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It was a rumor, if nothing else. It was the kind of rumor that Vriska murmured to John in the dark privacy of her own little house-hive thing on their new planet. The kind of rumor that he didn’t quite know if he believed or not.
“Ask Karkat if you don’t believe me,” she had sneered at him. “Ask Gamzee. Hell, you can ask anyone. It’s not like he hides it, John. In fact, I’m surprised you didn’t notice with the way he does it around you, too.”
John had frowned at her and she had offered him that low kind of chuckle of hers. Told him she didn’t care if he believed her or not. Said it didn’t matter. But the idea had been planted in his head, and even if he didn’t quite believe it of a strong and attractive troll like Equius, he had decided to at least try it out. So he left his friend to her own devices and her irons in the fire or whatever it was she did when she was alone. He left her house-hive thing and instead made his way to where he was pretty certain he would find Equius.
Equius, as everyone had more or less expected, had built himself a very large home. The kind of home a lot of the other trolls had expected from someone of his blood colour. Not that any of that stuff made any sort of sense to John. But then, not a whole lot of all their troll stuff made any sense to John. Though regardless of what made sense and what didn’t make sense, it was maybe ten minutes before John had found himself in front of Equius’ door and the sound of his door bell was echoing from the other side of the door.
In the time that it took for John to get any sort of response, he stood there and mulled the whole thing over. He thought about the idea of Equius being more than happy to obey an order from someone he considered to be in a higher status than himself. Considered the idea that the troll apparently considered John, of all people, to be someone with such a status. He also thought about just what sort of things he was going to say. What he was going to ask. What he was going to make Equius do. And the more he thought about it, the more appealing the whole thing seemed.
Eventually, the door was being opened and Equius was standing in front of him, body tense. “Oh… John. What is it you require?” It was painfully obvious that the troll had tried hard to use his first name rather than calling him anything else, and John thought maybe he really was entirely oblivious.
“I just wanted to talk to you. Can I come in?” He asked. Giving orders was indeed the thing he had come for, but there was no sense in being rude right off the bat.
“Oh,” Equius repeated, almost like an echo of himself, “of course. Please, come in.” Then he was stepping away from the door and making a long, graceful sweeping gesture with his arm as an invitation. John took the invitation and stepped into the building.
The place was big on the outside, but it seemed even bigger on the inside and it was very obvious very quickly that Equius had spend quite a lot of time and materials alchamizing furniture and decorations. John was very much impressed, never having had been inside Equius’ hive (he decided on the name of it in his head). “Wooow.” He spun around once, looking at the large room before his gaze landed on the troll at hand again, offering him one of his patent grins. “Your place really looks great!”
Equius was closing the door at this point and John could already see him start to sweat. “Thank you very much.” The troll was now wiping his hands on his shorts and John couldn’t help but follow every movement with his eyes. “What was it you wish to discuss?”
John considered this for a moment. Considered just what exactly he wanted Equius to do. What he wanted to try to make him do. “Well,” he said slowly, eyes looking over the troll briefly before he was looking at the other’s face again. “I’m here because someone told me you follow orders from me and some other people. And I never actually noticed.” He offered Equius a kind of curious expression, a little sheepish. “Is that true?”
And it was at this point that Equius seemed to hesitate. Seemed to think about his answer as those shoulders of his tensed further and as he started to sweat a little. “Yes.” The word was short and clipped and entirely nervous. Polite. “Is there… something you wish to order me to do, John?”
Oh, now he was asking. Equius was asking and John was pretty sure that any part of him that wanted to say no was now gone. He wanted to test this out. Wanted to see just how the other would go for an order. How far John himself would go to test out a theory.
“Yeah,” he said finally, deciding it was entirely stupid, but that he wanted to try anyway. Just to see Equius do it. “I order you to hop around on one foot and tell me that you’re pretty.” It was certainly humiliating. Humiliating and stupid. John waited.
Now Equius was really starting to sweat. “John, please… that is most undignified.”
“I said it was an order,” John insisted, frowning a little at himself and at the way the other seemed to refuse him.
It took a moment or two, but Equius did it. John watched as the troll lifted one leg and started hopping, just as he had told him to. Watched as he told him that yes, he was pretty. Very pretty, in fact, and John was pleased that he even said that tiny bit extra. He offered the other a large grin, finding Equius exceedingly silly like that.
“Wow, okay,” he giggled, folding his arms over his chest. “Keep hopping.” He didn’t actually expect the other to actually do it. And he didn’t expect to enjoy watching him follow the order. “Keep doing that, but say…” he thought about it for a moment, trying to think of something else that sounded absolutely silly. “Say that Mary has a little lamb.”
