Chapter Text
The Goddess of Love’s cold gaze pierced my whole being like he had done the first time. His bright eyes like a red cold river of blood had my eyes so entrapted; they shined against the only source of heat in the room: a fireplace that divided the room between me, on my knees, and his glorious, otherworldly figure. I only had time to admire his exquisite androgynous body covered in delightful furs when he accommodated like a playful cat on the chaise longue in which he was resting. He held his furs closer to his body as if he was freezing and sneezed cutely, like a kitten, once, twice, before readjusting some loose blond, almost white locks that had fallen over his eyes.
“It is nice to see you again, Earl of Moriarty.” He purred as if teasing an old lover. I supposed I was.
“I have missed you so.” My raspy voice managed to get out with the last thread of life I had in me, frozen at his magnificence. “Aphrodite, why have you forsaken me?”
His cold, lovely giggle filled the room, as if he could tell I didn’t mean my words. Then his laughter dissolved into a refined cough before he directed her divine attention to me again. “My friend, I have never been very far. Are you not the one who decided to walk away from my graces? Wasn’t you who chose you’d deprive yourself of me? Your devotion is like a martyr’s, but as such you cannot help but desire flagellation. As the creature I am, I am fickle by nature; but you,” he took out his porcelain doll arm from his enormous fur coat to the point I could see it shiver at the cold “you are a pagan of the oddest kind. You run away from me yet decry my cruelty when I’m gone. What am I to do with you, my profane priest?”
I could not focus, the hand that was out was getting cold and shivering at the unkind coldness of the room. Not colder than his eyes, but enough to represent a noticeable discomfort for him. He curled deeper into his furs as I got closer to him to try and aid him in any way, but his voice resonated in the lone room: “Halt!”
Stuck mid-movement, I opened my mouth. “Do not leave me again, I beg of you.”
“But I dislike these weathers. And I am no longer satisfied with waiting for a man that won’t make his mind between adoring me and wallowing in his own pity. If I am to be adored it must be done with religious devotion; and if I am to be despised, it has to be with dedicated hatred. The unsettling middle you have put me in has only managed to irritate me and therefore I shall take my leave.”
I begged again, frozen still, and managed to raise my voice. “If I’m not with you I’ll die, but if I stay by your side I am bound to bring you suffering. Why can’t you understand everything I ever did was born out of my love for you? Why must you respond with such cruelty?”
This last request seemed to amuse him, as he disentangled himself in a feline semicircular curve and crawled from his divan to the place I was frozen in, purring like a cat in heat.
“Disgraceful fool! You dare speak of love in front of the Goddess herself? What a blasphemous suitor I have gotten myself! What you call cruelty is the very substance of sensual and natural love. I am to do what I please and you no longer have say nor part in my voyages.”
He took my head in his hands from the neck and held it tenderly yet firmly. His long lynx nails caressing my skin close enough to draw blood, first behind my neck, tickling the hairs that stood up, second in my cheek, his pulse so close my blood begged for his embrace.
His warm breath hit my nose and I could see the misty cloud emanating from her words: “My pitiful brother… Wake up!”
I was jolted awake by her sudden command and freezing hands, but the dream played on.
“You are dreaming, my beloved.” He said. “Wake up!”
The icy hand caressing Albert’s face had not left him yet. He grabbed it as fast as he could, promising under his breath he would never let go again, and looked up at the surprised red eyes of the Goddess of Love. The darkness of his stone prison consuming the last thread of light he would ever have. Terrified, he held even tighter to the point his beloved emitted a pained groan. He’d apologise later, for now, he had to make sure he was real.
“Brother Albert, forgive me, I did not mean to startle you.”
Except… This wasn’t his deity he was holding onto. It was his younger brother Louis, who seemed just as disturbed as him at his erratic behaviour; and this wasn’t the London Tower he had almost lost his sanity in, but the room in his old London mansion, illuminated by the kind light of the 9am sun.
He was still holding onto Louis’s arm for dear life.
Embarrassed, he let go of it. “I’m sorry, Louis. Good morning.” He tried to smile through the repercussion of another restless night.
“Good morning, brother Albert.” Louis seemed to calm down too. “I came to wake you up because William requested you join us for breakfast. If you are too tired to come, I can bring it on a platter while you rest.”
“No, no. It’s quite alright. I’ll be down soon, Louis. Don’t worry about me.”
