Oliver unlocked the hotel room door and slowly opened it. He could see Elio's excitement, even though he was clearly trying to hide it. Once the gap in the door was wide enough, Elio sprinted through, dropping his bags and hurling himself onto the bed. Oliver dropped to the floor laughing, while trying to take off his backpack so he could join Elio.
"What?" Elio looked at him, confused, chuckling slightly.
"You're no different," Oliver replied after regaining his breath. "4 years on and you still have the same reactions."
"Should I be insulted?" Elio leant back slightly, putting his hand to his chest for sarcastic dramatics.
"Your actions were one of the many reasons I loved you, if anything I'd feel lucky." Oliver smirked.
"Shut the door" Elio said.
"You're really shocked at that?" Oliver tilted his head and furrowed a brow.
"No literally," Elio gestured to the door, "shut the door."
"Ohhh!" Oliver exclaimed, slowly climbing off the bed to close the door. Within a second he was back at the edge of the bed. Elio knelt up in-front of him, took a hold of his shirt in one hand, and pulled him in. Oliver put his hands on Elio's hips. Elio, flustered, coughed slightly.
"Does this make you happy?" Oliver smirked, his eyelids drooping in relaxation, the safe feeling of being with Elio could make him sleep all day. Elio blushed, remembering the first night they'd slept together.
"You're not gonna get another nose bleed on me are you?" He chuckled. "Or throw up again, and then I'd have to take you down to a fountain, and we'd dance in the dark, lit by one streetlight, and then I'd kiss you against a wall" Oliver could see Elio's cheeks get redder and redder.
"Oliver shut up!" Elio exclaimed through his laughter. He buried his face in his hands, but Oliver still didn't let go of his hips. Elio eventually looked up. He could see the tiredness growing on Oliver's face.
"Come on sleepyhead." He pulled Oliver onto the right side of the bed. Oliver felt himself wake up a little.
"Do you remember that time, by the river?" Oliver said softly after a moment.
"Of course I do!" Elio looked at him with an expression that implies that sentence should've ended 'of course I do stupid', but he didn't want to offend Oliver.
"I said something about how we hadn't done anything I'm not proud of, anything I regret."
"Yeah?" Elio questioned, looking back at that heavenly afternoon. Why was he bringing this up now?
"Well, I'd like to clarify." He turned to Elio, and watched him turn to him too. "I don't regret anything we've done, any of it." He smiled and stroked Elio's thigh, pulling it up so his leg was across Oliver's thighs. This forced Elio to move closer, and of course made him flustered.
"I'm happy we've done what we've done" he continued. "And I don't want you to think you should blame yourself or think I didn't like anything. I loved every second I've spent with you, even if it was watching you rant about how much of a dick I was."
He heard Elio let out a laugh, the kind of laugh where you're falling asleep but still want to seem engaged in the conversation.
"Sleepyhead" Oliver whispered, mocking Elio. Elio sat up and laid back down, resting his head on Oliver's chest.
"I love this Oliver" he whispered.
"I love this too" Oliver sighed contently, "goodnight" he said softly.
"Goodnight my love" Elio replied.
My love. My love. My love. The words were racing around Oliver's mind. 4 years passed and he still felt the same happiness when Elio said the word love to him.
