[ he does not reach out with his gratitude for the gift, spending his time acclimating the grumpy feline to her new habitat, which is mostly comprised of laurent's bed. she hisses every time he enters his room, which he takes a certain amount of delight in, and he wakes every night to find her curled against various parts of his body — his knees, his hips, his chest, once atop his mass of hair. he finds that he prefers her to people.
a week or two passes before (against his better judgement) he opens up a video chat one night, cross-legged in bed, his face fresh and glowing from his nighttime routine. his normally severe clothing has been replaced with a soft white and blue striped long-sleeve with matching pants, loosely fitted so that his collarbones are on rare display. behind him, the cat glares from her perch on laurent's pillow. ]
Hello. [ his hair is loosely held back by a black cat-eared headband. ] I heard you got fired.
[He's alerted to the call that night, unexpectedly, a hand fishing his phone from where it was abandoned in a pile on the desk mixed among books and papers — an orderly mess. Before answering, Sasuke moves to the bed to lie back, head pillowed at a slant, eyes hooded and seeming drowsy if not for the sharp look within them.
Laurent. A name that sends a tight, warm flutter of excitement through him, kicking his pulse a little faster. What boundaries he's respected by giving Laurent space are reluctant, yet admitting this to himself makes everything worse, and he's still unaccustomed to the peace of this dimension compared to their last. It feels like his nerves are on edge.
His gaze spends a moment on the display of collarbones before drifting.] It was a temporary position anyway. [Looking, now, at the cat.] Have you named her?
[ he is not expecting sasuke to answer like this — tucked comfortably in his bed — though he doesn't know why it surprises him. it's night, after all, and laurent is similarly shut in his room, sequestered to privacy. it simply feels foreign, almost taboo, as if he's entertaining the sort of company he has no experience entertaining. ]
You were bad at it. [ as if laurent has not made this sentiment clear already. but the cat nudges his ribs, a reminder of her presence or more likely a request for her bowl to be filled despite her recent meal. a reminder of sasuke's silent generosity, his ability to understand laurent's particular needs without giving voice to them. ] You deserved to be fired.
[ but he'd tried. exceptionally hard, in fact. commendable, in its own way. laurent cannot make those words pass his tongue. ]
No. [ no, he has not named her, because overthinking is his specialty and his careful research into the perfect cat name had yielded pages of names but no real results. he clears his throat, his eyes drifting to a blank point on the wall. then, slowly, with his heart beating very fast — ] I thought I might ask you for suggestions.
[It is a strange intimacy different from their encounters before, one step further into the privacy of themselves shut behind bedroom doors in the night. He could close his eyes and imagine Laurent beside him in bed, whispering into his ear — the thought enough to inspire a warm chill — but then he wouldn't see Laurent's face, or the black cat ears crowning his head. The smirk is tempting, but Sasuke schools it.]
You're right. I wasn't good at it. [He can admit his own deficiency; his pride lies in other areas of expertise.] Working in a shop like that is something the civilians of my village used to do, not me. I shouldn't expect to be capable overnight. It's a skill like anything else.
[With work and effort, however, he could change that. If he wished. Now, he's more interested in Laurent's mild little statement: I thought I might. The smirk tugs more stubbornly, so he turns, covering it partially with his pillow. Laurent looks away, but he doesn't.]
Maru, maybe. It means "round." [His smirk has tempered into a smile, barely visible on his lips.] Or Hime — "princess," since you're the prince.
[ he tries to imagine sasuke back in his village, but it only conjures memories of that small, dark-eyed child running through his bloodied home. it's not what he wishes to think of now, when he has never seen sasuke so curiously at ease — likely because he is alone, and solitude affords a certain relief from the constant tensions of being on guard. ]
What did you do in your village? [ laurent's eyes drift to the locked door as he considers lying down to match sasuke's relaxed posture, but the mere thought makes his spine grow even more rigid. he refocuses. ] You must have trained extensively, to be the warrior you are today.
[ there is only a tinge of bitterness in his tone, barely susceptible. he is looking at the set of sasuke's mouth, the faintly soft angle that belies a smile. he doesn't know what to make of it, a gentle warmth blooming in his chest. ]
Princess. [ he repeats it slowly, a too-careful lack of emotion in his tone. ] My brother used to tell me that I would grow into liking women. He preferred them. [ then — ] I like Maru. She is a large cat.
I did. I was a shinobi, an agent whose purpose is to complete missions in the name of the village. I was trained in espionage, warfare, tracking and reconnaissance, surveillance... [He's still watching Laurent, perceptive enough to notice that stiffening of posture. He has no clues to tell him what it means; observation is a privilege gifted by this method of communication. Their past conversations have never been so clear or so casual. What is Laurent like when he is not throwing soap dishes, or spitting foul words, or disrobing, or lashing out?] Not every shinobi has the same abilities, or the same potential to excel. Their bloodline matters. Or in some cases just the person they learn from.
[The voice he uses is low, murmured between them with an honesty he has not allowed anyone else.]
My skills only mean that you wouldn't be able to hide from me. I'd find you. [Sasuke finally breaks away his gaze, surprising himself with what he's said. His mouth firms into a flat line.] ... Maru is overfed. I included detailed instructions on how much food you should give her to fix the problem.
[You better put her on a diet, Laurent. But then curiosity stirs, and his eyes venture back, furtively, in a glance that dares to linger.]
And you haven't? Grown into it. [Incomprehension furrows his brow — less for that confession than his own puzzle of understanding at such preferences.] Would your kingdom need an heir?
Edited (i'm sorry for so many edits it's late) 2023-02-22 05:18 (UTC)
[ for all of sasuke's wondering, he's seeing the truth right now, that laurent, when not spitting acid, is like this — quiet, inquisitive, more comfortable curled up on his bed than with a weapon in his hands. ]
And your bloodline is special. [ it must be, with those peculiar eyes. laurent has never seen anything like them. ] But that isn't all. Who taught you espionage, warfare, and everything else?
[ not his brother. the memory flits through his mind once more. the boy running through that house, afraid, was too young. laurent's gaze flickers back to the screen, settling on sasuke again now that he's looked away. i'd find you. another peculiar sentiment. laurent has never had anyone come for him since auguste died, and has long since let go of his faith in such things. only auguste could have found him anywhere. only auguste would have come to his aid in any trial. now, there is no one. certainly not sasuke. he sets the thought neatly aside. ]
Maru eats the amount necessary for her happiness. [ hardly. laurent can feel her spiteful glare at his back. but at the inquiry, he blinks slowly, a steady pang in his chest. ]
Auguste was good with everyone. Especially with courting women. He wasn't allowed to — we aren't allowed to be alone with the opposite sex, remember — but we all knew he would find a suitable match, make her his queen, create strong heirs. He was all that a prince, and a future king, should be. [ a beat. ] I didn't grow into it. [ liking women. being a suitable prince. ] My kingdom would need an heir, but I — [ shame blooms inside of him at speaking such a thing aloud, even as his words hold steady with conviction. ] I would not bring them forth. I would not continue this bloodline. Not for weak, tainted heirs that will suffer for crimes they did not commit.
[It is on his tongue, for a moment, burning like a hot flame — the confession of the Sharingan. That his bloodline is special, chiefly in its promise of suffering and madness and attachment. That to awaken it costs more than one should pay. And the longer he spends with Laurent, in a blur of time crossed through dimensions, the more aware of this he becomes.]
There was an Academy for children to learn. [He says this mildly, memories of a childhood training to become a soldier some strange and unreal life belonging to someone else.] When I graduated I was assigned a sensei; his name was Kakashi. Then I left my village and found another sensei who would teach me what I needed to know. I was hunting my brother. Itachi was stronger than me, so I needed more than what my village could give.
[Tone flattened by the admission, Sasuke turns his attention to the cat, sitting on the bed in a lump of contentment. It softens him out of the dark slide of his own thoughts. Maru's diet is a conversation he bookmarks mentally; he's more interested, now, in hearing about Auguste. The life of a prince and future king.]
