[MythicDusk]

Tez would have made a sound of affirmation, if he could make any sounds besides heady moans, if he could do anything besides dig his fingers into Collins' skin, anything besides arc his back and let out small pants of want.

His eyes were tight shut, his body trembling. Eventually, with a choked moan, he felt himself cum, felt his muscles tense, felt his toes curl against the floor and his fingernails dug into Collins' skin. He knew the red marks that he would have made, the stark, red crescents before his body began to sag, before his shuddering breath and trembling form began to relax.

Slowly, he opened his eyes, giving Collins a soft smile, blinking away pleasure-filled tears.

[zapdragon555]

Collins wasn't far behind. As he felt Tez spill into his hand he gasped, hips stuttering forward, the sharp, small pain to the skin of his upper back from Tez's fingers sending him over the edge. Everything was heat and Tez's pretty moans echoing off the walls of the shower, and before he could think, Collins was coming. He caught himself against the wall of the shower, holding Tez like a lifeline as his body spasmed, as he choked out a streak of Tez's name and 'please' and 'love you.'

His face burned with his own lack of inhibition in his words, lashes fluttering open to stare at Tez's face. He sucked in a soft breath through his parted lips, panting gently, and leaned in to cup Tez's jawline, guiding their mouths together in a feverish kiss. "You okay?" he whispered, his voice tiny in the space between them, hushed with love and afterglow.

[MythicDusk]

Tez began to nod, a soft 'yeah' echoing from between his teeth, pressing another kiss to Collins' mouth with a strange kind of desperation. He couldn't say the words. He had heard them but he couldn't say them, but by god he felt them. He felt them deep in his gut, coiling up through his chest but his throat throttled them before they hit his tonuge.

So he kissed collins, hoping he would feel it, hope he could feel the shape of the words that wouldn't dare pass his tongue. He hoped he could tell. Slowly, carefully, he pulled away, his muscles still trembling as he stepped into the warm spray of the shower, humming with a kind of surprised delight as he felt the warmth roll over him.

[zapdragon555]

Collins' voice was a startled, delighted thing muted by Tez's insistent lips. He bubbled into a soft laugh, pure joy radiating through him as he ran his hands over Tez's thin shoulders, arms, sides, anything he could touch with the glowing energy thrumming through him.

Maybe there wasn't any need to be embarrassed for saying he loved Tez. Too soon or not, he meant it. He truly... truly meant it. He wanted to see that smile more often, wanted to be the cause of that smile.

He opened his arms to let Tez step away into the spray of warmth, watching him for a moment with a lidded adoration in his eyes. He glanced to the wall and grabbed a bottle of shampoo, shaking it a little and squirting some out into his hand. "Hey," he murmured, breaking the silence, his voice still light and soft. "Can I wash your hair?" He flushed, cutting his eyes away with a small, embarrassed laugh. "It's... I don't know. Y-you don't have to indulge me," he added, grinning and shrugging, the small pool of shampoo in his palm threatening to drip.

[MythicDusk]

Tez let his eyes flutter open to look at Collins. He couldn't help his smile. A slow, soft, gentle thing that wasn't filled with giddiness, or with impatience or even hunger. It was simply there, like it was a natural expression to him. Full of unnamed and unsaid emotion, a kind of smile that wished for a future.

It amazed Tez, in his heart of hearts, that he had only really met this man in person three times, and the first time was a regular transaction. Albeit, without the exchange of money. He didn't think that Collins would be anything special to him, that he would text him, call him, love him.

But here he was, stepping out of the warm spray and towards Collins, using his long, soft fingers to guide Collins' hand to his head, where he could wash his hair.

[zapdragon555]

God. Collins' chest ached with a kind of soft awe as he watched emotions flicker over Tez's face, under the spray of water. He couldn't read them in their absolution, and didn't need to. They were beautiful, and felt like truth, whatever that truth might be. Collins' brain wasn't particularly interested in absolutes or certainties, right then. Tez's quiet love, a thing that seemed to radiate out of him as he moved forward, was all that he could focus on right then. All he cared to.

He let his hands be guided, the simple, mundane action suddenly something reverent as he moved his fingers through Tez's hair, massaging and lathering bubbles as he worked his way down to the shorter hairs at the back of Tez's neck. Gently pressed his thumbs to the ropey muscles there, working out tension for a brief moment, then back up. His eyes settled on the bruise at Tez's neck, and he felt his stomach clench slightly. Felt himself walk forward, hands leaving Tez's lathered hair to pull him into a slow hug, just for a brief moment.

He didn't know how to explain himself. Just let the moment hang, tried to seep any amount of pain from Tez's body and heart out, tried to soak it into his own. Just for that moment. Just for a few bits of peace. Tez's tearstreaked face from before was a fresh wound in his mind.

