Work Text:
To preface this fic, here is the initial sketch made by the amazing HoboVampyre:
and the amazing full color version:
Extra special bonus dedications to Charlie and Hobo for keeping me motivated - I actually finished early for once!!! I love you guys!!
THE CASTLE
“Rune—” Brand’s brain short circuited. In the way that Mayan had ingrained into him, he took in the room. No threats, just Rune, kneeling in the middle of his bed for the night, dressed - or rather, un dressed - in a confection of straps and lace and silk and shivering silver body chains. The fabric was the same silvery blue as Rune’s eyes. The color of smoke, the color of a summer thunderhead before it broke. His face was guarded, but Brand knew - he knew that his boy was teetering on the edge of a precipice, and his response would decide which way he fell.
“You look…” Brand tried. The inky blue night sky silhouetted Rune, who had framed himself perfectly in the window behind him. Golden cantrip light bounced off the chains, which trembled like Rune was trying not to breathe. “Wow,” Brand settled on. It seemed positive but also neutral enough that he could pivot. Which he had been doing all day. Mostly for the kids’ sake. He knew Max knew what day it was, why they’d splurged on parking the RVs for the night at a giant castle in Texas Addam rented out for them as their next stop - because being with the two of them in tight quarters wasn’t a good idea - and now…
“I’m sorry,” Brand said when he realized the pause had stretched nearly to Rune’s breaking point. “Am I - I must have gone into the wrong room.” Rune’s eyes went from hopeful to shuttered, so he added, “You look beautiful. Addam’s really going to love it.” Where the fuck was Addam? He’d never wanted to see him more, and that was including the day that Rune and Addam came back from the time loop. Addam would make this make sense.
“What about you?” Rune asked quietly.
“Me?” Brand asked, like he’d never heard the word before. All of his traitorous blood was headed directly to his dick. Any second now the conversation would take a turn for the worse.
“Do you like it?” Rune asked, his tone that same fragile, delicate quiet.
“It-“ Brand felt his tongue go dry in his mouth. “Of course I like it, you’re the same color as my favorite gun,” he said, feeling incredibly lame. He leaned hard against the door behind him, knees feeling like rubber.
Rune’s smile didn’t reach his eyes, not quite. The look there was too soft, and a taut wire of fear thrummed between them like a freshly-plucked guitar string. “But do you like me in it?” He asked.
“Rune—” Brand began, but Rune held up a hand, effectively silencing him.
“Yes or no?” Rune said softly. He’d never sounded more like the king he was.
“Yes,” Brand said, the admission slipping from his lips.
“Okay, then,” Rune said, sounding more like himself. A weight seemed to lift off his shoulders, and as he shifted, the chains shimmered, winking at Brand like moonlight on the ocean they’d left behind.
“Rune,” Brand started. So many things bubbled up in his throat he had to choke on them for a split second. “Rune, where is Addam?”
“Keeping our kids safe,” Rune said. “The castle’s wards are attuned to his bloodline. It’s one of the reasons he chose this spot for us. We’re safe here. We can…do what we need to, here.”
“Addam…” Brand’s brain was lagging hard. “Addam knows you’re in here…dressed like this …and he’s… not here?”
“Brand. I need you to focus for me,” Rune said. “Addam knows we are in here. He picked this stop out weeks ago. For us. Because he knew what day it would be when we got here. And he knows how I feel about you. He’s known since the start.”
Brand’s brain latched on to how I feel about you and threatened to stall out again. “And how exactly do you feel about me?” He asked, grateful for the strong oak shoring him up from behind and wishing, not for the first time, that it was Addam’s strength behind him.
“I feel like my world wouldn’t exist without you at the center of it,” Rune said. “You’re my anchor, Brand. And today - today my mind is so - I know you know. I know you know, and every year we hide from it, from each other, and from what could have been, what should have been, and I’m sick of it. I want - I need - to erase it. To start over.”
Brand’s heart was floating free inside his chest. His whole world was coming undone at the seams. “And you want me to help you erase it? Rune -”
“Don’t say it,” Rune said. “Don’t say I don’t have to, because I do have to. I’ve thought about asking for this for years now, Brand. Thanks to Addam I’m finally strong enough to handle it if you say no. We can pretend this never happened if you want to, and you can walk away and we can hide from it some more, but for me…” he took a deep breath. “For me it’s always going to be you.”
“Rune,” Brand said softly, voice hoarse with emotion. “I’m gonna need to hear you say it.”
Rune took a deep breath. The chains danced. Brand could feel the effort it took for Rune to meet his eyes. It took just as much to not flood their bond with his feelings, instead keeping it as tight as his fists. “I love you, Brand. I want you to be what I remember on this day for the rest of my life. I want a second chance with you.”
Brand’s eyes burned and blurred over. He closed his eyes and let them fall, grief and relief conjoined twins fighting for control of his heart. But hope threw the match, sideswiping all other emotions to take the lead. He focused his eyes on Rune, saw him biting his lip—
Brand was halfway across the room before he realized it. He made himself stop. “Rune.” His voice cracked. He fisted his hands at his sides, because all he wanted in the world was to cup Rune’s face in his hands and kiss the fuck out of him. “If we do this - everything changes. Because I can’t only have this once. It will kill me.” And it would. Brand had known since Rune first kissed him.
“Then everything changes,” Rune said, shrugging one shoulder and making the chains clink together like falling rain. “Addam is all for it. I think not having you is killing him, too.”
“It’s killing you?” Brand asked softly, tugging gently on this new, golden thread between them. He stepped closer, until he was standing at the edge of the bed.
“That you weren’t my first?” Rune asked, bitterness staining the edges of his words. “I regret that. That I had control over. I was young, and dumb, and I let myself get sweet-talked into it even though all I could think about was you. But the other - I didn’t. We didn’t. They hurt both of us. I can’t let them keep winning. Not when it is going to cost me you.”
“Does it bother you that you’ll be mine?” Brand asked.
“What? No, that’s what I want. I want to keep you forev- oh,” Rune’s eyes went wide as he figured out what Brand meant. “You—but I could have sworn—”
“Yeah, well,” Brand shrugged his shoulders. “Don’t make fucking assumptions I guess.” He fixed Rune with a glare, back on familiar territory. “Don’t. If you even think a single fucking joke about it—”
“No,” Rune shook his head. “I would never. I- fuck, I’m more selfish than I thought, but I - I kind of…love that.”
“Like you love me,” Brand said.
“Yes,” Rune said, lifting his eyes up to Brand’s.
“You love me.”
“Yes,” Rune said again.
“You want to be with me.”
“Brand, I want to fucking marry you,” Rune said, taking his hand. “I’ll let Addam do his own thing when he tells you how he feels, but - yeah. Yeah, I do. You want me to say it again?”
“Yes,” Brand said, because he still couldn’t fucking believe it.
“I love you,” Rune said, eyes like blue flame. “I want you to marry me. To marry us. I want you to take your place beside me in all things, where you belong. But before all of that, tonight, I want you to make me forget everything but you and me and how incredible it feels to have you inside me.”
All the air left Brand’s lungs in a dizzy rush. “Yes,” Brand said, and when he reached for Rune, Rune was reaching back. His hand connected with Rune’s cheek, his knee with the mattress, and he was sinking, falling, and Rune - Rune was right there with him, his hand warm on the back of Brand’s neck as they met each other halfway, eyes sliding shut at the last possible second, neither ready to give the other up.
The feeling of Rune’s lips on his felt like a dream.
Brand had dreamed this once - okay, more like one million times - but the reality of kissing Rune was like tasting electrified honey, impossible to describe but familiar all at once, sweet and bitter and long overdue. Brand was lost to the sensation of Rune’s skin and then his shaky exhalation because finally , finally they were kissing. Brand smelled the memory of chlorine and hot concrete and sandalwood and soft pine and felt Rune’s tongue slip out to taste his lower lip and Brand surrendered, yielding to Rune’s need without question because he needed this, too, and he loved him so fucking much it felt like his heart was shattering into a thousand pieces. No. Like a golden knife had slipped between his ribs, was scraping the moss off of some deep part of him that had been waiting for this moment for more than twenty goddamn years, and the wet flood in his chest wasn’t blood, it was magic, pouring into him, pouring out of him, and he could feel it, he could feel it again —
Brand pulled back, gasping for air, each needy gulp feeling cleaner and lighter than the last. His eyes blurred over and cleared, and he didn’t care about the twin trails of tears on his cheeks because Rune was looking up at him with wonder on his face. In reality they had barely moved, but in their souls, a lifetime of distance had been abridged, not in the hasty, desperate way it had that night all those years ago, but correctly, completely, and there was no room in Brand’s chest for anything else, not with Addam’s golden claim around the rest of his heart, humming strong and true within him.
“ Talla ,” Brand exhaled, watching Rune’s wary, hopeful, terrified expression break into joy and relief and a kind of pain only they could feel at the decades they’d so violently lost.
Rune’s breath was ragged and Brand knew he was using his second sight from the way his eyes glowed as he looked at him, through him; he needed confirmation and Brand didn’t know how else to give it than throw the bond between them open wide so Rune could feel for himself that an immense weight was now gone from his soul, burned away like so much ash. The geas. Burned away by the fire of their love for him.
“Oh, Brand,” Rune’s voice broke as his own tears clawed their way free of his control and he threw his arms around Brand’s neck with a broken little sob because there it finally was, their Talla bond, clean and new and so fucking strong and pulled him in for another kiss, the two of them overbalancing and falling to the mattress together, Brand twisting to make sure Rune was shielded from the world by his body. Rune’s hands slid into his hair, desperate, gentle, not letting him get further away than was absolutely necessary to breathe, kissing him over and over again. One word echoed through Brand’s mind, his heart — Rune’s voice, whispering Mine.
Brand pulled back, wiping the tears from first his face, then Rune’s with a weak chuckle because holy fucking shit. Rune kissed the side of his hand, then the tear-salted skin of his palm before he laced their fingers together, letting his arm go over his head, Brand pinning him to the mattress with his body weight, one leg already slotted between Rune’s thighs. He looked up at him, face radiant with hope, and Brand surged down to kiss him again, an urgent, demanding exploration of Rune’s mouth.
“I love you,” Brand said when he pulled back again. It didn’t feel too loud for the echo-y room, or for the moment. It felt as perfect as their fingers laced together.
“Brand,” Rune said, his voice shaking, “I love you so fucking much. Do you know what happened just now?”
“The Talla bond came back,” Brand said softly, like it was something that could be scared off, or worse, broken again.
“Not exactly,” Rune said, lifting the hand that had tangled in Brand’s hair to Brand’s cheek. “You brought it back. You , Brand. Not me - although fuck am I happy about this - not my magic. You.” And you killed the geas, Rune thought. Brand could hear him, loud and clear.
“I killed it,” Brand said out loud. “More like there was no fucking room for it, not between you and Addam.” But he was grinning, because the geas was dead.
Rune’s smile was, in a word, glorious. So Brand leaned down and kissed it off his face.
Kissing Rune was nothing like Brand had thought it would be - like his whole world had been black and white and now it was in screaming color. Their bodies fit together so perfectly, right down to the tangle of their fingers, it felt like a religious experience, like the gravity of his life had finally stabilized, locking him into orbit around his own personal Sun. Rune’s lips slid against his, Rune’s teeth capturing his lower lip before sucking his lower lip into his mouth and soothing the sensitized skin with his tongue, setting Brand on fire. He gave back as good as he got, coaxing Rune’s mouth open with kiss after kiss until, when he teased Rune’s tongue with his own darting lick against it, Rune was chasing him back. Brand surrendered, letting Rune explore his mouth as he saw fit, incredibly turned on by the knowledge that Rune had to have gotten better at kissing by kissing Addam. Who he also very much wanted to kiss.
Fuck, Brand thought as he rolled his hips into Rune’s thigh, feeling the fine but unforgiving texture of the body chains Rune wore - as if his thighs needed more fucking appeal - through the fabric of his cargo pants. He let the hand not holding Rune’s start to wander, stroking up the outside of Rune’s thigh before squeezing his hip, thumb finding the indent just inside his hipbone and pressing down with gentle but firm pressure.
“Fuck,” Rune gasped, breaking their kiss. He wasn’t down for the count, though. He flung his other arm around Brand’s neck and slid his hand in Brand’s hair, guiding Brand’s barrage of kisses down the side of his neck. “Fuck yes, Brand—”
“I love you,” Brand said to Rune’s throbbing pulse, kissing over his jugular. “I love you so fucking much, it’s been destroying me , Rune.” He didn’t need to say it - didn’t need to tell Rune how every minute of every day since his assault he had worked tirelessly to make sure it would never happen again. Rune knew. Rune knew, too, that Rune was his purpose. That in his darkest moments after the fall, knowing he couldn’t leave Rune alone - that there were worse threats than himself- was the only thing that kept him from making permanently sure he never hurt Rune again.
“Me too,” Rune said, the wobble in his voice unmistakable as he felt Brand’s emotions through the Talla bond. Brand wrapped his arms tight around Rune and squeezed, putting his whole body into the attempt to ground Rune, remembering Addam’s voice in his ear outside the replica of the Carriage House. Rune needs you now . For a long moment, Brand just looked at Rune, one hand cupping his face. How could he tell him that he was the most beautiful thing in the world? Just say it, Brand’s conscience - or maybe Addam - said in the back of his mind.
“Rune,” Brand said hoarsely, like he hadn’t spoken in weeks let alone minutes. “Do you know how fucking gorgeous you are?”
“I might hear it on occasion,” Rune said, pink staining his cheeks.
“No, really. I mean - you’re so fucking strong,” Brand said. “Even at your weakest moment you’re the strongest person I know. That’s beautiful, to me.”
Rune laughed weakly and pushed lightly at one of Brand’s shoulders. Brand immediately rolled, pulling Rune with him so he lay on top of Brand’s chest. Brand was fucking delighted at the little laugh he’d surprised out of Rune. So he kept going. “I love watching you get stronger. Every fucking day you amaze me.”
“Hey Brand?” Rune said.
“Yeah, Rune?”
