Private Finished So a Fox Walks Into a Spa

'A bit like a sauna. How nice...'

Cam might not have known how much that sentiment really meant to Kaliyan. Outside of work he spent a lot of his time trying to avoid making people uncomfortable by being too close. In the narrow reality it had been a thing to hide and here it had been something annoying to worry about in crowds and similar situations. Here Cam was though actually saying that he was enjoying it. It was a wonderful feeling and in another situation Kal probably would have tried to hug Cam. Instead he just smiled and continued on with his job.

Refreshing to be called 'sir'? Well, Kal supposed Cam did have that whole slim model's figure thing going on so he could probably understand where someone might be confused. He pondered for a moment whether he might have made that same mistake had he not already have met Cam back at the community center. Who knows, but it really didn't matter. He knew Cam was a man and if calling him sir meant that much to him then Kal was glad to have done it. In fact, he had a sudden thought, maybe he could keep that in mind for the future. "Well sir, i'm pretty sure you're a man. A pretty man for sure, but still a man. Feel free to bring up any jokes you might have while we're here in the room."

There were quite a few knots to work through in Cam's legs and Kal was pretty sure that was just the beginning based on the man's complaints about his back. For each one Kal carefully worked at it so the muscle would release and he wouldn't accidentally use too much pressure and risk causing an injury.

"Miracle worker huh? Maybe I need to get a new nametag made up," he chuckled. He simply nodded at Cam's comment about his glutes. So many people tended to forget about them despite abusing them for hours every day while sitting. Kal was very good about keeping things properly covered and professional as he massaged Cam's glutes through the sheet.

After that Kal rolled his cart a little bit to be closer to Cam's top half and he folded the sheet down to the waist to uncover his back. With renewed applications of the almond oil he started with long, soft movements of his hands from the very tops of the glutes to the base of his neck and out over the shoulders. He guided Cam's arms so that they were bent at the elbow and allowed him to access the muscles around the man's shoulder blades. After that he did the same thing again but with more kneading motions and then followed up with attention to releasing all the many knots in Cam's back. Kal made sure to spend a little extra time on the man's lower back and on the muscles directly connected to that area. "I can tell you've been pretty stressed out lately by the way your body is all tensed and knotted up. You don't want it to get to where yo start getting hurt because of it." He wasn't going to ask about the cause. It was not his place to ask in a professional capacity or as his friend. If he wanted to talk about it he could decide that for himself.

As Kal finished massaging Cam's back he made sure to bring the folded over portion of the sheet back up to cover his back. Then he began to work on Cam's neck and shoulders. After he loosened up the lower portions he walked around to stand by Cam's head and finish the rest of the neck and shoulders. He used a lighter touch from his fingers complimented by deeper presses from his thumbs and even gently used the knuckles on his fists to rub the tops of Cam's shoulders to release the tension there. As with he lower back he paid extra attention tot he shoulders and their surrounding muscles due to Cam's mention of soreness there.

Before moving on to the arms he took a step away to tend to the scent diffuser as it was about to get low. Kal was very careful to ensure one of his hands stayed in contact with Cam as he stepped away so that there wasn't a huge interruption in the massage.

@EmiRose

Kal could see and feel Cam's shoulders move when he was trying to suppress his laughter. If this hadn't been at work he might even have tried to tease him about it but instead he too took advantage of the way Cam was facing and let himself have a big hidden grin. It was hard not to grin with Cam. Even if he stooped to using that terrible pun.

"Oh no, I can't be having anything get worn out. That would be bad for business." He could practically hear the smile in his own voice as he replied with his own lame joke. "Nah, but puns can be sir-prisingly fun." Kal had to take a moment to concentrate on the muscles he was working just to keep from losing it.

Kal hadn't really even thought much about the compliment he had given. The truth is it had just kind of slipped out of his mouth and now that he was thinking about it he wasn't entirely sure why he had said it. Of course it was a true statement and he had been mostly trying to make Cam as comfortable as possible but he was fairly certain he had never called another man 'pretty' before. And then Cam had fired back with a compliment of his own. Kal was no stranger to compliments to be sure, but it still felt very good to be told he was handsome by someone other than his mother.

