#it is a perch specifically
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raffi-cat · 5 months ago
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red crowned crane grian
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jackattack20writes · 2 months ago
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So having spent a couple days thinking about it and also before I get into it I do just wanna acknowledge how it’s entirely reasonable to take issue with how Lalah was presented in the latest episode of Gquuuuuux. But I do think that with the context of Gquuuuuux Lalah staying in the brothel is incredibly important for what Gquuuuuux is trying to say. So a common thread for all the OYW/Gundam 79 vets shown in Gquuuuuux is that they’re stuck in the war. They haven’t been able to move past it, Challia’s still searching for char, Gihren and Kycilia are both still in the wartime fear of assassination and weapons development emphasised by Xavier saying they haven’t even met since the OYW and Lalah has stuck herself in the brothel waiting for char to come save her.
And topping it off the assumedly char character seems to still be trying to kill the Zabi’s and they’ve all been searching for the rose of Sharon this entire time. But all of them have made this choice and I believe that Lalah in this episode, similarly to how Zeon and the brothel have been used, is intended to emphasise this point further.
Like Kycilia and Gihren have chosen to continue on researching new weapons of war and preparing for a civil war by choice, sure it’s the prisoner’s dilemma but it’s still their choice. Similarly Challia rather than trying to actually do something to kill the Zabi’s like he and char planned has spent the last decade and a half searching for Char. Same with Lalah, rather than escaping either with Machu or any time before that she’s waiting for Char to come save her. And this is important because so much of Nyaan, Shuji and Machu’s story has been about finding a place for themselves. And just like how Anqi and Xavier and Deux are the worst possibilities for them, Anqi a jaded woman who trusts no one and is willing to sell people out once they lose their usefulness, Xavier a soldier whose sold his ideals and personhood for alleged safety, and Deux a girl who sacrificied everything in the name of experiencing the Kira Kira, the veterans are similarly advisory tales.
Challia is the man who gives up everything he cares about in the fruitless search for someone he’s centred his whole life around, Gihren and Kycilia show the downfalls of plunging into the war machine for a purpose no matter how noble you think it is, and Lalah is similarly to Challia the consequence of tying your worth to someone else. All of which are possible ends at current for really only Nyaan and Machu but still relevant to my point. These are all people showing potential end points for the protagonists and yet also advisory stories about why they shouldn’t end up like that
Like last ep Xavier basically was just making a case to Nyaan about why she doesn’t want to stay with Zeon and would rather go back to her friends just like how in this ep Lalah while also being a big exposition dump was showing Machu that she was right in taking grasp of her destiny when she did with the Gundam. Because otherwise she’d be stuck suffering waiting for someone else to save her.
This sort of thing is also why I am extremely confident Nyaan and Machu aren’t being set up to be Charmuro 2.0, the show is putting so much effort into showing how badly these people have suffered because of their inability to find good places for themselves where they truly thrive I A. Don’t see the show saying that yes the place for NyaChu is the exact same place that two other adults that suffered greatly from the same generation inhabited 40 years ago and B. I think it’s far too bleak an answer for a show that I think is at its core one of positivity. Like firstly it’s kind of insane to make a show at least partially aimed at teens and say their place in life is to die in a toxic Yuri explosion but also I think that with the subtle parts of it’s portrayals for Nyaan and Machu the show is giving a lot of grace to the idea that teenagers are smart enough to figure it out if they’re given the space to figure it out. And so I doubt the ending at its core character-wise for Nyaan and Machu at the very least will be not much more complicated than the two of them finding the space to figure out who they are and moving beyond the failings of Zeon and the Federation.
Likely together and depending on Shuji’s state at the end with or without him, as a very direct contrast to Charmuro they’ll either move past the loss without blaming each other and just accepting that he’s gone and filling the space he’s left with each other. Or they’ll, like in ep 7, show that Shuji isn’t something that’ll come between them, their bond is ultimately stronger than both of them having feelings for the same boy (likely because they have the same feelings for each tier too.)
Although I do also have to say at the end of this that with only three episodes left it’s entirely possible that they just completely fail to actually deliver on tany of this and instead it devolves into some multiverse bullshit but I do think I’m at least accurate with my read on Lalah. Because while I’m only part way through Utena from what I’ve heard and read about it the victimising inherent to certain roles that’s discussed in that anime is very similar to what’s going on with Lalah in Gquuuuuux and that by seeing the visions of char and Amuro and the OYW she’s relegated herself to this role as someone to be saved and taken away her own agency and this is supposed to be a bad thing for her to do. Similarly to how Challia has lost himself in the search for the red comet and failed to achieve anything that he and char talked about doing.
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fishyfishyfishtimes · 2 years ago
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Here's my drawings of different levels of anthropomorphic fish again
They're too good to be left under the cut!
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weweantica · 1 month ago
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“occupational therapy” for the beast
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squuote · 8 months ago
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tongue eating louse is actually rlly interesting and fun to learn about btw... imploring everyone to do a read a bit of research on them for funsies smiles
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cheesecake-the-chicken · 2 years ago
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anyways so about that singlet thing ^^’ (tw for dissociation and syscourse/system origins under the cut)
i’ve been doing some research into it and i’m pretty sure i’m median. we think we used to be a singlet until a really recent period of heavy dissociation, when the original self fractured and became us. im still kind of the “core” of the original self, but the others are the parts of him that branched off.
at first we thought i had synthesized/imagined them or that i was pretending, but things have kinda stayed this way for a while lol. i have really bad dissociative amnesia as of late so i cant honestly tell you how long it’s been like this or if there have been many signs leading up to it, but what i do know is that there’s been a distinct “we” that was separate from “i”.
according to the terms commonly used here (and i could VERY easily be mistaken!), we are probably “mixed origin”? it’s hard to say but the fracturing is a very recent development, caused by heavy dissociation due to Reasons
i’m not gonna lie i used to err on the side of caution when it came to endogenic systems, i didn’t want to assume anything as a (then?) singlet because it wasn’t and tbh still isn’t my place. but this has definitely opened my eyes and made me realize that i could very easily be seen as faking, even though i’m (most likely) not.
i’m still hesitant to call myself a system because i REALLY don’t want to if it isn’t my place to, and we only know so much about ourselves so far. we originally thought we were just aspects of the same person that got emphasized, but we understand it better that we are fragments of the consciousness of the same person. we don’t have osdd i believe, but we do have c-ptsd and the theory of secondary structural dissociation really fits us.
therefore, i think i’m going to change my dni to include anyone who’s sysmed or tries to fakeclaim others. it’s my understanding that very few people on this website are psychologists/psychologists/neuroscientists/doctors, and nobody’s experience is universal. so little is understood about plurality and the brain in general, and i don’t want to be mutuals with anyone who feels it’s their place to police other peoples’ experiences
i probably cant answer any personal questions about it right now in my/our best interest, but just know that i’m getting the help i need! i’m just hoping to find maybe anyone else who has similar experiences or is also median. i may post/rb about it more in the future
love you guys! sorry for the ooc kinda post
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bird-likes-to-fandom · 1 year ago
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constance blackwood 1, 4, 10, 12 for the ask game !
1.) Sexuality headcanon
I think she's unlabeled! I think she super hates labels after having them put on her for so long, and she doesn't like to be tied down to a specific Thing. She's definitely a girl kisser though (looking at you, Penny)
4.) Has your headcanons changed? What did you have as a hc before?
Yes, actually!! It floated between bisexual and lesbian for a bit.
10.) Was there anyone they ”accidentally” came out to? (they just casually mentioned it and forgot the other didn’t know, or someone overheard when they said it)
Constance and Penny were talking about a date they'd gone on and Ricky walked in and overheard. He was cool about it, obviously, she'd already known Penny had a big crush on Constance.
12.) The hardest person to come out to?
Call me cliche, but I'm gonna say Ocean pre-cyclone. She was very worried about how Ocean would take it, considering Ocean was her closest and sort of only friend at that point in time, and Ocean had the power in school to ruin her if she so wished. To clarify, I don't think Ocean is homophobic in the least, her parents are weedsmoking hippies who've probably had their fair share of gay lovers (in my head), Constance was just worried from a "we're in a small town and you could absolutely ruin me if you so wished" way, because while Ocean wasn't homophobic, per se, she was a bad friend.
ooooo here's the ask game link ooooo yall wanna send more ooooo
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dubioushonour · 2 years ago
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Compilation of project sekai KAITO cards where he just especially looks like a lesbian to me
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bastam · 1 month ago
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when they're serving incubus/succubus together >
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vice-president-galade · 4 months ago
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Tagged by @mxanigel — thank you, this was fun!
5 things you might find in a california_towhee story
an excess of smoking-related activity, particularly people lighting cigarettes for one another in a meaningful fashion
people with complicated relationships having emotionally fraught conversations in an office
glasses and jackets being put on and taken off
for some reason lots of looking at photographs?
Lucian Galade
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hurricanek8art · 9 months ago
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Also before I nap I have decided I have beef with Tumblr. People have left nice tags on some of my posts (the art posts are what sparked this thought you guys are so nice 😭😭😭), and they make me happy, but I don't know of any way to say "I saw what you said, thank you!" besides like tagging people in a post, or liking their reblog, and I don't think that's normal Tumblr etiquette.
I might be autistic, I might suck at face-to-face interaction, but you don't understand, Tumblr. I am from the Appalachia mountain region. Not the deep south, but it is the south, funny drawl, "bless your heart"s and all. If I hear a southern accent for five seconds, I will have my accent triggered and suddenly sound like an extra from The Andy Griffith Show. And by golly, when you teach an autistic Appalachian kid that you should say thank you when someone gives you a compliment, it becomes Law, Tumblr. You don't have to look 'em in the eye, you don't even have to really stop what you're doing, but you Have to say Thank You. It is INSTINCT. THEMS DA RULEZ.
