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Exit
The corridor ahead was dimly lit and mostly empty, occupied only by those looking for a brief respite from the noise and the crowd… or a dark corner to indulge in their desires. The walls were cracked and ill-maintained, covered in a myriad of half faded stickers and posters. The floor was similarly littered in trash, needles, empty canisters and condoms.
The music continued to follow the two as they approached a stairwell, drowning out some of their conversation from the few ears in the hall. For now, it seemed like no one was paying them any mind beyond glancing at the ‘woman’ at Nelu’s side. Some stared longer than most, but everyone eventually returned to their own devices refusing to test the escort. He was still holding their hand.
”If it comes to it, I may have to… you know. It might feel a little weird at first but I promise, I’m not going to hurt you, okay?” Nelu turned to Jin to be sure they understood and gave their hand a gentle squeeze. ”It’ll be just like I’m holding your hand.”
Mistress Dizzy
Jin passed through the corridor behind Nelu. Their grip was just strong enough to mark him as theirs for the evening. Whatever was on the ground got avoided with an easy, practiced step.
Luckily for them both, the music was now muffled enough so that Jin’s dress had faded back to black. Their blue eyes flickered, rapid-fire, from figure to figure. Unfortunately, the dimness of the area was hard to parse. Especially since their eyes hadn’t adjusted from the brightness of the club.
"Wait, hang on." With a sweet grin and a giggle, Jin stepped just ahead. They raised up on their tiptoes and hooked their fingers into Nelu’s collar. "Got something for you." With a surprising amount of force, Jin tugged Nelu away from the light.
Exit
”Wha-?” Was all Nelu managed to get out before he was pulled to the side and into the dark. The shadows swallowed them both and once again, he found himself in a space all their own, this time not of his doing. ”What are you doing?”
Mistress Dizzy
Jin pressed close against him as they were very suddenly alone. They giggled, again, leaning close enough to steal from Nelu’s pockets - or his lips.
Their body language wanted to talk just a little more about private dance lessons. But the tone of voice, once they were unseen, went from sugar to steel in a breath. "That's not a good idea. Not just because thinking about you bl- you doing that weirds me out."
Exit
”Okay. Then that’s completely off the table.” He said, realizing all too quickly the charade they were putting on. He followed their lead, pivoting slightly and pressing Jin against a wall while keeping their lips dangerously close and matching their body language with his. At this angle they were out of sight but Nelu could see back to where he’d just been absconded from in case anyone accidentally wandered in their direction. To anyone who did, it would look as if they were simply making out.
”So, Flying Frog, how should we do this?”
Mistress Dizzy
Jin flashed Nelu a quick grin. He was rarely more than a step behind. It was one of the very first things they had liked about him. "We just gotta get in, recon, and go. But we can't play by the regular rules. The Platinum Painted Penny got us this far, but for the rest, I'm thinkin'…" Jin paused, drumming their fingers against Nelu's chest in a subconscious motion.
"Sifu and Grasshopper, with a Triple Threat Twist."
Exit
Even as his eyes remained fixed on the corridor, with Jin being so close, they would have been able to pick out the confusion in between the brown and the gold. He wasn’t understanding any of it but was once again chewing his lip and nodding as if he did.
”Uh huh. Seafood Grass with a Triple Twist.” He smiled as he turned to them. ”I don’t think I know this dance.”
Mistress Dizzy
Jin rolled their eyes, but their lips twitched with the urge to smile. Nelu could likely feel the sudden rise of their pulse as well. That lip-biting habit of his got under Jin’s skin in a peculiar way. Sometimes they just wanted to- to-
"Cut it out." They muttered low. Only Jin knew which of them that command was for. "The Sifu and Grasshopper is like the PPP, but without the sex appeal. The 3T means it's a con versus a theft. Clearer now?"
Exit
”Sorry.” He whispered back, not realizing the real reason why they’d said what they did or why their heart rate was spiking again. ”I’ll try to keep up.”
He suddenly became very serious, not wanting to further ‘irritate’ them.
