not_every_mage | Clearing in the Preserves, Tuesday Afternoon

Entry tags:

clearing,
nathan

Clearing in the Preserves, Tuesday Afternoon

Anders was relieved to see the day he and Nathan had set for their picnic had dawned clear and warm. He made his way to the clearing and got the space organized, spreading out a blanket and putting the cookies, fruit and drinks he'd brought to one side.

The shop had refused to sell him the ale he'd wanted -- something about drinking laws -- but he'd gotten lemonade and sweet cider, and those seemed almost as good. Not that he thought the choice of beverage could ruin his time with Nathan, but fussing over that kept him from fussing over anything else.

He was, perhaps, a tad excited. (And a tad nervous.)

[OOC: For that one boy.]

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"I'm actually glad I got rid of those," he said, snickering a bit. "Everything was very dark."

He was trying out the whole 'making jokes a little more regularly' thing.

"But, you've just made me grateful for the hair that I have. I didn't think that'd ever be possible. I always thought it was too, I don't know, dark and uncooperative. But, it's not nug covered so I'm better off."

"We should always be grateful for small gifts," Anders said, and finally, with some effort, pulled far enough back that he wasn't completely invading Nathan's personal space. "Your hair's fine. I don't mind the color of mine but I can't stand having hair in my face, so I keep it long enough to tie back. I look silly with it short."

"I like your hair," he admitted quietly, pulling his eyes away from Anders' face so he could glance up at the hair in question. "It looks soft. It reminds me of sunsets, actually."

He bet it felt soft too. Nathan tilted his head and let his eyes flick from hair down to Anders' face and then back again.

"And when it falls in your face, you just need someone to push it bac -- " Well, that had come out before he'd even realized what he was saying. He meant it, yes, but didn't know if it was too forward of him.

It was forward, but Anders appreciated forwardness in times like this. It tended to clarify things.

Right then, what it was clarifying was the feeling that everything had stilled except himself and Nathan, as if this was all that mattered in the world.

"You could touch it if you want," Anders said, and slowly reached his own hand up to brush it over Nathan's dark locks.

"You wouldn't mind?" Nathan already knew the answer to that question since Anders had offered but he was a little distracted and unfocused with the hand brushing over his hair.

He closed his eyes and sighed quietly.

A low laugh. "I wouldn't have offered if I did," Anders said. He reached behind himself with his free hand to take out his hair tie, and the strawberry blond strands fell forward.

The other hand busied itself in Nathan's thick,dark hair.

Nathan opened his eyes and after a moment longer spent enjoying the hand in his hair, he finally got his own arm into the game.

Careful to not disturb Anders' touch, he reached up and gently brushed his fingers over Anders' hair. The touch was tentative at first, exploratory but got a little more assured as time passed and nothing horrible happened.

Hey, he'd been conditioned and it took time to get over that.

Nothing horrible happened. Nothing horrible was likely to happen, unless Nathan had some objection to the way Anders' breath went soft and ragged at the touches. Unconsciously, he curled closer to Nathan.

There were no objections on this end. None at all. Actually, he might have looked briefly amazed that he could cause that in someone. But, no objections.

When Nathan (eventually) noticed that Anders had curled closer, his fingers actually started threading through Anders' hair, letting his fingers disappear into the strawberry blonde locks and reappear again every so often.

"Good hands," Anders said softly, after a long moment. "You're right, if I had someone to do this all the time I wouldn't tie it back."

His own hand slipped down,finger tracing delicately along the line of Nathan's jaw.

"I was right about another thing too," he mumbled, lifting his chin a bit even as he leaned towards the hand on his chin. "Your hair's soft. Easy to have good hands when something's so nice to touch and feel."

He got a little more assured and pushed the hair back like he'd do if the hair was in Anders's eyes.

"Nobody ever told me that before," Anders said. "Not that anyone's ever had much to say about my hair at all, really. I like that you like it."

