queimar | saltburnt ► inbox

[ bob hasn’t told anyone what happened that day, despite aching to do so. still, he would bet against da-lua viewing this the same way as anyone else in this life.

and so, ]

did you go to the pound?
i took out like
everyone there

[ nice and easy, except for the guy whose arm definitely won’t work like it used to. ]

i wanted to pull my friend out of a fight, and he wanted me pretty bad after
kept telling me he could take more
but he’s not like us
i pushed him until he was a total wreck

[ and maybe it made him unspeakably turned on then and now, a thread pulled taut through the nausea and self-recrimination. maybe it felt like bucky throwing a punch with the full force of his superior strength, and bob catching it with the ease of a low ball. evidence of the change in him. no longer the boy in the gutter. the man at the top. ]

[ He decides then, that Bob isn't some kind of engineered god among humans. That he's a dragon that never got to learn what he was meant to be, how he was meant to be. Even a beastly pet like Da-Lua has rebellion that burns under all those restraints. Maybe this one man's skin doesn't have fire underneath, but magma; slow, hidden and waiting to erupt. Who is Da-Lua to deny him the favor? ]

You liked it, didn't you. It's what you think of when you jerk off. What makes you come like nothing else.

[ the answer he expected. the answer he wanted. a static shock, fizzy at his fingertips. ]

so what if it is

That's a great question, Bob. What does it say about us?

[ There's no universe where they are the same. Just don't tell Da-Lua's ego. ]

I think it says we deserve more. We've earned it. It's their turn to earn us.

[ it’s val, calling him perfect. a god. meant for more. in opposition to the people here, who think he’s either a fuck-up or a good little hero.

nothing fits quite right, all hand-me-downs. ]

how’s that work
you boss everyone around?

Among other things. Didn't I promise to give you something?

yeah
you did

[ Turns out the beast can use a camera: Bob gets a video of a top-down perspective, showing his stomach and his cock in someone's mouth. Easy to guess they're from Saltburnt's staff, opening their eyes to look at Da-Lua before he barks an order to keep them closed and their mouth wide open. He's grabbing their hair to keep them in place when they try to pull away, to push them back down when they succeed, struggling through a gag reflex. His body is human, cock and all, no scales or tail to help his partner along, pure selfishness in the recording. Tears and excess saliva add to the sheen of sweat on the person's skin, and yet they smile on their next break to breathe. The video cuts before Bob gets a chance to find out if Da-Lua came on their tongue or on their face. ]

There. You've earned it.

[ the reward galvanises. irritates. loops back around to being stupidly attractive. ]

jesus

[ having been in that spot, on his knees and breathless for da-lua himself, only makes it worse. muscle memory of claws in his hair, trying and failing to cut his flesh. da-lua’s frustration like an intoxicant, scales rippling under his palm as bob shoved him back.

he strips his cock and figures da-lua knows he’s doing it. that he’s thinking about being the staff and being da-lua and watching da-lua take so can learn how to do it himself. of how da-lua had to use abilities hidden from view to match bob and vice versa, but he isn’t using them now. because there isn’t anybody like them here — we deserve more becomes you deserve more. and he knows this path ends in a nuclear ego trip but it starts with something equally familiar and sorely missed. a rush that hits like morphine, like adrenaline, like power. like hauling embry out of the pound and fucking his mouth after. it has him coming all over himself, hand working toward the wrong side of rough and all the better for it. arm slung across his face, as if anyone can see him. ]

you keep busy

[ the message of a man who definitely did not spend the intervening seconds to minutes jerking it. please respect his privacy at this time. ]

[ He can guess what takes Bob his while to send another text — and if he's wrong, he'll simply choose to believe he's right — grinning when that lands on his inbox. ]

I'm dangerous when I get bored.

[ His entertainment comes from starting fires in people, getting a reaction so he can smile back at his work. All the better when they do something, instead of just sticking to threats that go out like the end of a candle. ]

Maybe I should be doing something else.

[ ‼️ ]

maybe
something on your mind?

We're both covered in some fluid or another. I'm thinking we either help each other clean up or make things worse for the staff. Up to you.

[ However. ]

You never meant to send that to me, did you.

not even a little bit

[ :) ]

you’re really gonna come find me looking like that?

If you tell me who's missing out.

[ hm. not wanting da-lua anywhere near yelena vs knowing yelena can handle herself.

a compromise, in the form of the only other person he would have sent it to — ]

bucky

[ — who happens to be exceptionally durable and intolerant of bullshit. ]