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kingdomsofrain2025-09-24 03:51 pm
onefellswoop) wrote in kingdomsofrain2025-09-24 03:51 pm
destro & enrion
-you're my home, too: introduction to coldharbour. (rook needs to edit and repost this holy shit)
-betrayal: silvanus imposes a visit. destro fucks up real fucking bad. enrion tells daddy to stay.
-dungeon doings.
no subject
Enrion Varanil: ("Oh, he's going to kill me now." And following that thought, he wonders if it would matter. If maybe he should let Destro approach and maybe it would be better if he did slip that knife between Enrion's ribs. (Destro would be deft, and maybe not merciless, but it would be magnificent.) (He'd be with Eras.) (Which is better than alone.))
Enrion Varanil: (So he uncrosses his arms, awaiting the sudden burst of speed he knows Destro can effect, the sudden infliction of steel through his leather armor. And the knife does flash across the room - Enrion watches it catch the light from the window, follows its skittering progress once it hits the stones, neatly coming to rest at his feet.)
Enrion Varanil: (And stares at it, and wonders what that means. (He knows what that means.) (Destro shared his thought, maybe.) (That it would be better than-) (Or maybe it's a challenge. But Destro sounds only resigned.))
Enrion Varanil: (He stoops and collects the knife (this is Destro's favorite, his best-kept, and his just tossed it down to scrape on the floor. Then carefully examines it, and wipes the dirt from it with the soft cloth of his gloves. Shakes his head reproachfully.)
Enrion Varanil: (And, not yet ready to think about the last thing Destro said, he holds the knife by the blade and offers its hilt to the other man.)
Enrion Varanil: You're being dramatic.
Enrion Varanil: (He can't suppress the hint of. Amusement. (Fondness, hidden, mostly hidden, barely hidden.) Even if he feels terribly sad.)
Enrion Varanil: And that’s not why I came.
Destro Rubeno: (he glances briefly at the knife. (noted the care with which enrion retrieved the knife, brushed off the knife.) shifts his focus back to enrion's eyes. (at least there's that; at least he can see those eyes, even if he doesn't trust himself to read them now, or believe what he might see.) he doesn't move to take the knife. he doesn't. need it.
Destro Rubeno: and doesn't dare approach. (wants to. approach.) (the more the boy speaks, the harder it is to remain in place. the more his chest wells, heart begins to beat a pulsing surge.)
Destro Rubeno: (and oh, if that was amusement. if that was... any manner of. not-regret, not-sorrow. (if he can believe in that almost-could-be-fondness and hold onto it. carry that away when... the boy ends him, or leaves with finality.)
Destro Rubeno: (difficult not to feel another staggered trace-edge of (hope) (elation) could-be-relief. to hear the boy had reason in coming here. that it wasn't, maybe, to put a knife through destro's heart or draw a blade along his neck.)
Destro Rubeno: (to think, dimly, wretchedly, that what the boy says next might not be damning.)
Destro Rubeno: (and destro's hand settles against the side of his thigh, fingers loosly, scarcely tapping)
Destro Rubeno: isn't it?
Destro Rubeno: ...i'm 'being dramatic.' (he starts, voice staggered for a moment. then breathes, and--)
Destro Rubeno: says the mer in the mask and the darkened room.
Enrion Varanil: (Enrion frowns, feeling the mask tug at his face, and looks down at the still-outstretched hand, the knife still in that hand. He lowers it, then looks around aimlessly for somewhere to set it. The sofa that's too close to Destro, or the table that's too far from Destro. He decides to simply put it back down - gently - on the floor.)
Enrion Varanil: (He thinks about saying the room's only dark because the windows don't let in much light, and he's masked because. Well, because... Of that man right there.)
Enrion Varanil: (He straightens and rubs his hands on his thighs, deciding to focus on the salient (sally ent) (salient) point.)
Enrion Varanil: (Maybe it would be better if he had come to kill Destro. It might have been kinder. He hadn't thought that what he's about to ask would be an unkindness. He hadn't thought Destro would care at all.)
