Much has changed, though, since the last time we did this thing!
Mainly: THAT BOOK. It's the elephant in the room every time they're together now, and Henry can only deal with the elephant by ignoring it. Not that it doesn't intrude every now and then. Of course, the fact that Henry has learned about all the things he didn't know—James Vane, Basil—through a book has also had the somewhat detrimental effect of helping him keep it at arm's length, because aestheticization of experience! It's the best coping mechanism!
The problem is that he knows: if he spends much time dwelling on Basil, he will become angry with Dorian, or worse—but the intensity of his continued fondness for Dorian is such that he doesn't want to push him away again, and so he keeps his anger and grief over Basil at a distance; he hasn't allowed it to really sink in. Possibly this constitutes a time-bomb. But it's notable that as much as Dorian can't seem to stay away from Harry, Harry can't really stay away from Dorian either.
He wants to know his future now, but he can't ask Dorian. He'll probably go to the Emperor at some point. At which point there will be a fresh can of worms to open re: his periods of exile and eventual demise.
The other large mammal in the room is Henry's failure, as I noted on plurk, to really grasp what it means for Dorian to be older than he is now. Because his appearance is so unchanged, and because of the way Dorian often shifts into a more youthful mode when he's hanging out with Henry, Henry in turn simply defaults to the way they've always interacted. Because it's easy. He's intelligent enough that he will eventually find his way toward comprehension, I think—it's just ... I'm not sure, going to require a few more shocks to the system (ha ha) or something.
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Mainly: THAT BOOK. It's the elephant in the room every time they're together now, and Henry can only deal with the elephant by ignoring it. Not that it doesn't intrude every now and then. Of course, the fact that Henry has learned about all the things he didn't know—James Vane, Basil—through a book has also had the somewhat detrimental effect of helping him keep it at arm's length, because aestheticization of experience! It's the best coping mechanism!
The problem is that he knows: if he spends much time dwelling on Basil, he will become angry with Dorian, or worse—but the intensity of his continued fondness for Dorian is such that he doesn't want to push him away again, and so he keeps his anger and grief over Basil at a distance; he hasn't allowed it to really sink in. Possibly this constitutes a time-bomb. But it's notable that as much as Dorian can't seem to stay away from Harry, Harry can't really stay away from Dorian either.
He wants to know his future now, but he can't ask Dorian. He'll probably go to the Emperor at some point. At which point there will be a fresh can of worms to open re: his periods of exile and eventual demise.
The other large mammal in the room is Henry's failure, as I noted on plurk, to really grasp what it means for Dorian to be older than he is now. Because his appearance is so unchanged, and because of the way Dorian often shifts into a more youthful mode when he's hanging out with Henry, Henry in turn simply defaults to the way they've always interacted. Because it's easy. He's intelligent enough that he will eventually find his way toward comprehension, I think—it's just ... I'm not sure, going to require a few more shocks to the system (ha ha) or something.