Hey guys - this is the latest (5th) in the 'Warm Horizons' series. Standard disclaimer: they function independently and can be read in any order, but it's recommended to read the original first (if you have some time on your hands). Not much else to say, except this'll be a long one... hold tight!

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xxxxx

The room was not too cold. It was cold outside, definitely. But the room was not too cold. Despite this, when Snow released breath after shaky breath, he visualised it condensing into clouds of ghostly vapour before dissolving into the air around him. His eyes were closed, so he couldn't verify this. He also imagined steam rising from his body, the sweat ascending from him like an aura. As it was, he could definitely feel it trickling down his neck, working its way down into the contour at the centre of his spine. He knew that if he examined himself, he would find the hairs of his arms and legs to be matted down with damp. He continued to inhale and exhale methodically, feeling his heart rate slowly reduce again to normal levels. He felt powerful. He felt good.

'Looks like someone enjoyed himself,' came Hope's voice from below him. Snow could only break into a smile in response: too drained, too euphoric to form any sentences just yet. Hope giggled. 'I love it when I can make you make that face.'

Snow finally opened his eyes and observed his lover. His gorgeous silver hair was ruffled, his ordinarily pale cheeks were flushed, his arms were splayed randomly at his sides, and his own slender body was also glistening with a dew of sweat. He'd never looked better. He leaned down to give him a generous kiss, which Hope accepted welcomingly. He knew this was Hope's way of telling him he was okay – and this was a relief. During sex, whenever Snow started to get particularly aggressive, whenever he started to really enjoy himself (as he had done today), he always worried that it might be at Hope's expense. Mercifully, however, it seemed Hope appreciated (and perhaps even needed) to be dominated and/or treated roughly every now and again.

'Is there anything I can get for you, babe?' Snow asked gently after lifting his head and looking deeply into Hope's eyes.

'No, I'm okay,' he first responded, and then checked himself. 'Actually, a glass of water might be nice… I, uh… don't think I'm capable of walking to get it myself right now.' He smiled bashfully, but Snow felt guilty anyway.

'I'm sorry!' Snow blurted as he scrambled off the bed and to his feet. 'I'll get some water, you wait there, you wait there…'

'Haha, don't be sorry, you big lug,' Hope replied. 'It was worth it. It felt amazing.'

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xxxxx

When Snow returned with a glass of water, he settled on the bed next to his lover and wrapped his arm around him. Together they stared at the ceiling and talked, at tremendous length, about everything they could think of worth talking about. Hope had apparently met up with Yuj again recently, and Snow asked how he was. He never got to see Yuj very often anymore. They should try and arrange a big meet-up again – all the old NORA gang – but it was so hard these days, what with everybody living somewhere different and all being so busy.

When prompted, Snow talked a bit about how his construction work was going – as it happened, he'd been selected personally by the mayor to lead a team to redesign and rebuild Palumpolum's entire 11th sector. It being on the outskirts of the city, it had been one of the last areas on the list to receive official reconstruction. It had chiefly been a residential area, and all of its previous occupiers had been relocated to other parts of the city or provided temporary housing, but the materials and money had finally been made available to get the blocks of residences standing proud again, and looking better than before. Snow had initially been sceptical about his ability to lead such a big team on such a grand project, and had voiced these concerns to the mayor himself – had he only been chosen for his fame from having saved the world two years ago, when there were other better qualified and better experienced people who could have been chosen instead? According to the mayor, these 'better qualified' people would all be working on the project anyway, and half of the challenge of being a good leader was to inspire all of the rest of the team. And when it came to that particular skill, the mayor claimed, he could think of no one better qualified. Feeling honoured, Snow had accepted the job.

Snow asked Hope about his own work at the academy. Since he had been officially inducted onto the board of the Department of Technology, he said, things had been moving at a much faster pace – his 'informal' and 'only-to-satisfy-the-paper-shuffling' apprenticeship had been concluded, and he was finally able to get on with making a real difference. This apparently meant an increase in his workload, however.

'That's actually what I was doing when you got back to the apartment,' Hope explained.

'Oh right, yeah. I remember you sitting at a desk.' Snow recalled the image vaguely.

'That's right. Doing some very important work.'

'I'm sure.'

'That I wasn't supposed to be interrupted from.'

'Mhmm.'

Hope sighed with an annoyance that Snow was convinced was exaggerated. 'I've been meaning to talk to you about this.' Hope also adopted a tone in his voice that Snow had come to be familiar with – it was the 'this is important, ignore me at your own peril' kind of tone that never signalled anything good.

'Oh yes?' he asked, keeping his eyes shut and refusing to look properly at Hope, if only to tease him. He felt Hope shift on the mattress next to him, apparently so as to sit up. He could feel his eyes burning holes into his face.

'Yes. Now obviously, I'm not saying the sex we have isn't great. Because it is. But I have noticed that I've been getting considerably less done since the two of us became an item…'

'Oh really.' Snow still wouldn't open his eyes.

'That's right. It didn't matter so much before, when I didn't really have any official title… but now I've got all this important stuff to do… well. Do you realise we have sex on average ten times a week?'

