The Shower Is A Great Place to Talk about All Kinds of Important Things
—
Isaac really had only come to the shower room to shower and have a short break from studying, but Thomas had come in with a boner and sex was a good break from studying too, so now Isaac was on his belly on the bench while Thomas fucked him from behind.
The bench was narrow, so Isaac gripped the sides of it as Thomas’s cock filled him up, then pulled out, then filled him up again. He had a good way of thrusting, really hard and definite without being too rough, and he held Isaac’s thighs in his hands to keep him in place, driving their hips together at a steady pace, his heavy breathing filling the room as their balls touched over and over.
For a guy who liked girls, he was pretty good at buttfucking, and he had been since Isaac had met him. He’d needed very little instruction in how to make Isaac cum without touching him, which he said was because of a friend he’d had growing up. It was obvious he didn’t like to talk about it much, so Isaac had never pressed him on it, but either way, Thomas’s friend had taught him well, and after the half hour or so they’d been here, Isaac was ready to cum.
And so, since he was ready, he did that, clinging to the bench, clenching around Thomas, and squirting hard, shaking all over as the orgasm took him over. Thomas paused while Isaac came, and when he was done, he pulled out of Isaac, jerking off the rest of the way onto Isaac’s back.
Then, panting, he sat down next to Isaac, patting his butt. “Thanks,” he said.
Isaac nodded, eyes shut. “Thank you too.” Thomas didn’t say anything, and Isaac looked up. He was looking down at his hands, frowning. “You okay?”
Thomas gave a nod, but he didn’t stop looking sad. “Milly broke up with me and I think she meant it this time.”
“Oh,” Isaac said, sitting up and taking Thomas’s hand. “That sucks. What happened?”
Thomas shook his head. “I was an asshole, like usual. Her sister’s pregnant and I made a stupid joke about her having puppies. It was a dick thing to say, but then it turned into a whole deal about how I never think before I talk, and all I ever do is think about myself and I don’t take anything seriously and…” he shrugged. “I don’t know, it doesn’t matter. It’s not like we were going to get married or anything. It mostly made me feel like shit because it’s true, you know?”
“Is it true, though?” Isaac asked. Thomas definitely wasn’t the most empathetic person Isaac knew, but it wasn’t like he wasn’t nice. And he could pretend all he wanted that he hadn’t been serious about Milly, but Isaac had been there when he’d been agonizing over asking her out.
“Yeah, you don’t have to be on my side just because we’re friends,” Thomas told Isaac, patting his back. “It’s not like I don’t know I’m a piece of shit.”
“You’re not a piece of shit,” Isaac told him, his ankle feeling funny. One of the charms on his anklet was hot. “You are sometimes a dumbass, but that’s not the same thing.”
Thomas chuckled at that. “You know, the worst part is that I’ve actually been trying to be less of a dumbass? I thought things were going better with me and Milly lately because I’ve been trying to be nicer and more thoughtful and stuff. Kind of more like…well, guess I’m not as good at it as you.”
That was really sweet of him. “You could be,” Isaac promised. “You just have to keep doing it.” He kept himself from saying it was easy, because he knew it wasn’t for everyone.
“It’s exhausting, though. I feel like I always have to stop and think about why what I’m about to say is wrong. And then I just feel like I’m lying all the time. Like, I’m not really being nice if I’m only doing it so people won’t think I suck. Then I’m just a liar.”
Isaac nodded, chest tightening. “You’re not lying. The more you do it, the more naturally it’ll come. Nobody’s asking you to be me, Thomas. Just be you, but slightly less of a dumbass. That’s not lying.”
“I guess.” Thomas sighed. “Sorry for dumping that on you. I feel like with Garrett and them, they expect me to be like…” he moved his shoulders in a way that was clearly supposed to imitate walking. “You know?”
Isaac had no idea what that meant, but he understood what Thomas was getting at. “They are your friends. You can tell them if you’re upset.”
“I feel like I shouldn’t, though. I don’t know, I guess I just knew you wouldn’t tell me it was my fault. You’re just like…really cool about emotions and stuff, so it’s easier to talk to you about them.”
“I’m glad you feel that way,” Isaac said, though he was pretty sure any of Thomas’s other friends would have talked to him about this if they’d seen he was genuinely upset about it. “Are you going to try apologizing to Milly? If you do, I think you should wait a day or…Thomas?”
Thomas’s expression had gone vacant, and then he lifted his head up and smiled at Isaac in a way that he didn’t normally smile. “Good evening, Isaac.”
Isaac balled his hand into a fist, his ankle burning. “My friend is already having a bad night and I was trying to help him. He doesn’t need you making everything worse. Fuck off.”
Klaus nodded. “I do apologize for interrupting, and for the rather intimate circumstances into which I’ve intruded. I shall only be a few minutes.”
“You could be even less than that.”
“I could be many things, as could you. I wanted to ask whether you’d decided to bind the stone to yourself as we discussed.” Klaus moved Thomas’s head in a way that Thomas never moved it. It wasn’t unnatural or weird, it was just a movement Thomas never made, and Isaac didn’t like it.
Isaac looked at the floor so he wouldn’t have to look at Thomas being used like this. “I don’t know yet,” he admitted, in a quiet voice. “I don’t trust you.”
“Ah,” said Klaus, making Thomas smile. “I suppose I should not be surprised by that, though I admit to some disappointment. You’re so trusting normally.”
“Yeah, with people, not with monsters who possess people.”
“That manner of antagonism serves nobody, Isaac,” said Klaus. “You will not bait me into revealing anything by insulting me, and I know that you dislike being so unpleasant. All you are doing by engaging in such petty games is making yourself unhappy.”
