Title: void of empty noise
Author: sprx77/Tim Wren
Fandom: Worm (Parahumans Series by Wildbow)
Relationship: Brian Laborn/Alec
Warnings: Nikos Vasil’s A+ Parenting (Non-graphic reference to noncon in Heartbreaker’s house)
Word Count: 3,798
Summary: The Undersiders keep getting caught in the runic traps of Aesop, an Independent who can trap people in magic circles for a random amount of time or until they fulfill the escape condition.
–
“Oh goddamnit!” Grue cursed, unfastening his helmet and setting it aside. “I don’t suppose the time counter is anything reasonable?”
His voice was tired with resignation.
“Nope.” Regent said, already lowering his own mask. “Looks like thirty minutes, boss.”
“Not that bad, I guess.” Brian sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Fuck, and the PRT will be outside of the circle by the time it fades.”
“Yep.” Alec popped his lips on the ‘p.’ “Hopefully we at least look cool for the freeze frame. Me and you, dramatically paused to the outside world. Like a badass cutscene.”
“I hate these stupid fucking Saw traps.” Brian grumbled, sitting down. “Do I even want to know the escape condition?”
Alec hummed, kicking away some rocks so he could have a relatively comfortable seat as well.
“It’s not really a Saw trap, though, because we can just wait it out. Now, If the Nine had this power, those escape conditions would be Saw-like… ‘cut off your own arm’ and that kind of shit.”
“Alec.”
Alec sighed, melodramatically.
“You going to make me say it?” He rose an eyebrow, looking over with a moody set to his mouth.
“That bad?” Brian grimaced. “C’mon, the alternative is trying to escape the PRT when they’ve had twenty minutes to set up.”
“They might not even find us.” Alec said wistfully, tipping his head back to look at their surroundings– also frozen in time. When the runic circle underfoot dissolved, they could be surrounded.
“Or so I’m hoping, anyway.” The boy continued. “You could always come over here and read it yourself instead of making me say it.”
“Embarrassed?” Brian looked over, smiling despite himself. “That’s not like you.”
“Fuck you.” Alec laughed, before smiling wryly. “Suck on my tits til I cum.”
Brian sucked in air, immediately choking.
“Told you so.” The curly-haired boy picked lint absently from his leather pants.
“Does it… does it specify which one of us has to do what?” Brian cleared his throat loudly, recovering.
“In the past, it has not cared.” Alec drawled. “Hypothetically, which role would you want?”
“But we’re not doing it. Of course.” Brian’s cheeks were approximately one million degrees and rising. He tried to keep his voice steady.
“Of course.” Alec agreed, smile turning sardonic. “Indulge my curiosity, though. We’ve got nothing else to do.”
“We could do literally anything except talk about it.” Brian said, pulling his phone out. “No signal, obviously.”
“Being trapped in a pseudo-pocket dimension will do that.” Alec tried to get more comfortable, palms braced out behind him. “God, they could stand to throw the circle down in a furniture store or something so I could take a nap.”
“Incredibly inconsiderate of them to just throw it down in the middle of the street,” Brian said sarcastically. “How dare we be chasing them during a cape fight.”
“Exactly.” Alec leaned back, tracing the runes inscribed in the circle. Which was still glowing, green this time, arcane symbols throwing off lightning.
“Hey, my kindle still works.” Brian said with surprise. “I’ve got the books I already downloaded.”
Alec whined.
“You’re killing me. You’re killing your teammate. I didn’t even bring my phone, I’m so fucking bored.”
“It’s been two minutes.”
“Bored, bored, intolerably bored.” The princely cape complained. “Come on, at least let me lean against you or something. You’re the closest thing to a comfy surface I’ve got.”
“And heaven forbid Regent not be comfortable for twenty-eight minutes.” Brian rolled his eyes.
“Exactement.”
“Oh don’t start with the French, you’ll make the half hour feel like a year. Fine, c’mon, come here.”
Alec scrambled up immediately and plonked down next to Brian, shamelessly leaning all his weight over with a pleased sigh.
“This is all I am to you.” Brian deadpanned, ignoring the grin he got and Alec’s delightedly wide blue eyes.
“Not true, mon force, you’re also the person qui peut sucer mes seins jusqu’à ce que je jouisse.”
Brian pulled a face.
