sempiternals | How could your heart be stolen by a human?

I'll try my best.
( He teases him with a slight pull of his bottom lip, giving his ass a small, wet smack. This is his cue to part from the steaming shower to dry himself. This time, he's thorough with the towel waiting for Kaveh to finish doing anything else he might need to do in private.

He gets a fresh pair of boxers and a fresh dress shirt. Working doesn't stop in the Fortress and there are tasks he still needs to do on the day to day. He'll lounge with Kaveh as long as he can, though. Besides, the lube is still back on the bathroom so there wouldn't be much to do: he's not going back in there to get it. He's more than done for the entire day unless Kaveh needed an extra handjob.

He takes a notepad to the bed and waits for him there, seated up against the headboard while getting some work done. Boring old logistics and opening a few letters. He gets the confirmation needs, too, that Mael's body is forever gone. )

[ Kaveh yelps as his ass is smacked, but laughs a moment later, a fond smile on his lips as Wriothesley exits the shower. He does indeed need a little longer, cleaning himself out as well as he can— although there's admittedly a part of him that would like to stay filled, wet with Wriothesley's spend all day. It's a thought that makes his eyes sparkle when he steps out of the shower and winds a towel around his body, turning off the taps behind him. ]

You know, [ he says, voice conversational as he rummages in the other's wardrobe for some clothes to wear, settling on something similar to the day before, leaving them almost matching in boxers and shirts (even if they're a little too big on the architect's skinnier form) ] we should get some sort of plug so that you can keep me full.

[ It's said with all the casualness of someone asking what they should eat for breakfast, Kaveh moving over to join the other on the bed and pressing a kiss against his neck as he curls into his side with a soft, contented yawn. ]

Will you be jealous if I take a nap while you do your work?

( He shuffles away with the letters so he can keep on jotting on his notes. Kaveh should require a new batch of recycled iron for the factory to repurpose. When Kaveh comes out of the bathroom to get dressed, Wriothesley puts the notepad and pen down on his lap so he can watch him. He sees how the water still crawling down his legs. To think he'd be spending moments like this with a man is nearly laughable in hindsight. He seems content living here, at least, not that he's able to see what kind of expressions he puts up when he's alone anyway. )

Hm?

( That's a thought he needs to double-process for a moment. Do men do this? Isn't that what a woman would do if she were trying to get pregnant? For a second, it doesn't register and he gives Kaveh a distant, completely lost sort of stare. Eyebrow rises and all, unsure how he should perceive his wishes. )

It's true when they say you learn new things every day. Is that not uncomfortable?

( Not that he'd want to test it. He follows him move around the bed until he's nestled beside him. )

You have sweet dreams if you need to. It doesn't bother me at all. You'll need more rest than usual so you can heal quicker.

[ In the end, Kaveh can't quite help but chuckle at the distant, confused look on Wriothesley's face when he makes the suggestion. The other man is cute when he's trying to work something out, and the blonde enjoys too much how it's taking him a little bit of time to process this specifically. ]

I'm sure it would be uncomfortable, [ he agrees, revealing that he's never actually done it before, that it's a passing thought brought on by his attraction to the older man. ] But it would also mean I'd be ready for you whenever you wanted to take me.

[ He'll wait for the reaction to that before he settles down to take his planned nap, pressing another soft kiss against the other man's neck. ]

Doesn't that sound nice?

That sounds convenient, but I don’t mind how it is now.

( Especially if it would mean an uncomfortable time for Kaveh. Then again, if Kaveh just likes knowing his cum is still all way into his ass then he won’t stop him from doing so. He smiles down at him. This has been the longest time someone has nestled in his quarters. The company is nice, even if there’s a constant layer of stress not knowing what information would repel him. )

What other sexy idea do you have?

[ He laughs, and for a moment thinks about telling the other man that he just kind of likes the idea of being stuffed full of him all day— but he bites it back shyly, the same shyness that has him floundering when the other man asks what other ideas he has. With a red flush working its way across his cheeks, he presses in closer, face nuzzling into the elder's shoulder. ]

Ah, I— Other things? To tell you the truth, I... there's a lot I've thought about...

[ He pauses thoughtfully, taking a short, embarrassed breath. There's no way he can bring himself to say everything, but— ]

I've thought about your handcuffs, more than once. Or being blindfolded so that I don't know what you're gonna do to me. Or... or being forced to cum over and over until I've got nothing left and I can't breathe.

( There is probably one thing Wriothesley remembers crossing his mind at some point and would still like testing with Kaveh. Many wishes stem from a sheer fit of possession now. )

Wow.

( He listens with a sly smile, almost taunting as he envisions Kaveh handcuffed somewhere spectacular. It would be rather impressive to see if he could truly cum over and over, though. Now that's powerful. He cups his hand on his cheek, caressing him underneath his eye before brushing back his damp hair. )

You want me to arrest you and then make you suffer. Very hot. We can make that happen.