Isaac was quiet for a second, trying to think. He had to think so much when he talked to Klaus. “You think people hating you is a game,” he said, after a minute. “You think everything is a game. You treat us all like your pieces and move us around like you want, and then you’re surprised when people don’t trust you. Maybe if you treated us like people instead of things, we would.”
“Perhaps. But despite what you may think, I don’t see any of this as a game, Isaac. The world is at risk. I have not the luxury of negotiating with every last person whose aid I require. If I must be written into the history books as the villain, so be it, so long as history books continue to be written.”
Klaus was one of those people who talked smart so people would think he was smart, Isaac thought. It didn’t make sense—he probably was smart. Why did he have to pretend to be? Isaac shook his head. “There has to be another way. Did you ever even try to find one? Or did you just jump right to mind control? Don’t answer that.” He stood up, started to go get a wash bucket, then didn’t. If he had one when Thomas woke up, it would increase the dissonance he’d have to overcome when Klaus left him. “You’re just going to blow more hot air at me and I’m not interested. Even if I do want to bind the stone, I don’t know how.”
“The stone will resonate with the Pillars. You must resonate with it.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
“Resonance is a challenging topic to discuss, but that doesn’t make it impossible to perform. You’ve been offered many lessons on different types of magic and their function, if you were to begin attending more of them. King Sam figured it out, as did James, both at younger ages than you are now. I have no doubt that you can do what they did if you try.”
Isaac winced. Sam and James were both hereditary magic users. They’d been training since they’d been born and probably never missed a class. But he didn’t say that. Instead what he said was, “You’re going to ask me to kill them.”
“I am most certainly not going to do that.”
“You want me to bind all five stones to myself. They both have stones bound to them. I can’t bind the stones that are already bound, right? Is there a way to unbind them without killing the people they’re attached to?”
Klaus made Thomas look away. “No, I’m afraid there isn’t.”
“Then we’re done. I’m not killing people for you.”
“And as I said, I do not plan to ask you to,” Klaus insisted. Isaac wished he’d change his voice or something. “Isaac, Sam will be attempting to steal the stone soon. You must bind it to yourself before then or you may lose your chance.”
His chance to free Thomas. It wasn’t an accident that that was who Klaus was using to talk to him today. “I’m not letting you change this subject. You’re planning to kill my friends even if I do everything you say, and I’m not going to help you until you promise that you won’t.”
“I have no intention of bringing harm to either of them.”
“That’s not a promise,” Isaac said, hard-faced. “I have no intention of failing my exams but that doesn’t mean I won’t. I know I’m stupid but I’m not that stupid, Klaus.”
Klaus sighed dramatically, lowering Thomas’s head. “You are not stupid, Isaac. Very well. I promise that I shall not kill James and Sam.”
Isaac watched him for a good minute, trying to parse it and think about everything all the words could mean, trying to find how he’d lied or said something else. He saw it, just as he was about to give up. “James or Sam,” he corrected. “You don’t get to kill one of them and tell me that wasn’t what we agreed to. Or.” Why did Klaus ever expect anyone to trust him when he pulled stuff like this at every fucking opportunity?
Klaus sighed, but because he was an asshole, he was also smiling. “Very well. James or Sam.”
Isaac nodded, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that he had missed something more important. There was always something else with Klaus. He couldn’t see how any other part of that could mean anything other than what it did, but… “Okay. Now go away,” he said, sitting back down.
“Of course. We shall speak again.”
“I’m sure we will,” Isaac said with a sigh.
He watched Thomas carefully, and Thomas sagged a little, blinking. Isaac reached over, put a hand on Thomas’s shoulder, another on his forehead. “Hey, everything okay?” he asked, doing the quickest, gentlest spells he could on Thomas’s mind.
“Yeah,” Thomas said, shaking his head. There was something there. Pinpricks, in his mental pattern. They were fading. Almost as soon as Isaac noticed them, they were gone. But they would have left behind residue, or something. That was how Klaus’s spell let him into the brain. Those pinpricks would re-open whenever Klaus wanted them do.
If he could figure out a way to close them permanently, that would block Klaus’s spell and it should do it without hurting Thomas.
“You look dizzy,” said Isaac. “Have you eaten today?”
“Uh, yeah, I think so. Lunch.’
“Yeah,” Isaac said, patting his back. “Let’s shower and then go get some food, okay?”
Thomas nodded, and stood up on his own. He seemed okay now. “The shower just seems like such an obvious place to talk to you about stuff,” he said with a laugh. “I don’t know why.”
“It’s the nudity,” Isaac promised. “Helps you be honest.”
“I guess that’s why you’re honest so often. Uh, sorry. You were saying about apologizing. I think I should? Even if she stays broken up with me, I should apologize.”
“Yeah. I think you should wait a day. Not too long, because that’s just going to make her madder. But not right away either, let her calm down a little bit, talk to her other friends about it like you’re doing with me. And when you do it, make sure it’s honest. Say what you mean and what you feel. Be yourself.” Isaac smiled at Thomas as they got under the water. “You’re a good person, Thomas. Just be you.”
“Might need a little help with how to do that without being a jerk,” Thomas said, scratching his balls.
It was such a normal Thomas gesture that Isaac couldn’t help but grin. He put an arm around him and got the water flowing. “I’m sure we can figure that out,” he promised. “No problem is impossible, not when the chosen one is on your side.”
“I don’t need the chosen one,” Thomas said, leaning on Isaac a bit. “I’m just glad I have a friend.”
Isaac was glad he had a friend too. He’d help Thomas as much as he could, with this and with the problem he didn’t even know he had. He knew that was what Klaus wanted, to put him in a position where he was forced to choose which friends he could save even if it meant dooming others. But that was stupid. Isaac would help them. All of them.
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How Best to Use a Sword 