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Today was fucking weird. Ordinarily this wouldn’t have made much difference from all the other days which had equal levels of general weirdness, but most days didn’t involve personal involvement with a jar. It was a small jar of a shape that normally suggested either jam or marmalade, only this one faintly glowed and if he closed his eyes and concentrated he could hear a soft vibrating hum in the background. Yeah, whatever ended up in this jar was definitely not going to get spread on any of his toast, that was certain.
“So,” Quentin was talking in that determined if uncertain manner he used whenever he was trying to be a ‘leader’ and clearly having no idea where to even start. “We’re in agreement.”
Penny tuned back into the conversation. “Agreement for what?” It was always good to be suspicious around this group; he had no idea whether dragons existed but he was pretty sure this group would somehow volunteer to be fed to one if they got the chance.
“The jar wants a first,” It was Eliot who spoke, leaning against the nearby bookshelf with his arms folded and a slightly bored expression on his face that spoke of a heavy night the evening before. “We’ll give it a first.”
“We haven’t decided what that first experience is.” Alice interjected, a little fiercely. “And we’re running out of time.”
“Well, that’s an unusual situation for us,” Eliott rubbed his forehead with the tips of his fingers and lowered his hand again with a soft groan of a man who had witnessed far too many hangovers in the last few days. “We’re always so punctual with problem solving.”
“How many types of firsts actually fit into that jar?” Margo looked at it critically, then brightened up. “Virgin blood.”
“No.” Q and Alice’s voices managed to time themselves perfectly into one solid negative. Margo huffed softly.
“Well, fine,” she tapped a perfectly manicured nail on the surface of the table. “Doesn’t help that our resident virgins decided to ruin that option recently anyway.”
Alice looked furious; Q took on a slightly rosier hue and moved his head to allow his hair to fall further over his face. Margo, as always, didn’t particularly care as she moved closer to the jar to inspect it further.
“Well, whatever it’s going to be has to be either small enough to fit in that top hole or some sort of liquid, so I guess we could use a blender or something.” her voice was thoughtful, eyes slightly narrowed as she clearly ran through possibilities in her mind. “And this is a paranormal ghost thing, isn’t it? We don’t do this, something bad is going to happen?”
“Pretty sure we’re already at bad, we’re just stopping it moving to ‘worse’,” Eliot had started to move toward the Physical House’s bar and the prospect of a drink. His finger waggled in the air dramatically. “But yes, paranormal woo thing.”
“Now I might have been reading the wrong books and watching some dubious films, but I’m pretty sure a lot of the paranormal stuff likes …,” she paused for the right word. “..body stuff. I mean, there’s not many ghosts that’s going to get all excited over someone’s first cross-stitch pattern, and if they did then they’re probably pretty pathetic.”
Penny’s eyes narrowed. “Define body stuff.”
“You know. Blood. Sex. Sweat. Teeth-,”
“Teeth?!” Penny’s mouth ached just thinking of that. Margo pfted, and waved a hand.
“Okay, possibly not teeth, but you know what I mean. The really old testament type of sacrifice, not a form of new banana bread.”
“Perhaps no one’s tried ever giving them banana bread,” Q’s voice was almost sulky, but Penny had a sneaking suspicion that was simply due to options and control slipping away from him a little more. “Or we could try alcohol.”
“I could do a new cocktail,” Eliot replied dubiously. “But again, not sure that’s going to be what they’re after. Can we fill up the jar and start again if it doesn’t work?”
“How will we know it isn’t working, exactly?” Penny raised his head and looked around the little group warily. Alice was still sitting primly in the corner with a book on her lap and her ankles crossed so tightly that he was amazed it didn’t cut off her circulation. Q was pacing back and forth behind one of the chairs, eyes on the floor and looking as though he was reciting something in his head. Eliot was back with his bottles, already looking happier, and Margo was still inches away from the vibrating Jar of Current Doom with all the air of someone assessing a fine gem. At least Kady wasn’t here; Penny suspected she would have thrown something already out of sheer frustration.
It was Alice who answered his question, her mouth setting into a stern line like the world’s youngest school mistress.
“We don’t. If it works then the jar will shatter and the entity is released back to where it’s supposed to be and it stops causing things to explode. So it could either do absolutely nothing, or..,” she trailed off.
“..or it could get upset with us and explode more things? Fabulous.” Penny stretched and rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. “So it’s better to go for something that genuinely is likely to work rather than just go through random things and hope it’s satisfied with one of the options.”
“Virgins.” Margo raised her eyebrows hopefully.
“Unfortunately we’re out of stock of those.” Eliot reminded her. Margo pfted again and turned her thoughtful gaze back onto Quentin. This didn’t improve Q’s mood, who looked wary again and started to pace a little quicker.
“You say that,” Margo drawled. “ but there’s always other opportunities. I mean, there’s more than one way to lose your virginity.”
“Oh god,” Q groaned and lifted a hand. “No. And anyway I’m pretty sure I’ve done everything now, thanks to you two.”
“Oh, you haven’t.” Margo purred.
“Pretty sure I have.” Eliot picked up a glass and sipped it carefully before adding another dash of a liquid that was probably some type of gin. The line of Alice’s mouth grew sterner which was its own forcefield in itself, before Penny was uncomfortably aware of eyes turning back to him thoughtfully. Oh, for fuck’s sake..
“Whatever scheme you have planned you can forget it.” he warned. “There’s a lot of things you could call me, but ‘virgin sacrifice’ isn’t one of them.”
“Actually, whenever they mention virgin sacrifices it normally means that someone hasn’t used their blood in a ritual before rather than sexually, but I can understand your point,” Alice spoke up from her little spot.
“Thank you.” Penny paused, and frowned. “I think. But anyway, whatever it is, no.”
It was a very firm, very forceful statement, and yet it didn’t seem to be working. Margo still had a predatory look on her face, but then that was pretty much a usual situation. Eliot, however, was also looking thoughtfully at him with a gaze that Penny didn’t entirely trust. That was the gaze of someone who was genuinely thinking things through.
“Q! Tell them that we need a better plan.” Penny turned his plea back to Quentin, and god, was this how bad he’d gotten that he needed to appeal to Coldwater for help? Q made a soft noise in the back of his throat, and shook his head as he looked back at Eliot.
“I can’t see how you’re going to use Penny for this. Not in that way, anyway.” a small hand gesture that seemed faintly apologetic. From the look on his face, Eliot clearly didn’t agree. Penny wasn’t sure whether to be happy or concerned that the man seemed to be weighing up whether he should or shouldn’t talk rather than not having anything to say. Eliot had a habit of saying something awkward, and Penny was trying to give up awkward for Lent.
“Hm,” Eliot said instead.
