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The moon was high in the sky and the July air was still and uncomfortably warm when Aleksi made his way down to the villa’s pool.
Joel was already there.
He was paddling about, more enjoying the night as best he could than truly swimming. Aleksi paused before Joel could spot him, half-hidden in the shadows of the rocky landscape garden, wanting to savour the sight of him before entering the tranquility of the pool.
Brown strands clung to Joel’s neck, the water painting his hair darker than it’s usual blond, and Aleksi’s sharp eyesight caught droplets flying like diamonds in the air from Joel’s form when he swam a few proper strokes, his arms running above the waterline in a smooth, practiced arc. The sight sent his mouth dry, as did the way the water ran off Joel’s skin and the way his muscles flexed when he climbed out of the pool, sending heat tingling down Aleksi’s spine.
What really made Aleksi’s brain short-circuit was the realisation that Joel was naked.
The first time he’d seen Joel naked had had much the same outcome. At the time he hadn’t been entirely sure why, because he’d seen the others naked on multiple occasions before then, but then again he never had those strange fluttery feelings in his chest around them. He’d stood, stunned and staring at the softly tanned expanses of skin, lightly freckled and soft-looking, until Joonas nudged him, the naiad muttering in his ear to draw him from his lovestruck stupor before Joel could notice.
“Alex, I can smell you,” Joel said, voice rich with amusement, turning towards the steps where Aleksi loitered.
It was enough to draw Aleksi out of his reminiscing, and he timidly stepped out of the shadows.
“It’s a warm night,” he called, his voice utterly calm, lacking all of the creeping nerves he truly felt.
It was ridiculous. Joel was his and he had been from almost the moment they met. They were as eternal and inevitable as moon and sun, and yet there was still a faint whisper from his past life, screeching that maybe this wasn’t right, that it was too much for a downtrodden loner like Aleksi. You don’t deserve this, except Aleksi had always tried to be good, and he’d never asked for much in return. Even after he’d been turned he’d tried to be good, drinking from cups and animals and those infantile suckle cups until he could control his hunger and not take a life. Whatever being turned meant, it didn’t mean he was inherently wrong or evil.
I have a choice. I always have a choice, he reminded himself as he stepped forwards to join Joel.
“The water’s refreshing,” Joel replied, reaching up to squeeze his hair out. “It’s cooled me down a lot. Come join me?”
Aleksi wasn’t quite sure how he ended up naked.
Of course, he knew the mechanics of how it happened. Joel was naked, he wanted another swim, Aleksi wanted to join him, he didn’t want to get his clothes wet, so he took them off. But the actual series of events were lost to Aleksi’s brain. The slick words and smouldering glances, the hot and heavy yet light and gentle touches Joel used to accentuate his words with, was all lost on Aleksi.
God, it was almost as if he was drunk, like he’d fed too much and he was too full for his brain to process anything. Would that be blood drunk, he wondered, but ‘blood drunk’ sounded like something unsavoury, and anyway, he was drunk on Joel. Joel’s boundless energy, his easy smiles, his beautiful form; it was so easy for Aleksi to lose himself in him. Aleksi felt like he could drown in Joel most of the time, Joel a magnet and him helplessly drawn; Joel a siren and Aleksi the doomed sailor.
We were always meant to be.
However much Aleksi liked to rail against fate, however much he’d thrown his foretold future to the wind, Joel always was the anchor to which he was drawn. It had been like that when they’d first met, and despite the years and distance, it seemed nothing had changed.
Not that Aleksi had ever truly wanted it to change.
Joel’s hands, fine boned and long-fingered, came to rest on Aleksi’s soft hips below the water. His hands were gentle, as was his smile, but the love in his eyes was so intense, almost enough to match the adoration Aleksi could feel welling up in his throat, threatening to overflow, his teeth and fangs a final threshold of sorts against the great unknown of others’ reactions to his words.
They are the last bastion of my civilisation, and it was almost funny that the very thing that marked him out as inhuman was what helped him retain the final shreds of his humanity, except the joke had grown stale long ago.
