A MONTH WITHOUT SLEEP

(Warnings: Graphic Sex, Mild Dubcon)

Takes place right before Season 5, Episode 5

'Life of the Party'

Lunches with starlets. Impromptu flights across the country to court a billionaire into investing the next great pop act. 3 AM meetings with someone halfway across the globe just because it was more convenient for them. Could you blame a guy for trying to cut out the fat? Fat being sleep in this case. Maybe that metaphor didn't work so well with the green guy. Tell him about cutting the fat and he would give himself a panic attack right to the stairmaster.

Yes, working for Wolfram and Hart had some crazy incentives, but the craziest was some of the innovative black market medical procedures they were able to pull off. But they always came with a price. He'd kept that in the back of his mind ever since Angel told him about the time they took down the law firm's transplant program, a harrowing tale of the possessed body parts of angry, murderous ex-cons. You got to get a new hand, but you might also kill your family so… fair trade? Maybe not. Lorne knew accepting something so experimental as removing his need to sleep would probably cost something greater, but it was all for the greater good, right?

Well… greater good was a bit of a stretch in this instance. The 'greater good' aspect came from Angel Investigations agreeing to take over their archnemesis because they thought they could use the tools at their disposal for saving the lives the corporation used to make a quite literal hell. The greater good the jade songbird thought in his head was… well, self serving at best. He'd always fantasized about being big in entertainment. Sure, he'd more thought he'd be headlining somewhere alongside Barbra and Cher, but if you can't join em, make em. He was going to be the greatest damn talent manager the City of Angels had ever seen.

But the thing about the lack of sleep, even if it was magically induced; it had its ups and its downs. One moment he was high as a kite, two-stepping down the halls of the building they once thought of as the headquarters of the Legion of Doom whilst hitting the highest notes he could fathom. The next, shattered mirrors because he was so angry he couldn't bare to look at himself. It wasn't pleasant, but he did his best to hide it, to keep things under wraps as best he could. He had to be. He was usually the one member of Team Angel that was always a beacon of positivity for everyone else when the chips were down, and everyone seemed so on edge lately. And why wouldn't they be? It's not like they, oh say, inherited an office from an evil demonic law firm that had done everything in their power to destroy them for the last four years and were now worried about the old adage 'divide and conquer.' No. Not at all.

Lorne walked into Angel's office, closing his cell with a satisfying clacking sound as he shoved the device into his jacket pocket. Angel sat in his chair, tapping the armrest uncomfortably as a feminine figure loomed over his shoulder. He rolled his eyes to himself as he approached.

'Great. It's Diet-Lilah.' He thought to himself as he gave Eve a very forced polite smile. He was always so confused as to why the Senior Partners didn't just give Lilah the job of liaison. It was made crystal clear that she still worked for the company and could be placed wherever they wanted her, even in death. And she'd be tons more fun than the little girl playing dress up they sent in her stead.

"Hello Hello Angelkins and Evie-E. This going to take long? I have to meet with Britney's people at five. They want to talk about a publicity stunt they've been working on for a few years. Can't say much but it involves an umbrella and an electric razor and is gonna be one for the books I tell ya." He explained in his delightfully flamboyant manner. Eve just offered a return polite smile while Angel huffed in that weird way that vampires that apparently needed no breath but still wanted to be dramatic did.

"Uh, yeah it shouldn't be too… uh… listen Lorne we're going to be making some cuts in the Entertainment division. Senior Partners are breathing down Eve's neck, she refuses to leave my office and I'd really like her to uh… leave." He said with his normally terse face. Eve just offered a small giggle, as her trademark was to try to soften the blow with her abysmally sweet vocal tones even though she was usually behind the killing blow 90% of the time.

"The Partners think that by taking on less clients and focusing on exclusivity, upselling the value of our services to an even bigger, albeit smaller pool of clients, then we can minimize spending and maximize earning. And you can sell water to a fish with that handsome smile of yours." She delivered the news with as much beauty and grace as an evil… thing could. Lorne maintained his smile, though his fist was clenched so tight he was surprised he wasn't bleeding through his expensive velour jacket.

"So you're wanting me to work twice as hard pleasing people while also telling a few of my lovely starlets I can't represent them anymore I'm guessing?" He said through the smile plastered so hard on his face that he could have sworn his perfect teeth were breaking. Even placed her hands together, pointing at him with a smile before placing them back on her lap.

"Smart guy. That's why we put you in charge in the first place." She said in a tone that he couldn't quite tell if it was meant to be condescending, just that it totally was condescending. Okay, now his nails were digging into his flesh in his pocket. He didn't realize how powerfully he was squeezing his fist, that he was literally bleeding. Must be an adrenaline thing.

