[He doesn't understand what being married changes about them knowing who they're coming back to (how is that not the case already?) but the man putting this in terms of something he wants is something that does penetrate. A personal desire he can relate to. And if he's being selfish about this in turn, it's for good reason, on the back of everything he's seen marriage do to people.]
You don't know that nothing will change - you can't know that. [Yes, Toby's been married before, but it wasn't a real marriage, even by the man's own words.]
What if the reason we've worked out together the way we have, is because we've chosen one another in our own way? You want this because it satisfies some romantic fantasy you've had about our relationship since we started. [Basically.] Yeah? What if you get it, and realize it doesn't hold up anywhere near to the idea in your mind?
That's how these things work, Toby. Especially with me. I've seen it a thousand times.
[After something like that, which always happens to him when someone holds him up to some kind of romantic ideal, everything always turns into disillusionment and resentment.]
That's not how I work, Dorian. A thing you'd remember if you'd pull your head out of your ass for a moment and listen to your own bloody words.
[God, why can't he see how ridiculous he's being right now? Accusing Toby of letting things change while he's been claiming for years that he doesn't change, that they don't be virtue of being immortal. It can't be both ways. Not if their lives are going to work. Seeing as they have been working for years, it must all be fine. So all... this that's got Dorian shouting and pushing him away is all so much shite.]
You're such a hypocrite, [he mutters, looking away as he starts to dig in his pockets.] Constantly telling me we can't change, yet accusing me of doing so the second we get married without any proof I will. We've basically been married for years. The whole of the network even said it a year ago! [He grimaces before adding,] That'll come back to you, but I can show you the post if you're going to be an ass about all this.
[With a sigh, he lights up a cigarette. He doesn't offer one to the other man before putting both carton and lighter back in his pocket.] I want the symbol this is. I want my one fantasy to come true. Fuck me for wanting that, yeah? [He laughs darkly and drags at his cigarette, shaking his head as he exhales.]
[Dorian grimaces at the beginnings of wallowing, and the suggestion that Toby's about to run away from this fight he started by throwing himself into a drink. The man knows his feelings about marriage. He knew what was going to come out of his mouth if he tried this.
So fucking... why? Why now, when all he wants to do - or did want to do, anyway - is hold the man and kiss the life from him?]
I'm the one who doesn't change - that's the whole point. You stalked me for years, and I know you saw how commitment works out for me. I'm not-- a husband, and I've never pretended I could, or should, be.
[Toby should have known that.]
And even if I said yes, what part of that suits a romantic dream? You know what I'd be thinking even as we walked down the aisle.
Not every husband is some charming man out of a romcom or Jane Austen novel. Some of them are real people who deal with the same shit day in and day out as part of the life they've built with someone. You'd know that if you could look outside yourself for two seconds.
[He doesn't care if it's wallowing; he's getting himself a drink and any arguments to the contrary are getting shut down. If Dorian cares to bring it up.]
Are you so thick you don't see it? Or so cynical you've forgotten what it's like to daydream? [He shakes his head as he pours a double of whiskey for himself and immediately throws it back.] Landing the eternal bachelor was only the start. Landing him and having him love me enough to say yes to my one stupidly selfish and silly request is the dream. A dream I only want with him. No big ceremony. No white lace gown. No top hats or tuxes. Just us, swearing ourselves while we exchange vows and rings, then living on as we have.
[It would be so easy. He frowns as he pours himself another drink.] You're scared it's going to end the way Harry told you it would, or that I'll do something reckless and stupid if you hurt me. But I'm not Sybil, and I'm not some stranger who's just met you. I know you, Dorian Gray. I chose this life with you. I know loving you will hurt sometimes. [Another shake of his head as he trudges back over to the other man and offers the refilled glass.]
I'm willing to take that risk with you, because that dream only comes true with you.
[Dorian's so caught off guard by Toby bringing up both Harry and Sybil, that he's momentarily lost for words.
Scared. As much as it grates to admit it, he knows he's scared. He can feel the fear thrumming through him even now. Harry and Sybil changed everything. How could he not see truth in Harry's words - that truth repeating over and over again for decades - when the first example started with a thoughtless mistake that ended everything his life could have been, forever? The circumstances here aren't the same, but at this moment and all others, the past hangs over him like a leaden curtain. Will always be there, pushing on his present. In the worst sense, this made him who he is. It's a painful reality that's on the verge of cutting right through him, if it's only pressed on too hard.
And how could he not be scared, when Toby could be torn away at any time, and over so little? When he already has, several times? Everything between them has always been borrowed time, whether they knew it or wanted to admit it. How is this different now? He doesn't know how to look past that.
So why can he not simply let go of all that for now, and have this one, perfect (well, not perfect now) moment where none of that is true? Where none of it has happened again yet?]
Of course I'm scared. [When he finally speaks, the words come out breathless and small, and as overwhelmed as he feels.] Every time we're together, and things between us start to get good, and I start to think we've found something worth keeping, something happens to change that. We keep coming back together, and then get torn apart. If I'm about to remember that it happened again in however long it takes here, I don't-- [he draws a sharp breath] it's just ... so much, Toby.
[Another breath.]
I don't daydream - haven't for years - because what's there to daydream about, Toby? We get married and have lives we could have only dreamed of when we were young, and then it falls apart? [He truly doesn't know.]
[Grateful as he is for Harry sending him on the path that landed Dorian here, Toby would choke the life from the man for doing this to his soulmate. Putting a fear in him that doesn't belong and can't be shaken loose.] There's every reason to fear that with mortals. They're so wrapped up in what they can get that they don't think beyond their immediate happiness. Those that can set is aside live lives that are filled with the kind of blissful, ignorant joy we'll never have, but they still live in that love and joy. We can have something deeper than that, if you're willing to try.
[He pushes the drink into Dorian's hands so he can gently tip the man's chin up to meet his eyes. Those goddamn beautiful eyes that no other can ever have. So deep and haunted, yet ever young and full of life. As he stares into them, he's certain Dorian's got no idea how much he has if he can see it with a single look into the man's eyes.]
Being scared of something has never stopped you from doing it before. You throw yourself recklessly into everything, but you won't even try with this. I know Harry's fingerprints are all over your life, but will you let him dictate the whole of it? Why do you want to give him such power over you long after he's dead? [A frown pulls at his lips.] I've met hundreds of couples who loved each other 'til death parted them, Dorian, who didn't push each other away or stop throwing themselves in one another's arms whenever they had the chance. God knows that death or some other pull apart may be what's coming for us, but we don't know that. We never can until it's on us. That's how our lives are. [It's how they'll always be.
