A few hours later, Ethan was lying in bed with Rupert in blissful warmth and comfort. Not only had he not asked about the impostor, he was also consciously trying not to think of the matter at all. He moved against Rupert restlessly. "When I close my eyes, I'm still walking through endless, unchanging corridors."

"You're not." Rupert's arms tightened around him, his hands skimming over Ethan's back in soothing motions, their very movement conveyed some of Rupert's own restlessness. "You're home. We're home."

"For a little while."

Rupert sighed, his breath warm against Ethan's skin. "For now. That's all we can ever plan on for certain."

"I need more than that, Rupert." Ethan shut his eyes, knowing this was a futile and almost cruel direction in which to take the conversation. "Ignore me. I'm just tired."

"You're still recovering," Rupert said softly, the words holding unspoken emotion.

"Yes." Abruptly, Ethan remembered how depressed he'd become after drawing on his own lifeforce to save Rupert after the attack on the train. "Dearheart, am I free of Chaos taint?" he asked worriedly. He couldn't sense it in himself, but he couldn't sense anything very much currently.

"Completely and totally," was the gratifyingly quick answer.

He relaxed again. "That's good. I hate not having access to my pattern senses."

Rupert nuzzled against him. "They'll come back. You just need to regain your strength."

"I know, but when have you ever known me to be patient?" Ethan opened his eyes and grinned, but while he got a faint smile and a kiss as a reward, Rupert's eyes held pain. "What are you fretting about, dearheart?" he asked softly. Was there something to fret about beyond the obvious?

Rupert shook his head. "I'm just glad to have you back."

"Three days of worry on top of everything else we've been through must have been the last straw for you. Poor Ripper. What can I do to make you feel better?" Ethan pressed closer and ran his hand down Rupert's flank. He was genuinely very tired, but he was sure he could manage something nice.

"Just having you here awake and aware is enough."

"What if I want to give you more than enough? We could all do with a bit of surplus."

"I don't want you to exhaust yourself." Rupert's body language was less reticent however.

"I won't. Don't you think this will do me as much good as you?" Ethan wiggled against Rupert before pushing him gently on his back. Rupert reached up and slid a hand down the side of Ethan's face, giving Ethan a look of such yearning that it took his breath away. "God," Ethan muttered, sliding over the top of Rupert and enjoying the feel of their skin touching. He raised himself slightly on his folded arms and legs, before bending for a kiss.

Rupert kissed him back, gently at first, but with increasing intensity and desperation.

"I'm here," Ethan murmured as he pulled back briefly. "I wouldn't leave you, Ripper. I couldn't."

Rupert stared at him for a long moment then pulled Ethan even closer, holding onto him so tightly that Ethan rather thought he'd wake up with bruises in the morning. He kissed Rupert, trying to soothe him with touch and kisses while cursing his current lack of magic.

"Forever, remember?" he said between kisses. "That's us."

"Don't ever–" Rupert began, but cut off when his voice broke, kissing Ethan breathless instead.

Ethan tore himself free, concerned. "Don't ever what?"

Rupert's gaze darted everywhere but Ethan's eyes. "I thought... you were comatose. You should've been dead. No one knew when you'd wake up, if ever. I thought..." Rupert's voice dropped even more, "I feared that our bond, my presence, had trapped you like that – beyond recovery, but unable to die. I–"

Bugger. Ethan stared in total shock. "Rupert, I..." He hadn't a clue what to say.

"Don't ever do that again," Rupert begged, finally meeting Ethan's eyes, his own gaze haunted. "I don't think I could– Just don't."

Christ, this was awful. "I'm sorry. I thought I... I thought I was doing what you wanted, what you needed. I didn't want you to feel like Dawn's murderer for the rest of your life. I was trying to" –he had to laugh at himself– "trying to protect you, trying to keep you from pain."

That drew a ghost of a smile from Rupert. "I know. And what you did, it's a very good thing. I will never say that it isn't, but–"

That little smile was a large relief. "I won't do that to you again, Rupert. I promise. I keep my promises these days, pretty much, if you hadn't noticed. Well, more or less." Ethan pressed soft kisses into Rupert's face. "No more risk-taking with us, eh?"

