Casting the Line [I]

It's early in the morning, right before all the laundry workers wake up, 30 minutes before they do to be exact. The sunrise has just barely kissed the blackened sky and it feels as though the entire bathhouse is still and silent. Only a few souls stir at this ungodly hour: some furnace feeders, the insomniacs, China, and Dimi.

Dimi has been sitting inside one of the large empty washing tubs for nearly two hours trying to patch up a threatening leak in the side before the workers awaken to perform their daily duties. He's taken to his usual work routine of stripping his tank top off with his work uniform sagging loosely around his hips and rear. His brow his furrowed in concentration and his upper arms are caked in quick drying patching material.

The young Eidolon works in a sitting position, his legs crossed and his back hunched over as he works, the muscles in his upper body flexing as he presses the material into the crack of the tub. He's had to layer it plenty of times to make sure the tub won't leak or burst. The washtub is large enough that only a small tuft of Dimi's spiked raven hair is visible over the rim of it.

The work soothes him at the thought of being alone, for this silence, this isolation has stalked him since he was a small child. It unnerves him. So the rhythmic thrust and scrape of the bush against the wall of the tub is like music to him, keeping him from flashbacks of harder times. From time to time work is his only salvation.

Jomo had made a habit of getting up before the other Laundry Workers for a quick swim. Being a fish Edioa he could never bring himself to stay away from water for very long. On the occasions that he didn't get the chance for his swim, by the end of the day others could find him a bit twitchier than usual.. But alas, he didn't have enough time in the mornings to walk all the way to the ocean and back, so he'd settle to go to one of the back tubs, which are clean in the mornings, and float around in it for a bit.

Jomo woke up in a cheerier mood than usual. His tail was swaying happily behind him as he made his way down the hall of the clear watered tubs, soon to be dirtied when they started doing laundry, to the one he fancied most. As he turned the corner he hadn't noticed Dimi working on the crack, or even that there was no water in the tub anymore.. And before he knew it he had jumped into the hard, empty tub, not bothering to look inside before hand.

His eyes widened to the point where they could have popped right out of their sockets. He clapped his hands so hard over his mouth it could have left marks, doing so because he knew he would be in loads of trouble if someone found him here. His eyes had just started to water, flickering around the room in shock, when he saw Dimi.

Dimi had been so focused in his work repairing the washtub that when Jomo had hopped into the tub he nearly ruined all his hard work on the seal. The young man winces hard and smacks his hand down against the bottom of the empty tub in frustration, hissing out before turning around sharply,

"Are you fuck'in stupid? Can't you see I'm wor-" Dimi turns around with a seriously irked expression, but the moment his eyes rest on the adorable fish Eidolon he find he can't speak. His brow slackens and his lips stay parted slightly, as if there are words lingering there, but they can't escape. Dimi stays in this position for a few moments and then he runs his hand back through his hair, looking down at his lap.

"...Just uh... Calm down when you're gett'in into the goddamn tub okay?" He speaks quickly, almost casually, but Jomo could tell by his expression that he's somewhat bashful. The young man looks up with a furrowed brow, his head cocked to the side slightly in a curious expression.

"Why are you gett'in into the washtub anyway?" He questions, his small, natural smirk coming to his lips.

As soon as Jomo regains his conscious enough to move, he bows low on the ground, his nose touching the bottom of the dry tub. He flinches when Dimi smacks the tub and tries to lower his head even more, his tail between his legs like a frightened pup.

"I-I-I" He stops speaking for a moment, regaining his ability to speak without sputtering out words. "I'm so sorry. I just, I come here every morning to swim an-- Oh!! I mean, I never do this because its against the rules-- I mean, please don't tell anyone.. I just didn't see the tub was empty because its usually filled like the others and I guess I can be a little dense sometimes--" He raises himself to his knees, his arms outstretched as he rambles on.

"B-But I'm so so so sorry, I really am. I had no idea you were in here I didn't mean to mess up your work.." Jomo looks up at him with his deep purple eyes which are wider than usual out of the shock. And while gazing at him, he realized that this attractive guy he just ruined the hard work of probably hates him now.

The smirk stays on Dimi's face as Jomo rambles on in his guilt. It's a playful smirk, one of interest and amusement, all hints of his annoyance or anger have all but disappeared. He crosses his big arms over his broad chest and leans back against the tub as Jomo speaks, his brow raised in amusement.

Once Jomo stops his speak and only gazes with a look of worry Dimi cracks a smile and then chuckles under his breath. The expression on Dimi's face is actually pretty relaxed, tickled even; he looks as though he's just hanging out with Jomo.

"It's alright man your secret's safe with me. We all got our 'lil guilty pleasures~" He nods his head in understanding to Jomo's comments, "And don't worry about all this, noth'in got broken so you don't gotta worry about it. I'm almost done with it anyway."

