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With breathless desire and his heart pounding against his ribcage, Ran knew he fucked up. Yet, in that moment, as he was racing through the trees following the scent he knew far too well, he couldn't give a single shit. Cormac was close, he knew it, he could practically taste his scent on the tip of his tongue, and he was finally going to get his mouth on the masked man.
“Ran?” A deep, familiar, comforting voice called once he burst through the treeline, Cormac standing not far from the riverbank nearby. Ran couldn't speak, just closed the distance between them and grasped the front of his tunic.
“Get on yer knees!” he demanded through panting breath, ignoring the other man's hearty chuckle.
“What? That eager to see me?” Cormac teased, but the humor in his voice died down at Ran's insistent tugging. This....whatever it was- it was still so new, so fragile, that neither of them had done anything more than simple hand-holding when they felt they could get away with it. Back at the camp, there were far too many prying eyes and hushed whispers. Ran had been warned more than once by the Wolves to keep his distance from the Wretch, the beast the Cats had created. Every time he bit his tongue, spewed the honey-coated lies they wanted to hear, and always did the exact opposite.
Which is what lead them to now, to Ran's hand trembling.
“Dove...?” Cormac's hands, rough and powerful and bloody but so achingly gentle, touched against his waist, sliding up to rest against his heaving chest, “What's wrong?”
“Cor,” Ran dug his fingers into the rough fabric of his tunic, “cannae reach it from 'ere. Just-?”
“Can't reach what?”
“- please!”
Whatever further questions Cormac had died on his tongue at the pleading, at how badly Ran's hands were shaking, one of them clenched so tightly he could hear his knuckles creak. Gods, this was hardly the first time he wished this damn helmet was off so he could see his dove properly, but now his chest ached at the mere implication that Ran was distressed enough to beg.
“Alright, alright,” soothing a hand down his side, Cormac dropped to one knee, resting his helmeted head against Ran's abdomen, “what's wrong, dove?”
“Nothin',” Ran laughed, uncurling his fist to reveal an ornate key, “never been better, lamb.”
Before Cormac could ask, Ran fumbled with the enchanted lock at the back of his helmet, ignoring the startled cry of “Ran?!” as the key slid home. With a turn of his wrist, the lock clicked, and a chunk of metal hit the ground beneath them.
Damn those cursed Cats, he should've realized one key wouldn't remove the whole thing, but now-
“Fuck,” dropping the key, Ran cupped pale cheeks, calloused thumbs smoothing over smooth, unmarred skin, “knew ye'd be gorgeous....”
“Ran-” he could barely hear him, so entranced by the way his mouth moved, how soft and pink his lips looked, “Ran what did you do...?”
“Stole the key right out from under that bitch,” he grinned, gripping at Cormac's face as the other man stood once more to tower over him, “thought she was clever hidin' it, but I found it!”
Cormac still couldn't see, the top portion of the helmet still locked in place, but...he couldn't remember the last time the bottom portion of the helmet had been removed. He couldn't remember the last time he felt the wind on his face, or gentle hands touching him. Had anyone ever touched him the way Ran was- like he was precious? Like he wasn't a monster?
Gripping tanned wrists, Cormac pulled him in closer, pressing lips to palm and shuddering at the feeling. He'd only ever dreamed of this- of getting his lips onto Ran's body and mapping out every inch of him. He might not know him by sight, but he knew him by touch alone, with his hands and teeth and lips guiding his way. Ran laughed as Cormac nipped the meat of his palm, brushing the tip of his nose against his wrist to drink in his warm, inviting scent.
“Gonna spend all this time just bitin' me, or can I finally kiss ya?”
Cormac shuddered at the mere thought of it. Gods, he could do that now, couldn't he? With the face plate of his helmet removed, those dreams could soon be a reality. And Ran had made it possible- he'd done this for them.
Fuck, there was no way he'd ever be able to repay him for this.
Ran laughed as Cormac peppered his cheeks with kisses, the two of them pressed chest-to-chest as eager hands clawed at each other. Ran tugged Cormac's face down towards him, his lips ghosting against his as he demanded,
“Kiss me.”
Now that...that was an order Cormac was happy to follow.
~~~~~~~~~
“I've been trying so fuckin' hard to keep hating you.”
Cormac watched as Ran swung the axe down with excessive force, splitting the hunk of wood cleanly in two. He'd been out here for hours chopping wood, trying to get what anger that was building up inside of him out, but now, Cormac was starting to worry. He'd been growing used to this new version of his dove, this angry and volatile man, so unlike the carefree pup he remembered. But that had been over 200 years ago and he was foolish to think, given all the shit he'd endured, that he'd come out of it unscathed.
No matter how much he wanted to close the distance between them, Cormac stood back, watching as Ran raised the axe once more and swung at another helpless block of wood.
“I know” was all he could muster.
“It was so easy before-!” Ran snarled, leaving the axe embedded in the poor stump, and even from where he stood, Cormac could see his hands shaking. “'s what fueled me fer years. Kept me going. Kept me alive.”
If nothing but hatred and spite had been keeping him alive up until now, if that had been his only reason to get up in the morning...what did it mean now, when those feelings were slowly being consumed by something else? Something far more dangerous than hate.
Cormac shifted, fists clenched at his side, “I'm-”
“Stop it!” Ran hissed, his shoulders tensing. He knew what the fucker was going to say. He just knew it-
“I'm sorry.”
That had Ran turning, yanking the axe from the stump as he screamed, “Shut up! Shut up shut up shut up !” He thrust the axe head under Cormac's chin, weapon shaking with every ragged breath. But Cormac didn't dare move away, not even when tears began to form in Ran's eyes, not when his face crumbled from heated rage into twisting pain.
“Ye were never supposed to be sorry.”
The axe fell, clattering at their feet as Ran grabbed hold of Cormac's tunic, pulling the other man down into a kiss. It was full of tears and teeth, so unlike their first all those years ago. But, as Cormac wrapped his arms around his waist, he didn't give a shit if it was different. It was theirs , and that's all that mattered.