»opulence{miles kane x alex turner}

f e a r

i wrote this chapter on a plane. immersion and all that. It's also very very long
Also big big things are coming in the next few chapters and i am so pumped let's have itttt

The airport was so large and cavernous that every single noise seemed to echo around the glass ceiling, playing into Alex's head at least a hundred times over, amplified and distorted. The amount of people, the sheer volumes of travellers- created a din and a presence that meant he felt rather hemmed in on all sides, pressed in every manner. There had been the dulcet tones of a screaming child echoing around the ceiling for the best part of an hour, and he was beginning to lose his patience as he traipsed through duty-free with Miles.

They felt strange today, the pair of them. Evidently it was everything to do with the fact that they'd slept together last night, and though it was palpable in the air between them, there was something in it that wasn't exactly unpleasant. It was a new kind of comfort, the knowledge that they were as far as they could go (sex, in Alex's case, and bearing emotions in Miles') and no matter what came next, they both had been gifted the knowledge that they'd been right, that there was something there; they'd won whatever kind of battle it was that they were fighting against themselves.

All Miles wanted now was to fight that fucking screaming kid.

The yelling was echoing around in his head, even as they ducked inside a brightly-lit watch shop, one that proclaimed discount prices and offers on boards outside, the almost-diamond lights inside reflecting off every glass surface and every watch face. Things were always flashier here than they were in England, and often he found he'd bought into it before really thinking about it. Alex followed him, his expression an unplaceable cocktail of satisfied (obviously), concerned (about whatever it was that was going on with Jamie) and musing, as he edged his way around the display tables. Miles was a little way ahead, but he was still watching him.

He watched everything that Alex did, and that had been the way things had gone ever since they'd met. But he watched him differently now; his eyes weren't the roving approval of some millionaire sleaze who got what he fancied and then left it, the gaze was more appreciative, less primal, almost as if he was counting Alex as something that was his already. For Miles, that was the single most bizarre thing in the world, and had last night not taken the route that they'd found themselves tumbling down, he didn't know exactly how he should feel about it. There was fear in that feeling, but it was fear that Miles wanted. It was fear that he thrived on- because nothing was worth doing if it didn't scare the shit out of someone.

He watched Alex and his nimble, almost feline way of moving. His thin hand traced the the watches, his eyes gleaming with the jewellery on display and the way the lights seemed engineered purely to reflect, every tiny movement seeming choreographed and practised, as though he'd decided every step and every touch hours before he actually carried them out. He was dressed today in the only thing they'd left out in the hotel before the bags were taken away by the concierge this morning- the dirty white shirt he'd worn on the first day, and the only pair of pants that were left over and not stained with wine. It looked put together anyway, and it didn't seem to matter that his hair hadn't been done, because everything that Alex did looked like Alex had done it on purpose.

"Do you like that one?" Miles had caught him up, wanting to be nearer to him in a gesture that was as unusual as it was pathetic. Alex had draped an expensive-looking black watch across his wrist, not seeming to quite dare fasten it properly as he passed the gleaming strap between his fingers absent mindedly, the face gleaming. t was a very pleasant watch (and indeed a very unpleasant price), and he nodded appreciatively in response to Miles' question.