RP: YOU'RE BACK!

[shh_terry]

Date: 13 August 2005
Characters: Terry Boot, Blaise Zabini
Location: Terry's flat in Copper Towers
Status: Private
Summary: Blaise returns home, Terry is very glad to see him
Completion: InComplete

Terry absently rubbed the soft fur behind Morganna's ear. They'd come to a sort of truce, the two of them, over the past two weeks while Blaise had been

Comments

[shh_blaise]

“Well, what can I say? It seems your culinary skills extend to cat food,” Blaise teased, amused at the way Terry’s glare seemed to have dropped from him to Morganna.

“You’re just more a dog person,” Blaise soothed, stepping closer to Terry again and dropping a quick kiss on his lips. He had to quickly restrain one of Morganna’s paws before the kitten could reach out and scratch Terry’s arm. “It’s probably doesn’t help that you don’t seem to understand the fickle nature of cats either,” Blaise added, moving across the room to drop Morganna down onto the sofa, aware, but studiously ignoring the implications of what that statement said about the two of them also.

“No Ben?” Blaise asked at Terry’s suggestion, raising his eyebrow and masking his relief with an ease that belied the practice it had taken to refine. It had been almost a month since Terry had apparently tried to explain to his son about their relationship and Blaise had had little contact with the boy since thanks to his timetable for the past month. Blaise still wasn’t sure he was comfortable with the move of telling Ben. Merlin! If he was honest he wasn’t really comfortable with Ben full stop, and he was even less sure he was comfortable with what the move implied about the status of his and Terry’s relationship. But in the end it had been Terry’s decision and as much about him coming out to his son as it was about clarifying Blaise’s role in their lives and what he was and wasn’t comfortable with.

Blaise made his way back across the room catching Terry’s hand and pulling the slightly shorter wizard towards the bedroom. “I ate before I left as it happens,” Blaise said, dropping his voice to a low purr. “And I’m sure there’s no need to relegate Morganna to the bathroom.” Blaise smirked as Terry’s eyes flicked over to the cat, almost wary of some sort of glare she might deem to throw at him for that suggestion. “No doubt now that she’s reaffirmed her position with me she could be distracted with whatever food you’ve been trying to bribe her with.”

[shh_terry]

"Haha, very funny," Terry said, though he snickered, because that was pretty much true. He and kitchens just weren't a good mix.

Terry smiled softly as Blaise moved away to drop Morganna on the couch. He was right though, Terry knew. He was more a dog person, with all that that implied. "Dogs don't scratch as much," Terry said, admiring the strong line of Blaise's back as he leaned over the couch.

He grinned at Blaise's question, knowing exactly what his lover was thinking even if Blaise didn't think he knew. "No Ben," he confirmed. "He didn't want to leave the puppies again." That and the fact that Terry had been hoping to see Blaise had kept Ben at Meg's. He knew Blaise still wasn't completely comfortable--or comfortable at all--with Ben knowing about them, but he hadn't been able to wait any longer, and quite honestly he wanted Ben to know.

Terry sighed in satisfaction as Blaise grabbed his hand and dragged him to the bedroom. "Good, because I wasn't going to let you eat," he said, shivering at the sound of Blaise's voice, purring low and seductive. "As long as she doesn't try to get between us, she can stay in the living room." He blushed as Blaise mentioned bribing, but had known Blaise would figure out what he'd been up to. "Tuna. I've been using tuna."

[shh_blaise]

“And here I was thinking you liked been scratched,” Blaise snerked, dragging his nails up Terry’s forearm and across his ribs, the top Terry wore preventing him from doing much more than tickle.

“Fresh or tinned?” Blaise asked, then hummed in approval when Terry confirmed fresh. “At least you know how to bribe, not that that should surprise me at all.” He smirked. “But you see, the thing is, Pet, Morganna respects my authority. So I don’t think you,” Blaise said putting emphasis on the word ‘you’ and knowing full well that he had nothing to fear from his cat, “have anything to worry about.” However, Blaise still made sure to shut the bedroom door - just in case.

“Oh, and I should point out that I never said I wasn’t going to eat,” he added innocently, leaning back against the door and watching as Terry’s blush flushed pleasantly darker.

Blaise paused for a moment, catching Terry’s eyes with a slightly more serious intent. “Has he had any questions?” Blaise asked, the ‘he’ clearly referring to Ben. Whilst he might not have been comfortable with the whole ‘son’ thing, it didn’t mean he disliked Ben. He just wasn’t very at ease with him being Terry’s. Children, Blaise guessed, were just much more acceptable when you were able to keep them more at a distance and the were removed enough that they didn’t remind Blaise of things like family and commitment and all that other stuff that gave him the shivers. Still, didn’t mean he wasn’t concerned for the child, and Terry’s news had the potential to raise a number of issues for Ben.

