The Sky, the stars, the beauty.

I heard a knock on the door.

He smiled when I came into view. "Hey," Foster said.

"Foster," I returned, gesturing towards the kitchen. "I believe it is your turn to play black." I didn't want to talk about me throwing him out or anything of that nature.

He stopped me with a gentle hand on my wrist before I could head towards the board. "I'll keep that in mind," he smiled in a winning fashion. "But I have another idea, something to make things up to you."

I merely raised an eyebrow at him. I didn't get anxious and stuttery on him.

I was open to suggestion.

"Are you going to expand on this idea of yours?" I interrupted his silence.

"Right, yeah," he shook his head. "There's something I'd like for you to see, but it would involve leaving your room."

That killed the relaxed vibe I had. My shoulders tensed. The expression on my face morphed from easy and open to my neutral mask. "I see," I said, my voice strained.

Foster moved forward, sifting his fingers into my hair soothingly. "Relax," he pleaded, kissing me softly. "It doesn't involve leaving the building, I promise. And you won't have to interact with anyone but me."

I glared at him. "How are you able to make that guarantee?"

"Because I've worked it out so you don't have to set one foot outside. And...And I've got a friend who helped me make sure that you wouldn't run into anybody during the trip."

"That does not answer my question," I informed him, still stiff and unforgiving under his hands.

He sighed and gave up on being vague. "My friend's a computer genius, kind of like you but with fewer boundaries about it. There aren't a whole lot of people traveling around the building at this time of night anyway, but she sent out a message about the security system being worked on tonight and everyone needing to keep an eye on their rooms for the next few hours."

I just stared at him. "The message from landlord was fabricated?"

"In that the landlord didn't actually send it and there's really no problem at all with the security system? Yeah, it's fabricated."

"To what purpose?"

He attempted yet another winning smile. "To make sure everyone stays in their rooms and that they won't bother us when we leave your apartment."

The tension kept me rigid and nervous, my gaze darting nervously from Foster to my front door and back again. "I do not know... I have not..."

"Gabriel." He shifted his hands until they were cradling my face, forcing me to meet his eyes. "I know this is hard for you. I know how much you hate leaving your secure place. But the only other place I've ever asked you to go is my apartment, and you've been safe there, haven't you? I mean, you've had an episode or two, but you're still okay. There's no one there to judge you or make you feel worse about the situation. Right?"

I stared at him for a few seconds before nodding slightly, my hands resting over Foster's on my face.

"So all I'm asking is that you trust me. No one is going to see us. No one is going to meet us on the way and expect you to greet them, It's just going to be you and me. And when we get to where we're going, I promise that it's going to be a safe place, too. No one else around. Just us."

My breathing had stuttered throughout Foster's explanation, and I made a valiant effort to get it back under control. "We..." I cleared my throat and tried again. "We will not see anyone."

"We won't see anyone," he affirmed. "All you have to do is tell me that it's too overwhelming, and I'll bring you back here and then you can boil up some tea and kick my ass at chess." He pressed another kiss to my mouth, smiling when I made a weak attempt to kiss back. "See? Whatever you decide, you're going to be okay."

I closed my eyes and fisted my hands in Foster's shirt for a moment, fighting my equilibrium. Foster stayed quiet, he brushed his hands through my hair.

"All right," I whispered, my eyes still shut and leaning into his hands.

Foster broke into a wide grin. "Excellent," he murmured, kissing my forehead. "Just tell me when you're ready."

I stood there for another minute or two to gathering up my courage. "Ready." I was still shivering a bit when I nodded, allowing myself to be led out of my apartment and toward the stairs. "You said we would not leave the building," I pointed out, but I followed Foster anyway.

"We won't," He assured me, one hand still on my wrist, leading me up.

My gaze kept darting up past Foster on the stairs and then behind myself, I was still paranoid that I would be seen by strangers. "You also stated we would not see anyone else."

"I did."

Now I was eying the doors of the other rooms as if someone might jump out at me at any moment. "Does that include your own friends and acquaintances?"

"Trust me, I wouldn't just spring my friends on you. That would be mean at best. I promise I'll give you fair warning if I want you to meet any of them." He shot me a comforting smile over his shoulder. "Like I said, it's just you and me. I promise."

