Fic: With My Body, I Thee Worship
Title: With My Body, I Thee Worship
Challenge prompt: 9. "I laughed so hard, I nearly cried"... --![]()
20_inkspots (Dark set-- full table here)
Which came first: Story
Pairing: Clark/Bruce
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: 5400Summary: On their honeymoon, Kal and Bruce have to overcome some cultural differences. Takes place as part of the From This Day Forward series, in which Kal and Bruce end up in an arranged marriage.
Bruce woke up abruptly and warily as the morning sunlight washed scarlet against his eyelids. It took him a moment to relax again. He still wasn't used to Krypton--the light, the scents, the tastes of it. It made him uncomfortable and on edge.
Beside him, Kal-El stirred and almost fell off the bed. Bruce felt his discomfort melting away as he looked at his husband's sleeping face, his lips parted much more sensuously than he would ever allow while awake. The two of them in one bed at last. Of course, it was a tiny twin bed, and they had spent much of the night almost falling off of it, but Bruce had finally been able to get his fill of touching Kal's body, tasting the inhuman warmth of it, running his hands across that silken skin.
Kal-El smiled slightly in his sleep as if responding to Bruce's thoughts, and Bruce felt his body stir into arousal. No, he hadn't had his fill. There was so much more he wanted.
He slipped from the bed and went to his luggage, pulling the bottle of lotion out. They hadn't needed it last night, which had been a tangle of mouths and hands, clashing with more passion than skill. But now...he put it on the nightstand and slipped back into bed beside Kal.
Kal made a purring noise in his throat, like a giant alien panther, and stetched his bare body up against Bruce's luxuriously. Bruce kissed his shoulder, enjoying the play of muscles under skin. He couldn't believe a being as sensual and warm as Kal could possibly thrive in such an austere, cerebral culture. His husband must have been starving for touch all these years.
Bruce intended to give him a surfeit of caresses to make up for lost time.
Still half-asleep, Kal murmured with delight under Bruce's hands, his voice blurry and warm. Bruce watched his eyes open slowly, heavy with sleep and lust intertwined, as if the lines between dream and reality were still indistinct. "Oh," Kal sighed, "You're real. I'm really here. In your bed." His smile looked almost drunk with pleasure, intoxicated with touch. He stretched up against Bruce, twisting as if to bring every inch of himself into contact with his husband's body. "I can't believe you like this."
"Can't believe?" Bruce managed as he felt Kal's body pressing up against him, felt him hardening against his hips.
"You know, the..." Kal broke off, blushing, then forced himself to say it, "...the touching." Bruce ran his hands down his side again, caressing, and Kal groaned luxuriously. "I always knew I was a total deviant, wanting to feel my lovers' bodies like I did. I tried not to--mmm--to think about it too much." He took Bruce's hand and moved it across his chest. "Touch me more," he said lasciviously, as if it were the dirtiest thing he could imagine.
They were still rubbing and fondling much later, Kal's groans of delight becoming more and more wanton. Bruce heard him chuckle. "I see you brought some lube," Kal murmured against his ear. "How lucky for us." His tongue explored, wet and hot. "I can't believe we still haven't even had sex yet."
"Shall we remedy that?" Bruce said, reaching for the bottle.
Kal rolled over onto his back, his arms under his head, giving Bruce a smouldering look as Bruce opened the bottle and got his hands slippery. Bruce leaned forward and slipped his hand between Kal's legs, slipping lower until he brushed against--
"What are you doing?"
Bruce realized abruptly that Kal's body language had gone stiff and uninviting. He pulled away quickly. "I'm sorry," he said, feeling stupid for making the assumption, "I thought I'd top at first, because--" He wasn't sure why, exactly, beyond desperately wanting to and feeling like Kal might be hesitant. "But that was rude of me. I don't mind if you--"
Kal's eyes were wary. "If I what?"
"If you...you know.." Bruce was starting to get the unpleasant feeling he was missing something. He made vague motions with his hands. "Top."
"Why were you touching me there?"
Bruce stopped and took a deep breath. Time to start with the basics and avoid vague or technical language. "In English, a 'top' is the person who penetrates during sex. The 'bottom' is the person who is penetrated. They can be--"
"Penetrated?" Kal pulled the blankets over himself defensively. "Humans practice..." He groped for the English word, then gave up, "...shian? Your men stick their penis in another man's anus?"
It sounded so much less sexy when you put it that way, thought Bruce. "That's...yes, that's one of the ways Terran men have sex." Kal's face was wrinkled in disgust. "I assume Kryptonian men don't do that?"
Kal shook his head vehemently. "No one would do that! It's not--it's not right."
Bruce thought rather sourly that Kryptonian culture certainly did have a lot of things it thought weren't right. But he bit his tongue; Kal's dismay and disgust were real, and not directed toward him personally. "All right. There are Terran cultures which feel the same way, that penetration if only appropriate for women."
"For women?" Kal looked, if anything, even more nauseated. "But...a woman could get pregnant from doing that! That's horrible!"
Okay, back up further. "So...no anal sex? No vaginal sex?"
"Of course not! That's..." Kal shuddered. "We don't...mingle our bodies like that. It's...so intimate. A violation."
"So it's just oral sex," Bruce said.
"No, not at all," Kal said, looking confused. "We have sex. It's...you know. No, I guess you don't." Kal rubbed his forehead. "It's, uh...the man puts his penis between the thighs of his lover, and...you know, moves. That's sex."
"Mm." Bruce nodded, pleased to at least understand the miscommunication now. "We call that intercrural sex. There have been cultures and places on Earth where that's been used exclusively in place of anal sex." Kal looked shocked again, and Bruce sighed. "I'm sorry."
"No, I'm the one who should apologize," Kal said sheepishly. "Terran culture seems so similar sometimes, and then sometimes there's something that's just so completely alien to me. Some of it is wonderful--like the touching--but I'm just always surprised to run into another huge difference. I'm sorry to be rude." He looked at Bruce, his eyes shy. "I'm already committed to being a total pervert now, because I'm certainly not giving up the...what was that word you used for it?"
"Cuddling," said Bruce, smiling despite himself.
"Right. I'm committed to being a cuddling pervert already, so maybe some day..." He looked dubious yet slightly hopeful.
Bruce smiled and leaned in to nuzzle behind Kal's ear, making his husband shudder with delight. "No rush," he said. "I think we can find ways to pass the time together."
: : :
A half hour later, Bruce was in the bathroom, washing his face. The basin was of something that looked like wood and felt like china. Hot water gushed into the bowl, steaming. The rush of water reminded him of something, and after drying off he moved to the door of the inner room, peering in.