"I don't suppose you have a list of clients you're wanting me to cut prepared, do you princess?" He said in an equally sickly sweet tone. Eve made an almost shocked face, then grinned.

"No. You're the boss. I'm just the messenger. I feel like any creative decisions from this point on you can handle." She leaned back on Angel's desk and crossed her legs with another smile.

"Can do. Uhm… I really gotta get that conference call going. You and I both know Britney Jean ain't one of the ones going." Lorna smiled as he stood, hoofing it to the door so they couldn't see the seething rage on his face. Eve leaned back on the desk, looking back at Angel.

"He seemed to take that well." She said, although her fake tone seemed to insinuate she did not buy it. Angel was even less convincing with his response.

"Yeah…" He said as he watched the green demon walk quickly down the hallway into his office.

Lorne closed the door behind him, shaking for a moment as he processed everything. This was his baby. This was his empire he was building here. He was not about to let a bunch of crusty money grubbing older than time Eldritch demons to stop him from being the go to talent manager that would eventually lead him to a long successful E! Series. Okay, that last part was purely speculative, but it could happen.

Honestly he didn't know what came over him. It was like his eyes went red. Er… redder. Suddenly he was all rage and there was no stopping him.. He just wanted to hurt someone. Something. Or to expend all of this negative energy some other way. Just any way he could. The lack of sleep even if it was no no longer medically necessary was getting to him.

He walked slowly, casually over to the wall on the far side of his office as if he had some purpose over there. He stared at the brick for a moment, studying every groove and crack before suddenly pulling his fist back and punching a hole straight through the stone. He shook as his arm protruded halfway out of this wall he shouldn't have been able to break, and after a moment he retracted it and stared at his bloody fist.

"Okay, so I'm going to move you up to 'officially not okay.'" A familiar voice came from behind him. He stared back at the wall, eyes an even angrier crimson than before.

"Angelcakes." He said, not in his normal playful tone. It was somehow darker, more serious. He heard the door click behind the man but he still refused to turn and look at him.

"I uh… followed you when I smelled the blood on your hand. Figured you'd need an ear." Angel said, moving to the desk behind him and sitting on the edge.

"'Course now you bloodied yourself even more and broke my wall so I'm a little concerned." He continued. Lorne remained quiet, the air thick around him as the vampire did everything he could to try to soothe his friend.

"Look, Lorne… If it were up to me, you could do whatever you want. And I guess I am the boss… but I'm also not. It's… a balancing act. We're not doing this for us. But I do know how much it means to you."

Lorne furrowed his eyebrows and turned to the man before him, glaring for a moment. Angel wasn't scared. He was never scared. That's why he was the leader. The champion.

Still, Lorne's next move was unexpected. He pushed forward, gripping Angel's shirt until he was face to face with him, a small inhuman growl that he'd never exhibited before escaping his throat.

"You have no IDEA what this means to me! All of this is just a game to you. For your self-righteous mission. But this… this is my CAREER! What I've been dreaming of since I escaped Pylea! You never had ambition! You've always just been a slave to fate and your own ego!" He spat in anger, his voice a sinister baritone now. Most of the things he was saying about ego ironically reflected back at him. But really, he didn't care. He was too enraged to notice the hypocrisy. But Angel never blinked. Something mystical was afoot here and Lorne was his friend.

"Lorne, I'm going to give you a chance to calm down so you don't do anything stup-"

"STUPID?! Is that what you were going to say? Because I don't feel it's stupid. I feel every fucking thing I'm spitballing is valid right now." He yanked him closer, in that intimate space where suddenly it was kiss or kill. He could smell Angel now, somehow his senses heightened with his strength it would seem. And suddenly it was very clear to him how he wanted to expend his anger.

His hand snapped up, gripping Angel's mouth and squeezing his cheeks together with a force he typically wasn't capable of. Angel was shocked. Shocked at his strength and his behavior, almost so much that he didn't even act. If things got too bad he would make his move. But he didn't want to hurt his friend. But then there was the little voice in the back of his head that asked: Could he still hurt him?

"You're so selfish. Always Shanshu this and Prophecy that. Always worried about YOUR bottom line. How we can help you play hero. Well maybe it's about time someone dominated you for a change?" Lorne hissed in a husky, commanding voice. Suddenly Angel felt he couldn't do anything. He actually felt like… complying. It was like a switch in his head was flipped. He agreed. He needed to be dominated.

