c h a p t e r. 19

"And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it." ― Roald Dahl

chapter 19

Castor was wearing a very see through white mesh tank top and he looked very gay, and very hot, and it was making the musician a bit warmer than necessary. Not only that but his usually messy hair was damp and combed through, letting more of his face come into view and he was downright gorgeous.

"Okay," Jazz chirped as soon as the celestial finished adjusting the strings of his shorts, having had no shame in watching the star do odd things around the room as he waited. "Cuddle time, sir."

Castor grunted something at him and it looked like a wiggling pear and Jazz could only giggle as his smile grew, opening his arms and letting the celestial climb right onto the bed and into his arms.

Though, he just straddled the musician, legs on either side of his hips as he rests back against the middle of his thighs, arms crossed over his chest as he looks down at Jazz, who smiles in a way he's sure looks goofy and shift under him to be more comfortable, hands coming up to squeeze his hips.

"What's my growl look like?" Castor asks, making Jazz flush just slightly.

"Do it for me and I'll tell you," He bargains.

Lightning-strike gray eyes narrow at him but he only smiles wider, dimples coming into play. Then they roll and a low, steady growl is coming out of his mouth and Jazz goes starstruck with how it looks.

Putting it simply, his growls look like a green supernova is collapsing into stardust.

"So?" The celestial prompts him. "What does it-- bit hot innit!-- look like?"

"Stardust," Jazz smiles at him. "This green that I've never seen anywhere else, too. It's ethereal. There's rose leaves and mint and sunflowers along the edges. But the sunflowers are just because you like me, t-they're not usually in your growls."

Castor pauses for a moment, obviously thinking something, before questioning, "Rose leaves?"

"Your squeaks. But also when you're relaxed, content."

"What about my anger?"

"It's like moss," Jazz shrugs, pulling his god closer to him. "But it's never without pine or basil, and it's not loud or wiggly."

"Pine and basil?" Cas blinks at him. "Wiggly?"

"Pine is when I noticed you're feeling protective and basil is your fear. I... I don't like when your song goes that color." The musician admits. "And with wiggly, like... hm, how do I explain this?" He runs his tongue over his bottom lip, feeling the snake bites as he contemplates. "Like, your song reaches out and likes to cover other's, and it likes to move with mine. They dance, it's odd but it's really cool to see sometimes, mine is such a dark color that I just learned to ignore it. But other than that, yours is usually just a calm thing or wiggles slightly when you're happy. Not like Dela's or Flynn's whose are constantly bouncing, like non-stop movement."

"Huh," Castor says, ears flushed slightly as he looks at Jazz's lips-- lips or snake bites? Probably snakebites. They were talking about green things and they're green, too. "What colors are theirs?"

"Fly's is silver, like Christmas tinsel and the bottom of cooking pans," He tells him. "Viv's is all purples, but sometimes she has blueberries."

"This is going to sound stupid but when you say blueberries--" He's interrupted with a small squeak. "--and rose leaves or sunflowers, do you actually see them or?"

"Well, no, and that's not a stupid question." Jazz shakes his head. "Emotions and sounds and all that, they have colors and shapes. Most times with people I know, I just remember them as flowers or different items that are the same color to know what emotion they go to. But Fly's? His goes in circles and when you guys are next to each other it looks like literal Christmas tinsel wrapping around a tree-- since you're always green."

"Do you like green?" Castor asks.

Jazz blinks in surprise, "Of course! Green is safe and my favorite. Always has been. Nothing that's green has ever hurt me, it's always a good thing. So are you-- g-good I mean, not a thing."

"I never want to hurt you," Castor says this-- but he already knew that. His thumb grips his jaw but it's gentle and familiar. "And I know you didn't mean I'm a thing, though if it was you who was objectifying me, I wouldn't mind."

"Sir," Jazz pokes his nose, making lightning-strike gray eyes widen at him. Remembering the teeth sinking into his wrist, he is quick to put his hand back to the celestial's side. "Are you flirting with me?"

This makes the god roll his eyes, "Are you really not able to tell?"