“Shut up and kiss me,” Rune breathed, already leaning in for a kiss. Brand yielded to Rune’s passionate kiss, gasping when Rune rolled his hips down against his hardness. Rune pressed his advantage, tongue sliding along Brand’s in a way that was pure sin.
Brand’s hands wandered down Rune’s spine, catching on lace and ribbon and chains until his hands were on the bare skin of Rune’s ass. Rune broke their kiss, forehead resting against Brand’s as they caught their breath.
“Fuck me,” Brand exhaled, gently squeezing. Was Rune wearing a fucking thong? Forget erasing bad memories, Rune was clearly trying to kill him. “How the fuck am I going to get anything done now when this ass deserves to be squeezed every second of every godsdamned day?” On top of him Rune rolled his eyes and grinned.
“You’ve been fine all these years - you and Addam can make a rotating chart,” he teased, kissing Brand breathless again. “And…we can.” His mischievous face went shy. “If you want.”
Brand blinked. “You good?” He asked, because either all his blood was in his dick or Rune was missing parts of sentences.
Rune met his eyes - he had been examining the rise and fall of Brand’s chest - and said, “I can fuck you, if you want.”
Fire seared its way through Brand. He was harder than he’d ever been in his life in record fucking time.
“Or,” Rune drew out the word, tracing the shape of a heart over Brand’s sternum, “you can take your time exploring me first. Addam helped me get ready for you. We have all night. We’ll be able to do both.”
Brand’s throat went dry. “What about Addam?” He asked.
Rune’s mind answered for him, recalling Addam murmuring in his ear the day before - the day they’d been so suspiciously quiet in the back of the bus, Addam’s hand moving stealthily under a blanket thrown over his lap, jerking Rune off like Brand couldn’t tell through their bond while Brand drove them through miles of night-blackened fields - it would be a privilege to join you in bed, but I could just as easily wait until morning to clean you both up with my mouth.
Godsdamn it, I love him, Brand thought. “How did we get so fucking lucky?” He asked.
“Maybe the universe decided to make up for all the other bullshit,” Rune murmured.
“Do you want him here for this?” Brand asked softly. “It’s okay with me if you do.”
Rune shook his head slowly. “Not for the first time. I want you all to myself.” Brand knew it wasn’t that he didn’t want Addam there - it was that Addam was too good, too nice, too pure for what Rune needed; a part of him needed to keep Addam separate from the dark stain of the fall just as much as a part of him needed Brand to erase that memory. Brand didn’t blame him.
“Okay,” Brand said softly. “Okay. But the second you change your mind, or feel off, or anything, he’s in here with us. Okay? I will grab him by the soul and drag his ass in if I have to. And when we’re done - at least with round one -”
“We‘ll bring him to bed,” Rune agreed. “I promise, Brand.”
Brand looked at Rune for a moment, studied the earnest need in his eyes, felt the way his fingers trembled just slightly as they clutched his shirt. “Okay. I promise, too.”
“Perfect,” Rune agreed softly, leaning back down to kiss Brand. He reached back without breaking the kiss and settled Brand’s hands back on his ass. “Go ahead,” he whispered into Brand’s lips.
Brand didn’t need telling twice. He squeezed Rune’s ass, then let go, fingers gently exploring the territory only his eyes and his imagination were familiar with. There was a silky panel - a garter belt? No - he followed a strand of cool metal with his fingertips as Rune kissed him slowly. The panel was decorative, chains looped over and over into a kind of shimmering fringe. Not a skirt - it barely grazed the top of Rune’s ass - but Brand could picture Addam helping Rune pick it out, the illusion of more length from the swaying chain loops making Rune feel less exposed. More chains draped across Rune’s back, but they were sparse - Brand’s hand easily slid under the gap in the cool metal strands, finding warm skin.
“Are you okay?” Rune breathed. “Your face is really hot.”
“I’m fine,” Brand said, but Rune pulled back to look at him, propped up on his arms.
“Brand. You’re turning red,” Rune pointed out.
Brand was distracted by the fact that Rune was still wearing his saber in wristguard form underneath the “sleeves” of the lingerie top - if you could call the gossamer fabric with its long slits from wrist to shoulder a sleeve . His Arcana, armed and dangerous, dressed in lingerie - seducing him—
“You’re hot,” Brand grumbled, feeling another rush. “Like. Really hot.”
“Oh, if you’re hot I can turn the air conditioner —”
Brand took Rune’s hand and slid it between their bodies, so he could feel how hard Brand had gotten. “Not that kind of hot,” Brand said to clarify.
“Oh my gods,” Rune murmured, gently curling his hand against Brand’s length. “I wonder if you’ll blush like this everywhere…”
“You said that last part out loud,” Brand pointed out, feeling torn between bucking his hips and begging for Rune to take whatever he wanted.
“I know,” Rune murmured. His eyes searched Brand’s face. “You’re so fucking pretty, Brand. I can’t believe - all this time I had no idea you were waiting…for me .”
“Yeah, well, Addam hadn’t made a move yet,” Brand joked, or tried to, but Rune saw right through him. “I’ve done some stuff, just…not that. Not all the way.” Gods fucking damn it, Rune was giving him a knowing grin. Brand tried to glower at him but he knew the flush staining his cheeks and his hard-on pressing into Rune’s stomach ruined the effect. “It’s too time consuming when you pay by the hour, Rune - and you tend to cause chaos in the first fifteen fucking minutes, anyway, I—“
Rune leaned down and kissed him, slowly, thoroughly. “Good thing Addam got me ready earlier,” he murmured. The memory of being braced against the shower wall as Addam took him in his mouth, two fingers deep in Rune’s ass, shielded from the spray by Rune’s shaking body, hit Brand like a Mack truck.
Brand’s cock twitched, hard enough that Rune felt it.
“I want you out of these fucking clothes,” Rune said, tugging on Brand’s shirt. They struggled together - they fought together seamlessly, but shifting around to peel off fabric with Rune on top of him was new - defeating the challenge of Brand’s shirt before Rune got distracted by all of Brand’s skin. Brand knew better than to say something, even though a tiny part of him wanted to tease Rune as a cover for his own sudden and surprising self-consciousness. What did Rune see when he looked down at him? How was it different to how he saw him hundreds of other times in their lives?
Rune’s fingertips answered for him, trailing delicately across Brand’s collarbone, down his chest. He could touch him now. Anything you want is okay, Brand offered up to Rune through the Talla bond. You’re in charge of tonight.
Rune smiled, lowered his head to kiss the skin over Brand’s heart. “I think it can be a team effort, don’t you? Or am I finally more steps ahead of you than you are of me?”
“Definitely the second one,” Brand said as Rune shifted to kiss his way to first one nipple, then the other - an act he now knew, courtesy of their bond, Rune had been dying to do since the first time he saw Brand in his clubbing harness.
Rune grinned up at him, a grin Brand never thought he’d see and needed to thank Addam for restoring. “I’ll take point - for now.” His hand slid to Brand’s belt buckle. Lower. Brand swore at the feeling of Rune’s hand curling around him as best he could in the tight space between them. “Christ, you’re so hard already,” Rune breathed in between kisses.
“And you’re wearing too much,” Brand said, tugging gently on one of the elastic straps just to set the chains jingling. He was tempted to leave it on, but the urge to be skin on skin with Rune was infinitely more powerful. He needed to see his skin, see how whole and healthy he was, feel that he was not only unbroken but healing—
Rune drew back, hand cupping Brand’s face, looking down at him with a sadness Brand wished he could strangle. I forget, Rune thought. I forget how hard it must have been for you, to see me that way.
Brand sat up, hauling Rune into his lap. “Don’t you fucking dare,” he said fiercely. “This wasn’t your fault. None of it. Don't even start — so what you snuck out? We were just kids, Rune. We were the same age as our kids are now - would you hold this against them?”
Rune shook his head no. “Of course not,” he said softly.
“Then why are the rules different for you?” Brand asked. “Whoever was behind it would have found a different way to hurt us. So don’t you dare start blaming yourself.”
“That goes for you, too, then,” Rune said.
“I know,” Brand said, unable to hold Rune’s gaze. Unfortunately it meant he was looking at Rune, sitting in his lap, in a very distracting scrap of lace pretending to be underwear. He could practically see fucking everything . But Rune was right. He needed to forgive himself just as much as Rune did.
Warmth and love flowed down the River of their bond to him as Rune lifted his chin with a gentle touch, forcing Brand to look at him. “Hey,” he said. “We’ll just keep trying. Okay?”
“Okay,” Brand whispered, because Rune was giving him a soft look he was starting to realize meant he was about to be kissed, and a part of his brain was remembering all the times over the past decades he’d seen that look and had no idea it had meant this.
Rune brushed his lips tentatively against Brand’s, and Brand deepened their kiss immediately, sending as much yes and please more and want you want this as he could down their bond, scooting Rune forward in his lap for good measure. Rune gasped, stunned at the feeling of Brand’s hardness under him, and returned the kiss with double the force, hands wandering all over Brand’s back and chest like he wanted to claim every inch of him by touch alone. But there was no claiming what was already yours. Brand knew this, even as his hands wandered under the side panels of Rune’s lingerie, desperate to do just that.
“Gonna rip it,” Brand growled into the kiss, because he could barely fit his fingers under the edge of the lace, the boning keeping it form-fitted to Rune’s skin. Rune shifted closer, letting Brand slide his hands around to the back.
“There’s a zipper,” Rune said breathlessly as Brand’s broad hands seemed to span his entire back, searing him with need like twin embers. Brand swore, trying to find it amongst all the chains and lace by feel alone - because he’d be damned if he was going to give up - and failing. He growled his frustration again, hands dropping to Rune’s ass and grabbing tight before he stood.
Rune yelped in surprise, locking his legs around Brand’s waist reflexively. Brand manhandled him expertly, tossing him facedown on the mattress, a sound a cross between a grunt and a laugh bouncing out of Rune as he belly flopped onto the duvet. Brand knelt behind him, one knee bumping the back of Rune’s thigh. For a moment, a split second, Rune tensed, but he was able to relax immediately - mostly because Brand moved immediately.
“We can stop,” Brand said quietly, the gentleness in his voice almost too much for Rune. So he looked back at Brand over his shoulder, locked gazes with him, and spread his legs wider - almost obscenely wide. He saw Brand’s eyes flicker over the new view of him in the lace-and-satin thong, barely keeping him contained, but Brand waited. Like he had waited for decades for him, Rune thought, the realization sending a flurry of sparks up in his stomach.
“I don’t want to stop,” Rune said. “Can you see the zipper now?”
“I can see everything,” Brand said, and Rune felt the back of his neck heat. “Gods. You’re fucking stunning, Rune.”
“Come do something about it, then,” Rune said, pushing up on his elbows so he could watch Brand.
Brand’s gaze had taken on a reverence typically reserved for new weapons. “Let me know if I do something you don’t like,” he said, eyes on the way his fingers curled around Rune’s ankle, nothing between them but the silky sheer fabric of the smoky blue stockings Ciaran had sworn up and down were perfect for the outfit, like he’d known both that it was to impress Brand and that Rune was feeling shy about the idea of seducing him by showing up naked in his bed. He didn’t want to think about how Ciaran probably had known.
“I’ll try not to hurt you,” Rune said, trying to make it sound like a joke. Brand raised a dark eyebrow as if to say really, Rune? But he traced what felt like a little infinity symbol on the inside of Rune’s ankle with a fingertip. Rune took a deep breath and settled into the mattress, grateful for the grounding dig of the fine chains into his skin. The tiniest of bites, it anchored him to the present, even as Brand’s fingers circled his ankle, then released him and began trailing up the seam of the stockings to the lace band around Rune’s thigh, which he hooked a finger under.
“On or off?” Brand asked quietly, and all of a sudden Rune was burning from the inside out. They were going to have sex. Brand was going to be inside him .
“Off,” he said hoarsely, surprised he didn’t breathe smoke like a godsdamned dragon. “Please.”
Brand gently rolled the stocking down inch by inch until he was back at Rune’s ankle, which he held gently but firmly in one hand to take the stocking off completely because Rune was ticklish and he wasn’t eager to be kicked in the face. With the one stocking off, dropped unceremoniously to the floor, Brand paused. Rune was about to twist to try and see, but then he felt the ghost of Brand’s warm breath on his skin before Brand pressed the softest of kisses into the imprint left behind by the elastic lace that had held the stocking in place. Gorgeous, Brand thought, kissing him again, tongue darting out to taste Rune, like even this mundane spot on the back of his thigh was a treat to sample.
Rune suddenly wanted to set fire to the outfit and drag Brand to bed and ride him until their cries of pleasure echoed through the tower room. Instead he took a deep breath and focused on staying still as Brand repeated the same process on his other leg, just as gentle as the first time. He couldn’t suppress the shiver at the second kiss, though, and was rewarded by the ghost of a smile as Brand gave the right leg an extra kiss just for that.
“Fuck, Brand,” Rune groaned, wishing he’d gone for the simpler option and just shown up naked, because the thong was too restrictive now that he was so hard. “I think you should slow down even more. That would be great.”
Rune felt Brand roll his eyes and then, to his complete shock, Brand’s hand connected with his right asscheek, a playful but firm spank that made the chains on the garter-belt-thing he’d worn shiver in a tinkling complaint. “Don’t tempt me, jackass,” Brand said, and if that wasn’t just the most perfect thing he could have said. Rune took a steadying breath, fighting the dual urge to cry or grind into the mattress, maybe both. His Brand and the Brand of his daydreams had somehow turned out to be the same person after all. He’d worried for nothing, he’d —
“Stay with me, Rune,” Brand murmured, rubbing firm circles into the abused skin of his asscheek, incorrectly interpreting the rush of feelings threatening to overwhelm Rune.
“I’m okay,” Rune promised. “I just love you so fucking much, Brand.”
Brand kissed the warm skin he’d spanked, sending a bolt of electric delight through Rune. “I love you too,” he said, like it was still the eighth wonder of the world, that he was allowed to love Rune out loud. His hands slid up the body chains on Rune’s thighs, which were held on by simple elastics on the back. “On or off?”
“On,” Rune said, feeling a rush of exhilaration as Brand’s hands immediately went to the zipper of the garter belt.
