#badler

Adler didn’t know what was happening to him.

He clutched the edges of the porcelain sink, staring at his own haggard reflection. He looked a step away from death, and terrified. Something was wrong, deep inside him. Why now, of all times for his body to betray him.

He slapped himself across the face. Stop spiralling, and think, he told himself.

Start from the beginning, think it through, and he’d work it out.

First: where was he?

Russell Adler was holed up in a dingy bathroom, off the two-bed room he’d rented at a cheap motel. It was one of those, took cash and didn’t ask questions, as long as you didn’t ask about the stains on the carpet, places; one in a series of the many places he and Bell would be laying low in on their way back from Moscow.

Second: what was happening to him?

His chest was tight, and his skin hot to the touch. His heart was beating what felt like a million times a minute. Adler had taken a cold shower, assuming it was adrenaline, stress, exhaustion. It hadn’t done anything.

No, it had. It had made it worse.

His reflection swam in his vision. Adler blinked harshly and dropped his head down. Fuck, he felt… nauseous?

Sure, they’d released gas back in the bunker, but he’d been wearing a mask, and limited his skin exposure. Plus, Bell had been exposed to, and he was fine, already settled on one of the beds out in the room. At least, he had been when Adler had stepped away. Now it sounded like he was attempting to channel surf, but was getting mostly static.

What else could it be?

Russell raised a hand to run through his hair, struggling as his lethargy made it hard to even raise his arm. He lost control half way through, his arm dropping and landing awkwardly on his neck, right on his scent gland.

He yelped, curling over the skin as pain radiated across his body; causing him to realise what the issue was.

He was in heat.

Fuck.

He was in heat, and he shouldn’t be – Adler wasn’t due for another two months. He’d already booked it, after going back to Woods with his (metaphorical) tail between his legs for his help. Fuck, it couldn’t happen now. Not when he was somewhere in Estonia, alone, with Bell, who was an alpha, which was one of the very few things he’d managed to learn about him.

He was panicking. Adler took a deep breath, gently rubbing his thumb around his scent gland. Panicking would only make it worse.

“Adler?”

Fuck, too late. Bell was knocking at the door.

“I’m fine.” He called out, voice shaking.

“No, you’re not.” Bell stopped knocking, but his voice dropped lower as he spoke.

“Yes, I am.”

“No, Adler. Let me in, before someone else smells you.”

“No, I—” Ader shivered at Bell’s words, pressing a hand on his towel over where his dick was growing, just above his wet hole. “I’m fine.”

“One warning, Adler. Let me in, or I knock the door down.”

“Bell, don’t you…”

Bell didn’t bother interrupting him with words. Instead, Adler was cut off by a resounding thud against the door.

He spun around, leaning back on the sink, we have a job to do sitting on the tip of his tongue. Would the phrase even work, if Bell was slipping into rut? Or, if he had to keep it up, would it last for the next few… days? How much would go wrong in that time?

Fuck, why did this have to happen now? When it was most critical?

There was another crash against the door, and the frame splintered around the hinges.

“Bell! Stop!” Adler yelled. “I’ll let you in.”

“Good.” Bell huffed, as Adler hesitated for a moment, then crossed to the door and undid the lock. Bell pushed the door open before he could, using his height to crowd Adler back against the sink, as his dark eyes searched Adler’s face. “Is this… expected?”

“What?”

“Are you due?”

“No. No,” Adler shook his head. “It’s… early.”

“Okay.” Bell cupped Adler’s chin, tilting his head down so he would meet Bell’s eyes. “Then we should be alright.”

“What?”

“If you were in a full heat, we’d be here for a week. This is just a hot flush.”

“I’m not…” Adler bristled at the jab at his age. “I’m not old enough for those.”

“But it’s happening.” Bell gently pressed his fingers to the edge of Adler’s scent gland. “I take care of you now, and tomorrow we’ll be ready to go.”

“You…” Adler wheezed, as his legs trembled. He couldn’t let Bell have that kind of control over him… could he?

Plus, this was Bell. His Bell, offering only to be practical, as Adler’s old friend, a brother in arms, who needed to get him through this. A figure who was a far cry from the snarling alpha, chained in a chair, who would ‘die before submitting to a cunt having man.’

“Do you want me to?” Bell tugged his jacket collar down, exposing his own scent gland, the musk making Adler’s mouth fall open.

What option did he have?

“Yes.” He mumbled out, reaching out to loop his arms around Bell’s shoulders, clinging to Bell as he took charge.

Bell started by kicking the bathroom door closed again, before he yanked the spare towels off the rack and lay them out on the floor. Adler’s heart skittered, a lump rising in his throat as he realised Bell was going to take him right here, on the tile floor, as meanly as possible.

A smaller voice in the back of his head pointed out that this way, they were less likely to be overheard than they would be in the room; and Bell was lying the towels out to soften the tiles as much as he could.

Russell still clung to Bell as he lay him down, thankful for his logical nature breaking through even now. It helped him stay calm as Bell leant over him, before his smell overwhelming Adler’s senses, and made him relax that way.

His strength vanished, his fingers barely able to grasp Bell’s shoulders, as Bell tugged the towel around his hips away, gently stroking his cock a bit, before dipping down further.

“Ah…” Bell sighed, his fingers probing Adler’s pussy. “Hot down here…”

“Shut up.” Adler spat, eyes closing as he tensed up again. God, why did he always end up in the most fucked situations?  

“Hey, okay. No talking, just relax.” Bell rubbed his shoulder, in time with how his fingers dipped just slightly in and out of Adler’s hole, widening him up as Adler lapsed into the silence, focusing on his grip on Bell’s shoulders, and bracing Bell’s weight over his body.

