CRIS

Noah — as a friend had told him — had just come back after spending a few years in Europe, which would explain why he’s never seen her before. She’s a few inches taller than him, slender with a beautifully elegant face. She appears to be tattooed from head to toe, and Nick doesn’t know where he’s supposed to look first. He can’t tear his eyes away from the image inked into the skin of her neck.

A hand cradling an apple — the forbidden fruit. He wonders what it would feel like to bring his lips to her skin. He wonders if she’d let out a little noise if he were to leave a mark on her skin.

When he focuses his vision again, she’s gone, and he can’t help but feel a little disappointed. Then again, he has been staring at her for an extended amount of time. He’d probably get out too if some guy would stare at him so shamelessly.

“Jolls said you tattoo?” A sickly sweet voice sounds from behind him.

He jumps when he feels her fingers on his shoulders, and in return a giggle falls from her.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to spook you.” She smiles and Nick thinks that he catches a glint of something flashing from between her lips.

“I — yea — I tattoo.” He stumbles around the words as if he’s faced with a girl for the very first time.

“That’s really cool.” Noah comes to stand in front of him, “Maybe you can show me your stuff some time?”

He nods wordlessly, suddenly not sure of what he’s supposed to say.

Her fingers wrap around the lapel of his jacket, toying with the zipper, “You know, Nicky — it’s okay if I call you Nicky, right?” He nods hurriedly, “I’m gonna be honest with you, you’re really cute and if you want to we could continue this conversation somewhere else?”

His breath catches in his throat.

“S-sure.” He stammers, “We can go to my room if you want?”

“Lead the way, pretty boy.” She grins and he feels his heart drop.

She laces their fingers together and Nick tears his feet off the ground.

Noah follows him up the stairs, barely leaving space between them. He feels his heart rate rising with every step he takes. He isn’t usually one to move this quickly with girls — in fact, he rarely moves with girls. Most girls aren’t too interested in boys like him, the shy and quiet ones. But now here he is, taking this genuinely stunning woman up to his room.

“I can’t believe that Jolly hasn’t told me that he has friends as cute as you.” She muses from behind him.

His cheeks flush instantly, and Nick is so very glad that she can’t see his face.

“Well — um — I don’t know if Jolly thinks I’m cute.”

She lets out an amused hum, “Aw, he could have at least told me that he has such sweet friends.”

Nick tries his hardest to ignore the shiver that runs down his spine.

He lets them into his room, suddenly glad that he put his stuff in order earlier.

Noah lets go of his hand.

She paces around his room, inspecting the posters and art prints on his walls. She traces her fingers across the spines of his record collection. Nick watches in silence as she takes in his space. When she finally turns around to face him, Nick feels impossibly put on the spot.

“Can I show you something, Nick?” She asks with that same sweet tone, “I’d love your artistic opinion on it.”

“Like a tattoo?” He asks cautiously.

Noah nods, pushing a strand of her hair behind her ear, “I’ve been thinking about adding to it. Maybe you have some ideas.”

She comes to stand in front of him. Nick feels a shock of electricity zap through him when she brings her hands to his shoulders, “Why don’t you sit down?”

He feels completely powerless when she walks him backwards to his bed. He sinks down on the mattress, scrambling backwards when she leans down to him. She cradles his jaw in one hand, tilting his head upwards.

“All you have to do is watch, Nicky.”

Noah presses a kiss to his cheek, and he can feel the stain of her lipstick against his skin when she pulls away again. His fingers touch the spot she held onto just a moment ago. He feels awfully dizzy all of a sudden. His mind swims with an odd mix of desire and something he can’t quite place.

His eyes remain fixed on her as she takes a few paces across his room. Even with her back turned towards him, he can see that she is undoing the buttons of her blouse. He takes in her shape, the long tattooed legs, the short skirt that ends leaves just enough to the imagination. He doesn’t understand why she’d picked him out of that crowd.

