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prouvaireafterdark · 2 years ago

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Practical Ethics || Chapter Five

In which Armand goes to Daniel for comfort and Daniel issues an ultimatum.

| One | Two | Three | Four |

Also on AO3! (and for the love of god please check the AO3 tags before reading this lmao)

***

Armand isn’t sure how long he stays there after Louis and Lestat leave, tucked away in the closet, his heart hammering in his chest with fear from his near discovery. There’s something familiar about it when he realizes what he’s doing, but faded too—like a dream half-remembered, context removed.

When he finally does manage to pull himself from the floor and exit Louis’ office, he does so in a rush, without bothering to look for anything else, his mind too clouded by what he’s witnessed to spare a thought to the missed opportunity for snooping. He leaves the building quickly, a thrifted black hoodie pulled over his head to shield his eyes from the rain that’s just beginning to come down.

Armand aimlessly walks the lamplit paths of the university’s campus, his mind reeling from what he’d seen, his body numb to the rain that’s soaking through his clothes. His thoughts oscillate rapidly between arousal and disbelief, one minute stunned by Louis’ appalling lack of morals and the next breathless at the memory of the look of wanton pleasure on Lestat’s beautiful face. He can’t make sense of any of it—not the betrayal burning his chest nor the desire quickening his blood—but one thing becomes abundantly clear to him.

I need Daniel, he thinks. Daniel always makes things right again.

He finds he isn’t far from Daniel’s dormitory, his feet having already brought him most of the way, so he hastens his step, driven on by the ache he feels at the idea of seeing Daniel right now. It’s only been a few days—hardly the longest time they’ve spent apart—but after everything he’s just seen, he’s desperate for the comfort and pleasure his presence so often provides.

In fact, he can already feel his blood rushing south at the sudden mental image of Daniel on his knees as Lestat had been for Louis, looking up at him with tearful green eyes as he struggles to take all of him into his mouth at once.

It’s not long before he’s slipping through the front door of Daniel’s building behind a squad of giggling sorority girls dressed for a night out in spite of the rain. The RA at the desk ignores him, too absorbed in his Netflix binge to bother asking him to sign in. Armand peels the hood of his sweatshirt off his head and shakes out his curls as he rides the elevator up to the sixth floor.

He finds the entrance to the suite Daniel shares with his roommates Khayman and Seth and knocks sharply on the door, his body buzzing with impatient energy while he waits for someone to answer.

It’s Khayman that opens the door, and Armand slips by him without so much as a greeting, heading straight for Daniel’s bedroom.

“Hello to you too,” Khayman mutters before saying loudly into the apartment, “Danny! You have a visitor!”

“What? Who is it?” Daniel asks, peeking his head out of his bedroom door a few seconds later, just as Armand is about to reach for the handle.

Armand pushes him backward inside his room and closes the door behind them.

“Hey, is everything—” Daniel begins, his brow drawn tight with concern, but he’s cut off by Armand pulling him into an intense kiss, their teeth knocking together in his haste to close the space between them.

Daniel’s hands come up instinctively to cup his face, his fingers slipping over his cheeks.

“You’re wet,” Daniel pulls away to comment, his fingers raking through Armand’s damp hair now, his nails scratching lightly against his scalp.

“It’s raining,” Armand replies, eyes on Daniel’s mouth as he backs him up until his knees hit the small twin bed tucked into the corner of his room.

Daniel nearly tips backward, but Armand steadies him with his arms around his waist, pulling him closer until they’re almost chest to chest before dipping down to kiss him again. He never wants to stop, Daniel’s skin soft and warm against his cold lips.

It’s not the only thing on his mind, however, and with his hands still gripping at Daniel’s waist, Armand spins them around so they switch places—Armand with his back to the bed and Daniel standing in front of him.

“I have—a deadline,” Daniel manages to say between Armand’s demanding kisses.

Armand barely hears him, his own need drowning out all else.

