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 Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2016 7:44 pm
Hours passed, Cody had brought a box of kleenex over to the couch and was sitting with it. He was holding it in his hands loosely, leaning against Dari. They'd decided on another movie, but Cody kept finding new things to quiz Dari on; what was his favorite thing to do as a kid? Did he and Toby have a secret place they liked to play as children? He told Dari about a fort he and his cousins had built; but it'd fallen down within the week due to a rain storm. Afterward, his uncle had built the three of them a tree house. "It wasn't as much fun, though, he reflected. "It was better with us building it."
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Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2016 7:48 pm
Dari mostly had to lie. He knew a great deal about Toby's childhood and filled in the information where he could, but he still had to lie, and each time it drew a little bit of his soul out of his chest. To lie so frankly to his lover... Toby had begun with the intent to never lie to Maia and here Dari was, spinning false yarns to please his boyfriend as to a childhood he had never actually enjoyed.
"It's always more fun when you do it yourself," Dari agreed. That much wasn't a lie.
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Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2016 7:56 pm
Cody moved so he could see Dari's eyes. "I wish I'd known you back then," He said. "We could've found each other sooner." It was cheesy, but he knew he wanted to spend his life with Dari. "I could've loved you sooner." He smiled. "We have a lot of time to make up for."
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Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2016 7:59 pm
Eh, only about eight years, give or take. Dari smiled, although behind the well-trained mask of his face it was forced. The only chance they might have had was if Cody worked for the Bureau a decade ago, and he would have had to be a different man for that. Maybe he'd have fought to have Dari saved too.
"We have now. That's all that matters."
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Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2016 8:03 pm
"Yeah," Cody agreed. Now and the future. He put a hand to Dari's cheek and stroked it with his thumb. "The worst part about this flu is I can't kiss you," he complained.
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Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2016 8:07 pm
"That'll make the first since your illness even sweeter," Dari said with a smile. He leaned over and kissed Cody's cheek. He noticed the clock as he did so and then sat back slightly, stroking Cody's temple.
"It's getting late. Do you want to get a shower before bed?"
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Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2016 8:12 pm
"If I'm not driven insane by then," Cody said. "Yeah," he said, "Maybe the steam will help me breathe," He stood and kissed Dari's cheek.
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Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2016 8:22 pm
Dari lowered his voice an octave. "Do you need any help?"
He nosed Cody's back and laughed, then gave him a hug from behind while still sitting. "Are we sharing a bed tonight?" That was his favorite.
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Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2016 8:26 pm
"No, but you could join me," Cody was teasing. He coughed a bit, and allowed the hug. "Of course. Are you sure you're okay sleeping with my germy self?"
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Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2016 8:31 pm
Dari's voiced lightened. His next question was entirely innocent.
"Do you need help?" he asked, and then nodded, "Let's be honest, if I'm going to catch it, I've caught it already. Sleeping with you isn't going to alter my chances much." Or at all, really, since he was immune to disease.
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Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2016 8:43 pm
Oh, the question had been serious? Cody shook his head. "I'll be okay," he assured Dari. "I'll be fast." He paused, studied Dari for a quick moment after turning around, and kissed his cheek. "I see, making me wait for kisses for nothing." He went into his bedroom and selected a set of pajamas. He tossed a set to Dari, as well.
"You can't sleep in jeans, that's the worst." He shook his head, and entered the bathroom.
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Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2016 8:51 pm
Oh, right. He hadn't packed anything.This had been a sort of last-minute change of events after all. Dari changed right there in the living room, completely uncaring of any windows nearby, and pulled on the proffered pair of pajama pants. That being done, he got Cody nighttime medication and holed up in his bedroom, waiting for his boyfriend to return curled under the covers. Ah, this was one of his favorite places to be.
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Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2016 9:04 pm
Cody entered the bedroom, hair still damp, but it seemed there'd been conscious effort to dry it. He crawled under the covers and snuggled against Dari. "Tell me one of your favorite adventures," he prompted. "You can omit all the secret stuff."
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Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2016 9:18 pm
Dari smiled and opened his arms to greet Cody and wrapped them around him. The the question came. Dari's smile didn't waver, but he sighed. All of his favorite adventures were entirely secret stuff. You couldn't talk about successfully capturing a dragon for relocation without mentioning the dragon. You couldn't just pretend Breyer was a city and the Council was a board meeting because then where was the fun in that? So instead, he began to tell one of Toby's old stories.
"Once, when my brother and I were young, our parents let us go off on our own--" Normal in the fifties, not so much today. "--and we ended up at a--" Soda shop. "--corner store to get a couple of sodas, and one of our neighbors was there, and we heard him talking about one of the town's sort of... more eccentric members? So anyway, we decided..."
In reality, it had been Toby and a childhood friend. They had broken into the man's shed, found treasures unimaginable to 8-year-old boys, gotten caught, ran off, got lost, got home, returned to the scene of the crime later to find a note left for them and started a friendship with an old man who died four years later. It was a charming story, almost out of a movie, but it wasn't his to tell, and it hurt. Imagining himself as a child, though-- as a blonde, human child with a loving older brother-- brought him an odd sort of joy. If only, if only.
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Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2016 9:39 pm
Cody should have expected something like that, he thought. Dari hadn't shared much of his adult life, except that he'd been deprived of a number of tasty things. He leaned over and kissed Dari's cheek. "I'm glad you befriended him," he said. To befriend someone everyone thought was strange, that was a lovely thing. It'd probably made the old man very happy, to have two young boys to talk to.
"Once, my parents took me to the state fair. I was like, six or seven. Anyway, they had this really good magician there, and he'd do shows every couple hours. I talked to him for a bit, and when I looked back, my parents were gone. I looked everywhere for them. Eventually I assumed they'd left without me--" he shook his head. "They were frantic when they found me. They were so relieved I didn't get into any trouble for having wandered off."
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