[This is set immediately after this one:>>35455545 https://rentry.org/xwp4s though if you want to skip, the gist is: Alban was a slut with the blue hair, Sonny was upset, bumped into Uki, they had very rough sex in which Sonny really went to town biting and fucking Uki until he cried. I like all ships, so the premise is that Noctyx are all fooling around to varying degrees, however it suits them. Psyborg smut, but Sonnyban and Violisko are referenced a fair number of times and there are hints of other ships. This story is kind of my take on like, how do Uki and Fulgur function when they’re very dear to each other….but they’re both goddamn bottoms. No penetration, nothing rough but it’s all kind of centered around the havoc Sonny wreaked on Uki’s body. Also on AO3 as "Resonant Frequency".]

There was only a brief span of time in which Uki got to enjoy being in that comfy, floaty post-sleep space: not awake, not asleep, warm. But the moment he moved, Uki was dragged back to reality.

And reality fucking hurt like a bitch. The stream of cursing that started to fill Uki’s thoughts only translated to a faint grumble, and even that made his throat hurt. His poor throat.

Though to be fair, it wasn’t just his throat. So far as Uki could tell as he took stock of the various parts of his body, anything other than utter stillness made his whole body ache. Did he regret it? Absolutely not. That wasn’t going to stop him from complaining though.

Other than the throbbing pain in his throat, ass, neck, shoulders, wrists, chest, hamstrings, and hips, Uki was pretty content. At some point, he and his bedmate had shifted around in their sleep, resulting in Uki using Sonny’s broad chest as a pillow: nice. In turn, Sonny had an arm loosely curled around Uki, keeping him cuddled close: double nice.

Not that Uki would ever dare tell Sonny as much, but the cop was the absolute biggest gap moe in Noctyx and Uki would never get over the contrast between his dry demeanor and his sweet mannerisms. Uki (gingerly) snuggled in closer, and sighed, ready to relax into the afterglow.

Or he tried to, anyway.

Uki was far too awake now. He’d sort of hoped that the warmth and bulk of Sonny would lure him back to sleep. But the various aches had made their presence known, and there was no way Uki was falling back to sleep.

Also, he needed to stretch: while he did his best to keep up with some form of exercise or another, he hadn’t had the heart to tell Sonny that he wasn’t nearly as flexible as Sonny seemed to think he was. If Uki didn’t stretch out his legs soon, he was going to be hobbling for days, and that was very much not a look he could work.

But Sonny’s breath was so slow and even. Twisting to get a better view, Uki sighed at the sight before him. Sonny looked soft and relaxed in such a deep state of sleep. Nothing like the night before where he’d been stalking around like a feral predator.

So that was that: there was no way Uki could wake Sonny, because Sonny needed to hibernate for as long as it took for him to revert back to a more civil, less bitey status. And also because there was no way Uki could offer round two of the previous night’s events, should Sonny require it. Despite all supernatural entities in Nijisanji, none of them could actually use their powers to heal so much as a papercut.

But staying here in this position was also beyond the pale. Uki took a big breath, ran through his options, and came up with a plan.

“Sorry, Sonny,” he whispered, not at all sorry. A faint gesture of his free hand sent out threads of purple light into the room. His intuition had been spot on: it only took a minute of rifling through the pockets of Sonny’s oversized jacket to fish out the officer’s personal phone.

Device in hand courtesy of telekinetic powers, Uki’s mouth twitched in a smile as he woke the phone up - there was no lock code. As far as Uki knew, no one in Noctyx locked up their phones, but still. It left him feeling warm and loved. Trusted.

Uki pulled up the messaging app and scrolled down until he found Fulgur’s name. The sparse chat history wasn’t unexpected, but Uki still made a mental note as he started typing.

-Hey babe, it’s Uki. Requesting a Fuuber XL to come rescue my giant ass from Sonny’s room.

(Uki didn’t bother closing the app while waiting for a response. He knew it would come quickly.)

-Giant ass, my ass.
-Do I need any specific tools for this rescue?

Uki had to stifle a laugh, particularly because he knew Fulgur wasn’t joking. He was just being practical as always.

-No, but could you bring me some comfy clothes?
-And come in stealth mode. Sonny needs his sleep.

-Don’t we all. I’ll be there in a few minutes.

Uki tapped out a small <3 and then put the phone back to sleep, hovering it over to the nightstand for Sonny to find later. Over the next several minutes, with the assistance of both psychic powers and genius tactics, Uki slipped out from under Sonny’s arm and replaced it with a pillow before Sonny could so much as stir.

By the time Fulgur arrived, Uki had just managed to sit up on the edge of the bed, mostly. He was definitely leaning at an angle, and his expression probably wasn’t one of grace and poise. Fulgur didn’t knock before sliding the door open carefully as he stepped into the room with a bundle of clothing in hand.

There was barely a fluttering of nerves as Fulgur assessed the room, then Uki, all while he walked the short distance between the door and the bed. Uki wasn’t embarrassed; Fulgur had seen Uki in various states of undress, often much filthier than he was now, and more than that, Fulgur was frequently the reason Uki was in such a state.

So despite being completely naked and with a likely case of bedhead, Uki felt at ease as Fulgur held out a large hooded sweatshirt. It was faded enough to tell Uki it was one of Fulgur’s oldest and comfiest too. Fuck, Uki loved Fuuchan so much.

Neither of them spoke as they moved, conscious of Sonny sleeping nearby, and Fulgur was quick to pick up on Uki’s gestures that indicated ‘assistance required, I don’t have cybernetic legs of my own’. Gentle as ever, Fulgur got Uki standing upright before bending down to help Uki slip on sweatpants that were just as soft as the hoodie.

