Archive of Our Own

Luna Moths

i.

Edwin had never enjoyed touch. At least, not until recently.

It was true that he had not minded Charles touching him for decades. The light brush of his fingers against Edwin’s palm when he placed something in it, knowing exactly what he needed even without words. The shoulder-pats and the friendly hugs. But in Port Townsend, something changed, changed horribly.

Because when Charles hugged him on that day, after they had resolved what would be immortalized in Edwin’s casebook as The Case of the Two Dead Dragons, he had felt his heart spring into motion.

He had not known that was possible for a ghost. He had not known that he had a heart, but then, he had not thought about it. If he had, perhaps Charles’s face would have come to mind. A lopsided smile, a perfect nose, deep brown eyes shining underneath the streetlights…

And, of course, the way that Charles had brushed Edwin’s collarbone in Hell when he said that he was not in love with him. That touch haunted him. He would caress the space near his own clavicle, now, when he required a bit of comfort and Charles was not about; he asked Charles to do so again, when he had come and kissed Edwin after mulling things over a bit. “So, basically, I am both in love with you and a right idiot.”

After they broke the kiss, Edwin smiled. He adjusted Charles’s collar, mussing it up in the way that he liked, because nothing about Charles should be put together in an overly proper fashion. “Well,” he said, smiling fondly, “I am glad that you have realized both of those things, even if you did so far later than I expected you to.”

Charles grinned again and pulled Edwin in for another kiss.

That had been a month ago, now. Edwin knew the precise date because he had documented it in the back of his notebook, bookending the pages within it with his maps of Hell. He thought it oddly fitting, that Hell should be at the beginning of his journey and Heaven at the end of it, even if he and the person he had found paradise with were still filling in the infinite sheets between those covers.

Since then, Edwin mused, the touches had… changed. Edwin usually resisted change with all that was in him, but this was … not an unwelcome alteration, in a way that he felt uncomfortable when faced with the prospect of describing.

Charles would kiss him, yes, peck him on the lips when they sat beside each other. And, of course, they would snuggle up together on the couch, Edwin reading aloud to Charles or scribbling in his notebook while Charles played Game Boy with the sound off. Those touches were the calm of a low tide, sparkling afternoon waves lapping at a shore.

But the other touches? The touches that made Edwin face the possibility of change?

Those were more like the night tide. Even when they were gentle, they crashed against the shore and altered the sand there irrevocably, and it would never return to the same amalgamation of grains and pebbles and seashells again.

Like now, for example.

“Hey, mate,” Charles said. “What’re you doing?”

He sat down beside Edwin, but instead of slinging an arm around his shoulder, his thumb brushed against the side of his cheek. Edwin did not know what to do, so he played at annoyance. “Clearly, I am reading,” he replied, rolling his eyes despite his fond smile.

“Well, right,” Charles said. “I was more asking what you were reading.”

Edwin chuckled. “I am beginning to sense an ulterior motive. You wish for me to read to you?”

“I mean,” Charles smiled. “If you insist.”

Edwin sighed. “Unfortunately for you, this book is in Ancient Greek. As a result, I doubt you would find it riveting.”

“I don’t care. I just like listening to your voice.”

Edwin couldn’t help himself, he smiled slightly. Then, settling his shoulders, he responded. “Well, I suppose that given your impetuous behaviour when I do not accommodate your whims…”

And then it happened.

Charles put his hand on Edwin’s thigh, and something inside of him simply… stopped working.

His stomach felt as though it was filled with luna moths, fluttering about alongside the most breezy possible wind. He shivered slightly at it and hoped that Charles did not notice.

It was unlike anything that he had ever experienced before, and his gaze dropped to Charles’s hand as he stopped speaking midsentence.

“What?” Charles asked. He scratched his head. Then, after following Edwin’s gaze, he pulled his hand off Edwin’s leg as though it burned him. “Oh. Oh, shit,” he said. “You didn’t like that?”

Edwin considered this. “No, Charles,” he said. “I do believe I did.”

Charles blinked. “Wait. No, you didn’t like it, or yes, you think you did?”

“The latter, primarily,” Edwin laughed.

“You’re not going to make any sense,” Charles said, a small smile playing on his lips. “Are you?”

“Yes, I… oh, I do not know. I did like it, and I would like for it to continue, but my mind continuously tells me that it is… is wrong in some way. But none of the arguments I come up with against allowing myself this make sense, so it is a conundrum.” He paused. “You can place your hand where it was before. I assure you that it was… an enjoyable sensation.”

Charles did. “Yeah?”

Luna moths.

Edwin grinned and nodded slightly. “Now,” he continued, “do you wish for me to read in Ancient Greek to you, or not?”

ii.

“Charles?” Edwin asked, his head resting on his folded hands before him. He sat straight-backed at his desk, and Charles, who was teetered precariously on the arm of the chesterfield, looked up. “Might I… ask you something? As your best friend, if not your beau?”

