We Are Bulletproof

It was done.

Josh twirled the keys of his car as he stepped out into thin, watery sunlight, breaking cover from the woods and leaving the site of his sordid deal with Savas behind. He smiled to himself. There was nothing that he couldn't get--by hook if not by crook. Having almost no moral scruples to begin with made this so easy. So painless. Soon that fox would be out of the picture and Rae...

Well, Rae never stood a chance.

His dalliance with the lesser species was a momentary thorn in Josh's side, but now Rae was right where he belonged. Safe in Josh's hands, and those were hands that never let go once the claws had sunk in deep enough to pierce the skin and bone and heart. Josh unlocked his car with the key fob and slipped inside. The engine purred to life--only luxury cars for Josh, thank-you. Nothing as crass as a pickup truck or a jeep, despite the fact that roads in and out of Hazleton tended to be rough. It wasn't like he couldn't afford it.

His sleek silver car pulled out of the pebbled parking lot and he headed into town. A twenty minute drive later, he was pulling up to the palatial mansion that he called home. Josh showered, changed and spritzed just the barest hint of cologne onto the side of his throat. He dabbed it delicately and checked himself out: sleek dark hair, pale skin, eyes that burned with the hidden light of madness, the seed of which was planted when, as an innocent child, he was infected with the sickness that made him feral.

Somewhere downstairs he heard a door closing. A car engine roared and the crunch of gravel indicated that one or the other of his parents had left. Which was it now? His mother to meet with another lover? Or his father, to while away the nighttime hours in the embrace of alcohol? Josh sneered at his own reflection. It was a wonder he didn't end up more twisted, with loving role-models like that. They barely seemed to register his existence inside their own house. If they bumped into each other once a week, Josh counted that as frequent.

His nostrils flared briefly and the sneer faded, leaving a blank slate. Only the eyes remained bright as ever. He couldn't ever remember a time when his parents noticed him. When he was a baby, nannies hovered constantly by his side. As a child, he had tutors and managers and was whisked away on tour. As an adult, he had the run of his own life. Their family was rich--old money, as they said. There was more than Josh could spend in two lifetimes, even with his excessive habits.

And yet. He latched onto someone like Rae. Hm. No accounting for fate, he supposed. He could have had his pick of the men in his social circle but he wanted someone born to such humble beginnings, here in this backwoods little hole. That, however, was his choice.

Josh had things his way, or he destroyed the things he couldn't have so that no one else could have them either.

Josh didn't stand there for long. He grabbed his keys and headed out, and soon pulled up to Rae's apartment. Josh eased back in the driver's seat and idly picked at a pack of cigarettes, lighting up and sending a plume of smoke out through the crack in the window. He picked up his phone and typed into it as the smirk returned.

Reagan Ryang

Fancy things were not Rae's thing. Fancy places, fancy clothes, fancy talk. Yes, his entire closet and dresser was filled with the basics: underwear, socks, and then lots of tank tops in various types of cloth and colors, some emblazoned with favorite musical bands, some with stupid or crass quotes. Jeans, yeah, lots of jeans in different colors and different states of ripped and torn, some at the knee, some in the thigh or whatever. Most of them didn't come that way; Rae was just rough on clothes.

And hoodies, yeah. The only thing remotely fancy he saw was that stupid suit he wore at funerals and much to his relief, Josh didn't insist on him pulling that thing on.

The part about not wearing the hoodie for long didn't escape him.

Rae didn't know what to think about it anymore. There used to be a driving force in him. He remembered it for so long that it stuck to him hard. He remembered it was always on his mind. It left a big hole in his heart and it still hurt so much when he thought about it or tried to. It hurt his head, too. Something happened, fairly recently. But whenever he tried to think about it...

But although it had been erased, the evidence was still in his phone, which had carelessly been left untampered. He saw the exchanges between himself and "Alva" even if he couldn't remember "Alva" anymore. He knew he was the hole in his heart but he couldn't understand why he could no longer remember him when he once could, when he stubbornly held hard onto him. It was there in the messages. Other people didn't know him. Alva didn't even know him. And Rae kept accusing someone, a witch. Susumu.

Rae switched over to those messages again, as he had done for the past couple of days. He stared until his head hurt so much it felt like it was going to blow from the pressure. Maybe Josh knew. Josh, he remembered very clearly. As far as he could tell, there were no holes there. He hated Josh sometimes. Really just... hated him. But he wanted him, too. He remembered so clearly the way they kissed. Even now it made his blood heat up.

"FUCK."

Rae slammed the phone face down on the table beside his bed.

"FUCK!"

He slammed it again. It was whatever was left of Alva but he didn't know why he wanted to hold onto it when it just brought pain.

"FUCK!!!"

