Gregor

It’s often said that success generates more work, and given our caseload now, I would say that was certainly true. Since the Dokkaebi, Lang and the staff sergeant had moved several other cases into our queue that had odd circumstances associated with them. 

One dealt with a small neighborhood that used sentient ghost lights, but they were flickering, which meant that the ghosts were being displaced somehow. A check with the technomancers who sifted through neighborhood data told us It was localized to that neighborhood, thankfully. We suspected a syphon of some kind but we were waiting on equipment to confirm it. 

Another case came in about off-season fireworks sales. Given that we were headed into a dry season, that became the priority. It was likely stock left over after all the new years celebrations, and someone hoped to unload what they had. As magical devices that did similar things became cheaper and more popular, and also less dangerous for the environment, fireworks sales had declined. Turns out a citation and helping the local business find a suitable storage location was enough to have them wait until the next season opened up. 

Then we had our ongoing bike theft case. While the majority of the bikes that disappeared were free to the public, ones that were privately owned were being taken as well. Both physical and magical trackers failed to track the bicycles that disappeared. It was as if they dropped into a black hole. 

With a promise to pick up the next beer night tab, I left Xavior at work to handle the additions to our list of bike thefts. It was Wednesday night which meant it was the only mid-week night Keith and I enjoyed together. 

There was a pho place we both liked near our house. We’d have dates there sometimes and share spring rolls and chat about our day. Lately, we stayed in. I picked up dinner from there on my way home, eager to spend time with him. 

The last few weeks of the corner store case meant I hadn’t seen very much of Keith. He did twenty-four-hour rotations every two days as an EMT, and sometimes they went long. Now that our schedules were somewhat back to normal, I looked forward to spending time with him.

As I set the bag of food on the kitchen table, I looked around for Keith. If he wasn’t home, he would have messaged me if he’d left. I walked back to our bedroom and saw him sprawled out, still in his uniform, on the bed. I dumped my shield, keys, and wallet on the dresser and crawled in beside him.

I itched to run my fingers through his brownish-red hair. He hadn't moved any bit of his muscular body as I settled next to him, which was a testament to how tired he must have been when he came home.  

For him to still be in his uniform meant that he came home from work late today and probably crashed after he walked in the door. I gave into my tactile need to touch him by brushing my fingers through his short hair. It elicited a quiet moan from him as he moved closer. We’d play this game with each other sometimes, teasing each other with small touches to gain sleepy attention.

Like magnets, we moved closer to each other until we were wrapped up in each other’s arms and legs. It was peaceful here like this. Some days I wish I could stay like this with Keith. Part of what made our relationship work was the crazy schedules. We had enough space to do our own things but always prioritized time with each other when our schedules overlapped. We coordinated the same weekends off and at least one night a week.

“Hey beautiful,” I whispered in his ear. Keith turned a little and planted a soft kiss on my cheek. “I brought dinner. Are you interested?” I pulled back enough to see the hint of a smile drift across his lips. I watched as his light blue eyes fluttered open then close again.

“Maybe,” he said in a rough, sleepy voice as he tightened his arms around me. I pressed kisses into his cheeks and forehead and continued until a low rumble of laughter came from him, and he tackled me onto my back and straddled my hips. I laced my fingers with his as he looked down at me.

“When did you get home?” I asked.

“Around noon. We had a tough call earlier this morning with a group of baby vamps that were starving. They’d resorted to feeding off each other to keep themselves going.” He rubbed his face as if to wipe away the visual of it.

“They didn’t go to a donor location?” I asked.

“They tried, but they’d been too weak to make it there regularly.” He sighed, and I could feel him tense in frustration as he spoke. “They really should start making the covens pay for new vampire welfare.”

“Probably. Or make the covens pay to upkeep the blood banks at the very least,” I said. It was an old conversation. It came up when Keith dealt with vampire society initiation cruelty.  

“One of them was fifty when he was turned. He said it was the only option to survive the terminal cancer he had after all the treatments failed. It makes me wonder how many others see it as a last ditch option and find themselves in vampire flophouses." Keith sighed. "It was bad, Gregie.”

“You were there. You helped and did what you could for them.” I pulled him down into a hug and pressed my nose into his neck. I felt him relax again and then tense up differently as he stretched out on top of me. He kissed me gently at first, then his hands tugged at my shirt to reach bare skin. “Dinner’s going to be cold," I warned him.

“That’s what heat spells are for,” he said as we separated long enough to work our shirts off so we could press ourselves back together. While Keith’s hands cupped my face and neck, my hands drifted to his ass and urged his growing bulge to rub against mine.

I choked off a whimper when I nearly came in my pants from our grinding and kissing. Keith chuckled and pulled away to grab our lube and condoms from the nightstand and take off his work slacks. I undid my pants and pushed them off along with my boxers. Keith came back to bed and kissed himself down my torso to settle between my legs. I thought I was close before, but fuck, he was talented with his mouth.

“Babe,” I panted. “Fuck, Keith. I’m close.” I felt him moan and make a deep-throated laugh around my cock, and it went straight to my balls. “Christ, Keith.” He kept going, and I reached down to put a hand on his head and thrust my hips up a little. The sounds from his face were more enthusiastic, and I went with them. He plunged me all the way to the back of his throat, and I lost myself, spilling my load down his throat with a groan that rattled in my chest.

