if there is one thing, beyond his prestige, that luciano has inherited from his family's throne, it is his obsession for control. for his need to simply know, no matter what it was, at any given time. he did not take kindly to being left out of the loop, no matter what the reason.

[break][break] "you're still what?" he says, not even giving the other room to breathe. a lesser person may have hesitated, may have let the silence between them grow wider and wider. someone else may have run away.

[break][break] but when luciano, esteemed artist and sculptor, noemi's son, turns to him — it's with lightning flashes and crackling thunder, spinning onto the other with the withering glare of his mother's own ire.

[break][break] "what is there to explain?"

[break][break] "you lied to me, con- paxton. after everything. you did not trust me with your secret, not enough to tell me before you were found out."

[break][break] "how do you imagine i could ever trust you again?"

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] paxton concordas [break]
sleepless in slateport [break][break]

[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-dragonair"]

Luciano is upon him, cornering him as he struggled to understand just how and when it had all gone so wrong. For the first time in his life, he wants to disappear under that glare. He doesn't rise to the challenge, left weakened by the shock of it all. He'd never see Luci this angry. Much less with him. It hurt in a way that left him gasping for air, forgetting to breath as the sight of it all imprinted itself into every nightmare he would dream for the rest of his life. [break][break]

Because he didn't rise to Luci's expectations. And he had known that one day, he wouldn't. [break][break]

But he speaks all the same. [break][break]

"I still care about you." he said, firm in his resolve to not dare breathe any word of love. Maybe he would regret never telling him, but he wouldn't know what to do if Luci broke his heart a second time. He's already struggling with the first. [break][break]

"I- I didn't lie! Luci please. I just- I don't go by that name anymore. I haven't since I left university." he said. "It's not some huge secret I intended to keep." he continued, quick in his defense. "It's on my documents, my ID , even my office- I thought you simply preferred Concord-" he feels himself deflate a little having spoken too much truth. [break][break]

Then again maybe he was a liar. Omission was still lying. [break][break]

"I'm sorr- I- I'm sorry that I've hurt you." Because he would never do that. He would never lift a finger to hurt him. He adored him even now, under all the screaming and the vitriol. Even after all these years and Kanto and distance. [break][break]

And while he knew he would never be enough for someone like Luci, his goal had been to play the part as long as he could .As long as he'd let him. As long as he was the reason Luci was happy, for however long he deigned that to be be his purpose.

[break][break]

+ luciano fisk | a couple days post postdorm [break][break]

"you care about me?"

[break][break] a laugh breaks from his throat, and it is not kind.

[break][break] mocking, as if he is talking to one of his competitors at the art gallery. mocking, as if he is talking to a member of the paparazzi. a stranger.

[break][break] "you played me for a fool! how long were you planning on letting this ruse go on? how long were you planning on lying?"

[break][break] concord says he didn't lie, but it is impossible for luci to see it any other way. how many days, weeks, months had gone by for concord to keep this secret from him, for concord to not tell him such a vital part of his life.

[break][break] 'i thought you simply preferred concord.'

[break][break] it is like a knife gutting into his spine. because he did. he did prefer it. concord, the name that had been in his head for the last decade of time.

[break][break] concord apologizes, but the artist does not budge. he is not willing - not yet- to let it go.

[break][break] but his gaze turns from withering ice to stone cold, anger eroding if only slightly.

[break][break] "tell me," he says softly. "tell me how long you were planning on going on before you were going to tell me."

[break][break] "concord."

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] paxton concordas [break]
sleepless in slateport [break][break]

[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-dragonair"]

The laughter cuts through their conversation and it hurts. It's everything vile and awful and horrible he'd imagined it to be. But there's a part of him too that is shocked Luci would act like this to him. Part of him that thought that he- they were special. [break][break]

And as it goes on, Paxton tries to wrench control from Concord because this could not be the thing that broke him. He couldn't allow it to be. It hurt and maybe regrets come back to the surface, but he cannot wallow in it. Not here. Not in front of Luci. [break][break]

"For as LONG as you needed me to, Luciano!" he finally snaps, grief warping into something prickly and defensive. He closes his eyes, trying to self soothe and breathe. There is no winning here. "I may not have said anything, but I also was not willfully ignorant of it either." he said. "Or did you think Concordas was a nickname?" [break][break]

He braces himself for the storm he was enticing. But it's all broken. [break][break]

"Paxton." he corrected firmly, standing a little straighter in the face of Luci's fury. "My name is paxton concordas ." [break][break]

"Everyone who knew me as Concord is dead. Except you." he doesn't explain anything further than that. It's not a point of pity, simply context. "I'm sorry that I've hurt you so much, Luci. I acted in a way that I thought was most considerate of your feelings and your comfort. I shouldn't have assumed." The wide eyed shock is gone, replaced by sullen acceptance. He does not avoid the artist's gaze, holding it instead of shrinking away. [break][break]

And despite it all, the arguing the snapping- he holds that same bouquet defensively. A last vestige of whatever the hell this night was.