“Um… yeah?” Charles gave Edwin an odd look. “What’s with that face? Are you alright? Edwin?”

“Yes,” Edwin said. “Yes, I am perfectly well. It is nothing bad. I am sorry to have made you worry.” He tilted his head upward, rolling his shoulders.

Charles visibly perked up. “Oh. Well, go on then, mate.”

“As you commonly use that as a term of endearment despite our romantic relationship, I am unsure of whether that was a sarcastic remark or heartfelt invitation-”

“Was definitely a bit of both, now,” Charles said, laughing.

Edwin looked down to hide his smile. “Ah. Yes. Well, I suppose I might as well just…” He sighed and closed his eyes tightly. “Alright,” he said as they opened. “Do you remember when you kept your hand on my thigh as you… attempted to understand my fairly high fluency in Ancient Greek?”

“I remember that I held your thigh while I listened really hard to your voice,” Charles teased.

“Doing so, it… it causes some feelings to well up within me. As do the neck brushes. And when you kiss my neck, but we are usually kissing already at that point, and-”

Charles snorted out a laugh, and Edwin felt a fraction of a second of hurt before Charles continued. “Well, yeah,” he said. “I’m flirting with you. Trying to turn you on a bit, aren’t I.”

Odd choice of words. “Turn me on?”

“Oh, shit.” Charles flushed. “Get you all excited?”

In theory, Edwin oughtn’t have any circulation. In reality, he felt his cheeks warm. “I… suppose that is an adequate descriptor, yes.” Edwin wished to pull away, but Charles reached out and took his hands gently. His heart fractured in the best possible way, and he felt an odd pressure behind the backs of his eyes as Charles began to circle the backs of his hands with his thumbs. Edwin looked him in the eye and smiled at the care there, and continued. “I have been calling them luna moths,” he said. “Because they feel like a hundred beating wings at the core of my being.”

“Wait. Hold on,” Charles said. “Do you not know the phrase ‘butterflies in the stomach?’

Edwin considered this. “That sounds like a godawful malady.”

“It’s exactly what you’re describing! Edwin. Most people call them butterflies.”

“Oh.” Edwin paused. “I prefer my descriptor. Luna moths are larger, and their wings are stronger; they have a distinct shape that would produce such a massive scale of sensation, and they glow during the midnight hours. I certainly feel as though I am lighting up with an electrical force.”

Charles fiddled with Edwin’s fingers. “I like the sound of that better, too.”

“So… you’re alright with me having these luna moths, then?”

Charles rolled his eyes. “Obviously. I’ve got them, too.”

“Ah. Good.” Edwin stepped closer to Charles slowly, hoping that he looked flirtatious rather than awkward. “Well, then, I think that we ought to do something about them.”

“Oi,” Charles blinked. “What?”

“I wish to kiss you,” Edwin said, blinking. “It makes their wings beat. You said that it was true of you, too. So I do not know why we ought not take flight together.” He smiled coyly.

Charles laughed. “Shit, mate. You’re truly committed to flirting now.”

“Well, I feel that with a bit of practice and meticulous consideration, this is a subject that I could research thoroughly. And conquer.”

“I’d be happy to research the luna moths with you,” Charles laughed, and Edwin sat down beside him on the couch. And then they kissed, and Charles tasted like… well, nothing, because he was a ghost, but he imagined that Charles might taste of sour citrus and clove cigarettes, if he were still flesh and blood.

At first, they remained in familiar territory. Charles slid his hands up Edwin’s chest and cupped his shoulders; Edwin slipped his arm around Charles’s waist. And that’s usually where it would stop, but Charles had said that he wished for Edwin to feel this way, so he allowed himself to. Leaned further into the kiss even as he began to harden, wrapping his arm more tightly around Charles as he caressed his back.

And he wanted whatever moths or butterflies Charles found within himself to flutter, too, because this feeling was far too good not to share with him. So he gently settled Charles onto his back and straddled one leg with his own as they continued kissing, his hands roaming Charles’s body.

Edwin felt uncomfortably aware of his own body as well. But he thought that Charles might enjoy knowing the effect that he was having on Edwin, and with a determined effort not to be awkward about the movement, he pressed the hardness between his legs against Charles’s thigh.

The response was instantaneous. Charles made a low, soft sound and wrapped his hands tightly around Edwin’s waist, pulling him tighter against him. And Edwin had always wanted to feel safe, and here, he did – close to Charles, pressed against Charles, loved by Charles.

Filled with some tenderness that had been previously tampered down by reason, he broke away from Charles’s lips and pressed soft kisses down his jawline, finally reaching the hollow of his throat as he pressed his length into his thigh again. And Charles…

Smiled, somewhat regretfully, and sat up.

“Charles, what are you doing, this is not funny-”

Charles chuckled at Edwin’s no-nonsense tone and kissed him lightly on the nose. “I just don’t want to go too far, do I? Not now, and I was starting to feel like… you know…”

“Oh. I did not realise…” Edwin assessed Charles and moved off his legs to sit beside him again. “I did not realise that what I did would be unwelcome. As we discussed-”

“What?” Charles looked baffled. “No. No. God, Edwin, I loved feeling you against me.”

