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 Posted: Sat Jan 18, 2025 10:06 pm
Quote: Characters: Alex & Ivy Prompt: The roles are reversed after history class, with Ivy checking in on Alex in the aftermath.
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Posted: Sat Jan 18, 2025 10:06 pm
   They had blinked back into existence quicker than Ivy had expected. It was a flurry of movement. Fluttering eyelids, murmurs, crying. Normally Ivy would have been one to join in on the crying. In a way, she kind of was. A few hot tears were determined to slip down her cheeks as she found herself more thankful than ever to be safely inside. But it was not a feeling that would last.
The chair next to her scraped against the floor. The high pitch screech pulled her out of her elation that whatever torture their teacher was determined to put them through was over and had her looking up at Alex as he prepared to flee the room. All while looking grim. Like, having had to kick three puppies grim. Worry washed over the duchess. Enough of it that it had her pushing her own chair out and following after the first genuine connection she had managed to make at this school. As she followed him down the hallways, she couldn't help but wonder if this was how he had felt only two weeks ago when he had come to the art room to check on her.
It felt almost like being a ghost.
The soft tap of her heels barely filtered through the halls around them as she followed obediently behind him. Ivy's mind was reeling. Everything about him, from the glimpse she'd caught of his face in the classroom to the way he was stalking down the hallways, was telling her that the lesson had been far worse for him than it had been for her. And she had watched a whole man get stabbed repeatedly. What horrors could Alex have seen? Or done? There had to be something she could do to help. Anything.
It took her far too long to realize there was another step in this. One that Alex had mentioned when she first noticed him in the doorway of the art room. He hadn't just tailed her after all. Not when he was trying to make sure she was okay. "Alex...?" Her voice was soft and it was hard to tell if he heard her. With the way he was continuing to his room, she was pretty sure the answer was not. "Alex?" Her voice was a little stronger, but not enough. That was fine. He hadn't abandoned her, so Ivy wasn't going to abandon him. That was what she told herself as she continued to follow him.
Where they were was completely lost on her. This was a part of the school that Ivy had never been to. With good reason, it wasn't like she ever needed to go down the hallway of the men's dorms. The way he stopped to fuss with a door though? That gave her everything she needed to act on the half baked plan she had come up with in the last few minutes to offer him any kind of comfort she could. Which was only kind of going against what he had asked her to do. She knew that even as her chest pressed into his back and her hands trailed up the front of his shirt.
"Alex, are you okay?" Her voice was hesitant, knowing he'd specifically asked her not to touch him without making sure he knew it was her. But she'd tried really hard and he hadn't turned to her. "I'm here for you." This was what she would find comforting if he did it to her, so maybe it would be better than nothing at least. Ivy could only hope it was as her lips pressed into the back of his clothed shoulder.
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hallway > alex's room ✞︎ alex ✞︎ outfit
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Posted: Mon Jan 20, 2025 3:23 pm
As quickly as it had begun it was over and Alex woke with a start on the floor where he had passed out mid escape attempt. He rose woodenly, his expression blank and empty, and stopped just short of dropping his bottom back into the chair. He wasn’t sure he really had it in him to sit back down and finish out the class period as if nothing had changed. As if nothing he had just experienced was real. It wasn’t… but it ******** was, and it was messing with him more than he wanted to admit. God, he needed a ******** it; he was having a smoke. Too bad he’d left his cancer sticks back in his room. Alex straightened his lanky frame and turned to leave the classroom. His body was going through the motions, but his mind wasn’t there. It was still on the battlefield, surrounded by the cries and moans of the dying, the harshly barked commands of the living, the shrieks, whistles, and pops of weaponry, and the acrid smoke and blistering heat of buildings set ablaze. He definitely wouldn’t be sleeping again tonight.
He knew what face was waiting for him when he closed his eyes. That phantom may not have been Cricket’s sister in any real sense, but she still wore his face. And he had put his hand over that face and poured his poison into it. He had done it for their survival, but how the hell was he supposed to cling to that justification in the light of day, back in the reality that housed Utopia? Was he ever really in any danger? Or had he killed that woman for nothing? Was she even alive to begin with? God, what if she was? What if the idea that they were nothing more than phantoms was just another of the twisted lies he told himself to get through one more day of killing people he didn’t know to save people they would never know?