When the cyborg stood up, Uki leaned right in and curled his arms behind Fulgur’s neck, trailing his hand through the silver hair at the base of his neck. Ah, there it was. Fulgur let out a small, shy smile that had long since conditioned Uki to grin in turn, utterly delighted. Silently, Fulgur scooped Uki up with ease; his slender build belied the strength in his cybernetic limbs, and Uki had no qualms about taking advantage of that (clearly).

It was only once they were a safe distance from Sonny’s bedroom that Fulgur spoke, grey eyes glancing down at Uki. “Rough night?”

Uki hummed, quiet as he thought it over. Fulgur didn’t press, having long since gotten used to the way that Uki took his time to speak. “I guess. Probably rougher for Sonny than for me.” Uki sighed and settled his head against the curve of Fulgur’s neck. It was too easy to relax as Fulgur clearly made an effort to avoid jostling Uki around.

“Because of Alban?” Uki blinked at the non sequitur, but it made sense after a moment. He hadn’t really thought much on why Sonny was in such a bad state last night. Uki knew he was good at reading people, and good at handling various states of distress. But Fulgur was the one who observed, who understood why people were the way they were.

“I don’t know,” Uki admitted. “That would make sense though.” There had been anticipation in the air for days now, not that anyone was worried about a bad outcome. It was just that Alban was doing something no one else had done, and it was something he’d spearheaded all on his own. It was a good thing, but it was big. And it meant that things were changing.

And Sonny, for all that he appeared to be a very run-of-the-mill guy at first glance, was probably the most emotionally volatile of them all. Maybe tied with Yugo; there was a reason those two had their own special closeness. But Yugo never hid that volatility; it spilled out with ease, and usually quite loudly too.

Sonny bundled his feelings up tight under the lock and key of his carefully maintained blank expression. It was only a combination of Uki’s talent for reading people and the fact that Sonny was able to let down his walls a little with Noctyx that Uki had been able to tell anything was wrong the night before.

Fulgur sighed as he approached Uki’s bedroom, slipping inside with ease as Uki used his powers to open the door. With slow and precise movements, Fulgur managed to get Uki on the bed with a pile of pillows to keep him propped up at a comfortable angle, all with minimal discomfort to Uki. God, Uki loved Fuuchan so fucking much.

Something must have shown on his face as he looked up at the sweet cyborg. Fulgur’s face lit up with a wry, knowing smile. “Want company?”

“Yes, please. Company and cuddles.” Making room for Fuuchan was worth the wincing and shifting around. “Also, I could use a little help stretching my legs.”

“Oh, I see how it is. Lure me in with cuddles and reveal your ulterior motive after.” Despite his teasing, Fulgur already had his hands on Uki’s legs, bending one up slowly as Uki straightened the other.

“Ah, yeah, that’s-” Uki paused, grimacing as the overworked muscles made their complaints known. “That’s me. Got a full side hustle going with my cuddle scam.”

Fulgur let out a bark of laughter, switching legs after they repeated the movements a few more times. “Then consider me to be a perfect mark, gullible and naive. Take my retirement funds, my lunch money, and my first born.” Looking up from where he was doing most of the work stretching Uki’s legs, Fulgur winked, the red lines of his tattoo crinkling with it. “I’m all in.”

Butterflies swooped through Uki, making his stomach twist and tumble. Uki didn’t know if it was Fulgur’s exposure to literary works as the archivist or simply his personal preference for romance novels, but he dropped these grand declarations of commitment and permanency on Uki so casually and always out of nowhere.

The cheeky expression on Fulgur’s face softened as he watched Uki struggle to think of what to say, and he set Uki’s leg back down the bed with a pat before shimmying back to Uki’s side, pressing them together from shoulder to hip. “You know I’m not going anywhere, right?”

It wasn’t the first time Fulgur had said this. In fact, it was so often repeated in private that Uki’s answer was almost automatic. “Yeah. Me neither.” Rather than assuaging doubt, the words were a comforting habit, a worry stone that could be rubbed at any time. Uki would never take it for granted, however, and the gratitude that swept through him was just as familiar as the words.

“Even if you show up looking like you volunteered to be a chew toy for a werewolf,” Fulgur added after a moment, dry and teasing once more. Uki huffed and smushed his face into Fulgur’s shoulder, the metal thankfully padded by a soft wool sweater - one of several Uki had gifted because this damn cyborg never treated himself to nice things.

“I want to argue, but that’s…pretty accurate,” Uki grumbled. As if to validate his complaints, the next slight shift in Uki’s position must have conflicted with one ache or another, and a brief flash of pain made him gasp. The moment Uki froze, Fulgur stilled in place until Uki was able to find a more comfortable position. This was further encouraged with a cybernetic arm curled behind Uki’s shoulders, fingertips brushing against the collar of Uki’s sweatshirt.

“And it was all good?” There was no judgment in the question, but there was a hint of caution. Uki knew the vague question was meant to aim at any and all of the things that might have been an issue.

“Yes. I was never worried.” He paused. “Well, I was a little worried about how Sonny was feeling, but I was fine.”

“Good.” And just like that, Uki knew Fulgur wouldn’t pry further or second guess Uki’s decisions. Uki had never met someone who had Fulgur’s capacity to accept things as they were, without judgment or defensiveness. It was a trait Uki admired more than he cared to admit, and he did his best to emulate.

