savetheearth | (no subject)

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Who: Nick Burkhardt and Randolph Lyall
Where: Lyall's house
What: reunion kind of!
When: August 4th
Warnings: likely none!

It's been... something like lonely, with Lyall being out of town most of the last month. It's not like they really saw each other that much less, since Lyall's been back most of the weekends, but it's not the same when Nick can't just stop by whenever he feels like with coffee.

Nick's at least admitted to himself that the extra attention he's been paying to Lyall on the weekends that he's been here, all the restaurants or homemade dinners or little romantic gestures, have been because he's anxious. They're heading up on dating longer than anyone Nick's ever been with before, and this is always around the time that something goes wrong.

All right, well, no, he hasn't admitted that to himself. But his partner'd pointed it out, which is pretty much the same thing, even if Nick'd argued with him about it at the time.

He's still anxious, even now that Lyall's back in town. Which is not at all why Nick's showing up with a welcome back present of a bottle of wine, and a book he'd heard Lyall mention he'd been interested in a bit ago.

Nope, not at all.

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It's good to be home, for more than just a night. It's even better to be fully himself again, even if that "self" is hardly anything he'd have guessed two years ago. He's gotten unpacked-- something he did while getting around to the network post and answering people, really-- and gotten himself a little to eat, and now sits with his laptop in front of him, trying to get a little caught up. And, quite honestly, feeling a bit overwhelmed by it all.

The knock on his door is a welcome distraction. Since he knows who it is, he calls out, "Come in!" and gets to his feet to greet him properly, shutting the laptop for now.

Nick heads on in, shifting the book under the arm holding the bottle of wine so he can open the door and close it behind him - and so he can give Lyall a real greeting when he reaches him, wrapping his free arm around his waist and leaning in to kiss him.

"Welcome back."

"Mmm. Good to be back. Especially given what I get to come back to, these days." Which can mean a multitude of things, really, but he leans back up in for another kiss so he might well mean Nick, in particular, just then. "What's this? Don't tell me you expect to be reading while you're here."

He's obviously teasing, because as far as he's aware Nick doesn't read that much, and he's pretty sure that's actually for him.

At that moment, Nick's going to take it to mean him, and he smiles into the second kiss. Then chuckles at that comment, sliding the book out to show it to Lyall.

"I thought I'd pick up the habit, since you make it sound so fun. What do you think, look like a good one?"

Lyall takes the book with a surprised expression, not fooled by the joking tone. He seriously doubts Nick would want to read one of the earliest James Herriot compilations. "Nick, I only mentioned this in passing, I never thought you'd actually... get it." As in, it's not the cheapest book the man could have gotten him. It's not the most expensive, either, but Lyall hasn't really mentioned most of those. He does smile, though it's a slightly puzzled one. "You didn't have to get me anything, let alone an out of print book."

Edited 2014-08-19 02:43 (UTC)

'Puzzled' isn't exactly what Nick was going for, but at least it's a smile. That means he's done something right, doesn't it?

For a moment, he considers actually asking that to check, but, well. He's not quite that insecure about this, at least not yet. "Sure I did. What kind of boyfriend would I be if I didn't get you a good welcome home present?"

"An ordinary one, and one who has only been dating me for a few months," Lyall points out dryly. "I think I've gotten more gifts and surprise visits from you than all my past boyfriends, combined. Possibly girlfriends, too, come to think of it."

He does, at least, take the book under one arm and Nick by the hand to lead him back to the couch.

"Maybe I don't want to be ordinary," Nick teases, but goes a little quiet as he follows Lyall over to sit next to him on the couch.

He knows exactly why he's doing this, and if he wants it to work, he should probably stop falling back on trying to avoid revealing anything. No matter how tempting it is to fall back on jokes.

"A few months isn't 'only,' to me."

Setting the book on the coffee table, Lyall keeps Nick's hand and watches his face for a moment, head tilted just a little. "I've had longer relationships, but I'll admit not many," he says, taking the comment seriously and ignoring the joking one entirely. "I know it's... got to be a little nerve-wracking, having a good thing and not wanting to ruin it."

