Title: Simplicity

Author: Elandae (j_3101@yahoo.ca)

Pairing: Karl/Dave

Rating: R for language

Warnings: voyeurism

Disclaimer: Don’t know them, make no profit from this. Nothing but slashy lies.

Feedback: Always welcome.

Author’s Notes: I know Karl and Dave weren’t staying in flats during shooting. They also probably weren’t having loads of sex either. It all fits nicely with this whole ‘fiction’ thing, no?

            Every day like clockwork, he’s there. Karl would almost find it amusing, how he could practically set a clock by it, save for the fact that he’s there as well. Every morning at 5:54, he’s there. At first there was some vague notion that this was wrong, a nagging voice in the back of his mind. And yet every morning there he was, at the window all the same.

            Karl had been here for exactly one week and 4 days when he had discovered this, entirely by chance. It had been too early that morning. He hated getting up that early, but had discovered that from his window he could see right into the flat opposite. Not just into the flat, but with the curtains left open as they always were, directly into the bathroom in the flat opposite. More specifically, the view afforded a clear view right into the shower.

            That morning the air in the bathroom had been steamy. He could see there was a man in the shower. Karl had paused, caught off guard by this glimpse. How had he not noticed this before? And why had the man not realized that people, namely Karl, could see directly into his shower? Too surprised by this revelation to do anything else, he had stood there. Stood at the window in his boxers, his hair standing on end, a mug of coffee in his hands and he had watched.

            Of course he had then realized what he was doing. He was standing here, staring at another man showering. That was odd at best. And yet he had not moved. He had stood there, watching another man, watching the water that cascaded down his frame. Stood there and drank his fucking coffee. It had been oddly exhilarating then. This sense of looking at something he wasn’t supposed to see.

            Then the man had done something that surprised Karl. He wasn’t sure why it surprised him, it certainly wasn’t something foreign to him but all the same he had never watched it before, not like this. The man had trailed one hand lazily down his body, turning slightly as he did, which afforded Karl a clearer view. His hand had wrapped around his cock. Karl could see now that he was hard. Could see the jutting erection that the man was now stroking. Lazy strokes along the length.

His mouth suddenly dry, Karl had watched. Not just watched, stared. Any thought that he shouldn’t was pushed from his head as he watched this private show the man put on.

            He watched as the other man’s head dropped back, his eyes closed as his hand stroked faster. Karl imagined he could hear the soft moans the man would be making. Not loud, not him. He would make small sounds in the back of his throat at first, barely audible signs of pleasure. His breathing would grow rough, jagged. Karl watched as the man’s body tensed, watched the way his muscles jerked as he came. The man’s mouth dropped open, and Karl knew somehow that it would a breathy gasp that escaped, a low moan as he came.

            It was then that Karl became aware of the noticeable bulge in his own boxers, of the dull ache that throbbed in his groin, yearning for a similar release. Still, he did not move but continued to watch the man. Watched as he stood still under the spray of water, letting it run down his body in rivulets, rolling his neck back and forth a few times.

He finally reached a lazy hand over and turned off the water. Karl stepped back a little as the man stepped from the shower, a delayed awareness that if he could see this man, then he too could be seen hitting him. The man grabbed a towel, wrapping it easily around his slender frame. He turned so that Karl could clearly see his profile and it was then he realized that he knew this man.

David. His name was David.

            Karl finally moved away from the window, stepping into his own bathroom, lost in his thoughts. He turned on the shower, waiting until the water ran hot before he pushed his boxers down over his hips, stepping out of them as they dropped to the floor in a puddle. He stood for several moments, letting the pressure of the spray relax the tension in his neck muscles. And then, almost without even being aware of what he was doing, his hand had found its way to his cock, wrapping easily around the hard length. His strokes had been hard and sure, just like the man’s, like David’s had been, the image of his hand gliding along his cock still vivid in Karl’s head.

            And so it had begun. Every morning, Karl found himself standing there, a willing participant in this unknowing production. He liked the look of Dave’s hand on his own body, even is he was doing nothing more than washing his skin. Sometimes he imagined himself there with the other man. Wondered what that would be like, how Dave’s body would feel against his own, how his skin would taste. Wondered if Dave sounded just as Karl imagined he did when he came. Mostly though he was content to watch just this man. Just David. Just his hands on just his body. That had an odd, almost solitary beauty.

            Karl felt as though he somehow knew David, in his own way. He knew the most intimate details of the man. He watched as Dave stroked himself, knew how he looked when he came, somehow knew how he would sound then. It didn’t matter that he didn’t know his middle name, or his favorite food, color, any of that. He didn’t need to know that, not to understand this.

*   *   *

            The boys decided to go out drinking tonight, asked Karl if he wanted to come. He decided to go along, and was surprised when he found that Dave was coming too. It was odd to be so near the man.

            Karl listened in silence whenever David spoke, decided that he was right. Dave was soft spoken in general, he would be quiet when he came.

            He watched David all night. Watched the way he moved, his eyes catching every little mannerism. Sometimes Dave caught him watching but even then Karl didn’t turn away. He just stared back into surprisingly blue eyes. Somehow he had always imagined they would be darker, maybe even greenish to go with that reddish hair, but no they were blue. Not blue like Elijah’s, not a shocking blue but a more steadfast shade. Karl decided that he liked that color.

            It happened by chance. Things seemed to occur by chance a lot with David. They were alone all of a sudden. Karl didn’t know where everyone had gone.  He didn’t much care.

“You’re watching me,” David had said, looking over at Karl. The words were not accusing, not harsh but soft. He didn’t appear to be uncomfortable with the knowledge that Karl’s eyes didn’t seem to leave him. He just said it.