'Weak, tainted heirs'? [Curiosity drifts in his voice.] Is that something you can decide? Who will inherit the kingdom once you're gone? [Such a different ideology from his own world, where leaders are raised by merit and strength.
Then, looking back at Laurent, his gaze a heavy, intense weight—] Is it because of that other prince, Damianos of Akielos? You cared for him, though you hated him too.
[ despite everything his uncle has done, despite knowing he deserves to be put to death, it still jars laurent to hear sasuke speak of killing a family member with such ease. hunting his brother. sasuke is strong enough to do such a thing, whereas laurent has spent his life cornered like an animal, his sharp teeth and even sharper tongue enough to keep his head attached to his body but never enough for an uncontested win. the childish, foolish part of him still thinks of the moment he will stand before his uncle with his sword in hand and quakes at the thought of bringing it across his throat.
and yet sasuke had claimed that taking his brother's life was his biggest regret. it stands at odds with the life he clearly prepared for. ]
You surpassed him in strength. Your brother. [ his thoughts drift to damen, to his long days and nights training to one day be better than the prince-killer of akielos, to the moment he'd watched him in the training yard and realized, like a physical blow, that damen was still better than him. ] You succeeded at your goal, but it didn't bring you happiness.
[ laurent has not thought in depth of what he might feel upon slaying his brother's killer. he should feel... a weight lifted. a rightness. a wound finally closing. his face pinches. ]
There are ministers. Diplomats. Vere will live on. [ he shrugs, one sleeve dangerously close to tipping down his shoulder, detachment in his voice. ] As long as it is not in my blood. Or my uncle's.
[ his pretense at nonchalance falters, soft menace in his eyes at the mention of damen's name. if sasuke was in the room, this might've been the precursor to an altercation. ]
Damen is not the reason I will not fuck for an heir. [ but isn't he? hadn't he damned laurent to a childhood unprotected the moment he'd slain auguste in battle? his cheeks grow hot with anger. ] You know the reason. You simply want me to say it. My uncle soiled my bloodline when he fucked me. There.
Yes. And no, it didn't. The situation was... complicated, and I was not told everything. It would have changed my decision.
[It seems that power is all he has now — nothing else to speak of but the miles of misdeeds at his back, and what he has accrued to defeat a man who only loved him unconditionally. Sasuke closes his eyes for a moment, to rest the subject there, to focus outside himself. Vere. Laurent.
He was powerless once. His fear had driven him, a cousin to his grief; he knows Laurent understands those emotions well. The difference is that Laurent is not a warrior, does not possess a legacy of strength and ability, was not trained to take lives.]
That's not what I want. [Argument burns in him, retaliatory, levering himself on his right elbow — halted from hinging fully upright by the look in those eyes, the precarious slip of a sleeve.] You still let him have so much control over you. You see yourself ruined, but I don't understand why.
[He becomes aware of his heart, a rush of blood threatening to cloud reason. He waits for something. He cannot name exactly what it is.]
You'll become king when you return, and he'll try to stop you. He's the obstacle. So what are you going to do? [Pressing, as if on a wound—] Does Damen know?
[ regret. it's plain in the stoic lines of sasuke's face, even though the curious little screen laurent observes him through. he tries to imagine killing auguste, even tries to imagine killing his uncle, and finds his stomach turning at the thought.
it's easier, now, to allow the barbs back out. laurent feels backed into a corner, overly exposed, sasuke's eyes pools of unpredictable color. ]
You don't understand because you have not been fucked by your family. You only thought you were. [ he doesn't know the details. he only knows that sasuke would have let his brother live if he'd known the real truth. so what are you going to do? the question opens a pit of doubt, so deep that laurent feels dangerously close to falling into an endless hole of black. it's the same question he asks himself dozens of times a day.
his gaze swings up, cold fire, at the name. ]
That's enough, stop. [ his rage is dizzying; he nearly sees red. something touches his side, and he realizes maru has moved, standing with her head poking his ribs. ] What do you think you know? Because you've spent your life wishing to suck Naruto's cock, you think I have someone I've been pining over as well? Does that suit your narrative better to make you feel less pathetic?
[That shard of anger, like flint turned in Laurent's hands, uncaring where it strikes, where fires are started, so long as it is outside himself. He weathers both accusation and insult with temperance — and that gaze crosses his own as eyes lift, but he is hot in his fury where Laurent is cold, melting somewhere in between.
It's a distraction. There is some hurt there, sheltered within indignity. Perhaps it isn't right for Sasuke to trespass on those grounds, but then he thinks of all the times Laurent has done as much before, calling his mind to Naruto, Naruto, Naruto. The sick, dizzying orbit of a realization better left underground. One that will remain a secret, forever, except to this other man. He does not really believe he'll return to his world, or his village. Not soon and not easily.
Does Damen know what Laurent has suffered? Still no answer.]
Fine. [Sasuke turns to face the wall, phone cradled in his hand, looking narrowly at the screen.] So you have no plan.
[Voice now coming flatter, a deliberate point angled to reach unseen wounds.]
Did you like it when I kissed you? You kissed back. Do you even remember it?
[ the accusation — observation? — is flat, a stark truth that clings to laurent's side like a thorn. he has no plan, at least not one good enough to withstand the full force of his uncle's armies. he has no allies, except for — he turns his thoughts away, his stomach already churning with unrest. he does not want to think of damen. he does not want to think of his kind, capable hands, the same ones that slew his brother in battle.
and then sasuke strikes with a precision that surprises even him. the things he endured at his uncle's hands have left his childhood memories unreliable, tainted with a haze of doubt, and the gaping holes of pitch darkness leave ample room for nightmares to fester. the blow sasuke lands takes him back, a flash of fearful doubt cracking through the glacial fury in his eyes. ]
It seems it wasn't memorable.
[ but he once again feels the phantom touch of lips, wet, solid, a spark of heat despite the freezing cold. before he can stop himself, his fingers brush his mouth, his chest rising in a hard, controlled breath. he makes the mistake of staring back into the screen, where he meets sasuke's gaze. a flush, unbidden, creeps across his exposed skin. ]
You know where I am. [ something hard glints in his eyes, challenging. ] If you want to know the answer to your question, then come, kiss me.
[It is hard to determine what he sees in the image of Laurent reflected back to him, lit pale blue by the screen's glow, features narrow and angular and effortlessly pretty. There is the presence of that ugly truth, lurking black beneath the surface of these interactions. Laurent's experience, however more advanced, is a source of pain and suffering and ugliness. The invitation is like a hand outstretched; in the other, a waiting knife. Sasuke barely has time to process what he feels — where any time before, he would turn Laurent down, calling every bluff. Now, there is some part of him furious enough to see that darkness mirroring his own childhood's sorrow and wish to destroy it. To scorch it out of Laurent, even if it takes a thousand cuts of the knife. To see if this time it is all princely bluster.
Sasuke's gaze is dark, lingering, uncowed. Challenge is like a spell to someone like him, winding him in its powerful grasp. Already his heart picks up in adrenaline well-learned, worn by the troughs of violent combat. Yet violence is not what he has in mind here. He looks a moment longer at Laurent — at Laurent's mouth, pale pink, grazed by slender fingers — then ends the call without goodbye. He sets his device facedown on the bed and closes his eyes. Reeling in that silence for several seconds, he makes a decision and rises from the bed.
Bare feet cross the floor, taking nothing with him when he exits, dressed only in a long-sleeved, black shirt and gray sweatpants. He's tied the left sleeve in a loose knot at the elbow. His footsteps make no sound as he navigates the hallway, then the stairs, unseen on the way to his destination. This stealth is unhurried, but the intensity of his focus is like a trance.
Upon reaching Laurent's dorm room, he takes the handle of the door and tries it without knocking. There is the still the chance Laurent balks, withdraws — he is prepared for this.]
