Discovery

'The Dark Is Rising' Sequence is copyright Susan Cooper. NOT ME. Okay? Thank you. Thank you. Bran, please call the sheepdog off now. PLEASE?

Will Stanton considered himself fairly openminded. You had to be, to witness some of the things that humanity did, without condemning the whole lot of them and doing something... regrettable. Although there were times when he needed a lot of persuasion to consider converting the whole lot of them into sea anemones and flooding the world 'regrettable'.

He hadn't thought choosing to have a look at some of Bran's bookmarked sites after he did his email would prove to be one of those times. (Not that he was spying. Not at all. But keeping track of what one's loved ones liked was a way of getting them appreciated birthday and Christmas presents, right? Right.)

Will's boyfriend was a bit startled when his lover suddenly said "Urk."

Bran was familiar (very familiar, very pleasantly familiar) with all the various sounds his boyfriend made at various times, so he recognised this 'urk' as Will's 'I am going to kill someone as soon as I get my head around this' 'urk'.

What the... he ran into the room, stopping as soon as he saw what was up on the screen. "Oh."

Will turned around to face him. "Oh, you say. Oh. Do you know what's written here? Do you know -"

"It's where I got the idea for how we celebrated Beltane," Bran jumped in quickly. "So, yeah."

His boyfriend stared at him, ears red, and Bran felt a blush creep up his own cheeks. "It's not so bad, Will," he said quickly. "Once you get used to it -"

"'Once you get used to it'?" Will said incredulously. "These - these women are writing about our sex life and it's 'not so bad'?" Frowning, he added, "And how come you're not angry?"

Bran grinned. "I was, at first," he said. "But then I read the archive. It's kind of creepy, but there are some good ideas there. They're... fun. Sort of."

Will 'hrrph'ed, but clicked on various buttons. "Oh."

"Yeah."

"I wondered why you wanted to play Bolero for me."

"That one's pretty tame. Keep going."

"So that's where the idea for the Marianas Trench stroll came from."

"Our version was nicer."

"Yes, it was. Hey, I would never get so drunk that I wouldn't recognise you in a pub!"

"It gives the author a great excuse to have me take you home and tuck you in. If she ever finishes it. I'm looking forward to that one."

Will sighed. "Okay, you have a point." He stood up. "At least they haven't written one involving whipped cream, strawberries and bondage with satin ribbons." He closed the computer screen, heading for the kitchen.

Bran grinned and ran to catch up. "They may not have," he breathed in his boyfriend's ear, "but give me time."