Do you remember the time I saw you at the bar? Part of me wished to take you in a bathroom stall. Of course with something to stuff in your mouth with so nobody heard us.

[ Wow, Wriothesley says, and Kaveh's sure it only makes the color in his cheeks worse. He tries to press his face further into the other's shoulder, groaning softly, but the other's hand comes to his cheek, stopping him from doing so as he comments on it further, says they can make it happen—

And then tells him about what he wanted that night at the bar, words that make Kaveh's stomach twist in delight, send a jolt of pleasure right through his core; his body may not be physically ready for sex just yet, but his mind certainly wants him to be, especially after that mental image.

He knew, that night, he knew Wriothesley wanted him— ]

I was only that loud because I wanted you to pay attention to me, [ he argues softly, as if he's protesting the idea of being gagged when really the mere thought is insanely hot to him. ] But the bathroom stall? Wouldn't it have been really easy for people to—

[ —hear? he's going to ask, but then something shifts in him, an understanding that that was the point, and Kaveh feels that sharp jolt of pleasure again, licking his lips and biting the lower in the next moment. ]

—oh.

( He would have wanted that man to hear Kaveh being taken by him. Perhaps Wriothesley is more jealous than he originally gave himself credit for, not that it's the best thing in his book. )

Now getting shy on me, are you?

( The humor is dripping in his voice, as teasing as ever, and meant for it to crawl underneath Kaveh's skin. He leans down to leave a kiss on his head and then picks his pen and notepad back up. He doesn't have to openly flaunt Kaveh for some people to eventually assume or make up rumors about the Duke's relationship. He knows how his inmates operate. )

So I guess if I want you to get louder, I just have to not pay any attention to you, then.

[ So much for dozing off. Every time he feels his eyes start to get heavy, Wriothesley says something else that wakens the rest of him in some way. In response to this latest comment, Kaveh finds himself pouting, reaching to pinch the other man under his chin as his brows knit together. ]

Don't ignore me. [ Is there an edge of a whine to his voice? Perhaps, even if Kaveh himself will never own up to it. ] If you want me to get louder just ask me.

[ He leans in closer, presses his face against Wriothesley's neck and buries a pair of kisses into the skin, as if that's somehow meant to sway the other man to his desires. ]

Do you have any idea how hard I fought to get your attention in the first place?

Why ask you when I can make you?

( He knows exactly what he’s doing, egging him on and pressing the right buttons to draw what sounds like a whine out of him.

Then he falls silent for a moment, overtaken by a sense of guilt in hearing Kaveh’s admission. He could see it on his face everyday and he still turned his back on him. He puts down the pen again, looking down at his crown. His hair glows under the dim light coming through the window pane, a light, opaque blue is always filling his room. )

You always had my attention.

[ It wasn't meant to make Wriothesley feel guilty, not really. Kaveh was just whining because he could, and that was what came out. But he feels the stillness, hears the silence for a moment or so, and the man's voice feels soft when he speaks, and all thought of teasing him back or whining about being made to be loud is gone for a moment.

Instead, he pulls back so he can look up at the other, his eyes soft and affectionate, and he lifts a hand to brush gently over the other's cheek. ]

I know. And... [ Kaveh sighs, his eyes dropping for a moment as he thinks of the best way to say it. ] ...I know I put a lot of pressure on you. That wasn't fair either.

( Who wouldn’t have their eyes on someone like Kaveh? His beauty surpasses mere appearances, it transcends all Wriothesley has ever known or seen. His heart is just as beautiful. He caresses his cheekbone when their gazes meet, leaning forward enough to land a kiss on his forehead. )

All is forgiven.

Good.

[ It's said with a small smile, and he moves to nestle in closer again, eyes closing. This time, with the banter between them ended for now, Kaveh drifts to sleep with reasonable speed, not interrupted by anything that might have otherwise kept him awake to argue or play for longer.

When he dreams, it's neither nightmare nor exactly something he could describe as pleasant. He stirs, rather than waking violently, but there are tears in his eyes and his fingers are curled tight into Wriothesley's shirt.

He sniffs, and pulls back, blinking against his emotions. There's no need right now for the other to worry— ]

Was I asleep for long?

( He’ll glance at Kaveh’s slumber every now and then while he writes up more drafts for his logistics, living vicariously through him. He notices him shifting slightly, though, sees how the features on his face squirm as if he’s being made forced to watch something horrendous. A nightmare?

He tried to sooth him by brushing hair from his forehead back, exposing his brows. That only becomes more of a fact than theory when Kaveh clutches his shirt, sniffling. )

Hey, you alright? You weren’t sleep too long. Maybe two hours.

