Title: Supernova: Linus and Chris, part 6
Author: hwshipper
Characters/Pairings: Chris/Linus friendship, Chris/Edward, Linus/Edward
Beta: srsly_yes, srsly awesome
Warning: reference to past dub-con and non-con, possibly triggery. Please do not read if this might disturb you.
A/N: The story of Chris and Edward is told from Chris's POV in a long fic beginning with The House That Edward Built (see profile for link). This part parallels parts 1-3 of that fic.
Summary: Linus remembers when Chris fell in love with Edward, and how Linus bonded with Edward in a slightly different way.
Excerpt: Chris tapped Linus on the shoulder and said, a little huskily, "Don't forget to give him back afterwards."
Supernova: Linus and Chris, part 6
So they'd gotten to Edward in this grand recap of their earlier life. Linus had known they were bound to get here, and he felt a twinge of pain in his chest as memories surfaced.
"But who is Edward?" a Kitten asked.
Who indeed! Chris seemed to have gone dumb, and Linus sighed a little, gearing up for reply.
Brian piped up unexpectedly first. "Edward was Chris's life partner."
Chris reached out and gave Brian's arm a squeeze. Linus grasped Raul's hand, feeling the need to connect with his own life partner.
"He looked a bit like Wilson here," House remembered. "But with glasses. Dorky. Stupid floppy hair."
"Edward was the most beautiful, charming person ever," Linus contributed. "I was very happy that I was the one who introduced him to Chris. Kind of."
"I need an architect," Chris declared over lunch with Linus at the steakhouse one day. "I've found the perfect plot of land by the ocean and I'm ready to build my dream home."
Chris had recently sold his diner to a multinational corporation who intended to knock down the entire block it was on to build a giant drive-thru. He had held out until their offer was several times what the place was intrinsically worth, and now had enough money to build his own house.
"I've got a builder and a project manager, but I need someone to design it," Chris continued. "Can you recommend an architect? I know people who can design restaurants and bars, of course, but I'd like someone who specializes in domestic houses."
"Don't use my guy." Linus had had his own house custom-built. It took forever and cost a fortune. "Tell you what, Elf was very pleased with the architect who did her extension, and it does look very nice now. I'm going to her office tomorrow, I'll get the name."
"His name's Edward," Elf said, flicking through the Rolodex on her desk. "Nice guy. Young, enthusiastic."
"Good looking?" Linus said hopefully.
"Straight, sorry. At least, I wasn't sure, but turned out he's engaged to be married." Elf kept flipping. "More importantly, he designed a mean conservatory for me. I really felt he listened and tried to create what I wanted, instead of creating what he wanted."
"Very important," Linus agreed. "Or you end up like me, with an unnecessarily enormous wedding cake of a house."
"Really, Linus, you know you're not fooling anyone when you complain about your OTT house," Elf said briskly. "You love it! -Ah, here we are."
She extracted a card between stubby purple fingernails, and flicked it across to Linus.
Chris was smitten with Edward the Architect from the start. It was written all over his face whenever Linus asked about progress with the house. Large, starstruck eyes; goofy, self-conscious smiles directed at the floor.
At first, remembering what Elf had said, Linus merely hoped his friend would get over it and move on. Then it became clear that the feeling was mutual, that the married Edward apparently batted for the other side too, and everything changed.
Linus had never seen Chris in love before. It was really very entertaining. The roving eye stilled and focused; the commitment phobia vanished into thin air, replaced by an intent, dogged devotion. Chris started to drop Edward's name into conversations with the smallest excuse; he seemed to have trouble concentrating for long without daydreaming.
"Chris, are you with me?" Linus snapped his fingers in front of Chris's face one evening. They were in the private bar at the club and Chris appeared to have slipped into a happy trance.
Chris jumped in surprise. "What?"
"Beautiful architects on your mind again?" Linus rolled his eyes and put some archness in his voice. "You should fall in love more often, Chris, it makes you a most interesting conversationalist."
"Speak for yourself," Chris said peevishly.
Linus's current Significant Other was a very charming if slightly arrogant young man called Philippe, who had perfectly chiseled features like a statue of a Roman God. "Philippe may let me worship at his feet occasionally, but I don't turn into a drooling idiot."
