[ His smile fades, though his expression remains warm, happy. Actually, despite the incredibly boring task he's been ascribed because the Council can't be bothered to pretend to like him in any fashion, he's been told by no less than four different people over the past four days that he seems different, lighter. He'd be offended - he's not that grouchy under normal circumstances, is he? - except he's pretty sure they aren't exactly wrong. He feels... not as weighted down, mentally. Some might say it's the break from fighting but Anakin knows better.
He looks at Claude and he knows. ]
Please, go ahead.
[ A small gesture with his metal hand. ] '
Can't offer to do the same - I don't know how long this break is gonna be, someone might come looking for me. I'm on archive duty, Claude, can you believe it? Me. I've been here for eight years and I've never spent this many hours down there, not even in total. Kriff.
[ Anakin accepts his joke for what it is, telling him he'd like to, but they can't, because he's on archive duty, meaning he's probably spending more time with texts at the moment than with actual people. Poor man. Must hate that. Claude listens with a small, subdued smile as the other man proceeds to vent, sounding incredibly frustrated and incredibly adorable at the same time, amazingly enough.
Then, Anakin swears and actually pauses to kriffing breathe for a moment, Claude jumping in with a mild, but genuinely interested - ]
What's changed since they're sending you now?
[ Straightening up a little, he inclines his head enough to rest his chin on his knuckles, a pressure of hard bone and soft skin and he's looking at Anakin, feeling way more at peace with the thought of the other man on archive duty than the man himself evidently feels. It's a selfish emotion. Claude knows that.
Archive duty means no frontline duty. It'll come, he's sure, but can it wait a little? A little longer? ]
[ He shrugs, a hint of frustration creeping into his voice, his shoulders tightening: ]
An attempt to teach me humility? Additional punishment, on top of being grounded? I don't know.
[ His gaze darkens momentarily and slips sideways. He shouldn't be here, not with everybody else - Rex, Obi-Wan, all Council members really, apart from Mace Windu mainly due to practicalities - out fighting on the front lines. It's ridiculous. It's humiliating. He bites his lip and glances back at Claude, at his gentle expression, the calm in his eyes. Frowning, he crosses his arms in front of his chest, takes a deep breath. Sometimes, Claude understands certain things in a different way, doesn't he. Sees things from a different perspective, a perspective that Anakin tends to find comforting, freeing.
So instead of ranting further, he simply asks: ]
I mean, why else would they? I'm good at fighting. I'm really, really no good with texts of any kind.
[ At first, Anakin goes the spiteful route. Punishment, lectures, nothing he likes and nothing he benefits from. Claude frowns a bit while listening to him, thinking that trying to teach him anything via those routes would be useless, pretty much. Anakin nurtures too much arrogance and too many confidence issues, in natural extension, more than most, too, he wouldn't take it in as it was intended. Even if it was intended well. So Claude listens, lets him rant, show his frustration, because there are things no one should sit with, right?
Then, the other man looks at him, almost pleadingly, and asks why else would they? He's good at fighting, he's not good with texts. Claude's chest feels like it's swelling from pride, just the fact that Anakin is putting it out there in front of him, like an offering.
Please, don't hate me. Don't hate me like I believe they do.
Letting his hands drop to his lap, Claude leans in towards the holo a little and raises his chin. ]
Maybe it's not the texts, maybe it's the calm. Maybe they don't think you need it, either. Maybe they think you deserve it.
[ His first instinct is to scoff, though he manages to squash it - like the Council believes he deserves anything but punishment. Of course, the way he's been taught about being calm, drowning him in that could possibly count as punishment if... He squints, looking Claude over, from the serious expression on his face to the way he raises his chin, standing firm on his conviction and for a moment, Anakin can easily imagine him in the Senate, wielding his own, particular super powers. His shoulders lower a fraction.
Though he doesn't truly think the Council wants to give him anything other than different variations over the same theme - reproach - he owes it to Claude to take him seriously, doesn't he? The other man chose to listen. That's more than most people would do; even Padmé would tell him he's overreacting, that the Council doesn't function the way he knows they do. There's something different about Claude's approach. It doesn't make him feel defensive. ]
Even if that were true... [ He sighs. ] Why do people never say what they truly mean, Claude? It would be so much easier.