Enrion Varanil: The ring I gave you.
Enrion Varanil: (It's a question, gentle - almost a plea.)
Enrion Varanil: It - um
Enrion Varanil: It was my brother's.
Enrion Varanil: (Was. His breath staggers, because oh, was. And he gave it to this man, who lied. He'd been so willing to trade Eras's memory for. Nothing, maybe. A trick of fate.)
Enrion Varanil: I need it.
Enrion Varanil: (In his life. In his sight. Day by day, existing as part of his own existence. It was all right when it was on Destro's hand and Destro was there every moment.)
Enrion Varanil: (Softly (brokenly) (helplessly), with a little lift of his shoulders, he repeats himself.)
Enrion Varanil: He's gone, too. So - I need it.
Destro Rubeno: (how many times can the world fall away.)
Destro Rubeno: (how many times can his knowing turn to blankness, his chest turn numb and dizzied, his hold on presence slip staggered?)
Destro Rubeno: ((the last time this happened. he watched the stone floor the space between the stones the stones untrod and always to ring cold. sign nothing. sing reminders of what was.))
Destro Rubeno: ((the last time this happened, he came to himself only barely, with the morning's light weakly entering. he on his knees, one had clutched at his chest, the other flat against stone.))
Destro Rubeno: (he can't let himself spiral off again, not now. with enrion here (he can't, he CAN'T miss the boy, what might be his last chance of seeing... the boy) (his ring) (the boy's ring) (...the boy's... brother's... ring)
Destro Rubeno: (at his side, his fingers draw together. he feels the ring without running a finger across it. has felt the ring at every waking moment, as if a natural part of himself, as if a part of himself he knows he shouldn't keep, has no right to keep, but never for a moment thought to relinquish.)
Destro Rubeno: (he can't-- enrion can't--)
Destro Rubeno: (his brother's ring, he said. he needs it, he said. why he came back here. (a retrieval mission. hoping perhaps to find the ring waiting in a corner, discarded on a shelf.))
Destro Rubeno: ((had the boy intended to slip in and slip away, without a sign. (another choked sensation at that.) (another act for which he couldn't blame the boy.))
Destro Rubeno: (it's the boy's right, if he wants it. having given the ring, having been failed. been. betrayed by destro. the ring is his right, of course.)
Destro Rubeno: (and destro doesn't precisely hear himself when he speaks, doesn't recognize that thought's slipped into speech--) you can't...
Destro Rubeno: (his fingers folding tighter, not a fist but a shield, as if it could help a thing.)
Destro Rubeno: ...enrion.
Destro Rubeno: (that word.)
Destro Rubeno: (it's that word, the sound and sensation of the boy's name in his voice in his throat, that shakes him enough to blink, to glance siddeways, then back to enrion.)
Destro Rubeno: (to feel, for a moment, as if he can breathe, must breathe.)
Destro Rubeno: (to feel the urgency in this situation. the moment slipping past.)
Destro Rubeno: (to think, clearly: i have this one chance, maybe.)
Destro Rubeno: (and the maybe is enough.)
Destro Rubeno: (he doesn't make it to enrion. the room is too long, the boy's presence too staggering. but he moves without staggering, moves quietly and with purpose (Feels almost, almost a little less ulike himself, or the self he's known himself to be.))
Destro Rubeno: (easier to see the boy's eyes from here. (harder to see the mask and feel the soul-deep wish to see it cast aside. just once. just this once. one more time, if destro can't... mend this.)
Destro Rubeno: (and though his voice still feels hollow when he speaks, it's less hushed, bolstered by edges of what could be confidence, for all he can't quite feel.)
Destro Rubeno: enrion, please.
Destro Rubeno: can we... talk.
Destro Rubeno: there are things i...
Destro Rubeno: if you would. first. please.
