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13tinysocks · 2 days ago

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My Dead Girlfriend

You can't stay mad forever when you sleep in the same bed. Lensless is a terrible teacher and worse ally.

[Invincible Variants X Reader]

Passing out multiple red cards. NSFW

[Part one] [Ao3] [29] [Chapter Index]

30 * De-pressurizing [12.6k]

The window was open but no light streamed through, everything visible by the barest exposed edges. Still, he managed to shift like desert sand underfoot, with every blink or twitch of your eye.

Mark waited. His hands laced behind his back, held out to you, pressing around your throat. The positions never lasted long, like he couldn't decide if he loved you or hated you or wanted to save you or ruin you. His face was just as indecisive. Glinting with outlines of piercings all over, then to few, then to none. With higher cheekbones, then with a crooked nose, then with sunken eyes, then with mottled, burned skin. When he spoke, all that came out of his mouth was a discordant thrum of words, too knotted together to understand.

It didn't matter who he was. Which he was. You were still irrevocably linked. Through the past, present, and future. There was no hope of escape just as there was no reason to escape. It was hopeless, it was endless possibility, it was-

"You already fucked up the first go around." You hadn't heard his voice in so long but you recognize it all the same, just as familiar as the sound of his suede shoes on the marble floor. "You think seven more times is going to fix anything, Dregs?" He slid out of the darkness, circled around Mark, all the Marks, set into one continuum. "Do you really think you can change anything?"

You wanted to tell him he knew nothing, but your lips were sealed shut by years of dried saliva, from never speaking your mind. A sigh crackled through his speaker box. "I can see you're stupid as always. Too many choices, I get it. I'm busy too." The rounded dome of his head shone impossibly in the darkness. Shinier was the pistol he pulled from the back of his tailored jacket. "Let me help you out."

For a second everything was lit. The Italian maple table. The pens in the number one boss mug. Mark's and Mark's and Mark's and Mark's and Mark's face as their joint foreheads split impossibly open. Splattering bone and brain and blood hot onto your face. The bullet wasn't done after it plowed through, it headed right for you, set to put you down right between the eyes.

It didn't feel right to sit up, brains leaking out of your forehead down onto the clean sheets. You were gasping, hand already pressed between your brows to feel for the wound. Yet your fingers didn't sink into a hole, weren't meet with wet chunks of brain matter. Your eyes adjusted to the dark, not the silhouette of Machine Head's high rise, but the emperor's bedroom.

Your heart slowed as reality sunk in. You were in a comfy bed, in Martian silk pajamas, a warm hand rubbing into your back. You jerked and twisted.

Space doesn't provide much ambient light. The lights had been dimmed, yet there was an ever present strip of dull light that followed the outline of the ceiling. Mimicking Earth's moonlight, just enough to see him by. Tucked in the cozy blankets, wearing the set of pajamas that matched yours. He was laid on his back, one arm propped behind his pillow. Eyes dull with lack of sleep yet when they met your gaze, were feather soft.

Mark hadn't been in the room in days. Viltrum days- which you'd been slowly getting used to. You still took 'mid-day' naps before returning to putter around the ship. It was never as restful as sleeping during 'quiet hours' as you'd heard the servants call it. When the ship's lights automatically dimmed and most of the Viltrumites rested. Some stayed awake, guarding, monitoring, not sleeping for days until they swapped with another.

"You okay?" Mark prompted when you didn't speak, so used to being in bed alone, to waking from nightmares alone. So used to seeing him in his emperor's regalia with a haughty smirk. He looked like a different person now but the piercings were all there, his brains still intact.

"I'm fine." You loosened despite yourself. Focusing on his hand which still rubbed slow, small circles to your back. His lip piercings glinted, mouth opening to protest. You didn't want to talk about the dream so you spoke first, "Why are you here?"

All you knew was that he'd been busy prepping space politics stuff while the ship was still stationed outside Ferr. Lensless knew little of the political happenings. Grayson wouldn't speak on it if you asked, always too aware of the cameras. Seb was still avoiding you. Markus and Gray were too busy, Mark too, until he apparently wasn't.

"Finally caught a break." He said. A five hour one at Kregg's behest because he'd just accidentally tried to mark a planet for invasion that'd been empty for decades. Kregg assured him that Markus, Gray and the council could hold things down a few hours. Mark fought at first until he checked your tracker, ceding when he saw the blinking dot in his chambers.

He'd not been lying with you long. Maybe a half hour. Dog tired but couldn't sleep. Still too wrapped up in plans, then there was you- he didn't want to sleep through his time with you, even if you were asleep. But he couldn't make the empire better for you both if he didn't rest, so he resigned to sleep, shoulder brushing your back. He'd felt the first tremors of the night terror minutes ago. Peaked open an eye and watched your shoulders shake. He didn't know if it'd be better to wake you or leave it, so he settled for an in between, rubbing your back, muttering assurances to your sleeping form.

"Looks like you didn't." He tried to joke but the wit didn't seep into his tone. He was so drained he couldn't manage being a smartass.

"I told you, I'm fine." Yet you didn't move away from his touch that was concerningly comforting. If he was alive, so were the others, a confirmation you shouldn't find comforting but did.

Mark frowned but didn't call bullshit. "You always have nightmares, it doesn't seem fine."

You knew. Remembered flashes of them well enough. Machine Head, bad missions, prison, Mark. Your silence was an admission. "You watching me sleep now?" There was no real sharpness to your tone. All sapped out by terror and sleepiness that weighed down on you like a brick.

"Sometimes. Kinda hard to ignore when you're thrashing around." He was glad there weren't cameras in the room or he would watch you sleep.

You didn't have the energy to reply, to argue so you just made a sound in the back of your throat, let him interpret it however he wanted.

His brow softened, "You know, you used to thrash so bad in the desert that one eyed idiot thought you were seizing."

You vaguely remember talking about it one desolate morning. The longer you were out of the wasteland, the less you tried to think about it. About who you had that conversation with. His solidarity in suffering. Now what was left of him rotted as jerky in another dimension.

"Do you," His voice, rough with sleep dragged you back to reality where it was cool and you were fed and no one was eating anyone, "want to talk about it?"

"No." Remembering always made you feel worse. Scared. Like all the bad things would begin again. All the good things, meager as they were, would disappear.

Mark knew you months, knew her years. You were different but he could still read your expression like a book, the fear. "You know you're safe here, right?"

You didn't reply awhile. Stared at him and his pretty face. His hand never stilled on your back. Waiting. Pulling your mind away from Machine Head with every little circle. You leaned back into the touch, head cottony with exhaust but not stupidity, "I'm still mad at you."

He chuffed out his nose, "You always are."

"Hard not to be when you're super fucking annoying." The words were meant as defense but they wavered, wobbled and fell apart as soon as they left your lips. He was annoying, but you weren't annoyed at him right now, you weren't even sure you were actually mad at him. The man looking up at you in his matching pajamas, calming you after a nightmare despite the fact he hadn't slept in days.

You expected teeth. Expected a rebuttal so nasty the hatred and anger would come flooding back. Instead he laughed, low and sleep-thick, flooding you with warmth.

"I am, aren't I?" He hummed.

