The House Always Wins (Azupiers)
I was rotating my favorite toxic yaoi oc x canon ship in my head yesterday, so I wrote this. Enjoy!
(if you'd like to read about the OC featured, you can do so here!)
Why had he asked for Piers to never sing another note? It was a question Azul didn’t fully know the answer to. Piers had—has—the voice of a siren. A temptress, a distraction, a little songbird—a little roach that’s made its nest underneath Azul’s skin. An infestation he can never seem to eradicate.
Truthfully, if it hadn’t been his ability to spin despair into a lullaby, it would’ve been something else. Just to satiate a need, a hunger, a desire he’s been grappling with since childhood. Since the moment he laid eyes on those vibrant shades of blue and yellow and the sweet green of his eyes, Azul has needed him.
Look at him.
Speak to him.
Become tied to him.
Even if he had to shackle the poor dear to him by force, break his legs, cut out his tongue, so long as Piers remained his then he cared not what means he had to resort to. All he needed was those eyes—far more rare and worthy of collecting than any pearl or precious stone—to focus solely on him and no one else.
It was a weakness that he couldn’t purge himself of.
The deal had been made before his younger self gave it a second thought. Had become consumed with a need to possess this warm, nurturing droplet of sunlight that had drifted gracefully into his palms. “I’ll steal his tail so he can never swim away,” he had thought. But how could anyone expect him to bear witness to beauty personified and not develop an immediate addiction?
Such a sweet smile…
It’s naught but a memory now, but a cherished one all the same. Piers hasn’t smiled in many years, and when he does, it’s so very tired. Azul hasn’t been graced by it, only caught it in the corner of his eye when Piers was unaware. He wants that smile. Needs it. It doesn’t matter how much Piers changes, Azul still has this horrid craving to chain the two of them together.
The sharpness with which he regards Azul is just too striking to resist. When they first met, Azul believed he was incapable of such ugly emotions. Sadness, rage, hatred, bloodlust. Yet it is those very emotions that define the Piers he’s come to know and adore. What was once soft, smiling, and pure has become sharp, furious, and ravenous for the blood of the enemy.
It’s Azul’s blood he craves. It’s Azul he spends day and night obsessing over. It’s Azul he refuses to leave until all debts have been paid in full. Azul. No one else. Even with their deals reduced to sand, Piers stays rooted. Looming over Azul’s shoulder, fantasizing about ripping his head from his shoulders and mounting him on the wall. Piers wants him as a trophy, as a warning to all who think his ship can be sunk.
It doesn’t matter why. He’s looking at Azul. Only Azul. Only ever Azul. A former bully, a cocky teammate, even Floyd who used to find such enjoyment out of Piers’ forced servitude—Piers ends them in seconds. A vicious fury he keeps bottled so neatly until something sets him off. All it takes is a single slight, anything to make him feel just in his assault, and he turns rabid.
Yes, even as he is now, a shell of the boy Azul first fell for and so horribly violent, Piers is beautiful. Still a droplet of sun. Burning everything in its path to ash. But not Azul. No, Azul is special. It’s not enough to beat him, or even kill him. Piers needs to see him crumble, see him lose everything, be reduced to a shell just as Azul did onto him. An eye for an eye. Piers will only be satisfied once Azul has lost it all.
Azul is special to him. So special he’s biding his time, plotting and scheming, watching him so intently every second. It’s everything Azul could need, really. They are, and shall always be, linked. Now, more than ever, Piers only has eyes for Azul, as Azul has always wanted.
His damsel belongs to him and him alone.
No one else.
There is no one else.
There will never be anyone else.
No one has the same bond that they do.
They never will.
Which means, in the end, regardless of the ultimate outcome, Azul has already won.