“So put it out your mind,” Penny added fiercely.
“Hm.” It was another noncommittal grunt, almost one of politeness. Margo glanced back at him in interest, and then onto Penny once again as she clearly tried to calculate Eliot’s thoughts. And god, Penny did not want to go into said thoughts, that was like stepping into a lion’s den and not expecting to be savaged. Eliot could keep his thoughts to himself, otherwise Penny had a nasty suspicion he’d be dreaming orgies for the next week running.
There was a long, long pause as everyone pretended that a possible option was not on the table. Finally Penny growled in his throat and closed his eyes.
“Okay.” he said through gritted teeth. “What is it?”
“Hmm.” Eliot’s voice was careful, delicate, and when Penny looked back at him he could see the clear signs of indecisiveness flickering around the edges. Penny’s eyebrow lifted in challenge. Okay. Whatever the fuck this was, he was sure he could probably do it. The idea that Eliot was now genuinely working out whether Penny was strong enough to do it was .. well, insulting. Out of their group, he was definitely not the likely person to crumble at an inappropriate moment.
“Well?” Penny demanded. Eliot pulled a small face, then delicately tilted his head to one side.
“Let’s take it outside briefly.” his voice was light. “Just need to check something.”
“No, whatever it is you should say here.” Q spoke up, his voice back to his dramatic determined uncertain. “No secrets.”
Eliot’s expression hardened a little and another little flash of thoughtfulness aimed itself at Penny. Penny straightened his back and returned the look determinedly. Finally there was a soft sigh and Eliot made the smallest roll of the eyes before shrugging and picking up his glass again.
“Ever been fucked?” he asked. “By a guy, I’m not counting whatever strap on that Kady might have used if she was that way inclined.”
Penny opened his mouth and found a distinct lack of words to say. ‘Um’ was coming up tops, but that wasn’t exactly the hard man image he was really trying to portray. Thankfully Eliot seemed to be aware of Penny’s lack of articulation and seemed to be happy to continue on his train of thought in a careful, light voice as though simply discussing a new recipe for chilli.
“Because that’s what a lot of these things look at, isn’t it. Liquid and penetration. I’m pretty sure all of us have ticked the usual virginity boxes, but you’re potentially the last person who has a … uh, let’s call it major experience left to do.” There was absolutely no hint of awkwardness in Eliot’s voice, although Penny could detect a faint trace of apology for Penny’s current mind crash.
“What about Q?” Penny could hear his own voice and it had a croak in it. Q looked sheepish. Alice looked more annoyed. Oh. Right. Yeah. Margo’s level of interest suddenly increased dramatically.
“So this is a possibility?” she drawled. “Your ass is an experience free zone?”
“Darling, your eyes appear to be gleaming,” Eliot murmured.
“Yes, they probably are,” Margo agreed cheerfully.
“Okay, whoa, you can stop there,” Penny’s hand was already lifted as though this might aid his own protection. “I like you-,”
“Really?” Eliot’s eyebrow rose, perplexed.
“Well, enough, anyway,” Penny adjusted it. “But this is extreme even for you. For us.”
“Hey, you’ve got a virgin ass, we have a supernatural jar, c’mon.” Margo was about to continue further on this line of conversation when Eliot shook his head at her and she took the hint. Penny growled softly and looked around the group desperately, but all eyes were on him, sheepish, uncertain, hungry or otherwise, and he could still hear the jar humming in his head, over and over again, throbbing for their tribute.
“No.” he said, a little helplessly. Eliot shrugged.
“Okay. We’ll find something else to do. Don’t worry about it, no big deal.” he gave him a warm, friendly smile and turned his attention back to Q. “Perhaps we should go for the blood idea. I’m pretty sure I haven’t given any to a ritual, but to be fair I might not have been completely sober at all times and my memory isn't that fantastic when mixed with an application of alcohol.”
“Yeah, I see what you mean.” Q shot Penny a little small glance and then immediately focused on Eliot like his life depended on it. “Um. Well, I could do it..,”
“Are you sure you haven’t been involved in any rituals?” Alice’s voice was doubtful. “I mean, even if they don’t work it might make the difference. And just bleeding into a jar seems a little-,”
“-anti-climatic?” Margo suggested, with a little side glance at Penny. Alice bristled slightly, then hesitated and gave a small nod.
“We’d need some sort of ritual or something similar to make it .. right,” she said doubtfully. “But without accidentally summoning something else at the same time,”
The conversation tuned itself out again. Penny’s hands tightened on the back of the sofa as he focused. Ritual blood letting. That was fine. That was good. And yet it felt like the cop out answer, the ‘best guess’ out of a limited selection of rubbish options, and Penny glanced at Eliot carefully again, noting how the other man deliberately wasn’t looking in his direction. That was .. well, surprisingly good of him, the lack of pressure, moving off the subject as soon as he could. But the pressure was there and already on, and Penny’s hands tightened even further on the back of the sofa until the knuckles whitened and he could feel his teeth grinding against each other.
No. He was not fucking Eliot. Or, more the point, being fucked. His backside was a definite one-way only type of entrance, and he had no idea how big Eliot was but he was pretty confident it was not going to be easily ignored. No fucking way.
“There’s peaceful good luck type rituals out there, surely?” Q was saying, but Penny couldn’t really focus on that conversation as his eyes lifted again to study Eliot’s face. It was the better option. He knew that. Everyone knew that. If they did the blood and it didn’t work and the place blew up and fire was everywhere and the hells of wherever were released, he’d know that the chaos would have happened because he didn’t go through with something. They’d all know. But this wasn’t his responsibility. This was literally his ass on the line. Someone else could sacrifice their body parts for this.
Wasn’t his job.
It wasn’t.
Oh, for fuck’s sake-
“Fine.” Penny interrupted, stopping Margo’s expansion on possible ‘good vibe’ rituals which apparently had more than its fair share of custard. His voice was rough, low and almost a snarl as he continued. “I’ll do it.” He closed his eyes. “Option one.”
There was a long pause.
“Well, thank god for that, I’ll get the popcorn,” Margo was about to expand on that before Eliot shushed her and turned to Penny.
“Appreciate the thought, but no. You’re not into it, and I’m not turning into some weird type of rapist for this activity.” he raised his glass and drank a little more. “One, it’s not me, I don’t need to force people to enter my bed. Two, I doubt whether I’d get my dick working even if I was also forced into doing it out of some sort of social pressure. And Three… I can’t think of a three, but there’s bound to be one.”
Penny hesitated, having not anticipated Eliot’s objections outside of his own discomfort. He ran his tongue over his lower lip and frowned a little bit at the roadblock. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Q look between Penny and Eliot from under the lock of dark hair, an icy blast coming from Alice’s corner and a faint look of exasperation from Margo.
