Complex: Rescue part 2
Title: Rescue, part 2
Side story to: Complex
Length: 2235 words
Summary: Tiziano sees who he most wants to at the worst possible time.
This half only has violence against people to do violence against people who are animals.
Master list: lj DW
Tiziano gave his statement which was fact plus hearsay, supposition, and conjecture. Everyone looked as grim as he felt by the time he was done. He took those feeling out on a punching bag because one didn’t take them out on the defendant, no matter how guilty one knew they were.
If only he’d been the one who got a good kick in when the creep was out for the count. The official statement said a former captive applied the kick. Sure.
But Tiziano was a former captive, planted or not, maybe he could get someone to look the other way…
Tiziano walked out of the interrogation room with his knuckles bleeding. Of course his boss was there. Tia just shook her head. Tiziano shrugged. “I punched the wall.”
“Is there going to be a wall in there with your blood on it?”
“Yes.”
She rolled her eyes. “What’s justice without truth?”
“What’s truth without justice?”
She crossed her arms against the clipboard she was holding. “Take a few days off.”
Tiziano leaned against the wall as she walked away. “Should have killed him while I had the chance.”
“Hi.”
Onesimus. The other person he didn’t want to see while covered in blood. “Hi.”
“I,” Onesimus cleared his throat. “I heard you were here. I’d like to talk to you.”
Chuck reasonableness. Tiziano no longer cared. “If you’d rather have hot sweaty sex all afternoon, I’m up for that too. Just let me shower.”
Onesimus was waiting outside the locker room when Tiziano emerged. Tiziano grinned. “Talking? Sex? Both?”
“Food?” Onesimus grinned. “Punching a wall must really build up your appetite.”
Instead of a cafe or restaurant, Onesimus took him to an apartment overlooking a university campus. Blue skies. When was the last time he’d seen an open sky? Skies in the demon realm tended to be finite.
“Your place?”
Onesimus nodded. “I can have lunch ready in fifteen minutes, whenever your hungry.”
Tiziano was hungry all right. “Why don’t we eat after.”
Onesimus nodded again. “I have an open office available to my students from three to five today.”
Tiziano looked at the clock. “Then we’ll keep the talk short for now. Does it bug you that I was covered in demon blood?”
Onesimus took a deep breath. “I’ve spent the morning helping former captives get their stories down. If he’s still breathing, you might not have hit him hard enough.”
Tiziano laughed and moved Onesimus against the wall. “Any nickname you want me to shout? I’m partial to Tease for myself but open to anything.”
Then he leaned forward and kissed his demon. His demon, at least for the moment.
~~~~
Ziano.
Ziano
Tiziano rolled over and pulled the pillow over his head. The sheets smelled of Zimus-the z being easier to shout when Tiziano was at the edge and it made such a cute nickname for such a beautiful adult man. Tiziano had never dated anyone who was a pillar in their community, anyone who told him to go back to sleep while they left for work. It was nice.
Tiziano, answer me.
Tia. “You gave me a few days off.”
You’ve had a week. Get back here.
A week? Those days had gone by quickly. And the nights quicker.
I have a job for you.
Tiziano got up with a sigh. He’d never been this reluctant to go to work before.
A job. Get here now and I might forgive you for your slip up.
Tiziano got out of bed and looked around for his clothes. In the living room. That was right. “You read my statement? That was no slip up.”
So you going to do it again?
“No, turns out it gave him the opportunity to gloat. Make sure he doesn’t get a chance to gloat at trial.”
I’ll make sure. Get here.
“Give me a bit to say goodbye, will you.”
When have you ever needed to say goodbye?
“He introduced me to his teaching assistants.” He’d had to after they were caught making out in his office. “Can’t just ghost.”
Just get here.
Tiziano grabbed some breakfast, then made his way across campus to Zimus’s class. He had it bad; he even knew where the guy was working. Zimus grinned at him as he walked in. He sat down in a back seat. If his professors had been this interesting, he might have stayed in college. Of course if his professors had been this handsome, he’d have been sleeping with them too.
