Title: Traces of Peyote

Author: Irene KS

Pairing: Jim/Blair

Rating: NC-17

Many thanks go to Laura for her fantastic beta service and to J. Love for her help. All remaining mistakes (mostly out of stubbornness) are mine. Unfortunately not so much else.

Traces of Peyote

by irene ks

"Okay... let's settle this once and for all." Captain Banks glares indignantly at his subordinates. "There are no ghosts..."

Man, Simon must be really desperate to find some rational explanation for the recent encounter of his best detective with the supernatural, thinks Blair as the Captain rambles on about Jim's cold and Blair's evidently slightly hallucinogenic medicine for the Sentinel.

"Peyote?" Jim asks, amazed.

"Exactly." Simon looks smug.

"That would explain some things," admits Jim.

"I guess that covers everything. That's why I'm Captain. Night, boys," says Simon and leaves.

"Night, Sir," Jim calls after him.

Blair rakes his hands through his hair and goes over to join his partner by the mirror, half expecting to be forcefully introduced to the nearest wall. And then we would be right back at the beginning, he muses. But when Jim turns to him and asks "Peyote?", there's nothing but amusement in his eyes and voice.

"Just traces, that's what he said," Blair defends himself, relieved, as Jim begins to shiver. "What is it? Do you see her?"

Jim‘s eyes follow the shadowy figure that has passed through him and into the mirror. Looking at Molly's ghost, he observes, "You came back."

"Just to thank you," explains Molly, reaching out of the mirror for Jim's hand. She touches him, lacing their fingers together and moves forward to kiss Jim on the cheek. Then she turns around and walks away.

Moved, Jim turns back to his partner, touching Blair's shoulder.

"Jim?" Blair asks, wanting to know what's going on.

"She just came back to thank us," explains Jim.

"Us?"

"Yes. Us," Jim says, certain, and then bends down and gives Blair a soft kiss on the cheek.

"Huh? Jim?" Perplexed, Blair starts to takes a step back, but Jim stops him holding him by the arms and smiles.

"Well, she gave one to me, and I think you deserve one, too. I couldn’t have done it without you, Chief. The last few days... this case... working with you like that... it was totally awesome. I... Shit, I’m really not good with this talking stuff," Jim sighs. "You’d better sit down," he suggests and directs Blair to the couch opposite the fireplace.

After sitting down, Blair tries to shake off his surprise. "You’re starting to scare me here, man. First you see a ghost and you don’t freak; then Simon tells you I’ve drugged you with peyote and you don’t freak. Instead, you give me ghost cooties and now you want to talk. Should I be calling an exorcist, Jim?"

"Please, Blair. Don't make this harder for me as it already is," Jim pleads, silencing Blair by using his given name. "I know the last nine months haven’t been easy for either of us. It got better after Veronica, but the first few months after Alex… I acted like a total ass. You know me; when there's something I can't cope with, I deny or repress it. I thought if I denied how much you meant to me, it would stop eventually. I treated you badly and I'm sorry about that. But your death... God, that was really something not to cope with."

"Jim..." Blair tries to intervene but Jim cuts him off.

"You have to know that when Alex came to town, I had visions of killing you or, rather, your spirit animal. That stupid fight over Alex and throwing you out of the Loft seemed like the perfect way to get you away from me, to make it all go away. But like a self-fulfilling prophecy, you ended up face down in that fountain all the same. "Thank God… ," Jim covers his eyes, "... thank God, I managed to bring you back. And then you lay there in that hospital bed looking calmly at me with your pretty blue eyes inviting me... " Jim looks desperately and with some accusation in his eyes at his partner. "Why the hell did you do that? Why then? Why not at any other time during the almost three years of our partnership when I was secretly lusting after you?"

"You... you really?" Blair asks, surprised, his eyes getting big. "I thought so. I mean, the merge of our spirit animals somehow got me on the clue bus. But then you said no..."

"Jeez, Blair. What should I have said to that then? You had just died on me and it was all my fault…"

"That's bullshit, Jim," protests Blair, trying to stop his partner’s guilt trip, but Jim rants on.

"... and of course there was still Alex. I don’t care if my Sentinel hormones told me to beget half a dozen jaguar-kitties with her. That was just plain wrong. I mean, what is it with women and me anyway? I really would be better off sticking to men. Laura, Lila, Alex, Veronica; is it a psycho-bitch-complex? Maybe it's all my mother's fault. You're the one with psychology as a minor, tell me."

"Your mom was a psycho-killer, too?" Blair asks, joking, but gets scared at his partner's non-reaction to his jest. "Jim?" he inquires.

"Well, the official version is that she was shot by a burglar," Jim finally explains sadly.

