[Title] Absolution [Author] jadedsilk (Mara D.) [Series] Castlevania: CoD [Pairing] HectorxIsaac [Rating] NC17 BOYSEX! [Beta] Nope [Spoilers?] Yep. For game and Manga. [Chatter] for benigirl. You do know that Julia is going to take the price of that rug out of their hides when they wake up later on and can’t get the stains out? Right? ^________^ I also love how quickly they fell asleep at the end. I can’t imagine why they might have been tired, can you? ^_~ [Reply] Haha, can't imagine that B* face when Hector decided to take HER brother instead. ROFL, She deserves that and more. I-Chan is plotting something interesting to make her suffer. *Insane laugh*  Me too... I'll make her pay for her unforgivable sin! ~*~ He picked up that limp form, nearly staggering under the weight. Isaac was thin and tall, but he was rock solid muscle. When that heavy head rolled against Hector’s chest, and silky crimson hair tickled his collarbone through the gap in the front of his shirt, he had to bite his lip against the surge of aching pain in his stomach and chest. “You should leave him.” Julia said quietly. Hector shook his head, a stubborn sense of righteous anger building there. As angry as he had been, as wounded and furious…this was still Isaac. The man he loved, pitied…worked beside for so long. He had been under a curse. A terrible curse, and that was not his fault. Of course he had hated Hector for abandoning him. Isaac had been abandoned so many times in his life that he would be fiercely loyal to one who never had. It was a strange form of righteousness, but that was Isaac. He could be no more than what he had been made into, but what he had been made into had just been changed. “He is your brother M’lady, even if you would abandon him, I will not.” “He killed your love.” “He has destroyed many things I care about, but two wrongs do not make a right.” Hector said softly as the castle rocked ominously under his feet. “He will never be able to live with what he has done, are you so heartless as to deny him peace?” She asked him accusingly. “The peace he so sought?” Hector asked, taking a slow and shaky breath. “I suppose not. Consider this my form of revenge.” Hector said, not having time to argue with the woman. If she would not let him out of this castle, then he would have to find his own way out. And soon. He shifted Isaac against his chest, and made his way closer to the array on the floor. “I have done as you have asked. Now, will you not do this one thing for me?” Hector asked softly. Her eyes narrowed with worry and distress, but Hector did not look away, and after a moment, she stepped back a bit, leaving space for him and Isaac within the array. “As you wish.” She said lowly, lowering her gaze. She did not object when Hector stepped inside the power sigil on the floor, and she even reached out to stroke her brother’s tattooed forehead once, carefully. Her gesture sad. “Let us go.” She said, before striking her staff against the floor. ~*~ When the light faded, they were in the depths of the forest. Julia stepped away from Hector quickly. “I must get back to help the Belmont.” She said softly. “Is there any place we might seek shelter?” Hector asked as Isaac moaned against his shoulder. Julia’s eyes met Hector’s. “There is an abandoned hut near here, one that I use from time to time should I be caught out in the rain. It is clean, and there are some medical supplies there…some other witch lived there before me.” She said lowly. “I thank you for your kindness.” Hector said softly. “Might you tell me they way?” ~*~ The air was a bit chilly, and so after laying Isaac down on the rug in front of the fireplace, he started a fire. The older man had not stirred yet, except to moan a few times on the path to the hut. Hector unbuckled the collar holding the upper body chain and leather armor on, and then unsnapped it from the shoulder armor and the rings on Isaac’s pants. He set it aside. It was blood soaked and needed cleaning. The next thing he did was laboriously unbuckle Isaac’s boots, putting them with the pile of armor to be cleaned. That left Isaac in a pair of breeches, and nothing else. His chest was covered in wounds, some deep, some not. All from Hector. The silver haired man sighed in frustration, worry, and regret. “I am…so sorry.” Hector said lowly, stroking shaggy red back out of Isaac’s closed eyes. It was a gesture he had always made after they had made love. He wanted to look into that stormy blue gray afterwards, and that rebellious hair had always made it difficult. Eyelashes so pink they were almost peach fluttered against pale cheek bones at the familiar gesture. Oh, so he was coming around? ~*~ Hector found a kettle and filled it with water from the barrel outside the door before putting it on the hook over the fireplace to warm. He located a few jars of herbs, in particular an herb for reducing the pain of wounds, and another for cleaning them. He measured out the right amount from years of