He smiled at the hand brushing his forehead, peering into those bottomless black eyes. The hand on Nathan's chin edged toward the corner of his lips.

[OOC:NIGHT.]

"I've never really touched someone else's hair before," he admitted, keeping his fingers there. Maybe he'd touched Arran's once or twice but he was mostly a 'hand to himself' type of person. Just for his own safety.

Letting go of that felt good.

When he felt Anders' finger move closer to his lips, he shivered. Good shiver, though. It was just an electric sensation no matter how light and gentle. He had to fight back licking his lips. Just breathed quietly and kept watching Anders intently.

[NIGHT!]

Anders' lips curved into a tiny, blissful smile at the scrutiny. And then -- before he could second-guess himself or hesitate so long the moment dissipated -- he took the finger away and moved in to put his lips where his fingers had been.

Nathan couldn't stop a small, quiet sound of pleasure from slipping out when fingers were replaced with lips. That was an all too strange feeling but a good one. One that sent a flash of warmth through his body.

His hand stilled in Anders' hair only so he could soak up the moment and remember how he felt.

That sound was lovely. Anders wanted to see if he could make Nathan make it again. He pressed forward, just barely parting his lips as he smiled against Nathan's mouth. His whole body felt like joy.

Oh, he definitely made the sound again. Louder this time and maybe even lasting a little longer. He didn't want to move, didn't want to jostle Anders at all but a part of him wanted to turn his head just slightly because that meant his lips would be closer to Anders.

He didn't give into that just yet because the urge to not jostle was strong and he was too busy sighing and holding back shivers to really move.

After a while, Anders needed to breathe. Slowly, barely shifting, he disengaged just enough to lean his forehead against Nathan's. "Wow," he sighed between rapid breaths, cheeks flushed. "That -- I'd been wanting to do that."

"Really?" He sounded a bit surprised but he quickly shook that away. "Ignore that I just sounded surprised."

He figured that he'd eventually get over people wanting to be close to him. For now, he just closed his eyes and pressed his forehead against Anders'.

"I'd wanted you to do that," he murmured after a quiet moment. "I'm glad you did. I really am."

It was another good memory to add to his meager collection and to chase away some of the nastier ones.

"I've only been throwing myself at you since we had that conversation about people we noticed," Anders pointed out, still barely moving away from Nathan. (To be fair, Anders' version of throwing himself at someone mostly involved hanging around trying to look cute, and he'd gotten distracted a few times along the way besides.) "I was starting to wonder if you only liked girls."

"And I'm glad I did it too."

"We should do it again soon," he said before his issues could get the better of him and make him stop. He wanted it out there before he said anything else.

Once it was, he blushed a bit and sighed. "I don't only like girls." Obviously. "I'm just not always good at this sort of thing, letting myself think someone might be interested. I wouldn't want to be wrong."

Thankfully, he wasn't wrong right now. And he was really glad about that.

"Being wrong is embarrassing," Anders agreed. "Besides, maybe there's something to that whole theory things are better if you wait for them."

Patience wasn't particularly natural to him, but he'd been learning it.

"I'm glad we figured it out," he added. "And let me know when it's soon."

"I think I heard a saying like that once awhile ago," Nathan told him, nodding. "I'm glad you were persistent and didn't stop coming around when I didn't get the initial hints. It paid off."

Finally.

"And soon is whenever you want it to be. Whenever you're comfortable with it."

"I'm comfortable with it," Anders reassured him. (More than comfortable with it; his whole body was warm and tingly at the concept.) "I may taste a bit like sandwiches, but so do you, so..."

"You taste fine," Nathan assured him, smiling slightly. "More than fine."

Honestly, Anders probably could have tasted horrible (he didn't) and he wouldn't have cared. The other sensations were so overwhelming that they fogged his head up.

"I'm comfortable with it too." Maybe a bit inexperienced with it but definitely comfortable.

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