Slight Hiccup
Tyler Curiel had his fork mid-way to his mouth when he heard it.
A quick gasp and then...
Hiccup.
His head popped up, censure creasing his face as he stared at the bowed head of his dinner companion. Aeith Io sat across from him, not looking at him as he silently savored his soup. But no matter what they did, neither of them could ignore the tiny choking sounds coming from the other table.
Ty lay his fork on his plate. “Really, Aeith, here?”
The other man just shrugged, the outline of his shoulder looking more defined than it had a moment ago. “What? Would you rather I disappear mid-date?”
Ty’s lips thinned as he looked at the almost translucent man across from him. Not man. Not really. Sylph. An air elemental. Ty could watch every spoonful of soup travel through the sylph’s body, across his tongue, down his throat, and pooling in his belly. But, as the restaurant patron hiccupped behind them, it became harder to see through the sylph as the unknown man’s breath fed Aeith more than the meal in his bowl, making his spirit-like form more solid.
Aeith blinked up at Ty, his blue eyes suddenly wide and vibrant, especially against his sheer skin. “What’s the big deal?”
“You’re stealing his breath!”
Aeith lifted a disinterested shoulder. “Just a little.”
Ty leaned in over the table, trying to keep his voice a low hiss. “This is a restaurant.” A nice one. “He could choke.” And wouldn’t that just make for a memorable date night? This was the first time they’d been able to get together in more than six weeks and Aeith was pulling this kind of crap; what was wrong with him? This was not how he’d planned for the night to go.
“He’s fine.” The sound of that sylph slurping his soup grated on Ty. “It’s just the hiccups.” It was so rude, the way he sucked in the savory liquid and stolen breath in a long, loud inhale. “Hardly anything at all.” He picked up his napkin and patted the corners of his mouth, his fingers distinct and tangible. “I’m barely taking enough to stay corporeal.”
But he was taking it all the same. “Could you just not do it here?”
“Why not?”
Ty huffed. “Or at least take it from me.”
“Why?”
Ty’s fists clenched. “It’s rude to do it to strangers.” Strangers who had no say or control over it, who likely had no idea what was even happening. At least, if it was Ty, he would know what was going on and would be benefiting from it too.
Aeith rolled his eyes. “You really want to be hiccupping throughout the whole meal?” He harrumphed. “This is the first time we’ve seen each other in more than a month and you want to spend the entire time having a broken conversation?”
“I don’t want to.” He didn’t like having the hiccups any more than anyone else, but it was better than subjecting some poor stranger to it. “I wish you wouldn’t do it at all.”
Aeith pouted, his now full bottom lip jutting out. “Well, I wouldn’t have to, if we saw each other more than once every couple of months.”
Ty pursed his lips together. He knew that. They’d had that conversation a million times. But they lived far apart and both worked a lot. It was hard to find time to get together.
And…
“Fine.”
Aeith was only doing this for him. Ty could hear it in his voice, the reluctantly patronizing capitulation clear and aggravating. Ty could practically hear the fight they’d have later in the hotel echo in that single, salty word.
The man behind them took one more gasp, strong yet suddenly easier, before a beat of silence. A little awkward laughter tittered, easing into conversation behind them again.
Ty picked up his fork, sighing. “Thank you.”
Without looking up, Aeith brought his spoon to his mouth, the color and shape of his hand draining as he moved, and slurped.
* * *
Aeith cringed when Ty slammed the door behind him, the gust of air like a slap to the face. Well, great. Wasn’t that just great?
Aeith sighed. Humans, man, he just didn’t get them. As intemperate and unpredictable as they thought the wind was, they were worse. Aeith knew the wind. It was understandable, affected by the position and intensity of pressure systems and how they interacted with each other and the altitude and the world around them. Figure out the factors and it all made sense; it just flowed. It was natural. Rational.
But Ty. Aeith couldn’t figure him out, not even if he had every factor and knew every system. Ty never moved or acted or thought in rational, natural patterns.
It was half why Aeith liked him. The mystery of it all. The whirlwind, he guessed. The way Ty could sweep him off his feet and whip up all kinds of feelings inside him.
It made him feel out of control and he loved it.
And he hated it.
Because how did you live like that? Love like that?
He winced again when he heard Ty stomp into the bathroom, the muffled impact of his feet ruffling the carpet, and twist the faucet. The sound of screeching metal fixtures and rushing water filled the hotel room. Aeith sighed and sat down on the bed. Well, tonight was going great!
