the night starts here (3/?), will/skandar/anna, nc-17
*sighs happily* I managed to finish two fics that I've been working on FOREVER, in one day. Today was a good day. :)
Title: the night starts here (3/?)
Author: likecharity
Pairing: Will/Skandar/Anna
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: Slash and het. Real people. Sex toys.
Summary: Things have been perfect between the three of them, really. But it seems like there are some things they just haven't considered. Anna starts to have second thoughts.
A/N: From Anna's POV. This took a ridiculously long time to write, I should really try and be quicker. I'm not used to writing series-fic AT ALL, but there'll be more if people are still interested. :)
[ Part 1 ¦ Part 2. ¦ Part 3. ¦ Part 4. ¦ Part 5. ¦ Part 6. ¦ Part 7a & Part 7b. ¦ Part 8a & Part 8b. ¦ TBC]
Anna wakes up and falls back to sleep again a few times that morning, dimly aware of soft sheets, morning sunlight streaming through a gap in the curtains, and warm bodies curled up close to her. When she wakes up properly, Will is standing at the foot of the bed holding a tray. She rubs her eyes and blinks sleepily at him.
"Morning," he says happily, walking round to her side of the bed and brandishing the tray at her proudly. She notices then that he's dressed already, and wonders vaguely what time it is.
"Morning," she replies, shuffling into a sitting position. She looks at the tray, remembers the previous night, and sighs. "Will, God. I can't believe this. Pizza and wine in bed last night-"
"And sex," Will interjects. "Don't forget the sex."
"How could I?" she grins. "Okay. Pizza and wine in bed. Sex in bed. And now breakfast in bed?" She turns to look at Skandar, who is curled up into a small ball next to her, his eyes scrunched tightly shut beneath his fringe. "Skandar, we are so spoiled. Utterly spoiled. Skandar?"
She elbows him and he wriggles around a bit. "Mmhm. Spoiled. Yeah," he groans, then buries his head underneath the covers.
"Skan, I've got breakfast," Will says loudly, and Anna shuffles aside so that he can clamber onto the bed with them, impressively managing not to spill the entire contents of the tray everywhere. "Tea. And toast."
Skandar makes a vaguely interested noise, but does not move.
"It's buttered and everything," Anna adds.
Will prods Anna's arm and points at one of the plates of toast, which is covered in something not yellow, but brown. She wrinkles her nose.
"Actually, I put chocolate spread on yours, Skan," he says, grinning at Anna as Skandar's head emerges from beneath the sheets.
He rolls over, squinting at them. "Really?" he says in a small voice.
Will picks up the plate and offers it to him, waving it gently from side to side temptingly. Skandar sits up and takes the plate. As his attention is fully focused on the toast, Will and Anna exchange mocking gestures about the state of his hair, which is sticking out in various directions and curling in front of his eyes. Anna muffles her giggles with a hand over her mouth, and takes her own plate and mug.
"What are we going to do today?" she asks, taking a bite.
Will looks like he's considering an answer, but Skandar interrupts him.
"Each other," says Skandar through a mouthful of toast, "hopefully."
Will thumps him. "Skandar!"
Skandar just grins at them both. There is chocolate spread on his teeth.
"Well, you're only staying one more night, right?" Will says, deciding to ignore their other bed mate. "I thought we could go to a restaurant tonight or something."
"How romantic," says Skandar, again with his mouth full, spraying toast crumbs. Will thumps him again and turns back to Anna.
"That's actually just your way of saying you've run out of food, isn't it?" she asks him suspiciously.
"It is a bit," he admits. "I've got something for lunch, I think, but yeah...I probably should have planned this better."
Anna laughs at him and shrugs. "A restaurant sounds nice," she says, and then absentmindedly adds, "Drink your tea."
"-dear," says Skandar, and this time Will thumps him really hard.
He looks mournfully at the sheets. "Do you think you could maybe try to keep some of the food in your mouth, Skan?"
Skandar chews exaggeratedly and then swallows loudly. "Are you saying you're going to kick me out of bed for eating...toast?"
"I'm saying we're going to have to wash these sheets," Will says, ignoring the joke and sipping his tea. "They're disgusting."
"I think they were disgusting before food even came into it," Skandar says cheekily. "You're the one who keeps bringing us food in bed, anyway, you can't complain."
Anna heaves a sigh and puts her now-empty plate back on the tray. She stretches, taking a sip of her tea, and a tiny river of crumbs runs down a crease in the duvet. She looks at Will, but he isn't paying attention, so she turns to Skandar instead, and he flicks a crumb at her.
They lie in bed all morning, really, until they get hungry again, and Skandar and Anna traipse into the kitchen after Will in various states of undress. Will cooks them pasta, because it seems to be the only food he has left, and he watches it like a hawk, scared of repeating what he has christened The Great Pasta Disaster of Last Night.
After lunch he decides he really does need some more food, and he manages to rope Skandar into getting dressed and coming to the corner shop with him. Anna says she really needs a shower and decides to stay behind. She needs a bit of time alone anyway.
Once they've left, she sits on the edge of the dining table in only a t-shirt (one of Will's, too big for her and cosy, it smells like him) and thinks. She's been doing quite a good job of not thinking until now, really, and it's impressive, because it's not really in her nature. Will and Skandar are both really close friends of hers, so to sleep with one of them would have been a big enough deal, but sleeping with both of them, and twice is starting to make her nervous.
And it's not that it's bad, because it's really not, at all. Things have been perfect between the three of them, really. But it seems like there are some things they just haven't considered. She knows that there are friends that have sex, and it doesn't mean anything, they're just having fun, but even if she were the type of person to do that -- which she's pretty sure she isn't -- Skandar and Will would not be the boys she would choose to do it with.
It's because she loves them, really. She cares about them too much. She can't imagine her life without either of them, as much as they get on her nerves sometimes. And the sex doesn't feel meaningless to her. How could it be meaningless with boys that mean so much to her? Anna sinks her head down into her hands and sighs. This isn't the kind of relationship they could ever tell the press about, for one thing. If it were just her and Will, or even her and Skandar, they probably could, after a lot of thinking and talking with their agents. But this, this isn't even a relationship she could tell her parents about.
She remembers Skandar's teasing in the morning, his 'dear' tacked on to the end of her sentence. It makes her realise she doesn't even want a serious relationship. She's too young for that. It's too scary. Especially with two close friends. What if it ruins things between the three of them forever? And how would they explain that? But if she doesn't want a serious relationship, what does she want? Just sex? She doesn't think it could ever be just sex with the three of them. It's not meaningless, she's already covered that.
Her head is starting to hurt. She pushes herself back off the table and heads into the bedroom. She pulls on some clothes, stuffs everything else into her bag, and carries it back into the kitchen. She checks her purse -- she has enough money to buy a last-minute train ticket. She scribbles a note and leaves the flat without looking back.
* * *
Her Grandparents aren't all that surprised that she's arrived a bit earlier than they planned, and they don't ask her questions about it, which she's grateful for. She's never been a very good liar.
Will keeps ringing her on her mobile, and she just can't face talking to him. She doesn't know what to say. She knows she left rudely, abruptly, without saying goodbye, but she can't even formulate an explanation in her own mind so she's got no idea how she can be expected to give one to someone else. She turns off her phone the third day she's there, even though by that time Will seems to have given up.
But then in the evening she has an idea. She really does need to talk to somebody about all of this, and she can't exactly talk to Will and Skandar themselves, or her family, but she thinks she has a pretty good idea of someone who might understand. She shuts herself in her room before dinner and switches her phone back on. She has a text from Will simply saying 'you okay?' and she ignores it, going to her address book to find the number she needs.
"Tilda, hi, um, it's Anna," says Anna softly into the phone when she hears a 'good afternoon?' answer her call.
"Anna? Oh, Anna, hello!" Tilda cries. She sounds surprised, which Anna supposes makes sense, seeing as she's only ever phoned her a few times. "What's up?"
"Um, well," Anna stammers. "Is there a way we could meet up? I need to talk to you about something."
"Is everything all right?" Tilda asks, concerned.
"Sort of, not really," Anna says quietly, then thinks about it and corrects herself. "No, I mean, it's fine, it's just...there's something I need to talk about. It's not serious. It's okay if you're busy."
"Well, I am in London," says Tilda, "so you're in luck. I'm only here for one more day though. I'm free later this evening, if you want to--"
"Oh, no," Anna says, her heart sinking. "No, I'm in Norfolk with my Grandparents right now. But -- well, I'm coming back home tomorrow, my train gets in just after three. But my parents will be expecting me, and I -- oh, never mind, this was stupid. I'm sorry. I mean, I didn't even think. It's not that important anyway, I can just --"
"Listen, I'll come and meet you at the station, okay? Kings Cross? We can get a cup of tea at the station and you can tell me all about whatever it is, and then I can drive you back home. How's that?" Tilda says.
Anna sighs. "Oh, Tilda, you're a lifesaver," she says. She actually feels close to tears, but she can't imagine why. "Thank you, thank you."
"Just after three, right? It's no problem, Anna, don't sweat it," Tilda says. "I've got to go, but I'll see you tomorrow, and don't worry about it. Worrying never helped anyone."
After they've both hung up, Anna fiddles with her mobile, debating making another phone call. She's started feeling really guilty now about ignoring Will's calls.
"Anna, dear, are you all right in there?" her Gran asks suddenly, tapping at the closed door.
Anna throws down her phone. "I'm fine, Gran! I was just ringing Mum to confirm the plans for tomorrow."
"Well, your Grandad's made your favourite meal for tea," her Gran replies. "It's ready, so come down when you are."
The second they've finished eating, the phone rings. To Anna's surprise, Gran turns and holds out the phone to her.
"It's for you, dear," she says, a twinkle in her eyes. "It's that lovely Will."
Anna frowns and takes the phone, covering the mouthpiece. "Thanks, Gran. I'll just -- um, I'll take this upstairs."
She runs up to her room and shuts the door before answering. "Will?" she says. "I didn't even know you had this number."
"Neither did I," chuckles Will on the other end of the line. "I think there's something wrong with your mobile, though, and Skandar found this number in my address book, so we thought we'd give it a go."
"Oh," says Anna. She's not quite sure where to go with this conversation. "Listen, Will, I'm sorry I left early without saying anything, I was just --"
"It's okay," says Will cheerfully, "we got your note and everything. I hope your Gran's hip is okay."
Anna cringes, remembering her lie. She really does hate having to lie. "Yeah," she says. "Yeah, she's doing better. I'm leaving tomorrow actually."