It was… overwhelming to have Bell on top of him, but not unpleasantly so. Bell had one hand on Adler’s shoulder, and the other on his pussy. Bell’s legs were tangled with his, Bell’s still in their jeans, rubbing against Adler’s naked ones, and his soft breaths fanned over Adler’s face, eyes wide as he monitored Adler’s condition carefully.

Only once he was satisfied Adler was comfortable, or as it was possible to be, he sunk his fingers deeper into him. Adler moaned softly, then loudly, uncaringly, as his omega preened for Bell’s alpha, as his baser instincts started to take over.

Adler tried to lock his legs around Bell’s arm, to keep his attention close, but Bell was easily keeping them open, so he could slot their body in and swap his fingers for his dick.

He slowly sunk into Adler’s cunt, as Adler panted on the floor, unaware of anything except how well Bell was filling him, and how each little bit more seemed to stave off the heat coursing through his veins; until Bell’s hips hit his ass. Then, part of Adler’s consciousness crashed back into him. He raised his head up to see the lower half of his body raised into Bell’s lap, kept there by Adler’s legs which were locked around Bell’s hips.

This better be a hot flush, despite his protestations. If Adler was in heat, he’d be fertile. He wouldn’t be able to explain that one to Hudson, or to Park.

He could hear something. Something low and rumbling.

Bell was purring. He wasn’t speaking, as part of his earlier promise, but his throat was rumbling, making some, any noise to comfort the omega he was with.

Adler groaned as his omega preened again, making his body jerk, rutting his pussy against Bell’s dick. He couldn’t tell where he was anymore, beyond in Bell’s arms, moaning, cunt squeezing and wet around Bell’s dick, begging for a knot to snap him out of this hot flush and put him back on track.

One of Bell’s hands disappeared from his shoulder, dipping down between their legs, feeling the base of his own cock.

It’s coming.

The thought crashed into Adler’s mind. Bell’s knot, ready to stuff him full. He struggled, wanting more, to come with him. Bell seemed to read his mind, taking hold of Adler’s cock, stroking him quickly, making Adler whine, the swelling knot catching his hole, before Bell buried his face in Adler’s shoulder, open mouth pressed against his scent gland.

Adler stared up, chest heaving, blinking at the overhead light, harsh on his eyes as Bell’s knot popped, locking them together as his pussy fluttered, cock soft under Bell’s hands.

Bell groaned, then slowly raised his head up, face flushed, eyes heavy. But still, he looked down at Adler, more worried about him than himself.

“You’re good. I got you. Rest.” He mumbled, and even though it wasn’t a command, Adler just couldn’t resist, and slipped easily into a daze.

He woke up in bed. It had only been a short while, as Bell’s knot was still swollen inside him. Adler groaned, shifting slightly.

“Hey… hey.” Bell stilled him softly. “If you get hurt, I’m not explaining it to Hudson.”

Adler let out a startled laugh, as Bell so closely mimicked his own thoughts.

“Yep… I knew you were dehydrated. Come on,” Bell pulled him up, and made Adler drink a glass of water. “Your fever’s gone right down.”

“Not a heat, then.” Adler mumbled, relieved.

“No.” Bell agreed, without a jab.

“Bell…” Adler started, then sighed. “This… this never happened. No one can know.”

“Okay.” Bell nodded. “No one.”

Adler nodded, eyes already closing. Knowing Bell, you wouldn’t be able to torture it out of him. That was assuming that the implanted memories hadn’t faltered, and that Bell believed his ferocious loyalty lay with Adler and the CIA. If this was all an act…

He felt tears prick into his eyes and he squeezed them shut tight. He wasn’t going to think like that.

“Remember… we have to be out of here early tomorrow.”

“I have.” Bell murmured. “I’ll take care of it.”

Adler woke, covered in sweat again. The images of his dream lingered heavily on his mind; the same one he’d had every night for the past week. An inescapable darkness, that had a tight hold on his body, wrapping around it, holding him in all parts, bordering on painful, but managing to just not be as it filled him up; and over all of it, the confusing overture of pleasure as it whispered in his ear. His rational mind processed the words, and liked them, setting his consciousness in a dog fight against his hind brain as it begged him to pay attention, and be afraid.

He shook his head and swallowed, wincing at how hard it was with his dry mouth. The hotel room around him was still dark, the curtains drawn tight but thin, so any daylight would have shown through. He’d unplugged the alarm clock as soon as he’d got in, and he’d stretched the budget out to book rooms in a place with thick enough walls that he couldn’t hear his neighbours. What had woken him?

The phone.

Like someone had unmuted the TV, the pealing ring of his handset crashed into his ears, his visions of the night fleeing as he connected tangibly with reality by picking up it and answering the call.

“Adler.”

“It’s Park.” Her voice was crisply displeased. Obviously, he’d kept her waiting too long. “You need get down here immediately. Something’s… wrong with them.”

“Fine.” Adler grunted and hung up. What the fuck was the problem now?

He got up and dressed quickly, hurrying out of the hotel and down to his car, pulling out of the lot and onto the road towards the lab. It was the middle of the night. What could be such an issue that it couldn’t wait until a reasonable hour of the morning?

His car display blinked, telling him that it was just after two am. Why was Park still in the lab? She’d spent all day moaning about how she was still jetlagged from the flight, Adler had assumed she’d left back to the hotel early. He hit the dashboard, angrily cursing himself that he hadn’t asked for more details before hanging up. Maybe then, the lingering malaise of his dreams wouldn’t hang so heavy on his mind.

