12 - Coming full circle
Dearest Anons,
In five days (on May 8, 2011) this meme will have existed for a whole year.
It is an extraordinary achievement, your extraordinary achievement, to have kept this going well and alive for so long. With thousands of fics and comments, this meme is one of (if not the) most amazing thing I've ever come across. Not only the amount of fic ( Read more... )
In five days (on May 8, 2011) this meme will have existed for a whole year.
It is an extraordinary achievement, your extraordinary achievement, to have kept this going well and alive for so long. With thousands of fics and comments, this meme is one of (if not the) most amazing thing I've ever come across. Not only the amount of fic ( Read more... )
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"Should get you arrested for kidnap," James muttered with faux resentment.
"It would be amusing to watch them try," Paddy replied, humour lightening his voice. He reached behind himself, and a button clicked to lock his car, as they tramped up the driveway to the cottage.
"I could do with a good laugh," James momentarily failed to remember that he was attempting to portray a semblance of cheerfulness. The comment, far too personal for Paddy to reply to, lingered in the air as they walked for the last few moments.
In silence, Paddy slotted the key in the lock, but it was opened from within simultaneously. Jane paid little attention to the return of her husband, and instead went straight for the younger man. "Oh it's good to see you again James!" James stood stock still as he was summarily hugged by the shorter woman. With any other person, he might perhaps have been irritated that the person he had confessed his secrets to has told his wife, but Paddy and Jane had long come as one package. When she drew back, it was to reach up, pat his cheek, and inform him, "You're looking awfully pale. Come out to the garden."
James followed, obedient, possessing no other choice, and ignored Paddy's somewhat smugly smirking face. And then, there he was, able to recline in a wooden chair, slats warmed by the sun. He could share in that sunlight, and he found himself smiling, feeling real amusement as Jane and Paddy bickered easily.
"You wanted an ice cream. I got you one," protested Paddy.
"And fed it to the dog!" exclaimed Jane.
James was utterly unable to hide a snort, and lifted the glass of lemonade to his lips, in an attempt to disguise it. He didn't find himself jealous of their easy humour and blissfully familiar domesticity. Not at all; they were sharing it with him. They had taken him to a place where he was safe, in the middle of nowhere, where no one would see him, let alone recognise him. Because they cared for him, wanted him to laugh and -
"James, are you alright?" came Jane's soft voice, low, as Paddy moved into the house.
"Yes, yes I am." The honesty surprised himself. "Jane, thank you for-"
"No need for that," Jane hastily brushed away the compliment.
Paddy popped his head around the door, and dispelled the slight awkwardness by calling, "Pickle on your sandwiches James?"
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A whimper forced its way through Nick's lips, as David's touch ranged over his entire body. He adored that the man could do this to him, drive him to such distraction, with the gentlest of touches. A flick of that pointed tongue against the sensitive, pebbled nipples and a groan rumbled from his throat. The gentle trace of somewhat calloused fingers across his sides made his fingers twist in the grass, for some kind of purchase on reality.
He didn't want to beg. Didn't didn't didn't. But he ached and burned and the rush in his veins made everything throb. "David..." Gasping out the older man's name was as close as he would get.
"Yes?" David queried, voice low to avoid detection. Lips quirked.
Nick wondered, through a haze of pleasure at the tongue making its way down the swollen curve of his stomach, whether it was the fact - the fact that only two people in the world who had seen David with this much wickedness - itself which made it all the more exciting. His thoughts were quickly redirected by the mouth which held such torment brushing just shy of the one place Nick truly desired of it.
And then, then there was heat and wet and Nick's whole body arched of its own accord, off the ground, into the sensation. One of his hands grasped out, found David's hair; the other hand still tore tufts of grass from the soil.
That was the thing which had originally attracted Nick to David. That ability, pure talent, to distract Nick to such an extent that the crotchety ex-Banker was his entire world. Everything from making love to casual conversation, and David became his entire world.
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In the glow of sunshine, his cheeks looked more sunken. None of the healthiness which seems to make Nick glow. Yet James was grinning, and there was something akin to joy in his eyes - perhaps, an increased lightness. A sense of freedom, perhaps. It was something which Paddy highly valued. If he could give James just a moment of that, with something as simple as a secluded garden, homemade lemonade and picnic food, he planned to do it far more frequently. Anything had to be better than that flat. Anything except -
"And how's Simon?"
There was a flash of alarm, and then an absolute blankness in James' eyes. The flush in the younger man's cheeks appeared to fade. He grew utterly pale. "Fine. As far as I'm aware."
Paddy shot a glare in Jane's direction, a warning to which no attention was paid. "Paddy says he's staying with you now."
Demurely, James ducked his head. His hand went to his stomach, as if he could protect his child, hold it close, just like that. Paddy wondered if he even realised he did that; when he was worried, or thinking, that's where his touch went. "He stays sometimes."
"And when did that happen?" Jane asked, almost wickedly. Paddy thought it might, perhaps, be definable as unsubtle to hiss at his wife to quiet. Or pounce on her and carry her away on his shoulder. That often made her scream. And if she was yelling, she couldn't ask uncomfortable questions.
"He just... He just turned up on day. Just... He was just canvassing, and he recognised me from, I don't know exactly. Maybe when I was with you, or Charlie, I don't -" James shrugged. "He was just there."
"Would anyone like some tea?" Paddy said, interrupting.
"Please," James said at once.
"Would you help me with the mugs, sweetheart?" he added, and all but pushed her out of the garden and into the kitchen. "What d'you think you're doing? That man of all men needs our help. He's miserable, he's as pale as death and he's clearly not eating properly. So we need to ask questions to find out how we can help him." She lowered her voice slightly and the angry glint disappeared from her eyes. With slightly bowed shoulders, she rooted through the cupboards for decaffeinated tea bags, guaranteed to be hiding at the very back. "He's one of ours. I don't pretend to happen to understand what happened with him, David and Nick, but-"
Paddy reached over his wife and plucked the box she was looking for from the shelf above the one she was searching through. "But he's one of ours and he's the one who needs the help. But he hasn't asked for it."
Without a word of thanks for the tea, Jane commented, "You really don't know the young ones at all if you think they'll just ask for help."
"We don't want to interfere," Paddy said, with an edge of warning to his voice.
Jane merely raised an eyebrow. "Look out the window. Don't let him see, just look at him."
Warily, Paddy obeyed and peered through the curtains to see the younger man, head tipped back against the chair. One of his hands balanced his glass on his stomach. The other rubbed at his eyes, as if they pained him. Paddy had to resist the urge to sigh.
"Is that a man who we can help?" Jane didn't need an answer to that question. They both knew it well enough.
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