Author: MonaR
Pairing: Methos/Louis
Rating: NC-17
Summary: Sequel to Walks.
Email: monaram@yahoo.com
Series/Sequel: Second in the Wordsworth Series.
Web Page: http://www.geocities.com/monaram/
Disclaimer: Not mine, no money being made.
Adam opened his eyes, instantly awake. The bedroom was quiet and dark, heavy draperies covering the double-shuttered windows. He thought that it must be somewhere near sunset; he almost never slept later than four o'clock. He glanced over at his watch on the night table, but its face was propped away from him, and he couldn't see it.
The man in his arms prevented him from easily reaching over for it. Louis was curled against him, his eyes closed, perfectly still, as he always lay in sleep. Dark strands of his long hair fell over one shoulder and spilled against the white of the bedsheets. Adam pressed a soft, chaste kiss against his lips, almost as pale as the rest of his face, and disengaged himself from the still-sleeping vampire.
One hand rose to idly scratch at his chest as he walked into the bath and switched on the light, staring at himself in the mirror. He closed the door tightly and drew back the heavy drapes which covered the window in here, too, and pushed back the shutters. It was still daylight outside, although the sun was setting. Perhaps closer to five, then. His watch still rested where it lay, beside the bed, forgotten.
It had been simple to exchange day for night - switch 'p.m.' for 'a.m.', shift meal-hours around, and it was done. It wasn't difficult to say goodbye to daylight - of course, he hadn't had to do it *permanently*, as Louis had. He wondered, not for the first time, if he could imagine never seeing the blue sky and golden tones of day. Not that he would have to; Louis hadn't offered, and Adam knew, instinctively, that he wouldn't. That had been obvious the first time Adam had used the word 'gift' to describe his vampire-state; the deep sadness in Louis' eyes convinced him never to use the word again.
It wasn't only words which haunted the young vampire; he was surrounded by memories of his lover, in this house. Lestat. Of course, it *was* Lestat's house, even if he almost never used it. Louis never considered himself more than a visitor to it, although he did not want to leave, and would not, Adam suspected, unless asked to by the owner himself. The dynamics of their relationship were fascinating, constantly-shifting over the decades and centuries. Adam had never known the like of it in any other being, save his own past, once, millennia ago. The relationship that gave all, and asked only for everything in return. Louis hadn't yet come to the point where he would realize that what he gave was *much* more than what he received, and Adam knew that it would do no good to tell him. That was knowledge that could only come from experience, and pain.
He turned the knobs in the shower, adjusted the temperature, and stepped inside, rinsing his body off under warm spray. The gentle ache in his limbs made him smile as he rubbed the sliver of soap between his hands - Louis was passionate as a lover, with the near-insatiability that only an immortal creature could possess. Although he healed swiftly and completely, Adam often found himself carrying residual tenderness for several hours after they made love. He'd purposefully made himself passive, giving Louis the chance to uncoil a long-simmering passionate side that Adam suspected no-one else had ever thought to appreciate in him. He was more than glad to be the recipient of the young vampire's experiments, where love was concerned.
He raised his hands and rubbed shampoo through his hair, telling himself yet again that he was past due for a haircut. The next time they went out, he would have it done. Absolutely *anything* could be had in New Orleans under the cover of night, as easily - if not easier - than during the daylight hours. He suspected that half of the city's inhabitants fancied themselves vampires in spirit, if not in action.
He'd followed willingly as Louis took him on tours around the city. At first, they had gone to strange, foreign places that seemed to clash quite distinctively with Louis' personality; it was only later that Adam realized he was being taken places where Louis had gone with his *other*, vampiric lover. After that, Louis brought him to different places - places from his own past, well or shamefully preserved, some of which made him smile as stories poured forth, some of which made him still until Adam pulled him into a tight embrace and bade the ghosts leave him alone.
