If You’re Going to Lose a War, Being Related to the Winner at Least Means You’ll Be Treated Well
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Geoffrey woke up with a headache, and immediately rolled over and put the pillow over his head. “Close the curtains,” he muttered to Javier, or Janus or whoever had opened them. It was too bright in the room. The bed smelled funny, he thought, not like him or any of the people who normally shared it with him. Like the sheets had been washed with a different soap, even, one that smelled more like grass. It was the same as how Stephan’s sheets had smelled when they were new.
Nobody closed the curtains. Geoffrey’s head throbbed. Janus must have told the servants to keep them open even if he said not to, he must have…
Oh. Oh, shit, no. Geoffrey sat up, knocking the pillow aside. Hand on his forehead, he blinked around the room. It was small, bright, with light furniture and vibrant colours, mostly green and blue. He didn’t recognize it, but he did recognize the style of the furnishings. The palace, he was in a bedroom in the palace. He…
He wasn’t alone in the room, and for a minute Geoffrey sat there, frozen, just staring.
Giacomo didn’t stare, instead looking back at Geoffrey, smiling. “Morning.”
“Giacomo,” Geoffrey said, pointlessly. He moved forward, tangled in the blankets, crawling towards Giacomo. Half expecting him to move back.
Giacomo didn’t, surging forward to catch Geoffrey, giving the hug before Geoffrey could, holding Geoffrey even harder than Geoffrey was holding him. “I’m sorry, I told Cliff and Antoine not to be so rough, but I guess they have a different idea of rough. I’m so glad you’re okay,” he whispered in Geoffrey’s ear.
“Of course I’m okay. I’m just happy you’re not hurt,” Geoffrey said, inhaling the scent of Giacomo. He smelled the same. Of course he did. It hadn’t been that long. Nothing had changed.
Everything had changed. Geoffrey held Giacomo tighter. “What happened?”
Giacomo tilted his head up, kissed Geoffrey. Geoffrey kissed back on instinct, and fell back so he could sit, and Giacomo climbed into his lap. Giacomo kissed him deeper and deeper, hands roving everywhere, and Geoffrey wasn’t wearing anything but a loincloth. “I missed you,” he said, breathy, against Geoffrey’s mouth. “I missed you so much, Geoff.”
Geoffrey nodded, heedless of how it hurt his head. “I missed you too, so much.”
“Show me how much.”
Geoffrey found the front of Giacomo’s shirt, undid the buttons hastily, pushing it off him. He lifted Giacomo’s undershirt over his head, Giacomo making it harder by refusing to stop kissing Geoffrey.
Giacomo was undoing Geoffrey’s loincloth as Geoffrey tugged at Giacomo’s pants, and they fell back onto the bed as Geoffrey got them down. Giacomo wasn’t wearing a loincloth, of course. He flipped them over so his little brother was on bottom, and sat up to pull Giacomo’s pants all the way off, tossing them aside and leaving him in one sock. Giacomo was looking up at him expectantly.
Geoffrey dove down to kiss him, on his chest, all over his chest. His belly, tongue dipping into Giacomo’s belly button. He didn’t waste time kissing Giacomo’s dick, the head, the shaft, the balls, then down, to the thighs, inside both of them, and then Geoffrey went back up, even slower, savoring him, and Giacomo was squirming by the time Geoffrey got up to his face.
Giacomo’s hand was around Geoffrey’s cock, wetting it with spit just as Geoffrey was about to ask if there was oil. “Do it,” Giacomo said.
“You’re not…”
Giacomo pulled Geoffrey closer by the dick, until he was between his legs. “I don’t know what tightasses you’ve been with while I was gone,” he said. “But this is me you’re talking to, big brother. Fuck me.”
Geoffrey looked down at Giacomo’s face, commanding. Just like he remembered. He smiled. “Okay,” he said, and he let Giacomo guide him to his hole, and Geoffrey pressed in, hands gripping Giacomo’s shoulders hard enough to leave marks, revelling in every grunt he drew out of Giacomo as he forced himself in. Not that he had to. Giacomo accommodated him easily, just like he always had, ever since their very first time as children.
Geoffrey kissed Giacomo again as he pressed inside, got started on fucking him properly, knowing that Giacomo hadn’t had this done the way he needed it since he’d left. No matter how many people he’d been with—and Geoffrey was sure it had been a lot—none of those people were his brother, none of them knew him and his needs like Geoffrey did.
Giacomo wrapped his legs around Geoffrey’s waist, hands on either side of Geoffrey’s throbbing head, holding him in place as if he would ever have stopped, kissing while they fucked in the bright morning sun. He was tight and perfect around Geoffrey’s cock, warm and vibrant underneath him, hot and strong against his mouth, hard and leaking against Geoffrey’s belly.
He came before Geoffrey did, making a noise and biting Geoffrey’s tongue as he went tense and came underneath him. Geoffrey held him through it, pausing, feeling the warmth between them spread until Giacomo’s teeth loosened on his tongue, and then he went hard into his little brother, driving him roughly and mercilessly until finally he was cumming too.
