Dovid was unaccountably nervous when his hosts dropped him off at the place where they were staying.
Rachel walked him inside and gave him a hug. “It’ll be great,” she told him. “You love him to death already, and it’s obvious he’s just as crazy about you.”
“Right.” Dovid ran his fingers through his hair. “It’ll be fine.”
“It’ll be way more than fine. Now stop fussing with your hair. And promise me you won’t change, like, twelve times after I leave.”
“I won’t change twelve times.”
“You are allowed to change one time.”
“I am allowed to change one time,” Dovid repeated. “Oh my god, I’m going to meet him, Rachel. I’m going to meet him.”
“You are going to meet him, and it’ll be great.”
Dovid clutched at his face.
Rachel patted him on the shoulder. “Go change and then do something productive until he gets here, okay? Now, I’ve got to go. I’ll be back late. If he’s still here when I come back, I expect to be able to meet him, unless you two are already asleep.”
Asleep. Asleep together with Sam. Dovid couldn’t handle this. “Right. Of course.”
“And then I’ll meet him tomorrow.”
“Right. Yeah.”
She hugged him one more time. “Have a great night,” she said into his ear. Then she turned and walked away, the door closing and locking behind her.
Dovid stood in the quiet living room and tried not to freak out.
Changing. He was going to change out of the clothes he’d worn for the meetup (one of his Don’t Look Now T-shirts) and into something nicer (a soft, red henley that Rachel insisted he looked great in).
He breathed out. Sam had already texted him to say that he was on his way and bringing dinner. Dovid wasn’t hungry; he was too nervous. But he had to pass the time somehow.
He set the table, because Sam was bringing dinner and Dovid didn’t want to have to fumble with putting out dishes and cutlery while Sam was there. But then he had nothing left to do.
In the end he got his laptop set up in the living room, plugged in an earbud, and did some social media work. Or tried to. His thoughts kept drifting over to Sam, to the point that Dovid went to check his Twitter. Mostly it was about Sam talking about his Tuesday video upload, reminding his fans that there wouldn’t be one on Friday this week, and a few tweets here and there about how excited he was to have his friends visiting him. Those made Dovid smile.
And then someone knocked on the door.
Dovid shot to his feet and went over to it. “Who is it?” he asked, surprising himself with how calm he sounded.
“Erm,” came a voice that Dovid recognized, that he’d listened to hours of video footage of and, more recently, had spent hours on the phone with. A voice that, this time, was simply behind the barrier of a door, as opposed to hundreds of miles away. “It’s Sam. Sam Doyle. I brought dinner?”
Dovid wrenched the door open and smiled, knowing it was probably shaky. “Hey there.”
“Hey.” It sounded like Sam was smiling too. Dovid could hear the crinkle of plastic bags. “It’s...it’s good to see you.”
“Come in,” Dovid said, brain scattered as he backed up. “Come in, um, you can put your stuff down over here.” He led Sam to the table, bumping into it with how nervous he was.
“Oh dear, are—are you okay?” Followed by the sound of items being set down.
“Yeah, yeah, I—sorry, I’m just—I’m nervous.”
“Me too.” It sounded like an admission. “Could I—could I hug you?”
“Please,” Dovid breathed, opening his arms.
Sam enveloped him, long arms like Dovid had been told to expect. He smelled like the bottle of cologne Dovid had sitting safely on his nightstand at home, and his shirt was soft and he was so, so warm.
Dovid buried his face in his shirt and hugged back tight. “I can’t believe I’m really here with you,” he said.
“Neither can I. I—I can’t believe it. It’s amazing.”
A million different thoughts blew through Dovid’s mind at what to say to that, and he ended up blurting out, “I like your shirt.”
“My shirt?”
Dovid nodded, stroking his hands down the front of it. “It’s really soft.”
“Oh good,” Sam breathed, sounding relieved. “I went through half my closet trying to find the nicest thing I had to the touch. I know you care about that sort of thing.”
Fuck, Dovid wanted so badly to kiss him.
