8 or 13 for illario / gladius
Or gladius / snake pit members
#8 - "I was very polite about it."
Gladius/Illario, Snake Pit Crew (Stripper AU)
Master post for drabble here.
Light across his face woke Gladius gradually as the floor to ceiling glass in Illario's condo started to flip from a tinted frost to clear as the sun rose. Like seeing his things in the apartment like nothing had happened, it was still a little strange, but not bad. He couldn't say he didn't still have some lingering doubts, but laying here in the quiet and listening to Illario breathe, none of them seemed like they would be too hard to overcome.
"Mmmph?" Illario tilted his head up off of his chest with an unintelligible question and gave Gladius a bleary look. He blinked slowly, shook his head, then refocused. "What time is it?"
"A long time before either of us has to go anywhere or do anything," Gladius replied as he reached over and tucked a stray lock of Illario's hair behind his ear. He let his hand rest on the side of Illario's face and brushed a thumb along his cheek.
"Good," Illario leaned into his hand and closed his eyes. "I want to see if we can—"
An abrupt clanging noise cut him off, the jarring clatter of a vibrating phone on glass competing with the noise of the alert.
"Andraste's holy cabbages!" Illario swore furiously in Antivan as he flung an arm out towards the bedside table where the phone buzzed and rang. Gladius laughed as he thrashed a bit and found the phone, amused by the curse, and that he'd been around Illario long enough to learn his favorite curses. He also recognized the ring-tone reserved for his personal assistant.
As much as his Antivan had improved living and working in Treviso, he could barely follow the rapid fire conversation that took place. Illario sat up so he could gesture with his hands, which wasn't a great sign for an audio call, but it was hard to tell. After about a minute, the call ended as quickly as it had started and Illario flopped back down on the bed next to him with a sigh and stared at the ceiling.
"That sounded exciting. What did Jacobus want?"
"There was a misunderstanding at one of our factories, and he wanted my opinion."
"I emphasized how much he is trusted to make these kinds of decisions on his own."
"In those words?" he gave a low laugh as Illario rolled back onto his chest and placed his hand up onto Gladius's neck.
"Possibly," Illario leaned down to kiss his collarbone, hair brushing softly along his skin as he moved. "I was really very polite about it, considering how busy I am at the moment."