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faded_laceThat's all, folks.
Chapter: Epilogue
Claimer: Ours.
Rating: PG
Warnings: BL, nudity, implied previous sex, mentions of shota, mentions of yuri, a bit of angst
Dragomir inhaled deeply, nuzzling against the back of Niles’s neck in blissful content. The sun had long since risen and was streaming into their room through the spaces in the curtain, but Dragomir had no desire to move. Niles’s hair, mussed and pleasantly sticky from their recent vigorous activities, smelled absolutly fantastic to Dragomir—equal parts comforting and sexy—and Niles’s still naked form fit so comfortably in his arms that Dragomir thought he might just fall back asleep and skip what remained of the Sunday. “Love you…” Dragomir murmured happily against Niles’s skin, shifting so that he was somehow even more comfortable than before.
Niles smiled softly, placing his hands over Dragomir's around his middle. "I love you, too," he sighed, letting his eyes flutter shut. With Dragomir's arms around him and the warm sunlight filtering into the room, Niles wished he could just go back to sleep, but he knew there were things he had to do today, and so he forced his eyes open again, rolling over in Dragomir's arms. "Come on, lazy. Don't fall back asleep on me." He giggled, prodding Dragomir slightly in the stomach. "Even though it's Sunday, you still have to get up."
Dragomir chortled and forced his eyes open to smile at Niles, moving a hand to the spot where he’d been poked. “I guess so… Though I visited Tatiana yesterday, so…” he smirked, pressing up against Niles and kissing him teasingly on the lips, “I’ve got no obligations.” Dragomir concluded playfully.
"Oh?" Niles asked curiously. "Just to say hi?" He smiled at the thought of Dragomir's family, his family, and added, "I ought to go see them sometime soon... we should go together." Propping himself up on an elbow, he shrugged and cocked his head to one side. "How's Tatiana these days?"
Dragomir propped himself up on his arm with a grin and a nod. “Oh, I don’t know if I told you,” he said excitedly, remembering the news he’d forgotten to pass on. “But we’ll definitely have to go visit her soon, because Tatiana’s pregnant again!” Dragomir beamed, already brimming with excitement at the prospect of another niece or nephew. “Maybe we can go together with Viorica to see her.”
Niles brightened at the comment, nodding hurriedly. "That's so exciting! I can't wait to go visit!" He grinned. "Besides, it will be really nice to see little Amelie again... Just think, she'll have a brother or a sister soon! That's so sweet! And I can't believe she's almost two now! She's getting so big!" At the mention of Viorica, he blinked, then nodded. "Oh, right, she moved out, didn't she? Have you seen her recently? How's she doing?"
“Not in a while, no…” Dragomir sighed regretfully. Lately he’d been making an effort to keep his nose out of her business, and, disappointingly—though he didn’t blame her—they hadn’t been seeing quite as much of each other as he would have liked. He was sure, however, that she was happy living with the woman she loved. The two of them always seemed so sweet together—like they were meant to be together. “Last I talked to her, though,” Dragomir smiled, “she couldn’t stop talking about ‘Corinne’ and how well things were going for the two of them.”
"That's good!" Niles chimed. "I'm still so impressed that the queen made her the General Commandant! To think, she used to be our superior..." he laughed. "Of course, it's a good thing, since you got to run the office now, Major." He grinned at Dragomir, pecking him on the cheek. "Both of you are so cool... And everything's been so much better now that the General Commandant is running the military, don't you think?"
“Yeah, things really have improved.” Dragomir smiled and sat up, leaning forward with his face in his palm. “Pretty soon there won’t even be anything left for us to do with the way things are going with the Berceuse Malheureuse.” He never thought he’d see a day when the Berceuse Malheureuse no longer held any sway in the nation, but he was certain now that their unit would be responsible for clearing up what remained of the organization. Still, there was a lot of unfinished business the old General Commandant had left behind, and Dragomir did not envy his successor. “What did the General Commandant end up doing with all that stuff she found in the desk, anyway?” Dragomir asked, chuckling. “It was in a hidden compartment, wasn’t it?”
Niles nodded. "Yeah, that's what I heard. Under all the strange newspaper clippings we found that one time, there was a secret compartment with lots of..." he trailed, blushing as he tried to think of a good euphemism. "... Contraband," he decided, with a nod to emphasize his point. "I think she must have gotten rid of it all, don't you think? I mean... I don't even want to think about what he did with that stuff..." Shuddering, Niles tried hard not to think about the old Commandant and the General... the infamous night at the ball still haunted his nightmares sometimes, and it was really an area of discussion he and Dragomir avoided at all costs. "I'm glad the general public likes her, too. After the old Commandant, they must have been pretty skeptical. But then again, everyone's really warming up to the queen again. It's really a good situation." He smiled; life, in general was good. Still, he knew there were open ends that bothered Dragomir, but he liked of make light of them. "We're definitely going to get rid of the Berceuse Malheureuse once and for all, though, I just know it! With you running everything and with Donavan gone, we're going to win soon for sure."
