Archive of Our Own ^beta

Rook could remember an old book in her father's house with a strange tableau about Satinalia. It had strong contrasting colors against a background full of snow, with piles of gifts in improbable places. She could remember wondering how the snow didn't soak the gift paper. It was a scene that felt completely alien now, with rain pelting the window of a small apartment in Minrathous, except there was a gift in an improbable place - Rook, wrestling with an amount of wide satin ribbon she'd gotten herself wrapped in.

The city didn't have much to offer in the way of Feastday gifts at the moment, and even if it did, the small apartment she shared with Neve didn't offer much space for keeping them. But whatever Rook lacked in options and space she made up for in resourcefulness, and Bellara's inventive romances, and dressmakers keen to offload materials that weren't in high demand.

None of those things helped Rook conjure extra arms, and when it came time for her to wrap her almost-naked body in the ribbon, she made rather a mess of things. She got it around her thighs and hips well enough but somehow wrapping her chest and wrists ended with her arms bound behind her back. For a small mercy, when she inevitably lost her balance, she wound up falling sideways onto the bed in a decidedly unsexy fish-flop. This was where she was struggling when she heard the door open.

Rook froze. She knew the layout of the apartment like the back of the hand she couldn't see at the moment. She'd come through that door with Neve enough times to count down the seconds it took her to loosen her scarf and shrug out of her coat. And there, that was the sound of her fascinator going on top of the rack, that was the pause where she'd seen Rook's boots and knew to look for her in the bedroom - ah.

"Rook? Have you had dinner?"

And that was the bedroom door.

Neve had pushed it open with a hip, her hand digging through a takeout bag until her eyes fell on Rook, at which point she froze. A beat of silence passed before Neve carefully asked, "This is intentional?"

"To a degree," Rook replied.

"You aren't hurt?"

"Not physically."

"Well, it looks like you're tied up for now, so I'll come back later." Neve exited the room, pulling the door shut behind her. Rook rolled her eyes and counted the seconds before she heard the sound of full-belly laughter. When Neve entered the room again, she was wiping tears with the back of her hand.

"Absolute comedic genius, Miss Gallus. Is that any way to treat a Feastday gift?" Rook gave an indignant fish-wiggle, which only managed to tighten the ribbon around her wrists.

"Is that what I'm talking to?" Neve leaned against the door frame, pressing a fist against her mouth in an effort not to laugh again. The effort was admirable but ineffective and left a bit of her lipstick smudged onto her fist.

Rook tried to stop wiggling and instead rolled as much on her back as she could, hoping to make the swell of her chest an enticing display. Her arms made it a bit difficult. "Well, why don't you unwrap your gift and find out?"

Something she'd done was working, because Neve had a flush creeping up her neck even as she bit her lip against a grin, and her fingers were walking up to tug on her untied scarf. "I do love finding out," she chuckled. The scarf fluttered to the floor and her fingers began to work slowly on the buttons of her harness. "It's something of a pastime for me."

Rook would have given anything to be able to lie back and watch those clothes come off at the pace Neve was stripping.

But.

"Neve, sorry - my hands are getting a bit numb, could you just —"

Neve sprang forward immediately, rolling Rook onto her side and tugging at the ribbons around her wrists until Rook had enough give to shift them comfortably.

"That's good there, thanks," Rook wheezed as she began to curl her legs in to her chest.

"You don't want it off yet?" Neve's voice sounded almost hopeful as she stepped back to give Rook enough room for whatever she was doing now. Possibly 'hopeful' with a tinge of 'confused', but there was the sound of Neve's harness dropping to the floor, so Rook knew they were still in the game.

"Not yet," Rook said. With a slightly more dignified wiggle, she managed to work her hands down around her rear and her feet and to the front of her body. This was an impressive bit of manuevering that younger Shadow Dragons liked to practice, on the off-chance a Venatori captor would leave them concious and with loose-enough restraints behind the back and enough time to — well, anyway, it was impressive, which made Neve's renewed laughter very undeserved indeed.

"Maker," Neve wheezed. She put her knees to the edge of the mattress and Rook grinned.

"The Maker can't save you from this!" Rook rolled up to bring her bound hands around the back of Neve's neck and press their lips together, taking Neve with her as she rolled back down again.

Neve yelped into the kiss - it was a miracle neither of them bit a lip - before gripping Rook's shoulders and shifting to straddle her hips. She felt a pressure between her thighs as she settled, and gave a short huff of disbelief.

"Oh, you've really done the most here, Trouble."

"Only get so many Feastdays," Rook replied with a grin, lifting her bound hands together to undo the buttons of Neve's blouse. Neve leaned back just long enough to work her prosthetic off and shrug the blouse to the floor. After seating herself back carefully on Rook's hips she leaned forward, almost low enough to brush the tips of their noses together.

"You are completely correct," Neve murmured. With one hand she took Rook's bound wrists and pinned them to the mattress above her head. With her other hand she gripped Rook's jaw, squishing her face enough to bring her lips into an amusing pucker. "So I am going to make the most of this one —"

She pressed a soft kiss to the squished mouth.

"—and I am going to make sure my gift enjoys herself until this whole building knows my name."

Neve leaned down to plant another kiss, but there was a new frown on Rook's face, and that made her pause. "What's wrong?"

"I tink dey already do?" Rook's reply was slightly distorted by her still-squished face.

"Do what?"

"Know your name. Pretty sure the whole block does."

Neve gave a snort. "Why are you like this?" She released her grip on Rook and sat up enough to work off her bottoms.