"God, Jim, that's horrible. I had no idea..." Blair starts to rush to his friend but stops at Jim’s preventive gesture.

"Dad was working the night it happened, and Steven and I were spending the summer at an aunt‘s," he explains. "When we came back Mom was already buried and everything had been handled very discretely. I was too young to understand much more than that she wouldn't be coming back. It was just before I joined the army that I got Dad to tell me that the 'burglar' had actually been my mother's lover. It seems they wanted to run off with as much of Dad's money as possible. Probably got into a fight over its division. Dad covered it all up neatly, of course. Knowing him, I don't blame my mother for having a lover. I just wish she had shown better taste in one."

Blair gets up and goes to Jim, enclosing him in a consoling embrace. "I'm so sorry, man, but I doubt this has something to do with your unfortunate choices in women." Blair urges Jim to sit down beside him on the couch. After getting settled, Blair tries to lighten the mood, elbowing Jim playfully in the ribs, reminding him, "Hey, if it makes you feel any better, my record regarding women isn't the best, either." Jim snorts in agreement and catches Blair’s arm. As he laces their fingers together and kisses the back of his partner’s hand, Blair becomes a little agitated. "So…, not to be completely tactless, but can we get back to you secretly lusting after me now?"

Jim smiles at that. "I think we’re already there. Doesn't seem to scare you much, huh?"

"Not a bit!" Blair lies, his accelerated heartbeat giving him away.

Jim lets it pass, however, and continues, "But I'm still scared, you know. I think I’ve had to cope with too many losses in my life. If I should lose you once again... I don't even want to think about it. I guess that was also my main problem with your dissertation. Because when it's done you’ll be gone."

Blair rolls his eyes. "Forget the diss, man. I haven’t worked on it since… forever."

"But... but it always meant so much to you..." Jim looks at his partner in disbelief.

"A little too much if you ask me," Blair returns dryly. "Look, you had every right to be pissed about it. When it came to the diss, I shut you out totally and fell regularly into an academic frenzy."

"But if you don't write about Sentinels what will you write about?" Jim asks, stunned.

"Nothing." Blair shrugs.

"Nothing?" Jim inquires.

"Yeah." Seeing the uncomprehending expression of his partner, Blair asks, "Did you hear what Henri said when the guys played that ghost-prank on us the other day?"

"Sorry, Chief, you lost me," Jim shakes his head.

"He said that somebody should make me a detective," Blair explains. "Thought about it. For quite a while, actually," he adds seriously.

"You what!?" Jim cries, outraged. "You can't do that! Not for me… What about your teaching... your research? That's... that's not..."

"Hey," Blair cuts him off with a glare. "What do mean I can't and who says it's for you?"

That makes Jim stop and think, although he still seems to desperately seeking counterarguments. "But..." he trails off, looking more concerned than upset and turns to look stare at his partner.

"Okay, okay!" Blair finally surrenders to Jim’s ice blue eyes drilling through him). "I won’t lie to you and say that I'm totally comfortable with everything police work entails. There is the gun thing and some other issues I'll have to work out. Yes, I like to teach, but, to be honest, I like working with you much more. It’s just so great. Over the last few years I‘ve totally come to enjoy chasing bad guys and solving crimes. And, after all, there’ll always be you, who I can lecture when I feel like it. So, I‘m thinking of going to the Police Academy as soon as possible. That is, if you actually want me as your ‘real’ partner, of course."

Jim breathes hard, looking tormented and getting suspiciously teary eyed. "Like you haven't been my real partner all the time!? God! I love you so much," he declares, unable to hold it in any longer. He abruptly bends, grabing Blair’s head and kisses him with abandon.

"Wow!" Blair comments after they separate for some air, and reaches out to wipe away a tear running down Jim‘s cheek. "Hey, man, there’s no reason to cry. I can’t be all that great an anthropologist, anyway," he reflects, considering. "It took me quite a while to figure out that you might be interested in me ‘like that’." Tenderly kissing Jim, he asks afterward, "So, does this mean I can be your real partner 'like that', too?"

"Are you sure you want that?" Jim asks, doubtful. "It's not just because of the Sentinel thing is it? Usually, most people don't stop being straight all of a sudden."

"It's not ‘all that sudden‘ anymore, Jim. I‘ve had almost a year to think about it, and, who knows? Maybe I‘ve stayed straight all this time just to piss off Mom," Blair muses, only half joking.

Jim snorts and thinks, Yeah, right. Naomi is probably one of the very few mothers who would be totally embarrassed by a straight son.

"All I know is that I so don't feel straight right now, man, I can tell you." Blair reaches for Jim‘s face and presses a passionate kiss on his Sentinel’s lips.