”So no bloodbending and no drawing unnecessary attention to ourselves beyond the fact that we can ‘bend’. If they want a demonstration, how do you plan on playing the gras-.” Nelu paused when down the hall, he caught a figure suddenly stop and peer in their direction. Nelu, who had previously frozen in his struggle to translate what Jin was saying, realized he was just standing there awkwardly staring back. It clicked then that he was supposed to be doing something and he immediately leaned around Jin’s upturned face and pressed his lips into the crook of their neck and against their skin. The rest happened instinctively, a reaction to a role he was playing or a situation he was trying to sell. His hand very deliberately dragged along the ridge of their back, between their shoulder blades and across the more sensitive skin of their neck. From there, his fingers continued to climb, pushing under the mesh of the wig and intertwining with their real hair underneath. It wasn’t until after his warm breath was already unfolding against them and he inhaled that the realization of what he was doing hit him. The stench of the club was suddenly lost in the scent of jasmine blossoms and hints of vanilla. There were no other bodies around to mask it anymore. No sweat in the air or breath from a mouth that never knew a toothbrush sharing the same oxygen. His lungs began to fill with Jin.
Mistress Dizzy
When Nelu went momentarily still, his gaze captured elsewhere, Jin realized that they had been spotted. Before they could put an escape plan into his ear (there were still a few unused items hiding in the gown), Nelu doubled down on the ploy that Jin had already laid down. It wasn’t a bad idea, especially given that there was no time.
That was what Jin liked about Nelu – the man had a criminal instinct that no uniform could hide.
That instinct was not running this play anymore.
As Nelu’s breath, then lips, pressed against Jin’s bare neck, several things happened concurrently. Jin realized that they were apparently ticklish there. The reflex to laugh hit the same millisecond Nelu’s fingertips grazed their actual hair beneath the wig. Jin’s lips parted – and their brain’s decision to laugh was overturned in the same second.
“Fuck-” Was the most eloquent thing that Jin could come up with. That was quickly followed with a soft, shivering, primal moan. Nelu’s hands were very warm, and almost rough, but not quite. Jin wondered if he wanted to be gentle. Jin wondered if they wanted him to be gentle. Everything was hot, and spinning - Jin could barely breathe. There was a voice in the back of Jin’s brain absolutely screaming for them to stop, because this was not part of the plan, this was out of control, this was trouble -
Exit
”Someone’s looking…”” He tried to say into the skin of their neck, grasping desperately to some hope that it would be enough to excuse his suddenness. Yet even as the words left his mouth, the intensity of his touch seemed almost too genuine. His fingers scraped at them with a need. Pulled at them like he wanted to be closer. It felt desperate, but even Nelu didn’t know if he was desperate for control or to lose it.
Mistress Dizzy
Jin felt Nelu’s words before they heard them. So there had been an onlooker after all. Rallying their remaining senses, they tilted away just enough to meet his eyes. Even still, their body pressed against him, sweet and flower scented. They spoke just barely above a whisper, mouth so close to Nelu’s own he could guess the words being formed.
"C- can… I…"
While what little logic Jin had left was trying to ask if the nosy nobody was gone, and if they could stop - the intense eyes behind the false blue asked Nelu something else entirely.
Jin trembled against Nelu, as the usual need to control warred violently against the fresh desire to let things happen.
Exit
He could see it clear as day. An unspoken question rising to the surface under the faux blue in their eyes and spilling into the inch of space between their faces. He could feel it under their breath and against his chest as their body trembled under his touch. He could hear it, then and even now. There had been a word they let slip from their lips. An expletive uttered with every letter coated in desire. And now, their heart was racing and their breath was heavy. It was unmistakable.
Nelu stopped paying attention to anything else. Not the corridor or the stranger in it. Not the club they were trapped in or the miles of dirt above their heads. Not the mission or benders or the constant lies he had to spin for a world that didn’t want him. For a moment too, he forgot about Vasra. All that mattered now was the person staring up at him, their emotions having been laid bare willingly or not. This person who dealt death and thrived in the dark. Who had survived in the worst conditions and lived a life surrounded by the most dangerous of people, in this life and their last. A person who was looking up at them now with uncertain eyes, vulnerable for their wants.
