Archive of Our Own

Lars Telynnan sidled up to the bar and shifted as subtly as he could in uncomfortable pants. They made his ass look incredible, but damned if they weren’t tight. He vied with another dozen strangers for the barkeep’s attention (no mean feat, as the dwarven barkeep’s line of sight was barely above the bar itself) before he managed to order himself a drink. Make that two drinks. He was going to need them. The back of his neck prickled as the hairs there stood on end. He was being watched, and he hid a steadying breath over his shot glass with a reminder to himself that this was a good thing.

The barkeep had given him a lingering look, but if he recognized Lars, at least he remained graciously silent about it.

Well. Technically that would have been impossible, because Lars Telynnan did not exist, but Vax’ildan Vessar was fairly well known even in this part of Emon.

He slammed down his rye and twisted to lean sideways against the bar. Lars—Vax—knew damn well what an alluring figure he cut, so if his dispassionate scan of the room found quite a few eyes on him, that was no surprise. At a table towards the middle of the greatroom, a gaggle of young men traded shoves and eager whispers at one of their friends, apparently trying to either shore up his courage or pester him into doing something. No, that wasn’t the one for him. He turned away—and found the barkeep back in front of him, pushing a snifter of brandy his way.

“Compliments of the redhead,” the dwarf grunted, tipping his head towards the other side of the bar.

Vax—Lars—followed the gesture and found his gaze landing on what he decided on the spot was the one he’d take to his room tonight.

She was half-elven like him, but taller than most of their kind, with hair like a summer bonfire brushing her bare, freckled shoulders. A pale green dress embroidered with curling ferns hugged her frame—slim, but just as well-muscled as he was, which was plenty exciting in and of itself. She could probably pick him up easily. Maybe he’d get to test that theory.

The way she was looking at him certainly got his hopes up about it.

Lars saluted her with his snifter and held her gaze as he drank. She peeled off from the bar and headed his way, giving him what should have been ample time to come up with a winning line. Everything he could think of died on his tongue when she finally stood before him, eyeing him openly as if he were a side of meat. All he could think in that moment was how green her eyes were, and the fact that she was taller than him.

“You’re not from around here,” she said, sparing him the terrible ordeal of having to speak first.

“Just blew in from Westruun,” he said, nodding, after the breath it took to remember his backstory.

She tipped her head and smiled, and his heart skipped a beat. Oh he really needed to not blow this. “Business or pleasure?”

Lars bought himself another moment with a sip of brandy and gave her a smile of his own. “Hopefully more pleasure than business.”

Her smile broadened. “If you’re looking for someone to show you a good time in Emon, we could help you out with that. I’m Karys.”

The inside of his head sounded like waves crashing against a shore for a moment. “Lars. I’m sorry, ‘we’?”

Karys hummed and called over her shoulder, “Eimir, this was the one you liked, right?”

We? Eimir? What? Heedless of looking openly dumbstruck, Vax’s head spun. When he and Keyleth had cooked up this little game, she’d said she’d have a surprise for him. He’d been thinking it would be something like sexy lingerie or a new strap-on, not…bringing someone else into it.

Not that he was remotely opposed to a threesome, but considering that she didn’t even get the same kind of enjoyment out of sex as he did, this was the last thing he would have guessed. He stared into space, blinking like an idiot, as a swarthy, broad-shouldered man he somehow hadn’t noticed in the crowd came to join them.

Shaun? he mouthed, looking back and forth between the two. Shaun winked. Vax’s head continued to spin.

“This is definitely the one,” Shaun—Eimir—said in a tone that went straight to Vax’s dick regardless of how confused he was. “If he’s interested, that is. What’s your name, handsome boy?”

He stopped the “V” of his own name that his mouth formed before it got out fully, and instead said, “Lars. And you are…Eimir?” He got a nod and a dazzling smile. “I must say, this is unexpected, but I am absolutely interested.”

He said so with a look to Keyleth that bordered on frantic. Her smile softened into something more familiar for just a moment before sharpening back into her previous smirk. If Vax wasn’t supposed to be in character right then, he’d have kissed her senseless.

“I’m glad to hear it. We should start at our place. It has an incredible view.”

“I do love a good vista,” Lars said, trying to recover from his stunned state. He drained the rest of his brandy and gestured at them. “No sense in wasting time.”

“Decisive, I like it,” Eimir purred, and each of them looped an arm through one of Lars’s, guiding him out into the open air.

They meandered a while, flirting outrageously while also testing each other’s dedication to character—“Karys” and “Eimir” probing for information about “Lars,” and him quizzing them on a city he already knew intimately as if he’d never been there before. Soon it was back to feeling like a game, especially when one of them broke and the three of them dissolved into snickers about it.

Their walk eventually brought them to a grand hotel. Vax was terribly aware of the gazes the three of them drew as they stepped inside, and immediately wondered how long it would be until rumors started flying—but Lars was just looking forward to a raucous night, so he did his best to sink deep into that role. A sweeping spiral staircase led them up several flights. The carpet was plush beneath his soles, the mirrors along the wall made of silvered glass. Either this place had managed to escape the Conclave’s terror unscathed, or they’d been fortunate enough to rebound in a hurry. Something ugly and resentful in Vax rankled at the luxury, but he tamped that down just as hard.

Karys let them all into a room at the end of the hall, and Lars’s eyes widened. The front room was a broad study lined in bookshelves. A harpsichord stood in a corner, gently playing on its own. A chaise longue and several overstuffed chairs clustered around a lit fireplace, screened and backless; layers of gossamer curtains took the place of a door to what he assumed was the bedroom proper. She toed off her shoes and set them by the door. The men followed suit.

