"It's been a month, Josef. A whole damn month and not a single word from her." Mick paced nervously, walking in distracted circles over the floor of Josef's living room.

"She's on assignment in Pakistan, Mick." Josef's tone was matter-of-fact, trying to convey the sentiment that Mick shouldn't be worrying as much as he was. "Maybe she just can't get to a phone that easily?"

"Or maybe she's with Talbot." Mick spat the name out like a bad taste in his mouth. (no need to repeat Talbot there)

"Maybe she is," Josef shrugged, "but what makes you think you have any right to complain?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Mick stopped in his tracks and threw Josef a challenging look.

"When was the last time we fucked?"

"That's different." Mick waved a dismissive hand through the air in front of him before returning to his reverie of pacing.

"Oh yeah. How?"

"That's just sex, Josef. There's no emotion involved."

"Maybe not for you," Josef thought but kept silent, answering instead with, "And you think there's emotion with Talbot and Beth?"

"Yes. No. I don't know." Mick walked over to Josef's couch and flopped down with a heavy sigh, scrubbing his hands over his face in a frustrated gesture.

"The trouble with you, Mick," Josef smiled knowingly and joined Mick on the couch, placing what was meant to be a reassuring hand on his leg, "is that you are indecisive. You don't know what you want, therefore you assume everyone around you doesn't really know what they want, either."

"And what about you, Josef?"

"What about me?"

"Well I mean you're very good at throwing advice at other people, but do you know what you really want? First it was Simone, then Madeline, and who's your latest commitment distraction?" Mick's tone was challenging.

Josef shot him a dark look. "If you must know, no one." He took his hand from Mick's leg and crossed his arms over his chest in a gesture that was as much defiance as it was defensiveness. He drew a breath and then quickly added, "And we're not talking about me, Mick," trying to deflect the conversation back to more comfortable territory.

"I thought you loved being the centre of attention, Josef," Mick replied with a smug smile. "It's not like you to pass up the opportunity talk about yourself."

"I thought I'd be generous for once, Mick. The floor's all yours."

"What happened to the unwritten rule about not giving each other advice, Josef?"

"Hey, you came to me." Josef cocked his head and raised an eyebrow in Mick's direction, as if to say "What exactly did you come here for then, Mick?"

The meaning of the gesture was not entirely lost on Mick and he wrapped his arm around Josef's shoulder and pulled him into an embrace. "Comfort," he whispered simply, before pressing his lips against Josef's.

"Then why didn't you just say that, Mick?" Josef muttered, his words swallowed by Mick's mouth and tongue. "Why all the bullshit?" Josef broke away from the kiss momentarily and held Mick at arms' length, giving him a pointed look. "No emotion, remember?"

Mick felt a white hot rage well up inside him and for a moment he wanted to punch Josef in his all-too-knowing, arrogant face, almost. Then Josef was lunging for him, taking his breath away as he smothered Mick's face and neck with kisses that were hard enough to verge on painful.

"Is this what you were looking for, Mick? Is this comfort?" Josef challenged, although his voice never rose above a whisper. "No emotion, just raw passionate fucking. Passion is emotion, Mick, you can't keep pretending otherwise."

"Shut up, Josef." Mick snarled and bared his fangs, trying to silence Josef's words with another barrage of kisses.

"Anger's an emotion as well, Mick," Josef snarled the words into Mick's mouth, his breath ragged as he returned Mick's kisses with equal force and felt a sudden rush of cool air on his chest as Mick tore open his shirt.

"Go on, Mick," Josef challenged him once again, his tone halfway between salacious and mocking, as Mick's hands worked frantically at the belt and buttons on his pants, "why don't you show me exactly how little emotion this holds for you?"

He was goading him and Mick knew it. The more he thought about it the angrier he felt. He knew Josef was right and that was something he just didn't want to admit to himself. He had no right to dictate anything to Beth, not when he was fucking his so-called best friend. As much as he tried to tell himself the sex was no more than a bodily function, a release of tension, deep down he knew that was a lie. It did mean something and try as he might he couldn't get past that fact.

At that moment Mick hated Josef, wanted to hurt him through sheer rage and desperation.

Mick let out a snarl of anger and frustration and grabbed Josef around the waist, forcing him onto his knees before spinning him around and shoving him face first onto the couch.

"Yeah, you feel nothing when we're doing this, don't you, Mick?" Josef scoffed as Mick gripped the back of his neck with one hand and roughly yanked his pants down with the other.

Mick fumbled with the fastenings on his own pants, releasing his erection into his hand and quickly slicking the head of his cock with saliva.

"What?" Josef taunted. "You're so desperate to fuck me you're going to dispense with lubricant? Oh, no, there's no emotion here, no passion or desperation or anything like that, is there, Mick?"

As if to counteract Josef's taunts, Mick paused for a moment and then slowly stood up, taking his time walking over to the cabinet in the hallway where he knew Josef always kept a tube of lubricant stashed in the bottom drawer. Why in that particular place he had no idea and he'd never thought to ask him.