“No wonder I couldn’t fucking find it, it’s the tiniest fucking zipper in the godsdamned world,” Brand complained. “On or—”
“Off,” Rune said, arching his hips up just a little. “Please.”
“Holy shit you look good like this, Rune,” Brand breathed. “Okay. Off. Okay.” He tugged at the zipper and the garter belt sagged and fell to the mattress, chains shushing together and pooling coolly in Rune’s lap. He ground into the cool metal just once, grateful for the quick and dirty pleasurepain of the cold metal through the hot and sticky lace. Brand tapped his hip, and Rune raised up so Brand could tug it away, the garter belt landing in a tinkling heap on the hardwood floor.
“Fuck me,” Brand breathed. “Your ass is just - fucking wow, Rune.”
Rune grinned into the mattress. “Oh yeah?” He asked, unable to keep the joy and excitement from their bond.
“Fucking magnificent,” Brand decreed. “Your ass was made for thongs. Hot fucking damn.”
Rune squirmed, aware of Brand’s eyes on him. “Care to help me out of this, too?” He asked.
“Shit, yes, sorry,” Brand said, scooting closer. He had to straddle one of Rune’s legs to get at the hook-and-eye closures running down the back of the corset-top-thing - he wasn’t going to call it a blouse. For each one he undid, Brand pressed a soft kiss to the exposed skin, until he was kissing the small of Rune’s back and making him shiver under his attentions. Rune swore, fumbling at his sleeves, but ultimately he had to roll onto his back for Brand to get the cuffs off. Especially the one that had to go over his wrist guard.
The top landed on the floor in a jingling heap. Brand was looking down at Rune like he’d just seen the gods. Rune felt his cheeks flush.
“Like what you see?” Rune asked, waggling his eyebrows for comedic effect.
“Fucking yes,” Brand said, before tugging Rune to the edge of the bed so he could kneel without straddling Rune and still kiss the places the boning and lace and chains had left little angry impressions on his skin. By the time he had Rune’s front covered in kisses and licks and a few bites to his stomach that had Rune groaning and arching up into Brand’s touch, Rune was actively dripping through the lace underwear, which he wanted Brand to cut off his body.
“I take back what I said about the chains,” Rune said, his voice a desperate whine. “I want it all off. Everything. You, too.”
Brand stood, hands going to his belt buckle. Gods, Rune loved his hands. They were so competent and strong - the same hands that brushed snowflakes off his cheeks in winter and loaded bullets into magazines and made the world’s best oatmeal cookies were going to also be the hands that touched him like this .
Brand’s belt buckle jingling as he undid it dragged Rune back to the present, and Rune watched with a growing hunger as more and more of Brand’s skin was exposed, until Brand was bending to push his pants off, stepping out of them -
“Like what you see?” Brand asked, standing completely naked in front of Rune. He was more beautiful than any statue Rune had seen and every bit as worthy of being immortalized in marble. Each angle and plane he’d honed to the strength he needed to protect Rune was on display - including the sharp, v-like cut of muscles that dragged Rune’s eyes to Brand’s cock, which was practically at eye level. Logically, Rune had known he’d get to see Brand’s erection. It was kind of a key component to having sex, after all. But he hadn’t imagined how beautiful it would be, flushed and hard and dripping just enough at the tip to make Rune’s mouth water.
“Fucking gods , yes,” Rune said breathlessly. “ Brand .”
Brand’s little half smile was a familiar, Addam-like gesture that made Rune’s heart flip in double-time. “Your turn.”
Rune immediately squirmed to take off his thong, cock twitching in complaint at the coolness of the air on his most sensitive skin. He lifted his hips to roll the thong off, but it got caught on the thigh chains he’d forgotten about and before he could panic at being trapped, Brand’s strong, gentle hands were there helping him pull the chains and the thong off. It took maybe a few seconds, but when Rune flopped back onto the bed, naked and exposed under Brand’s hungry gaze, it was the culmination of decades of longing.
“Fuck, Rune,” Brand said, eyes going glossy with unshed emotion. His words were caught in his throat, because all he could do was shake his head - Rune could feel him trying to clamp down on his emotions through their bond - and repeat himself, voice breaking on the same two syllables he said every day in varying conditions. “Fuck. Rune.”
Rune slowly spread his legs, eyes on Brand’s face as he drew his knees up and let his legs fall apart, showing Brand everything. Brand sank to his knees in front of Rune, which surprised him.
“I want to taste you,” Brand said, voice still raw with the emotions he couldn’t - wouldn’t - let stop him. I need to taste you so I know it’s real and also, fucking gods do I want to.
“Then taste me,” Rune said simply.
Brand’s hands on his hips were firm and sure as he tugged Rune to the edge of the bed. He didn’t stop kneeling, to Rune’s surprise - he just began kissing and nuzzling at Rune’s thighs, growing bolder with each touch until he was leaving open-mouthed kisses and growling bites in his wake.
“Gods. Brand,” Rune gasped as Brand’s kisses focused on first one side of his innermost thigh and then the other. “If you don’t stop I’ll come from just this.”
Brand stopped. When he looked down, Rune saw the most devilish grin on his companion - his talla’s - face.
“You liked it when I was doing that?” Brand asked. Rune realized then he needed to be heavy on his praise - that Brand hadn’t done this, either.
“Fuck yes I like it,” Rune said. “Brand, I’m dying to know what it feels like to have your tongue — oh fucking shit —”
Brand grinned up at Rune and pressed another open-mouthed kiss to Rune’s balls. Then higher, his tongue lapping at the base of his shaft, and then he was licking a long stripe up the underside of Rune’s cock, tasting the salt of his skin as Rune’s moan became wordless and finally, finally, he curled his fingers around Rune’s bare need and sucked the head of him into his mouth.
Rune’s world narrowed down to just the feeling of Brand - his mouth, warm and slick around him, the flicker of his tongue, swirling around him, the waves of joy and pleasure and excitement flooding their bond, all coming from Brand and crashing into Rune’s own. He wasn’t going to last long, and he knew it, one hand dropping to Brand’s hair, stroking it, carding his fingers through the shorter strands, marveling at how different it felt to Addam’s hair, when they did this—
Brand took more of Rune into his mouth and Rune groaned, loudly. Had he put up the privacy ward? He had. Hadn’t he? Fuck, did it matter? No. All that mattered was Brand’s tongue snaking out, trying to reach the base of him as Brand willed his way past his own gag reflex to take more of him in.
Good? Brand wondered, blue eyes flicking up to look at Rune. “Yes,” Rune moaned, unable to stop his hand stroking through Brand’s hair. “Gods, Brand, you feel incredible. How are you so good at this?”
Brand hummed the cadence of I don’t know, shrugging one shoulder before shifting closer and beginning to bob his head, letting Rune slide through his lips and against his tongue. Rune tossed his head on the mattress. He was going to come, he could feel it boiling up in him like lava, but he never wanted it to stop—
Brand’s hand found his on the mattress, their fingers lacing together with a firm squeeze that said it’s okay, I’m here and Rune became aware of the quiet, slick sound of Brand touching himself somewhere out of sight.
“Brand,” Rune warned, his voice sounding low but desperate, cutting through moans he hadn’t realized he was making. “ Brand, if you don’t stop — I’m gonna —”
Do it, Brand thought, pulling back so just the head of Rune’s cock was ensconced in the warm wet heat of his mouth, squeezing Rune’s hand in his. Wanna taste you, my Rune.
Rune came undone with a shout, the hand in Brand’s hair tightening into a fist as Brand swallowed around him and tried to take him in deeper as Rune shook apart, clutching Brand’s hand in his for dear life as his vision was reduced to flames and ash. Brand kept sucking at him until Rune shuddered and let go of his hair, not even needing to think too much for Brand to release his over-sensitive skin. He was completely and wholly unprepared for Brand to start planting chaste little kisses to his thighs, his hipbones, the soft curve of his stomach. Gratitude and pleasure threatened to overwhelm their bond, a tidal rush of it welling out from Brand. It made Rune’s chest fill with a thousand feelings he couldn’t name but all condensed down into one thing - how overwhelming his love for Brand felt in that moment. Tears flooded his eyes where embers had been, and Rune struggled to keep his breathing even so Brand wouldn’t notice, but their bond was wide fucking open.
“Rune?” Brand asked softly. “Should I get Addam?”
“I’m fine,” Rune said shakily. “You just - it’s so overwhelming and I - I thought I could never—” Rune’s eyes burned, and when he closed them tears ran down his temples. His lower lip trembled, and he tried to hide with a hand over his face, but Brand was unstoppable, rolling him onto his side and bringing their foreheads together, his arms a loose but grounding weight around him. Rune pushed closer, needed to feel the warmth of his companion, his Talla, his anchor, and was rewarded with a firm squeeze from Brand.
“I love you,” Brand said with a confident passion that had Rune wiping his face if only so he could pull back far enough to look at him. Brand’s beautiful face was determined, but so tender, and that it was for him threatened to send Rune back into hiding against Brand’s warm, bare chest. But he stayed - for Brand, who was just as vulnerable right now as he felt.
“I love you too,” Rune said. It came out as a whisper, and it made him want to cry again, because Brand was safer than he’d ever been - oh, gods, and what if the people behind the attack knew the geas was gone? What if—
Brand put a finger over Rune’s lips as if to shush him. “No. None of that. Not tonight. They don’t get a single second of our time tonight. Okay? Tomorrow we can worry about the consequences. Tonight we have each other. And you’re going to have me forever, Rune. I love you.”
Rune smiled, slow, like honey poured out on a cold morning, but Brand could feel his Arcana’s heart settling at his words. “I love you, too,” Rune said, smiling, and before Brand could second-guess himself he kissed Rune. Feeling his Talla melt in his arms was addictive, almost as addictive as the little noises he made, including one very surprised mmph! when he deepened the kiss and got a taste of himself on Brand’s tongue. Instead of pushing him off like Brand half-expected, Rune kissed him deeper, tongue actively seeking the taste of himself in Brand’s mouth, squirming closer until Brand’s arousal was flush with the softness of his stomach. Rune reached down between them.
“There’s no rush,” Brand started to say, but Rune was bringing his spent cock - already starting to harden - into alignment with Brand’s.
“Make out with me?” Rune asked, looking up at Brand through his lashes, the very definition of shyly, and Brand swore under his breath at the swift realization that now Rune knew all he had to do to get out of training was exactly this.
“Fuck yes,” Brand groaned, already bending to kiss Rune. Rune whimpered a little into the kiss, rocking his hips into Brand’s. There wasn’t enough moisture between them for it to be an easy glide, but Brand welcomed the hint of friction, focused on kissing every part of Rune he could reach - his mouth, his jawline, his earlobe, down the column of his neck, his shoulder— before Rune was grinding against him in earnest, leaving hickeys on Brand’s neck like the teenagers they never got to be. Brand was lost somewhere between reality and the daydream of the two of them doing this in Rune’s old bedroom, or maybe his, or maybe on the roof under the stars. All of the places he’d thought about being with Rune - especially his first time, which he’d even thought about doing in the back of their Toyota - cycled through Brand’s mind, not one of them comparing to this moment. When he pulled back, panting for air, Rune was murmuring something softly. A cantrip, Brand realized, the light overhead splitting into thousands of tiny, flickering fireflies.
The stars. Rune had given him the stars.
“Rune,” Brand said hoarsely, but Rune was already on the move, rolling to his knees on the duvet, settling in the center of the bed. The golden light traced Rune’s every curve, caught on his wrist guard and gilded his tousled hair as he balanced on his hands, giving Brand a look full of love and hope, so much that it stole Brand’s breath.
“I’m ready,” Rune said, arching to tug a pillow closer, fingering the embroidery on the edge of the case nervously. “Are you?”
“Yes,” Brand said, rolling to his knees. “Are you sure—?”
“Yes,” Rune said, knowing Brand was worried about the position, but there were no shadows, no ghosts under the light of his love for him. “This belongs to you, Brand. It always has.” He swallowed around the lump in his throat. “ I always have,” he corrected himself.
Brand’s hands were so gentle on Rune’s hips as he took a position behind him - having his back, like he always did. Rune had worked tirelessly with Addam to get used to this, to being touched like this, and it had gone exponentially faster after their engagement and him telling Addam about that night. Rune closed his eyes. He wasn’t thinking about that night. He focused all his attention on Brand’s hands, which were smoothing softly all over him - his hips, his thighs, sweeping down to his calves and back up over the swell of his ass to his back, applying gentle pressure between his shoulder blades until Rune was clutching the pillow he’d hastily grabbed, half- burying his face in it. Brand’s hands came up, gently gripping his ass and holding it apart. It didn’t feel rough, or tight, Rune thought, almost exactly as if Addam’s large hands were holding him open, and then something wet flickered hotly against his entrance and Rune could only think one thing - Brand’s tongue is on my ass —
Brand’s smirk could be felt through their bond as he corrected Rune. In . And then his tongue pressed into the tight ring of muscle, which quivered responsively, Rune’s body three steps ahead of him and begging for his touch, barely relaxing enough to let him in.
“ Ohhhhh fucking hells, Brand,” Rune groaned as Brand worked his tongue into his ass as far as he could. It was a very effective distraction technique. Instead of remembering his demons, Rune worried if he had unleashed a new one, because Brand had pulled back to lap at his skin while slowly working a finger inside of him. He didn’t need to prepare him - Addam had done that, murmuring soft, decadent things in Rune’s ear before he’d worked him open in the shower shortly after dinner, his mouth around Rune’s cock and his fingers gently scissoring deep inside him - but Brand didn’t know how thorough Addam had been, or how much practice they’d had. The gentle care and attention Brand was paying him had Rune’s eyes burning with the threat of tears all over again even as his cock began leaking in earnest, used to being brought to completion from just this.
“Rune, do you have—?” Brand asked breathlessly, like he’d been running a marathon instead of tongue-fucking him.
“Yes,” Rune moaned, shifting to grab it off the nightstand, but ultimately just flopping an arm in its general direction because one of Brand’s fingers had made it to the first knuckle inside him.
Brand shifted carefully, grabbing the bottle and hastily squeezing some onto his fingers, murmuring a litany of apologies that went shit, fuck, I’m sorry, Rune, shit— the last of which because Rune was backing up onto the cold ingress of his finger, moaning low in his throat and eager for more.
