Chapter Text
His body was warm against Giorno’s skin, the gentle rise and fall of his chest a steady rhythm that almost could’ve lulled Giorno down to sleep if he let it. Tracing patterns over Fugo’s belly, head tucked in that soft place between his shoulder and pectoral muscle, Giorno allowed himself to feel something like peace.
“Fugo,” he whispered soundlessly, not wanting to wake him.
“Pannacotta.” It slipped from his mouth like the secrets in Pandora’s Box, at once thrilling and terribly forbidden. What would Fugo say, if he heard Giorno call him by that name?
Asleep, he looked so beautiful. He was beautiful awake, but now he seemed even smaller than he tried to make himself, gentler than he’d ever been, as fragile as blown glass. Suddenly, Giorno was seized with a hunger. He looked at the vulnerable curve of Fugo’s pale neck and his teeth itched, like he wanted to bite that tender flesh and lock his jaw there forever. The fantasy felt right, the phantom taste of Fugo’s blood welling up in his mouth, and he wondered if he couldn’t just latch on like that and be a leech on Fugo’s body forever.
Wake up, Fugo. Look at me. See me. Hear me. Know me.
Fugo’s eyelashes cast spidery shadows over his face in the candlelight.
If I fell into your arms, would you catch me? If I gave myself to you, would you keep me? How can I make sure you won’t hurt me, leave me? How can I be sure that it’s me swathed in your love, and not just what you imagine of me?
Oh, Pannacotta, what would you do if I told you my name?
He imagined, for a moment, what it would feel like for Fugo to whisper it in his ear. Haruno. It felt wrong, it had always felt wrong, but from Fugo’s lips it might be sacred. A secret only he would know, that Giorno Giovanna was really somebody else entirely.
A secret like that might destroy him, but Fugo wouldn’t use it that way, right? Fugo wouldn’t tell.
I wouldn’t, either. You can tell me your secrets, too. We can share. I’ll hold your leash, and you can hold mine. You can have me if you’ll take me. I’ll give it all to you. But you’re always so far away. Come closer, put your lips on mine; I want to see the stars in your eyes. Sleep with me, Fugo. We can be defenseless together.
But Fugo was the one sleeping, and Giorno was the one awake.