ax_main | Gilmore and Nolan

So much communication, and cuteness, and then hormones kick in. But first they manage to straighten some things out about what they're doing and how they're doing it, in remarkably mature ways!

Nolan stretched happily, enjoying the comfort of his own bed and the high thread count of his sheets, before settling down again, resting a hand on Shaun's chest. The evening had been a, well, a glorious one, as usual when it came to Shaun, even before they had made it back to his apartment and started losing clothes. Shaun had this way of making every moment shine brighter than the rest of Nolan's life, and it was a gift.

Nolan's long, pale fingers traced a random shape on Shaun's darker chest, and he smiled at the other boy. "Please tell me you're spending the night." Not that Nolan felt like sleeping just yet, but the more time he could get with Shaun, the better. Clarice could just as easily take them back to school the next day.

Shaun was loving Nolan's dedication to continuous improvement when it came to intimacy. He'd started to wonder if Nolan was studying up on techniques when they weren't together, because he was doing -- pardon the pun -- a bang-up job every time they were. And Shaun had been enthusiastically vocal in his appreciation.

Now he was relaxed and boneless, and reached to curl an arm around Nolan and stroke his fingertips through Nolan's deliciously-mussed blond hair. "I think I might be permanently welded to these sheets," Shaun rumbled a low, quiet laugh. "So I think that's a yes. God, you would get me in so much trouble back home."

"I'd get you in trouble?" Nolan echoed, amused more than outraged, by far. He tilted his head up into the contact somewhat, before settling down again. These moments felt so natural with Shaun, when they had always felt somewhat stilted with Siobhan, as if they had been following some sort of script. It was a gift that Nolan cherished.

"My folks are really protective," explained Shaun around a comfortable yawn. "As soon as I figured out I was gay, sleepovers were no more. Staying the night at some sexy boy's house all alone? I can't even begin to conceive of the lecture I'd have waiting for me." He smiled, tilting his head so he could glimpse Nolan's face. "They'd approve of you so hard, though."

A surprised frown swept across Nolan's features briefly. "Would they?" He supposed that the fact that he had already become incredibly wealthy, at only 17, was a hell of a selling point, but surely parents needed more than just that? It had certainly not thawed his own father - but the less he thought about him, the better.

While Shaun had caught on that Nolan didn't always think very much of himself, he still did not fully understand some of Nolan's responses to these kinds of things. His lazy grin was paired with a somewhat bewildered scrunch to his brow. "Undoubtedly. You're brilliant, successful, and driven. You have life goals. You're charming and your manners are impeccable and you treat me like gold. Now, I'd be forever hearing about how blond you are," he finished with a soft laugh, "but I'm pretty sure I could weather that."

Even in the darkness of Nolan's bedroom, Shaun's dark brown eyes were glittering with amusement. He adored moments like this, when it was just the two of them, and they could just relax and talk. He didn't have to put on a show, he didn't have to be Gilmore of the Glorious Goods. He didn't have to be anything but with Nolan.

"You have my permission to tell them I get highlights," Nolan replied, in his regular soft snark, perhaps even softer-sounding for the circumstances. As if that was the point. He lowered his head and pressed a soft kiss to Shaun's chest. "You are gold," he murmured, immediately realized how cheesy that sounded and winced ever so slightly, but kept on going anyway, because he'd started, and for how true it was, "to me." He made a face after he finished speaking, clearly judging his own level of corny. "Sorry, that sounds..."

"... beautiful," Shaun finished for him, and touched Nolan's cheek. This was the time for truth, tangled up together as they were; time for speaking in soft voices to cradle the very precious words, fragile with honesty. "I like it. I like the way you treat me. I'm... not usually someone's first choice," he confessed, the words dipping even lower. It wasn't something he liked to admit: that gregarious, affectionate Gilmore was more often somebody's guy on the side than the main squeeze.

Nolan had known this for a long time, but this absolutely cemented it: people were idiots. But there were other words tumbling to his lips, words he didn't know what to do with, so he leaned in and gave Shaun a soft, tender kiss. The sort that hopefully reflected the possibility of those words, in its own way. His fingers brushed through Shaun's hair as he broke the kiss, added, "You deserve so much more."

