Ann: Sub/dom undertones but they don't get steamy! There are still suggestive themes here and there, thus the M-rating :)

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Caelus pulled another file from Dan Heng's shelf, flipped it open and tried to read the writing on it. His eyes moved along the lines and formed individual letters into words. But before he had the opportunity to form them into messages, the words had already slipped from his mind that was monopolized by one thought only: Dan Heng.

It was no use. There was no room for anything else in Caelus' mind, especially when he was alone with Dan Heng in the privacy of his room. Just the two of them. All alone for an indefinite amount of time.

At first, the well-behaved side of Caelus had tried to obey Dan Heng and help him read as he'd been instructed to, really. Caelus wanted to be helpful to Dan Heng so badly. He wanted to please Dan Heng, maybe see a rare smile on his mouth when Caelus did well, or better yet: hear a word of praise from these lips.

Good boy, Caelus. You deserve a reward, Caelus.

Or maybe he wanted Dan Heng to destroy him, to call him trash, and to ultimately reduce him to a whimpering mess under his hands. Dan Heng was merciless, curt at times, sometimes harsh with his spot-on criticism. Maybe he'd be into that game - if Caelus asked nicely (or begged?).

Caelus shook his head with a heavy exhale through his nose, telling himself to keep it down with the fantasies before they got the better of him physically. He turned and leaned with his back against the shelf, more because he needed the support than anything else. His eyes zeroed in on Dan Heng, who sat comfortably in his chair with a book in his lap, seemingly absorbed with reading in it.

For a moment, Caelus had the opportunity to trace the sharp lines of Dan Heng's face with his eyes and wonder how they would feel under his touch, under his kisses, under a bite that could bruise. In the next, Dan Heng looked up from his book sharply and met Caelus' gaze with that silent challenge that he seemed to carry like a shield in his eyes.

Of course it wouldn't pass by Dan Heng unnoticed that, a, somebody was watching him, and, b, that Caelus had stopped working on his assignment in favour of slacking off against the shelf. The intensity in Dan Heng's gaze would have killed a lesser man, but all it did to Caelus was send a shiver down his body in a way that Caelus couldn't call "uncomfortable" in any way. The only uncomfortable aspect about it was that it asked him to act on it.

So that meant … being faced with and stared down by that Aeon when he'd saved March from dying did awaken something in him after all. Caelus had half feared it, half looked forward to understanding the desire he'd newly discovered in himself. And with who better than the guy whose gaze could bring Caelus to his knees without additional work?

"Is something the matter, Caelus?" Dan Heng asked in that smooth way of talking that was characteristic of him. Caelus could even it hear it when he was alone, like an echo in the back of his mind, a resonance. "Something stressing you out?"

Caelus bit his bottom lip, weighing his options of action, and thought he might as well shoot his shot. No harm done in that, right? He wouldn't get any productive work done anyway (not to mention that his idea of getting "something done" differed immensely from Dan Heng's right now).

"Yeah," Caelus confirmed with a slow nod. But not what you think, he added in thought.

Dan Heng's eyes flashed with interest, and he sat up a bit straighter.

"What is it? Something that you don't understand?" Dan Heng's eyes dropped to the forgotten file in Caelus' hand, which Caelus held loosely next to his body at hip-area, and Caelus, whose imagination flared up too easily at such a gaze drop, felt the already existing heat in him shoot to his head. It felt like he was on fire all over.

He might've stayed and waited and gambled to find out how Dan Heng would've reacted to a certain … detail … concerning Caelus' condition, but the stakes were too high for the beginning, too unpredictable.

So, Caelus forcefully pushed off the shelf and crossed the short distance between the two of them with purpose. Stopping in front of Dan Heng so closely that their knees brushed, he bent down and firmly put his hands on the armrests, ignoring the eyebrow raise from Dan Heng.

Folded over like this, Caelus barely maintained a respectable distance to Dan Heng but had a godly view of his face and the opportunity to study it from up close. Moreover, close like this, Caelus heard Dan Heng's easy breaths. Caelus found himself wanting to interrupt their rhythm, to be the reason of change in Dan Heng that only he would get to witness. He wanted to make Dan Heng's breathing as troubled and uneasy as Caelus felt. Aching.