The room was made of shimmering white tile, bare except for an array of crystals on one wall. The floor was a mosaic of blue and white tiles that formed an intricate geometric pattern. There were no faucets or spigots to be seen, just a long horizontal hole in one wall, up near the ceiling.
"Kal?" Bruce's husband appeared in the doorway, and Bruce took just a moment to appreciate the sight of Kal-El in a crimson robe of something impossibly silky, trimmed with bits of gold and glinting ruby. It might have looked ridiculous on Earth, but on Krypton--and perhaps more importantly, on Kal--it looked just right.
Kal was waiting patiently, just a hint of a smile curving his mouth, and Bruce shook his thoughts back to the here and now. "I didn't want to ask before, what with everything being so...awkward..." In reality he had been somewhat afraid talking about bathing would snap his fragile self-control and he'd jump Kal, but that didn't seem to be a problem now, "...but I have no idea how to work this room here. Is it a shower of some sort?"
Kal looked blank for a moment, his eyebrows raised. "No one taught you how to use the showers? How've you been--have you been washing from the sink?"
Bruce shrugged, feeling defensive. "The sink was easy to use; just wave my hand under the faucet. The showers were beyond me."
Kal walked past him, his bare feet quiet on the tiled floor, and went into the inner room. "It's pretty simple. You touch this crystal--" He reached out and the leftmost crystal glowed red, "--to get the water heating. When it turns blue, the showers are ready. The other crystals are for more complicated things like controlling the water pressure and humidity level, scenting the air, drying off and such."
"Oh." The crystal blinked violet, then settled into a steady blue. "So you just touch it again to--"
Kal yelped as he reached out, and a torrent of water burst from the ceiling onto both of them.
It wasn't a shower, Bruce thought bemusedly, it was a damn waterfall. The cascade of water was a steady, thick curtain, almost a meter wide, with enough pressure behind it to possibly knock a frailer person right off their feet. Steam filled the room in billows and Bruce floundered to the far side of the room, away from the waterfall. Kal was there next to him, leaning against the wall and laughing helplessly. "I'm sorry," Kal yelled over the sound of the water, "I should have told you what to expect. Is this not like an Earth shower?" He'd dodged the deluge better than Bruce, but the sleeves of his robe were still soaked through.
Bruce stared admiringly at the flood of hot water. "You must have very good water treatment systems; Terrans could never waste water like that."
"I love the shower," Kal said almost dreamily. "My parents used to have to drag me out of it. I'd just stand here for ages with the pressure way up."
For a moment Bruce could imagine a younger Kal standing in the heavy torrent, his eyes closed, reveling in the caress of water with every inch of his touch-starved body. He felt himself grinning predatorily as he grabbed Kal's hand and pulled him under the deluge.
Kal gasped as the water sluiced over them both, instantly soaking his robe through and plastering his hair down. "Hey," he started to say, but as Bruce pulled him close, his caresses melting into the rush of the water, his voice broke off into a greedy moan.
Wet, the scarlet robe clung to Kal's body in maddeningly delightful ways as Bruce's hands prowled across it. Kal's hands were tugging at his pants, but Bruce couldn't seem to tear himself away from the taste and feel of wet cloth gliding over tense muscles. "Bruce," Kal groaned, his eyelashes heavy with both mist and desire, "I want you here, now, please..."
Bruce kicked his soaked pants off without ever taking his hands off Kal's body, the torrent of water pummeling them both, making them dizzy with its roaring touch. Bruce parted the robe just enough to reveal the wet thighs of his husband, slipping his hands between Kal's legs to caress the damp skin. Kal shuddered, staring at Bruce's naked body, and Bruce wondered for a second if he could convince Kal to--
No. He wasn't going to take the chance of startling his lover. They'd do this the Kryptonian way.
He grabbed ahold of Kal's sash, pulling him over to the wall, out of the main rush of the water. Mist was beading on Kal's lips, and Bruce kissed it away as he moved in close, pulling his body against his husband's.
Kal's legs parted just enough that Bruce's cock could slide between his thighs, the wet skin soft and silken. Kal shifted his balance, moving his legs, and Bruce bit back a groan as he was tugged and caressed and coaxed. Kal smiled a tiny, confident smirk and pushed back dripping hair, and Bruce thrust between his thighs, suddenly lost in the unfamiliar sensation.
It was...looser and more shifting than what he would consider "normal" sex, the stimulation more fleeting
and elusive, tantalizing. He felt Kal's erection stiffening between them as he moved back and forth, felt the other man's balls like a silky weight above him. He had meant to go slowly, to take his time, but it felt so good, arousal chasing across his nerve endings like wildfire, demanding he thrust against the slick skin harder, faster. He pulled Kal as close as possible, burying his head in the crook of Kal's neck, and the Kryptonian cried out, a long, shuddering moan. Of course, Bruce thought with the tiny part of his mind that wasn't completely lost in the gathering momentum, pulling them toward the edge of the inevitable like a waterfall of desire, Kryptonians wouldn't hold each other close while doing this. And then even that thought was gone as he sucked and bit on Kal's shoulder and Kal shuddered against him, stammering in Kryptonian, and climax as strong as a flood crashed over him.
They stepped back under the roaring fall of water together, setting it wash them clean again, Kal's hands now languid and lazy on his body. As he touched the crystal to bring the shower to a stop, Kal murmured, "I know that wasn't what you would consider sex, but it was...very good for me."
Bruce chuckled and kissed his husband's shoulder again, ruddy and glowing with steam and afterglow. "That was very much what I would consider sex, my Kal."
Kal listened to the muttered sounds coming from the tiny kitchen. He had learned a lot of English before his marriage, but his lessons hadn't covered any of the words Bruce was saying. Apparently his husband hadn't been exaggerating his lack of culinary prowess.
"This isn't fair," Bruce said. "I don't even know what most of this stuff is. How am I supposed to make you a meal when I don't even know what all the ingredients are?" In any other man, Kal might have called his tone "whining." From Bruce, however, Kal would describe it as...taut with manly annoyance.
It was possible, Kal thought ruefully, that he was just a bit smitten with his new husband.
The midday chime rang, and Kal went to pick up the tray. It only had a light snack on it, as Bruce was supposed to be making the meal. It wasn't supposed to have any food at all; apparently Alfred had managed to convince Kal's parents to make an exception considering the circumstances. Kal picked up the napkin--and frowned as a small silicon chip clattered onto the floor. "That's odd."
Bruce appeared in the doorway of the kitchen. He was wearing the heirloom El family apron, with the traditional ruffles. He had balked rather severely at the idea of wearing it until Kal had reminded him that no one else would see him, and that Kal found him quite sexy in it. He had a smudge of flour in his hair. "What is it?"