[MythicDusk]

Tez watched as Collins moved to lather his hair, he let himself close his eyes, tilt his head forward, enjoy the sensation of another caring for him. He found he liked the feeling.

WQhen Collins stepped forward, he carefully tucked his head to Collins' chest, pressing his ear to skin and closing his eyes at the sound of Collins' chest cavity working, hearing the blood, the lungs, the slow, thunderous heartbeat. It was a comfort. It reminded him that this was all real.

He could almost sense something was wrong, so instead of relaxing into the hold as he so desperatley wanted to, he turned his head, gently and carefully kissing Collins' chest before looking up to him, his soft hands tracing over Collins' stomach, around his waist, one resting on his hip.

"I'm okay now. I'm with you." He couldn't help his smile at his own words, couldn't stop his shoulders from relaxing, even as he huffed as a sud of shampoo dripped down his face.

[zapdragon555]

Collins' hand moved, still, when Tez curled into him, head on his chest. His fingers brushed along nape, the knotty bone of the top of his spine, down the ridges that made up the length of it as he brushed down Tez's backbone, and up again. He ached when Tez kissed him--a gentler, softer ache. One he felt he could get used to. He met Tez's eyes, his own lidding with fondness, blinking away shower spray and dampness of his own emotion.

He was aware of hands, yes, but aware more still of those words. 'I'm okay now. I'm with you.' Like a balm to a wound they made him exhale, long and slow, his hands moving up to gently cup Tez's jawline in his palms. His eyes squinted with a grateful mirth, nodding his head and carefully swiping the drip of shampoo away from Tez's eyes. "We're both okay, now," he said softly, pulling Tez into a hug tighter than the last.

"Let's rinse you off," he chuckled, after a long beat of comfortable silence, and with a loose grin he stepped both of them into the spray, sputtering as water hit him in the eyes--his laugh echoing off the small shower walls.

[MythicDusk]

Tez felt his ears perk at the sound of Collins' laugh, felt the muscles shift ever so slightly so he could hear just that little more, and he felt his heart swell in his chest. He loved the sound, loved how it rebounded around him, filled him with joy and adoration. He couldn't help but laugh in return as he spread a palm against Collins' chest, leaning into the water to let the shampoo wash away, moving the hand that he wasn't resting against Collins to run through his hair.

He turned back to collins, his hair pushed out of his face with a bright smile, leaning up to give him a soft kiss, hushed words echoing in the shower stall, an overflow of emotion against Collins' lips.

"I love you."

[zapdragon555]

Collins could feel the thump of his own heart against Tez's fingers. He held the other man carefully, squinting against spray and grinning all the while as suds were carried down with the water, over his arms and Tez's sides. For a moment he let himself just watch Tez, watched gentle fingertips weave through plastered hair, coaxing the last of the bubbles out.

When Tez made a move to straighten up, he guided him as best he could, and was startled (but no less pleased) when Tez continued to lean forward to press a kiss to his mouth. Collins' lashes fluttered closed, a soft hum sighing out of him against Tez's mouth.

The sound of their lips as they broke apart only served to punctuate Tez's quiet confession.

As soon as his brain wrapped around those words, registered them, sent them tingling to the tips of his ears and into his crackling, flickering bonfire of a heart, Collins' face broke into a gasp--then a smile, a breathless laugh with it--and then, before he could stop them, a dampness in his eyes. "T-Tez," he whispered, his hands moving to cup the other man's face in his palms, dipping forward to press his forehead to the other's hair. "Tez, Tez... I-I love you, too. I love you..."

It was difficult to describe the emotion thrumming through him like something alive. Whatever it was that was making tears roll down his cheeks--knowing how difficult such a thing must be, for someone who had experienced so much hurt. For someone who was choked in alleyways and bruised. For someone who'd decided to trust Collins. Decided to love him. Collins pressed a kiss to Tez's temple, fierce with emotion and yet somehow timorously gentle. "Thank you," the words spilled out softly, breaking with emotion.

[MythicDusk]

Tez felt his heart swell at Collins' words. Felt a need to sob and to cheer. he pressed closer to him, chuckling wetly at the thanks that Collins offered. "Mno, thank you." He murmured into the skin of Collins' chest. He wanted to explaim everything that Collins meant to him, to tell him in as many words as he could muster, to scream it until his voice was hoarse. But instead, he leaned up to give Collins another gentle, careful kiss.

He swallowed gently, a thought skipping through his mind and making his brain stutter to a halt.