It was expected that Equius would give him that kind of pleading look. Expected that Equius would do it, anyway. John did his best to ignore the look, far more interested in the fact that the troll was actually doing as he said and telling him that Mary had a little lamb. That any troll was actually doing what he said.
“Now…” John bit the inside of his cheek. “Now say it in Alternian.”
There was more hesitation then. More hesitation before Equius, as was expected, did as he was told. The words seemed complicated, but the blue blood made it sound easy. Said the silly phrase with such elegance that John was pretty sure only a guy like Equius could pull off in Alternian. The words seemed to kind of pull John in until he wasn’t paying attention to anything else at all. Not the fact that Equius was still hopping or the fact that they were still in his large living room. Nothing. It was only when the other stopped speaking that he realized just what listening to him had done to John. When he realized that hearing Equius speak Alerternian was putting him well on his way to quite possibly the biggest boner of his life. Shivering a little, John just sort of stared at the troll for a moment.
“Wait. Wait wait wait. Stop,” he ordered.
Equius stopped, just like the obedient troll he apparently was. Perhaps it wasn’t so much of a rumor at all. Maybe he really was the only one who hadn’t noticed. “Are you satisfied yet?” He asked, tone nervous and oh so very eager to please.
John was genuinely surprised by how much he liked that. There was a large part of him that wanted so very badly to take complete control of Equius. To make the troll his. But then there was another part of him that screamed at himself. That called him an asshole and told him to stop because ordering someone around was definitely not a nice thing to do to someone, and that his father would be disappointed in him. Ashamed, even. He had decided to ignore that side of him that told him Equius deserved to be treated better.
“No. Not yet.” John licked his lips and regarded the troll seriously. “Say some other stuff in Alternian. I don’t really care what.” He just wanted to hear it. Wanted to hear it from Equius and he wondered if this was really what it felt like to get hard just from hearing someone talk.
As was ordered, the male in front of him started talking again. Started working his tongue around complex syllables and broken teeth. Started sweating more heavily at what was probably a very awe-stricken expression on John’s face and holy shit he was hard-pressed to think of a moment when he was turned on by one single thing more than he was by listening to Equius.
“Oh, my god,” he breathed, another shiver running through his body and into his crotch. Who knew Alternian could be so attractive? Certainly not John. “I, uhm…” He felt his face heat up and he had to look away from Equius, rather worried at that point if the half hard erection in his pants was obvious at all. He offered the other a nervous chuckle. “Wow, that’s uhm… you sound really good like that.”
“Are you feeling alright? Your face is very… red.” Of course there was concern in Equius’ voice. Equius was actually a nice person, unlike John.
“Yeah, I just…” John looked back at the troll, feeling his cheeks grow hotter at that look on his face. The kind of expression that bled worry, and even a look like that was attractive to the human at that point. He did his best to quell the urge to just kiss him. “I’m fine.”
A nod from Equius. “If you say so. But please, if you’re uncomfortable in any way, do not hesitate to make me aware of it. I would not want you to suffer while you are here.”
How sweet. John licked his lips as he watched the troll, nodding at his words and trying to debate with himself if he should leave or keep doing what he was doing or keep ordering Equius around. Whether or not he wanted to start listening to his dick instead of his head. “Well… Now that you mention it, I am a little uncomfortable.”
The troll approached him then, that worry growing on his face and in his tone. It was almost like knowing John was uncomfortable was one of the worst things in the world. John decided he kind of liked that. “Is there anything I can do to assuage your discomfort, John?”
If Equius was offering, John so no reason to deny him. Saw no reason to shy away and tell him that no, everything really was fine and that he was kidding. He was just being a jerk. “Well,” he started again, shifting a little on his feet. “I kind of have this problem now.” His heart was starting to beat far too quickly for comfort, now. Equius waited. “It’s just that… hearing you speak Alternian kind of… wow, this is embarrassing… It kind of gave me a boner.”
“Oh… oh, my.” John watched as Equius looked away and wiped a hand across his face, no doubt simply to wipe away the sweat that had started to bead there. John was pretty sure he had never seen any living thing sweat as much as Equius was sweating right at that moment. “My apologies for putting you in such a… predicament.”
“You don’t have to apologize,” John was quick to say. “I mean, I wouldn’t blame you or anything. But… you wouldn’t mind helping me out with this, would you?”
