The cure!

The contents of the syringe, which had been a pale, straw yellow, were now red and gold, scintillating in the light with a vaguely metallic sheen. Looks weird.

Foster walked to the bedroom and pushed the door open. Gabriel was lying exactly where he'd last seen him. It seemed surreal to see him unchanged after days had passed. He swallowed and walked forward timidly, watching his lover, reassured to see that he was still breathing. He climbed on the bed, then worried when the movement didn't stir the other man.

Foster now gave in to the urge he'd had before he'd left - the urge to touch, to pet and to stroke the frail, hollowed person before him. Gabriel's eyes opened sluggishly, tracking to him with difficulty. When they lit on Foster, they brightened like he was looking on the most wonderful thing in the world. He smiled warmly, putting on a false air Foster now saw right through. He was happy - yes, that was true, but the way he stretched and pretended that he was merely a little drowsy rather than struggling to stay awake - that was false.

Gabriel looked Foster up and down, then suddenly sucked in breath as he saw the needle. Fear went across his features, followed by betrayal and anger, then fear again, and finally...trust. But even then, he didn't ask.

"It's a cure," Foster offered.

Gabriel looked bewildered. "How long have you been gone?" He looked over at the clock.

Foster leaned in and kissed Gabriel's forehead. "Long enough." He began to prep his arm for the injection.

Gabriel watched him pensively, brows knitted in concern. "I don't like needles," he said quietly. His eyes went steadily between the syringe and Foster's face. He trusted, but he was still frightened.

"If there was any other way, I'd use it, but you don't have much time." Foster poised the needle over the vein, thankful that Gabriel had shot up between his toes and never collapsed the veins in his arms. He wondered how he'd managed to shoot himself up if he was phobic of needles, but Foster supposed it was different when the instrument was in your own hand.

"Okay?" Foster asked, looking for permission. Gabriel nodded. He slid the needle in, waited to confirm he was in the vein, and removed the tie on Gabriel's bicep. He held the needle as steady as possible, depressing the plunger slowly. It was a stubborn mix, thick and difficult to inject, but it went.

When done, Foster pulled out the needle and covered the wound. His lips curled up in a slow-growing smile. Gabriel made a stifled groan and flexed, his body abruptly bulking up, his skin becoming less pale and taking on a more healthy glow. He took a deep breath and a true light came back to his eyes as he filled with life.

"It worked!"

"That was fast," Foster said, amazed. He set the syringe aside. He hadn't expected it to work so quickly - he'd only expected to halt the progress of the disease and hopefully end it. He hadn't thought it would work so quickly.

Gabriel pulled Foster down and kissed him, hard and needy, a bruising crush of lips, giving Foster no time or opportunity to respond. He tried, but they just ended up at cross-purposes. Foster relaxed finally and let Gabriel lead. That acquiescence stopped the tense grappling and near-blind attempt to claim.

Gabriel hesitated. What he wanted so badly was here in his hands. There was no reason to be rough. He looked in Foster's dark eyes from just inches apart. He turned his head slightly and opened his mouth against Foster's. Foster matched him slowly, the breath from his nose flaring across his cheek. Their tongues touched gently and slid past each other carefully. Gabriel groaned deep in his throat and pulled Foster down on the bed. He climbed over him.

They were both still dressed - Gabriel had lain down after dinner and never had the energy to disrobe. He had the energy now. He set to stripping Foster's clothes with speedy efficiency. He spoke as he worked, "You know, if this is another dream, Foster,-"

"This is real," Foster interrupted.

Gabriel laughed and leaned in to kiss the Italian, spreading his shirt to either side. When he rose, pulling off his own undershirt while Foster shimmied out of his top, Gabriel said, "All I was going to say is - don't wake me up."

Foster smiled, unfastening Gabriel's pants and sliding them down his hips. The other man put his legs together and scooted upwards, so Foster's hands kept pushing down the trousers as Gabriel moved his body up parallel to Foster's. When the pants were around his calves, his cock was dangling in Foster's face. Foster laughed and swiped at it with his tongue, forgetting about the pants. Gabriel shuffled his feet to get them free, making himself bob erratically as Foster tried to capture him with his mouth.

He succeeded a moment later and Gabriel stopped doing anything that would shift him away. Instead, he sank in slowly, working out where to put his arms and knees so Foster could continue softly sucking at him, pulling him inside his mouth and working him with tongue and lips. Gabriel whimpered.

He took him deep - a trick Foster had mastered early in his sex life. Gabriel had not given him head at all and Foster had not pushed it. He got plenty of other things from him. Right now Foster reveled in the noises Gabriel was making, moaning and squirming, bucking himself very lightly into Foster's mouth. He clearly wanted to do more, but Foster's hands on his hips kept him slow. Foster was having to use more and more pressure to hold him where he needed him to be. Gabriel finally pulled out abruptly and slid down his body.

"Get out of your pants, Foster." He looked up at Foster's face, making sure that was received well. Foster was thrilled, so Gabriel added jokingly, "Because I need to get in them!"

Foster chuckled and lost the last of his clothes.

Gabriel stuck out his hand and grabbed the lube, and squirted it on the first three fingers of his hand. Gabriel tossed the bottle aside and leaned in, smoothing the slick material onto Foster. It was warm.

Gabriel leaned over him, mouth slack as his fingers probed into Foster's body. "Every. Single. One of them." He kissed him deep and passionate. Foster pulled up his knees, body arching to meet him. Gabriel had found his prostate and taken up a steady, gentle rubbing at it. Foster crooned in bliss. It was the perfect pressure, the perfect frequency. Nothing was getting through to Foster at that moment except the maelstrom of sensation burning through his body.

Gabriel lined himself up and pushed inside, eliciting a deep groan. Foster clung to him tightly, his organ throbbing, his body dancing along the bright edge of release. Gabriel's cock shifted, thrusting inside him in a fantastic counterpoint to the continuing, oscillating pressure against his prostate. Distantly, Foster admired the hell out of Gabriel's concentration and focus.

Even though he'd been riding infinitely high for a while now, somehow going over the edge still came as a surprise, his come bursting across his stomach in a hot gush as Gabriel continued to plow into him, harder and faster, giving it to him with more power and control than he'd ever been able to manage before. He bent to take Foster's mouth, kissing him passionately as he kept thrusting, jogging Foster's whole body, slamming into him forcefully before finally releasing deep within. He held for a long, breathless moment, before relaxing a little, shivering with an aftershock, then relaxing more.

He moved cheek to cheek, breathing hard, panting into Foster's ear.

"I love you," Foster said, voice tremulous, still trying to recover. Good god, he'd never realized Gabriel was this good in the sack. Hell, he hadn't known anyone was this good in the sack. He reached up and nipped at Gabriel's ear, which oddly caused him to spasmodically thrust into him again, and groan disconcertingly. Foster grinned. Gabriel got the side of his head away and slipped out. He reached up and touched his ear, confused. He smiled and shook his head, then kissed his grinning, mischievous lover.

"I love you too," Gabriel said when they parted. He put his hand on the middle of Foster's chest. A golden light and odd sensation surrounded it. Foster blinked, trying to clear his head of the wash of endorphins and figure out what the hell Gabriel had just done - because he'd just done something. He struggled up. "It's okay," Gabriel murmured. "Trust me, Foster. You saved my life. I love you."

When he was done, Foster crawled under his arm and put his head on the other man's chest. He pulled up the blankets over their cooling bodies. Gabriel cinched him close and seemed in accord with Foster's intention of going to sleep for the night. "We have a beautiful future ahead of us, babe," Foster murmured.

"Yes, we do," Gabriel answered, using his watch to click off the light switch.