just how deep do you believe?

“I don’t think Hyacinth would enjoy the same sort of dinner as we do, anyhow.” Pretty though they were. The thought brings a smirk to his lips. But it slides away quickly, as the conversation turns more serious, and Cal shifts in his seat to face Eli more directly. “That is not surprising.” Hyacinth does not agree with his decision, he already knows that, but the matter hardly bothers the ancient vampire. He’s too set in this life, the idea of returning to a frail human form is unappealing at best and deadly at worst. It’s not something he can willingly walk into — not even to follow after Eli. “The decision is yours to make, and if you chose it, then I would support you in it. And we would spend the rest of your days together, until you pass from this world and into the next, if it is still what you desire.” His voice is low and his words are serious, collected but not cold, as he looks at Eli. “Hypothetically.” 

-

He wants to shove at Cal lightly for the terrible joke, but finds himself taken out of the amusement by the shock that overtakes him at his next words. From their first conversation about it, Eli had figured there was no budging his partner on the matter, he’d seemed so certain. Or at least, the stance he’d presented had kept him from actually pursuing the topic further. His expression softens and he sets his glass down on the table’s surface and then he’s reaching for Cal’s chin to tilt his head and he’s kissing him there in their little corner of the neon lit vampire bar. It’s brief, but it’s firm, it gets his point across, deals with all the phantom fluttering in his chest. There’s a lot of questions he has, a lot he wants to say. He has made a rather long pros and cons list. If the walls of the villa could talk, surely they’d tell him to shut the hell up about it by now. “I don’t know yet.” He admits to his partner, eyes moving over his face as if he’s looking for any sign that the other is simply trying to placate him. “It’s not unappealing, you do have a point that it’d be almost a bit of a step backwards. I don’t know if I would do it without you.” Two of his big cons right there in the open and just saying them out loud has his lips drawn into a thin line.

Penelope smiled, canting her head. Dark curls settled on one shoulder as she studied Eli’s features— he had been a witch once, Cal had told her and she was curious about it, what he had been before he was a vampire. It was one thing for someone to tell a person’s story, and quite another to hear it from their own lips, shaped by their experiences and vocabulary. “Home is where the heart is, they tell me. Sounds like you’ve got that figured out.” For home to be someone else, she was almost envious— her heart was a mosaic of broken pieces, all of which were seeking out someplace to find rest, to become whole. “I saw your ranch,” she said, swirling the glass in her hand, bringing it to her lips. “Not in person, but I can see things from far away.” Projection, she had walked the grounds of the orchard, ghosted through paddocks with horses. Mostly, she had kept an eye on an old friend, keeping tabs now and again, ensuring that he still roamed the earth as she did. “It’s lovely, and still wild. I imagine you were happy there.”

-

She doesn’t need to explain how and something in him aches. It’s like an old phantom limb sometimes, one he didn’t even know he was missing until years later. After turning, he’d been too confused and angry to really pinpoint what he had been feeling but it hadn’t taken him long to realize it was loss. He’d thought part of him was mourning for his family, despite how they’d mistreated him. He’d lost more than just his parents though, he’d lost his magic and it hadn’t really dawned on him until after his first kill. It’d been a part of him, he’d truly had any sense of self stripped from him that day. “I miss it. We’d be getting the apple butter ready by now. It’s something to do.” It was a place out of time, the ranch and he thinks he drinks to get the memory of him and Cal just lazing around the orchard out of his head for the moment. “What’s it like? To be able to do that?”

The water genasi had lived within the bayside on and off her entire life, walked these streets at all hours and felt as though she knew every inch of the city. She had even taken this way a thousand times over the years and it wasn’t until this moment that she actually felt anything other than it being a safe choice. The hours in which Daphne wandered were always fluctuating depending on what within her craft she was practicing, what needed to be acquired in the late night hours— along with the time the shop would allow her to be free from its chains. In all honesty, it probably should have surprised her that something like this hadn’t happened sooner and she tried to assess what the best course of action would be. He was clearly in control enough to stand in front of her, to try to play with his food.

“I could ask you the same question,” feeling the flushing of her cheekbones as a particular anger swelled within her at the idea that due to her feminine stature, Daphne wouldn’t be able to handle herself. She hadn’t gone through as much as she had just to be treated condescendingly under the low hanging cypress trees, “Given you are not even from here.”

