Walk the Line
When he wakes up the next morning, he's still in his work clothes and his phone is dead under him.
He tries to check the time, but when he finds it dead he shoots up and immediately shuffles over the bed towards his charger, feeling around under the pillows. Shit. Maybe it'll have some semblance of charge if he just ignores it while he gets ready.
He goes downstairs first, to check the time. The stove says 6:48, so he's not terribly late. He just won't be able to get his coffee if he showers. And he needs a shower, badly. His stomach still has come on it. He can feel it flaking off and the rest of him doesn't feel so clean either.
So Daniel takes a shower. He takes the hottest shower he can manage before shoving his clothes on with little precision (he has to undo his shirt twice because the buttons are mismatched and fucked) and grabbing his phone and it's charger. 23%. It'll have to do.
When the phone turns on, there's a plethora of notifications from Alice and his mom. His email bears the brunt of the load, but WhatsApp and Twitch send him updates. At least he thinks they're updates.
He clears the screen and goes to WhatsApp to see the building notifications from Armand. Three texts he hasn't even bothered to check since his account was made for him. One is a welcome text, but another is thanking him for the maid outfit. The third, and newest, must've been sent sometime after his phone died.
Armand asks Daniel if he liked the video. And not painfully formal, like the first text, but with the eyes emoji and sparkles. Of course he could see that Daniel watched his shit. Damn it. So much for nobody ever knowing. His body feels a little cold at the realization that Armand probably knows he beat off to him. He feels dirty.
The phone is closed. He doesn't even try to text his Mom or Alice, he just stuffs it in his pocket and grabs his briefcase and leaves.
What would be the harm in liking it? There was a market for this sort of thing, clearly Armand and M did this thing for a living. Still, he couldn't shake the feeling that what he was doing was wrong; That only perverts and old men pay for sexual gratification.
He just thought he was above that sort of thing, but even with this comes more thoughts: was he being an elitist about sex work? His mom didn't raise him to look down on people doing that sort of thing. What was wrong with him?
Okay, yeah. So he liked the video. It's not like it was the only video on the roster, there was a couple more freebies he had yet to watch. He was just being a prude.
Yeah. A prude! "Ha!" The stereotype was hilarious at once. Daniel laughs a bit, unlocking his car with a stupid grin. Yeah, it would work out fine.
But what did that mean for texting him back? Did he just say, "Yeah, thanks for helping me get off. What'd you buy with my money?" It didn't sound right. None of his immediate options sounded right. He felt like he had to thank the kid, but at the same time it seemed stupid to do so.
"We'll sit on it." He reasons with himself as he starts the car and pulls the buckle over his chest. His reflection stares back at him. The striking violet in his eyes looks gray today. "Give it til lunch. But you gotta think of something by lunch or you can't get coffee. Don't be a bitch, Molloy."
By lunch time, he still didn't try and text Armand back, but he charged his phone. There was no excuse not to text him.
Daniel sits in the classroom over lunch, stewing, reading the text message over and over again. All he can think to say is, "How old are you?" But he doesn't send that because he doesn't want it to seem like he's buying these things to ask him something so brazenly perverted.
He settles for, "Sure. What's not to like?" And hits send. He feels stupidly old. Answering a question with a question used to make him feel juvenile, but for some reason it ages him significantly. Daniel cringes and puts his phone down, face down, before pulling some binders over it to obscure it from his mind. Outta sight, right?
Not out of sight. Not when Armand texts back not thirty seconds later. Giddy excitement curls up his chest like a scarf, wrapping around his throat and squeezing.
[ SMS; armand ] I think that's a compliment. I'm going to take it as one. Is that a yes?
Shit. Was he being passive aggressive? Without realizing? He reads his message again and sighs. Well. Was that rude? For some reason he could hear a voice that suspiciously sounded like his mom telling him that he was being rude.
[ SMS; to armand ] For clarity's sake, let's say it was a yes. Is that weird? I don't want to come off as too eager.
It seemed unreal that he was texting the streamer he'd only just started watching a few months ago. It felt a little like meeting a celebrity, but Daniel reckons that that's something he should probably keep to himself. Armand would only laugh.
