Romancing the Darkness (Septiplier/Danti AU)

Chapter 9

Even now with everything that had happened tonight, Sean was finding another way to press Mark to the breaking point. That small sliver of where his anger always stood and peeked over the precipice of what all the darker thoughts in his shadowed mind could be. Another sheet of glass splits apart, and the smiling faces within its framed walls are battered and crumpled, but not yet completely destroyed.

The blue eyes were gleeful at the returned look of rage. This is what Sean wanted to see for so long. The hungry gaze of a lion surveying its next meal. Calculating if the prey was worth the effort of the hunt, and of so, how long to tease until he went for the final snap of the slender neck.

"What's a matter, baby?" Sean cooed. "Don't like me breaking all your little fantasies?"

The faintest twitch of the tanned fingers curling into a fist, then releasing is enough to have Sean's heart racing again. The subtle volley of power was now on his side of the net, and he planned on keeping control for a while this time. Mark's polished dress shoe crunched against what was left of the picture of the two of them at a business dinner, very soon after they went from colleagues to lovers. The tell tale way that Sean leaned into the shot, and Mark smiled up into what must have been a few drinks into an incredible evening.

"I have nothing to say to you," Mark hissed back, already looking for the best way back to their bedroom. "The floors you fucked up with your blood aren't going to clean themselves, so if you'll excuse me."

He grabbed at the first wash cloth that is able to be reached on the kitchen counter, and then moves without a backward glance to their bedroom. The roar of frustration isn't lost to Mark's ears, but enough is enough. Mark doesn't have the time to deal with Sean's temper tantrums. When he wants to act like an adult, he'll fucking treat him like an adult.

Sean was left again with only the voices. They were jeering him to search out other ways to prove his point about Mark not giving a damn. The blue eyes are darting in their mission, checking out every single relic of their life together that will finally make Mark strike him again. He licked his still swollen lip and the tingle was electric, and the memory replayed made the tightening in his groin feel normal. The pain made him feel normal. Treasured.

Loved.

The blood had dried to make the clean up even the more challenged. Mark was bent over the stains, eyeglasses on the tip of his nose like surveying a crime scene. The only plan in his head was to just make this night go away. Just wait for the formula to settle in their bones and then talk to each other. Sean would need something for his face once he apologized for earlier.

"Mark?"

The tone was softer this time, and the blue gaze unsure. Slender fingers were twisting in the bottom of the collared shirt, and the head slightly down.

"What do you want?"

Sean moved slowly towards where the other man was. The steps were way to calculated to be anything but false. Mark was way too used to this song and dance by his lover. Candy coated apologies, but with bitter excuses near the center.

"Need you, is all," Sean muttered. "Just need you."

The bottom lip twitched into almost a smile. Mark felt it, and Sean absolutely saw it.

"I'm cleaning up your mess," Mark hissed, and the other man recoiled. "You are welcomed to help by dealing with whatever is salvageable in the kitchen."

He paused, satisfaction growing at Sean's change in mood. It wasn't full obedience, but it was just enough for Mark to see that perhaps the formula was starting to assist.

"I want to make new memories," Sean whispered, placing his hand at the delicate place where the bandage sat securely on his throat. "Can you do that for me, Mark? Make new moments that we can put in your silver cages behind walls of glass?"

Mark tilted his head at the metaphor, and the deep laugh that escaped his mouth was not his own. Sean could sense the tightening near his groin again.

"You get off being hurt now, don't you, baby?"

The question was way too revealing, and Sean was once more thrown by how easily his plans were shaken. Maybe that was part of the problem. He shouldn't plan out anything. Just do what he wanted. Give in to the voices.

"I've always been into pain," Sean admitted, taking his right hand and unbuttoning his pants to release some of the tension building up. "You just never saw me as something lovely enough to be broken."

The relief of his groan intermingled with the breathy sigh from the other man's lips. Mark was standing up and clearly looking at him as if he finally saw him not as a child, but a man who was tough enough to be torn down from the inside out.

"Not lovely enough to be broken?" Mark mused. "I guess that I have to once more teach you how to keep your filthy lies to yourself."