Brand gave it to him. Carefully - although he could tell from Rune’s easy yielding to his touch that Addam had helped with this, too - he withdrew, pressing back in with a second finger alongside the first, sliding easily home into the wet, silken heat of Rune. He’d have worried he was hurting him if Rune hadn’t been moaning so godsdamned loudly - not that Brand was complaining. It was the most beautiful sound he had heard until Rune looked over his shoulder and broke his own record, sparks swirling in his blue-gray eyes as he commanded, “Brand, I need your cock in me. Please .”
“One more,” Brand said firmly. He hadn’t endured the talk with Mayan for nothing; he was going to do this right.
Rune thrust back into him, moaning low in his throat. “I can take it,” he said, “please, Brand, you won’t hurt me, you could never hurt me.” He bit his lip, releasing it to add, “Please, Talla — I need you.”
“Fuck,” Brand exhaled. All thoughts went out the window as Rune clenched around his fingers. There was only Rune, Rune, Rune - and his overwhelming need to be as close to him as possible.
Rune held his breath as Brand’s fingers withdrew. He couldn’t see what Brand was doing, but he could hear him - a wet squirting wheeze from the bottle of lube, the slick sound of his hand around his length. For a split second Rune worried Brand wouldn’t fit - even with all the prep, he was massive - and then Brand’s hand was on his hip and all logical thought scurried. Rune reached back, holding himself open, and heard Brand’s low, breathless curse at the sight of him, spread open and wanting. It felt good, to be the one doing this - to take charge of his body, even in a position of complete surrender - it felt right , it felt like power rushing into him from a released sigil, only the power was himself. It was trust, in himself and in Brand and in their bond, shining and golden between them, holding him securely to this moment, letting him feel all the love and adoration Brand had for him. The fact that the overwhelming love he felt was sprinkled with a little bit of nervousness and a whole lot of desire was beyond magical definition. It was everything.
Rune buried his smile in the pillow at the wonderment flooding the bond - gods, Brand was cute like this, and he still couldn’t get over the fact that his Brand had waited for him. Seeming to pick up on his thoughts, Brand said, “I love you, Rune. I’m going to try to go slow.”
“Okay,” Rune said, turning his head on the pillow and wishing there was a mirror so he could watch. He could imagine Brand’s look of concentration as he lined them up. Rune breathed in the way Addam had practiced with him as Brand’s cock nudged his entrance. He was flooded with Brand’s mental image of the view. The image of the blunted, flushed tip pressed against the slickness of his entrance was so arresting that Rune’s cock twitched hard into his own stomach, an echo of Brand’s twitch against him, and he felt Brand’s split-second fear that he’d come right there, before he even made it inside him. Rune clenched reflexively, because that was beyond tempting, the idea of Brand marking him so intimately —
“It’s okay, it’s me,” Brand said softly, one hand resting gently on the small of Rune’s back, grounding him. “We can stop if—”
“Don’t you fucking dare,” Rune exhaled shakily, letting his need spill out across their bond, and Brand pressed forward. The stretch was exquisite, and Rune forgot to breathe, and then Brand was in - just past the head, judging by the amount of math equations he was forcing himself through on the other end of the talla bond, taut and glowing between them.
“Breathe, Brand,” Rune reminded him, still holding himself open. Brand’s hand had curled around his arm, just above his wristguard, like he needed the skin-on-skin contact to ground him.
Rune could feel Brand tremble.
“More, please more,” Rune moaned softly, and Brand pressed slowly forward. Each millimeter of progress felt like miles. Time seemed to stretch out around them, the veil between worlds thinning as Brand carefully, carefully slid home, body flush with Rune’s as he was buried deep inside him.
“Fuck.” Brand’s voice was hoarse. His thighs were shaking and he had barely begun. “You feel like —”
Rune tensed beneath him, and Brand laid his hands gently on Rune’s back, either side of his spine, trying to will his Talla to feel what he meant, that it was good and he was safe. “ Heaven ,” Brand said at last. “You feel fucking perfect, Rune. I had no idea it would feel like this, I—”
“It gets better,” Rune said breathlessly, clenching around Brand to hear his gasped, broken fuck slip past his control. “Take it. It’s yours.”
Brand’s hands shifted to Rune’s hips. Rune could tell it was more to steady himself than for Rune’s benefit, but he liked it all the same. He knew these hands. Even in the dark he would know them as Brand’s. The hands that had saved him, that carried him out of the horror that was this very night so long ago, were helping them both heal something Rune had assumed would always be broken. In Brand’s hands, he would always be safe.
The first gentle thrust sent an exquisite burn through Rune as parts of him stretched the way they hadn’t for weeks. For half a heartbeat the feeling almost, almost sent him back in memories, but Brand’s love shone through him, echoed in the little circles Brand rubbed into Rune’s hips with his thumbs. Rune let his head drop, closing the bond just a little - just enough that if things went sideways Brand wouldn’t feel Rune’s memories - and focusing on the feeling of those little circles Brand rubbed against his skin as he moved, fractionally, in and out, the both of them getting used to the grip and the slide of it.
Brand knew better than to leave Rune alone in his head, though. It took Rune a second to realize what was going on, because he was so lost in the don’t think of it he almost didn’t hear Brand’s voice as he began to talk. Only talking didn’t define it, not properly - it was more like a confession.
“Gods, Rune, you feel like nothing I’ve ever felt,” Brand was murmuring, keeping the roll of his hips slow as Rune registered his voice, pitched low like they were teenagers trying not to get caught. His words wrapped around Rune’s soul like bands of dark silk, holding him fast, but gentle on his scars. “You know I used to think about you like this every morning in the shower? I imagined this with you. I imagined you kissing me again. I imagined you telling me you loved me. No extra words. No other sentences. At least that’s how it started.”
Brand’s thrusts had become a gentle, rhythmic roll, almost as fast as Rune’s throbbing heartbeat. Tongues of fire licked at Rune’s resolve, and the first moan broke free, rolling out of Rune like it was driven by something more primal than his need. Something ancient and terrible and beautiful, stirring inside him.
“Some days I could get off just thinking about telling you how much I fucking love you,” Brand panted. “Some days all I had to think about was that wicked grin you always make when you kill someone who fucking deserves it, or when you do something impressive with your magic. Gods. I’ve wanted to pin you up against the walls of so many fucking warehouses, wanted to suck you off in so many godsdamned alleys…”
Rune let out an involuntary moan as Brand’s pace began to pick up, giving him enough friction across his prostate that he could feel his bones starting to melt with pleasure. If it weren’t for Brand’s hands and the pillow he’d desperately wedged under his chest he wasn’t sure he’d be more than a puddle on the bed. “Oh, Brand, don’t stop, it feels so good,” he panted.
“Sometimes that’s still all it takes,” Brand said, knowing Rune needed the warm certainty of his voice in his ear to not only keep the demons at bay but to build the bonfire of his pleasure, “only now it’s places like the Arcanum—”
“Fuck, Brand—”
“—your throne room—”
“Oh, gods—”
“In your bed, with Addam watching—”
“ Brand!” Rune wailed, reaching back for him. Brand caught his wrist, the other already in his grasp, the saber’s wristguard warm between them, just as he snapped his hips into Rune, forcing a cry from Rune’s throat as a red rush of pleasure swarmed his vision. He was all the way in, now - Rune could feel it, knew if he tried to speak the words would come out slurred from the sheer depth of pleasure alone.
“Fuck, Rune,” Brand groaned, half-draped over Rune’s back. It meant his arms were trapped, caught firm by Brand’s grip and then his body - but the wave of fear Rune braced himself for never came. Instead he clenched down hard around Brand, sheathed deep inside him, and felt only pure bliss as Brand rolled his hips and held him close, the smallest, neediest whimper escaping his companion. So much love poured out of Brand, even though Rune had partially closed it, that the secondhand bliss had Rune’s eyes brimming over, just like his heart. He shook, a gasping breath leaving him as he blinked and tears fell. He was fine. He was fine, and he could still have this.
Rune may have been guarding his end of the bond, but Brand hadn’t - and all his feelings were bare, raw as an open wound between them as he realized Rune was crying . Fear he’d hurt Rune, worry he’d given hands to Rune’s demons, guilt that he wanted him anyway, fear that he’d fucked it up somehow, whitecaps on a torrential wave of love that threatened to pull Rune under. So he let it, flinging the bond wide open, letting his need and desire coalesce into a burning flame. Brand, who was already moving as if to let him go shifted, releasing his wrists in favor of sliding his arms under Rune’s shoulders, curling over him so his forehead rested against Rune’s nape.
“Yes,” Rune said, voice thick with tears and emotion and above all, want. “Take me, Brand - my Talla.”
Brand rolled his hips experimentally, hands holding him firmly but gently. Rune thrust back into it. More. As fast as you want, as deep as you want, I’m yours, Brand.
“Oh, fuck,” Brand breathed, voice as raw as Rune felt. He kept the roll of his hips steady, the hot puffs of his breath against Rune’s skin making him feel like an ember fanned into an inferno. “Rune - I love you, I love you so much—”
“Show me,” Rune gasped, closing his eyes and just feeling. “I want to feel you come inside me, Brand. I want to feel it leak out of me when we’re done.”
“Shit,” Brand hissed. In the back of his mind he always was aware of Addam, but right now, their bond was wide open, and he could feel Rune’s fiancé pausing to lean against one of the white plaster walls in the hallway, just a few yards away, palming himself through his pants. I bet you look so beautiful when you come , Addam was thinking to him. “Shit, Rune - Addam -”
“Please, please don’t stop,” Rune sobbed, the words torn out of him almost bodily as Brand’s hips sped up into a driving, deep rhythm that was searing him from the inside out. He was so close, he could feel everything narrowing down, like time itself was slowing down around them to allow this moment to last forever. “Don’t stop, don’t stop—”
Brand reached beneath them to curl his fist around Rune’s neglected cock, stroking it with the same gentle urgency he’d done everything else, shifting as his hips began to falter, pressing the tenderest of kisses to Rune’s bad shoulder and sending Rune over the edge into bliss. Golden light erupted as Brand gave one final thrust and stayed buried inside Rune, lips still pressed to the skin of his injury. Rune felt his Talla shake through his own orgasm almost more powerfully than his own, coming hot and hard over Brand’s fist as a warm, wet flood filled him. None of it mattered, the pleasure paling in comparison to the tenderness Rune felt at the single, almost unnoticeable tear that landed on his shoulder.
They collapsed, shaking, Brand shielding Rune from the world with his body as the blinding light faded to a warm yellow glow. He looked down to where his fingers were laced with Rune’s, marveling at how the radiance poured out of Rune’s skin like he was made of something more than human, more than Atlantean, was pure sunlight himself. It turned his fingers ruddy, like they were blocking the light of the actual sun.
“I love you,” Rune said, voice steady, but no less awed.
“I love you too, Rune,” Brand said back, squeezing his fingers around Rune’s. “Even if you turn into a glow stick when I fuck you.”
Rune’s surprised laugh echoed in the room and made Brand start to laugh, too, shaken by Rune’s giggles. Brand rolled them out of the wet spot, onto their sides, careful not to dislodge himself from Rune, because he could feel through their bond how much he craved the closeness. From their new position, they had a perfect view of the door opening to admit Addam, who had to duck, his perfect golden head shining under the starlike cantrip-lights Rune had cast overhead.
His smile was soft, and proud, and everything to Brand.
“Hello, Tallas,” Addam said, sitting on the edge of the bed and resting his hand on Rune’s hip. His engagement ring glowed in the golden light.
“Hey Addam,” Rune said with a smile, drawing Addam’s hand up to his lips for a kiss. Addam smiled, stroked his fingers through Rune’s hair and then across the curve of Brand’s cheek. Brand turned his head towards the touch, caught Addam by the wrist with his free hand, and kissed his palm.
“This is new,” Addam said, pressing a finger on the tip of Rune’s nose in the universal boop gesture. Rune was still glowing, and he flared brighter at Addam’s touch.
“Surprise?” Rune said sheepishly.
Addam grinned, eyes dark, and leaned in closer. “We shall have to test this new capability, to see who is better at producing it.” He winked, but Rune knew that he wasn’t joking.
“I’m always down to sexpirement,” Rune said.
“Good,” Addam smiled. “We shall try it out tomorrow. We have the whole weekend at the castle, and there is not much to do in town.”
Rune clenched reflexively around Brand’s softening length, earning a curse from his companion.
“Is it perhaps time to clean up, my loves?” Addam asked, burgundy eyes glittering with amusement in the cantrip-light. “May I help take care of you?”
“Yes,” Rune and Brand said simultaneously, which made Rune laugh and Brand smile and shake his head at the improbability of it all.
“Fucking shameless,” Addam said with a grin, stretching forward to kiss Brand.
His lips were soft and so fucking warm. Brand moaned on contact, already yielding to Addam because there was nothing between them anymore, no barrier he needed to uphold, nothing for him to fear. Addam was his Talla, too.
As quickly as it had started, Addam was pulling away. He was as breathless as Brand felt. Rune gave them a quiet little golf clap, grinning up at their flushed faces.
“We must clean up,” Addam said firmly, clearly more for himself than anyone else. “I have already ruined these pants and my other pair is in the RV’s dryer.”
“You ruined—?” Rune cut himself off.
Addam grinned, winking at Brand. “You do not hold a monopoly on either advance orgasms or having two Talla bonds, Hero.”
“Should we share the shower?” Brand asked, unable to hide his hope from either of them at such a close range.
Addam’s smile was solid gold, anchoring Brand’s hopes down. “I would like that very much,” he said, reaching out with his sigil hand to brush the sweat-damp hair off Brand’s forehead. “Unfortunately, what is to come is the worst part of lovemaking.”
Brand nodded, knowing what he needed to do, even if the idea of giving up this newfound closeness with Rune was damn near physically painful. Rune reached back to squeeze his hand. If you watch, you will see what perks there are, Addam’s voice echoed in his mind.
“It’s okay,” Rune said, turning to kiss the corner of his mouth. “It doesn’t hurt.”
