Insert Clever Title Here

Rating: … Fluff.

XXX

“Okay that’s it fuck this noise I’m done.” Tossing aside the controller, Jason lurched forward onto his hands and knees to crawl to the foot of his bed and pointedly stab at the power button for his Xbox 360. He’d had more than enough of getting his ass handed to him by some sissy-boy elf an hour and a half ago – now it was just getting predictable and boring. There were only so many times he could stand seeing the Game Over screen come up despite his best efforts to keep all of his party members alive and active. Turning off his wall-mounted TV, Jason dropped the remote to the floor again and flopped back onto his ass with a huff. “Good book?” He asked, a single pierced brow arched at the vampire propped against the wall at the head of his bed, pale eyes drawn with a content intensity to the thick novel spread open in one of his long-fingered hands.

“Quite,” the vampire absently murmured, shifting his grip long enough to turn the page before he returned to his reading. “Finally had enough of dying, have you?”

“The repetitiveness of it all was starting to annoy me and it kinda got to the point where I just stopped caring and/or paying attention, so…” Lips pursed themselves as Jason gave a stiff bob of his head. “Yeah. Just a little. I’ll maybe try again later when the tattered and torn remnants of my sanity’s finished piecing itself back together.” Jason crawled back to the vampire as he gave a noncommittal hum and twisted before resettling himself against Rori’s torso, the vampire’s legs bent into two steep, pointed black arches flanking Jason’s body. Elbows resting lightly in the crook of the redhead’s hips as he laced his fingers together over his stomach, Jason sucked in a deep sigh and wiggled about until he was comfortable again. Rori didn’t even seem to notice.

Now that he wasn’t being distracted by the brutal slaughtering of his party in “Star Ocean”, he had to admit that being able to quietly spend this kind of time in the vampire’s company was actually pretty nice. Even though Rori had been absorbed in his book and Jason in his video game, just… being around him, having the vampire to himself for once, was enough for Jason. The little bits and pieces of contact had been more than sufficient – the way Rori’s arm had been draped around Jason’s torso, drawing light, distracted designs on his stomach. The way he’d heard the vampire give a low chuckle occasionally behind him when his cursing had reached a new level of volume or vulgarity, and laid a large hand on his head as he’d fondly kissed his hair, or neck.

Hell, every now and then before the main boss fight the vampire had even made sarcastic little quips during the cheesy parts of the cut scenes, and Jason couldn’t have stopped himself from snickering agreeably in response.

Lids drifting shut, barely aware of the muscles fluidly shifting in the torso beneath him, Jason sniffled back a breath and let himself relax. It was nice, being by themselves. Not that he had anything against the rest of his housemates, but, shit… To get away from all the talking and the clamor and just have some down-time with the vampire who’d stolen his heart away… It was practically heaven, and it helped that Jason’s own bedroom had been the location of choice this time.

Humming softly under his breath when the immortal kissed the top of his head and strong arms wound themselves around him – must have abandoned his book somewhere, ‘cause it wasn’t in his hands – Jason had to admit that he could have fallen asleep then and there, leaning back into Rori’s chest, without even noticing. He could have slept for hours like that; hell, maybe even days.

“Comfortable, dear one?” The vampire huskily murmured near his ear.

Only partially aware of the warmth that blossomed there when Rori’s voice registered – and for once, uncaring of how easily his ears blushed – Jason hummed an indolent, “Mm-hmm,” before fading back into his blissful oblivion.

The Englishman remained quiet, but he could feel it, the smile that spread across pale lips as they leaned themselves against his head. I’m glad. A large palm gently stroked itself across his chest, affectionately repeating the gesture for a time until Jason was brought out of his doze by the kiss Rori bent to place on the junction of his shoulder and neck, gently nuzzling aside the collar of his t-shirt to press another to bare skin. Long fingers, meanwhile, had wandered across his chest again in another one of the vampire’s loving caresses, but this time, his touch thoughtfully lingered near Jason’s left nipple.

