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The son of a duke, a duke in the making himself, no shortage of beautiful people had been thrown his way by hopeful, opportunistic parents wishing that their child would be the one to finally tie him down. But none had been so beautiful as Yuzu. Alabaster skin dusted with the light sheen of sweat, the rosy glow of summer heat and a half day’s work high on his cheeks. He’d been a sight the first time Javi had seen him through the window, paired with inky black hair, silky and smooth, a sudden itch in Javi’s fingers as he wondered how it would feel to run his hand through each strand. Closer still, no walls between them, beautiful lines from head to the tips of his toes, fluid, waist so small, smaller than any woman’s he’d seen before. And pretty. Yuzu is so pretty. Unconsciously. Gracefully. Elegantly. Like a petal. And he has no clue. Wrapped in Javi’s family’s colors like a gift waiting for Javi to unwrap, a skirt so short so as to almost be indecent. He would have thought it planned if not for the way Yuzu moves, so unaware of his pull on Javi, magnetic, like every moment he draws Javi’s eyes to him.
It’d been the innocent, honest, “Do you miss them?” about his parents that had had Javi wanting to hand his heart over, and had him running away scared, terrified, his heart throbbing in his chest. In all the years there’d only been iterations of, “You and your sister truly are blessed to have been found by Lord Orser,” because he’d been born a lowly commoner and here he is now with more wealth than he knows what to do with. But not Yuzu, Yuzu asks him, “Do you miss them?” like he understands Javi would give all this up, much as he loves and appreciates Brian, what Brian has given him, if he could have his family back.
He hasn’t- People care so much about the title he fell into by chance. That’s what he’s used to. He’s not used to- He’s not used to questions about him.
But he’s back now, couldn’t keep himself away. Jun had said, “I wish I could just leave,” mid-season and he’d said nonchalantly, inside a ten foot wave cresting against the rocks, “So why don’t we?”
Wide eyes, hopeful voice, desperate, “Can we?”
“Why not?”
Jun may have wanted to escape the alphas, the betas, the chains from the size of his dowry but he still loves a gathering, a party, to dance, and Javi loves him so of course, when Jun wants, of course, if he can. In the garden they’d strung up lights, like fireflies they were, and there may be no fancy finger food or delicate glasses of champagne and no important people of society are in attendance, but with the maids and the staff and their families, small as the gathering may be, with members of the nearby village, Jun seems happy, laughing and smiling, loose and free in the way he should have been able to be his first season if only he had a lesser name tied to him, a smaller dowry.
He’s happy to let Jun have his moment as the center of attention, sipping his cup of spiced beer while he watches from the side, parked next to the small village band Jun had found on one of his trips out with Yuzu, stumbling into a bar no less. He grants Jun a lot of freedom when Jun is in his charge, but he admits that even that had scared him a little when he’d heard from David. Two omegas in a bar alone. Just the thought itself has his anxiety spiking. Jun had come into their lives so little, nothing more than a babe, and had been sheltered since, protected, because none of them wanted to see that spark in him dampened. And yet… he knows he can’t protect Jun forever. It has already started, hasn’t it? Alphas and betas trying to use Jun to climb their way up the social ladder, or to get their hand on his dowry. He has to trust that Jun can take care of himself because he can’t, he knows he can’t, he can’t be by Jun’s side every single second of every day.
A happy Jun is always a wonderful sight but he admits, his attention had been stolen away for the night, pretty much the moment he’d laid eyes on Yuzu. A shimmer of black lace under the lighting, gold and silver beading, threading, trousered and hugging tightly to his curves, a gift from Jun, he’s sure, specifically to torture him. Jun has been throwing him these knowing looks, smirking, and Javi has been adamantly ignoring him in turn.
He would say he’d been figured out only because Jun is so smart, cunning and devious, but well, he’d been told numerous times he wears his heart on his sleeve and his mouth may tell lies but his face never could.
Beside him, David proves this point yet again when he says to Javi, “He is a good choice.”
Javi hums and takes another sip of his spiced beer, feeling the warmth go down his throat. He doesn’t say anything, doesn’t know what to say other than, “It seems I am alone in feeling like this,” and even if that was untrue, “I can’t” because, “He can’t deny me.”
He can’t deny himself either, not fully. Spring transitions into the beginning of summer in the blink of an eye, Yuzu’s scent sweetening day by day, like he’s blooming. Like a bee Javi is drawn in closer, closer. It’s okay. It’s okay as long as he doesn’t touch. The slick on Yuzu’s skin, beneath his undergarments, it’s a natural function, part of his cycle, preparation for his body, for someone to lay him down, spread him open and slide right into his crevices, plant him with their children.