Returning with the same faux nonchalance, Mick carefully applied a small amount of the lubricant where it was needed, using deliberate slow, casual strokes of a finger, and then pressed himself against Josef's entrance and thrust into his passage in one sudden movement.

"I just want you to stop pretending this doesn't mean anything, Mick." Josef gritted his teeth and pushed his arse back against Mick's pelvis, grinding himself back onto Mick's cock as Mick started to withdraw and thrust back into him.

Mick kept his initial movements slow and measured, putting on a show of feigned disinterest. He was desperate to prove to Josef once and for all, that he was wrong. This didn't mean anything more than a physical act of pleasure for both of them.

"I'm not the one in denial here, Josef." Mick increased the tempo of his thrusts, his breath starting to come in short panting snarls.

"Mick, come on-"

"Shut up."

"Deep down you know I'm right." Josef gritted his teeth and bared his fangs, his lips curling back in a snarl of pleasure, just before Mick roared at him once again to "shut up," the words coming out in a furious growl borne of frustration and the knowledge that he couldn't deny what Josef had said was the truth.

Mick gripped Josef's shoulders for leverage and began to withdraw and plunge himself back into Josef's arse as hard as he could and Josef responded by driving himself back against Mick's body to meet every thrust.

"Oh Shit." Mick hissed through clenched teeth as the rate of his thrusts became increasingly erratic and he felt the first stirrings of impending climax move through him.

Mick thrust forward one last time and then fell headlong into the abyss, sinking his fangs into the top of Josef's shoulder as he growled out the rhythm of his release.

Brief moments later Josef snarled and reached for Mick's hand, his body convulsing with pleasure as he sank his fangs into the flesh of Mick's wrist and rode out his own orgasm.

I'm sorry." Mick placed his lips to Josef's ear and whispered to him, once the last of their respective climactic pulsations had faded away.

"For what?" Josef asked with a small shrug of his shoulders, as Mick withdrew his softening cock from Josef's body and then lay back on the floor, staring up at the ceiling.

"What are you sorry for, Mick?" Josef repeated the question, turning to face Mick. He sat on the floor and leaned back against the seat of the couch, regarding Mick with a look that was part curiosity and part challenge.

Mick took a breath and swallowed nervously, eyes averted, still staring up at the ceiling. "That I can't give you what you want, Josef." His exhalation of breath was a deep sigh that almost sounded like a note of regret.

"And what do I want, Mick?" Josef looked at him again, a half-taunting expression on his face.

"A relationship, Josef. You want a relationship." He stated the words as if the idea of expressing them was nothing more than a simple formality, "and I can't give you that." Mick paused for a moment and then sat up, drawing up his knees and resting his elbows on them. "I don't know what we have, Josef. I don't know what is between us, but I love Beth, ok? I love Beth."

"Just answer me one thing, Mick." Josef leaned forward and held Mick's gaze with his own. "If you really love Beth, then what are you doing here with me?" The tone of his voice was simple and to the point, a matter of fact challenge that infuriated Mick.

"Just go, Josef, alright?" Mick got to his feet and turned away, waving a dismissive hand in Josef's direction. "Just leave."

"Mick?" Josef stifled an incredulous laugh and rolled his eyes. "This is my house."

Mick looked suitably red-faced for a moment, or as red-faced as any Vampire could look, before he shook his head and shot Josef a dark look. Hurriedly pulling on his clothes he turned and headed towards the door without saying another word.

"I'll be seeing you then, Mick," Josef called after him, taunting him in a knowing voice.

"Smug bastard," Mick hissed under his breath as he walked out the door and slammed it shut behind him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Josef didn't see or hear from Mick for two weeks after that night, not until Mick turned up on his doorstep at two am, staggering drunk.

Trying to keep the tone of his voice as nonchalant as possible, Josef smiled and told Mick to, "Come inside"

Josef watched as Mick stumbled through the door and then swayed and staggered backwards, pushing the door shut as he lost his balance and slumped to the floor in the same fluidly awkward motion.

Josef regarded him for a moment and then went to fetch a bottle of blood and two large glasses from the fridge in the kitchen.

"Here" Josef poured a generous amount of the crimson liquid into one of the glasses and handed it to Mick, "drink this; you need to sober up."

Pouring a glass for himself, Josef sat on the floor next to Mick and waited for him to speak.

"Beth's home" Mick's voice was filled with derision, eyes raised skywards, "and so is Talbot"

Josef turned and looked at Mick, his own expression conveying his genuine surprise. "You mean?"

"Yeah, exactly." Mick spat in bitter response.

"I'm sorry-"Josef started to say, but Mick ignored him and continued talking, his voice cracking with emotion.

"All that crap about forever, all of it, just one big lie."

"She's human, Mick" Josef rested a hand on Mick's shoulder. "Humans just can't understand the concept of forever, not really"

"Oh and you think Vampires can?" Mick replied with an incredulous laugh, hearing the implication behind those words, "What about Coraline?"