"Fuck off," Chris growled.
"Maybe if you let me meet the Edible Edward I'll understand your obsession!" Linus took the opportunity to press.
"You'll try and jump him," Chris objected, not for the first time. "He's shy. You'll scare him away and I'll never see him again."
"I won't, Scout's honour!" Linus sketched a salute in the air, and mentally crossed his fingers behind his back.
Linus adored Edward from the moment he first saw him; a tall, lean, smiling guy with eyes twinkling behind spectacles, walking over to their table at the steakhouse.
"You must be Edward. How absolutely splendid to meet you at last!" Linus was effuse in his greeting.
"Linus, very nice to meet you too." Edward's glasses were slipping down his nose as they shook hands, and his hair fell over his forehead. Linus could understand this one straight away. Oh yeah, the very definition of adorable.
Linus kept his word and his hands to himself that evening, but Chris had been quite right; Edward was quite irresistibly fuckable, and Linus was not one to resist temptation placed in his path. He waited a couple of weeks and then in a quiet moment when Chris wasn't listening, made his move.
"Edward darling, I just wanted to let you know I find you terribly attractive," Linus told him, straight up. "And if you ever want to have sex anytime you only have to say."
"I'm very flattered," Edward said, cheeks flushing an attractive shade of pink. "But I don't think Chris would be very happy about that."
Ah, the boy had so much to learn. Linus waved a hand in a dismissive gesture. "Chris would be cool with that. Talk to him."
Edward did, apparently, talk to Chris. A couple of beautiful sexual voyeuristic encounters followed, before Linus got his wish to have sex with Edward. It happened with Chris watching from one side and Philippe from the other. Hot, no question, yet...also marvelously, curiously, intimate.
Chris and Edward were just beautiful together. Linus felt himself puff up with pleasure whenever he saw them walking shoulder to shoulder, sitting with legs entwined, talking cheek to cheek, smooching mouth to mouth. Funny how although he had never seen Chris like this with anyone before, now that it had happened it seemed perfectly natural.
Edward had a certain forgetful clumsiness about him that Linus knew could have driven Chris mad if it had been anyone with Edward, it was endearing. Like the time Edward was working one weekend, when they were going to an afternoon birthday barbecue at Gavin and Dean's house.
"Sorry, sorry!" Edward joined them in the garden half an hour late, breathless and shivering slightly in shirtsleeves. It was a cool day, rather late in the year for a barbecue. "I forgot where we were meeting and I lost the map-"
"S'okay," Chris assured him, brushing a hand gently along Edward's cheek. "Hey, you're frozen. Where's your jacket?"
"I think I Ieft it in the office. I've been outside all morning measuring up this new site..."
Chris shrugged off his own heavy leather jacket and draped it around Edward's shoulders.
"Thanks," Edward said gratefully. "Hey-who's this?"
Gavin was walking towards them, but Edward's remark was directed at a tiny miniature poodle puppy running delightedly ahead of him. Chris and Linus didn't move, and Philippe took a step backward, but Edward bent down without hesitation and scooped up the little black dog into his arms.
"Who's beautiful?" he asked, as the poodle stuck out a pink tongue and licked Edward's nose happily.
"Aw, that is so cute!" Linus could not help but gibber. Philippe arched his beautiful neck and beamed, too, and Chris... had simply the soppiest expression Linus could ever remember seeing on him.
"You must be Edward," Gavin said gruffly as he joined them. He was a tall man with dark curly hair, not unlike the poodle, Linus could not help but observe. "Good to meet you."
"Good to meet you too," Edward said, with some difficulty through fur. Gavin reached out and took the dog, leaving Edward looking slightly flushed and with his spectacles on crooked. He hunched a little inside Chris's jacket, which was too big for him.
"She likes you," Gavin remarked, as the ball of wool squirmed under his arm. He could be a taciturn soul, but clearly some kind of seal of approval had been attained. "Come get something to eat."
"That sounds great," Edward said with enthusiasm, and he followed Gavin down the garden path.