“Brother Albert I…” Albert could spot a glimpse of his shy brother that hid under the semblance of M, but he quickly got his expression together and directed his icy red gaze sternly to him. “Brother Albert. Please know that you can count on me if you find yourself in any hardships. I am no longer someone you have to shield from danger, and I’d be grateful to be someone you can trust with your troubles.”
A pregnant silence hung over the room before being broken by Albert’s kind smile. “Forgive me, Louis. I forget you are more than my little brother now. I still have a hard time trusting anyone but myself with my woes, least of all my youngest sibling, whom I wish to protect so deeply. But I’m aware I shouldn't underestimate you. You are the head of MI6 now, after all. Perhaps I can afford to be more sincere with you.”
Louis’s soft smile matched Albert’s and he sat next to him in his bed. “I’m glad.” He simply said. Albert could see his soft look now that he was no longer covering his face. His scar as well, which more than the defect Louis thought it was once, adorned his face like a proud symbol of his maturity.
“Truth is, I’ve been having odd dreams lately, making sleep somewhat scarce. I’ve tried all manner of sleep remedies, from honey milk to warm towels to von Herder’s odd sedatives… but none of them make my nights less restless.”
“Oh my…” Louis said, intrigued. “And what do you dream of?”
“All sorts of things, but the main motif tying them all seems to be a conversation with a lone figure in a cold room. It is wickedly cruel to me and I’m frozen in place trying to talk back, as if I’ve been taken over by a fit of aphasia. The figure terrifies me and mocks my feeble attempts to communicate, but it also trembles like a helpless cat shivering under the cold. He calls me cruel, as if it was me who put it there and it is now just as trapped as me.” Albert chuckled to himself, a bit embarrassed of how he had related an occurrence that seemed rather silly after it escaped his mouth. He tried to laugh it off, but Louis seemed as serious as a philosopher.
“And this figure, how does it look?”
Since like you and William’s perfectly loving amalgamation was still an answer that did not even touch Albert’s closed lips, he had to describe other characteristics of his dream’s lover. Fortunately, he had many to go around. “It is covered in the heaviest and most expensive furs I’ve ever seen, the type of high couture only the queen and her proteges can afford. Its movements are feline, mocking and lazy, but also profoundly graceful. It rests on a velvet sofa where it can stand its whole body comfortably, but always restless. His claws and teeth are sharp and animal-like, but his demeanour is that of an upper class lady. Under the furs he seems to hide nothing but an androgynous body. His eyes are… I cannot remember more at the moment.”
Louis was deep in thought. “I see… Thank you for this depiction, brother. Is there anything else?”
“Let me think…” Between the sword and the wall, between telling Louis the truth and revealing too much or underestimating his little brother like he had done before, Albert was in quite the dilemma. “I told you it was cruel, yes? But that didn’t cause rejection. In fact, I sharply remember wanting him to stay.”
Louis’s eyes open in surprise, like he might yell Eureka! at any moment. “My deepest thanks, brother Albert. I will immediately see what I can do. I promise I’ll help you to the best of my abilities.”
With that, he was gone in a flash and Albert was alone again. His now long hair covering his eyes and the weight of a bad night’s sleep finally falling upon his shoulders and, most importantly, lids.
Oh, but Will was waiting for company still, yes? Best not to leave him waiting.
Breakfast with Will was never mundane or uneventful. Such words were anathema to the man he adored as a deity. The word pagan ruminated around his mind, walking in circles and doing pirouettes that translated in a quite annoying tightening of his throat. Another source of anguish came from William’s apathetic eye, which looked no way in particular with an expression whose lack of communication was unknown for Albert.
His brother had always been a hard man to read, but nowadays the tension in the air made what used to be scribbles into indistinguishable drops of ink.
”Is breakfast to your liking?” Albert ventured to ask. Will’s eye refocused on his interlocutor and regained that affectionate colour that characterised the gazes that he donated to his brother. Eye of an all-forgiving, all-loving god looking at his faithful.
”It very much is, yes.” He said in that delightful tone of his that had become so much softer after three years, either from lack of use or physical injuries. “Though I’m a bit troubled with Louis’s absence. I sent him to fetch you and only you came back. I surely hope he didn’t think I wanted to eat with you alone. Not that I don’t immensely enjoy your presence! But I’ve always preferred us as a tripartite class.”
