Snake-Bitten
Pairing: Nick/Zak/Aaron
Rating: PG13-R (ish)
Warnings: Light bondage, phobia, mental torture
Summary: The guys help Zak to confront his fear of snakes in a very controlled setting.
Why do we torture the men we love ;) Thanks to my boyfriend for being encouraging and feeding my ridiculous ideas!
"So, we've brought a bit of a surprise for you Bro," Aaron pushed full force into the room with an air of excitement surrounding him. Nick followed behind him at a more subdued pace and shut the door behind himself. Both men crossed the room to stand in front of the bed with a look of barely concealed expectation.
Zak looked up from his laptop screen at his two confidants and partners in crime. They were waiting for a flight back to Vegas from Arizona as their last one had been postponed and they had proceeded to kill time in a nearby pub. Consequently they missed it when it finally did depart. He did not like the gleam of excitement in the two sets of confronting eyes, but he was starting to tire of the research he had been doing into their next location.
"What kind of surprise...this isn't like the last time we played 'meet the neighbors', is it?"
"No, nothing like that, although that was pretty entertaining ya' gotta admit," Nick smirked at the memory of various hotel explorations they had done for Aaron's Vlogs in the past. "Come on, it's in my room so haul that ass of yours off the bed and we'll show you."
Zak shut his laptop and followed the two men out of the room and a couple of doors down the hallway. The fact that Aaron couldn't contain his energy wasn't anything new, so Zak was able to ignore him as he dropped the key card, grabbed it, fumbled with it again then finally inserted it into the lock. Nick pushed past him to shut the blinds to block the late afternoon sun that blinded them as they entered and Aaron shut and locked the door. Zak couldn't help but think this felt suspiciously like a set-up and his only escape was now blocked.
"So what's this big surprise?" he gestured the last two words in air quotations.
"Should we do a big reveal here?" Nick looked to Aaron.
"Oh yeah, the honor's all yours dude."
That's when the muscular male noticed what looked like a box covered by a spare bed sheet in the middle of one of the room's queen sized beds. Nick strode over to the box and with the flare of a magician, whipped the sheet two-handed off the top of the cube and twirled it into a ball before tossing it into a chair in the far corner. "Ta dahhh!"
Under the sheet was not a box, but what looked like a hamster cage. Inside that was a small, green striped snake.
Aaron stopped Zak as the larger man backed suddenly away from the cage.
"You like it?"
"What the fuck is that thing!"
Aaron grabbed a tense shoulder and leaned forward to speak past his ear, "Isn't it obvious?"
"I know what it is, dumbass," Zak replied, "but why the fuck do you have a snake in your room?" He shifted nervously then pressed himself full against Aaron's strong body behind him as Nick once again moved forward and fiddled with a small door on the top of the cage.
Aaron braced behind him before wrapping his arms around Zak's chest, trapping him in place.
"We decided it was about time to help you with your phobia. It was almost embarrassing seeing you freak out on that hill back there and we know how you like to confront your deepest fears. At least we know this snake is harmless and you can get over it in a more controlled setting." Nick started to move forward with the little green demon, shifting it back and forth between his hands as it tried to slither forward. He wrapped it around one arm so the head was facing Zak and inched towards the now panicked man at the door.
"Easy bro, it's ok. It's not like it can hurt you or anything. This type of snake is completely harmless."
"You're sure about that?" Zak started to relax a little and felt Aaron's arms loosen just slightly. His heart still hammered in his chest but he was somewhat reassured by how steadily Nick seemed to be handling the snake. He watched it as it's tiny forked tongue shot out of it's mouth to taste the air then withdraw. He poked his own tongue out at it and tentatively reached his hand forward to touch a single finger against it's smooth, scaly head.
"BAH!" Nick lunged forward with the snake.
"You BASTARD!" Zak jumped back. This caused Aaron to be slammed into the door behind him, breaking his grip. "That's it, I'm outta here."
"Ok. Nonono, I'll be serious now. I just couldn't resist," Nick tried to be placating. Zak could still hear Aaron snickering behind him, even as he massaged the back of his head which had hit the door. "Here. I'll sit down on the bed and you can come to me at your own speed." He backed off of the other two men and set the cage on the floor before sitting down himself. He then leaned back and lay down, still fondling the snake back and forth between his two hands. He focused on it intently, not even seeming to pay attention to his two friends anymore.
Zak paced back and forth a couple of times as he tried to calm his nerves and gather his courage. He then steeled himself and took a couple of steps towards the bed. He hesitantly sat down on the very edge. He was keeping one eye on the snake in Nick's hands, the other watched Aaron who had hemmed him in from the side but hadn't seemed to let down his guard at all. "Alright, I'm here. Could you just...set it down on the bed or something? I don't trust you not to do that again. You know how much those things freak me out, dude."
