He can tell it didn’t really sink in by the adorable way Luci wrinkles his nose. “Not the tea place,” he insists again, though it’s with smiling and laughter, “Lilycove. The city, the beach, the sea… as much as it’s tried to drive me out I keep on comin’ back.”

Clearing his throat, he took a drink to drag his accent back down into the depths of his throat and drown it-- though its ever-present attempt to rise from his mouth is living proof of what he’s just protested.

Now it’s Sy’s turn to be surprised. He doesn’t even care that Luci’s called his beach incomparable to some other place-- it was his beach and that was what made it incredible.

“You? Diving?” Sy laughed, one thumb smearing the condensate on the outside of his cup. “And how’d you like that?”

⚰︎ sleepless in slateport

luciano fisk

There’s power, he thinks, in not wanting the person who wants you-- especially someone as vastly wanted as Luciano Fisk.

It’s unsettling, as though the ground beneath his feet is uneven.

Things have very rarely been soft between them but that doesn’t mean they have to be awkward; Sy just has to be better about it.

“Here,” he said, a flick of his wrist denoting the space around him. Then, he chuckled. “Well, not here-here. But. Lilycove. My home. It’s my favorite place. Don’t even mind the tourists much, anymore.”

His smile evens out into something less flirtatious and more genuine, and he makes a mental note to keep a cap on that shit, moving forward.

“Have you been to the beach yet?”

⚰︎ sleepless in slateport

luciano fisk