cannot get enough of almostnever's icons.
01 / 02 / 03 / 04 / 05 / 06
hey dom.
great news for you - the eighty credits you sent last night bought your mum a vaccine like four hours later! she's been on the upper waiting list cause of her condition and all, but the discount just went even lower after some bill passed. she could afford it! thank god for the alliance, huh? she was barely even woozy or anything when she got the shot and that's supposed to be a really good sign that the vac is taking. i hope it's a big load off your shoulders. you've had to take care of her mostly yourself these days.
speaking of your goodfornothing brother (i can say it since you're not here to shut me up) i heard he's been traveling more now. somebody saw him pulling scams near ariel of all places. he's calling himself badger now. what the fuck, you know? it was andy who saw him, so i told andy to beat the shit out of him if he saw him again. kidding man. but seriously, you gotta stop pretending that shit is alright. little brothers doesn't deserve to get left with a family to support.
andy says hey. your ma says she hopes they're treating you better over at your job now. (i told her about your friend's promotion and she got all excited. she says you're totally next.. it's possible! your pa used to say she had the sight, right?)
how's elijah doing? not buggy i hope? i got a wave from billy and he was all complaining about viggo. is that how you spell it? viggo's such a weird name, elijah's way better.
take care man.
-sean
*
Dominic wakes up happy. It's got to be ten AM or later, and he's lying in bed on a glorious Sunday morning. The duvet is warm, snugglable, pleasant against the bare skin of his chest. To top it all off, Dom isn't even alone.
Elijah's resting on his side with one arm slung loosely over Dom's abdomen. His eyes are lightly closed in sleep, but his expression is a serious one - as if being asleep takes a lot of effort and hard work. The idea makes Dominic smile.
"Lij?"
"Mmmmnrr?"
"Do you have an internal clock?"
"..10:06:39. September 19."
"I meant for your sleep."
"Mnngh. Oh. Nuh-uh."
Christ, it sounds so... convincing. Dom chuckles. "Then wake up. It's already... well, obviously you know what time it is." Elijah starts to squirm and make faces, making futile attempts to either sit up or open his eyes all the way. Dominic laughs and slides down a bit, moving in to kiss Elijah's forehead.
"Everything's so warm."
"We've been in bed all night. Beds get very warm."
"It makes me reluctant to leave it."
"We don't have to leave it just yet."
"We do not." Elijah licks his lips in a way that can't have meant to look quite like... that. "In fact, beds offer many opportunities."
"Oh?" Dom can't not smile back.
"We have had various relations which are traditionally conducted underneath bedsheets."
He laughs. "You're the traditional type?" Elijah just shrugs, obviously not interested in reserving sex to one location so much as trying it in any place that gives half an excuse. Dominic's finding that he's moving fast without thinking - his forehead's pressed to Elijah's, and one hand has already snaked around Elijah's shoulder to touch the back of his neck, drawing him in for a kiss. When Dom pulls back he's frowning.
"You... do not like my tongue?"
"S'not that." Dom swallows and strokes his fingers down Elijah's spine. "Where'd... where'd the wind go?"
"I do not understand." Elijah wriggles and moves in closer. The fabrics of Dom's borrowed boxers and Dom's non-borrowed boxers are the same sort of cotton blend, and are all the more comfortable when Elijah presses a little closer still. "I thought you were enjoying me."
"I was. I am." Dom ducks his head down to avoid Elijah's mouth, just this once. "I mean... when I plugged you in before, at Billy's house. There was a... a..."
"A connector. A socket."
"Yeah, that."
"It hides." Elijah blushes, grinning, and sits up so he can show off. "A custom design. It's still there."
Dom pushes himself up on one elbow, then sits up completely. He tugs the blankets up so he can pool them neatly around his and Elijah's waists for some warmth. "A custom design of a... socket connector thing, that hides."
"Should I explain?" One eyebrow carefully arched, Elijah's eyes stray from the blankets to Dominic's chest.
"Sure." Dom feels game.