”Is that so…” Albert couldn’t help but shiver at the casual cruelty of either dishonesty or ends beyond his comprehension. But besides his own feelings, his priority was calming William’s neveros. “He came up to my room to chat for a bit; after that, he went off on his own. Our little brother has kind of a one-track-mind, not that it isn’t charming, but now that he is M, he is busier than we could ever imagine. It is a shame, but completely understandable that some pleasantries slip his mind. He accompanied you for a good while while I was asleep, no?”
”He did, which is why I’m not worried he’s under-eating. He seemed to have a healthy appetite and we chatted a lot before we both missed your company. I used to worry about that a lot, you know? He was always so busy and barely ate anything at all, whenever he went. Now he seems healthier and it brings me a joy I cannot describe. He makes for a delightful host, too, now that you and I are civilly dead. And he hasn’t at all complained about us not carrying our weight. Not that I’d expect him to, he is very kind and wouldn’t think of mentioning it, but I don’t want to become an additional burden for him. Not more than I have been already. To him and to you.”
”Will…” Albert felt the familiar coldness of his brother’s kind condescension envelop him; his deep sadness making them both shiver. Oh, how he would love to be in furs. “You are never a burden, either to me or to Louis. You’ve done so much for us, not for a second have I regretted offering my life to you.”
This seemed to pain William, who nested on his too-big clothes and avoided Albert’s gaze. “You say that, but…” And after a few slow blinks he looked back. “Never mind. Breakfast is almost over and we have a long day ahead. I need to talk to Sherly about a few cases he asked me to help with, and I know you are busy as well. Let’s not think more of it, okay? It’s a new day today, we can all go back to taking care of our own. After all, we’ll always be back here at the mansion and can enjoy each other’s presence to our liking.”
With that, Albert knew the conversation was over. He alongside William picked up their empty plates and cups to return them to the kitchen. Albert lamented how tense Will seemed now, moving like a startled cat, and how hard he tried to hide his discomfort even now, after all that had happened.
After leaving their plates on the sink, Albert stayed behind to wash them, since his day was objectively less arduous than either William or Louis’s. As he opened the water and before William left for his errands, his brother gave Albert one last request.
”Oh, and Albert-“
”Yes, brother?”
”I won’t be back until late so… tell Louis, when you see him, that I think he is kind. And thank him in my stead for the delicious breakfast.”
Indeed, even though he stayed in the mansion all day, Albert did not see Louis nor William the rest of the day. He entertained two guests, Mycroft and Patterson, who came to chat and borrow some papers stored in the mansion, as well as clean around a bit. Even though his brothers thought he wasn’t fond of it, repetitive movement often calmed his mind. He had abstained from doing so not out of laziness, but rather, because he had thought peace of mind was the last thing he deserved.
Only when the day was done with and the mansion was once again devoid of the sound of associates and accomplices running around, he went back to his room to rest. It had been a long and arduous task to convince himself he deserved to lie down after all the suffering he had caused, at the very least not to worry his brothers. He also maintained a robotic eating and exercise routine to make sure his vital functions were, hopefully, over the minimum. Taking care of himself for his own sake, or when that wasn’t enough, for his brother, was work. Unpleasant, but work to be done. Rest, too, was a luxury he didn’t regard as a pleasure, but as a necessity and a means to an end.
Opening the door, his thoughts of self deprecation quickly drifted away when he saw his Goddess of Love, porcelain skin and all draped in furs, sitting on his bed and contemplating the moonlight.
“I’ve been expecting you.” The apparition muttered with the most velvety, most purely angelic voice Albert had heard in his entire life.
He grabbed onto the doorway so as not to fall to his knees. Had his personal Aphrodite ordered him to do so, however, he would have done it most gladly. He felt his very life being held in the blond’s delicate milky white hand, slender fingers metaphorically grabbing at his heartstrings. He would have killed himself on the spot had he known it would amuse him.
The cold, icy gaze his dream mistress had greeted him with quickly shattered when he saw his stupor, clearly taken aback. “Brother Albert! Are you okay? I didn’t mean to scare you.” Louis’s voice called out in tepid concern.
I wish you’d terrify me. Albert muttered under his breath, but quickly coughed the thought away. “Louis, what a surprise to see you here at this hour.”
