Written December 22, 2022 through January 23, 2023. Takes place after "The Experiment," so Troy is 18 in this solo (despite being 17 in 2022). This wacky little soloverse is based on my dreams so cringe and utter nonsense is to be expected. Portrayal of Aemond based on my friend Lydia's modern mafia AU of HOTD.
Even after the
experiment, Troy remained uncommonly affectionate with his friends, even going
so far as to platonically share his bed or climb into bed with his closest
friends.
One morning,
Troy and Aemond were cuddled up together. They were quite comfortable, until
Aemond had a reaction that made him quite uncomfortable.
"I would
not corrupt you," he whispered when Troy woke up and asked where he was
going.
Troy blinked at
him. "Corrupt me?" he repeated. "Aemond, you do realize I know
what my aunties do for a living? I’m not as innocent as everyone seems to think
I am.”
Aemond sat back
down on the bed and took Troy’s left hand, pointedly touching Troy’s purity
ring. “Do you really want to lose your virginity because your friend had to
work out his morning wood?”
Troy chuckled. “You’re
so protective of me… my virtue, my body. It’s okay if you’re not interested,
you know.” Actually, such a thought was painful to Troy, but he worked hard to
keep that a secret. Their friendship meant too much for him to wreck it with
awkward confessions.
“Are you?”
Aemond asked, startled. Not that he hadn’t been aware on some level, but Troy
was making it sound like he wanted Aemond. He’d all but blurted it out.
Troy looked up,
equally startled. Oops. He backtracked, thinking quickly. “I just mean that, if
I was going to ask you to… which I’m not… that you don’t have to frame
your rejection in terms of protecting me. If you don’t want to, you don’t have
to. Simple.” He forced a smile. “Okay. I’m off to the shower. Meet me at
breakfast?” He left without waiting for a response, leaving Aemond to sit on ‘their’
bed and contemplate life.
A few minutes
later, Aemond was surprised to find that Troy didn’t wear his purity ring in
the shower. He took off his own clothes, stepped into his shower shoes, folded
his clothes neatly next to Troy’s, and joined him in the shower. Without his
eyepatch, a brilliant blue gem gleamed from his ruined socket. It had been a
painful operation, but the effect was suitably eerie.
Of course, Troy
didn’t see it that way. All Troy saw was his best friend. He budged aside so
Aemond could share the hot spray. His eyes were reddish, but the shower had washed
away any evidence of tears. “Hey, you,” he said cheerfully.
“Shh,” Aemond
hissed. He whispered, “I don’t want our dormmates to hear us showering together.”
Troy shut down.
He turned his back and proceeded to pretend Aemond wasn’t there. Aemond rolled
his eye. This moody side of Troy was uncomfortably reminiscent of Sebastian.
“What if they
tease you for it?” Aemond pressed. “Everyone knows you claim not to date, but
if they hear us in here, they’ll assume we’re slee—”
“Sleeping together?”
Troy finished coldly. “You mean the fact that we literally share a bed hasn’t
occurred to anyone? I share a bed with Cygnet, too. Nobody thinks anything of
it. If I was in here showering with her, nobody would bat an eye.”
“Everybody knows
you’re not interested in her or any other girl. You said as much, in front of
everyone in our dorm, when she asked you if you’d date her if she got your parents’
blessing.”
Troy didn’t
respond right away. What Aemond wasn’t saying, what he didn’t need to say, was
that everyone still knew, or at least thought they knew, that Troy was
interested in Aemond.
After a moment,
he asked, “Why are you in here if you’re so ashamed of people assuming we’re
together? You should go away. In fact, maybe we shouldn’t spend so much time
together.”
“I don’t want to
go away.” The words were out of Aemond’s mouth before he had time to think.
Troy faced him. “Then
what do—”
He was interrupted
with a kiss that was at once fierce and sweet, hungry and tempting, and he lost
himself in it. It wasn’t worth being confused or trying to figure Aemond out.
Aemond was mercurial and unpredictable, the polar opposite of Troy’s friendly
and easy-going nature.
A kiss turned
into more—so much more—and to their credit, they both managed to stay
quiet, even if they had to cover each other’s mouths or, at one point, be
choked to do so. They rinsed themselves clean afterwards, towelled their hair,
and went back to bed one after the other to bask in the afterglow.