For a few minutes, he doesn't text back. Daniel can see that he read it, but nothing more.
Meanwhile, Alice's texts have still gone unread. He should read them. His mom was waiting for his answer about dinner on Friday, too. He didn't really want to go to dinner, but there were worse things. He could be deliberately blocking off his Friday night so he could beat off to all of Armand's videos.
[ SMS; armand ] not weird. you're supposed to like it. is it weird that I'm asking?
Daniel sighed into the air, tilting his head back with a strange smile. Elated. That's what he was feeling. Elated, excited. Giddy, even. When's the last time he let himself feel anything remotely close to excitement? Besides seeing Alice? Not that this was the same excitement. It definitely wasn't. But texting him wasn't what he'd expected. He expected professionalism, a formal kind of cadence that sex workers often use for their buyers. He didn't feel like he was buying sex from Armand. It felt like he was buying art.
Which is why, despite his best intention not to be completely weird, Daniel texts back,
[ SMS; to armand ] I really wouldn't know what's standard or whatever for this sort of thing. I honestly don't even know why I bought ..... everything. This really isn't something I normally do.
His foot is completely up inside his mouth. What was he, texting his therapist? Why did he tell him that?
"You aren't friends," he mutters and closes his phone, sticking it inside the drawer. For now, he decides that this is his limit. Shame has pushed him to accept that he'll probably never do this thing again. It wasn't worth it. It was well embarrassing and Daniels teeth are floating in his mouth like he just asked a girl to the goddamn prom or something.
When the phone begins to ring from inside the drawer, his heart falls into his stomach. The mere idea that it could be Armand has him scrambling to open the drawer, reaching for it and staring at the screen.
Alice.
Oh, thank God. That was a lot. His hearts beating out of his chest.
"Hi baby," is his response to picking it up.
"Don't you hi baby me, Daniel Molloy, why are you avoiding me?"
Suddenly he wishes it was Armand. If only to escape the reprimand he's about to get for dining and dashing his girlfriend. "I'm not - I'm not avoiding you," he stammers, putting her in speaker so he can pull his binders back to some semblance of order. "I'm sorry I haven't texted, I let my phone die when I got home last night. I was beat, I'm sorry."
It wasn't a complete lie.
Alice is silent for a moment. Just long enough to worry that she's still angry, but instead she says, "You're not getting bored with me, are you?"
Aaaaaaand he's a piece of shit.
"Hey, no - of course not. What do you mean? I love spending time with you. I didn't realized being a tenured professional came with this amount of paper work, that's all -" Daniel tries to sound as genuine as possible. He doesn't tell Alice that he's been stupidly getting himself entangled with a streamer young enough to be his student. "I love being with you, Alice. I just need to find a TA and I'll have much more time on my hands. I promise."
"So you're not just fucking me because it's convenient?" Alice retorts with a soft, vulnerable voice. It's so pathetic Daniel has half the mind to ditch the rest of his classes and go find her. But he's only been tenured for three months and it would be career suicide to start skipping out this early. Two years is too early in his mind.
"No, obviously not. Were comin' up on two years, doll, where is this coming from? I thought we knew this teaching thing was going to be rough for a while?"
"I know, Danny. I just miss you and I hate when you ignore me. I guess I'm just worried. And lonely."
Well now he feels like even more of a piece of shit.
"Listen, if you want I can cut out fifteen minutes early and we can order in. I'll pick up Chinese, you get the booze. It'll be great. You can even sleep over, i'll pay for parking."
Alice can be heard agreeing over the speaker, soft uh huh's and then a happier, "Yeah, I like that. Let's do that."
"Okay, baby, I'll cut out and meet you at mine. Text me when you're downstairs and I'll meet you down there."
When they eventually hang up, and Daniel has the mind to realize that he's just locked himself into another night of wondering what the other videos of Armand are like, buyers remorse kicks in.
On one hand, he's already a piece of shit for paying for sex work content. That's cheating, isnt it? Not for him, but for - well, for women. In the eyes of someone like Alice, he was cheating. But on the other hand, he hadn't realized Alice was feeling so disconnected from him. His days of fucking and fleeing seemed to be over.
