unlawful | duplicity inbox / cw for nsfw shenanigans.

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duplicity inbox / cw for nsfw shenanigans.

TEXT / VOICE / VIDEO / ACTION
NOTE: felix generally responds to everything in text, even voice or video calls. expect 90% of his replies to be text-based regardless of urgency.

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[ Ephemera hisses again, the balance shifting, but the calm feeling remains. It's settled in him, heavy and inevitable. This is happening. He will survive it. The only thing that matters is the doing. The crowd doesn't shift closer. They've gone oddly silent. And Felix feels warm and real under him, the two of them pressed so close there's no shaking it. No ignoring this, no changing it.

It feels insane. Maybe it is. Maybe they both are.

It feels inevitable, too. Felix rubs against him and Ephemera breathes out slow. doesn't flinch away. He doesn't know if he can get hard like this, with a crowd watching. But Felix feels good, solid and warm, and he leans in and just kisses him again. Keeps one hand cupped around the back of his neck - always, always shielding the implant - and runs the other down his collarbone, skipping over scars and new bruises. They tore into each other. They always do.

Fuck.

He takes a slow, steadying breath, then presses his mouth to Felix's throat and drags his teeth down. Not enough to draw blood, not like before. But enough to feel. ]

( felix could follow this all the way down, unthinkingly. naturally carnal, even in the middle of a crowded arena, strangers staring at him. hot, simmering instinct. the friction feels fucking good, and he wants ephemera's mouth and tongue and his hand on the nape of his neck, gently guarding his implant. that's not strange. that's felix being felix. that's expected. that's predictable. he'll swallow the entire universe and ephemera along with it. he does what he wants. he'll fuck who he wants.

the strangeness is in ephemera allowing it. pity. mercy, like the mercy felix has repeatedly offered him. as if he deserves it.

ephemera drags his teeth down his throat, scraping his pulse. felix jerks under him, and he can't hear himself but he feels the sound he makes in response, a low whine that turns ragged at the edges. he pulls at ephemera's hair, guiding his head back toward him, and licks his bottom lip. )

Hey. ( he sounds deceptively calm, but his heart betrays him, thudding like a hammer behind his ribcage. he eases his body into the dirt, away from the deliciously slick and tempting press of ephemera on top of him. his hand moves from ephemera's hair as he reaches back to where he's guarding his implant, worming his fingers under ephemera's fingers.

he finds his implant with his fingertips and digs in, where the pressure burns most. it immediately goes to his head, verging on excruciating. sometimes liquor or pills don't work. sometimes he has neither. next best option is this. letting the pain take him under. )

You're all good, Terrence. ( it's okay. it's fine, you don't have to do this for me of all fucking people. he stares at him through his lashes, angling his thumb above his implant. ) I'll call it.

[ Ephemera tips his head to the side, watching Felix. Taking him in, the way he looks with oil slicked through his hair. Blood stained on his throat, across his face, the marks that Ephemera left on him raw and real. There's a lot of blood on the ground now, spilled between them. There always is.

The calm feeling settles in him. If anything, it grows.

He leans forward and presses his forehead to Felix's. An old, comforting gesture. ]

Don't.

[ His voice is soft. Calm, as he links his fingers with Felix's. Tugging them away from his implant. ]

Don't do that.

[ This is insane. And yet.

Hah.

He breathes out slow and drags his free hand down along Felix's ribs. And then lower, settling over his hip. ]

( ephemera twines their hands, loosely pinning felix's arm to the dirt. he could pull free easily, but he doesn't move for a few long, lingering seconds, and later he'll recoil at the thought that he viscerally wanted ephemera on him like this. that ephemera is still touching him, too. his callused fingers bump scars on his way down his front; the sensation is a flame licking at him from underneath his skin, ticklishly tender as it burns into him, scars him in a different way.