"It's a shame we didn't get as much time together as we thought we would," Will says thoughtfully. "You know you're welcome to come back and stay anytime. Skandar's still here, so if you want to skip London and come back up here tomorrow..."
"No," she says, maybe a little too firmly. "I told Mum and Dad I'd be back tomorrow."
"Just for one night?" Will says, and then she hears something in the background and Will snaps, "Shut up Skandar!"
She doesn't say anything, trying to find the right words.
"Anna, are you okay?" Will asks after a moment. "You really only left because of your Gran, right? There isn't -- some other reason?"
"It's just..." she starts, then sighs. "No, I don't want to do this over the phone."
"Are you breaking up with us?" Will says, and his voice is weird, the tone sort of half-teasing and half-serious.
"I just don't think this is something we should do all the time," Anna says quietly. "I mean, it's not -- it's not a relationship. Is it? No, it's not, that's ridiculous, I mean there are three of us..."
"I don't know," says Will, sounding confused. "We're just -- this is -- listen, Anna, don't do this. Don't do the where-is-this-going talk. At least don't do it over the phone. Come and stay."
Skandar is making concerned noises in the background.
"If we have to talk about this I'd rather do it in person," Will goes on, and then, after a "shh" presumably directed at Skandar, he says, "Please, Anna. Don't get upset about all this, we can work it out. It's no big deal."
Anna still doesn't know what to say. She thinks she can hear Grandad coming up the stairs.
"Come on. Come back. Please?"
"Maybe," she says quickly and quietly, almost hissing it down the phone. "I've got something I need to do, first, anyway. I'll -- I'll be in touch."
* * *
Tilda buys their tea to go, and carries the cups outside the station, Anna trotting after her, confused.
"I have a hunch," says Tilda, turning to give her a wry smile, "that whatever you have to talk to me about isn't suitable for a busy train station."
"You're right," Anna laughs, and they find a bench in a slightly quieter area outside, and sit down.
"Okay," says Tilda, taking the lid off her tea. "Shoot."
Anna hesitates. She hasn't actually decided quite how to say all of this. She stalls, taking a sip of her tea, and burns her tongue. "Ow."
"I'm guessing it's to do with boys," Tilda says, looking her straight in the eye.
Anna looks back at her in surprise.
"Sorry for being so presumptuous," Tilda says, smiling, "but I've had quite a bit of experience, and I could tell by the way you've been approaching the whole subject."
"I haven't really approached it at all, yet," Anna says sadly, looking down at her cup. "I don't know how to."
"Well, I may be perceptive," says Tilda firmly, "but I can't read your mind, so I'm afraid you're on your own with that part."
Anna nods and takes a deep breath. "It's about Will and Skandar."
"Will and Skandar?" says Tilda, then, knowingly, "Ah, a love triangle."
"Not exactly," Anna says quickly. "It's -- well," she lowers her voice, "we slept together. The three of us. Twice."
It's hard to tell what Tilda's reaction is. She raises her eyebrows, and her lips sort of start to curl into a smile, but then she takes another sip of her tea and looks off into the distance thoughtfully.
"I, um, I thought I'd tell you because, well, I don't really have anyone else to talk to about it, and I know you're quite...liberal, in your...relationships," says Anna, and then immediately regrets it when Tilda doesn't say anything. "And, um, it's not really how it sounds," she says, just to fill the silence really. "I mean, well, no, it's exactly like that. But it's not like they were taking advantage of me or anything, it's not even -- it's not even all about me, they're -- they're pretty interested in each other, as well."
Tilda does smile at this, suddenly softening, and runs a hand through her hair. "Skandar told me he thought he was gay, once."
"Really?"
Tilda nods. She sips her tea again. She doesn't seem to be in any hurry with this conversation, which makes things a little difficult, because Anna really is. "He told me he fancied Will, at any rate, and then he completely panicked because he thought I was going to tell somebody. We never talked about it again. I did try to reassure him, but he was just -- well, you know. He was hopeless. He was convinced you and Will were already involved in a secret relationship, or were going to be sooner or later."
"I suppose he had that bit right," Anna laughs. "I guess he didn't know he would be involved too."
"When did this start?" Tilda asks.
"After the premiere," Anna tells her. "The London one, I mean. I walked in on the two of them kissing, and then it was just -- well, it was just weird, I think we'd all had a bit too much to drink, we went up to the hotel and --"
"Oh, yes," Tilda interrupts. "I saw the three of you leave together. I suppose one thing led to another?"
Anna grins and nods. "Yeah," she says. "And it was awkward in the morning, but we all said we didn't regret it, and then Will invited us to stay with him a few days ago, and it was just amazing. I mean, it was really awkward again, at first, because Skandar walked in on me in the shower, but, well, anyway, we ended up -- you know -- we did it again, and it was just...it was the best thing I have ever felt."
"Forgive me," says Tilda slowly, running a long finger along the rim of her cup, "but I'm failing to see what the problem is, here."
Anna hesitates again. "It's just..." she says, and then trails off. She drinks some more of her tea to give herself time to think. "I just don't know what it all means. It's wonderful, of course. And I really love them. I'm so comfortable with them and I'm starting to get, you know, really used to the way things are, now. But I'm not -- I mean, I'm not in love with them. And they're not in love with me. But isn't it -- isn't it a bit weird then?"
"To have sex with people you aren't in love with?" says Tilda.
Anna frowns. "When you say it like that," she says, "it doesn't seem so weird."
"People have sex without being in love all the time," says Tilda. "Sometimes they end up falling in love, sometimes they don't."
"Yes, but what if we don't?" Anna urges. "Then our whole friendship might be completely destroyed, and it'll be for nothing."
"But do you want it to stop?"
Anna considers this. "No," she admits. "I really do like it."
"Of course," Tilda smiles. "Listen, I understand your worries, but really, it's still very early on, and you've got plenty of time to figure out how you all feel. The friendship the three of you have is strong enough, I think, to survive this, as long as you keep your communication going. You're still young, you don't have to make any sort of commitment. As long as you're careful -- and I mean that in terms of keeping this a secret from anyone you think ought not to know, not using protection, because you're a smart girl and you don't need me to tell you that -- then I think you should just have fun with it. Don't worry so much about it. The three of you have grown into such amazing, intelligent, mature young people, and I have no doubt in my mind that you can handle this."
Anna smiles slowly. "Oh, Tilda," she sighs, "thank you so much. You've really helped me to see it differently. God, I was being stupid, panicking, wasn't I?"
"Not at all," says Tilda, reaching out and rubbing her shoulder gently. "I think your reaction was perfectly reasonable. I'm just glad I could help."
"Thank you," says Anna again, weakly. She doesn't know what else to say.
"No worries, man," Tilda grins, and stands up. "Right, where to? Do you still want me to drive you home, or are you wanting to go back to Gloucestershire?"
Anna hesitates. "Well," she says, looking up at Tilda and squinting in the sun. "Actually, do you think you could drive me into town? There's something I think I want to buy."
* * *
"Yep?" Will's voice says through the intercom, a few hours later when Anna has finally arrived back in Gloucestershire and is standing outside Will's block of flats.
"It's me. It's Anna," she says, leaning in towards the little speaker to make sure he can hear her.
"Anna?" he says in surprise. "Hang on."
There's a buzz, and she pushes the door and goes in. When she gets to his floor, the door is already open, and he's standing there in just a pair of jeans, grinning widely at her.
"You didn't say you were coming!"
"I wanted it to be a surprise," she smiles back, and he grabs her and hugs her.
"Is everything okay?" he says softly, into her hair, and she smiles against his shoulder and sighs.
"Yeah," she says. "Everything's okay."
Just then, Skandar wanders in. He's only in his jeans, too, and is spooning ice cream into his mouth straight from the tub. "Oh no," he says when he sees her.
"That's nice of you, Skan," she snits.
"We're not going to have to have a serious talk, now, are we?" he says, licking his spoon clean and walking over to them. "Will said that when he rang, you were --"
"It's okay," she interrupts. "We don't have to talk about anything if you don't want to. I talked to Tilda and I'm a lot less all-over-the-place now."
"You talked to Tilda?" Skandar almost shouts. He nearly drops his spoon.
"Woah," says Will quietly, shutting the door behind her and frowning. "Woah, Anna, why?"
"Well I needed somebody to talk to," Anna says, a little surprised by their reaction. "And seeing as she's a woman with a husband and a boyfriend, I thought she was a pretty good person to choose."
"But -- but it's Tilda," Skandar gasps. He plonks down his spoon and the ice cream tub and wipes his hands furiously on his jeans. "What did she say?"
"She didn't freak out or anything -- which is more than I can say for some people, god, calm down -- she basically said it wasn't a big deal and, you know, that we should have fun, but be careful about who finds out."
"Yeah, you haven't really been following that advice, have you," says Will, and Anna spins round to look at him in surprise.
"What?" she says. "What? I didn't think you'd mind. It's only Tilda. She won't tell anyone."
"It just would've been nice if you asked us first," Will retorts. He looks pretty angry, but isn't as panicked as Skandar. "Surely it's the kind of decision the three of us should make together."
"Oh, for heaven's sake, I didn't go out and talk to The Sun, did I?" snaps Anna. "I told Tilda, she's a friend of ours, she's known us for years. Do you not trust her or something?"
"It's not about who you told," Will fires back, "it's about the fact that you told someone without talking to us about it first. What if I'd just gone off and told one of my mates everything? How would you feel about that?"
He's got her there. She'd hate that. She stands silently.
"I'm sorry," says Will, always quick to calm down arguments. "It's just a bit of a shock, that's all. I kind of assumed we were just going to be keeping this a secret, at least for now."
"No, yeah, of course," says Anna, a bit flustered and embarrassed now. How could she not have realised that what she was doing was unfair? She hadn't even considered how Will and Skandar would feel about it, she'd just thought about what she needed and what she wanted to do. "I'm really sorry. I honestly didn't realise it would upset you, but it makes a lot of sense now. It won't happen again."
Will nods. She looks to Skandar, who is scuffing his bare feet across the carpet and avoiding looking at either of them. "Skandar, I'm sorry," she says.
"Yeah," he mumbles. He runs a hand through his messy dark hair, and swings his head back round to look at them. "Can we just forget it? If Tilda didn't make a big deal of it, then we shouldn't either."
Anna nods slowly. "Yeah," she says. "Sure. Okay."
And then she remembers.
"Oh!" she cries, fumbling through the three bags she's carrying. "I actually -- I have a, well, a surprise. A nice surprise, I mean. Well, I hope. To make up for, you know, the way I've been acting. Because I really am sorry. It's kind of like a present."