He takes a slow breath and releases his boyfriend's face with a last brush of his thumb along that perfect, unblemished cheek.] There's everything to daydream about when we're this old. The things we want to share with each other that we didn't have the chance to on Earth. Gossip and use of mortals for entertainment whenever we're feeling bored. The years we can spend trying new things together and tackling all the mysteries you want to throw yourself into. I want all of that and everything else with you, the same I'll always want that, and I know that because I don't change nearly as much as you say I do. I certainly didn't while you were gone.
So we take this step, we do something for us that doesn't have to include anyone else, and we keep living the same unpredictable, reckless, and endlessly curious lives we always have. The only difference is a change in title. [He smiles lightly, chuckling at his next thought before he says it.] And me officially being a Gray.
[Everything about this feels so... untested. Shaky. Because it is-- and also isn't. He never tried this because there was never any need to. No person, regardless of how deeply he cared for them or how they tried to convince him, were enough to overcome marriage just being another thing to lose when people die-- a thing people do because they think they have to, or because they have the naively romantic idea that it brings happiness simply in having it. He's known that isn't true since he met Harry. Since he watched, and couldn't forget, countless forms of commitment and marriages fall apart before his eyes over the years.
Harry. Toby just has to put this in terms of not letting a dead, beloved and hated, friend continue to rule his life, doesn't he? He balks at the idea, of course, because it's... true. And he can't deny it. He allowed this, and then once the man died, and he thought himself truly his own person, he kept right on looking for pieces to fit into the old pattern. To prove Harry right.
It's not the way he wants to be. Not for Lucifer, not for Harry, not for anyone. This is his life, and after all the abuse over the years, he will live his life on his terms. He can be anything his wants, and make of his life exactly what he wants. He decided that again on the shores of Whitby, and it's not a decision he's going back on now.
As Toby looks into his eyes and touches his face, and the man tells him that this isn't going to change them, but only be... something new to try? Absurdly, in the same way it always feels absurd when Toby hopes for something bright, and hopeful between them where he can't see it, himself ... he believes it. Just for a moment.
Damn this persuasive man who knows him all too well, and loves him unconditionally.
When the vampire pulls away, Dorian draws a breath to compose himself, and throws back a generous amount of the drink Toby pressed into his hand. Fuck him. Is he honestly thinking of going for this?
He supposes he is. For the sake of what Toby sees between them, and what he himself really, actually wants to be true.]
God. [Dorian wipes at his mouth with the back of his hand, savouring the mild distraction of the burn in the back of his throat. It helps stave off how terrifying this all is.] You had a lot of time to think about all this, didn't you? [He's not mocking - it's genuinely flooring, and he's overwhelmed.
Working to try and compose himself, Dorian takes another sip of his drink. He'll need more, soon.]
You're right. [He laughs softly, hollowly, in disbelief.] All this time I've been telling myself that I make my own self, my own life, but all I've been is a piece of someone else's music. For years. [It hurts to say. He hates it. It's unfair that it's been this way because he was young and foolish, and didn't know any better at the time, and then didn't think to try and know any better.] I've been playing the same tune since I heard it at 19.
Do you know what I told Lucifer at Whitby? When he told me to die? [It's a rhetorical question, because Toby must know, even if he doesn't remember telling the man. He would have.] When I met him, I was prepared. I rehearsed what I wanted to say before I surrendered everything to him. [He exhales.] But he told me to die, and as soon as he did, I knew I didn't want to.
I'm not anyone's-- puppet. [Not anymore. Not for another single fucking person, fallen angel, god, anyone. Raising his glass again, Dorian finishes off the last of his drink, and then puts it down onto the nearest surface with a loud clatter.]
So fuck him. Fuck him and Harry. Let's make another choice for ourselves, because you think there's everything to gain. [And, for a shred of a moment, Toby made him believe it, too.] Let's do it.
[He's honestly not sure how this is going to go, once everything he can think of is out of his mouth. Everything he's said is true - a fact Dorian could deny only if he wasn't willing to deal with the implications of it all - but that doesn't mean his soulmate has to agree with that truth and to his plan. It's still a more romantic dream, and he's still Dorian Gray. Even knowing he's living in someone's shadow isn't guaranteed to be enough to get him to run headlong into something that's scared him for well over a century.
But when he does get it, in typical Dorian fashion, his eyes well up with tears. Let's do it might be his new favourite words for how they make his heart metaphorically soar. He said yes, and that's really all Toby needed to hear before he does the thing they both need by closing the small distance between them recklessly fast so he can pull Dorian into a deep and passionate kiss. A kiss that finally, finally lets out some of the tension that's lived in him since he woke up to find his boyfriend gone and nothing but a hole in his heart in the man's place.]
I love you, Dorian Gray. [He murmurs the words when he lets them part for a breath, not caring how they sound both delighted and desperate. None of it matters now that Dorian's here again. It matters even less now that Dorian's agreed to marry him. Nothing could possibly matter but kissing the life from this wonderful, reckless, cynical, passionate man with everything he is.
Well, almost nothing. There's one tiny thing he wants to hear first.]
Do me a favour before I take you to bed? [He smirks, letting the tears on his cheeks go ignored.] Let me get down on one knee again and say yes? I promise the sex will be so worth it.
[All of this is such a rollercoaster. Right on the heels of agreeing to marriage, Toby's crying and kissing him again, and making his heart nearly stop in his chest from the pleasure and rightness of the feeling.
Maybe this will be fine. Maybe nothing will change. Maybe Toby's right about enough of it. Maybe--
Christ, the vampire's really going to make this as dramatic as possible, isn't he? (Of course he is. That's who the vampire is.) Why is this happening to him? Flustering slightly, Dorian feels himself actually blush a little, for how the man's caught him off guard yet again.
Satan just kill him now. He doesn't blush. Ever.]
All right. [What's the point in resisting now, when he's already said yes? But they're definitely having another drink after this if it kills him - which it can't, so they will - and he's getting the best sex of his life. Sighing, Dorian steps back to make room, and gestures at the floor.] Go ahead-- kneel to your heart's content.
[He knew he'd win out, but God if it isn't a delight to hear Dorian's huffy response to a ridiculous demand of his. The blush makes it all the better. Toby grins and pecks his fiancé's cheek with a soft 'love you' before clearing his throat and dramatically dropping to one knee.]
As I was saying, this is important to me, darling. Being with you is important to me, and I want to do this the right way for us both. [He beams up at the other man and gently takes both his hands in his own.] I love you, Dorian Christopher Gray. Please, make me the happiest man in any universe, and marry me.