That too, yes, but Javi, Javi wants to hold Yuzu open, wants to taste it, wonders how if he would taste like honey. Each day Yuzu’s scent gets thickens as he begins to peak, and each day Javi wants a little closer. Closer, closer, clo-
They come crashing together. Yuzu kisses him, a quick brush of lips against the corner of his mouth. He’s caught up in what? What? when Yuzu backs off, away, and his mind is screaming at him no, no, not yet, and all the urges, all the desire he’d held at bay breaks free, crashes ashore, and he touches, he touches, finally, finally, kissing and kissing and kissing Yuzu, splitting his mouth with his tongue, devouring him, tugging his uniform loose to get at skin, pressing him against the shelving, desperate when Yuzu opens to him. Javi slots himself in, his fingers dipping under lace then in, in, so easily, two, finger-fucking and-
He didn’t think he could break anymore, but then-
“Javi.”
He can’t-
He can’t-
He pulls his fingers out, needs something else in, grips Yuzu’s thigh and lifts him up, making more room for himself and he’s promising, he’s promising Yuzu, with his heart on the line, “I’ll marry you. I will,” and, “I’ll take care of you,” intending, “Please let me take care of you,” and Yuzu is begging so prettily (“Please. Please fuck me.”) and baring his throat to Javi and it takes the last bit of Javi’s control not to bite, don’t bite, so when he’s near his peak and Yuzu tells him, “In me, please. Please,” he has no control left.
“I promise. I’ll marry you,” he reiterates, and then he’s coming with a groan, spilling inside, wishing against the odds that their coupling would take.
After they’ve untangled, he follows through on his promise to take care of Yuzu, helps put him back together, brushing a kiss at the nape of Yuzu’s neck after he’s finished tying off Yuzu’s bodice.
“My lord?”
“Javi,” he corrects gently, wants them on even ground. “You should call me Javi now.”
“I didn’t want to presume.”
He places another sweet kiss on Yuzu’s neck where he had laid his claim before. “I promised, didn’t I?” and when Yuzu tells him, “I cannot expect-“ Javi stops him, cradling his face in his hands and pleading, “Please expect me to.”
Javi rouses to Yuzu wide awake, watching Javi with amused, bright eyes, a smile gracing his features. Yuzu is lying atop him, his chin resting on threaded fingers above Javi’s chest, so light Javi has no trouble breathing at all.
“Hi, Javi,” he says softly, awed like he still can’t believe he can now, even after three days, even after all they’ve done together, taking each other apart.
“Hi, Yuzu,” he says back, lovingly brushing the fringe of Yuzu’s hair away from his face, tracing a feathered brow and following the curve down to his cheekbones, his lips where Yuzu’s mouth parts and Javi’s thumb dips inside. Yuzu sucks him in and Javi’s breath hitches, his cock stirring valiantly. Thumb still in his mouth, unwilling to let go, Yuzu mounts him, legs on either side of Javi's hips, hovering over him, hands braced on Javi's chest for support, Javi watching as Yuzu lavishes his thumb with attention until- until-
Javi pulls out his thumb, burns when Yuzu follows, chasing him until Javi intercepts with his mouth. Flipping them over, he breaches Yuzu again, easing in gently while Yuzu lets out a low, satisfied sigh.
“Javi,” he moans and Javi answers him with long, slow thrusts, reveling at each gasp he’s able to draw. “Javi. Javi, please.”
“Where?” he asks even though he already knows. It’s the same, every time.
“In me.”
“Yeah?”
Yuzu nods. “Yes. I want- I want-“ he stutters.
“Tell me,” Javi insists.
“All the way in,” Yuzu says. “I want you to- I want you to fuck your seed deep in me, as far as you can go.”
He’s not proud of the groan that leaves his lips but he’s not too upset either, can’t be when, at the sound of it, Yuzu preens, proud of himself for undoing Javi like this. When he comes he fucks down to the hilt, spilling into the farthest reaches of Yuzu he can go while Yuzu keens, his own cock twitching between them.
He presses an ear against Yuzu’s abdomen after cleaning him up, wiping away the thin cum that had trickled out of him that final time. It takes a while, soothing silence encompassing them, shrouding them from the outside world a little while longer, but finally he asks, “Do you think it took? That you’re with child?”
A stilted silence passes before Yuzu answers him honestly. “I don’t know.”
Quietly, a little afraid of the answer, he asks, “Do you want to be?”
A beat, and then, “Yes.”
He didn’t think he could feel any more affection for Yuzu and yet, here they are. He twists to look up at Yuzu, grinning, elated, “Me too. I want that too.”
