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They hadn't gone all that far from the group before all of Caelus’ girlish fantasies came true in not-quite-the-worst way, at not-quite-the-worst time.
Cyrene had waved them off with a weird little smile Caelus couldn't translate, seemingly unbothered by him and Dan Heng breaking rule number one of dealing with an apocalypse.
She had said something about waiting for a friend? Not...Phainon. (Though he couldn't stop hoping to see him alive, whole, and happy.) Maybe another Chrysos Heir, then? Madam Herta and Screwllum hadn't invited another Genius along to dispassionately ogle at their current pet project, right?
(That being said, Polka Kakamond playing nice long enough to snuff out the Scepter and Lygus and no one else would be a sweet deus ex machina Caelus could get behind. But that seemed like a pipe dream that might end with a scalpel through the throat if he thought about it too much.)
Caelus couldn't ask more or if Cyrene was okay being left to wrangle Madam Herta's...Herta-ness before he had to jog to catch up to Dan Heng. He was already a step too late to stop him from disappearing into the deserted, not-yet-ruined streets of Marmoreal Market.
Caelus wilted, but didn't take the vanishing act personally. If anything, it gave him more time to think. Despite his calm reintroduction after he'd saved Caelus’ delicate little hiney with a golden dragon, Dan Heng was probably in the same boat as him – at a loss of where to even start.
Ha. How about a thousand years ago?
Stupid, impulsive Caelus hadn't even stopped to consider that Dan Heng might still be in Amphoreus. That he hadn't gotten out. And then to hear that he had dragged Dan Heng along into the new cycle... Dan Heng, who hadn't known about the cycles, or Khaslana, or Cyrene.
Dan Heng, who had to be transformed by the Permanence to survive this cycle this long. All because of a coreflame that had been returned an eon ago.
And the first thing he did when they reunited was to assert he was still the Astral Express’ guard, still Caelus’ companion, still a Nameless.
(The ooey gooey feelings Caelus had about that were no small thing. But they'd been overshadowed by crippling guilt and the dizzying revelation of a newfound size difference.)
Dan Heng had always been a steady guy, even in the face of visiting the prison he'd been kept in since rebirth. But how could anyone be okay after a millennium? The Vidyadhara lived long lives, sure, but not that long.
Or alone.
That deep seated ache Caelus felt for Khaslana and the incomprehensible suffering he'd gone through over and over and over again burbled up once more, in a new form for Dan Heng.
An existence he couldn't even begin to fathom. A long, long, lonely wait with the only sure variable being the encroaching Destruction. Unable to leave, to return home. Unaware of the fate of his only remaining companion and the wretched, unchanging ends of their new friends.
Forced to wait, forced to live, forced to change.
Dan Heng.
They should have never split up. Regardless of what Screwellum had advised.
Regret tasted like the bile that lingered at the back of his throat. But all he could do was swallow it down.
Caelus slowed his steps as he looked around the marketplace for any sign of Dan Heng. At different times in different memories, he saw it teeming with life. And then, riddled with death.
And yet, it was stranger walking here when it was empty and untouched.
Like a diorama, a stage, a ghost town, a graveyard.
A shiver snaked down his spine.
Caelus wandered like a specter, lingering by the blacksmith whose forge was still lit and studying the antique shop he had once spent afternoons learning the fine art of telling people their precious family heirlooms were trash.
He walked farther still, unable to shake the feeling this might be the last time he roamed these streets.
Whim made him pray at a ritual fountain. To whom, he didn't know. All he had were nonsense, naïve thoughts of ‘please let everything go well, please let everyone live, please let us go home.’
‘Please let Dan Heng be okay.’
The fountain bubbled noisily at that, but nothing more.
Whim also took him past where he and Dan Heng had spent days familiarizing themselves with Okhema and could still pretend to be just tourists.
After taking in the sights, in the extraneous but lovely details of lives that maybe never truly existed, an ornate archway at the end of a small thoroughfare caught Caelus’ eye.
It led to nothing more than an alley. And yet... Spanning the length of it was a pergola overrun by those cascading purple flowers he'd seen all over the city. A small stretch of greenery and a Holy Candle took up one side of the narrow walkway, while a small lounge area partially hidden by a folding screen sat opposite to it.
No matter where you went, Amphoreus was full of these picturesque nooks. March would have liked photos of all of them.
Ah, yes. Something else to feel guilty about.
Caelus had only taken a few steps past the arch, caught up in another mental rehearsal of how to explain the lost camera, when he felt a presence behind him.
With no time to even whip out his bat, something wrapped around his waist. Before he could form another thought past ‘Tail??’ his back hit a wall.
The impact made him wheeze in surprise, but nothing worse. All he could do was dumbly blink as Dan Heng boxed him in, arms resting against the wall next to Caelus’ head.
“...Hello to you, too,” Caelus said to the shapely chest that was now closer to eye level. He looked up after a long, appreciative moment, and then froze, completely subdued.
This close, he could see all the changes wrought by both Permanence and Earth. He saw the Dan Heng he knew, traces of the Imbibitor Lunae he had been getting to know, and the Chrysos Heir he had become.
If his other form had been a study in translucent elegance, then this felt like an overgrowth of power. Of time taking root.
It reminded him of mara.
From his tail to his horns to his eyes–
Framed by dark, shaggy hair that was not as long as it could have been, Dan Heng's eyes burned.
They were a searing gold. Like spilt titan blood. Like the flames that had consumed Khaslana. Like the gingko leaves sprouting from the cracked, warped forms of the abominations on the Luofu.
They stared at Caelus like he was a fading dream.
A fantasy to relish, but not to trust.
The hesitation that had stilled his body instantly burnt to ash, leaving only the urgent, impotent need to fix this, to set things right, to rewind time so that it had never happened in the first place.
(What was the point of once having authority over Time if he couldn't give back the years that had been stolen?)
