goingtobeunwell

Crozier closes his eyes and lets himself be kissed, a low, satisfied rumble rising in his throat. “Mm.”

The last time they’d kissed like this his hair didn’t get finished, and so with great reluctance he pulls away, pressing a few quick kisses to his lips and then sitting back. “Well, let’s find out if you approve.”

Raju makes a pleased noise to answer that rumble Raju can feel in their lips, in Francis' mouth. As Francis pulls back Raju realises he's licking his lips, then smiles in a bright, amused way at Francis. "I will," he says, and then turns to set things up. He hooks the strop over something nearby and unfolds the blade, starting to run it with quick, practised ease back and forth over the leather side.

"It's been a long time since I used this," he says as he does. "But I've been looking after it. You're in good hands."

A moment more and he's setting the blade aside again to start on the soap, glancing up to study Francis' face as he wets the brush, lathers the soap. "Your hair is longer than it was when you used to shave, isn't it? I'll be the first to see you looking this way." He looks pleased when he says it. Curious as he is about the man Francis says he used to be, the way that man used to look, the way Francis must have seemed when performing the work that would define the rest of his life, Raju finds he likes this too, the idea of seeing something new. Being the first to see something new, because his hand was the one that did it. There's something about that.

“I wouldn’t assume otherwise,” he replies, because there isn’t any question in his mind otherwise. Rama is meticulous in caring for his things, especially something that came from home. There’s so little that came with them from their past lives.

He watches Rama prepare the blade and lather, smiling at the familiarity but intrigued by how intimate it feels with someone other than a steward wielding the blade. Rama is going to bring that razor to his throat and the delicate skin of his cheeks and around his lips, the trust blooming in his chest and overflowing into adoration.

“I suppose you will be,” he smiles, feeling a little heat in his face.

Raju's hand slows as he looks up and catches that hint at a blush. His smile deepens as he pinches gently at Francis' cheek, leans down—

—and stops just short of kissing him, rolling his lips pointedly between his teeth while his eyes carry his smile. His false pinch tightens into a real one for just an instant, long enough to tease Francis, and then he straightens up again, starting to brush the lather over Francis' face. "If there's anything more you'd like to warn me about, say it now. Once I start I'll need you to keep your mouth closed until I'm finished."

Goddamned tease. He wants to pinch him right back, but now begins his trial. He needs to keep his mouth shut while his face is shaved, not only to protect his nose but to prove to Rama that can do the damn thing. He doesn't have to always speak, even if Rama knows full-well what he's doing when he leans in close like that and smiles with that beautiful goddamned smile.

He holds his gaze and shakes his head firmly; no, there's no more he needs to say.

Raju looks pleased, mostly with himself; not answering even before Raju's finished lathering says Francis might be taking it as a challenge, which opens up an avenue that Raju hadn't been considering before. He looks pleased while he lathers one cheek and then the other, across jaw, across upper lip and under chin, over neck. Then he sets the brush down and picks the blade back up, positions the bench behind Francis, kneels there, one hand on his shoulder and the other in front of Francis, blade not opened yet.

"I'm used to doing this for myself only, you understand. My hands are more used to shaving from this angle." He flips open the blade, holding it while leaning around, craning his neck to get a look at Francis' face, as if deciding where to start. "You know, I've been thinking about what I'd like to do to you, once you're well. Would you like to hear?"

Ah. He fully knows what he's doing, his Rama. Maybe his hands are more used to shaving from that particular angle, or maybe he wants to be impossibly close while he does this. He certainly knows he's made a promise not to speak, and considering that movement would also be ill-advised Rama now has a fully captive audience.

He answers with a raise of his brow. As though he'd say 'no' to an offer like that, even one that'll probably wind up killing him in this chair.

At the raised brow and nothing else Raju makes an amused noise, the breath of it moving the lather a little. He holds the blade close to vertical, sets it in place, and moves it down, hand slow and precise as it cuts the stubble away. The sound is more satisfying than he remembers, but then he hadn't ever let his own stubble grow this long until he'd grown it out altogether.