The path of true love did not, of course, run smooth. Edward was married, although Linus could see plain as daylight that the real problem was that Chris was intent on playing the ostrich, rather than engaging with Edward about it. The clueless idiot had never been in a relationship before, of course, and had no idea he was supposed to talk about stuff like this...
Chatting with Edward at his house one day, while Chris and Philippe were off talking about baseball (of all things...), Linus found Edward distracted and fretting after a recent phone conversation with his sister Eleanor.
"We don't see each other very often or anything," Edward explained. "The thing is, what really makes it awful, is that Claudia is her best friend."
Claudia, Linus had just about grasped, was Edward's wife.
"I mean, that's how we met," Edward continued. "Ellie introduced us. Claudia was really good to Ellie when she was going through a bad patch. And now… it's just a fucking nightmare."
"Her brother married her best friend, then left her for a man." Linus surmised with growing dismay. "Yes, it doesn't exactly make for happy family get-togethers, does it?"
"No, Mom and Dad are just beside themselves. I mean, if I'd left her for another woman it would have been bad enough. For a man… they just don't get it." Edward threw up his hands. "I hardly get it myself after I talk to them."
This was bad shit. "They're not very….tolerant?"
"No. They're good people, honest, but they've got no experience with this kind of thing." Edward closed his eyes for a few seconds. "I've had some horrible arguments with Dad. Really terrible. It's not just Mom and Dad, either-since it got out at my office, some people won't even work with me anymore."
Linus drummed his fingers on the table, very worried, but not knowing what to do. "Have you talked about all this with Chris?"
Edward sighed. "He doesn't want to talk about Claudia, or my family. And to be honest, I haven't tried that hard. I don't really want to talk about it either."
"You should talk," Linus said firmly, and he told Chris the same thing, but he feared it wasn't going to happen.
Another thing Linus learned about Edward that gave him pause was that he had been in an abusive relationship in the past. Or as Chris put it, he'd had a dick of a boyfriend in college who treated him badly and fucked him every which way.
"Abusive how?" Linus asked Chris, when Edward was not in the room.
"Sadist psychopath bastard." Chris's face darkened. "Liked to hurt Edward. Pimped him out to his friends. Doped him up so he'd lie there and take it. Fucking pervert-"
"Hey, keep your shirt on," Linus was sorry to have gotten his friend so worked up. "This was years ago, right?"
"It's because of Preston that Edward took fright and ended up getting married," Chris ranted. "If I ever meet him, I'll kill him. I really will."
While Chris blew off steam in the direction of the absent Preston, Linus was left uneasy, imagining the college-age Edward in an abusive relationship. Nasty, obscene scenarios rolled across his mind. Protective feelings rose in his chest at the idea of Edward being so exploited. He wanted to hold Edward close, show him he was loved now, that not all other guys were like that...
And for once, he didn't want to share with Chris.
Linus saw his opportunity at a big dinner one night at the steakhouse, and took it. It was a farewell event in the private room for Jai, Chris's old college buddy with a penchant for brightly colored clothes and wacky accessories. After several years bartending at the club, saving money by living at his parents' house, Jai had finally figured out what he wanted to do with his life, and was off to learn about furnishings and textiles at a designer's house in Paris, France.
Linus seated himself down the end of the table next to Edward. Philippe, opposite Linus, commenced flirting with a mustached pal of Jai's next to him, and Linus mentally wrote his boyfriend off for the evening and turned his own attention to Edward. Chris, on Edward's other side, was wrapped up in giving Jai a good send-off, and Edward happily chatted away to Linus.
The meal finished, and people got coffee and moved about the room. There was a plan to go to a club and carry on celebrating, not Chris's club for once but another one further down the coast. Linus had no wish to go along, and he rather thought Edward would gladly bow out too.
He collared Edward and glanced around.
"Edward, darling, I would like more than anything in the world to take you home, just the two of us," Linus murmured, and chose his next words deliberately. "And make love to you."
He would more naturally have said And fuck you into the mattress. Edward gulped a little.
"I want to, too," he muttered back. "Let me talk to Chris-"
Chris was at the other side of the table, in animated conversation with Jai and others. Philippe was off talking to some other people, his beautifully carved features set in enthusiastic conversation. Linus watched as Edward approached Chris and touched him on the arm to get his attention.
