Mike awakes to the smell of coffee drifting from the kitchen and into the bedroom. The bed is warm and he's reluctant to uncurl himself from the sheets and blankets that smell like Ryan. He can't help but smile as he thinks of the man, and of these simple nights spent together. The guilt of Claire being alive still lingers in his belly like acid, but he pushes it away, not allowing himself to feel badly over the one thing that still makes him happy, which is of course Ryan.
He sighs and rubs his eyes before dragging himself out of the soft bed. When he walks into the kitchen he sees Ryan holding a cup of coffee and watching the news. Mike suddenly feels he should have bothered to put on pants rather than just strolling out in his t-shirt and boxers when he sees Ryan fully dressed, ready to start the day.
But then Ryan smiles at him, a full Hardy grin, and Mike melts and walks over to him. Ryan wraps a hand around Mike's waist and Mike looks at the television. A news station is interviewing Joe Carroll fan clubs, groups of people who think they are just "having a bit of fun." Ryan snorts and turns off the t.v. Mike sees him grip his coffee cup a little tighter.
"You okay?" Mike asks him.
"Yeah," Ryan says. "We have work to do." Ryan slips his arm away from Mike's waist and walks into what Mike has silently named the Joe Carroll Research Room. But now it's come to encompass Joe and Lily, along with all the other fanatics that follow both of the psychos.
Mike grabs a cup of coffee and follows Ryan into the room a few moments later. They get absorbed into their work looking at the latest leads when Ryan breaks the silence.
He looks at Mike for a moment before saying, "Are you okay?"
Mike looks up into Ryan's eyes and is taken aback for a moment at the pure concern swimming in those blue eyes. He nods his head.
"How's your family?"
"All right…well, about as all right as you can be in this situation, I guess."
"You're gonna get through this, Mike. We both are."
"How uncharacteristically optimistic of you, Ryan," Mike says and feels himself smirk.
"Hey I can be optimistic, sometimes," Ryan says and smiles back. They're looking at each other with bright eyes and small smiles, with the kind of trust one rarely finds in another human being in the perverse reality of their lives.
"So, this optimism, I wonder what's causing it?" Mike says. Ryan looks at him for a second then stands up and walks around to the side of the table where Mike is.
"I'd say it's you," Ryan says before leaning down, taking Mike's face between his hands and kissing him gently. Mike tastes like the coffee Ryan had made, but he must have added creamer because there's a vague hint of vanilla on Mike's lips and Ryan chases it with his tongue.
Ryan feels the flames of what's between them stirring in his stomach, cascading upward toward his heart and he's filled with warmth he hasn't known in so long. Before he really realizes what he's doing, Ryan is grabbing at the material of Mike's t-shirt to haul him up from the seat. Mike stands willingly and presses his body against Ryan's. Mike feels the guilt resurface, but smothers it out. He is too overcome with want because isn't that just the most powerful motivator? This stupid human condition known as want that just drives urges up to the edge of a cliff and pushes them down without a thought of who gets hurt along the way and oh—
Ryan's knee has slid between Mike's thighs and rubbed against his growing erection. Thoughts turn to cinders and Mike just gives into the way Ryan's teeth are leaving marks along his neck, and the way Ryan is steering them back toward the bedroom, but stopping by a few walls on the way to press Mike against the flat surfaces and kiss him harder each time.
Mike feels like putty in Ryan's all too warm and talented hands. His aching need flows through every bloodstream in his body and he wants, wants, oh how much he wants this…He is thankful when his body finds the bed again because he isn't sure how much longer he could stand on his shaking legs. He leans back in the bed and when he watches Ryan crawl up to him through the spread of his legs he can't help but moan in desperation.
Ryan chuckles and says, "I wasn't even touching you that time."
