OOM: A holiday by the seaside

[ostro_goth]

Day One

It is a small and quiet place, and there are no tall houses. The smell of the sea is everywhere, and the sound of the sea as well. There is something like a small hut in the dunes, white and low. Teja holds out the key they had been given.

"Nice. Means the doors at least lock," Charlie takes the key Teja offers out, looking at the tiny piece of metal carefully. "This is a nice place to be. It's very quiet."

Inside, the place is small and narrow; two bedrooms, tiny kitchen, tiny bath, small sitting room. But why should they need more, for a few days away from the bar, and everything they know? "In here, we are free to be as pansy as we like," Teja says, with a little smile at Charlie. "Any kind of plant, indeed!"

"I tend to resist being called flowery names, you know. On principle," he chuckled. "I have my own set of interestingly ambiguous nicknames, if we're resorting to that."

Teja smiles at that, and reaches out for Charlie's hand. "Do you have examples of those?" he asks.

"A few," Charlie says with a somewhat mysterious smile. "There's a good friend of mine that sometimes calls me Ariel. From 'The Tempest'."

"I can imagine that you would hail from a tempest!" Teja says; he has never heard of Shakespeare, even though he has met Marlowe. "But sometimes, you hail from a playful little gust as well." He takes Charlie's hand, and pulls him close.

"That's the joke about it. Ariel is the sprite who causes the play's namesake." He curls his fingers around Teja's hand with a small smile.

"Ahh - I knew not it was a play," Teja says. "I died in 552!" He smiles at Charlie, fully expecting to be playfully reprimanded for his catch-phrase.

Charlie laughs at that, shaking his head. "I could very well tease you for that, but I think I won't." He pushes at Teja's arm lightly with a free hand, the other in his pocket. "It was written long after you were dead--but it's a good show. Sorcerers, sprites, intrigue; it's very entertaining."

"Was it written at this time?" Teja asks. "We could find a copy, and read it here, if it rains?" He takes Charlie's hand, and looks at him. "So the imp has a name of his own..."

Charlie gives Teja a sideways look, one eyebrow cocked. "The imp has several names, honestly. And yes, it was written...sometime in the fifteen-hundreds. We might read it, if it rains very hard. But if it does rain I fully intend to drag you outside in it."

"Men wear big striped bathing suits at this time," Teja reminds him. "At least, some do, if they take to the sea!"

"And I...won't, to be quite frank. If you want me to swim I'm wearing something out of my own time." Charlie doesn't wear anything that outlandish, honestly, but still.

"I looked that all up, before we came here," Teja admits. "Some men did wear short breeches and loincloth-like 'trunks' already at this time, so yes, one assumes it will work." Pause. "And I doubt I would truly want the striped sort as well. I don't want you to drown, after all, from laughing too much!"

Charlie pauses a moment before answering that, a questioning expression on his face. "I float too well for that," he answers dryly.

"Then I will, by all means, wear a striped bathing suit so the women of this time may not ogle my body," Teja says, giving him a little smile. But he is teasing. That is not important -- spending time together, with nobody else around, is! And they are most certainly going to do that.-


Day Two

It was raining, though lightly; the water was collecting in little puddles, making the grass and small flowers shine wetly when the clouds parted for a few seconds. "Want to go outside, for a bit?" Charlie smiled impishly, nodding his head to the scene out the window.

"If we may take something that keeps us from getting wet?" Teja says. "We might walk along the beach to where the village is; I think I saw a book-shop there, beside the tea shop, when we came here, yesterday. If it rains more, it might be a good idea to have the play about the imp to read." There are umbrellas in a stand by the door that came with the house.

"Mmmm..." Charlie makes a play of considering that carefully. "No umbrella. We're waterproof." He leans back against the cooled window, looking quite thoroughly rakish, with his sleeves rolled up, and hair tied back in a straight tail. "Or at least, none on the way back. If you want to go to the bookshop."

