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Daniil stood in the middle of the lair that young Burakh had brought him into, all kisses and caresses the moment the door slammed shut behind them. Lair, he’d called it, like he was a fugitive. Then again, he had been, despite Daniil’s best efforts.
Daniil carelessly threw off his coat, then his revolver, and both men winced as it fell to the ground. Daniil sighed, and Burakh chided him. Daniil quieted him with another kiss.
They stumbled down the stairs. Catching himself at the bottom, Daniil stood up on his tiptoes, felt the bristle of Burakh’s stubble against his cheek, and kissed him again. The taste of him was like any other man, but with a hint of something that reminded Daniil of the foul local liquor.
“Burakh, are you an alcoholic, by chance?”
“It’s not my area of expertise, but I’m pretty sure not.”
“Then why do you smell of ... what’s it called again? The shit Petya’s drowning in all the time?”
“Twyrine?” He snickered for a moment, and then doubled over laughing, pushing back from Dankovsky to catch his breath. “Oynon, you do recall my line of work?”
“Of course,” Daniil smiled as he leapt on to the stone dissection table, after a cursory inspection that the lines Burakh told him so much about were free of blood.
“Then you know that I brew these.” He reached into an immense cabinet and pulled out a glass bottle of amber liquid. “Zurkh,” he said.
Danill took a swig, and his face soured. He gulped: “And you’re telling me the locals pay you for this shit?”
Burakh frowned, although it was hard to tell from his usual expression. Daniil found himself staring, shook his head, and tried to hold back, but it spilled out of his lips unbidden: “Burakh, have you always had such an … intense gaze?”
Looking less than charmed, Artemy raised an eyebrow, and then, looking very seriously at Daniil, asked if Daniil looked like that because he bitched so much. With an outraged scoff, Daniil reached out, beckoning Burakh, who obliged with two steps toward the older man. He rested his hands on Burakh’s shoulder, and then shook vigorously.
“Hey!”
“Is that a complaint I hear, my ... .” He trailed off, then let his hands fall to Burakh’s biceps. “Surprisingly well-developed colleague.”
“Well-developed, huh?” Burakh lifted Daniil’s arms back to his shoulders delicately, then grasped the gloved right hand, and pressed it to his lips.
“I’m not made of porcelain.”
“Neither am I, I suppose, if I’m so well-developed, eh?”
“Well, I mean, you’re from this, shith- er, rural area, and it seems like there’s a lot of, you know, work you must have had to do.”
“I didn’t do much meatpacking as a child. Mostly herb picking and terrorizing the townsfolk.”
Daniil joined his hands behind Burakh’s neck, and leaned in to kiss him again. “No farming, no, uh, vigorous exercise?”
Burakh smiled, “You know, I think there’s some kind of exercise we could be doing.”
Daniil, glad to finally be level with Burakh, batted at his cheek, then turned Burakh’s face to kiss it better.
“Really, how did you ever get so big?”
“Lots of tan, I guess. Milk maybe?” Burakh cocked his head to one side, then turned back to look Daniil in the eyes, before some switch flipped in his mind. He intertwined Daniil’s hands with his, then slammed him back onto the dissection table.
“Oh.” Daniil flushed, his pale face turning the color of ashen swish. “You can’t just, press a man against your, whatever this godforsaken thing is, like you own him.”
“Can’t I? Am I not within my rights to have my way with you, oynon?” Burakh, looming, grinned as he said it.
“Well, I’m in no place to force your hand,” said Daniil, feeling out his new position. Burakh above him, hands pinned back above his shoulders, and a definite twitch in his trousers. At that, Burakh laughed.
“You know, you’re allowed to call me Artemy. I won’t sic the Kin on you for disrespect,” said Burakh, no, Artemy, releasing Daniil’s hands.
“Well, you should keep on calling me oynan,” he said haughtily, then paused, and spoke again, with a more measured air, “or whatever it is you allege means doctor. Or rather, wise person. I like to think that you think I’m intelligent.”
“It’s oynon, and if you prefer it, I could even call you Bachelor Dankovsky while I’m on my knees for you.”
“Come now, stop that. I’ll let you call me Danechka if you promise to never say that again when we’re alone.”
“But, Bachelor, however will we remember which one of us is the scientist and which one is the surgeon?”
