Chapter Text
This chapter is set somewhere after Chapter 9 of "And The Ground Has Been Slowly Pulling Us Back Down.", feel free to read that, or just enjoy this!!!
Minos would admit it, he was the king of Lust for a reason.
He had, for lack of a more eloquent term, slept around more than he’d like to admit. Men, women, and everyone in between had been visitors in his chambers over the years.
When they were still on terms good enough to hold a conversation, Minos had reveled in joking at the council about his exploits. Their winces had always kept him amused.
He was starting to regret not brushing up on the less intimate parts of his relationships. It'd been a long time since he'd tried to work through such intense things as Gabriel. Normally people came to him looking to f*ck away their problems. Minos couldn't exactly seduce Gabriel into forgetting the hurt he'd suffered after all. No, that wouldn't work.
Perhaps it’d always been there, perhaps Gabriel was better at hiding it before, but Minos had caught his love flinching more often.
It wasn’t often, but Minos had started to clock it every time Gabriel hesitated.
He tried to hold Gabriel’s bronze hand, and the angel drew back.
He looped his arm around Gabriel’s bare neck, and he shoved away.
He kissed Gabriel, but the angel moved Minos’s hand away from his bare cheek.
He held the back of Gabriel’s golden curls and saw the angel’s face slowly close off, his dove’s eyes wandering off to that place where nothing hurt him.
Minos had realized it slowly, but once he figured out the little puzzle he felt like the jester of a court.
Gabriel, the victim of constant physical violence, was hesitant to be touched. Oh! What a revelation.
And Minos had been touching him more often, he hadn’t even been asking.
Was Gabriel too afraid to say anything?
The two of them certainly weren’t on entirely great terms when it came to trust and communication.
Trust was something Gabriel constantly lacked. He was, rightfully, paranoid of other’s intentions. From what little Minos had been able to get him to speak of the council, they’d run his head in circles. One moment it was safe to confide in someone, and the next they were beating him senseless. Honesty was something Minos always used with the angel, but he felt as though Gabriel discarded half of what he said as lies.
On top of that, he hadn’t been encouraged to speak his mind for thousands of years. He’d resigned himself to his head and became deathly quiet. Despite Minos' prodding, it often took Gabriel days of careful questions before he would tell Minos anything of his wants. Even when he did he was hesitant, as though Minos would yell “GOTCHA!” and slam the angel’s head into the nearest wall for having an opinion or boundary.
And Gabriel had certainly gotten less timid, but old habits died hard.
Minos had been trying to bring up the topic of touching for days but had never found the right moment to bring it up.
It seemed so obvious, that it felt foolish to even speak to Gabriel of the matter.
But if it went unsaid, it’d never be spoken of.
He’d lost his nerve by the fourth night of the words clogging his throat and perhaps asked at the worst possible time.
-:-:-:-
Mions hadn’t been reading the book in front of him for the last ten minutes as both he and Gabriel sat on his bed reading. It’d become a nightly activity for the pair. The unfamiliar hustle and bustle of Lust seemed to stress Gabriel, and it soothed his ever-present nerves to sit and read in silence on a schedule.
Around the two of them, the lacy fabric that hung loosely around the four posters of the bed lazily twirled in a breeze brought in from the garden. Minos glanced up at where Gabriel sat around the plush comforter, his halo and wings glowing as darkness set in. He was the picture of peace as far as Gabriel went. The king couldn’t help but smile at how enamored his love seemed with what he was reading.
Minos cleared his throat.
Gabriel glanced up from the tome he was reading, always on high alert. Luckily his taste had begun to drift from constantly reading the Bible.
“Gabriel,” Minos hated how nervous he sounded as he shut his own book. “I was wondering if thou would allow me to do something with thee.”
Gabriel instantaneously looked horrified and slammed his book shut.
“Oh very bad!,” Minos’s mind helpfully supplied.
“Not sex!” Minos hurridly corrected what the angel was no doubt thinking.
They stared at each other like fools.
“Not…that…um-ok” Gabriel muttered as he leaned away from Minos. The Prime Soul groaned internally, this man made him act a fool.
“Nay, nay, I-I wished to speak to thee of something. That was the incorrect way to phrase it.” Minos insisted
Gabriel worried his hands on the book he held..
“And what are we to speak of?” he inquired, tone dripping in apprehension.
Minos deflated with a sigh.
