Chapter Text
Froggy knew what he was doing. He had to. There was no way he was doing all of this on accident.
All day, his hands had been on Grox in some way, fingers gently grazing the other just enough to feel like a suggestion. That way, Grox was still mostly in control of their movements, the two of them having been chatting about nothing important for the past couple of hours while the sun sank lower in the sky.
As they paced leisurely around Grox's castle, Froggy was glued to Grox's side, lingering closer than even the security did. If Grox wasn't paying attention, Froggy would reach out and lightly hold his arm or waist and make sure he didn't bump into anything while walking. Even when Grox was paying attention, Froggy would be right there, hand hovering right next to the dark cloth of Grox's suit, ready to jump forward and intervene at any point.
Grox could maneuver around his castle on his own. He didn't need a babysitter with a PDA obsession to be clinging onto him 24/7.
It was getting to him... in more ways than one.
See, Grox was a wither skeleton. He didn't exactly have flesh or organs, let alone a nervous system like most other creatures did. He did, however, still have a thin membrane of blood vessels and nerves that coated the surface of his bones.
He could be injured. He could injure others. He could feel pleasure and inflict pleasure upon others. He knew what it was like to be touched, and he was able to experience the sensations that came with it.
So, the way that Froggy kept touching him was a bit of a problem. He didn't even seem to notice that he was doing it, either.
The worst part wasn't even the touching. It was the lingering, the hovering. The knowledge that Froggy was there but not ballsy enough to properly make himself known.
It was distracting. It was infuriating.
It was driving Grox insane.
"Lord Grox!"
The man in question stopped in his stride, feeling Froggy's hand ghost over his lower back before he pulled away. He forced himself to focus on the security guard that was approaching from the front, steps echoing slightly in the tall hallway Grox and Froggy had been walking down.
The windows to Grox's left cast cutouts of the setting sun strewn across the floor, the orange glow bright against the red carpet that lined the middle of the hallway. The guard stopped a few paces away, breathing slightly labored, as if the news he brought with him was actually important.
"What is it?"
"Sir, we appear to be nearly a hundred emeralds short of the usual tax collection," the guard explained quickly, voice clipped, sunglasses flashing light into Grox's eyes.
"Ayo, what?" Grox inquired, squinting against the glare of the sun. Froggy glanced at him blatantly before taking a small step back, causing Grox to angle himself slightly. The skeleton didn't even notice that he didn't have to squint anymore. "Yo, you guys better find out who's skipping out on their taxes. I need those emeralds, bad."
Froggy gave Grox a doubtful look that was promptly ignored.
"Yes, Lord Grox!" came the guard's own reply. "We've got our best working on it right now."
Grox frowned, brow furrowed. "Wait, if you're already working on it, then why are you bothering me with it? Can't you see I'm busy?"
"My apologies!" the guard barked, bowing slightly. "I'll leave you to your own devices, my king."
He took another brief bow before turning tail and running, leaving Grox and Froggy alone in the castle hall.
Well, almost alone. There was a room up ahead that had two bulky guards stationed outside of it, but other than that, it was just the two of them.
"Damn, I can't believe there are villagers who'd skimp out on their taxes like that," Froggy mused aloud, stepping back up to be directly to Grox's right, free hand resting on his hip. "Aren't all these guys supposed to worship you or something?"
"Nah, they do," Grox replied, waving his hand dismissively. "They're just poor and think I'll let them off the hook if they suck up to me when I catch them."
Froggy glanced at Grox as they began walking again, the echoes of their footsteps muffled by the carpet. "You don't?"
Grox gave Froggy an amused look. "Ayo, do you really think I'm that easy to please? I'm not gonna forgive someone's debt just because they feed my ego."
The other snickered. "Right, right. I thought that was, like, your whole thing. Malicious dictator who loves being worshipped and gets his ego stroked 24/7 without even asking for it."
"Hey, for as useless as villagers are," Grox admitted with a shrug, "they're actually pretty quick learners. You shoot one as an example and suddenly everybody knows how to act."