Equius hesitated some more at this, and John was pretty sure he even saw the troll swallow. It looked like he was even more nervous than John was at the moment. “Is that…” He swallowed a second time, then tried again. “Is that an order?”
An order. Was it? Once again John was battling with the part of him that wanted to say yes and wanted to take control, and the part of him that still insisted that he was being an asshole and that he shouldn’t make a guy help him with an erection if he didn’t want to. That ordering him was just plain mean.
Once again, John decided to ignore that nicer part of himself and he nodded. “Yeah. It’s an order. Come here.”
John watched as Equius took the three steps to close the distance between them. Watched as the troll seemed to refuse to look at him. To refuse to touch John once he was in front of him. The human licked his lips again and reached up to place a hand at the base of Equius’ damp neck before leaning forward and pressing a kiss to his lips. Clumsy and inexperienced.
There was a moment as John kissed the other in which he thought that Equius wasn’t into him at all. That he wasn’t going to kiss back and instead just kind of stand there, all tense and moist. But Equius did kiss back, and John decided that it was probably one of the best things ever.
He did his best to lead the kiss, trying to deepen it and pull the troll closer to him. Tried to slide his tongue along the troll’s lower lip in some request for access, wanting to taste the mouth that spoke so beautifully. Equius actually gasped softly at this, lips parting to grant John the access he sought. And of course John took advantage of the opportunity, pressing his tongue into the other’s mouth. He had every intention to taste the other’s tongue, his cheek, anything he possibly could, but in his general lack of experience, he felt a sudden pain in his tongue instead when it pressed the wrong away against those teeth.
“Ow!” He pulled back immediately, hand moving away from Equius and to his mouth instead. Wow that was stupid. Stupid and completely embarrassing. Far more embarrassing than getting a boner from listening to someone he barely knew speak Alternian.
“Oh! John, I… Please accept my deepest apologies,” Equius said quickly, hands raised like he wanted to touch John but was afraid to. Like he wouldn’t know what to do once he did, or that he was afraid he would do more damage. Which, John thought, he very well might. “I should have been more careful.”
John looked up at him, small frown on his face at his own inexperience rather than anything Equius did. “Take your sunglasses off. That’s an order, too.” He was tired of those things. He wanted them off. Wanted to see the eyes behind him.
Equius hastily followed the order with a “yes, John,” folded them, and put them in the pocket of his shorts. That was much better. John stared at those eyes of his, looking at the blue of the iris and the yellow that surrounded it. He always did think trolls had very pretty eyes. Scary sometimes, but pretty.
“It’s okay,” John said finally, offering him another smile. He was still embarrassed, but he didn’t want Equius to think that he was at fault.
“John,” Equius started, still sounding like it was difficult to use his name instead of whatever other name he had been using in some attempt to be far more respectful than was needed. “If I may be so bold… why did you kiss me?”
Oh. Right. Resisting the urge to lick his lips again at the very thought of kissing Equius, he blushed again. “I just really wanted to,” he admitted, holding the eye contact he had with the troll. “I hope that’s okay. Because I was thinking of doing it some more.” However he had decided that if Equius admitted he wasn’t so okay with it, then he would stop. He would stop and blush and apologize, and he figured he wouldn’t bother the other ever, ever again due to sheer embarrassment.
More silence. More consideration, and more of John’s heart beating far too hard and far too loudly for any sort of comfort. Those yellow eyes just stared. Watched John carefully and closely like the human was a mischievous puppy who would tear something apart the moment he looked away. “I would never be so callous as to reject anything you desire,” he said finally, and John couldn’t help but think that sounded a little stupid. Nice, but dumb.
John raised an eyebrow at the answer, but he figured it was good enough and that he would take it. It wasn’t exactly a yes, but it certainly wasn’t a no. It was the kind of grey area he didn’t really mind taking advantage of at the moment. “Say that again in Alternian,” he ordered, wanting to hear those silly words turn into something beautiful and sexy all at once.
Of course Equius did, and just like last time it sent another wonderful shiver through John’s body and pooled there in his groin. He didn’t say anything further, just reached up with both hands to cup either side of the blue blood’s face as he leaned in for another kiss.
Thankfully, the other was faster to kiss back this time. Faster to press into the touch ever so slightly. John was surprised when he felt Equius’ strong hands very carefully resting over his sides. Surprised, but entirely pleased. It actually felt nice to have those hands there, firm despite how hard Equius was apparently trying. It made him hum very softly into the kiss.
They kissed like that for a little while, John sometimes breaking away to tell Equius to talk more and Equius following that order. Each time he did, John’s little problem got worse, to the point where he was growing impatient with just kissing and he would rather like that help with ridding himself of the problem.
