Essence of Quinn Parts 3 & 4 (MxM)

All Mine

I present to you for your reading pleasure: Mean Air™️
Thank me later 😅

Please note that this chapter is 100% consensual on both sides.

The nightmares came thick and fast in the couple of days following that initial one. The arrival of the shadow ghoul seemed to have unleashed all manner of memories and emotions in Quinn and quite frankly he was sick of it now. He hadn't slept properly since and he was bordering on being a nervous wreck already.

The ether wasn't helping the situation either, throwing useless half visions and seemingly pointless bits of intuition at him. He was exhausted and unable to perform most of the basic mundane tasks that Secondo had set for him.

Air was there for him as usual and he felt so guilty for breaking up the other ghouls' sleep as well. He'd told him to leave him be, to go and sleep away from him as he needed his rest too, but he'd insisted on being there for Quinn. He was grateful of course, but still.

The main focus of the bad dreams had been Andras and his last encounter with him. Just after it had happened, Quinn had purposefully pushed the memories of that couple of days to the back of his mind and left it to rot. As it turned out, that had been a bad move.

The worst side effect from this, aside from Quinn being so fucking tired for the last few days, was that the resurgence of the traumatic memories had completely wrecked he and Air's private time together. He'd tried to carry on as normal, but the things that his brain had been kicking up in the nightmares were affecting him in ways that were frustrating as hell to him. They gave him flashbacks at the most inconvenient times.

He and Andras had done many different things together over the centuries when Quinn had belonged to him. A lot of those things would be considered risqué or even in the realm of extreme kinks to outsiders. At the time, Quinn had been okay with that. There had been violence, degradation, humiliation, power struggles and various forms of punishment, all of which he had seemingly thrown himself into and played his part in.

At the time he had thought he was on board with it. Andras, being Andras, had made it seem that way. Quinn could just about live with it when he looked back on those times with hindsight because he knew that in reality he hadn't agreed to most of it and because it hadn't felt that way when it happened.

Their last encounter though? That was completely different.

Yes, Andras had done his usual trick of using their bond to manipulate Quinn into thinking that he wanted it to happen, but when he looked back on it? He realised that everything Andras had done to him had been calculated and had been done to cause lasting damage. He'd gone to great lengths to display his ownership of Quinn to Air and to fuck with their relationship. Andras knew that Quinn had chosen Air of his own free will and he didn't like it.

Andras clearly hadn't factored in Quinn's ability to box things up and lock them away though because after an initial period of healing immediately afterwards, he'd made himself essentially get over it and move on.

Until now, Quinn had tried not to let the memories of that time taint the things that he and Air did together. There were a few things that he'd avoided because he just couldn't face them anymore and he knew that Air had noticed, but overall he thought he'd done a pretty good job of keeping it locked away.

Now though? When his sleep had been invaded with vivid memories that were laced with fear, pain and humiliation? When those specific memories had risen to the forefront for whatever reason? He just couldn't do anything with Air.

He hated Andras even more now for it. It had taken him a few years but the fallen angel had finally succeeded in driving that final wedge between them. The more Quinn had tried to ignore it and brush it aside over the last couple of days, the worse it had come back to bite him in the ass.