Holy opened his arms, and Kara hugged him tightly. For a second, neither said anything, and Holy buried his face into her shoulder in silence. Everything in the world felt right again, and he breathed in the scent of her rosemary and mint leave-in conditioner for a long, long moment. She hugged him fiercely, and he blinked back tears as he tried to process everything that just happened. It had been a long week. He still felt like electricity was coursing through his veins.

Kara pulled back and held his face in her hands.

“You okay?” she asked, and he nodded.

“I’m okay,” he rasped out, and she pulled back.

“Okay, my dad just sent me five hundred just because, so we’re going shopping,” she declared, and he blinked.

“I don’t really want to go out---”

“I know you, Holy,” she said. “If you don’t go out now and beat the depression allegations, you won’t leave the house until it’s time for top surgery.”

“Oh…” he said blankly, and she grabbed his hand.

“Get your shoes on, we’re going to Hot Topic,” she declared, and pulled him to the door. He pulled on his sneakers at the door, and they were out in a moment. Holy locked the door behind him, and they set off down the stairs towards her car.

“I imagine you have a lot of offers already,” she said, and he was quiet.

“Just two,” he said, and then paused. “Well, three.”

He woke up today to a message from Antoni Freedman, and he didn’t know how to feel about that one. He was based in Boston, too, and Holy was a little apprehensive of joining his guild. He had no idea how Antoni got his number, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to join his guild after them fucking like that. Antoni was a selfish lover, and Holy wasn’t sure how that translated to how he treated people on his team.

“Who?” Kara asked, and Holy rolled out his neck.

“Andreas asked me to stay in Arizona and would give me preference on dungeons, and then Antoni Freedman asked me to join his team, and Luc Acerbi---”

“Wait, Luc??” she asked in shock, and Holy slowly nodded. “Luc Acerbi asked you to join his team?”

“Yes---”

“You have to say yes!” she protested, and he blinked. “Are you kidding me?”

“Why…?”

“Because it’s Luc Acerbi,” she said, and he blinked at her. “You two are the only trans S-ranks in the world, and---”

“Triple S,” Holy corrected quietly, and she rolled to a halt right outside her driver’s side door.

“What?” she asked faintly, and Holy steeled himself.

“My mana rating was over five thousand,” he said, and she stared at him blankly. “It’s triple S.”

She mouthed over ‘five thousand’, and a long silence unfurled between the two of them as she processed that.

“Oh… This is very bad,” she said faintly, and he was quiet. So, she came to the same conclusion as him. The dungeons were about to get a lot harder. Kara was a civilian, not awakened in the slightest, and all he could think was she was not able to defend herself in the least.

“I’m sure there won’t be too many triple S gates,” he said, and she was quiet for a moment, her hand on the door handle tightening imperceptibly.

“Are you sure, though?” she asked lowly, and he was quiet.

“Positive,” he said, though he didn’t know honestly. He was just as scared as she was.

“When is it going to come out you’re triple S?” she asked, and he shrugged.

“I have no idea,” he said, and she pursed her lips.

“Your life is going to change a lot,” she said, and he was quiet. He knew that. “Will you even still have time for me?”

“I’ll always have time for you,” he promised, and she swallowed imperceptibly.

“Have you talked to your parents?” she asked, and he frowned.

“No,” he answered, and she nodded.

“Good. They don’t deserve it,” she said and pulled open her door. “Let’s go to the mall before you get too famous to go outside.”

“Okay,” he said, and circled around the car to open his own door and climb into the passenger seat. She got in the car and started it up, and pulled it out of the parking lot as he clicked on his seatbelt. They drove silently, and he plugged his phone into the AUX and started to play his music. ARTIO played over the speakers, and he looked out the window in silence as they made their way to the mall.

“Which mall are we going to?” he asked, and she cleared her throat.

“I’m thinking Superstition Springs?” she answered, and he nodded.

“Okay, let’s go,” he said, and she turned on her blinker and pulled onto the road.

“Those four days…” she said and glanced over at him. “They were the worst four days of my life.”

“I’m sorry,” he said reflexively, and she swallowed.

“I know I can’t say don’t put me through that ever again, but…” she trailed off and looked straight forward. “Just do your best.”

“I’ll always come back,” he said lowly, but Kara’s face was stony.

“I thought we talked about false promises,” she said lowly, and he was quiet. “Don’t make a promise you can’t keep.”

“Then… I will always do my best to survive,” he promised, and thought back to that hell of four days on the altar. He had thought he was going to die, but he wanted to live. Not because he was enamored with life, but because he was terrified of Hell. This was a living hell, though. He couldn’t deny that.