“Only someone who truly hated me would deny me what I want most!”, Daniil said, with sudden vigor.
“What’s that, oyn-.” He paused, turned the word over in his mouth, and twisted it again. “Daniil. What is it?”
Daniil flushed, whether at the sound of his name on the other man’s lips or at the coming admission: “Closeness, with, someone I’ve come to care for a great deal more than I should.”
“Oh, closeness is what you want, you ridiculous man?” Artemy bore down upon Daniil, causing yet another twitch, at which Artemy only adjusted himself to have a thigh between Daniil’s legs.
“Are you this cruel with all your paramours? Does Lara Ravel deal with this nonsense?”
“ Lara is a friend, oynon, and Stakh’s beside that. I don’t have a death wish.”
“Says the man who beat three people to death barehanded.”
“Wasn’t a death wish if I knew I’d win. Besides, are you this coy with Eva Yan? You’d have to be a fool not to have at least tried that out.” Artemy began a steady rhythm between Daniil’s thighs, rubbing against his cock.
“Don’t call me a fool. I don’t really think she’s interested in me. I think I'm a bit too … fastidious, for most women.”
“Daniil, she’s been all over town talking about the handsome doctor with the Capital accent who won’t look her way.”
“Well, she hasn’t told me that. Besides, Andrey would have my head if I wanted her.”
“I could take Andrey.”
“You’re not special. Half my graduating class has. Besides, I’m sure you could, you brute, but you have to consider that perhaps he, despite his horrific behavior, is a dear friend.”
“I wasn’t aware Capital snakes had friends. I kind of thought you saw all of us simple folk as chess pieces in your little game against death.”
“Oh, and I’m sure you think I’m. . . a blade of grass, or something, I don’t know!”
“No, you’re literally a snake. Little red one that’s always chasing me around.” Daniil glared up at Artemy, and then sighed as Artemy’s assault between his thighs intensified.
“Ah, that’s what I like to hear.”
“I think you mentioned something about on your knees,” Daniil said, with an edge to his voice that hadn’t been there before.
“Oh, does the handsome Capital doctor want a medicine man prostrate before him?”
“You must know by now that it’s not like that. Just, oh God, do that again.” Daniil writhed at a particularly harsh thrust, and Artemy grinned.
“So, then you don’t want me on all fours before you?”
“I never said that, now did I?”
“You know, I had the strangest conversation with Andrey.”
“Really?”
“He told me you two studied medicine together before he switched to architecture, and that you had a plethora of lovers, plus an absolute beast of a man.”
“Christ, he told you? At least I can stop buying drinks for his silence, the bastard.”
“So, how was he? I had no idea you liked it so rough. Here I was thinking you’d want adoration, Bachelor.”
“Absolute savage. Can’t a man like two things at once? And it’s Daniil to you, young man.”
“My apologies, Bachelor Dankovsky.”
“I’ll teach you to disrespect me, Haruspex.”
“Please, my father was a haruspex. I’m just a backwoods doctor.”
“Handsome one,” Daniil crooned, cupping Artemy’s face.
“Says you. You’ve got to be the most ... never mind.”
“Oh come on, tell me whatever it is. Can’t be that bad.”
“Yes it can. You’re not supposed to say this stuff, you know. Not, when it’s, you know.”
“You don’t want to know how many times I’ve done this whole … well, who wants to talk about that. I won’t judge you for wanting a man, Artemy.”
“Well now I’m curious. Tell me, how much of a bachelor are you?”
“Answer my question and I’ll answer yours?”
“Fine. I think you’re… ,” Artemy looked away, and when he looked back, his face was considerably redder than it had been before. “Whatever it is you call a man when he’s … pretty.”
“Oh? You think I’m pretty ?”, Daniil said, in an abashed tone.
Artemy’s voice dropped to a whisper, and he spoke into Daniil’s ear. “Beautiful, actually.”
“You think I’m … .” Daniil trailed off, and his face warmed. “You don’t mean that.”
“Oynon, I think I know what I mean.”
“You can’t possibly think that. I’m an ousted scientist with a minor claim to fame because of a demonstration Dr. Semenova came up with.”
“Can’t say I heard about it.”