Dimi nods his head again to Jomo in understanding, wanting him to calm down a little though he does think it's interesting how worked up he's gotten, cute even... The more he thinks about it, this guy's pretty cute altogether. Cute face, Dimi's eyes wander up and down Jomo quickly, not a bad body either. He shakes his head slightly, trying not to fall into that pattern again for it didn't work out the first time.

"What's your name?" He asks calmly, not taking his eyes off Jomo's.

Jomos posture relaxes as Dimi speaks, being reassured with every word that he's not mad. Jomo crosses his legs and sits back, his hands resting on his ankles. He can feel his cheeks getting rosy, which makes him blush even more, even his finned ears start to flutter slightly. He scrunches his nose for a split second to see if it'll somehow make his redness go away, but he soon realizes what a silly notion that was.. He hopes Dimi wasn't watching him as he did that.

"Thank you.." He moves one of his hands up to rub the back of his neck in embarrassment as his tail wraps around his own waist. It squeezes and slacks gently, the purple color glowing slightly as it always does.

"Oh, My names Jomo." He says as he nods his head slightly. "Whats yours?" He asks, making an effort not to break eye contact. He didn't want to let his eyes wander too much.. Not now anyways.

Dimi smirks wider at the sight of Jomo's pink cheeks and fluttering fins, something about him just seems to radiate innocence and kindness. Something Dimi had lost a pretty long time ago. He relaxes his body, trying to look as cool and casual as possible.

"That's an interesting name," he says calmly," Mine's Dimi, four letters too." He says, trying to burry the fact that he's trying to impress Jomo.

"So are you a laundry worker or didja just bust into this place looking for a pool?" His voice has a slight sassy tone to it, but unlike the way it sounds it's completely harmless, just Dimi's way of speaking... Jomo may not be able to tell this though.

Jomo has a lingering smile spread across his lips as he listens to Dimi speak, though he barley notices it. On the occasion he catches himself, although, he bites his lip a little and straightens his posture.. Making an effort to remain as casual and confident as Dimi seems.. Even though he considers himself not much of either.

"Well.. Both." He says with a little shrug, a little nervous about Dimis sassy tone of voice. "I really like to swim and I don't have enough time to walk to the ocean and the tubs are clean this early and.. I just kind of come here every morning." A guilty grin spreads across his face.

"Please don't tell.." He pleads quietly with a desperate look on his face. He holds his tail in both his fists nervously, rubbing it slightly.

"Well," he sighs out, shrugging his broad shoulders slightly, "I don't think you'd be have'in much luck with this tub, damn thing's busted to shit." Dimi gestures with his thumb back to the crack in the tub, nearly finished with a couple thick layers of seal.

"I've been work'in on it all morning, but it won't be ready for water for at least another hour. I was gonna leave a note on the tub tell'in the workers, but I guess you can just tell them for me," he gives Jomo a genuine smile after he states this, not really worry about if he's imposing seeing as though the younger man almost caused him to ruin his work earlier.

"And don't worry about me tell'in anyone. Like I said," he speaks, making sure his eyes are locked onto Jomo's, "We've all got our guilty pleasures right?" In his own subconscious way Dimi is trying to drop a subtle hint, but his real intentions are harmless, just trying to make Jomo feel better about swimming around in the tubs. He thinks that's pretty funny anyway, a little fish Eidolon looking for a tank.

He smiles wider at the thought.

"Yeah, I'll make sure to tell them!! And thank you, I trust you with my secret!-- But its fine though, we have other tubs to use so its not that great of a loss for a couple hours.." He says with a smile across his lips. "And plus.. You did a pretty great job of fixing it." He adds, his cheeks reddening and his ears starting to flutter.

As soon as he realizes how ridiculous he must look with his ears wiggling about he claps his hands over them with a start, his face becoming even redder. This always happened when he blushed.. Ever since he was a kid. It made it pretty easy to tell when he was interested in a person, though he hopes Dimi doesn't realize his obvious attraction towards him.

"S-Sorry.. They.. They do that." He sputters out quietly, feeling embarrassed. "But anyways.." He tries to change the subject.

"Do you like to swim?" He asks innocently as he lowers his hands from his ears at last, making sure they were nice and still.

The smirk never falters from Dimi's lips as he listens to Jomo's words, picking up on all the little details of his actions. He nods his head at the compliment Jomo gives him, grinning a little wider when he sees how flustered the younger Eidolon get. It's completely endearing to Dimi and he soaks it up like water to a sponge. Dimi starts to open his mouth to tell Jomo it's alright if his fins start to flutter, but his company is quick to change the subject.

"Yeah I do," he says, looking amused as ever, "I haven't done it since I was younger though, work gets in the way of that."

Dimi nods his head toward Jomo's fins and questions, "I'm guessing you're some kinda fish Eidolon?"

