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Mitchell finished his drink and slammed his glass onto the coaster. Anders was late. Even more so than usual. Mitchell had been waiting at the bar they had agreed to meet at for more than half an hour, even though he himself had already been late when he arrived. Anders had either been on time and left when he had not spotted Mitchell (highly unlikely), or he had forgotten about their meeting (‘Not a date, Mitchell. We are not dating.’) altogether.
Mitchell unlocked his phone and speed dialed Anders again, but was met with another voicemail message after letting it ring for a minute. He hung up before the beep sounded and he cursed softly. Why was everything always on Anders’ terms? He must be the only vampire who was completely tamed by his partner. And he couldn’t even call him that. He was Anders’ not-quite-friend-but-definitely-fuckbuddy-and-only-exclusive-because-the-sex-is-amazing guy. Not partner, not boyfriend, not a couple. Anders’ commitment issues were legendary. Mitchell falling in love with him was probably the torture he deserved for leading such a wretched undead life the past 100 or so years.
After receiving no answer on his sixth text, he gave up waiting. He would go and find him and let him know how he felt about being stood up again.
He started at j:pr, but only found Dawn. Did she ever go home?
“He went to Mike’s bar.” Dawn explained apologetically. Anders had not told her about their non-relationship, but Dawn had figured out something was going on between them about two months in.
“Of course he did.” Mitchell said. He tried to mask the annoyance in his voice, but Dawn picked up on it anyway.
“It was an emergency. He was fully planning on meeting you, I had to clear his schedule.” She scribbled something on a piece of paper and handed it to Mitchell.
“Yeah, he always plans to go, but somehow only manages to actually be there about half the time.” Mitchell growled back, aleady backing away towards the door. “Thanks anyway, Dawn.”
“No problem.”
He ducked out and started walking in the direction Dawn had pointed out. Why the fuck would Anders need to go to a bar for an emergency? That was just completely nonsensical. Anders had never mentioned ‘Mike’s bar’ before. Perhaps it was new. Maybe it was a strip joint and the emergency was getting laid. He studied the paper with the address on it and took a drag of his cigarette to calm himself.
Anders always pulled these kinds of stunts: disappearing at the last minute, claiming ‘god stuff’ or ‘work emergency’. It had gotten to the point where Mitchell had started questioning Anders’ fidelity. He had confronted Anders with those suspicions a few weeks ago and it had led to their biggest fight yet with Anders storming out of his apartment at 2am, drunk off his ass, and shutting down all contact between them. Mitchell had fully believed that to be the end of their ‘relationship’ and had holed up in his own apartment, willing himself not to give into the bloodlust that had surfaced at the emotional pain he had felt.
Luckily for both himself and a lot of people in Auckland, Anders had showed up after three days. The God’s vessel had smelled of women’s perfume and was halfway to drunk, but had seemed earnest when he had confessed that he had tried to sleep with a bunch of people but ‘just couldn’t do it’. Mitchell had apparently gotten under his skin and he ‘needed him’. It sounded an awful lot like dependence, but Mitchell would have taken anything he could get from Anders at that point. They had not left Mitchell’s apartment for another day.
That had been a month ago and they had not had any big fights since. Until today, that is. If this stunt was another attempt of Anders to fuck somebody that wasn’t him, Mitchell would truly break it off. He wanted to be with Anders, but he wasn’t willing to make himself a backup fuck for a sex addicted God. He had to draw a line somewhere.
When he finally found the bar, it was a truly unremarkable sight. Some stained glass and a shabby sign were all the clues that this was in fact a drinking establishment. He ignored the ‘closed’ sign on the door and entered.
There were a few people in the bar, but Mitchell was too focused on finding Anders to pay attention to them. He released a sigh of relief when he found Anders sitting alone at a high table, drink in hand, not a woman in sight.
He was still angry though. Why would Anders choose to drink here, by himself, when they were supposed to be drinking together at this exact time? Was he avoiding him? Was he waiting for someone else?
Mitchell stalked forward and noticed the exact moment Anders spotted him by the increase in his heart rate. Anders’ eyes shifted towards the other people in the bar and his cheeks reddened slightly, either from anger or embarrassment.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” Anders hissed, as if trying not to be overheard.
Mitchell did not care about being quiet and talked loudly, spurred on by his anger.
“What do you think?! We were supposed to meet over an hour ago!”
Anders looked at his watch and cursed, but he did not apologize. He never did.
“I’m almost done here.” Anders said instead. “Just wait outside for a bit and we can go.” Mitchell felt Bragi’s effects wash over him. Anders knew it did not work on him, Mitchell would only comply if he wanted to, but there must be a reason for Anders using his power. He was uninterested in the reason though, he was way too annoyed to listen to Anders’ bullshit right now.
“I’ll wait here until you’re done then.” Mitchell said. He grabbed the chair next to Anders and sat himself down, stealing Anders’ drink from his hands and taking a pointed sip. Anders huffed but did not say anything. Good. He brought this upon himself.
He broke his gaze from Anders when he heard a pointed cough. The four other men in the bar were shooting strange looks at both himself and Anders.
“What the hell are you looking at?” Mitchell said, feeling particularly confrontational after being dismissed by Anders.
It was the man behind the bar who spoke up. He was probably ‘Mike’, the owner. “The bar is closed, you’re not welcome here.” Mitchell raised an eyebrow at the man’s militant tone.
“These people are all here, aren’t they?” Mitchell spat back, waving Anders’ drink at the three men and Anders himself.
“This is a private meeting.” Mike sneered back.
