Sasha is here as Sailor Neptune. More precisely they are here in a Slutty Sailor Neptune costume they made themself, smiling brightly and holding a soda and pretending not to judge the costumes of people who aren't even trying. (A speedo and some bodypaint does not Darth Vader make, buddy.) 

It's a nice night. Last year's Halloween party had had a theme to their costumes and Sasha hadn't been told about it, and showing up as Rey when everybody else was cats or mice or tigers or the occasional weirder mammal was an experience and not a great one, and the year before that they'd stayed home with their then-enbyfriend and handed out candy to kids which wasn't bad but isn't as nice as this. 

He smiles at the person who is half a galaxy. Star stickers in accurate constellations requires actual effort and he can respect that even if whoever this is did only manage to get one shoulder and half their thigh. 

Sasha being Slutty Sailor Neptune is not fair. That is really just not fair.

And then Sasha smiles at him, like before they've even sucked anyone's dick or anything, and he turns bright red and wants to sink into the floor. 

Awwww. 

(Other things a speedo and some bodypaint does not make: Green Lantern. A cat. Seriously, if you aren't going to even wear a cat ear headband what are you doing. Whoever came as Wonder Woman did a really good job, though, the bracers look almost like real metal even though Sasha's pretty sure they're foam.) 

Sasha put some effort into their costume because Sasha is the best person in the world. 

Lev lurks near the snack table and eats handfuls of pretzels, on the grounds that if his mouth is full no one can reasonably expect him to talk. (He checks; they're the zero-calorie kind, so he can do this all night, or until his stomach literally runs out of space.)

The person who came as Slutty Hermione and the person who came as Ron are either extremely true to their characters or having some relationship problems, Astrid from How To Train Your Dragon has a Stormfly plushie on her shoulder which is adorable even though the rest of her costume is literally just a bikini, and Sasha finishes their soda and grabs another and some assorted desserts from the snack table. 

Oh no Sasha's coming close to him. 

He grabs a handful of cheese puffs so he has even more excuse not to say anything.

They smile at Lev again and say "Nice costume."

Ack.

He swallows the cheese puffs and says, "Thank you. I didn't, uh, finish it. --I kind of decided I was going at the last minute and then I had to make a costume really fast but then I got distracted by trying to make sure that all the stars were in the right places and I had to decide what "right place" meant and then six hours later I hadn't actually made that much progress on my costume but I'd learned a lot of astronomy and reviewed a bunch of high school math--"

"— sorry," they say, "I'm not laughing at you, promise, that's just — really cute —" 

"Thank... you...?" he tries. "It's not. Really a very good costume. --People said I'd never use trig in real life but here I am using it for my Halloween costume because I'm a dork--"

"It's a fine costume! And even if it wasn't, which it is, at least you put actual effort in, unlike speedo-and-body-paint Darth Vader." 

"That's me," he says, "forced to put effort into my costume because no one wants to look at me shirtless."

"...not what I meant, sorry, I've just been judging Darth Vader quietly for the last twenty minutes for thinking that body paint counts as a robot suit." 

"Sorry. I was. Trying to make a joke. Um. My name's Lev." He grabs a handful of cheese puffs and shoves them into his mouth.

"Nice to meet you, Lev. I'm Sasha." They reach out for a handshake, realize they're still holding a paper plate, and just sort of stand there awkwardly. 

Lev narrowly avoids saying "I know."

Instead he says, "so are you from old Sailor Moon or new Sailor Moon?"

"Old Sailor Moon. Not that I don't like the new one but they kinda neglect everything about Michiru except her relationship with Haruka? And that's definitely better than pretending they're cousins, but." 

Sasha is really good.

(He knew Sasha was really good but it's even more obvious now that, for the first time, he's exchanged several entire sentences with him.)

"Yeah, I don't think we should neglect sex as a way to characterize people but... there's a difference between that and writing entire episodes where your character could be a sexbot and no one would notice."

"Yes, that. And also the thing where it means neither of them get to really have a relationship with Usagi at all?" 

"They did too. There were strapons involved."

"Okay, fine, but when you're spending that much time on sex it still takes away from the time you can spend on people building friendships with each other and non-sex characterization." 

"What, no, I'm pretty sure every one of those naked transformation scenes were completely necessary and exactly what the story required."

"Hey, a naked transformation scene doesn't take that much longer than a clothed transformation scene! A couple of seconds per episode doesn't make that much difference in terms of anyone's narrative arc, it's not at all the same thing." 