"Collins I-. I want to do more with you." He felt a blush touch his own cheeks, felt it leak down to his collarbones as he admitted it. "I want to show you how much I love you." He stepped out of the shower spray, chewing on his bottom lip. "I want to make love with you."

The moment he said it, he hid his facei n his hands, groaning at how dumb it sounded. "God I'm so sorry, I sound like an idiot."

[zapdragon555]

Collins' lashes fluttered against tears, blinking them closed with a shuddering, shaky breath as Tez kissed his trembling lips into stillness once more. The tears flowed a bit more freely, and stopped easily, replaced with a warm love in his heart. A kind of relief, and a kind of joy, and a kind of desire to wrap the man in front of him up in blankets and keep him safe for as long as the world allowed him to.

Sentimental thoughts. They came easy when he felt this raw--raw in the best way possible. His lips chased Tez's when the other man pulled away, his own face burning with embarrassment at his own eagerness to touch and kiss. He blinked his eyes to full attention when Tez murmured his name, and that vague statement. Collins stared attentively, eyes flickering as they searched Tez's face. And then it clicked.

Collins' face flushed, a visible, gradual reaction, his pupils dilating slightly as he met Tez's eyes. Oh. Oh. His hands twitched on Tez's sides, and he uttered a kind of startled croaking sound, before he hurriedly cleared his throat and shook his head in response to Tez's crumbling confidence. "No--no, god no, it's... you're not an idiot. You don't sound like one--yes, I-I..." Collins' brain rather unhelpfully provided a few rather sudden mental images, in that moment, effectively cutting off his words as his eyes trailed down from Tez's face to the jut of his hips, lower, lingering, and back up. "I-I want to," he uttered, soft, stepping closer, enough to gently pull Tez into a loose embrace--loose was all it took to let Tez know how his body had reacted. Even so soon after their previous coming, it seemed his body had woken back up, half mast against the crease of Tez's hip and thigh. "I'd... I'd really, really love that, Tez..."

He blinked, a little startled. "Ah, w-wait, though... here? It... it might be dangerous in the shower," he admitted, laughing slightly. "I... have a bed. I mean, of course I have a bed--who doesn't have a bed? Some people don't, wow, I'm an asshole. Lots of people don't. I have a bed. And a couch. And a table--fuck, uh, a bed, yeah--"

[MythicDusk]

Tez was so endeared by his stumblinc comments. The heat against his thigh made him tremble. He couldn't help how he bit his lip, how he looked at Collins like he was all he ever wanted in the world. Slowly, he reached up to touch his lips, to hush him with a smile.

"Yes, I would like to fuck in a bed."

His smile was teasing and full of promise as his own body stirred in response. Slowly, he stepped out of the shower with a smirk back to him, picking up the towel and beginning to dry himself.

There was something familiar about the attitude. It was like pulling on an old shirt. It was comfortable, allowed his muscles to be loose. Even so, Tez still felt his stomach tense at the idea of Collins inside him. The thought of it sent a tremble down his spine.

[zapdragon555]

Collins' tense embarrassed grin melted into a laugh at Tez's words. Right... it was okay. He could be silly around Tez. He wouldn't ridicule Collins for that. He turned off the water and grabbed another towel, throwing it over his own head to rub his sandy brown hair to some semblance of drying. When he pulled the towel away from his eyes to start drying his body, his gaze flicked to Tez, watching him dry himself off, his eyes lidding with an affectionate curve to his lips as he slung the damp towel over the rack.

He stepped closer and reached out to give a light warning touch to Tez's shoulder, then took some of the trailing towel and blotted water off of the skin of Tez's back, murmuring something close to 'let me help,' under his breath. His hands patted the towel against Tez's sides, and he allowed his eyes to trail lower, down the slope of Tez's ass and the backs of his thighs.

He'd been curious. Not long after his first encounter with Tez, Collins had done a lot of mental undoing. Some of it involved research. The thought that he could, and even would want to have sex with another man. Something further than drunken frotting or the things Tez had shown him in that alleyway... well, it was enough to spur him to learn at least a little about this sort of thing. Gripped by a sudden happiness, Collins leaned in to press an almost delicate kiss to Tez's bony shoulder, a smile on his lips.

[MythicDusk]

Tez hummed at the feeling of the towel against his skin, and the feeling of Collins' lips against his shoulder. Slowly he turned, taking Collins' hand with a grin. "C'mon big boy, we can continue in bed." He winked playfully, squeezing his hand and letting bo before he walked out of the bathroom and into the bedroom.

When out of Collins' sight line Tez gave a heady sigh, his grin wide and his cheeks burning. He could feel the heavy throbbing in his gut, the trembling need in every inch of him. Slowly, he moved to lay on the bed, chewing on his bottom lip happily in thought.