Daud knows the voice. He heard it in the recordings played when the plague was just beginning to rise. Heard it last, raised in defense of her daughter.
He’s wept for the boy you were.
Daud rises from Corvo’s bed, makes his way to the chest in the corner, finds it unlocked. Inside might be keepsakes: handkerchiefs from admirers, pieces of dresses and suits once worn by the Empress. Daud doesn’t know. Nor does he care. Because the most important thing, he knows, rests on top. A heart. A human heart, threaded with wire and mechanical parts.
Do you ever weep? For the time you stole? The world you changed? For him?
He reaches out, draws his thumb along one of the chambers. The muscle shudders against his skin. Smooth, wet. An electric shock streaks through his arm and into his body and for a moment, he can see.
There is Corvo, looking so very young as he takes his place at the young Empress’s side for the first time. There is baby Emily, wailing and wet from birth. The Empress and Corvo in the garden with Emily. Emily’s 16th birthday, the Empress smiling on. Emily’s coronation as the former Empress steps down to let her daughter rule. Things that will not be. Time that will not come.
Daud jerks his hand away, half expects his thumb to come away slick with blood. It doesn’t.
When Corvo comes in, emergency summons from the young Empress taken care of, Daud is at the window, staring out at the sea.
Corvo stands next to him, looking first at Daud, then out into the distance.
If Daud’s eyes shine or his face is damp, Corvo makes no mention of it.
They’re fucking in Daud’s bed when the Outsider appears.
“I have to say, it has been a most unexpected ending. Or is it a beginning?”
Corvo flinches with his whole body, clenching hard around Daud’s cock. Daud, in turn, mutters a curse and holds Corvo’s hands tighter behind his back as he turns his head to glare at the black eyed bastard.
“There’s no need to stop on my account,” the Outsider says. “You know I enjoy a good show.” As if to emphasize his interest, the Outsider floats on shadows like a plush theatre chair, legs crossed, chin perched on his fist.
Daud glances from the creature floating in the dark hollows of his bedroom to Corvo, above him, flushed and looking well teased, cock flagging a little, but still leaking. His eyes are closed, his lips moving. Praying? Cursing the Outsider’s name?
Daud gives Corvo’s cock a perfunctory stroke, grinning as it makes the man twitch and moan. Months after they’ve started this dance and Daud’s still taken by surprise at his responsiveness.
“Turn around,” Daud says.
Corvo blinks at him, wariness and confusion giving way to surprise as Daud bodily lifts him, turning him until he’s facing the Outsider. Daud spits on his hand, strokes his cock and pulls Corvo back down, slipping inside him as if he’s meant to be there. The guttural groan that escapes Corvo is nearly enough to undo him but he hangs on, sets a steady, gliding pace. Daud holds Corvo’s hip with one hand, reaches around to keep stroking his cock with the other.
He watches the Outsider detaches from the shadows, pale hands reaching for Corvo and he should have known. There was something about Corvo that was fascinating. It only stood to reason the black eyed bastard would see that as well.
“Corvo.” The Outsider’s voice is crashing waves and whale song, sonorous and somber, reverberating throughout the room and rattling inside Daud’s bones.
When the Outsider’s hands touch Corvo’s face, Corvo shudders, gasps and comes over Daud’s fingers, his orgasm pulling Daud right along with him.
The room is quiet save for their harsh breathing, the tremulously whispered “Gods” that comes out of Corvo and the warmly discordant chuckle of the Outsider as he brushes his lips across Corvo’s forehead.
The Outsider runs cold fingers along Daud’s side and for a moment it feels as though they slip beneath his skin, trace the thick ropes of muscle and the fine white curve of rib bone. Daud’s softening cock twitches inside Corvo with every cool caress.
“Most interesting, indeed. I imagine there will be many more good shows to come.”
They are not gentle men, the Royal Protector and the new Spymaster. They’ve learned to be. Where necessary. Trading the clenched fist with holding the hand of a lost child, the wielding of a blade for the touch of fingers to a lover’s skin.
But they don’t have to be gentle with each other. And they aren’t.
In training, Corvo and Daud refrain from permanent injury, but bruises and cuts are plentiful.
In the bedroom—or in the study, or the hidden room that once belonged to the Empress, or up against the wall in the shadows of the training yard—fingers and mouths track the sparring wounds, overlap them with half-moon marks from short nails, the imprint of teeth, so deep it seems as though the biter was trying to reach bone.
And if, occasionally, those marks are left high enough for others in the Tower to see, no one comments.
He kisses Daud or Daud kisses him, in the midst of a sparring match: Royal Protector versus the new Spymaster. They have to keep their skills sharp and what opponents are better matched?
The kiss is not a soft thing. It does not speak or taste of love. It is harsh and rough as winter ocean winds and they brace themselves against each other when it threatens to topple them. They pull away enough to size the other up, as they’ve done countless times before, but never have they been this close and never with the burn of this particular anticipation coursing through them.
it's Fugue Feast in July time!
Title: Things That Should Be
Prompter: #46 - plexusbrachialis
Prompt: #3 - Daud the Lord Protector and Corvo the Knife of Dunwall. Summary: Corvo and Daud meet at Lady Boyle's party. Things are not as they should be.
a/n: I hope you don't mind smut, oh lovely prompter!
Daud frowned, as was his habit. Every bloody high up bastard in Dunwall was mingling somewhere at this Outsider-damned party. Of course, that meant he had a much higher chance of stumbling across his prey, as well as an even higher chance of perhaps meeting the Knife. The true murderer.
