[Fic] A Different Retribution | Watchmen, VeidtOwl. NC17
Title: A Different Retribution
Authors: muzivitch & glasspyramids
Series: Watchmen
Pairing: VeidtOwl
Rating: So NC17 it almost hurts, baby.
Length: 5113 words
Note: Post-Karnak sex for the win! Reposted from glasspyramids because no one commented. *sadface*
The others had gone - Dr. Manhattan had flashed Laurie back to New York and himself back to...Mars, Dan supposed - but Dan stayed behind, claiming critical repairs to Archie.
He was pretty sure Manhattan, at least, hadn't bought it, but he hadn't said anything. Dan would have been surprised if he had.
The worst part of this, Dan thought grimly as he gathered his gear from Archie, was he'd always liked Adrian. He'd been something of an ass in their younger days, for sure, but intelligent, principled, and a good Watchman. Plus, he remembered...there had been that time after the meeting in 1970.
And the time after the mission in 1973, in the alley.
And the club in the West Village in 1975.
Dan tossed the rappelling hook up to the ceiling and began the long climb upwards in the wind and cold. Regardless, he thought as he pulled himself upwards and paused to catch his breath, he never would have believed Adrian Veidt was capable of doing this, and it made him think that maybe he'd never known him. Maybe their friendship and acquaintanceship and whatever fucking else it had been was all a sham. Maybe that pissed him off.
And maybe it made him want to...revisit history, just one more time, Dan thought as he peered through the glass pyramids. Ozymandias was in the audience chamber, he noted - well, he wouldn't go through there. Somewhere more secluded, he thought. Somewhere Adrian wouldn't be expecting him to be.
He cut through the skylight of a storage closet in the far west wing.
Karnak was silent, and cold, snowflakes whirling through the broken glass to begin collecting along the edges of the debris on the floor. Adrian paid them no mind. The cold didn't matter, the snow didn't matter. Karnak's purpose was fulfilled, the unknown birthplace of an unsuspecting new world.
The images on the televisions changed every few seconds, automatically, and Adrian's eyes flicked from one to the next more quickly than they were changing, as if each flickering screen was whispering to him, Yes, this was right, you did the right thing. He was standing; his chair had been destroyed in the fight, and even if it hadn't been, he had already found himself reaching for the silky ears of Bubastis. Most would consider her the least important sacrifice upon this pyre of peace, but not to Adrian. Now, though, he put her out of his mind.
It had been two hours since the others had left, two hours of solitude, meditation, two hours bathed in the flickering lights. Adrian waited patiently for the regret to begin pouring in, but there was still nothing but a quiet sense of satisfaction, even of triumph. A small smile played over his lips as he turned back from the televisions, then paused, eyes narrowing as he listened intently.
Something...wasn't...right.
Stealth had always been his forte, which would have surprised anyone who had met Dan Dreiberg out of costume, but it was the truth. He'd developed the ability to blend into the shadows early on, and never really lost it. Part of it was knowing what would serve him well and what wouldn't. For instance, in this case: the cape stayed in the closet.
He crept out of the closet and into the dark halls, slinking along the edges in shadow. Adrian was smart, he thought; it wouldn't be long before he realized something was off, and much longer after that to realize someone had come back. The trick was securing the advantage before Adrian's mind caught up.
Dan flattened himself against the wall, tipping his head back and narrowing his eyes on the steel latticework. If he could get up there, he thought, that would be a distinct advantage. Everybody tended to look everywhere but up, and he suspected that despite Adrian and all his superior intelligence, he'd be the same. He tugged a retractable rappelling tool from his belt and tossed the thin hook over one of pipes before clicking a button that sent him flying up. Easy as pie. Getting over the top of the latticework was another thing entirely.
"Fuck," Dan muttered as he wrestled himself over the top, ramming his thigh against one of the posts. "That's going to leave a mark."
He did appreciate Adrian's predeliction for really fucking high ceilings though, he thought as he balanced carefully on top of the pipes and took slow careful steps. He had a good three inches of clearance standing up, and he wasn't exactly short.
Adrian moved through Karnak lightly, searching, trying to determine what exactly was wrong. In defiance of convention, his eyes periodically turned toward the ceiling, but the shadows were deep there and he saw no flicker of movement, so he turned his eyes downward again, peering sharply into the shadows.
Someone was there. He couldn't hear anything, but there was something subtle, the quality of the air, ripples as they moved.
Someone hadn't gone back.
Adrian had his own ideas about why, but the real question was who. Laurie was terrible at hiding in the shadows, and the yellow latex practically glowed in the dark. Jon wouldn't have bothered. Rorschach...well, Adrian didn't have to worry about Rorschach anymore.
That left one, and Adrian's lips curled into an amused smile. This had potential.
Dan stilled, moving into a crouch as he heard footsteps moving quietly down the hallway. He stared down, Nite Owl's superior night vision picking out the sweep of Adrian's cape, the gleam of platinum at his temples, and the pale silver of the Ozymandias costume as he moved down the hall.
He glanced up once, and Dan froze...but then he moved on, and Dan knew he'd been missed. His lips curved. He still had it, he thought as he crept along the pipes. Now all he had to do was find an enclosed space and trap Adrian there.
Easier said than done, of course.
Dan would most likely be lying in wait for him somewhere, Adrian thought to himself as he ran silently from pool of shadow to pool of shadow. Crouched in a corner, waiting for Adrian to pass by, wherein he'd leap out and attempt...well, something. Adrian didn't really know what Dan planned to try that would be more effective than his earlier attack.
Hmm, perhaps Dan was stalking him through the halls. Adrian kept getting a distinctive feeling between his shoulderblades, and more than once had whipped around with preternatural speed, looking sharply into the shadows, occasionally at the ceiling, but still nothing. If he was, he was good. But Adrian was better at that game.
There was a small corridor that connected the reactor hall with the main hallways. The door was sealed now, it had been sealed when the reactor was transported and Adrian hadn't programmed it to unlock again. He was finished with Karnak the way it was now, after all. With a smile, Adrian faded into the shadows in the corridor, leaning against the wall, casual, waiting for Dan to come out of hiding.
Dan grinned as Adrian came to a halt in an absolutely perfect place. He couldn't have worked it out any better had he planned it himself, he thought. His eyes sharpened as Adrian turned to the side, propping one shoulder against the wall and offering his back to the door. It was almost as if he wanted to get caught, Dan thought as slipped silently down from the ceiling.
