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Title: Come Back
Author: Brigdh
Ratings/Warnings: NC-17 for explicit m/m sex.
Summary: Richard and Alec, at home again.
Notes: Set immediately post-Swordspoint, as in thirty seconds after the end of the book. This is totally shameless, indulgent porn. Seriously, there is nothing resembling plot, or theme, or layers, or anything meaningful. I sat down to type out one line of dialogue so I'd remember it, and then I had 900 words and figured I may as well go ahead and finish the story. Don't expect great things.
Disclaimer: All characters and places, as well as the first line, belong to Ellen Kushner.

***

"Hello," Alec said. "I've brought us some fish."

Richard was too surprised to consider what it could mean that Alec was here, kneeling in the doorway to pet the cat, so he reacted without thinking, as though it was nothing strange; "Hello, Alec," he said, and smiled.

Alec glanced up and caught the smile. His hands stilled and he closed his eyes, but it was only to say, lightly, "Oh, thank god. She was lying." Then he stood and went on, as though he hadn't spoken at all. "You won't believe what I had to pay for the fish. I didn't have any coins on me, so I offered the woman a silver ornament in trade, but she refused to give me any change. She said it was as likely tin as silver, and I was lucky she'd take it at all. I could have gotten two royals for that ornament if I'd sold it, and this fish looks like it's been dead for a week. I think it's begun to bloat."

Alec's voice, so familiar in its cool, scornful tone, cleared Richard's head; it was like going someplace he knew very well and seeing only what things had been misplaced. He glanced out the window and it was dark, but not yet full night; he hadn't been asleep for long. Not even Alec could have tired of the Duchess's home that quickly; he had seemed content just hours ago.

Richard sat up. "What are you doing?"

"I'm cooking fish, Richard, isn't it obvious?" He wasn't really; he hadn't done more than unwrap it from its paper covering before being distracted by its tiny teeth, fingering the corner of its mouth, but Richard didn't want to argue over that.

"No. What are you doing here, Alec? Did you fight with your family?"

Alec looked at him, quickly, a flash of eyes nearly hidden beneath the hair that was now short enough to fall into his face. "Perhaps I just decided to come. Do you not want me to be here?"

"No," Richard said, his voice hard. It was more difficult than he had imagined to have Alec so close and only want him to be gone. It would make forgetting him so much harder. "I don't want you here if you intend to leave the next morning. You can't expect me to be waiting whenever it will amuse you to visit, my lord. I am not your servant."

Alec looked stricken, but slowly a smug smile lightened his face, and he tilted his head like a cat eyeing a bird. "Then you want me to stay." He came quickly around the table to sit next to Richard on the chaise lounge, leaning close into him and grabbing his arm too tightly. Richard could smell that he had on some sort of scent, a sharp one with a metallic undertone. He hadn't noticed it during the trial, and now it distracted him. Alec's smile was gone, replaced by intent concentration. "Richard, listen to me: their name, their pride, what do I care about them? You have never been stupid; surely you see the only reason I would go back there was for you."

"Was it?" Richard said slowly.

Alec's hand tightened further on his arm. "Yes! I told you that I knew them, that they were horrible, nasty people, and you didn't listen to me. Well, now you've seen. I despise them; I hated them when I was a child, and this was a thousand times worse; every minute there I could only think of how I missed you, how none of them were like you, not a one could match you-"

"Hush," Richard said, stroking his shoulder; Alec had begun to shout, and it was habit to soothe him, though he still wasn't sure of what Alec meant. Alec slid his hand down to Richard's, clutching compulsively at his fingers. "I'd thought you were scared."

"Oh, I was. Terrified. They would have killed you, and if you didn't care, I certainly did." Alec sighed, looking disgusted. "I am an idiot. I meant to surprise you, at the trial, and reveal everything afterward, but you left. You didn't even wait to speak to me, and after I'd been so long with only worthless twits for conversation, that was truly cruel."

It hadn't occurred to Richard that Alec might do such a thing. It was strange to think of Alec trying to protect anything when he was so good at destruction, but it made Richard feel pleased, and he reached up to touch the sharp, razor-shorn tips of Alec's hair, smiling to himself. "I hadn't wanted to be impolite."

Alec grimaced at him. "Then you are even more of a fool than I am. What a pair we are; it's amazing we can remember our own names."