“I need your mouth,” Armand tells him as he breaks the kiss, the words whispered desperately against Daniel’s lips. “Now.”

Daniel’s pupils have blown wide by the time Armand meets his eyes, and warmth courses through his chest as he watches Daniel lick his lips and nod, dropping obediently to his knees and reaching for the fly on Armand’s jeans without needing to be told.

Once Daniel has got his pants undone and dragged the stiff, wet denim far enough down his thighs to free his cock, Armand sits back onto the bed, leaning back with one hand braced on the mattress behind him and the other tangled in Daniel’s dark curls. The air in Daniel’s room is cold, gooseflesh breaking out across Armand’s exposed skin, but the heat coming from Daniel warms him up in no time as he spreads Armand’s thighs with eager hands and presses in close between them.

Armand’s cock is hard and leaking already where it rests against his belly as Daniel takes him in hand. His lips part on a quiet moan at that first touch of Daniel’s hot mouth on him, his tongue licking a thick stripe up his shaft before he begins to suck on the head. Daniel’s gotten good at this over the last few months, and what he lacks for in technique he more than makes up for with enthusiasm.

Even so, as he takes him deeper into his mouth, Armand cannot stop the image that comes unbidden to his mind—one of golden curls between his thighs and his own finger tracing a faint scar at the corner of a very different mouth as it swallows him down all the way to the root. What would it be like, Armand can’t help but wonder, to get a taste of that silver tongue?

And in turn, what would it feel like to be utterly at the mercy of Dr. du Lac? The idea terrifies him as much as it thrills him—his fear of Louis turning out to be just another Marius at war with the attraction he’s been suppressing all semester.

As Daniel works his cock with his lips and tongue, his hand wrapped dutifully around what he cannot fit in his mouth, the indecent images in Armand’s mind shift—to Louis, to Daniel, back to Lestat—until he finally opens his eyes and meets Daniel’s green-eyed gaze.

It hits Armand then, and not for the first time, that more than anything it’s Daniel that he wants.

The one who holds him when his mind is loud and his body feels far away.

The one who fills his nights with pleasure and succumbs to his every whim as easily as breathing.

The one who is looking up at him right now as if he holds his whole world in his hands, green eyes wide and devoted as his cock edges into the back of his throat.

Armand’s heart swells with love as he looks down at him. What is any fantasy compared to this?

Armand cants his hips backward to give Daniel’s throat a rest as he wipes his tear-stained cheeks with a tender touch of his thumb.

“Not so deep,” Armand tells him, the hand in his curls gently guiding him where he wants him. “Keep me on your tongue.”

Daniel follows his direction without complaint, pulling back to focus his attention on the sensitive head of his cock as his right hand comes back up to wrap around his shaft.

“That’s it,” Armand sighs as Daniel starts to suck him again, his cheeks hollowing on every upstroke.

He watches Daniel’s face with rapt attention as his hips begin to move of their own volition in short thrusts, fucking his cock in and out of that warm, wet mouth. It’s not long before Armand feels the tension in his gut building toward its crescendo, a golden glow beginning to light the world around him. He tightens a warning hand in Daniel’s curls, pulling just the way he likes, and Daniel moans around his cock at the pleasure-pain of it. Armand moans with him, the vibrations driving him even closer to the edge.

“I’m going to come,” Armand announces breathlessly, his heart pounding against his ribs. “Don’t swallow.”

Armand comes a moment later with barely a whimper, his fingers tight around the back of Daniel’s neck to hold him exactly where he wants him. A haze fills his vision, golden and sweet, as the tension in his limbs is cut and his orgasm washes over him. The head of Armand’s cock twitches between Daniel’s lips as it pulses hot and wet across his tongue, a firm hand twisting around the rest of it to coax the pleasure from him.

Armand collapses back against the bed for a few seconds as he catches his breath, eyes closed tight as Daniel wrings every drop from him he can get. Normally, he doesn’t mind a bit of overstimulation, but Daniel has been so good and he doesn’t want to keep him waiting. He guides Daniel’s mouth off his cock and opens his eyes, pushing himself up until he’s sitting upright on the bed once more.