“I hate that I’ve been around you so much I know what ‘je jouise’ means.”
Alec cackled, brief and sharp. “Oh, that’s great. Thank you for this precious bit of knowledge, B, it’ll keep me warm at night.”
“Shut up, I said you could lean on me if you don’t speak French.” Brian shoved him half-heartedly.
Alec rolled with it, fluid and graceful in his ruffled white shirt.
He lay his head on Brian’s shoulder.
“So… you can?” The shaker eventually asked, shuffling a little.
“Hmm?” Alec had gotten comfortable, idly thinking about taking a nap. Running around doing cape shit was a fantastic adrenaline rush but it was also exhausting.
“Je jouise.” Brian pointed out, sounding a little unsure. “Not ‘tu jouis’. You were translating the escape condition, right?”
Alec rose a perfectly sculpted brow.
“Are you asking me how sensitive my tits are?”
Brian flushed.
“Don’t make it weird, man.”
“Hey, you asked.” Alec knocked their shoulders together companionably, before dropping all expression. “Do you really want to know?”
On anyone else it would be a sign of displeasure but for Alec it was just taking off a mask, setting aside affected humor or whatever performance of exaggerated emotion he was doing.
Brian largely appreciated how the other boy chose to ‘emote’ more loudly than came natural to him, but it did make deciphering his poker face difficult.
“Sure.” Brian said with a confidence he didn’t feel. “Might as well.”
“Meh, maybe?” Alec started playing with the ruffles on his cuff. Ever the showman and each motion perfectly planned and executed, but when he didn’t have anyone to perform for his hands were busy, unwilling to sit still.
Fidgety, even.
“Maybe you want to talk about it or maybe…” Brian trailed off.
Alec huffed a little, so slight it could almost be a breath.
“I play with them when I jerk off some but I don’t know that I’ve ever came from it or if I even could.” Alec said, casually as anything, and Brian looked away sharply.
“Right. Okay.”
“You literally asked.” Alec reminded and Brian kept his eyes away.
“I did, that’s on me. I don’t know what I thought you’d say.”
“Too much information?” Alec asked, shuffling a little, pressing his face more into Brian’s shoulder.
“Nah, it’s fine. I just… what do you mean you play with them?”
“You don’t?” Alec said, a hint of curiosity there.
Brian bit his lip a moment.
“Uh, no? I’m not… y’know, not a girl.”
“I promise tit sensitivity has nothing to do with gender.” Alec’s voice took on a bit of a drawl.
“Do you have to say it like that?”
“What, tits? I could say breasts. Bosom. Chest? Titties.”
“Okay, stop.”
“Seins. Boobs. Nichons.”
Brian snorted, unable to help himself, and shoved Alec again.
“All you do is push me, Brian, you’ll make me think you don’t want me around. How ever will we get through another twenty-five minutes together with you being such a brute?”
“Well, there’s one other way, apparently, but I don’t know if it’s even… I mean, could that even happen in twenty-five minutes?”
“Brian,” Alec lit up. “Are you curious?”
“No, shut up forever.” Brian reached a hand to stop the other boy from clambering over him, to no success, and suddenly he had a lap full of Alec.
“You want to know how sensitive my chest is!” Alec accused, leaning all the way in. “Oooh, you’re so interested and beguiled, so–”
“Beguiled,” Brian repeated in pure disbelief.
“You wanna find out? We could figure it out.” Brian put his hand in Alec’s face, which just made the smaller boy laugh more.
“Shut up, forget I asked. I didn’t mean to encourage you.” Brian pushed Alec down until the other was next to him again instead of half-climbed astride him.
“You’re no fun. Give me your phone, I want to read your kindle books and you can be the bored one.”
“I’m not giving you my phone, you’ll put stupid shit on there.”
“Not without internet access, I won’t.” Alec shrugged. “Nevermind, I bet your books are boring too. What do you have on there, ‘how to watch paint dry in seven ways?’”
“Rude.” Brian said dryly. “I don’t watch paint dry, what the fuck.”
Alec made grabby hands until he successfully wheedled the device away and immediately started talking shit.
“The 33 Strategies of War? Why not just read Sun Tzu and get it over with?” He said, thumbing through more nonfiction pieces and biographies.
