April 1947: Care to go to China? For the Cupbearer

[mrwaverly]

"Bastard!" Alex cried out as his shirt cuff button was neatly sliced off. He and his lover, Ganymede, were in the gym practicing knife fighting with Nepalese style kukri blades. Though the ones Alex was using were standard army issue for the Gurkhas serving in the British army. They had slightly less reach and were just a bit heavier than the ones G was using. "That was a good shirt."

Alexander was wearing a white shirt and gray slacks. He was out of military uniform and working now for the SIS after the victorious end to the war. His lover was currently giving him a refresher course in knife fighting. The sleeve of his shirt was hanging loose now around his wrist. It was the second button to go in this little game they were having. The first was the top collar button of his shirt. "You're determined to get me naked, aren't you?"

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[the_cupbearer]

"My parents were married, I'll remind you," Ganymede laughed as he circled Alex, twirling the blade in his hand. For him, this game was old practice, and he was enjoying slowly slicing off bits of his lover' clothes.

"Besides, you can replace the shirt. Or I'll replace it if you can slice off one of my buttons." He smiled and bent at the waist, an open invitation for Alexander to give it a shot and avoid nicking his skin. Fine control over the tip of his blade was a trouble spot for most, and Alex no exception. But Ganymede was a good teacher.

"It might have crossed my mind. Is this a complaint?"

[mrwaverly]

Alex's eyes narrowed, "You're enjoying this entirely too much." It was good practice, but it was also dangerous. The knives were deadly sharp. He spun toward G, looking to slice a button off his lover's shirt. Alexander trusted G to move out of the way rather than take a killing blow. They'd been at it for about forty minutes now and already Alexander was sweating. It was his body's way of reminding him he wasn't twenty anymore.

[the_cupbearer]

"What, I'm not allowed to like swordfights with my dashing lover?" he chuckled, sliding past Alex's swipe with the kukri and lunging in to tag the other cuff button on Waverly's shirt. It was nice, he had to admit, but so was the slow striptease in the midst of sparring. But in the process of teasing so much he did lose a button himself, cracking under a skimming blow from Alex's weapon and tearing the placket of his shirt a bit.

"Is there a reason you're so eager to have me beat you at this, dear?" Ganymede asked.

[mrwaverly]

"Bugger!" he said as the left button was cut off and bounced off down the floor. Though he did manage to snatch one of G's cuff buttons. Though not nearly as deftly as his lover did. "You really think me dashing?" he asked when he turned and slashed at G again.

"I'm horribly out of practice." Though Alex would have been a formidable opponent for anyone else, he was no match for G's experience and skill. Of course, G loved to needle his opponents.

[the_cupbearer]

"Of course I do," he replied, as honestly as he'd done anything else; Ganymede parried back the swipe Alex took at him and deftly sprang back to just outside the shorter weapon's range. He knew a little more solidly what Alexander needed to work on and what he very definitely still had, and lethality was falling quite firmly in the latter category.

"You're still bloody dangerous, I wouldn't worry about it overmuch in casual combat," he chuckled. "It just doesn't help you that I've been doing it since before you were in short pants." Ganymede did love to tease, especially in what most men took for stoic and silent activities: he'd never understood where the English came by the notion that single combat wasn't filled with terrible hurled insults to distract your opponent, and he did not subscribe to the theory of honorable combat at all. It so very rarely was.

[mrwaverly]

"Thank you," Alex parried and sliced at him with his other blade. "Anyone with one of these who hasn't been trained is bloody dangerous." Though Alexander was unlikely to drop one on his own foot. He had after all, been training with Ganymede and a range of other experienced teachers, including the British army's Gurkha unit.

"Well, if you're going to go there, it doesn't help me that you've been doing it since before my grandparents' grandparents' were in nappies."

[the_cupbearer]

"Well, yes, but you have been trained," Ganymede chuckled. "Though you still fight too honorably for a real battle." He'd been telling Alex about that habit of his for quite a while, hoping one day he'd realize it on his own.

"Brat," he laughed when Alex reminded him of his age. "Such a pain."

[mrwaverly]

"I'll have you know, I've won several real battles. I did not sit behind a desk through the war!" Alex would be the first to admit that most of the battles he'd been in, he'd used a gun. But he also carried a collection of various knives. They didn't run out of bullets. He had been with Navy Intelligence in the war but had started out as a field operative.

"Yes, but you like pain, don't you?"

[the_cupbearer]

"I know you didn't," he chuckles, stepping in past Alexander's guard to wrap his arms around his lover's shoulders, capturing him in a kiss that held nothing back. He was unafraid of showing his affection, especially knowing it would get him advantage in a fight.

"Depends on how I get it."

[mrwaverly]

It was a marvelous trick. And of course Alex fell for it. He kissed G back hungrily. "That was definitely not fair," he said when their lips parted. "And a damn good thing the Gerry's were only trying to kill me."

