Chapter Text
Verso stood before the mirror in their room, that bright Sunday morning. Maelle had just left. There was no work to be done, no shows to play. His sore fingers could rest. They’d been swelling a little, lately, and playing the piano took more effort than it usually did.
He supposed it was inevitable. He didn’t know what Aline’s body had gone through, when she had carried his counterpart or his sisters. He wished he could ask her, sometimes, but it was a moot point. He had made his choices, chosen wrong, and now was being punished for it. Sometimes he thought about what could have been, if he’d been able to really fight back against Maelle. If she’d heeded his desperate plea to let him rest.
But no. It was pointless. His life was simple now. He was allowed to age, at least in his face. His scars had been wiped away, his pianist skills were put to work… as were other parts of him. He hoped Maelle was unaware of the level of it. For everything, he had no idea if she knew the depths that the former expeditioners would go to in order to punish him. She’d brought them back, and it had seemed that her wish to live out this lifetime together had carried the same truth that everything she had said in that moment had.
That is to say, none.
Verso squeezed his eyes shut against the memory, but it still washed over him like a wave. He remembered almost every moment of it in crystal clear detail. He hadn’t realized at the time that Maelle had used the old chroma and her new Paintress powers and the journals to bring back nearly every single expeditioner…
-
Verso hadn’t slept that night, or any of the others since they’d returned from the continent. The harsh rays of the morning sun that were cast through the curtainless windows splayed over his face. They made him wish he could find some solace in blissful darkness, but neither solace nor darkness were for him. Not in New Lumiere. Not under Maelle’s rule.
He was startled from his trancelike dissociation and attempts to ignore the sun by a knock on the door. He frowned, looking towards it before sitting up slowly. “It’s unlocked.” He called out. He hadn’t bothered to change out of his expeditioner uniform or brush his hair or even bathe since they’d returned, so being decent wasn’t a concern he had.
The door cracked open, and a familiar head of red hair became visible before she stepped into the room. Maelle was smiling brightly enough that Verso had to blink against it like he did with the sun. “Verso!” She gushed. “I have someone who wants to see you. Get up, come on.” She rushed forward and grasped his arm. Verso tried so hard not to smile, affection welling up in his chest.
“I’m coming, I’m coming.” He had been begging for his death at her hands a week ago, but she was smiling at him now and he couldn’t tell her no.
They headed downstairs, out into the oppressive sunshine. Maelle chatted with him just about whatever, and Verso did his best to answer. It was hard to think, it was harder to speak. When had he eaten, last? Probably the last time he’d slept… which was before his sister had requested death and been granted it. No such freedom had been granted to him. Maelle didn’t bring him to the opera house like he’d anticipated though, nor did she bring him to the bakery or anywhere else familiar. Instead, she led him to the Grande Hotel in the middle of town. Their steps were quiet on the red carpeting as they headed up to the top floor. Verso had to blink against the sharp contrast between shadows and light, his eyes struggling to adjust.
“So where is this person?” Verso asked, as they ascended the stairs. “Who are they?”
“All the way at the top. And it’s lots of someone’s.” Maelle said with a smile. Verso registered her words and processed them… and realized that he didn’t know what was waiting for them. It could be anyone.
“And they… asked for me?” Verso asked around the sudden nausea.
“By name. They all adore you.” Maelle confided, but Verso was well-versed in the language of lies. He could tell she wasn’t being truthful. But could he turn around? Some invisible force felt like it was dragging him forward now. He couldn’t tell her no. He couldn’t turn around. All he could do was follow her onto the landing and towards the ornate doors that waited for them.
Maelle smiled up at him. Verso tried so hard to smile back. Maybe it was a fan, one of Gustave’s apprentices. Someone to sign an autograph for. Someone to play a ditty for. A friendly face, an awkward smile that Verso could charm into something real. But deep inside, Verso knew that there was no kindness waiting behind that door for him. Maelle knocked twice and pushed the door open. Verso’s gaze flicked to the window near them, wondering if he could make it there and out, wondering if he would be even allowed to leap or if some strange Paintress power would allow Maelle to grasp him midair and drag him back.
Behind the door, clothed in their uniforms, was every single expeditioner that Verso had known. Leslie, Thèo, Damien, Marcel…
Julie.
When they came towards him, he couldn’t move an inch. His feet were rooted to the ground. Some of them had swords, some of them had guns, but all of them had the same look of undisguised disgust on their faces. He looked helplessly towards Maelle, but she just smiled and waved at him.
