Title: Of Vampires and Make-up Artists
Rating: PG
Warnings/Spoilers: Bradley/Colin.
Summary: Colin always disliked sessions with the make-up artists.

Thanks: Thanks to my Beta gogo_didi on Livejournal.

Disclaimer: BBC owns Merlin.

Of Vampires and Make-up Artists.

Colin always disliked sessions with the make-up artists. For one thing, most of the sessions were early in the morningbut he especially disliked it whenever he had to go to them before filming. They would always give him knowing looks as he entered the room, which would make him blush and falter slightly on his way to the chair. But it was the silence that was the worst. He would always see the artists looking at each other out of the corner of his eyes and hear them whispering behind his back.

As it was cheaper to hire trainees rather than those who had worked with very famous actors, they would get young people just out of college. Seemingly as a rule, they would giggle or snort at seeing the bruises on his neck, but then as the days and weeks went on they would just get annoyed.

Each trainee didn't stay much longer than a month or two, finding better paid work or a job with shorter hours, at least those were their excuses. The ones who had been there from the start were fond of him and so didn't really mind. They just enjoyed making Colin blush, almost as much as Bradley did.

The new people would get so frustrated at the amount of concealer that a new blemish would need before it was no longer visible to the camera. They would often fight amongst themselves about who would have to work on Colin and, as it was very time consuming, it was usually the new girl or boy who would be pushed around and made to do it.

So, a few more people would then glare at Colin. However, generally after a few days, their anger would begin to wither under Colin's gorgeous smile that reached from ear to ear.

The rest of the cast weren't as hard to work on and they, of course, all found the way the make up artists seemed to treat Colin, hilarious.

Bradley would simply send smug looks at Tina or Trina, or whatever the name of the newest person was, and they would turn coy and blush at his looks. Some would even mistake it for Bradley giving them the eye, but they would get turned down or just plain ignored if they gave the muscled man any more attention than was necessary.

Everyone knew that Bradley was taken. Just as they knew Colin was, though it was much more obvious to the eye that he had been claimed. But if you looked at Bradley's right hand you would find a ring on his thumb.

Katie and Angel found the bruises very sweet. Romantics to the core, they loved to coo at him and make faces, which he found utterly horrifying. Nights out were the worst though because the girls would sit there with their drinks and just watch them, as if the pair would decide to have sex in public on top of the table they were seated at if they had slightly too much drink. This was probably why they insisted on plying the pair with drinks but, themselves, only sipping slowly on one drink the whole night.

Colin didn't even want to think about where Angel left her camera. If she was that much of a Voyeur that she enjoyed watching them in the pub, god only knew what secret place she would hide the camera in, in the hope of watching it back later and discovering them in a passionate embrace.

Bradley, the git that he was, would just laugh when Colin told him about the way he was treated, whispering, or hissing as his lover would affectionately call it, his annoyance. He would try and protest, telling Bradley that he wouldn't let the blonde do it anymore, but he never managed to stick to his own rules. When it came down to it, Colin would never push Bradley away.

The moments they managed to spend together were considered precious, because most nights after filming they would fall, exhausted, into bed, too tired to do anything but curl up together and lose themselves in their dreams. Their relationship was very passionate in the stolen moments, and that was shown clearly through the bruises and finger marks left on Colin's hips.

So those enthusiastic moments snatched in corners and alcoves ended with red patches on Colin's skin, most on his neck. Bradley loved Colin's neck. The long pale column of skin that always smelt divine drove him mad. He couldn't resist kissing the beautiful pale flesh, biting down so that the fang like teeth that Colin loved, left crescent moon shapes on his skin.

Bradley also loved Colin's neck because it was so sensitive. Every time he touched it there was some kind of pleasured response, a sigh, a whimper, a groan. Colin would tell Bradley that he would make a very sexy vampire and if they ever wanted another actor to play along side Aidan Turner in Being Human, his lover should be the first in the queue. Not only because Bradley had the incisors for it, but because of his fascination of necks and his love of biting. Though he never bit hard enough to draw blood, he wasn't into anything like that, he just loved to see Colin squirm. And Bradley would also assure him frequently of the fact that Bradley only loved Colin's neck nobody else's seemed anywhere near as appealing.

His neck wasn't the only place that Bradley liked to mark though. Bradley enjoyed leaving marks all over Colin's body, but luckily these couldn't be seen with clothes on, so make-up couldn't complain about that. Bradley just enjoyed leaving a mark. Leaving his claim on his Irish boyfriend.

Colin would constantly have to spend what felt like hours removing all the foundation and concealer. When he had first started the show it had been fine. They would apply a small amount and it wouldn't take longer than five minutes. But as Bradley and he slowly got to know each other better, they soon found that there was an attraction. A very strong attraction; a magnetism that could not be ignored. And so steadily the make-up would have to be applied thicker on his neck. Unfortunately, after a few days of this, a rash began to appear on his neck. It was itchy and sore and Colin hadn't let Bradley near him for days claiming that it was all his fault. Bradley had just sent him a charming smile and told him that if he wasn't so utterly gorgeous he wouldn't find the need to pay his neck so much attention. Colin had sworn profusely at him and locked himself in his trailer for a few hours, ignoring every one of Bradley's protestations.

They'd had to find a foundation that was more suited to Colin's sensitive skin, especially since they would have to be applying so much of it. An organic foundation was soon found but, as it was so expensive, Colin had ended up wearing the neckerchief most of the time, which got particularly hard during the hotter months of filming. Though Colin did start to realise perhaps a tenth of the pain of what Bradley must have been experiencing in his heavy chain mail.

Despite all of his protesting at Bradley's attention, Colin loved the smug bastard. He didn't think he'd be able to stand being so far from home without someone distracting him from his thoughts of Ireland. His favourite co-star was soon becoming his everything. He'd never felt like this about anyone before, nobody had even come close. If he had to choose one thing that he was grateful Merlin had given him, it wouldn't be overnight success or fame or expensive organic makeup. It would be Bradley James.