[the_cupbearer]

"I might have taken a slight exception if they were trying to do anything else," Ganymede murmured, body pressed to Alexander's from shoulder to knee, unwilling to let them be parted just yet.

"I never fight fair, my love. The only fair fight is the one you lose." And speaking of...Ganymede brought his hands up to Alex's waist, fingertips deftly pulling his shirttails free and wiggling under them, exploring his lover's skin. "So about that getting you naked," he said, mouth skating over his partner's neck as he spoke.

[mrwaverly]

"Perhaps it would have seriously shortened the war if they had," Alex chuckled. "I know you're a horribly dirty fighter..." He dropped the kukri on the floor. "You've got me partly undressed already. You going to finish the job?"

[the_cupbearer]

"I never leave you undone, do I?" Ganymede asked, flicking open the buttons up the front of the shirt and sliding down as he kissed a trail in the opposite direction. "You must think me so mean, asking questions like that."

Ganymede could never be the kind of tease that didn't follow through on his promises; it might take him a few hours, but it would happen. He laid his own blade down, letting it fall to the mat as he slid open Alex's belt. "Have I tired you out so much already? You never let me do all this outside the bedroom." Aside from the memorable time at a formal party where they'd been caught, Alexander had very little of an exhibitionist streak, and had only engaged in a hurried exchange in one skinny, dark doorway in Bombay years ago.

[mrwaverly]

"No..." he looked around nervously. Luckily this was a private gymnasium. "You never do." And the door was locked. Still, this wasn't something Alex did very often or at all. Every once in a while though, he liked to surprise his lover.

[the_cupbearer]

"I'll take care of you," he murmured, reassuring Alex as Ganymede rubbed his hands over his hips, not taking overly much time before sucking his lover's cock into his mouth.

He loved Alex and wouldn't make the man terribly uncomfortable, but sometimes he found the slight nervousness worth the risk, especially since haste made Alex less painstakingly gentle. "You're beautiful, you know that."

[mrwaverly]

"You always do," Alex said as G sucked him. He succeeded in making Alexander nervous. And of course, his lover would give G what he wanted.

"So you tell me," he chuckled. Alex had never thought of himself as particularly beautiful. Boyishly handsome, perhaps...

[the_cupbearer]

Ganymede was good at giving people pleasure; it was a set of skills he'd learned at great cost, but they were worthwhile every time he applied them, and he'd never found those skills lacking. Even when Alex was nervous at their surroundings he could bring him to climax, and did while he had the chance, swallowing neatly.

He was still gently rubbing his hands up his lover's thighs when he stood again, loving the look on Alexander's face as he came back to himself after the high of an orgasm. "So I tell you, indeed. And I stand by it," he said, giving the man one last kiss. "Deadly, smart, and beautiful. And mine, quite happily for me."

[mrwaverly]

Ganymede was amazing at it. Alexander felt his knees almost buckle when he came. "I'll take that as a compliment," he said softly. "And very happily yours. We should get cleaned up." They could take a shower in the gym's locker room.

[the_cupbearer]

"What's your hurry?" he teased, smile gentling as Alexander spoke; Ganymede himself was happy enough to wait until that evening to get the return of his affections, well aware that his lover was not going to start anything in public.

"You're getting better with that kukri, too. You didn't slice me once this time."

[mrwaverly]

He picked up his discarded knives, "Thanks. I'll take that as a compliment as well. I've got something important to tell you." Alex put his blades back in their sheathes. He had hoped for a little more privacy to tell his lover this, but he couldn't keep it in any longer, "I've been assigned to the post of section chief of the Hong Kong bureau."

[the_cupbearer]

"Oh?" he asked, bending to pick up his sword, eyebrows lifting.

"Alex, that's wonderful news!" Ganymede said, smiling; he was genuinely happy for his lover moving up in the ranks. "I'm glad, you deserved a promotion. Will you be overseeing them from here?" he questioned, head cocked just a bit.

[mrwaverly]

"Thank you. Uh... No. I'd be moving to Hong Kong," he said, giving G a moment to let it sink in.

[the_cupbearer]

Saying that felt like being kicked in the ribs would have been a massive understatement; Ganymede felt his heart squeeze painfully and his expression softened, smile vanishing.

"You alone?" he asked quietly, and despite all hope to the contrary began steeling himself for the inevitable affirmation. Ganymede couldn't fault Alex for going, and he wouldn't begrudge him anything, but the cold wash of sadness had already set in. "It's a long way away."

[mrwaverly]

"I hope not. I was rather hoping you'd come with me," Alex told him. "It is a long way away. But if you don't want to go to China, I'd understand."

[the_cupbearer]

As quickly as the doubt had come over him, confusion replaces it for Ganymede, and he stares. "You want me to go to China with you?"

It would be a change; he hasn't been that far east in decades, centuries perhaps. "I certainly don't want to stay here alone without you, Alex. Not after losing you during the war."