Once class was over, Tiziano waited until the students had asked their questions before he took his turn. “Duty calls.”
Zimus licked his perfect lips. “How long?”
Tiziano shrugged.
“You know you’re always welcome in my bed.”
Tiziano grinned. “I’ll keep you to that.”
Then he kissed him until the next batch of students took their seats.
~~~~
Surveillance had never been fun, but it was even less so knowing that Zimus’s bed was calling to him.
Beating up bag guys had lost it’s charm.
Breaking into building was just a drag.
He sighed and leaned on his boss’s desk. “When was my last vacation?”
“Two months ago.”
“Ha!” Tiziano stood up. “That was a suspension. When was my last vacation?”
Tia rolled her eyes. “You never take vacation.”
“So I’ve got some saved up.”
“A couple months worth. Your next assignment starts tomorrow.”
Tiziano pushed off the desk. “My next assignment starts when I feel like coming back.”
The trip to Zimus’s university took so long Tia had stopped screaming at him by the time he arrived.
Tuesday afternoon meant open office time, right?
Zimus’s office was open and he had a line of students waiting to talk to him. A TA saw him and lit up. “You’re back.”
“Yeah.” Tiziano pointed to the office door. “Don’t let him go until I get back. Once I see him, those students will be out of luck.”
The next hour was longer than Tiziano’s whole journey. The nice TA sent him a note when the last student went in to talk to Zimus. Tiziano hurried back to the building and took a seat.
Zimus walked the student to the door and told her to edit her essay and he’d accept it. Tiziano slid up beside the door and once the student had gone by he stepped into the doorway and pressed his hand against Zimus’s chest. “Sorry, professor. I just have this one question before you go. If I missed a couple of classes, does that mean I fail the semester?”
Zimus licked his lips. “Depends on why you missed them.”
“I was protecting the powerless against the awful, but my soul had dried up like a raisin. I’ll empty without you.”
Zimus put a hand to Tiziano’s arm and pulled him close. When he leaned back from the kiss he was in Zimus’s apartment. Getting to Zimus’s bedroom took longer, but was even more fun.
~~~~~
Tiziano stretched across the bed to check the clock. Zimus relaxed into a pillow. “When do you have to go?”
“Wish I was a more powerful wizard.” Tiziano ran his hand up Zimus’s arm. “That way I could commute every day. Took me close to four hours to get here today.”
“I like you the way you are.”
“Just wish you could like me more often?” Tiziano had heard the word Mate floating around outside Zimus’s office, but Zimus had yet to say it.
Zimus sighed. “We all have responsibilities. But couldn’t you come for weekends? I’d be willing to get you?”
“No weekends in the business.”
“But why does it have to be you all the time?”
“Tia and I have a link, like the best communication tech but without the risk of it getting lost or stolen or being detected. We’ve never been far enough apart for it not to work and we’ve tried it across three realms and two worlds. I say she’d be able to connect with anyone she knew well enough. She says it’s because we’re twins. That’s her excuse not to find a nice spouse and settle down.”
“Ever thought of settling down?”
Tiziano scooted across the bed until he was nose to nose with Zimus. “Not until I met you.”
Zimus melted into his arms and he enjoyed the next few minutes thoroughly, but something was still missing. Tiziano waited until they were up, dressed, and eating. “Am I your Mate?”
Zimus set his fork down and stared at his plate.
“Because I heard it mentioned several times today about me and you.”
“How would it change things?”
Tiziano sighed and leaned back in his chair. “If I’m not, then for my own sanity I should leave and never come back.”
Zimus looked away.
“I probably wouldn’t-I have a pretty high pain tolerance-even knowing the heart break at the end.”
“Heart break?” He had Zimus’s attention again.
