Nysid closed his eyes and forced himself to take a deep breath as Anders’ fingers skated lightly over the crest of his hip and left soothing balm in their wake that gradually dulled the pain he’d been fighting since his foolhardy attempt at climbing the cliff face that morning. For all that the sensation chilled the prince’s skin, he was keenly aware of the fact that he was heating up everywhere else; blood rushing south and stirring him in ways he hadn’t been in ages. How long had it been since he’d felt so acutely aware of another man’s presence? How long since he’d wanted to feel someone else’s hands on his person?

Apparently unable to reign in his rogue libido, Nysid shifted a leg to hide his increasingly obvious arousal and Anders asked, “You alright?”

The prince wished he hadn’t, because it only made him notice how pleasantly husky his mate’s voice was. “I’m fine,” Nysid lied and opened his eyes to stare out at the storm again since closing them seemed to be hindering more than helping. It left far too much to his recalcitrant imagination. Hoping to inject a little dose of reality to disrupt his daydreams, the prince glanced back over his shoulder at Anders, only to be reminded that the man was shirtless, fantastically built, and regarding Nysid’s person intently as he worked. Rather than act as a bucket of cold water, the view only served to intensify Nysid’s problems, sending a little shock down his spine to settle a coil of tight, sweet heat below his navel.

Feeling himself about to come totally undone, Nysid could have gasped with relief when Anders said, “There, that should do it, I think,” and finally pulled his hands away. The prince knew he’d only been at it for a minute but the exercise had somehow felt like an eternity, testing him in ways he wasn’t sure he’d ever been tested before.

“Thanks,” Nysid began, and was debating on if he would be able to sit up without his ‘issue’ becoming apparent when Anders moved around to his side and spread his coat out on the ground next to him. “What are you doing?” he asked, confused, heart rate skyrocketing all over again when his mate dropped down onto the jacket and shifted until he was laid comfortably on his side, back to Nysid.

“It’ll be better if that balm soaks in before you pull your pants up,” Anders explained matter-of-factly as he passed the balm back over his shoulder towards Nysid. “This way you can get me without moving.”

The prince hesitated, then accepted the compact and, still half propped up on the pack beneath him, shifted onto his side a bit more so he could work without straining his neck. The marks on Anders’ back looked even worse up close, the scrape was ragged and red and the chafe marks from the strap looked painful to the touch. It was a wonder he hadn’t complained of it sooner, though the prince was coming to realize that was just the sort of man Anders was.

Sighing a little, Nysid took a dollop of balm and began to carefully spread it along the scrape first, grimacing in sympathy when Anders flinched at the touch. The prince’s own injury was deeper, more aggravated by moving than contact, but even the lightest touch seemed to irritate his mate’s, so he worked quickly, not lingering in the process despite the longing building up within him to exploit the excuse to touch the other man.

“There,” he murmured when he was done, then offered, “want me to do your front too?” despite what remained of his good sense setting off alarm bells that went completely ignored.

Anders rolled over, careful not to smear the balm on his back, then stretched out facing Nysid, head propped up on one arm, scant inches between them. “Sure,” he said, difficult to read look in his dark brown eyes as he watched the prince from under his lashes.

The scrape across his chest ran just below Anders’ collarbone and wasn’t quite as severe as the one on his back, so Nysid allowed himself to linger just a bit. It was smaller though, so he had less excuse to do so. When he went to withdraw his hand for the last time, his mate caught it, surprising the prince into meeting his eyes again.

“I know you feel this too,” Anders said, voice low and rough with an emotion Nysid wouldn’t put a name to.

The prince dropped his gaze, but couldn’t quite bring himself to pull away. “Feel what?” he asked instead.

Nysid licked his lips, gaze lingering on Anders’ mouth, the pounding of his heart almost deafening in his ears as he allowed his palm to rest fully on his mate’s chest. He could feel the other man’s heart beating a rapid tattoo against his palm, just as frantic as his own unruly organ where it thundered behind his ribs. “Stop it,” he breathed softly, though whether at himself or at Anders, he couldn’t have said.

“I don’t think I can,” Anders murmured and closed the distance between them, catching Nysid’s lips with his own and demolishing the last of the prince’s fragile resolve in the process.

A soft groan escaped Nysid at the contact and he leaned in to the kiss, lips moving with gentle persistence against Anders’, who lifted a hand and threaded his fingers through the prince’s hair to cradle the back of his head. “You don’t even know me,” Nysid mumbled helplessly against his mate’s lips then pressed in closer, sliding down off the pack to settle next to the other man on his jacket.

Anders pulled back just enough to look the prince in the eye, expression solemn, if a little dazed, in the wake of their kiss. “I want to,” he said, thumb sweeping tenderly across Nysid’s cheek. “I want to know everything about you.”

“I don’t know you,” Nysid tried again, a weak and ineffective protest as he clung to the other man, tips of their noses brushing while he struggled not to lean in for another kiss.