Enrion Varanil: (He doesn't know what he's going to do if Destro refuses to give the ring back. He hadn't. Thought. Destro would refuse. (Just as he hadn't thought that Destro had taken it off.) Now, confronted with the likelihood of being told 'no', Enrion realizes with a sinking, leaden feeling that -)
Enrion Varanil: (There's nothing he can do. Destro, perhaps spitefully (perhaps something else), could refuse, and he wouldn't. He would never. Hurt Destro over a ring, no matter whose ring it had been.)
Enrion Varanil: (It's another betrayal, that 'you can't', and Enrion's glad for the mask. He's glad Destro can't see the hurt he's causing. (He has over the past weeks determined that it's possible, very possible, that Destro likes inflicting misery on Enrion. That his crying received no comfort because Destro enjoyed the sight of it.))
Enrion Varanil: ((He's not sure he believes this to be true.))
Enrion Varanil: ((He still doesn't want Destro reading his expression.))
Enrion Varanil: (He tenses a little, his head raising, eyes going with it to focus on (Daddy) Destro's at the sound of his name. (It sounds.) (So good.) (Oh, it sounds so good.) (He missed his own name so much.) (He missed his own name on Destro's tongue.) (And other names.)
Enrion Varanil: (His lungs don't quite work, and he's gone dizzy, he always goes dizzy for this man, because Destro might not love him, but oh, Enrion's got it bad. It's this momentary slip that allows Destro to near without Enrion backing away; he only crosses his arms to hide his own unsteadiness.)
Enrion Varanil: (He wants to talk. His letter said the same thing. Enrion thinks of the paper, carefully (lovingly) folded and stowed in his pocket, and wonders what there is that could possibly be said.)
Enrion Varanil: (His silence permeates the room for a moment too long while he thinks this over, and then -)
Enrion Varanil: We can talk. But after - please. It means a lot to me. That's why I gave it to you.
Enrion Varanil: (His voice breaks, and it doesn't matter if he's wearing a mask or not; Destro's sure to know now.)
Enrion Varanil: Because you're the. You were. The first one since him to mean anything. So you have to give it back.
Destro Rubeno: (fuck. fuck, he--)
Destro Rubeno: (the words themselves and that tell-tale vocal shuddering. the silence before speech and the way it's shattered, it's--)
Destro Rubeno: (he.)
Destro Rubeno: (if he thinks about any of this.)
Destro Rubeno: (if he lets himself fall into the feeling.)
Destro Rubeno: (he'll lose certainty. lose that knotting in his chest that urges him toward... speaking, if not acting.)
Destro Rubeno: (toward reaching through this mess.)
Destro Rubeno: (what destro knows: it's a mercy that the boy is will to... listen. talk. endure this space that's so clearly levelling discomfort.)
Destro Rubeno: ((he didn't. he doesn't. he still doesn't want to be gone. and again destro feels a deep-striking knife, awareness of how badly he'd wounded this boy who cared. who. cares. for him.)
Destro Rubeno: (so don't dwell on the pain on it. don't consider what he might or ought to say. only... feel his way through this, aware of the boy's shaken voice aware of the ring aware of his own insubstantial self.)
Destro Rubeno: (he nods, once, evenly.)
Destro Rubeno: (...not quite evenly, perhaps. blinks, and blinks. and)
Destro Rubeno: yes.
Destro Rubeno: i-- if that's. how you feel. what you wish, what you need, after.
Destro Rubeno: i won't stand in your way.
Destro Rubeno: i've erred too much already. 'transgression' is scarcely a word for what i've--
Destro Rubeno: (unknowingly, he moves his right hand to cover his left, to press carefully)
Destro Rubeno: enrion. you are the only person who's meant a thing to me. (glancing sideways, blinking, because the force of what he's saying is... oh, not insubstantial. because the pit below his opens wider, deeper, cut with glass and his own venom)
Destro Rubeno: little right as i have to say it.