"The XLR connector was a rugged electrical connector design. XLR plugs and sockets were used mostly in professional audio and video electronics cabling applications. The full-sized DIN connectors were available in patterns with three to fifteen pins, and were used for audio."
Elijah scratches his ear before continuing.
"Many manufacturures of animate devices decided to combine the function of XLR connectors with some of the exterior look of DIN connectors to make an optimal plug and socket for their products, which tend to endure a great deal of wear and tear and need something high-powered, safe, and not easily damaged by dust intrusion or scratching. Thus, a plug for me consists of a shielding metal skirt protecting a number of straight circular pins. The skirt is keyed to ensure that the plug is inserted with the correct orientation and to prevent damage to the pins. The basic design also ensures that the shielding is connected between socket and plug prior to any signal path connection being made."
"Uh..huh." Dominic could see all of Elijah's back, and it wasn't anywhere.
"As an added precaution, it retreats just underneath my skin when it is not being cleaned, repaired, or used for charging. While it is a higher-tier model, it retains durability and is tested shockproof to grade 8B-31."
And it appears so quickly just below the nape of Elijah's neck that Dominic almost thinks that it had been there all along. "It's there now, do you see?"
"Yeah." Dominic grins at the familiar little spot. "Er. You sound kind of... proud of it."
"I suppose I am." Elijah giggles. Really giggles. Dom grins crookedly, raising a hand and carressing the edge of it with the pad of his thumb. Or he would caress it, if Elijah didn't pull away and yank the blanket over himself.
"What!?"
"What do you -- how -- do not do that!"
"What? What's wrong with it?" The panic's come on so suddenly that Dom's getting swept up in it far too easily. "Are you - is it broken?"
Elijah's voice cracks. "It's not broken!" Defensive.
"O..kay." Dom draws his knees up, breathes, runs a hand through his hair. Elijah watches this and says nothing. "I'm sorry, Lij. Why's it bother you?"
At first Elijah is so frozen and silent that Dom doesn't think he's ever getting an answer. He's crossed some invisible line that is perhaps going to keep Elijah away from him forever.
"I really am really really really sorry."
"..I know." Elijah relaxes and puts the blanket down. Dom exhales.
"Will you please tell me why your connector bothers you?"
"It doesn't, external sources do." Elijah notices Dominic's blank expression. "It is similar to the way you would dislike sharp things near your ear. Your ear is delicate and sensitive, and thus you have natural instincts to keep danger away from it."
"So it's a knee-jerk reaction."
"Yes."
Dom looks at it. Steel-grey, with four gaps for pins. Innocuous. "Can you overcome that?"
Elijah turns his head very carefully to look in Dominic's eyes. Dom expects the skin to crease or something around the socket, but it's immaculate. "Why would I desire to do such a thing when it is for my own good?"
"Because..." Dom wets his lips and leans in a little. Why doesn't it look out of place? Why does it look like it belongs just there, at the knob of Elijah's neck? "It's part of you, and so I want to understand it."
"By touching it?" Elijah's eyes get just a little wider. Like he doesn't know if he could refuse Dom if it came to that.
Silently, Dom nods.
"..."
"I'll be gentle, Lij. You- you know I can take care of you, right?" Dominic moves to embrace Elijah from behind, but stops when he sees muscles in Elijah's back rise and tense.
The silence stretches out. Dominic knows he can say to forget it, and everything will slowly ebb away so that it's calm and relaxed like before. He could very easily give it up, but he can't stop being fascinated.
"If I asked you to stop, would you?"
"Absolutely. Without question."
Elijah doesn't technically ever say 'yes', but there's another long pause and then he scoots back a little. Closer to Dom, presenting himself for inspection.
Steel-grey. The socket looks expensive from this close. Dom lays his thumb very lightly over the spot and discovers that doing this very nearly covers it.
"You feel very warm," comes a soft voice.
"So do you," Dom answers wondrously. "It's not cold at all."
"Just..." Elijah bows his head slowly, revealing the nape of his neck and the slope of his shoulders in much better definition. Dom blinks and realizes his mouth has fallen open. The socket looks implanted, but the flesh surrounding the circle is healthy and pink, completely perfect. No scarring. No imperfections.
