Chapter Text
xx
“It’s far too loud and incredibly dull all at once.” Ratio sounded like his usual self on the other end of the video call— exasperated and peevish. Aventurine didn’t bother trying to hide his grin. It did sound pretty chaotic over on Ratio’s end, even in the relatively secluded alcove he’d found to make the call.
“Maybe you should have taken a page out of my book, Doc. Then you would’ve had an excuse to stay home.”
Ratio’s mouth thinned. “I rather think one of us has to be the responsible one, and I have accepted that role will invariably fall to me.”
Aventurine grinned wider, sinking back into his pile of pillows. He’d changed out of his work clothes after wrapping things up with Boothill and the Nameless— he only had energy to stand and converse via hologram for so long, and he’d seen Boothill very obviously eyeing that Knight of Beauty. He’d be harassing his new business partner for an update on that situation later, most certainly.
It was a relief to relax now and cuddle up with the snack pack, as he’d come to call the cat cakes, and talk to his favorite person in a far more comfortable manner. Even irked, Ratio looked as handsome as ever in the festive lights of the airship.
“Well, considering you’ve done your part to help clean up that Masked Fool’s little bomb fiasco, I’d say you’re more than off the hook if you want to make your exit,” he cajoled, a private little smile on his face. One he reserved just for the man currently scowling on his screen. “After all, isn’t it irresponsible of you to leave your favorite patient unattended for so long, Doctor?”
“Curious that your condition only appears so dire when I am not presently attending to it,” Ratio murmured, as if that was any surprise at all to either of them.
“Maybe that’s because it gets worse when you’re away,” Aventurine hedged. The freshly-healed slash across his chest throbbed with his increased heart rate. There’s still a line they had to dance around, after all. “Your healing presence is a balm to my soul, obviously.”
Ratio just gave him a flat look, one that Aventurine knew by now to be one of his fonder expressions.
“There’s no point in my lingering,” he finally agreed without acknowledging Aventurine’s words directly. “I’ll see you shortly.”
He’d given Ratio a key to his flat, so it was to the sound of the door being unlocked and swinging open that Aventurine woke, sometime later. He must have been more exhausted than he realized, his phone still held to his chest like he had fallen asleep on the call, though he was fairly certain he remembered Ratio’s goodbye.
The man himself appeared in the doorway of the bedroom, a welcome sight for tired eyes.
“Hey Doc,” Aventurine managed through a yawn, disturbing one of the snacks a little as he stretched, still piled up against his pillows. It was easier to sleep this way than laying flat. “Missed me that much, did you?”
Ratio shot him an unreadable look as he walked forward, bending to scoop up one of the cat cakes. It wriggled happily against its savior, and the sight made Aventurine’s chest hurt for other reasons.
“It’s much quieter here,” he said, simply, but there was a strange tension clinging to him. Aventurine frowned.
“What is it?”
Ratio opened his mouth ever so slightly, then shut it again. “Nothing of import,” he said, which was an obvious lie. It was one of his many charms; how easily he could play the irritated, short-tempered genius willing to backstab a colleague with all the pressure in the world upon him selling his performance, versus how awful he was at faking being fine under the lowest stakes circumstances. Aventurine thought it was quite sweet.
“Doesn’t sound like nothing,” he calmly disagreed, patting the edge of the bed. “You can sit down, you know.”
Ratio gave him a glance, then continued to stand, holding the cat cake like a lifeline. “Did the continued discussions with that Ranger go well?” He said, changing the subject.
Except, Aventurine realized, he wasn’t changing the subject at all.
“Of course. He’s been surprisingly amenable to working together, once he realized I was happy to help him even without a gun to my head. I think you’d really like him, Doc. You’ll have to get there early enough next time for me to introduce you.”
“Perhaps,” Ratio said, scritching the cat cake behind the ear. He sounded distracted, like he was doing complicated equations in his head. “I’m sure it won’t be necessary. The Guild has no need to get drawn into interdepartmental matters. Whoever else you decide to embroil in that situation is solely up to you.”
Aventurine cocked his head, blinking a little sleepily at him. Things were starting to click into place.
“Aw, Ratio, are you jealous?”
Ratio pointedly didn’t look at him. He scritched the cat cake a little more aggressively, to its meowing delight. “What an absurd question.”
“Does that mean there’s an absurd answer?” Aventurine pressed, watching the subtle shifts in Ratio’s body language as the man tensed up. “There’s nothing to be jealous of. You’re still my favorite to work with.”
