But I could see for miles, miles, miles
In the end the anger is directed--finally and completely and as it always should have been—inward.
He knows what he’s hearing before he’s even really conscious of it. He lies in his bed in the dark, that fucking wall so near his head, and it’s very faint but he can hear it and he knows its source. He knows those sounds.
It’s a distant memory now, but he knows what Neil sounds like when he comes.
He lies there in the dark and he feels fury roiling through him and transmuting into misery so deep it literally shakes him, wrenches at his muscles, and through it all he’s achingly, shamefully hard. He fists his hands in the sheets. Doesn’t drop them below his waist, where he wants them, because it would mean a few seconds of relief and he can’t allow himself that. This is torture, and it’s his torture, and he thinks that it’s exactly what he fucking deserves.
But all at once he thinks of Sam, all that weight on his shoulders, the way he doesn’t seem to want to let it go, and Neil’s hollow eyes. I don’t even know where to fuckin’ start.
And somewhere in that darkness something breaks open.
The next couple of days are a blur.
He isn’t drinking—at least, not much. But he also isn’t really home. Somewhere in there, he remembers staggering back and sleeping for a few fractured hours before he leaves again. He doesn’t want to see Neil. He’s not ready. Later he remembers the park at sunset, approaching the burn scar of the World Tree at last, making a long, slow circuit around still-charred ground. The ashes have been blown and washed away. He can still see that spike of green in the midst of all the death, small and defiant. He goes no closer. It’s enough to know that it’s still there, but it’s not his. It doesn’t need him.
This is about need. This is about needing.
It feels like time is twisting in on itself. It feels like some giant hand has hit rewind and he’s being swept along with the blur as everything loops backward. And at the same time he knows he has a choice. That he chose this. That there was never an excuse, that all of this has been his choice: Death and pain and evil, and once he chose something else, and now he can make that choice again.
So he stands at Neil’s door and knocks, and it’s firm but it’s not pounding. The terror feels burned out of him. So does the rage. What’s left is desire so intense it makes his hands shake. The desire is what’s done the burning.
When fighting and running are off the table, you give up. You surrender. You lay down your arms.
He knows what he’s hearing before he’s even really conscious of it. He lies in his bed in the dark, that fucking wall so near his head, and it’s very faint but he can hear it and he knows its source. He knows those sounds.
It’s a distant memory now, but he knows what Neil sounds like when he comes.
He lies there in the dark and he feels fury roiling through him and transmuting into misery so deep it literally shakes him, wrenches at his muscles, and through it all he’s achingly, shamefully hard. He fists his hands in the sheets. Doesn’t drop them below his waist, where he wants them, because it would mean a few seconds of relief and he can’t allow himself that. This is torture, and it’s his torture, and he thinks that it’s exactly what he fucking deserves.
But all at once he thinks of Sam, all that weight on his shoulders, the way he doesn’t seem to want to let it go, and Neil’s hollow eyes. I don’t even know where to fuckin’ start.
And somewhere in that darkness something breaks open.
The next couple of days are a blur.
He isn’t drinking—at least, not much. But he also isn’t really home. Somewhere in there, he remembers staggering back and sleeping for a few fractured hours before he leaves again. He doesn’t want to see Neil. He’s not ready. Later he remembers the park at sunset, approaching the burn scar of the World Tree at last, making a long, slow circuit around still-charred ground. The ashes have been blown and washed away. He can still see that spike of green in the midst of all the death, small and defiant. He goes no closer. It’s enough to know that it’s still there, but it’s not his. It doesn’t need him.
This is about need. This is about needing.
It feels like time is twisting in on itself. It feels like some giant hand has hit rewind and he’s being swept along with the blur as everything loops backward. And at the same time he knows he has a choice. That he chose this. That there was never an excuse, that all of this has been his choice: Death and pain and evil, and once he chose something else, and now he can make that choice again.
So he stands at Neil’s door and knocks, and it’s firm but it’s not pounding. The terror feels burned out of him. So does the rage. What’s left is desire so intense it makes his hands shake. The desire is what’s done the burning.
When fighting and running are off the table, you give up. You surrender. You lay down your arms.
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He's still shaking. He palms himself with his other hand and he's fucking diamond hard, but somehow that's outside his focus. His entire world is Neil's cock sliding past his lips, heavy on his tongue, and Jesus Christ the fucking taste.
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He needs to relearn all of this. He needs to relearn me, and I guess I could use with a refresher, too.
"Mike... Mike, please."
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He feels Neil's cock hit the back of his throat and then he's pulling back again, nuzzling at it and letting it leave a wet line of precome and spit down his cheek to his jaw. He doesn't want this to be tidy. He'd fucking bathe in it all if he could.
"What?"
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I grin down at him, my thumb smearing away the sheen of spit and come on his cheek. I want too many fucking things at once. His mouth on me. His dick in me. The weight of him pressing me down onto whatever flat surface we can find.
