[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 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.