Entry tags:
- au,
- hutchinson,
- neil
And carve your name and hearts into the warhead
Somewhere between finding out the news and hitting the tarmac in Newark, he decides not to go to Neil immediately.
Some of it is fear, plain and simple, though he'd only come out and call it that under extreme duress. But it's not fear of Neil, not really. It's both more complex and more horrible than that. It's fear of disappointing him. Fear of what it might mean that he's afraid of that. Fear of commitment. Fear of not committing. Fear of being hurt. Fear of becoming someone who can't be hurt at all, because they don't feel anything.
At Newark he rents a car for a day and drives into Trenton; it's a sad little town in a lot of ways, that sign on the bridge somehow reproachful rather than proud--the world takes everything from us and leaves us with nothing--but something about it speaks to him all the same. It's not New York. It's not really like anywhere he's lived.
After about half an hour, it occurs to him that probably the closest it comes to is Hutchinson.
Shortly after that, leaning on the hood of the car and watching rain drip sullenly into the gray river, a cigarette burning down to a stub between his fingers, he comes to another decision. It doesn't take him very long. Really, he thinks maybe he's already made it, and the hard part was just realizing that it was made.
He picks up a local paper, finds three places that he can look at that afternoon, and jumps on the third one. It's small, old, clean. Is it all right if he pays for a few months in advance? He has to go overseas for a while and won't actually be living in it until he returns. Yes, it's fine. A modest and unspent inheritance and years and years of intensely minimal expenses mean that he has money. Really, he has more than he knows what to do with.
And now he knows.
He signs the application, agrees to come back in a day or two to sign the lease itself, hits the road. It's getting dark and raining harder. He takes a detour and stops in front of the gates of Fort Dix, looks at the lights in the early gathering twilight and thinks about what might have been. What won't be. What will.
It's late when he gets into the city itself, and though Neil's told him where the bar is he gets lost twice, the streets becoming oddly maze-like. Parking should be a nightmare but once he finds the place itself, there's a spot across the street, and he slides into it, dumping change into the meter without counting the time.
It's a hole in the wall, but it's got good atmosphere, dim and smoky, music too loud. The kind of place he likes, as a rule.
It's not too crowded but it's small, and people line the bar, and he only catches sight of Neil when he pushes his way to the front. For a moment he doesn't speak, doesn't breathe, and there's the fear again. Is he making a huge fucking mistake? Is he giving up too much for someone he still hardly fucking knows?
Is there a name for this? One he can use?
He catches Neil's eye, taps the bar and manages a thin smile. "Whiskey. Straight."
Some of it is fear, plain and simple, though he'd only come out and call it that under extreme duress. But it's not fear of Neil, not really. It's both more complex and more horrible than that. It's fear of disappointing him. Fear of what it might mean that he's afraid of that. Fear of commitment. Fear of not committing. Fear of being hurt. Fear of becoming someone who can't be hurt at all, because they don't feel anything.
At Newark he rents a car for a day and drives into Trenton; it's a sad little town in a lot of ways, that sign on the bridge somehow reproachful rather than proud--the world takes everything from us and leaves us with nothing--but something about it speaks to him all the same. It's not New York. It's not really like anywhere he's lived.
After about half an hour, it occurs to him that probably the closest it comes to is Hutchinson.
Shortly after that, leaning on the hood of the car and watching rain drip sullenly into the gray river, a cigarette burning down to a stub between his fingers, he comes to another decision. It doesn't take him very long. Really, he thinks maybe he's already made it, and the hard part was just realizing that it was made.
He picks up a local paper, finds three places that he can look at that afternoon, and jumps on the third one. It's small, old, clean. Is it all right if he pays for a few months in advance? He has to go overseas for a while and won't actually be living in it until he returns. Yes, it's fine. A modest and unspent inheritance and years and years of intensely minimal expenses mean that he has money. Really, he has more than he knows what to do with.
And now he knows.
He signs the application, agrees to come back in a day or two to sign the lease itself, hits the road. It's getting dark and raining harder. He takes a detour and stops in front of the gates of Fort Dix, looks at the lights in the early gathering twilight and thinks about what might have been. What won't be. What will.
It's late when he gets into the city itself, and though Neil's told him where the bar is he gets lost twice, the streets becoming oddly maze-like. Parking should be a nightmare but once he finds the place itself, there's a spot across the street, and he slides into it, dumping change into the meter without counting the time.
It's a hole in the wall, but it's got good atmosphere, dim and smoky, music too loud. The kind of place he likes, as a rule.
It's not too crowded but it's small, and people line the bar, and he only catches sight of Neil when he pushes his way to the front. For a moment he doesn't speak, doesn't breathe, and there's the fear again. Is he making a huge fucking mistake? Is he giving up too much for someone he still hardly fucking knows?
