Work Text:
Five Ways That Newton Geiszler Shows Affection for Hannibal Chau
1) He calls Hannibal pet names.
The first time that Hannibal talked to Newt after his exciting self-rescue from the Kaiju fetus's gut, Newt had called him "big guy."
Hannibal hadn't exactly started the conversation on a polite note. He had tracked down the PPDC headquarters, found the scrawny scientist, and demanded his shoe back. (He had paid a lot of money for that thing. Not to mention, that pair of shoes was one of his trademarks, something he was known for. Nobody took from Hannibal Chau.)
"Whoa! I thought you were dead!" Newt said, bloodshot eyes widening in apparent fear. Hannibal was pretty used to getting that reaction from people. Newt looked even more dirty and rumpled than he had the last time Hannibal saw him. As he had before, Hannibal found his eyes drawn to his tattoos, to the colorful and detailed Kaiju drawings all over his exposed skin. (How far did those tattoos go?) He forced himself to focus.
"Nope, I made it out. See, this is why you should always carry something sharp with you. Life lesson for you, kid. But anyway, you stole my shoe because you thought I was dead? Not very classy."
"Hey, I was kind of in shock at the time. I'm not even sure where I put it. I think I may have left it in the helicopter that brought me over here."
"Well, find it, or else you owe me a lot more money than you scientist types usually have," Hannibal snapped. He was really having rough day. He'd gotten pretty banged up, his favorite suit was ruined, and he'd just found out that he wouldn't be receiving any more Kaiju parts in the forseeable future. (Of course, the whole "world not ending" and "people not dying" thing was good, but hey, those monsters were his occupation.)
"Relax, big guy. I'll find your shoe. Wanna come with?"
Hannibal puffed out an impatient breath, but figured that he'd better follow Newt around to make sure that the guy actually stayed on track and retrieved his property. Newt seemed like the scatterbrained type. "Sure, kid. Don't go too fast, though, because as you can see, I'm limping along half-barefoot, here."
"OK, OK, geez. What do you want me to do to make it up to you?" Newt asked as he led Hannibal through the crowd. He already seemed to have gotten over his fear of Hannibal's anger. This guy was either stupid, or else had bigger balls than he'd thought.
"Just find it, please. I'm about ready to get home."
"You mean you're not going to go out and party? I thought everyone in the world was celebrating tonight. You know, since we aren't doomed anymore and all that."
"I'll celebrate by going home and taking a damn shower."
"Hey, look, your guys are out here cleaning up, just like always. I'm going to get to look at the remains later, right? Do they know that you're not dead, or are they just thinking that they can take over your business?" Newt pointed to Hannibal's employees that were scrambling around the massive Kaiju corpse that was being hauled onto land.
"Hell if I know, but if they think they can screw me, they got another think coming," Hannibal groused. He saw one of his Chinese employees standing still and watching the proceedings. He veered away from Newt's path and got right into the guy's face.
"Hey! Tell everyone that I'm not dead and that I'll kick their asses if they try to pocket so much as a single scale tonight. Also, get the fuck back to work!" he ordered in Cantonese. The guy jumped and ran over to join the other workers, and Hannibal had to stifle a chuckle.
Newt laughed out loud. "Dude, you're scary, but you're kind of awesome. I like you."
Hannibal looked over at Newt and saw that the younger man was smiling fondly at him, his eyes crinkling up like he was looking at a cute little puppy instead of a pissed off crime lord. Now that was not usually how people looked at him. Brass balls, indeed.
Hannibal begrudgingly felt a little respect for the kid. They finally reached the helicopter.
"Ha! Found it!" Newt shouted as he pulled the missing shoe out from under one of the helicopter seats. "No worse for the wear, other than a little bit of goo." He held out the shoe and smiled again, all bright and shiny and so happy that it was almost annoying. Almost. "So now you can go home and shower, if you really want to be boring like that. Don't you even want to hear about how I used science and my own genius to save the world? I mean, the Jaegers helped, too."
Hannibal laughed in spite of himself. He was pretty sure that the kid was riding the post-trauma "Hey, I'm actually alive" endorphin train and would have a hell of a crash later. "I suppose that I should catch up on what all happened while I was temporarily eaten."
