Chapter Text
It was a mistake. She knew that from the moment she’d opened her eyes and saw pink hair on the pillow beside her. She shifted her leg and the sheets ran across bare skin. Oh Arceus. She was naked so he was… She wrenched herself out of bed so fast she’d not had time to stop from falling ass first onto the carpet. Urbain woke with a start and she looked up to see his worried eyes as he turned to her, her name on his lips.
She ran, bolting out of the door and leaving her clothes behind. She blocked the door to her room with the desk chair and climbed into the shower to scrub herself clean. She felt filthy, inside and out. No matter how hard she scrubbed she couldn’t erase the memories of his body on hers, his tongue in her mouth. This was wrong, this was so horribly wrong. She couldn’t have slept with Urbain. He was her best friend, for fucks sake he was like her brother! She scrubbed herself until her skin was raw and when she brushed her teeth she did so until her gums bled. Until she couldn’t taste him anymore.
What the hell was wrong with her? Memories of their night flooded her mind unbidden. The celebration of her ranking up in the ZA Royal, having too many drinks. Stumbling into the hotel together, his body pressing hers up into the wall of the elevator. Inexperienced hands roaming all over her, his tongue in places it should never have been and never would be again. That much was certain. She dressed in a panic, the outfit didn’t even go together and on any normal day she would have been embarrassed to leave the hotel looking like this. But this wasn’t any other day, this was potentially the worst morning she had ever had and she had no one to blame but herself.
She didn’t even go through the lobby when she left, she knew that he’d be waiting there. Her phone, and satchel were in his room too and she certainly couldn’t go there. She couldn’t look at him right now, couldn’t look at herself without feeling the disgust leak from her pores at the thought of her skin having been tainted by his touch. She took to the rooftops, making sure to be extra careful as she navigated them. There would be no Rotom saving her if she fell today. Once she ran out of rooftops to safely traverse she made her way down to the streets. Still too close to the hotel for her comfort.
Every noise was him looking for her, every noise was him around the corner. In the back of her mind she realized that she was panicking but knowing that didn’t stop it. If anything it made it all worse, she could recognize that she was acting erratic, jumping at every noise like a scared Meowth, but she couldn’t control the reactions. Her breathing was too fast, her heartbeat too loud in her ears. She ran past curious faces and concerned passersby on her mad dash away from the hotel, away from her problems. Shooting looks over her shoulder to ensure that he wasn’t behind her in hindsight wasn’t the best idea when you were running but she couldn’t stop herself.
A block away from Centrico plaza she’d run head first into someone and sent them both tumbling to the ground. She’d landed on his chest, legs straddling him in a way that made her skin crawl. Startled gold eyes stared up at her through a pair of circle lenses and she threw herself off of him with a string of apologies before she helped him to his feet, still throwing looks over her shoulder as he brushed himself off.
“What are you doing? Running around like that. You could hurt someone!” His voice was sharp and she flinched at it as she struggled to make herself stop bouncing on her feet, ready to run again at a moment's notice.
“I’m sorry I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to I-” Her name was shouted across the street and her head whipped back to see Blonde and pink hair and worried blue eyes. A strangled cry worked its way out of her mouth and without even a second glance at the man she knocked over she took off again. He was calling after her, they both were.
She ran until she made it to a small park on the other side of the city where she quickly collapsed onto a bench out of breath. Her entire body was covered in sweat and she felt like her heart was going to come out of her throat. Actually, that wasn’t her heart. She barely made it to a trash can before she threw up. She didn’t even remember what she had eaten the night before but whatever it was tasted horrible coming back up. When she was done emptying her stomach she fell back onto the lush green grass and looked around. The panic was beginning to ebb and she was beginning to realize just how stupid it had been to run away with none of her things. Going without her phone was one thing, but her satchel? That had to have been one of the worst choices she’d made since coming to this city.