Brand very much doubted that. He knew exactly how hard he’d fucked Rune - gods, he had made love to Rune -
Addam’s hand rested on his shoulder, calling Brand’s eyes up to his warm burgundy gaze. “Do it slowly,” he advised. Brand nodded, and watched as he slowly, slowly pulled out of Rune. His skin was a rosy shade of pink where Brand had stretched him wide, and then he was out, and a flood of white spilled from Rune, who groaned and buried his face in the pillow.
“Fuck,” Brand whispered.
“It will be even more lovely when we share him,” Addam said, squeezing Brand’s shoulder. “There will be twice as much.”
“Oh, fuck,” Rune whimpered into the pillow. Brand could feel the lust spiking through his Talla and grinned. An unspoken question sparked in Rune’s eyes when he turned to look over his shoulder at Brand.
“Hell fucking yes,” Brand said, answering it. “C’mon, let’s get cleaned up.”
Addam helped both Brand and Rune stand on shaky legs, the three of them managing to walk to the en-suite bathroom, which was home to a ceiling painted to look like the stars, a shower big enough for three - barely - and a claw-footed bathtub. It wasn’t ideal for what Brand had planned, but he was willing to improvise.
“Do you like your water hot after lovemaking, Brandon?” Addam asked, turning on the faucet.
“I don’t know,” Brand said with a shrug. “I’m a virgin.” He looked at Rune, who matched him grin for grin. “Well. Until tonight.”
Addam’s eyes darkened with desire as he narrowed the distance between them. “There are many ways to be a virgin,” he said, Russian accent low and thick.
“I know - but only two left that matter. Rune took care of one,” Brand said, boldly looking up at Addam. “I kind of hoped you might take care of the other. You’re clearly good at it - and thank you, by the way, for giving this back to Rune.” He paused. “Back to both of us.”
“If you are ready, Brand,” Addam said, drawing his hand up to his lips and kissing the back of it, “then I am ready. If you wish to take things slow—”
“Fuck slow,” Brand shook his head. “I’ve been missing out on this - on both of you - for too long. I want you. I’ve thought about it. A lot. I want it to be tonight, and I want it to be with you, and if Rune fucks my mouth while you make me see god, I think that would be a perfect memory to have for tonight, instead of the other bullshit.”
“Brandon,” Addam said, and the look he gave him was so fucking soft it hurt.
“I trust you,” Brand said. “With my life. With Rune’s life. With both of our hearts. I - I don’t remember exactly when it happened but…I love you, Addam. I’m in love with you. I don’t want to wait anymore. I’ve been waiting to find you my whole life.”
Addam seized his face in both hands, pulling him in for a kiss that had Brand’s bones turning into liquid.
“Yes,” Addam said, breaking their kiss. Brand struggled to remember how to breathe, let alone think, his lips buzzing where Addam had kissed him. “It would be my honor to be your first, my Talla.”
Brand rolled his eyes, but didn’t let go. “So fucking soft,” he muttered.
“You were the one who asked him to take your virginity,” Rune said over his shoulder, turning the water on with a heavy dose of glee, brassy and bold across their bonds. “Surprised you didn’t want to wait til the wedding night since you’re so fucking soft—hey,” he laughed as Brand slashed him with water from the detachable shower head. “Watch it, not the face, it’s my moneymaker!”
“Your ass,” Addam pronounced with heavy Russian formality, “is most definitely your moneymaker. Now, please, my loves, stop flirting with each other and get in the shower so I may take care of you.”
Brand gestured for Rune to go in first, and was surprised when Rune took his hand and tugged him in after him, twining his arms around his shoulders to kiss him. He broke the kiss to watch Addam strip, nudging Rune, who had moved on to his earlobe, teeth grazing his skin, to watch with him. Together they stood under the spray, twined around each other as they watched their lover - was he their fiance now? Brand wondered as he pressed an idle kiss to Rune’s temple - strip, tossing his pants - no underwear, to Brand’s complete and utter lack of surprise - toward the sink.
“Soak them later,” Rune commanded, holding out an arm for Addam, who grabbed two washcloths from the artfully-rolled display next to the towels before he pressed in behind them, his warmth making Brand’s skin spring up with anticipatory goosebumps.
Rune and Addam traded control of the showerhead, taking turns kissing Brand, who felt a little dizzy from the hot steam and the attention. Every rivulet of water felt like it buzzed across his skin, which was hypersensitive from their hands’ gentle but sure exploration of his chest and arms and stomach. Addam pressed lightly at his hip, so Brand turned to face him and was rewarded with a kiss.
Addam kissed completely differently to Rune, despite some clear and obvious similarities. For one, the feeling of Addam’s stubble softly grazing his skin was different, and made Brand want Addam to rub his face all over him like a cat, which made his cheeks burn, because when had he gotten so weird - clearly Rune’s fault, he decided - and why did he want to be held down by Addam’s strong arms while he did it, why did he not want him to stop until every part of him was pink from his beard burn, why—
Brand pushed a finger into Addam’s chest. “Is that you or me thinking that right now?” He demanded to know.
Addam’s hands slipped from his shoulders to his hips, skating over Rune’s to settle just below them, thumbs in the hollows of his hipbones. “Thinking what?” He asked, so innocently that it was a dead giveaway.
“About you holding me down to the mattress and giving me beard burn everywhere like you’re a big lion and I’m - I don’t even know what.”
“Oops,” Rune said sheepishly behind him. “That, uh. That might have been me. To be fair, it’s really nice when he does it, I just - I bet it would be fun to watch, so I was thinking about it.”
Brand growled and twisted to kiss Rune without breaking Addam’s hold on his hips. “Fucking horny-ass goofball,” he accused, earning a grin from Rune that clearly said ah, but now I know you love me anyway . Brand rolled his eyes at that, but he didn’t say he wouldn’t be into it, because he may have been many things but a liar wasn’t one of them.
Addam turned his head back to him with gentle pressure under his chin. “Brandon,” he said, and Brand shivered. Gods he loved the way he said his name. Like he was something priceless. “I will most definitely be claiming every inch of you. Starting with this: I shall wash you, and then we shall wash Rune, and then I shall take you both to bed, where I intend to make love to you as if it were our wedding night, because unless you tell me otherwise, I cannot wait that long to claim you, my Talla . It has been driving me insane to know this, to know you are mine, and not be able to show you just what that means.”
Brand shivered, each word Addam said curling around his bones more possessively than his grip. “Then show me, Saint Nicholas,” he said, because he knew he wouldn’t get to say it for very much longer. A possessive pride flooded him - Addam would have their last name for the rest of his life.
Addam growled and seized his mouth in a hungry kiss that belied how passionately he felt on the matter. Rune kissed Brand’s shoulders, licked water from the rivulets rolling across his scars, and Brand got lost in the feeling of being worshipped between the two of them. Warm, and safe, and so, so perfect.
Addam’s hands, covered in soapy lather that smelled of lavender and fresh ocean air, stroked over every plane of his chest as Rune got his back, then lower, gently curling a sudsy hand around his cock.
“Fuck,” Brand groaned - how many times had he imagined exactly this? Too many. And now it was real.
“Turn and face Rune,” Addam’s command was quiet and gentle. Brand moved automatically, even though he whined a little bit in the back of his throat at having to stop kissing Addam, because now he got to drape his arms over Rune’s shoulders and kiss him . Rune chuckled into Brand’s first needy, open-mouthed kiss, hands on his waist as he stepped back, Addam’s hands on his hips keeping him still. It meant he was bent forward at an angle, and when Addam’s hands left his hips with a quiet stay , Rune murmured in Brand’s ear “hold yourself open for us, handsome.”
Brand did, feeling his cheek burn where it was pressed against Rune’s chest. Water sluiced between his cheeks, followed by the light but unmistakable touch of Addam’s soapy fingers, trailing over him once, teasingly, then again, with intent, washing his most intimate place with gentle efficacy that had his cock stirring between his legs. He wanted Addam to fuck him right here. He wished the shower was big enough that Rune could step back and Brand could choke on his cock while Addam filled him up. He wished that he had told them he loved them years ago, so they could have been doing this sooner.
“Perfect boy,” Addam praised him. “I am going to use a cantrip on you to make sure you are clean. I intend to taste you before I fill you with my cock.”
“Shit,” Brand exhaled. “Okay. Whatever you want is okay with me.”
Rune tilted his chin up so Brand had to look at him. “We will do our best to never hurt you. Okay? This cantrip just feels a little cold, but if anything else hurts, especially when we get started and are stretching you open, you tell us immediately. Understood?”
“Yes sir,” Brand said immediately, the response involuntary - how could he say anything less when Rune’s eyes were pinning him in place?
“Good. We use the word Papaya, but feel free to say red or yellow. There might be times one day we do things that might mean the word stop is actually yes keep going so I want you to remember these will always, always get us to stop what we’re doing and check in. Okay?” Rune asked.
“Okay,” Brand agreed. He didn’t bother telling Rune he’d seen porn - and more importantly, had a set of romance novels hidden in his bedroom - that had taught him all about that. That could come later, after they were home or— “holy shit that’s cold,” he yelped, but stayed still as the cantrip Addam murmured filled him, a chilly intrusion that was quick, there and gone again. In front of him Rune hissed and squeezed his waist, because Addam had transferred the magic to him, and lastly, Addam used it on himself, squeezing Brand’s hips as he gritted his teeth against the icy probe. Addam followed the cold of the spell with the warm water of the shower, the soapy water gliding over Brand’s sensitive skin making him shiver.
“Fuck, who taught you that, Lady Death?” Brand gasped as Rune helped him straighten up.
“No,” Addam said. “I modified a cantrip on my own. Be glad it isn’t Rune’s doing, we learned about that the hard way. It felt like the one time I - well. I shall save that for a time when we are getting drunk and hope that after I tell the story you forget it. Suffice it to say, I have been to some of Ciaran’s racier parties. I came home with pink hair that night.”
“Oh my gods,” Brand said, icy cleansing immediately forgotten. “Did you - did you and Ciaran—”
“No!” Addam said, maybe a little too quickly. “Almost. He was the responsible party for the pink hair.”
Brand laughed. “Oh my god. You kissed Ciaran, too. didn’t you?”
“No,” Addam said defensively at the same time Rune said “ Too?”
The rest of the shower - and drying off - was spent with the two of them trying to evade Rune’s line of questioning.
“I kissed him on a dare,” Addam admitted, breaking first. “The person I was trying to impress at the time suggested it, and so I did it, and when I offered more he declined, and told me to come back if I felt the same when I was sober.”
“And did you?” Rune asked.
“Only to ask how to fix the hair,” Addam said, blushing. “I wound up having to grow it out. I kept it long after that, because I found I liked having long hair, and Quinn was fascinated by the pink for a time.”
“And you?” Rune asked Brand, a dog on the hunt.
“We made out in a bar once,” Brand said. “I almost slept with him. He did that freaky thing where he reads your mind and said that my dreams were too sweet for him to take advantage of me.” Brand flushed, remembering. “He also said I was too young and to come back when I was older if I still hadn’t found the courage to tell you how I felt.”
Rune gave him a look that rivaled Addam’s for softness. “Oh, Band-aid,” he said, resting a hand on Brand’s cheek.
“Gods, he is pretty when he blushes,” Addam said, twining around Rune from behind and resting his chin on Rune’s shoulder, the better to fix him with a smoldering look. “Does he blush everywhere like this?”
“Still haven’t found out,” Rune said, eyes glowing with the first rising sparks of his desire - and his aspect. “Brand?”
Brand reached out and took Rune’s offered hand. He stepped close enough to kiss first Rune, then Addam.
“I’m ready,” he said.
Their grins made him feel like he was about to be devoured.
Addam shocked him by coming around to heft him up bridal style. “I have been training for this,” he confessed to Brand. “Even so, I will have to make two trips on our wedding night, to carry both of you over the threshold.”
“Fucking soft,” Brand declared, stopping Addam in his tracks by kissing his neck, then his ear. Addam groaned, but kept walking the last two steps to the bed, where he laid Brand out like a sacrifice on an altar.
Rune climbed on the bed, kneeling beside him. He held a bottle of something that wasn’t lube.
“Roll over for us,” Rune said, eyes bright. The cantrip lights were back, glimmering softly, winking in and out and turning the whole room into a dimmer, cozier space than before.
Brand did, noticing the blanket over the duvet that Rune had come on had been replaced with one of the towels from the bathroom. The nubbly texture felt kind of nice, grounding in its roughness.
It reminded him of Addam’s beard stubble. Fuck. He was getting hard again, and fast.
“What’s the plan? What are we doing?” Brand asked. Rune shifted on the bed to kneel beside him, and Addam followed suit. The bottle made a clicking sound as it was opened, and Brand smelled sandalwood and amber and relaxed. Not lube - massage oil. Probably stupid expensive, knowing Addam.
“We are going to take our time, Talla,” Addam reminded him. A drizzle of oil landed on his shoulders and the small of his back, making him startle, but Rune’s warm hands quickly spread it out over his skin as Addam added more to his calves and did the same. “We have forever, now. Let us make you feel good, and the rest will follow.”
“Okay,” Brand said softly, letting himself sink into the mattress. The pillow under his head was the same one Rune had been clutching when they’d made love - a thought that sent a shiver through him as Addam began massaging his calves while Rune started on his back - and it smelled like him. Like them , because Rune had taken to stealing Addam’s cologne.
Brand could see why, he thought as the first moan slipped free as Rune’s thumbs dug gently but firmly into a knot in his shoulders he hadn’t realized he’d been tensing around. It was comforting, and luxurious, and felt like nothing so much as being held by Addam, no expectations. Just a gift, his love an offering, and as another moan broke the companionable silence between the three of them Brand realized that this, too, was a gift - he could ask them to stop, tell them he was tired, that he wanted closeness, and they would give it to him.
“Fuck,” Brand exhaled as Rune and Addam’s hands became almost indistinguishable from each other, the gravity of the moment sinking in. They loved him. They loved him. Rune and Addam loved him.
They were Tallas.
“Still good?” Rune asked, a hint of concern in his voice.
“So good,” Brand said, gripping the pillow tighter. “I love you so much, Rune, Addam - it feels so good.”
