Title: Trick You With A Smile

Author: Adelaide Elizabeth Morgan

Fandom: Velvet Goldmine

Categories: Arthur Stewart/OMC, PWP, Songfic

Rating: NC17

Archive: Yes to list archives. Anyone else, please let me know so I can come and preen.

Thanks to: You, for reading this. Paul, for being patient and understanding when I disappear into the computer room for days on end to write. Bryan Adams & Sweeney Todd, for the song Tantalize that inspired this piece. Rushlight, as ever, for the beta.

Disclaimer: Velvet Goldmine and all recognizable characters and events are the property
of… Actually, I don't know who they belong to, but it sure ain't me. This story is being written for entertainment purposes only and no profit will be made out of it.

Notes: My first Velvet Goldmine piece…

Summary: The very thing from which you are hiding is so very often the one thing that you need the most.

Trick You With A Smile
by Adelaide Elizabeth Morgan

This bar was, Arthur Stewart decided, completely disgusting. Dark, dirty and smelly - the sort of place you came when you wanted to be invisible. The perfect place to hide. And hiding was what Arthur was doing.

No one noticed him perched on the stool, drowning his sorrows in one pint of bitter after another. He glanced around the place every so often, wondering how many of these other men were doing the same as him. But of course, none of them ever looked up from their own drinks, so a connection could never be made.

Perfect.

Arthur smiled to himself and looked back down at his own pint. He drained it in one swallow, and then signalled to the barman for another. He jumped on the stool and spun around to face the door when it banged open against the wall, reflexively checking to see who was there. He was wary that his parents had come looking for him.

It wasn't them. A tall man with collar-length dirty blond hair, natural - not peroxide, Arthur noted - walked in. A floor length leather jacket hanging over his slim frame, long legs encased in skin-tight black jeans.

Arthur swallowed, turning back to his drink. Under normal circumstances, he would have found the man attractive. But he couldn't. Not tonight. Not after what had just happened. Not after what his parents had just seen. A cold feeling of dread clutched at his heart, turning his stomach. He stared at the glass before drinking it down in one.

He drank two more in the same fashion, and sat nursing a third, staring off into space. How much time passed, he didn't know, but one of the first things he became aware of when he calmed down was that he was being watched.

Arthur frowned and glanced quickly around the bar, still wary of attracting too much attention to himself. His eyes met the blue eyes of the blond stranger. Neither of them broke eye contact, and the blond raised a questioning eyebrow. Arthur smiled tentatively back at him, a smile the blond returned broadly before turning back to the bar and finishing his drink.

Bemused, Arthur also turned back to his drink, a slight frown tightening the skin of his forehead. A wry grin tugged at his lips and he shook his head, trying to forget the blond man.

The whirr of the jukebox indicated someone had finally grown tired of the silence and chosen some music. Arthur had thought of doing the same but hadn't wanted to leave his spot in the dark corner of the bar.

Arthur's stomach sank as he recognised the opening bars of the song. Brian Slade. He slipped his jacket on and was just about to down the last of his pint when he felt a gentle touch to his shoulder. He looked up, straight into the smiling face of the blond man.

Neither man spoke, the blond slipping his hand into the pocket of Arthur's jeans and dropping something small in. Patting Arthur on the back, he walked away without a backwards glance.

Arthur frowned, reached into his pocket and pulled it out. A key. He turned and looked at the door, then back at the key and smiled. Decision made, he slid off the stool and walked out of the pub to where the blond man was leaning against a wall, watching the doors.

"I wasn't sure you'd come."

"Neither was I," Arthur confessed.

"Well, I'm glad you did." The blond man turned and walked down the alleyway, Arthur following him. They stopped outside a shabby looking door, the blond man looking around quickly, before pushing the door open and slipping inside.

The blond man's room was pretty barren; no home comforts, just the basics. A bed, cupboard, table and chairs. Nothing to show that anyone really lived here.

He watched as Arthur looked around, turning a full circle on the spot. "Uhh… Nice place you got here."

The blond man laughed, and pulled Arthur closely, kissing him for the first time. Arthur held himself tense, slowly relaxing as the kiss deepened, hands grabbing and ripping clothing off before discarding it to the floor.

They tumbled onto the bed, Arthur lying on his stomach. He looked over his shoulder at his soon-to-be lover, a shiver running down his spine as he watched him slide a condom over his erection. Wetting his lips, Arthur pushed himself up onto his hands and knees, head dropping forward as he willed himself to calm down and relax; after all, it hurt much more when he was
tense.

Arthur gasped sharply as two fingers pressed into him, the blond man kissing down his back. Shifting his hips, Arthur moaned as he adjusted to the feeling of the fingers in him. Nodding to himself, the blond man started slowly fucking Arthur with his fingers, smiling as Arthur moaned, rocking back against him.

He pulled his fingers out, chuckling when Arthur whimpered with loss. Arthur's whimper soon turned into another moan as his lover penetrated him hard and fast. He could feel his muscles tightening around the blond man's erection as he was fucked hard and fast by the stranger.

The blond man took no time to think about Arthur, focussing solely on his own pleasure, so Arthur wrapped his fingers around his cock, pumping steadily to bring himself off. He gasped out his orgasm, covering his fingers, which he cleaned off on the bedspread. The other man's grip on Arthur's hips tightened, his thrusts growing harder as he too came, slumping down on top of Arthur.

Arthur grimaced as the body on top of him grew heavy with sleep. He slid out from under him, but before he could slip off the bed, the other man's arm wrapped around his waist. Arthur sighed and settled down, waiting for him to fall into a dead sleep, rather than just his current light doze.

As soon as the blond man started to snore, Arthur very gently moved his arm and slid off the bed, pulling the sheet up around him. He made his way across the dark room, grateful for the lack of furniture for him to bump into. Pulling his jeans up, he groped around for his t-shirt. Finding it, he frowned; it was ripped, how was he going to explain that to his mother?

He shrugged and slipped it over his head, wrapping his jacket tightly around his body. He opened the door; glancing over his shoulder at the man sprawled across the bed and shook his head sadly. He never even found out his name - not that that mattered of course, he told himself as he closed the door behind him.

Shoving his hands deeply into his jeans pockets to ward off the cold, Arthur walked off into the dark of the night, rain trickling down the back of his jacket as he whistled to himself

~El fin~