Worn rugs (Ergo/Konstantin roleswap AU, 700 words)

[faxpunk]

The flat looks lonely. The rugs woven and worn, inexpensive, handmade by a mother or a grandmother. The furniture used, with not a whole lot of personality added to it, senior constable Kask notes. No plants, books, trinkets. Just shoes and coats littering the front room, empty cans of beer in the sink, a coffee machine browning with stains.

"This is my place," Konstantin Kallio tells him. "Not sure why you wanted to see it, yet here it is."

The fire door to the jewelers doesn't stay open on its own accord. A heavy block of wood wouldn't even hold it open when tested. So Ergo surmised it had to be a person holding it open. But only one set of prints was found on the scene. Only one splice of DNA sample, a black hair with a silver root.

Detective Kallio, if that is his real name, is most likely the criminal but he has to have had an accomplice, someone to hold that door open. Ergo thinks through the options. There is a guest room with a bed, the sheets tangled. If the accomplice was a lover, they would share the bed. A temporary accomplice would take the sofa, big enough for a grown man. So why the two beds?

Because the accomplice is a relative, someone staying here not just for one job but for longer. Possibly until they both skip town after stealing enough jewels.

"You live alone, detective?" Ergo looks around the place, smiling. He likes criminal, to his own surprise. Konstantin doesn't feel like he belongs in this world. His unsmiling demeanor, his dry wit. Ergo finds this particular criminal fascinating. The starkly handsome looks help, too, naturally. 

"I do." Konstantin moves to open the refrigerator. "I'd offer you beer but it has been drunk. There is juice or coffee. "

The passive catches Ergo off-guard. Konstantin doesn't admit to drinking the beer himself. The accomplice definitely lives here, then.

"Coffee is fine." But Ergo is not interested in drinking anything. "Tell me detective, have you got any brothers or sisters?"

"No," arrives the flat answer. He isn't a good liar, but his back is turned to Ergo, which makes Konstantin hard to read.

"I think you do." Ergo takes a couple of steps closer, crowding the older man. "And I think you know exactly how I found out."

Konstantin turns around and their bodies are lined together, thigh against thigh, hip against hip. He is flushed and were he angry, Ergo would already have been pushed off and yet here he remains. The red hides something else entirely and Ergo is eager to find out how deep this particular rabbit hole goes.

"I think you're delusional." Konstantin's voice sounds strained and the coffee measuring spoon drops from his hand as Ergo kisses him.

Don't sleep with suspects, he was once told by the chief constable, the boring prick. But it isn't like he's doing it for the case, he is just doing it for fun.

"We can't." Yet Konstantin's hands aren't pushing Ergo away once they've made it to the bedroom.

"Whyever not?" Ergo cocks his head to one side, steals one more kiss from the shocked, mouth. "You live alone, don't you?"

"The case," Konstantin tries and then Ergo's hand finds a way inside the fly of his trousers, pressing against the fabric of the underwear, searching, finding. The hot press there, tantalising just as that night in the sauna.

"The case won't solve itself in here unless one of us confesses to the crime." His hand slides over the hard length and Konstantin's eyes close. "Well, detective? Do you confess?"

“Never,” Konstantin exhales. 

Ergo laughs, the air emerging light out of him. His hand palms the erection, digging the heel of his hand against the tip, hearing the moan it elicits. Konstantin never claimed innocence. This only means the game gets to be played for another round, and Ergo has a feeling he could change the rules.

“Kneel,” he tells the other man and to his surprise, the order is followed to the letter. His hand sinks into the black hair, peppered with greys. His fingers pull. Konstantin’s fingers find him, take him in, deeper, a wet groan when the tip of the nose finds the tender skin. 

Ergo shudders. He could get used to this.