Now it was commitment city. Next it was rings and a shared apartment. Maybe he'd even need to give up his studio apartment. The two story thing was rare to find in the area he was in.
Armand texts back just as he's dreading the next four hours of classes and another twelve of being the dutiful boyfriend.
[ SMS; armand ] i'm glad you did, anyway. that maid costume really did some numbers on my stream. I meant it when I said you might have started something dangerous here.
and then another, right after.
[ SMS; armand ] you aren't coming off as eager. just so that you're aware. believe when I tell you that you'll know if you've crossed any boundaries. so yes, youre allowed to enjoy my content.
Kill him. Kill him now.
He didn't need this in his head. Not if he was going to actually engage in a personal, romantic level with Alice.
Their planned date goes about as well as Daniel expected. Alice was lovely, but there was a low - maintenance type of quality to her that he loves most of all.
She doesn't care that he eats Chinese food three times a week. She only asks that he drink enough water for the recommended amount and maybe brush his teeth before he kisses her. There wasn't much to being with her and maybe if he was a romantic, if he was a professor of romantics, he would've said that loving her was easy.
But he's no poet and the only thing he can think to say at the end of the night, when they're cuddling in bed after they fucked, is: "I really like when you're around, Ally." In truth, he knows that I Love You wasn't a big deal, but it certainly feels like a lot. Daniel doesn't know if he'll ever be able to say it first.
Which is sad when she cuddles closer and says it without preamble, as genuine as genuine could be. She means it and he's there, thinking about a streamer he's most certainly itching to text back. Maybe she wouldn't mind if they sat together and he texted. Maybe opened his email so he could pretend like he's working.
Was Armand streaming? He'd like to catch him during a stream.
"I love you, too. C'mon, let's turn in. I need to get to work early, but you can stay and sleep if you want. You have that key, right?"
"I wake up at 5 am every single day, Danny. I'll probably be gone before you even turn over." The look Daniel gives her only spurs a smile of her own. "What do you take me for, you think I just sit around all day? C'mon. Really?"
"I just thought you girls sat around all day makin' salads and crotchetin-" the sentiment is unfinished. Alice throws a pillow at him, laughing. He laughs, too, throwing his head back. "Okay! Okay! Point taken. Can you wake me up, in that case?"
Alice eyes him with squinted eyes, furrowing her mutt-y eyebrows at him playfully. "Do you want me to wake you up nicely or not nicely? I can do both. One before the other. Or neither."
Daniel pulls her in by her waist, kissing the side of her face, peppering little kisses along her brow and forehead. "I just wanna wake up with you in my arms. I don't care if you shine a flashlight in my face, just make sure you're still in bed when you do."
----
It turns out, Alice wasn't kidding when she was saying she would do either. Daniel awakens to a dark room and a loud, jarring really, door slamming. His front door. He almost thinks she's still around because he can hear the coffee maker brewing, but then he hears the tell tale sound of her car and he groans, lifting his head to look around; it wasn't even 6 yet. Daniel didn't even need to be awake for another hour.
Despite getting no work done (and maybe that's the reason), Daniel feels extremely rested. He wasn't feeling the hangover like he usually did when he drank alone.
He really needed a piss. And maybe a cup of water to wash the rosé out of his mouth.
He does just that. And because he hasn't showered in, what, three days? He gets in there right after emptying the tank and stays in there until he's sure his shitty neighbors will hate him for using all the hot water first thing in the morning.
Daniel thinks about Armand the entire time. He thinks about the videos he wants to watch and the text he's been buzzing the reply to and by the time he steps out, pink and clean, he's also more than half hard with twenty minutes to burn.
Only fans loads while he dries his hair off. Besides the four free videos, which he really does want to watch, there's a new unpaid video with a title card that has his dick twitching.
It's the maid costume.
Daniel licks his lips. Twenty bucks for it. He could do twenty bucks, right? That was only one day of coffee for him. And with the pot brewing in the kitchen, he'd already saved 40. Yeah.
When he clicks on the video, it immediately has him sitting back on his back. The towel is stuffed under his back.