practice under Lisa’s tutelage, and dumped it into the water to boil. The fragrance quickly filled the tiny hut, making everything smell green and fresh. Isaac stirred again, and this time, moaned a bit more rebelliously. Hector took the water off the fireplace with an iron hook, and then took the kettle outside, dipping it in the rain barrel to cool it to a more bearable temperature. When he could bear to hold the handle against flesh, he brought the kettle back in, setting it beside Isaac and returning the hook to the stand next to the fireplace. A quick search provided a few cloths, and some bandages. He did not hesitate to soak the cloth in the water, and then begin to clean Isaac’s wounds. ~*~ “How familiar is this?” Hector asked as he stroked the hot water over the bloody gashes. Isaac flinched and then twitched. “This was how we met the first time…perhaps it is fitting me meet again this way?” Hector couldn’t help himself then, he couldn’t help but talk to Isaac, whether the other man could hear him or not. There was so much he needed to say. His hands caressed that bare chest when they weren’t cleaning a wound or cleaning up blood. This chest that he knew better than his own, that tattooed skin that was so strangely soft, even over the old scars there. It was a body that Hector knew, that he knew better than his next breath. A body that had pleasured him many times over, and taken pleasure from his. His friend, his lover, his nemesis, his challenge. Isaac. It was when Hector was washing splatters of blood off of that broad jaw that confused Blue-gray eyes opened, and regarded him nervously, and a hand reached for a spear that was not there. Hector took a moment to let out an uneasy breath. They were no longer violet with possession. Thank god. “Be still.” Hector said softly, taking that questing hand and instead moving it to rest back on the rug. “Hector?” Blue eyes met his, and Hector felt a pang of pain and fear. Would Isaac remember? Would he hate him? If he didn’t remember, should he tell him? “What is the last thing you remember?” Hector asked as he watched Isaac slowly take stock of his injuries, moving a bit carefully. His wounds were still not bound. “You…broke my sword…you defeated me…you left me to die…” Isaac hissed, his gaze going from hurting and confused to angry. Hector flinched. “There would be something like that…yes.” Hector said softly. “What else do you remember?” “I crawled back to my Lord’s castle. Though I was far away, I called to him, and he came to me… I held his familiar in my hand… just before it turned to dust! He was dead…he was dead…how could you betray The Master Hector?!” Isaac asked, voice deceptively soft with confusion and anger, his eyes full of tears, pain and rage. The tears did not fall, but they glistened there. Isaac tried to sit up then, and Hector helped him and received a disgusted glower for thanks. “I did not betray The Master; he betrayed me, and you, though you did not know it.” Hector said lowly. “He did not betray you or me! He protected us from the humans that would have cast us out, killed us for being what we were born as!” “How long do you think it would have been Isaac, before he killed us both?! His hatred for humanity was consuming him. The moment we could not make or control armies of monsters for him, we would have been murdered. I knew you could not leave him, and I did not ask that of you. Though I wanted desperately to!” Hector said, his heart on his sleeve, meeting Isaac’s glare with no shame. Hector’s heart stung. What more could say, what more could he have done? The lord had rejected his pleas, had not heard him in his madness. He had flung Hector from the highest tower! “You left me to die!” Isaac accused. “You would have killed me, I was already wounded. I defended myself. I did not kill you, nor did I try to abandon you. You were so blinded by your fear of rejection that I could not help you. I simply could not stay, and you would not have come with me. I would have carried you if I could have, taken you to safety, but you would not have wanted that. You did not want me, nor did you wish to leave with me. I respected that, understood it even. You have been betrayed enough in your life. One disloyalty in a day was enough. I would not ask you to leave your Lord as well! ” “You respect nothing!” Isaac said lowly. “I respected the man our Master used to be before he went mad with his grief. I understand now, better than I ever have how much it can destroy you to lose the last person in the world who understood you, and I sympathize. But I do not forgive him his violence. It is not the way to win in that situation. His hate poisoned him, as it almost did me. Poisoned him enough that he healed your wounds with the last of his strength so he might spread his curse further through you. He infested your body so that he might hunt me down. So that he might sacrifice you and I to return to punish humanity further.” Isaac blinked at Hector. “What