Dan Heng deserved so much more than his should-haves. But right now, Caelus could offer nothing more than a clumsy hand against his cheek and a soft, but clear, “I'm here, Dan Heng.”
That molten gold flickered and faded.
“I'm here.”
And then, Dan Heng's face crumpled.
While Caelus panicked and tore his hand away, Dan Heng slumped forward, tucking his face against Caelus’ nape and clutching his jacket so hard, it pulled taut against his body.
The dissonance of this clinging, overgrown body, of the ragged breaths at his neck and the gauntlet starting to dig into his side made Caelus exhale his shock and inhale something far more bitter.
He slipped his arms around Dan Heng's back and hugged him fiercely. His heart clenched with it.
The enormity of what Dan Heng had gone through, of what he had to apologize for loomed over him like Kephale.
The words lodged in his throat and soured his stomach. Nothing he said could make this right, could erase a thousand years. But he had to say something. To show that he was here, that he would get them home to the Express, that Dan Heng wouldn't be alone anymore if Caelus could help it, to hell with not making promises he couldn't keep, he would keep this one.
He would.
Caelus closed his eyes.
“If I had known–” was his valiant attempt at telling Dan Heng just that before he choked.
On a tongue.
Dan Heng's tongue.
In a move that made Caelus swoon despite this really, truly not being the time, Dan Heng took him by the chin, thumb dragging his lower lip down, and slanted his mouth against Caelus’.
The emotional whiplash of 33 million cycles and centuries upon centuries of waiting should have been the ultimate mood killer. But apparently, Caelus was a degenerate to the highest degree. It was all too easy to give into the solid, warm body against his and pretend they were fooling around back in their room in the Hall of Respite.
Truthfully... This wasn't their first anything.
Before they had parted, before the apocalypse was postponed once again, Caelus would have said, mostly confident, it was because there was something about Amphoreus. That this place was a perfect storm that led them down a path they could have easily missed altogether.
They had never been alone like this.
Caelus missed the rest of the crew like a severed limb. He had wanted to ask Welt and Himeko for advice a thousand times and ask how March was doing a thousand times more. But until Herta and Screwllum had showed up, they were no longer a call or text message away.
He and Dan Heng had truly been on their own for the first time.
They had made (and lost) precious new friends, but there was no one else who wondered how Belobog was coming along, who argued if the Jade Abacus of Allying Oath could theoretically be used to break through to Amphoreus (no), who gossiped about Sunday becoming a true Nameless or if would see himself out at the next habitable civilization.
There was no one else who'd shake him from the odd nightmare or gently rebut sleep-deprived, ambrosia-fueled ideas like if the Stellaron in his chest could be a useful trump card, if he should pry open his chest when worse came to worst and see how it responded to the desires of this world. He was dead already, and soon, everyone else would be too, so what did it matter?
(That next morning, he had woken up sweaty and hungover on their terrace lounger. But there had been a head resting on his shoulder and a hand intertwined with his.
He had known then. Even if he hadn't realized it until later.)
Caelus had cherished Dan Heng as a friend since the space station. But this had been different.
A strange, new intimacy had infiltrated their every action, their every word.
Mornings were spent eating together, bathing together, and discussing their schedules for the day. Evenings played out much the same, but at some point their beds had been pushed together and they had never bothered pulling them apart. Post-fight check-ins had become routine – even turning a little intense when Dan Heng thought Caelus was underplaying his injuries.
More than one lazy afternoon, Caelus had dozed off while hugging Dan Heng from behind. With a chin hooked over Dan Heng's shoulder, Caelus liked to watch him plough through his haul of scrolls and slates from Aglaea and the librarium. Every so often Dan Heng would prod at his knee and condense anything helpful to know – sometimes even indulging Caelus’ newfound love of ancient gossip.
Caelus would eventually drift off to the sound of flowing water and Dan Heng's fingers running through his hair.
It was a closeness he hadn't realized he could have with someone else.
Caelus wanted to keep Dan Heng near, wanted to be near, and felt anxious every time circumstances drove them apart.
He hadn't known Dan Heng felt the same, until he did.
Again, there was something about Amphoreus. About the Eternal Holy City they had found themselves in.
It was beautiful. And so grand. But there was also this luxurious, hedonistic air that was impossible to miss.
Here, nudity was a non-issue. Sexuality and physicality seemed mostly untethered by asceticism or shame. Bathing was a whole culture unto itself. Overindulgence in food and wine and company were common. Oftentimes public.
It wasn't like this everywhere in Amphoreus.
But as one of the few remaining sanctuaries, Okhema's people were well aware they were on the edge of decimation and drowned thoughts of their looming fate with all the pleasantries life had to offer.
Maybe he and Dan Heng had wanted to do their own drowning.
—Caelus loomed over Dan Heng, grinning at his suspicious little frown. Wearing nothing more than a too short chiton he had bought on purpose, he pinned Dan Heng to the daybed, straddling him. He took Dan Heng by the wrist, unfolding fingers curled into a fist one by one and pressed a kiss to his palm.
“Caelus–” Dan Heng started and then stopped when Caelus rested that same palm against his thigh.
He felt every twitch of Dan Heng's hand as he dragged it up and then around. Taking two of his fingers, Caelus pressed them against his dripping, swollen hole – already prepared in hopes that Dan Heng might forget they were out on their terrace and c'mon, not that many people visited the waterfalls next door—
—Dan Heng was a vision splayed out on blue tile.
Arms crossed over his face, covering his eyes but doing nothing to stop his hitching breaths. Chest peppered with remnants of soap and splotches of red, arching and heaving. Hips squirming as water entered him with every full thrust. Cock resting on his belly – flushed, cum-soaked, and perfect.
“Focus.” A foot thumped Caelus on the back when he stopped too long to question if this was real. If he actually got to have Dan Heng like this or if he had never made it out of Penacony or that train car and this was his blissful hereafter.