Froggy let out a soft scoff, a quick breath that resembled a laugh. "So they don't worship you 'cause you're their king, but because they're terrified of you?"
"Nahh, don't make it sound like I force them to follow me." Grox paused, then nodded his head to the side in consideration. "Well. I mean, I did, but they follow me now 'cause they love me. You literally had to use potions to turn villagers against me."
The other just laughed. Grox didn't even get a second to appreciate the sound before Froggy placed his hand against Grox's upper back, then slid it down to his lower back while taking a step forward.
The sensation sent a thrill up Grox's spine, pushing him to give a strangled grunt and arch his back away from the touch, which admittedly did almost nothing considering Froggy was moving forward as well.
Despite that, Grox's response caught Froggy's attention quite wholly, much to the skeleton's chagrin. Froggy stopped, eyes immediately snapping to Grox, who felt a concerning amount of shame build up in his chest.
After a few seconds, Froggy lifted his hands up in mock surrender, eyes still blown wide. And was he... blushing? "... Yo. My bad, dude."
Grox studied the other's face for a moment before scoffing and looking away. "Yeah." He then cleared his throat and fixed his posture, rolling his shoulders back and resetting his tone in an attempt to maintain some sort of control over the situation. He offered Froggy a grin and tried to ignore the emotions he found when meeting Froggy's eyes again. "Ay, look, this was fun, but it's getting late, and you know how the security gets when I'm not where I'm supposed to be."
For a second, Froggy just blinked at him. Then, he let out a teasing scoff and crossed his arms, his thoughts from a moment ago seemingly forgotten. "Don't tell me our glorious king Grox has a bedtime."
He hated how hearing that title on Froggy's tongue made him feel. "Ayo chillll, I'm not a baby. It's for safety purposes."
"Safety purposes," Froggy echoed.
"Look, frog-man, you're not an adored, popular, and extremely fair king like I am, so you wouldn't get it," Grox began, ignoring Froggy's halfhearted eye roll, "but I've gotta stay safe."
Froggy let out a quiet snort. "Do you have a mommy villager to tuck you in?"
"Alright." Grox rolled his eyes so hard he nearly saw the back of his skull. "Get out of here."
The other giggled. "Nah, wait, I'm sorry. I didn't mean that—"
"Yo, do not make me call my bodyguards," Grox warned, deadpanning. And yet, he knew he wouldn't, even if Froggy insisted on staying. They were far too... brutish sometimes. He wasn't the most fond of how rough they were with Froggy, which was odd considering he often encouraged it with villagers, but that was something to unpack at a later date.
"Alright— chill, chill," Froggy snickered, raising his hands placatingly. "I'm going, I'm going."
Grox huffed out a silent sigh, watching Froggy turn to leave. He glanced down, gaze lingering on the tail poking out from beneath Froggy's suit jacket, then snapped his eyes back up to the other's face when he turned to shoot Grox a grin.
"Same time tomorrow?"
The skeleton stared at him for a second, then sighed, hoping the small smile on his own face wasn't too noticeable. "Don't be late, man. If you flake on me I'm throwing all your friends into a lava pit for worker morale."
Froggy didn't seem to take the threat seriously at all. Grox didn't even think he meant it.
Instead, Froggy paused in his stride and spun to face Grox fully, giving an eccentric bow in response. "Of course, my liege."
The name seemed to burn itself into Grox's ribs.
He swallowed and forced himself to speak up, tone strict. "Ay, hurry up before I call someone to show you out."
Froggy rolled his eyes, smiling. "Yeah, yeah. Good night, Grox."
Grox didn't reply. Froggy didn't push.
He was gone from Grox's sight rather soon after that, leaving Grox to make his way to his bedroom on his own. Even as he passed bodyguards and had brief, dismissive conversations with his security before he resigned to his room for the night, a sense of loneliness pressed in on him.
It was... odd. It was different. He'd never really felt lonely. Not before the whole manhunt crap with Froggy. Not until he started to get to know the guy personally.
So, it was because of Froggydude, huh? Grox had gone soft, apparently.
That wouldn't do.
While changing out of his suit in the master bathroom, Grox caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror.
