never been a better time than this
Mar. 10th, 2020 06:37 am[ Pagan Min has mellowed considerably since Ajay has become a more solid fixture in his life. There was a time when he thought the damage done by his past was irreparable, and perhaps that’s still true, but it’s far easier now to remind himself of the good things he has and focus on that. He doesn’t go off the deep end without good reason.
This, he thinks, is a very good reason.
Ajay still spends a lot of time out and about with the villagers, and to a lesser degree the Golden Path. Their relationship isn’t a secret from anyone in the palace, but it seemed... prudent, not to make it public knowledge, and Ajay can’t be disabused of the notion that literally everyone in Kyrat needs his help. So he’ll spend evenings in the palace – sometimes days at a stretch, when Pagan is very lucky – and then head back out to cookfires and safehouses and people who are apparently too worn-down by the Golden Path’s stories of how terrible everything is to hunt their own food. So it’s something of a surprise when Ajay shows up very early one morning looking... tired, more than anything else, tells Pagan I’m gonna stay here for while, if that’s okay and heads off to take such a long shower Pagan feels the need to call out to him and check he hasn’t passed out in there. But it’s a pleasant surprise, to have Ajay close for more than a couple of days, so he doesn’t overthink it.
He does start thinking when he wakes in the middle of the night and slides a hand down the taut plane of Ajay’s stomach only to have the boy jolt awake, giving a half-shouted stop!. He draws his hand back immediately, of course, and blinks as Ajay’s eyes focus on him and he lowers a fist it seems he didn’t even think he was making, mumbles shit, sorry and wraps his arms around Pagan, lowering them back to the mattress in a sleepy tangle of limbs. In the morning Ajay kisses him awake and curls into him like nothing ever happened, but the memory of it sticks. And then by afternoon word gets back to him from one of the people he’s placed in the Golden Path – not spies, heavens no, just helpful eyes and ears – that someone had seen Ajay leaving one of the safehouses in the middle of the night in the kind of hurry that usually means the outpost is being retaken, not a soldier to be seen, but with Sabal shouting at him out of the doorway.
What was he saying, Pagan asks, already forming an idea, and when the answer comes - whoring only for the king doesn’t make you any less of a whore - well, something has to be done, obviously. Which is why dear Sabal now finds himself bound and gagged in one of the lower rooms of the palace, where Paul used to the occasional spot of dirty work when called for, while Pagan decide what to do with him. In hindsight, that’s a mistake, because Pagan catches Ajay in the room right next door looking through a box of documents for god-knows-what, and now it’s up to Pagan to distract him.
Which... oh. Now that he thinks about it, could be a very fitting punishment all of its own. ]
Look at you, [ he says, his voice giving ample warning before he moves up behind Ajay to curl arms about his waist and bury a kiss behind his ear. ] You’re very attractive when you’re doing all your intelligence gathering. Like a sexy spy.
[ The fact that he may have a devious little plot in mind makes it no less true. ]
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Date: 2020-03-09 10:41 pm (UTC)and that probably shouldn't have even come as a surprise -- as it turns out, you can know how to sweep an outpost without alerting a single guard and still be shit when it comes to actual espionage. and whatever ajay's strengths, he's never been much of a master manipulator; he gets a knotted feeling in the pit of his stomach whenever he lies about where he's spending his time, and he isn't that great about coming up with excuses to keep himself from doing things to strike at pagan directly.
but he wants to help the people caught in the crossfire of the civil war, and it seems to make sense that showing his support for the golden path now will smooth things along when it comes time to pitch the idea of working with the palace to help kyrat. if ajay can prove that he's one of them, maybe they'll listen -- it might be an impossible thing to ask them to trust pagan, but ajay can show that he's here to help the people.
it doesn't occur to ajay that amita and sabal would bother spreading the golden path's already painfully stretched resources to keep tabs on him -- he's been helping the golden path for months now, and that seems like it'd be enough time to convince anyone that he's not their enemy.
apparently fucking not.
