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Once upon a time Slade had been a revered knight within the fairy kingdom but his methods, regardless of results, had been unpopular. And soon the fairy king had managed to pull together an excuse to banish him. Not that Slade minded. By that time he had found himself spending more of his time in the seedy undergrowth of the forest, far below the domains of the fairies. It was beneath the canopy of flowers and grasses that his usual clients lurked. Sentient insects, other banished fairies, sooterkins and toads. They all turned to Slade when they needed someone getting rid of or something being acquired.
But he had never once been summoned by the Spider Queen. Then again, she had an army of smaller spiders to do her bidding. She didn't need a banished fairy unless there was something particularly difficult to be done.
Slade approached slowly, the majority of the spiders skittering around him reaching up to his knees. The Spider Queen had spun her main web in a burnt out caravan abandoned in the forest. Her spiders swarmed over nearly every inch of the outside and followed Slade as he walked across what had once been a kitchen counter.
The Spider Queen's hen pecked King was waiting for him.
As far as Slade could see, the Spider Queen and King were the only two of their kind although what that kind was Slade didn’t know. They certainly didn't seem to have very main similarities. The King was diminutive with twitching nubs marking out where his extra four limbs should have been. He had large fangs that seemed to do nothing but bulge out his cheeks and had a forehead clustered with eyes. He didn’t meet Slade’s eye as he approached, merely gesturing Slade toward a strand of web hanging down from the cabinet above.
Slade didn't bother with it. He flew up to the cabinet, landing delicately on the edge. Most of the cabinet was crisscrossed by strands of thick web with only a small section left bare for when the queen was meeting with someone. The Spider Queen herself was glorious and terrifying in equal measure. Her face was almost human, her two eyes a pitch black, her fangs pulled far back enough that they only appeared when she wished for them to. She had all eight limbs and wore an intricate dress of webs while she climbed easily through the web she inhabited.
There was the body of a fairy, remains withered and sucked dry, still wrapped up in her web. Slade imagined it had been left there for his benefit. Not that she needed too. Slade was well aware the Spider Queen was not to be trifled with. She was larger than a fairy and far more deadly. At least more deadly than the average. Slade was sure he could dispatch her if needed to. But he would rather not; by all accounts, she paid well.
“Slade,” the Spider Queen smiled, climbing down her web to approach him.
“Your highness,” Slade said with a bow.
The Spider Queen's smile only deepened.
“I have a job that I am told you will be up to. I certainly hope you are. I can only try once a month and I have already been disappointed twice.”
She looked back at the fairy corpse, ensuring Slade knew what happened to those who made the mistake of disappointing her.
“What are you after?”
“A mate,” the Spider Queen said.
Slade arched an eyebrow and found himself glancing down to where he knew the King waited down below. The Spider Queen laughed.
“That disgusting creature doesn’t deserve to touch me let alone fertilise my eggs. No, I have a particular mate in mind. But that is where the problem lies. He is human.”
“Human?” Slade questioned. “I can see how that would be a problem.”
The queen glowered at him.
“I have acquired a rare potion that will change a human into a fairy. I merely need you to administer the potion to my future mate and bring him to me.”
Slade nodded.
“I imagine there is a timing component since you have spoken about it only being once a month.”
“The potion must be consumed on the night of a full moon,” the queen agreed.
“That should not be too difficult,” Slade remarked.
The Spider Queen smiled, tossing her long black hair over her shoulder.
“You would think so,” she said. “And yet two have already failed.”
Slade hummed. He watched as the Spider Queen moved back into her web, climbing up into the strands above.
“How much will you pay for the task?”
The Spider Queen appeared back into view, holding out a small bottle carved out of wood. She held it out to Slade.
“Upon delivery of my mate, I will give you a thousand quartz shards. If we get to a week out from the full moon and you have not brought him to me, my spiders will bring you to me and you will be joining my growing collection of dead fairies.”
Slade cast a glance toward the dead fairy tangled up in her webs. Perhaps he might have recognised him if not for the tight mesh of strands holding the body in place. Slade knew most of the banished fairies after all.
“What is the name of his human then? And where do I find him?”
“His name is Dick Grayson and he lives in the cottage just on the edge of the woods.”
Although Slade could not understand why the Spider Queen was not happy to settle for a fairy mate, he could understand why out of all the humans she had picked Dick Grayson. The young man was handsome, athletic and charismatic. He fed the birds at the bottom of his garden and earned his simple living by cycling around the village running errands for the older residents.
Slade could imagine that the young man might have been very at home in the fairy court. Unfortunately it was not the Fairy King who had spotted him. It was the Spider Queen.
Slade watched the young man for several days and nights, learning his habits and movements. He could imagine that had been the failing of his predecessors since the young man methodically shut every window in his cottage before he went to sleep. Slade could imagine the other fairies only showing up on the night of the full moon, realising that the young man had securely sealed himself off from the outside world.
But as the night of the full moon approached, Slade knew he would have to slip inside before Dick shut all the windows. He waited until the young man walked out to the bottom of the garden to check his bird feeders and immediately flew inside, tucking himself into the rafters.
As night fell, Slade watched as the young man peeled himself from his armchair where he had been reading and moved around the house, methodically closing up the windows. He had watched him, studied the parts of the cottage he could see from his hiding spot. It seemed that Dick had some knowledge of the fairy world, that he had been warned about it. He certainly had protections against witchcraft hanging above his doorframes.