[ He gives Anakin a small smile back, mostly to underline that it's not a criticism. Just because he's a politician himself, he'd never make it a criteria for being a valuable member of society, honestly, it's probably more the opposite. A stamp of quality. He's met very few politicians who were also nice people, reliable and worthy people.
If worthiness is a measurable thing. He looks at Anakin's humbleness and thinks it is. ]
But the Senate would do well if everyone thought like you.
[ If the Senate was full of practically-minded, hardworking, dedicated people, ready to do what it takes for everyone else but themselves? Yeah, they'd be a good deal better than the things the galactic political arena is struggling with now. He isn't so far as to hope that the new government on Paris has rigged the elections for it, but kriff, he does hope he'll win his seat.
If nothing else, he can bring Anakin's voice into those hallways. ]
[ He just smiles a little wryly at Claude's verification - because really, he couldn't imagine anything more tedious than working in the Senate in any capacity, actually, though being a politician is, of course, utter nightmare fuel. He straightens slightly, his smile warming noticeably at the other man's next words. If everyone thought like you. People never - well. His views have always been perceived as a little simplistic, right, that's what comes from being close with people like Obi-Wan and Padmé. The Chancellor too, in a way, though it's not the same.
But Claude never makes him feel simple. He makes him feel a lot of other things, though. Lots and lots.
A blush sneaks across his cheeks. It's the praise, sure. Along with the thought of what else he's been doing the past days when he hasn't been organizing texts and trying not to fall asleep in the process. ]
You sure know what to say to a guy.
[ He quirks an eyebrow. ]
Meanwhile, I'm trying to compensate for my lack of verbal proficiency by - [ His smile sharpens. ] - practising. For next time.
[ Claude is about to tell Anakin that he doesn't need any additional verbal proficiency, he's fine, more than fine, beautiful and kind and good -- But then the other man shows exactly how verbally proficient he is by cutting in with a I'm practising, for next time, effectively narrowing all Claude's thoughts down to the rush very, very low in his abdomen, his cock filling a little at the mental image - blurry enough that he can imagine all sorts of things and specific enough that he is willing to guess.
Almost willing, at least. He'd prefer for Anakin to tell him in his own words. To hear him actually say it. Claude's cock fills a little further, just thinking about it. Shift, shift.
After a second, he leans forward on the bed enough to throw his lap into shadow, not exactly self-conscious about getting hard when that's evidently the intent, right? Yeah, Anakin just got him on purpose. Really got him.
Well, Claude likes being had. His cheeks are burning now. ]
Are you gonna tell me what your practice regimen looks like? Or do I have to guess?
[ He doesn't mind guessing. Kriff, he just needs Anakin's voice to keep going. ]
[ Claude blushes a pretty pink and there's another reason to be thankful for the man's lack of clothes, clearly. It looks incredible on him, always, that slight flush, the implications and wants made physical, made real. Anakin's cock fills quickly and within seconds, he's mirroring Claude, shifting a little where he sits, while he thinks about what to tell him. Most of the story's a bit of a moodbreaker, if he's honest. It took his arse two days to get over itself afterwards.
But some of it, sure, he can definitely share without losing his hard-on. Really, if nothing else, he can just look at Claude and the rest becomes secondary, unimportant. ]
I looked it up. Things to - [ He blushes harder, rubbing the bridge of his nose with his fingers. ] - well, to use. For penetration.
[ He looks directly at Claude, pulse quickening at the thought. He'd been mystified, granted, in the beginning. It hadn't gone overly well when he'd ended up just shoving one of his stolen vegetables past the resistance of his stubborn arsehole because he couldn't see why it wouldn't just work, what was the matter even - and then. Yes. Bacta patches. Anyway. He skips all of that and simply adds, voice lower: ]
[ They're just sitting there, much too far apart, and talking about Anakin putting things in his ass. Claude draws in a sharp breath, his cock going full-on hard at the thought, and he shifts again before leaning forward a little in a feeble attempt to overcome the distance between them, all that space and interference. His breathing sounds a little off.
Anakin put something in his ass and it made him come. ]
You liked it?
[ Redundant question, but he likes hearing himself say it. He likes the mental images it conjures up in his mind, the forefront of it, right there between them. Claude swallows something thick in his throat and licks his lips, inhaling, exhaling. His cock's throbbing like crazy. Kriff, he'll need a wank after this. ]
How did it feel?