“They all said they knew you.” She said, and the sharp stab of betrayal deep inside Verso’s chest was something he’d never heal from. “I’ll see you around, Verso.” She turned around and headed back down the stairs as hands grasped at Verso’s clothes and hair and pulled him bodily into the room.
The door shut heavily behind them. Verso’s back hit a mattress. Julie stood over him as Verso’s eyes flicked frantically from side to side, trapped like prey beneath them. He heard something rip, and he made a choked-off noise as panic rose in his chest, as he flailed against their grip the second that he remembered how to. Julie scoffed and lifted her sword, the same sword that had pierced him so long ago - and slid it directly into the same place she had before. The sword stabbed through his heart, through his flesh and making him cry out as he reached for it to pull it out, barely able to see in the dim lighting—
But then his hand was being stabbed through. He howled, and there was some laughter as hands continued to rip and tear his clothes off, his jacket and his shirt. He couldn’t even try to hide from their lecherous looks, from their wandering hands. There were so many people. He was so small and very suddenly so naked beneath them, his chest heaving with breaths he shouldn’t be taking as he searched their faces for any pity. His blood was bubbling up over his palms, his ankles stabbed through as well, keeping him spread-eagle on the giant bed. He didn’t even know where it began or where it ended. All he knew was Julie’s face above him, her long hair brushing over his throat.
“You won’t die.” She promised, and Verso’s next breath left him in a desperate plea. She laughed cruelly, stroking her thumb over his cheekbone. The stinging pain registered before the actual slap did, and his head jerked to the side so sharply that he smacked it on the hilt of the sword impaled through his shoulder. He gasped as his vision went double.
It was astounding, the human capacity for pain. He’d been curious, once upon a time. He’d died in so many ways… but he couldn’t think of anything that hurt more than this. Held down by swords like tent stakes, and Julie’s hot breath suddenly filling his lungs as she kissed him. There was nothing soft or kind about it. She bit his bottom lip and his tongue, forcing wounded noises from his mouth. Between his legs, questing hands had begun to run over his sensitive inner thighs and up to the soft folds of his vulva. He jolted beneath them again, gasping in pain when the blades buried in him kept him still. He could barely process the pain from those. He could barely figure out where it began and where he ended.
Leslie’s big hands spread him further apart, he recognized those at least, and a choked noise left him. He could taste iron as blood bubbled up his throat. Julie pulled back and slapped him again, making his head bounce the other way. His eyes fell shut as thick fingers pressed inside of him at the same time. He wasn’t ready, he tried to whimper around the pain, around the darkness at the edge of his vision. But then there was the sharpest, most awful burn as someone doused him in liquid. It was a healing tint, he realized belatedly. His skin tried to knit together around the blades to no avail, the sharpness digging new holes in his skin that he couldn’t see and could only feel.
“Someone shut him up. His wailing is annoying me.” Julie’s voice was dismissive.
“He got tight when you did that.” Thèo’s laughter echoed in his ears.
Tears coursed down Verso’s cheeks, and then there was a thumb at his bottom lip. It coaxed his mouth open, and then there was a cock between his lips, pressing his tongue to the bottom of his mouth with the size of it. It tasted of musk and dirt and salt.
“Guess who.” Gabriel murmured, and Verso choked on his name before that thick cock slipped the rest of the way of the way into his throat. Verso’s eyes rolled back in his head, his throat convulsing around the cock buried so deep inside him that he couldn’t even taste the bitter pre; all he could do was feel it as it traced a hot path down inside him.
Between his legs, there were four, six, eight? fingers inside of him now, questing and stretching him and making his thighs twitch. There was no attention given to his clit besides the occasional mean slap that made him jolt and the people with fingers inside him groan. Verso didn’t know how many people he’d need to service - but it didn’t matter so much. The future was frightening and he was barely mentally in the present. His chest was heaving around the pain and the lack of air - and then finally, finally, the fingers pulled out of his cunt and his hole, letting him focus on choking around the cock in his mouth.
“Breathe through your nose, silly.” Adrien’s voice was fond and almost gentle, and Verso felt another tear spill down his cheek. Someone was there at his side with their hot tongue dragging over his cheek, licking up his tears. Someone else had settled at Verso’s chest, their hands kneading and gripping his tits. He whimpered at the hot pleasure that came when their calloused fingers rubbed and pinched at his nipples, coaxing them into flushed peaks - before there was a mouth on one of them, sucking his tit into their mouth.
He wailed around Gabriel’s thick cock, Gabriel groaned, the person on his tit groaned - and then the daggers thrust through his ankles were removed. There was a dizzy relief that ran through him as one source of pain was removed, as his throat rippled around Gabriel’s cock… but that relief was short lived as his thighs were lifted and his hips were positioned above his head and a cock nudged up against his cunt. He was wet, Verso realized belatedly.