Except for sleeping with Urbain…
At the thought she dropped her head into her hands and cried. The city had begun to feel like home before this. She finally had friends, a team of Pokemon that she could only ever dream about before coming here, and was able to financially support herself without needing to work a dead end job. And now she had ruined it all because she got drunk and made a horrible mistake. She’d never be able to look him in the eyes again knowing what they had seen. Never been able to hug him again without remembering how he felt. She wasn’t even sure she could look at the color pink anymore and that was her favorite color. Or used to be, anyway. The thought of it now didn’t bring joy anymore. Just more panic and feelings of disgust, both for him and for herself.
She stayed out until the sun had dipped down past the horizon and the battle zones had been activated. As the familiar red holo-tech powered up she realized that she should probably go back and face the music. The day had helped her to calm down. Not running around doing tasks for everyone in existence and having no group chat spamming her phone had left her to do nothing but think. At first all she could think about was him, but as time went on she had begun to think of other things too. Her Pokemon, the nice people she’d met in this city. She’d spent a brief bit of time thinking about Ivor in Urbain’s place. Anything to replace the image of him with that of someone else, someone she wasn’t connected to. But Ivor certainly wasn’t the right build for that and her mind's eye just wasn’t strong enough to superimpose him onto Urbain to make the memory more bearable.
By the time she’d started on the long walk home she’d already come to the conclusion that she would live with that image in her mind for the rest of her pathetic life. Hopefully he’d let it die instead of wanting to talk about it constantly like he did for most other things. He could be pushy at the best of times. She guess she saw that now more than ever. He hadn’t exactly been shy about his interest in her, asking her out on private outings more than once. After the first ‘date’ she made it a point to find some sort of excuse to bring someone else along or to get out of having to go anytime he had asked but he never took the hint.
Maybe that was part of what made her feel so gross about all of this. Yes he had been drunk too, but he also knew that she wasn’t interested. She really couldn’t have made it any more clear without being horrible to him and even then he was so damned forgiving that he would probably be the one to apologize to her if she was to do that to him. She wished she had a Dialga or something to turn back time and go back to when she had taken that first shot so she could smack the glass away from her lips and spare herself these feelings.
Remembering the alcohol had her stomach roiling again. She’d found some cash in the pocket of her oversized hoodie and had used it to buy a bottle of mouth wash at one of the many convenience stores while out to get rid of the lingering taste. The bottle was almost empty now, sitting in her coat pocket. There probably wouldn’t be enough for her to rinse her mouth out again if the nausea caught up to her. Not like there was anything left in her stomach for her to throw up anyway. She barely had the funds with her to buy the mouthwash. The prospect of eating had made the nausea worse instead of better anyway so she had taken a wide berth around all of the various food stalls and cafes on her way back to hotel Z.
Gold eyes stopped her as she rounded a corner and her heart felt like it was back up in her throat as the man she had knocked over earlier in the day glared at her, cigarette halfway to his lips.
“Thought better about running through the streets without looking this time?” He was perched up against a cobbled rock wall, leaning against it as the smoke from his cigarette curled around him. He looked annoyed, sounded annoyed and she suddenly felt much smaller than she normally did which was saying something because she had literally had to look up at almost everyone she had met in this city except for some of the children she had run across.
“I’m sorry about that. I really didn’t mean to-”
“To slam head first into me as I was coming in to work?” He cut her off, taking another drag of his cigarette before he pushed off of the wall and walked up to her. She stiffened as he got closer, she knew she was in the wrong earlier and she should be apologizing even more. Hell, she should be kneeling on the ground and bowing to him. That was how she had been raised to show respect and apologize. The lower you were, the more sincere you were. He didn’t give her the chance. His fingers were on her chin and tilting her face to look up at him as soon as he reached her and she couldn’t do anything but look up at him.
“I didn’t mean to run into you, I was just… I’m sorry.” She hated how small she sounded, how small she felt under his intense gaze. He made a noise as he turned her head from side to side, looking her over she realized.
