 across Napoleon’s back to find any remaining invisible slivers, mindful so as not to drive them any deeper.
When he is done, he lays his palm flat between the protrusion of the shoulder blades.
Illya places a fingertip lightly against the largest of the red marks instead of admitting guilt. Then he lays back down. He thinks that he would have liked to put his lips against the marred skin, but that it would not have been allowed now that they are no longer having sex.
A more severe transgression, in some ways, than what they just did.
Napoleon looks at him, amusement remaining on his lips. And Illya thinks of all the words he knows – in several languages – to describe a man such as he now knows Napoleon to be. He had thought of them earlier, looking down at him on the bathroom floor, but had thought them inaccurate then.
And yet they still feel as ill-fitting.
Another word appears in his mind, unbidden. He shakes it away, firmly. The other words, for all their harshness, seem easier to handle than that one, and so he returns to them.
Decides to try out the one that did not suit Napoleon on himself.
“I am a homosexual, then,” he says.
He flinches because his voice sounds horribly loud saying those words.
The smile falls from Napoleon’s face. He finds himself having the thought that Napoleon will surely flee his presence now, now that he has been made aware of his perversion. It is irrational, Illya is aware, because obviously Napoleon does already know; he has only just finished indulging him in it. But Illya cannot seem to shake it.
The silence is like waiting for the hangman’s ax.
Napoleon gets up on his elbows again and peers down at him.
“I suppose you might be,” he allows, finally.
Illya does not know what to do with this answer.

Napoleon shrugs, the movement careful.
Illya agrees. But there are many ugly words that can describe him with accuracy.
Napoleon keeps watching him for several long moments. Then sigh heavily.
“Is this where your famous Soviet morals finally catch up with you?” he wonders.
Illya frowns at him.
“Do I need to dive for that gun on the floor?” he elaborates with a nod in the direction of the discarded weapon.
Illya does not think it is a particularly good elaboration, because he still does not understand.
Napoleon collapses back into the bed, this time rolled over so that he is on his back.
Illya does not understand what has made him so upset.
Illya looks at him. At his tousled hair, the scrapes of red along his jaw, his swollen lips.
Napoleon's eyes are dark when they turn to him. The gun might be on the floor, but the tired lines the American had recited had been truth: Illya has brought the consequences down upon himself. Better Napoleon, and that he does it cleanly, than someone else. The gun might be the kindness.
He does not want to end up like his father.
Suddenly Napoleon shifts, rolls to his side and his body ends up a mere inch from Illya’s. It is silly that it should matter, after how close they have just been, but Illya feels the skin on his arms rise into bumps. It feels as though his body is trying to reach for Napoleon’s in any way it can when Illya himself refuses to let it.
The touch feels alarming. He does not know what it means, to be touched like this by another man’s hand – it is not sexual and it is not violent, and he has been told that there are no other alternatives.
Illya can see Napoleon waiting, holding himself still above him. He does not know what he waits for.
After a few seconds, he gives up. Withdraws with a familiar self-deprecating smile on his lips.
He pulls his hand back and his smile has soured.
“Ah, but do you really know that?” Napoleon asks, like Illya has missed something, like he does when he thinks that Illya does not perceive the true depth of a piece of art that they are looking at.
But Illya is looking. Seeing curled hair and blue eyes and lips that he wants to kiss. Is out of his depth but have lost all desire to find his way back to shore; there is nothing he would not give.
Many words, only one fitting – only the one that should not be able to.
Napoleon’s face goes serious in a way that Illya rarely sees it. Then he leans forward and presses his lips against Illya’s.
 And it still feels like a test when Napoleon pulls back, but only the fraction of an inch that is required for him to part his lips, for his tongue to be there and for it to be made wet. It is not like earlier; it is soft and plush and slow. Illya feels like he can hardly breathe.

The possibilities flutter past in Illya’s mind, each too fast to linger on, but all of them seem improbable.
“We have had sex already,” he points out.
That… is more than Illya had dared hope for. And as he looks up at Napoleon’s wary eyes, he suddenly understands. The proverbial ground beneath his feet has gone liquid and the earth itself seems to have been upended, but he understands.
“Yes,” he says then, and reaches out and pulls Napoleon back down.
Napoleon’s surprised sound is squashed between their lips. Illya is not careful enough, always a brute, but Napoleon is not fragile and so he holds him even tighter and kisses even harder.
He sounds annoyed that he does not let him up enough to finish the sentence. That he is not taking him seriously and that he will not listen. But Illya is annoyed that Napoleon still thinks that there is need for words, that he is not taking him seriously.
This was not supposed to have any sex in it.
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Shares of NYSE:GM opened at $38.64 on Friday. General Motors has a 1 year low of $30.33 and a 1 year high of $67.21. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $36.94 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $36.48. The firm has a market capitalization of $54.90 billion, a PE ratio of 6.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.58 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 1.14 and a quick ratio of 0.95.
General Motors (NYSE:GM – Get Rating) (TSE:GMM.U) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 25th. The auto manufacturer reported $2.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.88 by $0.37. General Motors had a return on equity of 14.88% and a net margin of 6.57%. The business had revenue of $41.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $42.05 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.52 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 56.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that General Motors will post 7.09 EPS for the current year.
The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend,