[We were very lucky on time--I'd just finished my PhD and my partner was just about to start his MA so we had this gap between things (plus an old friend who had to be home in Tokyo for a month and encouraged us lol). We could happily have stayed longer everywhere though. We just didn't want to leave. Also, this thread is absolutely giving me life right now, omg <3]
Though Aurus truly wouldn't have minded if Charles searched his thoughts for an answer, it would also have pleased him very much to know that he did not, that he chose to accept and maintain the boundaries out of a mutual respect that was growing between them and not out of any blunt demand.
Of course he couldn't know this for certain, but he trusted Charles, and he trusted his gut feeling that there was no duplicity here.
In a way, Aurus felt, what he was suggesting was already underway. It was there in that moment when the sadness in Charles's eyes shifted. You didn't have to replace sadness with joy for a difference to be made, after all. A difference was made regardless.
Besides, in Aurus's opinion, uncertainly was one of the most useful and productive postures a person could be in. To be at ease in uncertainty was to be alive in a world of wide open possibilities. It was the sort of thing he liked.
He ran a fingertip over the contours of Charles' wrist, following the lines to the outside, the heel of his hand, the edge of his palm and slowly down his little finger, hooking his own hand smoothly under Charles' so that the pads of their fingers rested against each other. It was a chaste touch, technically. But it would be hard to escape the erotic potentials it implied.
"I find it feels so clumsy to put words to these sorts of things." He smiled, knowing that Charles would take from this garden of hints precisely as much as he was willing to take, and not wanting to press him towards more.
"I suppose that I'm suggesting we allow tonight to lead us and see where we might find ourselves in its wake."
no subject
Though Aurus truly wouldn't have minded if Charles searched his thoughts for an answer, it would also have pleased him very much to know that he did not, that he chose to accept and maintain the boundaries out of a mutual respect that was growing between them and not out of any blunt demand.
Of course he couldn't know this for certain, but he trusted Charles, and he trusted his gut feeling that there was no duplicity here.
In a way, Aurus felt, what he was suggesting was already underway. It was there in that moment when the sadness in Charles's eyes shifted. You didn't have to replace sadness with joy for a difference to be made, after all. A difference was made regardless.
Besides, in Aurus's opinion, uncertainly was one of the most useful and productive postures a person could be in. To be at ease in uncertainty was to be alive in a world of wide open possibilities. It was the sort of thing he liked.
He ran a fingertip over the contours of Charles' wrist, following the lines to the outside, the heel of his hand, the edge of his palm and slowly down his little finger, hooking his own hand smoothly under Charles' so that the pads of their fingers rested against each other. It was a chaste touch, technically. But it would be hard to escape the erotic potentials it implied.
"I find it feels so clumsy to put words to these sorts of things." He smiled, knowing that Charles would take from this garden of hints precisely as much as he was willing to take, and not wanting to press him towards more.
"I suppose that I'm suggesting we allow tonight to lead us and see where we might find ourselves in its wake."