Chapter Text
Without the threat of certain death when using Verso's Chroma in the Endless Ink looming over his head, Gustave got more and more used to the ink that Verso allowed for him to constantly have present on his hands. They'd fled Paris with no immediate intention to return, and had, instead, headed for Portugal, where it turned out the Dessendre's had a Summer home that they had not used for many years, where Alicia had been sent to when the fighting had started, and now it was also their home.
However, now, with the peace treaty Gustave had orchestrated hanging over the heads of any who dared to gainsay him, the Writers and the Painters had stopped their fighting, and Alicia had been allowed to return to Paris.
Which left Verso and Gustave idle, and time to do whatever they liked.
Which had led to hours of Verso teaching Gustave to wield the Chroma within his Endless Ink, to hone it into a weapon of lethality. The Writers had, of course, accepted Gustave's word as law after the devastation he had delivered across the entire community, but Gustave and Verso were both aware that it was a matter of time before someone tried to find Gustave, and didn't assume he had died from what he had done with Verso's Chroma.
So they prepared, they clung tighter to each other than they ever had, and Gustave spent days, weeks, then, at a time, with his fingers honed into lethal claws of ink as Verso taught him how to command the Chroma, had to move it like he instinctively knew how to move ink. It was not something Gustave considered himself as having the patience for, but he did steadily improve under Verso's tutelage.
As did other things, of course.
Verso froze, the second he closed the door behind him, staring at Gustave, where he was leaning against the table, the Endless Ink swirling around him in waves, his eyes chroma-bright and eager. "Putain, Gustave-"
"I figured out how to do it, while you were gone," Gustave said, conversationally. "You've been telling me to treat it like a wave for weeks now, and that's not quite right. Ink has more weight to it, it's not a neutral weight like chroma is." He flicked his fingers, another lash of ink spilling from him to spin around him in slow twirls, and Gustave watched Verso's breath catch and smirked at him. "I've been playing with it all afternoon."
Verso very quickly put his coat down, and followed it with his wallet, and removed his socks and shoes. Gustave's was grinning at him in that same hungry way that meant he was going to have to cancel the visit of their cleaner this week, but neither of them minded. "You figured something else out, didn't you?"
"I did," Gustave agreed, watching Verso stalk closer. "You keep telling me to think of the Chroma as an extension of myself. As though it should come from me, when it comes from you. The ink isn't the same. It's generated, controlled by me. But it is generated by the chroma that you have poured into it." Gustave let out a shaky exhale and pushed himself upright as Verso stepped through the swirling circles of ink, each piece nearly bouncing off of him as though it were repelled by him.
Gustave reached up and put his hand to Verso's heart, the chroma in his fingers and over his hands responding to the heartbeat beneath him, pulsing with color at the touch to Verso's skin. "Ink," Gustave breathed, sharpening the claws with a thought, watching as the tip sliced through the shirt Verso was wearing, prompting another series of amusing curses, leaving his chest bare beneath the sharp touch. "Behaves differently. But it behaves. It obeys."
"Bordel," Verso cursed, his head falling back with a groan as Gustave stepped closer to trail a claw over his shoulder and down his collarbone, his whole body trembling. He could feel the pulse of his chroma on Gustave's hands, responding happily to him with every touch. Gustave was as claimed by his chroma as he was with Gustave's ink. The two of them, impossibly tangled together, creating something entirely new between them. "What have you been ordering it to do, hm? Mon Coeur?"
"This," Gustave breathed, and the faint tendrils of ink that were swirling around Verso solidified into a much thicker, broad lash that ended with a dexterous tip. He slid it along the length of Verso's side and watched him shudder, his bright eyes going dark with arousal. "You have been teasing me about my control lately." Another twitch of his fingers and the buttons of Verso's trousers were undone and the tendril of ink was wrapping around Verso's half hard cock.
Verso laughed and spread his legs as wide as he could manage, moaning as Gustave used the ink to tease him until he was fully hard. "This is what you've spent your day doing?"
Gustave smiled. "Yes. I take it you approve?"