Though Kal had not been actually working as a masseuse officially for more than a year he had grown accustomed to tuning out whatever noises his guests made. It was none of his business if they wanted to be ridiculous about it, though some people did go way overboard. No, the only noises he kept an ear out for were those that indicated discomfort or pain. A little bit of pain was pretty common when working on very tense muscles but if the pain wasn't relieved or got worse he would immediately stop the massage.

Kal too chuckled at the mental image of actually putting 'Miracle Worker' on a nametag and wearing it around. It would have to be the most gaudy eyesore of a nametag too. Like the made of gold and gem-encrusted level of ridiculousness. "I think i'll stick with my own name after all. I don't think I could fit through the door if I was walking around with an ego that big."

As he worked on Cam's lower back Kal could tell the man was experiencing a little bit of pain so he made sure to slow down and ease him through the process of loosening up the muscles. However as each knot released he could tell Cam was really enjoying the massage. Even if he was only free of tension for a little while it would still have done him a lot of good.

"Pshh, I know this is all an elaborate pretense for getting me to make you coffee but i'm glad you came here when you did. At least you're getting a nice break from walking around so much." The masseuse never noticed the fading smile and had no way of knowing the real reason why Cam had been so busy walking around. He heard the chuckles and though he might have had an idea that there were some very serious stresses going on based on what he had heard at the community center he decided to just move on and try to keep things upbeat.

As Cam was talking about walking the wrong way and causing extra back pain Kal was briefly reminded of the way he felt in the winter time. It was no where near the same thing as having a prosthetic leg of course but being forced to rely on a cane to get around always did a number on his own shoulders and back. Not something he was going to bring up for sure, but it did probably make him even more sympathetic than the average person. "Hey, you're definitely not delusional. I care both because it's my job and because that's how I generally live my life. I like making sure people are doing alright." Kaliyan chuckled to himself at how naive and child-like that had sounded when he said it out loud. It was true though. For whatever issues he had with the anger that welled up inside him sometimes he was truly a caring person and wanted to help people.

As with he lower back Kal noticed when the work on Cam's shoulders was causing discomfort and slowed down until the tension was released. The majority of the hard part was over. He just had the arms, face and scalp and then the muscles on the front of Cam's torso left to do.

Distracted by making sure the scents were mixed properly he didn't notice when Cam peeked his head up. Finally he finished getting the diffuser set up again and returned his attention to Cam's arms. "Vanilla and ocean breeze huh? Not bad choices though I feel like personally I would choose ocean breeze out of the two. The real thing is better, you know. I could sit on a beach and take in the warm air with the scent of sea salt on it all day." He actually had to shake his head a little to break out of the reverie and go back to his work. The beach always had called to him even when he was very little. It probably was instinctual. Lyrseir had found him floating in the ocean as a baby after all.

With one hand he carefully held Cam's left wrist and lifted his arm off the table slightly. With the other he worked his way up the back side of Cam's arm from the wrist all the way up and around the shoulder, repeating the motion on the front of the arm after swapping hands. After the arm was thoroughly relaxed he held Cam's hand with his own and used his thumbs to massage the hand. He also gently pulled on each finger. Afterwards he repeated the whole thing with Cam's right arm and hand.

"Alright Cam I'm going to have you roll over now so I can work on your chest and head. I'll hold the sheet so you don't have to worry about it coming off."

A straight face? Oh that's right it was that thing Kal had given up on trying to keep. With all the bad jokes and teasing going on he had a near constant grin with bits of laughter interspersed through all the nonsense. It felt good to be joking around and infinitely better to see that it was keeping Cam happy but Kal had to remember to keep it reined in or it would just devolve into laughter before he could finish the treatment.

