Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

How could he have let this happen? 

Hordak clenched and unclenched his fists as he paced, manic and furious. How had he let her worm her way into his head? How could he have allowed himself to be even further corrupted than he’d already been during his exile on this frilly hellscape? 

The fascination had started early, but the first time he’d noticed it was when she’d presented her E.K.S. bots to him. She was so nonchalant, so glib when she casually revealed irrefutable evidence of her incalculable brilliance that day. He’d been forced to realize instantly that not only was she just as, if not more technologically and scientifically competent than he, but she’d managed to become such a wonder with far less education and zero precedent. She was clearly a genius. More genius than any other being he’d ever encountered, other than his Exalted Brother. It tinged his shocking new perception with hints of the divine, and from that moment forward he’d been caught in some kind of gravitational field that she carried wherever she went. The implications of her excellence, however, were an entirely other matter.

If she could exist, if she could be so brilliant and wonderful and Etherian at the same time… It didn’t bear thinking about. So he didn’t think about it, deciding instead to focus on Prime, as he knew he should. And when he couldn’t focus on Prime, the only thing that kept him from the most dangerous kinds of doubting was… her. 

He knew something very strange was happening to him when he realized, to his utter shock, that he was looking forward to working with her every day. Not just because she was so productive in the lab, either. It wasn’t her gadgets and weapons he wanted to be near, it was just… her. He liked being around her. The discovery had been jarring, the first of its kind, but he reasoned that his new lab partner was those things as well. He’d been perturbed, however, when he’d caught himself noting and memorizing completely irrelevant details of her person. Her specific gait,  the many shades of violet that made up the color of her hair, the way her neck met her shoulder in a curve so graceful that he couldn’t decide where the division was… all things that had nothing to do with any of his goals.  

For a while, he’d been able to dismiss the unusual fascination as a natural reaction to an exceptionally unique Etherian. She was so very different from himself, of course he found it interesting. He was a scientist, after all. And if he allowed her to sit on the arm of his throne while he leaned toward her, drinking in her every word... well, he was just studying a particularly valuable anomaly, wasn't he? Then he’d started noticing the faint scents of machinery and soap in her hair, and he’d grown downright concerned.

When had he come to like her occasional nattering, ranting, crashes and explosions? They’d been barely tolerable just a few months ago, but now he missed them when she wasn’t around, frequently losing time to deep thinking or tangential projects without her sporadic interruptions to ground him in the present. When had her high, nasally voice stopped being grating and started being endearing? And since when did he find anything endearing? 

His reactions to her had made his blood pressure an issue all its own. Whenever he saw her after a separation of more than a few hours, his pulses went off. It was much worse when she passed near him, and he even found himself breaking into a sweat whenever she was close enough to touch, by hair or hand. He was experiencing strange hormonal reactions he’d never dealt with before, and certain parts of his anatomy that actually hadn’t been problems before were starting to cause him trouble.

How was it that in all his time on Etheria, he’d never wavered in his faith and will to fight for Prime, but after a scant couple of months with Entrapta in the Fright Zone- an Etherian princess, no less- he was about as cool and confident as a fresh force captain reporting bad news? She’d caught him staring multiple times and even asked if anything had been bothering him lately. Just that day, he’d made at least one mistake in the lab because of his daydreaming. He could only be grateful he’d established an aloof, shuttered persona to hide behind. Stars above, how did it get so bad?

If his priority really was focus, then Entrapta was undoubtedly the biggest distraction of his life. If Prime were there, would He have separated Hordak from the temptation, or simply expected him to master himself? He knew full well that upon his return he’d have to be repurified regardless of what choices he’d made. However, depending on how soiled he’d allowed himself to become, the reconditioning process might not have to be too extensive. Thus far, Hordak had hoped that his unwavering loyalty and dedicated service was enough to prove his worth… but Entrapta was an unforeseen complication.

 Separation was the more pious option, if he were honest with himself. But no, he couldn’t remove her from the picture. Now when she was getting him further in his mission than he’d yet been able to manage, and faster than he’d ever done. He’d been stymied by his own mediocrity for years now, and Entrapta was his best hope at making it home before his body finally gave out on him. 

No, he couldn’t afford any delay in their progress. And besides, it wasn’t her fault he was so distracted, his sins were his own. The problem lay with him, and him alone. Entrapta stayed, even if it did mean a more intensive reintegration process upon reuniting with his Brother. And if eliminating the distraction wasn’t an option, then he needed to get himself under control. He knew that Prime not approve, but at the same time, if returning to Prime was his priority, then shouldn’t he do whatever it took to focus on the mission? Or was that just another flimsy excuse from a despicable sinner, looking for any opportunity to indulge in worldly delights? 

The subtle mechanical sounds of his armor eased as he finally ceased his pacing. Hordak took a deep breath, listening to the cape that hid his wasted back and vulnerable neck port fluttering slightly as it settled around his ankles. He could not allow himself to replace Prime with Entrapta at the center of his preoccupations. He wasn’t a fool and he hadn’t forgotten his Brother’s teachings. He already had all the intimacy and passion he should ever need. This was just his own shortcomings rearing their ugly head again. Merely a sinful surge of bestial lasciviousness, surely. And toward a heretic , of all things. So why couldn’t he get ahold of himself? Why couldn’t he fix this? Think. He needed to think, and then he needed to do .

“Hordak!”

He snarled and spun in place, hearts pounding, before he’d processed that it was only Entrapta and straightened, embarrassed at having been startled. She was hanging upside-down from a vent a few yards away and, unusually for her, she looked serious. He grunted and stepped toward her as she tumbled through the air and landed lightly on her feet, if a bit off-kilter. The effort toward rebalancing only reiterated the muscle mass beneath her fascinating curves. Not that he should be looking. 

“I ran the numbers and I think we should talk.” Her hair produced a datapad with a line chart on it which she shoved at him impatiently.

Hordak took the pad while still internally flailing to recompose himself, but paused with a blank stare down at unfamiliar data. Nothing had been labeled, and all he could tell was that two similarly shaped lines showed some kind of dual increase over a span of time. “What am I looking at?”

“What you’re looking at is the direct correlation between increased workplace tension and decreased productivity.”

Hordak gripped the pad in his hands harder. “Is that so?” was the best he could do. He couldn’t bring himself to look at her even though he knew he should be trying to deflect or smooth over.

“Yep. And considering our objectives, I think we should work whatever this is out so that we can repair our productivity rates.” She snatched the pad back from him so that he was staring at the floor between empty hands. “Whatever feelings are popping up, let’s deal with them, okay? Even if you just have questions, or even if you want to have sex.” He was already scowling hard, but at her words Hordak’s head snapped up so fast he cricked his neck and winced, rubbing at  it. “I know you’re shy, but we should be pragmatic about this. For science.”

He managed to keep his tone low and steady as he replied. “Our focus needs to remain on the portal machine. I do not have time for such inappropriate dalliances.” He had literally just made this argument at himself the moment she’d appeared, but he was frustrated and angry and on his back foot, exactly where he least wanted to be. Clearly, he’d already let this go too far for any clean way out. He’d have to give ground somewhere, but he needed to strategize his own damage so that it wouldn’t cause further delays. 

“We can keep our focus on the machine, Hordak, I never said-” He turned his back on her on abrupt impulse and started off aimlessly toward a different part of the sanctum. “Hey!” Entrapta squawked at his disrespect. He heard her run after him and clenched his teeth against a growl. “Hordak, I know you’ve been having physical reactions around me that you didn’t have at first. You don’t have to worry about offending me or anything, I promise I don’t mind. I’d much rather take the opportunity for study than let this screwy tension mess with our work together.” His insides flipped at her insinuation and he felt sweat break out on his brow again. 

“I thought reading nonverbal indicators wasn’t your strong suit,” he complained, clenching his fists tight as he stomped.

“Oh it’s not. But you’re the first person who’s ever let me study them long enough to learn the codes.” He paused and turned back toward her in confusion. He wasn’t sure what “codes” she was referring to, but… had she just said she’d studied him? “Ooh! So your skin is transparent after all!”

Hordak fought the urge to retreat a few steps and tried to recover his air of confidence and authority. “I beg your pardon?” Was all he managed.

“You’re blushing! Which means I can see your red blood through your white skin! But if I can see it when you’re blushing, why isn’t the white part of you actually pink?” He immediately turned back around and started off again. He needed more time to calm down. Why wouldn’t she just leave him be? “Can you at least stop avoiding the issue? It’s incredibly counterproductive.”

It caught him by surprise when he felt a sharp tug on his cape, his collar pulling at his shoulders. His patience had already worn through, and before he could think, he’d spun in place and seized Entrapta’s lower arm, holding it away from him. Both of them froze, looking at each other. Hordak’s fingers wrapped easily around her arm, overlapping themselves significantly. Far worse, however, was the expression on the reckless little scientist’s face. It was the first time he’d ever seen alarm there. Then again, it was the first time he’d ever put a hand on her, and he was holding her still and literally baring his fangs at her. He snatched his hand back from her as if she’d burned him, utterly disgusted with himself, and turned away again.

He’d taken a few steps before he realized he’d walked into a dead-end alcove between gigantic machinery. Nowhere to escape, not that he was fleeing. Of course not. He heaved a deep breath, shut his eyes tightly, and turned to stomp off into his private quarters. He very nearly ran into Entrapta, who’d appeared directly behind him. Now he was the one who recoiled in alarm as she raised up on her hair, leaning close and squinting at his mouth. “Are you sure you’re not a First Ones’ artifact? I know you’ve been to outer space and stuff, but I’ve never seen an organic being with both bioluminescent eyes and teeth. Do all of your bodily fluids glow?” He was leaning so far back from her advance that he nearly lost his balance and stumbled, sending a fresh bloom of embarrassment and aggravation through his gut. 

Of course she was pressing him on his origins again. Of course she’d go for the throat. Or rather, at the moment, his teeth. His mouth had opened when he’d stumbled and her eyes had lit up as she leaned even closer, stare flickering between fangs. Her face was so close to his… her skin looked so warm and her eyes were so pretty… and how, how was she still talking at him? And why were they both breathing heavily? 

The only thought that really formed in Hordak’s mind before he acted was that he just needed her to be silent… just for a moment so he could recollect himself. He leaned forward, she sucked in a little gasp, and he brushed his mouth against hers.

Chapter Text

The next thought that formed in Hordak’s mind was that the brief contact between lips hadn’t even been enough to taste her… the thought after that? He realized he had just fucked up. Badly. He opened his eyes, surprised to find he’d closed them, to see Entrapta blank-faced and hovering in mid-air, motionless with shock. Hordak  managed not to swear out loud and pushed past her, headed toward the door to his private rooms. 

All this time, he’d maintained an internal mantra to get through his days- always project strength, always project total control, always be the most dangerous thing in the room, lead your empire with unquestioned authority. Power, power, power. Today, he’d betrayed himself and initiated an intimate encounter with an Etherian royal. As if that weren't bad enough, he’d shrunk away the moment her lips touched his… lips? Did he have lips? What the unholy fuck was he even thinking?

“Hordak?” Entrapta called, and he knew she was following. The sudden gentling of her tone irked him deeply, and he clenched his teeth and fists while he ignored her. “Hordak, we’re not supposed to run away from our lab partners.”

“I have never fled from anything,” he growled. It would have been true if he’d said it moments ago, but he was absolutely running away from her now. Fleeing in a panic, in fact. “We are not discussing this.”

She’d caught up to him and trotted just ahead, stopping and turning to cut him off. He considered forcing his way past her, but he didn’t trust himself to touch her again. Instead, he stood and shot her his most dangerous glower, openly fuming. It did not faze her in the least. 

She planted her fists on her hips and stood with her feet apart, staring back with equal intent. “If it’s got to do with our lab work, I’ll discuss whatever I want.” His mouth opened slightly at her astounding audacity. “Look, I always give you the last word when it comes to anything regarding authority,” she said, patiently. “I’m a princess, I know how authoritarianism works.” Her voice grew shriller and he saw a slight flush of pink blossom on her cheeks and neck. “But this is about us- er, our work - and I’m putting my foot down!”

She rose up on her hair again so that she could meet him at eye-level, expression fierce. She was leaning forward, he was leaning back, and the feeling of their shifting power dynamic was terribly, grievously familiar. “Enough!” he shouted in her face, and Entrapta lurched back a foot or so. He shut his eyes and took several deep breaths, mind racing. 

He needed to maintain power, at all costs, full stop. So what would a powerful man in his situation do? What would Prime do? Well, He’d never find Himself in such a situation in the first place, but… when Prime wanted something, anything at all, he took it. Somehow, it didn't feel like a good option for Hordak. It was one thing to be called to duty within one’s own empire, but the only real hold he had over her was as a supplier and employer. If he called for more, would she resent him? Resentment had never stopped him before, but he couldn’t afford to be on her bad side.

Then there was the baffling suggestion that she actually did like his attentions, that she wanted something more intimate from him. To assume such a role for another was blasphemous on its own, and that was assuming he conducted himself correctly. But this was Entrapta, and he was just Hordak. Was he really a match for the kind of temptation she’d come to pose? 

He shut his eyes tighter, willing himself to act decisively. Complete the mission. No matter what, no matter how, no matter the cost, he needed to complete the mission. So long as he could still serve, so long as he could be His general, he had to complete the mission. He opened his eyes, staring at the floor, and took one more deep, steadying breath. 

He finally opened his eyes again and glared at Entrapta from beneath his furrowed brow. She still hovered at eye level, looking curious but just as unabashed as ever. The flush that had blossomed in her cheeks hadn't abated, but rather intensified and spread to the tantalizing strip of skin that glowed across her chest between the fabric of her outfit. She was still breathing heavily, her gaze darting between his squared shoulders, clenched fists, bared teeth and narrowed eyes. 

With one stride he was against her again. He only hesitated a moment before he reached out and grabbed her hips, jerking her toward him so that their bodies were flush. The action felt too aggressive even as he did it, but he didn’t know any other way to touch another. The feeling of her warmth against his body was immediately intoxicating, and Hordak found himself breathing deeply through his nose, eyes closed again, already reveling in her delicious distraction. When he opened his eyes again, he found Entrapta’s face below his own, wide eyed and hungry. Her pupils were dilated, her cheeks were pink, and her lips just looked so soft. 

Again, he hesitated as he gripped her hips and she kept her hands still against his chest, face tilted up to his. He was perfectly aware of the wide variety of ends a person’s body could be used for, but the idea of using her to take his pleasure was not an easy one for him to swallow. But he’d made harder decisions to fulfill his mission in the past, and he wasn’t about to pull back now. He released her hips, she stayed where she was pressed up against him, and he lifted his comparatively gigantic hands to cup either side of her face, cradling the back of her head and neck as he did so. Her eyebrows were twitching ever so slightly as a fascinating parade of emotion flitted through her eyes, her mouth was slightly open and quivering. 

With one last silent apology, Hordak gave himself over to the sin thrumming through his body, electrifying him and overwhelming his senses. This time he pressed his lips against her own with purpose, letting her feel something of the maddening cravings that had so disrupted his days. He ran the pad of one thumb over the soft skin of her cheek, slowly. She didn’t flinch as his claw skimmed near her eye, only slid her palms down his chest and sighed into their kiss. When he tilted their faces further and began to move his mouth against hers, instead of reacting with confusion or uncertainty, she responded in kind.

With a muffled groan, he lowered his hands again so he could gather her against himself, running his hands greedily over the woman who had so easily dismantled his defenses, both physical and mental. He was frightened of hurting her, all too conscious of how very fragile Etherian bodies were, and how very deadly his hands could be. He stiffened slightly when Entrapta slipped her own hands over his ribs, around to his back, afraid she would notice how boney he was beneath his dress. But she didn’t react at all, just held herself tighter against him. Her touch was so much better than Hordak could have hoped, even dreamed. She followed his movements easily, eagerly, and as he clumsily adapted to working with another’s body, the heat between their mouths and hands built. 

Even in thick work gloves, her hands were light and kind, touching him with far more gentleness than he’d ever known. Nobody had ever touched him so sweetly, and the feeling was beyond anything he’d been prepared for. No sooner had he relaxed enough to focus on their kiss than he felt her removing her gloves behind his back. He’d never seen her touch anything with her bare hands, and the mundane action caused a spike in his arousal. Even though she was only running her fingertips along the strips of exposed skin between the cables of armor on his torso, the trails they left sparked with tingling heat that echoed through his body. How would those hands feel on other parts of him? The very thought made him curse his infirmities and deformations with renewed venom.

Fuck, how long had be been kissing her like that? He’d completely lost himself in the sensations, though Entrapta didn’t indicate he was doing anything out of the ordinary, which he supposed was a good sign. Hiding his terrified anxiety and the sheer intensity of his want behind generalized aggression and authority seemed to be working well enough. Entrapta moved one of her hands back to his chest where he noticed how very small it was in his periphery. Then she slid it up his neck to the back of his head where she dug her fingers into his hair, never breaking contact between her fingertips and him. Again he worried that she’d notice his neck was too scrawny, but the decadent feeling of her fingers in his hair erased the worry quickly. 

The longer he touched her, the more intoxicated he felt. Literally drunk with her scent and the feeling of her solid form beneath his hands, the spiraling heat in his gut rapidly pooled below as blood flow redirected. He was desperate to taste the inside of her mouth, but he was loath to take such an intimate power from her without knowing she wanted it. The trouble was, he didn’t know how to ask. He compromised by flickering his tongue out over her wet lower lip. At that, Entrapta opened her mouth in what he was fairly certain was an invitation. He opened his mouth to make the next escalation, but when he hesitated, she pushed her tongue past his parted lips instead.

Hers was much smaller than his, and instead of overwhelming or domineering, the feeling of her in his mouth was sweet and… affectionate? How was she doing that? And why did the unfamiliarity of it make him so nervous? Impulsively, he reached the fingers and thumb of one hand up to either side of her jaw and pulled her face back from his own. Her mouth was flushed and swollen, and he moved his fingertips gently from her cheek to brush over her lower lip, watching it tremble as a claw ghosted over it.

If he was going to stay in control of the encounter, he needed something to grab hold of that wouldn’t break if he forgot himself. “Take your hair down,” he ordered breathlessly, glaring down at her rapt face. She nodded eagerly, her eyes drifting over his face, and he felt another thrill through his core, straight to his already straining erection. 

He angled his hips so that the black fabric that hung from his waist wouldn’t catch anything, even though he knew he should be more confident. His sexual organs normally weren’t any problem, and he wore undergarments just in case. Recently he’d had to pay much more attention to his body’s more physical whims, and he had… but the stupid thing was just so… absurd , he still wasn’t very comfortable with himself in an aroused state.

As Entrapta moved to unfasten the clamps that held her hair in place, he took several more deep breaths through his nose. He could swear her scent was only getting more stupefying as he touched her. Was she releasing pheromones? Was that something Etherians did? It certainly felt like it. And her scent was definitely… changing. Something new was present in her smell, something organic and sweet and so, so enticing. It wasn’t a familiar taste on the air around her, but it was one he was desperate for more of. 

Heavy lavender locks fell from their tight constraints to tumble over her shoulders, settling around her body and onto the floor. She clasped her hands behind her and twisted back and forth on her feet while watching the floor for a moment, chewing her bottom lip. Then she looked back up at him from under her lavender lashes and a low growl sounded in his chest. “Come here, Princess,” he said in a low, rough voice. When she obliged and raised back up to eye level, he stepped forward to grab her and threw her over his shoulder before walking toward the lab doors. 

“Where are we going?” Entrapta asked, and the huskier pitch of her voice was like song in his ears.

“To my rooms,” he said tersely, reaching the key pad next to the lab entrance. He typed in the codes to lock up for the evening, then turned toward the back of the lab. “Privacy,” he growled, moving a hand up the back of one of her thighs slowly. 

Control. Control the situation. He had to keep reminding himself. Remember to maintain the power dynamic. Control. 

And yet, he found himself with his face turned into her hip, breathing deeply. He was so consumed with her presence he nearly ran into the damned door, and shook himself firmly as he typed his code in and carried her through the entryway. He made his way to the nearest surface, pulled her off his shoulder by her waist, and set her down on a table where he sometimes took his meals. She offered a giggle he felt crawl down his spine and he let slip another low growl.   

He moved one hand to stroke up and down a thigh and dug the fingers of his other hand through the loosened hair at the back of her head, where he took a firm grip and dragged her face back slowly. She made a small noise that worried him for a moment, but when she looked at him, the mischief in her eyes betrayed her excitement. 

This time when he kissed her, he slid his tongue into her mouth first, swift and uncompromising. Tasting the inside of Entrapta’s mouth was a brand new adventure for Hordak. She’d tasted sweet before, but the taste intensified at its source. He was able to reach every corner easily, nearly crowding her mouth as he took his fill, guilty in his greed but unable to resist. When she began to move her tongue around his, he shivered and gripped her thigh and hair tighter. Suddenly, jarringly, he wondered what the rest of her tasted like.

She pulled back to smile up at him for a moment, her lips wet and barely glowing with his own saliva. The sight shot a bolt straight to his cock that made him gulp and his breath catch. She licked him from her mouth before leaning in again, and if he didn’t know better he’d say she was nearly as eager as he. For a moment he was confused as she brought her lips to his jawline, but when she kissed him there, the feeling was so nice he tilted his head to give her better access. His eyes closed lazily, he trailed his fingertips up and down her back, claws avoiding fabric, before once more reminding himself not to let himself go.

He’d been working toward returning to Prime with single-minded focus for well over two decades now. He had struggled and sacrificed and crawled for it, had transformed himself however many times it was necessary to keep the edge in a planetwide war for resources. No matter what it had cost him, he’d become whatever he had to become in order to return to Prime. Even in recent years, when he’d grown too crippled to do much outside of his Sanctum, let alone lead his troops in battle, he had never, ever let his loyalty die. He was a servant of Prime, and as one of the holy few to be blessed with his image, especially as the only one who had so badly profaned it, he would wage His holy war unto death. 

And yet, somehow, when he was with her, Hordak missed Him less. It was a terrible thing to admit to himself, potentially unforgivable, but he couldn’t deny it any more. The aching loneliness of his life on Etheria wasn’t the fuel it had once been. Even though he knew it was wrong, having Entrapta around made the prospect of terminal exile seem much more appealing than he’d ever imagined it could be. 

He was in So. Much. Fucking. Trouble.

But he still remained loyal. Through it all, loyalty was the one thing he would not sacrifice, could not sacrifice, no matter the gain. Yes, though he’d failed in so many other respects, he’d remained a committed warrior- if a singularly pathetic one. 

He realized Entrapta had stopped kissing him just before she spoke. “Hey, are you okay?”

Chapter Text

He realized Entrapta had stopped kissing him just before she spoke. “Hey, are you okay?” 

“Of course,” he answered automatically in a gruff tone, refocusing on her face. At least, he thought he was okay. As okay as he could be while hip-deep in the most irresistible sin he’d yet encountered in life. He was definitely enjoying himself. 

He gripped her hair again and tilted Entrapta's head back so that he could get to her jawline, as she had his. She uttered a breathy groan that hit him in the chest like a physical blow, and for a moment he merely held his mouth near her neck, letting his heavy breath roll over the skin there and watching goosebumps rise. 

She had kissed his jaw, and he was about to try the same, but her taste had been so sweet thus far that on impulse, he extended his tongue and licked a bit of exposed skin above her collar. “Fuck,” she swore in a whisper, and he repressed another low growl as a wicked smile curved his mouth. He brought his lips to the damp skin and pressed a searing kiss to the top of her throat. “Haaa,” she warbled in a mutter. Then she pulled away sharply and he nearly started, looking up at her in frustrated confusion. “Need skin…” she added incoherently, wiggling awkwardly as strands of hair unhooked and peeled off her dark sleeves, leaving only the thin straps of her white top. “I want more of that,” she commanded breathlessly before she grabbed hold of the fabric on his chest and pulled them back together. 

Before he obliged, he took another moment to savor his view. Her color was up, her hair was moving restlessly as if she were struggling to keep it in check, and her bare arms just so happened to be holding her breasts together against him. He had never considered himself any more visual than the next being, but the mere sight of her against him now set his hearts pounding.

He held her hands in each of his own loosely before he slid his palms slowly up and down her arms. When he moved to ghost his thumb down the same stretch of flesh that had atrophied away in his own forearms, he noticed again how grossly oversized his hands were compared to her. So small, so… fragile . The Etherian body was mostly fluids, if he remembered correctly. And their skin was laughably thin. Reflecting on their size difference, he suddenly wondered if this was a worse idea than he’d realized. Although, if Entrapta was eager, he needed to keep up. She was the one who knew her own anatomical limitations, anyway. He supposed he ought to trust her to stop him if she needed. She was certainly comfortable giving him orders.

He withdrew his light hold beneath her arms until her hands rested palm-up on the ends of his fingers. He followed another impulse and slowly raised one to his mouth so he press a kiss against her small digits. They were practically magic themselves, producing wondrous work as a matter of course. He lifted his eyes to see her staring at his face, eyebrows raised high. She looked away after a moment, biting on both lips and breathing deeply. 

He ran his hands up the warm skin of her arms once more, moving over curve and angle until he had her upper back and shoulders cradled in his hands. He dropped one hand to her waist while the other held one of her arms out. His attention caught by the different textures of scarring on it, mostly at the forearm. For a moment he thought of the extensive discoloration that hid beneath his armor.

Her scars were from a life fearsomely-lived, not a creeping malignance from within. Ugly. Wrong. Corrupted. Singularly devastating words from his past broke in upon him then, unbidden and unwelcome. ‘I made you in My image. I gave you My glory and My beauty. But you are rancid. I’ll have to dispose of you before your presence befouls any more of My creation. Your body is no temple for Me to dwell in. ’

“Are you sure you’re okay?” she probed. 

“Yes,” he growled between gritted teeth, too loud and sharp. Clearly, she was more focused at the moment than he was. He cursed himself inwardly again for having lost focus and letting her notice. He needed to stop getting distracted and get this done. The sooner he worked the sin out of his system, the better. It was just cravings. He could handle cravings. And yet... he kept stalling, slowly moving his hands over her back and thigh and through her hair.

‘You know how this goes. You know what comes next,’ he told himself firmly. ‘Why are you being such a coward? ’ He had no business being an emperor and this uncertain at the same time.

“You seem a little tense,” she said with a smirk and a raised brow. Fuck, was she laughing at him? Although, he supposed that would be better than further probing. 

She pulled her fingers from the hair at the crown of his head and moved her small hand to his cheek. Against his better judgment, he let himself turn slightly into her touch and lift his gaze to her face warily. Her eyes were heavy-lidded and her smile was slight, but somehow her countenance hummed with reassurance. When she leaned up to kiss him, it was a gentler embrace than before, Hordak imitating some more of Entrapta’s tenderness.

She broke their kiss long enough to whisper, “Touch me more,” and he repressed a full-body shudder. 

Hordak replaced his hands on her hips and pulled them tight against him again. The table was high enough that her crux was against his lower abdomen rather than his own, but the way her breath hitched and she bucked her hips forward slightly triggered a full-body pulse that made his erection twitch beneath the work table. “Entrapta,” he growled distractedly under his breath.

The next thing he knew, however, her hair had unfastened his cape and was lifting it off and away from his shoulders. He snarled without meaning to and seized her wrists, far less gentle than he’d just been. His hearts stuttered with instant regret and her eyes went wide, but he was relieved to see that he hadn’t frightened her. “The armor stays on,” he said in a low, steady voice.” When she raised a brow at him, he added, “You’re the one who was arguing efficiency.”

“Fine,” she said, giving him an amused look and quirking her brow. Oh if she only knew what he was hiding, she’d be giving him a far different look. But he mustn’t get distracted, he reminded himself, moving his thumbs to caress her inner wrists. “But if you’re trying to bang, I’m going to have to at least remove the overalls.”

