interlude: our carefree lives | Glowfic Constellation

this_peculiar_power

Lee Tae-gun. Korea's first and, currently, only S-rank. There are A-rankers who could get the promotion to S-rank, if they wanted to, if they revealed enough of their powers—or, at least, there is one, in Kang Jaeha himself—but this flash in the pan boy was the first one to decide to just go for it and now he's probably learning about how much it sucks to be the center of attention.

Not that you'd know from just looking at him. He's always gorgeous, stepping out of dungeons, and that's genuinely impressive in itself, but it's even more impressive if Quasar is right that they might be compatible. This implies things about the shape of Lee Tae-gun's backlash, things that suggest he's quite good at self-control, and that he must be holding quite a lot in, to be able to look like that. So that piques Jaeha's curiosity, and he looks into the boy.

Lee Tae-gun is 21; manifested really late, about a year and a half ago; has had three partners so far, two A-ranks and one B-rank, each lasting a handful of months and ending in the normal way these things do, with two of them finding partners they're more compatible with and one stepping away from dungeoneering. As far as Jaeha can tell, there's nothing particularly out of the ordinary in the boy's history. He's really just very straightforwardly boring.

And, well, Jaeha is also between partners right now. The story with him is also usually the same: he's never found anyone he had great compatibility with, and they'd all eventually leave, even if they never found someone else. Better alone than with Kang Jaeha. But he doesn't take it personally. He knows they probably want more out of a partnership than he can give. This boy will be no different, they'll spend a while together and help each other survive and eventually the boy will move on and Jaeha won't take it personally either.

So Kang Jaeha is in a meeting room, reading some files and waiting for Lee Tae-gun to arrive so they can figure out whether they'll do business together or not.

Total: 1948

Posts Per Page:

‹ Previous 1 2 … 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 … 77 78 Next ›

« First ‹ Previous 53 of 78 Next › Last »

this_peculiar_power

...ah, right.

He stops.

He doesn't feel any hesitation to stop this time, which he feels reassured by. No internal resistance. He knows that this is how he gets to keep Tae-gun, is by actually doing it right, and it's one thing to forget to stop when he's been using it for an actual dungeon and it's a whole 'nother to keep doing it after he catches himself. And he did catch himself.

neither_rest_nor_peace

"...hyung?"

this_peculiar_power

Right, it's not the time to self-congratulate on his restraint, it's time to overstimulate Tae-gun. "Wrap your legs around me," he says, pulling Tae-gun up again.

neither_rest_nor_peace

He does, legs around Jaeha's waist and arms around his neck.

this_peculiar_power

So Jaeha can carry him to their bedroom and they can take care of their backlashes the usual way.

this_peculiar_power

"I slipped again earlier," Jaeha says when they're doing their ritual showering together.

neither_rest_nor_peace

this_peculiar_power

"Into using my passive power," he elaborates.

neither_rest_nor_peace

...oh.

this_peculiar_power

"I was using it to find the monsters with you, after we left the dungeon, and then when we got back I—forgot—to turn it back off while I waited for you outside. And then I remembered to do it once you got back home and I felt you orgasm in your pants."

neither_rest_nor_peace

neither_rest_nor_peace

...wait.

"Was that... all?"

this_peculiar_power

"Y—" Pause. "No. I also used an illusion on the team leader when she was trying to talk to me while we waited for you."

neither_rest_nor_peace

Blink. "Why?"

this_peculiar_power

"She was prodding for gossip. She wanted to see if she could get something on our backlashes, since it seems strange for you and I to have compatible ones. And I—wanted to distract her. So I used an illusion to prop up responses that wouldn't give her any information."

neither_rest_nor_peace

"And did you... need illusions for that?"

this_peculiar_power

He notices he's starting to feel defensive of his choices, which is an incredibly unproductive mindset. They're in this together, he's already committed to being someone who will deserve Tae-gun's love.

"No. But they're convenient, and useful, and I'm used to them, so I just use them without thinking."

neither_rest_nor_peace

"Did you lie or try to, I don't know, make her think something that isn't true in some other way...?"

this_peculiar_power

"No."

neither_rest_nor_peace

"Then I think that's not so bad." Really, in Tae-gun's opinion it's not bad at all, he's just worried about the backlash slippery slope. He guesses the empathy powers are kinda bad, but...

...wait, why are the empathy powers bad, exactly?

this_peculiar_power

Jaeha notices the hesitation. "Hmm?"

neither_rest_nor_peace

"It's nothing."

this_peculiar_power

He blinks owlishly.

(It's hard enough not to use his powers when people aren't actively subtexting him!)

neither_rest_nor_peace

"It's just, I think I..." Words. Come on, Lee Tae-gun, you can do those. This would be so much easier if he were backlashing. "People always say I'm easy to read. You and my other hyungs."

this_peculiar_power