It had been years since Adler had woken with his dick wanting something so much. It simultaneously scared him, that whatever this obscured thing was attracted him so, and thrilled him with the lingering idea that this unknown thing was something inhuman, something forbidden under the known laws of the universe.

He shook his head again as he pulled up to the security checkpoint, flashing his face to the guard before being waved on through. Enough of his fantasies. He had to turn his mind to the matter at hand.

Park met him at the bottom of the elevator, holding a steaming cup of coffee. Adler was surprised she handed it to him. Maybe this actually was serious.

“What are we looking at?”

“Well… we’re not sure.” She led him into the observation room, and Adler first glanced through the two-way mirror into the room where the prisoner lay. It was still there, cuffed in to its hospital bed, the monitors beeping like they should. Nothing out of the ordinary, at a glance.

Park cleared her throat and directed his attention towards the other wall, where a bulletin board was covered in the various reports and status updates that had come from the project. The object for current concern were the progress pictures of the prisoner’s wounds.

“What is this?” Alder pointed at the last one, where there were none. The previous photo had only been taken a day earlier, if the dates were to be believed. If they were accurate… what they were showing just wasn’t possible.

“It’s exactly what it looks like.” Park walked past him. “Yesterday, they were covered in week old wounds, slowly on the mend. Today, nothing. Not even a scar.”

“That’s…”

“Impossible, yes.” She glanced towards the window, where the subject was still apparently sleeping peacefully. “That’s not all… some of the team have been reporting strange…”

“Dreams?” Adler filled in, as he turned to stare at whatever was lying in that bed.

“Yes…” Park looked closely at him. “A strange darkness, voices whispering about their doom in the void… have you been getting them, too?”

“Something like that.” Adler sipped his coffee again. “It’s… is it even human?”

“What else could they bed?” Park stood next to him. “An alien… a secret weapon… who knows.”

Adler shook his head, and turned to properly look at her. Park was exhausted. Her eyes were bloodshot, twitching even, with dark bags sunken underneath them. That’s what this was. She was sleep deprived and not thinking straight.

“Park, when did you last get any sleep?”

“I can’t.” She whispered. “The dreams come when I try.”

“Well… go back to the hotel and try again. I’ll sort whatever this is out.”

“On your head be it.” She said, but she quickly got out of there, leaving the door slamming heavily behind her.

Adler sighed, setting the coffee down and glancing at the board behind him. Whatever this was, there would be a rational explanation. The dreams were either a coincidence or stress. His dreams sounded nothing like the others, after all. The person in there was flesh and blood, and he would prove it.

He opened the door into the testing room and crossed to the prisoner’s bedside. Their limbs were cuffed and further bodily restrained, which Adler checked before he looked closer at their broad browed face, eyes closed, as they inhaled and exhaled softly. Deeply asleep, a product of the cocktail of drugs being streamlined into their body by the IV drip in their arm, by all appearances. The heart monitor continued to beep steadily, like nothing was wrong.

Adler took a deep breath and put his hand out to touch their cheek.

Their skin was cold to the touch. Adler flexed his hand, and pressed it harder against their forehead.

Their eyes opened, and his world turned upside down.

Adler blinked, and realised he was on his back. His eyes were swimming from his hard landing, though he didn’t recall falling. Up on the bed, the cuffs were pinging open one by one, and the prisoner was rising up. Adler coughed, and tried to stand, only to hear a familiar voice to rumbling in the back of his mind, telling him to lie still.

He did so, because it was the voice from his dreams.

Adler knew he saw the prisoner get up from the bed. He knew he saw them shed human form, discard their human skin and return to some kind of primordial entity, made of black tentacles, amassed in a humanoid-like form, but he would never be able to describe it in words. It just happened, and now the thing, whatever it was, was before him, as reality reshaped itself around it, around the thing that was cooing in the back of his mind that it was so excited to see him.

He opened his mouth, said he was glad to see it too, eyes wide as the form hovered over him, and consumed him.

“Hello, handsome.” The voice murmured in his mind, as soft tentacles scraped over his skin. Adler couldn’t recall when he’d lost his clothes, as he was too busy bathing in the sensation of the tentacles poking and prodding at every part of his body they found.

“Hi….” He mumbled back, voice impeded by the tentacle rolling over his face, the tip poking at his lips.

“You’re good for this, aren’t you…” It mumbled, more to itself than him. He didn’t respond, too busy gasping as he felt the tentacles roll over his asshole.

“What…” he murmured and tried to raise his hand, only to realise it was stretched out and tied down above his head. He couldn’t move it. 

He couldn’t move any of his limbs, or his body at all. His limbs were all bound in place, outstretched from his body, wrapped in tentacles, so tight it was almost sucking on his skin. They were wrapping around his torso now too, and pressing harder at his asshole, and dipping past his lips, if only barely.

It felt good. He shook in its hold, opening his mouth wide as the tentacle slid in, tangling with his tongue and he groaned as he felt the tentacles finally breach his asshole, squirming inside him like it was eating him, before pushing deeper. He could swear the first was quickly joined by a second, that wrapped together to form a thicker mass with which to fuck him, coiling against his prostate each time, as he sucked on the black tentacle in his mouth, choking as something latched onto his nipples, before the final one coiled around his dick like a cunt, and squeezed.

Adler’s eyes rolled back in his head as he surrendered his body to its hold, his mind reeling as he became unaware of time and space. He was only half aware of his fingers when they wrapped around the tentacles rubbing his palms in a comforting manner, as the entity milked his cock, over and over, the pleasure seemingly never ending up as his entire body became wreathed in eldritch mass. 