Closing his eyes, Aeith kicked up his legs and laid down on the bed. He could already feel himself start to fade. He could feel the current from the air conditioner, pulling and pushing at him, more strongly than the bed beneath him. He lifted an arm to his face and looked right through it, seeing the barest outline of the limb before he let it fall over his eyes.
He didn’t even turn when he heard — felt — Ty open the door. “You’re still here?”
Where would he go? His opened eyes stared at the ceiling fan whirring above him through his forearm. “As much as I can be.”
He could hear Ty’s feet shuffle on the bathroom’s tile, feel the shift of it in the air. “I’m sorry.” He coughed, the harsh puff of air hitting Aeith hard. “About all that at the restaurant.”
Aeith wanted to laugh. “Are you? Really? Or do you just not want to fight right now?”
There was a still, expectant pause. “Do you want to fight?”
Did he? “Kinda.” He sat up, practically floating upright, his weightless body not even making a dent in the duvet. “I don’t get what got you so upset in the first place.” Ty knew what Aeith was, knew how he lived.
He was a sylph. A Breath Thief. An elemental brought to being by the literal breath of life. The way he saw it, the air — any air, from the thinnest mountain breeze to the garlic-scented hiccup of some diner who really should brush more often — was more his kind’s than anyone else’s. And it wasn’t as if he ever took more than he needed. Barely took even that.
He shook his head. “It was just hiccups.” A nuisance for them. An uncomfortable nothing. But, for Aeith, it meant that he could sit across from his boyfriend and have a nice meal. Like a real couple. Be out in public. Be seen and heard and felt. Like a real person.
Hell, he hadn’t even been able to finish his dinner! Without the pasta-eating patron’s breath, his fingers had faded too much to pick up the spoon by the end of the meal. It’d taken everything he had to stay visible and stationary at the table. To not completely fade and float away.
It was taking effort now.
“Just do it already.”
Aeith looked at Ty. “Do what?”
“Steal my breath.” He took a deep breath before letting it out resignedly. “You need it; I can barely see you. So just do it.”
Just do it.
Aeith winced. “Is it that terrible?” Ty never seemed to mind before. Had seemed, in fact, to enjoy it. But, the way he talked about it now… he made it sound like such a burden. Aeith never wanted to be a burden, some chore or obligation weighing on Ty.
Just do it.
Well, how could he now?
Aeith let go. Let the room’s stale, artificially circulated air take him, disappearing and dispersing within it. He let his voice be all that was left of him. “Maybe we should just call it a night.”
“Aeith!” Ty bristled. “You’re going to go?”
He should. It’d be for the best.
“Of course you are!” Ty stomped around the room, waving his arms, trying to disrupt the air in the room as much as possible. “That’s what you’re good at. Fading away. Flying off to who-knows-where, instead of just dealing with the hard stuff.”
Aeith stubbornly stilled, holding himself heavy as Ty’s words washed over him. That wasn’t fair. Aeith always figured it was better, smarter, easier, to rise above his troubles. To let them sink down to the ground, where he couldn’t be dragged down by them.
From the ceiling, he looked down at Ty, who was still thrashing about the room like a wild thing. Was Ty trouble? Would Aeith really be better off leaving him behind?
Did he want to?
He didn’t know. But he didn’t want to leave things like this. So he let out his last breath, letting it carry his voice. “Do you really want me to do it?” To take his breath.
Ty stopped and stilled, looking up at a random spot on the ceiling. “I told you you could.”
Which wasn’t the same as wanting him to. Aeith felt the difference distinctly. But, welcome or not, wanted or not, what else could he do? So, even though permission wasn’t quite the same as approval, Aeith inhaled.
* * *
Ty felt it the moment Aeith did it. He felt the other man draw in air as if he’d reached deep inside Ty’s chest and sucked it from his lungs. It didn’t hurt. Not really. It was just sudden and unshakable, like his body — no longer his for the span of the long breath — was being taken over. Ty’s back arched and his knees wobbled at the shock of it.
He shouldn’t have been shocked.
He’d talked to Ty about this before. Done this to Ty before. Aeith was a sylph. A Dawn Taker, a Last Gasp.
With a bellowed gulp, Ty shook his head as breath surged back into his lungs. That wasn’t fair. Ty knew that sylphs had long since stopped the practice — as a widely accepted one, at least — of siphoning air from sleeping dreamers, who were less likely to notice the theft than during waking hours, because it was just far too easy to get lost in the act. A sylph could sit atop a dreamer and breathe them so deeply, as they lay helplessly unconscious beneath them, that the dreamer died, smothered under the weight of all their lost breath.
