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Fjord was legitimately amused, and more than a little turned on, when Caleb (and Beau, yeah, sure) actually ended up wearing the harness for their entire trip to and through Rosohna. The sight of Caleb bent down at his feet, the leather hitching up the dingy cotton shirt and emphasizing the movement of his shoulders as he did a purposefully pitiful job buffing Fjord’s boots… It was fun to play, at least on his end. Fun to imagine Caleb indulging his every whim.
It was fun, too, to summon his falchion out of wherever, in front of Essik and the gods and everyone, and slide it up Caleb’s arched back to free him from the straps. The look of pure relief on Caleb’s face was… Well. ‘Fun’ wasn’t the right term, exactly.
Fjord glanced around the pleasantly-busy tavern for a moment and adjusted himself in his trousers as surreptitiously as he could. No one was paying him any mind, and truthfully no one gave a shit if he scratched himself now and then, but he knew he’d been staring at the red marks across Caleb’s neck and imagining what it would be like to kiss them away, soothe the worried skin. He wanted Caleb to know how sorry he was about the injuries. He wanted to show Caleb he’d do anything to make amends. He wanted Caleb to tell him, in exacting detail, what he needed to do to accomplish that. And he knew deep in a shameful corner of his soul that anything Caleb asked, Fjord would do.
Of course, that was just fantasy. Realistically, Fjord would just say he was sorry, that he hoped the leather hadn’t hurt too bad, and then change the subject immediately by complementing Caleb’s courage and quick thinking at the Bright Queen’s Court. Then he’d pretend to go to sleep but instead stay awake for another hour cursing his own cowardice.
So when the scrawny wizard declared that he would bunk with Fjord tonight, a jolt of adrenaline set his heart racing. This was the perfect opportunity; they were alone together already without making it A Thing, and maybe, just maybe, Fjord would somehow get his shit together long enough to make Caleb an offer.
But then Beau stopped him, taking a bit of wind out of his sails. When he finally finished his conversation with her and walked into the room to see Caleb stringing that silver wire around the perimeter his resolve fizzled, his throat tightening until all he could do was give a nod and a sort of grunt in greeting. Caleb nodded back and returned to his work, so Fjord got into bed. Caleb got into bed shortly after, the little lights he’d hung in the air extinguishing as he pulled the covers to his chin. Fjord’s mouth moved, but the lump in his throat grew until it completely blocked off any and all attempts to break the silence.
Well. Shit.
Fjord had just rolled over, shrugged the blanket up over his shoulder and settled in for a good two-and-a-half hours of disappointment in himself when a hoarse voice called from the other side of the room.
“Uh… F-Fjord.”
Oh.
“Uh… huh?” he asked, feigning bleariness.
“I appreciate you.”
The words hung in the air, suspended by the dim starlight filtering in through the curtained window.
“You what?” Fjord turned back over towards Caleb. This was not how he had expected the night to go.
“Sometimes you have to get a little bit crazy.”
This was not how he had expected the night to go at all. “What do you mean?” He felt a punch of arousal low in his gut and his cock twitched hopefully. Fjord couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He swallowed thickly. “Right now?”
“No,” Caleb said, and Fjord couldn’t tell if he was frustrated with himself or with Fjord. “You said that to me once. It was a callback… “
Goddamnit Fjord, you’re such a fucking dipshit, he thought. “Right, sorry, yeah, I just. Was almost asleep.” A dipshit and a liar. Fuck, what a mess.
“Anyway, glad we’re not dead.”
“Mmhmm.”
“This went worse than I imagined it.”
Same, Fjord thought, happy it was too dark for Caleb to see him wince.
“Good night,” Caleb said tersely.
No. There was no way under Uk’otoa’s deep blue sea that Fjord was going to let opportunity pass him by again.
“Hey, uh I didn’t say it. It took a brass pair to do what you did so, um. Thanks for not. You know. Gettin’ us killed, I guess.” Another wince. There was something about Caleb that kept him from being his usual smooth-talking self, and now his cheeks were burning hot in frustrated embarrassment.
“Well when I see my friends, uh, on the verge of possible death I am not going to stand by and do nothing.”
Friends.
Right.
“Yep. Um. I’m gonna go to sleep now.”