At the same time, this also meant Fulgur wouldn’t ask any questions: even the ones that were purely interest or curiosity. And Uki hadn’t missed the way Fulgur’s eyes had lingered on Uki’s body, getting caught on the bruises and bite marks until it seemed like he had to drag his eyes away. That hadn’t been concern or disdain.

Uki gave it a few minutes to see if Fulgur would fidget or glance over or give any indication that he wanted to broach the subject, but he did nothing of the sort, instead settling them both down with a throw blanket over their legs. But Uki knew Fulgur pretty damn well too, and he wanted to give Fulgur that same comfort of acceptance that was so readily offered to Uki.

“Want to look?” Uki asked quietly, careful to ensure his tone was light. Fulgur stilled for a moment and frowned, looking down at where Uki was curled up to his side.

“Look at what?” It didn’t sound like he was playing innocent. Uki cleared his throat.

“The…uh,” Uki made a face, trying to be both delicate and clear. “Marks. Left behind on the chew toy.”

Ah, there. Fulgur’s eyebrows disappeared for a moment behind his silver hair, and then his expression shifted back to neutral. Controlled.

“I don’t need to, unless you think something needs first aid?” This was a pretense; Fulgur had looked over Uki’s body carefully back in Sonny’s bedroom, and if he’d thought anything needed cleaning or bandages, he would have said so. Uki didn’t back down.

“I didn’t say ‘need’. I asked if you want to look.” Uki pointedly met Fulgur’s eyes, shifting a little closer.

“Uki…” Fulgur grimaced as he looked away, though Uki didn’t stop observing. There had been a suspicion growing in Uki for a while that something going on with Fulgur. Not something bad per se, just…a disturbance in the force.

And Uki didn’t really have any idea as to what was the cause, but all his instincts were telling him that this was another clue, and that the discomfort evident on Fulgur’s face was not because of Uki himself.

He reached over and clasped Fulgur’s free hand with his own, drawing those silver eyes back. “I’m offering,” he said quietly. And then with a smile, “Also, I’m going to be sore for ages because of all this. Might as well get some extra bang for my buck by sharing them, right?”

Fulgur rolled his eyes and let out a huff, not quite smiling but relaxing from his previous stiffness. They were both silent for a couple minutes; Uki was content knowing that Fulgur was actually considering Uki’s offer. And it wasn’t like the bite marks were going anywhere. There was no rush.

“Alright.” There was a long breath, another pause. “I’ll look.”

Uki brightened, sitting upright and smiling despite how Fulgur still seemed hesitant. “Yay. Help me with my sweater, babe?” Fulgur blinked and Uki smiled wider, knowing Fulgur hadn’t thought much past the initial decision. “And…you know I like it when you look at my body,” Uki added quietly.

It was a very well documented truth. Though they had been intimate with each other for a long time now, Fulgur’s milky white skin still turned a little pink with Uki’s words.

“Alright, alright, I’m doing it, you don’t need to sell me on it.” Despite the gruff words, Fulgur’s movements were a bit halting as he lifted the sweater up, Uki holding his arms up high so that Fulgur could remove it with ease.

“I’m just saying that I’m not offering solely out of the goodness of my heart.” Without the trapped warmth of the sweatshirt, the air was cool on Uki’s skin, especially where his skin throbbed, bites and bruises all out in the open.

And Uki had been right. The uncertainty had vanished from Fuuchan’s expression, his gaze honed in on Uki’s shoulder where it was probably littered with bite marks, given the ache. And that look…it wasn’t often Uki saw Fuuchan with an expression like this. Fascinated, maybe even a little entranced.

Uki let him stare for a minute or so, but he had always been the less patient of the two. He wanted to see more of Fulgur’s reactions, maybe understand more what was going on with Fulgur, whatever it was. So Uki took one of Fulgur’s hands in his own and quickly brought it up to his shoulder where it felt the most sore.

In doing so, Uki got a closer look at the marks himself and his eyebrows rose. Damn. Even he was a little impressed. Despite being so fresh, the colors were already lurid: inflamed teeth marks surrounded by blooms of red and pink bruising, hints of purple already showing up.

It was the kind of thing a lot of people would find at least a little alarming, maybe even gross.

That definitely wasn’t how Fulgur was reacting though. Uki brushed Fulgur’s fingertips across the marks, barely enough to make them sting. It didn’t seem like it should have been possible for the unyielding metal of Fulgur’s prosthetic to sense something so subtle, but going by the faint hitch in Fulgur’s breath, Uki knew he could feel the indentations and ridges, the swelling.

“You aren’t usually this shy,” Uki said in a soft voice, smiling a little to make sure Fulgur knew it wasn’t an accusation.

Fulgur shook his head and Uki could see his throat bob as he swallowed, though Fulgur didn’t look away from where he was now running his fingers over more marks all on his own. “No, I’m not,” he agreed after a moment.

Silver eyes flicked up to meet Uki’s for a moment, the quick check-in acknowledged with another small smile, and then Fulgur’s hand drifted lower, following the path left behind by Sonny’s teeth.

The delicate touches did hurt a little, but it was so mild that it only made Uki shiver, his breath stuttering. Uki had no desire to repeat last night’s level of brutality so soon, but this…this was nice. It wasn’t too much. And it wasn’t just anyone touching Uki like this either: it was Fulgur. He was Uki’s safe haven.

Fulgur continued exploring, so quiet and gentle it almost seemed akin to worship. He traced the reddened teeth marks framing one of Uki’s nipples; the only indicator that he wasn’t totally hypnotized was the way his mouth twitched into a smirk when Uki gasped at the touch.