Destro Rubeno: badly as i've--
Destro Rubeno: (again, blinking, again, glancing aside, hand clamping quiet over his own hand)
Enrion Varanil: Destro.
Enrion Varanil: (The word shocks him to immediate silence, because it's so ill-used, so far from him, but it's a language he remembers with nostalgia, with aching homesickness. (And Destro's hand over his other hand, hiding the ring or protecting it, that means something. It means something very important.))
Enrion Varanil: (His voice has no accusation or reproach, but there's a hardening edge - like hurt. Because it shouldn't have taken all this:)
Enrion Varanil: You don't have a right not to say it.
Enrion Varanil: You didn't have a right not to say it that night, either. You should have started with that to me, and to your brother.
Enrion Varanil: If it's the truth.
Destro Rubeno: (his name.)
Destro Rubeno: (that sound alone could knock him loose from this resolve; letting it wrap around him, holding desperately to it, to the exclusion of all else. (he's missed that voice.) (he's missed his name.) (of course he has; he knows this.) (and it isn't the fucking point.))
Destro Rubeno: ...
Destro Rubeno: that's true, enrion.
Destro Rubeno: (true and thoring. true and choking blood from his heart.)
Destro Rubeno: i have... i offer no excuse for himself.
Destro Rubeno: (again looking to the side, again clutching his fist, and against, looking back, finding the boy once more.)
Destro Rubeno: of course i care for you.
Destro Rubeno: ...but you know that, don't you?
Destro Rubeno: (just gonna. unwrap his hands. find himself looking down at his left.)
Destro Rubeno: (fingers flexing in and out, head cocked, half as if musing, mostly trying, trying to capture words that might serve.)
Destro Rubeno: it was a betrayal. you'll believe me, perhaps, when i tell you i felt it... and you'll know that for all of that feeling, i didn't alter my course.
Destro Rubeno: it was cowardly. i was cowardly. you are...
Destro Rubeno: i've spoken with silvanus since.
Destro Rubeno: (only that isn't the point. only that begins to feel like evasion, and he shakes his head once, finds enrion's eyes again)
Destro Rubeno: i am unaccustomed to sharing my... vulnerabilities. or my self. to the interfering world.
Destro Rubeno: but.
Destro Rubeno: you are nothing to be hidden. to be stashed away.
Destro Rubeno: i regret what i said. and i... could stand to alter some measure of my ways.
Destro Rubeno: i would. like to.
Destro Rubeno: i'm sorry, enrion.
Destro Rubeno: i am not---
Destro Rubeno: it is not well, without you.
no subject
Enrion Varanil: (Instead, it all feels...lukewarm. Oh, not the apology. Not Destro's distress. But 'I care for you' and. "It is not well". He could mark it up to the thought that Destro isn't demonstrative, except he responded to Enrion's presence by slinging a knife across the room.)
Enrion Varanil: (He responded to another man advancing on Enrion by slitting his throat.)
Enrion Varanil: (...He could say so earnestly and simply that he didn't love Enrion.)
Enrion Varanil: (He knows Destro is capable of shattering everything he knows and understands. And in the face of 'I care for you', he feels...(hopeless) (disappointed) as though maybe. Maybe there's something he let slip away. Maybe if he'd seen it sooner, encouraged it, or.)
Enrion Varanil: (Maybe something. Maybe anything.)
Enrion Varanil: (He considers prodding that comment about vulnerability - asking him if he thinks. If he really thinks that anything Enrion could do with 'vulnerabilities' would be worse than what's happened. If it could be worse than living without Enrion, the way Enrion is living without Destro.)
Enrion Varanil: ((What does any of this matter, though.) (He's not staying.) (Except Destro said he spoke to his brother.) (There are things he saying, amends he tried to make.) )
Enrion Varanil: (He lets the silence stretch out and out, then reaches up and hesitates, then removes first the mask, then the hood he wears.)
Enrion Varanil: (And cautiously - perhaps toeing the knife a little farther away from them both as he goes - he approaches the other man. (It takes too much to think about why. It takes too much when Destro is everything he wanted to know.))
