A Kept Man

[Annalas]

Bill wanted to kiss David rather badly, but as they were having a conversation that typically didn't lead to sex, he gave him a shy smile instead. He had forgotten that David lived off of his sire, and while he was quite open to David providing for him, he knew that David couldn't help with his father's rent--or if he could, Bill wouldn't allow him to. Living off of his boyfriend was one thing…having his boyfriend support his bum father in turn was a bit much.

"I want to," he expressed, leaning in to drag his lips across David's briefly. "But…my dad needs me. I'm not letting you take care of him, too…I'm enough of a handful."

He shifted on David's lap, turning around to press his back against David's chest. He rearranged David's arms to hold him as he looked up at the vampire with a small smile.

"Even if I can't live here, though…you know I'll stick around as much as I can. I don't…I don't think Dad'll even notice, honestly." It was a troubling thought, but Bill had a suspicion that it might be true. "And I really don't think I could get sick of seeing you."

[Existentially Odd]

"Mmm, let's hope not," David murmured, nuzzling his lips against Bill's jaw and lowering his hands from being wrapped around the mortal's middle to sneaking his right hand under the hemline of his shirt at the front, smoothing his fingers lazily back and forth across Bill's taut stomach.  He was beginning to feel much better about being with Bill, things were getting back to normal as the mortal squirmed in his arms and he loved it - except for this ridiculous discussion, anyway.  There was nothing to love about it.

"Look, I don't know why you're making everything so complicated.  Just stay here; we'll go check on your dad regularly - every night, if you want - fill his fridge with food he might eat and pay his rent when it's due.  We need time to be together and learn to be a couple and I don't need your dad in the relationship as well - for your peace of mind and undivided attention, paying his rent and buying him food is the least I would do!  C'mon... you'd be doing our budding relationship a favour," he persuaded hopefully.

[Annalas]

The problem, Bill thought to himself, was that his job was too far to comfortably walk from David's place. He would have to take a taxi or bus there, especially since he typically worked during the day. With David's hopeful expression, however, Bill couldn't possibly say no. So instead he smiled gently and kissed the vampire again. David wanted him here, and Bill wanted to be here. Why was David making it that easy? It wasn't as if Bill couldn't find another job, after all.

"Okay," he acquiesced, wriggling a little in his position on David's lap. "We can try it out." And he could start looking for a new job tomorrow. One that was much closer to David's apartment--their apartment, soon enough--and one that hopefully wasn't in a gas station. He would love to work in a coffee shop or an art gallery, though he suspected that he would have a hard time getting such a job. It seemed to him that working at a gas station--one of the lowest positions around--tainted his resume. He had been in a panic then with the money running out and his brother's disappearance. He hadn't had the luxury of attempting to find a better one.

"I hadn't planned on you ever meeting him, really," he admitted. "I'm sorry."

[Existentially Odd]

"Why are you sorry?" David scoffed, noting Bill's wriggling and deciding to put an end to it by getting them both into a more comfortable position.  As he spoke, he leaned down and got his boots off, then wriggled back onto the expansive bedlike couch, laying along it on his back and pulling Bill on top of him.  His hands very naturally found their way to Bill's tight little ass and beneath his shirt in the small of his back again.

"I told you you didn't have anything to worry about.  I get it: your dad's an alcoholic, but he's still your dad.  I liked seeing the photos around the house of you and your brother, seeing you in him.  I know it must be hard for you to watch him drink his life away but it's made you a stronger person because you've been looking after him, making sure everything didn't slide right into the shithole.  I'm here to back you up now and it helps to know what we're dealing with.  What's he going to be like when we go over there and start moving the stuff you want to keep with you out?  Is he going to freak out or not really care?"

David was aware that the man hadn't been exactly aware of what was happening in his life or in Bill's, and maybe that was because of the alcohol or maybe because of Bill tiptoeing around the issues, to keep the peace.  There was no way the latter would be maintained if they were up front about Bill moving out and his Dad got upset.  Maybe they should do it when his father was unlikely to notice; that would have to be Bill's call.  "What's his name, anyway?  And what's your last name?" David added spontaneously, remembering how he hadn't known how to address the guy.  Was it wrong that he wanted someone to move in with him when he didn't even know their surname?