“Right,” he said uncertainly. “Okay.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Margo pinched the bridge of her nose between two fingers before releasing it and aiming a polished nail at Penny. “You, go get a drink. You,” the nail moved to Eliot. “Go make him a drink. Start talking. Get all touchy feely-,”
“Hey, I don’t do touchy feely,” Penny protested.
“It’s not hard, you just touch and feel!” Margo snapped back at him. “So get all romantic and happy and talk about whatever the hell it is you two talk about and then find some perverted little kink you both share and do some casual friendly bondage-,”
“Bonding,” Q corrected automatically.
“I stand by what I said,” Margo aimed a look at him that was fierce enough that Q shushed back down, before she turned her determined expression back onto Eliot. “And don’t give me that shit about forcing anyone. Get him relaxed and he’ll be begging you to fuck him-,”
“Hey, I am standing right here,” Penny objected, feeling an unusual hot flush creep into his cheeks. Margo ignored him entirely.
“-and don’t give me that rubbish about not being up for the job, you’ve commented about the perkiness of his nipples often enough-,”
“What, really?” Penny looked bewildered at the potential of rogue nipple discussions. Eliot shrugged at him.
“To be fair, you don’t really wear much up top, and I’m certainly not going to complain about your aversion to shirts,”
“-and furthermore,” Margo added, putting extra volume and emphasis on the words to snap them back into her current speech. “This is exactly part of your key skills. Comfort and sexual expansion, allowing people to reach their true kinky potential and pleasure and all the rest of that …,” she waved a hand and ran out of words. “... stuff, so just smile, get a drink, get curled up and get your freak on.”
“Yes ma’am.” Eliot replied solemnly, and received a punch to the bicep that almost split the remains of his drink. “Okay, okay, okay! Message - and bruise - received and understood. Right?”
“What?” Penny glanced at him and gave a slight shrug. “Yeah. Understood.”
“Good!” It was slightly louder than was probably necessary but it was clear that Margo was still on her speech roll. She looked at them suspiciously for a moment before giving a little satisfied nod and turning back to the jar. She paused. “Okay, whose stuff is going into said jar?”
There was a small but significant pause of incomprehension from everyone. Margo sighed the long weary sigh of someone who had to put up with amateurs on a daily basis, before waving a hand between Eliot and Penny.
“Who’s ejaculation do you want in the jar?” she asked with deliberate slowness. “It’s his first time,” a little gesture toward Penny. “But he’s the active one who’s taking said first time.” Another little gesture toward Eliot.
“Oh.” Q hesitated, clearly uncomfortable with the subject matter. His face screwed up a little before looking up uncertainly. “Could we do both?”
“How romantic,” Margo drawled. “We’re just going to pass around the jar when they feel it?”
“I’m sure we can arrange something,” Eliot had his best soothing voice on, having noted Penny’s little shifts of discomfort at the practicalities. “How about you all finding that other part of the mystery to resolve and leaving us to have a conversation on this, okay? And that includes you,” he added toward Margo pointedly when it was apparently she was making no move to leave. She hesitated and shot a little interested look toward Penny and then back again. An eyebrow rose. Eliot raised his hand. “No. You’ll make him nervous.”
“He’s already nervous,” Margo pointed out, and Penny felt that was a fair observation. Eliot rolled his eyes a little.
“And you’ll make him more nervous. Go on, shoo.”
“You’d change your mind if the shoo was on the other foot,” Margo protested as she grudgingly started to move toward the door.
“That’s not how that phrase is supposed to work, and I don’t care.” Eliot advised cheerfully, putting a hand on her shoulder and gently but firmly propelling her out the door. Finally it shut behind them, and Eliot rested his back against the door before looking up brightly at Penny who wasn’t entirely sure what to do with himself.
“Right. Drinks. And then let’s talk,”
And that, apparently, was that
*
“-and after all that time we found out that his underwear had actually managed to catapult all the way up this massive statue,” Eliot waved a hand expressively and almost knocked over a half full bottle of vodka that was perched precariously on the side. “And no one noticed until the next day when there was this massive parade! Fuck, we got in so much shit it was unbelievable,”
They’d been in Eliot’s bedroom for the last two hours; Eliot had created a couple of drinks that were relaxing but remarkably light on the alcohol as far as Penny could see, but he could feel himself slowly sinking into the soft blankets and mattress in a peaceful, boneless state as a result. Yeah, he could get used to this. All the pressures seemed to just be slowing up and although they hadn’t vanished from his head at least they were quiet enough that he could overlook them for a short period.
Both of them were already in underwear; Eliot had pointed out it seemed ridiculous to come to a bedroom and then fumble around, and the man was already undressed by the time Penny was able to say anything at all. Stripping down to his boringly plain boxers - Eliot’s were a riot of colour and some creatures that appeared to be tropical rainforest frogs - Penny had awkwardly sat on the bed before Eliot had moved straight into drinks and stories and conversations as though they were long lost friends catching up on crazy times.
“Did you try doing that stretching activity again?” Eliot asked in interest, referring back to a story Penny had hesitantly told in hour one, knocking back his drink and placing the glass on the side table of the bed. Penny shook his head and stretched lazily.
“Nah. Never had the right opportunity to try that again, and I didn’t really want to end up having to explain myself to yet another medical department,” he grinned and shrugged. “And Kady wasn’t really into that sort of thing.”
“Yeah? What did she prefer?”
“Oh, you know,” Penny waved a hand, not really wanting to explore the subject of Kady. “More .. ah… rough and tumble. She preferred going for the throat. Gentle movements weren’t really on the cards,”
Eliot’s eyebrows rose slightly. “Is that what you prefer too?”
“I..,” Penny paused and then frowned before giving a small, uncomfortable laugh. “To be honest with you, I’ve never really thought about it. I do whatever seems the best idea at the time.”
Eliot made a soft understanding noise at the back of his throat, although still had a thoughtful look on his face. “So you don’t really lean toward any automatic preference? Vanilla porn?”
“Hey, I’m definitely more a sprinkles type of guy,” Penny protested, strangely defensive against such accusations when Eliot had already gone over so many flavours of sex that Penny had lost count. “I can do gentle, sure, but I like ..,”
His words failed him. Eliot waited for a moment, then smiled gently.
“.. action?” he suggested. Penny snapped his fingers.
“Yeah. Action.” He had no idea what that meant but at this point he didn’t really care. Annoyingly, Penny was pretty sure that Eliot knew that he didn’t know what it was either, and again he felt the bristle of annoyance that he might show himself up. Which was fucking crazy, it wasn’t as though he was inexperienced or even that he stuck to ‘normal’ situations. He’d had more bruises and positions from his time with Kady than he’d ever had playing sports, and exploration had always been pretty damned good. However, Eliot was on a whole new level of kinky weirdness and it was faintly disconcerting.