And now...now he could. If Sam wanted.
He pulled back, tilted his face up. “Could I kiss you?”
“Y-yes,” Sam said. “Yes, please do. How should I—what would you like?”
“Stay still a minute,” Dovid said, moving his hand to Sam’s arm and trailing upward, until he reached his shoulder, his neck, his cheek. He felt Sam swallow, take a shuddering breath. “Here,” Dovid said, brushing a thumb over Sam’s lips. They felt just a bit wet, like Sam had nervously licked them.
Dovid moved to kiss him, slanting their mouths together. He dimly registered Sam’s hands at his back, clutching tightly, like Sam couldn’t do anything but hang on and kiss and be kissed.
He didn’t want to stop. Kissing Sam made his head spin; it was so good, felt so right.
“Fuck,” he ended up panting, letting his head rest against Sam’s chest. “Fuck, can we just do that forever?”
A soft laugh. “I—I might be partial to that. But you should eat. If the video of your last meetup was any indication, you’ve just had a very exciting few hours.”
“Meeting you is what’s exciting,” Dovid said, but he did reach for Sam’s hand and tugged him towards the table. “It all smells really good. What’d you get?”
“Some things from my local pub. Champ, boxty—meat and vegetarian—and some Irish stew for you. I—I can’t vouch for the meat things myself, but I’ve been assured they’re quite good. I, erm, I hope you like it.”
“Well, it smells fantastic. That’s usually a good sign.”
They both sat, and Dovid loathed to let go of Sam’s hand, but he did what he had to do. Personally, he felt the quicker he ate the quicker he could go back to touching Sam.
“So how was the meetup?” Sam asked, after they’d served themselves.
“It was great,” Dovid said. “A lot of great energy. Rachel and I talked about traveling to and around Ireland, and then we did a ‘Dovid guesses the object’ segment—those are always really popular. Different fans in the crowd brought stuff specifically for it, so we called on people to come on up with their stuff. Some guy brought his pet skunk. The crowd went nuts.”
“Did that...go well?”
“Oh yeah. It was super well-trained. And really soft. He put it straight into my lap—I thought it was a cat at first. It was really cuddly. That was one of my favorite parts. And after that we did a food tasting. Again, people brought stuff and we called them up from the crowd. Rachel and I both had a lot of fun with that; there was a lot of homemade stuff, which is always cool to try.”
“Sounds like it was a lot of fun.”
“It was. After was the meet-and-greet. I got a lot of hugs.”
“Was that nice?”
Dovid smiled. “Yeah. There were a lot of people who were disabled or otherwise special needs. It’s...it’s amazing to hear their stories, and to be told that I’m helping them somehow.”
Suddenly there was a hand on top of his own. “I’m so glad,” Sam said. “That it was so nice for you. I’m... I’m sorry I wasn’t able to make it.”
Dovid turned his hand so he could link his and Sam’s fingers together. “It’s really okay. I mean it. There was a lot of people and noise in a really concentrated area.” Sam had mentioned several times in both his videos and to Dovid personally how even using public transportation sometimes made him nervous. “I wouldn’t have wanted to do that to you.”
“Thank you,” Sam said quietly.
“Of course.”
When they’d finished eating, Dovid gave Sam a quick tour of the apartment, showing him the bedrooms (Rachel had gone on about how cutely they’d been decorated), where the bathroom was, all that stuff. Then they went to sit down on the couch. Dovid was suddenly experiencing butterflies again. He was holding Sam’s hand. He was holding Sam’s hand and he still wasn’t sure if he was really awake or dreaming.
“Hey, Sam?”
“Yes?”
“Remember, uh, that time we were talking on the phone and you—you described how you’d touch me, when we were together?”
“How I’d hold you, you mean?”
Dovid swallowed. “Yeah,” he said quietly. “I’ve... I’ve been thinking about it a lot. Maybe too much, really, but I—”
“Dovid, no, here. Come with me?”
Dovid held out his hand to be led, and Sam took his arm, slowly and carefully guiding him off the couch and—oh, and back to Dovid’s temporary bedroom.
