Mistakes:  Prologue
by Surreal
Feedback:  surreal666@hotmail.com
Rating:  R
Category:  Langly/Byers slash
Disclaimer:  Not mine, at the moment.
Summery:  One misunderstanding will lead to another.

**********

Langly glances over at Byers again, curious about the strange,
unusually secretive little smile that occasionally sweeps across
the older man's face.  

'He's reading his email, for Christ's sake.'

Then why is he blushing?

Or...

Langly knows that look.  He's not blushing.

His cheeks are flushed a faint red from arousal.  But not for
Langly.  The younger man frowns, wondering what's gotten into
his lover.  They weren't talking, or even making their descreet little
sensual gestures like they usually do, that might cause Byers to be
like that.

So what is it?

"John?  What are you doing over there?"  Langly asks, keeping his
tone light and amused.

"Huh?  Oh--nothing,"  Byers visibly jumps a bit at the break in their 
silence.  "Just going through email, the usual."

"Uh huh.  What are you thinking about then?"

"What?  What do you mean?"

"You're all hot and bothered, and I'm not doing anything.  Whatcha
reading over there?"

"Nothing, just email, like I said," Byers says hurriedly, defensively.
"And I'm *not* all 'hot and bothered'."

Langly let it drop.  For now.

**********

"I've got to go pick up the newsprint for the next issue.  Be back soon,"
Byers says, briefly kissing Langly's cheek as he sweeps by on his way
out the door.

The door is shut before Langly has a chance to pout over the all-too-
brief peck on the cheek.  He gets over it quickly, though, realizing 
his chance to find out what Byers had been doing earlier.

He makes quick work of getting into Byers email account, the one 
Langly isn't supposed to know about.  He glances quickly through the
folders, finding random messages from sources long since proven
unreliable, and Byers' correspondences with his relatives.  

It is the folder labled 'Holly' that catches Langly's eye, strangely 
familiar but he couldn't quite place it.

He skims the first message in the folder, dating from over a year 
ago, for clues to the sender.  At the bottom, he finds the connection.

It is signed 'Love--Susanne'.

Shit.

They are love letters to Byers.

Langly feels his stomach turn, blinking back hot tears of anger and
betrayal.  He goes through the folder, scanning each message and
causing himself all the more pain for doing so.  The letters describe
nothing of the details of Susanne's new life, none of the usual 
friendly banter found in correspondance.

Langly sees only detailed descriptions of what Susanne would like
to do to Byers.  Her sexual fantasies about his lover.  

He's so engrossed in reading the messages that he doesn't hear
Byers coming back in, or moving to stand behind him.

But he hears the voice;  a level of rage from the older man that Langly
has never heard before.  "What the fuck are you doing in my accounts,
Ringo??"

Langly jumps to his feet, torn between the natural embarrassment of 
being caught and his own anger at Byers' secret, continuing 
correspondance with Susanne.  "John...what--how..."  he doesn't
know what to say, where to start.
  
Byers pushes the other man away from his computer, hastily shutting
down the connection.  "How dare you--"

"Why didn't you tell me you were still involved with her?"  Langly's
voice cuts him off, soft but with a painful anxiety behind the words.

"Her--you mean, Susanne?  Jesus, Ree, I'm not--"

"Don't even try it, John.  That last message was just a few hours old.
How could you?"

Byers turns away, running his hand over his hair roughly.  "Ree, you
don't understand, it's not what you think."
 
Langly strides quickly over to stand very close to him, grabbing his
arm.  "What am I supposed to think?  You guys obviously have some
kind of sick cybersex email thing going, and--and am I just good for
a good fuck now and then?  Is that what I am to you, just a warm 
body for you to act out your fantasies with her??"

The older man shakes him off, shoving him roughly on the chest.  
"God damn it, Langly...she writes using temp accounts she sets up,
then destroys.  I can't write back to her, tell her that I'm with you
now..."

"Bull shit!  I saw you today, you were enjoying what she wrote, you
sick fuck!"  Langly lashes out, slapping away the hand Byers is 
pressing against his chest.  "And you know I saw you, and you
lied to me!  What am I to you, John?  Just a fuck buddy?  Someone
to make you forget how lonely you are for a few hours?"

Langly turns, feeling confused and helpless and as angry as he had 
ever felt in his life.  "If you don't really want me, if you're just 
using me, please...just stop.  Just don't anymore."

Byers watches, frustrated and distressed, as Langly slams the thick
metal door behind him on his way out.

**********
Con't. in Part 1