“Ah.” Edwin rolled his shoulders.

“I maybe loved the feeling too much,” he said with a small smile. “And I really don’t want our first time together to be in some, like, lust-fueled state on the office couch. I want it to be special, you know?”

Edwin, who thought that any intimacy with Charles was a special thing, blanched.

“I just want to make sure you… you have a good experience. To look back on and go, like, ‘Charles and I had a properly marvelous time,’ or something.”

“I do not sound like that.” Edwin leveled his gaze at Charles, who laughed.

iii.

There was something in the way that Charles moved his hands.

He was simply… so expressive with them. They accentuated the dips and cadence of his voice as he spoke about their case passionately, moving upward and downward with very little thought or affect. And, for some damnable reason, they infiltrated Edwin’s thoughts despite his valiant efforts to concentrate.

He had known Charles’s touch in a myriad of ways at this point – kissing, pressed up against him, stroking his sharp jawline. But, oddly, he was still yearning for more.

He craved it.

Edwin watched Charles’s hands move through the air, and he could not help but imagine how they might feel running up and down Edwin’s chest. Brushing over sensitive areas, stroking his skin and pressing against muscle. And then they would go lower, brushing his belly and lightly scratching at his abdomen, and…

The luna moths started to flutter their wings.

That could not happen – there was work to be done. So he went back to listening to the love of his afterlife speak intensely, trying to drown out the thoughts that he seemed unable to suppress. “So I still don’t think it’s the cursed bowl,” he said. “We should go investigate the china shop, shouldn’t we. It definitely looks like the easiest route, at any rate, and you know how fond I am of that path.” He paused. “Edwin? You alright, mate?”

Edwin blinked. Why would he not be alright, when Charles’s voice was like a caress? “I am quite well, Charles.”

Charles blinked slowly, and Edwin crossed his arms over his chest. His eyes were very brown, but that was irrelevant now. And yet, the luna moths did not seem to grasp that fact. “Alright,” Charles said finally. “But you’re looking at me all weird. Did I say something glaringly dense?”

“Of course not.” Edwin waved a hand through the air, gesturing with his fingers. “Do not be silly.”

Charles looked slightly confused, but tilted his head. “Alright then,” he said. “Well.”

And then he started to speak again, but Edwin was struggling to catch hold of the words. Because Charles paced back and forth, and his frame was lean and well-muscled, and Edwin could not help but briefly imagine running his hands over every part of it. He would lean down and kiss Charles’s Adams apple before moving downward, pressing openmouthed kisses to his chest and navel. And then Edwin would sink down to his knees and kiss the inside of his beloved’s thighs before…

“Edwin,” Charles said, looking befuddled. “You’re doing it again, only even more spaced out. Are you tired? If you are, we can take a break,” he said. “A break would be brills, actually. I’ll need some time to mull over the teapot problem, won’t I?”

Edwin’s face felt warm. His entire body felt warm. His entire being felt warm, all the way down to his core, and the luna moths were rather intense. “I told you,” he enunciated, “I am fine.”

Charles blinked, looking confused. Until…

Until his gaze dropped to Edwin’s lap.

Bloody hell.

“Well,” Charles said, a self-satisfied smirk playing on his lips, “I imagine that’s what was so distracting, wasn’t it.”

Embarrassed, Edwin placed his notebook on his lap. “I apologize,” he said. “It was unprofessional, and-”

Charles raised an eyebrow. “Mate, this hasn’t been a professional relationship in… well, like, thirty-six years, to be honest.” He chuckled. “And less so now that we’re going steady, right?”

“I suppose.”

Charles walked over and, too gently, more gently than Edwin deserved, placed his hands on his shoulders. “Hey,” he said. “It’s alright, isn’t it? No need to be all put down about it. I, for one, think it’s brills that you want me. I want you, too.”

“I oughtn’t,” Edwin murmured.

Charles assessed him, bending to meet Edwin’s gaze again when he dropped his eyes. He always did that, always tried to look at Edwin, make sure that he knew that he was not alone. “You should,” he argued. “There’s nothing wrong with wanting, Edwin. Nothing. Especially when I want you too, and when I want to make you feel good so badly.”

Edwin sighed and pressed his fists together. “It’s just that… oh, I don’t know. I was told that it was wrong for a ridiculously long time. That I was wrong. It is… not something that fully goes away overnight. But I assure you, I have been making steady strides-”

“You don’t have to assure me, mate.” Charles’s voice was steady. “Obviously there’s no rush or anything. But I want you to get what you want, and if you want sex that I can probably eventually make mind-blowing with, like, lots of practice…” He trailed off. “Like, that’s a good thing.”

“You jumped to sex far too quickly,” Edwin laughed.

