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It felt like it happened in the blink of an eye to Arlo. One second an arrow was flying through the air, the next he was frozen in place, unable to move. That wasn’t the horrifying part for Arlo, however, was watching as his lover, a sorcerer dashed into the middle of a battle. Paralyzed, Arlo could only watch as his lover disappeared among what felt like a sea of swords and blood. The bushy curls of his lover he’d come to know and infuriatingly love did not resurface once it disappeared from Arlo’s sight. He couldn’t blame their companions for not immediately tending to him with an antidote when Laurie had rushed into the middle of what seemed like an army, practically begging to be torn apart, with Arlo unable to even scream his name to stop him, to call him to heel, to force Laurie to acknowledge he was still alive. His ears, however, remained very aware of the sounds of Laurie’s stifled yelp of pain, something Arlo wasn’t overly familiar with as his stubborn lover preferred to hold back his pain, but a noise that Arlo could recognize all the same, not happily. It was when he no longer heard them at all, that Arlo panicked.
The fight lasted far too long. Odd rushed to his side to immediately administer an antidote, steadying Arlo with a hand against his chest as his limbs were given life once more. “Laurie!” Was the first word out of his mouth. “Is he alive?”
“Unfortunately for him, probably, yeah.” Odd said somewhat knowingly. “Lyric hit him with a feign death spell when it got dicey there. Stupid fighters fell for it and left him alone. Lyric just woke him up, fed him a potion, and told him you probably wanted the honors of killing him.”
Arlo smiled slightly at that, of course his lover’s twin would be already teasing Laurie as if he hadn’t needed to be put into a damn coma to save him from himself. “They’re quite right. I don’t suppose you can keep everyone out of our room at the Elf Song for the rest of the day?”
“I can’t promise that me keeping Lyric and Jayse in the city all day will cause any less havoc for it than you taking Laurie off the streets will, but yes. I suppose you have some talking to do?” Odd teased.
“Talking, sure.” Arlo said leaning away from Odd, letting his eyes move over to find, with immense relief, that Laurie was standing up, alive, and only his clothing remained coated in blood, blood he liked shed himself. Lyric was to blame for that, prestidigitating only Laurie’s body to leave the evidence of the trouble he was in all over his clothing. “Laurie. Come here. Now.”
Laurie’s head cocks slightly to the side the way it always does when anyone speaks, much like a confused puppy, the entire purpose of the nickname Arlo usually called him. Though all Arlo could feel right now was pure irritation. Lyric pushes Laurie’s shoulder and giggles at him. “Ooo, you’re in big trouble.” They sing-song and skip away to Odd when he makes a disapproving noise at them.
Laurie’s face falls a little as he shuffles towards Arlo, determinedly looking at the ground and not up at Arlo. Arlo grabs his wrist once he’s close enough. A whispered word and they were back in their tavern room, blissfully alone. This is when Arlo grabs his lover by both arms. He has to resist the urge to shake him, as if it might rattle sense into him. “What were you thinking? Gods, you don’t have to answer that. I know the answer, you weren’t, were you? You hardly ever are. You could have been killed, Laurie.” He hissed, releasing one of Laurie’s arms to tip his chin up, forcing his lover to look at him. “Do you have any idea how terrified I was?”
Laurie attempts to move his arm free of Arlo’s grasp, making Arlo realize he was holding Laurie quite hard, but he made no attempt at loosening his grip. Holding him this tightly meant that Laurie was still alive, and for now, Arlo still needed that reassurance. Bruises in the shape of his fingers might teach Laurie something about how much he meant to Arlo. “They shot you, paralyzed you. Was I supposed to just let them go?” Laurie snapped back, unwillingly to tell Arlo that he was hurting him. Stubborn, prideful little shit.
“You’re a sorcerer, Laurie. You have distance spells. You could have used a fire ball on the whole lot of them while you were standing right next to me. You could have then, I don’t know, given me an antidote and I could have helped?” Arlo snapped back. “You charged in, you let the wrath in your head speak for you and as usual, it nearly got you killed. We’ve talked about this a thousand times, and you can’t get it through that thick skull of yours that you can’t just take on every enemy because they meant me harm. Nearly everything means us harm right now. Are you going to take on the Elder Brain alone too because it threatens me?”