Fjord turned onto his back again and lay there staring at the ceiling. He could hear the soft rustle of Caleb’s arm moving over the blanket in repeated motions, surely petting his cat. Fjord wished that he had something to distract himself with too. But instead he was over-tired, wrung out and actually kind of sexually frustrated after the whiplash of Caleb’s comment. Now with Caleb not appearing to fall asleep any time soon it was looking like he wasn’t gonna get a chance to jerk one out just to get it over with either.
Grunting, he turned over again. And then again. But no matter which direction he faced, all he saw was Caleb. Caleb standing over Fjord, their roles reversed this time. Caleb, reaching down to brush his thumb over Fjord’s lips to part them. Caleb, holding Fjord’s jaw open with one hand and unlacing his trousers with the other...
He sighed again. Now he had half a chub and was definitely not getting to sleep any time soon. This was awful.
“Can’t sleep?” Caleb’s voice was just as soft as it was before, though this time it was flavored with sympathy.
“Nope.”
“Me neither.”
He turned over towards Caleb, unwilling to leave his back to the man and also unwilling to let him see the, uh, state he was in. “My brain just won’t stop runnin’, I guess.”
With a snap of Caleb’s fingers Frumpkin disappeared, and he rolled over for the first time to face Fjord, his arm curled under his head. “Would you… like to talk about it?”
No. “Well…” Fjord sighed for the umpteenth time. “Ah, nah, it’s nothin’. I’m fine. What about you? You ain’t asleep either.”
There was a moment where Fjord thought that Caleb wasn’t going to answer, but when he did it was in a surer voice than Fjord had heard out of him in a long time. “Well if I’m being honest… I’m thinking about the harness, Fjord. I’m thinking about how eager you were to get me into it.” A small smile twitched on Caleb’s lips. “And how this seems to be a bit of a pattern with you.”
“Um.” Fjord’s face burned. “A-a-ahh, a pattern?” he squeaked. “Is it a pattern, exactly? I don’t think it’s a pattern.”
Caleb rolled up to a sitting position with his feet on the floor. “Let’s see,” he said, ticking off his fingers. “First I was your accountant. Then a prisoner. Then a servant, and today a slave. Now I wonder, Fjord.” He paused, and Fjord tried desperately to will his cheeks to cool. “Is that what you’re thinking about this evening, too?”
Fjord sat up as well and pulled one knee up towards his chin. He rested his elbow there, hoping his hand and the thin blanket obscured his steadily growing arousal. Sure, his dignity was taking a massive beating but he could be a man about this. “Maybe. Maybe somethin’ like that,” he shrugged. As if his body wasn’t absolutely alight, thrilled to walk the line between a delightful possibility and a devastating embarrassment.
“Hm.” Caleb tilted his head just a little. His long neck was dotted with freckles, and his shirt collar hung open, displaying his clavicle. In the low light Fjord couldn’t make out any color, but there was no way he’d miss the gleam in Caleb’s eye as he got to his feet and crossed the short distance between their two beds.
Fjord’s mouth opened despite himself and his breathing went shallow. Caleb was standing right there front of Fjord, and it was just like in his godsdamned fucking dreams. Fjord lowered his feet to the ground and gripped the bed on either side of him as he leaned back to look up at Caleb, who looked right back down. A pulse of want throbbed low in his belly; his tongue darted out to wet lips that had become suddenly parched.
“Tell me, Fjord,” Caleb said in a dark, teasing tone. “Is that what you want? To have me at your beck and call, to serve every whim?” He crossed his arms and looked down his nose at Fjord in challenge. “To have power over me?”
Fjord couldn’t speak, transfixed by the vision in front of him and afraid to break the spell. His mind was racing for a response, but he couldn’t find one; even though ‘Yes’ seemed to be the expected answer, it just wouldn’t come out of his mouth.
It must have shown on his face in the dim light because Caleb’s eyebrows rose. He smirked, then answered his own question. “Ahh. No, I don’t think it is.”
He drew a short fingernail gently down Fjord’s neck from his jaw to his collarbone. Fjord shivered but did not dare move. Caleb was reading him like one of his spellbooks, and frankly, he loved it.
“No, I think it’s a show,” Caleb continued. “I think you like playing pretend out in public because I think that what you really want is for me to have my way with you.” After a moment, when all Fjord could do was stare at him hopefully, he asked, “Am I right?”