At some point he screamed. He cried, he swore, he abandoned the church his parents had baptised him into in the name of a new god, of Bell, the thing whispered in his mind, as it ate him, consumed him, took everything that he gave him, his sweat, his tears, his come, more and more and more, until it was satisfied.

When Adler was weak, it retreated. His body shook on the tile floor, cold and so very suddenly and terribly alone. He looked up at them, lip trembling with worry at being forsaken by his god, as the form reconstituted itself, with a new, stronger shape, imbued with the strength from his seed. 

“Thank you.” The form rumbled. “I can now go and fulfil my purpose.”

“What?” Adler’s voice cracked, his throat parched, chest shaking with cries that he had no tears for as the bipedal figure crossed to the door.

“To dominate, and erase mankind.”

“But… you… can’t.”

“It’s my purpose.” The figure turned back, and the place where a face should have been stared at him. “Do not worry little one…” 

A tentacle flicked out to catch the tears on bus cheeks, absorbing it like it had the others.

“I will spare my favourite disciple. We will meet again, Russell Adler.”

Adler could do nothing but sink back onto the tiles to wait, as the door swung open, and Bell vanished. 

All it took was one moment. One tiny lapse in his concentration where Adler failed to notice that Bell had both slipped out of the cuffs on her chair, and got her hands on a spare pair of handcuffs that had been left in one of the trays on the medical cart. One mistake, that had landed him here, cuffed to the bar against the wall as Bell sat triumphant in her chair like it was a throne rather than a cage.

Just moments ago, he’d been lording over her, repeating his stories about ‘Nam, some true, some not. He’d turned his back for a moment, to turn on some music they’d associate with the stories, and that’s when she’d leapt at him, catching him off guard and sending him to the floor.

In the hard landing, she’d easily locked one of the metal cuffs around his wrist, twisted it around the bar on the wall, and bent his left arm up at a painful angle to lock the second cuff around his other wrist. He’d hardly processed what had just happened as she swiftly retreated from him, as he scrambled on the floor like a fish on the deck, only able to watch as she made herself at home.

Adler only had himself to blame for this predicament, really. It’s his own fault he was alone, by volunteering to stay late and go over the latest batch of test results. Rather, he’d insisted on it, sending everyone else home for the night, despite various protests. Adler was on his own down here, and would be for at least eight hours; completely at Bell’s mercy.

For a while, Bell just watched him. His sunglasses had fallen off in the struggle, and she’d put them on so she could stare at Adler from behind his own glasses, like he’d spent hours doing to her. Then, she’d drunk his coffee, savouring the lingering warmth in the mug, and smoked all of his cigarettes. The first words she willingly spoke to him was to call him a cheap bitch for only having half a pack on him. 

At first, Adler had struggled. He’d methodically tried to find any weakness in the cuffs, twisting back and forth while he examined the strength of the bar, but she seemed to find it amusing, so he’d stopped, and started thinking.

Why hadn’t she left? The labs were deserted, the door was unlocked, and his keys and pass were in his pocket to go further. Not that she knew that really, but with how fiery Bell was, he’d thought she’d at least give it a go. To show him up, if nothing else.

She wouldn’t get far before she’d meet some of the security, but if she was lucky and caught them alone, she could neutralise the one or two guards she’d need to get past in order to get out. Adler really should have brought those security concerns up before now… Yet, the question still stood, why hadn’t she gone?

Maybe he was too tired, Adler thought as he put it together.

Bell was too weak to possibly do that. She was barely out from recovering from some nasty bullet wounds, and had been further weakened from her extended… treatment. This was all a little show. She’d taken him by surprise, but she wasn’t confident about going further. She knew she was in a cage, and she was content with this little bit of rebellion, all the while knowing it would be put back down in the morning. All Adler had to do was wait it out.

He thinks he has it all worked out, Bell, (though she didn’t know that was her name yet,) thought. His face is far too obvious. He thinks that this is all I’m going to do.

It hadn’t even occurred to him that she could have other ideas, ready to turn his own words back against him. She didn’t exactly remember how she got into this room, or how she knew him, or why he was doing what he was doing, but she remembered what he’d said to her.

“So…” she started. “Women hate you that much, huh?”

“What?” Adler responded before he could catch himself. That was not what he’d been expecting her to say.

“Women can’t stand you. Why else would you be looking to get your dick wet here?” She grinned maniacally as she spread her legs.

Adler blinked, trying to look away from… it. On another of these late nights, in a moment of ill-advised sleep deprivation and caffeine, he’d said something about fucking her if she behaved… an unforgivable moment of weakness. His hands had been shaking as he’d scrubbed the words from the tapes, knowing full well what would happen to him if someone saw that.

It wasn’t that women hated him. (I mean, most of the ones he knew did, but not for those reasons.) It was just that he didn’t have time for it. That’s all.

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“Oh… You’re either an idiot or a liar… and I think I know which.” Bell stubbed her last cigarette out in the coffee cup and got up, slowly approaching where he lay on the floor, but staying just out of reach. “If you don’t really want me, you won’t mind if I…”

She reached up and slowly undid the collar of her shirt, the baggy material somehow gaining even less shape as it slipped off her shoulders, revealing her naked chest. He’d seen it before, during the surgery that had pulled the bullets out of her body. He would be able to see the scars, if he could look away from her tits. Whether it was because of the dim lighting, the framing of the open shirt, the fact that they were moving rapidly with Bell’s breathing, they were the most gorgeous things Adler had ever seen, and his body wasn’t hiding it.

Neither could he, with his hands still cuffed above his head.

