"Where the fuck have you been, Nigel?"

Darko sounded pissed off but completely unsurprised to hear Nigel alive and well. His second in command and comrade in arms had always claimed that he would have to see a body to believe that Nigel was dead.

"I am laying low for the time being. Those treacherous backstabbing cunts tried to kill me. What's to be done about that?" Nigel laughed, the noise more hostile than amused, full of a violence that meant lethal things for other people.

"What indeed." Darko mused back though the answer was clear. A grave insult had been made. There was only one real response to such a thing. "If you're still in New York, I may have a list of names that just might interest you, my friend."

"You know me so well. As it so happens, I'm still in this hellhole of a city. I would love a chance to check in on our former associates and pay them a call." Nigel mused with a cold grin of sharp teeth. "I owe them so much for their hospitality."

The very bad man from Bucharest listened as Darko rattled off a list of ten dead men walking. Nigel recognized only a few of them, but he was sure he would be able to fine the others with little difficulty. He had a talent and a rather unique skill set for making other people talk, being the friendly person he was with his gun and quick temper.

"Would you care for some help in this endeavor?" Darko offered. Nigel need that he could have men he could relatively trust at his disposal as soon as tomorrow if he wanted them there.

"And ruin all my fun? Never. I think that this matter needs to be personally attended to, and besides, I need the exercise." Nigel easily dismissed the proposal. He didn't feel like waiting, and most people didn't have the stomach for what he had in mind anyway.

Mostly healed up and in some desperate need of violence, Nigel was going out of his mind in the apartment with nothing to distract him from boredom, pacing like a jungle cat in a too small enclosure. To make matters worse, Harlan had picked Adam up this morning, both men needing to be present for the reading of the late Mr. Riki's will.

Nigel decided that now was as good a time as any to begin at he left the apartment with very bad things in mind for other people.

OoOoO

The meeting with Mr. Wardlow had not gone especially well. The news of him having to move out of the only home he had ever known caused the onset of a major panic attack, one that left Adam unable to move. Understanding to an extent what was happening, Harlan had needed to lead him out by his hand, making Adam almost glad be couldn't process emotions or recognize them. From what he understood, embarrassment was a common response to such occurrences, but he was too involved with panic and the overload of information to care what Mr. Wardlow thought about him.

Immense frightening change looming overhead, Adam felt he had bigger things to worry about than some stranger's opinion though, the young man sullen and mostly argumentative as Harlan drove him home. Without his father's income, the mortgage was too much for him to afford all on his own to keep staying there. Unless he found a job which was Harlan's advice.

When Adam arrived at the apartment, he found the place empty for the first time in weeks. Nigel was gone from his normal places of the bed and the living room couch. Unsure of what to make of that but having something other than Nigel to obsess over now, Adam sat down at his desk, fired up his laptop, and got to work. Harlan said that he needed to find a job to keep his home so Adam was going to find a job. It was the simplest answer to his problem and one he could cope with. He really didn't want to move.

Sitting at his desk for hours, Adam kept to his task with laser focus until the apartment grew dark and the laptop was the only source of illumination in the place. His back hurting him enough to make even Adam break his considerable concentration, he tried to look out his window to find he couldn't. All his windows were not in ideal places for optimal stargazing. On top of that, their odd positioning and size made it difficult to clean any of them thoroughly.

It had always bothered him, but cleaning the windows had been his father's chore. Expect his father was dead which meant it was his decision and his responsibility now. Adam realized some sacrifices had to be made on his part if he wanted to see some stars from the comfort of his home. The windows' odd positioning and size made it difficult to clean any of them perfectly though.

At least from the inside…..

His mind whirling with a new task at hand and a plan beginning to take form, Adam went to his bedroom to suit up.

OoOoO

It had been a very productive day for Nigel. Try as he might, Nigel couldn't seem wipe the smug grin off his face as easily as he had washed other people's leaking life off of his hands. Not with his gun still warm, his palms itching from powder burn and abrasions to his knuckles, and the adrenalin singing in his blood, so Nigel continued to grin like he was high on life. It was just too bad for other people that his drug was their pain and suffering, their demise his version of an 8-ball. Nigel felt reborn in violence, having missed the feel of wearing wrath over his skin.