I nodded, still nervous and suspicious as we made our way to the top floor and then up the maintenance staircase beyond that. Foster led me up to a door at the top of the stairs and typed in the security code that would open it. "Still okay?" he murmured to me.

I gave one last anxious look over my shoulder, then turned to face him again. "Yes."

There was a neat pile of blankets and pillows near the edge of the roof.

"Foster?" I asked, looking at him for an explanation. I had gone rigid next to him.

"Relax. This isn't some lame seduction attempt, really," he insisted, tugging gently on my wrist to lead me over to the pile of blankets. "I have a very good reason for bringing you up here and it has nothing to do with pushing your boundaries."

I looked up at the sky. I took in the surprisingly clear view of the stars, no clouds or fog obscuring their beauty. I said nothing as I followed Foster and settled next to him in the blankets, my gaze never breaking from the view as I folded my legs under myself.

"Pretty amazing, huh?" He was looking not so much at the sky as he was looking at me.

Foster leaned closer, pressing himself against my side until he could feel my unnatural heat seeping into him.

"You're so different out here," he whispered.

I took no offense to the words, I didn't seize up for the barest instant. Instead I fixed my awestruck gaze on Foster. "How so?"

Foster shifted a bit until he was kneeling in front of me, fingers carding through my hair. "You're relaxed, totally and completely. I've never seen anything like it."

My curious look melted into something more affectionate. I took one of his hands in my own and began playing with the fingers. "I am... at ease here," I chose my words carefully rather than tripping over them as I usually did in an unfamiliar situation. "I have a rather illogical attachment to the stars."

He chuckled, turning his hand over and watching me trace my fingers along his palm. "It's not illogical. Some of us are just born with an affinity for it."

"Indeed," I murmured, giving the sky one last, probing look before focusing my attention solely on Foster.

"Seriously, you should see yourself right now," his mouth started to run away with him. "I mean, you're all quiet and relaxed and focused, like seriously relaxed. I've never seen you-"

I shut him up with a kiss. I wrapped a hand around the back of his neck and pulled him into it, our mouths slotted together for only a heartbeat before I broke the contact to breathe against Foster's lips. "You talk too much," I whispered, the words gusting over his face like smoke.

"Y-yeah," He stuttered, completely taken aback by seeing this side of me. "But once in awhile it works out for me." He proved his point by slotting our mouths together again.

Rather than trying to deepen it or open my mouth to let Foster take control of it, I broke from him again to place tender, fleeting kisses along the side of his face, pressed against his ear, lingering at his temple. All he could do was grab fistfuls of my shirt and arch up against me, letting his head fall back and groaning softly when I took it as an invitation to drag my tongue over his neck.

"G-Gabriel," he tripped over my name, not realizing that he was being pushed back until his head hit one of the pillows. "Gabriel, do you-"

"Yes," I cut him off, not needing to hear the rest of the question. My fingers made quick work of the buttons on Foster's shirt, pressing more kisses along his collarbone and down his chest. I was barely touching my hot, sandpapery tongue to Foster's flesh. I was exploring him, inhaling the scent of him, cataloging him for future reference. I nosed against his belly, fit my hands around his hips and inhaled as if I had been composed of pure oxygen.

He couldn't help the full-body shudder that coursed through him, reaching out and threading his fingers into my hair. "Gabriel," he tried again.

"Shh," I shushed him, and he gave up any hope of interrupting me. He let out another heartfelt groan when he felt my hands at the fastenings of his jeans, heard the low growl of the zipper being undone, felt the cool night air ghosting over his bare skin as I tugged at his jeans and underwear enough to expose his cock.

He opened his eyes and stared down at me.

My hands were relaxed around his hips, cradling the jut of his hipbones. I had some mad combination of lust, affection, and scientific curiosity that had Foster breaking out in a goofy smile. "Gabriel?"

"Fascinating," I murmured. Foster let out a breathless laugh. The breathless laugh turned into a faint choking sound when I closed a hand over him, stroking him from root to tip. "The skin here is almost as cool to the touch as the rest of your body."

"Oh," His voice hitched, his hips from jutting forward helplessly. "The diff... difference in body temperature."

"Indeed."