When he bared his teeth in a slow grin, she smirked back and her hair made quick work of the garment, already slung lower on her hips than usual. In moments, her  legs were entirely bare and the only thing covering her sex was the narrow crotch of the white body suit. He had to resist noising his lust when he saw that it was wet, settling instead for breathing slowly and deeply, savoring the way the scent of her seemed to lay a comforting haze of euphoria over his overtaxed senses.

He’d had to accustom himself with his own body after losing Prime’s grace. Pain had come, yes, but so had more bestial urges. But learning to deal with that part of things had been the easier bit, a mindless series of causes and effects, like an Etherian primate learning to use a stick for a tool. In fact he’d already repeated the process earlier that evening once Entrapta had left her work for the day, desperate to clear his head. Now, with her beneath his hands and mouth, he was feeling instincts he hadn’t realized he possessed, and the feeling was a heady one. He really needed to get this over with before things got any more out of hand.

He shot her another fierce look and she smirked back before he slipped his hands under her ass and picked her up again. He turned as she hooked her legs over his hips and he growled again, holding her hips tightly against the planes of his abdomen and breathing deeply. In a few short strides he’d reached his bed, taller than Horde issue to make standing up in the morning easier, especially on bad pain days. He tossed her lightly onto it and she giggled again. Stars above, but he loved that sound. He also loved watching her right herself and move away from him slowly, holding up a finger to motion him to follow her. He did so, moving slowly on his hands and knees, glad to be doing it for a pleasant reason for once. He could tell she was still keeping her hair in check from its agitated movement over her shoulders and his bed, and he was grateful he didn’t have to deal with the feeling of being restricted. 

The light in his bedchamber was even dimmer than in the lab, and he could tell his eyes were glowing brightly with his elevated pulses. They probably had been since she’d approached him with her proposal, and he hoped it wasn't obnoxious. Her expression remained remarkably relaxed, however, and he couldn’t believe how completely at ease she seemed. 

His breathing caught again as he moved over her body, engulfing her in his massive shadow, and she spread her raised legs to make room for his hips. For a moment, he simply savored the delicious scent of her want. Then a lock of hair flung the skirt of his dress out of the way and she lifted a thigh up to rub against his aching cock. He jerked and gasped, but her brows pinched and her eyes widened. She looked away, shimmied lower beneath him, and he gasped again when he felt her hand reach up to palm the large bulge at the top of his thighs. “Hmmm,” she muttered, feeling out his shape beneath his undergarment.

He allowed himself a strangled groan before asking, “What?”

She gulped. “Sometimes I forget you’re seven feet tall.”

Shit. Of course. He clenched his jaw and scolded himself for the disappointment he knew he had no right to feel, but he immediately raised himself to move away from her, offer her some space.

“Oh no you don’t,” she said, and surprised him by hooking her heels over his lower back and pulling their bodies back together. “A good scientist doesn’t give up on a promising experiment. Come here.”

He lowered her back down to the bed, but didn’t put any weight behind his hips. “Entrapta, I don’t think this is safe.”

“Don’t be silly. We do way more dangerous stuff all the time.” She smiled and looked up at him again. “There won’t even be any explosions involved with this.” He wasn’t convinced. “Just…” she said, looking away again, brows furrowing. “Just… take it easy? Let me tell you when I can handle what?” She looked back.

“Of course,” he breathed, with as much sincerity as he could muster. It still didn’t seem like enough though, so he bent to press his lips to hers lightly.

As they continued kissing, she reached up and grabbed one of his arms, tugging on it until he shifted his weight so she could pull his hand down to her stomach. He rested a large palm over her abdomen, so much more plush than his own. He longed to feel how soft the skin was there, but forgot the next moment when she tugged his hand further down her stomach, toward the apex of her thighs.

He hesitated when his fingers met a hard bump that was the front of her pelvis. His claws were not sharp, but they were pointed enough that he reluctant to move them too near what he was sure would be extremely delicate flesh. When she applied slight but persistent pressure, however, he followed her lead again. His hand slid and his fingers curved with the line of her body until they were pressed against thin, soaked fabric.

Hordak let out an open groan before he could stop himself. He tried and failed to bite back another groan when Entrapta took more careful control of his finger pads and slid them beneath the fabric. And then he was touching her, and it was glorious, and she moaned and squirmed beneath him, making his arousal twitch within the confines of his clothing. The feeling of her slick between his fingers, viscous and decadent… the delicate little folds of her complex sex slipping and rolling beneath the pads of his fingers… the wonderful heat of her and the tiny movements of her hips and legs… He was getting lost in his own sensory reactions to her and Light help him, he loved it. 

“I’ll try to be efficient,” Entrapta said, smirk back in place. He felt pieces of hair hook around the sides of his underwear and start sliding them down.

He seemed to be steadily losing verbal competence as he went, and he could only growl when his pulsing erection finally bounced free of his undergarment, ludicrous in the extreme but a relief nonetheless. He bit back another grunt when he felt Entrapta’s small hands wrap around the base of his length, and slide slowly, gently toward its tip. He couldn't help a small, reflexive thrust into her hand and she giggled in apparent self-satisfaction.

“Hordak?” He looked at her face at the sound of her soft words. “Are you sure about this?”

He deflected. “Are you sure you want me to do this?” And why? 

She nodded and smiled at him, and this time her smile wasn’t teasing or smug. It was sweet and honest and impossibly warm. He returned her nod and leaned back slightly.

Breathing heavily, he pulled the drenched fabric to the side and got his first real view of her glistening core. As he looked on, wide-eyed and nearly panting, she reached down between her legs and pressed the two middle fingers of one hand into the source of her dripping arousal. He licked his lips absentmindedly as he watched, laser-focused, while those fingers start pumping slowly in and out. When they were as deep as her other fingers would allow, she moved her hand a bit differently, and he wondered if she were easing herself open in preparation. 

Whatever she was doing, she was enjoying herself. He noticed her eyes flutter closed and her face tilt back when she withdrew her fingers and moved them up to circle over the top of the crease between slick, flushed lips. He wanted to taste that part of her body so badly he couldn’t think straight.

He was about to suggest as much when she opened her eyes again and they landed on his exposed groin. “Ready to commence when you are,” she breathed through a faint smile. 

He nodded briefly and moved a hand to hold himself at his base so he could aim the damn thing, and moved forward slowly and cautiously. She reached out to guide the tip of his cock, and when the very end of his shaft finally made contact against her dripping core, they both let out shaky moans.

She moved her fingers away so she could grab hold of his flanks with both hands. The solid grip was somewhat reassuring, and he willed himself to stay mindful of her direction. He took one more deep, steadying breath, and pressed forward.

Chapter Text

He took one more deep, steadying breath, and pressed forward.

…and didn’t get anywhere. His pressure was steady and her body did give a bit, but he was wary of applying more force. One of Entrapta’s eyes, which had been shut, opened and peered up at him. Then both eyes opened and she gave him a puzzled look. “Why’d you stop?” 

Her eyes shut again when he pushed a bit harder and the tip of his length slipped past her tight entrance. “Fuck,” he practically whimpered before he could stop himself. And then he was frozen again, because Entrapta’s entire face was tense and she was gritting her teeth.

“What?” She gasped, frowning up at him again. 

“You don’t look very comfortable,” he said, moving a hand to caress her thigh.

She made an odd face at him, and if he wasn’t mistaken she barely resisted rolling her eyes. “Hordak, I am… so not a fragile person. I’m uncommonly durable, in fact. Remind me to tell you about it later, but right now we’re trying to work out all this tension that’s been building up for months ! So let’s get to work ,” she urged impatiently. “I get the sense you’ve got some frustration to work out,” she added as she moved her hands from his flanks and wrapped them around his middle, giving him a quick, surprisingly firm squeeze .

Hordak stared down at her with a slightly open mouth for several moments, but then he took a deep breath and arranged a stern expression. Fine. Fine . “Fine,” he grunted. He shifted position so he was lower, closer against her, and he tensed his hips again.

They both gasped lightly as he slid a few inches in, and his whole body thrilled with a heady surge of bliss and guilt when Entrapta let out a little whine, her eyes shut tight and teeth clenched again. He watched her face minutely as he continued to push forward, he tracked the little movements in her legs wrapped around his hips, but he never made a noise or motion for him to stop. So he kept going, torturously slow, opening her body beneath him.

When he felt himself completely fill her form, he let out a slow breath and they moaned softly in tandem. After a moment to recompose, he reached a hand to grip her flank firmly, canting the cradle of her hips forward and adjusting his own position, feeling every millimeter of movement through his core. When he slipped a little deeper, she gasped and arched against the bed slightly, a smile playing at the corners of her mouth. 

He slipped his arms beneath her and allowed himself to simply hold her. Just for a few moments. He felt Entrapta’s body ease by small increments as she adjusted to his form, and she kept her arms wrapped around him as her breathing evened. Because of their size difference he couldn’t see her face pressed against his chest, so he settled for hunching forward slightly to bury his stumpy nose in the roots of her plentiful locks. 

When she gave him a tight nod, he took it as a signal to start moving. He tried and failed to repress a shiver as he began to roll against her slowly, reveling the softness and heat of her body beneath him and the delectable textures tugging at his cock as he moved. Even though he’d already… handled himself earlier in the day to try and stop thinking of Entrapta, now that he was buried in her slick heat he felt like he could easily let go and cum within moments. So he consciously disciplined his motions, gritting his teeth against the onslaught of temptation which he himself had chosen and doing his best to keep his movements fluid within his bulky armor. It was probably a good thing that she still wore her top between the metal on his arms and her supple flesh.

Once they’d established something of a rhythm, or rather Entrapta set a rhythm that Hordak clumsily fell in with, he began to feel more comfortable with his own motions. He loosened his grasp on her and let out some space between them so he could see her face. Stars above but she was gorgeous. It just wasn’t fair.

She loosened her own arms from around him, reaching a hand up to touch his face. He very nearly leaned into the touch, but caught himself in time. He grabbed her wrist with one hand and pinned it back against his bed, growling between clenched teeth and rearing back a bit, though he didn’t stop moving his hips. 

He released her her wrist and she didn’t reach for him again. To keep her from trying, he wrapped his hands fully around her luxurious thighs and pushed them up and back. He should have been more careful about it, but her cry of obvious delight only made him grip her thighs tighter, forcing her to lean fully back as he spread her legs wider, displaying her crux fully to his hungry gaze. 

Something about simply tugging her clothing aside so he could fuck her struck him as obscene- almost disrespectful. But something about it also thrilled him to his core. Glancing down at the way ithe bunched fabric accentuated the swelling of her own sex, the way the soaked strip of cloth glistened with her desire, shifting with every movement as he pupmed in and out of her. 

“Fuck,” he gasped, nearly in a whine. “ Fuck , Entrapta…” He tilted his face up so she wouldn’t see his expression as he shuddered through a choked moan. 

He felt her soft, small hands brace themselves against his thighs as he fucked her and he looked back down at the site arrayed before him. It was a good thing he didn’t need much air, because the scene took his breath away. The rosey flush had spread to bloom across her cheeks, chest and shoulders, and a light sheen of sweat had appeared in the same places it bloomed. Her eyes were tight shut, her head was tilted back, he could still see something of a smile at the corners of her open mouth as she panted. And all the while, the most fascinating parade of expressions kept her features alive and dancing. For… him? She said it was him, anyway. Regardless, every twitch of her brow made him desperate for more. 

She let out a long, open moan that made him feel like his very blood flashed hot. “Hordak,” she whispered in an uncharacteristic whine, brows pinched and mouth still open. The sound of his name spoken with such open pleasure made him shudder again. He looked back up at her face, and longed to kiss her open mouth. 

There was no way he was going to last much longer, but he wasn’t yet satisfied with the job he was doing. He was too full of craven, reckless lust to be satisfied yet. He stared down at Entrapta’s body as she moved so freely, effortlessly free. He thought for a few moments, considering  possible escalations. Though he couldn’t let her take control, he wanted to see her lose it. 

He wanted to make her gasp, he wanted to make her moan. He wanted to watch her fall apart in his arms with his name on her sweet lips. “Hordak,” she groaned again, mindless as little sounds of strain or effort began to slip from her.

She had to be doing this to him on purpose. So much blood had gone to his hard-on he felt dizzy with want. He listened to another low moan from her and resisted one of his own. He wrapped his arm low on her back and lifted her hips, satisfied with the way she held tight even as he swept her hair from beneath her so he could crawl forward. 

At least he made the general gesture, though the lavender mass mostly moved itself. Her hair also propped his pillow up against the wall fussily, which struck him as adorable for no good reason at all. And besides, it wasn’t necessary, because once he was able to brace a hand against the wall behind his bed, he lowered her slightly as he leaned over her, holding her between himself and the bed below. 

With some room between their upper bodies and her legs still firmly hooked over his hips, he fixed her with a hard stare and waited until he knew she was listening. “Show me how you touch yourself. With one hand.”

Delight flickered in her lovely eyes and her ever expressive brows quirked. She smirked at his impatient growl as she lowered one hand unnecessarily slowly toward the place where their bodies connected. His growl sounded somewhat louder as her fingertips began to caress the petals of her flesh above her entrance. 

“What am I supposed to do with the other hand?” she asked, mouth slightly open and breathing heavily. 

He resisted a smile by clenching his jaw. As he slowly withdrew from her, however, he gave his next order in a softer voice. “Hold on.” To his deep satisfaction, Entrapta gasped loudly when he thrust into her, sudden and forceful. He checked her face to make sure she was still enjoying herself and tightened his one-armed grip around her body. 

With that last warning and, if he were honest, against his better judgment, he started fucking her in earnest. He held her in position with an uncompromising grip, keeping her hips in place and thrusting hard. He refrained from battering the limit of her channel, but he allowed himself more intensity, gritting his teeth against more frequent growling and looking  down at her fingers as they danced against her sex. He mapped their movements, mesmerized and… jealous? Was he jealous of a hand?

The sound of her cries growing more frequent, more breathless, and higher in pitch drove him onward, approaching release quickly. But he still hadn’t had enough. He wanted her pleasure. It was a possessive impulse he knew, but if she was going to cum, then he desperately wanted to feel her climax around his cock.

It was a struggle, but eventually he was consumed by the site of her oncoming bliss. Her fingers were dextrous and quick, and her movements were starting to get erratic. He leaned forward, gripping her still harder, and focused on her face as her legs began to shake on his hips. He came before she did, little lights popping in front of his vision as his body jerked into hers reflexively, his entire abdomen surging with his release again and again. 

When he watched her orgasm in his arms, he knew it was something he’d never forget. He wrapped both hands around her torso, pressing himself into her before his erection started to fail, and he felt every priceless bit of it. He saw her head thrown back, saw her entire body shake as her legs spasmed and trembled, felt her small hands clutching at his thighs, digging her nails in. And he watched her sex, lewd and shameless, as it pulsed around the base of his shaft.

But most exquisite, most delectable, most stupifying of all were her words. The way she repeated his name and his praise until she lost coherency… he hadn’t been ready for how hard it hit him. He’d shouted his own release several moments before, but the feel of her muscles squeezing him inside her teased aftershocks of pleasure from him, slamming through his body and making his hips jerk and his head swim.

After a bit of ragged breathing, they made brief eye contact, and Hordak immediately rolled off her and to the side. He sat up and swung his legs off the bed, sitting on the edge while he tried to process what had just happened. The sound of Entrapta yawning hugely turned his head, and he saw her snuggle into his pillow.

“Hey Hordak?” she asked sleepily. He didn’t answer, but he was looking at her so she continued. “How come you only have one pillow on such a big bed?”

He was confused by her question. How many pillows could one person need? He’d already made an embarrassing concession when he’d opted for sleeping horizontally like the rest of Etheria. He wasn’t proud of it, but it did more to rest his joints. He noted the obvious anyway. “I only require one pillow.”

“Okay, well, I’m just gonna take a nap in your bed real quick.” He felt his eyebrows shoot up at her presumption. “Just a little one,” she said, not bothering to open her eyes. There was no question, nor seeking of permission. She was simply letting him know that she’d be using his bed for a time, as if she owned it. Or him. In some ways he supposed she did. 

It was appalling, infuriating, and he only had himself to blame. As his breathing slowed and he slowly regained clarity of thought, his hearts sank. What a mess. What a perfect mess he’d made of everything. Where had all his discipline gone? The determination and single-minded focus of decades ? How could he have let her… no, how could he let himself become dependent upon her? If Prime could see him now, He’d see proof that He’d been right about Hordak all along. Disgusting. Absolutely pathetic.

He stood up and turned to make an excuse to leave, but to his astonishment it seemed that Entrapta had already fallen asleep. Her breathing was deep and even, and she was snoring softly. He crossed his arms, staring at her as her shape moved the blanket ever so slightly up and down with her breath. She hadn’t even bothered taking out her… what had she called them? Pigtails? What an unfortunate name for a hairstyle.

He scowled harder, stared harder, and raged against himself harder. Weak. Craven. Sinner. Abomination… Useless. The more beautiful she appeared as he stared at her, especially in his bed, the angrier he became. At length, he finally dropped his clenched fists, felt a low snarl rip from between gritted teeth, then stormed out of the room in a positive fury.

Chapter Text

Hordak narrowed his eyes at Catra’s back as she slowly left his Sanctum, taking her time, tail swishing lazily. Hopefully she was off to attend duties more important than whatever it was she thought Shadow Weaver had to offer. Then again, Catra's methods for success were even stranger to him than Shadow Weaver’s had been, so who knew?

When he’d returned from a night’s agitated prowling earlier that morning and found his bedroom empty, he’d decided to risk bathing before redressing. His armor assembly rig was too big for the bedroom, and he hated to do it by hand, so he’d made a dash to the mechanical arms and of course, of course the damn thing malfunctioned. The delay was not only painful, but it meant that he wasn’t fully dressed when Catra walked in, damn her. 

Then Entrapta had appeared from thin air, and Catra was being obstinate as ever, and Shadow Weaver was conniving wraith he wanted gone now , and damn it all, when had everyone gotten so willful ? Or did the issue lay with him again? Was he being too soft on them? Prime wouldn’t have tolerated a fraction of such audacity, but He also had the best military in all the universe. He didn't have to herd a rabble of infantile primates, reptiles and who knew what else. 

He saw a shifting bloom of lavender from the corner of his eye and was immediately reminded, very viscerally, that he was not Prime. When the sliding doors had shut behind Catra, he took in a deep breath, sensing Entrapta’s eyes on him. But he hadn’t decided what to say to her yet, and stalled by turning toward the large silver disk she’d found in the Northern wasteland. 

He’d done a lot of thinking overnight, and he simply couldn’t afford any more denial. He’d had to accept, among many other things, that he’d missed her when she’d been away on that mission. Sure, she'd sent him constant messages full of scientific observations and ideas on their work, along with cryptic references to whatever she’d been up to, but he'd still missed her. 

More than regretting the loss of her productivity,  he’d even worried about her. He’d lost troops to the far North too many times to be flippant about the dark rumors that surrounded the arctic, and though he’d trusted his force captains to keep her out of too much trouble, he hadn’t been able to get much done.

Matters of productivity had tumbled through his mind frequently through the night. The woman he’d left sleeping in his bed was the most important factor in the success of his mission. His partner, now his lover, he’d hoped so fiercely that their relationship would stop progressing beyond last night. It went to show how much he really knew about the situation. 

Although he was intelligent, Hordak was not especially clever, nor was he intuitive. Even so, he already knew he hadn’t put a stop to anything by bedding her. He’d only stoked the flames of his own thirst for oblivion. 

And stopping wasn’t an option. Not if he wanted to complete the mission. No, he’d managed to mediocre himself right into a situation where he either gave up on the only purpose worth serving, or he committed to addictive self-destruction in a race against his flagging health. A familiar lump threatened his throat and he swallowed. At least he’d grown accustomed to giving up on hopes and dreams, and large pieces of himself along with them. 

So much spent on preparing Etheria for ascension… so much cost willingly met. But if he didn’t finish the mission, it was all for nothing. Either he made it back to Him or he proved himself even more pathetic and contemptible than Prime had said. Loyalty- a life of loyalty, for what?

“Hordak?”

He turned to Entrapta, who was sitting on the ground next to Emily. She was tinkering with the robot’s leg and had her mask down, even though she wasn’t welding. “Yes?”

“How come you send people to Beast Island instead of executing them?”

“It depends upon the situation,” he replied easily, taking a step nearer to watch her work. “In Shadow Weaver’s case, it is because the execution of Horde personnel is good for obedience but bad for morale. On the rare occasion we capture valuable rebels, my usual policy is public execution, to be sure." He heaved a weary sigh. "Public execution and public humiliation is a highly effective, if regrettable tool in the conquest of the Native psyche. But, for instance, in the case of King Micah of Bright Moon, Beast Island was simply the more pragmatic option." He took a moment to think back to the fateful battle that had marked his last appearance on the field, before he'd grown to fail to risk leading troops himself. "He was far too powerful a sorcerer to risk any supporter coming near him, and…” he cut himself off abruptly, but couldn’t think of anything to cover the change of heart. “And, in truth, subduing the man had… affected my… it was a fierce and difficult fight.  Afterword, I wasn’t in proper condition to finish him off and I didn’t trust my inferiors to do the job properly either.” If he were really being honest, he would have admitted that the fight with Micah had very nearly killed him, and he’d spent the last of his energy on a dramatic sentencing scene before collapsing into bed for several days. “In any case, Beast Island promises a messier death, which serves toward breaking the enemy’s spirit.”

The sound of Entrapta gulping reminded him that she might have very different standards for what was an acceptable sacrifice to make for access to the wider universe. He crossed his arms and considered her from a few yards away. “And as soon as we finish this portal, we enter that universal empire thingy and the war is over?” she asked. 

“I predict that the appearance of the galactic Horde will inspire complete capitulation in a few weeks at most.” 

Entrapta nodded. Of course she didn’t like the loss. She liked the weapons, but her business was creation, not destruction. He wondered how much more she didn’t like without him realizing.

As silence stretched, he wondered what else he had assumed. What had she been thinking about while she was spending the night alone? What if she’d succeeded in working out her own cravings, or hadn’t enjoyed it as much as he’d thought? He’d already decided that he wasn’t going to stop their physical encounters until she didn’t want him anymore, but how much interest did she have in him? How much could she have in him? 

“If she makes you so mad, how come you made Catra your second in command?” 

The question was a sudden, jarring change in subject from the thoughts he’d been wrapped in for hours and he blinked before collecting himself. “She has potential.” 

“She’s pretty good at her job,” Entrapta agreed.

“I noticed the treatment she received beneath Shadow Weaver when the sorceress grew more erratic. It made the Force Captain independent and strong.” Entrapta finally flipped back her mask and looked up at him with a curious expression. He didn’t want her to cover her face again, so he kept talking. “Giving her a chance at proving herself, letting her earn her worth… she…” He narrowed his eyes at the ground and tried to explain the instinct behind the decision. “You don’t have to be perfect to be an asset to the Horde. One must merely do their job and do it well. I gave her that chance and I believe it will engender enduring loyalty, which, ultimately, is more important to our cause than protocol.”

“I didn’t realize you knew her so well,” Entrapta said, cocking her head slightly.

He was taken aback. “I don’t.”

“Then how do you-”

“I understand how to control my troops, Entrapta,” he said in a low voice, trying to soften his tone. “I understand loyalty and competence. That is all I need to know.”

As they set about their day, working steadily, Entrapta didn’t mention their sexual encounter from the night before. He knew he shouldn’t be, not by any means, but he couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed. Not at all surprised, but selfishly disappointed.

He was still distracted by more hormonal concerns when Force Captains Grizzlor and Octavia came in to make a report. He’d accompanied them out to the shipyard after, and it had taken hours to plan the composition of his next fleet. 

After that, he’d taken the opportunity for another walk, this time through his metalworks. Though he certainly wasn't avoiding her, not at all, it was evening again before he returned to the lab where he was sure Entrapta would still be working. She often worked nearly as late as he did, even though she obviously tired much faster and more frequently than he. 

To his surprise, however, Entrapta was not working when he saw her at a nearby table. Instead, she was slumped forward, resting her head on her crossed arms. She’d removed her mask and let her hair down, and both she and the lavender mass that cascaded over her entire form were motionless and did not react to the sound of the doors opening and closing upon his return.

“Not that it is a problem, but why is your hair down in the lab?” he asked in his most rumbly, nonchalant voice as he approached her.

“I have a headache,” she groaned. Emily beeped loudly in concurrence and Entrapta muffled another soft groan in her crossed arms. “And before you ask, yes I already took something for it. I’m waiting for it to kick in.”

He frowned, but didn’t reply. He expected Horde personnel to manage their own pain. He didn’t hold them to the same standard that he held himself, but he demanded usefulness regardless of weakness. A headache wasn’t a crisis, people got headaches all the time. It was one of the things that some terrified officer or another had had to explain to him when he reviewed his growing army’s pain suppressant consumption. 

He left her to her groaning and crossed to a worktable where she’d gotten halfway through some circuitry. He started going over the diagrams she’d left out and identifying corresponding work he could attend to. After a few minutes of review he picked up his soldering tool to begin, but paused to look over his shoulder at Entrapta, who still lay slumped beneath her curtain of limp hair.

She said she’d taken something. It would kick in soon and then his lab partner would be perfectly fine. It would be ridiculous to fuss over such a trivial thing, it might even embarrass her. He looked back at the work before him and narrowed his eyes. Then he replaced his tools, scowling fiercely at himself, and turned to walk back to Entrapta.

Emily managed to make a hopeful sounding series of beeps as he approached and stomped her legs a few times. Entrapta picked her head up and he saw one of her eyes peeking through her hair. “Is there anything I can do to get you back to work sooner rather than later?” he asked.

“Actually,” she said, straightening further, “maybe there is.” She shook her hair back from her face and yet again, he had to resist a smile. “My neck is… do you think you could avoid puncture if you, like…” she gestured vaguely at her neck, hair moving out of the way. “Okay, so you know how muscles are like strings?” she asked. He raised a brow. “Right, well, some strings are tangled-”

“I know what knotted muscles are, Entrapta,” he said, allowing a corner of his mouth to quirk.

“Oh, yeah, duh. Of course you do. That was a dumb question, I-”

“You don’t ask dumb questions,” he replied, and was delighted to see a blush grace her cheeks. It didn’t seem unfair to him that she might assume gaps in his knowledge.

She sat up straight and her hair all moved forward and away from her neck, making room for his hand at the base of her skull. She was so small that it was easy to feel out the chords with the pad of his thumb and the knuckle of his forefinger. “Oh yeah that… right there,” she instructed.

He took a long slow breath, looking at the way different light sources reflected in her shifting hair. This was absolutely just an excuse to touch her, and he was well aware of that fact. He was also perfectly aware that he shouldn’t be doing it. But the situation was already lost, wasn’t it? He’d had to establish a new paradigm, and seeing as he’d already committed the most grievous sins with her that he could have… why cause more tension by denying it? This was about efficiency, after all.

“Sooo…” Entrapta began as he moved his knuckles up and down each cord in her neck, working out her ‘tangled’ muscle. “About last night…”

Hordak frowned. Just because he planned to continue participating in such activities didn’t mean he wanted to chat about it. “Is there something to discuss?” he grunted, trying to sound as final as he could.

“Well, yeah,” she said, sounding confused. “We frick fracked and you seemed kind of pissed about it.”

He withdrew his hand from her neck. “I beg your pardon?” he said, blinking, “We did what?”

She turned around and raised an eyebrow. “Screwed? Boned?” He actually took a step back from her as she started rattling off more euphemisms. “Did the nasty? Crushed buns? Bumped uglies?”

“Agh!” he blurted to cut her off before it got worse. “Fine, yes, we did… that,” he said, letting his lip curl. 

“Do you regret it?” she asked, making eye contact and gulping. It was a fair enough question. 

He had no idea how to behave in this situation, and even if he did, he probably wouldn’t do it because he was the damned ruler of the damned Horde, and none of this should have been happening anyway. But the uncertainty in her eyes was… but no, it was more than uncertainty. Was she afraid of what he might say? He should regret it. It was indisputable that he should regret it. “No.” 

