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It’s not often that Dan Heng shows his needier side. That’s a part of him that Caelus loves, and he tries to draw it out of the reserved spearman every once in a while, but his efforts are usually to no avail.
Dan Heng rarely responds to the bait and usually just shoots him a warning look that speaks loud and clear: you will wait, and you will not complain about it. Caelus usually pouts and leaves it at that.
With all of that said, Dan Heng has certainly been a little more clingy as of late. Caelus isn’t surprised – who would be, after all they’d just gone through? But it’s a little startling to be on the receiving end of a wandering hand or a kiss pressed against his neck (in public, might he add… and he’s the Deliverer now, so he just knows that people are going to talk).
It’s made that much more unnerving when his boyfriend is suddenly taller than him, with horns and an honest-to-the-Aeons tail. A very insistent tail at that; always coiling around Caelus’s waist or legs to keep him from going anywhere without the man attached to it. And yes, Dan Heng’s other other form has horns and a tail too, but they’re translucent and not entirely solid. That, and the tail’s completely missing most of the time.
So for the tables to be turned so suddenly on Caelus… yes, it’s certainly… different. But it’s a good kind of different, so long as Dan Heng isn’t biting his neck in public what the fuck is wrong with you Dan Heng quit that!
The change, Caelus (and Cyrene, who is an unfortunate and unwilling witness to most of this nonsense) theorizes, comes from Dan Heng’s ascension. He’s much more in tune with land and wildlife alike, and it seems that he’s gained a set of instincts and behavioral patterns that are more in line with the likes of animals than humans.
And there’s been a bit of a change in Dan Heng’s demeanor as of late. His touches have been lingering, his lips finding Caelus’s own more often than before. And is it just him, or has Dan Heng been a little warmer to the touch than usual…?
So Caelus goes to Anaxa, the dromas enthusiast and expert, and asks if the reptilian behemoths do a similar thing.
Anaxa covers his hand with a mouth, his eye narrowing with mirth. Caelus just lifts an eyebrow, unimpressed and more than a little impatient for answers. Anaxa lowers his hand and bursts into laughter for far longer than necessary.
“It’s a mating cycle,” Anaxa finally says, still grinning. “Fascinating! I must admit that I’m a bit surprised that Dan Heng would experience such a thing.”
“Just tell me what I can do to help him,” Caelus says, exasperated.
“Well, you could keep him in isolation until the cycle ends, which would be in about a week or so. However, this would leave him both agitated and in physical pain,” Anaxa explains. He notes the pained expression on Caelus’s face and continues. “The alternative is a little more involved, to put it simply.”
“What is it?” Caelus asks, feeling no hesitation nor unease. If it helps Dan Heng through this, he’ll do it.
“You’d have to stay in the same room as him for a maximum of four days – assuming his biology isn’t more advanced than that of a dromas – and let him do as he wishes with you,” Anaxa finishes.
Caelus is quiet for a moment. Then he chuckles. “That’s it?” he asks with a smile. “So it’s no different from a usual night alone with him, then.”
Anaxa huffs, though there’s some mirth behind the sound. “I must reiterate that you will be unable to leave the room for up to four days,” he says. “And dromases can be rather aggressive when mating. You might be bitten or manhandled.”
“That’s supposed to be a downside?” Caelus asks.
Anaxa makes a sound of exasperation and rolls his eye. “Just stock up on supplies and be ready for him to get aggressive,” he says. “And if possible, would you mind allowing me to observe–”
“Anaxa.” Caelus levels a flat stare at the professor.
“It would only be for a short while,” Anaxa tries to argue. “Maybe I would collect a sample or two, and I would leave quickly and quietly.”
“Anaxa, I’m not worried about being watched,” Caelus replies, unable to stifle another laugh. “I just wanted to tell you that Dan Heng has a jealous streak. You’ll leave that room in a body bag, not on your own two feet.”
Anaxa falls silent, visibly disappointed. “...Very well, then. It was worth asking.”
“For your sake, I won’t tell Dan Heng you did. Thanks for the help – I really do appreciate it.” Caelus turns to leave, but pauses. He looks over his shoulder and adds, “Dan Heng told me that the dromas language has thirty-two regional variants, by the way. Just in case that gives you something to chew on.”
Anaxa grins widely as his eye gleams. “I will be looking into that, thank you. Now off you go – the longer you keep him waiting, the longer everyone else has to keep an eye on him.”