Enrion Varanil: (Everything he wants to know, still.)
Enrion Varanil: (He doesn't reach out. He could. He could touch his fingertips to Destro's chin and force his eyes to hold, and overcome him (because he can, and he has before))
Enrion Varanil: (Instead. Instead he kneels down at Destro's feet, and turns his face up, supplicating. (Adoring. He was only ever adoring. And he wants -) (Love. He wants to be loved back.))
Enrion Varanil: (Softly, and steadily, and unfrightened:)
Enrion Varanil: This is vulnerability. You could cut my throat and I would bleed happily for you. You praise me and my world glows. You show disappointment and I want to die. That's what vulnerability is. I gave it to you /because/ I love you.
Enrion Varanil: (He breathes in, then sighs, his eyes drifting for a beat. And he refocuses, letting Destro see his hope, and his misery, and his longing.) You know better words than 'I care for you'. Make me stay with you.
Enrion Varanil: (And.)
Enrion Varanil: Make me want to stay with you, Destro.
Enrion Varanil: Or give me my ring back.
Destro Rubeno: (his first thought, when the room is still and the boy holds silent, distant: it isn't enough, what he's said. (and how could he ever say enough. he'd tried. he's... reaching. for something. and it isn't enough.) which reeks of loss and wraps nausea through his veins. which grips his head in roiling pain.)
Destro Rubeno: (but the boy.)
Destro Rubeno: (oh, the boy. removes his mask. (that soft strength of his jaw, the lips he's seen lit by brilliant smiles, uncomplicated pleasure. (the hair, clean. combed. the boy looks... oh, collected, even in unheaval.)
Destro Rubeno: (and destro thinks, if nothing else, it's one more clear-struck sight to hold.)
Destro Rubeno: (and destro looks... stricken by the image. help rapt and breathless, eyes unguarded, unsure of what to know in this moment uncertain of himself, but grateful, but wanting, but thinking, if he can only find a way to stop the loss.)
Destro Rubeno: (he's wrought such damage.) (he's always been so capable of damage.) (ridding himself of what he doesn't want, and how, now, does he learn to keep hold?)
Destro Rubeno: (enrion is telling him. in those unveiled flickers of expression (the boy is deeply, intensely expressive; clear in his meaning, his smiles his frowns his well-placed words.)
Destro Rubeno: (enrion is before him, near and unreachable, or--)
Destro Rubeno: (not, unreachable.)
Destro Rubeno: (this, an offering of nearness. this, a sign of... of.)
Destro Rubeno: (it hasn't, maybe, been lost yet. the boy is here, and waiting. (the boy combed out his hair and came here.) (the boy approached, and knelt, is kneeling, is near.))
Destro Rubeno: (destro's head aches and his chest hums agony. destro's pulse races irreconcible, and yet. the boy has spoken. and yet. there are words yet to say, and--)
Destro Rubeno: enrion.
Destro Rubeno: (his voice soft now, steadier than anticipated.)
Destro Rubeno: (and his hand drifts to the boy's hair, unplanned. (and he thinks. he should flinch. he should cut off his offending hand before he dares to touch the boy.) and he settles in that soft, the gold, unflinching. shifts his thumb, careful, light, along the boy's skull.)
Destro Rubeno: (it helps. it anchors him, somewhat. tells his being the boy is here, truly. this. this is irrefutable proof, and his chest loosens with each near-caress (is-caress), and it's easier, a little, to look at the boy, and feel the world around him (the world defined by and centered in this boy's presence; the world turned hushed because the boy's returned... if only for a moment.) (or.) (no.) (not. only for a moment.)
Destro Rubeno: (that sound; the boy responsive to his touch. and destro's lip flickers, sign of sorrow and of wanting, sign of... it's too much to hope. but. perhaps.)