it is too slow. too purposeful. slowest anyone felix has ever let him touch him since his arrival to duplicity, unfolding like a fucking disaster he can't or doesn't want to escape. he shivers, slipping his hand from ephemera's and curving his fingers around his bicep, right over his ring of tattoos.

don't do that, he says, nightmarishly earnest. the edge topples closer, so felix falls. )

I'd let you. ( with a coaxing lick into his mouth, squeezing his bicep once before he returns his hand to his hair and fists hard. he would've let him kill him. he would've let him strip him from his armor and rut him mindlessly into the ground right in that fucking hallway. he would've let him take it as far as he wanted. he would've let him fuck him. can't take that back, he thinks vaguely.

the hand at ephemera's back slides lower, palm circling the sloping dimple of his sacrum and continuing down, curving under his ass. he grips a handful of flesh and drags ephemera's hips flush against him as he strains into another arch, grinds into him fully. his mouth tracks his jaw, his throat, teeth digging into his pulse and biting deeply. it'll bruise, leave a mark. )

[ I'd let you, he says, and grips Ephemera's hair tight like a promise. He liked that one, Ephemera thinks vaguely. In that time before, back when he'd smile at someone across the room and sleep with them just for the fun of it. Why the fuck not, right? Why not have a little of fun in the slower moments? It didn't have to mean anything. Most of the time it didn't, couldn't. He was never in one place long enough. The only constants in his life were his team, and the war.

This is different. There's a weight to it that Ephemera doesn't have words for. Ephemera breathes out slow as Felix digs his teeth in, bites down.

No blood this time. But it's a promise all the same. Ephemera rocks against him in turn, matching him, and presses a hand between them. Ghosting over Felix's stomach and whatever scars he finds there, and then lower to get a grip on him. Why the fuck not? It's one of those moments. The corners shaved off, the world tilted on its access.

Breathe, soldier.

He breathes. His hands are slick. There's oil and blood digging under his nails, in the mix. Despite the crowd, despite everything, he wants it. Wants this. So, why the fuck not? ]

( the crowd should be a deterrent. it isn't, and felix doesn't think it ever would've been, too obscenely shameless to care. fucking whore, he thinks. in the beginning of the end of days on reach, when the covenant began their siege on new alexandria and everything started unraveling to shit, felix needed to be held down more than ever. a little like now. his team had been off-limits until then. no kissing, no below-the-belt touching, no fucking. back when he had soft limits, some trembling sense of morality. anyone else. anyone else in that fucking city, on that fucking planet, just not them.

then the jiralhanae blew through countless civvies and marines alike on the first goddamn day. he shot an old man who'd been severed in half, still conscious, the only mercy he could spare him because no medic would waste their time on someone who wasn't going to survive when so many people were already dying. he lost his limits, blood slick on his hands, the 18th of august, and pulled ortez on top of him and begged him to –

( not him, isaac. anyone else in this fucking city. )

oh, god. his throat clenches. ephemera tightens his fist around his cock, and felix fucks into the slickness of his palm, hips twitching restlessly. it's not enough. it's too much. the noise is back, beating rhythmically in his ears. his head is a prison filling with water. he's drowning.

he twists his fingers in ephemera's hair and pulls his head back, dragging his tongue from his throat back to his mouth, kissing him again. his hand settles deeper into the crease between his ass and thigh, guiding him against him, a silent invitation for ephemera to fuck against his hip at his leisure. he's straining under his weight, muscles pulled taut and quivering as he presses away from the dirt into the warmth of ephemera's body, frantically eager. )

[ It helps, being directed. Felix tightens his grip in Ephemera's hair and Ephemera lets him. Groans into it and kisses him back harder, deeper. This is happening. The crowd's gone oddly quiet and Ephemera knows he was losing his shit earlier. Ready to kill a man rather than play this game. He can't say exactly when it changed, only that it has.

Things are quiet now. He feels like he's under deep water. Settled, but not drowning. He doubts it will last. These things never do. He can feel Felix twitching against him, his hand still tight in Ephemera's hair. Shaking.

