![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
phantismaFandom: Leverage
Title: Close the Door, Pull the Shades - Part Two (follows on Part One)
Pairing/Characters: Nate/Eliot, Hardison, Parker, Sophie
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: 3338
Summary: Eliot and Nate deal with the aftermath of what happened between them, with some surprises for both of them along the way.
A/Ns & Warnings: This is, as is becoming usual,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
havenward's fault. Although it started with merry_gentry's first vampire!Nate prompt on ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
comment_fic. thus, this is a vampire!Nate fic. As such, this will include biting and some blood play. It will be a rather dom!Nate in places, but certainly not a sub!Eliot in the traditional sense.
There's a dark that comes in the hour after midnight. It's deeper, quieter than any other dark in the whole space of sunset to sunrise. Nate's out there in it, under the moon and Eliot can only wait for him.
He's stronger now, after the food and a few more hours of sleep, and he understands what Nate meant about taking care of himself. If he's to do this, to take care of Nate and his needs, which is something he's clearly decided to do, though he isn't sure when, Eliot needs to be at his best.
For now though, he waits, standing at the bedroom windows, looking out at the moon and the shadows of a city at night.
The door opens Nate slides in on the cool night air, his body fitting to Eliot's as though they were carved from the same block. He's cool and smells vaguely of whiskey and rain as he lifts the hair from Eliot's neck and kisses the soft skin there.
His hands find Eliot's cock, already hard with just the suggestion of more and Nate chuckles into his skin. "Here." There's a bag, a bottle of pills.
Eliot lifts the bottle to the light seeping in from the moon and he raises an eyebrow. "Women's vitamins?" he asks as Nate pulls him back against his chest.
"You need the iron."
He doesn't argue, just pulls one out and swallows it before turning in Nate's arms. "Fine, as long as you don't think you're getting me into a dress."
Nate grins. "Kinky."
"Serious." Eliot says before kissing him.
"So am I." Nate responds, one hand fisting in Eliot's hair and holding him while their tongues wrestle.
Eliot's hands seek out Nate's skin, sliding under his shirt and fingering his waistband. His skin is cold, which Eliot supposes is normal, only he's never really noticed. But it makes him want to touch more of him, explore all the other things about him he might never have noticed. His hands move faster, unbuckling his belt, unzipping.
Nate chuckles low and deep and releases him. "In a hurry?"
Eliot tosses his hair back. "Curious."
Nate raises and eyebrow, but obliges Eliot, pulling off his shirt and tossing it aside. "About anything in particular?"
Eliot raises his hand, sets it almost gently on Nate's chest. "Cold."
Nate nods indulgently. "Dead."
Eliot pales and pulls back. He hadn't ever really thought about it like that. Nate captures his hand and pulls it back, settling it over Nate's heart. "See?"
Eliot flinches, but Nate holds him tight, both hands on Eliot's wrist. There's no heartbeat under his palm, no movement in his chest. "It's who I am." Nate says quietly.
Eliot lets that sink in, the truth of it…that he'd never really known Nate alive. Unless they counted the cat and mouse game in Prague, where they never really met. This Nate, the man that Eliot met on that first job, the man he'd come to like and trust, had always been this. He blinks and lifts his eyes from their hands to his eyes. "Okay."
Nate releases him then, lets Eliot continue his exploration. Eliot figures the next thing he wants to know requires more skin and he pulls Nate's pants down. His cock is half hard, slightly warmer than his chest as Eliot cups it. "Not all of you is dead." Eliot murmurs, his hand curling around the hardening cock.
"It likes you." Nate responds, smirking.
"I like it." Eliot blushes as he says it, like he's sixteen or something. His own cock is starting to wake up, jealous of the attention he's paying Nate's.
Eliot sinks to one knee, licking his way over Nate's cock, down to his balls. He smirks when Nate groans and sways against him. "Nice to know some things don't change."
"You shouldn't tease a vampire." Nate growls, pulling Eliot up.
Eliot responds by lifting his chin, exposing his neck. "Not teasing."
He sees the fight in Nate's eyes, the dark seeping into them and when he licks his lips, Eliot can see his fangs. His cock hardens completely at just that glimpse and he guides Nate's hand to it. "See?"
