Future Days
Title: Future Days
Pairing: Josef/Mick
Rating: PG13
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: Josef offers comfort, and a glimpse of future possibilities, after Mick contemplates taking the acceptance of being a vampire a step too far.Written for the smallfandomfest, also written for 20_est_relships
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Mick glanced at the occupants scattered around the room. Two blondes, propped up against the bar, toyed with their drinks, trying not to look like this was their first time; in the corner a male couple carried on an animated conversation. Mick scented the air around him, drew in the warmth of mortality. He wanted to crush the lot of them, tear their throats out, drain them dry. He wanted…
He wanted none of it.
“You know when I said there was going to be fresh blood on tap; I didn’t exactly mean help yourself to a feeding frenzy.” Josef was by his side then, a hand clapped on Mick’s shoulder.
“So what happened to ‘embrace your inner vampire’?” Mick threw back a draw of the Scotch he’d been nursing.
“Embrace your inner vampire, Mick, not please come into my home, and slaughter my guests,” Josef acid tongue witted. “Besides, it isn’t you.”
“Oh yeah,” Mick scoffed, “How do you know I haven’t changed my opinion? You’re the one who always acts like humans only exist to serve our needs; maybe I’ve just decided to follow in your footsteps.”
“Bullshit.”
“Whatever.”
Josef gritted his teeth, and dampened his rising annoyance as he took Mick by the arm, and lead him away. “You’re pissed off with one human in particular, not the whole of the human race, and you know it. Here,” Josef steered Mick towards a couch in his office, “sit down, put your feet up, relax, there’s Scotch in the cupboard, drink yourself senseless if you have to, but stay away from my guests, before you do something we both know you’re going to regret.”
Mick nodded a distracted agreement, his eyes fixated on the calendar opposite him. How did Josef manage it? Mick wondered, as his mind began calculating the weeks, and months. Easy come, easy go, Josef seemed to have raised it to an art form. He wondered what the secret was, the secret to not caring.
“How long has she been gone?” Mick heard Josef asking him then.
Mick drained what was left of his drink, and stood up to fetch another one. “A few months, give or take.”
“Open the Dalmore if you want,” Josef hovered in the doorway, reluctant to leave Mick to his own devices just yet.
“You sure?” Mick turned to Josef, his brow furrowed in question. At eleven grand a bottle, Dalmore Whiskey wasn’t exactly your run of the mill drop.
“Unless you’d prefer the 37 Glennfidich?”
“No,” Mick shook his head; the Glennfidich was almost double the price. “Whiskey at a thousand bucks a glass is more your style.”
“Not following in my footsteps there then I take it?”
Mick snorted a brief laugh as he poured a double measure of fifty year old Dalmore Whiskey. “Very funny. Shouldn’t you be heading back to your guests?”
“The foods not going anywhere in a hurry,” Josef shrugged, and waited for Mick to sit back down, before joining him on the couch. “I’m worried about you.”
“I’ll be okay,” Mick forced a smile, and nodded his thanks as Josef topped up his glass.
“Yes, because you eyeing off a room full of freshies like your channelling Jack the Ripper with a set of fangs just fills me with confidence regarding your mental state, Mick.” Josef remarked with sarcastic breeze, and poured a drink for himself.
Mick toyed with the glass in his hand, before closing his eyes, and resting his head back against the headrest. “There’s really no going back, is there?”
“Not permanently, no,” Josef dispensed with the wisecracks, “but then again you already knew that.”
“Yeah, I did,” Mick polished off his third glass of Whiskey, and reached for the bottle to pour a fourth. Vampires processed alcohol differently to humans, unless it was delivered courtesy of a freshly tapped vein, Mick wondered exactly how many drinks it would take to put him in a nice, comfortable stupor. Too many, he assumed, he’d probably be sick of the taste of Whiskey before he even got a pleasant buzz going. “Beth knew it as well, at least she told me as much that first night we were together.”
“I’m still amazed you didn’t end up tearing her throat out.”
Mick knew what Josef meant, sex between humans and vampires was risky at the best of times, let alone when the vampire in question had been harbouring unspoken feelings for as long as he had.
The blow jobs you gave helped,” Mick deadpanned, and raised his glass in a mock toast.
“Touché,” Josef replied mildly. This was more like it; Mick relaxed, the two of them swapping wisecracks with one another, suddenly it seemed very important that he steer the conversation away from a certain blonde. “You ever wonder if it meant something more?”
“With Beth? Of course. I was going to ask her to marry me; you knew that,” Mick looked confused at Josef’s line of questioning.
“No, not with Beth.”
It took a moment for what Josef was asking to sink in. “Us?” Mick stared at Josef slack jawed. “You’re joking, right?”
“No, I’m not,” Josef tried to keep the tremor from his hand, as he reached for the last of the Whiskey. “Answer the question.”
“Um okay,” Mick raced to gather his thoughts, “I mean, yeah…no… I don’t know, maybe, sort of.”
“You sure you don’t want to flip flop a little longer there?” Josef drew the line of his mouth into a tight lipped smile.
“I’ve thought about it, okay,” Mick held up a steadying hand, “ages ago. Back when things first started between us, the first couple of times, before you drilled the whole immortality gets lonely spiel into my head. After that I stopped thinking about it. Besides, it’s not like we got together that often.”
“No, I guess not.” Josef was uncharacteristically quiet for a second. “Close your eyes.”
Mick side eyed Josef. “What for?”
“Because I’m asking you to.”
Mick closed his eyes. He sensed Josef leaning closer, Josef’s lips brushed against his own. On instinct Mick drew back, and then followed the kiss, allowing it to deepen.
“Do you remember the first time we fed together?” Josef was whispering to him then. “A vampire isn’t a killer, Mick; we have more finesse than that.”
“Don’t tell me, we’re lovers not fighters.”
“If you want to put it like that,” Josef’s lips worked along the line of Mick’s throat.
“All this just to make a point?” Mick felt an involuntary shiver go down the length of his spine.
“Well you know me, Mick; I do have a propensity for the dramatic sometimes,” Josef sat back, a smile at the ready. “Or maybe I just felt like kissing you.”
Mick rubbed two fingers across his brow, trying to soothe the headache he was sure lurked just beneath the surface. Josef and his glibness could be infuriating sometimes. “I thought you were supposed to be supporting me in my hour of need.”
“I am,” Josef hooked one leg underneath himself and turned to face Mick more.
“Then quit it with all this cryptic shit.” Mick’s words came out sharper than he’d intended.
“I meant what I said before, Mick,” Josef took Mick’s outburst in stride, “I’m worried about you. Maybe I was just trying to redirect your focus somewhere else.”
“Yeah, sure,” Mick worked his teeth across the pad of this thumb, one leg jiggling distractedly. “Look, I was feeling sorry for myself before. I’ve got the blood lust under control, I’m not going to turn rogue and attack your guests, why can’t we just hang out, like we used to.”
“Like we used to?” Josef reached out a hand, and brushed a stray lock of hair from Mick’s forehead.
“Well okay, maybe not exactly like we,” Mick paused to consider the situation. “Yeah, sure, why not, I could do with the company.”
For the briefest of moments Mick allowed himself to imagine future days, an eternity beyond the recent past.
“You know, you haven’t answered that question yourself,” Mick prompted as he relaxed into Josef’s embrace.
“Did I ever wonder if it meant something more?”
“Yeah.”
“I don’t have to wonder, Mick,” Josef smiled as he bent his lips towards Mick’s own, “I already know.”