Archive: Ask first, please.
Warnings: M/M slash. If this concept disturbs you, read no further.
Fandom/Summary: Modern comicsverse. Garth watches Dick as he sleeps. Fourth in the “Sea and Sky” series.
Disclaimer: All characters property of DC Comics. What I have done with them is mine. But they seem much happier, don’t you think? ;-)
He curls beside me in sleep, and I watch him as he dreams.
He is…finely made, a body honed to perfection by the demands of his mentor and his own driving passions. The fact that I now know his body, have traced the lines and planes of it intimately, still astonishes me. I had never thought to be here, like this.
But dreamed, yes. When I was younger I came back time and again to see him, to stand and fight by his side. Even as my own weaknesses kept me from committing full-time to our…“work,” I still answered whenever he called. How could I not?
My heart’s own love teased me for that. “Tell him,” she said, eyes gleaming. “And invite me to watch.” I blushed, and shook my head: no, never, he isn’t interested, and besides which I have *you.* Then we made love, drifting with the sea’s deep currents, and my attraction to him was such a fleeting thing compared to my devotion to her.
The truth of her death overwhelmed me. For so long I wandered aimless, never daring to stop for fear that I might shatter with her loss. But time, as they say, heals—and in time, I found both purpose and power enough to live again. As for love—
I see her smiling down at me, in my mind’s eye. No, my heart, I answer her unspoken question; here is friendship and comfort and desire, but not…it is not….
Idiot, she says in the voice of my own subconscious. Don’t be so quick to decide. Enjoy this for what it is. Let tomorrow fend for itself.
Her wisdom—my own?—strikes true, and I smile to myself in the dark.
A blue-black comma of hair falls over his eyelid when he shifts, and I brush it away before the small irritation wakes him. He does not rest enough, so every moment he sleeps is a blessing. I do not mean for anything to disturb him; this night, the city he protects must do without his guardianship.
If that is selfish, then so be it. He has given me too great a gift to share him with anyone else. And the warm comfort of his body against mine lulls me into a gentle languor that I have no reason or desire to resist.
Of necessity I reached out to him first; it was *not* by accident the movement of my hands caught his eye, that day on Montauk Point. I knew that he seemed fascinated by the gestures of spell-casting, and his beautiful reaction to a simple motion was all the invitation I needed.
He reached back for me with such loneliness, a mirror to my own.
I know already how I should rouse him, when morning comes. I want to map the shape of him with hands and tongue, learning the places that make him sigh even in sleep.
But for now I only hold him close, and wait eagerly for the dawn.
Note: The sequel—if I ever get around to it, or unless Dannell feels like writing it first—will be an *underwater* PWP called “Full Fathom Five.” Gonna mine that (rather gruesome, but oh well) Shakespeare quote for all it’s worth!