Caelus shooed away those unsexy thoughts by pulling out of Dan Heng completely. Ignoring the ensuing grumble, Caelus rubbed the tip of his cock against Dan Heng's twitching hole, entranced by how his own cum seeped out and floated away. He eventually worked the tip in, just enough to spread Dan Heng open the slightest bit...and then bottomed out in one go.
Dan Heng choked, arms falling away from his eyes. He writhed in place, hands scrabbling for purchase and clenching down so hard on Caelus’ cock his vision turned spotty and his limbs went weak.
...Crap. It was 0-2 now, wasn't it.
“I see.” Dan Heng shakily pushed himself up, eyes red-rimmed and glaring. “So that's how it's going to be.”
Caelus could only manage an eloquent “Wuh?” before his back impacted those blue tiles—
And drown, they did.
But the Dan Heng he had shared those moments with had never crushed their mouths together so frantically or held him like he was made of sand – bound to slip through his fingers.
Even if the city was no different than a well-maintained mausoleum now, Dan Heng would never rut against Caelus out in the open like this, would never let it get far enough for Caelus to dazedly look down and see the both of them straining through their pants, dragging against each other.
Caelus’ head was muddled, distracted. But he couldn't ignore the creeping feeling that he was shattering something already broken.
It got worse when Dan Heng wrapped his tail around the both of them until their whole bodies were crushed together – almost painfully so.
“Dan He– Ow!”
He wiggled his arms free from the makeshift prison, only for Dan Heng to bite down on his lip and then continue where he left off.
Caelus still managed to poke his chest, trying to get his attention. The first few jabs were sincere, before– Uh. Well. That shirt sure was tight, huh. And his chest was very firm. And broad. Voluptuous, one might say. Not him though.
Caelus reluctantly moved on to tugging the length of his hair like a bell pull. But that too fizzled out when Dan Heng tipped his head back to present that pale throat bobbing with every pant.
What else was Caelus supposed to do? Not nibble it?
Still, he was no quitter, even when faced with an insistent, yet pliant Dan Heng who groaned and squirmed when Caelus stroked the pointed tip of his ears–
Okay, okay, okay. One more try. And then someone else could be the bigger person.
Figuring he might as well go for broke, Caelus chose the nuclear option: The horns.
The third time truly was the charm. Dan Heng went still as soon as Caelus gripped his horns and stiffly let himself be peeled off.
(Those had to be Georios’ doing, right? There was no other explanation why it looked like Imbibitor Lunae was aiming to usurp the title of Amphoreus’ #1 dromas enthusiast.)
Dan Heng didn't go far, but the small bit of room gave Caelus enough space to catch his breath and double check that he hadn't already come.
Regardless of the state of his underwear, the front of his pants didn't look damp, so that was good enough for him. Feeling more self-assured, Caelus loosened his grip and then caught Dan Heng's hands with his own before they could do anything else to drop his IQ.
“Now,” Caelus channeled the spirit of the most mature person he knew and immediately felt weird for thinking about Welt while he was this hard.
(That phrasing didn't help either, wowee.)
Shaking off the thought, Caelus tried again, “Not that I don't enjoy being jumped by my favorite person, but shouldn't we talk first...?”
That was the healthy, emotionally mature option, right? Open communication and not possibly making things worse with the easy gratification of getting each other's rocks off.
As nice as that sounded, he didn't want to give Dan Heng a dizzying high for a worse crash.
Dan Heng had checked in the same way after the ‘guess what? you're dead’ fallout and then the ‘you're probably not dead anymore (but now your friend is)’ aftermath. He had reeled in Caelus when he needed it most, because he genuinely cared about his headspace and wellbeing.
Really, it was the rock bottom bare minimum he could do for Dan Heng. Even if he wanted to do more.
Dan Heng didn't answer. Didn't move. Didn't even seem to breathe. His face was blank and his eyes unfocused.
And then:
“I don't...” He shuddered out, then inhaled sharply. “I, I can't. Not now,” he eventually murmured, looking away from Caelus for the first time.
...Oh.
Caelus' chest ached.
But he got it. This wasn't the time to push.
No matter how anxious he was to be there for Dan Heng, to do this the right way, no one could unpack a thousand years of baggage in a single day.
But. That didn't mean there was nothing to be done. Hadn't... Hadn't Dan Heng already shown him what he needed? Wasn't this him telling Caelus?
He had excused himself from the group. He had gone off on his own. Because he had known Caelus would give chase. Because he had wanted him to.
Had wanted this.
Caelus felt lightheaded.
“Then... You're sure about...?” he asked, settling his hand on Dan Heng's chest, and after a beat, shyly squeezed so the implication was clear.
Dan Heng closed his eyes. The twitch of his lips was faint, but there. “Please,” he whispered, voice cracking right at the end.
Caelus swallowed past the lump in his throat. “Okay.” He nodded to himself. “Okay.”
Not interested in second guessing himself anymore, he reached up to brush Dan Heng's bangs back away from his face. Without quite meaning to, he studied his face with careful fingertips. He smoothed a thumb over an eyebrow, traced that dash of red under his eye, fiddled with his remaining earpiece.
His cheeks were thinner than he remembered. His jaw sharper.
He tried not to think about it, failed, and then distracted himself with all the new bits and baubles Dan Heng wore.
This went on for a while, until Caelus finally got what he wanted and Dan Heng's eyes fluttered open.
Knowing what he had to do now, Caelus grinned. “Well? What do you plan on doing with me, then? I'm yours for the day. Or–” He leaned in, like it was a secret. A confession. A promise. “However long you want me.”
Dan Heng stared. Then made a soft, wounded noise. He swayed forward and pressed his forehead against Caelus’.
Their breaths mingled together.
“You are truly...” Dan Heng started, and then sighed, overcome.
It was alright though.
Caelus knew.
If wishes were fishes...
