Title: Everything I Do
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Josef Kostan/Mick St. John
Fandom: Moonlight
Rating: R
Word Count: 1,593
Disclaimer: This is entirely a product of my own imagination, and I make no profit from it. I do not own the lovely Josef Kostan or Mick St. John, unfortunately. Please do not sue.***
Mick threw the body in his arms to the ground in disgust, feeling dirty. He wished that he hadn't had to touch the thing, but it had been unavoidable. He was doing what he had to do to protect what was dearest to him, and he'd do it again if it was needed.
These men had come after Josef. They might not have intended to kill him, but Mick knew that their ultimate goal had been to do his boyfriend harm. And he wasn't going to let that happen. No one was going to get to the man he loved.
The bodies would have to be disposed of, but that shouldn't be a problem. The "cleaning crew" could get rid of them, and there would be no indication that anything had ever happened. It would be neater than Josef's habit of making bodies disappear in the tar pits.
Slowly, the vampiric glow faded from his eyes, though the anger that people could have tried to hurt Josef still stayed in his heart. He looked down at the three bodies on the ground, almost unable to believe that he had killed all of them.
This wasn't like him. Josef would be the first person to point that out. But these men had been coming after the one he loved, and he was going to protect Josef with everything he had. He'd proved that fact time and time again. It should be known by now.
A disturbance in the air made him look up -- to realize that Josef was standing in front of him, looking down at the bodies that lay at Mick's feet. His boyfriend's gaze met his own, the look of disbelief in Josef's dark eyes unreadable. Mick had no idea what he might be thinking.
He looked down himself, then realized that was a mistake -- one of those bodies was staring up at him with wide-open eyes. Mick looked away quickly, shoving his hands in his pockets, not wanting to meet Josef's direct gaze.
"They would have hurt you," he muttered, shaking his head. He wanted to speak before Josef said a word, to make his reasoning crystal-clear. "I wasn't going to stand around and let them come after you, Josef. I'm not letting anybody do anything to you. Ever."
"I can take care of myself, Mick." Josef's voice was soft, with an undertone that Mick couldn't quite place. "I'd been doing a good job of that long before I met you. I don't need a bodyguard. Even though I do appreciate you trying to take care of me."
"You were asleep, Josef!" Mick burst out, finally meeting his boyfriend's eyes. "They could have come in there and staked you. Then you'd have been up shit creek, y'know? They could have killed you and you'd have been helpless to stop whatever they did."
Josef shook his head with a sigh, his gaze moving over the bodies again. "Mick, you can't go postal on anybody you think might be gunning for me. You were right this time, but what happens if you aren't? You don't want to kill any innocent people."
"Innocent people wouldn't be trying to get into your apartment in the middle of the night," Mick shot back, angered by Josef's argument, even though he knew that it was true. He was starting to feel guilty -- and that guilt made him defensive.
"You're right about that," Josef agreed, prodding one of the bodies with the toe of his slipper. "I wasn't ready to have anybody show up in the middle of the night -- anybody other than you, that is. But I could have defended myself, Mick."
"Are you so sure of that?" Mick asked pointedly. "You're wearing a bathrobe and slippers. You weren't even awake when they showed up. I don't know how they got in here, but I'm going to do background checks on everybody working in this building."
Josef nodded thoughtfully, frowning as his gaze swept the room. "Somebody who works here had to have let them in. And they didn't call me first to see if they were expected. So yeah -- something's definitely going on here. I'll do the background checks myself.
Mick shook his head, scowling at his boyfriend. "No, you won't. I'm more used to doing stuff like this than you are. I'll handle the background checks. I'll be better at seeing any discrepancies. You can be with me if you want, but I want to do this myself."
"You do too much for me, Mick," Josef said softly, his gaze coming to rest on his boyfriend. "I don't want you to spend all of your time worrying about me and trying to protect me. It's sweet, but you've got other priorities in your life."
"I couldn't ever do too much for you," Mick whispered, reaching for Josef and pulling the other man into his arms. "Everything I do is for you. Every breath I take is for you. Josef, you're my reason for living. You're why I wanted to be turned again."
"I know," Josef murmured, resting his forehead against Mick's, his words coming out slowly. "But we've all got to have some freedom, Mick. I love you, and I want to spend eternity with you. You know that. I just .... don't want you to focus all your energy on me."
"I don't," Mick protested, feeling a little guilty even as he said the words. He'd been so wrapped up in Josef lately that he'd been neglecting some of his other work, and he knew that he shouldn't be. But he couldn't help worrying about his boyfriend.
"That's not true, and you know it," Josef admonished him in a soft voice. "Mick, you spend almost all of your time with me now. You're not even living with me yet, and you're over here every night, and usually at my office sometime during the day."
"Somebody's got to look after you, and you won't have a bodyguard," Mick told him, feeling helpless in the face of Josef's arguments. Deep down inside, he knew that his lover was right; he just hated to admit that he couldn't always protect the man he loved.
"I can take care of myself," Josef told him again, his voice now firm and strong. "Mick, I love you. And I love that you want to take care of me. But let me have some breathing space, okay? We'll be living in the same apartment soon, and you'll be around me even more."
Mick nodded slowly, releasing a pent-up breath. Josef was right, even though he hated to admit it. He had to back off, to give the other man a little more room to move. Josef wasn't the kind of person who could take being smothered, even by affection.
"It scares me that these guys could get into your home, Josef," he said, looking down at the bodies again as he pulled out his cell phone to call the cleanup crew so that they could come and cart away the mess. "They shouldn't have been able to."
"What scares me more -- or at least just as much -- is that you could take down all three of them before I even got dressed and got in here," Josef told him, a hint of laughter in his voice. "You must have been possessed, Mick. You're like an avenging angel."
"I'd do anything for you," Mick said, his voice thick with emotion. "When I saw the door open, I knew there were people in here who shouldn't be. And when I saw them heading for your bedroom -- something just snapped. I knew they were out to get you."
Josef nodded, his gaze moving to the front door. It was now shut; Mick had closed it when he'd entered the apartment. He hadn't wanted any sound to get out; he'd been careful to keep the killing as quiet as he could. He was sure that no sound had leaked out.
"I'd do anything for you, too," Josef whispered, his voice sounding choked and strained. "If the tables had been turned -- I'd have done the same thing for you. Everything I do is for you. I'm trying to be who you want me to be without changing too much of myself in the process."
"You don't have to change," Mick told him quietly, hugging Josef close against him. "I love you exactly the way you are. Everything I'll ever do in my life is for you, Josef, whether you change one bit or not. I'll still be yours. And I'll still love you."
Josef didn't answer; he simply nodded, but Mick could tell by the look in his eyes that his boyfriend felt the same. After all the time they'd known each other, he'd learned to read Josef's eyes; he could tell what the other man was feeling.
Dialing the number for the cleanup crew, he cleared his throat and waited for someone to answer, readying himself to answer their questions. He was definitely going to be asking a lot of questions of his own in the next few days -- and he hoped that he'd be able to get some answers.***