The prosthesis followed the dips of Uki’s chest down across his stomach to his hips where there were no more bite marks - but there were still bruises. Uki watched as Fulgur shifted his weight, turning so that he could rest both hands on Uki’s hips to match the faint outline of the bruises.

“Is this how he fucked you?” It was strange to hear such blunt words sounding so tentative and innocent. Not that Uki would’ve been bothered even if they’d been brash. His trust in Fulgur was unconditional.

“No,” he said with a snort, grinning when Fulgur looked up. “I wish. He folded me up like he was practicing origami. I think these were…” Uki hummed as he perused memories of the night before. “Earlier than that. He was pretty impatient.”

“Hard to imagine Sonny like that.” Uki narrowed his eyes, Fulgur’s tone…was something. There was something there, but Uki didn’t press. Not yet, anyway.

Especially because it was distracting how well Fulgur’s hands fit around Uki’s hips. And he was close enough now that Uki could see those silvery eyelashes up close, so ethereal compared to the cyborg’s grounded nature. So pretty. Uki’s face warmed and a need started to well up in him.

Slowly, projecting his movements to avoid surprising Fulgur, Uki cupped his sharp jaw in both hands, fingers brushing across the faint blush that could be missed if you didn’t know to look for it. The kiss that followed was impossibly gentle, familiar and easy.

Wrapping his arms behind Fulgur’s shoulders, Uki continued kissing while he pulled himself forward and onto Fulgur’s lap. He had to let out a soft noise as he spread his legs to get settled, having forgotten just how sore he was in various places, but it was only a brief moment as Fulgur swallowed the noise, hands petting up and down Uki’s sides to soothe him.

The warmth of fondness drove Uki to cling, and it was some time before he could bring himself to pull back from kissing Fulgur. Just enough to meet his glinting eyes.

“Kiss me.”

“I was kissing you,” Fulgur returned with a wry smile, to which Uki raised an unimpressed eyebrow.

“I want you to kiss me here.” Sitting up put Uki’s neck right in Fulgur’s line of sight. Though Uki hadn’t yet seen his neck in a mirror, he could tell from the way it throbbed with his pulse that it was no less marked up than any other part of his body. In this position Uki couldn’t see much of Fulgur’s face though, so he simply had to trust and wait.

When it came, the press of lips to his throat was even better than Uki had expected. It didn’t sting, but was a more diffuse ache that gently flared from Fulgur’s barely-there touch. The feathering kisses continued and Uki closed his eyes, tipping his head to the side with a sigh of contentment.

It felt so good. No, more than that. It shook Uki to his core that Fulgur trusted him with something unknown, something that left Fulgur uncertain and vulnerable. He was sharing it with Uki and it felt so damn good.

Uki lifted a hand to start stroking through Fuuchan’s soft hair, tracing nails across his scalp before smoothing the hair and repeating. Fuuchan let out a noise that sounded like contentment, and it only stoked Uki further in his reciprocal desire.

In loose sweatpants there was no hiding how Uki began to harden, but that didn’t mean they needed to act on it either; that wasn’t a pressure they felt with one another. It was enough for Uki that Fulgur’s hands were on him, that his mouth and tongue were mapping out new borders on Uki’s skin. It was enough to feel Fulgur’s breath puff against Uki’s skin when the man paused to stare at a particular spot.

It was enough that Fulgur still wanted him so badly even though Uki couldn’t give Fulgur everything he wanted. It was all enough.

As Uki clung to as much of Fuuchan as he could get away with, Fulgur was slowly making his way back up Uki’s body as if to double-check his work, ensuring every bruise and bite wound was accounted for. His hands slid up Uki’s back and eased him closer so that when Fulgur lifted his head, Uki barely had to tip forward to sink into another kiss. It was a slow slide of skin against skin, only broken by Uki’s low groans and the way Fulgur had to breathe out Uki’s name like a prayer.

Uki had no framework by which to quantify his beliefs, no checklist or metrics he could use to defend them, but a thought pulsed through his mind as it had many times before. It was a truth to which Uki conferred absolute certainty: Fulgur was Uki’s soulmate, in every sense of the word. Their souls fit. It was something above love or relationships, sex or cohabitation, and it mattered more than all of those things.

As if sensing what was happening in Uki’s mind, Fulgur pulled Uki closer until every inch of them was pressed together. Or maybe Fulgur wasn’t sensing anything; maybe he was simply feeling that truth as well. It wouldn’t have surprised Uki if his connection with the cyborg were some kind of magic.

Reality intruded on these thoughts as it so often did. Being held so tightly to Fulgur’s body made it inevitable that Uki would feel the thick press of Fulgur’s equally hard length. Uki didn’t need to think much further than that; he pressed a little closer and bit his lip to stifle the resulting whine. It felt good, a fizzy rush of sensation that complemented the emotions coursing back and forth inside Uki.

“Mmh, Uki.” It sounded like Fulgur had enjoyed the contact just as much, breaking the kiss to take a deep breath that shuddered through them both. Fulgur met Uki’s eyes: did Uki look like that too? Dilated pupils, eyelids at half mast, reddened cheeks. “You wanna..?”

Uki’s smile was giddy as he nodded quickly, kissing Fuuchan’s cheek. “Yes.” He pet his hands across Fulgur’s sweater, wanting it off sooner rather than later. “Nothing complicated, just…”

“Yeah,” Fulgur filled in the blanks. “I just want to touch you.”

Exactly,” Uki breathed, staring at Fuuchan with delighted wonder. It didn’t surprise him that they understood each other, but he never stopped being amazed that he’d found this person.

Fuuchan ducked his head, clearly trying and failing to stifle a pleased smile. This bashful side of Fulgur was a rare sight, and Uki couldn’t resist leaning in for one more kiss before moving.