Fjord forced himself to swallow again and cleared his throat. Still, what came was less than a whisper. “Yes.”
The corner of Caleb’s mouth quirked up ever so slightly. He cupped Fjord’s face in his hand and said firmly, “I need to hear you say it.”
“Yes,” Fjord gasped, and he reached out for Caleb in a jerky, halting movement. He was simultaneously desperate to touch him and unsure if he was permitted. His pulse thrummed, his palms itched. It was already torture and it hadn’t even begun.
Caleb’s smile took on a certain sharpness, and he nodded once. “Good. Stand.”
Before Fjord could even register, his body was obeying for him. He was on his feet in a mere moment, his hands clasped in front of him doing a poor job of hiding his tented trousers. Caleb arched an eyebrow and Fjord’s cheeks burned again under the inspection. It sent another lightning bolt of arousal shooting down his spine and he did his level best to maintain eye contact. “What would you have me do?” It was getting difficult to maintain his usual affected drawl.
“Undress.”
Fjord had already removed his armor to sleep, but he made quick work of his trousers and smallclothes, tossing them toward the foot of his bed with no real care for where they landed. It had been ages since he’d been naked in front of another man like this. The bath house hardly counted of course; they had been there for a perfunctory wash and a taste of relaxation. Here, the air was charged. Caleb snapped his fingers, sending four beads of light to circle Fjord’s body. His eyes passed over him in an evaluative but not unkind way, and he walked slowly around him as if to inspect every inch.
Fjord shrunk in on himself, crossing his arm over his chest to grab the other and hunching his shoulders forward. He knew he was a little scrawny, and the skin on his back was all sorts of fucked up from being blown off the side of a boat. He had new scars too, from the adventures he’d been on with the Mighty Nein. Between that and the two nubs of tooth growing slightly taller than the others, he had to be quite a sight. Caleb wouldn’t be the first to reject him after getting a proper look at him, but Fjord would be lying to say it wouldn’t sting for a long time afterward. And they’d have to keep working together too, after, or Fjord would have to leave the Nein… He pushed his tongue against one of his tusks and tried to calm himself as Caleb finished his circuit.
“Good,” Caleb said, pleased. He reached out and took Fjord’s chin in his hand. “Now. Let me see this. Open your mouth.”
No… Fjord couldn’t keep the intense pang of worry from furrowing his brow. He clenched his fist, hoping the sharp prick of his nails against his palms would ground him. “What?” he whispered. “Why?”
“I want to know how careful I need to be when I fill it with my cock.”
Oh. Caleb took advantage of his surprise, sweeping his thumb over Fjord’s bottom lip and pulling his jaw open. Gods, it was better than in his fantasies: just a little rougher, just a little wetter, so much more vulnerable. He pulled in a shuddering breath, only daring to release it as Caleb let go of him.
“Good.” Fjord let go of his arm, relaxing just a little until Caleb looked down at Fjord’s cock. “Hm.” He met Fjord’s gaze, then, and with steel in his voice commanded, “Kneel.”
Fjord dropped to his knees, licking his lips absently. He reached forward, but before he could take the laces of Caleb’s breeches in his hands, Caleb swatted him away. “Hands behind your back. Will you be able to do that for me?” When Fjord nodded, Caleb arched an eyebrow. “Will you? Or will you need… help?”
“I can do it-- I will do it for you,” Fjord promised, clasping one hand around the other wrist. He looked up at Caleb in silent supplication. Please.
Caleb touched Fjord’s cheek again, just for a moment, and started pulling on his laces. It took both ages and no time at all for him to push his clothes down just far enough to free his half-hard cock. It was more slender than Fjord’s, which wasn’t unusual for a human, long and pink and so tempting. Gods, he felt filthy: to have his face just inches away, to want to taste him, feel the weight of him on his tongue, swallow him down and have his nose pressed to the patch of red hair just waiting there...
“Go on,” Caleb said, and Fjord lunged forward. He pressed the flat of his tongue to the head, licking a broad stripe down and around. Then he pulled Caleb fully into his mouth, wrapping his lips around him and dragging down the length until the tip released with a quiet, slick noise. Caleb hummed, and when Fjord took him back into his mouth and sucked, he could feel him thickening, growing harder with every little movement of his tongue.