“Yeah, that’s it.” A voice rumbled as they cored Verso open around their cock, carving a path so deep inside of him that they notched right up against the mouth of his cervix. Verso gagged around the cock in his mouth and received a slap to his clit for his trouble - which made those inside of him groan even as he jolted up. For a single, dizzy moment, Verso worried that whoever was inside of him would punch straight through that last barrier and ruin his womb.
That shouldn’t have been his worry. The worry should have been the second cock pressed against his hole, or perhaps the teeth sinking into his tits. A muffled wail escaped him as he was filled to the brim, as his holes went vicelike around them both. He couldn’t breathe around them both filling every inch of him, every hollow in his body.
They began to thrust, and Verso’s eyes fluttered shut again as he fought against the heavy pleasure of them grinding against his every sweet spot. Their hips moved without consideration for him, punching breaths from him and jostling the blades in his palms and his chest that kept him pinned down for them. The pain and the pleasure mixed into a haze, and he was whimpering when Gabriel came down his throat.
His mouth was free just for a moment, just long enough for him to gasp; and then there was a thigh thrown over his head and a clit in his mouth. The comforting, musky darkness had him shuddering as they ground their hips down against him, taking their pleasure from his nose and lips and tongue. He tried to contribute, but it was so hard to focus. They tasted sweet, whoever they were. Their clit was hard in his mouth and he lapped at it as his cunt and his hole were plundered.
Verso choked on the slick that was filling his mouth when a hand buried itself in his hair, guiding him to where they wanted him to be. He tried to follow, but there was a second cock pressing against the edge of his cunt now. He couldn’t take it, he’d rip, he’d die — his thighs flailed and were held tighter until there were certainly bruises marked into his flesh. He went limp with a soft sob, jolting when his hair was pulled again, swallowing the juices leaking into his throat in preparation. He had no choice. All he could do was relax.
He moaned weakly when the second cock finally pressed inside of him, stretching him beyond what he’d ever thought possible. The groans were muffled by the thighs around his ears, by the person sitting atop him. Verso sobbed softly, and someone tweaked their fingers over his clit at the same time that another sunk their teeth into Verso’s tit again -
And Verso came. He came so hard that he squirted, gushing over the three cocks buried inside of him. He felt two of them come as he convulsed around them, burying their hot seed as deep inside of him as they could get it. When they pulled back, Verso wasn’t empty for long. He wasn’t even done shaking before two more expeditioners pressed inside of him. Verso tried to drag his tongue over the clit in his mouth, but he was shaking so hard that they ended up grinding against his nose until they found orgasm.
They got up and it was another cock that filled his mouth and throat, as slick spilled from the corners of his lips. He hadn’t even had the chance to swallow. Verso suckled on that cock, a little smaller than the one before but no less determined to fuck as deep inside of him as they could. He could taste the pre on the back of his tongue, now. Those buried inside of him thrust so hard that he could feel his pelvis creak, that he sobbed so sweetly.
“Yeah, you’re so tight.” Albert murmured, his voice coming heavy from between Verso’s soft thighs. “So good for us. Taking us so well. You’ll be full up before long, sweetheart. You’ll give every expeditioner a baby, Lumiere’s future generations—fuck.” He groaned. Verso, privately, had a fleeting thought that Albert had always had a breeding kink.
Verso lost track of time and cocks and cunts and bite marks on his tits. He retreated into somewhere safe and warm inside of his mind, away from where his body was being used. He took load after load inside of him, buried deep in his guts or pooling in his womb. He felt so full, but he had no say in when it ended. He was just a toy for them. They called him a good fleshlight, a good toy, and they buried their cocks in him and ground on his mouth and sucked on his nipples.
“We might not get milk from you now, but we will.” One of them promised, and Verso shuddered. When sweet darkness offered to come for him, they doused him in healing tint again. He screamed when they forced his legs apart to allow a fourth person to drag his swollen, sensitive clit into their mouth. They bit and sucked on him, and the vague haze of pleasure turned into sharp overstimulation. He gushed over the cocks inside him again, another orgasm dragged from somewhere deep inside him.
There was a soft murmur, eventually, and a hand on his belly. “Look at me.” Julie’s voice was soft and amused. He could never tell her no. He cracked his eyes open, and a few more tears fell where he hadn’t thought he had any left inside of him. His belly bulged out, a pocket of come that had been buried inside of him making itself known. “You wanted a baby. Didn’t you? It’s what you always told me.”
