TW: smut, tentacles, aphrodisiacs, dubious consent turning into consent

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As if hit by a wave, Seonghwa was pressed to the ground by the writhing mass. Since it had yet to adjust to its freedom, it unfurled with flailing limbs. One thing, however, its mind was set on. Which was grasping Seonghwa's limbs to cling to his skin with enthusiastic suckers.

Confused by what he was dealing with and if this could be counted as an attack, Seonghwa tried to wrestle himself free. He didn't want to hurt Hongjoong's pet that might just be as curious to get to know him as Buddy. Yet, the longer he attempted for compliance and calming the agitated being, the worse his gut feeling got. He couldn't free his hands and it had no voice to share its interests.

Seonghwa got the sinking feeling this otherworldly horror wasn't too fond of strangers.

"Wait," he gasped when it dragged itself closer, a slithering, convulsing mass of tentacles and oozing skin. It touched his thighs and waist, curious about this person who wasn't its master. It made no move to eat him, but it also didn't let go of his wrists.

"I am with Hongjoong, you need not fear me," Seonghwa tried. He squirmed in his spot, but it was as if the monster sucked his energy through his skin. Every motion was sluggish, and his body felt feverish.

Unaware of how to address the faceless thing holding him, Seonghwa allowed it to skim his shoulders and hair with slimy tentacles, waiting for it to lose its interest and crawl back inside the jaw.

Instead, the opposite happened.

Seonghwa yelped when he was lifted into the air, his sound stifled by the magic encasing these walls. Despite their squishy texture, the tentacles raising him were strong, and they held him when he writhed in their grip.

"Let me down! I have done nothing but free you. Shouldn't you be grateful?"

Seonghwa froze when another tentacle touched his leg, slithering up its length. It shoved up the skirt of his dress, eager to find what was underneath and, at once, the pieces connected behind Seonghwa's eyes.

Why Hongjoong had such a creature and why it stood near his bed. Why, of all things, its first reaction was to mount someone and pin their body.

This was a being of pleasure.

"H-Hey, slow down. I didn't free you to demand anything from you. I was curious," Seonghwa stuttered. His blush filled the tips of his ears when he willed away all thoughts about Hongjoong and this creature together. Despite its freakish appearance, it was well thought-out. The tentacles were neither too soft nor too hard and the suckers recreated the sensation of kisses. Its natural slime eased the slide up Seonghwa's thighs and the rounded tips were harmless in their grip.

When it touched Seonghwa through his undergarments, the elf squawked. He couldn't tell whether adrenaline aroused him or if the sap clinging to his skin was an aphrodisiac. Either way, this looked bad. The creature smelled his desire and crowded closer. Motivated to grasp Seonghwa with more tentacles to slip under his collar and squeeze his waist.

"Wait-" Seonghwa ended with a moan when the creature wrapped a flexible tentacle around him. His hips jerked on instinct and mortifying guilt filled his mind.

He didn't want to abuse this being for sex, even less so since it was private to Hongjoong. No matter if this was the purpose of its design and existence.

Seonghwa bit his lip, withholding his sounds. He tried to win by sheer willpower, but he hung in the air, unable to crawl away and spread open for the creature to ravage him. Its suckers on his nipples weakened his defence, and when another one of those tentacles wetly slicked across his entrance, his struggling dissipated.

"Don't do this," Seonghwa breathed, needing to remind himself of his conscience. Heat surged through his veins and the sweet scent the creature emitted magnified his desire. His body gave easily, still soft from the time spent with Yunho, and Seonghwa's back arched when he was breached by the slippery appendage.

"N-No," he protested, but his hips rolled on their own accord, inviting the tentacle to slide deeper. He shuddered when it curled inside of him, wriggling in euphoria.

The creature knew what it was doing. It was perfect at its probing, finding spots that made Seonghwa's eyes roll back in his head. He panted, heated and delirious in that grip as the creature ravaged him under his dress.

Yet another half-hearted pull on his arms drowned in the sound of the door opening. Seonghwa froze, body locking up when he was plain out in the open for anyone to see. The creature continued, undeterred, easing Seonghwa's body open and waning his caution.