Richard leaned forward and kissed him, as he had been wanting to do since he had first seen Alec standing in the doorway. It had not really been so long since the last time he'd done it, but still the kiss seemed dazzling as it revived his memories of how Alec tasted, how he sighed and opened his mouth, his long fingers at the back of Richard's neck and the fine bones of his jaw and cheek under Richard's own fingers. Richard pulled away, finally. "Mine is Richard. Yours, it appears, is something very long with many parts, but I think I will keep using Alec."

Alec snorted even as he winced. "Yes. God, I missed you." He pulled Richard to himself roughly, kissed him with open mouth and tongue, then teeth on his lips, biting. Richard forced him to slow, shifting to kiss Alec's neck and shoulder. Alec's clothes had too many buttons, what seemed like a hundred pieces of jet down a line in the front, and each so small it was hard to undo without looking.

"Leave it," Alec said, pressing into Richard's hands impatiently. "Can't you just-"

"I want to look at you."

Alec reached for the laces of Richard's breeches and tugged them loose. "There is nothing to see."

"There is." Richard finished with the jacket and directed Alec to pull his arms free of it; underneath he had on a shirt of pure white, with expensive lace at the wrists and neck which made his pale skin look warm as ivory. The shirt Richard started to unbutton from the bottom up, exposing Alec's stomach first, which jumped when he brushed his fingers against the skin. "You are beautiful."

"Ridiculous. And you've seen it all before, anyway." Despite his protests, Alec was making considerable progress removing Richard's clothes, though he was more hasty about it than Richard's careful unbuttoning. Richard didn't mind, particularly not when Alec tugged his shirt off eagerly, stroking Richard's bared back, the pads of his fingers just touching, before his fingernails scraped the skin as his hands curled.

Richard felt something soft and heavy above Alec's wrist, and pulled the shirt clear to see a mass of rough bandages around his forearm, the linen spotted in a few places with blood that had soaked through from underneath. He stared up at Alec, startled. "What happened? Did someone do this to you?"

"I walked through a window." Alec shrugged, and tried to pull his arm away. "Don't be upset, Richard, it was an excellent idea."

Richard held him in place; Alec flinched and Richard quickly loosened his hold, dreading to think of the glass that must still be in his skin. The cloth wasn't even clean. "You need better bandages than this."

"No." Alec's voice was determined, and he shook Richard's shoulder with his free hand. "I will not die from a few cuts, but I think I might if you keep delaying."

"That's impossible," Richard said, but he felt himself easily swayed. "You will say so if I hurt you?"

Alec blinked at him, his eyes wide and their own impossible shade of green. "You don't."

Richard felt a rush of fondness and kissed him, caught between wanting to hold Alec close and keeping him far enough away to see. He compromised with only one arm around Alec's waist, his other hand spread out on his chest; he mouthed the bent ridge of Alec's collarbone, and Alec let his head fall back, so the adam's apple and veins in his neck stood out in sharp relief. Richard kissed his way up to them, felt Alec's pulse beating fast against his lips. Alec took hold of Richard's hair and began to lie down, pulling Richard with him, but Richard propped them with a hand against the seat of the chaise lounge. "Not here. Let's go to bed."

"Mmm," Alec said, protesting, but he let Richard hold them up, kissing him. When he pulled back, he smiled at Richard, sharp and wicked, and slipped off the edge of the chaise lounge, but only to kneel between Richard's legs, his hands on Richard's thighs pressing him down. "Ah, Richard," he said, leaning forward to kiss Richard's stomach, to whisper words against his skin, his hands sliding forward too and pulling at Richard's breeches. Richard lifted his hips to help Alec remove them. "You should look at yourself. If anyone else saw you like this, they'd all want you. The entire city would want to sleep with you."

"It seems like most of them do already," Richard said.

"Arrogant," Alec scolded, laughing into Richard's hip. He took Richard's prick in his left hand, but did nothing more than hold it loosely; his fingers felt cool. He kept kissing, moving inwards in a spiral, bringing his mouth closer. His right arm, with the cuts, he rested on the chaise lounge.

"Am I lying?" Richard was breathless; he had to struggle to keep his voice light. He felt silly, and wondered if this mood was what made Alec so nonsensical; if so, it didn't seem a bad thing at all. Everything seemed wondrous, that Alec was home and affectionate.

