They Can Smell Your Intentions

THEY CAN SMELL YOUR INTENTIONS
chapter eight

As he sat across their breakfast table from Nigel, Adam contemplated that the supernova remnant of Cassiopea A. would be highly influential upon the dust and gases lurking within the interstellar space around it. The hot gases of the exploded supernova have an organically widespread effect, one that looms in hot gaseous trails that are detectable as radio waves. Electrons move in an advanced rush, at the same level as the speed of light, whipping through a spiral path through the magnetic field, spitting photons over a wide variety of wavelengths. Cassiopea A., at three hundred years old, is the youngest of such remnants and as such has much more information to give in regards to its continued evolution.

He outlined his current fascination with both this and the second youngest supernova remnant, Kepler's supernova which is three hundred and seventy years old, the night before while Nigel rested his heavy head on Adam's stomach, drifting into a worried sleep. Though he had been sorely disappointed in the results of his interview at the University of Bucharest, by the end of the evening Adam had calmed enough to view the entire exchange in a significantly more outsider viewpoint. The rector had not seemed unkind, and there were certain cues in his body language that suggested he was highly apologetic, not the least of which was his constant use of the word 'sorry'. "I'm sorry that this is the decision, I want you on our faculty, but the United Main students are giving the university its much needed funds. I'm sorry to say they are prejudiced and ignorant, absolutely useless as students, and in the end will wander off without a thing we've taught them in their heads. I really want to bar them from entry, they are disruptive and unkind to our Omega students, I can't even begin to think what they would do to you. You'd think just fifty of them wouldn't make much of a difference, but they sure know how to toss their weight around, and their demands are high. By next year, we can dig our heels in and really make them start paying attention to how we do things here in the Eastern Unions, but for now, I'm so sorry Mr. Raki, we are at the mercy of their culture shock and their money."

Adam thought carefully about the rector's tone of voice and his words, and he sipped his milk in thoughtful reflection over all of it and finally came to the conclusion that he didn't really want to work at a place that bought and sold its knowledge so easily. He would go somewhere else.

"Adam?"

He glanced up at Nigel who was quietly sipping his coffee, his head slightly downcast in a tired sort of expression that made Adam wonder if he'd had a fitful sleep. He hoped his discussion of the Cassiopea A. supernova remnant hadn't been the cause of it, it truly was a riveting development in the study of interstellar phenomenon, the remnant an odd third option between a neutron star and a black hole.

"Yes, Nigel? Would you like more coffee?"

Nigel pressed his lips firmly together and he didn't look happy, and Adam frowned at this, wondering what had happened to put Nigel in such an unpleasant mood. The morning had gone through its usual routine, and if Adam had kissed Nigel a bit too hastily as he made his way to the shower, he was sure he would make up for it later on. Nigel promised him he was working from home today, a prospect that made Adam's heart positively beam in anticipation. They could spend some quality time together exploring Bucharest, which he hadn't done since his arrival, and going to job interviews certainly didn't count.

Nigel sighed deeply and put down his coffee mug, his head bowed as he tucked his chin close to his chest. "Adam, I want to court you."

Adam took a forkful of scrambled egg, making sure it got a tiny amount of ketchup before shoving it into his mouth. He glanced up at Nigel, who still had that same, tired, worried aura about him that Adam couldn't quite place into their otherwise pleasant morning. "Okay," Adam said, and he watched as Nigel's shoulders slumped in relaxation at this, and it was then that he realized this was a serious issue in Nigel's mind and perhaps he'd better examine it more closely. "But first I need an explanation, I don't know in what context 'to court' means."

Nigel frowned at this and his lips curled in small sneer. "What the fuck do you mean you don't know what courting is? Why are you saying okay to it if you don't know what I'm asking of you?"

Adam shrugged. "You would never ask me to do something that would harm me, Nigel."

Nigel paused, then slowly nodded his assent at this, and Adam felt his heart soar at how Nigel reached across the table and took his hand in his, the calluses on Nigel's palm welcome and rough to the touch. Adam wasn't usually outwardly affectionate but Nigel's touch always drew that neglected part of his Omega nature out of him. Adam discovered he'd often go through his day and feel sudden pangs of longing for Nigel's hands on him, for the pressure of his palm on the back of his neck and the press of his mouth on his own in what was always a delicious, nicotine infused kiss. As he sat across from Adam at their breakfast nook, Adam took in the contours of Nigel's muscles as he sat shirtless in the sparse space, the yellow outline of nasty bruises along his abdomen finally beginning to fade.