"Yeah, it's like when they make all the exposition happen while everyone is changing clothes or taking a shower or while someone is fucking in the background or something. They still have all the porn but, you know, it doesn't slow down the plot."

"The background fucking gets kinda distracting sometimes, but I get your point."

"Not for me really. --And of course there's always, like, actual children's media. I watch a lot of Pixar."

"Pixar's good! I appreciate their dedication to making genuinely good movies even if it is purely because you can't ruthlessly exploit people's childhood nostalgia unless you have nostalgia to exploit. Also I appreciate how nobody talks about the bad Disney movies I remember watching as a kid, so I don't have to go through the list and see if any of the old ones you never hear about are any good." 

"Some of the old ones are good. Treasure Planet is great."

Maybe he should sit down in this chair near the snack table.

It doesn't look like there's another open chair so Sasha perches carefully on the arm of Lev's. "I hear about Treasure Planet! Admittedly I mostly hear about it from tumblr blogs that post gifs of the space animation but I still do hear about it." 

"Well, maybe you haven't heard of the bad ones, then. Great Mouse Detective?"

He's not going to touch Sasha, or hint that he wants to touch Sasha, but he's definitely going to send very intense telepathy beams in Sasha's direction and hope that Sasha picks up on it.

"Only in the context of an ex joking about how it's the best Sherlock Holmes adaptation ever made." 

"I wouldn't go that far," he says, "but it does have the most terrifying cat in all of fiction."

"I might have to check it out, then." 

He is maybe leaning towards Lev, just a little. The telepathy beams aren't hard to pick up on. 

"Maybewecouldwatchittogethersometimeorsomething," he says all in one breath.

"That sounds fun. Are you okay?" 

"...you're really pretty? I mean everyone is really pretty you're just. Especially. Really pretty. Um."

(He is kind of proud of himself for getting through that entire sentence without mentioning his horrible pining crush.)

Smile. 

"Thank you," they say. "You're cute." 

"Thank you?" he says. 

Telepathy beams!

Telepathy has not been invented in the last five minutes but it is not very comfortable to perch on the arm of a chair. 

How does Lev feel about a lapful of Sasha? 

He is very very happy about a lapful of Sasha. 

Perhaps Sasha will be able to feel how happy he is about this prospect.

Gosh. 

He is indeed able to do that. 

Lev has no idea where to put his hands. He makes an abortive movement towards Sasha's thighs, then towards his ass, then towards his hair, then eventually rests his hands on the sides of the seat without touching Sasha at all.

"So what do you do when you aren't watching old movies," Lev says, like a normal person who definitely has no idea what Sasha is doing when he isn't watching old movies.

"Bunch of design and cosplay stuff." 

"I can tell, you're good at it."

(Slutty Hermione has finished yelling at Ron and, in complete defiance of the alleged party rules, is now giving a very enthusiastic blowjob to Wonder Woman.)

"Thank you!" 

Brief, affectionate headbutt. 

"I'm a psych major. I think I'm going to go to grad school," Lev says, trying with some success to ignore the real-life crossover fanfiction happening a few feet away.

It's really good crossover fanfiction!

"I was a psych major for a year or so but I switched — what kind of psych do you do?" 

It's actually really uncomfortable crossover fanfiction!

"The whole problem with grad school is that I'm going to have to pick. I've been taking a double courseload for the last couple of semesters."

"...Wow, that's dedicated." 

"I have"-- he touches his cheeks-- "a lot of free time."

"Still, though, if I had twice as much free time I don't think I could spend it all on classes, I'm still impressed." 

"Well. Psych is the most interesting thing in the world."

"It's good that you get to study it, then." 

Sasha likes him Sasha likes him Sasha likes him Sasha likes him!

He is still not entirely convinced that this isn't some sort of weird prank. 

"I don't understand why everyone doesn't study it. You get to learn about people and people are just fascinating."

"I couldn't hack it, I switched majors after a year." 

Oh shit he knew that he--

"I feel like I keep putting my foot in my mouth."

"You're fine. I say I couldn't hack it, it was really more like 'I realized if anyone had one more stupid take about postmodernism in Empirical Research I was going to start screaming and then I decided maybe I should not be in a psych program.'" 

"It gets better in upper-level classes."

(There is still a part of Lev very clearly indicating how much he enjoys having Sasha in his lap. Indeed, it seems to have gotten only more enthusiastic about the subject.)

"Good! It'd suck for you if it didn't." 