Skandar's eyes light up at this. "A present?"
"It's mostly for Will, really," she says quickly, not wanting him to get his hopes up. His face falls. "Sorry. I mean, it's not like you won't -- well, it's -- okay."
Slightly flustered and embarrassed, she pulls out a box from one of her bags and holds it out towards Will. Her hands are a little shaky, she realises, and she feels stupid for it -- she's always been going on about how comfortable she feels with them, particularly Will, but she can't help it, she's really worried about what their reaction to this will be. Will takes the box, giving her a bit of a nervous smile.
"You're all pink," he says suspiciously.
He turns and walks round to sit down in an armchair, and Anna and Skandar follow, Skandar slumping down on the sofa and taking up most of it, leaving Anna to sit on the floor, watching Will and wringing her hands anxiously.
Will opens the box, and for a moment, he just stares.
And then, "Anna!" he cries, and holds his hand over his mouth, looking down into the box. "This is -- this is--"
"What? What is it?" Skandar asks, suddenly interested, sitting up and peering into the box. For a moment, he is speechless too, and then he suddenly bursts out laughing.
Anna shoots him a hurt look. "What's so funny?" she snaps.
"A strap-on?" he laughs, shaking his head, and she frowns and glares at him, her face burning. She should've expected him to be immature about it, really. Maybe it was stupid for her to think that he'd grown up when it came to the topic of sex.
"I don't think it's funny," says Will, lifting the strap-on out of the box and turning it over in his hands.
Anna looks at it, still blushing. It is kind of funny, that's the worst thing. It's a fake penis -- she can kind of understand why Skandar is in hysterics over in the corner. She debated for ages about what kind to get, because there were so many, and she didn't want to get something bright pink or glittery, but at the same time, some of them were kind of disturbingly realistic, and she wasn't fond of those either. And then there was the size -- she didn't want to get anything that would make Skandar feel inadequate.
"Where did you get this?" Will asks, interrupting her train of thought.
"In a shop back home," Anna says. "I got it earlier today, Tilda drove me into town."
"Did she know why you needed to go into town?" Will asks, grinning.
"Yeah," says Anna in surprise. "She came with me. She knew where they'd sell them, actually, it was quite helpful because I had no idea."
"Oh," says Will. He pauses. "My mind," he says slowly, "is now full of Tilda and -- and -- things that you buy in sex shops."
Skandar makes a slight choking sound and Anna turns to look at him. He is very pale.
"Are you having us on?" he asks in a small voice.
Anna laughs. "No," she says, "why?"
"I think we should change the subject," says Will, quickly, and they all laugh. "Anna, no one recognised you when you were buying this, did they?"
"No, I wore my disguise."
"By disguise," says Skandar, "she means a floppy hat and a pair of sunglasses."
Anna sticks her tongue out at him. Their houses are really close to each other, back in London, and there have been quite a few occasions when she's been worried about being recognised and then ended up bumping into Skandar, only to have him make fun of her for her hat-and-glasses combo.
"It worked," she says. "No one recognised either of us."
"Good thing, too," Will says, chuckling. "Because it'll be all your own fault if tomorrow the papers all have headlines like 'Teenage Narnia star caught buying sex toys'."
Skandar splutters with laughter again and Will thumps him. "I'm serious! Can you imagine?"
"We don't have anything to worry about! The woman in the shop didn't really look like the type to appreciate C.S. Lewis," Anna says, grinning. "It was awful on the train, though, I had to go standard class and it was so busy, and there were these kids everywhere and I kept thinking the bag was going to fall down and they'd all see it..."
"That would've been difficult to explain," says Will, grinning. Skandar has already dissolved into giggles again.
When he calms down, there's a bit of an awkward pause, and the three of them look at each other.
"We missed you, you know," says Will after a few moments. "I'm glad you came back."
Anna smiles. "Me too."
Skandar suddenly snorts, and they both turn to him. "Sorry," he says, grinning. "It's just -- you're trying to have this nice moment and everything, but, Will, you're holding a rubber dick."
Will looks down and sees that the strap-on is, in fact, still in his hand, and Anna laughs at him.
"So, um," Will says, "can this be used right away?"
Skandar sniggers, and Anna grins. "Well, it has to be sterilised," she says, taking the strap-on from Will.
"Wow, that's so sexy," Skandar says sarcastically, shaking his head.
Will completely ignores him. "And how -- how do you do that?"
"It came with these wipes," Anna answers, trying to stop the smile from spreading across her face as she gets to her feet and reaches into the bag.
She hands the little packet of wipes to Will, and he glances at them and hands them right back to her, along with the strap-on. She has to try really hard not to smile now, but Skandar doesn't make the same effort at all, and dissolves into fits of laughter.
"Will, you are so embarrassing," he groans. "Have some dignity!"
Will goes slightly pink, but doesn't say anything. Anna holds out her free hand to him, and he takes it, pulling himself up out of his chair. The two of them head for the bedroom, leaving Skandar shaking his head on the sofa.
* * *
In Will's bedroom, Anna sits on the bed with Will practically wrapped around her, sitting behind her with his chest against her back. He rests his chin on her shoulder and watches as she rubs down the dildo with one of the wipes.
"Are you doing that on purpose?"
"Doing what?" she asks, grinning as he shifts behind her.
"Simulating a bloody handjob, Anna," he laughs in her ear, and she giggles.
"No, actually," she says. "I think you're just easily excited."
She can already feel his erection against her back, and she grins to herself, drying the strap-on and putting all of the cleaning supplies aside.
He's kissing her when Skandar finally enters the room, and they look up to see him slouching there against the wall, thumbs hooked in the belt loops of his jeans, pulling them further down on his hips. He shrugs when he sees them looking at him.
"Don't let me stop you," he sighs with an exaggerated wave of the hand.
Anna thinks he's just being cute, but Will knows him better than she does, and she catches on to something when the two boys exchange a look.
"Skandar, don't be a twat, come here," Will says, beckoning, and Skandar slides onto the bed somewhat reluctantly.
"It's not even that big," he says derisively, taking the strap-on from Anna's hands and looking at it. "I don't really see why you're so excited--"
"Skandar, would you just shut up and help me get it on?" Anna interrupts. She's beginning to get fed up of his attitude, and the obvious solution to this seems to be to take her top off, so she does.
He kind of stammers a bit, but by the time she's pulling her knickers down, he's silent.
Finally.
It turns out to be a three-person job -- the straps are all over the place and it takes them a good few minutes to get everything attached. She starts to get excited, from having their fingers brushing up against her hips and her thighs as they secure the straps. They're being such men about it, all methodical, "Does this go there?" and "Can you pull that a bit tighter?" until it's all secured.
She turns to the mirror. "Oh, I look ridiculous," she sighs, disappointed. The dildo looks quite comical jutting out between her legs, the tan colour of it standing out against her pale skin.
"You don't look as ridiculous as I thought you would," Skandar says helpfully, shucking his jeans and crawling across the bed to help Will out of his.
"You seem enthusiastic all of a sudden," Will comments.
Anna turns around, and sees that neither of the boys were wearing any underwear under their jeans. She bites her lip, feeling herself starting to get wet, but she knows this isn't about her. This time it's not going to be Will inside her, it's going to be her inside Will.
She starts to get nervous, but then she's suddenly distracted from the butterflies in her stomach by the way Will and Skandar are together. They're kissing, which is normal, but there's something about the way they're doing it -- something different. They seem a lot more comfortable with each other, and she supposes this shouldn't come as a surprise. The more time passes, the more comfortable the three of them are becoming. She thinks about how quickly and easily she undressed in front of them this time, and how panicked and shy she'd been last time, and thinks that maybe she shouldn't be confused by any changes between Will and Skandar.
Will says, "Come on," or something along those lines, and Anna shakes herself out of her daze and clambers onto the bed.
She ends up on the end, next to Will, and for the first time she's really aware of it. It's always Will in the middle.
"You okay?" he asks her, then, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear and kissing her neck.
She nods. "'Course," she replies, wishing she could just stop overthinking all of this. It wasn't like this the other times, and she thought things were going to be fine after discussing it all with Tilda.
Sex will clear her mind, she tells herself absently, closing her eyes as Will leans in for a kiss. She reaches down to curl her fingers around Will's cock and ends up curling them around Skandar's hand instead. Her instinct is to jerk her hand away, but for a moment neither of them move, and then Skandar's hand wriggles out from underneath hers. She sighs into Will's mouth and then pulls away.
She's about to say something -- though she doesn't know what -- when she realises that Will's hand is wrapped around the strap-on dildo. She lets out a burst of laughter.
"Will," she says, giggling. "I can't feel that, you idiot."
He just laughs and then brings his hand lower, down where she definitely can feel.
"Wow, you're so wet," he says gently, and it's nice, because it's so casual -- it doesn't come across like he's trying to be sexy, or like he's at all nervous about voicing the words.
"Yeah," she murmurs, shifting her hips to get more comfortable.
"Skandar, come feel," Will adds, turning to look at the motionless Skandar next to them on the bed.
Anna shudders a little as Skandar shuffles closer and his hand replaces Will's between her legs. She glances up at him but he doesn't meet her eyes, and his fingers slide across her cunt, shaking slightly.
She can't stop herself thinking.
She doesn't feel like she's really connected with Skandar since the last time they kissed, when they were alone in Will's bedroom when he'd gone in search of condoms. That was when she really felt like he wanted her, and she knew she wanted him. He didn't seem anxious, and he wasn't being obnoxious and making sarcastic comments. He was just letting himself feel what he was feeling, something she's beginning to think it's hard for him to do when Will is in the room. Is it just because he sees her as a threat to what he has with Will?
"Are you okay?" a voice asks, bringing her out of her thoughts again, and she's surprised to realise it's Skandar speaking, his hand having stilled between her legs. He's looking at her, a crease in his forehead, frowning.
"Yeah," she assures. "It's just -- my mind's working overtime. It's stupid. I'm sorry. I'm fine."
"You sure?" Will asks. "We can -- we can leave this for another night."
Skandar looks vaguely put-out at this suggestion, but it doesn't matter, because Anna's not going for it either. "No way," she says, trying to push all of her wonderings to the back of her mind. She grabs the strap-on dildo in her fist. "I bought you this present today, I'm going to use it today."
She grins, maybe a little too wide, and Will says, "Okay," and then makes a noise kind of like 'eek' and Skandar sniggers at him. Will punches him in the arm, Anna reprimands Will, and just like that -- everything's back to normal.