Nigel's pressure on Adam's hand squeezed tighter and Adam inhaled a sharp breath at how delightful it felt. "If I'm courting you, Adam, it means I want to take this relationship into a very serious next step. I'm not looking at you as just some lay I found along the way, I want what we have to last a very long time. Forever, if I'm being honest."

"That's impossible," Adam said, and he ran a thumb along Nigel's liking its congruous heat beneath his skin. "One of us will die first. We are finite beings."

Nigel's voice was terse. "I know that, Adam, I'm just saying I want you for keeps, I don't want anyone else showing up later or me losing you in any way, you're too important to me. I'm talking fucking marriage here, black obsidian rings on fingers, do you understand?" Nigel put down his mug of coffee and his breath was coming in gasps, like he was having trouble breathing. "I'm just...I don't want to fuck up like the last time, like I did with Gabi. We got hooked up and I put a fucking ring on her finger within a week and it wasn't what I should have done, we were all wrong for each other, it was nothing like we've got here, and...I can't lose you, Adam. Please tell me I'm not going to lose you, I can't stand that kind of pain again, and especially not with you."

He was wanting an answer and Adam could only stare into his plate of eggs and wonder what the big deal was, he'd already decided he liked Nigel being in his life and he hadn't really thought about the prospect of him, suddenly, *not* being there. And though that question had all sorts of unpleasant scenarios rolling around within it, Adam decided to push it aside for the time being in order to reassure Nigel, who seemed to be--angry? Sad?--that he was perfectly willing to go along with whatever it was a courtship ritual, the Eastern Union version of bonding, entailed.

"It's okay, Nigel," Adam said, and he resumed eating his eggs. "I want you to court me, I like the idea of placing our relationship into a parameter of permanence. It's a highly uncommon thing for me to connect with people, so the fact that I find myself in such an intimate understanding with you, and so quickly, well...It's very much an anomaly in my personal experience." Adam finished his eggs and his glass of milk and took his plate and glass to the sink where he rinsed them off and placed them on the small tea towel he used as a drying rack. "We have expressed feelings of mutual care for one another. You have told me you love me and I have returned that exclamation. Bonding is a natural next step."

The scrape of a kitchen chair violently tore at the cheap linoleum floor and Nigel was suddenly at Adam's back, his arms encircled tight around the slighter man's waist, his face buried in the back of Adam's neck. He kissed the start of Adam's spine and it sent a shiver of want throughout his body as he instinctively pushed back against him, curving his neck in wanton submission to allow Nigel further access to it. He could feel Nigel's low, possessive growl vibrating between his shoulder blades and it sent such a feeling of erotic need through Adam he could sense the slick before it even escaped, his legs parting slightly in an effort to give Nigel better access. But the caress remained a painful tease as Nigel eased off of him, his muscles still tensed as he embraced Adam, forcing his touch to be lighter. Adam knew the Alpha was fighting for self control and he wished Nigel wouldn't feel the need to treat him as though he were so fragile. He had needs that were being denied, too.

"Courting is a long process," Nigel warned him, his voice gruff at Adam's ear, his hot lips tracing along the cartilage and nipping at the lobe. "First, we have to meet up with a witch and..."

"A what?" Adam asked, aghast.

"A witch, darling. Gabi and I skipped that step and I should have known then that nothing was going to work out, we just threw all the courtship rituals away, but they are there for a reason, my darling. We need to see a witch to make sure we are properly blessed by the spirits, everyone knows that."

Adam instantly balked at this, his head shaking at the very idea. "Nigel, witches are superstitious nonsense, as a person of science I can't agree to the validity of the advice that would be given, the very idea of entrusting someone with our perceived future who believes in magic is ridiculous to me." He clasped his hands over Nigel's , which were still encircled around his waist. He wanted to argue further, but he had to think about this, and much as he hated the very thought he had to put himself into Nigel's perspective.

