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Richard felt like the mud that covered him might never come off, while Alec's clothes weren't doing anything other than make sure the water stuck to him. The scholar was shivering and generally looking soaked through to the bone. It was a manifestation of an urge that had been growing for a while for Richard to reach out, draping a warm arm over Alec's shoulders. Alec hissed and shoved the arm off.
"I'm... I didn't mean..." Richard said, the apology as explicit as he would make it. Alec didn't answer.
Richard was still looking for the words to explain that he didn't mean he expected anything from Alec, certainly he wasn't trying to imply that he needs more than the few drunken – on Alec's part – kisses that they've shared when they were in his room with the door shut behind them. He turned to face Alec. Suddenly the other man was in his arms, kissing Richard for all he was worth.
Richard's arms went automatically around him. "I'm getting mud in your hair," Richard said when Alec gave him the chance to breathe. He started to pull his hands loose, but then Alec resumed the kiss and they tightened again.
"It doesn't matter," Alec murmured, the words by this point redundant. He slid his hands under Richard's shirt. Richard could feel him leaching warmth away but couldn't bring himself to do anything other than appreciate the cold touch of Alec's hands.
After long moments of kissing and touching, palm to skin, Richard came up with a better idea. He grabbed one of Alec's wrists to suck the fingers of that hand into his mouth.
Alec allowed that for a moment, his other hand focusing on undressing Richard, until he got visibly impatient and Richard let the hand go before Alec tugged it away. Alec immediately devoted both of his hands to the task of undressing Richard. "You going to fuck me?" he asked, voice low and lewd.
Richard unbuckled his scabbard. "If you want me to."
Alec huffed. "I wouldn't accept anything less."
Richard considered saying something like, 'Then it's a good thing I'm in a mood,' but with his hands peeling Alec's wet clothing off, baring the body underneath, he didn't see how he could possibly not want to. Richard tossed Alec's clothes in a wet pile. He would worry later about having Marie wash and dry them so they wouldn't mold. Right now he had Alec naked in front of him, and that view surely merited his full attention.
Richard didn't get long to linger, before Alec wrapped his long fingers around Richard's cock. "Going to do something about that?" he asked. "Or would you rather just keep looking?"
"They're both tempting options," Richard said, pushing Alec to the bed while he moved his sword closer to it. He left Alec there for a second as he retreated to the kitchen to retrieve the small jar of cooking oil. Upon returning to stand in front of the bed, he paused again, drinking in the sight of Alec's limbs sprawled across his bed. Alec twisted, starting to grow impatient, and Richard gave in. He padded the last few steps over, onto the bed. He pushed Alec down with one hand, licking a stripe up his neck.
Alec's arms twined around Richard, taking the oil from him.
"I can," Richard offered.
"Ssh," Alec murmured, pressing his lips to Richard's jawline. "So can I."
Richard wanted to watch Alec open himself up, but he also wanted to taste every inch of skin. Alec was moaning loudly as Richard sucked a bruise into his collarbone, which made it impossible for Richard to do anything but keep going, trailing a line of kisses down to Alec's stomach and up again. When he looked up at Alec's face from the nipple he was licking to see Alec looking at him as if he couldn't believe it was real, Richard reached out to brush his knuckles against Alec's cheek.
Alec shifted underneath Richard, and Richard could feel a scrape of nails on his back. "I'm ready," Alec said.
"You sure?" Richard asked, which was apparently the wrong question, given Alec's answering scoff and the sharp bite of his teeth on Richard's neck. There was nothing else to do then but hold Alec steady as Richard pushed into him.
"God," Alec gasped when Richard was all the way in. "You're perfect."
"Sure," Richard muttered, grasping Alec's thigh as he pulled out and pushed in again. He kissed Alec, pleased when Alec kissed back, curling his tongue around Richard's.
Alec put up with Richard's leisurely thrusts for longer than Richard had thought he would before he was making demands of, "Harder," and biting at Richard's skin.
"Thought I was perfect?" Richard teased.
"You're perfect," Alec replied, ready with a clever answer even now, "But your technique needs work."
Richard couldn't help the burst of laughter, but he made it up to Alec by slamming into him, one hands tightening in what would become little bruises on Alec's hips while his other hand curled around Alec's cock, sliding it along the length.
Alec still cried out for more, and Richard did his best to give it to him until he had Alec groaning and his hands turned from scratching to petting. Alec's words slipped in between his and Richard's exhalations of pleasure, as he admitted that perhaps Richard's technique was acceptable after all and extracted a promise from Richard that they could do this again. It was at that Richard came, the thought that Alec would want him in the future suffusing with the understanding that he'd just had Alec and with the physical pleasure that Alec's body gave him.
When Richard's mind regained some equilibrium he pulled out of Alec with another kiss, holding the back of Alec's head still while he took his time. Alec's hand dropped away from Richard after a moment, moving towards his own cock to bring himself to completion.
