Archive of Our Own ^beta

After ten minutes of fiddling with his phone and trying to patiently give Helmut his allotted prep time in their bedroom, Bucky drains the last of his wine glass and flicks off the TV. He stands and stretches, collects both glasses off the coffee table and rinses them out in the sink. Only once both are dry and put away does he turn down the hall to follow his partner.

He’s pleased to see that Helmut’s followed his orders perfectly: gone through their toy chest and laid out the items he wanted, and then stripped naked (clothes placed neatly in the hamper) and knelt beside the bed, head bowed and hands clasping his elbows behind him. Bucky pets his hair lightly in praise as he walks across to the chest, and registers the way his lover fidgets his fingers in response, still as worked-up as he’d been earlier in the evening when he had asked Bucky to tie him up; this position is usually enough to bring at least a little bit of calm, but it seems Helmut’s thoughts are more wild and tangled tonight than he’d been letting on. Well, that’s what Bucky’s here for.

It takes only a quick glance at the items his lover has chosen for understanding and a plan to form - they’ve done this together enough times that he can tell just from the specific selection of toys what kind of evening has been requested of him. Each item conjures up delightful memories of past uses, weaving together into a single tapestry - the keycode to the desires Helmut needs him to fulfill.

Yes, this evening will go very nicely indeed.

He pads back to his lover, crouches before him to lightly tilt his jaw into a sweet chaste kiss. Helmut tastes of the wine they’d had after dinner and smells as divine as ever, but there’s anxiety creasing his forehead. His pinched expression speaks to how much he needs this, and his hopes that his dom will be accepting of his selection of toys. Bucky smiles and brushes a freckled cheek with his thumb.

“Thank you for choosing what you want,” he praises, “is there anything else you need me to know?” He has his suspicions of course, but it’s always good to have Helmut be the one to ask.

Helmut nuzzles a little at the hand stroking his face, arms still diligently clasped behind him. He glances up at Bucky from beneath his lashes, never shy about voicing his requests but beginning to allow the submission he only ever feels in the bedroom settle like a mantle around him. “Is it OK if I struggle?” he asks, voice already a little hoarse.

Suspicion confirmed, Bucky gives him another kiss, to reassure him and thank him for speaking his wishes. “Of course it is, Pet,” he says. Helmut usually likes to be put down gently, bound up nice and slow so he can relish ceding his control to Bucky bit by bit. Most of the time, he loves the exchange of power that comes from partaking in his own imprisonment - obediently offering up each limb to be bound until he couldn’t refuse even if he wanted to. Tonight he must really really need this. “You can even try and hurt me some, if you want.”

Accepting that his lover liked to play pretend sometimes when it came to his own consent had been less of a stumbling block than Bucky might have predicted, given his own history; Bucky knows - for the most part - what Helmut had gone through on the Raft; he has the barest bones of it at least, understands enough to be a supportive sounding board on the few occasions his lover has chosen to confide in him. Convincing him to speak to a professional has been one of the few ongoing battles between them, but Bucky had learned enough about therapy through his own experiences to understand that this might be some way for his lover to deal with it all in his own, typically unconventional manner. It’s only rarely that Helmut even asks for this kind of session, and it usually means he’s been in some way reminded of the Raft. Bucky files away a mental note to ask him about it in the morning, but for now he returns his focus to the job at hand.

As always, Helmut’s safeword: “You’re to click your fingers if you need me to stop, at any time.” Bucky tells him seriously, and waits for his lover’s obedient nod before rewarding him with a final probing kiss, their last before they each slip fully into their respective roles.

And just like that, they’re on.

Bucky grips Helmut by the back of the neck and propels him to the bed, feels the smaller man gasp in surprise and only barely manage to turn and land on his back, hands raised to claw defensively as Bucky tries to pin him down. They grapple for a few moments, Helmut snarling and kicking, Bucky controlled and calm. Bucky has to draw back to avoid being headbutted, ducks to the side as a stray elbow skims over where his nose had been a moment before. Bucky is bigger and stronger and his opponent knows it, panic setting into his features when Bucky grabs hold of a wrist and twists it around, using the momentum to push himself up and flip the other man over, lunging across to straddle his hips. Helmut jerks and yells, tries and fails to unseat Bucky, to reach back with his free arm and pry him off, succeeds only in getting his second wrist trapped as well. He screams and wriggles in frustration, kicking up with his legs, spitting Sokovian curses and using every ounce of his might to try and break free.

But the Winter Soldier’s grip cannot be escaped, especially when Bucky switches up his grip to clasp both wrists in a single metal hand, grabs a handful of thick brown hair with the other and holds his snarling, bucking submissive down to the bed like a screeching feral animal.

One hand around his wrists and one in his hair, Bucky drags Helmut across the bed until he’s in reach of the toy chest, the other man’s legs kicking uselessly all the way. The thick black wrist-cuffs Helmut had chosen are within convenient reach if he clambers off the bed, loosens his grip on Helmut’s hair and pushes up on his wrists to strain his shoulders. Bucky does just that, then forces his helpless captive’s wrists into the cuffs one by one, squeezing them with his metal hand and buckling them in place with the other. Helmut screams at him, immobilised by the pressure Bucky’s exerting on his shoulders. Bucky clips the cuffs together behind his back and then releases him to wriggle and rage as he quickly scoops up the other man’s ankles instead. He drags Helmut in a circle on his stomach, smirking at the outraged screeches he gets for manhandling his lover so humiliatingly. He has to draw Helmut halfway off the bed in order to reach the leather straps that he will use to immobilise the other man’s legs, and nearly gets kicked in the face from the raging Sokovian - still fighting him, still refusing to be cowed.

He sits himself astride Helmut’s right leg, bends Helmut’s left knee until his ankle pushes up against his ass. With his wrists clipped behind him and both his legs held down, Helmut has no traction with which to fight, and all he can do is flail impotently on his belly as Bucky manhandles three straps into place to lock his left thigh and calf together. He cinches the buckles tightly and spares a moment to bless their house’s soundproofing and the lack of any nearby neighbours - Helmut’s raising a cacophony fit to wake the dead.