"I don't believe in them either, they're a bunch of fucking fraudster assholes, but it's part of the ritual, darling, like the ones you have every morning and night. Scrambled eggs every day, at a specific time, the way you make coffee, the times you take a shower, the specific times you slot for job interviews and studying space, that I use the cherry blossom plates for breakfast and the blue plates for dinner, these are your quirks and I accept them and love them because they make you feel better. Can you not humour mine?"

Adam still felt trepidation, but he nodded into Nigel's throat, his lips longing to taste his flesh and leave kisses wherever he could. "I will not wear a chain with a nazar, I draw the line at adornments warding off the evil eye."

Nigel chuckled at this and fingered the small woven necklace he himself often wore, the blue circle embedded in white glass a crude facsimile of a human eye. "It barely works anyway," Nigel said, smiling into the back of Adam's neck and stealing more kisses there. This was a gentling he could appreciate and he smiled as Nigel began showing him affection in earnest, his hands pressed tight against the sides of Adam's waist, kneading the flesh just above his hips. "The next steps are more practical, geared to proving compatibility. I'm to take you out to a public place, preferably a formal setting. Tradition says a funeral, but a nice dinner would work. Then I'm to offer worship of you, pamper you in some way and, you know..." Nigel gave Adam a nipping kiss behind his ear. "Please you."

"I'm looking forward to that one," Adam said. "Perhaps we could revisit that particular step several times."

"Mm, my little space angel, so full of so many good ideas." He smiled as Adam turned around from his position at the sink, facing Nigel and stealing kisses from his mouth in tiny, darting promises he hoped became more urgent. He frankly wanted to skip to step three right then and there, but Nigel wasn't finished yet. "And then, for the fourth step, we are to take care of a child. Preferably a baby, just for a few hours. I'm sure there's someone at work I can borrow one from."

Adam stiffened at this. "I...I don't know about that one, Nigel, I'm not good with kids." He made a disgusted face and shook his head. "Especially ones in diapers. They're so..." He gagged at the thought of a dirty diaper. "...Messy and noisy and you can't predict what they are going to do, and they can be frustrating and...No, Nigel, I don't know about that, I have no confidence in that regard."

Just the thought was putting Adam into a mild panic, and he began to wonder if perhaps this courtship ritual could prove certain untenable differences between them. It wasn't that Adam didn't dislike children, he rather enjoyed their open honesty and some were certainly precocious enough to join in his enthusiasm when he talked about space. The problem was the idea of having one of his own, of giving up control of his body for the formation of another human being, and it was such a monumental responsibility in the scope of things he could feel a whine eking its way out of his throat, the very idea striking a cord of terror within him. He wasn't sure how he would he deal with the pregnancy, which as a male Omega was destined to be fraught with complications and careful monitoring by a team of doctors, all of whom would be eager to impose on his personal privacy. Actual childbirth was such a horror filled prospect he felt instantly queasy at the memory of that ancient film in Two Cent's health class in grade eleven. He'd thrown up all afternoon after being forced to watch it. And then the fact of having an actual human larvae in his arms, its helplessness begging of him to take care of it when he often struggled to take care of himself. He wrung his hands and began to rock just thinking about it, the monumental weight of that concept bearing down on him until he actually felt as though he was being crushed.

"What's wrong my little spaceman? Are you not feeling good? Your face is all hot. Fuck, you are like a little furnace."

"I need to lie down," Adam said, and though he hated having to do it, he broke free from Nigel's embrace and headed for the bedroom, this time closing the door behind him to wrap himself in the comfort of solitude.

He collapsed onto the bed and breathed hard into his pillow, trying to quell the rising panic that was starting to creep along the periphery of his mind and his senses. He did want to be bonded to Nigel, as a mate he was clearly the best candidate, but for some reason the whole idea of courtship and all of the long tail issues of what that brought with it afterwards was suddenly hitting him. He needed time to process it all and was annoyed at the soft rap on the door, the overwhelming issues of children and marriage and the fact he still didn't have a job and his need for Nigel and all of it made him want to shut down into a little ball of frightened emotions that rocked and curled into itself on the bed, hands pressed tight against his ears, shutting it all out.

