Chapter Text
San Francisco, 1888:
“Duncan MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod.”
A familiar voice greeted him from behind. Duncan turned around to see a man walking towards him, tall and lanky and smiling as he doffed his hat.
“Why if it isn’t my friend the vampire,” he said in a low voice that would not travel. This made Doc grin.
“It’s good to be remembered,” he said, eyes lingering as they both re-lived their past.
“Welcome to the Queen of Spades,” Duncan gestured around the casino in all its opulent glory.
“I didn’t realize you owned this place,” Doc said as he sauntered closer, gesturing at the opulent interior of the casino.
Smiling deeply with an upturn of his lips he told him “Oh, not mine,” Amanda would kill him if he suggested otherwise. “I just, uh, work here?”
“I guess one must have some sort of employment,” Doc said with a secretive smile. Closer Duncan noticed the man had a deep tan and his hair was long tied back in a tail at his neck, and his suit was pristine as if he had bought it that day. Looking closer he saw it wasn’t tailored.
“And how have you been occupying yourself these days?” He asked, curious about the changes he saw.
“Staying hidden- very, very off the beaten path.”
“Koren?” Duncan asked, searching his face for signs that there was more to dig into there.
“I have managed to elude him for now...” Duncan could tell there was more to that story, but if he had been off the grid since last he saw him it wasn’t anything good.
“That is a long time to be hiding.”
Doc smiled. “I’ve spent longer. But the wild west is being tamed. Civilization came to me and I couldn't avoid it, so I guessed it was time to reassume the mantle of society.”
Duncan nodded. “I know what you mean.” Thinking of Little Deer and her tribe. He too had hidden himself away for a few years. They seemed to understand each other without more words on the subject.
Doc nodded, his face going grave. “I keep hoping we will learn not to destroy, but it seems we have found new and more efficient ways to eradicate people.”
Before Duncan could reply to that truism, Amanda spotted them. Bedecked in elegant opulence as she wove through the tables to get to them. “As I live and breathe,” she called out over the din, “is that who I think it is?”
“Amanda!” Adam said with a grin.
“Alexander!” Amanda greeted him back. She practically melted into his arms to kiss him on each cheek. “It has been too long!” Then she pulled back, and hit him playfully on the shoulder. “What has it been, eight hundred years?”
Doc was smiling fondly at her. “Something like that. How is Rebecca?”
“Well, the last I saw her.” She shook her head. “You don’t keep in touch?”
He shook his head. “I have been… roughing it lately.”
“Lately?”
“Well, only very recently,” he conceded that he obviously had not avoided civilization for 800 years.
“I would really like to know what roughing it means to you,” Duncan said drolly.
“Probably much the same as it does to you, old friend.”
“Oh you two have met! Splendid,” she turned back to Doc, “you should join us for lunch, Doc.”
“It would be my pleasure,” he agreed, bowing over her hand and placing a kiss on the back of it.
Grinning in delight, she excused herself to greet a more lucrative target. “See you both later.”
They watched her go, and Doc spoke when she was out of earshot. “Does she know about us?”
Duncan shook his head, “Not unless she can read minds. Besides, these days she is a little too absorbed with the Casino to really notice much else other than money.”
“Good to see some people never change. Last I saw her she was trying to steal my sword out from under me.”
Duncan smiled indulgently, “That..sounds like her.”
“How did you two meet?” He asked.
“She stole my purse,” he said grinning. “Where are you staying? Do you need to change before dinner?” The invitation lingered in the air between them.
“I just arrived in town, actually, booked a room at the Baldwin,” Doc said.
Duncan raised an eyebrow, the Baldwin was the most expensive hotel on the west coast. “You playing at being rich?”
Doc grinned at him, “I am rich.”
Leaning in he whispered, “Don’t say that too loudly around Amanda, she’ll rope you into playing at her tables.”
“Who says that would benefit her?” Doc said with so much mischief in his eyes he started to wonder if he was a match for Amanda.
“Don’t test her, she has been on a lucky streak,” Duncan warned. “Anything else you wish to do?”
Doc bit his lip, “I am famished I must say. If lunch is soon.”
“Sooner the better, there is a private room in the back, I’ll order us some refreshments.” He wrapped his arm around his shoulder and led him towards the back rooms. Doc let himself be led and it was like they were old friends.
—-
“No I swear, the blast from the rifle pushed me off the edge, I fell for what seemed forever till I hit the bottom of the canyon.” Doc was speaking animatedly, his hand gestures lively as he described the events that had led him to living with a tribe for the last several years.
“That’s over a mile to the bottom,” Duncan said, incredulous, trying to imagine the impact falling from such a height. His bones ached just thinking of it.