“Any preference on how you’d like me to act?” Eliot allowed his hand to gently trail across Penny’s arm, the first main touch they’d had since they’d entered the room, and Penny almost jumped from the sheer electrical reaction from the skin on skin contact. There was a soft laugh. “You’re allowed to breathe. Just FYI,”
Penny released the breath that he hadn’t been conscious of holding. “Oh. Yeah.”
“Hmm,” it was soft and curious, and Eliot’s fingers continued to gently stroke his skin over and over until Penny slowly settled back into his relaxed position. Okay, that was .. weirdly nice. Although there was still a question outstanding that he really had no idea how he was supposed to answer.
“What are you thinking about?” Eliot asked curiously. “And don’t say nothing, you’re frowning pretty hard. Either you’re thinking or you’re sitting on something sharp.”
“I ..,”
“You…,” Eliot gently poked him when the sentence failed to progress. Penny laughed softly and allowed his head to tip back onto unfeasibly plump and probably magically enhanced cushions.
“I dunno. I guess I don’t see this being a romantic encounter.”
“I’m hurt. Cut to the quick, as it were,” Eliot put on a mock pout, then laughed again and allowed the palm of his hand to slide over the warmth of Penny’s forearm, stroking him in the same way he would a cat. “Yeah, I didn’t think you’d want it sweet and gentle and ‘oh my god, I never knew it would be like this,’”
“Go on, then.” Penny eyed him thoughtfully. “You seem to have given this a lot of thought. What do I want?”
“You should really be considering why you haven’t worked out what you want,” Eliot pointed out, before leaning forward and pressing a light kiss to Penny’s temple. And weirdly, that felt oddly natural, almost more natural than the hand on his arm. Penny made a soft ‘pft’ noise and squirmed slightly in the mattress as Eliot eyed him thoughtfully. “If I were to give a guess, I’d say you want something that you can feel like you have no ‘choice’, without actually losing any power. You’re a bit of a guilt bunny, aren’t you?”
“I have no idea what a guilt bunny is but it sounds a bit too cute and fluffy for my liking.”
“Yes, you do. You look like the type who beats himself up over every consequence regardless of whether it’s your fault or not. Roll over,” Eliot put his hand under Penny’s hip and gently but persistently shoved until Penny found himself on his stomach with a mouthful of plump pillow. He startled as the hand moved to his shoulder blade and then slowly, carefully relaxed again as Eliot’s hands started to massage his shoulders. Okay, that was pretty damned good. Penny’s eyes slowly closed, a soft purr in the back of his throat as Eliot continued his ministrations.
“So for something like this, outside your normal sexual comfort zone, I bet you’d relax a lot easier if we went for something a little … how did you put it before? Rough and ready to a certain extent. That way you can pretend you were forced and I don’t need to feel like a bastard.” Eliot paused and reflected. “Well, not for that, anyway.” he amended cheerfully.
“You’re gonna force me?” Penny was almost amused. “I’m pretty sure I can take you.”
“Brave words for someone face down on my bed in his boxers,” Eliot paused to give Penny’s backside a quick sharp swat before moving back to the shoulder massage. “And it’s all an illusion. Ta-da, as they say.”
“Go on. How are you planning to do that?” he squirmed a little more on the bed to get comfortable and settled down, genuinely interested. Eliot straddled Penny’s thighs to get into a better position for his activities and bent his head so his mouth was near to the other man’s ear, his words soft and warm and friendly.
“Well,” the word was a low murmur although Eliot’s hands didn’t stop their work as he did so in a clear act of dexterity. “There’s a few options. Easiest one is a bit of magic and some ropes, and we can just ignore the whole travelling thing for the purposes of this scene. Another one is leaning toward fight club territory-,”
“No fucking way you’d win on that,” Penny laughed and then ooff’ed as another slap landed on his skin.
“If Margo has taught us anything it should be that physical strength shouldn’t be what you consider when viewing how lethal someone is,” Eliot’s soft purr continued, although Penny could hear the grin in his voice. “And anyway, you’re missing the point, aren’t you?”
Penny shifted his weight as the massage continued, resisting a small purr of his own. “And what would that point be, exactly?”
“The point is, my little erotic grasshopper, is that in your heart you don’t want to move away. You want this to continue.” Low, soft, persuasive, with a dash of amused on top of that. “So any fights or restraints are really just smoke and mirrors.”
A shiver worked down his spine and pooled somewhere in his calves, and Penny gritted his teeth a little more as warm hands continued to spread the sensation, slowly moving down his back.
“Want is a little strong,” he growled softly. Okay, this wasn’t torture but definitely hadn’t been on his list of things to do, and his mind was still trying not to think about Eliot in a more sexual situation. “We’re doing this for -,”
“-the team, and the good of the universe and faith and heroic gestures and the survival of humankind, insert emotional but dramatic soundtrack, etc etc. Yes, I know.” Eliot’s thumbs had started to press into muscles that Penny hadn’t realised were tense, circling them expertly and Eliot giving a little amused grunt. “I was always expecting you to be hard as rock but I can’t say I was expecting it to be in your back. Relax,”
“It’s really hard to relax when someone’s planning to violate you.” Penny objected, more sulkily than anything.
“My abilities are legendary, you’ll be fine.” Eliot murmured in amusement. “Big, strong guy like you,”
Thumbs pressed a little harder and Penny gasped at the little lightning bolt of sensation that was half pleasure, half pain, as his muscles grudgingly let go of some of their tension. It felt like the other man was trying to play his body as some sort of fucked up instrument, muscles instinctively moving under each touch and manipulation. Eliot rode out any movement easily with all the skill of a rodeo rider, allowing Penny the small movements before readjusting his weight onto the back of Penny’s thighs to anchor him back to the mattress.
“All joking aside, you feel like you’ve been carved from rock and that’s certainly not from fear over me.” Eliot frowned, tracing lines of muscles with his fingers. “This level of stress is bad for you.”
“Thanks, doc.” Penny spoke drily into the pillow. “I’ll take it under consideration.”
“Look, how you want to fuck up your body is up to you, but sometimes it’s nice to be in a group where everyone isn’t going to jump half a mile when someone else sneezes.” Eliot replied idly, adding more power into his ministrations and causing Penny to gasp-growl as knots were pummelled. Fucking hell, that was intense. If Penny hadn’t already known it was just Eliot touching him he’d have thought it was a hammer or something metallic, and he stretched again as muscles readjusted and slowly, grudgingly, relaxed. And slowly, slowly, the touches moved from intense to a softer feel, one that slowly merged in together in a tickling, electric shiver that seemed to have the warmth of an electric blanket over any skin that Eliot touched.