Sasha is not really sure what the etiquette is here, given that Lev seems kind of uncomfortable with the crossover fanfic that is still happening six feet to their left, but they certainly do notice that! 

Lev takes his hands off the seat and very cautiously touches Sasha's back.

Oh. Good. This they understand.

They close their eyes and make a very soft ah sound. 

All right, then, he will be very brave and touch Sasha's hair.

(This is a terrible idea.)

Nooooo it's a great idea. The best idea. 

No, it's a terrible idea and it's going to make him feel like crying and throwing up in the morning but Sasha keeps wiggling in his lap and making little noises and this is making it much harder to remember that ideas are terrible.

He pulls Sasha's hair. 

Sasha whimpers and leans into Lev's hand. 

"Good girl," he says into Sasha's ear, "good girl."

Oh. 

It feels like the world's dropping out from under them -- like they and Lev are the only people in the room -- but there's a, a reason, that they can't do this right here and right now, they just have to remember what it is --

It's really hard to form his mouth around the phrase "do you want to go upstairs?" 

So he keeps pulling Sasha's hair, keeps whispering that they're so beautiful and so responsive and makes Lev so happy and are such a good girl, kisses their jawline and their eyelids and their smooth flawless cheeks.

It's perfect he's perfect Lev's so perfect -- but there's --

"We should?" they manage to say, and the rest of the sentence becomes a sharp gasp as Lev kisses their jaw again. 

Sasha's words send a jolt of electricity through him. It's intoxicating to be wanted. Realistically he could be anyone with soft hands and a hard dick but it's so easy to imagine Sasha loves  wants him.

"Yeah," he says, "c'mon. Upstairs."

Oh good. Lev knows where they need to be.

They follow Lev. 

Orgy, threesome, blowbang, uncomfortably close to someone else fucking... Nice. An empty bedroom that locks.

He pulls Sasha onto the bed, holds them for a moment, breathes in their scent.

Being held is. Good. They bury their face in Lev's shoulder and let themself relax into him. 

"You're so warm," he murmurs into Sasha's neck, and then follows it up with a bite.

"Fuck -- please --" 

For the first time ever Lev kisses them. And-- he should pull Sasha's hair or scratch them or hold them down, make it good for them-- but he doesn't want to. He wants to focus on the softness of Sasha's lips, the warmth of their body, their smell, the way they taste, the little moves and sounds they make; he wants to memorize every detail of what it's like to kiss Sasha.

Lev is soft and warm and -- it doesn't hurt at all, there's this awareness at the back of their mind that it could and if it did that would be so good but being teased, under Lev's soft hands and Lev's warm entire Lev, is good too. Very very good. 

Lev reaches down, runs his hands along Sasha's silky smooth thighs-- he's wanted to touch them for so long and now he can-- Sasha's skirt is riding up and their dick is stretching out their panties and Lev grinds against it-- keeps kissing them, keeps touching their thighs--

"Please," and they're not really sure what it is they're asking for, "please, Lev, please --"

"I like hearing you say 'please,'" he murmurs, "mine, mine, my Sasha."

He pulls one of Sasha's legs so it's wrapped around him, runs his fingers through Sasha's hair, kisses their neck like it's an act of worship.

"Yeah. Yours. Your Sasha." They're so relaxed. "Your good girl?" 

"The best girl I could imagine," he says truthfully. He wraps his arms around Sasha and moves his hips against theirs. It feels-- really good-- too good-- but he doesn't want to stop--

His mouth says of its own accord: "Keep begging?"

Nodnodnod. 

"Please — please, yours, please —" 

"Oh," he says, and Sasha's right next to him and their skin is so soft and they're so relaxed and he can feel how aroused they are by him and how much they trust him and his hips keep moving of their own accord and it just keeps feeling better and better and he's so close to Sasha and they're saying "please" and "yours" and he nibbles Sasha's neck and then bites down much harder than he meant to and his vision whites out--

Well.

Shit.

He holds Sasha close, keeps moving his hips and biting his neck, and hopes Sasha won't notice.

"...you're cute, how are you so cute it's not fair —" 

"Sorry, I didn't-- it was an accident--"

"It was cute." They pull Lev closer and bury their face in his shoulder again; this just so happens to put Lev's thigh at a good angle for grinding against. 

"How are you so nice!"

"Mmmmmmmm. How are you so good — and soft — and warm — and — ah —" 

Lev bites his ear and then kisses it. "I think probably the answer is that you're horny."