Oh and how they had bled for him, how beautifully they had begged in harmony with the quick tempo he had set with his fists and bullets, all wet ruined flesh and whimpering mewls from mouths like worn out, ready cunts.

Five had already been struck from his list, and Nigel knew where the other five were now. He planned to let them piss themselves a bit before he got round to them. No one knew he was alive still. He had made sure of that, murdering any and all witnesses with extreme prejudice. There were no innocent bystanders in his sort of business though. No one would weep for the fresh dearly departed as they robbed their corpses. He had left no trace behind to hint at what devil had decided to come along and reap the wicked.

Upon entering though, Nigel was surprised to find the apartment empty, though Adam had obviously been home. His laptop was still powered up and out on his desk, surrounded by paperwork from a law office.

Nigel found himself wondering how it had gone for Adam and was a little surprised by the existence of such a thought. All his thoughts about Adam came with a little bit of wonder though. The man had a strange effect on him. Nigel wasn't surprised that he felt love for Adam though. He was more shocked at himself that he could, that he was still capable of such soft emotions.

It was love of course, pure and simple. Nigel wasn't the type of person to hide or deny any sort of pleasure from himself so he greedily accepted this unexpected development. Took hold of it, that precious love, and turned it into obsession. Adam was his now. It was just as simple as that for him. His habit of reading out loud to a dying man had saved Nigel's life. It didn't matter to Nigel that Adam was male, had some strange habits, was a little mentally off, or wouldn't shut up about how solar flares could change the trajectory of space dust. Without a shadow of a doubt, Nigel would kill for Adam, would live and die for him. As far as Nigel was concerned, they were already good as married in his mind, 'til death do them part.

Now if he only knew where his darling Adam had gotten himself to, everything in his world would be perfect for one bright moment. Nigel felt like celebrating.

A odd rapping on the window startled Nigel, the man's nerves still strung out high on danger, death, and adrenalin. Feeling ridiculous considering they were on the second floor, Nigel went over to the window expecting to see a stunned pigeon or something else wearing confusion and wings. What he wasn't expected to find was Adam hanging by a rope, dressed up in his astronaut suit with a squeegee in one hand and a bottle of Windex in the other. Nigel's sudden appearance in the window scared Adam as well who lost his steadying grip upon the window pane. It caused him to fumble against the window, bodily smacking into it with another thump.

"What the fuck!?" Nigel yelled, throwing open the window. "What the fuck are you doing out here?!"

"Oh. Hello, Nigel." Adam blinked as he began to spin in place like a piece of bait on a string. Before he could complete a full circle, the back of his suit was grabbed as the space man was hauled in though the window by an upset looking Nigel.

"Get your ass in here!" Nigel snapped, pulling Adam to him so that he could unhook the man from whatever ridiculous rope and pulley system he had finagled to lower himself from the roof. Freed, Adam wandered back into the apartment a little out of breathe from his excretion, but none too worse for wear as far as Nigel could tell.

"What the fuck were you doing out there!?" Nigel growled. He strode over to Adam, grabbing the man by his dark curls in a hurtful enough manner to make the would-be astronaut wince from more than just eye contact as Nigel made Adam look directly at him. "You could have fucking killed yourself! How the fuck were you going to get down?!"

A little startled by the aggressive amount of touching and Nigel's tight hold on him, Adam considered the question posed to him. "Climb up." he said, gesturing down to his space gear. "It's rated for 3,000 pounds."

"You've got to be fucking kidding me." Nigel deflated, the entirety of his active day and his still healing wounds catching up to drain him of his anger. It left him feeling tired as Nigel rested his forehead against Adam's own, relaxing his tight hold on soft locks of hair. Odds were that Adam didn't even know he had done anything unusual, that normal people didn't hang off of building in that manner to clean off windows.

"No." Adam answered flatly, wondering if Nigel was trying to make a joke or if he thought Adam was making one. "I couldn't see out of the window."

"So that was your plan? To pretend to be some sort of space spider?" Nigel sighed, closing his eyes as he breathed in Adam's scent. A little sweet, a little milky, always mild with trace salts, but utterly lovely in its simplicity.