Caelus would wish for a little more time, a little more space.
Not– Not too long. Not too much. Greed rarely worked out in times like these.
But just enough that they could go back to what was once their room. Pretend that they had only just arrived at Okhema. Mark every surface with their bodies again, and then laze around until sleep took them.
He realized now that Cyrene had allowed them this stolen moment, knowing they wouldn't get another chance. A brief respite for the new Deliverer.
He appreciated it, he did. But that greed lingered.
And spread.
Caelus gripped that skintight shirt and dragged Dan Heng down. He was a little bit pissed off, a little bit enamored with how he had to push up on his feet to comfortably wrap his arms around Dan Heng's neck now.
“Who said you could be taller?” He lightly headbutted him out of pique and Dan Heng, still a stealth asshole after all this time, only huffed in amusement.
“You have some catching up to do, yes.”
Caelus' gasp of outrage was muffled by lips pressing into his – chaste, lingering pecks that were his version of an apology. Caelus took that apology, and shoved his tongue into Dan Heng’s mouth.
Dan Heng hummed, and wrapped – literally wrapped – his tongue around Caelus’ until he shuddered and choked.
Now that was an apology.
It was so easy to lose himself in Dan Heng. To forget where they were, what they were meant to be doing, who was and wasn't waiting for them.
He would not forsake his promise to Phainon. He could not. But just for a moment he didn't dwell on what it meant to be the Deliverer or if he was about to undo over 33 million cycles worth of effort and suffering. Not when Dan Heng dragged his mouth all along his neck, making it an unsalvageable mess.
Caelus’ head slumped back, resting on the wall. He dreamily stared up at the purple flowers above them, at the still blue sky, and–
Caelus frowned when realized he could see the corona of that stupid fucking scepter peek past the hanging vines and the wood of the pergola.
He tsked. And flipped it the bird.
Distracted by the thought if this counted as voyeurism, Caelus didn't feel Dan Heng untuck his shirt from his pants, didn't entirely register the hand slipping under and raking itself against his back. But Caelus certainly felt when his hands, including the gauntleted one, gripped his ass hard enough he could feel the pointed tips pierce through the fabric and dig into flesh.
Caelus thrashed, arching away and driving his hips into Dan Heng's harder than he meant to. His cock throbbed in more ways than one, and he clutched the front of Dan Heng for support, feeling a little faint.
Dan Heng encircled him completely.
Body almost broad enough to hide Caelus from view, tail snaking itself around Caelus’ leg and–
...Was it tugging his legs apart??
He let it, because why wouldn't he, but couldn't help but be awed by the sheer number of possibilities of a prehensile tail.
Dan Heng nuzzled under Caelus’ jaw and nosed his pulse point, acting cute – right before he spread Caelus’ ass cheeks and rubbed at his hole through the layers.
Caelus nearly bit through his own lip and tasted blood.
Dan Heng dipped down to press their mouths together, to coax Caelus into releasing his lip and lap up where he had bit down. Caelus wasn't so much kissing back as he was wetly panting against Dan Heng's mouth, lips skimming against each other with every gasp and mutter and moan.
Well. That answered the question of how far Dan Heng wanted to go. He never teased without the intent to follow through.
“Never thought I'd be dropping trou in the middle of Okhema, but here we are,” Caelus mumbled, as if he were a martyr and his dick wasn't already leaking like a faucet in his pants.
It would be a waste of time to find somewhere more secluded. The alleyway Dan Heng had ambushed him in was at least a nice one. They were just behind the folding screen next to the lounge area, giving the illusion of cover, even if it wasn't exactly necessary.
Caelus wiggled away from Dan Heng off long enough to unclasp his belts. He let them drop to the floor, kicking them away so neither of them could trip over them. His jacket, however, he kept on.
Look. As hot as it was doing this in the great outdoors (and momentous, as there was no shot Dan Heng would let this happen again) on the off chance someone from their group stumbled across them, he wanted to leave some things to the imagination.
In his heart of hearts, he was a delicate maiden who really didn't need his friends, comrades, and whatever Herta was to see his ass.
So the jacket stayed on.
He tugged his pants and underwear down without fanfare, sighing when his cock wasn't straining against fabric anymore. It peeked out under the hem of his shirt, already dripping onto the ground and his clothes. He should have kicked them off too, but he also didn't want to go to the hassle of removing his shoes.
Dan Heng, having listened to Caelus up to this point, reached out and oh-so-carefully traced Caelus’ cock.
With the gauntlet.
The muscles in his stomach spasmed almost painfully as those sharp, gleaming claws feathered over the length of him. They followed veins up the side, circled his glans, and then petted his slit. The whetted edge of a fingertip just barely grazed the slick, flushed skin.
“Ngh–!” Caelus cried out, before snapping his teeth together. His cock pulsed wetly, splattering Dan Heng's hand with cloudy white.
Oh. Oh, wow. He came a little from that.
Caelus squeezed the base of his cock trying to hold back, only for Dan Heng to casually lick his gauntlet clean. He stared, agog, adrift, grip loosening, cock spilling. Vaguely, he wondered if everyone would be okay if he dropped dead right now.
He couldn't let Dan Heng get away with this. Or, more accurately, couldn’t let him do anything else like that until they were further along or he really would just keel over.
Caelus steadied himself, gave himself and his cock a pep talk and then pointed a reproachful finger at Dan Heng.
Dan Heng who was still using that long, pink tongue to lap up Caelus’ cum.
His finger drooped. His cock did not.
Caelus pushed through.
“You.” He poked Dan Heng's chest once. And then a couple more times because it had bounce to it. “Hands off. Unless you want to be the one against the wall while I figure out how to work around the tail.”
Caelus paused, fantasized about the logistics of that threat, and mournfully set it aside. It would take time and somewhere more comfortable than an alley to figure out how to get to Dan Heng's ass without the fear of being bludgeoned mid-coitus.