"It would be a place to go to," Teja says, "and that way, we may find that play. If we get truly wet, we would have to dry out, afterwards, in front of the stove..." It is a pleasant idea, indeed.

"Exactly," Charlie agreed, smiling lazily. "Though I doubt either of us would really mind that much, getting wet."

"No, indeed not," Teja says. "Especially not if there is a warm fire at the end, and you to laze beside it with me! Shall we go, and brave the drizzle?"

Charlie smiled, but cocked his head curiously. "Who said I'd be lazing? You of all people ought to know I can't be still for very long." But he shrugged and picked up the vest he'd dropped over the back of a chair. "We can certainly go and see if this book-shop of yours has the play."

Teja takes his raincoat from a hook, and puts it on. It is black, but otherwise, a normal 1940s trench-coat. Then, he opens the door. It is really only drizzling lightly outside; not enough to soak anybody, even walking the mile to the village, and the mile back. The smell and the sound of the sea are all-pervasive; in the gentle rain, the waves are calm, and there is not much wind today. "It shall be refreshing to walk in this!" Teja says.

"It will be. I used to do this in New york, when it rained. Just go walking," Charlie slid his coat on, following Teja outside and looking up with a half-smile at the rain pattering insistently down. "We might read that on the beach, if it dries out. Or even if it doesn't, really. Long as it's both of us." He likes the idea of being here, alone, with just Teja. The actual time and place he could care less about, of course, but the idea is refreshing.

"Indeed," Teja says. "Books will work outdoors, also." He steps away from the cottage, and looks over the long grass of the dunes to the beach itself. He can see people and dogs walking along in the mild rain, and behind it all, the sea itself. A small white dog jumps snarling at a much larger red-golden one, and Teja shakes his head at such folly.

Charlie smiles at the dogs; though he's always been more of a cat person. "You know, even a small dog can take a bigger one." He turns to Teja with a quietly sly grin. "I took you, didn't I?"

"You did," Teja says. "I was flat on my back in the mud! And you took my heart, also; but that happened much earlier." He steps outside, holds out a hand for the rain which is quite harmless, shrugs, and starts walking.

"Well I'm glad to know you remember it," Charlie answered, taking Teja's hand. "But I have to say you were easier to pin than Doc. He gets out of them too easy."

Teja squeezes the hand, lovingly. "I did not wish to hit you, or hurt you, my Charlie," he says. "So I tried to keep to wrestling, and avoid a fist-fight. Should I fight an enemy, not wrestle with my beloved, then I would use my fists and feet, and draw my knife if there was any chance. One fights to win, after all."

"Finally, someone who understands this. People are always preoccupied with rules. How can there really be rules in a fight?" Charlie asks, curious about this. And presumably Teja's been in more fights than he has.

"There are not," Teja says. "There are things that I would not do. I would not bite or scratch like an animal, I would not kill a woman. But other than that? The sooner my adversary is dead or unable to fight more, the sooner can I take on the next one. So I will do whatever I need, as I wish to keep my life, and serve my people, or my friends, that I fight for."

"I'm not aiming to kill people, but I don't understand not biting or scratching. It hurts, it's a viable way to get someone off." For once he's not speaking metaphorically. "As are several other things."

"I would, were I unarmed and trying to fight off one trying to despoil me," Teja allows. "But who would -- I am a grown man, not a boy." Pause, while he shakes off memories of that which happened when he was hardly more than a boy. "Let us go!"

"We are going, silly." Charlie shook his head. "I've been told you should never bring anything to a fight you're not prepared to lose and have used on you."

Teja is striding down the beach as if he wished to demonstrate that the amble before wasn't really 'going'. "In my case, that was normally my life," he says. "With each man I killed, I had to risk that he might kill me, or wound me so badly that I could not keep fighting. Life and limb -- that was ever the wager of a fighter, in my time."

"Still is now, as far as I know," Charlie answered, jogging to catch up with Teja's strides. "Trying to run away?" He asks, turning around to walk backwards in front of the tall Goth.

