Title: Open CagesChapter: N/A Genre: One-shot Rating: M, barely Warnings: Mild, mild, sex. No details.

Summary: He's always given his lover freedom, and never wants to close the cage.

Notes: This is just a relationship blurb to get into the mind of some characters, should I ever actually write the story they're used from.

He tasted something unfamiliar on his lover's skin. Something bittersweet, as if he'd been dipped into a vat of regret. Sweet with the remembrance of how things could have been, bitter with the mistakes that people make.

"Do you trust me?" his lover asked softly against his skin.

"Do you love me?" he questioned of his lover's shoulder.

"Do you even have to ask?" his lover leaned back to look him in the face, into those eyes that held something deeper than love. Something that should have frightened him, that someone felt so strongly for one person.

"No," he looked away. "I never have to ask you." He gathered a blanket around his bare waist and looked at it with shame in his heart.

Awkwardness filled the air, and his lover placed arms around his shoulders and a head on his heart to listen to the slow, steady beat. "I was with someone else," his lover confessed softly.

"I know," he said and toyed with the edge of the sheets. He knew, he could smell someone on his lover's skin. Could taste it in his mouth, could see it in the way his eyes would skirt towards him, then away. He could hear it in the shame of his lover's voice.

"I never thought," he said, "that I would ever be enough of you. I don't ask for everything. Just a little and I'll be happy."

"Goddamnit," his lover dragged his hand down his side, and one hand stroked his hair. "You're so willing to give me my freedom."

"I don't want you to fly away, were I to keep you caged."

His lover rested his head against his shoulder, "I wouldn't fly away, no matter how caged you kept me."

"I know," he lifted his hand and caressed his lover's cheek, "I know."

"Do you forgive me?" his lover asked, kissing the finger tips softly, like a butterfly's kiss.

"Always..." he smiled softly, only a slight motion of his lips on an otherwise stoic face.

They touched each other in love and fun, their play turning to sex, or sex turning to play. A touch could be meant to seduce, a touch could be meant to tickle. They never knew until skin met skin. They made love, sketching confessions into their skin, branding them in a fire of passion and drunken kisses.

They lay in each others' arms, surrounded by something like love. A cage with no opening, no bars. Just there, holding them together.