If I thought I would be left to enjoy the mild afterglow of my orgasm, I was wrong. Keith rolled me onto my stomach and dribbled cold lube onto my ass. I blew out a breath to try and relax. One questing finger was quickly followed by another that had me floating somewhere between a familiar burning sensation and post-orgasm bliss.

He was rushing things, but I didn’t complain. Most nights, we didn’t get beyond mutual blow jobs or hand jobs. If I got to fuck him, he always pressed me to skip prep for him. It bothered me when I did, especially when the sounds he made seemed more like he was in pain than enjoying it. I wouldn’t let him do that to me, but I got the bare minimum at times.

I put my hand behind me to brace his hip so he would slow down as he pressed in. Once he did that, things went better. He rocked into me, and I moved my hips so he’d inadvertently hit my prostate. It didn’t take much to catch my fading orgasm. Our combined movements had me leaking on the bed as Keith panted and groaned above me.

A hand drifted up my spine as his hips caught a rhythm, then drifted back to match it’s partner on the opposite side to grasp my thighs. “You feel so good, baby, so hot.” I wanted to believe the words that tumbled out of Keith’s mouth. A few more thrusts and he unloaded into the condom then laid on my back while he caught his breath.

We eventually moved and cleaned up enough to eat dinner together. We stood in the kitchen,  in our underwear, eating reheated pho bowls with chopsticks. As I shoved a wad of noodles into my mouth, Keith caught me completely off-guard, per usual.

“I hear your new partner is really fucking hot. What’s his name?”

I spit out half a mouth of noodles to ask my own indignant question. “Where did you hear that from?”

“The grapevine. You know how everyone talks about new people. Franklin was on the bus that showed up at your corner store case.” Keith liked to tease unmercifully. He slurped more noodles from his bowl, and I braced myself for what else Franklin must have told him. “I’m surprised you got so scared of a goblin that you pissed yourself.”

I drew in an angry breath and put down my own bowl. “Fuck you, you have no idea how terrifying that was. And it’s not a goblin. It’s a Dokkaebi. They induce fear as a defence mechanism. Take the one thing that scares you the most and multiply it by ten.”

“Aww, babe,” Keith said with a mock voice of sympathy and a chuckle. “What scares you then?”

“I’m not fucking telling you. Not now.” He kept it up as he walked closer, and I tried to move away, but he stayed with me in our small kitchen. Eventually, he put down his bowl, and I let him hug me as he tried to make reassuring noises and words.

I hugged him back, thinking he’d dropped the whole thing, when I heard him quietly say, “It’s okay, Gregie. I still love you even though you pissed your pants.”

“Aww.. fuck you.” I pushed him away, gritting my teeth as I clenched my fists. I hated it when he did shit like that. I went to sit down in the living room to finish dinner. When he sat next to me, I purposefully ignored him.

“Seriously though, your partner, what’s the deal with him?” I gave Keith a sideways glance narrowing my eyes at him. I didn’t want to talk unless he was done teasing. He held up his hands in surrender in response to my glare.

“Xavior Brantley. He transferred from Nob Hill. We’re up for a thirty-day eval at the end of the week. So far, it’s going pretty well.”

Xavier hadn’t made fun of me or said anything about what happened. Once the paramedics gave Mr. Kim and me pants to change into, that was it. Xavior took care of the scene and made calls. Once we were back at headquarters, he still hadn’t brought it up, and he hadn’t mentioned it in the official reports I signed off on. Though I imagine the paramedics weren’t as kind, which was probably how Keith found out.

I finished my noodles. When I turned toward Keith, I noticed his jaw was clenched, and his eyes narrowed at me. He pointed a finger in my direction. “You like him.” There was a bit of venom in his voice. I can only imagine what he picked up off of my aura as I thought about Xavior. I forget Keith is a hedgewitch sometimes.

I flung my hands into the air. “Of course, I like Xavior," I said as I waved my hands. "He’s easy to get along with, and he’s a good coworker.” I tried to be calm though I felt a flutter in my stomach. I knew exactly what he was implying, and I didn’t want to admit it.

“Yeah, you say that. But I think you like him; like him,” Keith whined.

“Really? Are you fucking twelve?” I dropped my empty noodle container on the coffee table and kicked up my feet. I made a hand motion to turn on the entertainment feeds for the holo. Keith grumbled something under his breath. He went back to the kitchen and returned with his own bowl as I waved my hand from side to side to flip through what was available.

He finished his noodles, and I stopped on a comedy show that we both liked. He finally spoke up. “I want to meet him, see for myself what the big deal is.”

“He’s not a big deal,” I said. It felt like I was lying to myself. Not only because of my attraction to Xavior, but the fact that Xavior was a dragon, and I could be the only person within a five hundred mile radius that could kill him. Oh, not to mention, Keith didn't know about me being a Saint George Knight. It was my past, and it hadn't mattered until now.

“You used to bring Gina over all the time. I haven’t seen this Xavior guy once since you started working together. We should have dinner together. I want to get to know him. Find out who’s protecting your backside besides me.”

I felt my lips twitch at that. That small joke broke the icy cold feeling and let me look at Keith with something other than livid frustration. He leaned into me, and I wrapped an arm around his shoulders. “Okay, fine. I’ll see if I can set up something for next Wednesday. Does that work?”

“Perfectly,” he preened. He’d gotten exactly what he wanted. I put it out of my head, so I could enjoy the rest of our night off.