You shifted onto your side, leaned over him. Trying to regurgitate up some of that regular disdain. It didn't come. He looked so soft and sweet in the night. Arm wrapped around your side, still rubbing your back. He knew what you were, what you'd done, and he didn't run because he'd done worse.

It was hard to believe he was real. That some fragment of Mark could be so horrible and on your same wavelength. You knew he had nightmares about her too. You normally had nightmares about Mark, your first Mark or the ones that tried to hurt you. It was the first time the fear hadn't been caused by Mark, was instead for him. For them. It wasn't a conscious decision to touch the glinting eyebrow piercing, but you did. Thumb sinking into the rounded metal tip, just to assure yourself this is real. For once, not fighting or angry or miserable.

Mark let his eyes flutter closed. You watched more than moved your hand down his face. Nails grazing over his smooth skin, fingers finding his bridge piercing. Pressing it, again to be met with rounded metal spikes. You moved to the cheek dermal, warm to the touch from his growing blush. You migrated to the spikes protruding below his lips, twins. Mark hummed contentedly until your thumb moved up, brushed the double lip rings on his bottom lip. Half a second, maybe, a ghost of a touch but his eyes fluttered open with a stuttering breath on freshly parted lips.

He'd been fine. Letting you be curious, letting things develop as they did, slowly better by the day. But this was a clear step in the right direction. He shouldn't push the delicate thing you had going, but he couldn't help wanting more. Not now, when you were focused on his lips. He swallowed, started to speak, "Ya'kn-"

Your thumb pressed his lips together, "Hush, I'm still trying not to be mad at you." Really you were looking for a reason to be mad at him, if the differences between them made him worse or made him better. Under you, he smiled. A spark to dormant gasoline.

What was it about him that made your body light up? His face? The fact that he was Mark? The fact that he held power over you? The fact that despite all of that he managed to be soft at the edges? That in this room he was less Emperor, more of a boyfriend?

You leaned down despite it all. Moved your thumb away and kissed him. He melted quick as candle wax under you. Tilted his head to get the angle right, piercings pressing gently to your skin. They were like little metal conductors, sparking the electricity between you.

The smart thing to do would be stop. You did, in a way, stopped following his movements, lips still touching trying to reason with yourself to get up. His hand stopped circling. Traveled up your back and pressed to the back of your head. Not forcefully but needily. That's all it took for you to begin again.

You stayed like that awhile. Hands rested on his chest. Emotions slipping and sliding around each other like oil and water, like his tongue and yours.

You pulled away to breathe. Mark kept you from leaving more than an inch of room between you.

"Don't." He mumbled into the darkness between you, "I can't let this go, not yet." He sounded breathless, wanting. So different from the man who called you bitch, who ordered the death of a royal family at the suggestion of betrayal.

You didn't want to go back to sleep just to be scared again, wanted to stay in this moment, in his arms, regardless of what it meant. Again your lips meet. Mark rewarded you with a reverent moan.

For him, all it took was you seeing his soft belly and not cutting. The first time, well, he couldn't blame you, he was as hot as he was evil. The second time? That was a choice. One you made over and over to his pierced mouth. Your third choice was the real surprise, hands sliding down his chest, finding his peaked nipples pushing through the silk. Your thumbs grazed over them, just another piercing to feel, another difference.

Mark gasped into your mouth. The bed clicked under the buck of his hips. You hadn't thought much about the movement, just instinct you supposed, but you weren't going to let the momentum go. Your fingers found the second button down on his top, the first already popped open. Blindly, you fumbled them open, exposing more and more of his heated skin to the air. Kisses imprecise with your divided attention.

Mark's fingers twitched on your neck. His cock stirring to life as you spread the flaps of his shirt, caught his nipples between your knuckles and rolled. He moaned openly into your mouth.

The sound was like a call to battle. An awakening curse. An old flame lit.

He hadn't thought he could get any harder until you slid a hand down to the soft silk of his pajamas and groped. Massaging his nipple in your other hand, he was putty. Even through the layers, when you wrapped your hand around him, not pumping but squeezing, testing, he felt dizzy with pleasure.

"You're gonna make me ruin 'em." Mark murmured with as much dignity as he could muster.

You hummed in acknowledgment and yanked down the front of his pants, let his dick fly free to slap up against his belly. This time when you rose, he let you, watching as you took him in the second time. Again, you found his piercings. Four in a line, pairs on either side on the bottom of his shaft, going up, up, up his length. You pressed a thumb to the bottom piercing, feeling its warmth, hearing Mark's hissed gasp as you moved to the next. This time, the rest of your fingers joined you. To the third pair you went, watching precum slip out from his foreskin. By the fourth, it dripped thick onto your hand. With your inspection done there was nowhere else to go but the top.

Mark arched into you, grunting a, "Holy fuck." You watched the precum bubbled between your fingers so long that Mark whined a, "What're you waitin' for?" You turned back to him, his slick gathering in your palm. His cheeks red, his eyes half lidded and set on you. You didn't reply, simply slid your slick hand down his cock, over the bumps of his piercings and watched as his face twisted. Eyes twitching closed.

He was soft before but softer like this- though not his cock. Definitely not as your hand pumped him up and down. Spreading his lubricant all over himself to a dull shine. Pulling down his foreskin just to hear him whine as it slid back into place, over a hidden dydoe piercing you hadn't noticed before.

The air thickened with his babble, "Fuck, fuck, holy fuck," not a single moment there was quiet. "Kiss me. Kiss me, please."

You leaned forward, let him kiss you while he rutted into your hand. It was hardly a kiss with all his talk, babbled against your lips. You weren't going particularly fast or hard- consider it cruising in terms of jerking a guy off, but he was a mess under you.

He keened, "I'm close, fuck (Y/n), I'm ss-so fuckin'- cl- ngghhh-!"

Under you, he pulsed. Hips shot up, burying himself into your hand, cock stiff in the air as he came. The off-white dripped down in uneven rivulets, dripping over your fingers, seeping into the valleys of his muscled chest.

You didn't know what was better; the sight of his shivering, almost feverish body, or his slacked open mouth, finally with nothing to say. His breathing was still labored, but it took you longer than it should have to hear it- hic, hic, snivel.

So focused on his mouth, you hadn't seen the prominent shine on his cheeks. "Are you..." You reached up with your clean hand and pressed fingers to his slickened cheek. Too wet to have just began. "Crying?"

He let out a humid breath, lips curling in, eyes squeezing and letting another tear slip out. "I just... I missed you." Through the years, he spent spiraling without you. To the months in the desert, not cuddling you to sleep. To the days packed with grating, never ending work that sat on his shoulders like the weight of multiple planets.

"It's still hard to believe that you're real. That you're really here." Touching him in this room of all places. This room he avoided stepping inside for months. Every time he did, he crumpled into a heap on the spot where you'd died. The ship automatically cleaned the blood, automatically cleaned his sheets. There was nothing left of you, not even a skin cell. Only your clothes in the closet. Sometimes he sat in there for hours, huffing the fabric trying to get a ghost of your smell, faint to begin with, fainter as time went on. Banes of living on a ship where cleaning was hyper-automated and advanced.

