peace_inthe_violence

Modern fantasy was not always Booker's favorite genre. He did have a preference for fiction, of course, but he liked Hemingway and C.S. Lewis. Tolkien classic fantasy? He enjoyed that. He hadn't enjoyed Harry Potter when that was big.

"You had to pick a book I was less likely to steal, didn't you?" He pushed off from the wall and returned to floating along on his back.

He smiled a little, mostly amused by Nicky's reading choices. He wasn't in the mood to argue about book quality right now. "I'll probably be here for a few more hours. You can join me whenever you'd like."

"I like this series. This is actually the start of rereading the whole thing. The fact that you won't steal it from me in the middle of reading it just happens to be a nice perk."

He was still smiling, the book still resting against his chest instead of up where he could actually read it. Really, watching Booker float so easily in the water was a bit of a distraction. Honestly, how was anyone supposed to concentrate on the written word when they had such a tantalizing view. And if his accent was a little thicker than it had been before, well...who was going to call him on it?

"If you stay in there for hours, bello, you will be as a prune."

"Still am," Andy laughed. She knew it, and didn't care: she'd seen the rules of society change with regards to women and had frankly ignored all of them. When they'd met Booker she'd had short hair, wore pants, drank and cursed and shot better (or worse) than most men.

He'd been appalled.

She had laughed, and they'd taken him with them anyway.

"In my defense I'd never had to dance. I had to learn to fight," she chuckled, wrapping her arms around Booker's shoulders and settling into just swaying and standing with him, cool water sparkling on their skin in the sunlight. "You got used to us eventually, though. For which I'm glad," she murmured, nuzzling at his collarbone.

"More than that if Nicky decides to put his other hand to use," Andy teased lightly, leaning her chin on Joe's shoulder as he worked. She liked seeing the process of Joe creating something, gently working art from nothing with just a pencil--or in this case a bottle of ink with a tiny nozzle.

"Maybe you'll tell me what he drew on me by the time you go under," she said, relaxing even in her scrunched-up position on the arm of the couch, toes burrowing under Joe's thigh. "And then we get to decide what the rest of us are doing on Joe."

"Well, now I might steal it from you just to be an asshole." Booker lifted his head and grinned at Nicky. "Unless that'll get me stabbed."

The grifter and the conman couldn't quite give up stealing all the time. It was a playful thing with him in the family. If he took something from them it was never malicious.

"Yeah but it'll heal a few minutes after I get out of here." Booker wiggled his fingers in Nicky's direction. They are a little pruny but not crazy bad yet. "It's too hot to do anything else."

"Mmm, but you'd have to get out of the pool for that." There was a flash of teeth in that smile, a hint of a promise that was gone quickly enough that if Booker wanted to ignore it he could.

Sitting up, he replaced the bookmark on his page and snapped the book shut, setting it aside on the little drink table. He wasn't going to get any reading done with Booker on display like that. So...the question became, did his join the other man in the pool, or did he take his book and head back into the house?

"Or I could join you in there..."

Booker leaned in and trailed a few kisses up her neck as they danced. "I learned to love you."

Love her. Love Joe. Love Nicky. They all took up space in his heart. Booker saw immortality as more of curse but these people were a blessing.

"And extract my own head out of my ass." It had only required them murder him three or four times because he had been such a prick. Booker wouldn't say he was a good man but he was better for knowing them and letting them teach him how to better.

That goofy name did not fail. There was a small bark of laughter from the man turned pillow, but he was careful to keep his hand still under his husband's hands. "A ladder as a shelf would make a poor shelf, my love. Perhaps a bookshelf instead?"

Booker sat up and his hand slipped from his hair to his shoulder instead, fingers automatically setting up a little swirling nonsense pattern over Sebastien's shirt. He was mimicking the motions of Joe's skill with his own lack of it, but it gave his fingers something to do and Booker didn't seem to mind it too much.

"Something on your chest perhaps? I think that would be a fine canvas.

"Oh..wait. We get to mark you, my love?" The smirk was back. "I shall give you my best doodle."

Do not let him draw on anyone.