Rupert's eyes closed under Ethan's attentions, and Ethan could feel the tension easing in the man's body. He licked and kissed around Rupert's neck, coming up to whisper in his ear. "Would you like to be inside me, dearheart? Where you belong? I'd offer the other way around, but I don't think I'm quite up to that today. But it would be good, having you inside me. Healing."

Rupert raised a hand and lightly traced Ethan's features as he asked, "Are you really up to it? I don't want you to overdo it–"

"Having you inside me would do me more good than three solid days of rest. Don't you know yet that you're all I need?" Ethan rolled off Rupert and onto his back. "Come on. Don't let me get cold without you here." Rupert followed willingly enough, covering Ethan's body with his own and going back to kissing him with his entire being.

Ethan opened his legs and drew them up to either side of Rupert's, but other than that, he tried to let Rupert take things at his own pace. The kiss was hard and hungry, and being needed so powerfully was a heady aphrodisiac. Ethan moaned softly into the kiss and squirmed below Rupert, but he didn't demand.

Rupert's hands slid down Ethan's arms, trailing magic behind them. He entwined his fingers with Ethan's then tugged lightly, pulling until Ethan's arms were stretched over his head. All the while, he continued kissing him. Ethan kept his eyes shut, relishing the touch of flesh and magic. He recognised the mood Rupert was in, the desire for control obviously stemming from the insecurity Ethan's near-death had brought on. Ethan was quite happy to revert to ecstatic helplessness if it made Rupert feel better.

Slipping his fingers under the headboard and holding onto it, he murmured, "So good to be back in our bed. Our real bed."

"Didn't like that monstrosity Matthew had put in my boyhood room?" Rupert teased in between more kisses.

"The curtain thingies were all right," Ethan said, tipping his head back as Rupert kissed down his throat. "But this bed is... Well, it has memories woven into the fabric of the mattress."

"Would you have us out searching for that broken-down mattress from our old flat if it still existed?" Rupert sounded genuinely curious, even as he nipped at Ethan's Adam's apple.

Oh God, probably. "I think I'll decline to answer that." Ethan chuckled softly as Rupert lapped within the hollow of his breastbone, something Ethan loved. "I know I've always had a touch of sentimentality when I'm not specialising in bitter and twisted, but since gaining awareness of patterns, it's more than just that. Our patterns weave through this bed. They do everything we've touched, but they're strong here."

"This is where we made a new start," Rupert agreed. "Or, I suppose it started downstairs on the sofa..."

Ethan chuckled, remembering that day vividly. "But you took me up here, and I was so sodding proud when I managed to get something approaching an erection. You saved me in every sense, dearest of dear ones."

Rupert chuckled, moving lower, dropping kisses along the line of Ethan's collarbone. "All that effort you had been putting into being a saint had to be rewarded somehow."

More laughter. "It didn't exactly come naturally." Ethan stretched and wriggled his body below Rupert. "Going somewhere?"

"Nowhere you won't like." Rupert nipped gently at one of Ethan's nipples and then ran his tongue over it, adding a touch of magic.

"Ahh." Ethan shut his eyes for a few seconds as the sensations travelled through him. His fingers tightened under the headboard. "Oh, that feels good."

Rupert lifted his head and considered Ethan's expression. "How do you feel about magical nipple clamps?"

"Er, nothing else?" He had to check, although he so wanted to make Rupert happy currently that he could probably be persuaded into even the bastard cock ring.

"That depends on if you can keep your hands where they are without restraints."

Ethan grinned, suddenly feeling extremely aroused. "I have no objection to magical cuffs or clamps. It's only the cock ring I find... unfair." Because there was no way to resist it, the use of it meant the struggle was over before it had begun.

"I'll keep that in mind." Rupert pulled back and brushed his fingers over Ethan's nipples, leaving his magic behind when he moved them away.

An ache was starting inside Ethan, low and nagging, but very pleasant. His nipples throbbed, making him aware of them in a way he never was normally. He writhed slowly, just enjoying the sensation of his skin sliding under Rupert's.

"Love you like this," Rupert murmured, sprinkling kisses over Ethan's abdomen. "So alive..."