-

Her heartbeat picks up just a little and he thinks she’s too smart for his tricks. It’s what he somewhat expected, and yet, she looks young, she was far younger than his parents had been, that was for sure. It made more sense, might as well use that power, and yet, the idea of failing the ritual at such a young age when all that life was still ahead of you….His parents had taken that time from him themselves. If his heart could beat, his blood pressure might have spiked at the mere thought and Eli stands before the genasi just watching for a second and then he’s scoffing at himself and giving a shake of his head. “I was from here once. Around at least.” The tone is less sweet, but it’s not biting either. It’s easy for him to fall into a sort of disinterested indifference, his natural state in Corinth if he’s not around Cal or Felix or Freya. “There’s a few of you around here though, isn’t there?” A dark brow quirks, he’s interested in that though, all the damn genasi crawling around the place.

“How cute, a little love child,” she states before taking a longer drink from the bitter coffee, hands reaching for the lumps of sugar at the table’s center. But before she could press more on it, Eli pushed the topic onto a topic that had been on her mind for ages. “I think about it every day,” the witch finally answered as her sapphire hues looked down at her coffee cup. Hadn’t her whole life been designed around the idea of one day being turned at Persephone’s wishes? Much like some who dreamed of their wedding day in their youth, she imagined a day in which the goddess would choose her and allow her to sever her tie with Hecate, “The timing just— hasn’t been right.” A romanticized notion as she attempts to deflect any blame on the cult’s part or on the goddess herself, hardly wanting to rush into something she dreamt about, “My current gift has still shown its use to them, so here I remain.”

-

He gets it, to an extent, but Eli’s brows raise anyways in a little surprise. Prue is different, her upbringing is not his own. And yet he can’t help but think, a little cynically, that she’s a bit of a lamb being led to slaughter. But was she really if she was going willingly? He couldn’t say the cult hadn’t provided him some comfort after everything that had happened to him. And yet their support had been to keep him stable enough to be able to be useful, he was sure of it. Cal did have a good point though, it did offer a bit of protection. “I think it’s coming up on the anniversary of the last big sacrifice to Persephone, if you want to volunteer.” He’s joking, but the statement comes out dryly anyways and he shoots her an almost apologetic look. “I get it. It’s a lot to leave behind, magic.”

“I take it he’s already been by, then.” Good. That will make things easier going forward, hopefully. Now that the proverbial ice has been broken. There is little more that Cal wants, then for the two people that have mattered the most to him in this life to come to an understanding. Even if it does not go anything beyond that. “That is high praise, coming from you,” his words come out light and teasing as he smiles, knocking Eli’s shoulder gently with his hand. It’s about what he can hope for between the two of them, at least at first. Eli has never been particularly quick to take to anyone — perhaps Cal himself being a bit of an exception. “He would be a good friend, if you allow him to be.” One of the best he has ever known. The bond they had formed in Sparta is inexplainable to anyone who did not live through it themselves, to know what they had gone through. He can understand, why it would both Eli to some degree, to know things had also been physical between them. “You know you are the only one who matters such to me now.” The only bed with which Cal would share. “He did. I chose not to take it. I have no interest in being a mortal man once again.”

-

“Hey now, I”m not saying I’m setting him a plate at dinner, but he’s alright.” Even though he almost thought that he and Hyacinth probably shared some of the same views regarding Cal. Which meant he was just fine in his book, but Eli wasn’t about to say such a thing out loud, not in public, where they could argue even more. And yet, Cal had presented the argument right there in front of him, just dangled it there and as per usual-

“We talked about it.” He takes the bait, he can make this not an argument, he can surely just communicate his issues. “About this cure.” The mere idea that the Patroclus was around was still a little shocking, but he swallowed the swell of admiration along with his sip of wine. Swallowing, he shifts in his seat to angle himself to look at his partner of centuries. “This is hypothetical. But what if I were to take it? The cure that is.”

“No catch.” Hyacinth shrugged, “If it were me I wouldn’t just give it to anyone who asked but Patroclus is…” The rift phrased what he said next carefully. The other man was kind-hearted and compassionate, but as gracious as he was Hyacinth would not go so far as to call him soft. “He’s the best of us. He still cares about people, even after all this time.” The Spartan limited who he let into his life, and for good reason too. Eli’s argument was weak and probably not at all rooted in Cal’s actual belief, “Your recent deaths were because of your vampirism, you’d have lived if you were both human.”

