Archive of Our Own ^beta

After five minutes, Mark got fed up with hearing Eduardo’s list of worries about what would happen once they entered the store. He had already heard them on their transit there, and if he had to hear the word ‘indecent’ again, he was going to tell him to pack it up; he’d just do it alone.

That had been his intention, he only told Eduardo about his planned excursion because he had lost his fake ID—of course, Eduardo knew where it was and inquired regarding why Mark needed it.

That’s how they made it there, Good Vibrations , and Eduardo’s ramblings were making Mark wish he had just found a sketchy online vendor, instead of a sketchy store 40 minutes away from campus. There had been stores closer that sold what he was looking for, but Eduardo didn’t want to run into anyone they knew.

There was a jingle behind him, as Mark entered, Eduardo close behind him. Since the windows were blacked out, all the lighting was artificial and harsh, illuminating the entry room. There was a pierced employee behind the counter, with dyed hair, not really paying attention to either of them.

Eduardo opened with a chirpy greeting anyway, approaching the desk where the employee was reading a magazine. He didn’t want to be involved in whatever conversation Eduardo was drumming up, there was already enough nervous energy in the air.

Mark headed past the DVD’s displayed on the wall, towards a larger display room, where he could already spot toys, which was a step away from pornography, and a step closer to a harness. As soon as he stepped through the doorway, he was met with an onslaught of a collection in a room bigger than he expected it to be. Different heights of shelves and racks, and with no idea where to start, Mark just started walking up and down the rows.

He was a bit fascinated with everything, he walked past a hanging rack of various impact items. Reaching out to touch a riding crop that eerily reminded him of a foil, the leather on the handle was cool under his fingertips. Just as he was about to bring it down through the air, Eduardo out from behind him.

“Mark—”

Returning the crop to where it had been hanging before, he turned back to Eduardo with a slight scowl.

“The harnesses are in the back,” the other man spoke with an upbeat tone, in stark contradiction to the anxiousness from earlier. Mark saw his eyes quickly jump from him to the riding crop that he had just been holding, swallowing noticeably, but not saying anything. If there was a future opportunity to bring that up, he would.

Mark gestured down the aisle, for Eduardo to lead, as if he had a better idea of the store’s layout than he did. This was really because Mark wanted to get another look at the rack, so he could make a mental note of what he wanted to acquire when he had more money.

Once the display of harnesses was found, Mark had to mentally sort through all the different straps to figure out what he was looking at. There were a few half-bodied mannequins, displaying different harnesses, some were only with chest straps, and some were full-bodied, but all of them were intimidating.

It wasn’t like Mark hadn’t done the research, he had. A lot of research… but it was different seeing it like that, he could inspect how thick the straps were, the glint of the O-rings against the polished leather. It was better than seeing it through his laptop screen, or on the glossy pages of magazines. As he was a tactile person, his first impulse was to touch the only ‘male’ mannequin wearing a hip and waist harness, as male as a mannequin could be.

His fingers touched the red leather straps, the metal clasps used to fasten it at the hip were sturdy, alongside the silver accents that held the thinner straps that secured the O-ring at the crotch. It was incredibly well-made, though he could only judge based on what he had learned from copious research, but he could tell a lot of the hanging harnesses seemed to be a lesser quality.

At the back of the mannequin adoring the red leather, he saw the price tag and flipped it over.

He did not have that kind of cash on him, so he shoved his hands into his hoodie pocket and turned towards where Eduardo was inspecting some of the hanging straps.

“I’m not really sure what you’re looking for, if I’m being honest,” Eduardo chuckled, “are there different sizes, or what?” He held up a harness that looked a bit flimsy, it had thin straps that did not appear to be leather, it had that synthetic shine to it. The sewing that attached the straps to the front part where the piece would be fastened spoke for its quality.

Not that non-leather harnesses were automatically indicative of poor quality, there were many different materials used that could be great quality, depending on use and person, but Mark had really grown a liking for leather through his research.

“There is sizing, but I know my measurements, so,” he shrugged and motioned for Eduardo to hand it off to him so he could check. Trying to ignore the stab in his heart when he saw the W, for women's, on the sizing, it was a small, so he handed it back to Eduardo.

It didn’t take too long for him to find something he could justify spending the money on, and that would fit him. Adjustable straps made it easier than any other clothing he had ever bought, especially considering how his waist and hips measurements put him either in an XS or an L, which both fit poorly.

“I can afford this, and it’s my size,” he announced to Eduardo, who had just been watching him touch the material, play with the clasps, and inspect the tag for a while.

“Are you sure?” The other man looked at the harness, and then sought out Mark’s eyes.

He avoided eye contact and shrugged, “It will do the job, and I can’t spend all my money on the harness, I still need to buy a dick”

“Do you want to think about it while we look at the… other part?”

Mark found it funny that Eduardo couldn’t even make himself say dick, despite being in a literal sex store, shopping for Mark’s dick so they could have sex. Considering Eduardo’s words, he knew that most attachments were universal, and it was fairly simple to switch out an O-ring for another size, if it didn’t fit as needed, so he figured why not.

That was the most important part.

“Okay, sure.” The harness was hung back up, and this time Mark led Eduardo to where he had spotted the phallic toys of all types of varieties.

“How are you even supposed to make choices?” Eduardo choked out, when they stopped in front of the section that was designated with a little sign that read ‘strap on attachments’.

Mark grabbed one of the biggest one that was at eye level, it was white, like milk, which was kind of weird. There were a few ‘skin tones’, but most of them were in wild colors, some of them even had a few different colors, which Mark found very strange. The ‘skin tones’ were all just as off-putting, though, he assumed that there wasn’t really a way to make a shelf full of a bunch of dildos in boxes look appealing.

