Chapter 8 #3
Sebastian was still in bed when they returned to the room. He was on his back in the middle, one arm curled up and around his head and pillow.
“He's still asleep,” Will said, blinking. “Is he dead?”
“What?” Peyton said, jerking in Will's arms. Was he? He peered, but there was a definite rise and fall to Sebastian's exposed chest. He elbowed Will in the gut. “Don’t scare me like that.”
“He's always been a deep sleeper,” Quinn said. “Likely because he doesn't get enough of it.”
“We should poke him.”
Peyton snorted. He wriggled out of the pants he'd slipped into when he'd gotten up and pulled back the covers. Sebastian was like a sauna, heat radiating from him. Peyton shifted in close, touching as much of him as he could, letting the heat soak into him.
“See? He didn't even move.”
Peyton closed his eyes and snuggled deeper.
“He's sleeping, William. Leave him be.”
“Just one poke.”
“No.”
“Fine. How about a kiss?”
“Does he look like Sleeping Beauty to you?” Quinn asked.
“I can hear both of you,” Sebastian murmured.
The bed dipped behind Peyton, and a weight settled over him.
“Sleeping Beauty still gets a kiss afterwards too, right? Or does Prince Phillip only kiss her while she's sleeping?” Will wondered.
“That's creepy,” Peyton said. “Consent is a thing.”
“That movie was made in the fifties.”
“End of the fifties.”
“Semantics.”
“I should be concerned about the amount of detailed information the both of you know about that movie,” Quinn said. He sounded closer, like he had gotten in beside Sebastian.
“Consent should always be a thing,” Peyton said, ignoring Quinn's comment.
“Agreed,” Will said. “Prince Sebastian, may I kiss you? Or are you asleep? If you are, wake up, please.”
Sebastian burst out laughing, vibrating under Peyton. Peyton grunted and pushed back, silently telling him to be still. Sebastian kissed his temple and settled.
“I'm awake; you can kiss me,” Sebastian said. “Should I close my eyes and pretend I'm asleep?”
“If that's your thing, sure.”
Will must have gotten his kiss because he settled back on the other side of Peyton, draping one arm across Peyton and Sebastian both.
Sebastian turned to face Peyton. He brushed some of Peyton's hair out of his eyes. “Are you okay?”
It looked like he hadn't been as stealthy about getting out of bed as he'd thought he'd been.
“Ye—” He stopped. He didn't want to lie about this, even when the truth was hard.
“Not really,” he admitted. “I did—” He cleared his throat, trying to move the lump.
“Things that I've done haunt me sometimes.”
Will's warm lips pressed against his nape.
“I get that,” Sebastian said. “Maybe not on the same level. But not every slur thrown at a defence lawyer is wrong.” He brushed his fingers lightly across Peyton's cheek. “The things we do for what we believe in... they leave a scar.”
“Yes.” He had physical and mental scars. Both ached at times. Hard to deal with in different ways. He'd been glad that neither Sebastian nor Quinn had asked about the scar on his hip. He wasn't ready.
Sebastian kissed him, and Peyton made a small sound as he leaned into it. He kept it light, his thumb gliding across Peyton's cheek. “Try to sleep,” he whispered. “We'll be here.”
Peyton tucked his head in against Sebastian's chest. He reached over Sebastian, and fingers he knew were Quinn's threaded with his. He closed his eyes and fell asleep to the out-of-sync breathing of Sebastian and Will closing him in.
Quinn woke with his face in the back of someone’s neck and hair tickling his cheek.
He absently ran his hand down their side as he breathed in their scent.
The warm chuckle that vibrated against him identified the man as Sebastian.
Since there was no warmth at Quinn’s back, either Will and Peyton were all curled up together on the other side, or they had already woken.
“If I keep my eyes closed, I can almost imagine we've travelled back in time,” Sebastian murmured sleepily.
It was all too easy to imagine it. Although... Quinn let out a chuckle.
Sebastian turned on his back. “What?”
“Perhaps it's best not to think about how young Peyton would have been back then.”
“I... don't know how old either of them are,” Sebastian admitted.
Quinn smiled, the corner of his mouth lifting as he caressed Sebastian's cheek. “Will is twenty-eight, and Peyton is twenty-five.”
“Twenty-five?”
Quinn hummed. “Twenty-five. You didn't even ask them for ID?” It wasn’t a huge distance between them, all told, since Sebastian was only thirty, and Quinn himself was thirty-two, but it still seemed like a conversation that was important when picking up.
Quinn wouldn’t really know, though; he never had before.
All his sexual experiences were within relationships, not one-night stands.
“I knew they were legal.”
“That's all that mattered?”