[shh_terry]

Terry squirmed as Blaise raked his nails over his arm and then his clothed stomach, the feeling more ticklish than anything. "Not by a cat," Terry said, shivering as Blaise did it again. "Stop that. Tickles," he laughed, trying to get away. He didn't try very hard.

"Are you insinuating that I'm an expert on bribery?" Terry asked, with mock shock. "Or that I don't respect your authority? You might have to remind me of that, it's been so long." His heart sped up at the idea, and he backed toward the bed, falling as gracefully as he could manage backwards.

He sat up as Blaise mentioned Ben again, and his eyes softened as he realized that Blaise was genuinely concerned, and felt such a wave of love that it was hard to keep from shouting it out. "He was quite alright with our being...boyfriends," he stumbled over the word. "And as soon as I put it into terms he could understand, he understood why it wasn't proper to go around shouting about it to random strangers." He just hoped Blaise didn't ask exactly what Terry had had to say to get that point across.

[shh_blaise]

“Well, obviously you’re not in the same league as me when it comes to enticement,” Blaise remarked casually, though he let the last word roll of his lips with a swipe of his tongue and a heated glance, “but I guess you’re not too shabby.”

Blaise let his attention slip across the room, surveying the contents more out of the habit of checking his surroundings than anything else. “Oh, and for your information I was referring to Morganna’s respect for your authority rather than your’s for mine. Nice to know where you stand on that though.” Blaise chuckled and rolled up the cuffs of his shirt, his back still against the door. He was busy adjusting one of his cuff links, silently chastising Terry for taking his query so much to heart, when Terry mentioned the ‘B word.’

It took a moment for the word to register.

“Pardon?” he asked, voice catching slightly.

[shh_terry]

Terry let his legs fall open slightly, which allowed one of Blaise's legs to slide between his own, and groaned at the sensation of Blaise's tongue on his neck. It had been too long if such a small thing was getting him so worked up, but he couldn't complain. "I'll have to work on that," he whispered, rolling his hips against Blaise's lightly, before drawing back.

From his position on the bed, he watched as Blaise cataloging the room, and blushed as Blaise explained what he'd meant. "Well, that too," he said, looking up at Blaise from beneath hooded eyes. His eyes were drawn to Blaise's hands adjusting a cuff link, and he noticed the slight hesitation Blaise gave over the word boyfriend. Anyone else would have missed it, but Terry had spent the past eight months learning every one of Blaise's tells, and there weren't very many.

"I didn't know what other word to use. He wouldn't understand partner, and lover certainly isn't appropriate to tell a five year old. And...friend is exactly all that you are, either." He blushed. "So I called you my boyfriend," he stumbled over the word again, it still feeling odd to say out loud.

"And like I said, once I explained everything in terms he could understand, he knows why he can't just go tell the man at the dairy that we're boyfriends." And he knew he was babbling, but the look on Blaise's face made him uncomfortable, and not in an entirely good way.

[shh_blaise]

Blaise nodded at Terry’s explanation of the phrase he’d used, but his mouth stayed tight and he remained by the door.

It made sense. Terry was right to use that word in preference to any other with Ben. It was simplistic enough for a child his age to understand the concept being explained. But the word still gave Blaise the jitters. Sounded too young and too innocent and it sounded - Blaise couldn’t quite put his finger on the exact explanation. Normal wasn’t the right word, it was perhaps closer to established, but that still wasn’t right either. Blaise wiped the palms his hands on the leg of his trousers. Perhaps it was just the fact that Terry had given name to this thing between them by using that term and that in doing so he had made it harder to write off and dismiss their relationship as anything but what the word implied.

Blaise looked up, he hadn’t realised that his gaze had slipped to the floor for a moment, but now he schooled his expression into something more at ease and looked back at Terry. Terry was still babbling about his conversation, his body language closing him off from Blaise and betraying his unease. Blaise cursed himself for letting so much of his reaction show. Terry was better at studying him now - interpreting the smaller gestures. And like with Hermione Blaise knew he was more lax with his masks around Terry. He’d have to try and be more careful. He’d decided to be during his time away after all.

He needed - more distance. More control back.

“Just seems a very childish expression, that’s all,” Blaise said, letting his lips curl and his eyes fall half closed as he took a step forward. It was too late for pre-emptative caution over his slip, but damage control was still possible. Better to misdirect elsewhere - distract - than let Terry dwell on the tell. “Seems like something we might have called each other at school.” Blaise stepped forward again, moving fluidly across the room until he was in front of where Terry was sat on the bed. He knocked Terry’s feet apart gently with the toe of his left foot. “Something you’d have told your friends before sneaking off for a rendezvous with me, had we ever gotten into this then.”

Blaise lent forward, pressed his hand against Terry’s chest, hand splaying wide and dark against the pale colour of Terry’s tee. He moved his mouth next to the other wizard’s ear, and spoke in a low hum, “Would you have let me fuck you again, Terry. Or would you have run? Would you have wanted to use the word then?”