[ It's not that he doesn't know. He knows exactly how it feels, even if he hasn't -- since Rainier, not like that, not penetration. But again, the way Anakin's voice lowers and goes gruff and soft at the same time, the perfect sex voice, makes him want to know what it felt like for him.
How... Claude could make him feel. If Anakin wants him to. ]
[ Oh. Claude's definitely hard now, his breathing just the slightest bit uneven and Anakin remembers the feel of his cock between his fingers, the girth, the weight of it. He licks his lips, spreading his thighs a little and reaching down to right his cock, giving it a slight squeeze to take the edge off. Force, he's hard. He'll have to take care of that afterwards, unless he wants to confirm his suspicion that Master Nu combined with a billion dusty texts waiting to be sorted through might be the perfect, mental cold shower.
Except, he doesn't particularly want to do anything but seek Claude out and drape himself over him, naked skin to naked skin.
How did it feel? ]
It felt - it was pretty big. Full. [ He swallows, his voice having gone raw, his breathing ragged. ] Not as big as you, though. I can't wait to see what you feel like.
[ Pause. Wait, Claude, consent - he adds, a bit hastily because this really isn't natural to him at all, he didn't exactly grow up with a perfect notion of it: ]
[ While the first thing Anakin lets out goes straight to his crotch and fucking hell, he shifts and shifts, it's the second thing, the quick add-on, because... Anakin remembers. Everything they've talked about. About consent and boundaries and doing things informed. Claude swallows for an entirely different reason this time around, his breathing hitching in his throat a bit. Anakin wants to make it feel that good for him as well. Doesn't want to force him, although he could, easily, Jedi mind tricks and all, doesn't want to lure him or manipulate him. He just wants him. And Claude wants him, so much it hurts that he isn't here, on his bed, naked, hard. He was just righting himself, he's feeling it, too. They're both feeling it.
Claude's voice, when he speaks, is soft and a little bit choked, like it's vulnerable which it is, it's exactly that. ]
Haven't done it before. I mean, not that way around. I haven't fucked anyone like that.
[ A pause. Another swallow. He straightens up a little, trying to compose himself and failing, because his cock's rubbing against the material of his trousers and it's distracting as all kriff. ]
But if you want me to, I want to. I really want to, Anakin.
[ To be considerate with him. Gentle. Slow. All the things he didn't get himself, his first time. ]
[ For a moment, Claude looks almost a little - it's hard to say, exactly, particularly across a holo-call but the mood changes ever so slightly, becomes weightier, and Anakin realises with a stark sense of clarity that the notion of consent, of being asked and allowed, is something Claude understands as intimately as anyone who's experienced the lack of it. Most people, at least those who aren't complete bastards, understand on a logical level but this...
This goes deeper. This goes past blood and tissue and bone.
He tilts his head a little to the side, hair falling into his face. He feels simultaneously soft all over and burningly, achingly intense. He wants this. He wants to keep it. It's the rarest thing he's ever known and for Anakin, that speaks volumes. ]
You can.
[ He thinks about being Claude's first. About Claude, being his first as well. Another piece, slotting into place seamlessly. ]
Think you have to go slow, though. Somehow. I don't know, I obviously didn't.
[ The mood changes. The atmosphere between them, even across distances they can't cross right now. It's on their shoulders and in their voices and in their eyes. Claude wants to... not just eat him, but have him reside within him, inside his guts, live there, stay. Stay. He breathes out raggedly as Anakin tells him he has to go slow, because he didn't. Impatient, action-oriented Anakin didn't look after himself, but Claude is gonna. Claude is gonna feel him the entire way, until all the other man can feel is himself, inside out. He smiles slowly, softly. Suppresses a what did you do, because he's got imagination enough to think that one up himself, right?
Instead he reaches out one hand and flattens it, palm stretched out towards the other man, knowing they can't touch but somehow craving it regardless. Just the illusion of it would be fine. Only illusion Claude would ever accept, mind. Only one. Only this. ]
I'll prep you good.
[ Fingers curling slightly, Claude tilts his head to one side and looks Anakin over, the tall, strong frame of him. The details. Him. ]
So, you can just tell me when you want it slow or fast, okay?
