Deliberate Encounters - 5. Ch. 4 ~ Committment

Richard felt his heart lightening as he stepped out of the car outside of Simon’s townhouse. His last case of a kidnapped little girl had been heart wrenching. The authorities had held out little hope for the little girl’s safe return when Richard had become involved in the case. It had taken the better part of a week before he had found the girl and reunited her with her family. He made his way up the walk, a smile curving up his lips as Simon opened the door before he had even knocked.

“Glad to have you back babe,” Simon told him, pulling him into the house and wrapping his arms around him with a tight squeeze.

“I could get used to this,” Richard answered as he bent his head to cover Simon’s lips with his own. He relished being able to come to Simon after a hard case, nothing ever seeming as bad when he was held within the haven of the other mans arms.

“You and me both,” Simon answered, pulling back to lead Richard to the couch. “Bad case?”

“Bad enough,” Richard answered, “but I’d rather not talk about it right now. Can we just relax and watch TV for a bit?”

“Works for me,” Simon answered as he turned so that Richard could lay with his head resting in his lap. He absentmindedly stroked his fingers through Richard’s hair as he idly flipped through channels. He glanced down to find Richard asleep and forgot about flipping channels as he watched his lover lying there next to him on the couch. After a few minutes he turned his attention back to the television and was still sitting there a half hour later when the news came on. He didn’t pay much attention until a news story came on about a young girl who had been reunited with her family after being abducted and held captive for a week.

Simon realized that it must have been the case Richard had been working and turned his full attention to what the reporter was saying. Apparently the police hadn’t had any solid evidence when Richard took it upon himself to find the girl. The girl was only six years old and at the moment was in intensive care. According to the reporters, her prognosis was dire and they weren’t sure if she’d make it through the night. At the end, there was a public thank you for those responsible for the girls safe return to her family. Simon couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride in Richard, that he’d gone in and got the girl out when no one else had, but his heart was breaking for what he had to have seen.

“How do you do it?” Simon asked quietly, believing that Richard was still asleep next to him.

“I do it because somebody has to,” Richard answered softly, turning his head to look into Simon’s eyes, not bothering to hide the sheen of tears in them.

“It doesn’t have to be you that does it though,” Simon told him. He’d seen Richard after each case and he hated seeing the despair in the other mans eyes. He could only guess at the horrors that Richard had seen and he knew that there was nothing he could do to protect him from it.

“Listen to me,” Richard told him as he sat up and angled his body so that he was facing Simon, “I choose to do what I do. I could leave it to someone else, but if I had, that little girl probably wouldn’t have made it home to her family. I have certain gifts that enable me to help out in a way that really makes a difference to people.”

“I know that,” Simon told him. “I just hate how down it makes you.”

“Cases like these do hit hard. The injuries that little girl sustained should never have happened to her, but because of me, she’s back with her family. She might not make it, but at least her family will know what happened to her. Not all of my cases are as bad as this one.”

“How do you deal with it? Seeing the things you’ve had to have seen, how do you keep it from getting to you?”

“Honestly, it’s hard at times,” Richard answered, placing his back against the corner of the couch and pulling Simon back against him. “It has gotten a bit easier lately though.”

“How so?” Simon asked, nestling closer into the warmth of Richard’s body.

“It’s gotten easier, because now, after I’ve had a bad case, I can come here,” Richard told him tenderly. “I can come here and know that you’re waiting with open arms, and though I don’t tell you the details, you share the burden.”

“I don’t do anything though,” Simon told him, his voice breaking.

“Yes you do, you’re here for me. If I want to talk about it, you listen, and if I don’t, you accept that as well. Don’t you get it Simon? I don’t have to deal with it by myself anymore, I have you.”

Simon couldn’t think of anything to say and just placed his hands over the top of Richards as he thought about what he had said. He could understand how having someone to share the burden with would help, but he couldn’t chase away the niggling thought that he could do more. Ever since becoming closer in the mountains, he’d toyed with the idea of having Richard move in with him but hadn’t been sure how to go about bringing it up. Simon gnawed on the inside of his lip as he tried to come up with the words to express his desires. He looked into Richard’s eyes and smiled to himself at the tenderness he saw in the gaze that met his.

“You okay?” Richard asked.

“Yeah, just thinking about something,” Simon answered.

“Anything you care to talk about?” Richard asked in interest. He watched worriedly as Simon kept looking down at their hands and then back up at his face. A part of him was afraid that maybe Simon had changed his mind about them and just didn’t know how to break the news to him. “What is it Simon?”

“I just, ah hell, I don’t know,” Simon muttered as he gained his feet and walked over to the window. He watched the cars go by as he tried to gather his thoughts and never heard Richard get up from the couch and make his way behind him. The first he realized that Richard was behind him was when he felt strong hands settle on his shoulders.

“Whatever it is, you can tell me,” Richard assured him with a squeeze of his hands.

“I don’t know how to,” Simon answered dejectedly, causing Richard’s heart to feel as though it was going to pound out of his chest.

“I know everything that has happened is a lot to take in,” Richard told him, forcing himself to drop his hands from Simon’s shoulders and take a step back. “I guess I can’t really blame you.”