This sweet kiss almost distracted Shaun completely, and he curled both arms around Nolan more firmly. Nolan tended to choose his words carefully, unlike himself, and he hesitated to argue with anything Nolan chose to say out loud. Besides, he'd really like to believe that... even if he really didn't. "You think?" Shaun asked, trying out a wry smile. "I'm not exactly... you know, great at commitment, myself."

Nolan brushed a thumb under Shaun's bottom lip, not sure how he felt about seeing that sort of smile on Shaun. Every one of Shaun's many, usually effusive expressions, he usually saw as a delight. But that smile didn't belong on him, and a barely there sort of frown knitted Nolan's brow for an instant. But Shaun's words distracted him from that. Instinctively, he wanted to say, you're doing just fine, but if Shaun himself didn't feel as if he was... Was he trying to tell Nolan something? Had he been imagining the shift of things between them, since the horrible trial Shaun had gone through? So he rephrased his initial response somewhat, and answered, with one of his much more practiced dry smiles, "I thought you were doing all right." There was a hint of a question in his tone, that he couldn't quite bring himself to ask in so many words.

They had been together enough that Shaun understood some of the subtleties of Nolan's manner, what to look for, how to listen to the quiet hints in his face and his voice. He could feel something delicate and uncertain in that smile, something hopeful in just a few words. He stroked a warm hand down Nolan's back, slow and lingering, and he lifted his eyes, gone black in the nighttime dim, to look into Nolan's. His voice had gone whisper-soft and breathless, because if he said this and it was too much, he could shatter this soap bubble of a moment. "You know that you're... first, for me. Right?"

Nolan had thought that maybe, yes. He'd wanted to believe it. But he hadn't known it, no. Not for sure, not with the whispers of doubt so easily called to mind. He let out a soft breath, and smiled. The smile was there and gone, brief but bright, as if he wasn't quite used to displaying that level of happiness for too long. "And I choose you," Nolan replied, because that much had already been made clear, but it was worth stating again. His fingers brushed through Shaun's hair, then tangled in there as he leaned in for a long, complicated kiss.

Shaun barely had a moment to register how ridiculously happy that made him before Nolan's mouth distracted him completely. His heart was racing wildly, but the twist of Nolan's tongue and the heat of his mouth were deep, sweet promises. You couldn't hide or lie in a kiss. At least, not one like this. He wrapped his arms as tightly around Nolan as he could, curling one hand around the back of his neck as though he might escape. In a rush of pure, sparkling emotion, Shaun tumbled them both over until he was bending over Nolan, cradling him in his arms, and kissing him like they hadn't just worn each other out a few minutes ago.

Once the kiss finally broke, he tossed his hair out of the way, and grinned down at Nolan. "You're beautiful," he rumbled softly. "I'm going to keep you."

Nolan's eyes cut to the side for an instant at Shaun's first words, but then he looked back at him with one of his usual, soft-dry smiles. "Keep me. Like a pet?" Snark was a perfect distraction from his own skepticism that someone like Shaun, gorgeous, amazing, glorious Shaun, could find him beautiful. He reached up to tangle a hand in Shaun's hair, always so hard-pressed to resist its draw.

Luckily, Shaun loved having his hair stroked and played with. Why else did he spend so much time on it? "Not in the least like a pet," he laughed, leaning down to touch his nose to the tip of Nolan's (because, let's face it, Shaun Gilmore was more than a little bit ridiculous). "More like when I make something new, and I know as soon as it's finished that I can't let it go. I'm selfish, you know. I keep all my favorite things for myself." Which explained why his selection of jewelry and various adornments was so extensive.

"More of a Pygmalion situation, check," Nolan replied on the same warm-dry tone. There was still that odd fluttering feeling in his chest, like warmth that couldn't quite be contained, leftover from that earlier moment, and the kiss that had followed. While the playful snark was a distraction, it was also warmer and softer for it.