[ it could be the end of this — sasuke, too cowardly to meet his challenge, and yet laurent knows that sasuke is anything but. the thrum of nervous anticipation grips him, his heart battering against his chest. he knows it's coming when the handle rattles once, and still he starts, wide-eyed, heat lancing through him. unwelcome.
he doesn't have to let him in. he could stay right here, watching maru waddle toward her cat tower — a tree made of giant flowers to sit on — and sasuke will eventually leave. he will not force himself in.
it doesn't take long for him to act. he unfolds himself from the bed, silent steps carrying him to the door. when he opens it, the expression that greets sasuke is that of an animal ready to kill. ]
Did you like it, when you kissed me? [ he's still wearing the cat ears, a few strands of blond having escaped the band to brush his cheeks. he steps away like a leopard feigning disinterest. ] Was it everything you wanted with Naruto?
[A leopard followed by a larger cat, a panther moving easily into that space left vacant in the doorway. Laurent would not have opened the door if abhorrence made him opposed to this. It is almost a relief, some familiar comfort by now to be met with the threat of those sharp blue eyes cutting over him. The little violence in harsh greetings, whether they're shielding Laurent's vulnerabilities or truly meant to communicate half of his distaste. He's complicated. He's alluring, and beautiful, even in soft striped clothes and a pair of ridiculous cat ears.]
Stop bringing him up. [Sasuke reaches a hand behind himself, shutting the door with a definitive click.] I wasn't thinking about him at all.
[Not a lie, and he doesn't feel guilty to announce it, because whatever he harbors for Naruto — deep passion, devotion forged in steel — he accepted long ago it would never be more, no matter his desire. He can't even imagine it: Naruto's face so close, the way he had seen Laurent's in the shower, the taste of his mouth in comparison to Laurent's clean, wet lips. With Naruto, there is a risk he is unwilling to take.
He prowls the outer edge of the bedroom, eyes passing curiously over personal effects, pausing to touch fingertips beneath Maru's chin in scratching affection. Then he turns away from the cat and corners Laurent, unafraid to put himself directly within dangerous proximity. Calling his bluff — if it is one, again.]
[ it has to be a lie. who else would occupy sasuke's thoughts, when his desire appears to have strengthened its hold like an illness over the body, infecting every part until none remains untainted? he watches the trajectory of sasuke's steps with wide, distrustful eyes, every muscle coiled. there is that sense-memory, once again, of a mouth on his, unyielding. his breath feels caught, as if something wishes to break inside of him.
laurent hangs back, the rigid length of his spine touching the wall behind him. if he were thinking straight, he would not have backed himself into a corner to be plucked like a wilted flower. and yet he knows how to get out of this. knows that this is different from when sasuke came after him, cold and unfamiliar. that man — the monster — is still inside of him, somewhere. but he is not here now, and laurent can't make himself move. ]
You don't know — [ he speaks slowly, carefully. ] How to satisfy yourself.
[ as if laurent knows how. but laurent knows the clinical act, and he is not without feeling — the hot pulse of desire growing stronger within him, his skin warm and sensitive beneath his clothes, a need that he can't pull out of himself. sasuke's proximity is akin to that of a flame, a blazing, uncontrollable heat that threatens to suck the air from the room. laurent swallows, his lips parting. ]
Here. [ he takes sasuke's right hand, guides it to himself so that his strong, calloused fingers touch the space where his shirt ends and his pants begin — the bare strip of skin between them. with shivers dancing along his ribs, he brings sasuke's hand beneath his shirt, coaxing him to touch him. laurent's creamy skin is as warm as though he's been bathing in sunlight. ] Where else do you want to feel?
[ he poses the question quietly, his eyes framed with long lashes, the look in them set, determined despite the way his muscles quiver with tension. ]
[It lures him, though it shouldn't — the way Laurent crowds himself back toward the wall, the look he turns through pale eyelashes, the painstaking words. No part of him denies what is said. He doesn't know, and he's never learned or cared to learn how to satisfy himself. He thinks, watching Laurent's stillness without the violence of a spitting, tetchy cat as in previous encounters, that he wants to know what it may take. For the first time, it seems a dare toward desire after living a life bereft of all selfish pleasure.
Part of that is terrifying. It is a dark fall at his feet, taking him down. In this moment, for the first time since they've spoken of it, he begins to care for his own lack of experience. He can't recall the last he had touched someone else — someone who is not Laurent. Laurent, Laurent, Laurent. In the shower, together in the fountain, a grappling of slick wet limbs and burning physical attraction. All of it consumes his memory; prior to Laurent, he's touched so few in his life beyond the battlefield, even in the most basic exchanges of fondness and affection. It would be better if he knew what to do.
Sasuke steps in, shaking his head as if to rid the thought, as if a silent answer to that question posed. Within Laurent's circle of personal space, the pressure of want is overwhelming — his touch is guided easily beneath the hem of a shirt. A cool hand on hot skin, passing gently over the curve of a waist, finding the shallow slope at the small of his back. Then up, climbing his spine in a broad swipe so the shirt hitches higher, exposing pale skin to the air.
And at the same time, he lowers his head into Laurent's throat as if it has become suddenly too heavy. His cheek rubs in a tentative caress; he can feel Laurent's pulse beneath his lips. Erratic, like a flicker of wings.]
Just this. [Sasuke's voice is a low rumble, felt where they touch — worse nature might have crushed Laurent to the wall, sealed them together with forceful dominance; he holds himself by the reins of self-will. A nose nudges up to the delicate shell of one ear. Everywhere, exploratory.] It's fine.
[ his heart beats a jagged pace, his mind pulled in several directions at once, most urgently looking for escape. he doesn't move. the cost to make any decision in this moment seems far too high. to lose this. to gain — what? a fuck for one night. and yet sasuke doesn't even know how to do such a thing, and laurent has never —
warmth at his throat. a shiver crawls across his skin, the slow spread of tension and heat. he looks away, not daring to close his eyes, expecting the jaws of the trap to snap shut at any second, but in the space that should hold violence, he feels only the fluttering hesitation of touch. tentative. soft. yielding in a way he has never known sasuke to be.
he opens his mouth to speak, but all he manages is the expulsion of a tight breath. his hand has somehow found purchase at the sharp edge of sasuke's hip, claw-like in its grip. desperation holds him a vise, his longing like a blade slicing through him with a slow, agonizing intent. ]
You treat me — [ he drags in a breath, as if he's run a great distance. ] As a man treats a boy.
[ he relinquishes his grip only to lift his hand and press his fingers into sasuke's hair, gripping his skull in the crude mockery of something loving, pieced together by someone who has never experienced it. the anger that never leaves him holds him taut, but there's want in his eyes — fearful, distrustful want. he wants this as much as he wants to pull away. to be repulsed by sasuke simply means to look nowhere else.
he charts a path, maneuvers them together. ignoring the violent turmoil that erupts in his chest, he presses their mouths together, hard and deep, refusing to pull away even as he's pulled into a darkened maelstrom of memories — bitter snow and the snap of bone, his uncle's silken sheets, tangled bodies in the water. his fingers close around inky black hair, yanking savagely as he tumbles sasuke onto the bed, landing lithely atop him. his headband slips off and bounces once on the mattress, laurent's hair falling over his shoulders like a veil.
snatched from beneath the pillow, a cold knife touches sasuke's throat. laurent's eyes are steady, though his cheeks are wild with color, his chest rising and falling rapidly. ]
Did you think my forgiveness would come so easily? [ he traces the blade down to sasuke's collarbone, pressing the point against the jut of bone. ] That I would simply spread for the man who tried to kill me?
[As a man treats a boy. The words are a jarring upset, breathy and hot on his skin as Laurent takes hold of his scalp, turns sharp nails to his hip — he cannot find himself in that sentiment, only having known brutality from the men in his life, the boy in him dead at eight years old. Affection is an unlearned language, so he is not skilled at it. And yet Laurent's rebuff is as unsurprising as it is exhilarating.
