#love Boothill being held by nothing but the weight of Dan Heng's gaze and his own levels of down bad

[feroluce]

So I know we're way past Christmas, but I'm thinking today about how Boothill should get all tied up on his knees like a cute little present. 💝

Dan Heng wraps him up all careful and meticulously, he doesn't have to worry about how it feels since it doesn't make a difference to Boothill anyway, so he gets to just do whatever looks the most appealing to him. Boothill…doesn't really get it to be honest. He doesn't really understand what Dan Heng's getting out of this. For that matter, if he were still human and could actually feel himself being restrained, he's not sure he wouldn't freak out and try to all but chew himself free. …Not that he couldn't do that right now, if he wanted to, honestly.

"Ya know this won't actually hold me, right? Like not even a lil."

"I'm aware," Dan Heng finishes whatever it is he's doing behind Boothill's back and steps around him. Boothill doesn't actually know what's tied where or how delicate it is, he doesn't have any feeling there, so he just leaves his arms together, right wrist to left elbow and vice versa, as Dan Heng left them. "But I think you'll stay like that anyway."

"How come?" Boothill is still trying to see what Dan Heng did to his back without undoing whatever the hell thing he can vaguely feel tied around his neck, when his head is suddenly pulled around facing forward again. Dan Heng's hand holds him under his jaw, tilts his face up, up, up.

Boothill is suddenly very aware of the fact that he's on his knees, and that Dan Heng is standing right over him.

And then Dan Heng opens his mouth and says the most ruinous, most devastating thing possible.

"Because I think you look cute like this," he says, thumb stroking the line of Boothill's jaw.

His hat fell off somewhere onto the floor behind him, and Boothill kinda wishes he had it back now, because oh god he can feel it, his entire face is bright blue, he just knows it is, but there's nowhere to hide from Dan Heng's appreciative gaze this way, or from his stupid proud little smile as he sweeps his fingers up the sides of Boothill's face, back into his hair, rubs little circles into his scalp, as though Boothill isn't stuttering and sputtering like sh-shut the fork- ya can't just say things like that-

"Still want to skip this and do something else? I have a documentary I wouldn't mind watching tonight instead." Dan Heng's hand pulls away and Boothill is finally free to lean forward far enough that his hair hides his face. He still hasn't moved his arms. He still hasn't gotten off his knees. There's steam all but whistling from the vents in his neck.

"….Y-You can go ahead."

"How cute."