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 Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2025 5:53 pm
Future dated to Lovely’s birthday on Wednesday, April 2nd, ‘cause I doubt we’ll finish it by then anyway. Leaning over the bathroom counter, Lovely peered closely at his face in the mirror, searching for any wrinkles (there were none) or silver strands in his golden hair (none of those, either) like he thought there might have been a rapid change overnight (there hadn’t been; he looked as gorgeous that morning as he had the day before). He poked at his cheeks and ran the pads of his fingers over his forehead. He turned his head from side to side to get a good look at the corner of each eye. He ran a hand through his hair, testing its volume, then held half of it back to inspect his hairline.
Despite the lack of evidence, Lovely frowned at himself.
“I’m so ******** old,” he complained.
He greeted his twenty-sixth birthday with a sense of dread—not only because they could easily die soon at the hands (mouth?) of a world devouring serpent, but because, if they didn’t die, he would have to face a world in which he was closer to thirty than twenty.
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Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2025 6:08 pm
“You’re not old,” Ilian shook his head in exasperation. He had a towel over his head and was bending over so he could scrub his wet hair dry. While he hadn’t been a complete slob the past several weeks, he hadn’t bothered spending more than a few minutes in the shower at a time. At least until the one he just took.
Leaving the towel over his head, Ilian took it upon himself to step closer to Lovely so he could wrap his arms around him, playfully peppering kisses along his neck.
“Age is just a number, anyway,” he insisted, even if he paused as though to think about if he really believed that, before deciding he did, for the sake of this argument, at least. Not that they were having an argument!
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Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2025 6:27 pm
“That sounds wrong,” Lovely said. He frowned even with Ilian’s lips against his neck, still looking for imperfections that weren’t there. “Never say s**t like that again.”
He jabbed an elbow at Ilian, shooting him a disgruntled glare which didn’t hold much heat. Lovely squirmed out of Ilian’s arms and turned sideways. He lifted the t-shirt he’d only just put on like he had to make sure he hadn’t spontaneously grown a gut (he hadn’t), then grabbed his own a** through his jeans to check if it was as firm today as it’d been yesterday (it was).
“I’m old,” he argued. “Ancient. Near death. I’ll wake up tomorrow with sagging skin and gray hair and a flabby a**, and you’ll replace me with someone younger, hotter, and blonder.”
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Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2025 6:34 pm
“That’s ridiculous, why would I replace you?” Ilian asked with genuine confusion, taking a step back when Lovely squirmed away from him. That was fine, he needed to drag a wide toothed comb through his hair, anyway.
“You’re acting like you’re as old as… I don’t know. Your brother. The mean one, not the wimpy one,” he clarified. “He looks like he’s ancient. Like, wow. If stress could age people, he’s a clear candidate for proof of that.”
It wasn’t as though they knew too many old people, anyway. But Lovely liked to fuss over his appearance every so often, as if it would change the way Ilian felt about him.
“You’re the prettiest near death anyone I’ve ever seen,” he attempted to flash a smile in Lovely’s direction, already bracing himself to avoid another jab of an elbow.
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Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2025 6:54 pm
“You’re disgusting,” Lovely said instead of answering.
If pressured on the topic, Lovely would insist he didn’t fuss over his appearance. He was just vain enough to care. After all, his looks were one of his few redeeming qualities. If he lost them, he’d have nothing but his loyalty. A loyal b***h was an adequate companion; a beautiful loyal b***h was even better.
Lovely gave Ilian a playful whack to the shoulder, then finally turned away from the mirror to hop up onto the counter. He grabbed Ilian by the towel around his waist and pulled him closer, snatching the comb away from him to fuss with Ilian’s hair himself.
“Feeling better?” he asked with an arching brow.
They’d been home since late last evening. Under the circumstances, they couldn’t exactly leave town to celebrate, so Lovely made do by demanding twelve uninterrupted hours in which to have sex, shower, and sleep off several weeks worth of sleepless nights. The smudges beneath his own eyes had receded as a result. Ilian already looked more alert than he had when Lovely managed to coax him out of the Dark Kingdom.
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Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2025 7:04 pm
Ilian let out an amused huff as he was suddenly pulled closer and the comb taken from him. With nothing better to do with his hands, he settled them on Lovely’s hips as he leaned up against the counter Lovely had jumped up on.
“As much as I hate to admit it,” he forced a weary sigh. His mood had definitely improved, even if he was determined to put as much time and energy as possible into figuring out how they could keep Earth safe.
Naturally, he expected Lovely to hold this over his head. It was just one more I told you so that Lovely rightly earned.
Ilian knew he pushed himself a little too far sometimes, but he also had Lovely to rein him back in, so it was all okay in the end, right?
If his hands dipped lower than Lovely’s waist to feel up his backside a little, that was just his right as Lovely’s spouse, or something like that.
“You are beautiful though. I don’t think anything could ever change that. Definitely not age,” he promised. And Ilian thought he’d proved a long time ago that he didn’t mind Lovely’s bitchiness.
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Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2025 5:23 pm
Lovely didn’t look pleased, per se, but he was a bit smug. It wouldn’t last long. Ilian might be agreeable right now, but as soon as they got back to the Dark Kingdom Lovely expected him to return to his obsessive ways. He wouldn’t even be able to hold it over Ilian’s head effectively because Ilian would ignore him via work or conveniently forget Lovely’s warnings or outright refuse to listen the closer they inched toward Earth’s demise. Lovely would complain but ultimately relent. He knew what was important to Ilian. As much as Lovely hated it, he’d long since accepted Ilian’s unshakable devotion to the Negaverse.
