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“Esmeralda!” Carlos exclaimed, standing beneath her second-story balcony, his open shirt billowing in the wind. “You are the love of my life! Mi corazón y mi alma!”
Ivo clicked his tongue and shifted in his chair. “Boring.”
Behind him, in the kitchen, Stone remarked with an amused chuckle, “He’s laying his heart bare for her and you call it boring?”
Ivo swiveled around to level a glare at him. “He said the exact same thing to Isabella in season two.”
Stone blinked, lowering the knife in his hand onto the cutting board. “It doesn’t make it any less sincere.”
“Doesn’t it? If his words are so cheap that he’d reuse them, doesn’t that make the emotion behind them just as devalued?”
After a pause, Stone’s lips lifted in a shy smile. “I had no idea you were such a romantic.”
“A romantic!” Ivo threw his hands in the air and spun his chair back around. “Disgusting. Put that thought back in your mouth and swallow it.”
Loudly, Stone swallowed, but Ivo knew he was grinning back there.
“If I were a romantic,” Ivo muttered, “I would do a much better job than Carlos at expressing it.”
“I’m sure you would,” Stone said with light amusement in his voice.
Ivo frowned. “Don’t say it like that.”
“Like what, sir?”
“Like you’re placating a child throwing a tantrum.”
“I would never.” Then, after a pause—“But I am curious what you think a ‘better job’ is.”
Ivo let his head fall back onto the headrest, eyes lifted to the ceiling while Carlos continued to monologue on the screen. “Is that a challenge?”
“No, of course not.” Stone’s tone indicated otherwise.
Ivo closed his eyes. His mind went through every word he knew, cross-checked them with each season’s love confession, then he breathed in.
“Stone.”
“Yes, sir?”
“I’ve been pondering something that transcends the sum of my usual ruminations.”
Stone made a quiet sound of intrigue. “And that is?”
“My heart has been engaging in a rather unorthodox experiment. It seems to exhibit an affinity for you.”
“Is that so?” He could hear the smile in Stone’s voice.
“You are the constant in the equation I didn’t know I was solving.”
“I’m touched.”
Ivo frowned. The words were there, but the feeling wasn’t. And though he had never admitted them aloud, there were feelings, ones that he knew were reciprocated even if they had never been spoken, either.
This was an opportunity to speak them without consequence. They were just exchanging words, nothing serious. It wasn’t a real confession. Just—proving that he could.
“Your support during my darkest hours has been the light that guided me back to myself,” Ivo said, quietly, unable to raise his voice any higher for fear it would crack. “It’s more than gratitude I feel. It’s as if every moment we’ve shared has converged into this undeniable truth—I love you, Stone. With a depth I once thought was reserved only for science.”
There was a long moment of silence, filled only with the quiet hum of the Crab. Ivo clenched his hands on the arms of his chair, bit down on the inside of his cheek as he cursed himself for saying too much, exposing too much, revealing his most private thoughts—
Then, movement behind him, soft footsteps as Stone approached. Arms draped over his shoulders from behind, hands clasped over his chest where his heart was beating against his ribs.
Stone’s lips were by his ear as he spoke in a low, equally quiet voice. “Being by your side has been my single greatest pleasure in this life and the next.” His head tilted to press a soft kiss to his temple. “I love you, too. More than anything.”
Ivo felt his skin grow hot as feelings filled his veins, made his heart threaten to give out with how fast it pounded. He turned his head away and said, his throat tight with emotion, “See? I can be lightyears more romantic than Carlos with words I’ve never spoken to anyone else.”
Stone smiled against his skin. “I’m certainly convinced.”
“Fooled, more like it.” Ivo sniffed. “You sounded like you actually believed that drivel.”
Stone gave a soft huff of laughter as his touch withdrew and he returned to the kitchen. “Just acting the part for your performance, Doctor.”
One hand lifted to where Stone’s had been, fingertips brushing the front of his white tank top to chase the ghost sensation of the man’s touch. On the screen, Carlos and Esmeralda shared a passionate kiss, and his hand moved to touch his own lips.
“Boring!” he said, a little too loud.
Stone gave a startled laugh. “What now?” A pause as, presumably, he looked up at the screen. “Not a fan of kissing?”
“Carlos isn’t kissing her like he means it. Boring.”
“And you’re an expert on kissing, then?”
“I’ve seen better.”
Stone paused again, then asked, almost tentatively, “Just seen?”
Ivo felt his cheeks flush and he clenched his hand into a fist, tearing it away from his lips. “When, exactly, do you think I’d have time to indulge in such frivolous things?”
“Would you like to?” Stone then hurried to add, “For science.”
For science. It was a weak excuse, they both knew it. Stone breathed in, likely to rescind the offer, and Ivo said, “If you think you can do better than Carlos.”
After a moment, tentative footsteps approached. He didn’t turn around, just stared straight ahead as his heart started to race again. When Stone came into his field of view, his eyes flicked up to take in the man’s face.
His skin was flushed dark with a heavy blush, his eyes lowered almost sheepishly to avoid his gaze. It made Ivo feel better that Stone was just as nervous as he was, that he wasn’t alone in seeing the bridge they were about to cross as something significant.
Slowly, Stone raised a hand to cradle Ivo’s face and leaned down without making contact yet, his head tilted and lips parted to let out a soft breath that tickled over Ivo’s skin.
They didn’t say anything, didn’t move. They just breathed together, the anticipation growing, filling Ivo’s chest with fluttering anxiety.
He couldn’t take it any longer.
He surged forward to crash their mouths together, misaligned at first until Stone adjusted and—
It wasn’t life-changing. It didn’t make his toes curl or fireworks spark in his chest. There wasn’t a shift in his world or a change at all, because it felt like they’d done it a hundred times before.
It simply felt right.
Stone pulled back just enough to break the kiss, smiling softly, pressing his forehead to Ivo’s. “Perhaps I can’t do a better job than Carlos after all.”
Ivo gazed into those dark brown eyes and thought of a hundred different things to say. He imagined kissing him again and again, in all the ways he’d watched others kiss and be kissed on his shows.
Instead, he just released a quiet scoff and turned his head to the side, eyes averted. “I’ll expect an improvement in your next attempt.”
Stone’s smile was so brilliant, it blinded him without looking directly at it. “Of course, Doctor.”