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Driving past things was something Niki Lauda was good at. He was good at zeroing in on what was important on the side of the road, in the road, above the road, and eliminating the unimportant. He memorized street signs and then never truly read them again, and took in scenery with a careful filter; ignore if unremarkable, quietly, gradually process with pleasure if beautiful.
Disabled cars on the side of the road were unremarkable. Disabled cars on the side of the road surrounded by hooting drunks were undesirable. Niki drove past the cluster of shapes without really looking at them, so it took a few moments before he realized that the shouted, oddly cheerful curse thrown at his tail-lights was a voice he recognized. He checked his mirror, saw a tussle of blonde hair at roughly the six foot height it would need to be if it were attached to James Hunt. His jaw tensed in a familiar tic of irritation throbbing in his temple, and he drove onward, telling himself not to look back.
Except that he did look back. And then he did again. And then, with a slow puff of his tense cheeks, he was slowing down, stopping, and putting the car in reverse, to the irritatingly emphatic cheers of James and his two (female) companions. James seemed to be enthused about nothing but the presence of a working vehicle, but when he leaned towards the window and caught a glimpse of the driver, his face split suddenly into a grin nothing short of ecstatic.
"Lord almighty, we're saved! Niki Lauda is here to chariot us away, girls, hop in!"
"I wasn't offering you a ride," Niki started, his tic turning into a scowl as Hunt reached through his own window to unlock the back seat and let his companions into it. "I was only going to call a service for you."
"Really, Niki, I can never tell if you're joking or not. You are, this time, aren't you?" The girls seemed quite oblivious to Niki's attempt at contradicting James' original announcement, in any case, and had already climbed in and were lighting each other's cigarettes with impressive drunken finesse. Niki looked over his shoulder at them with a deeper scowl, but James just clapped him on the shoulder through the car window before deciding to take his silence for assent, and began climbing in after them.
"No." Niki interrupted, putting his hand out so that James was prevented from tumbling into the back seat with his companions. "You're in front with me. If you’re trying to get messy you can do it on the side of the road."
James pouted, and the girls started up a flurry of protest before he raised both his hands in a calming gesture that, while distinctly drunken, was nevertheless effortless and elegant.
"Now, now," he slurred, "It is Niki's car, so we should be respectful. Try to contain yourselves - we'll all try to contain ourselves until we reach the nearest motel." After a few giggles and sighs, and a slow, irritated drum of Niki's fingers on his car door, James closed the back door and instead let himself in on the passenger side, folding his long legs into the space between the seat and the glove compartment with an amiable grin. "Onward?"
Niki let out a low breath and shifted into gear, pointedly ignoring the warm curdle that grin twisted in his stomach.
---
The sun had been setting when Niki once again began driving down the highway in search of the all-important nearest motel. A stop at a service station an hour later informed him that he still had three hours to go, which did not sit well at all with the girls, who stayed in the back seat and talked to each other in hushed voices. Niki refueled his car ill-temperedly, and James bought another bottle or two, and retained his good humor completely.
He was driving in complete darkness now, and it seemed like everyone but himself had fallen asleep. The back was completely quiet, and James' incessant chatter had finally lulled into sleepy breathing that he couldn't quite hear over the sound of the car meeting the road. He relaxed against his seat and the wheel the way he did when he was alone, feeling the movement, absorbing himself pleasantly into how natural and right it felt.
"Niki?" came James' sleepy voice from beside him, and he looked over, no longer alone, but not yet tense. "How much longer?"
Niki's eyes flickered to a distance marker as they passed it, and calculated the kilometers to minutes instantly in his head.
"One hour, forty minutes."
"Oh, god," James said heavily, leaning his head back on the car seat and staring at the ceiling, his hand combing through his wind-blown bangs. "I can't wait that long."
Niki's eyes narrowed, wondering if he needed to vomit, or to piss, but James did not seem to be on the verge of bodily malfunction. Instead he scooted closer, giving up the passenger seat to kneel with one knee on the space between them, his other leg curled beneath him on the floor of the car. He leaned forward, swaying a bit, still drunk, eyes very bright.
"Niki, would you like to try something with me?"
Niki hadn't been tense before. He was now. He tried not to let it show too obviously.
"No, James. I want to drive and get you out of my car as quickly as possible. You stink of liquor."
"As if you never drink."
"Of course I do, for pleasure. Not like you. Not to become stupider than you already are."
James laughed, the sound throaty, and lay his head on the center of the car seat bench. Niki kept his eyes on the road, mostly. Except for when they were drawn to the way James was looking at him, the way his hair fell in his face, the way he slowly, slowly licked his lips. As soon as he felt like he was getting used to James’ new proximity, he spoke again.
"The word ‘pleasure’ sounds so strange when you say it. Are you sure you really know what it means?"
"I know what it means."
"Are you sure?"
Niki felt his face flash with solid irritation. He kept his eyes glued to the road, and yet, somehow, he was all too aware that James was licking his lips again.
"Get back in your seat and stop fidgeting, James."
"If that's a command, you should know I'm not good with those. Never have been."
