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If they're going to do it, it will be their space, if Balthier wants that. Fuck, being wanted and not being expected to squeeze in around the edges is so nice. To be allowed to fill space and be welcome...

"Alright then. Okay. Yeah. I want this."

Balthier is already happy beyond any expectation, but hearing David so directly say he wants this makes his breath catch. “Me too,” he says. “So now you’re going to have to deal with me grinning like an idiot.”

Which, he thinks, is the best possible turn of events for today. “Let’s get this packed up, and then let’s do something to celebrate that what we’ve both built is still wonderful.” Because sometimes David needs that focused reminder, and sometimes Balthier does too. He gives David another kiss, the goes to start loading some of the equipment he feels confident moving.

"I don't think you could grin like an idiot. Only like the most beautiful man with joy in his heart," David said with a smile.

Yes, it's a good thing compared to what all was going on.

"I have to get back to my hotel tonight," he says, and he doesn't sound pleased by that. Which is the worst. Then he goes to start gathering things. "Can I trust you to do some boxing things up while I'm out of town? I can have it in storage for now."

“Sweet talking me and then reminding me you have work is borderline cruel,” Balthier says, but his smile is as radiant as ever. “Of course I will, and we can celebrate later. We have all the time in the world.” Which is its own strange giddy terrifying thing. Other than the general existential dread of knowing they could be ripped through time and space, there’s really no ticking clock on this, no running toward or away from some big point. That’s…new. And strange. And lovely.

That also gives him time to arrange some kind of welcome for David, and he likes that fine.

"You're the one that charmed me," he said with a smile before pocking up some of the less stable stuff.

"Yeah, we really do, don't we? All the time in the world, together."

It's scary, but he's hopeful. He wants to be hopeful. Needs to be actually. There's a chance for something real here, something even more lasting. Which is gleeful for him. Sure, there's other fears, there's a chance of loss, but he's willing to try anyway.

"We're smart people," he says with a smile, "and together we'll figure this out. All of it."

"Has anyone ever told you how attractive you are when you're confident?" Balthier asks, winking at him. It's true, though, and he knows how hard it can be for David to trust the future. It makes his heart swell that part of that is him.

"We will," he agrees. "There's no one I'd rather be doing any of this with." And really, this was every life he'd had, wasn't it?

He gets his load of equipment loaded and secured in the portable closet, and on his way back catches David for another kiss.

"You have," He says with a smile. So has Tommy, but Balthier doesn't need to hear that. But the future was looking bright.

So very bright. They could solve this, together. And that was so good.

"Wonderful. Then we'll solve it all together. Hold on, bring the bag over."

Because he's got to start loading other things now.

"When I head back, you'll handle my clothes and stuff, right?"

Balthier would be glad someone else David could hear it from had said as much, but he would also be glad to know David had chosen to just focus on them in this moment. Trust had been hard. Last summer had been hard. But David always chose Balthier when it mattered, and that meant something huge to him.

“Everything you want me to,” he promises David, kissing the side of his head briefly as they pass. “If I have questions or you forget something, we’ll text.”

He thinks as he moves the bag, running through scenarios he’s already dreamed of in the quiet hours of morning. “I’ll put your things in the spare room for now, and we can do whatever you want with that room.” Not a state of the art lab, but still a carved out space for David.

"Thanks," he says with a smile before moving to finish processing what he can. And then he sighs.

"I should slag the computers. I can't let this stuff getting used by someone else. I've got too much Stark Tech related stuff here, not to mention the specs on Otto's stuff."

And that he can't risk getting to anyone. Then he turns to Balthier and smiles.

"That's a good place. It's probably too small for long term work but I can definitely go and acquire a place on the dl."

“Best be safe,” Balthier agrees. This is something he’s no stranger to. “Tools can be replaced.” People can’t.

He grins back at David’s observation, once again grateful for this joy amidst all this stress. “Seems reasonable. Maybe you’ll work less when it’s not at home and I am.” His grin only widens as he realizes home is now a shared place.

