A subtle tapping sound on his window startled Wooyoung awake. Within a moment, he had blinked his eyes open.
The moon had wandered, but it still shone through his window. Part of his body was submerged in its eerie glow that gave his arm a ghostly shine. He dodged the pale light as if getting it into his face would put a hex on him. Quickly, he pushed his cosy blanket back and hurried to the window. It opened with a creak to expose San outside clinging to the windowsill. He grinned at Wooyoung when the historian fumbled to open the second half of the window as well.
"Did you peek into every window to find out which room was mine?" Wooyoung kept his voice low so their ambiguous situation wouldn't get detected by the city guard. When he stepped aside, San swung his body in through the window. His cloak billowed behind him as he landed on the floor with a soft thud. While the man closed the window with quiet movements, Wooyoung sat back down on his bed. The moonlight was enough for them to see as San detached the bag that he wore slung around his hips on a belt. With a triumphant grin, he dangled it in front of Wooyoung's face.
"I did; it was too late to come in through the door. Didn't want the guard to snatch these before I got them to you."
Wooyoung snatched the bag and undid the soft leather pouch gingerly. What came out were two books bound in matching leather. Heavy, they laid in his palm as he set down the bag on the floor.
"Two?"
"I looked through some others we took that day and the second one had the same handwriting. I figured your friend would be happy about having both of them back," San grinned as he put his coat on Wooyoung's dresser. While his gaze wandered to the fireplace, Wooyoung stood to store the books in his own bag safely. Afterwards, he carried San's bag over to put it with his cloak.
"Do you mind if I make a fire?"
"Go ahead."
Wooyoung sat down on the bed again and played with his toes while San knelt in front of the fireplace. Soon, sparks flew and the beginnings of the first flames licked on the wood. San warmed his hands with a pleased sigh.
"I forgot to bring you food, but I could wake a maid if you are hungry?" Wooyoung suggested as he watched the man's broad shoulders.
San shook his head and stood to return to Wooyoung. Wooyoung leaned back on his hands to look up at him, when instead of sitting down, San came to stand right in front of him.
"No need; I ate before I left. I told my leader I had important business to do here. I think he believed I was meeting a woman," San snickered. His nimble fingers found their way under Wooyoung's knees and pulled his feet back down on the floor. Cold, the wood touched his soles.
"Are his assumptions about what you might meet a woman for and what you are planning tonight so far off from each other?" Wooyoung stabilised San's waist when the man threw one of his firm thighs over Wooyoung's lap. Comfortable, he settled down on Wooyoung and wrapped his arms around his neck. Wooyoung embraced his waist loosely just so they could be close.
"That depends on how much we get done before dusk. We always find the time to share a bed, but we rarely find the time to talk. Tonight, I would rather talk than hold you and be left with questions for many hundred years again."
Awed by his intrigue, Wooyoung hid his blush in the man's shoulder. Every time they met, it took San a moment to adjust to the idea of Wooyoung again, but his body always remembered their closeness after a while. Cuddled together, they shared each other's warmth until the room heated up. San's waist was small in Wooyoung's hands, and he could feel his wired muscles aching down his back.
"Then please, as me anything you want," Wooyoung muttered into his shoulder.
San was the closest to a boyfriend Wooyoung ever had. He had one nights stands before, sure. Throughout the epochs of time, actually. But he had never met the same person so often, never connected in the same way romantically. His heart throbbed whenever he met San and he wanted to learn everything about the man, even if it would take him an eternity to do so.
Wooyoung didn't want to fall in love since so much separated them and they could barely connect on the same level, but his adoration for San was just too big already.
"You said you would find out when we would meet again after this. Tell me so I know how well I have to remember you this time."
Wooyoung brought one hand up to card through San's hair. The man nuzzled his neck affectionately in response.
"Florence, the ancient Faesulum, in 1490, on the last day of March. It's about two lifetimes from now. We could meet at the town square and you can accompany me wherever my journey takes me that time. We don't have to spend a second apart."
"Faesulum 1490," San repeated. "That's bearable."
"And I will find out where we can find each other after that, too."
"Good. I like that," San said. He pressed a kiss to Wooyoung's jaw that had Wooyoung grin shyly. The room got warmer and spread the scent of the pine cones San had put into the fire. Soothing, it clouded their minds into relaxation.
"How did you fare after last time? The world has yet to develop beyond wars, but the Vikings are long since no sea-faring folk anymore and became much tamer farmers. Christianity forbids them from human sacrifices, too. Or bedding someone against their will. A lot of things changed ever since we first met in Babylon."
Wooyoung laid down on the mattress when his back ached from their position. They used the incentive to shuffle further up the bed together and curl up next to each other. When Wooyoung struggled to get his feet under his blanket, San got it for him and placed it over their lower halves. Once they had settled, San wrapped an arm around Wooyoung's mid once more and just looked at him.