Teja looks left, looks right -- nobody too close. The nearest person was a chubby girl, a hundred yards away, telling off the little white dog with much finger-wagging. "I am going," Teja says. "But somebody is in my way!" With a little smile, he pretends to stumble right against Charlie, bumping into him quite gently.

"Oh, ha ha. I want to take this second to remind you that I am not the one instigating this," Charlie says as he walks backwards. He does smile at being knocked into, winding his arms around Teja's waist. "The somebody isn't likely to move, either."

Teja tries to sidestep, but he is caught; so he tries turning Charlie around, as if they were dancing. Waltzing on a beach, in the light drizzle, with a very upset little white dog racing towards them.

Charlie goes with it, smiling at the ease with which Teja can turn him around. "Romantic, you are."

It is less romantic when there is suddenly a very upset little white dog underfoot, and Teja loses his balance.

The small dog makes Charlie laugh, as he bends to push it away, back towards its owner. He sits next to Teja on the sand, shaking his head as he brushes the grains off his hands. "I know you have better balance than that."

"I was surprised," Teja says, smiling at him. "I keep being surprised by those that seem too small and harmless to threaten me." If he were not in Carlotta's time, he would now kiss his beloved. Here, a deep look will have to do.


Day Three

It is sunny today, and out in the dunes, there is peace. Teja is sitting, and reading from the book they bought yesterday. He has taken off his jacket and rolled up his sleeves; anybody can see the cuff with the large amethyst, as no gentleman of this time would wear. But Teja is no gentleman of this time, and there is nobody else around to see it and wonder. Well, apart from Charlie, maybe, but Charlie is not a gentleman of this time, either.

Charlie, it might be argued, is not a gentleman of any time. He wouldn't dispute it if anyone said that in his company, at least. "Enjoying that?" He knows the play nearly by memory at this point, so he's laying on his back near Teja, watching the sky and attempting to not be dizzy. It's a concerted effort, that.

"I wonder why the magician put up with that inept and bumbling monster servant," Teja says. "He has Ariel, after all. That is a lovely imp!"

"Ariel causes him trouble, sometimes, I'd suppose. Being what he is, sprite and all." Charlie sits up to idly roll his sleeves to his elbows, jacket and shoes already discarded. "But the monster I'd suppose made for more entertaining mistakes."

"I would not wish for entertaining mistakes in my household," Teja says. "But then, this is a play -- one assumes there must be all sorts of characters to make an interesting tale. And this one is strange, and full of magic." He looks at Charlie. "What is it that you like so much about the play?"

"Actually, Ariel," he says lightly. "He can be many different things to different people, with the exception being Prospero. Even as a harmless sprite he causes quite a bit of trouble."

Teja lies back, putting the book face-down on his stomach, and looks up at the sky as well. "Mischief for mischief's sake," he says. "It's an impish thing, then --from one imp to another! He is not just a nickname but a role model!"

"Not really. I'm under no one's control, like he is. It's just a nickname someone gave me, when I was younger. It stuck." Charlie reaches down and lightly twines his fingers with Teja's, smiling absently. "I'd like to see it performed, sometime."

There are none around, so there is no reason for Teja to take his hand away. That is a good thing, as he very much feels like touching his beloved now. "Have you never seen that one on a stage?" he says. "We must find it, somewhere. There are so many worlds, with so many theatres in them! Of course it will be played in one of them!" There are seagulls flying over them, circling, cawing, seeking food, or a reason to quarrel, as seagulls will.

"I'm fairly sure you could find it somewhere. Shakespeare is still popular in a great many worlds." He gently squeezes Teja's hand, smiling. "And I have seen that one, quite a few times. Next to Macbeth it's one of my favorites." He sighs contentedly, laying his head back down on the sand. This is a good place.