"You fill me with life." Ethan cringed a little, hearing himself spout sentimental rubbish fit for a Hallmark card, but the words were true nonetheless, and not just on a metaphorical level. Rupert's magic seemed to be calling to Ethan's own. He could feel it stirring within him, coming back to life.

Rupert grinned wickedly at him. "Oh, I'm going to fill you all right."

Ethan groaned. "Oh please. I want you in every part of me, every cell." That wasn't completely figurative either. Continuing his downward explorations, Rupert trailed kisses and magic over Ethan's thighs, so close but never actually touching Ethan's most needy places. "Cruel Ripper. Shall I beg?"

"You could if it makes you feel better."

Ethan wriggled in a way designed to bring the parts of him that desperately needed kissing closer to Rupert's mouth, but he kept his arms stretched above his head obediently. He did his very best to beg prettily. "Don't you want to make me happy, Ripper? Don't you want to give me what I so desperately need? I'm starving for you. See me writhing for your touch? Please, dearheart. Please."

"Maybe I like watching you writhe," Rupert replied, smiling as he trailed magic down Ethan's legs with his fingertips.

So he writhed like a good boy; he didn't exactly have to fake it. "You just know that being patient is torture for me, worse than any pain."

Rupert pressed a kiss first to one inner thigh, then the other. "I don't want to rush," he said softly, voice suddenly more serious. "For three days I wasn't sure I'd get to do this again. I want to savour it."

Ethan felt himself relax without conscious decision to do so. "Take all the time you need." He smiled softly down at Rupert, who stared at him for a moment then slid back up his body to claim his mouth in a deep, lingering, somewhat desperate kiss.

Ethan kissed him back, not liking this inability to feed Rupert soothing magic. Although he could feel his power responding to Rupert's... perhaps he could find a little now? Tentatively, he drew sparingly from the source inside of him and let Rupert taste it on his lips. Yes. It no longer hurt to do so.

Rupert moaned into the kiss at the touch of Ethan's magic, but then pulled back. "Don't. I don't want you straining yourself or over-extending–"

"I'm all right," Ethan insisted. "At the slightest sign of pain or dizziness, I'll stop. I promise."

Running his fingers lightly over Ethan's face, Rupert looked at him as if he were trying to memorise what he was seeing, as if he were trying to see Ethan's soul. "I don't want to lose you, even if it's only for three days."

God, Rupert's pain hurt, and this was exactly what Ethan had wanted to avoid. "I couldn't leave you, Rupert. Truly. If my body were to be destroyed, I'd be your benevolent ghost. I'm in you as you're in me. Our patterns are so linked that we can't be separated; we really can't."

"Difficult to touch a ghost," Rupert murmured, his gaze falling.

"We'd find a way," Ethan said heatedly. "They can't keep us apart. Not now."

That finally pulled a smile from Rupert. "I think I like you fierce like this."

Ethan shifted restlessly. "May I move my hands please? I can put them back afterwards. Let me show you I'm not a ghost?" Rupert nodded, and with a grateful if slightly ironic smile, Ethan wrapped his arms around him, holding him close and stroking over his back. Pressing kisses wherever there was space to press them, Ethan murmured, "I'm here. I'm going nowhere. I can't do this for long, not at the moment, but I think you need to see. Look at this. Look at our bond."

And with that, he granted Rupert pattern sight for a few precious seconds before collapsing back into the pillow.

"What did I just say about overextending yourself?" Rupert grumbled at him, even as his hands smoothed over Ethan, pouring his magic into him. He leant in and kissed Ethan gently, reverently. "But thank you."

"Did you see?" Ethan asked as he closed his eyes, waiting for the giddiness to stop. "See how bonded we are? It's stronger now, after the maze, even than before. They can't divide us, Rupert. I promise. It's just not possible."

"I saw. Just don't do that again until you're stronger."

Ethan frowned. "I will if I think you need it."

Rupert lifted an eyebrow. "Do I have to do the magical equivalent of hiding your cane?"

That made Ethan chuckle. "I'll behave." He stretched his arms back up above his head. "And if I don't, I'm sure you can work out a suitable punishment."

"I'm sure I can," Rupert agreed readily, starting to slowly slide back down Ethan's body. He looked up with a wicked grin. "I do, after all, have access to an 'unfair' advantage."