But almost half of their nights were spent inside this house, or on the grounds - in the backyard garden, in the living room. They talked themselves hoarse and read in comfortable silence; sometimes Adam watched Louis for a long time, his dark, glossy-haired head bent over a book, until the vampire would raise his head and smile, lay aside his book, walk over to where he sat, and pull him down in front of the fire. Sometimes they would lay there, without speaking, for a very long time, Louis on his back, eyes closed, Adam on one elbow, watching the flames flickering over his face. Sometimes they would kiss as they fell against the worn carpet, and, eyes closed, make love slowly, Adam opening his eyes only to watch the flush of his blood warm Louis' ivory skin to a pale-rose hue.
Louis had become more comfortable taking the blood, not to the point of avarice, but he was more easy with their lovemaking than he had been at first. Perhaps hours of watching Adam heal, like magic, his Immortal gifts coming to the fore, had convinced him. Adam wasn't quite sure what it was, exactly, but it was very welcome. They'd achieved a rare sense of calm and ease together, which neither were used to and both almost unable to quite believe. It was an idyll, and yet - in the back of his mind, Adam knew that he was tensed, ready for something - or someone - to come and destroy this fragile idyll.
*** He turned off the shower and wrapped a towel around his waist, and shut the window again, firmly, pulling the drapes closed. Rubbing another towel over his hair, he stopped short in the doorway between the bathroom and the bedroom, realizing that Louis was awake and staring at him, a half-smile on his face. "Hi."
"Hi," Louis replied, amused, his smile on full-blaze, green eyes sparkling. "I wondered where you were."
"Transforming myself," Adam said, spreading his arms wide and doing a catwalk twirl over to the bed. "Do you approve?"
"Mm," Louis nodded, and sat up. Stretching his arms out, he said, "Let me do that."
Adam sat down on the bed and handed over the towel, letting Louis rub his hair vigorously. "I need a haircut," he said, his voice slightly muffled by the towel.
"I can cut it for you."
He turned around, surprised. "Another hidden talent?"
"I cut my own all the time. Doing it on someone else's head must be easier than that. Although," Louis added, "mine grows back every day, after I cut it. There's less risk."
"I think I'll take the chance," Adam said. "Scissors?"
"You want me to do it right now?"
"No time like the present."
"Okay." Louis slid out of the bed and walked, completely nude and with breathtaking grace, into the bedroom, returning with a silver-handled pair of scissors. "On second thought...we'd better do this in the bathroom," he said. "It's easier to sweep the hair up on tile than carpet."
Adam nodded and stood up, the towel around his waist falling to the floor. "Where do you want me?"
Louis' tongue came out to swipe at his lips, and his eyes narrowed, almost ferally, a definite sign of hunger - not entirely vampiric in nature - in them.
Adam chuckled. "For the haircut, Louis."
"Spoilsport." He pulled a heavy, antique wooden chair from the bedroom and sat it in front of the mirror with a flourish. "Have a seat, m'sieur," he said, with a fey French accent, "'Hair by Louis' is at your service."
Adam laughed out loud as he sat down in the chair, and Louis grinned at him. "I love it when you're like this," he said.
"How?" Louis asked, drawing a comb through his hair in search of a part.
Adam shrugged his shoulders. "Happy. Teasing." He paused for a moment, and then added, "Alive."
Their eyes met in the mirror, locked for a moment, hazel and green, then Louis looked away, but the pleased smile on his face was unmistakable. He combed a lock of hair, pulled it up between his fingers, and started to cut.
"You're funny," Adam continued. "Naturally funny. Intelligent. Passionate. And you don't eat crackers in bed."
"You've had a problem with that in the past, have you?" Louis asked, with a laugh.
"You have *no* idea," Adam nodded.
"Hey...don't move your head, or I go to the kitchen and get the first bowl I see to finish this."
"Oh, yes, *sir*!" Adam laughed.
Louis straightened his head into position, and started to cut again. "Nobody..." he stopped, and fell into silence.
"Nobody...?" Adam prompted.
Louis sighed. "Says the things that you say to me. It's always..." he rolled his eyes, and looked a little embarrassed. "'Louis, you're so beautiful.'" He shrugged. "As if that's it...there's nothing else."