One last slam and the screen shattered. Rae swept it off the table in one harsh swipe, letting it hit the wall with a satisfying crunch. His fists clenched and he grabbed his hoodie. Josh should be pleased; at least his jeans were clean and free of holes and the tank top he wore was devoid of any logos and quotes. He swept the hoodie over his arms and grabbed his keys from the living room table before heading outside.

Josh wasn't kidding. He was really out there and it looked for all the world like he'd been there for hours. His sleek, new model car looked like a diamond next to a turd in relation to Rae's battered old truck.

Rae opened the door and slid into the passenger's seat, eyeing Josh with some degree of suspicion. Well, he was dressed nice. He looked every bit the rich boy that he actually was, except for the eyes. Nothing could hide that savage stare, not the expensive clothes, not the neat hair, not the shiny car.

"We're not really going to some fancy playhouse, are we?"

Carelessly, Josh let his phone fall sideways out of his hand. It clattered into the cupholder by his side as he brought the cigarette to his lips one last time, and then he tossed it out of the window. His dark eyes flicked up as though he could watch Rae's progress out of the apartment--apparently, he could not.

Sometimes Josh wasn't sure what he wanted. Oh, he knew that he wanted Rae. Physically, bodily, in mind and soul. But he didn't know if he wanted Rae to love him. He didn't know if he loved Rae. The kinds of feelings that swirled through him--mixtures of lust, obsession, craving and possession--didn't feel like love. They were much too dark, too impure.

When most people thought of falling in love, they thought of sunsets and holding hands and sweet kisses. When Josh thought of love, he thought of having. Claiming, Clawing his way into significance until he was the first, last and every thought in between.

Obviously, that wasn't for everyone. There was a reason that Josh remained an eligible bachelor for so long. He didn't think that there was anything wrong with him, though. He didn't need psychiatrists or pills to subdue him, to make him feel remorse or guilt. He was fine just the way he was--as God made him. Or maybe the devil, if those hunters were to be believed.

Yet, he found something in Rae that he never had before. Acceptance. Similarity. Rae was just like him, twisted and impure. Josh wasn't sappy enough to claim that they were soul mates but he had to admit that Rae came closer to his black little heart than anyone ever had.

As the apartment doors swung open and Rae stepped out, Josh's smile widened. He schooled it back into a smirk before Rae slipped into the car, though, affecting his usual derisive calm. Almost before Rae closed the door, the car was taking off, shooting out of the parking lot in a screech of tires and burnt rubber.

"Of course we are. Everyone's going to be there. It'll be... amusing." He reached over, eyes not even on Rae, and slid his hand over Rae's thigh, feeling the dense muscle underneath his nails. Oh yes, Josh always led with the nails. "We'll have a great time." And he was telling Rae, not promising him.

Before Josh got all crazy obsessed with him, Rae had seen him with others. His last boyfriend was... there wasn't much left of him after Josh was done with him. When Rae tried to talk to Aldon about it, he said as much, too. Run the other way. Anybody with a brain would. Rae should have told Josh to stuff his head up his ass and let him go to his playhouse alone. But that hole was eating him alive. It was fucking with his head.

The messages hurt to read, physically, they hurt. But they hurt emotionally, too. And Rae, he kind of sucked at emotions. He was kind of stupid, too. It annoyed him when people called him out on it but he'd heard it all his life and he knew that it was true. His capacity for wisdom and knowledge was capped out to dumb things. Loyalty, usually his strong suit, loyal to the family, loyal to this "Alva," loyal to his friends. People did and said things that pissed him off all the time; it happened when one possessed a hair trigger temper like Rae's.

Josh pissed him off more than most people and he didn't know why. Sometimes he thought it was because he was painfully aware that Josh was better in every fucking way and knew it. And he hated that; he hated that Josh was better and he hated that he knew it and he blew it in his face every opportunity he could. He lorded it over him and he had this way about him, where he could just look at a person and he knew exactly what to say to hurt them most. And Rae, when he hurt, he lashed out. Anger always came first for him. No matter what emotion it masked, the anger was always at the forefront.

"Fuck."

The car was in drive before the door even clicked shut. Rae glared in Josh's direction.

"And you criticize my driving?"

Like either of them were considered good drivers. Josh was fast but he did drive smoother than Rae. Mostly because his car could afford to--he was pretty sure if Josh drove his truck, he'd be as jerky and bouncy as Rae was.

Out of sheer habit from hearing it from somebody else, Rae slid his seatbelt on. Probably for the best, given the driver.

And there was a hand.

A hand right close to the family jewels. Rae looked sharply at Josh, another force of habit. Something in him wanted to snap at him and tell him to take his damn claws off him but he couldn't see why he should even care. Because of somebody he forgot? The name still stuck in his mind but the things that went with it were relegated only to words on a shattered phone. For some reason, Rae zipped up his hoodie, like that was going to protect the rest of him from Josh's hand. It burned a hand shape where he touched him. Like some kind of wanton whore, his legs slightly parted, as if inviting Josh to slide his hand elsewhere. The heat in his blood could have rivaled the fucking sun.

