The orchard was already blue.
Apples dark on the branches. The wall they had named that morning waiting like a dare Lucien no longer had the right to collect.
Elian stopped at the edge of the grass and did not go as far as the stone.
Lucien stopped with him.
For a while there was only evening. A bird. The house behind them, full of people who would never know why two men were standing in the fruit trees as if the ground might open.
Lucien lifted a hand.
Elian saw it and stepped half a pace aside.
Lucien let the hand fall.
"I won't take the belt out," he said. "I won't put you on that wall..." he chuckled, "That would be stupid."
"Not because I don't want to. Because you spent the day thinking I gave her what I promised you."
Elian's arms were folded tight across his chest. He still would not look at him fully.
"You want to touch me," Elian said.
"Yes. Very much."
"Then ask."
Lucien's throat worked. "May I have your wrist."
A long breath. Elian held it out, not far.