"Looks like someone has smuggled in a newschip. That's not allowed...Father must have thought there was something I very much needed to know."
Bruce's eyes were avid. "News? No offense, Kal, but ten days in seclusion and I'm ravenous for some kind of outside information."
Kal nodded. As a news reporter, he'd been feeling deprived as well. He fed the chip into the reader in the coffee table and the day's news appeared in its three-dimensional cluster of symbols, a glimmering rose of information. "I can't believe you can navigate that," Bruce said behind him as he picked through the news.
"It takes some getting used to," Kal said absently. "News of a festival...improvements in anti-grav....oh."
"What is it?"
"Jhal Farad-Ko is engaged to a Terran."
Bruce leaned over the couch, squinting at the news feed. "Farad-Ko? The scientist who opposed the Terra-Krypton treaty and almost had us assassinated at our wedding?"
"The very one. I thought she'd find some way out of it, but apparently she changed her mind and decided to accept the arrangement."
His husband's steely eyes were wary. "Who?"
"Let me see..." Kal's fingers flickered through the coding. "A wealthy scientist--maybe that's why she changed her mind, she discovered they had a lot in common. His name's Luthor. Lex Luthor."
Bruce made a small sound in the back of his throat, part alarm and part contempt. "Damn. I'm sure they discovered they have a lot in common. Luthor's been violently opposed to this treaty as well. And he's as ruthless and cold-blooded as it sounds like Farad-Ko is." He perched on the back of the couch, looking thoughtful. "This could be a problem for us."
His scowl and faraway look clashed delightfully with the frilly apron, and Kal couldn't resist grabbing him by the ruffles and tumbling him onto the couch and his lap in a tangle of limbs. "We can handle it," he said confidently. "We can handle anything."
Bruce's frown melted away into affection and he wrapped his arms around Kal, pulling him into a kiss that didn't stop until the kitchen alarms informed them politely that the meal was burned beyond all possibility of salvage.
Kal stretched out against Bruce in their tiny bed, feeling his husband's hands running up and down his ribcage with luxurious slowness. He would never get enough of Bruce's touch, he thought muzzily, mind still foggy from their latest bout of lovemaking. His parents would be appalled, his friends shocked into speechlessness, at his totally wanton behavior. So much physical contact, skin on skin, embracing like lower creatures again and again for the sheer pleasure of caressing and being caressed. Perversion.
Kal smiled to himself. So be it, if perversion meant this sense of blissful peace, of joy suffused with sensuality.
Bruce hadn't pushed the...what Kal thought of as "The Other Issue," since that first time. They had committed every kind of sexual act Kal had ever imagined, but shian had remained unmentioned. Kal still could hardly believe that Terran males allowed such a violation of their bodies.
He had rather expected that Bruce would insist on making him submit to it, had been gritting his teeth in expectation the first few times they had had sex. But Bruce had never once mentioned it again, had been unfailingly inventive and passionate, but never brought shian up. Never once insisted Kal try it, or even talk about it. When his hands had skimmed over the curves of Kal's behind, it had always been a fleeting touch, never demanding, never insistent.
Kal was...relieved by this. And yet, in moments like this, drunk on touch and warm with the aftereffects of sex, he had to admit...
No, he didn't have to admit anything. He groaned softly as Bruce's hands drifted across him, letting his mind wander. He didn't have to admit a thing.
"Are you falling asleep?" Bruce's voice was amused. "Hey, you." He made an abrupt movement with his hands, and--suddenly, to Kal's surprise, the languid touch on his abdomen shifted to a tingling sensation that made him jackknife inward around it.
"Wha--what?" He demanded in shock. "What was that? What did you do?"
Bruce paused, one eyebrow raised. "I just tickled you a little."
"Tickled? What's 'tickled?'"
Bruce blinked. "It's...a sudden touch that triggers an automatic response in some people. Like this," he said, reaching out to touch Kal's stomach again, his fingers crooked.
Kal yelped and writhed away from Bruce. "That's--that's--"
"You've never been tickled before?" Bruce's eyes gleamed, suddenly predatory, and the hands moved up to Kal's armpits without warning.
The sensation was totally different from the sensual touching he'd been savoring; it was a sharp ripple of stimulation, neither pleasant nor painful, just intense. Kal squeaked and tried to clamp his arms to his body, but Bruce's fingers were strong and sure, and the sharp-sweet feeling continued. Kal convulsed and realized, to his surprise, that he seemed to be laughing, although there was nothing funny at all about the situation. Yet he was giggling helplessly, squirming under Bruce's deft hands, and then the whole situation did seem funny and he started laughing in earnest, twisting in half-hearted protest. So many different kinds of touch, so many different sensations...
Bruce had pity on him when he began to wheeze and stopped tickling, letting Kal cautiously wipe at his watering eyes. "That was--uh--intense," Kal said, then broke into involuntary giggles again when Bruce moved his hands, even though they were nowhere near his skin.
Bruce spread his arms wide. "No more, I promise. You're safe." Kal cowered against the wall away from him in mock-terror, and he sighed. "You'll never trust me again, will you?"
Kal reached out with one bare leg and looped it over Bruce's hip to drag him close. "I think you've proven yourself entirely untrustworthy. My faith in you is totally shattered." Bruce licked at his neck and he shuddered, caught between laughter and desire, knowing he'd never trusted anyone as much as this man, this Terran, his mate from beyond the stars.
"So I...think at it?"
Kal held up a sphere that looked like it was made of blown glass, shimmering with rainbow iridescence. "It's supposed to help us get our minds in synchronization. Our mental energies combined hold it between us in the air."
Bruce felt his brow wrinkling. "The Terran mind might not even be compatible. I'd hate to break it."
"It's stronger than it looks," Kal said confidently. "Supposedly most couples can't even lift it on their first try anyway." Before Bruce could protest again, he tossed it into the air between them.
Bruce reflexively put out a hand to catch it, then stopped in surprise as the sphere hung in the air between them. It wavered and bobbled wildly, a demented soap bubble. Kal whooped. "See, I told you it would work!"
As Bruce stared, the sphere wobbled and began to lose altitude, sagging toward the ground. "Keep thinking, Bruce!" Kal cried.
Keep thinking? Bruce focused on the sphere and it stopped dropping, swinging slightly near the floor. "What am I supposed to be thinking about?" Bruce said a bit frantically.
"Oh," Kal said in surprise, "I didn't tell you--shiss, I keep forgetting--" The sphere listed further toward the floor and Kal continued hurriedly, "--Think of our relationship, of the mental field between us like a net of thought."