As their kiss gets more and more fervent, Blair tugs impatiently at Jim’s clothes. Finally, Jim’s shirt gives way and Blair takes the opportunity to explore the naked chest. Jim, for his part busy with Blair's pants, is soon groaning from his partner's hungry caresses.

Jim also senses Blair's excitement, hearing his heart racing. He catches his lover's roaming hands, holding them to his own fast beating heart. "Nervous?" he asks, just barely breaking the kiss.

"Never done this before, remember?" Blair whispers into Jim's mouth.

"So, I guess that means I’m the teacher for once, huh?" Jim turns Blair around so that he is now sitting between his partner‘s bare spread legs. He caresses Blair's thighs tenderly and says softly, "I like your legs."

"My legs?" Blair asks, puzzled. He looks at the limbs in question, and muses, "Well, they’re hairy."

"They’re beautiful," Jim corrects and kisses both kneecaps, sending pleasant shivers through Blair.

"Guess I have to trust your superior Sentinel eyes on that one, man. But you haven't even seen the best yet." Blair wiggles his eyebrows, pointing at his crotch.

Jim grins and accepts the invitation. He removes Blair's boxers, freeing an already half hard penis of rather impressive size. "Yeah, I guess that tops the legs," Jim concedes. He bends down and licks carefully around the precome-wet tip.

"Jeez, Jim! Warn a guy, will you?!" Blair gasps at the unexpected pleasure.

Jim licks his lips and laughs wickedly. "Okay. Consider this your one and only warning. Better get ready to receive the best blowjob of your life." With that, he goes down on Blair again, enclosing Blair’s penis in his warm, wet mouth.

"Shit, Jim!" Blair pants at the sensation, grabbing his lover's sparse hair for some hold.

Jim hums, sending delicious vibrations through Blair's body. He works his talented lips and tongue up and down Blair's shaft meeting his lover‘s eager thrusts. Blair, convinced that Jim wasn’t bragging, makes little encouraging gasps as he moves.

"Jim. God. Good. That's good. Oh..."

As their rhythm speeds up, Blair is sure he won't be able to hold it much longer. "Going to come... Jim, ah..."

His climax is ripped from him, as Jim augments his mouth work with firm strokes of Blair's testicles. Crying with relief, Blair shoots his seed deep into Jim's throat, who swallows it all. While Blair is trying to come down from his orgasm and catch his breath, a satisfied looking Jim slowly licks him clean.

"Wow! You should have an extra weapon license for that mouth of yours," Blair sighs finally and then begins to giggle. "Who would’ve thought?"

Jim, understanding this as an allusion to his otherwise rather taciturn ways, grumbles and slaps Blair playfully on the hips. After he gets rid of his interfering pants and boxers, Jim peels his lover out of his shirts, achieving full body contact at last. After drawing a line with his tongue over Blair's stomach and chest to his throat and sharing some of Blair's taste in another lip lock, Jim notices that his partner's shivers are not solely ones of arousal.

"Cold?" Jim rubs Blair’s arms gently and rains kisses over his chest in an attempt to keep him warm.

"Yes, a little," Blair admits, enjoying the effort nevertheless.

"Maybe I can get the fireplace working," offers Jim.

"That would be nice, but is there anything to burn?" Blair wonders.

"Well, let's see." Jim jumps up from the couch, walking butt naked over to the fireplace to examine the pieces of wood lying in the empty space under it. "The wood seems to be dry enough. Do you have a lighter?"

"Sorry, not smoking," Blair kids and shows his empty hands.

"Hmm." Jim turns around, scratching his head and looking a little lost.

"Forget the fireplace, man." Blair reaches out to Jim. "Just come back here and be my blanket."

"Hey, I'm a Sentinel. I survived for years in the Jungles of Peru. I won't give up that easily," Jim insists, fooling around. Blair grins dreamily at the fantastic sight of his naked lover rummaging through the pockets of the clothes on the floor. In the end, Jim finds a matchbox in his jacket. He also uses some old shopping notes from his wallet to help get the fire started quickly.

While making fun of his Sentinel, Blair's eyes go up to the mirror above the fireplace. Soon, it is eerily illuminated by the burning fire and the setting sun. Man, I hope Molly really went over to the other side or she got quite an eyeful, he thinks.

"Well, if she’s a ghost with voyeuristic tendencies, she probably stayed a little longer," Jim retorts, laughing.

"Jim?" Blair asks, disbelieving, a scared expression on his face.

"What?" Jim asks back, concerned about Blair's sudden lack of pallor.

"I didn’t say that out loud."