"Nope," The musician grins up at him, laughter in his mint eyes. "But your grumpiness when I ask is amusing."

His jaw is caught in a stern but gentle grip and Castor squishes his cheeks slightly before relaxing his hold, making Jazz laugh lightly and for his grin to widen all the more.

"See?" He says. "Amusing."

"You're a goof," Castor tells him, but he's smiling a little bit too so being a goof isn't such a bad thing.

"If I'm a goof, then you're a God."

"How do either of those things connect?" The celestial huffs out.

"Because, sometimes, goofs like me like beings like you," Jazz oh-so-helpfully informs. "And I know you're a star and a celestial, so God is just the next step logically. Now I have someone to worship, and you have someone to bless."

"Bless with what?" Castor says, sounding more amused by this conversation than anything else.

"Kisses and cuddles," The musician tells him as if it is the most obvious thing in the world. "And pretty noises. And in return, you get a bunch of strawberry stuff."

"I don't think the pretty noises count, Jasper." Castor says. "They're not exactly on purpose."

"Talking counts, your voice is beautiful." Jazz explains, watching as his song goes from seafoam to sunflowers and the tops of his ears go red. "And you do make noises towards me that are on purpose too, not just your tics. You growled for me earlier, too."

"I growled as part of a deal," He argues. "Do the noises I make actually look good, jitterbug?"

"Yep," He's quick to nod. "I wish I could explain it better but I don't know how. You're just all around green, and green is very nice. And your song sounds really good too, it calms me down a lot."

"Can you always hear it?"

"When you're close enough," Jazz nods. "It's never silent to me."

"Would..." Castor clearly hesitates to ask this. "Would you play it for me? My song, I mean?"

With flushing cheeks, the musician's hands tighten on the celestial's hips as he nods, then reaches for his phone, "No judging me, sir, but I had an um, a p-project for my Music Foundation in Psychology class and we had to do what the five basic emotions sound like to us. For happiness, or joy, I did your song? So, um... I have a recording of it on m-my phone?"

The god gives him a warm look, emeralds glinting around his happy sunflowers and green reaching out to cover his, a soft mint hue surrounding them both as he says, "You're a dork, Jasper, but you make me happy too. Let me hear myself... that sounds weird."

Jazz laughs, cheeks still warm and he leans to the side to reach his phone, hand moving up Castor's side to make sure he didn't topple right over. Sitting back, he opens his phone and goes to his recordings, each of the songs he made since high school meticulously labeled and organized by date and the emotion or person attached to it.

He's made a few songs about his star but he went to the one labeled 'Viridian Euphoria' and played it for Cas.

It was a soft sound at first, a guitar getting it's strings plucked rhythmically but gets deeper as it goes on, piano and violin getting added in until it was a strong, but still gentle, music that moved smoothly through different delighted sections.

Jazz listened to it echo, hearing it once from his phone and hearing it again from the celestial himself, though the God's song would always sound better than anything the musician tried to mimic.

Castor looked a bit amazed but also thoughtful, and turned to Jazz when his song finished. He leaned closer and asked, "Is that really how you hear me?"

"Yours sounds better than that," He replied truthfully. "I got close, though."

"What about your song?"

"My song?" Jazz asked, a little surprised. People have asked to hear their own song before-- he was a musician, they knew he could quickly strum it out on his guitar if he wanted to-- but rarely did they inquire about his own. "I, I think I have it saved in here? I'm not sure, I guess I just didn't think it was worth recording."

Exiting out of the celestial's album, he moved down to one labeled 'Extra People' and clicked on that, having to scroll towards the bottom to get his own.

"I do have it," He handed the phone to Castor. "You can play it if you want."

And Castor, apparently, did want to because Jazz's song began to spread through the room.

It was a bit dark, harsher than what people usually expected from him, how he's scared of himself and scared of scaring others. Jittery notes showing both his anxiety and his excitement towards life, soft and sad violin playing against a smooth guitar and all over, it was like black lotus flowers-- Jazz's version of sunflowers.