"You should probably shut up and fix that," Mike says. Ryan complies by sliding his hands up Mike's shirt and along his sides. Mike leans upward and Ryan pulls off his shirt. He doesn't hesitate as he starts to leave a combination of bites and licks along Mike's collarbone, along his chest, and down his sides. Ryan is sucking on the tender skin between Mike's neck and shoulder when Mike hurriedly begins to pull Ryan's shirt off. Ryan stops his ministrations for a moment to help get rid of the shirt. Then he is running his fingers down the light dusting of hair from Mike's chest to the line of his boxers. He leaves gentle nips along Mike's hipbones before looking up to meet Mike's blue eyes, pupils blown wide.
"Ryan," he says in a voice that sounds like he is choking. "Please, just…I need you."
Ryan looks at him for a moment longer before leaning over to the bed's nightstand. Mike can't see what he's doing, but he can take a guess. A moment later Ryan is pulling Mike's boxers down and Mike hears the flick of a cap. There is a sweet smell like summer strawberries and then Mike closes his eyes as he feels Ryan's hands leaving smooth trails on his cock. There's a hesitation from Ryan to go lower, but Mike says please in the most broken voice once more and then he feels a slick finger stretching him. He moans in encouragement and Ryan seems to break through his reserve before stretching Mike more.
This stage of preparing seems to go on for so long and Mike is arching toward Ryan, not even sure of how many fingers are filling him now, but he knows he needs all of Ryan before he loses it all right now. His hands find Ryan's belt and starting undoing it before Ryan gets the hint and helps get rid of the offending jeans.
Mike opens his eyes to see Ryan staring down at him and he thinks his heart might break from the affection in those eyes. Ryan kisses him in fevered hunger before sliding back down. Mike watches Ryan apply the lube to his erect cock and he thinks this a sight he could get quite used to. But then Ryan slowly starts to enter him and he can't think any more. It's too much and not enough all at once.
"Ry…Ryan, move," Mike pants, body moving on its own accord to slide Ryan further into him. And then Ryan is kissing him again, biting his lip as he slips further into Mike and the feeling makes Mike shiver in pleasure. He spreads his legs open further and Ryan takes it as encouragement to quicken his pace. Maybe next time they'll take it slower, but right now this thing between them has been a train moving through a tunnel of darkness and they've thrown themselves on the track. They've both surrendered to their fate and it led them to being here together.
Ryan's thrusting has hit the spot inside Mike that makes him start to see a fizzing white light when he closes his eyes. Ryan is panting into his shoulder now and his moves become more frantic. He's chanting "Mike, Mike…" softly in his ear and Mike wants to freeze this moment, stay in it forever, just the two of them away from the world.
Their bodies are pressed tightly together, but Ryan still manages to find a way to slide his hand down between them and wrap his fingers around Mike's cock. He works him in time with his thrusts and Mike is almost embarrassed when he realizes those mewling sounds are coming from him. But any potential embarrassment fades away as Ryan keeps hitting that delicious place inside of him and both their bodies go tighter against one another. Mike gives into the sensation and allows it to burn brightly inside him until he's coming between their bodies. He must clench tightly around Ryan when he comes because then Ryan makes the kind of moan Mike wants to hear everyday, and Mike can actually feel Ryan come inside him. It's wet and strange and wonderful all at once.
They're both panting in jagged breaths and Ryan kisses him lightly once more before gently sliding out of him. Ryan rolls away from him, catching his breath and Mike feels the need to be close again. He's always been the type to curl up close to a lover after sex, but Ryan is more than that. Ryan occupies the space between the beats of his heart and there is a slight panic that if Ryan doesn't come here, right now, then he doesn't know what he'll do. So he reaches for Ryan and digs his nails into the sweat-slicked skin, nearly dragging the other man toward him.
Ryan startles for a moment. "Whoa, hey…hey I'm right here. I'm right here, Mike," he says softly and allows the younger man to wrap his hands around Ryan's shoulder and tuck him against his side. Mike feels foolish and young in Ryan's presence at this moment and he isn't sure why. But he runs his hands through Ryan's hair and the man practically purrs from it and the world seems all right again. It's a strange thing, Mike thinks, to be so caught up in another person and feel excited and frightened all at once. His philosophical musings die down as Ryan's breathing even outs and he rests his head on Mike's chest, eyes closed. Mike closes his eyes too, inhaling the way the air has turned into the scent of them and their shared passion before he drifts back to sleep.