“Come here, beautiful boy,” Armand commands in a gentle voice, warm with affection in the wake of his orgasm.

Without hesitation, Daniel is in Armand’s lap and grinding against his belly, his arms wrapped around his shoulders. Armand tugs the waistband of his navy sweatpants down beneath Daniel’s balls and reaches for his cock, already hard and weeping clear fluid from the tip.

“Look at that,” Armand comments, gaze cast down at where the swollen, wet tip of Daniel’s cock is peeking through his fist. He rubs his thumb over the head, the movement eased by the precome beading at his slit. “I’ve barely touched you and you’re already dripping for me, Daniel.”

Daniel doesn’t speak, but Armand can see his face turning red with a fierce blush, heavy breaths pushed through his nose with every rise and fall of his chest.

“Should I make you come?” Armand asks him, his thumb swirling around the sensitive head before drawing tight circles under his frenulum.

Daniel whimpers and nods, his hips canting forward to chase the sensation, his big green eyes begging louder than his mouth ever could.

“Well, let’s see if you’ve earned it,” Armand says. “Open up.”

Daniel does as he’s asked, his jaw dropping open so Armand can see his come still pooling on his tongue.

“Good boy,” he praises, voice tender and proud, before he lets go of Daniel’s cock and slides his fingers inside his mouth.

Once he’s got them nice and wet, he brings his hand back down to Daniel’s cock.

“You can keep the rest,” Armand says as he starts to stroke him in earnest now, a mixture of saliva and his own spend easing every movement of his hand, and Daniel swallows what little remains in his mouth.

The noises coming from Daniel are obscene—hot little whimpers low in his ear as Armand jerks him off with rough pulls that make him leak onto his sweatshirt. Armand can smell the come on Daniel’s breath as he pants against his cheek and squirms in his hold, desperate for release, and he can’t help capturing his lips once more in an open-mouthed kiss that tastes like him.

Armand sucks on Daniel’s swollen bottom lip as he slips his left hand down the back of his sweatpants to palm roughly at his ass. Daniel grunts into his mouth as Armand pulls his cheeks apart, his fingers pressing deeper until they find the tight furl of his hole. Precome dribbles down the length of Daniel’s cock and runs over Armand’s fingers as he starts to play with it, almost but not quite pressing inside.

“Please,” Daniel whines against his throat now, his forehead dropped to Armand’s shoulder as he breaks the kiss, overwhelmed with sensation, fingers gripping tightly at his sweatshirt.

“‘Please’ what, Daniel?” Armand asks him, his voice purposefully casual, as if he doesn’t have a clue what the desperate, horny undergrad in his lap could possibly want from him. “Is there something I can help you with?”

“Let me come,” Daniel begs him, lifting his head up off Armand’s shoulder to look at him with pleading eyes. “Please let me come. I don’t know how much longer I can—”

Daniel cuts off with a gasp as Armand cruelly nudges just the tip of his finger inside him.

“Armand,” he moans, his voice breaking over the second syllable, but he doesn’t come—not yet, not when Armand hasn’t given him permission.

Armand doesn’t think he’s ever loved him more.

“Go ahead, beloved,” Armand tells him, speeding up the movements of his hand over his cock, every stroke bringing slick, wet sounds to their ears. “You’ve earned it.”

With one hand on the back of his neck, Daniel pulls him into a sloppy, grateful kiss. In seconds, Daniel’s cock is twitching hard in his grasp as he comes with a punched out moan, streaking Armand’s black sweatshirt with a sticky mess. Armand can’t find it in himself to be bothered by it, too interested in kissing Daniel’s soft, pliant mouth as the force of his orgasm overtakes him.