"I bet your friends have a party going on back at your place." Newt stepped close to him, seemingly undeterred by the Kaiju mess that was still staining his suit. "How about you take me home with you and I'll tell you all about it?"
Hannibal felt his eyebrows shoot up almost to his hairline. "Take you home? How am I supposed to take that invitation, kid?"
"However you want to." Wow, Newt was actually, definitely flirting. Now that was not something that Hannibal had expected.
A lot of people hung around rich guys of questionable moral character, clinging on his coattails, so to speak. When he felt horny, there were always plenty of those girls or guys nearby who would join him in bed at the snap of a finger, and he'd taken advantage of those opportunities before. But people outside of his underworld circle were usually too busy being afraid of him to get flirtatious. Not to mention, he knew that he wasn't exactly conventionally handsome. What could this guy's motive be?
"Are you trying to seduce me to get Kaiju parts? Because I'll let you look at some without you pretending to hit on me, kid," Hannibal began. He could tell how deep Newt's obsession with the Kaiju went. The tattoos alone proved that. It was probably more likely that he was Kaiju chaser than a gold digger.
"I do want to see the parts sometime, but I'm not pretending. I think you're a badass. I think we might get along. If you're worried that it's about the Kaiju guts or your money, fine, I'll take you out for a drink instead." Newt shrugged. "Hey, I figured, the world's not going to end, I didn't die, but a lot of other people did...life is short. I want to hang out, so I asked you to hang out. It's up to you."
Hannibal studied his face, then felt himself nod before he even meant to. "OK. But let's stop by my place and shower first."
"Already inviting me into your shower? Dirty boy," Newt purred. "Come on, let's go."
Hannibal had thought that Newt was kidding, but then Newt really had busted into his shower the second the last drop of Kaiju goo had washed down the drain. Newt had pushed the curtain aside and stepped in with him, naked, and then he had hands holding onto his shoulders and he was getting the breath kissed out of him before he could even speak. He'd forgotten any objections he'd had to the situation at the moment when he wrapped his own arms around Newt and Newt had moaned at his touch, his cock twitching between them.
"Baby," Newt had whispered against his lips, and Hannibal had almost laughed out loud. Nobodycalled him "baby." He just didn't inspire that kind of sentiment. But he looked down into Newt's eyes, all squinty from the shower water cascading into them, and he saw that Newt was staring up into his face, smiling, looking at his own damaged eyes with no fear or disgust, looking like all he'd ever wanted in the world was to be right there.
"I'm your baby?" Hannibal asked, unable to keep a little bit of derision out of his voice.
"Yeah, if you want to be. Or I can be yours. Whatever. Take me to bed, big guy."
So he did.
After their first night together, Newt had diversified, coming up with even more nicknames. Hannibal couldn't stop being startled each time he was called by some sweet name that he had never even thought might apply to himself. "Honey," "sweetheart," and "darling" were among the more conventional, while in his more hyper moods, Newt had branched out to "pumpkin," "babycakes," and "honeybunch." When he was in a teasing mood, Hannibal was always "big guy" or "dude" (but then, Newt called almost everyone "dude," including women). Fortunately, Newt mostly kept it to "baby" or "lover" when they were in bed together, because Hannibal didn't think he could keep a hard-on or a straight face if he heard some of those ridiculous names during sex.
Once, a few weeks later when Newt had kind of unofficially moved himself in, Hannibal had finally asked him why he was always coming up with those pet names. "I've never heard you actually call me Hannibal," he commented.
Newt had tilted his head back and looked up into Hannibal's eyes. "Because I know that Hannibal's not your real name. You don't have to tell me your actual name if you don't want to, but if I'm going to be calling you a fake name anyway, I figured I might as well call you something nice." He reached up and dragged Hannibal's face down for a kiss. "Plus, you're so damn cute."
"I'm cute?" That statement was so obviously ridiculous that Hannibal couldn't even form a cogent argument against it.
"You are to me, sugar. Like a big, ugly-cute puppy."
Newt was lucky that he was so cute. And that he was easy to shut up with kisses.
2) He introduces Hannibal to Hermann.