unfortunately, he doesn't realize there's trouble until he's already stumbled into it -- he goes to debrief sabal after a supply run, business as usual, and doesn't even register an alarm when sabal sends his lackeys out of the room and leaves the two of them alone. it's really only when ajay stops to get a good look at the man that the first prickles of warning start to go off; there's a clenched tension to the other man's jaw that strikes ajay as weird, and his eyes are as unreadable as flat planes of glass. but ajay's first thought is that he's done something to provoke the bickering between sabal and amita -- talked to her for thirty seconds too long while he was restocking his gear, looked too interested when she was pitching one of her proposals. something stupid, because it always is, and maybe that's why what happens next catches him so off-guard.
i know what you've been doing. where it is that you've been going.
and before ajay even manages to ask him what the fuck that's supposed to mean, sabal uses one hand to make a messy fan of the pictures on his desk. it barely takes a glance before ajay realizes what they are -- he recognizes himself, obviously, and he's gotten familiar enough with the palace to know it's what he's seeing. but it's eerie that the pictures look like they've been taken from up close; there are shots of him doing yoga in the courtyard, talking to the staff in the kitchens, napping on one of the couches in the library. and even more damning are the pictures of he and pagan -- talking, eating together, even --
... well, fuck
you've disgraced yourself. and the anger in sabal's voice is something positively venomous, each word as sharp as broken glass. you've turned your back on your homeland. you've spit upon your father's legacy.
and dammit, ajay knows he should be doing his best at damage control here, but he can't help the awful little laugh that chokes out of him. a few weeks ago, and those words might have hit their mark -- but now? spitting on the memory of the man who whored out his mother and murdered his sister sounds like the least of everything he ought to do. having it thrown in his face is just flint to the kindling of his temper. ] Fuck him. I'm not Mohan Ghale.
[ if his goal was to keep this whole thing from going up in flames, it was the wrong thing to say.
sabal has him against the wall before ajay has the chance to react, an arm across his throat and a snarl twisting up his expression. you don't deserve to carry the name ghale. you're nothing but a common whore, spreading your legs for whatever man will have you.
he can't breathe past the arm sabal is using to pin him against the wall, and already it's making his vision start to spot and blur. sabal is strong, and the rage makes him stronger; ajay's clawing attempts to shove him off are scrabbling and useless, and pulling a gun in the middle of a golden path camp seems like a particularly stupid form of suicide. fuck, fuck, fuck --
but it isn't until sabal wedges a knee roughly between his thighs that the adrenaline in ajay's system starts to flare into a bright spear of panic, one hand rucking up the fabric of his jacket and the clothing underneath and starting to scrabble to undo the fastenings of his jeans. and sabal is practically spitting the words at him now, breath hot and wet against ajay's face. i'll burn the memory of that man from your skin. you'll beg for forgiveness for your desecration. i won't stop until you repent --
and that's when ajay drives a knee right into his stomach. the impact is enough to bend sabal double, his next breath rushing out of him in a wounded-animal sound of pain. but it's enough to drop his arm away from ajay's throat, and ajay shoves him back hard to put space between them and give himself a path to escape. sabal snarls something when ajay bolts for the door, manages to get a fistful of his sleeve, but ajay clocks him hard across the face with an elbow and sends him reeling backwards again.
it's all the opening he needs, and he explodes out of the cabin and into the night air, the door slamming against the wall like a gunshot. but he doesn't wait to see if anyone will come to investigate, if there will be anyone waiting to stop him -- he bolts into the jungle like a tiger freed from its cage, until banapur is swallowed up into the darkness behind him. until his lungs are on fire and his knees are trembling underneath him, until he's lost all sense of where he is and where he's going.
only then does he stop, barely managing to bend double before he loses his last meal all over the ground at his feet.
fuck. ]
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Date: 2020-03-09 11:39 pm (UTC)he just wishes that was enough to make him stop feeling so fucking slimy.
that first night back in the palace, he'd locked himself up in pagan's ornate bathroom and scrubbed until his skin was pink and tender, but that sense of being dirty never really went away. he can still feel sabal's hands on him as if they'd left something smeared along his skin, and there's a part of him that can't stop wondering how many other people look at him as someone whoring themselves out for a shot at the throne. it's a nasty thought, something that makes him feel sick at the pit of his stomach -- but he does his best to shove that down into its own fucking pouch and bury it somewhere deep.