Tools can be replaced. That's really true. Very true. So he's not going to fight to save them. But he's not giving them to others.

"Guess I need to truly fry these. Fun. Would you get some coffee started?"

This will take some hard work. But he's also laughing inside because it's so wonderful to have a place he can share with another he loves.

"I definitely will be easier to drag away from work, yes."

"Is that wise to do inside?" Balthier asks, truly curious. "Ours tend to...explode. Damage everything nearby." He pecks David on the cheek again as he passes. "Yes to coffee."

And David's utter lack of protest at being dragged from work is as wonderfully affirming as his wanting to move-in; Balthier knows what his work means to him. "Yes, drag," he teases as he goes toward the kitchen. "With the promise of dinner, and a warm bed, and me, making you relax before sleeping."

He starts the coffee and also pulls out a few snacks. He suspects destroying the tech will leave David tired, moreso than this whole ordeal already has.

"Oh, I can destroy things without explosions. Technopathic."

He can wipe all the data, but it takes a lot more serious focus to get it beyond retrievable. David waves when Balthier leaves, and it's going to take him time. It's almost half an hour later before he comes out and settles down at the island. He looks tired.

"Just a recharge. Thank you, Balthier. For giving me so much. Your love especially."

Balthier leaves David to work, knowing he can't do much else in that department, but he has coffee and snacks ready and is plenty full of warm daydreams of their even more entwined life together.

As David sits, he pushes the food closer, his hand lingering on David's at the other's words. "Thank you for always valuing it so highly," he says. Even a year ago, Balthier had been so fragile, so sure his affections could only amount to a passing diversion for someone else.

He's so tired, but there's nothing to do about that. He'd got to keep going. For now he takes the coffee, produces a key from his pocket, and passes it over.

"To get in, when you can. Whatever is here you can box up and put into storage or your place. I've got what I hope are untraceable accounts for it. If you could help on this, I'd be grateful. The more that can be done quickly, and quietly, the better."

Then he drinks some more coffee and focuses on Balthier. On them. He can get back to the work in a bit.

"Thank you for valuing me highly enough to want to share not just your time and your love with me, but your space."

It's sacred to them both, he knows that. Those spaces that are just theirs. That matter to them. That make them feel safe and secure. And for Balthier, who didn't even really have a set home because of his father, David expected it meant even more.

He lets his hand rest on David's as he takes the key, squeezing the other's. "Clearing out a space quickly and discreetly is in my pirate boyfriend skill set," he teases. "I'm happy to help." And he is. It makes him feel less useless in the face of David having to grapple with old wounds and fears.

Thus he's entirely prepared for David to get lost in his head, worrying about logistics and the future and others, and that's fine. So it surprises him when David turns the focus back to them. And surprises him again when David pins how special sharing his space is.

Then he laughs, because neither should surprise him. "I've never done this before," he admits. Fran was different, and they'd stolen the Strahl together, and they had separate rooms. "I've never wanted to with anyone else, and I was afraid it would be asking too much of you."

There's fear still, too, that somehow seeing more of him will somehow make David realize some detail he'd missed, that they weren't compatible afterall, or that not having separate space would somehow make their fights worse. But, right now, he feels those fears as old wounds talking, and he's so much more interested in the reality they're building.

"I want to share my life with you, David. All of it. Even when I'm nervous or insufferable or terrified."

Best pirate boyfriend, hands down. Especially since the skill is being used to help them be safe and together. Which is so shocking. But right. This is right for them.

"I've never done it before either, unless you count memories from alternate lifetimes that are in my head. And I don't."

He never got to make this decision for himself, as himself. And Balthier asked, and he's agreed and it matters.

"Oh love, you're always insufferable," he says, but his voice is full of sweet amusement. "And yet I keep coming back."

“Nor do I,” he agrees, deep fondness clear in his smile. “This is my David, the one that chooses us and trusts me.” He’s sure he’d get along with a good deal of other David’s, but it doesn’t matter. They wouldn’t be his. Because being chosen openly, over and over, means so much.