Maybe Caelus didn't want Dan Heng to destroy him after all. Maybe quite the opposite. How much would it take to coax a moan past those unsmiling lips? How much more to get them to whimper Caelus' name? To undo him?

"Yes?" Dan Heng's dry tone made Caelus fingers curl harder around the armrest and discard the idea he had of being in charge. Dan Heng could tell him to do anything right now and Caelus would just do it. Part of Caelus wished that Dan Heng would, no strings attached. If Dan Heng wanted, Caelus wouldn't even mind the hard bed that Dan Heng preferred to sleep on.

Caelus only wanted answers to the questions that plagued him whenever he was around Dan Heng; he didn't mind any way that would get him to them. On the other hand, Dan Heng could reprimand him just as well, tell him to get a grip, stand back and go back to work, and Caelus would thank him for it.

Everything was possible.

Unable to keep his focus on that thought, Caelus' eyes fell from Dan Heng's sharp eyes, down the curve of his perfectly drawn eyeliner and the shadow of his black lashes against his cheek, lower to Dan Heng's lips that were pressed in that slightly disapproving manner that made them appear thinner than they really were. Automatically, the tip of Caelus' tongue darted over his own lips to wet them, betraying his intentions. Not that Caelus believed for even a second that Dan Heng was in the dark about them.

Drawn in and unable to resist, Caelus leaned forward, closing the remaining distance to Dan Heng like a magnet to the opposite pole, all senses sharpened with the adrenaline that was rushing through him. He heard their breaths intermingle, hyperaware of his own quickened breathing, of Dan Heng's burning eyes on him, of the tickle in his guts.

Dan Heng didn't mind kissing boys, right? He wouldn't have minded performing CPR (that wasn't how you were supposed to do CPR but aeons if Caelus ever objected to this wrong method, no sir), and Dan Heng hadn't at all seemed troubled by March, and later Caelus, bringing it up again later.

However, Caelus gave plenty opportunity to Dan Heng to draw back, to interrupt the tension between them, to stop Caelus. Dan Heng didn't take it. When Caelus felt the soft touch of his lips against Dan Heng's, their lips connecting, he was distantly aware of Dan Heng's barely discernible sharp inhale that gave away how he felt at this initial contact, but a man needed to have priorities and Caelus' was to explore Dan Heng further than this.

Caelus leaned deeper into Dan Heng's space, turning the soft asking for permission into a bolder approach that allowed him to coax Dan Heng's lips apart, to melt against the heavenly mouth and deepen the kiss the way he wanted it, the way he had imagined it. A quick lick of his tongue over Dan Heng's bottom lip, a tilt of his head to adjust his angle, and Caelus was lost. Lost, hot, but also insistent, leaving little time to part and breathe in between their hungry kisses.

A gasp filled the space between them - Caelus didn't know whose it was -, and drove Caelus to pursue its source to find more of them there, to make them his to have. Caelus had lost his ability to tell their breathing apart, knew nothing else than the taste of Dan Heng's mouth, the taste of his name broken from his lips between their kisses, the heat of his breath's caress against already burning skin, and the want of Dan Heng's hands on his body. Why were Dan Heng's hands not on his body?

Needing to change that, Caelus reached forward, wanting to tilt Dan Heng's head back and greedily claim more of him to himself, but Caelus found his hand intercepted halfway and firmly pushed down lower than back onto the armrest, placing Caelus' hand onto Dan Heng's thigh instead and pinning it there with a hard grip around his wrist, an unspoken command. Caelus stumbled for a moment both physically and mentally, taken out by the unexpected contact, forgetting himself.

Panting, Caelus moved with the intention to draw back and look for affirmation whether he understood correctly, look for instructions, but his short hesitation was enough to lose control - Dan Heng's other hand reached up, fit perfectly into Caelus' neck and drew him back in, rendering Caelus' plans useless. Suddenly, Dan Heng was dictating the pace of their mouths against each other, drawing Caelus' heated eagerness into slower, more controlled movements that left Dan Heng dizzy and aching for more.