Relieved that his brother had regained his composure, Louis in his furs took a breath and looked at Albert with a fraternal fondness once again. “Ah. I apologise again, I truly didn’t mean to startle you.”
“It’s not a bother, Louis. You are always more than welcome in my chambers. The house is yours, after all.”
”Indeed it is.” He said, and in that sentiment he relaxed more than he had, curling in his furs and enjoying them a little bit. “I came to visit you tonight. Because you told me you have trouble sleeping.”
”Yes I do.” Albert thought of getting closer to the bed and to his brother, perhaps to admire the fur from a closer distance. But the regal image of Louis crowned by the expensive coat made him entirely too aware of the distance between them, as if he, a mere mortal, had stumbled upon Venu’s private abode by guilty accident. “Though your presence is always appreciated, may I ask why…”
”Oh? The coat? Well, this is part of my plan for helping you.” Unlike his goddess, Louis was wearing some kind of clothes, probably some modest pyjamas, underneath the fur. He looked good on them and had no reason to be ashamed, as did Albert, who felt the picture of his brother in those garments had been carved out from a deep and hidden place of his mind.
This is why, when talking, Louis kept a scientific and calm expression while Albert felt a painful frostbite extend from his chest to his throat. “You’ve told me your dreams torment you, and I know very well they have for a while. After reading a bit on sleep medicine and therapies, von Herder helped me find the work of an Austrian psychologist who is developing an investigation in the interpretation of dreams. His work has not been published yet, but seems very promising and many experts on the field sing his praises. Of course I had our units contact him right away and try to bring him here posthaste. Sadly, he was not able to come since the private practice he manages is constantly swarmed with patients. Thankfully, he was a very kind man who was very willing to talk to me on the phone about what troubled me— and I talked perhaps more than I would have usually told a stranger, but nothing involving you or any of our business— and even kinder to give me some recommendations. I’ve reserved his schedule for him to come to London soon, but that will have to be in about two months. For now, I am following his advice.”
”And he advised you to… wear a fur coat?”
”Not exactly. But we did talk at length about how dreams usually reflect an untold want or desire. He has sketched something about the mind’s relationship to fraternal relationships, so he advised me to relieve the desire the dream must be expressing. Now, it can hardly be diaphanous what a dream means at any given time, but I thought it would be best to start from the most literal symbolism and then work from there. What do you think? Are you willing to try?”
“I suppose I could… but what is it there to do?”
“Yes, come closer.” He commanded, and Albert’s body, as if puppeteered, moved towards Louis. “Ideally, you’d have to be in charge here, telling me what you want to do or what would make you feel better.”
Whips, leather boots, hot wax candles, collars, ropes and blindfolds all flashed through Albert’s mind, but he didn’t dare to vocalise those desires. At least, not yet. Instead he embraced his brother’s body coated by his soft, soft furs, and allowed himself to be taken in by the smell of well cleaned mink and Louis’s masculine perfume.
Albert rested a moment on the crook of his neck, being softly welcomed by the fur. He took a moment to hear Louis’s heartbeat and smell his hair. He promised himself this was the last time he would ever lie to his younger brother and feigned innocent desire: “I’d like you to stay.”
Returning the hug, Louis whispered “I’d be happy to.”
They stayed like that for a minute or two, trying to synchronise their breathing. After that, Albert prepared himself to sleep and came back to the bed, where his beloved was waiting for him in his soft satin pyjamas.
A disappointed “Oh…” escaped from his lips.
“Is something wrong, brother?” Louis called out.
“No! Nothing at all, it’s…”
Louis, sharp as ever. “You’d rather I wear the furs, right? It’s okay, I don’t mind. Whatever helps you sleep. Plus, they are quite comfortable.”
Thankful he didn’t have to explain himself further, Albert lied down while Louis fetched and draped himself in furs again. Approaching the bed again, he placed his body next to Albert’s and embraced him one last time before being taken away by sleep. Bringing Albert closer to his chest, the last thing Louis felt before losing himself was a small moan of gratitude.
I woke up in good company. Embracing me was my Venus in furs himself holding me close to his chest. His divine furs did not produce any sort of heat against my body, as if his whole being was made of porcelain. I wanted so badly to console my shivering mistress who’s kitten sneezes could hear closer than ever, but I knew I was helplessly tied to his command.
“You have me so close, yet you still escape me. How curious.” He said.
