Title: Intoxicating
Author: Bana-chan
Fandom: Species
Genre: drabble
Rating: light R
Warnings: Slash, yay! Post-Reaching the End, so mild spoilers for that fic, but nothing too drastic. Smutlite!
Word Count: 536
Summary: Dan ignored Arden. Arden didn't want to be ignored. It all went downhill from there.
Disclaimer: Species isn't mine, nor are its characters, as they belong to MGM. I'm just playing in their sandbox and having WAY too much fun doing it.
Notes: I think it's just better if I don't ask the creativity demons how this came to be. o.O Though, it was partly and very vaguely inspired by my random searching of the tempsmort comm and finding the 'End Provided' challenge as well as the horror that is Britney Spears eating my brain for a long enough period to inspire this.
Theme: Toxic by Britney Spears

Dan sat stretched out across the small sofa in the living room of his apartment, his nose deep in a book. Engrossed in the story, his shields were hardly at full strength; he'd never felt much need to have his emotional shielding up fully around Arden at any rate. Speaking of the anthropolgist, he'd been absent mindedly chatting at the empath for the past two hours, give or take a few minutes here and there.

"...and at the rate they multiply," Arden rambled, pausing to look over at the empath, "are you even listening to me?"

"Mmhmm," Dan mumbled, flipping a page in his novel. Arden frowned, though he was infinitely more amused than actually annoyed.

"Sure you are," the scientist said quietly, a wide grin playing across his features.

Dan could feel the shift in Arden's mood, but before he could react, the scientist had snuck around behind him and wrapped both arms around his neck.

"Whatcha reading?" Arden smirked. Dan held back a smile and pretended to ignore Arden.

The scientist's grin grew wider and he crouched down, nuzzling the empath's neck. Dan blinked, startled out of his book, but once more pretended to ignore Arden. Incensed now, Arden pressed further into Dan's neck, peppering it with soft kisses. Dan held back an even wider smile now, still ignoring Arden's presence.

Dan yelped suddenly, unable to ignore Arden any longer as he nibbled softly on the empath's ear. He turned around as he set his book aside, disentangling himself from Arden's arms to stare the dark-haired scientist down.

"My, someone's certainly in a mood today," he quipped with a half-smirk. Arden played innocent, backing away from the sofa and looking up to the ceiling as if he'd done nothing. Dan favored the scientist with a sarcastic smile. "Don't play innocent, Stephen, you know you can't hide from me."

"I never said I could," Arden quipped back, licking his lips with a quiet chuckle. Dan smiled ruefully, shaking his head.

"You know what I meant," he said. He frowned somewhat for a moment as he watched Arden, an unpleasant thought dropping into his mind. "I thought Laura..."

"Oh, she did," Arden replied, his tone serious for only a moment before the playful grin returned to his features. He stepped close to the sofa, crouching down again and levelling his gaze to Dan's as he touched his forehead to the empath's.

"Then...?"

"Payback," Arden snickered, his dark eyes betraying the mischief behind his actions. Dan sat back from the arm of the sofa, laughing.

"Payback for what?"

Arden pressed forward, leaning up across the arm as he kissed Dan. "Ignoring me," he said with a smile. "You won't ignore me again, will you?"

Dan simply stared at the scientist. "You're not serious, Stephen..."

"Of course I am." Arden made the small leap over the arm of the sofa to pounce Dan, pinning the empath down onto his back. He peppered each side of Dan's neck with quick kisses, his dark, feathery hair hanging down into his eyes and tracing along Dan's face. "Now...you won't ignore me again, will you?" The scientist's tone was playful, yet distracted.

"We'll see," Dan offered with a mischievous smirk.

fin