Epilogue
ONE YEAR LATER
Benjamin hooked the last ornament carefully on its branch. “There,” he said with satisfaction, resisting the strange urge to wrap his Christmas tree up in a bear hug. It would only get pine needles everywhere. He turned to Atlas on the couch instead. “How does it look?”
Atlas cocked his head, considering. He was sprawled shirtless, as per usual, wearing his thinnest gray sweatpants.
The pants were obviously a ploy to distract Benjamin with his wanton ways, and Benjamin wasn’t having it.
He’d declared tonight the night for decorating, and he wouldn’t be swayed by indecent dick outlines.
“Sparkly,” Atlas finally decreed.
It did look sparkly, didn’t it? Benjamin grinned in delight. He was getting started later in the season than he would’ve liked, but they’d only just returned from their two weeks in Rome. Atlas had relatives there, and he’d taken Benjamin to meet them.
They were all basilisks, of course, and Benjamin had been stressing prior to the trip, haunted with vague visions of massive snakes writhing in caves or undulating together in bloody rituals, but their visit had mostly involved drinking a lot of wine and eating some of the best food Benjamin had ever put in his mouth.
Atlas’s family had seemed kind of wryly amused by Atlas’s choice of boyfriend, but they hadn’t been cruel about it.
Besides, Benjamin already knew they were an odd pair, so he wasn’t offended. He probably would have bet against them lasting too, if Atlas had allowed him any room for doubt.
Benjamin was still sometimes shocked that a full year had passed and Atlas hadn’t gotten bored of him.
But he hadn’t. If anything, Atlas only seemed to grow more enthusiastic in his attentions with time.
He teased and aggravated and pampered in equal measure.
And the sex was… laughably good. Indecently good, really.
As if Atlas refused to believe Benjamin was a nondescript fuddy-duddy at heart and treated him like this…
wanton thing. And in doing so, made it reality.
“I can smell you getting worked up over there,” Atlas drawled, rubbing a thumb over his lower lip as he ate Benjamin up with his gaze. His roots were in need of a touch-up, a dark contrast to his bleached tips, but somehow he made the two-toned hair work for him. “Is it the tinsel?”
Benjamin scoffed, then made the mistake of stepping back to assess the tree, only to find himself hauled into Atlas’s lap with no warning. Benjamin settled back with a huff, letting his head fall back against Atlas’s broad shoulder.
He supposed he could see the tree just fine from here.
“I was only thinking.”
“Mm.” Atlas brushed his nose against Benjamin’s throat. “Tell me these naughty thoughts of yours.”
“I was thinking we need to put our gifts out.”
Atlas’s fingers danced along Benjamin’s lower belly, dipping under the waistband of his flannel pajamas. “We can do that whenever.”
“Exactly.” Benjamin wiggled out of Atlas’s hold with a giggle and scurried to their bedroom, where he began rifling through the closet to get to the present he’d hidden there.
They’d moved into a larger two-bedroom apartment on the ground floor of the building. There was more space for the two of them, with the added benefit of not having any downstairs neighbors to horrify with their… vigorous shared activities.
They ‘moved a lot of furniture’ together, so to speak.
Benjamin found the wrapped box he was looking for, holding it on his lap for a moment as he tried to contain his jitters.
He already knew one of his gifts from Atlas would be another beautiful scale.
Benjamin had received one for his birthday over the summer, and one of Atlas’s distant cousins had let slip exactly why Atlas would continue giving them to him.
A very long life together, indeed.
Benjamin’s own gift might seem silly in comparison. He’d picked out a simple gold band, inlaid with pale-green peridot gemstones.
Marriage. A human custom much more tenuous and breakable than some ancient basilisk mating ritual, perhaps. But Benjamin wanted to do it, anyway. He wanted to show Atlas that he was his equal in devotion, if not in strength or magic or raw sex appeal.
Benjamin never would have thought he’d be the kind of person to propose to his boyfriend after only a year together, but he hadn’t thought horny snake-men existed either.
Life was apparently full of surprises.
He hurried back into the living room, his wrapped package in hand. But a firm arm tugged him back into Atlas’s lap before Benjamin could get it under the tree.
Benjamin laughed, the sound turning into a gasp as Atlas began nuzzling his nose along Benjamin’s throat again. “You smell deliciously embarrassed,” Atlas murmured.
It was the ring, of course. Just the thought of getting on one knee and saying something as ludicrous as “Please marry me” had Benjamin’s cheeks heating. But he wasn’t going to tell Atlas that. Not yet.
“And why does that always make you so handsy?” he asked instead.
It was a pattern Benjamin had noticed early on in their relationship. Atlas would say something teasing to make Benjamin flush, and then he’d be all over him. Benjamin had received some very enthusiastic blowjobs that had started out that way.
Atlas was busy tugging at the collar of Benjamin’s pajamas, trying to get at more of his skin, but he answered in a gruff mumble, “Embarrassment smells good on you.”
“Must be my mouse nature,” Benjamin mused, letting his head loll back as Atlas’s hot tongue swept over his collarbone.
“Mm.”
“Or maybe just because you love me so much.”
Atlas lifted his head to smirk at him. He cupped Benjamin’s chin with long fingers. “Oh, but I thought so long before I loved you, little mouse. Since that first night you showed up at my doorstep, in this very pair of pajamas.”
Benjamin grinned at him. “Well, I thought you were a jerk.”
“How fortunate for me you took a second look.”
“I think it took a third and a fourth, actually.”
Benjamin was punished for his sass with a long, soul-melting kiss. Or maybe he was rewarded.
Either way, it was a long time before Benjamin’s gift made it under the tree.