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“Hey Fred?” Norton asked as he laid himself onto the bed within his room. Frederick stood next to the bed, undoing the ponytail that kept his hair in its usual tied state, falling down to his shoulder as he fixed it. He placed the hair tie that was holding together said hairstyle on to nightstand in front oh him as he turned to face the other man lying on the bed.
“Hm?” He hums a response back to the other.
“You’re typically pretty alright about mistakes people have made in the past, right..?” Norton asks offhandedly. Frederick at this question cocks his head feeling a bit confused at him asking.
“What’d you do?” He bluntly responds. Expecting a kind answer about another fight with some other survivor—or hunter now that he’s thinking about it. Norton sighs as he lifts his back off the mattress now sitting up as he sat on the edge of the bed.
“No it’s not anything like that.” Norton ran a hand through his own hair as Frederick moved to the bed sitting down next to Norton but facing away avoiding his gaze. “It’s just-I wanna, y’know, talk about things about myself that you should know. Like the things about my past and all that. But, at the same time..”
“You’re afraid I won’t accept your past.” Frederick casually threw out causing Norton’s gaze to shoot up and glare at him, despite Frederick still not looking at him.
“I’m right aren’t I?” He could hear the faint hint of slyness in the composer’s voice a slight tilt of the other’s head revealing a cocky smile on his face causing an irritated blush to spread across Norton’s face.
“God shut up.” He shoved the other man’s shoulder as he crossed his arms in frustration, despite Frederick briefly seeing him cross his arms he could already gauge the reaction he got from the prospector causing him to softly laugh.
“Norton.” Frederick calmly spoke as he turned, fully looking Norton in the eyes. “Whatever it is, you know I’m really not going to belittle you for it, I may tease you a bit but I’m not going to shame you for those actions.”
The prospector looked down, his gaze conflicted and unsure, as an air of nervousness filling the room making them both feel unsure of themselves.
To lighten said mood Frederick placed his hand on top of Norton’s, gently caressing the rough and scarred skin.
“If you don’t want to talk about it right now you don’t have to, I am completely fine with that, even if you’ve done terrible things in the past it wont change how I feel about you now.” They sat there for a second in silence Frederick thinking that Norton may have disregarded what he’d just said but the feeling of the prospector’s head against his shoulder made him think otherwise.
A huff came from Norton as he buried his head further into Frederick’s shoulder.
“You’re far too good to me.” He begrudgingly stated voice muffled by how much he was trying to hide himself. The other stifled a laugh at Norton’s attempt at burying himself.
Frederick wrapped his arms around the other moving one hand to his hip and the other to card through his hair, the feeling of his silky strands a suprise as they brushed against his own calloused fingers.
“D’you finally wash your hair after so long?” He lazily asked as he placed his chin on the other’s head.
Norton groaned as he noticeably leaned into the touch against his body. “Yeah.” Was the muffled response he got.
“You know you can do that more often than once a week right?” Frederick questioned, playfully messing with a tuft of Norton’s hair. “It’s not like the manor’s gonna start charging you to do so.”
Norton scoffed “Yeah sure like this manor’s gonna start penny pinching at a bunch of dead people for rent money,” The prospector playfully remarked causing the composer to unsuccessfully hold back a chuckle that followed into him breaking into a fit of laughter at the comment.
Norton looked up from where he’d buried himself in the crook of Frederick's neck to see the other man’s laughing face right in front of him, he’d made jokes like this before but he’d never gotten this type of reaction out of him.
The prospector couldn’t seem to pull his eyes away from the sight. He looked astonishing when he smiled like that. Enhancing Frederick’s already soft facial features made Norton feel all the more comforted by the sight that Frederick was this happy from a joke he'd made. He couldn’t help but move a hand up to the other man’s cheek to admire him more closely. Except he failed to realize that Frederick was the type to react quickly to touch as his smile dropped down to an endeared look of confusion towards the prospector.
The act caused Norton to flush a bright red expression, shocked at the full attention the composer was giving him.
Frederick, seeing this, placed his hand over the prospector’s as he moved his face closer to him, closing the gap between them with a tender kiss. Norton leaned into it running a hand through Frederick’s untied white strands of hair as it continued.
It didn’t last for all too long as Frederick found himself being the one both to initiate the kiss and to end it.
As they pulled away Norton could see the tiredness in Frederick’s expression, his slower pull back from the previous contact paired with the other yawning, Norton moved himself up in the bed and over to where the blanket was as he motioned for the man to lay next to him.
Frederick complied crawling up to where the blanket was as he picked it up and covered himself with it. Norton moved himself closer to Frederick, the composer’s back turned to him, he slipped his arms around the composer’s waist as his head was situated against his back.
A lazy but content smile crossed Frederick’s face at the feeling of the other against him.
“I love you.” He sleepily muttered slightly trailing off at the end as he found his eyes gradually closing until he eventually fell asleep.
Norton felt taken aback at the words but now that he could tell Frederick was asleep feeling the slow rise and fall of chest against his arms that were still wrapped around him, he felt comfortable subtly pulling himself closer to the composer’s sleeping body.
He nestled his head against the back of Frederick’s body feeling his warmth and hearing his heartbeat.
It was comforting to him to know someone was with him and really cared about him, to have the comfort that someone was willing to look past his own glaring faults as a person and want him, Frederick gave him that, his company like a long awaited gift he’d never expected to receive.
When he’d first arrived at the manor payed to kill by Orpheus he never would’ve expected that this is where he’d be now, snuggled up with the participant he’d taken the place of, god what would the old man think of him now or even the him before he came to the manor, he could imagine what his younger self would think: “We should kill him for his money run and try to frame the death on someone else.” But now being where he is, what would that accomplish for him? Status and wealth were some of the things he wanted, stability, and a firm place in the world where he wouldn’t have to struggle for money or respect.
Now, he was what he was, A dead man walking, so really what did those things matter to him now. Stuck in a purgatory with people he’d never met and people he absolutely despised, though he’d grown to tolerate a few of them, though he was still a bit bitter over what Orpheus did , but when Frederick had arrived it felt strange.
He’d barely know anything about him aside from vague whispers about him from Orpheus and Melly but actually meeting him was strange. The composer was about as cold as he himself was to most he interacted with only seemingly expressing himself when directed at specific people. But overtime he’d warmed up which was what led to their meeting.
Looking back now as he comfortably laid against the Composer a love struck smile made its way across his face at how much he’d built with him.
Norton felt his own body being weighed down by tiredness just like Frederick had which led him to move his face closer to the composer’s neck leaving a few kisses on the side. “I love you too,” he stated, a loving tone to his words as he began to close his eyes, arms still wrapped around Frederick’s body and still pressed up against him as he drifted off to sleep as well.