It feels good to have him willingly lying still to be tortured. It feels good to have him terrified out of his mind and still utterly trusting. It feels good to have him at all, after everything. At times it even moves him to be affectionate, all this trusting obedience. 

Not right now, particularly.

He loves Maitimo so much. He is so afraid and in so much pain and he loves Maitimo so much, trusts him so much, he is here by choice, he could refuse and he doesn't, he won't, he holds still and he lets Maitimo torture him and he loves him so much.

I'm going to hurt you, he says, until when I ask you her name you cannot remember it.

Well that's fucking terrifying. He's not sure he's ever forgotten a name in his life.

I love you, he says. I trust you. Rescue me, my love.

It's a very strange sort of rescue, holding him and kissing him and then taking him to pieces and then waiting for him to collect himself enough to ask - who are you afraid of, darling, my Taliar -

Nahira— and she laughs in the back of his mind.

He picks up his soul. Puts it around his neck and under the collar of his shirt, so he can feel it all the time, arranges Taliar more comfortably, goes downstairs and back to work. For several sleepless days.

Luckily for Taliar, when his soul moves away, the healing aura stays with him.

He spends those several days caught in an unending storm of love, so grateful to Maitimo for this strange rescue, afraid of him and adoring him and able to think of nothing else, drowning gladly and gloriously in the sense of his presence. It goes on long enough that in fragmentary half-thoughts spun by the winds of emotion he manages to notice time passing, but he can't hold together enough coherence to wonder how much time.

There is a lot to do. When it's done he returns to Taliar and sleeps with Taliar's soul still around his neck. When he wakes he takes it off.

It takes him fifteen minutes to even start piecing his thoughts together. Another five before his senses all work properly. He remembers - he remembers holding still to be tortured, over and over again, he remembers loving Maitimo intensely for it...

I think I like leaving you insensate when I leave to go to work, I think I'll do that every time.

I love you, says Taliar.

Go get the daffodils.

And now he remembers what Maitimo was torturing him for. He freezes.

—need a minute, my love—

He has to get his head on straight before he tries to pick them up or he's going to fall apart in all the wrong ways.

He waits.

It feels... weirdly easy, pushing his mind into the right shape. Yes, he knows what's going to happen. Yes, it's utterly terrifying. And he can take it, he is strong enough, he's strong enough for anything, he is going to go and pick up the flowers and end up with a head full of a dead woman's rape threats and then his beautiful brilliant boyfriend is going to rescue him from them, and it will be awful and amazing and he will cooperate freely, because he wants to, because he chooses to, because he can.

He goes and picks up the daffodils, and the scent hits him and for a moment all he can see is Nahira's eyes, and he barely even pauses, just blinks a couple of times until he's back in the present moment enough to see where he's going and then carries the flowerpot right back to Maitimo.

Kiss. Cooperative. That's a better word for it than 'obedient', what you are, determined to make a gift of yourself, determined to make us on the same side...look at me, tell me her name -

He looks at Maitimo and grins, because yes, exactly, that's exactly what he's doing, putting them on the same side, making a gift of himself, cooperating, and he is so glad to have that recognized and appreciated, and he loves Maitimo so much, and—

—she laughs, in the back of his mind, and it scares him less than usual—

Nahira.

Healing aura, he murmurs before he starts hurting him.

The room floods with beautiful golden light again, and Taliar is very pretty and very, very cooperative. The name on his back glows blue whenever Maitimo touches it. He is helpless in Maitimo's hands because he wants to be, even when it's difficult, even when it's terrifying, even when it hurts.

It is adorable and he is at risk of being too overwhelmed with delight at Taliar to torture him properly. He sends this; it will probably be received well.

It makes him burst into giggles despite the fact that giggling is significantly more painful than usual at the moment.

Love you so much. Love you forever. My favourite thing to be scared by, my favourite person to be tortured by, beautiful, brilliant, terrifying, glorious, light of my soul, I love you, I love you, I love you.

What's her name -

There's a fraction of a second's delay before it springs into his mind, but—Nahira—

Then he can scream some more -