“I heard he’s in Albion.” Dragomir grimaced at the mention of Donavan, still pissed that he’d gotten away. “They confirmed that it was Esparanza’s mother that died breaking into the palace, though.” Dragomir added, on a somewhat unrelated note. “So I guess that means the little kid is still with him.” Dragomir shuttered, as he always did, sympathizing with Donavan’s latest toy. He sighed and shrugged, trying to put it out of his mind. Niles was right, they were going to win, and now that Donavan was out of the country, they’d never have to deal with him again. However, no matter what happened in the future, the acts Donavan had committed could not be undone. “…Are you going to the cemetery today?” Dragomir asked solemnly.
Niles sat up at Dragomir's question, looking down for a moment, gathering himself. Putting a smile on, he turned back to Dragomir. "Of course," he replied a little too cheerfully, then returned his gaze to the window, looking out into the now-midday. "I guess I should head out soon, hm? Julian will worry if I'm too late!" He kept his smile as he slid out of bed, making his way over to his wardrobe and selecting one of his now-many black outfits. Suddenly in a hurry to get to the cemetery, where he could cry away from Dragomir's overprotective-else-jealous nature, he dressed neatly but efficiently, tying his hair back into a perfect ponytail with a black ribbon.
Ever since the series of events at the palace that had changed everything, Sundays had become a constant ritual in Niles' life. Every Sunday morning since Julian's funeral, to which only he was in attendance, he dressed all in black and brought a fresh bouquet of flowers to Julian's grave and cleared away the old ones and any overgrowth of weeds or grass, making sure it was well kept, then sat and spent an hour or two reading poetry and plays to Julian. Always, he cried, always, before leaving, he placed a single kiss on Julian's gravestone, as if somehow, it could make up for his actions in the past. On the way home, he would think happy thoughts and smile to himself, so that by the time he arrived, Dragomir would have no idea how upset he had been. There was no need to upset Dragomir, too, after all.
Yesterday, he had prepared a fresh bouquet of white lilies, and now he collected them from their vase in the sitting room. "I'll be back before dinner time," he promised Dragomir with a smile, selecting a collection of Shakespeare's sonnets from his bookshelf. "I was thinking of stopping by Nicephore's on the way home. Do you want me to pick up anything?"
Dragomir watched as Niles dressed in black, as he always did on Sundays, and got up out of bed slowly with no distinct purpose in mind. He could tell when Niles was thinking about Julian, and though Dragomir never mourned for Julian himself, he figured Niles cried more than enough for the both of them. “Oh, yeah, thanks.” Dragomir smiled, following Niles to where he’d paused near the door, glad for the distraction. Dragomir liked all of the pastries Nicephore baked—partially because a lot of them were made from his original recipes. “Say hi and pick something out for me?” He grinned, moving to open the door for no reason other than to have an excuse to linger by Niles a little longer. “Whatever you feel like getting, I’ll have that too.”
"Okay," Niles replied with a smile. "I'll get something for desert then, so you can let the servants know they don't have to make anything, okay?" Even if spending time with Julian made him really depressed, he liked going to see Nicephore afterwards. About a year after Nicephore and his colleagues had been taken into military protection and eventually been allowed to continue to work, Nicephore and Dorin, the little boy who reminded Niles of Dragomir, had broken away and waived the miliary's protection in order to open their own small bakery in town. Niles has been very enthusiastic, and had offered some of his servants to help until they could afford to hire someone else, and Dragomir had even offered to teach them his recipes. It had taken a little while, but their products were really quite good now, and Niles always enjoyed getting to spend a little time with Nicephore.
Checking over the room one last time to make sure he had everything for the afternoon, he smiled back to Dragomir. "So, I'll be back in a few hours, okay? Don't get too lonely without me," he teased with a grin before turning to leave.
“I’ll be waiting for you,” Dragomir smiled, catching Niles by the arm and stealing a kiss. Dragomir held him for a moment, doing his best not to squish the flowers, and sighed, hoping the visit to the cemetery wouldn’t make Niles too upset… “I love you, you know.” Dragomir reminded softly, releasing Niles.
Niles smiled back, a sincere smile. "I won't make you wait too long," he replied softly, standing on his toes to kiss Dragomir back. "You know I love you, too." It seemed like so long ago that they had stood in this very doorway, back when it had been "his room," a concept that seemed so foreign now, having said those three words so few times previously. A strange sense of nostalgia washed over Niles, and he nodded for seemingly no reason. Good things, bad things, so many things had changed since then, but Niles wasn't going to complain. After all, no matter what, he was going to keep moving forward the bright tomorrow on the horizon.