“Brought a woman back to life. Technically. Lasted 54 seconds, and she still looked dead, so half the audience didn’t even notice when it happened.”
“You’re incredible, you know that?”
“Like I said, not really. Galina set it up, Igor got the venue, and Alina had to explain the whole thing.”
“And? You’re the goddamn necromancer here.”
“Look, it was just a matter of mixing a few chemicals, and she was pretty fresh anyway.”
“Fresh? You’re a cold man, Dankovsky.”
“And here I was thinking you cared about my life’s work.”
“Sorry, sorry. Tell me more, Daniil.”
“That’s really all there is to tell. I thought I could keep her alive. I was humiliated, honestly, but the crowd loved it, and I’ve been a scientific celebrity ever since, deserved or not.”
“Well, it sounds pretty deserved to me.”
“Ah, who’s to say?”
“I am. Who else from my shithole is going to certify your genius to your satisfaction.”
“I didn’t mean it like that. It’s got its charms, you know. The polyhedron, the cathedral.”
“Oynon, sometimes I think you don’t know me at all.”
“Yes, I know about your precious termitary and the huts and Shekhen.”
“Thoughts?”
“Alright, they’re not exactly to my taste, but I can see the charm. There’s something to things a little more, folksy, you know?”
“Oh, you like folksy, huh?”
“Piss off.”
“Well, oynon, I hate to be a bother.”
“You can bother me some more,” said Daniil, quietly, still holding Artemy’s face as softly as he could manage, hoping desperately that his gloves were soft enough.
“Aren’t I lucky.”
“Last I checked you had a question for me too.”
“It was stupid anyway.”
“What, now you don’t want to know about my many, many loves?”
“So now there’s many, many?”
“Not that many that really matter. Three girls before I realized it wasn’t quite right. Then there was Andrey, then my TA, then a member of the junior faculty, then Pyotr, then Andrey again, and then that TA again, and then Andrey, before we finally learned better.”
“A certain name comes up more than I’d hoped.”
“Oh, that.”
“Don’t ‘Oh, that’ me, Daniil.”
“I can’t tell if you’re jealous or just concerned, but neither are a bad look on you.”
“My luck just doesn’t run out.”
“Don’t worry. Andrey and I weren’t exactly a love match.”
“Oh? What would that take?”
“I don’t know. Someone, intelligent, capable, warmhearted, kind, loving.”
“I hope you find him someday, Bachelor”. At that, the haruspex looked away from Daniil, and went silent.
“Oh, Artemy.”
“Don’t.”
“Tyoma.”
“Daniil, don’t do this to me.”
“Do what?”
“Are you serious?”
“Deadly.”
“Play with me, like I’m some kind of … fucking pawn.”
“Tyoma, I don’t think that about you.”
“Daniil, you know I’m not …”
“Not what?”
“Not, special like Stamatin.”
“Artemy, that’s not true.”
“I’m a mediocre surgeon from a worse than mediocre shithole.”
“I’m hardly special.”
“Says the celebrity thanatologist.”
“Artemy, I’m from a stupid little village too, and I barely got into college because I couldn’t scrape up the deposit.”
“I thought your father was a military man”. Artemy’s eyes narrowed, and he returned his focus to Daniil.
“They don’t really pay all that well, especially when you’re a scumbag cheating on your wife with every manner of lady, and paying half of them.”
“Mother Boddho.”
“I’m too harsh. He really wasn’t all bad. Someone has to watch my insects while I’m away from home.”
“You’ve got to tell Murky about that sometime. That all he’s good for?”
“Well, it’s that and military engineering. Back to the matter at hand,” he said, cradling Artemy’s face again and pressing their foreheads together.
“I, well, I’m just a distraction, aren’t I?”
“No, Tyoma, that’s not it.”
“What, you expect me to believe I’m special to you?”
Daniil stopped absent-mindedly stroking Artemy’s face, and refused to make eye contact. “I had hoped you might consider me a worthy partner in this.”
“That’s not the fucking issue, Daniil. This is the best I’ve got.”
“Would you listen for a goddamn moment?”
“Depends what you’re going to say.”
“I care for you, very much.”
“Yes, we’re colleagues.”
“I feel things for you I don’t for Rubin.”
“You’ve never gotten into a fistfight with Stakh, have you?”