"Who's everyone?"

"At least you'll die in a luxury car," Josh drawled, amused that Rae of all people was lecturing him on his driving. But that was the norm for their level of interaction. This was considered civil. It was practically flirting--for them. As the car tore down the street, Josh retracted his hand from Rae's thigh because once the legs opened and he knew that Rae wanted it, Josh was no longer interested in giving it to him.

It was the chase--always the chase--that held fascination for him.

"Everyone is everyone. Why? Do you think you'll meet your little prince charming there?" The snort that accompanied his jibe was purely vicious. Rae was doing a good job pretending that he didn't know Alva, and Josh was content to let him carry on the deception, but it annoyed him that Rae went to such lengths. It meant that he still cared, didn't it? Josh dislike that on principle alone.

Playhouse, though, would help take their minds off of their respective troubles. It called itself a nightclub but Josh thought that venue was a more accurate description for it. There was the usual--bar, dance floor, VIP lounge--but there was also a pool and spa out back. They even had a hot tub filled with natural hot springs water, and Himalayan bath salts. The real stuff, not the knock-off shit. Playhouse was the playground of the rich and idle, and tonight Josh wanted to play.

He was in a rare good mood--his pest problems were about to disappear.

Ugh. Fuck Josh. He was such a goddamn tease. The minute he invited him in was the minute Josh took his hand back and denied him any sort of enjoyment. Asshole. Rae glowered at him, tempted to slip his hands down his own pants and get himself off. It wouldn't be the first time he'd done it just to spite Josh for being a stubborn shit.

"...no," he said tightly, knowing somehow that Josh meant Alva and still not sure who he was to him. Alva must have been his once but now he wasn't. Big fucking deal. Now he was just a name ringing around in his head with nothing else attached but a few crybaby texts. Rae didn't like what he saw of himself there. He didn't like what kind of person he must have been with Alva. That version of him sounded like a fucking baby and that didn't feel like him, like the red hot anger and the passion for whatever drove him in the moment.

Fuck it. He slid his hand down his own pants, frustrated on so many different levels that he could hardly think straight. He didn't need fancy playhouses and Josh to have a good time.

"What. Are you doing?"

Josh was torn between amusement and annoyance. Rae was so hard up that he needed to resort to desperate measures? His hand started to snake out, to stop Rae, but Josh paused. Smirked. Retracted the hand.

"If you finish in here, I'm not touching you again for the rest of the night."

Which he hardly thought that Rae wanted. But now Rae had a definite problem—he had already aroused himself and if he stopped, it would be... frustrating. If he didn't wait, then Josh was keeping his hands to himself and, well, that could very well end up being more frustrating. It was either the immediate payoff, or holding out for more.

"Getting off," he said, annoyed that he even had to say it. If Josh wasn't up to the task, Rae certainly was. He'd pleasured himself a time or two. Or more, being a guy. Also, for other reasons that he couldn't fully grasp at the moment. All he knew was that he had spent a good number of times jerking the meat for himself and he didn't have any shame in doing it in front of Josh. In fact, he kind of got a sick satisfaction out of it. It was like saying he wasn't good enough. Yeah, take that, Josh.

And he was damn smug about that--up until the part where Josh threatened not to touch him if he finished. His heart leapt with dread and a definite fear that Josh would make good on that threat. Josh loved to threaten and he loved to make good on threats. In fact, he was pretty fucking good at it. When was the last time Josh ever made one and didn't follow through? And it wasn't like Josh needed Rae at all. He was rich and good looking. If he wanted to, he could fuck that whole stupid theater and make Rae watch.

"...oh fuck you."

He removed his hand, even though his body throbbed for more. Rae could get somebody if he wanted, too. It didn't have to be Josh. Fuck, he could just go find some hooker if he had to. He hated playing into Josh's hands. He hated that when he thought he had to upper hand, he was really just one flip away from being butt-fucked, and not in the fun way.

"You'd like to," Josh replied smugly. They were literally ten minutes away from the damn nightclub and Rae couldn't even wait that long? It wasn't as if Josh was a prude—or a cripple. He scoffed inwardly and shook his head. Rae was probably making up for lost time. Five years of forced celibacy could make anyone a little nutty.

The car eased into the parking lot of Playhouse and Josh cut the engine. He leaned over and gave Rae the lightest, most chaste of pecks. Then his hand slipped around to the back of his head and he plied him with a hard kiss full of promises for the evening.

"Come on, puppy. We're heading in through the VIP entrance." If it wasn't obvious already, Josh was a VIP. His friends were, too, which made getting into places like these easy. All he had to do was drop a name—Ella Belmont, for example—and doors opened. The bouncer barely gave him a glance but he eyed Rae beadily, before Josh pulled him through to the other side.