Charles shrugged. “Well, you were obviously thinking about it, weren’t you.”

Edwin sighed. “Thank you.”

“Nothing to thank me for. But if I can ask, like, uh… well, what were you thinking about? You don’t have to tell me,” he said quickly, “but I’m definitely curious, and I think it’d be beyond aces if we could talk about these things.”

Edwin leveled his gaze at Charles and tilted his head. Intimacy is simply a task to master, he reminded himself. And he did want this intimacy with Charles, wanted to press against his body and grind together until they came apart, because he was Charles and he was safe and Edwin could never get enough of him, and –

“I was thinking,” Edwin said before he could think better of it, “of your hands.”

“My hands?”

“Yes. Their motions are… pleasing to me. Quite enthusiastic, and at wonderfully even intervals.”

“Even intervals for what?”

Edwin shrugged. “It is visually satisfying to me when things move steadily. I am certain that you know this.” He paused, and Charles nodded. “But I was also contemplating how they may feel moving in such a manner up and down my body.”

Charles hummed contently. “Well, I’d find that tubular, wouldn’t I.  Touching all your skin, making you hard like this.” He gestured downward, and Edwin forced himself to take his notebook off his lap. “There you go. Better, yeah?” Edwin nodded slightly and Charles continued. “I’d definitely put my hands all over your chest. And, oh! Your abdomen. That’s where the… the luna moths are, right?”

Edwin grinned, this time brightly. “You remembered what I said.”

“’Course I did. I always listen to what you say, don’t I. I have to, since I’m not good at note-taking like you are.”

Edwin chuckled. “Well, not everyone can be as diligent as I am, Charles.”

“Fair point. But anyway, this isn’t the point. The point –“

“I want to touch you, too,” Edwin said, forcing the words out. “I want to touch you at every turn, and that terrifies me.”

“How do you want to touch me?”

“Like you are the only thing in this world that matters to me,” he said. “Which, incidentally, was true for the longest time. I want to be intimate with you, Charles. I am sorry. I haven’t the faintest idea where to start, and I am dreadfully awkward with expressing my emotions. So-”

“All good, mate,” Charles said. “So, what would you do? Knowing I’m a little hard myself right now.”

Edwin sighed. “I suppose that, in this hypothetical – I am not yet ready, in reality - I should wish to suck you off,” he said, forcing himself to say the words. He shrugged, his hands flying into the air. “Are you happy?” He did not mean to sound defensive, but he was certain that he did.

“I certainly would be,” Charles said. “Happy, I mean. Mint idea, mate.”

Edwin smiled slightly. “I might not immediately go there, though. I should like to linger.”

“Sounds even better,” Charles said, and Edwin smiled. “Edwin, gotta be serious for a sec, alright? You know that I’m, like, your teammate in this. In everything, but also in this. You shouldn’t be ashamed. I don’t think you’ve done anything wrong, and I’m glad it’s this way.”

Edwin smiled and tilted his head. “I know.”

iv.

Edwin did not know how to broach the subject of intimacies with Charles. But after a session of what Charles called ‘getting thoroughly snogged,’ he decided that he may as well simply… come out with it. “Charles?” He hated that his voice was even the smallest bit unsure, but it was. The note of vulnerability frightened him, but Charles did not seem to notice.

He simply turned to Edwin with the most ridiculous, frustrating, handsome smile on his face and said, “yes?”

Edwin cleared his throat. His hands were on Charles’s shoulders, as they had been when they were kissing. And yet he could feel his fingers tensing around them as he forced himself to continue. “I think I should be… amenable to taking things to the next level. In this regard.” He gestured through the space between them, and Charles chuckled.

“To be clear, you’re saying you want to have sex with me?”

Edwin felt his face warm, which was odd as he was a ghost. He oughtn’t have circulation, blast it. “I… yes.”

“You’s be amenable to it? Or, like, you actually want to?”

Edwin moved his gaze slightly downward, but Charles did so too. It was as he had done in Hell – he always attempted to meet Edwin’s gaze, to be there with him. So he smiled, and he spoke. “I very much wish to,” he murmured quietly, and Charles grinned. “I wish… oh, I don’t know.”

“You only use contractions when you’re really tense, mate. Loosen up a little. Please. Nothing to worry about, yeah? It’s just us.”

Edwin steeled his shoulders and sighed. “I am aware of that. So perhaps we could…”

“We could kiss some more,” Charles said. “We could, like, get a little horizontal.”

Edwin chuckled. “Is that a true turn of phrase? Something Crystal might introduce me to on her Urban Dictionary?”

Charles looked contemplative. “Nah, don’t think so. But I’ll use it, so…” He shrugged. “It’s a real term now,”

Edwin nudged Charles lightly. “You cannot simply make up new words because the existing ones do not suit your fancy.”

“Worked well for Shakespeare, didn’t it?”

“You’ve read Shakespeare?”

“I’ve listened to you talk about Shakespeare,” Charles told him.