At first, the placement seemed to be nothing more than coincidence, and Jason paid it little to no mind – until the Englishman’s thumb lightly drew itself downwards, over his nipple and then back up. As sensitive as always to the vampire’s touch, it took only moments for such a simple activity to spur a reaction, flesh hardening around the steel barbell piercing it, perking beneath Rori’s attentive ministrations. Firm fingertips continued what they were doing, gently rubbing it and massaging it through his shirt, capturing it and teasingly tugging on it as warm lips drifted up to his neck.

A faint, humoring smile twitched at the corners of Jason’s lips as he let his head loll to the side. “And just what’re you getting up to, hmm?”

“Taking the first steps in making you horrendously randy, I should think,” the vampire purred into his throat. “How am I doing?” Playful ivory teeth gently scraped themselves over the side of his neck, giving a light nip before a tepid mouth sealed the action with a kiss.

“Not bad,” Jason rumbled, shifting upwards against Rori’s torso so he could comfortably lean his head back onto a broad shoulder, tilting his face ever so slightly towards the vampire’s neck just in time for soft lips to capture his own. A faint moan drifted forth in response when the vampire’s fingertips lightly trailed down his throat, skimming over his chest as another hand slid down to sensually knead the inside of his thigh.

Only ‘not bad’? Rori smirked into his mind, gently raking his nails over Jason’s thigh and giving birth to a wave of shivers that crawled straight into his groin. Then I suppose I’ll have to start doing better, won’t I?

Lightly moaning when the redhead gently tilted his head and deepened their kiss, a hand lifting of its own accord to cup the back of Rori’s neck, brows winced down into a furrow over fluttering lids when the vampire’s touch closed around his crotch. And straight to the point he went. Good ol' Rori, could always count on him to be about as blunt as a baseball bat.

Locked in a slow, lazy duel with a moist velvet tongue, Jason could do nothing more than shakily exhale through his nose as Rori languidly began to massage him through his worn jeans. The instant he felt muscular legs lower themselves from their arches to rest around him at crooked angles, he spread his own wider, planting his feet outside of the vampire’s knees and leaning his hips into his touch when one of his hands slid down to apply a delicious pressure between his legs.

And he had to admit, much as he enjoyed spending some quiet time in Rori’s company, another part of him had been just as hopeful that their alone time would equate to something like this. They hadn’t been “together” for almost a month and a half now, and thinking of Rori when he was jerking off just wasn’t cutting it anymore. Sure, it was enough to get him off and temporarily subdue the treacherous hormones running rampant through his veins, but when it all came down to it, it just wasn’t the same. After all, it wasn’t his fault he was a horny teenager. He could handle a replacement for only so long before the cravings for the real thing – who’d also been teasing him with an ill-appreciated amount of relish – started to drive him positively bugfuck, and lately, he’d been horny all the goddamn time. That was probably one of the reasons why he’d stopped being able to concentrate on his game, because his mind started dwelling on all those little touches Rori seemed overly content to tease him with and had begun wanting more.

That want returned with a vengeance, and each and every second Rori spent using those delicious hands on him merely served to strengthen it.

Breaking apart from the vampire’s mouth, his breaths heavy and his fingers trembling as they kneaded the back of his lover's busy hands, Jason found he could only make his lids flutter as he nuzzled his burning forehead into Rori's neck. “You have no idea how much I want you right now…” Tipping his head back, kissing and nipping at what he could of Rori’s pale throat, calloused fingers massaging the back of his neck and digging into soft blood-red hair, Jason felt the liquid fire in his groin intensify with anticipation and excitement when the vampire outlined the bulk of his sex with one hand and lazily pumped him with the other.

“I think I have an idea,” The Englishman purred, voice deep and husky with an amused smile as he dipped to suckle on the flesh of Jason’s throat. “Left you alone for too long, have I?”

“Mm… Teasing me like there’s no tomorrow certainly didn’t help, you bastard.” Words mingling with a shaky sigh when Rori’s touch slipped up from his crotch, gliding beneath the hem of his shirt to toy with one of his erect nipples, Jason shifted against the suddenly uncomfortable confines of his jeans, squirming for a moment before he gave up and went after his belt.

