(no subject)

[thedreamthief]

The bed in Ronan's room on Cabeswater Farms was currently occupied by two boys. Two men, really. They were both in shorts, the taller bare-chested and flat on his back with one arm flung out and serving as a pillow to the smaller one who was curled on his side, a loose t-shirt hanging from his frame. The floor was covered in loose papers, each of them scribbled upon in ink and dirt and blood. A rock tablet was propped against the wall, bearing an ornate lemniscate that seemed burned into the stone.

A raven sat atop another, similar stone, her talons curled over the edges as she watched over the sleeping men.

The forest whispered around them and, deep, deep within its branches, within that nook reserved for dreaming, they were stretched upon a bed of moss on their bellies with flowers at their fingertips. They wore more clothing in this world though it was difficult to identify any material or any specifics at all. It was an unimportant detail in comparison to the rest, to the lines in the dirt and on the moss, the careful arrangement of flower petals and leaves and grass.

Ronan drew another long, sweeping line in the dirt and then sat up, wiping his hand across his thigh as he crossed his legs under him.

The air around them shimmered with designs, each of them exact copies of one another, the curves and angles glittering under the sun that peeked in through the trees. With that same finger, Ronan touched one. It shuddered slightly but remained hanging in the air and Ronan looked to Adam.

His voice was careful when he spoke, confident but not pushy. "Think you're ready?"

Comments

[incognoscibilis]

"Like you don't already," Adam said, saving Ronan from having to choose where to look by kissing him properly. Every inch of them was warm and relaxed, the closest either of them came to real happiness. This world wasn't quite the one they had envisioned but at least they'd made it their own.

"Just don't carry me."

[thedreamthief]

If Adam's feet weren't already on the ground, Ronan might have considered it. If just to be contrary.

For the moment, he just continued to walk backwards toward the bedroom, dragging Adam along with him, his hands warm and greedy against Adam's bare sides. "Why the fuck not?" he asked, grinning. "Not an insult to your masculinity, is it? You're not that fucking fragile."

[incognoscibilis]

Adam snorted, forehead dropping briefly against Ronan's shoulder before he continued following him back to the bedroom. "That's the opposite of what I'm saying," he said, kissing the warm skin there. "We weigh the same and one of us'd probably get hurt." Of course, now that he said that, Ronan was liable to take it as a challenge.

"I'm not fragile, but you are," he teased.

[thedreamthief]

"You doubting my manliness, Parrish?" Ronan replied, amusement clear in his voice as he pulled back just a little to meet Adam's eyes.

He was already bending at the knee, lips curled in a sharp grin as he hooked his arms under the swell of Adam's ass and lifted him off the ground. It wasn't the best angle, but it got the job done and he turned to walk the rest of the way toward the bedroom, smiling up at Adam all the while and trying not to groan under the weight.

[incognoscibilis]

"Ronan!" he protested, even as he tucked his legs around Ronan's waist. "If you throw your back out I'm gonna laugh." It was a lie. As absurd as the gesture might be, Adam was secretly delighted even if he was getting carried all of six feet from the hallway to the bed.

[thedreamthief]

Adam wrapped his legs around Ronan, weight shifting in the process and Ronan grunted as he tried to adjust, stumbling into the bedroom and laughing as he dropped Adam right onto the mattress, falling over him.

"Could probably dream myself a new back if I wanted," he said, grinning wide, his mouth mere inches from Adam's as he laid atop him, feet barely on the floor. It was an awkward position, but it also meant Ronan's bare chest was pressed right up against Adam's bare chest and he wasn't about to move from that. "Somehow. I'd figure it out."

[incognoscibilis]

Adam laughed and pulled Ronan down, closing the space to kiss him. As they kissed, he squirmed beneath Ronan, pressing up until he could turn them to lay on their sides, still chest to chest, now with one of Adam's legs sliding in between Ronan's. "Or you could just not lift me up," Adam teased, kissing Ronan's jaw.