Something inside Edwin warmed. It was distinct from luna moths, but it was… steady. Safe. “You listen when I talk to you,” he whispered, as though it were not obvious. He remembered how Charles had recalled his nattering about luna moths, too; he could not help but smile slightly.

It was. Charles scratched his own head. “I’m a pretty bang-on detective, and I think that not listening would make me a pretty sorry excuse for one.”

“No. No, I just… well. Carry on, then. You do not wish to immediately take a turn about the hay with me and I presume you have a reason, so I wish to hear and assess it.” He gave Charles a look that he hoped was flirtatious. Charles’s eyes shone with amusement, and Edwin instantly feared that he looked ridiculous.

“Well… like, I kind of don’t want our first time together to be… on the ratty old couch that’s been sitting here for years?”

“I like our couch.” Edwin frowned. “I do not wish for a replacement.”

“No,” Charles laughed. “Like, I want to get a room. I want to make things special for you, don’t I?” He trailed a hand down Edwin’s chest before settling it on the sides of his body. “Want to treat you a bit.”

“Oh.” Edwin blinked. “I… yes, that would be rather nice, I suppose.”

“Alright,” Charles said. “Leave it to me, then.”

v.

‘Treating Edwin a bit’ turned out to mean finding a fancy hotel on the ubiquitous internet and booking it. A ‘Honeymoon Suite,’ it was called. Rather ridiculous for two boys who did not sleep, but Edwin appreciated Charles’s gesture. He supposed that it was romantic, as had been the flowers that Charles had gifted him after looking up the Victorian and Edwardian Language of Flowers on their cursed iBook.

Edwin had been nervous. Dimly, he remembered that now. He had been concerned with a great many ridiculous matters – whether Charles would like his body, whether Edwin would not be equal to this task. His anxiety over his inability to cease thinking, his musings over the lack of Hell-scars marring his skin.

All of those nerves were gone now. Edwin had a task, and an extraordinarily pleasant one. He completed tasks. He completed those that he was excited about with great eagerness.

Why not this?

He kissed Charles as they sat side-by-side on the bed. His hands roamed his body, the hard planes and angles of his bare collarbone and the corded muscle of his biceps. Perhaps the many years of waving a cricket bat at various monsters had paid off in this odd way. Edwin did not mind. Far from it. The sensation made the luna moths beat their wings, and that was all that mattered.

He took a chance. Took a shot. Held Charles as he gently fell backward onto the mattress.

“Wanna get a little horizontal with me now, do you?”

“I told you, Charles,” Edwin said in a tone of false annoyance, “you cannot simply make up words.”

“And I told you that all words were once made up. Like, you respond when I call you Edwin. What’s Edwin, really, anyway? Who told you to respond when I-”

Edwin kissed Charles again. He usually loved hearing his thoughts, but in this moment he simply wished to shut him up. He knew Charles’s soul as though it were branded inside his own chest; he would be pleased to speak with him later about anything and everything. But certainly, it could not be wrong to wish to learn every dip and angle of his body just as he knew every part of his essence.

Charles seemed to think so as well. He kissed Edwin back with a great fervor, running his hands down Edwin’s chest. His fingernails grazed one of Edwin’s nipples, and he let out a small breath at the sensation. Because the luna moths were gone, and something entirely different was pooling in his gut now.

This was not going to end. This was going to reach…

Well, a conclusion. And that thought was immeasurably exciting.

So Edwin arched his back and leaned into Charles, gasping, and Charles ran his thumb down the vertebra of Edwin’s spine lightly. It felt incredible, and Edwin needed more, so he pressed his body closer to Charles, took his hands, and repositioned himself to be above his best friend and his best love.

Edwin straddled Charles’s waist and smiled slightly. “Do you… like this position?” He heard his own voice husky in a way that it had never been before.

“It’s absolutely brills, mate,” he said. “Kiss me again.”

Edwin was all too happy to oblige. He pressed himself tightly against Charles as his tongue slipped inside his mouth, and he groaned at the sensation of Charles’s hardness pressed against his thigh. He felt himself pulse inside his trousers, and there was no reason not to chase this beyond-luna-moths feeling, so he thrust downward against Charles’s thigh.

“Fuck,” Charles said, and Edwin felt himself harden even further. His eyes briefly flitted toward Charles’s discarded chain necklace that sat beside both of their shirts, wishing that he had been bold enough to ask him to wear it. But it did not matter, not truly because this was everything.

Trying to be bold, trying to be brave, Edwin raked his fingers lightly over Charles’s abdomen and dipped them into his waistband. “Do you like this?”

“Bloody hell. Yes, I do.”

“Good,” Edwin said, humming. “Ah…”

“What is it?”

“Might I… well. Might I go lower?”

“That would be aces,” Charles laughed.

So Edwin did. He raked his hand slowly downward and reached further under Charles’s waistline feeling soft curls and a sort of hard, hot sensation between his legs.

Dear God. He was touching his cock.

