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thestarsarebrighterinthistown · 1 year

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Younghwi's time in the Crescent coven was purely survival. With his curse repressing most of his magic, he fell to the mercy of the Crescent leader Foster, a heretic who enjoyed collecting familiars as trophies. During his time there, Younghwi learned the pecking order quickly and detached himself from anyone and everyone, his only goal to survive and somehow escape. It was there he met Sofia, a fellow familiar and one of Foster's favorites. He would also meet Rose, a coven member he'd end up murdering--and he'd pay the price for that dearly.

cw: implied abuse, sw + coercion into sexual favors, degradation (mild), dubious consent

--- “Ah! A-ah! Fuck, wait! I’m, I-I’m--!"

Her muffled pants against the pillow turned to a loud gasp of ecstasy as she went limp underneath him. His hand, wrapped firmly around the back of her neck, slid up to tangle into her hair as he planted rough kisses around her jaw.

She chuckled breathlessly, her eyes fluttering closed as his fingers tightened around her dark, damp locks.

“You need to go easy on me,” she joked, but her words faltered a little in another gasp as he pulled her head back up from the pillow by her hair.

“You deserved that,” he growled against her ear, husky and dripping with a sultry contempt. “Why should I go easy on you?”

She nodded quickly, turning enough to meet his shadowed heavy eyes with her doe ones. “I’ll be good,” she breathed. “I promise.”

“Mhm,” he purred, his hand sliding to her shoulder to yank her over onto her back and grab her chin firmly in his broad fingers. “You know promises won’t stop me from punishing you, you little whore.”

Her cheeks bloomed with warmth as her eyes widened, hands twisting at her sides in the sheets. “Then punish me,” she whined. “Show me how bad I’ve been.”

“Rose!”

The door to the bedroom was suddenly thrown open, stark light flooding into the dim candlelit interior and making both their heads snap up. A figure, almost large enough to take up the entirety of the door, stepped in and flipped the light switch.

In the new light, he barely afforded Younghwi a passing disgusted glance before his attention fell on the frail women still trapped underneath him.

“There you are. Stop rolling around with the familiars at 2pm and come help pack the cars,” he barked. “Foster already has people keeping tabs on you, do you want to give him another reason to make trouble?”

She huffed in annoyance, pushing Younghwi off her firmly with one shove and pulling the covers over her. She looked even worse in the light than the dark. There was a bulgy sort of curve to her nose that reminded Younghwi of a bird, like a vulture.

“You’re a pervert,” she muttered.

“God, you think I give a shit?” The man gave a scathing look to Younghwi as he turned to leave. “He’s going to kick your ass if he finds out you’re playing with his toys, Rose.”

“Then don’t tell him,” she snapped, and her voice had gone up a breathy octave in a way that made Younghwi’s skin crawl. “Please?”

“Jesus.” The man grabbed the door handle, his nose wrinkling as he gave them both one more once-over. “Just bring the familiar back to him, he was looking for it too. You know, if you think he hasn’t started to put two and two together already, you’re an idiot.”

“Just get out. I’ll be there in five,” Rose grumbled.

The door closed with another muttered complaint and Rose began to spit out a string of curses under her breath as she threw the sheets aside, sliding out of the bed and grabbing her shirt from the floor. Her limbs were like twigs, her skin so pale it was almost blue, like she had never seen the sun.

Like a hairless cat, was all Younghwi could think. He watched her dress silently, waiting for her to acknowledge his presence again. His chest was aching, each movement like needles of ice into his skin, and his hand went reflexively over the scabbing wounds that decorated his torso.

Her influence with the handlers was something he had only learned of recently, after a particularly nasty reprobation. She had arrived with the newcomers and taken a liking to him just like she did most of the men in the coven, but he hadn’t thought anything of it. A lot of women seemed to give him attention, he had grown accustomed to it.

He hadn’t dared to believe her at first when she said she could get his reprobation days erased, but after the first time the feeling of going to bed somewhere other than the infirmary had made this arrangement more and more regular. And it was good, as long as he didn’t think about anything else, the slick of her sweat on his skin, the smell of her shampoo that seemed to stick with him a little too long.

He felt his stomach lurch with the throb of his scars and just swallowed hard.

“I’m going to kill everyone in this stupid fucking coven,” Rose was cursing, pulling her shirt over her head as she glanced up in Younghwi’s direction. That bird face twisted in rage in a moment and she jerked her chin toward him. “What the fuck are you staring at?”

What did I do? Younghwi wondered irritably, but he knew better than to say anything. He just turned away, sliding off of the damp sheets and searching for where his own clothes had landed.

“Tell Foster that you’re going to ride with me,” she said as she finished dressing and began to look for her phone. “If he asks why, just remind him that he was supposed to give me a familiar last month and conveniently forgot.”

He knew that all too well. The familiars had all been murmuring to each other about who would get "picked" for Foster's new favorite. Younghwi had figured it would be him. Foster liked to keep all the females to himself, and aside from him there were only a few other choices. But after this arrangement, Rose wouldn't let it be any other way.

“I don’t think he’ll like that,” Younghwi said. That statement would have earned him ten days of reprobation at least, which would have defeated the whole point of this afternoon. But they both knew it was true. She only laughed drily.