“What else do you feel, Brandon? Do you feel safe?” Addam asked quietly, thumbs digging in on either side of Brand’s spine, just above the dimples that marked the beginning of his ass.
“Yes,” Brand said, and his eyes burned at the truth of it. He was safe. They would always, always have him, just like he would always have them.
“Do you feel treasured?” Addam asked, tracing the scars on his back with gentle fingers as Rune worked the muscles at the nape of his neck.
“Yes,” Brand gasped, closing his eyes and letting the tears fall into the pillow. Relief and love and something he wasn’t sure of yet bloomed in his chest, strangling his breaths.
“Do you feel happy?” Addam asked, and this was the quietest of the questions, and in tandem their hands worked the road-tired muscles of his arms, his forearms, his hands, each finger treated like it was precious.
“Yes,” Brand said, realizing that what he was feeling was pure, unmitigated joy. “Yes, I do.”
“Then we’re doing this right,” Rune murmured. “Gods. You’re so tense - I didn’t realize how much of a toll driving was having on you.”
“We shall simply have to do this for each other every night, won’t we?” Addam said. He leaned in to murmur, “We are going to spoil you rotten.”
Brand nodded into the pillow, turning his head toward Rune, who bent down to kiss his temple. “Relax. We’re safe. We’re together. We have Addam, now.”
Brand pushed up on his arms with the intention of kissing Addam, couldn’t hold the position, and flopped back down. Addam chuckled warmly, bending over to kiss him properly.
“ Dorogoi, ” he said softly when they broke apart, thumb brushing the wetness off Brand’s cheek. It had the same low, comforting intonation of someone saying hey, baby, shhh , but the word itself reminded Brand of daggers so he guessed it was okay that he liked it.
“I’m okay, I just - I really fucking love you,” Brand said, leaning into Addam’s touch.
“I really love you, too, Brandon,” Addam said, burgundy eyes crinkling at the corners. “We can stop—”
“Don’t you fucking dare,” Brand said, which earned him a laugh from both of them.
“Try to relax. Let yourself enjoy this,” Addam said, stroking his cheek before rising back up to his knees. Brand’s eyes lingered on his abdomen, his hips, his cock. It wasn’t as big as he was, but damn . His stomach lurched at the knowledge that he was going to know exactly what it felt like soon enough.
“Roll over for us, baby,” Rune said, and Brand struggled to comply, his limbs were so loose. He managed it, though, flopping onto his back on the towel, Rune’s pillow tucked under his head and shoulders. It was even easier to relax now that he could see them. Addam’s hands were sure as they repeated the same thorough massage of his legs from ankle to thigh, and Rune’s were flat-out explorative on his chest and stomach. Brand didn’t say anything, though. Rune’s open, awed expression as he traced the planes and hollows of his body made him feel like he was something holy.
“Just a little wider for me,” Addam murmured, one hand pressing gently on the inside of his knee, guiding Brand the direction he wanted him to shift. Rune grinned, bent down and kissed him softly, experimentally, nipping at his lower lip with his teeth. Addam was moving, kneeling between his spread legs, and—lying down?
“What are you—? Ohhh,” Brand’s thoughts ended in a moan as his cock was enveloped in the soft, wet heat of Addam’s mouth. He risked looking down the length of himself and saw Addam flicking his gaze up to him, burgundy eyes dark with desire as he bobbed his head, sinking lower on Brand’s cock.
“Oh, fucking fuck,” Brand groaned as Rune stretched out beside him, one hand still wandering his chest, the other supporting himself as he watched Brand coming apart beneath Addam’s thorough ministrations. It was so good - no one had ever been able to make him feel this good this fast at the docks, probably because even the most professional of professionals balked at his size, he reasoned, even as his heart told him no - it was this good because it was Addam. Because Rune was there holding him through hit, his gaze like the press of an ember to Brand’s skin, his kiss sweeter than fresh air after a rainstorm. And all the while Addam’s mouth was a decadent vortex sheathing him over and over again. When he glanced down to see what Rune was looking at it was inevitably Addam kissing the head of his cock, or his tongue dragging up the underside of him, burgundy eyes winking at them, or - and this nearly ended him - Addam’s lips stretched around him as he bobbed his head relentlessly, sinking all the way down until his breath huffed out his nose and warmed Brand’s skin.
“Stop,” Rune said quietly as Brand hovered on the brink. Addam’s mouth slid off him with a wet pop. He cursed and squirmed but there was nothing for it - Addam had pulled off, was rubbing the tension out of his thighs, prying his hands from where they fisted in the bedsheets one by one and kissing each of them in turn. Rune stroked Brand’s cheek, his hair, kissed his forehead, the tip of his nose, murmuring, “good job Brand, you did so good, that’s it, c’mon take a deep breath for me.”
Brand shuddered his way through a gasping breath - he had been so close, so fucking close to coming that his brain was having a hard time understanding why they’d stopped. “Rune,” he groaned, because he didn’t whimper - even though it kind of sounded like it.
“I know, I know. It’s okay,” Rune said, hands stroking his arms and chest, gentle and soothing. “We’re not finished yet. Can you hold your legs for me?” He guided Brand through shifting, tucking a throw pillow under his hips as Brand’s hands gripped behind his knees and he held himself open.
Rune’s smoky gaze was so warm and adoring that Brand felt sure for a split second he was about to wake up from the best dream of his life.
“It’s not a dream, I promise,” Rune said, stroking his cheek gently. Brand’s hands were busy, so he nuzzled into it, kissing Rune’s wrist.
Something warm and slick pressed against his balls, tearing a surprised moan from his throat, and Brand looked down in time to see Addam’s head sink lower, just the golden crown visible because his eyes were rolling back in his head as the sensation - Addam’s tongue - skated lower, circling his entrance before boldly laving across it.
“ Ohhhhh fuck, Addam ,” Brand groaned, and he felt Addam’s smug little chuckle before he heard it, because Addam’s tongue was probing into him and holy shit is this how it felt for Rune when he’d done it? Because fuck.
Addam pulled away with a hum, tongue replaced by the cool metal of his sigil hand - a single, lube-slick finger pressed against his entrance, which Brand couldn’t stop from spasming greedily. He wanted it, he wanted it so bad he —
“I need to hear your voice, Brandon,” Addam said, finger still holding still. His Bordeaux-dark eyes were warm and full of that look he gave him, more and more lately, that Brand realized with a sucker punch to the gut meant that Addam loved him . “Tell me you want this.”
“Want this? Addam, I’m so gone for you,” Brand gasped. “Please, Addam - I want you inside me. I—” he was rewarded with the increased pressure, Addam’s finger sinking in to the first knuckle. Addam’s brown was furrowed, and he felt worry holding their bond taut. So he kept going. “I trust you, Addam,” he exhaled. “I want to feel you. I need to know what I’ve been missing all this time.”
“You shall never miss this again,” Addam promised as his finger slid home; the chill of the other fingers curling against him was a welcome anchor that stopped Brand from coming on the spot.
“Oh, honey,” Brand groaned, clenching down around Addam’s finger and earning a bitten lip and a smoldering look from his Talla. “I think I’m gonna miss this every fucking day, now.”
“So fucking smooth,” Rune commended, purring praise in his ear. His hand spread across Brand’s abdomen and down, curling around his cock, still slick from Addam’s mouth. “Keep going, Addam - he can take it. Can’t you, baby?”
“Fuck,” Brand exhaled, nodding. Addam curled his finger experimentally, earning another low groan from him. “Feels so good, Addam - more.”
Rune kept his touches light and teasing as Addam continued to work him open, slowly increasing to a second finger. Once it was all the way in, Rune took his hand away and commanded “stop,” once again, only he did it in his arcana voice which made it even harder for Brand to not fucking come.
“Very good, Brand,” Rune said softly. “I think I was right about the blush. It’s spreading down your neck and your chest every time. I don’t even need the companion bond to keep doing this - your body tells me so beautifully.”
“Fuck, Rune,” Brand hissed. “That’s not helping me keep it together.”
Rune’s dark, proud laugh had Brand’s cock twitching in thin air, precome starting to drip onto his belly.
“We’ll explore that later,” Rune promised. One of his hands replaced Brand’s behind his knee, the other caught the hand he’d freed and laced their fingers together. “How does it feel?”
“Good,” Brand said. He’d gotten this far in the shower before, but it was like comparing a single star to an entire nebula. Both were great, but the latter blew his mind just that much more. Addam curled his fingers, rubbing intentionally on his prostate with a slow, firm consistency that had Brand’s eyes rolling back in his head, squeezing Rune’s hand for dear life.
“Better?” Addam asked.
“Fuck,” Brand choked out, tongue feeling almost too thick to articulate. Rune leaned down to kiss him as Addam kept working him open, making Brand moan long and low at the sheer pleasure of it. He could come from just this, he realized.
“Soon,” Rune promised him. He shifted up on his knees, taking Brand’s leg and using his body to hold it upright. His other hand still held Brand’s but the other—
“Thanks, babe,” Rune said as Addam squeezed lube onto his fingers. Addam kept his fingers inside Brand, shifting so they weren’t pressing on his prostate. Rune grinned, pressing a chaste kiss to Brand’s calf as one of his warm fingertips rubbed over the stretched-out rim. Brand’s breath came in shallow, frantic pants.
“Please,” he heard himself begging. “Please, do it Rune, I wanna feel you both inside me— ohhhhh yes, yes, thank you,” Brand groaned as Rune’s finger slipped inside him alongside Addam’s, grazing his prostate over and over and over as he worked himself in and out while Addam scissored his fingers to stretch him.
“You look so beautiful, stretching around our fingers,” Rune said as Brand thrashed his head against the pillow, feeling like they’d set fire to his bones. “Can you take another?”
Brand nodded emphatically. He could barely keep his eyes open it felt so good. “Yes,” he gasped.
Rune slid a second finger in alongside the first. “That’s four fingers stretching you open,” he commented. “You like it?”
“Yes,” Brand groaned as they gently continued working him open. Rune’s fingers slid out, which made him clench down on Addam, but Rune’s hand curled around his cock, which made up for the loss of fullness.
“You are doing so beautifully for us, dorogoi ,” Addam purred. “Do you want to feel what we feel?”
“Yes,” Brand groaned. Addam gently took his hand from behind his other knee, raised it to his lips and kissed the pads of his fingers. Rune helped Brand curl forward, supporting him with his body and making it easier for him to reach as Addam guided Brand’s fingers inside himself, alongside his own fingers. It was hot, and so smooth, and silken, and tight -
“Curl your fingers for me, Brandon,” Addam murmured, and Brand did, feeling lightning strike himself from the inside out. “Do you feel that?”
“Uh-huh,” Brand groaned, rubbing against that spot again. So good.
“Do you want more?” Addam asked. “Do you want me filling you up, Brand?”
“Yes,” Brand said, removing his fingers as if all Addam was waiting for was for him to make room. “Addam, please, fuck me.”
Addam met him in a kiss that seared Brand’s lips, his tongue, set fire to the air left in his lungs. He whimpered against Addam’s mouth at the loss of his fingers, at the sensation of being empty where he had just gotten used to being full, and gasped as he felt Addam’s cock brushing his entrance.
Rune was holding him open, curling around him, kissing his temple, his cheek, as Addam shifted, their only point of contact where his cock was slowly, slowly pressing inward. The stretch was so much more than their fingers had been, even though his body relaxed easily for Addam’s intrusion, because it was Addam. He was an angel gilded in cantrip-light, from the halo of golden hair on his head to the golden glossiness of his cock, slowly disappearing into Brand, making him feel something too big for his body to contain, the swell of emotions filling him until tears slipped past his control in between blinks, streaking down his cheeks as Addam drew flush with him, filling him so completely Brand started to shake with it.
Addam stroked the tears from one cheek with his thumb before bringing his mouth to Brand’s, kissing the word Talla into his mouth. Brand clenched around Addam, so fucking full, their foreheads resting together as they caught their breath.
Thank you for this gift, he felt Addam say through their bond.
“I love you, Addam,” Brand said, and if his voice broke, neither Addam nor Rune commented on it - but Rune did stroke a little infinity symbol on the side of his knee, where he was helping hold him open for Addam.
“Are you re—”
“Yes,” Brand said, rolling his hips toward Addam. It tore a fuck out of the scion’s throat.
“Brandon, I cannot guarantee I will be gentle,” Addam began.
“Then don’t,” Brand rasped, suddenly sure that Rune’s sparks of Aspect were dancing in his eyes. “Please, Addam, I just need you.” He squeezed Rune’s hand and said, so softly, “show me what it’s supposed to be like.”
Addam shifted, maybe an inch out, then returned. Brand felt a pull deep within him - was it their bond? Was it his desire? He couldn’t be sure - but Addam repeated the movement, slowly setting a rhythm that Brand could do little more than experience, wave after wave of pleasure rocking him to his core and pulling moans from him with each thrust as Addam kept him full beyond his wildest imagination.
“I won’t last long,” Addam panted, settling back on his knees and speeding his hips up with the new leverage. Brand saw stars, managed to slur out a j-join the fucking club that made Rune snort a laugh and bend down to kiss him, and oh, kissing Rune while Addam fucked him was just so much more than he’d bargained for, embers swirling inside his bloodstream as they kept him on the edge, caught fast and held safe between his true north and his guiding light. Tallas. He could feel the pull between them again, deep within him, like the boundaries between them were thinner than the surface of a bubble.
“Still good, baby?” Rune asked, twining around him, hands exploring Brand’s chest, trailing down his neck, carding through his hair - but staying firmly away from his aching cock.
“Yes,” Brand moaned. “Rune - I wanna taste you,” he confessed.
Rune’s grin was wild and carefree and sent joy stabbing straight into Brand’s already-overfilled heart. Addam felt it too, his hips stuttering once as he cursed, reaching for Rune, who was already rising to his knees to kiss him. Addam leaned forward, hips snapping deeper into Brand, kissing Rune for all he was worth and giving Brand secondhand butterflies. Addam kept kissing Rune, rolling his hips slowly but pointedly, the head of his cock brushing over Brand’s prostate again and again and making him see stars. He grabbed on to Rune’s hips for dear life, nuzzling into his thigh.
