[color=silver][right][sub]TIMESTAMP — Immediately After [url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5446588]Changing Fate Behind Closed Doors[/url]
FT —[color=3d8095] Ducaleon "Duke" Booker[/color] and [color=deepskyblue]Dominic "Doc" Wells[/color][/sub][/right][/color]
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[color=darkgray][indent][indent]
[color=3d8095]“Oh,”[/color] Duke said softly as he turned his head to see the peaceful scene that now graced his rather sparse living room. For the first time since he laid eyes on her, Lorelai looked at peace, and as he was unwilling to disrupt it Duke stood quietly and locked the front door and then made his way over to the burner phone that their new charge had left on the counter. Opening it up, he copied the number into his own burner phone before setting the former down and sending off a short text to the mysterious Ms. Samantha with the latter.

[quote][i]Outgoing text:[/i]
[color=3d8095][i]She’s safe. Good Call.[/i][/color][/quote]


He’d get more information later, and he’d make use of his Serpent siblings if needed, but right now he was looking forward to following Lala’s lead and taking a mid-day nap. He beckoned Dominic after him, motioning for him to stay silent, and once they’d both passed the threshold he closed and locked his bedroom door. At the same time, he closed the door on his thoughts of what excuse he could use if Lala catches them coming out of his bedroom together later. When they were laying down with Dom’s head on Duke’s chest and the younger man kissing apologies onto the pale man’s bruised temple, Duke let the shame for his actions take over again.

[color=3d8095]“I’m sorry I lied again,”[/color] Duke whispered, running his hand up and down Dom’s arm. He wasn’t fishing for any assurances from his boyfriend, and he didn’t want Dominic to kiss him and tell him it was okay. He wanted Dominic to be angry with him, because that would make sense. He would [i]deserve[/i] that. Someone younger than him and having an actual life emergency was sleeping in his living room with no idea where she was going next, and he was in the next room warm and comfortable with a man he won’t call more than a family friend if there are any other living beings around.

Duke knew that what he told Lala was true; muscles aren’t what makes you strong. It can’t all be physical. He was a prime example of how weak a strong person could be. Duke didn’t want Dom to keep getting hurt waiting for him, the reserved middle child between the shadows of his siblings’ large personalities, the one that chose to get swept up under the Tide so his mama and sister didn’t have to. He was being selfish, keeping Dom hidden the way he was, but he couldn’t bring himself to stop. He wasn’t ready to face his demons tonight.

Dominic could hear it in his tone. He could feel it from the way Duke spoke to him. Even without saying it, he knew his boyfriend wanted him to lash out in some way. He knew Duke that well. He knew him so well that he didn’t require words to understand what his boyfriend was trying to say. As he sat up, breaking both of their hearts by breaking the comforting embrace, he was preparing himself for what was coming next as his heart palpitations increased the already high anxiety. He hated seeing Duke punish himself.

[color=deepskyblue]“Look at me, Ducaleon…”[/color] He grabbed his boyfriend’s hands, first running his fingers through each of Duke’s, he interlocked with them and squeezed gently. Knowing to make sure he didn’t speak too loudly, Dominic brought his head closer to Duke’s, pressing his forehead against his beloved’s. [color=deepskyblue]“There’s nothing you did today that requires any sort of apology. You helped make that girl feel safe enough to fall asleep in an apartment she has never been to. How can I possibly be mad at that?”[/color] Dominic kissed his boyfriend’s lips gently. [color=deepskyblue]“It doesn’t matter to me whether she or anyone else who wants to be privy to that information knows we are together [i]together[/i] or if I’m just a family friend. What matters the most is I know what we have - [i]us[/i] - together. That’s all I need. That’s all I want.”[/color] He kissed him again, still as gently as he could. [color=deepskyblue]“I love you so much, Ducaleon Booker. That will never change no matter what. I don’t care how long it is until we can be out in public. As long as I have you by my side, you’ll never have to go about it alone.”[/color] And he meant every single word. He meant it with his soul and with his heart. 

Duke rested their foreheads back together again, closing his eyes and taking deep, shaky breaths while returning the tight pressure between their interlaced fingers. He [i]wouldn’t[/i] cry. He knew he could if he wanted to- and god did he want to- without any judgment from Dom, but it didn’t feel right, even as the hot tears burned against his tightly shut eyelids. He loved Dom, he [i]really loved[/i] Dom, so much that it hurt every time he locked his arms in place so he didn’t hug him in public, every time he hid the relationship he had with him. He was the one keeping it a secret, and he understood what Dom was telling him but it still [i]felt[/i] like it was his fault and he couldn’t make that stop.

