The Office of the Crown (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
palace_marton) wrote2005-06-11 10:37 am
palace_marton) wrote2005-06-11 10:37 am
Entry tags:
Summer Holiday; Two. [Johnny/Christian. Marton/Will]
.
" . . . and Adrian seriously has a hard on for you." Will slipped his arms around Marton from behind, more to prevent him from heading out for his ride than anything else. He knew without looking that his lover's face had colored and he buried his face in Marton's shoulder to hide his grin from the mirror.
"Yes. Well." Marton coughed.
Will kissed the shoulder blade beneath the soft lawn of Marton's shirt and took pity on him. "On the good news front, I talked to Liam." He released his grip and flopped back onto the bed. "Before me and Adrian, I mean."
Marton's head shot around. "You did?" Will nodded, the twinkle still evident in his light eyes, but his expression soft and without hint of humor. "You were eighty-five percent correct, okay? I'm up with the rest. Gonna sort it, I promise."
Marton leaned down and kissed the full lips, studying Will's face for clues. "Okay." he said slowly. "Trust you. Love you."
Will grinned again. "Get out of here." he swatted at Marton's thigh. "Go play with the horsies. I'm gonna nap. That Adrian is very . . . wearing." He made an obvious play of closing his eyes, feeling Marton get off the bed and hearing his footsteps all the way to the door. "So I've heard." his lover's voice was rich with wry humor and the door closed quietly after him.
~~
Christian felt his shoulders slumping and his eyes glazing over. He should've remembered his dad and his lover were both dressage nerds and never let them within a furlong of each other while on horseback, at least not while he was within a furlong of either of them. They were riding three abreast up the well-kept trail, and more incomprehensibly high level horse-wonk was flying past his ears than he ever wanted to know existed in the world. Bad enough the stable guy'd tacked up his horse with the stirrup leathers too long, assuming Christian was one of the Elect. He'd fixed that without any trouble. Now if he could just find something to stuff into his ears, everything'd be dandy.
"Steward had that problem," Marton was saying with a bright enthusiasm Christian hadn't heard from him in a while, "changing late behind. The trick was to make him change on the track from true canter to counter canter towards the wall. It took some work but he finally got it."
Johnny nodded and said, "Yeah, that works really well most of the time, although I had a mare I was training who'd go faster instead of changing when I tried that. I had to re-establish the steady canter, then used the whip to support the aids on the outside rein. Then--"
Christian broke in, more than a hint of desperation in his voice. "Do you think we could possibly re-convene the riding seminar some other time and just enjoy ourselves? Look, guys, it's warm, the sky's clear, the birds are singing, there are flowers in the grass and butterflies in the air and guards in the trees -- can we just relax? Maybe talk about something light and fluffy, like, oh, maybe the likelihood of Upper Malton getting through the next regional economic summit without trying to sneak their favorite tariff on imported bunny slippers through again...? Please? Something?"
Marton looked over, startled and then began to chuckle. "We're boring the pleb." he confided to Johnny in a loud, carrying voice. "We'd better stop I suppose before his wittle bwain explodes."
"The wittle pleb's bwain exploded about five clicks back." Christian muttered to himself, urging his horse forward. He could see the top of the crest ahead and that meant the lake wasn't far away. He needed a swim if no one else did!
Johnny giggled and shared a grin with Marton, then took pity on Christian and urged Typhoon into a smooth gallop, calling, "Race you to the crest!" as he blew by Christian and Hurricane.
Marton let them go, enjoying the sights and sounds that, as Christian had rightly pointed out, he'd been ignoring in favor of talking dressage with Johnny. But he couldn't raise the energy to feel bad about his lack of manners in doing so, it wouldn't kill Christian to have to listen to it and, by sounds of it, he'd be listening to one whole heck of a lot of smootching and kissing and messing around once he too crested the hill.
It proved to be so as they'd come off the trail a little and were closer to the lake than any of them had thought. Christian and Johnny were already dismounted and were fooling around in the shallow water, splashing one another and stopping every five seconds for a kiss and cuddle before resuming. Marton smiled, sighed and dismounted, turning his attention to settling the animals while his son and his lover made whoopee in the water.
Johnny shrieked and splashed and dunked and dodged, but Christian was clearly more at home in the water than he was and he knew that if he didn't want to be driven to abject surrender (or outright drowned) he'd have to change his tactics. So he feinted right and then whirled around and launched himself at Christian, wrapping his arms around his lover's neck and locking their mouths together. If you can't win with a frontal assault, he thought smugly, run a distraction. Then more of Christian's attention went into the kiss and Johnny's brain shut down.