"I promise not to damage you."
"Okay."
"I just want to know you."
When Elijah's body starts to give breaths in a steadier rhythm, Dominic decides that most of the nerves must have passed. He lifts his hand away, watching how Elijah already untenses at the loss of such intrusive contact - Dom places his hands on Elijah's shoulders instead. Bends in, breathing gently and watching the skin flush from it.
"Did you just shiver?"
"Yes."
"Was it a good shiver?"
Elijah laughs guiltily. "Maybe?"
The evasiveness somehow heightens everything. Dominic laughs back in a brief gust, laying his forehead in the perfect slope of Elijah's neck. Noses the spot just above the socket. Elijah shivers again and tries to make his sudden grip on the sheets a discreet action.
"Wind," Dominic breathes.
"Wind," Elijah agrees in a gasp.
Dom curls his fingers around Elijah's hipbones, steadying him, and blows softly again. The surrounding skin has flushed a vibrant pink. This is a sensitive place, Dominic thinks to himself. This is an entrance. This is important.
They are both beginning to squirm against the bed in an attempt to find some purchase, just a little bit of friction. Dominic kisses Elijah's shoulder blade before arranging him on his stomach just so; it will allow Dom to keep Elijah in place a bit better, and to let him press himself flush against him. First he just stares at the smooth, pale expanse of Elijah's back. It rises and falls in perfect time with every shallow breath.
"You're beautiful," Dom murmurs somewhat distractedly. "You know that, right?"
"I suppose I trust your judgement," is the answer.
Dom lays himself over Elijah, propped on his elbows. Elijah's wriggling. Dominic's hard-on has found itself nestled in a very inviting cleft.
"Jesus." Elijah barely even seems to give any response to it - merely presses himself to the mattress in a virginal attempt at gratification while starting up a small, begging moan. Head ducked down perfectly to expose the back of his throat better. "You.. you want me to-"
"Please."
Dom obliges by trying a soft lick around the socket. He hasn't even finished the circle before he feels Elijah's hips bucking beneath his. Dominic tries again, a wider circle this time, and gets a similar response. It's not until he's almost two inches away from it that Elijah starts to writhe again from feeling teased. It's a huge patch of... of skin that makes Elijah make these noises. Dom is faintly aware that he's probably going to come in his boxers.
A rhythm begins, between thin cotton fabrics. Elijah's begun to hump the sheets outright, and Dom meets him from up top just as he presses a new kiss or lick or nuzzle to some patch of skin near the socket. Elijah moans and draws his arms up to prop himself up as well, just a little, and he pushes insistently. Dominic scrapes his teeth along the overheated flesh and imagines the pre-come sticking Elijah's boxers to his erection.
"You can, now," Elijah says. It breaks the comparitive silence of rustling and pants, but it's quiet enough to not quite register.
"Ni ta ma...what?" Dominic's already feeling the tightening in his groin. He's not going to last for this.
"If y-you... please, D-Domin... do it, please, just..."
It's enough of a sentence for Dominic, who breathes deeply before plunging his tongue into the socket and feeling Elijah's body arc almost beneath him. He's dimly aware that he should be glad 'shock-proof' is exactly what it says on the tin, but it's all he can do to keep a steady rhythm with his hips, and his tongue, and to not lose his balance on his elbows and fall on Lij right as he's about to-
"Dominic!"
There. Elijah comes with a startling jerk and Dominic isn't far after, thrusting roughly a few times and not making a sound. Dom rolls off and Elijah moves onto his side, panting. Somehow Dominic is already sure that the socket's hidden again.
"Got any more of those?"
"什麼？"
"Of those ports. Sockets." His lungs feel like they're burning. Dom's still panting, but he can't stop grinning either. "You know, hiding anywhere else."
Elijah laughs breathlessly and somehow manages to burrow deeper into the sheets. He never technically answers, but seeing as Dominic falls asleep almost immediately, it's hardly noticed.
"Ni ta ma (de)"
"Fuck"
什麼？
"Shuh-MUH?"
"I'm sorry?"