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It started with a box left on their shared bed, light filtering through their window onto their tousled blankets, with a note tied to it in Wil’s distinctive handwriting reading quite simply, “For: Seliph”. The two have been together for far longer than a few months, sharing their room and their hearts together in Askr. Between battles, the pair spend plenty of time together, from the baths, to meals, to sharing tea by candlelight at night, to trips to market. It’s a surprise then, for Seliph to find such a gift. With a sparkle in his cerulean eyes, Seliph knows in his heart what this means.
Wil must be showered in gifts too.
And so, over the next month, there is an unspoken exchange. Though the two still speak and keep their sense of normalcy, each find boxes wrapped with string and notes of increasing length and passion in various areas of their lives. Sometimes left in their seats in the dining hall, or gifted through the old woman at the tea shop. Sometimes slipped between the sheets of their bed, or on top of a journal. On a shelf in the library next to a book that had been considered for a while, in the pantry of the kitchen, really anywhere the other knows it will be found.
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It’s a surprise once again, when Wil asks about it in a soft, quiet voice once they’re tucked into their bed at night. “Have you tried them on…?” There’s an uncertainty in his voice that makes Seliph’s heart flutter and a blush creep to his cheeks.
Of course he has, he’s tried on every gift he’s received from Wil over the course of this unspoken exchange. Always alone, and always eyeing the items in the mirror more than a moment longer than he would normally, considering Wil’s expression should he see.
Leaning up from Wil’s chest to answer first with a gentle press of lips together, their eyes meet. One of Seliph’s hands, still unused to the feel of skin and being more accustomed to the inside of his gloves, caresses Wil’s cheek and brushes a lock of hair out of his love’s eyes. “Every single thing you’ve given me, dear. Have you…?”
Seliph feels uncertainty bubble up in his own chest, a worried twitch on his lips. Wil is quick to catch it, and presses another soft kiss between them. “How could I not? It would be a waste to leave them in their boxes forever, yeah?” There’s a chuckle following Wil’s words. Brown eyes sparkling as he leans down close to Seliph’s ear to deliver his next words, stray blue hairs tickling his face. “Could I… See? Would you mind showing me?” With a turn of his own head upwards, Seliph presses a kiss to Wil’s ear with his own breathy answer. “You’ll have to show me too, you know.” Turning his head to capture Seliph’s lips again Wil breathes out his own, “Of course, love.”
It’s only a few moments before a candle is lit on the table next to them, casting long shadows and warm light through the room. Naturally, a few more candles join it across various surfaces, giving them more than the light of the moon and stars to see each other with. Eager hands help each other out of their sleep clothes and into outfits crafted of the dozens of gifts left wordlessly between the two lovers.
More form-fitting clothes for Seliph leave a flush across his cheeks and a smile on his face while Wil’s hands run down his sides as he whispers out his appreciation for the way the close cut tunic hangs across the crest of his hip, and the colors contrasting with his long and untied hair. Seliph whispers his own praise into their next kiss, words of Wil’s kindness and how the softness of the material reminds him of his gentle touch.
A jacket for Wil, both simple and practical, is the next piece examined closely. The tunic under it is lower cut than Wil’s normal garb, leaving his neck visible, and the pants are a darker brown. A wide grin splits Wil’s face at the awestruck expression resting on his lover’s face. “It just fits you so perfectly… And the green looks so great against the tone of your skin.” Seliph kisses first his hand, and then his exposed neck, and finally his cheek. His hands, still ungloved, run through Wil’s hair before they pull Wil in for another kiss. “You know, I’ve always loved your hands like that? Not in gloves, I mean.” Wil opens one eye at Seliph, who only responds by running his hands through brown hair again. “No barriers between our skin… I can see why.” Seliph chuckles before pulling away and getting ready to put on the next outfit Wil had planned.
He’s surprised again, as he often is with Wil since they’ve lived together, when he’s pulled back by his wrist into an embrace. Melting into the touch, Wil’s lips press against the side of his neck gently. Wil’s breath tickles the sensitive skin as he speaks, “You know, I think the rest of these can wait til the sun’s up.” Turning his face towards Wil, whose breath was leaving goosebumps on his neck, Seliph refrains just a moment from meeting lips, voice low and eyes hooded. “I think you’re right, love.”
Patient hands help each other undo their new and still unfamiliar clothes, kisses exchanged with each shed piece of clothing and hands running reverently over newly exposed skin. Soon enough they settle back into bed, Seliph’s soft kisses wandering down Wil’s neck. Wil’s hands tangle in long blue hair, his breath hitching and hands tightening in blue locks when Seliph’s dusty pink lips pass over his collarbone. They tighten more as Seliph groans into an open mouthed kiss on the very same spot, spots dancing across his vision. White teeth graze Wil’s skin, and Seliph is quickly tugged back up and into a kiss as Wil’s free hand pulls their bodies close together. There’s a groan in that kiss too, pulled out of Seliph by the roots of his hair. There used to be murmured apologies whenever Wil would do something like that, he would worry he had pulled too hard. As they settled into things though, Seliph became more comfortable expressing how he liked that, the rush to his cheeks at the tingling electricity of the tugs, or Wil’s fingers combing through. Now, there’s no question, no doubt. Just trust. Seliph’s hands wander across Wil’s back, tracing the firm muscles and traces of hard won scars with the point of his nails. As their kiss increases in intensity, so too does the pressure of the scratches on Wil’s back and the desperation in their motions.
He isn’t sure when it started, when their hips began rocking together in a search for friction, but when they brush against each other, the stars behind his eyelids, the low rumble felt through lips pressed to Wil’s throat, it sets his heart (and head) spinning. They part their kisses for a moment to breathe, and there’s a wordless exchange through their glimmering eyes and the earnestness in their expressions. It’s Wil who moves first from their locked gaze, pressing his lips close to his love’s ear and whispering out three words that never fail to get a reaction. “I love you.” It’s punctuated by a kiss on the cheek, Seliph’s hair tickling his face. Seliph’s response is near a whisper, as though if he says it too loudly the words will break. Wil can feel the flutter of eyelashes on his cheek before a soft kiss is pressed there, the words “I love you too” breathed into his skin.
It doesn’t take long for their kisses to transition from promises to passion, tongues dancing together in a crescendo built high on trust. When their lips part, Seliph whispers praise into Wil’s ear, of all of the things he loves… From the way his eyes shine in the sun to the perfect fit of their hands together, the compassion and care that Seliph is finally understanding he does in fact deserve, the patience Wil has had with his nightmares, the way his hand is holding their cocks together right now. Wil takes all of the praise heaped up on him and returns it with lips pressed to skin. He’d be doing the same were his words not failing him, as Seliph’s now are too. Falling into the feeling of each other, their attempts at words devolve into moans and grunts until finally with an exclamation of Wil’s name Seliph comes first, cum roping across both of them. Wil follows soon after, peppered in kisses and stroked gently through his release.
Once they regain their senses there’s one more meeting of lips, Seliph following up with a peck on Wil’s cheek and a conviction in his soft voice. “Wil… I love you.” There’s a smile softer than the aroma of earl grey in a garden of flowers on Wil’s face as he pulls seliph into a sticky embrace. As they part they both begin to say the same thing. “Maybe we should go to the ba-” “I think we should go bath-”
It’s thankfully not hard to make it to the baths unnoticed at this time of night.