"By George, I think he's got it," Shaun teased gently. For once, he was glad for his mom's starry-eyed love of old musical movies, because he actually had some idea of who Pygmalion was. Sometimes, dating a genius prodigy with a mind like Nolan's was a little daunting. "But you're the one who gets to shine me up and make me presentable for the gala. Right?"

"I don't think you'll need much help," Nolan pointed out. As Shaun had proved on their first date, he could dress up with the best of them. While, of course, retaining his undeniable individuality. Nolan was looking forward to seeing what he came up with for the gala. "Have you found something likely to rival Leto?"

"Very possibly," Shaun chuckled, shifting so he wasn't quite so heavy of a weight on top of Nolan, though he didn't loosen his embrace any more than he had to. "I'm going to have to take out a loan, though. Probably Loki." The brat prince was often trying to subtly give him money, usually in the form of jewelry supplies. Shaun quirked one dark eyebrow temptingly. "I don't want you to figure it out until the night of."

Nolan reluctantly let Shaun move; he liked his weight on top of him, but it was probably for the best. His free hand came to rest on the small of his back, fingers curling against the dip of his spine. "But, Shaun," he replied, a faint smile on his lips, fingers brushing another strand of Shaun's hair, "how will I know not to clash?"

He shivered lightly; that touch just there felt supremely good, and that might be exactly why he’d moved a bit. Shaun’s brow climbed higher, because he clearly thought he’d caught Nolan in an admission. “Oh? Do you want us to look like a pair, my dear golden boy?”

The moniker made Nolan huff out a quiet chuckle, but he couldn't help the lance of self-consciousness he felt. "I thought we could - go together?" He shouldn't have assumed. Again. When was he going to learn?

“There we are, finally,” rumbled Shaun, a breath of laughter in his low voice. “Too much longer and I thought I was going to have to ask you to be my date to your event.” An instant later, he thought that possibly Nolan needed a touch more reassurance than that. Someday, he’d learn the depths of Nolan’s self-esteem issues, but he hadn’t quite yet. “That is a ‘yes’, by the way.”

"Sorry," Nolan said with a sheepish little twist of his lips. He shifted his hand in Shaun's hair, sliding it to the back of his head. "I'll ask sooner, and better, next time." Because that had, all in all, been terrible, and he could own up to it.

Jesus, Shaun just melted when Nolan smiled like that. He leaned in fast to kiss those lips, grab that smile before it could disappear again. "Okay then. So, what do I do as your companion for the evening? You don't dance, I know, I know. But do I get to bring you drinks? Hold your hand? Call you 'my very good friend' in the sexy voice? Talk the media to death? I can both be pretty and network, I'm fairly sure. Just how adorable do I get to be?"

"Just - be yourself," Nolan said honestly. He didn't want to go with Shaun so Shaun could be his trophy boyfriend. "Network for your own sake. I can point out the people I've floated your mutant movie idea to. I - would appreciate it if you didn't talk to the media about us. Never confirming anything about my private life to them is one of my greatest joys in life." Because of how much they hated it, yes, and because it was none of their business.

Shaun was excellent at being himself, so that was easy enough. It was the last bit that caught him up short, cast a momentary confusion over his otherwise very-pleased-with-himself expression. "Not that I'm just itching to throw a press conference, but... what exactly are my limits, here? Can I say that we're dating? That we're friends? Because, according to everyone I know who's seen me with you, my feelings for you aren't exactly under wraps."

"I don't expect to fool anyone," Nolan tried to explain. "I wouldn't want to, either." Not that he was naturally very affectionate in public, but there were things Shaun and he did, like hold hands, or a hundred looks or small touches, that he would not want to dial back. And besides, he didn't mind anyone assuming, or knowing, that they were attending together. He only minded confirming it to anyone whose business it was not. "So I hope you've mentioned me to your parents, if you want to do this. But it's none of their business. The press, I mean."

Shaun nodded; he'd talked to his parents about this already. They knew it meant he was coming out as a mutant to the world. Now that he was on the other side of the country, they couldn't exactly stop him. Not... that they'd ever been able to stop him from doing much, even as protective as they were.