***

Ripper paced the length of the small flat, getting more irritated by the minute. Ethan was late. Ethan was often late, being easily distracted by anything shiny that crossed his path, but not like this. This time Ethan was very late on the order of several hours after when Ripper had been expecting him.

Ripper was just beginning to wonder if he should check the cop shops to see if Ethan had been pinched for one of his grab and run shopping sprees, when he finally heard footsteps coming up the stairs to their flat door.

The footsteps seemed slow and heavy, or perhaps dragging. There was a sound at the door, which then clicked and slowly opened. Ethan stumbled through and then a few feet inside, leaving the door open. He was moving as if he were very drunk, which just made Ripper even more irritated. He'd been sitting here worrying, and Ethan had been out getting rat-arsed?

"You're late," Ripper said coldly.

Not so drunk he hadn't wrapped up warm; Ethan had his coat done up high and his scarf swathed around his face. It muffled his voice when he spoke. "Ran into a spot of trouble." He staggered towards the area of the flat that held their bed.

Ripper crossed the room to close the still open door. "Looks more like you ran into a crate of whisky." Ethan laughed at that, the sound too loud and harsh in their quietened flat. It ended in a cough. He lay down on the bed, still swathed in outdoor clothes. Ripper stared at him for a moment, but when it was obvious that Ethan wasn't going to move anymore, he crossed over to the bed to undress him. "You can't pass out with your coat still on," he said gruffly.

"Leave me be, Ripper," Ethan said thickly, rolling to his side. He began to mutter under his breath.

"Would serve you right if I did," Ripper replied, frowning. The muttering Ethan was doing sounded vaguely familiar somehow. He grabbed for Ethan's scarf.

"Don't!" Ethan's hand clamped down on Rupert's; it was un-gloved and cold and had a large bruise with a cut in the centre of it across its back.

Ripper's entire perception of the scene suddenly shifted. "What happened?" he demanded.

"Spot of trouble. Told you. Let me do this. It hurts." Ethan went back to his muttering – Latin, Ripper now realised, Ethan's dodgy healing magic.

Ripper once again reached for the scarf. "Let me see," he said implacably. Ethan groaned, but stopped resisting, stopped muttering too. He rolled onto his back again and looked dully up. That more than anything else alarmed Ripper, although he was careful to be as gentle as he could be when he finally pulled the scarf back from Ethan's face.

There was a huge and puffy bruise disfiguring the left side of Ethan's jaw and a trickle of dried blood from the corner of his mouth. There was also blood in the hair near his right temple. He smiled at Ripper in a humourless and lop-sided way. "Trouble, see?"

"Who did this?"

Ethan shrugged and then winced; it was clear the damage extended to more than just his face and hands. "May I heal myself now, please?"

Ripper nodded. "This conversation isn't over," he warned as he got up and walked to their small bathroom to wet down a flannel to help clean up Ethan. It took him two tries to turn on the tap; his hands were shaking so with rage. Someone had hurt Ethan. Someone had kicked the shit out of him it looked like, and that wasn't something Ripper was going to let just happen.

When he got back to the bed, Ethan's eyes were shut. He was twitching as he muttered, and there was a sheen of sweat on his face. Ripper recognised all this from when he'd seen Ethan heal himself previously, and from the itchy sensation of Ethan's power around him. Eventually, the bruises started to fade and the swelling diminish. The mumbling stopped, and Ethan's eyes opened; they were red and swirling for a few seconds, but that too faded.

"Better," he said slightly breathlessly, a wolfish grin curving his repaired lips.

Ripper sat beside Ethan and began gently cleaned the dried blood from his face. "Tell me what happened."

"Wandered in the wrong area." Ethan sat up and started unbuttoning his coat. His bruises now looked old and painless. "Careless of me. Sorry."

"Details, Ethan," Ripper demanded. "I want details."

"Does it matter? All better now." Shrugging out of his coat, Ethan then busied himself with his boots, the tasks taking all his attention.

"It matters." Ripper brushed Ethan's hands away and pulled the now unfastened boots off. "It matters because no one gets to thrash you like that. Not if I have anything to say about it."