“This is…a lot,” he said, maybe a little too honestly. His companions released his arms and he padded over to peer at the harpsichord. Its keys depressed with each note and chord as if there were fingers there to push them. He waved a hand over the empty seat where a player should be, and felt a little silly when there was nothing there.

“Emon likes to put its best foot forward,” Karys told him from where she now stood in front of a liquor cabinet. “Would you care for a drink?”

Part of him would have liked to have been blisteringly drunk for this in case it turned out to be a mistake. That in itself could prove to be a worse mistake, but one more drink couldn’t hurt. “Yes please. I’ll have whatever you’re having.”

She decanted three glasses of wine and passed them out. It was a good vintage. “Come and see the view.”

Lars followed her and Eimir through the curtains into an immense bedroom dominated by an equally immense canopy bed. His eyebrows rose—there were only two reasons anyone had a bed that big, and tonight it wasn’t because any of them was an overly-rich loner. Karys let him linger in front of it for a moment before gently pulling his elbow.

She led them next through a set of double doors onto what proved to be a balcony. Emon stretched before them in every direction, a swath of lights twinkling to life among a growing jagged darkness, and beyond that, the sun setting into the glittering sea.

“What do you think?” she asked.

“It’s beautiful,” he said.

“When the sun is down,” Eimir said from just behind him, with a broad hand coming to rest on the small of his back, “it looks like the night sky extends below the horizon.” That hand slid up—slowly, telegraphed—to sift through the loose ends of Lars’s hair. “It’s nothing short of breathtaking.”

Was this actually about the sunset anymore? Heat rose in his cheeks, and he hid his face with another drink of wine.

They took in the sunset and the cool ocean breeze in silence for a moment, shifting closer to each other in tiny increments. Once they’d finished their wine, Karys took what sounded like a steadying breath and broke the quiet.

“I love a good view. I’ve shown you mine.” She turned a mischievous look up at Lars. “I was hoping you’d show me a view of your own.”

Damn, when did Keyleth get so smooth? A giddy smile twisted his mouth as affection bubbled up in his chest, and he cleared his throat. “Maybe we should take this back inside?”

Eimir ushered him back to the door and held it open for them. “I thought you’d never ask.”

Karys took their glasses and set them on a lavish desk. She took her time walking back to stand before Lars, reached up to frame his face with both hands, and kissed him. Her lips were sweet with wine. When she broke the kiss she turned Lars’s head towards Eimir, who leaned in to kiss him as well.

Vax nearly broke then and there. He’d dreamed of this, literally. A larger, masculine hand laid across Karys’s—Keyleth’s—and he opened his mouth for the other man’s tongue. It was as brief as it was sweet, and it was going to break both their fucking hearts when the morning came and they went their separate ways. He searched Shaun’s eyes for any hint of doubt—searched Keyleth’s for the same—and he saw only a warmth that threatened to melt his very bones.

”Are you okay with this?” Keyleth whispered.

Was he? Was this worth how much it would hurt to live without it afterward? They’d come this far; backing out now and wondering what might have been for the rest of his days would hurt worse. Keyleth was offering him a priceless gift. He’d be a fool to reject it. He was a fool, but not that much of one.

He took both their hands and squeezed. “If both of you are, then I am too.”

They squeezed back.

Keyleth took another deep breath, and then she was Karys again. “Tell me, Lars, how are you with following orders?”

His eyebrows flew up and his ears pricked up. “I can be very good at following orders.”

She smirked, and oh boy, was he ever in for it. “Good. Let me explain the rules to you then: do as I say, when I say, and you’ll be rewarded. If you disobey, or if you take too long to follow orders, you’ll be punished. If I tell you to do something you really don’t want to do, you can say, ‘No, thank you,’ and I’ll rescind the order. Do you understand?”

“I understand,” he nodded, and he could only explain away part of his dizziness with the wine. Eimir slid around behind him, one hand on his bicep, the other on his hip. Lars leaned back against the warm, solid column of his body as much for support as in invitation.

“Tell me what you’ll say if you want something to stop,” Karys said.

“No, thank you,” he recited immediately.

“Good,” she said. The praise went straight to his head. “That’s a good start. For that, you’ve earned a reward.”

Karys leaned down to kiss him again. This time around there was nothing chaste about it. She licked the seam of his lips, and when he parted them for her, she thrust her tongue against his before nipping his bottom lip, hard. He couldn’t help but groan as she bit her way down his jaw and neck, then kissed her way back to his mouth to claim it again. At the same time Eimir’s hands kneaded his hips, and he pushed back to feel the growing line of arousal pressing against his backside. He could have kissed her for hours, but she pulled away, and used a firm grip on his hair to stop him from chasing after.

She licked her lips and looked him up and down. “You’re good with your mouth. I’d like to see what else you can do with it soon.” Her cheeks turned an incandescent red as she tipped her head up and said, “Eimir, undress him for me.”

“Of course, my lady,” Eimir purred. He turned Lars around and held his gaze while working his shirt open button by button. His eyes lingered on the dark mark over his heart, but he didn’t ask.

Vax didn’t know what to say, so he let himself relax and allowed himself to be undressed. His head was still swimming. He’d spent so long torn between his desire for Keyleth and his desire for Shaun, and when he’d let the latter down not even knowing if the former would ever return his feelings, it had been like cutting off a limb, in a way—cutting short a thread of possibility to hang onto another, uncertain line. But here they were, Shaun’s deft hands brushing the skin of his chest and belly, pushing silk off his shoulders and rubbing firmly up his arms, down his sides. What was he supposed to think? Was he really so greedy that he’d take one night of pleasure, played as if there wasn’t all that weight of history between them, when it would ruin Shaun’s chances of truly getting over him? It seemed cruel, and he wanted it desperately all the same.

