Turning, ever so slight, he pressed a kiss against lover’s palm, letting his eyelids droop closed as he allowed himself to get caught up in the moment. A slow, methodical repetition to each digit followed. Lips so warm and soft, communicating to the flesh beneath: “I love you. I need you. I can’t live without you. Stay with me forever…”
Barely into his twenties, and where was he? With the love of his life, and who could say that and be absolutely honest these days? Because Jon Snow really was the love of his life. He’d known, sure as beans on toast and 4 o’clock tea, the very moment Jon had crossed his path – or at least a part of him knew back then – and his life hadn’t been the same since. Robb wasn’t sure where he would be if not with Jon. Who he would be right now, if he hadn’t ended up with the one he loved over all the others. This brilliantly complicated man he never wanted to let out of his sight again.
“I promise you I won’t let anything happen to us this weekend; and when it’s over and when we’re ready, I want to talk about everything we experienced – good and bad.”
Talk. Yes. They’d been doing a lot of that lately. So much and so often even Robb, blabbermouth extraordinaire, felt as if he might actually run out of things to say. It was all necessary conversation, of course. Every crumb, shred, speck, smidgen and tiny bit swept off the table onto awaiting hand for meticulous squint under magnifying glass. No stone left unturned because to fail to cover even the smallest aspect would be tantamount to disaster, and for once it wasn’t just Jon that needed the reassurance.
Their relationship had changed so much; evolving as it should to keep it healthy and sustainable, but, truth was, he looked forward to having a bit of “down time” before long. That getaway weekend I promised for a start, Robb smiled, genuine and pleasantly squishy round the edges. Ready, at last, to push a boulder up a mountain if that was what it took to be a better friend, lover, companion- Everything. I want this to stick same as I wanted me and Jon to stick.
“I mean it. Nothing will ever change the way I feel about you. Nothing.” His eyes were open now – perhaps truly for the first time – and the sight greeting him was indeed fair and fine and made his insides turn to jelly. The same face and mad hair and mouth made for sin he’d dreamt about for as long as he could remember. Longer than that. I know it.
Half a hundred times a hundred was a good start, but that knowledge wasn’t due to be discovered yet. Planets still needed to get into alignment for that to happen; when the Fourth World ended and the Fifth began.