"Shame you weren't there then, wasn't–" Ethan stopped and looked down briefly. "It seems to have left me in a... difficult mood."

"Not surprising. And yeah, it was a shame I wasn't there, which is why I need you to tell me what happened so I can track down the tosser and live up to my name."

"Tossers plural," Ethan corrected. "I didn't really see them."

"Details," Ripper said again. "Where was this? What happened?"

Ethan waved his hand about airily. "Soho, near Chinatown. I was hiding from some shop fuzz. Hid in the wrong place, obviously. Have we food?" He started to get off the bed.

"Leftover takeaway in the fridge," Ripper replied, but continued doggedly on in the apparently difficult task of finding out exactly what had happened. "How many were there?"

"Three? Four?" Ethan slid from the bed and headed for their kitchen area. "Really, Ripper, does it matter?"

"I already told you it does." He frowned. Ethan was being overly reluctant talking about this, which was totally out of character. Usually he couldn't wait for Ripper to avenge and protect him. "What is it you aren't telling me?"

Ethan paused and glanced round at him. "Why would I not tell you anything?"

"That's my question."

Ethan gave a little laugh, which sounded nervous to Ripper, and walked back over to him, stepping close and running his hand over Ripper's chest. "I'm just embarrassed, that's all. I shouldn't have let my guard down."

Ripper raised a hand and gently touched the faded bruise on Ethan's face. "Tell me what happened? Please?"

Ethan looked down. "I stole some stuff from Selfridges, but got spotted. I ran into Soho, but the store detectives were persistent. So I ducked down a side alley. Then I... You know, I really don't want to talk about it." Turning, Ethan hurried for the kitchen.

Ripper let out his breath. "Right then." He stooped and picked up Ethan's scarf, fingers going to the bloodstains on it. "You don't have to talk about it. There's other ways for me to find out."

Ethan froze with the fridge door half-open. "What other ways?"

"Proxer's eye of farseeing," Ripper said, as he settled himself on the mattress.

"No."

"No?"

He heard the fridge door shut, and then Ethan came back out into the main area of their open plan flat. "Just let it drop, Rupert. Please."

"I can't," Ripper told him. "Not when you come home looking like that."

"I'm fine now. I would've done the spell before I got home, but it was too cold. I couldn't concentrate."

"Ethan, someone did that to you. I can't just let that go." He frowned. "You've never wanted me to before."

Ethan gave him an earnest look. "This is different. I... You can't protect me from everything."

"Won't know that for sure until I try."

Even though Ethan was many feet away, Ripper could see that he was shaking, his arms were wrapped around himself as if cold. He looked at Ripper and seemed... defeated. "I went home."

It took a few seconds for the import of that statement to sink in. When it did, Ripper was torn between comforting Ethan and immediately going out and tracking his lover's bastard of a father down and expressing his... displeasure. The look on Ethan's face tipped the balance for now, and Ripper crossed over and pulled him close.

"I don't even know why I went," Ethan said as he buried his face in the crook of Ripper's neck.

"A moment of diehard optimism?" Ripper suggested softly. "Doesn't matter why, you should be able to go home without being beaten."

"He was drunk, as usual. He didn't like my eyeliner. I thought it was discreet enough that he wouldn't notice." Ethan snorted. "I'm a glutton."

"More like he's a bloody sadist." Ripper kissed Ethan gently. "Nothing you did, love."

Ethan sniffed. "Got born, didn't I? That was enough. If he's a sadist, I'm a masochist. I keep going back, even when I know–"

"You keep hoping that it'll change. That he'll change."

Ethan looked up and gave Ripper a grimace of a smile. "You see, he's meant to love me."

"There's something wrong with him if he can't." Ripper's heart ached for Ethan. "I love you."

That won him a small smile, but then Ethan looked down, raking his fingers down Ripper's chest painfully. "I'm glad we'll never have kids. Glad I'll never let his bastard genes pass on. His line stops with me, and he hates that, but he hates me more." Now that Ethan was finally talking, he didn't seem to want to stop. "He's so ashamed of me, of what he sees in me, of what he knows is in him." For a moment, Ripper thought Ethan meant his sexuality, but then Ethan muttered, "He told me today I looked just like her, that I was scum just like her. I thanked him and said it was the nicest thing he'd ever said to me. 'Cause it was. Then he hit me."