curse? He possessed me?” Blue eyes narrowed nearly to slits. Hector nodded, his heart in his throat. “Yes…he did, through the very wound I gave you. Through your blood.” “What is it then…I do not remember…what is it that I have done?” Isaac asked lowly, moods switching tempestuously as they always did for the red-head, this time to an expression of concern and betrayal. “Perhaps you would rather not know.” Hector said quietly, dabbing the cloth at another wound, this one on Isaac’s shoulder. Isaac flinched. “Don’t you dare keep this from me Hector!” Isaac said dangerously. “I could lie to you.” Hector said lowly, cleaning dirt from a deeper gash over Isaac’s shoulder blade. “You have done many things Hector.” Isaac said lowly. “But have never lied to me.” Hector paused in his ministrations, and then reached for a strip of bandage. “That is true. Are you certain you wish to know what has happened?” ~*~ Isaac was perfectly silent, and Hector did not dare to try and read the expression crossing that face as emotions warred for dominance. Instead, he just finished putting salve on wounds and bandaging. Hector felt a tiny tremble in the powerful muscles of that tattooed back as he smoothed a wrap. “Isaac…I forgive you. It was not you who did those horrible things, it was the Lord.” “I would have done them if I could have.” Isaac said lowly, antagonizing. Hector did not rise to the bait; he would not loathe Isaac as the other man wanted him to. “While you never cared for the humans that hurt you, though you were angry at me, Isaac, that is not your way. I do not think you would have.” Isaac shuddered again, and this time, Hector could see the crystalline drops, falling to wet the tan of leather leggings to a heavy black. “Why!” The older man murmured lowly. “Why will you not hate me! Why did you bring me back! Why did you not let me die! How is that respect?!” Isaac sobbed. Hector stood, exhaustedly moving to kneel in front of Isaac who was hiding behind his heavy forelock of crimson hair. “Why must you humiliate me?!” Isaac asked, his voice cracking with pain. Hector did not reply. He simply leaned forward and pulled Isaac into a powerful embrace. Isaac normally hated to be touched when he was grieving, he would lash out at anyone who dared come near. Hector had gotten a few black eyes, but in the end, it had always been worth it. He was expecting retaliation now, but all he got was the slow returning of the gesture, Isaac’s arms tight around neck and shoulders, and the wetting of hot tears against his leather vest and tunic. His lover was so wounded and broken, inside and out. “If you must bear a punishment, bear this. Bear your absolution. It is not in death that you gain it, but in life. That is what Rosaly taught me with her life and death, and she would have me teach that lesson to you as well. Not by me dying, but by me showing you how to live. I can do that…and I will. I am in love with you Isaac, and whether it was selfish of me or not to ask this of you, I am doing so. It was my lack of selfishness that lead to this pain for you. If I had demanded you join me in fleeing the castle or die, either outcome would have prevented what occurred. I made the wrong decision then. So if making the right decision now means being selfish? Then I am being selfish. “I am a monster! I do not deserve absolution!” Isaac murmured, his voice muffled by Hector’s chest. Hector was silent, and then he pushed Isaac away from him for a moment before cupping that broad jaw in both hands and forcing those wet eyes to meet his. “I would not love that sort of monster.” Hector said softly just before he captured Isaac’s mouth with his own. At first, Isaac was tense; his whole body a taut line, his tear damp lips salty under Hector’s caressing tongue. For a moment, Hector thought he might be struck, but instead, Isaac finally melted against him, opening his mouth to Hector’s tongue. Hector found himself stroking sword calloused fingers through that amazing crimson while his tongue slid into Isaac’s mouth, touching, tasting, smoothing across the other man’s palate as he knew he loved. He could still feel tears, falling to wet his face, falling between their lips. The tears that tasted of Grief and fear. Isaac’s trembling hands came up to Hector’s shoulders, stroking against the fabric there. He had missed this. He had missed Isaac’s touches so much…he had missed all of this. When they pulled away, Isaac tried to push back and only succeeded in rocking Hector from his knees until he was resting on his hip, still holding Isaac tightly. “I do not deserve this Hector! I do not deserve happiness of pleasure! I deprived all of those whom I have killed of this very thing!” Hector ignored the question, instead, leaning in to press a row of kissed from Isaac’s collar bone to his throat, and the struggling ceased for the moment. Isaac leaning into the touch a bit, baring his throat to Hector’s warm lips. “Then do you not deserve to live