Charming

Full Version: you have always been a delicate disaster
You're currently viewing a stripped down version of our content. View the full version with proper formatting.
Pages: 1 2
"Perfection," Don Juan purred in response as he moved towards Hudson's open arms. "Bliss." Alright was insufficient. The buildup had been slower than usual, but tantalizing. Hudson had already gotten him off earlier tonight — he always did, before they moved on to the main event — but between the pause while they'd talked and the novelty of this Don Juan had been in very real danger of coming again and making a mess of Dean's sheets.

He curled into Dean's arms and almost asked whether he'd enjoyed it as much, but he wasn't sure he wanted to hear the answer. Obviously Hudson had liked it enough to climax, but — well, if this was the way he'd wanted to do things, they would have just done them that way to begin with, wouldn't they? This had to be something Hudson was willing to do for Don Juan, not something he was excited by. The gentleness of all this. It was enough that he was willing to do it; Don Juan didn't need to make him lie about it afterwards, too.

"I know I'm not easy to be with," he said, small and apologetic. He pulled Hudson's arm more tightly around him.
The huff of a laugh was mixed with relief. Dean hadn't been sure how the original suggestion would have been taken to begin with and as they hadn't tried it before, he wasn't sure how it would go, but he was far from disappointed. Perhaps he ought to relinquish control more often. "I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy the view." He teased, pulling up the blankets as he made more space for Don Juan to tangle himself up between his limbs. Underneath the lightness he was trying to convey, Dean still worried. Whatever it was that was haunting Don Juan, Dean just hoped tonight had allowed him to take back a little bit of himself from that place he kept drifting off to.

His grip tightened automatically and he frowned at the last remark. They'd had a go around about this before and Dean's thoughts on the matter hadn't changed. "I wouldn't be here if I didn't want to be," Dean reminded him gently. "I don't go getting tattoos for just anybody," he continued. Even if he'd failed twice before at being the person Don Juan needed him to be, Dean had never fallen out of love with him. It wasn't easy, there was no use in denying it, but Dean didn't always get things right either, he had things he needed to work on, had messed up too. "And I love you just the way you are."

The way Hudson's arms tightened around him was more satisfying and comforting than he could have put into words. If he'd been a better writer there could have been a poem in that feeling. Hudson loved him just the way he was, he said, but Don Juan could only assume this was a sentiment born of the afterglow; the sort of affectionate thing one said but didn't mean. He didn't think it was very likely that Hudson really meant it, whatever he said. Don Juan didn't love himself just the way he was, and he didn't expect anyone else to, either.

He was going to get better, though. Someday he'd make all of this trouble worth Hudson's while — he hoped, anyway.

"I wouldn't still be here if you were anyone else," he said. "You know that, right?" He wouldn't have tried to negotiate this for anyone else; wouldn't have forced his way through the admission he hadn't wanted to make earlier. He would have cut and run when it had happened the first time, dropped out of the relationship and tried again with someone else another time — probably with something else in his bloodstream. This was how he'd always faced things he didn't want to look at directly: he ran away and he came back when he was numb.
They had that in common, at least. Dean wasn't sure he'd ever put this much energy into another person. Then again, he'd been only twenty when they'd first met. He hadn't had the time or the inclination to put himself into another relationship. There had always been the hope, the open door, that they'd be able to make something work, that the times they hadn't been together wouldn't last. Maybe that was why. He'd been hung up on or with Don Juan for a decade at this point, or close to it.

So— "I know," there was a magnetism between them that couldn't be fought. Dean pressed a kiss to Don Juan's forehead. He could feel all manners of sentiments bubbling up in his chest, but wasn't sure how to articulate them fully. That was probably for the better. This was new again, still fragile and though Dean was determined to make it work this time, he didn't want to do too much, too soon and upset the careful balance they were figuring out.

"I'm glad you're still here." It had a double meaning; physically here, in his bed, but also still here, despite whatever had happened in their time apart, whatever it was that followed him around like a shadow.

Don Juan knew this was a sentiment with layers: glad he'd stuck with it this time around, glad he'd come back last month; glad he was still alive. He nestled in closer to Dean's chest, agreed on all counts but not sure anything needed to be said.

"I'm sorry it took me so long," he mumbled, closing his eyes and preparing to surrender to sleep. "Sorry I couldn't do it on my own."

He hadn't gotten sober on his own, and he didn't think he ever would have, even if given a million years to try. He hoped Dean knew that it hadn't been a matter of not wanting it enough — if Don Juan was the kind of person who was capable of getting himself sober, he would have done it two years ago, rather than trying to compromise by cutting back and keeping his habit out of sight.
Dean had been about to say, "I'm sorry I couldn't handle it before," but that was before he caught the second half of what Don Juan was saying. He was sorry he hadn't been able to handle it before, but he didn't know how to say that and then circle back to the questions that were forming in his head. Had that been a throwaway comment? What had happened?