There it was. The storm under Nicky's calm. Anyone who thought he felt less than his romantic husband was an idiot. Booker knew it and for the first time in a long time he felt his own fire rise up to meet it.

"You should join me. The water's real nice." Booker's smile was a little more flirtatious, a little more warm than his usual one. "I'm nicer, though."

The way he saw it if Nicky wanted to read he would've stayed inside to do it or gone to his garden roof if he really wanted the sun while he read. He thought, maybe, that Nicky had come out here to tease him but meant to join him all along.

He hadn't actually known that the pool was...occupied. He'd come out to read and soak up the sun until the heat got to be too much and then he was going to jump in. It was a good plan for a lazy afternoon.

Booker was a better plan, though.

Grabbing his shirt from the ground, he tossed it over his book to protect the cover from the sun, then stood up and easily slipped out of the shorts that were obviously Joe's by how loose they were on his hips. He wasn't wearing anything beneath, though that wasn't all that unusual for him.

"You are, are you? Well, I'm not sure if you can be the judge of that yourself, bello."

He gasped a little as he lowered himself into the water, the sudden temperature difference making his skin tighten.

Andy smiled, shaking her head with a hum and tilting her neck to give him room. "God, Nicky was so mad at you when you punched me," she chuckled, able to laugh at the memory now, though that fist to her cheekbone and nose had fucking hurt at the time.

They'd managed and gotten around it, the hurt and the anger, and now they were here. "We all learned to love you, too," she murmured with a soft smile only a little teasing around the edges. "Come here, and give me a proper kiss, then. Like a lady."

Booker grinned to himself as Nicky stripped down. It was no surprised to see he wasn't wearing much besides the basics. They were on vacation. They didn't need layers like they would if they were working.

"You don't think I'm nice?" Booker swam over with a few lazy strokes of his arms. He was a great swimmer even though he was fairly bulky in comparison to Nicky. "I'm hurt."

And because he was in a good mood and feeling playful he grabbed Nicky around the middle and dragged him into the water instead of letting him slowly lower himself into the water and proper adjust to the temperature.

He laughed the whole time too.

"Yeah, I remember." Nicky had jumped to defend Andy which meant Booker had gotten a broadsword pointed at him, almost buried in his ribs. He could hardly be blamed for his confusion over meeting the people he dreamed about. It had been a crazy time in his life.

"You're still not a proper lady," he pointed out. Booker didn't intend to argue the request.

He leaned in and kissed her properly, a real kiss, a deep kiss full of his love for her.

"I only mean to sa-Ah!" His words cut off in a sharp yelp as Booker's arms closed around his middle and he found himself quite suddenly being manhandled into the water. He gripped Booker's shoulders out of reflex, though after the initial grab he did let go in order to punch at the man's shoulders.

"You snake! Unhand me, heathen!" He was laughing, alternating between splashing water at Booker's face and kicking out with his legs.

"There's a mirror in the bathroom, boss, you can always go look. We'll still be here when you get back." He lifted the ink away again so that he could turn to press a kiss to her temple, though he set back to work even as he nodded an agreement both to Nicky's statement about Booker's chest making for a good canvas, and at the question that followed.

"He's right, it would." He replied to the first, adding: "And of course you do, it's only fair, though I think I should at least specify that something decided by committee is fine, but pick a spokesperson to draw it."

Booker was laughing too. That was exactly the sort of reaction he wanted. It was even better that Nicky hadn't seen it coming. Though, when was the last time he had acted like this? Booker hadn't been playful in years. He hadn't flirted or touched like this in years either.

"No," he said with a laugh then leaned in and kissed Nicky deeply. While they kiss he fell back and dragged Nicky under the water with him. He didn't keep them under for very long but the best way to get used to the water was to dive right in.

He pushed them back to the surface after only a few seconds under and grinned at Nicky. "There you go. All better."