Aeith had never done something like that. Would never.
Ty was sure.
Mostly.
He looked at Aeith now standing, still mostly see-through, in front of him. He wasn’t looking at Ty. Instead, he was staring at his hands, turning them over and over, even though they were little more than a vague outline. “Is it so awful?”
Ty paused. “Is what?” He knew what.
“You know.” Aeith shrugged. “Me.”
Closing his eyes, Ty let out a noncommittal huff.
But he looked up when he heard Aeith make a choked sound. “It is.” The words were a barely audible whisper. Aeith looked up from his hands, meeting Ty’s gaze. I am. Ty could read the thought, the fear, in Aeith’s eyes.
“No.” It wasn’t. He wasn’t. It’s just...
“Don’t lie to me.” He stumbled back, his unsubstantial feet not even disturbing the carpet’s shag. He shook his head. “Stop lying to me.”
“I’m not lying.”
Aeith kept backing away, his breathing becoming shallow and fast. Ty felt it like quick, relentless drags on his lungs. “If you’re not now, then you have been.” He clutched at his chest. Or would have, if his fist hadn’t sunk in — punched through his ghost-like body — where his heart would be. “We’ve been together for over a year now. We’ve been together dozens of times.” He shook his head. “Was it all a lie?”
“No.” Ty shut his eyes and reached back to lean on the hotel’s desk, his head feeling light. “No.” God, he didn’t know. It was so hard to think around Aeith. He held his suddenly too-light head, the dizziness making him mentally swim in that liminal space that could as easily tip into breathless euphoria as an aching migraine. He forced himself to take a deep, slow breath. Then another one. Then one more.
He looked up at Aeith, who stared back at him, his clear blue eyes wide and worried. Deliberately, Ty inhaled through his nose before puffing it out through his mouth. He watched as Aeith’s chest swelled with his breath. But, instead of releasing it, Aeith’s body just held it, transmuting air into matter as it added sky blue color to his skin.
Ty smiled. God, Aeith was beautiful. An ethereal being, he should have been untouchable. And he could be. Often moody and aloof, Aeith often liked to live with a flair of drama. He often used it as a way to hold himself apart from it all, as if he were — wherever he was, whatever state he was in — looking down on it all. He liked to flit around the world on his terms, slipping and sliding through it. With a heart of a true thief, he took whatever he liked without ever letting anything or anyone catch or keep him.
Ty wanted to think that he was an exception. That he was the exception. He liked the idea that he held a part of Aeith that no one else did, that no one else could. And, when watching Aeith breathe him in, take Ty’s breath into him and let it make him tangible — touchable — it was easy to let himself believe that. Believe that he was special.
But was he?
“Sometimes being with you scares me.”
The resigned pain in Aeith’s eyes hurt to look at. Sadly, his gaze dropped to the floor. “I would never hurt you.”
Ty knew that. He shook his head. “I’m not scared of that.” He probably should be, but he wasn’t. Aeith would never intentionally harm anyone, much less him.
But even the best intentions couldn’t protect either of them from everything. “When it’s just the two of us, I’m never nervous. When it’s just us, it’s just us.” And it was amazing, perfect. When they were alone, it was so easy to let Aeith become his whole world. To just give over and trust that Aeith would take care of him. When there was no one but them, Ty could let Aeith sweep him up and away into a whirlwind of sensation. Of, yes, anxious fear but also thrilling pleasure. When they were together, there was more than enough to think and feel that there wasn’t space for worries or doubts.
But add anyone else to the equation and everything changed.
Like in the restaurant. Ty shook his head. “But then I see you with other people. How you see them, treat them.” Like they were nothing more than a means to an end. Walking air tanks to be tapped at his convenience. How could that not change, taint, the way he felt Aeith thought of him? How did that not put everything they’ve done — everything they were — together in a different context? How did he not just see himself as Aeith’s favorite tap? “You never ask people before you take from them. You never even seem to care who they are.” Neither Aeith nor Ty had even turned their heads at the restaurant to see who the man hiccupping was.
Personally, Ty hadn’t wanted to know how old the man was, if he looked healthy or not, if he was there with his partner or family or friends. Ty had deliberately not wanted to know — if, God forbid, something had gone wrong — anything about who this man, whose life was unwittingly and unwillingly in Aeith’s hands, was. It was an intentional, self-shielding choice. Because he didn’t think he could handle the heavy anxiety or guilt otherwise.