Three more straps for the right leg and the frog tie is nearly complete. For two quick finishing touches, Bucky fastens another set of matching leather cuffs to each of Helmut’s ankles, handy D-rings positioned on the outside for later use. He sits back and laughs cruelly as Helmut tries to reach the bindings against his ankles with his bound hands, throwing himself around with no hope of escape. He ends up on his back, thrusting his hips into the air to try and break free, his determination somewhat countered by the way his cock is almost fully hard, jutting up thickly out of his curls of dark brown pubic hair. Bucky feels his own cock responding eagerly at the sight, and he has to stop himself from sinking down on top of his lover to steal a kiss, knowing that at this stage in their game, he’s still liable to get himself bitten. Speaking of.

The red ball-gag on the toy chest is about as big as Helmut can take; his lover never has been one to do things by halves, and luckily for them both, he’s got quite a good handle on his gag reflex. Bucky kneels astride the angry, heaving body and rolls the red ball up between Helmut’s pectorals, admiring how the bright red of the soft silicon contrasts against the flush of pink beginning to colour his lover’s freckled skin. He has to bite back a smile as Helmut’s eyes glue to the thing immediately as it enters his field of vision, still throwing out curses but the insincerity behind them betrayed by the eager, hungry look in his eyes. It’s no trouble at all to fit the ball between Helmut’s teeth, with a noise of protest so token Bucky has to snort as he fixes the strap tightly into place. His lover doesn’t seem to have noticed - he’s finally beginning to look a little bit blissed out, lips stretched wide and chewing happily. He continues to wriggle a bit beneath Bucky’s weight, but the gag is what’s definitely drawing most of his current attention... Bucky knows Helmut bristles at being called ‘cute’, but there isn’t really any other word for it.

It’s the quick work of a moment to flip his distracted lover back onto his front, the air leaving his body with a grunt. Helmut wiggles in his new position and arches his back halfheartedly, eyes a little more alert but still making happy little gasping noises as he suckles the red silicon in his mouth, drool beginning to smear the mattress beneath him. His eyes are half-lidded and don’t even seem to be tracking Bucky as he moves on to the next item on their chest.

Helmut’s collar of choice is a thick band of soft black leather about two inches high, with a single D-ring fastening that Bucky positions at the nape of his lover’s neck. The leather is perfectly sized to Helmut’s neck and buckles in easily, but Bucky tugs on the D-ring anyway to check tightness and position, and is rewarded with a startled growl as Helmut’s attention shifts back to the person continuing to truss him up. The collar - like the rest of the restraints - will dig in deep enough to bruise but not enough to cut; though Helmut’s masochistic streak runs a little bit wider than Bucky’s, he’d willingly accepted the lines his partner would not under any circumstances cross, especially not on a night of play such as this one.

Helmut certainly knows what he wants out of this session - he’s given Bucky a perfectly-sized length of red rope to work with - strong enough not to break if Bucky applies a little bit too much superhuman pressure. He knots one end of the rope into Helmut’s collar, and gives a few more yanks to let his lover squirm as he’s bent back and then released.

The bottle of silky lubricant comes next. Helmut’s wriggled around enough to be able to watch him collect it, and Bucky turns to smirk at his lover, who obviously knows what’s in store if the way he begins to writhe around and squirm in earnest is any indication. His protests are both muffled and futile though, so Bucky wastes no further time in scooping up the big steel anal hook and coming back up to the bed to tease his lover with it a little. Helmut’s legs jerk in their straps and his hands twist in their cuffs in search of escape. He shouts at Bucky incoherently when the cold metal ball begins to trail down the length of his lighty-sweating back, tone slightly panicky as Bucky rounds the bed behind him and moves out of his field of vision; he tries to glance back over his shoulder but the collar limits his movement just enough to make this impossible. Instead his thrashing intensifies, especially when the mattress dips behind him as his dom settles on his knees between Helmut’s forcibly-spread legs.

Bucky spends several moments just playing with his lover’s ass, spreading the cheeks wide and thumbing his puckered hole with the end of a metal thumb. Helmut complains at the dryness of his touch and wiggles his hips in protest. When Bucky eases up to pop the cap on the lube, he tries once again to make a break for it, attempting to twist onto his back and away. Bucky catches him easily and reaches up for the red rope he’d attached to Helmut’s collar.

“Ah ah ah,” he says, punctuating the last with a sharp tug that hauls his protesting submissive up by the throat. “You’re gonna stay where I put you and take what I give you.” He squirts a generous glob of lubricant down his lover’s cleft and begins to work it in. Helmut’s body easily suctions his first metal finger in once there’s no more impeding friction, and Helmut keens and warbles at him, clenching tightly around the vibranium digit. “You’d better not forget who the one in control here is, and what I could do with you if I don’t think you’re behaving yourself.”

Helmut moans at him and drools a long line of saliva down his chin. It lands on the bedspread and Bucky lets Helmut follow it soon after, releasing his hold on the rope to put his other hand to better use spreading Helmut’s ass-cheeks and giving himself the leverage to go deeper and faster with his finger. Helmut’s balls are hot and heavy, his cock thickened and dark beneath his body. Bucky makes himself ignore it, choosing instead to insert a second finger into his lover’s tight wet hole. Despite his dom’s warning, Helmut still tries to struggle, whining as he’s fingered further open. He mewls when Bucky’s fingers scissor a bit inside him and piston in and out, spreading his legs as best he can to take Bucky deeper, his body begging for more despite itself.

The smell of him is enough to make Bucky’s mouth water - salty sweat and heady lust, the smallest sharp tang of fear - Bucky’s still fully clothed, and his dick is a hard, hot line in the front of his jeans. He inhales a few deep breaths, bringing his focus back to the mission at hand: his priority here is his submissive, who has been so good by communicating to Bucky his needs, and is trusting his dominant to take care of him. Bucky will have time for his own fun in due course.

Bucky removes his fingers and wipes them down a little on the bedsheets. He grips Helmut’s wrists and unclips the cuffs, unconcerned when Helmut tries to use his momentary freedom for another bid at escape. The cuffs click easily onto the D-rings at Helmut’s ankles, locking his lover’s arms into place on either side of his struggling, sweaty body. Helmut complains loudly at the change in position and yanks his wrists hard to try and disconnect them. The leather and steel hold easily as he wrestles against his bindings, shrieking and thrashing even more fervently now that he’s been placed into position for the hook.

Bucky nudges Helmut’s knees with his own until he’s spread as far as he can go. He carefully squirts more lube onto the ball at the end of the hook and makes sure it’s fully coated all the way up the shaft.

“Now, be a good boy and spread yourself open for me.”

