The Price of Knowing -- Angel Knows

Wesley walked through the metal detector of Caritas lounge and took a seat at the bar.  A Peluth demon with a nasty looking hole in his chest was butchering a medley of songs from the musical " Chicago ", ironically including the song "They Both Reached for the Gun".

The heat in the club was moderate, though he knew once the summer months came it would rise quite dramatically.  He didn't understand why Lorne wouldn't install air conditioning.  He thought it would only be prudent.

The bartender finally made his way over to Wesley.  "What'll it be?  The usual?"

Wesley nodded with a smirk, he was a regular now.  He snorted to himself fondly.  That happened when you were sleeping with the owner he guessed.  After receiving his drink he turned around to see who would take the stage next. 

Soon Wesley felt two arms snake around him from behind the bar.  He felt the warmth of an open hand on his arm through the thin material of his shirt.  The other hand held a glass and the cool caress of that arm made him shiver with the sensation.  Before he could react, Wesley felt a chin rest on his shoulder and the faint press of a stubby horn to the side of his head.  He smiled but quickly put his unreadable face back on.

"And who is this scrumptious example of manhood sitting at my bar?" The Host inquired with a whisper.

Wesley forced his instant smirk into hiding once again.  "Better step back.  I'm a rogue demon hunter.  Never know what I might do."

"Here to slay little ole me, are you?"

"No slaying tonight, I might be persuaded to run you through with my sword though...maim you."

Lorne stepped back and spread his arms wide as his human companion swiveled around on his barstool.  "Oh, my, my, my.  Feel free to stab me with your sword anytime."  Lorne said with a suggestive wink.

The ice in the demons glass tinkled lightly as they both laughed.  "What?  Was the innuendo a bit too over the top honey?"

"A bit."  Wesley replied through his laughter.

Lorne sat on the stool next to the man.  "How ya doin darlin'?  Cause I'll tell you...you're looking kind of grey."

Wesley touched his face with an introspective look.

"Not your skin, silly."  Though Lorne knew Wes had done that on purpose.  In the time they'd been together Wesley had gotten used to the idea that Lorne knew, by looking at him or his aura, exactly how he was really feeling from moment to moment.

Wesley looked at his drink and then back up to his lover...suddenly solemn.

"I see.  Well then. Go on upstairs.  We'll be closed soon."

Wes got up to go, pulling the keys to the upstairs apartment from his pocket.

"But darlin'"  Lorne added.  "Don't brood too much while I'm gone.  Leave that to the tall, dark, and vampish.  It really doesn't suit you."

The other man smiled and continued on his way.  He entered a back room where he used the key to enter a hallway with stairs to the apartment he and Lorne now shared.

About thirty minutes later he found himself showered and dressed in shorts and a T-shirt.  He lay on the bed staring up at the ceiling, waiting for his lover.

The door clicked as it was opened and closed again.  A soft humming wandered across the room as Lorne rid himself of clothing and was eventually muffled as the bathroom door closed and the water turned on.

Wesley smiled and drifted off for a cat nap.

***

Wesley slowly came back to consciousness.  His first thoughts lingering on the warm palm gently rubbing across his stomach.

"Wakey wakey, sweetness." Lorne sing-songed.

Wesley smiled again and stretched.  "Unngh, God, that felt good."

"Long day at the office?"

"You could say that."

"Well let's say we do a little something to fix that?"

He smiled and rearranged himself on the bed to accommodate Lorne as well. 

Once Wesley settled, Lorne moved to straddle his lovers' hips. "Relax, sugar.  I know it's been a while, but you remember how to do this right?"

"Mmmm." Wesley hummed in delight with eyes closed and placed his hands on the demon's bent knees.  "How could I forget?  It was our first time after all."

Lorne chuckled as he placed the heels of his hands on his lover and began to hum a single soft note.  He closed his eyes and concentrated first on his left hand resting just below Wes's solar plexus.  He rotated his wrists tenderly, feeling, reading; soaking up the energies there.  The right hand, placed low on Wesley's abdomen did the same, only channeling those energies through The Host and back into the man lying prone beneath him.

"Ah, yeah.  That's it, out with the bad...in with the good." Lorne whispered before returning to his monotone hum.

Wesley smiled again, his mind drifting back to the memory of the first time he and Lorne had done this.