Hermann Gottlieb had always thought that Newton Geiszler was crazy. But he hadn't realized just how crazy until Newt survived the giant monster apocalypse, only to immediately invite Hermann over for dinner to meet his new Kaiju black market boss boyfriend.
"So you're going to be staying in Hong Kong, Newton?" Hermann asked as he nervously picked up a fish ball with his chopsticks.
"For the time, yes. Big guy here said that he could really use a Kaiju expert biologist around the place, and since it's not like the PPDC is still in desperate need of me, I agreed. You should see all of the parts he has here after dinner, Hermann. It's fucking incredible!"
Hannibal had been sitting at the head of the table mostly silent all this time, eating a massive plate of spare ribs. When Newt got all bubbly and excited, though, he paused and leaned over to plant a smacking kiss on Newt's neck, leaving a little dab of Chinese barbecue sauce behind.
"Baby! You're getting me sticky," Newt complained in a disturbingly flirtatious way.
They were, all things considered, the oddest couple that Hermann had ever seen. But he had also never seen Newt acting so happy. His lab partner was usually a ball of nervous energy, but his mania seemed to have been replaced with a slightly calmer and much more cheerful demeanor. And despite his less than talkative ways, Hermann could tell that Hannibal was actually very attached to Newt. He kept the biologist seated right by his side, and often reached over to pat his hand or stroke his back as Newt babbled enough to keep up the conversation for all three of them.
Once he had devoured the entire plate of ribs, Hannibal even seemed to be trying to make polite conversation. "So Newt tells me you're a mathematician?" Hannibal's voice was so deep and rumbly that Hermann expected the table to shake whenever he spoke.
"Yes, I am. Well, my masters degrees were in engineering and applied sciences, but I tend to focus on the math and physics side of things."
"He told me that you predicted all of the recent Kaiju attacks to the exact day and hour. And I know that you're the one who helped him when he Drifted with that damn monster baby that almost digested me." Hannibal grinned, showing an assortment of gold teeth. "From the way he talks about you, I'm not sure if he loves you or hates you, but I can tell that he admires you a lot."
"Well, the feeling is mutual," Hermann admitted.
He regretted it almost as soon as he spoke, because his words made Newt immediately smirk and throw an arm around his shoulders. "Awww, Hermy, you admire me? I knew it. That's why I invited you over. You're my BFF even if you won't admit it."
"Let go, Geiszler!" Hermann tried to wriggle away "Just because I admire your work a little doesn't mean that I'm your 'BFF,' or that I want your grubby paws on me."
"C'mere, boy, you can put your paws on me instead." Hannibal grabbed Newt's hand, and Newt willingly went around the table and plopped down into Hannibal's massive lap. He looked so comfortable that Hermann could tell he spent a lot of time there. Hannibal's hand came up to stroke back Newt's spiky hair, and Newt's eyes fluttered closed at the touch.
"Get a room, you two," Hermann grumbled, then winced as he realized that he was being snarky to one of the most powerful figures of the Hong Kong underworld.
Hannibal just laughed, though, and pushed Newt out of his lap gently as he stood up. "Sorry, Doc. Do you want to tour the facilities? I have a lot of my best specimens in this location."
"Even though I'm not a Kaiju fanatic like your boyfriend, yes, that does actually sound interesting."
"Come on, Hermann, you'll love it. I knew tonight would be awesome!"
Hermann rolled his eyes as he followed Newt down the hallway. Newt was still obnoxious, and this relationship was still pretty fucking weird, but he supposed that the pair did seem well-suited to each other.
Plus, he was a fan of almost anything that kept Newt too busy to send him ridiculous text messages with those blasted emoticons all day long.
3) He sacrifices sleep for sex.
Hannibal tried to sneak into the darkened bedroom. Making calls to importers in America was hell when you were on Hong Kong time. He'd had to stay up until the middle of the night to have a "morning" phone conference.