Helmut mewls and shakes his head no. Well, someone has elected to be disobedient tonight. Bucky uses the hand not holding the hook to give him a good disciplinary slap on his right asscheek, and then another on his left for good measure. Helmut cries out and moans pitifully, but when Bucky asks again he still shakes his head. Four more slaps, one on each side, and when Helmut refuses a third time, Bucky makes it six. Helmut’s ass has flushed a lovely shade of pink, and he moans and whimpers and trembles when Bucky’s done.

“Listen here, you little slut. This thing is going in you whether you help out or not, so you’d better decide quickly how easily you want the next few minutes to go. I’m gonna keep on spanking you every time you refuse me, and eventually I might just get so tired of your brattiness that I impale you in a single stroke.”

For the first time tonight, Helmut lets out something close to a sob. His body quivers and his hips grind forward to rub his greedy leaking cock on the bedsheets. With shaking fingers he maneuvers his hands as best as he can in their bindings until he can spread himself wide for Bucky and arch his back to bring his ass as far up as it will go.

Bucky slips the hook in by degrees; the ball at the end is big, and it takes a number of tries and another quick probing by Bucky’s own fingers before Helmut’s hole swallows it in. Bucky pushes the shaft in slowly after it, carefully tracking his lover’s shaking body and the moaning gurgles of his breath. Once the hook is fully seated and flush against the cleft of Helmut’s form, he sits back on his haunches to let his lover acclimate fully, watching the twitching pucker of his sphincter as it clenches around the steel intrusion.

After a few moments have passed and Helmut’s hands have slackened to his sides again, Bucky eyeballs a good distance along the rope and reaches up to grab it, drawing his protesting lover up with him. Helmut gasps and spasms as the hook inside him shifts and presses into his prostate. He tries to pull back on the rope and away from his inevitable fate, so Bucky holds him up to watch in amusement as he only ends up choking himself out on the collar, his gurgling protests growing steadily weaker as his blood flow and air are constricted. The fight could never remotely be a fair one, but Bucky thinks with amusement that it’s important for his submissive to feel he’s done the very best he can, at least.

Once Helmut’s tired himself out enough that he slumps in defeat, Bucky ties a safe and secure quick-release knot in the eyelet at the exposed end of the anal hook. The position forces Helmut’s upper body off the mattress and exposes the heaving expanse of his chest, the smattering of fine dark hair that trails between his pectorals down to his navel. His legs are cinched tight and spread wide to try and alleviate the pressure the rope exerts as it arches his body tightly.

Helmut moans a little around the bright red ball-gag stretching his mouth wide, and some more drool drips down to hang in a long line. His eyes find Bucky and he’s back to being combative, gaze blazing and angry. He gurgles something and tries to thrash in his bindings, only to choke off a cry as the hook inside him shifts.

Bucky chuckles a little at the display of aggression, then leans down and deftly collects the line of drool with his tongue, licks his way up to Helmut’s stretched lips and grins at the indignant splutter he gets in response.

“Well aren’t you a pretty sight.” he croons, striding back and forth to admire his handiwork. He’s so gorgeous like this, Bucky thinks, with the red of the rope and the gag, the black leather bands pressing lines of bruising into his skin. Speared on a metal toy and blazing with fiery impotent anger; the brief obedient calm he’d gotten out of Helmut had been short-lived, but Bucky will work him all the way down before the night is through. In the meantime, it would seem his sub has decided to be a brat; he snarls something unintelligible at Bucky, but even through the gag it’s clearly an insult. Well, that certainly won’t do.

Helmut’s asscheeks make a satisfying thwap when Bucky smacks them once each with his metal hand, the noise almost as satisfying as the yowl he gets from their owner in response. The spanking is far more effective now the hook is inside; Helmut jerks, eyes pinching closed for a moment as the hook obviously rubs against something significant. His hips grind down abortively before he remembers himself and makes a clear effort to still, conscious of his precarious position.

Bucky chuckles again at the death glare he’s sent. Already Helmut’s covered in a fine sheen of sweat, hair beginning to flop over his forehead boyishly. He’s blushing furiously, Bucky sees, and they haven’t even really gotten started.

“Now, since you’ve decided to be so rude to me, I’m going to have to punish you even more than I’d planned.” Bucky says, faux-casual, and trails his fingers experimentally along the reddened skin he’d just smacked. “I think I’ll do something about that dirty fucking mouth of yours, make it so you couldn’t talk even if you wanted to.” Bucky hides a smirk at the anticipatory shiver that runs up Helmut’s spine, pushing back up to make a lazy circuit to the toy chest and the remaining items laid out. Helmut tries to track him and finds himself once again waylaid by the hook embedded deep inside.

The second gag, when Bucky holds it up, makes Helmut’s eyes widen so comically one would think it was his first time seeing it, rather than something he’d specifically requested for tonight’s scene. Bucky knows how much he loves the piece, even remembers when they’d purchased it, curled up together one cold morning and scrolling on their phones in companionable silence. Bucky had been distracted from twitter by a quick inhale of breath, and when Helmut had spun his screen around to show his lover what had caught his interest, it had taken all of Bucky’s strength to keep a straight face at the eagerness with which Helmut had clicked on ‘add to cart’.

The gag is made of thick black rubber, and is wide enough to muzzle the entirety of Helmut’s chin until just below his nostrils. It has two sets of straps for extra security, and a dildo moulded to the inner side that is even bigger than Bucky’s own impressive length. Helmut adores it, almost as much as he likes to pretend that he doesn’t.

Bucky brings the head of the rubber cock up to Helmut’s face, strokes it lightly across the bridge of his nose, his cheekbones, his chin and neck. Helmut tries to shy away, eyes crossing as he attempts to keep the thing in sight, but he’s drooling more than ever now, and Bucky knows his cock has got to be twitching and dribbling where it’s trapped against the mattress beneath him.

“What do you say we really give you something to chew on, huh Pet?” Bucky teases, grins at the groan Helmut cannot help but release. “Fill you all the way up so you can’t even dream of calling for help. Stuff you up like the good little whore you are and leave you choking for as long as I like.”

Helmut gurgles in desperate want but still has enough presence of mind to play his part, twisting his head away when Bucky moves to unbuckle the ball-gag and getting himself a slap in the face for his troubles. He’s obviously getting used to the feel of the hook now with how easily he’s shifting his head, and Bucky makes a mental note to tighten the rope up a notch or two.

“Behave!” He places the dildo-gag on the bed and grips Helmut’s jaw with his right hand, the left making quick work of the buckle strapping the red ball into place.

