1sentence: Pocket Pair [Left 4 Dead 2]

[terabient]

1sentence again, because i am a great big dork and really want to write something for Nick/Ellis like all the other giddy fangirls lol Left 4 Dead but don't really have any...workable ideas yet so i need to breed some plot bunnies. =0

Title: Pocket Pair
Fandom: Left 4 Dead 2
Characters/Pairing: Nick/Ellis
Theme Set: Gamma
Rating: M
Warnings: not enough sex. Occasional, vaguely described goriness.

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#01 - Ring
"Aw, hell, Nick -" Ellis hisses, as Nick's hand, warm and firm, closes around his cock, and the rings, oh god he kept them on and Ellis whines at the feel of the smooth hard metal rubbing against him.

#02 - Hero
"You don't," Ellis gasps, "you don't have to - to save me -"

"Oh, bullshit, Ellis," Nick snarls, just as he smashes another zombie's head in with a frying pan, "You're not allowed to go all tragic hero on us."

#03 - Memory
It's getting harder and harder for Ellis to remember what life was like before the infection, harder to think of a time when Rochelle and Coach and Nick weren't at his side - and strangely, he doesn't mind.

#04 - Box
"Hey man, I hope you like chocolate, because you won't believe what I just found - " and before Nick can ask what the hell Ellis is talking about, he's inundated with heart-shaped, dusty chocolate boxes: found, apparently, in the storage room of the convenience store they've holed up in.

#05 - Run
They're both on their last legs; the safe room is only fifty feet away, but when Nick looks back he knows the horde will reach them first, and he tightens his grip on his gun for one last shot before...

"Race ya to the safe house," Ellis gasps, and somehow, he manages to pick up the pace, just enough to get to safety in time, just enough to beat him, and Nick just can't let that stand so he grits his teeth and pushes forward.

#06 - Hurricane
The rain falls so thick and hard Nick can't see or hear anything else; but he knows Ellis is next to him, knows the unmistakable sensation of his calloused hand on his arm.

#07 - Wings
They are walking through the sugarcane field when Ellis starts talking: "Didja know that one time, me and my buddy Keith got attacked by birds - yeah, whatever Nick, just keep on shakin' your head like that, but seriously, we was cutting through this field, right, and then all these birds started squawkin' but instead of flyin' off they started, like, divebombin' us n'stuff but they wasn't that big so we just grabbed 'em mid-dive, and it was awesome but then Keith..."

"...Ellis, where the hell do you get this shit from?"

#08 - Cold
The sun's high and bright in the sky, his own blood spilling thick and warm onto his suit but he's cold, cold, cold; the only heat he feels comes from Ellis, trying desperately to get him up.

#09 - Red
There's so much blood, everywhere, on Nick's jacket and shirt and face and Ellis can't keep his hands from shaking as he gets out the medpack - he tries to joke, Red don't look so good on you, Nick, but his voice trembles, weak, and he hates himself for it: and then Nick laughs, short and hard and vibrant, and Ellis knows he'll be ok.

#10 - Drink
Nick presses the beer bottle - unopened, full, sweating with condensation - into Ellis' hand; where'd you find it, he asks, but Nick doesn't answer, only gives a brief wave of his hand and a pleased smirk.

#11 - Midnight
So this is the soundtrack of the zombie apocalypse, Nick thinks irritably: the entire song catalog of the Midnight Riders, as performed by a tone-deaf Georgia hillbilly.

#12 - Temptation
Nick leans back against the motel counter, head tilted back, eyes closed, the afternoon sun bright on skin just beginning to tan: Ellis stares and stares and stares, his mouth suddenly dry.

#13 - View
"You not feelin' right or somethin', Nick - 'cause I don't mind keepin' watch m'self - "

"I'm fine," Nick says, dragging his eyes from where Ellis' overalls are slung low on his hips, "just...distracted."

#14 - Music
Ellis knows he probably won't say, but he has to ask - "Hey, Nick, how'd you learn a guitar could take off a guy's head?"

#15 - Silk
His shirt is ruined - the blue silk stained by Ellis' grasping, mud and bloodstained hands, buttons popped off in the rush to pull it off - but for once, Nick doesn't care.