And bed.
“Lie down?”
Practically shaking, Dovid climbed in underneath the covers. A moment later the bed dipped and Sam was sliding in next to him. “Here,” Sam said softly. “Face me?”
Dovid turned towards Sam’s voice, and then two arms were wrapping around him and pulling him in close. Dovid let out a noise that might have been a whimper and clung on.
A kiss was pressed to his hair. Just like—just like Sam had said he would. “Alright?” Sam asked.
“Yeah,” Dovid managed. “Yeah. Perfect.”
They lay together like that for a long time. Not even talking, just resting with each other, listening to one another breathe.
Eventually Sam murmured, “I’ve maybe dreamed about this.”
“Yeah?”
“Mm-hm.”
Dovid let out a soft laugh. “Me too. Ever since you talked me through it that one time. I went to bed a lot just...thinking about just this.”
“Does it live up to expectations?”
“Are you kidding? Way, way better.”
“That’s gratifying to hear,” Sam said, smile in his voice.
“Hey,” Dovid shifted a little, moved up. “Could I kiss you? Like this?”
“I’d like that very much,” Sam said quietly, hand coming up to cup Dovid’s cheek.
Dovid pushed up with one arm, and leaned in, catching the corner of Sam’s mouth before moving lower. He moved to kiss under Sam’s chin and Sam let out a gasp, his other hand clutching at Dovid’s shoulder.
“That okay?” Dovid asked, pulling back just a little bit.
“Y-yes I—it—yes.”
“Could I kiss there again? Is that okay?”
“What—whatever you like.”
Dovid grinned ruefully. “Don’t give me that much power. What would you like?”
Sam stroked Dovid’s cheek. “I’d like to keep kissing you.”
“Okay,” Dovid breathed against Sam’s lips. “I can do that.”
He felt Sam smile against him, and then curl his fingers around Dovid’s back.
As much as Sam was loath to leave, he did still have work in the morning, which meant waking up early. And he wasn’t going to do that to Dovid, especially since he had a full day of filming and editing ahead of him.
“I don’t mind,” Dovid insisted. “Maybe...maybe tomorrow you could bring, like, an overnight bag? And just leave from here. If you want to, I mean. If it wouldn’t be like, upsetting your whole life.”
Sam squeezed his hand. “I’d love to. You and Rachel won’t mind?”
“Of course not. And Rachel’s dying to meet you. Since you can’t meet her today, it’ll be great that we’ll be able to introduce you tomorrow once you’re done with work. We could go out to dinner together. If you wanted.”
“I do,” Sam said. “So much. It’ll be something to look forward to tomorrow, amid the exciting world of IT.”
“Okay,” Dovid grinned. “Plan.”
They kissed goodbye for a long time, until Sam regretfully had to pull away. “If I don’t leave now, I won’t at all,” he said.
“Right.” Dovid trailed his hand up Sam’s arm again, until he was cupping his face, and pressed one last kiss to his mouth before stepping back. “Have a good night. Get home safe. Text me, okay?”
“I will. I’ll see you tomorrow.” He squeezed Dovid’s hand. “Love you.”
The last thing he saw before he left Dovid in the apartment was Dovid beaming, his whole expression directed at Sam. “I love you too.”
Sam Doyle: Home and safe. Have a good night and I’ll see you tomorrow!
Dovid Rosenstein: <3 <3 <3
“Are you really sure we should take the camera equipment in?”
“If we’re going to do a food montage of Ireland, it only makes sense to film every time we eat out to get as much footage as we can,” Rachel said. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep Sam out of all the shots. I’ll just pretend he’s me.”
“But what if he’s not comfortable with us filming around him at all?”
“Then we won’t, obviously. But it couldn’t hurt to be prepared in case he doesn’t mind.”
“That’s true.”
“Besides, he’s meeting us there. We might as well get shots of you going in and getting seated. This place is kind of famous for the way it looks.”
“I’ll be sure to appreciate that in the video,” Dovid replied dryly.
