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[nikkijl-blog1]

My first piece of Wayhaven Chronicles fanfiction. In celebration of Adam, I created this little story. Hope it does the legendary Angst du Mortain justice.

Adam’s Birthday Present

Synopsis: Detective Alice Roesler decides to give Adam a shoulder massage for his birthday

F!Detective/Adam du Mortain

"Something you need, Detective?" Adam eventually came into the office about three hours after he'd been summoned. Alice leaned back in the chair behind her desk, her professional persona taking a breather. 

"Are you avoiding me?" she asked. The question was lighthearted but curious. Adam sighed, crossing his arms at the topic of conversation.

"Things have been rather busy at the Agency. I do have other jobs that I'm responsible for besides watching over you," he turns on the defensive almost immediately. That's alright, she had prepared evidence.  

"Does Nate not factor into any of those missions? At this point, I feel like I could take over as his best friend. Did you know he has an obsession with high end quality hair products? I mean, not that it's surprising, look at the man," she said. She probably should start calling her lunch hour, Tea Time with Nathaniel.

"Nate can simply be more flexible about where he does his work. During times like these when we aren't facing any verifiable threats, it's more ideal to split ourselves in many different directions. Nate is obviously the best equipped for human relations," he spouts off a dozen lines of professional script like its second nature.

"Human relations, huh?" she asked, "Isn't that a dry way of putting it."

"Unless things have changed, you are still human," he said. 

"Well, I was bitten by a werewolf last week but I've yet to grow any extra hair," she said. His pale complexion blanched even further as he took a hurried step forward. 

"You were what?! Why didn't you report this to--"

"Hey look, a genuine response," she smiled before continuing, "That was a joke, Adam," Adam pinched the bridge of his nose with a frustrated sigh.

"Is there a point to this meeting, Detective? Or are you just entertaining yourself by adding to my already stressful day?" he grunted, barely hiding a snarl.

"So, are Felix skills also not included in your apparently legendary pile of responsibilities?" she said. Adam half turned towards the door, eager to make a quick exit as soon as she released him.

"Not recently. Besides, he volunteers whenever he's available. For some strange reason, he enjoys your company," he explained. She braced her elbows onto her desk and steepled her fingers.

"And Mason?" she kept up the interrogation. Adam's lips pursed.

"That... was a last minute decision. I was called away on something--"

"Man, Adam, you are a master of weaving yourself out of a tough conversation, especially one dealing with your feelings," she said. 

"There are no feelings involved, only common sense. I apologize if I've somehow offended you, it was not my intention," he said, "Considering it's the end of the day, I will walk you back to your apartment. Would that be sufficient time spent with you?"

She almost considered telling him to pound sand right then and there but that was what he wanted. Instead, she pushed herself out from her desk and stood up, "So it's your birthday today?" 

He flinched, not expecting the blow. He muttered some choice words about Nate before collecting himself again, "Is that important?"

"You tell me," she asked then decided to answer for him, "Although, considering it's you, I'd imagine you'll say something broody like 'it's only another day, not worth celebrating. I've got work to do,' blahblahblah."

He grit his teeth, quickly losing patience, and she guessed she'd hit the nail on the head. However, he was getting very close to fleeing so she should probably get to the point before it was too late, "Anyway, I wanted to give you a present."

"I don't need anything," he said.

"You need a lot of things, hun. Trust me," she carefully stepped around her desk, the poorly taped corner acting as a perfect monument to Adam's needs. She shut the blinds over the windows into her office, "And I know the perfect thing to help you relax."

"What are you doing?" he swallowed dryly, tensing up like a penned in wild animal, "There is no stress reliever that requires such privacy," his voice rises several ticks.  

"Adam, come on, you're how old? I think you can come up with one or two ideas," she turned the lock, shutting everyone else out and Adam started becoming more erratic.

"Detective, I think we should rethink this course of action," he said, "We don't want to do anything we might regret."

"Oh, don't be ridiculous. Now go have a seat," she stood between him and the door, "Don't worry, no one will think anything strange is going on. Unless you're a moaner, that is."

