He could hardly help that sense of pridethat so managed to find him in those few moments in which they stood before that painted canvas. The pair having managed, at last, to successfully detangle themselves from it without Sebastian so being tackled to the ground once more. Those people having managed to reach the end of the path and the public beach entirely unaware of the activities that had been occurring so close to them. Dorian and Sebastian remaining undiscovered. The Monarch, now that he had found his feet, so at last afforded that chance to appraise and appreciate that very work they had created. There was something distinctly unique to those touches of blue and gold, a pattern they alone would know the secrets off and indeed in that there was something near blissful. Something private and personal and memorable all at once. How glorious a gift it had been! Such a present one they had both shared within and indeed one they could surely keep forever. A ready grin so found its way to the Monarch's lips in the wake of that observation, Dorian promptly announcing that though he was hardly inclined to collaborate with other artists he was perhaps willing to make an exception in this case. His work with Sebastian sufficiently pleasing. Those words nothing short of teasing as he so insisted he would surely work with Sebastian again- even if he hardly knew how they might describe that artwork to others. The vampire seemingly assured they might pass it off for abstract art. Dorian chuckling softly once more.

"I quite think that will work."

He offered that agreement easily, Dorian turning just so as to place that singular, soft kiss upon his husbands cheek. That touch so giving away that ready affection once more before Dorian turned his attention toward that art kit and so attempting to retrieve that plastic footwear from within it. Such slippers, he could hardly deny, were a truly sensible choice and yet they were so horribly....unfashionable in every sense! Dorian assured he had never once owned a pair of shoes near so hideous and yet he so hardly dared risk the integrity of those polished wooden floors of that glorious lodge. The idea of that bath was a distinctly tempting one and one that so required those shoes in turn. That drying paint had become near uncomfortable on his figure and too- the aftermath of that very coupling so tended to result in those other substances that so required cleaning in turn. That pair of slippers was dutiful passed to the vampire as Dorian considered just where that artwork might best be displayed, the Fae hardly against hanging it within their very hall if only to prompt their guests to ask about it. Sebastian too- hardly seeming to object to that idea as that warm simper found Dorian once more, that very look shifted into one of consideration as Sebastian suggested the stretching and hanging of that artwork themselves. The Italian so effortlessly picking up that conversation Sebastian had allowed to trail off.

"...but we are not the sort of people who build things."

That near impish look seemed to find him once more, Dorian hardly above admitting that very truth. Neither of them, after all, was terribly skilled when it came to any sort of home maintenance of building task. Sebastian, he suspected, held at least some knowledge in this area- a knowledge that eclipsed his own and yet neither man was inclined to those DIY projects all the same. Frankly Dorian considered such a thing decidedly.....outside his comfort zone. They could, surely, have Charles see to that very task. That very idea of framing was momentarily forgotten in the wake of the application of those very slippers to his feet, Dorian utterly unable to prevent that look of disdain. The very King and Prince of Italy so adorned in plastic shoes! Ah, but the press would have a field day if they knew! Dorian so affording Sebastian that look of discontent once more before readily informing him he was not to look at him at all less he somehow remember the sight of him in such attire. The vampires snort seeing Dorian's silver gaze find Sebastian's own as the vampire reassured him this was something he would not forget. Dorian's own eyes rolling softly.

"Bastian!"

That protest held no true agitation in any sense, the Fae King's good nature persisting as that chuckle hummed within his throat once more. His husband an entirely impossible creature at times, he was assured of it. Still, his hand reached for the vampires all the same, Dorian content to lead the way inside and toward that bathroom with its near giant luxuriant bath. The very thought of that heated water a distinctly pleasing one and yet the every-curious mind of the Fae King was content to consider perhaps another line of thinking entirely. Dorian content to wonder further off those early years and too those 'firsts' they had spoken off some time early. His very mention of that topic once more resulting in Sebastian's insistence he recalled that conversation, Dorian, this time, content to ask after the very worst 'date' of sorts he had ever taken a woman on within his human years. It was a curious sort of question perhaps and yet they so rarely spoke of their own early years or those childhoods long since passed. He hardly wished to query his husband on any topic that might cause the man any distress, rather, he merely found himself near intrigued off that very person Sebastian had been as a human- before those vampiric years. Dorian not above sharing his own tale of sorts in that moment. One singular afternoon so stark within his memory as by far the worst afternoon he had ever spent with a woman. That decidedly poor performance largely attributed to his own lack of gallantry. Sebastian so presenting him with that near look of horror at his admittance he had abandoned the poor woman to those ants! That simper still upon his own lips as he recalled it, his head shaking slightly at his own lack of valor that day.

"It was by far the most ungentlemanly act of my youth and perhaps my very life. Yet another woman I owe an apology too. I never did find out what became of her, poor girl."

Such words were near mused as he reached for those taps, that water gushing from those waterfalls that lined the walls above the deep-set bath, his hand extended to test that temperature before leaving the water to fill. His gaze turned once more to his husband then if only to reassure him that, faced with ants once more, he would hardly have abandoned Sebastian to them as he had done Catalina. That ready laughter falling from him then at Sebastian's near indignant reply, his gaze continuing to linger upon him as the vampire seemed to consider his own tale. Sebastian assured he did not have a tale to match it and that Dorian's was indeed the worst. The Monarch so offering his own near indignant snort then, that teasing amusement still lingering upon his features all the same.