“Yeah, I bet he won’t.” Of course she didn’t give a second thought what would happen to him. Her irrational rage had melted away as fast as it had come, and as Younghwi gathered up his clothes from the floor he could feel her eyes burrowing into his back. “And what about you, will you like it?”

He had just put his pants on when he looked up at the question, eyes darting cluelessly. “Does it matter what I like?” he asked.

She smiled coyly, shrugging a little as she slipped her phone into her back pocket and walked over to him. “I’d like to know that you like it,” she purred. “I want you to look at me and only think about tearing me apart.”

Well, that’ll be true at least. “Would you like that?” he asked her. His voice dropped an octave, his eyes raking over her features in an dark expression that was, at this point, almost muscle memory. “Do you want men to look at you like the piece of meat you are?”

Her eyelids flared in exhilaration at that line, and she just smiled sweetly. “Just you, baby.”

It really was that easy. All that manic anger, dissolved in an instant. He could still see it, sizzling just below the surface, but it didn’t matter if he held the off switch in his hands.

“We’ll see how you behave,” he told her, and she hummed in satisfaction.

She reached out to grab his neck, pulling him down to a long kiss before turning away and gathering up the rest of her things. "Wait ten minutes, and then follow me out. If you tell anyone, I'll kill you," she chirped over her shoulder, and he watched her go out the door faster than he could reply.

Fear turned his stomach despite himself as he waited. Ten minutes. That was a long time, and they were already late. What if Foster thought he had been up to something? The idea of getting turned back over to the handlers...

Younghwi moved to blow out the candles and sucked in a sharp breath as the shift sent a burst of friction through his body. He was still rather hard, and Rose hardly cared whether he finished or not. Most days the very idea of that was repulsing enough to make him as limp as a rag doll.

A strained whine of frustration trickled from his nose--of course there was no bathroom in Rose's room, either. He sat down on the side of the bed, trying to ignore the thoughts that snaked into his mind unbidden with each heartbeat pulse through his body. Warmth he could melt into. Features and soft angles. A delicate, small frame to hold and not abuse. An ear to whisper sweet and gentle things into...

Dwelling on it was useless, and he pushed those thoughts out of his mind with another soft groan. He wasn't allowed to touch himself, and certainly not anyone else.

Finally ten minutes passed, though there was little relief as the knot of burning frustration in Younghwi's chest only twisted tighter. There was nothing else he could do but rejoin with the others, and at the very least he'd be leaving this room. Maybe he could stall for time on the way over, change his clothes from yesterday's so no one would ask any questions--

As soon as he stepped out of Rose's dorm, a small figure collided into his chest and he instictively reached out to steady them. His broad hands closed firmly around small, pale shoulders, and mortification dropped to his toes as their eyes met.

"Oh! Everyone's looking for you," she said, her voice bright but soft, and far too knowing. Her eyes darted to the door he had come from, but she said nothing else--her snow-white hand rose to adjust the straps of her shirt, and Younghwi could see the red angry corners of her curse for just a moment before the fabric covered it. Indulgently heavy-handed, no doubt carved by Foster himself.

Embarrassment was closing its fist around his chest, but even more so a pang of anxiety that made him scan the hallway, one hand pulling her closer to the wall. Surprise flitted over her features, her eyebrows raising as she felt into the firm movement.

"Sofia," he murmured. The throbbing deep in his abdomen surging even lower as he felt her soft doe eyes bore into his. "Where's your handler?"

"He sent me to find you. They want us to load the truck." She paused. "Well, you. And Akira, apparently his foot is healed enough."

Sofia. Always the worrier. It got her into too much trouble.

Younghwi's tongue ran over his mouth, which had gone very dry. He willed his attention anywhere but her eyes, his fingers releasing her narrow shoulders and dropping to his sides. He already felt bad enough for grabbing her--she hated being touched by anyone, all the familiars knew that.

Sofia waited another moment before she finally ventured, "are you okay? I saw Rose leaving."

Younghwi felt something like anger toward Rose flush in his cheeks pink, though it was hard to distinguish from the rest of the unbearable warmth in his chest. Hopefully it wasn't apparent.

"Of course I'm okay," he assured her. His voice was still a little hoarse, and it made his cheeks flush darker.

From the way Sofia's gaze darted to the floor, she could certainly tell too. She wasn't one to get flustered about those things, but the idea of her feeling shy at the thought of him... He swallowed hard, a pang of guilt tamping down the thought before he could indulge it.

"I haven't seen you around as much, Younghwi," she murmured. "I heard you've been spending more days in the main dorms. Is it just her?"

"Don't worry about me," he urged softly. She was a smart girl, as young a familiar as she was. And one of the newest. "Just get back to the handlers and tell them I'm coming."

She obviously wanted to press him more, but she only gave a short nod and turned to scamper back down the hallway. Younghwi allowed himself to watch her leave, pushing any other thoughts from his mind. Watching over her was second nature. It was his job.

Still, he was happy to see her. He wasn't sure how often he felt that way about anyone anymore.

#oc:sofia #oc:younghwi #oc:rose #cw: sw #cw: implied abuse #cw: degradation #cw: dubious consent #my ocs #my characters #ocs

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