"Adam, please let me in, I know you are upset. I just want to talk to you, can I do that? Darling, please, I didn't mean to make you feel like this. Is it because I want to court you? You can change your mind, my angel, we can wait until you are ready if you want."

Adam squeezed his eyes shut, his curled body pressed tightly together, and while everything inside of him was screaming 'stay out!' he knew it wasn't a kind thing to do and that he had to make sure Nigel knew this had nothing to do with how he felt about their relationship. "Come in," he weakly said, and Nigel must have had his ear pressed tight against the hollow press board of the door because he heard him, the handle rolling beneath the weight of his palm as he eased the door open and walked in.

He slid onto the bed and cocooned himself around Adam who initially bristled at the touch, only to lean into it as he found Nigel's warm body a delightful comfort against the growing terror that boiled inside of himself. "I never got to tell you the last step, my angel," Nigel whispered into Adam's ear. "I think you will like it."

Adam shivered, but it wasn't unpleasant. "What is it?"

"I mate you during your next heat."

Adam contemplated this and he felt his body relax beneath the influence of Nigel's caress, his hands seeking out and entwining with Nigel's own in a tight clasp against his heart. The thought of Nigel knotting him made a gush of slick trickle between his legs, and he heard Nigel happily sigh at the hormonal trigger of it, the hard length of his penis obviously aroused and pressing at Adam's back. Adam couldn't stop himself from thinking of what it would be like to be so conjoined, the thick width of Nigel's knot cementing them into a physical closeness that would easily translate over into the realm of the emotional. He found he was not at all averse to those thoughts. He sank back into Nigel's embrace, his initial panic quelled. Nothing said he had to get pregnant. This courtship ritual was about compatibility, about personal sacrifice. The larger questions could be answered later, Adam figured this was one selection of tests he could pass without study.

~*~

Adam didn't mind Nigel borrowing his laptop for work since the inspector's own home computer had died ages ago and the one at his desk at the precinct was woefully clunky and out of date. It worked well enough for what Nigel needed, which was usually quick research, email and opening .pdf files of reports, most of which he could obtain using his phone. Today, however, he needed access to Google Maps and a clearer picture on a larger screen. Adam showed him how to type in the addresses to get a real time image from the Google satellite of the areas he was searching. He was concentrating on a block of warehouses near the shoreline in the United Main city of Baltimore. Adam didn't ask questions he didn't want answers to, he was sure this had something to do with what he'd found in that abandoned warehouse, the injured Omegas still in the hospital and slowly recovering. It had been a few days since then, nearly a week, and though Nigel hadn't told him outright what was happening, he knew there were serious politics working into the mix and the United Main's current volatile situation was hindering Nigel's investigation.

There were three warehouses in particular that Nigel was focusing on, and he captured the images, circling the buildings using the touchscreen and the wand from the 'edit' tool. It bothered Nigel a great deal that the street view of the warehouses showed an abandoned area of the Baltimore dock, the buildings ramshackle and looking as though a soft breeze would tip them over. They were both currently in the bedroom, Adam's favoured place to reread his astronomy textbooks and make notations in his black notebooks beside him, a collection of soft pillows propping him up. The curtains were drawn and the lights were dim as per Adam's needs, bright lights bothered the photosensitivity of Omegas, and the bed coverings were stuffed with feather down and formed comfortably around his small body. Nigel was long and languid next to him, dressed casually in a ratty black t-shirt and a pair of navy striped pyjama bottoms that had seen better days, the hem undone and frayed against his heels. His feet were bare, and he flexed his toes at intervals as he poked through the images, taking in information that sparked his interest.

Adam was about to tell him that he had been incorrect in his assumption that the Cassiopea A. was still the youngest supernova remnant in interstellar space, he had completely forgotten about the tiny G1.9+0.3 where much more recent estimates of its age have put it at one hundred and ten years old. It is an infant in terms of this phenomenon and thus a fascinating study of its expansion can occur which can be monitored by concentrating on its strong X-ray emissions.

"Tell me more about your cousin, Will Graham," Nigel said, and he flexed his toes and began a thorough search of the image he'd captured from Google Maps before going back to the program and zooming in onto the street view. He checked every inch of the properties, pausing on gum wrappers and the occasional stray coffee cup swept into the gutter.