Is there a name for this? One he can use?
He catches Neil's eye, taps the bar and manages a thin smile. "Whiskey. Straight."
no subject
"We should just, like... run off to fuckin' Canada or somethin'," I tease, but there's a part of me that wishes it could be that easy. There's a part of me that wishes we could just hide in this fuckin' hotel room until they forget about him and leave him the fuck alone.
no subject
He pulls them back together again, mouth against the soft skin under Neil's jaw. "I need to do this," he whispers. "I just... need to. Before I'm done." He doesn't know how to explain it, the monumental betrayal it would be to just cut and run, the way he feels like he's on the edge of one now.
The way he's now seeing the daily betrayal he's been living with for years.
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Lips grazing his brow, I say, "'s just a couple months. That's nothin'."
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Anything that can still grow?
He lets out a quiet noise and tilts his head, tongue flicking against the skin of Neil's throat--tasting, letting all of it pour into his senses, like he's afraid of losing it.
Because he guesses he probably is.
"Neil." He takes a breath, feels suddenly and almost painfully raw. "I want... Fuck me."
no subject
If it wasn't about sex before, it sure as hell is now, but there's an undercurrent of something else, something driving me to hold him close and take my time prying his lips open with my tongue.
I pop open the button on his jeans, but instead of tearing them off of him, I let my hand slip down the back of his waistband, hand splaying out over his ass through his underwear and using the leverage to haul him closer.
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But that's not true anymore. And as he spreads his legs, wriggling to slide his pants down further and sucking gently at Neil's tongue, he thinks that what this amounts to is a betrayal of something that he doesn't even believe in anymore.
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Finally, I push him away, breaking the kiss with a gasp and murmuring a hoarse, "Come on, get these off. There's too many fuckin' clothes."
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Even if part of him still wants to fight a little.
He kicks his shoes away and jeans and boxers with them, hooking a leg over Neil's hip and arching up naked under him, eager and hungry and every bit as forceful as he is when he goes in fully intending to stay in charge. But now there's an unsteady edge to it, like he might topple over if he's just pushed in the right way.
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"You got a rubber?"
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Then he remembers, coughs out a laugh and nods across the room. "Jeans," he murmurs. "Back pocket." He'd been prepared, yes. But maybe not that prepared.
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Dropping the condom onto the bed, I press a kiss to the inside of his knee, the soft part of his inner thigh, and that tattoo on his hip, my hands framing his hipbones and holding him down.
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"Such a tease," he mutters, and laughs. "C'mon, I'm going to war. Be nice to me."
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Crawling between his legs, I nip at the soft skin at the juncture of his thigh, then I turn, painting a stripe down the length of his dick with my tongue.
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Yeah, he'll beg. Yeah, he'll probably do just about anything. God.
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When I suck him down, it's slow, like I'm savoring every fuckin' inch, like it feels as good to me as it does to him. And in a way, it does.
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His hand has left Neil's head but not the rest of him, and his fingers trace a broken line across his shoulders, nails digging briefly into his skin in a way that's more instinctive than intentional.
He'll come back for this, yes. But the truth is that this is only part of what he'll come back for.
no subject
That's what makes this something I could do for hours.
But after a while, I slip a finger past my lips alongside his cock, then I reach back behind his balls, the taste of him heavy on my tongue while I circle that ring of muscle with one damp fingertip.
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And maybe it is a kind of pain.
He tenses when he feels the press of Neil's finger, but it's not unexpected and he makes himself relax, thinking not about melting but about openness, a cup or a bowl or something waiting to be filled up. Something made to be filled up.
And this could be the first time in a long time that he hasn't felt at all empty.
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"This what you want?" I ask, lining up with a second finger, this one maybe a little too dry, but I don't think he'll mind.
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"Yeah," he grates, head dropping back again. Sight is the least intense thing he's experiencing right now, but fuck, Neil's face... "Yeah, I want it."
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"Keep droppin' in unannounced, I never know when you might turn up."
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He wants Neil's fingers deeper in him, though they're burning him a little. He lifts his legs and hisses through his teeth.
"Pay your phone bill and I'll fucking--ahh--call first."
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I know he can handle it, and I'm half afraid he might be all insulted by the offer, but for reasons I can't really put words to, I want this to go as smoothly as possible.
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"Yeah," he gasps, hand fumbling over Neil's around his cock. "Probably... good idea."
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We seriously didn't plan this well.
"You're fuckin' high maintenance today," I tease on my way to the bathroom, thanking God that this shitty little motel actually has a basket of little sample sized bottles by the sink. Grabbing a tiny bottle of hand lotion, I unscrew the top with my teeth on the way back into the living room, spitting it out at him with a grin.
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