Adrian turned as Dan's feet hit the ground, but for once he wasn't fast enough, for once Dan was the one with the advantage. He slammed Adrian up against the wall. "Let me guess," he murmured, "you thought I was following behind you."
Adrian had started to counter, but Dan's blow had slammed his head against the wall, the platinum leaving a chip in the stone, and everything went very still for a few seconds. Black flies danced on the edges of Adrian's vision and his hands were wrapped around Dan's wrists. "I had assumed," he murmured, sounding as stunned as he felt.
"Seems I underestimated you, Dan." There was anger forming fast in Adrian's eyes, ice over the surface of a pond, and he shook his head a bit to clear it before pushing off hard from the wall, slamming Dan into the wall opposite, but it was only three feet and the impact wasn't nearly as hard as Adrian's had been.
Still, it had knocked Dan off-balance somewhat, and Adrian pulled back sharply, out of his grip, turning to sprint down the corridor, velvet cape flowing behind him.
Dan shook his head to clear it and swung out, the grappling hook catching in the voluminous folds of Adrian's cape and bringing him to a halt and then tumbling down. He leaned down, wrapping rappeling cable tightly around Adrian's wrists.
"You always did," he said mildly, his eyes gleaming behind his mask. "Underestimate me, that is. Come on."
That had been entirely unexpected, and Adrian's eyes burned with anger as he hit the marble floor, knocking most of the breath out of him. The rappelling cable was around his wrists faster than he'd expected and he looked up with a curl of his lips, his voice almost disturbingly calm.
"What do you intend to achieve with this, Dan?" He couldn't break the cord, he knew that instantly, and he didn't try, instead tensing his muscles to lash out somehow, when Dan left him an opening.
He really should have paid more attention to the retired masks.
Dan tipped his head to one side, considering as he yanked Adrian to his feet and started pulling him down the corridor. "You know," he said finally, as they reached the entrance of the audience chamber. "I really haven't decided yet. But I thought I'd start with this."
He crushed Adrian's lips under his own in a hard, bruising kiss and backed him up, further and further, until the heels of Adrian's boots hit the foot of the stairs. "Maybe continue with this," he added, kicking Adrian's feet out from under him and sending them tumbling against the marble stairs. He cupped his hand around the back of Adrian's head, protecting it from sharp, hard stone as they fell backwards.
He didn't want Adrian dead. He hadn't quite figured out why not yet.
The calculations running through Adrian's head - tensile strength of 6 mm rappelling cord, amount of tension on his wrists, probability of successfully slipping out of his gloves, how very much he wanted to kick Daniel Dreiberg in the head right now - they stuttered to a frozen stop as Dan yanked him forward. An involuntary sound of surprise was muffled by Dan's lips, and he wasn't ready for the sudden kick.
He let out a sharp huff as his back hit the marble stairs, though he was kept from bruises by his armor. It didn't keep the breath from getting knocked from him, however, and as Dan's weight settled on him, pinning him down, he thrashed, glaring up with confusion, wariness, and the slightest trace of interest.
"This might just be the most fun thing we could do, don't you think, Ozymandias?" His hands slid up Adrian's sides, over the rubber suit, and then slid over his bound arms. "It's been a while. A whole....what? Two weeks since I saw you in your office? And before that," he breathed, licking along the shell of Adrian's ear. "Ten years."
He released Adrian, and reached up to pull off his mask, damp curling tendrils of dark hair falling into intense blue eyes, and his lips curved into one of the rare flirtatious grins that could have made him a killer if he'd used them more often.
"You kicked my ass," he began, "I failed to save 15 millon people from being murdered, and then Jon vaporized my longest associate. Then I chased you through your own little fortress of solitude. All in all, it's been an interesting day." His eyes glittered with a combination of anger and lust. "Want to end it on a high note?"
Adrian paused in his struggles as a memory crashed over him, two weeks earlier, when Dan had kindly come to warn him of a plot that Adrian himself had engineered. He'd been touched, nonetheless, at Dan's thoughtfulness, and it was that momentary gratitude that had pushed him.
On their previous encounters, ten years ago now - ten years? Adrian had been working on this goal for so long - it had never been clear which of them had made the first move, they had exploded into a flurry of bitten lips and hands roaming beneath capes, finding hidden seams, but Adrian clearly remembered Dan's nervous interest as Adrian had leaned over the desk and kissed him without warning.
Almost without his realizing, his hips shifted beneath Dan and a spark of interest melted the frost that had gathered in his eyes. "I thought you hated me for mutilating mankind, Nite Owl," he murmured in a low, silky voice calculated to go straight to Dan's spine.
It worked, too. Dan shivered and bent his head, capturing Adrian's mouth in a kiss. "I do hate you," he murmured. "But since when did that stop anyone?"
His hands went to Adrian's chest, pulling and yanking, seeking seams. "How do I get you out of this, Ozymandias?" he said. "Or have you decided you'd rather stay dressed?"
"You figured it out fifteen years ago, and that was a pitch-black rooftop," Adrian pointed out with a smug, arrogant smirk, despite his position with the stairs pressing into his back, but he shifted to the side and raised his arms to show the catches hidden beneath the belt.
He had definitely not predicted this as the end to his day, but he could think of a number of worse ways to finish his greatest truimph.
"I'm old now," Dan murmured as he released the catches, loosening the suit and letting his hands roam over bare skin as he peeled it away. "A lot of things are easier when you're young and desperate."
"Oh, you were desperate?" Adrian mocked as he shifted, arching into Dan's gloved fingers as they ran over his pale skin. He didn't think Dan was particularly old. He was younger than Adrian, and Adrian certainly didn't consider himself old. Dan had put in a relatively impressive showing earlier as well, especially considering he'd been retired for a number of years.
"You realize, Nite Owl, this would be far easier if my hands were free?" he said airily, still using their superhero names. They'd always done that, in the old days, never used their real names. In fact, the only time Adrian could remember calling out Dan's real name was two weeks ago.
Dan raised an eyebrow. "Would it now?" He sighed mock-regretfully. "There you go, ruining my effort to add some kink in my sex life." He tugged a knife off his belt. "If you take this opportunity to knock me on my ass again and lock me up somewhere, I'm not going to be happy." His tone said he didn't really think Adrian had that particular intention, and he smirked as he sliced the rappel cables off.
"There," he said. "What's your plan, Ozymandias?"