As Shaun plucked at the buttons of his trousers, he leaned in to whisper into Vax’s ear. “I know what you’re thinking, darling boy, and you aren’t using me. It’s alright. Let us take care of you.”

“I didn’t think you could read minds,” he whispered back.

Shaun kissed his cheek, chuckling. “I can’t. It’s written all over your face. Relax. We’ll talk after. Right now Eimir and Karys are showing Lars a good time.”

Vax nodded, took a deep breath, and pulled the persona back over himself like a cloak. As Lars, he sucked in air as Eimir peeled his pants down and helped him step out of them. He wasn’t yet quite at half mast but he was getting there. Eimir hummed approvingly, stroking up his thighs, and turned him around again.

The spot where Karys had stood was empty. Lars instead found her perched, proud and composed but for her still-raging blush, on an armchair beside the bed. She gave him yet another hungry, up-and-down stare and beckoned them closer. “Good. Bring him here, I’d like to see him better.”

Eimir led him over with a hand placed firmly on one bare asscheek. Lars’s cheeks burned as if he’d never done this before. Eimir guided him by the hips into a slow, full turn in place.

“I know I like what I see,” he rumbled. “Does he please you?”

She smirked, eyes sharp. Lars, he decided, got looks like these all the time, but Vax had never been subject to such naked appraisal from Keyleth before, and it threatened to turn his knees to water.

“He does,” she said lightly. “I think he’d look even better on his knees.”

His heart hammered in his chest. He didn’t have to be told twice—he hit his knees hard enough that even through the plush carpet it smarted.

Karys swallowed thickly. “That’s definitely better. Lars, turn for me, that way.” She pointed, and he followed, shifting so that he was facing Eimir and looking up at him; his cock was right in front of his face and clearly interested. “Eimir, would you—“ She faltered a bit, clearing her throat. “Eimir, give him something to do with that clever mouth.”

“I know just the thing.”

Eimir petted his hair and cupped the back of his head, using that gentle grip to pull him forward. Oh, gods, this was happening, this was really happening. He stared up into the heat of his old flame’s eyes, gripped the base, and licked—

“Stop.”

Lars froze; they both looked to Karys. “Did I do something wrong?”

She bit her lower lip before telling him, “I said I want you to use your mouth. I didn’t say you could use your hands.”

Ah, shit. He dropped his hand to his thigh like he’d been burned. “Sorry.”

“Not yet you’re not. Get on your hands and knees, and then put your head down and your butt— your ass up.” She tipped her chin up imperiously to recover from the stumble.

She did warn him about disobedience. Eimir made way for him to comply. It was a familiar, comfortable position that usually came with good things, but he trembled, frantically wondering what his punishment would be.

Graciously, she told him: “You disobeyed, so Eimir is going to spank you. Five times.” There was a little tremble in her voice, and despite his trepidation, pride swelled in him for how well she was filling a role that called for so much confidence. She was giving him space to object, too. Clearly she’d put a lot of thought into this. Clearly, he realized, she’d talked with Shaun beforehand about this. He didn’t have time to contemplate what that conversation must have looked like before—

CRACK! Eimir’s hand came down hard on his bare ass, and Lars yelped and pitched forward.

“One.” More quietly, Eimir asked, “Was that too hard?”

Lars shook his head. He’d allowed it to take him by surprise, but the burn left behind by the impact was surprisingly pleasant.

CRACK! “Two.” This one hit the other cheek. Lars hissed between his teeth but he stayed put this time, determined to redeem himself in Karys’s eyes.

Three, four, and five alternated as well. He was trembling a little by the end of it, but it wasn’t bad. Hell, he could have taken another five, he was sure; but he didn’t feel like testing his luck by volunteering for more. Then Eimir rubbed both cheeks, and that punched a high-pitched noise out of his closed mouth—it stung almost as much as the spanks themselves. Soon, though, the sting gave way to a brighter, tingling burn, and it faded further into something soothing. He couldn’t help but imagine those hands slipping between his cheeks. The spanking had killed his erection, but the rubbing brought it back.

Lars turned his face on the carpet to look up at Karys. Her face was still as red as his ass must have been, and she was clearly making an effort to keep her own breaths even. Did this give her a rush of power? He hoped so. Was this something she’d always wanted to try, or was it for his benefit? When they had sex, just the two of them—and he knew full well that was mostly for his benefit—they both liked it when she told him what to do, where to touch, but it had never been this…intense. This ritualistic. 

He shivered again. Wherever this came from, it was gratifying to see her so excited.

She smiled giddily at him when their eyes met, but then she remembered who she was supposed to be and looked down her nose at him. “Good. You can get back up now, but stay on your knees. Let’s try that again: keep your hands behind your back this time.”

“Yes, my lady,” he said as he rose, and he was rewarded for the honorific with an indulgent smile.

Eimir took his place in front of him. He was fully hard now after the spanking, and that was interesting too. He took Lars’s cheeks in gentle hands whose thumbs rubbed his cheekbones, and pulled him down so his mouth met Eimir’s cock once more.

It had been a long time since he’d sucked a dick, a real one, but he remembered all his old tricks, and reasoned that Lars got his lips around a hard cock often enough. He nosed his way down, breathing in the musky scent of Eimir’s sex, before opening wide and using his tongue to guide the head into his mouth. Both of them groaned. Wanting to show off, he pushed down to fill his own mouth and then his throat, as far down as he could go without gagging. Either that wasn’t as far as it used to be or Eimir was longer than he’d estimated, but the man’s high gasp above him and the fingers coming to clench in his hair told him he was still doing a damned good job.

He took his time about it. He sucked hard while pulling back, hummed deeply while sliding back down. He set his own rhythm—more than half-hoping to drive Eimir wild enough with impatience that he’d use Lars’s mouth properly.