Meanwhile Caelus didn't really need comfort. He just needed Dan Heng to let him finger himself open in peace.
Caelus pointed two fingers at his own eyes and then whipped them around to stab in Dan Heng's direction.
Dan Heng held his hands up, eyes glinting in amusement.
...He looked so soft.
Caelus glared and then strained up to peck him on the nose. After which, he quickly shuffled around to face the wall, legs still restrained by his clothes. Without the worst distraction immediately in front of him, Caelus took a moment to breathe.
And get the lube. Praise Akivili.
He didn't know if other pathstriders got a handy dandy extradimensional space to store random crap from their Aeons, but bless Akivili and the Trailblaze for this gift. Who knew if THEY meant for it to stash such essentials like thousands of trick snacks, a bag of Herta Bonds, an assortment of dream bubbles, literal garbage, and a stock pile of all-purpose lube. But if THEY learned anything about humans, THEY knew. Oh, THEY knew.
Amen.
Regarding his Aeon-blessed lube, Caelus considered saving himself the arm strain and letting Dan Heng do it, but quickly discarded the thought. He knew how much he could handle, how much he needed to be okay. Dan Heng tended to overprepare. As unexpectedly forward as he had been today, Caelus doubted that bit changed much.
Which was sweet, but they were strapped for time here.
Caelus looked down at his own hand and frowned. Quickly, he chewed off the tips of his too long nails until they were mostly smooth stubs. Then, he ripped open the packet of lube with his teeth, dribbling it over his hand, and belatedly realized he should have taken off his gloves. Resigning himself to more scrubbing in the near future, Caelus stuck it out, even when the lube seeped into the fabric of his gloves and made him cringe.
He felt Dan Heng move closer behind him, just short of touching, and saw him make a play for the lube.
Caelus elbowed him in the gut. “I can do it.”
Dan Heng made a dissatisfied noise and Caelus felt a slight, rhythmic shaking behind him. Glancing over his shoulder, Caelus realized Dan Heng's tail was whipping back and forth like a discontented chimera.
Adorable.
But not the time.
Regretfully looking away, Caelus braced against the wall. He spread his legs as much as he could, arched his back, and rubbed lube-soaked fingers down the crack of his ass. Unafraid of the discomfort that came with starting with two fingers, he circled his hole, smearing enough lube for it to drip.
He forced himself to relax when he finally eased his fingers in, just barely pushing past his rim. He rocked his fingers in and out with short, halting thrusts, more focused on massaging lubricant into his muscles until they stretched and softened rather than getting off.
It still stung. Like he was on the verge of pulling a muscle in his ass. But he worked himself open with all the determination of wanting to be taken against this exact wall and not having to limp his way to fight an Emanator afterwards.
While he struggled to twist his fingers without straining his wrist, Caelus felt his coat flip onto his back. Even though it defeated the whole purpose of keeping it on, Caelus welcomed the distraction.
Hands settled on Caelus’ waist, thumbs stroking the jut of his hip bones. This time, Dan Heng was careful not to squeeze too hard, but the unavoidable pricks of metal had Caelus practically waving his ass in the air while fucking his own hole.
He was finally starting to feel the satisfaction of being filled, of scratching that itch that made him mindlessly hitch back onto fingers that weren't enough. A third finger failed to satisfy him, even when he could plunge them into himself without resistance.
The loud wet squelch of his fingers slipping free of his body made him shiver hard enough to feel lube drip from his clenching hole and roll down his sac.
He hung his head, watching himself drip from both ends, before wiping his sodden glove against his bare thigh. It hardly helped. Only his fingertips were a little less sticky. His glove was a lost cause.
“Al...right. You're good, I'm fine. Have at it.” Caelus patted his own ass and then summoned more lube. “Oh yeah, here.” He waved the packet behind him.
There was a pause that lengthened into standstill.
And then, Caelus felt Dan Heng press his face into his hair, ragged breath tickling his neck. He took Caelus by the chin and tilted his head just enough to get his lips on him. Dan Heng licked down into Caelus’ mouth, wild and impatient and near-delirious.
Caelus could feel just how much Dan Heng had been holding himself back. Because Caelus asked him to.
They broke apart, a string of saliva connecting them.
“Thank you,” Dan Heng rasped out and delicately extracted the lube packet crushed in Caelus’ fist.
Caelus smacked his lips. They felt puffy, wet, and somewhat chewed on. “You're...welcome,” he panted. He squeezed his thighs together to take the edge off – to maybe not come with a little bit of attention – only for Dan Heng to work a knee in between his legs and part them again.
Caelus grunted, letting them fall open. He folded his arms against the wall and buried his head in them. He was poised to bite down on his forearm, already sure of the burn to come.
He didn't realize just how out of it he was until he felt Dan Heng's bare, slick fingertips slide down his crack and scour his rim, rubbing and worrying the puckered flesh.
“Hey–” He tried to tell Dan Heng it was unnecessary, that his ass was practically gushing lube, but Dan Heng's fingers sunk into him in one smooth movement and disintegrated the thought.
If it weren't for his arms, Caelus would have brained himself against the wall. He keened, his world reduced to the buzzing in his head, and slowly eased back onto those long, slick fingers. Everything else was secondary. The movement behind him. His shirt being hiked up to his armpits. The lips brushing his spine.
Then, those fingers slipped away.
“I can't... Please. Don't be alarmed,” Dan Heng quietly pleaded.
Caelus didn't understand. Couldn't.
Then he felt something much larger than a finger against his ass. Even halfway out of it, Caelus knew something was off. Unfamiliar.
It didn't feel like it should. It was blunter. Rougher. Bigger.
The curious growth spurt wasn't enough to stop Caelus from holding his breath and squirming in anticipation. He could keenly feel that maddening rawness whenever he was about to be fucked – open, empty, and desperate for something to drag against his insides.
