Destro: (he's noted a slight shift in the boy's presence, but he’s also focused on--)
Destro: (...well.)
Destro: (he finds himself starting at enrion (that look, what is that look?) ((this has gone wretchedly sour))--

Enrion: (Provide. An Heir.) (He (fucked) (slept with) (had sex) -)

Destro: and he does. stop talking. stops breathing.)

Enrion: (His jealousy, if it wasn't apparent a moment ago, is blatant now. Is consuming and furious, leaving him shaking where his too-tense stance doesn't control his limbs.)

Destro: (without thought, without precise intention, he moves toward the boy--two, three steps if he can.)

Enrion: (He doesn't step back, but there's a twist of his shoulder like he means to. (His head hurts. His head is full of a dull roar.))
Enrion: That's not. Exclusivity.
Enrion: (He doesn't chart his own thought's course from the idea of Destro (fucking) (a woman) (or anyone not Enrion) to where he is now.)

Destro: ...enrion. (Softly, unable even to feel annoyed, or feel much beyond cold, ice-edged worry.)

Enrion: (He's only angry. (Hurt.) (Seething.))

Destro: that was years ago.
Destro: it was... really, very little.

Enrion: (He thinks about saying, she's alive. She's still your wife. But that's not the problem; the problem is --)
Enrion: (The problem is. Destro can't. /They/ can't.)
Enrion: (His eyes betray him - flicker down to Destro's hand. And sensing his own mistake, Enrion jerks his head and looks away, at anything else.)
Enrion: (Not like they were going to, anyhow.)
Enrion: (They weren't. They never talked about it.)

Destro: (he saw that. and it'd be difficult to miss the... potential meaning, if not the meaning's actuality (IS that what the boy was thinking? could it possibly be?) and destro holds out his hand, the ring from enrion clear on his finger.)
Destro: enri.

Enrion: (He flinches. Destro saw it. He knows, and now he's going to say something admonishing, or comforting, or apologetic.)

Destro: she has no claim on me, nor i on her. we made certain of it.
Destro: there was a body. as far as anyone knows...
Destro: she is dead.

Enrion: But she's not.

Destro: you know that.
Destro: i know that.
Destro: my sister's wife suspects.
Destro: beyond that...

Enrion: The divines know. The ones you take that vow in front of.

Destro: the general assumption is i had her killed.
Destro: ...puppy.
Destro: (he can't help it. there's a littttle little bit of 'are you serious rn' in that tone)

Enrion: (As a heart attack, daddy.)

Destro: and what if none of the assembled parties believed for a moment in those divines?

Enrion: (Enrion's face has the look to accompany that tone.)
Enrion: (/Are you serious./)

Destro: (destro did not. count on the boy putting stock in any of that dross.)
Destro: (....destro maybe should have considered this :||)

Enrion: You made a pledge of Mara and don't believe in Mara.

Destro: it isn't uncommon in the least.
Destro: ...or.
Destro: it isn't uncommon in my line.

Enrion: ...So if you made it to me. You could just walk away any time you wanted, just like you did to her.

Destro: ...
Destro: (it isn't the same. which he almost says. could snap at the boy. but.)

Enrion: (He's asking hypothetically. He can't remember. The fucking word. 'Hypothetical'. Right now.)

Destro: (but whether it's the same or not isn't the boy's focus or concern. and this isn't a time for running roughshod over enrion's... wishes. needs.)
Destro: (and.)
Destro: (and for that matter.)

Enrion: (His entire head feels like it's in a vise. )

Destro: (what the boy just said rather confirms that earlier suspicion, doesn't it? (that maybe the boy would like something lasting.) (something sealed.) (destro wouldn't have expected it.) ((oh, he would like it.)))
Destro: it isn't any divine that keeps me attached, enrion. (there's warmth in the name. there's an attempt to suggest that his use of the boy's name is no sign of coldness. what he intends is... respect. to let the boy know he udnerstands the situation's severity, or how that severity appears to enrion.)
Destro: i told you, puppy, that she and i agreed together. it was always a possibility. from the start, we knew there was nothing beyond a contract to keep us together. really, it was only a matter of time.

