sunburned | (no subject)

Laurence followed him willingly. It wasn't until he had almost lost Granby on the island that he realized just how much what they were doing meant to him. He wasn't even able to properly put it into words, yet there it was, unlooked for, unexpected, but more appreciated than he could ever say. "Thank you."

Before they lay down properly, Granby shrugged out of his own shirt. He pulled Laurence down onto him, pressed together at chest and belly, bare skin to bare skin. His hand skimmed along the line of Laurence's spine, fingers slipping just under the waistband of his trousers.

He frowned.

"For what?"

"For what you said. For coming back to me." Despite their extreme closeness, Laurence suddenly found himself unable to look Granby in the eye. The familiar flush was spreading over him once more, but more from a sense of embarrassment than pleasure due to what he had to say. "I am aware that you did not have to. That there are... others with whom you may be better matched in temperament and knowledge. Thank you for choosing to remain with me instead, John."

How to respond to that? Granby could tell how much it had taken for Laurence to say it at all. Gently, he took hold of Laurence's jaw, turning his face so that he could look at him and then press a gentle kiss against his mouth.

"God, Will, don't you see?" he said, very quietly in the slight space between them. "It's been you. It's been you for years."

"It has?" he marveled, looking down at Granby more fully now. Had he been so willfully blind all of those years? What would he have done if he had known though? What could he have done? Simply listening to Granby's confession of his inclinations had been painful enough. "I am sorry. I should have known--"

Yes, there had been Little, pleasant enough, but it had nothing to do with love. In terms of love, there had really only ever been Laurence. From the look on Laurence's face, Granby wasn't sure that bringing Little up would be the best course of action.

"How could you?" he asked, simply. "I've been hiding my whole life, Laurence. How hard would it be to hide something else from you?"

Not very hard at all, he feared. Laurence sighed, looking and feeling rather tired. Granby may have said that he did not blame, him, yet that could not stop a small amount of guilt from lodging in his mind. Guilt which he tried his best to ignore by lightly kissing Granby once more.

He hated that look that fleeted across Laurence's face and wished he hadn't said anything; it wasn't as though anything could be changed now, anyway. He leaned up, pressing the kiss slightly deeper, his fingers tracing against Laurence's skin.

His knees slipped wider apart, one on either side of Laurence's hips, cradling their bodies together. He shifted his weight slightly and the way that he pressed against Laurence was enough to make him moan against Laurence's lips.

Laurence made a matching noise of pleasure into the kiss. That thought was still there in the back of his mind, but he could push it aside for the tiime being. Granby did not deserve to have him there with his mind in a different place altogether. He pressed the kiss, moving himself against Granby.

He could have been content to kiss like that all afternoon, but he had other things in mind. His hand skimmed along Laurence's back again.

"God, Will," he mumbled, lost in the feel of Laurence's body pressed against his. "I want you so much."

He answered Granby's statement with more kisses, trailing them down his neck and over his collarbone. All the while Laurence's hands were at work, fumbling with modern fasteners until he could get the other man's trousers undone. After that it was largely a matter of maneuvering them off.

It was impossible not to think about how much things had moved on; only a few months previously, he would have had to coax Laurence to undo his trousers at all. As it was, it lifted his hips, squirming to help Laurence strip him entirely bare.

He lay back against the pillows, knees spread, eyes only for Laurence's face.

"I want you entirely," he said, hoping his meaning was clear enough. "I've waited long enough, Will. We both have."

Laurence nodded, a bit unsteady. He wasn't certain he had ever wanted Granby as much as he did in that moment. Why was it that it had taken his nearly losing the man to make him think so? His eyes glanced unburden at his wounded shoulder, the bandages standing out in stark contrast to the rest of his nudity. It was enough to give him pause. "And your shoulder is quite all right?"

Edited 2012-11-12 04:36 (UTC)

Glancing down reflexively, Granby stretched it before he nodded. The bandages were still white and there was little pain, meaning he hadn't torn stitches or overstretched him.

"My shoulder is fine, Will," he said, gently, rolling to the side to rummage in the drawer for something that he'd stashed there what felt like weeks ago. "Trousers. If you please."

The look on Laurence's face was making it particularly hard to think.

Obliging as ever, Laurence began removing his own remaining garments. He did not get far, however, before Granby's determined searching made him pause, brow furrowed in confusion. Surely he could not have slipped something into a drawer in so short a span of time. "Have you-- Just how long have you been planning this?"

Granby had given it considerable thought and he found himself certain that he was never going to get tired of watching Laurence strip naked. He grinned lazily up at him.

"Long enough."

Laurence shook his head, smiling fondly as he finished removing his trousers. The other man could be truly incorrigible at times, yet he would not have him any other way. "Have you brought anything else aboard without my knowing that I ought to hear of, John?"

"Well, I don't know," said Granby, mulling it over as he let his knees fall apart again, waiting for Laurence to get back onto the bed. "Have you met the cat?"

"That is not very amusing," Laurence said with a bit of a sigh. He was fairly certain that Granby had not managed to smuggle an animal on board, but he could not put anything past the other man. He sat on the bed, catching Granby's knee with a hand and holding it, his expression still fond. "What am I to do with you? I sometimes do not know."

"That's because it's very amusing," said Granby, grinning broadly. His fingers grazed over the delicate bones of Laurence's hand.

"Do you mean in the larger sense or right at this moment, because that much I can walk you through."

"In the larger sense." Laurence shrugged, his hand turning to grab Granby's hand instead. It was impressive to think of how far he had come since this started. Now he was comfortable with this, just sitting close and eventually -probably very soon- moving on. "I believe I can manage right at this moment, unless you would still prefer to guide me."

He tilted his head against the pillow, threading their fingers together and squeezing Laurence's hand. He drew in a breath that shuddered, slightly.

"Stay with me for as long as you're able," he said. A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. "Be mine, because I want nobody else."

For a short span of time Laurence was silent. Then he lay down next to Granby properly, still holding his hand. "I can do that, John." He smiled, kissing him softly and slowly. "I can most certainly do that."

Turning towards Laurence slightly, he kissed him slowly and deeply, foot grazing against Laurence's shin but content to let the kiss linger.

As long as Granby was content to let the kiss simply remain as it was, Laurence was more than happy to continue in that vein. And if the kiss did eventually go a bit deeper and more heated, he nonetheless did little beyond it other than touches.