“Why were you running?” He asked as he moved her face back to look at him and she felt a flash of panic course through her at the thought of having to tell someone that she was running away from her own bad decisions. As it turned out though, she didn’t need to tell him anything. His hand dropped away from her face and he shifted back out of her way as he took another drag from his cigarette. She just stood there and watched him for a long minute as her mind tried to work through what had made him back away from her.
“Your friend, the blonde boy that was chasing after you today said you’re part of his team. That true?” He started and she couldn’t help the flinch that came to her at the mention of Urbain. By the way he looked at her she knew he noticed it too.
“Y-yeah. I-I’m a part of t-team Mz. W-why?” Great, now she was stuttering. The day just kept getting better. She thought she had broken herself of that habit when she was still in grade school but here she was, a grown ass woman with a speech impediment.
“I need to speak with you, walk with me into my office?” He turned without waiting for her reply, like he knew that she would follow. He was right, of course, but she had thought about running again first. If her legs hadn’t been jello already she probably would have. He led her past two rows of men that were just… standing there. Why were they just standing there?
“Go home. The workday ended 20 minutes ago.” As soon as his words left his mouth the men all collapsed into each other and started filing out of the building. It was almost uncanny how silent they all were as they left, not even a single muttered goodbye or a question or anything. Just a silent exit and the deafening silence of the lobby as the elevator doors opened. She followed him quickly, not wanting to piss him off any more than she undoubtedly had when she’d knocked him over that morning. Once in the elevator though she noticed that the back of his coat was filthy, probably from her knocking him into the ground.
“I-If this is about your coat I’m s-sorry. I c-can pay for it to be c-cleaned.” He looked at her like he doubted that and the more she looked at his suit she realized he was probably right. She had seen his shoes before, in the Galerie de la lune and she knew they cost more than she made in a month alone but his jacket? That had to be custom, it was too unique to be anything but. She cringed at the thought of having to empty out her savings to pay for it to be dry cleaned but she would do it if that’s what it would take to get her out of trouble.
“I don’t need to talk to you about my jacket though the offer is appreciated. This is actually to talk about Urbain.” She flinched again. When would that stop? When would the mere mention of his name stop feeling like a stab wound to the gut? Maybe she could bribe Emma to have her Malamar wipe her memory. That would be nice. “And that. We need to discuss that.” He’d been watching her, she realized. The walls of the elevator were shiny enough to see her reflection in and when her eyes looked up they were met with his own. Reflected back at her with furrowed brows above them. She wrapped her arms around herself like they might keep her safe and looked down at the floor. She didn’t want to talk about it. It was nothing, just a mistake. Just a night of regrets, one of many she’d had in her life.
Never with a friend though. Never a regret like this.
When the doors opened she was led out into a dark room. The lights were on but seemed to be dimmed, probably because it was after work hours if she had to guess why. He gestured to her to sit on one of the leather couches as he walked past to drop his cigarette into an ash tray and pull a switch on a lamp. She did as she was told, she didn’t have the energy to argue or to even attempt to disobey right now. He dropped down onto the couch across from her and leaned forward onto his knees as he studied her expression.
“Now, let’s get this out of the way first. Your friend owes me money. Quite a lot of it, actually. He’s been avoiding my men for the last several months to avoid paying it back. Until this morning.” He leaned back in his seat and kicked a leg out to cross it over the other and she just tried to figure out what all of that had to do with her. He must have seen the confusion on her face because he continued without needing her to even ask. “Now, seeing as how you were very obviously running away from him I have to assume that the two of you aren’t on the best of terms right now. I kept his attention long enough for you to escape though and I’d like to know why you were running from him.” She gulped and looked to the side, staring at the sparse decor that was illuminated by the lamp.
“I…I didn’t want to see him.” He shifted in his seat and she looked back over at him as the leather creaked beneath him.
“And? There has to be more to it than that. If you simply didn’t want to see him you could have just said so instead of running away from him like your life was on the line.” He was right, she knew it and she could see that he knew it too by the way his eyes softened as he looked her over. “Mismatched clothes, a shirt that’s on inside out, and a panicked look in your eye. This morning I couldn’t make sense of it, it seemed impossible to me to think that someone like Urbain would ever hurt someone. Now I think I understand.” His eyes were boring holes into her skull.