“Perhaps I will. Are you planning on doing something to stop me?” Laurie said and the words came out with far too much challenge for Arlo’s liking. “Or was this all that was in your plans? More barking at me for trying to save your life.”
Arlo’s veins run hot the way he imagines that Karlach’s always do. This reckless, insolent pup was testing his patience. “Yes. I am. Clearly words don’t make any difference. In one pointy ear, out the other.” Arlo hissed, pulling Laurie forward, rougher than he honestly meant to but he has no apologies for this little menace as he drags Laurie, tripping over his own feet to the bed they’d been sharing. With one hand, Arlo drags the bed with a horrendous screech, so it was in the position he wanted it in. The other hand is still tight around Laurie’s arm.
“What are you going to do? Sentence me to a nap? Bed without supper?” Laurie snarled, but there was far less venom in his words this time. “No bedtime stories for a week? The horror. I’m quivering in my boots.”
“Nothing so simple. You’re going to take off every bit of clothing you have, exposed the way you were out in the field today and you’re going to get on this bed on all fours with your pretty little ass high in the air so I can thrash it soundly the way you’re begging me to.” Arlo said finally letting Laurie go and pointing to the bed in question.
“I am not!” Laurie squeaked indignantly.
“Oh, you very much are.” Arlo said, more calmly than he felt. “However, if you’re so certain you don’t need precisely that, then don’t do as I say. However, you will have to find another bed to sleep in tonight and every night until you do.”
“Arlo, that’s not fair!” Laurie complained, sounding much more himself and not the haughty brat he was playing in anger. “I can’t sleep without you.”
“Then do as I say.” Arlo said simply, crossing his arms and even adding in an impatient foot tap.
“I don’t want to be thrashed.” Laurie complains again, looking nervously at the bed. Arlo almost feels bad for giving Laurie such an impossible choice. Almost.
“Oh yes you do. You’ve been telling me since we got in here you wanted to be thrashed.”
Laurie’s hands move to his hair, tangling frustratedly there. Arlo wonders if Bhaal pours poison into pointy ears even now. “No, I haven’t!” Laurie says, finally sounding anguished. Good. Now, he had but a taste of what Arlo felt watching his lover try to get himself killed again. “I haven’t. I have not said that.”
“You didn’t need to, pup, not those exact words, but all that venom off your lips? What was that if not a cry for me to set you straight?” Arlo says seriously. “The choice is yours, sweetheart. I can sleep comfortably without you in my bed, think of how much room I’ll have to stretch out.” This was a bit cruel, Arlo knew, and untrue. He couldn’t sleep without Laurie’s warm form next to him, without checking a few times a night that Laurie’s pulse still beat. However, Laurie didn’t need to know that.
Arlo watches as something works itself out behind Laurie’s eyes as they move back and forth, fingers still tangled in his own hair. Softly, barely a whisper, Arlo could hear Laurie repeating “I don’t.” Whether he was arguing that he didn’t want a thrashing or that he didn’t have a choice, Arlo didn’t know, he’s not sure Laurie does right now either. However, Laurie’s fingers finally disentangle themselves from his hair and shakily, to Arlo’s surprise, he starts disrobing. He folds each garment neatly as he does, Arlo thinks likely to prolong the inevitable. Laurie won’t look at him, however, refuses to as he obediently, albeit shakily, gets into the requested position.
Arlo wasn’t having that as he allowed Laurie to get himself comfortable and then uncomfortable in that position waiting for Arlo to do something. He circles the bed once, admiring this form, it was hardly ever that Arlo got to make Laurie nervous. Things were usually the other way around. When he reaches Laurie’s head, a tender hand slides beneath Laurie’s chin. “Are you scared?” he asks, a lot gentler than when he’d been speaking to Laurie before he begrudgingly obeyed.