For now, he let himself enjoy the temporary reprieve.
“And yet,” Lovely said. “Somehow not as hot as you.”
He attacked Ilian with the comb (gently) until he’d worked out all the knots. Then he reached over to the other side of the counter for a bottle of curl defining cream. Lovely worked it through Ilian’s hair with both hands, using it as an excuse to play with Ilian’s hair longer than necessary.
“Let’s stay,” he decided, watching a stray bead of water slide down Ilian’s shoulder. “There’re other Sovereigns. They can pick up the slack.”
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Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2025 5:36 pm
It wasn’t anything he wasn’t used to. It was almost a daily ritual for Lovely to nag at him about taking care of his hair. He tried! He actually read the instructions and tried to repeat exactly what Lovely did, but his curls always seemed to turn out better with Lovely’s hands combing through them.
Probably because Lovely actually cared about what Ilian’s hair looked like. Ilian would have been fine to roll out of bed.
“Stay?” he let out a bark-like laugh, looking up at Lovely with amused skepticism. “You don’t think they’re not working, too? I have full confidence that everyone is doing their best, so of course I can’t be the one slacking off!”
Besides, it was good that Lovely thought he was hot. Especially since he’d recently been talking about some handsome alien. Ugh.
“I owe you dinner though, don’t I? I can stay for that,” he promised. He wasn’t so obsessed that he completely forgot about Lovely’s requests. It was his birthday.
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Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2025 6:08 pm
Lovely rolled his eyes.
“Oh, you can stay for dinner? Real ******** thoughtful of you,” Lovely said, more amused than angry, though he did his best to sound annoyed. He failed spectacularly, too busy playing with Ilian’s hair and getting an eyeful of his damp skin.
Ilian certainly had more confidence in some of the others than Lovely did. They had more Sovereigns now than ever before, but in some respects the workload still seemed lopsided. Then again, Lovely only knew for certain what Ilian was doing. Ilian was notoriously s**t at delegating. He chose to work as much as he did. The Queen certainly wouldn’t fault him for resting more. The rest could be doing as much, or more, or only what was necessary. It wasn’t as if Lovely stuck his nose into their business enough to find out.
“I think you’re in competition with Axinite to see who’ll burn out first,” Lovely said. “I think you care more than most and you get treated like s**t for it. Not by the Queen, obviously. By everyone else. The whiners and the ******** ups and the lazy pieces of s**t who can’t be bothered.” He paused to twirl a particularly springy curl around his finger. A bitter smile twitched onto Lovely’s face. “But no one gives a s**t what I think.”
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Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2025 6:24 pm
Ilian grinned as he wrapped his arms around Lovely’s lower back as he sat on the counter, leaning close enough to press his lips against his chest, and then his shoulder, and then his neck.
“No one gives a s**t what you think, yet you’re the one paving the way for everything the Negaverse has been getting. You deserve so much more than you’ve been given. I can only make up for so much of that,” he hummed, teasing a little with a purposefully placed pinch.
“I don’t care how people treat me,” he promised, although he laughed a little at the thought of competing with Axinite. “I’ve been treated worse in my life. Who cares as long as they’re not actively hurting the Negaverse? Unless the Queen specifically voices her displeasure, there’s nothing I can do about it, anyway. They’ll just do what they want.”
The Queen was more patient than most, and there wasn’t much Jet could do without her support, ultimately. Sure, he knew she trusted him, but if something didn’t matter to her, then he was just wasting his energy.
“It’s cute that you stand up for me, though. I hope you don’t think I don’t appreciate it. You’ve always had my back with everything, Love. You’ve got a really good perception about things. Thank you.”
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Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2025 6:49 pm
Lovely rolled his eyes again.
“You’re full of s**t.”
He yanked at Ilian’s hair, dragged his head up and snagged a kiss that lingered longer than he meant it to.
How he was treated and what people thought of him mattered far less to him than how they treated Ilian. To Lovely, the Negaverse was a job. It had only become his life because it was Ilian’s life; their lives were so closely intertwined now there wasn’t much of a difference between them. Lovely didn’t need respect. He didn’t need rewards. Not for himself, at least. He pushed for change and fought for better circumstances because it was what he wanted for Ilian. That he benefited too was a bonus.
They’d come a long way from the shitty apartment they’d shared as teenagers.
Lovely broke the kiss but didn’t move far. He pulled his fingers out of Ilian’s hair and wiped his hands off on the towel around Ilian’s waist, smirking when he let them stray.
“Put some ******** clothes on if you’re taking me to dinner,” he said. “I’m feeling overdressed.”
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Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2025 6:59 pm
Ilian smiled into the kiss, pleased by the outcome.
He knew how Lovely felt about the Negaverse and the people in it. There was a lot that Ilian agreed with him about, but was determined to move forward, rather than letting the negatives hold them back.
“Alright, alright,” he relented when the kiss was broken, and he took a step back. He wasn’t too careful about the loosened towel around his waist.
“Unless you’re not too hungry just yet, I could help you feel less overdressed,” he added with a small shrug, but moved away from the counter to slip into the bedroom.
Maybe taking a longer break at home would be good for both of them.
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