Work Text:
The silence that rang in the penthouse after Louis left hung heavy, like a physical thing against Daniel's limbs. Armand stood in the center of the room- cracked, empty wall behind him, a scatter of books and torn pages around him, looking like the sole survivor of a hurricane. For a long moment he stood unnaturally still, and his face looked genuinely devastated - an unsettling look at the lost child Daniel suddenly fully believed he'd once been.
Then his face went utterly blank, and his eyes snapped to Daniel, focusing in a millisecond like the lens of a camera, and Daniel felt a twinge of ancient, animal fear deep in his chest. He'd known for this entire interview, technically, that he was prey. It was only now that his body caught on to that knowledge.
Still, if there was one thing Daniel could do while utterly petrified, it was stick his foot in his mouth, and lacking a flamethrower or a nuclear bomb that might have a chance of taking this creature out, Daniel reverted to what he knew.
"Hey, man, I'm sorry about your boyfriend, but-"
Armand cut him off with a low, hollow laugh.
"My boyfriend," he echoed. "Always the same, isn't it? My life, destroyed, in ruins. And then trivialized by its killer."
"I didn't mean-"
"What do you hope to accomplish by continuing to speak?" Armand said. "Or is it just a dumb animal impulse by now? You have ruined everything, Daniel. Do me the favor of enjoying your victory without further inane rambling."
"Sorry, I've ruined everything?" Daniel scoffed, unable to stop himself even as the part of his brain that remembered it was prey screamed at him to shut up. "I can't decide which is more pathetic, that you'll keep lying after all this time or that you might really believe the shit you spout." Armand's head ticked a degree to the side, a hint of incredulity cracking the blank expression in his huge eyes. "This thing was dead long before I got here, Armand. You two were parading around the corpse of your marriage like weekend at fucking Bernie's. I mean, you killed the guy's daughter, man, what did you think was going to happen here?"
"I never-"
"Yeah, yeah, you could not prevent it. Again, impossible to tell which is worse, but I'm starting to think you really do believe yourself, and frankly? It's pathetic. I don't think in that entire story I ever saw you really make a decision and live with it. Always evading, avoiding, fucking procrastinating, as if you aren't 500 years old and more powerful than any of the idiots you claim to be afraid of."
"Oh, I'm pathetic?" Armand said, barking a sharp laugh. "What was it you said about yourself, Daniel? Ruined two marriages, fucked up two daughters, and for what? Another book you won't finish? Does it make you feel better, Daniel, to come here and dissect my pathetic acts so you don't have to fix any of your own? Are you just here to procrastinate on any human relationships you might have a chance at until you die and they aren't your problem anymore? Are you hoping I'll speed that process along, Daniel?" Armand advanced on Daniel as he spoke, slow, inexorable steps, and Daniel couldn't tell if it was the vampire's mind pinning him to the chair where he sat or his own transfixion. The prey-fear was still there, but it wasn't as strong as it should be, and rapidly being taken over by something worse.
"You aren't going to kill me," Daniel said, with a certainty that was both unshakable and mystifying. Why am I so sure of that?
"You've driven away your only defender, Daniel. What reason do I have not to kill you?" Armand loomed over him now, hands on the armrests of his chair. This close, Daniel had a better sense of why he was so sure he was not going to die. It was in Armand's eyes. His eyes that were no longer devastated or blank, but... interested. Furious, sure, but more than anything... alive. In a way Daniel had only seen flashes of until now.
He was so close now, close enough for Daniel to feel the uncanny lack of heat from his body. Like being trapped between the arms of a statue rather than breathing down the neck of a man. But this man was breathing- chest heaving with it, in fact - and Daniel decided that if he was going to go out, it was going to be on a far stupider decision then just being unable to shut up.
He only had to lean forward to close the distance. Once his mouth found what it was looking for, Daniel realized he was ravenous.
It was impossible that Daniel could have pulled Armand down to sit properly on his lap, but there was his weight, knees shoved to either side of Daniel's thighs, and there was Daniel's hand on Armand's hip. It was impossible that Daniel could be commanding the angle of their kiss, but there was his hand wound tight into black curls and Armand's neck craned to match. Impossible that Armand could be rolling and arching and groaning into it, but... there he was. A few seconds into a single messy kiss and he was nearly undone, all 500 years of him.
"How long has it been?" Daniel gasped into his open lips, unable to turn off his hunter's curiosity even now. Armand laughed roughly and shoved his hips against Daniel's, hard.
"I should be asking you that, old man." But his mind- Daniel realized with a shock that he could feel Armand's mind against his - gasped, like this? Years. Decades.
"Gonna fix that," Daniel grunted, hauling him close with a hand across the end of his spine, crushing them together by the hips. Armand went to throw back his head but was caught by the hand in his hair, and whined deliciously at the pull.