Bruce frowned and concentrated, imagining the sound of Kal's laughter, how that made him feel. The sphere rebounded immediately, drifting upward until it hovered between them, glimmering. It began to revolve very slowly, colors chasing across its surface. Their relationship...Bruce remembered the excitement in Kal's voice when he had talked about Nightwing and Flamebird, how they could fight for justice in the forms of Kal's childhood heroes. Their relationship--it went so far beyond marriage...it was sex and affection and friendship, the two of them as comrades and lovers, back to back, facing down injustice...
The sphere was humming now, a melodious purr, and the colors chasing across it shifted into midnight blue and crimson, twining together like two birds, bright and dark. Kal made a soft, wordless cry of joy and recognition, and the sphere burst into light for a brief moment with a sound like a clarion, then went dark again, falling to the floor with a gentle thump.
"Most couples can't even lift it on their first try?" Bruce asked in the sudden silence, surprised to find his voice a bit shaky. It had been so beautiful...
Kal's smile was triumphant. "I think that can put to rest any doubts about Terran and Kryptonian minds not aligning well."
The solarium was filled with warm, scarlet light. Kal was on his stomach, naked, with Bruce's hands on his shoulders, kneading the muscles. "You're a harsh taskmaster," Kal mumbled. Their morning training session had been even more energetic and demanding than usual; the exercise with the sphere had apparently filled Bruce with renewed zeal.
"At least I make it up to you later," Bruce said lightly. The massage oil smelled of alien spices and roots; Kal took a deep breath, savoring the scent and the touch together. The sun was warm, Bruce's hands were warm, Kal was warm and relaxed, his mind wandering gently through no thoughts at all. The world was narrowed down to Bruce's hands stroking his shoulders and down his back, blissful touch, nothing but the very point where skin met skin. His husband's hands were at his sides, the long slow strokes soothing rather than tickling, and then at the small of his back.
Kal's skin seemed to be tingling wherever Bruce's hands trailed, paths of glowing ardor across his back. He sighed, feeling the tension slowly leaving his body, leaving it heavy and languid. He wasn't sleepy, he was drifting, floating in a haze of calm, so relaxed that it hardly registered as Bruce's hands passed over his buttocks and down to the backs of his thighs. The wonderful warm touch eased the knotted muscles there as well, until Kal felt like his whole body was ablaze with gentle heat.
As Bruce's hands caressed the backs of his legs, Kal slowly became aware that his generalized bliss was coalescing slowly into desire, the heat gathering at his groin with sweet fervor. He felt his erection stir against the soft towel he was laying on, felt his hips flex very slightly against Bruce's hands. He made a soft, wordless murmur, but was still far too relaxed to take any action.
Bruce's hands moved back up from his thighs and paused to massage Kal's behind this time, strong fingers kneading with confidence. Distantly, Kal knew he'd been worried about this, but by now it was a drifting, faraway thought, drowned in serenity. It was just another good sensation, warm, so good...Kal bit back a moan as Bruce's hands pushed him gently against the towel, his erection a sweet ache beneath him. The fingers slipped over his well-oiled skin, the thumbs gently brushing the valley of his ass, so gentle...Kal felt himself raising his hips to push against the touch, urge it to slip deeper, and he heard Bruce's breath catch. "Kal," his husband said, his voice husky.
"Mmm," said Kal. "It's good." After a moment, the slick, hot fingers continued to massage him, running along the cleft and slipping inside just a bit, just enough to send delicate ripples of unfamiliar sensation across Kal's body. It wasn't enough, he thought hazily, arousal throbbing through his groin and making him feel strangely yearning. It wasn't enough. "Bruce," he muttered as the fingers teased lightly again and retreated, leaving him aching, "Bruce. You can--You can--please. Yes."
His English seemed to be slipping away somehow, but Bruce merely took a deep breath and very, very gently pushed inward with his fingers. Kal stiffened slightly and he stopped. "Kal?"
Kal saw in his mind again the sphere, its red and blue glowing bright, felt the flare of delight as their minds met. He exhaled slowly and felt his body relaxing. "Yes."
Bruce moved again, and Kal felt the pressure give way to questing sensation. He groaned, and Bruce took a deep breath. "Don't stop," Kal said before his husband could say anything. "I want...oh. I want it." Touch, more touch, he focused inward on the discomfort and pressure...discomfort that wasn't actually that uncomfortable. The sun's warmth flowed across him, their steady breaths combined, and the pressure shifted and sent a sudden twinge of sensation through his body. He grunted in surprise and Bruce chuckled very softly.
"Ah," said his husband. "I was wondering if Kryptonians had something like that."
"Something like what--oh." Kal broke off as the sensation repeated itself, stronger this time, more like a pulse than a twinge. "Ah. That was..."
"I know," said Bruce, and did it again. And again.
Energy throbbed through Kal's body, lancing into exquisite arousal, and he bit back a moan. Another pulse and he didn't bother to restrain his cry at all, he couldn't possibly. "Kal," Bruce said, his breath sounding short. "God."
More sweet-scented oil, more motion, and a part of Kal's brain was wincing--it was shian, it was wrong, he was being violated--but he could hear his own voice asking for more, nearly begging, and he knew that was the truer part of him. He wanted to feel his husband's weight on him like the sun, feel it filling him intimately, their bodies together more deeply than Kal had ever imagined. "Bruce, please, I'm ready, I want it. I want you," he stammered, his voice breaking, fragments of Kryptonian and English mingled together.
The sensation within him eased with agonizing slowness, leaving him empty and panting, listening as he heard Bruce's clothing being undone. "Relax," said Bruce softly. "Just breathe and relax."
Kal breathed deeply, feeling the energy between them like yesterday's shining sphere, love held in place with desire. He relaxed into the embrace of that energy, into his love's embrace, warm and gentle, and Bruce's weight was on him, and they were united.
It wasn't violation, it wasn't submission, it was their bodies together, their minds together, it was joy. Kal's body arched to meet Bruce's and Bruce gasped sharply. His hands were in Kal's hair, his hips tight against Kal's body, and the pulse of desire was between them both, flaring bright and ardent. "Yes," Bruce said, and Kal echoed him in Kryptonian, Zi, zi, zi, and the words and passion met in the space between them and tipped them both over into climax.
Some time later, Kal pried his eyes open and met Bruce's cobalt-blue gaze. The other man seemed concerned, even slightly worried, but Kal couldn't figure out why in the world--oh.
He searched within himself for the shame, the burning knowledge that he had perverted his body and soul...and found nothing but satisfaction. "Thank you," he said, trying to weight the simple words with all he felt, and Bruce's worry faded into a slight smile, touched just lightly with smugness.
Kal pulled himself closer to Bruce, feeling skin against skin, savoring it. Let others speak of perversion and depravity; he knew the truth. This was merely another one of the many secrets he would share with his love: in bed, in costume, in all their life together.
