THIRD PERSON POV

One second Thaddeus was standing in the Nutrition Pod, and in the next, he vanished.

The curly-haired man flew through the hallways, taking the stairs three at a time and not even stopping to consider that he would surely break his face if a step was miscalculated by even a single millimeter. It was his irregular heartbeat that kept him going without a second thought, the thump of it echoing in his ears like a ceremonial drum. It struck louder and ever more demanding as his feet carried him to wherever the fuck he was being drawn to.

Nerves crackled with certainty and the hairs on the back of his neck reached for the heavens despite the absence of a cool breeze. The itch in the back of his skull left nothing up for debate; something was very, very wrong. Thad was sure of it.

He had to find Bug.

The periphery of his vision tunneled and Society members unfortunate enough to find themselves in his path of destruction became nothing more than punching bags as he barreled through without a hint of regret.

He had to find Aria.

The need to be with him – to shield him from whatever was causing him harm – was a physical pain, a needle injecting pure anxiety into his bloodstream.

He had to find his Soul Mate.

That Bug was so fucking irritating, making him worry like this. To make his veins pulsate and his nervous system click into overdrive at the mere notion of the wisp of a man being put in any sort of uncomfortable situation.

No. It simply was not allowed, not even by Aria himself. Only Thad was allowed to bully him.

The hinges of the stairwell door screeched at the force with which Thaddeus burst through it when he finally reached the negative eighth floor. The man immediately frowned.

Why in the hell his eager feet led him here – to this semi-abandoned floor with only a few working lights that bathed the hallway in an eerie atmosphere – left him perplexed as the door slammed shut with finality behind him. But he didn't have to wait long to figure out the mystery, seeing as to how the next thing he heard sent a stalagmite of ice straight through his heaving chest.

The man almost tripped on his way toward the source of that mind-numbing whimper, the lack of light combined with his hasty movements not helping his long legs find stable ground.

Thad needed to find him. Like right now, or else he was definitely going to go insane. Or, maybe he already was.

He was falling into a neurotic state of consciousness at a rate of at least two hundred miles per hour, but somewhere in that tumble into madness, the man was able to gather enough sense to suck a breath into his lungs and hold it there. That metallic smell that he was positive would be waiting for him would only serve to make things worse, and if Bug was hurt, he would have to at least have a shred of logistical abilities left to get him to safety.

When he finally turned the corner, he saw him.

Even through the darkness, that diminutive frame curled up in a ball in the corner undeniably belonged to Aria. His hair was disheveled and frizzy in some places – a vast contrast to its usual wavy and perfectly groomed state – and curtained his agonized expression, blocking it from Thad's view. Bug shook as if he couldn't keep himself still, writhing around on the floor as misty whimpers of helplessness poured from his lips like water. Water torture, to be exact.

"T-Thad..."

It took all of a quarter of a second for Thad to reach Aria, and he wasted no time in crouching down and placing a hand on his shoulder. What he really wanted to do was run his hands down Bug's entire body, to manually inspect his skin and bones for breaks and bruises in lieu of the darkness of the hallway that so heavily obscured his vision. But he didn't get that far, instead yanking his hand back with a curse for two reasons in particular.

For one, Bug was fucking hot, and Thad had to do a few mental acrobatics to convince himself that he only meant that temperature-wise. Luckily, it was slightly easier to achieve when Aria's skin was quite literally sweltering through his clothing, sweat darkening his hair enough to make it stick to his neck and temples.

And secondly, the moment that he'd made contact with Aria, the boy responded in a way that sent a hurricane of something equal parts ineffably petrifying and horrifyingly blissful through his glitching brain.

The boy had proceeded to arch his back into the gentle touch, tilt his head to the side, and then – The Elders help Thad – Aria fucking moaned.

Aria wanted to throw himself down the stairwell, broil himself alive in an oven, and maybe find a way to burrow up to the surface and suffocate on the toxic air just to make sure he'd finished the job. He was so embarrassed, so ashamed by this sudden, shameless bout of debauchery that he wanted nothing more than to crawl into a hole and die, anything that would keep him from thinking about how Thad's perception of him was surely plummeting even deeper into an already gaping pit of hatred.

He knew that he should pull himself up and stop being such a wimp about this sudden illness that had unexpectedly taken control of his body. But his psyche – along with this body – was raging war against itself.

Aria was so hot, so cold, so everything, and Thaddeus' touch triggered something that scraped him free of all sensibility, leaving his small figure empty of anything and everything but knee-buckling desire.

Concurrently, Thad's lungs were beginning to burn as the oxygen trapped inside of them fought to be released, and the man quickly realized that he was going to either have to risk taking a breath or die in the process of trying to avoid the inevitable. He tried his best to build up some mental fortitude before doing so, to tell himself that he was fuckin' Thaddeus Axton and Thaddeus Axton was a man that could overcome anything. But ultimately, it only took a single molecule of Ari's scent to have the man falling straight onto his ass.