Anyway, I've decided we need something like the boop button that leaves something like a "hey, [so and so] says thank you for the nice tags!" in your notifications. The button to send it should be next to the note about "[a different so and so] reblogged your post" like a reply button. I feel like it could help spread some needed kindness. Lord knows we could all use that right now.
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yeyinde · 3 months ago
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caging a wolfdog
Simon Riley x Babysitter!Reader
18+ | groping. dubcon. infidelity. blue-collar Simon in a loveless marriage finds another way to entertain himself when his wife is too busy fucking her Pilates instructor to come home. victim blaming. future wife grooming. breeding. implied contraceptive tampering. spitting/spit kink. gross/mean Simon.
It's something to mend the gap between paying for college tuition, and surviving on more than air and the stale crackers they give out at the food bank. A job that takes up less space in your calendar than studying for finals or finishing up last-minute projects due before the end of the term.
And, in all honesty, the kid makes it easy.
Tommy doesn't fuss like most his age. He sits on the couch with his iPad perched on his knees, watching grown men scream in front of a camera for hours. Sometimes he stirs, asks for snacks. Something to drink. But mostly, he just scrolls YouTube Shorts, and puffs out peals of childish laughter at whatever he finds amusing.
It's the easiest job you'd ever had, really. He has no complaints about eating chicken nuggets and Kraft dinner on the nights when you stay later and have to cook something for him. Even when you try to make it healthier by chopping up celery with homemade ranch on the side, it barely makes him whine.
He eats. Scrolls. Pouts about his bath. Negotiates bedtime for ten more minutes with his iPad. And then he's sleeping by ten, hugging the device tight to his chest as a man hollers about Minecraft beneath him.
And that's the extent of it.
An easy job. An easy kid.
The problem, really, is his father.
And more specifically, the way he can't seem to stop touching you.
You're not sure why it happens, just that it does. Becomes some strange staple in this arrangement where you never leave his house without having his hands on you at some point.
But maybe the writing was always on the walls because even as he was showing you Tommy's bedroom, he folds himself over you, spine pressed against his chest, and murmurs in your ear about bedtimes and baths and all the things a babysitter is meant to hear—
But not with the hard, firm outline of their employers cock against their ass.
You should have said something then. Put your foot down. Rained hellfire and retribution over this man and his gross, foul perversions.
Should have done a lot of things, probably. But in the end, the span of his hand over your belly, so wide it threatened to swallow you up, kept you quiet. Docile as he shifted his hips—wife down the hall, flatly informing him she has a class tonight and probably won't be home, so don't bother waiting up, Simon—and rubbed his cock against you, grunting in your ear about how pretty you are. Such a sweet girl, too.
So good for his baby boy.
Keeping quiet seems to spur him on. Spreading the thick, heavy length of his body against your spine isn't enough to quench whatever sticky, awful desire brims in his chest. Insatiable now that he's had a little taste, he gorges himself on what he can get away with.
What you let him get away with.
(if you didn't want this, pretty thing, you'd have said so, wouldn't you? big, strong girl like you. you can 'andle yourself. but you ain't because you want this—)
Broad hands cupping your breasts as he leans over your shoulder and pretends to instruct you on how Tommy likes his lunches. Little more, he rasps, calloused fingers slipping under the band of your bra, and pinching your stiffening peaks between a too-big thumb and forefinger. The rough, dry graze of his scarred skin was some awful amalgamation of stinging, abrasive pain and pleasure. Likes his sandwiches cut up jus' like tha'—
Grabs a handful of your asscheek on the way out the door, pinching the flesh so hard, it aches when you sit down. Rutting into you like a beast when he comes home, and Tommy's already in bed. C'mon, he grunts, hefting you up from the couch. Gotta go an' check on 'im. But it's just an excuse to bend you over banister as you peer into Tommy's room, groaning as he shoves his clothed cock against the cleft of your ass.
Husks in your ear about how good you are for him. He and Tommy both. Such a good girl, ain't you?
It's strange. All of it. And maybe that's why you let it carry on. Continue even though you know he's married, and has a child. And—
He's odd. Intense. Weird.
Looms in the corners of the room sometimes, content to just watch you. Eyes dark, endlessly black. Fixed on every move you make. A wolf wearing a man's skin. A monster in faded blue jeans and black steel-toed boots.
Uncanny.
Scary.
Massive in a way that stole your breath the moment you laid eyes on him. A full body bloom of dread at the scale, the size, of him. Like staring at the face of a mountain, mind reeling over the incomprehensible height of it. Vertiginous. Dizzying.
Thinking about him always makes you feel a little bit sick. Lying on your back and staring up at the sky. Cosmic quasiness. Unease that trickles down from your ancestors and fills your pores with the bitter, acrid tang of fear.
But between the noxious, rolling worry—the unmistakable feeling of a starving man staring at you like you're nothing but a scrap of tender, fresh meat—is a heavy, sick sort of heat congealing in your belly.
It was easier, at first, to lie and say you stayed for the money. Broke college student with a sinkhole of debts already growing on the periphery, biding its time before it sucks you into an unfathomable, inescapable chasm. Bled dry. Used up. It'll crush you.
But this—
Simon works around your schedule. He's gone for most of the day—pulls twelve-hour shifts Monday to Saturday at the oilfield—and is fairly lenient when you have a test, sending Tommy to his uncle's instead. Staying the night is an unorthodox arrangement, you're sure, but it works itself out in the end. Being here to take Tommy to school before heading to your morning classes (the rest all available online), and then free to pick him up after and wait for Simon to come home eases the stress of a long commute to your dorm and then here, to the dorm and then back again. A small respite, sure.
And if he pushed, insistent, that you sleepover, well—
You can hide it behind a wall. Pretend he's just looking out for his son even if you have to lock the door in the spare bedroom at night, and wake up sometime to the sound of the knob rattling.
He lets you use his spare truck whenever you need it. There's always a pot of coffee waiting for you in the morning. He keeps a tidy house and a strict schedule, but money is always in your bank account or tucked into an envelope on the counter a day ahead of when you agreed he'd pay you.
But living on top of each other like this is almost unbearable.
You see more of Simon than you do your own family. Friends. Even his wife. A woman made of contradictions, it seems. Dutiful mother, but only when it matters—parent teacher conferences booked in advance, the darling starlet of his birthday party that passed—and you try to keep out of her way. Shame, maybe.
Do you know what Simon does to me when you're in the next room? Do you know what he says when you're bent into downward dog as your Pilates instructor fucks you on the matt?
Or just the knowledge that both of you, in your own way, are adulterers.
But having something in common with the woman who is more of a guest in her own home, her child's life, than you are is a sickening thought. So you squash it. Ignore it.
All of it—
His hands on you, rough and proprietary. The foul, dirty things he whispers in your ear—Tommy's been askin' for a baby brother, 'bout time we gave 'im one, don't you think? Spread your pretty pussy around my cock and keep ya nice an' plugged until it fuckin' takes—when no one is around. How these incidents keep getting progressively closer to his bedroom door, his marital bed, and one day, you think he might drag you in there and not let you out again until those promises he forced from your lips are fulfilled.
You bite your tongue. Taste blood between your teeth hours after he leaves for work, and curl into the couch as the minutes tick by until Simon's supposed to come home. Trying to distract yourself as much as you can, but there's no escape from it. From the way there was something different about him this morning. Something heady. He didn't touch you, but just quietly observed you with those strange, unfathomable eyes of his. Sinkholes wanting to swallow you down.
Hungry.
And when you asked him if he wanted breakfast, he'd just said, oh, I'll eat, birdie. You can bet on that, and then left out the door without another word.
It takes you until noon to unravel the knots in his expression, and what you find makes your heart jump like a trapped rabbit in a snare.
Possessiveness. Want. Hunger.
But most damning of all—
Anticipation.
In the room over, Tommy giggles, high and shrill, at a video. The noise jars you back into reality. A car drives down the lonely street. The timer on the oven dings. Tommy gurgles again, the sound pasted over a loud, pitchy shout that rankles down your spine. Slowly, achingly, you unfurl your body from the tense crouch you collapsed into, head thick. Underwater. In a fog. Thoughts dripping down the sides of your skull in a slow, syrupy crawl.
Your eyes dart to the clock. Three hours.
oh, I'll eat, birdie.
"Come on, Tommy," you warble out, gingerly moving towards the kitchen. Three hours. There's a buzzing inside your head that grows louder, more restless with every step. "The pizzas done."
On the fridge, a neon pink post-it note mocks you. PILATES TONIGHT AND DRINKS WITH THE GIRLS!!!! DON'T WAIT UP!!
Three hours.
You lick the blood off your teeth.
oh, I'll eat, birdie—
He doesn't bother cleaning up before he goes home.
Caked in grime, sweat, dust from the fields, crudeoil glued under his nails—a walking biohazard of filth, but he lumbers into his truck the moment he's finished, cock already thickening, straining against the harsh fabric of his jeans. Sticky on his thigh where it lays, twitching at the thought of his little birdie sucking his dirty fingers clean.
And you'll do it. He knows you will.
You've been so good for him, haven't you? Sweet little thing.
He scrapes the top of his tongue against his teeth, pulling up the taste of stale, bitter coffee. It's acrid, sour in his mouth. Swallowing around it, he grips the wheel tightly and sifts through the multitude of things he wants to do to you as he navigates the familiar path home. Muscle memory, but there's an emptiness in his belly. An itch under his skin. If fizzles, cracks; want and desire thick in his throat.