As he slipped out of his suit as quietly as possible, he looked down at Newt, who was in bed already. Newt sometimes suffered from insomnia when he was trying to get settled down to sleep, but tonight, he seemed to be sleeping soundly. He was lying on his stomach with his face turned away, and he had kicked most of the sheets off. They had slipped all the way down to his thighs, and Hannibal let out a mournful groan as he saw that Newt was sleeping naked. He could see the big tattoo across his back, the pale skin between his tattoos, and his cute little ass, and he was beginning to feel really pissed off that he'd spent his night talking to thugs on the phone instead of in bed with Newt.
Once he was finally out of his suit, Hannibal slowly climbed onto the bed, trying not to jostle the mattress. It was a massive bed, a California king that was big enough for even someone Hannibal's size to spread out, but they always ended up sleeping pressed close together anyway.
He scooted closer to Newt's sleeping form and looked down at him through the dark. He wasn't sure that he would ever get used to getting into bed and having Newt there waiting for him. It felt like an indulgence every time.
He couldn't resist running his hand gently down Newt's back, tracing the lines of his tattoos and following them down, down. Newt shivered a little, and he saw goosebumps rise under his touch. Fuck, that was hot. He stroked his skin again, all the way down to the top of his ass this time, and Newt shifted under his fingers, seeming to press up into his touch, like he could feel it in his sleep. Like he wanted it.
Hannibal felt his lust building up, an aching greed, and usually in his life, when he got that greedy feeling, he went with it and took whatever it was he wanted.
But he knew how hard it was for Newt to get to sleep most nights, how he tossed and turned and sometimes took prescription sleeping pills, which always freaked him out a little, and he wasn't going to wake Newt up from a rare good sleep for a nighttime quickie, no matter how much he wanted to.
So he forced himself to roll away from Newt and close his eyes and try to ignore the fact that he was half-hard just from that brief touch and glance.
He got lonely lying far away, though, so he rolled over in tiny half-measures until he was nestled up to Newt's side again. A little spooning probably wouldn't wake him up. That was how they slept most nights, anyway.
When he slipped his arm over Newt, though, Newt stirred and stretched. "Sweetie?" Newt slurred.
"Go back to sleep," Hannibal whispered, dismayed. "I'm trying not to wake you."
"I wanna be awake." Newt rolled over in his grasp and smiled sleepily.
"You need to get some sleep, kid." Newt ignored him completely and wrapped his arms around his neck instead. "See, I was trying to be a good guy for once by not bothering you. You messed it up."
"You shoulda just been a dick like you normally are, because I like you bothering me."
Hannibal pinched the little bit of fat by Newt's hip. "One day I'm gonna punish you for your sass, runt."
"No, you're not. Not unless it's a sexy punishment."
Hannibal leaned down and bit Newt's earlobe. "I know a few of those." Newt was wiggling around under him, cuddly and clingy and hard, and now that he was awake, well, they might as well have some fun.
4) He talks to Hannibal's mom on the phone.
Hermann rolled his eyes when Newt's cell phone rang and Newt fumbled to answer it. Newt had no manners. They were eating together, in a very nice restaurant, but Newt was going to answer his damn phone anyway, of course. "Who's that, now?"
"Oh, it's Hannibal's mom. She likes to call to check up on him once a week, and if he doesn't answer, she's started calling me instead."
"That giant brute has a mother who calls him on Sundays?" Hermann asked incredulously.
"Yep. She's a real sweetie, too." Newt slid his finger across the screen to answer the call. "Hey, Ethel!" he said cheerfully into the phone. "Yeah, he's in a meeting," he said after a moment. "I'll tell him you called. So how are you, hon?"
Hermann could hear the tinny echo of a stereotypical "little old lady voice" coming out of the speaker as Newt attentively listened. Newt nodded as she spoke, interjecting "Mmhmm" and "Oh, really?" She must have told him some extraordinary bit of gossip, because Newt gasped, then said "And she had the nerve to try to talk to you at temple yesterday? Oh my God!" Then, apparently, Ethel moved on to question time.
"Yes, he's been eating better," Newt said. "I got him to eat some actual veggies in his lo mein. I've been making him get to bed at a decent hour when I can, too." Newt listened to something she said, then laughed. "Yes, it's actually pretty easy for me to get him into bed, you're right. Yeah, he's being nice to me. He's a doll. He sent me out to eat with my friend since he was busy in the meeting. Yeah, my friend, Hermann. We're still at the restaurant now, actually, so I should probably go. I'll tell him that you called. He said to send you his love. It was nice talking to you, too. Bye!"