"Nnnnnngh. Probably. Still — mmm! — please keep doing that —" 

Not only can he keep doing that, he can reach down Sasha's shirt and start tracing circles around his chest. 

(Sasha doesn't really have tits to speak of, but Lev is going to guess that the girl pills have made the skin there very very sensitive.)

They have they have they have — it's so good Lev is so good they arc up into the touch and —

He pinches, hard, then keeps tracing it feather-light; he alternates kissing Sasha's ear and whispering "good girl, such a pretty girl, so desperate". His other hand finds a bruise on Sasha's thigh and presses into it.

He can feel himself starting to get hard again. 

"Ah — yes, yours, please — yours — your desperate thing — ng —"

He rubs his thumb over the head of Sasha's dick through their panties. "Might not let you come," he says, "might leave you like this... desperate and wanting..."

Tiny desperate whimper. 

He takes off his shirt, kicks off his pants and underwear, and tries not to think about how goofy he looks (pudgy belly, weirdly patchy chest hair, a mole, dick jutting out in a ridiculous and vulnerable fashion).

Sasha does not stop smiling, or cuddling him. 

Yeah, well, that's what you'd expect with girl pills, isn't it.

He hikes up Sasha's shirt and starts to kiss their chest, pinching their nipple with his other hand. 

The sounds that have been spilling out of them only increase in volume. 

Maybe... he will manage to not embarrass himself on the second go-round. If Sasha keeps not touching him. 

He bites and licks and sucks and lavishes attention on Sasha's chest.

Sasha reaches down and puts their hand on the back of Lev's head, pushes him closer. 

He makes a soft happy noise and takes more of Sasha's breast into his mouth.

Oh that's -- so good -- they clutch at Lev's head and moan loudly -- 

He reaches into Sasha's underwear and starts to jerk them off, keeps sucking, keeps licking, grinds a little bit against Sasha's thigh, and then exercises self-control and does not grind against Sasha's thigh.

"Ah -- Lev you're so --" 

He doesn't get to find out what he's so, and thus he can fill it in as he likes (so handsome-- so good to me-- so kind, so loving, so devoted). 

Sasha's so beautiful, falling apart under him, and he can feel himself getting close-- but he already came once and no one's touching his dick so probably it doesn't matter, he'll just stay like this, at a plateau of incredible horniness, he'll get Sasha off and then he'll finish himself off and it'll be fine--

He lazily bites Sasha's nipple and then licks it and then before he can get entirely too distracted begins "maybe you should--" and then pauses and remembers and says in a firm voice "take off your clothes."

They obey, as well as they can with Lev above them and his mouth on them being distracting; the shirt and skirt and underwear come off, the socks stay on. 

The way Sasha moves when they're taking off their clothes is very hot, the way they brush against him, the occasional nudge of their skin against his dick, the slow reveal of chest and stomach and hips, and Lev is really trying hard to think about baseball or something except that baseball was incredibly boring in the first place and it's even more boring when there's a warm and soft and entirely naked Sasha up against him. 

He sits back before he touches Sasha and just looks the barely-there swells of their breasts, their jutting hipbones and flat stomach and smooth hairless skin, their creamy thighs and the socks that are still on and make all the rest of Sasha seem even more naked than if they were entirely unclothed, their hard dick resting against their stomach, a sign that Sasha likes Lev, a dick that Lev can touch and stroke and kiss and take into his mouth as much as he wants, and most of all Lev looks at Sasha's face, their half-closed eyes and their flushed cheeks and the way they keep forgetting to breath and then inhaling sharply to make up for the lack of oxygen, and Lev bites his lip and comes, entirely untouched, all over Sasha's stomach.

Sasha moans out loud when Lev's come hits their skin, hot and proof-that-they're-beautiful-proof-that-they're-wanted, pulls him closer and kisses him. 

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

"You're so good," in between kisses, "want you —" 

At least Sasha doesn't seem to hate him?

"I uh. Mostly want a nap."

"Mmmmmmmmmmkay." Nuzzle. "Cuddle me?" 

"I mean, I'll finish you off, I'm not--" In lieu of explaining what he's not he sinks his teeth into Sasha's shoulder and wraps his hand around Sasha's dick and jerks him off with intent.

"Ah — ahhhh, Lev, please — oh — 

— oh —"

He feels warm and soft and loving and so so happy.

"My Sasha--" he says into Sasha's neck, "little one, precious little one--"

And Sasha clings to Lev and digs their fingers into him and bites down on their lip and makes a high pitched sound from their throat and comes. 