“So I see,” Rori chuckled, his laughter dripping with sex against Jason’s ear as he wet his lips and jerked his belt loose, fumbling with the button for his jeans for longer than necessary before it popped free. “Seems you’ve been rather… flustered, without me to lend a helping hand.”

Jason stopped what he was doing to shoot the grinning immortal a petulant look as he rolled his eyes and snorted. “Oh har-dee-fucking-har. Lookit you bein’ all punny.”

“I couldn’t help myself.” Leaning in to capture Jason’s lips in a kiss, all was immediately forgiven as the immortal gently eased his hands away from his fly and lovingly traced the lines of his fingers with his own. “I like seeing you all bothered,” the redhead affectionately whispered, smoothing his fingers between Jason’s, twining their hands together and guiding them to his stomach. “It rather- how do you mortals say these days…? Turns me on.”

Skimming against the vampire’s lips, lids fluttering but never managing to lift, Jason snorted a short, breathy laugh. “Sadist.”

Rori hummed into his mouth, a languid smirk playing upon the edges of his lips, “Masochist.”

“Could say the same t’you,” Jason archly murmured with a tiny grin, “Mr. ‘I-like-it-when-you-bite-me.’”

“Ooh, you’ve caught me. My deep, dark secret’s been revealed for all the world to know. Whatever shall I do?”

Scraping his teeth with a loving roughness over the smooth, pale skin of the vampire’s throat, Jason felt the lust within him double as his ardent suckle was rewarded with a soft, rare groan. “Make me wanna bite,” he huskily breathed against Rori’s neck, pressing a lingering kiss to the faint indents his teeth had left behind in his lover’s perfect porcelain flesh. “And I’ll bite you as much as you want.”

“Mm, I do believe we have an accord, Mr. Riley.”

“Good.” Jason shot the man a devilishly satisfied grin before leaning in to whisper against his lips, “’Cause you’re gonna have to work for it, Mr. O’Connor.” Wicked brown and silver eyes locked with misty, lusting green, holding them and grinning into the Englishman’s mouth as they hovered scarce breaths away from one another. “You know I only bite when I’m really havin’ a good time.”

“Oh I don’t think we’ve any need to worry about that,” the vampire salaciously rumbled, smirking even when Jason teasingly trailed the tip of his tongue over the smooth, soft flesh of his lips. In return, Rori ghosted forward, capturing his mouth in a long, lazy kiss saturated with the telling smugness of a witty reply soon to arrive as his hand did something absolutely divine to Jason’s groin and jerked forth a low, deep moan. “I know where all of your little buttons hide, my dear, erotic muse, and how to push them just so until you’re all but the very epitome of wild, irredeemable desperation and desire.”

And wasn’t that the truth and a half. The vampire already had him melting in his hands and they’d barely even gotten started.

Pulling back from his lover’s smirking mouth with a great deal of effort before it was offered a chance to distract him with another mind-numbing kiss, Jason pushed himself upright and turned to face the vampire as the first wisps of curiosity began to sidle into lusting mint green eyes. “But, uh, before we really get into anything,” he murmured, gaze wandering restlessly over the folds and ripples in the fabric of Rori’s button-down shirt, weight resting on the hands he’d planted on either sides of his lover’s waist, “there’s something that I’ve, y’know, kinda been meaning to bring up with you. Just… never really got around to it until now.” He sheepishly chuckled, darting a glance up at Rori’s face only to see intrigue rioting naked behind his placid expression and concern tugging a brow down into a slight furrow.

“Is something wrong?” The vampire’s voice dipped, softening and going quiet as the concern evident in his countenance intensified and a hand lifted to stroke itself along his cheek. “I’m sorry – have I been too rough with you lately?”

“What?” Jason’s mind was rendered blank for a long moment by Rori’s professed worries before he began to laugh, shaking his head and dismissing the notion with a mirrored wave of his hands. “No, no… No trust me you’re doing absolutely nothing wrong in that area,” he chuckled, relieved to see the tension drain from his lover’s face as a licentious smirk sprawled itself across Jason’s lips, a single brow arching as he openly eyed the vampire’s form. “Matter of fact,” he purred, running his lower lip thoughtfully between his teeth, “I kinda like it when you get all… aggressive.” Another brief, breathy chuckle laden with meaning escaped from his chest as he gave Rori’s clothed torso one last once-over before he coerced his gaze up to the fresh arousal in the Englishman’s face. “I’m not too worried about you going overboard - you know just how rough I like it.”