“Okay, okay,” Rune laughed, carding his fingers through Brand’s hair. Brand nipped at his thigh, because he was fucking close and he wanted to taste him before he died of the absolute bliss that was Addam’s cock filling him perfectly over and over again, and Rune gently fisted his hand in Brand’s hair, other hand guiding himself to Brand’s lips.
“Is this what you wanted, handsome?” Rune asked, eyes smoldering with want .
“Yes,” Brand said, kissing the word into Rune’s sensitive skin. Rune’s eyes fluttered and Brand stuck out his tongue and tasted .
It wasn’t the first time he’d done this, but it might as well have been, for how overwhelmed he felt at the salty tang of Rune’s skin on his tongue. His skin was so soft, and as Brand relaxed and took more of Rune past his lips, he realized his Arcana was the perfect size for him to just hold in his mouth for hours. The thought made Rune groan - or maybe it was the way Brand was sucking him off, the moans Addam was fucking out of him muffled by Rune’s cock - but Brand knew Rune had picked up the message because their bonds were wide fucking open. He could feel Addam’s ardent love overflowing and Rune’s intense pride at how good Brand was doing and their combined joy that this was finally, finally theirs.
“Fucking gods you two are gorgeous like this,” Addam panted, slowing his hips to a roll, stretching out over Brand to kiss his cheek, right over where Rune made a substantial bulge. Brand shuddered beneath him at the tenderness of that single kiss, and then Rune was guiding Addam up with a gentle touch under his chin, leaving Addam buried to the hilt inside Brand as Rune stole his mouth for a kiss that had Brand’s neglected cock twitching against his stomach.
Before he could take matters -literally - into his own hands, Rune released Addam, pulling his cock slowly from Brand’s mouth so he could flop on his side next to them, a pillow under his head.
“I want to hear the noises you both make when you come,” Rune said by way of explanation. He laced his fingers with Brand’s, free hand reaching to stroke Brand’s cock, and Brand knew he wasn’t going to survive this - the pleasure was too great, the feeling of being connected to them too much, the love he felt from his Tallas too overwhelming for him to ever be the same.
Brand couldn’t have stopped the moans leaving him if he had wanted to - Addam had found and set a driving, deep rhythm that knocked them out of him - but when Rune’s thumb began stroking little circles around the head of his cock that was it. “ Ah -Addam—” he cried out, squeezing Rune’s other hand for dear life. “ Rune!”
“That’s it, baby, come for us,” Rune murmured, gliding his thumb through the precome leaking from his cock in a steady stream. “Come for us, I want to feel it cover my hand, I want to see the look on Addam’s face when you squeeze him so tight he has no choice but to follow you, I want to fuck his come into you and add mine—oh, you liked that one, didn’t you? I felt it.”
“Yes,” Brand gasped. He was hurtling toward the edge and there was no stopping it this time. He felt like he was floating free of his body, not even attached - the only thing anchoring his soul was his tether to the two of them. He looked up at Addam and saw that his aspect was rising, a shining tracery of chainmail glowing against his skin, making him even more beautiful - a feat Brand hadn’t thought possible.
Addam draped over him, still shining, kissing Brand as the position shift made him go even deeper. His burgundy eyes were so warm, so adoring, as he caught Brand’s gaze, hips still rolling relentlessly into him.
“Come, my talla ,” he commanded, and Brand was lost. He heard someone shout - himself? - as pleasure exploded through him like a supernova, or maybe a black hole, because Addam wasn’t far behind, coming inside him with a hot, wet flood that had Brand shuddering and crying out again as his release painted the space between them - and especially Rune’s fist - white. He was on fire, he was dissolving into them, he was floating away —
Addam wrapped tightly around Brand, still sheathed deep inside him, and Rune held his hand fast. No. He was here, anchored down by his Tallas. His whole body felt full of an electric hum, or maybe champagne bubbles, but with Addam struggling to catch his breath on top of him it felt like heaven.
Rune squeezed his hand. Brand squeezed back, as hard as he could.
“I love you,” Brand rasped, eyes sliding shut. Addam pressed a soft kiss to his neck, burying his face against it and murmuring I love you too . His aspect was fading, but one day, Brand resolved drowsily, he would trace every line of the phantom armor with his tongue.
“I love you three,” Rune said, kissing Brand’s shoulder. Brand was suddenly too tired to even roll his eyes - he just pulled Rune closer, closed his eyes, and let exhaustion take him under.
***
Sometime in the middle of the night - or perhaps early morning - Brand woke from a dream he forgot as soon as he opened his eyes, because Rune’s were looking right back at him.
“Hey,” Brand breathed.
“Hey yourself,” Rune whispered back. He wriggled closer, until their foreheads touched. At some point, Addam had pulled out of him, and one of them had used a cleaning cantrip and tucked them all in. Brand had no idea how he’d slept through it, but he had, and now Addam was snoring softly on the other side of the bed, his warmth a solid counterweight behind him.
“You okay?” Brand asked, letting himself brush the hair off Rune’s forehead. Because he could, now.
“Yeah,” Rune wriggled closer. “You? You kinda blacked out on us there. Well. Not completely - you mumbled a lot of gibberish when we were getting you ready for bed.”
“Can you blame me?” Brand asked, keeping his voice low. “That was the best sex of my life.”
“So far,” Rune pointed out. “Out of two.” He was grinning, though, so Brand rolled his eyes and pressed their foreheads together.
“I still can’t believe this,” he exhaled. “Tallas. You’re my tallas.”
“Yeah we are,” Rune said, smiling.
“You love me,” Brand let the wonder fill his whisper.
“Yeah I do,” Rune’s grin broadened.
“Addam loves me,” Brand said.
“Yeah he does,” Rune pressed a kiss to his lips.
Brand kissed him back for a heady, languid moment, before pulling back to ask, “what now? I - this is a dream come true, Rune. I don’t know what to dream about now that it’s real.”
“Now we don’t need to dream,” Rune said, his hand stroking Brand’s cheek. “Now…I guess we get to live out those dreams together.”
“That was soft as fuck,” Brand pronounced even as the words made his heart leap. “Addam’s been rubbing off on you.”
Rune’s grin was wicked. Brand rolled his eyes and kissed the smugness away. It took a while, but he wasn’t complaining - not when Rune yielded so beautifully to his kisses, rolling so Brand was draped on top of him.
“Gods, Rune,” Brand rasped. “We better stop or we’ll wake Addam.”
“As if he wouldn’t join us if he did,” Rune said. “C’mon. Make out with me?” He asked hopefully. Brand saw a flicker of something dark behind his Arcana’s eyes, and nodded wordlessly. The night wasn’t over, and Rune still needed backup. The only solution was to exhaust him so completely that he fell asleep and stayed asleep until morning.
“C’mere,” Brand murmured, already nuzzling into him. It felt so natural, it was a wonder they’d resisted this for so long - but then, they were both stubborn when it came to what they thought was important, and there were few things more important than each other. Brand was more concerned with Rune’s enjoyment than his own. He needed to keep him distracted, felt the pull of time surrounding them like the countdown to a bomb’s explosion, only they were the bomb, and they needed to defuse each other.
As Brand kissed Rune, he let his body speak for him, their bond closed on one side to keep from waking Addam. He let the other bonds they shared be flung wide open, let Rune feel his need, his love, the unending willingness, unyielding loyalty that he carried for Rune. His Talla. His best friend. His king. It was his joy to serve Rune in this way, and touching him, the both of them quiet in the indigo darkness of the room, felt like something…holy. Fuck, he’d prayed for it often enough, hadn’t he? And wasn’t Rune the closest thing to a god that walked this earth?
Rune was rock hard against his hip, and Brand shifted so they were flush, cocks grazing as they ground together like teenagers stealing time, mostly because he wanted to feel the softness of Rune’s stomach against him. Rune stifled a laugh against Brand’s shoulder as he kissed a ticklish line from his shoulder to his earlobe and breathed, “Gods, I love you, Rune.”
“I love you too,” Rune exhaled, hands stroking down Brand’s back where the sheet had fallen off. It felt like having the constellations of his scars mapped out by sun-warmed feathers, his touches were so reverent, and Brand realized that for Rune, this - he - was the miracle. It made his eyes burn, and he kissed Rune with all the love he could muster, rocking against Rune slowly, agonizingly slowly.
“I want you,” Brand breathed when they broke apart. “I want you inside me, Rune - do you want to fuck me?”
“Yes,” Rune gasped, stealing his mouth for another, desperate kiss. “Gods yes. But are you sure—”
“Yes,” Brand said immediately. “You won’t hurt me.”
Rune swore softly under his breath and then whispered a lubrication cantrip, his fingers gleaming in the moonlight streaming through the window, but Brand shook his head before Rune could reach back. He still felt relaxed from earlier, and so he steered Rune’s fingers to curl around his own cock, slicking it for Brand.
“I’m going to ride you,” Brand exhaled, caging Rune in with his body, giving him just enough room to hastily slick himself. “And then we’ll sleep, okay?”
“Okay, yes,” Rune panted. “Brand—”
“Yeah?” Brand paused, hand replacing Rune’s, ready to guide him inside himself. If Rune wanted to stop he would, no matter how much he wanted more — but he didn’t stop. Instead, he pushed up on his elbows, the better to look at him.
“You’re so gorgeous like this,” Rune said softly. His eyes glowed with embers, his aspect already rising to the surface. Brand loved the way the sparks swirled in Rune’s eyes, like it was just for him. “I love you so much.”
Brand grinned, feeling the joy shining in his chest mirrored back to him in Rune. “I love you too, baby.”
Rune watched as Brand lined them up, feeling a tremor in his bones at the sheer exhilaration of his cock brushing Brand’s entrance. He had a split second to worry he would hurt Brand before Brand was sinking down, muffling his groan with a hand over his mouth. He slumped over Rune, burying his face in Rune’s neck. The quiet, broken oh fuck that escaped him in a breathless exhale was priceless. Rune knew he’d never get sick of it, the same way he knew he’d never get used to filling Brand up, the hot silken heat clenching around him, similar but different to how it felt when he made love with Addam.
Brand rolled his hips. “It’s different on top,” he gasped, arms wrapping around Rune’s neck as he ground experimentally into him. Rune could feel all ten inches of Brand pressed into his belly, hot and dripping for him already, and could feel how much Brand liked how soft he was here through their bond.
“I keep forgetting this is new for you,” Rune said softly. “There’s no rush, Brand.”
“Tell that to my dick,” Brand groaned quietly, grinding into him once before settling back on his hips with another quiet curse. “I swear the second one of us moves I’m gonna come.”
Rune’s laughter shook them both so hard that Brand had to put his hand over his mouth, which meant Rune snorted, which made Brand giggle and shush him, which made him shake even harder, because the last time Brand had giggled he’d been high as a kite, and then Addam was sitting up in bed.
“Hero? Brand? Are you alright?” He asked sleepily.
“Yeah, Addam,” Rune said with a hint of laughter still in his voice. “We’re okay.”
“No nightmares?” He asked, sounding more alert, shifting closer. The moonlight turned his tousled hair silver.
“Nope, we, uh…” Rune trailed off.
Addam’s eyes trailed over Brand, frozen like a statue on top of Rune, rock hard and blushing in the indigo shadows of the predawn light. His smile was broad and leonine as he settled back against the headboard.
“Oh, do not mind me, tallas, ” he purred. “I shall enjoy the view and then, when you are done with your romp, we shall go back to sleep. Together.”
“Think you can handle that, baby?” Rune asked, hands stroking up Brand’s thighs. He was trembling. Love rose up in him, so fierce it cut him bone-deep.
Brand clenched down around him, stifling a groan behind his bitten lip. Rune had no such reservations and let his moan go free. “I think so.”
“It’s not a race,” Rune said, squeezing Brand’s thighs.
“This time,” Brand said, clenching down around him again. “Fuck, you feel so good.”
“I shall referee,” Addam murmured, kicking the sheets the rest of the way down, exposing his long, gorgeously toned legs and a hand wrapped lazily around his length. “Whoever comes first may taste me.”
“Deal,” Rune said. Brand wiggled a little in his lap, getting his balance and simultaneously making Rune see stars. He rose up - not far, but the slow glide was glorious - sinking back down with a look of pure pleasure on his face that Rune wanted tattooed on his brain.
“Eidetic spell?” Addam murmured, having scooted closer, so he could touch his shoulder to Rune’s in solidarity.
“Eidetic spell,” Rune agreed breathlessly. Brand was too beautiful to not create a permanent record of this.
“Could ah -always film it,” Brand panted, moving faster as he got the rhythm of fucking himself on Rune’s cock.
“Oh yeah?” Rune grinned.
“Why not?” Brand asked, raising nearly all the way off Rune and sinking back down.
Why not indeed? Rune thought, rolling his hips into Brand’s next thrust. It knocked a shocked gasp loose from his Companion’s throat, the sound melting into a moan when Rune did it again.
“Rune,” Brand groaned, “I’m barely hanging on as it is.”
“So keep riding me if you come,” Rune said. “It’s okay, baby. You don’t have to wait for me.” He rolled his hips faster, and Brand leaned forward, supporting himself with his hands on Rune’s chest.
“Oh fuck,” Brand groaned, eyes drifting closed as if it would give him an ounce of control over his body’s eager and powerful reaction. “Right there. Yes. Yes, Rune.”
Rune thrust up into Brand with the same speed and depth, terrified to lose the angle that had Brand moaning for him like it was the only sound he knew how to make. He knew he wasn’t far behind him, the both of them rushing toward an orgasm that was decades in the making.
“Gods you two are beautiful like this,” Addam murmured. “Rune, you are giving our Brand so much pleasure he doesn’t even need to touch his cock - look how he drips for you.”
Brand managed to open his eyes for a second, blue and burning hotter than any flame Rune could create. “Say that again.”
Rune wasn’t sure what he meant - ninety percent of his brain was occupied with the effort to keep going and make Brand come - until Addam purred, “our Brand,” the words making Brand shudder and rasp out a fuck that held a novel’s worth of meaning.
“Our Brand,” Rune panted, savoring the way it made Brand clench down, which in turn made Brand whimper because his clenching just made Rune’s thrusts tighter for both of them. “Our fiancé. Our Talla.”