“I-it’s nothing like what y-you imagined, I’m s-sure.”
“Really? Because the way you’ve flinched every time I mention his name is very telling. The marks on your neck are even more so.” Marks? What marks? She reached for her phone before she could remember that it wasn’t there and he sighed, pushing his glasses up as he pinched the bridge of his nose. “You haven’t seen them.” He stood up suddenly and pulled his own phone out, flipping his camera around and handing the phone to her so she could see herself.
There were hickeys all along her neck and as soon as she saw them she snapped her eyes shut and pushed the phone back out to him. Tears were trying to work their way free as he grabbed it.
“Look at me.” His voice was far too close for comfort and she opened her eyes to see his face right in front of her own. When she tried to make space between them he grabbed her chin again. His eyes searched hers for a moment before he cursed and dropped his hand. “I’m going to kill him.” He muttered as he stalked across the room.
“W-what?” The panic was rising again but this time for a whole other reason. This man, whoever he was, was angry. That much was very very clear, and judging by the look he’d given her just now he was very serious in the threat on Urbain’s life. She didn’t want anything to do with Urbain right now but she certainly didn’t want him dead either. “N-no, you can’t do that!” She was up and across the room before she even knew what she had planned to do. Her hand was on his arm as he was pulling something out of his desk, stopping him from getting whatever weapon she was sure he had been reaching for and his golden gaze slid back to hers. “Y-you can’t hurt him. Please, whoever you are, whatever you’re owed. I’ll get you your money.”
He was confused now, looking over her as he continued pulling out what turned out to be a pack of cigarettes from his desk.
“Corbeau. My name is Corbeau.” He pulled one out and then seemed to think of something before he turned to her and offered her one. She hadn’t smoked in years but she had accepted almost immediately. She’d given him her name in return as he lit the cigarette. The relief she felt as the familiar burn pulled at her lungs was almost worth being stuck here in the office with this strange man as he shot question after question at her. The buzz of the nicotine was calming her nerves enough to think clearer than she had the whole day. He’d waited until after she had smoked half of the cigarette before talking again.
The threat had been real, that much was made abundantly clear as he began asking her why she would protect a man that had assaulted her and she had to tell him that she hadn’t been assaulted. Several questions followed and she ended up spilling the entire story of their friendship in little snippets. Each answer seemed to make him angrier rather than calm him down.
“If he knew you weren’t interested and he still slept with you when you were drunk then that’s exactly what it was. That is rape.” The word stung as he spit it out. Like the very act of saying it had filled his mouth with poison. The disdain for the act was clear. But she didn’t believe that to be the case.
“We were both drunk.” He shook his head like that answer wasn’t good enough.
“That changes nothing.”
“It changes everything!” She hadn’t meant to shout it. “It never should have happened. It never would have happened if either of us had been sober.” She was crying now, admitting it was almost as bad as remembering it. The filth it left behind.
“You don’t know that.”
“Yes. I do. He’s not that kind of guy, he just…” Pushed too much. Too often. Didn’t like taking no for an answer… “He would never intentionally hurt me.”
“Yes, of course. He would never intentionally hurt you and I would never beat a man to within an inch of his life for doing exactly what he did to you.” The words were dripping with sarcasm as he spoke them and she looked at him to try to spot the lie in his gaze but saw nothing but complete sincerity in them. Oh shit, he was dangerous. He reminded her of the leader of one of the mob outfits in her home region, the cunning look behind his eye and the snarl curling his lips as he spoke.
“Please don’t. I’m to blame just as much as he is and I just… I don’t want to think about him ov-” She trailed off and cleared her throat before continuing. “I don’t want to remember last night. Ever.”
“Look kid-” He started and she cut him off with a snapped response.
