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I turn to face Bruno in the entrance of his room, the sound of sand curtain almost completely drowning out the noise of his family and their guests.
“Why did you stop m-“ but my sentence is cut off by a kiss from Bruno
He pulls away looking more nervous than ever.
I have known him for a while now, well enough to know how bad this village had treated him just because he had warned them when bad things were going to happen. Well enough to see the anxiety and fear of rejection he carried because of them. I had yelled and everyone because one person had the nerve to suggest that his visions were a curse and it had triggered him. I wasn’t going to stand by and let my friend, the nicest man in this town be hurt again because of their stupidity.
I touch my lips, shocked, not because he was 20 years older than me but because I didn’t realize he felt that way about me. “What was that for?”
He shrugs, his insecure posture spoke louder than his words. “You’er the first person to get mad at my family and community because of how they treated me,” he shrugs again, unable to look me in the eye “I’m sorry”
“Sorry?” I repeat. “Don’t …” I cut myself off as all my anger washes away.
The way I had arrived in this town was unexplainable, it just suddenly happened. Like magic. Coincidently once I got here I ended up with magic, I became the village witch in fact.
I step forward and he flinched away, his back colliding with the, now closed, door. I watch him with sympathy for a moment. My magic (and anger) frightened a good part of the town but Bruno never seemed to mind so his reaction was surprising.
So I tried again, this time much slower because he’s the only person in this village I don’t want to frighten. I start by holding my hand out to him. He looks from it to my face and back before timidly placing his hand in mine. I gently pull him forward and he takes a baby step in, watching me nervously.
“No one has ever defended you?” I ask softly. Slowly I raise my hand to cup his cheek.
His eyes drop and he shakes his head against my hand.
I let go of his hand so I can hold his face and lean in slowly to return the kiss he had surprised me with, accidentally squishing his face slightly as I do so. I swear he was holding his breath. I peck his lips gently once, twice, three times before he lets out his breath, proving my suspicion right . I pull back to make sure I’m not overstepping but his hand catches the back of my head and he pulls me into a hard, desperate kiss.
I let my hands slide down to his neck as he kisses me. I’m not going to lie, he’s not a great kisser. He’s clearly not kissed anyone in quite a while, but to be fair he’d been in hiding for 10 years and with the way the town treated him who knows if he’d ever actually dated. I pull away again for a moment, he looks at me with his wide, worried eyes.
“Like this” I say before showing him how I want him to kiss me.
I can feel his heart thundering in his chest as he try’s to mimic my kiss. It’s not perfect but much better.
“Mmmh” I hum into the kiss to let him know I’m enjoying it.
His knees buckle at that and he stumbles back against the door, pulling me with him.
I break the kiss again and look at him worried. “You okay?”
He just kisses me again, and again. After a few more minutes he breaks the kiss to say “come upstairs with me?” He sounds nervous.
“Uh… “ I twist in his arms to look at the insane amount of steps we’d have to climb to get up there, forgetting the sand curtain was blocking my view. But it’s not the steps that are making me nervous. “I should tell you something first”
I feel him tense up against me, and I’m almost positive he’s worried I’m going to reject him. How could he not worry about that after what he’s been through?
I look at him for a long moment before my eyes drop to the fabric I didn’t know my hands had fisted into. “It’s just… people don’t always react well when I tell them so…” I hesitate. I’m just as worried he’ll reject me after telling him.
But he catches my chin and softly lifts my head so I’m looking at him again “You can tell me anything” his voice is hardly louder than a whisper.
“I’m not a sexual person,” I say before I can loose my nerve “I’ve never been and I don’t know if I ever will be.” I look away again and brace myself for the blowback that usually follows.
But he just presses a kiss into my forehead. “That’s okay”
I look up at him in shock.
He gives me a soft smile “I never expected you to be interested in me like that, I’m older than you, I make people uncomfortable…” he trails off
“You’ve never made me uncomfortable,” I frown because he age and how other perceive him shouldn’t make him feel like I couldn’t be interested in him, sexually or otherwise. “And you’re offaly agile for an old man”
“Old man?” He scoffs.
I laugh to let him know I was only joking.
He pulls me into a tight hug “I was going to invite you up even before you kissed me. Not because I wanted you to be physical with me but because you’re… you, and I like you. I want to spend time with you”
I press my forehead against his shoulder. That was a first for me and I didn’t want him to see me get teary eyed. Kind words always made me weepy.
He rubs my back as we stand there. “Now that we’re clear, do… do you want to come up?” He asks again.
I nod against him “just give me a sec”
“Take as long as you need” he says. The tension in his body is no longer there, I don’t know if he’d ever been this comfortable with me before.