If only he had been a little bit more careful, been less generous to the birds, less eye catching to the spiders. Slade could imagine the young man delicately moving each spider outside when he caught it and each reporting to their queen about him until she needed him for herself.
Just as Dick was about to close the final window, the one in his bedroom, Slade cast a spell. It was a sleep spell, one that Slade didn’t think would have worked on a human who was not already half asleep.
He watched as the young man faltered, almost shocked by the sudden wave of lethargy sweeping over him. Without even a second thought about the window, Dick flicked off the light and tugged off his clothes, leaving himself in nothing but his boxers. Slade stared, unable to help himself. When he had been in the fairy kingdom, he had had a great number of lovers, all more beautiful or handsome than the last. Since his fall from grace, he took his pleasure where he could find it and tried to use whatever hole was offered to him without truly realising what monstrous creature owned it. Dick Grayson was truly beautiful, his body a tanned pillar of toned muscle, shaped like a statue of some great hero of olden times. Slade could see why the Spider Queen was willing to pay such a high price to make him her mate.
Dick dropped unceremoniously onto the sheets, asleep within a heartbeat. Slade flew closer. Compared to a human, Slade was only a little larger than the palm of a hand. He could land on Dick’s chin with his weight doing little but to cause the young man to shift and studied the plump lips before him with interest.
Still, Slade had a job to do. No matter how pretty Dick was, he was being paid to deliver him to the Spider Queen. Nothing else mattered.
Slade used his foot to nudge the lips apart, uncorking the bottle of portion and tipping it into the void. It seemed so small compared to the human, little more than a drop, and yet Slade was familiar with the power of magic. He was sure it would work.
He took off, his wings lifting him into the air. Dick’s sleeping face screwed up in discomfort, his body twisting slightly. He curled in on himself as Slade watched his skin beginning to shimmer. The light grew more and more intense, all but consuming the young man, until Slade was forced to look away. The entire room was illuminated by the glow and Slade was glad that the young man lived alone so far from the rest of the village. The last thing he needed was for another human to come in and interrupt them.
When the light began to fade, Slade turned back. He stared.
Curled up in the pillow, body entirely in the dip his head had once made, was Dick Grayson. He was naked, his now fairy-sized body having shrunk free of his boxers. Twin blue wings rose out of his back, patterned with black chitin. They fluttered anxiously behind him as if his body was exploring the new muscles the potion had given him in horror.
Dick was still deep in the throes of Slade’s spell, even more so with his body suddenly far smaller than it had been before. Slade landed on the bed beside him, opening the bag he had brought with him. Inside were supplies, everything that was needed to kidnap a fairy. First Slade locked the metal wing restraints in place. They would hold the young man’s new wings together. Slade had thought about not bothering since the human would not have learnt to fly but he couldn’t count on Dick not managing to wildly launch himself into danger if he did try to fly. Best to ensure the new fairy kept his feet on the ground.
Next Slade had brought a white flax robe. It was simple, the sort of clothing fairy prisoners wore, reaching down to the knee with wonky buttons up the spine to allow it to be closed around the wings. Dick moaned slightly as Slade wrestled his arms into the sleeves but did not wake. Then Slade bound the young man’s wrists with rough twine, leaving a long length in front of him so that Slade could drag him along.
Satisfied with his work, Slade patted the young man’s cheek. For most, it would not have worked but Slade was the one who had cast the sleeping spell and so it reacted to his desire for Dick to awaken. The blue eyes opened, almost seeming more haunting and magically with the young man in his new body. Slade smiled down at him.
Thankfully little of Dick’s features had changed during the transformation. In fact, the only thing that was truly noticeable was that his ears had sharpened a little, forming something akin to points but that was how the vast majority of pure blooded fairies looked so Slade didn’t think the Spider Queen would object.
Slade watched as horror chased away any confusion on the young man’s face. He kicked at Slade’s feet but Slade remained strong, in spite of the blow. He hauled Dick up onto his shoulder.
“Let go of me! Get off!” Dick protested.
Slade let him struggle. He had always been strong for a fairy and had made himself stronger with potions and magic. There was no way that Dick was going to be able to break free from his grip. Of course, Slade had no intention of carrying him the entire way. There was little chance that they could fly through the forest without other fairies seeing and trying to rescue Dick from his fate so once they reached the forest Slade would have to drag the young man through the undergrowth. Not that he imagined the fairy kingdom would necessarily be very kind to a human-turned-fairy. They were not the most accepting of people and had a dislike for dirty, destructive humans that Slade felt like was more than justified.
“Whatever you want, this is not how you get it!” Dick snarled just as Slade took off into the night air.
The garden Dick had lovingly cultivated looked ethereal in the light of the full moon. Slade wondered what would become of the cottage and the garden with its owner spending his life producing new subjects for the Spider Queen.
“What if what I want is you?” Slade asked.
Dick fell silent at that and soon they were over the garden fence and on the outer edge of the forest. Slade dropped Dick roughly into the undergrowth and the young man instinctively rose, going to run. He faltered when he realised that the end of the twine binding his wrists ended in Slade’s hand.
“Why would you want me?” Dick asked.
The fact that he did not seem to be freaking out about the fact that fairies were real or in fact that he had been turned into one told Slade that he had been right in his assessment that Dick knew about the things that lived in the forest. That made him far more interesting than the average human.
“I get paid to kill, kidnap and steal for other people. You’re one of my contracts.”
“Kill or kidnap?” Dick asked.
Slade turned, beginning to head through the undergrowth. Dick tried to fight him at first but was pulled into a stumble by Slade and eventually relented and followed.