“I didn’t ask for your opinion or your approval of my reading list.” Brian took his phone back pointedly. “Thank you very much.”
“You’re welcome. God, twenty more minutes of this? I’m starting to want to fight the PRT, do you think they’ll bring Armsmaster? I made him slap himself in the face in just three minutes last time; I gotta try to beat that record.”
“If the PRT is surrounding us, we’re gonna leave. If they have capes, we’re going to leave faster. Not staying to purposefully bait or humiliate the leader of the Protectorate.” Brian said, long-sufferingly.
“Aw, spoilsport. You don’t have any games on your phone, you won’t let me play with the Boot Licker 12, you won’t suck on my tits–”
“Jesus, do you ever stop?”
“What am I even meant to do for this small eternity?” Alec sighed forlornly.
“I’ve seen you sit on the couch and stare at the ceiling for longer than this, stop being so dramatic.” Turning to look at the pretty boy revealed him pulling a face.
“I hate that, too. Being bored is the worst, I would literally rather do anything else. Including fucking, I guess.”
“It would have to be a countdown of several hours before I considered actually resorting to the escape condition.” Brian said. “I mean, unless it’s one of the easy ones. Last time it was just a kiss.”
“Lisa has all the luck.” Alec agreed. “When me and Taylor got stuck in one, it was ‘whisper a detailed sexual fantasy in my ear’.”
“She would rather be set on fire than do that.”
“Than say it herself, maybe.” Alec said. “She let me tell her a fantasy. Blushed real pretty then didn’t talk to me for half a day.”
“… Lisa gave Rachel a hickey, in one.” Brian ducked his chin.
Alec groaned.
“That’s not fair. Those were all so comparatively easy, then we get stuck in one that’s like ‘make someone cum’ which. Wow. Escalate much?”
“Lisa and Taylor waited one out.” Brian said. “Remember, we distracted the heroes and lured them out of the area?”
“You mean Rachel chased them away with her ferocious hounds.” Alec corrected. “Yeah, I remember. What do you think their escape condition was?”
“More than kissing, I guess.” Brian answered. “I think there’s a line before it gets too weird or sexual. A hickey is one thing, but…”
“A hickey isn’t that different than putting tits in your mouth.” The master said. “I mean, logistically. It’s the extent that makes a difference. A hickey only takes like a minute; this one wants you to get off on it.”
A brief silence between them.
“… I really don’t think I could.” Brian eventually said.
“Wow, my tits are that offensive to you? I’m hurt.” Alec put a hand over his heart.
“No, I mean–” Brian took a breath and slowed down. “I mean, I don’t think I could… come like that. If it was me.”
“You’re not sensitive?” Academic curiosity in Alec’s voice, allowing Brian to relax his shoulders.
“I’ve never really tested it, man.” Brian said. “Like I said, isn’t that more of… a chick thing? For real… tits… not pecs.”
“First of all, it’s totally a thing.” Alec said, tipping closer, amused. His curls spread out over Brian’s collar. “I mean, there’s really no reason not to tease someone’s chest during foreplay, regardless of what they’re packing, you know?”
“I’ll take your word for it.” The shaker replied dryly.
“Right, you do that.” Alec laughed. “Anyway, yeah, I could see coming about it. Maybe not without a hand on my dick involved, but… hmm… there’s positions.”
“I already regret asking, but… positions?”
“So if I was in your lap and you were sucking my tits like you were paying me for it, and I happened to be rubbing against your stomach– my dick, I mean–”
“I know what you meant.” Brian said in a rush. “Jesus. How do you just say that?”
“Well, mon force, talking about it is hardly the worst I’ve done.” Alec’s voice went wry for a moment. “Anyway, I could definitely see coming with tit-sucking, if not from it directly. If your big hands were on my hips, guiding me through it…”
“Alec.” Brian’s voice was strangled. He was sweating.
Alec grinned.
“Am I bothering you, Bri?” A bit of a leer.
“I hate you. Let’s talk about anything else.” He brushed a hand over his face, feeling the heat of his cheeks.
Alec laughed at him.
“A little hot and bothered, there?” Alec hummed as he shifted. “Don’t let me stop you from taking care of it…”
“I’m not jerking off in the Aesop circle.” Brian said, mustering a weak glare. “Or in front of you. Why would you even want me to?”