"Of course it isn't," he agreed. "And I have a good deal more planned for this opportunity than fielding questions about you and me. But I don't want to lie if I'm asked, either." His brows were steadily knitting together, his expression clouding. "Is there... am I following a script, here? Do I need to coach Loki and Warren on the party line?"

Nolan frowned. "Are they likely to start discussing our relationship with people who aren't, well, either one of us?" He thought that Warren, at least, knew better, but he did not know Loki. But right now, there was something more important to say, so he shook his head to dismiss that as something to come back to, later. "But this isn't - it's a request, Shaun." It suddenly felt as if he were dictating things, which had never been his intention, and he thought he had been careful enough in the way he phrased things. "It's up for discussion. And I don't intend to lie about it either."

Not answer those questions, however? Absolutely. But lying to the press was just stupid, no matter what it was about. Lying to the press about this would also happen to be insulting to Shaun.

"I don't know. Not for lack of trying, but I've never been famous, Nolan," Shaun pointed out in a soft rush of mounting frustration. "The only reporter who ever talked to me worked on the high school newspaper." He shifted, propping himself on an elbow, because this was becoming a less and less cuddly conversation. "You all have experience in this. I don't. But I want to. I've always intended to be part of the world you live in, and now it's... it's yours, too, and I want to be part of that even more."

Nolan pulled his hands back to himself when Shaun moved, and ended up sitting up and leaning on a hand, bedsheet pooling in his lap. He was frowning softly as he listened, then sighed - at himself, more than anything else. "I'm sorry. You have such a way with people, I assume it'll be easy for you, when it's all new." He kept being an idiot, and he didn't like it. The fact that he was an idiot when it came to people was nothing new, but it was still something he hoped to overcome, some day, and he hated it in the meantime. He reached out and stroked a hand on Shaun's shoulder, a tender, apologetic touch.

"Some journalists are decent human beings, and they'll accept a 'no comment' easily enough. Others, you'd have to be more firm with." If that was something Shaun wanted to do. "Just remember you don't have to answer any of their questions. But it's okay if you do." It wasn't what Nolan would prefer, but he would deal with it as he dealt with everything else, and dodge any questions sent his way he didn't want to answer.

Okay... okay. This was serious now, but Nolan was still touching him, so he hadn't screwed anything up too badly. Shaun stayed stretched out on his side, but looked up at Nolan and listened attentively. "Just don't answer the questions that are none of their business," he reiterated.

Then, he brightened, and slipped easily into the velvety-liquid cadence he used when he was performing at the dinner table with Vox Machina. "I'm there to support the scholarship fund and education for mutant teenagers like myself. I have my own projects and ideas to talk about, but if they're more interested in the dating details of an underage sixteen-year-old then they need to have some serious conversations with their employers about their job descriptions," Shaun suggested, with a bright-white smile.

Nolan was smiling frankly by the time Shaun was done speaking, and he couldn't help but reach out to thread his fingers in Shaun's hair again, at the back of his head, and lean down for a kiss, the sort of kiss that very much hinted at the words that might have tumbled past Nolan's lips if he hadn't busied them with Shaun's instead. "You're incredible," he told him honestly, once he'd broken the kiss, and the emotions inside him had settled down some.

Shaun thought himself pretty clever, indeed, but the way Nolan kissed him made him wonder if maybe he wasn't just fucking brilliant. He reached up to touch Nolan's face, brush the edge of his thumb along Nolan's incredibly chiseled cheekbone. He never thought so much could be said in the silence of a kiss, and it took his breath away. Shaun was good with words, excellent in fact, but right then it wasn't words that were important. Somehow Nolan said more with his lips pressed to Shaun's than he ever spoke out loud.

When Nolan drew back, Shaun curled his hand around the back of Nolan's neck, not wanting to let him get too far away. "I meant what I said," he stated, the words quiet. "I want to be part of your world. I want you to be part of mine, too."