“Sometimes I wish you never awakened,” she said out loud, and he looked down at his hands. “I wish… I wish you were just a normal person.”

Maybe he was in Hell those four days. Maybe you could get out of it. Maybe he was alive because he had proven he could endure Hell. Maybe this was all a dream, and the pain had killed him.

He could still feel those eyes on him.

“Sometimes I wish that, too,” he said quietly, and she rapped her fingers on the steering wheel.

“Let’s stop talking about it,” she said and forced cheer into her voice. “Do you want to swing by H-Mart and get some peach tea before we head to the mall?”

“Okay,” he agreed, and she nodded a few times.

“Okay, good,” she said and turned on her blinker. “Then, we’ll go to H-Mart and get some peach tea.”

He breathed out slowly and looked out the window, and she turned up the music.

My body is a temple and I’ll burn yours to the ground.

He had always been taught that his body was a temple, and he needed to treat it as such. He couldn’t help but think about that temple. Why was he chosen? Was he just convenient, or was there some deeper, sinister meaning? Why make him triple S? What did executioner mean?

There were too many questions, and none of them could be answered.

Anxiety curled in his gut, and he swallowed down the lump in his throat. He forgot to do his T shot today. He would have to do that when he got home. He was getting a little afraid of the needle, but he refused to switch to the gel. It was sticky and a horrible texture. He hated the gel. So, he was just going to have to deal with the needles. Maybe he would ask for auto injectors at the next appointment.

A sigh escaped his lips, and he braced his chin in his hand as he studied the passing cars. He needed to stream today, too, which was a whole other beast. Hopefully, Twitch wouldn’t ban him again. He needed to message his mods to get ready.

When the thought occurred to him, he pulled out his phone and texted the server of his mods. Ah, it was going to be a long day.

….

Luc sipped at his bourbon as the plane cut through the air. Killian had already been made aware that Luc would need him in a few weeks, but the drains needed to come out before Holy was healed. So, three weeks, and then Luc would have Holy. He knew in his gut Holy would choose him. The way the boy looked at him, eyes full of want, it was so incredibly obvious he yeared.

Luc had looked into him. He never streamed with anyone else, never hung out with other trans people, never was known to go to Pride events. Luc knew the type. It was clear just from meeting him that he didn’t hold other trans people in contempt, but they probably scared him. He was terrified of community, but he longed for it, and Luc could use that to his advantage.

Luc’s fingers rapped on the armrest, and he studied the clouds flying past. He wondered idly how Holy would adjust to a Boston winter. He was born and raised in Arizona, and he was probably going to complain the whole time and not handle the cold well at all. That was fine. It was September now, so he had a few months to adjust before it really started getting cold. Luc would have to probably get him a winter wardrobe.

He had been… cute, Luc thought to himself. In a nervous way, clearly intimidated by Luc, but he was cute. But, Luc needed to be careful with him. The boy was obviously a sub just from the way he reacted to Luc testing the waters, but he needed a gentle hand. He probably had only a few BDSM experiences under his belt. And dealing with another S-rank… Well. Luc would need to be cautious with him.

He would need to be very cautious.

Holy clearly needed gentle handling, and Luc could provide that.

It wasn’t that Luc wanted to take him to bed, but he knew S-ranks were hard to control and contain. That was why he was the only S-rank in his guild. They were like a dog that needed training, and Luc would have to use a reward system to his benefit to make Holy fall in line. He clearly had a lot of anxiety, and Luc would have to control that. Anxiety combined with that much power was dangerous. Anxiety made you make irrational decisions, encouraging fear based reactions, or trigger a level of insanity that was hard to contain when they finally snapped.

Luc would have to train him to not respond to that anxiety. Get him in with a therapist, too. He had no idea what his family situation was, but he was used to trans people being disowned. Holy was probably disowned.

Luc rapped his fingers on the armrest and hummed to himself.

He really was cute. Luc didn’t entirely want to take him to bed, but it would be gratifying to see him submit to him, even if it wasn’t in the bedroom. There was something about that wavy hair that made Luc want to bury his fingers in it and tug until he cried out in pain.

Luc looked down at his gloved hands, imagining his fingers in his mouth, drool all down his chin, and pursed his lips.

He may not be able to resist. He’d been without a sub for a while, and he was pent up. This was probably going to be an exercise in restraint.

He rapped his fingers on the armrest again.

There was a lot to think about, but he fully expected a phone call in the near future.