Damn him, he held out quite a good few minutes, but once he was panting and his hips were jerking a little on their own—though Lars was still going so very slowly—Eimir gasped, “My lady, may I take him?”

She blew out a breath, but Lars couldn’t see what was going on with her face at the moment. “Just his mouth,” Karys said. “In fact, you know what, I’d like to see how much he can take. Lars, since you won’t be able to speak, tap his leg three times if you need to stop. But I expect you to take as much as you can.”

“Thank you, my lady,” Eimir said, speaking for both of them. His eyes met Lar’s, and he smiled. “I’ve been looking forward to this.”

He took the sides of Lars’s head in his hands, gently at first, then firm as stone, and used that grip to pull him down hard enough to make him gag. Still, Lars did not tap out. Eimir pulled Lars back, and then down again, and again, and again, setting a rhythm of his own that was far faster, damn near brutal.

Lars’s eyes watered. He struggled for breath, gagged again and again, his own cock throbbed, but he did not tap out. He clenched his fists hard behind his back and gripped one of his own wrists to keep his hands from betraying him. At some point Eimir switched to holding his head still to fuck into his mouth instead. It was, dare Lars think it, glorious.

Soon Eimir panted out, “My lady, may I come?”

She hummed thoughtfully and said, “No. No, not yet.”

Eimir blew out a frustrated breath. He hadn’t stopped swinging his hips. “Then I’m going to have to stop,” he said with forced cheer.

“Then you can stop.”

With a great exhale, Eimir pulled Lars’s head back so his cock popped out of his mouth, and rested with it pressing a spit-slick line against his cheek. They both heaved for breath for a long, otherwise-silent moment before it occurred to Lars to say, “Thank you, my lady.”

“You’re welcome,” she said, indulgent and heated. “You should thank him too. Kiss his feet.”

Vax’s face pinched. For all he teased his sister about his own smelly feet, and vice versa, putting his mouth on any part of a foot was a bridge too far. “No, thank you.” He winced harder as he said it, uncertain what would happen, but suspecting he’d be punished for disobedience again.

But Karys—Keyleth—said, “Oh. Okay. Consider the order rescinded. Thank you for telling me.”

He blew out the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding, and nodded. It was safe. Saying no when he meant it was safe. A little knot of tension he also hadn’t realized he’d been carrying unwound inside him.

“I think you’ve earned a reward for doing such a good job. Stand up. Eimir, I want you to….” She faltered again. “Touch him for one minute. Lars, do not come, but you can hold onto him if you need to.”

He groaned as he stood, and draped his forearms over Eimir’s shoulders. They made eye contact again as Eimir took him by the hips, turned him around, and pulled Lars flush to his own front, forcing Lars to hold onto his sides instead. Lars gasped as Eimir wrapped a hand around his cock and slipped his other fingers between his asscheeks to tease his hole. Thank the gods he’d thought to make himself clean there on the off chance they’d do some ass play. He let out a quavering cry, hips rolling into a firm grip and then back against teasing probes. Eimir’s fingers were big and they were soft, and gods, Lars wanted him to hold tighter, wanted him to plunge into him, he wanted to be filled to the brim. His thoughts were both bright and dull at the same time, both sharp and slow. It felt like a dream.

“I hope she’ll let me get inside you here, darling,” Eimir murmured against his ear. Lars let his head roll back to lie against his shoulder. “Would you like that?”

“I’d like that so much,” he panted. It didn’t even occur to him to count the seconds. All he needed to do in the moment was to hang on and be good. But it ended all too soon as Eimir took his hands away, and Lars whined at their loss.

“What do you think we should do with him next, Eimir dear?” Karys said. Her tone was light, but when Lars looked over her blush had traveled all the way down to her sternum now. He must have been in a similar state, pale as they both were.

Eimir hummed thoughtfully, wrapping his arms around Lars. If that happened to wedge his cock right into the cleft of Lars’s ass, well, he certainly wasn’t complaining. “You do like a view, as you said. And he clearly likes attention to his delicious little bottom. Why not enjoy a view of this beautiful thing getting some more of it? That way we all get what we want.”

She hummed back. “I like that. Take him to the bed. And how about…. Did you remember the rope?”

The rope? Vax’s eyes widened. He couldn’t possibly love her any more fervently than he did in that moment.

“How could I forget,” Eimir purred. He picked Lars up as if he weighed nothing—literally, and it only belatedly registered that he’d spoken an incantation just prior—and carefully deposited him face-up on the bed before fetching some items from a nearby bureau. Next to Lars he set down a spool of vibrant purple silk rope and a squat glass jar, and Eimir climbed up to kneel beside him on the bed, both awaiting orders.

Her chair seemed to have been positioned with this in mind, because she only had to shift slightly to get a perfect viewpoint of them. “Here’s what I want you to do. Eimir: first, tie his wrists together and to the headboard. Then you can touch him wherever you want, any way you want—but you can only use parts of your body that are above the waist. Understood?”

“Yes, my lady,” Eimir agreed.

“Good. Lars: you can be as loud or as quiet as you want, and you can come when you can’t hold back any longer, but if you do, you will owe me two more. Understood?”

Three times? Two was doable; three would be pushing it.

He liked pushing it.

“Yes, my lady,” he agreed.

“Good. Go ahead and get started.” She leaned back in the armchair, legs primly crossed, as if she were about to watch a play instead of her lover and one of their best friends fucking.

Eimir made a complicated gesture, and the rope wound around Lars’s wrists of its own accord. It was as soft as it looked. His own heartbeat sounded like the roar of waves against a rocky shore; everything else grew quiet, distant. All he had to do was be good.