"Coraline was just" Josef hesitated for a moment; trying to find the right words, "Coraline was just Coraline" he waved a hand and snorted of laugh.

Mick smiled and nodded wanly, resting his head back against the door and closing his eyes.

"I never realised until now exactly how lonely immortality really is" he said quietly, after a few moments of morose contemplation.

"Hey, I'm still here" Josef wrapped his arm around Mick's shoulder and pulled him close, forehead pressed against Mick's as he reached up and brushed the side of Mick's face with the tip of his finger.

"Yeah. Yeah you are" Mick' breath caught in his throat as they sat there together and breathed in each other's scent.

"So when did she get back?" Josef's finger continued to brush lightly against the side of Mick's face and then traced its way across Mick's lips.

"A couple of weeks ago, the day after-", Mick left the sentence unfinished, not wanting to think about the last time he had seen Josef and how that particular night had ended.

"Why didn't you come to me before now?" Josef pulled away from Mick, surprised to hear that Beth's revelation had taken place two weeks before Mick had even thought to let him know about it. He had been under the assumption that it had happened just that evening, or perhaps the night before at the very latest.

"I had some thinking to do" Mick's shrug was meant to come across as dismissive, but Josef heard the hitch in his voice and the way Mick swallowed nervously as he spoke those words.

"Oh yeah, and how did that go?" Josef raised an eyebrow and held his breath.

"We'll see" Mick whispered, part to himself, and then drew his hand around the back of Josef's neck.

The kiss was light at first, almost tentative, just soft warm pressure and a gentle probing of tongues. Josef moaned softly and snaked his arm around Mick's shoulder, drawing him close and deepening the kiss.

"Come upstairs" Josef's lips covered Mick's face and throat with hot wet kisses.

Breaking the embrace momentarily, Josef stood up and pulled Mick to his feet with him. He took Mick by the hand and began to lead him towards the upstairs bedroom.

They stumbled through the doorway together, hands clutching and grasping, pulling off shirts and undoing belts and zippers as they stripped each other of their respective material accoutrements. Josef manoeuvred them towards the bed, falling onto it in a tangle of limbs and fangs and snarling kisses.

"What are you looking for?" Josef's breath was ragged as he listened to the sound of Mick's hand fumbling around on the side cupboard just next to the bed, knocking over the small lamp that stood there.

"Lubricant" Mick whispered urgently and ground the length of his erection against Josef's.

"Second drawer"

"Wait there"

"I'm not going-"

Josef had been about to say "anywhere, Mick" but his words were cut off by Mick's return and the feeling of cold viscosity being applied around his entrance.

Josef drew in a sharp hiss of breath as Mick pressed the head of his cock, now slick with lubricant, against his hole and then carefully pushed his way inside. Mick paused when he reached the hilt and then began a slow, steady rhythm of thrust and withdraw.

After the first few strokes, Mick adjusted the angle and began hitting against Josef's prostate with every thrust, sending shock waves of pleasure through Josef's body. Josef wrapped his legs around Mick's waist and clung to his back, nails digging into flesh as he growled with pleasure and smothered Mick's lips and face with urgent kisses.

Suddenly Mick stopped mid stroke and raised himself up onto outstretched arms. He looked down at Josef, his expression part hope and part fear.

Mick drew in a breath and then asked, "The first time we met, what was I wearing?"

Josef sensed that his answer to that question was going to determine exactly where they went from here, he also sensed that "I don't know I was probably picturing you naked" might not exactly be the answer Mick was looking for.

"Stove pipe trousers, black, grey shirt with red pinstripes, black wing tipped shoes; your belt was dark brown, mismatched, with a gold buckle"

"How do you remember that?"

"Because I love you…because I love…because I…Oh fuck"

"Because I paid attention to you Mick, I've been paying attention to you for a long time"

"Close enough"

"Yeah, me too" Mick lowered his head and whispered in Josef's ear.

Crushing his lips against Josef's mouth, Mick started thrusting into him once more, feeling Josef's body trembling with desire beneath him. With every pass Mick increased the rate of his strokes and Josef snarled and bared his fangs, his hips rising and falling to the rhythm of Mick's movements.

Mick thrust forward one final time and felt Josef's nails dig harder into the flesh of his back. Back arched, Josef gave a cry of release and then fell into the abyss. His fangs sunk deep into the top of Mick's shoulder as his body shook with the force of the orgasm that tore through him. Seconds later Mick joined him, moaning Josef's name as he bit into Josef's neck and rode out his own climax.

"So what happens now?" Mick's breathing was still erratic as he withdrew himself from Josef's passage and rolled over to lie next to him, his head resting on Josef's chest. "Where do we go from here?"

Josef smiled and reached up to brush a lock of hair from Mick's forehead, tracing a finger down the side of Mick's face and kissing him gently at the same time.

"We've got eternity, Mick" Josef pressed his lips against Mick's ear and whispered then, "Why don't we just take forever one day at a time".