Caelus laughs again and makes his way back to the entrance to the Grove, where Dan Heng stands by Cyrene, his tail lashing back and forth. Scholars are giving it – and him – a wide berth, lest they be swept off their feet (and not in the good way). Dan Heng visibly perks up upon seeing him, and a slight smile tugs at his lips as the lashing of his tails calms down into contented sways. Caelus swears he sees Cyrene breathe a sigh of relief before waving to him.
“Was Anaxa any help?” she asks, and it’s like a storm cloud formed over the three of them. She risks an anxious glance in his direction and winces at the sudden lack of a smile. She looks back at Caelus, and her eyes speak volumes. It’s only getting worse… all this just from mentioning you spoke to a man?
Caelus offers a slight shrug in response before going into deescalation mode. “Dan Heng! It feels like it’s been days since I last saw you,” he exclaims warmly, quickly sidling up to the man in question and pulling him into a hug. Dan Heng relaxes a little, though his hands do start to wander a bit too low. “Later,” Caelus whispers, and successfully avoids a charge of public indecency. Deliverer or not, he’s in no way immune to the law.
“I missed you,” Dan Heng murmurs.
“I missed you too,” Caelus replies, and when he tries to pull away, he meets resistance. “Dan Heng.”
“Caelus.” No sign of remorse.
“Dan Heng, love of my life, keeper of my heart.”
Warm laughter. “Yes?”
“We are in public. This is not the time.”
For a moment, nothing happens. Then Dan Heng pulls away with a slight sigh and a put-upon expression, though he retains a firm grip on Caelus’s hand. “Is it so wrong of me to want others to know that you’re mine?”
“No,” Caelus replies. This kind of talk… he usually saves it for the bedroom. I gotta get him out of here. “But last I checked, public indecency is a crime, and neither of us are exhibitionists. Come with me – we need supplies.” He waves goodbye to Cyrene and pulls his way-too-touchy boyfriend away from the crowd.
Dan Heng is silent for a few beats. “Ah,” he says quietly. “That’s what you went to him for. I… I did not realize that my cycle was upon me.”
“The change was pretty gradual, yeah," Caelus says. “We need supplies, since leaving the room isn’t an option.”
“‘We?’” Dan Heng asks, sounding confused. Caelus is almost offended: did Dan Heng really think he was going to leave him to suffer alone? But he supposes that Dan Heng is used to solitude – or was used to solitude. So Caelus flashes a grin at him.
“Yes, ‘we,’” he replies. “I’m helping you through this.”
Dan Heng’s gaze suddenly grows ten times more intense, and Caelus has to fight him off with only one arm available to guard himself. “Public! We’re in public!” he whisper-shouts, just barely managing to avoid yet another public indecency charge.
This is about to be the longest shopping trip of his life.
***
“Bedding, food, water, hygiene products – hey, stop that, I’m trying to take inventory here!”
“No.”
“Dan Heng, I will shove this soap bar into your mouth if you don’t get off me right now.”
“Mm… no.”
Caelus sighs, but he leaves the soap in the package it came in. He really shouldn’t be rewarding bad behavior, yet here he is, letting Dan Heng do whatever he wants because his mating cycle is coming up. “At least let me use my arms, you clingy lizard,” he mutters, smiling slightly when his arms are freed from the embrace forced upon him.
“Hurry up,” Dan Heng says, and there’s a rumble in his voice; sort of like a growl? Caelus can’t deny that that was kinda hot, though, so he says nothing. Then he hears Dan Heng inhale, followed by a pleased purr. Wait, he can do that? Since when?!
“You need me,” Dan Heng murmurs, sounding satisfied. “I can smell it on you.”
“That is the exact opposite of arousing,” Caelus lies.
“I beg to differ.”
“Then beg,” Caelus quips before he can think better of it. His mouth closes with an audible click as he realizes his mistake: he has never once been able to refuse Dan Heng when he gets to begging. There’s just something so fucking hot about seeing such a composed man reduced to whimpers and needy pleas, and – damnit, he’s hard now.
“Please come to bed,” Dan Heng croons, his breath fanning out along the shell of Caelus’s ear. “It’s so lonely without you there, Caelus.”
“You’re really laying it on thick, huh?” Caelus remarks under his breath as he continues to sort the ready-made meals he’d gotten out into separate piles: one for each day. “That’s not how you actually beg, and you know it.”
It’s true: this is all a performance on Dan Heng’s end. His begging, in actuality, is a little less coherent. But an effort was made, albeit in vain. Dan Heng hums, evidently displeased with being called out, and his embrace tightens.