Sasuke is led backwards, footsteps graceful despite the wrenching, stumbling way he's directed. Only for a moment does his gaze cross Laurent's face, those blue eyes ablaze like lightning in the storm of his expression. It isn't fear that beats in his chest as he feels his pulse climb, but instead the dark intoxication of arousal, made worse every time that mouth collides with his own. Warm, slightly damp, the barest cut of a tooth on tender inner lip. They're meant to be violent and bruising clashes. They feel like the purest honey, sipped straight from the source and sinking slow, sticky into his blood.
He understands, now, why seduction is such a necessary component to shinobi training. It does not take the knife at his throat Laurent finally wields, sitting astride his legs, to learn this. The mattress is soft beneath his back, but he's focused only on the points where their bodies touch. He turns a look up through dark lashes.]
Then don't forgive me. [It comes in a low, resonant murmur. His chin juts, allowing the edge of the blade to dent his skin.] Keep your legs closed. I won't open them without your permission. I already told you what I wanted, and I had no intention of going any further than that.
[It feels that he is in a trance, answering the physical threat of violence with action of his own an instant later — seizing Laurent's narrow waist with his hand and rolling him over, reversing their positions, closing powerful thighs over Laurent's own to keep them pinned, as he's just said, shut. All of this happens with the lithe ease of a warrior. Sasuke buries his face into that veil of gold hair, silk on his cheeks, nosing over a slender throat. The movement creatures pressure; the knife cuts, bleeding a trickle of blood he doesn't seem to care about onto the sheets.]
You contradict yourself. You won't be treated like a boy, but you won't be treated like a man either. Would you feel differently if I was Damen? Do you kiss me wishing it was him?
[ the world spins in a new direction, too fast — his back pressed to the bed, his legs trapped as if in an iron vise. he doesn't relent the press of the knife, steady against his skin, so steady that there's blood drawn between them in sasuke's achingly tender movements. ]
Enough. [ of the subject of damen from sasuke's mouth. not enough of his body pressed to his, made apparent by laurent's hard grip on sasuke's shirt, in the process of inching it higher and only stopping when anger flashes in his gaze. ] I would have you beaten within an inch of your life, and watch with pleasure as you were mounted on a cross to be picked at by vultures. If you were him.
[ he considers pressing the knife in. does, minutely, flicking his finger to trace a shallow line of red along sasuke's throat. when he withdraws the blade, he wipes it fastidiously on the shoulder of sasuke's shirt. ]
You shouldn't speak. [ laurent's voice finally shakes, just the barest hint of a tremor. what sasuke is doing — his face nestled so close, heated breath soaking his skin — sends an ache through him, so powerful that his breath rushes out. his hand finds the nape of sasuke's neck, gripping delicately, his fingertips pushing up into dark hair. ] I can't quite — take it.
[ he can't think. if he starts, it will devolve into panic, into chaos, and then this will be gone. this fleeting warmth, this closeness. this ache. he despises that he wants it, needs it, that his body sings with a primal yearning he’s felt so little of that it threatens to break him.
he twists, snaking out from beneath sasuke’s trap, turning their bodies abruptly so that neither is atop the other — instead, they face each other, both on their sides, breath mingling in their closeness. somehow, laurent finds sasuke’s leg tangled between his thighs, an accidental maneuver.
without thinking — or perhaps thinking a thousand unwanted thoughts at once — he tightens his muscles, pinning sasuke’s leg in place. a sound nearly makes it out of his throat, brutally stifled around a desperate breath. minutely, he bears down, a pool of liquid heat filling him from the friction of pressure between his legs. his lashes shutter, sasuke’s dark eyes flickering before his gaze, his grip tight in his hair. ]
I don't forgive you. [ he clings to this whispered truth, his words nothing but a shivering breath. his hips tighten as he pushes closer, back arching into a pleasant curve. his hand moves to grip sasuke's shoulder. ] Just this.
[So they've sworn those two men, central to their own private lives before this place, from each other's mouths. If you were him, but he is not. Laurent's brutal threat doesn't frighten him — it is more electric than that, darker, speaking to an animal part of himself made less of fear than arousal. He enjoys Laurent speaking that way, even if is empty, even if he isn't Damen and never will be.
He's told not to say anything more. And that touch, tracing a hot and bloody path up his throat where metal nicked flesh, coaxes him to obey more than the order itself. The hand on the back of his neck; the fingers through his hair. Physical affections telling want that Laurent won't ever say outright. In an hour, in a day, perhaps he'll wish to pretend it didn't happen at all. Sasuke doesn't worry about the future. For once, it's eclipsed from sight.
The moment he finds himself in is spun out of a deep, hidden fantasy — to touch another man this way without the context of brutal combat but instead more careful, more purposeful. That he won't be killed for trying is a thrill too. He inhales the scent of Laurent's hair, and skin, like an intoxicating drug. Something floral and clean. And the hard lines of Laurent's lean body against him when they're twisted onto their sides, distracting, consuming his attention — he finds his leg caught by a pair of tight thighs.
Sasuke's eyes flash, a stutter of color in his right eye, though it doesn't change fully and remains obsidian black. The other is that permanent, eerie purple revealed where Laurent has combed the fringe of his hair away. He can't know how equally intimate it is to be looking into his eyes, but the allowance kicks Sasuke's heart to an erratic pace. He likes Laurent this close. He wants him closer. He wants to tell him he can take it, and more.
I don't forgive you.] That's fine. I'll live with that. [Retaliation is the push of his leg more firmly in the crux of Laurent's thighs, dragging across the heat he can feel through clothes, the shape of his cock thickening, a forbidden transgression. Just this.] Don't forget you promised me something else. [Sasuke leans to capture that prim pair of lips with his mouth, curling his right arm around Laurent's back to seal them closer, showing his desperation in how frantically he holds on. The kiss is inexperienced still, no more than a graze of pressure over and over again across the seam of Laurent's lips.]
[ all at once this spins out of control. laurent is kissing another man, a man he's sworn to himself to despise, and despite the awkward, tender navigation of it, he can't seem to make himself stop. not yet. his hunger sits in him like a beast that demands its portion of flesh, barely leashed. the look in sasuke's mismatched gaze is unbearably revealing, unbearably intimate, so laurent sweeps his lashes shut to block everything out.
and it makes it worse. the friction between his legs comes out of nowhere, the slow rutting like he is once more a child. men would fuck. and yet the sensations that fill him are like nothing he has ever felt before, nothing a cock splitting him open has ever given him. his most valiant efforts can't hold back the quietest moan that falls from his lips straight into sasuke's mouth. ]
I — [ he feels blown away by desire, his eyes huge and dark when he opens them again. something claws desperately in him, a relentless urge to somehow take control of this situation that's spiraled completely out of his hands. he moves his head, so that sasuke's lips touch the crescent of his cheek, suffused with bright color. ]
Promised you what? A lesson? [ he could teach sasuke a lesson by striking him with the nearest blunt object. he aches with need. there is no possible way to ignore it, unless he sends sasuke from the room and puts his hands upon himself. a wretched thought. he can't press any closer than the way sasuke holds him, strong armed, and this, too, is not familiar. laurent is not one to allow himself such a grace. a hard breath, and then — ] Fine. A lesson. Pleasure me with your mouth.
[ laurent will not return the favor. he can't. but he turns his gaze with aching sincerity despite the haughty command in his voice. he does not take lovers, does not engage in the casual debauchery of the palace. a request such as this is far beyond anything he's ever asked before.
as if to mark his determination, he brings his palm to cradle sasuke's jaw. ] If you're bad, which you will be, I'll tell you how to be better. A promise.
[Stopping is no longer an option that sits in his own hands, that is possible in any capacity of self-control he contains; it will have to come from Laurent. He will have to be stopped. Those eyes close, veiled by golden lashes, and he's taken by an overwhelming urge to force them open again — to chase eye contact as if it's as real a tether of connection as their lips together. It may as well be. But they open on their own, fluttering, revealing those glassy pupils to his hungry gaze.
