Precious Company

[Runako Xanthias Bachur]

Nako chuckled, but had tilted his head to the side wondering just what Damon had meant. But he nodded, “Yeah, until one of us is entirely naked and then we can’t go on anymore.” He shrugged as he put his hands into the pail, rubbing the powder on them and then clapping his hands before rubbing them together. He picked up his chair and placed it just under the bar but saw that Damon was climbing up on the chair, and scoffed. “Aren’t you forgetting something?” Of course, he wouldn’t mind a rematch to make things fair, now that they both knew the rules of the game. He just wanted to spend some time with Damon, and enjoy it as well. But then again, he was kind of shy, and Damon had only seen him naked once, but probably didn't really pay attention. What if he did this time and then laughed? Nako would certainly be humiliated.

[Sly Cooper]

Not really sure of what he was forgetting, Damon shrugged and went on about his way. He rolled up the sleeves of his shirt and reached up for the medal rod. Then absentmindedly he kind of remember what he was supposed to do, and let go of the bar, began to unbutton the front of his shirt. "Something along the lines of losing clothes," he mumbled to himself.

[Runako Xanthias Bachur]

Nako figured that Damon had pretty much forgotten everything, until then when Damon had released the bar. Now he saw what his friend was doing, and he couldn’t help but laugh a little. “No, no, not yourself! I lost, you won, so you’re supposed to take something off of me! If I win and you lose, I take something off of you…” He smirked at the other and then reached up to button Damon’s shirt back. “Now do you understand the rules well?” He stuck out his tongue playfully and then asked innocently, trying to look cute as well. “Can I have a kiss for luck?”

[Sly Cooper]

Damon stuck out his tongue and pouted, "Why would I wish you luck when I'm up against you? That would be stupid on my part." He was being stubborn with his arms crossed, but then looked at Nako, "Fine. But only a peck." He bent down and puckered up. "Even though I'd rather keep my clothes. I always lose."

[Runako Xanthias Bachur]

He just rolled his eyes at Damon’s immaturity, although he did think it amusingly cute. He simply folded his arms but didn’t pout, instead he just looked at Damon, as if egging him on. Now he had agreed to the kiss, watched as his friend pucker up, and so he returned the kiss as well, even cradling the young man’s cheek. He shrugged, “I don’t think you would lose much, anyway. You seem lighter than I am and I’ve only just started working out on that thing.” Now he stood back and stretched out his arms and legs. “So… you ready?”

[Sly Cooper]

"I might be light, but I'm not super strong or anything." Truth be told, Damon didn't have much faith in his abilities to do anything. He groaned a little. He won once, be he wasn't expecting to do it again. "Yeah, I'm ready." He reached back up so that his long hands were wrapped around the pole carefully, and waited for the count down.

[Runako Xanthias Bachur]

When Nako saw that Damon wasn’t going to take anything off yet, he shrugged and decided that this round would be an official rematch of the first round, now that the two of them knew the rules well enough to play the game right. He climbed up the chair, rubbing his hands together one last thing, and then started the countdown, grabbing the bar right at the end and then kicking the chair away. He would then start watching Damon and try his best to stay up in the air.

[Sly Cooper]

He waited, and at the count of three, Damon kicked over the chair like he had the first time. He hung there. And hung there. And hung there. After a while he began to hum a tone, and then the humming turned into quiet singing. His voice was relatively deep for his age, except for the occasional squeak from not being fully developed, but his singing was a mixture of both the high and the low.

[Runako Xanthias Bachur]

Nako had managed to hang on this long, even when Damon had started singing. He did get mildly distracted and nearly slipped when he had turned to watch, but he was snapped back to his task when he felt that. He frowned, knowing that singing wasn’t allowed anywhere in Gatlin, so it was good to know that someone liked to sing and had the voice for it as well. Although it did sound unnatural for a young man Damon’s age, but the boy didn’t mind it. He had a better grip on the bar now that his palms weren’t getting sweaty as easily as before, but his arms were definitely starting to fall asleep.