"Of course I do," Verso panted out, arching his hips up and into the firm, smooth touch of ink. It was maddening, and he missed Gustave's calluses, because there was nothing that could ever truly compare to them. "No wonder you jumped me the moment I came in the door, though."
"You cannot blame me," Gustave breathed, stepping in closer, another inky tendril thickening, reaching out from behind him to tip Verso's head up, exposing his neck while the other continued to stroke him. "I had to test and make sure they were safe. I wouldn't use them on you unless I knew that they were." He pressed a soft kiss to Verso's cheek. "I love you too much to risk hurting you."
"Gustave," Verso moaned, only to find his chin tipped up higher, cutting him off as the ink began to slither down the length of his body. "Take me to bed."
Gustave paused, both ink limbs drawing back in consideration, and he reached out, cupping Verso's face in his hand, pressing the tips of his claws in, claws that he knew Verso loved, and didn't hesitate to inform him of how much, to hold him in place. "No demands from you, tonight, Verso. Tonight, I plan to use you, and leave you well-sated. You need do nothing but listen. Understand?"
Verso shuddered, another groan getting ripped from him as he nodded, his cock leaking where the ink limb had pulled him out and left him there, hard and throbbing. "I understand."
"Good," Gustave praised. "Now strip and climb on the bed. You're going to spread your legs and let me take you apart." His eyes were bright. "I always wanted to have more hands to be able to torment you properly, and now I will."
Verso shrugged off the remains of his shirt and his pants, walking to the bedroom, throwing the clothes to the side for them to deal with later. He took a moment to turn the bed down, pointedly, and climbed onto it, leaving his legs pointedly spread as he settled on his back, leaning back against their comfortable pillows. Gustave always liked it when he put himself on display.
Gustave took a moment to shed his own jacket, leaving him in only his shirt and pants. He was not planning to wear them for long, but this was about taking Verso apart, and Verso was who he wanted to focus on. He followed Verso into the bedroom and stopped beside the bed, taking a long moment to study the sight of him, his cock already hard and straining between his thighs, and the faintest traces of ink lingering on his skin.
"There are some who might say..." Gustave said, gesturing with his fingertips, the large limb of ink reaching around him to trail up Verso's thigh as he watched his lover tremble. "That we made a mistake, mixing ink and chroma." This time the second limb was gestured forward, reaching for Verso's other thigh as Gustave spread his legs wider and watched Verso arch off the bed, his chest heaving as he panted and squirmed. "I do agree, I think we made a mistake."
Gustave met Verso's eyes and the confusion in them with a grin and climbed onto the bed between his legs, wrapping the limbs of ink around his thighs, holding him immobile, watching Verso strain and flex again them as the flush grew on his face. "But I think we made a mistake, because now that I know how to do this..." he leaned down and pressed a kiss to Verso's trembling belly. "How could I ever want to do anything else with my days? When I can have you here, like this, spread out for me, ready to be devoured? So eager to be consumed by me?"
Verso moaned, his head falling back against the pillows with a gasp as Gustave pulled him further down the bed with the ink limbs, his thighs trembling in their grip. "F-fuck, Gustave."
"Mmm, eventually," Gustave, agreed, leaning down to nuzzle Verso's belly again, rubbing his nose down the length of his cock to hear another choked moan get ripped from Verso. "But not quite yet. I have a few things I want to do first." He lifted his eyes up and frowned, his eyes narrowing at the way Verso had his hair tied back. It had grown, longer than was considered proper by Parisian society, but Gustave loved it, and more than that, Gustave loved seeing it spread out on their pillows, like his own private spill of ink. A quick jet of ink stole the hairtie away and threw it towards their pile of clothing and he smirked at the way the untamed hair immediately fanned out beneath Verso.
"You, you're going to be combing my hair out later," Verso growled, gasping as Gustave's hands cupped his ass and lifted him, the motion easy thanks to the limbs of ink seeming to take most of his weight.