She nudged him. “Alright, camera’s on. Go ahead and introduce our eatery. This would be why we showed up fifteen minutes before he’s supposed to meet us.”
Dovid went through the motions of introducing the show and where they were eating, trying to be calm for the camera, but inside he was buzzing with excitement. He was going to get to see Sam again. And introduce him to Rachel. With each new thing that happened, things got more real.
The host and servers were all great, and the place was easy to navigate on his own while Rachel followed behind with the camera. Since they had reservations, they were seated without issue without having to wait.
“Right,” Rachel said. “Camera’s off. I can’t wait to meet him.”
“I can’t wait for you to meet him either. He’s nervous about meeting you by the way, so don’t be weird.”
“Me, weird? Never.”
Dovid nudged her under the table. “I mean it. Don’t give him a hard time, okay?”
Rachel sighed. “You know I wouldn’t. I like him a lot. Not nearly as much as you do, but he’s cute and endearing and obviously nuts about you. I’m not gonna give him the shovel talk.”
“Good. He’s been getting enough of that on the internet.”
“It hasn’t gotten any better at all?”
Dovid shrugged. “He doesn’t really mention it all that much. I think he doesn’t want me to worry. But I still check his comments once in a while to watch out for that sort of thing. Then again,” he added thoughtfully, “there have been a few—only a few, but still—people who’ve done the same to me.”
“Really?”
“Oh yeah. Meganbeginagain is someone who was a fan of Sam long before me. She left a comment on one of my videos. Promptly got a lot of hate—remember when I did that mini-vid about how I wouldn’t tolerate hate in my comments?”
“I didn’t know it was because of that. Why didn’t you tell me?”
He shrugged again. “What were you going to do?”
“Not sure. Maybe congratulated her. And also said my own piece about personal attacks. She did a good thing.”
“Giving me the shovel talk was a good thing?”
“It’s sort of standard. Hey, does Sam even know what she did?”
Dovid shook his head. “I don’t think so. I haven’t brought it up.”
“Ooh, ooh, can I?”
“What would you possibly even say?”
“‘Hey, Sam, so you know, one of your loyal fans gave Dovid the shovel talk. Isn’t that great?’ Basically that.”
“I mean...if you want to. He’ll probably just be embarrassed. He still doesn’t really know how to deal with how popular he is.”
“Well, no time like the present to talk about it. Especially since we’re in person and there isn’t a time difference. I mean, what, he’s uploading two videos a week and attempting to make a presence on Twitter, right?”
“Yeah. I helped him set up that Ko-fi account a while back, and he’s been getting donations through it. And his revenue through YouTube is not insignificant anymore. It’s basically the equivalent of a second job for him now.”
“Yeah...”
“What?”
“I mean, he could be doing more, if he wanted to. Have you talked to him about it?”
Dovid shrugged. “Only a little. I get the feeling he still doesn’t want to bother me about it. Which I’ve said that it wasn’t at all, but still. He doesn’t like feeling as though he’s a burden.” Dovid wished he knew why. What made Sam feel like he had to walk on eggshells all the time?
But Sam was opening up to him more each day. Which was so ridiculously fantastic.
“Maybe we can be the ones to bring it up, then,” Rachel suggested. “He’s, uh, he’s mentioned in his videos about how he doesn’t love his job. We’re as good a success story as any about how YouTube can be a viable career. And I know for a fact that there’s been fans asking him to review and play more games. He might not be able to hold to that sort of upload schedule with a full-time IT job but if he maybe moved to part-time for a little while, used his YouTube and Ko-fi earnings to supplement—have you talked to him about Patreon?”
“Whoa, whoa, I think you’re getting a little ahead of yourself here.” Not that Dovid hadn’t had the exact same thoughts. He just hadn’t been sure how to bring them up to Sam.
Rachel sighed. “Probably. I just...forget you feeling mushy, I really like him. And I really like his stuff, and his review of Brightforest was a thing of beauty. I’d love to have more of his content out there. And I know for a fact that there are a lot of people who share my opinion.”