[Annalas]

He opened his mouth to answer, only to be shifted around on the couch. He certainly didn't mind the change in position, though, as he laid on top of David. It gave him time to rethink his silly answer, at least. 

Bill had been about to say that they could move his things out while his father was at work. That typically was during the day, though. Unfortunate, Bill thought as he wondered how to get his father out of the house. For all that Bill most certainly loved his father, he wasn't sure what his father's reaction to him moving out would be. He wasn't sure his father would care, really.

"I don't know," he admitted, resting his head on David's shoulder. Their legs twined together limberly as he spoke. "I just didn't want you to meet him. It's embarrassing, you know? He's supposed to look after me, but he obviously can't. And it's just been him and me for the past year and he hasn't even noticed…or if he has, he just denies it."

His fingers curled in David's hair as he took a deep breath, trying to relax. It was a touchy subject, one that he normally avoided at all costs. Now that they were in an actual relationship, however, he felt that he owed an explanation to his lover.

"It's been this way almost since our mother died. Dad never really got over it." Bill looked at David, leaning a tad to give him a kiss. "It's John…and my last name is King. William King, if you want my whole name. I go by Bill, though…obviously." He wrinkled his nose at the thought of his longer name.

[Existentially Odd]

"King," David repeated, to get it into his memory.  "Mine's Stevens, David Christopher Stevens, though my sire has this thing about other names.  He finds them frivolous and just about insulting; he's Darius and people should know him as that.  Of course, there were a lot less people in the world when he was born," David laughed, his hands roving comfortingly all over Bill's back and occasionally brushing his face as they settled against one another.  "I really like the name William.  And William King?  Well, that's just regal from start to finish," he grinned at the ceiling, his body relaxed beneath Bill's.

"But, hey.  I know what it's like to live with a parent suffering after losing a partner; your dad hit the bottle, my mother hit the road and started picketing and protesting anything that even looked like it had something to do with Vietnam.  The amount of times I nearly got sent into foster care because she got arrested and charged with assaulting police or army officials or basically anything in a uniform coming her way... well, I lost count of how many times that happened.  She was so angry.  You wait 'til you meet her, you'll think yourself lucky with your father.  She comes and stays with me at least once a year and once she finds out I have you here, I'm betting a visit will not be far off," he chuckled, giving Bill a squeeze and a kiss on top of his head.

Really, he loved his mother, even if they hadn't always seen eye to eye.  He was just trying to make Bill feel better.

[Annalas]

"How old is your sire?" Bill asked, stroking fingers down David's jaw. He was reminded that David's sire took care of him, then, that David didn't actually have a job. It was rather nice, he supposed, but he didn't know what he would do if he didn't have to work. He'd probably go to college, but that was only to get a better job in the further, anyway. He couldn't imagine just…not working. His sire must be very rich, Bill thought.

"I don't think that works for humans…there's a bit too many of us," he continued after listening to David. "So…your mom was a hippie?"

It was so strange to think of David as a child of a hippie, as it certainly made him at least his father's age. Of course, math wasn't his strong suit, and he knew that David could be even older, in all truth. That made him rather young for a vampire though, didn't it?

Bill became a bit worried about meeting someone as obviously as fierce as David's mother, even if she was aging. It wasn't only because of the fact that she was his lover's parent, however, but also because seeing her might remind David that Bill was aging, too, and all too soon, he would look just like her while David stayed the same. Bill had his best years ahead of him, of course, but he couldn't help trying to see into his future.

"Is she nice?" he couldn't help but ask. "I mean…do you think she'll like me?"

[Existentially Odd]

"My sire's two thousand years old - give or take," David answered, thinking he'd already told Bill this and realising it must have been Cain.  It wouldn't do to get the two confused.