It comes free with a river of spit and a dry cough, and Bucky frowns, pursing his lips.

“Yellow, Helmut.”

His lover stops resisting him in an instant, but he tenses in worry and gazes up at his partner in confusion.

Bucky strokes his face lightly to reassure him, kisses the flushed apple of his cheek. “How you doing there, baby?” he whispers coaxingly.

He feels Helmut nuzzle him involuntarily at the pet name, hears him swallow with a dry click before responding, still a little anxious, “Good.”

“Can I get you some water?” He strokes the damp hair off Helmut’s face, entranced by the twitch of his lips, the flutter of his eyelashes as his face softens in understanding.

A quick dart of tongue to wet his lips. “Yes, please.” Helmut tells him quietly, words already slurring as he calms a little.

Bucky sits up more solidly on the bed and deftly unhooks the D-ring from the collar, setting the rope aside to free up the column of Helmut’s neck. The long, tense line of his lover’s sweaty back relaxes as he drops his head forward into Bucky’s lap with a grunt of relief. Bucky uses the corner of his t-shirt to wipe the spit from Helmut’s chin and the corners of his mouth, can’t help but land a soft kiss in his hair when he’s done.

The bottle on the bedside table is ready and waiting with a straw; Bucky holds Helmut in place with a palm between his shoulder blades and then reaches across for it. Helmut’s lips find the end of the straw easily and he drinks with a sigh.

When Helmut’s had his fill, Bucky sets the bottle back on the nightstand, runs his hand up and down Helmut’s back for a few moments. He can’t resist dipping forward for a filthy kiss, the hand still gripping Helmut’s jaw pulling him forward with another groan. He claims Helmut’s mouth easily, forces his lips back open to fuck his tongue inside. They’re both moaning by the end of it, Bucky’s cock a hard, hot line in his jeans and Helmut’s eyes half-lidded in bliss when Bucky pulls back.

Then he scoots off the bed and yanks the rope of the hook so far forward that Helmut falls flat on his face with a startled yelp, hands and feet wrigging uselessly to try and regain purchase. Bucky shortens some of the slack in the rope and clips the D-ring back into Helmut’s collar, arching the other man even more sharply than before with a yell and another useless wriggle. Helmut snarls at him and bares his teeth even as he pants and moans.

“Fuck you.” he spits at Bucky in Sokovian, eyes flinty and black.

Bucky arches an eyebrow in admonishment, smirks back in response to Helmut’s sneer and leans in to grab a fistful of honey-brown hair. He pulls sharply, and Helmut keens. “So eager for my cock up your ass? Who knew you were such. a. little. slut!” He punctuates the words by tugging Helmut’s head forward, fucking the hook deeper into him and leaving the tied man gasping and struggling. “Don’t worry, by the time I’m done with you you’ll be begging me to stop. In the meantime though, we’ve got to do something about that mouth of yours. If you can’t be nice, I’ll just have to fill it up until you’ve learned your lesson.”

Helmut struggles desperately as Bucky grips his jaw to force it open. Bucky shoves his metal fingers deep inside, pressing down on Helmut’s tongue until he splutters and chokes and his eyes begin to stream. Bucky withdraws his hand and with Helmut’s mouth open on a cough, he smoothly feeds the rubber dildo-gag in past swollen red lips.

Helmut twists, shudders, tries to buck and spit the thing out, but Bucky only pushes it further in. He hits Helmut’s tonsils and feels the man gurgle and gag and recoil at the intrusion choking his airway, then inches the contraption forward even further until it’s completely, fully seated down the back of Helmut’s throat.

Helmut’s still fighting. He tosses his head like a horse, succeeds only in jostling the hook in his ass. He gags and chokes, throat working desperately against the bulge of rubber blocking it, face wet with saliva once more, eyes streaming with tears. Bucky holds his hand over the smooth wide front of the gag, listens to him moan and struggle, his desperate uneven breaths as he has to draw in lungfuls of air through his nose.

The straps buckle tightly above and below Helmut’s ears. Once they’re firmly in place, Bucky steps back off the bed again, erasing any hope for his lover that he might be shown mercy and spared. Helmut arches his back, instinctively still trying to dislodge the intrusion filling up his throat. He mewls a little and sobs a few times in pain and humiliation as he realises that the only way he’s going to be freed is if his dominant wills it.

The push and pull of the dynamic they have here in the private comfort of their bedroom is intoxicating. Bucky finds himself slipping in and out of character in time with whatever look he sees in his lover’s eyes, so attuned to what he needs at any given time. With hours of practice under his belt, Helmut’s already acclimated to the obscene girth and depth of the gag once he’d transcended the initial shock and animal panic. Now he’s visibly fighting his own battle in his head, tripping towards the edge of giving up the combative show and letting himself fall into Bucky’s waiting, caring arms.

Bucky collects the next item: a blindfold, padded and soft. It will obscure his sub’s vision entirely and hold its place no matter how much he cries.

Helmut inhales raggedly at the sight, and the moment he gives up the fight is gorgeous: he moans desperately at the sight of the blindfold in Bucky’s hands, so pleading and beautiful that Bucky can’t help but smile. He kneels down and presses a reverent kiss to Helmut’s forehead, gets a wet choked noise in response. “I’m gonna be here with you the whole time, baby. You can click your fingers for me and I’ll set you loose in an instant.”

Helmut keens around the dildo in his mouth, shuttering his eyes and hollowing his cheeks sinfully. Bucky slips the blindfold over his head and settles the elastic beside the upper buckle of the gag.

The blindfold takes Helmut’s sight, and with it goes the brief bubble of compliance Bucky had seen him argue himself into. He tries to scrape his face against the sheets to dislodge the obstruction, but with the hook held so tautly to his collar, he can’t bend his neck down far enough to reach, stuck shifting and flailing in panic, unable even to prepare himself for whatever his dom decides to do to him next.

Which in this case would be a sturdy pair of noise-cancelling headphones so expensive that Bucky had done an actual, literal spit-take when Helmut had casually mentioned their price (he’s long since come to accept the seemingly bottomless depths of his partner’s credit cards as just another one of life’s little quirks, but surely even the filthy rich must have some limits?). Bucky’s going to have to give himself a break after this - he’s still fully clothed and his cock is aching fit to burst. Helmut wails around the length of rubber lodged in his throat as the plush headphones are set to rest snuggly over his ears, enveloping his senses in a blanket of silence. He tries to dip his head, to twist to the side, to do anything at all to dislodge the items robbing him of his senses, but is drawn back at every turn by the tautness of the rope which jolts the hook in his tightly-clenched hole every time he moves his neck.