All he had to do to smell you now was stop sniveling. But he couldn't. It was hard not to blubber, whimper after the days he had, after all your distrust and thorns.

"Pretty sure I'm real." You said.

When he laughed, soft and lilting, more tears slipped out. "I'm not goin' crazy on ya just," he sniffed, "all I do is fuck up with you. I want this to work so bad I just..." He trailed off.

You went from his cheek up to his hair, stiff with days old hair gel. You finger combed through it, waiting for him to go on. Waiting to figure out how you should feel. You waited for disgust or repulsion, but it didn't come.

He watched you with eyes like a doe. "God, I'm such an asshole."

"You are."

"Please, don't hold back on my account." He chuckled, eyes watery. A beat went by, an open window for you to hurl insults, but you didn't. Mind racing too fast to think of anything good. He took it as another step, another little victory and opened his heart to you some more. "I was so scared we'd never do this again."

"Middle of the night hand jobs?"

Though he couldn't stop crying, with you he also couldn't stop laughing.

"You could say that." He smiled, salt tears rolling into the crevice of his lips. "And just, I dunno- kissing me at all. I know I can be intense." Your brows rose in challenge. "Okay, fine, a shithead. A massive shithead. I'm only..."

Your gaze was still soft on his, watching and waiting while his slipped down to the collar. All the feelings mixed with that. Anger, jealousy, terror, a horniness so encroaching it was almost alarming. He could take it off, could do his best to regain your trust because he knew this moment of softness wouldn't last. But he wouldn't. He was too unsure of what you'd do. Too afraid you'd go right back to undermining his authority, putting yourself in danger with the council and their ideas to destroy anything that fought back or insulted the emperor. Too afraid that without it, you'd have no reason to be kind to him at all.

He'd rather have forced affection than none at all. So the collar stayed. Until the whispers in the back of his mind decided you weren't play acting.

You weren't now. Were simply softened by waking up to kindness.

If only one of you opened your mouth. If only you talked. Looking back, so much death could've been avoided.

Instead, he said, "So do you have a thing for crying or?"

In all that time, you'd never moved your hand from his cock. Hadn't thought to. Again conscious of your hand, you felt that he was throbbing against your fingers. When your fingers twitched, you felt him twitch in response, felt the thrum of blood as you realized he was still hard under you.

You pulled your hand away, you stuttered a, "No, sorry, I-"

"I want you." He looked up you, pleading with his whole face, everything about him twitching, and needing your attention. "Please." He breathed, "I need you so bad."

That sent a pulse right to your already molten core. You could stop this right here. Leave him blue balled like he probably deserved but...

You wiggled out of your pants, balancing yourself with your dirty hand on his chest. Not willing to stain the fabric white on white. While you worked, so did Mark, unbuttoning your shirt, revealing your chest to the cool ship air. He was already massaging your breasts by the time you straddled him.

"So pretty. Yer so fuckin' pretty." He babbled while goading you down to take a nipple into his mouth and suck. Your gasp sent a throb to his dick. A throb you felt against your cunt, pushing against his pierced base. Teeth gently came around your sensitive nib, earning him a grind. Your slick heat pulled up and down the base of his cock. Piercings rolled against the sides of your clit.

Nipples were swapped. The spit slicked one, kneaded in his hand. His head bobbed against your chest while you jerked him off with your cunt. He could feel himself tumbling towards release but he didn't want to go soft again, not yet. He shifted, hand going down to guide the head of his dick up.

"Please let me fuck you." He gasped against your breast, "Please. Please. I need it."

You felt him prod against you. You could've gone back to grinding, gone on teasing, but you didn't want to.

"Show me." You moved, helped align him just right.

You let him push inside, open up your entrance with his thick head. Moaned as he guided your hips down, spearing you onto him inch by inch, piercing by rolling, hot piercing.

Only when he was buried inside, did his mouth fall away from your chest, did he say, "I missed you so much."

Your lips clashed. Tongues sloppily ground together, both your focuses split. His cheeks slippery, hot with still leaking tears. You rocked against his chest while he slowly rose his hips up and down. His landing strip grinding against your swollen clit.

Mark filled you, then pulled away but never out. He wouldn't let you or your ass go, pushing you down against him. Pace quickening because finally, he got to feel you throb around him. Feel your moans vibrate in his throat.

"I love you," he gasped into your mouth, "I love you so- ah- much, I missed you- ahh- hhaahhh-" You'd begun to lose yourself in him, pushed yourself back harder into him, needing to hear more. Needing to to filled and fucked and unforsaken.

You reached down between your bodies, hastily rubbing at your clit. Trying to reach peak before he did, obviously quickly approaching. "Let me, let me, please." He slipped a hand off your ass, replaced yours and rubbed his thumb over you.

You didn't expect him to keep pace so well, to know just how to touch you, but thirty seconds later you were stiffening. Gasping out, "I'm so cl-" He didn't let you finish. Burying himself fully inside with a grunt, rolling your clit for the final time. Your eyes rolled back. Jaw went slick while he kissed you still. Orgasm shuddered through your body, tightened around his sensitive cock, pulsed and massaged until at its tightest- he whimpered and came. Filling you.

tightest- he whimpered and came. Filling you.

The room was again filled with heavy breath. Not just Mark's this time.

"You okay?" He asked.

"Yeah." You pushed yourself upright to look down at him while you still sat upon him. Your nerves are all frayed at the edges. Sparking. It was hard to regret anything when he was looking up at you like a caveman seeing fire for the first time. Reverent and a little afraid, eyes still glassy with tears. Even through throes of passion, he hadn't stopped. So grateful to fate and that fool Angstrom he got to feel you again. "You?"

Your voice was like an angel's. Sitting on the edges of reality despite what you'd both just done.

"Better than I've ever been." He said. Hand moving from your apex to rub the curve of your thigh. You were real. So real. A fresh tear slipped down when he blinked.

Inside you he softened. His cum warm and ready to drip the second the seal of his flesh was no longer there. "Do you mind getting me a towel?"

He looked down at both your bodies. Sticky with sweat and his earlier cum rubbed over your bellies. "How 'bout a shower?"

"That's probably best."

In the shower, you couldn't tell he was still crying. Partly because of the water coming down on his back. Partly because he held you against the wall, knees pushed high as he could get to your shoulders, as he buried himself deeper than before. He said such pretty, pleasingly pathetic things under the water hush. Made you cum undone before he filled you again with his tongue in your mouth.

When it was over, you were exhausted, he was cried out and glowing. He could go another round, then another, but you already slipped into bed. Both of you naked, your pajamas hung in the closet for the night to wash. Wanting as he was, seeing you all soft, eyes heavy with sleep- it hit him just how tired he was. Just how little time he had left to rest.

He climbed into bed after you, wrapped his arms around your waist and pulled you in. You didn't fight but didn't fawn. Asleep as soon as your head hit the pillow. He lay awake some minutes, waiting for the shivers your nightmares brought, but they never came. With a small, victorious smile, he fell asleep.

***

Mark was gone before you woke up. Called away to some business or other while you woke hours later. Hips sore from being bent like a pretzel. The walls didn't seem to bear down on you so harshly, the stagnant space outside didn't seem so dark.