He bobbed up and down the length, fighting to keep his balance with his hands behind his back, taking more and more of Caleb’s cock each time until the tip finally hit the back of Fjord’s throat. His mouth watered as he tried not to gag, and he tried to swallow around the thickness but it was difficult; he was too afraid of his teeth scraping the delicate flesh.
Caleb put a hand on Fjord’s shoulder and pulled back a bit until Fjord could swallow. “Easy,” he murmured, “that’s it. Now. As you were.”
How could he be so cool and collected with Fjord’s mouth wrapped around his dick? Was this not good enough? Fjord started his movements up again with renewed intensity. He wanted to pull a sound from him, a moan, a twitch of his fingers, anything to show that Fjord had the same effect on Caleb as he did on him. Fjord moaned and let his mouth get a little sloppy, just a bit, for show. Nothing. He slowed, moving up and down with increasing pressure until his cheeks were practically hollowed out. Nothing. He sucked Caleb’s cock into his mouth and relaxed his throat, letting the tip press in deeper than he ever had before--
Caleb sucked in a hiss of a breath, releasing it in a shudder. He slid his hand from Fjord’s shoulder up to cup his fingers around the back of his head, his thumb in line with the hinge of Fjord’s jaw. Fjord groaned, feeling his dick twitch with the wordless praise. He was so hard now, surely leaking precome onto the floor, and absolutely aching to feel the slightest bit of pressure… but his hand tightened around his wrist. No. Not yet. He could do this.
He started making tiny little motions up and down, and Caleb immediately tightened his grasp on the back of Fjord’s head. Fjord stilled, careful, but Caleb took up the rhythm. His hips rocked forward and back in a steady pace, each thrust going further and deeper until Fjord realized it was going to be all he could do to hold on for the ride. So he did his best to relax his jaw and keep his teeth out of the way as Caleb fucked into his mouth over and over again.
“Gods, Fjord,” Caleb breathed, “you’re being so good for me, you feel so good, you look so fucking good for me there on your knees. Do you like it when I fuck your mouth like this, Fjord? Huh? Do you like it when I stuff your face full of my cock?”
Fjord groaned as a wave of pleasure rushed through him, ending in a hard throbbing between his legs that ached to be touched. Every snap of Caleb’s hips, every filthy word that dripped from his lips stoked Fjord’s desire until he couldn’t take it anymore. He wrapped a hand around his own dick. A choked sob dragged out of him and he jerked himself harshly once, twice--
“Fjord!” Caleb pulled himself out of Fjord’s mouth and eyed him sternly.
Hot shame flooded through Fjord, darkening his cheeks and ears and chest. Another pang of arousal clenched at his chest and he whipped his hands back into place behind his back, hanging his head. “I’m sorry, I--”
“Did I say you could touch yourself, Fjord?”
“No, I--”
“Can I trust you to behave yourself?”
“Caleb, please, I want to, I promise!”
“Get on the bed.”
Fjord scrambled to his feet, trying to surreptitiously shake out the stiffness in his ankles and neck as he crossed over to his bed. “How do you want me?”
“Lie down, with your feet over the end of the bed.”
As Fjord did his best to position himself as he asked, Caleb knelt down at Fjord’s bag of holding and reached in for something. Fjord couldn’t see well enough; Caleb’s body was blocking any sight of what he pulled out of the bag. But that was fine, he could be patient. He could be good.
Caleb returned almost soundlessly. “Ah, look at you,” he murmured, climbing onto the bed to kneel at Fjord’s head. He took Fjord’s forearms and gently moved them up to rest on either side of Caleb’s knees. “If you can hold them there, you may begin again.” His cock hung low over Fjord’s lips; apparently the momentary delay had his erection flagging. But that just meant Fjord had some ground to make up. Eagerly he tilted his chin up and opened his mouth, inviting Caleb in.
In this new position, Fjord couldn’t move his mouth very far up and down Caleb’s length, but Caleb seemed all too happy to take up the responsibility of movement. At this angle Caleb could go deeper, and Fjord tried to breathe slowly through his nose to avoid gagging. But Caleb’s cock grew thick again, heavy and hard, and each little thrust went further than the last. His balls bounced against Fjord’s nose, making it even harder to breathe.