#16 - Cover
There's an shriek - high, inhuman, and much too close - in Ellis' ear; he turns to face it, knowing it's already too late, and then a bullet whizzes past his head and the hunter crumples to the ground in mid leap - "Good thing you got me around, huh, Overalls?"

#17 - Promise
Don't worry, I got your back are words Nick hears a lot in his profession, words he never just accepts at face value - but Ellis says it, and maybe it's because the world's gone to shit or maybe it's because Ellis doesn't have a dishonest bone in his body, but Nick believes him.

#18 - Dream
There are clawing hands and snarling mouths that drip blood and he can't get away; then firm arms wrap around him and Nick's low voice tells him he better wake the hell up and calm the fuck down, it's just a dream.

#19 - Candle
"Nobody else is going to see these things, you shouldn't waste your time," Nick says irritably; Ellis ignores him and continues to light candles in the little shanty-town safe house - one for each epitaph scrawled on the wall - not because anyone will see it but because it feels like the right thing to do.

#20 - Talent
"It ain't that hard, you put the peach pit in the corner of your mouth, like this, an' then you turn sideways 'n spit it out - " Ellis demonstrates, and the peach pit rockets out and hits the empty soda can sitting on the fence; he looks at Nick, who gives him a raised eyebrow in reply - then he dutifully puts a peach pit in his mouth, spits it out and knocks down another can like he's done it all his life.

#21 - Silence
The first time, there are no words, no warnings: just Nick's mouth against his own, soft and warm and demanding.

#22 - Journey
The first night they spend in swamp country, Ellis sits down uncomfortably close to Nick and says, grinning, "Looks like we're all gonna be hangin' around a lot longer than we thought, but that ain't so bad..." and though fucking dire doesn't even begin to describe their situation, Nick finds himself nodding in agreement.

#23 - Fire
The fire's close enough to sear the eyebrows off Nick's face, and his lungs hurt from inhaling too much heat and smoke; he swears he'll never, ever put Ellis in charge of throwing Molotovs again.

#24 - Strength
"I told ya we could do it," Ellis says; Nick can't answer, his hands practically welded around his axe, eyes almost gummed over with blood and lips silently mouthing: We beat the Tank to death with an axe and a bat, we should be dead.

#25 - Mask
Nick is the only person Ellis knows who doesn't relax when he's sleeping; sometimes he watches him and wonders what it might take to cause that mask to fall.

#26 - Ice
The defibrillator paddles are cold as ice in Nick's hands, and as he kneels down and sets the paddles on Ellis' unmoving chest he hopes to whatever god might be listening that it won't matter, that he won't mess this up, that he won't lose him.

#27 - Fall
And when he actually becomes interested in hearing how Ellis' stupid, stupid stories end, Nick realizes just how deep he's fallen.

#28 - Forgotten
There are times - and they happen more often than not, now - when Nick has to remind himself that he's only known Ellis and Ro and Coach for a few weeks, that nobody's going to stick around after they find rescue, that he was alone before all this started and that he'll leave everything behind when it ends.

#29 - Dance
"Hey, Nick, d'you think if I shot up them zombies' feet and went Dance, bitches! like in them westerns, they'd -

"No, they would not, they're goddamn zombies, you'd just shoot their feet off and - and why are we even talking about this, Ellis you are dumber than a box of rocks."

#30 - Body
There's something about the way Nick stands that makes the cant of his hips and the firm line of his thighs clear even through the heavy folds of his suit, and, and, and Ellis most certainly does not notice this.

#31 - Sacred
And it's easy enough to forget that he's not supposed - not allowed - to do these kind of things, when the flash of gold rings blinds his eyes and a low, throaty voice fills his ears.

#32 - Farewells
"Don't go falling behind now," Ellis says, a little cheeky, as the bridge comes down, "I ain't ready to say goodbye just yet."

#33 - World
"I hope the whole world's not like this," Rochelle says one day, and while Nick and Coach go pale at the thought, Ellis thinks that as long as they're together, he doesn't give a damn about anything else.

#34 - Formal
"So, Nick, what sorta occasion were you wearin' such a nice suit for - a weddin'? a funeral? A - "

"I was..."

" - Miami Vice fan convention, maybe, 'cause seriously you look just like that guy..."

