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 Posted: Sat Sep 09, 2017 9:56 am
It was actually a little more than a week later that Merric found himself at Lysander and Roswell's door. An extra day had passed because Merric had needed to attend to what everyone else referred to as his hunterly duties - and also because, in all honesty, Merric had needed the time to work up what he planned to say.
It was still hard. He wasn't used to any of this.
He also was hoping Roswell wasn't home. Merric lifted a hand, took a breath, and knocked tentatively on the door.
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Posted: Sat Sep 09, 2017 12:39 pm
Lysander knew that Merric was still on a timer and handn't really bothered to do anything about it, mostly because he wanted to see what would happen if he left him. Sure, he'd said to Roswell that he wouldn't sleep with the other man but that didn't mean that he couldn't find out if Merric would sleep with him.
When he opened the door and saw the other man standing there he was all big smiles. Roswell wasn't home and it looked like Lysander was passing the time colouring in a horse he'd drawn really badly in a notebook. "Come in." he said, stepping aside.
"Hope you've had a nice week." he said, and if Merric didn't know better it could almost be mistaken as innocent.
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Posted: Sat Sep 09, 2017 2:03 pm
The smiles were a little bright. Merric blinked, momentarily taken aback feeling the familiar, aggravating tinge of red start to make its way across his face even as he hastily tried to keep himself composed. He took a small breath, then exhaled it.
"I've...yes," said Merric, stepping inside. Fortunately, Roswell wasn't there - which also was a little disconcerting, because it felt somehow peculiar to be in here with just Lysander. He glanced at the drawing on the desk, Merric's fingers twisting together.
"I hope you've been well..?" he asked tentatively, not knowing if he should sit or stand or possibly run away.
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Posted: Sat Sep 09, 2017 4:47 pm
"I've been all right, I mean apart from the being stuck here thing which I'm starting to live with. I'm more all right with this being my lot now, even though I would have liked to have taken you back and shown you the life I come from, let you meet my horses, drive my cars, so many things. Now it's just being stuck here." he shrugged. "But you make do don't you, it's just what humans do."
He sat down on the bed again and gave Merric a thoughtful stare.
"Did you decide what you wanted?"
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Posted: Sat Sep 09, 2017 5:15 pm
The expression on Merric's face softened a little. "I would have liked to see your horses as well," he said, a hint of a smile touching his lips. "And your cars, though I likely would have been more afraid of them than the horses, I think."
Unfortunately, there would be none of that, since they were all stuck here. Merric's breath caught in his throat at the question, because while it was the point of him being here in the first place, actually answering it required a level of confidence that Merric did not possess.
"...yes," he said, after a long moment had passed, too long to be comfortable. The redness was a physical thing on his cheeks, hot and fierce no matter how hard he tried to control it; the unfortunate and pathetic fact of the matter was that Merric just blushed way too much for his own good.
Now was not helping.
It was also a loaded question, because what Merric wanted wasn't necessarily the answer he was giving. Or it might have been. Or it might have been a part of it, and he couldn't quite untangle the two of them to make sense of it all.
He took a breath that hurt and said, "My...my answer is...that it would be better to..." Merric tried to remember what Roswell had said. "...to come to a mutually beneficial agreement instead."
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Posted: Sat Sep 09, 2017 6:22 pm
"Eh I'm a good driver, you would have been safe, on horses or in the cars." He'd had a lot of speeding tickets, he treated them more like a measure of how good he was at driving than something to be taken seriously, suffice to say Merric likely would not have enjoyed the cars very much at all.
He did however give Merric a blank look for his answer.
"I have no idea what that is." he said. "Wouldn't a mutually beneficial agreement if you said yes be sex because then both people get what they want? And if you said no wouldn't a mutually beneficial agreement be no sex?"
He looked utterly confused.
"All hypothetical I guess." he said. "Because Roswell pretty much told me not right now anyway. Shame, I hate waiting."
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Posted: Sat Sep 09, 2017 6:45 pm
It was a wistful thing to consider; Merric would have said maybe one day, but they were not allowed back at their homes, no matter what, which meant that it would likely never happen unless they somehow magically weren't hunters anymore.
Which would have presented a whole slew of new problems. Merric felt himself wilt a little bit at Lysander's blank expression; he'd been hoping that he would have understood, because Merric himself did not entirely understand what Roswell had meant.
"I..." he started, and then stopped, because that was, essentially, what it did mean, in one respect. Merric floundered a moment, struggling to come up with an answer to this, and failing, as usual, to stop blushing so damn hard at everything.