"Yes. Why do you have a gun?" Adam asked. Nigel's left hand was still anchored in his curls, but his other rested on Adam's shoulder with gun in hand, the side of it pressed up coldly against the skin of his neck. Opening his eyes with a start, Nigel realized belated that, yes, he had his gun cocked and loaded out of old habit.

"Fucking hell, Adam. I heard a noise outside. I thought someone was trying to break in." Nigel lied easily enough as he disarmed the weapon, tucking the firearm out of sight and back into his belt.

"It was me." Adam said incredulously, like Nigel was being the absurd one here.

"I didn't fucking know that!" Nigel yelled, finally releasing Adam to throw his hands up in aggravation. Seeing that Nigel was upset but unsure about the why or what he should do about it, Adam absorbed this, taking a moment to walk over to the window to peer out as if to play out Nigel's reaction in his own head. The reality of the situation and implications of that reality clinked into place like the tumblers of a key and lock, the answer opening to him.

"Oh." Adam startled, realizing his mistake, how odd that must have been for Nigel to see him like that.

"I guess not." Adam muttered low, his tone coming out flatter than before as he sighed at himself. Normalcy was as far out of his reach as his beloved stars were, great bright concepts meant for him to view only from afar. Adam decided it was best if he called it a day and went to bed. Hopefully Nigel wouldn't hold this mistake against him and eventually come join him.

Before he had even made it few steps though, Adam found himself stopped as Nigel gathered up the forlorn spaceman into his arms. Adam felt a kiss pressed to the crown of his curls, Nigel trailing little kindnesses down past his temple to his ears, making Adam laugh as he was tickled by soft lips lingering over his sensitive skin.

"Come here, my darling. I'm not mad about what you did. I'm angry about how you did it. It wasn't safe and I would be very upset if you got hurt. Do you understand?" Nigel explained, letting his lips brush up against Adam's ear. He liked hearing the man laugh even if it was just a physical reaction to being tickled. Nigel found himself moving Adam's head again to that he could make the other man look into his eyes. That blue grey gaze flitted over his face like a mad butterfly until it settled on memorizing the scar that ran across the bridge of his nose, and yet Nigel discovered he didn't mind that because Adam nodded in answer.

Leading Adam over to the couch, Nigel made him sit down, settling down beside him in what would be too close in his personal space for anyone else. He knew Adam would mind or care though. "Tell me how it went with the lawyer, sweetheart." Nigel said, leaning in to press his lips to Adam's neck. He licked some of the salt off of the soft skin he nosed there.

"Bad." Adam answered, flinching at the wet contact but adjusting to give Nigel more access. He was happy that Nigel didn't seem mad at him anymore. Adam also knew now Nigel could do some very interesting things with his tongue.

"How so? Don't leave me in suspense." Nigel sighed in contentment, pulling Adam into his lap when he felt the man wasn't close enough to him. It was like manhandling a marshmallow while Adam was in the suit, but Nigel managed it, settling Adam's legs on either side of his lap, his hands resting on Adam's well padded hips. Nigel decided that this suit really needed to come off.

"I have to find a job." Adam stated, more interested in what Nigel was doing than answering. "Harlan said I should send out the application letters and worry about the interviews later."

"Why would you worry about that at all, sweetheart?" Nigel smiled lazily up at Adam, watching the man with interest when it was mimicked back.

"Interviews usually don't go very well." Adam let his smile rise and fall as panic started to nip at his mind again. His father had been there last time to help him through the interview process.

"So you put in some applications this afternoon?" Nigel asked, taking Adam's smaller hands into his own to distract the man. He liked the feel of them against his palms, the texture of their skin so different. Adam's were so smooth and soft Nigel couldn't resist pressing their coolness up to his cheeks and mouth at their patterns.

"87." Adam stated easily as he watched Nigel pause in his adoration to his life lines.

"I beg your pardon, but did you say 87?" Nigel repeated, looking up at Adam in surprise. He didn't doubt the accuracy or honesty of Adam's claim. If the man said 87, he meant 87. It was just a little hard to believe.

"Mh-hmmm. Applications and letters of inquiry." Adam bobbed his head.

"You sent in 87 applications." Nigel reiterated flatly, trying to wrap his head around the concept, considering he had never filled out an application in his life.

"Including the letter of inquiry." Adam corrected. There was a difference after all.

"Today? As in today, after you returned from the lawyer?" Nigel tried and failed to make sense of it.