“Yeah, I know. Did I tell you he had someone ask him to review a Loot Crate box?”
“Oh hey, no. And?”
“And Loot Crate reached out to him about starting a complimentary subscription for him to review.”
“Awesome! What’d he say?”
“It was a couple of days ago. He asked if he could think about it and get back to them. I think he’s nervous about showing more of himself on camera.”
“That’s easy,” Rachel said dismissively. “He can do what Ashens does and just keep the camera in front of him and review like that. They’d only ever see his arms.”
“Yeah...”
“Excuse me? Terribly sorry to interrupt but—”
“Sam! Hey!” Dovid stood and turned in the direction of his voice, holding out a hand. “You made it!”
Sam’s hand slid into his. “I rather said I would.” He sounded like he was smiling.
“Come on, sit, sit.” Dovid tugged Sam down into the seat next to his, and then faced forward again. “Rachel, this is Sam.”
“Really? I couldn’t tell. It’s not like you didn’t just sigh dreamily and fawn all over him.” Followed by, “Hi, I’m Rachel! Dovid’s better half. It’s really great to meet you.”
“The feeling’s mutual,” Sam said. “I’ve heard so much about you. And, erm, I’ve watched your videos, of course.”
“Awesome. I’ve watched yours too. I was the one who introduced Dovid to your channel, actually.”
“Oh yes! I remember Dovid saying so. Thank you for that.”
Rachel laughed. “Hey, you getting more popular was a gift. Now I get two videos from you a week.”
“Maybe more,” Sam told her. “I...maybe.”
“Oh,” Dovid said. “Really?”
“I’ve been thinking about it. Maybe we could all have a chat? About that?”
“No, yeah, of course. Rachel?”
“Oh, I’m totally in. Though speaking of videos, Sam, do you mind if we record part of this?”
The hand in Dovid’s clenched, then relaxed. “O-oh, I, well, if you want to.”
A pause, and then Rachel said, “It’s really okay if you don’t want to.”
“No, no, if you were planning on it, I don’t want to get in the way of that.”
“Nah, it’s cool. We got plenty of good shots about coming inside the restaurant. We don’t have to film the whole thing. Really.”
“Rachel can just get some video of the food coming to the table, close-up shots of cutlery being used, maybe me eating it. I really don’t have to review the food; we were going to be using this stuff for montage shots mostly anyway. It’s not a big deal at all.”
“It’s a tiny deal,” Rachel said. “Miniscule. Not even a deal. The deal doesn’t exist.”
Sam laughed, and something in Dovid unclenched in hearing him more at ease. “Alright. That’s fine, then. I just don’t want to upset any of your plans.”
“You aren’t,” Dovid said. “Believe me. You are pretty much my one plan right now.”
A thumb stroked over the back of his hand. “Thank you. You are to me too.”
“Mush,” Rachel announced. “You’re both so cute it’s gross. Can we order food now?”
After dinner, they all went back to where Dovid and Rachel were staying to continue the night. They’d talked pretty much nonstop through dinner, Sam included, and the only part Dovid could complain about was that Sam had to split his attention between himself and Rachel.
Okay, he wasn’t at all complaining that his best friend was getting along with his boyfriend. Which is what Sam was, right? Like, neither of them had actually used the word, but they were dating and had said ‘I love you’s so...right?
Wait a minute, had it ever actually been established that they were dating?
“We’re dating, right?” Dovid blurted out.
There was sudden silence. Probably a confused one, since they’d all been talking about Sam setting up a Patreon moments before.
“Yes?” Sam said, at the same time Rachel said, “Um, duh?”
“Okay. Okay, good. I just wasn’t sure since we’d never actually, like, said it. I mean, I thought we were dating but—”
“Dovid,” Sam said, reaching for his hand and squeezing, “I’m so happy I’m dating you, and you’re the best boyfriend I could ever ask for. Even if it is a long-distance relationship most of the time, I wouldn’t trade it, or you, for the world.”
