Wow, the reviews for the last chapter really blew me away! Loving shout-outs go to Anatin123, TarotChild Conan, XxrockyxX, RainGoddess2040, ObviousSubtext, yaoigirl22, nekokira3224, WaffleNinja, Nina, and SabaChan607! Thanks so much for your input and reviews, they really mean a lot to me.
Anyway, onto the next chapter! I hope you guys like it!
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Aidan drove home from his shift at the hospital, his thoughts drifting as he mindlessly followed the familiar streets. It had been six weeks since he'd admitted to himself that he was in love with Josh and he'd slowly started to rearrange his life to accommodate that fact. He'd begun the delicate, political process of extracting himself bit by bit from Suren's empire. There were his carefully placed encouragements, at once self-deprecating and flattering to Suren ("Suren, you don't need me. You're Boston's leader; you're Royal, for God sakes! You have the wisdom of a hundred lifetimes behind you, while I'm barely older than the Vampires you're trying to rein in. You can do this, Suren."). He'd facilitated introductions between Suren and Vampires he knew she'd be drawn to. When those Vampires had ideas for Boston, he made subtle suggestions to flesh them out, turning them into refined plans that would impress Suren. He then encouraged the Vampires to bring their thoughts to her directly, so that she would start turning to others for advice instead of him. She was quickly becoming disillusioned with him, seeing him as weak and unimaginative. She'd lost all interest in their twisted relationship and she was initiating her own plans aimed at gradually replacing him. He was all too happy to slide out from under her thumb.
He'd also returned to his IV bags, after finding a new source at a blood bank. Yes, he'd had to charm one of the phlebotomists into keeping some blood-packs off the books and setting them aside for him, but using his powers of persuasion really was the lesser of two evils here. It was one of the hardest things he'd ever had to do, weaning himself off of live blood – again. But with Josh's recent brush with death, he found the strength to power through the agonizing side effects. Luckily, Josh was still recovering from his illness while he was detoxing. He never saw Aidan tremble violently or snap at Sally and then cry into the couch cushions through his unpredictable mood swings. He never heard Aidan groan and grit his teeth through the unmerciful headaches or shuffle through the house at all hours of the night to battle his insomnia.
By the time Josh had completely recovered, so had Aidan. And that was when the real work began.
Since Suren had come back to Boston, he'd done heavy damage to his friendship with Josh: ignoring him, mocking him, treating him like an annoyance, dismissing his concerns, all with the callous air of someone who just plain didn't care about him. He'd wished that Josh would just yell at him, storm out of the house in a fit of rage, break something, drink something, anything. Instead, he was treated to hesitant glances and skittish body language, awkward conversation and outright avoidance. But the more time passed, the better things got. Aidan spent more time at home, sought Josh out at work and made an effort to let Josh into his world again. Slowly but surely, he was gaining Josh's trust back.
Sally, bless her heart, was doing her best to mend the fences between them. She'd accepted him back without a word, as far as Josh knew. Of course, Josh had been either delusional or absent when the screaming matches had gone down between them; he and Sally knew the score, but that was water under the bridge. Her help came with a price, though, which was letting her pester and push him into telling Josh the truth. Which he hadn't and wouldn't, not yet anyway.
Not that it stopped her from dropping hints like bombs during an air raid. He'd never been more thankful for Josh's cluelessness than he had been these past weeks. Sally was about as subtle as a bulldozer, but even her efforts couldn't quite break through Josh's astounding lack of social awareness. And God knows, she'd tried…
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"I'm sorry, but how am I supposed to take this seriously?" Sally cried, waving her arms at the TV.
"It's sci-fi, Sally, you're not supposed to take it seriously." Aidan sighed, bored out of his mind with the movie. Instead, he was entertaining himself by sneaking sidelong looks at Josh and smiling to himself at the Werewolf's unbridled, awed enthrallment.
"Yeah, you're just supposed to get lost in the fantasy!" Josh was positively riveted by the movie. "What's so hard to believe about it?"