Once the knots were settled, Eimir tested them by slipping a finger between the rope and Lars’s skin to make sure there was slack. “Try them out,” he instructed.

Lars tugged a few times, twisted to and fro, but the knots held his wrists up above his head.

“Wiggle your fingers for me.” He did so. “Can you still feel them? Any tingling?”

“They’re fine,” Lars said, dreamily.

“Good. Good boy. Lift your bottom off the bed for me.”

He planted his feet on the comforter and complied. A moment later he found a pillow sliding under him, so that when he relaxed again his hips were held aloft by a few inches.

“Good,” Eimir repeated. “Spread your legs for me. Just like that, you’re doing so good. I’m going to put a finger inside you now.”

It sounded like leaving space for objection again, but there was little he wanted more in the moment. He nodded swiftly and tilted his hips, breathing “Please, yes please!”

Dimly he was aware of Eimir opening the jar, and then more keenly as the oily, floral scent of lubricant reached his nose. A moment later Lars jolted ever so slightly at the cool, slick touch of a fingertip rubbing circles around his hole. Their eyes met like lodestones snapping together, and at Lars’s nod, Eimir began to push inside.

It stung just a little at first—nothing more than the usual tiny pinch of starting to stretch. It would go away soon enough. He breathed out a measured breath and relaxed, allowing that finger to slide deeper into his body. Lars…Lars started losing his grip on his mask, on his Larsness itself, and Vax squirmed and sighed at the insistent touch. He wanted to touch back, to bury his fingers in wavy black hair, maybe tug on it in his throes, but the rope held fast. Here and there he caught glimpses of Keyleth. Her face was still aglow, her mouth slack as she sat forward and peered at the men. I love you, he mouthed to her, and she mouthed it back.

He floated through a sea of sensation. He’d kill for a hand or mouth on his cock; it strained, hard and alone, bumping against his belly as he twisted and writhed. 

“Do you think you’re ready for another?” Shaun asked.

“Yes, yes, please, do it,” he panted.

“Please what?” came Shaun’s bemused demand.

Vax let his head thunk back against the pillow. He stared up at the curtains hanging from the bed’s tall canopy, trying to think. “Please, sir,” he tried.

That was the correct answer, it seemed. “Well how could I deny such a polite request?” The second finger slid inside, and they both groaned at how easily he took it.

Shaun crooked his fingers and Vax cried out, if quietly, and spread his legs wider. He was going to lose his mind. The sound pitched higher when Shaun pitched forward to take his cock into his mouth. Oh, gods, he’d dreamed of this, too. Years of longing crashed into him—when this was over, how was he supposed to live without?

His head went even fuzzier, and he tried again to put a hand in Shaun’s hair only to be stopped well short. His frustrated growl smoothed out into yet another groan. Their friend’s mouth was Elysium. His hips moved of their own accord, but Shaun held him down, and he panted out “Yes yes yes,” delighting in the restraint. He was going to come soon. There was something he had to remember. Something he was supposed to do. A limitation. He tested the rope around his wrists again. That wasn’t it, but it was harder and harder to think the closer he came to the edge.

“I’m gonna come,” he warned Shaun, who only hummed (the vibrations of it were ecstasy), fingered him faster, and sucked harder. Vax’s body went taut, back arching off the bed and ass clenching around the broad fingers stretching him open, and a pleasure approaching rapture washed over him cock-first. It left him sweating and trembling, weak in the limbs, but when overstimulation started kicking in and threatening to fry his nerves Shaun kept bobbing his head, kept rubbing his prostate from the inside, and Vax wailed.

“Too much, it’s too much,” he whined. Shaun hummed sympathetically but didn’t let up. “Stop, stop, I can’t—”

“Do you need to use your phrase?” Keyleth asked, serious but mild.

Vax’s face screwed up. It was agony. Entirely too much sensation—he couldn’t keep his head upright—but he shook his head. He wanted to impress her more than he wanted relief.

“That’s one, then,” she said. “Now you owe me two more.”

“I can’t, I can’t,” he huffed. By then his cock had gone soft but Shaun, the absolute maniac, still had his mouth around it. Vax’s eyes stung. He kept begging and whimpering through it, soon punctuated by helpless sobs as tremors wracked his body.

After what felt like hours but was likely a mere handful of minutes, Shaun relented at last. He kissed the head of Vax’s cock and even that touch was enough to make him whimper again.

“You’re a vision,” he crooned, carefully extracting his fingers. “Do you need a moment before we try the next thing, Lars dear?”

Lars? He— right, fuck, they were supposed to be in character. He couldn’t trace exactly when all of that had fallen away. With a deep and unsteady breath, he nodded. “Please,” he whispered.

“Alright,” Shaun—Eimir—said, voice dripping indulgence, and looked to Karys.

She nodded. “I think he did very good. Go ahead and give him a reward.”

“With pleasure, my lady.” With a gesture, the hand he’d used to finger Lars became clean. Eimir sat up on his knees and rubbed gentle touches all over Vax’s—Lars’s body, everywhere except his aching groin and the bruise-like mark on his chest. Here and there he peppered in kisses and little whispers of praise. Gods, that was nice.

Slowly, gradually, all those fried-out nerves eased into a proper afterglow. Lars’s tears dried up and his breaths came easier. He split his time between turning his boneless smile on Karys and on Eimir.

“Don’t fall asleep,” Karys said with the ghost of a chuckle. “We’re not remotely done with you yet.”

“I won’t,” he promised, though a nap did sound lovely right about then. “I think I’m good to continue. It might take me a while to come again, though.”

“Oh, we’ll see about that,” Eimir chuckled. He slid off the bed and returned to the desk for a moment. When he came back to the bed, he knelt between Lars’s knees and showed him something that took a moment to suss out.