And yet still I hold faith in those fangs, he thought. The notion was significantly more morose than he wanted it to be, but how could it not be? Years had passed since his Turning, and yet still those scraps of his old life clung to him as stubbornly as the worst limescale, forever plaguing him, refusing to leave him, and all he could do was either yearn to relive his human past or throw himself into the vampire world without abandon. There was no middle ground, yet middle ground was what he’d always craved; some semblance of in-between, of stability.
Joel’s hands left his hips to cup his cheeks. The water droplets cooled his skin enough for his touch to be pleasant despite the sticky warmth.
“You’re thinking again,” Joel said softly, and despite the gentle smile playing with his lips there was something a little more intense in his eyes, barely veiled by the night.
You think more than enough for the both of us, Aleksi thought unfairly for a second; a split-second and practiced longing to defend himself. “I’m savouring what I have and holding it close and dear,” he said instead, praying to whatever deity would take him that his voice was as light and unassuming as he wanted it to be.
“You have forever to savour me,” Joel said quietly.
If Aleksi was a different sort of vampire, he might point out how forever was a long time, and Joel could be as changing and inconstant as the sea. The only faith that should ever be placed in the sea is the faith that it’ll destroy the foolish and gentle, and you’re hardly the stable sort.
But he knew how Joel had loved and lost time and time again, for many years longer than they’d known each other. Aleksi had seen him love and lose a long enough string of people even after they’d met to know his outwardly flippant words for the plea they truly were.
“I’m not going anywhere,” he said, reaching up to wrap his fingers around Joel’s wrists. He needed to hold him, the urge so suddenly upon him he felt almost as if his legs would buckle from under him. Joel was his lifeline, and he knew he was Joel’s; for better or for worse they were meant for each other.
Joel might have said something back, but then his head turned sharply, letting go of Aleksi to draw back and look over his shoulder. All softness from his eyes was gone, replaced by sharp focus. The absence of his touch left Aleksi cold, but then he could hear what had snatched Joel’s attention, and it suddenly didn’t matter that Joel wasn’t touching him anymore.
They weren’t alone.
The sound of footsteps making their way down to the pool reached his ears. Aleksi closed his eyes, shutting off one sense to enhance another, and he listened hard. From the rhythm of the steps, it sounded like four feet, and it took another few seconds for him to decide the feet all belonged to the same being. Aleksi opened his eyes, turning around to face the steps, waiting, because four feet to one being rarely spelt anything good for a vampire, despite the rag-tag group of misfits Joel had accidentally founded.
It was only when Joel’s hands were on his hips again that Aleksi realised he’d retreated into him as he’d turned, but there was no time to think about that when the source of the footsteps came into view.
The wolf was small but sturdy. It’s - his - fur was long and shaggy, dark, and he carried a little tub in his mouth, his teeth holding the white plastic handle. Aleksi relaxed when he smelled Niko’s familiar scent as the wolf came nearer the pool, carefully picking his way past puddles so as not to slip.
Niko placed the tub down at the edge of the pool and looked over to them, almost impatient. He was panting now he’d released his little burden, and Aleksi had joined him and Tommi enough times on their late night runs, when they were all tense and wound up with energy that couldn’t be dispelled in the summer heat, to know why he was in wolf form.
“What have you got there?” Joel asked, but the cold and metallic scent of the tub made its way up Aleksi’s nose. He paddled over towards it eagerly.
By the time he’d reached the edge of the pool, Niko had shifted back into his human form, and was squatting on the edge of the pool. Sweat formed a thin sheen on his skin from his run, making him glow in the moonlight like some ethereal spirit. His hair hung in tangled ropes nearly to his elbows, and he ran a hand through the brown strands, fingers combing them back before he spoke. His tattoo sleeve gleamed against his skin, moving a little as his muscles shifted, dark and stark.
The only time Aleksi had ever asked about it, a pall of grief had veiled Niko for a few silent seconds before he said it was a memorial.
