Love Thy Neighbor ✓

ten

Luca tried not to stare at him and busied himself with the hasty removal of his own clothes, following Blake out to the edge and grinning with the giddiness of their nakedness. As he got closer, Blake ran towards the very end and jumped into the lake, a rippling pool swimming outwards as he went under the water.

Without question, without hesitance, Luca was following, jumping into the water and savoring the kiss of sunlight over his skin before he was submerged. When he swam up, surfacing with a clear chest and a greedy inhale, he was brushing his soaked hair away from his face and swimming besides Blake.

And Blake, his eyes flooding with something that made Luca's heart race, brushed their noses together and grazed their lips, the petals of his blossoming tulips ghosting Luca's bow, his cheek, then his lips again. For a minute they stayed, their hearts bursting open before the chorus of angels that always watched from above whenever Blake was around.

Then Luca kissed him. Blake smiled against his lips and the voices from heaven mellowed, melted around him like liquid sunlight, like the rich gold that pumped through Blake's veins.

It was as their lips were opening against each other's, sweet and desperate, that Blake managed to pull himself away long enough to murmur, "Be with me."

"What?" Luca asked softly, his brown eyes eagerly searching Blake's face, his earnest blue irises.

"I want you to be with me," he whispered, tenderly kissing Luca's lips. "I want you to be mine, Luc. All mine."

"Are you asking me to be official with you?" He asked, barely audible. "Are you asking me to your boyfriend?"

"That depends," he grinned, his lips pink; pearls white. "Are you going to say yes?"

Luca only kissed him again, and again, and again, and again, and again, his lips blooming into an aching smile. Blake's grin split into silvery laughter and he held Luca's face in his hands, smoothed the pads of his thumbs over brown, freckled cheekbones. He brought their faces closer, pressed his nose against Luca; kissed him all over.

"Yes," he whispered, nodding his head. "Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes."

They soothed themselves in the cool of the lake until the sun had near set. Only when the clouds had dispersed and the light was fading did they get out of the water. Blake stretched out before the last blink of the sun, the muscles of his back moving, his shoulder blades briefly kissing, before he brought his arms back down to his sides. He collected his clothes and slipped into them as Luca was pulling his top back over his head.

"Ready to go?" Luca asked, the flesh of his throat taut as he gazed up at the silvering sky.

Blake hummed and stepped swiftly towards him, planting a kiss to his neck. "Stay with me tonight," he murmured thoughtfully, running a hand through Luca's hair to tidy it up. 

When he dropped his hand, Luca caught it. "I always stay up with you," he laughed. Now that summer had started, they were getting less sleep than ever. Somehow, Luca never felt especially tired.

"No," Blake said, shaking his head and leading them back up towards the woods; the shortcut home. "Stay with me. In my room."

"You want me to share the bed with you?" Luca asked, blinking at him.