"Another thing that we may do together," Teja says. "There is so much ahead -- you moving to your new home, getting a motorbike for the house in Tuscany, venturing forth into Yrael's world, or Jason's! It seems that we may easily fill a lifetime, with things that we share and wish to do. Ahhhh, I am almost glad I never met one like you when I was alive, odd as that may sound. But to have seen that it could be different, that there might be a life and a love for me, me alone, away from the duty that my people asked of me, away from abstinence and service to a greater good, and the inevitable way to darkness that I was not allowed to shirk away from: -- ahh, what a pain for the soul to have that dangled in front of one's heart, and be forbidden to grasp, to be forced to turn away from the one I could -- I would! -- love."

"I'm just glad I met you, at all. You're a good person." Charlie sat up for a moment, leaning over to kiss his lover gently. "I love you, too. That does help."

Teja pulls him into his arms, kissing him back. "I met you, now, in my afterlife; and I am free to love you. Which I do, truly!" For a moment, they may touch each other, parting when the next man, woman or child, and their dog, will come by on their walk. It is, indeed, not so strange to Teja to be careful of such things; he is not quite used yet to being allowed to kiss his beloved, freely and safely, wherever he is.

"That's good to hear." Charlie honestly could care less about who sees them, or what they think; but being they're in someone else's world they have to pay attention to it. "You know, it's drier today. We should swim."

"We should," Teja says. "We can go back to the cottage and change, and then go pit ourselves against the waves! I think that surf boards were not invented at this time; or it would be a good day for it, listening to the sound of the surf: - it is vigorous, but not choppy!"

Charlie laughs, shaking his head at that. "I think I'll pass on that, until we go somewhere where no one minds us touching."

"Have you been on such a board, standing up on the waves?" Teja asks. "I learned in Milliways, from Xaldin!"

"I haven't ever tried, no. Standing on water isn't exactly my strong point."

"I must show you -- it is truly exhilarating, like riding fast, or being on a motorbike, or flying in a small flying machine," Teja says. "And it wet, and salty, and one may keep on doing it for a long time, trying to keep up upon it longer and longer."

Charlie smiled, nodding in amusement. "I might have to try it sometime, then. Even just as an excuse to be near you." He has the feeling a lot of things in the future are going to be that, at least partly.

"As I will try many things just so I may do them with you," Teja says. He squeezes Charlie's fingers again, then disengages his own, sits up, and gets to his feet. "Let us us go change, then swim, now!"


Day Four

Today is slightly more lazy than the previous three. It hasn't rained again since the second day, but the sun is just as pleasant. "This is a really nice place to be together. So isolated....really it's enviable."

Teja tightens his arm around Charlie. "We are safe here," he says. "We'll see and hear any that would come and walk in upon us in this spot, long before they would see us. And then, we can stop touching, so any that come by only see two friends speaking to each other and relaxing." Pause. "I take it if there were the school holidays yet, everything would be full of children; but as Carlotta's school is still in session, so are of course all else, and we have this supreme peace!"

Charlie laughs. "It is nice," he says quietly. "I love you very much, Teja. This place has only reinforced that." He lays a hand on the arm around his waist, nuzzling into his shoulder. "I really do."

"My Charlie," Teja says, quietly, leaning his cheek into the luscious curls. Just that -- it is an endearment of it's own, that possessive. He sighs deeply, feeling the warm, strong body in his arm, present and real and so very much alive. "I love you," he finally murmurs. "Our love spans life and death, different worlds, and we are far from my reality or yours, in this place -- but yet, we are just two that love each other, and will be true to their hearts and carve out a live together for themselves, somewhere. When one loves, the most fearsome threat is a future without the beloved: - and we will not allow that!"

"No, we really won't. I love you so much." He wonders if they've really changed each other that much--he's stopped thinking about if that's a bad thing, when they've been telling each other such good things all week. "I think people might wonder what happened to us when we get back."