that now for them? So that their deaths might not be in vain? Our human lives are short, why should they be miserable as well. You owe it to those who died to live for them. To experience everything, to live, to love. That is your absolution. Sadness and death will only propitiate more sadness and death.” The silver haired man murmured against Isaac’s flesh. Isaac heard him, but he said nothing at first. Instead, he slowly leaned further into Hector, interrupting those kisses as his mouth feasted at the skin that he could reach around Hector’s clothing, while his sore and clumsy fingers began busily undoing the clasps at Hectors vest. “I do not want to face this, even if it is as you say. Not right now. Hector…I do not want to think about this pain within me…please take it away, if just for a while.” Isaac asked, his tone pleading for Hector to understand. “But you are wounded.” Hector murmured, not pulling away, and instead helping Isaac, helping the older man strip him of his armor and his shirts. “Please Hector, I have never asked anything of you. I am asking this now. Take me, I want to feel you inside me, I need your light. Please lend it to me, if just for a while.” Isaac murmured, pulling himself into Hector’s lap, pulling himself into the tangle of Hector’s legs. “There is hardly any light left in this soul Isaac…but if it is what you need, then I will give it to you.” Hector murmured, shrugging his way out of his armor, and finally his shirt, leaving him clad much the same as Isaac considering he had long ago left his boots and gloves by the door. Isaac made a choked sound low in his throat, angrily stripping his gloves before reaching across the slight fire warmed distance between them, his hands hungrily stroking across the cut and curves of Hector’s sleek chest. Making Hector gasp and shiver. Isaac knew where to touch, knew every place along Hectors body that made pleasure sing up and down his backbone in spirals of tingling pleasure. When that mouth came closer, when it fastened over a nipple, Hector groaned, his hips rocking forward against Isaac’s thigh where he was leaning into his lap. Where their legs were tangling. Isaac’s fingers undid the belt, sending it to the floor with a clink, and then a moment later the clasp at the top of Hector’s pants fell open, warm fingers delving inside, touching the head of Hector’s need, rubbing in the already damp slit. Hector gasped, and made a purring moan, arching into the touch before leaning forward, Capturing Isaac’s lips with his own and lowering him back down to the rug. Isaac clung tightly, arms trustingly around Hector’s shoulders. Always in these moments there was trust. Even for Isaac. When they broke for air, Hector was kissing down Isaac’s chest, dodging bruises and bandages, nuzzling against scars, nipping just slightly against the prominence of Isaac’s hip bones and making the red-head whine hungrily as he descended lower, Isaac’s hands guiding him downwards to where he needed him as Hector’s hands undid the clasp of those tight brown leggings, pressing them downward. “Hector…hurry.” Isaac grunted, and Hector recognized the feeling in that tone. The feeling of breaking without someone inside of you, of breaking and feeling half when one should be part of a whole. Like it or not, they were one being, Isaac was Hector’s dark, his passion, his heart and his loyalty. Hector was Isaac’s betrayal, his compassion, and his light. Hector was silence, and Isaac was sound. Hector the warm glow of moonlight on bare skin, and Isaac was the screaming fire of a hot autumn afternoon sun. “But a moment, I beg you. I do not wish to be harsh.” Hector murmured as he stripped the fabric completely from Isaac’s legs, tossing the fabric aside to study that hard length, resting slightly to the side and tucked against the hollow of Isaac’s hip, beading with milky wetness just as Hector’s was. Hector reached for the salve near where they were reclined on the rug while his other hand slid up and down Isaac’s length, gliding through the nest of soft crimson curls there knowingly. Isaac shuddered, thrusting up into nothing, into thin air. Hector just smiled while opening the tin, and then opening his mouth, gently took Isaac inside. Isaac hissed in pleasure, at the moist heat surrounding his need, as Hector’s tongue played up and down the length, tracing the V at the underside. While his lover was distracted, Hector heavily coated his fingers and slid them into position against the bud of Isaac’s opening. Isaac gasped again and bucked back against those fingers, beseeching… Hector would be quick, but he would be thorough. Isaac would be sore enough with the motions of lovemaking on wounds; he did not need this hurt too. He slid his first two fingers inside, spreading the salve, stroking for the spot inside that would make Isaac arch up over his hand, would make pleasure cramp in the red-heads belly. It only took him a moment before Isaac was now tugging insistently