“Yeah, when you take up with whoever’s supposed to be in your bed.”
“Supposed to be?”
“Your real Mate.”
“You are my Mate. Can’t you feel it?” Zimus set his lips together.
That was not an expression Tiziano wanted to see there, especially aimed at him. “I’m just a tough guy mutt, remember. A little bit of wizard, maybe a sprinkling of demon but it could be djinn depending on the story, handful of shifter from a scattering of breeds, and maybe a pinch of familiar unless my great-grandmother’s husband wasn’t actually Grandpa’s dad. I’ve no training on what I’m supposed to be feeling. Seen it happen. But watching someone take a punch is different than taking it yourself.”
Zimus looked away again. Tiziano could read him so well. “I feel happy just to think of you, even outside a sexual context.”
The corners of Zimus’s lips rose.
“And the sex is terrific. On a scale of one to ten, it would break the scale. Fifteen? Eighteen? Seventy-five? Not enough data yet to form a solid conclusion.” He took Zimus’s hand. “Do you think of me?”
“All the time.” He gave Tiziano’s hand a squeeze. “I can feel you sometimes. Where you were surprised by thugs…” He got up, got a book from the coffee table and opened it. “Last Thursday around eight pm?”
Tiziano thought back. “Thursday? Early Friday morning. Could have been eight here with the time differences. You felt that?”
Zimus closed the book. “And the satisfaction you felt beating them up.”
Tiziano had enjoyed that. “Anything else?”
Zimus opened the book with a smirk, then frowned and closed it. “When do you have to go back?”
Tiziano gathered him into his arms. “Maybe never.”
Zimus stiffened. “I don’t want you to quit your job.”
And lose all the muscles it gave Tiziano too probably.
“We have more than one office. I could work over here and have more to do with shifters, familiars, and wizards, and less with demons.”
“But your sister?”
“Hey, Zimus, she’s family, but if I had family here too?”
“Tiziano.”
He melted, so cute. They fit together so well. Tiziano put his finger over Zimus’s lips. “Before we head to the bedroom again, ever thought of kids of your own, not just your students?”
Lights shone in Zimus’s eyes. Yep, Tiziano could read him. “I’m a shifter, not a familiar, so you’d have to be the carrying parent. You can do that right?”
Zimus nodded. “And as much as I hate to wait, I don’t want to have an infant in the middle of a term. And not until you are firmly situated close enough that you can come home at night.”
“Home.” The word just felt right. And being with Zimus was right.
~~~~
Tiziano leaned on his boss’s desk. “What have you got for me today?”
“It’ll be dangerous.”
Tiziano laughed. “As long as it doesn’t mess up my face.”
Tia shook her head. “When did you get to be so vain?”
Tiziano laughed again. “Zimus doesn’t mind to occasional black eye, even though I seem to always have one, and split knuckles, when he dresses me up to show me off at the periodic faculty parties.” Tiziano was the tough guy husband everyone had heard so much about. “But you explain to a four year old why Daddy got hurt.”
“You fight bad guys.”
“That’s not enough for Quil. She says I’m not allowed to get hurt anymore. If I get hurt again, I need to quit.”
Tia rubbed her face. “But you’re not listening to a four year old.”
“And last time I came home with a split lip, Temi burst unto tears and couldn’t be consoled.”
“Tiziano, these things are important.”
“My kids are important too.” He pulled her out of her chair and sat down. “Why don’t I sit behind the desk for while. You can go into the field.”
She put her hands on her hips. “That’s not how it works.”
“And while your out there, you can flirt with that koala shifter you’ve been eying.”
She groaned. “Koalas and Lynx aren’t compatible.”
“An astrology chart tell you that? Now get. I have some important correspondence to take care of.” He waited until she was gone and pulled out the picture Quil had drawn for him. The cutest family drawing ever. The squiggles by the left edge where where Temi helped.
Maybe Tiziano should frame it. His family of four, who would soon be a family of five, was the best family anywhere.
