His name was David. He had arrived in Oz a couple of months ago, aggravated battery, five years. He wasn't much to look at, rail-thin body lacking any muscle definition, murky brown eyes too close together. But there was something when he smiled, an indomitable spirit, that seemed to infuse Miguel with a sense of hope that he thought had been crushed.
Alonzo hated him.
He watched the two of them now, sitting together in the computer room, laughing over some game. There was nothing of the despair that he'd grown almost comfortable seeing whenever he looked into Miguel's face at night.
"Maybe you ought to try couples' therapy." He turned to look into Pancamo's smirking face.
"Is everything good on your end?" Alonzo deliberately started walking away from the computer room.
"Yeah. Now that we got the mailroom locked down with those Aryan pricks out of the picture, there shouldn't be any more hiccups." Pancamo gestured to someone across the room. The guy blanched and started in the other direction. "Got something to take care of. Later."
---
He caught up with Miguel in the laundry room a few hours later.
"I told you never to put this shirt in the machine. Hand-washing only." He picked up the faded red silk shirt that had been a present to Miguel just two weeks ago.
Miguel shrugged. "Didn't see it."
"Where's your puppy?" Alonzo let the shirt drop and slid closer to Miguel, fingers lifting of their own accord to trace the delicate lines of his neck.
"Fuck you." The words were delivered with no real fire, and he could feel Miguel relaxing into the touch despite himself. Other than the drugs, the one real weakness that Miguel had when it came to Alonzo was the endless well of affection, both physical and verbal.
"I can barely catch you alone without him following around behind you. Was starting to think that you were looking to trade me in for a new model." His hand slid lower, to the small of Miguel's back, hand drifting beneath his shirt.
"Yeah right." Miguel pulled away, stacking his clothes into a pile.
"You need anything?" He pulled a bottle of pills from his pocket.
"No. I'm cool."
"You're cool." He kept his gaze on Miguel, until he finally lifted his head and looked at him.
"Yeah, man. I'm cool. Good. Never been better." With a brief smile, he picked up his clothes and walked out.
Alonzo saw David spot him from across the walkway and hurry after him.
"Cool." Looking down, he let the remains of the crushed pill bottle fall to the floor.
---
"Three weeks now." Miguel gave the weights one final jerk, then let them drop to the ground.
"You're not getting sick anymore?" David remained seated on a bench. Exercise was not his thing.
"Some shakes every now and then, but nothing like it was before." Miguel lay down on his back and started on his crunches.
"So, you kicked the drugs, what about the other thing?" David waited.
"Working on it." Miguel avoided his gaze.
David sighed. "You know that if you keep on with him, he's just going to get you hooked on that stuff again. If you want to stay clean, you have to make a break from him. And you have to be the one to do it, he's never going to let you go on--"
"You don't need to give me the speech again. Jesus, you're worse than Father Mukada." Miguel let himself fall back. "Tonight."
Neither of them saw Ryan standing near them, smiling.
---
The major benefit of being allowed to hang curtains around his pod was the increased level of privacy it gave Alonzo. One of the drawbacks was that he never could see who was coming into his pod without warning. Like Ryan, who, being Ryan, barged right into his pod, ignoring the shocked squeals of the queens outside.
"Got some info you might be interested in."
Sighing, Alonzo removed the beauty mask from his face. He really hated it when people interrupted his afternoon nap.
"Spill, O'Reily." He glared down into Ryan's cheerful face.
"Just an FYI from me to you, I just overheard that new kid David psyching Alvarez up to break things off with you. I think he's headed to McManus's office, to try and get a transfer." This last part was a lie. As far as Ryan knew, Alvarez was still in the gym with David. But he was tired of being cut out of the Destiny action. He hadn't missed the glares Torquemada had been sending towards Alvarez's new friend. Ryan himself would never go there, but he couldn't fault Alvarez for being swayed. Torquemada gave him a run for his money when it came to being persuasive.
"You're full of it, O'Reily. McManus is off today." Torquemada's face grew hard.
"Well, okay, maybe I exaggerated a little. But David's telling your pretty boy that he'd be better off cutting you loose, so he can stay on this clean kick. He hasn't been coming to you for any D-tabs lately, has he?" He watched Torquemada's jaw tighten. Score. "Listen, just remember, I'm a good ally. Maybe you ought to think of, you know, making a more permanent sort of business arrangement between us. I can--"
"I'll think on it." Torquemada jumped down from his bunk, staring down at Ryan. "You can leave now."
Even Ryan knew when it was time to call it day. "Be seeing you." He left, mission accomplished.
---
It had been a lot easier than he thought. Alonzo had briefly considered having David killed, but he didn't want Miguel tracing it back to him. That would make things really ugly. No, best to handle things another way.
This has to end, thought Miguel, as he watched Alonzo get undressed, the candlelight illuminating all of the planes of his hard, chiseled body. Feminine tastes aside, he was clearly all male when he was naked, grabbing Miguel roughly and forcing his mouth open with his tongue, hands sliding down to cup Miguel's ass. No time to talk, no time for the prepared speech as he was overwhelmed, his senses assaulted by the scent of Alonzo as he trailed kisses along his throat, reveling in the possessive moans being ripped from Torquemada. He felt almost liquid, no shame, just his body shuddering under Alonzo's relentless ministrations.
Alonzo was usually much more playful, dropping kisses all over Miguel's body, taking his time to make him more pliant. This was different, this fierce passion, pushing Miguel face down onto the mattress, fingers digging into his hip, barely taking the time to prepare him before he was breached. He struggled to breathe as Alonzo rode him, tried to keep some sense of himself, and failing.
"I love you." The words whispered into the back of Miguel's neck. Alonzo still shuddering from his orgasm as he pumped mindlessly into Miguel. He could feel Miguel tensing as his own orgasm took hold.
Breathing heavily, he pulled away from Miguel and just watched him, as Miguel finally got enough breath inside his lungs to speak.
"What?"
"I love you. You shouldn't look so surprised. I thought it was obvious." He stretched out like a cat, enjoying the play of emotions across Miguel's face. Hell, until that moment he didn't realize how much he meant it.
"I don't love you." Ouch.
"I know. You have your reasons for being with me. I'm just giving you mine for being with you. You want to stay clean, make new friends, that's fine. I'll be there for you. Protect you, make this place a little less like the hell that it is." He reached out and traced the ridge of Miguel's brow. "I adore you."
He watched Miguel's throat working. "Thank you." He let his head fall onto Alonzo's chest.
---
"How'd it go?" David sat down across Miguel in the cafeteria.
"Okay." Miguel poked listlessly at the plate of food in front of him.
"So, he's not mad?"
"About what?" Alonzo swooped down on them, gracefully falling into the seat beside Miguel.
David glanced from Miguel to Torquemada. The latter leaned forward, his one clear eye glinting with amusement.
"What changed?" David asked, honestly confused.
Miguel kept his gaze on his food. "He gave me some good reasons to reconsider, that's all."
"Oh." And that was that. "I'll catch up with you later, okay?" Rising, he left them there, together.
"You still haven't given me yours, you know. Reasons." Alonzo picked up Miguel's fork and sampled some of the mashed potatoes.
"I'm not ready for that yet. I don't think I can even express them to myself, let alone you." Those eyes finally lifted up to him, and as always, Alonzo was lost. This beautiful man allowed him to worship that sinfully tight body almost every night, and had not blown off Alonzo's declaration of love last night, as he had halfway expected.
Reasons? Who needed them?