He's been thinking about this all day. You—laid out on his bed, fingers gripping the sheets tight as he folds you in half, kneecaps to your ears. Feet kicking out behind the heft of his shoulder. Bearing all his weight down on you. Crushing you.
Pumping you so full of his cock, his cum, that you whine afterwards—too empty, Mr Riley—and he has to stuff you full again just to shut you up.
Whiny little thing, he'll coo, nasty and mean as he fucks you again and again and again—
Another scrape. Tongue against teeth pulling over tastebuds. Sourness in the back of his throat. So bitter, so nauseating, he can't wait to make you swallow it down and beg for more as you try not to dry heave all over his dirty boots and onto the clean floor.
More, please, more even as you gag.
He's too hyperaware for the drive to pass in a blur—it's all startling present, each second ticking down in technicolour—but when he finally slows to crawl in front of his house, he has everything he wants to do to you laid out in a neat, concise list. Left you a defiled mess in his head, leaking cum and begging for more.
Anticipation is a maw in his gut that growls and snaps its jaws, too eager to sink inside the pretty thing that's been playing House in his mind. In his home.
He left it unfed for too long.
And now, it's time to eat.
You're not in the living room when he enters.
It's silent. The idling television paints the room in a pale, neon pink.
The clink of his keys, the thud of his boots, are the only sounds popcorning through the dim, quiet room. He casts his gaze towards the stairs to the left, sees light spilling out from Tommy's room down the hall. The nightlight burning away.
He shifts on the balls of his feet, hums something under his breath. A relic from a bygone era when the man Tommy was named after might have pulled him aside and said man, this isn't you.
Simon keeps his boots on as he trudges through the still, winter night of the house, eyes shifting past each corner, every crevasse. More muscle memory he can't shake. All filed away. Catalogued. Meticulously scoured as he shifts through the hall, pausing only to crack Tommy's door open and steal a glance of his son. Knows he won't be able to sleep without it.
He finds him tucked safe and sound in his bed. iPad on the floor connected to the charger. The screen is frozen with the image of some brightly coloured game that'll hold his interest for another day before it becomes yet another thing Simon packs away. More memories on shelves. Something to feel scraped out, hollowed, when he grows another inch and Simon starts to see more of Tommy in him than he can stomach.
The air stings his nostrils when he breathes in. The burn gives him time to shift around the potent ache of fatherly affection he never thought he'd feel back into the guarded lockbox he keeps it in whenever Tommy isn't in view. With it tucked back in, safe and sound, he lets the thrill of the pursuit fill him again.
Another hum. He peels away from the door.
"Hidin' on me, birdie?"
He knows you're here. Your boots are still drying by the front door. The air still clogged with your scent. He follows it like a bloodhound until he reaches his bedroom door where he finds you on the bed. Waiting. Uncertainty clinging to you like a second skin he can't wait to peel off, run his fingers through the bloody mess until you're raw and aching; shiny new toy stripped bare just for him.
Your mouth pops open. The inside a pretty ring of pink. He thinks about it, about sinking inside that soft little hole, making you gag around the thick of him as he feeds you his cock.
Clean it up f'me, birdie
But it's clear from the way you flit nervously on the comforter that he'll have to work you up to that.
Slow and steady. It's not his usual approach—he's in the habit of taking what he wants. Still. He slows. Glacial. Notches his shoulder against the doorframe, staring. Waiting. Waiting—
And finally:
A shift. You tense. "Mr Riley—"
"Take your clothes off."
Your throat shifts when you swallow. "Mr—"
If you didn't want it, he reasons, you wouldn't be in his bed. Waiting for him.
"Now, birdie."
There's that pause he expects. The hesitation as you stare, searchingly (pleadingly), at him, trying to take a measurement of just how serious he is about this. But he knows he gives nothing away. Just stares with streaks of dirt on his brow, washed down by thick trickles of sweat. Eyes lazy, lidded. Mouth flat. Even.
You demure after a moment. Hands falling shakily to the hem of your sweater, curling beneath the fabric. Gaze downcast, staring wide-eyed at the curve of your jean-clad knees. Bemused, maybe, that it got this far. That you let it get this far.
He doesn't give you time to think about it. Cocks his head to the side, puffs out an impatient breath. "Hurry up. Ain't got much time before my wife comes back."
It's a low blow. He feels it skim his knuckles, a sucker-punch.
You suck in a sharp breath. He wonders if you'll make things difficult now. Fight back. This isn't right. What you're doing to me isn't right. We should stop, Mr Riley—
Instead, you peel the sweater off.
It's artless. Clumsy. Each movement wracked with nerves, uncertainty. There's no coyness to the action. It's not even sexy, or coquettish; nothing about it is done to entice, to seduce. This is an action completed twice a day, every day. Routine. It's mundane, perfunctory.
And yet—
"Fuckin' hell, birdie—"
Something about the latent unwillingness of it all chokes the air from his lungs.
Cock thick in his trousers, throbbing like a wound, he steps into the bedroom, making his way towards you in nothing short of a prowl. It's been building up since you first appeared at his doorstep, eyes wide and bright and scooped Tommy up into your arms until he squealed with laughter.
"I got him," you chirped when he reached out reflexively, dancing artlessly out of the way of his snatching claws. "Don't worry. He's fine with me."
This is your fault, of course. For looking the way that you do. For burrowing under his skin like a parasite. A festering itch. Being close to you always felt like a toothache. Dry socket. Something that made his head split.
"On the bed, birdie," he grunts, hands falling to his belt with a urgency he hasn't felt since he was a clumsy, knobby-kneed teenager. "An' spread your legs f'me."
You give a startled gasp that makes his cock throb, and he groans low in his throat at the waxen look in your eye, the slight quiver to your lip. You look queasy—torn between disgust and fear, eyes slipping to the scarred hands that yank hard on his zipper, cup the bulge that splits through the spread seam, dirty fingers gripping himself tight—and he has to roll his head back to keep from snapping at you to roll over.
A noise does spill out—an impatient rumble gnashing between jagged teeth—when you sit there, bared from the waist up, and watch him with wide eyes. Making no move to show him that pretty pussy he cupped in his palm before. That soft, wet heat in his hand that felt too delicate, too sweet, to be touched with his dirty fingers. Something that rankled down his spine, buzzed in the back of his head when he pulled them free—stained, nails blackened with dirt, crude oil, and glistening in the low light of the kitchen.
He wants it again—on his cock this time. Wants to see that soft pussy get him all wet as he ruins it. As he peels back, sitting on his haunches, and takes in the awful mess he left you in. Poor cunt swollen and abused from from being forced to take the full, fat length of him as he bullies it inside over and over again; puffy lips all sticky with his cum. Sore and stretched and used. Raw after such a vicious pounding—
"Pants off, birdie," he bites out, yanking his jeans down beneath his aching balls. "Ain't gonna like what 'appens next if I 'ave to ask again—"
You give a startled gasp at the rough, callous growl hewing his words, and he wonders if anyone has ever spoken to you like this before. So demanding. With an edge of cruelty slithering out. Demeaning—
No. No one but him, he decides, stroking his cock as he watches you clumsily kick out of your pants, demurring in a faux show of bashfulness as your fingers skim the hem of your panties. The picture of coy shyness as you drop your chin to hide the wobble in your lower lip, the glistening wetness in your eyes as you grapple with indecision. Child's play of modesty.
A farce.
Just the mangled growl of your name is all it takes for those trembling fingers to inch into the hem of your panties, tugging them clumsily down your thighs.
He could come, he thinks, to just that. This. The bloom of fear etching across your brow, panties tangled against the knob of your knees. Unwilling to bend down and push them off the rest of the way. Scared to, maybe.
It buzzes in the back of his head. The idea of paralysing you with nothing more than a sharp bark and crook of his finger; your fear as delectable as that little sliver of skin he can see peaking out at him.
"ain't go' all night," he cuts in with only a quarter of the ice he uses on the field, and feels a deep thrum of satisfaction purr through his chest when you squeak, flinching at his rough, brassy tone.
Your panties fall to the floor in a rumpled pile between your feet, toes curling into the carpet as you try to close your knees as tightly together as you can get them to hide yourself from his heavy-lidded gaze. A last play at modesty. Gaze inward, nervous. A skittish little rabbit with nowhere else to run.
The way you stand before him on shaking knees, trembling like a leaf, makes him want to sink his teeth into you and shake. Little virginal offering to a rapacious god. A feast all for himself. He wants to chew you up. Eat you alive.
But he opts, instead, to bite his tongue until he tastes blood, and bark at you to get on the bed as it oozes between his teeth. Feels something animal split open inside his chest when your eyes widen as he steps into the room, a slow pursuit, a prowl, and has to bite down on the urge to give chase when you flinch, backing away from him quickly. Naked and scared. Running from him with a nervous tremor, but he doesn't miss the way you make, quietly, for his bed.
Eager. Obedient. Fleeing from him like a scared little animal unaware of just how enticing you are.
"Good girl, birdie."
It takes three fingers to open you up, but even that doesn't feel like it's enough.
Not when he knocks your knees apart, wedging his too big, too thick body between them (and then stares, and stares, and stares at your bare cunt, slick and sticky from his hand; flesh left swollen from the brutal spear of three thick, dirty fingers shoving inside—less of a stretch and more a carve: he carved you open) and spits.