But what about Aeith? Did he think about that kind of thing? Did he even care? “Do you ever think about the people you take from?”
* * *
This was why Aeith didn’t usually date humans! They just didn’t get it. He was a being of breath; it literally gave him life. Without it, he became little more than semi-sentient, almost-aware air. Aeith didn’t ask Ty if he ever thought about the cow his steak tonight had been. And that cow had had to die to feed Ty; at least, the people he took from didn’t die.
It was just hiccups!
Aeith wanted to scream it at Ty. Would have, if he thought it would make a difference.
But it wouldn’t. Because humans had thought of themselves as the top of the food chain for too long. They were still learning to live with their fairy tales in their faces. They were still trying to make their nightmares make sense. Trying to fit the fantastic into something mundanely manageable, they were stubbornly determined to live by standards that no longer applied. If they ever really had.
Sylphs had been around longer than humans. Aeith’s grandmother used to tell him stories of how their kind had been born from the universe’s first tentative, but unstoppable breath. The humans were right; his kind were pure magic. An ancient and untamable force of nature.
And Ty wanted him to worry about etiquette and proper table manners! Wanted him to care that some stranger spent one forgettable meal among millions of other forgettable meals mildly inconvenienced.
Well, he didn’t. “I don’t think about them.” Aeith began to pace, feeling perverse pleasure at the way the carpet parted and pressed under the weight and pressure of his steps. “You got me, Ty.” He was just some heartless thief, taking and taking from people without a second thought. But he only took what wouldn’t be missed, so what did it matter? With a swift turn that sliced through the air around him, he shot Ty a look, daring him to take him as he was or leave.
But he stopped and blinked at the sad curve of Ty’s lips. “What about me?” The words were quiet, rough, as if wrenched straight from Ty’s heart through his throat. “Do you ever think about me?”
Aeith almost choked on a laugh. Was he kidding? “You’re all I think about!” Couldn’t he see that? “Why do you think I was stealing breath to begin with?” He shook his head. “I wanted to have a nice night out with you, Ty.” And that was the only way he knew how. It’d seemed so simple, so obvious, at the time.
Except here they were fighting about it. Nice night, indeed.
“Then why not just take from me?” Ty sounded exasperated.
Frustrated too, Aeith scrunched his face, hating this. The awkwardness and discomfort of it all. This was why he didn’t like the hard stuff. It was just so.... hard. He rolled his shoulders. “I don’t know. It’s different with you.”
Ty took a deep breath and sat down on the chair near the desk. “How so?”
Aeith didn’t know. It just was! “That — at the restaurant — you know, it didn’t mean anything. I just needed, you know...” He shrugged. “A little something to keep me going.” Like a sip of water or a snack to tide you over.
There was a long pause with only the sound of Ty shifting in the chair. “And with me?”
Aeith shrugged. “It’s different with you. With you…” He could feel embarrassment course through him, making him both want to drift about restlessly while also weighing him impossibly down on the bed. “You know.”
Ty leaned forward, resting his arms on his knees. “I don’t.”
He wanted Aeith to say it? Fine! “With you, it matters, okay?” He tucked his feet up onto the bed, hugging his knees close, even as his toes curled and unfurled impatiently. “With you it means something.”
“What does it mean?”
Fuck if he knew! With a snipped sniff, his nose wrinkled as he tried to turn emotions into words. “Usually, it means we’re having sex, I guess.”
“Sex?” Ty’s eyebrows rose and his lips frowned. “It means sex?”
“Great sex.” The best sex. The kind that fed Aeith in a way nothing else could. He rubbed his hands over his thighs, feeling his mass shift along the connecting, still slightly see-through skin with the movement. “With other people, it’s just air, you know. Just breathing. Something I do to live.” To be seen and heard and felt in the human world that wouldn’t let him or his kind hide in the currents any longer. It was little more than the very basics of existing in a world he wasn’t sure people like him belonged in anymore.
But with Ty. Aeith pressed his lips together, trying to find the right words. “But, with you, it’s like having a part of you inside. Like taking this innermost, intimate part of you, that has traveled through the heart of you — the most you part of you — and making it part of me.” Thinking of the same breath, that had filled Ty, filling him made Aeith want to breathe him all in. He rolled his eyes and squeezed his eyes shut, afraid to see Ty’s reaction to that vulgarly vulnerable admission. “That sounds so dumb; forget I said that.”
“I don’t want to forget it.”