“At first, yeah,” Sebastian said. “I haven't dated anyone since you and I broke up. It seemed safer to take what I wanted and leave.”
Quinn's smile slipped from his face. “Seb—”
“We're not in the past anymore.”
“No.” Quinn pushed himself up onto one elbow and skimmed his fingers over Sebastian’s chest, the light caress making his skin tingle. He pressed a kiss to Sebastian’s shoulder and then trailed kisses down. “Let's see what's changed.”
“Your tattoo is new.”
Quinn didn't respond straightaway. He traced Sebastian's chest in the same place where the owl was on Quinn’s own chest. “Do you know what owls represent?”
“Birds at night?” Sebastian's blue eyes twinkled. “Night vision. Didn't eat enough carrots as a kid? You thought getting an owl tattooed on your chest would help instead?”
Quinn pressed his fingers against Sebastian's lips. “Shh.” He thumbed Sebastian's bottom lip. “They mean a lot of things: knowledge, wisdom, being true to ourselves. They mean clarity and the ability to see through negative emotions and fear. They give us answers to the questions we have.”
“What kind of questions?”
“About ourselves. About loss.”
Sebastian's Adam's apple bobbed. “And the roses?”
“For the most part, they mean romance and love, of course.”
“I always knew you were a romantic,” Sebastian said, smirking.
“They also mean courage.” He trailed his fingers further down Sebastian's side. “And I needed a lot of that, trying to get through every day without you.”
“You got it because of me,” Sebastian said, a tinge of disbelief in his voice.
“I needed a reminder.”
Sebastian gripped Quinn's hips so hard it hurt. “Of what?”
“I should have fought harder. I should have listened.
I should have known, without doubting. I should have believed you.
So many 'shoulds,' and I couldn't turn back time and fix any of it.” Quinn looked at the white bandage across Sebastian’s forehead.
If the incident yesterday had turned out differently, he would never have had the chance.
The idea of it was foreign and made his heart ache.
Pain flashed across Sebastian's eyes. “You can fix it now.”
“Can I?”
Quinn shifted, moving to straddle Sebastian’s hips. He ran his hands down Sebastian’s arms and threaded their fingers together before using the hold to lift Sebastian’s arms above his head. He linked Sebastian’s hands on the pillow. Sebastian took the hint without words and left them there.
“The first time I saw you again, after you left my apartment for the last time, was agony,” Quinn said, feeling his way over Sebastian’s muscled chest and down his abdomen.
He splayed his fingers across the smooth, unmarked skin.
No tattoos, which had surprised Quinn, especially after the eyebrow ring.
“You were waiting to go into the courtroom. You were in a dark-blue suit that matched your eyes. And the black shoes that had that small scuff mark near the heel that you'd spent hours trying to get out.” Quinn smiled, but it was more self-deprecating than happy. “You looked right through me, like I didn’t exist.”
“It was an act,” Sebastian said hoarsely. “I could never be in a room with you and not notice you.”
Quinn shuffled back a little further so that he was resting against Sebastian’s thighs and then wrapped his fingers around Sebastian’s cock.
He gave it a slow, light stroke. “I almost broke protocol just to talk to you.” He thumbed the head, and Sebastian twitched with a low moan.
“I wanted to apologise, and you wouldn’t let me. ”
“Couldn’t,” Sebastian said tightly. “Quinn, I couldn’t.”
Quinn knew. He understood. But back then, understanding hadn’t been so easy to come by. He’d been young, and he’d just wanted Sebastian to see him. Had just wanted him to give him another chance. But he'd already had one chance too many.
Quinn bent forward and slid down, kissing just below Sebastian’s belly button and making the skin ripple beneath him. He buried his nose in the hair around Sebastian’s dick and breathed in his musky scent. Sebastian arched, pushing his hips up.
Quinn licked the tip of his dick and felt Sebastian throb in his grip. He slowly lowered down over Sebastian’s length and then up again, sucking down more of him each round until the head of his dick pressed against the back of his throat. Sebastian groaned when he swallowed around him.
He bobbed once, twice, before pulling off. “Pass me the lube.”
“Are you going to fuck me?”
“No,” Quinn said. “I'm going to make love to you.”
“You always were a cheesy idiot,” Sebastian said.
Quinn hummed and slid up his body before kissing him. “Nobody’s perfect.”
“Really? I thought you were.”
“You of all people know that's far from true.”
Sebastian brushed his knuckles across Quinn's cheek. “Fresh start, right?”
“For both of us.”
The first press of his finger against Sebastian's entrance sent tingles of anticipation spreading across Quinn's skin. It had been a lifetime, and he was hungry for the man that had broken off a part of his heart and still kept it with him even if he didn't know it.