"It's a demand. You're in my space, and I need to concentrate and drive."
"Concentrate, then. I won't stop you." James leaned against the seat again, facing him, and was still for a while. Niki checked to see if he was going to be falling back asleep after a few minutes of silence, and accidentally caught his eye instead, which sent a hot, unwelcome shudder down his spine. James had been watching him, apparently, with the intensity of a leopard staring down a gazelle. Now he was leaning close enough that his drink-soured breath was on Niki's jaw, and without explaining himself, he wrapped a strong arm around Niki's waist, pulling him the brief space closer so that his lips could meet his throat.
"James," Niki hissed, elbowing the larger man in the chest with enough ferocity to make him wince, and laugh, but not to let go of his waist. His first thoughts of cursing him were in German, which was the only thing that delayed the English that he spat out. "You drunken fuck. Get off of me. I'll throw you out-I'm driving."
"Flawed logic," James hummed cheerfully, applying playful teeth to a spot at the back of Niki's neck that made him start, and stifle a growl. James laughed anyway. "Jumpy, jumpy...ah...I didn't expect you to taste so good."
Niki ground his teeth, as his mind, of all things, snagged on the word expect. Had James been planning this? Unlikely. Nearly impossible. James had been thinking about this? About tasting his skin? The blow Niki should be delivering to his face was suddenly derailed by the alarming possibility that James' private fantasies in any way ran parallel to his own. In his version, though, James wasn't drunk. And they were alone. And he wasn't driving. James had no consideration for giving Niki time to process new information, and was already pushing warm, restless fingertips under the hem of his jacket and shirt to grab that little spill of flesh just above his hip and knead it in his palm.
"Get off," Niki spat again, quite unable to pull James off of his neck, midsection, and keep his hands and feet engaged with driving at the same time, though he did his best, knotting one hand in James' hair as if he were trying to drag an animal off of its favorite treat, "You have to wait."
James sat upright, his eyes and smile suddenly bright.
"So I can have you, then?"
Niki's lip curled, and he muttered in German under his breath that time, not dignifying James with a conversational response. James still hadn't removed his hand from under his shirt, and he moved his fingers in a greedy, pulling motion before laying sloppy, unabashed kisses on his jaw and throat, his other hand massaging the back of his neck as he giggled to himself.
"Ja, James, danke James, bitte James, eilen-"
"Shut. Up." Niki snarled, and began to slow the car to a stop. Before he could, James' hand was squeezing tight on his crotch, and his chin was on his shoulder, his voice a deep purr in his ear.
"Don't stop, Niki. Not when we're both finally having a good time."
Niki ignored him, ignored the heat of his hand and the thickness of his cock, and pulled over. Before he could properly shove James off of him, though, or tell him off, James had extracted himself completely, pressing himself against the passenger side door and pulling his knees up with a grin that would have been better suited to a six year old who had just lit a fire-cracker in his mother's flower pot. One of the girls, who had previously been asleep, leaned forward to blink blearily forward through the windshield, holding her head in one hand.
"This isn't the motel," she deadpanned, before the effort apparently became too much, and she slumped back against her friend in the back seat. James was shaking with silent laughter, and Niki mouthed you bleeding prick at him with enunciation as clear as he could make it, baring his teeth and making a strangling motion with his hand. He started the car again without further comment, hoping that James had gotten the joke out of his system and that the motel would defy logic and appear at least an hour early. James took in and let out a satisfied breath when he accelerated, and Niki heard it - felt it, hated it. But not completely.
There was some light shuffling from the back seat for ten minutes or so, but after that, the car was quiet again. Niki was glaring more determinedly than ever at the road now, keeping his speed even and rapid to cut the travel time as much as possible, so this time he didn't see James approach - but he did feel it. He felt the creak in the leather under his thighs, the shift of his weight, and then James' chin, hard and warm and heavy on his shoulder as he leaned on him and put both his arms around his middle as if he were using him for a giant teddy bear.
"They're asleep again," he purred, and Niki pictured slamming the break, but instead pressed the gas harder, his eyes forward as he pressed his mouth into a thin, tense line.
“Yes. I can tell.”
He could hear James swallow, hear a small, happy breath in his throat.
"You should let me suck your cock."
Niki had been successfully ignoring his insistent erection up until that point, but the image that sprang to mind upon hearing James whisper this in his ear sent a jolt through his stomach that felt as much like a stab as a throb of pleasure. He shivered, but kept his voice even.
"I am not going to allow you to distract me while I'm driving. Automobile accidents are caused by errors in judgement, the third most frequent cause of which is distraction, after fatigue, and drunkenness." He made no subtle show of the emphasis he placed on the word drunk, but it only made James laugh in a friendly way, and kiss his neck. Which was distracting.
"Are you saying you can't handle it, Niki?" James rolled his name on his tongue that time, like he already had him in his mouth. He squeezed him around the waist again, and then put a very warm hand right into his trousers, gripping his cock tight enough that Niki had to nip his incisors deep into his lower lip to keep from growling. Or whimpering. "Of course you're not. That would be ridiculous."
