Love Lies Waiting
Title: Love Lies Waiting
Pairing: Josef/Mick
Rating: Low Level NC17
Disclaimer: All publicly recognisable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Summary: I learned, at least, what home could be. When things don't work out with Beth, Mick returns home after ten years in New York, and Josef is there to see him through. Written for 20_est_relships community: Prompt - Home
Posted to 20_est_relships and moonlight_slash
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Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,
Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home;
A charm from the sky seems to hallow us there,
Which, seek through the world, is ne'er met with elsewhere.
Mick stared out the window of the plane watching the clouds spread out before him like some vast, cotton aerie, those same clouds that got thinner; dissolved into whispers of vapour trails the nearer they came to landing.
It had been ten years to the day since he had first left Los Angeles. They’d had such high hopes then. Beth had gotten a job with the New York Times, plenty of extra pay, and prestige; it was supposed to be the start of a new life, a new beginning, just the two of them living out the dream. As it turned out things hadn’t exactly gone according to plan. Cracks had eventually appeared; they’d patched over those as best they could, and the cracks had turned to gaping fissures. Now he was running home with his tail between his legs. The epitome of the Prodigal son returning from time spent in nothing but increasing despair and a never ending plethora of mistakes piled one on top of the other.
At least that’s how it felt.
Mick pressed his forehead against the pane of glass; let his eyes fall shut, thought back to those last days.
There’s somebody else.
There always is, isn’t there.
He’d cried on the phone to Josef that night, wiped away tears of embarrassment as he catalogued one disastrous realisation after another. To his credit Josef had refrained from his usual witticisms, and spoken in earnest.
“I’ll take care of everything else, just get on a plane, and come home.”
The bump of the plane’s wheels touching down on the runway jolted Mick out of his private reverie. They’d landed back in L.A; city of angels, city of neon bright, and big noise. The glow of street lights twinkling in the distance, Mick almost expected to find glitter sprinkled amidst the asphalt and grime of the tarmac.
He had missed this place, but there was more…
Josef was waiting for him along Airport Boulevard, a Limousine and Chauffeur at the ready. Leaning against the vehicle, his weight rested on one hip, legs crossed at the ankles, Josef pretended to pass a casual eye across the fingernails of one hand, while surreptitiously glancing at his watch. It was the first glimpse Mick had gotten of his friend in almost a year, not since the last time Josef had visited him in New York on business.
…It was Josef he’d missed most of all.
“Have you got everything?” Josef popped the trunk of the Limo, instructed the driver to take care of Mick’s luggage.
“Yeah, that’s all of it.” Mick forced a smile, smoothed the creases on his shirt, ran a distracted hand through his hair; stood watch as the sum total of ten years of his life was loaded into the car’s empty space.
“Come on,” a casual arm draped across Mick’s shoulders then, Josef gently guided him towards the waiting vehicle, “let’s get you back to my place; you can stay with me as long as you need, Mick.”
‘As long as he needed’, those words seemed to resonate as Mick climbed into the back left hand passenger side of the Limousine. It wasn’t an offer being made lightly; Josef meant what he said, that much was evident in his tone of voice.
‘As long as he needed…’
…And what if I need eternity?
Somehow, Mick thought he already knew the answer to that. Josef would give him eternity if he asked for it.
Mick muttered a quick, “Thanks”, before returning to another reverie of window watching as soon as the vehicle was in motion, gazing out at the city streets and buildings as they flickered by, trying to distract himself long enough to find space in which to sort his own miasma of feelings out.
“Look on the bright side,” Josef was nudging an elbow into the side of Mick’s ribcage, and announcing with casual breeze then, “at least you were never married, and considering you don’t officially exist you’ll never have to pay alimony as it is.”
“Well gee, thanks,” almost in spite of himself Mick laughed at Josef’s apparent lack of tact - trust Josef to make financial jokes at a time like this.
It was just enough to break down the barriers Mick had been trying so hard to keep in place. His legs rested across Josef’s lap, he spent the remainder of the ride curled up in Josef’s arms.
“Rise and shine, boy-o,” Josef’s fingers tapped the side of Mick’s face as they pulled into the driveway.
Mick clambered wearily out of the limousine, listened as Josef issued a set of instructions to the driver; his bags would be taken upstairs, he would follow suit. He was desperately in need of a shower, and then a rest, and maybe a couple of rounds of four to the floor, headboard banging sex - anything to take his mind off the incessant pounding that had started at the back of his skull.
“It’ll be okay.”
Mick felt Josef’s hand slip into his. For a moment he wished he felt half as confident as Josef sounded. He wasn’t even sure he knew what ‘okay’ was anymore, not then at least, not in so many words.
“Will it?”
Josef didn’t answer, the question hadn’t been meant for him; Mick had directed it outwards, aiming it towards a nameless void. Josef wondered if the void ever responded.
Josef was pulling at Mick’s hand then, leading an unresisting Mick through the grand archway of the front entrance, towards the stairs leading to the private guest wing of his house.
“Shower’s upstairs, you know that,” Josef busied himself with directions once they were inside, “your bags should be up there too…”
Mick thought back to one of the last conversations he’d had with Josef, just before he’d returned,. It had been late, much later than usual; they’d been talking for hours, going round in the usual circles. He’d been drunk then, eventually started barking belligerent statements about Beth’s character, or lack thereof, down the other end of the line. And Josef had sat, and listened, and done his level best not to lose patience.
“If we were together,” Mick had suddenly asked in the middle of ranting, “Would you cheat on me?”
“If we were together, Mick,” Josef had replied with casual salaciousness, “I doubt I’d be getting out of bed long enough to cheat on you.”