God
fucking
damn it.

It was like he was always a step ahead of him! What the fuck, man? No matter what Rae said, he couldn't seem to get to Josh the way Josh got to him and it drove him fucking crazy! He closed his hands into fists on his thighs, not even sure now what to do with his own stupid hands. Worse still, the engine was all revved up and had nowhere to go and it was all he could think about. It begged to be touched but no, it was left alone. He slightly crossed his legs, as if that would relieve the pressure built inside but really it just made it worse.

Oh good. They were here. It didn't look like the fancy theater that Rae had been imagining and he was suddenly glad he hadn't been dumb enough to actually wear his fucking funeral suit out. Josh would have laughed him off the face of the earth. Now he didn't feel that under-dressed. Sure, it was a rich people's club but it was still a club and a pair of nice fitting jeans and a tank top weren't that bad, even if they weren't Gucci or whatever.

Rae unclipped his seatbelt and was met with a kiss. A weirdly gentle kiss. Well--but it was followed up by the kind of kiss that played prelude to something way more hands on. Unfortunately, the hands stayed well above the belt but it left Rae's head spinning all the same. He licked his lips afterward, following Josh into the fancy-ass club with his head still somewhere in outer space.

Everyone, huh? Rae didn't know any of the faces that blurred around him. This wasn't his crowd, these weren't his people. Some of them looked him up and down with a curl to their lips. One with a lick and a wink. Rae supposed it took all kinds.

"Is this your way of keeping me on my toes?" Rae asked, somewhat irritably because he was exactly that. Not physically, of course, but he was definitely not anywhere near balanced.

"No," Josh laughed with genuine amusement as he pulled Rae in close. Playhouse was crowded, as usual, with rich people and their toys. The music was loud and the bass heavy, but it wasn't at the level of obnoxiousness that most normal clubs blasted in the hopes of deafening their patrons. It was enough to establish a rhythm and a beat, to get bodies moving on the dance floor.

"I'm just here to show you off." His lips by Rae's ear, he nipped at the lobe. When he pulled back, he was grinning. "Come on, puppy. I don't like the way that guy's looking at you." Murder wasn't on Josh's mind tonight--but Rae's ass was. He cupped it and groped it as he made eye contact with the man who had leered and licked his lips at Rae.

Mine, the gesture said, and the man laughed but Josh didn't. He was a wolf and wolves were fully territorial.

"Let's get a drink!" He wound his arm around Rae's waist and steered him to the bar. Drunk Rae was fun Rae--and a Rae of infinite amusement. He might even start a fight at some point, and Josh might actually enjoy it himself.

Oh, come on. Show off the mongrel in the tank top and hoodie? Rae was pretty sure Josh could have brought some killer model with swanky clothes and ice around their neck. Some famous brat with a penchant for drama. They would be more inclined to be showed off, too, actually. Rae liked attention up to a point, but he liked it for other reasons. Like... being cool. Like being bad-ass. Not really so much as somebody's purse.

Still, he couldn't say no to those lips on his ear because that felt damn good. Probably too good for the current... state of his lower body.

"Can you stop with the puppy thing? You're making me feel like freaking Aldon."

And he liked Aldon, he was a pal and all but he was definitely no Aldon. He didn't just roll over and let people give him belly rubs. Literal ones, too! Aldon loved them! Meanwhile, Rae wasn't baring his damn belly for just anybody. And there was the ass groping. His entire lower body reacted to the motion. God damn it. He briefly bit his lower lip and used every ounce of will power not to moved up against Josh. No way was he giving him any more satisfaction than he already had back in the car.

"Oh yeah, that's the only thing these places are good for." He was all for getting drunk. Rae liked his liquor, even if it didn't always like him. Liquor was great. It meant not giving a fuck who was looking or if Josh was groping him. Getting drunk meant getting blitzed and that meant having a good time.

Other than that, clubs, they weren't his style. Rae wasn't into club style dancing or club style music. He preferred rap, hip-hop, that kind of scene.

At the bar, he immediately called out for their strongest shots and he wanted two-no, three of them! Stat!

"Yeah, yeah," Josh waved aside Rae's protestations as nothing more than idle grumbling. Complaining for the sake of complaining because Rae was out of his element as the only one here in clothes that cost less than the ticket price of a new car. There was shine and bling and status and wealth all around them, and poor Rae stood out like a sore thumb.

Josh liked it, though. The notoriety that came with strolling in with Rae was amusing. He liked that others disapproved, because he knew that they were also dead curious. Why this one? Why Rae? Wouldn't they like to know. Sometimes, he thought that all Rae needed was confidence.