The tilted head breaks their kiss, but Sasuke doesn't mind allowing his mouth to wander again. That pink skin is warm to the touch, flushed with blood. Laurent is trying to speak. The attempt is further proof of disintegrated composure, and like a predator he latches onto that signal, beginning to feel a dark compulsion grow within himself. Deny as Laurent will, this desire is mutual — and where his intent started with innocent, boyish kissing, it no longer runs that avenue. Innocence dies on a demand. Pleasure me with your mouth.
It's all he needs to hear. Lack of knowledge of experience matters little, with that palm on his chin and those words circling his mind in a feverish loop. Laurent talks it down, challenges him, but it only burns a hotter fuel; he doesn't care if he's bad. He will improve. He will wring every last part of Laurent dry in the hunt for those soft, breathy sounds and those wide, flinching eyes.]
Be careful what you say to me. [A promise, as if he's a student in need of instruction from an experienced teacher. Sasuke doesn't mind if that's the game they're playing. Abruptly he rolls them again, pinning Laurent with bulk of muscle that refuses to yield.] You want it too. You can't pretend otherwise anymore, not with a suggestion like that.
[He shifts down just far enough, leveraging weight on an elbow, in order to yank Laurent's loose pajama waistband down with his teeth. Like an animal — he feels one, the sort that toys with its food, unwilling to relinquish their prey. He wants to feel Laurent squirming and undone, whether or not every step to get there is a polished act or a messy puzzle.]
Look at you.
[If he does or doesn't, Sasuke won't wait, too enraptured with looking on his own. Laurent's body is narrow at the waist, skin in great stretches of smooth, unblemished white, flushed cock framed by a pair of hips he could span with both of his hands, if he still had them. He settles for his right arm, hooked underneath to drag Laurent up closer and burying his face in that crux of warm, soft, delicate flesh — where hair is downy and pale gold, almost invisible, and that pink cock is full and nearly flat to his belly. Sasuke nuzzles into the crook of a thigh to drown his whole world in an unreal moment of gratified lust, finally.]
[ he can't say that sasuke does not take orders well, in this. if laurent was frightened before, he's terrified now — and yet he doesn't wish to stop. this is more than he's ever had, further than he's ever gotten, and his fantasies don't hold a candle to the rush he feels now. he has imagined sasuke above him and below him, the dark smolder of his gaze, the powerful strength in his body. he has despised every moment that left desire curling in his belly like an untreated sickness.
this is the cure. to have him. to feel this. and then discard him like yesterday's garbage.
cool air cascades along his heated skin, now bare. he does not look, because he can't fathom the thought — naked, vulnerable, wanting. his uncle used to gaze at him with open hunger before laurent could even identify the look on his face. now it's just half the court and all of the soldiers. and sasuke, though nothing about this feels like the aggressive, roaming stares that follow him. sasuke looks at him with something like reverence, with a wanting that feels cavernous. laurent does not feel like nearly enough to fill this deep well, and he almost stutters out a halt to the entire ordeal, a hasty response to his own misgivings. but then — a softness at his thigh, a gentleness he’s never felt. his cock aches to be touched. laurent’s muscles tighten, his hands moving of their volition to grasp at raven hair, dragging sasuke’s mouth closer to his need. ]
Open. [ a taut command between his own panting breaths. he’s done this before, given instructions on the crude, clinical art of sucking a cock. in this, he has a sordid type of knowledge: he might not be the most skillful at the act himself (the thought of having a cock in his mouth still repulses him), but his uncle had loved his young, unripe body. he has been serviced more times than he can remember.
without preamble, he guides sasuke’s mouth to his waiting cock. something rushes over him, pleasure or revulsion or both, the smallest sound in his throat. wet heat surrounds him. for a long moment he doesn’t move, his fingers gripped tight in sasuke’s hair, his hips quivering, the barest tremor of breath passing through his lips. blue eyes, lashes swept low, gaze down to the pleasant stretch of sasuke’s lips. ]
Not all at once. [ he pulls sasuke off with a sharp tug of his hair, recalibrating. he should be more in control than this. pleasure is a heady, poisonous thing. laurent takes a steadying breath, his gaze cooling. ] Just your tongue, first. You should know the places that are most sensitive, unless you’re even less than a virgin.
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i had to
a week or two passes before (against his better judgement) he opens up a video chat one night, cross-legged in bed, his face fresh and glowing from his nighttime routine. his normally severe clothing has been replaced with a soft white and blue striped long-sleeve with matching pants, loosely fitted so that his collarbones are on rare display. behind him, the cat glares from her perch on laurent's pillow. ]
Hello. [ his hair is loosely held back by a black cat-eared headband. ] I heard you got fired.
opens my arms
Laurent. A name that sends a tight, warm flutter of excitement through him, kicking his pulse a little faster. What boundaries he's respected by giving Laurent space are reluctant, yet admitting this to himself makes everything worse, and he's still unaccustomed to the peace of this dimension compared to their last. It feels like his nerves are on edge.
His gaze spends a moment on the display of collarbones before drifting.] It was a temporary position anyway. [Looking, now, at the cat.] Have you named her?
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You were bad at it. [ as if laurent has not made this sentiment clear already. but the cat nudges his ribs, a reminder of her presence or more likely a request for her bowl to be filled despite her recent meal. a reminder of sasuke's silent generosity, his ability to understand laurent's particular needs without giving voice to them. ] You deserved to be fired.
[ but he'd tried. exceptionally hard, in fact. commendable, in its own way. laurent cannot make those words pass his tongue. ]
No. [ no, he has not named her, because overthinking is his specialty and his careful research into the perfect cat name had yielded pages of names but no real results. he clears his throat, his eyes drifting to a blank point on the wall. then, slowly, with his heart beating very fast — ] I thought I might ask you for suggestions.
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You're right. I wasn't good at it. [He can admit his own deficiency; his pride lies in other areas of expertise.] Working in a shop like that is something the civilians of my village used to do, not me. I shouldn't expect to be capable overnight. It's a skill like anything else.
[With work and effort, however, he could change that. If he wished. Now, he's more interested in Laurent's mild little statement: I thought I might. The smirk tugs more stubbornly, so he turns, covering it partially with his pillow. Laurent looks away, but he doesn't.]
Maru, maybe. It means "round." [His smirk has tempered into a smile, barely visible on his lips.] Or Hime — "princess," since you're the prince.
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What did you do in your village? [ laurent's eyes drift to the locked door as he considers lying down to match sasuke's relaxed posture, but the mere thought makes his spine grow even more rigid. he refocuses. ] You must have trained extensively, to be the warrior you are today.
[ there is only a tinge of bitterness in his tone, barely susceptible. he is looking at the set of sasuke's mouth, the faintly soft angle that belies a smile. he doesn't know what to make of it, a gentle warmth blooming in his chest. ]
Princess. [ he repeats it slowly, a too-careful lack of emotion in his tone. ] My brother used to tell me that I would grow into liking women. He preferred them. [ then — ] I like Maru. She is a large cat.
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[The voice he uses is low, murmured between them with an honesty he has not allowed anyone else.]
My skills only mean that you wouldn't be able to hide from me. I'd find you. [Sasuke finally breaks away his gaze, surprising himself with what he's said. His mouth firms into a flat line.] ... Maru is overfed. I included detailed instructions on how much food you should give her to fix the problem.
[You better put her on a diet, Laurent. But then curiosity stirs, and his eyes venture back, furtively, in a glance that dares to linger.]
And you haven't? Grown into it. [Incomprehension furrows his brow — less for that confession than his own puzzle of understanding at such preferences.] Would your kingdom need an heir?
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And your bloodline is special. [ it must be, with those peculiar eyes. laurent has never seen anything like them. ] But that isn't all. Who taught you espionage, warfare, and everything else?