Delighted to be so close to him, I offered again my pitiful apologies. “Beloved, I do not know what you want from me, what I could possibly do to hold you forever.”
As if ignoring my words, he continued: “I opened the door and windows and still nobody will enter my household. Not even Ares, God of War, dared make out of Aphrodite such a pitiful maiden! But you are different, Earl, from head to toe you yearn for my love yet deny yourself of it. You call me cruel, but refuse to taste me! You are the one who is really cruel, because even if my nature is that of a temptress, you are naught but a cowardly martyr.”
His words hurt me deeply, because I knew them in my heart to be true. “How might I ask for your love, Venus, when I fear you might turn me away?”
“It is too late to ask for my love now. You lost it when you took me for dead. Might as well have killed me yourself.” He replied resentfully. “Now your only expiation would be to ask for my cruelty. But fear not, dearest beloved, for they are one and the same. Because I, the Goddess of Love know everything there is to know about the creatures of this earth. And as such, I am aware of you to be of that inclination.”
“I will praise your name in any way you’d like, dearest brother.” I said, and it came sincerely from my heart. “I beg for your cruelty, Aphrodite! I ache for your whips, dear! Let me submit fully to you, as you know me to be your most devoted.”
He laughed coldly and in his chest, I swear I could hear him purr. “Good, good. My most zealous prey. Now look me in the eyes: what do you see in them?”
Wrapped by warm furs and the purring of another’s breath synchronised with his, Albert looked up to find himself mesmerised in the scarlet eyes of his personal saviour staring adoringly back at him. Captured by their affectionate red, he thought that for the first time in ages he had a good night’s sleep.
“B-brother Albert, good morning.” Louis said when he was caught staring, immediately looking away.
“Good morning to you too, Louis.” Greeted him Albert, still clinging onto the dream’s command. “I think your unorthodox methods proved effective. This is the first time in many I’ve woken up well-rested.”
Still embarrassed, Louis responded. “I’m glad.” And he was.
“Will we be having breakfast together again today?” He asked, tracing in his mind the factions of the Goddess who had so gracefully given him his favour.
“If that is what you wish for, I’ll arrange for it.”
There was no doubt about it, thought Albert. “Thank you, Louis. For all of it.” And he meant it wholeheartedly.
Louis smiled, and as they arranged themselves to be presentable for breakfast with William (the furs carefully stored like a treasure in a clean chest) Albert remembered a request he had yet to fulfil.
“Louis,” he called. And when his beloved turned around, a hundred sunrises or even the nine muses could not compare in beauty. “You are very kind. I mean it.”
The slight, juvenile blush on his little brother’s cheek was something Albert was not accustomed to see, but for him, he would not mind taking up the habit.
“You two seem in high spirits lately, has something good happened?” William asked while biting on his breakfast tea-dipped madeleine.
This startled the older and younger Moriarty brothers. Indeed, has something good happened lately? Their perilous affair had maintained, for the past few days, a chaste and platonic character; more akin to a children’s game than the fulfilment of a fantasy. Louis in his furs had been dutifully accompanying Albert’s nights as per the avant-garde “therapy” efforts doctor Freud had encouraged, but they hadn’t gone further than a furtive kiss or two. Maybe a bit of frottage, without coming to termination. And some nights, Albert’s tongue found its way to his brother’s neck and Louis’s nails found their way to his back, leaving some lovely trails alongside it. But as days went by, Albert became even more so afraid their arrangement was diminishing in effectiveness regarding his night terrors if it didn’t take a turn for the satisfaction he yearned for.
“Things are calm in London for the first time in many years and we are together, isn’t that a notable enough occasion?” Louis asked, serving his other half more tea.
Of course, that wasn’t the answer William was expecting, and he was nothing if not inquisitive. “It is, most certainly, but I’ve observed something between you two… it’s different. There’s a different air in the mansion. Not that it’s bad, not at all. In fact I dare say it’s quite the contrary. But perhaps I’ve been too busy working with Sherly to poke around the affairs of my precious brothers.”
As soon as the battle started, the war was lost. The shift in tone at the word affair decried a successful deduction neither Albert nor Louis could possibly deny. In fact, William had unknowingly baptised the odd relationship that had taken hold of both his brother’s nights. Because even though they tried to tell themselves it was an innocent, perhaps even childish comfort, each night they got dangerously close to crossing a boundary they could nor recover from.