Dan Heng didn't like to yield control of this kiss, keeping his hands right where they were and allowing Caelus just a little time for panting breaths before he claimed Caelus' lips again as Caelus had before with him. Caelus wasn't surprised by it, but he was surprised by how effectively it shut him, any attempt at resistance or the semblance of thought down and threatened to bring him to his knees in front of Dan Heng.

Had Caelus not enjoyed it, he might've felt embarrassed at how much control Dan Heng had over him.

When Dan Heng broke the kiss, drawing back with a finality that restored some space between their heads again, Caelus couldn't help the whimper and his pathetic attempt to chase after Dan Heng's lips, being plainly denied. Dan Heng released Caelus' neck from his grip and made a move to lower his arm, but he had to snap a palm against Caelus' chest instead to keep him from falling forward against Dan Heng.

Caelus sank against the most welcome touch and let his head hang, more because he needed a moment (several moments) to collect himself, to find back to a healthy rhythm of breathing again, but he'd also never say no to Dan Heng's firm touch against himself. It was strangely grounding to focus on where his chest was heaving against Dan Heng's hand; it was distracting to imagine it move from there.

Good thing Dan Heng didn't have a direct look at Caelus' face and saw what a mess he already was.

Bad thing that Caelus' ear was directly at Dan Heng's mouth. When he spoke next, Caelus realized just how much at this man's mercy he was.

"I didn't quite catch your question from before," Dan Heng said throatily in a tone that made Caelus freeze, experiencing things no words could retell. His eyes widened. Caelus knew that Dan Heng couldn't miss Caelus' instant reaction at his words, not with his hand against Caelus' chest and their heads this close to each other. "Won't you repeat it, Caelus? For me? More slowly this time?"

Gently, Caelus angled his head to re-establish eye contact between them, to see the expression of Dan Heng's face after he'd said that. Caelus' hair hung into his eyes, not more of a mess than Caelus' general state at Dan Heng's mercy, but what really did him in was the look of pure satisfaction on Dan Heng's face. The slight curve of his lips, the understanding in his slightly narrowed eyes, the welcome for what they had done.

It sent a shiver down Caelus, one that was cold and hot at the same time. It ran like a tickle of a thousand ghost fingers down his back, making his hairs stand on end.

Caelus shifted his weight forward and hit his elbow against the back of Dan Heng's chair, caging the other in a sort of kabedon with a growl. His knee had come to rest on the edge of the chair between Dan Heng's slightly spread knees, claiming a spot there. Their noses were inches apart, and for a breath, Caelus had half a mind to indulge Dan Heng, to obey at once and close the distance again.

That wasn't the answer to his initial question though. Dan Heng wanted to help Caelus find it? Fine. They should get to it.

"Command me to."

Dan Heng's eyes flashed with an emotion that passed too quickly to ascribe it a name. Caelus leaned closer in hopes of seeing remnants of it, did not. He grazed his lips over Dan Heng's then, not entirely a kiss but a tease. A challenge. Dan Heng was the first to look away this time, Caelus' reward a shaky inhale through Dan Heng's mouth, a tenseness in Dan Heng's body that even from this little distance felt like a string ready to snap.

Caelus waited for the answer, studying Dan Heng's profile and breathing the faint smell of his shaving cream. He abstained from taking the tempting chance to kiss the jaw like he had wanted and pull his mouth down Dan Heng's throat to every inch of skin Dan Heng would yield to him. He needed to show some patience.

However, the answer came promptly. Hands closed around Caelus' thighs from behind and forced him out of his awkward hovering position at the chair's edge right on Dan Heng's lap, settling him here comfortably. Dan Heng's hands remained where they were, every finger sending jolts of electricity through their points of contact with Caelus' trousers.

"Don't leave the job half-finished, then," Dan Heng said and turned his head to Caelus again, tilting it to the side. His tone was as commanding as Caelus had wanted it to be. "Commit to it."

Yes, sir, Caelus thought.