It was said lightly, teasingly. But Ratio’s replying scoff felt a bit put-on. He was actually feeling replaced, wasn’t he? Warmth swelled in Aventurine’s chest— a pleasant sensation, for once. He reached out to grasp at the very edge of Ratio’s robes.
“I mean it,” he said, trying to sound sincere and knowing the cards were stacked against him. “He’ll be a valuable ally and he’s a decent guy when you get to know him, but he’s not you.”
“I don’t need your flattery,” Ratio scoffed, but he didn’t move away. Aventurine let his fingers tug a little more at the rich blue fabrics.
“It’s not flattery if it’s true,” he mumbled, suddenly feeling a bit abashed. “I’m just saying, you’re not an easy guy to replace. I’m certainly not planning on trying.”
Ratio hummed noncommittally. The cat cake in his arms squirmed, wanting to be put down, and he moved a bit closer to deposit it directly into Aventurine’s arms. It made his breath catch when their limbs brushed together. Something impulsive made him hang onto Ratio’s sleeve, not wanting him to pull away just yet.
Ratio regarded him with clear surprise, those pretty eyes of his dilating ever so slightly as Aventurine watched.
“Say, Doc,” he began, throat going tight. Ratio was even more beautiful up close than from afar, and it was doing confusing things to Aventurine’s admittedly lacking sense of self preservation. He licked his lips, trying to find the words; Ratio’s eyes tracked the movement.
“Are we still not on a first name basis,” Ratio murmured, resting his weight on his hand amidst the blankets and snoozing cat cakes when it became obvious Aventurine wasn’t letting him go anytime soon. His gaze had settled somewhere in the vicinity of Aventurine’s ear, or maybe his neck. But the fresh memory of it lingering on his mouth was all Aventurine could think of.
They’d gotten to this point before. Always dancing just out of each other’s reach, always withdrawing at the last second. But this time, in the soft hush of his room, Aventurine felt like he might have finally been given the green light.
“Veritas,” he tried it out, letting the sibilance resonate on his tongue. He’d only ever used Ratio’s full name in moments of grand theatrics. Never like this; never his first name on its own, never when a ringing silence followed and Ratio’s eyes were once again on his mouth. “Is that better?”
“Much,” Ratio replied, voice pregnant with intent, his gaze shifting upward to meet Aventurine’s. His gold-ringed pupils had dilated so darkly that looking into his eyes was like staring into an eclipse.
Oh, thought Aventurine dizzily, right before it happened. We’re going to kiss.
Ratio’s mouth was soft on his at first— verging on hesitant— but it still sent a frisson of pleasure through his entire body, dissipating any last lingering malaise. Aventurine quickly extracted his other hand from beneath the cat cake in his lap, not wanting him to get the chance to pull back. Ratio’s cheek was smooth as that of his plaster bust, but far warmer to the touch, and after a moment he leaned into Aventurine’s palm with a sigh.
Aventurine meant to make an encouraging hum against his mouth, but the whimper that came out was embarrassingly needy. He didn’t have time to feel abashed— Ratio took that as his cue to press his upper body closer and push Aventurine down into the cushions. Their mouths parted at nearly the same moment and all Aventurine could think was please, please, please.
He’d spent no small amount of time musing on whether Ratio was a tongue kisser or not— his favorite doctor seemed too fastidious for such a messy pastime, but he was also so very intensely passionate under the right circumstances that Aventurine hadn’t quite been able to decide where to place his bet.
Either way, the answer was a resounding yes— a yes he felt down to the soles of his feet. Ratio’s hesitance was abandoned now, his tongue slipping confidently into Aventurine’s mouth, tasting faintly of some sweet cocktail he was sure Ratio had been less than overjoyed to partake of.
He licked the sweetness from Ratio’s mouth, sucked it from his tongue, gripped him around the shoulders and the back of his neck until with something of a resigned groan, Ratio finally settled on the bed amidst the scattering of cat cakes and let Aventurine pull them chest to chest.
“I like the new treatment plan,” he managed to quip once they’d finally stopped to catch their breath. His mouth felt kiss-swollen already and he wanted more. “We really should have started with this, Doc. I coulda been all healed up already.”
Ratio scoffed, leaning back in as if to keep him from making any more jokes. Bingo.
“Hush, I’m trying to enjoy this without your incessant clamor.”
Aventurine grinned into the kiss, not even trying to hide his delight. Ratio kissed him deeply this time with one of those growls of his that always went straight to Aventurine’s cunt, stirring up warmth low in the pit of his stomach and between his legs. One of Ratio’s large hands settled upon his waist while the other was propped somewhere on the opposite side of Aventurine’s torso, effectively sheltering him under Ratio’s broad chest.
