𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑘𝑒𝑒𝑝𝑠

on july 7th 2020 bastian bentz leaves los angeles in a hurried rush to get back to london.

sealed with a kiss and a hushed, see you again? andrew drops him off at the airport and drives back to his house in silverlake listening to the playlist made for him. for once the man who loves his solitude feels ever so slightly off without knowing he'll have another person to look forward to. there was a certain fresh excitement waking up and not knowing where the day would take him. a coy earnestness he doesn't even think he's ever really experienced before. like he's a teenager again chasing after a feeling he doesn't want to stop - and this is just trip one.

he tells himself, i'm in trouble.

is he ever.

before getting out of the car he spots something and leans over to grab it. seems like in all the rush to get to the airport something fell out of bastian's bag: a book likely meant to be read on the plane. he sits back in his seat, mindlessly flipping through the pages. getting up, he heads into the house and places the book on one of the side tables in the living room. until he sees bastian again.

no, forget about just feeling it. it will happen, no matter what. this is too special not to.

he knew it then, he knows it now.

over the last few years andrew fiske and bastian bentz have been through so much. they started out with a connection that turned into bonded emotions. from being on the edge of uncertainty to falling so deeply in love that their lives now intertwine and lean on each other for comfort, it tells a story of never giving up on the one you believe in, the one that makes you believe at all.

andrew is playing for keeps.

joshua tree

in the heat of the moment they knock over a plant. a seemingly meaningless, helpless little plant. andrew doesn't pay any mind to it but bastian rushes over and very seriously sytarts brushing all the soil together to salvage the thing. andrew watches as he does so and can't help but grin as bastian - ever so put together bastian - is niw hunched over and giving him a ramble about a house plant. he heads over to help him clean up and they place it back on the side table.

andrew heads back to joshua tree a few weeks later, needing a respite. as he wanders around the home it just doesn't feel the same. not without bastian. he stays there for the weekend and when he heads back to los angeles on sunday he's also got the plant on the passenger side seat.

seoul south korea

he might not realize how impactful the moment is, through the goddamn bathroom door and all, but he knows it is something big.

after the back and forths, the confession of feelings, the ups and downs, bastian admits his genuine feelings out loud.

"together."

little do they both know it's the beginning of a whole new life together.

once they leave the hotel the concierge asks for the electronic keys and andrew looks confused, checking the little holder he just handed. "they're not in there?" that's so odd. i could've sworn i put them there." he pats down his chest, his pockets, looks through his bag but then the concierge quickly waves it off. "no worries, sir. we've got plenty of others and each one gets deactivated after every guest stay, of course. have a wonderful rest of your time!"

andrew walks off to rejoin bastian, well aware that those same keys are very much in his pocket. he later also finds the ticket to the amusement park and keeps it as well, placing it into a small box. many more hotel key cards join in in the coming months.

los angeles, ca

a very, very important letter has been put in the box. the rest follow.

australia

a meticulous, plentiful amount of time has been spent researching, going to shops, inquiring, learning about the art of shibari. the more he knows, the more he enjoys. sure - he's not planning on going too wild the first time out but he wants to leave an impression. he wants bastian to burn for him, to really feel the mix of pain and pleasure and allow it all to combine. he wants to be the source of that, to make bastian bend at his will and see how much he cares for him. needs him. wants to please him.

hell, he even finds himself on a subreddit under the username newkinkster84 to ask questions. he keeps the rope in the box and the memory of bastian tied up lives very happily in his mind, starting a whir of new thoughts to go forward to.

in the coming weeks, months, he builds on this adding certain handcuffs, blindfolds and even the very end of a candle used for sensation play.

various

it starts with the tattoo shop where andrew asks bastian to tattoo the compass on him.

now he wishes he would've started the collection earlier but this will do. from here on out, he knows to take a business card from every tattoo shop they visit. there are a lot of new ones, and the ones that they revist still mean that he'll take the business card but on the back he writes the date and tattoos gotten. they go in the box.

long distance was never always the largest distance because of their need to see each other.

from the moment bastian touched down in los angeles, they became inseperable. work duties and emotional turnovers aside, the times spent boarding planes was usually together. hawaii, greece, france, california and london, so many more galore. there's many, many boarding passes to show for their travels and in the case that they use electronic boarding passes he carves out time to take a screen capture and then print it out.

they go in... the box is too small now so he upgrades to a bigger one. it goes back into his area of the closet though even that is getting murky with their clothes mixing and meshing together.