Title: Bolero
Pairing: Josef/Mick
Rating: Hard R to Low Level NC17
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: An unexpected guest interrupts Josef's planned big night, until he manages to get Mick alone.
"Hey, glad you could…" Mick stopped in his tracks. Josef was standing there on the landing, a bottle of expensive Scotch in his hand and a scowl on his face.
"Glad I could make it?" Josef sauntered in without being invited, ignoring the other guest in the room. "I thought tonight was just going to be the two of us."
"Look, I ran into Sammy at the local Jazz club, he's an old band mate of mine. I had no idea he'd been turned," Mick took Josef's coat for him and tried to sound as apologetic as he could. "We just started reminiscing about old times and somehow we ended up back here."
Mick quickly moved to make introductions then. Sammy stood up, hand outstretched. "Mick's told me a lot about you, it's an honour to meet you, sir."
Josef looked at Sammy's hand with disdain, before grabbing hold of it just long enough to make the man feel uncomfortable. "You know the last person who called me sir was kneeling in front of me begging for his life."
Sammy cleared his throat and looked to Mick for help.
"Josef has a bit of an unusual sense of humor sometimes, you get used to it after a while." Mick turned to Josef then, his demeanour brokering no nonsense. "Can I have word with you in private?"
"But the conversation is so awkward, I love awkward" Josef remarked with sarcastic breeze. "I mean aren't you having fun, reminiscing about all the little things you and I used to get up to back in the day. Don't let me stand in the way of your freshies and memories."
"He doesn't know about us, not like that," Mick gestured emphatically, as he dragged Josef into the kitchen "although thanks to you he's probably overheard us anyway."
"He's a Vampire, Mick, we could be having this conversation two blocks away and he still would have heard us." Josef decided to point out the blatantly obvious then.
"That's not the point," Mick lowered his voice, just enough to let Josef know he was skating on thin ice. "You're a guest in my house, and so is he. The doors right there if you want to use it."
Josef relented then, deigning to join Mick and Sammy back in the lounge room.
"So I hear you and Josef were quite the tag team back in the day," Sammy gave Josef a sly look then. "From what I've heard."
"What you overheard you mean," Josef undid the cap on the bottle of Chivas Regal Royal Salute he'd bought especially for the occasion, and poured himself a drink. He toyed with the glass in his hand as he stared Sammy down. "Didn't anyone teach you it's not polite to eavesdrop?"
"What, did you forget we're all Vampires here," Sammy hit back. "I think you wanted me to know, figured I'd be the type to do the bolt. You get Mick all to yourself for a night."
"I get Mick all to myself most nights," Josef trailed a lackadaisical hand through the air, and threw back a few quick draws of Scotch. He'd already decided he wasn't going to give this Sammy character the satisfaction of a decent answer, especially considering the plans this man in front of him was currently messing up.
"Hey remember that party at your place back in…84 I think it was?" Mick tried to jump in with more tales of the past, hoping to defuse whatever situation he could feel bubbling away in front of him, threatening to spill over at any moment. "There were those two hot chicks, and you asked me –"
"Red or white," Josef drew the line of his mouth into a half twisted smile. "If memory serves me correct you chose the red, and then we were rudely interrupted by a phone call."
"No thanks to that murdering scumbag, Lee-Jay." Mick spat the man's name out in distaste. Even after all this time he still left a sour taste in his mouth.
"Well we made up for it later at least."
Mick declined Josef's offer of a drink as he kept one eye fixed on Sammy, trying to gauge the man's reactions to their conversation. He hadn't seen Sammy in decades, and not all Vampires considered themselves flexible when it came to their love lives. He wondered what side of the fence Sammy was on, exactly.
Sammy held up a placating hand then. "Hey look, you guys, it's cool, you've got some thing going on between you, I get that, it's not a problem. Been there, done that myself. Outlive most of your friends and lovers and you learn not to be so fussy about who's doing what and when to who."
For the first time that night Josef looked at Sammy with something vaguely resembling respect. The man was astute, he'd give him that much. Not astute enough though not to sit just a little too close to Mick on the couch, not astute enough not to touch Mick's arm when he made a particular point. Not astute enough to know the jealousy that was currently coursing through Josef's body.