Troy dangled
Aemond’s eyepatch from his finger as he crawled into bed beside him. He felt
freer, bolder. He didn’t have to keep secrets anymore! He could just
roll over and say…
“I love you.”
The change in
atmosphere was immediate, palpable. Troy was instantly and acutely aware that
he’d fucked up. You didn’t say that, not to your friend, your
friend who was so anxious about people seeing you together.
“The TV show,”
he covered. “Oh, and the books. Um, Cygnet’s really into them. Apparently Joe
Goldberg is her ideal man. Weird, huh? Yeah. Sorry about the awkward timing,
though, but I was just thinking about… the… promo posters. Uh, I’m hungry, so I’m
gonna go… talk this over with her in the cafeteria. Laters, taters!” Troy
quickly got dressed as he was babbling frantically at Aemond, and was gone
before Aemond could get a word in edgewise.
What had just
happened? Honestly, Aemond should have expected Troy to confess to him after
what they’d done together. Why had he frozen up? And Troy had clearly panicked
when Aemond didn’t say it back.
“That is why I
didn’t want to do this,” Aemond lamented to the empty air after Troy left. He
really wasn’t the ‘I love you’ type. Besides, he had been, and still was,
deeply afraid that Troy would turn into an obsessive monster if they had sex,
just like Sebastian had. Like father, like son, and all that. Yet already, he
missed the comforting warmth of Troy’s presence.
Troy didn’t go
straight to the cafeteria. His feet carried him to Cygnet’s room, where she was
furiously sketching. She looked up when he knocked, and she immediately knew
something was wrong when he entered. She set aside her sketchpad, walked over,
took his hands, and led him to sit on her bed. She turned his left hand over
and thumbed his ring finger. A slight frown crossed her face. His hair was
damp, but Troy wasn’t careless enough to leave his beloved purity ring in the
shower, unless he was unprecedentedly distraught, but the only thing that would
upset him this much was also only possible if he felt he no longer needed the
ring anyway.
“Do you want to
talk about it?” she asked.
Troy shook his
head. “I’ve talked too much. I’ve ruined everything. He’ll never want to see me
again so could you please just ask one of the girls to bring us a tray? I can’t
go out there—”
“Shh….” Cygnet
held him and stroked his damn, lank hair. Of course this was about
Aemond. Who else would have Troy this upset? She secretly hated him, Troy’s other
best friend, not least because she was jealous of his weird hold on Troy. She’d
deduced that Aemond must be the reason Troy wasn’t interested in girls.
She texted Cin
and then focused all her attention on soothing Troy. She’d do anything for him.
Hold him. Dry his tears. Kiss the new ones away. Kiss his soft, pouty lips.
Help undress each other….
Now he felt
worse. Twice in one morning, with two different people, both of whom had been
his best friends. One he was in love with; the other was in love with him. She
wasn’t dumb enough to admit it in bed, but he knew about her sketching
habits and knew she was developing the schematics to build and program
her very own Troybot. She was auditing a software class because there was no
way in hell anyone at Mad Tech would help her program a sex robot of the boss’s
son, and she knew it. He’d heard Cin talking about it on the phone and had
pretended to be oblivious. It didn’t bother him. Now, at least, she’d have better
data.
Before they’d
started, he’d told her plainly that he wouldn’t be her boyfriend after this.
They’d comfort each other now, as a one-time thing, then go back to being
friends. She’d agreed; he’d partially dissociated as they did the deed.
When it was
over, they’d shared an awkward grimace, gotten dressed, and—since Cin hadn’t
responded to Cygnet’s text—gone to breakfast together.
Someone from
their dorm had found Troy’s ring on the bathroom counter and tried to return it
to him in the cafeteria, only for Troy to say he didn’t need it anymore. From
there it was assumed that he’d slept with Cygnet, since they’d come to
breakfast together and he was letting her rest her head on his shoulder. Aemond
was surprised to find that he disliked these whispers. He hadn’t wanted Troy to
be the subject of any sexual rumours, but just now he was thinking he’d
prefer they know it was him. But maybe this would be… safer, even if Aemond
didn’t like it. If people thought Troy had a girlfriend, they’d either
congratulate him or leave him alone. If they thought he had a boyfriend… it was
unfair, but he might suffer for it. So Aemond swallowed his pride and stayed
silent, grimacing at the warning stare Troy was giving him. He’d give his
friend some space until people moved on.