You weren't expecting it. Nothing could have prepared you for the suddenness of this degrading act—the nasty, demeaning way he spits on your pussy, and huffs, amused, when the foamy mess slides down your swollen clit to pool between your folds. His finger chases it, rubbing it into your skin, pushing it into your hole.
Ain't got lube, he says, words bordering on a strange equinox of bluntly nonchalant and utterly caustic. Should be thankful m'doin' this much.
Thankful.
Your fingers curl into the sheets, and you try not look at his cock again when he grips himself tight in his big, dirty hand.
He's too big. Too fat. It makes you a little nauseous to stare at it, him—his cock. Marbled like a bruise. Thicker at the base. Veiny. The head is swollen. The tip is soaked in a thick, paste-like spill of precum, and for a horrible second, you almost thought he would make you lick it off.
(later fills the empty space in your head, and you try to mould yourself around the idea until you can decide whether or not the feeling that blooms in the pit of your belly is really dread.)
His hands were rough. Scarred. Dirty. Caked in oil. Stained. He didn't even bother to clean up before he lumbered onto the sheets behind you, one hand falling to grip his cock through his dusty pants, the other heavy on your neck, pushing you down into the mattress that reeks of fabric softener and stale cigarette smoke. Old sweat.
He doesn't need to tell you that she doesn't sleep in this bed anymore, but the idea of it prickles in the back of your head as he pushes you against the sheets and undoes his jeans with an ease that's more muscle memory than thought. Practiced.
You don't have the right to be jealous, but it hums through you like a sickness when you think of him doing this to her. His wife, you add, just to make it hurt. A knife in your gut that aches when you breathe—
"keep breathin', birdie," he grunts, spreading his fingers wide apart inside of you. "Don't get all tense on me now, or I'll have to start over."
You're not sure what that means, but you think you know better than to test his tenuous patience anymore than you have, and so you still. Go quiet. Breathe as he spears you deep, deeper still, and carves a space for that monstrous looking cock to fit—
where it belongs, he'd said, hunched over you like a nightmare in the daytime. All shadow and sinew. Stitched from broken daydreams of a brassy voice in your ear murmuring soon, birdie as his wife pretended to pack a lunch in the kitchen and he rubbed your nipple through your shirt before he slipped off to work.
But it's over too soon. His dirty, stained fingers slipping free from your aching, sopping cunt, leaving you empty—bereft—for a moment as he shuffles up the bed, splitting your knees wide apart to make room for the asburd width of him to fit.
An impossibility, really, but as Mr Riley—call me Simon—is wont to do, he makes it so. Wedges his wide thighs beneath yours until your hips tilt up in his lap, opening you wide. Obscenely so. And—
A grunt.
He stared. And stared. And stared.
Just looked at the split of your cunt sitting invitingly in his lap, wet and messy from his fingers, the cruel push of his palm against your clit. Swollen. Aching already—
"Want it, huh, birdie?"
The words I'm not so sure anymore hitch in the back of your throat, rearing up as he reaches between your legs to grip himself tight, too tight, until he turns a sickly shade of purple around the head that looks wider than anything you'd ever had inside of you before. But he doesn't give you a second to think before notching himself against you, giving a little push that forces the swollen head to sink inside of you—
Just the tip, really, and it already hurts. Stings like a papercut as he stretches your cunt around him, sharp and sudden.
"Too big—" you whimper, tossing your head to the side, breathing in the tang of fresh linen and musk as he grunts above you, pushing and pushing—
Something has to give.
It doesn't surprise you much when it ends up being you.
"Tha's it, birdie. Open up f'me."
It's not so much an opening as it is a siege. A conquest. And with him perched above you, heaving like bull and bathed in shadows that glue alone the mismatched asymmetry of his face, making him look less like a man and more like a figment, a statue—this Stygian being that swoops down and presses his palm against your throat, the other digging into the pillow beside your head, grunting—you feel ever bit of the battered receptacle he turns you into.
Forcing himself into you with a rough grunt, a brutal shove that—for one dizzying, awful moment—you swear you can feel inside your throat, taste on the back of your tongue. Choking on it. But then he's sinking in. Splitting you apart with brute force and that little bit of slick that you know must be stained pink—
"Good girl," he's grunting again, shoving another inch into a space much too small for him to fit. Savouring it. Relishing in the whimpers, the hiccups punched out of you with every flex of his hips. Eyes rolling a little, just a touch, when you feel something warm tickling your cheek and realise you're crying. Shush, birdie, he says, a quiet coo, but he looked delighted. Don't cry. Not yet—
another flex. two more inches. it feels like being speared open; flayed alive. it hurts. it hurts so much, you can't even begin to think through the pain, but he's huffing. groaning low in his throat as he adds:
"—'cause m'not even halfway in yet, pup."
The admission shocks you so much, you barely notice him spreading his knees beneath yours, squaring his stance, until it's too late.
"Wait—!"
If it weren't for his hand tightening around your throat before he speared the last several inches into you, you're sure the wail you might have let out would have woken Tommy. A good thing, you think, dazed, still soundlessly howling around the burning ache of him using his absurd weight to drive into you (balls deep, birdie, he grunts, and sounds so ridiculously proud, you nearly preen—), making you take every last inch. Selfishly carving more space for himself inside of you. Hollowing you out until his whole cock is drenched in your pink-stained slick—
"Makin' me all pretty, aren't you?" Huh, birdie? Nice and fuckin' pink.
A sob bubbles up beneath his palm, and he coos when he feels it, shushing you with a groan as he keeps an awful rhythm, flexing into you. Grinding deep. Carving and cutting and hollowing you out—
"Tha's it, pup," he grunts, eyes masting in leonine pleasure as he bucks into you without respite, taking his bliss from the burning stretch of your cunt. And stupidly, you think about preening. Smiling wide and big and lying to yourself about how bad you want this, him, even as the tears dribble down your chin.
Siphoned satisfaction, maybe. Or just the press of his fingers against that little thing inside of you that made you turn your cheek to his touches. Letting a married man shove his hands down your pants while you made breakfast for his kid and his wife called out to him from the next room about not waiting up for her too late.
Giving in.
That's what this feels like. A slow corrosion from the moment you knocked on his door and said you were here to help him with Tommy to now, buried under his bulk as he batters into your aching cunt, splitting you apart.
Sweat drips down his nape, pours off his face, and when it hits your skin, it feels like battery acid against your cheeks. But with his hand still lodged around your neck, there isn't much you can do except take it. Like his cock, his spit, his sweat. Let him ply you with all of it, every inch, until your body becomes accustomed to the ache.
"Fuckin' stranglin' me."
His cock hits something inside of you, and it isn't really pleasure that blooms in the pit of your belly, but something like a panacea. A wound that's soothed through touch.
Like a knife that hurts more coming out than it does stuffed inside.
But it' saws and it splits. Tears flesh. Rearranges your insides until you're wrapped tight around him, throbbing like bruise against the thick of his cock. A tight fuckin' fit, he says, and inches his fingers up to grab your cheeks. Squeezing until your mouth pops open, mewling at the deep, aching pain, and then he spits.
You don't need him to tell you what to do this time. You just close your mouth and swallow what he gives you, whimpering around the sudden ruck of his hips, a harsh jerk that slides his cockhead against the seal of your womb, dredging up a wave of pain that's soothed by the kiss of that fattened tip pressing against the sting once more. Soothed by touch. By the flood of endorphins.
Fitting, you suppose, since it feels a little bit like being eaten alive when he fucks you, grunting and snarling like a beast as he pounds into you, half-mad and starved, and you remember reading somewhere that people rarely experience any pain when they're bitten by a shark.
An oddly serene experience, out of body almost, as they're taken apart by razor-sharp teeth.
That's how you feel looking up at him, feeling the drip, drip, drip of his sweat splat on your cheeks. Warm, milky breath ghosting over your forehead. A barely there kiss when he bends down, growling into your hairline that he's gonna fill you up, pup; that Tommy's been begging for a little brother, 'asn't he? and ain't it time we gave 'im one?
You think no and don't. please don't, please, but your hands stayed curled into the duvet instead of reaching up to push him away. Knees dropping further apart as he bends down with a brassy grunt that you feel in your belly, between your hips, like molten lead. A pulsing flutter—sore muscles gripping tighter and tighter as he grunts again, and tells you to keep opening that pretty cunt up for him, birdie. Let him get even deeper.
The collar of his shirt dips low, unveiling a mass of moulted flesh suffused together in a pink ribbon array of crisscrossing scar tissue and burns. It's an odd time to notice that he hasn't bothered to undress, just shoved his jeans down his thighs and pulled his—monstrous, ugly—cock out, and forced it into you. But you do. And you feel it so acutely in your chest that even without his hand on your throat, you doubt you'd have been able to breathe. It just—
It says something, you think. Means something.
And maybe it hits you like a fist, too. A bludgeon to that little thing in the back of your head that keeps reminding you this isn't okay. That you're not supposed to be in this bed, with this man.
Marital vows, it says, all wrapped up in the scent of stale sweat and detergent. A whisper of Candy Kiss peppering the room when you arrive; a sweet sillage that tickles your nose whenever he leans down, cupping your breast in the palm of his hand. The flash of metal sitting snug on his thick ring finger. Cold and dry against your damp skin.
It crumbles under the sway of his big, thick body sawing away between your hips; turns to dust, dissolving into soot as the growls spilling out his chest tremble through your bones. The ring doesn't matter. It never did.
Not when he's decorating the space he hollowed out inside of you with these dizzying daydreams—weaving a damning tapestry with fingers bleeding from cuts made by the knife of his own artifice. Staining it red.
Pretty pink.