Of course, it was Hongjoong who entered. And he stopped dead in his tracks when he laid eyes on his husband.

"Hongjoong," Seonghwa called. Tears of humiliation clouded his eyes. He was glad Hongjoong found him and not one of the other mages, but this situation was disgraceful. Tentacles moved under Seonghwa's dress to debauch him, and he hung in their grip with flushed cheeks and his arousal straining against the silk of his garments.

Hongjoong didn't need to glance at the jar to know what happened. Before Seonghwa could ask for help, he leaned the cane against the wall next to the door and sunk his shoulder against its frame. His eyes drank up the sight of Seonghwa suspended in the air and writhing when the tentacles entered him deep to make his sight waver.

"What a striking sight," he commented. Seonghwa shuddered at the sound of his voice. The tentacles vibrated in glee, pumping into Seonghwa with more motivation. His heavy head rolled back, lips clamping shut to hold back his embarrassing sounds.

"Please, help," he gasped, eyes teary at how good he felt. The creature read what he liked off his reactions and countered with scary accuracy. Soon, Seonghwa felt the tentacle wrapped around his hardness pulse in tandem with him from how much he strained against it.

"Help?" Hongjoong echoed. "Why would I? I'm enjoying the view." His sadistic smile persisted as his eyes raked over Seonghwa and the long legs exposed in float.

Gasping back another moan, Seonghwa tried to close his thighs when another tentacle teased at his rim. It would bring the fullness he craved, but the one inside already turned his mind into mush with its flexibility. He wouldn't last.

When it slipped inside, Seonghwa threw his head back. His hair unravelled from the sticky touches and he hung there, strung up elegantly for the tentacles to spread him apart, have him, own him. Tears of humiliation gathered once more when such a fiend of all things got to relish his pure body.

"Hongjoong-"

"We told you not once, but twice, not to touch anything. This is punishment for not listening."

Pleasure clouded Seonghwa's indignation.

"I didn't know that also accounted for your room! I thought it was safe!" His eyes rolled back when the creature jabbed at his spot, almost as if in retaliation. Seonghwa keened, feeling the dribbles of his desire on the slick of the tentacle engulfing him.

He found the wits for one last observation and worded it before Hongjoong could reply or he lost his mind.

"Hongjoong, this... individual. Its purpose is of sexual nature, but the role it takes... You have it to hold you?"

Hongjoong's satisfied smirk fell. With a flick of his wrist, the creature retreated. It lowered Seonghwa to the ground and slithered from him, parting from his heat last, as if mourning it. Seonghwa lay in the pool of slick, panting as the aphrodisiacs continued to course through his blood.

With a click, Hongjoong's heels halted next to him before he bent to Seonghwa's level. His eyes sought those of the elf, finding too much sense behind the glassy amethysts to brush it off. Sighing, he sat on his haunches.

"It explained itself, didn't it? This friend of mine... It exposed my hidden side."

"The hidden side where you want to be held?"

"It's not that easy," Hongjoong chuckled. His fingers skimmed through Seonghwa's hair, carding through the knotted strands to disentangle the mess.

"You've seen how I need to uphold a farce. Those who don't get devoured. There is no such thing as allowing another to see you during a time of weakness."

Now Seonghwa sobered quickly. He watched Hongjoong from below and his heart ached at his forlorn expression.

"You had no one to cherish you?"

Hongjoong's shrug was lonely.

"It's not as if there were no people who struck my fancy. But this was safer. It meant I was in control. The bliss is the same."

It was not the same, and they both knew. The tentacled creature was a desolate call for affection he couldn't get elsewhere.

"They are too strict with you. Learning and earning a rank are wonderful things, but not if you can't find your peace outside that."

"It's nothing you need to concern yourself with, Damiana. I will bring my friend to the Moon Castle, but I will seal him so none of the others repeats your mistake. Let him be my secret, as I will keep what I just saw a secret," he suggested with a pained smile.

Before he could get up, Seonghwa caught his wrist.

"I could hold you," he said, voice unwavering as he stared at Hongjoong. After a beat, his gaze softened. "That's what I'm here for. No one says we have to do it one way or the other. And if you don't trust me, then... Let's leave it at what you said."

