3

“Shh, little pet. There will be years of life where we will mix our bodies. I am made of millennia of patience.” Fingers stroke gently through the sweaty tangle of Alden's hair. “Look how I have waited for you, yes? Hunger does not fade.”

“Are you - telling me to take my time?” Alden says. That sounds more like he'll survive the night, at least, and the edge of his fear recedes the slightest bit.

“Yes.”

“Wait. You said you waited for me?” Alden sits up on an elbow, his fear returning, and with it, a flash of anger. Though he's already fallen for this trap, it horrifies him to think of how much of a fool he's been. “Waited for me how?”

Bhalka makes an interesting bark of sound, something Alden reads as – embarrassment? “Yes.” He hesitates. “I have seen you through the many mirrors, through the cracks you made in this plane with your scratches to reach the other side. I was called to witness your need. Your desires echoed. I grew to...like watching you.” He makes another strange bark. “I was not careful when I watched you. Desires – need – I began to share your echoes.”

“Oh,” Alden whispers. That was more romantic and less sinister than he expected. “I'm glad you were the one who was watching.”

“Yes?” Bhalka sounds pleased. “I am as well. You are mine,” he growls, and the low sound of it grinding across the stone floor sends chills up Alden's back. “Mine to watch. Mine to taste.”

“Will you – let me taste you?” Alden asks.

“I will let you do more than taste,” Bhalka laughs. “You may have.”

Alden flushes, but he's encouraged, all the same. “All right.”

Hating himself for his tentativeness, Alden slides his hand out, moving it over the flat stomach muscles in front of him. The idea that he should care that this is not a human rises in the back of his mind, but Alden quickly finds that he doesn't care as he explores the territory of the body in front of him. Bhalka lets him take his time, sprawling out on the floor like a lazy cat, and soon Alden grows more daring, sitting up to explore Bhalka as he'd been explored; dragging his face across the thickness of the chest muscles in front of him, tasting at the nipples he finds, burying his nose in the low trail of hair he finds on Bhalka's stomach.

Bhalka pants out his approval in a mixture of sounds that are both human and not, and a mixture of words that Alden can understand and some that he cannot, alien words that drip into his ears with the texture of praise and approval. Alden works his way lower, and moans when his cheek encounters the head of Bhalka's cock, hard and wet. His heart is jackhammering in his chest and his lungs have forgotten how to breathe again, but he wants. Oh, how he wants. Alden opens his mouth to taste the silky sweet taste of his downfall, and closes his mouth on the head of Bhalka's cock.

Bhalka gasps in that foreign tongue. Alden is too distracted to translate, but something flutters in his chest at the sound of the words.

Something free.

Encouraged, Alden rolls his tongue around the throbbing head, and heated excitement spreads down his throat, through his veins, lighting up every nerve in his body. He had always known, on some instinctive level, that he would like sucking cock, but never had he imagined it like this, with the clear taste of sweet mineral water on his tongue and the strange language of the Beyond chanting foreign words of praise above him. He goes further, sliding Bhalka's thick shaft deeper into his throat, and he is rewarded with a choked warble of sound above him, like a distorted songbird's call.

“Very good, so good,” Bhalka gasps.

Alden moans, and pushes the thick span of Bhalka's cock further into his throat, holding his breath, as far as he can get it, spit trailing out of his mouth. Braced on one hand that drapes across Bhalka's narrow hips, Alden uses his other hand to guide the cock in front of him in and out of his mouth, relishing the feel of it in his hand, so hard and yet velvety-soft against his fingers. His face is flushed and burning but he's never felt so powerful in his life, cramming cock in his mouth until he gags. Bhalka laughs above him again, breathlessly this time, and Alden recoils, abruptly embarrassed.

“No, no. I do not laugh at you. I laugh with you,” Bhalka says. “I am pleased. I like your eagerness.”

“Oh,” Alden says, slightly mollified.

“You are as hungry as I am.” Bhalka's hand moves up to the back of Alden's head and buries in his hair. “Yes? You wish to eat more of me?”