That was … well, it was good, no matter how grudgingly he wanted to say it. Penny’s eyes closed again, his breathing slowing as fingertips danced over his skin expertly and his mind being overtaken by a daze more insistent than being bashed over the head with a blunt instrument. There was a soft purr of pleasure and it took Penny a while to realise that it had escaped from his own throat as Eliot’s hands smoothed and danced and stroked and drifted further downwards and slowly, persistently, the heat of Penny’s skin took on a whole new flavour. Oh shit. He bit his lip, and then bit his lip even harder when the small little aches and jolts of sensation refused to take the hint and fuck off. It was both pleasure and pain and for some reason he had it in his mind that he would be stoic and willing but not too invested, and here he was with a body that seemed to be increasingly interested in the programme of work that Eliot was suggesting.
He shifted on the mattress again and regretted it almost immediately as the other hard part of his body rubbed against the surface of the bed and sent a shower of pleasure through his lower half to throb meaningfully within him. Fuck. Shit. This was embarrassing.
“Relax.” Eliot reminded him softly. “Let yourself enjoy it.”
Penny’s response was a more angry sound of growl and purr and unintelligible noise. Fuck this, he had enough trouble controlling his body at the best of times and now it was planning to suddenly get interested over guys? This wasn’t fair. This wasn’t him, and he bucked a little harder, hard enough that he could feel Eliot pause in the face of his partner’s irritation. And the worst part was the fact that he could feel that he wanted it to continue, the burning ache settling down for the long haul in his bones and whispers of suggestions in his mind. Okay, the worst part was probably the whole paranormal threat of detonation and various other things, but this was a pretty high second or third or whatever.
“D’you want the ropes?” Eliot asked softly once Penny’s little movements had died down and he lay, panting, on the warmth of the bed.
“No!” the word was snapped. There was a pause and a slow, guilty, reassessment. Penny growled and pressed his forehead into the pillow miserably. “...possibly.”
Because Eliot was right. Didn’t matter how much his body enjoyed it, how much he trusted the other man - and weirdly he did, which was pretty fucked up considering their positions, how much the whole thing was ‘necessary’, Penny could feel the pressure and embarrassment and fight building up in him that struggled against the need to just let himself go. And so many things were suddenly sounding much better than they had several hours ago, his mind whispering insane erotic suggestions and Penny hated himself for even coming up with some of the things that apparently his body was currently interested in.
“S’okay,” the patience in Eliot’s voice was uncanny, his hands continuing to stroke over Penny’s back as though soothing him which, Penny guessed, he probably was in some form. “I’m not going to do anything unless you beg for it,”
A bitter half laugh escaped from Penny’s lips. “I don’t beg.”
“Yeah, that’s what they all say. And I know you don’t. That’s why it’s really good when you do.” Eliot replied softly. “If you were begging on a regular basis then what’s the fun in that?”
Penny grunted softly in acknowledgement, unable to think of any way to respond to that observation. He twisted his hips again, feeling the shift of Eliot’s weight over him, and made a soft growl of frustration as another burst of pleasure shot through him. Oh fuck, this wasn’t fair at all, and Penny opened his eyes and stared helplessly at the headboard in front of him as though it might in some way hold some feasible plans of escape. It didn’t. Fucking useless.
“S’okay. You’ll enjoy it, I promise,” Eliot soothed, although Penny was beginning to hear the slightest bit of doubt in the man’s voice.
“No.” Penny heard himself say. “Don’t want to enjoy it. I want it to ..,” he trailed off, uncertain where the hell he was going with that. Finally he growled and shook his head. “I want to feel it.”
There was a small pause. “Oh, you’re one of those.” the uncertainty was slowly giving way to a small smile.
Penny’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “What does that mean?”
“It means, my little grasshopper, that you seem to like your pleasure with a side plate of pain and discomfort,” Eliot continued to stroke him, his voice now tinted with satisfaction as he refound his path. Penny reviewed that statement and found enough to make him concerned.
“I wouldn’t say pain-” he protested softly when suddenly a sharp burst of pain raced through his back as Eliot channelled his inner werewolf and raked his surprisingly sharp nails hard down Penny’s bare back. Penny yelped, mostly in surprise, his body jerking up and failing to dislodge his current rider who patiently waited him out. Flopping back onto the bed, Penny caught his breath and growled again as he shut his eyes and waited for his body to calm down a bit.
“Would you still say no pain?” Eliot asked politely.
“Fuck you.” Penny’s voice was slightly broken and muffled from the pillow.
“Maybe later.” Eliot traced a pattern onto an extremely sensitive back lightly with the tip of his finger. “Shall I take your irritation as a ‘yes’?”
Penny growled softly, grudgingly, in a manner than they both understood as a reluctant affirmative. Eliot chuckled softly, and in clear happiness as his fingers continued to play. By the small stabs of pain and the strange wet feeling, Penny had a sneaking suspicion that the scratches had actually managed to cause blood and that was definitely more werewolf than he’d anticipated at the best of times.
“Now that’s more like it.” Eliot bent down and gave Penny’s neck a small nip with his teeth, sharp enough for a response but not sharp enough to break the skin, and the traveller was slightly mortified to feel the throbbing step up a pace. Oh, for fuck’s sake..
“You’re into this too?” he asked between gritted teeth.
“To be fair I’m into most things, depends on my partner.” Eliot advised cheerfully. “But i haven’t had someone who’s into this for a while. Stern dominating, sure, but all that takes is a firm voice and a bit of dog training knowledge.”
Penny paused to think on that. “Dog training?” he echoed.
“Not much difference. Sit. Stand. Roll over,” Eliot’s voice grew a grin. “Come. It’s a stressful world out there, sometimes people just want someone to tell them what to do so they don’t have to. Almost therapy, if you get a bigger couch and a shit ton more lubrication.” His hands moved downwards and Penny hissed softly as he felt the ‘claws’ rake lightly over the muscle of his currently still clad ass, sending a sharp intensive throb to bury itself hard between his legs and stay there like a weird type of hitchhiker.
“So,” Eliot continued, his nails still resting hard on Penny’s skin to the extent that it was hovering between pressure and pain, and Penny found himself simply waiting for the impact to strike, his usual fight put on pause for a reason he really didn’t want to explore. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. “How battered did you want to be?”
“What sort of fucking question is that?” Penny’s voice was still not working properly, a croaky broken type that suggested he’d been busy running marathons. “I don’t know.”
“Considering this is your body, you don’t know a lot of things.”
“So sue me.”