It was a good eight inches long and made of scintillating violet glass. The length of it was twisted and ribbed, with rows of gentle nubs spiraling up from the flared base. It was quite thick, though the tip was tapered into a gentle, blunted-off tip.

That taper would make it easier to insert, he realized with a gulp.

“Do you like it?” Eimir purred. He slid a suggestive grip up and down the toy. “I fancy myself something of a designer, and this one is new. Would you like to see me test it out on him, my lady?”

“That sounds like a lot of fun, yes,” she agreed.

He turned back to Lars and tipped his head down to him. “Would you like to help me test it out?”

Lars’s jaw worked for a moment before he managed to nod and then finally to say, “Yes, yes sir,” from a mouth gone dry. That thing was going to be a challenge. (They must have talked about this, too, Vax realized; Keyleth knew he favored toys with some heft to them.) He watched, rapt, as Eimir coated the toy with generous dollops of lubricant. His cock made a weak attempt to stand up but it was still a little too soon.

Eimir spoke a word he couldn’t understand and touched the tip dead-center on his hole. Lars made a surprised noise: he’d expected it to be cold, but it was as warm as flesh. He should have known it would be enchanted. That thought and all others fled his mind in the next moment as it pressed inside.

He was right: the narrower tip made insertion easier than it would have been were it as blunt as a real cock. It opened him gradually and he let himself groan.

“You must tell me if it’s too much,” Eimir warned.

“I will. I mean, understood.”

“Good.” Eimir smiled down at him while working it back and forth inside him, giving him a little more length with every stroke.

Gods, the inches just kept coming. It was so big, and he whispered as much without really thinking. Over time his cock woke back up and began stiffening—but the toy hit the part inside him where his gut folded, and he grunted in discomfort. “Easy,” he whispered.

“You’re taking it so well,” Eimir said, voice syrupy-warm. “Just a little more. Can you take a little more for me?”

Lars winced but nodded. “Slowly, please, it takes a little work to open up where it’s hitting right now.”

Eimir nodded back. “I’m familiar with that part, don’t worry.” He pressed more carefully, took it nice and slow, while Lars fought to relax around the intrusion. These careful ministrations won out and coaxed his insides into unkinking, and when it slid the rest of the way inside in one smooth push, he threw his head back with an astonished cry. It felt like being hollowed out when Eimir pulled the toy back this time. Now the strokes were—still slow, but deep, so very deep it brought tears back to Lars’s eyes.

“Can you come just from this?” Eimir asked.

Forming words was difficult. He shook his head. “I don’t know. Rarely. I wouldn’t count on it.”

“Oh that sounds like a challenge,” Karys chirped, amused. “Eimir dear, why don’t you show him that extra feature you told me about, and we’ll see if our pet here can manage to impress us.”

“With pleasure, my lady.” Eimir spoke another unintelligible word, and the toy— Lars yelped because the toy began to vibrate. His hips bucked a few times and clear fluid leaked from his cock. The vibrations rolled through him as Eimir stroked it in and out of his ass faster than before. 

He’d never— nothing had ever felt like this before. His hole and prostate were alight with sensation. He shouted over and over, twisting against his bindings, helpless to do anything but take what he was given.

“I think he likes it,” Karys laughed, though not unkindly.

“Harder, harder, please, I’m gonna—”

“Turn it off,” Karys commanded.

Another word from Emir and the vibration stopped. Lars wailed in protest. “No, please, bring it back, I was so close!”

“Soon,” Eimir promised.

Lars whined about it, but it caught in his throat because Eimir thrust the toy in harder, faster, just like he’d asked. He was sweating all over. His toes curled. He could hardly get a breath—every thrust of that glass behemoth punched the air out of him. He craned his head, sweat-damp face pressed against his own shoulder, to watch Karys watching him.

Her face was still red, green eyes wide, and she was worrying her lower lip with her teeth. If it had been anyone else he would have expected to find her touching herself, but whatever thrill she was getting from this—and by her expression, there was no question she found this thrilling—wasn’t sexual, or at least not the same way he experienced it. Even after all this time he didn’t quite get it (the same way she didn’t quite get his sexual appetites), but he’d long since abandoned the ego that made him feel like a failure for it. It was a thrill to give her a thrill in whatever way that might manifest. As overwhelmed as he was, his heart was light.

Finally she gave him a brief, soft, character-breaking smile, and showed mercy. “Turn it back on. Let’s see if he can actually do it.”

“Yes, my lady.” Eimir spoke the activation word again. This time he held Lars’s hips down with his free hand to control the wild bucking of his hips. Even harder, even faster, he plunged the toy into Lars’s ass, making pleased noises in answer to his wild shouts and pleas. His own hips swayed a little to rub the tip of his still-hard cock against Lars’s thigh. Eimir watched him with eyes that were dark with equal parts hunger and wonderment.

“Ohhh I’m gonna come, please let me, please my—ah, ah—my lady, please let me!” Lars panted. He writhed in place with his ankles now propped up on Eimir’s shoulders. His cock strained and his balls drew taut, ready to blow at a moment’s notice.

“You may come,” she indulged him, and a handful of breaths later, he did.

He came all over his own belly, making high-pitched noises between clenched teeth. It felt different, coming without contact on his dick, but he lacked the wherewithal to truly compare it. Eimir fucked him through it. His heart pounded even harder with the fear that he would keep going like last time, but blessedly, he deactivated the vibration, slowed down to a stop, and gently removed the toy.

“How do you feel?” Eimir asked quietly. A couple fingertips still wet with lube traced Lars’s rim where it struggled to close.

“Hollow,” Lars said after a moment. “Tired.”