“You don’t do it like this.” Laurie says quietly, still training his eyes downwards, rather than answering Arlo’s question directly.
“You’re usually over my knee, eh? You get comfort from my touch that way.” Arlo confirms. “You’ll not have that, not this time. I couldn’t touch you to know you were alive. I couldn’t even see you. Why should I give you any of the comfort you denied me when you were being a fool?”
“I wasn’t.” Laurie was very adamant that all Arlo had to say was vastly incorrect today apparently. Stubborn.
Arlo sighed and moved his hand away from Laurie’s chin, circling him again, delighting a bit in the way that set Laurie’s left leg to tremor slightly. “You were a fool today. You have repeatedly been a fool as of late. We’ll keep you right here until you understand all I have to say, I think.” He slides one hand over the small of Laurie’s back, putting pressure there until Laurie gets the point and leans forward, raising his ass higher. Arlo takes in the sight of his lover contorted like this. He made such the pretty picture of submission and if it was for any other reason, the sight would have surely led to them making love rather than what Arlo was steeling himself to do. Perhaps a thorough screwing might be in order afterwards, to really drive the point home.
Scars marred Laurie’s back, some deeper strikes of Abdirak’s whip than potions could heal, other knife scars, likely lovingly put there by his twin, Lyric. Arlo resists temptation to trace them, instead starting up a rough warm up of his hand against his lover’s backside. Other than one initial gasp of shock more than pain, Laurie goes nearly completely silent. Arlo expected as much. This was only the beginning after all. A thrashing was hardly done with a hand after all.
Normally, the hand not busy warming his lover’s backside would be at the small of Laurie’s back, gently caressing but not this time. Arlo meant it, Laurie would have no comfort from him. Not until something got through to him. Arlo expected that something would be the next implement he had in mind. He focused now on bringing Laurie’s skin to blooming a rosy pink for him before he paused. He heard Laurie release a tightly held breath and saw Laurie begin to move and laughed slightly.
“No, love, you stay put. You can’t possibly have thought we were done?” Arlo teased as he began tugging his old worn belt from his pants. The soft leather would do well as far as lesson teaching went. Arlo folded it in half and cracked it once, delighting a little in the way the sound made Laurie jump. “You haven’t learned anything yet, have you? Do you still believe you didn’t need this? That you didn’t ask me for it? Do you still plan on running headfirst into every battle?”
Laurie made some noncommittal noise and Arlo smiled a little. His stubborn boy. “Ah, so you’re just not going to speak? We’ll see how long you keep that up.” Arlo practices his aim for a moment. After all, it was just Laurie’s pretty pink backside he wanted to strike. When he finally reels back and hits Laurie with the belt, the crack against flesh makes a very satisfying sound, but not near as satisfying as the sound of Laurie’s shocked cry.
Arlo wastes no time between strikes, he sets a brutal tempo, though after the first strike, Laurie bites back his cries, quite literally as Arlo peeks a look at his lover’s face to see Laurie’s eyes squeezed tight and the corner of his lower lip caught between his teeth. So stubborn. Arlo shakes his head, moving to step away when he seems to catch a particularly sore spot on Laurie’s ass and Laurie’s hand shoots out, gripping the corner of his shirt. “Ah… Arlo…” Laurie whimpers.
Arlo pauses and gently detaches Laurie’s hand from his shirt setting it down forcefully back on the bed. Laurie makes a pained noise that Arlo thinks has less to do with his rapidly welting ass and more to do with Arlo refusing him even this small measure of comfort, as he doesn’t even cover Laurie’s hand with his own, but instead pins him by the wrist there before he moves away again, out of reach. Continuing his brutal pace.
“Does this hurt, Laurie? Do you hate that you can’t touch me? Can’t see me?” Arlo says, words steel but with no venom. He’s trying to make a point here, hoping that Laurie’s not too distracted by the thorough searing Arlo’s giving his ass or the heart Arlo surely just broke. “Does it make you panic a little? Not knowing when this will end? When you’ll be able to touch me again? If I’ll even allow such a thing?”