Adam shrugged. "I've told you before, he's a stranger to me. What I know of him is through news reports and the occasional word my father got from my uncle Ezra, Will's dad. I know that he was a cop once, when he first left the Mainland and moved to New Orleans, and that job didn't last very long. Next I heard he was doing consulting work for Quantico and teaching a class there on criminal profiling. He was living alone in Virginia with a pile of dogs, but I doubt he still has them." Adam let his book fall into his lap as he concentrated on Nigel's own version of hyperfocus. "He is currently bonded to his psychiatrist, Dr. Hannibal Lecter. I find the ethics of that union unsettling. Dr. Lecter claims in his interviews that he had merely been consulting along with Will on the Chesapeake Ripper murders, but seeing as how Will is already an acting profiler for those cases, adding in another psychiatrist's opinion into the mix seems superfluous. He lost his license due to hiding being an Omega, but I believe he should have lost it long before when he was pursuing a relationship with my cousin."

Nigel paused over his perusal of the screen and edged closer to Adam on the bed, until their hips touched. "It is weird, isn't it my brilliant brained angel--What do you know of this Dr. Lecter your cousin chose to bond with? All I can get is that he was very successful in his field while he was in it and that the FBI had him on their payroll. Must be some kind of fucking good doctor to get in their good graces, picking their brain picker's shithead rubble. I don't know if you've noticed, Adam, but I don't like your cousin."

Adam scrunched up his nose. "I don't like him, either. He's overly self centred and he makes a living invading people's inner space. I find that far too invasive."

"He told me you were 'hard to read'. I'm guessing he finds you frustrating because of that alone. Nosy little bastard."

Adam frowned, thinking on it. "His job is to place his mind into that of a murderer and as he is someone diagnosed with an empathy disorder, I find this particularly dangerous. Getting into the mindset of a serial killer belies a certain reciprocity, in my opinion. If you can truly understand such an evil point of view, there is some measure of that evil already within you looking back. An abstract thought, yes, but one that fits Will quite readily, I believe. The best way I can explain it is that Will is in admiration of these human monsters the way I am in awe of space."

Nigel was quiet a long moment at this, his fingers pinched at his chin in deep thought as he absently leaned closer to Adam, distracting him from his book. He was only on chapter seventeen, which outlined the current methodologies of measuring supernova remnants, mostly using radio waves which were highly accurate in determining size while X-ray imaging was useful in calculating their age. The obscuring properties of space debris had prevented the earlier detection of G1.9+0.3 and it was solely through X-ray examination that the youth of the supernova remnant was discovered.

"Do you think he's capable of killing people?"

Adam was momentarily distracted from the study of his notes, the longhand calculations suddenly arrested in their flow. He was slightly irritated by this, only to realize that Nigel was asking him a question that was both strange and somehow relevant to his current investigation into Mason Verger's activities and he wondered why it was his cousin and his bonded Omega mate was invading it.

"Who do you mean? Will?"

"I don't know. Both of them. Together, even."

"Dr. Lecter is a psychiatrist, not a murderer."

"You sound so sure."

"I'm just highly sceptical a person of such intelligence would stoop to that kind of instinctive animal behaviour. It wouldn't make sense, Nigel. From what I've learned of him, he was an excellent surgeon before he became a doctor of the mind, a career change I do not understand for the workings of the human body are so much more linear. If one were to take what you are suggesting into a hypothetical theory, I would have to say that if Dr. Lecter was a murderer he would be a pragmatic one, each killing performed to attain an end goal he had in mind. He would not be a mindless psychopath killing solely for his own pleasure. Dr. Lecter is a highly intelligent professional and one determined in his pursuits, I do not believe he would partake of murder without careful consideration as to its consequences. The initial reasons would need to be catastrophic in nature. Murder would need to have a personal purpose."

"Hm," Nigel said, pushing up his bottom lip with steepled fingers as he went over the images on the screen with even more careful scrutiny, the street view taken in frame by frame. "Maybe you should have been the criminal profiler."

"I am not good at determining people's motives, Nigel. Those are far too convoluted and confusing for me to decipher, I have a hard time understanding why people prefer adding flavour shots and whipped cream to coffee when the cream and sugar standard is more than acceptable."