Her face eased in obvious relief. “Good. I know you don’t talk about your past and I didn’t want-” she cut herself off at the sight of his scowl. “Right. I just… I didn’t want to… be a regret.” She made an odd face, seemingly surprised and confused at her own words. Then a piece of hair made it’s motion to flip down her mask, and when she remembered she wasn’t wearing it she dropped her face and covered up with her hair again, rubbing at her own neck and keeping her eyes on the floor.

Hordak sighed and raised his hand again, brushing her fingers away and returning to the agitated muscles in her neck and shoulders. After a few moments of awkward silence, he felt compelled to speak again. “I… wanted it too, if you recall.”

“Yeah,” she muttered in a meek tone.

“And…” her head tilted slightly as he moved his fingers back to her shoulders, “it does seem effective in, uh… relieving tension.”

She turned fully around and her hair lifted from her face so she could look at him. “So… does that mean it’s something you want to keep experimenting with?”

Hordak clenched his jaw and finally withdrew his hands from her, thinking for a moment. After a long sigh, he finally replied with confidence. “Yes. But only if you promise not to call it ‘bumping uglies’,” he said grimly.

She beamed, then gave him a very odd look, almost dreamy. “You are a very complicated person, you know that Hordak?”

“Hmm,” he grunted in disapproval. 

“I like it,” she said, flashing a smile while he frowned at her. 

Chapter Text

Hordak went to bed alone that night. Of course he’d wanted to spend more time with Entrapta, more than anything, but she’d excused herself after another few hours of headache-free work, saying something about a “girl’s night” with Force Captain Scorpia. She’d then spent several minutes expounding upon her dining-related hopes while Hordak decided there was nothing to be jealous of. And, after an initial surge of disappointment, he supposed it was just as well. He could do with some rest out of his armor anyway. 

And so, after she’d bid an abrupt farewell, sent Emily on her way, and disappeared into the ductwork, Hordak decided to stop working at dusk for once. It gave him a chance to force Imp into a bath, in itself a taxing chore, which left him thoroughly worn out and well-cursed by his indignant little spy. He was already wet and his muscles were aching even in his armor, so he indulged in another bath himself.

This time he knew better than to take the risk of using his mechanical rig to remove his armor, and resigned to removing it manually, grunting at painful disconnections as well as the positions he had to bend through to reach his various ports. While he gritted his teeth against wincing at every disconnection, he berated himself for not working on a smaller version that might fit into his bedroom. He was glad once he was finally finished and ready to bathe, though. At least this way he could confidently leave his bedroom fully-clothed and ready the next morning, rather than risking Catra’s surprise “check-ins” or, Light forbid, an early appearance from Entrapta.

Before he retreated to his bathing quarters, however, he took one last moment to pull a chair to the center of his room, use it to remove the grate from his air vent, and stick his head up into the darkness to double-check his welding. He’d added extra bars to the ducting around his vent as soon as he realized Entrapta used the walls and ceilings for fast travel just like Imp did. Frankly, he’d been foolish not to do so before hand, arrogant even, to think that Imp was the only one who would worm his way into such a damned liability. In fact, he should probably start adding security measures to the ductwork, tedious as it might be, and paranoid as it might seem. 

Once he’d allowed a short soak and was on his way to bed shamefully early, he caught his reflection in the water before he’d drained it, and paused for a moment. As the water stilled and his reflection cleared, he looked at his clean face, which he almost never did, not even before he applied his paint in the mornings. But on those rare occasions when he did dare to look, he could almost see Him staring back at him. He wished so desperately that he could figure out how to turn his fluids back to green, maybe if he could, he might feel a bit closer to home. It might even be a little easier to pretend he was looking at Him again. But the glowing red was apparently another inescapable corruption. At least the disdain that slowly filled his own features still reminded him of Prime. He heaved a deep sigh and curled his lip before slapping his reflection out of the water, flipping the drain and leaving the room before it could settle its hateful glare upon him again. 

He donned a nightdress and a fuzzy old black bathrobe he’d pilfered from the Fright Zone palace before he’d let his soldiers loose to loot and desecrate the place. The robe was ridiculous, an embarrassing luxury he’d rather not be caught dead in, but he just couldn’t bring himself to toss it out, no matter how angry with himself he was feeling. Tonight, he shrugged off the guilt as he shrugged on the robe, and lowered himself to recline into a fully horizontal position in bed before reaching for his data pad. He’d intended to finish up some administrative work while his body adjusted to the bed, but he was apparently more tired than he’d realized. Unusually for him, he fell asleep quickly, before he even opened the display on the pad. 

Hordak was a very light sleeper, and just before it was quite midnight, something startled him awake. He gripped his sheets tightly, eyes darting to his armor, ears up and alert for whatever woke him. But then he heard a muffled clatter and a nasally curse, and relaxed where he sat. It was just Entrapta, back in the lab for some late night tinkering.

He heaved a long sigh before flinging back his covers and slowly rolling to sit on his bed. Then he slowly straightened his spine and grabbed the empty tin cup from the stool near his bed to fetch himself some water. When he passed near the door to the lab on his way to his sink, however, he could hear that Entrapta was talking. She used an unusually soft voice, but she was definitely having a conversation.

He moved slowly toward the door on bare feet, toes spread to keep his steps completely silent, before holding his ear against the door, frowning at the feel of cold metal against sensitive skin. Entrapta was definitely talking to someone other than her recorder, but after a few moments he realized she was chatting at Emily between requesting tools. She usually thought out loud and often made late-night visits to the lab to work if she was feeling irritated or couldn’t sleep. There was nothing unusual about the situation, and Hordak had already pulled away from the door when he heard her say what he could have sworn was his name.

In an instant, his ear was back up against the door and he was scowling with concentration. The door was meant to block enough sound for privacy, but not so much that his own acute hearing wouldn’t pick up a potential problem in the lab. Even so, it was difficult to make out every word Entrapta was saying. It only took a few seconds, however, to confirm that she was indeed talking about him.

“...sure, he can be rude sometimes, but I’m rude all the time without meaning it. And I get the feeling that he’s probably had some trouble communicating with other Etherians, and boy do I know how that goes.”

Emily beeped several times and whistled while Hordak considered her words. She wasn’t wrong, he found it nearly impossible and utterly infuriating trying to manage the Etherians that worked for him. However, he’d never felt the need to try particularly hard, finding that explicit duties and punishment systems were a more effective means of communication than wasting time trying to explain himself. 

He’d only ever tried to describe the peace and harmony of Prime’s empire once, and King Scorpio had laughed outright at the notion of an all powerful being in another dimension that might care about his existence or character. Poor, small-minded fool. It was a pity he and most of his dynasty had died before knowing Prime’s glory. But the Scorpions were a curious people, far stronger and sturdier than most Etherians, but pitifully vulnerable to the ravages of grief and loss. Few of them had survived the transition of power, which was regrettable, but unfortunately necessary. At least their suffering had cleansed their souls before the end.

“Of course it’s worth it, are you kidding me?” Entrapta continued. Hordak raised a brow and flexed his fingers slightly against the door. “I’m over the moons about all of this! Just look at the work we’ve been doing, the things we’ve accomplished! I’ve never had more fun!”

So she was having fun, then. Hordak felt a small smile crack his scowling and breathed a sigh of relief, thinking of the previous night and relishing the tiny zings of energy that spiraled through his gut at the memories. The sudden urge to go to her hit him without warning, and he eyed his armor for a moment. His ear went back to the door, however, the second she continued.

“And… I definitely like the attention.” Another thrill shot through his stomach. It was his attention she was referring to, right? She liked his attention. Another image of her enraptured face and the ghost of her fingers in his hair sent an unexpected wave of heat to his loins. “It’s nice for a change, to spend time with someone who wants to hear what I have to say. And the way other people here treat me now I spend so much time with him… I know they’re just afraid of Hordak, and they don’t mean it, but they treat me like I’m important.” Her voice grew stronger before her next sentence. “And darn it, I don’t see why I should pretend it doesn’t feel good.”

Hordak frowned again in confusion. Of course they meant it. Why wouldn’t they? She was the most valuable asset the Horde had, not to mention its most delightful by far. Emily beeped some more and stomped her legs a few times.

“Maybe, but I really don’t think so,” Entrapta answered, though he wasn’t sure what she was referring to. “I like the trickle-down benefits, sure, but I’m 98% positive last night was so great because… because I liked doing it with him .”

Hordak’s brow shot up and he felt his eyes widen as his cock twitched to life beneath the nightgown. He switched to scowling at the mutinous member briefly, but was too caught up in her words to care much. 

“I was eavesdropping from some vents the other day and I heard a soldier call us Lord and Lady Hordak. I know they were just being snotty, but… I liked it. Life feels pretty good right now.” He leaned his head against the door and nearly groaned. Lord and Lady Hordak? Fuck, he liked it too. Fuck. He really, really liked it. 

But it didn’t bode well. His soldiers had been gossipping about their relationship since she’d started working in his Sanctum more than her own lab, but now that the rumors were true, he needed to tread lightly. For her sake more than his. He knew all too well how much easier it was to target loved ones rather than avid threats like him. He heard Emily whir and let out a stream of beeping.

In response, Entrapta giggled. “Yeah, yeah I do.” He didn’t know what she was talking about, but the sound of her giggle and the conspiratory note in her voice was titillating for some reason. As heat pooled in his lower belly and the beginnings of an erection thickened his cock, his hand nearly drifted to it before he caught himself. 

He was disgusting. And he was being disrespectful. Disgusting and disrespectful. Emily beeped some more as he resolutely pressed both palms to the door to keep them occupied. 

“Mmm-hmm. I’m 73% positive he does.” Again, he didn’t know what she was talking about, but there was something mysteriously irresistible in her tone. Then she groaned loudly in frustration and he cocked his head, brows quirked. “I wish he'd tell me more about himself! I don’t know why insists on being so mysterious,” she complained. 

Hordak’s smile turned bitter. He was mysterious because he had to be, not because he wanted to be. Granted, a certain mystique was incredibly useful to the persona he’d crafted, but he didn’t like having to keep things from her. Not from Entrapta.

“I loooove hearing about the wider world and the techy empire with all those countless planets in it, but I still want to know about him .” He let his eyes close and pressed his forehead to the door a bit more firmly. “What planet is he from? What is 'home' for him? What is his species like?” Now Hordak felt his smile fade. His species? Would she even be able to understand the nature of his species? “Do they all have blue skin and red insides?” Hordak sighed miserably. No, they didn’t. They were perfect and unscarred, and everything he wasn’t. “Are they all huge like him?” No. They were bigger. And stronger. And better. He looked down at his forearm where the old terry cloth bathrobe covered his more ghastly deformations. “What customs did he leave behind? What were family structure and social roles like for him? I get the idea that utility and order were probably a big deal but he's still a total mystery! It's absolutely fascinating.”

Hordak finally pulled himself away from the door and went to fetch his water. He dragged his feet on his way back to bed and spent some time sitting with his head in his hands. There had been others over the years who, like Entrapta, had wanted to know him. Or at least, they’d said they’d wanted to know him, the real him. But never before had it been someone he cared about- never anybody he’d wanted to be known by. There had only been One other to know him, to value him. The One who had, at one point, loved him best. Who had given him everything, even life itself. The One who was most brilliant, most beautiful, purest of all perfection. The only thing he could even be sure of anymore was that whatever it cost, the price was worth paying if it meant returning to Him with proof of his usefulness.

So he was ugly. He was repugnant and wrong and insufficient in every way beside the work he could produce… but the work was still there. If he could still do his job, if he could show Him how sorry he was for trying to hide the lie, that he’d only wanted to retain His favor, then he still had a chance. For all beings have a place in service of Horde Prime, even defective ones… right? 

But what if there wasn’t a place for him? What if his betrayal, his blasphemy had been too great? He’d always failed anyone that mattered. In all his life, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t even be useful to His sacred empire. No matter his initial successes in conquest, he’d never been up to the privilege of fighting Prime’s holy war and bringing peace to the universe. He was so useless, so worthless, that he couldn’t even scratch out a place for himself in service of Horde Prime. 

After all, that was why he’d been cast out, wasn’t it? Defective beyond use. Prime had said it in plain terms- compromised, ineffective, and worthless. And still, Prime had been merciful. He couldn’t be allowed in the Empire of Light, but somehow, he’d lived. He had lived, and suffered, and learned, and adapted. He couldn’t be allowed in the Empire of Light, but he’d also met her. The terrible, aching grief of his exile had finally been somewhat soothed.

Could it be… it couldn’t be… after all this time, all this pain and sacrifice, was it possible that he was exactly where he was meant to be? Could it be that he’d doubted Prime’s words in error, and failure was his destiny?

Was he okay with that?

He groaned softly and shook his head hard enough to make his ears flap, trying to clear it. Even if he were able to reconcile failure, how could he stop now? He’d dragged an entire planet halfway through global conquest, could he really just… call it off? Stars, there was nothing he wanted to do more than to be done with the entire, embarrassingly messy affair, but was there any way he could end it without finishing the job?

He was still so far away from Him, and he’d been alone for so long. And Entrapta… compared to Hordak, she was Prime on Etheria, blasphemous as the notion was. Then again, comparing anything to himself didn’t exactly result in a high standard to match. It wasn’t like he set the bar of barest minimum very high.

For the first time in a long time, Hordak wasn’t sure about anything. It was a horrible feeling, just like when he’d first been cast out, and he wished with all his heart he hadn’t let the situation occur in the first place. But he had. And here he was. And there she was.

He was a failure in every way, she made miracles nearly from scratch. He was cruel, brutal and bitter, she was generous, merciful and joyous. She was from a savage, backward world, he was a literal clone of god Himself, and yet… and yet, she was more like Him than Hordak could manage on his best days. And sweet stars above, she was so fucking beautiful . His entire reality was shifting toward her, and he’d never walked a more dangerous road. She was so special, so very valuable, that the factor that was fouling their situation- making it feel so dangerous- had to be him. If it weren’t for him, she wouldn’t be living in sin and would be free to cavort amongst her own. He was failing her and his Prime. 

Hordak finally let himself lie back down and stretch out. He wasn’t an emperor. Well, technically he absolutely was, but he was never meant to be. Hordak was a soldier. More than that, he was a military commander- a fighter, and a good one at that. But the situation he found himself in wasn’t one he could fight his way out of. Even if there was, he was too sick and frail to fight like he once had. And like the mediocre ruler he secretly was, he had no clue what to do about any of it.

Chapter Text

Entrapta slept late the next morning, Imp was still angry with him for the bath, and Hordak was left alone with his thoughts for much of the following day. Being alone hadn’t bothered him in years, but with the state he was in, it was a struggle to stay focused on what he was doing. A complete and utter lack of self-worth outside of the ego he’d built around his abilities as a military commander was one thing. Reconsidering every choice he’d made over the last twenty five years or so was another. As the day progressed, his doubts only felt more overwhelming.

It was a relief, then, when Entrapta plopped down from a vent in the late afternoon, bright-eyed and smiling. He dared to quirk one corner of his mouth at her, and she smiled wider. He was about to start discussing the day’s work with her but in a moment she’d halved the distance between them, tripping and catching herself with her hair before she landed before him and produced a datapad from a pigtail. “Hordak! Look what I’ve been working on!”

Entrapta was especially talkative that day, excited about new ideas she’d had about their portal machine. Work went well as she chattered, keeping his mind on the present instead of his crippling uncertainty. He was still extremely frustrated with the math around the portal, the equations constantly confounded by the planet’s damned magic, but Entrapta had figured out more variables that morning. “We’re still missing something, but I think we’re close enough to start running tests,” she eventually concluded. 

“And when do you suggest we do so?” he asked, pausing in his work to look at her.

“I actually think we’ll be ready in a few days. I mean, we could always use more voltage, but like I said I think it’s still worth testing.”

Entrapta continued to expound upon First Ones Tech and options around increased power, and he listened contentedly as the afternoon progressed. He hoped she didn’t have another social engagement that night, and at several points nearly asked if she did. But every way he thought to phrase the question sounded needy and foolish in his head, so he refrained. His ponderings only made him want to touch her more. The craving to feel her skin beneath his hands again was incredibly distracting. 

Instead of asking about that night, he decided that just in case she would be busy later, he would make an opportunity to at least kiss her before she left. He turned his head in hopes of seeing her face, and was surprised to find her already watching him. When they made eye contact, however, she pulled an odd face, blushed, and slammed her welding mask down before hurriedly returning to her soldering. 

Her fascination with him was a narcotic he was already well-addicted to, so he decided then and there that their workday was on hold, even though they’d spent less than five hours in the lab together thus far. Without further ado, he moved to the keypad on the edge of his main workbench, tapped in a specific code, and heard the entry doors to his Sanctum seal themselves shut. Then he turned his glare on Entrapta, who hadn’t moved or looked up. 

She remained focused on her soldering as he approached her at a leisurely pace, feeling his heart rates slowly rise. Only when he stood before her and crossed his arms, brow quirked in an imperious expression, did she lift her face to peer at him through her mask. They stood in tense silence for a moment as Hordak realized, much to his consternation, that he’d forgotten to think of something to say.

He finally said the first complete thought that popped into his head. “I lamented your absence from my bed last night.” Weird. A little awkward, but not as bad as he could have been.

A lock of hair lifted her mask so she could peer up at him more directly. “Is that so?”

“I was left with too much time to think,” he continued, which was definitely true.

“Uh huh,” she prompted. Was he imagining it, or did she look hopeful?

He narrowed his eyes at her. “And all I could think of was how much I want to feel you beneath me again.” This wasn’t entirely true, but he thought it sounded good.

Her eyebrows shot up and the corner of her mouth lifted into a crooked smile. “Is that so?” she repeated faintly, as if to herself.

He let a low growl accent his next exhale. “Princess,” she bit her bottom lip and lowered her gaze to his mouth, “I wanted you very badly indeed.”

“I don’t suppose you’re angling at anything specific with this conversation,” she murmured, searching his face.

Now he returned her smile with a smirk as he slowly leaned toward her, bracing his fists against the table between them. “I wanted you last night, I wanted you this morning, and I want the taste of your mouth on my tongue before you run off again.”

She licked her lips and it was the last straw. As he lowered his face to hers, she met his mouth halfway, closing her eyes as she pressed her lips to his. “It’s a good thing I’m free tonight then, isn’t it?” she asked between kisses. He growled again and deepened their kiss, moving his mouth on hers with unabashed greed.

When she lifted herself up on her hair to match his height, he snatched her out of the air by the waist and pressed her torso flush against his. The feel of her soft curves in his hands and the little grunt of approval she gave him were enough to start his blood flowing to his core, and he gripped her a bit tighter. With her legs and hair wrapped around him for extra support, they settled into a passionate embrace, moving their hands purposefully over one another, this time much more slowly than they had before.

Once he’d slid a comparatively massive palm to cradle the back of her head and neck, she opened her mouth to him with a sigh that went right to his loins. He had tried not to let himself indulge too shamefully during their first night together, but now that he’d accepted the situation, he let himself savor her, listening and touching as attentively as he could. Slowly, the worry and misery that had plagued him all night and day was gentled and muffled by delicious sensation.

They didn’t break the kiss until Entrapta froze, her eyes blinking open, and pulled away. Her brows were furrowed and she frowned slightly as she leaned back, yanked off one of her gloves, and pressed her bare palm against his chest. He was still somewhat disoriented, blinking down at her.

“Is that you?” she asked, cocking her head at his chest.

“Huh?” he muttered dazedly, but stilled so he could hear what she was talking about. Sure enough, as soon as he did so he realized that he could both hear and feel the low thrumming that had started in his chest. It caught him quite off guard and he remained silent for several moments before he finally said, “Ah.. yes. That is me.” The thrumming stopped, however, as he grew more awkward.

“Hey, where’d it go?” she asked, looking crestfallen as she pulled her other glove off with her teeth so she could hold both hands to his chest. 

“It’s not something that’s entirely… uh, intentional. More of a… physiological reaction, or... an unconscious instinct,” he responded haltingly. It was something that he did, he knew, but it wasn’t something he’d done in over twenty five years. He hadn’t felt the rumbling in his chest since he’d last been summoned by Prime for commendation.

Entrapta’s eyes went big and shiny. “You purr?” she asked in an excited voice.

He frowned. “I do not purr.”

“Then what do you call it?” she asked glancing up at him. She still hadn’t taken her bare hands from his chest. 

He opened his mouth, then closed it. He didn’t call it anything, really. It was just something that had happened to him before. 

“I’m gonna call it purring,” she said, looking back at her palms against him.

The term struck him as irksome, but after a second thought, Hordak decided she could call it whatever the fuck she wanted so long as he got to keep touching her. He tilted her chin up with a finger so he could reclaim her lips and she responded enthusiastically. It wasn’t long before the “purr” started up again, and he felt Entrapta smile against his mouth.

As their kiss heated, he walked them over to a tall work table so he could use both hands to touch her. When he sat her down and slid his firm touch up and down her sides, she slung her legs over his hips, heels under his ass, and pulled him toward her. He thought he caught the faintest whiff of her arousal, and whether he was imagining it or not, he certainly felt it his growing erection.

The feel of her smile on his lips was a heady thrill, and he eagerly deepened their kiss again. He lost himself for a time in the simple pleasure of caressing her tongue with his own, curling and stroking and probing lazily. He was cut off abruptly, however, when Entrapta pulled back and heaved in a huge gasp of air, her lips flushed and swollen beneath a thin sheen of luminous red.

“What now?” he asked in confusion as she took several deep breaths.

“Sorry,” she huffed. 

“Are you alright?” he asked, frowning as she avoided his gaze.

“I’m fine. I just… I get sort of wrapped up in what we’re doing, and I sometimes… kind of… forget to breathe.” She rolled her eyes at herself and huffed a small laugh.

“Forget to breathe?” He blurted out. It wasn’t a problem he’d ever had cause to consider.

“I just like it,” she said, going red in the face. His stomach flipped and he had a very difficult time controlling his expression. “Shut up,” she muttered through a tiny grin. 

His hearts pounded blood to his own face when she raised bare fingers to touch her lips lightly, and he leaned down to take her mouth again. “Don’t forget to breathe,” he murmured back through the kiss, allowing himself a smile of his own. 

The next time she pulled away for a breath, he took the opportunity to move his mouth to her sweet smelling neck, trailing the tip of his tongue up her heated skin. He felt her shiver in his arms and roll her hips lightly against his lower abdomen. When she raised a hand to the side of his face, he slowly grazed his mouth against an earlobe on his way to press slow kisses just beneath her jawline, tilting her head gently to gain better access. 

Then the hand on his face was moving, and then her fingers were caressing the long edge of one ear, the sensation more delicious than he was ready for. She froze again, however, when an actual trill escaped his open mouth from the back of his throat. He immediately jerked back and clapped a hand over his mouth, eyes wide as he stared back at Entrapta in shock. He’d purred before, but he’d never heard a sound like that come out of him.

“Was that you too!?” Entrapta asked, and she looked as excited as she had the first day he’d told her about outer space. He could tell that his red hot embarrassment had him blushing furiously, but her expression was alight and a wide, excited grin shone across her face.

He pulled his hand from his mouth cautiously and blinked. “I suppose it was,” he admitted, staring back at her helplessly.

Entrapta stifled a squeal and clutched her fists to her chest for a moment. “That was also involuntary, right?” He nodded and she wiggled in positive glee. “I wonder what else you can do!” she said, smiling up at him and distracting him from his embarrassment. “Ooooh, I wonder if we have more of the same instincts! I wonder if you have different instincts!”

“I… I am not very in touch with my more primitive impulses,” he said, somewhat defensively. 

She didn’t seem to notice. “Well, what do you feel without thinking about it?” she asked. “What are you feeling right now? Do you feel an inexplicable need for anything specific? “What is it that you want in this moment?”

“What I want?” he asked, voice unexpectedly hoarse.

She nodded eagerly in avid curiosity. “Any reasonless impulse? Any urge to do anything to yourself? To me?”

He knew exactly what he wanted in that moment, but did he dare give her an honest answer? “I…” he began, but broke off with more fervid blushing.

“You what?” she whispered, magenta eyes wide, pressing even closer. “Please tell me.”

“I want…” He took a breath. “I wish to taste your sent,” he finally said, as confidently as he could manage.

Her face was blank, mouth slightly open. He was about to ask what he’d said wrong when she whimpered a small, “Oh. Oh, wow.” Then she grabbed his face and pulled him back into a fierce kiss.

Apparently, he’d said the right thing. Entrapta moaned softly as she moved her body languidly against his, grinding against his lower abdomen and running her hands over him ardently, kissing him with with demanding lips. She threaded fingers back into his hair and gripped firmly before tugging against his hips with her legs again. As he thought about what it would be like with his mouth on her core, his cock strained against his undergarment and he pressed forward into her moving hips.

He didn’t wait long before gathering her up off the table and starting toward his bedroom again. “Uh?” she mumbled, and he was satisfied to hear that she was feeling a bit disoriented now too.

“I’m taking you to bed for this. You should make yourself comfortable, I do not expect to make a quick job of it.”

She whined again and squirmed in his grasp, and he couldn’t help a self-satisfied smirk. Before he quite made it to the door, however, she started. "Ooh!" she exclaimed and wiggled her way out of his arms. “Hang on, just a second,” she said, running back to her main vent and pulling herself up into it by her hair. She dropped back down just seconds later, clutching one arm around several ridiculously plush purple cushions. “I brought pillows,” she offered as her only explanation. But then she reached out for Hordak’s hand, and her smile was far too bright and sweet to question. He was worried it would be awkward to hold his hand with his low bracers supporting his wrists, but she wrapped her warm, small fist around his fingers instead and tugged him forward eagerly.

Hordak couldn’t stop himself from sweeping her up again, pillows and all, and kissing her more while he strode through the door. He carried her straight to bed, only the faintest echoes of doubt and bitterness at the back of his mind, he completely absorbed in his all-consuming lust for her. As he lay her down and she pulled him down after, he breathed deeply, eyes heavy-lidded, already drunk on everything she made him feel. She lifted and spread her legs to make room for his hips and he groaned at how perfect it felt to settle over her, lifting himself just long enough for her to tug her overalls down and off of herself. 

His attention was caught when she moved her hands to the straps of her bodysuit and pulled them down off her shoulders. He leaned back on his heels to make room for her to sit up straight, and she hesitated for a moment, searching his gaze. Then  she slowly peeled the garment downward, over her breasts, then her belly, then hips, then finally wiggled it off completely. 

Hordak blinked, wide-eyed, and gaped at her like an utter fool.

Chapter Text

Several full seconds stretched unnaturally in the intensity of the moment, and the only thing Hordak registered was a strained buzzing that had completely overtaken his mind. No train of thought, no emotional reaction, just the faint whine of a frozen-up piece of machinery. The first break in this thoughtless state was only a vague concept- beautiful… Beautiful . 

Her light brown skin seemed to produce a glow of its own in the gloomy lighting of his bedroom. It looked warm and impossibly smooth. Her shoulders weren’t sharp or angular, they were graceful curves that rose to her slender neck and reached for her strong arms. 

Hordak had never noticed breasts before Entrapta. He’d been truly perplexed by the obsession of other mammals and could never understand the incapacitating effects that any given aspect of physiology seemed to have on some beings. As he slowly dragged his eyes over the faintest shadow beneath her collarbones, however, he was no longer mystified.

Her breasts were larger than he’d realized now that they were exposed, her dark nipples pebbled up in the chill air. Her belly folded on itself in several places before she sat up straighter to scoot forward, showing off how invitingly soft she was. He could only see the top of her crux behind her closed thighs, but the overall picture before him was more than enough to stun.