Charles thrust upward, making a low groaning sound. Edwin suspected that this was good. “Trousers off?”

“Yes. You too.”

Edwin considered this. He was going to have to remove them at some point, he supposed, and the intimacy would no doubt be worth the vulnerability. There was no reason why he ought not get it over with.

So he nodded, and Edwin removed Charles’s trousers with a quick movement. He tossed them down to the floor and, in a businesslike manner, removed his remaining clothes.

He assessed Charles, the scars on his body and the bronze skin that Edwin so loved to touch. (That he longed to kiss, to lick.) And then, leisurely, he allowed his gaze to travel downward to his most beloved person’s hard cock.

(How he wished to touch it.)

But Charles was assessing Edwin, too, his eyes glazed with lust, and Edwin did not feel exposed in a negative way. He felt… wanted. Desired. And that would do nicely, for it was a kind of magic in itself.

To be wanted, and to allow himself to want in return.

(How he wished to reach between Charles’s legs and feel the slick length that was bobbing there.)

But then, Charles smiled in that lopsided way of his. And he spoke. “I cannot believe,” he told Edwin, “I am seeing you without your funky little socks on. Makes a guy feel special, doesn’t it.”

Edwin sighed and gestured vaguely. “I should think that the lack of socks is not the highlight of this moment, Charles.”

“Well, on one hand, it kind of is,” Charles mused. “Like, if you were wearing nothing but the socks, that’d look kind of awkward, wouldn’t it?”

“Oh, for goodness’ sakes.” Edwin’s voice was impatient, and Charles smiled impishly.

“But you look absolutely aces now, without the socks or any of the rest of it.”

Edwin chuckled, and Charles continued. Hey! I’m serious. Don’t laugh at me!”

Edwin laughed again. “It is rather difficult not to laugh at this outlandish display of marvel at my lack of high-socks.”

“To be fair, I do not think I have ever seen you out of high socks, mate. Though right now, I want to touch your dick. That okay?”

Edwin gestured downward to indicate his erection, and Charles got the message. He moved in to kiss Edwin hard, and as he did, he stroked the length of his cock up and down.

It was not enough.

Charles pulled away from Edwin’s lips slightly. “Can you show me what you like?”

Edwin tilted his head to the side. “I do not know what I like,” he admitted. “How would I?”

Charles’s brow furrowed. “Like, when you touch yourself. Alone. What sorts of motions do you like? Where on your body should I touch you?”

Edwin felt something inside him snap awkwardly. “I have only done so twice,” he said, “with the goal of concluding the experience as quickly as possible. It makes me feel such a profound guilt, oddly. I have not been worried about exploring so much as… well. Releasing pent-up energy?”

“Only twice? When you were alive?”

Edwin flushed. “No, Charles,” he said. “They were both in Port Townsend. Niko lent me some manga, and… well, I do not know how things escalated, but I found myself following certain… urges, as I read it.”

Charles hummed. “Well, then,” he said playfully, “looks like we’ll be figuring this out together, won’t we?”

“I suppose so,” Edwin said, smiling despite himself. And then he gasped, because Charles’s hand began to stroke him languidly, upward and downward at even intervals. The sensation in his gut became more intense, and he felt himself throb against Charles’s hand as Charles circled the tip of his cock with a slick thumb.

“Wait,” he said. “Wait.”

“What is it, mate?”

“I want to touch you too.”

“Be my guest,” Charles laughed, and Edwin did. Charles continued to stroke Edwin as Edwin reached downward to touch Charles curiously. Charles grunted as Edwin began to move his hand along the length.

“Faster,” Charles said, a plea. “And the underside. Please…”

Edwin considered himself good at following directions toward a desired outcome, so he did as asked. “Fuck,” Charles said again, and Edwin thrust into his hand; Charles reached upward with the hand that was not on Edwin’s prick and stroked his chest, rubbing at his nipples with his thumb.

Edwin gasped.

“I thought you’d like that,” Charles purred, his face satisfied. “You did a little gasp when I did it before, so I thought, ‘hey, might as well try again,’ and – Christ. Edwin.”

Edwin smiled against Charles’s lips as he moved to cover Charles’s body with his own. They pressed together, grinding, thrusting, moving as one, and Charles groaned at intervals.

For his part, Edwin’s breaths were short, much quicker than he would have expected. And Charles…

He pulled back. “Um, okay. Hold up, mate. So…”

Edwin hoped that he did not sound too disappointed at the loss of the kiss when he responded. “Why have you stopped kissing me?”

“Ah…” Charles looked contemplative, but he continued to touch Edwin’s chest even as he thought. Finally, he spoke. “Well, alright, then. How do you want…”

Edwin blinked, the meaning dawning upon him. “Oh. Well.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t know, like, the protocol for this.” Edwin chuckled at Charles’s odd little expression. His eyebrows furrowed over his focused eyes, but his nose was scrunched up in Edwin’s opinion rather adorably. Immediately, he grinned back, and quietly began to laugh in time with Edwin. “Ugh.” Charles rolled his eyes. “Stop laughing at me, Edwin!”