Saliva flooded his mouth and dribbled out of the corners. His eyes teared with the effort of doing a good job and from once again finding his dick in desperate need of touching. He was so unbelievably hard, so wild with want that the only thought in his mind was please, please, please. Fjord arched his back then fell back onto the bed. Again, a third time, all but humping the air above him. He needed to be touched, he needed something to rut against, he needed.
Fjord’s fists flexed open and closed with nothing to grab. He started to reach up but Caleb grabbed his forearms again, holding them fast, keeping Fjord from relieving the deep ache between his legs.
“You’re so good for me,” Caleb gasped. “You’re doing so well, just a little while longer, Schatz.”
A new moan ripped out of Fjord and he gripped Caleb’s arms for all he was worth. In the back of his mind he was sure his nails were breaking skin, but he could do this. He could wait just a little longer. He wanted to hear Caleb come for him, wanted to feel it hot on his tongue, wanted to taste it, swallow it down and lick his cock clean.
“Gods you’re beautiful like this,” he continued, breathing heavily. “I wonder how you’ll like it if I open you up and fuck you, want to feel you underneath me, want to hear you call my name as you come around my cock…”
Tears streamed out of Fjord’s eyes, he was so desperate with want. He felt like just a little more of this would have him coming completely untouched. But Caleb pulled his right arm away from Fjord’s, and he moved like he was reaching for something even as his hips stuttered forward in a few short, aborted thrusts.
A moment later a hand, hot and firm and oiled, gripped around Fjord’s length. His mouth flew fully open in a sob. Finally. Caleb tugged at Fjord’s cock in time with his own thrusts as Fjord pushed back against the beautiful pressure. The twisted knot that had been slowly tightening inside him grew with each drag of Caleb’s palm over the head of Fjord’s cock until both of them were crying out for each other. Fjord’s left hand still gripped Caleb’s forearm, his right twisting in the sheet as Caleb wrung his pleasure out of him.
Once, twice, three times more and Fjord crested with a deep groan. His spend shot up over his chest and covered Caleb’s hand even as he worked him through the orgasm, and a moment later Caleb gave one last thrust into Fjord’s mouth with a ragged sigh. Fjord swallowed eagerly, the salty tang hitting the back of his throat almost like a breath of seawater. But Caleb still held him fast even as he fell back to a sitting position on the bed.
After a few deep breaths Fjord rolled over to look Caleb in the eyes. He felt a dopey grin spread across his features, which Caleb didn’t exactly match, per se, but he did smile back as he wiped his hand with a rag. Fjord cleared his throat and pulled himself together enough to ask, “So uh. Was that… okay?”
“Okay?” Caleb laughed a bit incredulously. “Fjord, you were wonderful. Come here.” He opened his arms and Fjord crawled up to rest in the crook of his shoulder. Caleb pressed a kiss into his hair and rested his cheek there. “You were wonderful,” he repeated. “Thank you.”
The motes of light Caleb created had long since gone out, and now that the heat of the moment had died down Fjord yawned deeply. “Oh good.”
“How are you feeling?” Caleb handed him the rag, his other hand doodling nonsense over the skin of Fjord’s arm.
“Tired.” He mopped himself up lazily, then tossed the rag to the ground.
“Then rest. We’ve been through a lot the past few days, and we have a busy day tomorrow,” Caleb replied. He patted Fjord’s arm and made to get up, but Fjord held fast.
“Stay with me?” Color flooded Fjord’s cheeks but he forced himself to hold Caleb’s gaze. “Just for tonight anyway?”
“...All right.”
The two of them shifted into a more comfortable position, curled against each other, and Caleb snapped his fingers. Frumpkin appeared and padded up to settle on the pillow just above their heads. Fjord sneezed and Caleb chuckled.
“No, no, don’t worry about me,” he grouched, though he did scoot a little further down on the bed away from the cat, who gave a perturbed mrrp!
“Good night, Fjord,” Caleb said quietly.
“Good night, Cay.”
As they relaxed into each other and their breathing deepened, the events of earlier that day faded away. They may have just arrived in Rosohna, taken a huge gamble on the Bright Queen, and set things in motion so grand the seven of them couldn’t even fathom, but for tonight Fjord was safe, and comfortable, and he drifted off to sleep with a cat purring away in his ear.