Troy didn’t
understand. Why was Aemond smirking at him when Troy looked to him for help,
silently pleading with him to stand up and say something? Did Aemond know?
Was this his way of telling Troy to lie in the bed that he’d made? And Cygnet
seemed to be enjoying this way too much, damn her! Had she already forgotten
their agreement? She certainly wasn’t saying anything. He’d hoped she’d be a
good friend and deny it, at least!
His head was
spinning and his heart was in pieces. He had to get out of here.
“Cool!” he said.
“Well, I gotta go for a drive to sort out holiday plans with my folks, but I’ll
send $100 to whoever emails me class notes. Peace!” And with that, he was gone.
He managed to
hold in his confusion, pain, and frustration until he was on the highway, and
then he just broke down crying. He’d made so many big mistakes today and it
wasn’t even 8:00 yet. Thankfully, it wasn’t like the entire student body cared,
but now his teammates and classmates and Cygnet’s classmates all had this idea
of him that he’d never in a million years be comfortable living up to! He’d
never minded people thinking of him and Aemond as a couple once Aemond had
pointed it out, but he didn’t want anyone thinking he was dating Cygnet. Or any
girl. That wasn’t who he was.
After some time,
he found himself at a crepe café in downtown San Jose, thankfully one with its
own parking lot. He parked his rented blue Prius, got out, and went inside. He
sat in a corner booth away from everyone and ordered one of everything. Not
long after the first few dishes had come out, Troy was posting on social media
inviting friends and strangers to meet him for free brunch. He’d cleared his
face of all signs of tears. He didn’t want his friends worrying about him and
the best way to achieve that was to act like his normal outgoing self.
When no-one
showed up, he grew even more confused and sad. He video called a few of his
friends and teammates, but no-one seemed to be available. He’d been here a
couple of hours, his food barely touched, the check lying ignored in front of
him. A waitress came and pointedly set down a stack of to-go boxes with a
forced smile. Troy sighed. Time to cut his losses. He pulled his card out and
set it on the check tray.
As the waitress
took it away, a nervous call of, “Excuse me, sir?” caused him to raise his
head. A familiar figure in a black hoodie and sunglasses was making his way
through the cafe, head turning this way and that. A nervous waitress was at his
heels, trying to get him to leave. He was ignoring her as best he could.
Troy closed the
gap between them with a few strides and pulled his best friend into a hug. “You’re
late,” he teased, taking his hand and leading him to the corner booth.
“Excuse me, sir?”
The to-go-box lady approached them.
“He’s with me,”
Troy said cheerfully, squeezing Aemond’s hand as they sat together.
“That’s nice,
but your card’s been declined.”
Troy frowned;
Aemond stared incredulously at him. The fact that that had never happened went
without saying. Troy pulled out his phone to check his banking app and saw that
he had a dozen missed calls from Baba.
Well, crap.
Once Troy had
left the cafeteria, the reality of the situation sank in for Cygnet. Whatever pleasure
and fulfilment she’d found in making love to Troy had been one-sided. She’d had
an inkling that’s how it would be, but she’d hoped, maybe….
Of course,
no-one really cared that much what went on in their classmates’ personal lives,
so it didn’t take long at all for others to just lose interest in the
conversation. Cygnet took the first chance she saw to go. Normally she wasn’t
one to skip; if there was one thing she loved, it was school. But she just
couldn’t be here right now. She had to go, she had to run—where? She’d figure
it out on the road.
Aemond, of
course, saw Cygnet leave and assumed she was going after Troy. The poor girl
had it bad for him, but then, so did a lot of girls at school. Troy was good-looking,
friendly, athletic, and until this morning had turned down everyone who’d tried
to ask him out.
Aemond had no
idea how appealing much of the student body found him, however. A lot of
girls and some guys liked a man with a look of danger about him, and with his
eyepatch, scar, and loner demeanour, Aemond certainly fit the bill. Several of
the erotic paintings that had been recalled had been purchased by classmates
whose parents had been willing to pay the outrageous prices Sebastian, who
claimed he hadn’t wanted to part with the paintings, had demanded. Hardly
anyone dared to openly lust after him, but Aemond was a lot more popular than
he realised, or perhaps he simply didn’t care to realise.