Gustave smirked at the picture Verso made for him, spread, suspended in the air, his cock leaking steadily against his stomach, his chest and face flushed. He let the claws grow on his fingertips again, digging into Verso's skin, but never breaking it. Never hurting him. Verso's chroma could never hurt him, and Gustave would sooner die than ever allow his ink to cause injury to Verso. But he could tease Verso with the threat of it. With the sharpness of his claws and the strength of them, and Verso was always happy to demonstrate just how much he loved doing that.
"My own private spill of ink over my fingertips, while you melt like butter against me," Gustave commented, licking his lips, before tugging Verso's hips just that much closer. "I shall await the hour where I get to pamper you as you deserve." He kissed the top of Verso's cock and listened to him cry out, sliding one of the tendrils higher, teasing and pressing against and into Verso the faintest amount as he sucked the tip of his cock into his mouth.
Verso thrashed beneath Gustave, the gentle press of the ink, something they'd only ever teased each other with, they'd never tried it, but now, the ink, slick with chroma slid into him and Verso let out a broken moan as Gustave worked the tip of the limb in and out of him as his mouth moved up and down his cock. It was an assault on his senses as Gustave growled against his skin, demanding every reaction possible from him. It was almost too much, ramping up far too quickly as the limb inside him started to grow larger, working in and out of him the same way Gustave would with his fingers and Verso choked on a moan, trying to warn Gustave when all of the sudden, there were familiar, warm fingers wrapped around the base of his cock, holding him back.
Gustave watched Verso cursed and grinned, waiting for him to sag back into the strength of the ink limbs keeping him aloft on the bed. He met Verso's eyes and smirked, pulling his hand away to lick up the precome that had dripped all over him with a smirk. "No need to let the game finish so early. I've barely started, after all."
Verso shuddered, his breath catching at the soft threat before he nodded. "Right," he said, letting out a weak laugh. The limb inside him pressed deeper and ripped another sound out of him, his whole body tensing as his cock twitched and continued to leak steadily. "Do I get to know what your plans are for me?"
Gustave hummed in consideration. "Ask me nicely," he ordered, pressing the limb deeper into Verso, watching him buck and moan. "Ask me nicely, Verso, and maybe I'll tell you."
Verso bit down another whine as Gustave proceeded to fuck him with the ink until coherent thought was an impossible thing, until he pulled it away, completely away, and left him gaping and clenching around nothing with a whine. "Please, Gustave, please, I want... fuck, I want whatever you want. Anything you want."
"That is, of course, what I am going to take from you," Gustave promised, sitting back as he focused and flicked his fingers rapidly, watching as the limbs, all three of them now, flipped Verso around, exposing his back to Gustave, his legs still spread wide, his hole slick and oily from the chroma that had been left behind by the ink. He made sure there was a small tendril of ink wrapped around the base of Verso's cock and watched him buck into the sensation, smirking at the sight of it. "No, no, you will not be coming until I've decided that you deserve to."
Verso let out a broken moan, hanging his head, his hair a curtain around him as he panted and braced himself against the bed, even as the ink limbs pulled him wide so Gustave could lean in to press his tongue into him. The rough scrape of his beard and the heavy, wet press of tongue had him howling in pleasure as he bucked back into the touch, but then the ink limbs were moving, tightening their hold on him, keeping him still as Gustave devoured him. He traded out his tongue for fingers, and then back again, licking and sucking at the rim until every scrape of his beard had him nearly screaming, overwhelmed and leaking in a steady stream that dripped onto the sheets.
Verso tried to rock his hips up, tried to egg Gustave into giving him more, wanting, needing, just a little bit more. "Gustave, please, please, I want, fuck... please."
"Not good enough," Gustave breathed, and he pulled his mouth back and left a vicious bite on the curve of Verso's ass, sucking a dark mark into it that he would be feeling for days, he had no doubt. He smirked and watched Verso arch back and clench down around nothing, desperate to be filled and shifted his hands to Verso's hips, sinking his claws in, just to watch Verso jerk and moan louder. "Beg me for it," Gustave ordered, watching the words hit Verso as he stilled. "Beg for me to finish opening you on my tongue and my ink before I fuck you."