You were still deciding if it was a huge mistake or not. Mark would be nicer to you now. You hadn't forgiven him, hadn't accepted shit, but at least you had that. It was all too complicated with too many ways things could sway. So you came up to the observation deck to read, testing how you felt here. It was tainted in your mind, but instead of an all consuming anger you just felt the prickle of it at the periphery.

It was easy to shove the memories away with new ones in your mind. If you could just focus on the story on the data pad and the snacks on the side table, maybe you could eventually figure your shit out. You scrolled down, counting to read the biography of a Symbiote. No idea what that was, but it wasn't a bad read. You would've stayed lost in it for hours if a rush of wind hadn't nearly knocked you on your face.

He was a blur over the window. All the screens that could pop up, did, running diagnostics and other self-maintenance programs you couldn't understand.

"Whoa!"

He stopped and so did the wind that took your snacks and scattered them to the floor. You couldn't tell who it was earlier, but now you could- medium and light grays stretched over his body with a baseball tee sleeve cut and no traditional skirt. Plus, the most obvious identifier of all, his lack of a second eye.

Lensless's face lit up, hands falling away from the screen. The data pad he was holding lowered. "I was wondering where you were." In his head, you were already part of his routine. He saw you at least once a Viltrumite day. Sometimes in the morning, sometimes at night, usually during his meal block. You had a tendency to wander and he was starting to get a good idea of where you'd be. Except you hadn't been in the mess hall or waiting for him to show up at the servant quarters entrance. You'd said time and time again you weren't waiting for him but he knew it was bullshit. Tough as you liked to act, you were lonely and deep down, you knew he was all you needed to fill the void.

You shrugged, "Just kind of around."

"It's okay if you've been avoiding me, I think it's kinda cute you're still scared."

"I'm not-" You shut right up, because he was almost on top of you in a second. Hovering just above the chair. Nose to nose.

"I don't think calm people's heart rates are that fast." He said, breath hotly fanning your face. "Man, I can't believe you hang out with me if you get this scared when I, what? Move a little too fast?"

You pushed him back. He only moved because he let it happen. If he wanted to cage you in, he could, you both knew it.

"Where's your babysitter?" You looked around the rest of the observation deck and the stairs, but Lucan isn't there.

"Probably dragging his feet cuz he hates me. But! I've got you, and you don't hate me." He lifted the data pad closer to his chest, looking over something, "You can lie if you want, but I know you wanna hang out with me. Let me just..." Again he was a blur. You were knocked backward into the chair while he worked.

He was done before you could process all his after images. "There! All the boring shit's done. Now we can hang out."

At that moment, Lucan's bald head peeked over the stairs. "Is it really?"

"Yes sir!" Lensless hovered over to him, shoved the data pad into the man's arms.

Lucan's lip twitched, "I'll be the judge of that." He moved to the windows, comparing the diagnostics on the data pad to what the observation screens were telling him. It was slow, meticulous work the boy couldn't have possibly done accurately so fast.

While Lucan checked his work, Lensless turned back to you. "I was just gonna meet up with Marky but since you're here- we're gonna meet up with Marky."

Lensless saw the exact moment you connected his stupid nickname with Sebastian. Oh, the thrill he got down his spine with your face dropped and terror widened your eyes.

"No." You said too fast.

He couldn't help but chuckle, "You know, when you act like that, it only riles Marky up." And himself, but Lensless had a decent enough grip on his faculties to not pounce at you whenever you moved. Though he was tempted.

You schooled your expression and snapped, "He's fucking insane, so yeah, I'm afraid of him. You got me, wow."

"I'll tell him you said that." Lensless was sure that'd give Marky a whole night of gross fantasies to jerk off to. Not that he didn't know but the admission from you was big. Bigger than you thought it was. Dangerous, maybe Lensless shouldn't tell him, but he would tease you about it. "But really babe, you gotta get ahold of yourself around him. You can't avoid him forever. I mean, you probably can avoid him pretty good, but look at me, I'm crazy. You'll never know when I decide to stop being chill and kidnap you and drag you kicking and screaming to him so we can have some fun with you!"

He paused to listen to your heart rate spike. You swallowed a lump, "I'm not afraid of you." Lie.

"See? That's what I mean! It's so hard to control myself when you act like that." He leaned back, tapping his foot, suddenly normal and on your side again. Impossible to get a read on. "You gotta toughen up."

"Oh yeah, like breathing exercises will keep him away from me."

"He doesn't think when he's around you. He just lunges, leaves himself open cuz he thinks you're as weak as you think you are. All you'd have to do is carry his momentum to throw him off. I mean, it'd buy you maybe a second, but that's something, right?" Lensless mimed throwing something toward Lucan who didn't look up from the data pad. "Weren't you in a gang? Shouldn't you know how to fight?"

"I only used guns or my powers." You fixed him with a glare aimed at his eyeless socket. Fully healed but off color because he picked at it the whole healing process. The lid always drooped and depending on if he'd been fidgeting with it or not, either was closed completely or partly open to nothing but pink. Today it was shut.

"Ahh, I wish you had a gun... but they won't give you one yet. You're still too feisty." He caught your stare. Felt heat sink into his skin. "I remember how steady your hand was." He could drool at the memory, "If I were someone else, you would'a blown my head off." He reached up, fingers pushing past the curtain of his eyelid, pushing inside the empty socket with a blush, "That was so..." He shuddered as he brushed healed over but sensitive nerves.

In that one moment, you had more power over him than you realized. You hurt him when even his father couldn't. You were so sure and unafraid. He knew you could really be something if Mark would just stop trying to make you some pet human. To really liberate you to the best you could be, he had to make you stronger. Maybe not nix all your fears, but bolster your confidence. Make you ready to shoot him again. He already had a list of where he wanted his next flesh wound. Was hoping you'd give one to him as a birthday present.

You watched perturbed as his knuckles disappeared into the socket one at a time. Until he was two fingers deep in his own head, rubbing himself with a twitching smile.

"Uh." You turned to Lucan, wanting something to make him stop.

Lucan didn't acknowledge you or the weird display. He tapped the data pad again, nodded to himself. "Set." The work was all wrong. Lensless wasn't some secret genius after all, but it was close enough, easy to fix. He'd make a council member out of the freak yet. "Next time, actually look at what you're doing."

Lensless's fingers slipped out of his eye fast. Leaving the lid slightly flipped up, exposing its pink back. "Sir, yes sir!" He pulled you up from the chair, "So we're free to go?"

Lucan withheld a sigh. "If you're thinking of taking the human to the gravity chamber, don't. She'll die."

"Psssh. We'll just turn off the gravity, duh." Lensless looked at him like he was the idiot. "And did you just... care if she dies or not?" He snorted, "Are you really a full blooded Viltrumite?"

Lucan moved toward the stairs without reply.

Lensless dragged you along, easily passing Lucan by. Your legs pinwheeled. "Do not take me to that freak!"

"The more you whine the more I wanna do that. No dude, I'm taking you to the gym. Just you, me, n' Lucy."

On the way he explained what exactly an, "Artificial gravity chamber," was, and when you protested he said, "it is the gym."