Enrion: (Enrion has begun chewing his lower lip, his eyes distant, his brow furrowed. (He wishes Destro would stop calling him 'puppy'.) (It keeps lancing him, it keeps hurting and tugging like a fishhook.))

Destro: when i finished with the military... mm. it took all of six weeks for us to decide on breaking.
Destro: she never cared especially for me. i never cared for her. beyond what duty required.
Destro: enrion.
Destro: enri.
Destro: what you are to me is another world.

Enrion: (He wants to (and doesn't want to) ask, /do you care for me/, just to be spiteful.)

Destro: what you are to me is... lasting. consonant.
Destro: i've told you you're unmatched. special.
Destro: the words scarcely begin to cover it.
Destro: (if he stops thinking. if he lets thought intrude. he won't be able to say a damned thing. so destro keeps talking, or will keep talking, until his words run themselves through or the boy intervenes)

Enrion: (Another tug at his insides. He's trying not to look at Destro, but. His eyes keep straying back, and his expression looks less certain of the moment-ago rage.)

Destro: enrion. i feel for you.

Enrion: (Destro could be lying. He lies a lot.)

Destro: i lack... the vocabulary needed to speak it properly. but. (looking for the boy's eyes) you ARE my fondness.

Enrion: (But - why about that, when he should have lied about a wife.)

Destro: (it isn't easy, none of this is easy but he dug this hole, he's been digging this hole for himself for years, so. pay up. endure the discomfort. and keep speaking.)

Enrion: ...If I want to leave, and for you to leave me alone.
Enrion: (He doesn't want that.)

Destro: ((he goes still)

Enrion: (He wants to hear the hypothetical.)
Enrion: (Suddenly, he bursts out- )
Enrion: Hypothetically.
Enrion: (Remembered it!)
Enrion: (...It's not a great time to feel proud of himself for remembering a word.)

Destro ... (his throat aches. feels curdled, raw. and still he nearly-smiles at that outburst, the clear pleasure in the boy's voice. found something he was looking for; well, that's something.)

Enrion: (He doesn't know precisely why he's asking. Whether he wants to know if Destro would chase him down and drag him home, or pine for him, or forget him.)
Enrion: (Or if he'll speak to some other 'puppy' and never mention there was someone else, before.)

Destro: ...is that your question? (a worn-out edge to his own question, and of course enrion hadn't spoken the full question. destro can assume the meaning; destro also doesn't. want to assume the meaning. or consider it, at all.)

Enrion: (He considers, then nods, slowly.) If I left, what would happen.

Destro: ...
Destro: (he doesn't. like this.) (the boy deserves an answer.) (Destro can face down an answer.) (he doesn't. like it.)
Destro: (he doesn't know that there's a trustworthy response. a response enrion might accept. a response that won't rend destro. but he has to try. he wants. to try.)
Destro: ...i would look for you.
Destro: listen for you.
Destro: (he's looking off into the depthless sky. can't/ look at enrion right now)
Destro: (Can't focus on anything, because pursuing his answer, the truest answer, requires a release on thought and caution)
Destro: follow you, perhaps unwisely.
Destro: ...likely unwisely.
Destro: if you wished... if you wish nothing to do with me.

Enrion: (Enrion is watching him, and the anger is. Less. Dimmer. (Jealousy fed to dormancy, perhaps.))

Destro: ...i don't always leave well enough alone.
Destro: i don't detach readily from what draws me. catches me... with a hook beneath the ribs.
Destro: i suppose you could shake me. if my pursuit caused your grief.
Destro: somehow...
Destro: if i cut off my wrist.
Destro: shattered a knee.
Destro: perhaps i could convince myself to remain here long enough to let you from my knowing.
Destro: if i knew it'd end your...
Destro: if i knew it was what you wanted.
Destro: ...i want you to be well, enri.
Destro: enrion.

