Bonding

It was strange to just sit and talk to someone else, Cya thought, someone else who understands. He had been living a double life for nearly a year now or more like he had been two people. One went to school everyday, worked it's ass off for the grades and earned a pittance salary being Professor Nummit's, or as he liked to refer to him: Numb nuts, slave. The other lived with Mik. And besides the Russian there had been no one to talk to about all of this. But now here he was. At a coffee house. With another man, who was involved in a long term relationship with a guy.

Weird.

"So yeah, we were friends for like ever and we kind of just fell into the whole thing. Like it was planned." Harley wound down. The narrative of how he and Skids had gotten together took only a few minutes, but it was packed with meaning and emotion. Cya nodded graciously, groping for the next thing to say.

"That's cool....that you guys could find each other like that. If I was in the same situation, I don't think I would be able to say anything."

"So, what about you and Mik?" Harley shot back.

"What about us?"

"How'd ya know, hook up?"

"I went into this bar to warm up, we hit it off, got drunk. Went back to his place and fell asleep in the living room. Woke up freezing and wound up in his bed to warm up."

"That's it?" Harley asked, one eyebrow cocked.

"No! I mean...well sorta. I didn't just have sex with him if that's what you mean."

"You mean to tell me, you climbed into his bed and you didn't have sex?" The blonde's voice rose an octave.

"Yeah, well...I was scared, but we kept seeing each other. I mean, I gave him my number and I would just crash at his place on weekends, to escape home. Slept in his bed...one thing kinda just led to another." Cya muttered into his coffee. This was more embarrassing then he had thought it would be.

"Led to another? Which brings me back to my other question....."

Definitely more embarrassing. He really hoped that his skin hid the magnitude of the blush that he could feel flushing his face with heat.

"He.....does me. Mostofthemtime." Cya rushed out in a whisper. It felt weird hearing the words out loud.

"Wow. Really? I mean, you don't seem the type...."Harley trailed off, trying to communicate the message without really saying anything.

"I hated it the first few times." He surprised himself by saying. "It was just painful and awful and I couldn't figure out why anyone would ever do that to themselves." He paused and then dove back in, something was driving him to say all this, "I was going to give up on it until Mik suggested.....Dios....face to face, even though that might make the pain worse....but somehow it didn't....It was....." He reached for a word, "fantastic. Safe. I felt safe and loved and warm and protected..... I realized that all this time I've always been taking care of someone else, my sisters, a pet, my friends and for the first time, someone took care of me. Protected me."

Silence reigned for a long minute, Cya to embarrassed to speak and Harley to surprised by the amount of trust that Cyanide had just given him. Finally, he placed a light hand on the Latino's arm.

"I get it." Was all he said. And that was enough.

**Elsewhere**

Footsteps in the hall made Mik rush to the door. He was bored out of his skull and he was tired of waiting for Cya to come home. Deep down, he understood his lover's need to spend time with someone beside him, but try telling that to his groin area.

Opening the door, he just managed to catch the tail end of an extremely disturbing scene.

His ex-boyfriend, who may or may not be an evil minion of hell, was standing in Tabitha's doorway looking even more thoroughly debauched then usual. He was wearing wrinkled slacks and a ripped white undershirt, long red hair pulled back in an exceedingly messy ponytail. There were bite and scratch marks marring entire blocks of pure white skin and apparently of the inflictor of these wounds wasn't quite finished yet as she was busily gnawing at the arched graceful neck while Tybalt muttered encouraging nonsense syllables.

For Mik, it was something akin to watching a car wreck. You didn't really want to watch, but somehow you just can't tear your eyes away, even as you can feel the dry heaves coming on.

"Call me as soon as you get home, " Tabby purred at him. "And it would be a very, very bad idea to stand me up."

"No worries." Tybalt purred right back at her. "As soon as I step in the door, I'm yours."

And the heat of the building and Cya's vague hints all clicked into place within Mik's head. A smile curved on his lips as he shut the door quietly behind him. Sometimes, Cyanide was a pain in the ass, but it was moments like these, where his evil was used for the power of good, that Mik remembered why he was in love.

As soon as Cya walked in the door, he was embraced and kissed.

"Mmmmmph. Not that I'm complaining, but what was that for?"

"Tabby and Tybalt are an item." Was all he said. Cya paused for a moment and then launched into a full victory dance around the living room.

The victory dance lead to victory sex. But that's another story all together.