With trademark preternatural speed, Adrian's newly-freed hands came up and pushed Dan back sharply, but locking him up somewhere was the furthest thing on Adrian's mind. Flipping him neatly onto his back and straddling him, gripping Dan's hips tightly with his knees, Adrian kissed him again, biting at his lower lip as his hands sought the zippers and began undoing them quickly.
"My plan is to even the score, Nite Owl," he whispered against his lips as a gloved hand stroked Dan's side beneath the parted costume. "Unless you have some objection?"
Dan gasped and leaned his head back against the steps, his eyes squeezing shut as Adrian rubbed a gloved finger against his nipple. "Uh, no," he managed, his mind going blank under Adrian's expert caress. "No objection, Ozymandias." His tongue darted out to lick across Adrian's lips and then delve deep, and he reached up, tunneling fingers deep into Adrian's fair hair, sending it into disarray.
He shifted his hips under Adrian's, sending a groan reverbrating through their kiss. "Whatever you want," he nearly purred. "As long as I get to have my fun too."
Adrian laughed low into the kiss as he nipped at Dan's lip, biting nearly hard enough to draw blood. "Have I ever been selfish in that regard, my dear Nite Owl?" he asked in a mock injured voice as he pushed the cowl back and slipped pale fingers into dark hair, tugging Dan's head back to kiss and bite at his throat, laving the faint marks with his tongue.
Dan arched his throat back and groaned, drawing in harsh breaths. He blindly grabbed at Adrian, catching loosened rubber in his grasp and pushing it out of his way, letting his fingers smooth across bare skin. "No," he finally said, "you've never been selfish in that regard. In fact," he added on a gasp as he felt Adrian's sharp teeth sink into his skin. "I've always admired your...sense of cooperation. Still," he said, his eyes glinting with amused desire. "Sometimes a fight's fun."
He lurched up, grabbing onto Adrian's upper arms to ho him steady, and pressed his mouth to Adrian's in another long, deep, potent kiss. He poured everything he was feeling into it - anger, hate, and most of all desire, everything he had.
He wasn't surprised when Ozymandias returned the favor.
As Dan's fingers squeezed his arms tight enough to leave handprints, Adrian let out a long, slow moan into the kiss, relaxing and melting against Dan's chest. He hadn't realized, until he'd felt Dan's lips savage against his, how much he'd been wanting to feel someone else, to think about something else, and eventually, to stop thinking of anything at all.
His nails left faint red marks down Dan's chest. "Nite Owl," he murmured as he kissed down Dan's neck again, "you are entirely overdressed."
"Really?" Dan said. His lips curved and he arched his neck as Adrian kissed his way down his throat. "Maybe you should do something about that, Ozymandias." He gasped as Adrian's teeth closed around one of his nipples, sending sharp pleasure arcing through him. "I'm sure you can manage," he murmured. He wrapped one arm around Adrian's waist and lifted his other hand to his mouth, tugging on the fingertips with his teeth until his hand worked free. He let the glove fall to the marble steps with a soft slap, and lowered his hand , trailing the knuckles down the length of his spine.
When Adrian shivered, Dan let a soft, sensual chuckle escape his chest.
The trace of Dan's fingers down his spine spurred Adrian and he stood, hands flying quickly over the remains of the brown rubber and spandex, running his hands over the skin beneath, then straddled Dan again with a cocky smile on his face, having not bothered with the rest of his own costume.
"It seems I can manage," he said conversationally, grabbing Dan's wrists and pinning them to the stairs above his head.
Dan raised his eyebrows. "I had great faith in your abilities," he said, his voice husky as Adrian leaned over him, the velvet of his cape pooling across his legs in a liquid caress. He tested Adrian's grip and grinned when Ozymandias' hands didn't budge.
"I knew I shouldn't have untied you," he said, but there was no regret in his words, only desire and amusement. "These are the kinds of situations I get myself into when I take your advice." He arched up his hips, rubbing against the hard bulge he could feel through the thin rubber of Adrian's pants, and then sank back down to the step again, going still. A challenging gleam lit his brilliant eyes.
He didn't say another word, but he didn't need to. The ball was in Ozymandias's court now.
Adrian's lips parted in a slow, predatory smile as Dan ground against him, then a thoughtful look crossed his face. "Hm." Smoothly, he rose to his feet. "We may need..." He tilted his head a bit, admiring the contrast of Dan against the stone of the steps. He unfastened the velvet cape from his shoulders and trailed the soft fabric up Dan's chest. With a swirl, he draped it over Dan's waist, smirking, walking slowly backward up the steps. "Wait here, Nite...Owl..."
With light steps, he trotted up the rest of the stairs and sprinted down the hall toward the extravagant, almost embarrassingly lush bedchambers. "Foresight can't predict everything," he murmured as his fingers closed around a purple bottle. He slowed before he got back to the stairs and slipped to the side to catch another look at Dan, draped in magenta velvet against pale marble steps. It was a shame; he could potentially have gotten used to this.
Dan folded his arms behind his head, bending one knee to prop his heel on one of the icy marble steps. It should have been intolerable in the audience chamber now, he thought; he no longer had the protection of his suit, and the only thing covering him was a pool of rich velvet. But instead, he felt like he was surrounded by so much heat that he'd welcome the cold as a kind of relief.
It was usually like this when Nite Owl and Ozymandias came together, he thought; a kind of explosion that would never work for anything serious, but was perfect for their...encounters.
He heard footsteps suddenly come to a halt above him, and tipped his head back, his thick, shaggy, dark hair pooling against the white steps. "Find what you were looking for?" he asked, and then he caught sight of the small purple bottle. "Ah, yes," he said. "You did."
A smile curved his lips, his eyes darkened, and he lifted one hand in a beckoning gesture. "Well, come on then, Ozymandias," he said. He was tossing all his intentions into the wind, he realized, or maybe not. Maybe these had been his intentions to begin with - and he'd just been telling himself otherwise.
Slowly, stepping deliberately, Adrian walked down the steps, pausing next to Dan's shoulder, looking down at him with a slightly tilted head. His eyes roamed slowly over the lines of Dan's body beneath the velvet, pausing and gaining an amused gleam at the curve between his legs.
"I could certainly get used to this view," he murmured as he slowly removed the shoulder bracer, arching his back far more than necessary, muscles flexing in his back. He was stripping far more slowly than necessary, and the mischievious smirk was on his lips the entire time.
Dan sat up, propping his elbows on one of the steps, his eyes dark as he watched Adrian's hands move to his waist, watched as he efficiently stripped the sleek rubber down his legs, tugged off his boots, and turned slowly to face Dan.