Oh, Rae was plenty confident on his own, but he had no conviction behind it. There was a lot of bluster, backed up by a hair-trigger temper and a penchant for swinging first and asking questions later. But give him someone like Josh, who wasn't afraid of the fists and the cursing, and Rae was reduced to--puppy.

He was a cute puppy, though. Josh's arm remained around him at the bar, as Rae ordered three shots and Josh just laughed and waved for the bottle. Why scrimp and save? Was he going to take his inheritance with him when he died? The bartender plonked down a brand-new bottle of Gran Patron and two sparkling clean shot glasses.

"Cheers, puppy," Josh grinned as he poured two glasses and lifted one. The shot went down smooth as butter with none of the bitter after-taste of cheap tequila. It tasted pretty good on Rae's tongue, too, when Josh leaned in for a heated kiss.

"We're going for the whole bottle, huh?"

Rae didn't ask how much it cost because it probably cost more than the rent at his apartment. Hell, the shots themselves that he'd tried to order on his own probably were way beyond his ability to pay. He hoped to hell that Josh's plan wasn't to get him dead drunk and then leave him to pay off the bill because he'd be here until the day he died.

But since Josh seemed to be in such a rare good mood, he decided to just take the drink that was poured for him, raising it and then shot it back like a pro. Not that it took much because it went down surprisingly smooth. None of that burn and death that the cheap stuff always did to him. All it did was warm his chest as it went down. The warmth bloomed under the kiss and Rae reached out to grasp the back of Josh's neck to hold him there, to deepen the kiss. With reluctance, he let go, heart beating faster, blood running hotter.

"Nice," he said with a growing smile as he clumsily set his shot glass down. "But I'm going to need a lot more than that before I like you calling me puppy." He pushed the glass a few inches in Josh's direction as a hint.

Josh smirked; he was sure Rae could feel the smirk on his lips, since they were a hair's breadth from his. "Who said I wanted you to like it?" Without looking, he poured. Some of the liquor went into the shot glass; some of it splashed onto the counter and the term pissing away money really did apply just then, but Josh could have cared less.

Once he set the bottle down, he maneuvered himself closer to Rae. Close enough to be on him. Close enough to ease a thigh between Rae's legs and to nudge the juncture of them teasingly. Close enough to practically pin him against the bartop. Josh didn't need to be drunk to have a good time. Something about Rae always made him a teeny bit tipsy.

"Maybe... I like it when you hate it," he continued, still smirking, still pressing closer. There could have been no doubt that they were together, and in the most indecent of ways, too. Josh's hand slid up against Rae's abdomen, over his clothes, and then down. His fingertips hooked into the waist of Rae's jeans and pulled at it meaningfully.

"Drink up, puppy. Plenty more where that came from."

Absolutely nobody. Josh probably wanted him to hate the nickname. The more he hated it, the more Josh was going to use it and Rae was such an idiot. He almost felt like he'd turned the key to figuring out Josh's thought process but it just wasn't clicking. His eyes were on Josh's eyes because they were dark and glittering with the same kind of promise he'd made back in the car. Rae was confused.

He was confused because Josh was all over him now, like he needed the audience to see what he was doing. That was pretty much everything against what Rae was about, generally choosing not to go for the whole PDA scene. He was too cool for that shit. So part of him wanted to push Josh off and tell him to at least take it to the bathroom, where less eyes were on them. But part of him--the heated part between his legs--wanted him closer.

"I hate it," he said, though a good deal of his conviction was off being distracted by the way Josh was closing in. Also, that hand. His eyes closed, his lower body bucking against Josh. The hand stopped, though, and Rae let out a groan. Fuck! Why was he such a goddamn tease? He reached for the shot glass, embarrassed that his stupid hand shook as he lifted it, sloshing more of it over his hand and down the sleeve of his hoodie.

Still, he looked Josh in the eye as he sank it. Really, it was the kind of smooth that could go down in twenty shots without notice--and then knock a person right the fuck out. Rae leaned forward after he swallowed it, grasping the back of Josh's neck with his hand so hard that nails sank in before he kissed him. His teeth caught Josh's lower lip and his eyes fixed downward as he took in a harsh breath.

"Bathroom," he said through gritted teeth. "Now."

"Of course you do," Josh said patronizingly, but only half-believing it. From what Josh could see, Rae confused himself most of the time and his version of love and hate had a way of twisting themselves around and around until one bled into the other. He loved that which he hated and hated that which he loved: the silly nickname, Alva, Josh, his own self-image, his need to prove himself Alpha Male.

In some ways, that made him more complex than Josh, who only wanted to possess that which he loved. That was a basic desire to Rae's complicated feelings, he thought, but he wasn't here to be Rae's psychiatrist. Josh knocked back a swig straight from the bottle, only to shove it aside when Rae came back at him with a hard hand on the back of his neck. The kiss was everything their kisses always were--hard, unyielding, full of fire and brimstone.