“You’re still alive, aren’t you?” Slade questioned, not looking back.
“Who’s paying you?” Dick asked. “The Demon Head?”
Slade faltered. That made him turn back to the boy. The Demon Head was a creature of darkness that lived at the very heart of the forest.
“How do you know about him?” Slade asked. “How do you know about any of this?”
“Tell me who’s paying you and I’ll tell you how I know,” Dick challenged.
Normally Slade would not have accepted such attitude from any prisoner he was transporting. He would have grabbed them by the hair and forced a blade to their throat, demanding they answer. But Dick was different and Slade was willing to play his game.
“The Spider Queen,” Slade said.
Dick nodded. There was equal parts recognition and confusion in his eyes. He knew enough, it seemed, to know who she was but not to know why she could be interested in him.
Still, Slade rather wanted to see his reaction to that news.
“She wants you to be her mate.”
Dick let out a strangled choking noise.
“What about the Spider King?”
“He doesn’t look like you,” Slade replied simply.
He watched as the young man squirmed, glancing back toward his moonlit cottage longingly. Not wanting to let him develop any thoughts about escaping, Slade tugged Dick closer.
“Now, how do you know about us?” he asked.
“My parents were Romani," Dick explained. “They told me all the stories. And when a bogey demanded my mother sleep with him and she refused, he killed them both and took me.”
Slade had heard of such things. Bogeys were monsters that prayed on fear, the monsters that climbed under the bed, that lurked in the closet, that scraped their claws against windows at night. It was uncommon but not entirely rare for a bogey to snatch away a child to leave it living in terror in their lair and give them a constant supply of food.
“I grew braver, worked out that if you act scared even when you’re not a bogey can’t tell you’re not feeding it. I weakened it enough to escape and fled to the cottage. The guy who owned it had died and his family weren’t interested in it so I started squatting there. By the time anyone realised I was there, I was too old for foster care and the owners figured I had done such a good job of doing it up that they just gave it to me. But I had to know everything in case the bogey came back. Or the hag from the far West of the Wood decided she wanted a go. Or the Demon Head decided to come after me.”
Despite himself, Slade was impressed. No child he had ever heard of had been able to escape a bogey by themselves. And the calmness with which the boy spoke of such threats. It wasn’t that he didn’t understand the danger they posed. He simply seemed sure he could have handled it.
He just hadn’t been expecting one of the peaceful, wimpy fairies, to actually be the ones to come after him in the end.
“Well, you’re about to get up close experience with all the things you’ve no doubt researched,” Slade said, pulling Dick along. “We should reach the Spider Queen just before nightfall tomorrow if we aren’t interrupted. I think she’d want a dawn binding ceremony. What do you think?”
“Not keen on the implications of the word binding,” Dick replied.
It was not the first time that Slade had been forced to pull a prisoner through the undergrowth in such a way. Of course, he had never had a human-turned-fairy prisoner but he had caught plenty of fairies for people and all manner of other creatures.
Dick, despite his new body, was incredibly graceful. Normally Slade would have found his prisoner coated in mud and bruised from falling by the time they reached the first signs of civilisation (if you could call the chaos ridden streets of the undergrowth civilisation) but Dick’s white robe remained purposefully crisp, his balance even in spite of his new wings entirely perfect. He didn’t even have a problem with Slade forcing him to walk along the top of a moss covered root.
In fact, the first thing they encountered that gave Dick pause was the streets of the undergrowth. He faltered as he took in the human-toad hybrid springing through the streets, shifted closer to Slade as a scarred fairy with only one wing ran his eyes up and down his body. Slade shortened the rope keeping the young man behind him, eager to not risk having his prize stolen from him, but also enjoyed the jealous looks he was being given. Slade often got jealous looks, especially when he had some prisoner that everyone knew would earn him an enormous pay day. But with Dick the looks were different. They regarded the prisoner lecherously. With no one able to work out Dick’s identity, they imagined he was not being abducted for his worth but for Slade’s entertainment and no doubt wished they had been the one to stumble across him first.
And maybe Slade was enjoying the looks a little too much.
“I need a drink,” he announced. “Dragging you around is hard work.”
“Then let me go,” Dick said.
“Not a chance.”
Slade suddenly sidestepped, moving into a hollowed out tree stump. He enjoyed the way Dick yelped at the unexpected tug on his wrists and tried to freeze on the threshold even as Slade dragged him on. Slade moved up to the bar. There was a humanoid figure made out of woven grass serving the drinks and he silently prepared the drink Slade ordered for himself.
“Give the kid a raindrop,” Slade growled after a moment.
A small wooden goblet was placed in front of Dick, a droplet of water inside. Dick went to grab it with his bound hands but almost spilled the contents. Slade picked it up, guiding Dick over to a booth in the corner. He placed the drinks down and reached up to tie the end of the twine into a loop of wood above them. Dick paled as he realised that all the booths had similar loops, no doubt designed to hold any prisoners the patrons were transporting.
Slade watched Dick carefully as he surveyed the room. There was a sooterkin dancing around a wooden pole on a raised stage in the centre of the room, crudely dressed in leaves while the patrons cat-called and whistled and threw rock shards at her. A female fairy was in a cage behind the bar, gagged with tears rolling down her face. She and Dick locked eyes and Slade shifted closer to his prisoner to get a better view.
“They don’t have any problem with fairies in this place,” Slade said. “But they have problems with fairies who think they are better than everyone else. She was once a lady in the fairy court until she came in here complaining about the food.”