He flops on Sasha's shoulder.

Sasha's probably going to leave any minute-- it's just a party hookup and they can't have been that satisfied, they're going to want to merge in with the orgy or get fucked in the restroom

But for now it's nice. It feels like someone has removed all his bones and he's flopping around like an octopus. Lev closes his eyes and tries to memorize what this is like.

He mouths 'love you' into Sasha's shoulder, where Sasha can't see.

If Sasha is going to leave at any minute, they haven't gotten the memo. "Soft," they say, as if this is a full announcement that requires no context, and bury their face in Lev's hair and enjoy the weight of him. 

"You're soft!"

"Mmmmph. No you." 

It feels a little bit like he's high on how good it feels to be cuddled, and for an insane moment he wonders if someone slipped a bimbo dose into his drink. It feels so right, like a puzzle piece slipping into place, like a drink of water when you've been thirsty for so long you've forgotten that you thirst.

"Maybe we're both soft," he says, and strokes the inside of Sasha's thighs to punctuate the point.

Sasha will stay for as long as Lev will have them, or until the party is No Seriously For Real Over, whichever comes first. 

(Being held and cuddled and warm and stayed with is. Very good.) 

Lev relaxes and closes his eyes and winds up falling asleep on Sasha's shoulder.

💜 💜. 

"Maybe you should sleep in a bed that was not intended for having sex in?" 

Oh. Yeah. Here's the part where Sasha goes off to fuck someone else. He can already feel the nausea rising up in his stomach.

"That's a good idea," he says, and sits up and starts to look around for his pants.

Sasha finds their clothes and shoes and puts them back on and kisses Lev again. "Your place or mine?" 

Lev contemplates his pants, which are stained with come, and then decides that he can just walk back naked. 

And then he hears what Sasha said and fails to process it for thirty seconds.

"Uh. I could make you breakfast?"

"...being held by you was really nice and I'd like to do more of it?" he tries. "Breakfast sounds good but it's not really the point." 

"Uh. Yeah. We can do that."

Is he dreaming. Is he going to wake up soon. He attempts to pinch himself discreetly.

If Sasha notices the pinching, they don't react. 

They do hold onto Lev's hand (!!!) as they walk. 

Gosh! He's extremely excited about this. 

He kisses Sasha's cheek. 

They pass a woman dressed up as the president with her head and arms in stocks, a sign around her neck that says "RAPE ME ABUSE ME YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO." Judging by the bruises and marks on her thighs and the come drying on her body, a bunch of people have taken her up on it. Her expression is the dazed happiness of someone on a bimbo dose of girl pills. 

They also pass a Green Lantern who put in even less effort than the Darth Vader back at the party, a couple of Disney princesses, two nurses, a police officer with distinctly nonstandard handcuffs, and an Iron Man who at least put effort into the body paint so Sasha will give him full credit. 

He stops and waits at the door to Lev's building, only very reluctantly lets go of Lev's hand. 

Lev puts in the door code and averts his eyes from the enthusiastic crossover fanfiction happening in the hallway.

"If I'd known you were coming," he says, "I would have cleaned up my apartment. So uh. Be warned."

"I will consider myself to have been warned." 

Lev has a studio apartment: a kitchenette with a microwave, a hot plate, a fridge and a sink overflowing with dirty dishes; a chair and a desk; a bed. There is probably a floor under all of the clothes, empty food wrappers, laptops, miscellaneous chargers, half-full bags of rice or jars of peanut butter, papers, pens, books, sex toys, towels,  paper towel rolls, and boxes of paperclips. The mess on the bed is mostly books, papers, laptops, and chargers; there's a little nest in the middle of it just large enough for Lev to sleep. 

Sasha is just going to find a place to stand and stand there while Lev clears the bed off. 

He shoves all the shit on the bed onto the floor and says, "Uh. Sorry. I'm. --People don't normally come over here."

Sasha flops onto the bed as soon as there's space for them. "It's fine. — maybe my place next time, though." 

"...next time?"

"You're very good for snuggling," they say, in lieu of attempting an actual explanation of what they're thinking. 

"Thank you! I have... zero practice."

He sits on the bed next to Sasha in a position where he's touching him as little as possible.

That is not cuddling. That is, in fact, the opposite of cuddling. Sasha is going to have to fix this. 

Eeeeeeeeeee.

There is almost nothing that Lev misses about being on pills but he's a little sad that he isn't gearing up to fuck (...or attempt to fuck) Sasha right now. Refractory periods: terrible. 

