He whined into that kiss, fingers curling into thick black curls as he surrendered to it. Opened his mouth and invited it. The lick of heat that had started low in his belly flared larger and he chased that kiss with little pecks of his lips over his husband's face.
"Husband,habibi, hayati, zawj," He punctuated each declaration with a kiss and one long fingered hand sliding back around to rest on Yusuf's broad chest.
"Would you do something for me? Something we have not done in many years? Would you touch yourself for me? Like you used to?"
Yusuf's own fire was stoked with those words. He was just about to kiss Nicolo again and pin him to the damn table when he started speaking and.
Oh.
Oh...
Yusuf leaned back in the seat and swallowed hard. Touch himself. Touch himself like they did before when Nicolo would watch and Yusuf would hiss his name into the air. It had been the best they could have together at the time and he'd accepted it. But stopping it had been accepted as well. He understood that and knew the guilt Nicolo still sometimes wrestled with.
Lead him not into temptation. Fuck.
He rubbed his hands down Nicolo's sides gently, soothing. He thought about pottery and paint and what to buy in the market tomorrow. The next kiss he gave Nicolo was chaste.
"It's fine, amore. I don't need..." He exhaled and shook his head, starting over.
"My vow was to let you keep yours. I am doing a poor job, compromising it for...lust."
He felt Yusuf's reaction to his plea and he whined, burying his face against the other man's neck. He willed Yusuf to not pull away, willed him to keep those gentle hands on him in not so gentle ways. Willed Yusuf's lips to claim his and him as a whole..but he bowed his head in acceptance when Yusuf instead kissed him so softly.
"You are beautifully insufferable, have I told you such recently? Leave my Vows to me, my husband. Let me fulfill my vows to you. I want to see that fire in your eyes once more and know that I was the one who stoked it to such a blaze."
But for as pleading as his words were, the kiss he sealed his words with was just as chaste, if not outright questioning.
"Unless, of course, it is not me that stokes those fires..."
Yusuf couldn't even bear the thought of that. His hands splayed back on Nicolo's front and back, rubbing at his skin through the thin fabric. He pulled him closer on his lap to the point where it was probably indecent. But at least now Nicolo could feel the fires and how stoked they were. He kissed him there, grabbing at his hair and pulling him as close as possible. One hand trailed up his leg.
"Do not think for one moment that I desire anyone but you." He kissed him again and trailed them down his neck, tasting the skin for any differences from location.
"You don't know how badly I want you, Nicolo," he all but whined. "You have no idea how I dream of taking you apart and watching you have your pleasure because of me. You do not stoke my fires, habibi. You are the spark and the kindling and the air that feeds it."
Yusuf's hands were once more on him and Nicolo groaned, pressing himself forward so that their bodies where tight together and Yusuf's cock was pressed hard into the muscle of his inner thigh, straddling the man as he was. A hand slid up his legs and Nicolo shivered under the touch, reaching down to pull the thin cotton from out between them so that it was no longer tangled and no longer offering any kind of resistance.
It also meant that his body was bare from the waist down and straddling Yusuf's thighs like he might drown if he let go. And really...he might.
"Then let me be touched by those flames. Touch yourself, hayati. Let me feel those flames on my skin and know that I can serve you as a husband should."
Yusuf's hands ran up those bare legs and grabbed Nicolo's waist. It had been years since he had allowed himself to be this caught up in lust. Decades since he had lay in bed with his lover and touched himself as the other kissed and watched him. But it was also the first time he was able to rut the way was now. The first time he held Nicolo so close to the way he wished he could, all bare skin and soft words.
He gave up fighting it and reached with one hand to undo his laces so his cock could be freed. As soon as it was he had his hands up that garment and was pawing at all that delicious flesh. Nicolo's own cock was bare here. Yusuf wasn't sure what was and wasn't allowed here so he shifted his hips to rub himself against the other's thigh. Short, careful thrusts that for the first time was another's skin on his own.
He pressed open, messy kisses along Nicolo's neck and lips. "If I could consume you with them...If I could, I would. Have you feel as I do now. Have your inferno and mine create such a blaze that we could scorch the world with it. Let them all see what we are together."
