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"Morning, babe," Dev says offhandedly as he stumbles into the kitchen, still more asleep than awake. Kier watches him beeline it towards the coffee maker like it's the single most important thing, but then again, Kier has always known he'll never beat Dev's love for coffee.
"Morning," he says, and then, "Do you not have any other nicknames?"
Dev stops short and turns to him. He hasn't even turned on the machine yet. "What?"
"I like it, don't get me wrong-" He does; Dev has been calling him babe for longer than they've been together, it's familiar and safe and comfortable. "- but you call everyone babe. I just..." He trails off. He's being petty, possessive, he's aware. It's not a completely serious complaint, but it's not a joke either.
Dev comes to sit in the chair next to him and looks him in the eyes. "You're the only one where I mean it." Kier knows that, so he opens his mouth for a dismissive agreement so they can move on from this. Dev doesn't give him the chance. "But you're right. I'll find something else, yeah? Something special, just for you."
Kier shrugs despite the pleased warmth bubbling in his chest. "If you want."
The smile on Dev's face takes on a teasing edge. "Oh, I do. Don't you worry."
Too late, Kier realizes that he just gave permission for Dev's love for pet names and his need to mess with Kier to combine into something that can only mean his undoing. But there is nothing, he knows, that could stop Dev now.
"Alright," he says, accepting his fate, "Babe."
He doesn’t do pet names like Dev does, frequent and carefree, but this one was worth it for the spark in Dev's eyes and the filthy kiss he gets for it, ending up with Dev in his lap. And all that before Dev has even had a single drop of coffee, so maybe miracles are possible.
"Morning, baby," Dev says the next morning.
Kier points an accusatory spoon at him. "That's lazy. You can do better than that."
"I gotta start somewhere," Dev defends himself, "So is that a no?"
Kier considers this. "Don't call me baby in public." That would feel... belittling.
Dev lights up. "But in private is fine?" He tilts his head. "In bed?"
"I think you have before?"
He has a thought stuck in his brain, a memory of Dev telling him one thing or the other and finishing it off with baby said in a low, sultry voice that only comes out when he wants to embarrass Kier in front of their friends, or in the bedroom.
"Once or twice," Dev admits, "Just making sure."
Amused, Kier makes some sort of vaguely affirmative gesture. "Okay, yeah, sure. That one's good."
"Kier! Look! I found you!"
Kier doesn't bother to look up from the iron ore he's mining. "What?" he snaps, "What did you find? A zombie? A witch?"
"No. Look."
With an exasperated sigh, Kier turns around. Dev is holding out a bucket to him, the warm, orange-and-yellow shine of the lava in it lighting up his face and reflecting in his eyes, giving his hair a soft glow.
"Look, it's you, hot stuff."
Kier throws his pickaxe at him.
"Puppy," Dev tries, teeth a hair's breadth away from Kier's skin. Kier laughs, and oh, there are those teeth. The laugh turns into a sharp inhale, almost a hiss, and Dev chuckles. "Maybe kitten would be better."
Kier presses his back against Dev's chest, wriggles in his embrace. "No," he says resolutely.
Dev makes a sad "aww" sound but leaves it be to focus on Kier, lips sucking on his neck and fingerpads brushing over his nipple and a large, warm palm cupping his erection through his boxers.
Kier almost forgets about it, occupied with more important things, until Dev whispers, "Bunny?" in a voice that betrays that even he thinks it's ridiculous.
"No," Kier says, "God, no."
"Yeah, that's fair."
Dev lets it go after that and they turn their attention to more important things, like getting naked, and Dev spreading Kier open on his fingers. Kier believes the matter done - for this time - right until he has Dev naked below him, his hands braced on Dev's chest, and he's shifting down to take his cock. Dev croons low, meaningless praises to him, blending together into a constant hum of his voice that lights fires in Kier's stomach just as surely as the cock filling him.