Jomo can't help but smile a little wider when Dimi says he likes to swim. He couldn't think of a life without water, whether it be because he's a fish Ediolon or not. From a young age he was able to swim, and as he found himself nearly every day at the ocean his fins started to shine brighter. Without the water, after days, his scales and fins will dim in color and Jomos mood will go down with them.

"Yeah, I'm an Island Wrasse Eidolon. Its this tiny-" He puts his thumb and index finger close to each other to indicate an exaggerated smallness of the fish. "salt water fish." He finishes and puts his hand back around his tail, his voice full of pride.

"What kind are you?" He asks, a smile still lingering on his lips.

"Huh, didn't know it got that specific, I always thought there was just like, one fish Eidolon out there," he runs his hand back through his spiked hair, smirking still, "I like it though, nice colors." Dimi nods to Jomo's purple and blue hues adorning his fins and neck.


When he hears Jomo's question he finds it as the perfect opportunity to show off, perhaps dazzle the younger man a little without looking like he has underlying intentions. Dimi entwines his fingers and stretches up, popping his shoulders out of their sockets. He bends his arms back in an unnatural looking fashion and pushes himself up off the ground with his legs still crossed, supported only by his arms. He then looks up at Jomo and grins.

"I'm a contortion Eidolon," He speaks casually, twisting himself back out of the position with ease, looking like he never went into it in the first place.

Jomo grins as his ears start to flutter at the compliment without him noticing. But soon his eyes start to widen with awe as he sees Dimi bend in ways he didn't know were possible. As Dimi bends and twists he can't help but stare at his strong physique. Impressed, Jomo claps his hands together, a big grin on his face.

"You're amazing!" He says as he puts his hands out in front of him, flat against the bottom of the tub. "I've never seen anything like that." He nods his head a little as he speaks, his tail swaying behind him and his fins on his spine flaring up.

"Have you always been so flexible?" He questions excitedly.

Dimi leans his body against the side of the washtub, careful not to lean on his seal. He waves a hand dismissively at Jomo's comment, if he were the bashful type he would be blushing in this moment.

"Yeah, have been for as long as I can remember," he speaks calmly, "When I was younger I used to contort into small spaces to hide. I could stay like that for hours if I needed to." He leans his head to the side, cracking his neck at the thought of those hours crammed into tight spaces to hide from the orphanage caretakers.

"So can you turn into a fish or someth'in?" he questions, his voice as casual as one's voice can get though it has that natural Dimi snark to it.

"Wow.. I was always really bad at hiding as a kid." He smiles but it doesn't reach his eyes. Before he starts to think about what happened with his parents, how he hid instead of trying to save them, he focuses on listening to Dimi speak. The last thing he would want is to start crying on the first day he met someone.

"I can turn into a more fishy person." He says, his tail still swishing behind him. "Like, my whole body turns all scaly-" He runs his hand over one of his arms. "And I get more fins and stuff." He nods his head a little.

"I'll show you sometime if you wanna see." He adds, trying to find another excuse to hang out with Dimi again.. He hadn't met a lot of people at the bathhouse yet, having just started working, and he figures it'd be nice to have one more friend.

"So what about you? Can you turn into a..." He looks up at the ceiling in thought. "Well I don't know." He blushes out of embarrassment.

"Yeah sure I'd like to see that," he speaks casually. He himself is very interested in seeing Jomo again. The young man is very cute in all the right ways and though he isn't doing it consciously Dimi picks out little traits of Jomo's that hint to his homosexuality. The way he speaks, the way he moves, little things, but it could just be the way Jomo acts. Dimi's small hopes stuff that down to the back of his mind though as he continues to check out the younger man.

"Eh," he waves his hand somewhat dismissively and looks to the side, "I turn into this, joint, doll things- it's weird." He half-smiles, looking to the side and scratches the back of his neck. Dimi is rather embarrassed by his monster form, how lifeless it seems. He remembers being younger and scaring all the kids he tried to be friends with by showing the curious youngsters his dark monster form.

The only times he ever uses it are for more... Secretive reasons.

"Have you been work'in here long?" He questions, wanting to change the subject. The last thing he wants to do is scare off Jomo with his creepy monster form.

"I've been working here a few weeks." He nods his head a little while speaking. "I haven't met many people but it's been nice so far." He finishes with a smile. The truth was he hasn't talked to many people at all and as of now he feels closer to Dimi than any other person he's met so far.

And maybe they can become closer, he wonders. Joseph had never been in a serious relationship due to all the issues that have popped up in his life. He had rarely gone and explored the city after he had been taken in by the woman who saved him.. And when he did it was almost always with her. He didn't feel safe out in the open anymore, he would get twitchy. He could almost always find himself glancing around to see if anyones eyes were on him.