Dick turned away with a shiver, his eyes scanning the patrons. There were fairies in the room, including a large group in one corner gathered around what appeared to be some large female bug who was tenderly rubbing each of their faces with her barbed legs. But there were other species too. Insects, some more human-like than others, humanoid rats, toads… There were all sorts.
“Didn’t realise life down here was so diverse?” Slade questioned.
Dick awkwardly managed to guide his bound hands around his goblet and took a drink. The water tasted slightly gritty but he had been walking for long enough that he did not complain.
“When you hear fairies…”
“You think of the fairy court. I know. But most fairies don’t live like that. They live in colonies scattered throughout the forest. Or they live in places like this. Some, like you, end up in servitude to dark creatures.”
Dick put down his goblet, suddenly not thirsty. He turned to look at Slade and then looked away.
“Are you really going to hand me over to her? I mean… I get that it’s money or shards or whatever you fairies use but surely you can’t be okay with handing someone over to a life as a spider’s sex slave.”
Slade scoffed.
“I’ve done far worse to people,” he shrugged.
“Okay,” was all Dick said.
He turned to look around the room as if savouring it, a memory he could cling onto during his new life.
“And if I don’t hand you over to her, she will kill me,” Slade felt himself compelled to add. “She’s already killed two over you.”
Dick turned sharply back to Slade. He swallowed thickly and nodded.
“Best it be you then. No more deaths.”
And with that came acceptance. Because people were dying. Two fairies had died in the queen’s desperation to get her hands on Dick and Slade could tell how unacceptable that was to the young man. He would sooner suffer an eternity at her hands than allow anyone else to die for him.
“You really mean that, don’t you?” Slade breathed, more than a little shocked.
Dick shrugged.
“People are dying,” he said simply.
Slade had moved away with the excuse he wanted to get another drink. He didn’t think Dick was going to run, not when he had heard people he had not even met were being killed so that the Spider Queen could ensnare him. So he merely left the young man tied up at the booth while he ordered a second drink. The woven creature began to work, Slade turned back to stare at Dick.
He was the strangest thing Slade had ever encountered and for the first time Slade considered whether or not he should just deliberately throw the job. After all, the young man was attractive, he was fascinating, he had a nobleness and bravery that Slade couldn’t help but be intrigued by. He deserved so much better than a life wrapped in webs and being bred. Slade could keep him. He had been telling himself for a while that he needed to set himself up a stronghold he could return to when he finished his jobs. Could he not have the young fairy there waiting for him? Surely Dick would be so grateful that Slade didn’t hand him over to the Spider Queen he would be willing to do whatever it took to please him?
Slade turned away. He couldn’t think like that. The cost for keeping Dick would be being forever hunted by the Spider Queen. Surely the young man would not be worth that. It would be better to just hand Dick over and then seek out some penniless dark haired fairy willing to take Slade’s cock while he pretended it was Dick moaning beneath him.
The drink came and Slade downed it quickly, ordering a third. Maybe he should throw the young man in some sort of sack or crate or something, ensure that he couldn’t see him, gag him so he didn’t have to speak to him. Whatever it took to ensure that Slade could cut off contact without looking back.
He glanced over his shoulder just as his drink was placed in front of him, wanting to check on his prisoner. He froze at the scene he saw.
Two ratmen had slid into the booth, one on either side of Dick. One had his tail wrapped around Dick’s head, the tip forced into his mouth to silence him, while the other ran a hand down Dick’s cheek. Dick’s panicked blue eyes were locked onto Slade, begging for him to intervene even as the young man tried to pull himself free from the rope binding his wrists.
Slade abandoned his drink, crossing the bar. He slipped into his seat as calmly as he could, the two rats turning sharply to him.
“So you’re the one who left such a pretty thing unattended,” one of the ratmen remarked. “What a silly thing to do?”
Dick tried to say something around the tail but the rat merely forced it deeper into his mouth, muffling all escaping noises.
“We were going to take him back to the Great Nest. Our king’s birthday is coming up and…”
“He’s already been promised to the Spider Queen,” Slade said simply. “Unhand him and be on your way.”
Suddenly Dick gave a muffled yelp against the tail. Slade glanced down to see one of the ratmen had drawn a knife and had it resting just above Dick’s gut.
“Let’s say this another way. If our king doesn’t get him, no one does.”
Slade had met the Rat King back when he had been part of the royal guard. The royal creature had a habit of abducting attractive fairies and turning them into his sex slaves and more than once Slade had been ordered to break into the Great Nest and rescue any of the prisoners he found there.
“Your king has no need for him,” Slade replied. “And capturing him is not worth your lives.”
Panic filled the faces of the three across from Slade and yet Dick looked the most panicked of all. Slade might have scoffed at someone else for being so adverse to killing but he found it almost endearing with the young man. Still, he was more interested in the reaction from the ratmen. Their fear quickly turned to rage and one threw himself across the table toward Slade. Immediately Slade drew his sword, crafted from shards of metal he had found in a human rubbish heap and drove it through the pouncing creature’s gut. A weak gurgle escaped from his lips before the body fell limp and Slade pushed it off his blade.
Everyone in the restaurant was staring. Violence was not at all uncommon in the undergrowth. Murder was a way of life. But for things to escalate so quickly into a killing… Slade ignored them, his focus on the remaining rat. The rat quickly sliced the twine securing Dick’s wrists to the loop and dragged him up by the tail, still gagging him. Soon the tail slipped down, wrapping about Dick’s neck. Terror falling onto the young man’s face, he reached up to try to force the tail free, stopping it from blocking up his airway.
