“In. Or. Out.”
“Yeah, yeah, fine.” He turned away and began carefully removing his armor. As soon as his shirt hit the stone floor Kotallo whistled. “Hey, none of that!” he called over his shoulder, relaxing a little when he heard the responding laughter. He shucked his undershorts and turned, climbing down into the water before he could be further objectified.
“Ah, man,” he groaned as he melted into the warmth, “this is the good stuff.”
“As I said,” Kotallo reminded him, scrubbing at his face to wash away his paint. Erend watched out of the corner of his eye, not wanting to make his friend uncomfortable but still always fascinated by his clean face. Kotallo raised a mocking eyebrow. “See something you like?”
Erend huffed and tipped his head back on the stone. “Yeah maybe, if I didn’t think Aloy’d have my head for it.” He grinned. “You’re one handsome bastard, Marshal.”
Kotallo chuckled. “As are you, Erend. For a man with so much facial hair at least.”
The soft lap of the hot water was so soothing Erend thought he might fall asleep. Until someone very loudly disrupted the silence. “So Marshal, this is where you’ve been hiding.” He opened his eyes to find a red and yellow painted soldier at the edge of the bath.
“Drakka,” Kotallo said flatly, giving him a curt nod. He immediately began to strip, flinging his clothing into the corner haphazardly much to Kotallo’s obvious distaste. “You’re joining us?”
“What, you don’t mind do you?” Drakka asked. He stepped down onto the bench, giving Erend an eyeful as he splashed into the water. “Been a long trip over and I could use a a moment to relax.” He immediately sidled next to Erend, sticking out his hand. “Drakka, Desert Clan commander.”
Erend scooted back, not wanting to appear rude but admittedly a little uncomfortable with the scant amount of water between their bodies. He stretched out his hand as Drakka grinned, wide and toothy. “Erend. Nice to, uh, make your acquaintance.”
“Hey you’re a friend of the Desert Flame’s right?” On the other side of the bath Kotallo frowned.
“Uh yeah,” Erend said, inching back as Drakka inched closer. “We go back a ways.”
Drakka cut a look across the pool as he began to sponge off his own paint. “Then I’m sure you know all about me. We go back quite a ways ourselves. Long days spent fighting machines, side by side.”
“Commander, I will cut out your tongue if continue to play so fast and loose with it,” Kotallo warned, his voice entirely even.
A booming laugh interrupted them before Drakka could sling back a retort. “Careful Commander,” Hekarro chided as he came to a stop near the pool. “I have no doubt the marshal means exactly what he says.”
Kotallo flashed his teeth and Drakka shrank back, just a bit.
Erend averted his eyes as Hekarro began to undress. By the forge this was not what he had agreed to when Kotallo had suggested they bathe before the evening meal. Getting in the water with just one other person was a feat but three of them? Blazes.
“Pardon me,” Hekarro rumbled as he began to climb into the water next to Erend, giving him more than a good look at exactly what the chief was working with. By the forge, these guys. He scooted away, trying to keep as much distance between him and the other men as possible in the space that was getting smaller by the minute.
It was not to be. Drakka was eying the tattoo on Erend’s shoulder with the look of a man who was about to come closer. “Hey that’s real nice ink you’ve got there,” he said, sure enough scooting himself back into Erend’s space as Hekarro settled next to Kotallo and began to wash.
When he felt the brush of fingers on his shoulder, Erend was proud of himself for not flinching away. Not entirely at least. “Yeah thanks,” he mumbled, catching Kotallo’s smirk and Hekarro’s low chuckle as Drakka somehow came even closer.
“Where’d you get this done?” he asked, practically pressing his face against Erend to study the markings. His fingers traced the outline down his arm. “It’s good work. As good as any of ours.”
Drakka had given the compliment so seriously that for a moment Erend forgot trying to escape. A compliment about his tattoo from a Tenakth commander was quite the high praise indeed. He preened a bit, lifting his arm and rotating it, letting Drakka poke and prod the geometric lines. “Got it back in the Claim, a little taste of home before I left for the Sundom.”
Without warning Drakka offered Erend a very up close and personal view of his chest, gesturing to a marking across his sternum. “This was one of my firsts—a shellwalker convey, all by my lonesome.” He propped his hand on his hips and smiled in triumph, allowing Erend a good long look. Or what would have been a good long look if he hadn’t immediately adverted his eyes. The stonework in this place was fascinating.
Kotallo snorted and by the fucking forge now he was up, wading over to inspect Drakka’s tattoo with an unimpressed huff. The water wasn’t very deep when standing upright and, well, good for Aloy and all but Erend was running out of places to look that didn’t make his eye twitch.
“Child’s play,” Kotallo declared.
“Got one better then?” Drakka demanded, a challenging lift in his chin. He nudged Erend’s thigh with his knee and Erend scooted away.
Kotallo turned to display his broad back to them before reaching a hand around his waist and gesturing to a marking on his hip. That continued right down his ass. Erend’s eyes found the ceiling in an instant. “Two ravagers.” Kotallo smirked over his shoulder as Drakka leaned in for a much better look.
As soon as he heard the slosh of water, Erend was sure his soul left his body. “Admirable deeds, to be sure,” Hekarro said, his low voice suddenly very very—blazes wasn’t there anywhere else for these guys to congregate other than as close as humanly possibly to him? “This marking is one of my personal favorites, a new addition.”
Chancing a look was a mistake. Hekarro was even taller than Kotallo. And then he propped one giant leg up on the bench in the bath, giving Erend yet another eyeful of a man he did not need to know quite so well as he gestured to who-knows-what along his inner thigh.
“You know I think I’m all done!” Erend declared, hoisting himself up and out of the water so quickly he thought he might scorch the wet stone.