Because oh my fuck, it was not metal that graced his nostrils.

It was like liquid fireworks had been injected directly into his veins, the heat of it flooding every cell and coating every nerve with a volatile douse of rapturous euphoria.

Lilac. Lavender. Maple. The scent of the dampened earth after it rains. Thaddeus didn't even know how he knew what that last one smelled like, but in his mind, it was an irrefutable fact. Unlike the sterile, white walls that surrounded them every day and the artificial world that The Elders worked so hard to preserve, Aria suddenly felt real.

His scent was like a song, strumming at chords that resonated so perfectly with Thad's own inner melody that it raised goosebumps on his skin.

To sum it up, it took every single fragment of discipline that Thad owned – which wasn't much – to keep from launching himself at the boy. Luckily, he was able to reign in his caveman tendencies just long enough to use his words instead in an effort to masquerade as a somewhat stable human being.

"Bug, you're burning up!" He stated the obvious, not really knowing what else to do in this situation. He had never had to actually take care of a sick person outside of a few hungover friends, but it was obvious that Aria was nursing a pretty gnarly fever, and it was way outside of his jurisdiction.

Aria could only cry out weakly in response, muscles twitching as he resisted the formidable urge to reach out and grab at Thad. Why the flames that bit at his skin seemed to abate when Thad touched him was a mystery to him, and in his current state of suffering, he had absolutely zero desire to investigate. He just wanted.

"Hey, don't worry, Bug. I'm going to get you to the Medical Unit, they'll know how to fix you." Thad quickly realized the solution to this problem and immediately moved to slip both hands underneath the small man, intending to lift up his incapacitated form and carry him there himself.

"N-No... Nngh!"

Aria's cry of resistance was interrupted by a whine of bliss so loud that it bounced off of the walls, echoing through the dark hallway and funneling right back into Thad's ears. The air around the tall man undulated and shook, and then he was settling Aria back onto the ground.

There was no way on earth that he was going to tote Bug through these busy hallways with him sounding like that. That possessive part of him that he was currently trying – but mostly failing – to hide was in full-on rebellion, stoking fire behind the steadily surmounting and incredibly irrational belief that he owned Aria. It told him that this man was his, and if anyone else heard him moan like that, he was going to go fucking ballistic.

Aria – oblivious to the fucked up reasoning behind Thad's actions – was elated at the fact that the man had put him back down on the floor to curl up into his little ball of misery again. Truth be told, he wasn't even sure why the heck he'd even called Thad in the first place. It was a moment of weakness, somewhere between losing his mind and dying of embarrassment, and his brain had made the decision for him, a decision that was quickly turning out to be the most humiliating one that he'd ever made in his entire life.

Because he wasn't sick. Or maybe he was, he really didn't care to find out the difference right now. The only thing that he did know was that his dick was so hard that it felt like it was going to burst with each heartbeat, and something... something more than just sweat was drenching the back of his underwear.

Aria croaked out a sob as another wave of torment spiraled through him, and he wasn't in control of his own actions as he reached between his legs in search of friction.

Why the heck was his bottom so slippery?!

Need, need, need.

Thaddeus quite literally stumbled a few feet, unable to believe his eyes at the sight of Aria reaching underneath the dress that he still wore from that morning. But instead of moving backward as he initially anticipated, his body decided to betray him. At this point, it basically belonged more to Aria than himself with the way it reacted, because the next thing he knew, he was hovering over the small man, boxing him in between his hands and knees like a damn animal.

Aria's pupils dilated at the sight, but Thad's were already miles beyond blown. The inky blackness that obscured his hazel irises was almost impossible to see as they blended in with the darkness around them, but the fire that stirred in their shadowed depths was like the north star in a sea of night.

Thaddeus was going to pull away. He really, really was. After all, Aria was a guy, and Thaddeus was far from being with all that gay shit. But then Aria ground into his palm, and the way his long eyelashes fluttered, soft lips parted and neck arched to the side released some kind of fuckin' demon in Thad.

That was the only explanation for the primal, feral, fucking barbaric that he did next.

All in one, swift movement, Thaddeus' hand plunged into Aria's undergarments, squeezing the absolute life out of the base of Aria's steel-like cock. And then, driven by a force so strong that he thought he might topple over from the power of it, Thad bit him.

"Hahhh!" Aria couldn't control it – whatever it was – that made him scream at the top of his lungs and his toes point so hard that he thought they might break off when Thad's teeth breached the tender skin at the place where his neck and shoulder met.

Usually, getting bitten – which happened more often than one would think due to the nature of his job – was nothing other than painful. But this... this.

