Cresento swallowed. The sides of his face were hot, and the wall was rough against his back. Nicolae's mouth was on a search-and-destory mission, relentlessly meeting Cresento's again and again. They sucked greedily at each other, with hoarse gasps in between as their breath mingled. The only thing Cresento remembered tasting is the contents of that last bottle. He grabbed at the back of Nicolae's neck as if there would be no tomorrow.
It was, of course, morning sunrise that woke Cresento. The second he opened his eyes, he wished he were never born, and no amount of screwing them closed again could erase the pain of that first dozen needles of light right into his brain. He felt lethargic; his mouth and throat were dry, his limbs were wooden. He was slightly nauseous, he noticed distantly, but the thought of getting up was brief and fleeting. Not only was his body heavy, it felt as if there was a great weight pressing into his side, and-
Nicolae dug his fingers into Cresento's body as the captain's own hands scrabbled at his back. Their foreheads bumped and scraped as they dove in repeatedly, sounding out each other's depths and leaving small marks everywhere to be discovered, shamed by, and possessive of when they parted. Cresento's grabbing at the base of Nicolae's spine elicited grunts and sighing hums in response, and the way Nicolae bit down when Cresento found himself driving his tongue down the other man's throat made him gasp. Cresento swallowed.
Cresento turned onto his front, burying his head in the pillow. Shifting did nothing to dislodge Nicolae's dead weight. The man was adamantly passed out, mouth wide open and cheek sticky. His hair was askew, and his shoulder slid into the captain's arm.
Cresento struggled through the lingering haze in his mind to recall the previous night. He had been in a foul mood all day, had closed the shop early and retired to his quarters.
"Hey. Open up." Nicolae knocked at the door with a distinctly unfavourable quality in his voice. A troublemaking tone. Cresento opened with the intention of telling him to begone, but Nicolae had other ideas, and slipped in past him.
"I know," he spoke before Cresento had a chance to display his outrage. "But gimme a chance. Found a little something I thought maybe you'd be interested in, got me?"
"Speak. Quickly." Cresento practically growled.
Nicolae flashed a trademark smirk in response, the movement of his jaw sending the cigarette tucked behind his ear on a slant.
"Glad to hear it. Behold." He proffered what appeared to be a bottle from behind his back. A very old, large bottle. "And no, don't ask where it came from. Unless you're reeeally curious."
"Why. Why bother," Cresento asked impatiently.
"Well..." Nicolae shrugged, hefting the bottle casually. "Guess you seem a little tense today. If I got a cure for what ails ya, it might work out well for me too."
"And what's in it?" Cresento unwillingly took the bait.
"That's for me to know and you to find out," Nicolae teased with a wink. Seeing Cresento move for the door, he stopped him. "C'mon. Take a chance. You need to let go a little, man."
Nicolae lifted the bottle to his mouth, wrapped his teeth around the cork, tugged it out with a toss of his head, and held the open vessel out to Cresento.
After a moment of instinctive suspicious hesitation, Cresento took it.
After regaining his composure, Cresento exhaled into the pillow at his face. He willed the headache that had set itself in his temples to go away, and slowly lifted himself up, beginning with an arch of his back. He opened his eyes only a slit, so as to minimize the light, and gave a sharp elbow to the side of Nicolae's face. He was not disappointed by the groggy shout he received in response.
"Christ, man. Rude." Nicolae complained. Grumbled. Whined. He didn't sound completely possessed of his faculties either. He was never particularly enthused with the idea of getting up, though. The more lithe man stretched his arms, yawning loudly (deafeningly, Cresento thought), and propelled himself up. He yawned again, smaller, rotated his shoulders with a pop, and scratched his butt absentmindedly as he blinked at Cresento.
Cresento swirled the neck of the bottle under his nose for a moment as Nicolae watched, then tipped his head back and sucked a swig down. He lowered it, wiped his lips with his thumb, and considered the contents.
"What is it?" he asked again, more curiously.
"Old vintage. Real old. Found it with some stuff. From a guy, you know. It's classy, ain't it?" Nicolae took the bottle back and settled himself down on Cresento's bed without asking. Cresento scowled as Nicolae put his own mouth to the bottle and tossed back a gulp. He leaned back with his eyes closed, savouring it. Cresento strode over and snatched it back.
"Isn't this for me?" He asked snidely, looking for a label.
"You're not exactly into the whole 'sharing' thing, are you?" Nicolae asked back lazily. He threw himself back on Cresento's bed spread-eagled with a slight bounce, daring the captain to dislodge him with a raised eyebrow.
Instead, Cresento gave him a challenging glance and took a long guzzle from the bottle, finishing with a 'smack' of his lips and a lick at the drip trickling down from the top. Nicolae watched Cresento's throat as his adam's apple bobbed, not saying anything.