Challenge prompt: 9. "I laughed so hard, I nearly cried"... --
20_inkspots (Dark set-- full table here)
Which came first: Story
Pairing: Clark/Bruce
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: 5400Summary: On their honeymoon, Kal and Bruce have to overcome some cultural differences. Takes place as part of the From This Day Forward series, in which Kal and Bruce end up in an arranged marriage.
Bruce woke up abruptly and warily as the morning sunlight washed scarlet against his eyelids. It took him a moment to relax again. He still wasn't used to Krypton--the light, the scents, the tastes of it. It made him uncomfortable and on edge.
Beside him, Kal-El stirred and almost fell off the bed. Bruce felt his discomfort melting away as he looked at his husband's sleeping face, his lips parted much more sensuously than he would ever allow while awake. The two of them in one bed at last. Of course, it was a tiny twin bed, and they had spent much of the night almost falling off of it, but Bruce had finally been able to get his fill of touching Kal's body, tasting the inhuman warmth of it, running his hands across that silken skin.
Kal-El smiled slightly in his sleep as if responding to Bruce's thoughts, and Bruce felt his body stir into arousal. No, he hadn't had his fill. There was so much more he wanted.
He slipped from the bed and went to his luggage, pulling the bottle of lotion out. They hadn't needed it last night, which had been a tangle of mouths and hands, clashing with more passion than skill. But now...he put it on the nightstand and slipped back into bed beside Kal.
Kal made a purring noise in his throat, like a giant alien panther, and stetched his bare body up against Bruce's luxuriously. Bruce kissed his shoulder, enjoying the play of muscles under skin. He couldn't believe a being as sensual and warm as Kal could possibly thrive in such an austere, cerebral culture. His husband must have been starving for touch all these years.
Bruce intended to give him a surfeit of caresses to make up for lost time.
Still half-asleep, Kal murmured with delight under Bruce's hands, his voice blurry and warm. Bruce watched his eyes open slowly, heavy with sleep and lust intertwined, as if the lines between dream and reality were still indistinct. "Oh," Kal sighed, "You're real. I'm really here. In your bed." His smile looked almost drunk with pleasure, intoxicated with touch. He stretched up against Bruce, twisting as if to bring every inch of himself into contact with his husband's body. "I can't believe you like this."
"Can't believe?" Bruce managed as he felt Kal's body pressing up against him, felt him hardening against his hips.
"You know, the..." Kal broke off, blushing, then forced himself to say it, "...the touching." Bruce ran his hands down his side again, caressing, and Kal groaned luxuriously. "I always knew I was a total deviant, wanting to feel my lovers' bodies like I did. I tried not to--mmm--to think about it too much." He took Bruce's hand and moved it across his chest. "Touch me more," he said lasciviously, as if it were the dirtiest thing he could imagine.
They were still rubbing and fondling much later, Kal's groans of delight becoming more and more wanton. Bruce heard him chuckle. "I see you brought some lube," Kal murmured against his ear. "How lucky for us." His tongue explored, wet and hot. "I can't believe we still haven't even had sex yet."
"Shall we remedy that?" Bruce said, reaching for the bottle.
Kal rolled over onto his back, his arms under his head, giving Bruce a smouldering look as Bruce opened the bottle and got his hands slippery. Bruce leaned forward and slipped his hand between Kal's legs, slipping lower until he brushed against--
"What are you doing?"
Bruce realized abruptly that Kal's body language had gone stiff and uninviting. He pulled away quickly. "I'm sorry," he said, feeling stupid for making the assumption, "I thought I'd top at first, because--" He wasn't sure why, exactly, beyond desperately wanting to and feeling like Kal might be hesitant. "But that was rude of me. I don't mind if you--"
Kal's eyes were wary. "If I what?"
"If you...you know.." Bruce was starting to get the unpleasant feeling he was missing something. He made vague motions with his hands. "Top."
"Why were you touching me there?"
Bruce stopped and took a deep breath. Time to start with the basics and avoid vague or technical language. "In English, a 'top' is the person who penetrates during sex. The 'bottom' is the person who is penetrated. They can be--"
"Penetrated?" Kal pulled the blankets over himself defensively. "Humans practice..." He groped for the English word, then gave up, "...shian? Your men stick their penis in another man's anus?"
It sounded so much less sexy when you put it that way, thought Bruce. "That's...yes, that's one of the ways Terran men have sex." Kal's face was wrinkled in disgust. "I assume Kryptonian men don't do that?"
Kal shook his head vehemently. "No one would do that! It's not--it's not right."
Bruce thought rather sourly that Kryptonian culture certainly did have a lot of things it thought weren't right. But he bit his tongue; Kal's dismay and disgust were real, and not directed toward him personally. "All right. There are Terran cultures which feel the same way, that penetration if only appropriate for women."
"For women?" Kal looked, if anything, even more nauseated. "But...a woman could get pregnant from doing that! That's horrible!"
Okay, back up further. "So...no anal sex? No vaginal sex?"
"Of course not! That's..." Kal shuddered. "We don't...mingle our bodies like that. It's...so intimate. A violation."
"So it's just oral sex," Bruce said.
"No, not at all," Kal said, looking confused. "We have sex. It's...you know. No, I guess you don't." Kal rubbed his forehead. "It's, uh...the man puts his penis between the thighs of his lover, and...you know, moves. That's sex."
"Mm." Bruce nodded, pleased to at least understand the miscommunication now. "We call that intercrural sex. There have been cultures and places on Earth where that's been used exclusively in place of anal sex." Kal looked shocked again, and Bruce sighed. "I'm sorry."
"No, I'm the one who should apologize," Kal said sheepishly. "Terran culture seems so similar sometimes, and then sometimes there's something that's just so completely alien to me. Some of it is wonderful--like the touching--but I'm just always surprised to run into another huge difference. I'm sorry to be rude." He looked at Bruce, his eyes shy. "I'm already committed to being a total pervert now, because I'm certainly not giving up the...what was that word you used for it?"
"Cuddling," said Bruce, smiling despite himself.
"Right. I'm committed to being a cuddling pervert already, so maybe some day..." He looked dubious yet slightly hopeful.
Bruce smiled and leaned in to nuzzle behind Kal's ear, making his husband shudder with delight. "No rush," he said. "I think we can find ways to pass the time together."
: : :
A half hour later, Bruce was in the bathroom, washing his face. The basin was of something that looked like wood and felt like china. Hot water gushed into the bowl, steaming. The rush of water reminded him of something, and after drying off he moved to the door of the inner room, peering in.