-

He decides it’s interesting, any little detail into what the prince is like beyond what he knows of him. Anything personal that humanized him a bit was begrudgingly something he probably needed to hear. Eli figured Hyacinth was going to be around a decent amount, he had to at least tolerate him. “Real pain in the ass when they can’t just be selfish, isn’t it?” It’s a poor attempt at bonding, but he figured he got points for trying. It’s brief though he opens his mouth only to sigh. Considering breathing isn’t something that’s necessary, it’s purely for dramatics. “I figured such. And it’s not something I’d like to repeat again.” There’d been little solace in the fact that at least they’d all died together. “It’s not me who needs convincing. But I don’t think there’s any convincing him.” And he doesn’t even know how he himself feels about such a thing, being a witch again while Cal remained a vampire.

“Roman was there,” Felix voiced, rubbing at his neck, wincing away from the boisterous hand on his shoulder. He didn’t feel like he deserved the camaraderie, not when he had done something that made him feel so monstrous. “He stopped me.” And he couldn’t forget the way that the witch had looked at him, as though he was something more beast than human— and it made his stomach twist and feel sick. “I don’t want to kill anyone,” the vampire said, and the words were nearly miserable, “I don’t want a family to be broken or for someone’s entire life be cut short just because I was hungry.” He shook his head, steeling his jaw. “It’s ungrateful. I shouldn’t say anything.” And yet; he missed the warmth of the sun, and the way that his muscles ached after a long day, the way that a kick in the stomach from a horse left a mark that showed he wasn’t careful or gentle enough: he missed having consequences for his actions, he missed being alive. Felix let out a breath. “I didn’t want to die, I’m glad for Cal. The both of you, really.”

-

“Felix.” The name is said quietly and Eli can’t feel anything but concerned for the young vampire. He has seen so many young vampires in his lifetime, he’s made a few of them. Things were different then, he would feed and turn without remorse, he had nothing in him but anger and the need to please those who had turned him. He’d been naive in life, he’d been kind, and he’d been led to slaughter by his own family. But Felix had been good, he was good, and Eli had seen his type before. Some people weren’t meant to be vampires. “You’re too good for all this.” It’s less of a means of conversation, he’s thinking out loud. “To be doing all this.” 

“As I said.” Hyacinth said simply, why Eli had felt the need to further a point that the Spartan had already made was beyond him, perhaps that was the use that Cal saw him. Besides whatever physical appeal the vampire might have had. This city was inherently not safe, for vampires or anyone else who lacked the divine protection that people like Hyacinth and Patroclus shared. “He has such power, yes.” Hyacinth said simply, “Though there are others who can accomplish the same feat if they work together.”

-

“What’s the catch to it?” He asks upon turning around, glass of wine in hand. “The bay is still full of vampires, I can’t imagine they all would reject a cure. Unless this is being offered as some sort of family and friends discount.” Eli says the last part without any malice, he would understand if that’s the case, it’s a powerful gift, something he had never thought possible. But he does wonder about this Patroclus, what he feels about his and Cal’s kind. “Cal and I discussed such a thing. It’d be humanity for him, after our recent deaths, I can’t say I don’t understand his need to have a means to defend himself.”

“I invited him over.” What he hadn’t mentioned was the fact that Cal had no intentions to be there when it happened. It wasn’t that he had no wish to see Hyacinth, it was that he thought things would perhaps go smoother between the two in meeting without his presence there. Though he loves Eli, he would be a fool not to note the other vampire’s possessive streak, and thought that perhaps by removing himself from the equation it would allow them the chance to speak more freely. His brow furrows just slightly at Eli’s words, the way his tone raises in octave at the implication. It is not something Cal has even considered, merely just a fact of their relationship, the history that existed between him and Hyacinth in another time. “It was long ago,” he says, a slight tilt of his head as he looks upon Eli. “Such things were not uncommon in the time.” Between those that had grown together, fought together, survived life by standing at each other’s side. “Does it bother you?”