“Oh, I have many better suggestions than that, grasshopper.” Eliot released his nails and kissed Penny affectionately on the shoulder before the man suddenly pushed himself off Penny’s thighs and landed gracefully on the floor. Picking up the bottle of alcohol, Eliot eyed him in interest as he began to pour a shot into a glass.
Removed of the sensations, Penny felt a horrendous feeling of loss; the ache and throbbing managed to find a whole new level and the traveller’s teeth gritted again as he tried to find a less sensitive way to rest. Eventually he glanced to the side and looked suspiciously at Eliot who was watching him with a detached air, the glass of alcohol and completely nude.
For a few moments there was silence. Ordinarily Penny would have looked away but it seemed ridiculous to do so given the circumstances, so he simply allowed himself to observe. The lower light level of the room was flattering, shadows cast over Eliot’s body as the man stood completely unselfconsciously as he watched Penny with a similar interest. Based on the firmness of Eliot’s erection it was clear that Penny was not the only one to appreciate the activities, but where Penny felt awkward it was clear that Eliot was perfectly comfortable.
Okay. If they stayed like this all day they’d never get anything done and Eliot would run out of vodka. Closing his eyes for a moment, Penny gathered his strength and pushed himself up out the bed with slightly shaking muscles. There was a brief pause before he stripped himself of his own boxers, his last fabric protection, and Penny raised his head defiantly to fix Eliot with what was almost a challenging look.
Eliot eyed him back and then laughed. “You look like you’re about to challenge me to a fight.”
“Not impossible-” Penny allowed and then found his voice put on hold as Eliot stepped forward and calmly stroked his hand over the heat of Penny’s arousal with curious fingers. He sucked in some air as Eliot raised his gaze again, fingers tracing across the head of Penny’s cock and then along the strong line of his erection as though transcribing it to memory.
“Well, that’s certainly encouraging,” Eliot murmured. Penny managed to make a soft growl-whimper in exchange which was the best he could do under the circumstances. Oh, fuck this. They could be here for hours.
“What-,” he started but the words were stolen as Eliot stepped closer and pressed his mouth to Penny’s, a light kiss at first but one that slowly found pressure and depth as Penny slowly moved into the embrace. Eliot tasted of alcohol and sweetness and a hint of smoke and a strange taste that seemed uniquely his, and Penny slowly pulled him closer as he explored the other man’s mouth with his tongue. This was more intimate than he was planning which seemed fucked up considering what they were actually going to, but kissing .. kissing was affectionate, and he had no idea where to take that. On the plus side his mind wasn’t really in the mood to reflect too much on that either; didn’t take much before they’d closed any tiny gap between them with the heat of their bodies pressed tightly against each other as though this might in some way protect them from .. well, whatever. Penny’s hand lightly traced over Eliot’s back in exploration, before Penny shivered as the scratches on his own were touched.
“Let’s do this,” Penny breathed, a feeling of determination settling in his bones and trying to ignore his body’s screaming need. Eliot scanned his eyes, a pleased, slow, lopsided smile appearing briefly before he stepped a little further back and placed his hand on Penny’s chest.
“Well, how can I resist?” Eliot raised an eyebrow before placing his glass down - how he’d managed to hold onto it without spilling was clearly a magical trick - and suddenly putting his hand on Penny’s hip and spinning him round. Another hard slap applied itself to Penny’s ass, hard enough for a light tingle but nothing to write home about before Eliot gently but firmly pushed Penny’s shoulders downwards.
“Put your hands on the bed and bend over,” Eliot’s voice had moved from sweet and thoughtful to almost a strict order, and that felt curiously right. Penny was about to protest as was his natural inclination when something much harder suddenly slapped across his shoulders and sent a sharp, straight line screaming across his nerves and the scratches. Words turned into an ‘ugh!’ noise and Penny’s hands found themselves on the bed. Eliot inserted his foot between Penny’s legs and calmly kicked them open a little more before pausing, surveying the sight and putting his hand between Penny’s shoulder blades to push him down a little more.
Penny growled softly to himself but kept quiet. This was probably the most vulnerable position he could remember being in, his skin still tingling and smarting from the blows, his body aching for touch and pleasure and his ass weirdly anticipating any touch whatsoever that Penny had a horrible feeling he would yelp just from a breath that landed on it. That did not bode well; Eliot was not exactly a small guy.
Apparently Eliot was waiting for some type of response. “Comfortable?”
Needless to say, the question had nothing to do with comfort and everything to do with whether Penny was planning a revolt. The traveller bit his lip and bent his head a little, allowing himself to open his legs a little wider in what he hoped was an invitation that wouldn’t require him actually admitting anything.
The lack of fight was clearly unexpected, and Penny had a flash of amused satisfaction over that. Rebel by obeying orders. Strangely satisfying.
“D’you still want to ‘feel’ it?” Eliot moved behind him, his voice dropping to a murmur. Penny’s back straightened a little before he gave a small, sharp nod of agreement. This wasn’t some romantic deal here, this was work. Ish.
A small pop of a lid sounded behind him and Penny resisted the urge to look around, instead focusing on a picture that was hanging on the opposite wall. He had no idea what the hell said painting was supposed to be, some sort of weird modern art piece that suggested the artist had combined paint and alcohol and just saw what came out, but at least it was something to consider in the silence of-
A cool, slick dribble of liquid landed on his tailbone and slowly, languidly, began to trickle downwards into the cleft of his ass. Penny hissed softly to himself and raised his head a little more, glaring at the painting with the determination of one trying to win a staring competition. Two fingers rested on the slippery mess and slowly began to direct it where Eliot fancied, lazily smoothing between his cheeks with another little gentle kick to Penny’s ankle to persuade him to open his legs further.
This was it. Sure, he’d had some experiences but most of them were unplanned and brief; this was a full on expedition in comparison, and Penny bit his lip again as he waited.
And waited.
And - oh, fuck this.
“You planning to get on with it or do I need to- FUCK!”
His back arched, head snapping up a little higher as fingers slid into him without any introduction. It was smooth but persistent and stung, his muscles automatically fighting the intruder and the feeling of fullness that felt both horrendous and interesting at the same time.
“Breathe.” Eliot reminded him softly, his fingers still buried in him but having stilled in the meantime to give the man time to recover.
“Ow.” Penny complained grumpily and mostly to make a point. It was already slowly easing into ‘normal’, especially when Eliot began once again to move his hand, slowly anointing the area with oil and stretching him further. His head slowly dropped down, the traveller’s breathing slow and steady as he readjusted to the invasion. Okay. This wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Eliot was even adding extra oil which was probably a bit overkill, a small amount running down his inner thighs in a slippery mess.