The room was made of shimmering white tile, bare except for an array of crystals on one wall. The floor was a mosaic of blue and white tiles that formed an intricate geometric pattern. There were no faucets or spigots to be seen, just a long horizontal hole in one wall, up near the ceiling.
"Kal?" Bruce's husband appeared in the doorway, and Bruce took just a moment to appreciate the sight of Kal-El in a crimson robe of something impossibly silky, trimmed with bits of gold and glinting ruby. It might have looked ridiculous on Earth, but on Krypton--and perhaps more importantly, on Kal--it looked just right.
Kal was waiting patiently, just a hint of a smile curving his mouth, and Bruce shook his thoughts back to the here and now. "I didn't want to ask before, what with everything being so...awkward..." In reality he had been somewhat afraid talking about bathing would snap his fragile self-control and he'd jump Kal, but that didn't seem to be a problem now, "...but I have no idea how to work this room here. Is it a shower of some sort?"
Kal looked blank for a moment, his eyebrows raised. "No one taught you how to use the showers? How've you been--have you been washing from the sink?"
Bruce shrugged, feeling defensive. "The sink was easy to use; just wave my hand under the faucet. The showers were beyond me."
Kal walked past him, his bare feet quiet on the tiled floor, and went into the inner room. "It's pretty simple. You touch this crystal--" He reached out and the leftmost crystal glowed red, "--to get the water heating. When it turns blue, the showers are ready. The other crystals are for more complicated things like controlling the water pressure and humidity level, scenting the air, drying off and such."
"Oh." The crystal blinked violet, then settled into a steady blue. "So you just touch it again to--"
Kal yelped as he reached out, and a torrent of water burst from the ceiling onto both of them.
It wasn't a shower, Bruce thought bemusedly, it was a damn waterfall. The cascade of water was a steady, thick curtain, almost a meter wide, with enough pressure behind it to possibly knock a frailer person right off their feet. Steam filled the room in billows and Bruce floundered to the far side of the room, away from the waterfall. Kal was there next to him, leaning against the wall and laughing helplessly. "I'm sorry," Kal yelled over the sound of the water, "I should have told you what to expect. Is this not like an Earth shower?" He'd dodged the deluge better than Bruce, but the sleeves of his robe were still soaked through.
Bruce stared admiringly at the flood of hot water. "You must have very good water treatment systems; Terrans could never waste water like that."
"I love the shower," Kal said almost dreamily. "My parents used to have to drag me out of it. I'd just stand here for ages with the pressure way up."
For a moment Bruce could imagine a younger Kal standing in the heavy torrent, his eyes closed, reveling in the caress of water with every inch of his touch-starved body. He felt himself grinning predatorily as he grabbed Kal's hand and pulled him under the deluge.
Kal gasped as the water sluiced over them both, instantly soaking his robe through and plastering his hair down. "Hey," he started to say, but as Bruce pulled him close, his caresses melting into the rush of the water, his voice broke off into a greedy moan.
Wet, the scarlet robe clung to Kal's body in maddeningly delightful ways as Bruce's hands prowled across it. Kal's hands were tugging at his pants, but Bruce couldn't seem to tear himself away from the taste and feel of wet cloth gliding over tense muscles. "Bruce," Kal groaned, his eyelashes heavy with both mist and desire, "I want you here, now, please..."
Bruce kicked his soaked pants off without ever taking his hands off Kal's body, the torrent of water pummeling them both, making them dizzy with its roaring touch. Bruce parted the robe just enough to reveal the wet thighs of his husband, slipping his hands between Kal's legs to caress the damp skin. Kal shuddered, staring at Bruce's naked body, and Bruce wondered for a second if he could convince Kal to--
No. He wasn't going to take the chance of startling his lover. They'd do this the Kryptonian way.
He grabbed ahold of Kal's sash, pulling him over to the wall, out of the main rush of the water. Mist was beading on Kal's lips, and Bruce kissed it away as he moved in close, pulling his body against his husband's.
Kal's legs parted just enough that Bruce's cock could slide between his thighs, the wet skin soft and silken. Kal shifted his balance, moving his legs, and Bruce bit back a groan as he was tugged and caressed and coaxed. Kal smiled a tiny, confident smirk and pushed back dripping hair, and Bruce thrust between his thighs, suddenly lost in the unfamiliar sensation.
It was...looser and more shifting than what he would consider "normal" sex, the stimulation more fleeting
and elusive, tantalizing. He felt Kal's erection stiffening between them as he moved back and forth, felt the other man's balls like a silky weight above him. He had meant to go slowly, to take his time, but it felt so good, arousal chasing across his nerve endings like wildfire, demanding he thrust against the slick skin harder, faster. He pulled Kal as close as possible, burying his head in the crook of Kal's neck, and the Kryptonian cried out, a long, shuddering moan. Of course, Bruce thought with the tiny part of his mind that wasn't completely lost in the gathering momentum, pulling them toward the edge of the inevitable like a waterfall of desire, Kryptonians wouldn't hold each other close while doing this. And then even that thought was gone as he sucked and bit on Kal's shoulder and Kal shuddered against him, stammering in Kryptonian, and climax as strong as a flood crashed over him.
They stepped back under the roaring fall of water together, setting it wash them clean again, Kal's hands now languid and lazy on his body. As he touched the crystal to bring the shower to a stop, Kal murmured, "I know that wasn't what you would consider sex, but it was...very good for me."
Bruce chuckled and kissed his husband's shoulder again, ruddy and glowing with steam and afterglow. "That was very much what I would consider sex, my Kal."
Kal listened to the muttered sounds coming from the tiny kitchen. He had learned a lot of English before his marriage, but his lessons hadn't covered any of the words Bruce was saying. Apparently his husband hadn't been exaggerating his lack of culinary prowess.
"This isn't fair," Bruce said. "I don't even know what most of this stuff is. How am I supposed to make you a meal when I don't even know what all the ingredients are?" In any other man, Kal might have called his tone "whining." From Bruce, however, Kal would describe it as...taut with manly annoyance.
It was possible, Kal thought ruefully, that he was just a bit smitten with his new husband.
The midday chime rang, and Kal went to pick up the tray. It only had a light snack on it, as Bruce was supposed to be making the meal. It wasn't supposed to have any food at all; apparently Alfred had managed to convince Kal's parents to make an exception considering the circumstances. Kal picked up the napkin--and frowned as a small silicon chip clattered onto the floor. "That's odd."
Bruce appeared in the doorway of the kitchen. He was wearing the heirloom El family apron, with the traditional ruffles. He had balked rather severely at the idea of wearing it until Kal had reminded him that no one else would see him, and that Kal found him quite sexy in it. He had a smudge of flour in his hair. "What is it?"
"Looks like someone has smuggled in a newschip. That's not allowed...Father must have thought there was something I very much needed to know."
