olden times for Tommy

[oohforeshadowing]

The great country pile isn't their speed, really.

Double had their lovely house in London, bought and paid for by their adoptive father - a High Fae of some high regard, who'd been fretting about their lands and accounts falling into strangers' hands when he passed on. It was a heartrending story, of course, and Double was...well, positively delighted to be anything the old man wanted them to be. For the right price.

Shapeshifters have long since had a bad reputation for sliding into the upper echelons this way. They hadn't been in penury to begin with, by any means, but 'lovely house in London' money and 'vast estates with mining wealth and hundreds of rate-paying tenants' money is not the same by some order of magnitude.

The old man died peacefully in his bed, well over a century old, and left the manor house and everything that went with it to their sole heir. Who is going to sell it all, eventually, but it feels tasteless not to even let their 'father's' body grow cold.

They move in after the last of their furniture has been transported, and lets the housekeeper give them the tour. They cut quite the figure: long blond hair pinned up in curls, a jacket and blouse tailored tightly to a corseted waist, the snug high-waisted breeches favoured by most males. Their tail is the most exposed part of them and the woman they're following keeps eyeing it like she's not sure if it's obscene or not.

"...show you the stables, your grace," she says, as she walks ahead to the outbuildings.

"Ah. I suppose we ought."

Comments

[bleak_midwinter]

"Hmm. So all those predisposed notions, the clichés - you had to learn that you were part of those that way. That you didn't go along with it is still admirable. You could have just accepted it. Confirmed their stereotypes."

[oohforeshadowing]

"It would have been easy," they agree. "When I was acting, when nobody around me knew what I really was...well, I'd chosen a good-looking body. I had offers. But I preferred to keep the dishonesty on the stage, where everyone had bought into it."

[bleak_midwinter]

"I'm not sure I would have had that kind of willpower at a younger age," he admits. "Anonymity would have seemed so attractive."

[oohforeshadowing]

They laugh softly. "Oh, it did. If I wasn't fucking half my Realm social circle between rehearsals, it would have been unbearable."

[bleak_midwinter]

"No surprise that you were able to get them in bed with you. You're magnetic."

And, says the hand that's snaking down their back, very attractive.

[oohforeshadowing]

Double shivers in pleasure, arching into it, a slow wave running down their tail until it flicks lightly at the tip.

"I do seem to have drawn you into my den of iniquity quite effectively," they say, all but purring. "Mm. Angela will be back in a moment."

They are very reluctantly drawing away to take delivery of that coffee.

[bleak_midwinter]

"Perhaps I can draw a bath in the meantime," he says, taking the initiative to do just that. It lets him be behind a closed door when Angela arrives with the coffee service, biscuits and milk and sugar included, so he can press the glyphs and draw a hot bath.

[oohforeshadowing]

Double accepts the coffee service, graciously does not comment on Angela peeking over their shoulder, and pushes the little trolley into the bathroom. It's already a little warmer in the elegant, tiled space, with steam rising from the water.

"If you don't mind smelling a little fancy for a while, I have some very nice oils," they murmur, untying their robe once more.

[bleak_midwinter]

"Be a drag not to smell like horse shit but I'll manage," he says, graciously. He takes their robe from them and hangs it on a hook with one hand, running the other down their back.

"Let me wash you?"

[oohforeshadowing]

"Please."

Double pours a generous measure of bath oil into the water; the scent of warm spices floats up as they sink into the water with a low groan.

"Mmm. Wonderful."

[bleak_midwinter]

He comes in after them, hissing at the heat.

"Fuck me, that's hot - give us a little more cold to start off with? I'll come out cooked."

[oohforeshadowing]

"I won't even tease you for being a delicate human," they laugh, and reach over to the glyphs to turn the pouring water cold. "Most Realmsfolk couldn't deal with this either."

[bleak_midwinter]

He waits a moment for the cold to get mixed in before dipping in more than his feet.

"If you shift to a human, do you still get this kind of heat resistance? What does and doesn't change?"

[oohforeshadowing]

"It's...complicated," they concede. "It isn't an illusion, but it isn't a complete transformation, either. Say that I became a human - I'd feel the heat more acutely, yes. But I'd still have the strength of my natural body."

[bleak_midwinter]

"That's very interesting. Have you ever been surprised when shifting into some other shape? By something you could do, or could no longer do?"

[oohforeshadowing]

"Oh - absolutely," they chuckle, pressing up against Tommy's side, enjoying the slide of wet skin on skin. "Have you ever seen a faun jump? I could get onto the roof of your stable with room to spare."

[bleak_midwinter]

That makes him laugh as well - the thought alone. It seems - fun. Freeing. He presses his hands into their shoulders, rubbing the warm skin there.

"Can you also shift into actual animals?"

[oohforeshadowing]

They sigh deeply, leaning into the touch.

"I've heard horror stories about shifters who've tried, though not since the Old Realms. As I say, it's not entirely illusory. Would the brain of a deer or a dolphin know how to change back? Could it understand what it meant to do so?"

[bleak_midwinter]

"That's what I was wondering, too. If instinct wouldn't override intellect and memory."

He slowly starts massaging their shoulders, working down to their back. He keeps it a lot friendlier than what he did earlier, avoiding any painful spots, just loosening the muscles.

[oohforeshadowing]

"It's one of our old myths," they say, voice a little lower with pleasure, a somewhat purring register. "A shifter is known for being a trickster, constantly getting the better of a dull-witted troll, but one day the troll manages to fool them into changing into a bird. They can't change back, but they're also not able to be a very effective bird, either. They live the rest of their life in a cage in the troll's home."

[bleak_midwinter]

"That's a terrible thing to do to someone. Trap them body and mind, your head rattling around just as much as the rest of you is."

[oohforeshadowing]

"It is," they agree, softly. "I like to imagine it is just a myth. Nothing more than storytelling. But so many of those tales have some small element of truth."

Tommy's fingers dig into an area of particular tension, and they groan in relief.

[bleak_midwinter]

"Or a way for others to feel less threatened by a unique gift. There's always a trick you can pull on a trickster, and have them be disarmed."

He presses down into the same place again, digging a little harder.

[oohforeshadowing]

"Precisely," they murmur. "Fae are - ah - particularly envious. Their illusions are powerful, but...fragile. Any transformation they affect can't stand up to scrutiny."

[bleak_midwinter]

"Not to other Realmers," he points out. "And maybe some humans have learned by now, but it's not as easy to poke a hole in their glamours to us."