Lorne's hand went to the back of Angel's stupidly spiky hair, gripping a fistful and yanking his head back. Angel gave a pained exclamation, but again didn't fight. Inside he was screaming, wanting to put a stop to it. But he couldn't. He was playing a role that he was helpless to stop. A surprisingly strong green hand gripped the neck hole of his sweater and ripped downward, exposing his chiseled, milky torso as the scraps of fabric hung open on his body. Lorne's face contorted into a dirty smirk Angel had never seen before. Mostly because he'd never asked. Everyone seemed to just make assumptions about Lorne, and while these actions might prove some of their inklings, nobody ever seemed to ask if he even had a sex life. He supposed everyone was full of surprises.

"You like being a bitch, don't you? You were Darla's bitch. Then Buffy's bitch. Always fate's bitch. Maybe I'm not a tiny blonde, but I can make you scream just the same, beefcake." And with that he leaned forward, teeth digging into the meat of his shoulder as a trickle of blood ran down his chest in a ruby rivulet. Angel gasped. It hurt, but he hadn't been pleasantly hurt like that since Darla. Lorne's strong green fingers found their way up to Angel's ever hardening nipples and gave the nub it found a painful twist. This time he did scream. The employees outside must have thought something far worse was going on, because literal torture was nothing out of the ordinary in the strange hellish office they worked.

Lorne's face emerged from his bloody shoulder, gazing at him with hateful yet lusty eyes that were now almost closer to black than they were red. He leaned in to Angel's face, hovering over his lips as his hot breath tickled the vampire's lower petal. Angel could smell the strange, dead tang of his own blood tainting the Pylean demon's breath, and he felt a strange excitement in his stomach as it appeared that Lorne would kiss him.

But he did not kiss him.

Lorne ripped at his hair again and pressed his nose against the side of his face, slobber dripping from his strangely ferocious mouth.

"You're going to show me how important you feel I am to the team, Angelcakes." He growled before tossing him to the floor with his newfound strength. Angel shook as his palms pressed to the hardwood floor, catching his bearings as the green demon loomed over him, legs spread and chest puffed in a confidence he'd never seen before. Lorne cocked his head to the side as his fingers traveled down to his groin. His well-manicured fingers made short work of his zipper and he pulled out his member. And it was… surprisingly glorious. Bigger than Angel would have thought. Maybe 8.5 inches? Thick, veiny. The head was an alienesque shape, similar to a human glans but somehow longer. There were subtle ribs on either side, and it was speckled with darker green spots. And it was… lovely.

"Oh come on, Angel. You were on the lamb for what? 200 years? If the lady Anne Rice taught me anything it's that you've run into your fair share of 'bonding time' with the boys." He smirked in a way that caused something to stir deep inside the vampire. He gazed up at him, a strange, dopey smile reaching the corner of his lips. He wanted to please him. Somehow Lorne had become his master. In the back of his mind he definitely knew there was some kind of mojo at work, but right now he didn't care.

He continued locking eyes with the green man as he leaned forward, licking at the slit of the oddly shaped head. Lorne just rolled his eyes and buried his fingers in his hair before shoving his cock all the way down Angel's throat. He let go a groan and closed his eyes as he allowed himself to enjoy the cold, wet depths of the vampire's mouth. He looked down and watched his throat constrict and expand, only wishing Angel could breathe so that he could revel in his face turning red as he struggled for air. Alas, beggars couldn't be choosers, and he was still very much enjoying the moment otherwise.

"That's a good boy. Show me how valuable of an asset I am to you." He smirked. Angel pulled off of his manhood, a thin string of saliva still connecting the head with his lips. He gripped the base and pumped a few times while still staring up into those red-black eyes, somehow desperate for his emerald master's approval. The demon bard had a way with words. He said Angel should know what it was like to be dominated and now the vampire wanted nothing more than to be his slave.

He moved in, nuzzling the side of his face against the strange green cock. He ran the tip of his tongue along the strange raised ribs that lined the side of his shaft, which elicited a very pleased groan from the Pylean. Perhaps it was a sensitive spot? Since it was such a hit, he continued running his tongue along them before sealing his mouth around the head and swirling his tongue around those raised abrasions. Lorne's fingers tightened in his hair as his breath picked up. The man certainly was doing a great job serving him. Too great. He had to stop the eager vampire, pulling him off before he could suck any further.

"Pants off. Face the wall." He commanded. Angel with his dreamy eyes, complied. He quickly undid his pants, freeing himself from his denim prison as they fell to the floor. He scurried over to the wall like an excited puppy. After all, that's all Angel was most days, wasn't he? An excited puppy. Lorne unbuttoned his flowery shirt while he watched, peeling off the expensive garments and laying them over the back of his chair. Then he approached, running his long green finger up the pit of Angel's carved back until his fingers tip-toed up the back of his scalp. He yanked his hair back once more, but this time met his lips in a hungry kiss. Angel was pleased, groaning happily into his mouth as he tasted his own blood still lingering on the green one's lips. Lorne reached down and pushed one of Angel's thick legs up onto his vanity as his other hand guided his thick, demonic arousal to Angel's willing pucker.