Finally, finally, a strangled sob breaks through Laurie’s barrier, sounding ripped straight from his chest. Arlo doesn’t stop, in fact, the next strike is a little harder, shaking loose another painful sob from Laurie. “How do you think I felt today? Literally paralyzed, unable to see you, to know if you even would be alive by the time I was able to move again.” Arlo continues to question, knowing Laurie can’t possibly answer him, striking him even harder yet to make his poor lover think he was probably meant to anyway. A little panic was good for Laurie. “How do you think I feel every time you allow your anger to take hold of you, and rush headfirst into a death trap?” Another particularly rough swat followed this question and Laurie’s left leg begins a vicious tremble. Nearly there.
“I... I… I... s-s…” Laurie tries desperately to speak but he is cut off by sobs, only part physical pain, Laurie’s cock betrays him there, half hard. It hurts, surely, but some part of Laurie welcomed that pain, if even just a little. No, these sobs were mostly emotional. Laurie’s hurt, sure, Arlo is being rather mean, isn’t he? Arlo knows his lover well enough to know Laurie’s frustrated and angry, with both Arlo and himself. Angry that Arlo won’t touch him but to hurt him, angry that Arlo is proving a point, angry that Arlo is right. Angry at himself for not just being able to admit so. Frustrated that he wants to protect Arlo because besides Lyric, Arlo’s the only gods damned thing Laurie cares for and that scares him. Frustrated because the only damn way he knows how to demonstrate this is through death, vengeance. Frustrated because he’s trying, and Arlo knows he is but not hard enough when nearly every other fight, Arlo is watching his back as he flies off to thick of the battle, to keep it from Arlo who was built to handle it.
Another loud crack of the belt against Laurie’s backside and Arlo pauses. “What was that, love? You had something to say?” he says, resisting the urge to pick up his trembling little lover and hold him until the tears stopped. Resisting the urge to run a soothing hand over a bruising backside.
“S-s-s…” Laurie tries to find his way to his voice and Arlo gives him the chance this time. “I’m… A… lo… I’m s-s-sorry.”
“Mm, not quite the right words, sweetheart.” Arlo starts up again, even though the first strike this time loosens an incredibly anguished cry from Laurie that makes Arlo’s chest ache for him. “Try again.” He sets a pace but not the brutal one from earlier, longer pauses between wicked strikes to allow Laurie time to figure out what he was supposed to say, but not long enough to make Laurie think he could remain silent long enough and they’d be done.
Laurie’s breath comes in fast and rough gasps, and he struggles to maintain that position, but he does, to Arlo’s shock and pride. Laurie’s fingers move to his hair again, gripping it hard, cock finally starting to flag a bit. No part of Laurie is having any fun anymore. Another wicked swat, and Laurie stops breathing entirely for a moment, so Arlo allows for a longer pause here. The lesson wouldn’t be learned if Laurie passed out after all. “I d.. don’t…” He thinks he doesn’t know the answer, Arlo rewards that with another vicious swat, getting a cry of pain from Laurie, one Arlo had heard too often in a battle that Laurie didn’t belong in. “I understand. I understand. I understand! Please, please, pleasepleaseplease….”
“Understand. What. Laurie.” Arlo punctuates each word with another swat before pausing.
“Ah! Ar..Arlo!” Laurie whimpered and his whole body pitches forward, trying to escape a swat that doesn’t come, when he gets obediently back in position though, his whole body trembles violently. Arlo’s poor, poor boy. “I understand the lesson. I understand you’re terrified of losing me to my anger and my own stupidity. I understand that I can… I can…. Fight from a distance. I understand you're capable of taking care of yourself. I understand I don’t have to incinerate anyone who looks at you the wrong way. I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I love you and I’m bad at knowing how to prove it, I can only remember violence, vengeance. I need to try harder.”
Arlo takes a deep breath because he doesn’t want to hit Laurie again but there was still one more thing he needed to hear out of Laurie, so he reels back and lands one more particularly wicked swat, to a brand-new spot, unmarred by pain just yet, the sensitive back of Laurie’s thighs.