Verso’s cheeks flushed hot with embarrassment he had thought had been fucked out of him already. He turned his face away, his mouth briefly empty of cock, and Julie slapped his ass. He yelped, shocked, and she laughed cruelly.
“Help me turn him over.” She instructed someone else, and unseen hands drew the daggers and the sword from inside him. He groaned as he was turned over, as his skin immediately began to knit back together in itchy stitches.
He didn’t need to worry. He was impaled through the back instead, his fingers led to grasp the holes in the blankets where he’d been stabbed straight through before. He grunted in pain, and then Julie grasped his hair to drag his head up. He gasped helplessly as the biggest cock thus far buried itself inside of his cunt. It didn’t hesitate, thrusting deep inside him, jostling the loads already buried inside him.
“This is what you were made for.” Julie said, her voice low and harsh. Verso’s mouth hung open as he was held still and forced to just take the harsh thrusts, as they made his pelvis ache and held the soft walls of his cunt apart. He felt like the cock was reaching his sanity, destroying it with every thrust. He moaned aloud, and Julie thrust her fingers into his mouth. Verso whimpered as he swirled his tongue around her fingers. “This is your reward. You’re ours, now. You’re mine.” Julie smiled, and Verso shuddered. Julie pressed his tongue down, running her thumb over his lower lip. He swallowed the saliva that pooled in his mouth, trying to whimper her name - but she thrust her fingers deeper inside of his throat. “Hush, pet.” She murmured. Verso thought he might be able to taste himself on her fingers. Had she fingered him? Had she touched him, or had she been waiting for this?
The person behind him thrust harder, burying their cock inside him as deep as it would go until it pressed up against his cervix again. Verso gasped as a cramp ran through him, and the person behind him groaned. Oh, it was Leslie. No wonder this hurt, no wonder this singular man felt as big as two cocks inside of him. Leslie grasped for his hips at last, holding Verso where he wanted him - which was apparently buried right up against his womb. Verso’s cunt rippled and fluttered helplessly around him, Verso himself gasping and twitching like caught prey. Over his body, Leslie and Julie locked eyes and something unspoken passed between them.
Verso’s body cramped again, and he sobbed so sweetly as Leslie ground his hips slowly up inside of Verso’s cunt. Julie pulled her fingers from Verso’s mouth, and her dagger shimmered to life. She crouched down before him, watching his slack expression with amusement. “Can’t even close your mouth. Are you even tight enough for Leslie?” She chuckled, and Verso whimpered.
He’d been anticipating pain. He hadn’t anticipated her pressing the ribbed hilt of her dagger into his mouth. He squeaked in a wrecked voice around the cold metal, confusion in that sweet gaze as Julie fed the handle into his mouth. She pulled harshly on his curls, forcing his head back so she could fit it deeper. He seized beneath her grip, unforgiving metal forcing open the soft flesh of his throat.
“Suck on it. Get it wet.” Julie said, her voice low and hungry. “And maybe I’ll even fuck you. You missed my cock, didn’t you? Needy thing. You’ve taken almost all of us and you still need more.”
Verso moaned weakly, his lashes fluttering as he obeyed, as Leslie groaned. He hollowed his cheeks, gazing up at Julie still as she slowly thrust the handle into and out of his mouth. He drooled around it, his lashes fluttering as he tried to roll his hips - only for Leslie to grip him tighter and hold him still. Verso sobbed again as another harsh cramp ran through him, his insides rebelling against someone pressing so deep inside of him and staying there. It was like Leslie had set up house in his cunt, made room for himself that Verso would never be able to close around.
His eyes flew open in panic when he realized that even if he was good, if Julie tried to fuck him after Leslie, he wouldn’t even be tight for her. He made a garbled noise, fresh tears spilling over as the thought of disappointing her hit him like a train. Julie guessed his thoughts and laughed softly, yanking harder on his curls.
“I’ll just have to make sure you tighten up.” She said, and he moaned around the handle of the dagger. He dragged his tongue along the underside of it, his eyes rolling back in his head. Leslie groaned behind him.
“He got tight right then.” Leslie murmured, and Verso blushed.
“Good. He’s still got some shame in him.” Julie said. When the dagger was slick with Verso’s spit, she pulled it out of his mouth - and passed it back to Leslie. Verso made a confused noise, having expected Leslie to pull out… but instead, he felt that spit-warmed handle pressed against his hole.
Julie’s cock pressed into his now-empty mouth, the handle of the dagger pressed deep inside of him, and Verso barely had the time to appreciate the musky and familiar taste of her thick cock before he fainted.