”Oh, but don’t feel obligated to tell me. I don’t mean to pry.” He scoffed and followed with a self-pitying laugh. “I myself hid many things from you, too. It wouldn’t be my place to complain.”
This seemed to greatly affect Louis, who slammed his hands on the table and shook the teapot and madeleines. “It’s not like that! Alber and I…. We’re-“
”We are spending more time together.” Albert cut him off. And it wasn’t a lie. “It’s been a while, and Louis and I have never been close as him and you or you and me. It’s unfair, really, since we both were so geographically close yet never talked in all those three years. At least not as much as we should have.
We are trying to make up for the lost time and as such we’ve been spending nights together, talking. We missed you a lot too, William, but you were never alone. We were, in our own way and… found kinship in that. My deepest apologies if you felt excluded from our nightly rendezvous. That was not our intention.”
William’s eye brightened up with the tenderness of the moment. Even if he was the odd one out, it was true he didn’t have to deal with the grief he left behind and, as such, was not privy to the particular reconstruction and care that takes building back after all was lost.
It was also not William’s brothers’ intention to lie or hide anything from him, but the bond they had woven this past few nights was something they silently understood to be unique and, besides their own private language, of unspeakable importance. Not necessarily because of morals, but because at its very core it was a contract between two that only existed in its entirety behind closed doors. Laid the terms perhaps they would be able to talk about it, but as it stood now, they could not even explain it to themselves.
“I see.” William condescended. “Then I’m glad you two are bonding. I won’t ask any further, because if you two are happy and healthy there is nothing else I could desire. I know I’ve caused a great deal of grief, so I’m nothing but proud that you two have found a way to heal of it all…”
“And indeed… what are we?” Albert asked most to himself that to the other person in the room: his Goddess of Love in his beautiful furs waiting for him at his bed stool. His beautiful furs and nothing underneath, a habit he had taken on these past few passionate nights.
“We are brothers, of course.” Louis answered, somewhat offended it was even on the table.
“Yes but…” and approaching to grab his wrist with one hand and the back of his neck with another “polite society doesn’t look kindly on me for having this relationship with him.”
“You have never cared what polite society thinks. In fact when I met you, you despised them.” Louis’s lips were so close, his breath hot against Albert’s skin. “Neither did I. And that’s what I first liked about you.”
“Even now?” Albert asked, teasing slightly“that you’re doing the rounds of the queen’s watchdog?”
“Even though I work for the British government, my first priority is serving as therapy for a patricidal Earl known for being the sibling of a criminal.” Louis retorted. His acidic remark was accompanied with Louis biting his brother’s lower lip, making him recoil in pleasure.
“Tell me more.” He managed to say.
Louis dropped his lips, still not making him bleed. “More of what?”
“Tell me more about how lowly of a bastard pariah I am. Treat me as such, even. I need to feel your judgement upon my skin”
Louis held his breath, not sure how to proceed. “Brother Albert, you know well I year to serve your every desire. I am willing to give you every feeling you want, because I know when it comes from you, every sensation, even pain, is precious. But I’m afraid I’ll find something in me you might dislike. How will I know when I’m doing right by you?”
“Louis.” Albert grabbed his brother’s shoulders softly yet firmly, to keep him in place. “You could never hurt me, because what I really want is to be yours in its entirety. I want you to be as cruel as you can be, because if it's you I know I will be able to take it and, above all, enjoy it. So worry not if you are being too cruel to me, because I know what you are showing me is your love and condescension to my own prurient desires.”
Louis bit his own lips. “I'm afraid you might conceive inside of me something that neither of us could control.”
“If it’s you, anything is precious. Isn’t that how you feel as well?”
“Brother…” Louis caressed Albert’s face and then directed his hands to his neck, holding it in his cold hands and pressing slightly, making Albert think he’d go mad with pleasure. “After tonight we will have our limits written down. But just tonight I will show you what I’m capable of. So you know I am not less licentious than you.”
Albert could not talk, entrapped by his goddess. Louis let go of his neck and Albert realised he could breathe again; he hadn’t in a few minutes. “Down, on your knees. You are to please me tonight.”
Obediently Albert positioned himself on the floor in the requested position, where it was undeniable he was painfully hard. Opened his legs as much as his pants would let him and placed his hands on the floor as to support himself. Louis looked amused at the ease he had at obeying him and decided to test his devotion a bit further.
