Title: Where the wild things are
Pairing: Josef/Mick
Rating: Low Level NC17
Warnings: Mild blood play
Disclaimer: All publicly recognisable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Summary: The one night of the year that's long enough for Mick to hide his emotions in is the winter solstice.
Darkness fell early this time of year, the nights slowly growing longer. It was a time of shadows, a time for the wild things that hid beneath them. Mick settled into Josef's arms, one leg draped casually across Josef's thigh, their bodies both damp with a heady mixture of semen and sweat. Mick could still taste Josef's blood in his mouth. He traced a casual finger over the area he'd bitten into, a small spot, now healed, just above Josef's collar bone.
He'd known the man almost three decades running, and still he appeared as a mystery wrapped in an enigma.
"So how did you celebrate the winter solstice back in your day?" Mick asked then, suddenly curious to know more about Josef's past. Or maybe he just didn't want Josef dashing off into the night, not when they had so many shadows to hide in.
"Oh, you know, just the usual," Josef pretended to trail a lackadaisical hand through the air, "Dancing around bonfires, virgin sacrifices, slaughtering the ritual goat."
"Yeah, very funny," Mick pursed his lips and managed to look genuinely frustrated for a moment. He should have known better than to expect a straightforward answer from Josef Kostan, master of all that was sarcastic and cynical.
Mick's expression didn't go unnoticed. Josef softened his demeanour, and stroked an apologetic hand over Mick's hair.
"I'm sorry, I didn't realise you were actually being serious. Christianity," Josef replied with an affirming nod, "Christianity was big in the 17th century. We spent a lot of time on our knees in church."
"What about after you became a vampire?"
Mick probed further, wanting to know more, wanting Josef to stay. Talk or fuck, this was the one night of the year when both options were on the menu.
"Ah," Josef arched a singular eyebrow, and offered Mick a salacious smile. "After I became a vampire, let's just say I still spent a lot of time on my knees, I was just worshipping at a different altar."
Josef trailed a hand along Mick's torso, feeling the muscles there as they rippled under his touch.
"I thought you would have had people kneeling for you by then," Mick raised a satirical eyebrow of his own then, arching upwards when Josef's hand quested lower, his fingers tightening around the base of Mick's cock.
"Well that too," Josef chortled with wry amusement, as he revelled in not so long forgotten memories. And then he was lowering his head, and teasing his tongue along the length of Mick's shaft.
"You never really talk about yourself; you know that, don't you?" Mick somehow managed to get those words out as Josef's ministrations became more precise.
"I talk about myself all the time, Mick," Josef raised his head briefly, and grinned up at Mick. "You've sat through enough 'let's talk about me' sessions by now to know that."
"You talk about being a vampire, you talk about the money you make, but you don't ever talk about you." Mick reaches down and grips the sides of Josef's face then, pulling him back up towards his waiting lips. "Call it fascination if you want, but I want to know what's behind that mask you wear. You've raised cynicism to an art form; you can't tell me that's not a cover for something."
"When you get to be my age, Mick, you'll find a suit of armour comes in handy." Josef refused to elaborate further, but Mick caught the look in his eyes. A momentary expression of weariness, sorrow for the centuries past, the people he'd lost.
"Hey, look man I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…" Suddenly Mick was filled with remorse.
"What, Mick? Didn't mean to think up some bullshit conversation topic to get me to stay the night? You could have just asked, or, you know, assumed. Seeing as this is the only night we ever spend together, and I've never run out on you before." Josef shifted tact then, purring seductively in Mick's ear, his breath fanning hot against the side of Mick's face, "I'm not an idiot, Mick; I made your measure a long time ago. This is the longest night of the year, all those dark corners and shadows for you to hide in. You want to know where the wild things are? 'Cause I can show you."
Josef pressed closer, allowing his fangs to descend, all cadaverous visage and pale blue eyes red ringed with bruises. He waited for Mick to follow suit, waited for Mick's inner vampire to be drawn out.
"They're right here, Mick, they're always here, inside us, and one night out of the whole year isn't going to make any difference."
"It's not the vampire I'm afraid of, Josef," Mick gave an involuntary shiver as Josef scraped a razor sharp tooth across his chest, smearing the blood he'd drawn over Mick's face and neck. Before cleaning up his artistry with slow, lapping strokes.
"You mean this doesn't bother you?" Josef pressed his lips against Mick's own, kissed him, hard, transferring the coppery taste of blood onto Mick's tongue.
Mick shook his head, and swallowed a lump of rising nerves. "It's not that."
"Then what, Mick?" In one practised move, Josef shifted their positions. Mick was on top of him now. Josef drew his arms around Mick's neck; his legs wrapped around Mick's waist, inviting Mick to go further. "Is this it; you're afraid of us?"
Mick traced a distracted finger along the line of Josef's jaw, paused to study the rise of his cheekbones with a simple caress.
"This isn't how it's supposed to be. We're not meant to be having feelings for one another."