"I've been thinking about what you wanted to do to me," Raju says as he begins. Cheek to chin, in one slow smooth stroke. He picks the blade up, moves it to the side just a little, and does the same again. "The skin behind my balls," he goes on, casually. "You must like being touched there, too, if you've been thinking about it." One more stroke, and then slow attention to the trickier parts next to the lips and near to the jaw. "But I wouldn't be starting there, of course. I think I'd start with your chest. It's been so long since I've been able to touch there."

He pauses, smiling at himself, ducking his head for a moment. "It feels like I've done it before, doesn't it? But I haven't gotten to touch you there at all. Not really. I'd like to feel everything." His free hand moves from Francis' shoulder to his back where the sheet over him parts, sliding slowly over the bare skin there. "Do you think you'd like that?"

Lord knows how long Rama had been waiting to spring these thoughts onto Crozier. He likes to think that he’d been plotting some sort of revenge for the strip show, but it’s more likely that this is a spontaneous little ploy that just so happened to fit in with a desire to groom his wild-looking beard.

He speaks of such filthy things so casually, hinting at the touches before his fingers lightly brush along his bare back. Crozier has to stop himself from shuddering and ruining the integrity of the shave.

He answers by locking eyes with him, mouth lifting in a lopsided smirk. He’d love if he touched him, really touched him, nothing with that worried care behind it.

Francis meets his eyes very deliberately and seeing that smirk pulling unevenly at his lips deepens Raju's smile. His hand wanders downward, settling at the soft skin between Francis' spine and his hip. "Then I'd like to taste you," he says casually, shifting to lean forward a little more, reaching around Francis to rinse the blade and then start on his other cheek. "Your chest first. Your nipples. Your stomach. I want to know what they taste like in my mouth. And I'd like to know how sensitive your nipples are."

His fingers move just a little, as if they're thinking about inching around to the front. They don't, but his hand poses itself, ready to. "Should I test that now do you think? Or should I wait?"

He returns the question with a look that plainly says keep going, Ram, one day you’ll get yours.

Crozier can imagine those pearly teeth on his chest, his hands cupping his pecs like tits and his mouth making everything red and slightly swollen. Yes. Yes, he would like those things now, it would be excellent if they could just rip each other’s clothes off right now-

But he’s half-shaved, and this is a game, and he’s going to win. He merely raises his shoulders in a gentle, laissez faire shrug.

Raju's smile splits his face and his hand has to pause its shaving for a moment as he ducks his head toward Francis' shoulder to laugh, quietly.

"Well, if you really don't care," he says, turning his attention back to Francis' face as he recovers, starting the next feather light motion of the blade in a line down Francis' cheek. "I suppose I shouldn't move my mouth lower then, either. I wasn't paying attention to your thighs before. The inside of your thighs, high up. I wonder if it's smooth or rough. If it would be easy or hard to mark you there. I should let my fingernails grow a little, I think, so I can find out."

With that he draws back just enough to wash the lather off the blade again. "Raise your head for me. Look up at the ceiling."

Crozier loves making him laugh. It’s quickly becoming one of his favorite things in the world, seeing that wide smile on Rama’s face the seconds before he breaks into a great big guffaw or a small chuckle. It’s beautiful, every time it’s beautiful.

He lifts his chin towards the ceiling and holds his upper half still, his hand idly reaching out to brush across the front of Rama’s trousers. A purely coincidental touch, of course, just accidental and nothing more. He’s not responding to the fact that Rama’s is teasing him with thoughts of his hands and mouth exploring his inner thighs.

Raju lets out a sharp breath, half amused at the coincidence of Francis' touch and half something else, and his smile lingers on his face as he eyes the underside of Francis' chin. He'd made the lather thick enough to coat the long stubble but not so thick he couldn't see which way it grew, so if he scrapes the blade that way...