"We will not have been gone for long," Teja says. "Time passes faster for Carlotta than it does in Milliways; she came there about a year ago, by my own reckoning, and has since gone from being thirteen to being sixteen. So people will wonder, one assumes, where we have got to for about a third of the time that we have, indeed, spent with each other, speaking and touching and feeling our love in our hearts." Pause. "And reading Shakespeare, eating oddly bland food, and watching dogs being truly silly, and seagulls being too greedy for their own good, also."

"We've been doing a lot, really. And most of it not very strenuous." Though he has noticed Teja wandering about early in the morning, or at odd times in the night. It hasn't bothered him much, yet, but it makes him wonder why he doesn't sleep. "You think we should tell them where we've been, or let them wonder?"

"If we are very silly," Teja says, "and I am never silly, but let us just assume I might be: - then we could bring our friends some of those teacups they sell in the shops, with a picture of a beach on, or seagulls, and the writing 'Greetings from the seaside' and the name of this place. None will ever have heard of the place, but enough will know what a stay by the sea is like, so they would not question much." No, Teja does not sleep much, not even here. Nightmares and thoughts will keep him wondering; and he has brought neither harp nor guitar. And he would not seek physical pleasure just so he would become sweetly exhausted. It's always that way -- he does not mind, or suffer over it much.

Charlie wouldn't mind him seeking that, here. Or anywhere else, for that matter, now. He often hates to admit that he still knows very little in the grand scope of things, but this is one case he doesn't mind it; learning the subtle differences is a pleasant trip. "You can be silly. You just haven't, yet, around everyone in the bar. But I think we might bring Demeter one, she would like it."

"Indeed," Teja says. "And Yrael, and Jason. They must be truly silly, for them -- Jason might even like one of those that show a woman in a bathing suit, to be amused about. And something tame for Doc and his lady. I have never met her, but it might make him happy, to have her included. It is hard enough for them -- he is working his way through the time that separates them, a hard and arduous task indeed, and lonely!"

Charlie sighs, rubbing a hand over his eyes. "Miss Katherine. She's a lady, the best sort. I'm not entirely sure how Doc will take it if I give her anything, after we fought like we did, but...it would suit her."

"We can give it to him, for both," Teja says, "and I am sure he would be glad, as we would count them as a couple, and that is a good thing to the heart of any that loves. I know that any thing that one of our friends plans or does, that counts on us being together, touches my heart with warmth! Even though we are both men, and we cannot ask of all to accept and include us, as one does a married couple, or a family."

He gets an odd look, for that. "I don't know that I would consider us the same way I would a married couple, or a family in that sense. But as lovers, no one can really doubt us."

"No, indeed not," Teja says. "But I must say it touched my heart when Carlotta, trying to be formal, wrote her invitation to 'Your Highness and Mr. Monroe', that did touch me -- with amusement as well as happiness, at being counted and addressed in one breath, in this manner. A married couple, more so a family, will ever be different as relatives and promises for the future will be ranged around them, duties and expectations as well as rights that such as we have not: - we are but ourselves, inventing ourselves true to our feelings, not stepping into a mould of things that are done that would guide us through our lives if we were lazy."

"It's a nice touch, knowing that the expectations for us are so much less," Charlie agrees. "It's difficult for me to really refer to you as anything but a lover; normally, in my world, we'd be considered boyfriends, or something like that. But it's so vastly different, between us."

"Boyfriends!" Teja scoffs. "We are not boys! And we are more than friends indeed. I know it is a term -- but it is a term that belittles what we are. At least that is what it sounds like to me. No, but you are right that there are less expectations: none would ask us for children, or to amass riches to pass on to them. Our future ends with ourselves."

"We could always adopt," Charlie says with a surprisingly innocent face.

"I am not good with small children!" Teja says, somewhat alarmed, even though he expects that Charlie is teasing -- had he not said something similar of himself, before? "They will not listen to reason, are apt to make random noises and cry loud and long at any criticism, and make demands no man may fathom! They are much better off in the care of their mothers."