It's late afternoon when Ryan's phone starts ringing, or screaming is more of what it sounds like to Ryan.
"Hardy," he says, looking over at Mike who has just started to open his eyes. "Shit…yeah, we're on our way." He clicks off the phone and says, "We're needed."
Mike nods, understanding they have to switch modes now. They dress quickly and make their way downtown to the bakery where the agent told Ryan people got slashed with knives. And then Ryan asks what hospital the victims were taken to and the investigator says Manhattan.
"That's where Luke is being held…This isn't Joe Carroll," Ryan says. He looks over at Mike whose blue eyes have clouded over in fury.
"It's Lily Gray," Mike says, voice strained in anger. They go to hospital right away and send teams to guard every entrance and exit. Ryan knows Lily Gray is smart and probably has more than one idea on how to get her twisted little kid out of there.
"Let's get the stairwells checked, you take the south ones?" Ryan says to Mike and he nods.
"Be careful, Ryan," Mike says, and though he means it Ryan can see in his eyes that Mike is beyond hurt and angry right now at the thought of Lily being close.
"You too," he says and takes off to the north part of the hospital.
Mike comes across some guards taking staff up to the floor to be checked for identification. When he tries to check the last girl's I.D. she pulls a knife on him and makes it clear she is one of Lily's.
"Where is Lily Gray?" he says, pointing his gun at her head.
"I don't talk. Ever," the girl says. "I guess you'll just have to kill me."
Mike is tempted to…tempted to silence this annoying child's arrogance, but he may be able to get information from her yet. She launches toward him with her knife and the other guards take her out. Her blood sprays the white wall of the stairwell and she's dead. Mike wants to either curl up in the corner or punch his fist through the wall. Is this the way it's always going to be? Coming so close to getting this bitch and having that chance taken away?
And then later he finds out Ryan almost got that bastard Luke, but was outdone too. They both came close to putting an end to Lily Gray, but she wins again. When Mike is sitting in the car with Ryan he feels so sick and angry he can barely speak.
"The resources she has Ryan. How are we ever going…She's more calculating than Joe Carroll. She has so little regard for human life that she would seek out a man's father and kill him. I don't understand it. I try, but I don't."
"It can't be understood...We will find them, Mike. Lily Gray and Joe Carroll, we'll get them," Ryan says.
"Yeah, I don't see it."
"Well I do. Optimism, remember? Hope." Ryan says and Mike actually smiles a tiny bit. "Then after all of this is over, you and me, we're going to have a life."
Mike looks at Ryan now, wanting to ask if he means together. Having a life together, but he can't bring himself to ask that right now.
"You know why?" Ryan continues. "The universe owes us. You understand that? Good, now let's get the hell out of here."
And when Ryan drives them back to the apartment Mike feels something between boldness and need and grabs Ryan's free hand. Ryan doesn't pull away. He just keeps his hand in Mike's until they have to get out of the car.
They walk up to Ryan's door and are maybe inside for five minutes before there's a knock on the door. Ryan opens the door and Mike's heart drops because on the other side of the door are the agents from the secret service. It's actually quite possible his heart stops altogether when he sees them. Yes, maybe his heart will stop and he can just fall over and die right here because this, oh this was not something he was prepared to deal with so soon.
Ryan just kind of stares at the agents, wondering what the hell is going on. Mike rushes over to him and lays a hand on his chest.
"Ryan, I can explain this. I'm sorry," he says in a rush and Ryan looks at him questioningly.
And then Claire appears in the doorway and Mike can feel his heart splintering into sharp pieces at the way Ryan looks at her.
"Claire," Ryan breathes out, eyes wide and disbelieving.
"Hi Ryan."