#a.very

He already knows every idiosyncrasy of Avery's body before he could fall in love with them naturally - he still finds them cute but he at times all most feels detached from his own attraction: like he's reading a fan fiction of a character he likes rather than the real person whose tensity and loveable charms took his heart and cherished and natured it away from the hold of The King, like a man hunching over the embering campfire and keeping it aflame amidst a howling blizzard. Each touch, feels clinical to him: like he's following a tutorial for a redstone build or something.

Avery's breath catches when his hands slide up his sides, already knowing the exact orientation of every freckle and blemish and the feel of his soft skin under his hands and knowing it would get his heart racing as his shirt bunches up and have his chest tingling like the fuses of fireworks running short.

The little gasps and mewling noises that escape beneath his breathing are still pleasing, and he savours each one in earnest as his hands explore Avery, but the course has been charted and preordained.

"Derek…" Avery mummers his name against his neck, his breath groundingly warm - like a cozying up to a fire to melt away frostbite. He nuzzles close, clinging to it's warmth.

A little lower and he's make Avery shiver and do that cute giggle, he would like to hear it for real and not just know of it.

Hands move beneath the curve of Avery's belly, gently dragging towards the centre and he can feel Avery squirming and shivering beneath him, a giggle kindling in his thorax and-

"Derek." Avery's hands brushes gently into his locs at the base of his skull and he stills before his fingers can make it to that tender zone he knows is there. Gentle pressure fizzles a pleasant cottony sensation outwards in a little lapping wave that lulls into a comfortable tenderness.

Avery smiles as Derek hums in his touch, leaning into it's surety as he is wanton to do when his own mind is getting away from him. It's about one of the only times his guard is down, which works for Avery who quickly rolls them to the side.

They thunk against the wall of his bedroom and fumble about on his single, but it ends with Derek on the bed under him and a look of quiet surprise on his face. For once his hands don't know what to do.

"Avery what-"

"You had that look."

"What look?"

"The going through your mental archives look, the I know everything and nothing surprises me anymore and I'm sad about it look," Avery brushes a hand across his cheek and Derek exhales as it passes over and a thumb gently kneads his jaw, "fun on trivia night I imagine, not so much here and now. "

"Yeah,"a bitter sort of resignation paints his face, happy to let Avery's weight aid the bed in swallowing him up as if he's falling into the nebulous door network again, "about sums it up."

"Need a shake up, I'll lead: for once you can follow me," he winks.

"I like-"

"Don't tell me." Derek blinks at him and Avery blinks back before realising how short he sounded.

"I didn't mean like that," Avery chuckles, trying to break the brief awkward lull, rubbing the back of his head and jostling his frizzy curls, "please tell me if I do something that you don't like and want me to stop, just… let me find out everything about you by myself okay?"

The gentle pleading and way his miserable door lamp catches his soft features and a glitter in his eyes, how could Derek ever say no to him.

"Okay, I'll follow you this time."

Avery's touches are a little probing at first, building his confidence to make more moves across the board that is his body. At time he's just poking him or staring intently at him like he's trying to solve a rubix cube and it's cute, the way he's treating him like a vivisected frog in lab.

But Derek appreciates the methodically clueless exploration.

But then his fingers gently brush behind an ear and Derek rumbles with warmth at the tingling feeling that dances through him. But more than the pleasant sensation, the beaming pride from Avery warms him, the elation at finding a spot where he likes to be touched spurring him onwards to uncover more.

A hand slides in his and the feeling of Avery's fingers against his are electric, a shiver rippling down his spine like a current as the front of his hoodie is tugged forward so he can explore his clavicle region.

His heart practically skips a beat when Avery kisses his collarbone with no warning. He just, sees it, and goes for it. Warmth blossoms across him and his breath falters into a tumbling hushed moan, helped along by Avery's behind bearing down on his lap. He can feel the smirk against his skin as he jostles against his lap.

"My my Derek is that an activated sticky piston in your pants or are you just happy to see me?"

"Dude…" Avery leans back against his lap and a little peep of surprise squeaks out of him.

"Wait did… oh my god…"

"Not a…" All the knowledge in the world and Derek is still finding new ways to embarrass himself.

"You really liked my dumb minecraft innuendo huh?"

"Like you…" He mutters out from his hands futility trying to mask his quiet humiliation. Not content to let Derek suffer in the dark of his own self-humiliation, Avery gently parts his hands and replaces them with his lips.