"Fuck," Will's muttering only a moment later when Anna's got her lips wrapped round his cock and Skandar's got two fingers inside him, thrusting quickly, preparing him for what's to come. "Fuck."
They're doing it again -- putting Will in the middle -- but it's okay, because it works. It feels right. And Anna can't help it, there's something she really likes about having Will writhing between them, against them, chanting swearwords and wanting more. She likes him best when he's lost his composure, for some reason. She guesses it's just because it's something that doesn't happen often.
"Anna -- fuck, Skandar, keep -- yeah. Yeah."
Anna and Skandar exchange a grin, and Skandar smoothes her hair back out of her face for her. She relaxes her jaw a little more and tries to slide his cock deeper into her mouth, trying not to gag. She feels his stomach tense up, and she keeps going, looking up at Skandar.
Skandar looks impressed. That must be good.
She slides back again, throat slightly sore, and then does it again, and Skandar does something that makes Will start yanking at the duvet.
"Fuck -- oh fuck -- oh, Anna -- oh --"
And suddenly he's gripping desperately to her shoulder and then pulling her back, and she sits up quickly, worried.
"What? What is it?"
"No, nothing," he says breathlessly. "I was just -- I was going to come."
"Oh," she says, grinning.
"Can you grab the --?" he says, obviously quite keen on hurrying the conversation along, and he gestures to the bedside table.
She grabs the lube, noting that it is next to a box of condoms. "You're keeping the stuff here, now? Convenient."
She slicks up the dildo, her heart pounding as she thinks about what she's about to do. Skandar's hand is moving frantically on his own cock, and she smiles at him again, seeing him smile shyly back.
"This is really crazy," he whispers, hand slowing, and she laughs.
"It really is," she whispers back, and they grin at each other. She shuffles towards him on her knees, and, on impulse, kisses him. He seems to welcome it, which makes her feel a lot more comfortable about the way he's been acting.
"Guys..." Will whines.
"Oh, sorry, Will, I forgot you were so desperate for this," says Anna, pulling away from Skandar and waving the dildo at Will.
"I'm not desperate," Will says defensively, "I just want you to get on with it, that's all."
"Because he's desperate," Skandar whispers, and Anna laughs as Will pouts impatiently at them.
When she starts to enter him, he is on his hands and knees, Skandar in front of him, gently stroking his shoulder. She pushes her hips forward, guiding the dildo with her hand, and it pushes inside him. It seems huge, suddenly, even though she's watched Skandar do this and Will never seemed to be in pain. She tenses suddenly and slows down.
"Anna, I have done this before," she hears him say, and Skandar laughs.
"Yeah, but I haven't," she reminds him. "I have no idea what I'm doing, I can't feel a thing."
"Need some help?" Skandar offers.
"Please."
A few seconds later, Skandar is kneeling behind her, reaching forwards and helping her slide the dildo inside Will at the right angle. Judging by the way Will is groaning and sighing and almost pushing back up against her, Skandar's help is a great success. He presses up closer to her, showing her how to thrust, his hands on her hips pulling them gently back and forth.
She can feel his erection against her back, hot and hard, and she swallows as it rubs against her skin. She's so wet that her thighs are slick, and she and Skandar move in a perfect rhythm together, sliding the thick dildo in and out. She imagines Skandar moving just slightly, and slipping inside her. She squirms in his grip, trying to concentrate, and Will moans suddenly.
"Oh, god," he breathes, "do that again."
She turns, meaning to give Skandar a questioning look, but then she sees his face, so close to hers, his lips shiny and parted and his eyes dark, and she just stares at him blankly.
"You kind of," he begins, but his voice is croaky, and he clears his throat, blushing slightly. "You kind of moved your hips -- like this."
He holds her hips tighter, his cock pressing against her back, and moves them in a tiny, slow circle. Will groans again. Anna almost doesn't hear him, she's still staring at Skandar.
He rests his chin on her shoulder. "You got it?" he asks, grinning.
"Yeah..." she murmurs. "Yeah, I think so."
He shifts, moving away from her, and she aches between her legs, wishing she could reach down and touch herself as she does this. She thrusts into Will again, placing her hands on his arse and sliding the dildo deeper.
"Oh, fuck," Will moans, shuddering, and she smiles, fucking him faster, her hips hitting his arse with every thrust. "Oh, you're good at this," he sighs, craning his neck to look back at her, and she twists frustratedly again at the sight of him, his sweaty hair in his eyes and the way he bites his lip.
Skandar is back in front of Will again, and when Will turns back to face him, Skandar smoothes the hair back from his face. Then suddenly Will's head dips, and Skandar gasps, throwing his head back, and Anna peers round to see what's happening -- though she can already make a pretty good guess.
Will is sucking Skandar's cock, his head bobbing back and forth enthusiastically, and Anna wishes she could watch this properly because the effect it's having on Skandar is pretty amazing. He has his head thrown back, still, his long, pale white throat exposed, and one of his hands is trembling on Will's shoulder, clutching at him. Anna pulls out of Will almost completely, and then slides slowly back in, making him whimper around Skandar's cock and grab onto the sheets.
She thrusts slowly, enjoying having this sort of control over him, watching him work Skandar's cock with his mouth, pulling back and then drawing him all the way into his throat. Skandar seems almost unable to move, his mouth wide open, his breath catching. Suddenly Anna realises that Will is bucking back against her, rocking back and forth and fucking himself on the dildo, and she almost groans, rubbing up against the strap of the harness between her legs. He looks like such a slut.
It's not long, though, before she's the one feeling like a slut, desperate for someone to touch her. She hates to drag Skandar away, but something's got to be done.
"Skandar," she says breathlessly, reaching out for him. "Skandar, come here, please."
"What?" he asks, blinking at her, wide-eyed.
"Just -- please," she gasps.
He doesn't really move until Will does, releasing Skandar's cock from his mouth and rolling over onto his back suddenly. The dildo slips out of him but Anna barely notices, because he seems to have read her mind, and is reaching blindly for the box of condoms. He manages to grab one and he hands it to Skandar, who is just staring at the two of them, completely clueless.
Will reaches for the strap-on, sliding it back inside himself with clumsy fingers, pulling Anna in between his legs. And in the time this takes, Skandar seems to have understood, and he has the condom on by the time Anna has looked at him again. He's staring at her, as if still needing confirmation, and she pulls him towards her, kissing him as Will lifts up his legs to make room.
Skandar shuffles round and slots back into place behind Anna, his cock once again pressing against her back, so hot and hard, and she wants it inside her so badly.
"Are you--" he starts.
"Yes," she replies.
"Do you need me to--" Will begins.
"No," they both tell him.
She leans down, dildo sliding smoothly into Will, filling him, and finds herself right on top of him, his legs wrapped around her and his cock hard and digging into her stomach. Her hair is hanging down over his face, but he doesn't seem to notice. She can't bring herself to care anyway, because she can feel the slick tip of Skandar's cock running over the wet folds of her cunt, and the anticipation is killing her.
"Please, Skandar, now," she almost moans, and Will smoothes back some of her hair to press his lips to her forehead.
Skandar pushes inside her excruciatingly slowly, but each stroke feels better than the last and when he's finally fully sheathed, she lets out a long sigh and turns back to smile at him gratefully. He still kind of looks like he's in shock.
The three of them stay still, sweaty, entangled, and then Will says softly, gently (like he understands something Anna doesn't), "How does it feel, Skandar?"
Skandar sucks in a sharp breath. "Just--" he says, and then breathes out again, shakily, "--really good."
"Can we move?" Anna whispers urgently.
"Please," Will agrees, and so she and Skandar do, pulling back a tiny bit, trying to move in time with each other.
She realises, then, that this is the same as the first time, only mixed up, in a different order. But then she doesn't have time to realise anything else, because Skandar is thrusting quickly into her, pushing her hips forward so that the dildo slides in and out of Will at the same time.
"Fuck," Will groans, reaching for his cock, wrapping his hand around it and stroking himself rapidly. "Fuck."
Anna's still a little lost, only going with Skandar's movements and not really being able to control it herself. But then Will squeezes his eyes shut tightly and says, "Yes, Anna, right there," and that's when she gets it, drawing back and pushing in, feeling Skandar move with her, making Will shudder and his muscles tense up. She keeps going, watching Will, mesmerised by the effect each thrust has on him, and lets herself enjoy the feeling of Skandar fucking her. Skandar fucking her, his skinny frame pressed against her, his breath hot against her back.
He shifts slightly and now part of her harness is rubbing against her clit, and it's a little too rough, but she's so wet that it soon doesn't matter, and she pushes up against it, feeling her orgasm approaching, making her dizzy and weak. Skandar starts fucking her harder, and she reaches behind her to grab hold of his hip, groaning, so close --
"Anna, oh god," he breathes, and she's gone, coming so hard that her surroundings swim, distorted and blurry around her.
She's dimly aware of Skandar still moving, pushing her back and forth, and she tries to keep going, to get Will off. She finds that spot again, mostly by accident, and suddenly he grabs hold of her hip, holding her deep inside him, and she watches as his body jerks and his come spurts over his chest.
"This is difficult," she murmurs a moment later, trying to pull out of Will and keep Skandar inside her, as Will is running a hand through his hair and trying to catch his breath and generally looking completely exhausted.
"Not for much longer," Skandar pants out, and then slumps against her. He pants something she can't understand and then moans against her shoulder, and she feels him come.
They both leave Will to clean up, but he doesn't seem to mind. Anna thinks he likes taking care of them, after all, and even though he must be as tired as they are, he unbuckles her harness and tidies everything up without complaint as she and Skandar lie there lazily on the bed.
He flops down happily next to Anna, and sighs. "I never knew you could...you know..." he says, and Anna laughs.
"It's not exactly a practised skill, Will," she giggles. "And Skandar helped. A lot."
She turns to look at Skandar, but he's curled up against her, his eyes closed. "'M sleeping," he mumbles. "For at least a week."
"Wow," says Anna.
"You are pretty good," Will tells her with a sleepy shrug.
She pulls a pillow down to rest her head on it. "I am?" she asks.
She doesn't get an answer. Both of the boys are already asleep.
* * *
Anna can't sleep at all that night. She thinks she really should be able to, after the day she's had, and she tries to tell herself it's because she slept quite a bit on the train, but she knows it's something more than that.
She's happy. Of course she's happy.
She disentangles herself from Will and Skandar's various limbs, and pads into the kitchen for a glass of water. Sitting on the kitchen counter, sipping slowly, she sighs. As happy as she is, she can't ignore a nagging thought.