[ The flush in his cheeks makes him feel burning hot. There's something about this atmosphere that transcends the moment, such as it is, stretching itself beyond the both of them; weirdly enough, it feels larger, timeless, taking a space amongst all the other, timeless things in Anakin's life - the Force, destiny, darkness, lives taken and lost. He swallows heavily, looking back at Claude. Nods.
Then slowly, he reaches for Claude with his gloved metal hand. As he entwines them, blue light bouncing off the buckles of the prosthetic, he closes his eyes and reaches, almost completely by instinct. Claude isn't Force-sensitive but everything is the Force, Anakin moreso than mostly everyone else, and when he finds Claude there, amidst a trillion other pinpoints of living energy, he grabs him.
Like that, for a second or two, he thinks he feels the warmth of his hand as if he's managed to bridge the distance between them, narrowing it down into just another fragment of the world, another touch in the Force.
Something else to bridge.
Around him, the room almost seems to brighten, like heavy storm clouds parting for the briefest moment to let in the light. ]
[ Claude looks at their hands, fingers entwining, but not really, because the sense of touch, skin against skin, flesh against flesh, or whatever is there instead, is nothing. Not just diminished. It's quite simply inexistent. He breathes out long and slow, about to raise his chin and smile at Anakin when he feels it, the slight tug in his entire person, though it feels like more than a physical pull. It feels like the essence and life force of him getting pulled at, briefly, seconds at most. But he felt it. It was there. That contact.
When he looks at Anakin, the other man has his eyes closed, simultaneously the farthest away you could imagine and the closest possible. Claude just looks at him, knowing this is one of those Jedi things, this is the part of Anakin he'll never truly understand in the way you understand something that's also your own. But it's a part of him he respects deeply, although he might be showing it poorly by fucking him, as far as he knows, unbeknownst to the Order.
Yet, Anakin's secrets are his own. He imagines if you own nothing else, you own the truths that are yours. Claude respects that, too. More.
After a while, sitting with that feeling of getting pulled at in silence, Claude lets his hand drop. The smile that he sends Anakin is bright and true. ]
That was nice.
[ The hand-holding, the Force-pulling and the calm it's left him with. All of it. ]
When are you gonna come by next time and touch me for real?
[ Folding his hands loosely in his lap, his cock mostly half-hard at this point, though he's still gonna have a wank in a moment, for sure, Claude tilts his head at Anakin's image that suddenly feels like a more physical projection than any holo image ever has before. ]
[ The moment fades and Anakin blinks, looking up at Claude's words. He can't help but smile back, feeling giddy from the aftereffects of whatever that was, that moment of cohesiveness. He's been a Jedi for more than a decade but he can't remember - not at any point...
He's about to say how about now when he realises that he's got archive duty and that this break has definitely gone beyond the limits of what's deemed acceptable. For a moment, the two conflicting motivations clash and he frowns, realising that on the one hand, he'd really, really, really like to find Claude and get this talk realised as fast as kriffing possible - whilst on the other, he hasn't actually left the Order, has he? Nor been thrown out, however... well-deserved that might in fact be.
His stomach clenches slightly.
Anyway, he's obviously still here and no matter how utterly boring the task, Master Nu is counting on him to help her out.
Pushing the thoughts away along with the residual want between them, he sighs and shifts backwards a little. Straightens. ]
Well, uh. [ He runs his hand through his hair, ruffling it. ] I'm probably gonna have to stage my own escape to manage it. Tomorrow afternoon, if you're free?
[ Yeah, in that time, he can definitely figure out a way to take down a minor system or two and keep the few people available on the premises too occupied to notice his disappearance. The Jedi Temple is well protected over all but there are flaws in all systems and around here, Anakin knows most of them.
Useful stuff for someone with a penchant for sneaking out at night. ]
[ The Jedi ruffles his hair in a very un-Jedi-like fashion and Claude loves it, loves the way he dares being unconventional and vulnerable around him. Loves how he can't be anything else for him, doesn't want to either. Nodding quickly to confirm the date, he makes a mental note to update his official schedule as unavailable from tomorrow afternoon and a rotation ahead, or the Paris councilmen are gonna be mightily impatient when they won't be able to get through to him.
