(Untitled)

[ostro_goth]

It is rather early still when Teja comes in, bringing several small leather bags from the forge. One by one, he sets them upon the bar, with instructions; one by one, they vanish. Among them is the finely extruded gold and silver wire for Ravin Lichwell, the pin for Enzo Matrix, and the ring for Billy Kaplan.

In turn, the bar brings up a message

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[licensed_pro]

Charlie comes back in--thankfully, without snow--in very much different dress than he left; the carelessly half-undone shirt and waistcoat are left on from errands earlier. He leans on the back of Teja's chair lightly with a hidden smile.

"Don't you look lonely. Missing someone?"

[ostro_goth]

"My Charlie!" Teja says, turning his head and looking up with great amazement. "It is you that I am missing! You note said you had gone home!"

Count jumps from Teja's shoulder right onto Charlie's arm.

[licensed_pro]

The look on Teja's face makes him laugh, and drop down beside the chair to better talk. "I did, and just came back. I didn't want to be away for too long. Just needed to make a few 'link calls."

He lets Count jump, and catches him, bringing him up to nuzzle the soft fur. "I told you I wouldn't be gone long."

[ostro_goth]

"Indeed, you said so in your note," Teja says, pointing to the half-crumpled paper on the table. "But, you know, my Charlie..."

Deep sigh.

"Time is strange around this place, and the door is fickle. When my Asher last came back, after three months of absence from me, he swore only a day had passed in his world. For many others, time passes more quickly in their world than here: - they live a month or two, and return here after what is, in this place, but a few days. It is that way for Carlotta, the girl that Demeter and I have taken under our wings. And then there are the truly dark tales..."

He sighs again, then bends forwards to touch his lips to Charlie's brow.

[licensed_pro]

"I won't stay gone that long. Promise." He brushed his fingers over Teja's cheek and smiled lightly. "It was two or three days in my world, when I left; I don't know how long it's been here."

Charlie curled his hand around the back of Teja's neck, to pull him into a short kiss. "The door won't be that finicky with me. If it turns out to be, I can just stay here." He touched the end of his nose against Teja's. "Really."

[ostro_goth]

The kiss is answered with a kiss, brief, but very tender with relief

[licensed_pro]

Charlie listened to that carefully, but smiling. "That's....both illuminating and sad. But as we're not getting married, I don't think we've quite got to worry about that. As much," He kissed back a little absently, still thinking.

And something he'd said about 'belonging with his world' moderately irked him. "Teja, even if I am alive, I can go between worlds quite easily, for now. I'm simply not going to stay in mine permanently, unless something happens to keep me from coming back."

He carefully brushed his fingers into the soft hair at Teja's temples, bringing him forward for a soft kiss. "Just like I'm simply not an LC anymore. I can be rather stubborn that way." And he'd be damned if a door of all things was going to keep him away. That just was not happening.

[ostro_goth]

There are two important things in Charlie's words, maybe three, that Teja would need to address, soon.

But for now, his thoughts are lost to the caress; he sighs, reaches out to cup Charlie's cheek in his hand, and kiss him again, deeply and lovingly. Ahh, the was his kisses taste, and the tickle of stubborn curls, and the faint but unmistakeable scent of his skin...

[licensed_pro]

Charlie's perfectly content to leave it at that, especially when Teja starts to kiss him back. He like the way Teja always smells like fire, and something unidentifiable, that must be just him.

He rarely took notice of scent before this, but it's something he doubts he would ever ignore, now. "I can't tell you how much I like it when you do that, Teja." He sighed quietly, smiling into the kiss. "But i love it."

[ostro_goth]

It will, however, have to be spoken about again. But, perhaps, in a little while?

"I love you," Teja murmurs. "To learn you were gone was a painful, if brief, stab to my soul. To see that you are back already, on the other hand..."

More kisses, now, first, before he goes on speaking. One could forget about speaking, as mouths and tongues can be used for so much lovelier things.

"It was a great surge of deep relief, to see you again," he finally manages, when he can stop chasing the tip of Charlie's tongue with his own.

[licensed_pro]

He chuckles in the back of his throat at the kiss, eagerly returning it with a quiet smile. "I love you too. I missed you while I was gone...but if this is the welcome back I get, maybe I should go more often."

Charlie sighed softly into it, pulling Teja closer with a hand at the back of his neck. "I love you very, very dearly, my Teja."

[ostro_goth]

A warm wave of feeling washes through Teja's heart. But a few days ago, Charlie still had trouble with those words, and now, they are easily spoken, as if it was not for the very fist time, ever.

"If being away from me made you realise that," Teja murmurs, his voice thick with emotion, "then, maybe, it was indeed right that you went, and stayed away for several days of your time."

Long pause, with a deep sigh of pure happiness.

"I shall sit on a couch, from now on, instead of this chair -- I think," he then ventures, bending to kiss Charlie again.

[licensed_pro]

"It did, indeed," He kissed Teja softly, gently licking at his lip while he was close. Saying something like that, out loud, made him feel so much lighter than before. "I was very lonely, knowing you were still here, while I wasn't. I missed you."

He smiled at the next words. "Oh, will you?" Another small kiss. "And why?"

[ostro_goth]

"Because then, you could easily sit by me," Teja says. "I could put my arm around you, and you yours around me, instead of you sitting on the floor. And there would be room for cats, also."

[harmitwithspark]

She didn't care if she was interrupting. She couldn't. The Ninja nobody had an assignment, and she was seeing it through by locating Teja and passing over a carefully wrapped basket.

A basket full of muffins.

[licensed_pro]

Charlie merely raised an eyebrow at the woman in all black holding a basket, cocking his head. Muffins? He wasn't sure he really wanted to know.

"It appears you have a delivery, my Teja..." He nodded lightly at the woman, smiling. She hadn't really interrupted anything; at least not as far as he was concerned.