Armand strokes him through it until he hears Daniel start to whine and he gently grabs his wrist to stop him. With a final kiss to Daniel’s lips, Armand slips his hand out of the back of his pants and lets go of his cock. He wipes his hand on his ruined sweatshirt and takes it off, tossing it to the floor to deal with later, before he pulls Daniel’s sweatpants back up his hips.

With his arms wrapped around Daniel's back, Armand tips backward onto the bed and pulls Daniel down with him. He stares up at the pockmarked ceiling and runs his hand along Daniel’s spine as he tries to catch his breath. His mind feels fuzzy, but in a good way this time, his focus fixed firmly on the way Daniel feels lying boneless and sated on top of him.

“Not that I’m complaining,” Daniel pants against Armand’s throat a moment later, “but what the fuck was that about?”

Armand huffs a laugh against the side of Daniel’s head as it all comes rushing back to him. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

“Try me,” Daniel deadpans, leaning up on his elbow to get a look at him. His hair is a wild mess, but Armand thinks he wears it well.

“You remember Lestat?” he asks, as if he hasn’t complained about the man to Daniel ad nauseam already.

“The tall, blonde idiot in your Ethics class?” Daniel asks, his face screwed up with confusion at the apparent non sequitur.

“He’s not that tall,” Armand frowns, “but yes.”

“What about him?”

Armand laughs again, soft and a little hysterical, before he says, “Louis is having an affair with him.”

Daniel’s eyes widen. “What?”

“Yeah,” he says. “So much for having an ethical ethics professor.”

“That’s—what?” Daniel sputters.

“And, to make matters worse,” Armand continues, vindicated by Daniel’s shock, “he’s married. Lestat, that is, but I think Louis might be too because he’s got a book in his office about restoring intimacy and trust in your relationship and I don’t know why he would have that unless he cheated on someone.”

“How do you know all this?” Daniel asks.

“I saw them together,” Armand tells him.

“What do you mean ‘together’?” Daniel asks, pushing himself up a little further to get a better look at him.

“I went to Louis’ office tonight,” Armand begins, “as you suggested, and—”

“Okay, I did not—” Daniel interrupts.

“Daniel, please,” Armand says, cutting off his interjection with a mildly annoyed look. “I am trying to answer your question.”

“Alright, alright,” Daniel waves him off to continue with a resigned sigh.

Armand waits to make sure he’s finished, before he says, “Well, I let myself in to have a look around, but before I got very far, I heard Lestat’s grating provincial accent down the hall and…”

Armand launches into a retelling of what happened, sparing no detail and only veering off into a tangent once or twice. When he finishes, Daniel is quiet for a long moment. It’s then that Armand notices the way Daniel has become rigid on top of him, the easy comfort of before nowhere to be found. There’s also a crease in his brow that wasn’t there before, and Armand doesn’t like it one bit.

“Daniel?” Armand asks, reaching up to touch his cheek. “What’s wrong?”

Daniel leans away from him before his hand can touch him.

A pang of hurt goes through Armand. Daniel has never done that before.

“So you’re telling me,” Daniel begins, voice unreadable, “that you broke into your professor’s office, watched him have sex with a student you once described to me as ‘annoyingly handsome,’ and were so turned on by it that you practically broke down my door because you needed to get off?”

Armand frowns, his hand dropping back to the bed. “That’s not exactly how I would put it, but—”

The pinched expression on Daniel’s face gets more severe as he moves off Armand’s lap entirely, sitting up beside him.

“So, what—” Daniel interrupts him, “—you couldn’t join them so you came here instead?”

“What?” Armand asks, sitting up himself, eyes wide and hurt. “Of course not.”

“Makes sense, I guess,” Daniel says bitterly, more to himself than Armand as he looks down at his bedspread. “Not like I ever fucking tell you no.”

“Daniel, how could you think that?” Armand asks him, reaching for his hand. “It’s you that I want. Always.”

“How the fuck would I know?” Daniel snaps, ripping his hand away and looking up at him with an accusing glare. “I mean, you tell me how much you want me, how much you love me, but everyone knows that means fuck all when you only say it when you’re in bed with someone.”