the thing he has with pagan is good. he knows he's loved, and it's the easiest time he's ever had loving someone -- they fit together like they were meant for it, and it makes them both that much closer to whole. that's all ajay wants to focus on; he doesn't need for other people to condone it or understand it, he doesn't want the rot that clings to almost everything in kyrat to ruin this too.
it helps to tuck himself up in the palace and hide away from everything else; when his mind starts to work back to places he doesn't want it to, he just throws himself into some element of un-fucking kyrat and lets that soak up his attention. there's never any shortage of fires to be put out, disasters to be averted, and while it feels awful to be grateful for that --
it lets him keep it together. that's the important thing, right?
but he snorts when pagan drops that line on him, because it makes him sound more like james bond and less like someone squinting at a security report. pagan's men end up bitching more about the local wildlife than any real threats from the golden path, and while reading about the aftermath of someone's genius attempt to use a grenade launcher on a beehive is entertaining, it's hard to imagine that he's making it look particularly sexy.
still. ]
Call me Ghale. Ajay Ghale. [ with his best 007 british accent. and he's leaning back into that embrace, turning to press a kiss and a smile to pagan's cheek. ] Don't mind me, I'm just sexily wondering who keeps letting the dumbasses in your army requisition explosives.
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Date: 2020-03-10 03:35 am (UTC)It's absolutely ludicrous for Pagan Min to be someone's safe haven, but he's never been prouder of anything than he is of the fact that Ajay finds that in him. So yes, he grins, and he rests his chin on Ajay's shoulder just for the closeness of it. ]
They lead stressful lives, Ajay. They have me for a boss. Surely they're owed a little fun now and then, hmm?
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Date: 2020-03-10 10:56 am (UTC)Y'know, there's another report in here about some of them trying to take on an eagle with a fucking RPG. [ he huffs a sound that's caught between an incredulous noise and a laugh. ] And they lost.
I don't know why I bothered trying to knock you guys off. [ an entirely inappropriate thing to say while he's twisting a little further to press another kiss to the corner of pagan's mouth, but. such is their relationship. ] I could have kicked back and let your army take themselves out.
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Date: 2020-03-10 08:19 pm (UTC)[ But that little noise Ajay made is charmingly nerdy, so there's a thread of laughter in Pagan's voice when he says it - and a pleased little hum when Ajay twists to give him that kiss, and he leans into it until h can land one smack on Ajay's lips. ]
Just think, all that time you spent running around distracting my pet monkeys out of whatever they were currently doing to kill or maim each other when you could have been here. Lounging under the mango trees, eating the finest my kitchens have to offer, draining my wine cellar. Fuck, I should put in a pool. Did you pack a bathing suit? Not that answering in the negative will be in any way a deterrent.
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Date: 2020-03-10 09:48 pm (UTC)a good position to be able to kiss him again, fingertips trailing up the nape of his neck. ]
Sure, yeah. I heard I was headed for the Himalayas and packed like it was a beach vacation. Half my luggage is just skimpy swimsuits.
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Date: 2020-03-10 10:03 pm (UTC)Well banana hammock or no, I'm glad to have you here. You're the best thing in my life, Ajay Ghale. And though I would trade all of this for you in a heartbeat - current dismally uninspiring surrounds notwithstanding - I'm delighted to be able to share it with you instead.
[ It's... not quite the seduction he'd been planning, but it feels very important to say it at least once before things progress. Even if Pagan's totally wrong in his assumptions, it's always a good time to let Ajay know that he is loved. ]
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Date: 2020-03-10 10:21 pm (UTC)god, but it's more than he ever would have thought to ask for. ]
And you make this whole fucked up place worth it. [ there isn't even a hint of teasing in his voice when he says it, and the next kiss he presses to pagan's mouth is hopefully enough to capture some of how much he means it. ] I love you. You know that, right?