For all the buzz of exhilaration in his diaphragm, this all felt almost familiar, now that it was finally happening. Like they’d simply forgotten how well they fit together and were merely sliding back into place, hand in glove.
Another sighing moan escaped Aventurine as Ratio drew back to press softer kisses to his parted lips. He felt dazed. Doped. Ratio was delicious. Their noses brushed together and a strange part of him nearly wanted to cry at how intimate it felt, how good it was to finally be held within Ratio’s arms. The one and only cage he would accept.
“Veritas,” he said again, little more than a mumble against the other man’s plush lips. It gave him a thrill to say it, like the feeling of teetering on the edge of a skyscraper in the Dreamscape. Wondering if he’d survive the fall. “You really know how to drive a guy crazy. You know how long I’ve been wanting you to do that?”
“Apologies,” Ratio murmured back, drawing his fingertips along Aventurine’s cheek before pushing them into the hair at his temple, making Aventurine’s eyes flutter closed at the pleasant sensation of having his scalp rubbed. “I didn’t think it appropriate to thrust such affections upon you the very moment you awoke from the Nihility.”
“That would've been the best time,” Aventurine protested. “But alright, fair, this is the second best, so I’ll forgive you.”
“If it’s any consolation,” Ratio went on, “The thought had crossed my mind well before that. On numerous occasions.”
“You're impossible,” Aventurine scolded, fisting his hand in the robes at Ratio’s chest. “Why didn’t you say anything?” It was more of a rhetorical question than anything. He knew why. And he was pretty certain he knew what had changed, for both of them. Funny how a little near-death experience will do that.
“Why didn’t you?” Ratio countered, his long lashes casting winged shadows on his cheeks. He was mesmerizing. Aventurine could stare at him forever and not even remotely get bored. But the question made his gut twist a little uncomfortably.
“I…” It felt strange that he wanted to give an honest answer for once, instead of his usual deflection. “I guess I didn’t want to risk it.” That sounded like a pathetic excuse coming from him, of all people, and he knew it. But there was something a bit cathartic about finally admitting it.
Ratio drew back enough to look at him properly, his lovely palm still cradling the side of Aventurine’s face. His brow creased and he looked not quite accusing, but faintly disbelieving.
“You’ll gamble away your entire life ten times over without batting an eye…”
“Yeah, well.” Aventurine laughed briefly, helplessly, as the look in Ratio’s eyes shifted towards one of growing comprehension— and maybe even a bit of flabbergasted awe. “Even I have my limits, I guess. Don’t, ah… read too much into it.” As if that would keep Ratio from immediately formulating whatever theories he pleased.
Am I truly so precious to you? He could read the question in Ratio’s face. His bafflement. It was warranted, whatever questions Ratio might have of him. But he didn’t really want to talk right now.
Moaning, on the other hand… now that was on the table.
“Ridiculous,” Ratio said after a pause, shaking his head, but he immediately nudged their mouths back together, so Aventurine was spared having to answer. Spared having to do anything but relish the taste of him, the soft press of his lips, the tingling intensity of their tongues slipping together.
After the sensory nothingness of Nihility, Aventurine had found himself more easily overwhelmed, more attuned to sensation than ever before — and everything Ratio did was more than enough to rattle him. Every single brush of his lips, every little waft of his warm skin, the faintly herbal traces of balsam and cedar from his cologne. Aventurine realized with a start that he was already breathing heavily while Ratio was still relatively collected.
“I’m sorry,” Aventurine found himself forcing out between kisses, swallowing hard. Arching up into Ratio’s touch as it trailed carefully around the perimeter of his chest down to his waist, ignoring the dull pang through his ribcage. “It’s just— look, to tell you the truth, it’s been a little while for me. And I’ve thought about this a lot, probably too much, so don’t judge me if I’m a little overly worked u—“
Ratio mercifully cut him off with his mouth before he could continue rambling and embarrassing himself further— and oh, was that what this rattled feeling was? He was nervous?
“Don’t apologize,” the instruction came later, once their tongues were no longer tangled. Ratio’s breath was warm on his mouth, his forehead brushing against Aventurine’s, blending their tousled locks of hair together. “Not for enthusiasm. How could you imagine that to be a negative quality?”
Aventurine swallowed. Easily, he thought. Just watch me twist anything into a snare. Tried to calm himself regardless. His fingers twitched, seeking out the curls at the nape of Ratio’s neck.
“Okay,” he breathed, finally, nodding just enough to be felt. “But let the record show I tried to warn you. It’s on you later, if it turns out I’m too much.”
