Fletch blinked like he'd been spoken to in another language. He shifted to prop himself up on one elbow. "Well, yeah. I mean...I suppose. I just know I can get a little wild is all." Even though Theo now had some idea of what he meant by it, he still looked sheepish at the thought. "Just trying not to scare you. As for the rest...it's not everyone's cup of tea. Certainly something I'd prefer not to be on the receiving end of, so...if you don't like it either, then you don't. We can set it aside. This right here was all I wanted: just not having to hold back for once. Just...telling you how much you drive me wild. The rest — it'll happen when it happens."

His tired and satisfied smile returned. "Speak for yourself. Do you know how bloody hard it is for me not to stare at you when I'm on the job? You're just so..." Fletch released Theo's hand and reached up to brush his fingers over the man's shoulder. There was no word powerful enough to do him any justice. "When you were reading today. I think I'll have that in my mind forever. Just you. No one else's expectations. Just...you. Happy. I'm...I...I'm so shit at this, Theo," he chuckled. "You're beautiful. You'd turn my head if you were a stranger. But I guess I'm trying to say that...the man I'm desperate for is the one I saw earlier."

He petted his lover's face, loving the feel of stubble beneath his fingertips as he offered quiet reassurance. "I know. I swore off too and then in you came barreling into my life and I feel pulled like the current to your shore. No escape. And no desire to try."

Theo tilted his head though at the reassurance returned to him. Something Fletcher kept saying gave him pause. "You know you're not bad for having desires that do not match my own? Any more than if I had desires at a time you didn't I am not bad? We say stop, we stop no matter what stage."

He cupped the other man's chin and gave it a tweak. "I cannot imagine making you wait much longer. If this is how this feels...I could easily be made content under your mastery. Just...you know it is not because of you? It is entirely me. You are deeply attractive and charming and I feel safe with you. I know when I am ready it will be with you. And I've never imagined that before with anyone."

"I...wasn't looking, either, love." He faded out for a moment, lost in thought, and wherever his mind took him left him just a little melancholy. "When you came along, I wasn't ready. I didn't think I'd ever be ready for it again, after...after how he went. Certainly not within a matter of a couple of years. You know?" He came back to the present suddenly and with an intense need to clarify, and he squeezed Theo's hand back with a steadying firmness. "But I was wrong. I am. I want this. Wherever it leads, I want this."

Fletch looked more and more concerned as Theo thanked him. "Theo, that's...that's how it's supposed to go. These aren't special things I'm doing. It's basic decency. You're the same with me. Anyways, I...had a lot of practice being good and waiting...for a very long time, love, so...it's just how this has to be. You say stop, I stop."

He squeezed his hand back, equally. "One hell of a meant to be, huh? The market. The job. The gods seemed to not want to take any chances it wouldn't come to this. I know I certainly wasn't looking for this. I was...adamant I would never feel this again. And then you had to go and be so...kind."

His eyes misted up as he turned his head enough to kiss Fletcher's chin. "Thank you. For all of it. For being kind. For taking care of me. Respecting me and my wishes. I know how hard that is. For being patient because I'm...so new to all this and shy. I don't know what I did to deserve you. But I'm grateful it was you."

He lay there quiet for a long while, chest heaving and utterly spent. His mind was blank but for the impulse to evoke the three simple words that had fallen loose in their torrid passion. Because after all, he did love the man. Didn't he? He did. He'd fallen for Theo so wholly, so completely. It wasn't a trick of the mind. It wasn't the intensity of the moment, or the enticing danger in their affair. He'd thought he knew what love was before, but he truly had never felt quite like this in his life. And it had started months ago, too. At the night market. He'd realized then that he cared. He just...didn't know how much until now.

Fletch rolled to face Theo. The intensity of his fire had quelled to a gentle warmth, and an ever-present, sleepy little smile softened his features. As he basked in the man's presence, the depth of his infatuation couldn't have been more plain. "It's a little different every time," he said. "But...yeah. More or less. If you can't walk by the end of it, it means I've done my job. And if you can't talk, well..." He sought Theo's hand beneath the blankets, found it, and slipped their fingers together, seeking an altogether different entanglement. But whether it was his addled state or his hesitancy to say what he truly wanted to, his words didn't come easy to him. "Theo. That day in the market. When I knocked you over. And made the worst impression I could have possibly made. I...what were the chances, you know? What were the chances that I'd...that I'd found someone so damned beautiful?"

It quickly became an overwhelming whirlwind of sensation and emotion for Theodore. Soft sounds he'd never made before easily escaped him, brushing Fletcher's skin wherever he could plant his lips. He felt as if his skin was on fire and he was drowning in an ocean of ecstasy with only Fletcher as his tether back to reality.

Theo bit his own wrist so hard it would surely bruise to keep himself quiet as he careened off the metaphorical cliff. And then he returned the favor.

It was late in the evening and he was an absolutely boneless heap by the time they were settled back into each other's arms. Theo didn't think he could move a muscle if he wanted to. "Is it—does it always feel like that?" He questioned in a somewhat deeper, and hoarse voice than usual. "I've never...that was..." Theo giggled uncontrollably having no words to explain but knowing Fletcher likely understood how he felt.

He broke. Finally, he broke, and that fire in him surged into a raging and unquenchable thing. As he pulled Theo roughly into his room and kicked the door shut and tore at his love's tunic with desperate, grasping fingers, he thought that fever would consume the both of them. Before now, every kiss he'd imparted, every caress to Theo's cheek had been careful and controlled, as though he'd been afraid to break the man. But that caution was gone, now. He'd abandoned it the moment Theo had ignored his warning. 

Somewhere along the way, he'd lost his eyepatch. And his shirt. And his trousers. At last, he dragged Theo into his bed in a wild tangle of wandering hands and passionate kisses and messed hair and hot breaths, and showed the man just what he'd been holding back.

Theo stepped in closer and dragged Fletcher into a hungry, passionate kiss. "Then show me what I've been missing all this time," he whispered against his lips. "I've wanted this all day."

Fletch stood up a little straighter. His lips parted and his eye flashed in undeniable hunger. "I can stop there," he insisted, his signing rapid and clumsy. "I won't push that on you. I won't hurt you. But I've a mind to show you just how much I want you, Theo."

He drank him in but politely kept his distance. Theo knew Fletcher had said his strength was tenuous and here again it was brought to light. The man was trying to respect Theo's wishes. The question though was what was enough for Fletcher?

Theo smiled softly to see him signing and quickly signed back. "What is considered safe? What is the point you can stop at? I..." he blushed but kept going, "am interested in what we discussed last night. In touching and...being touched. But, I am not ready for full intercourse still. If that is too much for you, I understand. I can wish you good night here. Either way I am glad to know your wants and respect your wishes."