[closed] and if tomorrow it's all over

[ring_for_giles]

Who: Giles and Oswald
What: finally confronting what they've been dancing around for far too long
When: beginning of september
Where: their private pocket dimension
Warnings: discussions of sex



It's been a few weeks since the Events at the diner, and although things have calmed down significantly, it's still been very tense. Giles has done his best to put everything out of his mind whilst around Oswald, but he's still been more distant than usual, and it hasn't helped that Oswald has been just as distant. He can't know for certain the cause of Oswald's distance, but he's sure that what Sharky told him is no small part of it.

Although Giles has known that it wont get any better if they don't talk about it, if he doesn't start the conversation, he's been unable to bring himself to take that first step into the unknown. The arrival of a new suit, one that feels familiar when he puts it on (although it cannot be the exact same one he remembers), is what finally starts a plan forming in his mind and has him take that final step.

Whether it's a good plan or not, Giles has no idea, but it's a plan and it's better than nothing. It's also a plan that has him pacing the living room, checking and rechecking the gramophone, adjusting and readjusting his suit, and trying his level best to keep his anxiety in check.

Oswald has to come into the room eventually, and when he does Giles will be waiting with a small but inviting smile on his face and almost all trace of his racing thoughts pushed down and rendered invisible.
Just don't look at the constant movement of his fingers.

"I believe I promised you another dance"

Comments

[ring_for_giles]

Giles laughs, he can't help it, the scattered and somewhat distraught way Sharky had described the whole affair has only become more amusing in retrospect.

"That was my fault, I'm afraid. Indirectly, of course, but I had told him the previous night not to expect anything romantic from me, and it was easier than I'd have liked for him to guess why."

He pulls Ossie up just that little bit further so as to kiss him thoroughly, fingertips digging firmly into the back of his neck

"I would be very interested in exploring these 'wicked thoughts' of yours, my love"

[ossie_oswald]

"Was I really the last to know?" he asks, although those fingers and Giles' mouth certainly diminish any chance of soreness on the subject.

"A fellow might get used to this sort of treatment, you know. You'll never be rid of me now."

Ossie wriggles himself a little further up the bed, so he can whisper in Giles' ear.

"I think I'd like to watch the pair of you play. See what all the fuss is about before I ask to try for myself, don't you think?"

[ring_for_giles]

"That is rather the point I should think. After all, why would I ever want to be rid of you?"

Giles's eyes fall close as Ossie whispers in his ear, humming another not quite purr.

"Now that, I would certainly enjoy. You should see the way he trembles..."

Whether he means from desire or fear Giles doesn't say, that can be left entirely to the imagination, but the way his tongue traces over sharp teeth suggests a healthy combination of the two.

[ossie_oswald]

Ossie slips his knee in between Giles' legs, turning himself over to lie properly chest-to-chest with him, cheek to cheek.

"Sweet-talker," whispered once more, and Ossie nips at the lobe of his ear with his teeth.

"What a treat, to get to watch you work your magic. Were we not trapped here, I'd say I'm the luckiest man in the world."

[ring_for_giles]

"Not so half so lucky as I"

He means it too, eyes dancing over Oswald with unfiltered emotion as they lie side by side, and he takes a long moment just watching. He could stay like this forever, just watching in a pure contentedness that he hasn't felt in a very long time.

But, he cannot allow himself to get too distracted, they are supposed to be discussing expectations of their new relationship, which means Giles has things of his own to put forward. He takes a breath, tries to decide upon the best way to approach it, before settling on the most direct he can.

"It is perhaps not so relevant here, but I think it worth saying regardless. I will not be employed under you again, I could not take a paycheck and have this..." He pauses for just a moment, gently caressing Oswald's cheek with backs of his fingers "That being said however, I do still want to take care of you, to look after you, in ways that are not entirely separate from the things my duties covered."

[ossie_oswald]

Alas, the fun part can't last forever, and Giles redirects his attention back to the matter at hand. He leans into the touch, craving more of everything he has to give.

"I wouldn't want you to. But if we get out of here, know that what's mine will be yours. You won't need to work."

The next part earns him a slight tilt of the head, "how do you mean, my dear?"

[ring_for_giles]

Giles hesitates, uncertain of quite how to explain, especially when he's been wallowing in an unknowing rejection of this very thing for some months now.