The blouse drops and Nick draws in a shuddering breath.

The falling fabric reveals a partially finished back piece. It doesn’t take him long to identify the figures decorating her skin. A woman holding an upright dagger in one hand and the head of a man in the other — Judith and Holofernes. It is honestly a gorgeous piece, whoever worked on this has a tremendous amount of talent.

“You see,” Noah starts, “The artist who started this is unfortunately unavailable. He had a little bit of an…accident.”

She looks at him across her shoulder, shooting a quick wink his way before she pulls her hair across her shoulders, revealing all of the tattoo to him.

“I was thinking mostly black with just a little bit of red to make it pop.” Noah continues, “What do you think?”

“I think that’s a good idea.” Nick says quickly, before his mind gives up on him again, “Would certainly suit the piece.”

“I’m so glad that we agree.”

Noah turns around then.

The front of her body is just as covered in ink.

“Eyes up here, Nicky.” she says sternly, “Look at me.”

He feels his cheeks heat with embarrassment, “S-sorry.”

“Nicky, I think we both know why we’re up here, right?” Noah asks, suddenly sounding a lot softer, “I saw you down there and I just knew that I had to have you.”

Noah takes a couple of steps towards him, “You just looked so sweet, you know? And I have such a hard time staying away for pretty boys like you.”

She drapes her arms across his shoulders.

“You don’t have to stay away.” Nick finds himself sounding a lot more pleading than he had hoped.

“Oh Nick.” she sighs, “I wish it was that easy. There’s something you should know. And I want you to know this before anything happens between us.”

She sits down next to him, letting her hands drift across his body as she does.

The girl who had been so very confident and now looks surprisingly small and hesitant. She draws in a shaky breath.

“Did Jolly tell you what I was doing in Europe?” he shakes his head, “Initially I went over there to backpack, see some places, you know? A couple of weeks I went out on my own, new place, didn’t know anyone. And in retrospect that was more than stupid. I didn’t even make it to the club — halfway there, I’m pulled into an alleyway and this guy corners me. Asshole took my money and my cards and then had the audacity to stab me? Which is honestly rude considering that I’d already given him all of my stuff. And so I’m lying in this alley, slowly bleeding out, thinking that this is it. This is where I die, and I had kinda resigned myself to it, and then she shows up. To be fair, I thought she was an angel at first and that I really was about to kick the bucket. In a way, she was an angel, she did save my life. I didn’t realise what happened at first, but as it turned out there wasn’t enough time to get an ambulance and — the only thing she could do for me was to turn me.”

Nick frowns, “Turn you? Like vampire turn you?”

“Yes — exactly like that.” she says with a chuckle, “You’re well within your right to think that I’m completely insane. If you want me to go, I’ll be out of your hair. No worries.”

Nick sits back a little, allowing him to look at her better, “Just so I get this right, you’re a vampire?”

Noah watches him a long moment before she finally nods.

She takes his hand into hers and places it on her wrist. And now that he really pays attention to it, he realises that he cannot feel a pulse. His own pulse quickens at the realisation. And to his surprise, he doesn’t feel scared or repulsed at all.

“Nick?”

He looks up at her. Noah looks so very worried and his makes his heart sink a little.

Nick quickly laces their fingers together, hoping that it’ll ease her worries a little.

“I’ll be honest, I didn’t expect that turn, but — I’m feeling kinda okay about it.”

Her face softens at his words, “That’s a relief.”

“I have a question.”

“Go on.”

“Do you actually drink blood, or is that a myth?”

She gives him a wicked little smile, “Only consensually. I don’t believe in stealing. And really, it’s much nicer if the other person gives willingly. It’s a very intimate thing, you know?”

“I-I can imagine.”

Noah falls silent for a moment and when she looks back up at him there’s a curious glint in her eye.

“I’m wondering —” she says quietly, “Would you let me have a taste of you?”