Booker hadn't been the one to kiss him first in...well, far too many years. Nicky made a startled sound, but he was quick to hold onto Booker's shoulders, kissing him back just as hard as Booker kissed him. It was wonderful, feeling those arms around him again after all that time and his lips against his and-

-and suddenly he was underwater. The kiss broke with a flood of startled bubbles and Nicky flailed, resurfacing like a drowned cat. Including the long limbs just trying to find purchase on something solid.

She clicked her tongue, giving a little point of one finger at that first answer, agreeing that yes, he got that one anyway.

Though her expression melted into one of aghast surprise, one that was entirely put on and only a little exaggerated, "You've all had all this time and haven't figured out how to do that yet?" She tisked, shaking her head, "Damn good thing I came along to shake things up or you'd never get anything done, apparently."

"Easy, easy, I've got you," Booker soothed as he kept his arms around Nicky. "You're alright, Nicky."

He hadn't meant to startle him that much though he had started all of this by seducing Nicky into the pool. Nothing he had done gave Nicky any warning he might also rough house with him in the water. He would tone it down a little.

Booker guided them towards the shallower water so Nicky could feel a little more steady. "You might be right about the not nice," he said, expecting some sort of revenge.

She wasn't sure if Andy trying to steal it was a good thing or a bad thing, but it sounded like a good thing, so she didn't ask, just settled into the companionable silence, humming along herself.

It was a companionable silence right up until she found the culprit she'd been looking for, "There you are you little bastard." It wasn't loud, but it was sudden and it was sharp and she flicked the hornworm, a finger-thick, almost four-inch behemoth of a thing off of the stalk it was pretending to be part of with a quick movement of the stick she'd been poking at the leaves with, the kind of movement that was ingrained from practice, and once the pest hit the ground she just as quickly stomped it.

No, there had been no warning...but he still should have expected it. Sebastien was nothing if not a teenaged boy in his playfulness. Dunking him in the water was right in his wheelhouse.

He sputtered a little, but calmed when he realized that Booker still held him. He reached up to wipe water from his face...and then shook his head to send droplets from his hair directly into the other man's face.

"You are a bad man, Sebastien le Livre..." But he was grinning as he threaded his fingers through Booker's hair and dragged him in for another kiss.

"Not in a way that keeps us from being noticed." Booker liked the attitude. Nile gave as good as she got. And she was funny though he also thought she was seriously against capitalism.

They could get along.

"But if you have any suggestions how we can do that I'll listen." There were few things Booker enjoyed more than tearing down the rich who exploited the poor. He had been a teenager in the revolution. It gave him a few ideas.

Nicky wouldn't discourage his behavior if he followed up all of his scolding with a kiss. He pressed into the kiss with a grin of his own. What an idiot he was for pushing away this happiness and wallowing.

"You know, this is your fault," Booker said when he drew back from the kiss. "If you hadn't insisted on this vacation I don't know what state I'd be in."

Probably a mess, lost in his own sadness. Now, he got to experience joy and be loved. There was only the slightest guilt in the back of his mind over it but he was strong enough now to ignore it.

Four tomato plants in and Nicky had started to leave the half full basket on the ground, unwilling to carry it anymore as he filled it with yet more tomatoes. Working along side their newest member was welcome and relaxing and for the first time Nicky felt that maybe they could become close after all.

Then she broke the silence with an exclamation and Nicky was up and on his feet in a heartbeat, a knife the size of his thumb in his hand. It was small, but it looked wicked sharp...and where had he pulled it from, anyway? It didn't fold, so it wasn't in his pocket. He was wearing sandals, so not an ankle sheath.

It took several breaths for his pulse to start to calm back down, though his eyes still roamed the horizon, looking for threats that he was only about 95% sure weren't actually there.

Who said anything about trying to discourage his behavior?

Nicky pressed their foreheads together, his arms moving around Booker's shoulders instead of holding his head like that. He, of all people, knew how quickly a mood could shift for people who fought as often as they did. Even a friendly touch could set off the wrong nerves if pressed the right way.

He chased Booker's words with another kiss, then finally pulled back enough to smile.

"No 'if's, Sebastien. You are here, with me. Doing things with your lips that I may had forgotten you could do..."

Wait. Was that a challenge?

Malta

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