For a Viltrumite, weights could only do much. With multipliers of Earth's gravity pushing down on their whole body? They could really push themselves. Fly against impossible force and yes, lift weights where fifty pounds felt like fifty tons.

He waved your concern away, saying, "Again, I'm not gonna raise the levels when we're getting a baseline in, stupid. That'd be like, what's the word Lucy?" Lucan didn't even look at him. Lensless snapped his fingers, "Counterproductive! We're not gonna liquify your bones in there, we're gonna teach you how to fight so you're not so scared of me and Marky, and we get too excited and accidentally murder you."

You sneered. "Yeah, I really trust you to train me." It wasn't a bad idea, you needed something to do, to work toward, Lensless probably wouldn't be a good teacher but you had no one else to ask. Mark was busy being emperor. Gray and Markus were busy backing him up. Grayson was busy in the lab. Seb was avoiding you. Sebastian was... himself.

"Hey, I'm honest about what I want. Some guys," his eyes locked to a camera hidden in the wall, "aren't."

He stopped you in front of a door. White as everything else but it didn't automatically open like every other door did on the ship when you stood in front of it, didn't flash a red light to tell you it was restricted either.

You asked, "What's wrong with this thing?"

"Well, you can't have an artificial gravity chamber with an open door." Lensless pointed a long finger to a data pad embedded on the wall. "Looks like someone's in there."

Blue text overlaid on a black screen read 'Chamber in use. Current G output: 45. Average G output: 38. Time elapsed: 1h.27m.19s.'

You hoped to God it wasn't Sebastian.

Lucan caught up, eyed the screen and scoffed. "He thinks that's pushing himself?"

Minutes passed. At first, Lensless was fine to talk your ears off, but ten minutes in, his patience started to wane. He wanted you to try and hurt him. Romantically punch him in the mouth, sensually kick him in the balls. He threw his head back and groaned, beating a fist against the sealed door, "Hurry up. I wanna play."

Lucan didn't often acknowledge you, but in the moment, you shared a look. Lensless beat at the door until the data pad screen flashed. 'De-pressurizing, stand clear.' He stepped back as machinery inside the walls hissed.

Finally, the door slid open. Seb stood at the entrance, sweaty and red with exhaust. Hair clung wetly to his forehead. His chest pulsed with heavy breaths. His lips were open to demand a reason for the interruption. He'd done his work and was still working- making himself stronger for this stupid fucking empire. Then he saw you.

His jaw set. Fists clenched when Lensless said, "Dude, move. I've got a pupil to teach." Clearly Lucan didn't need any learning, but you. Oh God. Terror nipped at his heels, imagining everything that could go wrong. Why the hell would you go in there with that guy? He shouldn't let you, should say something-

"Hello?" Lensless waved a hand in front of his face.

Seb blinked. Realized how stupid he still was caring about you, saw the way you were frowning at him. He pushed past Lensless and made himself scarce.

Lensless huffed, "Jeez, drama queen." As he crossed into the chamber he looked over his shoulder to say, "What got into him, you?"

You followed behind without reply, not wanting to talk about it and taking in the room. The room was a massive half dome. White and plain as the rest of the ship. A massive display was set into the curved wall, showing settings to increase or decrease gravity. There were options to bring up certain equipment from the walls or turn on battle simulations. Though it wouldn't work with the door open.

"Oh, you guys are fighting, right? If you guys were fucking, you would have yelled at me." It was a well informed guess. Seb hadn't come to their lined up lunch blocks or turned around whenever he saw you and Lensless already in the room. You never called for him to come back.

"None of your business." Was all but confirmation.

Lensless gasped, hand over heart, "Is that why you've been hanging out with me? I'm your rebound?" You pretended not to hear him, looking at the machinery, more exposed than anything you'd seen outside of the labs. "I should be offended but I'm not. You probably shouldn't be hanging out with me. Where are your survival instincts? Especially around someone like me, you know what I can do." Lensless watched Lucan as he finally hovered inside. A comm directly from Mark told him not to leave you both alone in the gravity chamber. The door slid shut.

You side eyed him, "Don't be edgy."

Lensless grinned as his fingers stretched over the controls. "I thought you liked edgy. You know since you and the emperor are going at it again." Another guess. A theory he concocted when he saw you back on the observation deck when you'd been avoiding it for days. He heard how things went down from the servants, forced it out of them. They liked to act obedient but they were all a fervent bunch of gossipmongers, especially the observation crew. "How's that going by the way? Is he-"

You glared- "Can you teach me to fight or not?" -and unintentionally confirmed his suspicions.

He hummed, pretending to think, "Relax. We'll get to that, do you wanna fly first?"

"What?"

He turned to watch your face as he set the gravity to negative one g's. Decently below Earth's moon and just enough for you to lift off the floor with a surprised squawk.

"Hey! Hey! What the fuck!? Hey!" Your arms pinwheeled out, legs circling like you were on a bicycle for purchase you didn't have. Slowly you floated further and further from the ground, starting to tilt horrifyingly back. All the while Lensless and Lucan stayed easily planted on the floor.

Lensless watched you with a wide smile and hands on his hips, "Look at you go! You're a natural!"

"This isn't funny!"

He replied with a giggle. "It really is."

You turned to Lucan the best you could, feet over head. "Make him turn it off!"

Lucan's mustache twitched at being told what to do by a human. He should stop this. The emperor wouldn't be pleased if he let you get too upset. Still, if you couldn't handle a little micro-gravity, you couldn't handle the empire.

"See?" Lensless took off from the ground, "Even Lucy thinks you're doing great." He floated beside you, easily spinning and flipping around you while you kicked at nothing. "Man, you look so helpless. I could really do anything I wanted right now and you couldn't fight back at all." That was most of the time, but the added helplessness and desperation really got him going.

Every time he passed you, the rush of air made you spin, made your heart hammer faster. "If you can't handle spinning around how are you ever gonna survive Sebastian when he gets you alone again? Cuz you know he will. It's only a matter of time." He singsonged.

"I'm gonna be sick."

He laughed at you, "The first time I went flying I threw up all over myself too!"

With that, the gravity turned back up. Same as Earth's but after minutes of weightlessness, it hit like a human-sized brick. You barreled for the ground, head first. He was so far away, paused with shock, but in the moment, all you could think to do was reach out to Lensless and start to form the word, "help."

You didn't get to finish, not before the wind was knocked out of you. Strong arms suddenly supporting you by the back. The momentum gone. Your head snapped back looking to the now still ceiling as Lensless held you in his arms.

"You good down there?" He asked.

Your heart thundered against your ribs but you nodded.

Lensless reeled on Lucan who'd reset the gravity. Lucan readied himself for a fight, to subdue the boy, as quick as he could. His expectations curbed when Lensless held up a thumb from under your back. "Whoa! Never expected you to be such a wing man Lucy! Thanks!"

Lucan quietly hovered back to the spot he'd been before.

"So would you mind leaving so we can make out now or what?"

Lucan stayed in place. Lensless huffed, decided to ignore him and focus on the moment, "You reached out for me. You like me, don't you?"

You shifted in Lensless's arms, coming back to yourself in full with a, "dickhead." He helped you stand. Supported you when you swayed, still feeling the vertigo.