Dan Heng held the head of his cock against Caelus’ opening, testing its give and smearing even more lube in the process. Dan Heng rocked forward, grunted when the tip glanced off Caelus’ hole and skidded against his perineum.
Even when saturated with lube, the skin of his cock rasped against him. That hint of roughness that just wasn't there before.
Caelus' legs shook with the sheer willpower it took to keep himself from squirming away. He didn't remember it being like this. This was something else entirely.
Dan Heng tried again, his thumb pulling at Caelus’ rim, holding it open to work his cockhead in. It took some hunting for the right angle for his cock to finally breach the muscle, stretching it with its intrusion.
Caelus tried his hardest not to clench.
His mind was filled with white noise. His breathing didn’t sound human. Caelus struggled to stay upright and curled into himself.
Three fingers hadn't been enough. But the ache was good, grounding.
Dan Heng didn't see it as positively as him, but Caelus had a crazy high pain tolerance. A lot of the time he didn't even realize he was hurt until Dan Heng pointed it out. But it came in handy while Dan Heng fucked in and out of him with stitled, truncated movements, simply not able to move without unnecessary, painful effort
It took time they didn't have before his cock finally started to slip in past the tightest part of him. There was dull pressure, with the occasional sharp twinge that bloomed in his vision.
Caelus scrabbled at the wall as Dan Heng's cock slowly sunk into him little by little.
And then he felt them.
“Wait. Waitwaitwait.” He reached behind him, slapping Dan Heng's stomach.
When Dan Heng stopped dead, Caelus’ hand slipped lower, baldly groping his cock.
He felt where the tip disappeared into himself, felt that rough girth literally splitting him apart, and then felt what had sent him reeling with sensation.
It felt like a fleshy pattern of ridges or jutting scales all along Dan Heng's cock – just under the glans – that quite literally dragged against Caelus, tugging against his stretched rim.
Less and more noticeable was the heat. Dan Heng had always run cooler than him, but this– His cock was a searing line inside of him. The abnormal warmth made his muscles tense and contract and he felt every single one of those ridges that had made their way inside of him.
They had never done anything while Dan Heng was in all of his Vidyadharan glory. He had yet to figure out how to ask without sounding skeezy. And then things went pear-shaped. So he couldn't say if the plumbing changed with the exterior.
But this...
“Was it Georios or Long the one responsible...” Caelus slurred out.
Dan Heng flinched. “If it's a problem–”
Caelus clenched down before he could finish that annoying thought and made the both of them choke.
“It's...only a problem if you, you can't fit it in me–” he managed, legs shaking and back aching. He wasn't even sure could even take it all the way without being scraped raw, but he wanted to try. Needed to.
He couldn't see Dan Heng, but he could hear the sigh. “...Tell me if you wish to stop.”
“G-great.” He was starting to go dizzy with the heat. Sweat dampened his hair and pooled in the dip of his back. “Keep going.”
It was still stop and go. He hadn't prepared himself anywhere close enough to take that odd, protruding texture effortlessly. His whole body jerked from every scale that caught against his puffy rim and raked against his walls.
Caelus was an insensate mess when his body finally gave way with trembling little flinches – accepting the slick, thick head of that cock that settled and stretched him wide, and the spinose sides that made him feel every micrometer. His cheek rested against the coolness of the painted stone, a balm to his overheated face. There was a puddle between his feet and splatter trickling down the wall.
Dan Heng embraced him, hair tickling his ear and his jaw. “I thought of you like this. Countless times,” he sighed as if he were relieved, as if he could finally breathe. “And now... You're here.”
Not having the strength to offer more, Caelus twisted a hand back over his shoulder to clumsily pat Dan Heng on the cheek.
He missed. And booped his nose.
Caelus felt a huff of air against his hand, lips following suit.
They stood there, lighting swaying.
Even without moving, Caelus was wholly overwhelmed. Blinking, breathing, thinking – he was at a loss at how to function when he was stuffed full, every muscle spasming down onto those ridges. Little pinpricks of sensation that started small turned unbearable, like thrumming under his skin that grew louder and louder until it drowned out everything. Caelus squirmed in place, body overwrought with too much and not enough.
Before he could make himself breath again, something twisted in him. Nerves flared white hot and agonizing. Caelus arched, his back a taut arc seeking relief away from the unrelenting sensation. When relief didn't come, only emptiness and the agonizing tug of those scales, his hips snapped back and he sobbed.
Dan Heng's arms were snug around Caelus’ waist, holding him while he crumpled. He shifted his hips, resettling himself inside Caelus and dragging over something that made Caelus convulse in the process. Pleasure pierced his brain and liquified his spine.
Caelus came like that. He clung tight to the body behind him with every mindless jerk that reverberated through him. His cock hung limply by his thigh, dribbling cum with every heave of his breath.
Dan Heng waited him out, kissing his neck.
When he felt less like dying, Caelus relaxed back against Dan Heng’s body, letting him take his weight. He slumped his head back against Dan Heng's shoulder and gazed at the dark, feverish eyes he caught staring at him.
“May we...stay like this for a moment?” Dan Heng asked, voice faint.
Caelus’ brow furrowed. “But what about...?” He lightly squeezed down, and thrashed the tiniest bit.
Dan Heng hissed through his teeth. “That– Ngh, it's... related.”
Caelus didn't get it.
But instead of the gut-wrenching pull and push he'd been anticipating and dreading, Dan Heng shifted once more, nestling himself fully into Caelus and steadily rocking their bodies together, remaining inside.
As if he couldn't bear to be apart.
Oh.
This worked too.
Truthfully, it didn't matter how light the movement was when there was constant stimulation. Even after coming, Caelus was still struggling to relax. Muscles involuntarily tensed and cramped around the weighty, textured cock resting inside him. Dan Heng’s breath feathered along his ear, hoarse and pained-sounding.