Nate growls as he strokes over Eliot's cock, nuzzling into Eliot's neck and in only seconds Eliot is already there, ready to come from just the feeling of lips and tongue against the spot where Nate had bitten him the night before.
Nate sighs a little against damp skin before Eliot feels the teeth, fire racing through his veins and shooting out of his cock, his knees buckling...but Nate catches him, pulls him to the bed.
The pull of blood through those small holes is dizzying, all the more so when he keeps coming. Nate pulls back before the dizzy pulls him under, his tongue laving over the wound. His hand lifts from where it had been cupping Eliot's spasming cock, and Eliot can't do anything more than groan as Nate licks his fingers clean.
"You okay?" Nate asks, his voice barely above a whisper.
Eliot swallows and nods. "Yeah…yeah…you?"
"Want you." Nate responds, a finger moving over Eliot's balls and down. "But only if you're up to it."
Eliot has a sneaking suspicion that stopping Nate would take a lot more than saying no, just judging from the night before. He spreads his legs, bending his knees. Nate's cock is hard and already nestling in Eliot's crack. Nate's hesitating, holding back and Eliot growls in frustration.
He lifts up on his elbows, looking Nate in the eye. "Problem?"
Nate shakes his head minutely. "Slow." He gestures at the nightstand. "Lube."
Eliot rolls the top half of his body toward the nightstand, pulling the drawer open and rummaging until he comes up with a bottle and hands it across. Nate is shaking as he pours some out onto his fingers, applying it to his cock slowly…and damn but Eliot's glad he's already come because if he had to wait through this he might not make it…but then Nate's slick fingers are inside him and Eliot collapses back, tilting his hips to offer him room to move.
His ass is raw from the night before and the lube feels good on cool fingers inside him, then Nate's cock is there, stretching him, filling him. Nate's body is heavy against him as he adjusts, moves slowly. Fire explodes inside him as Nate finds his prostate and when he manages to open his eyes, Nate is grinning down at him. He holds himself still inside Eliot, just leaning into that spot inside him until Eliot is grabbing at his spent cock that isn't behaving as though he's just come hard and heavy.
"Nate…goddamn fucking move or something." Eliot pants out and then Nate does, pushes in a little more and Eliot is seeing stars and he knows his mouth is moving, but he isn't sure there are words for the noises he's making…and then relief as Nate pulls out, slams in again, sets up a punishing pace, managing to hit Eliot's prostate with just about every other stroke.
When Nate shoves in, coming and laying across Eliot to lick almost delicately at the wound in his neck, Eliot moans, his cock twitching and leaking a little. Nate falls to the bed beside Eliot, his eyes closed. His face wears a sated expression, a small stain of red on his lips as Eliot rolls toward him.
He lays his head against Nate's chest, marveling at the warmth borrowed from his own body and the way it fades slowly, at the lack of heartbeat, lack of breath and he wonders how others don't see it, don't notice. His hand splays out over Nate's stomach and he thinks back to before he knew the truth.
It dawns on him slowly, that maybe what he thinks he knows about vampires is a little off because he knows he's seen Nate outside in the day. He raises his head and looks at Nate who opens one eye and squints at him. "What?"
"Sunlight." Eliot says, as if that were an actual question.
Nate seems to understand though and nods. "Direct sunlight burns, blisters, smoke, it's rather disgusting. But, if I'm careful, I can go outside in the daytime. It hurts, but as long as I keep to the shade, keep my skin covered, I can manage it."
"It hurts?" Eliot repeats, more than a little skeptical. "Like…a sunburn?"
Nate's hand presses him back to laying on Nate's chest. "Something like that. Better when it's cloudy, but I can still feel it. I can tolerate it though, if I have something to dull the pain or occupy me."
"The drinking." Eliot says it slow, because it's just dawning on him that Nate's drinking has a whole lot more to do with what he is than with who he was.
"It helps." Nate says softly. "It's kept me from doing this since we met."
Eliot lifts up again at that. "What?"
Nate chuckles. "You don't realize you're a vampire's walking wet dream? You're strong, physically and mentally, you're pretty as sin…" Nate brushes a hand through Eliot's hair. "And you smell so goddamn good I couldn't wait to taste you."
"And we're back to you being able to smell me." Eliot isn't sure he'll get used to that part.