Geoffrey didn’t stop, fucking Giacomo more gently now, their kisses loving and soft instead of possessive and strong. He slid a hand down and wrapped it around Giacomo’s dick, and stroked him as he thrusted. Giacomo let go of Geoffrey’s head, putting one arm around his back and running the other all over him, touching Geoffrey everywhere.
It was slower this time, the sun rising as they made love in the palace bed, neither of them interested in anything but each other. This was what Geoffrey had missed most, these quiet moments together with Giacomo where nobody else mattered, where it was just the two of them and they could forget that there even was a world out beyond their bedroom that needed their attention.
They came together this time and Geoffrey rolled to his side so he wasn’t on top of Giacomo, but pulled Giacomo with him, staying inside him. “Did they hurt you?” he asked softly. He was asking about Henry and his husband, and Hans and the DiGorres, everyone. It didn’t matter who it was. If they’d hurt Giacomo, Geoffrey would make sure they screamed themselves to death.
But Giacomo shook his head against Geoffrey’s chest, his hair tickling Geoffrey’s chin. It really needed cutting. “No. I’m fine, really. Are you okay? You had so much to do all by yourself.”
“I’m fine,” Geoffrey promised him. “I wasn’t ever in trouble.” He didn’t need Giacomo worrying about him on top of everything else.
“Okay.” Giacomo sighed, started to disentangle himself from Geoffrey. “I’m sorry I missed your wedding. I think you and Janus are a good couple. You’re treating him properly, right? He adores you, or at least he used to.”
“He still does,” Geoffrey said, only reluctantly letting Giacomo go. “I’ve been being a bit of a dick to him. But I’m trying to stop.”
“Good.” Giacomo’s voice sounded a little distant as he said that, but he came back. “Okay. You need to listen carefully now.”
“I’m listening,” Geoffrey promised, sitting up. “Where’s Javier? And Janus?”
“Javier is across the hall. I’ll have him brought over here so you guys can be together. Janus and Dalton were never hurt, and I sent them back to the manor.”
Okay. Okay, that was good. Geoffrey nodded. “Okay. You…I really thought you didn’t want me to sign the surrender.”
Giacomo smiled. “That one’s on you, because I obviously did. Didn’t you notice all the places in the treaty where it said you’d be subservient to ‘the crown,’ not to House DiGorre? Those were your hint, stupid.” He slid off the bed and was hunting for his clothes.
“Sorry,” Geoffrey muttered, feeling like an idiot. “Everyone tried to tell me I was wrong and I didn’t listen.”
“It’s fine.” Giacomo used Geoffrey’s loincloth to clean himself up. “Nobody’s going to hurt you, but you and Javier have to stay here until Dahlia’s coronation is done.”
Geoffrey’s gut clenched. “We’re prisoners?”
“Hostages, yes. I kidnapped you,” Giacomo told him. “You made it very clear you weren’t going to see reason, so this was the only way. You’re a hostage of House DiGorre now. You’ll be released once the surrender is finalized.”
A hostage was just a prisoner someone wanted back. Geoffrey was a prisoner. His brother’s prisoner. “None of the eastern houses are going to accept my surrender when I signed it as a hostage,” Geoffrey said. “It won’t mean anything.”
“You don’t need to sign it. Janus is your husband and he already has on your behalf. It was delivered just before I came here.”
What the… “Giacomo, you don’t really believe that these people are just going to let us stick around because we surrendered, do you? That’s not how war works.”
“Of course it’s not. There were other concessions.”
“The hostages.” A boy from every family.
“Yeah. But there were concessions on the DiGorre side as well. Dahlia’s getting married to the former rebellion leader’s little brother, as a show of Kyainese unity.”
“She…” Geoffrey’s headache was coming back, worse now. “You? You’re marrying Dahlia?”
“Right after the coronation,” Giacomo agreed, doing up his pants. He was still wearing that vaguely ugly ring on his left hand. It didn’t look like an engagement ring. “You’re going to miss my wedding too, I’m sorry.”
Geoffrey felt like the bed was spinning. “And then what?” he asked quietly.
“And then we’ll have peace again. A real peace, some time to rebuild and prepare.”
“No, I mean, and then what?” Geoffrey asked. Giacomo must have a plan. “What’s the next step? Do we assassinate Dahlia, or weaken DiGorre power somehow, or…”
Giacomo didn’t bother with his undershirt, just pulling on his heavier one, and he turned to Geoffrey. He kissed him. “No. There is no next step, Geoffrey. Dahlia is the rightful queen of Kyaine, and I’m about to be her king. The war’s over now. You lost.”
“But…what about…”
Giacomo kissed him again. “This is who we are, Geoffrey. You know that. I have to go. I’ll tell the guards to send Javier, he’s been freaking out thinking you were dead. I’ll be back when I can.”
“Giacomo.”
Giacomo smiled at Geoffrey one more time, and he walked out of Geoffrey’s prison, leaving him there, alone in the harsh sunlight.
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How Best to Use a Sword 