He’d barely even noticed until then how the vampire’s hands had been sliding up his thighs, winding around his waist; they pulled him closer, now, flush against Rori’s long, firm body until their lips were scarce millimetres apart, and Jason let them. He let those hands wander languidly down his back, smoothing over muscle and bone still obscured beneath the fabric of his shirt, just as he let them curve appreciatively over the shape of his ass, and squeeze. All of this he endured while staring into the vampire’s ageless, lusting green eyes, watching the fire kindle within them as a smirk curled on the outskirts of irresistible white lips.

“Well, if that’s what is required,” the vampire passionately purred, stroking a hand down the back of Jason’s neck as he bent to reverently kiss his throat, “to convince you to use that exquisite mouth on me,” Rori pressed another savoring kiss to Jason’s skin - lids fluttering shut beneath the vampire’s touch, head lolling – before drifting up to hover with warm lips against his ear. “Then you’ve but to say the word, my love, and I will indulge you with the utmost enthusiasm.”

Jason’s head was still dreamily tipped to the side, lids shut, as a husky chuckle escaped into the atmosphere, and Rori cradled him hungrily against his body, loving his throat with all of the passion within him.

“After all,” the Englishman whispered between kisses, voice dripping with eroticism as burning lips skimmed across his skin, breaths tickling his nerves and enticing waves of shivers to roll down his spine. I do so love the way you bite me when I fuck you. So much so that I dare admit I would almost do anything for that particular reward.

Going weak within his arms, moaning aloud at the intimacy of his lover’s sultry voice purring from within his mind, Jason could do nothing more than sag against the vampire’s body, caressing the length of his neck and winding an arm around supportive shoulders. He didn’t even realize that his breaths had become weighted as he leaned into Rori’s figure, gently, restlessly undulating in the throes of want; the lust that spiralled through his veins with a renewed intensity wiped clean every other thought he’d had up until that moment.

The only thing that could make itself known was his aching, unyielding desire to have the vampire inside more than just his mind.

“I… have a question for you, Ror.” But instead of the breathless ‘word’ Rori had spoken of earlier – the tiny word that would give a wave of the flag that told the vampire he was free to do as he pleased, that Jason was ready for the ravenous attention that would dismantle and irrefutably white out the existence of the rest of the world around them – that came out, and if Jason had possessed even a modicum of the mental capacity needed to discern with any precision whatsoever which part of his treasonous thoughts had made him say it, he would have kicked the ever-loving shit out of them for it.

“Mm…?”

Somehow, at some point, he’d straddled the vampire’s lap, just realizing it now when he felt the firm muscles of Rori’s thighs minutely tense against the insides of his own as they shifted. Hell, it could have been that he hadn’t moved at all – that was the thing about vampires. Sometimes shit happened that didn’t make sense, and chances are, they were the reason why. He supposed there were perks to being preternaturally fast – meant such things were less of a disruption when locked in the heat of the moment. To the extent of Jason’s knowledge, the move had just… happened.

Dragging his mind away from its fascinated contemplation and back to the present, Jason remembered through the haze of lust his original reason for delaying the advancement of their current situation, and his stomach knotted and cramped appropriately with nerve; never mind the fact that his body was bombarding him with scathing diatribe that its needs were to be once again shunted down a rung on the Priority Ladder. Just when things could’ve gotten really kinky, too… Dammit.

Half of him was tempted to shrug it off, to tell Rori that it didn’t matter and distract him with a slow rotation of his pelvis, or an impatient kiss. After all, the vampire was notoriously easy to distract once anything sexual was thrown into the equation – he was rather endearingly single-minded that way.

Then again, the other half of him gave his memory a not-so-gentle nudge in their metaphorical ribs to get its act together. His reason for delaying things had been a good one. One entirely worthy of a couple minutes of conversation, and if he didn’t get it out and over with now, he had a feeling he never would.