“Do you mind?” She asked again.

“No.” He responded, his voice thick.

“I know.” She smiled, and fully shrugged the shirt off, toying with her waistband too. “I think your little guy wants more.”

Adler shivered. He didn’t think it was more possible for him to be aware how hard he was. “Yeah…. I do, too.”

“Yeah, you do.” She placed a hand on his ankle. “Are you going to be good?”

“Course.” He could subdue them with a kick. He could.

“I mean it, Adler. One strike, and I’ll make sure that you’re the only one embarrassed in the morning.”

“I won’t do anything. I promise.”

“Okay.” She stood up, and swiftly kicked off her trousers, revealing her rounded hips, the shape not lost even with her time in the chair. She stretched up, before hopping into Adler’s lap and undoing his trousers to find his rock-hard cock.

She sighed when she got her hand around it, pulling it out into the air and laughing at his struggle. She flicked the head, which made him groan, before she fingered her cunt open and sat down on it, pressing their bodies close together as she rode him.

She closed her eyes, hands gripping his shoulders as she sunk his dick into her. She was muttering in Russian, something about him being a lousy fuck, who should be grateful that he’s even seeing this, but Adler’s too fucked to care.

He’s got his dick in a warm, wet, willing hole, a pair of tits in front of his face, and his eyes reflected in his own glasses when she kisses him harshly. Coffee and cigarettes taste like shit on another person, but Adler can’t pull away from them, because there’s a wall behind him.

Bell’s grip on his shirt tightened, and Adler could feel the buttons straining as she pulled it out of shape. He tried to brace his leg up on the floor, to get some leverage so he could fuck up into her. He struggled, unable to get a firm grip on the bar above him, leaving Bell as the sole player in the court. That was ironic, he supposed. He’d spent all this time with her powerless under him, and now she was doing the same.

He was doing it too, technically. He was indulging in this moment of madness. He was close, ready to come inside someone for the first time in years, because he couldn’t just be normal about relationships, so a Russian agent he’d tortured half to death would have to do, even as she seemed to be enjoying it more than him.

She was fucking him like it was the end of the world, one hand on his chest, grip still threatening to tear his shirt, the other between her own legs. His glasses slide down her nose as she bounced in his lap, gaze messy and unfocused as she moved, thighs flexing as her pace slowed, and Adler couldn’t stop himself from coming even if he wanted to.

She moaned when she realised what he’d done, and slowly got out of his lap, staggering back to the chair, and collapsing into it. She pushed his glasses up her face as she stretched her legs out, but kept her thighs pressed together.

The room was heavy with silence, until Bell crushed the empty cigarette packet in her hand and tossed it aside, obviously angry that she’d not saved one.

“Glad you got that out of your system?” Adler asked.

“I could still kill you.” She responded softly. “Overdose you, on whatever it is you’ve given to me.”

“Oh, that? There’s not enough there to kill someone.” There absolutely was, but Bell didn’t need to know that.

“Or a knife. I’m not picky.” She sat up and pulled her clothes towards her with her feet.  “Or, I could let them find you like this in the morning. Dick out, chained to the wall. That might be worse, for you.”

Adler didn’t say anything as she dressed, instead focused on the cuffs behind him. He knew he’d left the faulty ones somewhere, he just hadn’t realised it has been in the room with her. So, when Bell next opened her mouth to be smart, he clicked the cuffs open and lunged, pinning them to the chair and resecuring the leather cuffs around their limbs, tightening the buckles an extra hole, followed by the restraints around their torso.

Bell returned to her usual self, spitting rageful insults at him, as he redid his trousers and fastened his jacket to hide his wrinkled shirt. He crossed the room and prepared a small dose, that would settle Bell down and make sure she didn’t remember this in the morning.

She tried to resist the needle, but it took effect quickly, like it always did. Adler sighed, and retrieved his glasses from her sleeping face.

The realisation came to him as he sat in front of the computer, making sure he’d properly erased the incident from the tapes. Despite what his wife – ex-wife – said, he was not impotent. Bell was on a full cocktail of drugs in there, but… he couldn’t be sure. He lit another cigarette from his stashed pack, and sighed.

Adler was torn between whether to wake Bell, or to let them keep sleeping.

He wanted them to be up to enjoy the sunrise with him, on the anniversary of their escape – March 15th – celebrating every year they’d had since they slipped away and effectively vanished from all the prying eyes on them. He’d thought about making it the first day they’d met, but that felt a little cruel, especially for what was meant to be a happy occasion.

As a pair, they didn’t get many of them. What with the CIA breathing down his neck, and some rogue Perseus loyalist remnants chasing after Bell, the last few years had been a chaotic turmoil of moving to a new place, settling for six months, and then picking up to go back on the road again.

This little weekend, on or around the Ides of March (there was some irony there somewhere, Adler was sure), was the one exception. It was like… a holiday. They’d go somewhere nice, relax, go out and just do normal couple things without constantly looking over their shoulders.

Not without taking any precautions mind, they weren’t in the business of being completely careless; but it was nice to let go of the paranoia every now and then, so he and Bell could pretend at normalcy.

Pretend, because that’s all they could do. They’d chosen this life when they’d run away together, but that didn’t always make it easier. These few moments, when Adler had them in his arms, as he slumped up against pillows which he hadn’t had to change the covers on himself… that was bliss.

Bell shifted in their sleep. Adler held his breath, glancing towards the gap in the curtains. It was now or never on the sunrise.

He looked back down at them, and how the soft predawn light fell on their face. Oh, he couldn’t wake them. He just couldn’t. It would be cruel. Besides, the sun rose every day.