“I want you to,” Anders admitted and kissed him, just a brief press of their lips before adding, “Ask me anything, I’m an open book.”

His mate’s hand slid down the curve of his back and Nysid shuddered in pure bliss at the touch. He dropped his head forward so his brow brushed Anders’ lips, and felt as the man turned that into a lingering kiss as well, pressed just below his hair line. “What could we even be to one another?” he asked, voice pained as he finally dared to broach the heart of the issue. The thought of finding his mate, someone who was supposedly a perfect match for him, could be daunting but at the end of the day was an objectively good thing. To find out he was the ‘enemy’, though, someone he would never be allowed to be with, not now that his blasted uncle had all but declared war on Marilderland… His resistance was all self-defense, but it had crumbled away like so much sand before the tide of Anders’ earnest persistence.

How was he supposed to say no to something─ someone, he so desperately wanted?

Nysid could feel tears forming at the corners of his eyes, but before he could surreptitiously brush them away, Anders gripped the prince’s chin lightly with calloused fingers and tilted it back so he could meet his mate’s eyes again. Rather than say anything immediately, the other man leaned in and gently kissed his tears away, drawing a ragged breath from Nysid in the process before the prince caught his lips and kissed him with the desperate zeal of a starving man. Anders’ lips parted beneath his and the prince plunged his tongue into his mouth to slide against his mate’s and encourage him to reciprocate. The man didn’t need telling twice and he held Nysid tight against his broad chest as they explored one another— hands roving over skin, mapping unfamiliar territory until the prince got carried away and accidentally dragged wanton fingertips over the wound that spanned his mate’s back.

Anders flinched and sucked in a breath of pain, making Nysid jerk his hand away and apologize. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to, I─” but before he could withdraw the other man drew him into another kiss, slower this time but just as thorough, leaving the prince dazed and breathless by the time he finally released him.

“I think we could be something wonderful,” Anders murmured quietly, brown eyes earnest as he dropped his brow to rest against Nysid’s, arm still wrapped tightly around the prince. “I don’t know the how of it yet, but I don’t want to give up before we’ve had a chance to try.”

They didn’t speak further on the matter after that; the more pressing issue of finding their dragons and escaping from whatever strange trap they had all fallen into weighing too heavily on both men to make long term plans in the present. The day had tired them both, and while neither had much hope of regaining much energy by sleeping, Anders successfully coaxed Nysid into resting on his jacket with him once they had eaten.

The sensation of his mate curled up next to him, dozing off in his arms, was a little slice of paradise for Anders as he lay there waiting for sleep to claim him while rain continued to fall outside the cave. Something in Nysid had thawed during that first kiss they’d shared and though he still seemed uncertain, as if he wasn’t sure he could trust this new paradigm they’d stumbled into, he no longer shied away from Anders the way he had been. Anders himself couldn’t get enough; though he tried to restrain himself a little, just to keep from scaring the prince off by coming on too strong. As they lay there together and Nysid shifted uneasily in his sleep, brow furrowed, the captain couldn’t resist the urge to gather him up against his chest, spooning the prince protectively with his larger frame. To his intense gratification, rather than trying to pull away, Nysid settled in against him with a soft, contented sigh that filled Anders with a sweet, poignant ache and made the man smile fiercely before pressing a kiss to the back of his mate’s head.

When he woke at dawn, they were still in much the same position, though Nysid had managed to roll half-way onto his back while still remaining pressed up against Anders’ chest, pinned by the weight of the taller man’s arm. The captain stirred a little and forced his eyes open, but didn’t move beyond that, too pleased with the picture his mate painted laying next to him with his dark hair swept back from his face in a messy braid, early morning light illuminating the sharp angles of his handsome face. Leaning in to press a kiss to the man’s temple, then his cheek, and another to the corner of his bearded jaw felt like the most natural thing in the world to Anders and he took great pleasure in it, withdrawing only when Nysid stirred into waking.

The prince made a sleepy sound that verged on a grumble as he started to stretch but found his movements hampered, forcing him to finally open his eyes and look around to find himself pressed up against Anders, who was smiling down at him, looking quite besotted. The captain could tell the moment his mate came fully awake as he began to flush red at the intimacy of their position.

“Morning,” Anders said to break the quiet that hung in the air between them since his mate seemed uncertain how to do so himself. He didn’t pull away, or even shift his arm from where it still looped around Nysid’s waist, which only seemed to add to the color collecting in the prince’s face.

“Good morning,” Nysid replied a moment later once he’d found his tongue, and Anders’ smile widened.

“It is, isn’t it?” the captain murmured as he leaned in and pressed another kiss to Nysid’s cheek and, when the prince didn’t pull away at the affection, did the same for his lips. “All things considered,” he added when he pulled away, frowning a little as he thought of Ghain.