"No," Richard murmured. He caught Alec's wrist again, bringing it to his hair as he slid down Alec's body, taking his cock into his mouth. The action was worth it for the look of surprise in Alec's eyes and the way he cried out when Richard took him as deep as he could and the taste of his satisfaction in Richard's mouth.
Later, Alec curled up comfortably in Richard's bed like he never intended to leave it. "Apology accepted," Alec said, his fingers tracing the scratches he had left on Richard's chest. Richard wasn't quite sure what he meant, but there was a lot about Alec he didn't understand yet.
Richard almost didn't notice the man with the chest of books, with his back stooped and the way his hands shook from obvious drug withdrawal. He simply didn't register as a threat, and therefore didn't register. Alec, however, stopped to stare at the chest, and Richard stopped with him. "I could buy you one," he offered, knowing as soon as the words were half out of his mouth that it was the wrong thing to say.
"I've no use for more books," Alec snorted, his hands curling into fists.
Richard's fingers itched to uncurl them, to stop the crescent-shaped marks he knew were forming on Alec's palms. Instead he dropped one of his own hands to rest on the hilt of his sword, an action Alec was more likely to approve of. "More use than most of Riverside, I would imagine," he said mildly.
"At least they don't give useless words more weight than they deserve," Alec snapped.
Richard shrugged. "I could buy you all of them."
Alec took a couple more steps forward, down the street. Richard matched the movement. "Do you think they were stolen?" he asked.
"Of course they were stolen." The hand of Richard's not on his sword edged towards Alec's.
Alec laughed, apparently oblivious of the motion, although Richard dared to hope that he might accept it. He turned back to sneer at the bookseller. "What a stupid thing to have done."
The bookseller ignored Alec, which was probably the best thing he could do.
"Do you want the books?" Richard asked yet again. He had the money at the moment to buy them all if it would make up for having asked in the first place. He didn't have much by way of expenses of his own to cut back on, but it was getting warmer, they could just use an extra blanket instead of buying wood "Even if it's just to burn them all?" His thumb stroked along Alec's wrist. Alec jerked back as if burnt and Richard quickly dropped his hand.
Alec directed his withering glare at Richard this time. "No. I don't want them." He turned to stride away, back towards home.
As Richard walked through the streets, he didn't think to move aside for people. He was certainly willing, the fight hadn't been too long and the blood on his clothing was all his opponent's. He simply didn't have to, people glanced up when he passed and then they stepped aside. They were sure enough that he had won that they only asked who the duel had been with.
"Marie," Richard said, starting to pull off his shirt to hand to her to wash, but she shook her head. Her face was serious.
"You might want to go to Martha's," she said.
"Alec?"
"Alec," she confirmed. "Although really, you should—"
Richard didn't stay to find out what he should be doing with regards to Alec, because he had never liked anyone else's assessment of that. Besides, Alec might want him, and Richard would hate to make him wait any longer.
When Richard arrived at Martha's, Alec was staring at an empty glass. Richard took a seat beside him.
"She cut me off when I wouldn't stop shouting," Alec told the glass – or perhaps he meant to be speaking to Richard.
"There's better beer elsewhere," Richard said, because he didn't want to tell Alec that Martha should probably have cut Alec off earlier in the evening.
"I wanted to come here," Alec said. "Didn't think you would be back so quickly."
"What happened, Alec?" Richard asked, moving the empty glass away from him.
"Nothing happened," Alec snapped. "I don't fall apart just because I'm left alone."
Richard sighed, softly. "I don't think you do." He reached out to put his hand on one of Alec's.
Alec jerked his hand back, pushing himself off the stool. Richard cursed at himself for not ever learning, for not predicting Alec's reaction. "I'm going to Rosalie's," Alec said. "You have blood on your shirt."
"The stain will make me look more dangerous."
"The stain will make you look like a poor man," Alec muttered under his breath, "Who can't afford to buy new clothing. They won't like that on the Hill."
Richard smiled. "Then come back with me and I'll get my shirt soaking."
Alec shook his head. Richard didn't feel disappointment only because he'd had no expectation that Alec would agree.
"I want to hold your hand," Richard said, careful to say it low enough that no one could overhear and that Alec would know that they couldn't. He pushed, because then Alec would push back and they'd be something other than stuck where they were now.
Alec's eyes narrowed, and he walked out of Martha's.
When Richard caught up with him, Alec was headed back to their place, rather than towards another bar. Richard read the tension in his shoulders, and he wasn't sure whether he should still count Alec's current direction as a defeat.
"I'll give you something to hold," Alec muttered when Richard got close, so Richard shrugged and decided that it was worth it to keep his hands to himself until they were back in their rooms and his shirt was diligently soaking. When he had Alec in public he only had as much of Alec as the man was willing to show other people. When Richard had Alec in private he could be all Richard's, or as close as Alec ever came.