Righting himself in the vampire’s lap, left at a loss for a moment as to where to begin as he peered down at the Englishman propped comfortably against a mound of pillows beneath him, Jason suddenly became painfully aware of the presence and position of Rori’s hands on his hips. He felt a telling heat begin to gather in his ears and when he realized again the lust present in those pale, all-seeing eyes, he awkwardly cleared his throat and averted his own gaze elsewhere.

“What’s this?” The vampire laughed softly, palms and nails both running in electrifying paths up and down the length of Jason’s thighs as he cocked his head against the pillows. “Surely this can’t be the Jason Riley I know, sitting in my lap and blushing like a guilty schoolboy over a mere question.” The smirk plucking at the corners of the redhead’s pale mouth widened, inching into a grin saturated with lewd meaning; his voice lowered, its tone diving down into the oceans of debauchery as he continued in a soft, sensually jesting purr. “And certainly not after everything else we’ve been discussing. Like what is required to make you bite…?”

Swallowing back the lodge building itself in his throat, trying to keep his breathing level and doing his very best to ignore the heat accumulating in his ears, Jason snorted and shot the complacently smirking redhead a pointed look from beneath his brows. “Yeah, well, sorry I’m not totally shameless, unlike a certain someone else in this room.”

Rori’s expression softened, and a light chuckle rumbled in his throat as he clucked his tongue and trailed warm, smooth fingertips down the edge of Jason’s jaw. “Oh, come, I was only teasing,” he murmured, gently stroking Jason’s chin with the pad of his thumb as the flush burning in his ears intensified. “You know I can’t help myself–“ You get so flustered it’s nigh impossible to resist.

“Oh shut up.”

But Rori simply smiled, as patient and unflappable as always, as he resettled himself amongst the pillows. “You said had a question for me, correct?” Pray, tell. You know you can ask me anything you like, love.

“It’s still embarrassing,” Jason mumbled, reluctant still to meet the vampire’s gaze and settling for scowling at nothing in particular on the other side of his bedroom from the corners of his eyes. He could feel the immortal’s hands on his thighs, the warmth from his palms resonating through the denim of his worn jeans, and in the back of his mind, he allowed himself to wonder if the rest of him would be the same. He knew Rori didn’t feed very often; ergo, most times when they made love, his skin was cool, and beneath a thin layer of smooth flesh, the only thing that could be felt was stone.

He had to admit that it was unnerving, sometimes. To not feel the warm, supple give of tissue and muscle, the play of fine bones and the throb of his pulse, the beating of his heart… He’d gotten used to it for the most part, but it had been a long, gruelling process, and there were times – he knew there probably always would be, particularly when they had sex – when he still found it disquieting, to apply any kind of pressure to Rori’s body, and feel that marble casing there, just beneath his epidermis. It was an unwelcome reminder that Rori wasn’t human, wasn’t just like everyone else. Wasn’t even really alive.

If there was a perfect way to kill one’s mood, it was to dwell on the notion that the being kissing your body, your mouth – the being that was inside of you, conquering everything you were and making it all feel so damn right – was actually, clinically dead, and had been for almost four hundred years. “Disturbing” was putting it lightly.

But this time, he thought – gently, subtly, stroking his hands up over his lover’s chest and shoulders – things wouldn’t be like that. Beneath the vampire’s clothing, beneath his skin, he felt the give of flesh, connective tissues, and the firm presence of muscle and bone. He’d felt for a brief, flickering moment, the beating of Rori’s heart, pumping blood and heat through his eternally dying body… and it made him glad.

Overcome by a strange, surging mixture of relief, sadness, and affection, Jason leaned forward, resting his temple on the redhead’s shoulder, content to let the silence settle between them for a time as he savored the warmth seeping through black clothing, the human softness of the body beneath his own.

“I wanna do something for you, this time.” He barely even knew the words were there before they were falling from his lips. As arms heated from within enfolded him in their embrace, a curious, questioning hum resonated from the depths of his lover’s throat. “I mean, every time we have sex it seems like you’re always the one doing all the work, y’know? Like… I don’t know,” Jason sighed, watching absent fingers fiddle with a fold of the vampire’s black shirt before smoothing it out of existence so he could continue, a tiny grimace twisting a corner of his mouth. “I just lie there and take it without really giving anything back. Or even trying, for that matter.”