Fuck. Ephemera breathes out slow, deliberately, and rocks against Felix. He times it to the motions of his hand. Setting a rhythm. Something steady.

Something ought to be right now. ]

( some part of him distantly wonders what it might say about him that he can do this so fucking smoothly even when his head is an explosive mess. focusing on the heat of ephemera helps, his weight on top of him and his hand around his cock, each squeezing pass rippling through him like an electric shock, so good it's almost painful.

he sucks on ephemera's tongue, dragging his hand through his hair. that groan fucks him up. he sounds good, he looks good, he feels fucking good, and that's all this has to be, just a moment among a hundred other moments in felix's life. a meaningless fuck. he doesn't have to fucking choke over it, but he is, but he will, because he'll go back to his apartment and think about this later – over and over and over, habitually – until it rots him inside.

his thighs spread, fitting neatly around ephemera's hips and squeezing lightly. an unspoken warning, because two seconds later his hand drops from his hair to his shoulder, and he flips them, rolling ephemera under him and up, until he's seated with felix settled deep in his lap. his hand returns to his hair. he licks into his mouth, catches his bottom lip with his teeth and tugs sharply. forces him close, so he can't look away or out into the crowd.

between them, his hand fists loosely around his cock and ephemera's, slotting them together into a slick, tight alignment. his next exhale buzzes through him, too loud as he folds his thighs around his hips and rocks against him. )

[ Oh, fuck. The world tilts again but Felix handles it so smoothly there's no failing, no moment of confusion. It just is, gravity realigning. Like the moment after a drop. It used to threw him in the early days but not anymore, not for a long time. Ephemera rolls with it, leans in so he can kiss Felix. Drag his teeth while he does it. He shifts to loop am arm around Felix's waist, rubbing circles over his hip. Idle touches except for when they aren't.

It feels good. Ephemera rocks against him, biting off another groan. Fuck, it feels good. Earlier, he didn't think he could come like this. Now -

Hah.

He runs his free hand through Felix's hair, shifting down to rest on the back of his neck. Shielding the implant, again.

It feels important. ]

( here is where felix would normally control the momentum of the scene, but he's already losing his mind, and the most he can manage is riding the adrenaline spike to the messy end. he angles his body against ephemera's front, crowding close, and ruts into him, following a wild, instinctive rhythm. unrestrained chaos to ephemera's unexpected calm.

his hand twists where they're joined at the hips, dragging his thumb along a vein on ephemera's cock and circling his slit, shiny-wet with oil. his fingers are long and thin, deft as the rest of him, and while he can't jerk them both off as easily as someone like sam might, he keeps them fixed together as he rocks into him. the slippery, frictious slide of their bodies so close is enough to get them off. he wants to feel him. he wants more than this.

ephemera's hand on the back of his neck only partially succeeds in keeping his mind from wandering to a dangerously rocky precipice. i'd let you. fuck. what is he doing.

his hand drags free of ephemera's hair, loosely circling his throat and angling his thumb under his jaw, pushing his head back for felix's descending mouth. he licks a smear of blood from his chin, all the way to his bottom lip, breath fanning hot and ragged against him. )

Fuck. You're so fucking pretty like this. ( hot and tight, close to a breathy whine. can't shut the fuck up. can't take that back, either. he would've killed this man a hundred times over, and now he's curled into his lap, letting him touch his fucking implant like it's nothing, like he lets anyone do it. felix rubs his thumb over ephemera's lip, hooking over his teeth to coax his mouth open and licking deep, chasing the metallic tang of blood. )

[ Pretty. It’s the second time someone’s called him that in this city. It always hits him strange, but this time he just accepts it. Breathes with it, his hand on the back of Felix’s neck. This is happening. The calm feeling settles through the whole of him. Somehow, it doesn’t hit against the edges. He thinks it will later. Most things do.