"What time is it?" Nicolae asked finally.
"That's not important," Cresento replied.
"It is if it's worth getting me up for," Nicolae said. He stifled another yawn and ran a hand through his tousled hair. His eyelashes fluttered lopsidedly as he rubbed the sleep-grit out of his eyes.
"What was in that bottle last night?" Cresento asked impatiently.
There was a pause. Cresento suddenly felt an edge of self-consciousness, and masked it with another shot. He suddenly gave up and moved to his bed, dropping to sit beside Nicolae and take another sip. He looked down contemplatively when he lowered it. Nicolae reached for the bottle, sitting up to drink.
They passed time like this for a while, more amiable than they'd ever been before in the silence, and the bottle's contents dropped halfway.
Cresento had to admit, he felt better. Looser. Warmer. Relaxed. It was later now. Evening, or maybe night.
He looked on as Nicolae kissed the mouth of the bottle deeply. That was the only way to describe it- the way Nicolae's lips curved to match the shape of the opening, his tongue exploring the splash along the neck. His little moan and his eyes closed in ecstasy. Was it that ecstatic? Cresento wondered it he had looked like that as he drank. It fit that the unscrupulous huckster would take such pleasure from boozing, unambitious hedonist that he must be. Hedonism. Such a flawed philosophy. They had no sense of grandeur, of place. Simply taking whatever and whenever it could be gotten.
Strands of Nicolae's curls fluttered on his bulging cheeks and a drop slipped down from the corner of his mouth when he lowered the bottle. And rather than making love to the drink, Cresento leaned in and took his next drink from Nicolae's mouth.
"To tell ya the truth? I don't really know."
"And where did you get it?" Nicolae avoided Cresento's gaze.
"Dunno." His sharp, pale eyes met Cresento's. "Alright, aright fine, it's yours. I just reminded you that you had it. It was in the back. I picked it up when I was, eh, browsing. Save it for a rainy day, yanno?"
Cresento swore.
"When- How dare you-" He closed his eyes and angrily exhaled through his nose, then opened his eyes again. "If you made alliances with powerful magicians instead of simply wholesaling their property, you might learn that not everything is safe for your consumption."
Nicolae rolled his eyes, unwilling to be lectured, and lay back down.
"Hey, if that's all-"
"NO THAT IS NOT ALL," Cresento spat at him furiously, and reached out to kick his leg. "Move yourself, get out of my bed, find something useful to do with yourself but this is not your place!" Cresento shoved Nicolae roughly with both arms, perfectly disgusted with both of them for letting it get this far. Nicolae tensed, pushing back, and the two wrestled for a minute.
"You had better have enjoyed it," Cresento threatened coldly. "This will never occur again. We will not speak of it. Last night never happened."
"Oh, didn't it?" Nicolae's tone was low.
The next moment, Cresento was pinned flat on his back and Nicolae's face was hanging over him with an unreadable expression. His grip was strong, the line of his mouth was set determinedly. His touch was warm and dry. For someone with such an infamous reputation, Cresento thought Nicolae looked suddenly very young and earnest. He struggled not to be drawn in. There was an alien warmth rising in his face as he watched the rise and fall of Nicolae's bare chest.
Still too drunk for this.
(Or else, not drunk enough.)
He sucked slowly, barely letting himself breathe. When he drew back and swallowed, Cresento refused to look Nicolae in the eye, preferring to keep his gaze fixed on his mouth. Nicolae's lips stayed open, hanging parted for a second as he took several breaths. His tongue slipped out, briefly tracing outside before flickering back behind thin teeth into his fragrant mouth. He put down the bottle on the ground and placed a hand on the bed, cocking his head to the side.
"Looking for something?" he asked, tantalizingly.
Their next kiss was chaste, all lips like silk and sandpaper.
The two men leaned in closer, as Cresento put his hands on Nicolae's cheeks to grab the edge of his jaw, and Nicolae reached for Cresento's hips to rub his thumbs along the captain's tight pants.
They had kissed so much the previous night that their lips were still puffy and swollen from the constant pressure, tugging and nibbling, and Cresento's throat was still sore.
When Nicolae leaned down, holding Cresento's shoulders while hair fell in his face, to kiss him again, Cresento let his mouth open.
"I'm not the one you should worry about enjoying it, cap," Nicolae muttered into him.
Someone had stood up under the pretext of checking the door, and now they were against the wall, shoving and grappling with each other to find the right vantage point. Now it was Nicolae sandwiched there, one hand wrapped around the back of Cresento's neck and the other pulling him closer by the flat, muscular stomach, and now it was Cresento held with his back to the wall, fists grasping Nicolae's lapels so tightly his own manicured fingernails dug into his palms.