“Even if I had, I wouldn’t care. It’s you I want.”
“Why?”
“How am I supposed to answer a thing like that?”
“Try, you brilliant Bachelor.”
“Well, you’re all the things I want in a person, and devastatingly handsome, in a grizzled sort of way, which is odd, given that you’re younger than I.”
“That’ll have to do for now,” he said, surging down to kiss Daniil again, and again and again, and again after that.
“I hate to disappoint.”
“And yet you keep wearing that stupid coat.”
“Learn to love it or learn to be silent.”
Artemy pantomimed, covering his mouth and looking around the room with mock alarm. Then he stood back, easing off of Dankovsky, who let out a long sigh. He pulled Daniil up, slotting their thighs together and taking him by the waist.
“You know, I’ve got a bed somewhere in here.”
“Is this place really big enough to have a somewhere?”
“Follow along.”
Taking him by the waist, Artemy shuffled them both along, past the stairs and taking a turn to stand by the bed. Then, he grinned, pushing Daniil down as gently as he could, before laying down next to him.
“Danya, you’re kind of incredible sometimes.”
“What’d I do now?”
“Do you wanna stop talking, beautiful?”
“Mmmm, I think I’m okay with that.”
Artemy moved to sit on Daniil’s lap, and then stared for a moment. He blinked, shook his head slightly, and moved to kiss Daniil again. Once they paused, Artemy moved back, and then stared again. He grabbed at Daniil’s shoulders until he untied his cravat and shrugged his shirt off. Artemy folded it carefully, setting in on the ground.
“Trousers off, now.”
“Alright, alright.”
Daniil sat up, peeling off his pants and undergarments, leaving him in his sock garters. He sat back, and beckoned Artemy into his arms with gloved hands. He obliged, and lay there, ear to sternum, and breathed deep. Daniil’s cock stood against his stomach, and Artemy found himself wondering what he had ever done to deserve his current position.
“What’s got you so happy?”
“I like to hear your heartbeat.”
“Why?” Daniil laughed as he spoke, shaking Artemy’s head with his chest.
“During the plague, I thought I’d lose you.”
“I … didn’t expect such an honest answer.”
“I’m a simple man. Now just let me have a moment with you before we get down to business.”
“I think I can stand that.”
They lay there, quietly breathing to the rhythm of their shared heartbeat for a few minutes. To Artemy, they felt like long, long hours, hours he wished were longer. Then he began to move down. He grasped at Daniil’s cock, and then bowed for a long lick from base to tip. Daniil gasped, and let out a high, keening whine. Artemy repeated his work, and then gently licked the head.
With a soft pop, it entered Artemy’s mouth, and he began to bob his head up and down. Daniil sighed, and then moaned. He delicately placed his hands in Artemy’s hair, and he let out a long, quiet moan. Encouraged, Daniil pushed down Artemy’s head ever so slightly. Bobbing up and down and up and down again, until he was completely engulfed. Daniil let out a gasp, and Artemy placed a hand over Daniil’s, pushing his head down, fast and hard. Daniil got the idea, and pressed down. Artemy moaned around him, and Daniil gave a long, shuddering sigh in return. Artemy moved faster and faster, until Daniil was moaning with every movement, and begging, cursing under his breath, with a few words thrown in that sounded to Artemy like the words he’d learned in advanced anatomy, for more.
After a few more blissful thrusts, Daniil moaned again, loudly this time, and spilled into Artemy’s mouth. He waited for a moment, and then swallowed, licking his lips.
“You’re salty.”
“I find that’s usually the case.”
“Shut up. I swallow you down like you’re fucking candy and this is what I get for it?”
“You know, you technically said you’d be on your knees.”
“Someone wants a repeat performance.”
“Not now. Come back up here, I just want to hold you. And take off that smock before I take it off you.”
With a grunt, Artemy shed the outer layer, revealing a faded blue sweater and dingy thermal underwear. He lay back down, listening to the steady beat below him
“I’ve dreamed of seeing you like this, but I have to admit I didn’t expect … this.”
“Shut up, Lara made it for me.”
“I was more so commenting on the leggings.”
“Ah. That. I meant to buy a new set, I really did, but clothes just got so expensive, and then I had to buy Murky a whole wardrobe, and import books for Sticky, and … .”