“I wish to speak of thy aversion to touch, dove.”
Gabriel gave Minos an unimpressed look with all eight eyes, but something brewed behind them.
“You touch me all the time,” Gabriel stated carefully, too carefully.
“Nay, I refer to this,” Minos brought his hand forward as he spoke and attempted to tap Gabriel’s uncovered wrist. As expected, the angel drew back violently.
For a second the bedroom hung in tension. Minos kept himself placid and relaxed near the edge of the bed, and Gabriel was halfway into pulling back before he paused and held his breath.
A moment passed.
“f*ck,” the angel breathed out sharply as he groaned in frustration, toppling over into the comforter so his back was turned to Minos. His book was lost to the other side of the bed, forgotten. The Prime Soul didn’t miss the way the angel gripped into the blanket, obviously but poorly hiding his sudden shame, The Prime Soul had found that Gabriel didn’t like it when Minos discovered things that the angel considered a weakness.
It embarrassed him.
Judging by how his wings were starting to tinge yellow, his frustration was mounting.
“Dove,” Minos sighed, hoping the pet name might soften Gabriel’s burning anger at Minos trying to help him.
He walked around the posters of the bed and brushed aside a strand of clear white fabric so he could speak face-to-face with the angel. The snakes eagerly tried to spin off his arms, but he ordered them firmly not to harass the angel. They were very skilled at making Gabriel more irritable than he already was.
Truly, Minos was glad Gabriel was starting to react in ways besides wide-eyed fear when faced with any sort of conflict. He’d gotten some of his fire back since no one in Lust was there to snuff it out. While it was rare he was beginning to differ from the cold, placating soldier that the council had made him into.
He was also starting to be more stubborn, which Minos could perhaps live without.
The son of god fixed Minos with a burning gold gaze as the Prime Soul sat down.
“When did you notice it?” Gabriel bit out. His voice was laced with a scathing self-hatred. Always searching for his failures it seemed.
Minos sighed and sat next to Gabriel.
He’d found being honest worked well in situations like this.
“It was several times angel,” Minos started airly, keeping his voice light. “Sometimes, thou seemed to enjoy my touch, but when thee were in thy right mind,” Minos reached out and tapped Gabriel’s halo playfully, causing it to glitter like a bell. “Thou tore away.”
Gabriel let out an angry breath, unamused by Minos’s gesture.
“When exactly?”
Minos regarded him. Gabriel had sat up ever so slightly, leaning closer to Minos. Within his eyes a familiar hint of furious shame.
“The trial,” Minos confessed. “Thou were lucid, compared to the times before that, and when I grabbed thy hand, thou…weren’t pleased.”
Gabriel huffed something like a laugh into Minos’s face.
“You don’t know the half of it,” he growled as he fell back onto the bed with a poof of the sheets. The snakes hissed on Minos’s arms.
Minos let his love ferment for a moment before continuing.
“After the trial, thou never seemed relaxed when I touched thy bare skin. I-I didn’t notice it until recently. I apologize for grabbing thee so many times without asking, I can see how it made thou nervous.”
Gabriel huffed once again and rubbed the back of his tense neck.
“You were nice about it,” the angel shrugged. “I had no reason to be scared. Besides, not like I could really fight your strength.”
Minos winced. He knew Gabriel meant that as some sort of strange compliment, but it didn’t stir any positive feelings within the Prime Soul.
“Thou knowest I would never-I’d never harm thee, Gabriel.”
“I know.” Something in his voice still screamed he was unsure.
Minos decided to save that issue for another time and cleared his throat.
“Now, correct me if I drift from the truth, but this phobia has to do with thy…familiarity with physical harm yes?”
He received a hard stare.
“Something like that.”Gabriel finally said stiffly, he waved a hand in Minos’s general direction. “Wasn’t an issue till a foul sinner like you decided to start tempting me,” he added on with what Minos hoped was humor.
Once again the room fell into careful silence. It wasn’t every day Gabriel would so quickly speak to the council’s treatment of him.
Minos, careful and slowly, rested his hand on Gabriel’s hip where it rested on the bed. It was soft contact, not a touch of skin within it, but Gabriel still seemed tense.
“Might I try to assist with this… aversion?” Minos asked carefully.
Gabriel became taunt as a wire.
“Trying to get me naked?” he jokingly (hopefully) accused.