And eventually the ring warms between his hand and your heated skin until you can't tell the difference between metal and flesh.
(but in the smeared residuum of ash and rust, something stirs, asks if you ever really could at all—)
"Gonna make me a dad again, ain't you, pup?" Huh? He growls, rough and mean. Gonna have t'start callin' me daddy soon—
You're not sure when it started building, but the edge is suddenly there. Within reach. And he tells you in rasping groans that he feels it too. Gonna cum, biride, he says, and it sounds like a threat. A warning. It's a razor scraping against your nerves, pooling heat between your hips.
No, you think again, but your hips roll as much as they can with him bearing down above you, cradled between your slick, damp thighs—roughened up, chafed by the repeated scrape of denim. Eager for it. Hungry. Like you're starving.
And what did he say before? Oh, yeah—
Oh, I'll eat, birdie.
You feel that gnawing, gaping emptiness in your belly as he huffs, breath sticky and warm, glueing to your skin as he pants his desire over your flesh, inside your body. Pace stuttering on his next exhale, morphing into a choppy, clumsy grind—just the desperate, furious graze of his cockhead digging into that bruised, tender spot inside of you where pleasure and pain suture themselves together until one is almost indistinguishable from the other. Fear and desire warping around the edges until you're trembling from the urge to flee, but bearing your neck at the vicious spread of teeth gaping open above your caught jugular.
Simon presses his face against the side of yours, smearing sweat and spit over your heated, damp skin from where a cut in his upper lip leaves his teeth in a constant snarl, bared to the world in a vicious, brutal display of aggression, and the nudge of it against the softened, ripe apple of your cheek is what sends you over the edge before you're ready.
It's mean. A nasty, ugly climax that throbs more like a wound than a satisfying end; pulsing and spitting fire as you yowl into the bubble bulging along his ear, clawing at the duvet, and bringing your other hand up to twist into the wet fabric clinging to his broad back. Needing to hold on. To find purchase as he grunts into your skin with each brutal plunge of his hips, and then sinks his teeth into your pulse, drawing blood—
You're still clenching around him, throbbing like an infected wound, when he lifts his pinked up muzzle, bearing his crooked, bloodied teeth, and grunts with his release. Filling you with a burning, stinging heat. Painting the tapestry he hung on chiselled flesh. A home of his own making. The apex of your being is a crevasse for him to sink his desire inside until something grows.
Tommy wants a baby brother, he'd said, and as you knot your hand tighter around his sweaty shirt, you wonder if maybe you should have paid more attention to the pills you shoved into your mouth each morning, making sure they all looked exactly the same—
"Fuck, birdie," he snarls into your neck as he throbs inside of you, cock jerking until it lodges against the battered, bruised seal of your womb—soothing the ache, you think, giving a weak pulse, a little, desperate clench around him—grunting like this is all your fault.
And maybe it is. But he doesn't give you much of a choice when he ruts into you still in rolling, feverish humps that knock your teeth together each time you unhinge your jaw to tell him to stop.
(But you won't, of course—)
His hands are hot against your clammy skin, searing and rough as he pulls you back into his chest with a grunt, mumbling something about a cigarette as you pant into the sweat-slicked nook of his arm, trying to make sense of what happens next.
You should leave. And really—you're a little surprised he hadn't kicked you out already. Shoved you off of him, told you to pack your things. He'll call when he needs you next because with this burning desire of his sated, what else does he need you in bed for?
But he tightens his grip when you try to wiggle away from him with a salt-crusted, sleep-drenched noise of dissent.
He isn't done with you, he mumbles, pawing at the end table for the carton of cigarettes he left there this morning. Blue Zippo still tucked neatly inside.
It's something you'd noticed during the first week when you opened a drawer looking for Tommy's iPad charger and found his hidden stash—along with the rest. Little clues that piled up until the pieces fell, and you realised this was a strange, habitual thing of his where he needs to leave things lying around the house—a carton of cigarettes with a lighter; a duffle bag full of clothes for him and Tommy. Non-perishable food stuffed inside a rucksack. Cash. Knives. All within reach.
Most people live in their homes. Clothes in the drawers. Shoes on a rack or piled by the front food. Food in the cabinets. They carry their smokes with them or keep them in a convenient place for whenever they need them next. But Simon seems keen to uproot himself at a moment's notice. Bags within reach. Necessities all packed by the front door, ready to go. Each room has a satchel hidden somewhere. A carton of smokes. A lighter.
It means something, you're sure. Nestled between the layers of a restless, caged tiger circling its iron-barred domicile for the first chance at escape is a travesty written in spoiled ink. Chiselled into the bars, imprinted there like braille for you to run your fingers over until pockmarks make sense.
Like why Candy Kiss is left on the vanity, sitting atop a drawerful of untouched clothes. The smell of fresh linen. Pilates on a weekly basis. Don't wait up peppering the air; a soft echo cradled in the harsh snap of a door closing. Eyes barely blinking away from the flashing screen.
Or—why your clothes disappear each time you do the laundry. Lace panties and satin bras first—an almost banal perversion that barely made a gurn at. Then tights. Sweaters. Shirts. Jeans. All missing with a nonchalant shrug of a massive shoulder, and a stare that didn't much pin as it skewered. Flayed. A flat, even dunno, birdie. Maybe the ghost knicked it.
Tightly wound artifice you'll never make sense of beyond the bags and the cigarettes. The stares that make the hair on your neck stand on end—
"Fuckin' hell, pup," he grunts suddenly, pinching the cigarette between his thumb and forefinger as the other slides down your curved spine, grabbing a handful of your asscheek in his palm, giving a vicious, painful squeeze. "Can feel your little cunt leakin' all over my leg—"
He slips the filter between his teeth with an appreciative hum when you jerk, a mocking huff spilling out when you try to clamp your legs shut around the thick split of his hip wedged between them. You can feel it, too—the thick, sticky ooze of him leaking out of your sore cunt, smearing pink-tinged cum all over his jeans. He hadn't let you get up after rolling off of you—just barked at you to leave it. Keep it, birdie. Gotta take, don't it?
A barb you hadn't said anything to, opting to ignore that, like everything else he does. Did.
Will do because you can tell, even beneath all those hidden layers, that this isn't a one-time thing. No. This isn't just a man stuck in a bad marriage fucking the nanny because he can. It's deeper. Worse, somehow, than a gross older man with a fetish for younger women he can financially control. Another pervert slaking his lust on whatever artless little thing falls into his web.
No. No—
This is missing clothes stuffed inside bags kept around the house. Pills that leave a strange aftertaste on your tongue of something a shade too sweet—
You think about running. Slipping out of his hands, this bed that reeks of stale sweat and sex, putting on your clothes, and leaving this house. Burying yourself in debt again, schoolwork, and limping (with your tail between your aching thighs) back to your landlord. Never looking twice at an ad for a babysitter in your life.
—and maybe spend your whole life wondering why people mix wolves and dogs to create something that never truly feels at home in the patchwork skin it wears; pieces of ancestors it can't relate to;
But you don't.
(—you never do.)
You lie there and take it. Like the leers he aimed at you when you first showed up on his doorstep, reeking of financial desperation and swallowed down the litany of things he said to you under his breath with a wobbly grin and your eyes fixed on the tile, convincing yourself it would pass. That you were more than just a pretty face he couldn't wait to cover in his cum. A soft ass he wanted to sink his teeth into before getting his cock in there next. Tight little pussy he was so eager to break in. Pantin' like a bitch in heat, ain't you, pup? can hear you gaggin' for it a mile away—
Biting your lip so hard it bled. Blood between your teeth. Your hands curling into the coarse, starchy fabric of his work shirt when he leaned down, permanent snarl on his face from the manmade cleftlip, and reached down to grab a handful of it. Testin' the merchandise, he cooed, low and mean and ugly. Words wrapped up tight in barbed wire. Brassbound. Said nothing as he pinched your nipples through your shirt, or when he shoved his hand beneath the hem and groaned at how soft you were.
Dirty hands leaving stains all over your skin you couldn't see, but felt like a fresh, weeping tattoo. Pulsing with infection.
(Such a needy little thing he trusts with his son while his wife is gettin' railed by 'er Pilates instructor, huh? But that's fine, ain't it? Need another one, anyway. A better influence for Tommy. Someone who'll give him that little brother he's been buggin' for—)
And so, you slacken your jaw when he grunts, barking at you to open up. Say nothing when he drags his hand back up your body to grip your jaw tight in his palm, squeezing your cheeks until they pop open. Let him spit in your mouth, and swallow down the foul, stale tobacco taste of him on your tongue.
Nod, like an obedient little pup, when he says good, ain't it? and let him roll you onto your back again, wrenching your thighs apart so he can see for himself the mess he made. The one you let spill all over his jeans.
Good ones, too, he huffs, eyelids slicing over the jaded edge of obsidian into a derisive pantomime of a contented cat squinting to show affection. Half-mast in pleasure as he says he'll wear them again tomorrow an' let all the boys see what a mess you make of me—
His gaze drills into the wet, slick seam of your puffy, bruised cunt, grip tightening—vicious, possessive—until his blunt nails sink into your skin. Branding. Bruising. His fingers clench down until it almost feels like he'll break through muscle to touch bone, but just when it starts to really hurt, pushing past that strange equinoctial point where pleasure and pain wrap around each other on a razor's edge, he peels back with a grunt. Leans over you to spit in your mouth again, a wet, foamy glob that hits your bottom lip before it oozes into your mouth, tasting of stale smoke and bitter tobacco. A flavour that reeks of permanence, and smells of an incipient wolfpack—all animal musk and wildness brimming up against stale sweat, laundry detergent, cigarette smoke, and sex.