[God, it's a good thing he hasn't gotten a bite of the other man yet or his heart would beat its way from his chest. Even knowing he's already got the yes doesn't stop the anticipation from trying to kill him. In a good way this time! But it's still a lot on the heart in those moments he's waiting for that blissful syllable to come from his soulmate's mouth.]
Now I know there isn't anything you can't get me to do in the end. [No, he's not stalling. You're stalling.
Dorian huffs a disbelieving laugh as the vampire takes his hands in his own, but then happens to catch the man's eye in time to see Toby beaming up at him. Damn this man and his unearthly, beautiful smile, and how much it hurts in the very best way to see his boyfriend looking at him like this. He's missed this more than anything in any world. The sight makes his stomach do the totally out of place, and ill-fitting flips it hasn't done since he was truly young.
He could kill this man and kill for him, all at this moment.
Sighing again, in spite of himself, Dorian smiles slightly.]
Yes, I'll marry you. [He grants (generously, he thinks) Toby a few seconds to soak in his acceptance, and then draws one of his hands back to reach for the glass he set down on the nearby table.] But first, I want to drink until we can't stand, and you need to kiss me until I can't breathe.
[Dorian can have his stalling, because Toby gets his yes (with proper flourish!) and that's all that matters. The vampire smiles brightly as he lets that sink in, then gets to his feet so he can start with the kissing. It's far more important than the drinking right now.
He draws Dorian to him with both hands on the man's face and lays the most impossibly excited and loving kiss on the man that he can manage. He shamelessly holds it far too long, until he can feel his fiancé both struggling to keep their lips together and starting to lose his grip on the glass in his hand. The grin on his face is extra cheeky when they part.]
Only if I get to take you upstairs first. [He slips an arm about Dorian's waist to pull him over to the nearest bar cart, handing the man a mostly full bottle.] It's all whiskey, but we'll get you a celebratory bottle of gin later. For now...
[There's a few seconds of hesitation wherein the younger immortal has a chance to think about what's surely coming next. He can't stop it, but he'll have a chance to fluster or protest. Then, with too much fanfare, Toby sweeps Dorian into his arms to start carrying him bridal style toward the bedroom.]
Off to bed with us, darling. I think this celebration of ours calls for that.
[His head is still spinning from that particularly life-shattering kiss, when a bottle's suddenly being pressed into his arms, and his feet are being swept unceremoniously out from under him. Dorian flusters, and sputters out a 'Toby!' at the unexpected indignity as he flails, and then latches his arms around the other man's neck. He never does seem to find the figurative ground beneath his feet around Tobias Matthews, but this reunion seems especially dedicated to not letting him have it.
But honestly? There's no other place in the multiverse he wants to be right now. If it means being carried like a farmhouse wife, he would have done so much infinitely worse simply for the chance to be in this moment.]
You're skipping steps with going for the threshold carry now, [he says dryly. But god yes, please take him to bed.
He's just going to work at the top of the bottle in his arms as he's hauled upstairs, and take a solid gulp from the thing once he's put down atop their fittingly sumptuous bed. When he's done, he puts the bottle aside on the night stand, and curls fingers into Toby's shirt to draw the man to him.]
You should have shown me this room first, [there's genuine appreciation in his tone, even with such a good, and necessary distraction at hand, and in hand] I'd have accepted this was ours even faster than I did the foyer.
[When Toby comes close, Dorian shifts his hold to the lines of the vampire's jaw, and simply basks in the man's presence for a few seconds. It hurts, makes his heart race, to be so near to everything that's been so impossibly far away for so long. Too long. He isn't sure he's actually breathing as he presses himself close to his lover for another, wholly necessary kiss, but nothing could be further from mattering now that he has Toby back with him again.]
No, because I'm going to do it again after we have our little ceremony. [He proudly proclaims this as the absolute fact it is. No getting out of your husband having his proper - and agreed to! - wedding night, Dorian.
He pauses all forward momentum when the younger immortal takes his face between his hands to look at him. Toby's in a rush to get to all the best parts, but getting the chance to really see Dorian like this is... Heaven, of a sorts. It's at least the exact opposite of Hell, and that's what matters. A smile comes to his face as he returns the touch with a brush of fingers across his man's warm cheek, and then he's being pulled into a kiss that takes all metaphorical breath away from him.
God he's missed this. He's missed these lips and being in these arms. His arms wrap around Dorian instantly, sending them tipping back onto the bed as he presses their lips together over and over again. Somewhere in the mess he parts his lips and finds his lover's tongue with his own to dance with it again, and it's perfect. The kind of perfect they had every time they kissed and enjoyed each other's bodies on Earth or here in Duplicity. The kind of perfect poets try to write about and fail at, because they're all too mortal to know what a love like this actually is.
That smile's still on his face when they part again for a breath, and he's pleasantly surprised to find he's pulled his fiancé atop him. He brushes a few stray curls from the man's face, then leans up for another, softer, but still entirely perfect kiss.]
I love you so much, Dorian Gray. You can't even begin to know how much I've missed you.
[It breaks his heart in the very best way to hear those words from this man right now. The time they're sharing feels stilted, and endless at the same time, as he allows the music of them to settle over him. Dorian runs his hands down the length of Toby's torso as they come together, taking in the achingly familiar sensation of soft, well-worn flannel beneath his fingers, before he starts working at buttons. There's nothing his heart, and body crave more, than the passion with this man that Lucifer stole from him, but that kept playing in his head on loop regardless, because it was all so perfect - until it was everything but.
He's missed giving everything to this man that he's never surrendered to anyone else, and knowing it will be received with nothing but love, and enthusiastic acceptance.]
I know I can, [he contradicts.] That was every single breath for me, after you died.
[The memories make the need to fill those aching holes in his soul all the more insistent. As he finishes peeling the other man's shirt away, he pauses, and looks down into the vampire's face from where he's seated upon the man.]
You should bite me-- [Dorian breathes out, along with the rising tide of need, and love for the man beneath his hands.] we should-- I want us to have that right now. [To, as Toby once explained to him what feels like so long ago now, bind their lives together in blood.]
[Before Dorian can finish making his request, Toby's sitting up beneath his lover to pull the man to him for a kiss. A long, slow kiss that begins with arms around his chest and ends with fingers in his hair and a bite to his lower lip. When he meets those gorgeous ice blue eyes again, he smiles and tips Dorian's face toward his.]