Sally and Aidan stared at him, glanced at each other, and then went back to Josh, whose eyes were glued to the screen. Sally gestured to Aidan as if to say 'by all means, you take this one!' "You mean besides the fact that there are aliens, time travel, doomsday technology and parallel dimensions all in the same movie?"
"Each acting as an integral part of the awesomeness that is Star Trek?" Josh countered. "Then yeah, I mean besides that."
The scene shifted on screen and Sally grinned mischievously. Aidan caught the look from his periphery and glanced back at the TV. Immediately, he knew what Sally was thinking. Behind Josh's back, he shook his head and frantically tried to wave her off her current course. Sally's grin just widened, before being replaced by her previous skeptical look.
"See, that right there!" Sally pointed to the screen. "How can I get into the story when they throw ridiculous plot points like that out there?"
On screen, Spock and Uhura were kissing on the transporter pad as Captain Kirk looked away uncomfortably. Josh spared Sally a glance before going back to the TV. "What's wrong with it?"
"What's wrong with it?" Sally repeated incredulously. "Anyone with two eyes and a gaydar can see that Spock and Kirk have raging hard-ons for each other!"
"What?" Josh scoffed. "That's ridiculous. They're bros, Sally."
"Yeah, I heard somewhere that constant eye-sex is the new fist bump." Sally shot back sarcastically. "All bros are doing it. Which would explain you and Ai–"
"Sally!" Aidan barked, cutting her off. Josh paid their bickering exactly as much attention as ever, meaning none at all, and so missed Sally's implication. "Josh is the Trekkie here, not you. If he says they're just friends, then they're just friends."
"Really epic bromance, huh, Aidan?" Sally smirked, throwing his own denial back at him. Aidan clenched his jaw and shot her a warning look.
"Exactly!" Josh agreed.
"Well, guys would hardly admit when two other guys are sweet on each other." Sally sniffed. "They get all nervous and insecure around homosexuality."
"Well, if I did, that would make me a fucking hypocrite." Josh shrugged, eyes still on the TV.
At Josh's pronouncement, Sally's eyes went wide and Aidan's jaw fell open. Josh had gone out with girls since they'd known him, but could he really be…was he actually…did Aidan have a real shot here?
"W-what –" Sally stuttered for a moment, still in shock. "What do you mean?"
Josh looked at her in surprise. "What do you mean, what do I mean? My sister is gay."
"Ohhh." Sally and Aidan said together, a harmonic mix of realization and disappointment. Sally wasn't quite ready to give up such a promising line of conversation, though. "Was it weird for you, when she came out?"
Josh snorted. "No. We knew she was gay even when she was a toddler. From the time she was three years old, she was saying that she would marry a woman. Her barbies always married each other and Ken just gathered dust in the toy box. Well, his body did. We never did find his head."
"What about you?" Sally asked, sly curiosity in her tone. "Did you ever consider it? You know, being with a guy?"
Aidan shot her a scathing look, but he couldn't deny that he was curious too. By the way Sally winked at him, Aidan thought she could probably tell.
In a moment that could almost be described as telepathic, Aidan absolutely knew that Josh was thinking about the never-to-be-spoken-of-again Mistletoe Incident. Aidan certainly was. Josh swallowed tightly, his Adam's apple bobbing with the effort. His vision still didn't waver from the TV screen, but Aidan could see it was more about determination than fascination at this point. Josh tried to shrug the question off casually, but the gesture was tense and jerky. "If I ever felt that way about a guy, I wouldn't fight it. I know what happens when you restrict yourself like that. Emily went through a phase when she tried to be 'normal', be into guys, but all she got out of it was a case of depression and her first hangover."
"And?" Sally asked eagerly. "Have you ever been attracted to a guy?"
"I have a confession to make." Josh started sheepishly. He took a deep breath and placed a hand over his heart. "I'm wildly, passionately in love with Creepy Larry and want him to whisk me away on his floor-waxer. There, I've said it! At last, our love can run free!"
The movie was abandoned, as was Sally's semi-serious interrogation, and the three of them started cracking up as Josh recited an impromptu sonnet, 'Ode to Creepy Larry: Custodian of My Love'. It wasn't until after Josh had gone to bed, leaving Sally and Aidan alone, that Sally realized something.