Cruel, almost, like the gurns etched into his face by the missing chunk of flesh on his upper lip. Snarled and deadly. Mocking in a certain light. Like a constant sneer. Derisive and dangerous.
But not nearly as terrifying when he lists forward, dropping down to catch your jaw in his hand, the other planting itself in musty pillow beside your head, caging you in, and says:
"—and now you're makin' me a daddy again, birdie."
There's a taste in the back of your throat that's much too sweet for the dirty, oil-stained fingers he slips between your slack lips, scratching over your tongue. It reminds you of a spoonful of sugar. Grape-flavoured medicine poured over the top. And you wonder how quickly the pills you have been taking would dissolve in water when you sprinkled the white granules down the drain.
Something else you won't mention even as this house he burrowed inside changes shape—clothes in drawers, bags in the closet; the lingering scent of Candy Kiss a spoiled, stale sillage hidden under the smell of newborn and warm milk. Crushed animal crackers and Nicorette. The sound of a gaping, newly formed maw yowling for attention clashing sharply against the exaggerated screams of a grown man howling about a video game on Tommy's iPad.
thanks for hiring me and don't worry, Mr Riley, I can manage him morphing into a new sound, a continual echo of welcome home, and she called again asking about custody, daddy.
Something that throbs like a fresh wound before knitting itself together again into a thin, pink line; skin all shiny and new. Pulsing with the echoes of everything you dipped your chin again, mumbling around the malformed words of please, and don't, and now,
don't stop, please don't stop
What else are you supposed to do, really, other than lettingnhim slake the remnants of his lust between your sore, slick-stained thighs until he grunts, coming inside of you again to the damning symphony of a creaking bed, heels against the floorboards, and the sizzle of a cigarette burning away in an ashtray.
"Wait—" swallowed down by a mangled mouth. A hooked, crooked nose slides along your sweaty cheek as he all but purrs in satisfaction.
All his, he says.
And you don't fight it even as the blood pools between your teeth because you knew that from the start.
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rosemaryhoney27 · 29 days ago
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Cat Conspiracy
The Cat Conspiracy
Damian Wayne had tracked assassins across continents, dismantled crime syndicates before breakfast, and fought rogue AI while still managing to ace his Latin homework.
But nothing—nothing—had prepared him for Danny Fenton.
Specifically, Danny Fenton and his suspicious pattern of visiting pet stores all over Gotham, emerging each time with an armful of cats.
Damian narrowed his eyes from the rooftop across the street as Danny exited The Purring Palace with five cats in various shades of tabby draped across his arms, a smug little smile on his face.
Damian’s voice was a low growl in the comms. “Grayson. I’ve got eyes on Fenton again. He’s acquired more felines. That’s the third pet store this week. Something is afoot.”
Across the city, Dick let out an exaggerated groan. “Maybe he just likes cats?”
“No one likes cats that much. Not without a nefarious purpose,” Damian replied, dead serious.
“Damian, buddy, you live with eight trained attack bats and a demon dog. Let the kid have some cats.”
“I will not rest until I uncover his scheme.”
Meanwhile, Danny Fenton was indeed up to something.
He wasn't robbing banks or raising a ghost army or even stealing Gotham's supply of tuna fish. His plan was, in fact, adorably petty.
“Here you go, Mr. Meowser,” he whispered as he tucked the newest stray into a box carefully prepared with toys, a mini litter pan, and an engraved name tag. “You’re going to love your new home. It has three fireplaces, heated floors, and a man who pretends to hate you but secretly buys you imported kibble.”
He grinned as the box closed.
Operation: Furry Revenge was going purrfectly.
After all, if Vlad Masters—billionaire fruit loop, obsessed with power, and frequent thorn in Danny’s ghostly side—was too busy dealing with the ever-growing clowder of feline freeloaders mysteriously showing up at his mansion, then he’d have zero time for evil schemes.
Better yet, Vlad hadn’t sent a ghost assassin after him in weeks. The last thing he’d screamed over the phone was, “Daniel, I am not a cat café!”—right before the line went dead and the sound of a kitten meowing played faintly in the background.
Success.
Vlad was unraveling.
He now owned no less than thirty-two cats, each with names like “Princess Fuzzums,” “Waffle,” and “Mr. Stabby.”
They appeared out of nowhere.
Well, not nowhere. Always in tidy, clearly handmade boxes, addressed to him, complete with vet records and gourmet food recommendations.
He’d tried to be mad. He’d tried to find the source. But the cats... they purred.
One had curled up on his chest and started kneading at his robe while purring like a chainsaw, and now she had a bed on his desk and he dictated business emails around her nap schedule.
He was losing the war, and the worst part? He was starting to like it.
Damian had enough.
He dropped down from a rooftop like an avenging shadow as Danny exited yet another pet store with a fluffy ginger kitten perched on his head like a crown.
“I knew it.”
Danny screamed and nearly dropped the kitten. “What the hell?! Do you practice dramatic entrances?”
“You’ve been acquiring cats for a dark purpose,” Damian said, voice cold and accusatory. “I demand to know what you’re planning.”
Danny blinked at him. Then grinned.
“Would you believe me if I said it was a long-term plan to neutralize a billionaire supervillain through the power of feline responsibility?”
Damian stared.
Danny kept going. “I call it Operation: Claw and Order. My target now owns thirty-two cats. That’s roughly thirty-one more than he emotionally admits to loving.”
“…You’re weaponizing cats.”
“Yes,” Danny said, very proud.
Damian folded his arms. “…Interesting. I approve.”
Danny blinked. “Wait, what?”
“I would’ve used snakes, but your method is arguably more insidious. If you require assistance in continuing this campaign, I can connect you with Selina Kyle. She has... resources.”
Danny cackled. “Oh my god, is this what friendship feels like?”
“No,” Damian said immediately. “…But I’ll help deliver the next batch.”
And just like that, Gotham’s weirdest alliance was born: the half-ghost boy with a vengeance plan powered by kittens, and the Bat’s youngest, most terrifying son.
Vlad never knew what hit him.
But his cats were very well-fed.
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thebadchoicemachine · 1 year ago
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the biggest downside to moving os that my dog will no longer be able to perch on my shoulders and lick my head while i mess about on my computer
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pigeonperch · 1 year ago
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Okay eating a salad I’m more regular now
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pedgito · 4 months ago
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𝐀𝐂𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐒 | Harry Castillo x reader
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summary | Five years of being his assistant and five years of failed attempts at finding love with your help, but maybe the obvious answer has been there the entire time. Alternatively, you fucked your boss? Uh-oh.
author's note | harry...randy...who knows. i'll change it if needed but given the name tag, this is what i'm sticking with for now. skip the lecture about not writing until the movie is out, this isn't hurting anyone so don't bother me about it, xo. the horny demons always win. i listened to this song i repeat while i wrote, felt fitting.
content warning | 18+ MDNI, power imbalance (boss/assistant), work wife/work husband type beat, mentions of failed dating, being superficial, mentions of sugar daddy things, expensive gifts, reader is a godly assistant with a will stronger than mine, he smokes, they drink, sex while inebriated, he's down so bad, also oral!, tense morning after, open-ended
word count — 4.5k
You knew him better than anyone.
From his breakfast order down to his specific choice of underwear, like you weren’t making the weekly purchases and filling up his rarely used fridge in the apartment that was way out your price range, arranging his schedule down to the minute, booking his flights, packing his bag.
Really, Harry should just marry you.
…it was more of a joke, but you’ve teased him about it once or twice.
He called you his work wife anyways, but in reality, you were just his assistant.
He did trust you with his life, though.
More importantly, his love life.
“Kim flaked,” he tells you over coffee, perched at his kitchen island as you typed away on your laptop, looking up briefly with eyes that begged for him to explain, he does and makes a show about, mimicking a more feminine voice as he relays the message she gave him, “same song and dance—you’re great and fun but I can’t do anything serious right now,”
“Were you nice?” you ask curiously.
Harry rolls his eyes at that, like it was a stupid question to ask. But, eventually he nods.
“Did you ask questions?” you continue, fingers folding over the screen of your laptop to close it.
“Plenty, she works in finance, loves the color blue, wants to travel,” he could go on and on, throwing his hands up in defeat before they slump to his side, “maybe I should try out a real matchmaker—not that you’re bad at it—”
“You think I’m bad at it,” you smile knowingly, “don’t you?”
“No,” you’re unconvinced, “besides—you’re my assistant, I never meant for that type of responsibility to fall on you, you know?”
“I’m doing both of us a favor,” you remind him, “I think…it just takes time.”
And fortunately, all you had was time.
It felt pointless for Harry to spend a chunk of cash to have someone pair him up with the supposed love of his life, though you knew that money wasn’t a problem, you felt a weird responsibility to protect him, unsure how quickly someone would take advantage of his kindness.
“There’s a gala,” you tell him offhandedly, “next week. I already cleared your schedule for it. I think…maybe you should just peruse this time.”
“Peruse?” he chuckles, eyes creasing in amusement, his crow’s feet deepening with the emotion, “You’re a control freak, you sure about that?”
“That’s just mean,” you retort, “you’re paying me anyways—if you didn’t like it you’d fire me.”
He knew you were right, sipping quietly at his coffee in response.
He was frustrating, predictable, and painfully superficial. 
Every date was an exercise in appearances—perfectly tailored suits, dinner at the most exclusive places, charm turned up to eleven. And yet, none of it ever stuck. He was overcompensating and you weren’t sure why.