Yusuf rutted against him and Nicolo's eyes went wide as he felt the man's cock against his skin for the first time. His breath caught in his chest and when it finally escaped, it did so as a moan that he half muffled against his lover's shoulder.
He lover. There was no denying that now. He would remain chaste and keep his vows to the church, but his heart soared at the thought that Yusuf would finally find his pleasure in his body. The prospect of it burned in his belly and the cock that was trapped between their bodies that he was carefully ignoring was hard.
"You consume me, my husband. Your body burns for me and I ache to feel it's heat on my skin. To know that you can find your pleasure in me as a husband should, it fills me with such joy that there is no way that this could be sinful. I am yours."
Husband. Husband. They had been for all this time in so many ways but the word had never come. Yusuf had never felt like a husband to Nicolo. A partner, certainly. A love, of course. But this was more. This was being a lover in the only way they could. Finding pleasure in each other and their bodies.
Nicolo was right. There was no way this could be sinful. This was one of the purest and most beautiful moments of his life.
"Husband," he growled with a thrust of his hips upward. It was instinct. After so long he was amazed he still had some. His hands went to Nicolo's hips and pinned them down hard so he couldn't move. It allowed Yusuf to thrust again. Roll his own hips. Get the friction he wanted against Nicolo's leg and the juncture where it met his hip. After all this time it was heaven. The tip already smeared pre-come on Nicolo's skin.
This wouldn't last long.
"I love you," he said before a hard kiss. "I love you more each day. My angelo. Amore. Marito..."
He moaned as Yusuf's hands tightened on his hips, the touch spending sparks over his skin in a way that made his toes curl. The movement of their bodies was a dance, Nicolo responding to Yusuf by rocking forward to meet those thrusts. The friction on his cock made him cry out and for a split second he considered throwing his Vows to the wind and just letting himself be had in any way that Yusuf wanted him.
In the end, he ended up shoving his hand down between them to cup it over his own cock, denying it the sweet friction of his husband's stomach. He wanted Yusuf...but what was a vow if it was never tested? He could be this for the man straining against him and he could also keep his vow. Give God a sacrifice of his love for Him, suffer such flames and yet deny himself in His name.
The hand that wasn't keeping himself chaste threaded into thick, dark curls and Nicolo kissed his husband hard, licking his mouth open to make him swallow the whines and whimpers that were dragged from his throat with every hitch of their hips.
Yusuf almost lost it at the sound of Nicolo's cry. The sweet sound he had yet to truly experience. His kisses turned aggressive after that and as he felt Nicolo keeping himself from any additional pleasure. Yusuf's teeth dug into lips and neck and shoulder. His blunted nails left marks of desperation on his hips. Crescent moons scattered across the pale skin of his own moon. His sun. The only light that breaks over him and that ever would.
"I want to hear you cry my name," he confessed in his passion. "I dream... I dream of you beneath me. I dream of having you in every way."
His cock jumped as it rubbed into the tight space between hip and thigh. Yusuf pushed his hand down to close it off and thrust into it. His breathing became erratic and shallow as the end approached.
"I love you. Husband. Lover." He kissed Nicolo's mouth messily before it opened in a loud shout and he climaxed hard, letting it mark and claim Nicolo's bare skin. He shuddered with it. Went blind with it. Could barely breathe. But when he could, all Yusuf could do was pull Nicolo into a kiss and whisper out:
Yusuf painted his skin with his passion and Nico jerked as if it burned him, crying out again. His cock throbbed under his hand and his skin felt tight and stretched, like he'd been sitting too close to the fire. He shook almost as much as the man he straddled, and that was enough to make him tip forward, pressing his face against the side of Yusuf's neck to muffle a moan.
"Yours. I am yours. I love you."
The marks that Yusuf had made on his body ached in the sweetest of ways and he whined when he felt them start to fade, cursing his immortality for the first time in a long while.
"Damn my body." He didn't even hesitate before the curse left his lips. "I want to feel your marks on my skin, feel the ache of your hands on my hips. I want to leave the house tomorrow with you written into every part of me, secret and safe under my clothes..."