Hongjoong gulped. His eyes slid down Seonghwa's body, the dented silk and the wild locks. When he came back up, his eyes lingered on Seonghwa's lips.

"I don't know if I can give up control," he whispered. A scared confession; the disclosure of one afraid to hurt because he had no confidence.

Seonghwa embraced him.

"If you so wish, your control is safe with me. I won't do anything you don't like and if you need time to get used to it, restrain me in any way you need. But I would like to fulfil your wish. And to see you fall apart in trust."

A blush had Hongjoong duck his head. He scratched his nape as he reconsidered, but then he nodded.

"Alright, let's try. You are pent up, and we have been with each other, so I know what to expect." When he held out his hand, Seonghwa stood with him. The moment he regained his height over Hongjoong, he cradled the sorcerer's chin to kiss him. As Hongjoong sighed into his mouth and moulded his body into Seonghwa's, he flinched at the press of his arousal. After a moment, he relaxed and slipped his fingers to palm over it.

"Is this fine?" Seonghwa muttered, gentle in his approach, as Hongjoong could spring away or shackle him with light any second.

"Yes... Yes. Here, come with me." Hongjoong sunk into the sheets first, but he pulled Seonghwa above him. As soon as the elf's arms framed his face to kiss him, Hongjoong sighed in bliss. He was pinned as he wished to be, but it was the lively body of a person instead of his tentacled invention.

"Since when were you hard?" Seonghwa asked as he nibbled on Hongjoong's lobe and ground their hips together. Hongjoong's gasp was music to his ears.

"Since I saw you getting taken by those tentacles. I can call him back."

Seonghwa was about to refuse when he considered Hongjoong's nervous expression. Then, he nodded.

"I like him."

"Me too," Hongjoong livened up with a grin. They kissed while Seonghwa helped him out of his clothes. When he felt the touch of tentacles on his skin this time, he wasn't afraid. The creature moved as Hongjoong's magic taught it to. A few moments later, Seonghwa moaned against Hongjoong's naked chest as he was filled again. His helpless rutting against Hongjoong's hip made the sorcerer coo.

"Here. Come in." He lowered a hand between their bodies and exposed his entrance to Seonghwa. When one leg hooked around his back to tug him in, Seonghwa's breath stuttered.

"What about preparing you?"

Endeared, Hongjoong flicked Seonghwa's earring.

"Mage, remember? By body shapes at my will."

Befuddled but in awe, Seonghwa complied. He was wet from the tentacle slick and when he pressed against Hongjoong's rim; he dipped right in.

When he let go of a surprised breath, Hongjoong preened in pride.

"I wish I could do that," Seonghwa muttered as he sunk deeper. Hongjoong was tight around him despite their ease, and Seonghwa wanted to thrust right in to match the movement inside him. But he stayed patient, got Hongjoong used to the feeling of having a person above him.

"I can arrange for that," Hongjoong muttered before he dug his teeth into Seonghwa's lobe. "Keep you open and wet for anyone to bend over as they please. Next time Wooyoung opens his big mouth, I could wreck you right there on the dinner table in front of them."

Seonghwa's hips kicked on their own accord. He scrambled for an apology, but Hongjoong chuckled.

"Come on. Show me what you can do."

Aided by the tentacles, Seonghwa did. He buried deep, at ease since he knew Hongjoong wouldn't hurt. Though his thrusts were guided by the creature and the aphrodisiac clouded their minds, he enjoyed how sensitive Hongjoong was simply because Seonghwa was a person. He raked his fingernails down Seonghwa's back and sighed into his ear, pretty lips falling open when whimpers got stuck in his throat. Precious and ever so trusting, he fell apart for Seonghwa and laid his heart bare for him to take.

Seonghwa sealed their bond with a kiss. As they rolled through the sheets until late at night and long after Hongjoong sent the creature back into its jar, Seonghwa showed Hongjoong how he could trust in him. How Seonghwa would never take away his position or his power.

And as they discovered this new, vulnerable side of him, Hongjoong's heart thumped against his ribcage in response to his stunning elven lover.