Hermann could feel his mouth hanging open like a codfish, but he couldn't stop it. "So you're close with Hannibal's mother?" he finally choked out.
"Super close. Once he lied and told her I was Jewish, she loved me."
"Does she know that her son is basically a criminal?"
"No, she thinks he's an investment banker specializing in Asian trade. She brags about him 24/7. He's her baby boy."
"That's one big baby," Hermann muttered under his breath. "I just didn't realize you two were so...serious. I mean, I know that you care about each other, but I thought that this was more like he's Al Capone and you're his gangster moll. Or else more of a sugar daddy thing. Not a 'meet his parents' thing."
"You need to stop being so low-minded, Hermann." Newt actually looked seriously annoyed for once. "We're in love."
5) He apologizes (sometimes).
Hannibal had fortunately reached a stage in his life and career where he didn't have to do much violent shit anymore, only threaten and imply that violent shit may be done. He had enough money, friends, and reputation that his life was actually only about as dramatic as any other successful businessman's.
But that didn't mean that he didn't have to be careful.
Newt had become accustomed to wandering around Hannibal's various residences and headquarters as he saw fit. He was now the official xenobiology consultant for their operation, and he had been around with Hannibal enough that everybody knew who was watching his back. (In case anyone hadn't been paying attention, Hannibal had been sure to pass around the word that everyone better be damn fucking sure to treat Newt with deference and respect.) Newt was, of course, too curious for his own damn good and was always eager to see what goods they were handling at the time, so he had expanded his usual workplace from "science lab" to "anywhere there were Kaiju parts or anything shiny."
Usually, all that was fine. But Hannibal had begun to be a little afraid. He really hated that feeling. He wasn't used to it.
He had realized that now everyone around him knew how much Newt meant to him. He spent more time with him than with anyone else, even more time with him than with his associates, usually. He had passed around the word that Newt was to be treated like a king. He gave him anything he asked for, and people around him knew it. They had started asking Newt to ask Hannibal for favors.
He hadn't realized how obvious he was being, because he had been too distracted by Newt. By things to make Newt happy, by how ridiculously, stupidly happy being with Newt made him.
All of these things were like painting a giant fucking target on Newt's back, a target over his own heart.
If anyone wanted to fuck with him, to hurt him, they knew exactly how to do it now. He had shown them how.
Hannibal began trying to separate Newt from the "business" side of his business, to keep him happy and busy researching in his lab so that he wouldn't be so conspicuous around the place.
Hannibal was realizing how very few people he could actually trust.
All of his insecure feelings came to a head one day. He had recently become aware that one of his most trusted middlemen, Ishak, had been skimming money off the top of every payment before he turned it in. He had arranged for the man to meet with him that night, and he was going to give him the chance to admit what he'd been doing. He really hoped that he would admit it himself. He didn't want to have to come up with appropriate consequences for that kind of betrayal.
That morning, he went into Newt's lab (which was about twice the size and cost of the one he'd had at the PPDC headquarters and had gotten even better equipment since the "keep Newt in one spot" initiative had begun).
"Newt?"
"I'm in the freezer, sweetie!" The freezer door swung open, letting out a visible cloud and a rush of cold air, and then Newt's rumpled head popped out. "What's up?"
Hannibal hated the involuntary smile that he could feel forming on his lips. "I just wanted to see what you were up to."
"I'm getting out that Kaiju foot that you saved. I want to scrape under the nails and see if there's any organic or otherwise interesting material there. I got the idea from an old crime show I was watching. I have a question for you."
"Yes?" Hannibal asked warily. Newt's questions were always either genius-level intelligent or lunatic-level ridiculous.
"Have you ever had sex in a walk-in freezer?"
Hannibal laughed. He'd forgotten the third option for Newt questions--dirty. "No, and I'm not ever going to. First of all, cold swimming pool effect--"
"Yeesh."
"Second, ever heard of how your wet tongue sticks to a frozen flagpole?"