Chapter: Epilogue
Claimer: Ours.
Rating: PG
Warnings: BL, nudity, implied previous sex, mentions of shota, mentions of yuri, a bit of angst
Dragomir inhaled deeply, nuzzling against the back of Niles’s neck in blissful content. The sun had long since risen and was streaming into their room through the spaces in the curtain, but Dragomir had no desire to move. Niles’s hair, mussed and pleasantly sticky from their recent vigorous activities, smelled absolutly fantastic to Dragomir—equal parts comforting and sexy—and Niles’s still naked form fit so comfortably in his arms that Dragomir thought he might just fall back asleep and skip what remained of the Sunday. “Love you…” Dragomir murmured happily against Niles’s skin, shifting so that he was somehow even more comfortable than before.
Niles smiled softly, placing his hands over Dragomir's around his middle. "I love you, too," he sighed, letting his eyes flutter shut. With Dragomir's arms around him and the warm sunlight filtering into the room, Niles wished he could just go back to sleep, but he knew there were things he had to do today, and so he forced his eyes open again, rolling over in Dragomir's arms. "Come on, lazy. Don't fall back asleep on me." He giggled, prodding Dragomir slightly in the stomach. "Even though it's Sunday, you still have to get up."
Dragomir chortled and forced his eyes open to smile at Niles, moving a hand to the spot where he’d been poked. “I guess so… Though I visited Tatiana yesterday, so…” he smirked, pressing up against Niles and kissing him teasingly on the lips, “I’ve got no obligations.” Dragomir concluded playfully.
"Oh?" Niles asked curiously. "Just to say hi?" He smiled at the thought of Dragomir's family, his family, and added, "I ought to go see them sometime soon... we should go together." Propping himself up on an elbow, he shrugged and cocked his head to one side. "How's Tatiana these days?"
Dragomir propped himself up on his arm with a grin and a nod. “Oh, I don’t know if I told you,” he said excitedly, remembering the news he’d forgotten to pass on. “But we’ll definitely have to go visit her soon, because Tatiana’s pregnant again!” Dragomir beamed, already brimming with excitement at the prospect of another niece or nephew. “Maybe we can go together with Viorica to see her.”
Niles brightened at the comment, nodding hurriedly. "That's so exciting! I can't wait to go visit!" He grinned. "Besides, it will be really nice to see little Amelie again... Just think, she'll have a brother or a sister soon! That's so sweet! And I can't believe she's almost two now! She's getting so big!" At the mention of Viorica, he blinked, then nodded. "Oh, right, she moved out, didn't she? Have you seen her recently? How's she doing?"
“Not in a while, no…” Dragomir sighed regretfully. Lately he’d been making an effort to keep his nose out of her business, and, disappointingly—though he didn’t blame her—they hadn’t been seeing quite as much of each other as he would have liked. He was sure, however, that she was happy living with the woman she loved. The two of them always seemed so sweet together—like they were meant to be together. “Last I talked to her, though,” Dragomir smiled, “she couldn’t stop talking about ‘Corinne’ and how well things were going for the two of them.”
"That's good!" Niles chimed. "I'm still so impressed that the queen made her the General Commandant! To think, she used to be our superior..." he laughed. "Of course, it's a good thing, since you got to run the office now, Major." He grinned at Dragomir, pecking him on the cheek. "Both of you are so cool... And everything's been so much better now that the General Commandant is running the military, don't you think?"
“Yeah, things really have improved.” Dragomir smiled and sat up, leaning forward with his face in his palm. “Pretty soon there won’t even be anything left for us to do with the way things are going with the Berceuse Malheureuse.” He never thought he’d see a day when the Berceuse Malheureuse no longer held any sway in the nation, but he was certain now that their unit would be responsible for clearing up what remained of the organization. Still, there was a lot of unfinished business the old General Commandant had left behind, and Dragomir did not envy his successor. “What did the General Commandant end up doing with all that stuff she found in the desk, anyway?” Dragomir asked, chuckling. “It was in a hidden compartment, wasn’t it?”
Niles nodded. "Yeah, that's what I heard. Under all the strange newspaper clippings we found that one time, there was a secret compartment with lots of..." he trailed, blushing as he tried to think of a good euphemism. "... Contraband," he decided, with a nod to emphasize his point. "I think she must have gotten rid of it all, don't you think? I mean... I don't even want to think about what he did with that stuff..." Shuddering, Niles tried hard not to think about the old Commandant and the General... the infamous night at the ball still haunted his nightmares sometimes, and it was really an area of discussion he and Dragomir avoided at all costs. "I'm glad the general public likes her, too. After the old Commandant, they must have been pretty skeptical. But then again, everyone's really warming up to the queen again. It's really a good situation." He smiled; life, in general was good. Still, he knew there were open ends that bothered Dragomir, but he liked of make light of them. "We're definitely going to get rid of the Berceuse Malheureuse once and for all, though, I just know it! With you running everything and with Donavan gone, we're going to win soon for sure."
