#( cb / relationship ) eli and theo.

[ashfordlabs]

1, 7, and 8 for Theo and Eli? <3

hello hello!! thank you for the ask!! this was extremely fun.

1: what’s their love languages? / theo's is very much someone who's love language is gift giving. the kind of person who will see you eye up something in a store that for a moment, you consider buying but then decided against it and he'll end up buying it for you. theo's far too rich for his liking that he'd rather spend his money on other people than himself. but with eli it's very different, like yes, he'll get expensive rings and fancy clothes for social events, but theo will also buy him a lot of flower seeds for the garden as well as hand knit him jumpers and he's the only person who gets those from theo.

whereas eli has two. physical touch is just his general love language is physical touch. he always loves hugging people and will drape himself over the twins whenever he's bored and wants attention. with theo, eli is generally touching him in any way that he can, lots of hand holding, pressed up against theo's back where he'll either tuck his head in the crook of theo's neck or rest his chin on top of theo's head. eli will also just randomly run his hand through theo's hair because he's obsessed with his curls (there's also a reason as to why eli is more touchy with theo thanks to shit that happens in cursed bodies).

but on top of that, due to theo just never really having anyone in his life who actually loved him that eli also has words of affirmation as a love language with theo only.

7: who is the more romantic one? / oh gosh, i honestly don't know??? like, there's an answer in the back of my head but i can't further explain it without throw a massive plot point in your face. so instead, i'm just going to say eli even though i could also say theo. like because theo is someone who's had never been in a proper relationship before eli, that eli is very much determined to make sure that theo gets the best experience even if eli can be a little cliche.

8: do they have any favorite activities to do together? / they do!! because eli has a massive green thumb, they'll garden together, and by together i mean theo will just watch because he doesn't like getting his hands dirty, but he'll also keep darcy (theo's cat) distracted while eli works. sometimes they'll stargaze if theo is having a rough night and can't sleep, something i like to imagine ends with theo falling asleep as eli would just ramble to him.

and similar to gardening, eli will join theo whenever he goes book shopping for no other reason than he just really loves how theo completely lights up when surrounded by books. same can also be said with museums which has the added bonus of theo spouting out random facts he knows and eli listening to every word with a goofy lovestruck grin on his face.

ship ask game.

[ashfordlabs]

romance snippet tag!

rules: describe your wip's main romance in a 1-4 sentence snippet

i was tagged by @verba-writing thank you so much!!

okay so this really got away from me. and when i say got away from me, i mean, i don't know if it even fits what was asked, plus it's long (longer than where cursed bodies is currently at), but in my defence, i really wanted to do this tag and this scene but i didn't have it written, so everything you're gonna read was pulled from my cb plans and just written. and i think that's a perfectly fine reason to write so much, especially when eli and theo are involved. and speaking of, this is in eli's pov, if it was in theo's, it would be shorter (but not by much).

tagging (no pressure!): @kaiusvnoir @emelkae @imbrisvastatio + anyone else who wants to take part!

"we shouldn't be doing this," was what theo said to him when they pulled apart, words barely above a whisper that for a moment, eli barely heard him.

eli cleared his throat, suddenly being thrown in the present, his mind not lingering on the feeling of theo’s lips on his, the feeling of his hands gripping onto eli’s shirt as if it were a lifeline─ absolutely not. he refused to let himself think of it despite how much he wanted to pull theo in close and do it all again, because theo was right, they shouldn’t have done it and what was worse was that it was eli who crossed the line.

“no,” he replied, inching away from theo. “you’re right. you were having a moment and I─”

“you do realise that if i really thought that, i would've pushed you away?” theo stated, brow arched as his eyes stared into eli’s own, making him squirm under the contact. he always had that effect on him, one look and eli felt like theo was looking right through him. mayumi had said that was just theo, and while that might’ve been true, eli hadn’t met someone like theo, and that fucking terrified him. “there was no taking advantage. but. . . I shouldn’t have done it.”

it shouldn’t have stung, but it did. yet what did eli expect? theo was dealing with his brother which was its own problem, especially after theo had admitted there was more to it moments before they kissed. and eli, well, eli had already fucked up by falling for him, but eli’s number one rule was that he didn’t get involved with clients. and no matter how many times eli had tried to remind himself that theo wasn’t just a client, but more of a partner involved in this, yet the end of it all, theo was still the one paying them.

it also meant this; that once nathaniel ashford was behind bars, or maybe dead as eli had been hoping for since they had started this, theo had no right to stay with them. he wasn’t like henry or eli and despite the similarities in their lifestyle, he wasn’t even like Dorothea, meaning he could walk away from it all. go back to france and live his life, whatever that was, without them. all while eli would go back to being a gun for hire, working at persephone’s and wallowing in the what could have been that was theodore ashford.

just like he was in that moment, too wrapped up in the what if of a future that even eli didn’t know whether it would happen or not. that was enough for him to realise just had deep he had fallen.