“What do you think?” He asked, half joking, as he looked at the sizing on the box. Eight and a quarter inches in length, with a width of two and a half inches, which was as wide as a can of soda. Definitely not what he was going for.

That didn’t mean it wasn’t incredibly funny to see Eduardo choke on his own spit, as he scrambled for words. “I don’t—that’s a lot, Mark,” was all he could muster up, averting his eyes from the box in his hands.

“I’m just messing with you, Wardo,” he says with a bit of a grin, he wouldn’t know what to do what it. He put the box back on the shelf and kept looking. His eyes scanned over the boxes, comparing the numbers from the boxes to the ballpark he had in his head from his investigation.

“What about this?” Eduardo held up a box, that was medium-sized, but bright pink. Despite Mark’s opposition to the color, the shape and the size were exactly what he was looking for, and if Eduardo found the size amiable, it reassured his gut’s choice.

“It’s pink,” he responded.

“Is that bad?” Once again, Eduardo seemed lost, out of his depth. Mark couldn’t help but find it cute, despite him standing there with a boxed pink dildo in his hand, the confusion in his big brown eyes made Mark’s heart jump a bit.

“It’s not bad, it’s just not what I’m going for,” He tried not to let it show on his face that it was more than just that.

After what seemed like twenty minutes, but was most likely just five, Mark held up a box that had been hidden in a corner shelf. A good six inches in length, and one and three-quarter inches in girth, with a flared base but otherwise smooth, in a muted black color, that was almost gray.

Eduardo seemed happy, humming when Mark showed him his find, squeezing his bicep in a way to show his affirmation. Mark wasn’t sure why he did that, but he wasn’t complaining. He liked it when Eduardo expressed his affection towards him, whether it was through words or through physical touch, Mark just often felt like he couldn’t respond, so he just headed back towards the harnesses.

He could feel Eduardo on his heels, as he passed the mannequin with the red harness, and grabbed the one he had left hanging on the end of the rack, so he wouldn’t have to sort through everything again. There was no use in hiding that he didn’t love it, but it would do what it needed to do. With all of his savings in TheFacebook, he was just going to have to wait until he had the ability to splurge on himself. This was going to have to do.

“Are you sure?” Eduardo repeated his question from before, eyeing Mark again.

”You already asked that,” he pointed out.

“I just want you to be happy, and I don’t think you’re happy with this one,” Eduardo looked like he was searching for the right words, but didn’t continue.

“I already told you, it will do what it needs to do. I don’t have that kind of money, I mean this should be going into TheFacebook, but I want to—I want to—” he couldn’t say it, now he was the one fumbling for words in a sex store. He wanted to be with Eduardo, he wanted to be able to feel comfortable, and to satisfy the both of them, without feeling sick about what he lacked. This was supposed to make it easier, at least temporarily. “It will be adequate,” was all that he could come up with.

Eduardo walked over to the mannequin with the red leather, and looked at the tag, “Would this be the proper sizing? Is it compatible with the piece you picked out?”

Mark squinted at the box, and then at Eduardo. It had been his size, when he had looked at it earlier. He just shrugged, but Eduardo could read his body language too well, knowing it meant yes.

“Okay,” Eduardo said, a bit exasperated, after he finally worked out how to use the clasps and got the harness off the mannequin. “I didn’t know it was about the money, you know you could have asked,” he gestured with his hand, trying to convey something that Mark didn’t catch.

“Asked what?”

“You could have asked me to buy it, I don’t mind Mark—I thought it was about the color or something, I don’t know…” There was a soft tone that made it hard for Mark to swallow properly.

“Wardo—”

“I’m buying this,” he held up the red harness, “you can buy that—” He pointed at the box in Mark’s hand, “put that one back, and maybe grab a bottle of lube on our way to the register.” He said it with a smile, which meant it was stupid to argue.

Mark didn’t even have an argument in him, he was a bit too shocked to even act annoyed at Eduardo trying to boss him around. He did as told, and they found their way back towards the register, where the employee from before had moved from the magazine to a laptop. The perks of working at a sex shop, Mark guessed.

He paid first, for a total of 35 dollars and 15 cents, he got a brown paper bag for his dick in a box, and the water-based, unscented lube he had picked out as Eduardo had been looking at a stand of various leather accessories; he had been having his own tactile experience, brushing over the stitching on one of the collars, before they headed to the register together.

There hadn’t even been a need for his fake ID, which if he had known, it would have been a completely different outcome.

Eduardo paid, with a generous tip, that made up for Mark’s lack of a tip, and they left the store.

Once they were back on the street, Eduardo handed Mark the brown paper bag he had just gotten, with a smile and an expression that Mark couldn’t really read.

“You didn’t have to do that, the other one would have been fine,” he said, as they walked towards the subway station they had emerged from earlier, it was a bit of a walk. He didn’t mind. If his hands weren’t full, he would have reached out for Eduardo’s hand, as the only attempt he could think of to show his gratitude.

“Mark, firstly, you need to learn how to say ‘thank you’. Secondly, I didn’t buy it just for you, you know that, right? I bought it because it’s going to be much hotter than that lousy assemble you were willing to settle for. Isn’t part of having this thing about giving yourself confidence?”

Not that he needed more confidence, was left unsaid.

“That wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be,” Eduardo said, cheerfully, “we should do this again.”

“Let’s go back to Elliot, I don’t have any classes until tomorrow afternoon,” Mark says firmly, shifting the brown bag to his right hand, so he can reach for Eduardo’s.

The other man looks at him for a moment, puzzled, or perhaps shocked, Mark can’t really differentiate the two. It’s only a brief second, because he accepts Mark’s hand and squeezes it in an affirmation to Mark’s comment, “It’s not like you go anyway.”