You didn't have to ask. I was never going to make you wait. [He couldn't have waited, either. It's been too long - 241 days and a number of hours - since they last had this, and he's missed it. He's fed on Dorian's blood since then, but it's not the same. It never could be.
He kisses his soulmate again, insistently pulling Dorian flush against him in a bid to feel the way Dorian's heart starts to race in anticipation. He holds it too long, leaves them both breathless, then parts to start pressing his lips slowly along the other man's jaw. Then down his neck. Then finally to that wonderful, excited, strong pulse. The feeling of it beneath his lips, the truth of his lover alive and in his arms again, brings tears back to his eyes, and rather than give them any space to disrupt, he plunges ahead by driving his fangs into Dorian's neck.
All at once he feels complete. Everything he's been missing is right here, under his hands and streaming crimson over his tongue, and it's as close to perfect as anything ever need be. He moans softly as he grips at his fiancé, pulling hard and steady as they're finally, fully reconnected in the way he never will be with anyone but this wonderfully reckless man he loves.
It's all he's ever wanted from his life, and all he'll ever want this day forward. This bloody idiot is his and the tears of relief and joy flowing down his steadily warming cheeks only remind him how much he needs him. Forever.]
[Dorian gasps, and then groans deeply, at the familiar, and much missed, pain of fangs driving into his neck. It's just as exquisite as he remembers, and with every audible swallow of his own blood, he can feel the heightening of sensation in his body stitching them together again. His hold on Toby firms as the man draws from him, because he needs to keep the man close to him in this moment. He needs to truly feel how this is going to be his reality again, lest he wake up in a few hours and be made to wonder if it really happened, or that it was all, the way it has been, a nightmare.
He doesn't want to bear even another moment of that, now that he has Toby back again.
When the other man finally pulls away, Dorian exhales shakily, and opens his eyes to the burning of brilliant and sumptuous colours all around them both. Everything is as beautiful and picturesque as it always is whenever Toby bites him, and now more than ever he knows why. This is his life, when he has the vampire in it - only when he has Toby in it.
How did he manage to keep dragging himself through his existence, without this? The thought only makes his need, and desire, for the other man that much more urgent. Reaching out, he captures Toby's face in his hands, and brings them together in a passionate, and bloodstained kiss. He holds it for as long as he can manage, and then draws away with a breath, to start pulling at his pants, and every other scrap of clothing still on his body.]
I can't wait another second, [he needs this man to fuck him, now] I need you now.
[Again his lover asks him for something that doesn't require words. As Dorian kisses him in those first moments after Toby's pulled away, the vampire's already reaching for the clothes still left on the other immortal's body. Hands warmed by blood, his blood, fumble with buttons and zippers until seams rip and everything gets shoved out of the way. It's the last bit of thought he's got in his head before he's flipping them over and pinning Dorian to the bed so he can press warm fingers into his ass while they kiss again.
It's automatic to reach to prepare someone for having sex after so long without his soulmate, and the second Toby realizes how unnecessary it is between them, he laughs at himself. Breathlessly, with the draw of a full and needed breath into his lungs after. He grins as he shrugs off his own ridiculousness, then takes his cock in hand to line them up and, with only a brief glance to catch his lover's eyes, press into the other man with the most heady moan.
As it always is when they're together like this, the whole of the world seems to come down to the two of them when they're locked together. Toby's breath catches in his chest, and he chokes on a sob of joy and relief as he looks down into the face of the man he loves and has missed more than any other in existence. He doesn't let any of this slow him down or distract him, though, because he needs this just as much as Dorian. He groans as he starts to roll his hips, kissing his lover again as he cradles his face and wills himself to find enough breath for the words he will never tire of saying for the rest of their eternity together.]
[So many feelings and sensations are coursing through him as they-- make love, in a way even he couldn't deny, and all of it's heightened by the effects of the other man's bite. Dorian grips needfully, passionately, at the other man as Toby drives them together again and again, sending shocks of pleasure up his spine, and heat flushing through every part of him. It's so nostalgic and fresh all at once, that it makes his heart ache from the familiarity and newness of every feeling.
He has this, with this man, back again. This shouldn't have happened for the fourth time, but it has. He can feel them being rewritten in every crash of their hips, and in the lukewarm tears falling onto his chest.
He doesn't want this to end, but at the same time, he does. Everything ending means it can all start again, and that this isn't just a reverie. It means Toby will stay, and that he won't roll over, bathed in sweat and heartbroken, and find himself without the one person he needs, will always need, more than anyone, or anything, else.
Groaning out the other man's name, Dorian reaches clumsily for one of Toby's hands, and wraps it tight around his cock. He can feel how close he is to coming already, but he won't let any part of this necessary reintroduction be slowed.
He loves this man, and if all of their neighbours end up hearing about it tonight, he truly couldn't care less.]
[It's so much all at once to have this man in his arms again. To be together like this again when every moment between realizing Dorian was gone and now has simply been a sea of distractions. Litres of alcohol, hundreds of rounds of sex, and drugs of all sorts were never enough to kill his anguish of being separated from the man he loves, but it doesn't matter anymore. This is his Dorian, his soulmate, his husband-to-be. Nothing changes that when the truth is under his hands and around his cock the way he's been aching for for too many months.
He grips hard at the other's cock when he's guided to it, squeezing and stroking quickly to match the pace of his thrusts. It doesn't feel enough, so he does the only thing he can think of by dropping down to his other elbow to press their lips together. He doesn't care how hard it makes it for either of them to breathe, because this? This is more necessary than anything. More necessary than breath, than words, than comfort for his body. None of that matters if he can just kiss this man and know him that little bit more while they come together for the first time in far too many nights.
His release comes upon him as a surprise, but it's one he gives himself to gladly. He moans Dorian's name into their latest kiss, fingers squeezing his cock and gripping the bedspread as he spills into the man. He keep his hips going to help Dorian reach his peak, too, bringing them together over and over until they can collapse and recover enough to do it again. And again. And again.
Every second of the next few hours and days and weeks will belong to this man, and Toby's going to make sure it stays that way without regard for anyone else. No one else matter. Nothing could ever matter when his Dorian Gray, his soulmate and husband, is back.]
[Feeling Toby come above and inside him is an exhilarating rush, and one that would pull the breath from his lungs, if they weren't already screaming for air. He doesn't care. Every drop of passion, of pain, he can have with this man, he wants to lose himself in all of it. He gives himself over to every kiss, every stroke of his cock, and each and every groan, and cry of Toby's name writhing to spring from his lips. Dorian holds their latest kiss as long as he can manage, and then parts with a sharp gasp, as his orgasm pulses through him.