[color=134f65][i]”Men don’t cry like little girls Ducaleon. You’re fifteen, grow the fuck up.”[/i][/color]

He wouldn’t cry.

[color=3d8095]“You’re too good to me,”[/color] He finally replied, tilting his head to initiate the next kiss, desperate to show Dom the love he had for him. [color=3d8095]“I might never make it. I might not come out until dad dies. You’re too good to stay hiding in the dark with me,”[/color] He kissed Dom again and tasted salt, his next breath catching in his throat in panic as he realized he had started crying against his own wishes. [color=3d8095]“How can we know you won’t care a few years on? He might live to his nineties out of spite,”[/color] it was a hysterical statement, and idly Duke knew that his fears were coming out unfiltered, but there were days where even Dom’s unyielding understanding [i]hurt[/i] because he refused to share it with the world because of a single person. The tears wouldn’t stop falling now that they’d started and he dropped his head to their combined hands, desperately trying to rub away the evidence of his weakness. [color=3d8095]“Why don’t you find someone strong like you? What is it about [i]me[/i]? I don’t get it, how can this be enough for you? How can [i]I[/i] be enough for you?”[/color]

Dominic felt a wildfire burning inside his chest. A fire that kept spreading the longer Duke spoke and the more words that came out of his mouth. This fire that was burning wasn't due to anything his boyfriend was saying -- not in any literal sense. He knew this wasn’t Duke talking. This wasn’t the man that he had known since he was a little kid, the boy that he’s been in love with most of his time on this earth. No, this was his father talking. This was Tiberius Booker’s bigoted views tainting Ducaleon’s imperfect perfect soul, making him feel so much shame. This is why Dominic [i]loathed[/i] his boyfriend’s sperm donor. No real father would act like he does. No real [i]man[/i] would feel shame or anything close to it just because they don’t abide by what he deemed “normal”.

If he were a fighter and Dominic sometimes wished that he was, he’d go to Tiberius’ home on Chestnut Street and wail at his face until he turned to ash. But he wasn’t [i]that[/i] kind of fighter. He was a different breed of warrior. A warrior who believed in all the good the man whose hands he held in his own had in him. No amount of whatever damage that Tiberius did to him would ever change one key fact. [color=deepskyblue]“I [i]have[/i] found someone strong, Ducaleon. You are strong. You make me strong. You have always made me strong. Ever since we were kids, you, Leone - both of you protected me, looked out for me in ways I couldn’t have dreamed. Your spirit, no matter what ever happened, gives me strength. I don’t need anyone else to know just how impeccable of a man you are.”[/color] He tightened his grip on Duke’s hands, stopping the man from roughly wiping his face while simultaneously giving some thought to what Duke asked. 

When Duke asked him how he was sure he’d still care in a few years, the thought of it almost made his skin crawl. The doubt was fueling the fire of wrath that Dominic Wells held for Tiberius, but at the same time, it radiated with a light and warmth he has always held for Duke. [color=deepskyblue]“You ask how can I be sure I’ll care in a few years? It’s simple. I’ve loved you since we were kids, Duke. Long before either of us had any idea you would reciprocate my feelings. You know I’ve always known I was into guys. I didn’t try and hide it. It’s probably why some kids thought I was an easy target or something.”[/color] He chuckled, thinking back about everything he endured. [color=deepskyblue]“Being out at such a young age was such a dangerous thing, especially where we grew up. I was bullied almost every day. If it wasn’t for you and Leone, I doubt…”[/color] He choked up. He felt his throat tighten and his stomach, too. He took in a deep breath, looking at Duke for the strength that he always managed to get whenever he met those beautiful brown eyes of his. He squeezed his boyfriend’s hands even more as a single tear fell down his right eye. [color=deepskyblue]“You are more than enough for me. Every day I am reminded of this more and more and every day, I fall in love with you just as much.”[/color]