The video opens with a wide shot of Armand laying on his back with an arm propped up under him, giving him an air of casual coolness; he looks relaxed, but there's a tinge of shame in his eyes as he looks into the camera. Daniel notices, for the first time really, that he has pale freckles that dance across his nose like paint splatter. His lashes are impossibly thick and he has half the mind to say that he's doll - like in his pale perfection. His curls are shiny and tight.
"Hi." Armand's voice comes through the recording like warm honey, all soft and breathy. He even smiles, albeit with a crooked familiarity that Daniel hasn't seen him use on stream. It gives him a boyish look, a shy sort of charm that has him reaching down between his thighs to cup his cock.
"You want tell me why you're looking so utterly devourable tonight?" M's voice is a familiar one.
Daniel fast forwards a bit, away from the dialogue. As much as he liked good, genuine dirty talk, he was eager and pressing to get into it and thinking about wasting four minutes on warming up made him want to just get dressed and go into work.
The video skips to M moving to the bed with Armand. The video itself was perfectly angled, somehow that his head was just out of shot, but what wasn't covered was the long, white blonde hair that falls over his shoulders. The cut of his body, framed in behind Armand, who was now laying on his side, is completely baffling. There was no way Armand was that small. He looked completely tiny in comparison to M's large, looking frame and as he reached over to run his hand up Armand's skirt, even the size of those seem monstrous against his thighs. M runs his hand up his leg, lifting it some so that Armand's bulge was visible.
He wasn't lying when he said he barely fit into the underwear. Fuck. Daniel squeezes his prick at the sight of his hard little cock in those white cotton panties, straining against his stomach. There was a small bow on the front, sitting just over his cock's head.
M reaches forward and pulls the skirt up more, much to Armand's dismay; he squirms and pulls his knee in, the whole of his face burning a beautiful boticelli-esque pink from the touch. He thinks about making him blush like this and his chest tightens, lungs squeezing.
Pleasure spikes in his stomach, pulling the cord that connected his balls to his body. Daniel could feel his arousal like a snake around his throat, eagerly tightening itself with every passing moment.
His obsession with this man was slowly going to drive him wild. It dawns on him as M pulls Armand's panties down, uncaring that they move back to place only a second after, only half covering his pink cock.
"I can't wait to rip this thing off of you. I want to ruin this thing while you're still in it." The camera zooms some, focusing on M's hands, on the quick work he makes of reaching between their bodies so that he could undo his belt. Daniel could hear his zipper being undone and M is gasping, the vague actions of a man pressing his cock into somewhere warm. Somewhere tantalizingly soft. Daniel imagines he's pressing it right between his cheeks, where it's warmest.
Between them, he can also hear the sound of kissing. It burns Daniel like nothing else, to imagine himself in that same position: putting his cock between Armand's thighs, tasting his mouth as he tears the costume open from the back.
Slowly, Daniel starts to work his cock. The sound of fabric ripping accompanying the gentle gasp Armand gives is delicious. M reaches around and runs his hand up the dress again, this time pulling the underwear down, until they get caught on his knees and all Armand can do is take it when he strokes him.
He didn't think the maid costume had a sexual appeal before, but he does now. Armand makes it look good, better than he ever expected. It looks good on him, but it looks better hiked up around his stomach. Armand's pretty little cock arches into his stomach longingly, perfectly pink and curved to perfection; Daniel bucks his hips, surprised to find that he's already as close as he is; just watching M fondle Armand is enough to stir him up into a tidy little froth.
"You think you can take me right now, baby?" M's chin comes into view momentarily, just enough for Daniel to see that he's snuggling into his neck, kissing at his ear.
Armand shakes his head, leaning backwards into M's body. He fits perfectly there, between his arms. The way Armand is positioned, Daniel can see the faintest bit of M's cock between Armand's thighs now.
"No? But you're so wet for me," As if to prove it, M runs his thumb along the slit of his cock and Armand gasps, reaching down to grasp at his arm, holding him while his little nails dig into his forearm. "What's wrong, Darling Boy? Are you sensitive? Don't want your viewers to know that wearing panties gets you hard?"
M picks up the pace slightly, taking Armand's cock in hand so entirely that it disappears into his fist. Daniel swallows hard, tightening his hold on his prick, gritting his teeth when that simple measure throws him into a little swoon. It feels good. Hearing Armand, knowing he's in that dress for him, wearing those panties because of him, it has Daniel grasping his sex with a fevered arousal; it's enough to drive him over the edge.