"Now that," Dan said, his eyes gleaming, "is a view." He sat up, ignoring the surprise in Adrian's eyes as he reached forward and plucked the lube out of his hand. "I'll take care of that," he murmured as Ozymandias' cape pooled around his lap.
He poured the lube out onto his fingers, coating them with the oil, before reaching behind him, teasing his opening with his own fingers. He met Adrian's eyes as he pushed his fingers inside, watched as Ozymandias' pale skin flushed slightly pink, watched as his hazel-green eyes went nearly black with lust.
To be honest, he wasn't sure what was turning him on more.
Adrian's brows had gone up skeptically as Dan had taken the lube, and for a moment he'd anticipated a fight for dominance, but then his vision almost tunneled as Dan slid slicked, shiny fingers behind himself. Adrian found his eyes fastened to Dan's face, his half-lidded eyes heavy, burning, drawing Adrian closer.
Blue flames burned hot, and Adrian moved forward slowly, eyes fixed on Dan's, his movements slow and predatory as his smile had been. Fingers tangled in dark hair and Adrian tasted blood as he kissed Dan with a fierce, singleminded burn, his other hand trailing down, tracing the scores his manicured nails had made minutes before.
Dan kissed back, just as fierce, just as hard, his teeth nipping, tongue tangling with Adrian's. His free hand came up to clutch and claw at Adrian's bare shoulder as he continued to push the fingers of his other hand deep inside himself, stretching and stroking as Adrian's hand glided closer and closer to his straining cock.
Adrian's hand paused, lightly stroking across Dan's pelvis, and Dan hissed into their kiss as his hips bucked up, seeking more but not getting it.
"Touch me," he said. God, he thought, if he didn't fucking touch him soon, he was going to expire.
Then Adrian's pale, narrow hand circled his his cock, and lights exploded in front of Dan's eyes. He arched, he shuddered, and when Adrian's hand slid out of his hair, slid down his back to encircle his wrist and tug his hand away from his ass, he didn't even care.
Adrian closed his eyes at the thrill, the molten thrill that ran down his spine at Dan's desperate, commanding, pleading words. Keeping his fingers curled around Dan's cock, moving them slowly, he knelt between Dan's knees and his fingers found Dan's opening, and god, already slick and loose and perfect.
Kissing Dan's jaw, Adrian's lips trailed down the side of his neck and he bit down hard on the corded muscle between neck and shoulder as he pushed inside, slowly, but not too slowly, a low growl vibrating against Dan's skin.
It had been ten years since he'd seen Dan like this, and with the small part of his mind still capable of rational thought, still solid amidst the surges of lust and pleasure, ten years was far too long.
Dan shuddered as Adrian pushed his fingers inside him, unerringly finding exactly the right spots, using exactly the right touches to drive him insane. He squeezed his eyes shut for a long instant, the dark blue fixing on Adrian.
He reached up and wrapped the short strands of blond hair around his fingers and pulled, pulled hard, pulled until he could see a flash of almost-pain join the lust and desperation already darkening Adrian's hazel eyes.
"Adri...Ozymandias," he corrected. His breath came in short, hard breaths, and in any normal circumstances, his voice would have been too quiet, too thin to be heard, but this wasn't anything ordinary. It was never anything ordinary. Dan's hips jerked as Adrian twisted his fingers inside him, and his voice became something so close to a sob, he wouldn't have been able to tell the difference.
"Fuck me," he said, and he yanked even harder on Adrian's hair, and his eyes were dark and blind and fixed on Adrian's. "For God's sake," he gasped out, "now."
The near-slip, the whimper in Dan's voice, the way Dan twisted beneath him, Adrian couldn't tell which hit him first, which lit the fire in his stomach, and in a few deft moves Adrian pressed inside, fast, sharp, a single hard thrust.
He caught Dan's cry, swallowed it in a searing kiss as he began moving slowly, almost teasingly slowly. His tongue brushed against Dan's lips before teasing his own, nipping at it as he sped up his rhythm.
God, everything about Dan fit perfectly against him as he moved, his other hand tangling in Dan's hair, tugging sharply as he bit at Dan's neck, scraped his teeth across Dan's earlobe. "My Nite Owl," he purred in his ear in a low, silky voice like water and black velvet.
It was the voice that did it. Dan was certain it was the voice - silky, dark, irritating in every other circumstance but this one. It sent him straight over the edge, and his nails clawed deep furrows in Adrian's skin as his hips bucked up in a desperate rhythm and he squeezed his eyes shut against the brilliant shards of light that destroyed everything - everything but he and Adrian - and he yanked Adrian closer, kissed him hard enough to bruise, pushing his tongue into Adrian's mouth in a mere mimicry of what Ozymandias was doing to him.
The trails of fire down his back as Dan raked Adrian's skin with his nails, Dan's body twisting and writhing beneath his own, his desperate panting cry again swallowed by Adrian's lips, brilliant snapshot moments were all Adrian could process as control slipped from his desperate fingers. His hips bucked sharply up twice, three times, as his mind spiraled into white light and no-thought. He may have cried out a name against swollen, desperate lips, but even Adrian couldn't tell what it had been.
Adrian collapsed atop Dan, fingers tangled in his hair, gripping his hip, breathing sharply, feeling the cold burn of snowflakes melting against his sweat-slicked back. Slowly, thoughts strung themselves together in his empty, pulsing mind and he took a deep, shuddering breath, then another.
Dan had no idea how long it took before he regained enough coherence to open his eyes again, but it couldn't have been long. Adrian was still collapsed on top of him, still wrapped around him. His hands were still knotted in Adrian's hair, he realized, and slowly he let go, pulled them free. He drew a deep breath and spoke.
"Ozymandias," he said, and waited until Adrian lifted his head, pushed a skein of sweat-dampened blond hair out of his eyes. Dan raised an eyebrow.
"You do realize that it's my turn next, don't you?"
Adrian's lips spread in a slow smile and he propped his head on his elbow. The gleam of platinum at his temples was nearly masked by sweat-darkened hair. "Of course I do," he answered easily, eyes roaming Dan's dark hair as snowflakes caught in it, held a moment, perfect crystals, then melted as if switched off, darkening the brown to inky black.
He leaned down to press another kiss, lighter this time, against Dan's lips. "I would never assume anything less, Nite Owl. Though perhaps, as you picked this location..." Adrian glanced around the audience chamber, snowflakes swirling through the broken glass, and looked back down with an amused twist of his lips. "I'll select it next. That seems only fair."
