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[traumaticus]

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[conflictresolution]

[He forced himself to relax after they fell to a silence, though he was aware that both of them where experiencing separate intense thoughts. His remained on Jinx and the revelation that she was considering leaving him; if it was just that comment, he would think little about it, but there had been other indications that she had continually considered it an option. Since she had returned, she had been different and no longer fit in the roles that he had for her.

Of course, Richard had challenged him now and again when it came to Jinx, about his life goals of if she refused his legacy, of if she decided a path well away from the circle of his schemes. He'd considered it, but not entirely seriously. After all, Jinx would see reason, so his way was the best for her.

His blue eye slowly opened again when he heard the start of the ultimatum from his lover, and he stifled the urge to rebut immediately that there was no choice. He had given up the current dream of Zaun for his daughter; did Richard dream in any world that he would give up Jinx for anyone? Surely not.

Partners? It was jarring, and yet his mind returned to the topics before Richard re-entered the bath water. Basically life partners... He winced slightly as he recalled his own distracted dismissive words; that had been strategically careless of him. He may not have flagrantly said such words under different circumstances, but they were now out in the world and resulting in an ultimatum.

More than that, it was resulting in a commitment that neither he nor Richard had discussed in any measure of seriousness before. The idea of them being equals was a silent war on his behalf, assured on certain occasion despite the disparity in their apparently station. Silco had always been sensitive, overreacting to the insinuation he was less than, and even now, it was a sore subject he nursed each day.

He shifted under Richard's weight, seemingly trapped in the bathtub now, forced to endure the whiplash of one paramount panic with his daughter to considering the ultimatum laid at his feet by Richard.

It plucked at a truth he knew but wasn't normally willing to entertain. Jinx had no interest in power; her play for it with the Inx club was paltry and uncoordinated and she'd seemingly lost interest in it as he knew she would. Meanwhile Richard was slowly and meticulously gathered power as he would have, more aligned with his own schemes. It had been clear that their ambition would come into conflict eventually, and he had been planning for that inevitability.

Yet, uniting them? It would avoid conflict, but it may require the kind of trust that had landed him with half of his face rotting off and nearly losing his eye. He twitched with the memory, fingers tightening in Richard's hair as he breathed from his nose harshly.]

Are you asking me to choose you over my daughter? [His tone was cold and cutting, yet he didn't try to move under Richard. It meant he was thinking about it.] You will share this place with her regardless of our association, Richard. She is a part of it, and she will also always be a strong part of my life.

[He leaned his head back against the tiled wall.] Unless this ultimatum is... just us. We knitting our lives together into formality and shared ambition.

[traumaticus]

[It was impossible to miss the effect that his words had on the other man. Richard could feel the way how Silco's body tensed under him, muscles tightening like a bow string along with his pulse quickening. Like there was something raw and primal inside the man that was found his proposition repulsive and wanted to fight against it. A beast trying to cover and protect an old open wound, no doubt. They both carried such marks in their soul.

His ultimatum might have been a bit too much, Richard realizes. Especially since it was followed after the words about Jinx's plans for departure, which alone should be enough to send the man spiraling in the despair. But at the same time, Richard did not care to give his lover any more reprieve. Silco had indeed put the words out there, making them hang upon their neck. And he wasn't about to let them go ignored, no. He'd force the other man to claim them.

When he noticed Silco leaning his head back against the tile wall Richard moved. He pushed himself up to sit on his knees and reached out to grab his lovers face from both sides, forcing an eye contact.] She will always be your daughter. I am not taking that away from you. ['Like a daughter like a father ', Richard thinks to himself. Both assuming that it is either all or nothing and that he is trying to destroy what they share. While it was in fact Silco's role and performance as a father that had first earned him respect in Richard's mind. He would not disturb that bond.]

But it is like you've said. Your daughter has changed and she is no longer parading around as a future leader, no. It seems like her passions lead her elsewhere. However, it might not be too late. You can still gamble and chase that dream you had with her of your empire of dust. She might not be out of your reach just yet. I will be mere a 'distraction' in your life. If that's what your heart desires.

Or you will place your wager on me. I'll be your partner who will carry the weight of our shared ambition together with you. Someone to share your victories and troubles with, a sword and an ally. An equal, not a distraction.

[conflictresolution]

[His eyes were forced from staring at the ceiling to his lover as Richard intended with those hands on his face. Instinctively, he curled his upper lip in a faint snarl, though this was not the first nor would it be the last time Richard mandhandled him. No, in defiance and to seize some control of the situation back, his lifted a hand to settle it on his lover's hip as if Richard needed to be steadied while leaning over him.]