"What," He started, paused, trying to figure out how to phrase this. He'd been halfway to falling asleep, but now was awake with a curiosity he wasn't entirely sure he wanted satisfied. "Do you mean when you say, couldn't do it on your own?" Dean wasn't about to question why he'd gotten sober; Dean had been trying to get him to quit for years now and he liked to think Don Juan would have gotten there if he'd been capable. Addiction was something that had to be battled with, a hole that needed to be clawed out of and while Dean didn't want to question the why, he was now, suddenly very curious about the how. Maybe he was inviting a problem, but they'd agreed on more open communication and this felt important.

Don Juan hadn't expected the question. He'd forgotten that they hadn't already discussed the specifics. The details had gotten lost in the shuffle when he'd had to contend with the woman at Hudson's house, perhaps. He'd certainly never intended to hide it, and he thought even without having specified Hudson would have probably assumed something along these lines. He'd been there with a front row seat when Don Juan had tried and failed to stop before, after all. He knew firsthand the limitations of Don Juan's self control.

"It never sticks when I try to myself," he said, though Dean knew this. "And I wouldn't've come back if I didn't think it would stick. It's magic," he explained. "I can't get high. I tested it."
Dean hated that his first reaction was suspicion. He wasn't sure what he'd been expecting, but magic hadn't been one of the options he'd considered. He wasn't surprised there was some outside factor, but now he was leery about just what had been done here. He knew that it was hard for Don Juan to cut back on his own, they'd tried that, but now Dean was almost worried there would be side effects or something along those lines.

"I'm not questioning the results," Dean assured Don Juan pre-emptively. This was what he'd wanted for the better part of ten years, but now he there was an underlying concern he hadn't considered before. The fact that Don Juan couldn't get high even if he wanted to was probably the only way it would happen, but it opened up a whole host of other questions."But how exactly did this come about then?"

Don Juan was so entirely unperturbed by the series of events that he didn't register Hudson's apprehension, or at least didn't recognize it for what it was. It didn't occur to him that there was anything to worry about, when this charm had done for him in a month what he'd been unable to do himself for years.

"It was in the paper," he explained. "New Year. What do you want to change about yourself. A bunch of people did it. I didn't know what it was at the time. I don't know exactly what she did," he admitted, with a movement that would have been a shrug if he hadn't still been nestled again Dean's chest. "But I told her I wanted to be sober and now I am."
Dean vaguely remembered the article, it hadn't much pertained to him until just now. The questionable nature of the chocolates was dubious, but whatever it was that Don Juan had taken was working. Dean was torn between feeling concerned and oddly... relieved. If it was a magical fix and in the month since it had been taken the only thing happening was that Don Juan couldn't take anything to get high, Dean thought maybe that woman ought to get into a different market.

"You feel fine otherwise?" He questioned. "Physically?" Dean was well aware the maybe he wasn't otherwise. So far he hadn't noticed anything immediately amiss, but he'd also just had to be walked through something he thought he knew backwards and forwards. Dean allowed himself to relax back into the pillow more fully again. If Don Juan felt alright and it was working, maybe he didn't need to worry about it, on top of everything else.

"As long as I don't try to take anything," he said. "It makes me sick if I try. Throwing up," he explained. He didn't really intend for Dean to ever see that in action, because hopefully he was able to just stop buying it, but it was a huge relief for him that if someone gave him something at a party or even accidentally that it wouldn't throw him right back where he'd been. He was aware that some of the people who'd been affected by the booth had side effects they didn't like from the magic, but Don Juan would have taken this a hundred times over if it meant being reliably clean. It was the only reason he'd had the confidence to come back here in the first place; he wouldn't have tried to get back into Hudson's life on the strength of a few weeks where he'd managed to personally abstain (nevermind that he hadn't managed that much in five years).

"You don't have to worry about me," he continued; Hudson relaxing back was the clue he'd needed to finally realize that Hudson was worrying. "I'm getting better."
Well, that would do it, Dean thought. He really wanted to believe this was going to work, so until it was proven otherwise, he would let it go. It would be far easier in the long run if this was what it took. Dean couldn't handle Don Juan's addiction any better than he could quit, so maybe this was just the thing they needed.

"I know," Don Juan's conviction was helpful, but Dean would always worry about something. For once it wasn't the drugs, but Don Juan's current mental status that had thrown the whole night for a loop earlier. It had come out alright on the other end. That seemed easier to be patient with; Dean could shoulder that responsibility without difficulty.

He leaned back and gently, with one hand, tipped Don Juan's face up toward his to plant a soft kiss on his lips. "We'll figure it out." He'd said it before, but with a magical boost, maybe it would finally work. Don Juan seemed convinced, Dean was willing to put in the work on his end, this time he was going to take it one step at a time and maybe they would get somewhere.

Pages: 1 2