Pairing: Adam du Mortain/Detective Xing “X” Volkov
Word Count: 802
Xing was not a fighter.
He could handle himself in a fight, that much was true. And he was often smart enough to gain a tactical advantage over his foes, using whatever technology he had on hand to defend himself against his opponents.
None of that mattered, however, when going up against Adam. For starters, Adam was eleven inches taller than him, and pure muscle— whereas X was much leaner.
Normally, being smaller would give X the advantage of being faster than his opponent, and therefore harder to hit. But with Adam’s vampiric speed, that advantage was gone completely.
That didn’t matter, though, he told himself. He just needed to get a hit on Adam, to prove that he could. To prove that the training hadn’t been for nothing— to prove that he wasn’t useless simply because he was human.
He wasn’t sure if he was grateful that Adam wasn’t going easy on him, or if he despised it. It felt like going up against a genuine target, which he knew would help his training— but it also made it that much harder to actually get a hit in.
He tried hitting underneath Adam’s ribs, and was swatted away like it was nothing. He tried his neck— doing his best not to think about the strong lines of it, and how they’d feel under his touch. He continued over and over, throwing punches (and a few defiant kicks) that didn’t come anywhere close to hitting. Every time, Adam batted him away, like he was just an annoying fly.
One thing, X noticed, was that Adam adamantly avoided hitting X’s back, where he knew the old injury still occasionally throbbed and ached.
He was making sure not to hurt him, even as X came at him with everything he had.
It made X’s face heat up, and he stormed back over to take another water break. He barely even registered the conversation he was having with Adam, too busy thinking about how thoughtful he was being while kicking his ass.
He did notice, however, how distracted Adam got when a single drop of water slid down his chest.
“You know what?” He said, smirking softly. “It’s really hot in here. You’re already shirtless, so let’s even it out, hm?”
Adam watched him take his shirt off like a man experiencing his first religious experience, and X grinned in triumph. “Much better. Again.”
As it turns out, operation “Fluster Adam to the Point of Landing a Hit on Him” was a complete failure. He was able to attempt a few more defiant hits before his back started to give out, and he hit the mat with a soft groan.
Nothing could have prepared him in that moment for Adam straddling him, though.
“Giving up won’t help you learn,” Adam said, though X barely heard it through the rushing of blood in his ears. Their hips were almost touching, both of them sweeping their gaze up and down the other’s form.
A plan coalesced in his brain as Adam’s body stiffened in shock at their position— one where he could finally gain the upper hand.
It was far easier than he thought to roll them over so that he was the one on top. He reveled in the way Adam’s previously steady breath turned heavy, thanking the universe that he had a photographic memory— this was truly a sight he never wanted to forget, especially as his body angled to close the gap between them in a way that made him feel like he’d just won the lottery.
“Adam...” X purred, sending a shiver through Adam’s body that caused him to let out a low, wanting growl.
X resolved, somewhere deep in the back of his mind, to hear that sound as much as he possibly could. He reached a hand out to Adam, thrilled at the tension between them finally breaking—
“Don’t.” Adam whispered, sounding like a plea that he himself didn’t even want. X froze, and Adam pushed him off, all but springing to his feet in an attempt to put as much distance between them as he could.
Mason entered the room, and X wasn’t quite sure how to feel about his entrance. He was glad to have a buffer between the tension and the training, but he wished that he and Adam could spend more time together, and maybe talk like people for once.
“Take over training.” Adam practically barked, slamming the door open so hard that it broke.
X signed, adding ‘training room door’ to his ever-growing mental list of things that Adam had broken.
More than anything, X worried that there was one, final thing he’d have to add to the ‘broken by Adam’ list, if he kept playing at whatever sort of game he was playing—
I wanted to try and do something a little more fun with this prompt, since I’m sure everyone else is already working on that sweet, sweet angst!
“No, no, no!” Xing groaned, storming back into the office like a small hurricane. “I can’t believe this!”
“What’s wrong, detective?” Adam asked, a blond brow arching in his signature expression.
“She’s dead!” He yelled, and all four members of Unit Bravo instantly stiffened— staring at him with looks of confusion and concern.
“Who’s dead?” Nate asked.
“Umbra!” He responded, as he began to pace in distress.
There was silence from Unit Bravo, watching X as he continued his pacing, lighting a cigarette— apparently ignoring his own rule of “no smoking in my goddamn office.”
Then, Mason spoke.
“...Are you talking about your stupid car?”
“Yes!” X responded, noting the way that everyone seemed to relax at that. “I knew it was going to happen sooner or later, but I didn’t expect her to go so soon!”
“It’s a car, Detective.” Adam said, his tone full of confusion (and not-so-subtle disapproval).
“Hey, some of us need our cars to get to places. With a back like mine I can’t exactly walk everywhere all the time, and I’m not nearly as fast as you all are.”
“I don’t know, handsome, you can be pretty fast when I’m—”
“Well!” Nate interrupted, not letting Mason get the chance to finish his obvious innuendo. “You mentioned you were saving up for a motorcycle, didn’t you? At least now you’ll have an excuse to buy one!”
X seemed to muse it over for a moment, before nodding. “There’s that, at least. I have enough for the bike I was looking at, though I’ll have to wait to buy some of the nicer upgrades for a while— stupid small town detective salary.”
“Personally, I’m glad that car’s dead! It seems safer for you to be driving, well, anything else.” Felix chuckled, half-surprised when no one chastised him for the statement.
“The vehicle did seem to be in a rather unsafe condition.” Adam agreed. “It’s better that it died while you were trying to leave the office than while you were on the road.”
“Yeah, yeah, I get it. Everyone hated Umbra, it was a hazard to my safety, so on and so forth.” X rolled his eyes, finishing the cigarette and putting it out on the bottom of his boot. “Mason especially complained about it all the time— well, he seemed to hate every part of it except the back seat.”
“...Shit.” Mason groaned. “I never got you into that backseat before the car died.”
“Now you get why I was so upset! Or, well, part of it!” X sighed. “I had plans for that car, but it isn’t salvageable at this point. Well, parts of it, maybe. The rest of it will have to be scrapped.”
“It’s about time.” Felix muttered, but Mason didn’t seem to hear him.
“The car may not be going anywhere, but that doesn’t mean we won’t have an opportunity to give it a... proper send off.”
“Oh, really?” X asked, smirking as he raised his eyebrows. “Years of hating that car and everything it stood for, and now you want to give it a ‘proper send off?’”
“Hey, it took care of you for a long time. That’s worth something.” Mason shrugged, oblivious to the stunned looks the other three were giving him. “Besides, I spent so long trying to get you into that backseat, and I can’t exactly do that if you’ve got a motorcycle.”
“Great observation, sunshine.” X grinned, looking like the very picture of mischief. “Motorcycles don’t have back seats.”
Mason growled, and Felix burst into laughter. X puffed his chest out slightly, all five-foot-two of him looking smug and proud enough that Mason wanted nothing more than to wipe that grin off of his face.
“But, well, I’m not going to discuss that sort of thing in front of the rest of Unit Bravo, and not in my office. It’s called not safe for *work* for a reason, isn’t it?” X grinned, slowly making his way to the door.
“I’ll be outside. If you can find one last way to try to get me into that backseat, then I’m more than up for a final attempt.”
Mason followed him out, moving faster than he had in a very, very long time.
And if he was genuinely excited by the idea? Then that was no one’s business but his own.