"He never really answered the question, did he?"
Aidan shook his head. "No."
"That sly bastard!" Sally muttered.
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After that, Sally had talked him up constantly to Josh, stopping just short of composing her own ode to Aidan's striking good-looks. It was a good plan in theory, except that it had totally blown up in her face. After a week of Sally enumerating his many fine qualities to the confused Werewolf, Josh had cornered him when Sally was out of the house. And so began one of the most bizarre conversations of his life, as Josh enlightened him that their female roommate 'has the ghostly hots for you, Aidan' and that he really needed to 'let her down easy and preferably away from the house, so that we don't have to buy new dishes again'. He'd nearly choked on his own tongue to keep from bursting out laughing, but once Josh had left and Sally misted back into the house, he'd nearly retched from the force of his laughter while pointing at her reddening face. Sally was not amused, but at least she'd stopped trying to force things from Josh's end. Instead, she'd refocused on him and badgered him at every opportunity.
In fact, Aidan was surprised he'd gotten this much alone time without her incessant –
"Hey." Sally misted into the passenger seat.
"Bah!" Aidan yelled, jumping in his seat. Speak of the fucking Devil. "Don't do that! You nearly ran me off the road! You couldn't wait until I got home?"
"This is the only chance I have to talk to you without Josh around." Sally shrugged, unrepentant as ever. "So, tonight's the full moon. Are you going to tell him?"
"Sally, please, not now." Aidan nearly begged. "I've been on-call for the past two days. I haven't even been home to shower or feed! I'm starving and all I want is a little peace and quiet."
"Aidan, come on!" Sally whined. "It's been over a month since you figured it out. How can you just sit here, doing nothing about it? Now that you know, don't you just want to attack him?"
"I'm sure I can refrain from pouncing on him." Aidan said dryly. "With immortality comes amazing powers of self-restraint."
"But why restrain yourself when you can just tell him?"
"Really, Sally? Just tell him? Like it's that fucking easy?" Aidan snapped, his grip on the steering wheel tightening. "How can I possibly tell Josh – the melodramatic, easily panicked, romantically awkward Werewolf – that I am a) suddenly bisexual b) totally hot for him and c) not just sexually attracted to him, but so in love with him I can barely make it through my shift without seeing him? Yeah…that would go over great."
"Well..." Sally started, a shred of optimism in her tone before she deflated. "Okay, I guess I can see your point."
"Look, you may be otherworldly now, but you're still young and impatient. This is going to take time, okay? I have to pick my moment carefully. You don't know Josh like I do. If I go at him, guns blazing, he'll freak the hell out."
"Well, what if you just gradually get him used to the idea. You know, make him feel comfortable around you –"
"Sally, I used to see him naked every month when I picked him up after the full moon. I think he's comfortable around me."
" –do nice, thoughtful things for him –"
"I routinely save his life and I take out the garbage. Check."
"–be a bit more physical with him –"
"It's not like we haven't kissed before."
"Wait, what?"
"Nothing." Aidan said quickly.
"Oh, no, you don't!" Sally grinned, shifting in her seat to face him. "Start talking! I want every last detail."
"Not a chance." Aidan shook his head. "It falls under Vegas Rule."
"And who exactly could I tell?" Sally asked sarcastically.
"Josh! You wouldn't be able to help yourself from teasing him!"
"If you don't tell me, I'll force it out of Josh." Sally threatened. "I promise you, it'll be pleasant…but only for me."
"Fine." Aidan rolled his eyes. "We got dragged under the mistletoe at the Christmas Party two years ago. Happy?"
"The hospital's Christmas Party? As in the 'wilder than Mardi Gras and Spring Break combined' Christmas Party?" Sally laughed. "Oh, this is awesome! Tell me everything! I know it wasn't just a peck; your co-workers are like rabid dogs when it comes to sniffing out sex and violence at those things."
"No, it wasn't just a peck." Aidan grumbled.
"Sooo?" Sally prompted.