"And yes, my mother is still a hippie, at seventy-five, roving around the place with her drumming group, praying at weird shrines and decorating everything with om symbols.  She's very nice and she'll love you," he grinned up at Bill, his eyes twinkling.  "Basically, anything I'm into, she's into and she's been at me for years now to find someone special so that she knows I can, before she dies.  I'm immortal, yet she worries I won't be happy," he snorted, rolling his eyes.

[Annalas]

"Two thousand…" Bill echoed, attempting to wrap his mind around that. He would never want to live that long, he thought to himself. It would be amazing, of course, but not being able to see the sun for two thousand years…he certainly didn't think he could do it.

"That's a long time," he commented, wrapping his fingers around a lock of David's hair. "Your mother sounds…fun."

Fun…interesting…she certainly seemed like an interesting person. He assumed that she knew about David's condition, considering he hadn't really aged in quite a few years. He wished he had a mother like that--or a grandmother, whichever; but his grandparents had died long ago, as had his mother, and except for an uncle across the country, his dad was his only family.

"What am I supposed to call her?" he blurted out, wondering how long 'not far off' was when it came to his mother's visit. Would she come at night, or just sneak in while David was sleeping and wait for him to wake up?

[Existentially Odd]

"Mmm, he's very old.  But very sexy," David teased, grinning pointedly at Bill.  "He only looks eighteen.  And you're supposed to call her Katy, because that's her name," he laughed, cupping his lover's face in his hands.

"Are you feeling a bit freaked out?  There's no need to worry, my darling, she won't be turning up tomorrow night or anything!  She lives across the country.  The only thing you need to think about is where you'll be comfortable sleeping and if you want to move in here or not.  Let's sort the here and now before we get tangled in the maybes of the future!"

[Annalas]

"I think I'd be a little freaked out to be sleeping with someone that old," Bill deadpanned. Of course, he didn't know that David had slept with his sire--and flat out refused to think about it, frankly--but he could only assume since David used the word 'sexy' that he had at least thought about it.

"But freaked out about meeting her? No…I just really hope she likes me. She sounds fun." He brushed his lips against David's then, smiling softly.

"Oh…well your bed, obviously." He flushed a little, looking down. "I mean…I want to wake up beside you every day. I do. I'm just…what if I have to go to work early? I don't want to risk a draft opening the curtain by accident. So…maybe on the days I don't work, I could sleep with you, but on the days I do, I could sleep in the other room or on the couch?"

He glanced up at David coyly. He couldn't describe how excited he felt about actually moving in with someone. He would be so much less lonely than he was at home, he thought. He was still a bit unclear on how it would work out, exactly, with Bill needing to take care of his father as well as work from afar. He knew that he should get a job closer here, of course, but he wasn't sure what kind of job he would be able to get. He certainly wanted to go back to school, but even if he got a job, he doubted that he would have enough money to go back.

Bill was done thinking about so many difficult things tonight, though. He was here, in David's arms, and they were a couple. He didn't think he could be happier right now unless his brother walked in. Of course, then he'd have to leave David's arms to greet him, so he wouldn't be too much happier if Tom walked in.

[Existentially Odd]

David laughed at Bill's quip about sleeping with someone as old as Darius but he didn't comment further.  There were enough men in their relationship as it was, there didn't need to be the memory of another.

His expression grew serious as Bill talked about sleeping away from him, though.  "Definitely not," he said firmly.  "The curtain's just an extra extra safety measure, there's a very miniscule chance that anything like that will happen, and the apartment's pretty light tight even if it does.  I just like to be careful and I was only picky about it those other times because I didn't know you all that well then.  I do now and I trust you.  I want you beside me as often as possible.  Always," he said softly, looking deeply into Bill's soulful eyes.

The urge to speak of love rose but he bit it back, wanting to wait.  It wasn't that he didn't feel it, it was more that he also still felt the same stirrings for Cain and it would be wrong to say such things to Bill when there was still another in his heart.  Besides, it was too soon and he'd made the mistake of saying it before his parter was ready before, too.  He didn't want to make things awkward, not when they were feeling so wonderful.

Instead, he pressed his lips against Bill's, rolling over so that he was on top of the mortal and set about making everything feel even better.