He laughs again, easy even amongst all this. “So we’re even then. Insufferable and completely addicted.” He leans over to kiss his love through his grin, marveling that he’d have worried about a statement like that a year ago. Now he feels safer, like he doesn’t have to be easy and perfect to keep David around. Because this is real love.

Gods is he lucky.

The one that chooses us. David likes that label. He likes it as much as the kiss and then the sip of coffee that followed it.

"You're more vital to my system than coffee," he says, lifting his already empty cup. "So that's saying a lot."

“Pulling out all the stops today,” he laughs, but he’s charmed, and he loves being told so openly. “You’ve shown me I can feel happy tethered. My younger self would be shocked and possibly appalled.” He’s never been so glad to be wrong.

“Shall I get you more coffee?” That’s one thing they won’t need to adjust in the house. It’s already covered.

"Less a tether and more an anchoring point in a comfortable and familiar port called home," David suggests. Balthier's a ship, after all, moving and seeking and yet he's got a home to come back to. "Even a younger you might have seen value in that."

More coffee. Oh god yes. He nods and offers his mug over. "Sorry, Tea won't cut it tonight."

“Mm I like that better,” Balthier agrees. And it feels true. It’s not a sense of being tied down, it’s a sense of having a safe harbor he wants to return to. He’s spent so long looking for something he couldn’t name and hes beginning to suspect it was this. A sense of home.

“I think me from a few years ago would have admitted the value but been too scared he’d never find it himself to really indulge, and I think a younger me, like the one you met, would have found it beautiful.” He can still feel that boy in him sometimes, and there’s something lovely about making him proud.

To the coffee he laughs, shaking his head as he pours it. “I’ll have a little, but whatever you need.”

The younger one had been a sweet boy. But David had to blush at the memory of his own younger self. Talk about a source of embarrassment.

"I'm sure he had reasons to aspire to it. And I'm glad I would give that charming boy something happy."

He does lean forward to kiss Balthier one last time.

"Top me up, get me a small plate of the nibbles, and I'm going back in. Feel free to stop by your place to drop stuff off or to head into my room to get personal effects. And be careful with my action figures."

Because yes, he was maintaining the collection of knock off action figures of his friends.

Balthier would have disagreed. Young David had been kind, ambitious, confident, welcoming. It wasn’t his fault he only knew what he had been taught, and the fact that he went on to grow as he did spoke to a hunger in him.

For Balthier, it was soothing to be seen that way by people he cared for, and to be loved in a way he hadn’t been in his youth. “Oh he liked you a good deal,” he teases but entirely meaning it. They’d talked a little of the way young Balthier had sat up in that empty house, awed at the photos of some beautiful future life with a smiling partner and a full wardrobe and a chest of letters and a house of beautiful things, aching for it to be real.

And it was. Balthier hums happily into David’s kiss. He’d fought so long, and this was so worth it.

“Yes yes your boyfriend who works with rare magical artifacts needs to be reminded to be gentle with possessions,” he laughs, moving to oblige the rest of David’s request. “We will get you and all your things moved in good condition,” he promises. “I want you settled and happy with me, not bemoaning poor packing skills.”

Oh those letters must have been a trip for little Balthier. David, on the other hand, had basically been adopted by Tommy for the duration of things and thus hadn't spent enough time in his apartment to really explore too deeply. Some of the shame and fear had motivated that of course.

"Hey," he said when the kiss ended, "your rare magical artifacts have to be handled delicately or we get those damn cursed spirits again. Mine are just collectable toys."

Poor packing skills, hardly! The man lived on a ship. With turbulence. David has faith in his packing skills. Just not in the durability of the toys.

"Thank you, love. You're going to make some of this a lot less painful."

But not less scary.

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dammit dw aparently ate the response to this

It did that to me this week

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Wrap this soon, or jump to David coming home after conference?

I would enjoy the coming home if it would please