"That's it, pet," Dev says and Kier stops. Before he can collect his thoughts, Dev's hands settle on his hips and urge him down until he's sat completely in Dev's lap. Still, it takes him a moment to find his voice.
"Did you run out of animals?"
"Sexy ones, yeah."
Kier gives him a look. "You think cats and dogs are sexy?"
The grin on Dev's lips is way too charming not to kiss. "Funny how you didn't object to the bunny's sexiness," Dev says against his mouth which means Kier is not kissing him hard enough. He nips at Dev's lower lip and begins to roll his hips. That shuts Dev right up.
"Pet is fine," Kier admits eventually after he's thought about it for a little and also worked him and Dev up to a nice pace. He likes the - hah - pet name, it makes him feel small and loved and cared for. And it's not as ridiculous as the animal-specific ones.
"Alright, pet," Dev hums, and Kier thinks he could get used to that.
"Night, love," Dev whispers into the dark silence of the bedroom.
Kier smiles. This one, Dev has reserved for quiet, intimate moments: Sitting in the shadow of a tree, watching their friends laugh and banter and be happy; intertwined in each other, as close as possible, moments from the peak; late at night, in the quiet moments before sleep overtakes them. Like now.
"Love you too," Kier says, no yes or no needed for this name, and listens to Dev's breathing until he falls asleep.
"Hey, cutie!"
Dev's voice echoes throughout the eerie silence of the fortress, cutting through the thick, hot air. Kier presses his back against the warm brick wall, trying to calm his beating heart. He is the hunter here, why does he feel like prey?
"I'm not here!" he calls back.
"I think you are."
Dev's voice has come closer. With a silent curse Kier realizes his defiant answer gave his position away. He scrambles to put distance between him and Dev, ducking into the nearest hallway that leads him deeper into the fortress, away from the open air and the blaze spawners Dev should be at. Their gear is similar, but an open fight is risky. If he could get the advantage of surprise though...
He softens his footsteps on the rough netherbrick, calms his ragged breathing down, and sneaks through the hallways. Around a corner he finds a square room, lava bubbling in a small basin in the center. Behind it, the fortress opens up to empty air and lava lakes way down below.
Kier realizes he's come full circle, sense of direction skewed by the maze of dark hallways. He turns back around and suddenly Dev is right there, following him undetected for who knows how long. Kier's pulse shoots up quicker than can be healthy and he lifts his axe-
Dev slams him into the wall before he can attack. Their armor clinks together as Dev pins him against the netherbrick with his weight and presence, and Kier's pulse jumps for another reason entirely. Dev's face is so close to his, backlit by the lava, eyes a deep blue in the shadow. Kier feels his breath on his cheek and wants to chase it down, draw the air from Dev's lungs in gasps and moans.
"Not here, hm?" Dev's voice is lower than it should be, smooth with the satisfaction of a successful stalk-and-pounce. Once again, Kier has to remind himself that he is the hunter this time. It doesn't seem to matter much now.
"Nope," he says - nonsensical, useless, but he has to say something or else his knees might give in and he'll let Dev do whatever he wants to him, "I'm definitely not."
"Right," Dev deadpans, "And that's why I've got your cute little face right in front of me."
Kier can't answer. The back of Dev's hand caresses his cheek, only the ghost of a touch. A thumb brushes across his bottom lip and Kier's lips part, a barely audible whimper escaping him. Dev's grin grows.
"Oh, sweetheart," he murmurs, deceptively alluring despite the heavy iron armor weighing against Kier, despite the threat of an axe or a sword or hot, molten lava, despite the reversed game of hunter and hunted. Or maybe because. "What am I gonna do with you?"
A million suggestions immediately spring to the forefront of Kier's mind, from "let me go" to other, more provocative ideas. But he has been caught - maybe not fairly, with the runner turning into the hunter and all, but caught nonetheless - and therefore he is Dev's, now.