Fondness laced Edwin’s tone. “I apologize, but you’re being rather amusing right now.”

Charles playfully nudged Edwin’s shoulder before dropping a kiss on his head. “Do you, ah. Maybe, like, the way I usually… or…”

Edwin clicked his tongue. “And to think I feared that I would be the uptight one.”

“I don’t say you saying it, either, do I!” Charles laughed.

“Now who is the one who is laughing?”

“Shut up, mate.” Edwin grinned, feeling the purest of happiness, as Charles continued. “Do you want me above you, or like, the other way? Or something totally different?”

A beat passed. Edwin contemplated this, or rather, contemplated how to make his request.

Apparently, the silence went on for too long, because Charles cleared his throat and continued. “Please tell me I’ve not fully ruined this.”

“You atop me, please,” Edwin said quickly, feeling embarrassed in a way that he did not wish to. “But with one request.”

“Anything.” Charles reached down and took Edwin’s hand in his, and Edwin rolled off him. They lay side-by-side now, and Edwin focused on Charles’s squeezing his palm rather than on the ridiculous request.

“Do not… do not pin me down in any way,” he said quietly. Being pinned down meant torture, it meant being tied up and murdered or chained to a horrid suffering-machine in a witch’s house. He did not wish to think of such awful things now, with Charles gazing at him as though the stars shone in his eyes. So he forced himself to finish. “It’s rather… reminiscent of things I don’t wish to think of, especially right now.”

Charles’s reply was simple, and his smile was fond. “Alright. Aces, then. I won’t.” He squeezed Edwin’s hand again, and the luna moths fluttered – perhaps they were fond rather than altogether sexual? This would require further study.

But for now, Edwin’s voice broke. “I know you will not hurt me, Charles Rowland.”

“Of course not.” Charles was so close, and Edwin so longed to close the space between him. But he had to finish.

“It would also be reminiscent of other… uncouth things.”

Charles nodded understandingly. “I’ll take lots of care, promise.”

Edwin grinned and let out a small breath, briefly casting his eyes downward as he processed this. I’ll take lots of care. He looked back upward at Charles and grinned before placing his hands on either side of his lover’s head. Odd, the lack of his earring there – and unfortunate. Edwin rather wished he would have retained it as well as the chain he now could not grasp at.

But it did not matter, not truly, and his lips met Charles’s gently and then harder. Charles slipped his hand down Edwin’s body, brushing at his sides and his hips before reaching his hips. Charles snaked the hand over Edwin’s waist and pleasantly raked his nails lightly over the skin of his lower back. Edwin thrust toward Charles as Charles squeezed his backside, and their lengths slid together between them. Charles groaned, and Edwin ground his hips forward again. Edwin broke their kiss, and Charles made a small, whimpering sound, and Edwin pressed openmouthed kisses to the sides of Charles’s neck. Charles thrust upward into him, and Edwin pressed his mouth against the bump on Charles’s neck, and Charles made another small sound, and –

“Edwin,” he broke off. “Edwin, wait. Wait, wait.”

Annoyed, Edwin removed his tongue from Charles’s neck. “What now?”

“Don’t need to sound so irritated, do you?” Charles’s eyes were shining, and Edwin smirked. “No. If you keep doing that, if we keep doing this, I’m gonna come. Now. And, like, I wouldn’t really mind that, yeah? But I wanted to see if you wanted… I mean, you said…”

“Oh.” Edwin blinked. “Yes. I should like you inside me, but only if that is something you might also enjoy. It would be my preference, but-”

“Nah, mate. That’s brills. Oh, God. I want that too. But…” He flipped over awkwardly and grabbed the bag of tricks from the floor beside their bed.

“Charles, what on Earth could you possibly need so badly that you would interrupt-”

Charles stopped rummaging and held a small bottle up as though it were obvious.

“What is that?”

“Lube?” Charles narrowed his eyes.

Edwin blinked, feeling as though he was missing something that he ought to know.

“Oh. Um, lubricant? To make things more comfortable for you. Well, for both of us, really? When I’m inside of you. Makes it easier to move and, like, stops pain.”

“Like oil,” Edwin nodded.

“I guess. But it’s made from mostly water and, like, thickeners?”

Edwin grinned. “Thank you,” he said. “For explaining. And being patient with me, I suppose.”

“It’s not patience, is it?” Charles dipped his fingers in the small plastic bottle he was holding. “It’s just giving you facts you don’t know already. Filling up your big brain even more.” A self-satisfied smirk crossed his features as he continued. “Though I’d like to fill you up in other ways now,” he said, waggling his eyebrows.

Edwin laughed. “Well, that was rather awful. Quite unfortunate that it is going to work on me.”

Charles grinned. “I’m going to use my fingers now, alright? So you can get used to the feeling. And then, when you want more or want something different, you just tell me. Alright?”

