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The sudden sound of a door opening and music blasting travels through the crisp midnight air, and that’s when he finally sees him.
He’s been waiting for him. Hidden away in the shadows, unnoticed. Waiting, waiting, waiting.
And now he’s standing there, at last, looking as if he appeared out of nowhere. He’s huddled in a jacket, the breath from his mouth creating small clouds of smoke in the cold air, and he’s gazing around, clearly looking for something.
Looking for Henry.
Henry’s body moves on autopilot. He couldn’t stop it even if he tried. Even if his life depended on it. In a swift movement he’s standing next to him on the street, just outside the bar he walked out from a moment ago.
Their eyes meet, and it feels like a flash, like all the clocks in the entire world suddenly stop. It feels like it always does – dangerous and painful and like the most breathtaking thing Henry has ever experienced.
“Alex,” he hears himself say, barely above a whisper.
Alex simply looks at him, not with fear or resentment, but with something else entirely. Something Henry hasn't been able to figure out yet.
When he finally speaks, it’s with a small smile playing on his lips, and Henry can’t place that either.
“I knew you would be out here.”
Alex takes a small step towards him, and all Henry can concentrate on is the way his eyes look under the lamp sign from the bar, and how he can feel the heat of his body even out here in the cold.
“Were you waiting for me?” Alex whispers, taking another step.
Henry can’t lie. Not to Alex. “Yes.”
Alex’s smile is bigger now, cheeks flushed and eyes glinting. He’s the most beautiful thing Henry has ever seen. It threatens to crack Henry’s ribcage in two.
“Well, here I am,” Alex says, and they are close now, so close that Henry can scent him, can hear the blood pulsing through his veins, his heart beating in his chest.
It’s a risky game they play, the two of them. It’s been going on for too long – Henry is aware of this, but he is incapable of putting it to an end. It would be impossible. He knows how Alex smells, how he feels, the sounds he can make.
What he tastes like.
How could Henry ever give that up?
It rushes through his head, as it always does when he meets up with Alex. The vivid imagery of warm, tan skin, soft under Henry’s fingertips. Memories of full lips, dark brown eyes half hidden under long eyelashes. Reminiscence of blood so sweet and warm that it has enchanted Henry’s entire being, making him ruined for anything else.
“Do you–,” Alex says, and he blushes so beautifully that Henry wants to fall to his knees instantly. “Will you come home with me?”
It’s comical, almost laughable, how Alex even feels the need to ask. As if Henry hasn’t been out here desperately waiting for this exact moment, as so many times before.
But Henry doesn’t laugh. Instead, he takes a deep breath through his nose, closing his eyes as the scent fills his nostrils. Alex. Alex, Alex, Alex. He feels the sharp edges of his teeth threatening to come out right there and then as he runs his tongue over them, and when he opens his eyes again, he knows Alex can distinguish the hunger in them. Desire is written all over Alex’s features, and it’s like looking into a mirror.
“Always,” Henry breathes, and then he’s taking hold of Alex’s hand.
They walk through the night – creature and man. And despite their differences, despite the danger their meetings entail, there’s nowhere else either of them would rather want to be.