Authors: muzivitch & glasspyramids
Series: Watchmen
Pairing: VeidtOwl
Rating: So NC17 it almost hurts, baby.
Length: 5113 words
Note: Post-Karnak sex for the win! Reposted from glasspyramids because no one commented. *sadface*
The others had gone - Dr. Manhattan had flashed Laurie back to New York and himself back to...Mars, Dan supposed - but Dan stayed behind, claiming critical repairs to Archie.
He was pretty sure Manhattan, at least, hadn't bought it, but he hadn't said anything. Dan would have been surprised if he had.
The worst part of this, Dan thought grimly as he gathered his gear from Archie, was he'd always liked Adrian. He'd been something of an ass in their younger days, for sure, but intelligent, principled, and a good Watchman. Plus, he remembered...there had been that time after the meeting in 1970.
And the time after the mission in 1973, in the alley.
And the club in the West Village in 1975.
Dan tossed the rappelling hook up to the ceiling and began the long climb upwards in the wind and cold. Regardless, he thought as he pulled himself upwards and paused to catch his breath, he never would have believed Adrian Veidt was capable of doing this, and it made him think that maybe he'd never known him. Maybe their friendship and acquaintanceship and whatever fucking else it had been was all a sham. Maybe that pissed him off.
And maybe it made him want to...revisit history, just one more time, Dan thought as he peered through the glass pyramids. Ozymandias was in the audience chamber, he noted - well, he wouldn't go through there. Somewhere more secluded, he thought. Somewhere Adrian wouldn't be expecting him to be.
He cut through the skylight of a storage closet in the far west wing.
Karnak was silent, and cold, snowflakes whirling through the broken glass to begin collecting along the edges of the debris on the floor. Adrian paid them no mind. The cold didn't matter, the snow didn't matter. Karnak's purpose was fulfilled, the unknown birthplace of an unsuspecting new world.
The images on the televisions changed every few seconds, automatically, and Adrian's eyes flicked from one to the next more quickly than they were changing, as if each flickering screen was whispering to him, Yes, this was right, you did the right thing. He was standing; his chair had been destroyed in the fight, and even if it hadn't been, he had already found himself reaching for the silky ears of Bubastis. Most would consider her the least important sacrifice upon this pyre of peace, but not to Adrian. Now, though, he put her out of his mind.
It had been two hours since the others had left, two hours of solitude, meditation, two hours bathed in the flickering lights. Adrian waited patiently for the regret to begin pouring in, but there was still nothing but a quiet sense of satisfaction, even of triumph. A small smile played over his lips as he turned back from the televisions, then paused, eyes narrowing as he listened intently.
Something...wasn't...right.
Stealth had always been his forte, which would have surprised anyone who had met Dan Dreiberg out of costume, but it was the truth. He'd developed the ability to blend into the shadows early on, and never really lost it. Part of it was knowing what would serve him well and what wouldn't. For instance, in this case: the cape stayed in the closet.
He crept out of the closet and into the dark halls, slinking along the edges in shadow. Adrian was smart, he thought; it wouldn't be long before he realized something was off, and much longer after that to realize someone had come back. The trick was securing the advantage before Adrian's mind caught up.
Dan flattened himself against the wall, tipping his head back and narrowing his eyes on the steel latticework. If he could get up there, he thought, that would be a distinct advantage. Everybody tended to look everywhere but up, and he suspected that despite Adrian and all his superior intelligence, he'd be the same. He tugged a retractable rappelling tool from his belt and tossed the thin hook over one of pipes before clicking a button that sent him flying up. Easy as pie. Getting over the top of the latticework was another thing entirely.
"Fuck," Dan muttered as he wrestled himself over the top, ramming his thigh against one of the posts. "That's going to leave a mark."
He did appreciate Adrian's predeliction for really fucking high ceilings though, he thought as he balanced carefully on top of the pipes and took slow careful steps. He had a good three inches of clearance standing up, and he wasn't exactly short.
Adrian moved through Karnak lightly, searching, trying to determine what exactly was wrong. In defiance of convention, his eyes periodically turned toward the ceiling, but the shadows were deep there and he saw no flicker of movement, so he turned his eyes downward again, peering sharply into the shadows.
Someone was there. He couldn't hear anything, but there was something subtle, the quality of the air, ripples as they moved.
Someone hadn't gone back.
Adrian had his own ideas about why, but the real question was who. Laurie was terrible at hiding in the shadows, and the yellow latex practically glowed in the dark. Jon wouldn't have bothered. Rorschach...well, Adrian didn't have to worry about Rorschach anymore.
That left one, and Adrian's lips curled into an amused smile. This had potential.
Dan stilled, moving into a crouch as he heard footsteps moving quietly down the hallway. He stared down, Nite Owl's superior night vision picking out the sweep of Adrian's cape, the gleam of platinum at his temples, and the pale silver of the Ozymandias costume as he moved down the hall.
He glanced up once, and Dan froze...but then he moved on, and Dan knew he'd been missed. His lips curved. He still had it, he thought as he crept along the pipes. Now all he had to do was find an enclosed space and trap Adrian there.
Easier said than done, of course.
Dan would most likely be lying in wait for him somewhere, Adrian thought to himself as he ran silently from pool of shadow to pool of shadow. Crouched in a corner, waiting for Adrian to pass by, wherein he'd leap out and attempt...well, something. Adrian didn't really know what Dan planned to try that would be more effective than his earlier attack.
Hmm, perhaps Dan was stalking him through the halls. Adrian kept getting a distinctive feeling between his shoulderblades, and more than once had whipped around with preternatural speed, looking sharply into the shadows, occasionally at the ceiling, but still nothing. If he was, he was good. But Adrian was better at that game.
There was a small corridor that connected the reactor hall with the main hallways. The door was sealed now, it had been sealed when the reactor was transported and Adrian hadn't programmed it to unlock again. He was finished with Karnak the way it was now, after all. With a smile, Adrian faded into the shadows in the corridor, leaning against the wall, casual, waiting for Dan to come out of hiding.
Dan grinned as Adrian came to a halt in an absolutely perfect place. He couldn't have worked it out any better had he planned it himself, he thought. His eyes sharpened as Adrian turned to the side, propping one shoulder against the wall and offering his back to the door. It was almost as if he wanted to get caught, Dan thought as slipped silently down from the ceiling.