"Whatever you want," he offers, watches the want in Dev's eyes sharpen into hunger, and gives himself up.
"You're such a moron," Dev says, grin audible, voice dripping with affection.
Kier proudly looks down at him from on top of the aggressively pink, unreasonably huge heart he'd built right outside of their front door. "Happy valentine!"
"You," Dev says with conviction, "Are the stupidest idiot alive. It's not even Valentine's day." A pause. "Come down here so I can kiss you."
"Not when you're calling me those mean names," Kier says, mock-offended.
"Come down or I'm coming up."
That is a threat. Kier comes down. He still gets the kiss.
"Alright." Dev twirls his wooden training sword. "Bring it on, darling."
Kier brandishes his own weapon. "What are you, British?"
Dev points the sword at him. "Jack would be offended by that."
"Jack is not here." Kier strikes at him, forces Dev to jump back and start the fight on the defensive.
Dev parries a blow and drives Kier back a step with a feint towards his shoulder. "So is that a no, darling?"
Kier grits his teeth as Dev hits his sword with enough force to jar his arm. "It sounds ridiculous coming from you."
"Does it now?" In quick succession, Dev lands three hits on him: A tap to the lower arm, a strike across his ribs that will leave bruises, and a jap at his knee. "Then why do you hesitate every time I say it-" His voice drops. "-darling?"
Kier's heart skips a beat, again. Dev's sword hits true and Kier's goes flying. They stare at each other, Dev with a triumphant grin, Kier with a sword pointed at his throat. He swallows, watches Dev watch the movement of his throat, and sidesteps the weapon without consequences. He pulls Dev into a kiss that escalates and escalates until they're curled close together on the floor of the arena a good half hour later, naked, sweaty, spent.
"So darling is a yes?"
"Shut the fuck up," Kier says and kisses him again to make sure Dev listens.
"Hey, cupcake." Dev steps behind him, a hand on the small of his back. "What's going on?"
Kier gives him a sideways look. "Pastries, now?"
"I would never, you silly muffin."
"That's not even a pet name."
"Yes, it is." Dev gestures towards the spectacle Kier is watching. "What is that?"
Kier shakes his head. "No idea." Boosfer has been trying and failing to build a redstone contraption for an hour, or at least that's how long Kier has been here. At first he tried to help but that was difficult when Boosfer refused to tell him why or what for he wanted to build this... machine. Or what it should even do.
They watch as a part of the circuitry explodes. Kier has no idea how, there has been no tnt involved last time he checked.
Dev bumps their shoulders together. "You wanna leave him to it, cookie?"
Kier scowls. "If you stop calling me food-related nicknames."
There's a beat of silence. "Pumpkin?"
"Just because it isn't baked doesnt mean its not still food."
"Sugar?"
"No."
"Sugarbear," Dev says with absolute confidence and no little amount of glee, so obviously the nothing-food-related rule doesn't extend to prefixes. "I need your help."
Kier looks up from his comm. He's busy being lazy, damn it. "For what?"
Dev bats his eyelashes at him. Kier narrows his eyes. Something's up. "Villagers."
Kier pointedly looks back at his comm. "No."
"Sugarbubble."
"No."
"Sugar... spot?"
"What the- No!"
"Sugar..."
Kier puts his comm aside with an aggravated sigh. "Will you stop calling me sugar-related things if I help you?"
Dev beams. "You'd do that? Aww, aren't you sweet. Sweet like sug-"
Kier throws his comm at him.
"Relax, dove," Dev says as a finger breaches Kier, slow but relentless, and he consciously exhales, letting the tension drain from his body.
"Mh," he says intelligently, "Dev."
Lips ghost over his skin, leave a kiss on his sternum, brush over his collarbones, settle in the hollow of his throat. Dev's finger twists, pressing right into his spot, and Kier moans.
"That's it, there you go."