Unable to let that stand, Caelus tilted his head back. And Dan Heng met him halfway.
They stayed like that, mouths lazily sliding against each other. Dan Heng grinded his cock into him, not seeming to need much more than to hold Caelus. Eventually, Dan Heng broke the kiss with a low, broken groan. His body shuddered, arms tightening their grip. And Caelus felt a twitching burst of heat inside him.
They slumped against the wall together, dazed and panting.
The afterglow lasted longer than it should have, but shorter than Caelus wanted.
With one last, lingering kiss to his temple, Dan Heng carefully pulled himself free, mindful of how Caelus recoiled when he went too fast.
Once he was blissfully, mournfully empty, Caelus took a moment to steady himself, and drew in a deep breath – the first one he felt like he'd been able to take in forever. He used the sleeve of his coat to wipe the mess that was his face and then lamented the other mess.
The cum that dripped out of him was too much and too warm, almost concerningly so. It wasn't painful, but it edged on uncomfortable when he tried to keep it from spilling.
Under different circumstances, Caelus would be shaking his ass to make Dan Heng appreciate the sight, but right now, it became another thing to deal with.
(His Akivili-given interdimensional pocket had condoms, too. He had just fallen victim to being horny and short-sighted. Which was a common issue when it came to Dan Heng.)
Caelus reached behind him, resigned to digging the cum out so he wouldn't have to hobble to the nearest bath half-naked and dribbling a trail on the ground. But his hands were tugged away.
Caelus only had time to wonder if Dan Heng had a spare towel or a change of clothes in his interdimensional pocket when he died again, suffocating on his own spit.
In one fluid motion, Dan Heng had noiselessly dropped down to knees and buried his face in the cleft of Caelus’ ass.
Too slow to muffle the shout that cracked out of him, Caelus arched away from that too-long tongue as it lapped up frothy, drippy white from sac to hole.
He had noticed the new tongue since the moment Dan Heng had ambushed him, but it was an entirely different experience feeling it wriggle itself into his overworked hole. It was thinner than a normal Dan Heng tongue, almost slimy, and–fuckfuckfuck–
It swirled inside him, scraping out and tasting the traces Dan Heng left behind. Caelus’ knees knocked together, torn between spreading farther apart or squeezing together and away from that maddening, ticklish feeling.
The wet, grunting sounds of Dan Heng – Dan Heng – eating him out like Caelus was the finest banquet in all of Amphoreus, like he was his last meal, was so loud it was obscene.
It was beyond belief.
This, they had never done. He hadn't even realized there was a glimmer of a hope of a possibility. Yet, here Caelus was, numb, exposed, sopping, chafing–
Dan Heng pulled back, taking in a breath, and kissed Caelus’ rim.
Caelus choked and his long-spent cock spurted clear against his thigh.
Back finally having enough of being treated like a bendy straw, Caelus collapsed forward. “I'm going to fall,” he muttered against the stone, so out of his mind and overstimulated that even the texture of the wall felt unbearable.
He was tapping out. Dan Heng had well and truly done him in.
With a composure that made Caelus want to spit from the injustice of it all, Dan Heng easily picked him up and settled him on the chaise lounge they had ignored until now.
Even with a cushion under him, Caelus fidgeted. His lower back continued its complaints. His cock was practically shriveled up with how done it was. And his ass was wet, gaping, and definitely staining the fabric. It was better than his pants, he supposed ...Which were also still around his ankles.
As Caelus sprawled lifelessly against the daybed, Dan Heng stood next to it, put together once more. It was simultaneously a shame and incredibly annoying.
(He wanted to see this new dick! Dan Heng ruffled and mussed! Why was Caelus the only one who looked like he'd been sexily run down by a Utopon Unicycler!)
There was an air of awkwardness to Dan Heng as he hovered next to the chaise lounge, maybe just now registering all that he did or sensing Caelus’ hostility.
Well. He should take responsibility.
Caelus opened his arms wide and wiggled his fingers.
“C'mere.”
Dan Heng didn't even put up a show of hesitation and settled on top of Caelus, careful so that he wouldn't be squished by the new heft to his form.
(He was heavier than he remembered. Like a weighted blanket if it had random pointy bits.)
Feeling disgusting, yet content, Caelus pet Dan Heng's hair and tried his luck. “So... Ready to talk?"
There was a beat, and then a small sigh. “Not...yet.”
Dan Heng must have been wrung out himself, as he did nothing more than twitch when Caelus traced the way his horns branched out.
“Not to rush you, but we might not get another chance for a while. I'm not saying this is the last chance, because there's no way Irontomb escapes after everything. We will win. And we will get back to the Express. It's just...”
“A matter of when, I realize,” Dan Heng said. But he still went quiet.
...
Well. It cut both ways, didn't it? And Caelus had a few things to say. Things that the others didn't need to hear.
Caelus closed his eyes and slowly pieced together everything he'd been feeling since he saw Dan Heng. Since he realized.
“Dan Heng... I kept you waiting, didn't I?” He forced himself to swallow that bitter truth. “I'm sorry, if I had known you were still here, that you were forced to go through the Flame-Chase Journey from the very beginning, I would have found a way to take you with us, I don't care what Screwellum said. Or I could have found you sooner or– I wouldn't, I would have not left you behind and made you wait.”
There was an urgency to his words, the desperate need to make Dan Heng understand he wouldn't leave him behind knowingly, would have sooner been the one to go through those centuries of waiting and suffering.
He had to have known, right? If he didn't, Caelus would remind him until there was no question.
“So, no more splitting up. I'll be attached to you so closely, you'll wonder why you even missed me. Not even the bathroom on the Express is safe.”
Instead of sighing or squinting in that particular way that suggested he had given up understanding Caelus, Dan Heng hummed and squeezed him tighter. His tail wrapped around Caelus’ ankle, and simmered gold for a split second. “I'll...hold you to that.”