Ratio actually laughed at that, a surprised but genuine sound, so uncharacteristically bright that it made Aventurine burn. Was it really so funny, what he’d said? It hasn’t been a joke.
“Has it occurred to you, gambler, that your strong-willed excesses are part and parcel of the appeal?” Ratio was all but smirking now— and oh, okay. Aventurine liked seeing this side come out. The confident tease. Shit, he’d take that all day, every day. Maybe Ratio really meant it, then.
“You don’t need to use lines on me, Doc,” he quipped, trying to buy himself some breathing room. “You’ve already got me in bed.” Ratio really had no idea how bad he had it— how there was practically a gate to hell burning between his legs at this very second.
“So it would seem,” Ratio mused, and his grip on Aventurine’s waist tightened in acknowledgement before he sighed. “All the same, you must be exhausted.”
It was said carefully. Aventurine easily read between the lines.
“Not too exhausted for you to show me a good time,” he cajoled, sweet and light. “Might be just the thing to send me off to sleep with no nightmares.”
“Ah. Well, perhaps for medicine’s sake, then,” Ratio agreed, entirely too quickly. Aventurine had expected far more pushback or even a flat-out rejection, truth be told. “But do tell me if you suddenly find yourself too fatigued. And do not ignore the signs; you should know I am always amenable to picking this up at a later point should you need your rest more urgently.”
His concern was warming, like a soft blanket, and Aventurine allowed himself a smile. Nice try, Ratio. But there was no way in hell he was missing out on this opportunity right here, right now.
“Sure thing, Doc.”
Ratio whuffed disbelievingly through his nose, not buying it for even a second, but he was already slipping his hand down to the hem of Aventurine’s pajamas, pushing his warm fingers underneath to smooth over his lower stomach. Aventurine’s skin prickled pleasantly, his stomach tensing up.
“I would normally give your upper body the proper amount of attention,” Ratio went on, “but given your healing injuries, I believe that would be better left for another day.”
“I’ll forgive you this time,” Aventurine announced— very generously, he thought. “And I suppose I can still consider you a gentleman despite skipping straight to getting in my pants. But just this once.”
“Duly noted,” Ratio murmured, already slipping his hand downward beneath the waistband of his pajama bottoms, and then his briefs. Aventurine shivered into it, squirming a little. “Now, stop moving. Just sit still and let me tend to you.”
Easier said than done. Aventurine had to fight not to arch his back and moan the very moment those fingertips stroked into the thatch of hair at the crux of his legs. Everything was making him tremble, no matter how seemingly innocuous. Thank god Ratio had read his medical files so he hadn’t needed to worry about the awkward song and dance of informing him what was in his pants— but that just meant he was still mentally catching up as Ratio was boldly forging ahead.
“Oh, fuck me—“ he blurted out when Ratio’s fingers dipped lower, brushing the hood of his cock, which twitched eagerly at the attention.
“Are you always this foul-mouthed in bed,” Ratio asked, but his voice had already shifted, thick and weighted with desire. His clever fingers rubbed ever so delicately over the tip of Aventurine’s sensitive cock while pressing against the folds to either side. Aventurine outright moaned, a long sordid thing that felt like it came from the depths of his very soul.
“Yes,” he begged and answered in one, shifting his thighs open wider. “Aeons, that’s— fuck.”
Ratio made a low noise in his throat, fingertips slipping down just a little further until he encountered the absolute slippery mess he’d already made of Aventurine’s cunt, and they both groaned in unison.
“Shit. Ratio. Veritas— please,” Aventurine said, though it was really more of a whine. His thighs were shaky. Did it normally feel like this, when someone touched him? He couldn’t really remember. None of it usually felt like this— he wasn’t typically dripping like a faucet into his briefs, for starters.
“If you will indulge a confession,” Ratio murmured in his crushed velvet baritone. “Hearing my name from your lips is inspiring a level of greed within me I had not thought myself hitherto capable of.”
Aventurine was dizzy with him, sighing and rocking into his slick touch as Ratio caressed and cataloged every detail of his cunt, moving careful but confident. Busy formulating some sort of groundbreaking new theoretical doctrine of pussy, no doubt.
“Ha—aaaaah. You don’t say.” He had to close his eyes to keep from being swept up in the intensity of Ratio’s gaze. “I’d like to— ah!— see what greed looks like on you. Bet it’s really something.”