Bucky steps back, takes the opportunity now that Helmut can’t see or hear him to finally palm his own hard cock, to wrestle his jeans and underwear down and throw off his shirt. Helmut’s wrists and ankles are flexing in their bindings involuntarily, and he’s grinding himself against the sheets as best he can with no leverage to move. Even with his head arched as far back as it can go, the collar is pulled tight against his throat, applying pressure in a way Bucky knows that Helmut loves. He’s making low rumbling noises and breathing harshly through his nose.

He’s so beautiful like this, trussed up and stuffed at both ends, blind and deaf to everything except his own pleasure and pain and the ache in his trapped limbs. His pale skin, dappled with freckles, is flushed all over, the redness sharpest on his plush round asscheeks where Bucky had smacked him. The contrast of the black leather and red rope against his skin is delicious, the silver steel of the hook emerging teasingly from inside his body divine. Bucky takes himself in hand with a groan as he sees Helmut start to hollow his cheeks again to suckle himself in earnest on the rubber cock filling his mouth. The smell of lust and precum is thick in the air, and Bucky wants nothing more than to climb up on the bed with his heaving lover, to caress the gleaming skin with his lips and tongue, to slick himself up and press inside his tight wet heat.

The view really is spectacular... sucking in earnest at his gag with muffled slurping sounds, limbs finally reaching stillness and head beginning to droop. The sensory deprivation is doing its work, finally quieting Helmut’s roiling thoughts enough to grant him a little peace. Bucky loves watching his lover slip through subspace, cherishes the level of trust it takes for such a proud and self-sufficient man to admit that he needs this - to be vulnerable and helpless and have Bucky be the one he chooses to see him there. One of these days Bucky might genuinely leave him like this for several hours, unable to move or see or hear or speak, self-soothing himself all the way into swimming, muzzy subspace without any further input from Bucky at all.

But not tonight - that’s not what his submissive has asked for. Bucky has two more items on the menu, and they speak to a need that’s different to being left alone indefinitely to drift.

He does give it a good while though before finally moving forward again and allowing himself to touch once more. Without any warning, he trails the tips of his cold metal fingers down Helmut’s flank, the touch feather-light, and grins when his lover jerks sharply at the touch and keens as he suddenly jolts the hook inside himself.

Bucky follows the first movement with more touches, caressing Helmut’s shoulder blades and arms where they’re anchored up behind him, circles around the bed to trail his fingers on Helmut’s clavicles, to pinch lightly at a dusky, pebbled nipple he can see poking out against the bedsheets. He’s careful not to follow a pattern - touches always at the place he thinks Helmut will least expect it, and is always rewarded with a surprised flinch and groan whenever his fingers land, dimples of gooseflesh appearing in the vibranium’s wake. Helmut tries desperately to sense him, and whines in pleading frustration when his attempts gain him nothing but more movement from the hook. Bucky grazes his hand around the column of Helmut’s flushed throat on either side of the collar, rubs against the softer underside of his chin, pushes upwards slowly to shift the artificial cock, feels the spasms of Helmut’s throat as he splutters and chokes on the unexpected change in the thing’s position. He can feel the shifting rubber, and watches in fascination as his lover’s throat pulses and spasms to try and accommodate it.

Bucky kneels down until his face and Helmut’s are level, breathes forcefully so the other man can feel it on the exposed line of his nose and cheeks. There’s a muffled noise from deep in Helmut’s throat in response, and Bucky dips to trail his lips and tongue over the cold line his fingers had left on Helmut’s throat, and the noise becomes a keening moan.

Then Bucky bites down, and even through the thick gag, his lover manages to howl.

Fuck…

Bucky’s flesh hand is fisted tightly around his own dick. It’s getting more and more difficult to concentrate like this, with his cock hard as a rock and leaking desperately, the head shiny with precum and dark with blood. Change of plan.

With both his hands working at once, he has the two buckles of the gag open in less than two seconds. Helmut chokes beautifully as the rubber is drawn swiftly out, and he gurgles an equally gorgeous cry as it’s immediately replaced with Bucky’s own hot flesh.

The tight heat and suction are an instant relief. Helmut’s mouth is lax and useless from the gag, flooded with saliva and unable to protest as Bucky pounds himself in and out. He grips a length of Helmut’s hair with one hand, grabs the rope with the other. He pistons punishingly in and out of Helmut’s mouth and jerks the rope up to meet him, yanking the hook inside his lover with every thrust of his hips. Helmut screams as best he can, grinding his own hips desperately against the bed, blinded and deafened and choking on his dominant’s dick. The bottom half of his face is a wet mess of saliva and snot and precum, his gurgling gasps liquid and obscene as Bucky unrepentantly chases his own pleasure. Helmut can’t move, can’t fight - can only lie there and take it as he’s fucked and used relentlessly, until finally Bucky pushes Helmut’s nose into his pubic hair, stills, and cums down his throat.

Helmut’s gasping against his softening cock, every exhale verging on an overwhelmed sob. Bucky uses the tight grip in Helmut’s hair to bob his lover’s head back and forth a few more times along his length, then withdraws himself and shoves the dildo back into place once more. Helmut’s throat is raw and loose and slick, and the rubber sinks back in easily. Nevertheless, Helmut tries to recoil when Bucky moves to buckle it back together, moaning a little pathetically, cheeks red with exertion and humiliation. Bucky jerks sharply on the hook, and Helmut whines in submission and obediently lets himself be strapped back up to avoid any further punishment.

Sated for now, Bucky stands back up. He’ll be hard again soon - super-soldier perks - but for now he can get back on track after that delightful little detour. He trails his metal arm down Helmut’s sweaty, heaving back until he’s cupping a plush plump buttock, still pink from its earlier abuse. Then he smacks his hand across the flesh, smirking at the bloom of redness that follows the impact and the choking moan from his lover. He tiptoes his fingers across to the small of Helmut’s back, then slides them in along the metal hook to skim down Helmut’s cleft.