Side story to: Complex
Length: 2235 words
Summary: Tiziano sees who he most wants to at the worst possible time.
This half only has violence against people to do violence against people who are animals.
Master list: lj DW
Tiziano gave his statement which was fact plus hearsay, supposition, and conjecture. Everyone looked as grim as he felt by the time he was done. He took those feeling out on a punching bag because one didn’t take them out on the defendant, no matter how guilty one knew they were.
If only he’d been the one who got a good kick in when the creep was out for the count. The official statement said a former captive applied the kick. Sure.
But Tiziano was a former captive, planted or not, maybe he could get someone to look the other way…
Tiziano walked out of the interrogation room with his knuckles bleeding. Of course his boss was there. Tia just shook her head. Tiziano shrugged. “I punched the wall.”
“Is there going to be a wall in there with your blood on it?”
“Yes.”
She rolled her eyes. “What’s justice without truth?”
“What’s truth without justice?”
She crossed her arms against the clipboard she was holding. “Take a few days off.”
Tiziano leaned against the wall as she walked away. “Should have killed him while I had the chance.”
“Hi.”
Onesimus. The other person he didn’t want to see while covered in blood. “Hi.”
“I,” Onesimus cleared his throat. “I heard you were here. I’d like to talk to you.”
Chuck reasonableness. Tiziano no longer cared. “If you’d rather have hot sweaty sex all afternoon, I’m up for that too. Just let me shower.”
Onesimus was waiting outside the locker room when Tiziano emerged. Tiziano grinned. “Talking? Sex? Both?”
“Food?” Onesimus grinned. “Punching a wall must really build up your appetite.”
Instead of a cafe or restaurant, Onesimus took him to an apartment overlooking a university campus. Blue skies. When was the last time he’d seen an open sky? Skies in the demon realm tended to be finite.
“Your place?”
Onesimus nodded. “I can have lunch ready in fifteen minutes, whenever your hungry.”
Tiziano was hungry all right. “Why don’t we eat after.”
Onesimus nodded again. “I have an open office available to my students from three to five today.”
Tiziano looked at the clock. “Then we’ll keep the talk short for now. Does it bug you that I was covered in demon blood?”
Onesimus took a deep breath. “I’ve spent the morning helping former captives get their stories down. If he’s still breathing, you might not have hit him hard enough.”
Tiziano laughed and moved Onesimus against the wall. “Any nickname you want me to shout? I’m partial to Tease for myself but open to anything.”
Then he leaned forward and kissed his demon. His demon, at least for the moment.
~~~~
Ziano.
Ziano
Tiziano rolled over and pulled the pillow over his head. The sheets smelled of Zimus-the z being easier to shout when Tiziano was at the edge and it made such a cute nickname for such a beautiful adult man. Tiziano had never dated anyone who was a pillar in their community, anyone who told him to go back to sleep while they left for work. It was nice.
Tiziano, answer me.
Tia. “You gave me a few days off.”
You’ve had a week. Get back here.
A week? Those days had gone by quickly. And the nights quicker.
I have a job for you.
Tiziano got up with a sigh. He’d never been this reluctant to go to work before.
A job. Get here now and I might forgive you for your slip up.
Tiziano got out of bed and looked around for his clothes. In the living room. That was right. “You read my statement? That was no slip up.”
So you going to do it again?
“No, turns out it gave him the opportunity to gloat. Make sure he doesn’t get a chance to gloat at trial.”
I’ll make sure. Get here.
“Give me a bit to say goodbye, will you.”
When have you ever needed to say goodbye?
“He introduced me to his teaching assistants.” He’d had to after they were caught making out in his office. “Can’t just ghost.”
Just get here.
Tiziano grabbed some breakfast, then made his way across campus to Zimus’s class. He had it bad; he even knew where the guy was working. Zimus grinned at him as he walked in. He sat down in a back seat. If his professors had been this interesting, he might have stayed in college. Of course if his professors had been this handsome, he’d have been sleeping with them too.