But, alas, he tried not to get his hopes up. Most people didn't like the same gender and he didn't want to ask and be hated for it.

"What about you?" He questions, his tail still swaying behind him happily.

"I started work'in here since I was real young," he states calmly, "Didn't have much of a choice 'cause orphanages don't leave you with much. Just turned the age to get all of my own pay though so that's good."

Dimi speaks with a desire to not go into too much detail about his own life, just hint enough so that Jomo will understand the gist of his life experiences. That's all he's ever cared to share with anyone, a man like him who is so riddled with secrets cannot afford to go into too much detail. The young man gets up on his knees and stretches his arms, flexing every muscle in his torso though he doesn't take his eyes off Jomo's. He relaxes with a sigh exiting through his nose.

"Wanna talk to me about your life while I finish up this patch job?" he questions, a smirk on his lips.

Jomo can't help it that his eyes wanter over Dimi's fit body as he stretches, he didn't do a very good job of hiding it either. He breaks eye contact only for a few moments before they meet again and he can feel himself starting to blush.

"My life.. Isn't that interesting I don't think." He states nervously. He's never told anyone about his life, about the scars on his back, except the woman he lived with for years. He tries to look casual by cracking his knuckles a little, but none of them make a noise.

He decides to reach and get his shirt, another plan to seem casual, when in fact he just looks fidgety. He leans to grab it, his back visible for a split second, and leans back up quicker than normally. He hopes that Dimi didn't see it, he was taught not to hide his back because he couldn't help had what happened to him, but damn was he insecure about it.

Dimi is pleased to notice Jomo's wandering eye and lets the younger man's gaze linger without interruption. Honestly, he enjoys that attention from someone so seemly innocent as Jomo and the blushing adds to the complement.

"Nah I bet it's pretty cool. If you don't wanna talk about it though I get that," he shrugs, turning around to continue his patchwork, "We can talk about uh... Food or some shit. I dunno you pick." Dimi glances back at Jomo as he reaches for his shirt, noticing the scars just for a moment, but long enough to know they're there.

He decides not to question the scars, Jomo will bring them up if he wants to talk about it. Things like that are normally not something to point out in causal conversation, and Dimi isn't that disrespectful.

Jomos scars are deep and very badly treated. The most that the people ever did to keep him from bleeding out from them is stitch them very sloppily and only in a few places. Some spots they look thin while others are wide, just from looking at them you can just how deep they were.

"Thank you.." He smiles and lets out a relieved smile, instantly feeling more comfortable. "Well.. Whats your favorite food?" He asks gingerly, happy that Dimi gave him the choice not to talk about his life.

He scoots back against the edge of the tub and leans back, his tail now swaying to his side. He watches Dimi's back flex as he works on the patch, his cheeks heated and his ears fluttering. He claps his hands over his face in embarrassment and makes a small sound along with it, not loud enough for Dimi to hear though.

"Yellow mochi bunnies," he grunts out as he slicks the second to last layer of seal onto the crack, absolutely no shame in his voice whatsoever, "What about you?" Jomo would most likely know that Mochi Bunnies are a rice cake made by the kitchen that are meant for children. The rice cakes are cut into cute little bunny shapes and are hard to get if one is over the age of ten.

Dimi is very careful with his work, being very steady and cautious. He is a young man who is very in control of his body though from time to time his actions conflict. His muscles allow him the physical control he wants to have while his ability to focus gives him the mental stability he needs.

Within his own mind though, the young man is quite the opposite with his emotions. Even in this moment he hopes he won't botch his time with Jomo.

"Thats cute, I've only had them once or twice I think.." He grins as he speaks, blushing even harder because he just called Dimi cute. He found the words spilling out of his mouth before he could stop himself. He just hopes Dimi wont think he's being sarcastic, which is almost impossible for him either way.

"I really like lentil curry.." He puts his hands on his cheeks and thinks a little. "And mangos. I really really like mangos." For breakfast that morning, in fact, he'd had a mango.

Jomo was a vegetarian, he has been for as long as he remembers. When he was little he was never able to stomach meat and he would refuse to eat fish so because of that he always stuck to his fruits and vegetables.

"Bunny mochi's are manly as hell man I don't know what you're fuck'in talk'in about," he says with a smirk, his voice sounding pretty serious, but it has a joking twang to it that Jomo would be able to hear since they have been hanging out for awhile. Dimi would really like to go out to eat with Jomo, but he keeps that thought to himself for now.

"I don't eat too much curry, but I've smelled it around the kitchen," this of course means he hasn't found the time to steal some leftover curry from the kitchen, "Cherries are my favorite fruit." Dimi stretches his neck to the side to crack it and slathers the last layer of seal onto the side of the washtub.

"...How late do you work today?" He questions calmly, his voice a little more quiet than his usual tone.