It's heavier than he expected. Whenever he looks down, he runs his chin into the tags. The buckle is warm now, even though it was freezing when they first put the collar on, and Pedro can't feel it unless he reaches for it to feel with his hand—
Fermín growls. Pedro freezes, his arm halfway lifted, and he looks up. The look on Fermín's face is hard to read, or is Pedro simply too nervous to accept what he sees? He doesn't want to ask, but not knowing is doing strange things in his stomach.
"Do you like it?" Pedro whispers nervously. Fermín's ears lift, his tail beginning to wag slowly behind him.
"Pedrico," he says, his voice low and rough. Pedro gasps softly. "Mi Pedrico. Buen chico Pedrico." Pedro closes his eyes and shudders. Pedrico? Fermín doesn't stop. "Such a good boy." Pedro whimpers. "Roll over, chico. Let me see you."
Pedro is already moving before he realizes what he's doing. It makes him clumsy where he's usually the more confident out of them two. When he gets up onto his hands and knees, he's staring at the headboard and realizing that he can't see Fermín like this. Fermín can do whatever he wants and Pedro won't know until he—
The mattress shifts with Fermín's weight as he climbs on it behind Pedro. Pedro squeezes his eyes shut. Why is he so hard? He curls his hands into fists, and suddenly, his hands feel more like paws. He moans under his breath and doesn't uncurl them. So wound up, Pedro jumps under Fermín's hands when Fermín grabs him, doing nothing more than holding Pedro by the hips. He doesn't touch the collar.
Well, not until later. Not until he's knot-deep in Pedro, fucking him so hard that the bed is knocking into the wall and probably waking up their roommates. Pedro doesn't care. Fermín grabs him by the back of the collar, tightening it around Pedro's neck, restricting air and blood, directing Pedro's head. No telling why Fermín grabs it when they've both been avoiding touching it all night, but this is a different Fermín than the one that normally fucks Pedro. He grabs Pedro by the collar, and Pedro comes immediately.
"Fer," he whines as he does.
"Fuck, Pedrico, fuck," Fermín fucks in a few more times before stilling. God, Pedro loves it. Milks it for all that he's worth, until Fermín has to pull out or suffer Pedro's delight.
It isn't until the steam from their post-coital shower is long cleared, until the lights have long since been turned off, until Pedro has finally been coaxed into pillowing himself on Fermín's chest and the blanket has been pulled up that he realizes, "You never answered me."
Pedro is nervous to ask suddenly, but Fermín's ears are lifted and he's attentive. "If you liked it. The collar."
"Pedríto," Fermín says, reaching over to lift Pedro's chin with the hand that isn't wrapped around Pedro's waist. "You are never more beautiful than when you are mine." Pedro's eyes flutter shut, and he shivers. Oh. Fermín needs to stop. Pedro has class early in the morning… "If it were my choice," Fermín continues, "you would never take the collar off." Pedro actually moans. "Everybody would know that you are mine, always."
Pedro makes a small, needy sound. "Fer, please."
He doesn't know that one day, he'll call the collar he's wearing his first collar. He doesn't know what more there is to come. He only knows that Fermín owns him, and maybe that's why this feels so right. He belongs to Fermín.
You are never more beautiful than when you are mine.
Pedro must be beautiful all of the time, then, he thinks, Fermín rolling them over to kiss his tongue deep into Pedro's mouth. He wraps his arms around Fermín's shoulders to pull him closer in the dark. All of the time.