"I can smell you, Eliot. I can tell by the smell when you're happy. When you're angry. When you're sad or lonely…or horny. I can smell when you've been with someone or when you want to be with someone. I can smell the food you had for dinner, the soap you used in the shower, where you've been."
He isn't sure why that makes him squirm, but Nate makes it worse.
"When you come back from the gym without showering, it takes nearly half a bottle of scotch to keep me off you…and the horse…dear god Eliot…when I could smell all of that power all over you…" Nate's fingers curl in his hair and pull his head back. "And the smell of that woman on you…and you wanted her…"
Nate's lips curl back, his eyes flooding with dark. Eliot's heart hammers away in his chest, loud to his ears, maybe in part because of the silence of Nate's. Eliot lifted his leg, settled it over Nate so that he was straddling him, his head still bowed with Nate's hand in his hair.
"But I didn't…" Nate's hold loosens just a little and Eliot uses the freedom to lean in and kiss a line up Nate's chest. "I wanted you. I couldn't have you, so I had her instead."
Nate growls, rolls them so that he's pinning Eliot. "Not anymore." His free hand covers the wound in Eliot's neck. Eliot blinks, remembering what Nate had said about possessive and just now figuring out that he hadn't meant that figuratively.
"Now I have what I want." Eliot counters, rolling them again so that he was once more on top. "And Amy always was way to bossy for me anyway."
Both of Nate's eyebrows went up at that. "Oh, you don't know bossy…but you're going to find out."
Eliot smiles down at him, squeezing his thighs together just a little. "As long as you know I have a bit of a problem with authority figures."
Nate's fast, rolling them and pinning Eliot with his wrists in Nate's iron grip. His grin is wicked. "Oh, don't worry. We'll fix that little problem."
Somewhere near dawn, Eliot sleeps. Nate slips from the bed, crossing to the windows. The sky is starting to be more blue than black, the stars gone. The sun isn't up, not yet, but he can feel it rising.
So many mornings he had stood here at this window until it was fully up, until his skin started to do more than just sting. He stares at the horizon as it slowly turned orange and yellow. He grimaces in pain and reaches for the controls to the blinds, pulls the drapes closed on the morning.
He should sleep, but being so close to Eliot, with so much of Eliot's blood inside him is not conducive to sleep. He is burning with needs he hasn't felt in years, not since Maggie.
He hears his phone in the other room and slips out of the bedroom, closing the door so Eliot can sleep. His voice sounds strange in his ears as he lifts the phone. "Yeah, Hardison, what's up?"
"Oh, it's like that is it? Last I hear from you, you screaming at us to get out and now you all cool like it wasn't all that? Never mind that it's been thirty eight hours since any of us have heard from you."
"I'm fine. I trust you all got out clean?"
"Nice of you to be concerned. Parker managed to get Sophie out. I've erased any record of us."
"Good." The line was quiet for a minute. "Anything else?"
"You see Eliot?"
Nate considers all the ways he could answer that question. "Yeah, he's okay. We got out together."
"He's not answering his phones. Sophie was worried."
Nate can hear Sophie in the background protesting and smiles. "No, he lost his phone in the fight, it broke." Nate's gut wrenches a little to the side when he remembers it, the sickening sound as it crashed to the ground alongside Eliot's head. "He's okay."
"New phone for Eliot. Check."
"Good. See you Monday." Nate hangs up before Hardison can say anything more.
"Everything okay?"
Nate can't help the smile the sound of Eliot's voice brings. He nods. "We skunked the job."
"After you beat the shit out of the mark, I'd guess so." Eliot's leaning on the bedroom door frame in his boxers and t-shirt. "That's usually my job."
"You should get some more sleep." Nate realizes he's deflecting, but Eliot doesn't fight, just holds out his hand.
"You too."
"I told you, I don't need as much."
"True, but you need some and you haven't slept any. Come on."
Nate's instinct is to brush Eliot off, send him back to bed and pull out a bottle of comfort, but one look is enough to know that Eliot isn't going to let him so he surrenders and nods, taking Eliot's hand and letting Eliot lead him back to bed.