They also slept every day, but it wasn’t every day that Adler got to lie still with them while they did so, pretending that the world outside this room wasn’t real.

Time. That’s what it really was – the ultimate luxury.

Adler sighed softly. Look at how far he’d fallen, that something so simple as time had become his greatest commodity. They were tucked away in a moderately expensive hotel room, the kind that had real cotton sheets, a good mattress, and a free minibar, with gorgeous countryside views. The restaurant downstairs had a couple of Michelin stars, and actually backed it up with their food. The room had monogrammed bathrobes and towels, and the slippers actually provided some decent arch support. Plus, they’d had extra pillows by default, rather than having to go down to reception and fetch them. All the modicums of luxury, without the price tag and attention that truly first-class hotels brought with them.

It was everything Adler had lived for in his previous life, when material luxuries were the only thing that sparked something resembling a positive feeling within himself. Now, he couldn’t care less about them; though he wouldn’t deny it was nice to have them, still. They just didn’t make him feel the same way anymore. Not now that he had them.

“Russ…” Bell murmured, as their fingers clumsily grabbed his chin. “You look angry. What are you thinking about?”

“How we can’t do this more often.” He mumbled, snuggling back down in the bed next to them. “How they… are always on us.”

“I know.” Bell sighed. “It will go away, eventually.”

“I know it will.” Adler murmured back. The CIA was dragging its feet on presuming him dead, after a decade of no contact and hopefully only rumoured sightings. He still had a face that stood out. Damn that scar.

“Hey…” Bell called again, softly. “You’re still thinking.”

“I know… I’m trying to stop.”

“How about I help you?” Bell slid up, lying over his chest, sheets caught between their skin as they kissed him.

Adler groaned softly, chest rumbling under them, making them giggle.

“Is that a yes?”

“Yeah… it is.” Adler tugged them back in, catching their hands as they tried to move again, limbs still heavy with sleep as they attempted to climb up to be on top of him. “Easy.”

Bell huffed, but let him roll them onto their back, looping their arms around his neck, blinking slowly as golden dawn light crept into the room through the gap in the curtains.

“We’re missing it.” They said softly, glancing towards the concealed sunrise outside. Adler used the distraction to tug their shorts down.

“It’s alright,” his own trousers swiftly followed, “the sun rises every day.”

Bell chuckled. “Well, I suppose that’s true. Waking us up to another day of freedom, where we haven’t been snatched in the night.”

Adler’s heart tightened. Bell still worried about going to sleep and waking up somewhere they didn’t know, a fear he’d had no small part in creating. “Now, who’s thinking?”

“Oh… true.” Bell tugged him back down. “We’re meant to be doing something else.”

“True.” Adler felt down gently between their legs, sighing when he found their wet cunt. “Dreaming about me, then?”

Bell blushed. “Is that not allowed?”

“No… it’s encouraged.” He grinned as they hit his shoulder lightly, laughing breathily.

Their eyes were fixed on his as he sunk into them. For a moment, he thought it was all a dream, with the room bathed in glowing light, Bell’s soft skin under his calloused, undeserving hands, dick sinking into them. His vision blurred as he kept staring, eyes watering from not blinking, until Bell reached up and forced them closed.

Their touch reminded him that this was real. The sheets were curled over his legs, their legs pressed against his, his dick inside them, held tightly as they shifted their hips up, followed by the first warm sunlight kissing his arms, as Bell lifted their hands from his face and wrapped them around his, letting him open his eyes.

They were divine. They must be, the way they looked under him.

Adler dropped to his elbows suddenly, making Bell gasp as they reached up to catch his face as Adler pressed their bodies together, still rocking his hips, each movement punching a soft gasp from Bell’s lips, open and wanting as Adler kissed their face, their neck, their shoulders, their arms, their hands, torn between frustration that he couldn’t go lower, and the burning desire to be as close to them as possible.

He was so enamoured, he forgot that Bell was impatient. They ripped one of their hands free from his, and grabbed his chin, fingernails digging into his rough skin. “Kiss me while you fuck me, huh?”

The words were harsh, but too breathy to hold real venom, their body shaking, telling Adler they were close, and wanted a specific vision fulfilled.

He obliged and kissed them, shivering himself when they wrapped their arms around his neck, running their fingers through his hair as they kept him there as he continued to roll his hips, body pressed completely against theirs until he came, and they with him, and they let him go, so he could tuck his face into their neck instead, his lips lingering on their skin.

“I love you.” Bell murmured aloud, squeezing tight with their arms.

“I love you, too.” Adler mumbled, slowly rolling them onto their sides, him with his back to the window so the light would fall on their face.

“Oh, that’s bright…” Bell screwed their face up. “What time even is it?”

“Uh… six-thirty, or so.”

“But the sun’s only just up!”

“It’s March, in Europe, Bell. The sun’s a slow fucker here.”

“Ugh…” They flopped onto their back. “Do we have to get up?”

“Not yet.”

They grinned, and rolled back up to his side. “Good.”

“Yeah.” Adler echoed, and tried to roll away from them as they traced their fingers over his collar bone.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Bell quickly chased him, climbing into his lap with surprising speed, given their recent lethargy. “I’m not done with you yet.”

Adler swallowed as Bell continued to trace their fingers over his undecorated neck. “Should I be worried?”

Adler swore he’d never end up here again. Tucked in a dark closet, in the back of a club he didn’t dare repeat the name of, just… well, watching, like the freak he was, as Bell serviced man after man through the hole in the wall.