Yusuf heard the cries and wanted nothing more than to push Nicolo's hand away and just make him experience the bliss that he had. But he couldn't and he knew it. But that didn't mean he couldn't do anything.
He kissed Nicolo gently and hoisted him up to set him on the table. From there he sunk to his knees and kissed up his soft leg. Up to his thigh where the mess remained. Yusuf tore a piece of cloth off of his smock and used it to wipe Nicolo clean. He smirked then as he pulled his lover's hand away from his hardness and oh so carefully turned the rag into a little bow around it.
"There. The marks may fade but now you have a reminder of what you can do to me." He is playful as he does this and absolutely expects Nicolo to laugh or call him insane, but the possessive side of him that he is growing to understand is appeased by the action. He can't claim normally so at least this.
His skin was on fire. Every nerve was standing at rapt attention, begging for more. More touch, more friction, more of those silken, honey soaked words against his ear. Anything that Yusuf was willing to give him.
But he certainly didn't expect to suddenly be lifted up onto the table or for his newly announced husband to sink to his knees in front of him. Soft lips touched his legs and Nico's hips jerked up against nothing before he was able to get a hold of his control once more. His breathing came in ragged little breathes as Yusuf cleaned him up....
Then came out in a strangled bark of laughter when that bow was tied around his angry red cock. It twitched at the sensation and Nico let his head drop back in frustration, but he was able to keep himself from rocking up into it.
"Y-you spoil me, zawj. I'll wear it happily."
And he did. Unlike other lovers who wore rings of gold on their hands, Nicolo di Genova wore one of soft cloth around his cock. Not every day, of course, but after every time that he could talk his husband into taking his pleasure from his body he all but demanded it.
Time passed, their lives fell into this new level of normal for them, and things were good. Great even.
It was evening again, the sun's heat finally relaxing it's grip on Malta as Nico moved around their small kitchen, making dinner for the two of them. He hadn't worked that day, so he was home first for once, and there was a quiet ease in him that was new when Yusuf came through the door.
Yusuf was pleased with how things went between them. Of course he would always and perpetually long for more, but he once more got accustomed to what he was able to have. And their new little game that they played with one another just added a whole new level to it. It was good. Very good. Yusuf would never put Nicolo into a situation where he had to feel pressured into giving more of himself, so it was perfect.
And time went on.
Yusuf, pleased and content after a warm summer day, came home with a smile on his face and a small, cloth-wrapped gift. He didn't answer his husband at first. He just walked up so he could slide his arms around Nicolo's waist.
"Are other people coming into our home, màio? Should I be staying home and keeping guard?"
He chuckled, glancing once towards the outside world to make sure they were safely alone before leaned back into his husband's arms. He turned his head to press a line of kisses along his jaw, smiling at the course beard that tickled his lips.
"Do you not trust me to defend our home? Do you think that time without my sword in my hand has made me gentle? A mouse to be hunted, perhaps?"
He sank his teeth into the meat of Yusuf's neck, not hard enough to really hurt but enough to get a decent mouthful and give a playful little shake.
Yusuf laughed at his lover's antics and squeezed tighter around his middle. "A mouse to be hunted? I would never insult my husband like that. I know better." He returned the bite with one of his own to the base of Nicolo's jaw. Just a gentle nip. Like two cats playing with one another.
Still, there was something he had to do every day after coming home from work. Yusuf loosened his grip and turned Nicolo toward him so he could pull him into a kiss. Often, this remained the best part of his entire day.
"And how was your day, my fierce, dangerous mouse?"
Two very large, very powerful cats. With claws that could rend flesh from bone and jaws that could crush bone.
Nicolo laughed as he was turned around, reaching up to loop his arms around the other man's broad shoulders so he could return that kiss with the amount of attention that it deserved. When it ended, he was in no hurry to turn back around just yet.
"Relaxing. A day at home is a wonderful break. And your's, my brave, valiant protector?"