Oh good snuggling. (Oh good Lev likes them.) 

(They could be getting fucked but it would kind of defeat its own point, wouldn't it.) 

"Uh. Be warned that I don't really. Um. Talk to people very much? So I'm not sure if I'm good company at all. Unless you want to hear about the genetics of sexual orientation or something. Or learn about depression. Or eating disorders!"

Oh good he doesn't have to figure out what to say. "All of those sound interesting." 

"We don't know a lot about depression," Lev says, "because pills are an antidepressant and basically everyone is on them. Right now we treat depression as a disease of, mm, about ages eleven through sixteen, because at sixteen essentially everyone is on pills. But that's not how it worked before pills were invented. Most depression was adult depression. People were depressed for decades."

"...that's terrifying to think about!" 

He touches his cheeks. "It is! But it's also really annoying if you want to understand human psychology because it was this basic fact of human psychology for thousands of years that some people were depressed and... it's not like we can study it. People aren't depressed anymore. --Pills did a number on the study of human happiness for the same reason."

They aren't really sure what to say, so they nod and arrange themself on Lev's shoulder and look up at him, signalling I'm interested I just don't have anything to add as well as they can. 

Lev can chatter about how it used to be that people in bad situations were crushingly miserable all the time, and now everyone is basically happy, so it's hard to figure out what situations make people miserable because the baseline is so high. The research they did before had some weird results like that the only benefit of being rich is having more money than other people and people aren't happier if they have more nice things. It would be good to be able to study that more but of course people who aren't on pills (cheek touch) are a weird sample.

Sasha notices the cheek touches but they're not really sure how to respond, except to kiss Lev's cheek where his fingers just were. 

When he does Lev pauses and stares at him with a soft warm happy look.

Oh good. 

They won't stop, then. 

"I can't fuck you again tonight. Um. Honestly twice is a lot for someone who isn't on pills, I just kind of, uh..." He trails off without finishing this thought.

"...I kind of figured, I wasn't expecting you to. You just make really good faces." 

"So do you. And you make pretty things," he says before he catches himself.

"....hm?" 

"Uh, I mean, your costume is really good so you've probably had a lot of practice and made other pretty things?" he tries.

Something sounds kind of off about that but Sasha is currently much too cuddled to care. 

They press their face into Lev's neck. "'S cute. You're cute." 

"You should show me the things you make. See if I'm right."

"Mmm. Another thing for next time." 

"Yeah," he says.

He is very tired and Sasha is very snuggly.

Yes. Yes they are. They aren't any less snuggly asleep. 

In the morning he very carefully extracts himself from Sasha without waking them and decides to wake them up with pancakes!

He hasn't cooked much since he finished his gened cooking requirements but pancakes are easy.

When he does wake them up, Sasha takes a couple of moments to figure out where they are and what they're doing, and then they smile up at Lev and determinedly do not kiss him while there are pancakes between them. 

He has still not got any clothes on. 

"Hi! You're still really pretty. --Oh no I don't have anything for you to wear that isn't your Halloween costume."

"And you're still cute. I can just wear the costume home, it's not like I'll be the only one." 

"That's fair. Probably more people will be wearing their Halloween costume home than not." His face hurts a little bit from smiling. 

"Yeah. Probably no one'll even look at me twice." He does not put his head on Lev's shoulder; he instead sits in such a way that he can comfortably eat food. "These are excellent pancakes." 

"Thank you! --Um, I'd tell you about the psychology of food reward that makes pancakes extremely delicious but I think probably you don't care?" 

"I couldn't hack it, I wasn't bored by it. I would love to hear about the psychology of food reward that makes pancakes extremely delicious." 

Bounce bounce bounce they have made SO many discoveries about how food reward works in the past fifteen years did you know that ALL food is more delicious than it used to be Lev will sketch out the human brain and some molecules to show Sasha exactly how it works and also completely forget to eat his pancakes

He!!! Bounces!!!! 

They did notice that all food has gotten better in the last fifteen years but were under the impression they'd just learned to appreciate it more since they were six. Sasha will listen and very gently remind him that he still has pancakes that he is not eating. 

When reminded he eats one bite and then goes back to NEUROCHEMISTRY, which is definitely way more interesting and important than pancakes.

(He's really good at explaining things.)

He's very good in general. 

