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Rook enters the kitchen pantry through the already open door, heart squeezing in his chest the moment he lays eyes on Lucanis where he’s standing with his back to him.
“Hey,” Rook says and has just enough presence of mind to close the door behind him. He hasn’t seen Lucanis all day, and he’d rather they not be disturbed if someone strolls into the dining hall to hang out by the fireplace or something.
Lucanis looks over his shoulder, one corner of his mouth quirking up when he sees him. “Rook. You’re back.”
“Am I interrupting something?”
Turning to face him fully, Lucanis twirls the blade he’s holding in his hand before putting it down on the little side table next to his bed. “Just doing some finger exercises. For dexterity.”
“Hm.” Rook raises an eyebrow, looking down at Lucanis’ hands before back up at his face as he walks closer. “Sounds interesting.”
“Does it, now?” Lucanis tilts his head back with a smile as he steps in closer to meet him, and Rook’s eyes can’t help but be drawn to his mouth.
He’d finally gotten to kiss him for the first time last night. It’s been impossible not to replay the moment in his mind over and over again throughout the day, to not lose himself in the knowledge of what Lucanis’ lips taste like, what they feel like pressed against his own.
Since having a filter has never been one of Rook’s strengths, he blurts, “I’ve thought about you all day.”
Lucanis’s calm and collected posture cracks just a bit, eyes widening for a second and his lips parting in surprise. Then he straightens up, face going stern. “You—should not be distracted while you’re out working, Rook. The Arlathan forests are dangerous even on the best of days.”
Rook huffs out a laugh, because while that might be true, today has just been filled with meetings, meetings, and some more meetings after that. At least there were griffons and halla to pet along the way. “Didn’t fight a single creature today. Promise. Besides, you know I always bring you with me if I go looking for trouble.”
Lucanis relaxes again, seeming reassured as he gives Rook one of his little side smirks that always manages to make Rook’s insides feel like someone’s hit him square in the chest with an electric bolt. Except Lucanis looking at him like that makes it even more difficult not to topple over. “Is that why you’re here?” Lucanis murmurs. “Looking for trouble?”
“Actually,” Rook moves into his personal space and puts his hands on Lucanis’ hips to pull him close, earnest and with his heart on display when he says, “I was hoping for a kiss.”
“I see.” Lucanis’ breath catches, his voice dropping low as his arms come up to rest on Rook’s shoulders. “Is that what you’ve been thinking about all day, hm?”
Rook squeezes Lucanis’ hips, sliding his palms up to hold his waist, fitting so perfectly in Rook’s big hands.
“That,” he admits, “and the sound you make when I bite your neck.”
“Rook.”
Lucanis cups Rook’s face in his hands, pulling him down as he surges up on his toes to capture his lips in a hard kiss.
Rook gasps into it, wrapping his arms around Lucanis to hug him tight and to steady them both as he stumbles half a step forward in his eagerness.
Lucanis laughs against his lips, doing his best to keep kissing him at the same time.
Yesterday’s kiss had started out chaste, all soft and searching, newfound and learning. This is nothing like that. Instead Rook presses in close, all tongue and desperate yearning as he tilts his head and parts his lips, lets Lucanis lick into his mouth, deep and exploring. He sucks on Lucanis’ tongue, bites at his bottom lip, moans at the feeling of Lucanis’ beard rubbing against his skin. Lucanis slides both hands down Rook’s chest as he kisses him back, across his pecs and back up, down to squeeze his biceps like he has to feel him out.
Rook knows the feeling.
He uses his hold on Lucanis to spin them around, backing himself up half a step until his calves hit the edge of Lucanis’ small bed.
“Is this oka—?” Rook gets cut off by Lucanis already pushing him down to sit on the bed. Obeying, Rook goes—falls, really, onto it with a loud noise as the bed creaks under his heavy weight, Rook’s body too much height and mass of muscles than it can safely handle. There isn’t much time to think about the sturdiness of where Lucanis sleeps, though, as Lucanis immediately follows, straddling Rook’s hips.
“Fuck,” Rook whispers and reaches for him again, one arm around his waist and the other sliding up into Lucanis’ hair to pull him close into another kiss. They only break away once they have no choice but to come up for air, and Lucanis presses their foreheads together, the two of them closing their eyes with gasped breaths.
“Is this okay?” it’s Lucanis’ time to ask as he shifts on top of Rook’s big thighs. Rook responds by tugging him in even closer, making Lucanis settle more firmly in his lap.
“This is great,” he says with a wide grin, earning him a snort from Lucanis.
Wrapping one arm around Rook’s shoulders, Lucanis strokes his free hand down Rook’s cheek, before cupping his jaw and smoothing his thumb across Rook’s bottom lip.
He leans in as Rook tilts his chin up to meet him, pressing their lips together again, the kiss softer and sweeter now, more reminiscent of last night’s tentative, trying thing.
Rook sighs happily into it, savouring the taste of his lips and the feel of Lucanis’ mustache scratching against his top lip. He can’t wait to find out all the different ways Lucanis will kiss him. Rook’s breath catches, overwhelmed again with the reality that they can do that now. They get to explore each other this way.