Destro Rubeno: (that minute and that momentous nearing. the boy's head tilted slightly toward his hand, and destro's hand shifts in kind to pressure a little closer. to press, and allow his fingers to caress. careful, catching at his lungs.)
Destro Rubeno: puppy. my puppy. (a near-hesitation, near silence because he doesn't know if he can say or ought to say these words, but before thought before worry can settle in, he's speaking, drawing the boy's head perhaps a little nearer to him, curling his wrist, his arm, to wrap closer around the boy's head.)
Destro Rubeno: do you think you haven't had my vulnerability? imperfect, perhaps incomplete, but you must know... i've bared my throat before you. stretched my wrists before your knife, knowing or not.
Destro Rubeno: i don't say i haven't erred.
Destro Rubeno: or that i've been... the lover you deserve.
Destro Rubeno: puppy.
Destro Rubeno: my enri.
Destro Rubeno: (his free hand has found enrion's jaw, enrion's cheek. has brushed back a few strands of carefully-kept hair.)
Destro Rubeno: ((he missed, oh he missed, this touch.))
Destro Rubeno: ((his hand at the boy's cheek, and enrion welcoming.))
Enrion Varanil: (At that word. Not 'puppy', not 'Enrion', but at 'Enri', his breath shudders out of him in a rush, in a silent cry, and he winds his arms around Destro's waist. It's not over - he'll keep listening. But he missed it. He missed this so much, it felt like dying.)
Destro Rubeno: (he sinks into that hold. sinks to his own knees, drawing enrion further with him, if he can. wanting, needing to wrap his own arms around the boy. needing to feel him closer, all space between them vanquished.)
Destro Rubeno: (it's instinctive; he can't keep away from that hold. can't help but fall and fold into it, try to keep the boy to himself. (if he holds close enough, maybe enrion won't vanish.) (or. if he holds close enough, he may find the way to speak, to say and show his meaning.))
Destro Rubeno: (and he whispers, soft, his head pressed against enrion's, 'enri' and 'my enri' and 'i'm sorry, i've missed you, my enri.')
Destro Rubeno: (until he can speak again, more clearly. head too warm skull pressed with burning. until he speaks, hand running through the boy's hair--)
Destro Rubeno: my enri. you are all the adoration i have known. all of the fondness i possess, the voice to every longing and the seat of all my love.
Destro Rubeno: puppy. my enri. (one hand shifts again to enrion's cheek, thumb brushing careful, eyes searching the boy's. eyes worried and hopeful and trying, trying not to hide in shades evasive.)
Destro Rubeno: i do... i might wish i were more familiar with words. with the language i'd like to use in speaking to you, and speaking of you.
Destro Rubeno: i should never have taken this long.
Destro Rubeno: and. at the same time. it is... not without significance that i've learned, that i am learning this speaking from you. through you. for you.
Destro Rubeno: puppy.
Destro Rubeno: (hand holding the boy's jaw, thumb tracing gentle along its course)
Destro Rubeno: my enri, i do love you.
Destro Rubeno: beyond any depths i suspected in myself. beyond capacities i knew myself to hold, or understand in the least...
Destro Rubeno: i adore you, puppy.
Destro Rubeno: my darling boy.
Destro Rubeno: (and, if he can, he's going to kiss that enri on the goddamn lips, lingering for a moment, and another)
Destro Rubeno: my enri.
Enrion Varanil: (He missed this. His missed Destro, so much that being here in his arms, both of them driven to their knees (equitable) is like the first breath of air, the first taste of food. Not after anything at all. The very first there ever was. He's too stunned, too overcome to do more than stare, wide-eyed, letting each word sink into him one by one -
Enrion Varanil: his expression a complex shift of emotion: agony and desperate yearning, rapture and the faint promises of a smile. (It's been so long.) (It's been a few weeks, and a few weeks is forever without this man.) (Lonely and directionless and colorless.))
