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Neil heard the shuffling feet make their way down the hall before he saw anything. He tried to ignore it, knowing it was only friends in the cabin. And then Nicky bumped into the wall, and Neil rolled his eyes as it forced him awake.
Andrew’s breath remained searing and steady on the back of his neck. Neil was glad. He knew he hadn’t slept through a decent night in a while.
Then, a shadow slipped into view in the hall. Nicky shuffled past, heading for the bathroom light, and then paused. The shuffling reversed, and Neil braced his jaw for an interaction.
Nicky stared at them. He obviously knew Neil was awake, by how his glance kept darting up to Neil’s eyes, but he was mostly looking elsewhere. He knew Andrew’s calf was hooked around his shin, he knew his hands were anchored across his chest and in his hair, he knew Andrew’s bitten bottom lip was still brushing the wisps of hair at the back of his neck. It just hadn’t occurred to him until now that maybe this wasn’t a normal pose.
And then, of course, it likely didn’t help that even though Andrew had come to him in sweats, Neil was in his boxers.
Nicky muttered a curse in German, an emphatic whisper he seemed to find no other word for, before finally looking Neil in the eye. He swallowed, and looked a little queasy. “On the couch? Really?”
Neil didn’t know what to say. And then it occurred to him what Nicky meant. “We didn’t do anything,” he pouted, but the slight stutter of breath at his neck was enough to shush him and make him relax.
Nicky snorted. “Even though you wanted to?”
“He’s asleep,” Neil scolded quietly. “Your vacation couch is fine.”
That earned him a look. “Our vacation couch was three hundred dollars,” Nicky stressed, “or its portion of the payment. You have a bedroom. With a nice bed. Don’t you dare get the furniture stained, or you’re in charge of buying a new one.”
“I promise.” Neil rolled his eyes, but got him to shut up. Then the annoyance surged back up, so he asked, “Erik got bored?”
“My husband,” Nicky stressed, “is fantastic, thank you, Neil. And I don’t want to hear it from you, when you’ve been sleeping with my baby cousin enough to not consider this.” He gestured widely to the entire couch, and then the lack of door between them. “Neil. I care for you both, deeply, but I don’t want to see this.”
Neil closed his eyes, mouth twisting absently. “Then don’t,” he advised, burying his face into the couch cushion. He could tell the move woke Andrew up, by the way his fingers pulled and spasmed ever so slightly in his hair, but he let Neil adjust them, falling over Neil’s back instead of getting upset.
Nicky seemed to sense something was up, too, because he backed out of the living room with a quiet sigh. Neil hardly had the time to notice, before Andrew’s teeth were caging in his ear, and nipping lightly at the shell.
Neil shivered, but let Andrew continue his ministrations until he had worked his way down his neck. He was sure at least some of the harder pulls would bruise by morning, but he couldn’t find it in himself to care.
“Yes?” Andrew mumbled against his spine, going still.
Neil huffed out a soft breath, squeezing Andrew’s leg lightly between his own. “Yes,” he assured, then went breathless with the surge of love that crashed over him.
Andrew went back to biting him, nursing a patch of loose skin just below his T-shirt’s collar. Neil could feel a dull throb starting there, and he knew this one would end up blossoming out the worst, but—a thought struck him—
He wanted this. The realization setting in hit him like a freight train, but he wanted this. To be able to show up at breakfast tomorrow unconcerned, the evidence of his feelings unremarkable, to be an acknowledged safe space for Andrew, even sleepy and clingy.
Neil felt a full-body thrill at one particular concept, and it drew him to stop.
Did he…? Well, of course he did. How could this ever have turned out any differently?
He must have shifted noticeably at the realization, because Andrew fell eerily still, taking his mouth off Neil’s bruises. “Talk to me,” he said, after a moment, clearly trying to offer space between them.
Neil hurried to clasp Andrew’s hand back to his chest, holding it splayed there from before it had fallen. “All good,” he repeated quietly, emphatically, turning his head to look up at Andrew as he hovered. He didn’t look like he believed him, so Neil said, “Yes or no?”
Andrew’s fear seemed to relax, if only a little. “Yes.”
Neil kissed his palm, after guiding it out of his hair and around to his lips.
“All good?”
“All good,” Neil promised. “I want another vacation. Come to Jamaica with me.”
“What?” Andrew’s tone was suddenly intrigued. “They’ll follow us. You know they will.”
They being Moriyama men, of course. “It’s possible,” Neil ceded, “they might. But my uncle Stuart will remind them that he trades in Jamaica, and I trust all parties to honor fair territory while the truce is in effect.”
“Which,” Andrew asked, “it will be?”
“As long as I am alive, then yes.”
A short hiss. A long pause.
“Jamaica it is.”
Neil kissed Andrew’s fingertips. “Jamaica it is,” he agreed, settling back into his chest.
Andrew pulled his hand out of Neil’s, and wrapped it around his thigh. Slowly, adoringly, he stroked it up the inside of his leg, and then down again, and…
The toilet flushed. Right. Neil gently bit at Andrew’s finger on his mouth, and murmured, “He did ask us not to ruin the couch.”
“Politely?” Andrew countered lowly.
“Yes,” Neil assured, and kissed his fingers again. “Very respectful.”
Andrew made an irritated sort of grunt, and then he was winding his body back around Neil’s comfortingly.
Neil was surprised by how much it affected him. He hid his face in the cushion again, mind running with pulse after pulse of ‘I love you,’ but knowing he wouldn’t need to say it. Andrew’s bicep was under his cheek. Neil tilted his head, and pressed a soft kiss to the muscle.
Andrew pulled him closer with a hand on his ribs, nuzzling into his neck again. A door opened in the hallway, and Neil cursed through the bleary haze that they hadn’t chosen to do this in Andrew’s bedroom. It had been a long day; he had just wanted to give him some space.
As if he had heard him, Andrew let out a ragged breath into his skin, holding him somehow even closer. It was new, being treasured like this, and even newer feeling so loved, but Neil couldn’t say he was getting tired of it. He let it wash over him, this time. Soak into his skin past all of the blood, clinging to his hair and under his nails and…
None of it made it past his shield. Of course. Andrew’s presence would protect him, as it had before, and as it was, and as it always would. Neil breathed in greedily, letting the calm wash over him.
And let go.
“Andrew,” he breathed, feeling floaty. “Drew, let’s—”
“Yes,” his partner murmured, hauling him upright by the waist and reminding Neil abruptly of how many hours he spent in the gym. Neil was still balanced on his thigh when Nicky shuffled his way back down the hallway, and he closed his eyes so he wouldn’t have to see him as Nicky’s pace sped up. He heard a faint, emphatic curse as Nicky ran away, which he was fully prepared to ignore, but—
Andrew lifted his cheek from the hollow of Neil’s throat. He huffed a laugh, watching the hallway, and it made Neil break, too.
Soon, they were both giggling, trying desperately to muffle it in each other’s hair and skin. Andrew clutched Neil’s waist like he needed him, and Neil threaded his fingers happily in the scruff at Andrew’s neck. The feeling of the moment had him so euphoric, feeling so high, that it was easy to lose himself in it. He would be fine if he never woke up.
And then…
Andrew gently nudged Neil’s ribcage with his nose, and he rose without a second thought. Almost immediately, Andrew’s arm was wound around his waist anyway, holding him steady as he held him up.
“200%, Josten,” Andrew muttered, nipping at the shell of his ear, again. Neil shivered, and let him have his way.
“I love you too,” he said softly, and let Andrew lead them to bed.