[ not his brother. the memory flits through his mind once more. the boy running through that house, afraid, was too young. laurent's gaze flickers back to the screen, settling on sasuke again now that he's looked away. i'd find you. another peculiar sentiment. laurent has never had anyone come for him since auguste died, and has long since let go of his faith in such things. only auguste could have found him anywhere. only auguste would have come to his aid in any trial. now, there is no one. certainly not sasuke. he sets the thought neatly aside. ]
Maru eats the amount necessary for her happiness. [ hardly. laurent can feel her spiteful glare at his back. but at the inquiry, he blinks slowly, a steady pang in his chest. ]
Auguste was good with everyone. Especially with courting women. He wasn't allowed to — we aren't allowed to be alone with the opposite sex, remember — but we all knew he would find a suitable match, make her his queen, create strong heirs. He was all that a prince, and a future king, should be. [ a beat. ] I didn't grow into it. [ liking women. being a suitable prince. ] My kingdom would need an heir, but I — [ shame blooms inside of him at speaking such a thing aloud, even as his words hold steady with conviction. ] I would not bring them forth. I would not continue this bloodline. Not for weak, tainted heirs that will suffer for crimes they did not commit.
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There was an Academy for children to learn. [He says this mildly, memories of a childhood training to become a soldier some strange and unreal life belonging to someone else.] When I graduated I was assigned a sensei; his name was Kakashi. Then I left my village and found another sensei who would teach me what I needed to know. I was hunting my brother. Itachi was stronger than me, so I needed more than what my village could give.
[Tone flattened by the admission, Sasuke turns his attention to the cat, sitting on the bed in a lump of contentment. It softens him out of the dark slide of his own thoughts. Maru's diet is a conversation he bookmarks mentally; he's more interested, now, in hearing about Auguste. The life of a prince and future king.]
'Weak, tainted heirs'? [Curiosity drifts in his voice.] Is that something you can decide? Who will inherit the kingdom once you're gone? [Such a different ideology from his own world, where leaders are raised by merit and strength.
Then, looking back at Laurent, his gaze a heavy, intense weight—] Is it because of that other prince, Damianos of Akielos? You cared for him, though you hated him too.
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and yet sasuke had claimed that taking his brother's life was his biggest regret. it stands at odds with the life he clearly prepared for. ]
You surpassed him in strength. Your brother. [ his thoughts drift to damen, to his long days and nights training to one day be better than the prince-killer of akielos, to the moment he'd watched him in the training yard and realized, like a physical blow, that damen was still better than him. ] You succeeded at your goal, but it didn't bring you happiness.
[ laurent has not thought in depth of what he might feel upon slaying his brother's killer. he should feel... a weight lifted. a rightness. a wound finally closing. his face pinches. ]
There are ministers. Diplomats. Vere will live on. [ he shrugs, one sleeve dangerously close to tipping down his shoulder, detachment in his voice. ] As long as it is not in my blood. Or my uncle's.
[ his pretense at nonchalance falters, soft menace in his eyes at the mention of damen's name. if sasuke was in the room, this might've been the precursor to an altercation. ]
Damen is not the reason I will not fuck for an heir. [ but isn't he? hadn't he damned laurent to a childhood unprotected the moment he'd slain auguste in battle? his cheeks grow hot with anger. ] You know the reason. You simply want me to say it. My uncle soiled my bloodline when he fucked me. There.
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[It seems that power is all he has now — nothing else to speak of but the miles of misdeeds at his back, and what he has accrued to defeat a man who only loved him unconditionally. Sasuke closes his eyes for a moment, to rest the subject there, to focus outside himself. Vere. Laurent.
He was powerless once. His fear had driven him, a cousin to his grief; he knows Laurent understands those emotions well. The difference is that Laurent is not a warrior, does not possess a legacy of strength and ability, was not trained to take lives.]
That's not what I want. [Argument burns in him, retaliatory, levering himself on his right elbow — halted from hinging fully upright by the look in those eyes, the precarious slip of a sleeve.] You still let him have so much control over you. You see yourself ruined, but I don't understand why.
[He becomes aware of his heart, a rush of blood threatening to cloud reason. He waits for something. He cannot name exactly what it is.]
You'll become king when you return, and he'll try to stop you. He's the obstacle. So what are you going to do? [Pressing, as if on a wound—] Does Damen know?
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it's easier, now, to allow the barbs back out. laurent feels backed into a corner, overly exposed, sasuke's eyes pools of unpredictable color. ]
You don't understand because you have not been fucked by your family. You only thought you were. [ he doesn't know the details. he only knows that sasuke would have let his brother live if he'd known the real truth. so what are you going to do? the question opens a pit of doubt, so deep that laurent feels dangerously close to falling into an endless hole of black. it's the same question he asks himself dozens of times a day.
his gaze swings up, cold fire, at the name. ]
That's enough, stop. [ his rage is dizzying; he nearly sees red. something touches his side, and he realizes maru has moved, standing with her head poking his ribs. ] What do you think you know? Because you've spent your life wishing to suck Naruto's cock, you think I have someone I've been pining over as well? Does that suit your narrative better to make you feel less pathetic?
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It's a distraction. There is some hurt there, sheltered within indignity. Perhaps it isn't right for Sasuke to trespass on those grounds, but then he thinks of all the times Laurent has done as much before, calling his mind to Naruto, Naruto, Naruto. The sick, dizzying orbit of a realization better left underground. One that will remain a secret, forever, except to this other man. He does not really believe he'll return to his world, or his village. Not soon and not easily.
Does Damen know what Laurent has suffered? Still no answer.]
Fine. [Sasuke turns to face the wall, phone cradled in his hand, looking narrowly at the screen.] So you have no plan.
[Voice now coming flatter, a deliberate point angled to reach unseen wounds.]
Did you like it when I kissed you? You kissed back. Do you even remember it?
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and then sasuke strikes with a precision that surprises even him. the things he endured at his uncle's hands have left his childhood memories unreliable, tainted with a haze of doubt, and the gaping holes of pitch darkness leave ample room for nightmares to fester. the blow sasuke lands takes him back, a flash of fearful doubt cracking through the glacial fury in his eyes. ]
It seems it wasn't memorable.
[ but he once again feels the phantom touch of lips, wet, solid, a spark of heat despite the freezing cold. before he can stop himself, his fingers brush his mouth, his chest rising in a hard, controlled breath. he makes the mistake of staring back into the screen, where he meets sasuke's gaze. a flush, unbidden, creeps across his exposed skin. ]
You know where I am. [ something hard glints in his eyes, challenging. ] If you want to know the answer to your question, then come, kiss me.
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Sasuke's gaze is dark, lingering, uncowed. Challenge is like a spell to someone like him, winding him in its powerful grasp. Already his heart picks up in adrenaline well-learned, worn by the troughs of violent combat. Yet violence is not what he has in mind here. He looks a moment longer at Laurent — at Laurent's mouth, pale pink, grazed by slender fingers — then ends the call without goodbye. He sets his device facedown on the bed and closes his eyes. Reeling in that silence for several seconds, he makes a decision and rises from the bed.
Bare feet cross the floor, taking nothing with him when he exits, dressed only in a long-sleeved, black shirt and gray sweatpants. He's tied the left sleeve in a loose knot at the elbow. His footsteps make no sound as he navigates the hallway, then the stairs, unseen on the way to his destination. This stealth is unhurried, but the intensity of his focus is like a trance.
Upon reaching Laurent's dorm room, he takes the handle of the door and tries it without knocking. There is the still the chance Laurent balks, withdraws — he is prepared for this.]
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he doesn't have to let him in. he could stay right here, watching maru waddle toward her cat tower — a tree made of giant flowers to sit on — and sasuke will eventually leave. he will not force himself in.
it doesn't take long for him to act. he unfolds himself from the bed, silent steps carrying him to the door. when he opens it, the expression that greets sasuke is that of an animal ready to kill. ]
Did you like it, when you kissed me? [ he's still wearing the cat ears, a few strands of blond having escaped the band to brush his cheeks. he steps away like a leopard feigning disinterest. ] Was it everything you wanted with Naruto?
