Nikola woke up naked and drenched in sweat. He looked at Dimitri, who was looking at him.
Just as naked, just as content.
"Dimitri," Nikola groaned as he placed a hand over the vampire's cheek. "That was…"
"Hot? Perfect? The best shag of your life?" Dimitri asked him as he nuzzled into Nikola's hand.
"A very good reason to not deprive you of bedroom sport for too long. I thought I would overheat and die," Nikola countered.
Dimitri chuckled, kicking the sheets off himself and then offering his hand to Nikola.
"No big deal," the vampire told him as he smiled at him. "Satisfaction never fails to bring the cats back, you know?"
Nikola snorted, taking the offered hand.
The two went to the bathroom, only for Nikola to take a sharp breath when he saw himself in the mirror.
"Did you really have to litter my neck with hickeys?" The brunette asked.
Dimitri nodded sagely.
"How am I going to go to the guild? Everyone will know what I did last night!" Nikola protested.
Dimitri just snorted.
"So? Let them talk. If they are good friends, they will be happy that we have found time for ourselves. If they are not, then they will be green with envy that you managed to get laid."
Nikola sighed, burying his face in his hands.
"And if they just think that I am deprived?" Nikola asked him. He didn't know if he still had some turtlenecks, but if he did find one, even if it was about as thick as a winter coat made from polar bear fur, then he was going to done it on.
"Deprived? For loving and being loved in return? Niki… do you still think that you should be shamed for loving a man?" Dimitri knew that Nikola had his reservations in the beginning.
He also knew that Nikola was not someone who liked to stand out.
Which was ironic, because the brunette still managed it without trying.
"I don't know," Nikola said as he looked at the reflection in the mirror. "We are men. We are lucky that no one is trying to stone us to death."
Dimitri nodded, taking Nikola in his arms, holding him tightly.
"I know that you think we should merely survive instead of live, but this world is not like ours," the vampire began as he laid a gentle kiss on Nikola's nape. "This world doesn't judge. And even if they judge, they won't judge you. You fed them, you helped protect them. You gave your all. If someone is raising trouble just because two men love one another, then the rest will sort that person out."
Nikola blinked.
"This is not how it works, though," Nikola said as he looked back at his reflection. "We are the minority. The majority is rarely understanding of the minority."
Dimitri nodded.
"I refuse to hide. You are not a dirty secret. You are my husband," Dimitri told him as he laid another kiss on Nikola's nape. "And if you can't live with that, then maybe you should ask yourself, why do I stay by his side when death is the only outcome I can think of?"
Nikola remained silent for a whole minute, doing just that.
He couldn't imagine a day when he would turn his back on Dimitri. He couldn't imagine a world when he would ever leave Dimitri just because the going got tough.
"You never gave me a choice," Nikola had said it before, but he was trying to clear out the mystery that was tugging him and linking him to this man.
This man who was a reassuring presence behind him.
"And I think that is why I loved you so. Because, if I were given a choice, I would have chosen wrong."
"Why?" Dimitri asked as he kissed Nikola once more. His hands laid gently on Nikola's sides.
The vampire marveled at the fact that Nikola fit in his arms. How the druid's head was neatly rested under Dimitri's chin.
The vampire was no giant; Nikola was no dwarf.
If there was one thing that told Dimitri that they were made for each other, then that perfect harmony they called embrace was the only answer he could think of.
"Because I would have tried to pick the safest thing. I would have told you no. You weren't going to be exotic enough for me to take this leap of fate." Nikola knew that he was hurting Dimitri like this. He knew that it was the wrong thing to do.
But, still, he wanted to get to the bottom of this.
"And now? Am I still exotic?" Dimitri stopped breathing, waiting for an answer. He was afraid that if he breathed too loudly, he would miss Nikola's words.
The brunette was whispering. Words so soft that had Dimitri not been a vampire, he would have missed them.
"You are familiar now," Nikola said, his lips barely moving. His brain realizing what he had avoided for the better part of the last couple of months. "You are Dimitri. My partner. The one with whom I have a family now. The one my baby boy will call father one day."
Dimitri let out the breath he was holding.
"We are linked, you and I," the blonde vampire said.
"Forever?" Nikola asked, this time a bit louder. Wanting to have his life sorted out now, in the bathroom, before the mirror, which showed him a man who loved him.
A man who had marked him.
"Forever is too short a time for us," Dimitri said as he laid another kiss on Nikola's neck. "If this world begins to decline, then we are going to jump ship. Just you, me, the babies, Rocky, Tony, Jack, Jean, Andrew, and Bleda."
Nikola giggled.
"Rocky is not going anywhere without Silvia," the brunette joked.
Dimitri snorted.
"No, I guess not. By the way, when did you make that plant sentient?"
Nikola's eyes widened.
"I did what?" He all but screeched.
"You made it so that it can speak to Rocky. Why do you think he loves it so much?"
Nikola groaned.
"What are the chances, do you think, that Silvia will tell Rocky I overwatered her the other day?" Nikola asked, already imagining the golem's yells.
"Butter the plant up, dear. Then it won't tell," Dimitri said between giggles.