Page 81 of Oh, Sacred Dark
If Tyler could, he’d have stayed there forever.
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Tyler could tell Roman was nervous when he picked the sub up for their date. It was all over his face—that flat, expressionless mask on, barely responding to anything Tyler said.
“Hey,” Tyler started as he parked the car in front of the movie theatre. “We don’t have to do this, you know, if you’re not feeling up to it.”
Roman shook his head but still wouldn’t look at him. “I’m feeling up to it.”
“Okay. What’s going through your head, though? You’re not really acting like yourself.”
Roman’s shoulders hunched. Tyler could just imagine him rolling up into a little hedgehog ball and hiding away. “Sorry,” Roman whispered.
“It’s okay. I’m not upset about it. Just worried.”
Roman chewed on his bottom lip before saying, “I don’t know…if I’m your sub, I should be respectful, right? But you haven’t given me any rules—not that you have to, I mean, I should be able to figure them out—”
“Whoa, whoa. Okay. Can I hold your hands?” Tyler asked.
Roman glanced at him, startled, and nodded slowly.
Tyler laced their fingers together. “Okay. So. Baby. I don’t want you to act a certain way because I don’t want you toactat all. What I want is for you to do what comes natural to you. To say the things you want to say without thinking I’m going to judge you for them. To be who you want to be. Your own person, yeah?”
Roman blinked his wide eyes. “I…I don’t know who that is, sometimes,” he admitted, voice breaking in the middle.
Tyler brushed a thumb over Roman’s cheek. “You don’t have toknow. Just let yourself be. How many dinners have we had together? It’s the same as that. That’s the Roman I’ve fallen in love with.”
Roman blushed brightly at the word ‘love.’
“Oh.”
“Yeah. Just—it’s okay to be nervous. But try to trust me, okay? I’m the same old Tyler. I don’t want something new from you.”
Roman nodded tentatively, and Tyler knew it was the best he was going to get right then.
It was awkward as they got to the concession stand, Roman struggling to make a decision for himself, but Tyler didn’t push. Once the lights were off in the theatre and the movie started, Roman seemed to relax.
Tyler whispered silly things in his ear about the characters like he would at home, glowing with pride when he made Roman laugh. By the time the film ended, Roman’s face was much more open, and he readily took Tyler’s hand when they stepped outside.
“I know it’s cold,” Tyler said, “but the restaurant is only a few minutes away. You okay with walking?”
“Yeah, I don’t mind the cold.”
Dinner was…okay. Stilted, really. But then there would be little moments when their eyes would meet, and they’d both blush, and it was as if Tyler were a teenager again in the first bloom of love.
Tyler drove Roman to his house, expecting to drop him off, when Roman tentatively said, “You want to come in?”
Tyler stumbled a little in his, “Sure,” following Roman inside.
It was as if, very suddenly, everything returned to normal when they stepped into familiar ground. They collapsed onto the couch, talked about how Seashell had learnt a new trick despite how old she was. How Connie had maybe found someone interested in the vacant position she’d been trying to fill. Roman mentioned that he’d looked up what a bowerbird was, and Tyler blushed.
“You like the house, though?” he asked.
“Yeah. I love it.”
They fell into kissing easily, Roman draped over Tyler, squirming in his lap, making little sounds that were driving him crazy.
“Can we,” Roman gasped. “Can we…?”