"It was a joke. But if we decided, in some far future, to have children, that would effectively be the only option." Charlie is teasing about that, though. Children are not a good thing for him, in most cases. "Besides, I can just see you with a small child. It would be cute. Somewhat psychotically inclined, and likely ending badly, but cute."

"Very badly," Teja says. "One day, I must tell you how Demeter had to rescue me from a small, wailing girl of about two years!"

"Yes, you will." Charlie can only imagine that story.

"It was very worrisome," Teja says; and then, as they truly do not have anything else to do, he tells about it.


Day Five

Teja is making tea; it is morning, time for breakfast, and in the tiny, simple kitchen of the cottage, there are all things needed for tea-making. There is fresh milk, even; Teja has already walked to the tiny shop opposite the pub to fetch a glass bottle of it. More permanent homes, it seems, have their milk delivered; but not some fleeting holiday-makers in a cottage made of two former railway carriages, in the dunes. Carefully and according to the rules, Teja is warming the big brown teapot while the water is slowly coming to the boil.

Charlie comes in from one doorway, still barely dressed as he leans one hip quietly against the wall. "You know I could get used to you doing that, being up when I come into a room. It's really quite nice." He smiled lightly, padding over the floor on bare feet. "You have no idea."

"Good morning, my Charlie!" Teja says, teapot in hand, turning to look at his beloved. And smile at him. "Tea is not ready yet; and I have brought bread and eggs and cheese from the shop, also. I have already walked to the place where the street to the town and the street to the village cross, and there is that small inn, and the shop." Not all the way to the village -- that is much further.

"Mm. Morning to you too. You've been awake a while to do all that, haven't you?" He leans his chin on Teja's shoulder, wrapping his arms lazily around his waist. "I love you," he murmurs against the warm, smooth skin. "Haven't said it today."

Teja puts down the teapot and takes Charlie's hands in his own. "You have not said much of anything, today," he points out. "Nor have I, to you, as you were sleeping! So indeed, I love you also, and am glad for a new morning to say so afresh!"

Charlie smiles lightly, almost giving a little chuckle. "I didn't mean to sleep very late. but I was tired, I have to say." He nuzzles into his lover's neck, pleasantly warm and content. "Let me kiss you?"

"Let me turn around?" Teja suggests, wiggling in the arms of his beloved.

"Mmmmmm, maybe." Charlie allows that much, smiling into the back of Teja's shoulder. "Maybe if you give me a kiss back."

"For that, my mouth must reach you!" Teja points out. "I cannot turn my head around all the way, like some birds do!"

"No, you can't." Charlie lets go of Teja's waist, though he's still looking expectatly up at him, rising up on his toes to give him a gentle kiss on the lips. "I could stay this way for a very long time, standing here kissing you."

Teja says nothing, just leans in to kiss his beloved -- soft lips in a sleepy face, tasting of night-time and warmth. It takes time, and deserves all his attention.

"I love you..." Charlie repeats softly, smiling into the kiss Teja gives him. "So very much."

"And I you," Teja says, softly, "and the morning is so much better for having you in it, and your kisses!"

Charlie just smiles, hooking his arms around Teja's hips again and leaning back, head still tilted so he can keep kissing. There are no words for the feeling Teja gives him.

On the little hob, the kettle of tea water starts boiling and whistling.

"Damn. An interruption," Charlie says with a little laugh. "Go fix your tea, and we can get back to what we were doing. Maybe more, if we're lucky."

Teja chuckles; then, he pours the warm water out of the tea pot, puts in tea leaves, pours on the boiling water, stirs, puts on the lid, and turns off the hob. "Where were we?" he says, turning back to Charlie. "Ahhh, yes -- kissing!"

"Exactly." Charlie welcomes him back, nuzzling into his warmth sleepily. "I like it when you kiss me. And when we can just be, and hold each other. It's nice." He's still moderately sleepy, as he always is when he first wakes up, but this is a good way to ease out of that, into full awareness.