"Mh-hmmm. Yes." Adam wondered if he was not being clear enough for Nigel.

"Holy shit." Nigel snorted, impressed despite himself.

"Holy shit?" Adam's brow furrowed in confusion, worried that he had made a mistake. Had he gone over a set limit? Was he allowed to only send in a certain amount?

"It is quite a number. Very impressive though I would expect nothing less from you. You are the total package, brains and beauty, my darling Adam." Nigel smiled in reassurance, Adam's eye beginning to dance about again in their distress. He kissed Adam's palm to draw the man's full focus back to him right where he wanted it.

"Well. I don't want to move." Adam told Nigel emphatically, making the older man nip at his wrists.

"That has occurred to me. Who said you would have to do such a thing?" Nigel asked, placing Adam's hand on either side of his face so that the man was cupping it. He kept his hands over Adam's to keep them there, liking the feel of Adam touching him and being unafraid to do so. Whores were not affectionate unless you paid them to be and even then it was forced. That or they knew who and what he was, fear tainting every action after that. Adam's hesitancy came from inexperience, uninfluenced by terrible knowledge or terror that made his hands shake. It was pure and Nigel was hopelessly addicted to it.

"Mr. Wardlow. And Harlan, but only if I don't get a job. I can't afford the mortgage otherwise." Adam said as Nigel turned his head a bit to nuzzle his fingers. His stumble scratched up against the pads of Adam's fingers, making soft rasping sounds, but still felt nice.

"I don't want you to worry yourself about something so trivial." Nigel said softly, moving Adam's hand up to his hair but letting go when he felt Adam begin to explore his silvering locks all on his own.

"But I.." Adam began to argue to have fingers pressed up softly to his lips, stilling his words before they could leave the platform of his tongue.

"Shhh…I'm going to take care of it for you, my sweet. I am going to take care of everything." Nigel promised and meant every word in his own twisted way. There was an idea forming within Nigel, one he planned on carrying out once he was done with this trivial bit of business here in New York. Adam might not like it at first, but Nigel was sure he could persuade him to adapt. Nigel knew he was good at such things, persuading people to see his point of view. He was just going to have to use a different method with Adam, a softer approach to woo him.

"Why?" Adam asked even as he felt a sweet relief begin to fill him. Someone was going to help him. Someone was finally going to guide him and give his life a heading. He felt like a ship lost out at sea, one that was regaining its bearings after a storm.

"Because I would do anything to brighten your disposition, gorgeous. Anything at all. Whatever your heart desires. All you have to do is ask." Nigel purred out the words, his accents making them smooth as silk and sweet as honey to the ear.

"Oh. Do you want to have sex?" Adam asked hopefully. He liked all this touching, Nigel feeling nice and solid beneath him.

"Yes. Do you?" Nigel couldn't help but laughed. Adam's bluntness held a charm to it. Nigel liked that he didn't have to pussy foot around with him, Adam always giving him a refreshingly honest answer.

"Yes, I'm sexually excited." Adam nodded quickly, his growing anticipation making the gesture jerky and uncoordinated. He left off petting Nigel's soft hair to start unbuttoning the man's shirt.

"Well we can't let that go to waste, now can we? Come along then, darling." Nigel said, making Adam pause long enough in stripping him to move the space man off of his lap. Taking Adam by the hand, Nigel led them to the bedroom. "Let me take care of you like you took care of me. Your reading saved my life and I am a man who repays his debts.

"I don't understand how. You were unconscious." Adam pointed out as he was divested of his many layers, Nigel making surprising quick work of the space suit and Adam's more normal clothing underneath.

"I still heard you in dark places where even angels feared to tread, the entire host to frightened to move except for you. Your voice is beautiful, like a choir, like everything else about you." Nigel murmured as he laid Adam out across the small bed, his lover's naked back pressed to the mattress as he moved over him. Wetting his lips in anticipation, Nigel took in the bounty of pale bared skin laid out under him, Adam staring up at him with those beautiful blue grey eyes, wide and wondering.

"You're far too good for the likes of me, but I am a greedy evil thing. A devil to your angel, my darling, and I am going to keep you though Heaven may resent me for it and Hell make me pay in blood for this sin."

OoOoO

TBC