And he really doesn't plan to be available at all. To anyone but Anakin.
The giddiness he feels at making plans to see Anakin again after what already feels like too long is almost silly, except Claude doesn't truly think it's silly at all. It's genuine and heartfelt and true, what more does anyone really want from anything they do? With anyone.
But Anakin isn't just anyone. This feeling is specifically tied to him. It's his. Like the secrets. The sneaking out and telling no one and Claude keeping quiet, too, about his new boyfriend, although there are people left he could tell, with or without his parents in the picture. A moment's pause, then he says, voice quiet: ]
My place, then. [ Another confirmative nod, before Claude leans forward a little bit, lowering his voice, the hoarse quality of it more prominent that way: ] I'll think about you in a moment, Anakin.
[ The pull, and the tug of Anakin's hands when he jerks him off, the sucking tightness of his asshole around his length tomorrow night that he has to imagine, because he's never tried it. A smile, more heated this time, and Claude meets Anakin's eyes briefly before ending the holo call, the room going eerily dark around him as Anakin's image disappears.
Like for a moment, he was the sole light in here. ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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He looks at Claude and he knows. ]
Please, go ahead.
[ A small gesture with his metal hand. ] '
Can't offer to do the same - I don't know how long this break is gonna be, someone might come looking for me. I'm on archive duty, Claude, can you believe it? Me. I've been here for eight years and I've never spent this many hours down there, not even in total. Kriff.
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Then, Anakin swears and actually pauses to kriffing breathe for a moment, Claude jumping in with a mild, but genuinely interested - ]
What's changed since they're sending you now?
[ Straightening up a little, he inclines his head enough to rest his chin on his knuckles, a pressure of hard bone and soft skin and he's looking at Anakin, feeling way more at peace with the thought of the other man on archive duty than the man himself evidently feels. It's a selfish emotion. Claude knows that.
Archive duty means no frontline duty. It'll come, he's sure, but can it wait a little? A little longer? ]
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An attempt to teach me humility? Additional punishment, on top of being grounded? I don't know.
[ His gaze darkens momentarily and slips sideways. He shouldn't be here, not with everybody else - Rex, Obi-Wan, all Council members really, apart from Mace Windu mainly due to practicalities - out fighting on the front lines. It's ridiculous. It's humiliating. He bites his lip and glances back at Claude, at his gentle expression, the calm in his eyes. Frowning, he crosses his arms in front of his chest, takes a deep breath. Sometimes, Claude understands certain things in a different way, doesn't he. Sees things from a different perspective, a perspective that Anakin tends to find comforting, freeing.
So instead of ranting further, he simply asks: ]
I mean, why else would they? I'm good at fighting. I'm really, really no good with texts of any kind.
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Then, the other man looks at him, almost pleadingly, and asks why else would they? He's good at fighting, he's not good with texts. Claude's chest feels like it's swelling from pride, just the fact that Anakin is putting it out there in front of him, like an offering.
Please, don't hate me. Don't hate me like I believe they do.
Letting his hands drop to his lap, Claude leans in towards the holo a little and raises his chin. ]
Maybe it's not the texts, maybe it's the calm. Maybe they don't think you need it, either. Maybe they think you deserve it.
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Though he doesn't truly think the Council wants to give him anything other than different variations over the same theme - reproach - he owes it to Claude to take him seriously, doesn't he? The other man chose to listen. That's more than most people would do; even Padmé would tell him he's overreacting, that the Council doesn't function the way he knows they do. There's something different about Claude's approach. It doesn't make him feel defensive. ]
Even if that were true... [ He sighs. ] Why do people never say what they truly mean, Claude? It would be so much easier.
[ He gives the other man a slight smile. ]
I definitely wouldn't do well in the Senate, huh.
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[ He gives Anakin a small smile back, mostly to underline that it's not a criticism. Just because he's a politician himself, he'd never make it a criteria for being a valuable member of society, honestly, it's probably more the opposite. A stamp of quality. He's met very few politicians who were also nice people, reliable and worthy people.
If worthiness is a measurable thing. He looks at Anakin's humbleness and thinks it is. ]
But the Senate would do well if everyone thought like you.