"What sweetness I come home to," he purred, going in to kiss Nicolo again. Really take his time to deepen it and explore his lover's mouth fully. Their first kiss or millionth, Yusuf would never get inured to it. It was too incredible a thing to ever take for granted.
"My day was productive. We had orders for new pots so I spent most of my time at the wheel." Yusuf liked days like that. Painting and pottery were his favorite since he could put his whole attention into the task and control each and every detail.
"If my hands did not heal, they would be dry as rocks right now. But lucky for you..." He slipped his hands under Nicolo's tunic just to rub the palms over his back.
He arched into his husband's body, losing himself in the kiss for as long as it lasted. He loved the feel of Yusuf's mouth on his, his hands on his body and his laughter in his ears. It was home in a way that no place had ever been before. Not even the monastery he'd fled to once he'd been old enough to do such a thing.
It made his decision that day even more concrete and he smiled as he enjoyed the feel of Yusuf's touch on his skin.
"Lucky, indeed. Rafiq must be very jealous. Now unhand me. Bambalouni does not make itself, habibi." He chuckled as he spoke, using his elbows to gently push the man back so that he could turn back to the dough on the counter.
"I stopped by the church. Father Giorgio sends his well wishes."
Yusuf let out a small sigh as he was pushed away. The wrapped package he brought was left on the table and he walked over to open it up and put out sweets he'd been given. For after dinner, of course. But at the mention of the church, his motions paused and he glanced over at Nicolo's back to get some idea of why this was being brought up.
"Next you see him, be sure to give him mine as well..."
Yusuf tried to think in his head about reasons Nicolo might have been at the church. He was no stranger there, of course. Yusuf even went with him on most Sundays and waited patiently through the services. He even liked most of them. But this wasn't Sunday and he didn't think Nicolo should have a pressing need for Confession. Maybe it was just a social visit?
He cleared his throat and went over to where their wine was to get two glasses filled. One set by Nicolo and his work and the other held in his hand but not yet sipped.
He leaned on the counter and looked at Nicolo steadily.
"Was something the matter that had you stopping by? Or were you merely going for prayer?"
They were going to have sweets galore. Dinner was one of Yusuf's favorite childhood stews and it was by the fire, bubbling away and smelling delicious. The dough on the counter was for Tunisian doughnuts.
Not that Nico would complain. Nico had spent the last few months indulging a little in his food choices and he'd discovered that he had a bit of a sweet tooth.
Nico had spent the last few months indulging in a lot of things, really.
When Yusuf joined him at the counter face so concerned, he couldn't help but leaning over to steal another kiss to ease that worry.
"I went for a conversation. A long overdue conversation, actually. Father Giorgio was very insightful and helped me quite a bit. I've decided that I can no longer be married to two, beautiful as they both may be."
If the intention was to ease his worry, Nicolo might have chosen his words a bit more carefully.
He had barely finished the familiar thrill of his lover's kiss going through him when his body went abruptly cold. From there, things around the kitchen started to look like warning signs instead of familiar trappings of home. Nicolo was making his favorite meal, he noticed. The dough his love was kneading was for a particular sweet he was fond of more than most others. The small kisses and the careful conversation... all of it seemed to wave like flags now. Signals to Yusuf that something was going to happen.
He didn't think it would be something he would like.
He exhaled in a rush and didn't speak for a moment. His mind rewound all those years ago when he'd stood before Nicolo and asked for his Vow. No one but God would be above him, his love had said. No one but God. So if the decision had to be made, there was no question of what it would be.
Yusuf drained his glass of wine and held it in a tight fist for a moment as grief rushed through him like a flood. He needed to get it through him fast because Nicolo deserved better than that from him. They'd had decades together. Decades to be happy and even time to be together as husbands would. As much as they could. They'd had their time but Nicolo had a calling. Yusuf said he would never stand in the way of that and he meant it.
He put the glass down and hunched forward, looking at the floor and nowhere else.
"I...I understand," he finally managed to say. "And I know...that it couldn't have been an easy choice for you. I understand that, Mài-" He stopped himself and corrected it: "Amore." It hurt worse than he thought it would.