Teja holds him, kisses him, strokes his back that is so warm and strong underneath the sleeping clothes, and wonders whether they should not fall asleep in each other's arms, one of these days in this place, just to wake up with each other and have this warm, sleepy closeness, lying down and resting by each other's side.


Day Six

"You know the week is nearly up. How long did you want to stay here?" Charlie asked from his perch on the arm of a chair.

"Can we stay a little bit longer?" Teja says. He is sitting in the chair, his arm thrown lightly around Charlie's waist. "A day, or two, or three? You are not getting bored by this, are you?" He looks up at Charlie, and leans against him a little more.

"No, of course I'm not," he leaned over and kissed Teja's cheek, rubbing the tip of his nose against his cheekbone. "I'm just curious, you know me." He rested a hand lightly on Teja's arm, pulling it tighter.

"I am happy here, with you," Teja admits. "We must return, of course -- but we still have time? And should my time run out, I will be admonished by the magic the purple godling gave me. But it is so good just to be with my beloved and do nothing."

"Yeah, you will be. So it shouldn't be a rush, I was just asking." He slides closer, ruffling Teja's hair lightly. "It's good to not have anyone we know around, for a while. Just to be together."

"It is, good to be with you in this way," Teja says. "There is nothing of great meaning here, no lost home nor any great endeavour we would undertake: just the two of us, and the sea. "He looks up at Charlie again. "I love you! Would you kiss me?"

"As if I'm ever going to refuse." Charlie tilted Teja's face towards him, and bent to kiss him on the lips gently, sliding off the arm of the chair and kneeling between Teja's knees. "Do you ever feel small when you're at the beach?"

"I do," Teja says, now in turn bending down to kiss the lips of his beloved. "Man is very small, and the world is very big. We, at the end of the universe, sometimes look at the worlds as we were gods ourselves, and forget how tiny we are, each just one mortal man by himself."

"I always feel small, even at the inlet...there are many things quite a lot bigger than me, either in size or importance. It's never a terribly bad feeling...it just is." He sits back on his heels with a light smile. "The Window, though...that one just unnerves me, some days."

"It shows great destruction," Teja agrees. "But it does not touch us, like a volcano seen from afar. Once, a man known as the Doctor explained to me that we are circling around it on a time loop, the way that heavenly bodies circle in their spheres, around the sun. I know that both Xigbar and Xaldin, and Belar, are touched strangely by it, also."

"It's just....strange. To know what it looks like, before it would ever happen. I know people do enjoy watching it sometimes, but it's just odd."

"Perhaps it is different to me, as I am dead," Teja ponders. "But I do not feel dead now! I feel alive and normal, here, with you. A small man in a big world who finds his own happiness with his beloved!"

"I would enjoy it if you were alive. And we could stay someplace together, indefinitely. That would be really good." Charlie smiles, and rises to give Teja another kiss.

"I spoke to Weyland," Teja says. "I can have life when I truly wish for it." At a price -- but everything has a price with Weyland. That goes without saying.

Charlie just smiles. "I'll wait for you to truly wish for it, then. Whenever you want to, just tell me?" He touched the tip of his nose to Teja's with a gentle grin. "Besides, it's kinda funny, being in love with a dead guy."

"I will live," Teja whispers, his face still touching Charlie's. "And we will make love. All in its time!"


Day Seven

Cups that were used for drinking tea, and plates on which the eggs and the bacon, the bread and the butter had been, had to be washed so they might be used again. And no, if one did not a maidservant to come in and bring unrest and maybe see what she should not, Teja and Charlie had to do it themselves. They had something of a routine by now, after just a few days, and Teja was washing the cups without thinking much about it.

Life. This was so much like a life. Living together, sharing small things and mundane little chores, walking out to the crossroads or the village for food or to have a beer at one of the inns (there were several, and that seemed to be entirely natural at this time and place), talking in the dunes, swimming in the sea, ambling along the beach among the other walkers and their dogs, reading Shakespeare by the stove, or sharing tenderness on the small couch of the tiny living room.