Ephemera tips his head back, going where Felix guides him. Lets himself be directed, shivering a little as Felix works his hand. Works them both. There’s enough pressure and slick to make it interesting and he just -

Goes with it. This is happening, inevitable as gravity during a drop. Ephemera parts his mouth and watches Felix, rocking against him.

He could come like this. He will. ]

Fuck.

[ It comes out soft. His gaze never leaves Felix. ]

( felix maps his mouth with his tongue, then draws back and hooks his thumb further over his teeth. memorizes the warmth there, too, wet and inviting, and shivers before he draws his thumb away, trails a damp line down ephemera's throat and rubs into his pulse. still steady. so fucking steady compared to the war-drum beat of felix's heart.

his grip between them eases as felix ducks his head, spits into his palm to work the slide into an even slicker one. he bypasses his cock entirely and wraps firm around ephemera instead, twisting his wrist in a sharp, building rhythm, an unrelenting fist for ephemera to fuck and buck into. this is fucking crazy. he wants him to come. he wants to lick his fingers clean like he's a fucking decadence. whore. whore. whore. you're out of your fucking mind, gates. )

Come on. ( his voice is soft, coaxing, murmured into ephemera's mouth. he watches him through his lashes, forehead knocking ephemera's lightly. his hand stays in a loose circle low on his throat, thumb slanted into his pulse. ) Ephemera. ( his tongue drags the curve of his teeth, his top lip, touching the deep scars near the corner of his mouth. ) Please.

[ Of all the things they’ve thrown at each other, all the words bared out like knives or teeth, flashed the way that animals do, that’s the one that hits him. Please, Felix says, and there’s no weapon in that. It’s said and it cannot be unsaid. People like then don’t beg. And yet -

It’s sincere. Ephemera’s a terrible liar but Felix isn’t. It could be a trick, could so easily be a game, but it isn’t. They’re too close now, Felix’s hand around his throat, his thumb pressed against Ephemera’s pulse. This is real. They bloodied each other and now, in the aftermath, things have gone —

Quiet.

Ephemera makes a small sound. His hand never leaves the back of Felix’s neck. Always, always shielding the implant. His other skips over scars, bruises, tracing out Felix’s outline with callused fingertips. Please, Felix said, and he feels good like this. His weight over Ephemera, his goddamn hands. The way that he licks into Ephemera’s mouth and over his goddamn scars. It feels good and so little does these days.

But right now, there’s no pain at all. There’s just the two of them and this pressure. The way that Felix works him.

Ephemera leans in and kisses Felix hard. And he does what he’s told. One moment he’s fucking into Felix’s hand and the next it’s like a wave breaking. Crashing into the surf. He tenses, and then goes still.

Goddamn. ]

( it feels like both the end and beginning of something terrible. like an omen looming overhead, unspeakable misfortune waiting to strike. felix tightens his fist around his cock and mercilessly works him through his twitching orgasm, slicking him down in cum and oil. he exhales into their kiss, and maybe this is the secret, making it quiet. maybe it's a trade-off. maybe he has to take the noise himself for it to be bearable for ephemera.

i told you, he could say. he doesn't. he rolls his forehead against ephemera's then tilts back in his lap, drawing his hand away from his softening cock. cum streaks his wrist, parallel to the scar that extends from his palm, and felix flattens his tongue against it, licks it clean all the way to the tip of his index finger. watches ephemera through all of it, sharp-eyed as a cat.

he's still hard. painfully. but felix isn't so far gone not to realize that this is where shit usually turns south.

i guess i win, he thinks numbly, and thoughtlessly leans in to kiss ephemera again, pushing the taste of cum and blood and oil into his mouth. )

[ The world tilts for a moment. Ephemera’s breath hitches, a faint change. A shift in the air. His gaze never leaves Felix. And when Felix leans in to kiss him again, Ephemera presses into it. Doesn’t shy away from the taste.

This is happening. Inevitable as gravity. Eventually, the ground’s going to rise up and wreck his shit. Survive or fall, it’s already in motion.

