Roman stood in his kitchen and marvelled at how much difference six weeks could make.
They had finally freed Nadia. After all the time they had spent tracking Spivak down, the confrontation had seemed almost anticlimactic. All it had taken in the end was a bite.
On another happy note, his mother was dead. She had gone out in a blaze of glory, taking Annie with her. Roman was still unsure how he felt about that. He didn't have a lot of time to get to know her and even after her death he couldn't help but be pissed that she never mentioned that she was his half-sister. His feelings about his mother's death, on the other hand, were unconflicted. It was a cause for celebration, simple as that.
Pryce had a brush with death as well. One of the people he had experimented on stabbed him in his lab and almost killed him. Roman was told that it had been touch and go for a while but in the end he pulled through. Blinsky had visited the upir just a day ago, begging that he talk some sense into Pryce who apparently refused to take a rest and was already running things again from his hospital bed. As if the man ever listened to him.
He was still unsure how he felt about Shelley's situation. He was happy for her, happy that she had fallen in love for the first time, but the guy was way too old for her. He would have told her so, hadn't it been for the fact that he really was the last person to be judging people on their choice of partners. He sighed. Well, if she was happy who was he to interfere.
He was drawn from his retrospective by the sound of laughter from the living room. He looked over and saw Peter throwing Nadia in the air and catching her. She was making little squeaks of delight. Roman was suddenly overwhelmed by a feeling of deep affection. Towards his daughter but also … no, he wasn't thinking about that.
He walked over, then realized that he had actually forgotten the bottle he'd been preparing in the kitchen. He turned around to retrieve it, trying to clear his thoughts. When he came back, Peter snatched the bottle from his hand and grinned at him happily and Roman could feel the same sensation as before, even more intense.
"So." Roman tried to sound casual and failed miserably. "How about we let the nanny take care of Nadia tonight and have a drink?"
It sounded like an innocent question but neither of them was fooled. They both knew that what he was actually asking was Are we cool? In the last couple of weeks, Roman had invited Peter for drinks twice and had been turned down politely both times.
"Sure." Peter said after a moment's hesitation. Roman let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding.
"How about we meet at my place?", Peter added, "Then we don't have to worry about waking Nadia up." When he said her name, he looked at the baby lovingly.
Destiny had taken off for Europe almost six weeks ago. Peter, much to Roman's chagrin, had decided to move back in to her place and house-sit it in her absence. However, recently he started to spend more and more time at Roman's , taking care of Nadia or simply talking to the upir. Peter had stayed over a couple of nights as well and some of his things had magically reappeared in Roman's house. The upir was convinced that it was only a matter of time before Peter would move back in. The thought made him unreasonably happy.
"Makes sense. It's a date." Roman grinned wickedly at Peter, who answered with a bemused raise of one eyebrow.
"Do I want to know what I've just gotten myself into?"
The upir just grinned at him in reply.
Roman stood in front of the door to Destiny's apartment, feeling nervous.
Don't be stupid, he thought, you're just meeting a good friend for drinks, that's all.
He had a bottle of very nice whiskey in one hand and a joint in his pocket. The whiskey was actually much too nice to get drunk with, but Roman couldn't care less.
He took a deep breath and knocked on the door. Peter opened it almost immediately, as if he had been waiting on the other side. His hair was all mussed up like he had just awoken from a nap. Roman felt a strange sensation at the sight, butterflies tumbling over each other in his stomach and a weird longing, very different from the blood lust that was his constant companion.
"Hey", he said lamely.
Peter grinned up at him and stepped aside to let him in.
Peter exhaled slowly and enjoyed the feeling of happy fuzziness. There was something important he had meant to ask Roman, but he couldn't put his finger on it. Ah, yes.
"How's Pryce? The last time I saw him, he said we should bring Nadia by as soon as possible for a check-up due to her 'lineage'" He made little air quotes with his fingers on the last word. Roman cringed at the reminder of their fight. "But that was before the whole stabbing thing. Is he back already?"
"He's actually recuperating at some resort with his boyfriend. He wanted to come back to work but Blinsky had some meltdown and refused to work with him if he didn't take better care of himself. Pryce fired Blinsky on the spot, naturally, but I hired him back and told Pryce to get the fuck out until he's recovered."
"Huh", Peter said, "I didn't know he was gay." The remark sat between them like a 500 pound Gorilla scratching its chin. An awkward silence followed. Roman said the first thing that came to his mind.
"You know he once told me that it's strange that you and I are friends." There was an almost imperceptible pause before he continued. "And asked me if we were more than friends." Roman made a nervous sound halfway between a laugh and a giggle. "Silly, huh?"
Peter turned and looked at his friend. There it is, he thought dazedly. The thing they had somehow, somewhere along the line, agreed silently to never talk about. Just like that it was out in the open. He wondered briefly if Roman really was clueless about the whole thing. He had caught the upir staring at him with an expression that showed something decidedly different than just friendship more than once. In the beginning, he had put it down to blood lust, maybe werewolves just smelled especially tasty to upirs or some such shit. But after a while he had begun to wonder. Roman had saved his life on more than one occasion and it sometimes seemed to him that there was nothing the upir wasn't willing to do or risk for him. And there was the way Roman looked at him after a change, like he was the most precious thing in the world.
In his heart of hearts, though, he had always been certain that the upir would never act on his feelings. It seemed that something in their deep connection scared Roman. Well, maybe not just Roman, he admitted grudgingly to himself. It was not like he had been very outspoken on the topic either. And now the upir had just put on the table. Admittedly in a way that left some wiggle room for him to back down again. Maybe it was a fatal combination of weed and alcohol, but Peter was suddenly feeling bolt.
"Did you ever want to be?"
Roman stared at him wide-eyed.
"What?"
Peter looked him straight in the eye, thinking This is not that hard. I can do this. "Did you ever want to be", there was a pause lasting a heartbeat, "more than friends?"
Roman just continued staring at him, very much like a deer caught in the headlights. Peter almost laughed. They spent a night together with Miranda having sex, for God's sake. It should not be that hard to talk about this. He managed to suppress the laughter, certain that it would have ruined any chance to actually have this conversation. He continued to look at Roman expectantly, ignoring the plea in the other man's eyes to just drop it.
Roman croaked something that might have, with a lot of good will, been a yes.
Peter felt an intense thrill run through him like he had only ever experienced before when hunting in his wolf form. His eyes strayed down to Roman's lips and back up again. He could see that the upir had caught the gesture. Peter was giddy with excitement. Now or never.
He leaned forward slowly, giving Roman ample chance to protest or pull back. He did neither, remaining frozen in place.
The kiss was awkward, like first kisses always are. The angle was weird and their noses bumped slightly. It was the barest brush of lips and then Peter pulled back, trying to gauge Roman's reaction. The upir's eyes were closed and he was looking enthralled.
After a couple of seconds, Roman opened his eyes and looked at him wonderingly. Peter smiled at him and leaned forward for a second kiss. This one lasted much longer, but it was still very hesitant, almost chaste. Peter, still feeling bolt, put his right hand in Roman's neck, holding the other man steady.
It was very different from what Peter had imagined. When he had fantasized about this, and before today he would never, not even under torture, have admitted that he had indeed fantasized about it, their first kiss was passionate, wild, almost violent. A clash of teeth, biting, growling. Crashing through furniture, smashing against walls. He had expected a feral fight for dominance.
Instead, Roman was hesitant, unsure, gentle. He melted away under Peter's hands. From the first minute, the werewolf realized that there would be no fight for leadership here.
So he led, and Roman followed.