With Shaun's hand on his nape, Nolan stayed where he was, leaning on his hand, arm half bent to be close. It seemed like the perfect moment to fall back on snark, but the look in Shaun's dark eyes stopped Nolan from resorting to humor, and when he asked, "Are we back to talking about meeting your parents?", it sounded less like a joke, and more like an honest question.

"I think I'd like that, if you don't mind," Shaun confessed quietly. He pressed himself up a little more, meeting Nolan partway... because that was the only way this was going to work, he saw. If this was real (and it was real), and if they were going to work (and he so wanted them to work), both Shaun and Nolan would have to give and take. Shaun couldn't drop Nolan into a full-on rowdy party with Vox Machina any more than Nolan could drop Shaun into a board meeting, but they could take steps. They could. Shaun's heart was full with the sureness of it.

"It would help them to see you as you, and not just as that famous guy their son claims to be dating." He smiled quite sweetly as he said that. "They're going to be nervous about me coming out. It would help if they know you're on my side. If... it's okay with you."

"Of course," Nolan agreed, ignoring the way his stomach tightened uneasily at the thought. He had faced off far more difficult, and dangerous, opponents than Shaun's parents likely would be, but... they were his parents. It wasn't like a business meeting. The point wasn't for Nolan to come out on top, but for them to like him. It was entirely different, and entirely scarier.

"Anything to help," he added, using his free hand to tuck some of Shaun's hair back behind his ear.

Shaun let his fingers slip from Nolan's nape, and down over his shoulder, and trace lightly over his bare chest. It was mesmerizing, how his skin nearly glowed azure in the faint light drifting through the windows at night. Shaun didn't mean to distract him. He just enjoyed touching Nolan so much. "They're nice people," he promised, choosing words with care. You need to see how an actually loving family interacts -- that wasn't going to go over well. "They're sincere people. And they've always accepted and supported me. They'll do the same for you."

Of course, that conclusion was already too much for Nolan to accept, and more than enough to distract him from the slide of Shaun's fingers on his chest. His dry smile made a comeback. "Let's maybe wait until I've made a decent first impression, at least, before bandying about words like those." At least, in reference to himself. He had no doubt that they had accepted and supported Shaun; he trusted his word. His hand settled on the side of Shaun's neck, thumb stroking his jaw. "But I'm glad they're good people." That was what he had understood, from that 'nice', and that 'honest'. That was what mattered to him.

'Nice' and 'honest' were not things he'd ever gotten used to getting from his father.

It felt like he'd said too much, though, and Nolan trailed his fingers off of Shaun's jaw and sat up on the edge of the bed, reaching for his water bottle to take a drink.

With a whisper-rustle of Nolan's very fine bedding, Shaun sat up as well, stretching his back and his arms and uncaring that the pale sheets were twisting around his hips whenever he moved. "Mmm. I told you, you have goals and ambitions and a record of accomplishment. I'm... making that sound more like a résumé than a Skype call," he added, tumbling into a relaxed laugh at the end. "They're used to me dating intense theater boys with no cars and C averages. Trust me. You're brilliant and capable of holding conversations with adults. You're amazing."

Nolan took a long drink from the bottle, listening to Shaun and taking his time with the water. He closed the bottle, then thought better than to put it back down and offered it to Shaun. "I'm sure it'll be fine," Nolan stated, meeting Shaun's eyes. He meant it, too. The meeting itself, or Skype call, as the case may be, would most likely go well enough, as well as something like it could. But no matter how well it went, Nolan hardly expected anything like acceptance and support; those were things that came with love, and he did not expect that from very many people in his life, given how few had ever demonstrated it.

Shaun took a grateful drink of water, and brushed his fingers against Nolan's when he handed the bottle back. He could get used to this life: designer water and two-million-thread-count sheets. And Nolan, naked and sarcastic and beautiful beside him. Shaun gave him a lazy smile, his dark eyes heavy-lidded and dreamy. Almost drowsy, now, he voiced an idle thought that had been drifting around in his head for a bit now. "What would you say to going out with Percy and Vax sometime? They're my dearest friends, I'd love for you to know them." It was tempting to go on, drown Nolan in reasons why he'd come to adore the boys as much as Gilmore did, but he was capable of learning. Sometimes.