[ Kaveh nods quietly as he processes the words. Two hours seems about right from how he feels— refreshed, if not for the strangeness of the dream that caused him to stir. He untangles his hands, offers the older man a small, embarrassed smile, and reaches up to dash away the wetness from the corners of his eyes. ]

Yeah, I'm alright. Just dreams. Like always. It's hard to explain, I guess, but—

[ Well, actually, he doesn't know anything, does he? When it comes to what he does and doesn't know about Wriothesley, the second column is still far larger, and something they've never talked about is family...

And usually, Kaveh would tell himself not to pry, but he's still more asleep than he is awake, and so the question comes out before he even really gives it proper thought: ]

Do you think about your family often, Wriothesley?

( He dabs a thumb over his cheekbone where the tear had just crossed, shifting himself higher on the bed so properly hold Kaveh more comfortably. )

Nightmares, I see.

( Did he not fuck him hard enough to wipe his mind clear?
He offers a soft smile, one that wipes off immediately as soon as his family is mentioned— he has been keeping a lot from Kaveh, even the basics.

Though it would be pointless to hold up his guard anymore, especially when they will spend more time together. Although he seems reluctant, it doesn’t have to do with actually giving out the information— but more so Kaveh’s reaction to it. )

Ah, sometimes. I was an orphan. I doubt I’d ever get to meet my real family.

I was taken in by foster parents and I had a decent upbringing with a lot of siblings.

( He twists his finger around a golden lock. )

Have you heard any rumors about how I ended up a prisoner here?

[ When Wriothesley moves higher on the bed, Kaveh shifts in so that he can also rest more comfortably, smiling softly as he looks up at the Duke— although his expression fades a little in tune with the other's, into something softer and perhaps even worried. The finger curling around his hair is lovely, but what concerns him is—

...Mm, maybe there are a few things that concern him. ]

I'm sorry. I... can't imagine how that must feel.

[ In answer to Wriothesley's question, Kaveh shakes his head. The truth is, people have tried to speak to him of the rumors surrounding the Duke many times; despite his desire to know as much about the other as he can, he's gently rebuffed the speakers each and every time it's come up. If he's going to learn about the important things like that, he wants to learn from the man himself, not from the rumor mill.

He tilts his head into the other's touch, eyes fluttering closed. ]

Will you tell me about it?

( He appreciates the courtesy from Kaveh. Most people do pry and they do make up wild rumors that have some foundation from the time the previous warden was overthrown. He keeps looking at him for a moment before his eyes avert to the notepad and he wraps his arm around Kaveh's shoulders to keep him close. )

I can't miss something I never had to begin with, but it doesn't mean I don't wish for it at times. That's time I will never get to live again.

( In hindsight, he'd take all of Kaveh's suffering and pile it on his shoulders if it meant living a truly happy childhood. Even if it's a few years. )

My foster parents built this glass paradise for me and my siblings, it was a system deeply rooted in nobility and the wealthy. Once we were old enough, they'd send us to better families.

I was still a kid when I found out every waking second of this perfect life was nothing but a lie. They weren't giving these kids a second chance but a dead end. I learned they were only raising us to be sold off for sex. Those who made it, who knows what became of them, but those who were not obedient were, to put it lightly, erased from this world.

So I ran away for a few years and took up labor jobs while living off the streets. When I was strong enough, I came back and killed them. There was no other type of justice that would have saved those kids. They would have paid someone to frame, or get rid of evidence. I know how pigs like that work.

Then I pleaded guilty and I've been living here ever since. I don't regret it.

[ Every sentence of Wriothesley's story carries the weight of its next: as eloquently as he speaks, Kaveh knows there is more to come. Though of course, it's likely that knowledge comes only from the fact that there's nothing within the story that paints the Duke as someone requiring incarceration. For a moment, he wonders— even as he can start to see in his heart where the conclusion of the story will sit— if the warden was framed, placed here due to his own resistance of a horrifying system. But that's not to be, either. He killed them, he says, with no remorse, with no regret, and Kaveh feels vaguely like he's going to throw up.

What Wriothesley's foster parents were doing— what those monsters were doing, he thinks— was nothing short of awful. But killing them is still... murder is still...

Kaveh doesn't even notice that his hand has drifted to splay across his neck, stretching over the space where the crook of the other's arm cinched tight earlier, stealing from him the ability to breathe, and he remembers thinking that something about the other's actions felt more serious than he would have imagined, and— ]

I—

[ So what does this make the other man? A hero, for saving all those other kids? A villain, for taking two lives because he decided on his own there was no other way? As far as he knows, the warden has faith in Fontaine's justice system now, so what about it changed? And those hands...

those hands that have touched him so gently,
hands that have brought him screaming over the edge of pleasure,

covered in blood. ]

I— I'm sorry, I'm not really... I don't quite— I'm not sure how to process— I need a minute.

