Oops I didnt see the part about Strickler or mlm when I sent that ask, your choice then!
I decided to write both a small jlaire snippet (posted as a reply to your first ask earlier today) and a Strickler scene for you. I hope you enjoy :) (I went with Strickbach for this one).
There are not many moments of weakness for Walter Strickler, so, when they come, they tend to come randomly and without warning.
Otto grew accustom to this long before their more recent, more intimate relationship.  He’d spent considerable time learning Walter’s tells.  Back then, it was a means of gaining the upper hand.  Now, well, in a way, it was the same.  Otto’s personal motivations, really, were what changed between then and now.
He’d never sought to control Walter before, no.  An endeavor such as that would take considerable strategizing and had a low chance of success.  Despite how it occasionally caused him grievances, Otto did admire Walter’s sharp mind.  There was beauty, to be sure, in its cunning.
No, his goals back then had revolved around his own survival. Â It was a good plan to keep an eye on the likeliest suspect to see to it you met a quick, easily concealable end. Â Just in case.
Now, in the present, Otto could say, with relative certainty, that Walter was not a threat to his life.  So, his reason for always gaining the upper hand was somewhat—considerably—different.  To be prepared, in moments like these, for a string of unexpected words.
You love me, don’t you?
They’d been reading in the library together.  Each immersed in their own book.  Walter had claimed the best armchair; Otto, the corner of the sofa nearest to him.  They each rested their arms leisurely off the sides of their respective pieces of furniture.  Their fingers close enough to barely graze each other.  Of course, that led to a brief tussle where each tried to intertwine his fingers with the other, but, in a way that was clear he himself were the dominate one.  Otto had all but won when Walter made a hasty retreat and uttered the words Otto now found himself grappling with.
Of course, he didn’t not love Walter.  Otto would never have agreed to this arrangement if that were the case.  He enjoyed his time with Walter.  But.  He was also careful.  It was all well and good to admire the beauty of a panther.  Right up until the moment the panther pounced and its jaws closed around one’s neck. Â
Caution was a natural necessity.  One Otto thought his partner understood.  They were creating something new together, yes, but they were also them.  They’d known each other for centuries.  Carried daggers to stab the other in just the right places with for centuries.  A few months of pleasurable folly could hardly erase all that from existence.
They had to be careful. Â Affection could exist, but they had to limit themselves in its expression. Â Just in case. Â There were rules of engagement, unspoken ones, that, regardless of circumstance, had to be upheld.
That though didn’t truly help Otto’s current situation, did it?  Given, in a set of a few brief words softly uttered, Walter had broken the rules.  Otto didn’t sense deceit from his partner.  He knew the signs of that.  They weren’t there.
Walter’s expression was genuine.  His body language equally so.