“I heard he’s in Albion.” Dragomir grimaced at the mention of Donavan, still pissed that he’d gotten away. “They confirmed that it was Esparanza’s mother that died breaking into the palace, though.” Dragomir added, on a somewhat unrelated note. “So I guess that means the little kid is still with him.” Dragomir shuttered, as he always did, sympathizing with Donavan’s latest toy. He sighed and shrugged, trying to put it out of his mind. Niles was right, they were going to win, and now that Donavan was out of the country, they’d never have to deal with him again. However, no matter what happened in the future, the acts Donavan had committed could not be undone. “…Are you going to the cemetery today?” Dragomir asked solemnly.
Niles sat up at Dragomir's question, looking down for a moment, gathering himself. Putting a smile on, he turned back to Dragomir. "Of course," he replied a little too cheerfully, then returned his gaze to the window, looking out into the now-midday. "I guess I should head out soon, hm? Julian will worry if I'm too late!" He kept his smile as he slid out of bed, making his way over to his wardrobe and selecting one of his now-many black outfits. Suddenly in a hurry to get to the cemetery, where he could cry away from Dragomir's overprotective-else-jealous nature, he dressed neatly but efficiently, tying his hair back into a perfect ponytail with a black ribbon.
Ever since the series of events at the palace that had changed everything, Sundays had become a constant ritual in Niles' life. Every Sunday morning since Julian's funeral, to which only he was in attendance, he dressed all in black and brought a fresh bouquet of flowers to Julian's grave and cleared away the old ones and any overgrowth of weeds or grass, making sure it was well kept, then sat and spent an hour or two reading poetry and plays to Julian. Always, he cried, always, before leaving, he placed a single kiss on Julian's gravestone, as if somehow, it could make up for his actions in the past. On the way home, he would think happy thoughts and smile to himself, so that by the time he arrived, Dragomir would have no idea how upset he had been. There was no need to upset Dragomir, too, after all.
Yesterday, he had prepared a fresh bouquet of white lilies, and now he collected them from their vase in the sitting room. "I'll be back before dinner time," he promised Dragomir with a smile, selecting a collection of Shakespeare's sonnets from his bookshelf. "I was thinking of stopping by Nicephore's on the way home. Do you want me to pick up anything?"
Dragomir watched as Niles dressed in black, as he always did on Sundays, and got up out of bed slowly with no distinct purpose in mind. He could tell when Niles was thinking about Julian, and though Dragomir never mourned for Julian himself, he figured Niles cried more than enough for the both of them. “Oh, yeah, thanks.” Dragomir smiled, following Niles to where he’d paused near the door, glad for the distraction. Dragomir liked all of the pastries Nicephore baked—partially because a lot of them were made from his original recipes. “Say hi and pick something out for me?” He grinned, moving to open the door for no reason other than to have an excuse to linger by Niles a little longer. “Whatever you feel like getting, I’ll have that too.”
"Okay," Niles replied with a smile. "I'll get something for desert then, so you can let the servants know they don't have to make anything, okay?" Even if spending time with Julian made him really depressed, he liked going to see Nicephore afterwards. About a year after Nicephore and his colleagues had been taken into military protection and eventually been allowed to continue to work, Nicephore and Dorin, the little boy who reminded Niles of Dragomir, had broken away and waived the miliary's protection in order to open their own small bakery in town. Niles has been very enthusiastic, and had offered some of his servants to help until they could afford to hire someone else, and Dragomir had even offered to teach them his recipes. It had taken a little while, but their products were really quite good now, and Niles always enjoyed getting to spend a little time with Nicephore.
Checking over the room one last time to make sure he had everything for the afternoon, he smiled back to Dragomir. "So, I'll be back in a few hours, okay? Don't get too lonely without me," he teased with a grin before turning to leave.
“I’ll be waiting for you,” Dragomir smiled, catching Niles by the arm and stealing a kiss. Dragomir held him for a moment, doing his best not to squish the flowers, and sighed, hoping the visit to the cemetery wouldn’t make Niles too upset… “I love you, you know.” Dragomir reminded softly, releasing Niles.
Niles smiled back, a sincere smile. "I won't make you wait too long," he replied softly, standing on his toes to kiss Dragomir back. "You know I love you, too." It seemed like so long ago that they had stood in this very doorway, back when it had been "his room," a concept that seemed so foreign now, having said those three words so few times previously. A strange sense of nostalgia washed over Niles, and he nodded for seemingly no reason. Good things, bad things, so many things had changed since then, but Niles wasn't going to complain. After all, no matter what, he was going to keep moving forward the bright tomorrow on the horizon.