Ratio made another one of those growls and then sat up abruptly. Aventurine’s eyes flew open as quickly as they’d closed, confused for the briefest of moments before he realized Ratio was pulling back the blankets. The lone cat cake still perched on the end of the bed fled for the floor as the bedding was flung aside, and then Ratio was hooking his fingers into the waist of Aventurine’s pajamas and underwear both.
“I will show you right now,” he stated plainly, eyes intense in their hunger. Aventurine swallowed hard, throat clicking. So he really hadn’t been bluffing, huh?
“I mean, sure, if you really want to— whoa!” Ratio was moving as soon as he assented, stripping his lower half bare, tugging Aventurine’s garments off his ankles one by one as if they’d personally insulted him. Aventurine could only watch as Ratio tried to climb onto the bed between his legs, only to huff in frustration as he realized his pants were too restrictive.
Aventurine was treated to a brief show as Ratio got up off the bed entirely, divesting himself not only of his robes, bracers and trousers, but his undershirt too, leaving him only in a pair of black briefs that did incredible things for his figure and hid absolutely nothing of the raging erection contained within.
Aventurine swallowed. Oh damn. That was promising. Not as if it really mattered to him at this stage of his pathetic mooning; Ratio could have a wind-up Clockie figurine between his legs and he probably wouldn’t even bat an eye.
“Comfortable now?” He asked inanely, pressing his thighs together out of sheer arousal more than anything. Well. Maybe a little bashfulness. With an absolute god in front of them, who wouldn’t be a tad shy?
“Not. Yet.” Ratio gritted out, settling back between Aventurine’s legs and wrenching his knees open and oh, fuck, he really loved this. Ratio’s usual intensity was not lost in the bedroom, it seemed. If anything, it was more pronounced than ever. Hoo boy, he was really in for it, huh?
Aventurine slapped a hand over his mouth in an exceptionally futile attempt to stifle his cry as Ratio dove in mouth-first, sealing hot over his cock and sucking.
Oh god. The doctor was absolutely filthy.
“Fuuuu-huuuuuhhh—“ he trailed off into unintelligible noises as Ratio feasted on him like he hadn’t eaten in weeks, spreading him with his hands to expose more of Aventurine to his ravenous mouth, groaning into his cunt like a dying man.
He didn’t know exactly what he’d expected, but Ratio being this adept at eating pussy certainly hadn’t been on his bingo list for this year— sweet merciful Amber Lord, the man knew how to use his tongue and his lips. It’d be enough to make a guy jealous if he weren’t directly benefiting from Ratio’s obvious experience right now…
And then Ratio groaned and pushed a long finger inside him and Aventurine’s head flew back against the pillows as he let out an absolutely wretched noise.
“Oh fuuuck, please. Veritas, please— more.”
One finger became two and Aventurine bucked his hips, ignoring the strain in his chest. Ohh the stretch was so deliciously good, he was so goddamn wet and aching for it, Ratio was already thrusting them in with a slight curl that had him losing his mind. And that suction, good lord. The doctor certainly wasn’t shy when it came to eliciting obscene noises from Aventurine’s body.
He was flushing hot all over, sweating already. Pleasure seemed to be assailing him from all sides, he couldn’t decide whether to curl his toes or kick his feet (both, simultaneously), whether to fist his hand in the blankets or Ratio’s hair (he settled on one of each.)
Ratio’s greed was catching, swiftly incinerating any of Aventurine’s lingering hesitance or attempts to appear collected. That tongue was searing hot, coaxing more wetness from him in dribbles and gushes. Every time Ratio groaned against his mouthful of cock, Aventurine saw a little more of the galaxy behind his own eyelids.
“Please, please, please.” Who even knew what he was asking for— but Ratio took it as a request to finger him more vigorously while lapping at his cock, and oh, oh no. Wait. It was so much, it was too much.
“Wait, oh no, you’re gonna make me— Ratio, I’m gonna—“ he squirmed into the assault, feeling the sudden impending rush of an orgasm he hadn’t expected nearly so soon. “Wait, wait, I’m too close, Veritas!”
Ratio did not wait. He bullied Aventurine headfirst into that wall of pleasure, nerves crackling and sizzling with the heat of impact, back seizing in a parabola of sheer whiteout bliss.
Aventurine was still very nearly shrieking his protests as he rode it out, heels digging into his mattress, Ratio holding him down all the while.
“Your pleasure is not a limited resource,” he scolded once he’d finally, finally torn his face away from between Aventurine’s thighs, mouth and chin glistening and eyes blazing. “Do not expect me to treat it as such.”
Aventurine just blinked at him through the miasma of afterglow, the words swimming through his mind— abstractly at first, and then registering as a shallow throb in his still-occupied cunt. There was a dull burn in his chest where his lungs were still working overtime.