“Uh… because you’re hot?” Alec waved a hand. “It’s not exactly a hardship to watch you get off.”
Brian groaned.
“Shut up. Stop talking. Why are you like this.”
“I mean, you’re the one who said I could get laid if the timer had been for two hours instead of thirty minutes.” Alec sat back, unbothered.
“That is not what I said.” Brian protested.
“Eh, close enough. Would you have given me a hickey, if we got that one?”
Curiosity, pale blue eyes looking over completely unbothered. Almost uninterested.
“I… maybe. Probably, yeah.” Brian tried to relax. “I’m not too bothered by a hickey.”
“Wanna try it now?” Like he was talking about the weather, Alec’s voice was flat and bored.
“Do you?” Brian challenged, unnerved– foolishly so– by the drop in inflection. He knew it was Alec’s default, he knew that… and yet.
“Meh.” Alec shrugged. “It would probably be pretty exciting, and I bet I’d lose composure a little bit, so that’s always fun. I’d definitely do it as an escape condition, and probably say yes to the offer in general.”
“What, like if we were at home?”
Another shrug from the slim boy.
“Offer next time I’m dying of boredom. Like I said, sex sucks, but it’s better than being bored.”
“Sex sucks?” Brian asked, turning fully towards his friend. “Let’s unpack that a little.”
“Uhh, how about ‘no’?” Alec said, blinking quickly. “How much longer do we have, anyway?”
“Seven minutes.” Brian checked his phone. “I’m going to start making a cloud of darkness in case we come out surrounded.”
“Don’t mind me.” Alec scooched a little closer. “I’ll hold onto you so I don’t get lost.”
“Once again: I can see through my own power.” Brian rolled his eyes. “I’d be able to see you, and could find you in it. As you well know.”
“Better climb into your lap again just to be sure.” Alec continued blithely.
“I– you know what? If you want in my lap, sure. Come up.”
“Really?” Alec blinked. “Okay.”
He swung a leg over and rested both hands on Brian’s shoulders, which wasn’t exciting at all. His weight certainly wasn’t exciting and Brian wasn’t at all feeling shivery with how… weird and strange and wrong it was to have a boy doing something so…
“Telling me I can, and then tensing up like you hate it is unfair.” Alec complained.
“Sorry.” Brian forcibly relaxed as his power spread out around them.
“Don’t worry about it.” Alec forgave easily. “Will putting your hands on my hip give you a gay crisis?”
“What?” Brian’s hands did find his waist, mostly because where else was he supposed to put them? But he wasn’t gay, so there was nothing to have a crisis about.
“I don’t want to offend your delicate heterosexual sensibilities if you get hard while I’m up here.” Alec continued, without a care.
Brian was a little affected still from Alec’s unnecessarily detailed description, but he’d mostly calmed down. He certainly wasn’t perceivably hard.
“Not that it means anything.” Alec said. “I mean, it’s just physical. I know you’re not into me.”
Strangely, the urge to kiss him until he shut up was there. Brian didn’t think it was particularly gay; just the most expedient way to make Alec stop saying such dangerous things.
“Hang on, you’re distracting me. Go back to why sex sucks.” Brian ran his thumb over Alec’s hip and the boy in his lap shivered slightly.
“Uhh, it just does? I don’t know what to tell you. It sounds great in theory, but it’s all sweaty and miserable with people mouth-breathing by your face and grunting while they fuck you. Or someone’s feeling bad shit and it’s all you can pay attention to, fear or anger or… yeah mostly fear, actually.”
“So I’m going to hold your hand while I say this,” Brian started, only for Alec to snort.
“My hand is not what you’re holding, though usually the other person has copped a feel of my ass by now in this position.”
“Hush, listen. I’m pretty sure you’re biased against ‘sex’ because that uh. That doesn’t sound super consensual, baby. That sounds like stuff from when you were with Heartbreaker.”
“Well, yeah?”
“So maybe instead think of sex after you left? When you and the other person involved wanted to be there and gave enthusiastic consent?”
“Who do you think I’m out here fucking?” Alec demanded. “Also, why would I go and seek that out, if it’s always bad?”
“Huh. It really sounds like you’re telling me you’ve never had consensual sex.”
“Define ‘consensual.’”
“Alec, I know you know what consent is.”