"I am not going to fight you and you...don't need to cushion this blow. Just. Please..." His head bowed forward all the more. Traitorous emotion clawed at his throat and brought tears to his eyes. He had been stabbed, beaten, burned, and starved and still this hurt worse than any of that. But he would survive.
That was all he could ever do.
"Please just. Let me stay at your side, Nicolo." His voice broke on his name and he had to clear his throat to strengthen it once more. "I can work at the church...or. Or I could work the grounds. As long as I can stay with you. That is all I ask. Please..."
He knew almost as soon as he'd said it that Yusuf would take it the wrong way. He hadn't meant it to come out like that, of course, but he hadn't been thinking. At least, he hadn't been thinking about that. He'd been focused on the dough under his hands and the stew on the hearth. The wine at his elbow that Yusuf had brought him. And, of course, the joy that he expected to come forth from his husband's very being at the news.
Then he'd gone and ruined it all.
As soon as Yusuf's face fell and the man hunched forward as if Nico had physically hit him, understand lit up in those clear blue eyes and the dough was forgotten as he turned to gather the man up against his chest.
"No! No, zawj! I did not mean that as it came out!" He pressed kisses against his love's face, shaking his head a little as he cursed himself for his own stupidity.
"I renounced my vows to the church, habibi. I am yours, and yours alone, my husband."
Yusuf for a moment wanted to push Nicolo away. Not because he didn't want the comfort but because he was trying to adjust to a world where he could not claim it as his own any longer. It was good that he did not, however, as his love's words hit him like lighting and it was his arms alone that were probably keeping him from the floor.
"You...What?"
It made no sense. Nicolo always had said the church came first. He had always said that his vows were to God and then to him and he had accepted that. He had known what that meant from the moment the vows were made. But now to say that he had broken from them? Renounced them?
To think that he had caused his husband such sorrow was a painful thing and Nicolo pressed their foreheads together, willing the man to feel through his skin how much he loved him. How much he wanted to spend the rest of his life, however long that might be, with Yusuf.
"I've been thinking about it for a few weeks now. Renouncing doesn't mean I'm any less devout, just that I'd no longer hold a position in the church itself. I've barely said Mass in years, so losing that isn't as much of a fear for me as I thought it would be.
"I've struggled with it, so I didn't want to tell you until I was sure. I didn't want to get your hopes up, only to decide that I couldn't leave. But Father Giorgio and I spoke at great length today and...and I did it. I renounced my priesthood."
Bringing Yusuf's head up to look at him, he didn't even try to hide the tears in his eyes. "You thought I'd leave you? Yusuf, that is a worry you should never have." He pressed forward, putting Yusuf's ear against his chest so that the other man could hear his heartbeat.
"Do you hear that? That is the other half of your heart, Yusuf al-Kaysani, and it beats only for you."
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
"Husband,habibi, hayati, zawj," He punctuated each declaration with a kiss and one long fingered hand sliding back around to rest on Yusuf's broad chest.
"Would you do something for me? Something we have not done in many years? Would you touch yourself for me? Like you used to?"
no subject
Oh.
Oh...
Yusuf leaned back in the seat and swallowed hard. Touch himself. Touch himself like they did before when Nicolo would watch and Yusuf would hiss his name into the air. It had been the best they could have together at the time and he'd accepted it. But stopping it had been accepted as well. He understood that and knew the guilt Nicolo still sometimes wrestled with.
Lead him not into temptation. Fuck.
He rubbed his hands down Nicolo's sides gently, soothing. He thought about pottery and paint and what to buy in the market tomorrow. The next kiss he gave Nicolo was chaste.
"It's fine, amore. I don't need..." He exhaled and shook his head, starting over.
"My vow was to let you keep yours. I am doing a poor job, compromising it for...lust."
no subject
"You are beautifully insufferable, have I told you such recently? Leave my Vows to me, my husband. Let me fulfill my vows to you. I want to see that fire in your eyes once more and know that I was the one who stoked it to such a blaze."
But for as pleading as his words were, the kiss he sealed his words with was just as chaste, if not outright questioning.