Aidan huffed, keeping his eyes focused intently on the road. "We made out...heavily. And it's possible that we both lost our shirts at some point. And there may have been some dry humping there at the end."
"Oh! Oh, God! It's too good!" Sally cackled in delight.
"Not a word! I mean it, Sally!" Aidan insisted. "Josh would feed me to his wolf if he knew I told you."
"Well, it doesn't sound like he was putting up a fight." Sally grinned, watching as Aidan gripped his rumbling stomach. "You okay?"
"I told you, I haven't eaten in two days. I'm starving." Aidan replied, turning onto their street and parking in front of the house. Turning to Sally, he continued, "We're home, so we're done talking about this."
"Okay, okay!" Sally said, putting her hands up defensively. "God, you're such a grouch when you're hungry."
Aidan jogged up the stairs to the house and let Sally in first, closing the door after himself and immediately making his way to the kitchen.
"Josh, we're home!" Sally called up the stairs before trailing after Aidan.
"Be down in a sec!" Josh shouted back.
Aidan nearly ripped off the door of the fridge in his haste and grabbed the first IV bag he saw, biting into the plastic and draining it. His eyes fluttered closed in pleasure and he groaned.
"Eww." Sally wrinkled her nose as trails of blood ran from the sides of Aidan's mouth. "Slow down, it's not going anywhere."
"Two days, Sally." came Aidan's gurgled reply around a mouthful of blood. After emptying the first bag, he threw it into the garbage and immediately started on a second. Uncaring of Sally's disgust or any pretense of manners, he consumed it greedily. Blood now completely coated his mouth and chin, streaming down his neck in rivulets.
Josh's voice sounded from the bottom of the stairs, quickly moving closer. "Hey Aidan, I'm heading out to the storage unit soon. Can you give me a lift? Curtain goes up in an hour, so I should…"
Aidan finished his second bag and pulled it away from his mouth, gasping for air and running his tongue over his blood-soaked fangs. At the same moment, Josh entered the doorway of the kitchen, his voice trailing off and his heavy-lidded gaze fixed on Aidan. Something fell from Josh's hand and landed on the floor with a metallic clink; a gleaming Star of David could be seen resting atop the coiled chain.
"Hey." Aidan panted, still catching his breath. "You need a ride?"
Josh didn't respond and in fact, he didn't appear to have heard Aidan at all. His eyes were intense and dark, staring at Aidan's mouth. A rumbling sound filled the room and it took Sally and Aidan a moment to realize it was coming from Josh. An animalistic, rasping growl started deep in Josh's throat, vibrating along his vocal chords and then rising in volume when it finally entered his mouth. Josh curled his lips back, baring his teeth, and as he parted his mouth, the sound grew into a deep, low snarl.
"Josh…" Aidan dragged his name out and eyed him warily. "You okay?"
"Aidan, the blood!" Sally whispered frantically, her wide eyes locked on Josh. "He's Changing in less than an hour!"
Aidan glanced at the spent blood-pack in his hand and felt thick streams of blood dripping down his chin. His eyes widened, realizing he'd never fed this close – or this sloppily – to Josh's Change before. Scrutinizing Josh, whose unwavering concentration was still on his mouth, Aidan realized the wolf was extremely close to the surface and provoked by the smell of blood, to the point where Josh may not be in control right now. This close to the full moon, Josh was much stronger than he was and Aidan wouldn't be able to fight him off, not without seriously injuring both of them in the process.
"Josh." Aidan repeated, standing perfectly still. "You need to snap out of it. Take control, man. Come on, Josh, you can do this."
Again, Josh didn't respond. Instead, he began a slow, rocking prowl towards Aidan, his eyes clouded with bloodlust and visceral instinct.
"Do something!" Sally squeaked.
Aidan was no coward, but there was a reason relations between Werewolves and Vampires were tense at best. Werewolves were the only creatures that could overpower and kill Vampires; they were feared, and therefore hated, above any other threat to their community. One survival instinct had been pounded into Aidan's skull since his infancy as a Vampire: when confronted by a Werewolf this close to the full moon…run.