"I like being alive." You said.

"Mmm, no, you like me." He nuzzled into your side, absolutely sure of it. You didn't, not now, but he knew you would in the future. He'd always been a good people reader. And he caught you looking at his ass earlier. And you fucked multiple other Mark's, it was bound to be his turn soon. If he played his cards right, it could be now. Who cared if Lucan watched?

Your brow twitched. "This isn't training. We fighting or what?"

You intend it as a brush off but Lensless took is as gross, blatant flirtation with an, "I didn't think you'd be so forward but sure, let's do it." His heart and something else throbbed.

Your fists rose, too close to your chest. "Let's go already." Lensless could tell he had a lot of work to do.

"Hit me then."

You hesitated. Afraid of Mark-style retaliation. He said he loved your claws then lashed out when you used them. It scared you.

Lensless threaded his arms behind his back, "I'm open."

"I thought you were teaching me about like, momentum throwing or something." You stayed in position.

"Can't do that unless I have a baseline for how well you fight in general. So... hit me! Don't be shy. I won't hit you unless it hurts, which I promise, won't happen."

You flew forward with a growl, he barely moved to avoid your punch. Well telegraphed and obvious. It would be easy to catch you on the side. Would've been easier to flip you to the floor and knock the wind out your lungs, but he was a gentleman. Almost. "That was terrible." He set you back to standing and hovered back, "Try again, but don't suck."

"Oh, fuck you." Your fist whooshed by his face, dodged again.

"Hey, that breeze feels nice."

You snarled, punched again but every time he moved just out of reach. "How am I supposed to learn if you won't let me hit you?"

"I'll let you hit me when you don't throw a shitty punch." He swung out of the way of another intended hit. "I can not believe you actually managed to kill anyone like this. Or was that all a lie to impress me?"

You were getting angrier by the second. Sloppier. That'd be another thing he had to work out of you but for now, he dodged, watched, got his baseline. "You saw me kill my ex."

"Oh yeah." He hummed, jumping from foot to foot, avoiding your follow up.

You stepped back, watching him, trying to parse out where he was going to be next. Your stance was narrow, too high. All too easy to sweep his feet under and knock you on your ass but that'd be too mean, even for Lensless. You were just an inexperienced, pathetic little human after all.

"Come on, dude. You'll never learn if you don't try."

"Shut up, I'm trying to focus." Should you go for his legs? His eye socket? No, he'd cum.

"Focus won't keep Sebastian off you." The name came tumbling out awkwardly on his tongue. Everyone else had been using it so he thought he'd give it a go. Awkward but, "Isn't it super weird that's not my middle name? Oliver, by the way." You were slapped with sudden remembrance of the other Oliver. Dead in the desert. Lensless went on, seemingly forgetting the lesson. You didn't mind if it made him easier to hit. "Can you believe no one's given me a cute name yet? I'm just Lensless, which I love coming from you, but the others? Boner killer. Doesn't make sense anymore either, ya'know? I've got one eye, what about," he rubbed his chin, "patchy? But I don't have an eye patch, hmm."

You were caught between his jabbering and the sudden fear he'd get revenge for his eye, it was the most you'd ever heard him talk about it.

Revenge didn't come, but more jabbering did, "You look nervous! Did you think I was gonna hit you? Bro, I'm not mad about it. If anything, I'm way cooler looking now! Scars are sexy, don't you think?" You stared at him. "I know you think so! I've seen you and Sebastian together."

You started to shift, slowly to his side. In his talking, he'd stopped hopping. You were hoping to get a solid sucker punch in but that'd only work if you kept him distracted, "Petty sure he wants to eat me."

Lensless trilled his lips. "Duh! The food here's just okay but come on (Y/n), you can't blame a guy for wanting a taste. Do you know how biteable you are? Do you know how hard it is to play nice when you're so weak?" His eye, once wandering around the room, locked hard onto you. He knew damn well what you were doing. Was daring you to walk right into his waiting maw. And then, "What were we talking about again?" He was right back to looking around the room, bubbly as ever. "Right! I'm kinda blind now but, really babe, the worst thing about it is the itching and whacked out depth perception. Plus my balance is super fucked, and I can't fly as fast as I used to... Whatever, it's a good trade off for a scar from you and some nerve endings to touch. I think Kregg wants me to get an implant like his. Doesn't it look so freaky? Wait, do you like his implant? Oh my gosh, should I get an implant?"

He'd gone completely still now. Open. Waiting. You surged forward to try and punch him in the kidneys. He dodged out of the way without even turning to look at you. With nothing to catch your first, you tumbled forward.

"Decent follow through, but you gotta get your footing better you almost fell! Anyways-" You turned to stare at him, still jabbering away, what were you doing wrong? "Can you imagine walking down a long, dark hall, totally alone, then bam- there's a glowing red dot like thirty feet away. You get like super scared and run away but it catches you and you scream but everyone around who can help won't- because they're all too scared- but it was really just me and my new eye the whole time. Then we laugh and make out a little?"

You opened your mouth to reply but were bowled over by a wave of words, "Names! We were talking about names! The old you used to call me Mark but there's already a Mark and an Oliver. I dunno, Oliver is so meh. What about Ollie? Do you like Ollie? Think it's cute?"

As for the lesson, he hadn't forget. Seeing what you'd do, assess what he had to work with when you weren't held back by baby's first command of 'hit me'. The same way Dad had tried to find his baseline as a child. Funny how scared he was back then to hurt Dad. Funny how easily he fell apart.

"Is that a blush I see? You do think it's cute! Okay! That's my name then! Unless you wanna call me something else?" His heart fluttered with that nasty glare you were giving him. So annoyed and ready to pounce as you tried to adjust your stance to his suggestions. He loved it. All you needed was another little push, "You're like head over heels for me, right? You know, if you just kissed me right now I'd drop Sebastian entirely. I could protect you. It'd be easy. All you'd have to do is puck-"

"Shut up!" You came at him. He didn't move, only watched as your fist shot for his solar plexus, feet planted firmly, your hips swiveling to give you some more power. He braced for impact, ready for your touch on his body and- It felt like nothing, not even a tickle. For you, every single one of your knuckles popped at once.

"Wow." Ollie looked down at your fist, still connected to his solar plexus, "It's worse than I thought." He smiled like that was a good thing, "Which means we're gonna do so, so much training together!"

You pulled your arm back, defensive with a, "It wasn't that bad, you're just an alien."

"Are you trying to hurt my feelings?" He pouted fakely. "You're way better at that than punching."

You sent another punch toward him, this time aimed at his belly, hoping it'd be softer. All it did was make your bones ache.

Ollie frowned, "Really? I wasn't even flexing. Humans are so weak it's crazy. First of all," he took you by the wrist before you could pull it away, flipped your curled fingers to the ceiling, "your thumb is tucked in. If I was flexing and you hit me hard enough, your thumb would've been broken." He pulled your thumb out from the balled digits and set it under them, "so don't do that. Also, use your whole body, not just your shoulder. And your legs," he shuffled closer, gently pushed your legs apart with his boot, "need to be wider to support you, keep them planted like you did last time. Now try." He let you go and stepped back.