"Unless, of course, it is not me that stokes those fires..."
no subject
Yusuf couldn't even bear the thought of that. His hands splayed back on Nicolo's front and back, rubbing at his skin through the thin fabric. He pulled him closer on his lap to the point where it was probably indecent. But at least now Nicolo could feel the fires and how stoked they were. He kissed him there, grabbing at his hair and pulling him as close as possible. One hand trailed up his leg.
"Do not think for one moment that I desire anyone but you." He kissed him again and trailed them down his neck, tasting the skin for any differences from location.
"You don't know how badly I want you, Nicolo," he all but whined. "You have no idea how I dream of taking you apart and watching you have your pleasure because of me. You do not stoke my fires, habibi. You are the spark and the kindling and the air that feeds it."
no subject
It also meant that his body was bare from the waist down and straddling Yusuf's thighs like he might drown if he let go. And really...he might.
"Then let me be touched by those flames. Touch yourself, hayati. Let me feel those flames on my skin and know that I can serve you as a husband should."
no subject
He gave up fighting it and reached with one hand to undo his laces so his cock could be freed. As soon as it was he had his hands up that garment and was pawing at all that delicious flesh. Nicolo's own cock was bare here. Yusuf wasn't sure what was and wasn't allowed here so he shifted his hips to rub himself against the other's thigh. Short, careful thrusts that for the first time was another's skin on his own.
He pressed open, messy kisses along Nicolo's neck and lips. "If I could consume you with them...If I could, I would. Have you feel as I do now. Have your inferno and mine create such a blaze that we could scorch the world with it. Let them all see what we are together."
no subject
He lover. There was no denying that now. He would remain chaste and keep his vows to the church, but his heart soared at the thought that Yusuf would finally find his pleasure in his body. The prospect of it burned in his belly and the cock that was trapped between their bodies that he was carefully ignoring was hard.
"You consume me, my husband. Your body burns for me and I ache to feel it's heat on my skin. To know that you can find your pleasure in me as a husband should, it fills me with such joy that there is no way that this could be sinful. I am yours."
no subject
Nicolo was right. There was no way this could be sinful. This was one of the purest and most beautiful moments of his life.
"Husband," he growled with a thrust of his hips upward. It was instinct. After so long he was amazed he still had some. His hands went to Nicolo's hips and pinned them down hard so he couldn't move. It allowed Yusuf to thrust again. Roll his own hips. Get the friction he wanted against Nicolo's leg and the juncture where it met his hip. After all this time it was heaven. The tip already smeared pre-come on Nicolo's skin.
This wouldn't last long.
"I love you," he said before a hard kiss. "I love you more each day. My angelo. Amore. Marito..."
no subject
In the end, he ended up shoving his hand down between them to cup it over his own cock, denying it the sweet friction of his husband's stomach. He wanted Yusuf...but what was a vow if it was never tested? He could be this for the man straining against him and he could also keep his vow. Give God a sacrifice of his love for Him, suffer such flames and yet deny himself in His name.
The hand that wasn't keeping himself chaste threaded into thick, dark curls and Nicolo kissed his husband hard, licking his mouth open to make him swallow the whines and whimpers that were dragged from his throat with every hitch of their hips.
no subject
"I want to hear you cry my name," he confessed in his passion. "I dream... I dream of you beneath me. I dream of having you in every way."
His cock jumped as it rubbed into the tight space between hip and thigh. Yusuf pushed his hand down to close it off and thrust into it. His breathing became erratic and shallow as the end approached.
"I love you. Husband. Lover." He kissed Nicolo's mouth messily before it opened in a loud shout and he climaxed hard, letting it mark and claim Nicolo's bare skin. He shuddered with it. Went blind with it. Could barely breathe. But when he could, all Yusuf could do was pull Nicolo into a kiss and whisper out:
"Mine. No other above you."
no subject
"Yours. I am yours. I love you."
The marks that Yusuf had made on his body ached in the sweetest of ways and he whined when he felt them start to fade, cursing his immortality for the first time in a long while.