Enrion Varanil: (And he's speaking, as if all he needed was to be reminded what he was trying to save. (Or maybe. Maybe he was scared.) (Maybe he was lost, and Enrion helped him find his way back.) The thumb along his jaw leaves tingling warmth in its wake, a blush burning up through his cheeks and down his throat. His lips part, and then tug to a lopsided helpless almost-smile, a huffed laugh that has nothing to do with humor (a laugh he's given before, late at night when they lay in one another's arms, or when he kneels at Destro's feet; evidence of thrill, evidence that Destro has touched him deeply and intimately.))
Enrion Varanil: (And the words come. He knew they would come, and he knows he never really doubted Destro loves him. The satisfaction of a missing puzzle piece found and placedshows how well Enrion guessed.
Enrion Varanil: (He could cry, could bury his head against Destro's neck and sob his heart out, grateful to be (home) here, grateful to have heard - grateful that it was Destro who said those words first to him, of all the people in the world.)
Enrion Varanil: (Instead, Destro kisses him, and Enrion goes still, one shattered breath barely passing his lips, his eyes closed with - euphoria. Ecstasy. This is home, this is what it is to come home and be loved and be /certain/ of both home and love.)
Enrion Varanil: (And to be kissed sweetly by the one who is, provides, embodies home and love. His hand covers Destro's, a plea for him to stay while words fail Enrion, to kiss him again--
Enrion Varanil: Enrion's heart is a rush in his ears, his pulse a tremor through his fingertips and every unmoving part of his body. And words come against Destro's lips, sighed and prayerful.)
Enrion Varanil: I missed you so much. I missed you every minute, even in my sleep. I'll stay. I can't stay away from you.
Enrion Varanil: (And.)
Enrion Varanil: I love you, Destro. My Destro. Let me stay. Keep me.
Destro Rubeno: (he couldn't have dreamt this. he couldn't have conjured this moment in wishing, and he finds himself undone again, again, again, pressing into that kiss and wrapping closer around enrion, his enri, his enri again.)
Destro Rubeno: (and he doesn't doubt a word. knows better than to doubt a thing this boy says or does; there is no one and nothing truer than enrion. there is nothing and no one destro would trust better, or anything like. (and what hasn't this boy done to win that trust a thousand times over? enrion is worth everything.)
Destro Rubeno: you'll stay.
Destro Rubeno: enrion. my enri. my love. (another kiss, this to the forehead, and after, destro leans his head against enrion's humming a sound of relief and weeks-long-strangled grieving, of adoration, or a world brought back to place.))
Destro Rubeno: stay with me.
Destro Rubeno: for always.
Destro Rubeno: freely. openly.
Destro Rubeno: stay with me, my home.
Enrion Varanil: (He knew how much he missed Destro. All the longing, the restless and unending days turning into restless and unending nights. He loathed his own homesickness, and hated Destro for his lie (whatever it might have been), but he never denied how much he missed it. He knew he would always belong to Destro. What he hadn't considered was how much (or even IF) Destro missed him in return. He didn't think of the impact of his absence, knowing only that he needed to be gone.)
Enrion Varanil: (He knows now. He hears the aching sound that matches almost exactly the noise he made when Destro's hand met his head, the first touch after separation. He knows that sound for what it is, and doesn't doubt anything Destro says now. Here.)
Enrion Varanil: (But. (Hard to shake off the haze, hard to swim to the surface from this sudden tide of pleasure, to stop his hands from caressing and keep himself from lunging forward to kiss again, and again.) But it's not done, the talking isn't. Over. Because if Destro loves him, then there's another truth about the words that parted them.)
Enrion Varanil: (Before he'll say 'yes'.)
Enrion Varanil: (He reaches up to caress Destro's cheek, his forehead nudging the other man's. Still here. Still here.)
Enrion Varanil: I'm not a secret.
Enrion Varanil: Not from anyone, ever. I'm not something you hide. You don't have to be proud of me, but you can't be ashamed, either. Promise me.
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Destro Rubeno: puppy. (again, brushing that cheek, brushing at that hair) i've only ever been proud of you.