After a few moments I ask “when we get up there can I kiss you some more?”
When I look up he’s got a blush crawling up his neck
“Y-you want to?” He asks.
I just smile and nod.
~*~
I’ve been upstairs before, I’d seen the main space where he gets his visions. What I hadn’t known was that there was a bed room and bathroom in here as well. I mean it makes sense that there would be, I just hadn’t seen it.
We were sitting on his bed now. He was nervous again but I didn’t know why. I want to kiss him some more but I want him to be comfortable first.
“You okay? You seem nervous” I ask, touching his shoulder.
He gives me one of his half smiles “yeah, sorry. I’ve never had someone up here before. By up here I mean this part” he taps his fingertips on the bed
I scoot closer and place my hand on his back, rubbing softly. “Why does that make you nervous?”
He looks over at me “when I’m surrounded by the sand I can occasionally have an unplanned vision. It’s not often, and when it does happen it’s more likely to be when I’m sleeping but I don’t want to freak you out”
I frown “why would I be freaked out? I already know you get visions”
He sighs and looks at the floor “yeah… well.. My eyes glow and the sand flys around the room.”
“Okay?” I say, waiting for the scary part. “Oh that’s it?”
He looks baffled “that’s not enough?”
I shrug “you made it seem like it was something scary. I mean your sister who’s emotions literally change the weather or her sone that shape-shifts into anyone are freakier than some sand and glowing eyes”
He blinks at me.
I shrug again. “It’s not like you turn into a monster or like eat children or something”
“You don’t think glowing eyes makes me a monster?” He asks quietly
“Actually I might be into it” I wink at him.
His eyebrows shoot up and I try to hold back my smile.
“Has anyone every told you you’re a bit strange?” He says, leaning into me.
I smile at him “of course, it’s much preferable to being boring”
He kisses me hard again, shifting so he can press me down onto his bed. One hand sits on my hip while he braces his weight on the other elbow.
I make fists in the front of his shirt, pulling him close then slide them into his hair. He groans into the kiss and slips his fingers under my shirt.
I stiffen and he stops. “What’s wrong?”
I untangle one hand from his hair and pull his hand out from under my shirt. “That makes me nervous”
“Sorry” he says looking down at my side.
I reach up to kiss his cheek “you didn’t know”
He looks back up at me “do you want to stop?”
“Fuck no” I say making a fist in his hair and pulling him back into the kiss. I can feel him smiling as he kisses me back.
When I pull away for a breath he kisses across my jaw and down my neck. I gasp, holding him close so he doesn’t stop and wish I was on the bed better, instead of having my legs dangling off the edge.
He seems to think the same thing because he hooks my arms around his neck and hoists me up. I bite my lip as he lowers himself over me.
“You’re safe with me” he whispers, pulling my lip out from between my teeth with his thumb. “Just tell me if you want me to stop”
I nod and he kisses down the other side of my neck, pulling my shirt away from my shoulder. But suddenly stops growling in frustration. Hd pushes himself up onto his knees suddenly to pull off his top layer. I didn’t realize how thin he looked without it. He watches me confused as I run my hands over him, concerned.
“You’re so thin, have you been eating enough?“ I ask him.
“Recently yes, the 10 years before that… probably not” he says. “It’s okay, I promise I’m alright”
“Okay…” I say, still worried.
He leans back down over me, just looking at me. “You care about me more than anyone else in my life”
“Okay let me up I have to go yell at them again” I say frowning.
He chuckles, stroking his thumb against my cheek.
“It’s not funny, and I’m not joking. I have to go yell at your famil-“
He stops me with a kiss. “I know you’re upset with them but they’re my family and I still love them”
“Fine I won’t yell.” I stick my bottom lip out in a pout. “But seriously has no one here ever heard of fortune telling before you got your gift? Cause it’s not all sunshine and happy days”
He lifts an eyebrow “fortune telling?”
“Yeah, like what you do is close to clairvoyance or scrying, but there’s also bone casting, numerology, pendulum reading, tarot cards, palmistry, and like a hundred other ways of predicting the future” I say as I stroke the scruff on his jaw.
“That explains why my visions don’t bother you” he smiles down at me.
I nod. “The flying sand is a bit weird but then I remember the house is alive and suddenly it’s not so strange”
He stairs at me before asking “Where did you come from, how did I get lucky enough to meet you?”
This time when he kisses me a strange warmth flooded my abdomen, causing me to suck in a breath. I’d never felt that before. Usually when a man, or anyone actually, got this close I panicked and was uncomfortable. But Bruno never made me feel unsafe. And the way he was kissing my neck felt really nice. Really, really nice. Can something feel too good?
