living the dream

A tangle of limbs to savor the warmth of their afterglow together - ready to rise early for breakfast, another beautiful day expected in Dorne as the smell of early autumn floats through the open window.

Ellaria trails her long fingers gently over her lover’s shoulders - once again committing the sturdy curves to memory. Trailing her hand down the entanglement of limbs, her palm rests upon Oberyn’s stomach, feeling the motion of him breathing in and out. Satiated so early in the morn.

Oberyn has grown softer in his years - his fighting long behind him. Still a champion at heart - still training during his weeks - though more gentle these days. He no longer has to prove his strength in order to gain respect and hold his throne. He governs kindly, his people following him without fear. They trust him. Just as his body has continued to grow as he trusts himself to lead.

A soft chuckle escapes Oberyn’s lips as Ellaria continues to run soft fingertips over his belly, pressing gentle kisses against his neck.

“I’m surprised you’ve yet to say anything lover - I feel this is quite the change since we first fell.” Oberyn whispers, not an ounce of shame. Just curiosity.

“It is different, but I like it.” Ellaria smiles wide, pressing a kiss above Oberyn’s navel - soft lips sending a shiver down his spine.

“It suits you.” She gives her lovers stomach a gentle pat before sliding her hand up to cup his head in her hands. Oberyn remains sturdy, muscular. The ever present softness around his middle arousing her like a wild animal under the full moon. It is different, but she loves it. Oberyn had never been one to hide his emotions, or fear aging. He has welcomed the changes in her own body as the years have past - delighted in them even. A softer bum, larger breasts, the curve around her own belly.

It’s what royalty brings - abundance. Abundance in food, leisure, alone time.

They fought for this. For their people, and themselves.

Ellaria begins a trail of kisses down Oberyn’s neck, his pecs, following the light trail of hair down to his belly - feeling the softness under her lips she can not help herself from grinding her heat against Oberyn’s bent knee.

Both her hands now on either side of his distended abdomen, Oberyn reaches forward to tilt Ellaria’s chin so their eyes lock.

“Is this something you enjoy?” He asks, barely above a whisper.

“Yes lover, I enjoy it very much.” Ellaria is breathless from only having their eyes meet, seeing Oberyn’s dark pupils blow wide as if they hadn’t already gone a few rounds this morning.

“What do you say we have a little fun?” Oberyn snaps his fingers twice, waiting for the guards. “Hmm my little dove?” He smiles coy.

Two gentlemen in orange garbs walk in, bowing their heads before their nest.

“You can bring breakfast in here today - I believe the queen is ready.” Oberyn’s smile is wide as the gentlemen nod and exit the room.

“I say, what better for a ruling pair as in love as we are - to have breakfast in bed and indulge in eachother until the sun and moon are jealous of our humanity?” Oberyn tips Ellaria’s head back as he plants a kiss on her lips. Chaste - especially for him.

“Do I sense shyness between those lips, lover?” Ellaria giggles as she reaches to push Oberyn’s robe open further, pulling it down his arms.

Currently, you were the on-set tutor for Jaclin Rios, a 17-year-old actress having a banger of a breakout year. Her most recent movie was setting records at the box office while she was filming the next one. Education was still a high priority for Jaclin and her family. “Just in case this acting thing doesn’t pan out,” her parents said, although it was currently panning out just fine. You’d been referred by a friend-of-a-friend to Jaclin’s agent and now found yourself on set with her almost every day of the week, squeezing in precalculus lessons between takes.

That’s where you were on this fine spring afternoon—tucked away in Jaclin’s trailer, working through a section about exponential functions. She was a smart kid, but this stuff was throwing her for a loop, and she really needed to finish this section of homework before getting back to work. A soft knock at the trailer door barely moved your focus from the population of bacteria in the word problem you were helping Jaclin tackle. “Come in!” you hollered, not looking up, figuring it was a PA rounding up the actors for the next scene. You heard the door open and bang shut behind you. “Oh hey, D!” Jaclin exclaimed.

You whirled around. Nope, this was no PA. It was Dieter Bravo, Jaclin’s co-star and Hollywood playboy extraordinaire. You’d glimpsed him around set from time to time, but never been this close to him. He’d been going through a dry spell, releasing a couple flops after winning an Oscar several years ago. The tabloids were declaring him washed up, saying nobody would touch him— professionally or personally. This new movie with Jaclin, though, was gathering a lot of positive press and it looked like things were turning around for Dieter.

Speaking of turning things around, that’s exactly what was now happening with Jaclin’s math lesson. Before you’d realized it, Dieter had sat down with her at the tiny table and was talking her through the concepts behind exponential growth. And she was getting it! Wait, what? You thought to yourself, making yourself a cup of tea since obviously you weren’t needed right now. THIS guy does math? Not that you thought actors were unintelligent—not in the slightest—it was just usually a different type of intelligence. Within 15 minutes, though, Jaclin was knocking out word problems with ease.

“Okay, my homework’s done!” Jaclin announced.

“Can we go play now?” Dieter asked you with a raised eyebrow. “Seriously, I was just coming by to get Jackie. Didn’t expect the exponentials. We’re shooting in ten.”

“Oh! Of course. Yes. Go…yes…do that…” you stuttered, a bit taken aback by this whirlwind of fluffy hair and tattered bathrobe and mathematical knowledge that had invaded your space.

“Thanks, teach,” Dieter huffed. “I don’t think I caught your name?”