That got him. A light flush of red rose on his cheeks and she could tell he was fighting every instinct in his body. He wanted to give in, but he had the emotional defenses of the Great Wall of China, "Alice, that's enough. Flirting is one thing but I'm not about to... in your office. It's unprofessional. You need to get ahold of yourself."

"Wow, I didn't think a simple shoulder massage was a reason to call the puritan police," she said. Her smile grew with satisfaction as realization dawned on his handsome face. She'd crawled right under his skin and buried herself there, "What were you thinking of--"

"You know exactly what I was thinking of, woman, and don't even try to deny it," he snarled at her. God, she wanted to take him by the collar and kiss him, drawing in all that repressed heat that was burning like an oven inside him. But she refrained.

"Ok, I'll stop teasing. Now please sit down," she gestured towards her chair.

"This is unnecessary," he protested.

"If you don't do as I ask, I will schedule midnight patrol for myself for the rest of the week. I think the city's been a little restless lately," she tapped her chin. She could tell he was calculating whether or not it was worth the extreme inconvenience, "I promise, no roaming hands. This is your birthday, not mine," he fidgeted at the implications. Finally, he sighed, tired of fighting against her will. He sat down in the desk chair, back stiff as a board. 

"Get it over with," he said like he was prepping for a round of torture. Fine with her, she was ready for a challenge and she knew what she was doing. However, despite his sudden burst of courage, he froze the second she laid a hand on his shoulder. She could only imagine what his face looked like right now. 

"Adam," she sighed, unable to even get a grip on his muscles, "I know it's not in your nature, but could you try to relax a tad?"

"I thought that was your job in this instance," he drummed his fingers on the arms of the chair. She shook her head and removed her hand, rolling up her sleeve. Before he could ask her what she was doing, she drove the tip of her elbow into the space connecting his neck with his shoulder. He choked back a small grunt with the sudden spike to his Trap. 

"You want to do this the hard way, fine with me," she said determined. She used her forearm like a rolling pin across the top of his shoulder, gradually kneading out the muscle until it was at least pliable. It helped that after the initial defiance, Adam lowered his guard. Once, Alice got into it, she was quiet and focused on her work. Sliding her thumb above the bone of the scapula, she ran into a web of knots. Adam's lips twitched when she pressed against it. 

"Have you ever done something like this before?" she asked and she strummed the adhesions like the strings of a guitar, "Because there's gotta be a century's worth of tension built up in here."

"I'm in a very stressful work environment," he said with the hint of a smirk, "Especially recently."  

"Well, I'll just have to call this cluster the Alice knot, won't I?" she dug her elbow into the spot which was turning from a mountainous to a hilly terrain, "Heaven forbid I find the Felix knot, that must be the size of a grapefruit." 

She prided herself when she was rewarded with a one note laugh. Such a rare and beautiful occurrence. 

Later, when she returned to squeezing his Trap muscle, she managed to get enough of a grip of it to pull it off the bone, "Turn your head to the left for me," he did without complaint. She found more congestion around the collar bone when he opened up his neck, "I sort of wondered if vampires had problems like this but the muscle is healed tissue, just not healed the correct way."

"That is an interesting theory," he said, his voice growing deeper, momentarily throwing her off balance. 

"Is that your way of saying you don't know?" she asked. His answer was cut short when she tilted his head forward again, fingertips grazing his clean shaven jawline. She was close enough to hear his breath hitch at the contact. She honestly didn't think much of the gesture, instinctively maneuvering him around like she would've done to any of her friends. However, a spark coursed through her blood with the minor touch. 

She quickly moved back on track, drawing a line up the base of his neck into the gap right below his skull. She strummed her way up the tight bands and she was shocked when Adam gradually opened up his neck as he let his head drift towards his opposite shoulder. 

For the longest time, they said nothing. There was no teasing and jokes from her or complaints and barks from Adam. She transitioned her way over to his other shoulder to repeat the process. She again had to dig her elbow into hard flesh to break ground, but he was more open to it now. She tended become almost clinical when giving someone a massage so there wasn't much for him to be uncomfortable with. She truly did have good intentions. Ever since she saw the way his shoulders hiked up towards his ears and his ritual-like rolling of them, she'd been dying to smooth him out. 