"Ok, ok, ok, If we keep up with all the puns neither one of us are going to sir-vive this. Can't have you laughing so hard you fall off the table. My mom might fire me for that," he laughed though actually he could get into a lot of trouble if something like that happened. Realistically he wasn't worried too much. Besides, he was pretty sure he'd be able to catch Cam if he started to roll off the table

"About the miracle thing- tell you what we'll do. I'll stick to my normal name and just have guests like you go around telling others all about how I work miracles. It's a foolproof plan." He was smiling but actually the miracle thing brought weird thoughts to Kal's mind. It hadn't been that long ago that one of his guests had accidentally revealed to Kal that he was apparently a demi-god. They had possessed some sort of power that let them identify his species and they hadn't known that Kal himself didn't know what he was yet. Since then he had been trying to figure out if that meant he should change anything about what he was doing. Like whether he needed to do something to "live up" to what species he was. Gods were supposed to work miracles right? He didn't want people to think he was pretending to be more powerful than he was but he also felt like he needed to prove himself a little.

By no means was his happiness or cheer diminished by these thoughts but he was a little bit more quiet and focused on his work for a little bit. He did however laugh at Cam's suggestion to wear the sign. The man's company was a delight but there was no way in hell Kal was going to say that outright. Speaking of feeding an ego.

Instead Kal replied with a calmer sentiment, "If I didn't like being around you i'd have just pawned you off on some other poor employee." He was clearly kidding around a bit. Kal really did enjoy Cam's company and was pretty sure they were becoming friends. At least as far as he could tell. "Though I only promised coffee- I never claimed it would be anything better than just decent."

Kal returned Cam's smiles back at him when he was talking about caring being exhausting. He knew what Cam meant by that. There had been several times since he arrived on the island that he had needed to remind himself that there were other people to lean on when he needed it. Heck, Cam had been one of those people when he offered to make coffee for Kal while his arm was all bandaged up. There was also another part of his caring that was exhausting. When people he tried to help or cared for were hurt it tended to kickstart his fury and then he had to pretty much literally exhaust himself in an outburst before it was safe to return to a social situation. Still the man was right about getting relief for the stress. Fortunately he literally lived in a spa with a mother in the next apartment over who had a relaxation aura always on. There were some significant perks to the way he lived. "Hey, i've got a pretty good employee discount here for myself. How do you think we make sure the staff knows what they're doing?" He snickered.

Kaliyan listened intently to the story from Cam's past. He had no experience with France or indeed with having a sibling, but it was a very touching story. It sounded wonderful to have a brother like Morgan looking out for you when things were difficult. It made sense then why Cam had been partial to those two scents- ones that Kal would have probably never put together before that. He also filed away the fact that Cam liked strawberry ice cream. It was always good to know what a friend liked. Kal actually wasn't too big a fan of ice cream because it was so cold but a little bit every once and a while could be very tasty.

Feeling the tone drop a little and hearing the sigh Kal let his own grin fade a little bit. He was no empath but he could tell there were less pleasant things that had been brought to Cam's mind. No matter, it was his job to keep his guest content, comfortable and relaxed. "That sounds like a wonderful memory Cam, i'll have to remember to see about setting up an ocean breeze and vanilla mixture for next time." With that he made sure his work on Cam's hands was extra comforting.

Cam's trust in Kal was well-placed as there were no issues with him turning over and Kal even turned his head to look away just in case by reflex. He only returned his gaze to Cam when the man was back settled on the table. "It has been a while hasn't it?" He joked and grinned right back before folding the sheet down to expose Cam's chest and moving to stand once more by his head.

Applying some of the almond oil as he went he leaned over Cam to slowly massage the pectoral muscles on his chest, working from near the sternum up and around onto the shoulders. Each section of muscle was first lightly brushed and then he followed up with a little more pressure, always working from the center outwards towards the shoulders. After both sides were done he walked around to Cam's side and used another clean towel to drape over Cam's chest area, folding the sheet down to the waist so that only the man's stomach region was exposed. Slowly he massaged the abdominal muscles and the other groups of muscles in that region before once more drawing the sheet back up to cover Cam's body fully.