"Says who?" Josef shrugged, that infuriating, devil may care shrug that Mick both hated and loved at the same time, his response surprisingly disarming in its simplicity.
Mick felt Josef's mouth brush against his own. Tender, softer this time, even as Josef deepened the kiss. Usually the sex they had was nothing short of heightened carnage - short, sharp, and brutal, leaving both of them slicked with sweat, and panting for more. This was different, and Mick responded in kind, entering what felt like unchartered waters. That place where those unbridled, unfettered emotions like 'I need you, I love you' existed without question.
Where the wild things were…
"Slowly," Josef uttered a single command, whispering allurement as he slicked Mick's cock with a coating of saliva. "Fuck me like you know this is real; fuck me like you don't have to wait another year for us to do this again."
Mick complied with Josef's request, pausing when he reached the hilt to bend his head towards Josef's. It still felt strange, all of it. He tried to lose his emotions in a rapid fire kiss, his fangs pricking Josef's lower lip as he tasted more blood smeared across his mouth. Josef's hands gripped his arms then, holding him aloft.
"You know that was English I was speaking back there."
"Sorry," Mick managed to look suitably contrite, before launching a protest. "Something just doesn't feel right, okay? You come over, we fuck ourselves senseless most of the night, you leave before the sun's even up. That's the way we've always done it, Josef. I thought that was our arrangement.
"No Mick," Josef gave a thin lipped smile, "that was your arrangement. Now I want to mix things up a little, or failing that at least have another orgasm sometime between now and next century. Swap," Josef forced Mick onto his back, rolling seamlessly with him. "Close your eyes if you have to, but for once we're going to do this my way."
'My way', as if all this time Josef had been kowtowing to Mick's needs. It was so very un-Josef like, this was a man who commanded entire rooms full of people with the single snap of his fingers, and yet…
"I can practically hear you thinking, you know," Josef chuckled as he rocked back and forth, slowly, on Mick's cock.
"Is this love?" Mick wanted to ask. Instead he closed his eyes, and concentrated on the feel of Josef above him, riding him a little harder now, still slow enough to tease...
Still slow enough to feel a little too much like emotion.
Josef's fingers were tracing patterns across Mick's chest, his own gaze fixed on Mick's face - the way he'd closed his eyes, the way he growled with pleasure every so often even through the clear haze of confusion Josef could see displayed across his expression. Apparently there weren't shadows long enough to hide in for something like this.
He decided to cut Mick a break then, pinning Mick's hands above his head, and quickly riding him into oblivion. Sex that was short, sharp, and brutal, sex the way they'd always done it – sex that didn't allow time for emotion.
Mick staggered into the shower when it was over, emerging moments later still dripping wet. A towel wrapped loosely around his waist as he made his way over to the bedroom window.
"Sun's coming up," he mentioned almost as an afterthought as he watched the city below awaken from its slumber.
"No more shadows then," Josef's tongue in cheek response was belied by the tinge of concern Mick could hear in his voice. Josef made his way over to where Mick stood, one hand rested on his shoulder.
"I take it that was for my benefit back there," Mick was finding it hard to keep his own voice on an even keel. "You suddenly shifting gears like that I mean. You could have just taken what you wanted, you know, it's not like you haven't done it to others. I've seen you."
"And you think I should give you the same consideration I give my employees, or my enemies? Give me some credit at least, St John, I'm not completely devoid of emotion."
For a moment Josef sounded pissed off, Mick half expected him to turn tail and leave. He'd be going soon anyway, Mick figured. All the years they'd spent like this it was rare for Josef to have stayed this long.
"Is this love?" The words Mick had wanted to say before slipped out then. He felt Josef move in a little closer, the weight of Josef's body pressed against his back. "I mean what we have here, us, is this love?"
"You've never been in love before?" It was a rhetorical question. Josef drew a casual arm across Mick's chest.
"My ex-wife doesn't count, Josef, that wasn't love that was obsession."
"I suppose I should at least be flattered that you decided not to compare me to Coraline," Josef chuckled, before shifting back to matters at hand. "If I answer that question honestly just how far are you planning to run?"
Mick didn't answer. "Sun's almost up completely," he said instead.
"You asking me to stay?" Josef located the pulse point on Mick's throat, pressed his lips against it, listening to the rush of blood just below the surface.
"Well it doesn't seem to make much sense you driving across town with the sun blazing down on you, now does it?" Mick was trying his best to sound casual, throwing in an offhanded shrug for good measure. He knew damn well Josef's car had windows especially tinted for those times he was forced to venture out into daylight. "Yes, I'm asking you to stay, alright?"
"Just a friendly gesture of course," Josef couldn't resist teasing Mick just a fraction, even as he raised his hands in placation.
"Yeah, something like that."
"Bullshit," Josef grinned and took Mick by the hand, intent on leading him back to bed.
No shadows to hide in, no long dark nights to keep the wild things hidden.
It was a start.