bsumone | ❝ You fairies love where love is wise and just ❞

"I hope so. Because it's really great."

And a prelude to everything they'd do together in the future. Everything just seemed to slot together so nicely and he couldn't help but feel like he was falling even faster for this man. Leaning against him, he stroked his hair fondly while he gazed into his eyes.

"I know I already told you but you're seriously so handsome. I'm a really lucky guy to have you."

James' hands settled in the small of Eli's back and he tilted his head so their foreheads were together. The young man's fingers in his hair were soothing and something he's quickly learning he enjoys.

"That's funny. I feel like I', the lucky one."

"Maybe we're both really lucky then."

Closing his eyes, he savored feeling this close to the person who had only been a dream before. This was amazing and everything he'd dreamed of and wanted for a couple years now. It was almost impossible to believe that it was real.

"Are you hungry? I can feed you some of the snacks I brought."

Oh, he was certainly hungry, just... maybe not for food. But this was nice. They were both new to this particular version of their relationship, so it was best to just enjoy it and let things move naturally. Even this, Eli sitting astride him like this, seemed pretty fast, but Eli wasn't shying away.

"What did you bring?"

Without getting off of his boyfriend, he showed how flexible he was by twisting around and grabbing the bag to bring it over to them. Opening it up, he pulled out various things. Salty sweet things. Kettle corn and toffee pretzels... Things of that nature.

He smiled as he opened up the toffee pretzels to offer one to him.

"You said sweet and salty right?"

Please ignore what's happening in James' pants right now. That display of youthful flexibility was just... yeah, um... James is certainly to his best to ignore it. Instead, he's focused on Eli's smile -- it's so warming to see and helps to banish the bad memories of his heartbroken face.

And he just opens his mouth with a quiet "ah~" to let Eli feed him the treat.

Grinning now, he popped the treat into his mouth before getting one for himself. He was very content to stay right here, thank you. Much easier to feed him. And to sneak kisses between bites too.

"What else do you want to know about me? I'll tell you anything you want to know."

After chewing and swallowing the first toffee pretzel -- which gave him a moment to think of something. Finally, he settled on something that had piqued his curiosity since Eli mentioned it earlier.

"What got you into dance?" Typically, in his experience, when kids started in something that young, it was usually because their parents wanted it. But that definitely didn't seem to be true in Eli's case.

"I got to see a shortened version of the Nutcracker when I was little. I wanted to be one of the dancers and I begged and begged and begged until my parents got me lessons."

Eli laughed a bit, pausing in putting another pretzel into his mouth as he remembered back when he was little again. "The Sugar Plum Fairy is always performed by a woman but when I was little you could not tell me I wouldn't eventually get to dance her role one day."

"You never know these days. A lot of artistic companies are taking more risks and trying to change things up to be more inclusive." Not a bad thing in his mind. The nostalgia on Eli's face, the way the memory brightened his eyes, was a beautiful thing to see. Even if it was a little blurry without his glasses.

"You should see the way you light up when you talk about it."

"It's because it's still my dream. I had a teacher once tell me that boys can't be the Sugar Plum Fairy so I told him that I would make a company one day where boys and girls could dance any part they wanted."

Eli's face was glowing as he talked about it. This was his passion and it was written all over him. "I'd still like to some day. A place where it doesn't matter if you're man or woman or anything at all. If you win the audition for that part then it's yours."

He looked so beautiful like this, lit up talking about his passions. His smile was infectious and James couldn't help smiling too. He didn't know much about the arts, but a hard-working guy like Eli? He definitely wanted to think he'd be able to make his dreams come true.

He also couldn't help stealing another quick kiss.

"That's a wonderful goal to have."

He loved that he got a kiss for sharing his dreams. His passions. Eli fed James another pretzel as he leaned in to nuzzle his nose. For no other reason than he could at the moment. It was nice to be affectionate like this.

"My new goal is to make sure that you're around to see it happen."