Aria wanted to float in this feeling forever, to leave this earth and exist solely in the state of paradise that inundated his consciousness. It was more than a rush, it was a stab of pleasure that took hold of him, and every bone in his body begged for more, for Thad to bite him so many times and then some, until he was rendered unrecognizable to the man's marks.

He wanted to live between Thad's teeth, between Thad's thick arms, but more than anything, he wanted Thad to live between his legs.

Thaddeus wasn't far behind Aria, hunger riding him like a bull as he tasted the smaller man on his tongue. Like a man possessed, he had bit Aria hard enough to break his soft skin, and the distinct, peachy essence that flowed onto his tongue was enough to drive him into a frenzy. It wasn't fair for him to be the only one falling into a state of mania, so he squeezed Aria's shaft once more, overstimulating his spent cock and trembling with delight as Aria allowed himself to be steamrolled, sagging pliantly underneath him.

"Mgh..." Aria's tongue was thick in his mouth as he attempted to speak past it, drunk on endorphins and the sensation of Thad's large hand engulfing his dick. The small man squirmed with frustration at his body's lack of cooperation but sagged with submission a moment later as Thad – for the second time that day – growled at him in response, digging even deeper into his bite as if to tell him to shut the hell up.

"... Inside... me..." Aira begged breathlessly, the need to make Thad snuff out the fire that raged underneath his skin powerful enough to dispel his usual fear of disobedience. Bug weakly grasped at the sides of Thad's jumpsuit and rubbed his thighs together in a desperate attempt to convey what he wanted. What he needed.

Need, need, need.

It was then that Thaddeus stilled, just enough sense to realize what the hell he was doing filtering back into his skull at the sound of Aria's words.

Hold up, hold up, hold up.

Thad pulled back at once, eyes wide with confusion and desire and... horror.

So much horror that even through the darkness around them and his haze of orgasm, Aria could still make out the affronted expression. It scared him as he wondered what could be the cause of it. But between the both of them, it scared Thaddeus the most.

He stared down at his fingers, coated with the evidence of Aria's pleasure, as if they were the bloodstained hands of a murderer. But – somehow – Thaddeus found himself less occupied with the fact that his palms were covered with semen, and more worried about the bite mark on Aria's neck, one that was now steadily dripping rivulets of blood onto the collar of his dress.

Did it hurt?

Could it get infected?

Would it heal?

... Did he want it to heal?

This weird, somewhat selfless thought pattern was new to the man, who would typically only be worried about his own self-preservation as he thought up schemes to hide this from The Elders. But now – for some fucked up reason – Aria was finding new ways to dig his cute little fingers into the narcissistic meat of Thad's brain. And the worst part is that he did it without even trying.

Fuck.

It was like willingly taking a step into hell as Thaddeus forced himself to plaster his back against the wall and switched to mouth-breathing in an attempt to wrangle back some damn control. He almost relapsed immediately when his departure caused Bug to devolve back into a fit of whines, but he had to do it.

Or else, judging by the way the pants of his jumpsuit felt like they might pop at the seams around the groin area, he might have ended up doing something really, really fucking stupid. Something that could never, ever happen. Something that involved fucking into Aria so hard that he would end up becoming one with the concrete floor beneath them.

But that would never happen. In fact, he would break a random rule just to give himself a third strike before he would ever let it.

Sticky fingers fumbled around in his pocket, and he nearly dropped his travel tablet a few times in the process of searching through The Society records to find the contact that he was looking for.

Then, he hit dial.

"I swear to The Elders that if you've done something to hurt my baby again, just know that I've still got three strikes to go, and I'm not afraid to use one to chop off your dick." A voice sheared from the other side of the line without a single second of hesitation, and Thad winced at the threat.

"Aria... needs your help." He replied, digging his heels so deep into the floor he thought they might break in an effort to keep his back firmly pasted against the wall when his Soul Mate whined for him once more. "We're on the negative eighth."

"Negative eighth..." The voice paused, "That floor is fucking abandoned! What the hell were you– you know what, that's it. I'm coming to help, but I'm bringing my scissors with me. Prepare to be castrated."

Andrea hung up and Thad sighed as he glanced up. The man tried not to, but couldn't help but stare as Aria curled into himself helplessly, rocking back and forth in an attempt to self-soothe. The tall man's eyes drifted everywhere along his vulnerable form, but involuntarily lingered a little longer when they connected with the bloody spot on his Soul Mate's neck, the sight of it punching straight through his gut.

Mine.

When yet another heady whimper shot out of Aria's mouth with the force of an Enforcer's firearm and rendered Thaddeus' knees worthless, the man was left with no choice but to slide down the wall, head in hand.

Hands that trembled with the weight of the truth.

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