[ If the Senate was full of practically-minded, hardworking, dedicated people, ready to do what it takes for everyone else but themselves? Yeah, they'd be a good deal better than the things the galactic political arena is struggling with now. He isn't so far as to hope that the new government on Paris has rigged the elections for it, but kriff, he does hope he'll win his seat.
If nothing else, he can bring Anakin's voice into those hallways. ]
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But Claude never makes him feel simple. He makes him feel a lot of other things, though. Lots and lots.
A blush sneaks across his cheeks. It's the praise, sure. Along with the thought of what else he's been doing the past days when he hasn't been organizing texts and trying not to fall asleep in the process. ]
You sure know what to say to a guy.
[ He quirks an eyebrow. ]
Meanwhile, I'm trying to compensate for my lack of verbal proficiency by - [ His smile sharpens. ] - practising. For next time.
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Almost willing, at least. He'd prefer for Anakin to tell him in his own words. To hear him actually say it. Claude's cock fills a little further, just thinking about it. Shift, shift.
After a second, he leans forward on the bed enough to throw his lap into shadow, not exactly self-conscious about getting hard when that's evidently the intent, right? Yeah, Anakin just got him on purpose. Really got him.
Well, Claude likes being had. His cheeks are burning now. ]
Are you gonna tell me what your practice regimen looks like? Or do I have to guess?
[ He doesn't mind guessing. Kriff, he just needs Anakin's voice to keep going. ]
no subject
But some of it, sure, he can definitely share without losing his hard-on. Really, if nothing else, he can just look at Claude and the rest becomes secondary, unimportant. ]
I looked it up. Things to - [ He blushes harder, rubbing the bridge of his nose with his fingers. ] - well, to use. For penetration.
[ He looks directly at Claude, pulse quickening at the thought. He'd been mystified, granted, in the beginning. It hadn't gone overly well when he'd ended up just shoving one of his stolen vegetables past the resistance of his stubborn arsehole because he couldn't see why it wouldn't just work, what was the matter even - and then. Yes. Bacta patches. Anyway. He skips all of that and simply adds, voice lower: ]
I liked the part when it made me come.
no subject
Anakin put something in his ass and it made him come. ]
You liked it?
[ Redundant question, but he likes hearing himself say it. He likes the mental images it conjures up in his mind, the forefront of it, right there between them. Claude swallows something thick in his throat and licks his lips, inhaling, exhaling. His cock's throbbing like crazy. Kriff, he'll need a wank after this. ]
How did it feel?
[ It's not that he doesn't know. He knows exactly how it feels, even if he hasn't -- since Rainier, not like that, not penetration. But again, the way Anakin's voice lowers and goes gruff and soft at the same time, the perfect sex voice, makes him want to know what it felt like for him.
How... Claude could make him feel. If Anakin wants him to. ]
no subject
Except, he doesn't particularly want to do anything but seek Claude out and drape himself over him, naked skin to naked skin.
How did it feel? ]
It felt - it was pretty big. Full. [ He swallows, his voice having gone raw, his breathing ragged. ] Not as big as you, though. I can't wait to see what you feel like.
[ Pause. Wait, Claude, consent - he adds, a bit hastily because this really isn't natural to him at all, he didn't exactly grow up with a perfect notion of it: ]
I mean, if you want.
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Claude's voice, when he speaks, is soft and a little bit choked, like it's vulnerable which it is, it's exactly that. ]
Haven't done it before. I mean, not that way around. I haven't fucked anyone like that.
[ A pause. Another swallow. He straightens up a little, trying to compose himself and failing, because his cock's rubbing against the material of his trousers and it's distracting as all kriff. ]
But if you want me to, I want to. I really want to, Anakin.
[ To be considerate with him. Gentle. Slow. All the things he didn't get himself, his first time. ]
no subject
This goes deeper. This goes past blood and tissue and bone.
He tilts his head a little to the side, hair falling into his face. He feels simultaneously soft all over and burningly, achingly intense. He wants this. He wants to keep it. It's the rarest thing he's ever known and for Anakin, that speaks volumes. ]
You can.
[ He thinks about being Claude's first. About Claude, being his first as well. Another piece, slotting into place seamlessly. ]
Think you have to go slow, though. Somehow. I don't know, I obviously didn't.