That certainly put the thought of meeting Shaun's parents into perspective; adults were easy, compared to teenagers. Nolan swallowed as he put the bottle back down beside the bed. He could only hope that saying yes to this would not lead to yet another request, because he couldn't imagine turning Shaun down, couldn't imagine putting disappointment in his eyes. Besides, Shaun would be there too; it would be fine. "If you'd like," he agreed, with a brief, small smile. "You'll have to tell me more about them," he did request, as he settled back down beside Shaun. "I hardly know anything."

He slid closer again, and reached out in the hopes that Nolan would let Shaun wind his arms around him in one of those full-contact embraces that he loved so much. This, too, was a kind of balance. Shaun wanted a lot of contact, but even he recognized it could be a little too much for others.

"Vax'ildan is a darling brat, but you've got sass to match his, and he'll respect that. He loves fiercely, especially his sister and Percy. He softens up for people who do the same." Shaun smiled at that, because Nolan did feel things deeply, even if he didn't wear his heart on his sleeve. "Percival is brilliant and charming when he wants to be, but he usually doesn't want to be. He's got a real knack for tinkering. You'd have a lot to talk about, I suspect. He strikes me as someone who's lived a posh life, but they're both pretty quiet about anything that came before school." He paused, and added, "Prying doesn't work, I already tried."

Nolan knew other things that might work, but he had learned his lesson, there, and did not say anything to that effect. Just the thought of all of that mess made his stomach twist uneasily, and he readily moved into Shaun's arms, easier for the touch, if still slightly awkward with it. The price to pay for having gone without physical affection for so long; longing for it, but also being somewhat wary of accepting it. At least it was coming easier with Shaun, in private.

"So you're saying I should snark at Vax'ildan, and talk shop with Percy," he summed up, stroking Shaun's hair as much because he loved it as for something to do.

"Mmm..." Shaun sighed at the petting touch, leaning his head to Nolan's shoulder encouragingly. What were they talking about... ? Oh, right. "I think you should be your witty, clever, genius self, of course. I just happen to believe that you have more in common with the boys than you might think."

He quieted, paused, and then murmured, "They're... important to me, Vax and Percy are. Their whole group is. They made me a part of them. I know that teenager, high school stuff must seem pretty foreign to you, but... what I'm saying is, at the school, they're my family. Am I making any sense whatsoever?"

"I think so," Nolan admitted, after a moment's silence, his fingers still moving through Shaun's hair. "Family and friendship - they're not specifically teenager high school things." His dryness came back as he added, "No matter what Rivendale would have us believe." It sounded like they were to Shaun what Shinobi was to Nolan. That was what he understood from Shaun's explanation.

"Keep doing that?" Shaun requested, growing ever more drowsy the longer Nolan stroked his hair. He tilted his head, not enough to upset Nolan's touch, just enough that he could brush light, affectionate kisses along the elegant line of Nolan's throat. Without pausing, he reached up and turned Nolan's chin toward him with a gentle pressure of his fingertips. Shaun's kisses nuzzled up to Nolan's sweet mouth, and lingered there, soft and unhurried.

Nolan was hardly going to stop if this was the sort of attention it got him. Not to mention that it was a great way to stop the conversation now, before Shaun found more things to ask of him. Meeting his parents and going on a double-date; that sounded daunting enough, and he was happy to stop there for now. But that was only a bonus. The slow slide of Shaun's tongue was more than enough on its own to eclipse anything else out of the picture, and Nolan wove his fingers deeper into Shaun's gorgeous hair, petting his scalp as he shifted to fit their bodies better together.

Oh, that was good. Very good. So much better than 'good', Shaun doubted a name had yet been invented for it. He murmured wordlessly into Nolan's mouth, and forgot everything but heat and sweetness and the fire that licked along his spine every time Nolan touched him. Shaun was most certainly going to spend the night, but he was not going to spend it sleeping.