Enrion: (And Enrion, looking at Destro, is remembering that only moments ago, he held this man close and whispered 'my'. That Destro is wearing his ring. (And he's saying things that cut deep, cut beautifully.))

Destro: you would be with me, however far you traveled, but.
Destro: i'd learn not to besiege you.
Destro: however much you'd have me still.
Destro: (and that. that, there. is a destro who's talked himself quiet. into an unsettled uncertainty as he stares, just stares distant.)
Destro: ((because if he looks over and enrion has vanished.) (if he looks over and the boy is nodding, suggesting yes, that's what he wishes.) (...the image doesn't bear consideration.))

Enrion: (Enrion reaches out, the way he did once in a dwemer ruin, and catches Destro's jaw with delicate fingertips.)
Enrion: (He coaxes Destro to look at him - at everything in his expression. Love and pain and jealousy and again, ever and again. Love.)

Destro: (his jaw untenses slightly at that touch, and he finds his thoughts have turned to burning haze, finds his head's an unrelenting pressure, finds his... his eyes, burning. a minor, subtle wet along his cheek.)
Destro: (and he does look, when the the boy beckons. and he sees...)

Enrion: (He can't bear that. Oh, no, no, he can't look at Destro and see (tears) (crying) - that. His entire being recoils from it, an outward rush of a breath. (He hurt Destro.))
Enrion: (Hurt him.)

Destro: (what he'd prefer to see, or is it what's real? (trust himself; he has always been able to trust to himself and his judgment.) (and. trust to the relief he finds at that sight, because. because.) that isn't the boy gone distant. that isn't destro left, stranded. (here, were he knows himself and only himself.))
Destro: (he lets his eyes shut - a moment, just a moment to collect some trace of himself - and opens them again; doesn't want to miss enrion's face for long.)

Enrion: (What else rushes away: all the anger. Enrion doesn't quite know how he got from one place to the next but--)
Enrion: (He was standing, and now he's not. Now he's on the ground, clutching hands to his face, bitterly sorry.)
Enrion: (Enrion's arms wind around Destro, and he presses his cheek to the other man's stomach, his breathing shallow, his world condensed to this single point.)
Enrion: (And he's speaking, quickly, panicked -) I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Destro, I won't. I won't, I don't want to leave.
Enrion: My fondness. My whole - everything. I'm so sorry.

Destro: (he scarcely dares to breathe, but wraps the arms around the boy without hesitation, sets his hand against the boy's hair and... carefully, gently caresses.)
Destro: puppy. enri. (his voice still sounds strangled, distant, but he's speaking, and he's aware of the boy's hair between his fingers, the boy pressed against him.)
Destro: (his world. (his entire world, before him. here.))
Destro: it's all right, enri. enri, puppy. (trying to ease his voice and succeeding somewhat, his tone becoming softer, more resonant.)

Enrion: (He's still babbling a little, explaining - something. About being jealous, about being sorry for being jealous, about wanting only Destro, only and forever, really, but half the words are a muffled mess -)
Enrion: (He wishes he could erase the past four minutes, the past ten - or just that memory, that shimmer of wet -)
Enrion: (And what he said to cause pain, and relief after pain.)

Destro: (the boy can't be blamed. (if it were anyone else, destro would fling blame without blinking.) none of this is simple, and the boy is young, can't know much at all about the ways existence complicates what might seem simple, the ways everything contorts over itself.)
Destro: (his arm presses enrion tighter, and destro inhales a shuddered breath. he needs. air. he can breathe a little, now. (enrion isn't gone.) (enrion isn't leaving.) ((there would be. so little left without him.)))
Destro: ((he curls himself over, leaning closer toward enrion, holding tighter still, and still caressing.)
Destro: i should have been more judicious.
Destro: puppy, it was a lot. it is a lot.
Destro: enrion. don't blame yourself, my puppy. my boy.
Destro: my fondness.