Dominance and Submission
This is a Smut Saturday short set in Book One, after Lyric agrees to spy for Gerald and to work to get Faun out. There were plenty of opportunities for Lyric to train Faun that weren't shown. This is before Faun told Lyric about Hespiredes or of his earlier involvement with Ebrelle. It might trip a tiny bit of continuity with some things that are revealed, but I did plan on adjusting those details just a tad when I rewrite PK 1.
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Lyric
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It's always so strange how I never walk to the cell. (The cage. It's a cage. Faun is a kept animal here, and animals are kept in cages.) I am walked to the cage, even though my King knows that I know my way around his Palace very well now.
But he couldn't have me roaming around free, could he? Because I am a kept person, and so I am not safe alone outside of my room. (My cell. Cells are for people.)
(Let's ignore that I mistook Faun for a person the first time I saw him. I have to think of him as an animal when the King is around. That's the only way this is going to work. Gerald says the Peacock King can read minds. Oh shit, is Gerald watching all of this again? I can't tell!)
The Peacock King's hand guides me as I walk. "And you have done so very well with him lately, Jhe Lotus. I cannot hide my pride in that." His hand is between my shoulderblades, palm resting on the knob where my spine ends. His fingers, cold and smooth, are perched higher, stroking the back of my neck where the short fine hairs are. It keeps giving me shivers. I'm starting to wonder if he leads me around like this just to play with me.
I remind myself to reply. "I am glad, your majesty. It is a pleasure to serve you in this task." He chuckles at the response.
"Training Faun-doe is its own pleasure, though, isn't it?" There's such a blatant hint laid in those words, almost purred out, that I have to force myself not to look up at him in shock. He can tell that he's gotten a rise out of me. I can hear the smile in his next words. "Be very careful, Jhe Lotus. Some acts are more against the Law than others."
I can't hold back my response. "Like keeping an animism in a cage?"
"Touché, my prized attendant." His voice is dry, but still amused. "Keep that in mind if you decide to take any liberties." He chuckles again. "Though, of course, the punishment I would fear from crossing the wrong line with your task is not from the Law, but from the animism himself. I would be very vexed to find you dead in there, Jhe Lotus. For one, it would mean you'd allowed my pet to taste blood. Such a faux pas."
That warning sits with me uneasily, like a queasy feeling in my stomach. "Here we are." I take the excuse to part ways with the Peacock King with some relief. Faun's cage is a welcome sight. "Good morning, King's Pet."
Faun spits at us in response, a sound that should come from a cat, not a person. Animal. He's an animal. I have to remember that.
The Peacock King laughs. "Have fun with your quarry, then, Jhe Lotus." He unlocks the cell for me. (The cage! Animal. Cage.) I walk in, and then the Peacock King locks it behind me. "I bid you both adieu, for now. Faun-doe, remember your manners." He turns before Faun spits at him again. Then my liege leaves in a flutter of silks and feathers.
Faun and I look at each other. The stare endures for several minutes. Then, slowly, the animism begins to smirk, or to show some of his fangs. I can't tell with him.
"You may sit," he says magnanimously, making a gesture that trails chains as if they were bell sleeves. I realize that he's making fun of my boss. He laughs, a sound much like a bark, at my reaction.
It's then that I remember that my boss is gone right now, and for just a little bit, I can be Lyric again. Dropping the role is like shrugging off a heavy cloak. Lotus has so much baggage attached to him by now - he used to just be a stage name. But having to perform according to the Peacock King's expectations has turned 'Lotus' into a full-on role, separate from myself. It's a relief to shed the extra weight and just be Lyric - but it also feels dangerous, like the Lotus role was an extra layer of armor and protection. I just stop think about it, sigh, and sit.
"Ruling your cell like a proper King, then? I didn't know animisms held Court."
Faun's chuckle involves too many fangs for a sound that should be coming out of a chipmunk. "They don't, but learning human protocol has been a pleasure. Like any mating or dominance displays, they are intricate but communicate exactly what they are meant to. With all there is to be said from them, I wonder why humans bothered to learn to speak."
I raise an eyebrow. "Then why did you?" Faun looks at me for a moment, considering me and my question far longer than I expected he would. Finally, I have to break the silence. "What?"
"You remind me of the Peacock King when he was young." He sees my dismay, and holds up his hand, palm out, to stop any more fretting. "Do not balk. It is meant as a compliment. He and I knew each other very well before he decided to carry on as if he owned all the land and the spirits in it. He asked many questions of me, to try to understand me and my kind. That was one of them." He considers for a moment, his expression that of someone chewing the inside of their cheek, if they also had cheek pouches. "I learn the language of all animals. Human speech is one of those. To many creatures, your words are just chirps and barks and whinnies. To be honest, there is no difference between a human and an animal. You simply hold yourself to not be animals, just as birds hold themselves above every other creature, and foxes, and snails. It is only natural that I speak all of your languages. I am not, however, human. I am not a bird or a fox or a snail. I am that middle ground. Perhaps I am what humans would be if they were not tame."