Nigel nuzzled into Adam's neck and softly sighed against his cool skin. "Darling, you just compared buying a coffee to murder."

Adam shook him off and, irritated, brought his textbook further up his lap. "It was an apt analogy."

He found he couldn't stay angry at Nigel, however, and soon he was allowing his rather persistent boyfriend (Was that terminology correct? They were set to be bonded by the strange parameters set by Nigel's culture, so what should he be called now? Bonded mate was for United Main sensibilities, and there was no such distinction here. Perhaps it would be best to refer to him as his Potential. Yes, that is a word that encompasses all hope for their future, it is a good term) to distract him once again with kisses trailed down the side of his neck, teasing little licks into his clavicle that gave him a fit of the giggles. Nigel gently pulled Adam's textbook out of his lap and to the side, then suddenly tackled him, sending Adam's body into delighted, confused yelps, the pillows he had propped himself on suddenly strewn all over the bedroom and Nigel was looming over him victorious. Adam hadn't bothered to fight him. Nigel's large hands pinned Adam's wrists to the mattress as he sunk down onto him, his hips moving in a highly sultry pantomime of sex. Adam closed his eyes and sighed as Nigel's kisses became slow and languid and he wondered if perhaps a repeat of the night before wouldn't be out of the question, for he had enjoyed it, and he was certain Nigel had too, despite the sudden unexpected shyness that had overtaken him, bidding him to take things more slowly. He had insisted he needed to prove to Adam that he loved him, and Adam now understood that his wish to court him had a lot to do with that belief. While he appreciated the gesture, it frustrated him as well. Nigel had already done so much for him, he'd saved him from a terrible fate first of all, and to find they were so well matched afterwards was a further miracle that Adam was still trying to analyze.

Nigel's hard length was obvious beneath the thin layer of layer of dark navy cotton that were his pyjama pants, and Adam felt damp in response, his knees parted as he allowed Nigel more pressing access. He was wearing a pair of ironed trousers, complete with belt and an extra barrier of cotton boxer shorts underneath, but he could still feel the answering sensation of slick trickling out of him, a wet patch growing where Nigel was now so fervently grinding against him.

Nigel's kisses deeply explored his mouth, his hands still firm on Adam's wrists, preventing him from much more than enjoying Nigel's display of erotic dominance. As Nigel nosed down his abdomen, small bites given through his sweater, Adam shivered at the caress, his eyes closed as he felt Nigel slide lower, his cheek pressed hard against Adam's own smaller, but highly obvious, delight.

"Oh fuck, my angel baby, fuck you smell so good, you fucking smell so fucking good." Panting like he was drugged, Nigel nosed into Adam's crotch, against that damp spot that was growing again as Nigel darkly growled against the renewed evidence of Adam's arousal, the slick a potent aphrodisiac to the Alpha's senses.

Nigel's grip on Adam's wrists tightened, almost to the point of it being painful, and Adam remained still, his legs spread wide as Nigel so intimately scented him. It didn't matter that they were still clothed, the sensations were so heightened it was like the tail of a comet surrendering sparks against his skin. When Nigel's chin dared to press down on his cock Adam couldn't help himself, his body shook with shocked pleasure at the teasing touch, all muscles tightened within his body as he suddenly came. Slick practically poured out of him at this, and Nigel, his nose pressed against the damp between Adam's legs, let out an answering, viciously snarling moan that signalled his own, animalistic release.

Still panting, Nigel slid back up Adam's body, releasing his wrists and embracing him tight, his face buried in the exposed curve of Adam's neck. Small whines left Adam at this tortuous pleasure, his hands shaking slightly as he tentatively returned the embrace, fingers alighting onto Nigel's shoulders like the dance of flickering satellites barely visible to the naked eye at night.

"I love you, Adam Fucking Raki." Nigel cupped the back of his head with his large palm, his forehead and cheek rubbing against Adam's, kisses tenderly suckled from his half open, sighing lips. Nigel's weight over him was warm, like a blanket, and though he pressed down just a little too heavily, Adam remained in submission beneath him, feeling safe and protected. "His ribs are fractured, this must hurt him more than he's letting on," Adam thought, but he wasn't about to push Nigel away, this was a needful, instinctive expression for the Alpha to indulge in. Nigel was strong, purposeful and uncompromising and Adam, as his Omega, relished it.

