It was close to midnight when Claw finally heard the main doors creak open. He remained where he was, listening to the footfall over stone flooring. They paused and a voice called with some hesitance, "Damien?"

Claw threw a glare at the smirking youth on the other side of the room and made a gesture. Talon rolled his eyes and got up from his lazy lean on the desk. Claw got up too, as this was not an area he wanted to be seen in. The two of them exited through a passageway. While Gadget wandered around the tomb-like foyer, poking at a small grotesque carved into the wall, Talon went one way and Claw went another, both of them knowing what they must do.

Claw ascended a damp staircase and slipped through a short passageway that might be ignored by the untrained eye, or merely the unsuspicious. The current master of the house had his arms around the inspector from behind before he knew it, the two of them glared down upon by Clawsian ancestors. He turned Gadget away from them and led him down a hallway that actually got some sunlight, as one of the few used areas at true ground level.

"How exquisite it is to see you again, Gus, my dear," Claw said, his arm lowering from the other's shoulders to wrap around his lower back. Gadget leaned against him.

"I hope it's not too late," he said.

"Never for you," Claw replied with a chuckle. They passed more paintings, most of them of dreary landscapes, thankfully. The lightning painted in many of them was vivid enough to give life to them otherwise. Passing through a set of heavy wooden doors, they entered a small, crowded, but somehow cosy chamber, enlivened by a fire and decorated by furniture rather than figures. "And you know how I like to keep late hours anyway," he said softly into his ear as he had him sit at the expansive, yet scantily set table. "Just something light," he said, lifting the covers to reveal an elegant and lively dish.

Gadget muttered an eager thanks and started in before Claw could continue. They ate in companionable silence, and did not neglect the wine. It wasn't long before the formality of sitting at the table became too much to endure, and at Claw's lead, they took the bottle and sat on the rug in front of the fire, Claw's legs crossed, Gadget's tucked beneath him, their arms securing each other against the cold, lonely night. They felt to be in a protective circle that ended only a few inches from their bodies.

After a time, Claw encouraged Gadget to sit between his legs, though he was the slightest bit shy at first. "I'd just noticed how stiff your shoulders are," he said. He gently stroked down the sides of his guest's jaw, lightly massaging all the way his neck, digging in deeply at the base of his neck. When stretched out, his hand could engulf much of Gadget's shoulder mass at once, and his fingers reached far into the other's shirt without protest. He leaned his head against Gadget's and kissed the top of it.

Gadget's eyes were drooping and looked sleepy, but he awakened himself. Slowly he turned in Claw's lap and took gentle hold of his face. He just gazed at him a moment, so still and focused Claw's heart raced, his mind readied for confrontation…

Which came in the form of a kiss. With a vehemence born of yearning, of exhaustion from the lonely days, Gadget kissed him and pressed against him, as if trying to lock themselves together. He was straddling Claw by now, letting himself be held and supported; if Claw let go right now he would have fallen.

Carefully setting the wine bottle down and balancing Gadget in his other arm, Claw lowered himself to the floor, Gadget going down with him. He watched Gadget gazing down at him. As he lowered, a hand going to the floor to support himself, the other reaching to stroke Claw's face, his hat tumbled off and Claw just barely caught it. They looked at each other a second and then descended into laughter, Claw's especially raspy as he grabbed Gadget by the waist and pulled him to the floor.

Gadget moved in rhythmic motions against Claw's thick, sturdy thigh, gasping every other breath into the other's ear, or his mouth, or against his neck, depending on where Claw found his lips. He pressed back against Gadget in time with his motions, making sure to give him an extra harsh, almost painful nudge a few times. It hurt his ear, but it was worth to hear that surprised yelp when he closed his teeth around the inspector's throat. Very gently, enough to feel a pulse, enough to show what he could do.

And then he'd kiss the spot he'd so threatened, Gadget swooning in either case; the way he held fast to him, sought out his lips with his own, drank in every detail when his eyes were open, committed them to memory when closed. Claw slid his hand down Gadget's body, nestling at the dip at his waist, over his soft gray jacket. As they kissed, Gadget led his hand down, and they both fumbled with his coat belt with amusing frustration, laughing softly as they refused to break their kiss. With some rough effort, Claw slipped it off and let his hand slide up and over his groin. He laughed sharply as Gadget let out a startled gasp and gripped him tighter at the shoulders. His hand stroked back down, pressed down almost too hard, just to do it again.

Gadget kissed his neck, tender where Claw had been rough and sharp; the more Claw aroused him with his brutish motions, the more tender Gadget became, kissing with a loving softness any skin he had access to, which wasn't much. As the fire raged at their side, Claw knelt over Gadget and gazed down at him, stroking his cheek. Gadget kissed the back of his hand.

"My dear, this will be our last night together," Claw said, though he didn't need to for his plan to succeed. A contingency plan, he suspected, in case he failed tonight. Before sunrise, the compound was set to be released. He had taken every precaution to make sure no one knew what had happened until well after the fact, but he'd lived long enough to know anything could happen. The way Gadget looked at him tempted him to say something comforting but he just stroked his hair instead as he processed this.

"Will I ever see you again?" Gadget asked, sitting up.

"I will return," he answered with a nod, and leaned in to kiss him. "I'm sorry I could only share such precious little with you."

Gadget smiled softly and held him. He stroked through the other's hair with just the right pressure, not hitting a single snag. "You gave me more than you know, Damien," he whispered.