"Hmm." Josh's thigh pressed in harder. His own body was heating up, too, but lucky him--he hadn't gone and touched himself back in the car. He smiled at Rae and shook his head.

"You don't really want to blow your load this soon, do you puppy? Then he eased off to take another gulp of alcohol. "We haven't even danced yet~"

FUCK HIM. What was he doing to him? One second he was all over him and the next he was moving off again, acting like the drink was more interesting. Rae didn't know what he was supposed to do in order to get what he wanted. Manipulation was beyond his abilities, he wasn't good at thinking five steps ahead of people the way Josh was. He couldn't even anticipate what Josh was going to do after he did something. The natural course of things would be to head to the bathroom and fuck like the beasts they were and it frustrated him beyond belief that Josh could just... not.

And he was fit to burst. It was hard to think when all he wanted to do was get off and he wasn't allowed to. Again, he felt his fingers flexing into fists, blood boiling, head full of confusion. Josh was all smiles; Rae was all scowls.

"You want to dance?"

He wanted Rae to dance with a fucking erection? Was he some kind of sadist? What was wrong with him? Rae looked around, almost desperate. Not almost. Definitely desperate. There had to be somebody around that could just... replace this asshole. Somebody that didn't mind quickies in the bathroom of some swanky club. Unfortunately, most of the people around him ignored him and the ones who didn't were definitely looking at him with disdain. Where was that freak who leered at him earlier?

"Don't you?" Josh asked innocently, although he had to admit... he liked this desperation. It made him want to do things to Rae that Rae probably wanted done to him too, at this point. Josh poured himself another shot and downed it.

"If we go to the bathroom now," he continued calmly, "you won't be able to move after, much less dance."

In the face of Rae's mounting irritation, Josh was logical. But really, how could he resist? Especially when Rae's eyes were now darting everywhere, looking for someone to vent his frustrations on. That, Josh didn't enjoy. His eyes narrowed and the grip on the shot glass tightened.

Before he could force Rae's attention back on himself, someone approached. A tall someone, dressed immaculately, with the kinds of muscles that, yes, were for show... but they put on a nice show. And he walked straight past Rae, nearly through Rae.

"Move it," he said brusquely, eyes on Josh—who, to his credit, only laughed and eased himself away from what he was sure would be some kind of tiny altercation.

"Oh yeah, that's exactly what I want to do right now."

Yeah, he wanted on that dance floor, with his everything just... aching and Josh probably grinding up on him in that way that made him crazy but didn't let him actually get off. That was just what he wanted to do right now. Desperately, he took the bottle and drank straight from it. He was right; it was awful easy to get a lot down quickly. But he didn't care because he needed something--anything--to distract him from the throbbing in his loins, for fuck's sake.

And he couldn't even argue Josh's valid point about the bathroom. Except he could. He could and he knew it. He started to say it, too--that Josh didn't have fuck him in the ass right now, that there were other ways to get him off. Hands, mouth, tongue, lips. Oh god, he could imagine it all and he wanted it all, greedy and needy as he was in that moment. And then he'd be fine. Then he'd be good to go.

But none of that came out because some tall whatever came over and tried to stroll his way on through Rae like he was a ghost. Rae shoved him back, in his stupid expensive looking painted on pants and his ridiculously bright shirt.

"You fucking move it. I was here first." Maybe a children's argument but Rae wasn't at his best when he wasn't drunk so that was the best he could come up with. Didn't matter anyway because Rae preferred to let his fists do the talking.

They weren't really here to dance. That wasn't the original goal, anyway—Josh just wanted to have a good time, maybe make a bit of a scene amongst his peers, drink expensive alcohol. He couldn't do that with Rae's idea of a good time, which was to go somewhere private, crack open six cans of cheap beer and then go fuck in the back of his truck. That had its charm the first time, maybe, but Josh was accustomed to finer things in life.

He appraised the tall stranger, who had clearly made a beeline for him. His level of confidence suggested that he thought he was Somebody and that Josh should perhaps be grateful for his attentions. Josh smiled crookedly as the man cast a scornful look at Rae—but didn't push him back. When he spoke, his voice was an affected drawl.

"Oh sorry, didn't realize we were lining up." The sneer was evident. "How did someone like you get into my club anyway?" He looked Rae up and down and clearly decided that he didin't like what he saw. The man raised his hand as if to signal someone, and through the crowd, Josh saw bouncers heading their way.

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Rae snarled, not understanding the jest. Lining up for what? For Josh? What? Whoosh, right over his stupid, half-drunk head. He stared the stranger down, irritated that not only was he not getting any, but he was also being harassed by some wannabe ken-doll with a superiority complex. The way he looked at Rae was annoying, too, like he was just some cockroach he was about to step on.