“Yes,” Alden replies, and drops his head back to Bhalka's cock, then thinks the better of it. “But I want to see you.”

“Yes? Oh, yes,” Bhalka says. “I forgot you cannot see without the sun, or your imitations of it.” It's still dark, but Alden can feel him grinning, as if the white slice of his teeth is visible through senses more primal than sight. “You are so trusting, letting me have you while you are blind.”

“I – well – shut up,” Alden says. “Are we going to -”

There is a crackling tink, and then the room is dimly lit. Alden winces; even the subpar light was a surprise in the darkness. The lantern on the table is unbroken again, but the flame is flickering in an odd way, and Alden realizes that it's burning in reverse. Watching the wick get longer is slightly disturbing, but Alden doesn't really care. It's not what he wants to see.

With the lantern back on, Bhalka is, indeed, grinning, and what a grin it is. Alden can't help but return it, even though he's pretty sure he was annoyed about something a few seconds ago. Bhalka is laid out on the dusty stone floor like a king on a luxurious mattress, without a care in the world, propped up on one elbow, the long expanse of his body laid out for Alden to absorb. The firm arc of his erection angles up towards his stomach, and Alden can see the gleam of his own saliva on the shaft – though the wetness does not go down nearly as far as he'd expected, based on the feeling in his throat.

“You've left the – scar,” Alden says, gesturing at Bhalka's face, where the line of the candle flame is still burned into his skin. “Do you have to leave it?”

“No,” Bhalka replies, his fingers drifting up to stroke over the texture of it – down his face to where it ends on his chest. “But I like it. A symbol of my freedom I will wear for you.” His eyes flick up to meet Alden's, dark and curious. “Do you wish for me to remove it?”

“No! Leave it.”

Alden wants to eat more of him.

It's better when he can see. He moves back to Bhalka's cock, the weight heavy in his hand, and he wonders if this, too, was made exactly for him, as perfect as Bhalka's face. The darkness had hidden some of the reality of what he is really, finally doing, allowing him to keep hiding from his desire – but now, in the light, he must confront it, in every inch of Bhalka's cock that he feeds into his mouth and then back out. Bhalka is laid out happily above him, exhaling in multi-vocal gasps that sound like they're echoing out of several sets of vocal cords; praising him in the language of the Beyond, and making animalistic noises of pleasure. Hands pet over the back of Alden's head and stroke the muscles of his shoulders.

Soon, Bhalka's big hand tenses on the back of his neck.

“Close,” he croaks, and Alden knows. He can taste it in the strengthening taste of the mineral-toned precome that slips over his tongue and lips. He's lost in it. The ache in his jaw and the burn in his forearm is everything he's ever hoped for, curled on the floor and draped over Bhalka's hips. Bhalka cries out, and Alden chokes a bit as his mouth floods with – far more come than he'd expected. If that is what it is, he thinks, and the idea that it might not be is rather exciting. What other humans have ever tasted what he's tasting now? He swallows as much as he can and the rest surges over his chin, dripping down the outside of his throat and back on to Bhalka's stomach.

Bhalka pants breathlessly. “Come, come up here to me.”

Before he has time to catch his breath, Alden is being kissed within an inch of his life. Bhalka yanks him up, the hiss of his bare skin across the floor following him, and pins him flat to the ground, shoving his tongue unceremoniously between Alden's lips. His long tongue slides over Alden's teeth and down his throat, as if tracing the path his cock had taken, and Alden returns the kiss in full measure, holding his breath as he lets Bhalka explore his mouth and throat. A heavy hand tips his head up, and Alden lets himself be steered and turned in whatever fashion Bhalka wishes to have him.

“Such good behavior deserves a good reward, yes?” Bhalka says, and though he hasn't stopped kissing Alden, his words are clear, as if spoken just off to the side of his face. Alden can only nod, unable to answer with Bhalka's tongue buried in his mouth. Bhalka retracts just enough to nip at his ear. “What do you need, little pet?”