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laurence

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Enough is enough.

He lasts a week, gathering fresh clothes from the clothes box, staying with either Julie or Priestly. He's been mostly serious and sullen, turning it over and over in his head. It's his fault - he knows that. And that means it's down to him to at least try to set it right.

It's evening, the sun already sunk below the horizon, by the time he comes home.

"Laurence? Will?"

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He nodded unsteadily, his face still flushed and breathing uneven. "I may need a bit more time to grapple with this, John."

He presses his palm against Laurence's skin and the longing is so sharp that he can almost taste it, but, true to his word, he tugged his hand out from under his shirt and pressd it against linen again. The kiss tha he presses agains Laurenc's mouth is almost chaste.

"I forget that no everyone has had almost their whole lives to ge used to this."

"Of course," Laurence answered, drawing himself back into something like order, the look in his eyes almost an apology. "This is beyond my experience, as I said, and quite a change."

"After Jane Roland, I imagine that it is," he says. The words are out of his mouth before he realises that they were probably indiscreet. His mouth quirks in an apology, though it quickly blossoms into a grin.

"I'll learn boundaries, Will. I promise. I'll apply for kisses in writing, if that's what I must do."

He knows that he's being ridiculous but he feels almost drunk on everything that's occurred.

The comment about Jane Roland caused Laurence's face to redden even further. His relationship with the Admiral had been conducted (on his part at least) with the greatest delicacy, but that had not stopped the affair from becoming common knowledge. However, he hardly saw reason for Granby to refer to it so casually and at such a time. He sat up, still a little unsteady. "I hardly think you need to go so far."

"Oh, come on, Will," he says, hand thrown up in something like surrender. "That was uncalled for, I know it. I'm sorry. I'm an idiot." He smiles, good natured and apologetic. "You've gone to my head. I feel somewhat drunk."

Granby was, for better or worse, quite charming, particularly in that moment and, though Laurence's demeanor remained fairly restrained, it softened a little around the edges. "That was not my intention."

Granby slumped back against the pillow, draping his hand against his forehead like a heroine in a novel.

"My cross to bear, I suppose.". He sobered a little. "Are we seriously going to do this, Will?."

"I do not know." Laurence sat up more fully, watching Granby as he straightened his clothing. "I fear I do not even know entirely what this is."

Granby's silent for a moment while he puzzles it out. He shrugs, worrying his lip for a moment.

"You and I together," he says, sounding uncharacteristically uncertain. "If you will have me and we will figure out the rest as we go."

Laurence nodded heavily, sighing and drawing a hand over his eyes. "I would have hoped that by my age I should have most of my life already figured to my satisfaction."

"You could make it sound less like you're going to the gallows, Laurence," says Granby. "I'm sure you'll find somebody else who'll have you."

"That is not what I meant," Laurence replied, turning to Granby. He looked almost tired, mixed with an equal measure of confusion, as well as the complexion of a man who had -until very recently- been doing some rather heated kissing.

"Oh, I know," says Granby, equally flushed but a good but more rumpled. "Just...this is me for me too, Will. I'm used to things going somewhat differently from this."

"Perhaps we both need time, then." Though a part of him insisted that he should have moved off of the bed some time ago, Laurence did not. Despite everything, he did not want to leave Granby like that.

"Aye," says Granby with a nod and a small smile that warms blue eyes. "We've got all the time in the world, Will."

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