His heart makes a little thump at that.

As nervous as the prospect makes him, he can’t deny the curiosity that bubbles up in his chest.

“Will it hurt?”

“Just a little bit. We’ll make it nice, though.” she replies, “I promise you that it won’t be bad.”

Nick finally gives a nod, “Okay.”

Noah brings a hand to the side of his face. She directs him towards her, slowly pulling him in for a kiss. It’s surprisingly sweet and chaste considering her earlier revelation. Before he knows it, Nick finds himself on his back. Noah leans over him. In the moon light that seeps into the room through the half open blinds makes her skin shimmer. Nick swears that he’s never seen a more beautiful girl in his life. With the way her hair is draped over her chest she looks almost like a siren and in a way he supposes that’s exactly what she is.

The soft smile that plays on her lips lures him further into her web.

Noah lets her hand drifts across his skin from his neck down to his wrist. He feels her hand curl around his wrist. His eyes flicker down to her hand, and he follows her as she pulls his wrist upwards. Noah presses a soft kiss to his skin.

“It’ll only be a small sting.” Noah whispers.

Nick tries his best too to prepare himself for it. She places a few more kisses against his skin before he finally feels it. The initial sting isn’t so bad but the deeper her fangs sink into his flesh the more intense it feels.

His heart pounds in his chest.

The next thing he feels is Noah’s lips sealing across the wound. He tries his best to keep his eyes open and focused, but as the blood leaves his body his vision begins to swim. Nick catches sight of a trickle of blood escaping her lips. It runs down her chin and neck, mingling in with the colour inked into her skin.

Noah lets out a sigh, as she shifts against him, almost grinding her core against his thigh. He watches as she gets lost in the pleasure of this moment and perhaps if he’d been a weaker man he would have let himself slip away too. But in the moment before his eyes fall shut, Nick curls his hand around one of her arms. Noah pulls away from him, eyes suddenly so wide.

His head still thrums with a mix of pleasure and blood loss.

He takes in the sight of her, perched atop him. Her lips and chin are smeared with his blood and despite his better judgement Nick thinks that she’s somehow even more beautiful like this. Nick tries his best to sit up. Noah’s tongue dips out to catch a stray droplet of red at the corner of her mouth.

“Knew you’d taste so very sweet.” She smiles, bringing her hand to the side of his face, “Thank you, Nicky.”

Her thumb traces across his skin so gently and he lets himself melt into her touch. There’s a faint bit of warmth of her skin now, and Nick wonders what she would feel like if — he decides not to finish that thought. Instead, Nick pulls her in for a kiss. The irony taste of his own blood fills his mouth, but he can’t bring himself to care, not when she kisses him so sweetly.

She presses another quick peck to his lips before she pulls away from him completely.

“Hold up your wrist, I’ll get something to fix you up.” Noah says, as she climbs off him.

Nick does his best to do as she’d asked, but his head still feels as if it’s filled with cotton and he can’t seem to be able to focus his thoughts on anything at all. He supposed that’s a side effect of losing a good amount of blood in relatively short time.

In the time it takes Noah to come back with gauze and disinfectant, Nick let’s himself drift off into his blissful feeling. When she returns to his room, he feels a little more level headed, but he still can’t shake this trance like feeling that seems to have wrapped around him. He watches in silence as Noah first cleans up and the bandages the wound on his wrist. She gives him a soft smile as she fixes the bandange and he’s so sure that he spots a little speck of red in the corner of her lip.

“There you go.” she says softly.

They both fall silent then.

None of the words Nick wants to say feel right in this moment. Everything he could say feels like it’s not important, not weighty enough. Noah seems to be equally unsure of how to move on from this.

He reaches for her hand, silently taking it into hers.

“Do you — want to come down to the studio some time so we can talk about the tattoo?” he asks quietly, hoping that she catches onto the subtext.