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Date: 2020-03-10 10:31 pm (UTC)[ Normally, he'd be tempted to add something like "with all of my back little hearts", but... not today. Not now. Instead he threads his fingers into Ajay's hair, still savoring the traces of that wonderful kiss on his lips as he leans in to take another, lingering, until he opens his motuh over the swell of Ajay's plump lower lip and runs his tongue there. ]
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Date: 2020-03-10 10:38 pm (UTC)if this is pagan's clever way of trying to get him to read more kingly reports, it's working. ]
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Date: 2020-03-10 10:58 pm (UTC)You're always so warm. And how the bloody hell is your skin so soft after all that time you spent scrubbing off in streams, hmm?
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Date: 2020-03-10 11:16 pm (UTC)It's all that fresh mountain air. Great for your complexion. [ and he's more than happy to mimic pagan's touch, untucking his shirt just so that he can skim his fingers up along the other man's abdomen. ] We could be raking in the skincare dollars.
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Date: 2020-03-10 11:29 pm (UTC)Only if we can bottle it somehow and ship it out. I'm not bringing clientele out ere. Not if it means taking my attention away from you.
[ And he unzips Ajay's jacket, slips it off his shoulders so that he can better slide his hands up under Ajay's clothes. Beautiful, he's beautiful. ]
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Date: 2020-03-10 11:44 pm (UTC)You might end up getting bored. [ and it's something he can say because he's so damn confident it isn't true; he just likes to hear pagan tell him that it's impossible. ] Variety is supposed to be the spice of life.
[ it's also very unfair that pagan has such easy access to ajay's skin while the buttons of his dress shirt insist on being in ajay's way, so. he works them open impatiently, then pushes the older man's shirt back off his shoulders and hums an appreciative sound at all the skin that bares to him. ]
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Date: 2020-03-11 12:23 am (UTC)Bored with you? Never.
[ Still. There's enough room to play, and he tugs Ajay's tshirt off and runs an admiring hand over his abdominals, which somehow still look amazing while he's sitting on a table. Ridiculous. ]
I may be getting a little bored of the luxury of my big bed. And the bath. And the library. Perhaps what I'm craving is doing it in a nasty little office.
[ For a given value of "nasty" and "little" - even the table Ajay's perched on is heavy, polished wood with elaborately decorated legs and an inlay of little tiles of turquoise and coral running around the edge. But that would ruin the joke. ]
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Date: 2020-03-11 10:15 am (UTC)but the list of all the places in the palace they've defiled makes him snort, and he leans forward to press a biting little kiss to the crook of pagan's throat. it leaves a satisfying little mark once he's finished -- flushed and sure to bruise, as bold as a signature on pagan's skin. ]
Not sure that's such a good idea. [ teasing, his thumbs rubbing little circles in the divots of pagan's hips. ] Just think about it. You'd never be able to work in here again without thinking of the way you had me bent over this table, begging you to let me come.
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Date: 2020-03-11 07:05 pm (UTC)It's adorable that you think I'm ever concentrating when I'm down here. I pay people to do that for me. But I've certainly never had such a tempting distraction before.
[ Easy, this close, to trail a hand down Ajay's chest, rubbing until he feels a nipple pebble up under his touch, slipping it down further until he can settle it over Ajay's dick and give him a gentle squeeze. ]
Come on, darling. Make a terrible decision with me.
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Date: 2020-03-11 10:26 pm (UTC)still, it's hard to compete with a hand on your dick. especially when he's hard already, almost like his body is starved and eager for this sort of contact. so when pagan gives him a little squeeze through his jeans, it drags a low groan out of ajay in return -- he rocks his hips upwards just a little into that touch, trying to encourage more. ]
A terrible decision, huh? [ with a little breathless huff of laughter. ] You know that's my favorite kind.
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Date: 2020-03-12 04:24 am (UTC)[ And yes, Pagan is most certainly grinning and gesturing to his own damn self as he says it. But he's not smug enough or cruel enough to ignore the way Ajay presses into that touch - he squeezes again, firmer now, before deciding to hell with it and just moving to unfasten Ajay's jeans so he can draw him out and touch him properly. ]
Hips up, there's a good lad. Don't want to risk any mishaps with your zipper.