Alec looked up at him, not answering. He turned his head and swiped the flat of his tongue up the inside of Richard's thigh, so that Richard gasped and had to grab Alec's shoulders to steady himself. Alec sucked a fold of skin into his mouth, barely pinching it with his teeth, not even a real bite, before releasing it with a kiss. His hand shifted down Richard's prick, the thumb dragging heavily along the vein on the underside, as he turned to it, pressing his lips against the tip and humming. He moved down the length, tongue scarcely felt as a wetness behind his lips.

Alec lifted his head and watched as he used his hand again, stroking in a steady rhythm. "But you want me?" he asked, his voice uninterested.

"Yes," Richard said. "Very much."

Alec tossed his head, a gesture so familiar Richard recognized it with a sharp pain, but his hair was too short now to catch behind his shoulder, and only fell back into Alec's face, where he pushed at it impatiently. Richard tucked it behind his ears for him, an excuse to map his face, trace the lines of his cheek and the bones around his eyes. Alec took Richard's prick in his mouth, and Richard lost the control needed to steady his fingers; he let his hand drift back and took hold of Alec's hair, fine and light as grabbing a handful of down, alternately ticklish or silk between his fingers.

Alec's tongue seemed terribly soft and wet in his mouth, against the bottom of Richard's prick, like velvet over the harder muscle, which curved up in a maddening way. Alec swallowed for the sudden sucking pressure it created, and he used his hand to cover what he couldn't take in his mouth, tight around Richard's base. When he let go, it felt like falling with nothing to grab on to, and then his long, clever fingers were on Richard's sac.

Alec was beautiful, Richard thought to himself, even if he didn't like to be told so; his eyes were green as sour apples as he watched, pleased with his own effect, and his hollowed cheeks emphasized the elegant structure of his face, his lips were red and swollen from kisses. It was almost painful to feel this satisfied. Richard closed his eyes, but there was still the sensation of Alec's mouth and hands, even stronger without sight to distract him. He leaned forward, hands clutched in Alec's hair, and tried only to keep breathing. When he came, it was a relief to escape his emotions for a moment.

Alec kissed him after, his mouth tasting bitter. Richard stayed where he was until he felt capable of standing, and then opened his eyes again. Alec was lounging against the door to the bedroom, having shed the last of his clothes, and was staring at Richard, gnawing on the tips of his fingers. Richard went to him and tilted his head up to kiss him; Alec responded, skating his hands down Richard's arms, a touch that raised goosebumps.

Alec pulled him into the bedroom, the corners of his mouth turning down in an exaggerated pout. "I am awful at being patient, and yet I've been so good, waiting through your turn."

Richard smiled. "I don't remember insisting that I go first."

Alec crawled onto the bed and stretched out. "It's not my fault if you're forgetting things." Richard kneeled above him and sketched his hands over Alec's shoulders and chest, down to his hips. Alec arched up from the mattress and drew his legs up, his breath stuttering out through an open mouth. Richard tickled behind one of his knees, which made Alec jerk in surprise, and stroked his thighs, reaching down to kiss Alec's neck and chest.

He ran his hands up Alec's side, the long flat flanks of his thighs and waist, admiring the reaction, how Alec's stomach twitched and he bit his lips. "Ah," Richard said into the band of muscle that ran from the shoulder of Alec's uplifted arm over his collarbone. "You fascinate me."

Alec turned his face to the side, squirming. "Richard, God, I think you mean to drive me mad."

Richard laughed into Alec's hair. "Here, then." He rolled Alec onto his side so he could settle against his back, reached around to take Alec's prick in hand.

Alec's hips bucked and he gave a strangled cry, which broke into softer words, "Oh, yes, yes, you can't know how long it seems, how I wanted this, how nothing was like you." Richard rested his head against the place where Alec's neck met his shoulder, where he could breathe him in; he felt indulgent, and wanted only to tease Alec softly, so that he would keep speaking in that breathless tone that made his accent stretch and crack, so that he would keep shuddering, writhing back into Richard's arms. Alec's prick was hot in Richard's hand, and the skin of it was softer than anything else. It seemed too quickly before Alec was gulping air and trembling in waves.

Richard lifted his arm so Alec could roll to face him; his friend was smiling, with patches of color still bright, high on his cheeks. "Don't fall asleep," Alec said, combing his fingers through Richard's hair.

"I had no intentions of it. But why, what do you mean to do?"

Alec kissed him. "Everything. We have so much time to make up for, after all."