Mick knew though, Mick could practically see the waves of green dripping from every pore of Josef's skin. After six decades there wasn't much they could hide from one another. All it took was a single look. Mick had a decision to make then. He collected Sammy's coat for him.
"Listen buddy, I think me and Josef have got some things we need to talk about –"
"-Say no more," Sammy was already headed for the door. "We'll catch up another night, maybe when the life of the party decides he wants to crack a halfway decent smile."
"A pleasure meeting you as well," Josef raised his tumbler of Scotch in a mock toast, and then shot Sammy a look of pure menace.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Josef turned on Mick as soon as Sammy had gunned the engine of his car. "You come into my house, insult my guest –"
"-I'm in love with you."
"You, what?" For a full two seconds Mick just stood there, rooted to the spot, his mouth agape. When he tried to speak again the words wouldn't come out. How did you respond to something like that anyway?
"Oh come on," Josef was on his feet then, bottle of Scotch back in his hand, waving it as if to make a point. "I'm wearing the suit I had on the first time we ever had sex, I'm carrying a $10,000 bottle of Chivas Regal Royal Salute. All I need to top it off is a band of wandering minstrels and a dozen roses stuck between my teeth."
"I just, whoa," Mick took a seat on the couch and tried to process what had just happened. "Well why the hell didn't you say something sooner."
"I was waiting for the right time. Tonight was supposed to be the big night, freshies and memories, strike a match, and light a spark, all that good stuff." Josef kicked the edge of Mick's bookcase in frustration. "Instead I get Sammy Davis Junior messing up my plans, because he wants to reminisce about the good old days when you were broke playing for a nickel and dime at any dive bar that would have you."
"Coraline's was the first decent gig we played," Mick looked nostalgic then, he hadn't known it at the time but Josef had been at that party, and Josef had been watching him.
"Yes, and look where that got you," Josef poured Mick a glass of Chivas.
"It got me old enough to be with you here and now," Mick demolished the Scotch in his hand in two quick gulps, and held out his glass for a refill. "Although what we're doing here, and why we're doing it now I'm still yet to work out."
"I just told you-"
"-You're in love with me, I got that part, thanks." Mick gave a deferential nod and studied the amber fluid in front of him, as if the answers to life's questions lay at the bottom of a square glass.
"But you don't feel the same way. " Josef went to fetch his jacket. He was already shamefaced enough as it was, no use sticking around to prolong the agony. He headed for the door.
"Wait. You don't have to go. I just need some time to wrap my head around this." Suddenly it seemed very important to Mick that Josef stayed.
Josef wavered, just for a moment, before tentatively moving into Mick's space. "I bought something else with me." Josef was waving a CD in front of Mick's face then, a grin spreading from ear to ear.
Mick took the CD from Josef's hands and looked at the cover, "Ravel's Bolero," he laughed and shook his head at the memory of a night long ago, a night when they had tickets to the Philharmonic Orchestra and ended up fucking in the nearest bathroom halfway through the recital. "Trust you to remember this."
"Ravel's Bolero thundering through the theatre and you doing your level best to drown out an entire orchestra with the noise you were making. I consider it my piece de resistance." Josef deadpanned.
Mick slipped the CD into his stereo system, and turned up the volume. He reached for Josef then, drawing him into an embrace as the first notes of the snare drum and flute began to play.
"You were always my piece de resistance," he whispered to Josef then, his breath fanning hot against the side of Josef's face as the music built.
"Careful now, you might have a slip of the tongue and mention the L word." Josef's lips were pressed against Mick's own then, the weight of his body carrying Mick across the other side of the room.
"You mean words like 'like' and 'loathe' and 'love'," Mick broke the kiss just long enough to tease Josef with a lexicon of words.
"All those good things."
Josef had Mick pinned against the wall then, their crotches lined up, still clothed but no less stimulating as they began to ride up against one another. Josef grabbed Mick's wrists, forced Mick's arms above his head, pressed his lips to Mick's own once more.
"Do you remember how you felt the first time we did this?" Josef's hands went to the buttons on Mick's jeans. "You told me it was a revelation."
"The way Coraline fucked like a banshee in heat, it was a revelation," Mick responded, his own fingers working on the buttons of Josef's shirt.