Something finally clunked back into place in Hordak’s brain when he tore his eyes from her chest and looked over her again. Beautiful- but a sickly weight was starting to sink through his wonder now- something wasn’t right. Dark splotches appeared on the golden brown skin around her hips, thighs, and forearms. Hordak reached forward slowly, and Entrapta didn’t flinch away or move when he pulled one of her arms forward with a couple of fingers at her elbow. With her arm extended toward him, he wrapped his hand over the bruising on her forearms, his fingers and palm matching perfectly.

It took a lot of force to break clones’ blood vessels. He was sure that Etherians were much more fragile in general, but there was no excuse for handling Entrapta carelessly enough to bruise her. “Hordak,” she said softly. He raised his eyes to meet hers and withdrew his hand immediately. “Is the bruising freaking you out?”

“It was not my intention… I should have-”

Entrapta cut him off, looking mildly annoyed. “The bruises weren’t exactly supposed to be the point of focus, here.”

He opened his mouth, hesitated for a moment, then asked, “Does it hurt?” 

She snorted outright. “No! Of course not!” He couldn’t help a tiny sigh of relief. Then he realized he’d just betrayed more uncertainty than an emperor ever should. He tried to arrange his face into a more passive expression, but he knew it was too late as Entrapta continued. “It would take much more severe bruising for me to actually be bothered by it. These ones only hurt if you poke at them,” she explained happily, then pressed a finger hard against one of the dark spots just inside of her hip, wrinkling her nose.

“Stop that,” he said, batting her hand away from her bruises without thinking about it. She giggled at him again, then she rearranged herself on the blanket, thighs pressed together primly, shoulders back and open. 

“Hordak, would you calm down? I’m fine .” She gave him an exasperated look, but a lock of hair snaked up his arm to caress the side of his face while more of her hair worked beneath the cape that protected his neck port. After setting it aside, she raised up in front of him to move even closer, placing her small, warm hands on his shoulders, her eyelids lowering. “Honestly I had a harder time walking the next morning than I’ve had with the bruises.”

He paused a second to process her words, but the second he clocked her innuendo he grabbed her by the waist and held her out at arm’s length. At his horrified expression, Entrapta burst out laughing.

“Haha!” she squeaked a high, nasally cackle. “Your face! Relax, I’m just kidding.” He frowned at her. “Or am I?” She widened her eyes, flashing a teasing smile before relaxing again. “No, I am. I’m kidding. Mostly.” He wasn’t reassured. “Hordak,” Entrapta continued, and now she adopted a sterner voice as if she were reprimanding Emily. “I need you to not act like you know my body better than I do. I told you what I want, and I told you I’m perfectly fine. More than comfortable, in fact.” She gave him a wicked smirk and bounced her eyebrows. “If I’m honest, I kind of like them.” He gave her the most incredulous look he could muster.

She allowed him a few more moment’s agonizing before she crossed her arms and raised her eyebrow at him, still held out in midair, still naked. “You’re right,” he forced himself to say before he felt it, because he knew she was right. The most he knew about Etherian biology was what he’d had to learn to keep his troops healthy and fed, and what he’d looked up when he realized how danger prone Entrapta was- not to mention she was simply smarter than him. He put Entrapta back down on her knees and settled for glaring at her.

She didn’t move back on the bed right away, settling instead for sitting on her heels like him, cocking her head as she peered up into his face. He struggled to sort the cacophony of conflicting thoughts and feelings racing through his mind, rather than let himself be distracted by her nudity and proximity. Entrapta didn't let him. Instead, she put her hands over his where they rested on his thighs, and leaned up on her knees to press a soft kiss against his determined frown.

He might have maintained his composure if she hadn’t lifted a strand of hair to stroke along one of his ears. Hordak couldn’t suppress the shiver she elicited and she smiled slowly. “Minx,” he accused in a growl.

She looked away pointedly, as if she didn’t know what he could possibly mean. But she was smirking as she shifted off her knees and with the loss of eye contact, Hordak finally let his gaze drop back to her body. As she moved backward on the bed, he marveled at every curve that moved with her, so subtle and edgeless. He followed her slowly, breathing deeply to taste her on the air as they both shifted, though he stopped just short of touching her again.

His wheels were still spinning as she flopped back, breasts bouncing, and arranged herself somewhat imperiously, practically enthroned amongst cushions and pillowy bundles of hair. “I don’t get it,” she said, a small smile playing at the corners of her mouth as she stretched her short legs out beneath him, wiggling her toes. She kept watching him as she reached to twirl a lock of hair from a pigtail around one of her fingers. “First you’re all forceful and you want me a certain type of way, but now you’re all shy about more sex even though I can literally see your boner pointing right at me.” He immediately grabbed a pillow out from behind her and pressed it into his lap, and she laughed outright again. He usually didn’t suffer anyone laughing at him, much less an employee, but the sound was too pretty to be angry at.

“I am not shy,” he asserted with his deadliest growl, though the sound was fueled more by lust than anger.

She laughed again, beautiful eyes closing briefly. “Are so! Don’t make me bring up all the blushing you’ve been doing recently, because believe you me, I kept records.” He blinked at her, speechless with shock. Had anyone else said as much, he wouldn’t have believed them. Coming from Entrapta, however… She sighed, patiently fixed the pillows around her to make up for the one he’d snatched, and settled back to trailing her gaze over him leisurely. “Are you still thinking about the bruises?”

He looked back at her sharply, forced his ears to stay up and alert, and narrowed his eyes. “Should I be handling the horde’s greatest asset carelessly, then?” he quipped, and was relieved to hear his voice was firm.

She raised both eyebrows now. “Oooh, greatest asset .”

It was probably best if they both stop talking. The more he showed his worry, the weaker his position. Project power. Always be the most dangerous thing in the room. Project power. And yet…

He’d put his hands on her, and he’d left marks behind. She might be fine, but he didn’t like the feeling. As he moved a hand toward her with as much purpose as he could muster, he was determined to be gentler with her body, even if it meant letting her have a little more control. He could manage that, couldn’t he? He managed a fair bit of the planet, after all. Surely he could retain his faculties while navigating his lab partner. He just needed to be strict with himself. Even though she was completely naked. And she was letting him touch her. While completely naked. It was fine. Hordak decided to start with familiar territory- a tactically sound approach. He tried to refocus himself and took a deep breath just before he laid his hand over her hip, the heel of his palm resting on the ridge of bone there, his thumb skating over the smooth skin of her lower body. 

Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck. It was even softer than he’d imagined, the softest thing he could remember touching in his entire life. She shifted beneath his hand, her thighs rubbing against each other, and he was hit with another wave of her scent as he hovered over her. He could swear the smell of her functioned as an aphrodisiac- if he hadn’t been upset by her bruises he’d definitely be purring again. As it was, he moved the hand on her hip up slowly, then slid it over so he could press his palm against the delectable little roll of flesh beneath her navel. Inching his hand upward, his fingertips found her sternum, and he could feel that her breathing was shaky. Somehow, it was a relief to know she wasn’t as collected as she seemed. A low growl rumbled through him as he slid his fingers further upward, letting the curves of her breasts press them together. 

What he wanted to do was put his mouth on everything he could reach. What he decided to do instead was lean forward, lower his lips back to hers, and kiss her. His mouth was demanding as he tried to reassure himself of their power dynamic, and her lips and tongue were pliant beneath his. She matched his intensity, however, and they quickly progressed to moving their lips together, breathing deeply but steadily as the sounds of their kissing grew wetter. Their coupling of two nights passed had done nothing to dampen his hunger for her. If anything, he was only burning with more lust now that he had an inkling of what he had to look forward to. When she opened her mouth for him, eyes closed and tongue ready, he growled and responded with a mixture of relief and churning excitement. His purr started up again in his chest, and she moved a palm down to feel the thrumming there.

Fairly certain he had her permission to touch her as he wished, he settled wider on his knees to hold her hips with both hands, his fingertips lacing together beneath her lower back. He started slowly sliding his hands up her sides while he moved more assertively in her mouth, imitating with his tongue what he planned to later do with his cock. She responded with a moan and rolled her torso between his hands, which he slid ever upward, until he skimmed his thumbs over the sides of her breasts.

She drew in a slow gasp around his tongue in her mouth, using her arms around his neck to pull herself more firmly against him, and let out an uncharacteristic wine when he lowered them both back against the bed. He moved his hands slowly over her breasts, feeling her hard nipples between his fingers, then beneath his light palms. He adjusted himself over her, withdrawing from her mouth to taste the heated skin of her neck. Carefully, gently, he grazed his teeth down the flushed skin, dragging his tongue along as well, tasting her racing pulse as he moved his mouth own her neck. At the same time, he adjusted his hands so that he cradled her upper back with one massive palm, and moved the other so he could use a thumb to toy with one of her nipples.

Entrapta seemed to like the attention he was paying to her breasts very much indeed, and every change in her breathing stoked his excitement. He pressed a few more kisses down her neck and over her throat before he pulled away briefly to watch her face. When he flicked a blunt side of his claw over the stiff dark peak, she twitched slightly in his hands and bit her lower lip, eyes shut tight. 

He had no idea what might be expected of him, so he stayed cautious and otherwise did what he wanted. His hands were too big for both of them to fit comfortably on her chest, so he lowered their bodies to spread their weight more evenly on the bed and slipped one heavily armored arm beneath her torso, moving slowly and watching her face in case it felt wrong on her skin. She made no complaint, however, merely sighed as he moved the hand beneath her up to cradle the back of her head. He longed to lower his mouth, to kiss and lick, but he had the discipline to take his time. With his other hand, he abandoned himself to leisurely fondling, touching every bit of her upper body he could get at, intently focused on the way his touches registered in her facial expressions. Meanwhile, she’d removed her arms from around his neck so she could twine her fingers through his hair and rest her other palm on the side of his neck. He managed not to react to how close her fingertips were to his cervical port. She’d only know it was a liability if he acted like it. Instead, he forced himself to relax into the steady touch. 

The hand on the side of his neck was warm and comforting, and when she slowly stroked her thumb along his throat, he had suppress another full-body shiver. To distract himself, he finally lowered his now-watering mouth to the fragrant skin of her breasts and pressed a gentle kiss to the top of one swell. The way her flesh gave beneath the soft kiss, the way he could feel her breast mold to his mouth, the little hitch of breath that twitched in her torso beneath him… there was simply too much sensory input for him to process, too much that he wanted to fully feel and savor.

He let himself melt into the tastes and textures of her body, his sloppy, hungry kisses leaving her breasts wet with his glow. When he finally reached his tongue to flick one dark nipple, she uttered a shaky moan that he felt in his loins, echoing the sound himself even as he feasted on the underside of one heavy globe. Her hands tightened in his hair and another growl ground out of his throat while his lips and tongue made their way back up to the taught peak that was so very sensitive. He pressed his hand over her sternum and belly again before he caught her brown bud between his teeth gently, holding it in place, feeling her heart pound as he laved gently with his tongue. When he closed his mouth around her nipple and sucked, they moaned in tandem as she arched up against him.

Her panting had turned to gasping and the scent of her was strong in his airways, flooding his senses with her intoxicating presence more completely than he could resist. When he tore himself from one breast so he could taste the other, he noticed that his ears had lowered to nearly horizontal and his eyes were closed and fluttering. It wasn’t a very imperial position to be in, but the fleeting worry evaporated as she freed one of her hands from his hair so she could touch the flesh he’d just abandoned. Dignity be damned, he was exactly where he wanted to be. 

All the while, her scent pull him inexorably downward, making his mouth water in anticipation as he painted a trail down her body with his tongue. The angles of their bodies grew cumbersome, however, as he nuzzled his face into the silken flesh below her navel. It was an effort merely to pause momentarily, but he had to move back off the bed, standing up and rolling his neck. 

“Wha… hey …” Entrapta muttered breathlessly, looking stricken at his abandonment. If he wasn’t mistaken, her breasts had grown fuller with his ministrations, perhaps swollen somehow, and he felt another pulse in his lower gut.

“Shshsh,” he whispered, beyond the capability of speech. He hadn’t turned on any extra lighting when he’d carried her in, and away from the lit panels of displays on the walls, he saw her mainly by the light from his blazing eyes, rosy and ethereal. It was dark enough, in fact, that he could see the faintly luminescent swipes and trails his tongue and lips had left down her torso, concentrated in every fascinating area he’d liked best. He saw her notice his gaze and looked down at herself, then saw her breathing hitch and color rise in her face. Desperate to be closer, he wrapped his hands around her lower legs, gave her a warning look, and hauled her small body toward him until her ass was on the edge of the bed.

Chapter Text

A breathless squeak escaped her before she giggled, and he had to bow his head to hide his smile. After schooling his expression, he refrained from grunting at his joint pain while he sank to his knees and allowed himself to look back over her body again. Between the bruises and the remnants of his kisses, her body was covered with traces of him, the evidence of their lust. 

He definitely should have been more bothered by the further bruising he found on the backs of her thighs as he hooked his fingers behind her knees and lifted them apart. He could literally see his handprints on her, after all, but he was thoroughly distracted by the discovery that the insides of her thighs were already painted by her own slick. There had to be an inordinate amount of blood in his erection, because his head literally swam at the sight and fuck , how were his undergarments to stupid fucking tight?

He ripped the offending clothing from his hips and groaned in relief as his aching cock was freed, then groaned again as he slowly lowered his face toward Entrapta’s dripping sex. His ragged breathing was a full combination of purring and growling, pouring from his open mouth as he turned into one of her plush thighs. She’d fisted her hands in the sheets beneath her, and he could feel her eyes locked on his face as he finally, finally extended his tongue to her wet skin.

At his first tentative lick, his mouth seemed to burst with whatever instinctive reaction her taste triggered. He had to gulp to keep from drooling on her, and was soon licking his way down her thigh, too greedy to leave any of her smeared essence behind. He very nearly lost control when he reached where her thigh folded into her crux, but he managed to limit his reaction to a frustrated huff as he hovered his lips mere inches from the source of fluid that ran down the cleft of her ass and pooled on the edge of his bed. 

It was torture, but drawing out the same process on her other thigh was worth the mounting tension he tasted in the tiny movements of her body beneath his mouth. By the time he pulled away to take a deep breath, she was panting, letting out small sounds of want as she bit her bottom lip hard. Hordak wondered briefly what she was expecting from him. He didn’t know what Etherian standards for this sort of thing were, and he really didn’t care- he was going to exalt her with his tongue until she was begging for his cock, and he was going to enjoy every fucking second of it. Hordak took one last, desperate moment to surrender himself completely to the river of delicious sin he’d waded into, then lowered his mouth to sip from her source.

He almost never permitted himself to partake in unconquered delicacies, deeming his own clumsy approximation of Prime's nutrition system a more appropriate source of sustenance. He’d imagined she’d taste unlike anything he’d ever known, but he was even more racked by the intensity of her taste than he’d been able to guess. His contact was rewarded with a relieved shout and her whole body heaved with her keening gasps. He pressed his mouth more firmly against her swollen sex as he dragged his tongue deeply through her folds again, moaning helplessly as he gathered her nectar. 

There was not a single thought in his head as he eased into lazy, unfocused licking, content to revel in her texture and taste. Her slick heat was the most delectable surface he’d ever had the privilege of touching, and every lick was a new lesson in luxury. She was like silk- no, far softer than silk could ever be, softer than any solid matter should ever be. It had to be more Etherian magic. And stars , her taste- sweet and sour and salty and tangy and everything he wanted in his mouth, now and forever.

To avoid her bruises, he held her legs up and apart with his thumbs hooked behind her knees and his fingers wrapped around her thighs gently. He loosened his hold when he felt her shaky hands scrabble at them lightly, and she seized the ends of several digits from both hands in a tight grip as he licked her. Her whimpers and tight breaths were a drug all their own, and the lovely sounds melded with his own amongst the cacophony of other swelling senses. He soon found his hips thrusting lazily up into nothing, his body moving on instinct as lust overwhelmed reason. 

When he felt he’d done a thorough job of mapping and memorizing her complex petals, he allowed his tongue a quick foray upward to trail a light circle around the stiff bud at the top of her slit. Her hips jerked hard beneath his face and she cried out, squeezing his fingers tighter as he grinned against her core. His cock was aching to the point of pain, and it jumped and twitched in a sorry echo of her body's movements while he toyed with her bud. He softened his perfunctory teasing and focused himself by pressing the flat of his tongue against the little bundle of nerves firmly.

Her legs had been twitching in his hands since he’d licked her arousal from her thighs, and her sex had been pulsing irregularly beneath his ministrations, but he was taken completely by surprise when her back arched up off his bed and a long, trembling cry was wrenched from between her clenched teeth. Her hips shook hard beneath his mouth, but he moved his elbows in and held her lower half steady as an orgasm swept through her. When her hips started shying from his tongue, he backed up and watched her collapse onto the bed, spread-eagle and sweating. 

For a few moments, she kept her eyes tight shut while she panted, chest heaving as she slowly collected herself. He was not a patient man, however, and he felt every second that dragged past in his throbbing hard-on. When she finally heaved a sigh and lifted her head to look blearily down at him, he asked, “Are you alright?”

She started nodding. “Yeah, yeah I-”

“Good,” he cut her off, spread her thighs, and buried his face between her legs again, eager to return to his work.

The pleasure center at the top of her slit still seemed too sensitive for direct attention, so he used his tongue to feel his way back down to her flowing channel. He moved his lips in open caresses while he circled her tight entrance with the tip of his tongue, purring deeply as she moaned and squirmed under his mouth. When he slipped his tongue a bit deeper and her hips twitched, he was reminded of her flippant comment about post-coitus discomfort and frowned briefly into his task. He soothed himself by slowing down even further and gentling his movements.

As he gradually worked his tongue deeper into her body, sliding past her tight entrance to stroke and taste her inner walls, her hums and sighs grew deeper- less urgent but more indulgent. He took his time as he used his tongue to caress every bit of her inner shape that he could reach, exploring the different textures inside her with rapt devotion, focusing his entire being on mapping this new territory of cause and effect. A peculiar little patch of flesh on her frontmost inner wall made her humm and twitch, and he started to study her responses to different pressures and angles, following her sounds as coded guidance.

When her sounds began to change in pitch, growing urgent again, his excitement rose with hers. Even though his knees were beginning to hurt, he couldn’t help but start rolling his hips again as she pulled her legs together against the sides of his head. Her thighs were soft and warm on his ears, and he couldn’t keep them from fluttering beneath her gentle pressure. He extended his tongue as far as his jaw would allow, filling her form and massaging forcefully. He kneaded the rough, yielding patch at the front of her channel until her hips bucked against his mouth and she whined above him. He finally dragged his tongue from inside her and shifted to lav at her clit again, mouth carefully pressed over her.

“Hordak!”

He jerked away from her, panting, and looked around, struggling to get his bearings as his head spun. He saw Entrapta raise up on her elbows in his periphery and forced himself to focus, shutting his eyes briefly. Then he looked back up at Entrapta’s agonized face and was immediately concerned. “What is it?” he asked, raising up on his knees to lean over her. “What’s-”

She grabbed the back of his head and cut him off with a kiss, pushing her tongue into his mouth, reclaiming space that was already full of her taste. “Please,” He pulled back and met her eyes. At some point she’d undone her hair and it writhed and tumbled around her, slowly venturing to caress along both their bodies. “Please don’t make me wait for more of you,” she said, brow furrowed, her gaze strangely earnest.

He leaned forward and claimed her mouth in a gentle kiss, reveling in the simple feeling of having her mouth pressed to his. As she returned the kiss and his faculties slowly returned, however, he began to remember himself. His familiarly subordinate position kneeling between her thighs set the back of his neck prickling, and he pulled back from their kiss to drag in several deep, centering breaths. 

Control. Project control . He rose to his feet, drew himself up to his full height, and squared his shoulders, remembering himself purposefully with his eyes tight shut. When he looked at her again, the sight of her flushed face, wild hair and dilated eyes sent another deep pulse through his lower abdomen and loins. If she was asking him to fuck her, who was he to say no? 

He realized she was watching him again and clenched his fists at his sides, glaring down at her. She averted her eyes but he saw the smile she hid by biting her bottom lip. Even as his jutting cock strained, his stomach flipped and his hearts stuttered, and Hordak cursed himself again for all he’d allowed to happen. 

The bond he imagined between them was getting too intense for comfort.

“Turn over,” he growled at her. She blinked at him in shock and he felt a pang of guilt, though he knew backing down now would be the opposite of a strong move. But then her whole body flushed, her hair seemed to poof slightly, and she nodded shyly. 

As soon as she was on her hands and knees, he reached for her hips and yanked them back against himself, negating her uncharacteristic shyness. He groaned deeply and let himself grind against her, rubbing his throbbing, aching cock between her fleshy cheeks forcefully before he remembered the bruises and forced himself to ease back. 

For a few moments, he simply enjoyed the sight of his hands on her naked ass and flanks. Pieces of her hair were wrapped lightly around his legs and held his clothing away while the rest of it spread out on the bed around them. He shifted his knees so they rested inside her spread legs, her thighs flush with his as she started to grind back against his erection mindlessly.

He gripped one cheek of her ass, shifting enough flesh to provide a full view of her wet crux, and he stroked his free hand up and down his own shaft a few times, taking a few seconds to marvel at the moment. Then he moved the hand from her ass up to press between her shoulders, holding her hips up with the other hand as he pushed her upper half down against the bed. 

When she was well-braced before him, spread obscenely wide with her face against the sheets, she reached between her legs and caught his length in a firm hold, guiding it so it lay along the folds of her sex and pressing it there. They moaned when he tensed his hips a few times, pumping between her hand her swollen petals slowly, leaving it to her to position him when she was ready.

She did so quickly, holding him against her entrance delicately. Once more, he commanded himself to be gentle, repeating it mentally several times. Then he let out a shaky moan as he pressed the tip of his cock into her body. 

With the head of his shaft held snug past her tight entrance, he paused for a few moments of adjustment, breathing deep and holding their hips still, teeth clenched against unintentional noise. He pushed a little harder, sliding another couple of inches deeper so he was seated securely in place, glancing down at where his cock stretched her slick heat between the spread, swollen lips of her sex. Then he realized she was holding her breath, and let his own our in a stifled huff. “Entrapta,” he muttered, smoothing his palm over her lower back gently and struggling to keep his voice soft. “Breathe.”

She let out a whoosh of breath and heaved in several gasps. “Oh yeah,” she mumbled against the mattress, forehead puckering in a frown.

With his face blocked from her view, he let himself smirk down at her ridiculous reactions, fighting back an all-out grin as he caressed her back with one large hand. He watched her carefully as he slowly slid his hands back to her hips and leaned forward slightly. She tensed, but this time kept breathing steadily as he pushed deeper, opening her body slowly. She could say whatever she wanted, but as he bounced his gaze between the strained expression on what little of her face he could see, and where his cock was slowly sinking into her, he couldn’t help a thrill of nervousness over stretching her like this. 

Her long, satisfied groan eased his worry when he bottomed out and held position for a few moments, cock pulsing and twitching in her tight, wet heat. When she whimpered through another sigh and pushed herself backward on his length, grinding against him a little, he took it as his que to start moving. 

He began pumping, slow and shallow, and gradually increased the length of his strokes. All the while, he stared down at their joining bodies, drunk on the way her flesh yielded beneath him. He clenched his hands on her ass again, pulling the cheeks even further apart as he leaned over her and fucked her. She didn’t have much leeway to move with him in their current position, but her moans were breathy and wanton as he plunged in and out of her. 

In concert with the obscene, wet sounds their bodies were making together, their noise was enough to block out the rest of the world, insulating them in the present. His abdominal muscles clenched and spasmed, and he forced himself to keep their torsos at arm’s length so she wouldn’t feel his shuddering.

Curse it all, he was too far gone- he wouldn't last longer. “Entrapta, I…” he choked out, no end for his sentence in mind. 

Either she knew what he meant or she’d run out of patience at a very convenient time. She reached back to grab one of his hands from her backside and pulled it around her body as she straightened up on her knees. While he was still deeply embedded inside her, she raised herself up so that she could arch her shoulders back against his chest and spread her thighs even wider. He could see down her entire body from this vantage, could watch her breasts bounce as he fucked her, and he wrapped his free hand over her chest to pull her tighter against him. 

Meanwhile, she guided his fingers down to her flushed lips and spread them to the sides of his own cock, still pistoning steadily in and out of her. With the length of his fingers held there, she pressed his palm against the whole of her mound and ground against it forcefully. Their movements started to stutter as they both struggled to focus, Hordak’s hips growing more erratic whie Entrapta’s legs started to tremble. 

His thrusting faltered as high-pitched keening started to slip from her mouth, using both her hands to press his against her. Entrapta wasn’t having it. “Harder,” she gasped.

“I’m going to-” he protested weakly.

“Do it,” she interrupted, grinding her ass fervently against his hips. 

It was enough to push him over the edge. He threw caution to the wind and pounded into her as his orgasm crested, pumping his release out as he pulled her hips back onto his cock. As he did so, Entrapta reached her own crest and cried out, arched backward over him and trembling hard. 

Once the tension in her body broke and she slumped against him, he let himself hold her there for several moments while he struggled to regain his composure, face hidden in her hair. When he pulled out of her and gently lowered her back to her knees, she fell forward onto her hands and groaned. Her heaving shoulders glistened with a light sheen of sweat, but her body looked loose and at ease. He averted his eyes from where his fluid was starting to leak from her body, mixing with her own as drops rolled down her inner thighs. He moved off the bed and stood up to fetch a cloth, but she’d already plucked her body suit from the floor to wipe up with. 

He was still watching her when she looked up at him. “Can we stay together tonight?” she asked. He frowned. “You can keep your armor on,” she quickly amended, “I mean, if it’s not so bad to sleep in it.” She smiled lightly and moved sideways on his bed, patting the sheet next to her hopefully. The bedding needed washing, but the picture she presented reclining naked on it was a very inviting one. 

He’d slept in his armor before, it wasn’t so bad. It wasn’t so good, either, but nothing to do with his body was. He looked at the pile of pillows shed created behind her. To be fair, having his head and shoulders better supported would probably help. With one last sigh, he moved back onto the bed.

Her eyes lit up and she scooted over, watching him avidly. He resisted a groan as he settled himself, a little awkward and uncertain with the pillows behind him. Once he was still, Entrapta clambered up on top of him to lay across his chest. She tucked her head under his chin and pulled the sheet up over both of them with her hair. 

He moved one hand up to rest across her back, and the other was soon found by her own strong fingers, holding his own lightly at her side. After a while, he decided that it wasn’t so bad, resting like this. It felt right to have Entrapta lounging on top of him, light and small and warm. After a few moments, however, she adjusted her head so she could press her ear more directly against his chest. “Am I hearing more than one heartbeat?” she asked quietly, eyes wide and eyebrows high.

“I have two,” he answered, and smiled tiredly as the ends of her hair curled with excitement.

“Faaascinating.”

He lowered his mouth to kiss her head without thinking, and she responded with a little hum. She slid a hand up his chest and neck, all the way up to his ear, where she took its pointed tip between her fingers and rubbed it gently, moving it between the sides of her small digits. A purr rumbled to life in his throat and she sighed again, fondling his ear slower as sleep began to overtake them. Eventually her hand fell lightly to his shoulder and she started snoring quietly.

He closed his own eyes and let himself sink into the comfortable night, his mind quiet and his body tired. “Three points,” Entrapta mumbled, drooling slightly on his chest.

He looked down at the top of her head. “What?” he asked.

“Three points on all four sides,” she sighed, cryptically.

His teeth? Was she referring to his teeth? “Are you already asleep?” he asked. She mumbled incoherently and shifted on top of him without waking up.

He shook his head and smiled as he settled back into her ridiculous cushions.

Chapter Text

That night, Hordak had a nightmare. Not a bad one- a minor disturbance, the likes of which often interrupted his nights with badly jumbled memories and confusing fears. He had a routine to go with them: he’d calm down, rise, and work off the leftover anxiety until he was either able to rest more or start another work day. This time, however, he was gently prodded awake before he snapped himself from the dream. 