Minos would roll his eyes if he had them.
“As I stated before Gabriel, I wish to touch, not bed thee. There is a difference between lust and the affection I hold for thee.”
Gabriel sat up and put his back on the headboard, shaking off Minos’s touch. A stray piece of his golden hair fell in front of his eyes as he gave the king a skeptical look.
He was still close enough that Minos could grab him, a sign of trust building, but he crossed his arms in a questioning matter. There was still too much unspoken between the pair for Gabriel to wholeheartedly trust anything.
“What were you thinking?” the angel asked finally, halo dining back down to a light blue. Minos was sure the strange illusion of his face that occasionally popped up from the muck of his void would beam like a child.
“If you’d have me,” he said in a uniquely eager tone “I’d like to touch thee, Dove, nothing more, nothing less. Simply acclimate thee to it.”
Gabriel raised his eyebrow.
“Don’t you already….do that?”
He looked at Minos with his collection of eyes like the Prime Soul had grown a second head. Minos held up a hand.
“I meant beyond your face, Gabriel.”
The face in question immediately flushed a dark blue. Minos backtracked, that’d perhaps been too forward.
“If thou finds no comfort with such things-”
“No-I,” Gabriel interrupted him but glanced away. “It’s a stupid…reflex, I need to get over it.” the angel insisted as his tone switched back to being hostile to himself.
Minos didn’t comment on the somewhat dubious motivation Gabriel seemed to have in easing his discomfort. They could speak of it later.
“Very well,” he said softly. He regarded Gabriel against the headboard. The angel was, as per usual, covered nearly head to toe with some sort of fabric.
“Thou shalt have to discard something,” Minos said as gently as he could.
Gabriel sucked in a breath and with a surprising lack of drama pulled his dark blue shirt over his head.
The back of Minos’s sight blurred with a familiar rage that he had to shove down. It’d been months since he’d properly witnessed Gabriel’s bare skin. Sure, he’d seen his hands and grabbed his chin, but those were areas spared from the worst of his torment.
His body was lovely, truly the work of a higher power, but the scars still made Minos sick with rage. He knew the raised white marks were even worse on Gabriel’s back, but around his ribs and hips Minos could see the way blades and whips had cursed around and scarred his sides.
Gabriel noticed Minos’s pause and deflated. The king of Crete wanted to punch himself for the mistake. Out of all of Gabriel’s insecurities and shame, Minos knew the scars to be the worst of them all.
“Thou knows I don’t-”
“Drop it,” Gabriel bit out, shockingly sharp. “Let's just get this over with.”
Minos was glad to have the subject brought back to the matter at hand, though he ached at Gabriel’s anger. He scooted closer to the angel.
To any outsider, it’d look like Minos was some form of caretaker. He leaned over Gabriel from where the angel awkwardly half-laid half-sat against the pillows of Minos’s bed.
“Where would thou allow my touch?” he inquired as he let his gaze wander invisibly around Gabriel’s body.
Gabriel fidgeted with his discarded shirt in his hands, seemingly more interested in the white stitches than Minos’s face.
“N-not my neck,” he muttered.
Minos tucked that information away in his mind and studied Gabriel where he half laid on the pillows.
“What of here?” Minos questioned, sensing he’d need to lead to anything to get done. He moved his arm slowly, as though through honey, to hover his hand over Gabriel’s chest, right under his pectoral.
“Yeah, that- fine , there.” The angel gruffed.
Despite his already tense form, Gabriel flinched quite terribly as Minos softly moved his fingertips onto the bare skin of his side.
He could feel how the angel’s heart hammered against his ribs as Minos properly settled his palm down onto the scar-marred skin.
For a moment the king felt a deep sorrow well in his chest as he traced his thumb over a particularly bumpy lash across Gabriel’s ribs.
He would do this to the council one day. Make them pay. He’d pike them onto their weapons and watch as they suffered.
The revenge he so desired would, for the moment, have to remain just that. Minos had much more important things to do at present.
Glancing away from where his vision had been on Gabriel’s many scars, he scrutinized his love’s face. Gabriel looked deeply out of his depth, hesitant of the touch on his ribs, and either flustered or deeply ashamed given the navy glow to his cheeks. Minos held back a sigh. His angel was cruel to himself even on good days.
The Prime Soul could almost hear the gears turning in his love’s skull, lying to him or making him second guess his happiness. Making him second-guess that he deserved love if it came from sources beyond the council.
