Hall really was rather handsome. It hadn’t quite struck him at first, in the unfamiliarity of looking at a man of colour. He’d noticed brown skin, broad nose, not much more. After three hours of surreptitious glances and casually exchanged words, though, he was seeing deep-set dark brown eyes with creases that suggested Hall laughed a lot, and a bottom lip that dipped in the middle to devastating effect when he smiled. Crispin had always had a weakness for smiles.

“Well, I mean… the thing is…” Crispin took a step forward. “You said we’d be magnificent, you and me. I wondered if you’d like to see if you were right.”
Ned didn’t move, didn’t smile, but the skin round his eyes creased, giving them all the welcome Crispin needed to see. “Pretty sure I didn’t say that, Freckles.”
“Yes, you did. In the house.”
“I said we’d be all right. I said I couldn’t promise magnificent.”
Crispin found he was smiling now. “No, that’s right. And you said you couldn’t promise magic either, before. Now I think of it, I’m not sure why I bothered coming.”
“Low expectations.” Ned took a step forward, lips curving, and then Crispin was in his arms, kissing him, tasting dust on his mouth and feeling it under his fingers.