Never Underestimate the Powers of Comfort and Normalcy
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Joey hit the ground with a thud, hard enough that it had to have knocked the breath out of him. But his tail flicked out, taking Owen’s feet out so he fell too.
Owen tilted so he fell forward instead of back, and landed on Joey hard. “Ow,” Joey said, a breathless pout. “You’re fucking heavy.”
“Should have thought of that before you got me to fall on you,” Owen told him, casually laying on top of Joey, keeping him on the ground where he belonged. “That was good, though. You’re getting a lot better.”
Joey didn’t hold his pout as long as he usually did. He just smiled. “I know. I’m going to beat you soon.”
With a snort, Owen pushed Joey’s head into the snow, just for a second. “Let’s not get silly.”
“You suck. Nobody is making you be a dick, you know.”
“No, it just comes naturally.”
Joey struggled, couldn’t get free, probably because he weighed about as much as a stuffed toy and was about the same size. “Are you ever going to get off, or?”
“Probably next time I see Gavin,” Owen assured him. “I know how this game works. I move when you admit you lost. Otherwise you just claim we’re still even.” He was getting a bit cold laying mostly in the snow like this, actually.
Joey growled, struggled, and held out for almost a whole minute. “Fine! You win. Shithead.”
“That’s better.” Owen stood, helped Joey to his feet. “Still hate me?”
“Yes.” Joey glared.
“Good.” Owen patted his shoulder, turned to go see Darby, who was practicing his knifework with Travis, who also needed lessons in knifework by Owen’s eye.
Joey’s hand gripped his wrist. “What is it?” Owen asked. “We can go another round in a second if you want.”
“I…you want a blowjob?” Joey was red enough to melt the snow.
Owen laughed, shook him off. “No. You don’t actually have to ask that every time you lose, you know. Gavin was just fucking with you.”
Joey shook his head. “I made a bet and I lost. I’m going to do what I said I would.”
“And I’m saying you don’t have to. I’m never going to say yes, so we can just say you did.”
Joey snorted. “I’d have taken my prize if I won.”
“Hm,” Owen said, thinking about that. “No you wouldn’t have.”
“Of course I would.”
“Would your boyfriends have liked that?”
“Well…” Joey started to say one thing, then coughed, wrapping his tail around his waist as he looked at Travis. “No. I mean. Maybe if I asked them. But…”
“Exactly,” Owen said. “And they also wouldn’t like it if you were over here blowing me the ten times a day that you lose to me. And I think that even if you really did want to do that, you wouldn’t because you wouldn’t want to upset them.”
“And the same with you and Gavin, I guess,” Joey muttered. He looked like he was trying really hard to think. It was a cute look on him.
“Now you get it. So you really don’t have to offer me a blowjob every time you lose.”
Joey was pouting a little. “I promised I would, though.” He let out a sigh, brushing snow out of his hair. “Do you…promise you won’t ever say yes?”
“Promise.”
“Okay. Then I guess I don’t have to worry about doing it, cause I know it’s just words.” Joey smiled. “Even though I know you totally dream about me giving you blowjobs.”
“The only time you’re in my dreams is with your head mounted on my wall.”
“I don’t buy it. You loved my cock at the orgy.”
“You were at the orgy?” Owen asked, putting on a thinking face. “I don’t remember seeing you. Didn’t spend a whole lot of time looking down, though.”
“Oh, fuck you!”
Owen pushed Joey so he fell over into the snow, just for fun. “Nah.”
“Bullying dragons again?”
Owen turned at Gavin’s voice. “It’s what I do for a living.”
“And you do it so well. Is your pet dragon behaving?”
“Not a pet,” Joey growled.
“So that’s a no.”
“He’s behaving, stop poking him before he tries to kidnap you and I have to laugh at him trying to lift you.”
“Fine, fine,” Gavin said with a roll of his eyes while Joey growled. He put his hands on Owen’s waist. “Come with me, I want you to see something.”
“Okay. Let me just tell Darby.”
“Tell him we’ll be away a while.”
Owen nodded, went over to him and Travis. Travis waved at Darby and pointed, and when Darby turned, Owen said, I have to go for a while, Gavin wants to show me something.
It’s his dick, right?
Probably. Don’t keep Travis out here too long, he’s getting cold.
Darby nodded, then turned back to Travis, ears twitching as he looked at him. Owen knew Darby would take him seriously, and probably be pushing Travis inside in ten minutes or so if Joey didn’t do it before then. He gave Joey a wave. “I’ll be back. Darby will probably want a turn with you when he’s done.”
Joey nodded. “I’ll wrestle with him. It’s fun.”
“Because you usually win?”
“Yep.”
Owen grinned at him. “If beating up on a small boy makes you feel big, go for it.”
“He’s not that small,” Joey scoffed.
“Sure he’s not. I’m just glad you finally found someone you can see eye-to-eye with.” And, Joey’s growl at his back, Owen walked off to join Gavin, who led him around the house and towards the gates. “Where are we going?”
“You’ll see.”
Gavin proceeded not to let Owen talk the whole walk, which was about three quarters of an hour. Stuart and David walked behind them, and finally, they came upon a house, not a mansion but close. Far bigger than the inn Owen’s parents ran, anyway. It was behind a nine-foot wall and its gates were open, guarded by Holly and Elaine. “This is where we’re going?”
“Yeah,” Gavin said, leading Owen in. There was a path leading up to the door, and inside the house, there was…nothing. No furniture or anything. An empty foyer that echoed, doors leading off in a few directions, all open. Nothing behind any of them.
“Whose house is this?” Clearly nobody lived here.
“Currently it belongs to a minor noble family from up north. They had it as a place to stay when they visit Pelican Bay. But they never come down here anymore, and they can’t afford to keep it, so it’s for sale.” Gavin turned to Owen. “I was thinking of buying it.”