[ Because Anakin never does. ]
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Instead he reaches out one hand and flattens it, palm stretched out towards the other man, knowing they can't touch but somehow craving it regardless. Just the illusion of it would be fine. Only illusion Claude would ever accept, mind. Only one. Only this. ]
I'll prep you good.
[ Fingers curling slightly, Claude tilts his head to one side and looks Anakin over, the tall, strong frame of him. The details. Him. ]
So, you can just tell me when you want it slow or fast, okay?
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Then slowly, he reaches for Claude with his gloved metal hand. As he entwines them, blue light bouncing off the buckles of the prosthetic, he closes his eyes and reaches, almost completely by instinct. Claude isn't Force-sensitive but everything is the Force, Anakin moreso than mostly everyone else, and when he finds Claude there, amidst a trillion other pinpoints of living energy, he grabs him.
Like that, for a second or two, he thinks he feels the warmth of his hand as if he's managed to bridge the distance between them, narrowing it down into just another fragment of the world, another touch in the Force.
Something else to bridge.
Around him, the room almost seems to brighten, like heavy storm clouds parting for the briefest moment to let in the light. ]
no subject
When he looks at Anakin, the other man has his eyes closed, simultaneously the farthest away you could imagine and the closest possible. Claude just looks at him, knowing this is one of those Jedi things, this is the part of Anakin he'll never truly understand in the way you understand something that's also your own. But it's a part of him he respects deeply, although he might be showing it poorly by fucking him, as far as he knows, unbeknownst to the Order.
Yet, Anakin's secrets are his own. He imagines if you own nothing else, you own the truths that are yours. Claude respects that, too. More.
After a while, sitting with that feeling of getting pulled at in silence, Claude lets his hand drop. The smile that he sends Anakin is bright and true. ]
That was nice.
[ The hand-holding, the Force-pulling and the calm it's left him with. All of it. ]
When are you gonna come by next time and touch me for real?
[ Folding his hands loosely in his lap, his cock mostly half-hard at this point, though he's still gonna have a wank in a moment, for sure, Claude tilts his head at Anakin's image that suddenly feels like a more physical projection than any holo image ever has before. ]
no subject
He's about to say how about now when he realises that he's got archive duty and that this break has definitely gone beyond the limits of what's deemed acceptable. For a moment, the two conflicting motivations clash and he frowns, realising that on the one hand, he'd really, really, really like to find Claude and get this talk realised as fast as kriffing possible - whilst on the other, he hasn't actually left the Order, has he? Nor been thrown out, however... well-deserved that might in fact be.
His stomach clenches slightly.
Anyway, he's obviously still here and no matter how utterly boring the task, Master Nu is counting on him to help her out.
Pushing the thoughts away along with the residual want between them, he sighs and shifts backwards a little. Straightens. ]
Well, uh. [ He runs his hand through his hair, ruffling it. ] I'm probably gonna have to stage my own escape to manage it. Tomorrow afternoon, if you're free?
[ Yeah, in that time, he can definitely figure out a way to take down a minor system or two and keep the few people available on the premises too occupied to notice his disappearance. The Jedi Temple is well protected over all but there are flaws in all systems and around here, Anakin knows most of them.
Useful stuff for someone with a penchant for sneaking out at night. ]
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And he really doesn't plan to be available at all. To anyone but Anakin.
The giddiness he feels at making plans to see Anakin again after what already feels like too long is almost silly, except Claude doesn't truly think it's silly at all. It's genuine and heartfelt and true, what more does anyone really want from anything they do? With anyone.
But Anakin isn't just anyone. This feeling is specifically tied to him. It's his. Like the secrets. The sneaking out and telling no one and Claude keeping quiet, too, about his new boyfriend, although there are people left he could tell, with or without his parents in the picture. A moment's pause, then he says, voice quiet: ]
My place, then. [ Another confirmative nod, before Claude leans forward a little bit, lowering his voice, the hoarse quality of it more prominent that way: ] I'll think about you in a moment, Anakin.
[ The pull, and the tug of Anakin's hands when he jerks him off, the sucking tightness of his asshole around his length tomorrow night that he has to imagine, because he's never tried it. A smile, more heated this time, and Claude meets Anakin's eyes briefly before ending the holo call, the room going eerily dark around him as Anakin's image disappears.
Like for a moment, he was the sole light in here. ]