He kneels on the bed behind his lover, one hand on each cheek to spread him wide. He’d been generous with the lube earlier, and there’s plenty still smeared around Helmut’s hole, pink and fluttering around the metal swallowed inside. He takes a second to just admire the sight, before diving in to swipe a long lick up his lover’s perineum until he reaches the place where metal sinks into flesh. There’s a wail from the other end of the bed, and from this vantage point, Bucky can see the way the hook rocks in and out with every little movement his lover makes. He mouths around the puckered rim, spreads the plush cheeks wider with his hands, and then sneaks his tongue forward to press in right alongside the hook.

The sounds Helmut makes are delicious, the taste of him familiar and welcome. Bucky kneads the cheeks under his hands and then pulls Helmut backward until he’s face-first on the mattress, immobile lower half braced on his knees and heavy cock bobbing freely, no longer able to access even the barest of friction from the mattress below. Bucky feels Helmut’s trapped limbs spasming on either side of his head as he tongue-fucks and licks the other man into a shaking, mewling mess, hears him choking desperately as the new angle of the gag once again pushes the dildo against new regions of his throat. Bucky shifts one hand up around his lover’s front, bypassing his dick and pressing instead against his belly, shifting the ball of the hook with external pressure from his hand the same as he’d done with the gag in Helmut’s throat. All the jostling of the hook earlier has stretched him nicely, and Bucky’s tongue fits in so easily that he can practically lick his way all around Helmut’s inner rim, sending the other man into throes of pleasure with every stroke.

Helmut’s thrusting desperately into the air by the time Bucky lets up, so close to cumming but unable to do so untouched. He’s out of his mind with lust, his body and pleasure entirely in Bucky’s skillful control. Gone are the endless plans and crafty logic which make up so many of Helmut’s waking hours - he’s governed now entirely by his overflowing emotions and primal, animal, physical need.

The rope pulls free easily from the metal eyelet at the top of the anal hook, and Helmut’s arched back relaxes with a pained and grateful groan as he’s freed from the stress-position. Next, Bucky unclips his lover’s hands from his ankles and re-secures the wrist-cuffs once more at the small of his back. His sub lets himself be maneuvered without a hint of protest, too far gone to even consider attempting to struggle away. Once that’s done, Bucky pulls the rope still attached to Helmut’s collar - a handy new leash - and draws the man helplessly up off the bed, rearranging him so he’s braced on his calves instead of his knees, his back flush against Bucky’s own chest. Helmut groans painfully as he’s manhandled into the new position, muscles having grown stiff from their prolonged immobility. Bucky will massage away the ache in a couple of hours, but for now he’s not yet done inflicting it.

Helmut’s dark head flops back easily to rest under Bucky’s chin, and Bucky wraps an arm around his soft belly to steady him in place as the other keeps tight hold of the leash. The headphones and padded blindfold have held their place perfectly, and Bucky can feel the heave of Helmut’s heavy breaths against his chest and arm, the shift of his cuffed hands as he fruitlessly tests their new restriction, the vibrations in Helmut’s jaw as he chews and suckles mindlessly on the rubber dick lodged in his throat. Bucky loves him like this - pliant and sweaty, out of his head enough to seek his pleasure so instinctively, not yet too far down that he isn’t still conscious of the ways he’s being restricted and manhandled by his trusted lover. It’s so fucking hot, and Bucky feels his own cock beginning to twitch in interest once more against the plush curve of Helmut’s ass against his crotch, filling out slightly to prod the metal hook still deeply embedded inside the other man’s body.

Bucky runs his hand soothingly over the fuzzy hair of Helmut’s belly, licks the sweaty juncture of his neck and shoulder and mouths open kisses against the side of his jaw. Helmut hums and shudders in glorious pleasure beneath him, thrusts his hips up as far as he can, cock flushed and leaking and neglected. Helmut’s abdominal muscles are twitching and flexing under Bucky’s palm, softened by the healthy layer of fat it had taken him months to regain once Bucky and Sam had dragged him shaking, paper-thin, and hollowed-eyed from the Raft that final, awful time. Bucky traces his fingers up to circle and pinch Helmut’s peaked nipples, scratches back down to rest just at the edge of his navel, chuckling against warm salty skin when his lover whimpers and bucks his hips to try and beg him further down.

No chance of that just yet; if Bucky leans back he can just about snag the end of the spreader bar laid out for him. Without any further ceremony he gives his lover a shove, faceplanting him down against the bed. Helmut has no way to catch himself, no choice but to go where Bucky chooses for him to be. He tries immediately to grind his neglected cock against the sheets, but Bucky yanks him hard by the leash before he has the chance to seek even the barest hint of friction. Helmut chokes and splutters as he’s forced back onto his knees, precariously balanced with his ass in the air and his ankles still strapped against the tops of his thighs. Bucky unlocks his legs one by one, tossing each leather buckle aside as he goes, his lover groaning with relief at each progressive taste of freedom. He whimpers around his rubber dildo as Bucky heaves him around, rearranging his hips until his ass is pointed into the air, knees spread wide enough that his slick hole where the hook has impaled him is on full display. The cuffs at either end of the spreader bar buckle just between the bottom of Helmut’s thighs and the knob of his knees, spreading him so wide that he mewls in helpless agony and twists his face against the bedsheets as Bucky stretches him apart.

Bucky clambers off the bed, fully hard again as he takes in the display before him, his squirming, helpless sub with his knees spread wide and ass forced into the air, wrists locked behind him and steel hook still embedded firmly in his wet pink hole. He rounds the bed again until he’s back by Helmut’s head - the headphones have dislodged a bit with how much he’s scraped his face against the sheets - but more pressing is the way Helmut’s face is mashed disconcertingly into the bedding, his breathing turned laboured as he struggles to support his weight at this new angle. Bucky trusts his sub to snap his fingers if he really can’t breathe, but even so he’s loath to take the chance; he kneels in front of his lover and hauls him up by the shoulders to reposition him with his chin on Bucky’s thighs. Helmut moans in relief and coughs a little, gurgling weakly around the gag. Bucky cards a hand through his hair in apology.

He maneuvers the headphones back into place, checks the blindfold is secure, and then pulls the buckles of the gag open. He draws the sodden rubber out slowly, Helmut coughing and drooling helplessly with his cheek pressed against Bucky’s thigh as the toy is removed. Bucky pets his hair some more and gives him another few moments to recover, reaches back for the bottle and coaxes his lover to take a couple more sips of water, even though Helmut’s jaws tremble too much for him to keep most of it in. By the time Bucky removes the straw his lips are red and glistening and shaky, but he’s obviously found his second wind - he begins to mouth at Bucky’s thigh and to moan wordlessly, tries to nudge his way up to where he knows Bucky’s cock must be. Bucky chuckles softly at his lover’s sweet neediness - blind, deaf, too far gone for words and very recently unable to breathe, his Helmut’s still aching to have his mouth filled up.