“Gabriel,” Minos spoke softly as his fingers slid firmly up and down the angel’s side. “Remember that this can cease at your call.” the Ivory man reminded as he saw Gabriel visibly shudder when Minos placed a palm flat on his stomach.
The angel stayed quiet and looked away.
That wouldn’t do.
Minos leaned in so that the void of his face was aligned properly with Gabriel’s ear. He was careful to avoid his neck.
“Gabriel, did thou hearest me?” he asked lowly, taking minor satisfaction in the way Gabriel reacted to his voice so close.
Gabriel’s breath hitched as the Prime Soul’s hand on his waist and his thumb rubbed a deep scar above his hip. He turned his head away from Minos and the arm from his non-caressed side flew up to cover his face.
“Yes, yes, I understand.” the angel said, a familiar intensity in his tone that made Minos rather happy.
Minos hummed softly and returned to slowly gliding his hand around Gabriel’s chest. He placed a soft kiss on Gabriel’s cheek as he leaned away. Carefully, he watched the archangel from where he continued flinching against translucent fingers.
They said nothing else for an extended period. Slowly, tortuously so, Gabriel relaxed against Minos’s hand. His flinches and shudders gave way to the occasional flutter of his breath, but nothing beyond it as he slowly acclimated to the feeling. Eventually, his nerves settled, and his heart returned to a somewhat normal beat per minute. At some point, Minos took up his book in his free hand and read out loud the rather trivial tale of knights and heroes.
Minos relished in the deep-seated feeling of satisfaction that he drew from the moment. Sitting here, attending to his love as they did nothing but enjoy the other was... fulfilling. It left his chest swelling and his mind at ease.
It slowly became comfortable in the room once more. Just the two of them enjoying the quiet story as Minos caressed the battle-torn skin. It felt intimate, more so than the tangled limbs of lovers, Minos found he quite liked it. Gabriel seemed rather at peace as well.
That was until his chest sized once more as Minos brushed his side. The angel hurriedly opened his mouth for the first time in the better part of an hour. His closed eyes snapped open as well.
“Can?” he looked horrified that he’d spoken as his jaw clicked shut.
Minos stopped his palm where it was loosely against Gabriel’s hip.
“I cease?”
Gabriel timidly nodded. Minos was unfamiliar with the look in his love’s eyes.
“Y-yes…”
Minos immediately removed his hand and allowed Gabriel to hastily sit up. The angel shoved his tunic back on and stood from the bed in a dizzying motion that reminded Minos of how damn fast he could be.
Gabriel blinked, face to face with Minos, who could see the terrible conflict brewing in his eyes.
“Not conflict,” Minos’s head supplied. “Lust.”
The idea hit him like a zephyr, and once again Minos wanted to punch himself for being so blind.
“I’m,” Gabriel hesitated. “I-I’m going to my room.”
Minos nodded. It was best to give Gabriel the space.
“Very well, rest well love,” he said gently as Gabriel moved to exit his chambers. The Prime Soul mourned the loss of a goodnight kiss on the cheek.
A hurried “Mhm” was all he received in return.
“Gabriel,” Minos called before the angel could leave.
The angel paused right as his navy-stained hand hovered over the doorway. He turned to look over his shoulder at where Minos was staring at him. His four glowing blue eyes hovered in the encroaching darkness next to his halo and wings.
"Lovely," Minos thought.
“Hm?”
Minos would’ve smiled had he a true face.
“I’m proud of thee Dove,-”
Gabriel was gone in a blur of teal before Minos could keep speaking. His wings were through the ornate cherry door before Minos could finish another word.
He couldn’t help but smile though.
It’d been a long time since he’d felt anything beyond the drive of Lust in his heart. Gabriel made him happy. Seeing him flustered and cared for made Minos’s heart seize in a way that was unique to his usual romantic exploits.
“Oh don’t lie you want to f*ck him till he can’t walk,” Minos’s head reminded him sharply as he imagined the way Gabriel shuddered under his voice.
The Prime Soul sighed guiltily.
He could address that later.
The Prime Soul, now alone, leaned across the bed and picked up the book Gabriel had been reading before his rapid exit.
With a feeling of soft joy, he picked up the tale of Prometheus gifting fire to mankind. Gabriel was interested in his stories after all.