"Her?" Ripper asked gently, swallowing his anger until a time when he could direct it where it was deserved.

"My nan."

Ah. Filing away that new titbit of knowledge about Ethan, Ripper kissed him again. "He's a complete and utter git. The only good thing he's ever done is father you."

"Least he actually noticed I existed," Ethan muttered. "Mum ne– Can I eat now? The spell, it leaves me peckish." Ripper nodded, letting Ethan go. After grabbing the leftovers from the fridge, Ethan sat down on the sofa with the obvious intent of eating them all. He paused between cartons. "I think a part of him does, you know."

"Does what?" Ripper asked, moving to sit beside him and steal one of the cartons.

Ethan chewed and swallowed before replying. "Love me. In his own stupid way. That's why he tries so hard to make me what he thinks I should be."

Privately, Ripper wasn't so sure, but he would never say so to Ethan. "I love you the way you are."

Leaning into Ripper and nuzzling, Ethan said rather sappily, "Then I'll never change so you always do." He chuckled softly to himself.

"I won't let him hurt you again," Ripper vowed, wrapping a protective arm around Ethan.

"He can't hurt me anyway, not while I have you." Ethan, by now looking thoroughly cheerful, grinned at Ripper before filling his mouth with a large forkful of noodles.

"You looked pretty hurt when you staggered in here. That's not going to happen again."

Ethan shifted uneasily. "Is that an order not to go home anymore?"

Ripper shook his head. "None of this is your fault, love. Not going to punish you because of it."

Ethan's shoulder shrugged under Ripper's arms. "Dunno why I go anyway. I've got everything I need here."

Ripper leant in and kissed him. "Including protection. I promise you, he won't hurt you again."

"What does that mean?" Ethan asked sharply. "I don't want you near him, Ripper."

"He'd find it a bit harder to hit me."

"No." Ethan pulled back and glared. "You get to have me, present and future, but my past you leave alone. How would you feel if I offered to bespell your father?"

"My father isn't a threat to me anymore," Ripper insisted, not willing to just let this go. "Yours obviously is."

"Only if I go back, and then on my head be it. Really. Drop this one. Please, Ripper."

"He could've killed you."

Ethan was so tense now he was shaking again. His jaw was clenched when he said, "No. He wouldn't."

Ripper continued on implacably, although it was difficult in the face of Ethan's obvious pain. "You saying you think he's so completely in control when he's hitting you that there's no way he could hit you too hard without meaning to?"

Obviously upset, Ethan stood and began to move restlessly around the flat. "Hasn't killed me yet, has he? He's been doing this for years, Ripper. Years when you weren't there to protect me, when no one was. I know how to handle him, know what to do to make sure he calms down quickly once he's started. And if all else fails, there's always magic."

"You shouldn't have to."

Ethan didn't even seem to hear him. "You keep curled up, eyes averted, saying nothing, just taking it passively. No tears, but no stubborn refusal to make a noise either. Give him just what he wants, but no more. Never lasts all that long if you don't make a nuisance of yourself."

That broke Ripper's heart to hear and made him all the more enraged at the same time. "Ethan, you shouldn't have to worry about that sort of thing," he said, trying again to break through.

"Yeah." Ethan paused in his pacing. "Yeah, should've given it up when you gave up your studies and nasty corduroy. You're right. I won't go back." He darted back to the sofa and knelt beside it, laying his forehead on Ripper's thighs. "I'm sorry. I know it upsets you. I won't go back."

"Don't, love," Ripper begged as he gently stroked his fingers through Ethan's hair. "Don't apologise for what he did to you, and certainly not to me."

Ethan moved into the touch. "I know he's a bastard. You know, I know. It's just... well... He's the only family I have left now Mum's in the hospice, and it doesn't mean a whole lot, but I always liked him better than her. He's all right when he's sober, but she was never anything but a bitch. Nan was the nice one, but they took her long ago."

Ripper continued stroking Ethan's hair since it seemed to be calming him. "You've got me."

Ethan looked up at that and smiled. "You're all I need."