"Yuck. Point made. I was just having some impure thoughts about how quiet and private it is in there." Newt exited the freezer, sans Kaiju foot, and wrapped his arms securely around Hannibal's waist, nestling into his shoulder.
Hannibal sighed and hugged him back. Shit like this was why everyone already knew that he was fucking crazy about the guy. "Listen, kid. I came in here to tell you something."
"Mmhmm?"
"I'm going to be really busy today. I have a meeting."
"You always have a meeting."
"Yes, but this time it's an important meeting. A possibly dangerous meeting, with a jerk. So don't come try to find me today."
"What makes you think I was going to do that?"
"The fact that you hunt me down like a bloodhound every time you're bored, lonely, or hungry."
"Or horny."
"How could I forget? But listen, things could get ugly. I want you back in our room if you're not working in here. Or else out of this place completely. You could go see Hermann."
"Hermann's a dick."
"Hermann's a saint for putting up with you. I'm serious, kid. Stay out of my way today. Stay away from my guys today. I'm not fucking around."
"OK, OK, I get it. I'll leave you alone, big guy. Scout's honor."
Having received Newt's word, which he was usually pretty good for, Hannibal softened a little and leaned down for a kiss, which Newt eagerly gave. "If I get done early, I'll take you out for dinner."
"Don't worry about me, it's not like I can't keep myself busy." Newt pulled out of his arms and turned his chin away huffily, even though he was smiling. "I've got microbes to analyze and a dickish best friend to text all day."
"He asked me to tell you, please, no more emoticons. Whatever an 'emoticon' is."
"He's such an old man. So are you. Maybe you two should hang out more."
"Goodbye, Newton."
"Goodbye, honey."
Hannibal checked the door of the lab as he left. It had a lock with a number code that no one knew besides him and Newt, as his own bedroom did. He actually got a little peace of mind when Newt was there.
By the time Hannibal went to talk to Ishak, he was feeling pretty relaxed. He'd dealt with people trying to con him before. He was used to it. The only variable that made this extra painful was that he had actually trusted the guy.
Hannibal made sure that a few of his people who had been around the longest stayed with him, but no one else. He knew that there was a possibility that besides just stealing money, Ishak could be trying to win loyalties. Hannibal sat down in one of his custom-made chairs, the perfect size to fit his tall frame comfortably, while still making him tower over almost everyone else. He had Ishak brought in by himself, between two enforcers, and pushed to stand in front of his chair alone. That nonverbal message made a lot of guys start talking as soon as they entered the room.
Once their conversation got started, though, it became clear that Ishak had no intention of coming clean about anything. He asked why he was there, denied knowing anything suspicious, and looked up with a stubborn hangdog face that made Hannibal clench his fist and long for the days when he had actually been the guy who bashed people's faces in personally.
"I know what you've been fucking doing, Ishak," he spat out at last, tired of the denials, and just at that moment, the door to the room swung open.
Newt walked in.
Hannibal saw Ishak's eyes twitch to the door and then back to him, but he couldn't move fast enough.
Ishak had Newt by the throat, and he'd pulled out the knife that Hannibal himself had given him a year ago. He saw the blade he'd picked out touch Newt's skin.
Then Hannibal had Ishak by the hair, pulling hard enough to rip a few long strands out as he threw him to the floor.
Blood was running down from the slice on Newt's neck, and Newt was gasping, leaned up against the wall like he couldn't stand.
Hannibal's crew dragged Ishak out the door, and Hannibal was holding Newt by the chin, staring into his eyes. He had blood all over his fingers.
Newt's eyes were startled and wide, but alert. When he met Hannibal's gaze, he blinked a few times, and Hannibal felt Newt's whole body relax under his hands. He reached up to touch the wound on Newt's neck and found that it was shallow, just a thin cut.
"What the fuck," Newt said raspily.
Hannibal was laughing and gasping and furious, all at the same time.
"You idiot, you goddamn motherfucker, I told you, I told you, stay away." He held Newt away from him, staring at the cut, pressing him against the wall. "I told you, you fucking promised me. I thought...I thought..." He covered his eyes with his hand, and he felt hot blood touch his skin. "I told you."
"I'm sorry."