For a moment he's silent, all his focus on his hand, on the soft slope of Francis' chin into his neck, the sound of the stubble cut under the blade and the feel of it, the careful balance between touching Francis' face and not. It'd be hard to really hurt Francis this way, at least by accident, but even a small cut would be unforgivable to this man, from Raju's hand.

"But I haven't decided if I want to yet," he murmurs, concentrating less on his words now. "Mark you, I mean. Or if I want to be gentle. Both, I think." He picks the blade up, repositions it to start another long, slow stroke. "But I can't do the two at once. Maybe it'd be slow, to start with."

Edited 2024-07-25 01:17 (UTC)

The slow grating noise of the razor clipping down his stubble makes the top of his head tingle. It's like butter being spread across a piece of toast, a soft scraping of a blade shaving his rough face smooth. He exhales quietly as Rama moves the blade carefully over his skin; it won't be long now before the beard and moustache is completely gone.

He hums softly in approval. Slow to start sounds nice. All gentleness first, then the roughness. He'd be fine either way, he's quickly come to realize -- he'd like Rama in all ways, new and wondrous as it all is.

Raju hums back. "Slow, then," he says after a moment, craning his neck to try and see the other side of Francis' face, then changing his mind and shifting around to lean over Francis' other shoulder for the better view. The hand on Francis' back slides over toward his hip as Raju shifts his weight, and Raju's thumb moves back and forth over the skin there. "I'd like that. I think... I want to be good to you, Francis. Take care of you. Be sure that you're well. Then..."

He pauses to concentrate on the little details, the last bits. Jaw to neck, making certain every bit of it is smooth and clean. "Then we can see about the rest. I'll find out how many places I don't have to be careful with your skin. That's the one good thing about living in a place this cold, isn't it? You're already covering everything up."

I want to be good to you, Francis. He believes him, dear god, he believes him. He's already so good to him, so sweet and tender and concerned in all things, but the thought that it could somehow be better-

His head swims. He wants to whimper. Maybe it's the touch too, that simple stroke of his thumb over the hint of bare skin there.

He hums again, wanting to be able to speak now. Hasn't he played this game well enough? Hasn't he been so terribly good and still throughout this whole endeavor? He tries to meet his eyes, tries get him to see that he agrees, but ends up going for that hand touch again. This time his hand brushes against Rama's, along his knuckles and down his thumb.

Raju feels the touch against his hand and the razor pauses its movement, drawing back from Francis' jaw as Raju's expression softens. "Nearly finished now," he says, hand on Francis' hip turning to try and grasp Francis' reaching one at whatever angle the two can fit together. "Look straight ahead, bite both your lips in for me." That should pull the skin tight enough to make it easier to shave, and keep those lips out of the way.

"One of the worst sins of this damn beard," he goes on, feeling Francis' fingers in his, feeling Francis' skin in his care as he sets the blade lightly under Francis' mouth, "is the way it hides your lips. You never trimmed there, either." That's one pass with the blade done. "I've felt them, but I want to see. You have a wide mouth, I think. And I know your lower lip is thick enough to bite." And another pass, leaving the skin beneath it smooth and bare. "But what shape is the other one, exactly? I want to see all of it. I want to feel all of it."

He finishes the last pass underneath Francis' mouth and pauses, smiling a small, satisfied smile. "I'll just have to wait, of course. Still your upper lip to go."

He does as instructed without thought, biting his lips to draw the skin taut for a smoother shave. This is new to him, being admired for his physical features - his lips, of all things. He can safely say he’s never given them a second thought.

Rama takes such great offense to his beard! And frankly, Crozier has been charmed by the one on Ram’s face, the peek of plump lips underneath the well-trimmed mustache and carefully-maintained beard. He can feel those lips just fine, though he has full faith that he’d look as gorgeous as he does now clean-shaven.

He hopes Ram won’t be disappointed by what he sees. He doesn’t think he will be, but the fear always lingers despite logic.