Whether it's in a week or a year, she knows she's going to be the one to break this up.
Part 4.
Title: the night starts here (3/?)
Author: likecharity
Pairing: Will/Skandar/Anna
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: Slash and het. Real people. Sex toys.
Summary: Things have been perfect between the three of them, really. But it seems like there are some things they just haven't considered. Anna starts to have second thoughts.
A/N: From Anna's POV. This took a ridiculously long time to write, I should really try and be quicker. I'm not used to writing series-fic AT ALL, but there'll be more if people are still interested. :)
[ Part 1 ¦ Part 2. ¦ Part 3. ¦ Part 4. ¦ Part 5. ¦ Part 6. ¦ Part 7a & Part 7b. ¦ Part 8a & Part 8b. ¦ TBC]
Anna wakes up and falls back to sleep again a few times that morning, dimly aware of soft sheets, morning sunlight streaming through a gap in the curtains, and warm bodies curled up close to her. When she wakes up properly, Will is standing at the foot of the bed holding a tray. She rubs her eyes and blinks sleepily at him.
"Morning," he says happily, walking round to her side of the bed and brandishing the tray at her proudly. She notices then that he's dressed already, and wonders vaguely what time it is.
"Morning," she replies, shuffling into a sitting position. She looks at the tray, remembers the previous night, and sighs. "Will, God. I can't believe this. Pizza and wine in bed last night-"
"And sex," Will interjects. "Don't forget the sex."
"How could I?" she grins. "Okay. Pizza and wine in bed. Sex in bed. And now breakfast in bed?" She turns to look at Skandar, who is curled up into a small ball next to her, his eyes scrunched tightly shut beneath his fringe. "Skandar, we are so spoiled. Utterly spoiled. Skandar?"
She elbows him and he wriggles around a bit. "Mmhm. Spoiled. Yeah," he groans, then buries his head underneath the covers.
"Skan, I've got breakfast," Will says loudly, and Anna shuffles aside so that he can clamber onto the bed with them, impressively managing not to spill the entire contents of the tray everywhere. "Tea. And toast."
Skandar makes a vaguely interested noise, but does not move.
"It's buttered and everything," Anna adds.
Will prods Anna's arm and points at one of the plates of toast, which is covered in something not yellow, but brown. She wrinkles her nose.
"Actually, I put chocolate spread on yours, Skan," he says, grinning at Anna as Skandar's head emerges from beneath the sheets.
He rolls over, squinting at them. "Really?" he says in a small voice.
Will picks up the plate and offers it to him, waving it gently from side to side temptingly. Skandar sits up and takes the plate. As his attention is fully focused on the toast, Will and Anna exchange mocking gestures about the state of his hair, which is sticking out in various directions and curling in front of his eyes. Anna muffles her giggles with a hand over her mouth, and takes her own plate and mug.
"What are we going to do today?" she asks, taking a bite.
Will looks like he's considering an answer, but Skandar interrupts him.
"Each other," says Skandar through a mouthful of toast, "hopefully."
Will thumps him. "Skandar!"
Skandar just grins at them both. There is chocolate spread on his teeth.
"Well, you're only staying one more night, right?" Will says, deciding to ignore their other bed mate. "I thought we could go to a restaurant tonight or something."
"How romantic," says Skandar, again with his mouth full, spraying toast crumbs. Will thumps him again and turns back to Anna.
"That's actually just your way of saying you've run out of food, isn't it?" she asks him suspiciously.
"It is a bit," he admits. "I've got something for lunch, I think, but yeah...I probably should have planned this better."
Anna laughs at him and shrugs. "A restaurant sounds nice," she says, and then absentmindedly adds, "Drink your tea."
"-dear," says Skandar, and this time Will thumps him really hard.
He looks mournfully at the sheets. "Do you think you could maybe try to keep some of the food in your mouth, Skan?"
Skandar chews exaggeratedly and then swallows loudly. "Are you saying you're going to kick me out of bed for eating...toast?"
"I'm saying we're going to have to wash these sheets," Will says, ignoring the joke and sipping his tea. "They're disgusting."
"I think they were disgusting before food even came into it," Skandar says cheekily. "You're the one who keeps bringing us food in bed, anyway, you can't complain."
Anna heaves a sigh and puts her now-empty plate back on the tray. She stretches, taking a sip of her tea, and a tiny river of crumbs runs down a crease in the duvet. She looks at Will, but he isn't paying attention, so she turns to Skandar instead, and he flicks a crumb at her.
They lie in bed all morning, really, until they get hungry again, and Skandar and Anna traipse into the kitchen after Will in various states of undress. Will cooks them pasta, because it seems to be the only food he has left, and he watches it like a hawk, scared of repeating what he has christened The Great Pasta Disaster of Last Night.
After lunch he decides he really does need some more food, and he manages to rope Skandar into getting dressed and coming to the corner shop with him. Anna says she really needs a shower and decides to stay behind. She needs a bit of time alone anyway.
Once they've left, she sits on the edge of the dining table in only a t-shirt (one of Will's, too big for her and cosy, it smells like him) and thinks. She's been doing quite a good job of not thinking until now, really, and it's impressive, because it's not really in her nature. Will and Skandar are both really close friends of hers, so to sleep with one of them would have been a big enough deal, but sleeping with both of them, and twice is starting to make her nervous.
And it's not that it's bad, because it's really not, at all. Things have been perfect between the three of them, really. But it seems like there are some things they just haven't considered. She knows that there are friends that have sex, and it doesn't mean anything, they're just having fun, but even if she were the type of person to do that -- which she's pretty sure she isn't -- Skandar and Will would not be the boys she would choose to do it with.
It's because she loves them, really. She cares about them too much. She can't imagine her life without either of them, as much as they get on her nerves sometimes. And the sex doesn't feel meaningless to her. How could it be meaningless with boys that mean so much to her? Anna sinks her head down into her hands and sighs. This isn't the kind of relationship they could ever tell the press about, for one thing. If it were just her and Will, or even her and Skandar, they probably could, after a lot of thinking and talking with their agents. But this, this isn't even a relationship she could tell her parents about.
She remembers Skandar's teasing in the morning, his 'dear' tacked on to the end of her sentence. It makes her realise she doesn't even want a serious relationship. She's too young for that. It's too scary. Especially with two close friends. What if it ruins things between the three of them forever? And how would they explain that? But if she doesn't want a serious relationship, what does she want? Just sex? She doesn't think it could ever be just sex with the three of them. It's not meaningless, she's already covered that.
Her head is starting to hurt. She pushes herself back off the table and heads into the bedroom. She pulls on some clothes, stuffs everything else into her bag, and carries it back into the kitchen. She checks her purse -- she has enough money to buy a last-minute train ticket. She scribbles a note and leaves the flat without looking back.
* * *
Her Grandparents aren't all that surprised that she's arrived a bit earlier than they planned, and they don't ask her questions about it, which she's grateful for. She's never been a very good liar.
Will keeps ringing her on her mobile, and she just can't face talking to him. She doesn't know what to say. She knows she left rudely, abruptly, without saying goodbye, but she can't even formulate an explanation in her own mind so she's got no idea how she can be expected to give one to someone else. She turns off her phone the third day she's there, even though by that time Will seems to have given up.
But then in the evening she has an idea. She really does need to talk to somebody about all of this, and she can't exactly talk to Will and Skandar themselves, or her family, but she thinks she has a pretty good idea of someone who might understand. She shuts herself in her room before dinner and switches her phone back on. She has a text from Will simply saying 'you okay?' and she ignores it, going to her address book to find the number she needs.
"Tilda, hi, um, it's Anna," says Anna softly into the phone when she hears a 'good afternoon?' answer her call.
"Anna? Oh, Anna, hello!" Tilda cries. She sounds surprised, which Anna supposes makes sense, seeing as she's only ever phoned her a few times. "What's up?"
"Um, well," Anna stammers. "Is there a way we could meet up? I need to talk to you about something."
"Is everything all right?" Tilda asks, concerned.
"Sort of, not really," Anna says quietly, then thinks about it and corrects herself. "No, I mean, it's fine, it's just...there's something I need to talk about. It's not serious. It's okay if you're busy."
"Well, I am in London," says Tilda, "so you're in luck. I'm only here for one more day though. I'm free later this evening, if you want to--"
"Oh, no," Anna says, her heart sinking. "No, I'm in Norfolk with my Grandparents right now. But -- well, I'm coming back home tomorrow, my train gets in just after three. But my parents will be expecting me, and I -- oh, never mind, this was stupid. I'm sorry. I mean, I didn't even think. It's not that important anyway, I can just --"
"Listen, I'll come and meet you at the station, okay? Kings Cross? We can get a cup of tea at the station and you can tell me all about whatever it is, and then I can drive you back home. How's that?" Tilda says.
Anna sighs. "Oh, Tilda, you're a lifesaver," she says. She actually feels close to tears, but she can't imagine why. "Thank you, thank you."
"Just after three, right? It's no problem, Anna, don't sweat it," Tilda says. "I've got to go, but I'll see you tomorrow, and don't worry about it. Worrying never helped anyone."
After they've both hung up, Anna fiddles with her mobile, debating making another phone call. She's started feeling really guilty now about ignoring Will's calls.
"Anna, dear, are you all right in there?" her Gran asks suddenly, tapping at the closed door.
Anna throws down her phone. "I'm fine, Gran! I was just ringing Mum to confirm the plans for tomorrow."
"Well, your Grandad's made your favourite meal for tea," her Gran replies. "It's ready, so come down when you are."
The second they've finished eating, the phone rings. To Anna's surprise, Gran turns and holds out the phone to her.
"It's for you, dear," she says, a twinkle in her eyes. "It's that lovely Will."
Anna frowns and takes the phone, covering the mouthpiece. "Thanks, Gran. I'll just -- um, I'll take this upstairs."
She runs up to her room and shuts the door before answering. "Will?" she says. "I didn't even know you had this number."
"Neither did I," chuckles Will on the other end of the line. "I think there's something wrong with your mobile, though, and Skandar found this number in my address book, so we thought we'd give it a go."
"Oh," says Anna. She's not quite sure where to go with this conversation. "Listen, Will, I'm sorry I left early without saying anything, I was just --"
"It's okay," says Will cheerfully, "we got your note and everything. I hope your Gran's hip is okay."
Anna cringes, remembering her lie. She really does hate having to lie. "Yeah," she says. "Yeah, she's doing better. I'm leaving tomorrow actually."
