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It was getting late. The halls of Headquarters were near completely quiet, and rightfully so. Everyone else was asleep. Everyone but Chamber.
It wasn’t particularly out of the ordinary for him to be holed up in his office at such a late hour, he had a habit of working past the point of exhaustion—even if he would never admit it. But that was usually out of some proud stubbornness to get as much done as he could, or because he had something on his mind. Of course, one could argue that the latter explanation was the case for tonight, but it wasn’t quite the same. For once, the thing that bothered him wasn’t exactly negative. He wasn’t up late ruminating about his past mistakes or the blood on his hands—he was just… Thinking about someone. Sova. Alexander. Sasha.
The archer had occupied Chamber’s thoughts relentlessly for the past few days, and tonight it was worse than it had ever been. He couldn’t get him out of his mind, his long blond hair, those determined heterochromatic eyes, that perfect smile—he was gorgeous. Not only that, he was kind, pure, protective, everything a good man should be.
He was a man of principle. He was out of Chamber’s league.
It was such a horrible thought, but one the gunsmith knew was true. Sova was perfect in every way, even to the point that he was too humble to see it for himself. Chamber, on the other hand, was the very embodiment of imperfection. He was a liar, a cheat, a coward. A murderer. He was no better than his father—and Sova deserved so much more than that. He deserved to love a good person, and Chamber wasn’t that.
Objectively, this was a truth that he could never deny. But that didn’t mean it was easy to push those feelings he had for the hunter away. Whether he deserved him or not, Sova would haunt his mind regardless. That was what kept him awake. That was why he was still working at such a late hour. If nothing else, keeping himself busy could take his mind off of all of this.
Although, admittedly, his work hadn’t gone particularly well so far. For the past few days, he’d been attempting to come up with a new design—something fresh, something unconventional, something that pushed far beyond his usual comfort zone. But nothing he had come up with so far met his expectations. No, it was all wrong. It wasn’t enough. At this rate, with such a lack of sleep, he was beginning to think he should just give up and let his thoughts consume him. Whatever this was could never work out. Eventually, he just found himself slumped over his desk, laying his head down to the side as he lazily dragged his pencil over a near empty sheet of paper, having lost all direction for this godforsaken project. If he wasn’t going to sleep and he wasn’t going to work, he had a lot of time left to kill—and if the next best option was simply laying there until it was early enough in the morning to warrant starting his day, that was just what he was going to do.
Until he heard the click of a door opening, the door to his office that he thought he’d locked. Abruptly sitting up and darting his attention to the end of the room, he realized he was no longer alone. Someone was there, standing in the doorway. It wasn’t until they reached over to pull the chain switch of the lamp on that end of the office that Chamber could make out who it was. And of course, it was exactly who he wanted to see the least right now. It was Sova.
“I hope I’m not intruding.” The hunter said softly as he let go of the lamp and gently closed the door behind him. “I figured I would find you here.”
Chamber hesitated to answer, firstly standing up from his desk and shoving his sketches into a pile behind him as he faced the other man. “...How did you know?”
“You never came to dinner.” Sova responded. “You’ve been in here all day, from what I know, and no one has seen you leave, so… I just assumed you were still here working. I only came to check on you.”
“It’s… A little late for that, non?”
“I couldn’t sleep.” He admitted. “I was hoping that it would help if I came to see you.”
Chamber didn’t respond to that, instead simply letting out a small breath that he realized he’d been holding for far too long. Ever since the other man had entered, his office felt infinitely smaller. He’d never been more aware of the space between them, and how little there really was. Worse yet, that space was only closing in even further now that Sova had decided to step a bit deeper into the room, tucking his hands behind his back as he observed some of the sketches pinned to the walls.
“What have you been working on?” He asked as his eyes panned back over to Chamber.
“I’m… Not sure, honestly. I’ve hit a bit of a roadblock… C'est compliqué.”
“Ah…” Sova nodded, then briefly paused. There was a brief hesitation before he spoke again, and when he did, he seemed to stumble quite a bit. “Peut-être que... Je peux aider?”