Uh oh. Caelus’s eyes widen as his brain connects the dots, and he opens his mouth to protest. “Wait, wait, Dan Heng, I’m not done yet, just a little longer and then we caaaaaah–”
“You’re done,” Dan Heng says matter-of-factly, and he drags Caelus into the makeshift nest of pillows, blankets, and various pieces of both his and Caelus’s attires. They’d both stripped before this at Dan Heng’s behest (or rather demand), so it’s easy to pin Caelus and bend him into a mating press.
“Hey, I said wait!” Caelus protests again, mourning the progress he’d made – organization doesn’t come easy to him.
“I’m done waiting,” Dan Heng replies. That growly quality is back in his voice, and he moves down, down, down. He releases Caelus’s legs from their existing hold in favor of keeping them parted and well out of his way.
“Dan Heng, please, waiiii–!” Caelus’s words are cut off yet again when Dan Heng’s tongue (long and forked at the tip, as he’d displayed multiple times since his ascension) presses against and then past his rim, followed by a hum of pure bliss. Dan Heng doesn’t give him a single second to gather his wits before throwing his all into eating him out, and within minutes Caelus is the one whimpering, not the other way around.
“Dan – Heng–” Caelus attempts to say something, anything, but all he can come up with is his boyfriend’s name. Over and over, he tries to talk his way out of this so he can get back to taking inventory, but to no avail: Dan Heng is hellbent on keeping him from ensuring that they both survive this.
“Dan Heng!” Caelus gasps as Dan Heng’s annoyingly-skilled tongue puts pressure on his prostate. His fingers curl into the bedding beneath him, sheets caught up in between them as his heels dig into Dan Heng’s back hard enough to bruise. The pain only spurs him on, though.
I… I still need to… Caelus fights to think past the overwhelming pleasure he feels, but it’s an uphill battle. Dan Heng seems determined to make him forget all about anything and everything that isn’t himself.
Eventually, Caelus just gives up entirely. There’s no point fighting this anymore. Inventory will have to wait, probably for the rest of time. His head tilts backward, and he closes his eyes as he gives Dan Heng the win.
Just as he silently surrenders, Dan Heng pulls away. A whine escapes Caelus before he can stop himself, and he stares wide-eyed at his partner, who simply smiles. “Do I have your attention now?” he asks, head tilted to the side like a predator sizing up his next meal.
Caelus is into it.
“Yeah,” he replies breathlessly. “Yeah, you do.” He feels empty now that Dan Heng’s tongue has left him, and he meets the spearman’s eyes with an expression that he hopes comes off as assertive. “So are you just going to stare at me, or – ack, not again–!”
Dan Heng ducks down a second time, finishing what he started with a familiar efficiency. Caelus’s back arches off of the sheets beneath it as he cums with a cry of Dan Heng’s name. Though his mind is reeling and his senses are disoriented, Caelus thinks he hears Dan Heng inhale sharply at the sound as he pulls away. Then there’s warm, wet pressure along his abdomen, and Caelus’s eyes track the source: Dan Heng is licking up Caelus’s cum from where it had landed on his skin, purring at the taste.
Caelus tries to say something, but all that comes out is a weak sigh, followed by a squeak when Dan Heng meets his eyes. He looks like he’s going to eat Caelus whole, or maybe fuck his brains out. Probably the latter, but both are hot in theory. Either way, he’s into it.
There’s a hazy quality to Dan Heng’s gaze, and it occurs to Caelus that he might not be in his right mind, but by now he’s in too deep to stop this, nor to care. As far as he’s concerned, he’s completely at Dan Heng’s mercy for the next four days or so, and that’s just fine with him.
“Dan Heng,” Caelus says softly, just now realizing that the former has not moved. It seems that his name is the trigger word for something, however, because Dan Heng is suddenly lunging upward, his forehead nearly cracking against Caelus’s own as he kisses him like he owns him completely. Like he’s staking some sort of claim. And Caelus lets him.
The kiss is forceful and impatient, and Dan Heng nips at Caelus’s lower lip at the first sign of hesitation. Caelus easily surrenders, only beginning to resist when he realizes that he’s running out of air. Dan Heng gives him trouble, though, so Caelus resorts to playing dirty: he grabs a fistful of Dan Heng’s hair and pulls until he gets results.
“Can’t breathe,” Caelus wheezes, but it appears that near-suffocation was no excuse for resistance. Dan Heng makes a soft sound of animalistic disapproval, somewhere between a growl and a sigh, and leans back in despite the force of Caelus’s pulling. But instead of a kiss this time, he aims lower, and his teeth sink into Caelus’s collarbone just hard enough to leave marks. Luckily, he stops short of drawing blood, but it still hurts like hell.