Mitchell suddenly realized that something was off. The annoyance and anger from the other men in the bar was not solely directed at him, the intruder. He had not spotted it due to his own temper, but there was a lot of hostility from the four men towards Anders. Their looks of disgust, eye rolls, annoyed sighs, exasperated looks and aggression were plain as day now his own ire had lessened.
“We’ll just leave and get out of your hair.” Anders responded before Mitchell could reply to Mike.
“No way, you’re not getting off the hook so easily.” One of the other men yelled, clearly the youngest of the bunch. Anders stood up from his seat and turned to the guy.
“I’m not going to solve your problem, Axl. You created this mess, you can get yourself out.” Anders said. He stole his drink back and finished it in one gulp. “Let’s go.” He added softly without making eye contact with Mitchell. Mitchell stood up as well and felt his mood shift at Anders’ strange behavior.
“Don’t you dare walk out that door.” Mike threatened, moving towards them. Mitchell saw Anders flinch slightly. Something was wrong. He moved without thinking, pushing Anders behind himself and angling his body towards Mike.
Mike stopped his advancement a few feet from them, but was suddenly accompanied by the youngest, Axl. The other two men rose as well, but stayed back, watching.
There was a two-second silence in which they all stared at Mitchell. He glared back. Anders was the first to react, as usual.
“What the hell are you doing?” He said as he elbowed Mitchell in the side. Mitchell let himself be pushed away from his spot between Anders and the others.
He was not really sure why he had felt the need to protect Anders – Anders generally did not need protection at all, he was perfectly capable of talking himself out of any situation – so he shrugged and took a step back, placing himself slightly behind Anders instead. He would let Anders handle it.
“Get rid of your emo boyfriend. You’re coming with us to solve our problem.” Mike demanded.
“He’s not my fucking boyfriend. I don’t do relationships. And I’m not going with you!”
“Yes you are!” Axl shouted. Axl stomped forward and pushed Anders hard, causing the blond to fall back against Mitchell, his head hitting Mitchell’s shoulder painfully. He flinched at the impact.
Mitchell saw red and had Axl roughly pinned against the wall within seconds, his forearm digging into the younger man’s neck and shoulders.
Axl struggled and he was stronger than he looked, but still no match for Mitchell’s vampire strength. It would be so easy to just rip his throat out, let him bleed out, make him scream. He felt his eyes bleed to black and his fangs descent, much to the horror of his victim who let out a high-pitched yelp. He heard the other men yelling at him and felt a pull on his jacket, but they were easily ignored. He breathed in his victim’s fear, but smelt something else. Something more. Just like..
“Stop, Mitchell, stop.” Anders implored, pulling on his shoulder and employing Bragi. Reason returned at hearing Anders’ voice and he contemplated not listening before eventually letting go of Axl, shoving him aside. His eyes and teeth returned to normal.
“You’re a God as well.” Mitchell spat at Axl, who clamped onto the bar in an attempt to steady himself, taking deep breaths.
“Get your violent friend out of here, before we make him.” The dark-haired man interrupted and Mitchell suddenly noticed the bar getting significantly colder.
“You’re all Gods.” Mitchell concluded, looking from one to the other. His attack on Axl had put them all on edge, making their status as vessels obvious to Mitchell. After all, he’d seen it happen often enough with Anders.
“Fuck Anders, we’re not allowed to tell mortals this shit.” Mike raged, his fists clenched and his eyes fixed on Mitchell.
“I don’t think he’s mortal” Axl muttered, his voice wobbly.
“What do you mean?” The bald man asked, a contemplating look on his face.
“His eyes were weird. And his teeth.” Axl answered, flinching when Mitchell glared at him.
“Vampire.” The bald man concluded.
“How the fuck do you know that, grandpa?” Anders said from behind Mitchell’s back. He had given up trying to get around the vampire, who now put conscious effort in separating Anders from the other gods in the room. They were clearly unstable.
“It’s obvious. Very possessive, violent when provoked. Also the pointy teeth.” Mitchell did not give Anders a chance to reply.
“Which he will not hesitate to use if he hears about Anders being attacked again.” Mitchell threatened. Axl stepped back with a whimper and the others looked vaguely alarmed at this turn of events.
“I don’t need your protection, fang boy.” Anders scoffed, his pride clearly hurt. Mitchell turned to Anders, crowded him and let his eyes flicker to black and back to brown.
“I don’t care, I will protect you.” Anders eyes darkened as well, but for a different reason.
“Hot.” Anders said, his voice low and a smirk in place.
Mitchell saw Anders’ mind working on a plan to get laid, possibly in the bathroom of this very bar, but nipped it in the bud by steering them to the exit instead.
“We’re leaving.”
“Wait a minute...” Mike called after them, but the words died in his throat when he was faced with a vamped-out Mitchell.
“I will give you one warning. Leave him the fuck alone.”
Mitchell let his black eyes glide over all four men and only stopped when Anders tugged on his sleeve. He blinked and took a deep breath to calm himself, facing Anders with his brown eyes and blunt teeth, small smile in place. He was led outside, causing the oppressive atmosphere of the bar to lift.
“I should bring you more often.” Anders joked, but Mitchell insisted that he should. He knew Anders would never admit it, but Anders did not feel secure with the four men in the bar. And if Mitchell could help him by threatening a few people, he would gladly do so. He loved him after all.
“How about that drink?” Anders suggested, looking up at Mitchell with a genuine smile on his face.
“Yes, let’s go on our date.” Mitchell replied teasingly. He knew what Anders was going to say, but also how to shut him up.
“It’s not a da-“ Mitchell kissed him and congratulated himself when Anders melted into the kiss and did not correct Mitchell on the word ‘date’ for the entirety of the evening.