Ephemera presses his forehead to Felix’s forehead yet again. A grounding gesture. Maybe more for him than Felix now. But there’s no hesitation when he presses his hand between them and down, sliding over Felix’s stomach and the scars he finds there. And then lower, Ephemera breathing out slow as he puts his hand on Felix’s cock again. Starts to work him. ]

( he shouldn't stay. every coherent thought in his head tells him to leave before ephemera's calm turns sour and mixes poorly with the explosive force of felix's unraveling mind. this could still end bloody, except ephemera puts his hand on his cock and felix doesn't know what else to do but give in to instinct.

for as loud as he is everywhere else, his noises here are soft, breathy and subdued. his hand curves gently over ephemera's nape, pressing their foreheads together as he arches into the tight clench of his fist, chasing the friction. his free hand flexes over ephemera's hand between them, clenching lightly to coax his fingers into a tighter, harsher grip. something that'll kick him over the edge quick and drag him down just as roughly, the sweet spot between pleasure and pain.

it doesn't take long. felix drops his forehead to ephemera's shoulder and feverishly fucks into his fist until the heat coursing through him cracks him down the center, shreds through him like a riptide. fuck, a sharp, warbling hiss through his teeth, jerking in his lap as he spills in a messy band across their joined fingers. )

[ He knows things about Felix now, Ephemera thinks silently. They should have been strangers to each other. Nothing but factors to consider in the field. An asset to utilize, an enemy to eliminate. It should have been simple. It never was. Not even that first time in the elevator when Ephemera sized Felix up in the dark, dosed and nearly vibrating out of his skin, and calculated his odds of survival if he made a real go for the other’s rig.

A brutal equation. An easy one. He’s made it before. It should have been simple. And then, suddenly, it wasn’t. Ephemera breathes out slow and keeps his hand on the back of Felix’s neck. Jerking him off rough, and fast. Listening as Felix’s breathing changes, feeling how he reacts. Like there’s only the two of them and not —

It’s like being on a drop. You close the world off. You only see what you need to.

Ephemera rubs circles, his thumb pressed against Felix’s pulse, and closes his eyes. Breathe. Just fucking breathe —

Someone wolf-whistles. Ephemera goes rigid. ]

( there it is.

coming is a lot like drifting out of a fog into a world that's too bright and cloudless, perfect clarity rushing in to knock unsuspecting travelers from their feet. felix realizes two things in the immediate aftermath: ephemera's gone dangerously tense, and he has his hand on his throat. it wasn't a threat two seconds earlier. it's a threat now.

shut it down. pull it in. come back to your fucking head. felix exhales slow, his breath tickling ephemera's collar. then he lifts his head and looks at him, at his red-bitten lips, swollen from felix's mouth and teeth. the bruise just over his pulse where felix bit down hard. blood on him, only partially his own. the obscene smell of blood and oil and dirt and sex.

yeah, fuck.

his hand shifts from his nape into his hair, knees grinding into his hips. the world topples as he pulls his weight sideways and flips them, rolling ephemera completely off him in the process and untangling their bodies in one silky motion. he follows the force of his turn into a crouch, similar to their lingering moment in the hallway, when everything came back too quickly, too raw.

someone grabs felix's elbow, drags him to his feet and back. one of the strange masked people who'd undressed him, slicked him down in oil. he looks at ephemera, sharp, wooden and cold, and he goes. )

[ The world tilts. And suddenly, everything is very loud. It comes back in an angry rush. The sound of the crowd, of bodies pressing close, the roar in his ears as his heart begins pounding. Ephemera scrambles back, bouncing to his feet. In stance already.

Instinct. Reflex. Far too late. There's come on his hand. Blood stained across his face, his throat.

Ephemera twitches. Someone reaches for him and he reacts instinctively. Grabs for the outstretched hand and twists. Felix is back, out of rage. And then a moment later, he's gone.

Ephemera bolts for his clothes. He doesn't say a goddamn word to anyone. ]

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