Their conversation was brief; Linus saw Chris nod, and Edward leaned forward to kiss him. Then Edward turned to give Linus a little wave, and headed out of the room.
Ah, this was going to be awesome. Linus got up, suddenly aware of the looming erection in his pants. He paused to say goodbye and good luck to Jai, then passed by Chris on the way out.
Chris tapped Linus on the shoulder and said, a little huskily, "Don't forget to give him back afterwards."
"My dear Chris." Linus was smooth. "I have, on occasion, been told that I am good in bed. I have never, as far as I am aware, been so good as to spoil someone for anyone else ever."
Chris laughed a little, and Linus headed outside to find Edward.
They drove to Linus's house in comfortable silence. It was raining and the sound of the water on the car roof contributed to a feeling of cozy intimacy. Back at Linus's, they went straight to the bedroom.
Edward started to unbutton his shirt, but Linus murmured, "Let me undress you."
He stood still as Linus tenderly, carefully, undid each button to unveil a taut muscled chest with a hefty sprinkling of hair. Linus remembered that Edward had run a marathon once, and could see that he had the wiry physique of a distance runner, rather than the more overtly muscled figure of a gym-goer, like Chris.
"Ah," Edward whispered as Linus plucked open his fly, sliding a deft hand inside to feel a marvelous and increasing bulge. "Yes. -Please-"
Linus was only too pleased to drop to his knees and take Edward in his mouth. He took his time, nuzzling carefully at first, before starting to lick and suck in earnest. Edward gasped and gagged, as though he was the one with a cock half way down his throat; his fingers scrabbled helplessly on Linus's shoulders.
He pulled back with a very visible effort, a heaving panting mass of delicious quivering nerve endings, and joined Linus on the floor. "Linus."
"Edward, darling." Linus caressed Edward's face, jawline, nipples. "If I may..."
"Yes. Now." Edward shifted onto his stomach, allowing Linus to reach his ass. Linus hummed as he sheathed himself and then concentrated on getting Edward really, completely ready; lubed and relaxed and arching his back to encourage another finger, prostate-yes-and then his own dick was hot and snug inside.
They moved as one, bodies rocking slowly, then hard and fast, Edward moaning and groaning into the rug, Linus keeping his face buried in the back of Edward's neck, mumbling incoherent sweet nothings and reassurance. They came almost at the same time; Edward first, fists balled and body writhing; Linus held off another minute before shooting out in a magnificent expression of love and affection.
As they lay together in coma-like exhaustion, an event Linus hadn't thought about for a long time came floating to the top of his consciousness. He tried to push it away, but it wouldn't go; it woke him up and darkened his mood. Eventually he got up and went to the bathroom, then down to the kitchen to gulp some water.
"Hey," a voice murmured in the doorway, and it was Edward, glasses on crooked and hair all mussed up in the most delectable way. "You okay?"
Linus opened his mouth to say I'm fine, but he wasn't, so he shook his head instead.
"Tell me about it," Edward said immediately.
Linus took a long breath, then said, "There's something I want to show you. Give me a minute."
It took more than a minute to rummage through a miscellaneous number of boxes stashed at the back of a closet in his bedroom. Linus eventually found what he was looking for, an old VHS videotape, and took it down to Edward, who was now comfortably ensconced on the living room couch.
"What is it, a sex tape?" Edward joked, then seeing Linus's face, said, "Oh. Uh-"
"This is a tape of a party I went to back in college, in sophomore year," Linus explained, slotting it into the video player and turning on the TV. "Edward, I want to say right now that I'm not proud of this-"
"Holy crap, it's you." Edward was round-eyed at the screen.
It was indeed Linus, younger and a little thinner, but otherwise still very much the same, sprawled on a couch at a house party. The camera veered away from room to room, showing men wandering around in various states of undress, couples getting up close and personal, a blowjob being given very publicly in the kitchen. There was sound, but very fuzzy, the general hum of the party largely drowning out specific moans and groans.
"Looks like quite a party," Edward said uncertainly, obviously not sure where this was going.
"It was," Linus agreed, his tone neutral.