Wooyoung took a moment to sort his mind, but he found the answers San needed in the depths of it.
"It took me a while to get rid of all the traumatic images... I pretended it was a bad dream, more than a reality that I lived through. Did I ever express my gratitude to you?"
San waved it off behind Wooyoung's back. The movement pressed his wrist into Wooyoung's skin.
"You don't need to. I'm glad I understood what was at stake back then. Looking back, I should have got you out of there far sooner. I stuck more to those beliefs than I want to admit now."
Wooyoung was glad to hear that. He hadn't feared that San could actually die after their run-in with the boar. Rather than dealing with his trauma at the moment, Wooyoung would like to blame his confidence on his trust in the man.
"I was terrified. So even if you don't need to hear it, I thank you still." Wooyoung reached out his free hand to take San's fingers in his. Curled between their chests, their fingers tangled with each other. Wooyoung looked at them as they played a mindless game.
"It's my pleasure. What a cruel lover I would be if I had let you die there," San jested. He said it in a light mood, but it got Wooyoung thinking again.
How many wives had there been in a patriarchal world? How many lovers of both genders that came and went? How many kind women like Ljóðey who had loved San with all of their hearts only to fall to dust after devoting their limited lives to a man who didn't age?
Wooyoung was but a speck of dust in the spectrum of adoration that San had given and received. He didn't fool himself. He knew he took an important place in the life of a man who was used to losing people left and right, but he also didn't doubt that San had lost people before that he loved with all of his heart.
And yet, he couldn't help but be drawn to San. Drawn to how different from any other man Wooyoung had ever met San was. How time had formed him like water formed rocks and how well he grew with it.
San's foxy eyes searched Wooyoung's when he didn't reply for a long time. When he picked up on the wariness, Wooyoung brought a smile back to his lips. He pretended not to notice how San's gaze lingered on the birthmark on his lips as if it wanted to burn a hole in it.
"So, have you read Yeosang's books on the way here?"
San nodded and brushed a strand of his hair back when it caught under his cheek. It curled around his ear cutely.
"I did, but I'm afraid it's not my solution still. I wondered whether it might be easier to ask you to return in time to the time when I changed to tell me what happened, but since I don't recall when and where that was... I'm helpless." San's long lashes fluttered onto his cheekbones when he lowered his eyes.
Another miss. Would Wooyoung find the way to become immortal at the end of his road? He felt like the more recent the times he travelled to were, and the more developed science became, the less sensical methods he found. While science would be the ultimate method to become immortal for humanity, he definitely searched on the wrong end of time concerning San.
And so far back in time, it was about impossible to find the man's whereabouts, too.
"Maybe once you reach my time. We can dig through your brain with our machines; it doesn't hurt. You exist there somewhere, but I haven't found you yet. Once I do, I hope to help you out," Wooyoung promised. His smile widened when San's dimples appeared.
When Wooyoung lifted his hand to poke the soft intent on his cheek, San kept his smile for him. With a coo, Wooyoung pulled back.
"I would love to do that. To get to know you in your world and see how you work. I bet it's a magnificent period."
It was bland in Wooyoung's opinion. But maybe it would get just interesting enough for him to love if he met San in it.
"That would be a great help. My coworkers will be kind to you, and we can catch up all the time that I can't see you until then." Wooyoung sighed dreamily. His fingers still held onto San's when he turned onto his back to stare at the ceiling.
San followed his movement to roll over Wooyoung and cover him with the weight of his body. The moonlight lit a trail down his back that Wooyoung followed with his finger. Their gazes locked and didn't let go in the shadow that San's body threw over the corner their heads laid in. In the light, his hair was cast in orange as if it was on fire.
"Is there still enough time to do the things that your leader predicted you doing with a woman?"
San pressed a kiss to Wooyoung's chin. His free hand already fiddled with the bindings of Wooyoung's shirt and the buckles that kept his tunic closed.
"If you are asking me to take you like a woman, I would be elated to. I have been told I have remarkable abilities in bed."
Wooyoung giggled into the peck that San pressed to his mouth. His hand came up to tangle into San's hair to control their kisses.
"This is the first time we are in an actual bed," he noticed. Heated by San's proximity and his wandering hands, his eyes had already lidded with desire. San looked none the better. He seemed ready to rip their clothes off both of their bodies.
"Are we sure we want to break our tradition of giving you a dirty gown in the most unfortunate of places?"
Wooyoung was to blame for his gaze that wandered to the dresser in his room first. He had noticed it inappropriately before San had arrived, but it had an unfortunately perfect height for things that would have Yeosang blush to the tips of his ears if he heard about them.
San followed his gaze only for a moment. Then his arms already wrapped around Wooyoung's waist to haul him up from the mattress. Locked in a passionate kiss, they tumbled over to the dresser.
They wouldn't break their stupid tradition. Not quite yet.