Aeith looked up. Ty was frowning still, which made Aeith worry. Had he said something wrong? He’d never been good with words, his or anyone else’s. There was so much nuance there, hidden meanings held within shifting contexts and fluctuating intonation. And there always seemed to be so much, with every statement, that went unsaid. Aeith tried to read Ty but, he’d grown up with a people who couldn’t be seen, often couldn’t be heard, who communicated with shifts in pressure, speeds, and direction; body language, facial expression, and tone were so often completely lost on him.
But, for Ty, he’d try. He watched the man’s frowning lips press together, tiny lines forming around his mouth. In confusion, he recognized. Ty did that sometimes when he was thinking. “So, when we do it, it’s like we’re sharing something special, right?”
Aeith, uncertain where this was going, shrugged then nodded, waving a hand uncomfortably. “I know it sound stupid but, yeah, with us, it’s special.”
Ty’s face flushed. Aeith didn’t know why, but he loved when Ty’s smooth, hazelnut skin did that. He could feel the slight rise in Ty’s skin temperature, the heat like a slight buzz around his cheeks. But there was something mesmerizing about seeing the pink blush bloom, in a way Aeith’s own couldn’t, too. Ty winced. “Is it dumb that seeing you do it at the restaurant — especially, when I’m right there — made it feel less special? Made me feel less special?”
* * *
Oh God, Ty couldn’t believe he’d just said that. What was wrong with him? Even to him, that sounded so insecure and achingly pathetic. But he’d said it and there was no taking it back now. Besides, he had to know.
Aeith’s legs straightened and his feet began to swing. “It’s not dumb…”
“But?” He could hear the word hang in the air between them.
“It takes a lot of air to stay corporeal. Even now…” He shrugged, his legs still kicking. Ty noticed that his feet weren’t hitting the bedspread, so much as Aeith was stopping their swing roughly around the edge of the bed, his feet sometimes sinking and disappearing into the covers. “Without either significant reserves or a constant stream of air, I fade fast. With the amount of air I walked into the restaurant with, I would have barely made it past ordering without taking breath from someone.”
“You snuck some from our waiter.” Ty hadn’t wanted to say anything at the restaurant.
Aeith winced. “You saw that, huh?”
It was subtler than with the hiccupping man. Just a hitch in the waiter’s speech on the specials, almost as if he’d forgotten the practiced spiel for a second. If Ty hadn’t known Aeith so well, he wouldn’t have even noticed.
But Ty did know Aeith. He smiled slightly. “It was smooth, I’ll give you that.”
Too amused with himself, Aeith lips curled too. Only to shake his head again. “But that’s my point. I wouldn’t have gotten through even that, without taking a little something from someone.” He stood up and started to pace the room, his feet barely touching the floor. “And I couldn’t just take it from you all night.”
That’s what he didn’t get. “Why not? I wouldn’t mind.” You know, not exactly. Not given the alternative.
Aeith shook his head. “I don’t want to do that with you.” His nose wrinkled with distaste. “Not like that.” He rolled his shoulders awkwardly. “Not when it feels so impersonal, necessary…” He visibly recoiled from the notion, his whole body rising up off the carpet and away from it for a moment. He huffed. “I don’t want to take air from you because I need it.” He turned to look at Ty, his eyes softening. “I want to want to.” He lifted an overly casual shoulder. “I want you to want it too.”
Ty smiled. “Because I’m different.” Special. Aeith was probably right; Ty wasn’t exactly excited about spending the entire evening hiccupping. But, still. “I want to be there for you.” Ty got up and walked to Aeith. Reaching out, he ran his hand over Aeith’s shoulder and arm, feeling the limb get less and less solid as he moved toward the wrist. He twined his fingers with Aeith’s, the digits feeling like wisp-like wind whirling around his hand. “If you need me, I’m here for you.” He leaned in, pressing his forehead to Aeith’s, and breathed deep.
Inhaling, Aeith leaned in too and gripped Ty’s hand. “You know, I wouldn’t need to take from strangers, if we got together more often.”
Ty rolled his eyes and sighed. “I wish I could.” But they lived three hours away from each other. Even if Aeith flew, it was still a long commute. When they’d first started dating, high on new relationship excitement, they’d done it. Back then, the long drive to Aeith’s had seemed like the beginning of an adventure. He remembered the nerves and anticipation fueling him as he drove. And, even on the long drive home, he’d be cruising on the satisfaction and pleasure of being with Aeith.
But, as time went on — as they both went more and more days without sleep — they couldn’t keep going on like that. And they couldn’t go on like that now.