“Help me get these off,” he said, gesturing at his tented sweatpants. “And those too.” Another gesture was directed at Fulgur’s fully clothed self. They took their time by necessity: pulling off Uki’s sweatpants exposed even more bite marks and Fulgur couldn’t resist cataloging them with teeth and tongue as well.

Once both were fully bare, Fulgur’s hands settled on Uki’s waist and pulled him close. The press of their lengths against each other’s was about as tame as sexual intimacy could get, but because it was Fuuchan, it was never less than exhilarating. Uki lost himself to the feeling of Fulgur’s body against his just as easily as he’d been swept away by the pain bestowed upon him by Sonny.

There was only a brief moment of clarity when Fulgur’s hands started to stroke and shift over Uki’s skin. They slid up Uki’s back, down again, and then the metallic hands circled lower over Uki’s rear, cupping and squeezing gently.

“Ah!” Uki was surprised by his own voice, blinking sheepishly a second later at Fulgur’s inquiring look. “Still sore.” Fulgur didn’t seem satisfied with that answer, understandably. “We were really…really rough.”

“What do you mean?” Fulgur’s voice rasped, and once again Uki was sure there was something. Something of note. A mystery, but Uki had time to figure it out.

Choosing to shed any embarrassment, Uki leaned in so that he could press a brief kiss to Fulgur’s lips. It also brought him close enough for Fulgur to hear Uki’s next words that were barely louder than a whisper.

“I just barely got some lube on him before he fucked me.” Uki watched Fulgur’s eyes, wanting to see everything that might show on that beautiful face of his. “Didn’t have time for anything else. Like I said. He was impatient.”

Fulgur’s back straightened and his breath halted. It seemed to take a second for him to process what Uki was saying, but then it clicked, and the sight before Uki was everything he’d hoped for. Fulgur’s pupils contracted to a tiny point before slowly dilating. His throat bobbed with a hard swallow. His lips were parted, halfway to a gasp. And Uki got to see it all.

“Uki,” Fulgur breathed, gaze full of awe. “Uki, baby…”

Before Uki could respond, he shuddered in Fulgur’s hold, barely stifling another yelp. Fulgur’s hand had slid down Uki’s lower back and between his cheeks, one finger brushing against Uki’s entrance. It was a gentle movement, but Uki was still so raw and sore that he couldn’t contain the reflexive flinch.

“Fuck, sorry, I shouldn’t have-” Uki didn’t let any more of the apology escape, kissing Fulgur with his face caught firmly between Uki’s hands until the cyborg stopped trying to speak.

“Fuuchan,” Uki said in a stern voice.

Fulgur sighed, but Uki didn’t let go yet. “Didn’t that…hurt? Doing it like that?”

“Um, yes. Very much so,” Uki answered with a smile, thumb sweeping over the red lines of Fulgur’s tattoo where it veered onto his temple. A couple strands of silver hair fell in front of Fulgur’s eyes and Uki blew them aside. “Sometimes I want to be hurt.”

Fulgur took a very shaky breath, just watching Uki. Thinking. About what, Uki wasn’t sure, but it was something important. So he let Fulgur be for a few moments, hands gentle on Fulgur’s face as they rested against each other. Eventually something cleared in Fulgur’s eyes and Uki smiled; Fulgur didn’t look distressed. It was okay.

Red and black metallic arms suddenly scooped Uki close, immediately grinding his groin to Fulgur’s as Fulgur kissed him. Definitely not distressed, then. The moan Uki let out was almost joyful as he fell back into their languid heat, slow movements sending frissons of pleasure through their bodies.

The hand on Uki’s ass squeezed every so often, just enough to hurt a little as a reminder and make Uki’s cock throb against Fulgur’s. The other hand soon slipped between them and, ah, yeah. That was what Uki had wanted.

Fulgur wrapped his digits around both their lengths; the firm surface of his prosthetics had been novel at first, but now they were as familiar as Uki’s own hands and he groaned, hips instinctively pushing up into Fulgur’s grip.

“So good, babe,” Uki murmured against Fulgur’s mouth, the words humid and fuzzy. “You make me feel so good.” It was building up so quickly and Uki’s mouth dropped open as he panted, clinging even more to Fulgur.

Fulgur let out a choked sound in turn, hand speeding up as precome made the movements slippery, his own body starting to tremble in tune with Uki’s. Uki pressed his face to Fulgur’s neck as he held on tight, his already weakened legs quickly turning to jello.

It hadn’t been Uki’s intent to give Fulgur a perfect closeup view of the bite marks littering Uki’s shoulders, but he was glad he did. Fulgur’s hips shuddered and a faint ache suddenly radiated through Uki’s shoulder. That was enough to tip him over the edge, come spilling onto Fulgur’s cybernetic joins as Uki cried out in a high whine.

The ache had been Fulgur’s teeth, fitted right to one of the marks left behind. He hadn’t bitten down, wasn’t even putting much pressure on it. It was like he was testing to see if it fit, trying to understand.

Whatever the motivation, the result was Fuuchan letting out a sharp, high sound as he came a few strokes after Uki, adding to the mess even as his hand slowed. A few more lazy strokes milked the last of the come out of them both and took all the tension out of their bodies with it.

Uki ended up no more than a dead weight hanging from Fulgur’s shoulders, breathing hard as his body twitched with faint aftershocks. By all measures, it was just a handjob, but…it was Fuuchan. Everything with him felt this good.

And it was this same person who, despite his own quivering chest and shaky breath, carefully laid Uki on the bed and stood up. “I’ll get us cleaned up, don’t get up.”