Adam remained beneath him, accepting the doting attention Nigel gave him well past the time his body started going numb from the pressure. His wrists ached and the weight of Nigel over him made it hard to breathe, but the beautiful emotional sensation of his Alpha working this kind of detailed pseudo lovemaking on him was well worth the discomfort. By the time Nigel slid off of him and to his side, they were both drugged with pheromones, a tender high that left Nigel glassy eyed and searching for his breath.

Adam slid his fingers through Nigel's hair, a habit that made the Alpha gruffly growl happily in response. "I'll need to get changed. I'm glad we opted to stay in this afternoon Nigel, especially since we are going to Darko's for dinner. I know that kind of invitation isn't common, you both are usually working too much, and you as well as I had projects we wished to work on. Bucharest will still be there for another day and we will properly discover it then. I'm enjoying our afternoon together, here, very much Nigel." He gave him a soft kiss that held a small pout of longing within it. "I do hope we can do that again soon, and without the cumbrance of clothes." He slid onto his side to face Nigel, who was staring at him in dreamy repose, his hair mussed and his eyes still holding that sultry focus that suggested he was still riding on that small pheromone high. Adam gave him the tiniest of smiles and kept his eyes downcast as he contemplated Nigel's kiss bruised lips. He whispered across the expanse of pillow, the trail of a comet licking past the Andromeda galaxy: "I love you, Nigel."

Nigel grinned at this and closed his eyes as he buried his face into their shared pillow, as though he was exhausted enough to fall asleep. "What you do to me, my little spaceman. I came in my fucking pants, darling. I'm insane crazy for you, I really fucking am. Hold me and kiss me forever, my sweet angel, crash against me like those fucking big bangs you talk about. You make me explode, in my pants, in my fucking heart. You're the beginning of my goddamned world."

He smiled and languidly caressed Adam's neck with his splayed fingers, wetting his lips and teasing more kisses onto Adam's brow, soft and gentle and barely touching and yet each little caress was like an ember burning on Adam's skin. "Your mind is scattered due to the influence of my pheromones," Adam explained, his lips pursing in whisper against the blissed out expression of Nigel's face so close to his own. "It is accurate to feel unhinged at present, since your higher reasoning functionality has been compromised."

"I'm absolutely drunk on you, my darling," Nigel said, eyes closed and a wide grin answering him.

Nigel's cell phone rang and he instantly cursed it, though not with the usual fire he would have given it. He didn't look at the name on the cell and he pressed it against his ear, his voice still thick with sex. "Nigel Ionescu, what do you want?"

"Nigel, you have to help Charlie!"

Nigel didn't open his eyes, his head still pressed against the pillow in lazy near somnolence as Adam heard Gabi's voice erupt through the cell phone. He groaned and hit speaker mode on the cell so he didn't have to keep holding it against his ear, the cell phone like a little black rock in between his own and Adam's belly on the surface of the bed. "What do you want now, Gabi?"

She was in hysterics, less angry this time, Adam noticed, and the choking sobs suggested she was in some sort of distress. "It's Charlie!" she shouted through the phone. "His father has died!"

There was another tortured wail at this, and Nigel sighed into his pillow, his attention more riveted by the shape of Adam's brow, which he traced in soothing motions with his fingertips back and forth. "Sorry to hear it," Nigel yawned.

"He can't go to the funeral! It's too dangerous in the United Main, he's an Omega and they'll arrest him at the border, they would haul him off to a GSF facility, or something worse! Oh my God, Nigel, you have to help him! He's desperate!"

"What does he need my help for, Gabi?" Nigel inched closer and pressed his nose against Adam's, clearly liking the way the nuzzle of it elicited a grin. "He has you, there's no need to be calling me about this. Comfort him as best as you know how and hopefully it will be enough. He's an Omega." Nigel nipped at Adam's nose, and Adam fought the urge to giggle. "You need to cherish him."

There was a distinctly angry pause at this and when Gabi's voice returned, Adam noted it held significantly less screaming tears within it. "Who the fuck is with you? Is it that whore from the last time?"