“Blame me?” Simon questioned, turning confused eyes on Richard.

“Dating me would be hard for anybody to do, I can understand why you’d change your mind about me,” Richard told him.

“What in the hell are you talking about?” Simon asked, turning his entire body from the window to face Richard. He couldn’t understand the look of sadness that crossed the other man’s features.

“I can understand why you want to break it off,” Richard hurried to get out.

“I don’t want to break up with you,” Simon told him in exasperation. “I’ve been trying to figure out how to go about asking you to move in here with me, obviously I’m not very good at it.”

It took a few seconds for Simon’s words to sink in, but once they had, Richard’s face lit up as he quickly closed the gap between them. He pulled Simon into his arms and looked in his eyes, hoping that he’d heard right.

“You want me to move in here? With you?” Richard asked in disbelief. Here he’d thought that Simon was trying to figure out a way to let him down easy. He’d never been so glad to be wrong.

“I think that’s what I just said,” Simon answered with a laugh.

“You sure that’s what you want?” Richard asked.

“Yes, I’m sure. I’ve been thinking about it, I just wasn’t sure how to bring the subject up. For all I knew, you wouldn’t want to move.”

“Babe, I would have moved in here the day you agreed to give me a chance, but I knew that you weren’t ready for it, and I didn’t want to push it. I figured when you were ready you’d bring it up. I kept hoping, but when you got so nervous I was sure you were going to tell me we were over.”

“I would have to be a complete and utter moron to do something that idiotic,” Simon answered with a smile. “So I’m guessing that’s a yes?”

Richard didn’t answer in words, couldn’t form the words to answer, instead taking possession of Simon’s lips with his own. He let his lips speak for him as he poured all of the emotions rushing through his body into his kiss. He held Simon against the hard strength of his body as their tongues dueled as though they were trying to imprint the taste of each other into their mouths.

“You’ll always have me to come home to,” Simon told him gently when they finally managed to pry themselves apart.

Richard struggled not to let his thoughts show on his face as Simon’s words penetrated his mind. He moved to sit on the couch and pull Simon down with him as he thought of his words. He knew that Simon wouldn’t always be there, eventually he would age, and Richard wasn’t sure how he was going to cope with watching Simon succumb to old age and die. Despite the heartache that he knew was waiting for him down the road, Richard resolved himself to being happy with however long they had together.

“You okay? You got awfully quiet back there,” Simon said over his shoulder.

“I’m great,” Richard answered, not wanting to worry Simon with the thoughts going on in his mind. “So, when can I move in?”

“Whenever you’re ready.”

“Then what are we waiting for?” Richard asked playfully as he pushed Simon away from him so that he could get to his feet and then help Simon off the couch.

“I have no idea,” Simon answered laughingly as Richard pulled him off the couch and all but dragged him out of the townhouse. If he had known that Richard wanted to move in so bad, Simon wouldn’t have been near as nervous as he had been.

“Can’t give you the chance to change your mind,” Richard told him matter of factly.

“Not going to happen,” Simon replied as he followed Richard out to his car. “Maybe I should take my car too, though it’s going to take us a bit to get you all packed up.”

“Not as long as you think, and trust me, you won’t need your car.”

“You know, I just realized, in the time we’ve been together, I’ve never been to your place,” Simon pointed out once they were in the car and headed towards Richard’s.

“My place isn’t much,” Richard answered.

“What’s not much?” Simon asked, thinking that because of the car he drove, Richard probably lived in a fairly expensive house.

“When I bought the house, I had pretty much decided that I didn’t need a lot of stuff,” Richard told him as he stopped at a red light. “I figured that I’d probably be moving quite a bit and didn’t want a whole bunch of stuff to carry around from place to place.”

“Why would you have to move around a lot?” Simon asked in confusion.

“Since I don’t age like mortals, I can’t stay in one place for too long. People would start to get suspicious about me if they saw that I never seemed to age at all. I didn’t buy this house until last year, and other than the basic furniture, well… it doesn’t have much in it.”

“Doesn’t it bother you sometimes?” Simon asked as he reached over to lay his hand on Richard’s thigh.

“I haven’t thought about it too much, honestly, I’ve never usually spent a lot of time at home.”

“Where exactly is your house?” Simon asked as Richard headed towards the edge of the city.

“About twenty minutes past the edge of the city. I bought the place because there were no really close neighbors that would notice that I didn’t age. Thought that maybe I’d be able to stay here longer than I usually stay in one place.”

“You do realize that you’ll have neighbors by moving in with me, right?” Simon questioned.

“Yeah, I know. It’s just something I’ll have to learn to deal with,” Richard answered as he thought about his house. He’d fallen in love with the small ranch when he’d first seen it and knew that he had to have it for however long he could.