Owen blinked, looking around again. “Why?”
“We need somewhere to install the portal and I don’t want to do it in Draughten’s house. And…” Gavin shrugged. “It might be nice to come back to Pelican Bay sometime, maybe for a week in the summer.”
Made sense to Owen. He smiled, kissed Gavin. “Okay. Buy it, then.”
“I will.” Gavin kissed him back. “But let me show you around before you decide.”
Owen had already decided, but he did. Gavin showed him the kitchen, the dining room, the sitting room, the parlour, the sun room, the drawing room—all of which looked the same to Owen except the kitchen, given they had no stuff in them—the snow-covered veranda overlooking the snow-filled grounds, which were small but probably pretty. There were servants’ quarters and a cellar, baths, and upstairs there were bedrooms, other things that could be sitting rooms or whatever, but if Owen counted them all as bedrooms, there were eleven, including the big one that Gavin took him into last.
Okay, it was a mansion, Owen corrected his past self.
The bedroom was huge and their footsteps echoed. It had a big closet that was a room of its own, a connected bath, and was also connected to one of the other bedrooms through a passage behind the door. “This would be our room,” Gavin said, looking around, rubbing his arms in the cold. There was an unlit fireplace on the far wall. “I figure we could give the connecting room to Darby and Greg, since I assume they’d want to share. That way they can get to us quickly if something happens.”
“Works for me,” said Owen, walking around. The house looked to be in pretty good condition overall. It needed a few repairs, but nothing too terrible. He stopped in front of a set of glass doors, leading to a balcony, which he didn’t open for all the snow.
Gavin came over, wrapped his arms around Owen’s waist from behind. “I may have spent some time imagining the balcony in the summer,” he muttered. “Waking up, standing out here, watching the sun rise.” His grip tightened. “Still naked, of course.”
“You can just say you want to fuck on the balcony,” Owen told him. He was picturing it too. It was nice.
“I could, but I’m being romantic.”
“It’s working.”
“I know.” Gavin pulled Owen away, back into the room, towards one wall. He stopped. “I think our bed would go here.”
“Seems like a good place for a bed,” Owen decided. And he kissed Gavin.
Gavin kissed him back. “I’m cold.”
“Me too. Want me to warm you up?”
“Yes,” Gavin said, and then they were kissing again, holding each other, taking each other’s clothes off. It was cold, but that stopped mattering as they made a small bed out of their discarded clothes, lay down on them, Gavin underneath Owen. Gavin rooted around in that bed for a second and came up with a bottle of oil, putting it in Owen’s hand.
Owen sat up, just looking down at Gavin as he oiled up. He couldn’t help but stroke himself for a minute watching him, laying there, expectant, goosebumps all over him, nipples hard, cock laying against his stomach. “I am married to the most perfect person in the world,” he said, as he let go of his cock.
“Objectively incorrect, I got there first.” Gavin pulled Owen down, and Owen went where he was bid, kissing Gavin, pressed against his body, sharing warmth.
And after a moment Owen pressed inside, Gavin’s legs spreading to accommodate him. Owen used one hand to lift Gavin’s hips up to better get at him, and Gavin let him in easily, relaxed and familiar and everything Owen had ever wanted in his whole life. They made love slowly on the floor of the bedroom that wasn’t technically theirs yet, taking their time and just being here, being with each other, being together, being one.
Gavin wrapped his legs around Owen’s waist, freeing Owen’s hand to touch him, his face, his chest, his arm, his hair, everywhere. But of course it ended up around Gavin’s cock in the end, stroking him slowly, using his thumb to play with the head, brushing the balls now and then.
It was cold in the room, on Owen’s back, the sweat he was working up making it worse, but he barely noticed. How could he, when Gavin was underneath him, kissing him, touching him, hands all over him? How could he, when Gavin was so close, keeping the cold away?
Gavin was as tight around him as he had been their first time, but nowhere near as desperate as either of them had been before. Just as horny, needy, yes, but not desperate, not anymore, not now that they had each other.
This was familiar, and Owen loved that. This was something they had, would always have. No matter what, they’d always have each other.
Owen could feel Gavin getting close, and himself too, and he breathed in more and more of Gavin, whispering nothing at him until it was time. “I love you…”
“I love you,” Gavin said back, as they came together. “I love you so much.”
After that, they rearranged themselves, Gavin laying on Owen’s chest. It was cold on the floor even with the thin padding of their clothes, but Owen didn’t mind for now.
“So I should buy the house, then,” Gavin said, into the quiet.
“No.” Owen gave a shake of his head, which got Gavin frowning up at him. “We should buy it together. It’s not like I ever used my dragon loot for anything.”
Gavin exhaled, resting again. “I was going to buy it and put your name on the deed,” he said. “But…I like your idea better. We’ll buy it together. It’ll be our house.”
That idea struck warmth through Owen. “Our house that we don’t live in.”
“That’s fine. It’s still our house. And we can come visit whenever we want.” Gavin looked up at him again. “Besides, if the portals work, we could live in it. Just portal to the capital or wherever every day for work.”
“Bit of a long commute.”
“We could make it work. Our house,” Gavin repeated. “I love that.”
“Me too.”
“You know what I don’t love? How fucking cold it is.”
“Yeah.” It was starting to get pretty noticeable. “Maybe we should get dressed.”
“And get the fuck out of here until we can hire people to light the fires for us,” Gavin agreed, getting up and pulling Owen to his feet. Before they reached for their clothes, he gave Owen one last kiss. “You’re the best husband a guy could ask for.”
“So are you.”
They dressed, and left their house to go warm up, holding hands the whole way home. It was familiar. It was comfortable. It was all Owen wanted.
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How Best to Use a Sword 