Kal reached over to his cart to use a towel and wipes to clean off his hands. He then moved back by Cam's head. "Ok Cam, we're almost done. Can never forget the head and face. Especially after so much thinking up puns and smiling." Kal stood over Cam's face and wrapped his warm hands around the guest's scalp, using his strong fingers to gently massage the skin and lifting his head a little bit to get at the back side and where the neck met it.

"If you don't mind i'm going to use a different product on your face. It should be just as comfortable but not leave your face oily or risk causing a breakout."

And the puns just kept going and going. For someone who had claimed they were the lowest form of comedy Cam sure seemed to be enjoying using them. Thankfully Cam was still mostly relaxed despite all the laughing and joking and he wasn't making the massage too difficult. Definitely better than the woman yesterday who tried to tell Kal how to do every single massage technique as if he was still in training. He had humored her of course, even though everything she was saying he had known before he even went for his license. If it weren't for his mother's calming aura he might have needed to go take a break and rage for a little while after that one.

"Not funny? That's hurtful and sirtan-" He had been joking and had got most of the way through the word before he realized Cam had already used that pun. Honestly Kal never claimed to be the smartest man. It was starting to show a little and that was pretty embarrassing. Thankfully before it could get too unbearable another pun finally came to mind, "That's not true, but maybe I should just sir-render to your comedy mastery." Kal smirked as he continued to work on Cam's head

"For the record she can fire me because she's also my boss. Though I guess she could probably un-adopt me..." He put on a fake frown and tried to hold it for a moment before he couldn't help but smile again. "But she would never do that. I'm too precious." It was his turn to laugh heartily.

Kal thought about what Cam said regarding Jesus. He wasn't exactly well read on the subject since his mother never had put much stock in human religions but he knew some very basic information. It was true that Kal had to have been the child of a god or goddess and he wanted to help people but he definitely didn't want to test resurrection or being crucified. Also the way Cam had phrased it- 'use other people... to your own advantage'? That didn't sound at all like something he wanted to do. Kal decided to skim over that because he hoped that wasn't how Cam had intended to mean it.

Kal smirked a little when Cam said he could hear the other employees sighing in relief. He was honest when he had said he liked being around Cam. He couldn't see why anyone wouldn't. Sure the man was flamboyant and seemed to have difficulty being serious for the most part, but all that was fun. Kal also knew that there was more than just that happy face. Cam clearly cared about his brother and his situation and other people too. That meant he wasn't just an air-headed model.

"Our coffee is mostly so we employees don't just start falling asleep on you guests. If you want better quality than that I would recommend the Forbidden Zone. Bit of a weird theme there but the coffee is good." The image of masseuses and cosmetologists just passing out randomly in the middle of treatments was actually a little funny. Well only funny because it wasn't really happening. The idea of actually falling asleep on someone while giving them a massage was mildly terrifying. "I don't make the calls on advertising but i'll keep you in mind if Lyrseir starts talking about doing something like that. Now stop trying to get more work to do while I'm trying to help you relax."

Kal had mentioned being ready for the next time because he was pretty certain Cam would be back. Some guests you could just tell were the kind that would become regulars. This session had been going very well and Cam seemed to be enjoying himself very much. It also seemed like he was used to doing these sorts of things so it was essentially guaranteed he would be back as long as the service was satisfactory.

It took Kal a few moments to even get that Cam had been referencing a meme. The 84 years was so weirdly specific it threw Kal for a loop until he remembered that it was from the Titanic movie. He put on an appearance of fake shock and pretended to cover his face. "Sure hope I don't look like it's been 84 years. I'm not ready to be an old man just yet. I've got too much fun left to have before then." Of course Kal had no idea that he was never going to look like that. He was going to be in peak human physical condition until something or someone killed him. Just another part of his being that he had not learned yet.