Uki closed his eyes with a short laugh, gingerly shifting himself into a more comfortable position. “Don’t think I could even if I wanted to.”

Fulgur returned with a damp washcloth, diligent in cleaning them both. When he finished, leaving both them and the room tidy, he pulled a blanket over them both as Uki finally got the cuddles he’d been promised originally.

Though they were both tired, neither was sleepy, so for a while they lay there, comfortable with the silence and each other. It sometimes rattled Uki, how he could just be with Fulgur and be happy. Just like that.

But as they lay there, Uki’s thoughts stirred and he started to put together the things he’d observed. Fuuchan’s reactions. Their relationship, what they did, what they were comfortable with. Uki wasn’t like Fuuchan; he couldn’t just know , but he thought maybe he had an idea.

“Fuuchan,” Uki said quietly. Fulgur lifted a hand and idly stroked through Uki’s hair in response. Uki had his head on Fulgur’s chest, staring off into the distance. Uki wondered if Fulgur was doing the same, or if he was watching Uki.

“Hmm?”

“The bites, and everything,” Uki started. Fulgur’s hand paused in its movement for a moment but then resumed, and Uki couldn’t feel any tension in his body either. Fulgur wasn’t scared. “You don’t want to do them to me, do you?” It wasn’t really a question; Uki was almost certain of the answer.

“Ah, no,” Fulgur confirmed in a light voice, but didn’t elaborate further. A thumb swept across Uki’s hairline, down, then started tracing the shell of Uki’s ear, much to his delight. It took Uki another minute to reassemble his thoughts in this state.

“You haven’t done anything like it before?”

“No. Probably saw some videos of similar stuff at some point or another. But not like this. I didn’t know what it would look like, how you’d feel after.” Something about Fulgur’s phrasing…Uki tried grabbing more and more pieces of data, little details, memories, conversations.

A suspicion was forming. But Uki had to check.

“You were curious about how it would feel…” A silence followed and Uki continued. “But seeing me with it, that’s not the same as…oh. Do you…want to know how it feels too?”

Fulgur didn’t say anything, but he could tell Fulgur had nodded, chin brushing against Uki’s hair. Uki stretched out a hand and found Fulgur’s free one, intertwining their fingers and squeezing. Waiting.

“I think so. Maybe.” Fulgur didn’t sound embarrassed, but his words were halting, like he was still processing. “I’m not sure…how I would try it out. For me.” He tapped metallic fingers against Uki’s head. Much of Fulgur couldn’t be hurt, not in the same way.

It was Uki’s turn to nod and think. This was the asterisk to his and Fulgur’s relationship, the fine print that accompanied their perfectly matched souls. It had been a strange thing, realizing early on that Uki and Fulgur couldn’t fulfill all of each other’s needs. Couldn’t fulfill many of them, in fact.

Well, Fulgur had seemed less surprised than Uki at the time. But he’d probably understood Uki inside and out for quite a while by that point and had seen this coming. Uki hadn’t been prepared though. He’d read romance novels. He’d watched the people around them, watched relationships form and sometimes dissolve. There was a way to do things.

Of course, the ‘way things were done’ didn’t exactly include portals opening and dumping five men into the past. Demons and sorcerers, witches and demigods and dragons: none of that was in the unwritten guidebook on how things were done. So it hadn’t been as difficult as Uki expected, to let go of certain preconceived notions.

The second surprise had been realizing that it didn’t hurt, knowing that Uki couldn’t be the one to give Fulgur everything he wanted and needed. Maybe because Uki had already been leaning on Noctyx in many ways, even others outside their unit. And Fulgur too, in different ways, with different people.

The first time Uki witnessed Fulgur finding comfort with someone else just…hadn’t hurt. It had been a relief. Fulgur deserved as much happiness as the universe could shell out; it was a victory knowing that others could help, that they wanted to help make Fulgur happy.

It didn’t hurt at all; it felt triumphant.

Simple as that, they were able to move forward. Just as Uki’s certainty in Fulgur was unshakeable, his trust that Fulgur wouldn’t ever abandon him was immutable. Everything else was just details.

Strangely enough, however, this trust seemed to be contagious. Uki had never really spoken of it with Alban or Yugo or Sonny, at least not with words: they worked mostly with pointed looks and raised eyebrows.

It was just a series of small moments that validated their mutual trust: Sonny getting a wink from Fulgur even as a drunken Uki threw himself at the cop. Uki hearing echoes of low, gasping laughter ringing from Fulgur’s room late at night. Somehow, they all just…knew.

Uki hadn’t necessarily seen everything firsthand, of course. He wasn’t even entirely certain of the nature of all of their intertwining relationships. Had Yugo slept with Sonny? Were they even interested in that? Fulgur had flicked Uki in the ear once when he’d gotten nosy, speculating loudly about a day where both Alban and Fulgur had been suspiciously AWOL.

And Uki had a feeling this strange trust was going to spread further, one day. He’d seen Fulgur out and about, with certain people…and he just had a sense. Nothing he could describe. But a sense.

Uki pulled Fulgur’s hand over and pressed kisses to the knuckle joints, one-two-three-four in quick succession. “Who do you want to be with when you try this stuff out?” It didn’t even need to be said that this wasn’t something Uki could offer, not without significant discomfort anyway.

“There’s-” Uki waited and Fulgur’s mouth twisted. “...I’m not sure.”

“That’s okay. We have time.” They all did now. Time to heal, to live, to find fulfillment without some kind of looming threat or active trauma. Time to fool around in bed multiple days in a row.