Yuzu runs a hand through his hair, stills it at the back of his neck, cupping his head. “I want to have your child,” he says, and then shakes his head a little as if to correct himself. “No. More than that. I want to carry our child. You and me together, and I want them to have your eyes, and your hair, and your lips.”
Javi laughs joyfully and places a kiss on Yuzu’s stomach. “I want our child to be beautiful like you,” he says. “So they have to have your eyes and your lips and your cute nose and your eyebrows. They are like feathers, Yuzu, and I like them so much. And your hair is so soft and smooth and so black, it’s so pretty.”
He stares into Yuzu’s eyes then, tells him, “You’re so pretty, Yuzu.”
“That’s all?” Yuzu says in jest, but Javi hears the waiver of insecurity. “Because I’m pretty?”
Javi’s eyes soften. “Because when you smile at me, you make the heat bearable,” Javi says, thinking back to the prior summer. “Because when you’re set on a task, your eyes become so fierce, like daggers but when you laugh, your nose scrunches and your lids bunch up and the corners of your eyes crinkle and your eyes are like crescents then, and I think if I can see you like that, then I would be able to get through anything.”
“Javi…”
“Because you see me, Yuzu, for who I am.”
Yuzu nods, swallowing thickly. “I see you. I see you, and you see me.”
“Yeah,” he says. “I see you.”
There is no other word to describe him: Jun is a menace. He’d taken over planning their wedding completely—“A wager is a wager, dear brother of mine,” he had said so smugly—and every day since their lives have been overtaken by talks of the wedding. Flowers, caterers, guests, venues, gifts, favors. Anything and everything, at all odd hours of the day, sometimes late into the evening, each time deemed an emergency that needed Yuzu’s immediate attention. Yuzu humors Jun, eyes Jun with endearment, but Javi is nearly ready to move the armoires in front of their doors permanently and lock him and Yuzu in their quarters until their wedding day.
Although, David does have a point. If not Jun, then who? Javi isn’t exactly chomping at the bit to plan the wedding, is he? Nor is Yuzu equipped to go at it alone. Yuzu wouldn’t even know where to begin and seems happy enough to let Jun have control of the reins. Admittedly, parties are out of his wheelhouse so planning a wedding is beyond him, but surely he should have a say at some point? Or even be asked for his suggestions? His thoughts?
“Roses? Do you know how many other weddings will have roses, Javi? All of them. All. Of. Them.”
So, no.
“I am not permitted?”
By the lake, with the heat and the humidity and the haze of summer, birds twittering around them, both barely clothed, strewn about on the grass, blanket beneath them, Yuzu's head resting over his heartbeat, listening, fingers trailing down Javi's bare chest before skittering back up to repeat, Yuzu shakes his head. “Jun made it explicitly clear that you are forbidden to attend our sessions with Satomi. Not choosing fabrics, not the fittings, nothing.”
“Not even a peek?"
“Jun says that it is bad luck so you should not even get a glimpse. He says you are not to even know the color.”
Javi huffs, his hand buried in Yuzu's hair. “He is a menace.”
Yuzu smiles into his chest. “You keep saying that.”
“He is!”
“Yes,” Yuzu says agreeably. “But I would be lost without him.”
Javi sighs. “I'm sorry I am of no use."
Yuzu stretches towards him, pecks his lips. "You are useful in other, more important ways."
"Oh?"
Yuzu hums, open mouth kisses a nipple, biting down, hand skimming down to Javi's stomach, to his britches where he slips under, delicate hand gripping Javi's cock, stroking him to full mast.
"Yuzu," he groans, relishing in the feel of Yuzu's closed fist before shifting over, on top, between Yuzu's fallen open thighs. Javi rucks Yuzu's loose sleep gown up gingerly to reveal precious skin inch by inch. Hem bunched high against Yuzu's waist, one hand flat on Yuzu's stomach, feeling it quivering from his touch, the other at his cock to guide him, he fucks back inside. Slick still from their earlier coupling, Yuzu’s body gives to him easily, sighing with contentment while Javi bottoms out, filling him again. Yuzu always looks so beautiful like this, a seduction of part red lips, cheeks flushed from the sun and their exertions, black hair fanning against the backdrop of white cotton, lewd, glassy-eyed and half-lidded with pleasure only Javi has ever given him.
"Javi?" he asks. "Do you think we'll ever tire of each other?"