Armand watches in stunned silence as Daniel climbs off his bed and begins to pace around the room.

He doesn’t think I meant it?

“And you’re always off doing God knows what and only ever call me back to your place when you want to fuck me—or better yet, when you want to go to a club because you want to pick up some rando from the bar so you can watch them fuck me,” he rants. “I mean, what the fuck is that?”

Armand blinks at him, his mouth opening and closing, his cheeks flushing with shame and confusion. Daniel had always been so obliging, so eager for anything Armand suggested, that it had never even occurred to him that he might not want to open their bedroom to others. Why had he never said anything?

Before he can find the words to reply, Daniel is speaking again.

“Like I thought you were ghosting me for weeks last semester and then you just showed up at my table in the commons and plucked the book I was reading from my hands like it was only yesterday that you’d dragged me to see the rerelease of fucking Blade Runner and not almost an entire month before that,” he says, still pacing around the room.

“Daniel,” Armand pleads as he stands up to meet him, unable to hear any more. Daniel stops and turns to look at him. “I wasn’t ‘ghosting’ you. You must understand, between my classes and Marius, I have a very busy schedule and—”

“So do I!” Daniel shouts. “I’m taking a full load of classes, I’m doing a work study in the library, and I’m the goddamn editor of the school paper! And somehow I always manage to make time for you when you need me.”

Guilt sits heavily in Armand’s stomach as he watches Daniel’s eyes fill with angry tears. He realizes that he’d been so focused on his own desires and on the escape from his own problems that Daniel provides that he hadn’t stopped to think about what Daniel wanted or needed from him.

“I’m sorry,” he says at last, reaching for Daniel’s face. “I never meant to—”

“Don’t touch me,” Daniel snaps, physically recoiling from his touch and Armand’s heart shatters once more in his chest.

“Daniel, please,” Armand begs, his own eyes filling with tears now as he feels Daniel slipping further and further away from him. He can’t let it end like this. He can’t. “Please, just—let me explain.”

Daniel takes in the utter desperation Armand knows must be on his face in silence before he takes a deep, fortifying breath and nods for him to continue.

The relief that floods Armand’s system is so intense he nearly starts to cry in earnest. He’s so used to Marius ignoring his pleas for understanding that it takes him a moment to gather his thoughts now he has a chance to share them. It’s difficult to order his thoughts like this, but he does his best to try.

“You are very important to me,” Armand says at last, chancing a step closer. When Daniel doesn’t move away from him, he continues, encouraged. “More than you could ever know, Daniel. Your presence bathes my world in light. You keep me tethered to the present so I don’t stay lost in the past.”

Daniel stares at him. “I don’t know what that means,” he says.

“You don’t have to,” Armand tells him, growing frustrated with his own poor attempts at explaining himself as he takes another step closer. “Just know that I care for you a great deal. I wouldn’t have come here if I didn’t.”

Daniel shakes his head, Armand’s answer not enough for him, it would seem.

“I can’t keep doing this,” he says, the words coming out jagged and raw. “It’s not—it’s not good for me.”

“How can I make it good for you?” Armand presses, eyes wide and desperate as he catches a glimpse at a way forward for them.

Daniel is quiet for a moment, his eyes cast to a spot of the floor, his jaw working as he tries to keep himself together.

“What do you need, Daniel?” Armand asks him, ducking down to meet his gaze directly. “I’ll give you anything. Anything.”

“I need…” he hesitates, like he can’t bring himself to say what’s on his mind suddenly.

Armand takes a step closer, pressing a hand to the side of his face. A few tears slip down Daniel’s cheeks as his eyes close and he leans into Armand’s touch in spite of himself.

“It’s okay,” Armand tells him softly. “Tell me what you need, beloved.”

Daniel swallows roughly. “I need to know what we are,” he says, opening his eyes to look at him again. “You say you care, but at the end of the day am I just a hookup to you? Your friend with benefits? Your—your boyfriend? I need to know where I fit in your life.”

