edenbound | TDIR: Signed and Sealed

Fandom: The Dark Is Rising
Pairing: Bran/Barney
Warnings: Sap
Rating: PG
Summary: Moving house. For fic_simplicity.

Bran watched with some bemusement as Barney surfaced from under the bed, depositing an armful of sketchbooks in one of the boxes lines up on top of the bed. His lover was cheerfully ruffled and dusty, and obviously enjoying himself. "Don't tell me you're actually enjoying this?"

Barney blinked innocently, sorting through another armful and sneezing at the dust that rose from one ancient sketchbook. "Why wouldn't I?"

"Sais," Bran muttered, because there didn't seem much else to say. Sighing, he reached for one of the sketchbooks, flicking through it briefly -- catching sight of a few drawings of himself with a big stupid dog that'd become his own a year or two after Cafall's death, and a few of him and Barney, the latter more sketchy, half-captured, and him in painstaking detail. Had he seen these pictures before, he decided, he'd've known Barney was in love with him a lot sooner. There was something about the detail of it all that said that as plainly as if he'd written it.

"Wow, I was worse than I thought back then," Barney said, peering over his shoulder, and Bran rolled his eyes and dropped the book into one of the boxes.

"C'mon, you, get on with it. I want to move into this new house sometime before next year."

Barney stuck his tongue out at him, and it took a great effort for him not to make some comment about that along the lines of him doing something useful with that tongue. Instead, he sorted through another armful of sketches, carefully sliding them into a folder to keep them flat. After a moment, he stopped, staring at a picture of a ship, the decks crowded with people, the scene something that stuck in his throat and ached --

"Bran?"

"Nothing," he said, putting the picture into the folder and snapping the clasps shut, carefully sliding it into the box. "Nothing at all."

Because as far as he could tell, it was nothing.

Barney nodded slightly, pushing a rather full box into his arms and making him stagger a bit. "Here. Seal that up and then carry it down. Put it -- oh, I don't know, by the front door or something."

For a moment, he just stood there watching Barney, wondering about that ship, wondering about his lover's skilled artist's hands that seemed to know more than they'd ever tell, more than Barney himself would ever know. Then he shook it off and grabbed tape and a marker, sealing the box and writing "art crap" on the side in clear, precise capitals. He picked up the box again and found himself stealing a kiss from Barney -- Iesu mawr, like an old married couple already -- and then going ahead and carrying the box downstairs.

Not that it was a bad thing, being like a married couple.

TDIR: Signed and Sealed

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