Steven Grant / Marc Spector (Fandom High)

Steven and Llewellyn had gone for a hike on Hicks Lake Loop, taking longer than the suggested time since they'd brought a picnic with them to enjoy along the way.

Once done, they headed back to their hotel room. There Steven had arranged for a fruit platter and flowers to be waiting.

Yes, their anniversary had been yesterday. But that didn't mean they were limited to celebrating on that day. After all, here they were taking the entire weekend.

"I rather enjoyed that," Steven said as they came into the room. "Our hike."

He figured Llewellyn could notice the gifts in his own time.

[for the beau]

The weather was warm and sunny. Combine that with the cherry blossoms being at their peak and Steven and Llewellyn were not remotely the only people out and about.

Still, the crowd wasn't such that it was impossible to move. And the flowers were as beautiful as the weather had turned out to be. Llewellyn was called upon to make sure Steven didn't trip as he got distracted with taking photos, much as Steven needed to be sure Llewellyn didn't get distracted when getting near traffic.

They finally decided to stop for lunch. After some searching they were able to find a spot where they could spread their blanket out and unpack their picnic. They'd worked together, anticipating building up an appetite, and thus had chickpea salad sandwiches, potato salad, lightly pickled cucumbers, fruit skewers, and brownies. Individually Steven had made iced tea for them both, and Llewellyn had made crisps.

Once their food was placed on the blanket between them, Steven looked it over and asked, "Do you think it's enough?"

He was entirely serious.

[for the beau]

Their time in Cairo had involved Steven leading Llewellyn going through every museum and site they were allowed to get into (and, thanks to Layla, a few that technically they were not). Though Steven and Llewellyn being Steven and Llewellyn meant that enjoying as much of the local food and wine as possible did not get forgotten. ( There were also these various handwaved details )

On Wednesday Steven and Llewellyn left Cairo for the second half of their holiday, which was to let Llewellyn soak up as much beach and sunshine as possible in Alexandria, which was thankfully having a warm spell the entire time they were there. Funny how that worked out. Ahem.

They checked in to their hotel room, at which point Llewellyn immediately changed and went outside to sun himself like a lizard in their private garden.

Steven, of course, had immediately followed to make sure Llewellyn was appropriately covered in sunscreen. ( Then there was the rest of the day. And the night. And, er, well... )

Which was why Steven was now curled up on one of the lounge chairs outside wearing only pajama pants and clutching the matching shirt to his chest. Fast asleep.

[for the beau]

Llewellyn had found a delicious looking restaurant for them, so Wednesday date night involved heading out for the evening.

It wasn't a formal event by any means, but Steven had still fussed over what he was wearing, ultimately settling on a nice blue button down shirt and darker blue slacks. They were as crisp as anything Steven ever wore could be, which was to say nicely ironed before he put them on and, well, here we are.

Steven put his glasses on as he sat down so he could read the menu. "Things to share, do you think?"

[for the beau]

It was Llewellyn's birthday, which first and foremost meant Steven was taking the day off.

Well, technically the first thing was that a bottle was left out on the kitchen counter for Llewellyn to find which simply bore a note of "M" on it.

But after that was taking the day off so that Steven and Llewellyn could portal over to Steven and Marc's (and Llewellyn's now, technically) home universe for a couple of days of celebrating.

Steven and Llewellyn had checked in to their room which was complete with a welcome snack basket, but also a bouquet of red roses, a bottle of champagne, and chocolate dipped strawberries.

They then immediately headed out to go whale watching, and were lucky enough to leave with ample sightings and pictures to remember them by.

After going to their room to wash up and change - Steven into his light linen suit, just for the occasion - they then traveled to the fairgrounds where a food truck festival was being held. It was here that there would be birthday dinner. Or at least traveling from truck to truck and probably sampling every single vegan option they could find, which turned out to be many.

"Where would you like to start?" Steven asked Llewellyn.

[for the birthday beau. NFB due to distance]

It wasn't that Marc had planned or anticipated or anything. It was just that there'd been some amount of time (don't ask him to specify how much, he didn't keep track of these things) and that had left him with the ability to idly ponder his options.

For instance, he could rent a bike but that required returning it in something like good condition. He could buy a bike but then he'd have to remember to take care of it.

Or he could borrow one. From someone who maybe didn't deserve nice things. Win/win, right?

Well maybe not for the guy the bike belonged to but again: didn't deserve nice things. Marc wasn't losing sleep over it.

Which was why come Tuesday evening, after running some errands (so to speak), Marc was in the parking lot by the causeway, dressed in his usual dark on dark, while leaning up against a new to him bike.