"Like you too buttercup," and kisses him. And he knows what it feels like before it ever happens - he did the first time they kissed, he did when they started kissing through the history dramatic comedy that was too comedy for Derek's interest, and he does now when Avery leans down and captures his lips and guides him through the crossroads of mutual affections.

Avery hadn’t known what he expected when he finally found Derlord.

He had imagined it a thousand different ways during the long, empty stretches of searching, when the silence pressed too close, when the world felt too wide, when the memory of that fall kept replaying behind his eyes like something unfinished. Sometimes Derek was broken in those imaginings. Sometimes angry. Sometimes… gone, and Avery would wake from those thoughts with a hollow feeling clawing at his chest.

But never this.

Never something so whole.

Because there he was.

Standing right in front of him.

Golden armor caught the light in a way that didn’t feel real, too bright, too clean, like it didn’t belong to the same world Avery had dragged himself through to get here. It gleamed with every small movement, reflecting something almost blinding, and for a moment, Avery couldn’t help but think that Derek looked less like a person and more like something untouchable. Something distant.

Something he shouldn’t be able to reach.

And yet… He had.

Avery stood still, like if he moved too suddenly, the moment would collapse in on itself. His fingers twitched faintly at his sides, the urge to do something, to step forward, to speak, to make this real, held back by something quieter and more fragile.

Disbelief.

Because it had been too easy.

That thought wormed its way in, sharp and insistent.

Too easy after everything.

After the endless wandering, after chasing fragments of clues that led nowhere, after holding onto a hope that had worn thin but never quite snapped, this wasn’t how it was supposed to end. There should have been something more. Something harder. Something that justified the ache in his chest, the exhaustion in his bones.

But instead, Derek had been here.

Waiting.

Looking for him.

The realization didn’t hit all at once. It settled slowly, piece by piece, like something Avery had to carefully assemble in his mind before it could make sense.

He was looking for me too.

Avery’s breath caught, barely noticeable, but enough to make his chest tighten.

That changed something.

It shifted the weight of everything he had been carrying, not gone, not lighter exactly, but… shared. Balanced in a way it hadn’t been before.

“You don’t need to search anymore.”

Derek’s voice still echoed, steady and certain, like it hadn’t wavered for even a second.

“We’re together now.”

Together.

The word landed softly at first, almost uncertain in the way it settled into Avery’s thoughts. But it didn’t stay that way. It repeated, growing stronger, threading itself through everything else until it was the only thing he could focus on.

Together.

Avery lifted his gaze slowly, like he was afraid of what he might see if he did it too quickly, afraid that Derek might disappear the second he looked directly at him.

But he didn’t.

He was still there.

Still solid.

Still real.

Those glowing yellow eyes met his, unwavering.

There was no doubt in them.

No hesitation.

Just something steady. Something grounded. Something that felt like it had been waiting for this exact moment, and had never once questioned that it would come.

Together.

The word echoed again, louder now, filling the empty spaces Avery hadn’t even realized were there.

And then, warmth.

It crept in quietly, almost cautiously, as if testing whether it was allowed to stay. It started somewhere deep in his chest, spreading outward in slow, careful waves, softening edges that had been sharp for far too long. The tension in his shoulders eased without him meaning it to. The constant, gnawing exhaustion dulled just enough for him to notice the absence of it.

It felt… unfamiliar.

But not unwelcome.

Avery swallowed, the motion small but grounding, as if it helped anchor him to the moment instead of letting it drift away like everything else had threatened to.

Together.

The word didn’t feel fragile anymore.

It felt real.

His thoughts lingered on it, turning it over, testing it, like he was waiting for it to crack under pressure.

It didn’t.

Instead, it stretched, expanded into something larger, something deeper, something that settled into him in a way nothing else had managed to.

Together… forever.

That part stayed.

It echoed differently.

Quieter, but heavier.

Not something said out loud, not something Derek had promised, but something Avery felt all the same. It wrapped around the moment, around him, around the space between them, binding it into something that didn’t feel temporary.

Something that wouldn’t slip through his fingers the second he tried to hold onto it.

Avery’s mind was a quiet hum, a soft static where questions used to live. The warmth in his chest had spread, a liquid heat that made his limbs feel heavy and pliant. He stood before Derek, unmoving, his gaze locked on those brilliant, sun-bright eyes.

“You’ve done so well,” Derek said, his voice a smooth river stone in the stillness. “All that searching. All that longing. It’s over now.”