With inhuman speed, Aidan tried to race from the room, but with equally inhuman reflexes, Josh's arm shot out and caught him in the chest, throwing him backwards into the kitchen like a rag doll. He flew through the air in a high arc and landed on top of the table with a thud, his back aching from the impact. He could hear Sally's scream mix with his own pained grunt. He managed to sit up, but was instantly knocked onto his back again, this time by Josh's weight on top of him.
He struggled to move, thrashing wildly in an effort to gain any measure of leverage against the Werewolf, but he was hopelessly pinned. Josh's body was lined up with his from head to toe. Both of Josh's knees were pressed into the outside of his thighs, effectively trapping his legs. Any wiggle room he might have found was nullified by Josh's hips pushing heavily into his, concentrating the majority of his body weight on the hinge-point. Their stomachs and chests were in full contact; he could feel Josh's ragged, shuddering snarls vibrate against him. One of Josh's hands had his arm pinned to the table by the elbow and the other buried itself into Aidan's hair.
When he was finally rendered helpless and subdued, as any predator prefers their prey, Aidan squeezed his eyes shut and prepared himself for the pain of ripping flesh and gnawing teeth and raking claws. Instead, he felt the hand in his hair snap his head violently to the side – his vision blurred at the sharp pain of it – and then Josh's lips were on him, lapping and sucking at the blood running down his neck.
Aidan's eyes flew open as Josh's tongue dipped into the hollow of his throat and savagely nipped at his Adam's apple. His mouth was everywhere – licking, sucking, biting, scraping, kissing, slurping – feasting on the residue of Aidan's last meal. It was overpowering, the feel of Josh pressing into him, devouring him, dominating him as he'd never imagined. These past weeks, he'd constantly fantasized about taking Josh hard and hot over the kitchen table, reckless and quick in the supply closet at work, agonizingly slow and deep in his bed. But this, being taken himself by a primal, regressed, animal Josh, was a scenario that hadn't even occurred to him. But now that he was in it, experiencing it, the raw carnality of it consumed him wholly.
All Aidan could see, feel, smell, was Josh. All his senses were saturated by him and nothing else. Josh's pupils were blown wide, the darkness of them eating into the shrinking irises. There was an overpowering tempest of hungry desire flashing inside of them: potent, wild and nearly seductive in its magnetism. His skin was flush with exertion and frenzy, the heat of it sizzling into Aidan's flesh like Indian summer sunlight. Staccato, snorting huffs from his nostrils and panting, feral breaths from his throat shot bursts of sultry air across Aidan's skin. His mouth trailed from his neck to his chin and when Josh's lips finally crushed themselves onto his, Aidan couldn't help bucking his hips upwards into Josh's.
Josh gave a deep, aroused growl into Aidan's mouth at the friction and began to rut against Aidan with jolting, deliberate thrusts. The solid length of him drove relentlessly into Aidan's own painfully hard erection, causing him to moan into Josh's mouth. Aidan lifted his head from the table and used his free hand to cup Josh's jaw, pushing himself even further into their kiss. Their mouths moved together roughly and desperately, lips being bruised in the clash, until the blood and saliva and breath of both men were utterly intermingled.
Josh's hands suddenly tore through his shirt like it was tissue paper, his nails tearing into Aidan's skin in the process. The cutting pain only added to Aidan's arousal and one of his hands gripped Josh's ass, forcing their joining to a new, frenzied pace as Aidan ground their pelvises together. Josh became positively crazed at the action, moving his hands to Aidan's hips and holding them in an iron grip as he once again took control of their movements. Josh's mouth tore into his with brutal strength, demanding supplication and submission, even as he reached one hand down to the crotch of Aidan's pants. He literally tore the button off of his jeans and yanked the zipper down.
"Holy hell, Josh." Aidan groaned, lifting his hips sharply.
