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katleeptAuthor: Pirate Turner
Rating: R
Summary: They have waited and sacrificed far more than enough. It is time they see to their own happiness.
Warnings: Slash, Los Magnificos Vampiros AU
Word Count: 1,623
Timeline: Takes place in modern day, following "Despite All Odds", "Brother's Keeper", "Snarl Fest", "Josiah's Howls", "Happiness of the Heart", and "A Wolf in Their Midst"
Date Written: 2 February, 2011
Challenge/Prompt: LJ comm Writers' Choice weekly prompt of "umbrella"
Disclaimer: Vin Tanner, JD Dunne, Buck Wilmington, Ezra Standish, Nathan Jackson, Josiah Sanchez, Chris Larabee, and The Magnificent Seven are © & TM CBS, The Mirisch Group, MGM, and Trilogy Entertainment, not the author; are used without permission; and may not be used without permission. Everything else is © & TM the author. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this work of fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended.
Nathan hurried home underneath the brim of his big, black umbrella as the storm raged on all around him. Howling winds whipped at the umbrella, threatening to take it right out of the doctor's hands, and lightning struck the buildings around him. Nathan had learned centuries ago not to fear storms, even ones of this severe magnitude, but he nonetheless felt a pressing urgency to be home just as soon as he could get there.
He only hoped he could make it home before Chris got there. He loved his leader like a brother, but over the last century, he had grown increasingly difficult with which to contend, let alone live if, indeed, an undead man could be considered to live. There were still so many questions about the proprieties of their lives as Vampires to which they had never really found the answers and even that Nathan had come to doubt had true, complete answers, but he could handle all of those questions. That was not the problem that burdened him every minute of his unlife.
He wasn't happy. He hadn't been for a century, but things were coming to a head. He couldn't keep surviving like this, living a life in which misery and heartache were his constant companions, not now that he knew that Josiah still loved him and that the wolf had not completely overtaken his soul mate.
Vampirism made all the feelings in the world even stronger and made a man aware of everything on deeper, more heightened levels than anything Nathan could have imagined when he had been a mere mortal. Even then, he had known that he and Josiah were meant to be together and had believed that their love would last forever. As a Vampire, being without his soul mate truly left a gaping hole in him. It was as though a cannonball were constantly lodged inside of his heart. There wasn't a second that he didn't hurt when he was away from Josiah, and only with his love did that pain ease and he felt whole again. Nathan didn't know if the pain would have been as horrible if he had been a man, but he knew he would have been left hurting and that the only relief his mortal soul would have gained would have come when he would have eventually joined Josiah in his grave.
Yet life as an Immortal did not so easily offer an end. A Vampire's heart could be both literally and figuratively dead, and even though they did not want to, they continued to suffer along in an existence that shouldn't even be possible. That existence had been soothed when he'd had the man he loved and their family, but for a long time now, Nathan had known he was going to have to make a choice between them.
For almost as long, he had known what that choice would be, but he had fought against going with Josiah because he'd wanted to be there for his family who still needed him. Despite their superior healing factors, it was nothing unusual for his clan to be injured in battle, and Nathan had always been there for them, to piece together their bodies and later, when Josiah had been stolen away from them, their souls. He had put his family ahead of himself and his love, but now Josiah had shown him that he needed him.
Their last time together played through his mind yet again, for well over the hundredth time, and Nathan hung his head. He should have gone with him that night, but he hadn't. He'd waited yet again, a small sliver of him still hoping foolishly that somehow his family would come around to accepting his beloved. The others had, but Chris never would. He had been burned countless times throughout the centuries by prejudice, but never would he have thought that Chris would prove to be as cold-hearted and prejudiced as he was against his love, Josiah.
There was nothing else for it, Nathan thought, shaking his head. He had to go. He deserved to be happy, and Josiah did as well. That happiness would only come when they were together, in each other's arms where they belonged, and there was only one way that that could happen. Josiah had risen up against his Werewolf clan and had been cast out from them. A howl off in the distance caused a shiver to run down Nathan's spine. He knew they were hunting for his love and that Josiah had turned against them, quite nearly sacrificing his own life, to save the lives of his true family and, most of all, to save Nathan.