He was a good guy, down to his core, and in the five years you had worked with him there was never a moment you thought he didn’t deserve love, he was perfect. Too perfect.
That was the problem.
“You know, you’re like prime age to be a sugar daddy,” you tease him, knowing how he felt about the topic, “there’s plenty of apps that I can—”
“You’re relentless,” he grumbles, “if you ever did that, I’m firing you on the spot.”
“You wouldn’t,” it was a gentle challenge, smirk flashing across your face as he returned it with fondness, “without me you would crash and burn, Mr. Castillo.”
And he knows it.
The gala is a bust.
So, as a bandaid to his wounded ego, you order takeout and keep him company in his big, lavish apartment—it wasn’t the first time, it wouldn’t be the last.
You knew what the issue was, but there was a sinking feeling in your stomach that told you he wouldn’t receive the information well.
It was after every failed date, every expensive dinner.
They saw him at the surface, the charming man with an easy, warm smile.
You saw the man who kicked his shoes off and stripped himself of his suit jacket the second he walked through the door, who couldn’t resist a late-night binge of his newest streaming obsession, someone who insisted on stirring his coffee counterclockwise because it made it taste better, a man would text you pictures of squirrels in the park that he would feed on his way home.
It wasn’t that you were pining over him. You just knew him better than anyone.
“Why are you so dead set on marriage?” you ask him over dinner, turned toward him on the couch as he reaches for the remote to pause the show on screen.
He’s had this conversation before, but he’s never asked you any questions on the matter.
“What’s your opinion on it?” he’s avoiding, clearly, but you’ll bite.
“I don’t date, I’m not interested, signing a piece of paper isn’t going to signify my feelings toward someone if it came down to that,” you admit, “I’m not cynical, marriage is fine, but this stuff takes time,”
“Well, I’m not getting any younger,” Harry gripes, arms reaching over the back of the couch as he mirrors your position.
“Oh, please,” you scoff, “you’re forty-nine.”
“Almost fifty,” he corrects, “I’m ancient.”
“O-kay,” you sigh, “do you want honesty?”
“I’d hope you were being honest with me all the time.”
“No,” you laugh softly, “like…brutal fucking honesty?”
He’s silent, but attentive. 
“You keep choosing women who treat you like they’re next getaway vacation and you fall for it every time,” his forehead creases at the words, looking hurt by your words, “I see your bank payments every month, the activity—”
“It’s not like money is an issue,” he defends, causing you to sigh dramatically and fall back against the arm of the couch in faux distress.
“This is impossible,” you groan, staring up at the ceiling before you feel his hand circle around your wrist, tugging gently,
“Okay, I’m listening,” Harry says softly, pulling you upright, “I’m sorry—I am.”
“You want it to work so bad,” you tell him, “I see it—every time you approach someone you put on that smile and it works, but you’re giving so much and yeah, maybe some of them like that, but I’m sure a few would just enjoy a nice dinner here, or something simple. I think you forget to realize that someone can just be interested in you, for you, not for what you are or have,”
It’s profound, the way his face softens at your words, his touch still lingering around your wrist.
You’ve never even considered or entertained the idea that you might find Harry attractive or even attainable—for one, you had signed a contract that agreed to a professional work relationship, as a benefit for both of you, not that he ever had any intention to begin with.
You’ve been with him for so long, it feels, a fresh and young mind to help keep him active and busy, constantly refreshing ideas and helping him not feel like he was stuck, and you were damn good at taking care of him when he’s often tended to neglect himself.
The only thing you know is that he’s never looked at you like that.
Like you could see straight through him, all his flaws on display.
But, that was because you knew all of them.
You knew everything about him, even the worse bits.
His bad habits, his self-inflicting ones, everything that he refused to bring to the surface.
Harry’s fingers still lingered around your wrist, the weight of your words sinking in. 
But then, just like he always did, he broke the tension with a huff of laughter and frowns as he brushed you off.
“You just think I’m a sucker, don’t you?”
You shook your head with a faint smile, returning your arm to your lap.
“No—I think you like to see the good in people. So much good that you’re willing to ignore red flags.”
“Jeez,” he chuckled, clutching his stomach like you had physically wounded him, “that hurt.”
You shrugged and reached for the remote to resume the picture on screen, “You’ll survive.”
It was your day off—Sunday, the one day.
“Have you seen my cufflinks laying around?” he asked over the video call, “Shit—my tie, too. I can’t find it anywhere. I thought you said you laid it out for me.”
“No, I said I had it hung up and for you to lay it out before you showered,” you correct him, laying tiredly on your couch as you watched him search around frantically, hair damp and his bare shoulders on display, only catching the briefest glimpses of the towel around his waist as he turned the camera around, “Waitwait—go back!”
“There’s no fucking way you saw it,” Harry argues, “I’ve been looking for the last ten minutes—”
“In the pocket of your suit, the tie is there,” you tell him, “and given that you probably tossed the suit on the bed like you always do, the cufflinks are probably somewhere hiding under the blanket,”
He tosses you against the mattress, your screen succumbing to darkness as you wait, some shifting of the sheets before you hear him make a sound before he appears again, cufflinks pinched between his fingers and a look of defeat on his face.
“What would you do without me?” you ask with a cocky grin, finger hovering over the end call button as he shakes his head.
“What was this for again?” Harry asks curiously, laying you down upright as you caught a glimpse of his bare chest as he shrugged the crisp, white button down over his shoulders.
“It’s a charity auction, your favorite,” you chirp, “and you’re flying solo, so—don’t do anything stupid or…crass,”
“If I paid you double a day of work would you go?” Harry asks after a long pause, glancing down at the screen, “Triple?”
“Triple?!” you gawk, “see—you’re insane, this is what I’m talking about,”
He chuckles despite your response, “You’re good at keeping the sharks away,”
There were particular hawking businessmen who made it their mission to hunt Harry down at events and keep him occupied, eager to do business, whatever it may be—you were the unspoken master of redirection, as much as he refused to admit it.
“Can we grab dinner on the way?” 
“Burgers?” Harry asks, perking up slightly.
It was a constant go-to for you and him.
You nod through the screen, “Don’t even bother with the tie either, I’ll do it.”
“I can’t believe you roped me into this on my day off,” you whisper at his side, earning a half-smirk from him.
The charity auction was as lavish as you’d expected.
Crystal chandeliers, gold accents, and far too much champagne and hors d'oeuvres. 
Harry’s hand found the small of your back the moment you arrived, steering you through a sea of designer gowns and tuxedos, feeling uncomfortable in the tight dress and stilettos that you only wore on rare occasions, biting at your heels.
“You’ll survive,” he grins, grabbing you both a glass of champagne and pressing it into your waiting fingers, “I’m gonna…peruse, alright?”
“Don’t say it—that just makes you sound like a creep,” your face scrunches up in disgust as you sip at the alcohol, “just go—go, I’ll…handle everything else.”
The evening passed in a blur of small talk and polite smiles, but somewhere between the endless speeches and bidding wars, you found yourself on the balcony, the cool night air a welcome relief in the stuffy ballroom.
You smell him before you see him, the thick and rich scent of his cologne so familiar you swear you could find him on that alone, turning over your shoulder to see him closing the door quietly, cigarette pack tucked in his palm as he approached with a neutral expression.
“You okay?” you ask, leaning against the railing of the balcony.
Harry sighed, rubbing the back of his neck and then plucking a single cigarette from the box, “Honestly? I’m just tired of it.”
“The auctions? Charity?” you inquire, a small smile tugging at your face.
“All of it.” He looked at you, his gaze lingering as he lit the tobacco, “The events, the dates, searching for—I don’t even fucking know at this point,”
“The offer stands…” you say jokingly, though he knows exactly where this is heading.
“If I wanted a sugar baby I’d find one.”
Your eyes roam over his figure as he puffs at the cigarette, pulling a deep laugh from his chest before you’re pushing him away playfully.
“Let’s go,” he tells you with a deep sigh, stubbing out the end of the cigarette and tucking it away for later, tossing his arm over your shoulder as he readied to guide you through the crowd, always protective in spaces like this, another thing that was special to him.
The ride home is quiet, like it always is, both of you sitting in the backseat with the partition up, watching as he looked through his phone with a scowl, occasional typing and sending a message.
Eventually, he looks at you.
“Thank you,” He says with a soft tone, “I know this isn’t your favorite thing to do.”
You tilted your head into the headrest and smiled, crossing one thigh over the other as you worked at your heels to remove them, “Oh, it wasn’t that bad—the free alcohol is always a plus.”
He chuckled at that, silently helping you remove your shoes with a soft squeeze to your foot.
That was normal—but, it forces you to pause.
His natural instinct to help, to touch, to comfort you.
Your brow furrows at the gesture before you shake it away, blaming it on the buzz of alcohol in your system, watching as he continues the gesture with the other foot.
“Having you there makes it bearable, is all,” he explains, looking up at you briefly as he undid the tie around your ankle, “you…calm me, I guess.”
You swallowed. Hard.
The warmth of his words lingering in your chest, in his touch against your ankle, “You’d do the same for me.”
And he would—if you ever needed anything, anything, Harry was there.
“Yeah,” he agreed quietly, “without question.”
The sincerity caught you off guard. 
You turned to study him, the familiar slope of his nose, the line of his jaw. There was something about the way he looked tonight—tired, maybe, but softer. 
And he keeps looking at you, checking.
The car moved smoothly through the dimly lit streets, the city blurring past in streaks of gold and blues and reds. The hum of the engine was steady, the faint sound of music barely audible from the front, through the glass, the back lit up dimly by the trim of lights on the roof and door.