“Yes, I know.” He said, taking another sip of wine. “I spent most of the time on the way down figuring out how to land so my head didn’t just pop off my neck. It was almost like flying till I hit the bottom.”
“This cannot be true!” Amanda exclaimed. “Duncan, he is lying!”
“I swear to you I am not.” Doc protested, “A boy from the nearby tribe saw it happen. They knew about ‘men of lightning’ so they accepted me into the tribe. Told me I was better off with them than with the white man.”
“So you’ve been living with the tribe since?” Amanda asked.
“It was good for me. I needed a restart, and regrounding. It had been years since I lived outside of polite society.”
“What brought you out?” She asked.
“What else,” his eyes flicked to Duncan. “soldiers wiping the tribes from the face of the earth.” He caught a dark look that flitted across Duncan’s face as he said it and told himself to ask him about it later. “I saved who I could and came to San Francisco to see what the news of the world was these days. When I saw Amanda in the paper I thought I would come see you.” He turned to Duncan, “I didn’t expect to find you as well.”
“You did not come to find me!” Amanda protested.
“Why would I not!” Doc said genially, he gave Duncan a glance adding, “You owe me money!”
Amanda gaped at him, “Duncan, tell your friend he is a terrible liar!”
Duncan ignored Amanda’s antics and asked Doc, “How long are you staying with us?”
“Well, I have some business to attend to. New identity to acquire…I am sure it will take a few weeks to sort out through the mail. I have a room at The Baldwin.”
“Then you should stay here with us, no need to pay ten dollars a day to stay at that overpriced hotel!” Amanda protested.
“I wouldn’t want to presume,” he protested, looking to Duncan for what to do.
Amanda waved his protest away, “Nonsense, we have plenty of room. You can stay with us.”
“Amanda, he might want his privacy.” He tried to step in. Wondering how he would juggle the both of them under one roof if he moved into their suite.
“Oh come now Duncan, you two aren’t going to fight over me or anything!”
“Amanda, leave him be! He already has a place to stay.“
“Oh fine, but when you get bored of wasting money on your rooms, you are more than welcome here.”
Doc looked over at him, and smirked, “I’ve no doubt of that.” His eyes sparkled with mischief… and desire. Duncan choked on his whiskey which signaled an end to lunch.
Amanda took him aside, placing a hand on his chest and looking at him with her ‘I want something’ face. “So is your friend single? He’s fascinating.”
“You’ve known him longer than I,” Duncan evaded the question.
She scowled at him leaning in closer, “Yes, but he is your friend. So you need to find out if he is taken.”
“Since when do you care what anyone else’s relationship status is?” He asked her, pretending to hide his amusement. “Could it be because he is ignoring your advances?”
“See! I knew you knew something,” she poked a finger into his chest.
“Amanda,” he said, patient as you please, “stop fishing, you have quite enough on your plate.” He waved a hand to indicate her ill gotten casino.
“Well, I will find out when he comes to stay with me,” she decided.
“He is staying with me,” Duncan told her firmly.
Her eyes searched his face. “You?” Her question was more than surface level.
No use hiding it, so he gave her a wry smile. “Yes. Jealous?”
Thinking he was teasing her, she threw up her hands in exasperation, “Men!”
—
“Quite the contrast from sleeping under animal skins under the stars each night,” Doc commented as they entered his room on the fourth floor of the Baldwin. It was opulently furnished, and well lit. the bed dominating the space.
He turned to Duncan with an expression that was both expectant and hesitant.
“Now what did you want to talk about?”
“You,” he said simply, his eyes dilated and his cheeks flushed, “I know I am not good at goodbye’s. Though you don’t seem terribly angry with me.”
“A desperate fuck, and a cryptic goodbye letter…what would I have to be angry about?”
“Truthfully, I had hoped you would ignore my plea to leave me alone, and come find me.”
Duncan looked down at his feet. “I almost did, but the other rangers wanted to track down the rest of the posse that got away…” he shrugged. “And it was a bit of an intense night. I needed time to process.”
He smiled. “For me as well. And are you pleased to see me?”
He lost himself in his eyes for a long moment, and grabbed him by the lapels, feeling that he was talking about it entirely too much. Then he kissed him, instantly remembering those lips he had fallen for all those years ago.
They swayed away from each other, opening their eyes. Doc’s expression was soft. “I guess that answers that.” Then his brow furrowed, “What about Amanda?”
“We… have an off and.. on again relationship, mostly off.” He assured him, pressing himself closer so that Doc was forced back until he bumped into the door behind him. “Usually it doesn't last more than a few weeks before one of us bows out…or robs the other blind.”