“Yes.”

            David looked at him for several moments. His eyes looked darker now but Karl still liked the color. David watched him for several minutes, his eyes fixed on Karl’s, who’s own eyes were fixed just as steadily on Dave’s. His eyes burned slightly from the smoke that hung heavy in the air and Karl blinked.

“I won.”

“What?”

“Staring contest, haven’t you ever had one?” David asked, his words almost off-hand as he took a long drink from the bottle he held loosely in his hands. Karl liked his hands too. He liked them holding the bottle, slender fingers against dark brown glass, the tips lightly moistened from the condensation. He liked them when they brushed a lock of hair off David’s forehead. Mostly he liked them when David was in the shower, brushing over his body, wrapping around his cock.

“Yeah,” Karl replied, taking a long drink from his own bottle. It didn’t taste like much of anything right now.

            David got up and moved around the table. He had a nice way of moving, Karl thought. He watched as David sat down next to him. His eyes were bluer up close.

“You’re watching me,” Karl said.

“I am,” David replied. He reached up one hand then, and Karl found they fit perfectly over the curve of his jaw. He liked them here too, cool and slick from the moisture on Dave’s drink.

            David leaned forward then and kissed Karl. Not a soft kiss as he had somehow imagined it might be. It wasn’t a hard kiss though either. It was somewhere in the middle, a perfect balance between the two.

Karl liked the smell of David’s skin, liked the way his stomach did a slow somersault at the contact. He leaned into David, one hand coming up to brush against the gentle curve of the other man’s neck.

            Karl kept his eyes closed even after they had separated.

“What are you doing?” Dave asked, his voice casually curious.

“I’m not watching you,” Karl had said, his voice low. He liked the memory of Dave’s lips on his. Liked the feel of Dave’s hand that was still pressing lightly against him.

“Well, I’m watching you,” Dave had replied.

“Good.”

            Karl had opened his eyes then and looked over at David who was indeed watching him.

“I want you to come home with me,” Karl said.

“Do you?” The question was sincere, Karl could see in David’s eyes that he genuinely wanted to know.

“Yes, I want you in my bed.”

“And what will you do to me once you have me there?”

“Everything.”

            David watched Karl still. Karl watched him back. Dave liked that. He liked the way Karl’s eyes didn’t dart away. He liked the way Karl spoke, the simplicity, the sincerity. He stood up, setting his half empty bottle on the table, next to Karl’s.

“Let’s go then.”

            Karl stood up and this time it was he who kissed Dave. He liked how he was just the slightest bit taller than the other man, so that Dave had to tilt his head up towards Karl, just the slightest bit. Karl’s arm went around Dave’s waist, the flat of his hand settling against David’s back so that their bodies pressed softly together. Soft enough that Dave could just feel the outline of Karl’s body against his, not so hard that there wasn’t room for him to press back. A perfect balance between the two. Dave liked that. 

*   *    *

            Karl woke the next morning at the same time he always did. Next up he would make some coffee. He would drink it as he watched. As he stood at his window and watched David. But no, this morning, there would be no show. David still slept, his body warm and firm against Karl’s won. Karl did not get up, didn’t move. He just lay there in his bed.

He didn’t watch David, didn’t study the way his face looked as he slept, keep pace with the slow steady cadence of his breaths. He just lay there, David’s arm slung around his waist and he felt it all. He felt the steady rhythm as David breathed, smelled the soft scent of the other man’s skin. He liked it even better now, mixed with the soft scent of sex.

David stirred, stretching slowly, the way a cat does, enjoying the pull of every muscle. Karl wondered if he woke that way every morning. He wanted to know for sure. He could feel the soft smile on David’s face even before he looked over. He pressed a soft kiss to Karl’s jaw, liking the roughness of the stubble there.

“Coffee?” Karl asked, pressing an answering kiss to David’s forehead. He’d never kissed him there before. He liked how it felt.

            Dave made a noise of assent as Karl got out of bed, the air cool against his skin.

            He could hear David getting up in the other room as he measured spoonfuls of the coffee grounds, breathing deeply of the rich aroma. He left the kitchen, hearing the familiar clicking noises of the coffee machine behind him. 

            He found Dave standing before the window. Karl stepped up behind him, placing a soft kiss at the nape of his neck. He’d kissed him there before, but not from this angle. The skin was still as smooth as it had been last night.

“You can see into my flat from here,” David said, leaning back into Karl.

“Yes.”

“You could stand right here and see into the shower,” Dave continued as Karl looked over his shoulder and out the window, both of their eyes fixed on that window opposite the one they stood before. David turned away from the window so that he was facing Karl. His eyes were a softer shade of blue in the morning. Or maybe it was the light.

“You could stand right here and watch me,” he added, his voice whisper soft.

“I am watching you,” Karl replied.

“My curtains are open,” David noted absently, turning back to the window for only a few moments before his attention returned to Karl.

“They’re always open,” Karl returned, his voice low as his arms slipped easily around David’s frame.

“I like them like that.”

“So do I,” Karl said as he pressed a kiss to the tip of Dave’s nose.

            Dave leaned into Karl’s chest, content to stand there for several moments before he finally leaned back just far enough that he could see into Karl’s eyes.

”I’m going to step into the shower.” He trailed his fingers across the warm skin of Karl’s shoulder as he spoke, “You coming?”

“Yes.” That was all he said. Just one word and then he followed David down the hall.

            The water was hot though Karl didn’t notice. What was it in comparison to David’s body pressed against his own? Skin slicked by the rivers of water coursing over their bodies felt infinitely better than Karl had ever imagined it would. He liked that.

End.

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