Harry leaned back, one hand moved against the seat, his other hand dragging slowly over his thigh—restless. 
Instinctually, without thinking, you reached for his hand.
It wasn’t purposeful. Just a simple act of absentmindedness.
You’ve done it a hundred times before. 
Tugged at his sleeves to fix his cufflinks, brushed lint from his lapel or pants, adjusted the collar of his shirts. Constantly fixed his hair, touching him wasn’t new.
His skin was warm. Not hot, not cold.
You felt the slight twitch of his hand, like he was debating whether to move. Instead, his fingers shifted, just a fraction, enough that the edge of his thumbnail brushed over the inside of your wrist.
The contact was thoughtless, nothing.
But, in the same moment, it felt like everything.
The way his eyes watched the movement, roamed your body like they had before but with a different implication, his eyes half-lidded and relaxed, wondering how much alcohol he had consumed himself—this wasn’t friendly.
And it definitely wasn’t professional.
Harry’s gaze was on you now, your face, as you couldn’t tear your eyes away from his hand.
Then his thumb moved. 
Up. 
Barely. 
A soft drag along your pulse.
It was half a decade of avoidance, defeat in his heart and mind, and fear in your own.
Broken, by the car rolling to a stop outside of Harry’s apartment building.
“We’re here, Mr. Castillo,” the voice of the driver came from the front, a nod of acknowledgement as his hand slipped from yours.
“Oh, hold on,” you were scooting aside to let him out, readied for the next stop as he cocks his head toward the building, “I’ve got something for you—I’ll drive you home, don’t worry,”
“Harry,” you stress, looking down at his hand that waves you toward him, extending out for you to grab, insistently as his fingers wiggle in wait.
Turns out, he wasn’t totally lying.
That something was accompanied by a seven thousand dollar bottle of Leroz Aux Brulees—you knew that because you had purchased it during his trip to France, the supposed city of love.
“I’m going to murder you,” you tell him as he places the bottle on the counter and keeps the closed case of mystery at his side, “hide your body, flee country—I hate surprises, you know that.”
“I think you’ll like this one,” he grins, popping the cork on the bottle and pouring two hefty glasses, eyeing the deep red as it glugged into the glass.
“You know, if you wanted company you could have just asked,” you tell him, “I get it, you’re lonely,”
He knows you’re only teasing but it stings nonetheless, both of you taking a long and heavy sip as his fingers swirl over the velvet casing before he’s pushing it over quickly, tapping it with his fingers, “Open it,” he encourages, eyeing you over the rim.
You place your glass down and pry it open slowly, carefully, like you were deconstructing a bomb, but as the piece inside comes into view you find yourself at a loss for words or thoughts.
Your eyes are wide, staring up at him with parted lips that tingled from the lingering alcohol, knowing you should have cut yourself off at one glass of champagne and refused to come inside, that you should have just went home and enjoyed what little bit of the day you had left to yourself.
Now, you were looking back at a necklace so delicate you were afraid to stare at it too long, embedded with a cluster of diamonds and nearly two years of your rent if you were doing the math correctly in your mind.
Always about the numbers, Harry constantly teased.
“I saw how you looked at it the other day,” he admits, “and I owe you a hell of a lot more, but it…I’m trying to say thank you for…being you,”
“I’m not taking that,” you refuse with a laugh of disbelief, sliding back over to him gently, downing the rest of your wine in one go to forget how fast your heart was beating in your chest.
“You are,” Harry insists, “consider it a bonus—Christmas is in a couple months, too.”
“You know…this is exactly that kind of stuff a sugar da—”
Harry makes a noise, shaking his head.
You bite your lip in thought, ignoring his subtle annoyance at your comment.
It was fucking beautiful, really.
You sigh, using one finger to turn the case back toward you, examining it closely.
Quietly, Harry presses his glass into the counter and rounds the edge toward you, his chest at your shoulder as he reaches for the jewelry, working carefully at the clasp before he’s motioning for you to relax your shoulders.
It wasn’t the stillness of the moment, but his touch, again.
He’s methodical in the way he touches you, dragging his hand around your neck as he fits the necklace into place, his fingertips pressing against the column of your throat in a way that tickles slightly, shifting uncomfortably until you hear the faint click and he breathes behind you, hands resting at your shoulders.
You’re not sure why he hasn’t moved, but you find yourself turning to speak.
“I’m just going to call an uber,” you tell him, “probably shouldn’t drive since we’ve both been drinking,”
“Yeah,” he agrees, but it sounds hollow, his eyes not following you as you move.
You hop from the chair and bend down to grab your shoes, but his hand is curling around your bicep and pulling you up and he’s staring again, the charge of his touch sending a jolt through your body as freeze,
“Come here,” he beckons, too natural.
And you listen.
He’s soft, every part of him. Skin, clothes, hair, lips.
He’s kissing you gently, like you might break, but you can tell he wants more.
Needs more.
“Are you going to regret this tomorrow?” you find yourself asking as he parts from you, licking at his lips as you both take a breath, letting the moment settle.
He shakes his head, “Are you?”
“Maybe,” you answer honestly, “maybe…not—fuck, I don’t know,”
“It doesn’t have to mean anything,” he promises, but you knew that was a lie.
Still, you nod in understanding.
He’s so tender with his touch, slipping you out of the dress in the dim light of his room.
Even softer as he guides you to your back and spreads himself on his belly between your legs, fingers interlocked with his at your hips as he buries his nose between your folds, his tongue splitting your cunt open in a sharp gasp that has you throwing your head back. His lips traced a slow, deliberate path down your body, igniting sparks along every inch of your skin. 
He kissed along the curve of your thighs, teasing, tasting, until the tension was unbearable and with each flick of his tongue, each gentle suck, it pulled you deeper into a haze of heady desire. 
This was reckless, dangerous, but neither of you found the moment to pause and think.
You wonder if things had been building to this for a while—if it was always supposed to happen this way or if he was acting off of greed; lust and companionship, even if just for a night.
You know you can ask him to stop at any point and he would, but even as his tongue brings you to your first orgasm of the night and he’s guiding you to your stomach, reaching blindly into his bedside table for a foil wrapping the crinkles loudly in the silence, you want this.
It was embarrassing how badly you wanted this.
He fucks you slow, too. 
It was torturous, his chest flat against your back as he palms his cock and feeds it into you.
You don’t talk, neither does he.
But, his low moans and stuttering breaths speak for him.
If you could see him, you’d know how furrowed his brow would be, a hand sliding over the curve of your ass until he can reach your thigh, beckoning for you to raise it without speaking.
You oblige, the angle of his thrusts changing on a dime.
“I can’t believe you’re real sometimes,” he admits like he’s confessing a sin.
“Please,” you plead—please stop talking, please keep going, please fuck me.
You couldn’t decide.
You feel him nod where his forehead is pressed between your shoulder blades as his fist curls into the sheet beside your head.
“Another, gimme another,” he pleads, the fingers on his other hand curling under your neck to life your chin, not expecting to meet his eyes as he leans over you.
The expression on his face so raw it makes you flutter around him, his lips parting in a deep, guttural groan, “I know you can,” he nods hurriedly.
And damn, does the praise work.
Your whimper breaks him, breathing out shakily as you locked eyes when he comes, slow and forceful thrusts until you’re nothing but an exhausted pile of tangled limbs.
“Greedy girl,” he comments through the haze, a weak giggle bubbling from your chest.
He pulls out slowly, a low grunt as he does so.
You’re not sure when you fall asleep, but you wake to a startling amount of weight over your stomach, an arm splayed possessively, the faint outline of a ring as you drag your hand over the limb.
It’s only as your eyes pry open that reality hits you, stumbling out of bed quickly.
No…nononono, where the fuck were your clothes? Jesus.
You stumble around half awake, searching for the silk dress on the floor, feeling accomplished when you find it and hastily redressing yourself as Harry stirs in bed, encouraging you to hurry, to slip out before he can say anything.
Your shoes are already on and you’re reaching for the doorknob when the voice comes, the weight of the necklace that still remained on your neck, two empty glasses of wine on the counter, a night of hasty choices and urgency laid out like a crime scene as his voice rings out from behind you, pleading.
“Don’t—don’t go,” Harry begs, “You don’t have to go,”
So much of this was wrong—it complicated everything.
Your life, your job, your relationship with him.
He can see you slipping, fingers inching toward the knob as he approaches you in a hurry, barefoot and shirtless, the kind of scene you shouldn’t be comforted with, like this was all normal to the both of you.
You’ve seen him like this a thousand times, but not when he’s looking at you so vulnerable, heart tore open and stapled to his chest, beating against your own as his hands splayed out over your cheeks.
“I don’t regret it,” he assures you again, “so please—stay, okay?”
“What changed?” you ask, voice trembling, “Five years, Harry. Five.”
“I’ve been running in circles this entire time,” he admits, “you know it—I know it.”
You had been there the entire time, learning every part of him without judgement, cataloging his flaws and skills, learning how he ticked and what motivated him. You had never quite settled on the ideal person to fit in his life as his partner, it surely wasn’t you.
It couldn’t be you.
“Please, don’t go,” Harry echoed once more.
The sick, cruel joke of it all was that this was your job. 
You had nowhere to go. If it was any other morning, you would just be arriving, leaving his breakfast in the kitchen and starting your day.
You nod solemnly, “Of course, Mr. Castillo.”
It was painstaking, forcing the mask back on.
But, you couldn’t deal with this now.
Or ever, even.
Harry looks at you with a confused sadness, thumbs rubbing at your cheekbones before his hands fall to his side.
You’d figure this out, you always did.
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