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"You're perfect."
Kevin raises an eyebrow at Charles, who sits on the bed before him. His fingers toy with the covers while he watches Kevin prepare. He can't keep the small smile off his face, nor can he stop the warmth blooming in his very veins.
"That's a silly thing to say to someone with a knife and about to cut you, Charlie."
Charles chuckles, his head falling for a moment as he does, but he quickly looks back to Kevin, dear Kevin. Perhaps not true, but in the moment, every second spent with his gaze somewhere other than him would be a second wasted.
Kevin, with a knife in his hands as gold as he. Kevin, with eyes deep as his love- if also as dark as it. Kevin with soft hair perfect for running hands through and scarred lips perfect for kissing and calloused hands perfect for holding. Kevin in this moment is the sun. Dangerous, beautiful, and the only thing that matters.
"It's true though, my sunlight. You're perfect, you're everything, you're-"
Charles feels himself choking up, and silences himself before tears can fall. The sun rays filtering into the room through the half-opened windows shine on Kevin. They highlight him as a beacon of care and safety- or a being of unknowable, wrathful power. He is both, perhaps. A duality in the form of one. In truth, everyone is. But Kevin was different. The way he could be the light in the dark and yet the darkness itself as one force- it was remarkable.
"-I love you."
Charles concludes what he had been saying with that. They're simple words that don't convey all that he means, but he means so much. There's no way to say it all. Not here, at least, not now. Soon, once Kevin is ready, they'll express what they can in a different language. One not of sound and vibration, but one of sharp edges and blood, of toying with what keeps living things living.
Kevin strolls over to him and cups his face in one of his hands. His thumb rubs circles on his cheek, soft and reassuring. Charles leans into the touch and closes his eyes, enjoying the burning warmth of Kevin against him.
"I love you, too."
Kevin's lips meet his after whispering those four words inches from him. As with the touch of his hand, Charles leans into the kiss. It's just as warm and inviting, but the sharpness in Kevin is more prominent here. His lips don't close completely over his odd, jagged teeth. Charles uses this to slip his tongue into his mouth, not caring about the taste of blood or the way those teeth scratch against him. No. Not not caring, but appreciating, loving it, as he loves all of Kevin.
Charles, of course, loves too when a sudden sharp pain starts on his stomach. The heat of their kiss now complimented by the cold metal of the knife in his skin, and too by the warm blood freeing itself from the wound. The knife drags down him slowly, moving in pace with their connected lips. When they finally part, so does the blade from flesh.
Kevin moves to kiss his neck, alternating between soft pressure to gentle bites to sucking and licking at the skin. This time when he cuts into Charles, it draws a low moan from him- the only noise rings so loud in an otherwise silent room. Using only one hand, as not to interupt Kevin's work, he wraps an arm around him. He pulls Kevin closer, and the other seems more than happy to comply.
Kevin situates himself on Charles's lap. Once again, his mouth and blade leave as one. Kevin runs his fingers against the cuts, smearing the blood across Charles's stomach. It's a motion that says "This is beautiful. You are beautiful."
Charles pulls Kevin closer still, close enough that their bodies press flushed, that blood is shared on both their skin, and kisses him again. This, he thinks, is saying that he trusts Kevin. That he wants to share his life with him forever, or for as long as he has a life. "Here." he is saying, "Here is the very essence of my life. I trust you with it. There is nothing I wouldn't trust you with."
Kevin's hands tangle in his hair and his claws rub down Kevin's back. It's a short break from their story of loving wounds and wounded love, but it still says so much. Every action is a story in its own right.
Kevin pulls back, knife in hand, and then against Charles's chest. It sinks deeper- not dangerously so, but enough to still feel sinking. The knife drags down, still slow- if not slower, between his breasts until it meets the center of his torso. There, Kevin pushes it in deeper still. He then leaves it lingering, his lack of eyes meeting Charles's existing ones. Nothingness can express so much, and Kevin's eye sockets do. So much love is stored in his gaze that it hurts more than the knife in Charles's chest.
Kevin's expression says "You're everything to me. You're my world. I've imagined a world where we never met, and I never want to do so again."
Kevin's blade in his chest says "I'd never genuinely hurt you. No matter what, I am here, and there's nothing I wouldn't do to keep you truly safe. I understand how much you trust me, and it's something I'd never betray."
Charles once again has more to say than he knows how to convey, even in this language of metal and warmth. He can tell that, too, does Kevin. For now, they are done speaking this tongue.
Kevin gingerly removes the blade, setting it on the floor for now. Later, they'll deal with the cleaning and the sanitizing. Sooner, they'll express what they couldn't in closeness, in exposed skin and intimate touches and interconnected bodies.
Charles says, sooner still, words that don't convey all he means but mean so much.
"I love you."
Kevin, too, shares these words.
"I love you, too."