-

“Oh I know you invited him over.” The annoyance he’d felt that day when everything sunk in had long ago dissipated. They knew each other too well, Cal knew he could lead him to water but making him drink was nigh impossible. And so he’d simply invited the water into the house where he had to just dive headfirst into it. Begrudgingly, Eli was fine with the concept, perhaps a little thankful. He didn’t think he’d have sought out the Spartan prince on his own, in fact they both knew he probably would have refused to. “He’s not…” This part though, admitting he was wrong in any capacity over something he’d felt so strongly over. “He’s not terrible.” Hyacinth was actually kind of likable, but that was as much as he was willing to admit out loud. Eli’s elbow nudges Cal’s side and his eyes narrow for just a moment, but it’s more playful than suspicious. On a surface level, he gets it, they’d been brothers in arms, they were attached to one another. He himself hadn’t really connected with another person the way he’d connected with Cal and therefore he was intent to cling to the man from time to time, the idea of losing him was irrational, but it still sunk in every so often. “I think I’d be lying if I said it didn’t. But it’ll pass.” He pauses, doesn’t make any move to slip away from where he’s tight against the other vampire’s side as he takes a slow sip from his wine glass. “He said he offered you a way out of this.”

“It does go without saying.” Hyacinth agreed, pointing out that Eli had chosen to say it anyways. “But Cal said the same.” The other’s discomfort wasn’t really a point of interest to him, he’d come here to see Cal and why the Spartan had settled on this particular vampire was beyond him. He wasn’t Jamie, but then again no one else was. “I offered Cal a cure for vampirism, but he refused it.” Hyacinth said simply, wondering what Eli’s thoughts on the matter were. When one was gone they were truly gone from the other forever, there’d be no seeing one another again, not even on the other side. “My man, Patroclus. He can make vampires mortal again and sever their connection to Persephone.”

-

Hyacinth is full of surprises and Eli finds his brows raising, expression incredulous before he gives way to curiosity. Markus had said someone had changed him back into a witch, a cure was out there in Corinth. A cure that he had maybe thought about as an out for a decent amount of time now. “He wouldn’t take it.” They’d had that conversation and just thinking about it has him grabbing one of those bottles of wine from the cupboard. “What we are is convenient, it keeps us safe.” From Hektor or anyone else that might do them harm. The logic wasn’t lost on him, it was hard to justify moving down on the food chain once he knew what was out there. “I met a witch who told me there was a cure. Asked me if I was interested. I take it your man had something to do with that?” He looks over his shoulder at Hyacinth as he pours himself a glass. Patroclus, that Patroclus, he doubts it is a coincidence. “I was a witch once, I considered it.”

Penelope laughed, and the sound felt like the peal off a bell, clear in the summer air— despite how the heat felt heavy and their spot by the grapes was buzzing with insects. She imagined it would have been a nice life, to be a bee in a vineyard, growing drunk on warm grapes, to flit around until finding rest somewhere in the sun. “They’re enjoying themselves,” she hushed him, an elbow bumping into his side lightly. “Let them enjoy.” She sipped from her glass, stepping lightly through the vines, tipping her head up to smell the salt that washed from the sea. “This place is beautiful,” she said, half to herself. “But it hardly holds a candle to home.” Home to her lay close enough to reach, not Ithaca, but Sparta. “It feels wild here still, and the trees hold secrets of times that only the gods remember.” It was half riddle, but mostly poetry for Eli’s sake. She turned, peering back up at him. “What was your home like?”

-

She looks at home here, amongst all the lush greenery the vineyard has to offer. There are parts of Greece he actually likes, the art, the buildings, there’s almost some kind of etherealness to the nature of the bay. During the daytime, anyways. He knows what creeps around corners at night, he is one of those things. Eli sips from the glass in his hand with his arms crossed over his chest as he contemplates the question. Home had been a desert, it’d been caves and cliffs and then it’d been Cal. “It’s been a lot of different places. But mostly it’s been wherever Cal has been.” His shoulders raise in a shrug and if he’d been living, he thinks he might have blushed. Penelope is sort of family, she’s close to Cal and therefore he can allow himself some gentler moments with her. “Texas is nice if you ignore a lot of the people, the government. We have a nice bit of land, an apple orchard. It’s far from here, but it’s ours.”

Felix tucked his knees up, wrapping an arm around them as he looked over at Eli. Whatever conversation awaited— usually the more serious ones were reserved to be delivered by Cal, a thought that set him at some amount of ease. There had been too much on his mind lately, that much was true, his interactions with Freya, with Roman, in Corinth itself: it had been a lot on his plate, especially for someone whose first response when overwhelmed was normally to just break out into a dead run. He was a man, but in Eli’s presence he felt boyish, as if counselled by his father once again. “It’s been,” he rubbed at his jaw. “A change, I don’t know.” The vampire reached for the remote, turning the television off completely. “I lost control the other day, forgot what I was doing.” Coffee colour eyes cast down onto his socked feet. “Almost killed someone.”