[thedreamthief]

"No fun in that," Ronan pointed out, a low rumble as he tipped his head back and Adam rolled them over to lie side by side. He tangled their legs, Adam's warm skin against his own as they shifted closer together and Ronan ran a hand up Adam's bare side again, wishing he could feel the lines of Adam's new tattoo. No needle meant no raised raised, healing skin, but Ronan brushed his thumb over the dream ink all the same.

He ducked then, finding Adam's lips with his own, pressing in a deeper kiss as he rolled his hips forward, already wanting.

[incognoscibilis]

He'd never get over it. Ronan touched Adam with something like reverence and it made him feel precious, like something special, worth protecting. It wasn't a feeling h'd associated with touch before Ronan and sometimes the pleasure of relearning the association made him almost dizzy.

"Gonna put me on my back so you don't have to see it?" he teased. Adam was never good at flirting but at least Ronan had always been easy to joke around with.

[thedreamthief]

Ronan laughed against the purse of Adam's lips before he pulled back.

"Maybe I like your stupid face," he argued, but he shifted further away at the same time, shifted up onto his knees and gave Adam's shoulder a light shove, smirking all the while. "But fine. Roll the fuck over."

[incognoscibilis]

Adam laughed and sprawled out, hands on either side of his head, grinning up at Ronan. "It's a pretty stupid face," he agreed, but it was a face that Ronan loved, even when Adam couldn't love himself.

Settled, he crooked a finger and beckoned Ronan down to kiss him. This moment was theirs alone. In this farmhouse, they could laugh and fall apart and come together. It all belonged to them.

[thedreamthief]

Instead of rolling over, Adam sprawled out on his back, a wide, loose grin spreading his lips.

Laughing, Ronan crawled over him, ducking to hover over his smiling face, lips teasingly close. "A seriously stupid face," he agreed, his tone disgustingly fond as he bumped his nose against Adam's. He dropped his voice lower then, "Now roll the fuck over."

[incognoscibilis]

The sudden drop in Ronan's tone made Adam shiver. He rarely commanded Adam, had been more careful of his tone with him since they'd begun the relationship. This tone of voice was rare and dangerous and it made Adam's stomach turn with thrill and desire. He looked up once at Ronan and then turned over.

[thedreamthief]

Adam didn't make a sound in reply, but his eyes flashed dark, his expression shifting slightly as he stared up at Ronan before wordlessly shifting on the mattress and rolling easily onto his belly.

Ronan scooted back to give him room, watching the play of muscle beneath Adam's skin as Adam made himself comfortable before finding himself once again distracted by the swirl of ink Ronan had dreamt into place. Pushing up, Ronan slid his hand up Adam's side, gaze flicking up to Adam's face, turned to the side.

"Like when I tell you what to do, Parrish?" he asked, his voice low and teasing as he bent so that his mouth hovered mere inches above Adam's skin.

[incognoscibilis]

Adam slid his gaze toward Ronan, lashes lowered very slightly. He didn't know how seductive he actually looked, probably not very, but it was hard not to enjoy the idea that Ronan enjoyed it. "You're the only one I like it from," he said, skin flushing under the warmth of Ronan's almost kiss. Adam lived his life under his own control, always, and there were people he trusted but only one he trusted enough to pull him away from that control.

When Ronan did it, it was seductive, unburdening. He loved it, just a little.

"But I could elbow you in the gut if that's more your style."

[thedreamthief]

That pulled a laugh from Ronan, a low rumbling sound as he ducked to press his forehead to the nape of Adam's neck, sliding one hand lower down Adam's side, fingers playing at the waistband of his shorts.

"Maybe next time," he decided before biting lightly at the soft skin where shoulder met neck and creeping his fingers beneath Adam's waistband to glance along his hip. "Lift up," he added then, giving a light tug at the same time to encourage Adam to lift his hips.

[incognoscibilis]

Adam didn't quite lift his hips so much as curve. His back arched inward, belly further into the mattress, shoulders back. It had the fortunate effect of pushing his ass and hips right into Ronan's hand without being perfectly obedient, something he doubted either of them would truly enjoy. Ronan might tease at having control over him sometimes but that was all it was.