Destro Rubeno: my shame was only ever in myself, but. in entertaining that shame, i did you wrong. i... did wrong by my enri. and there's no altering that fact.
Destro Rubeno: it won't happen again, enrion.
Destro Rubeno: you are... a beautiful adoration. my beautiful fondness.
Destro Rubeno: and i'll see that everybody knows.
Destro Rubeno: my brother does know. now. or he knew, and no i've told him.
Destro Rubeno: if you'll accompany me to my sister's... i would like very much to introduce you.
Enrion Varanil: (Enrion surges through with hope and warm, honeyed pleasure. His eyes fix adoring on Destro's, and really, if he doesn't hang the moon, then who needs the moon. Enrion is smiling, had started smiling without realizing it, maybe from the first vow - uncomplicated, unthreatening. Maybe at the assertion of pride, because it's something to know he's been cause for pride for this man. Whatever the case, he shines radiant with it, feels the whole world gone golden and soft the way it would when he lounged beside Destro at any hour, both of them at peace.)
Enrion Varanil: (The first word he manages to slip is a whispered, reverent 'Daddy', coupled with another nudge of his head - almost playful, certainly inviting.)
Enrion Varanil: (When he recovers a little from this bloom of (bliss) pleasure, he catches his lower lip between his teeth and cocks his head a little, the better to see Destro's mouth. Then returns his attention to those eyes, and he could stay like this forever, couldn't he? (Won't he?)) I'll go where you go. Anywhere. I'll never - never - leave you again.
Enrion Varanil: I promise.
Enrion Varanil: (Oh. Oh, and.)
Enrion Varanil: (With a look of elation:)
Enrion Varanil: My love.
Destro Rubeno: (twice again, he's struck through, shot and shattered through by words and all their ardency. by the word, the appelation he believed he'd never hear again. (and so readily offered, so full of fondness and more beyond, and when enrion nudges destro's head, of course he nuzzles back, a lingering brushing of forehead against temple.)
Destro Rubeno: (and the other.)
Destro Rubeno: (and the other, given as if the words and the boy had only been waiting. given in joy, in exuberance.)
Destro Rubeno: ('my love,' enrion says. ('my love,' destro said.) these words breaking beyond bare language, speaking past the bounds of bare syllables. this, oh this, is what he should have said all along. what he won't leave off saying again.)
Destro Rubeno: my own.
Destro Rubeno: my love; i won't let you leave. and i'll never give you cause. puppy, i'll learn... everything, every language, every strength for you.
Destro Rubeno: my enri.
Destro Rubeno: i am yours, entirely.
Destro Rubeno: (and enrion is 10000% getting another kiss rt)
Enrion Varanil: (He could stay here forever, but. But he'd like - One thought strikes, and then another follows. A different option, something he missed terribly and could get nowhere else. Wouldn't have tried, no matter how desperate the need. He draws back just a little, his eyes fond and searching, his expression without edge.)
Enrion Varanil: Can we - (A cant of his head towards the stairs. A familiar way of requesting, though without the usual sharp, hungry desire.)
Enrion Varanil: (Instead, he adds quietly:)
Enrion Varanil: Just to hold.
Enrion Varanil: Please, Daddy.
Destro Rubeno: (as if he could or would deny a thing the boy requested. as if he could think for a moment to withhold anything the boy might ask. and--)
Destro Rubeno: (he. swallows. roughly, because.)
Destro Rubeno: (that request. oh he.)
Destro Rubeno: (he would...)
Destro Rubeno: anything, puppy.
Destro Rubeno: anything you wish.
Destro Rubeno: and i--
Destro Rubeno: oh, enri. i'll hold you through the night.
Destro Rubeno: we'll hold each other, my fondness. my puppy.
Destro Rubeno: (smiling now, shaken and shattered a thousand ways and warm, oh warmed through and through, he presses his hand against enrion's cheek, loving, utterly loving.)
Destro Rubeno: to bed, puppy.