He felt a little
bit sorry for Cygnet, just a little. The robotics star was beautiful, but it
didn’t benefit her socially because most people found her strange and
off-putting, if not outright creepy.
Troy was one of maybe a handful of people she could actually call a friend, and
her other friends, Cin and Désmoda, were equally weird (although Désmoda got
away with it more as she leveraged her Baltic accent and huge tits). It was
little wonder Cygnet had fallen for one of the few boys who’d give her the time
of day.
Then there was
the fact that she’d interned for Trent, the definitely creepy boyfriend
of Aemond’s uncle Daemon. Aemond didn’t like or trust Trent; he acted like
hating Sebastian was a worse crime than the actual crime Sebastian had
committed against Aemond. The fact that Trent and Sebastian were Troy’s parents
had made Aemond nervous when he’d found out, but Troy didn’t seem to have
picked up their worse qualities. Cygnet, on the other hand, wasn’t related to
either of them, but from the way she acted sometimes, she sure as hell could
have been. She had a literal shrine to Troy in her room.
Did Aemond want
someone like that going after his best friend and laying claim to him?
Absolutely not, especially since Troy wasn’t the type to push her away if he thought
it would break her heart. If she sank her claws into Troy, he’d be stuck with
her indefinitely, no matter how unhappy it made him. Aemond didn’t want that.
He went after Troy in his Ram, thanking the gods that he and Troy had installed
location finders on each other’s phones so they could meet up without hassle.
Cygnet hadn’t
gone after Troy. She’d thought about going to work, just showing up and begging
for an assignment, but she didn’t think she could focus on work right now, especially
if she got assigned a robot commission. She’d made a custom android, first in
the company, modelled after Aemond, with Sebastian’s paintings for reference
regarding how the bot should look without clothes. Good thing Sebastian had
kept digital copies on an encrypted cloud; even better that Trent had access.
She’d had the pleasure, pun intended, of testing out the completed bot, and
right now she couldn’t help jealously wondering how well it stood up to the
real thing. If anyone would know, she thought recklessly, it would be the
customer. So naturally, she Wazed directions to Sebastian’s apartment. She had
no idea how he’d react even if she claimed it was a customer satisfaction
survey. Pun intended. Would Trent back her up on that? He wouldn’t want to risk
pissing Daemon off again, but did Daemon even know about Aemondbot?
Well, maybe it
shouldn’t matter to her. At least she could pay Sebastian for comfort sex even
if he didn’t want to talk about his precious toy. She’d be living on ramen for
a month, with what she heard he charged, and he’d probably charge more to take
a female client, but God, she had to do something! And the best way to
get over someone was to get under someone else, right? Even if they looked
scarily alike….
Oh God, was she
really thinking about this? Sleeping with her crush’s dad barely two
hours after sleeping with said crush?! Maybe it wouldn’t be weird if she didn’t
tell him. Not like he was going to discuss his sex life with Troy. Or—well,
hopefully also not with Trent. Oh God, not only was Sebastian her crush’s dad,
he was also her boss’s ex-boyfriend! Hell, turning round, driving back to
school, and asking Aemond to sleep with her would probably be less creepy!
Actually, what would Aemond think about all of this? Troy was his
best friend, too, and they’d… just before….
No, fuck Aemond!
If he had a problem with her and Troy, he shouldn’t have pushed Troy away. Troy
was sweet, pure, and innocent, everything Aemond wasn’t, and for the life of
her, Cygnet couldn’t fathom what in the hell Sebastian and Troy saw in
Aemond beyond his good looks and possibly his accent. Like Welshmen were so
special.
As she approached
the parking lot for Sebastian’s apartment, she realized she could have just
gone to Arryk for comfort sex and maybe even to talk about Aemond, although she
doubted Arryk knew what Aemond was like in bed. Not that she even cared that
much, it was just, if Aemond was going to take Troy away from her, the least he
could do was make their sex life worth it. Besides, if she had to walk in on Désmoda
and Aegon hooking up on the kitchen table again, she’d have to claw her own
eyes out, a la Blind Mag.
CW: DUBIOUS CONSENT. Scroll past for the all-clear.