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Stop bringing him up. [Sasuke reaches a hand behind himself, shutting the door with a definitive click.] I wasn't thinking about him at all.
[Not a lie, and he doesn't feel guilty to announce it, because whatever he harbors for Naruto — deep passion, devotion forged in steel — he accepted long ago it would never be more, no matter his desire. He can't even imagine it: Naruto's face so close, the way he had seen Laurent's in the shower, the taste of his mouth in comparison to Laurent's clean, wet lips. With Naruto, there is a risk he is unwilling to take.
He prowls the outer edge of the bedroom, eyes passing curiously over personal effects, pausing to touch fingertips beneath Maru's chin in scratching affection. Then he turns away from the cat and corners Laurent, unafraid to put himself directly within dangerous proximity. Calling his bluff — if it is one, again.]
I liked it, but once wasn't enough.
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laurent hangs back, the rigid length of his spine touching the wall behind him. if he were thinking straight, he would not have backed himself into a corner to be plucked like a wilted flower. and yet he knows how to get out of this. knows that this is different from when sasuke came after him, cold and unfamiliar. that man — the monster — is still inside of him, somewhere. but he is not here now, and laurent can't make himself move. ]
You don't know — [ he speaks slowly, carefully. ] How to satisfy yourself.
[ as if laurent knows how. but laurent knows the clinical act, and he is not without feeling — the hot pulse of desire growing stronger within him, his skin warm and sensitive beneath his clothes, a need that he can't pull out of himself. sasuke's proximity is akin to that of a flame, a blazing, uncontrollable heat that threatens to suck the air from the room. laurent swallows, his lips parting. ]
Here. [ he takes sasuke's right hand, guides it to himself so that his strong, calloused fingers touch the space where his shirt ends and his pants begin — the bare strip of skin between them. with shivers dancing along his ribs, he brings sasuke's hand beneath his shirt, coaxing him to touch him. laurent's creamy skin is as warm as though he's been bathing in sunlight. ] Where else do you want to feel?
[ he poses the question quietly, his eyes framed with long lashes, the look in them set, determined despite the way his muscles quiver with tension. ]
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Part of that is terrifying. It is a dark fall at his feet, taking him down. In this moment, for the first time since they've spoken of it, he begins to care for his own lack of experience. He can't recall the last he had touched someone else — someone who is not Laurent. Laurent, Laurent, Laurent. In the shower, together in the fountain, a grappling of slick wet limbs and burning physical attraction. All of it consumes his memory; prior to Laurent, he's touched so few in his life beyond the battlefield, even in the most basic exchanges of fondness and affection. It would be better if he knew what to do.
Sasuke steps in, shaking his head as if to rid the thought, as if a silent answer to that question posed. Within Laurent's circle of personal space, the pressure of want is overwhelming — his touch is guided easily beneath the hem of a shirt. A cool hand on hot skin, passing gently over the curve of a waist, finding the shallow slope at the small of his back. Then up, climbing his spine in a broad swipe so the shirt hitches higher, exposing pale skin to the air.
And at the same time, he lowers his head into Laurent's throat as if it has become suddenly too heavy. His cheek rubs in a tentative caress; he can feel Laurent's pulse beneath his lips. Erratic, like a flicker of wings.]
Just this. [Sasuke's voice is a low rumble, felt where they touch — worse nature might have crushed Laurent to the wall, sealed them together with forceful dominance; he holds himself by the reins of self-will. A nose nudges up to the delicate shell of one ear. Everywhere, exploratory.] It's fine.
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warmth at his throat. a shiver crawls across his skin, the slow spread of tension and heat. he looks away, not daring to close his eyes, expecting the jaws of the trap to snap shut at any second, but in the space that should hold violence, he feels only the fluttering hesitation of touch. tentative. soft. yielding in a way he has never known sasuke to be.
he opens his mouth to speak, but all he manages is the expulsion of a tight breath. his hand has somehow found purchase at the sharp edge of sasuke's hip, claw-like in its grip. desperation holds him a vise, his longing like a blade slicing through him with a slow, agonizing intent. ]
You treat me — [ he drags in a breath, as if he's run a great distance. ] As a man treats a boy.
[ he relinquishes his grip only to lift his hand and press his fingers into sasuke's hair, gripping his skull in the crude mockery of something loving, pieced together by someone who has never experienced it. the anger that never leaves him holds him taut, but there's want in his eyes — fearful, distrustful want. he wants this as much as he wants to pull away. to be repulsed by sasuke simply means to look nowhere else.
he charts a path, maneuvers them together. ignoring the violent turmoil that erupts in his chest, he presses their mouths together, hard and deep, refusing to pull away even as he's pulled into a darkened maelstrom of memories — bitter snow and the snap of bone, his uncle's silken sheets, tangled bodies in the water. his fingers close around inky black hair, yanking savagely as he tumbles sasuke onto the bed, landing lithely atop him. his headband slips off and bounces once on the mattress, laurent's hair falling over his shoulders like a veil.
snatched from beneath the pillow, a cold knife touches sasuke's throat. laurent's eyes are steady, though his cheeks are wild with color, his chest rising and falling rapidly. ]
Did you think my forgiveness would come so easily? [ he traces the blade down to sasuke's collarbone, pressing the point against the jut of bone. ] That I would simply spread for the man who tried to kill me?
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Sasuke is led backwards, footsteps graceful despite the wrenching, stumbling way he's directed. Only for a moment does his gaze cross Laurent's face, those blue eyes ablaze like lightning in the storm of his expression. It isn't fear that beats in his chest as he feels his pulse climb, but instead the dark intoxication of arousal, made worse every time that mouth collides with his own. Warm, slightly damp, the barest cut of a tooth on tender inner lip. They're meant to be violent and bruising clashes. They feel like the purest honey, sipped straight from the source and sinking slow, sticky into his blood.
He understands, now, why seduction is such a necessary component to shinobi training. It does not take the knife at his throat Laurent finally wields, sitting astride his legs, to learn this. The mattress is soft beneath his back, but he's focused only on the points where their bodies touch. He turns a look up through dark lashes.]
Then don't forgive me. [It comes in a low, resonant murmur. His chin juts, allowing the edge of the blade to dent his skin.] Keep your legs closed. I won't open them without your permission. I already told you what I wanted, and I had no intention of going any further than that.
[It feels that he is in a trance, answering the physical threat of violence with action of his own an instant later — seizing Laurent's narrow waist with his hand and rolling him over, reversing their positions, closing powerful thighs over Laurent's own to keep them pinned, as he's just said, shut. All of this happens with the lithe ease of a warrior. Sasuke buries his face into that veil of gold hair, silk on his cheeks, nosing over a slender throat. The movement creatures pressure; the knife cuts, bleeding a trickle of blood he doesn't seem to care about onto the sheets.]
You contradict yourself. You won't be treated like a boy, but you won't be treated like a man either. Would you feel differently if I was Damen? Do you kiss me wishing it was him?
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Enough. [ of the subject of damen from sasuke's mouth. not enough of his body pressed to his, made apparent by laurent's hard grip on sasuke's shirt, in the process of inching it higher and only stopping when anger flashes in his gaze. ] I would have you beaten within an inch of your life, and watch with pleasure as you were mounted on a cross to be picked at by vultures. If you were him.
[ he considers pressing the knife in. does, minutely, flicking his finger to trace a shallow line of red along sasuke's throat. when he withdraws the blade, he wipes it fastidiously on the shoulder of sasuke's shirt. ]
You shouldn't speak. [ laurent's voice finally shakes, just the barest hint of a tremor. what sasuke is doing — his face nestled so close, heated breath soaking his skin — sends an ache through him, so powerful that his breath rushes out. his hand finds the nape of sasuke's neck, gripping delicately, his fingertips pushing up into dark hair. ] I can't quite — take it.