“Wait.” John pulled away again and licked the taste of the troll from his lips. “I don’t know about you, but I’m kind of tired of standing and kissing. Do you have like, a couch or something?” He was aware that trolls weren’t in the habit of owning beds, but surely someone with a home like Equius’ would have a couch to sit on. Lay on. Copulate on, maybe.
“I do believe so.” Equius stepped away from John at that point, hands moving away from him and tugging at the bottom of his wife beater instead. Fixing it before he turned and started walking away. “Please, follow me.”
John followed, entirely uncomfortable with the erection pressing against his pants but eager to find somewhere else to settle down. He looked at the hive’s decorations as they walked, still very impressed with everything the high blooded troll had made for himself, and he vaguely wondered where he got all of the materials for these things. Not that it mattered so much to him. Not really.
Eventually, they stopped in what John could really only describe as a sitting room as he didn’t imagine there was anything else to really do in there. Not typically, anyway. Just chairs and a couch, all arranged neatly and elegantly. He vaguely wondered if he had Kanaya come in to help him with things like that or if he actually did it himself.
“Sit down.” John gestured towards the couch with that particular order, rather excited they wouldn’t have to be standing anymore or that they didn’t have to get down to it on the floor. That wouldn’t be so comfortable. Once Equius had situated himself on the cushions of the furniture, John looked at him for a long moment. He looked at the way Equius held himself. The way the other looked at him and the way his muscles were still very tense. John decided that it was fine with him, and he climbed onto Equius’ lap, thighs pressing against either side of the troll and hands going to his shoulders before they were kissing again.
It was still clumsy and still a little uncertain in places, but it was enjoyable at the very least. John liked the way the other touched him carefully. The way he would hum and the way he was pretty sure he felt the troll’s erection against his own. And that was very nice. It was the kind of sign that he was glad for and the kind of sign he had been hoping for. The kind of sign that said Equius was enjoying it, too.
“Uhm.” John broke the kiss again, looking at the other again. “Is this really okay with you?” He tried, wanting to be sure that they weren’t about to do something Equius would later regret or something that he would resent John for later. That John would resent himself for later.
Equius actually seemed a little irritated with the question. “It is very lewd,” he admonished, tiny frown still on his face, “but it is not something I am entirely displeased with.”
That was what John needed to hear. Equius certainly wasn’t saying ‘yes don’t stop’, but he wasn’t saying ‘no don’t touch me’, either. It actually seemed like they were roughly on the same page, and that was pretty nice.
“Okay,” John said finally, “good.” With that, he started pressing kisses over the larger male’s jaw, though he avoided the neck as he slid his hands under the other’s wife beater tank top. Of course the skin there was damp with sweat, but John didn’t mind at all. Not at the moment, anyway. His hands explored over the skin and over the muscles he found there, a little surprised when that turned him on, too.
John had never really been one to see muscles and find himself inexplicably attracted to them. But on Equius, it seemed to make him all the harder. Moving his hands back down, he curled his fingers around the hem of the shirt and started to pull the cloth up and over the troll’s head, careful of his horns, before he tossed the thing onto the floor like it really had just offended him.
It was still surprising when seeing Equius without his shirt turned John on so much. He had never actually thought of the other in such a way before, not really. John stared, taking in the sight of him for a moment. “Wow,” he murmured, hands moving over grey skin as he appreciated Equius.
Those hands were over John’s waist again, moving to the front and just kind of hesitating there for a moment. “May I?” The request was quiet, and John took notice that the troll wasn’t even looking at his face anymore, apparently a little more interested in what would be revealed to him should he gain permission to remove John’s pants.
“That would be good,” John breathed, his own voice quiet and nervous and eager. He watched as the very object of his sudden affection very slowly and very carefully undid John’s pants. Watched as those hands shook with the effort it took to control whatever strength Equius had. He watched as his own hands moved over that grey body and up to the colourful horns on his hands, fingers very lightly touching things and enjoying the texture of those, too.
The touch, apparently, made Equius shudder and the troll very quickly removed his hands from John. Oh. He suddenly looked lost, looking at the human with a kind of questioning look that was very close to melting John’s heart.
“Wow. Uhm.. sorry,” he muttered, hands moving away from those horns. He hadn’t expected that reaction, but he was rather glad to have received it. To see Equius look at him like that and to have caused the other to shudder like that. It was actually pretty hot.