There were other ways she wanted to touch him too, but those were on the back burner for now. 

"You are... very good at this, Detective," she startled when he spoke, silent for such a long time, his voice cracked. It was only now she saw that his eyes were closed, thick eyelashes resting against his cheeks and lips normally frozen in a frowning state were slightly parted like he could fall asleep at any moment. She half smiled, zeroing on another knot near the base of his neck and kneading it into submission.

"Thanks," it was a simpler reply than what she was accustomed to, but she didn't want to risk damaging the fragile connection they'd established. Things would likely return to their scheduled awkward programming as soon as she stepped away. However, she didn't want to speed things along. 

She finished the massage by wrapping her hand around the back of his neck and rubbing all the muscles simultaneously. It was telling that Adam remained completely at ease even around such a vulnerable spot. He even let out a content moan that caused her heart to flip in her chest. Her thoughts began to morph, thinking about replacing her fingers with her lips, trailing kisses down his spine, drawing out a symphony of pleasure from him.

"Alice?" she felt his body heat rise under her hand. She must've delved a little too far into her carnal desires and the mind reading vampire had noticed. But he wasn't pulling away either, so maybe--

"Detective, are you here?" Felix said and Adam shot up out of the chair so fast she nearly bounced back against the wall. The door was unlocked a moment later and Felix and Nate were both standing with curious expressions on the other side. While Nate's was more of concern, Felix was filled with ulterior motives.

"Felix said you weren't answering your cell phone," Nate says. However, he read the situation quickly enough when Adam had his eyes glued out the nearest window, hand fixed on the neck she'd been rubbing only a few seconds before. Felix sidled in, throwing the door the rest of the way open as if he owned the place.

"Well, well, well, here I thought we would need to find both of you, but it turns out you're holed up here together. Alone," he said.

"The Detective was simply helping me with something," Adam said, barely hiding a growl. 

"Hmm, and what was she helping you with that required the shutters to be closed?" he said switching into investigation mode. Adam crossed his arms, tensing again. While she normally would've been on board the teasing train, in this case, she was rather annoyed.

"Felix, you're going to undo all my hard work," she said. Every occupant in the room was startled by her serious tone, "I was just giving him a shoulder massage for his birthday and I figured he'd be more comfortable if nobody was watching."

"You were able to get him to relax?" Nate said, brows arching in surprise.

"That's impressive, I didn't know our fearless leader had an off switch," Felix said, "But with that kind of magic, I want a massage too. Do me next, Detective!" "Felix," Adam scolded him.

"Maybe on your birthday, if you leave Adam alone," she smiled and Felix recoiled as if he were burnt, pressing a hand over his heart.

"Impossible," he said. 

"We were hoping to bring you along to the celebration," Nate changed the subject, eyeing Adam as he said it and Adam bristled for another reason.

"Why are you all suddenly interested in celebrating my birthday?" Adam started before clicking his tongue, marching towards the door, "Forget it, I don't have the energy to argue."

"The Detective really loosened you up, didn't she?" Felix remarked. Adam snarled at him as Nate cleared a path for him.

"You couldn't even last until he left the room," Alice said although she was smiling along with his antics this time.

"Are you coming, Alice?" Nate said. Her gaze shifted to Adam who was trying his darnedest not to show his interest in her answer.

"I will not," she got the response she was hoping for when a brief flash of disappointment crossed Adam's features. She finished her sentence, "Miss it for the world." Adam twitched in anger for falling for her trick, "Just let me close everything up in my office."

She ran through her usual process of straightening up, shutting off the computer, and locking the filing cabinet. When she finished, she found Adam still lingering at the door waiting for her. She smiled as she joined him. 

"Hope that wasn't too painful for you to endure," she said, secretly wanting her opinion.

"You've made this birthday more enjoyable than most," he said, lips twisting up into a subdued smile as he kept pace with her out of the office, "I may even ask for your services again sometime."

"Oh good, I've been dying to get my hands on those Glutes," she said and he missed a step. She nudged him with her shoulder in good humor and he shook his head.

"Incorrigible."