"Is that the closest I'm going to get to 'I love you'?" Josef offered Mick an arched brow grin as he yanked Mick's jeans and underpants around his ankles, and watched as Mick kicked them away.
"That depends," Mick was working on his socks and shoes then, before pulling his t-shirt over his head.
"Oh yeah, on what, how well I perform?" Josef was all strutting cockiness as he stripped out of his own clothes, making a display of taking off each item in a visual feast for the senses.
"Love is more than just sex and bodies coming together, you know."
"In what parallel universe, Mick?"
"In my universe, Josef, and if you loved me you'd know that."
Mick's words cut Josef like a knife. He cleared his throat, his demeanour brusque, "Then what exactly are we doing standing here stark naked like we're about to fuck? If I loved you I wouldn't touch you all, is that it? Get over your precious self St John, I put my heart on the line tonight and that's not something I've ever done lightly. You and Sarah are the only two people in over four hundred years to have ever heard those words come out of my mouth."
"No, I didn't mean…Christ I'm messing this all up," in one inhuman fluid rush of movement Mick shifted towards Josef. "I didn't mean, well the way it came out, I just meant if you love me then make love to me, I don't want this to be another run of the mill Saturday night fuck because I got bored, or you got lonely."
In the background Maurice Ravel continued his penultimate moment. They moved together again then, invading each other's space, lips and hands seeking heated contact. Still they kept time with the music, the rhythm gradually becoming a primal force as they landed on the sofa wrapped up in each other's arm, wrapped in each other.
"Is this better?" Josef mapped Mick's body with a single finger, exploring planes and angles of musculature in minute detail. "Is this how you imagined it?" His hand moved to Mick's erection then. "How long have you known?"
"A while," Mick arched up at the sensations Josef's hand was drawing from his cock. "I just never thought I'd hear you say it out loud. You threw me for a moment there."
"And what about now?"
Mick didn't answer at first; instead he claimed Josef's lips for his own, pressed flesh against flesh. "Top drawer, left hand side of the cabinet," he managed finally.
Josef reached under the couch instead, producing a wayward tube of KY jelly. "Last time, we sort of forgot to tidy up properly." Josef managed to look almost sheepish then. "And that's not exactly what I was asking either."
"I know," Mick touched a hand to Josef's face. And then there were sparks and lightning bolts coursing along nerve endings and moving through synapses. And Josef was inside him then, his cock slick with lubricant and buried to the hilt, holding there, waiting.
"Look at me." Josef gripped Mick's face, levelled it with his own. "Look at me, and don't stop."
Their eyes were lock-focused on one another then, reflected images of perfect symmetry. And Josef began to move, slowly at first, and then quicker, lengthening each stroke. Still he bade Mick look at him, watch as his face blanched white. His eyes red rimmed and bruised, fangs descending as the vampire inside him rose.
Mick's own fangs pricked his lower lip, drew blood as he bit down and then let Josef taste the copper scent on his tongue. Josef's hands were stretched either side of his skull, thumbs tracing the outline of Mick's temples. And they were moving together as one, matching each other thrust for thrust as the crescendo of the orchestra rose.
A single moment in time then, a the purity of knowing, hovering on the edge eyes still focused on one another, muscles stretched taut and exquisite. And then hold, tense, and release.
Mick reached for his t-shirt and wiped the semen from his chest and stomach, two small puncture wounds on his neck already healing. He lay back, sated as Josef withdrew and let Mick take the weight of his body on top of him.
"Tell me what you saw?" Josef curled his fingers in Mick's hair, his face buried against the side of Mick's throat.
"You. I saw you." It was the simplest answer he could give. Mick had seen the man, and the vampire, but more than that he had seen Josef's vulnerability.
"And?"
"And everyone I've ever loved has either died or left me." Mick stared at the ceiling above them, trying to make sense of patterns that had no rhyme or reason.
"Third time lucky?" Josef propped himself up on Mick's chest then.
Mick snorted a laugh; he had to admire the man's tenacity. "Yeah, third time lucky."
Josef traced distracted circles across Mick's chest, his vulnerability showing behind the hint of a taunting smile. "So you're in then, pedal to the metal, no turning back."
"Yeah, I'm in."
And those three little words weren't quite I love you, but Josef could sense the emotion behind them.
I'm in…
I love you without saying it –
- and I'm in.