Uki felt Fulgur kiss the top of his head, sending a fresh wave of affection through Uki. “God, I love you, you know that?”

Uki preened, grin wide even as he wriggled close to Fuuchan to try to hide how his ears were getting red. “Yes, I know.”

Fulgur laughed, kissed Uki once more and then settled back into the pillows, both of them with much to think about. It was going to be a nice, restful-

-a buzzing noise broke the comfortable silence of the air. Uki sulked: he’d just gotten comfortable again! Fulgur rifled around the clothing they’d pushed off to the side before extracting his cell phone. A few seconds passed as he opened it, eyebrows raising. He handed it over to Uki without a word.

It was several messages from Alban. First, a picture of Sonny’s bedroom, Sonny drooling into a pillow and still looking absolutely knocked out. Also in the photo was a whirlwind of strewn clothing, including Uki’s telltale purple leggings and sweater.

The photo was followed by a line of question marks, then three dots as Alban typed.

-yo wtf

Uki waited. He could distantly recall a time where this response might have been worrying, but Uki’s trust in the men of Noctyx was second only to his trust in Fuuchan. So Uki waited patiently. And then a series of messages popped up in rapid succession, much to Uki’s amusement.

-wtf did uki do to sonny
-sonny loses his fking mind when i leave like a sock somewhere
-literally threw a chopstick at my head once bc i put my shoes on the carpet
-i mean the chopstick missed obv i juked him but
-he fking loves chopsticks
-did sonny lose a bet
-can u ask uki to win it for me next time too
-wait doesnt uki hate mess too
-omg did YOU win a bet
-is that why uki isnt answering
-omg did he get u too
-is this ukis villain arc

Uki snorted as the messages came flooding in, practically hearing Fulgur rolling his eyes as he read over his shoulders.

-Hey babe, I’m using Fuuchan’s phone.

-uki!!!!!!
-<3333

Uki couldn’t help but grin. He wasn’t that complicated of a person. He liked hearing nice things said to him. Liked being liked. The way Alban handed out blunt affection so freely was a cornerstone of his relationship with Uki.

-If I ever catch you wearing shoes on the carpet…
-THAT will be my villain arc.

-no no i was just kidding about the shoes thing
-the chopstick part was real though
-lol did it pain you to leave a mess behind
-what even happened

-Sonny was not having a good night.
-I had a great night though, iykwim.

-omg do i even want to know
-wait bad night?? like actually?

Uki’s smile faded a little, and Fulgur was equally quiet behind him. Uki wouldn’t have been confident about his suspicions if it were just him alone, but Fulgur seemed pretty sure too. Of course, they could just leave it be, keep their noses out of it, leave it to fate.

Fuck that. Uki thought fate was bullshit. Maybe fate had dropped a fucking star in Uki’s eye, but Uki had opened that portal himself. Uki’s desire to live and to end his suffering had been so strong, so powerful that it found four other miserable sacks of shit and dragged them with Uki to a better life. So no, Uki didn’t leave important things to fate.

-uki?

-He didn’t say anything so I could be wrong but
-After you left, he seemed off, by himself most of the day I think.
-I bumped into him pretty late and he was like a powder keg.

-what’s a powder keg

-Like TNT in MC that’s already flashing.

-shit
-can i come talk to u

-Of course, I’m in my room with Fuuchan.

Only Fulgur managed to pull on some clothing by the time Alban burst through the door with wide eyes. He opened his mouth to speak but Uki cut him off before he could so much as a word out.

“Alban Knox,” Uki hissed through gritted teeth. “What. Are. Those?”

“Uhh.” Alban glanced down at his feet. Feet that were currently in runners. “Shit, be right back, please don’t throw anything at meeee!” He was already halfway down the hall by the time he finished that sentence, and Uki could only huff while resuming the slow struggle to pull pants on without standing up. Well, not quite. He did try to enlist help. (“Can you throw this at Alban when he-” “No, Uki, put the pillow down.”)

This time Alban returned, not in shoes but in the fuzzy yellow bunny slippers Sonny had gifted him a while back. They even had a little pom pom tail on the heels. Uki had laughed when he first saw them, much to Sonny’s confusion. Turned out they weren’t a joke gift; Sonny just thought they were cute.

“I know what you’re doing, trying to distract me by being adorable,” Uki grumbled.

“Is it working?” Alban asked brightly. Uki flipped him the bird and Fulgur laughed, swatting Uki’s hand away.

“Come on, come sit over here.” Fulgur patted the bed beside Uki before walking over to Uki’s desk chair and swinging it around to face the other two.

Alban didn’t hesitate, throwing himself onto the bed with enthusiasm. Which would normally be totally welcome. On this occasion, Uki let out a strangled noise as Alban collided with Uki, sending one big ouch through Uki’s sore body.

“Oh shit,” Alban froze, bracing Uki with both hands. All this commotion had also knocked askew the blanket Uki had wrapped around his shoulders in lieu of wrestling with a sweatshirt. And of course, now Alban could see the other artifacts of Sonny’s bad night. “Oh shiiiiiit. Did you sleep with Sonny or a werewolf?”

Fulgur snorted and picked up the sweatshirt from the end of the bed, throwing it with perfect aim right at Alban’s face, much to Uki’s satisfaction. “Give Uki a hand covering those up, would you?”

“Uh,” Alban still seemed a little stunned before shaking his head as if he could physically clear his thoughts out. “Yeah, of course, now be a good boy, Uki, and-”

“Shut up,” Uki laughed, though he was, in fact, a good boy who held his arms up. For all his brash energy, Alban was almost as gentle as Fulgur as he tugged the sweater over Uki’s battered torso.