"Finally." You sneered but still, you twisted through a slow simulation of a punch. Asking Ollie along each step if you were doing it right. He happily adjusted your stance, touchier than he needed to be.

It took awhile but you threw a punch you were sure could've knocked even Machine Head on his ass. Ollie stumbled back, clutching his chest whining, "Ow, ow, ow, that was too hard!"

"Oh shit." You followed after him, grabbing and steadying him before he hit the wall. "Really, are you-" The second you held him, he stopped crying and wobbling.

"You didn't really think you could hurt me, did you?" Ollie opened his one eye, poised with a crocodile tear on his lash. "You did! And you were sorry cuz you care, you're so sweet, I could eat you up."

It was a ruse, of course it was. "You lying asshole." Your steadying hands flew away.

"It wasn't all bad." Ollie said, "If I was some random alien yeah, that would've hurt."

You turned on him with a suspicious look. "Really?"

He shrugged. "Probably."

"So you didn't feel that at all? Even a little bit?"

"Oh, I feel it." He batted his lashes. His eyes shot down to his crotch. It was an effort not to look.

You balled a fist, "You really need one of those skirts."

"Don't you wanna see what you do to me?" Ollie waited happily for the punch, which came and felt like nothing. "Cuz you're definitely flirting with me."

"No," you hit him again, "I'm not." And again, "I'm just trying not to suck." Again.

"If anyone's sucking anything, I'll do it no problem."

Your arms dropped. "I'm not doing this if you're just gonna cum in your pants over it." Lucan shifted uncomfortably in the corner. You turned for the door.

Shit. Ollie pushed too much. "Wait! I'll be good!"

You paused. "Really?"

His cock throbbed in his suit. It was so hard to suppress a moan but he did. Swallowing it down so you didn't get mad in the not fun way. "I'm sorry, okay?" He sounded breathy, but not apologetic, "I just got excited. I always do. So much so that I usually end up flying through people at Mach twelve instead of actually hitting. I promise I can teach you good, just gimme a sec to remember the basics. I promise you'll hit better than anyone in the galaxy who like, isn't a weak little human."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," you turn on him, "dickhead."

"So you're not leaving?"

"Not till I kick your ass."

You did not kick his ass.

You left sore with knots in your muscles from overextending too much trying to actually punch him. You thought that was it, he'd have to go back to work but he had some more time left before his next work block. He promised to work out the kinks in his bedroom. And when you didn't agree to go, standing firm outside the gravity chamber- he offered you candy?

"It's still good! The lady told me the mother gives birth right on the spot for optimal freshness or whatever. Shame I had to kill her and the rest of the boardwalk workers but they weren't contributing anything to the empire anyway. I've been keeping it alive for days but I think it's gonna go bad soon. I promise it's good!"

You stood in the hall. Lucan nearby trying to look busy on his data pad. Trying not to cringe at everything Ollie said.

"Now you really sound like you're trying to kidnap me." You said.

"I don't have a white van, and I promise there really is candy. Don't you wanna relax after all that? Talk, just you and me." He eyed Lucan, hovered close and whispered, "He won't come into my room. I dunno if it's rules or if he just doesn't like me but we can be alone."

There was no way you were going anywhere alone with him. Even if he was Mark, even if he was hot and desperate. He also may or may not turn you over to Sebastian on a dime. He had offered to drop the fucker if you gave but was that a lie too?

"I-"

"So you weren't lying about being with her." The voice was so cold it sent shivers up your spine.

You didn't get the chance to turn, run, or throw a punch that'd do nothing. His arm was an iron bar wrapped around your back, hand a vice on your hip. He leaned hard to your side like he was trying to fuse your bones together.

You went statue still. Eyes bugged out. Set on Ollie for help.

Ollie just smiled at you both, "Hey dude."

"Is this why you didn't show up?" Sebastian's fingers dug into your side. Lucan didn't step in nor did Thula, who was far, far behind her charge. If the emperor's pet got a little bruised, she wouldn't lose her head.

"I should'a texted you." Ollie absently fidgeted with the sleeve of his suit, making the mini data pad glow on his forearm. "Buuut it's better to hear good news in person, yeah?"

"Good news, huh?" He jostled you a little as he said, smile stretched wide.

You saw it in the malicious gleam in Ollie's eye. He was going to rat you out for the fun of it. To test how you'd react. If you'd learned a thing at all from a single lesson. You shook your head imperceptibly.

Ollie could give you one thing. Your poker face wasn't bad but your heartbeat and body language? Dead giveaway. Sebastian didn't need to be told but the cherry on top was, "We were just training. She wanted to learn how to fight cuz she's so afraid of you. Isn't that adorable?"

Pain bloomed into your side. Beneath your flesh blood vessels popped where Sebastian's grip tightened. "That so?"

"Tell 'im (Y/n)."

You could wring the little freak's neck. "I did not say that."

"Okay but when I said it you didn't disagree soooo you did," Ollie said. "And just a heads up; denying it will only make us want to force the admission out of you. It's like, psychology."

"Whose side are you on?" Your hands came up. Slowly, slowly, as not to set off Sebastian.

"I'll only tell you if you make me." He grinned.

That's it.

Your thumb went to cross your neck. Intending to get him to attack Sebastian, kill him if you were lucky, mostly so you could get away. Your thumb made it an inch before both your hands were pressed together at the wrist and shoved down. Forced to press into your hip.

"Ah-ah." Sebastian tutted in your ear. "Can't have you doing that again."

You looked to Lucan for help. He didn't meet your eye.

You shoved an elbow into Sebastian's side, stomped on his foot, wriggled in his grasp that didn't seem so inescapable- but it was. No matter what self defense you pulled, he didn't budge.

"Your lessons were bullshit." You snapped.

"They weren't bullshit, we just didn't get to the good stuff yet! You couldn't learn to redirect an attack if you don't know how to fight. Even if you did, you're kinda in the part of the fight where you're fucked and should probably give up. God, it sucks your powers aren't working right now, doesn't it?" Ollie didn't sound the least bit sympathetic. "And maybe I would've helped if you kissed me. Just a note for next time."

Rage flared but he was your only option of escape unless God wanted to hand you a deus ex machina on a machina platter. "I thought you wanted to help me."

Sebastian's laugh rumbled from his chest into yours. His grip hardened, eyes burned into you.

"I do." Ollie said, "It's just, you know how friends are. They bring out the worst in you." He said it like that was a good thing, smiling at Sebastian like he'd just told a joke.

They were distracted, if only marginally. You dropped your weight and tried to duck out of his arm, but he still had your wrists and caught you with his other arm. You yelled in frustration as he adjusted his hold on you, putting you right back where you were. Ollie went to make a comment, but he saw it the same time Sebastian did. The scar.

The loose band tee (surprisingly one you and the dead you had in common) you'd been wearing, had shifted, bunched up at your waist and fallen off your shoulder in the struggle. Exposing the curve of flesh that connected your neck to your shoulder. Viltrumite medicine did what it could to heal the flesh, but it'd been deep and you were only human. The scar had already cemented its existence by the time you were in hospital. A whole chunk eaten. He still remembered the taste. The slip of your red blood down his throat. Your screams.