He could hardly prevent that look of intrigue that persisted in those moments that followed as Sebastian so offered his own story of sorts, one quite unexpected, at least in some fashion. To know that Sebastian had hardly courted so much as he had accompanied those debutantes and society girls was perhaps not surprising at all given all his knew of his husband and his manner with women and yet hear he had all but ignored his very first fiance was indeed surprising. Sebastian, with all his good manners and near infallible ability to be polite, so ignoring a girl! Dorian knew something, perhaps, of that first fiance- though Sebastian so hardly ever spoke of her, nor her brother and the man who had once been his very best of friends. William, Dorian suspected, had thought of Sebastian as decidedly more then his friend or, in the very least, had desired too. The Monarch having met the man but once and fleetingly so. His knowledge of that very relationship so limited to those details Sebastian had offered him. It was a topic they rarely spoke off, after all, it distressed Sebastian so- especially after William had so abandoned him once more and Dorian could so hardly bare to see his husband upset. Sebastian so having rather a habit of brooding over those very events. Dorian, by that notion, often content to avoid such topics and too- a part of the Monarch, one he so rarely admitted to, was almost...relieved, perhaps, that William had disappeared when he had. Dorian rather assured his own affections for Sebastian would surely have come to a head with the Hunter eventually. How very possessive of his husband he could be! Still, such thoughts were cast aside for now, Dorian allowing that simper to find him all the same as his head merely shook.

"Was your father not terribly mad at you for not doing your duty by her? Surely Georgina must have complained to her Father and he to your Father in turn? Was she a very.....how you say.....plain sort of girl?"

It would be in distinctly poor taste to so inquire as to whether or not the girl had been unattractive, Dorian so wording that very query far more tastefully. The Monarch curious perhaps as to whether it was the girls very appearance that Sebastian had perhaps objected too. After all, if he had been un-attracted to her that very courtship would surely have been strained from the start. Those arranged marriages, after all, were far more inclined toward matches of political soundness and social standing then they were given to consider physical appearance in any sense. Many a man and woman so paired with another they often found themselves less then inclined toward. His own mother to Ferdinand a sure example of that. His own hand reached forward then, turning off those taps, the bath thoroughly filled with that heated water, the steam rising temptingly from it as Dorian gestured for his lover to seat himself.

"I will be back in just one moment."

He paused but briefly to make sure those slippers were still in place before stepping from that bathroom to wander back through the bedroom and into the kitchen. The Monarch returning no less the a minute or two later to near dutifully present Sebastian with that bar of chocolate- that warm grin upon his features as he stepped from those slippers to join the man in that bath. Dorian easing himself into that water opposite his lover, his legs coming to rest beside the man's own.

"I could positively hear your stomach growling. Don't forget to drink something as well, Mon Cher. Your body needs these things now. You will feel better."

It was, perhaps, his turn to worry for the vampire as Sebastian so often worried for him. It had been so very long since Sebastian had been truly living, the man entirely prone to forgetting off his bodies needs. Dorian simply unable not to care for the mans wellbeing in every sense. His head so settling back against the rim of that bath then, the water near heavenly. His gaze falling upon his Prince once more.

"I know you do not speak of William and Georgina often and I shan't ask you too but from what little of that story I know I think.....William was too hard on you. He expected things that perhaps could not be. Society was different then- but the past is the past, do not dwell on it to much, love."

A man in love often did foolish things and yet what had William truly expected Sebastian to do? Refuse to marry his sister and risk great insult to their family only to announce some love for William himself and be utterly disowned? Dorian himself distinctly unsure on just what Sebastian had felt for William. His own possessiveness over his husband perhaps hardly inclinging him to ask after the Hunter who had fled and so distressed his husband in the process. Dorian near inclined to dislike the man for that alone. Such thoughts were easily dispelled once more all the same to be replaced by another notion entirely. Dorian perhaps as eager to draw Sebastian's thoughts away from anything that might prompt that brooding as he was to query that very consideration that found his mind now.

"Bastian? I should....like to ask you something else. Something I quite fear in all my life I have never at all asked another being simply because it was not at all safe to do so and because it was not a question even Matteo could answer."

His own features frowned slightly at that simple admittance and the very truth behind it, that smile still upon his lips all the same. After all, he so hardly feared asking after that very thing as he once had within his own time and who better to ask then his own husband! One hand lifted to run his fingers idly across the surface of that water then as he considered those words.

"You are much the same as me, you enjoy both men and women and I wonder, did you always know you fancied men too? That is, did you grow up simply thinking of men as you did women, or did it change as you got older? I was raised in a world where men married women and anything else was considered a sin, a crime against nature itself, people were put to death for even considering relations with the same gender. I only ever saw men with women, I was only ever taught that and yet I cannot remember a time in which I did not recall fancying men as I did women. I quite simply think I was born as such and in all my life I have never asked another if it was the same for them. Do you know, I have been curious of this for over five hundred years!"

How long he had waited to know that answer!

Dorian Aragona