“When you need it,” Angelo allowed.
“I need it like all the time. I’m an extremely bad boy.”
That made Angelo laugh softly. “When I think you need it.”
“Oh. Or when you need me to need it?”
That made Angelo pause and fall silent. Did he need the time spent with Yuri punishing and rewarding him? His cock throbbed at the thought.
Yuri touched it with a tentative finger. “Do you want me? Even a little?”
Angelo found that he did, at least a little, maybe a tiny bit more than that. He wasn’t sure what it meant, though. He nodded stiffly.
“Because I think I could stand that. It might be enough. Being with you, that is. For the rest of my life. I need you to want me, if just a little. That’s all.”
“I do. Fuck me if I understand it at all, but kissing you is like…”
“Yes?” Yuri asked, stars shining in his blue eyes.
Angelo bent his head the small distance needed to kiss Yuri again. Like it had the last time, and the time before that, it felt far more natural than it should have, stubble and flat chest and that erection and all. “It feels like home. You taste like home. I don’t know how else to describe it.”
Yuri made a noise somewhere between a squeak and a whimper and cuddled closer. “If this is a dream, I don’t want to wake up.”
“You want me to kiss you?”
Now Yuri growled. “Yes, you prat. I’ve wanted it for ages. I wanted you to be my first kiss. My first everything.”
“I—”
“Jesus, don’t explain why that would never have happened to me of all people, Angel. I already understand, like way more than I’m happy about. I fucking get it. I do. And I'm just pathetic enough to be fine with begging for the scraps from your table.” He paused for a second, narrowed his eyes, and looked murderous. “As long as I’m the only one getting those scraps. Because I will cut a bitch. If I have to suffer, you do, too. And—”
Angelo kissed Yuri again, savoring the taste of his mouth and the silky feel of his lips and tongue, but mostly he reveled in Yuri’s silence. There was such a thing as talking too much.
“Hush, princess. Stop trying to analyze the moment. Just let it be what it is. And for the record, there’s no one else. There hasn’t been anyone else in a long time. You’re not the only one going through a dry spell. My dick is practically on strike.”
“No, it’s not.” Yuri slid his leg along Angelo’s cock, which had not lost interest in current events. Yuri colored then and moved his leg back so it wasn’t touching Angelo and nibbled on his lower lip, something that shouldn’t have been sexy in the slightest but nevertheless was. He didn’t say anything else but Angelo could see a glut of unsaid words churning under his worried expression.
Angelo gave in. “Spill it, Yuri. What were you going to say?”
“What is it?” Yuri reached up a very tentative finger and laid it softly on Angelo’s lips.
“What is what?” Angelo asked, trying not to shiver as Yuri moved his finger to lightly trace the bones of Angelo’s face. He couldn’t for the life of him remember what they’d been talking about. Then he kissed Yuri again because it seemed like the thing to do and he couldn’t think of a single reason why he shouldn’t.
Yuri rolled so they were both on their sides, facing one another. “What is this? This thing with the two of us? I’ve honestly got no clue. You are straight, straight, straight. You've told me that nearly your whole life. What changed? Because,” he swallowed and his Adam’s apple moved within his throat, “this isn’t exactly straight, you know.” He mumbled the rest of his words, perhaps half hoping Angelo wouldn’t hear him.
Angelo found himself wanting to move so he could kiss Yuri’s throat, then mark him so everyone knew he belonged to someone and they could keep their hands, octopus or otherwise, off. “I didn’t realize until recently,” he said, giving in and touching Yuri’s silky, tousled hair.
“Realize what?” Yuri’s scowl, Angelo decided, was adorable.
“You’re mine. You’ve always been mine. Always. None of the rest changes that. You belong to me.”
Yuri snorted inelegantly and smacked Angelo’s chest weakly with the back of his hand. “Stop it. I don’t. I don’t mean bugger-all to you.”
“That’s where you’re wrong.” Angelo pulled Yuri’s body closer to his. Their cocks rubbed against each other and that made him shudder from the pleasure of it. Rubbing your dick on another guy’s dick shouldn’t feel that fucking good, but god, it did. “How do you not see that?”
“See what?” Yuri sounded exasperated as hell.
“It doesn’t have to be all or nothing, princess.”
“What the bloody hell does that even mean? Tell me. I need to know where your head is. And I don’t mean on your body, you prat. Don’t you dare dad-joke me.”
“Hey, you stole my answer. Unfair.” Angelo grinned at Yuri, pleased as he always was when teasing him. It was something he never got tired of.
“Git,” Yuri muttered.
“Don’t forget that I’m your git.” Angelo loved the peevish look that put on Yuri’s face.
He raised a royal eyebrow and aimed it in Angelo’s direction like a missile launcher. “Are you really? Are you sure?”
Angelo was sure, but he also wasn’t. He didn’t feel like he should feel any sort of attachment to Yuri beyond the background irritation he’d always felt with the other prince, but somewhere along the way as they’d aged, Yuri had grown into more than a mere constant pest. He was important to Angelo. He might be—and the thought terrified Angelo—necessary.
“I can try.” Angelo said. “We can try. I’m not sure how much I’m capable of. Maybe nothing. Maybe a whole hell of a lot more than that. But until we know for sure how far I can go, we can try,