“Thought you guys might need some refreshment,” Niko said, his chest still heaving a little from his nighttime run with Tommi. His pale thighs seemed to glow and glint as they shifted until he was sitting, one leg crooked up whilst a bare leg dangled into the pool, his foot idly swaying. “It’s much cooler in the house than out here.”
“Blood?” Aleksi asked, perking up at that. Niko grinned down at him, reaching into the tub to pull out an ice cube tray.
It was one of those fancy silicone ones with four large squares, and all four were filled with red ice, a wooden popsicle stick sticking out of each square.
They were beginning to melt, so Aleksi reached out for the closest one, pulling it free. It came out easily, far more easily than he’d expected, and it was only Joel’s presence right behind him that stopped him floating backwards. He raised the popsicle to his mouth sheepishly, embarrassment crawling up his skin, but then he licked at the icy summer treat, and any shame was immediately forgotten.
He’d forgotten how refreshing they could be.
Joel moved away from behind him to get his own blood cube, and then floated back into the pool in a dramatic flop. Turning, Aleksi saw him lazing on his back, lapping at the ice, eyes lidded in pleasure. He splashed water at him, grinning at Joel’s middle-fingered response, only to pout as Niko ruffled his hair with a little more force than strictly necessary.
“Insolent brat,” but Aleksi could hear the smile in Niko’s voice. He grinned again, enough to make his face scrunch up and his eyes shut, and moved out into the water to float near to Joel. Joel splashed him back when he was close enough, and Aleksi scrunched his face up in anticipation of the water. It splashed against his chest, cooling his skin as it trickled off into the pool. He giggled, licking at his popsicle, and when he was close enough to Joel, Joel linked their arms, beginning to bite his popsicle.
“I’ll leave you two otters alone now,” Niko said, his voice fond. “I’d love to join you, but if I stay, Joonas will gatecrash your romantic swim.”
Aleksi pulled a face, knowing Joel was pulling the same one. Joonas was one of their best friends, and a wonderful housemate, but he was rarely far behind his boyfriend.
And he was a naiad. If he was within sight of the pool, he’d insist on staying there a while, doing whatever water magic he’d been brought up on, scrying for the future or making the water rise and contort into two knights on horseback to joust for his own amusement until he grew bored. It would be hours before he finally left, by which point the sun would be rising and Aleksi and Joel would have to scramble for the house for safety against the burning rays as the dawn ran its fingers through the sky.
Needless to say, their romantic swim would be totally disturbed.
“Goodnight,” he said, Joel pausing his munching to echo him. Niko grunted his goodnight back at them, heaving himself to stand up. Aleksi watched him as he licked at his popsicle, eyeing the way the wolf straightened up like he wasn’t quite used to walking on two legs, his hair hanging loose like Olli’s feathers, a sharp contrast against his skin. If it wasn’t quite so dark, Aleksi might be able to see the freckles that Joonas liked to trace from shoulder to ass, his fingertips light enough to make Niko shudder in pleasure in a moment that Aleksi always thought required a little more intimacy than the living room couch.
Or at least Aleksi and Joel preferred the privacy of one of their bedrooms. But Aleksi had been alone before he’d met the rag-tag gang Joel had founded, and Joel could be insular and cagey even by vampire standards.
Joel let go of Aleksi, drawing him out of his thoughts. Aleksi watched him swim for the edge, his popsicle stick clean and bare now. The sound of the water lapping at their skin was amplified by Aleksi’s enhanced hearing, though the light breeze that danced through the air to play with his hair, bringing the scent of melting blood with it, held his attention more.
“Can you get my second one too?” he asked, finishing his off in a few clean bites, trying not to pull a face at how shockingly cold the popsicle was. Joel nodded and climbed out of the pool, and Aleksi eyed him openly, barely able to tear his eyes away.
Joel really did have a nice ass.
Oblivious to Aleksi’s thoughts, Joel sat down on the edge of the pool, crossing his long legs. He freed the two popsicles, holding one out for Aleksi.