The focus on Raju's face looks a little excited, now. His gaze is sharp, and his lips are pressed tightly together, with a smile pulling up at their edges. One pass on each side, a very careful few movements with the corner of the blade here in the middle, and then—

Raju slides off the bench, hand squeezing Francis' as he lets go of it so he can stand in front of him, taking the whole of the picture in at once. His eyes dart over Francis' face, creased up at their edges as his smile breaks out from its restraints. He presses his lips together again, but the pleasure and excitement's already escaped. He rinses the blade in the water, puts it aside, dips his hands in the pine-needle water to smooth it over Francis' face, washing the stray spots and lines of lather away, all without looking away for more than an instant at a time.

"There you are," he murmurs, hands settling onto Francis' cheeks, smooth under his palms. His thumbs trace the curve of that now-visible upper lip, starting at the middle and working out. The shock of the difference is lesser than it would have been if Raju hadn't been the one shaving him; it's a transformation, but Raju's been eased into it. He would have been this pleased either way. "You know, some men look exactly the same whether they've got a beard or not. Not you."

Well! The words may be confusing - what does that mean, that he doesn’t look exactly the same - but the smile on his face and the touch to his naked upper lip is not. Ram seems fascinated, maybe even a little enchanted by what he sees.

“Am I really so different?” he wonders, same upper lip slightly curling into a slow smile. He leans his head to one side, into Rama’s palm, looking up at him in expectation of the answer.

The pressure on his palm as Francis turns his head into it sinks into Raju's chest, and he feels the precious weight of Francis' trust against his sternum as he keeps looking, taking him in. "Mm. The beard changed the shape of your face. And here, you have cheeks—" he smiles as his free hand slides slowly over the soft plane of one, "and a chin," as his thumb traces the round curve at its top, then the slight cleft at its bottom. Then his gaze gives in to the pull back to Francis' mouth, the hand holding Francis' head starting its thumb moving back and forth from the newly-smooth cheek to the corner of his lips.

"And it's easier to see you smile now," Raju says warmly, satisfied. He gets to touch everything now, and see everything. He hadn't known how much he'd wanted that until now, realising that he had it.

And he can’t help the brightness of that smile now, how light and expressive his face is as he gazes back into the sweet face of the man he loves.

“Is here anything that surprises you?” he asks, wanting Ram to keep caressing his face. If this is all they did together, a caress and a fond look, he would be content for the rest of the week. “Said cheek or lip?”

Raju nods, smiling. "Cheek—" his fingers curl over one, more pitted than he'd been expecting and there's no way to say so out loud, none that would carry the warmth and pleasure that he feels seeing the life in Francis' skin out from the inside of him to Francis' ears, "lip—" he brushes fingertips over it again, the bow of it smooth and shapely amid the square solidity of his face, "chin—" his hand moves down over the soft jawline that the beard had, a little, shown and the small, prominent curve of chin that it hadn't, pausing his finger over the cleft there.

Then Raju breathes out an amused noise at himself. "Everything surprises me," he says, delighted, and curls his fingers over Francis' chin, his fingernails happily too short to do anything but play at marking the skin there.

"Look at that, would you." He notes it as his hand turns, curled fingers realising how that prominent chin makes a fine place to grasp, if someone should decide he wants to take hold of Francis' jaw and turn Francis' head for him. Raju demonstrates for himself, pushing just a little, trying to firmly tip Francis' chin up toward him.

"Perfect," he murmurs, smiling at his hand and then, self-satisfied, into Francis' eyes. "Surprises everywhere."

Gears are turning in Ram’s head as he watches his own hand explore the face he’d carefully unmasked. It’s amusing in itself just seeing him make realizations about this and that, but his pleasure in Ram’s reaction is quickly replaced by a sharp lighting of desire as his chin is grabbed.

He tips his head back with a low growl in the back of his throat. “Look at that,” he says, clearly looking only at the man who has his full attention. “And what would you do with this?”

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