“Excuse me?” Chamber raised a brow.
“Sorry—I’ve, uhm… I’ve been trying to learn. I know I’m not very good, forgive me if my pronunciation isn’t all that great.” Sova explained, suddenly tearing his eyes away from the other as if he had embarrassed himself.
“No, no, it’s alright—” Chamber insisted with a shake of his head. “It just took me off guard, that’s all. I didn’t take you for someone that would be interested in that sort of thing.”
“Well, I… Wanted to learn. For you.”
For a moment, Chamber felt as though he’d gotten all of his words knocked right out of him. He had to force himself to look away from Sova just to recover, and even then, he still felt a bit weak in his knees. He wasn’t normally one to get flustered so easily, but Sova always managed to get to him in such a way—and to suggest that he was actively trying to learn an entire language just for him ? It was almost too much. Little did he know though, during the time he’d spent trying to recollect himself, Sova had stepped closer. He only realized it when his view of the floor was suddenly broken by a pair of taloned boots—the man was standing right in front of him, it seemed.
“Est-ce que ça va?” Sova asked, a little bit quieter now.
“I’m… Fine. Just…” Chamber looked up at him, tensing as he met his gaze once more. “...Tired, probably.”
The archer simply hummed in response, his attention falling to the sketches on the gunsmith’s desk as he ventured to step even closer. By now, his hands had found a place to rest on either side of Chamber, planted on the wooden surface behind him. He seemed relatively unbothered by the proximity—but Chamber had only grown even more flustered, painfully aware of the fact that he was essentially trapped there until Sova decided to pull away. Of course, he knew he could just push him off if it really bothered him, but that’s not what he wanted. He didn’t know what he wanted, but whatever it was, it wasn’t that.
After having thoroughly observed the lackluster sketches, Sova turned his attention back to Chamber, scanning his expression for a moment before he spoke again. “J'aimerais… Pouvoir aider.”
“There is really no need for that. I’m just feeling a little uninspired.”
“Uninspired?” Sova repeated, stopping to think before he went on. “What usually inspires you?”
Chamber once again tried to force himself to look away, but this time Sova countered it by gently guiding him back with a hand on the side of his face. The gunsmith’s eyes widened slightly, and he found himself at a loss for words for quite a while. “Tu rends la réflexion très difficile…” He eventually said, mentally berating himself for this embarrassing performance.
“Speak slower for me, please.” Sova requested softly, “I am not great at the listening aspect just yet.”
Chamber’s face only further reddened, and he was ashamed of just how much he caught himself glancing down at Sova’s lips in these moments of silence. It was now that he realized the full extent of this predicament. This wasn’t just simple admiration or fondness anymore, was it? No, this was something so much more agonizing. He was in love. God, he was head over heels. Despite all his efforts to push these feelings down, they’d only flourished in the deepest and loneliest parts of his soul. Worse yet, there was absolutely nothing he could do about it. He was completely done for.
“Tu es si beau comme ça…” Sova spoke up again after the bout of silence, catching the other man’s attention once more. Then he reached up to gently remove the smaller man’s glasses, setting them aside for the time being. “...Tu es parfait.”
It was the final nail in the coffin, the thing that finally shook off Chamber’s grip on his own composure. His eyes softened, his breath hitched, and his shoulders sunk. He looked almost defeated, like he had been actively challenging himself not to let Sova get to him like this—but even if that were the case, he knew damn well by this moment that he was fully wrapped around that man’s finger. He had no choice but to surrender. Before he knew it, the hand on the side of his face had moved to his jaw, and he was urged to tilt his head just slightly upward as Sova drew nearer. By now, they were practically sharing breaths, and Chamber had never felt weaker.
“You don’t want this…” He mumbled, almost timidly.
“You don’t know what I want.” Sova simply answered.