[break][break]

+ luciano fisk | a couple days post postdorm [break][break]

"need me to?" he says, and the quiet hurt his gone from his face and replaced by sneering mockery. the kind of eloquent scorn that only the elite of the elites were capable of, the aristocrats of the world, the fisks of the world.

[break][break] when he speaks, it was the high-profile ridicule that only a fisk was capable of bearing.

[break][break] that noemi was capable of.

[break][break] sinnoh's greatest sauntered forward towards paxton concordas , until he was towering over him.

[break][break] "did you think you were doing me a favor? by lying to me?"

[break][break] 'how foolish could you be?'

[break][break] "do you think so little of me?"

[break]

[attr="class","ooc"] paxton concordas [break]
sleepless in slateport [break][break]

[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-dragonair"]

Paxton steels himself, jaw clenched tight as Luci rears himself up to make Paxton feel so, so small. luciano fisk reveals the reality Paxton had been living in, pulls the wool back from his eyes, pops the bubble he'd been drifting in. That look- that person is a stranger to him. [break][break]

"You seemed comfortable ignoring it. And I didn't want to talk about it either." Paxton confessed. [break][break]

He didn't want Luci to think any differently of him. Unchanged, unmarred by time. Though, perhaps that seemed moot considering the body he sported lacked the scars he'd met Luci in. But he still felt different. He couldn't go back to Concord. There's a reason he'd made a clean break with his family name. [break][break]

They were dead, and so was Concord. [break][break]

"I think the world of you." His fists tighten. He'd never told him that out loud. But if he was going to be ridiculed, to be mocked. What did it matter. It'd hurt more. It'd be rawer, sure. But the words just came out. [break][break]

"I didn't lie. I was Concord. And I was fine being Concord again for a little while longer." He opens his mouth to say more but slowly his lips close and he sighs through his nose. He needed to stop talking.
[break][break]

"I'm sorry." [break][break]


[break][break]

+ luciano fisk | a couple days post postdorm [break][break]

luciano was good at ignoring things. it was a skill harnessed by years of being born with a silver spoon, of being under noemi's and antain's influence. anything needless, useless, irrelevant to their needs — it was simply ignored.

[break][break] as one of their eldest, and a child who had always made it a point to appease them, luciano knew how to wield it's power as easy as breathing.

[break][break] 'you seemed comfortable ignoring it.'

[break][break] the heat in luciano's gaze is wiped in an instant. it is if paxton concordas had reached forward and placed a hand at his chest.

[break][break] ignoring it? was that what he had been doing?

[break][break] "concord —"

[break][break] 'you mean the world to me.'

[break][break] as if lightning struck him, he froze.

[break][break] ocean blue eyes of anger sweep over into pools of stillness, warmth and comfort rising in his eyes like morning tide. concord still cared about him. paxton still cared.

[break][break] he leans forward them, hands sliding against the other's face.

[break][break] "concord," he murmured. "paxton."

[break][break] "that is all i wanted to hear."

[break][break] "you are unlike anyone i have ever met."

[break][break] "don't you see? you mean the world to me too."

[break]

[attr="class","ooc"] paxton concordas [break]
sleepless in slateport [break][break]

[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-dragonair"]

He doesn't expect what he sees next. Luci's anger, his sneer fading just as quickly as it'd come. Luci reaches out to him and he nearly forgets to breathe. Like a deerling in headlights, he freezes solid in his delicate grasp. [break][break]

He doesn't understand what's happening. Not shortly before, they'd been arguing. Luci had been pissed at him. Paxton had been ready to go home. For one panic filled second he thinks Luci is tugging him around one last time before getting ready to crush him. But if that was the case, then maybe luciano fisk was an incredibly actor. [break][break]

His voice is soft and Paxton soon enough is falling into the deep, deep depths of Luci's eyes. He's drowning, and the feelings he had tried to calm and suppress bloom forth with every word Luci speaks. Paxton's face grows red as he drowns in Luci's. His throat goes dry, and his heartbeat drums in his head. Luci says his name- his real name and he trembles in anticipation. [break][break]

He can't doubt him. He can't see anything but what Luci professed. "I-" he wheezed. [break][break]

"I thought-" His voice is barely there as he tries to respond, taken aback. [break][break]

"I didn't know...I- I didn't imagine-" be stuttered, words quiet overwhelmed by how close Luci was. He hugs the bouquet to his chest,. The rest of the world falls away, His entire world, right now, is literally Luciano. He can't look away, can't think, can't even speak. [break][break]

"I didn't see it before, but...I believe you Luci." He wants to. He wants so badly to believe him. To indulge in this old emotion. To lay at peace in the middle of this sweetness that spread throughout all his thoughts of Luci. He didn't want to hurt him, nor hate him. He didn't want to forget him. He wants to stretch out this very moment into infinity. [break][break]

Somehow, he manages a small smile, gone off the deep end that were Luci's pretty blues. "I've always felt like this." [break][break]



[break][break]

+ luciano fisk | a couple days post postdorm [break][break]

there are very few things in luciano's life that he thinks deeply about — most of what he does, most of how he behaves, is based on pure instinct. it is how his family taught him to behave, and how he was able to make a career as lucrative as his own. the artist's pull tugs him forward, tells him who to speak to and when, how to brush the strokes of his paint brush onto multicolor canvas.