Equius said something in Alternian at that point and John was pretty much done thinking about anything, anymore. He kissed the other troll again, all hard and needy. Wanting. Ordering Equius to do something John liked was one thing, but hearing him do it himself was entirely different thing and it was pretty great. Those strong hands were back on him at that point and the troll was kissing him back again, the barest of sounds escaping the other that sent a small shiver through John.
There wasn’t a whole lot of thought put into anything anymore as they kissed. Not a lot of consideration as John reached down and popped the button on Equius’ shorts. When he pulled down the zipper and reached in to find his prize. He earned a surprised moan when his fingers curled around what he was looking for, and that sound was pretty wonderful, too.
The feeling of another man in his hand was an entirely foreign feeling to John, but he had decided he liked it. Or at least he liked it when Equius was moving those hips of his into the touch. He smiled against those lips of his, flicking his tongue against them but deciding not to go any further lest he cut himself on those teeth again. He stroked the erection in his hand, actually trying to please him and make him feel good.
Pulling away from the kiss, John just watched Equius’ face as he touched him, grey cheeks turned blue and beautiful. He was loving that expression there. Loving the way he reacted to him and the way those hands of his were very carefully reaching into John’s pants to return the favour.
In all honesty, John had never actually had someone touch him there before. And after everything that had happened, he was starting to doubt that anyone ever would. He gasped as those strong fingers touched sensitive skin, his own hips rocking into even the barest of touches from Equius. His cheeks were impossibly hot by that point and he couldn’t think about it enough to even start to care about being embarrassed by the fact. What Equius was doing felt good.
There were mutterings from the both of them then as they touched each other. John certainly wasn’t paying any attention to anything he was saying himself, and he couldn’t understand anything coming out of Equius’ mouth. But he appreciated it all the same. Loved it, even, as he listened to the elegance of the whole thing. To the way Equius’ tone had dropped to something even sexier and the way the troll stroked John’s member like it might actually mean something to him.
Eventually, John swatted Equius’ hand away from his own member and he shifted on his lap a little until he was able to press their cocks together comfortably. Wrapping his hand around the both of them, he moaned at the feeling of his erection being pressed against Equius’. Moaned at the pleasured expression on said troll’s face and at the way he was still rocking his hips. The way those hands had settled over John’s sides again to keep him there on his lap.
Tilting his head back a little, John closed his eyes. He closed his eyes and he rocked his hips and fuck it felt good to be touched. To touch someone else and to hear just how much that other person was enjoying it. He cursed under his breath a few times, and he was pretty sure Equius’ name fell off of his tongue a few times as well as he moved and as he felt himself approaching the edge.
It was probably the sound of Equius saying his name that did John in. The sound of it followed by a long string of short Alternian words that sounded pained, pleasured, and glad all at the same time was what made the human gasp and moan and what made him release himself all over the blue dick against his own and his hand.
And Equius, apparently in no mood to be left behind, followed suite. His hands quickly moved away from John as he came with a grunt, blue lust releasing from the troll in a larger quantity over the both of them and even a little over the nice, elegant couch they had chosen to situate themselves on. Once the both of them had finished John had slumped against Equius, and Equius against the back of the couch. The both of them panted in some attempt to catch the breath they had lost while their heads were too fogged up with the pleasure of the whole thing to care where it had gone.
“… Fiddlesticks,” Equius breathed, sighing a little. John picked himself up to look at the troll, grinning again at the silly word and watching the way the other watched the ceiling.
“What?”
“I seem to have stained the furniture with our embarrassingly lewd act.” Those yellow eyes found John’s again after the words were said, and all of a sudden John didn’t know what to say anymore. Didn’t know what to do and didn’t know what to feel when his heart just refused to calm down at the sight of that look that was being directed at him.
“Oh,” John said lamely, blushing again as he looked to see that yes, there was definitely now Equius’ alien jizz on the couch. It made him giggle, both from the strange kind of hilarity of it and because he was entirely embarrassed.
The troll underneath him licked his lips, apparently considering this. “Was it satisfactory?”
And there he went, making things awkward. Stiff like it wasn’t personal at all. Like Equius really did think that John hadn’t meant it, that he was using Equius to get off. And that kind of hurt. Sure, it might have started out like that and John couldn’t deny he was the biggest asshole on the planet for that, but at this point it was kind of hard to deny what Equius was doing to him. He frowned.
“Yeah. Yeah it was.” And then John was leaning forward for another kiss, chaste and sweet and a little bit more like he knew what he was doing. “How about we get cleaned up and you give me a tour of your hive?”
This time Equius smiled. It was small, but it was genuine, and that made John’s heart flop a little, too. “Of course.”