Christian was thoroughly enjoying himself and not just right now. This whole trip had been an excellent idea and he'd not had one bad moment yet. Which same might not be said of his father, he thought as he caught glimpse of Marton out of the corner of his eye. Marton had finished with the horses and seemed to be trying to give him and Johnny a modicum of privacy by finding a nice shady spot and arranging the blankets into a pile, lying down with his arms behind his head and his eyes firmly closed. Christian nibbled at Johnny's bottom lip and then broke off, looking around for something that would hold water . . .
Christian explained silently what he had in mind, and Johnny immediately thought of his riding boots. Samuel would have a fit when he saw the results, but it'd be so worth it! He passed the notion on to Christian and got a huge, evil grin in return. Still splashing, they moved up to the shallows directly opposite their unsuspecting target. Still splashing, they snuck across the open ground to where they'd left their boots and jackets. Still splashing....
Johnny stopped and spun around, staring back at the lake. Sure enough, splashes and fountains of water flew back and forth, all by themselves. He looked over at Christian, one eyebrow raised, and got another grin and a telekinetic tickle in response. He snickered silently and resumed sneaking.
Knowing that Marton might flash onto their intentions at any moment, Christian directed Johnny to go right, he went left and, he silently indicated, on three they'd rush him.
The dappled sunlight was warming his face and the breeze from the lake was cooling Marton down after the ride. Just listening to the tinkling splashes of water where Christian and Johnny were frolicking in the lake was relaxing and Marton drew in a long, happy . . .
"What the . . . !" He sat bolt upright, an icy rush of water cascading over his torso and trickling down his back. He was blinded and spluttering, reaching out for the nearest object on which to wreak his terrible revenge, whatever that might be and he managed to grab and drag a handful of cloth which proved to be attached to Johnny, into his lap.
Christian, he could see once his vision cleared, had danced out of the way and was doubled over laughing some two feet out of reach. However . . . Marton grinned evilly down at the squirming bundle in his lap. "Gotcha now."
Johnny tried to wriggle away but Marton had a tight grip on him. He changed tacks again and looped his arms around Marton's neck. "Now what?" he asked with a sweet smile. "I'm not very ticklish, but we can cuddle if you want." He punctuated the offer with fluttering bambi-eyes.
Marton's eyes widened in consternation. Having the tables turned so neatly was unusual enough that he was stuck for an answer and hearing Christian's renewed laughter didn't help any. Dumping Johnny in the lake had been his intention but now he realized he couldn't. Not only was he still wearing his riding boots, and they'd not take such a soaking, but his balance was off, Johnny's weight preventing him from rising. He thought about it and rolled to the side, throwing his lap-monkey off and ending up on top of him in a prime position to keep one wary eye on his hysterical son. He pinned Johnny's arms and eyed Christian. "How old are you?" he asked nicely.
Christian looked up from wiping his eyes. "Thirty-one. Why?"
Marton gave him a nasty look. "Wanna be thirty-two?"
"Umm. Whaddya want?" Christian wasn't prepared to get that close to his father. Not when he had that look in his eye. Johnny, who was still giggling fit to bust, had no idea of the danger he was in right now and Christian had no intention of telling him.
Marton glanced down at Johnny. "This is yours, I believe." he said, not looking up again. "Come and get him. If you dare."
Johnny goggled up at Marton, then tried to thrash and roll away. Marton caught him easily with an, "Oh, no you don't!" for good measure. Johnny pouted up at him, and considered. Christian was pacing around them, first in one direction then another, but Marton was alert and wasn't letting him get any advantage with angle or position. But maybe if he were less alert....
Johnny waited until Christian passed directly behind his head, which put Marton's head directly above his. At which point he suddenly reached up and kissed him, hard and deep.
"Mmmmph!" All at once it had all gone arse-up on him again and Marton didn't know what to do! If he pulled back, it'd be embarrassing for both of them but if he bloody-well stayed where he was, letting Johnny kiss him like damn that, then the problem was going to be something else entirely. Christian seemed to have faded entirely out of the picture and Marton had no sense of where he was or what he was doing, not that he was really concentrating all that hard. Oh God. Hard. Shit! If only Johnny would stop that . . . squirming . . .
Any time, Johnny thought, his ears straining for any sign that his lover was about to spring a rescue attempt. Whenever you're ready. Come on, he's gonna catch on any second now! Somewhere in there, though, his thoughts changed from, So when am I gonna get rescued?! to, Wow, Marton's good at this! He felt himself relaxing into the kiss, and being rescued suddenly didn't seem quite so urgent anymore....
Marton was struggling with himself and it seemed to be a fight between restraint and libido. Right now, they were evenly matched. Breathless, he pulled gently away and found himself looking straight into Christian's eyes, his son lying on his side, next to Johnny and not two feet away. They looked at one another for a moment and then Christian grinned. "I think that means we win." he said.
Marton pretended to huff and rolled over onto his back, arms folding naturally across his stomach. "I'm telling Will on you two." he told the leaves and branches above. There was no response and he looked sideways. Christian and Johnny were kissing, lost in one another again. "Or not." Marton conceded.