Jim looks confused. "Sure you…" Fuck, no, he didn’t!

"Whoa! Man!" Blair sits up shocked.

"What?" Like he’s never heard me curse before.

"Well, yes, but not in my head!" Blair exclaims.

"You mean you... too?" Jim asks, astonished.

"Yeah, I heard what you thought," Blair confirms, stunned.

"So what now? We’re both telepaths all of a sudden?" Jim asks.

"Seems like it." Blair is intrigued. Can you hear this?

Loud and clear, Jim transmits back.

"Man, that's weird," Blair states.

"Tell me about it," Jim says, annoyed. I so don't need another freaky ability.

"How often do I have to tell you, you're not a freak!" Blair yells at Jim. And stop imitating me! he transmits behind.

"I do not!" Jim denies.

"Do too!" This could be part of the Sentinel-Guide bond Incacha talked about, Blair thinks considering the situation carefully.

"Couldn't it be because of the peyote?" Jim asks, searching for an alternative.

"Hardly. I didn't take any Niktabi root. And the small amount of peyote you were exposed to because of it should have worn off by now," Blair answers.

"Great. So it's the sex?" Jim asks, beaten, sounding completely nonplussed. Then some interesting possibilities come to mind. Hey, that wouldn't be so bad.

"Probably," Blair grins. No, that would be kind of cool.

"You know, we could do some easy tests to see if that’s it." Jim grins back and grabs his pants, pulling out a condom and a tube of lube for display.

"Huh... Jim?" Blair looks at his partner in disbelief. "Don't tell me you always carry lube around in your pocket."

"Uh, well..." Jim face turns red, a nice shade visible even in the twilight of the fire. "I bought it yesterday ... thought we maybe might need it after the case..."

"You planned this?" Blair asks, stunned.

"Well, I didn't think it would happen all that fast, but I kind of liked this place and thought we could come back later..." Jim tries to make some sense.

"You planned to seduce me in a spook-house?!" That’s so cool, man! Blair reaches happily for his lover and pulls him back onto the couch, embracing him and kissing him hungrily.

"Think your best part is ready for a second round yet?" Jim asks as they finally break apart. He skilfully pumps Blair’s half hard penis with his free hand until Blair is fully erect. Then Jim opens the foil package of the condom, rolling it gently down Blair’s penis.

"But... but what about you?" Blair asks, surprised.

"Want to feel you inside me, Chief," Jim whispers. Wanted it since forever. He kisses Blair again and straddles him, rising to his knees. He then opens the tube of lube and starts to prepare himself.

"Oh, Jim." Blair watches as if he were hypnotized.

You like that? Jim asks his lover.

Yes. But, please, let me... Blair grabs the lube, pouring some of it over his fingers, which soon join Jim's in preparing him. Jim is guiding his lover's hand, slowly adding one of Blair's digits to his own.

Yeah, like that, Blair. That's good. Jim removes his own finger and releases Blair’s hand, letting his lover finish stretching him. Blair, in his eagerness, hits Jim’s prostate several times and it almost becomes too much for Jim. "Enough," he gasps, removing Blair's fingers. Laying his lover back down on the couch, Jim gets himself into position over him, and finally cautiously sinks down onto Blair's waiting erection.

"Jim!" God, he’s tight. Don't want to hurt him... Blair thinks, torn between delight and anxiety.

Doesn't hurt me, Chief. Not anywhere near hurting. Feels so good. Jim responds, beginning to rock slightly in Blair's lap. He groans with pleasure as Blair‘s penis hits his prostate.

Blair urges Jim gradually into a faster rhythm until Jim is riding him without restraint. Trapping Jim’s erection between their stomachs, Blair uses one hand to jerk Jim off as he rides and Jim quickly approaches his climax.

Yesyesyes. Jim’s litany of fulfilment echoes in Blair’s head. Nearing his own orgasm, Blair knows how to stimulate his lover even further. Come for me Jim. Want to see you...

Jim does exactly that, shaking on Blair's lap and shooting his semen between them. Blair can't hold it any longer, spilling his seed deep inside Jim, who is convulsing deliciously around him. Worn-out, Jim collapses onto Blair, who manages to clean up most of the come with purposeful licking and a little help from one of his undershirts.

A little while later, Jim slowly separates from Blair and tries to fit beside his lover on the couch, pulling Blair halfway onto his chest in the process.

I love you, Chief, he lets Blair know, exhausted but satisfied.

"Love you, too, Jim," says Blair.

Jim looks questioningly at his lover.

"Just had to say it loud, you know," explains Blair, cuddling up closer in Jim's arms.

"Yes, I do." Jim nods and kisses Blair, his partner in so many ways.

The End