They’d just finished another. The word ‘finish’ made him cringe, but he couldn’t think of another, as the dick disappeared, satisfied, and Bell’s forehead hit the wall, form wobbling as they coughed horribly.

He didn’t move. He just kept watching.

Slowly, Bell sat up, turning their head to stare up at him, eyes wide, pupils dilated to be almost completely black in the darkness.

The only light was coming through the hole in the wall, casting flickering blue shadows around them in the brief reprieve. It would disappear again soon, when the next pathetic louse came hunting.

Something was dribbling out of the corner of Bell’s mouth. Adler resisted the urge to wipe it away, and continued staring at them as Bell sniffed, shuffling their knees underneath themselves.

The space behind the wall was tighter than Adler would have liked. It was long enough to occupy both of them, but too narrow for Bell to kneel comfortably. Adler couldn’t even crouch next to them. He’d had to stand, wedged between the walls, only able to watch as Bell sucked dick after dick after dick.

He wished that every single one was his. That’s really what he wanted, Bell tucked between his legs, lovingly – well, dutifully tending to his cock, swallowing his cum, unlike the stuff now, which Bell was spitting out onto the floor. They coughed again, brow wrinkling as their thoughts came back to them and they realised how foul their mouth tasted; their harsh breaths making it sound like they were feeling sick.

“Hey…” Adler murmured softly. “We’ve got a job to do.”

“Uh huh…” Bell nodded and licked their lips clean, just in time as another cuck on the other side of the wall pushed his dick through the hole.

Bell went to it immediately, thoughts vanishing so instantly that it made jealousy roar in Adler’s chest. He wanted them to do that to him. But, he shouldn’t. That would be crossing one too many lines. It was entirely on his resolve that Bell wasn’t sucking his dick, and he was a strong man.

He didn’t let the sight of Bell’s head bobbing over a dick bother him. It didn’t make him want to grab their hair and drag them back from it, and turn them to where his own dick was and open his jeans and leave the other bastards bereft.

He blinked, and lifted his sunglasses, pressing his hand to his eyes. This had been a mistake. He should never have indulged this much.

Bell’s hand patted his leg, finding its way around to hold the back of his knee. Even in the darkness, they could tell he was distressed. He didn’t deserve that, not from them.

He shook it off, replacing his sunglasses and looking down. Bell choked as the guy finished, slumping to the side as they fumbled for the small bell – the irony not escaping him – ringing it to tell the outside that they were done.

Someone complained, but quickly moved on, as Adler forced himself down into the tight space to kneel next to them, holding their head as they rinsed their mouth out with water.

“We need to stop meeting like this.” Bell’s voice was hoarse when they spoke.

“You’re the one who insists we keep meeting in Berlin.” Adler sighed, and stood up, dragging them up and out with him.

The maze of corridors was even darker than the closet, and Adler had to rely on his memory to get them out. Bell clung to his side, relying on Adler to hold them up when they stumbled, as he found a way to the exit.

“It’s a beautiful city.” Bell gratefully sucked in the fresh air after they staggered out into an alley.

“Sure. So why do you insist we go somewhere we don’t see any of it?”

Bell shrugged, leaning on the old brick wall and turning away from Adler’s side as he lit a cigarette. “I should ask, why do you keep turning up?”

“Ah… you know me. I can’t stay away from you, Bell.”

“True.” Bell chuckled and reached down to grasp Adler’s erection. “You can’t.”

Adler groaned softly, the set up fleeing his mind as he collapsed onto the wall next to Bell, not moving to stop them as they pulled his jeans open.

He smoked as Bell slowly jerked him off, under the stars in what was now Adler’s favourite city in the world.

Russell Adler, who didn’t have whimsical things like a favourite city. Russell Adler, who was aging out of his use. Russell Adler, who was regularly rendezvousing with a strangely forgiving face from his past, and discovering new ways to experience the world.

Russell Adler, who shivered as he came in Bell’s hand, and when they wiped their messy hand on his shirt, still not sure if all of this was real.

“So, what are we seeing?” Bell sprung out ahead of him, heading towards the bright streetlights at the end of the alley. They had far too much energy after being on their knees for that long.

“How about you?” Adler mumbled, slower to get moving than them, as he tucked his still sensitive dick back into his pants.

“Oh, me?” They chuckled again, pulling their jacket closed slyly. “We have to save something for later. You can’t do everything on the first day.”

Adler snorted, stopping as he was beside himself with laugher. Another new thing for him. “You can’t be so casual with that.”

“Really? It would do you good to.” Bell came back towards him, standing close to him, but not close enough for their bodies to touch, eyes wide again. “I thought for a moment you were going to put a hole in the wall, in there.”

“Next time, I might.” It had been really tempting. Now that Bell was actually open to him being the… receiver.

“I’ll hold you to it.” Bell looped their arm through his, pulling him forward. “Let’s go.”

“To where?”

Adler looked up, once again bored out of his mind with his work. How did he keep doing this job? Why did he keep doing this job? In an office, that sucked the soul out of everyone in it?

He saw Bell smiling at him. Well, maybe not everyone.

Their smile was a cheeky one, as he smiled back, the files in front of him suddenly unimportant. Bell’s smile widened, becoming less cheeky and more wicked, filling Adler with worry as he remembered something important.

He had the plug in today. The one Bell had the remote to, the very same Bell who was leaning back from their desk in the bull pen, staring directly through the open door of Adler’s office, batting their eye lashes when they saw that Adler was continuing to look back at them.

He swallowed. Adler could never tell what Bell was thinking when he was like this. He knew it was coming, the pleasurable vibration in his ass, but he had no way of knowing when. He gripped the edge of his desk, waiting for them to do it. He stopped returning their smile, daring them to get on with it, to do it now, with his office door open.