Bucky obliges him, leans forward a little to let Helmut suckle greedily at the head of his cock, slips it in slowly until it sits heavily on Helmut’s tongue, chuckling again when Helmut shudders rapturously and hollows his cheeks. He hasn’t got the strength or the angle to be able to move his head, so Bucky thrusts in and out a couple of times, lazily, letting his lover gurgle and drool in the helpless way that he loves on every stroke. Helmut’s mouth is a hot wet heaven, and Bucky lets his thrusts build speed and power until his lover’s noises are gagging and vulgar, and this time when Bucky comes he pulls back just in time to smear his ejaculate all over his lover’s cheeks and jaw and the bridge of his nose. Helmut groans at the feeling, mouth wide and red and filthy, swollen tongue poking out to try and catch some errant drops.

Bucky indulges him by smearing a hand through the mess he’d left behind and shoving his fingers into Helmut’s mouth so he can eagerly clean them off. He fishes around with his other hand until his fingers connect with the ball-gag they’d started off with - big enough to keep Helmut occupied but not enough to constrict his breathing too badly in his new position. He extricates his fingers regretfully and smiles as Helmut chases blindly after them, then rewards his lover by settling the red ball-gag back against his tongue instead. Helmut mouths it up hungrily and immediately begins to suckle even before Bucky’s fully settled it between his teeth. He straps it in securely and smiles at his lover, drops a kiss to his head before lifting him gently up and back onto the mattress.

Helmut’s face is once again shoved against the bedding, but the less-restrictive gag is definitely an improvement. Bucky pads back around the bed to collect the final item on today’s agenda, detours a little to fish their bottle of lube from where it had wedged itself between two pillows with all the movement of the mattress. The silicon vibrator Helmut had chosen is bright purple, thick, and curved to hit his prostate. The three inbuilt speed settings to drive him absolutely wild.

Helmut’s hands have slipped to the side a little, dangling loosely in their cuffs. His hips move gently in an unconscious rhythm, legs spread wide by the bar, trying to fuck himself on the hook still inside his hole and not getting nearly enough stimulation. Bucky can help with that.

One hand on the small of Helmut’s back, the other gripping the base of the hook, he gently guides the toy free. Helmut groans against the gag as the steel ball emerges with a wet pop. His pink hole is already wet and stretched and fluttering from the hook - Bucky flicks the cap of the lube and drizzles some more down his crack anyway, and the cold liquid on his overheated skin makes Helmut jerk and whimper in surprise.

Helmut’s loose enough to easily swallow three of Bucky’s fingers already, the fourth one slipping in after only a minute or so of Bucky working him further open. He moans fervently the entire time, hips meeting the thrusts of Bucky’s fingers, begging for more and too far gone to be able to even ask for it. When Bucky slowly begins to inch the vibrator in he mewls, arching his back, muscles flexing to take it in all the way to the wide flared base where Bucky can grip. Bucky fucks it in and out a couple of times, letting him adjust to the girth and the curvature, twisting it to prod his prostate and teasing him with the prospect of what will happen next.

Then he presses the little button on the base, and the vibrator whirs to life.

The effect is immediate - Helmut cries out loudly against the ball gag, jerking and humping the air with abandon at the sudden onslaught of stimulation. Bucky starts up a quick, steady rhythm, feels Helmut’s whole body begin to shake as he’s penetrated over and over with the vibrating toy. He keens and drools, chewing wildly at the silicon in his mouth, flushed and sweaty and quivering with sensation. Helmut’s cock has been hard and thick and leaking for so long it’s almost unbelievable that it could get any harder, but somehow it does - stiffening and reddening impossibly further but still unable to find a release. The sight is gorgeous - Bucky palms Helmut’s ass with enough force that his fingers leave red traces in sweaty skin, feels himself stiffen too for the third time this night, knows exactly how his third orgasm will be achieved. Helmut had been pretty far down before, but this is the part where Bucky makes him fully fall apart.

Another press of the button ratchets the frequency up to the second setting, and his lover screams, hands clenching and pulling at their bindings as Bucky pummels the toy against his prostate. He’s making a constant garbled nonsense sound of pleasure, doesn’t even seem aware of much more besides the vibrating implement pistoning in and out of his hole.The spreader bar rattles as he tries to move his legs, ankles pushing against nothing and with no leverage to be of any use. Bucky finds himself unconsciously thrusting his hips in solidarity with Helmut’s own, knows how desperate the other man must be to come, helpless with the force of his need. Bucky could hold the toy against his lover’s prostate indefinitely and he still wouldn’t find his release, and the thought of forcing this man to scream and cry breathlessly for hours as he’s ruthlessly stimulated makes Bucky’s dick leak globules of precum at just the idea that he could.

When Bucky clicks the toy onto the highest setting, his lover wails, shakes, smears his face against the bedsheets and sobs like he’s coming apart. His hips thrust desperately, the head of his cock shiny and swollen and purple with blood. Helmut is mindless with need, tied in place, filled and fucked and utterly powerless. Bucky edges him mercilessly, pulls the vibe all the way out and slams it home over and over again until the man below him is shaking and shaking, would have collapsed long ago if not for the enforced spread of his knees and the way Bucky’s grabbed hold of his leash to hold him in place. Bucky twists the toy, grinds the curved end into the sparking bundle of nerves of Helmut’s prostate, bites down hard into the meat of Helmut’s ass, finds the man’s dripping cock with the hand still gripping the rope and -

Helmut screams his release like a man possessed, his entire body jerking and spasming like a coiled spring set loose, toes curling and aching cock spurting ropes and ropes of thick hot white over Bucky’s hand, the bed, his own heaving chest. Bucky fists his cock with quick jerks to wring every last drop, keeps the vibrator going until Helmut’s loud vocalisations become sighing gurgles of queasy relief, his hole loose and spread, limbs boneless and limp and exhausted.