“Take it outside!” the insect woman shouted from within her huddle of fairies.
“I intend to,” the ratman said. “Step aside, Wilson.”
“Never,” Slade growled.
Dick clawed at his neck, desperately trying to break the hold of the tail.
The ratman dove toward, slashing at Slade. Dick yelped as he was dragged forward by his neck. The noise distracted Slade and he felt a jolt of pain. He looked down, seeing that the ratman’s blade was buried in his gut. He clumsily stumbled back against one of the tables. Clearly the ratman thought that the damage was fatal because he turned back to Dick with a twisted glee. He grabbed the young man’s wrist and pulled him close.
“Such a pretty fairy. You’ll look like a jewel impaled on the king’s cock.”
Slade pulled the knife from his side, growling animalistically. Then he launched himself at the ratman from behind. In one hand he held the knife, in the other his sword. He stabbed both into the creature’s neck, any noise the dying rat made was drowned out by Dick screaming.
Slade let the corpse drop to the floor and untangled the tail from around Dick’s neck. Then he tried to collect him up into his arms.
“No, get off me!” Dick shouted.
There was blood on the robe Slade had given him and spray on the young man’s tanned face. He looked like he was going to throw up.
“They’ll have friends nearby. I have to get us both out of here,” Slade tried.
He reached for Dick but the young man flinched away. Anywhere else, Slade might have attempted to keep being gentle to the young man who had so quickly won his favour but they could not remain in the bar any longer. He grabbed Dick roughly, throwing him once more over his shoulder before grabbing up his sword and running out of the bar. Someone must have alerted the nearby rats because they were beginning to swarm, determined to rip Slade to shreds and drag Dick to their king.
Slade tightened his grip on Dick and took off. He burst through the canopy of green and raced across the sky, looking for somewhere, anywhere, he could safely land. He headed toward parts where he knew the streets of the undergrowth didn’t reach, a place where the rats would struggle to find them.
But his vision was turning dark and Dick’s struggles were making it hard to fly straight. Slade battled on the best he could, wings growing heavier with every beat.
And he was slowing. He began to lower himself, sure that sooner or later he was going to crash. He needed to be low enough that Dick would survive.
That was his last thought before everything turned black.
Slade awoke to humming and pain. He bit back his groan however, wanting to work out what the situation was before he made his consciousness known. He peeled open his one remaining eye to take in the small root grotto he found himself in. And he was not alone, Dick sat there, robe reduced to little more than a loin cloth awkwardly secured around his waist. His wrists were free, Slade’s sword at his side. He was feasting on a large berry, ripping off juicy chunks with his bare hands and gulping it down. Slade reached for his sword. Clearly Dick had decided not to use his new found freedom to kill Slade but that didn’t mean he trusted the young man with the blade. He was surprised to find that Dick had not bound his hands or done anything to restrain him. However the young man had removed his top. Slade looked down, seeing that at least some of the robe had been fashioned into bandages around his wound. They had been well done.
Slade closed his hand about the sword and pulled it toward him. Dick noticed, turning sharply. His face lit up.
“You’re awake,” he breathed.
“You’re still here,” Slade pointed out, settling the sword against his chest.
Dick turned away, suddenly very interested in the berry he had been eating even though it looked like he couldn’t stomach another bite.
“I couldn’t leave you,” Dick said. “You would have died.”
“You freed your wrists though,” Slade observed.
Dick nodded, explaining that he had had no choice if he had wanted to treat Slade’s wound. He said that he was sorry about ruining the robe Slade had given him too but that he had not had anything else to use as bandages and he was going to get rid of the top bit of the material anyway.
“It was soaked in blood.”
There was silence. Dick pulled a handful of the berry free and offered it to Slade. Slade battled to sit up, unable to stifle a groan, and accepted the handful. Immediately sticky juice coated his arms but the food was good.
“How did you get this?” Slade asked.
“I climbed for it,” Dick said. “While you were out. I dragged you in here and then decided we might need some food so I found that berry. It’s so good. Messy though.”
Dick had smeared the berry juice all down his forearms, chin and onto his torso. Slade desperately wanted to lick him clean.
“You should have killed me and ran,” Slade said.
“I don’t like killing,” Dick told him, firmly. “My parents were killed. And the bogey used to make me watch as it killed things. Things and people.”
He looked around the hollow as Slade finished the handful of berry he had been given.
“How long do you have to deliver me?” Dick asked.
“A week.”
“And it’s been a day,” Dick said. “Night fell while you were passed out. With your injury, how long do you think it will take for us to reach the Spider Queen?”
“A day and a half, maybe,” Slade told him before adding that it was not so much his injury slowing him down as his desire not to take Dick through the undergrowth again.
Dick nodded.
“That means you can rest for at least another day,” Dick said.
“We will leave first light tomorrow,” Slade declared with finality.
He watched as the young man shifted and then Dick looked at him.
“Is there anything you need me to get? Will the Spider Queen accept it if I show up like this or do I need to be bound or wearing more than just this? I don’t want to get you in trouble.”
Slade scoffed, thinking that the Spider Queen probably would have accepted Dick utterly undressed but he didn’t voice that thought.
“I’m not going to bind you so long as you agree not to run. Where’s my shirt?”
Dick turned to the far end of the hollow and picked up Slade’s navy shirt. He held it out to Slade but the older man shook his head.
“Put it on. At least then I might actually be able to get some sleep.”