[ And once he's done, Ajay's jeans shoved down, dick freed from his underwear - oh, that's much better. He's hard and hot in Pagan's hand, his skin velvet-soft as Pagan gives him an appreciative stroke. He's probably going to have to admit sooner or later that maybe - just maybe - he wasn't always as straight as he assumed, because it's unlikely that someone could go from zero to thinking a hard cock, of all things, is gorgeous. But it is. ]
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Date: 2020-03-13 11:58 pm (UTC)[ but he doesn't even have to finish the thought.
before he can get out much more than the other man's name, pagan already has his jeans open and is tugging them briskly down his hips almost faster than ajay can blink. for a man that prefers to spend the majority of his time barking orders to other people, never let it be said that pagan min won't throw himself into a task with gusto when it's something that aligns with his interests. (and ajay is both flattered and occasionally alarmed to find that he's crested the top of that particular list.)
and then pagan has a hand around him, skin against skin, and the little noise it gets out of ajay is absolutely sinful. ajay still can't quite get over the effect that pagan has on him; sometimes all the man has to do is talk to get ajay's body responding like he's a horny teenager. at first, he'd tried to blame it on the thrill and the risk of doing something that's most definitely taboo, and then he'd thought maybe it was just because he was touch-starved and desperate for someone to be kind to him -- but now? he doesn't know what the fuck it is, other than some natural sort of chemistry that he's helpless to fight, and... the why doesn't matter nearly as much when the what is something this good.
it seems more than a little rude not to show his appreciation, which he does by reaching out to hook his fingers in the waistband of the other man's slacks and drag him close all over again for a kiss. hot and greedy, the type that ends up with his teeth caught on pagan's lower lip. ]
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Date: 2020-03-14 04:09 am (UTC)The kiss is just as magical. Hot and heated and with just that hint of a bite that seems to put an electrical charge through the both of them, and he moans into it. Breaks the kiss only to press another to the side of Ajay's neck, harsh enough to raise a mark to match the one Ajay gave him before he brushes his lips against Ajay's ear. ]
Just listen to you. How could I ever get enough of this? The sounds you make, the way you feel. No, there'll never be quite enough of you to slake my thirst, my boy. I will always crave more.
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Date: 2020-03-14 04:28 am (UTC)and god, there might be a time when pagan saying that sort of thing would embarrass him, but right now? he's already so worked up that it just makes him shudder as another flush of heat thrills down his spine, making a low sound of frustration as he tries to work his hips up into pagan's hand and encourage the other man to stroke him properly. ]
Pagan -- [ it's stupid that his fingers are clever enough to pluck the pins from grenades still hanging on an enemy's belt, but they fumble and fail him now when he's trying to get pagan's belt off. he's so amped up already that it's almost ridiculous; fingers trembling like an addict desperate for a fix. ] I want --
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Date: 2020-03-14 04:39 am (UTC)[ Really, it's charming. Pagan's lost outposts to Ajay where the failure of any alarms or radio contact indicate that nobody knew what was going on until it was done, and he's heard about that trick with the grenades from soldiers clever enough to hightail it, but now his hands are shaky? What a treat for an egomaniac's soul. So he kisses Ajay once more, gently shifts his hands to skin beneath his shirt, and takes care of his own belt and fastenings, shoving the whole affair down enough to free himself. ]
Anything, Ajay. Whatever you desire.
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Date: 2020-03-14 04:47 am (UTC)but right now? there's only one thing on his mind.
and he doesn't hesitate once pagan gets his clothing out of the way; he reaches to get a hand around the other man's cock, shifting himself forward until he's able to press their hips together and get his hand around them both. and then he buries his face in the other man's shoulder to stifle the way he groans at that friction, rutting his hips forward almost helplessly just to have more of the feeling of pagan's cock sliding against his own. ]
You.
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Date: 2020-03-14 05:00 am (UTC)You have me, dear boy. I am hopelessly and irrevocably yours.
[ He can't help tugging Ajay's face up for another kiss, hot and hungry as he wraps his own hand around Ajay's like closing a circuit and fucks up into the warm grip of heir hands. He hums just for the feel of it, wonderfully good -
but not quite enough. The fire in him is raging now, won't stop until it burns out. ]
I don't suppose you have lube in one of those hundreds of pockets?
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