Luke awoke to the sounds of motion in the room and then the feeling of someone sitting down at the foot of the bed he was laying in. He just lay there a moment, taking in the sounds of clothing being gathered and letting the memories of last night filter into his head.
He had finally convinced Asch to take a short break and sneak off with him again, with the promise to make it very worthwhile. They had a strained sort of relationship, and had done this a few times before, but Luke wanted more than just fucking and Asch seemed afraid to admit some kind of emotional attachment, even if it was obvious that he had one.
Not that Luke would let Asch hear him say as much, seeing as he still valued his life. He thought that Asch would probably have no issue with trying to beat him up for insinuating that he was afraid of anything to do with Luke. He was unbearably cute when he got all flustered and defensive, but Luke didn't feel like taking chances at the moment.
But that was about last night, not this morning, and Asch was trying to sneak off before he woke up again. Luke was having none of that.
"I don't care if you have a meeting, and I don't see why you do either. You don't even care about the Oracle Knights anymore," he said without sitting up.
If he had sat up to see, he was sure he would see Asch's back stiffen, and his face twitch into something resembling a 'caught with his hand in the cookie jar' expression. The sound of clothing dropping to the bed and a slight motion of the bed followed by a sigh confirmed his suspicions. Guilty as charged.
"You know I have to keep this up as long as I can, inside information is valuable."
"I know, but so early? Why are all the meetings at ungodly hours?"
"They're whenever everyone's free. And they all know I always arrive first, so coming late even just once would arouse suspicion."
"Well, you could at least say goodbye to me or something."
"You always complain when I wake you early."
"Doesn't mean I want you to just sneak off when I'm sleeping." Luke sat up so he could deliver the line while staring Asch straight in the face.
And there was the guilty look, as if Asch couldn't stand to hear Luke put into words what he was trying to do. Serves him right, Luke thought. It should occur to him that if he feels this guilty about doing it, maybe he shouldn't be doing it in the first place.
Luke let out his breath when it became apparent that Asch wasn't going to say anything further.
"Well, no way are you getting dressed and leaving me here alone in bed."
"I have to go. We've already been over this." Asch's voice was beginning to dip into the dangerously low range.
So Luke crawled down to the foot of the bed, grabbing a sock on his way.
"Foot," he demanded when he reached Asch.
"What?" Asch asked, bewilderment wiping away the traces of frustration.
Luke saw that this was going nowhere, so he just grabbed Asch's foot and started putting the sock on it.
"You're not gonna just leave me here alone in bed, so I'm gonna dress you and see you off properly," he explained patiently while expertly rolling the sock up Asch's leg, stopping occasionally to check for folds or wrinkles. When finished to his satisfaction, he looked up and grinned brightly at Asch.
"I don't have time for this."
"Yes, you do. At least this way I'm not 'whining and bitching' at you to stay. Unless you want a repeat of what happened last time I woke up while you were sneaking out…"
Asch turned away and didn't say anything. Luke took that as a yes, and hummed his approval of Asch coming to his senses while digging out the other sock from the bed sheets.
This time Asch offered his foot, however reluctantly, before Luke had to ask for it, which Luke considered good progress. He took a moment to trace along the bottom of Asch's foot and whisper 'Mine.' before putting the sock on. There were only so many people Asch'd allow to express possession over him, and the exhilaration, the thrill Luke got from it each time never faded.
Asch looked to be trying and failing to suppress a shiver, but still refused to say anything. Asch's feet were extraordinarily sensitive, so Luke knew he couldn't do much more there, else they wouldn't be leaving the room for a long while.
"Arms up," Luke whispered into Asch's ear from where he sat behind Asch. Asch turned and opened his mouth, most likely to protest this 'degrading treatment', but Luke merely cocked an eyebrow in amusement and Asch remembered that he wasn't talking to Luke right now.
He put his arms out in front of himself just to be difficult, which meant Luke had to lean forward, flush against his back, to get the undershirt over his hands and then head. Luke traced the veins down Asch's arms while smoothing the wrinkles out of the sleeves.
Asch smirked at him when he finished, deigning to break his impromptu vow of silence to voice his amusement.
"Forgetting something?" he asked, holding up one of his past-elbow length gloves. Luke scowled at him when he realized that they'd be impossible to put on with the shirt in place. He didn't even bother asking Asch to move, but just grabbed his arms and held them over his head while peeling the shirt off again, folding it neatly, setting it on the bed, and then snatching the glove from Asch.