"Fools," Adam said, decisively. "Beauty's only..."
Louis wielded the scissors at him playfully. "Complete that sentence and I give you a mohawk."
"I was *going* to say, before I was so *rudely* interrupted," Adam said, with mock-indignation, "that beauty is only the most *obvious* of your charms. Anyone could come up with 'Louis, you're *sooooo* beautiful.'" He exaggerated the statement, to make Louis laugh. "All that takes is a working set of eyes, and no imagination. That's like saying, 'Adam, your nose is...'"
"Lovely," Louis cut him off, with a kiss on said proboscis.
"Flatterer," Adam accused, but with a pleased smile. "It takes time and interest to get down deeper inside a person, to see what they're made of. I couldn't imagine staying more than five minutes with someone who only had beauty to offer. A painting or a statue, perhaps, but how interesting is that? No conversation, no companionship - no passion."
Louis smiled at him, and continued to snip away at his hair. Cut tufts floated down to the floor around his feet, as he moved around Adam's head, evening out first one side, and then the other. "There," he said, finally, stepping back, "that's it, unless you want it shorter..."
Adam shook his head, turning it one way and then the other, craning his neck to see the back in the mirror. "No," he said. "It's perfect. I will add 'barber extraordinaire' to your list of attributes."
"You'd better," Louis said, and moved to put the scissors away. "Hey," he said, startled, when Adam caught him around the waist and pulled him down on his lap. "No manhandling the barber," he laughed.
"I'm not manhandling you," Adam protested, "I was merely going to give you your tip for a job well done."
"Okay." Louis waited. "So, what is it?"
"Don't take any wooden nickels?"
"You're awful," Louis laughed, and kissed him. "You have the worst sense of humour I've ever heard, and you're all covered in prickly hair which is making me itchy. Let go of me."
"Uh-unh." Adam shook his head. "I need another shower, and now, so do you," he said, rubbing as much of his hair-covered body over Louis' as he could.
"That's no problem," Louis smiled. "There's another shower in the bathroom down the hall..."
"No," Adam said, solemnly. He stood, Louis in his arms, startled by the sudden movement, his arms wrapped around his neck. "You keep forgetting about the little bit in the centre of my back," he continued, as he set Louis down in the shower. "If it wasn't for you, it would never be clean."
"We can't have that, can we?"
Adam shook his head, little hairs floating around him as he did so.
"I should sweep up the hair..." Louis started.
"After."
"But we'll be all wet, and..."
"*After*," Adam said, firmly, closing the shower curtain and turning on the shower to end the conversation.
*** "We haven't done much with this night," Louis said, much later. He was curled on his side, on the bed, Adam spooned against his back, arms wrapped around his waist.
"Oh, I don't know," Adam said, nuzzling his ear. He gave it an experimental nip, noting the shiver that ran through Louis' body.
"I didn't even make it out of the room."
"We were in the bathroom for a significant amount of time."
"It's en suite," Louis protested. "It's *practically* the same room. And you," he turned over, on his back, "must be starving."
Adam shook his head. "I like it when we spend the night making love, Louis. Besides, I can go and get something to eat when you're asleep."
"No crackers in the bed?"
Adam smiled. "Cross my heart." He bent his head down and kissed Louis, deeply, running his tongue over the vampire's sharp teeth.
Louis pulled back, shaking his head. "No, Adam," he said. "Without the blood. You'll be too weak, otherwise."
"Okay." He kissed him again, letting Louis push his tongue into his mouth, and roll him over on his back.
They kissed for long minutes, one long, lean, pale body stretched atop another, Louis' blood-warmed hands wrapped around Adam's back. Adam spread his legs out slightly, pushing up with one knee, sliding his hands up and down Louis' back. Louis drew away from him, smiling slightly, his long hair drawing lightly over Adam's chest, tickling him and making him shiver.