Nigel's mouth curled into an angered sneer at this and Adam watched his reaction carefully, taking in the heightened redness around Nigel's eyes, the tightly pressed mouth that hid how hard he was grinding his teeth. Nigel was doing all he could to stay in control and he was doing a wonderful job of it, Adam thought, especially since he was keeping so quiet and not lashing out in fury, as was his habit when Adam first met him.

"I'm seeing someone," Nigel finally admitted, and he kept his voice even, only the smallest edge of anger tainting it. Adam smiled at him in encouragement. "He's in bed with me right now, in fact. He's everything we weren't." Nigel slid closer to Adam in the bed, and draped an arm lazily over his slender waist. "Tell Charlie I am very sorry to hear about his father, it's a terrible thing to lose a parent."

"He needs to bring him here," Gabi said, and the tears were beginning to return. "He's in a cardboard fucking box in United Main, Nigel, and they won't release him to Charlie because he's an Omega who renounced his United Main citizenship! They said there's a fee and it has to be paid in full by this evening or they are going to return Charlie's father's ashes to a random funeral home in New York county and give him a pauper's burial! You can't let them do this! You have to help him!"

Nigel sighed deeply and scooped up the cell phone, Gabi's tears muffled as she pressed her woe deep against the speaker. In the background, Charlie, who was not crying, was trying to reason with her, his voice a relentless whine that Adam couldn't help but find irritating. Nigel took the cell phone off of speaker mode and, sitting up with his back against the headboard of the bed, he patiently listened as both of them began speaking at once, their voices melding into barely reasoned mess that Adam couldn't decipher. They were a highly emotional couple, Adam thought, easily overwrought by every small hurdle that life happened to drop their way. From what he quickly learned of him, Charlie was determined and strong when it came to Gabi and he was telling her no, that the ashes not getting to Romanian soil are not the end of the world, that his father is gone and there's nothing that's going to change that, be he in a cardboard box or a damned Ming vase. But Gabi was motivated by her own feelings, and she cursed at Nigel, who listened with half an ear at this, closing off his programs on Adam's computer and then gently shutting the lid. He gave Adam a quick kiss in between Gabi's histrionics.

"Go get washed up and changed, darling, we'll be going to Darko's in a couple of hours, that will give you lots of time."

"I hate you!" Gabi screamed from the phone. "I hate you, you fucking bastard! Are you talking to that whore in your bed? Fuck you, Nigel! Fuck you!"

Adam couldn't figure out why she was so upset, it wasn't like they were still together and she was presently well embedded in a new relationship with the Omega male he knew only as Charlie. Nigel had never discussed what had caused his break up with Gabi in anything other than generalities. He couldn't figure out where Charlie fit into it, if he did at all.

"He already did," Nigel said, not missing a beat. "Made me come in my pants like some fucking horned out teenager. Honestly, Gabi, you should have told me what it was like having an Omega around, I would have pursued Charlie myself." He chuckled over something Gabi said that Adam couldn't overhear. "I'm just joking, Gabi, he's hardly my type. He's a fucking mess all the time, it would be like sleeping with a sweaty sock. Your laundry bill must be the size of your fucking mortgage. Yes, I'll send the fucking money and send it off to U.M. customs, email me the details. Say hi to Charlie from me, since it's not like you'll let the poor prick talk to me himself."

Nigel hung up his cell phone and gave Adam's frozen stance in the doorway of the bedroom a cautious once over. "What is wrong, my angel? I know it is strange, me still giving her money, but that's how love is, darling, it doesn't just go away. I did love Gabi--It's hardly what I have with you, no comparison at all--but there are responsibilities when you allow someone so closely into your life. You can't just turn off how much you care."

Adam shrugged. "A mistake is just a mistake. It will be corrected, eventually. Calculations reach wrong conclusions all the time, such as during Galileo's time when there was the widespread belief that the Earth revolved around the sun. It was an incorrect assumption. I think people do that, too, they make miscalculations. Gabi is one of them, she's like a math problem with the wrong conclusion, only you've figured out the right answer and that answer is me." Adam stood up a little taller at this, and his voice was firm as he spoke to Nigel. "You may give her money this time, but this is the last. I absolve you of your responsibility to her, Nigel. We are courting. My wants take precedence."