But, where there was a will, there was always a way. “You know,” Ty said as he pulled Aeith closer, “there is another way to make sure we both make it all the way through dinner.”
Aeith tilted his head curiously. “Oh yeah?”
“Mmhmm.” Ty chuckled low. “You know, I check into the room before heading to the restaurant…”
“Okay…” Aeith shrugged.
“So,” Ty continued, tugging Aeith to the bed, “we have the room.” He sat down on the bed. “And this bed.” He scooched back, pulling Aeith close, between his thighs. “Whenever we want it.”
Aeith’s eyes looked down at Ty’s hardening lap and widened. “Oh.”
Yeah. Ty grinned. “Oh.”
Aeith stiffened a bit. “Are you sure?”
Ty nodded and jerked Aeith forward. “Definitely.” His breath caught when Aeith’s hand touched his chest, the weight of him surprising. He wasn’t heavy, not yet, but more substantial, more present and immediate, than he appeared. Ty’s pulse raced, feeling Aeith’s knee tuck tight between his legs. Ty moaned, when Aeith’s hand untucked his shirt and slipped under the crisp fabric. “Definitely.”
Aeith laughed low. “Good.” He climbed onto the bed, urging Ty further onto the mattress, before straddling him, trapping him beneath him.
* * *
Aeith bit his lip, feeling the hardness of his teeth and the soft give of his lip. You had to love a man with a plan and Aeith could definitely get behind Ty’s.
Trailing his fingers up and down Ty’s chest, he could feel firm bones and muscle under tantalizingly supple squish. He could feel each tiny bump and every strand of body hair against his fingertips. “Tell me what you want.”
Ty’s breath hitched when Aeith touched his nipple, making Aeith’s head spin. Ty licked his lips. “I want you to take me.”
Aeith shivered at those words, feeling the whispered force of them mix with the air around them. His hand pressed against Ty, tantalized by the tangibility. Warm under the touch, Ty was a fascinating mix of textures and Aeith wanted to touch all of him. Take all of him.
And, being this close — breathing Ty in — Aeith could.
So he did. He breathed in, watching Ty’s chest suck in as his own puffed and filled out. Ty’s eyes widened, his dark pupils dilating, and his deep rose mouth moued. Aeith leaned down to unbutton Ty’s shirt, pressing his lips to each three-inch bit of skin revealed by the parted halves. He pushed aside the undone cloth, shoving it to bunch around Ty’s broad shoulders, and stared at his chest.
God, Ty was beautiful. Closing his eyes, Aeith inhaled deeply. Ty was all musky heat and salty sweat. His skin was solid silk beneath Aeith’s fingers. Together, their bodies crackled like a restless sky before a storm. Aeith wanted to rub all of himself over all of Ty. He wanted to take all that heat inside and warm himself with it. He wanted to press against Ty, not pass through him. He wanted to feel and be felt. Wanted to taste and be tasted.
His tongue peeked out to lick the center of Ty’s chest. Reveling in the smell, the taste, the feel of Ty, Aeith slicked his tongue down over Ty’s belly. He nipped him just below the belly button, making the man’s hips buck beneath him on a deep groan. Aeith grinned, wanting more.
He turned around, still straddling him, but facing his feet now. He undid Ty’s pants and boxers and pushed them down over his hips and down his knees. Ty’s cock was long and full but, half-hard, it sat still softly nestled between his thighs, making Aeith want to nuzzle it. “You want me to take you?”
Ty moaned, the sound deep and rich. “Please.” He arched his back, trying to urge Aeith’s weight lower.
But Aeith planted himself over Ty’s middle, placing pressure on Ty’s diaphragm. Not much — not at his current weight, more air than mass still — but enough to make Ty’s chuckle sound a little forced and choked while Aeith wiggled his hips.
Aeith saw Ty’s length swell, shifting to the side. Aeith reached out and gently ran a finger up the length from hilt to head, feeling it and his finger harden with the touch. The friction felt amazing, the sensation strong as it sizzled from his finger through him.
Aeith spent most of his time as wind, wafting wistfully within it. He’d been raised in the air, rarely taking corporeal form. It’d only been when he started going to public schools and interacting with humans that he had to learn tricks in order to hold his form for long periods of time. Even now, Aeith only became solid when he had to. It took effort to stay that way and it was rarely ever worth the effort.
But it was worth it now.
Heady heat radiating from Ty’s body, the man stiffened and arched into Aeith’s touch. Aeith wanted this moment, this sensation, to last forever. He leaned in and breathed again, inhaling Ty’s intoxicating scent as he felt Ty’s chest tighten in reaction.