Adrian turned as Dan's feet hit the ground, but for once he wasn't fast enough, for once Dan was the one with the advantage. He slammed Adrian up against the wall. "Let me guess," he murmured, "you thought I was following behind you."
Adrian had started to counter, but Dan's blow had slammed his head against the wall, the platinum leaving a chip in the stone, and everything went very still for a few seconds. Black flies danced on the edges of Adrian's vision and his hands were wrapped around Dan's wrists. "I had assumed," he murmured, sounding as stunned as he felt.
"Seems I underestimated you, Dan." There was anger forming fast in Adrian's eyes, ice over the surface of a pond, and he shook his head a bit to clear it before pushing off hard from the wall, slamming Dan into the wall opposite, but it was only three feet and the impact wasn't nearly as hard as Adrian's had been.
Still, it had knocked Dan off-balance somewhat, and Adrian pulled back sharply, out of his grip, turning to sprint down the corridor, velvet cape flowing behind him.
Dan shook his head to clear it and swung out, the grappling hook catching in the voluminous folds of Adrian's cape and bringing him to a halt and then tumbling down. He leaned down, wrapping rappeling cable tightly around Adrian's wrists.
"You always did," he said mildly, his eyes gleaming behind his mask. "Underestimate me, that is. Come on."
That had been entirely unexpected, and Adrian's eyes burned with anger as he hit the marble floor, knocking most of the breath out of him. The rappelling cable was around his wrists faster than he'd expected and he looked up with a curl of his lips, his voice almost disturbingly calm.
"What do you intend to achieve with this, Dan?" He couldn't break the cord, he knew that instantly, and he didn't try, instead tensing his muscles to lash out somehow, when Dan left him an opening.
He really should have paid more attention to the retired masks.
Dan tipped his head to one side, considering as he yanked Adrian to his feet and started pulling him down the corridor. "You know," he said finally, as they reached the entrance of the audience chamber. "I really haven't decided yet. But I thought I'd start with this."
He crushed Adrian's lips under his own in a hard, bruising kiss and backed him up, further and further, until the heels of Adrian's boots hit the foot of the stairs. "Maybe continue with this," he added, kicking Adrian's feet out from under him and sending them tumbling against the marble stairs. He cupped his hand around the back of Adrian's head, protecting it from sharp, hard stone as they fell backwards.
He didn't want Adrian dead. He hadn't quite figured out why not yet.
The calculations running through Adrian's head - tensile strength of 6 mm rappelling cord, amount of tension on his wrists, probability of successfully slipping out of his gloves, how very much he wanted to kick Daniel Dreiberg in the head right now - they stuttered to a frozen stop as Dan yanked him forward. An involuntary sound of surprise was muffled by Dan's lips, and he wasn't ready for the sudden kick.
He let out a sharp huff as his back hit the marble stairs, though he was kept from bruises by his armor. It didn't keep the breath from getting knocked from him, however, and as Dan's weight settled on him, pinning him down, he thrashed, glaring up with confusion, wariness, and the slightest trace of interest.
"This might just be the most fun thing we could do, don't you think, Ozymandias?" His hands slid up Adrian's sides, over the rubber suit, and then slid over his bound arms. "It's been a while. A whole....what? Two weeks since I saw you in your office? And before that," he breathed, licking along the shell of Adrian's ear. "Ten years."
He released Adrian, and reached up to pull off his mask, damp curling tendrils of dark hair falling into intense blue eyes, and his lips curved into one of the rare flirtatious grins that could have made him a killer if he'd used them more often.
"You kicked my ass," he began, "I failed to save 15 millon people from being murdered, and then Jon vaporized my longest associate. Then I chased you through your own little fortress of solitude. All in all, it's been an interesting day." His eyes glittered with a combination of anger and lust. "Want to end it on a high note?"
Adrian paused in his struggles as a memory crashed over him, two weeks earlier, when Dan had kindly come to warn him of a plot that Adrian himself had engineered. He'd been touched, nonetheless, at Dan's thoughtfulness, and it was that momentary gratitude that had pushed him.
On their previous encounters, ten years ago now - ten years? Adrian had been working on this goal for so long - it had never been clear which of them had made the first move, they had exploded into a flurry of bitten lips and hands roaming beneath capes, finding hidden seams, but Adrian clearly remembered Dan's nervous interest as Adrian had leaned over the desk and kissed him without warning.
Almost without his realizing, his hips shifted beneath Dan and a spark of interest melted the frost that had gathered in his eyes. "I thought you hated me for mutilating mankind, Nite Owl," he murmured in a low, silky voice calculated to go straight to Dan's spine.
It worked, too. Dan shivered and bent his head, capturing Adrian's mouth in a kiss. "I do hate you," he murmured. "But since when did that stop anyone?"
His hands went to Adrian's chest, pulling and yanking, seeking seams. "How do I get you out of this, Ozymandias?" he said. "Or have you decided you'd rather stay dressed?"
"You figured it out fifteen years ago, and that was a pitch-black rooftop," Adrian pointed out with a smug, arrogant smirk, despite his position with the stairs pressing into his back, but he shifted to the side and raised his arms to show the catches hidden beneath the belt.
He had definitely not predicted this as the end to his day, but he could think of a number of worse ways to finish his greatest truimph.
"I'm old now," Dan murmured as he released the catches, loosening the suit and letting his hands roam over bare skin as he peeled it away. "A lot of things are easier when you're young and desperate."
"Oh, you were desperate?" Adrian mocked as he shifted, arching into Dan's gloved fingers as they ran over his pale skin. He didn't think Dan was particularly old. He was younger than Adrian, and Adrian certainly didn't consider himself old. Dan had put in a relatively impressive showing earlier as well, especially considering he'd been retired for a number of years.
"You realize, Nite Owl, this would be far easier if my hands were free?" he said airily, still using their superhero names. They'd always done that, in the old days, never used their real names. In fact, the only time Adrian could remember calling out Dan's real name was two weeks ago.
Dan raised an eyebrow. "Would it now?" He sighed mock-regretfully. "There you go, ruining my effort to add some kink in my sex life." He tugged a knife off his belt. "If you take this opportunity to knock me on my ass again and lock me up somewhere, I'm not going to be happy." His tone said he didn't really think Adrian had that particular intention, and he smirked as he sliced the rappel cables off.
"There," he said. "What's your plan, Ozymandias?"
With trademark preternatural speed, Adrian's newly-freed hands came up and pushed Dan back sharply, but locking him up somewhere was the furthest thing on Adrian's mind. Flipping him neatly onto his back and straddling him, gripping Dan's hips tightly with his knees, Adrian kissed him again, biting at his lower lip as his hands sought the zippers and began undoing them quickly.