It took a moment to realize that it was the woman laying on top of him who’d woken him. She seemed to still be half asleep, muttering incoherently before shifting position and sighing contentedly. His heart rates decreased gradually and he took slow, deep breaths while thinking of what minor tasks he’d left in the lab, preparing to choose one with which to quiet his mind. To his enormous surprise, however, the more he thought about getting up, the less he wanted to move. Eventually he realized he was still tired enough to go back to sleep.

And so, with Entrapta still snoring on his chest, Hordak managed to fall back asleep without having to try. It was the first time he’d ever been able to sleep right after a nightmare, and he didn’t rouse again until he felt Entrapta climbing off of him many hours later. He watched her gather up clothing, turn, then wink before exiting through the door to the lab, still quite naked. He’d woken up a bit more and sat up when realization split his face with a slow smile.

Entrapta didn’t try to leave via the vent, which meant she already knew he’d blocked it off. Either she’d discovered as much the last time she’d slept in his bed, or she’d already tried the vent coming the other way. It was probably a very good thing he’d taken the extra precaution and added more bars.

He wasn’t able to sleep after Entrapta had left, though it came as no surprise. Even though they couldn't have spent more than six hours or so sleeping, it was enough to make his back sore from the odd position in which he'd slept. Entrapta’s pillows had helped, there was no denying that, but it wasn’t enough to keep his joints from retaliating against him. Trying to stretch out some of the stiffness in his upper body wasn’t very effective either, and it turned out to be the inauspicious start of a deeply unpleasant day.

Imp finally decided to get over the offense of forced bathing in favor of bringing Hordak the most dramatic news of the year, and the beast’s revelation was enough of an disaster to push even Entrapta from his mind. Shadow Weaver had been allowed to escape, and with her she took more sensitive information on Hordak and the Fright Zone than any other living being on the planet had access to. What was more infuriating than Shadow Weaver’s escape, however, was that it had happened because his own second-in-command had defied a direct order from him. 

These failures were not the worst the day had to throw at him. It was a terrible blow and he’d been made to look like a fool to be sure, but he was still in a fairly strong position. And, though he was loath to admit it, he was sympathetic to Catra’s fear and her instinct to hide her grievous mistakes. He had been guilty of the same sins, after all. This ill-advised sympathy had him dwelling on his own fall from grace. 

Perhaps he’d brought Catra’s failures on himself. He’d taken her on because he’d seen his own desperation and determination reflected in her eyes, perhaps her repetition of his mistake should come as no surprise. But where did that leave him? How did he wish his own fall from grace had happened instead?

Against his better judgment, he decided to give Catra an opportunity he’d never been given- he was going to give her a chance to come clean. Wether or not this decision ended well, however, soon become irrelevant. His day got exponentially worse when, to his great shock and much greater outrage, Catra had doubled down on her lies. 

Rage over Catra’s transgressions was entirely warranted. To be incensed was to be expected. What was unexpected was how many other confusing feelings came with the anger, which, of course, only made him more mad. He channeled some of this ire into letting Catra know just how badly she’d fucked up, but pushed the rest of it to the back of his head.

There was definitely something satisfying about watching Catra slowly suffocate into unconsciousness, sure, but it didn’t make Hordak feel better. Why had he been so certain she’d take the opportunity he so desperately wished he’d had? And why was it so appalling that she didn’t? She was an Etherian, for fucks sake, they never did anything sensible. Ever.

The entire affair was utterly maddening. When he nearly trod on Catra during his irritated pacing and remembered she was still on the floor, he reached to summon troops to incarcerate her. It was a good opportunity to observe Force Captain Scorpia, who he’d noticed was growing fond of his conniving second-in-command. He specifically requested her and Force Captain Octavia, and had watched their reactions carefully when they saw their superior in a heap at his feet.

“Uh… L-Lord Hordak, did you kill Catra?” Force Captain Octavia had asked as Force Captain Scorpia gulped and stared at the feline, wide eyed.

Hordak opened his mouth to reply in the negatory, but paused. He frowned down at Catra, kicked at her lightly with a toe, then sighed wearily when her face twitched and she groaned softly. “Not yet,” he said, looking back up at the other troops.

“Yet?” Force Captain Scorpia asked.

“She has betrayed me, and therefore betrayed the horde. I have not yet decided all she’ll suffer before I am finished,” he growled, glaring back at the large arachnoid Etherian. She averted her gaze and gulped again. “Lock her in a prison cell. Make sure she stays there.” He didn’t stop staring at Force Captain Scorpia until she’d collected Catra in her arms and carried her through the sanctum doors, closely followed by Force Captain Octavia.

He needed to reassert his control. Whatever he ended up doing to Catra, it had to be dramatic- something to keep any other fool from ever repeating their mistakes. Considering the shape he was currently in, however, killing her with his own hands could just as easily backfire on him. So he was too weak to tear her apart in front of the horde, but he simply didn’t have the luxury of allowing more ineptitude. Beast Island it was, then.

He supposed there was a chance she’d survive whatever Etherians of old had dubbed a death sentence. After all, he’d been banished to an inhospitable deathtrap of a world, and he’d made it work. And if anyone could be so adaptable, Catra could. Hordak smirked to himself even as he arranged for Catra's public sentencing the next morning. Knowing his luck she’d end up thriving, amassing power, and be the one to finally kill him one day… But, then again, probably not. Hordak felt the brief smile disappear and rearranged his face to impassivity. No, she would most likely die soon after hitting the mysterious island’s shores. No one ever came back from Beast Island. If King Micah hadn’t made it, there was no way Catra would.

Deciding to send his second-in-command to Beast Island was how Hordak finished his morning, and it was a very poor morning indeed. His aching muscles and joints didn’t ease with movement, either, and to make his pain levels worse, one of the ports on his ribs decided to act up. It's interface with the corresponding armor glitched and sparked, which resulted in jolts of pain that arced between his other ports. 

His day continued its downward spiral when Entrapta appeared immediately afterword. He was still trying to shake off the pain in his side and deciding if he needed to remove his armor for a repair, and her sudden appearance was jarring. When she popped out of a vent, already shout-talking about Catra before she drew a breath, he was in a foul mood indeed. 

She was talking about their portal project, she wanted to send Catra out after more First Ones Tech to power their work and she didn’t do a damn thing wrong. But Hordak was flustered and in pain, and he was terrified she’d notice he was hurt because the enraging woman was moving around so damn much it was impossible to hide it subtly. When he’d told her that Catra was out, she argued for another dangerous mission. When she suggested the Crimson Waste, he’d conveniently forgotten sending Catra to her death anyway and spouted off something about not wasting any more troops on a costly dead zone. When she’d started arguing with his decision to put Catra to death and thrown yet another wrench into an already dreadful situation, he’d lashed out at her, far more venomous than he had any right to be. He’d even slapped the data she’d been showing him out of her hands like an absolute ass.

Entrapta very obviously wasn’t pleased with his fatalistic little tantrum, but she’d held true to her rule of heeding his final say as a matter of authority. Even so, her disappointment had been so much worse than any retaliation. The way her shoulders had slumped, her gaze had dropped to the floor, and she’d lifted herself up into the ductwork and straight out of his sanctum… She hadn't lifted a finger against him, but when she left it felt like a kick in the gut.

Nevertheless, she'd left the data out for him anyway, clever girl. Petulantly, he didn't want to look at it. He didn't want to, because he knew that when it came to open disagreements with Entrapta, she hadn't yet been wrong. He moved to lock up the sanctum, but started looking over the pad she’d left before he made it to his armor rig to undress. Of course, of fucking course , she'd been right. She hadn’t led him wrong yet, had she? She was right, he was wrong, he’d behaved abominably and she had good reason to be disappointed in him. 

Every point Entrapta had made was true, and he could probably get away with just sending Catra to the Crimson Waste. It had been the end of every horde soldier he’d sent thus far, so it may well be enough of a shock to the rest of his forces to reassert his supremacy. But he’d already sent down the orders… and could he really afford the possibility that Catra would survive another trial by fire and return? If she did, she’d come back with a tool that he and Entrapta needed, and she’d undoubtedly be stronger. Still, considering the rumors that occasionally filtered through the ranks about the abandoned wasteland, he was still sending her to what was very probably her imminent demise, though it was no skin off his nasal ridge.  And… Entrapta wanted it. She wanted that tech, and she wanted Catra. If she happened to survive this lesser death sentence, it would be a win-win for his partner.

Hordak sighed heavily after he’d accepted this, and went about the work of repairing the faulty piece of armor before moving on with the miserable loss of a day. When he was finished, he decided he didn’t want to be in his sanctum anymore, so he took Entrapta’s datapad with him as he swept from the room, planning to do some administrative work from his throne. Thinking about the expression she’d worn, not bothering to hide it behind her mask, he sighed again and started typing out a message to her. It looked like the only thing he’d be eating with Entrapta in the near future was crow.

The first communication he came up with barely made sense, and he had to rewrite the infuriating thing several times before he was satisfied with the stiff, awkward statements.

[-You were right again. I apologize for my rudeness.]

He resisted rolling his pupilless eyes at himself and sent the stupid note, curling his lip at the hated feeling of giving ground. 

He rarely used the throne room these days. It had always been a more ceremonial space than functional, but reasons for pomp and circumstance had dwindled as he’d steadily gained territory. Frankly it was an enormous relief that his reputation had progressed to a point where he had to do little to maintain it, mostly because he was only growing less capable of doing so with time.

He ascended the impractical number of steps to his impractically austere throne, and locked the doors to the throne room. Then he allowed himself a weary groan as he sank into the large seat. He looked back at the datapad in his hand to see that Entrapta had already messaged him back.

[-where you at?]

Entrapta and her commoner’s vernacular, honestly. And was she looking for him to gloat already? He heaved a lengthy sigh as he tapped out his reply, but just when he’d sent it he heard Entrapta’s voice.

“Hordak?” He looked up in time to see her tumble out of a vent at the bottom of a pillar. “You weren’t in the lab, so… wait, are you alright?” she asked, cocking her head and raising a bemused eyebrow. 

He realized he was slumped where he sat, holding his head in one hand and grasping the datapad loosely in his lap with the other. Hordak straightened and squared his shoulders. “It has been a tiresome day,” he dismissed, thinking of how to apologize in person. 

He hated apologizing. It always made him remember too many terrible apologies made in vain so long ago. Anguished, sobbed-out apologies and supplications for forgiveness- all for naught. He’d been utterly powerless, and it was a state he’d carefully avoided ever since. He’d never yet apologized to a subordinate… but Entrapta wasn’t really a subordinate, was she? She’d never let him give her orders, anyway, and she’d certainly given him plenty, albeit unofficial ones. No, his situation with her still stood. He couldn’t afford strained relations with his lab partner.

He really needed to get a handle on these damnable, weakness-inducing emotions. “You were right about Catra. She is still more valuable to me alive than dead.” He raised his eyes to meet her gaze as she ascended his throne. “I’m going to send her after that target you want in the Crimson Waste.” 

Entrapta’s eyes raised high, and she stared at him with focused intensity. She didn’t seem to be interested in gloating or reprimand, but she was observing him very closely. “And you said… you’re sorry?” she prompted, narrowing her eyes slightly. 

He gritted his teeth and, like a fucking coward, closed his eyes at the last second. “Yes, I… I am sorry, Entrapta.”

He opened his eyes again and looked at her warily. “I forgive you,” she chimed, smiling widely. “Now look at this signal I decoded! It’s a doozie!” He stared at her as she raised up on her hair and moved to plop down in her usual seat on his armrest.

How many times had he been so presumptuous as to rest his elbow between her legs, insisting to himself that he was simply indulging a passing fancy? How many times had he leaned toward her and drunk every word in rapt attention, even in front of other soldiers, excusing the behavior to himself as an expression of his confident dominance? And here she was again, comfortable as could be and as close as ever, less than two hours after he’d so harshly discounted her. Immediately after he’d acknowledged he’d behaved in error. What was going on?

Fuck, she was still talking. Hordak tuned into her words hastily and tried to focus on what she was showing him. It was difficult, however. He was still struggling to understand what Entrapta had up her sleeve, why she’d so easily shrugged off his transgressions. Worse, he kept thinking of how his other Force Captains might interpret his decision to send Catra on another mission as punishment.

“Hordak?” Entrapta asked again. He started and looked up at her. “You’re paying a lot less attention than usual,” she said, narrowing her eyes again, though her words carried no hint of rebuke.

He sighed and replied, “Forgive me, Entrapta. I am distracted by the day's concerns.” He kneaded his temples slowly.

When he looked back at her, she was still staring at him with that curious expression on her face, head tilted. “Maybe it's time for some stress relieving activities," she shrugged. It took a moment for Hordak to catch on, but then he felt his eyes pop wide and his brow raise in surprise. "Hordak, have you ever heard of positive reinforcement?” she continued, sweetly. He could honestly say he had not, and shook his head. A slow smile stretched her mouth in a wicked curve. “I think I'd like to try a kind of version of that." She blinked slowly up at him, and he recognized the heavy-lidded expression she wore. "If you're alright with it, of course."

Chapter Text

“I haven’t gotten many apologies in my life,” Entrapta continued. “Not that I’m great at knowing when to apologize, myself,” she conceded, shrugging. “But I liked yours.” He stared at her in bewilderment as she moved to hover over him where he sat. “Very much.” 

He gripped his armrests as she settled her knees on either side of his thighs and straddled his lap, facing him. “Is that so?” he breathed. Maybe apologizing to Entrapta wasn’t so bad after all. 

She nodded brightly, smiling. “I would have preferred you just be nice from the start, but this is also very good.” She leaned forward and pressed a small kiss against his mouth and he felt her gloved hands alight on the juncture at his neck and shoulders. 

He decided to try touching her, removing his claws from the old grooves in his stone chair to place them warily on her flanks. When she only replied with another gentle kiss, he ventured to slide his hands up to her waist above her overalls, where the fabric was thin and he could feel her skin hot beneath his fingers. When he moved his mouth against hers to reciprocate the kiss, she sighed contentedly and resettled her arms around his neck. 

The soft sounds of their gentle lips were sweet in his ears, and she was so small and light in his lap that she didn’t aggravate his tired joints. Everything about her made him burn for her touch, and yet… and yet she was so very comfortable . She made his hearts pound in his chest, but she also seemed to slow everything down around them so that the world was easier to comprehend. Even as she sparked his temper and his lust, she soothed his soul and quieted his mind. Now, with her arms lightly folded over the armor on his shoulders, the simple and familiar movements of her removing her gloves behind his head grounded him like nothing else could have. 

Entrapta revealing her bare hands was enough to set Hordak’s pulses rising. When he felt her replace them on his neck and jaw, he relinquished even more caution and pulled her into a closer embrace. She sighed again, leaning her body against his, her kisses still sweet and gentle. The hand on the side of his neck shifted slightly as she trailed a thumb over his throat, and he felt a small purr start in his chest. Did he have the right to purr at her so soon after an offense? She didn’t seem to mind. Should he? He allowed the stuttering purr to rumble to life, and she leaned against him even more heavily.

By now all her soft curves were up against him and he was awash in memories of the night before. The thought of her thighs on his ears and her taste in his mouth was enough to thicken his cock beneath her and he tightened his grip on her flanks, wary of letting her feel his erection so soon. He was still having a hard time trusting that moving past the day’s mistakes might really be as easy as an apology.

Her kisses became wetter, more open, and he responded in kind. When he licked lightly against her lips to request entry, she opened gladly and he slipped his tongue in, immediately seeking hers. With their tongues twined in an open-mouthed kiss, Entrapta lifted the hand from his jaw up to the long, pointed tip of his ear.

She trailed a feather-light fingertip along its edge, making the ear twitch and flutter, and giggled. “Would you-” Hordak said as he pulled back from the kiss, distracted but not annoyed. He shook his head lightly and she giggled again. 

“Sorry, did that tickle?” she asked, grinning. 

“You know it did,” he growled, though he couldn’t stop smiling. 

She grinned back at him, her lovely face shining. Mercifully, she relented her bedeviling touch, moving her fingers back to his flushed ear for gentle rubbing between tender digits. Hordak simply didn’t know what to expect from her, still struggling to understand her apparent readiness to forgive him. He was surprised when her body only seemed to grow more insistent against his, breathing deeply while her pigtails shifted and rippled restlessly. 

As their interactions heated, he struggled to focus on the time and place, quickly getting caught up in the sensations she so easily stirred. “Let your hair down,” he murmured before he knew what he was saying. Then he froze, tensed and annoyed with himself for having given her an order while still trying to smooth-over his last fuckup. 

He saw his own surprise reflected in her eyes and could have kicked himself. “And if I said no?” she asked, eyebrows raised again. 

He forced himself to modulate his voice like he was still on top of the situation. “It’s your hair.”

To his ever growing confusion, she flashed a wide smile at him. “Correct,” she said, and he hoped he’d gotten away without a reprimand. But then her hair disengaged its own clamps and fell in a heavy tumble down over her shoulders, loose and flowing. What game was she playing?

Hordak didn’t get a chance to ask, her lips were back on his too fast to respond, deepening their kiss further. He dropped his hands to squeeze her backside experimentally and she responded with a pleased little grunt, uttered into his own mouth, sending a little zing of pleasure through his abdomen to coil behind his growing erection. Hordak’s overwhelming instinct was to pull her hips against his, to roll his body against hers to let her know how badly he wanted her. Instead, he sighed contentedly, happy to simply have Entrapta in his lap and apparently grudge-free. 

He’d already forgotten what she’d said about positive whatever when he felt her hands start to slide down from his chest. She didn’t break their kiss, but he could tell her focus was in her hands rather than on their mouths. He didn’t want to make any assumptions, especially wary of creating unnecessary disappointment for himself, but he couldn’t help but fantasize about whatever she was scheming instead. 

He couldn’t quite keep still beneath her either. Though he managed to control his extremities and face for the most part, the muscles over his stomach clenched and fluttered beneath her fingers, and he could feel her cocky smile in their kiss. His purr faltered in favor of a growl as she trailed her fingers along his tensed abdomen, brushing the edges of ports with feather light touches. The seam where skin met metal had always been unfortunately sensitive, but now, beneath her touch, those places burned with pleasure, pulling him deeper into her presence.

Their kiss stayed easy even as it deepened, and she nipped lightly at his lips any time he tried to press for more leverage with his tongue. Leaning heavily against the backrest of his throne, almost pressing himself into it, Hordak forced himself to stay passive beneath her touch. For her to be touching him like this, he had to leave a truly tragic amount of distance between their torsos. Moments from their previous night together kept flashing through his attention, testing his patience sorely as he tried to content himself with the maddening brushes of her fingertips down his front, the weight of her settled on his knees, and her fleshy backside held in his palms.

She granted his hopes when she finally dropped a hand to press against the swelling protrusion at the apex of his thighs. He gasped, finally breaking their kiss, and quickly removed his hands from her body to clench them into tight fists above his his badly marred armrests. When the pressure at his groin began to move rhythmically- just slight changes in force and direction- he thunked his head back against his throne and let slip a deeper, more savage groan, drawing another sweet titter from her. He was rock hard in no time and desperate for more of her. 

Instead of increasing or diversifying attention toward their cores, Entrapta rose to meet him in another kiss, moving her tongue more insistently against his while she maintained her gentle rubbing over his swelling length. She was almost playful in her demanding kiss, anticipating and parrying and… shit. Playful was definitely the word. She was toying with him. 

When he was a bit more confident in his own restraint, he lifted his hands to cradle her head in his palms, trying to focus on the feeling of her thick hair between his claws and the silken skin of her face under his thumbs. He growled when she pulled back from him, but her eyes were sparkling and she was biting her lower lip. He glared at the place where her small white teeth had her plush lip pinned, wet and soft and trembling against her teeth’s harsh weight. How could that one little gesture do so much to him? When he saw her bite her lips in lust or even just lick them, it made his very blood burn in his veins.

The hand over his cock stopped its rubbing, and when the rest of her touch disappeared he failed to stifle a small wine of protest. He blinked in a mental haze, disoriented and hungry for more of her, and when she lifted herself from his lap, he nearly reached out to grab her around the waist and pull her back. Was this how she was going to punish him for being so rude? Dangle pleasure before him only to snatch it away?

But the next thing he knew, her small, warm hands were sliding up the outsides of  his thighs, thumbs over top of his legs, moving his skirt off his knees as she did so. She ran her hands up and down the unscarred, blue skin, gripping experimentally, and he felt his breathing hitch again when her thumbs crept closer inward. When he realized his eyes had been closed, he opened them to give Entrapta a questioning look. 

She was hovering much lower now, between his spread thighs, looking up at him with that same wicked smile in place. Hordak, on the other hand, was plastered against his own throne, pressed against the stone as if he were afraid of falling forward. Entrapta slouched slightly, still wearing her amused expression, and leaned her face against one of his inner thighs. Her soft cheek distorted with the pressure, creating a smooshed expression that created a stark contrast between her lazy demeanor and his own. All the while, her hands roamed steadily up and down his spread thighs.

She blinked and smiled through her pressed cheek. “Do you like this?” Entrapta asked up at him, shifting her hands further as they stroked so she could slowly slide her palms up his shivering inner thighs. His legs were bared from the stockings over his knees to his stretched and straining undergarment, and his skirt had gathered between his legs, accentuating the absurd bulge there. 

“Y-es,” he rasped. Of course he liked it. What kind of a question was that?

She dropped one hand and adjusted the touch of the other, trailing one small finger up the as-of-yet uncorrupted flesh she was currently leaning against. They both saw a muscle there jump beneath her touch, and Hordak realized his breathing had become tight and shallow. “Would you like me to do more?” she asked innocently.

“Yes,” he croaked.

She leaned even closer to his core, then turned her face into his thigh and pressed a soft kiss into the tender skin there. His breath hitched again but he managed to grit his teeth against any more moaning. Entrapta started trailing kisses further upward, one by one, inch by inch, and Hordak started to hold his breath altogether. 

She uncovered the erection tenting his undergarment before her mouth ran out of inner thigh, and he couldn’t stop the loud groan that wrenched from him when he felt her palm his hardness through the thin fabric. He lost patience with the discomfort, simply ripping the infuriating garment from his own hips. Again. He’d have to make more of those. Her small hand wrapped around the base of his length, warm and steady. It was the first his cock had been directly touched that day, but he was painfully hard already. And Entrapta, guileless as ever, smirked as if she could read his thoughts.

Her hand shifted slightly, then squeezed his base experimentally. He bit back a whimper as she slowly stroked her light grip upward, staring at his face all the while. When she dipped her thumb in the precum gathering at the tip of his cock and swirled it around the head, he couldn’t hide his shaky gasp. 

Another drop of precum welled and she watched it roll down the side of his cock, eyes wide and alert, then she leaned forward and, to Hordak’s helpless enthrallment, licked it off the side of his shaft. His hands were back at his armrests again, claws dug into the skin, and he clenched them harder into his chair than ever. Entrapta stroked her touch up and down his shaft lightly, slowly, watching him still.  

After a while of the sweetest, most delicious torture he’d ever known, Entrapta’s face fell into a frown aimed right at him. Was he crazy, or did it look like she pouting? For fucks sake her ‘I’m pouting’ face was almost identical to Imp’s. “What?” he asked, a little disgruntled by the sudden change in attitude.

“You’re still holding back. I’m not confident with intuitively processing intangible data, so I’d very much like to hear what I’m doing to you.” It sounded almost reasonable when she phrased it like that. 

“You’re requesting something very undignified, Princess,” he answered, trying to imbue his tone with a note of finality. The effect was ruined when she gave a gentle little twisting motion to the head of his cock and his breath caught on another stifled gasp.

“Dignity schmignity. I want your honest reactions.” She wasn’t leaving him any room for negotiation on this one. She wasn’t even going to give him time to consider, it seemed. Instead, she leaned forward and dragged the flat of her tongue along his erection from base to tip.

She got her way as a loud whimper slipped from his mouth and an involuntary twitch made his hips jerk beneath her touch. “Fuck, I… haa…” his words dissolved into a gasp when she licked him again, and he lost all ability to form a coherent sentence.

“That’s more like it,” she crooned, gazing up at him with what he was sure was purposeful coquettishness. She blew a light stream of air against his wet, throbbing flesh and he whined again. 

“Don’t stop,” he gasped, shutting his eyes and leaning his head against the reassuringly cool and solid surface behind him.

She didn’t answer him verbally. Instead, she opted for taking the head of his cock into her mouth. Stars above... so wet, so hot… and then she moved her tongue on the underside and he whimpered again. 

Unthinkingly, practically in a daze, he lifted a shaking hand to card his claws through her fringe and palm the side of her head. She seemed slightly surprised by the motion, looking up at him with raised brows, though she did not let him slip from between her lips. Then her eyelids slowly lowered shut and she leaned into his hand, nuzzling slightly against it. When his stomach flipped again, he knew it had nothing to do with the maddening sensations of her touch.

Wet, sloppy, and really rather disgusting sounds began to fill the echoing chamber as Entrapta increased her attentions. Every slurp was a shot of euphoria though, making his head spin and his hips twitch. It was taking most of his control to keep still for her, and he kept vacillating between holding his breath and breaking for shuddering gasps and panting.

She guided his pleasure and made it look easy, moving one slicked hand over his shaft beneath her mouth, and pressing the other in reassuring touches to his thighs and abdomen. When the pressure between his legs grew overwhelming, she’d slow and make eye contact with him before winding him back up. How anyone could treat him with such tenderness and consideration while maintaining merciless focus was completely beyond the warlord. Especially as he was sitting on the throne from which he’d spread death and destruction throughout her world. 

“Hordak, now you’re the one not breathing,” Entrapta said, sucking her way off his cock with a wet pop.

He let out his breath in a huff and dragged another in. “It’s… not actually necessary,” he ground, averting his gaze from her glowing, dripping lips.

“Oh wow, really?!?” Entrapta asked, voice suddenly loud again, eyes growing wide and round.

“Entrapta,” Hordak muttered, his voice shaky and pleading. He wanted to, but he couldn’t bring himself to beg for more.

“Oh! Right. Weener now, science later.” She fixed the member in question with a determined look before taking him into her mouth again.

Chapter Text

The steady fingers of her hand applied firm pressure up and down his length, spreading the thick fluid that coated his slicked erection. The wet heat of Entrapta’s mouth around his cock was already overwhelming, and she soon began to bob her head up and down, maintaining suction as she did so. As shivers racked his abdominal muscles, pleasure bubbled and flashed inside his gut like a chemical fire. 

Another breathless whine escaped him and he clenched his teeth again, humiliated by his own sounds too lewd in his ears. Entrapta’s movements slowed to a stop and she waited until he met her gaze, still holding his tip in her mouth. At the sight of her stretched lips, wet with a faint red glow, firm and hot and seamless around him, Hordak felt like he could have cum then and there if he let himself go.

She released the suction on his member and drew back by an inch or so, but she kept her lips brushing lightly over his turgid flesh as she spoke to him in a low, husky voice. “No holding it in, Hordak,” she said, breath and lips feathering over the end of his length. She started stroking its base again softly. “I want to hear you moan for me.”

It was too good to resist. Hordak’s voice tore from him whether he liked it or not, and breathless noises of want spilled forth. In response, Entrapta redoubled the attention from her mouth, sucking him hard and taking him deeper into her mouth than ever. He tensed in nervousness when he felt himself bump against the back of her throat, but she seemed wholly undeterred. 

The pulsing, clenching pressure between his hips built as she continued her work, hounding his pleasure with characteristic focus. When a muffled moan sounded from Entrapta and he felt it vibrate in his cock, his hips bucked involuntarily, and he felt the tip of his shaft slip into her throat. “Fuck, sorry… “ he gasped. 

He pulled back immediately, but her head followed the motion, and she tipped her face forward so that he couldn’t see it behind her fringe before taking his tip in her throat again. She gave him another luscious moan, unyielding, dousing his overwrought mind with incomprehensible sensation. She pushed her head down in his lap, taking his length deeper, and he dug his fingers into bare stone to keep his hands from holding her there. His head was swimming, he was a panting, twitching mess, and the noises that Entrapta was pulling from his mouth were pathetically needy. Then he felt her throat convulse around him, then again.