Well, fuck him. Rae could be a goddamned cockroach but he sure as hell wasn't letting some Gucci-brat step on his ass. He pushed at him again, this time with a hell of a lot more force so that he unbalanced him. Oh no. He got it now. Lining up. He was implying they were lining up for Josh.

"And there's no fucking line, cocksucker," Rae said with another hard shove. He wanted blood now. "You think because you got a bunch of paper that makes you something? Huh? I don't give a fucking shit about your money or your special club." This time he grasped the man by his fancy collar, holding tight as he pulled forward, hoping the cloth would tear or the fucker's throat would choke.

"He's mine and if you touch him, I'll rip your fucking balls off."

"Security! Security! Get him out of here!"

Josh saw the bouncers clearly now, standing heads and shoulders taller than everyone else. They couldn't possibly be all human--or if they were, he wanted to know where this guy found them. But they were crowding Rae now and grabbing him by the shoulders and arms, yanking him off of their boss.

With a crooked grin, Josh straightened. He liked that. That little assertion of possession. Was that what Rae really thought? That Josh was his? It didn't exactly give him warm and fuzzies but it was always nice to be wanted--by the person he wanted, too. He walked up and tried to get between the bouncers and Rae, while the club's owner massaged his throat and looked highly shaken. Probably not many people went up to him and tried to break his neck.

He shrugged off an offending hand on his shoulder, turning to give the bouncer a hard stare. But Josh was amused nonetheless because this was Rae at his best--spitting and hissing and growling, more of an animal, less of the wimp that came out around Alva. He was less so when the bouncers started shoving at his back too, to get him out of the club along with his little troublemaking puppy. Werewolves had enough super strength, but whatever these bouncers were, they had grips of steel. In short order, Josh found himself outside. Actually, shoved outside.

Actually, thrown out.

Which was not the first time, but he felt like he had barely gotten through half that bottle of hideously expensive alcohol. "This is exactly why," he said as he turned to Rae with a shake of the head, "I can't take you anywhere nice."

So...

It turned out less ball ripping and more like troublesome kids being tossed out of class. The doors closed shut behind them and the bouncer seemed at least somewhat amused by the display. Rae wasn't nearly as amused as he shrugged off the feel of those fucking hands on him. Assholes! He didn't even start that fight, which wasn't even a proper fight. Rae didn't even get to pound his fists into the smirking bastard's face.

"I didn't think there was anybody more smug than you out there," Rae said, running a thumb under his nose as he stared at the bouncer's stupid face. And he didn't mean the bouncer. He meant that smug-ass-fag coming for Josh right in front of Rae, like Rae didn't even exist. All because he hadn't shown up all classed up. So what if he didn't own fucking Fendi or Adidas or what-the-fuck ever was the new big thing?

"And what if I don't want to go anywhere nice? I'm not nice. Neither are you. These places just suffocate us."

"Okay, that's insulting. You think some second-generation allowance-dependent trash is more smug than ME?"

Nobody on God's green Earth was more smug than Josh. Nobody, but nobody, could be as full of themselves. Maybe to some, that was an insult, but Josh saw it differently. He was the goods. He had it all. Why should he pretend to be humble, and shake his head and say that he wasn't perfect, when he was?

Besides. Rae liked him smug.

He watched Rae pacing around, declaring that neither of them were nice. Well, that was true. Neither of them were nice. Josh especially, despite his finery, was the biggest asshole this side of town and he knew it. And he was proud and unashamed of it.

Slowly, he reached for Rae and slowly, he reeled him in. "Calm down, puppy. We'll get him when his little troll friends aren't around." His smile was nasty; the things that he would do to the man who dared to throw them out would be nastier. Josh's hand slipped low again and this time, not to tease. It slipped under Rae's waistband and grasped him firmly. "You were so... sexy back there..."

He got in a few good strokes, but...

"Ahem! Excuse me!"

A disgustingly cheerful voice interrupted him. Josh turned with narrowed eyes to see a smiling young woman headed their way, bypassing the line at the club. She had a stack of papers in her arm and extended one to Josh, who didn't take it. Next, she handed it to Rae and Josh briefly flicked an eye over it.

"Please have a read-through of this, okay? We really need people to volunteer, especially in the winter months. Any donations of money or supplies or your time would be sooo appreciated!"

Josh saw her eyes widen as she finally noticed where Josh's hand was, and she stepped back uttering profuse apologies for 'interrupting.' He scoffed and gave the paper another cursory glance. Sanctuary, the title said. There was a lot of text, some cut and paste stock images, and at the bottom, a picture that made him utter a noise of disgust.

Alva Ren, Community Outreach Director, it said in curly font, with a picture of that hateful, smiling face.