“I’m not a kid. What is with everyone in this city calling me a kid? Is it because I’m short? Do I look like a fucking child?” She caught herself as she said it and covered her mouth with her free hand before muttering an apology. Strangely enough, he smiled at her.
“The name calling is just a habit of mine, I’m not calling you a kid. Besides, if I really thought you were a kid would I have given you a cigarette?” Yeah, probably. If it got her to calm down… Well, actually no. Maybe he wouldn’t have. She couldn’t tell, she didn’t know the man.
“I don’t know. I hardly even know you. Actually, strike that I don’t know you.” He chuckled and the dark sound sent tingles down her spine. Her toes curled in her shoes.
“I suppose that’s fair. You’ve only gone and had me on my back this morning and snapped at me for being offended on your behalf.” The memory of him beneath her after she ran into him was still too frazzled for her to truly recall but the mention of it still had her blushing and apologizing again.
“Anyway, as I was trying to say. You probably need therapy to work through all of that baggage. Or if you aren’t the talking type maybe you need to replace the memory of him with someone else.” Her ears were burning as she whipped her head back to stare at the wall instead of at his stupid smirk.
“I tried that. My imagination isn’t good enough.” Saying it out loud felt like a failure on her part. Admitting that she couldn’t get him out of her head when that was all she really wanted had her stomach doing cartwheels as white hot shame flooded through her. The memories assaulted her again. His tongue licking at her teeth, him pressing into her while he cooed praise into her ear and the noises he made as he finished. The heat of pooling liquid on her stomach.... She didn’t want to remember it. Didn’t want to think about how her body had betrayed her mind and enjoyed it. She hurriedly wiped the sleeve of her hoodie across her cheek to catch the tears.
“I don’t mean imagination.” She looked at him then, his golden eyes were tight around the edges and there was something there she couldn’t place for a moment. Pity, she realized. She didn’t want pity. She wanted to forget.
“And who would you suggest I replace him with? One of any number of the other men in my life that I have no desire to sleep with and who would probably never want to sleep with me? Find a random man at a bar so I can have a repeat experience of last night and replace the regret and the shame of sleeping with him with the regret and shame of sleeping with a stranger? How do I replace it without reliving it?” Her voice was raw and she wasn’t sure when she had dropped every guard she had put in place throughout the day but she had and it was all so much all at once. “How do I do that? Who do I ask? I have no one here. No one but him.”
He walked around the table in front of him to sit beside her and pull her into his side. He smelled like smoke and citrus and it was strangely comforting as she buried her face into his shirt. He just held her as she cried, rubbing soothing circles over her back until her sobs turned into hiccups. As the cigarette in her hand began to drop ash all over her he plucked it from her fingers and leaned forward to drop it into the tray. His shirt was wet as it touched her face, she pulled away and saw the dark spot on his purple button up and cringed into herself.
“I’m going to have to pay to get that dry cleaned too, aren’t I?” He just shushed her as he grabbed her chin and tilted her head back again to look her in the eyes.
“I’ll just put it on Urbain’s tab.” She jerked against his hand at his name, she couldn’t help it. He didn’t like that. She could see that fact written all over his face. His lips were turned down into a deep frown and his eyebrows were furrowed so much they almost touched. “I don’t think that the who is as important as the how.”
“What?”
“You keep wondering who you’re going to get to replace him in your mind. But it’s not going to matter who you get to do it if you still end up trapped beneath someone.” That made sense, she supposed, though she didn’t know if she could really do something like that right now. Sure the…trauma was more because of Urbain than it was because of the sex but she didn’t know how she’d feel with someone else so soon.
“I think you just need to pick whoever it is that you think might help and you need to be in control. Take that back, and then maybe you can forget about it.” Okay, yeah. That made a lot of sense but still… who? She was pretty, she guessed. Very attractive even if the men in the bars were to be believed, but she didn’t exactly have a line full of suitors. At least not of people she knew and wouldn’t mind sleeping with. She had one person lusting after her and he was the one person she never wanted to touch her, the one that had already had her.... Fuck, she needed another cigarette.
