Bearclaw Valley snake oil

thank you for the lovely thread

They sit there for a while, cheek-to-cheek. Holding Evien like this is a constant reminder that they are both alive and breathing and moving. Blood swells in his ears with the crescendo of unheard music.
In his dreams, he put Evien's hand to his mouth. He had memorised how in the sunlight, his eyes were flushed with more yellow than anything else. How his brown hair was struck into strands of spun gold, wild and tousled. In his dreams, he twisted them gently around his finger.
The warmth is almost overwhelming. He holds the heat in his cupped hands like he's been doing with every emotion recently. He had not known that he could change. He had thought that he would live out the rest of his days hollow and in fear. His dreams were only dreams, until he saw his brother.
It feels wrong to think about his past now. He remembers he had said it doesn't matter. Just you.
The kiss fills his head with something unnameable. Something to get drunk on. He hugs him, all palm against palm, chin against shoulder, fingers worked together— and then Taylor, Kepler, was facing him.

In his dreams, he was something to drown in.