-

Concern grips him immediately at the news and Eli can’t help but think of who it could have been, if he was seen, if he was in any trouble. The reality of the situation, he found after so many centuries alive, was that the odd tourist going missing wasn’t that big of a deal but admitting that to Felix felt insensitive. “It’s rough the first couple of years.” He offers instead, reaching over to lightly clap the other vampire on the shoulder. “You don’t know your limits yet, it comes with time and practice.” And maybe someone keeping him in check, hell knows that nobody had done that for him. The little group of vampire’s that’d practically raised him into his new life hadn’t been about being careful that was for sure. But this wasn’t the cult, Felix had been a bit of a gentle, though mischievous soul beforehand, neither himself or Cal wished to see that snuffed out of him. “Does it bother you? Being like this now?” His fingers squeeze Felix’s shoulder before it withdraws from him completely and he’s left looking at him across the empty space of couch between them.

“Yes.” It was a core value but he didn’t feel like explaining values to a vampire, if Cal hadn’t gotten it through to him after fuck knew how many years than Hyacinth wasn’t going to. The Spartans were famous for responding with one to two words. Minimalism was also valued, his people weren’t known for hoarding wealth, instead they put it back into their military. Being a poor land with many slaves and a strong military didn’t make Lakonia very appetizing for foreign invasion. “You are Cal’s, my mind is made up already.” Hyacinth said dismissively, Eli had to have some value to him if Cal had let him warm his bed for so long. “And as I said you have no reason to be. It has been a long time since him and I shared a bed. I am involved now.” The last thing he needed was to complicate matters further. “Just water.”

-

He nearly breaks the glass before he tucks it under the ice machine on the fridge. It’s not like he doesn’t know how things worked in Sparta, about relations between comrades. Cal had trained him how to fight himself, more than one training session had gotten a little heated before they’d actually gotten together. But there was a difference between thinking about Sparta from a history textbook standpoint and actually knowing two Spartans. When Eli sets the water down in front of Hyacinth, he can’t help but scrutinize the other man. He’s heard the stories, he’s more than a little attractive, he had been a prince, he couldn’t really blame Cal. And yet he does blame them both a little, the fact that such a thing hadn’t been brought up to him before doesn’t sit right. Though, knowing Cal, it wasn’t because it was a secret, it was genuinely not a problem and it does soothe him a bit. It’s still awkward though and he doesn’t quite know what to say. “I think it goes without saying that you have our support in whatever you’re doing here.” If it gets them home faster. 

Cal’s fingers run across Eli’s shoulder gently, an idle action of affection as his partner slips closer into his side. His other hand reaches out, guiding Eli’s chin until the two are eye to eye, and he can look the other vampire in the face. “And I love you. More than anything or anyone else in this world. You understand that, don’t you?” That whatever else exists in this world, in the end, it is the two of them that matters most. And while Cal may be acting selfishly, his desire to stay influenced by the presence of outside forces when leaving would undeniably be safer, there is nothing he would not do to see Eli protected. He just believes they are capable of achieving that without having to leave. Cal leans forward, pressing his lips against his partner’s, thumb brushing gently against his cheek with the action, before pulling back again. “I do not enjoy fighting with you. We stand stronger when we are on the same side.”

-

It’d been centuries together, they’d learned each other’s languages, they’d gone around the world, they’d hunted and fed and managed to somewhat flee a cult of fanatics. They had a home together, they had a progeny that they had practical joint custody of. Eli’s love for Cal, his loyalty to him, was more important to him than any petty squabble they could have. He trusts Cal to get them out of this, all of them. He finds one of his hands clutching at the side of his partner’s shirt and suddenly he wishes they weren’t in public. They’re decently out of the way of the other bar patrons at least and so he doesn’t mind pressing his lips right below Cal’s ear, tucking just a bit closer to his side. He’s allowed to be sappy for a moment, their time in Corinth has been a whirlwind of worry or trying to meet up with old friends. “He came by the house you know, that friend of yours. Were you not going to tell me the two of you were involved?” He can’t be angry about the past, not here, and yet...