A second finger slips in easily, Kier breathing through the barely registering stretch and panting for more. Dev gives him more until he wrings one, then two orgasms out of Kier with deft fingers. After, when he calms down and mentally reviews, his attention catches on the name.
"Dove, huh?"
Dev smiles, fingertips lazily massaging Kier's scalp. "Yeah. You like it?"
Kier rolls to his back, stretches, careless of how Dev's eyes are glued to his naked body. "Yes."
"Hey, angel," Dev says, blocking Kier's way to the Nether portal, "Did it hurt?"
Kier stares at him in disappointment and gets ready to pearl behind Dev - he has enough pearls, trades have been good, he can afford it. "You're not supposed to have bad pickup lines and bad pet names."
"Oh, that's not what I meant." Dev shrugs and smiles and the world explodes.
When Kier has respawned and gotten over the lost manhunt and complained long and loud to Dev about his tnt trap, seriously, he was not the type of player that needed that, he says, "And by the way, you ruined angel for me forever. I'm traumatized. You traumatized me."
Dev rolls his eyes and smiles his stupid smug grin. "You'll get over it, angel."
"My sunshine," Dev says, drawing back from a lazy, languid kiss.
Warmth blossoms in Kier's belly. "Yeah."
Dev laughs, baffled. "Really? Sunshine?"
Mildly embarrassed, Kier ducks his head. "It's cute."
"It is. Just like you."
Another kiss or five, traded back and forth between them without any hurry. If Kier could stay here forever, warm in Dev's arms and with his breath on his lips, he would.
Dev's breath is hot on Kier's skin where he has his face buried in Kier's neck. Kier has his head tilted back as pleasure rocks through him with each of Dev's thrusts, eliciting little moans to fall from his lips unabashedly. He has a hand around his own cock, stroking in time with Dev's panting by his ear, and he's getting close, only needs a little something-
"Good boy," Dev says, and Kier is gone.
Dev flops down in Kier's bed without a care in the world. Kier looks up from his desk where he's doing enchanting work. "Hi."
"Hey," Dev answers, "My little firefighter."
Kier blinks. "What?"
"My sweet tomato."
"Tomatoes aren't sweet."
Dev shrugs. "But you are."
Kier studies him for a moment, puzzled. "We banned food-related names."
"Fine." He takes a pen out of his jeans pocket and- oh my god, he has a list. Kier watches in awestruck horror as Dev crosses out a couple entries on the list and then looks up at Kier again. "Blood drop?"
"Ew. No. What is wrong with you?"
Another entry crossed out. "Netherrack?"
"Are you just listing off red things?"
"Maybe." Dev's grin is entirely unapologetic. "Netherbrick?"
"You can't be serious."
"Crimson-"
"Stop with the Nether. No Nether," Kier interrupts. Again, Dev crosses out a whole section of words. That list is long.
"Parrot."
Kier sighs. "No."
"Rose," Dev starts, "Tulip. Poppy."
Kier frowns. "I don't think you've ever gotten me flowers."
"Moving on," Dev says hurriedly and taps his pen on the paper. "Granite."
Kier rubs his forehead. "That's not even red."
"It kind of is," Dev mutters under his breath and lights up when he reads the next entry, "Apple of my eye."
"That's a metaphor. And no food."
"Salmon."
Kier groans. "What do I have to do to make you leave?"
"Mushroom."
"Nevermind." Kier stands up.
"Mooshroom?"
"I'm leaving."
He gets as far as into the doorway before Dev speaks up again, tone different now, less teasing, more serious.
"My heart."
Kier stops. "What?"
"My heart," Dev repeats, like a prayer, "You're my heart and my soul."
Kier turns around, annoyance vanished into thin air. "You set that up the entire time." He can't believe this guy, honestly. He wants him so bad. "You're annoying. And cheesy. And corny."
"And you love me."
Kier kneels on the bed, drops into Dev's lap. The stupid list gets crumpled between them. "And I love you."