Now those were not words that he had ever heard come out of Newt's mouth before.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I just wanted to know what you were--oh, my God, I'm bleeding." Hannibal choked back another hysterical laugh.
"I know, you ass. Come the fuck over here." Hannibal pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and pressed it against Newt's throat.
"So that's why you carry these things." Newt stared down at the monogrammed cloth. "For unexpected stabbing and bleeding. You're even more badass than I thought, baby." He smiled, but his smile was shaky at the corners.
"Newt." Hannibal tried to put his rush of terrified anger into words. He had to hold himself back from shaking Newt by the shoulders. "I told you to stay away today because I knew that something like this would happen. Everyone knows about us. Everyone can tell that I love you, so of course someone's gonna try to fuck with you, to get to me. I knew it."
"Everyone can tell what now?" Newt let the cloth drop to the floor, and a little bit more blood trickled down as he took a step forward. He didn't even seem to notice.
"They can tell how much I fucking love you, you stupid bastard." Hannibal picked the handkerchief up again and pressed the clean side back against Newt's neck as he pulled the smaller man against him, close. "You know I do. Even if I didn't say it, you knew." He tilted Newt's face back with his bloodied fingers and kissed his way down from his eyelids to his chin.
"I knew. But it's still nice to hear." Newt grabbed him by the hair, ballsy as usual, and pulled his face down to catch his lips. "I'll try to avoid any further activities that result in my blood all over the place."
"Try to fucking listen to what I say and actually do what you say you'll do." His anger was losing the war against his greed. He was greedy for Newt, now, for anything he could get of him, and he already had his hands up under his shirt, feeling his skin, smooth and unbroken, all the parts that weren't bleeding or hurt, that were still there for his dirty hands to touch.
"That, too. Listen." Newt leaned over, close to his ear. "I love you back."
He knew that already, of course he knew, but the words gave him a chill all over his skin anyway, good and frightening all at once.
Suddenly, Newt pulled out of his arms.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"Locking the door. I don't think you'll want your guys walking in on what we're about to do in here." Newt grabbed Hannibal's hand and pulled two fingers into his mouth, sucking hard to wet them, obscene.
"Are you sure?" Hannibal groaned, but he was already unbuckling his belt one-handed.
"So fucking sure, c'mon." Newt was pulling his own clothes off, frantic. Hannibal let himself be pulled down to the floor and on top of Newt, between his legs.
He was riding the high of heady, greedy relief as he used his wet fingers to prepare Newt as best as he could under the circumstances, but when he finally slid home into his body, the euphoria came crashing down.
He looked down into Newt's eyes and saw the moment when he'd first touched his bloody skin all over again. He felt his legs shake and his body still against Newt, inside him.
"It's all right," Newt whispered. "Come on, it's all right, I'm here." He tilted his hips, grasped Hannibal's arms, trying to get the closeness back.
"I thought..." He couldn't even say the words.
"I know. I'm sorry, 'm so sorry."
"You're in danger 'cause you're with me." A little bit of the fear turned into anger at himself, fidgety and building up inside, and he shifted his weight, moved his hips a little. Newt cried out at the motion.
"Yes, c'mon, don't stop. Wanna feel you." Hannibal thrust fully inside once, and Newt moaned. "Wanna be with you. I'm not going anywhere."
The dam broke. Hannibal loosed his rage and fear and love into his motions, and Newt begged for more, so they ended up fucking hard enough that they moved across the floor and were pressed up against the locked door by the time they finished.
Newt was always loose-limbed and sleepy after an orgasm, but this time he looked about to pass out. Hannibal pulled him into his lap and let him cuddle, deciding that anyone who needed anything outside of that locked door could damn well wait out their afterglow.
"Listen, jackass," Newt whispered into his shoulder. His eyes were closed already. "You couldn't lose me if you tried."
Hannibal closed his own eyes and tried to believe him.
How Hannibal Chau Shows Affection for Newton Geiszler
1) He goes under the gun.
"I got one more thing for your birthday," Hannibal said.
They were alone, in their room with the door locked and Hannibal's main cell phone and all of his decoy cell phones turned off, which was a rare treat. Newt had a belly full of Thai food, was more than halfway drunk, and was in bed with his boyfriend. So far, this had been his best birthday ever.