“Are you going to fuck me,” he finally asked, because he really didn’t know how else to take that comment.
Ratio’s eyes seemed to grow a little darker in response, or maybe that was just his imagination. The heat of his body was close, but not close enough. He wanted Ratio over him. He wanted to be smothered, wanted to stop thinking about anything else but this.
But then Ratio frowned, sitting up and looking with undisguised regret at Aventurine’s sternum. “I think that would be inviting further injury, I’m unhappy to say.”
Before Aventurine could lodge a protest, however, Ratio held up his hand— the slick-coated fingers that had been deep inside him— and brought them to Aventurine’s lips.
“Be that as it may,” Ratio went on, fervent, “I will see to it that you want for nothing tonight.”
Aventurine grimaced but opened his mouth obediently— if that’s what Ratio wanted, he might as well give it to him. Yet he was surprised as soon as he tasted himself on Ratio’s skin… the strange intimacy of it. Was he trying to make some sort of point, that he’d let Aventurine stain him so? He knew he had no right to feel possessive and yet there it was, sudden and vicious, gripping him tightly.
“Beautiful,” Ratio said, like it was an objective fact. Ugh.
Aventurine turned his head away, freeing his mouth to speak and smearing his own saliva and cum across his cheek in the process.
“We could go easy,” he found himself cajoling. “Stick to a nice, geriatric pace. I think it could work.”
Ratio cupped his cheek and coaxed Aventurine ego face him once more, a faint smile twitching to one side of his mouth. “I don’t think you understand,” he said in that insufferably patronizing tone of his that secretly turned Aventurine on far too much. “I don’t want to be delicate with you.”
Sweet mother Gaiathra.
“Goodness, don’t you know just what to say to get me all riled up.” Aventurine piled it on thick, making a show of purring and fluttering his lashes. “How’s that supposed to make me settle down?” An automatic attempt to cover up just how deeply those words hit him, coming from his ever-so-poised and collected doctor. It was an actual crime, how badly he wanted to spread his legs and beg for Ratio’s cock right then and there.
An onslaught of intrusive images suddenly flooded Aventurine’s mind— all the depraved positions the doctor might want to manhandle him into. Imagining the harsh grip of those broad, elegant hands on his waist, his wrists, his neck.
How rough Ratio would fuck him, deep and intense and consuming, gritting his teeth and forcing Aventurine to take every inch, each powerful thrust leaving him gasping and sobbing. Bruising him on the inside to match the bites and marks he’d leave on the outside. Ruining that haughty decorum, showing Aventurine that bestial nature he always kept so deeply buried.
Fucking him raw, messy, teeth clamping down as he rutted into him from behind like an animal, claiming him with his seed.
Fucking Aventurine like he knew he could take it, like he knew Aventurine wouldn’t shatter. Was that what Ratio meant…?
Ratio gave a low, aborted laugh, dragging Aventurine from his depraved fantasy— back to the actual fantasy right in front of him.
“I’m afraid that act of yours has little effect on me, my dearest gambler.” The aloof tone was still there. “I would rather hear what’s actually going through your mind. The things that don’t make it past the heavy hand of your internal censorship.”
Aventurine blinked slowly at him, distracted somewhat by the feeling of Ratio’s thumb absently stroking his cheek. “You wanna hear the redacted stuff,” he questioned. “Are you sure about that?”
“Have you ever known me to back away from the pursuit of knowledge,” Ratio countered, not giving him even a moment to answer. His mouth was warm, intense. Searching, like he intended to pull the answers from Aventurine with his teeth and tongue. Aventurine moaned into it, breathing sharp through his nose, letting himself be pressed into his pillows.
What a shock to be swept up in someone else for once. Usually he was the one bowling people over, dragging them along in his wake, not giving them a chance to escape until he’d secured from them what he needed. Becoming the target of such a maneuver was a thrill.
“Tell me,” Ratio’s breath was hot against his mouth between kisses. “If I were able to satisfy your requests in full, if injury were no hindrance, what would you want from me?”
Aventurine’s mind went unhelpfully blank. The first thing that came to mind was everything, though he didn’t think that would be specific enough to satisfy Ratio’s curiosity.
“Quit that,” came the rebuke before he had even opened his mouth. “You’re doing it again, aren’t you? Trying to decipher what I most want to hear. I don’t want a sales pitch, Aventurine.”
Goddamn, Aventurine thought, frustrated. Can’t a guy have a second to gather his thoughts? But the sting fueling his annoyance told him Ratio had hit the bullseye. Tch.