at Hector’s hair, tugging him back upwards despite that warm mouth where he wanted it while arching his back every time Hector found and accosted that spot. And Hector ignored the tugging, made Isaac wait a bit longer, until those powerful muscles relaxed around his fingers, until the salve warmed inside his lover and began to spread like a thick oil with the motions of his fingers. Eventually he let Isaac’s need go, and instead worked his own pants to his knees, dipping his fingers into the salve again and coating his length with it. Isaac slid a leg up over Hector’s shoulder in anticipation. Hector smiled at the impatience, turning his head to lap at the inside of Isaac’s sleek thigh, drawing another sound of growling /pleading/. Hector rumbled a reassurance low in his throat as his hands slid around Isaac’s hips, supporting him, moving him into position. Isaac complied easily, rubbing his opening tantalizingly back against Hector’s tip. Hector couldn’t wait forever either, and when he finally thrust, one long slow stroke Isaac cried out softly. Hector was seated before the other man could even really flinch, but the cry troubled Hector. He had never hurt his lover before when they coupled. Isaac was trembling beneath him. “Is there pain?” Hector gasped as he let Isaac’s leg go and slid down onto his elbows, changing the angle, making it so that he could better ease his lover’s discomfort while pressing kisses to that broad jaw. “No pain…” Isaac murmured. “Need this…missed this…” The red-head pleaded even as his hands fluttered to rest on Hector’s shoulders, stroking the muscles there, kneading like a contented cat. “Move.” Isaac murmured, eyes meeting Hector’s, their color shockingly blue in the firelight. Hector pulled out with a shudder, and then pressed back in. As he did so, he arched his back, making sure the angle was pleasing for Isaac while being able to stroke his tongue and lips against Isaac’s chest in kisses, licks. Gestures to places that would distract from any discomfort. It took only a few slow and gentle thrusts before Isaac was reflexively moving back against him, powerful legs curling up around Hector’s ribs to meet and cross over his lower back. Hector moved cautiously, despite Isaac’s pleading sounds, despite the press of heels against the small of his back urging him on and the way that body enveloped him with clenched muscles. Isaac was breakable right now, wounded and sore. Normally he would have done as Isaac liked, bucking into that body, enjoying the slide of lean muscles on lean muscles, almost wild with the abandon of this, this warmth, with the dark heat of Isaac’s body, the acceptance of another, the place of belonging in his life. But he did not. He drew out the pleasure between them, longing for god knew how long to feel this again. Many a night he would wake up, having wet down the front of his pants dreaming about these encounters, dreaming about Isaac and this passion between them. He was determined to draw it out as best he could, to distract Isaac from the hurts of life, to offer this acceptance. When Isaac was gasping for Hector to “finish it” he finally allowed himself to speed up a bit, to slide deeper. Isaac’s movement beneath him became erratic, frantic, and so did the lunging of his hips. What surprised him even more was the fact that they came together. Hector had not even had to touch Isaac’s need with his hand. The force at which he came surprised him, the arching of his back, his helpless cry of Isaac’s name as whiteness took his vision. He locked his elbows when his body gave out, assuring himself that he would not collapse on top of his lovers sore chest. When he could see again, when he could hear and breathe properly, he leaned down against the wet space between their lower bodies, and kissed Isaac softly while he withdrew and collapsed to the side. He was surprised when the redhead rolled over, sliding a leg between his, heedless of the mess between them. Strong hands were tangling into Hector’s wavy silver, and Hector found himself drowning in sleep blue gray and the welcome arms of his lover, basking luxuriously in the afterglow, in the warmth of the fireplace. “You are my absolution Hector.” Isaac murmured. “You are my piece of paradise…I am sorry that I…” “Do not be sorry.” Hector said softly. “It was not your choice.” “But I could have made it…I wouldn’t have understood and I might as well have done it mys…” Hector’s finger came up to touch across Isaac’s lips, silencing him before holding him closer, drawing him into himself, letting their power, their souls touch and twine for reassurance. The power of Forgemasters, the silent words to the soul. And after some time, Isaac settled, falling asleep deeply. Hector would have liked to have cleaned them up, but he was exhausted as well. He didn’t even bother with his pants before he fell deeply into slumber, following Isaac, and knowing that for once in his life, he had made the right decision. ~*~