“Okay…I understand that, I think. But still, who? I don’t… I mean I guess I could ask Ivor but I’m pretty sure he might kill me.” She said it more so to herself than to him but she was still surprised by his hearty laugh as he let go of her chin and tilted his head back. It shook her as she was still pressed to his side. “What’s so funny?”
“The thought of you with that tree.” Tree?
“Why is that funny?”
“Because you’re so… How do I put this in a way that won’t end up with me getting yelled at again?” He thought for a moment and then shrugged. “You’re so small, the thought of that alone is absurd but also that man has the IQ of a bag of rocks. I don’t think he even knows what sex is.”
“How do you know Ivor?” He looked at her like she had two heads for a moment and then cleared his throat.
“We paid for his dojo.” Her eyes widened at that, the thought of Ivor owing Corbeau money seemed absurd. He couldn’t even use a phone without breaking it, how could he sign for a loan? “I see the question on your face and the answer is he didn’t. We paid for it because he was doing good work in the city. Still does, we call on him from time to time.
“Oh.” She felt painfully stupid, about half way to the bag of rocks at least but still… Tree? She thought of him for a moment, stupid blonde haircut and the big smile that he perpetually had on his face. Towering over everyone in the city except probably Az… Az was a tree. Ivor was a… Well, what else would you call someone like him? Maybe tree fit him too.
“Tell you what, think about it for a while. If you still haven’t found anyone to help with it in a week let me know.” Her mind was a whirlwind of emotions. Was he… was he offering to be the one she… Did she want that? Looking him over again had her realizing what she had overlooked the entire time she’d been in his office. Corbeau was fucking hot. Not only was he hot he was the exact opposite of Urbain. Dark and serious instead of goofy and bright. Being hot didn’t mean that she wanted to sleep with him though. She didn’t know what she wanted.
Why were emotions so damned hard?
“Are you… What are you saying?” She had to ask. Had to make sure she wasn’t reading into something that wasn’t there before she even allowed herself to think about it any further. No point stressing out over something like that when it wasn’t even on the table. Well, that and she might be lying just a little bit if she didn’t sort of wonder.
“I’m saying that if you don’t find someone else to help you out I’ll help.” Her face had to be as red as a cherri berry with how hot her cheeks felt. “Shit I just realized how that sounded. I meant that I can help you find someone or…well… I mean that’s not exactly off the table, even though I prefer to dominate my women more than let them take their pleasure from me but that’s-” He cut himself off and looked away from her. She could see a small blush working its way up the side of his neck and she realized that he was flustered now too. At least it wasn’t just her.
“That’s what?” She felt like she was poking the Ursaring but she couldn’t stop herself.
“That’s not how I meant it. Like I said I prefer to be the one in control, I’m not sure that I would be your best choice for this.” That made sense too. But so did the thought of losing control, she rather liked the idea of that. Of letting her mind be forcibly wiped instead of trying to take control back for herself. Then again she also wasn’t accustomed to letting others control her. She’d always been the one leading all of her sexual encounters. Until last night, anyhow. Last night the only thing in control was the alcohol. She grimaced.
“And if I choose you despite knowing that?” She had to practically force herself to say the words. She didn’t really know him, that’s true but at least he was trying to help her. Or seemed to be anyway, him being attractive helped but honestly he could look like a walking and talking red flag and she would still choose him over the memory of Urbain. The bar was so low it was touching the floor. Hell, it was underground with the Drillbur. The bar being low didn’t mean she had to deal with it right now though. Didn’t hurt to ask, for later, for if she changed her mind and decided that this was something that she wanted to do.