Edwin nodded.

“If you don’t like it, mate, you gotta tell me that too. We can do something else.”

Edwin sighed. “Alright. Though I truly do not think that will be a problem.”

Charles laughed quietly. “Turn around, yeah? Let me hold you from behind? It’ll make it loads easier, and you’ll probably be more comfortable.”

Slightly nervous, but in equal parts excited, Edwin shifted. Charles moved his hand downward slowly, touching Edwin’s arse gently before dipping between his legs. He slipped his finger inside him slowly, and Edwin gasped at the new sensation. His cock throbbed into the air before him, but Charles remained still. For a moment, Edwin was glad of it; the new sensation was not painful at all, but it was… unusual, and not altogether comfortable. But he adjusted to it quickly and then spoke, his voice laced with desire. “Charles,” he said. “Move.”

Charles did, pumping in and out of Edwin slowly.

“More,” Edwin said.

“Another finger?”

“Yes. Please, please, please.”

 Edwin would not have believed himself one to beg, but apparently, he was.

But Charles, who would have listened regardless, slipped a second finger inside him and allowed Edwin a moment to adjust. “Move again,” he finally said, and Charles did. This time, his movements became faster, and Edwin’s breath hitched every time.

“You can make noise, you know,” he said. “I’d love to hear you moan, wouldn’t I?”

“I’m rather – doing what feels natural – to me-”

“Oh, so you’re just quiet. That’s fine, then. Love your little breaths, don’t I. And love when you say please. It’s such a rare occurrence, mate. But-”

“Do not get used to my saying ‘please.’ And stop being so distracted,” Edwin demanded, and Charles shrugged against him. He continued pumping his fingers as he snaked his other arm around Edwin, brushing his fingers against his lower abdomen and in nestling them in the curls at the base of his cock. “Charles, more,” Edwin dictated, and Charles chuckled.

“Third, or…”

Edwin did not allow himself to think. “No. I want you, Charles. Inside of me. Now. Please.”

Charles removed his fingers, and Edwin breathed heavily. Edwin heard him dip his fingers into the small jar again, and then there was an odd wet sound, and then Charles kissed Edwin softly on the back of the neck. He pressed his hardness against Edwin, and Edwin waved a hand. “What are you waiting for?”

“You to be ready.”

“I’m ready, Charles. I promise you, I am more than ready.”

So Charles kissed the dip between Edwin’s neck and shoulder as he slid inside Edwin, who gasped more loudly than he had so far. “Tell me,” he said in a whisper, “when you want me to move, yeah?”

Edwin nodded, and Charles embraced him from behind. With both of his most loved person’s hands wrapped about him, he felt safe, he felt loved, he felt-

“Move,” Edwin said, and Charles did. He thrust in and out of Edwin, whose breath hitched, and trailed his hands all over Edwin’s body before taking his cock in one of them. He stroked as he thrusted, and Edwin spoke incoherently between gasps as he did so. “More, more, oh, Charles, faster. Faster.”

“Alright,” Charles said quietly, nipping at Edwin’s ear. He began to pump faster as Edwin thrust into his hand.

“Charles, I. I. Oh, bloody Hell, Charles, how- more. Faster.”

“So bossy,” Charles said, but picked up his pace even further.

“Can you go harder?”

“I…” Charles trailed off. “I guess? But I’m trying to make love to you the right way, aren’t I, so-”

“Yes,” Edwin snapped in a catty tone. “Make love to me the right way. I should hope you shall, and I, the authority on this particular subject, am saying that the ‘right way’ is harder-”

Charles did.

“Please please,” Edwin begged. “More.” Charles thrust harder into Edwin, who gasped again before letting out a moan softer than Charles could have imagined. “Charles, harder.”

“Not sure about that-”

“Please, please listen. More. More.”

“Alright,” Charles said. “But this is it, though, yeah?”

“Yes, fine, that is yes, yes. Please. I am close, I am-”

“I’m also,” Charles said, and Edwin gasped. “God,” Charles said. “Love your body, how aces it feels wrapped around me.”

Edwin’s cock pulsed one last time and he spilled into Charles’s hand with a small shudder. Within moments, Charles followed.

-

“You know,” Edwin said as he lay beside Charles, “I rather found myself liking that.”

Charles laughed. “Yeah. I could tell.”

Edwin grinned. “I have rather a favour to ask you,” he said poking the spot at the center Charles’s collarbone.

“Well, I do like giving you favours.”

“Next time, would you be willing to keep your necklace and earring on? It’s… well.” He coughed. “Rather… appealing to look at.”

A playful smile crossed Charles’s features. “You’re turned on by it,” he said. “By my jewelry. Aren’t you.”

Edwin cast his eyes downward momentarily, and Charles moved along with him. “I am,” Edwin said. “Admittedly, quite a lot.”

Charles chuckled. “Of course I’ll leave it on,” he said, and Edwin smiled.