Then Louis moved, kissing his way down the middle of Adam's torso, over his flat stomach, down into the curls around his filling cock, nuzzling and kissing it lightly, closed-mouthed. Adam writhed underneath him, and reached down with his hands, drawing them through Louis' hair, resting on his shoulders. Louis looked up for a moment, smiled as he noted that Adam's eyes were closed, his teeth biting painfully into his lower lip, then focused on the urgency in Adam's erection, pulsing with heat next to his cheek. He kissed his way down the length, to the tip, licked oh-so-gently at the head, and then wrapped a hand firmly around it, giving it an experimental stroke. The moan that resulted made him smile anew, and he continued with the rhythm his hand quickly found - one that would take Adam to the peak of orgasm, and then stop there, as long as he dared.
He nibbled at the soft skin of Adam's ball-sac, lightly furred with downy hair, and swirled his tongue around the tightening, tensing flesh. That caused another audible gasp, and a stiffening of the muscles in Adam's still upraised leg. Louis grinned, then sucked at the balls, taking them into his mouth one at a time, while still continuing with the teasing rhythm of his hand on Adam's cock.
Adam's moans were growing more intense both in duration and loudness, and the heat from his body was making Louis flush, the blood-heat still strong in his body from their earlier lovemaking. He prickled with sweat, dripping down onto the mattress. Louis moved his hand away from his cock, to an incoherent protest, but put his hands on Adam's thighs and pressed down, spreading his legs even wider. Then, he took the full length of Adam's now-weeping erection into his mouth, and sucked and licked it until the prostrate man was begging to be allowed to come.
Still Louis did not give him satisfaction. He pulled his mouth away from the dark-red organ, engorged with blood, but just long enough to lick two of his fingers and reach around, pressing them home inside Adam's body, seeking the centre of his pleasure. He then once again took the hot, pulsating cock into his mouth, and, with one thrust into Adam's ass that forced his cock as deep as it could go down Louis' throat, allowed him to come.
The force of the orgasm ripped through the entire of Adam's body, from his clenched toes to his mouth, keening a cry of pleasure that was almost painful to hear, like an animal in the throes of a mating ritual. He thrust up and held with his body, coming down Louis' throat with spasm after spasm of sticky come, until he thought his entire body would go into a single tensed knot, and then, finally, he relaxed, gasping for breath.
*** It took a long time for the rush of blood in Adam's ears to quiet enough, and his body to stop shaking enough, that he thought that he might be able to speak. He opened his eyes, startled to realize that Louis was in his arms, the pressure of his body's weight not even registering in Adam's mind. He had one ear pressed against Adam's chest, right over his heart, and was still, listening.
"Wow," Adam said.
Louis turned his head, grinning at him. "You're welcome," he said. He moved up to kiss Adam, the musky taste of come still heavy on his breath. "I like it when we make love and you're still breathing afterwards," he said.
"I almost wasn't," Adam admitted. "I thought I was going to pass out at least once. You very nearly blew my circuits, M'sieur."
Louis ducked his head, half-bowing. "You bring out the best in me. Or, perhaps," he amended, grinning wickedly, "I should say, the *worst*."
"I would call that pretty damn close to the best I can ever remember having."
"Flattery will get you everywhere, you know," Louis said, laying his head back down on Adam's chest.
"You..."
"I'm tired, Adam," Louis said. "I just want to sleep." He turned his head, smiling. "Like two normal people." He pressed a soft kiss against Adam's nipple. "Can we pretend to be normal, for the rest of the night?"
"Absolutely."
"But I forgot," Louis frowned, moving away. "You're hungry, and you were going to get something to eat..."
"I will," Adam soothed, pulling him back. "Later, when you're asleep. I promise," he added, before Louis could protest. The vampire settled back into his arms. The words Adam could not quite make himself say lingered on his lips, but did not come out. He drew his hands through Louis' hair, tucking loose strands behind his ear, and listened to him as he fell asleep.
When he was sure that the death-sleep had overtaken Louis, he slipped from the bed and pulled on a heavy robe, tying it around his waist. Before he left the room, he paused in the doorway, then walked back to the edge of the bed, where he pressed a soft kiss against Louis' lips. "I think I'm falling in love with you, Louis," he whispered, and then walked away.
The End
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