"I'm saying-" Niki started, but left off with a frustrated gasp, because James chose that moment to grip and squeeze and stroke him in a way that looked like fumbling, of all things, but felt far, far better. As his own voice failed him to make way for stifled puffs of breath, James was only too happy to fill in the silence as he kissed, nipped, and nuzzled his way down Niki's neck, chest, and stomach.
"Don't say it. Don't say anything. For once, Niki dear, do just shut up."
All things considered, words weren't even necessary. He could have shoved James off, given him a solid thump across his thick skull, pulled on his hair until he winced, done at least something to wipe the warm, drunk-pleasured grin off of his face as he kissed the small strip of his exposed belly before nuzzling further down, dislodging the zip and button of his fly and then-
The tires skidded where the asphalt met grass, and Niki hissed through his teeth, jerked the car aggressively back in line. He could feel his pulse thumping rapidly in his throat, in his palms pressed tight against the steering wheel, in his thighs tense and shivering against the vibration of the car seat. James gave him a breathy sound of amusement for his swerve before getting slowly, indulgently to work. Now that he was refusing to take his eyes off the road, not being able to see what James was doing with his tongue between muffled giggles and hard intakes of breath somehow made it almost more distracting than if he began driving with his head against the steering wheel, panting James' name like he was starting to get the disturbing urge to. James lapped at him like an over-enthusiastic dog, one hand on his hip as he leaned an unpleasant amount of weight on his right leg, while his other hand, Niki realized with a jolt as he took in the movement out of the corner of his eye, had found its way comfortably down the front of his own slacks, working in a rhythmically unmistakable movement. Niki was able to keep his voice, at least, down to the volume of heavy breathing, until James shifted his angle, turning more onto his front and curling his fingers around the now very damp base of Niki's cock so that he could hold it steady as he worked his mouth down over it and sucked.
"Ghh-" Niki grudgingly huffed, his knuckles whitening on the wheel as he gave in to the need to squirm, not with his over-weighted right leg, but with his left, his toes curling tight inside his boot and his shoulders hunching up around his neck, his hips twisting in his seat in a series of uncertain jerks, first trying to pull away from James' mouth and then to thrust towards it.
Damn him ran through his head on repeat, damn damn damn damn damn.
He grit his teeth over a few choked whimpers, but James was not doing anything to stifle his own sounds, groaning and purring deep in his throat between obscene slick noises as he alternated between licking and swallowing Niki's cock. Niki fisted one tense hand in his hair, his fingernails pricking into the shell of his ear (it was cooler than the rest of him, pink and soft and much cooler than his hot, hot mouth).
"Quiet. Be quiet. Your girls will wake up."
"Ah?" James replied, and then laughed, (too loudly) kissing the sticky head of his cock with another rolling purr, "Sorry about that, Niki. Forgot we weren't alone."
Niki was feeling dizzy at this point, inches from coming and yet tense enough that he knew he wouldn't, not quite yet, and the road in front of him became slightly out of focus before he determinedly blinked clarity back into it, not able to prevent himself from wishing fervently that they were alone, that distant motel feeling like an urgent need. James, oblivious to any needs other than his own, laid several thick, heavy laps over his balls and the base of his cock, causing Niki's entire body to twitch and his breath to stutter, before going back to his previous pattern of licking and sucking him down, hardly a fraction less vocal than he had been before Niki interrupted him.
"James," Niki hissed out as a whisper, forcing the engine to roar as he consciously pushed his speed up the closer he felt, "James-"
"Bitte," James slurred, this time without any of the mocking tone he had earlier, just molten, unapologetic want, "Bitte, Niki..."
Niki clawed the back of James' head, as he came, messily, half on James' tongue and half against his cheek, growling a dozen curses in both English and German before he let go of words entirely and gave himself over to breath after panting breath. James swallowed what he had in his mouth with a laugh, then attempted to lick his cheek off before nuzzling his forehead hard into Niki's abdomen, licking the skin there and biting it unexpectedly as he continued working himself rapidly with his hand. Niki took in James' orgasm gasps and groans as throbs of over-stimulating pleasure in his temples and his belly, still focused on the road, still driving far faster than the country highway really called for. Once they were both through and catching their breath, he slowed to a more normal speed, and, with a shuddering sound, finally relaxed against the seat.
"I...am never letting you do that again. You’re a maniac."
James was breathing deeply, his eyes closed and a pleased, satisfied smile gracing his perfectly proportioned features.
"I am, a little bit," He sighed, and nuzzled slowly into Niki's thigh, his hand still snug and happy down his own sticky pants. "But I feel safe with you."
Niki felt a shudder run through him as if he had accidentally inhaled James’ words with his ragged, calming breaths. He put his hand on James’ shoulder, about to shove him off, but he hesitated a moment, and then another. A glance down confirmed that James had fallen happily asleep. The next distance marker flew by, and Niki slowly smoothed his fingers through James' shaggy hair, no bite or tension left in his hand now. Just an hour longer. One hour with James' head heavy in his lap. It seemed bearable.