Dick attempted to do as he was told but he was unused to dressing with wings. He managed to wrestle the main body of the shirt over himself mostly due to the fact that it swamped his far slighter form but when he tried to do up the strings securing the upper back of the shirt he struggled. Slade summoned him over with a head nod and Dick moved toward him, sitting before Slade and letting the man tie the shirt into place above his wings.
“Thank you for this,” Dick said. “You’ve been more decent than you needed to be.”
“Well you’ve been a cooperative prisoner,” Slade remarked.
By the time night fell, Slade had tried moving around a few times. The first Dick had been clinging to his side, guiding him shaky steps. The next few Slade had managed on his own. Eventually he had insisted on picking Dick up for one of his walks which Dick had been reluctant to engage in but hadn’t minded so much when Slade had carried him with an arm at his back and another over his legs rather than dumping him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
Dick curled up to sleep first, Slade deciding he was going to stay up to check he didn’t catch any signs of the sort of nocturnal predators that would not mind eating a fairy. Still, he couldn’t help but find his gaze shifting onto Dick. He had insisted the young man wear his shirt to cover up his perfectly defined body. It was even more seductive in fay form, when Slade could fully appreciate all the intricacies and the true slightness of it. He felt like he might have been able to do anything to the young man.
And so the shirt did not help. It felt like Slade had staked a forbidden claim on Dick, like the young man was already his well kept lover who had no need for clothes of his own because he was either always naked or wearing Slade’s. Once more the desire to just take the young man and fee rose up in Slade. Weren’t they far enough from where other creatures congregated that he could simply take the young man and create a new life for them elsewhere?
But no. Spiders were efficient spies and all that would happen if Slade ran was that he would be killed and Dick would be taken.
“What are you doing?” Slade heard a sleepy voice call from within.
He looked back at Dick who was looking at him with tired blue eyes.
“Guarding you,” Slade answered simply.
“I’m not going to run,” Dick murmured.
Slade said nothing. Because he hadn’t thought the young man would. He had been looming there, watching over him, to protect him, try and provide him some semblance of peace before Dick surrendered himself to a terrible existence just to stop people from dying for his sake.
“I’m cold,” Dick said.
“Well you’re half naked,” Slade replied dryly.
“Huddle for warmth?”
Slade scoffed.
“I’m a mercenary, a bounty hunter. I don’t ‘huddle for warmth’.”
“Fine. I’ll light a fire,” Dick huffed, sitting up.
“If you light a fire, you might give our position away,” Slade replied.
Dick gave Slade a look of annoyance that the older man would have thought was too bold coming from anyone else. Dick had, unfortunately, earned it. After all, he had stuck around to treat Slade’s wounds.
“Okay then, what do you do when you’re cold.”
“If I’m alone, I man up and deal with it.”
“And if you’re with someone?”
Slade smirked, hoping he had found the perfect thing to end the discussion.
“I pin them to the ground and fuck them until we’re both sweaty and panting.”
For a moment Slade figured that would shut Dick up. He had not seen much of human culture but they were less open about publicly showing each other affection or engaging in sexual acts than the fairy community.
But Dick was entirely undaunted. He reached below Slade’s shirt and untied his make-shift loincloth. He held it up so Slade could see it and then dropped it on the floor beside him.
“Do you want me to remove the shirt?”
Something animalistic was unleashed in Slade. He pounced onto Dick before he could even think, wrestling his wrists above his head and pinning them there. Dick smirked at him, thrilled by the new development.
“Your queen will want you untouched,” Slade said. “I should seal off your needy slut hole until you are delivered.”
“The untouched ship has sailed, I’m afraid,” Dick replied.
Slade was not surprised by that. Not at all. Someone as pretty and as willing as Dick was would have long ago become someone’s lover in the fairy court. He would have probably attended feasts sitting in some lord’s lap, cock buried in his ass while the lord fed him from his fingers.
The Spider Queen definitely chose well.
Slade shifted Dick’s wrists into one hand, using the other to free his trousers. He kicked them off, eye not shifting from Dick’s face as the young man squirmed in anticipation.
“I’m going to fuck you so deep nothing the Spider Queen does to you will ever satisfy you,” Slade growled.
He pressed his knee between Dick’s legs, spreading them apart.
Dick arched eagerly, his tenting cock straining against the fabric of Slade’s shirt. Slade used his hand to lift the fabric free, deciding to spare the young man the humiliation of being presented to his mistress in cumstained clothes.
But he wasn’t going to let him fully undress. The shirt felt like the only mark of ownership Slade was ever going to get over the young fay. He was not going to waste a second of him in it.
And then Slade lined his cock up with Dick’s ass and pushed in, slowly, feeling the fluttering clench as the young man took his cock. Dick arched, gasping, hands flexing in Slade’s grip.
“Fuck, you’re so big!” Dick squeaked.
He bucked his hips, his ass seeming desperate to be filled. Slade wanted to keep going slow, wanted to have the young man feel every inch but he couldn’t bear it. He began thrusting in brutally, bottoming out in Dick before pulling back with a rough jerk. Dick gasped and moaned, Slade’s name the only thing he could articulate. The shirt was bunching up around Dick’s chest, safe from the splatter when Dick gave a depraved groan and came.
The sight of cum pooling on the young man’s abs only increased Slade’s frenzy, the clenching of his ass reducing him to mindless impulse. He slammed into the young man until Dick was lifting his entire back from the floor and filled him with his cum.
Once Slade was done, he collapsed back. Dick lay there, cum leaking out of his ass. Slade pulled out his blade.