"Baby, why?" Newt demanded. He could hear his voice squeaking the way it always did when he was tipsy. "You already gave me an intact piece of Mutavore's spinal cord and took me out to my favorite restaurant. Plus, you gave me one and a half birthday blowjobs."
Hannibal frowned. "A half?"
"If you start giving someone a blowjob, but then get all distracted and horny and fuck them instead, that only counts as a half. But the International Good Boyfriend Code only suggests one birthday blowjob per year, so you're actually ahead of the curve."
"Boyfriend Code, huh? I'd like to see what that code says about someone who leaves his electrophoresis equipment out on top of his boyfriend's custom-made silk shirt."
"Oops, sorry. Silk shirts are out anyway, dude."
"Oh, you're the fashion expert now? Mr. Skinny Pants?"
"Whoa, how did this get to be 'pick on Newt' time? I thought you were still spoiling me for my birthday. You said there's one more thing."
"It's not a typical present, but...you'll see." Hannibal took a deep breath and pulled the long-sleeved black T-shirt that he'd been wearing off over his head.
Newt was about to joke that Hannibal was sexy, but not so hot that looking at him shirtless for the millionth time counted as a present. But then he saw the mark on his arm.
He grabbed Hannibal's broad bicep and hauled his arm over, closer to his face. "Is that...Yamarashi?" It was looking all red and nasty like new tattoos tended to, but it was unmistakably a portrait of Yamarashi, just like the one Newt had on his left arm, but on a smaller scale. It was an exact miniature of his tattoo, placed in an identical spot on his boyfriend's much larger arm.
"I know that he's the first Kaiju you ever worked on. And your first tattoo. I figured it was still your favorite. Plus, you know, Kaiju, kind of what we have in common." Hannibal shrugged, actually looking shy, like he thought that Newt might not approve.
"It's amazing! Did you go to my guy? This looks like Kam's work."
"Of course I went to your guy. It wasn't hard to track him down."
Newt ran his fingers over the portrait, hypnotized. He loved the slightly rough feeling of freshly inked skin. Feeling it on his boyfriend might be even better than feeling it on himself. Almost.
"You did this for me?"
"Who else? Look here." Hannibal pointed down in the bottom corner of the tattoo, on Yamarashi's foot. There was a tiny letter "N" drawn on the Kaiju's toe.
Newt bit his lip, blinking his eyes fast. He really didn't want to tear up. Hannibal would probably take it the wrong way. Or else laugh at him. But he felt like no words he could say were good enough, no "thank you" could be enough. No one had ever gotten inked for him before.
"I thought you didn't want any more tattoos, baby." He'd asked Hannibal about the birds tattooed on his hands, of course, but Hannibal had brushed him off. All he would ever say about it was that he'd gotten those when he was young and stupid, that it was a mistake.
Hannibal looked down at the dark tattoos in question. "Do you know what these birds mean?"
"Uhhh...that you love cute little birds?" Hannibal shot him a withering look. "OK, no, I don't know what they mean."
"'Flying fists.' I got them because I was a thug, and I was pledging loyalty to all the other little thugs and trying to show that I was tough." He ran one of his big fingers over the largest bird. "I'm not so proud of the things I did then anymore." He moved his hand up to touch the fresh ink, the new monster on his skin. "I don't think I'll regret this one, though."
Newt pressed his own arm up against Hannibal's, admiring the match. "The point of tattoos is that they never come off, you know. They're like a scar. It's a big commitment."
"I know. That's why I wanted it." Hannibal stroked his fingers over Newt's tattoo as he spoke, not meeting his eyes. "I'm not a sappy guy. I'm not good with...talking and feelings and nicknames and all that shit. But I wanted you to know that I'm in this. I'm really in this." He slid his fingers down to take Newt's hand.
Newt smiled. "I know you are. Me, too." He snorted. "Hey, I just thought of something. This is basically the best present I've ever gotten. How are you ever going to top this next year?"
Hannibal chuckled. "You'll have to wait and see."
Newt wasn't actually worried about Hannibal coming up with something. Even if he wasn't so good at saying the words, everything he'd ever done for Newt showed just how much he loved him.