Avery’s lips parted, but no sound came out. A nod felt like too much effort. The affirmation washed over him, and the heat in his chest pulsed, a sweet, syrupy reward. Good. He was good.

“Look at me, Avery.”

He was already looking, but the command sharpened his focus until the rest of the world, the stone of the chamber, the distant sounds, melted into vague impressions. Only the gold of the armor and the twin suns of Derek’s eyes remained.

“You trust me,” Derek stated. It wasn’t a question.

“I trust you,” Avery heard himself say. The words fell from his tongue, easy and true.

A smile touched Derek’s lips, a small, perfect curve. “Of course you do. You’re my vessel. And a vessel must be… prepared. Emptied of worry. Filled only with purpose. With pleasure.”

The word pleasure seemed to vibrate in the air between them. Avery’s breath caught, not in fear, but in anticipation. A low, unfamiliar ache started deep in his gut.

Derek took a single step forward. The movement made the light on his armor swim, a mesmerizing ripple of gold. Avery’s eyes tracked it helplessly.

“Your mind is so loud, Avery. Cluttered with fear. With doubt. I can make it quiet. I can make it so you only feel what I want you to feel. Would you like that?”

Avery swallowed. A part of him, distant and fading, whispered that this was wrong, that Derek’s words were too smooth, his eyes too bright. But that part was drowned out by the warmth, by the crushing need for the gnawing emptiness inside him to stop. “Yes,” he breathed.

“Then watch the light, my vessel.”

Derek lifted his hand, not to touch, but to gesture. His gauntleted fingers traced a slow, horizontal figure-eight in the air. As they moved, a trail of shimmering, liquid-gold light lingered in their wake, painting a glowing infinity symbol that hung in the space between them.

Avery’s eyes snapped to it. They fixed on the point where the loops crossed.

“Just watch,” Derek murmured, his voice dropping to a hypnotic cadence. “Watch the light move. Follow its path. There’s nothing else you need to do. Nothing else you need to think.”

The loop began to turn, slowly at first, then with a steady, rhythmic spin. Avery’s eyes followed, left, around, right, around, left… The motion was seamless, endless. The gold was so bright, so pure. It swallowed his vision.

“Every time the loop crosses,” Derek’s voice floated to him, soft and enveloping, “you feel a little heavier. A little softer. Your thoughts are slowing down. Slowing… and slowing… It’s so easy to just watch the light. So easy to let go.”

Around and around. The ache in Avery’s gut spread, warming his thighs. His eyelids wanted to droop, but the command to watch held them open. His breathing deepened, syncing with the lazy spin of the golden symbol.

“You’re doing perfectly. Such a good, obedient vessel. You love following the light, don’t you?”

“I love it,” Avery sighed. The confession felt natural, inevitable.

“And you love the sound of my voice. It sinks into you. It tells you what to feel. My voice is safety. My voice is pleasure. Every word I speak makes you feel warmer. Softer. More open.”

With every pass of the loop, Derek’s words seemed to etch themselves directly into Avery’s consciousness, bypassing thought. Warm. Soft. Open. His body obeyed each suggestion. The tension in his jaw vanished. His shoulders slumped. A tingling numbness, pleasant and heavy, spread from the crown of his head down his spine.

“The light is pulling you down now. Down into a deep, quiet place. A place where you only feel what I allow you to feel. Where you only want what I want you to want. Watch it spin you down… down…”

The chamber tilted. Avery’s knees buckled, but he didn’t fall. He simply sank, gracefully, to the cool stone floor, kneeling before the shimmering symbol and the man who controlled it. The position felt right. Natural. Submissive.

Derek looked down at him, a benevolent king surveying his subject. “So beautiful like this. On your knees for me. Where you belong.” He let the glowing symbol fade, leaving afterimages dancing in Avery’s vision. Now, only those yellow eyes remained, holding him, piercing him.

“Your mind is almost empty. Almost perfect. Let’s take the last step, shall we? Look into my eyes, Avery. Look deep.”

Avery obeyed. The world dissolved into twin pools of molten gold. They weren’t just eyes; they were whirlpools, galaxies, endless depths that promised oblivion. He felt himself tipping forward, falling into them.

“Fall,” Derek commanded, his voice the only solid thing in the universe.

And Avery fell.

A sensation of floating. Of being utterly weightless. The last fragments of his own will dissolved like sugar in hot tea. The quiet hum in his mind became a blank, white silence. He was aware, but he was not in control. He was a passenger in his own body, watching from behind a thick, blissful pane of glass.