" . . . and Adrian seriously has a hard on for you." Will slipped his arms around Marton from behind, more to prevent him from heading out for his ride than anything else. He knew without looking that his lover's face had colored and he buried his face in Marton's shoulder to hide his grin from the mirror.
"Yes. Well." Marton coughed.
Will kissed the shoulder blade beneath the soft lawn of Marton's shirt and took pity on him. "On the good news front, I talked to Liam." He released his grip and flopped back onto the bed. "Before me and Adrian, I mean."
Marton's head shot around. "You did?" Will nodded, the twinkle still evident in his light eyes, but his expression soft and without hint of humor. "You were eighty-five percent correct, okay? I'm up with the rest. Gonna sort it, I promise."
Marton leaned down and kissed the full lips, studying Will's face for clues. "Okay." he said slowly. "Trust you. Love you."
Will grinned again. "Get out of here." he swatted at Marton's thigh. "Go play with the horsies. I'm gonna nap. That Adrian is very . . . wearing." He made an obvious play of closing his eyes, feeling Marton get off the bed and hearing his footsteps all the way to the door. "So I've heard." his lover's voice was rich with wry humor and the door closed quietly after him.
~~
Christian felt his shoulders slumping and his eyes glazing over. He should've remembered his dad and his lover were both dressage nerds and never let them within a furlong of each other while on horseback, at least not while he was within a furlong of either of them. They were riding three abreast up the well-kept trail, and more incomprehensibly high level horse-wonk was flying past his ears than he ever wanted to know existed in the world. Bad enough the stable guy'd tacked up his horse with the stirrup leathers too long, assuming Christian was one of the Elect. He'd fixed that without any trouble. Now if he could just find something to stuff into his ears, everything'd be dandy.
"Steward had that problem," Marton was saying with a bright enthusiasm Christian hadn't heard from him in a while, "changing late behind. The trick was to make him change on the track from true canter to counter canter towards the wall. It took some work but he finally got it."
Johnny nodded and said, "Yeah, that works really well most of the time, although I had a mare I was training who'd go faster instead of changing when I tried that. I had to re-establish the steady canter, then used the whip to support the aids on the outside rein. Then--"
Christian broke in, more than a hint of desperation in his voice. "Do you think we could possibly re-convene the riding seminar some other time and just enjoy ourselves? Look, guys, it's warm, the sky's clear, the birds are singing, there are flowers in the grass and butterflies in the air and guards in the trees -- can we just relax? Maybe talk about something light and fluffy, like, oh, maybe the likelihood of Upper Malton getting through the next regional economic summit without trying to sneak their favorite tariff on imported bunny slippers through again...? Please? Something?"
Marton looked over, startled and then began to chuckle. "We're boring the pleb." he confided to Johnny in a loud, carrying voice. "We'd better stop I suppose before his wittle bwain explodes."
"The wittle pleb's bwain exploded about five clicks back." Christian muttered to himself, urging his horse forward. He could see the top of the crest ahead and that meant the lake wasn't far away. He needed a swim if no one else did!
Johnny giggled and shared a grin with Marton, then took pity on Christian and urged Typhoon into a smooth gallop, calling, "Race you to the crest!" as he blew by Christian and Hurricane.
Marton let them go, enjoying the sights and sounds that, as Christian had rightly pointed out, he'd been ignoring in favor of talking dressage with Johnny. But he couldn't raise the energy to feel bad about his lack of manners in doing so, it wouldn't kill Christian to have to listen to it and, by sounds of it, he'd be listening to one whole heck of a lot of smootching and kissing and messing around once he too crested the hill.
It proved to be so as they'd come off the trail a little and were closer to the lake than any of them had thought. Christian and Johnny were already dismounted and were fooling around in the shallow water, splashing one another and stopping every five seconds for a kiss and cuddle before resuming. Marton smiled, sighed and dismounted, turning his attention to settling the animals while his son and his lover made whoopee in the water.
Johnny shrieked and splashed and dunked and dodged, but Christian was clearly more at home in the water than he was and he knew that if he didn't want to be driven to abject surrender (or outright drowned) he'd have to change his tactics. So he feinted right and then whirled around and launched himself at Christian, wrapping his arms around his lover's neck and locking their mouths together. If you can't win with a frontal assault, he thought smugly, run a distraction. Then more of Christian's attention went into the kiss and Johnny's brain shut down.
Christian was thoroughly enjoying himself and not just right now. This whole trip had been an excellent idea and he'd not had one bad moment yet. Which same might not be said of his father, he thought as he caught glimpse of Marton out of the corner of his eye. Marton had finished with the horses and seemed to be trying to give him and Johnny a modicum of privacy by finding a nice shady spot and arranging the blankets into a pile, lying down with his arms behind his head and his eyes firmly closed. Christian nibbled at Johnny's bottom lip and then broke off, looking around for something that would hold water . . .