In and out, slow twisting, back to in and out, stroking inner parts of him that seemed to appreciate the touch despite said damned area being up his ass and normally private, and Penny shivered with sensation as Eliot’s practised fingers located all his hidden sensitive spots and played them. His own hand itched to move to his erection, to stroke along time the movements, but Penny forced himself to stay still. Now was not the time to get over enthusiastic. Now was-
Eliot’s fingers slipped from Penny’s body, and it took everything in Penny’s willpower not to freeze.
“Relax.” Eliot spoke, and then again, a little sharper. “Relax.”
And fuck, that was easier said than done. Penny growled softly out of frustration and bowed his head a little more, trying to calm his breathing down. It was okay. This didn’t mean anything. Just a friend, just a crazy situation on top of all the other crazy situations they’d had, and fuck he should have had more alcohol and-
There was another crack and a line of pain shot across his backside, Penny letting out a howl of pain that was mostly surprise as one type of impact suddenly got swapped with a different one. Fuck, that was hard and throbbing, and Penny cast a look over his shoulder to identify the culprit which apparently was some sort of rope. Furious dark eyes glared at Eliot who, being Eliot, merely looked back at him without guilt.
“Stopped thinking about stuff yet?” he enquired politely. Penny bared his teeth, then yelped again as the rope swiftly met his skin.
“FUCK, WOULD YOU STOP THAT!!” And yet he didn’t move, the pain slowly settling into his bones and finding an annoyingly comfortable space alongside his own excitement that was not going away anytime fast and fuck, he was quite clearly some weird pervert in his own right. Penny snarled again and closed his eyes, trying not to think of any of this, and to be fair to Eliot the pain that was racing across his rear was doing a good job of providing an alternative option.
A knock at the door suddenly broke his concentration, Penny’s head snapping up in shock as Q’s voice came through the thankfully locked door.
“You guys okay in there?”
Eliot clearly winced and sighed softly to himself before moving to the door. “Q, darling, please fuck off. We’re fine.”
“But-,”
“Unless the world is about to end in the next hour, fuck off now.”
A pause, then a noise of acknowledgement and the interruption was gone. Penny watched the other man as he came back, running the rope between his hands as he did so and with a clearly authentic apologetic look on his face. Eliot gently stroked the rise of Penny’s right buttock with a hand as though he was a nervous animal.
“Sorry about that. Ignore them all.” Eliot tossed the rope onto the bed and performed a quick spell that Penny didn’t initially recognise. Eliot caught the expression and grinned lopsidedly at him. “Soundproofing spell. Always comes in handy, and I’m annoyed that I didn’t do it originally. Wasn’t expecting them to be back so soon.”
Penny growled in acknowledgement, having realised his own voice and ability to speak had decided to go on a cigarette break and not return. He shifted his hips, feeling the way the impact ached and throbbed, and groaned through his teeth.
“Feel good?” Eliot raised an eyebrow. Penny shot him a look, then had to look away again. The aching was doing its job; the only thing he could focus on was there here and now. The rest of the situation, everyone else, was just a distraction that could turn up a bit later on. And how fucked up did you have to be for that?
He stiffened automatically as Eliot’s hand fell on his skin and then slowly relaxed again as the hand simply stroked over the sore areas, soothing them.
“There’s my good little grasshopper,” the fingers slowly slipped into the crack and Penny stiffened again as fingertips toyed against his excessively sensitive opening. Relax. Relax. Breathe in and out and try to focus. His eyes found the ridiculous painting again and began to trace over the lines as the tips inserted themselves inside him and began to stretch him again.
“No. Just fucking do it,” Penny’s voice when it came was slightly cracked and a little desperate, but clear enough. Eliot paused, looking unconvinced as well he might. Penny himself had half his brain screaming at him for such a messed up idea. What did Eliot say before? Ah, fuck. Well, there went any sense of dignity that he still possessed.
“Please,” it was through gritted teeth but at least it was out and it was some sort of plea. Eliot watched him thoughtfully, with no movement for anything whatsoever. Penny growled again and ran through his options in his head. Most of them were pretty horrific in the cool light of day but this was here and now and what sounded horrific during sane times seemed reasonable in the warm shadows of the room. Penny licked his lips, trying to gain moisture, and then glanced over his shoulder.
“Please. I want you to do it.”
Eliot’s eyebrow twitched upwards, and Penny had to give it to him. Want was a little strong, but it was certainly a lot more than he’d ever thought it would be, and embarrassingly growing stronger.
“C’mon, man. Don’t make me properly beg. It’s not me.” Penny eyed him, and then warily glanced at the other man’s erection. Well, he could always .. did he really want that to be part of a plan? … but it would certainly convince him that he was in over his head and ..
Penny licked his lips and was about to move when Eliot held up his hand.
“Okay, appreciate the intent but let’s leave the oral stuff to next time, okay?”
Penny sagged, mostly in relief. “Okay.” Pause and review of the words. “Wait, what next time?!”
Eliot chuckled softly and moved across again, manhandling Penny back into the original position and giving him another hard slap right across the red marks from the blows. Penny hissed and lowered his head again. Okay, that was an argument for later on, especially as he could feel Eliot standing close to him, their legs almost touching and the heat of the other man’s erection pressing against his body. Penny hitched a breath and growled again, closing his eyes.
“Get on with it,” his voice was rough but both of them could hear the faint desperation.
“Oh, the romance.” Eliot drawled, but there was another flick of the bottle lid and a pause before Penny felt something large, hard and slick press against the cleft of his rear. Growling harder, the traveller slowly bent a little further, widening his legs to the extent he could feel a low burn in his inner thighs but all of these things were completely irrelevant considering the wide, blunt head that was pressing delicately at the entrance to his body. Penny growled again, a little desperately.
“You could make other noises as well you know, it sounds like I’m fucking a wolverine,” Eliot advised cheerfully, and Penny was already opening his mouth to retort something extremely rude when Eliot took the opportunity of Penny’s attention being elsewhere to slowly but determinedly press into his body.
Everything, everywhere suddenly vanished into a big pool of ‘didn’t give a shit’ as Penny’s whole world suddenly focused on the small spot between his legs and the stinging, almost ripping type of pain as Eliot took hold of Penny’s hips and slowly guided himself in.
“Holyfuckingshitofa-!!!” It was a strangled string of curses that were desperately trying to be quiet. Penny’s hands clawed the bed sheets as he forced himself to remain still but even that was almost impossible in the sheer intensity of the invasion. Eliot paused, waiting for Penny’s broken breathing to recover a little and the automatic response to flee lessening.
“Yell as much as you like, it’s soundproofed. Get it all out your system,” Eliot said softly, his hips still as he waited.
“Ow, ow, ow,” Penny’s forehead was now resting on the bed, his words muffled by blankets, but finally he raised his head and glanced back with a furious look. “Well? Get on with it.”
