(no subject)

[takecourage]

Living with Darlington is a very different experience to living with anyone else that Alex has ever shared space with. With Mira, there was all kinds of attempts at rules and structure that never really worked out, while Ground Zero had been chaos of the ugliest kind. Her dorm room had been nice, the girls there for company, the sound of Mercy breathing at night. She'd never really had a chance to sleep at il Bastogne.

But here they are.

They haven't really done anything all day, just slept late and then lazed around in each other's company. She'd even managed to talk Darlington out of going for a run. Now, they're lying on the couch, their legs tangled together comfortably. Darlington's reading and Alex is idly flipping through cable channels. She nudges him with her heel against his thigh.

"Your turn to cook," she says, glancing at him.

Comments

[more_magic]

The blindfold comes off and he has to blink a few times, readjusting to the light and focusing on Alex's face as she looks at him like something wondrous. "I love you too," he says. "Beyond anything I ever expected."

[takecourage]

She kisses him, and then sits back to look at him, still trussed up in their bed like that.

"Do you want to keep going?"

[more_magic]

Danny gives that the consideration it deserves, weighing the spent exhaustion he feels and the way he aches. Eventually, he nods. "I'm done being hurt tonight, and I need you to let me out of the spreader bar, at least, but I can keep going."

[takecourage]

Alex immediately shifts down to the foot of the bed, releasing one ankle and then the other and then she moves up the bee, releasing his wrists.

"We can have a break and then go again," she says, sprawling beside him, still in her sweater and leggings.

[more_magic]

"Thank you," he says, letting out a relieved sigh as the restraints on his ankles loosen and slip off. Once Alex unties his wrists, he flexes them, working out a bit of the ache before he leans over to kiss her. "You know, sometimes I think you look better in that sweater than I do."

[takecourage]

"Its really soft," she says, leaning into the kiss. "So what did you like? What do we need to do more of?"

[more_magic]

"I didn't expect to enjoy having dinner in the nude quite so much," he says, smirking. "Which is a piece of information I'm certain you won't abuse for your own personal amusement."

He pauses, quietly aggravated with himself by the sudden way he wants to resist owning up to what he thinks of next. It's ridiculous, and it doesn't matter or mean anything one way or the other, and he knows that.

"More of playing with my ass," he says, and tries not to mumble it into something unintelligible in his sudden, stupid reticence. "I liked that. Obviously."

[takecourage]

"Obviously," she says, stroking her fingers down his bare side. "We can definitely play with your ass some more. See what you like. What you don't."

[more_magic]

Danny nods, smiling at the light stroke of her fingers down his side. "I liked playing around a little more with humiliation," he adds. "You reminding me how vulnerable I was. Even the Manuscript fantasy, though I'm loath to give them any influence over my sex life."

It's still something he feels more embarrassment over than amusement, but he manages a quiet laugh before he continues. "Well. More than they tried to have on Halloween."

[takecourage]

"Fuck them," says Alex, brushing his dark hair back from his forehead. "But at least it got is here, right?" She smiles. "I wasn't sure if that was pushing it too far, honestly..."

[more_magic]

"It got us here," he agrees--and if he thinks for now, knowing how differently it all turns out back home, it's only a distant thing, easily banished by the touch of her hand in his hair. "And it wasn't pushing too far. It was more than you'd done before, a little...more pointed, I'd suppose, but not enough to cross a line."

[takecourage]

"We're still figuring that part out, I guess," she says. "How important the humiliation is, how deep you need it to go." She shifts, aware that she hasn't come but sort of enjoying the throb between her thighs.

[more_magic]

"We'll get there." He says it with the confidence he already feels, the trust he has in Alex that forms the base of why they're even able to do things like this at all. It wouldn't work otherwise, or with anyone other than her. "And I have to think we'll enjoy the process of discovery, too."

Seeing the way she shifts against the bed, Danny raises one eyebrow just slightly. "Alright there, Stern?"

[takecourage]

"Yeah," she says, grinning. "We've just been quite focused on you. Not that I'm complaining." She leans in and kisses him. "It's definitely a fun process."

[more_magic]

Danny answers her grin with one of his own, skimming a hand along her hip as they kiss. "We can certainly remedy that during the next round. It's only fair."

[takecourage]

"True," she says. "But I do like pushing to see how far I can take it. I wasn't expecting you to let me play with your ass."

[more_magic]

"I wasn't expecting to let you either," he says. For a moment, it feels like a confession. "Also wasn't expecting to like it as much as I did."

[takecourage]

"I feel like that's true of a lot of guys," she says. "Some macho toxic masculinity bullshit."

[more_magic]

Alex names it with the kind of ease he often doesn't think he'll ever manage in his life, and it startles and impresses him in equal measure. "Something like that," he agrees. "I feel as though my grandfather would've used less...psychological terms, but the general idea's the same."

He shakes his head, one hand lifting in a brief, dismissive gesture. "Not that it's important."

[takecourage]

"You're right," she says, "It doesn't matter. Especially if you're into it." She turns her head again, pressing a kiss to his temple, shifting her hips again. "I'm ready to go again if you are?"

[more_magic]

She doesn't pry at any of that, doesn't ask the kind of probing questions he's come to expect from her on other topics than these, and if he's surprised by that, he's just as equally relieved. The kiss to his temple and the renewed twist of her hips serve well enough as a topic change, and he nods.

"I'd hate to leave you waiting further, Alex."

[takecourage]

"So what are you going to do for me, Danny?" she asks, grinning, arching her back, a strip of bare skin between the waistband of her leggings and the sweater. "And do we need to tie you up again before we do it?"

[more_magic]

The arch of her body is beautiful as always, his eyes going almost immediately to that revealed strip of skin. "Still interested in sitting on my face?" he asks, reaching over to trace a finger along her hip, the touch moving idly just beneath the hem of her sweater for a moment. "You can tie me down again for it, see how well I do just trying to get you off with my tongue."

He smirks. "Since you already suggested earlier that there's better things I could be doing with my mouth."

[takecourage]

"I could definitely be interested in sitting on your face," she says, with a broad grin. "Do you want to set some limits now before we get going again?"

[more_magic]

Danny thinks about that a moment, then shakes his head. "I'm still finished with being hurt tonight, but I think that's the only limit I need. I trust you."