Everything looks different when the sun comes up Monday morning. It's only been a few days, but everything is different now. Eliot watches the sun come up over the city, alone on the balcony of Nate's apartment. It's the first time he's really been alone since Nate came back from whatever business had taken him out of the apartment that first night.
It occurs to him that he never did ask, and Nate never volunteered. A man's entitled to his secrets. At least Eliot thinks he is. He's not sure exactly how this relationship thing is supposed to work. He's never been all that good at it.
He can feel Nate behind him, behind the thick drapes. He's anxious, and Eliot isn't sure if it's because Eliot was up first and left him in bed, or if it's something more. He paces, drinks, paces more while Eliot tries to get his head together, and eventually he leaves Eliot and goes to shower.
Eliot rests his hands on the rail and considers everything that has happened in the last three days, since the job went south and Nate lost control and Eliot had used himself to keep Nate from killing.
He hadn't planned it, not like that. He'd known about the vampire thing a while, and he wasn't lying when he told Nate he'd been wanting him, even as far back as the whole crazy horse scam, before he knew. But this was…Eliot hadn't even really thought it through. Nate was in trouble and Eliot acted. It was instinct.
But now, with the rising of the sun they had work to do, time to head back to the team, fix the job, if the job could be fixed.
Eliot's hand rises to the spot on his neck where Nate bit him, twice now. He presses in and the feeling goes straight to his cock. He's going to have to stop by his apartment for clothes. Something with a collar.
He feels more than a little self conscious, like a teenager hiding a hickey. Nate smirks as they get off the elevator and Eliot fidgets with the collar of his, making sure it covered the marks.
He stands against the wall, as Hardison goes over everything that went wrong, and damn when it went bad it went spectacularly bad. Eliot's cover was blown, Parker's exits blocked, Sophie left to try to cover everything while Nate lost his temper.
Their true target had been the insurance company, the sleazy mark was just a means to that end, but with a black belt in karate that was clearly earned the hard way, he'd matched Eliot blow for blow, and when Eliot went flying into the fountain in the courtyard, Nate had broken cover to jump in to help.
Eliot's eyes flick from the screen to Nate and back again, his hand sliding up to cover the place on his neck where Nate had bitten him. He can still feel the surge of electricity through his body, could smell the copper tang in the air. He can feel the way his cock filled and exploded as Nate drank from him.
The marks are already healing, fading into bruised skin, some vampire trick Nate said, but somehow he doesn't want he others to see them, to even suspect what they might mean.
As his hand slips down off the spot, away from where he is marked by Nate's mouth, he feels eyes and looks up, finding Nate, his eyes narrowed and focused on him. They mark him too. Mark him as belonging to Nate.
And maybe he's not as comfortable with that in the cold light of day as he was on the long stretches of night that marked their weekend together. It wasn't exactly what he had planned…not that this was planned. He wasn't joking when he said he had issues with authority, and being tied down, and he sort of did it to himself, not thinking through the consequences, acting on instinct.
Or maybe it was the way Nate was looking at him that has him uncomfortable, like he wants to take Eliot right there on the table in front of everyone.
Or the way Sophie was looking at Nate, anger, disappointment because she can smell the whiskey and thinks he's drunk, but Eliot knows he isn't…knows that it's him that has Nate unfocused.
Whatever it is, as soon as Hardison stops talking, Eliot is ducking out of the conference room, only half surprised when Nate beats him to his office. "You're the one that wanted this." Nate says quietly.
Eliot nods. "I know. I'm good. I just need some space."
"Once bitten, always near." Nate whispers and Eliot feels himself flushing with heat. Nate isn't touching him, isn't even really in his space, but Eliot can feel him on his skin.
"Not going anywhere, just needed some air."
Nate's hand covers the mark, the bruises and teeth marks. "They don't ever have to know."
"Then you gotta stop staring." Eliot risks a glance up, pulls away from the hand as the others start looking their way. "And no touching where they can see."
Nate looks amused as he crosses his arms and leans against the wall. "Any other rules you have for me?"
Eliot's agitated, like he needs a good work out. He nods and pulls the bottle of vitamins from his jacket pocket, shoving them at Nate. "Yeah, keep these. I'll get my own."
"I'll know if you don't." Nate says.
"I'm not your little woman, Nate. I take care of myself."
Nate leans in just a little as Eliot opens his door. "See that you do."
