Utterly ignoring the way his body felt, Summer wrapped his arms, with some difficulty, around Isaac, and locked their mouths together. He whimpered slightly, desperate to show the werewolf how much he loved him.
Mewling and falling against his boyfriend’s chest as he was held, Isaac slid his hands under Summer’s back to gently crush him against his chest, shivering into the passionate kiss. He was content to just lay here forever with the other male.
They lay there blissed out for some time, drowning in the afterglow. Occasionally Summer would whisper Isaac’s name, or some faint curse. At last the chill of the air on their bare skin made the redhead start to shiver, despite the fact that he was half under very warm werewolf.
“You say such sweet things … ” she murmured slowly, smiling. “No one else says such things to me.” She tried to summon up the energy to roll over, to roll him over, and didn’t quite make it, leaving them more tangled together than ever. “I suppose we should get up eventually.”
“I’d hope nobody else said some of the things to you that I did — or at least the things that pass in my mind, which are not for polite conversation.” He grinned against her skin, shaking with laughter as they lay together in a tangled up heap, regarding her with an arched eyebrow. “Do we really have to? I’m quite content to stay here, actually.”
The smile deepened a little. “Mmmm, we do have to. To eat, if nothing else. You want to keep your energy up, don’t you?” Blinking slowly and sweetly at him, she added, “I want to hear all the things that pass in your mind, which are not for polite conversation.”
She could feel the weight of magic across her shoulders like a too-heavy cloak. She was permitted to walk freely from sun-height to sun-set, so long as she refrained from mentioning certain topics to any folk she spoke to. She had no coins, so could not purchase anything, and anyway physical needs were all supplied by the Tower.
These days, though, none of that mattered, for she went always to the same place.
The fields where Arthur’s knights practised.
Even that was part of the noose around her, but she didn’t care. For as long as she was allowed she’d keep contact with Galahad. He wasn’t there yet today, but that was fine. She leaned on the fence, twisting a pale green stone between her fingers.
Galahad eventually found his way to the practice field. He had the day off, but he had nothing else to do. So he sat by the others and watched as different knights paired off to practice their swordsmanship. Eventually he grew tired of that and stood.
He noticed a couple of young boys playing with wooden swords. He went over and teased a few of them then showed the younger one how to move so that his older brother wouldn’t beat him up every time.
But it was around this time that Galahad felt like someone was watching him. He glanced around at the various people watching, but he didn’t know who to look for and no one was really noticing him.
Perhaps he was just being silly.
She clutched the fence so hard she could feel the grain of the board digging into her fingertips as Galahad glanced around. He’d never seemed interested in the watchers before — was this the effect of their correspondence? But he didn’t seem to know what he was looking for, either. She wanted to raise her hand, jump up and down, attract his attention somehow.
The very thought seemed to tighten the coils of magic around her.
She wished he would go back onto the field. That was familiar.
With a quiet sigh, she turned away from the practise field, drifting back through the streets of Camelot. It was hard to pull her gaze from Galahad.
Ah. It’s going to be one of those types — the kind that say ‘no’ with their bodies, but not with their words, and it’s left to her to decide which answer is correct. (It’s always what the body says. Bodies are subconscious.) Summer shifted back a little, just enough to concede the silent argument.
“If there were, I guess you would just have to wait for that inspection,” she says back, over her shoulder, making sure to give him his arm’s length of space as she slips outside.
There’s no one out there, of course — nobody here smokes, they all vape because that’s more trendy and can be done inside out of rain or cold or heat. She’s seen them, comparing their e-cigs and insert-flavour-here in dark corners lit by the LEDs in their tools. So she drapes herself backwards over the railing, hair tumbling over the edge in a cascade weirdly coloured by the neon and streetlights, and waits to see how the game will play out.
Ace overlooked her with narrowed eyes as she analyzed his rigid movements. People didn’t usually do this for him; but, then again, he isn’t very open when it comes to his discomfort. When she took a step back, he let out a breath, and turned around sharply to look towards the balcony.
“You should be so lucky.” He gave a dry snort, following her suit to the balcony once he caught her movement through the corner of his eye.
As she drapes herself backwards over the railing, he sucks in a deep breath, and yanks off his mask, not being one for anticipation anyhow. “Guess how many security guards they would sic on me if I walked back in there like this.”
She fiddled with the delicate edges of her mask as he ripped his off, choosing to ignore his comment about her luck. He was clearly way out of her league. She made sure no hint of that showed on her face, and lounged a little more obviously. “Honestly,” she mused, “I shouldn’t think any of them, unless you try to start something. I don’t think it’s that kind of party.”
Dear gods, his cheekbones are unfair. Of all the places to meet someone, it had to be here, where it would never mean anything and never go anywhere. Summer arches one eyebrow, superior and amused. “Did you gatecrash? Are you expecting to be thrown out?”
“I suppose that depends on your perspective — does New Age stuff, astrology, candles, magic interest you? I’m planning to keep a speculative fiction section as well.”
“I can’t say that it does, but good for you. I’m sure there are people who go for that witchy stuff.”
“Well, what do you do for a living?” She cocked her head to the side, genuinely curious.
Started my new job today. They are death and doom on even looking at a cell phone in the lab, so it’s going to take me a little while to get my time reorganised for any replies.