He smiles a bit. He knows the feeling, he really does, but he's also not going quite to the extreme Nick seems to be. "But you don't have to keep getting me things and making these obvious gestures just to keep me happy. You know that, right?"

Nick's quiet for a moment, running his thumb over the back of Lyall's hand almost absently. It's a lot harder to analyze his own past behavior than it is a crime scene, but he can do it well enough to know that in all his past relationships, things just... faded. He let them slide, focused on other things, got wrapped up in work.

He doesn't know how not to do that, without the gestures.

"I guess I didn't. This is - new ground for me, I don't want to lose you."

The smile grows a little bit, and Lyall brings that hand he's got up to his mouth to kiss the palm gently. "I'm not that easy to get rid of, I promise. I'm not going anywhere unless you do something terrible like-- I don't know. Start sleeping around, or letting me out on the full moon or something, or utterly ignoring me for weeks on end."

Since he doesn't really know how most of Nick's other relationships failed, he can't really offer that kind of reassurance or advice, not yet anyway.

It's hard not to smile at the kiss, even though that last part is pretty much exactly what he's worried about.

"I can promise you right now, the first two'll never happen," he says, quirking a grin. "It's just - I've been told I'm a workaholic. I've gotten better, I think, at least I can recognize now that that probably didn't help, but... I don't have a lot of experience with this kind of dating."

Aha. There it is. Lyall considers a moment, looking aside thoughtfully, before answering. "Nick, you've been making time for me so far," he begins. "And you say you're aware of the problem in the past. I think that's probably enough to get started with."

He looks back again, and offers, "I think this may be different, if just because we're both part of something that requires kinship of another sort, too. But if it helps, I can promise to let you know if I think you're ignoring me before it gets to be too much of a problem?" He is a teacher. He can, in theory, notice problems before they get out of hand.

Whether he'll actually have the confidence to apply that to his personal life if another thing entirely, but he can try.

He has been making time - apparently a little bit overboard, but maybe it'll just take a little bit to find the right balance. His smile grows a little.

"That'll help, yeah. Don't be afraid to call me out if I'm a jerk or I'm working too much." He presses a kiss of his own to Lyall's hand. "Because it is different. It's never mattered before, but - it does now. It matters with you."

And he's still really bad at this expressing emotions thing, but hopefully that at least gets some of his point across.

"I haven't seen any sign that you might turn into a jerk, so I'm not too worried there," Lyall chuckles, but the hand turned up to press against Nick's cheek, after the kiss, is gentle. He's had a variety of relationships, mostly short ones, but nobody's ever actually said quite that sort of thing to him before.Especially not after only three months. It's probably a result of everything they went through together before they got together, but that doesn't mean it doesn't seem special, and it certainly makes him feel special, in a way the gifts and grand gestures never quite do.

"So long as it matters... I think that's what's important. Everything else will fall in, so long as there's that, and that keeps being relevant."

"Remember you said that," Nick warns, but he's mostly joking.

This... went way better than he expected. It's hard to remember why he spent the last few weeks being a little freaked out. At least, it is with Lyall right here, smiling at him, within easy reach to pull in and kiss. Later, Nick might go right back to worrying that he'll somehow screw up the only relationship that's mattered like this one does, but now -

Now, he goes ahead and pulls him in for a kiss.

"Okay. I can always give you that, even if I forget other things."

"Perhaps," Lyall murmurs mock-thoughtfully against Nick's mouth, repositioning himself to get at that a little bit more comfortable, "I'll just have to try and make myself memorable enough not to forget."

He's getting a lot better with the flirting thing, can you tell, Nick?

Oh, yeah, he can definitely tell. His expression brightens, a slow grin growing as his hand rests along Lyall's jaw.

"Yeah? I could get behind that. Think it's worth the challenge?"

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why does Peter Davidson never kiss anybody on screen?

fff I lucked out with David Giuntoli playing a gay guy XD