"My plan is to even the score, Nite Owl," he whispered against his lips as a gloved hand stroked Dan's side beneath the parted costume. "Unless you have some objection?"
Dan gasped and leaned his head back against the steps, his eyes squeezing shut as Adrian rubbed a gloved finger against his nipple. "Uh, no," he managed, his mind going blank under Adrian's expert caress. "No objection, Ozymandias." His tongue darted out to lick across Adrian's lips and then delve deep, and he reached up, tunneling fingers deep into Adrian's fair hair, sending it into disarray.
He shifted his hips under Adrian's, sending a groan reverbrating through their kiss. "Whatever you want," he nearly purred. "As long as I get to have my fun too."
Adrian laughed low into the kiss as he nipped at Dan's lip, biting nearly hard enough to draw blood. "Have I ever been selfish in that regard, my dear Nite Owl?" he asked in a mock injured voice as he pushed the cowl back and slipped pale fingers into dark hair, tugging Dan's head back to kiss and bite at his throat, laving the faint marks with his tongue.
Dan arched his throat back and groaned, drawing in harsh breaths. He blindly grabbed at Adrian, catching loosened rubber in his grasp and pushing it out of his way, letting his fingers smooth across bare skin. "No," he finally said, "you've never been selfish in that regard. In fact," he added on a gasp as he felt Adrian's sharp teeth sink into his skin. "I've always admired your...sense of cooperation. Still," he said, his eyes glinting with amused desire. "Sometimes a fight's fun."
He lurched up, grabbing onto Adrian's upper arms to ho him steady, and pressed his mouth to Adrian's in another long, deep, potent kiss. He poured everything he was feeling into it - anger, hate, and most of all desire, everything he had.
He wasn't surprised when Ozymandias returned the favor.
As Dan's fingers squeezed his arms tight enough to leave handprints, Adrian let out a long, slow moan into the kiss, relaxing and melting against Dan's chest. He hadn't realized, until he'd felt Dan's lips savage against his, how much he'd been wanting to feel someone else, to think about something else, and eventually, to stop thinking of anything at all.
His nails left faint red marks down Dan's chest. "Nite Owl," he murmured as he kissed down Dan's neck again, "you are entirely overdressed."
"Really?" Dan said. His lips curved and he arched his neck as Adrian kissed his way down his throat. "Maybe you should do something about that, Ozymandias." He gasped as Adrian's teeth closed around one of his nipples, sending sharp pleasure arcing through him. "I'm sure you can manage," he murmured. He wrapped one arm around Adrian's waist and lifted his other hand to his mouth, tugging on the fingertips with his teeth until his hand worked free. He let the glove fall to the marble steps with a soft slap, and lowered his hand , trailing the knuckles down the length of his spine.
When Adrian shivered, Dan let a soft, sensual chuckle escape his chest.
The trace of Dan's fingers down his spine spurred Adrian and he stood, hands flying quickly over the remains of the brown rubber and spandex, running his hands over the skin beneath, then straddled Dan again with a cocky smile on his face, having not bothered with the rest of his own costume.
"It seems I can manage," he said conversationally, grabbing Dan's wrists and pinning them to the stairs above his head.
Dan raised his eyebrows. "I had great faith in your abilities," he said, his voice husky as Adrian leaned over him, the velvet of his cape pooling across his legs in a liquid caress. He tested Adrian's grip and grinned when Ozymandias' hands didn't budge.
"I knew I shouldn't have untied you," he said, but there was no regret in his words, only desire and amusement. "These are the kinds of situations I get myself into when I take your advice." He arched up his hips, rubbing against the hard bulge he could feel through the thin rubber of Adrian's pants, and then sank back down to the step again, going still. A challenging gleam lit his brilliant eyes.
He didn't say another word, but he didn't need to. The ball was in Ozymandias's court now.
Adrian's lips parted in a slow, predatory smile as Dan ground against him, then a thoughtful look crossed his face. "Hm." Smoothly, he rose to his feet. "We may need..." He tilted his head a bit, admiring the contrast of Dan against the stone of the steps. He unfastened the velvet cape from his shoulders and trailed the soft fabric up Dan's chest. With a swirl, he draped it over Dan's waist, smirking, walking slowly backward up the steps. "Wait here, Nite...Owl..."
With light steps, he trotted up the rest of the stairs and sprinted down the hall toward the extravagant, almost embarrassingly lush bedchambers. "Foresight can't predict everything," he murmured as his fingers closed around a purple bottle. He slowed before he got back to the stairs and slipped to the side to catch another look at Dan, draped in magenta velvet against pale marble steps. It was a shame; he could potentially have gotten used to this.
Dan folded his arms behind his head, bending one knee to prop his heel on one of the icy marble steps. It should have been intolerable in the audience chamber now, he thought; he no longer had the protection of his suit, and the only thing covering him was a pool of rich velvet. But instead, he felt like he was surrounded by so much heat that he'd welcome the cold as a kind of relief.
It was usually like this when Nite Owl and Ozymandias came together, he thought; a kind of explosion that would never work for anything serious, but was perfect for their...encounters.
He heard footsteps suddenly come to a halt above him, and tipped his head back, his thick, shaggy, dark hair pooling against the white steps. "Find what you were looking for?" he asked, and then he caught sight of the small purple bottle. "Ah, yes," he said. "You did."
A smile curved his lips, his eyes darkened, and he lifted one hand in a beckoning gesture. "Well, come on then, Ozymandias," he said. He was tossing all his intentions into the wind, he realized, or maybe not. Maybe these had been his intentions to begin with - and he'd just been telling himself otherwise.
Slowly, stepping deliberately, Adrian walked down the steps, pausing next to Dan's shoulder, looking down at him with a slightly tilted head. His eyes roamed slowly over the lines of Dan's body beneath the velvet, pausing and gaining an amused gleam at the curve between his legs.
"I could certainly get used to this view," he murmured as he slowly removed the shoulder bracer, arching his back far more than necessary, muscles flexing in his back. He was stripping far more slowly than necessary, and the mischievious smirk was on his lips the entire time.
Dan sat up, propping his elbows on one of the steps, his eyes dark as he watched Adrian's hands move to his waist, watched as he efficiently stripped the sleek rubber down his legs, tugged off his boots, and turned slowly to face Dan.