“You owe her one more.”

“That I do,” he sighed.

Eimir looked back to Karys. “Do you have a preference for how he obeys?”

She cocked her head. “I do, actually. I think we all know what this is leading up to. I’d like you to…to. Make love to him.”

Vax couldn’t help but grin, tired as he was. Even in character, dirty talk wasn’t exactly her forte. He hiked his legs up and wrapped them around Shaun’s waist, rubbing his back with one foot since he couldn’t use his hands.

“Gladly, my lady,” Eimir said, but it was Shaun’s eyes locked on Vax.

It was happening. It was finally happening. He’d given up his chance for this long ago, but here they were, and it was happening anyway.

Eimir slicked himself down, and…no. He didn’t want to think of him as Eimir. Not on their first time. Shaun’s cock kissed his hole and both of their breaths caught. He didn’t want to be someone else for this. He didn’t want Shaun to be someone else. He couldn’t be someone else. It chafed something raw inside him—and something else came spilling out of the wound.

He smelled the night air of Whitestone. Shaun’s eyes on him, burning and terrible. He looked down at the knife in his chest, tasted blood—

“No,” Vax said quietly. His breaths came fast and shallow. He squeezed his eyes shut in denial. More firmly, edging into frantic, he chanted, “No, no thank you, no thank you, no thank you—”

All touch stopped. “What’s wrong?” the other two asked, almost in chorus.

He looked down—no, up—at Shaun’s hands, held up in forestalling. The palms faced the right way. Vax sobbed. An inkling of shame started to creep through his chest like poison but he had to— he had to— He tugged at the rope. “Untie me please.”

Without hesitation Shaun gestured and the rope unwound itself. “Did I hurt you?”

Vax shook his head but couldn’t meet his eyes yet. He rubbed his wrists and shivered. Suddenly he felt terribly exposed.

Keyleth came over to kneel at the bedside. She reached a hand out to him, and after a moment’s hesitation, he took it. “Tell me what’s wrong. Do we need to stop the game?”

“I need….” Vax swallowed thickly. “I need to…. Most of it’s good, it’s good fun, isn’t it, but the…the names. I can’t.” He shook his head. “I need to know it’s really him.” He finally met Shaun’s eyes. “I need to know it’s really you.”

He watched realization crash down on both of them like a meteor.

“It’s really me,” Shaun said gently. He held a hand out too. His palms still faced the right way. Vax took it.

“Hotis is dead,” Keyleth said quietly. “For-real dead. He can’t hurt you anymore. And I’m here. I won’t let anyone hurt you.”

He lowered his head and pulled at both their hands. They wrapped around him in silence until the trembling stopped.

“I’m sorry,” he said finally, sniffling. “For ruining the evening.”

Keyleth shook her head. “You didn’t ruin anything. You needed to stop and you told us. Thank you. I’m proud of you.” She kissed away the protest that formed on his lips, and then guided his face to kiss Shaun in kind. At least Vax finally got to feel his hair between his fingers. It was sweaty but soft.

He swiped at his face. “If all is not lost, then, I would very much like to go back to what we were doing. Just…as ourselves.”

“If you’re sure,” Keyleth said gently.

“Then we certainly can, if you’re ready,” Shaun agreed.

Vax allowed himself a moment to bask in the warmth of their voices and eyes before confirming, “I’m good, I’m okay. I want this.”

Keyleth petted his hair. “So do we.”

Gently, Shaun laid him back out on the bed. He’d gone soft, and guilt gnawed at Vax about that, but Shaun covered Vax’s body with his own and kissed him again. They made out lazily, and in time the weight lifted from Vax’s chest, replaced by a twin glow of affection and arousal. He reached down to stroke Shaun’s cock and got an approving hum. Shaun’s eyes fluttered shut and his mouth hung open. Vax couldn’t help but reach up to touch his beautiful face, and Shaun leaned into the contact. Soon enough he was hard and ready, and Vax helped guide him where they both wanted him to be.

He couldn’t take his eyes off Shaun’s rapturous face until they were kissing again with Shaun’s cock seated deep inside him. He was big for a human, which made him a good damn size by half-elven standards, but after the toy Vax took him easily enough. They groaned against each other’s mouths and set a slow, gentle rhythm, hands exploring each other’s bodies. Orgasm was a distant horizon…but he did owe Keyleth one more.

Just as he remembered this, she laid a hand on Gilmore’s arm, and he straightened up to make room for her. Still wearing her lovely dress, she scooted up to sit beside them, and took hold of Vax’s cock. He sucked in a sharp breath.

Her smile was beatific. Her grip was clever and firm. She knew his body more intimately than anyone, knew how to touch him just right to drive him wild. Vax slid a hand up her arm and sank his fingers into her hair, drawing her down for a kiss; then he did the same to Shaun. It was odd, in a way: he’d never felt more loved.

After spending so much time aroused but unsated, Shaun had to stop a few times to keep from coming without permission. His cock pulsed eagerly inside Vax even when he held still. Vax had to stop himself from clenching down and ruining his resolve.

“May I come?” Shaun panted to Keyleth.

She gave him a keen look, with a wicked little smirk. “Once he has, you may.”

Shaun blew out a breath and raised his eyebrows at Vax. “Well, you’d better hurry then.”

“I’ve already come twice, be patient,” Vax said. Keyleth gripped him harder and he ground his head back against the pillow. He wasn’t even sure if he could go a third time, but he certainly didn’t want to leave Shaun hanging. He stroked their skin and focused on the sensations they were giving him: the firm, quick movements on his cock, the delectable stretch and fullness in his ass. He watched them watching him, and that distant horizon grew closer and closer.

As it threatened to crash back over him, he locked eyes with Keyleth and whispered, “My lady, may I come?”

