[C] Old Friends

"I assume your details are the same."

Could he still get in touch with him through the numbers that he used to use?

"Don't have to know your species to be able to fuck you into the ground. I didn't know what you were for, what, two, three years?" It wasn't until they were getting somewhat serious that Doc revealed all so to speak.

Ian's hand move from the bar to slide under the wrist of his jacket and the long sleeved shirt Doc always wore, stroking the raised rune at his wrist gently.

"That didn't stop me from finding what got to you. I started out with a good blowjob. They seemed to have died head first into your asshole."

"Yeah."

He replied, he hadn't changed them, perhaps with the hope that Ian might call him, not that he would ever admit that.

"Three years."

He murmured with a soft nod, a shiver chased through his body as his rune was touched, the brand warming under Ian's touch, they were a lot more sensitive than the rest of his skin.

"Yeah well, that's what I pay them for."

Deacon shrugged a little, he had sex with them, he didn't get intimate with them, that sort of connection wasn't something that he wanted.

Ian carried on stroking the run as Doc shivered. He knew just what he was doing here.

He knew how sensitive Doc's runes were. He'd used them against him a lot in the past.

"Maybe you should start paying them to give you a good blowjob. A lot of the time you enjoyed them more than actual sex."

His nails scraped gently over the raised rune.

"Perhaps I should."

He wouldn't, he knew he wouldn't, the whole point of paying them to dominate him was that he didn't want to control what they did to him, usually they simply used his body for their own pleasure.

Deacon gave a soft gasp as his body tensed a little, he debated pulling his arm away from the man, he knew what he was doing and how to manipulate him.

He couldn't bring himself to though, he desired Ian's touch even after everything.

He traced the rune with the rough pad of his finger, occasionally scraping over it with his nail, just watching the man with intense blue eyes.

Ian was a little shocked. He knew Doc was getting worked up here. He thought Doc would have pushed his hand away by now.

His head tipped a little as he pushed upwards to the second rune, stroking over that one now.

"If you need me to give them pointers, just say the word."

Instead of heating up under his touch the second rune sent soft sparks of electricity through Ian's fingers, only enough to leave behind a small tingling sensation.

Deacon was being selfish, he couldn't help but want to keep these lingering touches for a little longer.

If he pushed Ian's hand away he could have to wait a lot longer than three years to ever feel his touch again.

Doc chewed on his lip and kept his eyes away from Ian's he knew that if he looked into them he would be pulled in.

"I'd hope they would be good enough at their job to be able to do it without hints."

"That's the problem with prostitutes, Dea. They're not very good."

His nail scraped roughly over the second rune.

"They do what they do, make you cum then collect their money. Your pleasure isn't important as long as you give them the white gold."

He traced the rune in slow, teasing motions again.

"That's why you have to give them hints and direct them. They're too self absorbed to think about what makes you feel the best."

Another deep shiver ran through him as Ian's nail ran roughly over his rune.

He bit into his tongue to stop himself from moaning, the bar was too quiet for that.

"I don't want them to know what makes me feel good."

That wasn't information that they were privileged to, he didn't want them to know his body like that.

He paid them to make him come, that was all.

"Because then they can hold it against you?" he asked with a little grin, scraping his nail up to the third rune.

He was rough with this rune, nails scraping hard.

His crooked little grin never faded from his lips as he watched Doc's face for the little changes in expression that showed that this was getting to him.

Even after three years he knew what he was looking out for.

"No, that's not it."

He wouldn't tell Ian why, it would only serve to upset the man and that wasn't what he wanted.

Deacon's eyes hooded the slightest amount when the rune was scraped, his jaw twitching as he forced himself not to moan at the touch.

They were little signs that you wouldn't noticed unless you knew him, and very few people knew him.

"Ian..."

He muttered, finally meeting the man's gaze as his hand softly gripped his wrist and softly pulled him away.

"Stop being cruel."

Ian had said it himself, nothing could happen between them.

His grin widened a little when he caught the signs.

These little things about Doc hadn't changed at all.

His gaze flickered down to the hand on his wrist. He slid his arm out of Doc's grasp and curled his fingers with the Warlock's.

He hadn't done that in three years. His fingers squeezed Doc's gently.

He missed these little intimacies with the man.

Ian's gaze flickered up again.

Dont be so cruel.

The Shifter stood and, with his grip on Doc's hand, pulled the Warlock to stand up. He stepped backwards, guiding Doc to follow him towards the back room.

He felt horrible denying Ian, he never had to reject the man before and now he had done so multiple times in one day, it took all of his effort to not just throw himself at him.

When Ian's fingers curled around his own he squeezed back a little, it was so hard letting go of someone when you wanted them.

When the man stood Deacon had assumed that he was leaving but when he was pulled up he complied out of sheer shock, standing up and following him.

Ian always had been his main weakness.

Ian grinned when Doc stood with him.

Every time he expected Doc to put a stop to what they were doing, the Warlock surprised him. He was glad he was being shocked.

Ian closed the door behind the two of them and reached up to the key that was usually on the top of the doorframe. It wasn't there.

"Changed the place of it?" he asked.

Deacon had taken the spare key, he was the only one that needed access to this room now so he kept it on him instead.

He pulled it out of his pocket and handed it over.

"Didn't see the point of leaving it there any more."

He replied with a little shrug.

Things had changed around a lot. He hadn't been the only one that had used the spare key years ago. Had Doc lost a lot of his connections in the last three years?

After locking the door and slipping the key into the pocket of his jeans, Ian nudged Doc towards the couch, giving him a shove to unbalance him and make him fall back on the couch.