“What are you doing?” Dick suddenly rushed, eyes locked on the man.
“Don’t you dare move,” Slade said.
And then he flew out of the hollow. Dick didn’t think he could move regardless of what Slade said, feeling bloated on the man’s cum.
When Slade returned, he was holding a large droplet of sticky sap.
“What’s that for?” Dick questioned, going to sit up.
Slade quickly pinned him back down.
“You’re making a fucking mess,” Slade told him. “And just because we’re away from the rats doesn’t mean that there won’t be half a dozen people who’ll take interest in what’s walking through the forest dripping fairy cum.”
He pushed the glob of sap against Dick’s ass, using his fingers to work it in.
“I won’t go too deep and I’ll remove it the moment we reach a water source where you can wash but…”
He cast a spell, the sap hardening rapidly until the cum was plugged inside Dick. He scrambled up, grabbing Slade’s arm.
“What did you just do?”
“Old trick for dealing with whores. Sealed you up with sap.”
He guided Dick to his feet.
“Can you walk?”
The young man stumbled at the first step but managed to find his feet.
“A little wobbly but I think that was you more than the sap. Actually feels nice,” Dick said. “Less empty after you.”
It took them an hour to find water and Slade dutifully removed the sap, helped Dick strip and watched over him as he washed himself off. After he was done, Slade helped him pull the shirt back on. And then they were off once more.
“Could you tell me about it? The fairy kingdom?” Dick said.
“Not much to stay. It’s just… You won’t see much of it, if any. Your mistress will likely not let you leave her domain.”
“Well then what’s she like?”
“Beautiful and deadly,” Slade said. “She might be very good to you. I’ve never seen her with a mate before.”
“Doesn’t she ever mate with the King?”
Slade shrugged and admitted that it was not something he wanted to think about.
“She doesn’t care much for her King. I think she makes him sleep with the spiders. The non-humanoid spiders. She can produce non-sticky webs. She uses them to make clothes sometimes. Perhaps she will make you a tent to live in.”
From the expression on Dick’s face, Slade could tell he was trying to conceive of a version of that life that he might actually enjoy.
“It’s better than the Rat King,” Slade said.
“Yeah. Better than paying taxes too, probably.”
“What are taxes?” Slade asked.
“Nasty human things. Be glad you don’t have them.”
The caravan seemed to loom out of the forest far too soon. Still Slade didn’t let his steps falter. He just needed to get through the job. With the young man’s wings still restrained, Slade scoped Dick into his arms and flew him up to the open window of the caravan. He didn’t put him down at first, waiting until he found a spot where spiders were not filling almost every inch of the floor. Dick licked his lips as he looked around anxiously.
“There’s a lot here,” he said.
“They all spy for her. The spiders you so lovingly saved were the ones who first told her about you.”
“Oh,” Dick said.
Slade thought about removing the shirt but decided against it. There were too many spiders about and Dick deserved at least some modesty. He did grab Dick’s arm as if he had been restraining the young man the entire journey there. Dick didn’t flinch away or protest. He just accepted the part of the act.
“Do you regret it now? Saving those spiders?”
“I wouldn’t have killed them,” Dick said. “Even now. Just wish they were as merciful.”
“They probably see this as you getting a great honour.”
And then a voice called Slade’s name. Slade felt Dick stop beside him, the young man’s blue eyes fixed on a figure descending from above on a strand of web. The King came rushing along the counter top toward them, eager to be beside the Spider Queen as she came to the surface. She didn’t even notice him.
“Look at him. How could such beauty have been wasted on humans?”
Dick took an unsteady step back and Slade moved behind him, pressing firm hands on Dick’s shoulders. He didn’t want to think of what the Spider Queen might do it Dick immediately started to misbehave.
“Dick Grayson, meet her majesty, the Spider Queen,” Slade said grandly.
Dick bowed.
“Your majesty.”
The Spider Queen grew ever closer.
“Look at those eyes, those lips. You were born for this, my love. We will mate at dawn. That is the best time for a first mating, I think. I will milk that cock of yours endlessly.”
She reached down with her long fingers and pulled the bottom of Dick’s shirt up so she could see his cock. Slade was only glad that Dick had washed himself well. The last thing he would have wanted was for the Spider Queen to know that her newly secured mate had been moaning Slade’s name and taking his cock.
“How did I become saddled with such a grotesque thing for a king,” the queen asked, her fingers running down Dick’s cock, “when you existed?”
“I don’t think he had been born when you met your king,” Slade returned simply.
The Spider Queen let Dick’s shirt drop as if she had only just remembered Slade was there. She reached up to Dick’s cheek as she smiled at the older fairy.
“You are welcome to stay,” the Spider Queen said, guiding her long fingers down Dick’s neck. “He is such a pretty thing, our first mating should have an audience.”
Slade tried to meet Dick’s eye, wanting to know if the young man wanted him there. Slade knew he probably shouldn’t stay. It wouldn’t help, wouldn’t make forgetting the young man any easier.
But he couldn’t bring himself to walk away. He just couldn’t. Not so soon.
“I’ll stay,” Slade said.
The longer things went on, Slade was sure that he was making a mistake. He should have left immediately. He should have handed Dick over and gone, gotten over the young man with a strong drink and whatever piece of ass was willing to accommodate him. But it wouldn’t have been Dick. And there was sure something about the young man that seemed to have dug deep into Slade. It was like a thorn he was never going to be free of. Would it be easier for him if he took more jobs from the Spider Queen, got to see Dick more? Or should he make it clear to her that this was his final contract with her?