Snow finally opened his eyes in surprise, and looked at Hope. He cocked his eyebrow in amusement. 'Seriously? You've been keeping count?'

'And that tends to eat up a lot of time,' Hope continued, ignoring him. 'I just feel that with all of these new obligations and stuff, I should probably be a bit more… responsible. A bit more organised.'

'Ah. Perhaps it would help if we timetabled it then,' Snow said facetiously, and reached for a diary by the side of the bed. He flipped through the pages dramatically and shook his head, trying not to break character and crack into a grin as he saw Hope huff and cross his arms in his peripheral vision. 'Oh dear, oh dear, let me see… I can schedule you in for a quickie on Monday 17th, but I've only got fifteen minutes for you I'm afraid. If I pushed back lunch with Gadot next Wednesday I might be able to find ten minutes or so for you to sit on my face…'

'Stop being an idiot,' Hope protested and snatched the book from him. His countenance now seemed slightly more resigned. 'I'm just saying, you know… stuff like tonight, when you came in and had had a stressful day… obviously I care about you. And I want to help you feel good. But… I'm very busy lately, I'm sorry. I'll always have time for you. But there's other stuff I need to get done as well. Does that sound fair?'

Snow almost agreed. He felt guilty, and was fully prepared to concede. He had already opened his mouth to apologise when a thought struck him. 'Wait a minute. Stuff like tonight… when I came home and really wanted sex… that's normally the exception!'

Hope seemed confused by his sudden excitement. 'What do you mean?'

'I'm totally willing to sacrifice a bit of sex so you can get your work done and stuff… but pinning this on me… that's not completely fair! When we have sex… it's usually you who's the one that starts it!'

'What? No I don't.'

'You so do,' Snow continued, grinning happily, maybe more than he should have been doing, because he was certain he was right for a change. 'Of the two of us, you're definitely the horny one.'

'I'm so not. You're the horny one.'

'Oh, I thought I was. I always thought I was. But then I met you. I mean, do you remember that night near the beginning of our relationship where we did it five times in one night? People kept asking me why I was so sore the next day. And who was the one who kept asking for more…?'

'It wasn't like that!' Hope huffed, losing his cool. 'It wasn't that I needed more, it was more like… I could tell that you wanted more. And obviously I wanted you to be happy, so… so I thought I would take one for the team, so to speak.' He rolled his eyes upward in remembrance. 'Or take five for the team.'

'It absolutely was not like that, babe.'

'It absolutely was.'

'Fine.' Snow jumped to his feet and spread his arms wide like a prophet; something he was aware he always did when he had a good idea. 'Let's make a bet.'

'…A bet?'

'You said you needed some time to catch up on your academy work. How about we just… don't have sex? And we see who can last the longest.'

'Whoa, hold on there,' Hope objected. 'I never said we should stop having sex altogether…'

'But this'll settle it. Which one of us needs it the most? If you're right, and I'm the horny one out of the two of us, then you've got nothing to worry about… You'll have time to do some studying, and then I'll cave, and you'll win. It's only if you think you can't last as long without sex as I can that you have anything to worry about…'

'It's not that,' said Hope, who looked like he was trying not to sound evasive but was failing. 'I'm just not sure it would be worth proving, is all. I mean, I can't deny the sex is still good. And even if I could last ages without it, I'd probably be pretty frustrated after a few days.'

'Not me,' Snow replied confidently. 'I'd be fine.'

'No you wouldn't, and you know it,' Hope countered. He was probably right there, but he didn't need to let him in on that. Instead, he kept staring at Hope stubbornly, trying to bait him into rising to the challenge.

'Ugh, fine,' Hope conceded, and rose from the bed. 'If this is what it'll take to prove to you how much of a horny bastard you are. You just have to promise that when you finally give in you're not so aggressive that you break me in half.' He rubbed his side sympathetically as he headed for the door. He paused in the doorframe, and asked: 'So what does the winner get?'

Snow thought for a moment. 'If I cave first, I'll do all the housework for a week,' Snow boasted. 'Nah, make it a month.'

'Fine, if you're so confident,' Hope remarked. 'I don't feel like that being the same forfeit for me, though. You know, on the off-chance that I do lose. Which I won't.'

'Ok,' Snow pondered. 'If you lose… you have to…' Ah. He had the perfect idea. 'You have to get rid of that smelly body wash thing that you have. And the fragrance that came with it.' Hope had received an expensive and extremely flowery gift set from an academy colleague during a gift exchange at the end of the last year. Hope claimed to like it, but Snow had found the scent to be somewhat overpowering. It made him sneeze. But Hope always insisted on wearing it at formal occasions, and had even threatened to buy some more when it ran out. 'I'll buy you something different if you want, but you have to promise to never use it again.'

Hope pouted. 'I think it smells very nice. Perhaps you're just not sophisticated enough to appreciate it, Snow… but fine. If I lose – which, again, I won't – I'll get rid of it.' And he walked away without awaiting a response.

Snow watched him carefully as he left for the bathroom. Nah. This was going to be easy.