No, you will not. [He would sooner burn everything that they had and were to the ground than actually lose Jinx. In an ultimatum like that, Richard would lose. There was no question in his mind, and even if Jinx eventually did abandon him, he would fight tooth and nail to retrieve her. It would be his entire focus.

But that wasn't the ultimatum. He remained tense as he listened to the proposition, fingers tightened under the water into a fist. She was flitted off for that boy, but also, she was flighty and skittish. Since she had returned, she seemed on the verge of slipping away as if he or anyone else wouldn't notice her absence. Inx had fallen by the wayside, and regardless of her touting herself as the Queen of Zaun, Silco knew the truth. It was a moniker, a title with no weight, least of all here. Jinx's actions could change the course of the entire city, yet it was wild and free, random and chaotic, action and reaction. It took a strong hand to build within it, to use the stirred up mess to the advantage of them and their people.

He stared at Richard, lifting his hand from the the younger man's hip so that he could use a finger to push back the ruff of bangs and tuck it behind Richard's ear. Then his hand dropped so he could wrap his fingers around that burn scarred arm, sliding his hand down the mottled smooth and roughened flesh. Their heterochromia and scars had attracted them to one another, but it had been something deeper too. Richard was ambitious, intelligent and strategic. Richard was a threat in a similar way that Silco was a threat.

They could achieve considerable together. They could elevate and harm each other in equal terrible depths. It frightened him because he had been there before, the rebirth at the Pilt, and he considered himself smarter and on the look out for such dangers again. The isolation had kept him separate for many years, trusting a select few. Yet Richard had slipped in beyond his guard, settled in a spot that had been vacant for all those years, and as much as he would like to deny it, he knew.

Life partners. Ambitious partners. This was not where he had intended this lounging in the bath to travel. Yet here they were on the cusp of an ultimatum, and he was not so easily lulled into the sweetness of Richard's words. No, he looked at it shrewdly while trying - and failing - to not examine his own fear and anger and desires and care for the younger man.

His jaw worked under Richard's hands, eyes studying the younger man even as his fingers stroked their way back up his lover's scarred arm.]

You understand what you are offering, don't you? That we will be united in all things: our lives, our emotions, our ambition. This is a path we cannot and will not deviate from each other unless it is in betrayal and death. You will be mine, and I will be yours. Is that what you want?

[Why was his heart beating so quickly? Why was a flush rising in his face? Why was there a lump in his throat?]

[traumaticus]

[His tactic is demanding and intrusive and Richard is aware of it. While his hold on Silco's face is not necessarily a strong one but it is a firm enough to keep the other man still and from turning his head away. He forced the focus onto himself, on the moment they were having. Richard refused to be brushed aside in favor of Jinx or any other mundane topic that was at the hand.

The resistance was, of course, to be expected. Silco had never reacted well when he subjugated like this, no matter how casual or subtle the gesture was. So, Richard watched as the struggle of emotions to dance on his lovers features as he schooled down his initial aggression. His own expression adamant and intense as the water drops dripped down along his dark hair on his lover's face.

He could feel the other man's pulse quicken under his fingers as Silco picks apart the ultimatum, dissecting the meaning behind the words that Richard had laid between them.] A pact that is more severe and deeper than one of a marriage. Bond built upon our shared goal and unholy desires.

[It was not the first time that Richard had entered into such relationship. Except, this time it was him initiating it and drawing it out of his partner. Not the other way around.] Do you desire this, Silco? Do you desire me. If so, speak your mind. There will not be second time.

[conflictresolution]

[This was a strange and uncomfortable ultimatum to consider. Normally, it was he who dictated the terms of most relationships and also any contract that he happened to enter into. He took risks as necessary and for the benefit of his goals, and while he received personal gain from them, it was only to turn it back around to aim towards the independence of Zaun. Even here, his moves were for control to dictate the terms of the city and its effects on him and his.

However, this was deeply personal. The intensity of Richard's gaze boring into his own made it clear that this was a precipice that both of them were standing upon. The slow drip, drip of water on his face punctuated the severity of the pact that Richard had placed in front of him where the final decision seemed to rest with him. Richard was all-in, was he?

Silco had never believed much in marriage. It happened but most in Zaun couldn't afford it. Pacts and monogamy were the closest that partners entered into. He stared at his lover's mismatched eyes, studying Richard's expression.] And you can't enter into marriage as you are already engaged in one from back home. [No wonder they had to create something new, something potent.