"It's a shame we didn't get as much time together as we thought we would," Will says thoughtfully. "You know you're welcome to come back and stay anytime. Skandar's still here, so if you want to skip London and come back up here tomorrow..."
"No," she says, maybe a little too firmly. "I told Mum and Dad I'd be back tomorrow."
"Just for one night?" Will says, and then she hears something in the background and Will snaps, "Shut up Skandar!"
She doesn't say anything, trying to find the right words.
"Anna, are you okay?" Will asks after a moment. "You really only left because of your Gran, right? There isn't -- some other reason?"
"It's just..." she starts, then sighs. "No, I don't want to do this over the phone."
"Are you breaking up with us?" Will says, and his voice is weird, the tone sort of half-teasing and half-serious.
"I just don't think this is something we should do all the time," Anna says quietly. "I mean, it's not -- it's not a relationship. Is it? No, it's not, that's ridiculous, I mean there are three of us..."
"I don't know," says Will, sounding confused. "We're just -- this is -- listen, Anna, don't do this. Don't do the where-is-this-going talk. At least don't do it over the phone. Come and stay."
Skandar is making concerned noises in the background.
"If we have to talk about this I'd rather do it in person," Will goes on, and then, after a "shh" presumably directed at Skandar, he says, "Please, Anna. Don't get upset about all this, we can work it out. It's no big deal."
Anna still doesn't know what to say. She thinks she can hear Grandad coming up the stairs.
"Come on. Come back. Please?"
"Maybe," she says quickly and quietly, almost hissing it down the phone. "I've got something I need to do, first, anyway. I'll -- I'll be in touch."
* * *
Tilda buys their tea to go, and carries the cups outside the station, Anna trotting after her, confused.
"I have a hunch," says Tilda, turning to give her a wry smile, "that whatever you have to talk to me about isn't suitable for a busy train station."
"You're right," Anna laughs, and they find a bench in a slightly quieter area outside, and sit down.
"Okay," says Tilda, taking the lid off her tea. "Shoot."
Anna hesitates. She hasn't actually decided quite how to say all of this. She stalls, taking a sip of her tea, and burns her tongue. "Ow."
"I'm guessing it's to do with boys," Tilda says, looking her straight in the eye.
Anna looks back at her in surprise.
"Sorry for being so presumptuous," Tilda says, smiling, "but I've had quite a bit of experience, and I could tell by the way you've been approaching the whole subject."
"I haven't really approached it at all, yet," Anna says sadly, looking down at her cup. "I don't know how to."
"Well, I may be perceptive," says Tilda firmly, "but I can't read your mind, so I'm afraid you're on your own with that part."
Anna nods and takes a deep breath. "It's about Will and Skandar."
"Will and Skandar?" says Tilda, then, knowingly, "Ah, a love triangle."
"Not exactly," Anna says quickly. "It's -- well," she lowers her voice, "we slept together. The three of us. Twice."
It's hard to tell what Tilda's reaction is. She raises her eyebrows, and her lips sort of start to curl into a smile, but then she takes another sip of her tea and looks off into the distance thoughtfully.
"I, um, I thought I'd tell you because, well, I don't really have anyone else to talk to about it, and I know you're quite...liberal, in your...relationships," says Anna, and then immediately regrets it when Tilda doesn't say anything. "And, um, it's not really how it sounds," she says, just to fill the silence really. "I mean, well, no, it's exactly like that. But it's not like they were taking advantage of me or anything, it's not even -- it's not even all about me, they're -- they're pretty interested in each other, as well."
Tilda does smile at this, suddenly softening, and runs a hand through her hair. "Skandar told me he thought he was gay, once."
"Really?"
Tilda nods. She sips her tea again. She doesn't seem to be in any hurry with this conversation, which makes things a little difficult, because Anna really is. "He told me he fancied Will, at any rate, and then he completely panicked because he thought I was going to tell somebody. We never talked about it again. I did try to reassure him, but he was just -- well, you know. He was hopeless. He was convinced you and Will were already involved in a secret relationship, or were going to be sooner or later."
"I suppose he had that bit right," Anna laughs. "I guess he didn't know he would be involved too."
"When did this start?" Tilda asks.
"After the premiere," Anna tells her. "The London one, I mean. I walked in on the two of them kissing, and then it was just -- well, it was just weird, I think we'd all had a bit too much to drink, we went up to the hotel and --"
"Oh, yes," Tilda interrupts. "I saw the three of you leave together. I suppose one thing led to another?"
Anna grins and nods. "Yeah," she says. "And it was awkward in the morning, but we all said we didn't regret it, and then Will invited us to stay with him a few days ago, and it was just amazing. I mean, it was really awkward again, at first, because Skandar walked in on me in the shower, but, well, anyway, we ended up -- you know -- we did it again, and it was just...it was the best thing I have ever felt."
"Forgive me," says Tilda slowly, running a long finger along the rim of her cup, "but I'm failing to see what the problem is, here."
Anna hesitates again. "It's just..." she says, and then trails off. She drinks some more of her tea to give herself time to think. "I just don't know what it all means. It's wonderful, of course. And I really love them. I'm so comfortable with them and I'm starting to get, you know, really used to the way things are, now. But I'm not -- I mean, I'm not in love with them. And they're not in love with me. But isn't it -- isn't it a bit weird then?"
"To have sex with people you aren't in love with?" says Tilda.
Anna frowns. "When you say it like that," she says, "it doesn't seem so weird."
"People have sex without being in love all the time," says Tilda. "Sometimes they end up falling in love, sometimes they don't."
"Yes, but what if we don't?" Anna urges. "Then our whole friendship might be completely destroyed, and it'll be for nothing."
"But do you want it to stop?"
Anna considers this. "No," she admits. "I really do like it."
"Of course," Tilda smiles. "Listen, I understand your worries, but really, it's still very early on, and you've got plenty of time to figure out how you all feel. The friendship the three of you have is strong enough, I think, to survive this, as long as you keep your communication going. You're still young, you don't have to make any sort of commitment. As long as you're careful -- and I mean that in terms of keeping this a secret from anyone you think ought not to know, not using protection, because you're a smart girl and you don't need me to tell you that -- then I think you should just have fun with it. Don't worry so much about it. The three of you have grown into such amazing, intelligent, mature young people, and I have no doubt in my mind that you can handle this."
Anna smiles slowly. "Oh, Tilda," she sighs, "thank you so much. You've really helped me to see it differently. God, I was being stupid, panicking, wasn't I?"
"Not at all," says Tilda, reaching out and rubbing her shoulder gently. "I think your reaction was perfectly reasonable. I'm just glad I could help."
"Thank you," says Anna again, weakly. She doesn't know what else to say.
"No worries, man," Tilda grins, and stands up. "Right, where to? Do you still want me to drive you home, or are you wanting to go back to Gloucestershire?"
Anna hesitates. "Well," she says, looking up at Tilda and squinting in the sun. "Actually, do you think you could drive me into town? There's something I think I want to buy."
* * *
"Yep?" Will's voice says through the intercom, a few hours later when Anna has finally arrived back in Gloucestershire and is standing outside Will's block of flats.
"It's me. It's Anna," she says, leaning in towards the little speaker to make sure he can hear her.
"Anna?" he says in surprise. "Hang on."
There's a buzz, and she pushes the door and goes in. When she gets to his floor, the door is already open, and he's standing there in just a pair of jeans, grinning widely at her.
"You didn't say you were coming!"
"I wanted it to be a surprise," she smiles back, and he grabs her and hugs her.
"Is everything okay?" he says softly, into her hair, and she smiles against his shoulder and sighs.
"Yeah," she says. "Everything's okay."
Just then, Skandar wanders in. He's only in his jeans, too, and is spooning ice cream into his mouth straight from the tub. "Oh no," he says when he sees her.
"That's nice of you, Skan," she snits.
"We're not going to have to have a serious talk, now, are we?" he says, licking his spoon clean and walking over to them. "Will said that when he rang, you were --"
"It's okay," she interrupts. "We don't have to talk about anything if you don't want to. I talked to Tilda and I'm a lot less all-over-the-place now."
"You talked to Tilda?" Skandar almost shouts. He nearly drops his spoon.
"Woah," says Will quietly, shutting the door behind her and frowning. "Woah, Anna, why?"
"Well I needed somebody to talk to," Anna says, a little surprised by their reaction. "And seeing as she's a woman with a husband and a boyfriend, I thought she was a pretty good person to choose."
"But -- but it's Tilda," Skandar gasps. He plonks down his spoon and the ice cream tub and wipes his hands furiously on his jeans. "What did she say?"
"She didn't freak out or anything -- which is more than I can say for some people, god, calm down -- she basically said it wasn't a big deal and, you know, that we should have fun, but be careful about who finds out."
"Yeah, you haven't really been following that advice, have you," says Will, and Anna spins round to look at him in surprise.
"What?" she says. "What? I didn't think you'd mind. It's only Tilda. She won't tell anyone."
"It just would've been nice if you asked us first," Will retorts. He looks pretty angry, but isn't as panicked as Skandar. "Surely it's the kind of decision the three of us should make together."
"Oh, for heaven's sake, I didn't go out and talk to The Sun, did I?" snaps Anna. "I told Tilda, she's a friend of ours, she's known us for years. Do you not trust her or something?"
"It's not about who you told," Will fires back, "it's about the fact that you told someone without talking to us about it first. What if I'd just gone off and told one of my mates everything? How would you feel about that?"
He's got her there. She'd hate that. She stands silently.
"I'm sorry," says Will, always quick to calm down arguments. "It's just a bit of a shock, that's all. I kind of assumed we were just going to be keeping this a secret, at least for now."
"No, yeah, of course," says Anna, a bit flustered and embarrassed now. How could she not have realised that what she was doing was unfair? She hadn't even considered how Will and Skandar would feel about it, she'd just thought about what she needed and what she wanted to do. "I'm really sorry. I honestly didn't realise it would upset you, but it makes a lot of sense now. It won't happen again."
Will nods. She looks to Skandar, who is scuffing his bare feet across the carpet and avoiding looking at either of them. "Skandar, I'm sorry," she says.
"Yeah," he mumbles. He runs a hand through his messy dark hair, and swings his head back round to look at them. "Can we just forget it? If Tilda didn't make a big deal of it, then we shouldn't either."
Anna nods slowly. "Yeah," she says. "Sure. Okay."
And then she remembers.
"Oh!" she cries, fumbling through the three bags she's carrying. "I actually -- I have a, well, a surprise. A nice surprise, I mean. Well, I hope. To make up for, you know, the way I've been acting. Because I really am sorry. It's kind of like a present."