Derek’s smile widened. “There. Empty. Perfect.” He reached down, his gauntleted fingers coming to cradle Avery’s chin. The metal was surprisingly warm. “You are in a deep, deep trance. You can hear only my voice. You will obey only my commands. And obeying me will feel better than anything you have ever known. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” Avery said, his own voice flat, dreamy.

“Good boy.” The praise hit Avery like a physical touch, a spark that zipped down his spine and settled in his groin. A soft, needy sound escaped his throat. Derek’s thumb stroked his cheek. “You like that, don’t you? You love being my good boy.”

“Love it,” Avery echoed, his hips giving a tiny, involuntary jerk.

“I know you do. Now, stand up.”

Avery stood. His movements were fluid, automatic.

“Remove your shirt.”

Avery’s hands went to the hem of his worn white t-shirt. He fumbled for a second, his fingers felt thick, clumsy, but he pulled the garment over his head, letting it fall to the floor. The cool air of the chamber brushed his bare chest and he shivered.

“So exposed for me already. So willing.” Derek circled him, the sound of his armored steps a slow, metallic rhythm. “You have a beautiful body, my vessel. Lean. Strong from your travels. All for me.” A gauntleted hand slid across Avery’s shoulders, down the dip of his spine. The touch was possessive, assessing. Avery shuddered, a full-body tremble of pure, submissive delight.

“You feel that, don’t you? The rightness of my touch. The electricity. It’s because you’re mine. Every part of you is waking up to that truth. Especially here.” The hand dipped lower, cupping Avery’s ass through his shorts, squeezing firmly.

A sharp gasp tore from Avery’s lips. Pleasure, hot and immediate, radiated from the point of contact. His cock, already half-hard from the praise and the overwhelming submission, strained against his breeches.

“You see? Your body knows its master. Now, the rest. Remove everything.”

With jerky, eager motions, Avery kicked off his sandals, shoved his shorts and smallclothes down his legs, and stepped out of them. He stood naked in the golden light, his skin pebbling in the air, his erection full and aching. He didn’t try to cover himself. The command to stand there, displayed, was absolute.

Derek completed his circle, stopping in front of him again. His gaze was a physical weight, traveling from Avery’s flushed face, down his heaving chest, over his trembling abdomen, to his leaking cock. The intensity of that look made Avery feel more naked than nakedness alone ever could.

“Exquisite,” Derek breathed, and the worship in the word made Avery’s knees weak. “Look at how ready you are for me. How perfectly your body responds to my attention. You are so handsome like this. So open. So good.”

Avery whimpered. Pre-cum beaded at his tip and dripped onto the stone floor. The praise was a drug, flooding his system, making his head swim with dizzying need.

“Touch yourself,” Derek ordered, his voice dropping to a husky murmur. “Show me how good it feels to obey me.”

Avery’s hand flew to his cock. His fingers wrapped around the shaft, and a broken moan echoed in the chamber. The sensation was magnified a thousandfold, every nerve ending was alive, screaming. It wasn’t just his own touch; it was an extension of Derek’s will, and that made it electric.

“That’s it. Stroke for me. Show me your pleasure. You love showing me, don’t you?”

“Yes! Gods, yes!” Avery panted, his hips pumping into his fist. His movements were frantic, desperate. The coil of tension in his belly wound tighter with every pass of his hand.

“Look at you. So eager. So desperate to be good for me. You want to come for me, don’t you, my vessel?”

“Please,” Avery begged, the word a sob. “Please, let me…”

“But a good vessel waits for permission,” Derek said, his tone turning to gentle chastisement. “Stop.”

Avery’s hand froze instantly, though his whole body trembled with the effort, with the denial. A pained cry stuck in his throat.

Derek stepped closer. The golden plates of his armor brushed against Avery’s feverish skin. “Shhh. You’re being so good. So strong. I love your control. I love how you hold back for me.” He leaned in, his lips beside Avery’s ear. “Now, kneel again.”

Avery sank back to his knees, his cock bobbing painfully in front of him. He looked up at Derek, his eyes wide and glazed, breath coming in ragged pulls.

Derek looked down at him, his expression one of sublime ownership. His hands went to the intricate clasps of his own armor. With a series of soft clicks and sighs, the golden plates loosened. He didn’t remove it all, only the chest plate and the rigid codpiece, letting them fall away with heavy thuds. Underneath, he wore simple, dark linen trousers, now tented prominently by his own arousal.

