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Martin was already lounging, poetry book in hand when Jon finally picked what book he was going to read. They’d been to the book cart the past week and Jon and Martin had both indulged in getting a number of books, to fill the bookshelf that Tim and Danny had helped Martin build as a surprise for Jon. “It looks so empty” had been all the prompting needed for Jon to agree to getting more than normal.
(Jon, trying to be practical, looked for books that would be useful. A hefty tome on local history, one about botany that seemed to go in depth on the plants inside, one on creating your own pigments and dyes, even one on different birds in the continent—and that one was useful in general, not just because Jon had been enjoying the local songbirds and wanted to know more about them—along with a few other dense books that seemed useful and interesting. Martin had seemed unimpressed, but that was fine because Jon hadn’t been impressed by the poetry books Martin had gathered. But, when Martin encouraged him to ‘branch out’ and ‘try something new’ he let the vendor pick two so called ‘popular’ books to add to their purchase. He was skeptical, but Martin’s smile had been worth it.)
So Jon had been going back and forth on what book to read. The rain outside and fire merrily crackling in the fireplace made him want something cozy, and so he had been thinking about the book on architectural design, but in the end he had picked up the smaller book recommended to him. It was some fantastic drivel from the look of it, a book where magic was whimsical and used for adventure and wonder, not based on fear and—
Jon physically shook his head to get the thought away, moving to Martin. He could sit beside him, but it was much nicer to use Martin as a pillow so that was what he opted for. Wriggling a little closer he heard Martin laugh and took a moment to soak in the warmth of his boyfriend before cracking open the book.
He didn’t mean to give commentary. Normally their little reading sessions were quiet, beyond Martin sometimes trying to win him over with a line that was ‘really good, you’ll like it this time.’ And while Jon would never get poetry, he didn’t hate it if Martin was reading it to him. But this time he kept finding himself muttering to himself in disbelief:
"That just isn’t realistic. Magic has never worked like that."
“Hah. A war dash lock, so clever.”
“Why are there sparkles. There’s never been sparkles when using out powers.”
“A kiss doesn’t just make a magic-proof barrier? What?”
“You can’t tell magic happened due to ‘glittering dust’ left in the area. More like by the minds shattered or lives ruined . . . ”
“Magic powered purely by your love? What’s next? Magic powered by indigestion?”
“The evil warlock just . . . turned into bubbles?”
Jon finally gave up and dropped the book with a grumble. This did cause Martin to shift so he could look at his boyfriend. “Done?”
“No. The protagonist just discovered a new form of magic powered by intercourse! Do you know how absurd that is?! And I don’t need to read about, about . . . ” Jon pulled a face and Martin shifted to pull Jon closer.
“We’ll hand that one off to Sasha next time we see her then.”
Jon nodded in agreement, resting his head on Martin’s chest and enjoying the way he could feel it rise and fall as Martin breathed. It was peaceful, and warm, and safe.
The quiet was broken a moment later when Martin sat his book down. “Sorry, I just, you said something about magic sparkles and glittering dust?”
Jon sat up, and nodded, not hesitating a second. “It was absolute absurdity! I don’t think the person writing the book even knew what magic was in the loosest sense, everything was all flashy lights and sparkles and glittery and color. And there was an evil rabbit of all things—!” Jon began gesturing as he tore the book apart, critiquing the amount of cloaks everyone wore, the magical inaccuracies and how contrived the plot had been. He caught the smitten look on Martin’s face, and it made him flustered enough to pause long enough to steal a kiss from his boyfriend before continuing on with his critique.