"He - that is - " Well, he'd known that, at any rate. Merric cleared his throat. "I think - what I m-meant was that. Was that, whatever happens, all....all three of us are...on the same page..."
He trailed off uselessly.
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Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2017 2:40 pm
"Oh all three." Lysander said with a wolfish smile. "I see, upping the ante, I'm not good enough so you are holding out for a good old fashioned sandwich situation. Can't say I'd disagree with you."
He grinned. "Would you even be able to handle two people your first time? I mean, not that you'd need to think about it NOW."
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Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2017 3:19 pm
Merric opened his mouth and then closed it again, momentarily and utterly lost for words as he stared at Lysander. His mind seemed to have short circuited, because it seemed as though every irrational thought had up and disappeared from inside of his head, replaced by nothing but fuzzy static and the meaning of what Lysander was saying.
"What?!"
The word came out a little too high pitched, almost a squeak. Merric was privately wondering if it was possible for someone to spontaneously combust from blushing too hard, and now his head was filling with all the implications of Lysander's words and it was not helping at all.
"That - that's not what I - I just m-meant that - that I don't want to overstep," Merric managed to get out, though it was a little breathless. "I've already done that too - too much, I don't want to - do anything more that could cause any more m-misunderstandings."
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Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2017 3:26 pm
"You didn't overstep, you are fine." Lysander said with a lazy sigh. "Things worked out fine, I was expecting it to be a hard no from everyone but it wasn't, so that gives something for all of us to look forward to."
He lay back on the bed, which looked a little awkwardly too small for him. "None of it's your fault. It was all me. I shouldn't have stressed you and Ros out the way I did."
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Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2017 3:48 pm
The words helped, a little, even if Merric was still convinced that he'd overstepped. He shifted where he stood, hands twisting absently together in front of him, watching as Lysander stretched out on the too small bed, long lanky frame ill fitting.
His mind had slowed down enough to focus on what was being said; Merric's chest felt tight, a pressure forming across, making it difficult to breathe. He did not want to admit that he had, in the most private recesses of his mind, wanted to say yes.
But it was true that he had still intended to say no, before he had talked to Roswell. And even now it was still a no, of sorts.
He shouldn't ask, but it came out anyway, before Merric could stop it.
"Did you...mean it, though..? The offer?"
He took a breath that hurt. "I mean - even if - even if I had said no, or yes, or - or whatever, did...did you still mean it?"
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Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2017 3:54 pm
Lysander rolled onto his ride to look at Merric, his dark eyes keen and his glasses slightly askew. "Well yeah." he said "I wouldn't have said it if I didn't mean it. If it hadn't been for needing to work things out with Roswell and Roswell's input on it all if you'd showed up at my door and said yes, I'd just have told you to come in and strip and then well.. it would have been what I said it would be."
He shrugged his shoulders.
"Why wouldn't I mean it?"
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Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2017 4:26 pm
He was not going to make too much of any of this. He was not going to overthink this, he was not going to allow himself to let Lysander's words impact him in any way except to acknowledge that yes, he had meant it.
He was not going to remember the warmth of Lysander's mouth against his and the momentary flash of being wanted that had curled in his chest for the first time in what was, for Merric, a very inconsequential and meaningless life otherwise.
Lysander was given a small, slight smile that had no humor in it at all.
"Most people don't, I've learned."
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Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2017 4:34 pm
"Well most people suck." he said. "I'm a guy who means his words. There's not much point in lying really, I've never had reason to. If I want something I say so, if I'm going to do something I say so and if I think something I say so."
He let his gaze flick over the other man. "I just open the door for people though, I'm not ever going to pursue people when they might not want it. I just let them know the door's open. You aren't like everyone else, I trust you, you are a close companion." His gaze travelled downwards and then back up.
"I meant it, even before I got my hands on you."
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Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2017 4:57 pm
He gave a small, startled breath of laughter at most people suck, which died away almost at once, Merric's lips parting slightly. He couldn't quite take his gaze from Lysander. It wasn't looking him in the eyes, because Lysander's eyes were not on Merric's face, instead traveling up and down in a way that made Merric feel short of air.
It was not fair. It was not fair that this was how his life was turning out, that he could feel this way about someone that he could not have and knew it - and yet it was predictable, because nothing in Merric's life, really, was fair. He was not allowed to have the same things as everyone else.
"That...I trust you - you too," Merric managed, and it came out only slightly stifled sounding. "You - you are - that is, you and Roswell both are...are my friends."
He tried to will himself to calm down. "...and thank you, I should say. For..."
Putting words into proper sentences was hard. "...for meaning it."
And other things he couldn't say.
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