Chapter Text
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Tango woke up first.
It wasn’t like there was any sun shining through the window to go off of in the under-city, plus he kept his windows sealed off by pistons blocks, but having lived without a sunrise his entire life, he had an internal clock that went off the day-night cycle.
As he woke up, he felt his blaze-rods lifting off the pillow and starting to circle again, his flares lighting up with soft snaps and hisses.
Ruby-red eyes blinked once.
Twice.
Then he recognized something far heavier than a pillow on his chest.
And in his periphery, there was the prettiest shade of pale blonde.
Blinked once.
Twice.
FWOOM!
Tango’s flares went hot, but he managed to keep his own internal temperature down enough not to risk burning Zed on his bare skin, because at some point he’d ended up shirtless; actually he was way more than just shirtless, and when he looked down, blinking the last haze of sleep out of his eyes, he could see thin red lines down sun-kissed shoulders, and…
Oh my stars.
FWOOM!
FWOOM!
FWOOOOOOOM!
His blaze-rods hurtled in such a fast, tight circle around his head that they whacked occasionally off his pillow, and this was enough to rouse the one asleep with his head on his chest.
“…hnn…Tangs?”
Zed picked his head up, propping one arm across Tango’s abdomen to lift his gaze, eyes purple like amethyst gems hazy from sleep.
“Ohhh, Zed, your neck!” Tango gasped, because when his boyfriend did lift his head, he could see clear as day exactly what they’d gotten up to last night. The column of Zed’s neck down to his shoulder was littered with tiny nips and small bruises, and Tango immediately felt a very strange coiling in the pit of his stomach.
He felt so guilty that he’d marked Zed up this bad, he’d have to wear a scarf for a week or more, but also…
Mine.
Tiny little piece.
All mine.
Zed just gave a sleepy chuckle in response to Tango’s words and dropped his head back onto the blaze-borns chest. “…I feel like I just had sex with a cat…”
“Oh my staaaaaars!”
Tango let out a low whine of pure humiliation, and Zed just started laughing all over again. The sound was beloved, it was deeper now, morning voice rasping from his throat, and he nuzzled against Tango’s neck with a pleased hum.
Tango gingerly ran his fingertips over the reddened lines scratched down Zed’s shoulder blades. “I am soooo sorry…”
But Zed was still laughing, quiet and breathless in a way that the hot breaths tickled on Tango’s neck and sent a giddy shiver up his spine.
“…I’m fine, Tangs…better than fine…that was the best night of my life…”
Purple eyes looked up at him again, through eyelashes lidded and pale blonde strands. “…even if my lover here seems to be rather pointy.”
“You’re the worst,” Tango grumbled, yet it wasn’t like he could make an escape. Zed was on top of him, and he was taller too, long limbs snaked around his torso and legs tangled together under the sheets.
“That’s certainly not what I heard last night.”
“Zed.”
“What?”
“Please spare me…” Tango grumbled, pressing his nose into pale blonde hair, forehead against the strands so soft, dyed it seemed shades lighter by the sun, and this was bad, wasn’t it?
Because Zed had felt his claws, felt his fangs, gotten bitten and burned, and yet he was lying here in bed with him with a dopey, adoring look on his face all the same.
And Tango had known this was already spiraling. Yeah, so sue him, it was. He probably should save this for a more romantic moment than their first morning after, bite his tongue with the same teeth that had marked up sun-kissed skin in a way he’d been privately fantasizing over for probably a little longer than he ought to have been. Yet sandwiched between them he felt the rounded glass beads, Zed’s necklace, his necklace, and all that it said, all that was still left for him to explain.
For now, he’d do his best to thin it out.
“…Zed?”
“Hm?”
“…I think I love you.”
One.
Two.
Three.
Zed shifted, Tango’s heart skipped, and ok maybe this hadn’t been the best time, he should have kept this in his back pocket for now, even if the truth hung in handmade beads around Zed’s neck right this very second, it was all still too much, none of this had been done in precisely the right order…
“You know, Tangs, that's quite a lovely coincidence…”
Zed picked his head up again and grinned at him, looking so overwhelmed at the moment with a sense of pure joy that everything else felt dim and dull by comparison.
“…because I do believe I’ve been in love with you since the moment I laid eyes on you.”