Cam's giggles were a little contagious but Kal focused back on what he was doing, very please to see that peaceful smile on Cam's face. Kal was very careful around the stomach and sides of Cam's torso as so many people were ticklish in that area. Clearly Cam was one of those people as he fought to keep from reacting. Kal could feel the muscles reacting as Cam tried to keep from squirming too much.

Kal always kind of liked the scalp massage. To him a good massage there could feel like someone was massaging the tension out of the brain itself. It was too bad he couldn't just massage his own scalp properly. "Maybe my aura is expanding then. I didn't know it made people think of bad jokes as well as warm and a little bit sweaty." Now that would be an amusing power to have. Just walk into a crowd and everyone becomes a mediocre comedian. At least parties wouldn't ever get dull.

Cam's poker face was almost funny to see. Kal had to fight off the urge to try making the man break it by coming up with more jokes. However the massage was almost done and he wanted to finish it properly so he held off. Kal put his hands under Cam's jaw and pulled up just a little to give the neck a tiny bit of a stretch before softly letting the head sink back into the cushioned headrest. Using the special face product he rubbed and gently pressed his way across Cam's forehead and temples. Working his way down around the cheekbones towards the nose and down to the chin he was very careful not to put too much pressure on any of the bones. He was targeting the muscles and allowing for better circulation in the face. Afterwards he once more cleaned off his hands with a clean towel and made a point of leaving one folded up next to Cam's head for him to use if he wanted.

"Ok Cam, I hope that massage was up to our very high standards. Of course I'm happy to assist you with anything else you may need. If you want a few minutes to just lie there we can accommodate that. Otherwise, would you like me to hand you your prosthetic before I step outside to let you get your robe on?" Kal rolled the cart with the oils and supplies back over to the corner while he was talking and stood ready to pick up and hand Cam his prosthetic. He wasn't bothered about touching or holding it but he was absolutely not going to touch it until Cam gave permission first. Either way after he waited for Cam's response he was going to step outside unless the man wanted something.

The puns and teasing remarks were indeed working just fine on Kal. Even if their discussion had come close to more sensitive topics every so often Kal was definitely having a good time. Kal was normally proud and happy to have completed a good massage session but this one had actually cheered him up more than he expected and probably more than he knew he needed. He was probably going to be smiling for the rest of the day unless someone came in to ruin his mood.

Kal had used up all the 'sir' puns he could think of, though there were probably a million more that someone could come up with. He was a little afraid Cam would be disappointed by the end of that game but there was nothing to be done. It would just have to be made up for another way. Compliments would probably do just as well. "People better than you? If there are any i've never met them." Okay so there were professional comedians who did that sort of thing for a living but that wasn't the point. A little playful exaggeration wouldn't hurt too much.

It was clear that both Kal and Cam were joking about the whole 'un-adopt' thing. The topic could indeed give twinges of pain sometimes when he thought about the fact that he had no idea who his biological parents were or what had happened to them. However Lyrseir had explained when he was very little that he was adopted and for the most part he had put that behind him. Lyrseir was his mother and he loved her, maybe not quite as much as she loved him but pretty damn close. Of course he still thought about trying to find out about his birth parents from time to time and occasionally snuck in some research behind Lyr's back but nothing had ever come from it. "Eh, she could train another masseuse just fine. I'm not the only one here. But I am definitely too precious of a son to be discarded." The last word kind of dropped the happy tone for just the briefest of seconds but Kal was still smiling and having a good time.

"The Forbidden Zone dangerous? Pfft no way. The only thing scary about it is the fact that it's so edgy you have to be careful not to get cut when you walk in. Honestly if they didn't have great coffee, and weren't right there next to the campus, I don't think it would be a place i'd hang out in. I'm way more of a casual beach kinda guy than all that goth and emo stuff." All that said it was kind of fun to go in there every once and a while just to see how weird and creepy it felt. It would probably be even more fun if he went with friends sometime instead of just popping in for a qu