God help them both

[toblameforit]

(from here; warning for some fairly wrong goings-on all round)

His room is on the second floor and it's really more of a suite. First through the door is a comfortable little living room containing all the essentials—squashy couch, wall-mounted plasma TV, bookshelf for Sherry, liquor cabinet for Tony, a pair of reasonably uncluttered desks side by side for the rare occasion when they both bring their laptops. One of them has been usurped by a violin case.

Comments

[be-this-naive.livejournal.com]

"Maybe I'll run into one here I can practice on," he says offhandedly.

As before, he brings well-filled glasses back with him, putting Tony's in his hand.

"But if I decide to take a risk, I think my effort is better spent on you. What should I say to you?"

[toblameforit]

Their fingers touch as his hand closes around his glass.

Quietly: "I already love you."

[be-this-naive.livejournal.com]

Obadiah looks up to meet his eyes.

He's actually been enjoying this, in a way - the freedom of honesty has a dangerous appeal - but he's still paying attention to what he says.

Tell me how to use that is not the best choice here.

"Time was," he says softly instead, "I came first with you."

[toblameforit]

"...Is that—?"

He shakes his head, sets his drink down untouched, leans across the short distance between them, and kisses Obie on the lips. Because sometimes words do not suffice.

(It's getting easier every time.)

"There's different kinds of first," he murmurs, and—suddenly aware of the context—pulls back a little. "I don't mean—I mean, I'll believe you're lying before I'll believe he is, because I know you lie sometimes and he never does. But I don't... you've been there for me all my life. That's something nobody else has."

[be-this-naive.livejournal.com]

Yes. The conversation they came up here to have.

He pushes back the urge to rush it. It can wait.

"Maybe the other one sees things a little differently, then," he murmurs, then sighs, a brief, quiet exhale through his nose.

"I don't know, Tony. If there's a way, I'll find it. I've got plenty of time to think here, at least."

[toblameforit]

On a slightly different but mostly similar impulse, Tony hugs him.

"I guess I always used to take you for granted," he says. "I'm sorry."

[be-this-naive.livejournal.com]

He's a little taken aback by the gesture, and by the accompanying sentiment. He wraps his free arm around Tony, smiling.

"Don't worry about that, Tony," he says. "God knows you weren't brought up any better."

[toblameforit]

He laughs, snuggling close now that he's here.

"Oh God, was there anything Dad didn't take for granted?"

[be-this-naive.livejournal.com]

He can just about reach to put his drink on the table. He does just that, so he can can have both arms around Tony.

"I believe I heard him express his thanks to whatever genius invented whiskey once or twice," he says lightly.

[toblameforit]

"Yeah, that sounds like Dad."

Tony kicks his shoes off, tucks his feet under him, and curls up—the same way he does with Sherry, come to think, and the next time Sherry comes here he'll probably see that, and you know what, Tony doesn't care. He's making his own rules right now. They can deal with how fucked up this is later.

"I miss him too," he whispers, resting his head on Obadiah's shoulder. Not that Obie doesn't know that. Obie maybe knows that better than anyone.

[be-this-naive.livejournal.com]

He leans his head briefly against Tony's.

"I know," he murmurs.

Obadiah closes his eyes, enjoying the warmth of Tony against him, and the promises of the kisses he's already received.

[toblameforit]

Tony is... not as oblivious to that as usual.

Didn't it use to piss him off? It still kind of does. But, you know, they're playing by Tony's rules. He decides what's okay. He can decide it's okay to snuggle up and not mind much.

[be-this-naive.livejournal.com]

Obadiah allows silence to fall, at least for the moment. Best to let Tony set the pace here, to give him a sense of control. The last thing Obadiah wants right now is for that initial panic to take hold again.

[toblameforit]

Eventually, he sits up straighter and reaches for his drink again.

Comfortable silences are a thing he is pretty much only good at with Sherry, but this one seems to be doing all right.

[be-this-naive.livejournal.com]

Obadiah lets a few seconds pass before he mirrors the action, picking up his own drink but not sipping from it.

[toblameforit]

"You," Tony says definitively, "think too much."

He takes a gulp. Mmm, bad decisions.

[be-this-naive.livejournal.com]

Obadiah chuckles.

"I have to keep up with the genius crowd somehow," he says.

[toblameforit]

"Geniuses are idiots. I would've thought you'd know that by now."

[be-this-naive.livejournal.com]

"And yet, people still listen to them."

It makes them useful.

[toblameforit]

"I think the way Sherry likes to put it is, we're right a lot more often, but we're wrong a lot more impressively."

[be-this-naive.livejournal.com]

Obadiah laughs.

"That may be the first time I've ever agreed with him."

On the second part, at least.

[toblameforit]

Tony grins and kisses him again, brief and entirely affectionate.

"See? It can happen."

[be-this-naive.livejournal.com]

Obadiah smiles, reaching up to stroke his thumb briefly over Tony's jaw.

"I'm starting to wish I'd paid a bit more attention to him."

If not necessarily for the reasons he'd like to imply.

[toblameforit]

He leans into it, more or less like a delighted kitten.

"You should. Maybe you'd like him more. He has that effect on people a lot."

[be-this-naive.livejournal.com]

He does it again, slower and more lingering this time.

He doesn't remind Tony that that ship has effectively sailed.