Christian explained silently what he had in mind, and Johnny immediately thought of his riding boots. Samuel would have a fit when he saw the results, but it'd be so worth it! He passed the notion on to Christian and got a huge, evil grin in return. Still splashing, they moved up to the shallows directly opposite their unsuspecting target. Still splashing, they snuck across the open ground to where they'd left their boots and jackets. Still splashing....
Johnny stopped and spun around, staring back at the lake. Sure enough, splashes and fountains of water flew back and forth, all by themselves. He looked over at Christian, one eyebrow raised, and got another grin and a telekinetic tickle in response. He snickered silently and resumed sneaking.
Knowing that Marton might flash onto their intentions at any moment, Christian directed Johnny to go right, he went left and, he silently indicated, on three they'd rush him.
The dappled sunlight was warming his face and the breeze from the lake was cooling Marton down after the ride. Just listening to the tinkling splashes of water where Christian and Johnny were frolicking in the lake was relaxing and Marton drew in a long, happy . . .
"What the . . . !" He sat bolt upright, an icy rush of water cascading over his torso and trickling down his back. He was blinded and spluttering, reaching out for the nearest object on which to wreak his terrible revenge, whatever that might be and he managed to grab and drag a handful of cloth which proved to be attached to Johnny, into his lap.
Christian, he could see once his vision cleared, had danced out of the way and was doubled over laughing some two feet out of reach. However . . . Marton grinned evilly down at the squirming bundle in his lap. "Gotcha now."
Johnny tried to wriggle away but Marton had a tight grip on him. He changed tacks again and looped his arms around Marton's neck. "Now what?" he asked with a sweet smile. "I'm not very ticklish, but we can cuddle if you want." He punctuated the offer with fluttering bambi-eyes.
Marton's eyes widened in consternation. Having the tables turned so neatly was unusual enough that he was stuck for an answer and hearing Christian's renewed laughter didn't help any. Dumping Johnny in the lake had been his intention but now he realized he couldn't. Not only was he still wearing his riding boots, and they'd not take such a soaking, but his balance was off, Johnny's weight preventing him from rising. He thought about it and rolled to the side, throwing his lap-monkey off and ending up on top of him in a prime position to keep one wary eye on his hysterical son. He pinned Johnny's arms and eyed Christian. "How old are you?" he asked nicely.
Christian looked up from wiping his eyes. "Thirty-one. Why?"
Marton gave him a nasty look. "Wanna be thirty-two?"
"Umm. Whaddya want?" Christian wasn't prepared to get that close to his father. Not when he had that look in his eye. Johnny, who was still giggling fit to bust, had no idea of the danger he was in right now and Christian had no intention of telling him.
Marton glanced down at Johnny. "This is yours, I believe." he said, not looking up again. "Come and get him. If you dare."
Johnny goggled up at Marton, then tried to thrash and roll away. Marton caught him easily with an, "Oh, no you don't!" for good measure. Johnny pouted up at him, and considered. Christian was pacing around them, first in one direction then another, but Marton was alert and wasn't letting him get any advantage with angle or position. But maybe if he were less alert....
Johnny waited until Christian passed directly behind his head, which put Marton's head directly above his. At which point he suddenly reached up and kissed him, hard and deep.
"Mmmmph!" All at once it had all gone arse-up on him again and Marton didn't know what to do! If he pulled back, it'd be embarrassing for both of them but if he bloody-well stayed where he was, letting Johnny kiss him like damn that, then the problem was going to be something else entirely. Christian seemed to have faded entirely out of the picture and Marton had no sense of where he was or what he was doing, not that he was really concentrating all that hard. Oh God. Hard. Shit! If only Johnny would stop that . . . squirming . . .
Any time, Johnny thought, his ears straining for any sign that his lover was about to spring a rescue attempt. Whenever you're ready. Come on, he's gonna catch on any second now! Somewhere in there, though, his thoughts changed from, So when am I gonna get rescued?! to, Wow, Marton's good at this! He felt himself relaxing into the kiss, and being rescued suddenly didn't seem quite so urgent anymore....
Marton was struggling with himself and it seemed to be a fight between restraint and libido. Right now, they were evenly matched. Breathless, he pulled gently away and found himself looking straight into Christian's eyes, his son lying on his side, next to Johnny and not two feet away. They looked at one another for a moment and then Christian grinned. "I think that means we win." he said.
Marton pretended to huff and rolled over onto his back, arms folding naturally across his stomach. "I'm telling Will on you two." he told the leaves and branches above. There was no response and he looked sideways. Christian and Johnny were kissing, lost in one another again. "Or not." Marton conceded.