“Wow,” Dovid said after a minute. He cleared his throat, cheeks hot. “Now who’s making who blush, huh?”
Rachel laughed. “Sam, I’m gonna have to shake your hand. Dovid is not usually one for flustered, but where you’re concerned he has, like, no chill.”
Sam laughed and he shifted, seemingly taking Rachel’s hand when she offered it to shake. “I’ll take that as a compliment,” he said.
“Now then,” Rachel said. “I’m going to my room. I will be doing work, with my headphones on, sound up. If you absolutely need me, just bust down my door but other than that, I’m out.”
“Oh,” Sam said, “I didn’t mean to overstay—”
“Are you kidding? You didn’t at all. I’d love to keep talking to you. But might as well give you and Dovid some more time together, right?”
“Right,” Dovid said immediately. “Besides, overstay? I was hoping you’d stay the night with me. You brought your overnight bag, yeah?”
“Well, yes, I did.”
Dovid grinned. “Awesome. You wanna grab it and head back to my room?”
“Oh! Yes, I—goodnight, Rachel. It was lovely to meet you in person.”
“Same. Looking forward to talking to you more tomorrow. Sounds good?”
“Yes, definitely.”
“Night,” Dovid said, before taking Sam’s hand and pulling him along. Sam laughed and followed, presumably swinging up his backpack onto his shoulder.
Once inside his bedroom, Dovid got nervous again. He wanted so much. He wanted so much with Sam. “Want to just get ready for bed first?” he asked, in part to procrastinate thinking too hard. “Teeth brushed, change, all that?”
“Alright.”
Sam went through his bag to get his toothbrush and then they both headed into the bathroom to get ready to turn in. Back in the room though, ready to change, Dovid sort of froze. He hadn’t thought this far. Shorts and the shirt Sam had sent had been Dovid’s night clothes for quite a while now. Did he want to wear less with Sam there, to feel more skin? Would Sam mind that?
He cursed himself for being so weird about this. Forget his casual flings; he’d never even overthought stuff like this in any of his serious relationships. He and Olivia had dated for months and Dovid had barely ever second-guessed himself. Even Brian hadn’t flustered him like this, and certainly not so often. Sam was just...
He was something else.
“How would you like me?”
“Sorry,” Dovid said, mind blanking out. “What?”
Sam cleared his throat. “I mean, I thought maybe you wanted to go to bed together? Or not even to sleep, not right now, but to cuddle again. If you wanted. I mean, I do, but obviously it sort of is up to you whether or not we do anything.”
“Yes, absolutely to cuddling,” Dovid said. “And sorry I just, uh, I sort of get caught up in my head sometimes.”
“I certainly can understand that,” Sam said. “I do that too. Far too much, probably. My father always says I’ve got my head far too high up in the clouds. Not that I think you do!”
Dovid had to smile. “I get it. No, yeah, I just—how comfortable would you be if I, uh, if I didn’t wear a shirt? So I could feel more of you. But it’s totally cool if you’d rather I wore one.”
A very loud silence.
“Uh... Sam?”
“Well, I... I can’t say I’m against you not wearing a shirt,” Sam said, like an admission. He cleared his throat again. “You’re incredibly good-looking.”
Dovid swallowed, taken aback. To hear Sam just out and out say it, like it was just fact, like he was just being honest... “Oh.”
“I rather thought you knew that,” Sam said. And then he chuckled. “What was it you said, in one of your videos? That just because you couldn’t appreciate looks, you knew that many of your viewers could?”
Dovid covered his face with his hands.
“Hey now, what’s that for?”
“Because I’m such a nerd.”
“You’re a popular YouTube sensation who’s incredibly personable, smart, and quite handsome. You do all nerds a service, by ranking yourself among us.”
“Okay, you’re a nerd too. And I want to kiss you a lot right now.”
“The feeling is quite mutual. But did you want to keep your shirt on, or take it off?”
“Fuck,” Dovid said, pulling his shirt off and folding it up, leaving it on the chair by the door. He shimmied out of his pants and put those on the chair as well, then went to the bed, taking a seat and holding out his hands. “C’mere?”