I blink in the silence that follows. "You think a lot about these things, I see."
He laughs, and the smile that ensues is indistiguishable from a snarl, but somehow I can parse the subtle difference. "I started thinking about them when your King first began to ask me them. Before then, I did mingle a bit in human affairs, in an attempt to keep my kind, and my creatures, safer from human predation. But it was the young Peacock King who first encouraged me to seek further, to ask questions. He is really quite intelligent! It is a shame he keeps me in a cage." He smiles at me. "It was kind of you to accord it as a cell. He thinks of it as a cage, though, so that is what it shall be." He gestures toward himself. "Come over here."
I don't move. "Why?"
"Because there's something you won't understand about your King unless I show it to you. I won't bleed you, boy. Not unless you let me."
Of course, I don't consider that ceding to his request is, in fact, letting him. I move forward, hunched down, but ready to spring away at any moment. It's slow going, and I admit that one of my hands stays perched on my whip. Finally, I'm a few feet away from him, barely out of the reach that his chains permit him.
He nods his head, gesturing for me to come closer than that. He laughs softly as I hesitate. "Come on. You won't get anywhere with me if you don't take risks."
"What if I don't want to take risks?"
That laugh again. "You wouldn't be in this Palace if you didn't want to take risks, boy. Now get over here before I cut you. You've underestimated the reach of my chains, and I've still let you live for it."
I double-take. How can he-- he's hiding extra loops of chain behind him. He was decieving me from the outset! I tell myself that it's not entriely me he's decieving - he could have been poised like that in case my King entered the cell instead. Still... still, I've been trapped, and if I don't go forward I'm probably going to get my throat ripped out.
I inch forward, just a little bit. At Faun's beckoning, I creep closer still, until I'm only a foot away from him. It's close enough to smell him (and wonder how he got that animal scent on him, even though we gave him a bath just yesterday). It's close enough for his breath to rustle the tiny hairs on my skin. It's close enough to feel uncomfortably warm about that closeness.
"Good enough," he says, and then grasps my head on either side before I can possibly dodge the strike, He yanks me forward, bites my lip without blooding it, and then presses his mouth over mine. While the realization slides over me that he's stealing a kiss from me, his fingers curl through my hair, claws raking lightly against my scalp. The kiss becomes more intense, and with it the claws increase their pressure. I finally kiss back before they start to draw blood. The purr he replies with makes me get cold shivers. Then he takes one arm and wraps it around me, hand at my back, claws sinking through layers of cloth and stopping before they prick my skin.
He takes his time with that kiss before releasing my mouth, and I come up from it gasping and wondering just low long his tongue is. That hand at my back begins to knead, the gesture possessive and just a little bit painful. It's like having a cat in my lap - and I don't want Faun's claws anywhere near my lap, no sirree. The grin on his face is all fox but, surprisingly, very little savage. It's playful. It's an animal type of playful, which means it's still dangerous, but at least it's not a very hungry look. His breath is very hot, his eyes are hooded. He pulls me closer. The slightest bit of resistance makes those claws dig into my back, so I give in quickly. My chest is touching his. One hand's still clenched in my hair, the other's kneading up and down, raking the fabric and snagging threads, as if he's sharpening his claws on my back. He pushes my head down, and once he's got enough of an angle for it, he bites the back of my neck. I can't tell if he's drawn blood. It doesn't feel like it. Yet.
I'm not scared of him the most. What I'm really frightened of is that, deep down, I'm enjoying this. Not very deep down, at that. A little farther down than my waist.
One more rake of his claws, a slight grind with his teeth that makes a little tremor run through me, and then he releases my neck. "Do you want to know something about the Peacock King that nobody else does?" I know better than not to nod. "Back when he asked me questions, when he still respected the land, he did this with me as well. He was just as scared as you are now. I think he's forgotten that fear."
I swallow. I don't think I'll forget this fear. Not for a long, long time. "Do you miss him?"
He grunts with surprise. He didn't expect me to ask that. "Why else would you be in this position now." Those claws dig in just a little deeper. I can't hold back the whimper I let out in response. It only makes him purr more. "Do you think, in this position, you're just like I am in position to him? Chained up, trapped, made a pet?" The question seems a little odd. It's not idle - he wants to know the answer pretty badly. I have a hunch that there is a wrong answer to it, in fact, and it would be in my best interests not to give that answer.
"No," I say, trying to keep my voice level as my heart beats so fast, as everything feels so damnably hot. "I came to you willingly, and I'm not your pet now. He trapped you, and only thinks you're his pet."
He purrs in response. I hope that's a good thing. "Well, then, do you know what makes a person a pet?" Those claws are still kneading down my back, and I gain a pressing fear that he's going to shred my outfit.