Laurie hates that and the sound that he chokes on is very nearly a scream.
So, of course, Arlo does it again. Before he can prompt Laurie to say what else he might have wanted to hear, it spills off of Laurie’s tongue rapidly and all jumbled together, but Arlo hears it loud and clear. “I asked for this! I’ve been asking for this. Every time I run into danger, every sassy word I gave you tonight, I asked for it. Don’t… don’t do it anymore, Arlo, please. I’m not asking any more. I’m not. I’m not.”
Laurie completely dissolves into sobs then, but the sweet, stubborn boy that he is, he maintains that position, because Arlo hasn’t told him it’s over yet. Whole body shaking like a little leaf, racked with sobs that were now equal parts pain and upset, but Laurie stays where he was told to, with his fingers still dug so tightly into his hair, both fingers and scalp must ache. Arlo tosses aside the belt with a clatter, the noise making Laurie’s entire body flinch.
“Good.” Arlo praises without touching Laurie just yet, which seems to do more harm than comfort because Laurie seems to cry harder at the words. “I’m not done with you quite yet, love, but you did very well. Hold that position, just like you are.”
“Arlo please, please, I’m not asking! I’m not asking!” Laurie’s voice is panicked in a way that Arlo doesn’t like so a soothing hand does finally find Laurie’s back, caressing firm circles into the base of his back.
“Shh, I know. I know you’re not asking for any more of that. You’re not getting any more. We’re done with that part of the punishment. I promise.” Though he’s sure that the mere idea that Laurie was still being punished does little to soothe the elf. Again, Arlo thinks ‘good’.
“You… I… still…” Laurie doesn’t seem to be able to form words. How could he possibly still be in trouble, he’s surely thinking, Arlo bruised his ass thoroughly. “You… not… hold… me…”
Laurie’s tears are so anguished. To anyone with a heart, surely Laurie had been properly chastised, and Arlo’s chest aches immensely. He desperately wanted to hold his brokenhearted little lover, but he wasn’t done. Not yet.
“You’re scared I won’t.” Arlo says as takes his hand off of Laurie’s back and moves away to rustle through his pack for something. “Scared I’ll never again hold you.”
“Y-yes.” If nothing else, Laurie has clearly learned not to disagree with Arlo when he was telling the truth, as that answer is quick to fall out Laurie’s mouth. Laurie can’t see but Arlo is disrobing now, but much hastier than Laurie had earlier, after all, Arlo wasn’t getting a thrashing. What he’d been digging for in his pack was a strap that he was gracelessly and hastily putting on and some oil. If Laurie had any sense of composure at this point, Arlo might have made him suck the strap, having a teary eyed Laurie slobbering all over a cock he’d handpicked to fuck him with would have been a sight to beheld but Laurie had been far more stubborn than Arlo had anticipated and was now nearly inconsolable and Arlo needed to be on him, in him, and all over him as soon as possible. He could hear it in Laurie’s sobs, could see it in the shivering that had set into every inch of Laurie’s body. He was lost, drifting, and dangerously close to dropping.
The bed will dip behind his lover as Arlo joins him on the bed. Arlo reaches down to gently pry Laurie’s fingers out of the death grip he has on his hair. “That’s how I feel every time you rush into something dangerous, terrified that the next time I hold you will be the last time, because you’ll be gone.” He says, voice soft and gentle. “You’re mine, Laurie. You’re only allowed to die when I give you permission and I don’t. Do you understand?”
“Yes. No? Please don’t…” Laurie whimpers, thinking the word no is somehow worth of more swatting probably.
“No more spanking, Laurie. I promised you. I don’t… well, I only ever lied to you once and that was today.” Arlo admits, petting fingers over the back of Laurie’s hair, which seems to settle some of his shaking. “When I told you I could sleep without you, I was lying. You don’t understand?”
“I understand I’m yours.” Laurie admits after a moment. “I will try very hard not to have my death be my own fault?”