In this one, electrified moment, the suffering of the last year is nothing. The suffering of over a century, is nothing.
He'll fall back down to Earth. He always does. Right now, he's too blissfully happy, and relieved, to feel, or think about anything but Toby.
As soon as he can breathe again, Dorian flops back into the plushness of their bed, but keeps an arm around the other man, tipping his head for another deep, and lingering kiss. This was so much, and yet not nearly enough.]
I love you, too. [He waits until the other man pulls out of him and comes to rest with him, and then curls a hand around the back of Toby's neck.
God, he could stare at this face forever, and be content. He allows himself the pleasure for an extended moment, until thoughts start coalescing in his head again.] No disrespect to your skills, but... I still can't believe this is happening. [He huffs a disbelieving, but happy laugh.] I've had a lot of dreams like this. [When they weren't about Lucifer.]
[He chuckles breathlessly as he settles against Dorian, the last of his air going out in a rush as he leans forward to kiss the man's forehead.] I can imagine. With what Lucifer's doing to you back home, this must feel too good to be true. [The two of them finding each other again, having an established home and life the younger immortal can slip back into? What could be more romantic a dream than that? Their impending nuptials aside.
Toby shakes his head and presses their foreheads together, draping an arm across his soulmate to pull him closer.] Give it time, darling. We'll have this without interruption for weeks if we want. I'm sure my boss can make do without me for that long and we can order in anything we need. No distractions at all.
[A beat.] Ah, one exception. Elle's going to have to be here occasionally. City demands we live with our contracted partners at least half the month now, so... [He grins sheepishly.] Maybe we can just have her deliver what we need, and bake some cookies while she's here? She's quite fantastic at it.
[It's not ideal that they have to share their space during this time, but it's easy to accept when they have weeks that will be spent doing nothing but getting reacquainted. Nothing could truly ruin that prospect.
Dorian settles into their contact, luxuriating in it as he drapes limbs over the other man. With afterglow still swimming lazily through his veins, this is ... perfect.]
What's there to that for you both, anyway? Your contract, I mean. I heard the basics from orientation, but you have to be together for, what, three months? [Because when that time's up, it's going to be them contracting, right? That much feels obvious to him, and he doesn't want to be matched with anyone else.]
Convenience, mostly. She needed a contract when I did, and I got to keep the house by signing with her. Well, it's in her name right now, but once she knows you're back, she'll give it over when you take me back.
[Aha, another thing to mention. This one much more exciting. He grins as he tugs Dorian to him for a kiss.]
Three months, unless you make it permanent. Which we'll be doing, by the way. We did it last time, the first night I arrived. [He lifts his left hand to waggle his fingers and show off the ring Dorian got him on his last visit to Duplicity.] It's almost like getting married to the natives here, so of course I got a ring from you for it. It's not a proper wedding band, though, so I still demand something new to match whatever you choose for yourself now that we are getting married.
[Welcome back to Duplicity, Dorian! Hope you were ready for your soulmate's ecstatic rambling, because that train has now started and is never going to stop as long as you're here.]
[It's still bizarre to not remember any part of what Toby's describing, but there's one piece he can agree with, at least: Now that they're here together, of course they're going to contract permanently again. He can't imagine being paired in that way with anyone else.]
How... exactly is it done? Do we have to go to LIES headquarters and announce ourselves, or something? [He's not going to be surprised if the fanfare requires a public spanking, or some other public sexual fanfare like that. Sex and kink seem to be the flavour of the day, in Duplicity.]
And I would like to get the house back in my name as soon as possible, yeah. Is a signing over of the deed all that's needed?
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You don't know that nothing will change - you can't know that. [Yes, Toby's been married before, but it wasn't a real marriage, even by the man's own words.]
What if the reason we've worked out together the way we have, is because we've chosen one another in our own way? You want this because it satisfies some romantic fantasy you've had about our relationship since we started. [Basically.] Yeah? What if you get it, and realize it doesn't hold up anywhere near to the idea in your mind?
That's how these things work, Toby. Especially with me. I've seen it a thousand times.
[After something like that, which always happens to him when someone holds him up to some kind of romantic ideal, everything always turns into disillusionment and resentment.]
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[God, why can't he see how ridiculous he's being right now? Accusing Toby of letting things change while he's been claiming for years that he doesn't change, that they don't be virtue of being immortal. It can't be both ways. Not if their lives are going to work. Seeing as they have been working for years, it must all be fine. So all... this that's got Dorian shouting and pushing him away is all so much shite.]
You're such a hypocrite, [he mutters, looking away as he starts to dig in his pockets.] Constantly telling me we can't change, yet accusing me of doing so the second we get married without any proof I will. We've basically been married for years. The whole of the network even said it a year ago! [He grimaces before adding,] That'll come back to you, but I can show you the post if you're going to be an ass about all this.
[With a sigh, he lights up a cigarette. He doesn't offer one to the other man before putting both carton and lighter back in his pocket.] I want the symbol this is. I want my one fantasy to come true. Fuck me for wanting that, yeah? [He laughs darkly and drags at his cigarette, shaking his head as he exhales.]
I need a bloody drink.
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So fucking... why? Why now, when all he wants to do - or did want to do, anyway - is hold the man and kiss the life from him?]
I'm the one who doesn't change - that's the whole point. You stalked me for years, and I know you saw how commitment works out for me. I'm not-- a husband, and I've never pretended I could, or should, be.
[Toby should have known that.]
And even if I said yes, what part of that suits a romantic dream? You know what I'd be thinking even as we walked down the aisle.
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[He doesn't care if it's wallowing; he's getting himself a drink and any arguments to the contrary are getting shut down. If Dorian cares to bring it up.]
Are you so thick you don't see it? Or so cynical you've forgotten what it's like to daydream? [He shakes his head as he pours a double of whiskey for himself and immediately throws it back.] Landing the eternal bachelor was only the start. Landing him and having him love me enough to say yes to my one stupidly selfish and silly request is the dream. A dream I only want with him. No big ceremony. No white lace gown. No top hats or tuxes. Just us, swearing ourselves while we exchange vows and rings, then living on as we have.
[It would be so easy. He frowns as he pours himself another drink.] You're scared it's going to end the way Harry told you it would, or that I'll do something reckless and stupid if you hurt me. But I'm not Sybil, and I'm not some stranger who's just met you. I know you, Dorian Gray. I chose this life with you. I know loving you will hurt sometimes. [Another shake of his head as he trudges back over to the other man and offers the refilled glass.]
I'm willing to take that risk with you, because that dream only comes true with you.