Under their scrutiny the scar, an indent rimmed with the impressions of teeth, started to throb.

Sebastian's hand on your waist peeled off to reach for it. You tried to run but his grip on your wrists kept you with him. You pulled, tried using your weight again, but it did nothing. A rabbit in a snare.

Sebastian jerked you back into his chest. He held your arms high in the front, using his thumb to pull your collar further down while his other fingertips traced over the ridges and bumps he set into your canvas. It healed so wonderfully, like it was always meant to be there.

The touch was gentle, near ghostly but it made the wound bloom with phantom pain. Made the bones under it start to ache with the memory of teeth pressing down, down, down.

You were caught between yelling for help at Lucan, Thula, the cameras, the servants, anything- or staying quiet. Both seemed like a bad idea. He liked when you screamed.

You hadn't realized how quiet it'd gotten until Sebastian really pressed his fingers in. Exploring the scar with more nasty intent. The ragged tissue tensed under him and old hot pain made you gasp and jerk in his hold. Something ground against your ass.

"You like that?" Sebastian said into your ear.

"No, that fucking hurts." You wondered how bad it was for Seb when Sebastian got ahold of him.

Another press. The pain worsened. Another moan of pain. The other you, that old lying bitch, was so scared of him but he remembered the slick of her tight cunt. Yeah, he was a threat to the entire planet and she did was just doing what she had to to survive, but she fucking liked it enough.

He took it the wrong way or maybe he didn't, he didn't really care. Either way he said, "If I bent you over right now, I bet I could slide right in."

Ollie laughed at the comment as sick terror cinched in your gut. You grabbed at his hand with your restrained hands, tried to force it away, knowing it was useless but needing to do something. His cock twitched in response. Still, you fought, did exactly as he wanted, excited him further. His prodding worsened and so did the pain, so did the trashing. A vicious cycle.

Ollie watched you amused and resigned. "We talked about this."

"Just get him off me!"

Ollie shook his head.

"Stop pretending." Sebastian snarled. "You love it." Something about his breath on your ear, the possession in his tone, may or may not have sent a wave of heat through your body. But you were not controlled by kinks that you'd rather work out in therapy. "You get bored of the white knight bullshit, yeah? That's why you haven't fucked the emperor. You've been waiting for me. Isn't that sweet?"

Ollie's brows shot up.

Oh fuck. You gave him a look laced with the most amount of 'no, don't do that' you possibly could.

God, you looked so hot right now. Terrified and angry. He couldn't help saying, "About that... Add one to the tally, dude."

Sebastian paused.

"Ollie." You growled through grit teeth.

"What? He's my best friend, I'm gonna tell him!" He whined. "Mark would'a said something about it anyways. We already heard about what you guys did in the other Mark's cell. And on the observation deck."

Just another layer of mortification added to your situation, "He told you?"

"Well, yeah. He talks about you to anyone who'll listen that's not the council so- if we're around? We're hearin' about what you two've been up to."

You didn't get to yell at him. Not when Sebastian's hand shot around your throat and squeezed so hard you thought your eyes were going to pop out.

"What'd you let him to do you?" He sneered, jerked your neck to the side and inspected. "No marks here but mine. Couldn't have been that good."

His grip loosened for a response. You blurted the first thing that came to mind, "Nobody else bites fucking chunks out of me but you, Sebastian."

He growled in response. His grip pulsed, cut your words off long enough for him to say, "That is not my name."

Again he loosened the noose, your head swimming as you spat out. "You're not Mark here. Get over it, pussy."

Ollie crossed a hand over his chest, mouth agape, "Ooh! (Y/n)! Meow!"

You waited for immediate retaliation but Sebastian was too busy watching something down the hall. Markus. You could see his stupid quaffed hair, took a shallow breath as you waited for him. He wasn't slow, but he was nowhere near as fast as you wanted to be rescued. It was on purpose, fearing that if he moved too quickly, Sebastian would attack you like an animal.

Sebastian didn't let you go at the approach. Instead he grinned as Markus grew closer and your body relaxed. "You really think he changes anything?"

Two seconds. That's all it took for his teeth to come down, to crush and tear the scar back open, start to chisel under your skin. A tongue, lava hot, lathed over the tissue, tasting the blood, feeling your scream reverberate through your bones. His balls clenched.

He was torn away. Markus moved faster than he'd expected. Scruffing Sebastian by the back of the neck, ripping him away as safely as he could. Still, a piece of you left with him. Already slipping down Sebastian's throat. You fell to the ground, hands automatically reaching to try and stop the blood leaking down your neck, your chest. Coated in a second, but not as deep as it'd been in the desert, you were going to be fine. That's what you said to yourself as you tried not to pass out.

Markus threw him backward, didn't even wait for Sebastian to hit the floor or steady himself before he raised his arm, opened the proper menus, and pressed the button that made the fucker hurt.

You thought your scream had been piercing, but Sebastian's was worse. Shill, ear-twitching, like a howler monkey.

He went from predator to prey. Twitching on his elbows and knees, drooling blood and spit. Hands clasped uselessly over his ears as Markus stood over him. The sound only audible on the inside of Sebastian's skull.

"You are not authorized to be around (Y/n)." Markus said coolly. He leveled his gaze to Ollie, lifted a finger over the menu screen. "Neither are you."

"She came to me." Ollie lifted his hands in mock surrender.

"(Y/n) has no authority here." You knew Markus was playing a part but it still hurt. "Do not listen to her requests if they have not been approved by the emperor."

The rules were bullshit, they both knew it, but Markus was higher up. He had to at least pretend to listen.

Ollie did not. "Dude, not even Lucan says sit like that. Get the stick of out your ass."

Markus's lip twitched. "Do you really think we haven't placed the same precautions on you?"

Ollie was no fool. He knew the second he woke up after his fight with Lucan they'd done something to him. He just didn't know what. Now he did and unless you were controlling it, he didn't want a slice of that pie.

Still. He couldn't help himself. Couldn't look like a pussy, boot licking loser in front of you. "I know you did. Shock me or whatever that is if you want. Won't change the fact that (Y/n) and I are like this," his pointer and middle fingers twisted together, "and you're boring."

Maybe if you weren't around looking bloody and terrified, Markus would've activated Ollie's brain chip. Watched as he cried and writhed like the vermin he was. But he had admin duties to oversee with you, had to patch you up, had to tell you everything he'd been up to in secret. There was no time to revel in his misery. Instead he deactivated the ringer in Sebastian's head and kept his gaze pinned to Ollie as Sebastian went slack against the floor. Eyes rolled to the back of his head as he groaned. -

"Go back to your post, solider." He said.

"Ugh, yes daddy." Ollie sounded jovial but really, he was wondering if he could ever relive the murder of his father through Markus. "Bye (Y/n)." He didn't need to be told to grab Sebastian and drag him away. Lucan followed as did Thula, both avoiding Markus's pointed gaze.

In that moment, Markus hated Mark more than anything. He knew those two would've stopped them under different orders. They were told to let you get roughed up, let you be scared. And now he scooped you into his arms, voice going soft as Sebastian's cock, "Come on."

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