Skandar's eyes light up at this. "A present?"
"It's mostly for Will, really," she says quickly, not wanting him to get his hopes up. His face falls. "Sorry. I mean, it's not like you won't -- well, it's -- okay."
Slightly flustered and embarrassed, she pulls out a box from one of her bags and holds it out towards Will. Her hands are a little shaky, she realises, and she feels stupid for it -- she's always been going on about how comfortable she feels with them, particularly Will, but she can't help it, she's really worried about what their reaction to this will be. Will takes the box, giving her a bit of a nervous smile.
"You're all pink," he says suspiciously.
He turns and walks round to sit down in an armchair, and Anna and Skandar follow, Skandar slumping down on the sofa and taking up most of it, leaving Anna to sit on the floor, watching Will and wringing her hands anxiously.
Will opens the box, and for a moment, he just stares.
And then, "Anna!" he cries, and holds his hand over his mouth, looking down into the box. "This is -- this is--"
"What? What is it?" Skandar asks, suddenly interested, sitting up and peering into the box. For a moment, he is speechless too, and then he suddenly bursts out laughing.
Anna shoots him a hurt look. "What's so funny?" she snaps.
"A strap-on?" he laughs, shaking his head, and she frowns and glares at him, her face burning. She should've expected him to be immature about it, really. Maybe it was stupid for her to think that he'd grown up when it came to the topic of sex.
"I don't think it's funny," says Will, lifting the strap-on out of the box and turning it over in his hands.
Anna looks at it, still blushing. It is kind of funny, that's the worst thing. It's a fake penis -- she can kind of understand why Skandar is in hysterics over in the corner. She debated for ages about what kind to get, because there were so many, and she didn't want to get something bright pink or glittery, but at the same time, some of them were kind of disturbingly realistic, and she wasn't fond of those either. And then there was the size -- she didn't want to get anything that would make Skandar feel inadequate.
"Where did you get this?" Will asks, interrupting her train of thought.
"In a shop back home," Anna says. "I got it earlier today, Tilda drove me into town."
"Did she know why you needed to go into town?" Will asks, grinning.
"Yeah," says Anna in surprise. "She came with me. She knew where they'd sell them, actually, it was quite helpful because I had no idea."
"Oh," says Will. He pauses. "My mind," he says slowly, "is now full of Tilda and -- and -- things that you buy in sex shops."
Skandar makes a slight choking sound and Anna turns to look at him. He is very pale.
"Are you having us on?" he asks in a small voice.
Anna laughs. "No," she says, "why?"
"I think we should change the subject," says Will, quickly, and they all laugh. "Anna, no one recognised you when you were buying this, did they?"
"No, I wore my disguise."
"By disguise," says Skandar, "she means a floppy hat and a pair of sunglasses."
Anna sticks her tongue out at him. Their houses are really close to each other, back in London, and there have been quite a few occasions when she's been worried about being recognised and then ended up bumping into Skandar, only to have him make fun of her for her hat-and-glasses combo.
"It worked," she says. "No one recognised either of us."
"Good thing, too," Will says, chuckling. "Because it'll be all your own fault if tomorrow the papers all have headlines like 'Teenage Narnia star caught buying sex toys'."
Skandar splutters with laughter again and Will thumps him. "I'm serious! Can you imagine?"
"We don't have anything to worry about! The woman in the shop didn't really look like the type to appreciate C.S. Lewis," Anna says, grinning. "It was awful on the train, though, I had to go standard class and it was so busy, and there were these kids everywhere and I kept thinking the bag was going to fall down and they'd all see it..."
"That would've been difficult to explain," says Will, grinning. Skandar has already dissolved into giggles again.
When he calms down, there's a bit of an awkward pause, and the three of them look at each other.
"We missed you, you know," says Will after a few moments. "I'm glad you came back."
Anna smiles. "Me too."
Skandar suddenly snorts, and they both turn to him. "Sorry," he says, grinning. "It's just -- you're trying to have this nice moment and everything, but, Will, you're holding a rubber dick."
Will looks down and sees that the strap-on is, in fact, still in his hand, and Anna laughs at him.
"So, um," Will says, "can this be used right away?"
Skandar sniggers, and Anna grins. "Well, it has to be sterilised," she says, taking the strap-on from Will.
"Wow, that's so sexy," Skandar says sarcastically, shaking his head.
Will completely ignores him. "And how -- how do you do that?"
"It came with these wipes," Anna answers, trying to stop the smile from spreading across her face as she gets to her feet and reaches into the bag.
She hands the little packet of wipes to Will, and he glances at them and hands them right back to her, along with the strap-on. She has to try really hard not to smile now, but Skandar doesn't make the same effort at all, and dissolves into fits of laughter.
"Will, you are so embarrassing," he groans. "Have some dignity!"
Will goes slightly pink, but doesn't say anything. Anna holds out her free hand to him, and he takes it, pulling himself up out of his chair. The two of them head for the bedroom, leaving Skandar shaking his head on the sofa.
* * *
In Will's bedroom, Anna sits on the bed with Will practically wrapped around her, sitting behind her with his chest against her back. He rests his chin on her shoulder and watches as she rubs down the dildo with one of the wipes.
"Are you doing that on purpose?"
"Doing what?" she asks, grinning as he shifts behind her.
"Simulating a bloody handjob, Anna," he laughs in her ear, and she giggles.
"No, actually," she says. "I think you're just easily excited."
She can already feel his erection against her back, and she grins to herself, drying the strap-on and putting all of the cleaning supplies aside.
He's kissing her when Skandar finally enters the room, and they look up to see him slouching there against the wall, thumbs hooked in the belt loops of his jeans, pulling them further down on his hips. He shrugs when he sees them looking at him.
"Don't let me stop you," he sighs with an exaggerated wave of the hand.
Anna thinks he's just being cute, but Will knows him better than she does, and she catches on to something when the two boys exchange a look.
"Skandar, don't be a twat, come here," Will says, beckoning, and Skandar slides onto the bed somewhat reluctantly.
"It's not even that big," he says derisively, taking the strap-on from Anna's hands and looking at it. "I don't really see why you're so excited--"
"Skandar, would you just shut up and help me get it on?" Anna interrupts. She's beginning to get fed up of his attitude, and the obvious solution to this seems to be to take her top off, so she does.
He kind of stammers a bit, but by the time she's pulling her knickers down, he's silent.
Finally.
It turns out to be a three-person job -- the straps are all over the place and it takes them a good few minutes to get everything attached. She starts to get excited, from having their fingers brushing up against her hips and her thighs as they secure the straps. They're being such men about it, all methodical, "Does this go there?" and "Can you pull that a bit tighter?" until it's all secured.
She turns to the mirror. "Oh, I look ridiculous," she sighs, disappointed. The dildo looks quite comical jutting out between her legs, the tan colour of it standing out against her pale skin.
"You don't look as ridiculous as I thought you would," Skandar says helpfully, shucking his jeans and crawling across the bed to help Will out of his.
"You seem enthusiastic all of a sudden," Will comments.
Anna turns around, and sees that neither of the boys were wearing any underwear under their jeans. She bites her lip, feeling herself starting to get wet, but she knows this isn't about her. This time it's not going to be Will inside her, it's going to be her inside Will.
She starts to get nervous, but then she's suddenly distracted from the butterflies in her stomach by the way Will and Skandar are together. They're kissing, which is normal, but there's something about the way they're doing it -- something different. They seem a lot more comfortable with each other, and she supposes this shouldn't come as a surprise. The more time passes, the more comfortable the three of them are becoming. She thinks about how quickly and easily she undressed in front of them this time, and how panicked and shy she'd been last time, and thinks that maybe she shouldn't be confused by any changes between Will and Skandar.
Will says, "Come on," or something along those lines, and Anna shakes herself out of her daze and clambers onto the bed.
She ends up on the end, next to Will, and for the first time she's really aware of it. It's always Will in the middle.
"You okay?" he asks her, then, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear and kissing her neck.
She nods. "'Course," she replies, wishing she could just stop overthinking all of this. It wasn't like this the other times, and she thought things were going to be fine after discussing it all with Tilda.
Sex will clear her mind, she tells herself absently, closing her eyes as Will leans in for a kiss. She reaches down to curl her fingers around Will's cock and ends up curling them around Skandar's hand instead. Her instinct is to jerk her hand away, but for a moment neither of them move, and then Skandar's hand wriggles out from underneath hers. She sighs into Will's mouth and then pulls away.
She's about to say something -- though she doesn't know what -- when she realises that Will's hand is wrapped around the strap-on dildo. She lets out a burst of laughter.
"Will," she says, giggling. "I can't feel that, you idiot."
He just laughs and then brings his hand lower, down where she definitely can feel.
"Wow, you're so wet," he says gently, and it's nice, because it's so casual -- it doesn't come across like he's trying to be sexy, or like he's at all nervous about voicing the words.
"Yeah," she murmurs, shifting her hips to get more comfortable.
"Skandar, come feel," Will adds, turning to look at the motionless Skandar next to them on the bed.
Anna shudders a little as Skandar shuffles closer and his hand replaces Will's between her legs. She glances up at him but he doesn't meet her eyes, and his fingers slide across her cunt, shaking slightly.
She can't stop herself thinking.
She doesn't feel like she's really connected with Skandar since the last time they kissed, when they were alone in Will's bedroom when he'd gone in search of condoms. That was when she really felt like he wanted her, and she knew she wanted him. He didn't seem anxious, and he wasn't being obnoxious and making sarcastic comments. He was just letting himself feel what he was feeling, something she's beginning to think it's hard for him to do when Will is in the room. Is it just because he sees her as a threat to what he has with Will?
"Are you okay?" a voice asks, bringing her out of her thoughts again, and she's surprised to realise it's Skandar speaking, his hand having stilled between her legs. He's looking at her, a crease in his forehead, frowning.
"Yeah," she assures. "It's just -- my mind's working overtime. It's stupid. I'm sorry. I'm fine."
"You sure?" Will asks. "We can -- we can leave this for another night."
Skandar looks vaguely put-out at this suggestion, but it doesn't matter, because Anna's not going for it either. "No way," she says, trying to push all of her wonderings to the back of her mind. She grabs the strap-on dildo in her fist. "I bought you this present today, I'm going to use it today."
She grins, maybe a little too wide, and Will says, "Okay," and then makes a noise kind of like 'eek' and Skandar sniggers at him. Will punches him in the arm, Anna reprimands Will, and just like that -- everything's back to normal.