"Good," he said, satisfied that they were actually going to do something about it. Rae was a man of action and confrontation, not a man of being thrown out and leaving things peacefully. What he wanted was fucking blood. He wanted to see that smug asshole's face with a hole in it. Leave him with a slit from ear to ear. Take away what he was so confident about. Probably his face and his body. Money would fix what damage they did... Too bad they couldn't take that all away from him, either.

But thoughts of that guy were doused by the present actions. Finally. God, finally. His body immediately moved against Josh's, more than ready to let him have his way with him. Anything he wanted in that regard, Rae would probably have done it, even if it humiliated him--he was that fucking desperate to just fuck.

"Oh... yeah..." he groaned, body bucking under Josh's touch. "Don't fucking stop.... fuck..."

His hands wound up in Josh's hair, fingers tightly winding through soft, dark hair.

And then some fucking asshole interrupted them.

"Fuck off!" Rae snarled, not even wanting to look at the papers the stupidly cheery girl was trying to hand out. He let it drop to the ground. "Can't you see we're in the middle of something?" As she scurried off, Rae glared at her. "FOR FUCK'S SAKE."

Josh stepped on Alva's picture and ground it under his heel as his hand delved back under Rae's waistband. The action made him feel good, actually. Sort of symbolic. Undoing everything that Rae and that worthless fox had built up over five long years. Coming between them and wedging them apart. Stepping all over their relationship and grinding it to a dust. Oh, yes. Very symbolic.

Viciously, he kissed Rae as he jerked him off, right within sight of the club's front door. The bouncer and everyone standing in line was probably getting an eyeful but what did Josh care? Rae wouldn't—not at this stage of desperation. Amusingly, Rae was more about privacy in matters like these, something that Josh hadn't attributed to his brash and careless attitude, but... it was a funny little surprise.

It didn't really take that long to get Rae off, and when it was over, Josh pulled back with a pleased smirk. "Your place?" They might as well get the hell off the streets. No point fucking out in the open; Josh didn't want to catch a cold or anything. He looked down at the paper on the ground, all crumpled up, and smiled nastily. "Too bad she didn't give us another one. I could've used it to wipe my hand."

Symbolic.

Any sense of decorum was tossed right out the window with Josh's furious stroking motions and his killer kisses. There was no room for thought at all. Everything ran on instinct, the movement of his body, the sounds the issued from his throat, and the chaos wracking his mind. All he could think about was the present moment, the next stroke, the next kiss. Not a thing else. Nothing.

"...fuck..."

All he saw were stars as the mounting pressure finally erupted and his body shook from the exertion. He swore again, wishing there was something to lie back on and something to smoke or drink. That was the kind of fuck it was. Had he been fighting this for... how long now? Why? He almost laughed at himself. Part of him kinda wished they had gone and done it in front of the club owner but he supposed the bouncers would have to do.

Mostly satiated, he only gave them the smuggest of his own stares. Fuck them and whatever they thought about the two of them. Although... Rae had gotten his. Josh, though... His hand slid down from Josh's back to the curve of his ass.

"Yeah," he said. His place. He didn't want to go back to another ritzy place. His would do just fine. Rae glanced down at the paper the girl had tried to hand to them. A face was partially obscured by the heel of Josh's shoe but there was something familiar about the half of the eye and the smile he saw on the photo. Rae ignored it.

"Come on. Let's get the fuck out of here," he said. "Just wipe it on me. You're going to be taking these off anyway, aren't you?"

Josh was tempted to wipe his hand on the back of Rae's shirt. And he did it, because Rae was right--those clothes were coming off sooner or later anyway. A little bodily fluid never hurt anybody. And it wasn't like he couldn't just get the interior of his car professionally cleaned. The cleaner wouldn't like scraping off those stains, but what the hell else did Josh pay them for?

"Sometimes I wonder why we go anywhere or dress in any clothes at all," he sighed in his affected, slightly bored tone, though he was enjoying the hand on his ass. Josh didn't let just anybody near it--his ass, that was. Rae got to enjoy it sometimes, but Josh much preferred to be the one doing the--ah--driving, so to speak. He wasn't easy.

Sauntering towards the car and leaving the scrap of paper behind, Josh slid an arm around Rae's shoulders. "Do you love me, puppy?" He asked it like it meant nothing. It didn't really, and Josh wasn't the sentimental type. He was mostly curious, actually. They never really discussed their feelings. They fucked when Rae was at the height of jealousy and bad decision-making. Alva found out somehow--probably because Rae was ass at keeping a straight face--and then Rae just drifted back to his side.

"You know what? Don't answer that."

It sort of made Josh wonder: if Alva decided to take Rae back, would he go bouncing to the side of his crippled lover? Sex could only keep a man for so long. Josh knew that all too well. He really needed some kind of hook to keep Rae hanging around. Either Alva had to die, or... something else had to happen to keep Rae dependent on him.