Teja rolls up his sleeves and takes off his silver cuff, putting it beside the bowl for washing the cups, as he has done all the other times he had done this chore. He did not wish for Charlie's precious gift to be tarnished!

He had been wondering, for a day or two, whether to broach the subject of sharing a bed, or sharing physical pleasure, again; but then, had he not said he would wait until Charlie himself wished to make love? And lovely though it had been when they had given each other pleasure in Teja's room, or explored when they had both been female, it had not been the union of heart and soul, body and mind, that Teja thought it should be.

Better not think of such things now. Better see to the things at hand. He turned and stuck his head around the door jamb, to the other room. "Are there any more cups there, or anything that needs to be washed?" he asks.

"No, I don't think so. I think you got them all, to be honest." Charlie is standing beside Teja, sleeves rolled up to his elbows as he dries off the dishes Teja sets aside. "Got something on your mind?"

"Many things," Teja says. "That I love you! That I do wish for all of you -- heart, body, soul!"

"Oh, and what brought about that change?" Charlie laughs, setting down the cup he'd been drying. "I thought you still wanted to wait..."

"I want to wait until you are ready to make love with all your heart and soul," Teja says. "Until it is no longer a thing one does, that you made a trade of, that you are very good at, but one that will be a bond between our souls, that will set us afire together, lost in each other!"

"Well I'm still very good at it, really. I doubt that bit is going to change. But a whole lot has. I've never been loved quite like this, or kissed on the beach. Or just walked with someone in the rain. It's very nice, being able to do that." He turns to kiss Teja's shoulder gently.

Teja gives a long sigh, of tenderness, and of pleasure. "I can offer you no rain today," he says, "but as these dishes are done so far, let us go out and kiss among the dunes -- if you can catch me to do it, I shall be all yours for it!"

"Oh, you don't think I can catch you? You have the worst habit of underestimating me." Charlie says, teasingly smiling. "Go for it, if you think it will be fun. I'll be right behind you."

Teja smiles at him, kisses him briefly, then jumps back and slips out the front door, leaving it open for Charlie to follow him. None will invade another's house here -- there is no need to lock up while they are merely running through the dunes and burning up the energy from their breakfast!

He laughs -- yes, laughs! -- as he runs outside.

Charlie follows on a whim, laughing with Teja as he gets to the dunes, running to catch up with the distinctive Goth-shape ahead of him. This is more fun than he's had in years, and lightening to his soul. It feels good to be childish, with Teja, as he laughs and tries to keep up. "You can't run forever!"

Teja runs among the dunes, turning back to see that Charlie is still following; at one such time, he stumbles over a dry root sticking out from the long, scruffy grass, and falls onto the soft sand, with a surprised little 'Ooof!'

Charlie laughs and comes to a stop beside him, shaking his head as he sits beside his lover. "Told you I could catch you." He leans over and kisses Teja lightly, still smiling. "Silly Teja. Tricks are for me." He doubts Teja caught the double-entendre there, but it still makes him laugh.

Teja reaches up to pull Charlie down, to kiss him -- for now he is caught, and there shall be kisses?

There shall be. Charlie leans down and kisses him again, settling against Teja's side lazily and brushing his hair back, nuzzling against his cheek. "I love you."

"And I, you!" Teja says, kissing him back and taking him in his arms. "So very, very much!"

And then, suddenly Teja's eyes widen in alarm, and Charlie can, for a moment, see the grass of the dunes through his form; and then, he dissolves in Charlie's arms like smoke, and Charlie is lying in the sand all alone, and there is no Teja anywhere to be seen.




[[OOC: This was co-written with licensed_pro-mun in Google Docs, formerly Writely, which is a superior tool for writing plottish OOMs and set pieces, and that I have used often before.]]