“Rune,” Brand cried out, desperation and pleasure breaking his voice in half. “I can’t—”
Rune grabbed Brand’s hips; he could go even faster now, but it wouldn’t last long for either of them, he could feel it, his bones seared with licks of fire at every touch they shared. “Then don’t,” Rune said, his own desperate need roughening his voice. “You feel that?” He flung their bond wide open, Addam following suit. “You feel how much we fucking love you, Brand?”
Brand nodded, eyes closed against the bliss he felt. The sun was rising in the window he faced as he rode Rune, its first rays painting the sky in shades of blush and gold, the colors reflected on Brand’s trembling body above him. Rune could feel how close he was, how close they all were, Addam included, to tumbling over the edge into bliss.
Addam shifted, sat so he could take both of their hands in his. “ Tallas, look - look out the window,” he urged.
Rune glanced up, saw the indigo-dark inverted sky, looked back at the sunrise-kissed Brand, and did a double take. Brand didn’t stop riding him, but his hips did stutter, his free hand planted on Rune’s chest to maintain his balance.
“Brandon… dorogoi, you are glowing like the dawn,” Addam said, and sure enough, his fingers were a luminous pink where they linked with Addam’s. As they watched, trails of light sprang up along his arms, the same way Addam’s aspect did, only instead of chain mail the lights formed a delicate tracery of flowers - flowers Rune would know anywhere - the same forget-me-nots that still grew out of the railing back at Half House.
“Gods, you’re beautiful,” Rune exhaled. Lit up like this, Brand’s flush was even more pronounced, backlit by what Rune suspected was the Talla bond manifesting their combined joy. “Come on, baby, shine for us,” he said, reaching out with his free hand to stroke Brand’s cock. He needed to feel Brand’s orgasm, follow him over the brink and collapse in a sweaty heap with his Tallas more than he needed to breathe - so he fought dirty, sending wave after wave of love to Brand through their bond. Yours mine ours - forever —
Brand cried out, something too high-pitched to be anything but involuntary, and came, clenching down around Rune, who kept his thrusts going as Brand spilled over his fist and onto his stomach and chest. Rune wasn’t far behind, shuddering and gasping for air as his hips faltered, molten gold flooding him as hot as a solar flare as he came deep inside Brand. Addam kept a tight grip on their hands, his own mess striping Rune’s side and torso with hot spurts of come, a low moan surprised out of him as he came untouched.
Brand collapsed on top of Rune, burying his face in his shoulder, uncaring of the mess glueing them together. Addam draped over them planting soft, lazy kisses to each of them wherever he could reach, and together they caught their breath as Brand’s borrowed glow faded.
“Think you can sleep now?” Brand asked hoarsely. Had he screamed? He wasn’t sure. He clenched around Rune’s softening length, not wanting to let him go.
“Only if you sleep with me,” Rune said, yawning. Brand kissed the corner of his sleepy, satisfied smile and rested his head over his heart. The strong, steady beat of Rune’s pulse was already starting to slow down, throbbing through both of them where they were joined.
“Let me clean us up,” Addam said gently, resting a hand on Brand’s shoulder. He nodded, gritting his teeth and rising up on his knees, both loving the warm flood of come trickling out of him and hating the feeling of loss at Rune’s absence.
“I know, lyubimi , I know,” Addam soothed, rubbing his sigil hand in little circles at the small of Brand’s back. “At the next opportunity, I shall procure something for you to wear that makes it feel less like we are gone, and will help you stay ready for more.” He murmured a cantrip, the air filling with the scent of lavender and pine, and tugged the blankets back up over them as Brand settled on top of Rune, unwilling to be any further from his Talla. In an impressive show of strength, Rune rolled to put Brand between himself and Addam, who was a warm, solid weight behind him, one arm sliding beneath both Brand’s neck to curl around him, palm flat over his heart, the other arm wrapped tight over Brand and around Rune’s waist.
“We must also procure Brandon an engagement ring,” Addam yawned. “I will not go another day without seeing our claim on him, Solnishko .”
“I agree completely, babe,” Rune said, tucking one leg between Brand’s. “Engagement ring and a butt plug. The perfect shopping list.”
Brand snorted, closed his eyes, and let their quiet murmurs about where to shop and wedding plans lull him to sleep.
***
They woke up at the crack of real dawn - Rune’s chief complaint about the road trip was that his “sleeping in'' meant he was now on Brand’s usual schedule since they’d moved time zones - to a misty morning, the fields surrounding the castle cloaked in a low-hanging fog that left the thick green grass covered in dewdrops that made it glitter like thousands of diamonds had been scattered on the ground. They dressed, trading lazy kisses and grazing touches, as if they couldn’t keep their distance even now. Brand decided he didn’t care - he wasn’t going to stop unless they asked him to, and Addam was a glutton for PDA. For the first time in a long, long time, Brand realized he was completely happy - if a little sore.
“Do you want a healing spell?” Rune asked as he caught sight of Brand’s wince.
“Fuck, no,” Brand said immediately. I need to feel it, so I remember this is real, he thought, forgetting that their bond was still wide open.
“We’ll leave more bruises next time,” Rune said, wrapping around him for a kiss, breath minty from their shared toothpaste.
“I’d like that,” Brand said, letting his cheeks heat under Rune’s watchful gaze, cursing his Irish ancestry for making him a human fucking mood ring.
Addam, in a borrowed pair of cargo pants, twined around Brand from behind, his breath warm on his neck. “After breakfast?” He asked, voice a low purr. “Just kissing. There are some lovely closets I would drag you into, Heroes.”
“Okay,” Brand exhaled, tilting his head for Addam.
Rune laughed. “Oh my gods, is this what you needed to stop being so grumpy all the time? For us to fuck your brains out?”
Brand hit him with one of his best glares, but he couldn’t hold it for long - especially with Addam gently kissing his pulse - and Rune knew it, beaming at him.
“C’mon,” Rune said. “There’s no after breakfast if we don’t have breakfast first, and I think I smell bacon.”
To their surprise, they weren't the first ones to the breakfast table - the other adults were already half finished with their plates, and Ciaran threw them a saucy wink that said everyone had heard them the night before. Mayan was busy arranging avocado slices on his toast, which was a good sign - he’d been melancholy since they’d arrived, sparing them only enough information to get them to stop looking at him like he was one countdown away from an explosion. He and Lord Tower had visited not long after the castle had been built, and Lord Tower, as a favor to Lady Justice, had helped set the powerful wards that kept the castle safe. Mayan’s eyes passed over him, one raised eyebrow his only concession to speculation before he returned to his toast, apparently satisfied with what he could glean from the tousled picture the three of them painted. Brand didn’t bother with a blush, but Rune’s ears turned the telltale pink they always did when he was starting to feel self conscious, so he lifted Rune’s hand to his lips and kissed the back of it while Addam pulled out Rune’s chair for him.
“So,” Ciaran began, drawing out the word like the Cheshire fucking Cat.
“Nope,” Brand said firmly. “Not happening.”
“Leave them be, trickster,” Mayan said tiredly, turning with a plate of whole-wheat toast in his hand. Over the course of the road trip, it had become apparent that Ciaran’s preferred method of keeping Mayan alive in hopes of finding the missing Lord Tower was by annoying the shit out of him. Whatever he had to say next was lost to time as he went stiff, eyes wide like he’d seen a ghost. His toast crashed to the floor, shards of porcelain scattering, just as a chime sounded - the bell-like warning jingle of someone crossing their wards.
Addam’s face was nearly as shocked as Mayan’s. “The only other person who could get past our wards—”
“Is the one who set them,” Mayan exhaled. He was off like a shot, racing for the door. Brand wasn’t far behind, and he saw Rune and Addam thumbing their sigils, ready to unleash a maelstrom of magic on whoever it might be.
***
Rune didn’t dare hope, but as Mayan threw open the door, his heart leapt in his chest anyway. Mayan kept running toward the field, shrouded in a thick mist, the kind one normally saw around rivers at the first change from summer to autumn, where a dark figure steadily marched toward them, but Rune knew. He knew, and as his Tallas came to flank him, he looked up and saw the reflection of the sun in triplicate - a sundog marking their location, a perfect target, a perfect beacon , signaling to anyone who might have been looking for home.
Mayan’s long legs carried him across the wet grass at Olympic speeds, and the figure - still far away, but familiar even at this distance - paused, looking up to see the source of the commotion. And started running, too.
“Is it…?” Brand exhaled.
“I think so,” Rune said, eyes burning. Addam squeezed his hand.
“Godfather,” he said, emotion making his voice shake.
In the distance, the figures reached each other, the one bowling the other over, leaving the shadow of the far side of the field for the sunny carpet of dewy grass Mayan had left a trail through, rolling once with the force of their collapse.
Rune started running. His Tallas ran with him, and he could feel the others not far behind. His heart pounded in his chest, in his throat, hope strangling him and making it hard to breathe—
They skidded to a halt in the wet grass, the scent of petrichor and dew and pure, unadulterated magic filling the air as they stopped and watched Mayan roll Anton beneath him, stealing his mouth in a kiss.
“Well I’ll be,” Ciaran drawled, crossing his arms. “Who could have seen that coming?”
“I did,” Quinn panted, hands on his knees. Max was breathing hard, having clearly chased Quinn, and Anna skidded to a stop next to them only a second later. The whole family was coming, Rune realized, glancing back at the house where everyone was in various stages of running. He turned his gaze to Quinn.
“I…told him…at the River,” Quinn panted, looking up, spotting his godfather and Mayan kissing, and making a face. “Oh, gods. Oh, I’m Seeing way, way too much. Blech .” He straightened, brightened. “Hey! I’m Seeing again!”
“Let me guess,” Ciaran asked, grinning. “Cowboy wedding?”
Quinn sighed. “Unfortunately. The best time happens when it’s a cowboy wedding, but…gross things happen too.”
“Something tells me they’d happen in every timeline,” Max said. He squinted at Rune, Brand, and Addam. “Congratulations on figuring it out, by the way.”
Rune opened his mouth, closed it because he wasn’t sure what to say, opened it again, and was cut off by Addam’s magnanimous “thank you, Max.”
On the ground, Mayan had pulled back, was inspecting Anton for damage. “Oh, wasim , look at you - you’re younger, now.”
“I am still myself,” Anton said, although he looked closer to his thirties than his late forties, now. “I…so much has happened, but - I’m home, habibi. I’m back.”
Mayan hauled Anton up into a sitting position, effectively putting himself in his lap. He brought their foreheads together. “ Mine,” he breathed, and then they were kissing again.
“I think I’m gonna be sick,” Brand muttered. Rune elbowed him. “What? No one wants to see their dads making out, just ask our kids.”
This got a chorus of agreement and a few “ewwww”s that Rune found really unnecessary. He was about to say so when Mayan and Anton stopped kissing long enough to realize they weren’t alone.
“Do you need a healing sigil?” Rune asked. “Are you okay?”
“I am so much more than fine,” Anton said, hands fisted in Mayan’s shirt. He was beaming, actually beaming , which was almost scarier than when he unleashed his aspect. “I am home.” His voice broke on the last word, and Mayan wrapped around him in a fierce embrace, murmuring what sounded like a prayer of thanks to the gods.
“Not that I’m complaining, but… how ?” Brand asked.
“Quinn told me to look for the lights,” Anton said as Mayan kissed the top of his head before helping pull him to his feet. “There would be three of them, and then three all at once,” he tilted his head back, looking up at the sky. “And so it is. He said to keep walking until I found where the lights were, and that I would walk until the stone became grass and the grass became home.” He looked around at all of them - grin broadening when he saw the three of them holding hands - and added, “And here I am.”
“I am never letting you out of my fucking sight again,” Mayan said, voice shaking with unspent emotion.
Anton smiled. “I can live with that.” He leaned in for a kiss that Mayan returned wholeheartedly, which had Anna covering her eyes and Quinn looking green and Layne holding out their hand to Ciaran, who was rolling his eyes and counting out money into their palm.
When they broke apart, Anton’s eyes were bright as they searched Mayan’s face.
“My,” he began. “We have waited long enough. Will you marry me?”
“Yes,” Mayan said. “Someone has to keep you in line.”
“Oh, habibi, how I have missed you,” Anton said, warm brown eyes soft as he looked up at Mayan.
“And I, you,” Mayan said, equally softly.
“Tell me everything I’ve missed,” Anton said, giving himself a little shake. It was almost impossible for Rune to reconcile this younger, bearded version of Anton with the Lord Tower he knew, and he’d had the benefit of seeing him in his memory constructs, but this - this was just like he remembered him.
“No,” Mayan said, grabbing Anton with a hand on either side of his face. “You reek of time magic, you rolled your ankle when I tackled you, you have a beard , and you’re starving. Which I can feel because you’re back. I’m taking you to clean up, and then to bed.” He swept Anton off his feet - literally - hoisting Lord Tower, back from the timestream, over his shoulder like a sack of flour.
“I may be indisposed for some time,” Anton called as Mayan led the march back to the castle. “Rune, Addam, Brand - congratulations. We’ll talk about wedding plans soon.”
With that, they disappeared into the castle, the great oak door swinging shut behind them.
“Please tell me they have privacy spells,” Rune groaned.
“Unfortunately all his sigils were used up on the journey out of the timestream,” Quinn said, looking seasick. “We should have a breakfast picnic. Oh. And don’t agree to a double wedding, whatever you do, because then you accidentally marry the wrong people. Like really wrong, like Ciaran and Addam wrong.” He shuddered.
Addam scooped Quinn up in a hug. “My brilliant, useful, special brother,” he said, beaming down at him.
“I’m not joking about the picnic,” Quinn warned as Addam hugged him.
Brand shook his head, looking back at the castle. “We’re going to need a bigger fucking RV.”
Rune’s laugh threatened to be hysterical. They’d done it - they’d brought Lord Tower back. On the anniversary of such terror, to have so much joy given back to them…he shook his head. It was too much.
Brand and Addam wrapped around him, anchoring him to the present, overwhelming joy at their second chances filling them all.
“Alright,” Rune said, wiping his eyes when they finally separated. “Let’s go get that picnic ready.”
When he led the way to the house, it was with Brand and Addam’s hands in his.
Fin