I must admit, Rori lazily mused, the thought has never really occurred to me. I certainly don’t mind – after all, this breed of relationship is still new to you, and I am a rather greedy lover, I think. I enjoy making you flush and moan and writhe beneath me. I enjoy giving you pleasure, and, ultimately, it’s wonderful for pampering one’s ego, simply knowing that I can. After all, there was a time when you didn’t even like me looking at you, much less... Well.

“Yeah, yeah…” Chuckling softly at the humoring smile hidden in the vampire’s psychic voice, Jason shifted his head on Rori’s broad shoulder and let his arm fall to drape across the redhead’s waist. “Not like your ego needs the pampering, though. It’s big enough as is,” he wryly jested.

You wound me, love! Rori cried, letting his head fall back in mocked anguish as he dramatically clutched at his breast. Would thou not have mercy on this poor besotted heart, for fear that such words doth break it?

“Down, Shakespeare!” Jason laughed, cheered by the quaking of the vampire’s chest beneath him as he released a silent chuckle of his own. “Jesus…” Unable to smother his grin just yet, Jason gave a bewildered shake of his head before he pushed himself up onto an elbow and pinned the complacently smiling Englishman with lifted brows. “You, sir, are a douchebag.”

Without losing face, without speaking aloud – and probably without even realizing he’d reverted to conversing telepathically in the first place – Rori’s left brow curved into a steep arc as he returned fire as quickly as always with a confident, Which is precisely why you are so irrevocably smitten with me.

“Well aren’t we sure of ourselves?”

Hard not to be, love, when one is granted the powers of a- Dropping away in mid-sentence, Rori’s face went blank for a split second with realization before it crumbled in exasperation and he pressed a hand to his brow. “Oh for Hell’s- I was doing it again, wasn’t I?”

Jason snorted, a feeble attempt to restrain the laughter shaking his shoulders, as he dropped his forehead to Rori’s chest and tried his very best to keep a straight face – see: fail miserably – when he looked back up to meet the perfect expression of annoyance with one’s self. “Have been for the last couple minutes there, Ror. I was kind of wondering when you were gonna notice that the flaps weren’t moving anymore.”

The vampire gave a mock sneer and, lightly pinching his cheek, gave it a gentle, jesting shake. “Mmm, aren’t we cheeky?” It faded with barely a moment’s notice, however, before it was replaced with a smirk as long fingers curled around the back of Jason’s neck and pulled him in for a chaste kiss. “Now if I start switching in mid-conversation with someone in public we’ll know who to blame.”

Mouth curling with a wicked pride, Jason didn’t resist when the vampire leaned in for another kiss. This time, his lips lingered longer – not that Jason minded – courting Jason’s own with the redhead’s unique, graceful reverence before he reluctantly, at length, broke away.

“But forgive me, there was something you were meaning to say,” Rori sedately murmured, still drifting, hovering against Jason’s mouth and electrifying the nerves there with each hot breath expelled as he spoke.

“Mm, was there…?” Mind fogged and useless, it took Jason a time to wrangle his thoughts back together, struggling to sift through his many urges to merely return to Rori’s mouth and find that vague ‘thing’ Rori had been talking about. And maybe it was those goddamn hormones and his body with its increasingly persistent demands, but Jason was having a helluva time remembering just what in the hell it was that the vampire was referring to.

But then, like a kick to the head, it hit him.