Mick hadn’t thought much of Josef’s response; in his inebriated state he’d chalked it up to Josef’s usual aplomb. Listening to Josef’s hospitality now, those words seemed to take on a different meaning.
If we were together, Mick…
“Go get cleaned up, “Mick was listening to Josef tell him then, “I’ll have a bottle of fresh O positive waiting for you when you’re done.”
Mick hesitated at the foot of the stairs, rested a hand on the staircase banner for a moment. And then he was turning towards Josef, and clearing his throat.
“You wanna join me?”
“Upstairs?” Josef wanted to make sure, figured Mick didn’t need him barging in where he wasn’t invited.
“Yeah, sure, why not.”
Somehow Mick managed to make it sound as if Josef had asked first, all he was doing was responding in the affirmative.
“Ok.” Josef took a cautious step forward, waited for Mick to say ‘Stop’. And then he was lifting Mick off his feet, and carrying him up the stairs two by two.
“My legs aren’t broken you know.” Mick protested indignantly as Josef set him down, and began working at removing layers of clothing.
“What?” Josef shrugged, continued undoing buttons, and tugging at zippers, matched Mick’s indignation with his own, “I was sweeping you off your feet in a fit of passion. I thought you’d approve."
“Yeah, well,” Mick stood naked, a groan eliciting from his lips as Josef wrapped a firm hand around the shaft of his cock, “next time don’t. I can stand on my own two feet.”
Josef wondered a moment at Mick’s difficulty; uncharacteristically nervous one minute, complaining bitterly the next. It was Mick who’d instigated things; besides, it wasn’t as if they’d never been down this road before.
Josef thought he understood then. Things with Beth had knocked Mick’s confidence, far more than he was willing to admit. Mick was switching gears, shifting from one emotion to the other; looking for something stable to hang onto.
Silencing any further admonishments with a brief kiss, Josef pressed his lips against Mick’s ear, decided to offer up control.
“You can top me if you like.”
“You sure?” Mick was taken aback. Josef didn’t bottom, Josef almost never bottomed; Mick could count on the fingers of one hand all the times Josef had allowed him to be in the driver’s seat.
“Yeah, I’m sure,” Josef peppered the side of Mick’s face with more kisses; ground himself against Mick’s thigh, “Stop asking questions.”
They separated momentarily, bypassed the shower all together, and headed straight for the bedroom. And Josef didn’t even seem to mind that Mick stank of day old sweat, and extra decay, as they tumbled onto the mattress.
“Christ, take it easy,” Josef began barking orders almost the second Mick made it past the initial act of penetration; the back of Josef’s neck gripped by Mick’s fangs, as Mick took him from behind, and listened to Josef tossing indignation back over his shoulder. “It’s not a race to the finish line, we’re not driving Formula one here, Fangio.”
“I thought you wanted me to top?” Mick paused mid-stroke.
“Sorry.” Josef actually managed to sound genuinely apologetic. Mick snorted a brief laugh, shook his head, and swapped to a more intimate position, face to face, where he could see Josef’s expression.
“I never should have left.” Raised up onto outstretched arms Mick watched as Josef reached between them, took hold of his cock, began stroking a steady rhythm back and forth along its length.
“Nothing ventured, nothing gained,” Grimacing with pleasure, Josef bared his fangs as Mick started his own steady beat of thrust, and withdraw, slowly picked up the pace, built gradually this time.
“Everything ventured more like,” Mick remarked bitterly as he felt Josef’s arms go around his neck, pulling him into an embrace. And then he was repeating his previous words, and adding a singular note of clarification; his face half buried into the pillow next to Josef.
“I never should have left…
…I never should have left you.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Josef wrapped his legs around Mick’s waist, panted arousal against the side of Mick’s throat, “you’re home now.”
Home - The full impact of that word hit Mick like a freight train almost the moment he felt his balls tighten, felt the first waves of impending orgasm coiling from the bass of his spine.
Home, where he belonged, where he was supposed to be, resting welcomed in Josef’s arms…
Mick thrust forward one final time, small tremors of anticipation running the length of his body. And then he was giving a single, sharp cry of release, and sinking his fangs into the top of Josef’s shoulder.
…this was home.
“Something’s changed, hasn’t it?” It was more a statement of fact than a question; as Josef withdrew his own fangs from Mick’s throat, and carefully disentangled himself from Mick’s arms, shifting from beneath to lie alongside Mick’s now supine form.
“Yeah it has,” Mick closed his eyes as he felt Josef brush sweat dampened strands of hair from his forehead, “I knew before I boarded the plane back in New York…”
Mick paused then, took time to consider the ramifications of speaking his next words out loud; decided it was worth the risk.
Home was worth the risk.
“…I think I might have fallen in love with you.”
“I know.” Josef resisted the urge to shout ‘finally’, and settled back into Mick’s arms. “What about Beth, you’re not going to try and work things out with her?”
“Josef,” Mick gestured pointedly, “Beth cheated on Josh, emotionally, with me. And then nine years later, she turns around and does exactly the same thing, only this time I’m the poor dumb schmuck in the firing line. Trust me, when it comes to her, you don’t have any competition.”
Mick struggled against a tide of bitter regret, as he felt the comforting familiarity of Josef’s body pressed against his own. “So where do we go from here,” he wanted to ask; decided in an instant it didn’t really matter. They were already headed in the right direction.
“You want to go again?” Josef’s fingers were trailing the length of Mick’s torso then, skipping across his abdomen, and seeking lower.
Mick groaned when Josef’s fingers found their mark. And still that one word resonated through his mind.
Home…
Mick pulled Josef on top of him, pressed his lips against Josef’s own, wrapped his own legs around Josef’s waist then; the two of them headed towards the abyss once more.
Home, where he belonged, where he was supposed to be, resting welcomed in Josef’s arms…
…this was home.