Verso sucked in a heaving, desperate breath, his hair sticking to the side of his face as he sobbed, trying to catch his breath enough to force the words out. "Gustave, please, please, your tongue, your mouth. I want to feel it, I want to feel your ink in me, I want you to get me ready so you can fuck me with your ink."
Gustave smirked and waited a precious few additional seconds to listen to Verso sob helplessly before he gave him exactly what he wanted, pressing his tongue as deep as he could, fucking Verso with it, the limb of ink yanking Verso's hips back and into very press of his tongue until Verso's shouting echoed off the walls. He begged, he pleaded, and he was so close to coming, even with the ring of ink around him.
"That's better," Gustave praised against Verso's lower back, pressing two fingers into him, deep and insistent, before replacing them with an ink limb, stretching Verso wide as he thrashed, crying out for more. "Now, let's make sure you give me a proper view. That's required after all."
Verso didn't have more than a second to think about what the hell that meant before Gustave was using the ink limbs to lift him, cradling him back against Gustave's body. A small amount of shifting later, and Gustave's chin was tucked over his shoulder, making him shudder and gasp.
"Look," Gustave ordered, a thin tendril of ink creeping around Verso's throat, smirking as Verso let out a desperately choked moan. He thickened the collar and drew it up, forcing Verso to sit up, his whole body straining in response to the ink around him, putting him on display, exactly as he deserved to be. "Look at yourself, Verso."
Verso forced his eyes open and stared at the full-length mirror that Gustave had moved to the corner of the room, where it showed him, spread out, thick ink tendrils wrapped around his thighs and chest, with smaller ones around his neck, arms and wrists, not holding him, but touching him, all of Gustave's ink, flowing and stroking at his skin, possessing him, reminding him of precisely who he belonged to. "Gustave," he begged, leaning back against him, meeting Gustave's eyes in the mirror. "Please. Please."
Gustave hummed and twisted his fingers, the ink around Verso's wrists tightening, as the ink around his neck loosened, allowing him to slump back against Gustave properly. "If you want something, you are going to ask for it," Gustave breathed, his clawed hands scraping their way up the outside of Verso's thighs, making them tremble and shake. Verso's hair was wild now as his head moved, spilling over his shoulders in pools of soft, inky black that he wanted to bury his fingertips into. He was beautiful, he was undone, and he belonged to Gustave.
"Tell me," Gustave demanded, his hands at Verso's hips, claws growing and pressing into Verso's skin. He pressed the limb of ink deeper into Verso, ripping another moan out of him, while he wrapped another around Verso's cock and teased him with even more presses of ink. Just the smallest of brushes against his nipples, his belly, his thighs, all of it touching, claiming him, the same way Verso had claimed him with his chroma. "Tell me what you want, Verso. Do you want me to make you come like this? My ink in you, and around you, all of you consumed and claimed by me?"
Verso whined, trying to breathe, but the onslaught of pleasure was overwhelming, even with Gustave keeping him held back, he ground back against the ink limb inside him, feeling it stretch wider and twist to press against his prostate, making him shout as he arched against Gustave. "I want you in me. I want your ink on me, and I want you in me, Gustave, please, please. Fuck me." The words burst out of him, breaking free of the dam that had been trying to hold them back. He was desperate now, there was nothing he wanted more than to feel Gustave in him, and his ink on him. The mix of them, completely consuming him, consuming them both. "Please," he begged.
"You beg so pretty," Gustave praised, twisting the ink again with a command, sliding the limb out of Verso, stretching it out until it was much longer and thinner, before wrapping it around Verso once, twice, three times, bands of ink wrapped around his chest, curled around him possessively, ending in where it was wrapped around his cock. "Very well," he agreed, listening to Verso sob in relief. "I'll give you what you want."
Gustave carefully stepped away and watched Verso cry out in protest where he was suspended on the bed, in front of the mirror and stripped off his shirt and his pants, walking around to stand in front of Verso, admiring him, completely consumed by Endless Ink, his eyes desperate, his hair wild, with his own private stash of ink flowing around him.