Tango would find time to be embarrassed later about how hard his ribcage rattled with a purr when he heard those words.
“Y-You have?”
“Sure have.”
“Huh. Well. T-That’s…that works out.”
Zed snorted and settled his head on Tango’s chest again, nuzzling up close beneath his chin with a contented sigh. “You bet it does.”
Tango fluttered his hands a few moments uncertainly before slowly letting them rest easy on Zed’s back, fingers tracing the outline of lithe muscle over shoulder blades with the faint red lines etched into them.
They spent a few more minutes like this, and Tango vaguely contemplated if this was what pure bliss was before Zed squirmed.
“Tangs…much as I’d love to stay like this all day, my stomach says it’s a little past my usual breakfast…”
Tango blinked twice. “Oh! Y-Yeah, it’s probably getting close to noon, isn’t it? We can go grab something at Joel and Lizzie’s and…”
Then you could head back up.
Tango caught the words on his tongue and looked down to see Zed having finally bothered to untangle the two of them, sitting back, one hand coming up to rub over his neck, the tiny nips and bruises there all so beautiful, and no, Tango shouldn’t think that, but it was true. His sun-kissed beauty cricked his neck, slender shoulders rolling out stiffness.
Tango exchanged his words.
“…and we could come back here?”
Zed beamed at him.
“Sounds perfect.”
The drag of getting up, getting cleaned up, getting clothes on, all of it was accentuated with Zed constantly trying to get hands on him because now that Tango had signaled that pretty much every wall was done pretty clearly, it was like his boyfriend couldn’t stand leaving him be longer than a few minutes at a time.
The blaze-born couldn’t deny it, he basked in the attention. It felt amazing, fingertips occasionally ghosting the back of his neck, along his shoulder, resting on his lower back, on and on it went.
Before long Tango was tossing his black vest around his shoulders and clipping his gloves to his belt.
Zed quirked a brow at him. “You not gonna wear them?”
Tango made a nervous chuckle. “W-Well…I…usually don’t. Sorry.”
Amethyst eyes sparked, but there was no anger, no disappointment, only a gleam of delight.
And wasn’t that just like Zed?
“Gotcha. Well, off we trot, then!”
Tango blanched when Zed made for the door, his blaze-rods momentarily frozen before speeding up as he snagged Zed’s bomber jacket up from where it had been draped alongside his vest.
“Hold up, put this on!”
Zed glanced back at him from near the door, the stone slabs still sealing over the exit. “Hm? It’s not that cold, though, I’ve got my cardigan. Plus, we’re just popping down to the bakery and back, that’s not far.”
Tango whined in the back of his throat, flares sputtering. “That’s not the issue!”
Zed tilted his head, and then a devious grin split his features. “Ah…I see.”
He walked back over and took the jacket from Tango.
Zed’s usual outfit was a low scoop neck white tee and a brown knitted cardigan. Both items cut low, exposing his collarbone, and while Tango was usually thrilled with that, considering that meant he could see Zed’s courtship necklace, now?
Considering they were going to Joel and Lizzie’s, and not only was he wearing the courtship necklace as ever, but he was also wearing the results of their rather intense night together.
Tango was already going to have to wring both Joel and Lizzie for all the blackmail material he had to keep them quiet on just how deep the meaning of the necklace ran.
But the love bites?
I’d never hear the end of it.
So he was relieved when Zed took his jacket.
…and significantly less relieved when he just folded it over his arm and spun on his heel.
“Off we go!”
“No! Zed!”
“You’re no fun, Tangs…you were so happy to mark me up, and now you wanna make me cover it? I don’t think so.”
“Are you like, shameless!?”
“Mostly.”
“Put your jacket on!”
“I’m not cold!”
“That’s not the point!”
But as Tango made a swipe at Zed, the human knocked his knuckles off the stone, and the pistons engaged. Then, he was off into the tunnel.
“Hey!” Tango shouted after him, to ringing laughter that echoed and bounced. He only stopped long enough to seal the pistons behind them before giving chase.
And maybe he was just doomed to the relentless teasing he’d receive from Joel and Lizzie the second they saw Zed and all the various marks and beads he now sported that made extremely clear just how fast the two of them were going.
Tango’s flares were hot, but all the same, his chest was rumbling.
Because this was just a tiny little piece.
All mine.