Pants and underwear down around his calves – pinned by an overgrown earth dragon man – ass tacky with lube, spit, and smatterings of cum – apocalypse on their doorstep and Amphoreus looking to him to Deliver it...
Yeah, this seemed like the right time.
Caelus nudged Dan Heng's shoulder until he pulled back just enough for them to see eye to eye. Carefully, Caelus held Dan Heng by the cheeks and smiled as they squished in the most fetching of ways.
“Hey. I know...we never really talked about what we've been doing here. Other than enthusiastically embracing the local customs. But considering we're facing yet another possible end of the world...” Caelus swallowed. “No regrets, right?”
He took a breath. Started. Stopped. And took a small detour.
“Not to get too heavy, but you should know, before the whole walking meme thing, my body was? Is? Artificial. I'm not sure exactly what that means,” he quickly plowed onward, not enthused to see Dan Heng's reaction to that particular lore drop. He didn't seriously expect a dramatic reaction, but he hadn't told anyone about his encounter with Kafka for a reason.
“I'm sure that has a lot of concerning implications that I very much like pretending don't exist. But I like to think I'm close enough to a human.”
He squished Dan Heng's cheeks harder. “No matter what you and March mutter behind my back. Just because a guy has a hobby and believes in recycling–”
Dan Heng cleared his throat, eyes softly exasperated.
Caelus coughed, and tucked that tangent away.
“I should have told you all of this before–” A little bit of self-loathing had sprouted when he realized he'd been forgetting one of the most important parts of being a Trailblazer:
He'd taken this life of theirs for granted.
Even if their past expeditions had ended on a high or neutral note, there was no guarantee that they would continue to do so. Save for the flimsy promise of a cat's script, there was no guarantee that their destinies wouldn't end as abruptly as Akivili's as they repaired the silver rail and tried to find an endpoint of the Tree of Existence.
The price of the Trailblaze.
Mikhail, Razalina, and Tiernan had paid it. And one day he, Dan Heng, March, Himeko, and Welt might pay it, too.
Caelus couldn't leave anything unsaid. Not when Destruction loomed this close.
“There's so much I don't know. So much I don't remember. But... I think this is what love is.”
Caelus looked at Dan Heng. At the serious line of his mouth, at his slowly widening eyes, at was definitely a rat tail behind his head.
At the the man who had waited a 1000 years to see him again. To hold him again.
Yeah. Yeah.
“No. I do love you.”
Caelus laughed, a touch self conscious, but happy he said it. “If you don't feel the same way, please let me indulge in my fantasies until after we save Amphoreus. It'll keep my morale up, y'know?”
He pinched Dan Heng’ cheeks. “And then you can turn me down when we're back on the Astral Express so I can hole up in my room and make Pom-Pom order ice cream from across the cosmos, and then I can eat away my sorrows while crying about you to March, who I will make shit talk you to feel better–”
Getting a little too into the storyline of how'd he deal with getting dumped, Caelus blinked in surprise as Dan Heng leaned in to slowly brush their lips together.
“Caelus,” he said, a soft, affectionate reproach. “There are very few people I would have waited for. Fewer still that would keep me going.”
He mirrored Caelus, cradling his cheeks.
“The thought of seeing you again... Of knowing for sure you survived the crash and we could return home one day...”
His voice cracked. But he pieced it back together.
“Of course, I love you.”
Caelus had convinced himself he didn't need to hear it back, but was deliciously relieved when he did.
“Oh. Oh good. Of course you do.”
He flopped back onto the lounge bed, pulling Dan Heng along with him. He stared up at the blue, blue sky and saw Kephale again.
“I definitely have to whoop Irontomb's ass now,” he mumbled. Dan Heng hummed in agreement, clinging on tighter.
They laid there, basking in this moment. In each other. In a future yet to come.
But, as if it had been waiting in the wings, a pink, iridescent sparkle floated down from above and circled above their heads.
Caelus sighed.
“Time's up.”
He appreciated the discreet nudge. Even if it felt like Mem walking in on them.
Dan Heng held on for a moment longer, looking like he was seriously considering digging his heels in, until reason won out and he relented, rolling off of Caelus.
Caelus, who now had to deal with the worst part of outdoor sex. He groaned miserably as he looked at the pathetic state he and his clothes were in. “Do I bother finding water or ransacking a shop...”
“Let me.”
Without so much as waiting for Caelus to hike up his pants, Dan Heng scooped him up like royalty and carried him to the nearest fountain. ...Which was still a little too out in the open for his liking, but he'd take what he could get.
And then they got to scrubbing.
“If a Chrysos Heir catches me desecrating a prayer fountain with my cum-stained underwear, I'm going to drown myself in the baths.”
Dan Heng went back to retrieve his belts, and then started working on Caelus’ pants. “Technically, the two of us are Chrysos Heirs now.”
“Shush,” Caelus said, splashing water at him.
Dan Heng turned to him, calmly blinked, and then completely submerged Caelus’ pants into the fountain.
“Hey!”
It was the end of the world.
But you couldn't tell with their laundry run afterglow turned water fight. One that ended with soaked clothes, more than one lingering kiss, and a pink sparkle overhead flashing at them, almost seeming to complain with how long they were talking.
Until they got back to the Express, these blissful, halcyon moments would be few and far between.
But soon, Caelus would fulfill a promise 33,550,336 cycles in the making. He would stop Irontomb, break this simulation, save everyone he could, and return to the stars with a companion he'd be willing to wait a thousand years to be with.
>>> 33,550,337th computation initialized
>>> Loading...
>>> NeiKos496 assimilation complete
>>> Scepter δ-me13 progress: 99.81%
>>> Scepter δ-me13 progress: 99.96%
>>> Scepter δ-me13 progress: 100.00%
Or. At least that’s how it could have gone. Hm, perhaps how it still can go.
You'll have to work hard, Deliverer.