Title: Close the Door, Pull the Shades - Part Two (follows on Part One)
Pairing/Characters: Nate/Eliot, Hardison, Parker, Sophie
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: 3338
Summary: Eliot and Nate deal with the aftermath of what happened between them, with some surprises for both of them along the way.
A/Ns & Warnings: This is, as is becoming usual,
havenward's fault. Although it started with merry_gentry's first vampire!Nate prompt on comment_fic. thus, this is a vampire!Nate fic. As such, this will include biting and some blood play. It will be a rather dom!Nate in places, but certainly not a sub!Eliot in the traditional sense.There's a dark that comes in the hour after midnight. It's deeper, quieter than any other dark in the whole space of sunset to sunrise. Nate's out there in it, under the moon and Eliot can only wait for him.
He's stronger now, after the food and a few more hours of sleep, and he understands what Nate meant about taking care of himself. If he's to do this, to take care of Nate and his needs, which is something he's clearly decided to do, though he isn't sure when, Eliot needs to be at his best.
For now though, he waits, standing at the bedroom windows, looking out at the moon and the shadows of a city at night.
The door opens Nate slides in on the cool night air, his body fitting to Eliot's as though they were carved from the same block. He's cool and smells vaguely of whiskey and rain as he lifts the hair from Eliot's neck and kisses the soft skin there.
His hands find Eliot's cock, already hard with just the suggestion of more and Nate chuckles into his skin. "Here." There's a bag, a bottle of pills.
Eliot lifts the bottle to the light seeping in from the moon and he raises an eyebrow. "Women's vitamins?" he asks as Nate pulls him back against his chest.
"You need the iron."
He doesn't argue, just pulls one out and swallows it before turning in Nate's arms. "Fine, as long as you don't think you're getting me into a dress."
Nate grins. "Kinky."
"Serious." Eliot says before kissing him.
"So am I." Nate responds, one hand fisting in Eliot's hair and holding him while their tongues wrestle.
Eliot's hands seek out Nate's skin, sliding under his shirt and fingering his waistband. His skin is cold, which Eliot supposes is normal, only he's never really noticed. But it makes him want to touch more of him, explore all the other things about him he might never have noticed. His hands move faster, unbuckling his belt, unzipping.
Nate chuckles low and deep and releases him. "In a hurry?"
Eliot tosses his hair back. "Curious."
Nate raises and eyebrow, but obliges Eliot, pulling off his shirt and tossing it aside. "About anything in particular?"
Eliot raises his hand, sets it almost gently on Nate's chest. "Cold."
Nate nods indulgently. "Dead."
Eliot pales and pulls back. He hadn't ever really thought about it like that. Nate captures his hand and pulls it back, settling it over Nate's heart. "See?"
Eliot flinches, but Nate holds him tight, both hands on Eliot's wrist. There's no heartbeat under his palm, no movement in his chest. "It's who I am." Nate says quietly.
Eliot lets that sink in, the truth of it…that he'd never really known Nate alive. Unless they counted the cat and mouse game in Prague, where they never really met. This Nate, the man that Eliot met on that first job, the man he'd come to like and trust, had always been this. He blinks and lifts his eyes from their hands to his eyes. "Okay."
Nate releases him then, lets Eliot continue his exploration. Eliot figures the next thing he wants to know requires more skin and he pulls Nate's pants down. His cock is half hard, slightly warmer than his chest as Eliot cups it. "Not all of you is dead." Eliot murmurs, his hand curling around the hardening cock.
"It likes you." Nate responds, smirking.
"I like it." Eliot blushes as he says it, like he's sixteen or something. His own cock is starting to wake up, jealous of the attention he's paying Nate's.
Eliot sinks to one knee, licking his way over Nate's cock, down to his balls. He smirks when Nate groans and sways against him. "Nice to know some things don't change."
"You shouldn't tease a vampire." Nate growls, pulling Eliot up.
Eliot responds by lifting his chin, exposing his neck. "Not teasing."
He sees the fight in Nate's eyes, the dark seeping into them and when he licks his lips, Eliot can see his fangs. His cock hardens completely at just that glimpse and he guides Nate's hand to it. "See?"