Heavens, was she gagging on him? He made to push her back, but when he focused his gaze to find her shoulder, he noticed that she’d removed the hand she wasn’t using on his cock from his body, and lowered it instead. Though he could not see her fingers, the motion in her tensed shoulder and arm let him know that she was touching herself. 

He whimpered and gave up trying to be responsible, she was too far beyond him. “Yes,” he gasped in a whisper, shuddering breaths heaving, “Entrapta… please, yes… Entrapta…” Nonsensical words flowed without thought, his hips jerking and twitching beneath Entrapta’s bowed form. 

He couldn’t even muster a shout when he came, even though his orgasm hit him hard. He felt surge after surge through his body, releasing into her mouth. When he felt her swallowing around his shaft, he cried out again as his ecstasy was drawn out into long, body-racking aftershocks. When he finally collapsed back into his seat, he was sweating and gasping for breath, and he felt a feeble chirp escape the back of his throat. If he hadn’t been wearing his armor, he might have fainted. 

At some point he realized that Entrapta had shifted between his knees, stroking his softening length with one hand and pressing chaste kisses to his inner thigh. It took a while for him to composed enough to look at her again, and he knew exactly why. He was rattled. Badly rattled.

“How do you feel?” she asked when he met her eyes.

There was no conceivable answer he could offer. “Your hair… how is your hair so soft?” he deflected.

She didn’t argue or push her question, but answered his. “I think maybe our hair is made differently than yours. Mine’s mostly keratin, same as fingernails.”

“...Oh. Uh… that’s… unsettling?”

She beamed. “Right? How weird is that! What’s your hair made of? It’s so coarse, but it’s so floppy.”

He blinked, and realized he had no idea. “I… have never learned what my hair is made of. It’s hardly relevant to matters of state.”

She nodded, peering up at him silently. Then she rose slowly and leaned forward to kiss him. It was a quick, gentle kiss, before she pulled away to cradle his face between her tiny hands. “I’m going to go enjoy some time alone in my room. You try to get a good night’s rest, alright?”

He didn’t know what to say, so he offered a small nod. Curiously, she pressed one last kiss to his forehead, then turned and made her way back to her vent. She gave him a short wave before disappearing into the ductwork, and as she vanished, Hordak realized she had just visited a more complete revenge upon him than a lifetime of scolding. 

In a matter of minutes, he’d been reduced to a simpering, whimpering puddle of need. On his own throne. Fuck. What had he just done? He’d maintained at least some semblance of distance between them thus far, but now where was he? So much for being the most dangerous thing in the room.

*   *   *   *   *

The floor was cold beneath his knees and his hands were shaking badly, even though he’d pressed his palms to the ground. He was alone in a gleaming white chamber with Horde Prime, and he had just been caught trying to lie. 

“Useless. Useless . Compromised, ineffective, and worthless.”

“I’m sorry,” he forces out in a hoarse whisper. “Forgive me, Brother, please. I was afraid of failing you.”

“Your lie was a betrayal. Betrayal is worse than failure, little brother.” Hordak squeezed his eyes shut and cringed in shame as he felt tears roll down his cheeks. “Now tell me… what punishment do you think you deserve?”

He raised his streaming eyes to look up at his Exalted Brother. What answer could he give? He could barely think straight. All that came to mind was the same terror that had come to stain his every waking moment. He opened his mouth and tried to obey with an answer, but none came. Prime approached him and knelt to meet him at eye level. Beautiful. Perfection.

“Have you forgotten, brother, in your long night of exile, that loyalty is all you have left?”

Hordak shook his head vehemently, still crying. “I remember, Brother, I swear it. I swear it.” Prime narrowed all four eyes at him and cocked his head. Then he stood, towering above Hordak as he stared down at him. Prime made to turn around, but desperation forced more anguished words from Hordak’s mouth. “Was I meant for a fate of failure?” Horde Prime paused, then turned back to give him a cold, passive stare. Hordak pushed on, more terrified of silence than punishment. “Does my loyalty still… count… if I submit to such a fate? When you found my place of exile, would I still be yours?”

Prime turned his back and walked away.

Hordak choked through a ragged gasp as he snapped awake from the nightmare. Cold sweat tickled unpleasantly as it rolled over his limbs, and he bullied his body into a sitting position before he’d quite caught his breath. He looked around at his empty bed and thought of Entrapta, waking him from his nightmare the previous night. 

He ran a still-shaking hand over his hair and lifted his knees to lean forward on, thinking about the day ahead. Why, why why why did Catra have to lie? Why did she have to do that? Hordak slowly moved to the edge of his bed and allowed himself to pause, working up some energy. After he finally heaved himself to his feet, he went through the familiar routine of showering then stripping the bed. 

Prime’s words echoed over and over again in his mind, and he squeezed his eyes shut against the threat of tears. He’d given her so many chances to do better than he had, and she’d thrown them all away. Just as he’d thrown his chance away by trying to hide his defect. He’d just wanted so badly to stay beautiful for Him. 

But it was not for him to want to be beautiful. It was not even for him to be strong, but to be the strongest. Not just terrifying, but the most terrifying. Ruthless and cunning and aloof and... untouchable. It was not for him to want to be touched. It was not for him to want to be beautiful. 

Failure. He was ugly and wrong, and to cap it all he was likely already doomed to the fate of a failure. As he donned a fresh dress, Hordak cast another glance back at his bed, mattress bare and… accusatory? As if between his two major crises, the least he could do was keep up with laundry. His thoughts strayed back to that most dangerous territory of an imagined future with Entrapta. Back to the unthinkable option of just… embracing failure for what he might still get out of it.

Perhaps that was her great threat? Illusions of self-sufficiency? Illusions of fulfillment? Of… happiness? Because they had to be illusions. He knew better than to let the loneliness of his isolation play tricks on his mind. He’d already gone to bed with the personification of a cautionary tale, he wasn’t about to start believing in the madness. 

None of it made sense, and all of it was extremely dangerous thinking anyway. This was exactly the kind of doubt that getting mixed up with foreign beliefs came with- this is why Prime’s servants were to reject such corrupting influences. But he needed her, even though he couldn’t control her. He needed her to make it back to Him, but how was he supposed to focus on Him when he had her bouncing around his lab and wiggling her eyebrows? Jiggling temptation itself before his face like one might distract an infant with light and noise! Damn it all, how was he supposed to win this? 

But then he deflated, because he knew exactly how he was supposed to win this. It was the same expectation he’d met time and time again under Prime. He wasn’t there to resist temptation, he was there to crush it. If he weren’t so weak and dependent upon a local princess, he needn’t have worried about any of this mess. The truth was obvious… and devastating. 

He was just supposed to be better. Better than her, better than his temptation, better than all of it. He’d been built better than them, for fucks sake, he was literally made of better stuff. And still, despite his every advantage over these childlike races, he failed to subdue them. 

Hordak was one of His generals. One of very few He trusted to run His wars when He was not personally amongst them. It was his responsibility to bring worlds into Prime’s light, to a better future whether they realized it or not. Creatures so primitive as to let heterogeneousness prevent order were clearly in need of a strong hand to guide them. That was his job- to provide planets with their best hope against chaos and darkness- to show them the choice between Prime and the ravages of entropy. 

When Prime had cast him out, he was sure that he could still do his job. He could still belong in the service of Prime.  He still had worth, even if only as a general. At least, he’d been sure of it at one point. But after success in building an army and establishing a metropole from which to manage colonization of resources, it seemed all he could do was fail. He was steadily taking territory, but he wasn’t doing it fast enough to survive his own defect. He failed again and again and again. He was even losing himself to entropy- the very fate Prime offered salvation from. Clones cannot live by amniotic fluid alone, and he’d grown sicker and weaker, watching his window of opportunity closing before his eyes as his greatest gift from Prime fell apart, too far from home to be saved.

As the early hours of the morning crept by, Hordak hid with his morose attitude in his bedchamber, slumped forward over his knees with his head in his hands. He needed to get a hold of himself in time to go handle Catra, and he needed to carry enough menace in his presence to communicate that he was still in control. It wasn’t so much that he didn’t have the option of faking it… in fact, every time he performed the act, he was faking it. He was just so damned tired.

He’d let go of the last shred of worth he’d had left. The only redeeming quality he’d retained, and he’d given it up so he could fuck a local. He had nothing left to fuel the fake. He couldn’t even focus on Prime’s perfection as he towered over stunted Etherian forms, not after having sullied it so thoroughly in himself. He just couldn’t seem to manifest the energy to run on. He’d even forfeited his right to rage.

His self-destruction had escalated so much faster than he, in his arrogance, had feared. He no longer believed in his own future, and was so far gone that the destruction itself called to him as his only remaining option. But that was just like any addiction, wasn’t it? How long had he watched Shadow Weaver adore her stupid magic rock even as her corrupted sorcery slowly took her health and sanity? The downward spiral was distracting and numbing, and even a bit glamorous in ways. Failure had never been a more attractive option.

She was his death rattle, and he wished he could make his final gasp last forever. The prospect of making it home before his body finally gave out had never been a realistic one, and now all he wanted was to crawl into a hole and be done with it all. A safe, warm place where he didn’t have to yell at anyone or be yelled at. He just wanted a comfortable place to curl up and die, like a housepet might seek under a porch. It probably wouldn’t be long now, anyway. He’d been living on borrowed time for years.  

He thought about his nightmare, about asking Prime if loyalty still mattered, even in failure. Had his loyalty ever mattered? Had Prime left him here because it wasn’t even relevant anymore? Had he wasted his own merciful reprieve by trying to be something he wasn’t capable of being? It certainly seemed like the kind of thing he’d do.

So what were his options now? Warlords didn’t retire, they were deposed. His end would most likely come from within his own ranks, and the longer he held power from behind the scenes, the more likely it became. Catra was proof of eventual descent in herself, wasn’t she? He’d known Shadow Weaver always had dreams of ruling in his stead, but that was also just Shadow Weaver. Was there even anyone capable of managing a global civil war after him? Was there any chance the Etherian Horde might manage to overthrow the princess system and create their own future? 

And was there any way he might know peace before he died? Again, his thoughts were pulled back to Entrapta. It was only a matter of time before someone discovered he’d grown weak enough to take down, and he’d be killed if he was lucky. He hated to think of the end he might yet face in one of his own dungeons. But with her for a partner, his likely fates became much less terrifying. Everything had changed since she’d become his lab partner, not least him. With her at his side, he’d made more progress than in all the years since Micah’s death. 

The soldiers seemed fine with Entrapta. They already saw them as a team, anyway. Maybe staying wouldn’t be so bad if he went ahead and publicly made Entrapta his partner. Hordak heaved a deep breath as he finally hoisted himself from his seated position and crossed to the table where he kept his makeup and his mirror. 

Hypothetically, he could rearrange the empire around Dryll, reform the Crimson Kingdom as a subordinate tributary, and reinstate the Scorpion Dynasty. Force Captain Scorpia was a simple soul, but a damn good soldier. She’d do well with what her mothers had left her. If Catra survived the Crimson Waste, they could probably do all the work themselves. 

When Hordak finished painting around his eyes, he leaned forward on the table, thinking hard. Maybe there was another option in failure. Maybe if he committed to this drastic change in path, he could still leave Etheria a more orderly and equitable place than he’d found. And, if he were very, very careful,  maybe Entrapta wouldn’t be worse off for having had him in her life.

He looked up at his reflection one last time, so very altered from the original design. Maybe sticking to his old path was actually the more cowardly option. Maybe he’d been serving Prime wrong this whole time. Prime didn’t make mistakes, and here Hordak was, trapped in an empty pocket dimension with magical fields too temperamental to punch a portal through. He’d created an alternative to the princess system- a system in which all creatures had a place in the service of Horde Prime, no matter their beauty. He hadn’t yet finished the job, but even Prime hadn’t yet finished with the Universe. And really, with more territory than ever before and a being like Entrapta at his side and in his bed, how badly could he be doing?

Chapter Text

Catra’s exit was both better and worse than he’d expected. Seeing Entrapta’s face and listening to her fawn over the Crimson Waste signal reaffirmed his decision to change Catra’s sentence, but Catra had quickly ruined his brush with clemency. She hit a nerve hard when she called him a failure and reminded him that he had no excuse for his shortcomings. Thankfully he’d managed to keep his temper and his air of control- he would have looked far weaker if he’d let her goad him into dramatics. He saw questions in the eyes of his subordinates, but obedience held, and in any case he got to enjoy himself when he informed Catra of her fate. Wretched, wretched feline. She was certainly Shadow Weaver’s protege, damn her.

Frankly he wished he’d have sent her to Beast Island like he’d originally planned, but at least Entrapta was happy. He’d given his intimidating little speech and play-acted at Prime’s omniscience while he made an example of his second-in-command. Entrapta made it easier, being a clear example of excellence compared to Catra. He’d accidentally said she would be fetching tech for ‘us’ rather than ‘him’, but either nobody had caught it, or nobody bothered to react. All in all, he walked away from the unpleasant business without being worse off for it, which may not have been a victory, but at least it wasn’t a loss. 

After the assembly had disbursed, Entrapta had approached him with a full itinerary for their work day. She said they were ready to start running trials with their portal machine, and he followed her lead. It went very well at first. For a moment it seemed as if his life’s work was finally on track again… that he only he wanted to look at was the unfettered joy on Entrapta’s face was of minor import compared to their incredible progress. Then her smile faltered, and things went wrong.

Adrenaline spiked and his mind raced. Terror. New thoughts and fears suddenly burst into his thoughts as he watched Entrapta start forward and the light from their machine brightened dangerously. He reacted on instinct, vaguely aware that he’d said something, and grabbed her arm to yank her away from the coming surge. Electricity cracked and fizzled loudly as the machine destabilized, and he knew they didn’t have time to run. All he could do was pick her up, turn his back, and hope that he absorbed enough of the concussion to help guard her ears and brain.

The next thing he knew, they were on the ground and dust was settling around them. A piece of the armor on his arm snapped and the short thudded into him before it burned. He hissed in pain and withdrew from Entrapta, who didn’t seem to have noticed.

Then she was talking, and again, he wasn’t listening. Pain arced between his ports as his damaged armor glitched and sparked. Far worse, however, was the glaring proof of how fragile he’d become. It wasn’t that severe an explosion nor was such a mishap uncommon to this kind of lab work, and he’d been thrown farther by much more powerful in the past. But he could already feel in his body that this one would put him out of commission for at least a day or two while he fixed his armor.

With this realization came another- that if he’d reached the point where one lab explosion could put him down, then he was even further gone than he’d realized. If he’d been so frail when he’d faced Micah in battle, he would have been dead in minutes. It was a brutal reminder that his health was the bottom line in his race against time. 

If he publicly declared Entrapta his partner in empire, it would strengthen his position for a time, and certainly give him an option to retire under her protection, but it was all contingent upon the transition. It would be a tense, chaotic time and he’d have to maintain order with an iron fist. There were bound to be plenty of lifelong Horde soldiers who’d resent Entrapta for everything that she was and what she’d accomplish. And there were also bound to be plenty of Etherians who would love to assassinate either of them, regardless of who was in charge. He could only protect Entrapta and command his military until the world found out he’d been bluffing for a decade. Then it would all be on Entrapta, and if that happened before he’d finalized a new status quo… No. It wasn’t worth the risk. 

He’d needed this wake up call, really. He’d needed reminding that he didn’t get to renegotiate the terms of failure. “We’re done here, get out.” he hissed, wincing at another arc of pain through his torso and clenching his teeth against welling despair.

Of course she argued, but it didn’t matter. He needed to get out of his armor if he wasn’t going to lose his composure completely. She mentioned the tech she expected Catra to retrieve for them, and he failed to keep the vindictive bitterness from his tone when he told her that Catra would not be returning from her fool’s errand. When another jolt of pain flashed in his side, he lost his temper. Again. “The machine is a failure. Get out.”

She tried arguing again, but he just needed her to go. Thankfully, Imp recognized his situation and helped convince her, tugging at a strand of hair for her to follow him and Emily. The second she was gone, he fiercely regretted shouting at her and slammed his fist on the table, which was a mistake, because it made that entire sleeve of armor short out again.

Fuck but this hurt. He turned to make his way to his armor rig and pain brought him to his knees immediately. He took some time to try and slow his breathing and heart rates, then stood and tried again. The pain was bad, and he could also feel his upper heart protesting in his chest, the damned thing. It had already malfunctioned years before when he was strong enough to handle it himself, but every now and then it still bothered him. 

By the time he was free of his armor, he felt out of breath again, and slumped forward onto the worktable before him, panting heavily and willing himself to calm down. Then he heard a thump, then a crash, and he looked around to see who dared intrude upon his shame, and…

No. No no no no no … Not her. Anyone but her. “Get out,” he rasped, “Get out right-” His breath caught in his throat as a stabbing pain flared in his chest, right through his upper heart. He knew he wasn’t getting enough blood to his brain before he started to fall, and the last thing he saw before he passed out was Entrapta running toward him.

*   *   *

Hordak knew in his very soul, even before his head hit the ground, that fainting in front of Entrapta would change everything. It wasn’t something he could take back, cover up, or bluster through. It was the truth, and she couldn’t unsee it. 

Indeed his life did change forever that day, but not in a way he ever could have guessed. The chaotic little scientist subverted all of his expectations with a cheerful and relaxed attitude. All of his fears were effortlessly denied and thrown back, and absolutely nothing that happened from that point onward many any fucking sense at all.

If she hadn’t reacted with overt repulsion, Hordak would have thought that Entrapta would at least cloister herself while figuring out how to react. He would have assumed she’d consider her options under different commands, or perhaps move to take over the Horde’s resources for her own scientific pursuits. He would have thought that collapsing in front of anyone would automatically result in the end of his great secret, the end of his fake strength, and sound the death knell for his efforts at returning to Prime.

Instead, Entrapta had been there when he came to in a panic, though it took a couple of seconds to remember why. She’d tried to feed him soup. It was the most unappealing substance he’d ever seen labeled as food, but she’d tried to feed him soup. And she’d made it and brought it because… because it might make him feel better. 

His shame had burned to the point of distraction, and all he could think to do was resort to his usual aloofness and pretend not to care. As it happened, he wasn’t even up to that much. He had tried to stand too soon, instinctively heading for an exit, but pain arced through his ports and he’d collapsed again. This time, however, rather than hit the floor of the sanctum, he was caught by massive, fluffy ropes of magic hair. 

He tried very hard not to care, and he tried very hard to be stern, but he was just so damned tired. Though he didn’t let his face fall until his back was turned to her, he didn’t even have the energy for a strong expression. He hadn’t really had a choice but to let her tire herself out and leave. 

Of course, she’d started pushing him on what she was seeing, and when he’d denied her questions and attempted to escape again, her temper flared. He’d expected another end all over again, but instead she’d taken a gentle offensive, scowling and lecturing as she literally manhandled him in his own lab. Her hair had been frizzed, her frown had been fixed, and her eyebrows had been knitted, signaling that she was in a familiar, determined mood- one he’d never managed to outrun.

When he’d finally snapped and told her his story, he’d surprised himself by speaking with an anger he didn’t know still burned. There had been a point in time when, though he knew it was sinful and he tried his best not to, he had resented Prime’s decision. He resented it because he couldn’t accept it- couldn’t accept being labeled a failure. Deciding that Prime was wrong for the first time was a mechanism of the arrogance he’d needed to survive. This whole stupid thing was an effort in proving Prime wrong. 

He’d immediately regretted dishonoring Prime with his words, and the new failure was enough to squash his anger. When he’d looked around at every plan he never got to finish, the miserable thoughts that had haunted him for weeks all bubbled up to the surface. He hadn’t meant to, he knew he shouldn’t, but damn him, he kept talking. He’d voiced his doubts, named his greatest fear aloud, and there was something in that step that had made the failure more real. He had been so caught up in shame that he’d momentarily forgotten he was saying it all in the presence of his lab partner. Of course, by the time he’d finished the miserable tale, she was already on her way out of the room. It had hurt, even if it was expected, but he’d soothed himself with the fact that at least she wasn’t mocking him. 

And then everything changed again. Entrapta came back , and she was wearing a smile and there was excitement in her eyes. When she approached him and used her hair to touch him, he couldn’t see a hint of revulsion anywhere in her demeanor. The shocking absence of reaction sent waves of muddled emotions through him, but the feeling that pervaded was confusion. What the unholy fuck was happening here?

Of course he’d dreamed of comfort. Of course he’d longed for acceptance and value. Of course he’d imagined being treated like a prized item rather than a discount purchase. He’d tried his best not to because letting himself dwell on such ridiculous fantasies left him feeling aching and alone, but of course he’d still slipped up anyway. Hrdak did a lot of things he knew were wrong when he wasn’t working at conquest. That was why he tried to spend as much of his time working as possible. 

And now here she was, giving mercy and kindness to him in heaping measures, even lending him her joy- all for free. Entrapta didn’t even ask for service in return, not the slightest bit of quid pro quo. She simply gave. And gave, and gave, and gave. 

And then she’d said that imperfection was ont only necessary, but beautiful- she’d said that imperfection was beautiful to her , and his entire worldview had cracked down the center. These were ideas he’d never considered before, but they came from somebody he respected and admired. It shook him to his core, leaving him dazed and overwhelmed.

She’d been working on something, though she hadn’t mentioned what, and she was speaking to him of her own perceived shortcomings. She’d called herself a failure, and she wouldn’t hear him deny her. She also seemed completely unbothered by the label. She’d described cycling through friendships like they didn’t hurt her, even though her voice had quieted as she mentioned both Adora and Catra. Then she’d reiterated her determination and positivity as if they came naturally.

It took some time before he figured out that she was working on new armor for him, and when he did, a whole new wave of confusion and shame had buffered him about where he sat. He wasn’t ready for it when she pulled him over to her work. He’d just been staring at her like a simpleton, trying to process her words, but somehow she already had a prototype to start testing in a matter of hours. 

But then she assembled it, and for the third time that day, everything changed. The armor was magnificent. The work was impeccable, it connected with the cybernetics in his system the first time and with minimal pain. He even felt the suit’s stabilization in the cybernetics of his fingers and, bless her, she’d done the work in his own color palette. 

When she’d asked him how it felt, he’d been able to answer honestly, and it was glorious. “Powerful.” He felt powerful. In his own skin. He felt confident and secure in his own body for the first time in at least a decade.

He looked back at her, and she was staring up at him with her chin propped on her hands. Fuck she was beautiful. Should he thank her for catering to his weakness? It would probably be the polite thing to do, but it was just such an embarrassing situation to be in with her. Not to mention he now had to re-learn whatever boundaries his collapse had created.

“I uh… I acknowledge the work you put into this. It is very… technologically sound.” He didn’t need Imp’s commentary to know he’d butchered the reply. His attempt at recovery was better, but not by much. “And… no matter what you say, you are not a failure. Any who discount you are utter fools.” Great. Slipped into dramatics. Just great.

Entrapta took mercy on him, placing one of her large pigtails on his shoulder in a comforting gesture and saying gently, “Thanks. I like being friends with you, too.” She looked up at him from under her eyelashes, chin propped on folded hands. A small half-smile quirked her mouth.

He recognized her pardon. He didn’t need to think of anything more eloquent to say, because she already understood. Then he realized he was smiling at her. Not a menacing smile, or a bitter one, or even a rueful one. It was just a smile, because he was looking at somebody who made him… happy? Was he happy and smiling? How many years had it been? Decades? Ever?

Entrapta narrowed her eyes and cocked her head. “What are you thinking about?” He had no idea what to say. Her face fell and her brow furrowed. “Oh no, don’t stop smiling, I wasn’t done yet.”

“Done with what?” he asked, looking down at his armor.

“Done enjoying it. Your smile,” she specified, chin still propped on her hands. “You don’t do it very often, but I like it when you do.”

He felt a strange clenching in his stomach. “Why?”

She gave him an odd look before smiling softly again. “Because I like it when you’re in a good mood.”

“Sound reasoning,” he agreed and nodded slightly. He straightened and took a deep breath, rolling and flexing his shoulders.

Entrapta’s eyes lowered to examine her handiwork. “What do you want to do first? We should probably test it out to find glitches.” She waggled her eyebrows at him.

He was too distracted by her expressions to fully keep up with her words. “I… uh… would you want to test strength, durability, or…”

“It’s getting pretty late… we could test strength and durability tomorrow. This armor is also supposed to help regulate your heartbeats, as well as minimizing muscle spasms and things like that.” She smirked and rose up from Emily on her hair, playing with a lavender as she peered up at him. “We could test how the new suit does with… that sort of thing.”

He finally caught her meaning and took a half step back. “I don’t understand.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Really? Huh. I was referring to sex.”

He huffed in slight frustration. “No I know that, I just… really?” He cocked his head as he stared at her in confusion. “You just saw what I look like, but you still want sex?”

Now Entrapta looked even more confused than he felt. “Well, yeah. I mean, I’m sure that has something to do with it, but I don’t see why that’s a problem.” She crossed her arms, suddenly looking unsure.

His brain’s gears were slipping. “But you just… saw me,” he insisted stupidly, “my… deformities,” he finished in a near-whisper. 

Her answer nearly knocked him over. She laughed and said, “You think it would make me want it less? You should know that's not consistent with most mammalian biological impulses, especially those around mating activities. Seeing you half naked only made me want it more, silly.”

Hordak’s armor surged with its first electrical glitch.

Chapter Text

Hordak flinched hard as a nasty shock fizzled between his new armor and his ports. Entrapta’s face fell and she was immediately upon him, tools in her hair as she held him steady with her hands. “Nevermind,” she said loudly, alarm on her face, “I don’t like that. Hang on.” She pulled the glowing pink piece of First Ones tech that powered his armor up from his collar and fiddled with the wires beneath it a bit. Another surge had him clenching his teeth and fists. “Shit… sorry,” she muttered distractedly. 

“It’s fine,” he said. They weren’t severe shorts by his standards. 

“There. Let’s try that.”

She stepped back from him and stared, eyes wide and expectant. He took a long, deep breath and held it for a few seconds. “All seems sound, withstanding stress testing,” he said after a few minutes. She beamed and lifted up on her hair, leaning close. He held his palm up to stop her. “However, considering the electrical nature of malfunctions, don’t you think you should maintain a safe distance when conducting such testing?”

Her face fell. “Well, I can weather a hell of a shock, but I don’t know that I necessarily want to,” she said. “So… what now?” she asked, planting her hands on her hips as she hovered before him. “We could try strength training… how does your system handle cardio?”

“We can test the armor with different activities later,” he said slowly, reluctant to pass on the opportunity to touch her. “I’m afraid one of my ports needs some maintenance in the interim,” he admitted, brushing a couple of fingers against the port in question.

“Ooooh! Can I help?” she asked excitedly.

He knew she wouldn’t appreciate it, but the answer was easy. “No. I will let you know when I am done.”

Her face fell again. “Awe… how come?”

Because she’d be disgusted. Hell, he was about to disgust himself. It was a disgusting process. “It is a private affair,” he answered.

“More private than putting your genitals in my mouth?” she asked, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow.

He flushed. “That’s different.”

She switched tactics. “Please?” she asked, stepping closer. “Pretty please? Pleeeaaase?”

“You don’t want to see it,” he said gruffly. “How do I get out of this?” He looked around at his new armor, then up at the arms of his previous assembly rig.

“On the contrary!” she said brightly, staring at the port he’d touched, “That sounds like one of the most interesting things I could possibly witness and I want to see it very much!”

Entrapta moved to start disengaging the pieces of his armor, one at a time and slow enough so he could see how she did it. He took the opportunity to consider her request, mulling over his options. If he was an interesting enough subject to hold her attention, then letting her see more of his physiology wasn’t necessarily a bad idea. 