It was like hearing a happy song with sad lyrics.

"You're beautiful, too," Castor leaned forward and pecked his forehead. "I just wish your song didn't sound so sad."

"It's not too sad anymore," Jazz hummed, wrapping his arms around his god's hip instead of his hands to drag his body down. With their legs now all tangled together and chest to chest, he nuzzles his nose against Cas' neck and asks, "Kiss?"

He does that-- asks for kisses so simply without any pressure or shame, and most times he gets one. It's nice, holding that man he loves in his arms and just being with him.

Castor releases a heavy breath and says in a voice full of amusement, "You gotta let me reach your face if you want a kiss, love."

"Right," Jazz huffs, letting his star pull back enough so that they are face to face.

"I might bite you," Cas warns him, and he's reminded of seafoam and sharp teeth against his wrist.

"That's okay," He smiles because, honestly, it was okay. Even if he was a god, he still had Tourette's, he still didn't have complete control over his own body and couldn't stop his tics-- even when they did intimate things like this.

Just like Jazz can't stop himself from seeing sound.

It's not an off and on switch.

With a soft hum, the musician cups the back of his star's head, damp hair sliding against the pads of his fingers. He presses a deep kiss on Castor's lips, the god instantly reciprocating, them soft and warm against his own, snakebites a slight tang of metals between them both.

He gets slightly lost into the feeling but all too curious, the heated kiss warming him completely and making his head fuzzy.

Not knowing quite what he was doing, but lost to instincts and pleasure, Jazz parts his lips and swipes his tongue across his star's bottom lip-- tasting like stardust and strawberries.

Melting into the kiss more, Castor's mouth moves against the musician's, his own lips parts and head tilting to the side to get a better angle, tongues pressing together and warm. He was a little hesitant, but soon got the hang of things. The god's wraps around Jazz's, pressing against his piercing and drawing a small but deep groan from him.

He's never had someone kiss him like that-- kiss him like that when he wanted it, anyway-- and he's never let someone play with his tongue piercing before.

He didn't know how good it would feel and was slightly embarrassed by his reaction but pulled the star closer, not yet willing to end this just yet.

Castor explores his mouth, kissing him thoroughly and dizzy, mouth pressing against his and lips all too sensually sliding against his own.

True to his warning, his tongue disappears from Jazz's, leaving him slightly confused and wanting, and then his teeth were sinking into his bottom lip, tugging on his snakebites just enough to have a sting of pain but then retreating.

Feeling the unneeded apology at the edge of Castor's voice, Jazz didn't even open his eyes as he captured his lips again, smooth and slow this time, not lacking the passion of before-- just a whole new kind of sweet.

He'll always prefer the taste of mint, but strawberries and stardust makes him feel loved. Which, in itself, is a whole new kind of intimate.

Castor takes another second to relax into it, but when he does his shoulders are jerking in a tic and he not too roughly, but definitely distortatingly, headbutts Jazz but accident.

Scrambling up as he realized what just happened, the god frantically apologizes but, since it didn't even hurt-- and feeling slightly ridiculous about how much he was enjoying kissing Cas-- Jazz just giggles slightly and pulls him back down.

"It's okay, Star," He presses a small kiss to the base of his god's throat. "You don't have to apologize."

"We were making out and I headbutted you," Castor deadpans in frustration.

"Mhm," Jazz nods, resting his head on his shoulder, feeling his hair rub against his celestial's neck. "I was there."

"Smartass," He grumbles out.

"Yeah, yeah," The musician mumbles back, feeling a bit too strained in his pants (and praying that his God doesn't notice) to move at the moment but happy to cuddle again. "It's just that you can't help it, which you obviously already know. I get that it frustrates you, Castor, but I really don't mind it. It doesn't annoy or bother me. It's a part of you, and I like you. All of you. Simple as that."

Castor laughs slightly, thankful, and presses their lips together in a small kiss, "I bet I can make you like me even more."

Giggling, because yes, please, Jazz lets the god kiss him dizzy again, not even caring that he got head butted.