carter.

"Yeah, bud, I know," Eddie says patiently.

"It was supposed to be romantic."

"Still pretty romantic, if you ask me."

"Snowed in with no heat in the middle of nowhere—"

"—we're two miles from the main lodge—"

"—and who even knows how long it'll take them to clear the roads. We might run out of wood and freeze to death before then, or, run out of food and have to resort to cannibalism, and then we'll see how chill you are, Eddie. It could happen. Donner Pass is in California, you know."

"Yeah, about three hundred miles north of here," Eddie says, grinning, and hooks a hand around Buck's arm to pull him into a kiss. Buck kisses him back, and when Eddie finally releases him, there's a smile threatening to break through his pout. Eddie rubs a thumb over his lower lip, kisses him again, and says, "The cabin is fully stocked, and there's a full cord of wood on the back porch. We don't even need to split it ourselves. We just gotta… settle in for a couple of days, find some way to entertain ourselves until they dig us out."

Buck relents, finally, ducking his head and laughing. "I guess you had some ideas?"

"Oh, you know," Eddie says, with an easy, feigned casualness. "Private room, fireplace—"

"—mattress on the floor," Buck interjects, settling his hands on his hips, allowing Eddie to kiss his lips lightly again.

"Still seems pretty romantic, if you ask me."

"I just…" Buck makes a face. "I had a plan. I wanted everything to be perfect."

They've definitely been together too long for Eddie to get butterflies at that, but he does anyway. He cups the back of Buck's head, pulls him down into another kiss, lingering about it this time. "We're firefighters, Buck. We improvise."

"Yeah, yeah," Buck relents. "C'mon. Help me get the rest of the pillows."

The fire is roaring by the time they finally have the bed made up, heat spilling out into the room. Eddie lingers by the front door, watching snow swirl in the porch lights, drifts piled against the trees along the short driveway, a clean glittering spill of white. The truck is all but buried. It'll be a pain in the ass to dig it out, but that's a problem for tomorrow. For now, Buck's arms come around him from behind, his chin hooking over Eddie's shoulder.

"It's late," he murmurs, warm breath against the shell of Eddie's ear. Eddie shivers. "Come to bed."

"It's not that late," Eddie says, just to be contrary.

Buck bites his earlobe, a sharp little nip, and laughs when Eddie inhales sharply. "Come to bed anyway?"

And—well. Eddie's not gonna refuse that.

It's warm enough now that they don't really need the blankets. Buck strips him slowly in the firelight, pausing to get his mouth all over every newly bared stretch of skin, enough that Eddie is feeling faintly unhinged by the time they're both finally naked, Buck braced above him, settled between his open thighs. He had the foresight to grab the lube out of their luggage, apparently, and stash it within reach, so that he can get himself slicked up without moving off of Eddie. Eddie lies back and watches him do it: the golden expanse of his body, the gleam of lube and precome, the quick delighted little grin on his face when he glances up and catches Eddie watching him.

"See something you like?" he asks.

Eddie rolls his eyes. "Come here already."

"Well—" Buck breaks off what was assuredly going to be an extremely terrible pun when Eddie grabs at his ass, hauling him in close. As if in revenge, he spends a couple of minutes teases the slick head of his cock against Eddie's hole, nudging at him without pushing in until Eddie is squirming beneath him, undone in the way he always fucking is in moments like this, in a way that no one other than Buck has ever gotten him. 

"Come on," he pants, grabbing at Buck's thigh, his wrist, his fingers wrapped around his cock, keeping it right there, an agonizing tease. "Come on, come on, fuck me."

"You're so bossy," Buck laughs, breathless, and finally finally stops fucking around, sinks into Eddie in a single slow thrust. Eddie arches against him, aching, eager, as his body accommodates Buck's cock, his hands on Eddie's hips pulling him up, the slow rhythm he sets, which is pretty much designed to drive Eddie out of his fucking mind.

He doesn't touch himself yet, just holds onto Buck, watching him through heavy-lidded eyes. The firelight gilds him, gleaming golden on his sweat-slick skin, his messy curls, his soft wet mouth as he gazes down at Eddie.

He's being loud, probably. He always loses his head a little bit when he's getting fucked, which is something he spent the first thirty-five years of his life not knowing, but it's worth it now, watching Buck's eyes darken, his breathing speed up with every moan and breathless curse that falls from Eddie's mouth. They're sliding together with sweat now, Buck's hands like brands on Eddie's hips, Eddie's cock kissing wetly against his stomach with every thrust as he writhes against the sheets, moaning, fuck me, fuck me, please, c'mon, Buck, please, please, as if he doesn't already have Buck's cock driving into him, harder now, like he's finally losing some of his self-control.

"God, you're so—" Buck pitches forward, finally, bracing his elbows on either side of Eddie's head so that he can kiss the moans from Eddie's mouth. He stays close, working his hand between them to cup it over Eddie's cock, give him something to rut up into. "You're fuckin' perfect, baby, I love you, I wanna, wanna keep you just like this—"

"Yeah," Eddie breathes, tilting his head up for another kiss, biting at Buck's lower lip and getting a low, liquid moan for it. He can feel Buck's cock pulse inside him, heat sparking up his spine with every thrust, so fucking close.

"Wanna fucking—live inside you," Buck babbles into his jaw, lips wet and hot against his skin, and he's close too, Eddie can tell, the rhythm of his hips starting to stutter finally. "Wanna do this forever, wanna—wanna marry you—"

Eddie jerks, a broken shout catching on his tongue as he comes over Buck's fingers, spilling between them with a force that startles him, and Buck fucks him through it, a handful of hard, jerky thrusts before he follows, burying his face in Eddie's throat as his cock pulses inside him.

He goes loose once it's over, collapsing on top of Eddie like his strings have been cut. Eddie takes his weight easily, stroking a hand up and down Buck's sweaty, heaving spine, feeling his cock soften in slow pulses, the slick mess of his come slipping down the inside of his thigh. He's grinning, he realizes, stupid and delighted.

"You didn't hear that," Buck mumbles against his shoulder, sounding sheepish, and Eddie can't help it; he starts laughing.

"Oh, you didn't just propose while your dick was in my ass?"

"Okay, well, it just sounds crude if you put it like that."

Eddie pets his hair again, kisses his temple; Buck buries his face deeper in Eddie's throat with a disgruntled sound. "You don't have a ring hidden in your luggage somewhere?"

"No comment."

"Uh huh." Eddie tugs on Buck's hair again, and finally he lifts his head to look down at him, blushing and sheepish and beautiful.

"I had a plan," he says.

"I bet."

"It was a good plan. Super romantic."

Bishop Talbot – Malcolm Storry

Harold "Blind 'Arry" Slow – Alan Williams

Professor Hilary Ambrose – James Laurenson

Bishop Damien Fox – Roger May

Katherine Corven – Kate O'Flynn

Daniel Whittaker – Daniel Flynn

Marianne Delacroix – Gina Bramhill

Gerald Firth/Kalon – Michael Maloney

Eddie Devine - Barney Wilkinson

Sister Boniface - Lorna Watson 

Walter Sullivan - Denis Lawson 

Violet Goodfellow - Naomi Radcliffe 

Father Lazarus - Lex Sharpnel

Sergeant Allbright - Keith Osborn 

Father Lindsey - Kieran Hodgson 

Cardinal Papillon - Colin McFarlane 

Uncle Mirth - Toby Longworth

Hornby - Colin Deaney