He moves then, unsheathing himself only until the head remains, looking deeply into Yuzu’s eyes, heart swelling at the sight beneath him even as he craves to be engulfed by Yuzu’s heat, craves the hole gripping him tight and trying to suck him back in. His hips snap forward, a powerful, well-aimed thrust, and revels at the cry that escapes Yuzu’s lips. Hands fly to curl around his biceps, nails digging in. Intently, Javi fucks him. In, in, the slap of flesh on flesh, Yuzu scrabbling for purchase as he’s being undone, falling apart at the seams. How can he ever? He tells Yuzu truthfully, whispers it into Yuzu’s ear, “I cannot fathom how I will ever tire of you.”
It’s by chance, really, that he happens to pass by their quarters the first day Satomi brings her fabrics, all due to a cancelled riding with Scott. He suspects the door had been carelessly left ajar as Jun had not expected him to return so soon, and over Satomi’s and Jun’s back, his eyes connect with Yuzu. Beautiful, ethereal Yuzu, standing atop the pedestal as fabrics are brought up near his face to find the best shade for his skin. Currently, it’s a whirl of pink and billowy sheers and small embedded pearls, pretty, like cherry blossoms.
“Hi,” he mouths silently, secretly, from the doorway, delighting in Yuzu’s expressionless face transforming into something soft, airy, affectionate and lovely.
“Hi,” Yuzu mouths back, not listening to anything Jun or Satomi are saying.
Jun catches on too quickly, glancing up at Yuzu mid-sentence and realizing instantly, whipping around to see Javi, glaring at him, marching up to the door while Javi holds up his hands in surrender, backing away, chuckling in defeat when Jun all but slams the door in his face.
A day, as is the tradition, he can understand. A day, as it typically is for everyone else, he wouldn’t complain. Not one peep. But Jun has taken this tradition of the groom not seeing the bridegroom until he is walking down the aisle too far to the extreme. A week? A full week? Two nights in without so much as a glimpse of Yuzu and his heart is sore.
Javi tosses in their shared bed, turns over onto his other side only to meet emptiness. He sighs, rubbing at the area overlaying his heart, feeling the twinges of yearning. Unable to sleep, giving up for the time being, he throws the covers off, slides into his slippers, decides he’ll walk the grounds around the manor for a bit. A crescent moon and bright, bright stars, maybe after he’ll finally be filled with the urge to sleep, to rest, to receive some reprieve from missing Yuzu so much. They can’t meet in the physical realm, Yuzu kept prisoner by Jun, locked away in his brother’s rooms, but perhaps they’ll meet in their dreams.
While lost in thought roaming, wondering if the following days will be just as long as the one he’d had that day, hoping it wouldn’t be and resigned to the fact that it probably will, his feet carry him to Jun’s balcony. His longing probably had brought him here, hoping against all odds that he’d catch a glimpse of Yuzu, even if only through the cracks in Jun’s curtain. How lucky he is that, a few moments after his own arrival, Yuzu wades out onto the balcony, eyes on the moon, eyes on the stars.
Javi’s breath hitches, drinking in the sight of Yuzu lit up by the soft glow of moonlight before finally, he speaks. “Yuzu,” he says gently, low, so that Jun will not hear.
Yuzu’s head jerks down, eyes wide in disbelief for a fraction of a second before happiness breaks out across his face. “Javi, what are you doing here?”
“I missed you,” he answers honestly. “I wanted to see you.”
Yuzu melts, his hand resting over his heart. “Me too,” he says. “I- I did not know I could miss someone so much.”
It’s rash, and it’s stupid, and he hasn’t done this since he was a child, but logic no longer matters. He grips the ivy vines in his hands, finds the footholds, and slowly climbs up to Yuzu, not letting something so simple air and walls keep him from Yuzu any longer.
“Javi! What are you doing?!” he asks frantically, hushed still, practically leaning over the edge. “Stop! It’s too dangerous.”
Dangerous? For Yuzu, this is nothing.
“I’m fine,” he reassures after dropping quietly onto the balcony. “See?” He makes a show of running a hand down his chest to check himself over. “Not even a scratch.”
Still, Yuzu’s loose fist strikes him weakly, again as Javi pulls him in by the waist, nuzzling at his neck after, inhaling Yuzu's scent. “Didn’t you say you missed me?”
“I did,” Yuzu says meekly. “I do.”
Javi cups a cheek, guides Yuzu’s gaze to meet his. “Here I am.”
Yuzu sighs, melts into him, eyes closing as he leans into Javi’s touch. “Thank you for coming to see me.”
“May I have a kiss?”
Yuzu twists and kisses the palm of his hand.