He came back to himself in gasps and phases. He had another cock in him, not Leslie’s, and they were pinching and slapping his clit to tighten him up. He had another pommel being dragged from his mouth, a line of saliva connecting his mouth to the bronze of it. There was another sword in his back. There was another cock in his hole, pressing him apart around both it and the dagger handle. There was a warm cunt grinding on his back, up and down the ridges of his spine. There was another sword in his back.
A third healing tint was poured over him, and blessed darkness finally took him.
When he woke, it was to gentle hands. He startled at the touch, at the sudden soothing of calloused fingers over him. “Hey, hey.” An unfamiliar voice murmured. “Hey, you’re alright. It’s alright. I’ve got you.” Verso managed to open his eyes to see an almost-familiar face. Maelle’s old guardian, Gustave, held him in his lap. Verso realized that Gustave must have collected him and taken him to his home. He must have seen him, bloody, covered in sweat and tears and semen. They were both naked, Verso held in the warm bath in Gustave’s arms. Gustave held a soft cloth in his hand, and his dark eyes were soft as he gazed at Verso.
Gustave smelled like spice and musk and the powdery sweetness of tuberrose. Perhaps if Verso had not been cored through, perhaps if his belly wasn’t soft with the release of a hundred people, perhaps if Gustave’s hand wasn’t resting on Verso’s hip… then Verso would have been able to resist the desperate need for comfort. He reached for Gustave with mindless desire, with helpless hands. He kissed him without shame, searching for some sort of solace.
Perhaps he should have worried at how easily Gustave kissed him back. Perhaps he should have worried when the cloth was abandoned and Gustave guided Verso into his lap and onto his cock. Perhaps he should have worried at how happy Gustave seemed to be to welcome Verso whoring himself as necrosis to a wound at the first kind touch he’d received. But Gustave’s hands were a balm against his bruised, bitten skin, and Verso simply did not care to look deeper. He was held, at last, in tender arms. He was told he was good. He was fucked so gently, and Verso cried in his arms like a baby. He gave every shameful expression of desperation for consolation to Gustave, and Gustave was so gentle with him that when he laid in Gustave’s arms, in his bed, that he sent a silent prayer to whatever being was listening - likely none, but perhaps one - that Gustave would be the one to father whatever child would inevitably be born from this.
—
Maelle had been the one to answer that prayer. Verso regretted even thinking those words, but she had come to him a few weeks later. He hadn’t even had to ask aloud; he had opened his mouth and she had simply nodded with a bright smile on her face. She’d gone ahead and told him the rest of what would be expected of him, her expectations of him now that she was secured as the new leader of Lumiere. Shows every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. In the time between, he would be available to the former expeditioners. Verso wasn’t stupid. He was aware of his situation, of the fact that she was keeping him alive to maintain her lifestyle and her friends. He was an unfortunate lynchpin in a teenager’s fantasy world. He could only hope to preserve her innocence, could only hope that she thought they were using him for… chores or entertainment.
“I’m glad that you and Gustave are growing closer.” Maelle had said, and Verso had put on a shaky smile. He was so much worse at pretending those days. “I heard the expeditioners hurt you, I didn’t want them to do that. But now you’re having a baby together?”
“Y-yeah.” Verso had had to force the words to come out. “He’s… he told me he’s wanted a child for a long time.”
“He’ll be a wonderful father. He was to me, after all.” Maelle sighed. Verso felt like his smile was frozen on his face, now. “And it’s like I promised you. You’ll be happy now, since you can age and you’ll have a baby to take care of. You wanted kids too, I know.”
Verso had wanted children. The dead version of her brother had desperately wished he could be a father, but he’d died before that could come to pass. The desire had been painted into Verso’s very being, and he didn’t think he could escape it if he tried. Maelle knew this. She smiled at him, waiting for an answer, and it felt like the words were dragged from him without his consent.
“Yeah.” He said again. “I… thank you.”
Maelle beamed up at him and stepped forward to hug him tight. Verso wrapped his arms around her in return, but he barely registered her touch. He was pregnant. Gustave was the father. He was chained to this canvas.
Gustave came up behind him once she left, sighing happily under that Sunday sun. Verso shook the memories away as he stared into the mirror, as Gustave ran his prosthetic hand over Verso’s belly. He pressed a soft kiss to Verso’s throat. “You’ll be beautiful.” Gustave murmured. “Come back to bed.”
Verso drew away from the mirror, away from his thoughts, and instead crawled back into Gustave’s arms.