You're letting me manhandle you like this, Daniel thought, testing that connection between their minds.
Yes.
Is that how you want it? Armand only growled and attacked Daniel's mouth again, biting and tugging with no hint of inhuman teeth. Okay, fine, you got it, boss. But don't fucking call me anything in French. Daniel paused, considered, squeezing at Armand's ass as he did. You can say please, though. If the mood strikes.
Obnoxious, impudent boy. But Armand smirked as he thought it, eyes flashing up at Daniel through lowered lashes.
And that's enough of that. Daniel redoubled his grip on Armand's hair and hauled it back, until Armand's whole upper body was arched back over Daniel's knees, trembling as he struggled to keep his balance. Daniel appreciated the detailed performance, a fact Armand clearly caught wind of, as evidenced by the widening of the smirk on his slightly swollen lips. Carefully and, Daniel suspected, with not a little help from Armand, Daniel continued the motion as he rose out of the chair, until he had Armand sprawled back, half on the rug, half on tile, pinned between Daniel's legs. Daniel quirked an eyebrow at him, looking pointedly down at the clothes Armand still wore, and Armand stared innocently back up.
Is there something I can do for you, Daniel? he asked. Daniel yanked hard on his fistful of hair, ruining that faux-innocent expression with an open-mouthed groan.
Clothes off, asshole, and quickly.
Of course, Daniel. Thankfully, pinching down hard or Armand's nipple the moment one was exposed did a lot to dissipate that smugness.
After a lot of mutually ungraceful writhing Armand was naked and Daniel was halfway there, shirt off and pants half-down, which was apparently enough for Armand. He was dragging Daniel in with his legs linked around his waist, reaching down for Daniel's cock.
"Impatient," Daniel huffed, half-smiling as he pressed Armand back down. "You want it like this? Want me to fuck you?" In his mind, he got back a wordless jumble of frustration and arousal, interspersed with images that made his dick throb distractingly- a bird's-eye view of the two of them tangled together, a close-up on Daniel's cock sliding in and out of Armand, flashes of open mouths and closed eyes and grasping fingers. "A custom porno is not an answer, honey." And wow, where had that come from, but no time to examine it with Armand's voice back in his head, somehow wrecked even telepathic.
Please, he was insisting, and didn't that go straight to Daniel's cock. Please, yes.
"You got lube around here?"
Armand scoffed out loud. It is impossible for you to hurt me, Daniel.
"Not interested in fucking you raw. Consider my dick if nothing else." Armand flung out an arm, face creased with annoyance and thwarted arousal, and it was bizarrely endearing. A few moments later a bottle of lube slammed into his hand and he was shoving it at Daniel, and before Daniel could even be properly amused at the trivial use of power, everything began to move very fast. Before he knew it he was inside Armand, gasping, watching as Armand threw his head back against the tile until it cracked.
Surreal. Daniel moving in and out of this ancient murderer with his hot human body, his wrinkles and tremors against bloodless brown skin. Armand continued to let himself be moved at Daniel's will, letting him lift his hips and hold his wrists and move him against the floor with each thrust. When Daniel's core got tired, Armand seemed to know instantly, rising up on one elbow and biting his free thumb until blood spilled over his lips and down his wrist.
Take it, Armand murmured, and David kissed the blood off his lips before taking the torn thumb into his mouth. The blood tasted just like blood at first, like a punch to the mouth, and Daniel wrinkled his nose, but at the first swallow it exploded into sensation. His muscle aches vanished, his vision sharpened, and every touch against his skin, around his cock, sent him to the stratosphere. He pointedly did not think about Louis, about "the best you've ever had, but better," throwing himself into Armand instead to avoid the echoes.
Armand tugged his hand out of Daniel's mouth, smeared a bloody thumb over Daniel's lips, melted into him with legs still tight around Daniel's waist. The next few thrusts Daniel fucked into with more power than he thought he had, and Armand, while never tightening his legs around Daniel more than he could stand, slammed a hand so hard into the tile that it left a crater in the stone two inches deep as he came.
The display of simultaneous control and its loss hit Daniel low in his belly and he followed just a few strokes after.
Daniel wasn't sure what to expect when it was over, half waiting for Armand to politely extract himself and go back to his iPad like nothing had happened. Instead, he got Armand octopused around him, legs around his waist and arms around his neck, so that he came along with Daniel when he flopped onto his back. His body rose and fell with Daniel's heavy breaths. Deep in his center, Daniel could very distantly feel a heartbeat, unnaturally slow and faint. Despite himself, Daniel let a hand creep back into Armand's hair, gentle this time, and watched his muscles unwind as if turning down a dial.
"Huh," Daniel said, for once out of questions. The interview was over. He was holding a killer to his chest. He should be buzzing, figuring out what's next, what's next, but -
His mind was quieter than he could remember it ever being.