“Do you plan to sleep in this?”
Tiiran made a confused noise.
Nikoly narrowed his eyes. “You fall asleep in your clothes a great deal of the time, don’t you? With a book for a pillow, I’ll bet, even when the ink doesn’t come off on your face. Well, the pants and belt must go. You should be comfortable.”
“You’re going to undress me?” Tiiran made that noise again, as though Nikoly hadn’t competently undressed part of him already that day.
Nikoly paused, and then, slowly, deliberately, ducked his head to look at Tiiran through his lashes. “Don’t you want me to make you comfortable, Tiiran?”
“I want you to do anything you want to do,” Tiiran answered immediately, a breathless fool.
But it made Nikoly smile as he kneeled on the bed to sweep his hands over Tiiran’s stomach and ribs, pushing Tiiran’s shirt up to his armpits. The shirt was gone in the next moment, with Tiiran shivering not with cold, but for how quickly Nikoly’s hands then went to his belt.
“I’m sorry,” Tiiran apologized, his swelling cock more than obvious.
“You’re not used to being touched, or touched with affection.” Nikoly leaned in to rub the tip of his nose against Tiiran’s, and why that should make Tiiran blush, Tiiran had no idea. “And I’m flattered you desire me so much. Sit up for a moment, please. I’m sorry if it pains you. I’ll be quick.”
Tiiran’s pants were shoved down to his thighs and then Tiiran fell back onto his pillow with a hiss and an embarrassing twitch in his cock.
Nikoly smiled again, as if Tiiran’s tastes pleased or amused him, or maybe his pleasure was in getting to fold Tiiran’s clothing and set it aside. He took the robe too, putting it at Tiiran’s back instead of leaving it beneath him. He was strange, but so was Tiiran. Tiiran nearly wanted to ask him which of the two of them was supposed to do the fucking, but then he realized Nikoly would undoubtedly tell Tiiran to use him however he pleased, and that Nikoly could theoretically be inside Tiiran without doing any fucking at all.
He swallowed dryly.
“Did you want to leave your underclothes on?” Nikoly asked next, eyes down on his own clothing as he removed his belt, and then his pants, and then the rest of his clothes.
Nikoly’s cock was slender but longer than Tiiran’s. He had hair around it as Tiiran really did not. Another problem with fae blood, at least for Tiiran; Tiiran did not have much body hair to speak of. Nikoly had hair at his thighs as well, and the neat trail leading up from his cock to his chest. The metal at his nipples glinted in the light from the window and the candles Orin had lit above the fireplace. The spangle at his navel didn’t, but Tiiran stared hard at it anyway. There might have been a gem of some kind in it, or maybe simply glass.
“Could I…?” Nikoly put a hand to his mouth as if about to chew his thumbnail again but caught himself and dropped it. “Could I comb your hair for you?”
Tiiran closed his open mouth before he could ask if Nikoly always combed his hair before bed, if people were supposed to and not just quickly finger-comb the mess in the morning on the way to the kitchens.
He said, “The comb is in there,” with a wave toward the bath room, and Nikoly frowned. Or pouted, possibly.
“I’m sorry,” Tiiran heard himself saying, which appeased Nikoly slightly. Nikoly, who was still naked, and who considered Tiiran for another moment before removing the decorations at his nipples and then unpinning the piece at his navel. He put those and the rest of his jewelry with his clothes, and then rubbed his peaked nipples as he came around to one side of the makeshift larger bed to get in.
“Orin can sleep on your other side,” he remarked almost absently, scooting closer to Tiiran before sitting up to gently use his fingers as a comb on Tiiran’s hair. “Does it never tangle?” he wondered with quiet interest.
Tiiran gave him a puzzled look. “Always. Constantly. Whenever I try to do anything with it, which is why I stopped bothering long ago.”
“Well, it’s fine now,” Nikoly informed him with a sigh, leaving Tiiran to wonder if fae hair only behaved when someone who didn’t have any was brushing it. But Nikoly finished playing with his hair and tugged a blanket up over Tiiran, who was still in his underclothes, stiff as a fucking board from a hand in his hair and watching Nikoly rub his nipples. Nikoly noticed and patted Tiiran’s prick fondly, mortifying Tiiran, only to curl up next to him while simultaneously pulling Tiiran down into a position more suitable for sleeping.
Tiiran winced, but the mattress was not a hard one, and if he turned into his side, the pain lessenedandhe got to look at Nikoly.
“Orin can lie on the other side of you. There should be room.” Nikoly didn’t seem to mind Tiiran’s staring at him, but then, he was staring at Tiiran in return while smiling a little. “There will be more room for him if you scoot closer to me.”
Tiiran scooted. “I’ve never shared a bed except when I was a very young servant. They packed us in one bed tighter than buns in a pan headed to the ovens. It’s been narrow cots or this bed since then.”
“Are you nervous?” Nikoly shuffled closer, not seeming to mind having no pillow since he was now on Tiiran’s. “I don’t usually sleep with my lovers. That’s not what they want me for—which I didn’t mind,” he added it, then exhaled as if annoyed with himself. “Sometimes I did mind, if I’m honest. But my heart was never broken. I was never… I never thought of myself as lost, or a stray. Don’t worry over this too. We can be nervous together.”
“You’re actually nervous?” Tiiran asked. “About what? I already told you why I said no to you in the beginning. Well, really, I didn’t; you guessed why. But I haven’t said no to you since.” The truth of that made his face flame.
Nikoly brushed noses again, lingering this time to let their mouths nearly touch. “I’m usually wanted for what I offer: my service, my mouth, my face, my body. But I haven’t had much time to train here or spar as I used to. My body is not as it was, and I imagine that will continue as we go on. You don’t mind some softness?”
“Are you joking?” Tiiran scowled and nearly went cross-eyed for it. “I’m skinny but terribly soft. Orin is softness over hard muscle. I have seen none on you, but… oh, I do stare at you, don’t I? Did you think that was all I wanted?”
“No,” Nikoly answered, but after a small pause. “You wouldn’t be so worthy if you did. I worry anyway. Everyone worries, I think. Nobody wants to be hurt. That is,” a grin burst from him, “except for the way you like to be hurt.”
“You like it too.” Tiiran tried to nuzzle noses as well, perhaps not doing it well because Nikoly held him still with a hand to his cheek.