Nate growls as he strokes over Eliot's cock, nuzzling into Eliot's neck and in only seconds Eliot is already there, ready to come from just the feeling of lips and tongue against the spot where Nate had bitten him the night before.
Nate sighs a little against damp skin before Eliot feels the teeth, fire racing through his veins and shooting out of his cock, his knees buckling...but Nate catches him, pulls him to the bed.
The pull of blood through those small holes is dizzying, all the more so when he keeps coming. Nate pulls back before the dizzy pulls him under, his tongue laving over the wound. His hand lifts from where it had been cupping Eliot's spasming cock, and Eliot can't do anything more than groan as Nate licks his fingers clean.
"You okay?" Nate asks, his voice barely above a whisper.
Eliot swallows and nods. "Yeah…yeah…you?"
"Want you." Nate responds, a finger moving over Eliot's balls and down. "But only if you're up to it."
Eliot has a sneaking suspicion that stopping Nate would take a lot more than saying no, just judging from the night before. He spreads his legs, bending his knees. Nate's cock is hard and already nestling in Eliot's crack. Nate's hesitating, holding back and Eliot growls in frustration.
He lifts up on his elbows, looking Nate in the eye. "Problem?"
Nate shakes his head minutely. "Slow." He gestures at the nightstand. "Lube."
Eliot rolls the top half of his body toward the nightstand, pulling the drawer open and rummaging until he comes up with a bottle and hands it across. Nate is shaking as he pours some out onto his fingers, applying it to his cock slowly…and damn but Eliot's glad he's already come because if he had to wait through this he might not make it…but then Nate's slick fingers are inside him and Eliot collapses back, tilting his hips to offer him room to move.
His ass is raw from the night before and the lube feels good on cool fingers inside him, then Nate's cock is there, stretching him, filling him. Nate's body is heavy against him as he adjusts, moves slowly. Fire explodes inside him as Nate finds his prostate and when he manages to open his eyes, Nate is grinning down at him. He holds himself still inside Eliot, just leaning into that spot inside him until Eliot is grabbing at his spent cock that isn't behaving as though he's just come hard and heavy.
"Nate…goddamn fucking move or something." Eliot pants out and then Nate does, pushes in a little more and Eliot is seeing stars and he knows his mouth is moving, but he isn't sure there are words for the noises he's making…and then relief as Nate pulls out, slams in again, sets up a punishing pace, managing to hit Eliot's prostate with just about every other stroke.
When Nate shoves in, coming and laying across Eliot to lick almost delicately at the wound in his neck, Eliot moans, his cock twitching and leaking a little. Nate falls to the bed beside Eliot, his eyes closed. His face wears a sated expression, a small stain of red on his lips as Eliot rolls toward him.
He lays his head against Nate's chest, marveling at the warmth borrowed from his own body and the way it fades slowly, at the lack of heartbeat, lack of breath and he wonders how others don't see it, don't notice. His hand splays out over Nate's stomach and he thinks back to before he knew the truth.
It dawns on him slowly, that maybe what he thinks he knows about vampires is a little off because he knows he's seen Nate outside in the day. He raises his head and looks at Nate who opens one eye and squints at him. "What?"
"Sunlight." Eliot says, as if that were an actual question.
Nate seems to understand though and nods. "Direct sunlight burns, blisters, smoke, it's rather disgusting. But, if I'm careful, I can go outside in the daytime. It hurts, but as long as I keep to the shade, keep my skin covered, I can manage it."
"It hurts?" Eliot repeats, more than a little skeptical. "Like…a sunburn?"
Nate's hand presses him back to laying on Nate's chest. "Something like that. Better when it's cloudy, but I can still feel it. I can tolerate it though, if I have something to dull the pain or occupy me."
"The drinking." Eliot says it slow, because it's just dawning on him that Nate's drinking has a whole lot more to do with what he is than with who he was.
"It helps." Nate says softly. "It's kept me from doing this since we met."
Eliot lifts up again at that. "What?"
Nate chuckles. "You don't realize you're a vampire's walking wet dream? You're strong, physically and mentally, you're pretty as sin…" Nate brushes a hand through Eliot's hair. "And you smell so goddamn good I couldn't wait to taste you."
"And we're back to you being able to smell me." Eliot isn't sure he'll get used to that part.
