Chapter Text
“The fat crow can… cannot sing. But nether... no, that’s not right…” Wylan furrowed his brow at the words on the page and chewed his lip as he tried to puzzle them out.
“Take your time,” Inej said.
“But… neither can the… small sparrow dance.” Wylan looked up and Inej nodded, pointing to the next line. Wylan paused, then continued, “See how we fly, the father -“
“Feathered,” came Inej’s gentle correction.
“See how we fly, the feathered friends cried. And the gree… greedy fox…”
“Sighed.”
Wylan frowned at the page. “Sighed?” he repeated. “That doesn’t make any sense! Those letters don’t make those sounds.”
“I don’t make the rules,” Inej said mildly. “Come, let’s finish it.”
Wylan turned his concentration back to his task. “See how we fly, the feathered friends cried. And the greedy fox sighed, for at a… fine lunch he’d lost his ch…chan…”
“Lost his chance.” A new voice finished the rhyme, and both Inej and Wylan turned to find Jesper leaning in the doorway, a smile on his face. “You’re getting much better,” he said.
Wylan’s face flushed red at the sight of the durast and he pushed the book away. “Yes, very impressive… if I were a six-year-old,” he retorted.
Inej patted his hand as she stood from the table they had shared. “Patience,” she said. Then, looking at Jesper, she asked, “Did you speak with Kaz?”
“I spoke… in Kaz’s general direction,” Jesper said. “He didn’t really say anything back. So, I suppose I spoke at him, more than with him.”
Inej gave a curt nod, but the hurt was clear on her face. “I just thought… after everything… knowing I was back, he would have at least… said hello.”
Wylan looked from Jesper to Inej, unable to read the look that passed between them. He was certainly no expert when it came to matters of the heart, but even he knew there was something between Kaz and Inej, some unfinished story to which neither of them could agree to an end.
Jesper sauntered into the well-furnished sitting room, its walls cast with the warm glow of the Ketterdam sunset. Nikolai Lantsov, ruling King of Ravka, and once employer of the Crows, had been generous in his payment for their services retrieving the Neshyener, the legendary sword sharp enough to cut down shadows. In the six months since they had returned victorious from their mission and seen the Fold finally destroyed, the Crows had settled into an uncharacteristic peace. Kaz had the Crow Club to run, Nina had helped Matthias escape Hellgate Prison and the two were laying low, and Inej had been off adventuring on the high seas as part of Mal’s pirate - or, privateering - crew.
Which left Wylan and Jesper. Wylan watched Jesper put his hands on Inej’s shoulders. “Patience, remember?” he told her. Jesper laughed softly at Inej’s frustrated huff and the sound of his laughter sent familiar butterflies fluttering in Wylan’s belly. Even after all this time, after Jesper had invited him to share this fine house he had bought, after they had spent countless nights naked in each other’s arms and countless mornings kissing and laughing and arguing good-naturedly about whose turn it was to go get stroopwafles for breakfast - even after all that, Wylan still couldn’t believe that Jesper Fahey had chosen him. Jesper who could seduce anyone he wanted. Jesper who could utterly undo Wylan with no more than a raised eyebrow and a smirk. The force of his feelings for the durast sometimes scared him and he was almost certain that if Jesper knew, he would be scared away too.
“He’ll come around, Inej,” Jesper said. “Just give him time.”
Inej shook her head. “There’s patient,” she said, “and then there’s stupid. I’m not sure which one waiting for Kaz Brekker makes me.”
“Well,” Jesper said, turning as he spoke, so that his plum-colored cape flared behind him. “I have it on good authority that he’s taken to sleeping at the Club. Guarded by a whole gang of hired brutes, of course.” He unhooked the clasp of the cape at his neck and tossed it over the arm of the plush chaise lounge by the window. “You could stop by yourself, although I don’t think they’d let you in. But then…” Jesper turned and he and Wylan together realized that Inej had disappeared. “That’s never stopped you before,” Jesper finished the thought.
“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to her doing that,” Wylan said.
Jesper was loosening his collar and undoing the buttons of his silk shirt. “All part of her charm,” he said. “And this…” he approached the young chemist and straddled his hips, long legs planted firmly astride Wylan’s chair, “… is all part of mine.” He brought his lips together with Wylan’s, teasing them apart with an inquisitive tongue. “You know, I meant what I said,” Jesper told him, running long fingers through Wylan’s perpetually mussed-up hair. “You are actually getting much better.”