His phone dings.

hey pretty thing do you want to come over to my place tonight? I have two dozen girl pills I don't need and some friends who are getting antsy

I definitely did not just send that to ten people

I mean I would but I'm waiting for you to say no first

It's the morning after Halloween, how is anyone getting antsy already 

(Answer's yes tbc 💖💖) 

Esther's horny as fuck, okay? don't judge her

I'm not judging I'm just SAYING 

anyway yes I'll be there 

Lev sits there looking very much like he'd want to ask who that was.

Sasha puts their phone away. 

"Sorry. Friend's hosting a thing tonight, wanted to know if I could come." 

He does not know what emotion to express and settles on "Cool."

(They fucked up.) 

"Sorry," they say again, and lean against Lev's shoulder, because the thing they'd usually do to solve this problem is probably not going to work. "You were saying?" 

"I dunno, maybe I should ever let you talk?"

"...I'm not great at talking and I like listening to you? Sorry." 

"Sorry. I don't want you to be bored? I know that no one is interested in the things I'm interested in."

(He says this like it is an obvious fact.)

"You're not boring me. — and that can't possibly be true, even if there were literally nobody else, which there isn't, I'm right here, you aren't no one." 

"I'm a very strange person. You can tell because books all have sex scenes and yet no one ever stops to explain where the medieval city's food is coming from or how one enforces interplanetary tariffs or how the matriarchy is surviving economically if it's enslaved half the population to be nothing but fucktoys."

"...I'm never going to be able to read a fantasy book without noticing that ever again, am I," Sasha says, not without affection. 

"The fucktoy thing seems like the more serious problem!"

"Alternate sociology totally counts! I guess what I really mean is other-world fiction, but still." 

"I'm going to write a fantasy novel, and it is going to all be about efficient tax policy and historical treatments for mental illness. No one is going to fuck at all. It is going to sell exactly one copy, which is to me."

"Two copies. At least." 

"You're amazing."

"You're good at explaining things! I don't have to be amazing to be interested in what you have to say!" 

It is physically impossible for eyes to transform into little hearts but Lev is doing his best.

Maybe they can go back up on the bed and then Lev can hold him and tell him about the economics of medieval cities, such that Sasha can be bothered by fantasy novels more informedly. (Perhaps Sasha can do this naked.)

Was there some expectation that they weren't going to do this naked? That would be very silly when there is a Lev right here. 

An excellent plan! Then he can run his hands along Sasha's back and shoulders and ass while telling them about guild structure.

Mmmmmmmmmmmgood. 

(They don't want to have to leave, ever.) 

Eventually Lev says, "your costume was really cool. Do you do other cosplay stuff?" like a person who has definitely not been following Sasha's Tumblr for three years.

"Yeah! I did a Gerudo Link from Breath of the Wild a few months ago, and Sombra from Overwatch a few months before that, the pictures on my phone aren't awesome but I'm really proud of it --"

"Ooh, can I see?" Lev says, like a person who hasn't seen them and, in fact, has never jerked off to the photo of Sombra with a buttplug in their ass available to Sasha's mid-tier Patreon subscribers.

"Yeah, sure!" 

The photos on Sasha's phone aren't nearly as good as the ones they post on tumblr, but they've taken and not-posted a lot of pictures of projects at various stages of completion. 

"You're really talented." He puts an arm around Sasha's shoulder, plays with their hair. and remembers how they reacted last night. "Little one?" he says hesitantly.

"T- 

Thank you." 

Sasha's face and shoulders are flushed pink. 

"You like when I call you that."

"...yeah. I do." 

"...I guess probably when everyone calls you that."

"...I mean I probably would if everyone else called me that?" 

He holds Sasha's hand and looks down at their hands intertwined together. "Well. You should probably ask them to."

"Mm." Handsqueeze. "I don't exactly have a shortage of things I like when people call me." 

He curls in on himself. "Yeah. That... makes sense."

fuck fuck fuck 

"...so this one can just be yours, I mean." 

"...Oh."

Hopeful smile?

Lev pins them to the bed and kisses them. 

They go loose and relaxed under Lev and say "please" into his mouth, hold tighter onto his hands. 

He kisses Sasha's cheek and says, "I want to be your boyfriend. I-- I realize I'm kind of ugly and shy and I talk way too much about things people aren't interested in and probably you could do a lot better than me and-- I'm not going to be surprised at all if you say 'no' but. I would try really hard to make you happy, I promise."

Happy sigh. "I would like that." 

He hugs Sasha tightly. "I'll take care of you, I promise, little one."

They whimper and then bury their head in Lev's shoulder. 

He bites Sasha's ear and then says "do you want to..."