"I can smell you, Eliot. I can tell by the smell when you're happy. When you're angry. When you're sad or lonely…or horny. I can smell when you've been with someone or when you want to be with someone. I can smell the food you had for dinner, the soap you used in the shower, where you've been."
He isn't sure why that makes him squirm, but Nate makes it worse.
"When you come back from the gym without showering, it takes nearly half a bottle of scotch to keep me off you…and the horse…dear god Eliot…when I could smell all of that power all over you…" Nate's fingers curl in his hair and pull his head back. "And the smell of that woman on you…and you wanted her…"
Nate's lips curl back, his eyes flooding with dark. Eliot's heart hammers away in his chest, loud to his ears, maybe in part because of the silence of Nate's. Eliot lifted his leg, settled it over Nate so that he was straddling him, his head still bowed with Nate's hand in his hair.
"But I didn't…" Nate's hold loosens just a little and Eliot uses the freedom to lean in and kiss a line up Nate's chest. "I wanted you. I couldn't have you, so I had her instead."
Nate growls, rolls them so that he's pinning Eliot. "Not anymore." His free hand covers the wound in Eliot's neck. Eliot blinks, remembering what Nate had said about possessive and just now figuring out that he hadn't meant that figuratively.
"Now I have what I want." Eliot counters, rolling them again so that he was once more on top. "And Amy always was way to bossy for me anyway."
Both of Nate's eyebrows went up at that. "Oh, you don't know bossy…but you're going to find out."
Eliot smiles down at him, squeezing his thighs together just a little. "As long as you know I have a bit of a problem with authority figures."
Nate's fast, rolling them and pinning Eliot with his wrists in Nate's iron grip. His grin is wicked. "Oh, don't worry. We'll fix that little problem."
Somewhere near dawn, Eliot sleeps. Nate slips from the bed, crossing to the windows. The sky is starting to be more blue than black, the stars gone. The sun isn't up, not yet, but he can feel it rising.
So many mornings he had stood here at this window until it was fully up, until his skin started to do more than just sting. He stares at the horizon as it slowly turned orange and yellow. He grimaces in pain and reaches for the controls to the blinds, pulls the drapes closed on the morning.
He should sleep, but being so close to Eliot, with so much of Eliot's blood inside him is not conducive to sleep. He is burning with needs he hasn't felt in years, not since Maggie.
He hears his phone in the other room and slips out of the bedroom, closing the door so Eliot can sleep. His voice sounds strange in his ears as he lifts the phone. "Yeah, Hardison, what's up?"
"Oh, it's like that is it? Last I hear from you, you screaming at us to get out and now you all cool like it wasn't all that? Never mind that it's been thirty eight hours since any of us have heard from you."
"I'm fine. I trust you all got out clean?"
"Nice of you to be concerned. Parker managed to get Sophie out. I've erased any record of us."
"Good." The line was quiet for a minute. "Anything else?"
"You see Eliot?"
Nate considers all the ways he could answer that question. "Yeah, he's okay. We got out together."
"He's not answering his phones. Sophie was worried."
Nate can hear Sophie in the background protesting and smiles. "No, he lost his phone in the fight, it broke." Nate's gut wrenches a little to the side when he remembers it, the sickening sound as it crashed to the ground alongside Eliot's head. "He's okay."
"New phone for Eliot. Check."
"Good. See you Monday." Nate hangs up before Hardison can say anything more.
"Everything okay?"
Nate can't help the smile the sound of Eliot's voice brings. He nods. "We skunked the job."
"After you beat the shit out of the mark, I'd guess so." Eliot's leaning on the bedroom door frame in his boxers and t-shirt. "That's usually my job."
"You should get some more sleep." Nate realizes he's deflecting, but Eliot doesn't fight, just holds out his hand.
"You too."
"I told you, I don't need as much."
"True, but you need some and you haven't slept any. Come on."
Nate's instinct is to brush Eliot off, send him back to bed and pull out a bottle of comfort, but one look is enough to know that Eliot isn't going to let him so he surrenders and nods, taking Eliot's hand and letting Eliot lead him back to bed.
Everything looks different when the sun comes up Monday morning. It's only been a few days, but everything is different now. Eliot watches the sun come up over the city, alone on the balcony of Nate's apartment. It's the first time he's really been alone since Nate came back from whatever business had taken him out of the apartment that first night.