Javi tsks lightly, the hint of a smile coming through the corners of his mouth, knows intimately how Yuzu enjoys teasing him exactly like this, giving Javi what he asks for without giving him what he means. Without saying a word, this time he takes instead of requests, gripping Yuzu by the nape of his neck, keeping him still as he kisses Yuzu breathless. When they break they’re both gasping, Yuzu’s eyes darker, dilated.
He opens his mouth to say something only to be interrupted by an inquisitive, “Yuzu?” from within.
Eyes wide, this time in horror, he quickly pushes Javi to the edge, urging him over and to climb back down, all the while answering Jun with a sweet, “Yes?”
“What are you doing out there?”
“Nothing!” Yuzu says a tad too hastily, Javi wincing as he scurries down the vines, no doubt Jun will be making his entrance any second. He barely manages to throw himself under the balcony, away from possible view, before Jun’s shadow appears overhead.
“Who is the older brother here?” Javi grumbles as David, per Jun’s instruction, keeps a close eye on him to make sure he doesn’t sneak away to find Yuzu. A week, finally, and their wedding day has come. Not a moment too soon either. He’d been about driven crazy.
“You are, my lord,” David says readily, easily.
“Well then,” he huffs out. “I believe you may be needed elsewhere.”
“Perhaps,” David says agreeably and nothing more, following closely behind from room to room when Javi tries just to see if he can escape.
Freedom comes with the help of Jeff. “David,” he says, a hint of concern in his voice while he holds two identical napkins in his hands. “Will you take a look at this? I may be going crazy but are these two different shades? These are the napkins the staff has set up for dinner.”
“Oh, no,” David says, panicking. Shame would follow the Orser name if it ever came out that their dinner napkins for the wedding of the season are not the same color. “Give them here.”
Over David’s head, Jeff is giving him a meaningful look, one that doesn’t click with Javi until Jeff jerks his head towards the door, a lamp suddenly being lit in his mind. At last, David’s eyes are off of him. He takes the opportunity provided for a stealthy escape and, when safe to do so, practically starts at a run to the bridegroom suite.
He twists the knob, finds it thankfully unlocked, quickly taking measures to secure it in place before he turns to greet Yuzu. His first glimpse since that night on the balcony. What awaits him is a vision, off-shoulder dress with a plunging neckline, a plunging back too, no doubt, fringe of feathers down the center that part just above where he knows Yuzu’s belly button is to reveal the simple black skirting underneath. The feathering and the white fabric hang from the bodice, swept back like curtains to form the train behind him. Inlaid are crystals that shimmer when they catch the light but they pale in comparison to Yuzu.
“Wow,” he breathes out, awed as he takes all of Yuzu in. “You look… breathtaking.”
“Thank you,” Yuzu says, pleased. “I wanted you to be the only one to see me first.”
He hadn’t known how much he’d wanted that too, how much it means to him to be the first, how important it is that he gets to be the only.
“Javi,” Yuzu says, holding out his hand, beckoning him closer. “Come here.”
Smiling, he quickly closes the distance between them, pecks a kiss onto Yuzu’s cheek and then again next to his ear because he missed him so much, down onto the neck Yuzu bares for him. Later, he’ll bite that neck to mark Yuzu as his and then he’ll bare his own so that Yuzu can do the same. Until then, he brushes his lips against it, teasing.
“Javi,” Yuzu moans, not content, clutching tightly at Javi’s shirt, hands at Javi’s waist, fingers wrinkling the fabric.
“Yes?” he murmurs, kissing the scar under his chin, the one Yuzu had gotten as a child. “Tell me what you want.”
“Can’t damage dress,” he says. “But- I missed you.”
“I’ll be careful,” he promises, body thrumming. “Isn’t this why you chose the dress? To make it easier?"
“Yes,” Yuzu admits.
“So tell me,” he reiterates.
“Fuck me, Javi,” Yuzu begs.
How can he ever say no? It’s heaven when Javi breaches him, groaning and gasping for air during the long slide in. It’s been so long. Even just a week can feel so long.
“Hurry,” Yuzu urges, so he does, leveraging Yuzu against the table, plowing into him relentlessly until every thrust has Yuzu muffling his sounds against Javi’s shoulder.
“Don’t,” Javi commands, one hand curled around that graceful neck, thumb under his chin to force his eyes up to Javi’s. “I want to hear you come undone."
As they near climax Javi asks, “Where?”, still loves hearing Yuzu tell him, pleading, “In me.” There’s a thrill running along his spine at the thought—Yuzu floating down the aisle with his seed in him, on him, trickling down his thighs while everyone stares in wonder, marveling at his glow.
“God,” he breathes out. “I love you, you know that?”
"Yes," Yuzu says as they hold on fiercely, bruising skin, spilling together. "I love you, Javi."