//Wesley sat on the bed, waiting for The Host to finish his shower.  There wasn't much in the way of other furniture in the small apartment, a few straight backed chairs but nothing looking even remotely comfortable.   He wasn't sure why, but he had a growing feeling of nervousness about being in this man's personal space. 

He'd ended up in Los Angeles with very little.  His attempts at being a rogue demon Slayer were comical at best.  Maybe he really wasn't intended for this kind of work, he thought.  He wandered around looking for a place to sit for a while and just wallow.  Mostly by luck he'd found Caritas.  He was brought from his thoughts by the return of the green demon.

"Ah, Much better."  He tied his red silk robe a bit tighter around his waist and walked over to the small kitchen area.  "Would you like something to drink?"

Wesley blinked, and resisted the urge to clean his glasses.  It must be a watcher thing, he reflected distractedly.

At the look he was getting, the demon looked down at himself.  "What?"

"I just, ah...well it's...n-nothing.  Nothing."

"Oh dear me...you think you can lie to me huh?"  He cocked an eyebrow.  "Huh-uh not gonna happen I can see right through you."  He came to sit on the bed next to Wesley.  "You like what you see."

"Okay, so maybe I do.  But that's not why I'm up here."

"It isn't?  You must be way better at lying to yourself than to me."  He waved his long green fingers over the top of Wesley's head.  "There's a sign flashing LIAR in neon above your head."

"In my aura?"

"No.  Though I do tend to see in Technicolor, this is plain old black and white.  I see it in your body language, in your eyes," He ran his knuckles against the man's cheek, "the slight blush when you denied it."  They both smiled softly.

"Here...I think I can help you feel a little better.  Lie back and relax."

"Umm."

"Just trust me.  I know what I'm doing."

Wesley gave the green demon, he'd really only just met, a cautious look.  For some reason he DID trust him.  He didn't know why but he lay back on the, now that he thought about it, incredibly comfortable bed.

They locked eyes for a moment and The Host saw all the uncertainty there.  He was touched by how trusting this man, whom he barely knew, was throwing out there.  "I don't even know your name."  He said softly.

"I don't know yours either."  Wesley said matter-of-factly. 

They both smiled and Lorne nodded as he set down his glass and brought his hands up to rest on Wesley's chest.

"Lorne."

"Wesley."

Wesley looked down at himself.  "What are you doing?"  He tried to keep the slight panic out of his voice, but it crept in there a bit anyway.

"I'm feeling your aura."

"You can feel what I feel?"

Lorne smiled at the worried concern he heard in the question.  "Yes, if I open myself up to it.  You have to have training to do what I do day-in and day-out.  If I didn't have proper defenses up around myself I'd go nuts.  And I don't mean from the constant butchering of songs I adore.  I mean literally.  The constant influx of emotions and other energies that float around on a normal day is psychically deafening if you aren't ready for it."

"Interesting...I never thought about it that way."

"Yeah, I guess it is." 

"So, I could actually unintentionally hurt you by having a bad day?"

"Are you always this clinical?"

"Uh..."

"Never mind...Anyway, Think of this as a spiritual energy colonic.  Cause baby, you need one."

"What do I need to do?"//

"Just relax sweet cheeks." Lorne chuckled at himself before he said something he knew was silly "...feel the love."

"You're such a sap." Wesley accused with good humor.  He loved it.  Lorne called him few endearments in private.  He was somewhat more subdued.  The demon had explained once that his public persona was as much a defense mechanism as his psychic barriers were.  Wes found it amazingly refreshing and humbling that Lorne allowed his defenses to come down in his company.

They didn't do this often because it was quite a drain on Lorne.  But when his lover was in such a funk, he found he couldn't help himself.  The desire to help overwhelmed him.  Not to mention the sex afterwards was fantastic 

All of a sudden Lorne's hands began to rub in a gentle circular motion and the single note he was humming wavered slightly.

"Lorne?  Are you alright?"

"Ah", Opening his striking red eyes, he sighed.  "I'm better than alright."  And to illustrate his point he rocked his hips, revealing the hardness beneath the thin cloth.  Lorne closed his eyes again and concentrated on balancing not only what he was receiving but on giving a bit of himself and his desire to the man beneath him.

A warmth suffused the area in and around Lorne's hands and Wesley gasped at the sudden involuntary shiver of desire that ran through his body.

"Oh...God...This is..."

"Incredible."  Lorne finished breathlessly.