[ he can't think. if he starts, it will devolve into panic, into chaos, and then this will be gone. this fleeting warmth, this closeness. this ache. he despises that he wants it, needs it, that his body sings with a primal yearning he’s felt so little of that it threatens to break him.
he twists, snaking out from beneath sasuke’s trap, turning their bodies abruptly so that neither is atop the other — instead, they face each other, both on their sides, breath mingling in their closeness. somehow, laurent finds sasuke’s leg tangled between his thighs, an accidental maneuver.
without thinking — or perhaps thinking a thousand unwanted thoughts at once — he tightens his muscles, pinning sasuke’s leg in place. a sound nearly makes it out of his throat, brutally stifled around a desperate breath. minutely, he bears down, a pool of liquid heat filling him from the friction of pressure between his legs. his lashes shutter, sasuke’s dark eyes flickering before his gaze, his grip tight in his hair. ]
I don't forgive you. [ he clings to this whispered truth, his words nothing but a shivering breath. his hips tighten as he pushes closer, back arching into a pleasant curve. his hand moves to grip sasuke's shoulder. ] Just this.
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He's told not to say anything more. And that touch, tracing a hot and bloody path up his throat where metal nicked flesh, coaxes him to obey more than the order itself. The hand on the back of his neck; the fingers through his hair. Physical affections telling want that Laurent won't ever say outright. In an hour, in a day, perhaps he'll wish to pretend it didn't happen at all. Sasuke doesn't worry about the future. For once, it's eclipsed from sight.
The moment he finds himself in is spun out of a deep, hidden fantasy — to touch another man this way without the context of brutal combat but instead more careful, more purposeful. That he won't be killed for trying is a thrill too. He inhales the scent of Laurent's hair, and skin, like an intoxicating drug. Something floral and clean. And the hard lines of Laurent's lean body against him when they're twisted onto their sides, distracting, consuming his attention — he finds his leg caught by a pair of tight thighs.
Sasuke's eyes flash, a stutter of color in his right eye, though it doesn't change fully and remains obsidian black. The other is that permanent, eerie purple revealed where Laurent has combed the fringe of his hair away. He can't know how equally intimate it is to be looking into his eyes, but the allowance kicks Sasuke's heart to an erratic pace. He likes Laurent this close. He wants him closer. He wants to tell him he can take it, and more.
I don't forgive you.] That's fine. I'll live with that. [Retaliation is the push of his leg more firmly in the crux of Laurent's thighs, dragging across the heat he can feel through clothes, the shape of his cock thickening, a forbidden transgression. Just this.] Don't forget you promised me something else. [Sasuke leans to capture that prim pair of lips with his mouth, curling his right arm around Laurent's back to seal them closer, showing his desperation in how frantically he holds on. The kiss is inexperienced still, no more than a graze of pressure over and over again across the seam of Laurent's lips.]
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and it makes it worse. the friction between his legs comes out of nowhere, the slow rutting like he is once more a child. men would fuck. and yet the sensations that fill him are like nothing he has ever felt before, nothing a cock splitting him open has ever given him. his most valiant efforts can't hold back the quietest moan that falls from his lips straight into sasuke's mouth. ]
I — [ he feels blown away by desire, his eyes huge and dark when he opens them again. something claws desperately in him, a relentless urge to somehow take control of this situation that's spiraled completely out of his hands. he moves his head, so that sasuke's lips touch the crescent of his cheek, suffused with bright color. ]
Promised you what? A lesson? [ he could teach sasuke a lesson by striking him with the nearest blunt object. he aches with need. there is no possible way to ignore it, unless he sends sasuke from the room and puts his hands upon himself. a wretched thought. he can't press any closer than the way sasuke holds him, strong armed, and this, too, is not familiar. laurent is not one to allow himself such a grace. a hard breath, and then — ] Fine. A lesson. Pleasure me with your mouth.
[ laurent will not return the favor. he can't. but he turns his gaze with aching sincerity despite the haughty command in his voice. he does not take lovers, does not engage in the casual debauchery of the palace. a request such as this is far beyond anything he's ever asked before.
as if to mark his determination, he brings his palm to cradle sasuke's jaw. ] If you're bad, which you will be, I'll tell you how to be better. A promise.
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The tilted head breaks their kiss, but Sasuke doesn't mind allowing his mouth to wander again. That pink skin is warm to the touch, flushed with blood. Laurent is trying to speak. The attempt is further proof of disintegrated composure, and like a predator he latches onto that signal, beginning to feel a dark compulsion grow within himself. Deny as Laurent will, this desire is mutual — and where his intent started with innocent, boyish kissing, it no longer runs that avenue. Innocence dies on a demand. Pleasure me with your mouth.
It's all he needs to hear. Lack of knowledge of experience matters little, with that palm on his chin and those words circling his mind in a feverish loop. Laurent talks it down, challenges him, but it only burns a hotter fuel; he doesn't care if he's bad. He will improve. He will wring every last part of Laurent dry in the hunt for those soft, breathy sounds and those wide, flinching eyes.]
Be careful what you say to me. [A promise, as if he's a student in need of instruction from an experienced teacher. Sasuke doesn't mind if that's the game they're playing. Abruptly he rolls them again, pinning Laurent with bulk of muscle that refuses to yield.] You want it too. You can't pretend otherwise anymore, not with a suggestion like that.
[He shifts down just far enough, leveraging weight on an elbow, in order to yank Laurent's loose pajama waistband down with his teeth. Like an animal — he feels one, the sort that toys with its food, unwilling to relinquish their prey. He wants to feel Laurent squirming and undone, whether or not every step to get there is a polished act or a messy puzzle.]
Look at you.
[If he does or doesn't, Sasuke won't wait, too enraptured with looking on his own. Laurent's body is narrow at the waist, skin in great stretches of smooth, unblemished white, flushed cock framed by a pair of hips he could span with both of his hands, if he still had them. He settles for his right arm, hooked underneath to drag Laurent up closer and burying his face in that crux of warm, soft, delicate flesh — where hair is downy and pale gold, almost invisible, and that pink cock is full and nearly flat to his belly. Sasuke nuzzles into the crook of a thigh to drown his whole world in an unreal moment of gratified lust, finally.]
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this is the cure. to have him. to feel this. and then discard him like yesterday's garbage.
cool air cascades along his heated skin, now bare. he does not look, because he can't fathom the thought — naked, vulnerable, wanting. his uncle used to gaze at him with open hunger before laurent could even identify the look on his face. now it's just half the court and all of the soldiers. and sasuke, though nothing about this feels like the aggressive, roaming stares that follow him. sasuke looks at him with something like reverence, with a wanting that feels cavernous. laurent does not feel like nearly enough to fill this deep well, and he almost stutters out a halt to the entire ordeal, a hasty response to his own misgivings. but then — a softness at his thigh, a gentleness he’s never felt. his cock aches to be touched. laurent’s muscles tighten, his hands moving of their volition to grasp at raven hair, dragging sasuke’s mouth closer to his need. ]
Open. [ a taut command between his own panting breaths. he’s done this before, given instructions on the crude, clinical art of sucking a cock. in this, he has a sordid type of knowledge: he might not be the most skillful at the act himself (the thought of having a cock in his mouth still repulses him), but his uncle had loved his young, unripe body. he has been serviced more times than he can remember.
without preamble, he guides sasuke’s mouth to his waiting cock. something rushes over him, pleasure or revulsion or both, the smallest sound in his throat. wet heat surrounds him. for a long moment he doesn’t move, his fingers gripped tight in sasuke’s hair, his hips quivering, the barest tremor of breath passing through his lips. blue eyes, lashes swept low, gaze down to the pleasant stretch of sasuke’s lips. ]
Not all at once. [ he pulls sasuke off with a sharp tug of his hair, recalibrating. he should be more in control than this. pleasure is a heady, poisonous thing. laurent takes a steadying breath, his gaze cooling. ] Just your tongue, first. You should know the places that are most sensitive, unless you’re even less than a virgin.
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