Eliot merely raised an eyebrow and waited a little more. Snarling, Penny slowly and gingerly began to move himself, winced at the first movement but slowly picking up speed and confidence as the burning agony merged into an all encompassing feeling of weird satisfaction and the occasional burst of genuine pleasure. The human body was fucked up.
“C’mon,” Penny snarled back, and thrust backwards so hard that he almost made Eliot stumble. Taking hold of Penny’s hips a little harder, Eliot gave him a rueful smile and shrugged.
“As you command, little grasshopper,” the movement was slow and steady at first, to the point where Penny was just about to argue further, when suddenly Eliot stepped it up a notch. Penny’s lip got bitten once again before he decided to trust the soundproofing and allow a few snarls and yelps to escape. Once a few had left, it was damned hard to stop the others from following.
“Don’t stop!” he snarled as Eliot paused after one particularly loud yell.
“At some point I’m going to have to explain the concept of ‘bottom’ to you,” Eliot sighed dramatically then chuckled and cut Penny’s growled reply by calmly reaching around his hip to stroke along the length of Penny’s erection and squeezing him firmly. Argument turned swiftly to ‘!!!’ and a few random curses that slipped through his lips. Shit. Everything was burning, everything was screaming at him to continue and Penny tried to steady himself and found this so hard that he gave up almost immediately.
On the plus side, Eliot was clearly having difficulties himself. His breathing had moved to a slow, ragged need for air, the one hand that was still curled on Penny’s hip was gripping tight enough to leave marks - weirdly satisfying as well, add another one to Penny’s Fucked Up List of Kinks - and each thrust seemed more and more desperate. The traveller tried squeezing with his muscles to be rewarded with a shaky gasp for his pains. A grin curled. Yeah, that was satisfying too.
He had no idea how much time had passed now. Everything was faintly in a daze, the world no longer having any meaning other than what was happening right now, Penny’s hands gripping the bed tightly to avoid being pushed too hard onto it and feeling his inner thighs complain at the unusual stretch they were being forced under. And that wasn’t even considering the main event, Eliot’s length having slowly moved into ‘weirdly okay’ but definitely the focus of the whole event. It was slowly getting more ache-painful as well as Eliot gradually lost control over his willpower and speed, thrusts getting faster and deeper; Eliot’s hand on Penny had moved to a desperate stroking action, rough and persistent, and Penny whimpered every time the stroke managed to find a perfect match.
Finally Eliot made one last slam and Penny almost howled again as a blast of sensation raced through him, making his hands scramble for a steady purchase and his back arch in pleasure and sheer shock at the electric burst as Eliot pulled out of him.
“Jar. Now,”
Less than two seconds later and Eliot had finished in an incredibly quiet but intense climax, the man sagging out of sheer relief and groaning softly as he did so. Penny had already collapsed to the bed in a puddle of sweat, aching and tiredness, rolling onto the bed and lifting his head to watch the jar curiously as the ‘offering’, for lack of a better word, was given. Well, it wasn’t blowing up but it also wasn’t doing much less than increasing the background hum.
“Is it working-,” Penny looked up at Eliot who had finally recovered the use of his legs but his question was chopped in half as Eliot crouched down, ran his hand down Penny’s stomach and took him deep into his mouth with all the enthusiasm of a small child with a particularly delectable lollypop.
“HOLY FUCK!!” And that soundproofing had better work otherwise the whole damned city had heard, but there was a good deal of Penny’s mind that just didn’t care. His head fell back again, mouth open in a small ‘o’ of sensation as Eliot continued to play and suck and lick and tease and find half a million special spots to torment.
Fuck, he was too close to cope with this, far too close. Opening his eyes to stare helplessly at the ceiling, Penny opened his mouth to say something - curse or comment or observation or possibly gobbledegook, who knew - only for Eliot to step up the attack to a whole new level. Penny didn’t even have time to howl for the jar before he came and came hard, his back arching on the bed and a shudder working its way through his tense body before he flopped back on the bed with a gasp and a faintly wildeyed look.
Eliot, meanwhile, pushed himself up and grabbed hold of the jar, carefully spitting the resulting climax into the jar and then setting it back onto a table.
“....jesus…,” Penny whimpered softly and rubbed the bridge of his nose with his hand before letting it drop away and looking back at the jar. “Is it working now? Because I’m pretty sure I’m dry-,”
The jar, in response, started to hum louder. The table rattled and Eliot backed away toward the bed, Penny grabbing hold of his arm and all but janking him across it and away from the jar. Was that good? Was it bad? Was it going to blow itself up or something else entirely? He put his arm around Eliot protectively, trying to move the other man further back and be between him and whatever impact was occurring, but Eliot was being his usual stubborn self and refusing to budge.
“For fuck’s sake, get over-,”
There was a bang that vibrated the bed and the floor and the door, the resulting flash so bright that Penny had to close his eyes and pull Eliot closer to him; he felt a warm wind whip past him with a strange gravelly feel in the same way as he’d expect a sandstorm to feel and then slowly, carefully, the excitement was replaced by a solid silence.
Complete silence, in fact. No hum. No vibration.
Coughing slightly, Penny slowly opened his eyes and stared at the table. Oh yeah, the jar was gone and there were no screams or anything else like that so he could only assume that the ‘first’ had been appreciated. He sagged again in relief. Well, at least that was one problem out the way, and -
“What the fuck..?”
He looked down at himself and then at Eliot and scrubbed a little at his arm. Glitter. Glitter everywhere, and it was a bright green shiny type of glitter that even a mermaid would find over the top. Eliot lifted his own sparkling arm and rotated it slightly, then raised an eyebrow.
“Well, aren’t we festive,”
“It’s not Christmas.” Penny scowled back.
“I’m sure you could insert some sort of romantic thing here about all Christmases coming at once, but yeah, I know. Still, it could be worse. Our arms could be missing entirely,”
Penny opened his mouth, paused, then had to agree with that particular assessment. He looked back down at himself again and winced.
“This shit is coming off, right?”
“Seems to be, but grudgingly and you know that glitter never really goes away. It just lurks in dark areas and jumps on you when you’re not expecting it.” Eliot moved his arm again and chuckled at the sparkling, then gently ruffled Penny’s hair affectionately. “How are you feeling?”
“Ridiculous.” Penny scowled. Eliot rolled his eyes.
“Not the glitter. The other bits of the body.”
“Oh,” A sheepish expression entered his eyes before Penny shrugged. “Surprisingly good. Sore. Very sore.” he paused and winced as he shifted his hips. “Actually I’m gonna roll over,”
“Aww, you have a sparkly ass, grasshopper,”
“Fuck off.” Strong but still a faint smile. And on that basis and despite everything, it seemed that their relationship hadn’t changed too much after all.
*