Was it worth it? No… Alex struggled to believe it was, even if his goals hadn’t changed. But he still needed his position; he still needed to keep his allies sweet and his enemies few. It was the only way to protect his more vulnerable citizens. He had seen just how sick the underbelly of his duchy was, seen s**t that he would argue was way worse than anything he had done in the war. And the victims were just as innocent as any in Musique or anywhere else. But it still wasn’t right. He couldn’t keep trading innocent lives for innocent lives. There had to be a better way than that.
Alex turned the knob on his door, his eye fixed on it as though the world had narrowed down to just that one thing. He had not even realized he was being followed and he panicked as he felt pressure against his back and small hands on his chest. He started to turn and shove the intruding presence away before reason could catch up with instinct. No one who was trying to hurt him would grab him like that; he knew that. And sure enough it was just Ivy behind him, looking worried.
s**t, what kind of expression was he looking at her with right then? He could only imagine the haunted and guarded look that must be in his eye as he had whirled around, ready to fight. Alex closed his eyes, taking a deep breath as he did so. ”Sorry… Didn’t realize it was you.” he mumbled, his shoulders slumping. It was exhausting, keeping his guard up all of the time, but he didn’t even know how to ******** wuss; he should have been the one checking on Ivy, not the other way around. That s**t would have been a first for her. What if somebody hurt her in there? Would she even be able to defend herself if someone tried? He should have found her. He should have… ”Hey… Are you okay? That had to be rough.”
Alex opened his eyes again, not liking the images burned on the back of his eyelids. And Ivy was still there, still looking more worried about him. She hadn’t faded away like Arioso had; she was real. She was really here, looking at him with those expressive eyes. She shouldn’t worry about him; he tried to say as much but the words died on his lips. He was in a bad way. He’d pulled it together because he’d had Cricket to look after, but now? Now there was no danger, just regrets. Now the sun was shining on all of his inadequacies and insecurities. And Ivy was looking at him like she knew, somehow. Like she would wipe it away if she could.
Alex wrapped an arm around Ivy’s waist and pulled her to him, the fingers of his free hand threading through her hair as he leaned in to kiss her. It was hard and demanding, not at all as gentle as he thought Ivy deserved, and a part of him hated how selfish he was being. This wasn’t what Ivy was offering and he knew it. He knew this was wrong, all of the alarms were sounding off in his head, but it was like he couldn’t stop. He wanted to bury his memories down deep under the heat and passion of two bodies moving in tandem. He even thought that it might be better this way; Ivy could see the ugly side of what he really was. Maybe she would be better off if she got sick of his s**t and walked away before they got any closer. He wouldn’t stop her; he wasn’t a complete ******** monster. Just enough of one to try to lose himself in her, if only for a while.
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Posted: Mon Jan 20, 2025 9:12 pm
For a moment she was a stranger. When he turned the look on his face was wild, angry, but worst of all empty. The way he brought his hands up seemed to match as he seemed to be ready to push her away. Was that why he had wanted her to tell him she was the one touching him? Frowning, she couldn't help but think that she had tried. His head was so somewhere else that it had been impossible to get through to him. But now she had. Relief seemed to surge through Alex with the realization that it was just little old Ivy as his eyes closed and body relaxed into her touch. Shaking her head, she let her hands drift back to him and over his arms. "I know." It was a simple statement. The truth. One she offered him as her hands gently rubbed his biceps.
Now that he knew it was her, could she step back into him? Ivy wanted to. Desperately. But for once in her life, she wasn't sure if she could act on that familiar desire that coursed through her veins like blood and filled every fiber of her being. Not when something looked like it was flicking through his mind. She had just seen a real life war, but she was also watching another battle right now. This one was just silent, trapped in Alex's mind as he grappled with some unknown she couldn't hope to place. One that filled her with a new kind of worry. Could she really help him like this? Was she doing more harm than good? Social cues weren't exactly her strong suit and trying to navigate a situation this complex was starting to feel impossible.
A question! Finally, she could do that. "It wasn't good, but..." She trailed off, watching his eyes open and find her. A crease formed between her eyebrows from how hard she was wishing she could wipe whatever he experienced within class away. Like he was a canvas that she could dissolve the paint off of if she just applied enough turpentine. How she wanted to repaint the last hour for him with something happy and beautiful. He deserved those moments in the lake with the ducks. Moonlit garden strolls with tangled fingers. Nothing that could have caused the haunted way he was looking at her now.