The first time he'd tried this cleansing process with Wesley, he hadn't even known if it would work with a human.  In Pylea, it had long been a practice of healing.  'Overload' for lack of a better word, was the most common ailment among their people.  He had expected one of two things.  Either it would work or it wouldn't...what he hadn't expected were the sexual side effects.  And whether it was humans in general that made it happen or if it was simply a connection between him and Wesley, he didn't know.  He'd never tried it with anyone else.

Pressing himself a little more firmly against Wesley, Lorne gasped as he felt an echoing surge of lust-filled energy enter him.  "Yeah, That's the ticket."

His job was almost done.  And it was a good thing...it was almost becoming too much for him to handle.  The sensations rolling through him weren't helping him focus on his job at all.  All he wanted to do was give in to the pleasure. 

With an almost audile gulp, Lorne gathered his willpower up and slowly began the process of taking less and less from Wesley while still giving more and more.  He channeled as much of his love, as much of his desire, and as much of his yearning as he could into the other man.  As he lost the ability to sustain the connection between them, he moved his hands and gently let himself down.

Wesley pulled the panting demon to him and caressed his back until the breathing became more normal.  Lorne's fatigue was in no way going to hinder him from a little nibbling and Wesley chuckled as he felt that long pink tongue dart out to taste his collarbone.  Soft lips followed soon after and Wesley thought how much he'd rather have those lips on his own.

Right on cue, Lorne tilted his head up and back to brush his lips against his lover's.  If Wesley didn't know better, he would have thought Lorne had been able to read his mind.  They kissed passionately, tongues dueling and culling against one another.

Wesley made an executive decision at that moment.  They were wearing too many clothes.  Lorne wholeheartedly agreed and assisted in the effort of removal.

Finally skin to skin the two gentlemen lay pressed together, kissing, caressing and crying out their pleasure at being together...their need for more...seeking that soul to soul connection once again, but through different means.  They rolled across the bed, back and forth, playfully battling for purchase.

Lorne, growled and pinned Wesley to the bed; hands braced against the headboard.  "Please." Wesley breathed.

Lorne knew what his lover wanted, he wanted the same thing.  "Soon baby, soon."  He crooned as he leaned over and reached for the nightstand drawer.

Wesley was panting, impatient and ready, but Lorne knew this as no time to be hasty.  With well lubed fingers, he slowly circled Wesley's puckered and slightly quivering opening.  The man beneath the caress moaned and tried to push against the teasing digits.

"Just wait for it honey.  I won't be long now."  Lorne said.  And even as he spoke he felt the resistance lessen a little.  He kept up his administrations and was rewarded by being allowed entrance past the first tight ring of muscle.  Wes' back arched and his hands fisted the bed sheets. "Nnnngh...yes."  He moaned.

Lorne's other hand smoothed long soothing strokes across his lover's belly, chest, and thighs.  Wesley continued to grit his teeth in pleasured agony.  He was being stroked inside and outside...the fingers of Lorne's hand making him feel slightly giddy as they slid across that tiny gland that made all the initial discomfort worthwhile.

"Oh! Yes! More!" He Cried.

Seeing the bright shift of pink color surrounding his lover's 2^nd and 3^rd chakra's...Lorne took his cue and shifted himself appropriately.  He raised Wesley's legs at the knees just enough to get his own kneeling thighs wide and underneath.  After applying a bit more lube he positioned himself at his lovers entrance, applying just enough pressure to remain there but go no further.  He lowered his lover's legs over his thighs and once again placed his hands in their earlier positions before thrusting his hips forward and slightly up.

It was his turn to cry out incoherently.  "Nnnngh...yes!"

Wesley was well beyond words by this point.  Reduced to monosyllabic pleas the moment his lover had entered him but that didn't keep him from making known what he wanted.

Lorne moved his hands to run them through his lovers hair.  Wesley's hands were everywhere on his body that the man could reach.  Lorne continued to thrust at what Wesley thought was an agonizingly slow pace, but was probably just slightly slower than normal.  As he was struggling to make his thoughts known, Wesley opened his eyes just in time to see that pink tongue slip between ruby red lips and flick at his nipple.

"Oh God."  He moaned again as the dual sensations wreaked havoc on his delicate control.  He was teetering on the edge of bliss...precariously balanced there, waiting...waiting for his lover to take his hand, take him over the edge and along for the ride into ecstasy.

Lorne felt the tiny tremors that signaled the end and reacted in kind, moaning desperately as he gave in to his instincts and thrust a staccato rhythm into his lovers body.