[Sly Cooper]

Damon was starting to get bored from hanging. He sang, and sang, and sang some more. he didn't care if Nako liked it or not. But he wanted to swing on the bar, not just hang. He wanted to dance and hop around like an idiot, not hang. Besides the blood-flow was starting to leave his arms. So it didn't hurt to hang there, actually it was arm numbing. His upper body began to shake, telling him to 'let go!' But he wouldn't listen. So it told him harder, 'let go before the blood stops flowing all together, you idiot.' But he still wouldn't listen, until the shakes got bad enough that he couldn't hold on any more. He wasn't so graceful about landing either.

[Runako Xanthias Bachur]

Moments later, he could feel the bar vibrating. At first, he thought it was coming from him since his own arms were indeed starting to feel asleep even more, but when he turned his head to look at his comrade he saw the shaking. He raised an eyebrow, but before he could say anything Damon was falling to the floor, and Nako felt a sense of triumph in his heart as he finally released the bar himself, landing neatly on the floor although with a little stumble as he tried to regain his balance when standing up. “I win this time! Now raise your arms, buddy.” He approached the young fellow and reached for his sleeves, ready to start dragging his shirt up and off.

Of course, now that he had done it, he remembered how Damon was shaking, and frowned, for he was concerned as to his friend’s health. “Hmm,” pondered the boy as he folded up the shirt, picked up his chair, and then placed it neatly on the seat. Now he was looking at Damon and smiling. There wasn’t really much they could do in the attic. He had tons of books but figured Damon would get bored really quickly. Then he realized that he needed to make things fair and so he raised his own arms. “You won the first round, so go on,” he smirked at his friend. “We won’t be playing the game anymore, but I’m thinking about what else we can play.”

[Sly Cooper]

Damon almost landed on his feet, but his legs didn’t stiffen up in time to catch himself, so instead his shoulder took the blow. “Ah—why do you always have to pull me down!” Damon was swearing at gravity, of course not expecting a response. He sat up and rubbed his shoulder. Then Nako came over and demanded his shirt. He slouched over and let our a heavy sigh before raising his arms up in the air. It came off pretty easy since it was really too big for him anyway. He turned his gaze to the floor, and pouted, “You can keep it. Just don’t make me play Monopoly.”

[Runako Xanthias Bachur]

Nako just rolled his eyes, amused, and approached Damon. He was rather demanding now, still having his arms raised although halfway since they were pretty much getting tired again. “Go on, boy.” He smirked. “Honestly, I’d do anything for you, even if I don’t have to, so do it.” Now, he did have an idea for a game they could play, but of course, he wanted Damon to take his shirt off. If he did, then Nako would proceed to explain another game they could. “We could play something like trivia, if you think you know plenty.” Nako knew that he himself knew plenty, having read quite a few nonfiction books.

[Sly Cooper]

He pulled of Nako's shirt, and instead of folding it nicely like the other did with his own shirt, he just threw it on top of the neatly folded shirt. "Trivia?" Damon was moderately well educated, but that was another Jacob would always beat him at. "--I guess."

[Runako Xanthias Bachur]

Nako was pleased that Damon had given in to his demand, grinning but only for the time that it took for the shirt to hide his face as it came off. When his face was revealed he was smiling normally again, not wanting to appear mischievous and make Damon suspicious. He shrugged as he reached for Damon’s hand to lead him back to the clubhouse where they could get comfortable. Once they would arrive there, Nako would take his seat in a corner of the clubhouse, fluffing up the pillows around him first and then sitting on a couple of them to make himself at home. He glanced across at Damon and tilted his head, “Why don’t you start with the first question? Oh, wait, here’s the rules. For every question we get wrong, we have to let the other take off something from the loser, just like what we did with the bar. But for every answer that we get right, we get a kiss or can choose to put something back on. How’s that?”