Moving On

[feline_grace]

A continuation from here

Duncan watches Paul rest for some time. The light never truly fades into darkness, merely shifting from something bright into something more subdued. His hand stays in Paul's, thumb brushing slow circles into the back of his hand should he twitch in a nightmare. The shadows creep across features Duncan had long ago committed to memory.

The tug he feels is subtle, just behind his ribs, but it is one Duncan recognizes. The dead have need of him, and when the Atreides call, Duncan will always answer. He will see them to their final rest.

"Paul." Gently he shakes his shoulder. He hates to disturb his rest, but he had promised to stay with him, to not leave him alone. "We have work to do."

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[feline_grace]

"And I will love you for as long, my love," Duncan promises. He dips his head to kiss Paul, a lingering and slow kiss. As he raises his head, there's a spark of mischief in his eyes.

"You know what we need to do now? We need to escape this transport. We can build a life for ourselves outside of this house of the dead." His knuckles graze lightly against his jaw. "Let's escape. Build a new life that no one can control."

[kwisatzhaderach]

The kiss affirms every good thing that inspired Paul to bind himself to Duncan in the first place. It settles over him like a balm. A gentle weight he sighs into so that by the time they're parting, he once again knows how to smile without the edges of his past cutting into his cheeks.

"A life just for us," Paul affirms with a soft gust of breath that blows against Duncan's hand as he turns his face down into the knuckles that caress him. He kisses the ridges of them then follow the lifeline of his wrist so he can press his lips to the mark there.

When he straightens it is once again with the poise instilled upon him at birth. A regal set of his shoulders. The past is the past and they've both closed the door on it knowing full well what took place on the other side. If all that remains is the love and loyalty they felt for each other, then Paul is certain they'll go far.

"In my wanderings, I would see...slivers. Little gaps in the transports floors where they sometimes met the walls. I bet if we followed those gaps, we might come across a bigger one. Perhaps even one that's pliable." Paul thinks briefly of the stable fences on Caladan, how they would keep the horses penned in while they were groomed. With enough force, those boards could surely be pried off. Perhaps these parts of the transport were no different.