He wanted it to happen, really. He wanted so badly for Bell to milk his ass from across the room with just the press of a button. No one would hear the buzz, from how it was inside him, and his padded office chair for good measure; no, concealing it would all be him. He had a glass fronted office, with blinds drawn back and his door open. If they turned to look, all of the employees out on the open floor would be able to see him squirming, coming, pathetically. Luckily, it was a busy office, so no one would look, unless he made a noise.

But that would be next to impossible. With the plug pressed against just the right spot inside him, and Bell controlling the vibrations, turning them up higher and higher until he or the toy broke – not that the comparison was necessary, it would be him, and everyone in the office would know exactly how pathetic he was…

But it never came.

Eventually, Bell broke the staring contest, turning back to their work, and leaving Adler to try and focus back on his, his breathing heavy, as he willed his half chub to go down in his pants.

From a fucking look. Jesus, he was fucked.

The rest of the morning was filled with the quarterly planning meeting. It wasn’t one Adler had to participate in, thank God, but he did have to attend, and offer occasional comments to the discussion. How much of his life was he wasting in meetings?

He was about to make an excuse to step out, when there was a knock at the door. The chair paused, and asked who it was, and Bell poked their head around. They were all apologies to the rest of the room, but someone claiming to be an important caller was asking for Mr Adler.

Russell stood, waving for the meeting to keep going, quickly walking to the door where Bell stood, lowering his voice to a whisper.

“Who’s calling?”

“Oh, no one.” They turned their back to the room, so no one else would see their grin, as they handed him a sticky note, like it had a name on it. The movement concealed them showing Adler that they had the remote tucked in the palm of their hand.

“Bell…” He murmured. They wouldn’t, not while he was in a meeting, would they?

“Tell me to stop.” Christ, they would.

“Adler? Are you leaving?” The chair called him.

“No, no.” He shook his head, glancing back at Bell. “Take his number, I’ll call him back later.”

Bell nodded, smile dropping as they turned back to the room, apologising again for the interruption before leaving swiftly.

Adler retook his seat. If he didn’t care about this meeting before, he cared about it even less now. He had the sticky note crumpled in his hand, so no one else could see the ‘are you ready?’ Bell had written on it. This was raising the stakes. In the middle of a meeting, with all of his fellow managers, and the head of HR.

They’d have a field day with it. God, he wanted it so bad. He wanted anything other than to be in this meeting, and not cumming his brains out.

He squeezed the crumpled paper tighter, sharp corners digging into the palm of his hand.

But again, it didn’t come. He had to sit through the rest of that excruciatingly boring meeting, and then excuse himself from the company lunch to call ‘Mr Menendez’ back. What a stupid name that was, but it was the only one he could think of on his toes. Improvising wasn’t his strong suit; and that’s exactly why Bell had done it. Their desk looked into the meeting room, and they’d been watching him squirm the whole time.

The next time he saw them, he was in the copy room, printing out enough copies of the meeting notes for all the managers to have. Bell slipped in and closed the door, carrying packets of printer paper as a guise.

“You’re impatient.” He spoke aloud, glancing at them.

“What do you mean?” Bell tilted their head innocently.

“You know what I mean. That phone call.”

“Oh, yes, him. Did he pick up when you called him back?”

“No. I left a message. And, I liked yours.”

“Which one?”

“On the note.”

“Oh… yes.” They nodded slowly. “Are you sure I’m the impatient one?”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m not the one begging.” They smiled, shoving the paper onto the table, and going to leave the room. “See you later, boss.”

He fumed as they closed the door. He wasn’t begging. Not with words, at least. They hadn’t done it in the office; they hadn’t done it in the meeting. Why else had they contrived an excuse to restock the already full printers if not to do it then?!

Or, were they waiting? Going to do it from outside the room and let him suffer alone for his boldness to indirectly ask for it?

He decided that some of the copies weren’t good enough, and ran them to print again, breath hitching as he waited.

But still, it didn’t come.

By the time he ended up in the break room for a late lunch, he’d almost forgotten about it.

That’s when it came. When Adler was stood at the side bar counter, drumming his fingers on the linoleum as he waited for the espresso to start pouring.

He knew Bell was in the room behind him; he’d been planning on joining them for a couple of minutes that he could spare. It hadn’t occurred to him that they’d do it here.

He has no warning, the vibrations going from nothing to pulsing high so fast he gasped, knees almost buckling as he clutched the counter, struggling to stay upright as his ass shook. An unholy groan left his mouth as the suddenly onset, intense vibrations didn’t let up, continuing unrelentingly until he was not only hard, but twitching in his slacks, in time with each shake of his knees, unable to even think about opening his eyes and turn to see how Bell was enjoying his suffering.

It must have been only a moment, but it felt like ten as he shuddered like a tree in a storm at the counter, until he let out another guttural groan and collapsed onto it, forehead pressed against the linoleum, shaking as he raised his head, the coffee machine beeping impatiently to let him know he could take his double espresso now.

He took a deep breath and picked the cup up, trying to steady his shaking hand as he turned on weak knees.

Bell wasn’t even looking at him. They were eating their sandwich, flicking through one of the extra magazines people left lying around in the break room.

Adler swallowed. He wasn’t going to beg for their attention. He wasn’t that pathetic (yet). He steadied his knees and strode from the room, footsteps loud in his ears as he crossed the open room back to his office, letting a heavy breath our as he sat back down at his desk. He’d closed the door now, but as he looked up, he could see Bell already back at their desk, the same cheeky smile back on their face.