"Yes. Yes, I want to. -- I'm not really sure how often to ask? But I want to." 

"Oh good because you didn't and I was worried you didn't want to"-- cheek touch-- "um. I'm pretty much up for sex with you whenever I am like physically capable of it, and even when I'm not I can just suck you off or something, that's fine."

That... doesn't quite sound right but Sasha's not going to question their luck they're just going to kiss Lev. 

"I wanna make you happy," he says into Sasha's mouth.

"You're so good." 

"Wonder if I am going to be totally embarrassing this time around." Kiss. "Should I not let you come? Because you're going to see a friend later."

Enbyfriend, enbyfriend, enbyfriend enbyfriend enbyfriend enbyfriend...

Gasp. (Nuzzle.) "Not letting me come sounds -- good --" 

Kiss. Neck nibble. "You're very good. Touch me?"

Sasha is so so happy to touch him. 

He's somewhat less embarrassing this time!

Mmm. That's good. 

Sasha will stay to cuddle for a long while afterwards, and when it's time to meet Asher they kiss Lev on the cheek before they go. 

Lev is all smile-y when they leave. "Have fun."

"I will! Love you." 

When Lev hears Sasha say that he's so overwhelmed that he can't move for a few seconds.

"...love you."

In the old days, before they invented pills and sexbots and all the rest, if you were a lust demon and you wanted to eat you had to go to some nunnery or whorehouse and seduce individuals until you weren't hungry anymore. It was time-consuming. 

These days, ambient lust floats around in the air, from a sex club here or an anonymous encounter there or someone being groped on a train over there. You can gorge yourself on it until you'd be food for gluttony demons, if demons could eat sins produced by other demons, which they cannot. And that's good, all things considered. You don't have to take care with how much magic you use anymore. If you'd rather be celibate for a week and binge Netflix, you can. 

But food was tastier, Esther always thought, if you made your own the natural way. If you don't need it for sustenance, you can always enjoy it for recreation. 

Which is why he's in two bodies in his apartment, flipping through a magazine while he waits for Sasha to arrive and idly checking on their status. (Apparently their last hookup didn't let them come, and now a guy on the bus is touching their tits and being very persuasive about how well-formed his dick is and Sasha is just barely managing to resist... this is going to be delicious.)

Sasha smiles up at Asher when he answers the door and kisses him as soon as they're inside. 

"You're still in your Halloween costume."

"I stayed the night with someone who didn't have clothes I could borrow and haven't actually gone home. Also, not unrelatedly, I have a boyfriend now." 

"Must be fun for you. --I have some clothes of yours from last time so you can at least wear something clean home."

"You're sweet." 

Esther looks up. "Hello."

"Pills are here," Asher says, gesturing to the table.

Right, yes, they're here for a reason. They can take about a quarter of what Asher currently has, 

— and then the desperation kicks in and it's hard to concentrate on much of anything except how badly they want to be pushed to their knees. 

"You're cute. Clothes off."

Their clothes come off at a slightly implausible speed. 

"What do you think," Asher says to Esther, mostly for Sasha's benefit, "maybe we should just leave them like this in a corner of the room and watch TV."

"We'd have to tie up their hands," Esther says, "or they'll get themself off."

High-pitched desperate whimpering.

"Not a lot of point to that," Asher says thoughtfully. "We have this lovely little slut right here, at least we ought to get to use their mouth while we're watching TV."

"I liked making them do math problems," Esther comments. "Remember that? Figure out how to add 28 and 43, and we'll touch your dick. Figure out how to multiply them, and we'll let you come."

(If Sasha were capable of thinking about anything other than how desperately they wanted to be goodpleasingobedientfucked, he'd see the strangeness of identical facial expressions on two different faces. This is why Asher normally doesn't split into two different bodies before his prey takes pills. But he knows Sasha, and he knows Sasha doesn't like to talk much before they get down to business.)

"Please," they whisper, "please -- not that -- please --"

"Aw. But I like making you do things you don't want to do."

"I think I should suck their dick and you should choke them."

Sasha lets out a sound that might just be a whimper or might be please. 

She wraps her hand around Sasha's throat and throws them up against the wall.

(While she's thinking of it she sets an edit to Sasha's memories to happen when the drugs wear off. It's perfectly safe for her to choke them, of course, she's keeping an eye on their heart and will step in if anything goes wrong, but they don't know that and they might object when they're able to think at all. And there's certainly no need for them to remember just how strong Esther is.)