[ But he doesn't pull away; nor does he free himself of the arms wound around his shoulders. ]

( The silence could break Fortress walls, extraordinarily minute to the point he begins hearing his heart beating loudly. His hold on Kaveh loosens to give him the space and the option to escape now while he can. Pain is inevitable but if he leaves now it would carve a smaller wound, and Wriothesley can move on from the moments they shared or Kaveh's allure. This wasn't meant to be.

He glances over at him, seeing him trace the ghostly pressure on his neck he had once applied in the bathroom. His parents didn't die as a result of choking, no. Inexperienced and frantic, Wriothesley punched and punched and punched until their bodies were bloodied and they didn't move anymore. He suffered many cuts as a result of them defending their pitiful, wasteful lives and they almost dragged Wriothesley into hell with them. )

I can step out if you need me to.

I'm not going anywhere. I don't want you to go anywhere either.

[ If Kaveh sounds irritable, it's not on purpose. He just doesn't know how to properly manage his feelings right now, caught somewhere between understanding, fear, and some other distant emotion he can't quite place. Something that feels like anger, but isn't. Something that wants him to judge the other even when he can't bring himself to do so, even when he knows in his heart it's not his place.

Wriothesley, he thinks, should have told him sooner— but he understands why he didn't. Just as he thinks he understands why the other made the choices he did, even though his heart would condemn them.

(But then again, how many times has he been told he's too naïve? How many times has a friend warned him that if he's not careful, he'll see the sharp end of an Eremite blade after choosing only to knock a would-be robber out and walking away? When he really stops to think about it... how many of his friends have hands similarly stained?)

Archons, he's going to be sick.

Despite his words just a moment ago, Kaveh finds himself pushing free, staggering out of the bed. Something falls from his lips, some promise that he's not leaving, that he just needs a moment, but he's not sure it makes any real sense; he makes it to the toilet just in time to throw himself over it, eyes closing as he heaves up the contents of his stomach.

And, as tears prick at the corners of his eyes, the old-fashioned guilt sets in amidst the shock. Wriothesley surely struggled with the decision to tell him this, horrible as it may be... and instead of standing his ground and offering his support to the man he loves for the awful, unwinnable situation in which he found himself, he's hunched over in the bathroom, the bitter taste of bile on his lips. ]

...Fuck.

Alright, alright.

( The underlying betrayal of keeping to himself comes back to prove his secrecy wrong. Telling Kaveh sooner than later should have been in the books, he should have repelled him from the get-go rather than pull on every one of his heartstrings until this point. At least he knows now the true nature of Kaveh's soul and all the kindness in his life. He wouldn't be having this reaction, silent and staggered if he weren't sound of morals. For that, Wriothesley is satisfied, but at what cost?

Seeing him rush out of bed and his arms to the bathroom, where his sickened sounds echo louder than ever? He can't blame him but his chest still throbs. He gets out of bed to follow just to stop by his closet so he can dress himself fully. Listening to Kaveh from there gradually convinces him that leaving is in fact, for the best.

A note awaits Kaveh in bed, reading: I'll be back soon. )

[ It's close to five minutes before Kaveh emerges from the bathroom, face pale and eyes even redder than normal, chest aching from the physical strain as well as the emotional pain of what has transpired between them, of the knowledge now held in his heart.

The room is empty— he can see that from a room away, and thus never gets close enough to spy the note— and he feels like he's going to be sick all over again.

Fuck. He fucked up. The guilt sits like lead, reminding him of how he took the other's trust and turned it into his own pain, wallowing in an ache that wasn't his instead of allowing himself to be someone the other could rely on. He knows now what he has to say, but surely it's too late for him to make it up, to fix the wall he's just put down between the two of them.

By the time the other man does get back, he'll find the blonde pacing back and forth in his room, tears on his cheeks and body trembling. Especially after being sick, and with his body still healing, he's not in much of a state to be constantly moving back and forth— but he can't bring himself to stop. ]

( "Thanks, Sigewinne," he says on the other side of the Fortress, pipes and systems, rooms and walls away from Kaveh. Yet even here, he feels the ache in his heart knowing Kaveh is sick because of him. He can patch him up countless times, he can stitch him back together and at the end of the day, Kaveh will still break. It is as if he's once again a prisoner of his actions, held to a degree far more destructive than that of Neuvillette's trial.

A sentence implies of a light at the end of a tunnel, but with Kaveh, every turn is pitch darkness and as much as he tries following Kaveh through it they still end up lost.

He comes back with more materials to change the bandages on his chest, painkillers and something for the episode Kaveh just suffered. As soon as he enters his room he's left frozen at the door. )

Kaveh...

I shouldn't have told you.

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