Bruce's eyes were avid. "News? No offense, Kal, but ten days in seclusion and I'm ravenous for some kind of outside information."
Kal nodded. As a news reporter, he'd been feeling deprived as well. He fed the chip into the reader in the coffee table and the day's news appeared in its three-dimensional cluster of symbols, a glimmering rose of information. "I can't believe you can navigate that," Bruce said behind him as he picked through the news.
"It takes some getting used to," Kal said absently. "News of a festival...improvements in anti-grav....oh."
"What is it?"
"Jhal Farad-Ko is engaged to a Terran."
Bruce leaned over the couch, squinting at the news feed. "Farad-Ko? The scientist who opposed the Terra-Krypton treaty and almost had us assassinated at our wedding?"
"The very one. I thought she'd find some way out of it, but apparently she changed her mind and decided to accept the arrangement."
His husband's steely eyes were wary. "Who?"
"Let me see..." Kal's fingers flickered through the coding. "A wealthy scientist--maybe that's why she changed her mind, she discovered they had a lot in common. His name's Luthor. Lex Luthor."
Bruce made a small sound in the back of his throat, part alarm and part contempt. "Damn. I'm sure they discovered they have a lot in common. Luthor's been violently opposed to this treaty as well. And he's as ruthless and cold-blooded as it sounds like Farad-Ko is." He perched on the back of the couch, looking thoughtful. "This could be a problem for us."
His scowl and faraway look clashed delightfully with the frilly apron, and Kal couldn't resist grabbing him by the ruffles and tumbling him onto the couch and his lap in a tangle of limbs. "We can handle it," he said confidently. "We can handle anything."
Bruce's frown melted away into affection and he wrapped his arms around Kal, pulling him into a kiss that didn't stop until the kitchen alarms informed them politely that the meal was burned beyond all possibility of salvage.
Kal stretched out against Bruce in their tiny bed, feeling his husband's hands running up and down his ribcage with luxurious slowness. He would never get enough of Bruce's touch, he thought muzzily, mind still foggy from their latest bout of lovemaking. His parents would be appalled, his friends shocked into speechlessness, at his totally wanton behavior. So much physical contact, skin on skin, embracing like lower creatures again and again for the sheer pleasure of caressing and being caressed. Perversion.
Kal smiled to himself. So be it, if perversion meant this sense of blissful peace, of joy suffused with sensuality.
Bruce hadn't pushed the...what Kal thought of as "The Other Issue," since that first time. They had committed every kind of sexual act Kal had ever imagined, but shian had remained unmentioned. Kal still could hardly believe that Terran males allowed such a violation of their bodies.
He had rather expected that Bruce would insist on making him submit to it, had been gritting his teeth in expectation the first few times they had had sex. But Bruce had never once mentioned it again, had been unfailingly inventive and passionate, but never brought shian up. Never once insisted Kal try it, or even talk about it. When his hands had skimmed over the curves of Kal's behind, it had always been a fleeting touch, never demanding, never insistent.
Kal was...relieved by this. And yet, in moments like this, drunk on touch and warm with the aftereffects of sex, he had to admit...
No, he didn't have to admit anything. He groaned softly as Bruce's hands drifted across him, letting his mind wander. He didn't have to admit a thing.
"Are you falling asleep?" Bruce's voice was amused. "Hey, you." He made an abrupt movement with his hands, and--suddenly, to Kal's surprise, the languid touch on his abdomen shifted to a tingling sensation that made him jackknife inward around it.
"Wha--what?" He demanded in shock. "What was that? What did you do?"
Bruce paused, one eyebrow raised. "I just tickled you a little."
"Tickled? What's 'tickled?'"
Bruce blinked. "It's...a sudden touch that triggers an automatic response in some people. Like this," he said, reaching out to touch Kal's stomach again, his fingers crooked.
Kal yelped and writhed away from Bruce. "That's--that's--"
"You've never been tickled before?" Bruce's eyes gleamed, suddenly predatory, and the hands moved up to Kal's armpits without warning.
The sensation was totally different from the sensual touching he'd been savoring; it was a sharp ripple of stimulation, neither pleasant nor painful, just intense. Kal squeaked and tried to clamp his arms to his body, but Bruce's fingers were strong and sure, and the sharp-sweet feeling continued. Kal convulsed and realized, to his surprise, that he seemed to be laughing, although there was nothing funny at all about the situation. Yet he was giggling helplessly, squirming under Bruce's deft hands, and then the whole situation did seem funny and he started laughing in earnest, twisting in half-hearted protest. So many different kinds of touch, so many different sensations...
Bruce had pity on him when he began to wheeze and stopped tickling, letting Kal cautiously wipe at his watering eyes. "That was--uh--intense," Kal said, then broke into involuntary giggles again when Bruce moved his hands, even though they were nowhere near his skin.
Bruce spread his arms wide. "No more, I promise. You're safe." Kal cowered against the wall away from him in mock-terror, and he sighed. "You'll never trust me again, will you?"
Kal reached out with one bare leg and looped it over Bruce's hip to drag him close. "I think you've proven yourself entirely untrustworthy. My faith in you is totally shattered." Bruce licked at his neck and he shuddered, caught between laughter and desire, knowing he'd never trusted anyone as much as this man, this Terran, his mate from beyond the stars.
"So I...think at it?"
Kal held up a sphere that looked like it was made of blown glass, shimmering with rainbow iridescence. "It's supposed to help us get our minds in synchronization. Our mental energies combined hold it between us in the air."
Bruce felt his brow wrinkling. "The Terran mind might not even be compatible. I'd hate to break it."
"It's stronger than it looks," Kal said confidently. "Supposedly most couples can't even lift it on their first try anyway." Before Bruce could protest again, he tossed it into the air between them.
Bruce reflexively put out a hand to catch it, then stopped in surprise as the sphere hung in the air between them. It wavered and bobbled wildly, a demented soap bubble. Kal whooped. "See, I told you it would work!"
As Bruce stared, the sphere wobbled and began to lose altitude, sagging toward the ground. "Keep thinking, Bruce!" Kal cried.
Keep thinking? Bruce focused on the sphere and it stopped dropping, swinging slightly near the floor. "What am I supposed to be thinking about?" Bruce said a bit frantically.
"Oh," Kal said in surprise, "I didn't tell you--shiss, I keep forgetting--" The sphere listed further toward the floor and Kal continued hurriedly, "--Think of our relationship, of the mental field between us like a net of thought."