The camera came back into the sitting room, and now Linus was shown disrobing, and he had been joined on the couch by another young man; skinny, naked, and...blindfolded. A large black and white checked handkerchief was tied around his eyes. Linus watched Edward sit up a little straighter in his chair.
"Who is he?"
"I am ashamed to say I don't remember his name, in fact I'm not sure I was ever told," Linus admitted. "He was a freshman, away from home for the first time, bold as brass and possibly a little high on something. Said he'd never been fucked by a man before but he'd try anything once."
"I see." Now it was Edward's tone that was neutral.
"Me and a couple of others thought this was an invitation we couldn't refuse, we flipped a coin to see who'd have the honor, and blindfolded him so he wouldn't know which of us got him..." Linus gulped a little, watching himself push the blindfolded boy onto all fours and penetrate him from behind, rather roughly. "Though of course he knew it was me, knew from my voice. At first it was cool..."
They watched for a few minutes in silence. The cameraman dwelled on Linus for a bit, got bored and wandered off. He soon returned to show the blindfolded boy now flat on his face, pressed down into the couch. Linus was lying on top of him, stretched out across his entire body in a way not dissimilar as to how he had been atop Edward earlier, hips rocking back and forth as he continued to pound inside his companion.
Then the boy raised his face away from the couch a little. And Linus wrenched the blindfold from his head, balled it in his hand, and stuffed it inside the boy's mouth.
Edward sprang to his feet and started to pace the floor. "Linus-I don't want-"
"That's it," Linus was relieved to be able to say. He hit the remote to turn off the TV. "Pretty much. I pulled out a minute later and came across his ass. He-he was fine. A bit dazed. He got up and got dressed and went away."
"Then-what's the problem? Why've you been showing me all this?" Edward demanded.
"Because it's haunted me ever since," Linus burst out. "You saw him lift his head? He was trying to speak. He said stop. He said no. I was so close to coming I didn't want to stop so I put that goddamn handkerchief in his mouth to shut him up."
Edward sat down slowly, not looking at Linus.
"Edward, I was ashamed of myself immediately and believe me, I have bent over backwards ever since to make sure I haven't crossed that line again." Linus was speaking quickly now, words tumbling out. "I really hope you know, and Chris will tell you any day, that consent is the most important thing to me-"
"Has Chris seen this?"
"No." Linus swallowed. "I would rather he didn't know. I've not talked about this to anyone, ever. But Edward, my darling Edward, ever since I heard about your Preston I've had the most guilty conscience that perhaps I was a little like that in college too."
There, he'd said it.
There was silence for a minute or two, then Edward sighed. "Linus, the very fact you feel so guilty about this-and you should-shows you're just worlds away from Preston. He'd have done something like that without a second thought."
"Right," Linus said cautiously.
"I haven't got any videos, thank God, but let me tell you a story about Preston." Edward sat back on the sofa and closed his eyes. "He was fucking me in his room one night and he'd gagged me, just like that, said it would be fun. He was on top-he was always on top. We had only been together a few weeks and I thought he was the most wonderful guy in the world, even though he was rough and I was always sore, I thought that was just what it was like."
Suddenly Linus felt some of the same flare of anger that he had seen in Chris. "Really."
"Yeah. Anyway, we were having sex, when the door opened. And three of his friends came in the room." Edward sounded matter-of-fact, remote. "I couldn't believe it, I just froze, but Preston didn't turn a hair, just pulled out and climbed off me. I realized later he must have left the door unlocked for them. He knew they were coming, but he hadn't told me."
Linus could see where this was going, and felt sick to the stomach.
"And the first guy unbuttoned his fly, and he started fucking me." Edward rubbed a hand over his eyes. "I couldn't speak-I could hardly move-I was just paralyzed. Preston kept telling me I was being awesome. The second guy flipped me over and took me from behind, and so did the third. And then the three of them left, and Preston-who had the most raging hard-on you ever saw-carried on like nothing had happened."
"The fuckers raped you." Linus had never been more sure of anything in his life.