He took his time mulling it over, considering the implications, the impacts. Their relationship would not be exposed, oh no, if anything, it would remain with Jinx and her alone. Depending on the moves that they made, they could be accused of business associates. He considered how Jinx and Richard would respond to each other and even what he wanted.

His fingers nudged back more of Richard's hair so it stopped dripping on his face. He tucked it lightly behind his partner's ear, still pondering. He would not be rushed into this decision.] I desire you. I would kill for you, and you are one of the few that I offer such an action personally. [Jinx being the only other.] I will accept your ultimatum, Richard, and all the risks and profits that will come from it.

[Uncharacteristically, he surged forward to lock their lips together hard, his fingers sliding into Richard's hair to grip the locks and hold his lover's head still. He bit the other man's lip hard enough to bleed, sealing their pact in blood.]

[traumaticus]

[It really is unusual situation. One that Richard didn't ever think of finding himself -- let alone twice. Intimacy, affection, connection. Those were all things that Richard had closed off from his life, believing himself to be outside of such human. Even further so after how things went with Henry. The idea of love turned into bitter toxic in his mouth, slowly yet surely killing him from the within.

But then there had been Buckingham. The first person to ever see who he truly was and accepted him. The younger man had held him and showed him a whole new world, binding their bodies and fates together. What he and his kingmaker shared... It did resemble love. Or so Richard thought. But whether it was real or just a foolish dream? He did not know.

And now he was here with Silco. The man who had, just like his young kingmaker, seen who he was with that brilliant eye of his and recognized him as kin of sorts. And now they were about to begin a new chapter together, sharing their bodies and ambitions together. Now, was it love that surrounded them and made them to take this step together? Again, Richard didn't know for sure. Back in church he had came to conclusion that Silco would never harbor such sentiment towards him. But now? He wasn't so sure. Not that it mattered.

'I desire you.' Those words pierced through his skin, forcing through his ribcage and muscles, spreading to his veins and mixing into his blood and filling him up with warmth. Even if it's not love -- it sure did remind him of one.

He does not hold back when Silco craned his neck up to capture his lips with his own. Instead he leans forward down to meet his lover -- no, his partner in the kiss. He sighed deeply when he felt the teeth sink in the soft flesh of his lower lip and draws blood. Richard parted his lips further and forced his tongue past those jagged teeth, diving deep inside Silco's mouth to make sure that the older man would be able to taste his blood.

Then, after a quick moment, he pulls away just enough that he could utter the words against the man's lips.]

In that dream I saw you on the bridge holding a flame in your hands. I've seen your hot white anger to pierce another man like the blade itself. I have seen your sorrow and pain. [The smooth fingers run along the blackened, scarred skin.] And I have seen your care and affection. I accept and want all the parts of you, Silco. Even those that you do not know or see for yourself.

[conflictresolution]

[A cautious man had sworn off of such dangers, of forming connections, of letting someone so close. He was deeply wounded even now, regardless of all those monologues and biting commentary of his own rebirth, of becoming what everyone feared, of never allowing anyone so close to him that he might suffer a similar fate.

Yet, he had. History had repeated itself on its tilted axis. It always did.

The multiples of betrayals layered over each other, building up to the man that he was now. From his parents to the orphanage to the gang to the mines to Vander to the Chem-Barons to Jinx. He had needed all of them to rise and fall in equal parts, and now he was back on the same path that he swore off of. The desire for connection and understanding was not one that he could kick as easily as he liked to believe, and the previous deep lonely anger had choked him until he spat it up and now... Richard slotted into that deep black empty hole and filled it.

And Silco allowed it. He shouldn't. He knew how this would end, but he was willing to overlook the inevitability.

The kiss was like a promise between them, a pact for the path that they had chosen to walk together. He tasted blood, let it coat his lips, let Richard's tongue beyond the threshold of his lips and a soft sighing moan escaped him in response. It was done; the deal was struck, the commitment made. Betrayal was down the line for them, but perhaps they could stave it off for a bit of time.

He kissed Richard's lips between sentences, just a peck, just a small interruption that did not disrupt the monologue. He appreciated the stroking of his ego, feeling seen and heard and accepted even momentarily.]

I see you, Richard. I will elevate you, support you and let no one bring you down. [The corner of his lip twitched upwards.] Your enemies will be my enemies. Your goals will be mine. This place will be our kingdom.