“Shhhh. I don’t care. I love you the way you are, you rugged creature.”
Artemy’s slow, regular breathing stopped cold, and he pushed away from Daniil.
“You what?”
“I love you.”
“You barely know me.”
“You are terribly wrong, my dear colleague.”
“We’ve known each other three weeks, Bachelor.”
“You just sucked me off like a goddamn champion, Burakh.”
“That good, huh?”
“Aren’t you going to answer me?”
“Can I do it silently?”
Daniil grabbed at Artemy, pulling him down again despite his resistance. Daniil threw his gloves on to the floor, and Artemy gasped before he could stop himself. Naked, except for Daniil’s sock garters and a twine bracelet Artemy had worn without fail since Murky silently handed it to him, they lay there, breathing together, for several long moments before Artemy spoke again.
“I think I understand what you mean.”
“Yes?”
“We went through so much in such a short period of time. It was years’ worth of anguish and pain, and somehow the two of us survived.”
“That’s exactly it. Can’t I just be grateful to be alive and holding you close?”
“Fine.”
“Come on, say it, as a treat, for me?”
“If love is having stitched you up six times in twice that many days, then we’re soulmates.”
“Come now.”
“You know, if we weren’t doing this talking, I could be.”
“Burakh, please.”
“Beg.”
“Artemy, I’ve never felt this way before. You stir something within me, and it makes me want to stay in this godforsaken shithole forever, if you’ll only let me build a life with you.”
“Shudkher.”
“I’ve never wanted a life with someone, or a home together, or children, but when I see you, and the warmth and love you bring to everything you do, I understand those things. I crave them.”
“With me?”
“No, with Stakh Rubin. Yes, you, idiot.”
“I know I’m not smart like you, but you don’t have to be cruel.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
“I’m not being ridiculous. I want to be good enough, and I don’t know if I even can be.”
“That’s-. That’s not true.”
“Sure.”
“Artemy, please.”
“Let’s stop talking about this. I think I like the bit about loving me more.”
“Okay, but … .”
“Shh, just, let it go, please.”
“Artemy, we’re both doctors here. You’re smarter than half the people in my lab, and better-hearted than all of them, myself included.”
“You can’t mean that.”
“But I do. Please, just trust me here?”
“Fine. I’ll only say this once, oynon, so you’d better be listening,” Artemy said, and then, under his breath, breathed out a quick sentence: “I want you in my life.”
“So close yet so far, Burakh. I’ll drag it out of you someday.”
“Have to stay around to do that.”
“FIne. Back to how you’re going to destroy my peace of mind, Burakh?”
“Please.” Artemy smiled, then switched their positions, so he was under Daniil, with him in his lap. Daniil flushed, then smiled, looking down at Artemy, his dark eyes reflecting the light of a small candle in the corner. Burakh grinned, looking up through long, light lashes.
“Got any oil around here?” Daniil said, without shame, looking behind him at the desk, but finding nothing.
“For just such an occasion.”
“So you’ve been dreaming about taking me, here in your extraordinarily dingy little lair?”
“Sure have. It’s in the cabinet, under the sink.” Daniil got up, and crouched to sort through the dozens of bottles.
“Yellow or orange?”
“Clear one, but only the small bottle, unless you want to come herb-picking next week.”
“Got it, got it.” The bachelor uncorked the bottle, and poured it onto his hand. He sat back down on Burakh, settling on his thighs. He wrapped the hand around Burakh’s cock, and then, as if he’d just seen it for the first time, let out a chortle.
“Anyone ever told you you’re fucking enormous?”
“Oynon, I’m like any other man.”
“Any other man that could split me in half. Like that behemoth kinsman with the horned helmet.”
“Oyun?” Artemy groaned.
“Yes, him.”
“Don’t remind me of that bastard right now.”
“Promise.”
“Can you get back to the handjob?”
“Are you always this impatient?”
“Sometimes more.” Daniil rubbed his hands together, clasping them around Artemy, before he began a slow rhythm. Artemy breathed deeply, and looked off to the side, hoping Daniil wouldn’t notice.
“That’s true.”
“Faster, oynon”, Artemy said, wrapping his hand around Daniil’s, and speeding their motion. Artemy sighed, then moaned, low and long.