“A-Ah, ow, ow – hey, hey, this isn’t how you treat your boyfriend!” Caelus protests, squirming beneath a very determined Dan Heng hellbent on making him pay for his resistance, no matter how necessary. Dan Heng ignores him for the most part, but at least he presses a kiss to the mark he left behind, so that’s something.
Dan Heng shifts in place, and Caelus feels something much bigger than a tongue prodding at his rim. “Ngh – that desperate, huh?” he can’t help but taunt. “Can’t even finish up the foreplay.”
“Be quiet,” Dan Heng says quietly, but there’s actual authority behind the words. Caelus immediately falls silent – when Dan Heng gets like this, he really means business – and earns a small smile in response. Dan Heng begins to purr again, and then his cock fills Caelus up in what must be record time.
It’s abrupt enough that Caelus very nearly screams from sheer surprise, and he has to grab onto Dan Heng’s shoulders for dear life as he’s fucked with no mercy. Caelus’s entire body rocks with the force of it all, and he can only manage needy moans and gasped-out utterances of Dan Heng’s name as pleasure once more begins to build inside him. Is it just his imagination, or did Dan Heng somehow get bigger since his ascension…? True or not, it sure feels like it.
Caelus wraps his legs around Dan Heng’s waist, crying out and throwing his head back when sharpened canines sink into the side of his neck. Just like before, no blood is drawn, but he would have gladly let Dan Heng get away with it, because apparently Caelus is a fucking masochist. He’s learning plenty of new things today, it seems.
“Dan Heng!” Caelus manages to gasp out. He’s been saying Dan Heng’s name a lot today. That’s fine by him: it gets great reactions out of his boyfriend. Such as now.
“Caelus,” Dan Heng responds with a ragged moan and a full-body shiver. “Caelus, Caelus–” He bites down again, not far from the previous mark, and Caelus thinks he hears a familiar, needy whimper. So the usual Dan Heng is still present, just less so. Which means that Caelus can’t just lay here.
“I’m here,” Caelus says breathlessly, placing one hand on the back of Dan Heng’s neck. “I’m here.”
“Nhh – Caelus…” Dan Heng shivers again, relaxing ever so slightly at the touch, and he fucks into Caelus one final time before reaching a climax. Caelus isn’t too far behind, and through the usual roaring in his ears, he hears Dan Heng whisper, “...Mine.”
***
The rest of Dan Heng’s cycle goes well enough, and both men are completely wiped out by the end of it. Dan Heng, surprisingly, is the first to recover despite being the one going through some biological nonsense, and Caelus wakes up to a warm hand sliding along his spine and the fragrant scent of freshly-brewed tea.
“You’re hurt,” Dan Heng says softly, and Caelus shakes his head.
“Not hurt,” he replies sleepily, rolling over to face Dan Heng. “You didn’t break any skin or anything. Didn’t go too far at all, really. I expected a little more aggression out of you, honestly.”
Dan Heng frowns as he hands Caelus a cup of tea. “What made you think I would be aggressive?” he asks. “That’s not like me. You know that.”
“Well, Anaxa said that I should expect that – mmph!” Caelus makes a muffled sound of indignation as Dan Heng covers his mouth with a hand.
“No talking about other men in the bedroom,” Dan Heng says, sounding surprisingly stern. When he pulls his hand away, Caelus nods.
“Whatever you say,” he replies fondly. Dan Heng suddenly takes the tea from him, and now it’s his turn to frown. “Hey, give that back! What’s gotten into you now?!”
“Quiet,” Dan Heng intones, and he takes a lengthy sip of the tea. Then he leans in, pressing his lips to Caelus’s own, and both men open in tandem. Caelus’s brows lift as Dan Heng pushes the tea from his mouth to the other’s. Then he pulls away to do it again, and Caelus opens his mouth to protest.
“Shh,” Dan Heng tells him – orders him, really. “It’s my responsibility to care for you after putting you through all of that.”
“You could just do that with the teacup instead of taking the bird route,” Caelus grumbles, but he lets Dan Heng do it again, and again, and yet again, until the cup is empty.
Dan Heng returns to his place at Caelus’s side, guiding him down until they lay back-to chest. Dan Heng’s tail traps Caelus’s legs in place with its heft, and warm, muscled arms do the rest. A purr rumbles to life in Dan Heng’s chest, sending subtle vibrations through them both, and Caelus closes his eyes with a content hum.
There’s plenty of work to do now that Dan Heng’s cycle is over, but it can wait a little longer. For now, it’s just Caelus and Dan Heng sharing warmth and space, basking in each other’s company and the rays of sun that stream through the cracks between the curtains.