“Oh, right… That. Um…” Clenching his eyes shut, retreating a little further from the vampire’s delectably distracting, warm, moist mouth – as well as the absolute anarchy it fed his mind to like a zookeeper tossing a steak into a cage of starved lions – Jason gave a couple emphatic blinks to help him focus before his mind was coherent enough to be trusted with speech. “Right. Uh, well… Now that I have a lovely mental image of lions ripping a steak apart stuck in my head…”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Never mind, doesn’t matter. Anyways…” Pushing himself upright into a sitting position, leaning on his arms, Jason peered down at the buttons of his lover’s shirt and inattentively fiddled with one before he gathered the courage to continue. And just when he thought he could do it, the words died in his throat. He took a deep, shaky breath, painfully aware of Rori’s gaze on him – wandering over his face, down the length of his body – and those damnably distracting hands as they absently massaged his thighs. “Well… I mean, I know that you don’t, y’know, do the whole ‘receiving’ thing, and I’m totally okay with that,” Jason hurriedly added, palms lifted and hands splayed, not at all comforted by the fact that Rori’s expression was carefully neutral, “’cause honestly I wouldn’t have the fucking slightest about what needs to be done or where to start, or… y’know, whatever. So that’s okay. But, I mean…

“Christ, this is gonna sound so corny…” He muttered to himself, burying his face in his hand, raking his fingers back through his hair, before he heaved a sigh, and got up the guts to just get it out and over with. “Like I said, I wanna do something for you, for once, instead of you doing everything to- er, for,” he forcefully corrected himself, ears flushing with embarrassment as he clenched his eyes shut and mentally berated himself, “me. Y’know…” Feeling suddenly very shy and extremely awkward in this new situation, Jason had only enough courage to meet Rori’s patient gaze once before he bent his head and hated the heat throbbing in his ears as it began stretching into his face. “Give you pleasure, make you feel good, ‘stead of it always being the other way around. Just ‘cause it feels like you give me everything and I give nothing back, and, I dunno… It just… doesn’t seem fair.” And I am babbling like an idiot right now Jason just shut up before you hurt yourself Jesus Christ you stupid-

“Jason,” Rori softly interrupted, smoothing a hand over his cheek as he gently lifted his face. “You are neither babbling nor an idiot,” the vampire earnestly murmured, glacial green eyes tender as they flicked over his own, “and you are most certainly not stupid. Now perhaps I’m becoming a prudish tyrant in my old age,” Jason couldn’t help but snicker a bit at that, head dipping only for a moment before Rori insistently lifted it once more, voice deep and gentle as he continued. “But I will not allow you to degrade yourself so in my presence, do you understand? Not for something like this.”

Blushing furiously from the vampire’s loving reprimand, Jason managed a weak, awkward smile as he gave a jerky nod and stared doggedly at the wrinkles in Rori’s shirt.

“To be frank,” Rori quietly mused, pushing himself up from his pillows and cradling Jason’s face in those warm, gentle hands, dipping his head to meet eyes too shy to hold his gaze for more than a couple seconds at a time, “I am touched, and deeply, that you feel ready to take such a step.” Even though he wasn’t looking at him, Jason could tell the vampire was smiling, just by the way the pad of his thumb was lightly stroking his cheek as Rori gingerly touched his forehead to the crown of Jason’s own. “I was uncertain whether you would ever feel at ease with me in this way – or that you would ever trust me enough not to…”

When the redhead’s soft voice trailed away, when he gave the lightest of sighs and his hands went still against Jason’s face, Jason felt the old vice around his heart tighten. Desperate to console that ache and withdraw from the hellish nightmare at which Rori’s words had hinted, suddenly cold fingers drew the vampire’s palm down to his mouth so dry lips could press a lingering kiss there – a kiss to soothe the dark phantoms that haunted both sides.

“It’s an elementary thing, to let someone do as they please to you,” Rori distantly brooded. “It’s easy to allow them to touch you and kiss you and to lose yourself in an ocean of euphoria. But…” Listening quietly with his lover’s palm pressed to his mouth, listening and grazing light kisses over soft, tender white skin, Jason felt his heart begin to tear in half when Rori continued in a remote, straining voice. “To give, particularly to one who’s already done so much harm…”

Unable to ignore the searing pain that lanced through his soul, Jason held tight to the vampire’s hand, bringing it to his chest and pressing it close to his heart as he leaned into Rori’s shoulder. “Don’t, okay?” He whispered, fingers tightening around the Englishman’s own as he buried his face into his lover’s neck. “Things aren’t like that anymore – they haven’t been for a long time.”

