darker_london | Warm my Skies (Quinn/Flynn) [Backstory]

Dublin was full of old buildings, most of which had some sort of vent at the bottom because all the heat generated in the course of the day had to go somewhere.Most of the vents opened up onto the street, however, and they did people like Mal and Ardal very little good. Ardal was a reported run away and if he was picked up by the cops, they would find out who he was and he would be taken right back home to Whitehead. Even if Mal had begun to think that maybe that wasn't such a bad idea for Ardal, Ardal clearly didn't want it.

Finding an unclaimed vent that opened onto an alleyway, isolated from the street by twists and turns was almost unheard of. But that's what happened sometimes when you really needed a piss and you darted into an alleyway to do just that. Sometimes you found more than you bargained for. Mal had stared at the vent, with it's little patch of cleared snow in front of it, thanks to the warm air it pumped into the alleyway, and then he hurried away to find Ardal, forgetting all about the piss he'd gone in there for in the first place.

"It's this way!" Mal said, pulling a shivering Ardal along behind him.

"Mal, I'm beginnin' to think you lost your marbles." Ardal called out, though he followed along obediently, feet stepping one in front of the other as if on auto-pilot. He didn't have any energy for anything else and it was probably fortuitous that Mal was leading him, otherwise he might have come to a complete stand-still and fallen asleep, straight up, in the middle of the footpath.

"It ain't Shangri-La, it's a goddamn vent, and it's just..." Mal rounded the corner and he pointed it out. "There, see! I told you."

Ardal raised his eyebrows and his body as filled with somewhat of a second wind. Enough to get him over to the vent without being pulled anyway. He stumbled towards it, falling to his knees once he reached the hot air, gusting from the vent, and he let out a little moan of pleasure as it warmed his frigid body. "Shangri-La's got nothing on this vent right now." He muttered, sounding pretty blissed out.

Mal crouched down as well, placing himself so he could gain the benefits of the warm blast. The problem was that whatever side faced the vent, the other was still cold. Ardal decided that his front was far more important to him, so he sat facing it. Mal, ever the warrior, sat away from it, the air at his back. That way they wouldn't be surprised by anyone sneaking up on them. He wasn't thrilled about being out in the open, but here in the warm air was better than in some abandoned building somewhere, freezing their tits off. "I might just have to agree with you there." Mal admitted, and he felt himself relaxing. It felt like it had been weeks since he hadn't shivered and now his body went slightly limp with the heat at his back.

"You should nearly piss your trousers every day." Ardal turned to Mal and he gave him a cheeky grin.

"Oi, I was playin'!" Mal was quite well known for becoming so involved with his music he forgot about everything else until it became quite urgent. "Anyway, I pissed behind the McDonald's. It deserves it."

Ardal snorted and he kissed Mal's forehead when Mal leaned against him. "I suppose it does." A moment later, Ardal turned his face away quickly.

"What's wrong, Ardal?" Mal asked, turning to regard Ardal quizzically.

"Your breath smells like meatballs." Ardal said, though he didn't appear as if he found this to be offensive or anything.

"From the sandwich this morning." Mal had found nearly an entire footlong andwich in the bin outside of the Subway near where they'd been staying. Subway was something of a godsend, much like the vent. Mal hadn't told Ardal where the sandwich had come from, though he was pretty sure Ardal knew... They didn't discuss it. Why talk about the fact that they were so hungry they were eating trash? "I haven't showered in weeks and you're takin' offense to meatball breath."

"Well, it's makin' me hungry again!" Ardal protested, but once again, his protests were comparitively light-hearted in the wake of their good fortune.

Mal stared at Ardal for several moments and then he laughed out loud. "That's gotta be the first time anyone's ever said my breath made them hungry!"

Ardal smiled and he reached his gloved fingers out to take Mal's hand. "It's nice to hear you laugh."

Mal smiled at him and he nodded. "It's nice to feel like I can." Mal looked up at the sky, which was tinged slightly pink. "It might snow." He said with a sigh. "We might have to find somewhere with a roof."

Ardal made a face that told Mal he was quite content to stay here for the rest of his life, thank you very much. "I guess..."

"We don't have to yet." Mal looked back to Ardal and he slid closer to his boyfriend. Are you very hungry? I got some change. We could get some chips or somethin'." They had had nothing since the sandwiches that morning and while that was better than they usually did, that didn't mean they wouldn't need anything else.

"From the Mickey D's you pissed on?" Ardal asked, his eyebrows raised in amusement.

"It'd be open!" Mal said with a laugh. "I didn't piss on the fryers! Anyway, it's close by. Wouldn't want my breath to cause you to eat me in my sleep." Mal said, eyes twinkling.

"I could use some chips." Ardal admitted. "And I thought you liked it when I ate you?"

Mal's eyebrows raised so high they joined his hairline and made him look very odd. "Er...well yes..." Ardal hadn't been very flirty lately and who could blame him? This wasn't exactly the most romantic of places. And even if it was, their situation was as far from romantic as it got. They were dirty and they smelled and none of it exactly led to passion. In fact, Mal recalled with a pang, the last person he had been with had been Marilyn who had paid for the privilege. Mal didn't quite know how to react to Ardal's statment because he was hardly going to strip off his clothes here and have a go in the middle of the street.

Thankfully, Ardal rescued Mal, as he realised from the look on Mal's face, that his words had been slightly misinterpruted. "Good to know I'm appreciated." And he leaned forward to kiss Mal's cheek. His tone indicated that was the end of that, and Mal did indeed feel relieved because as much as he wanted Ardal, here was not the place.

"I'll go get you your chips. Be careful while I'm gone. Don't let anyone mess with you. I'll be right back. And then you can sleep. I'll keep watch." Mal pulled his coat more tightly around him because he was going back out in the cold.

"I'll be careful. No one will mess with me. And sleep good." Ardal smiled at Mal, the expression coming easily now that he was warm and there was the promise of food. "I love you, Mal."

"I love you too." Malachy said, returning the expression in much the same way.