Cresento clamped down a strangled moan as Nicolae's mouth migrated away from his lips and down his neck, to rest, teasing, at his nipple. He tried to ignore the feeling of a slick tongue swirling around him, of blunt teeth taking hold, of Nicolae warm and wet suckling at his tender skin. He bit his own lip to keep from crying out.
Nicolae moved to kiss Cresento's tense abdomen, and sat up to examine him with a look that felt like it ripped him open.
At some point the night, pants had become unnecessary.
It was after Nicolae had occupied himself with stroking and massaging Cresento's ass with wanton fingers, after he had slid his hands under the tight waistband to pinch the captain's dark skin and Cresento had reached for the thief's shoulders and frustratedly pushed his coat and shirt down around his arms.
Now it was just them, bodies naked and twisting, husky sweetness of mouth mingling with salted sweat.
They leaned against each other, panting, eyes half-closed and faces almost meeting.
It wasn't the first time one had seen the other naked; they'd had ample opportunity, had walked by each other changing before and averted their eyes if anything of substance was uncovered.
It was the first time they had seen each other like this, hanging from one another with deep, heavy breaths, bruised with possessive gropes and kisses, sporting full erections and stifled with the combined heat of their bodies.
That was the most intoxicating of all.
Nicolae reached for Cresento's cock, watching his reactions. The elf closed his eyes preemptively, before Nicolae even made contact, not knowing what to think and not trusting himself. His arms were stiff against the bed.
When Nicolae took hold of him, already more than half hard, with sure fingers, and ran a thumb over the precum leaking from his dick, Cresento groaned. A visible shudder ran along his spine. He cursed Nicolae for not letting go, for taking it this far; he cursed his body for betraying him and responding; he cursed himself for letting it happen, for the way he melted inside at the touch, for instinctively wanting to arch into that touch and open his legs. For wanting more.
He was above it, surely. There were much more valuable ways to occupy his time than the pleasures of the flesh. And nothing could be more of a waste than this, than Nicolae of all humans. Lower than a human. If measured on a scale, it would be like letting himself be taken by a dog.
Cresento attributed the ache inside and the twitch of his groin to the lingering haze of drink, refusing to admit it was emptiness.
Nicolae's hand on his shaft reached a kind of rhythm, pumping along as Cresento tried to keep his convulsing body as still as possible. Nicolae's eyes glittered, half-lidded. Cresento's own eyes were closed by comparison, face flushed warm under his damp skin, completely unaware of the way his mouth moved and strained open and closed. His whole world shrank to the pinpoints of inner revulsion at the desirous, needy filth that clouded his mind, and the heat flooding his lower half and dissolving him.
When needles of feeling flashed in his brain and he came, with something akin to a coughing shriek, tears leaked out of the corners of his eyes.
Nicolae drew his hand back from Cresento's spent cock, moving to wipe it on the bedsheet. Instead, he paused, waited for the mortified captain's eyes to roll open, stared into him, and slowly licked the elf's cum off his palm. He played up sucking his fingers clean, seeing Cresento's loosely focused eyes trained on those fingers, with wonderfully lewd thoughts in his mind about what to do with them.
They pressed closer and closer together, mouths meeting intensely with ragged breaths in between as their hands slid around and their dicks bobbed against each other. The wall was rough on Cresento's back, and Nicolae's body was smooth on his front as he swallowed thickly. When the thief's fingers ran against the curve of his ass, Cresento slammed back with a growl, trapping them there. Nicolae laughed and pushed into him.
"Need something?" he purred wickedly into the base of Cresento's ear before gently biting down on him, and enjoying the harsh gasp that dragged out of Cresento's throat in response. "You know I got it."
The bottle was emptied in ways Gaia never intended.
In a minute, Cresento was raking his fingertips along Nicolae's back and firing off guttural moans as Nicolae held the man's dark leg up around his own bony hip and thrust deeply into him, groaning into the front of his chest.
When Nicolae's warm cum in his ass blended with the sticky coolness of the wine, Cresento loosed a husky breath and pushed him back down on the bed, biting Nicolae's bottom lip and tangling his fingers in caramel curls.
"Up to you, boss," Nicolae drawled languidly. "Did we, or didn't we? Choice is yours. I'm just here offering a service. Only price is your dignity. Is it worth it?"
There were cats less devious than Nicolae. Wolves, too. Monsters. Perhaps getting his way, whatever it was, is what gave his eyes that feral gleam and his face that self-satisfied smirk of assurance.
Even when handed this control, Cresento felt like he had lost his own, and it made him sick.
"Fuck me," he ordered quietly, and turned over to drive his snarl into the pillow.