Somehow her eyes managed to dilate even more. “Yes. Come for us, Vax.”

He gave himself over to it—rode the wave of pleasure they wrung out of him, mouth open around a groan as his cock pulsed out yet another orgasm, if weaker this time than the first two. His mess was hot against his belly, though most of it got onto Keyleth’s hand. She quirked an eyebrow and offered it to him. He moaned low as he cleaned his own spend off her skin.

“Your turn,” she told Gilmore.

He didn’t need to be told twice. He kissed the taste of semen off Vax’s tongue and pounded him through his own orgasm, wetting him up inside, and slowed his strokes until he was too soft to stay inside.

Vax groaned at the hot, gratifying wetness spreading inside him. He hadn’t felt that particular sensation in a long, long time, and he hadn’t realized until that moment just how much he’d missed it.

“Very good,” Keyleth praised them. “You’ve both earned a reward. Come here.”

They made room for her to lie beside Vax, and Shaun laid out on his other side. Shaun whisked away the mess they’d made of each other with a little arcane gesture. Their limbs tangled together, and they spent a long, quiet time gently touching and murmuring to each other until well after the afterglow was gone.

—

The sky outside was still dark when Vax awoke. He startled for a moment until he remembered where he was. His heart pounded when he remembered who was with him.

Keyleth and Shaun were both asleep. At some point one of them had drawn the blankets over all three of them. Each of them had an arm thrown over him. Vax’s head was clearer than it had been during their game, but still…he wasn’t ready for the spell to end. He nestled back down into the warm, soft covers and watched the both of them sleep.

He didn’t have long to wait before they awoke, Keyleth a few minutes before Shaun. Once the latter had enjoyed a good yawn and stretch, he turned a lazy smile on the other two. “I suppose it’s time for a talk.”

Vax’s eyebrows rose. What was there to talk about? Probably how he shouldn’t expect this to happen again, and how to keep it from having a negative impact on their friendships. His jaw clenched tight.

“Yeah, we do need to talk. I’m great at this. Vax.” She took his hands and caught his eyes. “You know I love you more than anything and I want you to be happy. It makes me happy to see you happy.”

He nodded, swallowing dread.

“And you know that I’m not…like you. I’m not like most people, I don’t think.”

“There is no one like you,” he told her fiercely—but blinked when hurt flashed across her eyes.

“Yes, there is,” she said just as firmly. “In the way I mean, there is. I’m talking about me and sex.”

“Oh,” Vax said. Open mouth, insert foot. “That is not what I meant.”

She kissed his nose. “It’s okay. What I’m getting at is, you know I don’t…feel…the need for sex like you do. Not with other people. And you also know I’m happy to do it with you, because it makes you happy. And I know love makes you happy, too. You have so much love in you, Vax’ildan—no, look at me, it’s true. Your heart is even bigger than your wingspan. And I could be wrong about this, but I think there’s room enough for two in that heart.”

Vax…couldn’t think. He searched Keyleth’s face, and then Shaun’s, then Keyleth’s again. “What are you saying?”

“She’s saying,” Shaun said, laying a hand on Vax’s shoulder, “that if you’ll have me, it would be my immense honor to be yours the way Keyleth is.”

Vax half-turned to stare at him. “At the same time?”

They both laughed quietly. “Yeah,” Keyleth said, “at the same time.”

He felt like he was seeing a new color previously undescribed by man. His brow furrowed, then smoothed out. “Yes,” he breathed, “of course yes.”

He spent the next few minutes kissing them back and forth.

“But,” he finally said, “we live in Zephrah, and you have businesses to run—”

“We wouldn’t be the first people to make a relationship work around a busy schedule,” Shaun shrugged, “and distance means far less when two out of three have means of teleporting.”

Keyleth nodded. “Exactly, and you’ve been going to Whitestone every month anyway. You could see each other pretty much whenever you wanted.”

Finally Vax’s brain was starting to work again. As usual, it worked just a little too fast for comfort, spinning up gears of worry. “There’s something you should know first, before we make this official.” He turned to Shaun, took his hand, and laid it over the mark on his chest. Shaun gave it a curious look. “You know I am the Raven Queen’s champion. This is Her mark. What you don’t know is why.”

Shaun listened in silence as Vax told him about the deal he struck in the Sunken Tomb. His brow slowly furrowed, and his thumb swiped absently across Vax’s skin.

“So,” Vax said, sucking in a breath, “I am a marked man. Literally. Someday, I don’t know when, She will call me to Her side, and I…. I don’t think there is any power in the world short of the hand of another god that will stop Her from collecting on my promise.”

“Do you regret it?” Shaun asked quietly.

His answer needed no thought. “No. Not at all. I spent a long time feeling a certain way about it, because that wasn’t the path I’d wanted for myself, but now…now I feel like this is where fate has led me.” He patted Shaun’s hand. “But you must know, before we do anything more than we’ve done tonight, that you will outlive me.”

He let Shaun take that in. The room was silent but for their breaths for a minute or two. By the time Shaun spoke again, his eyes were rather wet. He took Vax’s face in both hands and said, “I would rather spend a day with you as mine and me as yours than a hundred years not knowing what it’s like.”

Vax closed his eyes. Shaun kissed him again, slow and sweet. He turned to kiss Keyleth just the same.

“I think this calls for wine,” Vax said, and extracted himself from their tangle. They agreed and got out of bed as well. There turned out to be a trio of robes hung up for them in the en suite, which Keyleth handed out as Vax handed out drinks.

By some strange synergy they all made their way to the balcony. It faced west, but they still had a view of the lightening sky as the night gave way to a new dawn.

That was a comfort, Vax found: no matter what became of him, the sun would always rise again.