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Scared. As much as it grates to admit it, he knows he's scared. He can feel the fear thrumming through him even now. Harry and Sybil changed everything. How could he not see truth in Harry's words - that truth repeating over and over again for decades - when the first example started with a thoughtless mistake that ended everything his life could have been, forever? The circumstances here aren't the same, but at this moment and all others, the past hangs over him like a leaden curtain. Will always be there, pushing on his present. In the worst sense, this made him who he is. It's a painful reality that's on the verge of cutting right through him, if it's only pressed on too hard.
And how could he not be scared, when Toby could be torn away at any time, and over so little? When he already has, several times? Everything between them has always been borrowed time, whether they knew it or wanted to admit it. How is this different now? He doesn't know how to look past that.
So why can he not simply let go of all that for now, and have this one, perfect (well, not perfect now) moment where none of that is true? Where none of it has happened again yet?]
Of course I'm scared. [When he finally speaks, the words come out breathless and small, and as overwhelmed as he feels.] Every time we're together, and things between us start to get good, and I start to think we've found something worth keeping, something happens to change that. We keep coming back together, and then get torn apart. If I'm about to remember that it happened again in however long it takes here, I don't-- [he draws a sharp breath] it's just ... so much, Toby.
[Another breath.]
I don't daydream - haven't for years - because what's there to daydream about, Toby? We get married and have lives we could have only dreamed of when we were young, and then it falls apart? [He truly doesn't know.]
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[He pushes the drink into Dorian's hands so he can gently tip the man's chin up to meet his eyes. Those goddamn beautiful eyes that no other can ever have. So deep and haunted, yet ever young and full of life. As he stares into them, he's certain Dorian's got no idea how much he has if he can see it with a single look into the man's eyes.]
Being scared of something has never stopped you from doing it before. You throw yourself recklessly into everything, but you won't even try with this. I know Harry's fingerprints are all over your life, but will you let him dictate the whole of it? Why do you want to give him such power over you long after he's dead? [A frown pulls at his lips.] I've met hundreds of couples who loved each other 'til death parted them, Dorian, who didn't push each other away or stop throwing themselves in one another's arms whenever they had the chance. God knows that death or some other pull apart may be what's coming for us, but we don't know that. We never can until it's on us. That's how our lives are. [It's how they'll always be.
He takes a slow breath and releases his boyfriend's face with a last brush of his thumb along that perfect, unblemished cheek.] There's everything to daydream about when we're this old. The things we want to share with each other that we didn't have the chance to on Earth. Gossip and use of mortals for entertainment whenever we're feeling bored. The years we can spend trying new things together and tackling all the mysteries you want to throw yourself into. I want all of that and everything else with you, the same I'll always want that, and I know that because I don't change nearly as much as you say I do. I certainly didn't while you were gone.
So we take this step, we do something for us that doesn't have to include anyone else, and we keep living the same unpredictable, reckless, and endlessly curious lives we always have. The only difference is a change in title. [He smiles lightly, chuckling at his next thought before he says it.] And me officially being a Gray.
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Harry. Toby just has to put this in terms of not letting a dead, beloved and hated, friend continue to rule his life, doesn't he? He balks at the idea, of course, because it's... true. And he can't deny it. He allowed this, and then once the man died, and he thought himself truly his own person, he kept right on looking for pieces to fit into the old pattern. To prove Harry right.
It's not the way he wants to be. Not for Lucifer, not for Harry, not for anyone. This is his life, and after all the abuse over the years, he will live his life on his terms. He can be anything his wants, and make of his life exactly what he wants. He decided that again on the shores of Whitby, and it's not a decision he's going back on now.
As Toby looks into his eyes and touches his face, and the man tells him that this isn't going to change them, but only be... something new to try? Absurdly, in the same way it always feels absurd when Toby hopes for something bright, and hopeful between them where he can't see it, himself ... he believes it. Just for a moment.
Damn this persuasive man who knows him all too well, and loves him unconditionally.
When the vampire pulls away, Dorian draws a breath to compose himself, and throws back a generous amount of the drink Toby pressed into his hand. Fuck him. Is he honestly thinking of going for this?
He supposes he is. For the sake of what Toby sees between them, and what he himself really, actually wants to be true.]
God. [Dorian wipes at his mouth with the back of his hand, savouring the mild distraction of the burn in the back of his throat. It helps stave off how terrifying this all is.] You had a lot of time to think about all this, didn't you? [He's not mocking - it's genuinely flooring, and he's overwhelmed.
Working to try and compose himself, Dorian takes another sip of his drink. He'll need more, soon.]
You're right. [He laughs softly, hollowly, in disbelief.] All this time I've been telling myself that I make my own self, my own life, but all I've been is a piece of someone else's music. For years. [It hurts to say. He hates it. It's unfair that it's been this way because he was young and foolish, and didn't know any better at the time, and then didn't think to try and know any better.] I've been playing the same tune since I heard it at 19.
Do you know what I told Lucifer at Whitby? When he told me to die? [It's a rhetorical question, because Toby must know, even if he doesn't remember telling the man. He would have.] When I met him, I was prepared. I rehearsed what I wanted to say before I surrendered everything to him. [He exhales.] But he told me to die, and as soon as he did, I knew I didn't want to.
I'm not anyone's-- puppet. [Not anymore. Not for another single fucking person, fallen angel, god, anyone. Raising his glass again, Dorian finishes off the last of his drink, and then puts it down onto the nearest surface with a loud clatter.]
So fuck him. Fuck him and Harry. Let's make another choice for ourselves, because you think there's everything to gain. [And, for a shred of a moment, Toby made him believe it, too.] Let's do it.
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But when he does get it, in typical Dorian fashion, his eyes well up with tears. Let's do it might be his new favourite words for how they make his heart metaphorically soar. He said yes, and that's really all Toby needed to hear before he does the thing they both need by closing the small distance between them recklessly fast so he can pull Dorian into a deep and passionate kiss. A kiss that finally, finally lets out some of the tension that's lived in him since he woke up to find his boyfriend gone and nothing but a hole in his heart in the man's place.]
I love you, Dorian Gray. [He murmurs the words when he lets them part for a breath, not caring how they sound both delighted and desperate. None of it matters now that Dorian's here again. It matters even less now that Dorian's agreed to marry him. Nothing could possibly matter but kissing the life from this wonderful, reckless, cynical, passionate man with everything he is.
Well, almost nothing. There's one tiny thing he wants to hear first.]
Do me a favour before I take you to bed? [He smirks, letting the tears on his cheeks go ignored.] Let me get down on one knee again and say yes? I promise the sex will be so worth it.