Aeith had to be careful. To only take so much, so fast. To make sure, while his body and head hummed with Ty, that he never — not even for a moment — put Ty’s safety at risk. So he sipped, when he longed to gulp. Even lost in the pleasure of Ty, Aeith listened, looked, paid careful attention, to make sure Ty could still breathe, even if it was a struggle.
Maybe he shouldn’t, but — heaven help him — Aeith loved it when Ty struggled. It was clear Ty was starting to. His feet were flexed, his legs ramrod straight. His hands were tight fists at his sides while soft, strained sounds slipped, clipped and quick, from his throat. Trying not to lick his lips in sadistic satisfaction, Aeith could hear Ty swallow hard as it became harder and harder to fill his lungs with each stolen breath. Ty’s pants became more frantic as Aeith stroked his fingers over Ty’s now weeping length.
“Aeith.” His name a breathy beg from Ty’s mouth. “Please.”
With a smile, Aeith gripped Ty’s dick in his hand, and bent low, taking him into his mouth. He chuckled at Ty’s moan that was cut off by a choked sound.
* * *
Fuck.
It was hard to think as Ty’s lungs gasped and his heart pounded as if he’d been running. He could feel a flicker of fear — his survival instinct — buzz like locusts in his head, telling him he needed to fight, to throw Aeith off him, to do whatever he had to to get at least one clear, deep breath.
But he didn’t. Didn’t even want to. Instead, he gripped the bedspread in his hands and let that almost electric charge race through him. He shook his head, tossing it back and forth on the pillow. He gritted his teeth while that surging feeling mixed with the pistoning sensation of Aeith’s mouth on his cock. It made him feel overwhelmed, eagerly engulfed, by the dizzying effect.
Ty opened his eyes, staring at Aeith’s bent back. He frowned, a little sad that Aeith was facing away from him. Ty so rarely got to see Aeith’s features so clearly, it seemed a shame not to now.
Not that he was complaining about his current view. Ty stared at the curve of Aeith’s back and ass. Nope, no complaints here. He reached up to touch that arousing arch. “Take off your clothes too.” The words came out in a rush, need for both air and Aeith hurrying him.
Aeith chuckled again, the rumble of sound on his dick making Ty’s hips jerk. Fuck. His fist gripped the waistband of Aeith’s now tactile pants and tugged at them. “Off.” He panted. “Now.”
Still laughing, Aeith released him to take off his specially sylph-made clothes. He settled back onto Ty’s chest. “Better?”
Ty reached out to cup Aeith’s ass, the round cheek full and soft in his hand. “Yes.” Much. Aeith’s sigh made Ty’s hand squeeze as his lungs burned at the sylph’s deep inhale.
Ty felt Aeith’s weight shift as his mass grew denser, pressing down on his diaphragm. Worry tickled Ty’s nerves again, his pulse racing faster as his air-deprived body squirmed in a vain effort to find a comfortable position. Arching up, he felt Aeith’s length, hard and insistent, against him. Sweet Jesus. He gripped Aeith’s ass harder, the blue flesh feeling hot.
Aeith bent low again, taking another deep breath before taking Ty in his mouth once more.
Fear quickly became panic as Ty’s lungs choked on nothing, gasping for air that was just no longer there.
His hand released Aeith’s ass and was about to tap on his hip — their negotiated safe gesture — when suddenly air rushed back to him. Unreserved. Unrestricted. Aeith, lifting his weight — both physically and more intangibly — let Ty have five deep, unfettered breaths. “Ready?”
In a minute. He needed one minute. The flood of sudden air was as shocking, as destabilizing, as the lack of it. Closing his eyes, he licked his lips and took stock, making sure that, physically, he felt all right.
“Take your time. Let me know when you’re ready.”
Ty nodded, but took one more quick breath, as if he were about to dive deep. He supposed, in a way, he was. But before he did. “I want you to touch yourself too, okay?” He wanted Aeith to be as swept up by them together as he was.
Aeith let out a low laugh, his hard cock still sliding against Ty’s chest. “Okay.”
Good. Filling his lungs, Ty nodded once more. Okay. “Ready.”