Bruce frowned and concentrated, imagining the sound of Kal's laughter, how that made him feel. The sphere rebounded immediately, drifting upward until it hovered between them, glimmering. It began to revolve very slowly, colors chasing across its surface. Their relationship...Bruce remembered the excitement in Kal's voice when he had talked about Nightwing and Flamebird, how they could fight for justice in the forms of Kal's childhood heroes. Their relationship--it went so far beyond marriage...it was sex and affection and friendship, the two of them as comrades and lovers, back to back, facing down injustice...
The sphere was humming now, a melodious purr, and the colors chasing across it shifted into midnight blue and crimson, twining together like two birds, bright and dark. Kal made a soft, wordless cry of joy and recognition, and the sphere burst into light for a brief moment with a sound like a clarion, then went dark again, falling to the floor with a gentle thump.
"Most couples can't even lift it on their first try?" Bruce asked in the sudden silence, surprised to find his voice a bit shaky. It had been so beautiful...
Kal's smile was triumphant. "I think that can put to rest any doubts about Terran and Kryptonian minds not aligning well."
The solarium was filled with warm, scarlet light. Kal was on his stomach, naked, with Bruce's hands on his shoulders, kneading the muscles. "You're a harsh taskmaster," Kal mumbled. Their morning training session had been even more energetic and demanding than usual; the exercise with the sphere had apparently filled Bruce with renewed zeal.
"At least I make it up to you later," Bruce said lightly. The massage oil smelled of alien spices and roots; Kal took a deep breath, savoring the scent and the touch together. The sun was warm, Bruce's hands were warm, Kal was warm and relaxed, his mind wandering gently through no thoughts at all. The world was narrowed down to Bruce's hands stroking his shoulders and down his back, blissful touch, nothing but the very point where skin met skin. His husband's hands were at his sides, the long slow strokes soothing rather than tickling, and then at the small of his back.
Kal's skin seemed to be tingling wherever Bruce's hands trailed, paths of glowing ardor across his back. He sighed, feeling the tension slowly leaving his body, leaving it heavy and languid. He wasn't sleepy, he was drifting, floating in a haze of calm, so relaxed that it hardly registered as Bruce's hands passed over his buttocks and down to the backs of his thighs. The wonderful warm touch eased the knotted muscles there as well, until Kal felt like his whole body was ablaze with gentle heat.
As Bruce's hands caressed the backs of his legs, Kal slowly became aware that his generalized bliss was coalescing slowly into desire, the heat gathering at his groin with sweet fervor. He felt his erection stir against the soft towel he was laying on, felt his hips flex very slightly against Bruce's hands. He made a soft, wordless murmur, but was still far too relaxed to take any action.
Bruce's hands moved back up from his thighs and paused to massage Kal's behind this time, strong fingers kneading with confidence. Distantly, Kal knew he'd been worried about this, but by now it was a drifting, faraway thought, drowned in serenity. It was just another good sensation, warm, so good...Kal bit back a moan as Bruce's hands pushed him gently against the towel, his erection a sweet ache beneath him. The fingers slipped over his well-oiled skin, the thumbs gently brushing the valley of his ass, so gentle...Kal felt himself raising his hips to push against the touch, urge it to slip deeper, and he heard Bruce's breath catch. "Kal," his husband said, his voice husky.
"Mmm," said Kal. "It's good." After a moment, the slick, hot fingers continued to massage him, running along the cleft and slipping inside just a bit, just enough to send delicate ripples of unfamiliar sensation across Kal's body. It wasn't enough, he thought hazily, arousal throbbing through his groin and making him feel strangely yearning. It wasn't enough. "Bruce," he muttered as the fingers teased lightly again and retreated, leaving him aching, "Bruce. You can--You can--please. Yes."
His English seemed to be slipping away somehow, but Bruce merely took a deep breath and very, very gently pushed inward with his fingers. Kal stiffened slightly and he stopped. "Kal?"
Kal saw in his mind again the sphere, its red and blue glowing bright, felt the flare of delight as their minds met. He exhaled slowly and felt his body relaxing. "Yes."
Bruce moved again, and Kal felt the pressure give way to questing sensation. He groaned, and Bruce took a deep breath. "Don't stop," Kal said before his husband could say anything. "I want...oh. I want it." Touch, more touch, he focused inward on the discomfort and pressure...discomfort that wasn't actually that uncomfortable. The sun's warmth flowed across him, their steady breaths combined, and the pressure shifted and sent a sudden twinge of sensation through his body. He grunted in surprise and Bruce chuckled very softly.
"Ah," said his husband. "I was wondering if Kryptonians had something like that."
"Something like what--oh." Kal broke off as the sensation repeated itself, stronger this time, more like a pulse than a twinge. "Ah. That was..."
"I know," said Bruce, and did it again. And again.
Energy throbbed through Kal's body, lancing into exquisite arousal, and he bit back a moan. Another pulse and he didn't bother to restrain his cry at all, he couldn't possibly. "Kal," Bruce said, his breath sounding short. "God."
More sweet-scented oil, more motion, and a part of Kal's brain was wincing--it was shian, it was wrong, he was being violated--but he could hear his own voice asking for more, nearly begging, and he knew that was the truer part of him. He wanted to feel his husband's weight on him like the sun, feel it filling him intimately, their bodies together more deeply than Kal had ever imagined. "Bruce, please, I'm ready, I want it. I want you," he stammered, his voice breaking, fragments of Kryptonian and English mingled together.
The sensation within him eased with agonizing slowness, leaving him empty and panting, listening as he heard Bruce's clothing being undone. "Relax," said Bruce softly. "Just breathe and relax."
Kal breathed deeply, feeling the energy between them like yesterday's shining sphere, love held in place with desire. He relaxed into the embrace of that energy, into his love's embrace, warm and gentle, and Bruce's weight was on him, and they were united.
It wasn't violation, it wasn't submission, it was their bodies together, their minds together, it was joy. Kal's body arched to meet Bruce's and Bruce gasped sharply. His hands were in Kal's hair, his hips tight against Kal's body, and the pulse of desire was between them both, flaring bright and ardent. "Yes," Bruce said, and Kal echoed him in Kryptonian, Zi, zi, zi, and the words and passion met in the space between them and tipped them both over into climax.
Some time later, Kal pried his eyes open and met Bruce's cobalt-blue gaze. The other man seemed concerned, even slightly worried, but Kal couldn't figure out why in the world--oh.
He searched within himself for the shame, the burning knowledge that he had perverted his body and soul...and found nothing but satisfaction. "Thank you," he said, trying to weight the simple words with all he felt, and Bruce's worry faded into a slight smile, touched just lightly with smugness.
Kal pulled himself closer to Bruce, feeling skin against skin, savoring it. Let others speak of perversion and depravity; he knew the truth. This was merely another one of the many secrets he would share with his love: in bed, in costume, in all their life together.