"Damn my body." He didn't even hesitate before the curse left his lips. "I want to feel your marks on my skin, feel the ache of your hands on my hips. I want to leave the house tomorrow with you written into every part of me, secret and safe under my clothes..."
no subject
He kissed Nicolo gently and hoisted him up to set him on the table. From there he sunk to his knees and kissed up his soft leg. Up to his thigh where the mess remained. Yusuf tore a piece of cloth off of his smock and used it to wipe Nicolo clean. He smirked then as he pulled his lover's hand away from his hardness and oh so carefully turned the rag into a little bow around it.
"There. The marks may fade but now you have a reminder of what you can do to me." He is playful as he does this and absolutely expects Nicolo to laugh or call him insane, but the possessive side of him that he is growing to understand is appeased by the action. He can't claim normally so at least this.
no subject
But he certainly didn't expect to suddenly be lifted up onto the table or for his newly announced husband to sink to his knees in front of him. Soft lips touched his legs and Nico's hips jerked up against nothing before he was able to get a hold of his control once more. His breathing came in ragged little breathes as Yusuf cleaned him up....
Then came out in a strangled bark of laughter when that bow was tied around his angry red cock. It twitched at the sensation and Nico let his head drop back in frustration, but he was able to keep himself from rocking up into it.
"Y-you spoil me, zawj. I'll wear it happily."
And he did. Unlike other lovers who wore rings of gold on their hands, Nicolo di Genova wore one of soft cloth around his cock. Not every day, of course, but after every time that he could talk his husband into taking his pleasure from his body he all but demanded it.
Time passed, their lives fell into this new level of normal for them, and things were good. Great even.
It was evening again, the sun's heat finally relaxing it's grip on Malta as Nico moved around their small kitchen, making dinner for the two of them. He hadn't worked that day, so he was home first for once, and there was a quiet ease in him that was new when Yusuf came through the door.
"Is that you?"
no subject
And time went on.
Yusuf, pleased and content after a warm summer day, came home with a smile on his face and a small, cloth-wrapped gift. He didn't answer his husband at first. He just walked up so he could slide his arms around Nicolo's waist.
"Are other people coming into our home, màio? Should I be staying home and keeping guard?"
no subject
"Do you not trust me to defend our home? Do you think that time without my sword in my hand has made me gentle? A mouse to be hunted, perhaps?"
He sank his teeth into the meat of Yusuf's neck, not hard enough to really hurt but enough to get a decent mouthful and give a playful little shake.
no subject
Still, there was something he had to do every day after coming home from work. Yusuf loosened his grip and turned Nicolo toward him so he could pull him into a kiss. Often, this remained the best part of his entire day.
"And how was your day, my fierce, dangerous mouse?"
no subject
Nicolo laughed as he was turned around, reaching up to loop his arms around the other man's broad shoulders so he could return that kiss with the amount of attention that it deserved. When it ended, he was in no hurry to turn back around just yet.
"Relaxing. A day at home is a wonderful break. And your's, my brave, valiant protector?"
no subject
"My day was productive. We had orders for new pots so I spent most of my time at the wheel." Yusuf liked days like that. Painting and pottery were his favorite since he could put his whole attention into the task and control each and every detail.
"If my hands did not heal, they would be dry as rocks right now. But lucky for you..." He slipped his hands under Nicolo's tunic just to rub the palms over his back.
no subject
It made his decision that day even more concrete and he smiled as he enjoyed the feel of Yusuf's touch on his skin.
"Lucky, indeed. Rafiq must be very jealous. Now unhand me. Bambalouni does not make itself, habibi." He chuckled as he spoke, using his elbows to gently push the man back so that he could turn back to the dough on the counter.
"I stopped by the church. Father Giorgio sends his well wishes."
no subject
"Next you see him, be sure to give him mine as well..."
Yusuf tried to think in his head about reasons Nicolo might have been at the church. He was no stranger there, of course. Yusuf even went with him on most Sundays and waited patiently through the services. He even liked most of them. But this wasn't Sunday and he didn't think Nicolo should have a pressing need for Confession. Maybe it was just a social visit?