Yet they were still condemned. They were still suffering through a Hell to which only he could put an end, and it was going to happen, Nathan promised himself and Josiah though his mate couldn't hear him. They were going to be together. A soft whimper stopped Nathan in his tracks just as he had been about to make the final turn to home. He whirled around and peered into the alley next to him, his dark brown eyes shifting to red as he peered into the shadows.
A smile lit his face, and his heart shouted for joy for there, just within the shadows, stood the Werewolf he loved. Without a second thought, he rushed into the darkness, dropped his umbrella to the ground, and threw his arms around Josiah. The whimpering Werewolf clung to him, his sharp, yellow claws cutting into Nathan's heavy, black coat. Nathan closed his eyes, squeezed Josiah even harder, and inhaled his scent.
He had to remember every second of this moment with his love for he didn't know when he'd get to be with him again. To the rest of the world, Josiah would have smelled only like a wet dog, but to Nathan, his scent was the most wonderful thing his nose had ever inhaled. He smelled the musk of his werewolf coat, but he also smelled the sweet, strong, and thoroughly intoxicating scent of the man he loved.
Josiah's fur disappeared underneath Nathan's gripping hands. His size decreased, and he stood, within the shelter of his love's arms, as naked as the day on which he had been born. Nathan nuzzled more deeply into his neck, his lips finding his rough, scratchy throat and pressing a loving kiss upon his skin. "Nathan," Josiah whispered in the deep, sensual voice that had filled Nathan's every dream for centuries, "I love you!"
He didn't have to look at him to know he was crying. He could hear his tears in his voice, and he felt them commingling with the tears welling up from his own heart and beginning to pour down his dark face. He pulled back, his hands going instinctively to cup Josiah's handsome face, and he gazed deeply and forlornly into his eyes. "I love you too! I've never once stopped, and I never will! Josiah . . . " Nathan took a deep breath and then said the words he'd been aching to speak since the day his love had been turned. " . . . let's run away together."
The smile that burst over Josiah's face filled Nathan's heart with a warmth that had been missing from his life ever since his soul mate had been taken away from him, and in that second, Nathan's belief that he was doing the right thing was reaffirmed. They were meant to be together, and they would be together, even if being so pitted them against all the rest of the world. Only together were they whole, and nothing would ever again part them.
"I thought you'd never ask!" Josiah admitted in a deep, almost purring rumble. His tail had sprung back to life underneath his duster, and it whipped about eagerly. His strong, rough hands gently cupped Nathan's face, and he lovingly ran his fingers and thumbs over his tender flesh. "But are you sure, love? Chris's never gonna understand."
Nathan shrugged. "I don't care what he understands or doesn't any more, baby. All I care is that I'm with you, I love you, you still love me, and I ain't ever gonna let anything part us again!" They kissed then, a long, slow kiss filled with all the tender, passionate love that consumed them both for each other. Their tongues swept into each other's mouths as they deepened their kiss. Their bodies pressed together, and Nathan's hands drifted down Josiah's long, muscular body, seductively caressing every inch of his sexy body and trying to commit every single spot to permanent memory, until he eventually grasped Josiah's bushy, gray tail. He stroked him there, careful to keep his fingers, which were tingling with delight, caressing him with the flow of his fur.
Josiah broke free from their kiss and let the howl of joy that had been building in him since Nathan had asked him to run away with him finally escape. It blasted into the night and throughout the city, making every mortal, Vampire, and Werewolf head alike lift to the sound. The humans scurried more quickly along their mundane, daily lives while some of the beasts of the night bared their fangs in savage retribution. They knew what that sound meant, and they didn't like it. Still four others heard the howl, and those gallant Vampires bowed their heads in acceptance and smiled their happiness for their friends.
"I love you too!" Josiah cried, and he picked Nathan up, whirled him around, and raced off into the night with the man he loved. At long last, they were together and were whole, and nothing in the world would ever part them again!