The scruffier man complied after a few more passes through his hands. "Happy now, princess?"
"Yeah, that's better." He watched it writhe next to him and formed an image in his mind of how the texture of the scales would feel, the play of muscle under hand-warmed skin, the contraction of the snakes body to propel its small form forward. The thoughts made his skin crawl. He pictured the feel of it in his hand, sliding up his arm, approaching with its beady black eyes closer and closer to his face...
He shuddered minutely. Finally he raised his arm up and gently stroked the back of his hand down the lithe body.
"There. Not so bad, is it?" Aaron was standing practically on top of him now. Nick's head was focused in his direction and he began to slowly sit up.
"Ok. I've done what you wanted me to. Can I go back to my room now?"
"Not so fast! You've barely broken the surface of your fear."
"Yeah," the bald man added, "you have to embrace it, dude. Drown yourself in it!"
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"He's right, bro," Nick replied thoughtfully. "At least try holding it. And don't just pick it up by the tail either. You gotta do it properly."
"I think I'm done, guys, just-"
"Oh, stop being such a pussy." Aaron finally took a seat on the bed behind Zak, nearer to the headboard. He watched Zak start to rise, hesitate, then gingerly settle down once more.
"If I pick up the stupid thing, will you leave me alone and never talk to me about it again?"
Nick propped himself on his elbows and pretended to contemplate the question. "Yeah, that sounds fair. But you have to hold it for a while. Not just pick it up and put it down again."
"Fine."
"And relax a little bit. You know, they can feel how tense you are and that's when snakes strike—when they sense that tension."
"Oh, bullshit."
"No, man, it's true. I saw it on this documentary once."
"Here. Lets get you un-tense." Aaron leaned forward from behind him and placed his large hands on Zak's shoulders. He then proceeded to deeply knead the knotted muscles he found there. The broader man started to slump slightly under his disturbingly skilled touch. After a few more moments of this, the snake on the bed was nearly forgotten.
That is, until Nick picked it up and gently placed it in the unsuspecting hands of his spikey-haired friend who had since gone nearly boneless and closed his eyes. Zak almost threw his hands up at the unfamiliar touch of the small body. Then, he went stone cold and froze completely.
"Easy, bud, easy." Aaron's hands had stilled.
He swallowed nervously and allowed his hands to close around the cylindrical torso of the serpent. Just as he had imagined, the small muscles tensed and shifted and worked to power it forward with the friction of its own scales. It felt repulsive. It felt wrong...it felt sensual.
The hands behind him pulled him slowly backward until he was in a more horizontal position. He couldn't tell if he was actually putting up resistance or if his body was still just paralyzed from his initial reaction. One thing was for sure—he was still too shell shocked to voice any protests. His mind was having a hard time reconciling the fact that he was now handling one of the things that generally made him want to run and scream like a little girl. This must have been visible on his face.
"And again, not so bad." Aaron's face was now grinning down at him from above.
When did he lie down? How was it he was more bothered by the serpent in his fingers than the strangeness of this whole set-up? The snake reminded him of its existence once more by letting out a soft hiss and extending itself towards his face. He couldn't move.
He finally jarred himself into action. "Someone take this thing! I'm done."
"No, you're not." In spite of this declaration, the snake was removed from Zak's fingers and his hands were drawn up over his head by his wrists. "We knew you wouldn't do this by yourself so we came up with a plan to help you along." Nick's grin looked ominous. Aaron was still leering down at him from above and behind, and his own feet were still planted firmly on the floor.
Finally, he gained back his voice, "what are you doing?"
"We told you. We're exposing you to your fear." With that, Nick shifted over to sit on the prostrate man's legs, effectively pinning him in place. He then lifted the shirt up on the toned stomach of his present perch and set the snake down on the warm skin...one excruciating inch at a time.
A hand clamped down hard over his mouth to stifle his scream of terror.
"Do you want the neighbors to think we're killing you or something?"
"Yeah, chill dude. It's only a snake."
"But I can think of some better things to do with a snake..." Aaron's inappropriate comment went unacknowledged as panicked eyes darted around the room for any signs of salvation.
"Please make this stop stop STOP !" His mind screamed at him but he was completely at sanity's end. Instinct told him to fight, claw, writhe, FIGHT. Panic kept him frozen. His breaths came out erratic and shaky. Sweat broke out on his forehead and his stomach turned when he felt slow, twisting movements from the monster on his abs.
Nick prodded the snake into more purposeful movement and it started to crawl upwards to the raised hem of Zak's shirt. Its head slid underneath the edge of the black fabric and started to disappear up toward the sculpted chest of its unwilling victim.
Suddenly galvanized into action, the pinned man whipped his head back and forth, trying to unseat the hand still firmly over his mouth. His muffled screams could be heard behind his fleshy gag and his trapped arms frantically pulled against the full weight of the body which immobilized them. Thwarted, he grew closer to petrified tears.