“Nick — I—”

“After hours.” he adds quickly, “You can just come after everyone is gone. It’ll be just us.”

“You don’t have to do this.”

“I want to. Not just because of this —” he glances down to his bandaged wrist, “It’s a cool tattoo and I’d love to finish it for you. And maybe once that’s done — I’m just realising that I don’t even know if asking you out for dinner would make sense.”

She smiles at his words, “I would love to have dinner with you, Nick.”

“So—Thursday?”

Her head drops and Nick swears that her cheeks flush ever so slightly, “Thursday sounds great.”

It’s the last thing left they haven’t done.

It doesn’t nag at him any more that they haven’t taken the final step. He no longer sees it that way. He’s closer to him than he’s ever been to anyone, and doesn’t need this last thing to prove it.

He doesn’t think about it, most of the time. At this point, they just haven’t gotten around to it, but every now and then he lets his mind drift to how it might feel and it sets off a burning beneath his skin.

He loves to let Folio’s hands wander. By now, there’s nowhere he hasn’t been touched, hasn’t been kissed. He lets his own hands do the same, traces every curve of his lover’s body with his fingertips and his lips, commits every mark and every scar to memory.

Folio leans forward, cradles Nick’s jaw and exhales his hit into his waiting mouth. He’s so comfortably loose already, the weed taking off the edge of the last few busy days, a bath with his love relaxing him the rest of the way.

“Nicky,” he says, watches in delight as Folio’s ears perk up.

“Yes, Nicky?” Folio responds. It was fun when they were friends, a joke; Now, exchanging the same nickname back and forth with Folio makes his stomach swoop.

The burning is back. And this time, it lingers.

He reminds himself that this is his Nicky. This same Folio that he’s known for years, who has never made him feel anything less than safe. The love of his life.

Folio’s brow furrows before he leans forward, curving a hand around the back of Nick’s neck and bringing their faces together again, kissing his eyelids and cheeks. 

“Talk to me, baby,” Folio requests. He stubs out the joint, leaves it in the ashtray on the ledge of the tub so he can wrap both arms around Nick and draw him close. “It’s all right. It’s just me.”

He never knew someone could make him feel so small, so wholly protected and unconditionally loved. Where embarrassment may have laid in his past relationships, there’s always only acceptance here, a constant wide openness when he catches his lover’s gaze.

“I want you,” he confesses, sitting up straighter to meet Folio’s eyes. The words land raw and heavy between them, but he takes it easily, a knowing twinkle sparkling in his irises.

“You have me, Nicky,” comes Folio’s response.

So, not quite all-knowing. He raises an eyebrow — he doesn’t want to say it again. He knows Nick will know if he just gives him another moment.

He watches the realization pass his expression.

“Oh.” Folio responds, a gentle hand reaching to cup Nick’s chin, an index finger tracing his jaw. He focuses on Folio’s chest, the quickened rise and fall. “Are you sure?”

He’s never been this sure of something since he first told him I love you.

“Please.”

*****

There's a soft glow over everything — a buzzing along his skin, the room narrowing until it's nothing else but them.

His focus on nothing but his love, where they meet, every point where their bodies touch.

He hears his name spoken aloud and he's so far gone that he's not sure which one of them it was, who's speaking to who. He tangles his fingers through the hair at the back of Folio's head, tugs just lightly, breathes his name into his mouth.

He's unsure what's the lingering high and what's just him, completely lost in Nick.

“Do you feel good?" Folio breathes into the juncture of his neck and shoulder, pressing a kiss that turns into a nibble, so featherlight it may as well be nothing.

He doesn't have any words that seem good enough for what he's feeling. Yes would be true. God, yes even better. Any words that he has available to him are lost for a moment when Folio thrusts in harder, a whine escaping his throat, everything juxtaposing with everything else and driving him crazy.

"I never want to go without this feeling ever again," he settles on answering instead. His lover's eyes sparkle, and he's entirely lost in them.