His eyes drifted from the mesmerized gaze begging him for an answer, down across the bridge of their nose and over their slightly parted lips. In the low light, he could just make out the outline of their shape and the slight glint of orange from the ambience of the club. There was a sheen of wet there that he wanted to taste.
His answer to their ask was wordless. Thoughts and wants and desires became his hands and fingers as they pressed into their hair and anchored themselves again to the small of their back. Nelu could feel his breath catch as he pulled at them and the distance between the two of them disappeared. He could feel his head begin to spin when, for the very first time, he crossed that thin barrier of separation and pressed his lips against theirs.
What came next was mostly instinctual… mostly primal. Control was lost in the heat of their bodies colliding and the exquisite feeling of their lips pressed together; of their faces so close that their breath melded into one. His mouth parted slightly allowing Jin’s lower lip to slip in between his where it was pulled under his teeth and over his tongue. He realized he loved the way they tasted. He realized he wanted to taste more. Firm hands became clawing fingers that searched for skin under the dress and pulled at their hair as his body began to match his desires.
Mistress Dizzy
There were certain pros and cons to having a mind that worked in the manner of Jin Takashi's. Whether they wanted to or not, they noticed everything their senses could take in. Unfortunately, that was a lot. Sensations, small and large, close and distant, and everything in between, were hitting their brain in a constant barrage. Part of the problem was that their brain couldn't work out what was ignorable and what was important. Their mind was always working. Always thinking. Always.
Until Nelu made the space between them vanish.
For a few precious, priceless, beautiful seconds, Jin simply ceased thinking.
Nothing else mattered but the heat welling up from their core. Nelu's kiss, soft to begin with, but fierce soon after. Even though Jin had never had a kiss quite like this before, their body seemed to have it figured out quickly enough. As their delicate hands roamed his chest, there was a tiny, distinct pop, as if something distant hit the stone. Jin's fingertips met Nelu's bare skin just after that, their fingers trembling. His hands were earnestly roaming their body as well, one of them slowly gliding up the inches of bare skin of Jin's exposed thigh.
Jin felt like their soul could leave their body in this moment.
Exit
Nelu joined Jin in that sweet silence where the only sounds that mattered was their uneven breath and their fingertips scraping at exposed skin. There was no acting where they were now. No ploy or secrets. Just two souls expressing earnestly exactly what they wanted and how badly they wanted it. While Jin explored his chest, his hand began to fill in the blank spaces of his imagination as they slipped under the slit of their dress and glided up their thigh. Eager fingers described smooth skin and soft curves covered in silk; a part of them untouched by the hardened life Jin lived. Untouched by man or woman till now. He held them there, not like something he was meant to take but as a gift he had been given.
His other hand pinched a tuft of Jin’s hair and pulled, coaxing their already upturned face back just a little more and pulling their lips apart. He drifted away intending to find another part of them to kiss.
Mistress Dizzy
The moment their mouths broke apart, Jin inhaled like a diver breeching the surface. They wanted more, and quickly, but they just needed to catch their breath. The space between them was small, but it was just enough to give Jin's brain a moment of thought. They could barely breathe, it was so warm…
They couldn't breathe?
Shit.
"N-nelu…" Jin tried. Their voice came out needy, pleading, encouraging. And while it was exactly how they really felt, it was the wrong message.
Jin shut their eyes, slipping their shaking hands away from where they'd been trying to work off the rest of Nelu's shirt. Then they pushed him backward, just enough. "Wait. Stop, p-please.”
Exit
Nelu stopped. The words and the pressure pushing against his chest like a wall he’d just run into. His mind, drunk on the high of a release he wanted or needed, ground to a halt and he sobered immediately, freezing his hands where they were and his lips just above the edge of their jawline. As his eyes opened, the reality of what they were doing came rushing back to him.
”S-sorry.” He stammered, pulling away. ”Sorry, I didn’t…” He trailed off, looking at them. Looking for their eyes.
