sixthiterationlogs | dog days are only starting

WHO: Vasquez
WHERE: South Village, River
WHEN: February 7
OPEN TO: All!
WARNINGS: n/a

If anyone had seen Vasquez when he'd been a wolf, it's only poetic justice that all of this is happening to him now.

Where before, he'd been the one to roam wild, not he's the one running. He'd opened the box in the north village, but almost instantly, the dog had been spooked by the kirin and had taken off, running and yipping (and probably terrified down to his little bones). He'd had a terrible moment of debating whether he should go after it before deciding that there were too many cruel things living in the shadows and no animal should be left to that.

Of course, what he didn't count on was how much of a fool he was going to look chasing after it, whistling after an animal that didn't even have a name. It's a good looking animal, one that he's seen herd sheep before, but running away like this means now Vasquez is the shepherd. He's already run back to the south village from the north and he looks it, panting and coughing (he really wants a smoke, too, but it's not the time).

He sees his chance when the animal is lapping up water at the stream. Chest heaving, he begins to creep up on it, ready to take his chance. He hunches over and tries to get all six-foot-four of him as close to the ground as he can, advancing until he's nearly on his knees. He readies himself, like a coil, and waits to spring forward.

Of course, his little dog decides he's all done with drinking, bounding away with a yip, right as Vasquez goes face-down into the stream, muttering and cursing. Sitting back, he swipes at his face and spits to the side, cursing in Spanish as he glares at the dog.

"You know, I could feed you to the kirin," he warns, even as the animal comes licking his cheek, like he's rubbing Vasquez's face in his idiocy. "Or the boar. Or any of the other animals."

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Whatever Faraday's mind was cooking up over this request, those words are not what he's expecting.

His fingers curl a bit tighter around Vasquez's, holding tighter than maybe he should as his lips move, playing over those words in his head, thinking about how that feels.

"You... you really mean that, don't you?"

He nods, slowly, and doesn't let go of Faraday's hands, not wanting him to think that he's going to take it back. "I do," he agrees. "I don't expect anything, I know I've had longer to think about it, to understand what I feel," he admits, seeing as it's been over a year.

It's a good lesson to start with, even if it reveals so much more about his feelings than he'd wanted. "Nothing will change," he assures. "I've felt it for a while."

He makes no move to get away though, his fingers tightening around Vasquez's, moving a step in closer to him rather than away.

"And you were living with that and knowing I'm gone," he says, at least having the common sense not to use the word dead in that moment. "And just gonna go on like that."

His hands do release Vasquez's then, if only so that he can wrap them around the other man's shoulders and pull him in close, hugging him to him. "I need you," he whispers against his ear. "I never wanted to put down like I have with you, and I want that. I know I'm an ass sometimes, but don't let me screw this up. Okay?"

He's not sure he's ready for those words, never said them, but he knows what he wants, and this is it.

The sadness is there, in his eyes, on his face, in the way his shoulders slump. He thinks he'd known about the lost possibility when he'd given Teddy the horse, but after a year of thinking about it, he'd let himself grieve and feel and understand.

Yes, he has deep feelings, and maybe he's worked himself up into some of them, but it doesn't make them less real.

Holding Faraday tight, embracing him as firmly as he can, he buries his face in his neck. "I'm not going to let you mess it up," he vows. "You don't have to love me, you just have to be here with me," he insists.

One hand moves to cradle the back of Vasquez's head, the other around his shoulders. Holding him tight, close, offering what he can in the reality that he is there, alive and well. No matter what their life is outside of this place, he can give him here and now, for as long as they have.

And he doesn't know. Maybe one day he will. He's never thought about loving another, never tried as he accepted his life as it was. Now though there's a chance for so much more and he wants to keep that. If that's love, so be it, but he isn't ready for words to it. "So I'm gonna work on that. Understood?" On them, on not risking this because he knows he will.

"I don't know what I feel, I just know that I want this. What we have," he admits, slightly hesitant but the words strong. "Never thought I'd say that about anyone." Didn't matter that he's found this life with a man, it's about the life it is. Being part of something with someone else.

Vasquez's eyes soften for Faraday's promise, because it really isn't something that he expected to ever hear back, but to know that he's going to try makes his stomach lurch, pleasantly, his attention fixed on this amazing man in front of him.

"Then we have this," he guarantees, pulling him in closer. "We have a home. We have a job to do, and we do it together. That's more than enough for me," he guarantees, leaning in for a slow kiss, because he realizes he's been wanting to do that since he said the words. "I love you," he says again, because he can, giving him a victorious kiss before easing back.

"We have this," he repeats, his lips moving against Alejandro's as the kiss starts. Savoring it, not caring if anyone can see them. That doesn't matter. Not in this place, he doesn't think. And if it does, then those that tease them will pay. He won't let Vasquez be hurt for feeling this for him. Not when he never thought anyone would. Hell that anyone could.

Grinning when he says it again, hugging him tight. "You know with this you are definitely stuck with me, right?"

"I figured as much," he agrees, wrapping an arm around Faraday's back to haul him in for a kiss that proves how little he minds that fact. In fact, he thinks he could very much get used to it, especially with how warm and perfect he feels in his arms. "Come on. Let's take this dog back, see if we can't start training it to be useful."

"Andale, guerito," he says, winking at Faraday as he leads him away.

dog days are only starting

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