At dawn, spiders came to collect Slade. He’d not slept but he was wide awake as he allowed himself to be led toward the space prepared for the first mating. The Spider King was already there, looking pitiful. The Spider Queen looked glorious, draped teasingly in a delicate, near translucent, fabric woven from webs, finishing webbing a canopy over the bed of moss and flowers that had been gathered for her. There was space just inside the canopy for Slade and the King to move inside.
The Queen looked toward her king with utter disgust.
“Will you control yourself or do I have to secure your hands to keep you jerking off your pitiful length at the sight of my mate?” the Queen spat.
Her king didn’t answer, his head hanging.
The Queen paused for a moment, before sneering and turning her eyes out of the small entrance she had left. For a moment Slade thought she might web it closed but she didn’t. She merely called out for her mate to be brought forth. Slade swallowed thickly, keeping his eye fixed on the Spider Queen as she moved to position herself in the canopy. There was the sound of approaching footsteps, almost drowned out by the scuttling of spiders all around them and Slade instinctively turned.
There was Dick, surrounded by a veritable ocean of spiders. He too was dressed in the same translucent fabric as the Spider Queen although his was less tightly woven, leaving patterns of spiderwebs over his skin. There were webs in his dark hair, falling over his face almost like a veil. His chest was bare, the fabric being wrapped around his waist. Slade could see the ghostly outline of the young man’s cock through the webs, a long train pulling behind him.
It was better than it could have been, the young man walking on his own, his eyes and mouth not webbed shut.
But Dick looked terrified, almost shaking at the sight of the Spider Queen and the hunger on her face. His eyes drifted onto Slade for just a second, a heartbeat, before he turned them back to the Spider Queen. He pushed his shoulders back, lifted his head, and moved forward like this was something he wanted.
He almost tangled his wings in the side of the canopy as he stepped in, unused to their presence. They were no longer restrained, Slade noticed, and as Slade guided the young man to the side so he did not ensnare himself, they fluttered nervously. It was a common thing for young fairies, something children gossiped about.
Poor kid, Slade thought, developing a crush on the first fairy he’s met. And with such a terrible sample.
As soon as Dick had navigated past the web, Slade let him go. The young man moved forward, eyes tracing up to the Spider Queen. She looked like she wanted to just drop down and devour him.
On the outside of the canopy, the spiders were beginning to climb up it, blocking out the light of the dawn so that only the opening allowed light. The Spider Queen lowered herself down on a single thread of web.
“Lie down, my love,” she told Dick.
He did as he was told, lying down on his back in the bed of flowers and moss. His wings were pressed out at the side of him and he seemed at a loss as to what to do with his arms.
The Spider Queen landed in the moss, looming over Dick. She circled him slowly.
“You truly are a work of art,” she said. “You will be the perfect sire for my children.”
Dick squirmed.
“Could I… Could I just…” he began to say.
“No more delays, my pet,” the Spider Queen purred, pressing herself down on top of Dick. “I have waited far too long to have you.”
She pressed a kiss into the young man’s lips and Dick screwed up his face in horrified disgust. Slade watched a tear trickle down his cheek. The Spider Queen pulled away.
“Didn’t you like it?” she asked.
“I could feel your fangs,” Dick whispered.
At that, the Spider Queen’s jaw shifted, her fangs pushing to the front of her mouth.
“I think you're even more beautiful when you cry,” she cooed back.
And then she choked. A blade was plunged into her chest, leaking yellowish blood down her front. Dick cried out in horror and shock.
Slade barely comprehended moving. He barely realised what he had done until he heard Dick scream. He just… Dick had done everything the woman had asked, been compliant and submissive and accepting. And when he had told the Spider Queen one thing he could not bear, she had been ready to ensure it was inflicted on him.
Slade was done.
The King gave a screech and threw himself at Slade. Slade wrenched his blade out of the Spider Queen and spun it, the King running into the sword without Slade even needing to thrust it. As the Spider Queen’s corpse dropped, Slade rushed to grab Dick. He pulled him out from underneath it, wrapping his arms around him.
“You killed them,” Dick whispered. “You killed them!”
“I didn’t have a choice,” Slade said. “We’ll… negotiate the killing later.”
“If we get out of here,” Dick said.
The spiders on the outside of the canopy were moving, rushing off the web. Slade watched as they hurried away, deciding not to trouble the fairies any more.
“They’ll find a new queen. Or make one. I don’t know how Spider Queens come about.”
Dick managed a small laugh, pushing a shaky confidence into his voice.
“If you hadn’t have stopped her, I probably would have found out,” he said.
He paused, watching as the final spiders left.
“Thank you,” he said. “I know I don’t… I don’t like the killing but you stopped her and…”
You’re welcome,” Slade replied.
He wasn’t interested in leaving the young man to stumble over his words.
Dick moved out of the canopy, Slade once again having to help him avoid getting his wings trapped. They fluttered again.
“What now?” Dick asked. “I can’t exactly go home.”
“Do you want to go home?” Slade questioned.
Maybe the hag would be willing to reverse the work of the potion if Slade did something for her. It would break his heart to lose Dick back to the world of humans but he wasn’t about to force the young man to remain with him against his will.
“No,” Dick said.
He turned away, eyes turning over the no-longer spider infested caravan.
“I think I would like to stay with you.”
And then Dick set off, exploring the space or perhaps looking for something to wear that wasn’t made of webs.
Slade watched him, feeling his wings beginning to twitch with a flutter.