“My poor, disgraced brother. Is this what you’ve been hiding from me?” Crouching to the floor, he freed Albert’s erection from his pants with a single finger, looking at it amusedly. “Don’t move until I order you to. Since we just started to play I shall be merciful to you, so don’t get accustomed to it. Now, tell me what I am to you and I might feel amused.”
“You are my everything;” Albert said, and felt as Louis softly caressed his length with the tip of his fingers. “I have nothing but you, you are my life, my future, my happiness, my unhappiness, my torment and my joy.” Louis grew bored of touching softly as he continued and placed his brother’s cock in his mouth, at which Albert had to release a moan.
This greatly displeased Louis, who pinched Albert’s exposed butt with force, enough to leave a bruise. “I never told you to stop speaking.”
“I belong to you.” Albert said as Louis returned to sucking on his member. “My honour belongs to you, so does my blood, my mind and all my assets.”
Louis laughed a bit amused. That was a little bit too true, no? Removing his mouth from Albert’s cock, leaving a tray of spit on his wake, he looked at his submissive brother and sat on the bed, commanding Albert to follow him.
When Albert got up, Louis scolded him. “I don’t remember telling you to get up. Crawl here like the animal you are.”
So he did, until he was in front of Louis, who looked at him with a strange expression that mixed lust with tenderness like pain in a palette. “Aren’t you pitiful?” He said in an amused tone.”
“I am whatever you want me to be.”
At this, Louis laughed wickedly. “Quite the contrary I might say! I recall it’s you who wished me to incarnate your Venus in furs.”
Albert didn’t respond, he wasn’t commanded to. What he did do was get closer to Louis, eyes full of desire and still painfully hard, and stare him up and down as eating him, furs and slender legs alike.
“If you keep staring at me like that I’m going to start believing you have ambitions beyond obeying my every command. For example…” And with a swift movement of his leg he pulled Albert closer to him, moving the fur coat enough for Albert to see how dripping with desire his cock was. “You wish to come inside me, don’t you? Speak now.”
Albert didn’t think he had the voice to, but he did. “If you would let me.”
Louis could hide neither his amusement nor his libido. “Fine, do as you may. But let me warn you that if you are too rough or do anything to displease me there will be punishment.”
Climbing onto the bed as gently as he could with a mad desire consuming him, Albert got on top of Louis, who stared at his emerald-green eyes and got lost on them; for a second he was filled with the loving tenderness and adoration for his brother he loved more than life itself. Because even though he was playing the part of the cruel master right now, this was the person he most adored in the world. Lost as he was in the excitement of being taken by his beloved, he dropped the act and lost himself in Albert’s handsome factions: his swollen lips, soft skin and lust that was directed at him and him only. At that moment, like a kaleidoscope, no matter how he looked it was all beautiful, colourful paradise.
“Louis? Louis, is everything okay?” said worried his little brother might have gotten overwhelmed. “If it’s too much we can stop.”
“No!” Louis cried in desperation. “I mean… Don’t stop. I want this. I want you.” And regaining his composure and getting back to his script, he affirmed his gaze and commanded the man who was atop of him. “It is an order. Take me and bring me to completion. Otherwise you will feel the taste of my whip.”
Albert’s woes dissolved as quickly as melting ice. Without a second to spare, he reached for Louis’s entrance and was surprised to find it surprisingly wet and ready.
“Oh, that? Yes, the conversation with William at breakfast had me wondering too if you would like to push it further… I mean, so did I. We want more than to just spend time together, right? So in exchange of your submission and obedience, I’ll be ready whenever you need me. In furs, of course.”
Albert couldn’t contain himself any longer, as he stretched him with his fingers, he got closer to his mouth and kissed continuously his cheeks, his forehead and the corners of his lips. “Oh, Louis, you are so kind, so very kind.”
“Silence!” Louis said, more embarrassed than anything else. “Take me now, this is an order!”
Without waiting, Albert took out his oiled fingers from his brother’s inside and entered him to the delight of them both. Even though Albert felt he was about to burst, he made sure to place himself carefully and move at a pace that would be comfortable for Louis, who was making the loveliest of expressions, which only made Albert’s grasp on his self control thinner.