The arm he threaded around her waist didn't clue her in to what he was doing. Nor did the fingers of his other hand threading through her hair. It wasn't until the rough press of his lips on hers did she truly understand what was happening. Then the hunger consumed her. If his kiss was harsh, hers was needy. Clumsy lips parted, sucking his bottom lip into her mouth in a desperate attempt to answer the first question she'd ever had about kissing him. The metal tang of his lip ring was welcome as her hands flew up his arms and around his neck only to claw greedily at his back and scalp in a desperate attempt to pull him in closer. The only two coherent thoughts formed in the moment. It didn't have the same coppery metallic taste that blood did. Nor was it cold.
Only when she realized she really, really needed to breath did she pull back from Alex. Not enough that she wasn't still pressed against him as if she wanted to find a way for them to become one person. Only enough that she wasn't trying to devour him. Even in the haze of desperate want the need to catch her breath had her resting her forehead to his. If he would give it to her she would bask in the warmth of his touch like a cat in the midday sun without a single question.
"More," The request was murmured so close to his mouth that her lips brushed his as she spoke. "Please. Touch me like you did in the lake." The memory of warm hands on her bare thighs was enough to make her heart race if it wasn't already. She wanted more of those soft touches. To give him those soft touches. Then maybe those soft touches could grow rough. The idea of it swirled in her head and made her giddy. All it took was the tiniest lift onto her toes to press another kiss to the corner of his mouth. "Please."
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hallway > alex's room ✞︎ alex ✞︎ outfit
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Posted: Thu Jan 23, 2025 1:55 pm
Having Ivy in his arms was like holding tight to a piece of heaven and Alex didn’t want to let go. Not that Ivy was trying to get away. She should have been, but she always managed to surprise him. Somewhere deep in the back of his skull, it all made sense though; who was there to even teach Ivy that what he was doing was wrong? That he was asking too much from her? If he was the man he wanted to be, he would be the one telling her that right now. Instead, her needy response encouraged him to take more, his tongue darting past her parted lips to taste her more deeply. Her nails bit at his skin and it was hard to even think of why he should be stopping any of this.
Ivy pulled away and even though Alex could use a ******** breath about as much as she could, he was still tempted to chase her lips again. But having his forehead pressed to hers, breathing the same air with their bodies having become one shared spot of warmth, was still like a balm to his soul after the s**t they’d been through. He should have come for her. He wondered what kind of horror show she was brushing off as just not good. He should be asking her, letting her talk if she needed it; he wasn’t the only one who went through that ******** mess.
But Ivy wasn’t done surprising him and the slowly building case for morality in his head crumbled to dust when she asked him for more. She brought his mind back to the lake, his hands on her soft thighs. He’d stopped himself then, made the case for morality and hadn’t taken advantage of a nice girl from a tower who just didn’t know any better than to let him put his hands all over her. He definitely ******** knew better, so why was he slipping his hands under her dress, caressing her thighs, cupping and squeezing her rear? Why was he kissing along her neck and shoulder like he just couldn’t keep his lips off of her? Because it felt so ******** good to do and it was so ******** easy to convince himself she wanted him to. She said the right words, just as hot and eager as if she’d done this a dozen times.
But she hadn’t. He knew that. He wasn’t even sure her boyfriend had actually touched her yet, though he was ******** crazy if he hadn’t.
”Ivy…” Alex began, his lips brushing against her shoulder. But what did he even plan to say? How did he get it across that as much as he wanted her, needed her, she should be wary of giving up any more than she already had? That was a lot to convey when he could barely think at all. Alex fretted at his lip ring with his teeth for a moment before reaching behind him to push open his door. The least he could do was get her out of the damned hallway; he wasn’t an animal.
Alex drew back enough to take Ivy by the hands before stepping backward into his room, leading her inside. Fortunately for him his floor wasn’t cluttered. Unfortunately for him, the place was definitely messy; he never made his bed, a few articles of clothing were tossed on it and a nearby chair, and his desk was a catch all of papers, coins, pencils, the cigs he had come searching for, and various other odds and ends. But the duke honestly didn’t care at that moment; he only had eyes for Ivy as he drew her close again, kissing her hungrily as his hands ran over her bodice. He wanted to yank it right off of her and free her generous endowment.
”Ivy, you know I want to touch you. I want to do a lot more than just that. You’re not ready… You gotta tell me to stop.” He wasn’t sure he could do it on his own. Already one hand was at her back, searching out the clasps that secured her dress. ”Tell me to stop. You don’t want this. I’ll hold you, I’ll touch you for hours, I’ll kiss you until we can’t breathe then I’ll ******** do it again. Just tell me that’s as far as it goes.”
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