Bucky removes the vibe and switches it off. He sits up on his heels, slicks himself up with the cum Helmut had shot onto his hand, and easily presses on home. Helmut takes him with a tired groan that quickly becomes a startled keen as Bucky brushes up against his oversensitive prostate. He jerks, tries to get away, but Bucky’s got a firm grip on his hips and on the rope, and his bound lover can do nothing but shake and sob as Bucky builds up a steady rhythm of thrusts, sheathing himself into Helmut’s hot wet overstimulated body. He kneads Helmut’s ass cheeks hard enough to bruise, his balls slapping obscenely against Helmut’s perineum as he builds up superhuman speed.

Not deep enough, not tight enough; he pulls out, unclips the spreader bar from between Helmut’s knees and pushes his submissive over onto his side, the other man too weak and consumed by overwhelming sensation to stop him. Helmut ends up on his right flank in his own puddle of cum, hands still immobilised and useless behind him. Bucky hoists Helmut’s left leg over his shoulder and resumes his pace at the new angle, his lover’s whole body pliant and loose and incapable of supporting an ounce of its own weight. Helmut’s sobbing so hard the tears have made their way out from under the blindfold and have coated his sex-flushed cheeks, mixing with the drool and sweat and the cum already plastered across him. Bucky leans himself forward, still thrusting, and bypasses the leash entirely to snag a metal finger directly into the collar’s d-ring at his nape and pull, choking Helmut’s already bruising throat until he gasps and flops and sobs and Bucky cums like that, balls deep in his beautiful shaking lover as he strangles him down into subspace.

-------------

Helmut’s floating all alone in a dark black ocean, but he is not afraid. There is no sound to overwhelm him and no light to distract - just warmth and softness and a quiet buzzing calm where he knows his racing thoughts would normally be. He lets himself glide along in the gentle current, sees the surface of the water a few times peeping up out of the deep but feels no need to approach, content to take his time in this peaceful, soothing otherworld where space and time are absent and meaningless and none of his concern.

When he does come back to himself, the process is slow - he becomes aware first that he is aching all over in places too numerous to catalogue, the muscles of his shoulders, hips, thighs, stomach and jaw all pulsing with a strained heat just a step off from sliding into genuine pain. His asshole feels wet and loose and fucked-out, and there are bands of heat around his throat and wrists and on several spots along his legs. Still though, he is not afraid - how could he be, when he feels himself pillowed by comforting warmth, a gentle hand stroking through his hair, vibrations of white noise and the rise and fall of a naked chest he cannot put a name to but which his fuzzed-up brain tells him by smell alone is safe, safe, safe.

He spends some time basking in that feeling, nuzzles a little at warm sweaty skin and light chest hair until he realises slowly that there is an object in his mouth and that his deafness and blindness are artificial. The revelation is mildly confusing, so he brings up a hand to push the obstructions away - only to feel that his hands are heavy and aching too, and cuffed in front of him besides. They’ve curled without his notice into the nude juncture of another man’s hip, and the beat of disorientation in his directionless bubble of calm brings him up a little further to the water’s surface, just enough to poke through the cobwebs of his mind and - oh, James. Of course. He heaves a pleased sigh through his nose, nuzzling into James’s chest (because of course that’s where he is - safe and sound in James’s arms, one of his most favourite places to be in the world) to breathe the smell of him fully and let it flow like sunlight across his mind, lighting across his synapses like a lighthouse beacon to welcome him home.

The chest beneath him rumbles in what must be a soft chuckle, and the hand in his hair gently shifts to draw the noise-cancelling headphones from his ears. Sound rushes back in like a soft exhale, and he welcomes the quiet noises of the home that they share, finds himself fixated on James, whose breathing is steady, his heartbeat below Helmut’s right ear slow and healthy and regular. James runs his fingers up and down his arm, strokes his hair some more. He says nothing and Helmut slips a little bit back into that warm deep water, content to be held in darkness and suckle a little at his gag, his lover’s warm skin enveloping his and his breaths and heartbeat even and calming.

It’s the pulsing ache in his muscles that brings him back up again eventually. He’s conscious enough now to know that he’s owed a few more indulgences from James before the night is out, first among which is a bath, which he’s getting more and more interested in taking, now that his rising awareness is cataloguing the dried sweat on his skin and the itchy, sticky mess between his legs and on his chest. He has a vague recollection of there being cum on his face, but that appears to have been washed off, at least. He rubs his nose impatiently into James’s right pectoral and whines at him a little, revels in the simple privilege of being able to hear and feel it when his lover responds with a laugh.

James pulls the blindfold off as gently as he had the headphones, then rests his palm lightly across Helmut’s eyes to give him a moment to adjust. When Helmut eventually blinks up at him, vision still a little swimmy, his lover is gazing at him with a level of adoration that it had taken him so very long to let himself trust, but which now fills him with a pulsing blossom of warmth - his James, so good and brave and tender and patient, taking care of Helmut so completely, allowing Helmut to place himself entirely in his hands.

“Well, hi there,” James smiles down at him, caressing Helmut’s cheek with a cool metal finger. Helmut gets lost in his gorgeous blue eyes for another few moments before remembering that he has a mission, and that mission is bathtime and a massage, possibly some ice cream, hot chocolate at the very least. He grumbles again, shoves James’s chest some more with his face, thinks belatedly that he could move his hands and see to himself except his hands are like two leaden lumps on James’s thigh, and also he quite likes having James be the one who tends to him when he feels like this.

He earns himself another snicker, but at least James follows that up with what Helmut wants. The gag comes free with a truly disgusting amount of saliva, which a part of Helmut’s brain smugly notes ends up mostly over James’s abdominal muscles. His jaw aches something fierce, and his tongue feels heavy and parched and useless in his mouth. He slips a little bit down again, and when he blinks back up James has guided his water bottle back into his mouth, and he manages to take a few shaky, painful sips. The water is soothing on the fucked-out raw feeling of his throat. He feels his face being kissed and caressed, and wonders when he closed his eyes again? His eyelids feel so heavy…

James is cradling his hands, pulling the buckles free from their cuffs and sliding his wrists back down to warm skin. Perhaps he’ll sink back down a little bit more, just until James has carried him to his bath. He feels so good after all, wants to stay in this feeling just a little longer before the world intrudes on him once more. Helmut will be bruised for days - bands of lurid plum purple across his wrists and throat and legs - he’ll have to wear long sleeves and high collars for their meeting over at SWORD HQ with the lovely Miss Rambeau, but that’s a problem for later, not for now. For now he’ll go back to the floating deep again, spend just a little longer in the dark cradling warmth, and when he wakes up he’ll be clean and cared for, safe and loved in James’s steady arms.