Edward shrugged. "I think that too, now, but at the time I wasn't sure. I didn't manage to say stop or no-I cried out a bit through the gag, but it didn't make any difference, and Preston gushed to me afterward about how great I had been. So I pretended that I'd liked it too, because I didn't want to sound stupid and I was trying to make him happy...Linus, whatever you were like in college, you were nothing like Preston! Throw that tape in the trash and move on."
Linus nodded dumbly.
"And let's go back to bed," Edward added, standing up, and reaching to take Linus's hand.
They went back to bed, and rather to his own surprise, Linus was sleepy almost immediately. He felt himself relax and start to drift off. Edward's story had shocked and saddened him, but also been perversely reassuring; a weight had lifted from his soul.
He woke an hour later to find Edward fluttering kisses against his neck and lightly pinching his nipples. Linus felt his cock start to move towards erection; oh yeah, he could go again tonight. He so could.
"Linus, this time, let me fuck you," Edward murmured, and Linus reared back a little in astonishment.
Many people switched all the time, he knew, but he was not one of them. Most of his sexual partners, like Philippe, were versatile and perfectly willing to do what he wanted. Linus hadn't bottomed since... hmm, possibly not since some early sexual experiences with some much older boys back in high school.
"Do excuse me for a moment," Linus muttered back, got up and made his way to the bathroom. He sat there for a few minutes, and decided really, he had no reason to refuse.
He made his way back to the bedroom, where Edward was lying on his side, looking a trifle anxious. "Linus, I didn't mean to upset you-"
"Of course not, my dear Edward, of course not." Linus sat down on the bed. "I trust you and I am all yours. I don't often say this, but be gentle with me."
Edward laughed at that, and reached to pull Linus down next to him.
Linus lay on his back. They kept very close together and it was all very warm and tender; touching, stroking, slowly until Linus felt every square inch of his skin fairly crackling with anticipatory desire. Edward readied him as carefully and slowly as had been done to him earlier. And then he climbed on top of Linus and one push later, Linus lost all his senses except that of touch.
Vision and hearing vanished into the ether; he felt his own hard-on being rolled in Edward's fist, but the sensation was secondary to the unbelievable sensation of fullness. He was brimming with love and goodness and orgasmic firecrackers. And then he went supernova, and there were shooting stars and explosions galore.
Linus woke the following morning while Edward was still sound asleep. He got up quietly so as not to disturb him, pulled on his bathrobe, and peeked into the bedroom next door, Philippe's room. Philippe usually slept with Linus, of course, but Linus always tried to respect the privacy of the men he invited to live with him and gave them their own room too. Anyway the room was empty and Linus guessed with pleasure that Philippe had spent the night with the mustached man.
Linus went downstairs, and found Chris sitting in his kitchen, with a mug of coffee and a was wearing the same clothes as the night before, and Linus guessed Jai's send-off had gone on through the night.
"Morning," Linus said nonchalantly, heading for the coffee jug.
"Morning." Chris put the paper down and stretched in his chair. "Good night?"
"I should say so. The dear boy's upstairs, sleeping it off. Do go see him—" Linus sat down hard in a chair without thinking. "Ugh!" He couldn't stop a wince and a grimace.
A slow smile spread across Chris's face. "You bottomed for him!"
There was no reason to be embarrassed, but Linus could feel his cheeks going pink. "Like you never have."
"I've always switched for the right person, or the right situation," Chris pointed out mildly, still grinning. "You, though... you're the most intractable top I've ever met."
"I guess I just can't say no if a beautiful young man asks me," Linus said with as much dignity as he could muster.
Chris laughed out loud at that. He got up and headed towards the stairs, then paused to ask over his shoulder, "Would you do it again?"
"For him, yes I would," Linus admitted, and found he too had a smile stuck to his face.
"Oh come on," House said in exasperation. "Enough already of the sickening good sex stories. Like we actually believe them anyway."
"House," Wilson said vainly.
Linus, who had skipped lightly over his own confession and the Preston story to expound in more detail on Edward's attractions, laughed. "So what do you want to hear about?"
House shrugged. "If you must go on...Chris and Edward broke up for a while, right? Edward went back to his wife? Now that sounds more interesting. That's what we want to hear about."
END OF PART 6
TBC. Next part: Linus remembers Chris and Edward's early relationship problems, and his beloved stray cat Ryan.