"I hope to be able to support you for a long time." Perhaps not financially, but in every other way could. Also, he said that so Eli would understand whatever they started wasn't just some kind of fling for him. It wasn't based solely on carnal desire.

Those words made him smile so brightly and he definitely crushed some of pretzels in the bag as he pressed himself close to hug him as he gave him another kiss. Just so that way James would understand how much that meant to him. They were more than just kind words. They were a promise that he treasured.

"Thank you. I'm going to support you too, okay? Because that should go both ways."

He heard the bag crunch between them and almost laughed. Eli really was sweet. James didn't have any great dreams to pursue at this point. He'd accomplished most of what he'd set out to do with his career... Well, maybe he could go back to working at university now that Malroy was almost grown up and he wouldn't need to put aside as much time for an adult child. Time would tell. But it was still very moving. Eli had clear goals and clear ideas to pursue them, and yet he wanted to support James' pursuits as well.

And that made him melt a little. Enough to squish the bag of pretzels against when he pulled Eil closer. No kiss followed, he really just wanted to hold him closer. He was such a thoughtful person. James had seen it in passing observing him at school, but to really be the recipient of that was moving.

"I appreciate that."

It was the second crunching that told him they were smashing the pretzels. But that was fine. They were just pretzels. They'd still be edible even if they weren't whole. What really mattered was that he could tell what he'd said had touched James. It made him smile that much more as he pushed a strand of hair away from his boyfriend's face.

"You're a really special man who still has a lot to give okay? I read a couple of your published works and you've got such a rich mind. It's so full of ideas that I think you could write a lot of amazing things if that's what you wanted to do."

Eli sighed a little. "Did you always want to teach?"

James blinked in surprise at the admission that Eli's read his work. A lot of it was academic, but there were also a few volumes of his poetry, as well. That was... Well, what can be said when someone goes out of their way to seek out your writing? He definitely felt himself flush.

"No, not always," he admitted. "I wasn't sure what direction I wanted to take in life until I was in college."

"Would you want to write again? You're really good at it." He reached for his bag again and pulled out his wallet. From it he pulled out a piece of paper where he'd written out one of James' poems that he'd loved.

Turning it around, he showed it to him. "I keep this one with me everywhere I go. I think a lot of people would seriously enjoy your work if you published again."

Oh. Eli actually kept one of his poems on him? He reached for his glasses to scan the poem, a warm smile curling his lips. It was something he wrote when he first learned he was going to be a father. It's something joyfully looking to the future. No wonder Eli liked it.

"I haven't stopped writing. I just haven't tried to publish anything. I wanted to devote as much time as I could to raising Malory."

Eli looked at him with fondness and amusement. He wasn't friends with her but he knew her enough to know that she was turning eighteen soon. Whether that was a few weeks or a few months didn't matter. She was turning eighteen her senior year.

"You raised her. You should publish again." He gently booped his nose. "Then I can tell everyone to go buy your book."

"I have to make sure she gets through this last year of school and gets settled once she's accepted to college." He knew she was pursuing that route because they'd talked about it at length. He may only be a part-time dad, but he's devoted to it.

"It's not as easy as you think," he retorted with a little smile. "Someone else has to think your work is worthwhile to publish it."

He actually stuck his tongue out of him. Did it show his age? Absolutely. But James was being such a boring realist that he deserved it. That was a flawless logic that Eli was going to be sticking with. Especially as he reached between them to grab a pretzel to shove into that realistic mouth.

"Dream a little. I'm here to be supportive and you're squashing me!"

James chuckled while he chewed the pretzel. Or what was left of it after the bag god smashed between them.

"Patience. It'll only be a year or so." Though, he remembers how long a year felt when he was a much younger man. "By the time she's all settled, I should have everything put together to submit for publication again."

"I dreamed about you for over two years. I think I can do patience."

Eli gave him a look of amusement and gently brushed a crumb off of the man's lip with his thumb before popping that in his mouth so he could suck it off. This was a good brand of pretzels. He was going to have to remember this for the future.

"I need to find the rest of your works so I can own them all though."

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