Mistress Dizzy
Jin’s eyes were unfocused. There was a haze of thought behind the blue. That, and something that might startle Nelu more: the gleam of unshed tears.
"I'm sorry too. I shouldn't-" Finally, Jin sighed, looking at Nelu. "Before anything else happens - I need to make sure we're clear. Thought we were."
"The reason you're not you, why you've been doing things and probably thinking things you never would? It's cause you're a lunker." They stopped, realizing that might not be clear enough. This couldn't be misunderstood again.
"A spelunker, I mean. People from the other two Rings come here sometimes. The bad O2 usually marks them quick. Shortness of breath, dizziness, poor impulse control… sounds familiar, right?" Jin let out a soft little noise, suspiciously similar to a sob.
"Basically, you're compromised. It's my fault. If I'd been actually fucking smart, I would have worked it out before we got down this deep, and sent you back up. Apparently I'm just a horny idiot who can't work out when they're getting bad air - I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, I thought…"
Exit
”Jin…” Nelu cut them off as he pulled his hand away from their thigh and placed it instead on the other side of their face, fingers nearly interlocked behind their head. His eyes lingered now on the sheen under their eyelids; on the uncertainty and guilt and fear in their eyes. He understood what they were saying but also understood that their worry was misplaced. If anything, the fact that he was ‘compromised’ explained a lot about what had happened, but not exactly in the way Jin had imagined it.
”...You’re not an idiot. You’re actually the smartest person I’ve ever met. It’s just sometimes…” He smiled at them as the second hand slipped under the mesh of the wig. ”Sometimes you’re so sure of yourself that you miss the simpler answer. The truth is Jin, you’re right. I am compromised. But I was compromised long before we came down here. Before the other men or the oxygen… or even this...” Slowly, he began to lift the wig off their head. There was a light tug around their ears as their real hair slipped free of its confines. All that remained once it was removed was a dress bound Jin with eyes, blue and watery, staring up at him.
Now that it’d been pointed out, he could actually feel it: the poor impulse control dictating what he wanted to say regardless of the consequences. ”This is me telling you that you are beautiful and that I’m the idiot. And I’m sorry it took this for you to hear that.”
He couldn’t really be sure if they understood what he was saying, however, or even if they would believe him. They probably wouldn’t, but he’d said the truth and if he needed to say it again, it wouldn’t be as difficult. It’d been placed in the air between them, as thick and hot as the air was. There would be no going back. ‘Spelunking’ could only excuse so much before it became obvious what was and wasn’t the truth.
Mistress Dizzy
Jin's face was flooded with confusion. Even as Nelu’s warm hands cupped their face, and slipped their wig free. Even as he spoke the kind of words the girls back home sighed over.
A tear slid free, and another. Jin set their jaw. "I don't… I don’t think you get it. I've been conning you just as much as everyone else. Worse, probably. You're just confused. You don't mean any of that."
As desperately as Jin wished it could be true, they knew better. Nelu was as good as drunk, and Jin probably wasn't doing much better. If they weren’t so close to being done, they would have begged him to call off the whole thing. "Just try to stop talking, the best you can."
Exit
...Con…
Nelu looked at the wig in their hands. It was only a small piece of the portrait Doc Li and Jin had painted. An effective disguise even against him, and when combined with the way Jin had been acting when in his space, it was only too easy to reach the vulnerable, oxygen deprived parts of him underneath. But when all the ploys and misdirection and sleight of hand played at Nelu’s expense was done, in the end, he still had bloodbending. He could still read a pulse. It wasn’t all a lie and he knew deep down that not everything he was feeling was one either. He just had to prove it.
”Wait just… listen...” His hand slipped from the side of their face and he rubbed away a streak of water on their cheek with his thumb. ”I know you think I’m out of my mind and nothing I say is believable, so can you do something for me? Before we go, can you promise me something?”
Mistress Dizzy
"I owe you at least that much. What do you want?" There was a level of resignation in Jin’s voice that hadn't been there before. Everything was going to change in the morning. The only question was, how bad would it be?
Exit
”Ask me again how I feel when we get out.” |
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