“On a normal night where you weren’t literally just crying into my shirt? Oh honey, I’d have you folded like a lawn chair screaming my name. Tonight though? No. You need to actually think about who you’d like to sleep with to replace this and not just take the first option presented to you.” That description certainly was something, her face felt hot and she couldn’t meet his eyes as she mulled it over. No one had ever talked to her like that before, the most she ever got before tonight were men telling her how pretty she’d look on her knees or wanting her to bend over for them but this? She didn’t know how to react to that. What the hell do you say in response to something that…provocative? He was watching her, studying her face and she wilted under his scrutiny. He sucked in a harsh breath before he tilted her face back up to his, forcing her eyes to meet his own.
“Look, this isn’t me saying no. This is me saying no for right now. You shouldn’t jump from one bed directly into another without giving the bed you go into some thought.” Her eyes widened as she realized she must have looked in that moment. Like she was bothered by the prospect of him turning her down rather than by what he said. No point trying to explain it though, the less she said the better. Probably. So she nodded, he was right after all. She didn’t want to jump into someone else's bed immediately. She would however be storing that information for later. After this whole debacle maybe.
“Okay.”
“Good girl.” Her stomach did a flip as a bolt of lust shot through her at that. She’d never been called that before either, what the hell? Oh man she was learning about herself today she guessed. She looked down at his lips for a fraction of a second thinking about what it might be like to kiss him. Would he taste like smoke? Would he be a gentle kisser? Would he even kiss her back? Did she want him to? She tried to rein herself back in before returning her gaze to his eyes, two little words shouldn’t be enough to break her. Her reaction was all it took to break him though, apparently.
His lips were on hers and they were so much different from Urbain's. Urbain’s kisses had been hurried and hungry, laced with barely disguised want. They’d been messy and wrong, too much tongue and too little skill. No breathing room. Corbeau’s lips on hers though? They were demanding, forceful in every right way. He knew exactly what he wanted and he acted on the want, expecting her to bend. Normally she might fight it when a man was too controlling but in this? She bent, she caved to his will and she wasn’t sure what that said about her but she liked it. His tongue brushed against her lower lip and she opened to him without question.
The taste of cigarettes and coffee flooded her mouth and she sincerely hoped that the mouthwash had done the job earlier and that he couldn’t taste the remnants of her dinner from the night before on her tongue. His hand was in her hair pulling it back to give him better access to her and she gasped into his mouth as the action sent heat coursing through her. Their breaths mingled between them in the rare moments that they pulled back from one another to breathe before crashing back together. His teeth caught her lip as she crawled into his lap, desperately seeking more. He drank up her moan as his other hand came to rest on her hip and pull her in closer to his body, dragging her against his thigh. Rough hands and sharp tugs, the sting of teeth pulling at her lips and nails digging into her ass had her reconsidering if she wanted this. It was soon, it was far too soon but he felt nothing like Urbain and that alone was worth it. She could regret it later.
If Urbain’s kisses had been a small fire then Corbeau’s had been a roaring inferno. They eclipsed the memory and burned it away. They were the difference between kissing a boy and kissing a man and Arceus did she want the man right now. He was hard beneath her and she could feel a considerable bulge pressing up against her thigh. When he shifted his hips and the pressure moved from her thigh to her core they moaned in tandem. She rolled her hips against him and he twitched beneath her before he was pushing her hips away from him. Just as suddenly as the kiss had begun it had ended. He slipped his hand back out of her hair and turned to deposit her back onto the couch. His pupils were dilated and he looked at her like he wanted to devour her, she wanted him to. If she was going to sleep with anyone to try to erase the memory or Urbain’s hands on her body she wanted it to be him. He pulled away as his hand started to reach for her, as if it wasn’t under his control. He was breathing heavily and she was sure she was as well. Though as the fog of lust began to clear a bit for her she realized that this had all probably been a mistake. Another one for the day. Though at least this mistake didn’t make her want to peel her skin off. More just made her want to bathe in ice water to tamp down the flame she was sure she shouldn’t be feeling so soon.
“Corbeau?”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to just kiss you like that.” He ran a hand through his hair, and bit his lip as he looked her over. “Okay, maybe I meant it a little. But I shouldn’t have.”