"I have to wonder. Is Angelus as much of a 'pleaser' as you are?" He teased. He was only met with a needy mewl as Angel pushed back, desperate to be fully dominated.

"I'm gonna say that's a yes, sweetcheeks." He grinned, teasing his hole with the tip of his alien member. Then without much warning, he shoved inside, using only Angel's saliva and the barest amount of his own precum as lubricant. Angel shouted in pain, his fist punching at the wall just a few centimeters below the hole Lorne left, pieces of drywall and stone crumbling to the floor. Lorne was completely sheathed within him at this point, his hand harnessing Angel's leg as he bit at the lobe of his ear.

He started to move, the ribs on either side of his rather large staff rubbing Angel from the inside in ways he wasn't used to. His eyes went cross in his head and it was as if he could see colors that didn't exist in the mortal plane. The sounds that escaped his mouth were sounds nobody had ever heard from Angel, not even those that had been most intimate to him. Sounds of pure bliss, pure submission. It was lucky that this strange magical persuasion canceled out that annoying gypsy magic because if there was ever a moment that could easily trick his synapses into thinking he was in pure happiness it was this one. Angel knew this was wrong, that his mind was being altered by something, but he'd be lying if he'd said he wasn't filing this memory away for later use.

Lorne leaned down and traced the outline of the dark bird tattoo on Angel's shoulder with the tip of his tongue as he bucked faster and deeper, a wet slapping echoing through the room as their bodies collided together in a mess of ecstasy. A soft, well-maintained green hand reached around and gripped Angel by his own erection, pumping up and down. It was heavenly how well Lorne had taken care of his delicate hands, it felt like silk sliding up and down his leaking sex while Lorne's own probed the deepest parts of him. The boyishly handsome vampire trembled against Lorne's colliding body. And Lorne was an empath. He knew where this was going.

"Hold it. Just a little longer, handsome." He said in a charming sneer against his neck while he now slammed in and out of him, his ribbed manhood rubbing Angel raw in ways he never thought possible. Lorne had to admit, he'd not felt this good in a very long time. In fact he'd all but been celibate until this anger decided to let itself out in a much more pleasant way. He was slowly calming himself back to his senses and feeling nervous in a way, but it wouldn't stop him from finishing. He'd have to remember to send Angel a fruit basket when he came down from this high.

Angel was now cooing and moaning like a little… well… bitch. He felt the burning in his loins. He needed release. Needed it.

"M-Master please…" Angel groaned. That word. Master. Lorne wasn't used to being revered so much. So this was what being fully in charge felt like? Gotta say, it didn't suck. Full domination had been achieved, and the shockwaves rippled through his body as Lorne howled out in an almost musical tone, spilling deeply into Angel's cool canal. He pressed his lips into the vampire's neck as he whimpered an exhausted 'Now' in approval for him, and Angel quivered and released just the same, a white streak shooting from him and staining Lorne's vanity mirror before pooling just below his dangling sex. The two writhed and rocked together for a few more moments before cooling down. And once they'd come back to their senses, Lorne's eyes shot wide, now back to their normal cherry-red color.

"Uh… wow I do not know what got into me, Angelkins, I…" He stammered as he slipped out of him. Angel closed his eyes with a dopey, pleased look on his face and mourned the loss of the thickness from within him. And after a moment he too came to his senses, suddenly very hyper aware of the ejaculate leaking from within him.

"Yeah that was very… uh… strange. Strange is… is strange too light of a word for it? You know what, yes it was strange." Angel stammered as well, hobbling carefully over to his pants, now a little weirded out by the stream of the aftermath leaking down his leg. The two dressed, though Angel had… not much of a shirt left. Lorne walked over and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Listen uh… I don't think I have to say this but… maybe we don't talk about this to anybody okay?" He said. Suddenly, Angel found himself vehemently agreeing. Not that he wouldn't have anyway but he felt the same compulsion he did when Lorne suggested he be dominated. Something was going on with Lorne's words, but it didn't matter now. He couldn't speak on it.

"...Yeah…" He said, moving to the door, suddenly feeling very awkward.

"I'll um… see you um… I'm gonna go." Angel said, hurriedly disappearing out the door. Lorne placed his hands on his hips and looked down at the hardwood floor with a huff. A month without sleep did strange things to the Pylean, but he didn't have time to think about that. He had a Halloween party to plan.