I squirm under him.
“You okay?” He asks into my neck.
“Uh…” I say as I think.
Apparently that was the wrong answer because he’s tense again.
“It’s not that I don’t like this,” I push his hair to the side to distract myself “and it’s not that I don’t trust you. I just made myself nervous” I say not yet brave enough to tell him he might be the first person to ever, possibly, turn me on.
“It’s strange seeing you nervous, you always seem so sure of yourself” he says. He doesn’t move any closer or further away, waiting to see what I want.
“It’s easy to be sure of yourself when you like being intimidating to the townsfolk” I say. “But the gentle and caring way you interact with me isn’t something I’m use to”
“That’s how I felt when you defended me earlier. Except you care in a violent manner” he chuckles.
I don’t know what to say or how to react. Both of us are in a new and foreign pace in our lives neither one having had someone care for them like we care for each other. Fuck it. Get brave. I’m telling him.
“Also you may have turned me on and I panicked” I can feel my ears get hot so I hold his head because if he looks me in the eye right now I might explode.
He’s quiet.
Regret hits me like a wall.
But finally he speaks “that made you panic?”
I nod, not trusting my voice not to wobble.
“Y- we-“ he clears his throat before trying again “just because you’re turned on doesn’t mean we have to act on it”
That thought had never occurred to me.
“Arousal doesn’t equal consent, y-you know that right?” He asks with genuine concern.
“I definitely spent time with the wrong people before getting here” I reply.
He lifts his head up now that I’m not holding it down but I don’t meet his eyes, I’m too busy staring at the ceiling rethinking my entire life. So he shifts so he’s over me, making me look at him. He’s clearly concerned. “To be clear, it was the fact that you thought we had to have sex if you were turned on that made you panic right? Because if you just don’t like the feeling of being aroused I can avoid that”
No one had shown me this level of consideration before. Is this what being loved felt like?
I swallow “do it again? I want to be sure before I answer” I tip my head to the side so he can kiss my neck again.
He kisses my cheek, then jaw. When the bristle of his facial hair bush my skin as he kisses below my ear I feel my toes tingle. The warmth in my abdomen returns as his kisses get closer to my collarbone.
“You okay?” He asks, pulling at my shirt as his kisses move towards my chest.
I let out a noise that’s more of a breath than an answer but my back arching seems to get the point across because he starts kissing a trail up the other side of my neck. I’m pretty sure I have an iron grip on him right now but he’s not saying anything about it so I just focus on how his mouth feels on my skin.
I dress very western compared to the women here, I don’t exactly remember what time I’m from but I sometimes get weird looks because of my style. Today, like most days, I have two layers on, a tank top and a long sleeve. I need the long sleeve off. Now.
“Bruno,” I pant. “I need my sweater off”
He kisses my mouth quickly before helping me sit up. Then grabs the bottom of my shirt and pulls it over my head. He’s kissing me again before the shirt hits the floor.
This time when he presses me back down onto the bed I can feel he’s just as aroused as I am. But he’s not asking me to touch him, he’s not trying to get his hands under my clothing. That might be the hottest thing a man has ever done.
I grab his wrist and place his hand on my heaving chest. I want him to touch me a little more.
Bruno hesitates, his kissing slows.
I arch my back to press my chest into his hand “please” I moan.
He softly strokes his thumb over my nipple and I gasp. I didn’t know It was possible to be this aroused.
His thumb draws circles around my nipple, making it pucker. My head tips back in bliss. The fact that he’s only doing what I ask for makes me want to ask for more but I know I’m not brave enough yet.
“I need a second” he says. He pushes himself up so our bodies aren’t pressed together.
I didn’t realize how ragged his breathing had gotten, I’d been too distracted by how good he made me feel. “Sorry”
He lets out a breathy laugh “For what?”
I shrug. “I don’t know, I just felt like I needed to apologize”
I feel very young under his gaze, or maybe just very inexperienced. I want to make him feel as good as he made me feel but I still have a twinge of worry in my mind that he’ll take it the wrong way.
“There’s nothing for you to apologize for, I was just getting a little too excited” he says with a bashful smile.
Fuck I love this man.
…
I love him?
He takes a deep breath, closing his eyes. I watch his Adam’s apple bob and before I know what I’m doing I’ve pushed myself onto my elbows to kiss his throat.
He holds still as I kiss up to his mouth. And after a long tender kiss I say “thank you, Bruno”
He looks at me confused as I lay back down. “You’re welcome?”
I pull him down beside me just so I can hold him.