“It’s okay, I umm… well I clearly enjoyed it. Probably a little too much if I’m being honest. At least so soon.” He nodded and pushed his glasses back up his face, she didn’t even realize that they had fallen down his nose until he moved them.
“Yeah, rushing into things probably isn’t the best idea, sorry about that. I meant what I said though. I know that I kind of just barreled past it all right there, and I probably should have been a little more… thoughtful with my words. Didn’t figure you for a praise girl by the way. Anyway, you need to think about this.” He shifted in his seat, adjusting himself. Trying and failing to hide his excitement just as she had failed to. He cleared his throat.
“Think about what you need instead of what you want. And you need to think long and hard about that because I don’t-” He was looking away from her this time, continuing while not making eye contact, like whatever he had to say would be made worse by being able to see her. “I don’t think that I could let you be in control for long if you chose me.” He looked back at her and she could see the truth in his words, his small frown showed it as well.
She nodded, she’d think about it. Not just about if she wanted to do this at all but actually think about who she might choose if she did. Not just sort of peruse the archives of her mind for an option while she already had one picked out and pushed to the side for her to come back to, but actually think. Weigh the pros and cons and the likelihood of them being willing to help her. It would be far too easy to cave in and just choose him. She’d just had a taste and despite herself she wanted more.
“Good, now I’m going to sit here for a few minutes until I calm down and then I’ll take you home. Where do you live, by the way?” There was the ice water she was looking for. A shiver ran down her spine as she shifted in her seat, every bit of fire that had been stoked by their closeness and his words had just been snuffed out.
“Hotel Z.” He grimaced at that, he must have known that was where Urbain lived too.
“Can’t escape the little shit can you?” She shook her head and offered him a small smile, she really couldn’t. She would do what she could to avoid him for now but eventually… eventually something was going to have to break. She just hoped it wouldn’t be her.
“Never could. He’s got my phone, my wallet, my team. I left everything behind when I ran.” He nodded and then stood up.
“I need another cigarette. Do you want one?” She was up and following him a moment later.
“Yes, please.”
They spent the next half hour chatting about various topics, to distract his mind into letting his body relax. He’d told her about how much interest Urbain had accrued in the short time she’d been in the city and she’d been offended at the thought of it going up so fast until he told her that the interest only went as fast as it did when the lendee didn’t make any attempt to either pay or work off their debt and Urbain had gone a step further than that by actively avoiding them. Apparently if he had even attempted to pay some back here and there the interest would have been barely more than he was originally lent. Of course he would avoid all responsibility. At least she didn’t flinch at the mention of his name that time, maybe annoyance had something to do with it but progress was progress.
She offered to help pay off the interest and Corbeau pretended to think about her offer before telling her no. When she’d asked why he’d said because he just had his tongue down her throat and was still trying to talk himself out of pushing her down into the cushions of the couch they were on. He didn’t like mixing work and sex. She understood that quite well, she was the same. His admission had her blushing again though and she scrambled for anything to say to help diffuse the tension so she said that as soon as she could actually stomach seeing Urbain again that she’d hound him to pay his debt off until he finally manned up and did it. Corbeau appreciated that and their conversation continued for a while longer. Until her stomach growled in the middle of her telling him about her promotion match against Ivor and how he’d had her running all around the city in a wild Swanna chase looking for his sister. He’d all but forced her to agree to eat something on the way to the hotel as he led her out to a car.
He was nice to talk to, nicer than most of the people she’d met in Lumiose actually. Even if the way he’d talked to the store clerk when he’d ordered food had left the man behind the counter shaking in fear as he packed their bags. He’d parked on a side street and insisted that they eat before he dropped her off. She hadn’t fought much about that, just concerned about getting crumbs in his car which he immediately brushed off with a mention of how he’d just have one of his men detail it for him. When they pulled up to the hotel she’d offered to run in and grab some money to pay him back before he left but he’d denied the offer, instead asking her to call him when she got her phone back. He’d written his number down on the brown paper bag her sandwich had come in and she’d carried it inside with her after he’d dropped her off.