“Rook,” Lucanis whispers against his mouth, his voice deep and hoarse as he shifts in Rook’s lap, ass right at his crotch. Rook fights back a moan, daring to slide his hands dangerously low at the small of Lucanis’ back, teasing at the hem of his pants.
“Yeah?” Rook says, surprised himself at how husky his voice leaves him, watching Lucanis’ dark and wide pupils.
Lucanis licks his lips, his hand slipping to the unbuttoned top part of Rook’s shirt, fingers stroking down what bare part of his chest he can access. “I want—”
The door to the pantry swings open with a loud creak and they both jump, Rook letting out a shout in surprise as Lucanis slips off his lap onto the side of the bed with one leg still flung across Rook’s thighs.
“Hey, I—oh! Oh, my!” Harding stares at them where they’re still all tangled up together on Lucanis’ small bed. Her eyes go wide, silence stretching in the pantry for a long, torturous moment before she seems to finally process what she’s witnessing and slams both hands to her mouth. “Umm. I—I—” She starts frantically looking around the room, like her eyes can stick on literally anything else but the two of them, before she finally drops her hands again, open-mouthed and red-faced as she keeps rambling, “That’s—I did not mean to—are, are you—? Oh, Maker, I had no idea you two were—I’m gonna go! I’m… leaving. I am leaving. I am so sorry, so sorry, wow—”
Just as quickly as she showed up, the door swings close behind her again with a loud bang.
Lucanis and Rook sit frozen, still and silent for another stretched moment, staring after the empty spot where Harding just stood.
“So…” Rook finally breaks the silence and looks over at Lucanis, trying to gauge his reaction.
“I think,” Lucanis says from where he’s still half in Rook’s lap, and meets his eyes, “that Harding might know about us now.”
Suddenly unconcerned with anything else, a wide smile spreads on Rook’s face, his heart glowing warm in his chest. “Is there an us now?” he says, before getting hit with nerves instead. He knows Lucanis cares for him, but they hadn’t exactly spelled things out last night, and Rook never wants to push him. This is as good a time as any to have this conversation, though, he figures. “Officially, I mean.”
Lucanis’ eyebrows draw low as he pulls his leg back from where it’s still slung over Rook’s thighs only so he can sit up next to him instead. Scooting close to his side and pressing their legs together, he reaches out to take Rook’s hand, tangling their fingers together. “It’s a testament to how truly terrible I’ve been at showing my affection if you need to ask that.”
“No, no.” Squeezing Lucanis’ hand reassuringly, Rook scrunches his nose at him. “It’s not that. I just—want to hear you say it.”
He doesn’t want Lucanis to feel any guilt for needing time. Rook would have waited for him, however long it took, with no hard feelings.
“Well, then.” Lucanis looks at him, earnest and vulnerable, and, if Rook’s not imagining things, his cheeks a little pink. “I’m yours, Rook. For as long as you’ll have me.”
Not willing to let go of Lucanis’ hand, Rook uses his other one to cup the back of Lucanis’ head and pulls him in close. “Then I hope you’re prepared to be stuck with me for a long, long time,” he says before kissing him again.
“I think Neve’s maybe right,” Lucanis whispers with a fond smile once they break apart. “You are a sap.”
“Is that a good thing?”
“Incredibly much so, yes.”
Rook kisses his cheek, hugs him close, noses his way down to Lucanis’ neck to breathe him in before pressing a kiss there too.
“I… should maybe go talk to Harding,” Rook forces himself to say, sighing against Lucanis’ throat before straightening up. He doesn’t want to leave, but if he knows his team right, the rest of them should be starting to trickle into the dining hall soon enough anyway to check on how dinner plans for tonight are looking. And, as happy as Rook is about being with Lucanis, he’d like to maybe not start their relationship with getting endlessly teased about it at the dinner table by all of their friends because Harding caught them making out and gossiped about it to everyone else.
“If you must.” Lucanis sighs dramatically. “I should have probably already started preparing dinner, anyway. Bellara will not be pleased if I don’t follow our perfectly structured cooking schedule.”
Unable to stop himself, Rook chuckles and reaches up to stroke the back of his knuckles down Lucanis’ bearded jawline. Just because he can.
“Would you… like to come to my chambers later tonight?” Rook says, feeling a mix of nervousness and anticipation again. Lucanis brings it out in him a lot. “People don’t tend to randomly burst in there looking for a snack.”
“Hm. Me, your chambers, going there looking for a snack…” Lucanis studies him thoughtfully. “If I were like you, I’d be making a very bad suggestive joke right now.”
Rook laughs, shaking his head, but quickly feels the need to add, “It—I mean. We don’t have to… do anything. No pressure. I just want to be with you.”
Lucanis’ big brown eyes might just be the death of him one day, Rook thinks as Lucanis’ face softens, his gaze wide-eyed and adoring as he looks at Rook.
“I just want to be with you too, Rook.”
Rook can’t stop grinning, still in disbelief that he’ll get to just keep having these moments now—the unrestrained touches and loving kisses and lingering looks between them. “So… tonight, then?”
Lucanis lifts Rook’s hand to press a kiss to the back of it. “Tonight, Rook.”
“Great,” Rook murmurs and, after stealing one last kiss, finally forces himself to get up, already looking forward to seeing Lucanis alone again later.
Now all he needs to get through is what is doomed to be a very awkward conversation with Harding.