Some lingering surreal quality to this entanglement. They are here and it is not a dream. They are here and can do as they like. (The latter maybe sticking in Louis' head more than Daniel's, all in all.) Daniel touches him and Louis arches into every single place he puts his hands, diminishes nothing about his reactions. All of him, laid out for Daniel as they move together, as Louis tightens his grip to hear Daniel's breath hitch.

"Could roll us over," Louis says, watching Daniel's face. Aware of how enmeshed their minds are, how maybe Daniel can see Louis' proposal even before Louis speaks it aloud. "Lay back for me, and let me have you."

A possibility. Some aspects of the picture in Louis' mind hooked back to Dubai, a different place, different time. Daniel's mortality, the pain in his body, things Louis had accounted for when he'd imagined—

A flicker of complicated, bitter feeling. He'd imagined. He half-remembers that he had.