slipped along the way

[unmarred]

(from here)

So... up the stairs they go, mostly side by side. Mark lags by a step or two.

There is a persistent silence.



"I... didn't think you'd react the way you did," he says finally. "I mean, I thought you might—that there might be something there, but not that you'd actually."

Comments

[thisvorlunatic]

"...You could... tell me about them," Stalas suggests. "I wouldn't mind hearing what put that amazing look on your face."

[unmarred]

"Amazing? What happened to creepy?"

[thisvorlunatic]

"Creepy was when I felt like you were looking for things I didn't want you to see, and finding them," says Stalas. "Now I don't mind you looking, and the way you look... it's like... I can't even describe it."

[unmarred]

"Like I want to find out everything you've ever wanted, and give you all of it," says Mark. "Like you're the most gorgeous thing I've ever seen. Like I can't believe I'm allowed to touch you and I want to do as much of it as possible."

[thisvorlunatic]

Stalas laughs shakily. "Yeah. Like that, I guess. Ancestors..."

[unmarred]

[thisvorlunatic]

"Hey," says Stalas. "Are you somehow getting the impression I mind? Because I really don't. It's the good kind of overwhelming."

Then he grins.

"I still feel like something needs to be done about your standards, though." He picks up one of Mark's hands from where it rests on his shoulder, and kisses the palm, and nuzzles his cheek against it. "Maybe you should just keep touching me until you get used to it."

[unmarred]

"I... could do that," says Mark, thoughtfully stroking Stalas's face with his fingertips. "I could definitely do that."

He does that.

He does a lot of that.

[thisvorlunatic]

Somehow the rest of Stalas's clothes end up coming off in the process. Stalas is entirely fine with this.

"Wow," he concludes.

[unmarred]

"Good wow?" hazards Mark; he has a pretty good idea, of course, but he feels like making sure.

[thisvorlunatic]

"Good wow, amazing wow, get-up-here-and-kiss-me-immediately wow," says Stalas, reaching out to haul Mark closer.

[unmarred]

"Oh. Good," says Mark. He is delighted to oblige.

[thisvorlunatic]

"I just had a bath, curse it," he mutters between kisses, but the complaint is heavily undercut by his enormous grin. "C'mere, you... it's my turn."

[unmarred]

"Ooh," breathes Mark, and a moment later: "o-ohhh..."

[thisvorlunatic]

Stalas laughs.

He gets Mark out of his clothes in gratifyingly short order, and rolls on top of him, pinning him to the bed with dwarven strength and the weight of dwarven bones. It's the first time he can ever remember being able to physically overpower someone this way, and there is a definite thrill to that, even though - perhaps especially because - he's sure Mark could hold his own if it came to a serious fight.

"You're pretty glorious yourself," he says, and leans in for a slow and thorough kiss. "Mmm..."

His kisses wander down over Mark's jaw and throat, and then his chest, and onward from there. This is nothing he's ever done before, but Mark is in the same quarter as far as he can tell and it sure didn't seem to stop him. Stalas is inspired to adventurousness.

[unmarred]

Mark is, if anything, vastly more thrilled than Stalas by their strength disparity. And it only gets better from there.

"I'm stealing your word," he murmurs, afterward, when he has caught his breath. "Wow. That was - wow. You are wow."

[thisvorlunatic]

Stalas giggles. "Have I mentioned you're adorable?"

[unmarred]

"You have," says Mark, beaming at him. "But you have my full permission to mention it again. And again. And again."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Understood," laughs Stalas, sitting up. "And now that we've made a beautiful mess of one another—bath? There's towels, promise."

[unmarred]

"Towels? Why are you saying 'towels' like it has some kind of secret meaning that you expect me to find hilarious if only I knew it?"

Mark sits up, too, and scoots over to give Stalas a hug and an affectionate shoulder-nuzzle.

[thisvorlunatic]

"Because it does. I wasn't sure you didn't know it, actually. It seemed reasonably cross-cultural. But I'd be happy to explain."

Maybe after a quick kiss.

All right, maybe after two kisses.

[unmarred]

"Bath," Mark reminds him, grinning. "And the mysterious significance of towels."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Yeah, yeah."

Bathward they go, then. Stalas operates its controls while he talks.

"The story goes, Lord So-and-so of House Somebody - you hear it with a few different actual historical figures, or with made-up names, or with no names at all - was a rich fellow with a taste for luxury, and his favourite thing in the world was a long hot bath. One day he goes to visit the house of his good friend Lord Somebody-Else for a few days, to wine and dine and talk about taxes on imported goods and what-have-you. Lord Somebody-Else, being a generous and thoughtful sort, has his servants draw a bath... but when Lord So-and-so steps into the bathing chamber, he notices that there are no towels. Puzzled, he looks for a servant to correct this oversight, but there are none to be found nearby. So he stands next to the bath with the door closed and his armour on, and sure enough, an assassin bursts in half an hour later. Various versions disagree on what happened next, but it's generally agreed the incident put an end to that friendship. And now a 'bath without towels' is a byword for any situation with a strong odour of trap."

[unmarred]

Mark giggles. "I see. You, of course, head this off by bathing with the assassin."

[thisvorlunatic]

Stalas gives Mark a look, and reaches into the half-full bath to splash water at him.