[break][break] but concord.

[break][break] for years and years and years, he had obssessively thought about the other man. whether he wanted to or not, paxton concordas had infiltrated his dreams like a master sleuth. slipping into the places that luciano had left unturned, into the cracks of his heart left broken by the likes of noemi and antain.

[break][break] by the likes of michaelis' death.

[break][break] the skin underneath his palms feel warm to the touch as he cups paxton's face. gently, tenderly, like touching the petals of the peonies that lay between them.

[break][break] the ruddy blush that dusts his face, those soft blue eyes. paxton concordas looks like an artwork, just like this.

[break][break] "paxton," he murmured, a thumb brushing against the man's lower lip. "please."

[break][break] 'believe me.'

[break][break] 'don't lie to me.'

[break][break] 'stop talking.'

[break][break] leaning down, luciano kissed him.

[attr="class","ooc"] paxton concordas [break]
sleepless in slateport [break][break]

[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-dragonair"]

Luci holds his gaze like the truth of the matter was so obvious. Like this was just another universal constant that had always meant to be. Like he was sure he'd see him again and they'd come back together and fit so perfectly and- [break][break]

'paxton, please.'

[break][break]

His breath hitches in his throat as they speak. It silences him, grounds him in the moment. [break][break]

And even in his wildest dreams he never thought he'd be able to do this again. And it's different, somehow, but still familiar. He's kissed him before, overflowing with the energy of a young pup in love. Excited, secretive, giggly. This is different. [break][break]

He's happy of course. But it feels heavier, more weighty. [break][break]

And as he tilts his head back to meet Luciano, his entire mind goes blank. He steps for just an inch, eyes closing as they share something warm, and beautiful. Just barely coming back from the brink of nothingness. [break][break]

So close to shattering completely and forever. [break][break]

Paxton won't let it. He goes further, pushes deeper than he ever had back when he was younger. He'd left- no, given up because of the war. Never again. [break][break]

He wouldn't leave again. [break][break]

[break][break]

+ luciano fisk | a couple days post postdorm [break][break]

luciano is an artist. everything he does, everything he says, always seems to be with the utmost intention. even if he is not the one who thinks about his actions, it always seems as if others are.

[break][break] the tenderness in which he touches paxton is the same tenderness in which he strokes paint to canvas, the same careful dexterity of when he knocks away pieces of stone to cultivate beauty in sculpture.

[break][break] but when he claims paxton concordas as his, there is nothing tender about it.

[break][break] nothing soft.

[break][break] the moment they meet, luciano kisses him with the intensity of a man starved. his lips presses insistently against the other man's own, opening his mouth to paxton's discovery. a hand grips that sharp-lined jaw with certainty, pressing closer and closer, even as the flowers are pressed between them. his tongue slips in between soft lips, licking into his mouth with all the expertise of a painter's strokes.

[break][break] he seeks, and seeks, and seeks.

[break][break] luciano does not care they are in public. he does not care they are indecent.

[break][break] he does not care —

[break][break] because this has been a decade in the making and arceus if he would let anything - anyone - get in the middle of it.

[break]

[attr="class","ooc"] paxton concordas [break]
sleepless in slateport [break][break]

[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-dragonair"]

Perhaps there's an initial shock to it all. The dazed, happy way Paxton looks up at Luci and the pulse of warmth from his lips all the way down to his toes. The change is instantaneous. Not a second after their lips touched does Luciano's affections pull him in, drag him down, and truly threaten to drown him in his depths. [break][break]

And Paxton decides he'd allow luciano fisk to be his undoing. At least this type of death would be sweet and his thoughts would end not with sorrow, but joy. [break][break]

Luci grabs his jaw and keeps him from escaping, as if Paxton would even consider that. The flowers rustle in their paper wrapping and colored twine bow. But even as they threaten to flatten the beautiful pink explosion, they don't stop. [break][break]

And as much as Paxton give, he pushes hard against Luci eager to take. He's not the only man desperate here. For the longest, Paxton had thought- assumed he was the only one that cared. That Luci was humoring him despite all the chemistry between them. The world around him falls away along with the delusion that he was the only one that felt this burning heat between them. [break][break]

His brain lags behind his body. Paxton pants the second he's allowed air, lips swollen and face red. "We should-...w-we..." He blinks trying to focus, thoughts buzzing and interrupting each other as he swallowed thickly. He ducks his chin, forgetting Luciano had clasped it. "Go." [break][break]

"weshouldgo." [break][break]

The specifics are left hanging because they're not important. Not right now. He'd jump on this once in a life time chance, so scared it would fade to dust if he let this pass.

[break][break]

+ luciano fisk | a couple days post postdorm [break][break]