“whatever you’re thinking, it’s wrong, like usual,” theo said, pulling eli out of his thoughts.

“how do you know what I’m thinking?”

“I don’t, just that you’re overthinking.” he then reached a hand forward and gently cupped eli’s cheek, the older man leaning into theo’s touch. “you get this faraway look on your face, you do it a lot, especially when we’re talking about my brother.”

those times, eli was simply thinking about all the ways he could murder nathaniel ashford in theo’s name, well, maybe more for theo since those thoughts happen every time theo admitted some cruel truth about how his older brother treated him. it was present now more than ever upon the discovery of just how trapped theo truly was.

“when I say we shouldn’t be doing this,” theo continued. “I don’t mean never, I mean now, because I can’t give my brother more ammunition against me. we’ve hopefully gotten him off my back after what we did tonight, but. . .” he trailed off, hand slipping from eli’s cheek as he tried to figure out the words to say, his fingers beginning to fiddle with the metal chain he always had wrapped around his wrist. without thinking, eli reached for theo’s hand and in doing so, pulling theo’s focus to them where he began twisting the rings around eli’s fingers. “I want this. . . I want you. . . but I can’t. . . I can’t be seen with you in public, can’t fucking walk down the street with you without someone pointing a camera at us and posting it everywhere─”

“I don’t care about that,” eli interrupted. “if you’re worried about people connecting the dots between me and what I do, you shouldn’t. you can’t do what I do without being careful and I am.”

he didn’t want to admit that there was part of him that wanted to say he’d give it all up just for theo. it’s a small part of him, but it existed, and it was just another thing that terrified him, and it would appear that the list was ever growing.

“that’s not. . . my brother finds out and it’ll be over before it even starts,” theo admitted, voice wavering as he spoke. “I don’t want to hide but I have too because otherwise my brother─” he then cut himself off, eli unsure whether it was for his sake, or theo’s own, but either way, he knew what theo couldn’t say out loud. he had heard it.

“are you sure you don’t want me to kill him?” he found himself asking. the way in which he did, sounded like he was joking, but he had said it enough times for theo to know by this point, that he well and truly meant it.

theo glared at him─ an expression that no longer had any effect on eli, but rather made him laugh. it was strange to think that there was once a time in which eli would look at theo and only seen some intimidating force of nature, but as time went on, and as eli learned the kind of person he was, theo became someone who would simply adapt to survive. that the intimidation he once displayed came from surrounding himself with criminals and trying to act as if he could fit alongside them, only to eventually find out he didn’t have to do that and upon that discovery, the true theo started to show through.

“okay, no killing.”

“thank you.” and the way he said it, so fucking earnestly that eli couldn’t stop himself from smiling.

“what about after?” he then asked.

“after?”

“after your brother is in jail?” eli clarified.

theo frowned, gaze drifting to their hands which now were intertwined, something eli hadn’t been aware of. and there was something about the way that theo’s hand feels in his that eli couldn’t help but feel as if it belonged there.

“are you sure you want to?” theo questioned. “we’ll have people breathing down our necks, especially trying to figure out who’s good enough to be seen with theodore ashford. wouldn’t be surprised if people are writing about thea and I as we speak.”

with his free hand, eli grabbed hold of theo’s chin─ ensuring he was gentle with the way he did so as a means of not scaring him and given the fact that he didn’t flinch or pull away meant that he managed to succeed in doing so.

“let them talk. a bunch of nosey bitches isn’t going to stop me from getting what I want.”

theo’s cheeks flushed red, the colour noticeable against his pale cheeks. “are you─”

“I have been sure since I heard you call me by my actual name.”

and he had. there weren’t many people that knew about his true name, that elijah clarke was nothing more than a fake identity created to disconnect himself from the person he once was. only henry knew what the name was because he had been the one to ask him if he was sure that’s what it was when eli had given it. never once did he think he would tell someone like theo, but he had, a truth for a truth, and once he had heard his name fall from theo’s tongue, spoken in a way that made eli no longer want to hate it.

and when theo said it again, it was addictive.

“you’re not going to make this waiting easy, are you?”

theo shook his head, looking back up at him. “when we leave this room, we go back to being strictly platonic and professional.”

eli nodded as he begun to pack everything away, ignoring theo’s eyes watching his every move. there was also something he hated about the way that theo was just sitting there, not doing anything to stop him. he reminded himself that it was better this way, repeating the words like a mantra. they can’t start something that was at risk of ending before anything could really happen. platonic and professional, that was how it should be.

but then, it wasn’t until eli’s hand reached for the door handle that theo’s words truly sunk in, causing him to turn around. “wait. . .”

“you’re a goddamn idiot. . .”

it was an insult, but it was said with such fondness that he couldn’t even be mad about it.

he was fucking screwed (not that he wasn't already).