The question hangs in the air for a moment. The thought had never crossed Armand’s mind that all Daniel would need was the reassurance of a label. It seems such a small thing now, this misunderstanding that had nearly torn them apart.

Armand almost laughs because of it, but the vulnerability in Daniel’s eyes is sobering.

“Do you want to be my boyfriend, Daniel?” he asks him, his voice gentle and full of love. The word feels strange in his mouth, but he wills himself not to trip over it.

It takes effort for Daniel to nod.

“If you want me, I need to be yours,” Daniel says at last. “No one else’s. I’m not a fucking joint you can pass around at a party.”

“Done,” Armand says easily.

Daniel blinks at him. “Done?”

“Yes,” Armand replies, very matter of fact. “You are mine, and I am yours.”

“Seriously?” Daniel asks, his voice as skeptical as his expression. “Just like that?”

Armand does laugh now, a soft and tender sound.

“Just like that,” Armand tells him, stepping closer still, until he can feel the heat of Daniel’s chest against his own. “I love you, Daniel. I’ve meant it every time I’ve told you that.”

Armand can see the moment Daniel caves, the hard look in his eyes softening as he lets Armand’s words finally seduce him. Armand smiles at his victory and leans in to kiss him. Daniel relaxes under his mouth as their lips brush, sighing in relief before he begins to return his kiss. Armand feels Daniel’s hands in his hair, then, running reverently through his curls as he opens his mouth to the gentle touch of Armand’s tongue.

When they break apart, Armand keeps his eyes closed for a moment, enjoying the intimacy of their embrace now that the tension between them has eased. When he opens his eyes, he sees Daniel looking back at him, those green eyes still faintly red, but lacking the misery of moments ago.

Armand can’t imagine leaving him now.

“I love you, too,” Daniel whispers, then.

It’s not the first time he’s ever heard him say it, but Armand's heart pounds in response all the same. He leans in to kiss him again, and this time Daniel meets him in the middle, pulling him in the rest of the way until their lips meet once more.

When they part, Armand’s thumb strokes a tender path along Daniel’s flushed cheek as he asks, in a quiet voice, “Would you mind if your boyfriend spent the night?”

Daniel laughs, his tearful smile achingly beautiful.

“Only if he lets me work until I’m done with this article,” Daniel replies. “He’s set me back an hour already.”

“He'll be silent as a mouse,” Armand solemnly promises, dropping a kiss to Daniel’s forehead, just because he can. “You won’t even know he’s here.”

Daniel nods before he lets his fingers slip from Armand’s hair. He gives him one last look before he begins to turn back to his desk.

“There’s pajamas in the dresser,” he says, nodding his head in the direction of the cheap piece of composite wood furniture against the wall by his door.

Armand goes over to it and picks out something soft and warm and Daniel’s—a faded band t-shirt with traces of newspaper ink and cigarette smoke still clinging to the fabric even after a wash. He strips down to his underwear and pairs it with a cozy pair of flannel pajama bottoms before he leaves the room to hang his wet clothes in the shared bathroom, ignoring the curious look he gets from Khayman as he passes him on the couch.

He makes it back to Daniel’s room in time to see him snort something off his desk—Adderall, most likely. Armand lies down on Daniel’s bed without comment, stretched out on his side with his head cushioned by his arm.

He stares at Daniel for a long time, fighting off his darker thoughts about Louis and what he’d witnessed in his office. Those can wait until tomorrow. For now, he watches Daniel’s concentration, noting the way his leg bounces up and down in a steady rhythm as his fingers fly over the keyboard, his deadline likely mere moments away.

He wants to wait up for him, to welcome him back to bed with reassuring kisses, but eventually his eyes drift close and he’s swept away by sleep.

#devil's minion #devil's minion fic #loustat #loustat fic #interview with the vampire #ethics professor louis fic

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