Author's note: While this fic only has consensual sex, the bodymod fetish is fairly high, and it won't be to all tastes.
There's something shining in the void.
I don't know how that works. The sky and ground are black, yet I can see in every direction. Nothing casts a shadow here. Maybe I see because I expect to, like there's ground because I expect to walk. Or maybe the void is where firefly farts go, for all I know. There aren't a lot of books about this place.
You can walk with intent, and you'll find your way to a place you remember. Or you can walk at random and see what turns up. Random walking brought me to this tiny glint in the middle of nowhere, and maybe someday, random walking will turn up a way out of here.
It's a jeweled ring. Still on the hand, ugh. Someone must have reached through a void portal, and then it closed on them. Well, it's too big for my fingers, so I have no reason to touch a severed body part.
For a second, I think I see another light, somewhere in the distance. But when I look again, there's only blackness.
--
"Didn't find anything useful," I call out as I enter the front door.
"Like last time, and the time before," Par replies. "Sometimes, I think you're just avoiding my company."
"More like always," I tell him.
There's always a moment of incongruity, seeing a mountainous brute like Par relaxed in an armchair, reading a book about some long-forgotten war. He looks more like he should be robbing a carriage. But he can't stop himself from furthering his knowledge, even with no way to use it. It's almost admirable. I just have my sword skills, and those have gone to shit since I brought us here.
He sets down his book to welcome me back, but we don't kiss. We've never had that kind of relationship, despite everything else we've done. He holds me close, too tight to escape, and runs his hand down my back towards...
This is going to be hard to explain.
I have a cat tail. A long, fuzzy, adorable cat tail. I wasn't born with it, but when I first let Par test his powers on me, he coaxed it from my flesh. I don't keep most of the alterations he grants me, but there was just something that appealed to me about the tail.
It arches upwards at his touch, and he gives it a few firm strokes. "Yet you're always so happy to return," he tells me. "A hint of bonding, perhaps? An unconscious realization that I'm not the villain you think I am?" He tugs a bit roughly, mixing some pain with the pleasure. "Or perhaps you just love me for my body?"
"Par, I'm not in the mood right now. Maybe later."
He lets go. He always listens to my "no." It's a low bar, but it's as close as he gets to progress.
"Maybe later," he repeats, and he sits back in his chair and waves me off.
--
This building was never meant as a dwelling. It was actually a library, and books still line the shelves, though some of them are scorched and smoke-stained. I don't know how it ended up in the void, but Par and I had to clean out a few bodies when we found it.
Really, though, we needed a library more than a house. The void is a place of stasis, with no hunger or thirst. Maybe not even aging, though it hasn't been long enough to tell. There are no birds to watch, no scenic mountain trails to climb, nothing much to do unless you like black emptiness. The only thing that's kept us sane is reading about places that are less boring.
Besides, the library was where I found That Book. That alone was worth it.
I skim a random novel, the forbidden love of a heroine and a blackguard. She shows him the light, and he joins her in saving the kingdom. It's pure and chaste and wholesome.
It reminds me of me and Par, and that alone makes me roll my eyes. What drives us together isn't love; it's having literally no one else to talk to. And Par couldn't see the light if I set off a stun bomb in his face. If he could be "redeemed," if he could be convinced that dominating the weak
wasn't
the path to everlasting peace and order, I wouldn't have had to tackle him through an unstable portal. I wouldn't be trapped with him. I'd be home again. Probably married to some strapping lad. Maybe with a family by now...
I don't even know how long it's been, with no days or nights in this place. Weeks? Months? I don't think it's been years. But then again, how does time even run in the void, compared to my world? Maybe centuries have passed. Maybe the kingdom is gone. Maybe whatever gravestone my comrades gave me has worn down to pebbles.
Did I even get a gravestone? How would I ever know?
I toss the book across the room, not caring enough to shelve it. Then I climb up to the second level and flop down on the bed Par built. I don't need to sleep. In the void, I never really
need
to sleep. But I want to shut off my brain for a while.
"You're sulking," Par tells me.
"
Gaspard
," I warn.
He thuds down on the bed beside me, his weight distorting the crude mattress. "It's true," he tells me. "I know I'm not whoever you're missing. You're not the one I miss, either. But we can occupy each other, just for a while."
I sigh. "Do it. No requests this time. Just surprise me."
--
I still remember when Par first caught me reading That Book.
"'With a final thrust, his member penetrated the velvety folds of her cervix,'" he read over my shoulder. "'Burning hot cum filled her womb and swelled her belly.'"
"
Gaspard!"