"Now that," Dan said, his eyes gleaming, "is a view." He sat up, ignoring the surprise in Adrian's eyes as he reached forward and plucked the lube out of his hand. "I'll take care of that," he murmured as Ozymandias' cape pooled around his lap.
He poured the lube out onto his fingers, coating them with the oil, before reaching behind him, teasing his opening with his own fingers. He met Adrian's eyes as he pushed his fingers inside, watched as Ozymandias' pale skin flushed slightly pink, watched as his hazel-green eyes went nearly black with lust.
To be honest, he wasn't sure what was turning him on more.
Adrian's brows had gone up skeptically as Dan had taken the lube, and for a moment he'd anticipated a fight for dominance, but then his vision almost tunneled as Dan slid slicked, shiny fingers behind himself. Adrian found his eyes fastened to Dan's face, his half-lidded eyes heavy, burning, drawing Adrian closer.
Blue flames burned hot, and Adrian moved forward slowly, eyes fixed on Dan's, his movements slow and predatory as his smile had been. Fingers tangled in dark hair and Adrian tasted blood as he kissed Dan with a fierce, singleminded burn, his other hand trailing down, tracing the scores his manicured nails had made minutes before.
Dan kissed back, just as fierce, just as hard, his teeth nipping, tongue tangling with Adrian's. His free hand came up to clutch and claw at Adrian's bare shoulder as he continued to push the fingers of his other hand deep inside himself, stretching and stroking as Adrian's hand glided closer and closer to his straining cock.
Adrian's hand paused, lightly stroking across Dan's pelvis, and Dan hissed into their kiss as his hips bucked up, seeking more but not getting it.
"Touch me," he said. God, he thought, if he didn't fucking touch him soon, he was going to expire.
Then Adrian's pale, narrow hand circled his his cock, and lights exploded in front of Dan's eyes. He arched, he shuddered, and when Adrian's hand slid out of his hair, slid down his back to encircle his wrist and tug his hand away from his ass, he didn't even care.
Adrian closed his eyes at the thrill, the molten thrill that ran down his spine at Dan's desperate, commanding, pleading words. Keeping his fingers curled around Dan's cock, moving them slowly, he knelt between Dan's knees and his fingers found Dan's opening, and god, already slick and loose and perfect.
Kissing Dan's jaw, Adrian's lips trailed down the side of his neck and he bit down hard on the corded muscle between neck and shoulder as he pushed inside, slowly, but not too slowly, a low growl vibrating against Dan's skin.
It had been ten years since he'd seen Dan like this, and with the small part of his mind still capable of rational thought, still solid amidst the surges of lust and pleasure, ten years was far too long.
Dan shuddered as Adrian pushed his fingers inside him, unerringly finding exactly the right spots, using exactly the right touches to drive him insane. He squeezed his eyes shut for a long instant, the dark blue fixing on Adrian.
He reached up and wrapped the short strands of blond hair around his fingers and pulled, pulled hard, pulled until he could see a flash of almost-pain join the lust and desperation already darkening Adrian's hazel eyes.
"Adri...Ozymandias," he corrected. His breath came in short, hard breaths, and in any normal circumstances, his voice would have been too quiet, too thin to be heard, but this wasn't anything ordinary. It was never anything ordinary. Dan's hips jerked as Adrian twisted his fingers inside him, and his voice became something so close to a sob, he wouldn't have been able to tell the difference.
"Fuck me," he said, and he yanked even harder on Adrian's hair, and his eyes were dark and blind and fixed on Adrian's. "For God's sake," he gasped out, "now."
The near-slip, the whimper in Dan's voice, the way Dan twisted beneath him, Adrian couldn't tell which hit him first, which lit the fire in his stomach, and in a few deft moves Adrian pressed inside, fast, sharp, a single hard thrust.
He caught Dan's cry, swallowed it in a searing kiss as he began moving slowly, almost teasingly slowly. His tongue brushed against Dan's lips before teasing his own, nipping at it as he sped up his rhythm.
God, everything about Dan fit perfectly against him as he moved, his other hand tangling in Dan's hair, tugging sharply as he bit at Dan's neck, scraped his teeth across Dan's earlobe. "My Nite Owl," he purred in his ear in a low, silky voice like water and black velvet.
It was the voice that did it. Dan was certain it was the voice - silky, dark, irritating in every other circumstance but this one. It sent him straight over the edge, and his nails clawed deep furrows in Adrian's skin as his hips bucked up in a desperate rhythm and he squeezed his eyes shut against the brilliant shards of light that destroyed everything - everything but he and Adrian - and he yanked Adrian closer, kissed him hard enough to bruise, pushing his tongue into Adrian's mouth in a mere mimicry of what Ozymandias was doing to him.
The trails of fire down his back as Dan raked Adrian's skin with his nails, Dan's body twisting and writhing beneath his own, his desperate panting cry again swallowed by Adrian's lips, brilliant snapshot moments were all Adrian could process as control slipped from his desperate fingers. His hips bucked sharply up twice, three times, as his mind spiraled into white light and no-thought. He may have cried out a name against swollen, desperate lips, but even Adrian couldn't tell what it had been.
Adrian collapsed atop Dan, fingers tangled in his hair, gripping his hip, breathing sharply, feeling the cold burn of snowflakes melting against his sweat-slicked back. Slowly, thoughts strung themselves together in his empty, pulsing mind and he took a deep, shuddering breath, then another.
Dan had no idea how long it took before he regained enough coherence to open his eyes again, but it couldn't have been long. Adrian was still collapsed on top of him, still wrapped around him. His hands were still knotted in Adrian's hair, he realized, and slowly he let go, pulled them free. He drew a deep breath and spoke.
"Ozymandias," he said, and waited until Adrian lifted his head, pushed a skein of sweat-dampened blond hair out of his eyes. Dan raised an eyebrow.
"You do realize that it's my turn next, don't you?"
Adrian's lips spread in a slow smile and he propped his head on his elbow. The gleam of platinum at his temples was nearly masked by sweat-darkened hair. "Of course I do," he answered easily, eyes roaming Dan's dark hair as snowflakes caught in it, held a moment, perfect crystals, then melted as if switched off, darkening the brown to inky black.
He leaned down to press another kiss, lighter this time, against Dan's lips. "I would never assume anything less, Nite Owl. Though perhaps, as you picked this location..." Adrian glanced around the audience chamber, snowflakes swirling through the broken glass, and looked back down with an amused twist of his lips. "I'll select it next. That seems only fair."