“You see?” Derek said, guiding Avery’s head forward with a firm pressure on the back of his neck. “Your king wants you too. Your devotion pleases me. It arouses me. Now, show your devotion. Use your mouth.”

The scent of musk and salt filled Avery’s nostrils. His mind, blank and receptive, flooded with a single, all-consuming purpose: please him. He nuzzled against the linen, his lips seeking the hard heat beneath.

“Good boy,” Derek sighed, his fingers threading into Avery’s hair.

The praise was the final key. Avery moaned against the fabric, his mouth watering. He fumbled with the laces, his trance-deadened fingers clumsy, but Derek helped, shoving the fabric down just enough to free his cock.

It was thick, heavy, already slick at the tip. Avery stared at it, a fresh wave of submissive hunger crashing through him.

“Don’t think,” Derek whispered, his grip in Avery’s hair tightening. “Just taste. Serve.”

Avery opened his mouth and leaned forward. The first touch of the head against his lips sent a jolt through him. He licked, a tentative stripe from root to tip, savoring the salty-bitter flavor. A deep, approving groan came from above.

“Yes. Just like that. You have a wonderful tongue, my vessel.”

Encouraged, Avery took the head into his mouth. The warmth, the weight, the smooth slide of skin against his tongue was overwhelming. He hollowed his cheeks and sucked, gently.

“Deeper.”

Avery obeyed, letting more of the length push past his lips. His jaw ached pleasantly. He focused on the rhythm, on the sounds Derek made, on the feeling of being used for pleasure. It was all that existed.

“You take me so well. So naturally. This is what you were made for. To kneel. To serve. To feel pleasure in your submission.” Derek began to move his hips, shallow thrusts that fucked into Avery’s willing mouth. “Your mind is so beautiful now. So empty and full at the same time. Full of me. Of my cock. Of my praise. Isn’t it better than thinking? Than worrying?”

Avery couldn’t speak, but he made a desperate, affirmative sound around the intrusion, his eyes sliding shut in ecstasy. Tears of overwhelmed sensation leaked from the corners. The thrusts grew more insistent, pushing deeper. Avery relaxed his throat, letting Derek hit the back of it, gagging slightly but not pulling away. The slight struggle, the surrender of his own comfort, felt incredibly erotic. He was proving his obedience.

“Such a good boy,” Derek chanted, his voice beginning to fray at the edges. “My perfect, empty vessel. Taking all of me. You want me to come in your mouth, don’t you? You want to swallow every drop, to have a part of me inside you.”

Avery nodded frantically, his nose pressed into the coarse hair at Derek’s base. The idea sent a violent thrill through his own neglected cock, which wept profusely onto the floor.

Derek’s pace became erratic, brutal. He held Avery’s head firmly, controlling the depth, the speed. “Then take it. Take your reward for being so good.”

With a final, deep grind, Derek stilled. A hot, pulsing flood hit the back of Avery’s throat. He swallowed instinctively, again and again, drinking it down as Derek shuddered above him. The act felt profoundly completing, a sacred communion. He milked Derek with his tongue until he was soft, until every last tremor had passed.

Slowly, Derek pulled out. Avery’s lips were swollen, wet. He stayed on his knees, looking up, dazed and fulfilled.

Derek gazed down at him, his yellow eyes glowing with satiated power. He tucked himself away, then gently wiped a stray trickle from Avery’s chin with his thumb. “You did so well. You are perfection itself.” He leaned down, his lips almost brushing Avery’s ear. “Now, you will sleep. A deep, dreamless sleep. And when you wake, you will remember nothing of this. You will only feel a profound sense of peace, of belonging, and a deep, aching need in your body that you cannot explain. You will crave my touch, my praise, without knowing why. Do you understand?”

“Understand,” Avery slurred, his eyelids impossibly heavy.

“On the count of three, you will be asleep. One… feeling so peaceful. Two… drifting away. Three.”

Avery’s eyes closed. His body went limp, slumping gracefully to the floor beside his discarded clothes. His breathing evened out into the slow, deep rhythm of profound sleep.

Derek… No The King, stood over his slumbering vessel. He touched his own lips, still curved in a smile of infinite satisfaction. The vessel was prepared. The conditioning had begun. The hunger was planted.

He reached down and traced a faint, shimmering yellow symbol on Avery’s bare shoulder. It glowed for a moment before sinking into the skin, invisible.