sunburned | (no subject)

Entry tags:

julie,
priestly

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Suddenly, he's having a hard time sitting still. Concentration is impossible. He draws a lot. He doesn't finish anything. What he does do is draw Laurence a lot, lingering over the lines of his face. Some of the drawings are more successful than others. Sprawled on one of the chairs on the porch outside the hut they share, he all but growls at himself.

He tears the page out. He starts again.

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There's a little relief in seeing Priestly at all; Granby's been aware of the distance between them since he went to tell him about Laurence. His smile is entirely genuine as he takes the muffin.

"My mother always said that the devil finds work for idle hands."

"My mother always said don't swim for an hour after eating," says Priestly. "I don't think that's quite the same calibre of advice, but their hearts are in the same place, I think? Anyway. Hey." He has a muffin of his own in his other hand and starts picking at it, partly for something to do with his hands and partly because they really are delicious.

"Hey," echoes Granby, the modern sounding word feeling odd on his tongue. He crumbles some of the muffin, chewing it thoughtfully. "I'm glad to see you."

"Yeah?" says Priestly, trying not to sound like he wasn't entirely sure he would be. He doesn't want to ask how things are going, in case John doesn't want to talk about it, but he doesn't want to not ask and have John think he doesn't care. "You're...good?"

"I'm as well as can be expected, even if life has taken a somewhat complicated turn of late." more than anything, now, he considers Priestly to be one of his closest friends on the island and he'd value his advice above almost anyone else's. "Things progress extremely slowly, indeed."

"Yeah, sometimes they do that," says Priestly, only a little awkwardly, "especially since you're, uh. More experienced." He means that in the nicest and most honest way possible, and is not trying to suggest that John is slutty or something. He just definitely knows his way around. Priestly should know. "I mean...that's what you're talking about, right?"

He's going to be really embarrassed in a second if it's not.

His cheeks flush but the smile that he gives Priestly is good natured. He rolls his eyes at himself.

"That is what I'm talking about," he says.

"It freaked me out a little too, at first," says Priestly. "I mean, probably not like him, because I was totally okay with it in theory before that, but still. You're into one thing and then you're into this whole other thing. You know? Or maybe you don't."

He shakes his head and shrugs, sliding down in his chair somewhat.

"I've known what I wanted since I was old enough to want it," he says.

"I was always with girls, before Yorick," says Priestly. "I guess I probably looked at guys, but I never thought about it. And then suddenly I was doing and wanting things I didn't expect, at an age where I thought I should've already known that about myself. So that's probably...I don't want to speak for him, because I don't know him very well, but that's probably a little bit of what Laurence is going through right now. So I guess be patient with him. I mean...not that you were asking for advice or anything."

"Advice would be welcome, truly," say Granby, still picking at the muffin, chewing medatively. "I have honestly never been in this situation before. Or anything resembling it."

Priestly almost asks 'Really?' because he sort of imagined that John would've been in the position of being with people with little to no experience before, just because of the difficulties of openly finding someone, where he's from, but then he realises he means he's never been in the situation with someone he cares about enough to pursue. After that he has trouble saying anything for a few moments.

"I guess I should've brought a whole basket of muffins, huh?" he says finally, with a soft chuckle. "Do you mind if I...?" He gestures at one of the other chairs, still not entirely sure he's invited to join him.

"Please," he says, gesturing to one of the sheets. "I'd welcome the company. And, homestly, if this is...poor form, discussing it with you then please say. We can talk about the weather or...something. I wouldn't lose your friendship for the world."

"No, no, it's not that," says Priestly, sitting down and putting his feet up and feeling a lot more comfortable for it. "We're friends now and you'd have to do something really horrible to get rid of me. Who else are you even going to ask?" The question is rhetorical, but just for a moment Priestly wonders, who else would he ask. "If my experience can help you, then I'm glad it's good for something."

"He's on the verge of driving me out of my blessed mind," says Granby, catching the weir of his head in his hand. "One minute, everything is...as you'd expect. The next, it's like dealing with...some kind of blushing virgin. Which I suppose he is. But that isn't the bloody point."

"Are you getting anything?" Priestly asks him, except he asks it a bit too incredulously, he thinks, when he's not actually incredulous. He just knows John's average sexual appetite, so if he's not getting anything, well, Priestly can imagine he's a little on edge. "I mean. I know it just takes time. At least me and Yorick, we were idiots about it together. No one was trying to play catch-up or feeling stressed about it."

John covers his eyes with his hand, and sighs.

"I am getting very little indeed, as you say," he says, voice pained. "A goodly amount of kissing and I got my hand under his shirt the other day?"

"All right, here's what I'm going to do," says Priestly. "I am going to get you a shitload of dirty pictures and, like, videos and stuff, and you are going to take care of yourself. Several times. Because yeah, you need to be patient with him, but you've got needs. And when you're not, like, so focused on that, then it's easier to, you know, be patient. I bet Laurence worries that he's frustrating you. I know I would. I mean. I'm just saying...less stress is better, if he's freaking out?"

"Oh, God," says Granby, definitely hiding behind his hand now. "I assure you that I am still entirely capable of doing that much, if the need arises. Drawing isn't all I do."

"Sure, you can," says Priestly, "but are you? Or are you feeling like you need to be saving it for him and so you're being all noble and suffering and shit?"

"I am," protests John, blushing furiously. "Though maybe not as often as I should."

"I'm just saying," says Priestly, and tries not to be amused that for all his worldliness John's still a bit too proper to talk about it casually. "If you're feeling a little pent-up and frustrated with him, maybe he's feeling that too. Does he ever, you know, come to you? Or do you always have to go to him?"

"Always me to him," says Granby, scrubbing his hand back through his hair. "And always fighting not to make him skittish."

"What would happen if you waited for him?" Priestly asks him, quite sincerely. "What if you just waited for him to come to you, for once? He'd do it eventually, and maybe it'd change how he was feeling about it, if he touched you first."

"Nothing. Forever," says Granby, grimly. "You don't know Laurence. I've never known a man more reserved or reticent."