#;basil

[audaciiae]

@aeterniitas said: ❝  do you like me?  i know you love me.  i know you care about me but.  do you like who i am?  ❞ {dorian for basil}

The question catches him off guard. Basil blinks, rolling over onto his side to face Dorian. He is utterly breathtaking in the early morning light, something that Basil has surely committed to memory by now. Dorian spends so much of his time with Henry and Conall these days that these moments feel like they're harder and harder to come by. Basil, in all honesty, feels like he's slowly being forgotten, like a child's toy that they occasionally come back to when they've grown bored of everything else. Couldn't he ask Dorian the same? Hasn't it been burning him for months now?

"Of course I like you as you are, who you are, though I feel like I ought to be the one asking you that, considering," he murmurs, resting a hand on Dorian's cheek and sighing. Oh, he is jealous, so very jealous that others get to see him laugh and cry and be angry and all the very human things that Dorian shows. Basil coveted it before, held it close to him like a secret. He knows that it's wrong to be so possessive, which is why he tries not to be so fucking jealous, but god--!

Dorian makes it so, so very difficult.

"You have always been dear to me from the moment we met. I thought I made that clear."

[audaciiae]

@endless-youth said: [ mouthy ] sender licks into receiver’s mouth mid-kiss, messy and aggressive (for basil 👀)

If Basil is being honest, this is not how he expected this to go.

When he asked Dorian to go to Paris with him, he didn't really think anything more than friendship would come from it. Why would it? He's been pining after the man for years, and surely this wouldn't change anything between them. He's never at the forefront of anyone's mind, much less Dorian's, and that's just something he's come to accept.

Still, one drink turns to two, turns to three. Basil doesn't drink much, but Dorian had insisted upon it for the happy occasion of them being in Paris together, and one thing led to another. He doesn't really recall who kissed who first, but suddenly Dorian is grabbing at him and pulling him closer, and Basil's mind all but goes blank.

He is vaguely aware of the kiss deepening, of Dorian's tongue suddenly in his mouth and he whines a little before he suddenly pulls back, eyes wide and face flushed as he breathes hard. "Th-that...um..did you mean to do that?" What a stupid question.

[audaciiae]

@endless-youth said: ❛ i will keep you, & i will keep you warm. ❜ (To Basil... and OOF, dorian's getting a little saucy with it 🥴)

In a lot of ways, it feels like a dream. Basil is still hazy and half-asleep, the sounds of Paris waking up outside the window. The light of the morning sun peeks in through the cracks of the curtains, and Dorian's voice is warm and gentle against his ear, arms sliding around Basil's middle to tug him closer. He yawns, blinks the sleep from his eyes, turning over in the other's grasp to properly face him.

"Good morning to you, too," he says with a slight grin, unsure of what to call this feeling. Maybe it is love, though he's always had a hard time discerning what is love and what is...anything else. "You can keep me to yourself all you'd like. Don't tempt me with a day in bed. I have plans for the day, Dorian." As in, he had shows to do, people to talk to. He came to Paris for a reason, and that wasn't just to lay around with Dorian all day (even though he considers that a plus).

He is met with a kiss, then lips pressing to his jawline, his neck. Basil huffs out a laugh, shaking his head. "Dorian, really, I have to get up. You understand, don't you?"

[audaciiae]

@endless-youth said: ❛ frighten me, make me cry, only come back. ❜ (To Basil because it's angsty hours IGGG)

Basil lets out a long, withering sigh, a hand coming up to pinch the bridge of his nose. It's hard, dealing with this, with the hot and cold that comes with caring about Dorian Gray. He had resigned himself to always being on the back burner, someone that could be forgotten about until convenient. While he may be known for his talents, that's...really it. Basil has always had a hard time making and keeping friends, lovers even worse. No one really understands him, but he also doesn't understand the world.

"What exactly is it that you want from me, Dorian?" he says after a few moments, leg bouncing with pent up energy as he pointedly stares at his sketchbook and not at the man before him. "I've been here all along. It's you who has decided that I'm not worthy of your time." It's why he didn't want him to meet Henry because he knew that he would be easily swept away by that man's fanciful nature. Basil is quiet and introverted and spends all of his time in his work. How could that ever be appealing to anyone?

"If you want me in your life, I would rather not be treated as a last resort. Can't you understand that?"

[audaciiae]

@sioraiocht said: i want to paint that pretty neck plum. {dorian for basil}

Shit.

Basil breathes shakily, his eyes squeezed shut as lips insistently press against his neck, teeth grazing against the sensitive skin. The day is warm, perhaps a bit too warm, as any attempt to keep Dorian still to paint him was met with indignant whining and complaining about the heat. Basil, of course, has the stark inability to tell him no. The painting can wait, and now it certainly has to, for somehow finding a cool spot in the home has turned into, well, this.

He swallows hard, sucking in a sharp breath when his teeth finally dig into his neck. They've somehow made it to his bedroom, though Basil has no idea how they've even managed that. The curtains and the blinds are pulled shut, leaving them in slightly cool, pleasant darkness. He clings to Dorian like he's the only person in the world, squirming underneath him.

"And what do you want me to say when people ask, hm?" he manages to choke out, grabbing hold of Dorian's hair and yanking his head back. "You really are such a spoiled brat." And yet I can't help but love you so. "If you're going to do that, be subtle about it."