“What?” He challenged, wanting Ratio to just kiss him and shut him up again before he could really run his mouth and ruin it all. “You really want an underbaked answer? I was just trying to narrow it down.”
“I don’t want you to narrow anything down,” Ratio chided, biting his lower lip hard enough to make Aventurine jerk in shock beneath him. “I want the raw data directly from the source. Allow me to decide how it ought to be interpreted.”
“Fuck, you really—“ His lip was throbbing as Ratio licked over it to soothe the bite. It had the opposite result on Aventurine’s overheated psyche, fraying it close enough to snapping.
“Fine!” It was too much. Ratio was too much, but he needed more, he needed him to stop talking. “What I want is for you to shut up about my injuries already and fuck me. Hah! I mean, honestly, you really want to hear how I’d take anything you gave me at this point? How absolutely depraved you make me? How I can’t pick any one thing because I want everything from you all at once?”
“Good,” Ratio had drawn back to watch him ramble with a sharp look in his eye, but now he nudged his nose against Aventurine’s cheek with a low, approving noise. “That’s good. Keep going.”
Aventurine laughed helplessly. And then it felt like he couldn’t stop laughing, even though it made his chest burn and twinge with each shudder of his ribs. “You absolute wretch,” he managed to get out, pleased at how that word made Ratio go still for the briefest of moments before his fingers were slipping down over Aventurine’s cock again, making him inhale unsteadily. “Ah, fuck.”
“I said, keep going,” Ratio demanded. “Now is not the time to play coy.” Aventurine just laughed again, flopping his hands helplessly at his sides after his attempts to fondle Ratio through his briefs were batted away..
“Hah. Now who’s playing coy? I honestly don’t know what you’re expecting to find, turning over all these rocks. You really want me to say the unspoken parts out loud?” It was so hard not to writhe into his touch that Aventurine decided for once not to fight it.
“Want me to say that I need your cock buried in me so deep for so long that I forget both my names? You— hah!— want to know that I’ve touched myself thinking about you forcing me to gag on it, how I wanna pretend like you hate me so I can pretend to hate you back because— ugh, because it feels good that way, because I want you to overpower me and spit in my mouth and tell me I’m disgusting? And then kiss me afterward, after you force me to cum so hard I can’t even— agh! Yesss.”
Ratio’s fingers were inside him again, all of a sudden, and he hissed into it with an arch of his lower back, that sweet stretch overpowering his senses momentarily. He couldn’t stop talking, which was a strange pleasure in itself, like the built-up feeling before ejaculation, like it was all gushing forth from him now at a pace beyond his control and he didn’t even really want to stop anymore.
”Aeons wept, Ratio. Yeah, that’s— ugh, I’ve thought about your fingers inside me during all of those boring IPC functions and management meetings, thought about you making me cum in front of all our superiors, all our juniors, everyone we know. Oh— right there please, please, fuck—“
“Keep. Talking.” Ratio growled, his fingers moving steadily at a pace that was just fast enough to render Aventurine helpless to his whims.
“You’re truly sadistic,” Aventurine gulped, plunging one hand into the midnight blue curls at Ratio’s nape just to have something to tether him. “You’re worse than I expected. Don’t you dare stop. Agh, can we just pretend I’m fine already? Talking about it is killing me, I need more than this.”
“Why?” Ratio asked sharply, though thankfully he didn’t stop moving his hand, coaxing more shivers from Aventurine’s body as easily as he conjured pillars and equations and plaster busts out of thin air. Aventurine felt absurdly like a ventriloquist's dummy, for how little control he felt over his own physical form— albeit, one being forced to provide his own script and say his own lines.
“Why? What do you mean, why?” He was already falling into embarrassment— because he instantly knew the answer and he really, really didn’t want to have to say it outloud. “Isn’t it obvious? I’m a greedy bastard, why shouldn’t I want it all?”
“You could get sex from any number of individuals,” Ratio grumbled, seemingly unsatisfied with this answer. “People who wouldn’t be bothered about your physical or mental condition. Why am I here, Aventurine? Why am I the one you decided to allow to accompany you? Why is it me you want these things from? Why do you want more? I don’t want to proceed further until I’m certain we understand each other.”
It was hard to link two thoughts together when he was moving his fingers like that, making lewd noises between their bodies. Aventurine pressed his eyes shut, the tingling rush of embarrassment growing.