A bike which he may or may not have unconsciously gravitated towards because of the color scheme, regardless of the other reasons he'd picked it.

(The fact that it was not a Harley Davidson was, in fact, very much on purpose. Even Marc could guess she was probably sick of those jokes.)

On the back seat there was a candy apple red helmet. That one he had bought because he wasn't taking a chance on safety. If Harley did that was her business, but he wanted the option there for her if she wanted it.

No, he wasn't wearing one and didn't intend to. When you couldn't stay dead you didn't worry about these kinds of things.

Now all he needed was the person who'd said she'd meet him here.

[for the wild card, NFB due to distance]

True to his word, once Marc had gotten Llewellyn safely back to their hotel room he'd given the body to Steven and hid nothing of what he knew about what had gone on. Llewellyn for his part hadn't felt up to talking about it, so Steven focused instead on helping Llewellyn get bundled into bed for as much rest and comfort as he needed.

Come morning Steven only got out of bed long enough to take care of room service. He ordered them some of the lovely in house teas based on their preferences from earlier in the week. For the main there was vegan waffles served with cinnamon and sugar and tofu scrambles with mushrooms. Steven also asked for a selection of fruits and pastries since those could be nibbled on during the day as needed.

When room service arrived, Steven took care of it and left it in the main area of their suite while he went to check on Llewellyn. He spoke softly when he entered the bedroom, in case Llewellyn had fallen asleep again. "Love? You awake?"

[for the beau, NFB due to distance]

It had been a quiet morning, which Steven had appreciated. Late lie in. Room service breakfast that was so late it was almost lunch. Nothing on the schedule which required them to be anywhere.

Which was good. Because it meant that Steven wasn't currently ruining any plans. If anything, it was ideal. Being home would have meant being around people he knew and spending the day keenly aware he'd need to get himself together enough to go to work tomorrow. Being on the trip with everyone would have meant having to retreat so as not to ruin everyone else's fun time.

Here it was just him and Llewellyn in a private place where they didn't need to worry about anything but themselves.

Of course that just was a little hard. Steven wouldn't have minded having Marc about. And he could be, Steven knew, if he asked. Marc wouldn't deny him that. But by the same token Steven wouldn't ask. He knew Marc needed to be as far away from things as possible today, so Steven wouldn't reach for him unless it was an emergency.

Instead Steven was now sitting on the edge of the pool outside of their room, dressed in a swimsuit and sunglasses, and letting his feet dangle into the water. Just... thinking.

[for the beau, nfb due to distance, content warning for discussion of parent death]

Steven and Llewellyn had made plans to dress up and dress up they did. For a factor of "dressing up" which meant the two of them were wearing suits. Not an unusual circumstance for Llewellyn. Slightly unusual for Steven as he tended to do it only on special occasions. But what was a romantic date if not a special occasion?

Steven for his part was in a dark blue suit with the tie and pocket square Llewellyn had given him. Given the events of the day, he had also brought a large umbrella to help protect the both of them from any errant snowflakes that might try to stain them or their clothing before they made it to the causeway. The results were pretty, no question, but the two of them only had so many suits between them and no point risking the chance the stains wouldn't be gone in the morning.

Anyway, as a Brit of course Steven had a good umbrella, so might as well use it. It now looked like a Jackson Pollock painting but that was pretty in its own way! Bonus, really.

As such there was no issue with them arriving in time for their reservation and getting seated in a booth so that they could enjoy their meal with a certain amount of privacy. Though Steven did stash the umbrella under the table and hoped very hard that any melting snow wasn't going to stain the restaurant's nice carpet.

"Specials sounded good," Steven said, even as he got his glasses on to peruse the menu. "I was thinking the tortellini, maybe?"

[for the beau, nfb due to distance]

Their second day in Lima had been spent touring a winery, which meant that Llewellyn got to be in his element and Steven got to enjoy watching his beau be in his element. Which wasn't to say that Steven didn't take in the tour and try to learn things along the way. But there was still pleasure in watching his beau do something that made him happy.

After a winery there was perhaps a slight extra need for a quiet morning in. But by Saturday evening they were more than ready for the next thing on their itinerary, which was the magic water circuit.

They got there as the sun was setting, which meant enough time to see the water features in the light of day but more than enough time to see them fully lit up and on display.

Luckily the weather was pleasant enough that it was no problem being outdoors and taking loads of photos. Perhaps unluckily Steven did get taken up by his desire to take photos and thus sometimes was in risk of getting too close to some of the fountains. But surely he'd notice that before stepping directly into a stream of water, right?

...right??

[for the beau, nfb due to distance]