“I don’t think I’ll get back in the water. I’m beginning to prune,” he said.
Aleksi sighed. The water might be making his skin prune too, but it was deliciously cool.
Still, there was a twinkle in Joel’s eye, his smile so fond and soft that the tender fragility of it threatened to overwhelm Aleksi, so he smiled back and swam for the edge.
Joel’s company was infinitely better than the weightless of floating in cool water.
Joel put the popsicle back to help Aleksi out, Aleksi’s shorter legs a little hindrance, but then the soft skin of his knee grated a little against the rough poolside, and he could lever himself out of the water. His breath heaved a little from the exertion, the water weight throwing his balance off for a second, and he sat so he could lean back and prop himself up on his hands to breathe easier, eyes closed, face tipped up to enjoy the light breeze.
When he opened his eyes again, Joel was holding out the popsicle for him to lick. His own one was in his mouth, his lips wrapped firmly around the stick, and his eyes and smile were still as gentle as summer rain.
Aleksi felt the heat of a blush want to rise to his skin, but he stuck his tongue out and licked anyway, not breaking Joel’s gaze. The frozen blood was perfectly cool, even better when tasted outside of the cold fingers of the pool, and the blood itself was only a little watery from condensation on his tongue.
It was cooler now, the breeze picking up a little. Aleksi closed his eyes, finally breaking eye contact and taking his popsicle, and he heard and felt Joel move to wrap around him, long arms crossing loosely over his shoulders before one left so Joel could enjoy his popsicle. He smiled, leaning back into him, and opened his eyes again.
Leaning back so, the first thing that met his eyes was the sky. Velvet blue was pinpricked with glowing white like holes poked in paper with a needle and held up to the light, the occasional trail of a plane spanning the sky. Aleksi sighed happily, lapping at the bloody popsicle, savouring the peace.
It wouldn’t last. The poolside was rough and hard, hard enough to threaten Aleksi’s ass and thighs with numbness, and when they’d finished the popsicles they’d go inside. But now it was peaceful, so Aleksi savoured the feel of Joel behind him, the light press of Joel’s jaw against the top of his head. He savoured the gentle breeze and the night calm, and swore to himself that he wouldn’t think of anything else.
God, it was almost like they could be like this forever, the perfect picture of a souvenir snowglobe, undisturbed by the outside world, but then his popsicle was finished, and Joel’s right arm came down beside him, popsicle stick equally clean. It was time for them to leave, and a not so small part of Aleksi longed for another popsicle, if only to prolong their peace.
But inside would bring deliciously cold floors and the lull of greater relaxation than the rough painted concrete of a poolside, so when Joel shifted behind him he sat forwards again to let him stand. He felt Joel stand in a fluid, easy motion, and turned when he stepped back.
Joel gave him another of those summer rain smiles, offering a hand down to Aleksi. Aleksi took it, and enjoyed the feeling of weightlessness as Joel pulled him up as easily as if he weighed nothing. He leant in and stood on his tiptoes to kiss Joel, closing his eyes as their mouths met. Joel’s fingers were still entwined in his, their palms barely touching. Aleksi broke the contact to suggestively palm at Joel’s waist instead, smiling as Joel giggled into the kiss.
“Eager, aren’t you?” Joel murmured when he broke the kiss, a teasing hint in his eyes.
If Aleksi was still human, he’d have blushed.
But he wasn’t human, and shyness wasn’t very vampiric, so he held his ground. Under his fingers, he could just feel the top of the little pocket of softness that laid over Joel’s hips, and he used that to ground himself, counting breaths like he was counting stars.
“Yeah,” he said. “I love you. I want you.”
The corners of Joel’s eyes creased as his smile deepened. “I love you too,” he said, reaching to take Aleksi’s hand in his again, slim fingers strong like a lifeline. “I love all of you.”
With that, he tugged Aleksi’s hand, pulling away to lead him back towards the house.