Josh, or rather his wolf, clearly didn't care for Aidan's mouth being used for any purpose other than its current occupation and made its displeasure known. One hand buried itself anew in Aidan's hair, forced his head to the side and Josh bit down on the juncture of his shoulder and neck – hard. Teeth ripped through his flesh and without any warning, Aidan came violently as his orgasm overtook him. He screamed hoarsely, intoxicated by the combination of pleasure and pain.
Josh's savage growls continued against his neck as he lapped up the new source of blood and he pounded his hips into Aidan's. Suddenly, Josh raised himself onto his arms, locking his elbows. His hips stuttered into Aidan's a few more times, a low roar building with each thrust. Then he threw his head back, his mouth stained bright red with blood and raised to the sky, and howled as he came.
Aidan had never seen a more erotic sight in his life and felt himself hardening again. He couldn't help himself from complying with the instinct running through his body. Wrapping an arm around Josh's waist, Aidan hauled himself into a sitting position and sunk his fangs into Josh's extended jugular vein. Josh's howl, the cry of a conqueror, was cut off and became the yelping whine of a kicked puppy. But Aidan didn't stop. He couldn't stop. The blood pouring into his mouth was invigorating, primeval, satisfying in a way human blood, live or not, had never been. There was a spice, an irresistible additive, that made him ravenous for more.
But, all too quickly, Josh's hands came to his chest and shoved him away. The momentum knocked Aidan onto his back again and sent Josh flying backwards off the table.
The room was silent for a moment. Aidan was heaving in great gulps of air as Josh's blood seared through his veins. His body gave the occasional shudder as the aftershocks of his orgasm trembled through him. One hand flew to his neck, where Josh had bitten him. Pressing into the wound to stop the bleeding had the unforeseen side effect of making his cock twitch. He wasn't sure how long he laid there, as his awareness of time had suddenly slowed to a trickle, but it was probably mere seconds.
When Josh's head popped up from below the table, he looked confused and terrified and like Josh again. When their eyes met, Aidan felt his cock give another strong jerk. But there was no time for his more lustful reactions, as the color bled away from Josh's face and he looked beyond horrified. He scrambled away from Aidan, landing on his ass before getting up quickly.
"Oh my G – what the he – Jesus Chr – Aidan, I'm so –" Josh had never looked so lost as his eyes raked over Aidan's body. Aidan was sure he looked absolutely ravaged, in more ways than one: shredded shirt, deep and angry bite mark, scratches on his chest, fingertip bruises on his hipbones, blood stains all over, extended fangs, solid black eyes, panting gasps, and a suspicious wet stain on his half-open jeans.
Josh had a look in his eyes like a cornered animal and his gaze darted all over the room, finally landing on Aidan's car keys. Snatching them and bolting from the room, Josh called over his shoulder with a panicked, hurried tone, "I'll bring your car back tomorrow! I gotta get to the shed!"
The front door slammed before he'd finished and Aidan could hear Josh's garbled, continued excuses fading down the steps even after it was closed. For the first time in a long time, everything was still.
"Holy crap, that was hot!" came Sally's breathless voice.
Huh. He'd forgotten Sally was there. Aidan shifted his head on the table, until he could see a slightly upside down version of her. One hand was on her heaving chest, the other was fanning her face and she was pressed up against the kitchen counter as though her legs were too weak to support her alone. Instead of responding, he moved his head in the sluggish imitation of a nod and then went back to staring at the ceiling. "Aidan? You in there? Say something!"
Aidan blinked slowly, moving one hand behind his head and the other to his stomach. Running his tongue along his lips and tasting Josh's blood, Aidan smirked lazily. "Wow."
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I have to admit, I made myself kind of hot with this one! So, now that you've gotten a taste of some Aidan/Josh loving, I'll revisit my previous question: M rating? Yay? Nay? I know some people might have rated this M, but I consider everything short of actual, in-and-out sex to be T still. Let me know what you think!
And how do you want to see the big confession happen? Wildly romantic gesture, heartfelt confession, down and dirty sexing, life-or-death revelation, something else?
Please read and review!
**Update 3/13/12** Rating changed to M because the above steaminess is too close to call in the T/M debate and my reviewers have persuaded me to err on the side of caution ;) Good call, y'all!