"Why do you like it?" Rook countered with a laugh, lifting her hips so that Neve had room to tug the lower ribbon down her legs and get access to source of the pressure she'd felt - a false cock secured to Rook's hips with leather straps. Rook stretched her bound hands back above her head, looking clearly pleased with herself. Neve shifted forward slowly, slow enough that Rook had time to rake her eyes down the length of her newly-bare body, but rather than straddling her hips again Neve tugged them more firmly onto the mattress and started pressing kisses inside a thigh.

"Thought you wanted to ride me until the neighbors learned your name again." Rook was twisting fingers into the sheets. Those hadn't been the exact words, but Neve shrugged.

"It's penciled in. Let me try something first," she murmured, sliding two fingers along a strap until they brushed the top of Rook's thigh. The other hand gripped the base of the cock strapped to her lover's hips and Neve brought it toward her mouth, letting her tongue trace the tip.

"Be my guest." Rook did her best to make it sound casual, but it came out in a croak.

Neve brought the roving fingers up the inside of Rook's thigh and carefully slipped them inside the harness, shifting them until they brushed against Rook's clit. The unexpected touch sent a jolt through the base of Rook's spine and her hips jerked, but Neve kept the contact, lowering her mouth over the tip of the cock again as she began to move the fingers inside the harness in deliberate circles.

It was a slow pace at first, as Neve worked to keep the movements of her fingers roughly in time with the motion of her head as she moved it up and down on the cock. Rook couldn't tear her eyes away, and a part of her was sure that she could've come from the sight alone - and the sound. Maker, but the sound of the cock moving in and out of her mouth was obscene, Rook thought as she let her unbound legs fall open as wide as they could.

"…was supposed to be your present," Rook struggled out eventually, when she could feel her peak too close to stop even if Neve tried to tease by pulling back her fingers. Mercifully, she did the opposite, moving them in faster circles. Her other hand stroked up the cock as she pulled her head back.

"I've always been good to my toys," Neve replied in a low voice, and her lips were just slightly swollen and her eyes were hooded and as Rook's climax took her sure and shaking she conceeded that she had lost control of this scenario the moment she paid for the ribbon. Even as she stilled, Neve's fingers kept moving over her sensitive clit, and faster than she cared to admit Rook was whimpering through a second peak.

"Okay, okay, I can't take that again right now," Rook wheezed, bringing her bound hands up to try to coax Neve's away, but Neve was faster, moving the hand out of the harness to grip Rook by the wrists and pin her arms back above her head. They locked eyes, and Rook felt her throat move in an involuntary swallow as Neve finally shifted to sit above her hips.

"If that's the case, I guess I'll just have to take you." Neve didn't wait for a reply as she stroked the tip of the cock in slow passes along her labia. Even without putting her own hands on her, Rook could see how smoothly the toy moved, could see the slick already coating the top.

"So what I'm learning here —" Rook paused as Neve's body gave a small jolt from the tip of the cock sliding over her clit. "—what I'm learning here is that you love seeing me tied up and vulnerable." She squeezed her thighs together, trying to feel a bit of pressure in spite of her earlier protest.

Neve gave a small gasp as the tip of the toy finally slipped inside her. She waited there for just a moment before letting her weight pull her down, pressing her fingertips into Rook's chest as the length slid in up to the hilt. When she was fully seated on Rook's hips, she leaned forward and stroked warm fingers along her jaw, this time taking it in a grip that was much more gentle and looking down into Rook's face with a tenderness that was fit to make her chest burst.

"What I love," Neve managed as she began to roll her hips, "Is the hundred ways you manage to make me laugh." The hand on Rook's jaw slid up her arms to hold the bound wrists, bringing Neve to an angle that clearly did something for her. Her hips rolled a bit faster and she bit her bottom lip against a whimper.

Rook grinned, her face flushed and drowsy. "I love that too." She shifted her hands just enough to lace fingers in Neve's. "I love the way you laugh." She was bringing her hips up to meet Neve's without thought, without room in her head to even form a thought except for the sight of the woman above her and the sound of the rain on the window. "I love you." This wasn't a novel declaration, but Rook still felt her face and shoulders heat as it tumbled out of her mouth.

Neve let out a rough laugh that had the edge of another whimper. She brought both of her hands to grip Rook's hips as the motion of her own reached a pace of desperation, and any reply she could have made was lost to a series of staccato gasps as she lowered her forehead to rest against Rook's. She finally tumbled over her own edge with a soft cry that was swallowed into a kiss as Rook brought arms around her neck once again and held her there as she came down from her pleasure, pulling several deep breaths in through her nose.

A few more moments passed there before Neve shifted to pull herself off Rook's hips, biting her lip as the toy slid out of her. She stretched out alongside Rook, arms shaking slightly as she pulled pillows under both their heads, hands a bit clammy as they found Rook's and tugged the last bit of ribbon off her wrists.

"It's not a waste if the dressmaker was probably going to have to toss it out anyway, right?" Rook's voice was a still a slight croak as she worked the harness off her hips and kicked the whole thing to the floor. She was bone-tired, suddenly.

Neve took her wrists as she lay back down and began massaging the red marks left by her struggle with the ribbon. "We can put it out for birds. They deserve some fancy Feastday nests."

"Is that a good idea? I had enough trouble with it, and I have thumbs and brain larger than a walnut."

Neve's reply was a tired snort, but her face melted into an exhausted and tender smile. "If they aren't trying to seduce anyone, I think they'll be fine."

Rook's brain was suddenly running at least three scenarios about bird feelings, but when she opened her mouth, Neve abandoned her ministrations to press fingertips over her lips.

"I love you. Go to sleep."

"Mrmrmrg."

"Translate that when you wake up."