Once class was over, Tiziano waited until the students had asked their questions before he took his turn. “Duty calls.”
Zimus licked his perfect lips. “How long?”
Tiziano shrugged.
“You know you’re always welcome in my bed.”
Tiziano grinned. “I’ll keep you to that.”
Then he kissed him until the next batch of students took their seats.
~~~~
Surveillance had never been fun, but it was even less so knowing that Zimus’s bed was calling to him.
Beating up bag guys had lost it’s charm.
Breaking into building was just a drag.
He sighed and leaned on his boss’s desk. “When was my last vacation?”
“Two months ago.”
“Ha!” Tiziano stood up. “That was a suspension. When was my last vacation?”
Tia rolled her eyes. “You never take vacation.”
“So I’ve got some saved up.”
“A couple months worth. Your next assignment starts tomorrow.”
Tiziano pushed off the desk. “My next assignment starts when I feel like coming back.”
The trip to Zimus’s university took so long Tia had stopped screaming at him by the time he arrived.
Tuesday afternoon meant open office time, right?
Zimus’s office was open and he had a line of students waiting to talk to him. A TA saw him and lit up. “You’re back.”
“Yeah.” Tiziano pointed to the office door. “Don’t let him go until I get back. Once I see him, those students will be out of luck.”
The next hour was longer than Tiziano’s whole journey. The nice TA sent him a note when the last student went in to talk to Zimus. Tiziano hurried back to the building and took a seat.
Zimus walked the student to the door and told her to edit her essay and he’d accept it. Tiziano slid up beside the door and once the student had gone by he stepped into the doorway and pressed his hand against Zimus’s chest. “Sorry, professor. I just have this one question before you go. If I missed a couple of classes, does that mean I fail the semester?”
Zimus licked his lips. “Depends on why you missed them.”
“I was protecting the powerless against the awful, but my soul had dried up like a raisin. I’ll empty without you.”
Zimus put a hand to Tiziano’s arm and pulled him close. When he leaned back from the kiss he was in Zimus’s apartment. Getting to Zimus’s bedroom took longer, but was even more fun.
~~~~~
Tiziano stretched across the bed to check the clock. Zimus relaxed into a pillow. “When do you have to go?”
“Wish I was a more powerful wizard.” Tiziano ran his hand up Zimus’s arm. “That way I could commute every day. Took me close to four hours to get here today.”
“I like you the way you are.”
“Just wish you could like me more often?” Tiziano had heard the word Mate floating around outside Zimus’s office, but Zimus had yet to say it.
Zimus sighed. “We all have responsibilities. But couldn’t you come for weekends? I’d be willing to get you?”
“No weekends in the business.”
“But why does it have to be you all the time?”
“Tia and I have a link, like the best communication tech but without the risk of it getting lost or stolen or being detected. We’ve never been far enough apart for it not to work and we’ve tried it across three realms and two worlds. I say she’d be able to connect with anyone she knew well enough. She says it’s because we’re twins. That’s her excuse not to find a nice spouse and settle down.”
“Ever thought of settling down?”
Tiziano scooted across the bed until he was nose to nose with Zimus. “Not until I met you.”
Zimus melted into his arms and he enjoyed the next few minutes thoroughly, but something was still missing. Tiziano waited until they were up, dressed, and eating. “Am I your Mate?”
Zimus set his fork down and stared at his plate.
“Because I heard it mentioned several times today about me and you.”
“How would it change things?”
Tiziano sighed and leaned back in his chair. “If I’m not, then for my own sanity I should leave and never come back.”
Zimus looked away.
“I probably wouldn’t-I have a pretty high pain tolerance-even knowing the heart break at the end.”
“Heart break?” He had Zimus’s attention again.
“Yeah, when you take up with whoever’s supposed to be in your bed.”