Entrapta disengaged the armor on his torso first, getting the most uncomfortable parts of the process over with first. Once the ports on his ribs and his dorsal port were free, a curious mixture of increased soreness and a relieving absence of current trickled through his torso. He took the pieces of armor from her as she handed them off, examining their extraordinary workmanship with nothing short of wonder, taking extra time to marvel at their innovative connection mechanisms. 

He wanted their closeness more than anything, but Hordak was still terrified that something would finally make her realize how unworthy he was of her attention. Then again, if he was entertaining the idea of taking their partnership into the long-term, he should probably start getting used to that kind of intimacy. She wasn’t squeamish, and she’d already seen his real shape… Perhaps letting her in on other aspects of his defect wouldn’t be such a big step. 

There was one other significant element for Hordak to consider. If it did go wrong, if she did come to her senses and retreat, then it was probably better that that happen sooner rather than later. It was entirely likely, but at least if he got it over with, he could stop wasting time on impossible dreams. 

He waited until the last piece of new armor was detached and carefully laid it with the others before speaking. “Fine,” he grunted, looking at the floor.

“What? Really?!” she asked, perking up visibly. 

“Come to my bedroom. I’ll give you the medical demonstration you’re so eager to see, and you can learn a lesson in minding what you wish for.” He covered his anxious gloom with his usual irritability and managed to stand without groaning. 

She muffled a squeal behind clenched teeth and shook her fists in front of her before following him. He grabbed his medical case and a few extra clamps, keeping his eyes on the floor as he gathered his supplies. Entrapta stayed unusually quiet, even as they left the lab, and they both scowled without comment when he raised all the lights in his bedroom. 

He’d held his nerve up to that point, but being so exposed beneath the harsh light had his pulses rising again. He tried his best not to shrink in on himself or cover exposed skin in a show of weakness. “Hordak? Is something wrong?”

He turned quickly so she didn’t see him blush and crossed to the little table in the corner of the room. “I am accustomed to wearing more clothing than this,” he said gruffly.

“Oh. Oooohhhhhhh, hang on.” Hordak turned around in time to see Entrapta wiggle out of her overalls and sleeves before bounding around the room in her white bodysuit, adjusting light sources with her hair. She dragged what lights were mobile over to the table, and shut the others off. After a few minutes, he found himself standing next to a brightly lit workspace that left as little to the imagination as ever. And yet, somehow, having shadows he could hypothetically escape into was an incredible comfort. “There,” Entrapta said, clapping dust off her gloved hands.

“Thank you,” he murmured, more grateful than he could admit that she understood his aversion to exposure without further explanation. 

When he started setting up his tools on the little table in the corner, she lifted herself up to sit on it, watching him intently. He couldn’t help but glance between her plush brown thighs and his discolored, wasted forearms. The juxtaposition was harsh and obvious, and there was nothing he could do to keep her from examining the same difference. 

He knew it didn’t matter, that his shame was a waste of energy, but he simply couldn’t help it. Everything about them- every difference between them- grated on him endlessly. In combination with his recent struggles with failure, further medical maintenance in front of Entrapta was a significant drain on his confidence. He’d nearly finished setting up, steeling himself for the unpleasant process to follow, when he turned his torso wrong in the process of reaching for his local anesthetic. He grunted and jerked forward, braced on his elbow and leaning away from the pain in his side. 

Her hair and hands were stretched out to him when he opened his eyes, and in his agitation he batted them away before thinking. She shrank back, bottom lip between her teeth, and he immediately regretted his shortness. “Entrapta… I-” he began hesitantly, but she cut him off.

“It’s fine,” she said with an earnest smile. “I get grumpy when I’m hurt, too. Just let me watch.”

He nodded and gave her a grateful smile, then continued with setting up. In another few minutes, he had an array of tools, cloths, and bottles before him. Entrapta was picking them each up in turn, examining them in rapt fascination and muttering quietly. He waited for her to finish her inspection, watching her and enjoqying her lively interest. 

If he were alone for this, he would have let the top of his dress down around his waist, but he couldn’t quite bring himself to take that step yet. He had other deformities beneath the reinforced uniform; angry self-surgery scars and more discoloration across his chest beside that, and though he doubted they’d have any more effect on Entrapta than his other flaws, even further infirmity wasn’t something he was looking forward to sharing with her.

Entrapta leaned forward to squint through the poseable magnifying glasses and mirrors he’d clamped to the edge of the table, and he took the opportunity to fill a large syringe from a bottle of clear liquid. “Oooooh! What’s that?” she asked.

“Anesthetic,” he answered, flicking air bubbles to the top of the needle before expressing them. “It really is incredible what one can accomplish provided enough local anesthesia.” He set his teeth and started injecting himself around the faulty port on his side.

“Woooooow,” she whispered. “Is that the same stuff we use, or do you need something different to work on you?”

“It is a different substance,” he said, wincing lightly as he probed the needle around to spots where he could still feel it. “What amounts to several milligrams of pain killer for me would poison an entire village of Etherians if you put it in their water supply.” He withdrew the needle and poked around his side, looking for any places with remaining feeling.

“Neat.”

Hordak sighed down at her, relieved that she still looked as eager to be there as ever. “Indeed.” 

Now for the unpleasant part. He chose his sharpest claw, disinfected it, and held it over his port. “What are you doing?” Entrapta whispered.

“It takes a significant amount of pressure at a sharp point to punch through the membrane that protects a clone’s port,” he said, grabbing up a cloth with his free hand to hold against his side. “The membrane seales itself relatively quickly, as well, so once it is breached it must be held open.” He gritted his teeth, placed his claw in the center of his port, and forced it through. A trickle of blood slipped through the hole he’d opened and dribbled down his side, into the cloth he held there. 

Entrapta covered her mouth with her gloved hands, eyes wide and glassy as she leaned closer to his side, watching his every move. He looked over at his tools and shifted to reach for the one he needed, but the pain in his side flared and he froze, grunting. “What do you need?” Entrapta asked, looking between him and the table.

“Single-prong double re-” he took the tool she’d already grabbed with a piece of hair, “... retractor,” he finished faintly, poking the prongs of the tool into the hole he held open with his claws and ratcheting it wider by millimeters. 

Entrapta made a whimpering sound and he looked up, expecting to see she’d finally reached her limit. He noted that her brow was furrowed and she was cringing, but to his surprise she hadn’t moved away. Instead, she pulled the glove from one of her hands and pressed it over his own blood-slicked fingers on the cloth at his side. “Here, let me hold it so you can use both hands,” she whispered, shifting nearer so she didn’t have to lean so far.

He nodded and let her take over the cloth. “Can you keep this still?” he asked, referencing the retractor he’d ratcheted open. She nodded and took the handle of the tool.

With Entrapta minding the opening and keeping blood from pooling and obscuring his vision, he had both hands free to position further mirrors and lenses. “Lucky it illuminates itself- It’s so easy to see around in there!” Entrapta said brightly, peering into his port like it was the height of entertainment. “Hang on…” she squinted and leaned even closer. “Are all the wires supposed to be attached to stuff?”

He frowned. “...Yes. Yes they are.”

“Huh… well, there’s a… it’s kind of…” Entrapta huffed. “Can we trade? I feel like I could fix it easier than I can explain it.” He considered for a moment, but the request didn’t seem any less reasonable than everything else they’d been up to together. He took the handle of the retractor from her as well as the cloth, and let her start poking at his cybernetics without further explanation. She pulled the remaining glove from her hand with her teeth before setting back to work. “So… is this one…” A stab of pain took his breath away and he gasped. “Shit! Okay, that’s a yes,” she muttered as he caught his breath, looking down at her with much more trepidation. Her hair came alive and soon there were no less than eight different tools hovering near his port, ready and waiting for use.

She continued moving very slowly, careful fingers feather-light against him. “And… does that hurt?” It was an extremely odd set of sensations between her tiny movements in his side and the pins and needles that erupted down his arm, but there wasn’t really any pain. He shook his head. “Good. Good, okay, hang on, I can’t see behind…” Another white-hot stab of pain shot through his side and this time he failed to stifle his whine. He dropped the cloth with one hand and grabbed the edge of the table for support, feeling the metal crumple beneath his grip. Sweat broke out on his brow as he measured his breathing and gulped. “I got it!” she said, bracing a hand on his waist and looking up at him, eyes worried. “Are you okay?” He nodded. “I’m sorry, that little guy was in the way and I think I might need to get behind it,” she insisted.

“It’s fine,” he assured her, and her shoulders eased somewhat. “Pain comes with cybernetics.” After a second thought he corrected himself. “At least… with my cybernetics.” 

She was still looking up at him, frowning. “So the local anesthetic only works on organic tissue?”

“Exactly.”

She nodded and looked back at his side. Then she pulled an odd face and squinted. “Huh,” she cocked her head. “Well there’s your problem.”

“You found something?” he asked, looking down at his own side with a mixture of cautious hope and skepticism. 

“It looks like a little grounder thingy got bumped loose.” She scrunched her nose just before a stab of pain took his breath again. “Oooh yikes, it looks like it’s been a while, the connection’s a little crusty…” another wave of pain swept through him and he felt a bead of sweat drip down his temple, “let me just… boop. There, how does that feel?”

When the fiery burn began to subside, rampant tingling erupted up and down his right side. Even as he opened his mouth to answer, however, he felt the tingling start to subside. “Better,” he said cautiously, taking a deep breath and shifting his torso. “Significantly better.” Entrapta beamed at him. 

She released the retractor and watched the membrane close around the prongs, then pulled the instrument from his side. The oozing stopped immediately and she brushed a bloodied thumb over the port. “Incredible,” she muttered. 

He plucked another couple of clothes from the pile on the table and handed one to her before wiping his hands with the other. “The port?” he asked, smiling at her ever-present enthusiasm for new technology.

“Yeah,” she said breathlessly, wiping her hands and looking away dreamily. “Yeah, your ports are amazing.” He dropped the towel into a bucket along with the used tools, setting the lot aside for sanitizing. “You are, too.” 

He stopped what he was doing and frowned. Then he straightened and looked back at her, brow furrowed. Hordak didn’t feel like arguing, so after a few seconds of silence, he tried changing the subject. “I know you didn’t build that entire suit in a matter of hours,” he said, thinking of the armor they’d left laying in the lab. “How long have you been working on it?”

Chapter Text

“I know you didn’t build that entire suit in a matter of hours,” he said, thinking of the armor they’d left laying on the table. “How long have you been working on it?”

She shrugged and smiled mischievously. “Well, I didn’t know about the whole cybernetics thing, but your old armor was kind of clunky. And it seemed so heavy.” She looked back up at him and winked. “I’ve been tinkering with an alternative for a while now, so all I really had left to do was the fancy electric stuff.” He was seeing her in brighter lighting than usual, and somehow she only looked prettier. Her eyes sparkled and her lips curved into an even more wicked smirk. 

Perhaps the anesthetic was having more of an effect on his cognitive abilities than he’d realized, perhaps he was simply drunk on hormones, but words fell from Hordak’s lips before he’d even begun to process them. “You’re beautiful.”

Entrapta’s eyebrows lifted and she blinked at him in mild surprise. She opened her mouth, but didn’t reply. After a couple of tense seconds passed, the bottom fell out of Hordak’s gut and his entire body flushed cold. 

What the fuck was he thinking? That was no way to honor a being of true majesty. “Ah, I mean,” he fumbled, trying to re-imbue his voice with the confidence of faith. “You are… the most beautiful thing in this dimension.”

She looked even more taken aback, and stammered in reply. “Oh. Um… is everything alright?” She was wearing a very strange expression now.

Fuck. He was fucking this up. “I am made speechless by… the loveliness and living energy you bear upon…” His mouth went dry as he struggled to continue. He hadn’t been ready to try and put his feelings into words, and the mammoth prospect was overwhelming. “I am unworthy of…” Fuck. 

“Hordak,” for some reason her expression had darkened, “what are you talking about? Are you okay? Does this have something to do with your past?”

He took a step back and her smile faltered. “Forgive me, it should not have taken me so long to voice my praise.” And now that he’d finally gotten around to offering some of the praise she was due, he was doing an abysmal job of it. He was a general, for fucks sake- the closest he’d ever come to proper exaltation was some chanting.

“No!” she said quickly, stepping forward after him. “No, no no… I just… I’ve never heard you talk like that is all.” She folded her hands in front of her chest and tilted her head up at him. “But I guess this has been a day for firsts, huh?” 

Before tension could grow between them, Hordak decided to shift the subject. “Shall we wash the blood from our hands?”

She looked back down at her hands and seemed surprised to see them. “Let’s!” she agreed, smiling back up at him.

They took turns cleaning up in Hordak’s sparse little washroom, and he let Entrapta use a wet cloth to clean around the port they’d just worked on. She asked him questions about his body, wondering at things like waterproofing and blunt-force impact, and he answered her as best he could, discovering as he did how very little he knew about his own physiology. When they were done, she led the way back into his bedroom, still dressed only in her white bodysuit. 

He watched her shoulders and hips as she moved toward the workspace she’d set up and turned off lights, feeling incrementally more at ease as darkness advanced. Even after his room was comfortably dim again, however, she lingered there in the corner. When she lifted her hands to her hair and released the pigtails, setting the clamps down next to the medical kit, he approached cautiously. He stopped short of touching her though, and watched quietly as she reached out and ran her bare fingers along the crimped edge of the table where he’d gripped the metal too hard. 

“I don’t believe… all this time…” She snorted and turned back to him, smiling again. “There’s just no stopping you, is there?” After initial surprise, his chest swelled with her unexpected praise and he shifted on his feet. In truth there was plenty that had stopped him throughout his life. Over and over again, in fact. He’d just had to create workarounds out of sheer obstinance. 

He didn’t know how to respond, but Entrapta was moving toward him again. She raised up off the ground on her hair so that her face was about level with his chest, and lifted a hand to the crystal that glowed at his collar. “You’re really something, you know that?” She brushed her fingertips over the decorative engraving on the pink diamond. 

Something primitive and possessive stirred in him, sudden and strong, and he felt a swell of heat bloom through his entire torso. He plucked Entrapta out of the air in front of him and folded her against his chest, cradling the back of her head in one giant palm. Hordak knew their power dynamic was uneven, that there were complicated circumstances and that they barely understood each others’ worlds- but he also knew, as certainly as he’d ever known anything, that he didn’t want to live without her. 

It was wrong and he knew it… but he’d been up to his eyeballs in wrongs of all kinds for decades now. He’d spent year after year after year ignoring the obnoxious little voices of conscience that complicated his every plan and hope, and he ignored them again now as he stared down at the woman in his arms. If he was to face the utter isolation of oblivion instead of going home, then he was grateful to face it with a shard of divinity itself at his side. 

She lifted one of her small, warm hands and placed it on his cheek, and the smile that lit her face when he leaned into her touch was nothing short of supernatural. He watched her expression flicker as he moved his hand and placed it over hers, holding her palm to his face, and a low purr started rumbling in his chest. She shifted against him and lay her head on his shoulder, nuzzling into the meager muscle there, her small smile achingly sweet. 

After taking several seconds to simply savor the moment, Hordak pressed a kiss into the top of her head and walked them over to his bed, not bothering to let go of her before collapsing into the pile of purple cushions she’d left there. She didn’t startle or cry out, simply clung a little harder as they settled on his thin blanket. After a lengthy sigh, he indulged in curling his entire body around her, holding her close against himself, and buried his nose in her hair. 

Laying there together in their cozy little bundle, he let himself imagine, just for a moment, that he could keep her safe like this forever. He imagined that he could protect her and her work, could preserve her happiness and comfort indefinitely. It was ridiculous, he knew, for a broken and beaten individual to hope for such things in a universe like theirs, but for a moment, he let himself pretend.

She broke the silence first. “Soooo…”

“So what?” he asked into the top of her head, loosening his hold on her so she could pull away to look at him. 

He was hoping she’d bring up her “stress-relieving activities,” but instead she said, “Is taking breaks from your armor hard for you? Does it… hurt?” A shadow crossed her face. “Is there anything I can do to make it easier?”

He heaved another long sigh before answering. “It is not so much that I am fragile, or that my strength fails me,” he began, trying to think of simple ways of phrasing a complicated situation. “It is pain and its unpredictability that hobbles my productivity and bearing. And… I am rather susceptible to causing myself injury.”

To his surprise, she giggled. “Me too! Although it’s because I’m danger prone, not because of my body. Maybe a little bit because of my brain.” She shrugged.

“Your brain?” he asked, brushing her fringe off her forehead before digging his claws through her thick hair.

She nodded and smiled brightly again. “My brain works differently from most people’s. It’s been tough in the past,” she admitted, “I used to be pretty upset about it, actually.” Her eyes widened. “My dads were really upset about it, from what I remember,” she glanced at his face and lifted the corner of her mouth, “but I’ve learned to appreciate it.” She pressed a palm to his vibrating chest before brushing her fingers over the still-sore port again. “Some people are just built different. The world is chaotic like that.”

Oh if she only knew. “Your mind is a priceless treasure.” Her brilliance, her dedication, her energy, her joy… everything that she was. 

She scrunched her face through a shy smile. “ Stop , now you’re the one making me blush,” she said with absolutely no sincerity.

“Seems only fair,” he said as she shifted against him. As he lay on his back in her nest of pillows, she lounged on her side, arm propped on his midsection, leaning over him as they looked at each other. 

She’d given him so very much. She’d even given him time - the thing he needed most desperately of all. She’d created a suit of armor that made him feel powerful… no- she made him feel powerful. Even if they couldn’t make the portal work, he now had time to renegotiate his coming years, and maybe he could give her some of the things she deserved. So long as she helped him keep his secret, and he knew she would, they could do whatever they wanted with the rest of his life. 

Hordak was tired from the day. The pain that came with his bad joints and iffy cybernetics was exhausting, and he’d had a lot of it that afternoon… But he wasn’t in pain at the moment… and he had spent a fair few hours at rest, if not asleep… Hordak looked into Entrapta’s face and brushed the backs of his fingers against her soft, curved cheek.

“You’re so…” Entrapta trailed off with narrowed eyes and a half smile. “I don’t even know, but it's absolutely fascinating.” He let his hand drop and gazed at her in pleasant puzzlement. “But you should get some sleep.”

“Not yet, I don’t think.” She cocked her head, but the hand he’d rested on her thigh was already sliding up to her hip, where he squeezed her ample flesh. Her sparkling eyes widened slightly and he quirked a brow as the flush that appeared on her cheeks slowly blossomed on her neck and above her breasts. “Come back here,” he said, keeping his voice low and gentle. 

She considered arguing, he could see the mischief in her eyes, but instead she scooted nearer and rested her face on his chest. He spent several long moments carding his claws through the roots of her hair, simply to observe the contrast between the slate blue of his skin and the shining lavender hues. He knew he was indulging delusions, but he imagined that the color was so beautiful that it even softened the ugly contrast between the original blue of his skin and the angry white discoloration of his arms.

When he lightly scratched at her scalp, she uttered an earnest, graceless groan that he couldn’t help smile at. Her eyes were closed and her face was screwed up, but her hands were deliberately slow and steady over his chest and he felt her hair meandering over the sheets, looking for trouble. 

He decided he’d beat her to the punch, and grabbed her by the waist, hauling her up and over himself so he could roll into his side and lean over her. The movement seemed to surprise her, but delight shone in her face as she unclenched her fingers from his dress and relaxed on her back. He breathed a lengthy, satisfied sigh as she wrapped her arms around his neck and he settled over her. The sigh rumbled into his low purr and he slid his own arms beneath Entrapta’s torso, holding her against himself with their weight on his elbows. He buried his face in her neck and inhaled the smell of her, cradling her body close while tendrils of her hair snaked their way along his arms and legs.

He tensed where he lay as he felt silken strands thread through the gaps in his forearms, and she lifted wide eyes to watch his face. She didn’t stop, however, and he didn’t stop her. He was focused on schooling his expression as the hair inched along, feather light on sensitive skin, and when she lifted her hand to his cheek he startled, looking back at her eyes. They froze there for a moment, eyes locked, then Hordak let his eyelids fall, turned to kiss her palm, then tilted his face back into her touch.

Their precious silence hung on the air as he felt her thumb ghost over his cheekbone. Then her lips were on his, and she was kissing him so softly that merely opening his mouth broke contact. With his lips and teeth parted, their kiss deepened, and soon her breathing was heavy and her lips were swollen and flushed beneath his kiss. As they reveled in each others’ mouths at a leisurely pace, her scent intensified along with their arousal.

Without the braces he usually wore over his wrists, his hands had a much greater range of motion. He took full advantage of this, sliding his palms firmly over every inch of her he could reach, relearning the contours of her body with a fresh touch. Without all the metal on his arms, he was able to hold her closer, more firmly, and feel her heat with even more of his own skin. The same onslaught of taste, smell, sight and feel flooded his senses with delicious satisfaction even as it stoked his craving for more. 

Her touch was slow and tender, as if she were truly savoring her increased access to his body. He imitated her devoted attention in turn, his hands drawn repeatedly back to cradle her lovely neck and face, unwilling to stop kissing her even for the promise of more decadence. Her eyes were closed and the sounds that were emanating from her were an intoxicant all their own. She just seemed so damned comfortable , as if there were nowhere else on Etheria she’d rather be. It was a heady concept to entertain.

Entrapta started wiggling against him again, trying to get closer even though their torsos were already flush. Before she could shift enough to wrap a leg over his hip, he rolled more of his weight onto one side and lifted the other arm free of their embrace to slip his hand between her knees. He slid his palm slowly up the seam of her thighs, pressing one leg away and against the bed before hooking the other over his own thigh. 

He didn’t break their kiss, determined to taste her reactions directly as he touched her, and was rewarded by every hitch in her breathing. With her thighs spread, he took a moment to run his hand slowly over the thin fabric on her belly. The muscle there twitched beneath his touch and he flattened his palm against her with soothing pressure, letting the heat build in the touch before he began to trail his fingers lower, seeking out the small stretch of cloth he knew would be wet. 

She uttered a strangled groan into his mouth and he took the opportunity to delve his tongue deeper, tasting the ragged sound as her groan turned into a gasp. She broke from his mouth with a frustrated grunt, started wiggling again, and it took Hordak a moment to realize her hair was tugging at her bodysuit. He allowed her to finish the job, watching with rapt interest, and smiled again when she finally threw the cumbersome item to the floor next to his bed.

Chapter Text

Once she was again naked before him, he pause d to gaze down at her light brown skin, watching the shadows along her body change with every deep breath. The light was low, but he was still wary of betraying the confusing swell of feelings in his chest and stirring her concern. Instead, he focused on the inexplicable warmth he felt throughout his body and her stunning smile.

His eyes slid to the places where he’d bruised her just days before, but to his surprise he found nothing but a few faint green tinges in spots. It didn’t distract him long, however- it wouldn’t be the first time he’d misremembered nuances in Etherian health. When she lifted a hip to turn her body toward his, he leaned over her again, scant inches between them, shrouding her in even darker shadow. After carefully pressing his abdomen along her side, he matched his breathing to hers and focused on its soothing flow.

His arm was still braced beneath her shoulders, accentuating the glow of her healthy flesh as well as their size difference. The faint, waxen lines across her stomach marked where her luscious softness folded on itself, and glistened with a subtle sheen of collected perspiration, salty-sweet and addictive. Her nipples were pebbled up and pointed atop her supple breasts, and her hair twitched and writhed even as it remained fanned out around her. 

When he dragged his gaze back up to hers, and saw that her eyes were wide and attentive. She was looking at him with such intense focus that he nearly recoiled, afraid that he’d overwhelmed her. And yet, there was something fragile in her eyes that he had never seen before, and didn’t fully understand. Then her thighs fell open again, and when he was hit with the heady scent of her arousal, his purr ripped into a lengthy growl before melting back into lazy vibration. He pressed even closer now that she was completely bare, her naked form pressed against him with nothing but his dress between their skin, drinking in her tiny sounds with every breath. 

Something about tonight was different, he realized, though he couldn’t have put words to the feeling if he tried. There was less between them, somehow, and it had nothing to do with the absence of his armor. It wasn’t uncomfortable by any means, but there was something raw in their exchanged glances and in the way her eyebrows shifted with indecipherable emotion. He knew instinctively that he wasn’t imagining the fresh vulnerability in her gaze, and he was overwhelmed with the urgent need to provide her with the same gentle reassurance she’d given him. He knew full well that he wasn’t capable of matching her generosity of spirit, but he could do his best.

He felt the arm around his neck shift before she threaded her fingers into his hair, and he vaguely registered her other hand fisting into the sheets. Prime’s warnings echoed distantly in the back of his mind, but he wasn’t listening, far too consumed by the comfort and pleasure enveloping his senses. His mouth was open again, and his purr rattled his heavy breathing as he gently pressed his face into her neck.

He lay his hand on her stomach again before leaning in to take her mouth in a cautious kiss, slow and gentle, and when he stopped to look back into her eyes, she used the hand in his hair to press their foreheads together. His eyes shut of their own accord, and he felt the fingers of her other hand on the side of his neck before she ghosted her thumb down the thin fabric over his throat. The now-familiar gesture drew another strange trill from his open mouth and she smiled widely, dazzling him again with her loveliness.

When he shivered beneath her touch, she lifted her mouth to his again, and they deepened their kiss. He felt her tongue swipt his fangs, and took the opportunity to slide his own tongue into her mouth, filling it quickly as he tasted her groan. As he drank in her sighs at their source, she caressed his tongue with her own, lazy and gentle. She took him by surprise when she took a moment to close her lips suck his tongue briefly, but she returned to their kiss even as a shaky groan escaped him.

He started inching his hand down the warm, unbelievably soft skin of her abdomen again. She didn’t pull back, only clutched at his neck and shoulders and kissed him harder, and he slowly curved his grip lightly over her core. He shifted his hand’s position to trail the pad of his middle finger delicately along her slit, shivering at the wetness that awaited his touch. She mewled and squirmed, and he pulled her even tighter against himself.

He trailed the finger up and down, gliding through thick nectar along her rosey lips, before gently dipping it between them. He soon added two other fingers to his gentle caressing, her fragrant slick welling up between them as he trailed their length along the swollen petals of her sex. Her core was so hot, so unbelievably slick, her sounds so soft and sweet, and his length throbbed in tandem with his pulse as he continued to kiss her through her unsteady breathing. 

He eventually dragged his mouth from hers and took several deep, steadying breaths. “So wet,” he mumbled into her shoulder before turning his mouth into her neck, licking her pulse point. 

“Hordak,” she sighed, and the sultry pout in her whisper went straight to his twitching erection.

She began to roll her hips, grinding herself against his fingers. He positioned them carefully, talons well and away from her delicate flesh, but maintained the pressure behind his hand on her core, matching his movements to hers. She let out a lengthy groan and used both hands to clutch the spanse of fabric just above his shoulder blades, undulating her torso with more exigency beneath him.

The fresh combination of her mouth on his and her crux in his hand came with a new intensity of sensory immersion, and the feel of her dripping softness filled his head with the delicious fog that was already a hallmark of their intimacy. His hand followed her motions easily as she rolled her hips against him, her breathing gradually picking up, and the attention he was able to devote to her textures and shapes soon eclipsed all else. It seemed it was consuming Entrapta’s attention as well, for she soon broke from their kiss with an extended, whining groan. 

His cock strained against his clothes as he nuzzled his face into her neck, inhaling her scent as she chased her pleasure, licking and kissing the graceful column of muscle when the urge struck him. Her fingers weaved back into his hair and her arms tightened around him as he stroked her. Soon he was panting as hard as she was, completely caught up in every reaction he triggered in her.

When his body tired of the slightly awkward position he was in and he was forced to drag his mouth from her neck, he adjusted himself to tuck her against him, her face pressed against his chest beneath his chin. They clung to each other as he moved his hand faster, following her bucking hips. He felt her start to lose herself to an oncoming release, taking more and more control of her own movements and the angle of his touch as he continued to apply careful pressure. Her legs began to shake and his own sounds leaked into his panting, her moans grew more desperate and breathy, and he could feel her yielding, wet folds contracting beneath his touch.