"...Shut up, Ellis."

#35 - Fever
Nick catches fever - Rochelle thinks his suit retained too much swamp water - they don't have anything but pain pills to treat it, and though Ellis tries not to think about what might happen his hands keep shaking as he applies the cold compress to Nick's heated skin.

#36 - Laugh
He's tired of dealing with Nick's snide remarks, his insults - so Ellis drops to his knees, unzips Nick's trousers and slips his mouth over Nick's half-hard cock, and when Nick's laughter stutters into a helpless moan he purrs in satisfaction.

#37 - Lies
Nick's voice is low and warm and seductive when his hands and lips are rough and grasping and taking, and his touch is tender and welcoming when he says Don't think too much about this, I'm not that fond of you; Ellis wishes that once - just once - Nick's words and Nick's actions would line up, so that he can figure out where they stand.

#38 - Forever
The pilot talks about testing and quarantines and though he never says it outright Nick knows he means separation, and something like panic rises in Nick's throat: then Ellis takes his hand, followed by Rochelle, then Coach, and in that wordless moment he finally understands what forever really means.

#39 - Overwhelmed
Ellis can't see anything but zombies, all around him, screaming and clawing and tearing apart his flesh, and for the first time in his life Ellis considers the possibility of dying - and then there's the familiar roar of shotgun blasts in quick succession and zombies exploding in gory clouds and Nick, reaching out to grab Ellis and lead him to safety.

#40 - Whisper
"Don't tell anyone else, I'm only doing this for you," Nick murmurs as he begins to bandage Ellis' wounds; Ellis isn't sure what makes him shiver, the feel of Nick's firm hands sliding under his shirt or the fierce devotion lurking under the husky rumble of his voice.

#41 - Wait
"C'mon, we can't stay here," Nick growls, and Ellis just grins - because for a guy always in a hurry Nick spends a lot of time waiting for Ellis to catch up.

#42 - Talk
Nick expects Ellis to be as loud in bed as he is everywhere else; but when Nick slides slick fingers between the taut curve of his buttocks Ellis falls silent, shallow, gasping breaths in the shape of Nick's name the only sound that escapes his lips.

#43 - Search
"How'd you get your stupid hick ass stuck here-" - and Nick's voice is hard, his grip even harder, and Ellis hides his grin in the lapel of Nick's suit.

#44 - Hope
All of Nick's instincts tell him he shouldn't put so much trust in CEDA, in the military, in these people he's only met a month before; the only explanation is that Ellis' unabashed optimism must be infecting his brain.

#45 - Eclipse
Nick creeps up to the witch, carefully setting his shotgun in place to finish her off quickly, cleanly - and then Ellis runs past him, cackling madly as he revs up his chainsaw and lays into the witch: the effect's an awful lot like throwing a kitten into a sawmill and Nick's pretty sure he should be horrified but mostly he's just annoyed at Ellis outdoing him again.

#46 - Gravity
In the zombie apocalypse Ellis finds there are all kinds of weight - from watching your friend's backs, from wondering if they'll ever find rescue, from green eyes that always seem to be watching him.

#47 - Highway
The stock car careens down the freeway and holy fuck when Ellis sees zombies he doesn't avoid them, he aims at them; the windshield's covered in blood and guts and pulped flesh, and Ellis laughs like a maniac and Nick knows they're all going to die so fuck it, he rolls down the window and leans out and starts screaming, swearing, laughing, at the zombies, at CEDA, at Ellis, at everything, and goddamn it feels good.

#48 - Unknown
Nick's not afraid of the unknown - in his profession, he can't afford to be: all the same, he's kind of relieved no one takes his threats to leave seriously.

#49 - Lock
Nick doesn't give away any details of his life - not straight away, anyway, not freely, like Ellis does: but every now and then he lets a hint of it drop - an ex-wife, jail time, a life spent working on the fringe; Ellis picks up on these things, holds on to them like broken pieces of a key that, once made whole, will let him know who Nick really is.

#50 - Breathe
Stay with me, Nick asks Ellis, when it's all over: Ellis is quiet for a long, long time, and it isn't until he finally looks up, bright smile the only answer he needs to give, that Nick remembers to breathe.