“I wish I could stay with you forever,” Mulligan whispered, before kissing Robert’s shoulder since it was the only part of Robert he could reach without moving.

Robert just hummed.

Mulligan craned his neck to look up at Robert who was staring at the ceiling. “What? You want me to leave?” Mulligan asked, unsure if he meant it as a joke. Robert left him baffled sometimes, difficult to read and stubborn as a mule. So Mulligan had a habit to ride the line between joking and seriousness and let Robert decide which he meant. Especially when it was important. And nothing was more important to Mulligan in that moment than whether or not Robert wanted him to leave.

Robert’s arm tightened around him, holding him tight to his side, which he supposed was an answer. “Don’t be foolish.”

“Then what?”

Robert sighed and shook his head. “I understand that it’s a figure of speech, but it made me think of living forever and how unappealing that sounds.”

Mulligan rolled his eyes. Of course, it wasn’t about Hercules’s very sweet sentiment; it was the idea of immortality he had umbrage with. “Why? Living without the fear of death seems nice. And I like to think that the world will get better over time.”

“Maybe,” Robert said, his arm relaxing so he was no longer holding Mulligan so tight, but instead started to comb his fingers absentmindedly through Mulligan’s hair. “But to be outside of one’s own time seems more like a cruelty.”

“You would change with the time,” Mulligan argued just for the sake of it.

“Possibly but it’d be a struggle, don’t you think? Keeping up with the latest phrasings children use is hard enough over the limited lifetime I’ve had. Can you imagine trying to keep up after two or three hundred years?” Robert said, frowning like the argument mattered. “And that’s before you take into account the death of the ones you love.”

“I suppose. But, if we were both immortal that would be better.” Mulligan kissed his chest to punctuate his point.

“Better yes, but not good. Mortality makes life worth living. And there’s something better for us on the other side, Hercules.“

Mulligan shrugged. “It’s only better if I get to be with you there too.”

Robert finally turned to look at him, his eyes soft before he gave him a kiss. “Quite right.”