“Do not treat me like I’m made of porcelain.” Louis complained between grasps of air. At Albert’s cautious rhythm, Louis protested by pushing his chest and changing positions, now him on top riding his older brother. In this pose, he expressed his anger by slapping Albert’s behind while riding him, causing Albert’s already swollen ass to redden even more. “Go harder! Faster! There is nothing you can do to me now that would hurt me. You are under my command and you will act as such.”
Not being the one to complain, Albert upped his pace until Louis was too busy gasping for air to threaten him with more punishment. He moved at a delicious pace until came inside Louis, who was still panting and moving on his own.
Tired, he rested his hips for a second, but that was a short-lived tranquillity as Louis shamelessly slapped him in the face for his trespassing. “Did I tell you to stop? You are useless and disgraced like a mere servant. Pitiful Earl you turned out to be. You can’t even follow the simplest command of bringing me to completion. And you dare say you submit to me?”
The slap brought a new sense of duty to Albert, who resumed his movement to comply with his brother’s command. Louis, for his part, stroked himself with one hand and touched his nipple with the other as to help with the ordeal. After a few seconds, he came on Albert’s chest with a loud moan and let himself fall to his side.
After a few moments of trying to catch their breath, the brothers looked at each other still with swollen lips and passion at skin level. The first one to speak was Louis: “Brother Albert, did I do good?”
Albert couldn’t contain his affection, even if they were both sweaty and dirty, he pulled him close to him into a loving embrace. “You did amazing, Louis. I love you.”
Louis hugged him back, feeling his lungs return to their normal pattern. “I’m glad.” He smiled in the crook of Albert’s neck. After a few minutes of tender caressing, he spoke again: “Let me close my eyes for a second, then I’ll clean both of us so we can go to sleep properly.”
Albert hummed at the idea, a bath with Louis sounded perfect right now. “And you’ll have to get rid of the fur coat to clean it?” He asked.
“I’m afraid so, yes.”
He hummed again, now a bit more disappointed. “Oh well, nothing to do about that now.”
But it was already too late for Louis to hear his brother, for he had fallen asleep. Albert held him closer and played with his hair for a little while before following him too.
Tomorrow will be an even better day.
Outside the room, after stroking himself and finishing right there, the last brother Moriarty was dealing with the sensation of biting more than he could chew. It was of course a positive experience that his brothers were getting along, but he knew there was something more to it and as much as he wished to let them be, a feeling of dread overcame him all the same.
When the respect for his brothers’ private matters and the feeling of abandonment brawled inside his head, driven by the latter he could not help but peek in Albert's bedroom, where he knew they were staying, and speed his step when he heard some very cruel words being said with unusual fervour. The dominating attitude Louis had expressed was something he had heard about, but never saw himself in account of him still playing the part of sweet little and obedient brother. He knew he had it in him, but he never imagined how much .
Or how lascivious it would be to see this part of him. It had only taken hearing their voices to be suffocated by a lust never experienced before, to imagine himself both at Louis’s service or atop of Albert.
Surely it was sad they hadn’t told him, but he couldn’t blame them. They hadn’t lied to him either; it was a sort of special bonding probably brought out of each one’s particular trauma. Trauma born out of him and his actions, William couldn’t forget. It made way too much sense they needed to heal together.
Oh, but would they be hurt if he wished for them like he was now? He wasn’t a stranger to more erotic touches between the three of them; they had never been the ones to take social norms to heart. But as of now, in the process of reconstructing the fallen building they once called a family, it felt too much like an old lover walking in on a couple still not set in divorce. He would ruin them, surely, one time too many.
As of now, he was to take his leave. He had his curiosity and other passions more than satisfied, so he couldn’t complain in that regard.
Getting up and making his way back to his room as quietly as possible, he didn’t spot the shadow of his twin flame waking up as promised to prepare for the aftercare. On the contrary, Louis did distinguish a shadow leaving in the darkness, sharp as he ever was; but he did not chase after him as he should have, not when he had made a promise to tonight’s lover that had priority to be fulfilled.
He would see to it tomorrow morning. As M he was already a busy man, but as Louis, his priorities would always be his brothers.
He made sure Albert was still sleeping and went to prepare the bath.
“My most beloved!” His teeth and claws and animal blond hair were more vivid tonight than they had ever been. His purring so loud it could be heard across the entire room. I couldn’t resist his embrace. “You’ve come back to me!”