Duke tore his hands from Doc’s grasp only to throw his arms around the man before him, tears halting now as held firm onto his lover. Doc reminded Ducaleon of things he did, of strength he had, every time he started to doubt himself. Sometimes Duke wished he had the automotive genius’ steadfast ability to remember all the good things Duke has done in his life, but the unfortunate fact is that the the middle Booker sibling was taught to focus on the worst parts of himself and even years removed from his father’s home, the influence still invaded every aspect of his life. Dominic Wells had long been an opposing influence in his life, praising what Tiberius scorned as faults, inserting delightful counterpoints to his father’s words whenever they fell from Duke’s lips like gospel. Dominic taught him a new gospel. No disrespect to his mama, but Dominic would always be the person he loved to hear preach the most. He spoke with a passion and surety that Duke himself hadn’t been able to hold on to since his parents’ divorce, and when the other man focused those words on him Duke could actually start to believe the things he said. Believe that he was worthy.

The darker man pulled back from his intense bear hug and captured Dominic’s lips in a fervent kiss, as if he could swallow the beautiful speeches that came from that mouth and absorb them into his being. He pulled back for breath and cradled his lover’s reddening face in his large hands, taking the moment to wipe the tear track from Dom’s cheek with the pad of his thumb before surging forward to kiss him again. He shifted around on his knees until Dom’s back was facing the pillows and dropped his hands from his lover’s face to his shoulders, pushing him back slowly but firmly.

[color=3d8095]“I love you,”[/color] He whispered against the pale man’s lips once he’d settled him back completely on the pillows. [color=3d8095]“I love you,”[/color] he mouthed against his throat as he trailed his lips down in a scattered trail. [color=3d8095]“I love you,”[/color] he preached as he looked back up to the man who was looking down at him with his hair fanned across the pillow beneath him like a halo. This man had always been a saint in his eyes, the kind that really mattered to people like Duke and his older brother Leone, the one with patience and understanding that most people could only strive for. When Duke felt like a sinner, he looked into Dominic’s eyes to be saved, confessed into his lips and breathed in forgiveness when their mouths met. He drew himself back up to his boyfriend’s face, arms supporting himself on either side of Dom’s head, and confessed, [color=3d8095]“I love you [i]so fucking much[/i],”[/color] before capturing Dom’s lips once more.

With every kiss and every word of compassionate affirmation that left Duke’s lips, it brought Dom closer to a state of bliss. Even before he was guided on his back to lay back on his boyfriend’s bed, there was a moment before it all that made his heart swell with an unspeakable, too-complex to put into words kind of happiness. A joy that made him smile. And then to hear the words after every kiss. To feel it with everything that Duke had poured into him, he just looked up at his boyfriend. He tried to hide it, but the overflowing emotions poured out in a few more tears. He was overjoyed.

And he kissed Duke back, trying his best not to make any noise - which was a lot more difficult than he thought it was. Dominic, while mostly soft by all rights, was a passionate lover too. [color=deepskyblue]“Duke..I want you to take me. But we can be quiet about it, right?”[/color] At that moment, Dominic chuckled, understanding just what he was asking. With the girl sleeping in their living room, was it too risky? Perhaps, but Dom also didn’t want to stop. Not yet. [color=deepskyblue]“I want to show you how much I love you too, Duke…”[/color] He kissed his boyfriend tenderly, hands running down Duke’s back slowly.

Duke shivered at Dominic’s light touch, the other man’s fingers leaving trails of heat down his back. Dominic was right that they’d need to be quiet, but despite this being the closest they’ve ever come to risking getting caught, Duke couldn’t find it in himself to deny the wants of either of them right now. Pressing down on the man beneath him, Duke snuck his arm beneath his boyfriend and slid his hand down the back of his sweatpants, staking his claim by squeezing his butt and bringing Dom up to meet him.

[color=3d8095]“We can be quiet,”[/color] He agreed, voice heavy and eyes dark as they trailed down Dom’s naked and flushed form, the shrine he would forever worship at. [color=3d8095]“I really want to treat you so right you scream my name, but we can be quiet,”[/color] He captured Dom’s lips again and made quick work of relieving him of any other clothing that could get in the way, leaving his light touch everywhere he could. [color=3d8095]“Who am I to deny you, after all,”[/color] He grabbed both of Dom’s slender wrists with one hand and raised them above his head, devouring every part of his lover with his gaze and letting him see how much he was affecting him. Slowly leaning down until his lips were right near Dom’s left ear, he breathed out, [color=3d8095]“I never could tell you no, could I?”[/color][/indent][/indent][/color]