It made sense: out of the five of them living together, it was Alban who worried the most about everyone, hyper sensitive to their moods and needs. It was also a double-edged sword; Uki could already see anxiety in Alban’s jumpy movements and rapid fire jokes.

Once Alban had smoothed the sweatshirt and tugged the hood over Uki’s eyes (just to annoy him), he settled back beside the psychic. “So…when you say bad night, did Sonny do something…”

“To be clear,” Uki cut Alban off, “I had a great time. No complaints here.”

“Yeah, yeah, of course.” Alban looked down at his lap, knee bouncing as he fidgeted with a corner of Uki’s blanket. “But all the, y’know, that-” Alban flapped his hands vaguely at Uki’s body. “-was because he was upset right?”

Uki hummed, thinking it over. “Kind of. But I think he had a goal in mind.” This drew both Fulgur and Alban’s puzzled looks. Right, Uki hadn’t mentioned this to Fulgur yet. “He was pretty determined to see me cry.”

“Kinky,” Fulgur said in a dry voice. Uki shot Fulgur a knowing look, certain that Fulgur had his own thoughts on the matter entirely unrelated to Uki.

Alban let out a frustrated sigh. “Do you think he’s mad?...At me?”

Uki couldn’t help it, letting out a laugh even though Alban frowned at him. “Albanyan, if Sonny were mad at you, he would have just thrown another chopstick at you.” Anger wasn’t what Sonny bottled up.

With one exception: all of Noctyx had seen what Sonny was like when he was frustrated with himself, and now that Uki thought about it, the memories of those moments weren’t all that different from the caged up agitation Sonny had exuded the night before.

“You didn’t do anything wrong, Alban,” Fulgur chimed in.

“Yeah, I know.” The thief didn’t seem entirely convinced, however, and Fulgur shook his head.

“No, listen to me. You really didn’t. Sonny knows that too. He trusts you.” Alban glanced up at that and Fulgur leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees, meeting Alban’s mismatched eyes. “We all do.”

“But he’s upset,” Alban protested.

“Exactly.” Fulgur paused, waiting for it to click with Alban. “He trusts you and yet he’s still upset. Who’s he going to blame that on?” Uki had to resist the urge to clap; Fulgur made it seem so obvious when Uki hadn’t even quite figured it out. Alban’s eyes widened and there was a lengthy pause as they all processed.

“Oh,” Uki said, once again drawing the attention of the others to him. “Um, hm. Sonny was, you know, bitey, but, um.” It wasn’t often Uki spoke before he’d sorted his thoughts out. “When I tried to be, you know, sweet with him, he just made a face,” Uki paused to imitate the frown, “and stopped me.”

That wasn’t what Sonny was like normally, but Uki hadn’t paid it much thought given the context of the very rough sex that had very much consumed most of Uki’s focus at the time.

“Huh,” Alban said quietly. “I think I should-” He was already standing up and Uki didn’t protest, but Fulgur stood up as well and crowded Alban before the thief could dodge. Fulgur pulled him into a brisk hug, patting Alban hard a couple times: the bro hug, as Uki called it.

“Don’t be too hard on him,” Fulgur said as he let Alban go with a smile, one hand squeezing Alban’s shoulder. Uki watched, the deeply nosy part of him desperately hoping to gain some new insight into what Fulgur and Alban got up to in their spare time together.

Alban looked down but he was smiling a little, maybe sheepish. He was so cute sometimes; the urge to squish his cheeks was rising, and it was Alban’s lucky day that Uki was essentially bedbound. “Yeah, well, I’m pretty sure waking up to that mess in his room will be worse than anything I could come up with.”

“Exactly,” Fulgur said with cheer, guiding Alban out, hand on him the whole way. Just before Alban stepped out the door, Fulgur leaned in and must have said something quiet in his ear, though Uki couldn’t make it out. Alban nodded and then turned red, puzzling until Uki realized that Fulgur had sent the phantom thief off with a kiss to his cheek.

“How is he so cute?” Uki whined as Fulgur returned to the bed, deftly pulling Uki back into optimal cuddling position.

“It’s how they lure you in,” Fulgur answered, smirking at Uki’s inquiring look. “Housecats. They’re not domesticated, you know? They’re so cute and sweet, and then one day you realize they’ve taken over your house, knocking over glasses of water and attacking toes without a single consequence. You are merely their servant.”

Uki blinked. “We should get a cat.” Fulgur laughed, squeezing Uki and leaning down to smooch his cheek, which reminded him. “What did you say to Alban?”

Fulgur gave Uki a knowing look, his smile sly as if he knew just how much the curiosity was itching at Uki. “Just something I think he needed to hear.”

“I’m going to ask him later,” Uki muttered, pouting even as he snuggled closer. Fulgur’s baritone laugh rumbled through Uki and that placated him for the time being.

“Don’t hold your breath,” Fulgur chuckled. “I think those two are probably due for a long talk.” Uki nodded, not particularly worried. If Sonny or Alban needed support, they knew that the rest of Noctyx would be there. “Now for the real issue: are you ready to finish watching the extended cut of the Lord of the Rings with me?”

“Oh god,” Uki laughed, using his powers to fly the remote over to Fulgur. “How long were you holding that in?”

“Probably since, oh, how did you put it - ‘rescue my giant ass’?” Uki pulled a face and Fulgur burst into that high pitched laughter of his, and that was that.

Edit

Pub: 21 Oct 2022 10:53 UTC

Edit: 21 Oct 2022 11:13 UTC

Views: 261