Wylan felt the same odd mix of pride and shame he always felt whenever Jesper commented on his reading. He hated the way he sounded, struggling to make sense of such simple words, and he hated it all the more when Jesper was there to hear him. But Jesper clearly wanted to help him learn and had even hired a tutor to teach him. Since coming back to the Barrel, Inej had been helping too, but truth be told, Wylan was sick of reading nursery rhymes and being treated like a child.
“What is it? What did I say?” Jesper asked, drawing back at the cloudy expression on Wylan’s face.
“Nothing,” Wylan said. “I mean, thank you. I appreciate what you’re trying to do for me… even if I am hopeless at it. At this rate, I’ll be fumbling through picture books when I’m an old man.”
A mischievous glint sparked in Jesper’s eyes. “Maybe you just need some new reading material,” he said. “And perhaps… a better reward for your efforts.”
“What kind of reward?” Wylan asked, but Jesper was already on his feet, crossing to the writing desk on the other side of the room. He opened the desk drawer and withdrew a small leather-bound book. He tossed it on the table in front of Wylan.
“Open it,” he said.
Wylan ran his fingers across the smooth cover of the book which bore no words or pictures to suggest what might be inside. He flipped it open and drew in a sharp breath. The first page showed a young man on his knees, encircled by three other men - all clearly older and powerfully built. Everyone in the painstakingly detailed charcoal illustration was naked and the artist had left nothing to the imagination. The young man pictured grasped a hard cock in each hand, his face tilted up, his expression rapt. There was some text in a small, plain script below the illustration, but Wylan didn’t look twice at it. “Where did you get this?” he asked.
Jesper grinned. “I have my sources,” he said. “Now, isn’t this the type of picture book you’d rather be fumbling through?”
Wylan flipped through the pages, eyes widening as the illustrations grew more and more explicit. “I don’t think Inej will approve,” he said.
“Ah, but I will be your instructor tonight,” Jesper said, lighting the lamp on the desk and drawing the curtains closed. “My methods are a bit unconventional, but I think you’ll find them quite effective.” He turned back to Wylan and folded his arms across his chest. “Take your clothes off and bring that book over here.”
Wylan did as he was told and Jesper positioned the book on the desk so that it was bathed in lamplight, then positioned Wylan so that he rested on his forearms, half bent over the desk’s wide edge. Wylan could feel Jesper’s hardness through his trousers, as he leaned in close and murmured over Wylan’s shoulder, “Read it.”
“I… I can’t,” Wylan said, already hopelessly distracted by Jesper’s nearness and his scent and the purr of his velvety voice so close to Wylan’s ear.
“Try,” Jesper said.
Wylan forced his eyes back to text on the page and began haltingly, “The In… initi…”
“The initiation,” Jesper said, letting his fist curl loosely around Wylan’s cock as he read the title. “Keep going.”
“Saints,” Wylan whispered. The words blurred and swam in circles as he tried to put them in order in his mouth. “The boy had no name. He was a... gift from the gods.” Wylan read the words slowly, and as he did, felt Jesper’s grip tighten, stroking up the shaft and circling a thumb around the swollen head of Wylan’s cock. “What do you want? the bru… brothers… asked the boy. He told them: To be… wanted. To be used. To be -“ Wylan’s breath caught on the last word as he heard the click of Jesper’s belt buckle come undone. “… filled up.”
“Very good,” Jesper said, and out of the corner of Wylan’s eye, he saw Jesper’s trousers kicked aside. Jesper reached around him to pull from the desk drawer a small bottle of oil. Of course Jesper would keep some in every room of the house, Wylan thought, even as his heartbeat quickened with anticipation. “Next page, please,” Jesper said.
Wylan turned the page. The next illustration showed the young man on his hands and knees, with eyes closed and lips wrapped tight around one of the larger men’s cocks. Behind him, one of the other men spread his asscheeks apart, pressing the tip of a thick cock between them. For a moment, Wylan’s mind wandered. What would it be like, he wondered, to be the boy in the picture, to be surrounded by Jesper, by Matthias, by Mal, by Kaz, to take them in his mouth, make them moan for him, to be their plaything, the one they all desired.
The crack and sting of Jesper’s open palm hitting his bare ass snapped Wylan back to the present. “There will be no daydreaming in my class, Mr. Van Eck,” Jesper said, his tone mock stern, his hand smoothing over the still tingling skin he had just struck. “Continue reading, please.”
Wylan cleared his throat and began, “He gave him… himself to them com… comp…”
“Completely,” Jesper said, drizzling the oil along his own length, then liberally down Wylan’s back so that it dripped into his ass, making the puckered opening there slick to touch.