Then the weight was back, pressing into him and constricting his lungs. And so was Aeith’s mouth, wet and warm around his cock. Damn, that was good. He saw Aeith’s arm bend and his hand dip between his thighs. He felt Aeith’s knuckles rap against his belly as the other man wrapped his hand around his own shaft and stroked. Ty didn’t understand it; he couldn’t feel it himself, but the idea of Aeith’s touch on his own body thrilled him. Part of him longed to drag his body down and swallow Aeith’s length down his already choked throat. But he’d just gotten his breath back and taking on too much, too fast would likely make him black out, would make this moment end far too soon. And he didn’t want that for either of them.
So, instead, Ty gripped Aeith’s thighs, holding him tight to his body, crushing him harder into him. He wanted to be inside Aeith. His cock in his mouth. His breath in his body. His essence, his soul, held and kept with his. For as long as the sylph could hold him.
He stroked along Aeith’s thighs, feeling the muscles flex and tense beneath his fingers. Ty’s thumb traced the delicate crack of his ass, making Aeith giggle and writhe. Ty would have moaned, if he could have, but it was taking all he could to maintain his shallow breathing and strokes.
He grinned. Aeith thought he was so good. That he was the only one who could steal someone’s breath.
But Aeith wasn’t the only one with tricks of his own. Ty liked to think of himself as a man always with a plan.
Dipping his thumb between Aeith’s now firm cheeks, he pressed his thick tip against the man’s tight opening. He heard Aeith whimper as Ty made small circles against the sensitive skin, teasing and coaxing it. Each small, encouraging sound rippled through Ty’s senses urging him on. He pushed, letting the tip of his thumb sink inside the sylph.
Aeith gasped around Ty’s dick, his mouth going slack as air rushed out of Ty into him.
Ty’s chest clenched but, ready for it — aching for it — he smiled. That was it. He thrust his thumb deeper, slowly sliding further inside. Aeith moaned and shivered over him, making Ty feel it along his cock and chest. The sylph’s body stilled and sunk into Ty, but his hand still moved in steady, strong strokes on his own cock. Fuck. Needing more, even while not sure he could take it, Ty plunged his thumb in and out, and in and out, of Aeith.
On a groan, Aeith’s mouth began to move over him again. Nothing could compare to the sight, the sound, and the miraculous feel of Aeith taking him and of him taking Aeith.
He could sense the darkness loom at the edges of his orgasm. As if in a thrilling race, he could feel them try to overtake the other, not sure at all which would crash through him first. His heart was pounding, a loud, unignorable thunder in his head. He blinked furiously, willing himself to stay here, stay in this moment, stay with Aeith.
But, try as he might, he couldn’t. On a panting grunt, Ty came, sensation exploding in white, hot heat within Aeith, emptying everything he had — everything he was — into the other man. The pleasure of it all clawed through him, sinking deep into his senses before dragging him down into the darkness.
His last thought was the sound of Aeith crying out and the wet, warm, climactic shudder of the man’s body over his own.
* * *
“Ty?” Aeith stroked his face. “Ty?” He watched as the other man’s eyes blinked sleepily open. “You okay?”
Ty stretched before wrapping his arms around Aeith. “Okay? I’m fucking amazing.” He held him close, clearly enjoying the press of their bodies together as much as Aeith was. “How are you?”
Aeith smiled, feeling full and satisfied in a way he couldn’t explain. “Amazing sounds about right.”
Ty yawned. “Good.” He pulled Aeith down against his chest before yanking the covers around them both.
It felt so good, being held by Ty. Aeith sunk into the feeling, letting it envelop him. He felt Ty breathe easy behind him, his chest rising and falling and pressing into his back contentedly. Aeith wanted to stay this way forever. He closed his eyes and thoughtfully chewed his lip. Given the amount of air they’d shared, Aeith could likely lie here, held tight by Ty, for hours, maybe even all night. Might, if they were lucky, even make it through breakfast.
But, just to be sure he didn’t disappear before their first cup of coffee, they should probably do this all over again when they woke up. Aeith grinned. Well, if they must, they must, right?
Except. “You know,” Aeith said, snuggling close, “there seems to be a slight hitch in your plan.”
Ty raised a curious eyebrow at him. “Plan? Hitch?”
“Your plan to meet up in the room before we go out to dinner or whatever.” Aeith gestured to them, tucked in tight on the bed. “Pretty sure, if we do that, we’ll never make it out of the room, much less to the restaurant.”
Ty frowned contemplatively, taking his time looking them both up and down. “Huh. Yeah. I can definitely see that. But then again...” He cuddled close, nuzzling Aeith’s neck. “That’s what they invented room service for.”
True enough. Aeith giggled. True enough. He had to give it to Ty, the man always had one hell of a plan.
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