He dragged his shabby blue chair over so he could sit opposite the Warlock.

"I think this conversation should be a private one."

Things had changed, but relatively recently, at lot of his dealings had ended, most significantly those with the sharks, that was something he tried not to think about too often.

Deacon fell back onto the couch with a dull thud, sitting up slowly as Ian sat opposite him.

"I didn't think anything was sacred anymore."

He replied with a soft chuckle, after all, he had just been broken up with while Ian was wearing only a thong, in the middle of a strip club, in front of a lot of people, three years after they had separated.

What could be worse than that?

That was quite a situation. One that Ian would likely look back on and want to curl up into a ball under a rock for a while to forget.

"Look, I got out because you started doing real dangerous shit. Getting in with the groups you did was putting my neck on the line and I just couldn't get myself killed. I couldn't do that with my family."

Ian's shoulders slumped and he chewed on his lip.

"But these past few years have been fucking difficult. I thought I was doing all right. For the past year I've had this whole out of sight out of mind thing going on with you. But seeing you today... I fucked up in the club. I really did. I'm sorry about that."

The man leant back in his chair. "I dont wanna do this any more. I dont wanna avoid you at all costs and be a dick. I miss you and I miss being around youn and I even fucking miss you shitty accent."

Deacon listened quietly as Ian spoke, taking in each word, his face turned serious as he looked up at the man.

His lips pursed for a moment before he spoke.

"My accent isn't shitty."

He replied sternly before a smile slowly graced his lips.

"In all seriousness though Ian, I don't know what you want from me. You act like you don't want to see me again then tell me that we can never be anything. Now you're confessing all of this to me.

It's just...it's all messing with my head"

His smile faltered a little as he rubbed the back of his own neck.

"You distanced yourself from me then disappeared without warning, without even talking to me about it all.

I can't say how I would have reacted if you had told me to stop but you didn't even give me the chance to change."

Deacon shook his head a little as he ran a hand through his hair.

"I've missed you, more than you know, but I can't go through all that again."

Ian had the decency to look ashamed of himself as Doc pointed out what he had done. What he had done was shitty and he damned well knew that.
“I was stupid back then.” He was stupid back then. He wasn’t all that much smarter now, honestly. But he was a little better. He’d pulled on his big boy pants in the past few years and at least now had the ability to take responsibility for the shit that he had done and actually think about the consequences of his actions.

Like, for example, just skipping out on Doc like that.

“I didn’t have the balls to ask you to change then walk out when you said no,” the man admitted. He gave a humourless smile. “I was a coward.”

All the homour faded from his expression as he shifted in his seat.

“I want to come back. Spend some more time with you. Be a friend. Help out on a few odd jobs even. I won’t get back into the heavy shit. I’m not going to cook again. But I want to start from somewhere.”

Deacon could agree to that, he had been stupid but he didn't plan to hold it over the man, he had made a mistake, it was in the past now.

The Warlock shrugged slightly as he thought it all over.

"I suppose that would be alright, it would be nice to have you around again.

But Ian..if you're serious about this whole being clean thing, if you're serious about that chick, you can't keep touching me like you were, you know better than most how it affects me and I don't have that much self control.

It will be too easy for me to slip back to being how we were, and I don't think that's what you're asking for."

Ian's eyes slid closed and he heaved a great sigh.

"Being clean is easy enough to achieve, Dea. We just have to compromise with each other every now again."

But Lily? "I don't know what's happening with her. I don't know how serious I am with her. I like her. I want to be with her, but- I said it before. I can't constantly worry about going to far. I can't be constantly holding myself back in fear that I'm going to screw up."

He kicked up his feet to rest on the couch next to Doc's knee. "If I do patch things up with her, I don't know how strong that patch job will be. I dont even know whether it'll end up as something casual."

All his anxieties about this... whatever it was at the moment with Lily were spilling out.

"I'm willing to compromise if it means I get you back."

Even if it was only as friends, something he wasn't overly thrilled with, but it was better than what he had been through the last three years.

Deacon gave a sigh and a nod.

"Alright then, just... I don't want to meet her."

Ian knew that he had the capacity to get quite jealous, he didn't want to see the man in the arms of a girl.

Doc smiled softly as Ian put his feet up, his hand idly stroking over the man's leg.

Ian nodded. That was fair enough.

He could just imagine the sort of little things Doc could do to dig at Lily if he met her.

"So what have I missed?"

He was intensely curious about everything he'd missed in the last three years.

"Not too much."

He replied, relaxing back against the couch as his hands idly ran over Ian's shin, it was a force of habit now when the man put his feet on his chair.

"Change some of the furniture in the apartment, upgraded my lab as well.

I've stopped all dealing with the sharks and they're no long operating in town anymore. Started up the blood supply business so I have a bit of a partnership with the Coven.

Finally got the motorbike I wanted, oh yeah, the cat died."

He had owned this old as hell cat which he had picked up off the streets about five years ago, it was affectionate and lazy, normally just sleeping on the windowsill getting sun while they went about their days.

Ian looked very pleased at the mention of dropping dealings with the sharks. That was one group of people that he really hated dealing with. Knowing that they weren't on Doc's list any more was a good thing.

"You've been eyeing up that bike for years. What gave you the push?" Ian had almost been at the point where he raided Doc's money stash and went out to buy the bike himself. Doc was always umming and awwing about it.

"He died?" A sadness washed over him. Losing a pet was rough and that cat had been his pet for two years. Every time he passed the window he claimed, he'd pause to fuss him or give him something to munch on.