“Well, yeah, but nobody really has that every time. Like sometimes you’re fucking becuase they’ll hurt you if you say no, or you’ll get the shit beaten out of you, or your siblings will make you regret pitching a fit. Like, realistically, saying yes just makes it easier.”
“Realistically, that’s fucked up.” Brian pulled him closer, unable to help himself. His hands slid around to the small of Alec’s back– not his ass. “The only reason you should sleep with someone is because you want to.”
“Sounds fake.” Alec frowned. “I mean, if the other person wants to, and you’ll sour the relationship or offend them by saying no, then you kind of have to, right?”
“Not right.” Brian said. “Very wrong, in fact. Like, if I wanted to have sex right now?”
“The timing is bad.” Alec said immediately. “Also, you’d probably hold it against me later, you don’t like men. And as pretty as I am, I definitely qualify.”
“Excellent reasons not to fuck you.” Brian said mildly. “But the most important one is you don’t want to.”
“I might.” Alec said, oddly defensive. “Besides, if you ask and I say no, you might hold it against me later. Push me out of the team, give me the worst role in a heist, that kind of thing. It’s easier just to enthusiastically consent. Causes less problems.”
“You’re killing me.” Brian said. “That’s not consent anymore. If there’s negative consequences for saying no, or you’re afraid to say anything but yes, it’s not consent. Certainly not enthusiastic consent.”
“I can be enthusiastic.” Alec muttered petulantly. “If you moan loud enough nobody cares if you don’t want to be there.”
“It genuinely pains me that you think that. That you’ve lived that. Come here, be hugged.”
“You’re already hugging me.”
“Be hugged more.” Brian pressed his mouth to Alec’s temple, a soft kiss. The boy in his lap made a little noise, surprised.
“Did you like that?” Brian asked. “No bullshit, please. I’m asking you because I want to know, not because I want you to pander to me.”
“I… guess?” Alec said, puzzled. “It’s really not that deep. It wasn’t bad.”
“Can I kiss your cheek?”
“You are being… very weird. We’re running out of time.” Alec squirmed slightly in his lap before getting full control of himself. Paused when Brian kept staring. “What happens if I say ‘no’?”
“Then I won’t.”
“Do you… want to kiss me?” A funny expression passed over Alec’s face.
Brian shrugged.
“On the cheek, yes. I want to… reassure you? Is that weird? Like, physical comfort and affection and shit.”
“Hm… where’s the ‘we can try it’ type experimenting fall on your consent scale?” Alec asked.
“I don’t know how to tell you that people try things out to see if they like them all the time.” Breath warm against Alec’s cheekbone, dipping lower. “And then if they don’t like them, they stop. Want to try?”
“Sure, kiss me.”
“On the cheek, you miscreant.” Brian sighed heavily and pressed his mouth to the side of Alec’s face, smooth skin a little warm under his touch. And again.
Alec made a little noise.
“Neck?” Brian asked, moving down Alec’s jaw slowly, deliberately. Feeling the smaller boy’s hands tighten on his arms.
“Sure.” Alec was gratifyingly breathless, the words almost bitten out.
“You’re doing so good.” Brian felt compelled to say, and somehow the little noise Alec made was a surprise.
“Dick.” Alec finally said, as he was breathing hard and Brian pressed soft kisses against the column of his throat. “The PRT is going to catch us with our pants down. Not literally but like. Same concept.”
“Shit, you’re right. Okay, masks back on.”
He helped Alec stand up and then took the pale offered hand, ignoring how affecting it was to watch the master stumble like his legs were shaky.
“Not one word.” Alec said threateningly, complete with the pointed finger as he slid his mask on with a practiced grace.
Brian hid his smirk in the motorcycle helmet he wore as Grue, adjusting the visor.
“I think I could have kept going.” He said, letting amusement fill his voice, knowing he was lighting a fuse that would blow up in his face. “Get you really worked up. If we had enough time, and I kept going, we could have met the escape clause after all.”
“I’m letting Armsmaster arrest you.” Regent said, twirling his staff with a pointed little stab.
“No, you’re not.” Brian smirked, gratified that it showed in his voice.
A shift, green light vanishing like it never existed. The sound of the city rushing in out of nowhere, cold night air and the smells of the street coalescing as reality returned.
“PRT! Come out with your hands up!”