Ah, Arlo smiles. Laurie weirdly was waxing logical and was confused because he didn’t have complete control of his own death. “I’ll rephrase, pup, you can only bring about your own ruin with my permission and I’m not giving it.”
“Okay, Arlo.” Oh, his boy was so tired. “I don’t want to be punished anymore.”
Arlo laughs at that. “And you think that’s how it works then, love? You just tell me it’s over when you’re the one being punished? Not quite.” Arlo leans over Laurie’s body, arm winding around his waist, as he presses his chest to Laurie’s back, he feels tension start to melt away. This is what Laurie had needed. “I want to fuck you now, hard. I want you to feel completely mine. I need you to understand that I will never, ever fuck you without your consent. I will, however, any time in the future you ask me without asking me for it, thrash your pretty little ass within an inch of your life, like I just did, regardless of how little you ever want to experience this again. You get no say in that. If you don’t want me to fuck you, then the punishment can end right here, and I will hold you, praise you, kiss you, because you were such a good boy.”
“I want you to.” Laurie says with no hesitation. “I want you to, but I can’t just take it.”
“Gods, Laurie, sweetheart, I’m going to open you up.” Arlo reassures. “It’s going to be rough and it’s going to hurt, my hips against your sore ass, but I don’t want it all to hurt.”
“I don’t know! You’ve been so mean.” Laurie says and Arlo is a bit shocked to hear new tears bubbling up in those words. Arlo has a feeling he’s never going to have to revisit this conversation with Laurie again.
“I know. Shhh, I know.” Arlo soothes, leaning back and oiling two fingers returning the hand he doesn’t intend to ruin Laurie with to his back. “So incredibly mean, a tyrant truly. I will never ever hurt you like that, Laurie.”
“No qualms about hurting my ass otherwise.” Laurie grumbles, and Arlo smiles a bit to hear the sass coming back out of Laurie’s mouth as Arlo gently pets Laurie’s entrance with those fingers. After a moment, Laurie leans back into that caress and Arlo slowly begins to breach him with one finger. He takes his time with this part, waiting for the hiccups of Laurie’s remaining sobs to turn into breathy whimpers of pleasure instead, which Arlo rewards with a crook of his finger, caressing that pleasure center within Laurie and turning hesitant whimpers into high moans.
Arlo had a variety of straps in various sizes, but this one was one of his smallest, as he had wanted to be in Laurie fast. While making Laurie take a bigger one might have suited the crime better, Laurie, his stubborn boy, held out far longer than he expected him to, and he needed to be held and loved on, but Arlo needed this lost, stubborn boy to fully understand that he was Arlo’s and Arlo wasn’t going anywhere. What better way to show him that than a hard fucking.
Arlo replaces fingers with strap, slowly sliding it into the other man. When Arlo’s hips hit Laurie’s own, he hisses, fingers quickly racing back to his hair, but Arlo grabs that hand instead, pinning it to Laurie’s back but purposely so Laurie’s palm was up, so he could hold onto Arlo’s wrist. Arlo notices finger shaped bruises in that arm from where Arlo had held him tight enough to hurt earlier and felt something like a mixture of pride and guilt. Pride that Laurie was wearing something else to proclaim Laurie his but bad that he’d hurt Laurie without meaning to.
“Stings, doesn’t it?” Arlo asks as he pulls nearly all the way out then pushes back in. He’s being somewhat gentle but is making sure just before his hips meet Laurie’s bruised ass, he gives a small, rough thrust, wanting Laurie to feel it. He keeps this slow but just slightly rough pace, picking up the tempo as he feels more of the tension fade from Laurie, though Laurie never quite leans back for more like he might have had Arlo not thrashed him within an inch of his life prior to this. Reaching beneath Laurie with his free hand however, a couple strokes of his neglected cock told him that it wasn’t all pain.
“Ah… Mm…Mmhm…” Laurie whimpers, hips more than happy to cant down for more attention on his cock but Arlo removes his hand to pull Laurie’s hips back, keeping his ass flush against Arlo’s hips, making Laurie whine with quite a bit of desperation.