Penelope smoothed a hand down the front of her dress, it had been picked especially for such an occasion, to compliment the warmth of the midsummer sun— and the flowers that were blooming upon the foliage around them. He agreed and she held out a hand, offering a smile as well. “You forget,” the rift chided, “That you’re one of the tourists.” Still she gestured towards the path, “But I’m an excellent guide, I’ll have you acclimated and ready to make all the comments on people wearing fanny packs by the end of the day.” Penelope tilted her head, and dark hair fell to one side of her neck. “I promise.”

-

“Maybe you’re right.” How long ago had it been that he and Cal had been in Corinth? Greece in general? Time had sort of started to peeter off around his third century. He measured it in events, not years. Things had changed so much, he wondered if Penelope herself felt like a tourist in a place that she once knew. He shakes the thought, offers her an almost playful sigh and then he’s offering her his arm.

*

She had a point about the fanny packs. “Of all the things to come back in style.” He was pleasantly surprised to find that his beloved choice of footwear was being worn around places that weren’t just the south. Wine glass in hand, he looks from the other patrons at their tables to her. “They might as well paint a sign on them.” They kind of had, there were a lot of novelty tshirts in attendance. 

Dating apps were an aimless activity, swiping and swiping for the gratification of a beep that indicated that someone wanted him, only to waste enough time as he realized that they were not what he wanted. There was always something missing, a honeyed gaze, tawny curls— the way that an accent looped around the words gently, and those timid, gentle hands. It was beginning to be harder and harder to ignore, no matter how many beds that he fell into that there was something unresolved with Roman: that something existed in him for the witch that was not as easily extinguished by focusing his attention on others. It was Eli that tore him from his thoughts and Felix set the mobile down, looking up expectantly. “Yeah, sure.” He gestured towards the couch, “Wanna sit or am I gonna get yelled at? Because if it’s yelling, clear the exit.”

-

“No, no you’re not getting yelled at.” He thinks Felix is joking, and yet it still stings just a little. He’s been on edge since they got there and he can’t say it doesn’t feel a bit more reminiscent of when the progeny had first come around. Felix had been a wrench in their plans and Cal had taken him showing up like he took most things, with a bit of a shrug. He remembered their conversation, they had needed the help, they had needed to keep up appearances a bit. Reluctantly, Eli had agreed, and as usual, he’d had to be petty about the situation first. He’d been standoffish, he’d purposefully given Felix a large workload, he’d wanted him to leave. Except Felix had turned out to be nothing but sweet and to work hard and when he’d been injured, he’d been quick to suggest they turn him. He was family now, part of the life they’d made for themselves away from the clutches of the cult. They’re friends now, he thinks, they can have these kind of conversations about the future. Sinking down on the other end of the couch, he realizes he has no idea how to actually start said conversation. “You’re still really new to all this, how’s Corinth been for you?” The supernatural, poor Felix was really getting a crash course in it.

“There are certainly worse places out there,” Cal hums in agreement, a smile pulling at his lips as he looks over at his partner. His arm stretches across the back of booth, around Eli’s shoulder, enjoying the atmosphere of the moment. Things have been tense recently, and he knows he is much to blame for that, his own stubborn refusal to leave this city getting in the way of the peace they had found before. Cal wants things to pass-over, to return to the way they were before, and hopes it won’t come at the cost of the one thing he can’t bring himself to give Eli. “A benefit to a city like this. Hiding is not such a necessity for our kind.” It could be damn near impossible, with all the other creatures around. But that in itself gave them a sort of anonymity. 

-

Then why do I feel like we’re hiding? The words are right there but he doesn’t get them out, instead he finds himself leaning a bit more against Cal, as if such an action can soothe the bitter thought. He can feel Hektor’s presence and it makes his skin crawl. There are days he needs to do something with his hands solely because he thinks he’s going to start trying to find a way to get the feeling out. Not like it’d matter, he’d heal, and he thinks the sight of that might break him. “Cal?” His eyes flicker from the patron’s at the bar to his partner and he doesn’t wait for the other vampire to answer. For just a moment, Eli swallows his pride and all of his sour feelings about the bay and he tilts his head to press a kiss just below his partner’s ear. Such affection is far from rare, but they’re in public and he’s so used to the solace of the ranch back home. “I love you. Whether we’re here or in Texas, or France, or wherever we find ourselves.” It’s better than an apology, he thinks, he hopes.