Wasn't that sad? Just a little heavy petting and he was on the verge of coming.
For good measure, and a little breathless, Daniel fast forwards it a bit. Shots of Armand being undressed sweep by, the top of the costume being pulled forward, down his chest in a debauched way. He watches M play with his nipples for a few seconds, enamored at the way the baby pink goes to a darker shade of blush. Armand squirms and pushes back against the man.
At the next time skip, M is fucking Armand's thighs in time with the hand around his prick. He's unusually quiet, Daniel realizes. Armand is all breathless sighs and punched out gasps, but he was silent for the most part. It was M that breaks through the silence, his voice a dark, silky drink of bourbon that flushes Daniel through to his toes with heat. He tugs on his cock, gritting his teeth when he feels his balls tense, caught up in his almost orgasm; immediately he takes his hand off, swallowing down the disappointment that wells in his abdomen.
"Is this what you wanted, sweet boy?" The question, though clear enough, has Armand shaking his head. His curls are dampened and stuck to his pearlescent forehead, eyelashes the only splash of color Daniel can see now that the camera is focused on the lewd, wet way their bodies meet, M's monstrous grip around Armand's cock always something so dangerously tight that he can't see how that could be pleasurable at all. But maybe Armand likes it.
If his reddened cheeks were anything to go by, if the eager urgency in the way he bucks in into M's hand was anything to go by, Daniel would say that the little brat liked it that tight. That or he was a masochist.
Those ropes from his wish list made sense, suddenly. Daniel takes his dick back into his palm and starts stroking again, tentatively gripping the tip with a tighter grip, eager to get off to the sound of M's pretty red (rather large) cock sliding back and forth between those pretty pink thighs. It was erotic. M sounded like he was close. Daniel was close, too.
Their pace intensifies. It almost looks painful the way M grips Armand's cock, but the little devil squirms and then goes still, locking his knees together with his head thrown back into M's shoulder. The fingers in his forearm dig in further the longer he strokes him through the worst of it, but even Armand's orgasm isn't enough to stop him and Daniel gets hot just thinking about how over stimulated he must feel; how sensitive. It must be torture. He wanted to torture Armand like that.
Cum spills from M's fingers eventually. The sight of him fucking Armand through his orgasm, and then some, has Daniel coming himself. His breath stutters. His hand goes still and his own fingers are immediately covered in his own seed. The heat feels good, but he knows it'll bother him in less than two minutes. Pleasure bursts through his body, zings of arousal and orgasm jolting through his thighs and up to the tips of his ears. Everything felt good. The over stimulation was just the right amount of perfect.
He doesn't even realize he closed his eyes, but when they open he's greeted with M finishing, finally. His hand moved from Armand's cock to his hip and when he spills into the soft, wet cavern between his thighs, it's with a growl and a bite to the mans neck. The face is blurred, but the hair falls over it anyway and Armand stiffens before sinking into it. The sight of M's face, though blurred to high hell, is fucking hot.
Armand's face goes from pain to bliss in a manner of moments. His pink lips fall open, the most silky, charming sigh Daniel's ever heard let forth.
"You'll be the death of me," is whispered from the streamer, raising an arm to curl it around M's neck. "I need another maid costume. You tore the zipper out of the seam."
"I did say that I would, my darling." M chuckles, running his hand up Armand's rib cage. For a moment Daniel eyes the reddened, pink bruise on his hip and wishes he could taste it. "Maybe if you ask real nicely, I'll get you something better. Something tailored. In blue. You look so pretty in blue."
The video ends with a small thanks to his username for the costume. In parenthesis is an apology, but Daniel really doesn't need one. The video was an apology in itself.
The post nut clarity wasn't as bad this time, but he still finds that laying naked, covered in his own come, has some regretful feelings that linger alongside the cooling pool of come between his fingers.
He still had five minutes to fuck around, but he grabs the towel under him and cleans himself up anyway, rubbing his fingers and stomach clean before throwing the towel into the corner of the room to get ready for his day.