[This is the dream, Dorian. Please let him have it.]
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Maybe this will be fine. Maybe nothing will change. Maybe Toby's right about enough of it. Maybe--
Christ, the vampire's really going to make this as dramatic as possible, isn't he? (Of course he is. That's who the vampire is.) Why is this happening to him? Flustering slightly, Dorian feels himself actually blush a little, for how the man's caught him off guard yet again.
Satan just kill him now. He doesn't blush. Ever.]
All right. [What's the point in resisting now, when he's already said yes? But they're definitely having another drink after this if it kills him - which it can't, so they will - and he's getting the best sex of his life. Sighing, Dorian steps back to make room, and gestures at the floor.] Go ahead-- kneel to your heart's content.
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As I was saying, this is important to me, darling. Being with you is important to me, and I want to do this the right way for us both. [He beams up at the other man and gently takes both his hands in his own.] I love you, Dorian Christopher Gray. Please, make me the happiest man in any universe, and marry me.
[God, it's a good thing he hasn't gotten a bite of the other man yet or his heart would beat its way from his chest. Even knowing he's already got the yes doesn't stop the anticipation from trying to kill him. In a good way this time! But it's still a lot on the heart in those moments he's waiting for that blissful syllable to come from his soulmate's mouth.]
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No, he's not stalling. You're stalling.Dorian huffs a disbelieving laugh as the vampire takes his hands in his own, but then happens to catch the man's eye in time to see Toby beaming up at him. Damn this man and his unearthly, beautiful smile, and how much it hurts in the very best way to see his boyfriend looking at him like this. He's missed this more than anything in any world. The sight makes his stomach do the totally out of place, and ill-fitting flips it hasn't done since he was truly young.
He could kill this man and kill for him, all at this moment.
Sighing again, in spite of himself, Dorian smiles slightly.]
Yes, I'll marry you. [He grants (generously, he thinks) Toby a few seconds to soak in his acceptance, and then draws one of his hands back to reach for the glass he set down on the nearby table.] But first, I want to drink until we can't stand, and you need to kiss me until I can't breathe.
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He draws Dorian to him with both hands on the man's face and lays the most impossibly excited and loving kiss on the man that he can manage. He shamelessly holds it far too long, until he can feel his fiancé both struggling to keep their lips together and starting to lose his grip on the glass in his hand. The grin on his face is extra cheeky when they part.]
Only if I get to take you upstairs first. [He slips an arm about Dorian's waist to pull him over to the nearest bar cart, handing the man a mostly full bottle.] It's all whiskey, but we'll get you a celebratory bottle of gin later. For now...
[There's a few seconds of hesitation wherein the younger immortal has a chance to think about what's surely coming next. He can't stop it, but he'll have a chance to fluster or protest. Then, with too much fanfare, Toby sweeps Dorian into his arms to start carrying him bridal style toward the bedroom.]
Off to bed with us, darling. I think this celebration of ours calls for that.
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But honestly? There's no other place in the multiverse he wants to be right now. If it means being carried like a farmhouse wife, he would have done so much infinitely worse simply for the chance to be in this moment.]
You're skipping steps with going for the threshold carry now, [he says dryly. But god yes, please take him to bed.
He's just going to work at the top of the bottle in his arms as he's hauled upstairs, and take a solid gulp from the thing once he's put down atop their fittingly sumptuous bed. When he's done, he puts the bottle aside on the night stand, and curls fingers into Toby's shirt to draw the man to him.]
You should have shown me this room first, [there's genuine appreciation in his tone, even with such a good, and necessary distraction at hand, and in hand] I'd have accepted this was ours even faster than I did the foyer.
[When Toby comes close, Dorian shifts his hold to the lines of the vampire's jaw, and simply basks in the man's presence for a few seconds. It hurts, makes his heart race, to be so near to everything that's been so impossibly far away for so long. Too long. He isn't sure he's actually breathing as he presses himself close to his lover for another, wholly necessary kiss, but nothing could be further from mattering now that he has Toby back with him again.]
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He pauses all forward momentum when the younger immortal takes his face between his hands to look at him. Toby's in a rush to get to all the best parts, but getting the chance to really see Dorian like this is... Heaven, of a sorts. It's at least the exact opposite of Hell, and that's what matters. A smile comes to his face as he returns the touch with a brush of fingers across his man's warm cheek, and then he's being pulled into a kiss that takes all metaphorical breath away from him.
God he's missed this. He's missed these lips and being in these arms. His arms wrap around Dorian instantly, sending them tipping back onto the bed as he presses their lips together over and over again. Somewhere in the mess he parts his lips and finds his lover's tongue with his own to dance with it again, and it's perfect. The kind of perfect they had every time they kissed and enjoyed each other's bodies on Earth or here in Duplicity. The kind of perfect poets try to write about and fail at, because they're all too mortal to know what a love like this actually is.
That smile's still on his face when they part again for a breath, and he's pleasantly surprised to find he's pulled his fiancé atop him. He brushes a few stray curls from the man's face, then leans up for another, softer, but still entirely perfect kiss.]
I love you so much, Dorian Gray. You can't even begin to know how much I've missed you.
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He's missed giving everything to this man that he's never surrendered to anyone else, and knowing it will be received with nothing but love, and enthusiastic acceptance.]
I know I can, [he contradicts.] That was every single breath for me, after you died.
[The memories make the need to fill those aching holes in his soul all the more insistent. As he finishes peeling the other man's shirt away, he pauses, and looks down into the vampire's face from where he's seated upon the man.]
You should bite me-- [Dorian breathes out, along with the rising tide of need, and love for the man beneath his hands.] we should-- I want us to have that right now. [To, as Toby once explained to him what feels like so long ago now, bind their lives together in blood.]
cw: vampiric feeding
You didn't have to ask. I was never going to make you wait. [He couldn't have waited, either. It's been too long - 241 days and a number of hours - since they last had this, and he's missed it. He's fed on Dorian's blood since then, but it's not the same. It never could be.
He kisses his soulmate again, insistently pulling Dorian flush against him in a bid to feel the way Dorian's heart starts to race in anticipation. He holds it too long, leaves them both breathless, then parts to start pressing his lips slowly along the other man's jaw. Then down his neck. Then finally to that wonderful, excited, strong pulse. The feeling of it beneath his lips, the truth of his lover alive and in his arms again, brings tears back to his eyes, and rather than give them any space to disrupt, he plunges ahead by driving his fangs into Dorian's neck.