He cleared his throat and went over to where their wine was to get two glasses filled. One set by Nicolo and his work and the other held in his hand but not yet sipped.
He leaned on the counter and looked at Nicolo steadily.
"Was something the matter that had you stopping by? Or were you merely going for prayer?"
no subject
Not that Nico would complain. Nico had spent the last few months indulging a little in his food choices and he'd discovered that he had a bit of a sweet tooth.
Nico had spent the last few months indulging in a lot of things, really.
When Yusuf joined him at the counter face so concerned, he couldn't help but leaning over to steal another kiss to ease that worry.
"I went for a conversation. A long overdue conversation, actually. Father Giorgio was very insightful and helped me quite a bit. I've decided that I can no longer be married to two, beautiful as they both may be."
no subject
He had barely finished the familiar thrill of his lover's kiss going through him when his body went abruptly cold. From there, things around the kitchen started to look like warning signs instead of familiar trappings of home. Nicolo was making his favorite meal, he noticed. The dough his love was kneading was for a particular sweet he was fond of more than most others. The small kisses and the careful conversation... all of it seemed to wave like flags now. Signals to Yusuf that something was going to happen.
He didn't think it would be something he would like.
He exhaled in a rush and didn't speak for a moment. His mind rewound all those years ago when he'd stood before Nicolo and asked for his Vow. No one but God would be above him, his love had said. No one but God. So if the decision had to be made, there was no question of what it would be.
Yusuf drained his glass of wine and held it in a tight fist for a moment as grief rushed through him like a flood. He needed to get it through him fast because Nicolo deserved better than that from him. They'd had decades together. Decades to be happy and even time to be together as husbands would. As much as they could. They'd had their time but Nicolo had a calling. Yusuf said he would never stand in the way of that and he meant it.
He put the glass down and hunched forward, looking at the floor and nowhere else.
"I...I understand," he finally managed to say. "And I know...that it couldn't have been an easy choice for you. I understand that, Mài-" He stopped himself and corrected it: "Amore." It hurt worse than he thought it would.
"I am not going to fight you and you...don't need to cushion this blow. Just. Please..." His head bowed forward all the more. Traitorous emotion clawed at his throat and brought tears to his eyes. He had been stabbed, beaten, burned, and starved and still this hurt worse than any of that. But he would survive.
That was all he could ever do.
"Please just. Let me stay at your side, Nicolo." His voice broke on his name and he had to clear his throat to strengthen it once more. "I can work at the church...or. Or I could work the grounds. As long as I can stay with you. That is all I ask. Please..."
no subject
Then he'd gone and ruined it all.
As soon as Yusuf's face fell and the man hunched forward as if Nico had physically hit him, understand lit up in those clear blue eyes and the dough was forgotten as he turned to gather the man up against his chest.
"No! No, zawj! I did not mean that as it came out!" He pressed kisses against his love's face, shaking his head a little as he cursed himself for his own stupidity.
"I renounced my vows to the church, habibi. I am yours, and yours alone, my husband."
no subject
"You...What?"
It made no sense. Nicolo always had said the church came first. He had always said that his vows were to God and then to him and he had accepted that. He had known what that meant from the moment the vows were made. But now to say that he had broken from them? Renounced them?
He didn't think he was breathing anymore.
"Nicolo... What did you say?"
no subject
"I've been thinking about it for a few weeks now. Renouncing doesn't mean I'm any less devout, just that I'd no longer hold a position in the church itself. I've barely said Mass in years, so losing that isn't as much of a fear for me as I thought it would be.
"I've struggled with it, so I didn't want to tell you until I was sure. I didn't want to get your hopes up, only to decide that I couldn't leave. But Father Giorgio and I spoke at great length today and...and I did it. I renounced my priesthood."
Bringing Yusuf's head up to look at him, he didn't even try to hide the tears in his eyes. "You thought I'd leave you? Yusuf, that is a worry you should never have." He pressed forward, putting Yusuf's ear against his chest so that the other man could hear his heartbeat.
"Do you hear that? That is the other half of your heart, Yusuf al-Kaysani, and it beats only for you."
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)