That's good! That is very good.

Yes, it is.

And Raika-seren feels...

Having and declining the opportunity to become indestructible makes him very aware of how human and fragile he is. It's a nice feeling, scary in the good way, and oddly compelling. In a way similar to how being on trust songs makes him want Maitimo to do things that make use of his trust, this awareness makes him want Maitimo to do things that make use of his fragility.

If you want a bad day you know how to ask.

I know. I love you.

He's not sure if that is quite what he wants, though. He wants... he wants to be hurt and scared as a celebration of his ability to be hurt and scared. He wants it to be nice. He still looks forward to someday having a really bad day and getting as fucked up as possible, but he doesn't think he's ready for that right now. Right now he's still getting settled in his new expectations.

Feel like indulging my desire for friendly torture? he asks wryly.

I could probably be persuaded to give it a try.

I would appreciate that very much.

Raika-seren happily contemplates ways to make use of how easily injured he is. He suspects that if he gets the chance, he might end up with a thing for pain the way he's already starting to have a thing for fear. Which will be new and different and interesting.

Kiss. Teleport. Teleport that leaves Raika-seren's own clothes and eidetic memory necklace behind.

...he starts giggling. He can't help it. It's just so - perfect, he never thought of taking away his teleport necklace but in retrospect it's such an obvious thing to do, and he loves Maitimo so much, it's scary but only and exactly in the good way - he wouldn't have tried to escape anyway, even if he'd needed to, he wasn't getting anything out of having the option - it could have been awful if he were a different person but he is himself and it's perfect and Maitimo knew that because Maitimo pays attention and this is going to be so good.

Kiss - to be fair, I cheated -

Giggly shivery kiss.

I love how you cheat.

That's good. You did such a lovely job saving a species, it was marvelous, are you terribly sure that I will not be conditioning you to expect terrible pain as your reward for fantastic accomplishments? 

Awwwwwwww, now he is all proud and happy in addition to giggly and scared and happy.

I think whatever you're going to do to me will be an excellent reward for my fantastic accomplishments.

He kisses him again and puts a hand lightly on his throat to angle him better and then closes it - tightly - his Taliar is not indestructible -

It hurts and it makes him feel so small and fragile and vulnerable and scared and—it's a good feeling, incredibly good, it's like trust songs, like everything in the world is perfect, he's so happy—also kind of dizzy, but that's okay, Maitimo has him, everything is going to be okay...

He's really adorably easy to torture. He lets go when his Taliar seems on the verge of losing consciousness - that's no fun - and kisses him and pulls a feather from his wings, what does that feel like -

As Maitimo takes hold of the feather, Taliar wonders that too. He bets it'll hurt, but he has no point of reference for how much, he's never had feathers before—and then a bright flare of agony erases his train of thought.

He blinks, coming down from it - wow that was bad, 'worse than he expected' doesn't begin to cover it - but it's a rush, it's kind of amazing, the really bad part was over in about a second and now it's just a sharp lingering ache, no worse than a bad bruise although differently flavoured - he wonders what happens if something puts pressure on the place the feather was pulled from, and then immediately wishes he hadn't because the answer is almost certainly 'it hurts a whole fuck of a lot' and now he's terrified of finding out - but it's the good kind of terrified, all shivery and nice. He likes it. He likes it a lot. This was such a good idea and he is so happy.

He tries it.

It hurts a whole fuck of a lot!

Not quite as bad as having the feather pulled in the first place, but it's more sustained, which is worse—on the other hand, having it drawn out for longer means he has more time to notice that he's definitely starting to get a thing for pain... it still hurts, it's still aversive, but now there's this lovely little spark of pleasure to go with it.

Kiss. "Give me your soul -"

He grins. He shivers a little, because Maitimo is so wonderfully terrifying, but this is one thing he's not afraid of at all—he hands Maitimo his soul, and drowns in love and joy and trust and exactly the right kind of fear. This time around, the overwhelming intimacy of soul contact feels good and warm and safe, familiar, as close to comfortable as something so intense can really get.

Such progress. He kisses his insensate boyfriend and carries him off to bed.

His insensate boyfriend is very happy and loves him very much and trusts him unreservedly and is delightedly afraid of him and feels utterly at home with his soul in Maitimo's hands.

He is starting to get used to this. Eventually he will let go. He's singing when he does.

Maitimo singing is so lovely—what is this one, he doesn't recognize it—

—he can't move—

—he knows Maitimo wasn't holding his soul for that long...