#lately especially

Lito was a mess, both working on his movie and freaking out about it. Nomi was still wrapped up in her honeymoon, so things could get… Distracting. Sun was fighting a whole war of her own back in Seoul, trying to put order to her father’s company, dealing with her criminal brother, her lawyers, the media, politicians, her new relationship, her dog, her training. It was a lot. Capheus was a little bit in over his head with his campaign, he could get both overwhelmed and overwhelming. Will and Riley had a lot of shit to sort out, back in America and Iceland, but they were the easiest ones to deal with. Still, Will needed Kala’s attention often, that pesky heroin habit was not that easy to kick, his body was still recovering.

But she did have a job to do. And if she really wanted to regulate Rasal’s shipping protocols, she needed to focus. So did Rajan.

She had a meeting in the morning, he had one in the afternoon. Wolfgang's flight from Berlin had arrived sometime during lunch hour, and Rajan did send a car to pick him up, but neither he nor Kala were able to be there.

“Let me know when you get here”, she had told him before she took her blocker, sitting by his side on the plane - first class, thank you Rajan - while finishing her make-up before work. “Text me, or something.”

“Seems absurd”, he mused, admiring her figure in the pencil skirt she was wearing. “Having to text you.”

Kala smiled, turning to him after putting her hair in a high ponytail.

“I know. But I have to focus, this is important. I can’t risk having Lito doing his voice exercises while I’m in the middle of trying to convince the board to change their entire business practices. Capheus also has a meeting, can you imagine the mess?”

Wolfgang sat there, looking at her, wishing this flight would land already.

“Or you”, she went on, softer, and he felt his mouth curving in a smile, knowing what she meant. “Popping in without any clothes on.”

“I wouldn’t do that”, he said, lying, because he would.

“Right.”

She leaned in to kiss him and Will was right. It felt good, kissing her when she was not really there, but he had experienced her in the flesh already. He had kissed her for real, and they visited while doing it, that connection was something addicting.

“Hopefully you’ll be here when I’m done”, she said, leaning back to caress his face, all business again.

“Is that Wolfgang?” Rajan asked, walking into the bedroom, looking for something. “Is his flight on time?”

“Yes, it’s on schedule”, she replied, and Wolfgang watched as her husband walked around looking for something, a little frantic, and Kala asked what he needed, and he said he lost his briefcase, and she suggested he looked in the car, and he walked out again, stressed, talking about too many things to do at once.

Wolfgang had stayed with her until she had to walk in for her meeting, kissing her goodbye while she nodded to her assistant that she would be right there.

“See you in three hours.”

Blocker in, connection dissolved, he spent the rest of his flight alone.

Now, he rode the elevator to the penthouse he had never actually been in, but knew every inch of.

Rajan was in his office when he walked in, on the phone, and Wolfgang didn’t understand the language he spoke - another downside of not having the connection with Kala.

He looked serious when he looked up and saw him. Wolfgang dropped the bag from his shoulder and sat on the chair in front of the desk, frowning while Rajan seemed to argue with the person on the other end of the line.

“Everything ok?” He asked when the man hung up, a sigh escaping him.

Rajan got up, rubbing his hands on his face, and Wolfgang got up, too.

“Fine, yes. This Ajay thing, it’s more difficult than I anticipated. But no matter. How was your flight?”

A lot had happened in Paris. A lot. The hug they shared seemed, at the same time, appropriate and out of place.

“Kala wanted to know when you arrived right away.”

Wolfgang nodded, and explained. “My phone died.”

Rajan walked them to the living room, to pour them a drink before he needed to leave.

“She is still in her meeting, anyway.”

They sat and talked about life, normal things, Felix and Fuchs and Berlin and the kingdoms. Rajan told him what he could about the investigation, his worries and reservations, and shared the part he didn’t burden Kala with, about feeling anxious about their - and especially her - safety.

“If I can help…” Wolfgang offered, not sure if he could, but willing to, anyway. Rajan smiled, not quite cold but not as warm as he normally did. Worried. He looked a bit thinner, and had bags under his eyes.

“Make yourself at home”, he said, getting up to go to work. “You must be very tired. Rest, eat something. She will be here before me.”

Wolfgang nodded and reached his arm out to grab Rajan by the front of his shirt, pulling him down until they were, quite literally, face to face.

Wolfgang understood that this was all very new to Rajan still. Including this level of intimacy with another man - even after Paris. So the kiss he collected was a chaste one. Slow, careful, a touch of lips, nothing more.

Sure enough, Rajan blinked at him when he let him go, but smiled, a bit awkward, but sincere.

“We’ll all have dinner, yes?”

Nodding, Wolfgang let him go and watched as Kala’s husband walked away.

Alone in the apartment, he looked at his watch: one, maybe two hours until she was here.

.:.

The blocker wore off while she was in the car, and she helped Capheus with his tie, updating him on the progress she was making with the company and the shipment policies. She wished him good luck with his own meeting, and then she was alone with her driver again.

“Hello, my wife” Rajan had greeted her when she walked into her office and found him waiting for her. They talked about work for a few minutes, because she didn’t want to immediately ask what she wanted to ask. But he could read it on her face.

“He is here”, he said. “His phone died, that’s why you didn’t get a text message. But he is waiting for you.”

She kissed him before she hurried out, grateful all over again for how incredible he was being about this.

Ganesha had not failed her. Her husband was, truly, a gift.

She felt the water around her when she crossed the threshold. He was swimming, and she should have guessed that was where she was going to find him.

That pool was, after all, for him. Always has been, her decision to get his place more than a little influenced by it.

Still. Seeing him actually here, even if he had visited it so many times before, was incredible.

Kala watched as he did his laps, the afternoon sun glowing against the water.

His wet fingers caressed her arms while she watched him swim, and she took her shoes off before stepping to the edge of the pool, his lips on her face as he swam back to her.

Her skirt soaked quickly when she sat down, her legs in the water, and Kala wanted to sigh in happiness when his hands, his actual hands, touched her calves, fingers running up to her knees and caressing her thighs.

He was here, she could touch him, and she did, but they visited, and that connection ran through them like electricity and honey, alive, a current of presence that threatened to lift her up into the air.

Her fingers in his face were his on her own, running up to his hair, her hair, her fingers, his fingers, his face, hers, they’re here.

They’re here.

Wolfgang pulled her into the pool with him, and she giggled and he smiled, her clothes soaking, neither of them caring.

She was all wrapped around him, finally, she felt she could breathe again,

“I missed you”, she said against his lips while he gently pulled her hair tie off, and Kala was honestly losing track if it was his hand or her hand doing it.

Who cares, at this point.

“Me too”, he said before kissing her, finally, open and soft and hungry and devoted, a few weeks without him and she had been left yearning, even if hardly one night went by without him in her bed - Rajan couldn’t possibly know how many times he was actually kissing him instead of her, no matter how honest she tried to be and how hard she tried to explain.

He removed her clothes and they sat by the edge of the pool, soaked, and they were alone while he explored her and she clung to him in the water, thank goodness. This was their moment, and she wanted it to be just for them.

After lunch, however, they were in bed and he had told her he liked the wind coming in through the window, he was on top of her and she had her legs around him, and then there were four people, two in Bombay and two in Chicago, four people that understood the connection between two sensates in love within their cluster, she felt Riley’s lips and Will’s hands, Wolfgang, Wolfgang, Wolfgang, two places at once, four people, lips on her neck, the echo of a kiss that followed the real thing, his tongue against hers, his hand pressing so hard on her hip, she had missed him so much, Wolfgang, she would never go back, she would never give this up, she would never let go of him, Wolfgang-