The sound of quiet footfalls, and then Sam sitting down next to him, his leg brushing Dovid’s own. Sam was wearing long pants made of a soft fabric. Dovid reached out to stroke it. “Let me guess,” he said. “This is plaid.”
“How did you even know that?” Sam asked.
Dovid grinned. “Because these feel like legit pajama bottoms. And everyone I’ve ever talked to tell me that men’s PJs only come in plaid or stripes. And you didn’t seem like a stripes guy to me.”
“I marvel at you every day,” Sam said, putting an arm around him and kissing his temple. Sam was wearing a shirt himself, but Dovid wasn’t going to hold that against him. He was, however, going to happily hold himself against Sam.
That thought in mind, Dovid turned and pushed closer, wrapping his arms around Sam and nosing along his shirt until he reached the open collar at Sam’s throat. He pressed a kiss there and was rewarded with a quiet intake of breath. “That okay?” he asked, just to be sure.
“Yes,” a sigh.
Another kiss there, then, a little higher up. “Can I keep going?”
“Yes, yes please.”
Dovid grinned against Sam’s skin and then pressed a kiss just underneath his jaw before mouthing there, not sucking too hard to leave marks but enough that—
“Ah!” High and thready, and delicious to hear. Dovid surged forward, laying Sam down on his back before finding his mouth for kisses, hands running up and down his sides.
His fingers found the hem of Sam’s T-shirt, and he dipped them underneath just a little, just enough to stroke skin. “Can I touch you? Would that be okay?”
“More than okay,” Sam breathed. “I—would you—shall I take it off?”
“God, yes, if you want to.” All that skin, all of Sam. “Fuck, please.”
“Here.” Sam sat up, hands brushing Dovid’s own, and then he was lifting his shirt over his head. Dovid heard the soft fwump as it fell to the floor. “There, is that alright?”
“Can I...” Dovid swallowed. Sam was right there. He was right there. “Can I touch you?”
Sam took his hand and pressed a kiss to his palm. Dovid shuddered. “However you’d like.”
Permission granted, Dovid brought his hands up to feel him, to run his fingers over Sam’s bared skin. Arms to shoulders to pecs, sides, stomach, back again. He pressed Sam back down against the sheets, tucking away all of Sam’s little inhales and gasps, moved to kiss his mouth and taste them as his hands stroked down Sam’s body.
“I am going to fucking miss this,” Dovid murmured sleepily. He was pressed against Sam’s side, arms wrapped around him, and if he never moved again it would be too soon.
Sam chuckled. “Hey now, your visit only just started. We still get to see each other for several more days. And yes, well, I won’t be here in the morning, but Friday night to Saturday to Sunday I’ll be there to wake up with you.”
“I know,” Dovid said. “I can’t wait. I’m with you right now and I can’t wait til I get you again. I’m gonna savor, like, every moment.”
“Same here. I spent the whole day knowing I’d be seeing you again. Everyone at work thought I was mad, I was so happy. Cynthia, my cubicle mate, even commented on it and asked if I’d gotten good news, and, well, you know the most we interact is to exchange pleasantries and comments on the weather. And I’ll be the same way tomorrow, I assure you.”
“Aw. But no, yeah, me too. At least Rachel knows why I’ve been so crazy happy. She’s just glad I’m able to get it out of my system a little.”
Another laugh. “I’m glad too.”
“Ugh, I love you so much, stop it.”
“I love you too.” Easily.
“Hey, Sam?”
“Mm?”
“If you close your eyes, it’s like I’m right here with you.”
Sam shifted just a little. “You’re right,” he said a moment later. “It is. What are we doing?”
Dovid smiled. “I’m turning you onto your side, so I can be the one to hold you this time.”
Sam obligingly moved as Dovid guided him, until Dovid’s cheek was pressed against Sam’s back, their legs tangling together. “Oh,” Sam said faintly. “I like that very much. Being held by you.”
Dovid kissed him there, because he could. “Good,” he said. “I like it too.”