Asch held out his arm in what would have likely been an entirely too dainty way, if it weren't for the smirk of absolute superiority he whore while doing so.
"You'd think that by now you would've had enough practice taking it all off to know the order that it goes back on in."
"Shut up."
"You didn't seem very happy when I was being quiet."
"At least you weren't being insufferable then."
Luke rolled the sleeve of the glove up all the way down to the wrist before putting it onto Asch's hand. Asch didn't quite hide the amused smile, likely from the thought of Luke actually not just trying to cram his hand down the entire length. Luke smirked back; it wasn't for nothing that he had watched Asch dressing before. Some details just stuck better than others.
Luke took his sweet time rolling the glove up the length of Asch's arm. By the time he was done, the arrogant smirk was gone in favor of Asch just trying to keep a calm expression period. Before moving to the put the other glove on, he grabbed Asch's uncovered hand and raised it to his mouth.
He traced down the back of each finger with his lips, then turned the hand over and mouthed 'Mine.' into the palm. Satasfied, he put the glove on and hid the hand from sight.
The shirt went back on without a hitch, followed by the pants. Sure, the pants were a bit hard to get on over the socks, but Luke absolutely refused to take off another piece of clothing right now. He was very pleased with himself when he got the zipper done up without triggering any further delays.
Asch's armor was some kind of soft leather, probably because he wasn't expecting to do any heavy-duty fighting today. The armor itself went on easily enough, but he had to find Asch's hands and guide them to each of the belts and buckles to get them all done up. It amazed him that Asch had the dexterity to do so while already wearing gloves.
By this point Asch had calmed into merely smiling bemusedly and going along with the whole process. He wasn't overtly offering any help, but he wasn't covertly putting up any resistance either. Luke smiled approvingly at him a moment before moving on to the next piece.
Luke had to examine the boots for a minute before he discovered the zipper hidden in the inseam. There was no way he could have gotten them on without that little discovery, nearly invisible even with his very close examination. He put them on Asch's feet one after the other, then got out of bed and crouched down on the floor to zip them up. He pulled up the zipper in a slow, steady motion while trailing his fingers along on the inside of the zipper-seam, brushing lightly against Asch's skin.
Asch shivered again, not even bothering to try and hide it this time. Luke resisted his own shiver at the feeling of Asch trembling beside him, because of him. He couldn't let himself be distracted, not this close to the goal.
The tabard and collar were all that was left. Both Asch and Luke had to stand up for those last bits.
The tabard was heavier than it looked, and Asch helped him position it over his shoulders properly before letting Luke lower it down and fasten it. Luke gently pulled Asch's hair out from under it, sparing a moment to run his hands through the entire length once before moving on.
Luke grabbed the collar piece off the bed, turned to face Asch, and looped it loosely around the back of Asch's neck before kissing his throat and growling 'Mine.' into the skin there. Then he fastened the collar, finishing the sealing away of all the parts of Asch that he only let Luke see. A quick once over showed no wrinkles and no patches of skin exposed below his face.
Asch's face had gone from dreamy and content to severe and calculating with the click of the final fastening on the collar. All the quiet, private emotions were locked away again. He was internally and externally composed and prepared to face the world.
They stood facing each other in quiet contemplation for a few moments, Luke's hand still on his neck.
"That was," Asch began, then shifted gears when he failed to come up with words, "You can do that again sometime."
"Good. But to get you into your clothing, I have to first get you out of it. Who knows when the next opportunity will-"
"You are staying right here. I am coming straight back from this meeting, and screw any other meetings they want me at today."
Luke faked an affronted look at Asch presuming to order him around, but it quickly melted away. Even if he hadn't intendend this morning to bring about that result, it was pretty much what he had been angling at the whole time yesterday, so he could be gracious and let Asch keep his illusion of authority.
"I can think of something else I'd much rather you be screwing," he said matter-of-factly.
Asch reached up and covered Luke's hand with his own gloved hand, resting it there a few seconds longer than absolutely necessary before pulling Luke's hand away. Luke knew that was as good as a smile and agreement when Asch was in formal outer-world mode, so he smiled gently and let his hand drop.
Asch moved to the door, then stopped with his hand on the knob and turned to look at Luke as if the thought had just occurred to him.
"You're a possessive little bugger, you know that?"
"Yep!" Luke nodded enthusiastically and smiled cheekily at him.
Asch shook his head fondly and left, thinking that this absurd relationship nonsense might not be so bad after all.