“I don’t believe I told you that you could change positions, pup.” Arlo said, smiling in amusement at the frustrated growl Laurie released in response to this. “You forgot you’re still being punished, hm? Your cock gets the attention I give it, you’ll not force more.”
Laurie shoves his face into the pillow and growls something unintelligible into it. Probably a heap of sass he was afraid of being punished further for, but Laurie’s trembling figure does it’s best to remain in place. Arlo starts stroking his cock again and the longer Laurie stays in place despite wanting to cant his hips down towards the pleasure and away from the pain, Arlo rewards him with more friction, quicker motions of his hand, until the noises coming from Laurie were more pleasure than pain but then slows down when he can feel Laurie teetering on the edge of his release to an extremely anguished sound from his lover, which Arlo punishes with a slightly harder thrust of his hips.
“Will we be needing to have this conversation again, Laurie?”
“No! No, Arlo. Never again.” Oh, how those thighs tremble as Laurie tries desperately to be good.
“Are you sure?”
“No… wait, I mean yes. Yes. Yes, I’m sure. Please, Arlo. I’ll be desperately good for the rest of my life. Please.” Laurie begged, cock drooling onto Arlo’s hand.
“Well, that I don’t believe for a second.” Arlo teases but rewards Laurie with what he’s seeking and strokes Laurie up to the edge again and allows him to fall, with a soft cry, making a mess of Arlo’s hand and the sheets beneath them. Hardly expecting Laurie to have enough sense left in him to prestidigitate the bed, he’d borrowed a scroll of it from Lyric. Arlo slowly pulls his strap out of Laurie to toss it on the bed as he releases Laurie’s wrist and gathers his tired boy up from behind as if he didn’t weigh a thing, and to Arlo, he hardly did.
Arlo manhandles Laurie a bit, to pull him around to face him. He guides Laurie’s arms around his neck, legs around his hips as Arlo easily lifts him, with a supporting arm wrapping around Laurie’s waist, rather than cupping his ass the way he would have normally. He stands up and off the bed, Laurie clinging to him for dear life as he casts the cleaning spell on the bed, then on themselves, before he picks up the strap and oil and tucks them back in his bag.
Arlo sits back down on the bed with Laurie, grabbing a pillow to tuck under Laurie’s backside before he seats him in his lap. Unsurprisingly, Laurie has begun to softly cry again, and Arlo allows it, pressing Laurie back a little to press kisses into his temple, his cheeks, over his forehead. “You did so well. You were so good for me. My sweet boy, mine.” Fingers glide through Laurie’s hair, untangling the curls that Laurie had abused earlier. He does reach down to tip Laurie’s chin up, to kiss those lips, not minding the saline of tears that lingered there. After all, Laurie does everything rather prettily, even cry.
“I love you. I did this because I love you, and I need you around for as long as I can have you. You understand right?” Arlo asks, getting a small nod from Laurie who was struggling to keep his eyes open. Arlo tucks Laurie’s head into his shoulder, rocking him gently. “I will always love you. And I will always hold you. Two things you should never ever doubt.”
There’s a small nod from Laurie, but it could just be Laurie snuggling closer to him, Arlo would never know. Arlo rocked and petted Laurie until he fell asleep in Arlo’s arms, which he then tucked Laurie beneath the blankets with himself allowing Laurie to remain leached to his chest.
The very next day, while Laurie hid a bruised backside that Arlo was not healing, an argument broke out between Laurie and Lyric, the kind that usually ended with stabbing if neither Arlo, nor Jayse, nor Odd intervened. Though Lyric didn’t listen to Arlo, or well anyone, and up until the night prior, Laurie didn’t listen to anyone either. Arlo simply said Laurie’s name in a serious tone and glided his hand over the belt about his waist and Laurie instantly handed his twin the gem they’d been fighting over. Odd exchanged a quizzical look with Arlo and he knew he would have to explain the magic of thrashing one’s brat to his friend later.