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"You know," Lorenz said, after a long while, "arrangements like ours aren't unheard of."
"Yeah?" said Raphael.
Somehow, Lorenz found it in himself to roll over. After pausing briefly to gather the remnants of his strength, he sat up. Raphael was already getting dressed, and Lorenz barely managed to catch a glimpse of thick upper thigh and hip bone and dense, curly blond hair before he pulled his pants up the rest of the way.
Lorenz's disappointment was short lived. He would get to stare another time. There was going to be a next time, assuredly, inevitably, at which point Lorenz would get to stare at Raphael's body to his heart's content, as well as do to him any number of things his heart desired, should he be bold enough to ask and should Raphael be amenable. It was starting to seem like this could truly be as uncomplicated as Raphael had made it sound. If there were any downsides to this arrangement of theirs, they had yet to make themselves known, and at this point Lorenz found it hard to imagine that they could cancel out the benefits.
Raphael was waiting, still shirtless, for Lorenz to finish saying what he had intended to say, and Lorenz realized that he had been staring in the general direction of Raphael's bare chest as he'd become lost in thought. Although he was fairly certain that Raphael did not mind, given that over the course of their previous activities he had done a lot more than just look—not that he thought Raphael would have minded in different circumstances, he seemed to be well aware that his was a remarkably broad, muscular chest, and very fine to look at—Lorenz averted his eyes. He shook his head, hoping to stop the blush he could feel coming on in its tracks, and to shake his hair back into order.
"It isn't something people talk about openly, of course," Lorenz said, smoothing the hair on the back of his head with his hand, pleased that he failed to find any tangles despite what had been an extended and decidedly vigorous meeting between the back of his head and the pillow. Then he frowned, reconsidering that statement. Raphael certainly had talked to him about it openly enough. "Or at least, it isn't talked about in polite society," he corrected. "But there is ample evidence of such relationships to be found in old Faerghan tales of chivalry, and even in some of the more detailed historical accounts of past battles. One needs barely read between the lines to find those tales rife with suggestion. It is a well-documented fact that comrades in arms sometimes chose to lay with each other for various reasons, not the least of them being simple convenience, I am sure."
Lorenz sat up straighter and felt something in his lower back protest, though in his estimation it was nothing that wouldn't become a distant memory within half an hour. "I would be hard pressed to believe anyone who claimed it doesn't still happen. It just isn't talked about."
He chanced a careful glance in Raphael's direction, though he couldn't have said what it was that he was being careful about. For all he knew, Raphael wasn't listening, or he had no idea what Lorenz was talking about, or none of this mattered to him at all. And why should it? For Raphael, this was do or do not. For him, there was no Can I? or Should I?, no What will it look like?, and certainly no question of Can I defend it before the merciless tribunal of high society's uncharitable opinion? The world that Raphael lived in was infinitely more simple.
"Comrades in arms..." Raphael repeated the words slowly, as if testing their mouth feel. It must have suited his taste, because his face split into a grin.
"That is what we are to each other," Lorenz insisted. "At least until our time together at the academy comes to an end."
Comrades in arms. As far as terms of endearment went, this wasn't much of one—not that the situation called for it. But it seemed to have pleased Raphael, which was more than could be said about the recipients of Lorenz's more flowery attempts at seduction, he had to admit.
Not that he was. Attempting to seduce Raphael, that is. It would have been somewhat superfluous, after he'd already had Raphael in his bed (though to be exact it had mostly been Lorenz in Raphael's bed, as this was slightly less conspicuous than having Raphael follow him up the stairs), not to mention inappropriate. This was supposed to be casual, uncomplicated. And surely Lorenz had felt an uncomplicated feeling in his life, at least once, probably some time before puberty, and perhaps, should feelings somehow become mixed up into this, they would reveal themselves to be the uncomplicated sort, but there was no reason to risk it. Uncomplicated was proving to be very refreshing so far.