All at once he feels complete. Everything he's been missing is right here, under his hands and streaming crimson over his tongue, and it's as close to perfect as anything ever need be. He moans softly as he grips at his fiancé, pulling hard and steady as they're finally, fully reconnected in the way he never will be with anyone but this wonderfully reckless man he loves.
It's all he's ever wanted from his life, and all he'll ever want this day forward. This bloody idiot is his and the tears of relief and joy flowing down his steadily warming cheeks only remind him how much he needs him. Forever.]
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He doesn't want to bear even another moment of that, now that he has Toby back again.
When the other man finally pulls away, Dorian exhales shakily, and opens his eyes to the burning of brilliant and sumptuous colours all around them both. Everything is as beautiful and picturesque as it always is whenever Toby bites him, and now more than ever he knows why. This is his life, when he has the vampire in it - only when he has Toby in it.
How did he manage to keep dragging himself through his existence, without this? The thought only makes his need, and desire, for the other man that much more urgent. Reaching out, he captures Toby's face in his hands, and brings them together in a passionate, and bloodstained kiss. He holds it for as long as he can manage, and then draws away with a breath, to start pulling at his pants, and every other scrap of clothing still on his body.]
I can't wait another second, [he needs this man to fuck him, now] I need you now.
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It's automatic to reach to prepare someone for having sex after so long without his soulmate, and the second Toby realizes how unnecessary it is between them, he laughs at himself. Breathlessly, with the draw of a full and needed breath into his lungs after. He grins as he shrugs off his own ridiculousness, then takes his cock in hand to line them up and, with only a brief glance to catch his lover's eyes, press into the other man with the most heady moan.
As it always is when they're together like this, the whole of the world seems to come down to the two of them when they're locked together. Toby's breath catches in his chest, and he chokes on a sob of joy and relief as he looks down into the face of the man he loves and has missed more than any other in existence. He doesn't let any of this slow him down or distract him, though, because he needs this just as much as Dorian. He groans as he starts to roll his hips, kissing his lover again as he cradles his face and wills himself to find enough breath for the words he will never tire of saying for the rest of their eternity together.]
I love you.
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He has this, with this man, back again. This shouldn't have happened for the fourth time, but it has. He can feel them being rewritten in every crash of their hips, and in the lukewarm tears falling onto his chest.
He doesn't want this to end, but at the same time, he does. Everything ending means it can all start again, and that this isn't just a reverie. It means Toby will stay, and that he won't roll over, bathed in sweat and heartbroken, and find himself without the one person he needs, will always need, more than anyone, or anything, else.
Groaning out the other man's name, Dorian reaches clumsily for one of Toby's hands, and wraps it tight around his cock. He can feel how close he is to coming already, but he won't let any part of this necessary reintroduction be slowed.
He loves this man, and if all of their neighbours end up hearing about it tonight, he truly couldn't care less.]
cw: mentions of addiction/drugs/alcoholism
He grips hard at the other's cock when he's guided to it, squeezing and stroking quickly to match the pace of his thrusts. It doesn't feel enough, so he does the only thing he can think of by dropping down to his other elbow to press their lips together. He doesn't care how hard it makes it for either of them to breathe, because this? This is more necessary than anything. More necessary than breath, than words, than comfort for his body. None of that matters if he can just kiss this man and know him that little bit more while they come together for the first time in far too many nights.
His release comes upon him as a surprise, but it's one he gives himself to gladly. He moans Dorian's name into their latest kiss, fingers squeezing his cock and gripping the bedspread as he spills into the man. He keep his hips going to help Dorian reach his peak, too, bringing them together over and over until they can collapse and recover enough to do it again. And again. And again.
Every second of the next few hours and days and weeks will belong to this man, and Toby's going to make sure it stays that way without regard for anyone else. No one else matter. Nothing could ever matter when his Dorian Gray, his soulmate and husband, is back.]
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In this one, electrified moment, the suffering of the last year is nothing. The suffering of over a century, is nothing.
He'll fall back down to Earth. He always does. Right now, he's too blissfully happy, and relieved, to feel, or think about anything but Toby.
As soon as he can breathe again, Dorian flops back into the plushness of their bed, but keeps an arm around the other man, tipping his head for another deep, and lingering kiss. This was so much, and yet not nearly enough.]
I love you, too. [He waits until the other man pulls out of him and comes to rest with him, and then curls a hand around the back of Toby's neck.
God, he could stare at this face forever, and be content. He allows himself the pleasure for an extended moment, until thoughts start coalescing in his head again.] No disrespect to your skills, but... I still can't believe this is happening. [He huffs a disbelieving, but happy laugh.] I've had a lot of dreams like this. [When they weren't about Lucifer.]
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Toby shakes his head and presses their foreheads together, draping an arm across his soulmate to pull him closer.] Give it time, darling. We'll have this without interruption for weeks if we want. I'm sure my boss can make do without me for that long and we can order in anything we need. No distractions at all.
[A beat.] Ah, one exception. Elle's going to have to be here occasionally. City demands we live with our contracted partners at least half the month now, so... [He grins sheepishly.] Maybe we can just have her deliver what we need, and bake some cookies while she's here? She's quite fantastic at it.
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Dorian settles into their contact, luxuriating in it as he drapes limbs over the other man. With afterglow still swimming lazily through his veins, this is ... perfect.]
What's there to that for you both, anyway? Your contract, I mean. I heard the basics from orientation, but you have to be together for, what, three months? [Because when that time's up, it's going to be them contracting, right? That much feels obvious to him, and he doesn't want to be matched with anyone else.]
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[Aha, another thing to mention. This one much more exciting. He grins as he tugs Dorian to him for a kiss.]
Three months, unless you make it permanent. Which we'll be doing, by the way. We did it last time, the first night I arrived. [He lifts his left hand to waggle his fingers and show off the ring Dorian got him on his last visit to Duplicity.] It's almost like getting married to the natives here, so of course I got a ring from you for it. It's not a proper wedding band, though, so I still demand something new to match whatever you choose for yourself now that we are getting married.
[Welcome back to Duplicity, Dorian! Hope you were ready for your soulmate's ecstatic rambling, because that train has now started and is never going to stop as long as you're here.]
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How... exactly is it done? Do we have to go to LIES headquarters and announce ourselves, or something? [He's not going to be surprised if the fanfare requires a public spanking, or some other public sexual fanfare like that. Sex and kink seem to be the flavour of the day, in Duplicity.]
And I would like to get the house back in my name as soon as possible, yeah. Is a signing over of the deed all that's needed?
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cw: talk of drug use
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