The vampire was silent, unmoving save for the way he’d quietly tilted his mouth to Jason’s shoulder.

“You’ve gotta stop-” But the words died on Jason’s tongue.

What? Blaming himself? True, Rori had had his own demons to deal with back then, but in the beginning of their relationship he was hardly what one could call a victim. He’d done what he’d done of his own free will, of his own volition. He’d had a choice, he’d made it, and Jason had nearly been destroyed because of it time and time again. Rori had been a predator, in every dark and cruel meaning of the word.

Trying to swallow past the vice that had cinched itself tight around his throat, Jason fought to smother that old pain all over again as the shadows lurking within the past twitched and began to writhe.“You’re not like you were back then,” he uttered, voice a weak and frail mockery of its true self. “You’re hardly even the same person now. I trust you. You’ve earned that, and I haven’t had any reason to doubt that trust for a really long time.”

I trust you…

Sniffling back waves of memories and the agony they brought with them, Jason remained close to the vampire, breathing choked and wavering for a time until he managed to calm himself and continue on the arm of a frail laugh. “Only reason it took me so long is ‘cause I’ve never… y’know, really taken an active role with a guy before. I’m afraid I won’t be any good at whatever I’m trying to do,” he murmured, a half-hearted grin tugging at a corner of his lips. “’Cause, y’know, I’m kind of a proud idiot like that, and totally lacking in the experience department. Point is, though, I wanna do something for you ‘cause I think you deserve it. I know I’m a pain in the ass, and… I wanna show you how I feel every time you do stuff like that for me. And honestly…” Jason let the strangled chuckle building in his throat the release it desired as his voice softened with affection. “I’m sick of being the one who gets teased all the goddamn time.”

When the vampire gave a frail laugh, the vice tightening around his heart shuddered, cracked, and fell away, letting him breathe unrestricted once again. “I suppose I’m a bit of a bastard that way, aren’t I?”

“Just a little.” Pressing a soothing kiss to Rori’s pale neck, Jason grinned and finally felt himself relax as familiar arms curled around him, squeezing just slightly before the vampire’s mouth kissed the crook of his shoulder.

Whatever would I do without you…?

“Probably walk around freaking normal people out by having half a conversation inside their head.”

Pale lips curled into a smile. “Thank you.”

Leaning back, palms resting delicately on the vampire’s chest – Rori’s own adhered contently to the small of his back – Jason glanced up into impossibly pale green eyes and managed a small, half-made smile. “So, we’re done with the angst for now, right?” When the beginning nuances of a grin began twitching on the outskirts of the Englishman’s lips, Jason felt his resolve harden, and the phantoms of the past began to fade away. “Can we get back to me making an ass of myself? And, y’know, possibly maybe getting laid? ‘Cause in case your memory’s starting to go one of us is still a horny teenager who hasn’t gotten any for the last month and a half, and it’s starting to make us a bit twitchy.”

“Just say the word…”

“Take me I’m yours.”

“That would be two and a contraction more than what was necessary, but nevertheless…” A wolfish smile began to tug at the corners of the vampire’s lips – mint green irises went dark and intent with purpose – and it was then that Jason remembered exactly who, and what, he was dealing with.

And I love you for who you are now. More than ever.

“Uh, actually… Can I shower, first?”

XXX

To Be Continued…

XXX

So, like it? Hate it? Wish it would spontaneously combust? Leave me a review and tell me all about it! C’mon, I wanna know everything! –maniacal cackle-

I’ve learned something while writing this chapter. Jason is easy – and I mean really, pathetically easy – to fluster and distract. Which is what makes him adorable. Rori, on the other hand, is an insufferably smug, conceited ass with an ego the size of a small country. Which is why I can’t help but absolutely despise it when he gets all mopey.

Huh. I think I just remembered why I started writing Unwanted Guardian in the first place. Y’know, before it wandered down its path of overwhelming angst. And you can kinda see how its sneaky ass started leaking in there closer to the end. Had to find some way to kill it before it started getting too settled in, ‘cause, man… I need a break from the angst. Badly. I was missing normal Rori and Jason something fierce.

Smut will be continued next chapter. This one was a guilty pleasure all my own.