Of course it was okay. Echo turned his head, opened his mouth to say I’m sorry—he knew it wasn’t his fault, he’d just wanted this to be perfect—but Peri pressed a finger gently to his lips, before leaning over and kissing him, soft and quick.
Then Peri looked around and smiled. When he looked back at Echo his eyes were all full of light. Happy light. And then Peri started to laugh. He looked around again and laughed more, his whole body shaking with it, which made Echo laugh, and then he couldn’t stop. It was ridiculous. Peri was right, the crazy mess around them was funny and it definitely wasn’t the end of the world. They’d danced all evening. Peri had been surprised and so very happy. And that’s all Echo had wanted, really. All this was just mess that they could clean up.
Peri tapped his chest and signed. Thank you so much…for doing all this… Best night ever.
You do know how we’re going to be spending Christmas morning before we go to Paul and Jane’s, don’t you? But Echo was smiling as he signed. He didn’t mind. Tonight had been more than worth it.
I don’t care as long as I’m with you… Milly said it was snowing outside now. Come look.
They got up. Navigated their way towards the window. Luckily there was nothing sharp on the floor, no glass or pottery, no cutlery, all the food had been placed on paper plates. All of it bite sized. No, scrap that, there were some sharpish plastic toys from where the dogs had probably had a lot of fun tearing open the Christmas crackers. They probably wouldn’t cut into shoeless feet but they did hurt.
Peri bent down to pick something up, and Echo figured it was some prickly little toy he didn’t want anyone to stand on, but when Peri turned, his lip was caught between his teeth, and his eyes dark with the sort of longing that stopped Echo’s heart. The room, the night, the world, all of it dropped unexpectedly away. All that was left was him and Peri. Echo remembered the night they first met, the both of them not wanting to break the intense connection they had. Whatever had drawn them together back then, time had only made it stronger. And tonight, right now, that connection felt stronger and brighter than anything.
Without breaking eye contact, Peri lifted Echo’s hand and slid something onto his finger. Echo flicked his gaze down and his breath caught in his throat. A ring. The red plastic was a little sharp and it was so small it barely made it as far as his knuckle. He looked back up. There was no mistaking the part determined, part uncertain meaning in Peri’s expression. Peri was giving him a ring. And before uncertainty could completely take over Peri’s face, Echo smiled and locked their fingers together, before crouching down and one-handedly searching through the mess—his fingers scrabbling desperately through shredded napkins and torn paper plates. Please, there had to be another one here somewhere.
He let out a tiny gasp of relief. Yes. And barely fucking breathing, he stood back up and took Peri’s other hand in his. He slid the neon yellow ring all the way down Peri’s slender finger. It had a pineapple on it. It was ridiculous and somehow perfect. He choked back a sound that was half-laugh, half-sob.
Peri stared at his hand for so long Echo was sure his heart was going to beat out of his chest. When he looked back up, he was smiling and nodding, and Echo was helplessly nodding back. Yes, fucking yes. I am saying yes. Always yes, he thought, knowing Peri had to be reading him as clearly he was reading Peri.
Milly said it was as if they had some sort of supernatural psychic connection, but Echo knew it was just knowing someone’s heart and letting another person know your own as deeply.
With shaking fingers, Echo traced the fine scar on Peri’s arm from where he’d been hit by a car, seconds after they’d seen one another for the first time. An ache built inside him and almost desperately he found himself searching for the scar on Peri’s chest, near his right nipple, from where Peri had protected him, had stood in the way and taken a bullet for him outside Derek’s laundrette. Fear of what had almost happened threatened to overwhelm him. If Peri had died that afternoon, he wouldn’t have this. He wouldn’t have any of this. What if this really was a dream. All of it. His whole life with Peri.
Peri quickly undid the buttons of his shirt, lifted Echo’s hand so he could touch the warm skin inside it. Feel his heart beating. “It’s okay. I’m here…I’m really here…Not a dream.” He touched Echo’s chest, placed his hand on Echo’s ribs over his thundering heart. “Always be here. Right here inside…I am home with you…Want to be with you for always.”
“Always,” Echo whispered back.
When he lifted Peri into his arms, Peri squeaked in surprise.
“I want to carry you upstairs, is that okay?”
In answer, Peri wound his arms around Echo’s neck and buried his face in Echo’s shoulder.
I need to pee, Peri signed after Echo had gently let him down to unlock their front door. I drank too much punch… I hope everyone else got some.
Shaking his head, Echo laughed softly. It was all for you. Everything.
There had been no alcohol at the party, but still Echo traced his hand down the wall to steady himself as he followed Peri to the bathroom. Everything that had happened had left him feeling lighter than air, as if he might float away at any moment. Though as long as Peri was with him, he could float into space for all he cared.
Peri looked over his shoulder as he unzipped himself, and Echo took the cue, stepping close and hugging him from behind, before reaching down and taking Peri’s half-hard dick in his hand. Aiming someone else’s dick seemed to take far more concentration than aiming your own. Maybe it depended on whose dick you were holding and aiming though. And maybe it depended on how turned on the thought of it made you, and—Peri turned his head, searching hungrily for Echo’s mouth—how distracted you were.
They hadn’t done this often. Instinctively, Echo knew this was the kind of raw intimacy you took care of like it was sacred. Plus, the first time they’d done it, they’d both gotten so turned on, they’d come in under a minute after and Echo had cracked his head on the bottom of the sink when he’d thrown it back, crying out with the force of his orgasm. He was just about that turned on now.
He groaned into Peri’s mouth, and, the instant Peri finished, dropped to his knees and kissed the tip of Peri’s now rapidly stiffening dick. Bodily fluids had never bothered him. His love for Peri was so deep, he thought it was going to turn him inside out sometimes. Echo sucked him deeper, groaned at the swell and heat of it, at the way it filled his mouth and almost touched the back of his throat.
Peri would come if Echo just held him in his mouth like this without moving, had done so before. Discovering different ways to make Peri come was one of Echo’s favourite pastimes.
“Want to...” Peri took a breath. “Fuck?”
The way Peri said the word was so tentative Echo could almost feel the shake of it. His eyes went wide. Peri never used swear words. Even when he stubbed his toe or caught his hip on the pointed edge of the kitchen worksurface, or when he lost every inhibition during sex.
Peri’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed, and his eyelashes fluttered as though he could barely see straight. He was turned on and nervous at the same time.
Really… want you…, Peri signed, then his eyes rolled back in his head as Echo flicked his tongue around and swallowed him deeper. Being sucked to the edge of an orgasm got rid of nerves every time, Echo had found. But well before the point of no return, he released Peri’s dick with a pop and stood up. He took Peri’s hand, kissed the pineapple ring on his finger, and thought with a sudden jolt, You’re going to marry me.