The rest of the drive was silent as both men were lost in thought. Simon just hoped that Richard didn’t regret moving in with him. When he had come up with the idea of them moving in together he hadn’t considered the fact that people might wonder why Richard didn’t appear to age. He was slightly surprised when Richard turned the car onto a dirt road and his breath caught in his throat when Richard pulled up in front of a mid size log ranch house. The front of the house had four steps that led up to a porch that ran across the length of the house and looked to wrap around one side. About a hundred yards from the house sat a solid looking barn, complete with a corral off to one side. Simon’s head turned every which way as he climbed out of the car, unable to believe that Richard would want to leave this little slice of paradise to move into his townhouse.

“God, it’s gorgeous out here!” Simon exclaimed as he took in the sights around him. From what he could see, a little ways behind the house sat rolling hillsides, covered with trees.

“Yeah,” Richard told him as he looked around, smiling sadly at the thought that he was leaving it. “You can’t see it from here, but there’s a stream that runs along the edge of the hill.”

“I’d like to see it sometime,” Simon told him quietly.

“Why don’t we go in and get me all packed up,” Richard suggested as he walked over and wrapped his arm around Simon’s waist to lead him into the house.

Simon was just as impressed with the inside as he had been with the outside. Just inside the front door was a living room with a nice stone fireplace set into one wall, with a log couch, chair and love seat grouped around a rug spread in the middle of the hardwood floors. Off to the right of the living room sat the kitchen, bare except for the appliances and a log table against one wall. A stairway separated the kitchen and living room, leading up to a second floor. Despite the beauty of the house, it didn’t look or feel lived in. There were no pictures on the walls, no personal touches added to make it homier. Simon allowed himself to be led upstairs and peeked into the two open doors that they passed on the way to the furthest door. One was a fairly decent sized bedroom and the other was a large bathroom. When Richard led him through the furthest door, Simon was relieved to see that it at least looked lived in.

“I told you there wasn’t much,” Richard commented self consciously as they walked into his bedroom.

“Come sit and talk to me,” Simon told him softly as he led the way over to what looked to be a King size bed, also made out of logs. Once Richard was sitting next to him on the bed, Simon turned his body to face his lover as he reached out and took one of Richard’s hands in his. He studied Richard’s face as the other man glanced around the room.

“What?” Richard asked, slightly nervous with the way Simon was looking at him.

“Are you sure you want to move into my townhouse?” Simon asked, looking into Richard’s eyes as he waited for an answer.

“Why wouldn’t I?” Richard asked cautiously.

“Look at this place,” Simon told him, motioning to the house with his free hand. “This place is as different from my townhouse as you can get.”

“So? What are you saying Simon? Have you changed your mind about wanting me to move in?”

Simon ignored his question as he asked another one of his own. “What are you going to do with this place?”

“After a few months, I’ll probably sell it,” Richard confessed, unable to keep the sadness out of his voice.

“Why?”

“If us living together works out, it doesn’t make sense for us to have two places,” Richard pointed out. “You didn’t answer me. Are you having second thoughts about me moving in?”

“In a way, but not the way you’re thinking,” Simon confessed. “Can I ask you a question?”

“You know you can ask me anything,” Richard told him worriedly. “I don’t have any secrets from you.”

“Why did you wait for me to ask you to move in with me? Why didn’t you ask me to move in with you?”

Richard fidgeted as he thought of the best way to answer. Unable to sit still, he slid off the bed and paced until he was standing in front of his dresser. He turned to face Simon and leaned back, his ass half resting on the top of the dresser.

“I guess I figured that asking you to accept what I am was enough of a burden to put on you. You’re used to living in the city, in the thick of everything, so why would you want to move away from there? I couldn’t ask you to give up what you have in the city.”

“You couldn’t ask me to move, but yet you have no qualms about giving up what you have here, why?”

“Because it means I can be with you,” Richard answered quietly, his voice barely audible. “You have to understand Simon. I figured I was probably going to spend the rest of my life alone. Not many people would want someone who was part werewolf and part vampire as a partner. I was beyond shocked when you even agreed to give us a chance. Then you asked me to move in with you, which told me that you saw a future for us. That was something I wanted to hold on tight to with both hands. I didn’t want to do anything that might make me lose you.” Richard was nervous as Simon sat on the bed not saying anything. It seemed to take forever before Simon finally smiled and got up off the bed to walk over to him.

“You know, just because we’re moving in together, doesn’t mean that it has to necessarily be at my place,” Simon said with a small smile.

“What exactly are you saying?” Richard asked, disbelief evident in his voice. “Are you honestly saying that you would consider moving in here?”

“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying. There is really nothing holding me in the city. It’s not like I can’t do my writing out here, and it’s peaceful. When you first pulled up in front of the house, I couldn’t believe that you wanted to leave such a perfect place. If you really want to move to my townhouse, that’s fine, but I would almost rather move out here, if that’s alright with you.”

“It’s so far beyond alright with me that it’s not even funny,” Richard replied before capturing Simon’s lips with his own and kissing him rather thoroughly. After a minute he lifted his head and glanced towards the bed that seemed to take up most of the room. “You know, my bed has never been christened,” Richard told him with a grin.

“Well, then I guess it’s about time it was,” Simon answered with a low chuckle before leading Richard back over to the bed. He pushed Richard back onto the bed and then followed him down, blanketing his lover’s body with his own.