"I don't know what you're so worried about, bro," Nick played with the tail of the small serpent as it nearly disappeared completely beneath the dark shirt. It's head was now up near Zak's collar and, not finding an opening, it was starting to double back on itself.
Inevitably, a tear slid loose from the corner of a clenched eyelid and breathing was becoming difficult. Zak moaned pitifully and resorted to trying to bite his way free. He felt a hand start to stroke through his mussed hair at the same time the muscled line of texture passed over his nipple. The snake was now moving down from his front to the side of his body and he was helpless against it. Where the hand near his abs was earlier playing with the snake, it was now making soothing motions against his taut skin itself. He wanted to die. This was the most terror that he could ever remember feeling in his life.
Why were his friends DOING this to him?
More errant tears slid down his face into his hairline. Tiny whimpers were voiced through his nose and still no one moved to help him. Though only a matter of minutes, Zak felt like he had now spent an eternity in hell.
Apparently deciding that Zak had suffered enough, Nick slid his hand up Zak's shirt on one side to retrieve the snake, the other hand running along his ribs opposite.
"It's ok now. We're done. You did good, Zak." Nick's voice reached his ears but he was too far gone to comprehend the meaning of them until he felt his tormentor pulled free from his shirt and the damning weight was removed from his thighs. He heard a small metallic snap in the background as the cage was closed with it's former occupant now safe inside once again.
Aaron lifted his own weight off of Zak's hands which were immediately snatched away to rub at damp eyelashes. The dark haired man rolled to his side and curled into a ball, trying to get his breathing under control.
"Come 'ere, bro." Aaron spoke softly and Zak could feel strong hands grip his torso and slide him up towards the pillows. Still horizontal, he was then pulled back against a solid chest. He felt the bed dip in front of him then warm breath on his face. His hands were grasped by two others and brought away from his face, held against another muscled chest. He was then enveloped in a sandwiched embrace, head tilted forward to let out his relief and remainder of his tears onto a strong shoulder. When they had subsided, he heard a gentle voice. "Look at me?"
Zak eased reddened eyes open and focused on the man in front of him—the one he had thought of as his best friend. He was starting to question that sentiment. "What the FUCK was that all about?"
"We're sorry. That was a real dick thing to do. We just had to test your level of trust."
"This was to see if I TRUSTED YOU?" Zak shook his head in disbelief. "I would have trusted you with my life, but I don't know now. What the fuck?"
"We wanted you in an altered state of mind so we could broach this with you without it being a joke. We needed you to be serious for a moment." Nick scanned his face to see if he was comprehending any of this. "Sorry. We just took it a bit too far."
"What was so serious that you needed me like...like this?" The chiseled man gestured to his moist eyelashes and the shirt still up around his mid-section in confused anger. Nick's hand reached to pull the shirt down but didn't retreat afterwords. Instead, it moved to Zak's side again where it gently stroked him up and down as Aaron piped up from behind him.
"We wanted to ask you to join us."
"Join you?" The hands behind him started petting his hair again and he released some of the anger he felt.
"Yeah. Like, in something...experimental."
"We hunt ghosts for a living. How much more experimental can you get?"
"We meant on a more...personal level." Aarons hand slid down his back then around his chest to toy with a nipple through his shirt. "Catch my meaning?"
Zak gasped in surprised comprehension and allowed himself to feel what was being offered.
"Wouldn't it be nice to have a bit of companionship on the road?" Nick looked him in the eyes, bringing his intense stare into play. "Even right now. How about this kind of closeness?"
Zak broke Nick's gaze and started toying with a loose thread on the comforter they lay on. "I take it you guys didn't just come up with this?"
"Naw," Aaron spoke from right next to his ear, "we've already been doing it for a while. We just didn't think you'd be into it."
"Not until recently, anyway," Nick added. "You've just been so...quiet lately. You seemed kinda withdrawn and I noticed you pulled further away when I would bring up my wife or anything like that." Nick looked at the bald man over Zak's shoulder and an understanding seemed to pass between them before they both nodded at each other and retrieved their limbs. Both moved to rise as Zak frowned in consternation at the spot that had been vacated.
"You don't have to decide right away," Nick bent forward and braced his hands on the bed while Aaron moved towards the door, "but I'll leave you something to think about." With that, Nick bent forward and tilted Zak's head up. With a hand on the back of his head, he pulled him into a reluctant kiss. It was a firm press of lips with Nick's encouragement but he didn't linger long.
Not realizing when he'd closed them, the black haired man opened his eyes to watch his friends move to exit the room. Almost as an afterthought, Nick turned around once more on his way out.
"Take a nap. Get some sleep."
"Think it over," a voice added from the hallway.
With that, Zak watched the door close on the room and an old chapter of his life.