Snippet #3

[sinandcinnamon]

psychocountessa asked for some Angel/Xander with the prompt "smell".

The sheets were cold when Angel woke, a prickle behind his eyes whispering that the sun was sinking, that the world was safe. He didn't rise, either from the bed or to the subtle baiting of the demon desires beneath the knowledge of sunset. He closed his eyes, opening his other senses, gathering the smell of sex and mortality into his lungs as if it could be captured, kept. Xander's scent was still crisp, as if he'd been gone only moments instead of hours, strong enough to stir the faint echo of his taste in Angel's throat.

With vision withheld and every other sense sharpened, his ears picked up the nervous heartbeat long before there was a knock at the door. Angel was still for a time, drawing and casting aside hypothetical outcomes - the night before had been unexpected but not unconsidered, and he'd instantly begun to consider all the places this could lead. The smell of Xander was fading already, its ephemerality swifter than that of memory, and that was finally what tipped the vampire to action. The faint redolence of the encounter was better armor than the flimsy cotton, enabling him to open the door, preparing for the worst of his imaginings. Shy eyes flittered over him and away, and Angel's grip on the sheet loosened as his tension spilled away. Xander's words were too quick, but held no bitter recrimination, and Angel reached out, drew him inside the apartment, and bent to the task of renewing their scent-mark upon one another.


Hope you like! First person to leave a prompt wins a snippet of fictiony goodness.