“So still the same as she was when I knew her.” Doc shook his head, hand resting on his chest like he owned him. “She must drive your righteous ass crazy.”
“She isn’t the only one,” and he pressed him harder into the door, tilting his head to get a better angle, his eyes focused on his thin lips. Adam leaned into the press of his lips, tongue pressing for entrance, his breath suddenly heavy. There was a desperate minute of making out, quickly reacquainting themselves with lips and tongue and spit and Duncan was surprised to feel a tear hit his nose, he pushed Adam gently back. “Doc, what’s happened?”
He shook his head. “Nothing Duncan,” he wiped the tear off his cheek with the back of his hand. I didn’t know you would be here, but now that you are-”
“What?” Duncan asked, suddenly worried that this wasn’t what the Doc wanted.
“I am happy to see you, you idiot. It's just… overwhelming.”
A smile crept onto his lips, “oh I overwhelm you?” He crowded himself closer to him. “Would you like to see how much I can overwhelm you?”
“I just got here, I spent a week in Chicago just to get funds and buy clothes and the essentials. I haven’t even unpacked,” he gestured to his trunk and bags.
“And?”
“I was planning on making a new start here…” he let his hang flop to his sides in defeat. “I wasn’t expecting to meet you again.”
Duncan took his hand and drew him into the room. “I am glad you remembered me.”
“Remember you? Duncan, I haven’t stopped thinking about that night for twenty years.” He shook his head ruefully. “Besides I owe you, I am still not sure what possessed me to bite you that first night.”
“Then it is my turn,” Duncan told him, pushing him backward towards the bed. They set to undressing, cravats jackets with too many buttons, shirts all discarded in record time. Adam flumped onto the feather bed, and Duncan circled around to sit with his back in the pillows on the bed and pulled him up into his lap. When he was settled he brushed a hand up his throat, before bringing his mouth down exactly where Methos had bitten him twenty years earlier, right where neck met shoulder.
Doc gasped but also leaned into it. Duncan, aware of the opulent duvet they sat on and not as drunk as they were the first time, did not bite as hard, but still broke skin. He sucked on the wound, pulling a trickle of blood across his tongue. Then lifted his head.
Doc turned and cupping his face kissed him sideways. “I suppose I deserved that,” he said, his voice husky with desire.
“I think fair is fair,” Duncan said with a little smile playing at the corner of his now bloody lips.
“Now we truly belong to each other,” he said breathlessly, hands tightening around him.
“Blood brothers.”
Doc shivered at his words, looking ahead and dropping his hand from his face.
Feeling the mood shift, Duncan asked. “Are you alright?”
“Just…” he sighed. “Kronos called us ‘blood brothers’.”
“Oh.” Duncan said, then he kissed his neck, lapping up the blood that had welled up in the meantime. “How about we just be ‘vampire lovers’ then.”
Laughing Doc relaxed, leaning his head back to knock into his lightly. “Better.” He agreed.
Snaking his arms around Doc’s waist and pulling him closer, he deposited kisses and light bites up and down his neck and shoulders. Duncan leaned into the pillows and repositioned Adam as his erection needed more room, reaching around him to take up his cock and stroke it like it was his own while he sucked little love bites up his neck and played with his nipples with his free hand.
“Bloody hell that feels good,” Doc murmured.
Adam turned his head around to kiss him. Duncan moved his hand up to his neck squeezing slightly, and Doc let him, so he increased the pressure, constricting his airway. Duncan watched as his face changed and reddened with oxygen loss and sexual excitement. His hands gripped his thighs hard, so he increased the pace and ground his cock hard into his ass, hips moving in shallow thrusts. Doc arched his back, closing his eyes and leaning his head back onto his shoulder. Duncan looked down across the slope of him; his darker hand around his pale throat, his chest, and erect nipples, his pale washboard stomach, and his cock, deep red and practically jumping in his hand. He balls tight to his flesh as he got closer and closer to ecstasy.
“You make me drunk, ye gods,” he panted into his ear, and he relaxed his choke hold, dipping his head to lick up the newest trickle of blood.
“My blood too potent for you?” he choked out, moving his hips to fuck his hand harder.
“Should I suck on anything else and see what that does?” Those words seemed to tip the scale and Doc’s grip on his thighs increased to a painful level as he came, shooting all the way across the bed in a graceful arc. He cried out and rode through Duncan’s ministrations, his hands becoming slick with his come.
“Holy gods…” Doc panted, collapsing back into him like a rag doll, Duncan let go of his neck and shrinking cock, his head falling back onto his shoulder.
“Welcome to San Francisco,” Duncan said, hugging him closer.