They kept that rhythm for some minutes, and then Artemy grunted.
“Oynon, either put it in or put those pretty lips to work.”
“You think my … whatever. Hear you loud and clear.” Daniil rose up, then eased forward. He sat, poised just over Artemy, and then positioned his cock with one hand, holding himself up with one on Burakh’s stomach, fingering at the musculature.
“You’re gorgeous, you know?”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“I’m not kidding. Now, you won’t judge me if I yelp, right?”
“More than you can imagine, absolutely I will.”
“I should leave, right now.”
“Down, or I am going to do it for you.”
“You know, I think I could get used to this,” he said, easing himself onto the head. He gasped, and then settled down lower. He kept going, inching his way down, until he was fully sheathed.
“Boddho herself, you should really have stretched before this.”
“Well, if someone hadn’t been too busy talking to bend me over a table and open me up, maybe I would have.”
“Oynon, I am going to gag you if you don’t stop bitching,” he said, canting his hips up in increments, as Daniil let out a gasp with each movement.
“I think I’d let you.”
“There’s actually one thing I want you talking about, besides my enormous cock and how much I'm splitting you.”
“Fantastic job you’re doing of that last thing, by the way. What is it?”
“How you, you know … feel about, me, you know?”
“Does the big handsome haruspex need a boost to his enormous … ego?”
“Shut up.”
“Alright, Burakh. Artemy. Tyoma, Tyomushka.”
“I’ll leave you to get yourself off, Danechka.” Daniil rose, and with a sudden thrust, Artemy was hilted inside him again.
“Fine. Artemy. You are kind, and good, and you adopted two kids just because they needed a home, and four more too, practically, and kids can tell assholes from not.”
“Is that so, Uncle Bachelor?”
“I was hoping you hadn’t heard them calling me that.”
“It’s sweet. Even Murky thinks you’re alright, and Sticky’s practically obsessed.”
“I can hardly believe it,” he said, smiling, then grabbed Artemy’s hands and placed them on his hips.
“You’re in charge, Tyoma.”
“Never thought you’d want that from me.”
“Says the man who fucked my lips bruised.”
“You talk like that in front of my patients?”
“I’m really more of a behind the scenes kind of doctor. Stakh only lets me see patients on night shift, figures they’re desperate enough to deal with me then.”
“Maybe I’ll come keep you company some night,” he said, lifting Daniil and then slamming him down, with a grip hard enough to bruise. The bachelor yelped.
“Christ, are you this rough with all the guys?”
“Men, women, neither, and not unless they ask nicely.”
“Does it count if I beg for the opposite?”
“Yeah, why not,” he said, and then lifted Daniil, snapping his hips up again and again, while Daniil gasped, then keened, then cried out.
“Artemy, you are going to fucking ruin me for any other man.”
“And what about women, hm?”
“Think our Father above took care of that already.”
“Your father, not mine. Are you telling the truth?”
“I don’t lie, not if I can help it. Tyoma, if I could spend the rest of my life going home to your bed and making your kids breakfast and doing my research, I’d die a happy man.” With that, Daniil rocked his hips forward and back, moaning as he hit a particularly sweet spot.
“Daniil, you can’t just say that. It’s going to break my heart when you go home.”
“I’m not leaving. Not now, anyway.”
“Why?” Artemy thrust into Daniil, grabbing at his hips hard enough to bruise.
“Because I think I need this again or I’ll go insane? Because you’re the better half of me? Because you make me want to live, when my old work feels so distant?”
“I’m sorry, oynon. Did I ever tell you that? I didn't know I had to destroy it. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
“It’s … it’s alright. You did what you thought, no, what you knew was right, and I can’t fault you for it.” Daniil bowed down, groaning, to kiss Artemy, kissing cheeks and nose and lips.
“Oynon, you’re driving me crazy.”
“Who, me?” Daniil ground down, making a slow circle with his hips, and then grasped at his own cock.
“Daniil, I am going to lose my mind if you keep talking like this. You can’t expect me not to fall when you make it so easy.”
“How easy?”
“The moment I saw you in that disgusting coat in Rubin’s good chair, it changed me. I knew we were of one mind. Honestly, I was so confused by the rush of feeling, all I wanted to do was slam you against a wall and let you decide which way it was going to go.”