"Bringing you breakfast of a morning, cooking, keeping the household clean and organised, maintaining your wardrobe, and all the other things that my work entailed, I did not do them simply because I was paid to. That was part of it, yes, but the far larger part was, and still is, that I want to, and that it is the best method I have of demonstrating my devotion.

[ossie_oswald]

"... I see."

Ossie's jaw tightens and suddenly the whole bally thing turns to ashes in his mouth. That of course Giles wouldn't be willing to give up his beloved work to be with him- that he'd just expect Ossie to be all too happy to play the role of a monster expecting him to do everything without pay, to... exploit him like that. It burns at the back of his throat and for a moment he has half a mind to vacate his own blasted bed.

But... before Ossie had exunted stage right, that Johnny chappie had said something about... a labour of love. He couldn't envision it, couldn't wrap his head around it at first, and Giles will have to forgive him a long few moments of thoughtful silence.

Finally, at last, something clicks together in his mind. If Giles were to suddenly refuse to sleep with him because it was something expected in Arcadia, it... would likely sting, wouldn't it? That he was free to do the activity with whomever he pleased under any circumstances was a measure of his freedom- and while many shunned it afterwards, Ossie had always preferred an affirmative approach, doing it because he chose and finding enjoyment in it that had been taken from him during his durance. Giles could have easily found other work through Winter or otherwise with that fish-fed brain of his...

Christ, to have blatantly ignored such an act of love for so long.

"You... truly do enjoy it, then? Honestly? And you'd tell me if you ever stopped wanting to?"

[ring_for_giles]

Giles is honestly expecting to be shut down, to have the whole thing put aside to be thought no more on. And he'd do it, if he had to. If giving up the one thing that he finds order and pride in was what was required to have Oswald by his side, to share his bed, his life, then Giles would abandon it in a heartbeat.

But that's not what happens, and Giles cannot help his broad, sighing smile of relief.

"I do. And I would. Were that not the case, I never would have continued to work for you." Giles takes Oswald's hand in his own, kisses the backs of perfectly formed fingers, "You have never placed orders upon me, nor asked anything of me that I could not say no to had I felt the need. So long as both remain true I will be delighted to serve you as much as you will let me. The only thing I want more is you."

[ossie_oswald]

"...you know I never did like a cup of tea if you didn't make it," Ossie hums, his hand pliant in Giles', "have never been able to work out what it is about it that I can't manage to replicate."

The secret ingredient was, of course, the care that Giles put into it, but even Ossie had his limits as to how saccharine he was willing to go here.

"However I'm afraid you'll find your duties considerably more difficult now, my darling man, as I insist on you remaining right here where you are for the foreseeable future."

[ring_for_giles]

"More's the pity, but I'm sure I can find a way to accommodate"

He kisses Oswald's hand again, and then trails a few more further up for good measure

"I have just one more thing to ask of you, my love"

[ossie_oswald]

"Ask. Name it. Whatever it is, it's yours," dangerous words for men like them to be saying, but he means it. Laying there with Giles kissing up his arm makes him feel like the most splendid creature on earth, and he's inclined to give him a pint of his own hearts blood if Giles were only to ask.

[ring_for_giles]

"Your name... Your given name. I want- I need..." Every word is a hard won battle, because Lord does it ever feel ridiculous when spoken aloud. Giles has to close his eyes to finish the thought, because he can't look at Oswald as he makes a request that would be so trivial to most that it wouldn't even need asking, "Permission."

[ossie_oswald]

"... what?"

What?

"Why on earth would you need permission to use my given-"

Changelings, he remembers. He knows at least one person back home who couldn't walk on cracks without twisting their ankle, people repelled by salt or sand or people crossing their eyes at them. 'Needing permission to use a name' was low on the list of odd frailties, especially considering the nature of his own.

"Of course, you have full use of my given name, Oswald. Or Ossie, if you'd prefer."

[ring_for_giles]

"Oswald, Ossie" he says both names like a prayer. Like he's tasting them for the first time, and, in a way, he is. Before they'd been taken the first time, Giles had referred to Ossie by first name alone maybe three times at most, and only in private conversations with his sister, after he'd not been able to whether he wanted to or not "Thank you"

[ossie_oswald]

Ossie kisses Giles as if to seal his name in his mouth. And then again, and again, and-

Well. They're not getting out of bed any time soon, suffice it to say.