He wanted to feel her cum in his hand, was desperate to know what it felt like, but his attention was also caught by the pitch of her cries. She let go of his shoulders and neck to clutch at his dress, burying her face in his chest as his name poured from her sweet lips again and again, stoking his euphoric high. He found himself replying with murmured words of praise and supplication, urging her onward, swept up in her pleasure so thoroughly that he began to grind his swollen, aching cock against her hip mindlessly. 

Soon the feel of her need pulsing in his hand gave way to shuddering hips and trembling thighs, and they both let out loud sounds of release when she came, her fluids spilling over his fingers and rolling off their tips. “Beautiful,” he breathed into her hair as her motions finally started to slow. Her breaths were still ragged when he gently tugged her head back by her hair so he could see her face. She was wearing an expression he didn’t understand, and again he saw a fragility in her gaze that confused him. “Are you alright?” he asked.

“Yeah,” she huffed, still catching her breath. “Are you?”

He nodded and leaned forward to take her mouth in a gentle kiss. “Let me lick you,” he whispered against her lips, half question and half suggestion. Her eyes searched his for a moment, but she nodded eagerly, flashing him a reassuring smile.

As he eased his arm from beneath her shoulders and shifted further over her, he took the briefest detour on his way down her body and lowered his face to her breasts. He felt her small fingers in his hair and on the back of his head as he kissed the decadent globes, generously sized by any mammalian standard. Caressing his fingertips over her heated skin, he grazed the pointed, if blunted ends of his claws over her rising goosebumps. He circled one fingertip around a stiff bud before kissing each nipple, and could easily have lingered there with his mouth at her chest.

The scent of her crux drew him ever downward, however, and he pressed a final kiss to the valley of thin skin at the center of her chest, directly above where her only heart pounded. He shifted further along the bed, lamenting the loss of her fingers in his hair for the moment, but delighted by the many textures he kissed on his way down. Even her ribs were covered with a plush, luxurious layer of the softest flesh, but her stomach was a wonder all its own, and it felt nearly as good beneath his lips as her breasts. He took a few extra seconds to nibble at his favorite little roll of flesh that hugged the bottom of her navel, then nipped at one of her hips, eliciting one of her wonderful little giggles. Then, when he settled his chest between her legs and lifted her knees apart, he inhaled, slow and deep, head spinning with her ambrosia. 

His exhale was a low growl, and he took a moment to observe the flushed lips of her sex, slick with pleasure and swollen with his attention. It caught him off guard when he felt her fingers again as she began to fondle one of his ears, and yet another trill was drawn from the back of his throat. He dared to meet her eyes even as he blushed, and was rewarded with another beatific smile, still moving the tip of his ear between featherlight touches in a slow, feather-light rhythm. He tore his eyes from her face to look back at the center of his attention, and reached to draw the pad of his thumb gently up her slit, spreading her thick, glistening slick before toying with it between his own fingers.

More fluid seeped from her entrance and he watched it roll down her body slowly, entranced. When she spread her legs wider and the lips of her sex parted, shining dully in the light from his eyes, he gave in to the call of her body. He drew the flat of his tongue in a firm path from her channel to her bud, then flicked his gaze up to see her face again. She was still looking at him, an oddly strained expression puckering her brow, her chest heaving. He began lapping at her fold gently, lightly, and he watched her breathing hitch and her stomach roll. Her hands went to his hair and ear again, and he growled into his work.

He kept purring into her as he licked, nibbled, kissed and sucked, eventually letting his eyes fall closed so he could focus on his other senses. He kneaded her thighs with greedy stroking, trying to revel in her softness in any way he could. The haze of vicarious pleasure drew him ever deeper into her passions, and he abandoned himself to the sweet sin, floating on her every sigh. 

He circled the swollen nub at the top of her sex without licking it directly, and swiped the tip of his tongue between every petal, applying gentler pressure with his lips, delighting in every sound she gave him. After a while, he delved his tongue directly into her slick channel, pushing past her entrance in search of the mysterious little spot he’d delighted in days before. He curled his tongue inside of her, moving it forcefully, and growled again as she fluttered and clenched around it. Drawing as much of her nectar along with it as he could, he eventually withdrew his tongue and finally trailed it up again to lav at the pleasure point that crowned her slit. Her taste, a heady narcotic, made his mouth water even as her own essence wet his work, and the combination of their fluids painted her flesh and dripped down his chin. He was moaning against her delicate flesh when her hips started bucking again, and he looked up to her face with a question in his eyes, wondering at her rapid ascent. His gaze was met with hers again, her face still twisted in pleasure, eyelids heavy and lips parted. 

The warmth on the sides of his head began to grow damp with perspiration as she mounted her crest, and he couldn’t help his answering whine as he hounded her pleasure. She threw her head back, her hips jerked hard beneath his mouth, and uttered a loud cry as she came beneath his tongue. He drank in as much of her release as he could, licking and sucking and groaning in response to the way she was gasping his name.

He gentled his attentions as she slowly came down, eventually caressing her outer lips with his tongue in slow, light swipes. The small hand in his hair tugged lightly, and he lifted his head. She was flushed, dewy, and dripping as she spoke in a breathless murmur. “My turn.” He raised his brow at her and she smiled. “Trade me spots.”

After wiping his mouth hurriedly, they swapped positions. They were a little awkward as they maneuvered, but soon he was leaning back against her pillows and she was kneeling between his ankles. The large bulge below his hips was obvious, and he fought the urge to obscure the protuberance that she was eyeing so openly. He reminded himself that she was a strange woman who liked strange things, and slowly managed to relax beneath her scrutiny. 

At some point, she seemed to remember herself and blinked rapidly before giving her head a little shake. Then she was moving up his legs, spreading his knees with her hair and sliding her hands up his inner thighs, making him shiver. He helped her pull down his undergarment and his upright cock tented his skirt more obviously than ever. When she pulled the fabric away and revealed the leaking member, she licked her lips and he groaned. 

With one last wicked glance up at him, she moved her hand between her own thighs and over her crux. Then she lifted her fluid-slicked fingers to his cock and spread the slick over his length, drawing another groan from between his clenched teeth. She leaned forward, licked the head of his cock once, giggled at his gasp, then continued up his body. 

She raised up on her knees to kiss him, and he reached to the back of her head to hold her there, drawing out their kiss, trying to channel his confused thoughts and feelings through their moving mouths as he did so. He did not let her go when he broke the kiss, instead moving his mouth down her neck tasting her pulse as he dragged his tongue downward. With such easy access, he couldn’t resist dipping his mouth down to her chest again and moved both hands to wrap around her rib cage, using his thumbs to toy with her nipples and watching her face as she closed her eyes and hummed comfortably. When she wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him against her chest, he let himself nuzzle into the impossibly soft flesh before him. He couldn’t yet bring himself to tell her how much their friendship meant to him, so he tried to channel his affection, his fear, his raw want into every point of contact between them. 

Entrapta twitched and hummed in his embrace, and he sighed over her flushed skin, letting his breath roll over the wet glow he’d painted with his tongue. He kept kissing, lavishing her with all of his attention, perfectly content to indulge for as long as it pleased her. When she unwrapped her arms from his neck, however, he relaxed his grip on her and she allowed some space between them.

After taking a moment to run her hands down his chest and abdomen, she lifted up on her knees and hovered over his quivering length. He gripped his sheets so tight his hands shook as he watched her position him beneath her. When he was pressed against his entrance, she tilted her hips forward so he could see her shining core, and he watched her slowly sink down on him.

Chapter Text

Entrapta’s breathing came in tight, shallow bursts for a few seconds as she gradually lowered herself, and Hordak fought to hold completely still for her, still gripping the sheets tightly with his ears held low. As her tight heat clenched spasmodically around his length, he couldn’t look away from where it was slowly disappearing into her body. When he’d filled her and she stilled, they let out a combined woosh of shaky breath and glanced at each other’s faces. Her eyes were still wide, her mouth was slightly open, and he imagined he could feel the heat from the flush that lingered across her cheeks, chest and shoulders. 

“You know, your stamina really is impressive by Etherian standards,” Entrapta said through measured breaths, looking down at her own hands on his chest. He had not known, and he was very pleased by the declaration. “Fuck, you’re so goal oriented!” she continued, looking back up at him and flashing a wide grin.

He thought for a moment, but couldn’t come up with anything smooth or sexy on short notice. “Dogged tenacity is… a useful trait in my work.”

She leaned forward and he met her halfway, capturing her lips in another gentle kiss, and she moved her mouth over his with slow, aching tenderness. When they broke the kiss and leaned apart again, she placed her palms back on his tensed abdomen and pressed forward slightly, sliding his dress up over the planes of scarred skin so that the slits in the fabric hiked up around his waist. He lifted his knees behind her and found that it made it much easier to move his hips, and he flexed them experimentally. Entrapta shut her eyes and moaned as he lifted her by mere inches, rolling her hips against his in response, sending delicious bolts of pleasure through his core and up his spine. 

He repeated the motion, then again, and they settled into a lazy rhythm, his hands wandering between her waist, hips, ass and thighs. Their breathing was heavy but they continued to move slowly as Entrapta ran her hands up and down his torso, trailing her fingers between what muscle held his frame together and refraining from slipping them beneath what his dress kept covered. He stared at her tiny fingers spread over him, marveling at a sight he’d never even tried to imagine. 

Every time he’d let himself daydream about intimate scenarios with Entrapta, he’d imagined himself in his armor, strong enough to dictate their movements, confident in his power over the situation. This, however… he was so completely vulnerable, and yet it was somehow better than he’d ever thought possible. As she moved, he watched the faint map of their pleasure painted on her body, swelling and rolling with her heavy breathing. He took several long seconds to stare, trying to memorize the beautiful sight and the unreal feelings flooding him. 

Her eyes were closed, her lips were shining with wetness from their kissing, and every soft, supple curve on her body quivered with the careful impact of his hips beneath her. Hordak felt his train of thought begin to unravel as he buried himself in her body over and over again, and gripped at her hips, desperate for some kind of anchor as his consciousness spiraled into unspeakable pleasure. He pressed her into his lap, grinding up against her with every thrust, grunting and gasping through tightly clenched teeth. Before long, she planted her palms against his shoulders and leaned into him heavily, panting, brow furrowed in concentration. 

As their rhythm and breathing rose together, he found himself staring into her face, wondering at the way her expression gradually smoothed. Though he’d never been intuitive, he could tell that she was surrendering herself to the flow they’d established, her restless energy calmed for the moment, and he felt a powerful surge in his loins at the thought that being with him was enough soothe her racing mind. It was enough for him, too. On impulse, he leaned forward and captured her lips in another kiss, pushing his tongue into her mouth again to claim her as thoroughly as he could. He wrapped an arm around her lower back, pulling her against him so they were pressed together again, still guiding her hips with his other hand. 

Tongues twined, breaths combined, they drove each other ever onward. Losing himself to the moment, Hordak fully relinquished control over his own thoughts. He pretended she was his… his princess. He pretended he could keep her, not just now but indefinitely. In his temporary madness, he even pretended that everything would be okay. After wrenching his mouth from hers with a snarled groan, he took a moment to indulge in skimming his teeth over the graceful curve of bone- so beautifully softened by her decadent flesh, so unlike his own harsh collarbones- and he let her name slip from his mouth in the form of a gasp, desperate and wanton. 

Throughout their entire encounter, Hordak had been chasing her pleasure, greedy for her praise and affection. When she moaned his name in return, however, and fire raged through his entire body, he was overwhelmed with the irrational need to claim her body. He adjusted his hold on her and rolled them over so that he was on top of her, and watched her face to make sure she was pleased. She only grabbed his face and kissed him more fiercely than ever, so he continued thrusting into her, pushing and pulling his turgid cock through every delectable sensation her slick heat offered.

As he neared his climax, she unwrapped her arms from around his neck to pull her face from his, burying one hand in his hair while the other clutched at his waist. He could tell she was watching him, waiting for his orgasm, and this time he couldn’t bring himself to put distance between them. Instead, he pounded into her, growling her name and her praises as he did so, clutching her body to his as if his life depended on the contact between them.

He gave himself up completely and pulled her into an even close embrace as his body shuddered. He held her tightly against him, gasping and moaning over her shoulder, and he came with a weak cry that broke into a strained whine, his entire body jerking hard. He thrust with every surge of release, panting for breath and reveling in how tightly her legs and arms were wrapped around him. It felt like the intensity of his climax might break him apart if she loosened her hold.

His vision went black and small lights popped in front of his eyes, and pleasure like he’d never known flooded his entire body, overwhelming his every sense. He didn’t rush himself as he floated on his high, enjoying their thick fog of rapture, still clutching her close as she stroked his hair and shoulders, lips pressed against one of his ears. Weightless, boneless, he hovered between extended, delicious moments. 

He regained his senses slowly, reluctant as he was to return to clarity. Even so, he was still breathing hard when he realized he’d collapsed on top of her. Concerned that the weight of his entire upper half rested atop her small body, he made to roll off of her. To his surprise, however, he found that her hair had wrapped around all four of his limbs and held tight, keeping him in his prone position.

With his head resting on her chest he could hear her only heart as it pounded beneath his cheek, every bit as frantic as his own hearts. Both of his arms were wrapped around her torso, and her nose was buried in his hair. One of her hands was resting lightly on his neck port and the other fondled the tip of one of his ears lightly, moving her fingers over the sensitive skin with a feather-light touch. He made to roll off of her again, but again, she held him still.

“Entrapta?” he ventured.

“Hmm?”

“What are you doing?” he whispered, confused and hesitant. 

“I’m holding you,” she answered simply.

He slowly let the full weight of his head back down on her chest, letting the warm, allowing soft flesh to cushion every harsh angle of his face. “Oh.”

“Is that okay?” she whispered back, her voice even softer than his had been.

He drew a slow, deep breath and thought for a moment. “Yes.” It took several more minutes to fully relax into her embrace, but eventually a low purr rumbled to life in his chest.

*   *   *   *   *

Entrapta fell asleep before long, both of her hands resting on the back of his neck and her hair still wrapped around him. As he slowed his own breathing and settled into rest, he thought about the situation he now found himself in, fully intertwined with another warm body for the first time in decades. He’d always been certain he’d never feel toward anyone or anything with the strength of emotion that stirred in him when he thought of home, and neither Etheria nor its people had done anything to challenge this assumption.

He didn’t expect Etherian peoples to have a grasp on things like purity, devotion or love. How could one know love if they did not know perfection? It had been easy to dismiss Etherian concepts of love as a mutation of their desire for the sacred. It was painfully obvious that that was all it was… and yet… Entrapta. He knew what his duty was and he wasn’t about to abandon it, but… he definitely cared more for her than any other Etherian he’d ever known. She wasn’t Prime, to be sure- she would make for a very chaotic, unstable center of the universe- but she meant more to him than anything else he’d ever known on this miserable little planet. 

She meant more to him than anythi-

NO . No no no no no… Hordak pressed the anxiety that this line of thinking spurred to the back of his mind and tried to focus on the present. He took another deep breath and shifted his face slightly against her warmth, reminding himself that they were safe and warm and together for now. The shame and doubt that haunted him could wait.

Familiar words floated to him as he lay in the dark, though he couldn't tell if they came from memories or his own imagination of the past. “...you were made to conquer, not rule. Serve, not foster. Crush, not guide. You are not a leader, you are an exterminator.” 

He was such a light sleeper he didn’t think he’d be able to drop off while she was snoring into one of his ears, but the rhythms of her heartbeat and her breathing were hypnotic. Before he new it, she was shaking him lightly, disorienting him as his stupor broke. “What?” he breathed, leaning up on his elbows over her and struggling toward alertness.

“Bad dream,” she murmured through a comfortable sigh, holding onto his shoulders instead of getting up herself. 

“I see,” he muttered, lowering himself again slowly. As he tried to track backward, he realized she’d woken him before another nightmare had gotten bad again. What had he even been dreaming about?

He settled back into her hold and didn’t even stiffen when she replaced her hands on the back of his neck and the base of his skull. The details were already slipping, but he’d definitely been dreaming about Prime again- wrestling with his duties and moral obligations, as ever. He’d been trying to argue his case to one of Prime’s favorites… begging for an audience? Maybe. In any case, the dream seemed to have hung upon a question of belonging.

This made sense, though Hordak didn’t much like the fact. As he tried to soothe himself enough for another few hours of rest, he had to admit that the inexplicable reach of Entrapta’s embrace did feel like belonging. All the things they shared felt real and trustworthy and… comforting. 

She was a cautionary tale, yes, but what he felt when he was around her didn’t feel like lies and tricks. In fact, it felt exactly how he’d imagined it would when he let himself daydream about returning to Prime, finally proving that he had a place at his side, finally proving that he was still devoted and loyal, even if he was ugly and weak. He clenched his jaws at the memory of nightmares previous, thinking of Prime’s imagined disappointment. 

So long as Hordak could prove he hadn’t failed Him, he still had something to work toward. Such sweet dreams had provided plenty of fuel to go on, year after year after year. But now… now it seemed like he was getting everything he’d ever begged Prime for in vain, and he was getting it for free. She didn’t even demand servitude in return for her gifts. She said she was his partner regardless of failure, because… she said she cared about him. She’d even said she liked being friends with him.

Hordak knew Prime loved him. Prime loved all his creations, so much so that He’d bestowed upon them the gifts of His own beauty and physical perfection. Hordak had sullied those gifts, and then lied about it. One day he would return and ask for comfort and acceptance instead, and he hoped against hope that a planet for an offering might be enough to earn grace… But Entrapta didn’t ask for perfection, nor did she ask for conquest. She said she just wanted to be near him. As he wanted to be near her. 

Fuck. He was in a loop, thinking himself in circles. Entrapta twitched and grunted in her sleep beneath him and Hordak felt the corner of his mouth twitch. Whether he was lost or not, she’d woken him before the nightmare had gotten bad, and he felt fortunate to have her in his bed.

Chapter Text

They both slept well that night, and the bliss of their coupling wasn’t spoiled for Hordak until he checked in on the Fright Zone the next morning. Unfortunately, when he opened his communicator, he was notified that Force Captain Scorpia had disobeyed orders and accompanied Catra on her suicide mission into the Crimson Waste. Of all the stupid things to do, and of all the soldiers to do it… Just one more needless and enraging breach of protocol. 

He took some time to think about the situation before his temper solidified, however, and found pros to weigh against cons. Scorpia was better suited to the harsh environment of the Crimson Waste than any other of his soldiers, even tougher than the reptilians who heralded from the unforgiving desert. The Scorpion Dynasty and the Reptilian Dynasty had warred over the territory for centuries in the past, and her presence made Catra’s survival far more likely. He was still angry with Catra, but her survival meant that Entrapta would get what she wanted. He didn’t plan on suffering Catra’s impudence ever again, but if Scorpia could stomach her service, then the two formed a formidable team to take over the Fright Zone when he rearranged his empire. Should he decide to take such a route, of course. 

Really, it was extraordinarily convenient. Coincidental… so much so that it smacked of destiny- whatever version of that was present on Etheria, anyway. As if his whole life had lead up to this point. As if he’d finally found the right path- the one he was actually meant for.

As he lay in bed, he turned to watch Entrapta snoring beside him. Her hair was a gigantic mess that tumbled over them both and onto the floor, and she was drooling into her pillow quite heavily. She was the first thing he thought of when he woke up, and the last thing he thought about before he fell asleep. He found himself marking his day by her presence and her smiles. He’d give her every moon around Etheria if she asked for them, and he really could. He could launch a fleet of satellites as false stars, and write her name on every one of them. Her body was holy ground, her mind was a miracle housed in diaphanous beauty. She was sacred.

He just needed to know if Entrapta would be content to stay with him in Despondos or not. Would she give up the stars for him? Could he bring himself to ask her to?

He was still staring at her and thinking hard when she began to stir. It took about twenty more minutes, but eventually she groaned, stretched, and propped herself up to smile over at him, blinking blearily. She was every bit as stunning as ever, bedhead and all. “Good morning,” she sighed, rubbing at her eyes with her knuckles and maintaining her lazy smile.

“Good morning, Princess,” he replied, and found his voice was still a bit hoarse.

After an enormous yawn, Entrapta fixed him with an odd look, mischief plain in her gaze.  “There’s something I’ve been dying to find out.”

“What could you possibly be having trouble figuring out?” He said, amused and smirking himself.

“I’d like to know how long I can sit on your face before you break for air.”

He felt his eyes go wide and his brow shoot up. After several seconds of ringing silence, he forced himself to answer. “...I believe I would like to figure that out as well.”

She clapped her hands and immediately popped up onto her knees. “Great! Let’s experiment!”

His mouth started watering in earnest when she straddled him, her naked body still sporting evidence of their previous night’s activities. He grasped her hips and squeezed indulgently before he lifted her body toward his face, moving slowly so she could maintain her balance with her hair. He took one last deep breath before moving to lower her crux to his mouth, but she hesitated. When he looked up to her with a question in his eyes, she gave him a playful smirk. “Has anyone ever told you that you’ve got a face that's made for sitting on?”

Hordak pulled a face. He didn’t know how he was supposed to feel about the question, though he was sure to answer promptly through his impatience. “Absolutely no-mphft.” Apparently the question had been rhetorical.

*   *   *

As it turned out, they didn’t make it out of bed until many hours after. Hordak was perfectly content to continue participating in whatever “experiments” she thought of and enjoyed himself thoroughly. Between enthusiastic and highly enjoyable romps, they simply talked. And talked. And talked. 

He held her in his thin, deformed arms while he told her about the stars. Her eyes were wide and shiny, and she asked endless follow up questions as he explained their lifecycles and more anomalous behaviors. He told her what he could remember of other planets, though he was careful to add the caveat of muddled recall. He told her about the technological wonders of Prime’s empire, a system in which even dying planets could find a peaceful future. She drank in every word eagerly, joyfully, and it only made him want to tell her more.

In turn, she told him about her world before the Fright Zone. She told him about the strange form of magic in her bloodline. He matched her fascination with his own as she told him how she actually had no clue how the magic worked but knew it had something to do with her precious First Ones Tech, how it made for a remarkably durable physiology and longer lifespans than average, and how it seemed to have nothing to do with Etheria’s wild magic at all. 

He told her everything he knew about his illness and she told him everything she could describe about her unique and wondrous brain. They traded unsettling traits and features, her fingernail hair for his under-eyelids and day napping. Apparently most Etherians used little metal clippers on their talons and nails, whereas he used an angle grinder. He told her about what she called his tantrums, and she told him about what she called her meltdowns. 

At one point, she even spotted his damned bathrobe from across the room and insisted on inspecting it. She even convinced him to model the damn thing for her, blushing and muttering at the ridiculousness of it all. All the while, however, he felt his ever-disturbing doubt and shame gnawing at him, keeping him from surrendering fully to the joy of their little moments. 

When she finally decided to break for a shower and a change, however, he allowed himself to turn his thoughts back to his new armor, excited and eager to put it back on and start working out glitches. She was already there when he returned to the sanctum, freshly groomed and ready to work, and they teamed up to convert his armor rig to handle the new model. 

She suggested they start with more routine activity to start with, and it turned out to be a good idea. They settled into an intimate little project with an internal core processor, him doing the smallest work while she sped through the soldering with multiple tools at once. The shocks that came with his armor’s glitches during this project were minor and easy to weather, and they ironed out quite a bit of basic reconfiguration in a matter of hours. 

He stole away during one of her bathroom breaks to test a theory, and she caught him red handed modeling his old traveling cloak for himself over his new armor. The garment was infinitely more subtle than the stiffer mantle he’d designed to protect his neck and back, and he’d missed it over the past few years. “Ooooh,” she muttered appreciatively, bringing yet another blush to his cheeks and ears, “tall dark and scary. Not that you weren’t before, but I like the effect.”

Instead of playing into her teasing, he told her to take her clothes off again, and for once she obeyed eagerly and without question. Once she was gloriously naked, Hordak cut off the beginning of more teasing when he bent, grabbed her thighs, and lifted her up high against the wall to place her legs over his shoulders. He took his time with his face buried between her legs, and let his mind wander as he drew out her pleasure with what was now practiced care. 

All these years of emptiness and adaptation, yet something sacred had found him anyway. Maybe he’d needed to be beaten down to accept it. Maybe it was all meant to happen like this.

Precious, precious, impossible time. He wanted nothing more than to… no. The only thing he wanted, at least anymore, was to spend that time with her. He didn’t even care what he’d spend that time doing. He’d do whatever she wanted, he’d do anything for her. Anything at all… 

Including letting her go, if she decided the stars were worth it. If she still wanted to connect Etheria to Prime’s empire and the wider universe, he would not deny her. He would explain everything at stake, that they would most likely have to be separated, but if she chose to give her people that future, he would help her achieve it. 

But maybe… maybe she wouldn’t want to. Maybe she’d consider staying with him. Maybe they could share the rest of his life and build something of a future together. Maybe they could even make a home together. 

Home… he never thought he’d have a home until he returned to Prime, who was his true and rightful home. But after all this time, Entrapta felt like home. And if he were honest, truly honest with himself, she was more than enough for him. Without Prime’s light, she was everything.

And if Prime happened to arrive on his own while they were living his failure’s future… well, that was another matter, really. He was so very far from pure, but His light could purify anything. And all creatures had a place in the service of Horde Prime. That was his sacred promise- and Prime didn’t break promises. All creatures had a place in the service of Horde Prime. All creatures had a place in the service of Horde Prime… perhaps if he made it a mantra, his fear would eventually ease.

Hordak knew he needed to work up the courage to ask if she’d want to stay with him, but before he could, she brought the topic up herself. They’d been testing out how his suit handled the strain of shifting enormous weight, and after a nasty shock she’d accused him of being “in a tizzy”. She'd then softened the gentle reprimand with more dreaming about their creations.

She’d mentioned their portal machine and his hearts had sunk slowly. When she mentioned getting a person through the portal they created, he forced himself to be honest and told her that really, all they needed to achieve was enough of an opening to send a message. He’d been sure that the information would make her brighten, perhaps spur a new wave of brainstorming, even. But it hadn’t.

Instead, she spoke of his departure with what he was sure was sadness. She hadn’t brightened until she’d asked him "what’s the rush?" and then she, she who was so very unconcerned with perfection, proposed extending their project indefinitely, aiming for what she’d claimed was irrelevant and what he knew was impossible.

His hearts picked up again and he dared to smile. He was about to pull her into a kiss, to ask her his all-important question, when the clunk and hiss of his Sanctum’s doors signaled a new arrival. They both turned, and the first thing he saw was Catra, carrying a familiar sword. 

*   *   *   *   *   

The moment was now. He’d run out of time for agonizing, he had to ask her before the portal opened. He turned to Catra, desperate and urgent.  “Where is Entrapta? I need her!”

Chapter Text

As broken machinery sparked around him in his ruined lab, Hordak sat silent and still upon a piece of wreckage. He held his head in his hands and stared at the spilled vitrine fluid on the floor beneath him, thinking himself in circles again. He couldn’t believe he’d been so fucking stupid.

He’d known better. He’d been given more warning than anyone should ever need, and he’d done it anyway. He’d been so, so, so stupid.

And Prime had been right. About everything. As always.

Prime had taught his brothers to be wary of those they conquered above all else. Hordak had known that if he let a Native get close, they might steal his secrets, corrupt him, and lead him into sin. He’d known that they might plant doubts and heresy in his mind, that they were the biggest threat to his mission. And he’d done it anyway. 

Hordak felt like he was going through exile all over again. He’d completely negated all of his own achievements, and he’d done it knowingly and willfully. It was all his fault… all his fault, and yet again, he was completely powerless against the consequences of his failure.

Prime had been right about it all.

Chapter Text

Thank you so much DaelineOwl!!! Find the uncropped version here:   https://dae-stuff.tumblr.com/post/688665240392646656/a-somewhat-villainous-affair-find-the-uncropped