“I wish you had.”
“Yeah? You wanted the ripper at your beck and call? You heard about four murder investigations and thought, ‘Yes, that’s the one for me.’”
“Well, I could hardly go to Stamatin. Can you imagine that? How pathetic it’d be, him saying ‘Daniil, I can’t. Not with her.’ Denied for Eva Yan. I’d never recover.”
“You mean to tell me that asshole’s finally been tamed?”
“I don’t know about that, but oh God, if you don’t start fucking me again right now I swear I’ll leave you here and beg him to finish the job.” At that, Artemy laughed, grabbing Daniil’s hips and setting him in place, thrusting quickly, until Daniil began to moan, higher and higher, until he reached a crescendo. Artemy smiled again, then put one hand on Daniil’s cock, already slick with oil and precome.
“You know, touching you makes me understand.”
“What’s that? Faster, Tyoma, so help me God.”
“That you’re so special, you know? That you’re precious. You’re not like anyone, not even in this town of characters.”
“Artemy, I love to hear this, but please, please focus for a moment here.”
“Okay, okay.” He said, grasping Daniil’s hand and wrapping it around his cock, covered with his own hand, and began to move them together, thrusting hard and fast into Daniil. He keened again, then began cursing in what Artemy assumed was Latin again.
Daniil screamed, a high, echoing sound, let his come spill over Artemy’s stomach, and collapsed on to him, exhausted, come spilling out of him as he gasped.
“Fuck.”
“Indeed.”
“Tyoma, can we keep doing this?”
“Bachelor, you’re awfully sweet when you’re getting fucked. Makes me want to put something in you whenever you start on one of your tirades.”
“Mmm, I would let you.”
“Fuck, oynon, you are going to ruin me.”
“Does it help to know I’m already long gone?”
“Yeah, I guess it does. Now get up so I can wipe us off,” Artemy said, grabbing a cloth from the floor, and scrubbing them down, cursory and fast. “Back down, oynon.”
Daniil obliged, and nuzzled into Artemy’s chest, kissing at the skin he could reach. Artemy threw the cloth away and wrapped his arms around Daniil, one around his waist and one holding his neck.
“You’re so clingy.”
“I’d be offended if I didn’t see a possessive streak a mile wide in front of me.”
“No way, not me.”
“Tyoma, you bristle whenever I mention Stamatin, and I'm pretty sure you’d gut my old TA.”
“And what about it? If I can’t have you for long, I might as well have all of you.”
“Where do I have to go?”
“Petersburg? Moscow? Poland, if you’re really desperate.”
“Don’t be cruel.”
“How do you mean?”
“No one wants me! My lab burned down, and my apartment with it. I have two suitcases full of whatever they could pull out of the ashes, plus all my papers before they burned those too. The Powers That Be sent me here to die.”
“Don’t say that," he said, and then, under his breath, said "I do. You know. Want you."
“It’s a mistake I’m still here.”
“I thought you wanted to stay,” Artemy said, slightly crestfallen.
“Not in Gorkhon. Alive.”
Artemy’s eyes snapped to meet Daniil’s, and then began to well up with tears. Blue became glassy, then cloudy, before he let out a sniffle.
“Shit shit shit shit shit. Shit. Fuck. Shit. Come on, don’t cry.”
“I’m not crying.”
Daniil grabbed his ascot off the floor, folded it to his satisfaction, and dabbed at Artemy’s eyes.
“Oynon, I didn’t drag you out of the Hindquarters before you got lit on fire for you to die now.”
“It was you?”
“What, you think Klara could pick you up?”
“I kind of thought one of the guards dragged me.”
“Nah. Slung you over one shoulder and kept the knife in my other hand.”
“My prince in shining armor.”
“Half-blood from a dying cult? Real prize.”
“Artemy, I am going to beat this into you, so help me God. You are fantastic, you are loveable, and you deserve everything I could ever give.”
“Shut up.”
“Okay.” Daniil nuzzled into Artemy’s chest again. He wrapped his arms tighter around Daniil, moving his head to the crook of his neck. After a long moment, Daniil began to snore. Artemy looked down at him and smiled.
“I love you, oynon.”