“Because— agh, you’re really going to make me say it, huh? I just want to know if it's real. I want it to be real. And if we don’t— I mean, anyone can give a quick handjob under a table or in a dark, shady corner. I shake hands with people all day. It’s— I don’t know, doesn’t it mean something more to you? To actually lay with someone?”
“Yes, it does,” Ratio confirmed, and there was a dark flash in his multi-hued eyes. Aventurine thought not for the first time how their irises strangely mirrored each other. “Of course it does. Which is why I do not undertake such things lightly. I am capable of being casual with people whom I feel casually about, but given this is not one of those situations, I felt it prudent to establish whether the level of your affections matched my own.”
Oh. Aventurine swallowed. Well, that made some decent kind of sense. “You want to know that this isn’t just a fling,” he confirmed, mouth gone oddly dry. And here he was thinking Ratio was just enjoying the ego boost, the dirty talk, the sadistic thrill of hearing his confessions. He hadn’t anticipated that Ratio might actually be hesitant or god-forbid nervous, not given what he’d seen so far. It was sort of sweet. It made him feel marginally less pathetic and considerably more hopeful. “You want some kind of reassurance that I won’t up and run off if you give me what I’m looking for?”
Ratio shook his head. His fingers had regrettably withdrawn from inside Aventurine, now resting lightly on his inner thigh. “I didn’t think you’d run off,” he clarified. “Quite the opposite. I thought you might insist upon continuing, and the prospect of having you entirely, quote unquote, in the physical sense without knowing if your desires were limited to such… I admit, I found that a distressing scenario to consider.”
Aventurine thought that if he were the type to cry, he might be tempted to tear up a little. He wrapped his arms around Ratio’s shoulders, leaning in to rub their noses together. Let his eyes fall shut with a deep, sentimental sigh. What a strange thing to enjoy.
“You’re insane for thinking even for a moment that I’m not completely mad about you,” he huffed into laughter, mere millimeters from Ratio’s slightly parted lips. “Do you know how long Topaz has been harassing me to make a move on you? Even Numby’s been getting in on it. They’ve got a betting pool going with Jade and I’m not even allowed to participate!”
“Well, I suppose that is all the evidence I could need,” Ratio shot back, dry. “Heavens forbid I stand idly by and allow you to continue being bullied by an interstellar pig.”
Aventurine just laughed and kissed him again. It was hard to convince himself that he shouldn’t, not when Ratio was being all precious like this.
“I mean it.” Spoken quietly, after he’d taken another long drink of Ratio’s lips. “You’ve driven me fully over the edge of sanity, alright? I mean, I have to assume that’s the case, because I’m right here admitting this isn’t just sex to me and you’re making incredibly insensitive jokes at my expense and refusing to fuck me and somehow I still want you more than anything, so will you just? Give it a chance? I think this could be worth betting on, and that’s not just a line.”
“I would agree,” Ratio assured him, carefully, tilting Aventurine’s chin up and gazing down over his features intently, like he was cataloging each individual eyelash and near-invisible freckle. He sounded like he was trying to contain his enthusiasm, which already had butterflies overflowing from Aventurine’s stomach into his lungs. “I simply wanted to know where you stood on the matter. I will admit, betting may not be my usual methodology, but I think I could be willing to expand my horizons and follow your lead, just this once.”
“So is that a yes, you want to take this further?” Aventurine asked for clarity’s sake, taking advantage of the moment to run his hands over Ratio’s chest and down his torso. This time, Ratio didn’t stop him from touching. Not even when he reached the waistband of his briefs, teasing along the edge of the fabric. Ooh la la.
Ratio groaned— about equal parts despair and desire, Aventurine estimated. “I wasn’t exaggerating earlier when I said I didn’t want to be delicate with you.” He paused, taking a deep breath that swelled his chest beneath Aventurine’s other questing palm. “But I can be. I will be, if that is what you truly want. That is the only way I can possibly allow myself to take such liberties with you in your current state.”
“So take them,” Aventurine coaxed, tugging down Ratio’s waistband as well as he could from his prone position— which was not very far at all, unfortunately. “Take as many liberties as you want, I know you’ll be careful. Honestly, doc, I don’t care how you do it. I just want it.”
It still felt too exposing to say he wanted Ratio closer, wanted to feel their sweat mingle, wanted to taste more of his skin. But he could show him, if he just stopped holding back.
“Very well,” Ratio finally agreed, backing up off the bed. His underwear hit the floor, and Aventurine’s eyebrows hit his hairline.
“Oh my,” he said, feeling a delightful fluster coming on. “Get back over here this instant.”
“With pleasure,” Ratio murmured, settling back down between his thighs. “Now where were we…”
xx