Dark grey bones streaked with black stripes stared back at him. His body was like a fortress with nothing to protect, the scaffolding for a building that was never constructed. There was no reason for him to have this form, no logistic or thought put behind it, and yet...
That sensation from earlier flashed through his mind. The feeling of Froggy sliding his hand down Grox's back, fingers tracing vertebrae through the cloth of a suit. Almost like Froggy knew what it would do.
But even Grox didn't know what it would do. Not really. Not like he should've.
Shouldn't Grox be the most familiar with his anatomy than anyone else? It was his body, for fuck's sake. He should know the most about it. He should know what made him tick.
So why didn't he?
Grox still had on his suit pants, having discarded everything from the waist up already. Through the mirror in front of him, he watched his hand move up from where it had been resting at his side, fingers grazing his lower ribs with the same gentleness that Froggy had been using all day.
Vaguely, he felt a sense of pleasure. Not necessarily sexual, just... contentness. A sort of happiness that came with physical touch. Just a reminder that something was there.
He slid his fingers along one rib, tracing it around to his back, pausing at the joint connecting the rib to his spine. It almost tickled, the way he was touching himself.
Wow, that was just... horrible wording.
Grox frowned but continued, gingerly pressing his fingertip against the joint. A sharp jolt of pure pleasure ran through him at the sensation, and he barely had enough time to clench his teeth together before a startled moan slipped out of him.
Immediately, he pulled his hand away, unable to recognize the flushed, bug-eyed expression he saw in the mirror.
Okay, that pleasure was definitely sexual.
Being a skeleton and all, Grox didn't exactly have reproductive organs. That was kinda his whole thing; he didn't have any organs, period. So he was quite surprised to find that he could even experience sexual pleasure, especially when doing something as simple as touching a joint on his back.
Was that why he had been so frazzled all day? Had Froggy's touch turned him on without either of them even realizing?
Okay, so the joints in his back were sensitive. Were all the spaces between his bones like that?
Grox felt along the cartilege between his ribs and sternum, pressing down carefully at first before slowly increasing the pressure. Nothing happened. No stabs of pleasure, no involuntary movements, no stifled sounds that he'd have to kill people for accidentally hearing...
So maybe it was just joints?
He raised his hand to the opposite shoulder and placed firmly into the joint connecting his humerus and scapula. Immediately, his shoulder bucked backward, a slightly duller spark of pleasure spurring the motion.
Grox winced, scrutinizing the joint through the mirror before turning to stare down at the one on his own body. The sensation was there, but it wasn't as harsh as the feeling he got from his back joints.
Just to be certain, he curled his arm behind himself and very cautiously pushed the pad of his thumb against a different joint.
His back arched forward and an embarrassingly loud yelp rang out into the air. Grox yanked his hand away and clamped the other over his mouth, baffled at his own reaction to the touch.
Yep, he was definitely more sensitive on his back.
Suddenly, there was pounding at his bedroom doors, hinges rattling. "Lord Grox!! We heard a yell, are you alright?!"
Grox turned to stare at the door before clearing his throat. "I'm—" He stopped as the word came out far too shaky and quiet for his own liking. He swallowed and forced his tone lower, sounding irritated at the interruption. "Ayo, chill! I'm fine. Leave me alone."
"O-Of course, my king!" the guard stammered out. "We apologize for the interruption, we just—"
"Yo, didn't you hear me??" Grox interjected loudly. "Leave before I throw you in the torture chamber myself!!"
There was a panicked silence from behind the door before a resigned, "Y-Yes, Lord Grox," came through.
And then, finally, true silence. Grox rolled his eyes and huffed out an irritated sigh, turning back to the mirror.
That was probably enough experimentation for one night. If he accidentally made any more noise, the guards would probably break down his door before he had the chance to tell them off.
He finished changing and slipped into bed, staring up at the canopy above his bed as the night settled in through the windows of his room.
Tomorrow Froggy would be back, and Grox would have to establish some very strict boundaries so that Froggy didn't do the wither skeleton equivalent of jerking Grox off.
... Well. Not on accident, at least.