Painfully overcome, Claw yanked him closer like he were a liferaft. He landed numerous little kisses across the other's jaw, up into his thick, soft hair, while Gadget leaned his face against his hand. An image flashed in his mind over and over, with a vividness that drove Claw to kissing so much of Gadget's skin and clothing alike, if only to overpower that mental image. It was more a to-do list than a fantasy: of him going to the lab and taking a tiny quantity of poison; from one of the deadlier batches. He'd only have to slip a powder-laded finger between the inspector's lips while he slept.

It would solve everything, he kept thinking as he kissed along the almost imperceptible line at Gadget's wrist, as far as he was allowed. Claw enveloped Gadget in his arms, filled with the sudden rush of a changed mind, but only for a short, irrational moment. No one was forcing him to do this, but the consequences of allowing Gadget to keep living made it relentlessly simple to his mind. Too simple. Even if he let him get away this time, he'd only regret it later.

He was stroking Gadget's hair and the back of his neck as he brooded, but apparently with enough automatic skill. Gadget leaned against him and caressed his back over his thin shirt, his fingers greedily taking in the contours of bone and sinew. With a sudden wave of emotion, Claw grabbed Gadget by the back of the neck and kissed him roughly on the mouth. As the inspector clutched him, Claw moved down to his neck, the kisses quickly evolving into bites, sharper and sharper, until Gadget's winces and tightened grip turned to squeezes and audible distress in his groans.

The sound of his pain at his hands-or rather teeth-evoked something within Claw, something that prompted him to cease and kiss the reddened spots over and over, to kiss up along his face and to hold him tight and protected against the world.

Gadget kept up breathlessly but with a relentless eagerness. At Claw's pause he burrowed his face against the other's neck and sighed, "...I love you, Damien…"

Claw resisted looking at him or asking for clarification, not wanting to break that powerful spell, but instead answered with a soft sigh of his own, holding the other still against his powerfully beating heart.

"I know you're not supposed to say something like that so soon, or even think it-" Gadget whispered, but Claw interrupted with the softed shadow of a kiss.

"Took you long enough to figure it out," Claw said huskily, even for him.

Gadget could not kill his smile, though he tried to hide it behind countless kisses. It faded into a worried look when he asked, "So, is it...mutual?"

Claw held Gadget's face in his hands and opened his mouth to answer-

The gadgetphone buzzed furiously right then, and Claw hid his relief as he helped Gadget to his feet rather hastily. Gadget indulged in a last glance at Claw before leaving the room. Meanwhile Claw checked his burner and mentally adjusted his plans. Whatever plans he had went out the window when Gadget came back in with a furiously serious look on his face and announced, "I have to leave!" He didn't need to say any more than that for Claw to realize with a sudden panic, that his crew had been caught. However there was still a chance they at least released the compound beforehand. Things might go easier for them if they had.

Gadget paused at the door, hands fumbling at his tie, and gave Claw a heartbreaking, lingering look. Claw's grip was crushing as he held his hands but he didn't seem to care. "Don't be gone too long," he said, and leaned in for a kiss which Claw sadly gave. Then he raced out of the door and left Claw alone.

Not a second after the door closed, and Dr. Claw was focused on what must be done. Immediately he turned and ran for one of his control rooms, already calling the leader of his crew on his burner. No answer. He called for Talon as he all but leaped into one of the lonely chambers and switched the video feed to the water treatment plant, cycling through the rooms till he found his crew standing around, all talking to Talon, who seemed relaxed but very close to the door.

He had him on live visual as he called his mobile. "Is it done?" he demanded, and felt his heart skip a beat at the way Talon smirked back at him through the security camera.

"The guys and I decided not to," he said.

"Talon…"

"You've gone too far this time, Uncle," he went on, heading for the door. "I just couldn't let you do it. I mean, we live here too, you know, so did you, like, ever think about that?"

Claw just slammed the phone down and started pounding away at a keyboard. He managed to contact one of the crew's cellphones but it was too late; just as Talon escaped, decidedly unfriendly figures burst in from the other direction.

His rage, frustration, sense of treacherous betrayal, all melted as he watched Gadget, his dear Gus, stride into that scene of chaos, hands on hips, an irresistible grin on his face, his partner letting a hand linger on his shoulder before taking hold of one of his men. The Chief with his predictable praises and Gadget's almost as predictable reception of them. He was consumed with the yearning to snap the man's neck, a desire living awkwardly beside the desperate need to hold him softly against his heart. As if caught between two violent storms, Claw was subdued into inaction, strongly ignoring outside stimuli, even the insistent ringing of the burner in his back pocket: The one he only used to communicate with Gadget.

Fumbling, he fished it out and snapped a hasty greeting. He watched Gadget's face as he spoke into a sleek little mobile, "Damien! It's over, we-"

He kept his eyes on the monitor, on Gadget's face as it fell with panicked confusion when at that moment Claw crushed the phone under his heel. For a long time he remained standing there, destroyed electronics beneath his boot, watching his would-be lover try to work despite obvious emotion. The miserable, confused look in Gadget's face almost made up for the bitter, wretched pain Claw knew he'd have to endure for a long time because of all this. And even though it seemed to cause physical pangs of pain in his heart, Claw took a seat and kept watching, changing the feeds to follow Gadget throughout the night. Talon returned hours later to see that nothing had changed.