“Supposed to be?”
“Your real Mate.”
“You are my Mate. Can’t you feel it?” Zimus set his lips together.
That was not an expression Tiziano wanted to see there, especially aimed at him. “I’m just a tough guy mutt, remember. A little bit of wizard, maybe a sprinkling of demon but it could be djinn depending on the story, handful of shifter from a scattering of breeds, and maybe a pinch of familiar unless my great-grandmother’s husband wasn’t actually Grandpa’s dad. I’ve no training on what I’m supposed to be feeling. Seen it happen. But watching someone take a punch is different than taking it yourself.”
Zimus looked away again. Tiziano could read him so well. “I feel happy just to think of you, even outside a sexual context.”
The corners of Zimus’s lips rose.
“And the sex is terrific. On a scale of one to ten, it would break the scale. Fifteen? Eighteen? Seventy-five? Not enough data yet to form a solid conclusion.” He took Zimus’s hand. “Do you think of me?”
“All the time.” He gave Tiziano’s hand a squeeze. “I can feel you sometimes. Where you were surprised by thugs…” He got up, got a book from the coffee table and opened it. “Last Thursday around eight pm?”
Tiziano thought back. “Thursday? Early Friday morning. Could have been eight here with the time differences. You felt that?”
Zimus closed the book. “And the satisfaction you felt beating them up.”
Tiziano had enjoyed that. “Anything else?”
Zimus opened the book with a smirk, then frowned and closed it. “When do you have to go back?”
Tiziano gathered him into his arms. “Maybe never.”
Zimus stiffened. “I don’t want you to quit your job.”
And lose all the muscles it gave Tiziano too probably.
“We have more than one office. I could work over here and have more to do with shifters, familiars, and wizards, and less with demons.”
“But your sister?”
“Hey, Zimus, she’s family, but if I had family here too?”
“Tiziano.”
He melted, so cute. They fit together so well. Tiziano put his finger over Zimus’s lips. “Before we head to the bedroom again, ever thought of kids of your own, not just your students?”
Lights shone in Zimus’s eyes. Yep, Tiziano could read him. “I’m a shifter, not a familiar, so you’d have to be the carrying parent. You can do that right?”
Zimus nodded. “And as much as I hate to wait, I don’t want to have an infant in the middle of a term. And not until you are firmly situated close enough that you can come home at night.”
“Home.” The word just felt right. And being with Zimus was right.
~~~~
Tiziano leaned on his boss’s desk. “What have you got for me today?”
“It’ll be dangerous.”
Tiziano laughed. “As long as it doesn’t mess up my face.”
Tia shook her head. “When did you get to be so vain?”
Tiziano laughed again. “Zimus doesn’t mind to occasional black eye, even though I seem to always have one, and split knuckles, when he dresses me up to show me off at the periodic faculty parties.” Tiziano was the tough guy husband everyone had heard so much about. “But you explain to a four year old why Daddy got hurt.”
“You fight bad guys.”
“That’s not enough for Quil. She says I’m not allowed to get hurt anymore. If I get hurt again, I need to quit.”
Tia rubbed her face. “But you’re not listening to a four year old.”
“And last time I came home with a split lip, Temi burst unto tears and couldn’t be consoled.”
“Tiziano, these things are important.”
“My kids are important too.” He pulled her out of her chair and sat down. “Why don’t I sit behind the desk for while. You can go into the field.”
She put her hands on her hips. “That’s not how it works.”
“And while your out there, you can flirt with that koala shifter you’ve been eying.”
She groaned. “Koalas and Lynx aren’t compatible.”
“An astrology chart tell you that? Now get. I have some important correspondence to take care of.” He waited until she was gone and pulled out the picture Quil had drawn for him. The cutest family drawing ever. The squiggles by the left edge where where Temi helped.
Maybe Tiziano should frame it. His family of four, who would soon be a family of five, was the best family anywhere.