Then, in one slow movement, the archer closed the gap between them, pulling the other in for a soft kiss. Every little bit of tension in Chamber’s body melted at this, but much to his dismay, it wasn’t long before Sova pulled away. He didn’t leave much distance between them, thankfully. He merely stopped to give the gunsmith an opportunity to push him away, to see if this was all truly mutual—because he knew how hard it would be to stop himself once he relinquished that little bit of self control he had.
Chamber took this moment of respite to slowly lift his arms and bring them to rest on Sova’s shoulders, entangling his hands within his long hair and even going as far as to free it from the tie that held it all up. Then he locked eyes with him again as he attempted to pull him closer. “S'il vous plaît, ne vous arrêtez pas là…” He said slowly.
It was clear that Sova understood. Swiftly, he dropped that last bit of control, and he returned to kiss the other man once more as though he’d been waiting his whole life to do so. His hands snapped to Chamber’s waist, and as the kiss deepened, he pulled the man closer until their bodies were pressed together as firmly as he could manage. It was clear now how desperate he was for this, how intensely he wanted Chamber—even when he had to pull away to catch his breath, he didn’t waste any time before diving back in with even more passion than before. Eventually he even went as far as to lift the other man up onto the desk, positioning himself between his legs so he could take things further. All throughout this, Chamber kissed back, whimpering at each bold move that Sova made like he was some starved puppy begging for food.
There were times where Sova would retreat from his lips, purely just to make sure he didn’t overwhelm the other—but this didn’t mean he had the power to resist ravishing him even further. Instead of fully pulling away, he would simply make an effort to focus his attention elsewhere, peppering kisses down his jaw and his neck and quickly discovering one of his favorite spots to come back to on Chamber’s collarbone. As he went on with this, however, he would only end up riling himself up again, and it would inevitably force him to return to the man’s lips—exactly where he belonged. From there, his reign of passion continued, even going as far as to bite the gunsmith’s bottom lip before quickly apologizing with yet another kiss.
It wasn’t long before Chamber had been essentially pinned down to the desk, his back fully against the wood as Sova hovered over him. With the way they were pressed together, he could feel very clearly just how excited the other was even just by this alone, and it was hard not to find it at least a little adorable. Although he would normally tease about something like this, considering his own longing for the man, he couldn’t bring himself to distract Sova in such a way. But at the very least, he could stop him for a moment, before things could go any further. He dragged one of his hands down to Sova’s chest and pushed him away just barely, only leaving enough room so he could speak.
“As fun as this is, I’m sure we could find somewhere more comfortable, non?”
Sova paused to think, panting wildly before he eventually managed to catch his breath with a rough swallow. Then he nodded, but he didn’t give the other much of a chance to make any suggestions before he simply scooped him up and carried him away from the desk and out of the office. Chamber relaxed in the hunter’s arms and chose to rest his head on his shoulder, fully trusting him to bring him somewhere safe. Sova wound up taking him to his own room, but before he set him down on the bed, he stopped to look at him.
“...You are exhausted.” He commented.
“Not enough for this.” Chamber insisted, lifting his head to return his gaze.
Sova glanced down at the bed, pondering for a moment more before he looked at Chamber with a sigh. “There will be other times.”
“What?” Chamber questioned, but he would go unanswered. Instead, Sova continued to hold him in his arms as he lowered himself onto the bed, maneuvering until he could safely lay the man down onto the mattress while keeping him as close as he could, essentially spooning him. Then he leaned over to kiss the side of his face as he pulled the covers over the both of them.
“Sleep. You have been awake for far too long.” Sova mumbled.
“But you’re—”
“I would much rather you get the rest you need. What kind of man would I be to keep you up for even longer?” He insisted, burrowing his face into Chamber’s shoulder as he fully wrapped his arms around him. “Trust me, I am not against the idea of a morning with you. Not in the slightest. But until then, get some rest.”
Chamber hesitated, but he eventually surrendered. “Merci, mon amour…”
“Of course…” Sova kissed his shoulder as he felt him finally relax in his arms. “Je t’aime.”
“Je t’aime plus.”