“Completely,” Wylan repeated, the word more breath than sound as he said it, while Jesper slid a finger inside him. Wylan pushed back on it, eager for more.
“Patience, my pupil, patience,” Jesper said. “You must read one more page for me if you’d like your reward.”
Wylan made a whining noise, puppy dog-like, flipping the pages carelessly. He stopped at a picture that showed the young man on his back, his legs lifted with ankles tied to wrists. Spread wide and helpless, he was being impaled by a larger man’s cock. Another man sat astride his face, heavy balls against his chin, the length of the man’s cock clearly stuffed down the boy’s throat. The third man had his head thrown back, his cock in his hand, cum dripping from its tip to pool on the boy’s smooth chest. Something about the image, combined with Jesper’s fingers inside him, working him open, made Wylan’s cock go rock hard.
“Oh, we like that one, do we?” Jesper said. “Shall I tie you up next time, Wy? Would you fancy that?”
Wylan turned his head, straining to meet Jesper’s eye. “You could do anything you want to me,” he said, “anything at all and I would fancy it.”
Jesper ducked his head and with a free hand on Wylan’s cheek, he kissed the trembling mouth. “Anything I want?” he said, before nipping at Wylan’s lower lip. ”A tempting offer indeed, and one that I will certainly take you up on… but not tonight. After all, you haven’t finished my lesson yet.”
Wylan groaned and let his head fall, fists clenched tight on either side of his forehead. “Jesper, please…” he begged.
“Read this one last page for me,” Jesper said, “and you can have your reward.”
Wylan lifted his head and tried to focus on the words in front of him, instead of the feeling of Jesper’s cock slowly pushing inside him. “The brothers three were near cru… cruel in their in… “
“Insatiable appetites,” Jesper said, still easing his way into Wylan’s body.
“Insatiable appetites. But the boy could den… deny them nothing. Will you let us… break you, they asked the boy. I am yours, the boy re… replied. I want nothing more than to be broken by your love.” Wylan took a deep breath, savoring the fullness, the stretch, even the ache, of Jesper’s cock inside him. He hadn’t told Jesper how nervous he had been going home with him that first night they had met outside the Tannery, how he had only been with two other men before, both of them strangers, neither of them gentle in the ways they had taken him. The Barrel was not a place for gentle things and Wylan had never expected anything different. But even drunk, Jesper hadn’t been rough with him, had asked do you like that and do you want more? Wylan had left a bag of stroopwafles, fresh from the vendor’s cart, and taken off in the morning before Jesper was awake, assuming it was what he was supposed to do, not expecting to see him again. He could never have guessed that he would become a Crow, and save the world, and learn to read, and most unexpectedly of all, fall in love.
“You’ve done well,” Jesper said. “Such a good boy.”
“So, what’s my reward?
“This,” Jesper replied, flexing his hips, making Wylan cry out with the surge of pleasure the movement caused. “I’m going to fuck you exactly the way you like to be fucked, nice and slow. And you’re going to cum for me, yeah?” Wylan could only moan in response. “And then, if you’re very lucky, I’ll take you to bed, and read the rest of this book to you as a little bedtime story. Is that reward enough for you?”
“Yes,” Wylan said. “Oh fuck… Saints… Jesper…” He didn’t know what he was saying anymore. He didn’t know how anything could feel this good.
Jesper delivered Wylan’s reward as promised, right down to the bedtime story, which he read by candlelight, with Wylan curled into his chest, sleepy and well-satisfied. “The end,” he announced, letting the book fall by the side of the bed. “Not bad for a first lesson. Of course it helps that I am an exceptional teacher, don’t you think?”
“The best,” Wylan said.
“Perhaps I’ll fire that tutor and teach you myself,” Jesper mused. “It would cost me less!”
There was a pause and then Wylan said quietly, “I don’t want to cost you anything, Jes. I don’t ever want to be a burden. You don’t have to - “
“Shut up,” Jesper said, laughing. “I was joking. And besides, if I want to spend my considerable fortune on you, I will do so, and there’s absolutely nothing you can do to stop me.”
Wylan sighed, resigned and contented. His eyes drooped. “If we’re going to continue these lessons,” he said, “we’re going to need more books.”
Jesper leaned over and blew out the candle, smiling in the dark. “We could build a whole library,” he said.
Wylan felt Jesper’s arms go around him and they felt strong and solid. They felt like home. Maybe… Wylan thought, as he drifted into sleep… we could build a whole life.