Verso stared at Gustave, naked, his eyes shining with borrowed chroma and moaned, only to find a tendril wrapping itself steadily around himself, leaving him bound and desperately gagged for his lover. The knowledge that he could stop all of this any moment by simply removing the chroma from the ink made it hotter, that he was trusting Gustave to control this, until both of them had reached heights of pleasure they'd never imagined together.
"I have never," Gustave breathed, stepping closer, cupping Verso's cheek in his hand, using the ink to draw him closer, within reach. "Seen anything as beautiful as the sight of you, completely consumed, willingly, by my ink," he breathed, letting the ink melt away from Verso's mouth before he claimed him in a desperate, eager kiss. He sank his fingers into Verso's hair and tugged, deepening the kiss until Verso was melting against him, ink swirling around them both as he kissed Verso until they had to break apart for air, both of them trying to catch their breath.
"Gustave, fuck me, please, please. I need you," Verso begged, panting, leaning into Gustave, trying to urge him on for more.
Gustave nodded, and stroked his thumb down the line of Verso's beard. "I will," he promised, his voice hoarse, climbing onto the bed, manipulating the ink to roughly pull Verso to him, Verso's back against his chest as he got himself into position. "Watch," he ordered, waiting for Verso's head to have snapped up so their eyes could meet in the mirror before he slid all the way into the tight, hot clutch of Verso's body and watched him cry out.
He was gorgeous, remarkable with how he arched, a loud, broken cry leaving his lips, even as the ink limbs kept him held in place. Gustave gave him only the briefest of moments to take a breath before he wrapped his clawed hands around Verso's hips and began to fuck into him, rough and eager. Neither of them were going to last long, and he wanted to watch Verso lose control before he finally gave him what he wanted.
"Keep begging," Gustave demanded, grunting as he had one of the ink limbs take Verso's weight and balance to wrap one inky, clawed hand around Verso's cock, the chroma in it making the slide easy as Verso howled his pleasure. He fucked into him harder, tendrils of ink creeping around Verso's entire body as he started to lose the more precise control, his mind overwhelmed with nothing more than thoughts of making Verso his, of claiming him, body and ink.
Verso sobbed out Gustave's name, over and over again, words pouring from his lips in a never ending stream. "Please, please, mon amour, please, fuck, Gustave, please, more, like that, more, please, it's perfect, you're perfect, please, please..."
Gustave watched as Verso broke apart in his arms, a creature of nothing but desperate need, drenched in his ink, begging for him, and at last loosened the ink around the base of his cock and tightened his hand around Verso's cock, teasing him with the tips of his claws. "That's it, mon coeur, that's it, let go for me, let me see you, let me see, let me-"
Verso shouted, grinding desperately back into Gustave's next thrust and into the tiniest press of claws, his body twisting and thrashing under the ink as he came, harder, and longer than he could ever remember, sagging back into Gustave's body, only to feel Gustave moan into his shoulder to follow over him to the edge. They managed to stay suspended for a few seconds more, before Gustave lost proper control over the ink and they both fell to the bed in a hiss of pleasured pain.
Gustave laughed weakly and wrapped his arms around Verso, holding him close as he tried to breathe, trembling as he slowly, carefully, managed to recall the ink back to his hands as they caught their breath.
Verso closed his eyes at the gentle and loving touch of the ink stroking over his skin as he burrowed himself into Gustave's arms with a sigh. "I do think we can consider that a proper breakthrough in the use of chroma."
Gustave grunted and took a deep breath before he grinned against Verso's loose and almost too-long hair, reaching up to comb gentle claws through it, just to watch Verso shiver. "We'll have to practice a lot more. Make sure I can maintain the control for longer. Much more extensively."
Verso swatted Gustave's chest and buried his face in Gustave's sweat warm neck with a happy sigh. "After you have cleaned us both up."
Gustave lifted Verso's hand and pressed a gentle kiss to his fingertips. "I suppose it can wait until after." He agreed, shifting to wrap his other arm possessively around Verso, who was already starting to go heavy with sleep. "Sleep well, mon amour."
Verso's muffled grumble about ink tentacles made Gustave smile.
A very successful experiment, all in all.