"At least lemme find a fuckin' wall to lean against."
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But of course it's all still there.
He shoves Neil backward with both hands on his hips, following after on his knees, and it's awkward as hell and he couldn't possibly care any less. "Whatever. You're gonna come down my fucking throat." He arches an eyebrow. "Unless you wanna fight about it."
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"I don't wanna fight," I murmur, my thumb tracing his bottom lip. "Long as you're gonna fuck me later."
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Fuck slow. Just fuck it.
"I'll do anything you fucking want," he says, and everything in him clenches and releases in a way that makes him want to sob. He doesn't. Neil's cock sliding back into his mouth like it's fucking meant to be there is enough distraction from how his heart is cracking open.
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Almost.
But in reality, it's a rush of too many emotions at once. A rush of moments, memories, and maybe it's not right without Tom here with us, but for now, it's got to be enough.
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"Jesus," he hisses, in between swipes of his tongue around the head. "I fucking missed how you taste." And in again, like he's ravenous. Starving.
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"You can relax, you know. I'm not goin' anywhere," I whisper, but as soon as the words leave my mouth, they feel like a lie. We can't make promises like that to each other, and I feel a sudden, sharp wrench of panic in my gut, enough to punch the air right out of my lungs.
It doesn't matter how tight I hold on to him. How happy we are or how fucking fated we are to be together. This, right now, is the only time we're guaranteed to get.
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Neil in bed early in the morning, stirring, not yet awake, and he and Tom had already been awake for almost half an hour and together they slid down Neil's body and made out like horny teenagers over and around and on Neil's cock until he was very awake and very hard and trying to muffle the sounds he was making against his own palm.
Oh, God.
And now. The flutter of a pulse under his tongue. The textures of it all, the intoxicating mix of slick and silky. The way it feels to slide slowly, slowly down and then hard and fast back up again, humming as he goes.
He's honestly not sure time even means much of anything anymore.
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It feels so fucking good, fucking perfect, but that's almost an afterthought. When I come, minutes or fucking hours later, for all I know, it's a jaggedly painful sort of thing, after over a year without.
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It's not an orgasm of his own, though he's had a hand between his legs, grinding against the heel of his palm, for the last however long. But the world gets indistinct for a while, and then he's licking Neil clean with a kind of care that's almost delicate--with that edge of desperation still beneath it.
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Groping at his shirt, I drag it up and off of him, and I'm pretty sure I hear something tear, but who the fuck even cares?
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"C'mon," he murmurs, lifting his head slightly--and he does what he'd wanted to do outside the restaurant all those days ago, tongue flicking out and tasting the salt on Neil's cheeks.
"Let's go to bed."
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I feel dizzy, disoriented, and I can't really say how long we've been here, just kissing in the living room. Maybe it's been days. Right now, I'm pretty sure I'd be perfectly happy if we never fucking left this room.
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It occurs to him that he doesn't give a pile of fucks.
He hooks his hands low on Neil's hips and lifts him, arms tight against him and nudging Neil's legs to hook around his waist. He's already heading for the bedroom, slightly unsteady.
"Fucking romance bullshit," he breathes against Neil's throat. "Love you even after I'm fucking dead."
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"The fuck are you showin' off for, old man?" I tease, my teeth closing over his earlobe. We both know I don't think he's anywhere close to being old, but it's still fun to tease him for it.
"It's not bullshit," I murmur, and I might still be joking, but maybe I'm not. Being able to play and smile and have fucking fun with him... I'd forgotten how much I missed it.
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He scratches his fingers lightly up Neil's chest and throat, stops at his chin, tilting his face up. "And apparently I got some competition to show up."
And he's relieved to discover that he's mostly kidding. Mostly.
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"It's not a fuckin' competition."
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How exactly can he still use his hands at all? He's not even sure.
"'Cause I'm gonna fucking win."
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My hands are on him, wherever I can reach. Every inch of him is familiar, but the memories are distant and hazy and cliched as it is, this is a lot like coming home after years away. I've changed, and he as too, but so many of the little details are still the same.
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"I think it doesn't fucking matter." And then it's just kissing for a length of time he doesn't bother keeping track of, rocking them both in a slow, grinding rhythm that runs his breath ragged, and for that time he somehow isn't even thinking about coming.
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I pull away from him with a gasp, a hoarse moan punching its way out of my chest, pupils blown wide when I blink open my eyes to look at him.
"So, what happened to taking it slow?" I ask, grinning crookedly, words broken up by stuttering pants of breath.
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Not yet. It's been so fucking long but not fucking yet.
"You really wanna... take it slow right now?" He rolls up to his knees, one hand closing around his own dick, jaw working as he tries to keep himself under a weak approximation of control. "I love you. Turn the fuck over."
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