Twisting his neck a little more gave him a better sideways view of Ronan and he smiled against the little bites and kisses. "You need a shave," he teased.

[thedreamthief]

It wasn't direct obedience, but that wasn't what Ronan wanted anyway. Even as they might play with this dynamic from time to time, the last thing Ronan ever wanted or needed was complete control over Adam. As it was, this felt like a tease, an easy back and forth, and Ronan grinned as he slid Adam's shorts down just enough to bare the smooth swell of his ass.

He tipped his head up to meet Adam's eyes from where he hovered at mid-back, grinning as he brushed his cheek fully against the skin of Adam's back, scrapping the faint stubble there below the dream ink. "Telling me you don't like how this feels?"

[incognoscibilis]

Obligingly, Adam squirmed his hips so that the shorts slid just a little further down. Ronan's body was warm over his, very helpfully keeping newly exposed skin from getting too chilled. Here in this bed, their bed, Adam didn't have to worry about how the rest of the world perceived him, what they thought when they heard his name. Time stopped (figuratively, he mentally hastened to Cabeswater) in this house and it belonged only to them.

Maybe Ronan would get him to live here permanently, in the end.

"I'm telling you that you need a shave," he said, smiling. "Not that I didn't like it."

[thedreamthief]

"Maybe I'm growing a beard," replied Ronan, still brushing kisses along the dream ink, tracing one ragged line as he remained hovered over Adam's prone body.

Adam's shorts were still wrapped around his thighs, just low enough to bare the curve of his ass and Ronan settled onto him completely, nestled his clothed erection against him with no shame. He rolled his hips just enough to give himself some friction as he huffed a quiet breath against Adam's skin.

[incognoscibilis]

"You'd look like a biker and I already worked for one of those."

Adam snorted, trying to picture Ronan with a beard. The mental image was sort of hilarious but also reminded him that they weren't really boys anymore. Adam would be twenty in a few weeks and Ronan in a few more months after that. At some point, they'd stopped being Raven Boys and grown into something else. He didn't feel like a man most of the time. He wondered if Ronan did.

Questions for later. For now, he could relax as Ronan's body pressed against his, his breath ghosting Adam's skin.

[thedreamthief]

"Guess I'd have to get myself a bike then," Ronan said and, honestly, the idea wasn't too unappealing. He could dream himself one even, some one-of-a-kind thing that would go 150 miles an hour and never break down.

But maybe one bike in the family was enough. And Ronan would rather watch Adam on a bike than ride his own.

He nudged another kiss to Adam's shoulder as he rolled his hips, grinding into the swell of ass. "Maybe you could teach me a few tricks."

[incognoscibilis]

Adam rolled his shoulders forward, elongating his back, and lifting his ass up against Ronan's cock. He was being a goddamn tease and Adam was starting to not appreciate it. "That's the last thing you need," he said, hips ducking down so that Ronan missed him by half an inch.

"Quit being such a damn tease or I'll just go back to sleep," he warned.

[thedreamthief]

Though an empty threat, Ronan could still detect the edge to his tone, the one that heralded the nearing of Adam's patience. Ronan grinned at the sound of it and, still holding most of his weight on one arm, trailed his other hand low down Adam's side, holding him firmly in place as he once again rolled his hips forward.

"Really think you could sleep with me doing this?" he asked, voice still a tease before he shifted and lifted up just enough to graze his fingers up along the crease of Adam's ass, dipping one dry finger between to tease at his hole.

[incognoscibilis]

"You know I'm tired enough to sleep anywhere," Adam said, hips rolling even under Ronan's hand.

He had to close his eyes for a second, enjoying the faint pressure of Ronan's touch, even dry. The hand that barely restrained his hip teased at some dark desires in him that Adam was always afraid to sort out. Maybe one day, he would. Not now though, not today. Not with Ronan beginning to touch him the way he desired.