You told him. “Cool,” he said, like he didn’t care in the slightest. “Well, I’ll see you around.” And with that, he and Jaclin were off, pushing each other out of the trailer like a couple of kids.

You stood there for a minute in their wake, still slightly baffled by the whole interaction. Well, might as well head home now. Jaclin would be shooting the rest of the day and you didn’t have any further responsibilities on set. Sitting in traffic during your commute, you couldn’t stop thinking about Dieter. He was gorgeous up close, even more so than what little you’d seen of him on-screen (having never jumped on the bandwagon during his Oscars hype). Other folks on set didn’t have great things to say about him. A selfish jerk, a total prick, an egotistical asshole…that was what you’d heard about Dieter. But that wasn’t really the feeling you had gotten today. Somehow, you felt warm and tingly inside while thinking about your simple and rather brusque interaction with him. Why did you want to learn more about someone who sounded like he would never remember your name?  

That evening, you went on a Dieter Bravo binge, devouring interviews, movie clips, reviews, photoshoots…anything you could find beyond the standard tabloid fare about this intriguing man. It turned out there was a lot more to him than met the eye (although what met the eye was also quite enticing). He’d moved often as a child, the son of a humanitarian doctor and a high-end real estate manager. He was trilingual, speaking English, Spanish, and German. He’d gone to college for electrical engineering (with his parents’ support) until he decided to live for himself and chase his dreams (and that financial support was withdrawn). He worked his ass off in New York and Hollywood, living out of his car at times, until his big break finally came. You’d always described yourself as a sucker for a good backstory, and damn, this man had backstory in spades.

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Over a week went by before you saw Dieter again. Jaclin was off shooting a monologue and you puttered around her trailer, tidying things up before she came back for her afternoon lessons. Tap tap tap— you looked up and saw Dieter peering through a window. Crossing to the door and swinging it open for him, you went back to your cleaning and tried to look indifferent. “Jackie’s not here,” you informed him as he entered.

“I know. I’m…actually here for you. I was wondering if you could help me with something.”

You tried to keep your heart rate down. “Mhmmmm?” was all you could manage.

“Do you want to have lunch with me?” he asked with a small, exasperated sigh. “They keep trying to set me up with this interviewer guy for lunch, but he’s so fuckin’ boring and I don’t want to today. That’s a problem for tomorrow-me.”

“Oh! Yeah, sure. I haven’t eaten yet.” You allowed yourself to exhale. He was just avoiding a boring interview. He could’ve asked anybody. He probably would ask anybody else before you. He was just being nice to the new girl by asking at all. But no, wait—Dieter was not nice. Well, whatever the nefarious reasoning was here, you did need to eat lunch, and maybe you could do some networking with this guy. He did have a lot of connections, after all.

Lunch turned out to be the buffet option at a little hole-in-the-wall Indian restaurant. You could barely manage one serving of curry, rice, and naan even though everything was delicious. Still slightly reeling from the invitation and wanting to somehow impress Dieter, you mostly sipped at your hot chai while asking him all sorts of questions about his time in the industry. Dieter, for his part, gamely answered everything he felt like while devouring several heaped plates of samosas, baingan bharta, tandoori chicken, and curry, wiping up the sauces with pillowy naan. “I’m so glad they’re not making me diet down for this role,” he said, mouth full. “I mean, I’m playing Jackie’s dad. I believe the exact instructions were the more dad bod, the better.”

Heat spread between your legs at the thought, and you were instantly irritated at your body’s betrayal. It’s just lunch. He’s just being nice. Or not nice. Being confusing. Don’t be getting all…aroused and shit. But the mental image of Dieter with a heavy, thick belly was hard to shake. He was relatively slim but had put on some weight in recent months, making him “chubby” by Hollywood standards. Some articles mentioned this upcoming role as an intentional reason for his gain, while others insisted it was accidental and blamed his drinking habits and the munchies. You didn’t really care about the cause since the overall effect was just so enticing.

The remainder of the meal went smoothly. Dieter wouldn’t let you pay, adamantly citing the fact that “they never set the wages for on-set tutors high enough.” You enjoyed the ride back to set in his convertible, the wind blowing through your hair and music blaring too loud for any conversation. Dropping you off near Jaclin’s trailer, he thanked you for being a better lunch companion than that interviewer would have been. Not the highest praise, but you’d take it. “See you around,” he yelled, whipping his car out of the parking lot.

Jaclin was waiting in the trailer when you entered. “Was that Dieter dropping you off? What was that all about?”

“We just went to lunch. He was dodging this interviewer,” you informed her.

“That asshole! I had to do lunch with the guy he was dodging. It was soooo boring,” she whined. “Wait—were you on a date?”

“No! Of course not!” You gave Jaclin a hard stare. “There’s no way. I was just an excuse to get away, I’m sure. He probably asked everyone else on set first.”

“I didn’t see him asking any of the other tutors or PAs or anything this morning…”

“Whatever! He must have. Anyway, it’s time for polynomial root-finding, not interpersonal analysis,” you deflected, moving Jaclin toward her table and books. The rest of the workday was spent on synthetic division and graphing, and you couldn’t have been more grateful for it. Once again on the commute home, though, you couldn’t get Dieter out of your mind. Was that a date? The thought kept flashing through your head. It had kind of felt like a date. No. No way. Just being nice. But…Dieter’s not nice.

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