It occurs to him that he never did ask, and Nate never volunteered. A man's entitled to his secrets. At least Eliot thinks he is. He's not sure exactly how this relationship thing is supposed to work. He's never been all that good at it.
He can feel Nate behind him, behind the thick drapes. He's anxious, and Eliot isn't sure if it's because Eliot was up first and left him in bed, or if it's something more. He paces, drinks, paces more while Eliot tries to get his head together, and eventually he leaves Eliot and goes to shower.
Eliot rests his hands on the rail and considers everything that has happened in the last three days, since the job went south and Nate lost control and Eliot had used himself to keep Nate from killing.
He hadn't planned it, not like that. He'd known about the vampire thing a while, and he wasn't lying when he told Nate he'd been wanting him, even as far back as the whole crazy horse scam, before he knew. But this was…Eliot hadn't even really thought it through. Nate was in trouble and Eliot acted. It was instinct.
But now, with the rising of the sun they had work to do, time to head back to the team, fix the job, if the job could be fixed.
Eliot's hand rises to the spot on his neck where Nate bit him, twice now. He presses in and the feeling goes straight to his cock. He's going to have to stop by his apartment for clothes. Something with a collar.
He feels more than a little self conscious, like a teenager hiding a hickey. Nate smirks as they get off the elevator and Eliot fidgets with the collar of his, making sure it covered the marks.
He stands against the wall, as Hardison goes over everything that went wrong, and damn when it went bad it went spectacularly bad. Eliot's cover was blown, Parker's exits blocked, Sophie left to try to cover everything while Nate lost his temper.
Their true target had been the insurance company, the sleazy mark was just a means to that end, but with a black belt in karate that was clearly earned the hard way, he'd matched Eliot blow for blow, and when Eliot went flying into the fountain in the courtyard, Nate had broken cover to jump in to help.
Eliot's eyes flick from the screen to Nate and back again, his hand sliding up to cover the place on his neck where Nate had bitten him. He can still feel the surge of electricity through his body, could smell the copper tang in the air. He can feel the way his cock filled and exploded as Nate drank from him.
The marks are already healing, fading into bruised skin, some vampire trick Nate said, but somehow he doesn't want he others to see them, to even suspect what they might mean.
As his hand slips down off the spot, away from where he is marked by Nate's mouth, he feels eyes and looks up, finding Nate, his eyes narrowed and focused on him. They mark him too. Mark him as belonging to Nate.
And maybe he's not as comfortable with that in the cold light of day as he was on the long stretches of night that marked their weekend together. It wasn't exactly what he had planned…not that this was planned. He wasn't joking when he said he had issues with authority, and being tied down, and he sort of did it to himself, not thinking through the consequences, acting on instinct.
Or maybe it was the way Nate was looking at him that has him uncomfortable, like he wants to take Eliot right there on the table in front of everyone.
Or the way Sophie was looking at Nate, anger, disappointment because she can smell the whiskey and thinks he's drunk, but Eliot knows he isn't…knows that it's him that has Nate unfocused.
Whatever it is, as soon as Hardison stops talking, Eliot is ducking out of the conference room, only half surprised when Nate beats him to his office. "You're the one that wanted this." Nate says quietly.
Eliot nods. "I know. I'm good. I just need some space."
"Once bitten, always near." Nate whispers and Eliot feels himself flushing with heat. Nate isn't touching him, isn't even really in his space, but Eliot can feel him on his skin.
"Not going anywhere, just needed some air."
Nate's hand covers the mark, the bruises and teeth marks. "They don't ever have to know."
"Then you gotta stop staring." Eliot risks a glance up, pulls away from the hand as the others start looking their way. "And no touching where they can see."
Nate looks amused as he crosses his arms and leans against the wall. "Any other rules you have for me?"
Eliot's agitated, like he needs a good work out. He nods and pulls the bottle of vitamins from his jacket pocket, shoving them at Nate. "Yeah, keep these. I'll get my own."
"I'll know if you don't." Nate says.
"I'm not your little woman, Nate. I take care of myself."
Nate leans in just a little as Eliot opens his door. "See that you do."