I bite my lip. "Of course I do. I've been one. One could say that I am one right now, for the King. A pet is someone who lets themselves be kept. A pet can be a human or an animal - by your rationality, there is no difference between the two anyway. A pet doesn't need a collar, or a cage. A pet follows its master regardless."
"But what makes a pet do that, Jhe Lyric? Why would a pet want to be kept?" Those nails are raking harder now, and my scalp's about to get bloody.
"Because a pet is conditioned to feel safe when it is kept. Maybe not by its master, and maybe on accident, but that's the result. A pet is not a slave - a slave is mere property, to a master. Pets are more valuable, because they are acknowledged as living things that the master enjoys keeping." I allow myself a few moments to breathe, because he's not killing me yet. "I could not tell you why a master keeps pets or owns slaves."
"I did ask that question of him, once, but I do not expect you to answer it. It is not a lesson that I think you will ever need to learn." His claws stop raking me so hard. I'm left to wonder if I've just been insulted or complimented. "So, then, Jhe Lyric, what am I doing now, if not keeping a pet or binding a slave?"
"You are demonstrating dominance."
"Indeed I am," he says with a smile in his words, "and you are playing as an excellent bitch."
Then his fingers curl tight in my hair and he shoves my head down into his lap. The hand on my back balls up into the fabric there, holding me firm. He growls, something guttural and very wild, and I get another of those chills that I enjoy too much.
In a way, there's more to enjoy here than there is in playing as someone's pet. It's a much simpler game, and I don't have to worry about airs or graces. I also don't have to worry too much about what clothing to pull out of the way to prove Faun's dominance. The Peacock King has given him a very simple, easily accessible set of robes. I reveal Faun's erection as he pushes my head down onto it.
There's little art to this - Faun's not pushing me down here because of my expertise or my beauty, he wants to prove that he can do it. I am willing to prove that he can, in fact, and as my lips tighten around his hot member I start to ache in a way that tells me that I want to prove it. I lick and suck at him, evoking a growl as I drag my head up along his length. He shoves it back down in reply, making me ache between my legs even more. I let out a whimper, which is probably the best idea I've had all day. His grip slackens a little in response.
I think as I'm down here. You do a lot of thinking while giving a blowjob - at least, I do. There's not much talking to do, after all, and the bedroom talk from most of my partners during this act gets smug and boring. I'm a lover of conversation. To be frank, I'm thinking of how Faun said that the Peacock King has been in this position, once before. I wonder if he's been in this exact one? Something tells me yes. If he didn't end up here, he'd have ended up dead.
I honestly wonder why he didn't end up here more often, because Faun's silent grunts and clawed, forceful grip are fabulous. Why would you try to own a person like this? Person, animal, animism. I can't tell anymore.
Of course, it's right when I'm swallowing the tip of Faun's penis (an action that makes him let out a guttural sound that makes me even happier) that I get a flash of my Father's face. Does this ever happen to you? It's probably not as bad for you, even if it does. Your Father is probably not the Judge. He is probably not the force that I have to reckon with if I touch an animism in an inappropriate manner.
I wonder if this counts as inappropriate. I tongue the shaft anyway, coaxing Faun into an orgasm and swallowing the musky result. I've tasted a lot of that particular substance in my travels, but Faun's flavor is unique. It's like saying that venison is gamey. Can semen be gamey? Because this is.
As he goes limp in my mouth, Fauns grip slackens a bit. I take a chance and start to sit up. His hands are still on me, but they're not forcing me to stay hunched into his lap. I lick my lips as I rise, cleaning one final drop of Faun off of them.
Did I just lick a death sentence off of my lips? is rivaled only with Was my brother recording that? as the most mortifying thought that's gone through my head this week. The former must be written across my face, because Faun's smug look shifts to amused comprehension.
"You may touch me in any way I invite," he purrs, "and the Law will have nothing ill to say of it."
I gulp. "You don't know my Father very well."
His hands don't release me, and I'm pretty sure he's planning on more activities to help assert just who in this cage is alpha male, but then we hear someone approach. He lets go of me, and I spring back to the other side of the cell immediately, my whip uncoiling with an unnerving CRACK. Faun only smirks at that, then schools his expression into a scowl when the Peacock King appears in front of the cage.
The Peacock King notes the expression. "I trust this has been a productive session, then?" At my nod, he motions to me to exit the cage, then locks it behind me. There's a final hiss from Faun, and then the King places his hand at the small of my back and leads me out.
We're quiet. I'm grateful for the silence, for the mental shield that is my role as Lotus. After a few moments, I suppress a tremble. The Peacock King looks down at me, then traces a circle at the small of my back. His nails remind me of Faun's claws - not as sharp, but probably as deadly.
"You should have relieved that little pressure while training him, my boy. Did you not figure out how?" His voice is a low murmur.
I realize, my face growing red as I do so, that the urgency between my legs is still there... and it is very pressing.
"Perhaps I should show you," he says as we arrive at my room.
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