And then, with that lusty, curious expression still spread over my face, I leaned down and dragged my tongue over him from root to tip, suckling lightly at the head. Foster let out a sharp cry. My tongue dragging over his skin, my eyes drinking him in.

And before he could put too much more thought into that soft, adoring look on my face, I wrapped one hand around the base of his cock, fit my lips around the shaft, and sucked him down.

Foster's hips bucked forward, automatically seeking more heat, more suction, more friction, just more, but I had left one hand cradling his hip and was pinning him down effortlessly. He wanted to thrust forward. The light suction around his cock, the exploring tongue licking his stomach.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, Gabriel," Foster chanted, one hand fisting in my hair just to anchor himself, the other reaching down and lacing his fingers with mine on his hip. I moaned around him as our fingers linked, the vibrations setting fire to my spine. He clenched my hand his blunt nails digging into my skin, I reacted to that with a guttural groan, my eyes squeezed shut in ecstasy.

"More," He whined, digging his nails into my hand purposely now, hips jutting upward before I slammed them back down again. "More, harder, please Gabriel, I'm so close, so fucking close..."

I took pity on him, hollowing my cheeks and increasing the sucking pressure, tongue fluttering over the shaft with its rough, texture, and Foster let himself go. He dropped his head back against the blankets, giving a low, guttural cry as his back arched and his hips bucked.

He lay there for several minutes trying to catch his breath, chest heaving, eyes gazing blearily up at the stars as they blurred together and slowly came back into focus. "Shit, Gabriel," he wheezed, smiling down at where I'd pillowed my head against his thigh. He brushed his fingers through my sweaty dark hair, squeezing my hand in his, opening his mouth to say something more-

When I moaned and squeezed back, my hand tense and shaky in his. A wicked grin spread over Foster's face, tugging lightly at the back of my neck. "Up," he encouraged me, pulling at me until I was lying next to him again, the sweltering heat of me plastered against his chest. He leaned forward to lick the taste of himself from my mouth, indulging in a long, searing kiss. I could spend hours doing this, but I needed more than that, if the slow rolling of my hips against Foster's was any indication.

He let go of my fingers long enough to work at my pants, opening them just enough to slide a hand down the front of them. I was still fully clothed aside from having my pants undone but he could feel what I was referring to when I'd made reference to the coldness of his skin. I was decidedly warmer, he wrapped a hand around my cock and started a steady stroking rhythm. I made a low keening sound in the back of my throat which abruptly changed to a whine when he laced the fingers of his free hand with mine, digging his nails into the back of my hand again.

"Fost..." I gasped, my expression vulnerable as I pressed my forehead to Foster's. My eyes were dark and unending as I lost myself in the sensations.

"God, you're amazing," he breathed, bringing my hand to his mouth and pressing a kiss to my palm. "I didn't know you had this in you, this fucking incredible, confident, gorgeous you so close to the surface." I gasped and screwed my eyes shut, hips jerking and stuttering as he continued stroking me, firming up his grip and increasing the tempo. "Look at me, Gabriel," he crooned at me, kissing my eyelids. "Look at me. Let me see you. Let me see you fall apart. I want you to, Gabriel. I'm right here." He was babbling again. "I'm right here, Gabriel. You're safe with me. I want to see you, Gabriel, please just let me, let me, let me," he repeated endlessly, the words becoming more and more breathless as he drove me closer and closer to the end, willing me to open my eyes as the rhythm became stilted, jarring. And just as my mouth dropped open in a nearly soundless cry, my eyes blew wide open, locked onto his.

Foster wiped his hand on the blanket, then threw his arm over my waist and pulled me closer. I was panting, shivering, pulling in air as if my lungs had just lost a half of their air capacity. He nuzzled his face closer to mine pressing, fleeting kisses to my lips. "Hey," he whispered, quiet and intimate. "You okay?"

I didn't speak for a long time, one hand still clutching Foster's, and the other fisted in his unbuttoned shirt. I finally shook my head from side to side, a nearly inaudible, "No," leaving my lips. And before Foster could ask why, could offer support or a solution or ask any questions, I continued. "But I believe...I believe I will be."

I was most definitely not ok. This is what happens when I like people. I get more and more flashbacks. It is a horrible, but necessary, part of being around others.


Gabriel.