He sighed under his breath, picking at a tiny plate of food when his senses prickled. Behind him-
Daud turned, swift as a cat, and then he was face-to-face with a man masked in crow’s feathers; taller than him, and lithe, and so strong in the Outsider’s magic that Daud could near smell it.
He smiled thinly underneath his mask - they both knew perfectly well who the other was, but appearances must be kept, no?
“A good turn out,” he commented, putting down his plate and replacing it with a glass of strong punch. He picked a second glass and handed it to the crow as if it were nothing.
The crow was silent, but he took the glass and sipped from it, his face never changing beneath his mask.
Daud narrowed his eyes. gI see youfre as phlegmatic as ever. Perhaps we should take this somewhere a little more private.h He reached out and tucked his arm into the crook of the crowfs, walking them both into a tiny room filled with books and a delightful lack of party guests. Who wanted to stand in a library when there was so much good food and drink and excellent company strewn about the mansion?
Once inside the library, door closed, Daud whirled on the crow and lifted his mask, eyes flashing with barely suppressed anger. “Why are you here, Corvo?”
Corvo just looked at him, eyes as focused as ever, and Daud found himself irritated that he was so much shorter that it necessitated looking up at him.
gFor the company, clearly,h he said, finally, a tinge of humour in his voice. gI expected you to be here, Royal Protector. You didnft disappoint.h
With a Blink, Daud moved in close to Corvo’s personal space, hustling him til his back was pressed against the tall shelves and they were close enough to feel body heat.
gWhat do you want from me?h he growled, one hand pressing Corvofs shoulder hard and the other moving to his neck, pinning him effectively.
gNothing,h Corvo replied simply. gI did my job, Ifve been paid. Why would I want anything with you?h He licked his lips and Daud smelled the lie on him as plain as day. He tightened his grip about Corvofs neck, fingers digging in until the skin whitened beneath. He slid a thumb up under his chin, rubbing against the skin there - hot even through the leather of his gloves.
Daud moved in closer - they would have been nose to nose were it not for the masks - and slid his thigh between Corvo’s legs. “I think otherwise,” he growled, pressing against the evidence of Corvo’s lie with a thin smile. “I know exactly what you want, Corvo Attano, and I think I’m inclined to give you it.”
He tilted his head, regarding Corvo with passionate eyes as he slid a hand down to Corvofs crotch. Daud cupped the burgeoning erection there, stroking it deftly with gloved fingers before working at the laces of Corvofs trousers to get at the hot flesh beneath.
Corvo grunted at the contact, his pulse fluttering beneath Daud’s solid grip at his neck and hips bucking against his body for more contact, more friction, more more more.
gHmmm,h Daud purred into Corvofs ear, gand how does the Knife of Dunwall fall apart, I wonder.h He gripped Corvofs dick and stroked it up and down hard, twisting his hand at the head each time before slamming back down to the base again. gWhat would unravel you for me?h He leaned in closer and bit down on Corvofs neck, hard enough to bring blood hot and tangy with salt into his mouth, gratified by the moans it brought.
They sent heat straight to his dick, but Daud ignored it. Hefd had long experience ignoring his own urges, denying himself until he could barely take it any more. He was the very paragon of restraint, with his fingers digging into Corvofs neck and his hand tight around his dick. Daud huffed out a laugh, burying his face into Corvofs neck and just inhaling.
gI should hate you,h he muttered into skin. gI should kill you right now where we stand.h And it was restraint indeed that he did not.
gYes.h Corvofs arms came around to hold Daud close and he stifled what could be a sob at the tender contact, his harsh pace affected until his strokes became slower, drawing it out, making it so fucking good.
They were chest to chest and somehow Daudfs hand had slipped from Corvofs neck to burrow into his hair, gripping it as he mouthed at Corvofs neck, his jaw, his collarbone. Another miracle and his own trousers were undone by Corvofs deft hand and Daud hissed as air and soft leather caressed his dick.
Their hands moved together until they were laced around both dicks, stroking and sliding, their marks from the Outsider thumping in time with each other and their strokes in sync with that thumping. Daudfs head span with pleasure as he hadnft experienced in years.
gShit,h he hissed into Corvofs neck as orgasm crashed over him. He saw ultraviolet and stars through squeezed-shut eyes and felt Corvofs grunts and appeals to the Outsider thrum through his chest, mingling with his own until they were one voice.
Daud sagged against Corvo, holding himself up through sheer strength of will when what he really wanted was to collapse to the floor in an ungainly tangle of limbs quite unbefitting of a Royal Protector. Not that he was much in the business of protecting royalty lately, but still.
“People will come,” Corvo said, so quiet that Daud wouldn’t have heard if it wasn’t for their proximity. “And then they’ll talk.”
gI know,h Daud hissed. gShut the fuck up.h He forced himself upright on shaking legs, feeling the stickiness against his thighs with distaste. A handful of tablecloth soon had him cleaned up and he fastened his trousers with some reluctance. gAnd now we resume our usual roles,h he said with a strange sense of melancholy.
gOf course. Neither of us was ever present at Lady Boylefs party, so I see no reason this should cause an issue.h Corvo straightened his clothing and mask then held out a hand and gripped Daudfs tightly. gUntil we meet again, Lord Protector.h
gFor the final time,h Daud finished, his grip lingering before Corvo Blinked through his grasp and away through the open window. gDonft expect me to show mercy,h he said to the empty room, fist clenched and the scent of sex still lingering in the air.
Daud could swear that he heard the damned Outsider laughing at that, but he ignored it as usual, turning his back on the library and walking back to stalk the party halls. After all, one must do one’s duty.