"Fuck," Will's muttering only a moment later when Anna's got her lips wrapped round his cock and Skandar's got two fingers inside him, thrusting quickly, preparing him for what's to come. "Fuck."
They're doing it again -- putting Will in the middle -- but it's okay, because it works. It feels right. And Anna can't help it, there's something she really likes about having Will writhing between them, against them, chanting swearwords and wanting more. She likes him best when he's lost his composure, for some reason. She guesses it's just because it's something that doesn't happen often.
"Anna -- fuck, Skandar, keep -- yeah. Yeah."
Anna and Skandar exchange a grin, and Skandar smoothes her hair back out of her face for her. She relaxes her jaw a little more and tries to slide his cock deeper into her mouth, trying not to gag. She feels his stomach tense up, and she keeps going, looking up at Skandar.
Skandar looks impressed. That must be good.
She slides back again, throat slightly sore, and then does it again, and Skandar does something that makes Will start yanking at the duvet.
"Fuck -- oh fuck -- oh, Anna -- oh --"
And suddenly he's gripping desperately to her shoulder and then pulling her back, and she sits up quickly, worried.
"What? What is it?"
"No, nothing," he says breathlessly. "I was just -- I was going to come."
"Oh," she says, grinning.
"Can you grab the --?" he says, obviously quite keen on hurrying the conversation along, and he gestures to the bedside table.
She grabs the lube, noting that it is next to a box of condoms. "You're keeping the stuff here, now? Convenient."
She slicks up the dildo, her heart pounding as she thinks about what she's about to do. Skandar's hand is moving frantically on his own cock, and she smiles at him again, seeing him smile shyly back.
"This is really crazy," he whispers, hand slowing, and she laughs.
"It really is," she whispers back, and they grin at each other. She shuffles towards him on her knees, and, on impulse, kisses him. He seems to welcome it, which makes her feel a lot more comfortable about the way he's been acting.
"Guys..." Will whines.
"Oh, sorry, Will, I forgot you were so desperate for this," says Anna, pulling away from Skandar and waving the dildo at Will.
"I'm not desperate," Will says defensively, "I just want you to get on with it, that's all."
"Because he's desperate," Skandar whispers, and Anna laughs as Will pouts impatiently at them.
When she starts to enter him, he is on his hands and knees, Skandar in front of him, gently stroking his shoulder. She pushes her hips forward, guiding the dildo with her hand, and it pushes inside him. It seems huge, suddenly, even though she's watched Skandar do this and Will never seemed to be in pain. She tenses suddenly and slows down.
"Anna, I have done this before," she hears him say, and Skandar laughs.
"Yeah, but I haven't," she reminds him. "I have no idea what I'm doing, I can't feel a thing."
"Need some help?" Skandar offers.
"Please."
A few seconds later, Skandar is kneeling behind her, reaching forwards and helping her slide the dildo inside Will at the right angle. Judging by the way Will is groaning and sighing and almost pushing back up against her, Skandar's help is a great success. He presses up closer to her, showing her how to thrust, his hands on her hips pulling them gently back and forth.
She can feel his erection against her back, hot and hard, and she swallows as it rubs against her skin. She's so wet that her thighs are slick, and she and Skandar move in a perfect rhythm together, sliding the thick dildo in and out. She imagines Skandar moving just slightly, and slipping inside her. She squirms in his grip, trying to concentrate, and Will moans suddenly.
"Oh, god," he breathes, "do that again."
She turns, meaning to give Skandar a questioning look, but then she sees his face, so close to hers, his lips shiny and parted and his eyes dark, and she just stares at him blankly.
"You kind of," he begins, but his voice is croaky, and he clears his throat, blushing slightly. "You kind of moved your hips -- like this."
He holds her hips tighter, his cock pressing against her back, and moves them in a tiny, slow circle. Will groans again. Anna almost doesn't hear him, she's still staring at Skandar.
He rests his chin on her shoulder. "You got it?" he asks, grinning.
"Yeah..." she murmurs. "Yeah, I think so."
He shifts, moving away from her, and she aches between her legs, wishing she could reach down and touch herself as she does this. She thrusts into Will again, placing her hands on his arse and sliding the dildo deeper.
"Oh, fuck," Will moans, shuddering, and she smiles, fucking him faster, her hips hitting his arse with every thrust. "Oh, you're good at this," he sighs, craning his neck to look back at her, and she twists frustratedly again at the sight of him, his sweaty hair in his eyes and the way he bites his lip.
Skandar is back in front of Will again, and when Will turns back to face him, Skandar smoothes the hair back from his face. Then suddenly Will's head dips, and Skandar gasps, throwing his head back, and Anna peers round to see what's happening -- though she can already make a pretty good guess.
Will is sucking Skandar's cock, his head bobbing back and forth enthusiastically, and Anna wishes she could watch this properly because the effect it's having on Skandar is pretty amazing. He has his head thrown back, still, his long, pale white throat exposed, and one of his hands is trembling on Will's shoulder, clutching at him. Anna pulls out of Will almost completely, and then slides slowly back in, making him whimper around Skandar's cock and grab onto the sheets.
She thrusts slowly, enjoying having this sort of control over him, watching him work Skandar's cock with his mouth, pulling back and then drawing him all the way into his throat. Skandar seems almost unable to move, his mouth wide open, his breath catching. Suddenly Anna realises that Will is bucking back against her, rocking back and forth and fucking himself on the dildo, and she almost groans, rubbing up against the strap of the harness between her legs. He looks like such a slut.
It's not long, though, before she's the one feeling like a slut, desperate for someone to touch her. She hates to drag Skandar away, but something's got to be done.
"Skandar," she says breathlessly, reaching out for him. "Skandar, come here, please."
"What?" he asks, blinking at her, wide-eyed.
"Just -- please," she gasps.
He doesn't really move until Will does, releasing Skandar's cock from his mouth and rolling over onto his back suddenly. The dildo slips out of him but Anna barely notices, because he seems to have read her mind, and is reaching blindly for the box of condoms. He manages to grab one and he hands it to Skandar, who is just staring at the two of them, completely clueless.
Will reaches for the strap-on, sliding it back inside himself with clumsy fingers, pulling Anna in between his legs. And in the time this takes, Skandar seems to have understood, and he has the condom on by the time Anna has looked at him again. He's staring at her, as if still needing confirmation, and she pulls him towards her, kissing him as Will lifts up his legs to make room.
Skandar shuffles round and slots back into place behind Anna, his cock once again pressing against her back, so hot and hard, and she wants it inside her so badly.
"Are you--" he starts.
"Yes," she replies.
"Do you need me to--" Will begins.
"No," they both tell him.
She leans down, dildo sliding smoothly into Will, filling him, and finds herself right on top of him, his legs wrapped around her and his cock hard and digging into her stomach. Her hair is hanging down over his face, but he doesn't seem to notice. She can't bring herself to care anyway, because she can feel the slick tip of Skandar's cock running over the wet folds of her cunt, and the anticipation is killing her.
"Please, Skandar, now," she almost moans, and Will smoothes back some of her hair to press his lips to her forehead.
Skandar pushes inside her excruciatingly slowly, but each stroke feels better than the last and when he's finally fully sheathed, she lets out a long sigh and turns back to smile at him gratefully. He still kind of looks like he's in shock.
The three of them stay still, sweaty, entangled, and then Will says softly, gently (like he understands something Anna doesn't), "How does it feel, Skandar?"
Skandar sucks in a sharp breath. "Just--" he says, and then breathes out again, shakily, "--really good."
"Can we move?" Anna whispers urgently.
"Please," Will agrees, and so she and Skandar do, pulling back a tiny bit, trying to move in time with each other.
She realises, then, that this is the same as the first time, only mixed up, in a different order. But then she doesn't have time to realise anything else, because Skandar is thrusting quickly into her, pushing her hips forward so that the dildo slides in and out of Will at the same time.
"Fuck," Will groans, reaching for his cock, wrapping his hand around it and stroking himself rapidly. "Fuck."
Anna's still a little lost, only going with Skandar's movements and not really being able to control it herself. But then Will squeezes his eyes shut tightly and says, "Yes, Anna, right there," and that's when she gets it, drawing back and pushing in, feeling Skandar move with her, making Will shudder and his muscles tense up. She keeps going, watching Will, mesmerised by the effect each thrust has on him, and lets herself enjoy the feeling of Skandar fucking her. Skandar fucking her, his skinny frame pressed against her, his breath hot against her back.
He shifts slightly and now part of her harness is rubbing against her clit, and it's a little too rough, but she's so wet that it soon doesn't matter, and she pushes up against it, feeling her orgasm approaching, making her dizzy and weak. Skandar starts fucking her harder, and she reaches behind her to grab hold of his hip, groaning, so close --
"Anna, oh god," he breathes, and she's gone, coming so hard that her surroundings swim, distorted and blurry around her.
She's dimly aware of Skandar still moving, pushing her back and forth, and she tries to keep going, to get Will off. She finds that spot again, mostly by accident, and suddenly he grabs hold of her hip, holding her deep inside him, and she watches as his body jerks and his come spurts over his chest.
"This is difficult," she murmurs a moment later, trying to pull out of Will and keep Skandar inside her, as Will is running a hand through his hair and trying to catch his breath and generally looking completely exhausted.
"Not for much longer," Skandar pants out, and then slumps against her. He pants something she can't understand and then moans against her shoulder, and she feels him come.
They both leave Will to clean up, but he doesn't seem to mind. Anna thinks he likes taking care of them, after all, and even though he must be as tired as they are, he unbuckles her harness and tidies everything up without complaint as she and Skandar lie there lazily on the bed.
He flops down happily next to Anna, and sighs. "I never knew you could...you know..." he says, and Anna laughs.
"It's not exactly a practised skill, Will," she giggles. "And Skandar helped. A lot."
She turns to look at Skandar, but he's curled up against her, his eyes closed. "'M sleeping," he mumbles. "For at least a week."
"Wow," says Anna.
"You are pretty good," Will tells her with a sleepy shrug.
She pulls a pillow down to rest her head on it. "I am?" she asks.
She doesn't get an answer. Both of the boys are already asleep.
* * *
Anna can't sleep at all that night. She thinks she really should be able to, after the day she's had, and she tries to tell herself it's because she slept quite a bit on the train, but she knows it's something more than that.
She's happy. Of course she's happy.
She disentangles herself from Will and Skandar's various limbs, and pads into the kitchen for a glass of water. Sitting on the kitchen counter, sipping slowly, she sighs. As happy as she is, she can't ignore a nagging thought.
Whether it's in a week or a year, she knows she's going to be the one to break this up.
Part 4.