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“Oh, darling,” Octavius sighs against Jedediah’s neck as the cowboy devours, well, any part of Octavius he can get to. For some reason, Jed snickers at this; clearly trying to conceal it but he fails due to their very close proximity.
Octavius pulls away slightly, putting his hands on Jedediah’s shoulders and nudging. When Jed comes up from the mess he’s been making on Octavius’ neck, his eyes are lidded, pupils blown. He’s looking at him with an almost unplaceable expression. “What?” The roman asks, trying not to sound offended.
Jedediah looks away. “Nothin’” he mutters. “It’s just… we say that word so differently…” Before there’s a response, he buries his face back into his partner’s neck.
Octavius lets out an incredulous huff at the sudden apparent shyness from Jed. “What word? Darling?” Jedediah hums something like a “yes” into his skin, the sensitive part just below his ear which sends a shiver through him that he’d rather not acknowledge. He nudges Jed again, hoping to get some clarification and not glassy puppy dog eyes that don’t stay on him long or a muffled southern drawl.
“Well how am I supposed to say it?” He asks when the cowboy finally pulls away to look at him.
“It’s not-” Jed puts on his best prissy roman accent, which is… pretty lacking to say the least and Octavius tries not to laugh. “‘Dahhlingg’. It’s just darlin’.”
Octavius stares blankly for a second. He makes a funny face like the idea of the word on his tongue tastes bad, but echos Jed anyways. “Darrrlin’,” he says, stumbling over the R sound.
At this, Jedediah lets out a sound that he would later deny making. It’s a sort of embarrassing squeak that he had never let Octavius hear before, despite offering up plenty of other obscene noises during their time together.
Octavius grins, he’s found a new secret weapon. “If you think I’m going to stoop to using a backwoods hick accent just to excite you, then you’re crazy… Darlin’”
An almost imperceptible moment of Jedediah composing himself passes before he coos in response.
“Only crazy for you, my darlin’.”