Wesley gripped Lorne's shoulders, digging his nails almost painfully into the olive colored skin there.  Their moans became louder, mingling with each other and the sounds of sweat-slick skin.  Their nibbles, kisses and licks became more passionate until their fervor finally passed the breaking point, hurling them both into the spiraling plummet of orgasm.

Wesley was first, coming with loud cries of "Yes, yes, oh...yes!" before the more soft, almost reverent, cries of "Lorne."  The green demon, finally overcome by his lover's pleasure, thrust several more times before coming deep inside his lover.

Both men lay touching each other gently.  Pleasantly exhausted, they rested in each others arms.  After a few minutes, Lorne gently pulled himself from his lover and rolled to face away from him.

Wesley followed and moved to spoon up behind him.  His front was a bit sticky but he knew Lorne wouldn't mind.  They'd take a shower later, they always snuggled after sex, sticky or not.  It grounded them after an experience that was so often exactly THAT emotionally charged.  It brought them both down to earth again together.

There were a few moments of silence as their breathing continued to return to normal, evened out into the patterns just before sleep.

"Angel knows"

Lorne grunted softly and rolled over to face Wesley.  "What was that sugar?  I was halfway to dreamland."

"Angel knows...about us I mean."

Lorne placed his hands gently on either side of Wesley's face. "Is that what all this was about?"

Wesley dipped his head down, feeling silly for getting all worked up over something like this.

"Ah, well...we knew it was only a matter of time.  I mean really honey, Vampires have a sniffer that could give a bloodhound a run for their money.  Except for their tendency to EAT the people once they find them, I say it would be a great idea for gainful employment of vampires with prisons and police squads."

Wesley settled down from his elbow to lean his head against his lovers shoulder.  "Yes, I suppose you're right...about the "matter of time"...certainly not about vampire employment opportunities."  He made a face and Lorne snorted.  "But it's still...I guess he didn't seem too upset or disturbed."

"What did he say?" Lorne asked as he wrapped an arm around Wesley to hold him close.  It didn't bother him, Angel knowing, but he knew it bothered his companion.

"It happened a while ago.  Angel, Cordelia, and I were researching something. 

"Go figure."

Wesley grinned and started to twirl a few locks of Lorne's hair between his fingers.  It was getting long...very 'Rod Stewart-esc'.  God, pop culture references?  Lorne was certainly rubbing off on him, in more ways than one.

"He said he knew Darla's scent and I said he couldn't possibly smell someone and know who they were just by that.  To which he proceeded to sniff me and tell me I had slept with a bleach-blonde the prior night."

Lorne snorted.  "Hmmm impressive.  So...maybe he doesn't know it's me.  Maybe he thinks it's some chickadee you picked up at a ..."

Wesley raised an eyebrow that clearly stated 'I don't go to any other bars and everyone knows it.'

"Did Cordy catch on?"

"No I don't think so.  Although, she did express her astonishment at the fact that I get laid at all."  He said with a slight pout.  "Unless she already knew as well...which I'm not sure how she would, I mean..."

The Englishman's rambling stopped abruptly with only a few remnant mumbles as soft lips covered his.  Lorne pulled him close and put everything he had into the kiss.  In his opinion, the poor darling was thinking far too much about things that didn't really matter in the long run.

As they pulled apart Lorne spoke his usual simple, yet knowing words.  "It doesn’t matter pumpkin.  I know you're jittery about all of this, and with reason.  Humans have twisted ideas about what's normal and what's not...and what to do about it.  But let me tell you; don't waste your time clouding up that aura of yours...that, might I add, I just spent a lot of time and energy brightening."  He paused to raise a single eyebrow, which had the desired effect of making Wesley smile.  "Your friends love and respect you.  And so do I.  They'll love you whether you're sleeping with someone or you're not, whether it's a woman or a man, a human or a demon.  They'll respect your judgment in a choice of partner or lack thereof.  They may be surprised, but in the end, it won't be an issue."

Wesley nodded.  He was always humbled by how much Lorne cared for him, and how well Lorne knew him.  He always knew what Wesley needed to hear, and the right time to say it.

"Now...peach pie...I'm not trying to be insensitive but..."

"Sleep."  Wesley said as he pressed a kiss to Lorne's forehead.

"Took the words right outta my mouth."  He smiled and they settled down together once more to finally drift off to sleep.