Sebastian was
indeed enjoying his Aemondbot, which he’d named Almond Joie Butters when he’d
been high. He was currently sitting in Almond Joie’s lap, legs dangling on either
side of their living chair, impaled: a fully naked, sweating, mewling mess. He’d
been approaching orgasm when he felt his legs being shifted, then a new weight
settling on top of him. He realized it wasn’t Nathaniel when a hot wetness
enveloped him. His eyes, which had been hooded in pleasure, flew open. He tried
to focus—he recognized this girl from somewhere. Was she here with Nate? Were
they going to have a foursome?
Before he could
wonder too much, he was quickly lost to hedonistic carnality again. He felt her
squirting every time she pressed down on him, and then he felt her full-on
gushing all over him, the fluid running down his lap. His stomach tightened and
he grabbed her hips, holding her in place while he thrust up into her. Up into
her, then back onto Almond Joie, his body quivering and then bursting with pleasure.
She was the first girl he’d been with since college and he’d forgotten how much
he loved having streams of warmth released into his lap. He’d also
forgotten that he enjoyed threesomes even with a girl involved. He came,
several times in rapid succession, then rag-dolled back against Almond Joie
while this girl kept riding him. Almond Joie was programmed to stop stimulating
him when he neared unconsciousness, but there wasn’t anything the bot could do
about remaining inside Sebastian when there was someone else on top of them.
Nathaniel had
stared, dumbfounded, as a girl he vaguely recognized from Trent’s tech firm
pushed past him and straddled his boyfriend. She’d ignored him when he demanded
to know who she was and what the hell she thought she was doing. But Sebastian
seemed so into it that Nate thought maybe Sebastian had invited her and
forgotten to tell him.
When Sebastian
basically collapsed, Nate picked the girl up and brought her back to the
bedroom to enjoy her himself. She didn’t protest, even gave him a welcoming
smile as she lay open for him. Nate briefly wondered if Sebastian had ordered
her and how expensive she was, but it was extremely out of character for Sebastian
to hire a hooker, much less a female one.
Cygnet lay
vaguely dazed, cuddling up to the third man to be inside her today. Her body
was beginning to ache, inside and out, but she wasn’t going to stop him. He
felt so good, and even if he hadn’t, she couldn’t exactly complain after
what she’d just done to Sebastian. Her best friend’s biological father. Her
boss’s ex with whom he’d raised Troy. They looked so much alike,
and not in the usual parent-offspring way. Sebastian didn’t look like he’d aged
past 18 himself. His hair was curlier and only about shoulder-length, but they had
the same delicate features and the same lithe build.
And the man on
top of her now? He definitely wasn’t related, he’d said Sebastian was his
boyfriend—oops—oh well—but he was also slender, fair, delicate-featured, and
beautiful. Not as beautiful; he didn’t have the sweet, rosy, pouty lips
she loved so much. But he was a solid 7/10. He also wasn’t what she’d call a
gentle lover. He slapped her and choked her, and it felt like every thrust was
intended as a punishment. She loved every second of it, happily clinging to him
with her legs as he pinned her down and snarled degrading things in her ear.
She’d tried to free her arms so she could wrap them round him, too, but even one-handed,
his grip was too much for her to break.
She was so tired
now. Her legs slackened their grip round his waist. But every time she began to
slip out of consciousness, a hard, ringing slap would wake her up. He didn’t
want her to sleep through this.
“You can try…
from behind, if you want,” she mumbled after the fourth time he’d slapped her awake.
He paused, considering it. Then he pulled out and roughly flipped her over. She
heard a wrapper opening, then the pop of a small container lid. A few seconds
later, her hips were being pulled up and—
“Aah! That wasn’t—”
“Shut up.”
She squirmed, or
tried to, as his cock pressed insistently into her ass. At least it gave her
pussy some relief, but she was exhausted and highly sensitized to pain right
now.
Still, she
managed to drift off, and this time he didn’t wake her. Her body convulsed as
she slept, reacting to continuous stimulation. She dreamed she was being taken
by an army of pretty blond men, three at a time.
ALL-CLEAR!
Nate didn’t
bother cleaning her up when he was finished. After he’d discarded the condom
and cleaned himself up, he went back out to the living room. Sebastian was
curled up on the couch tucked under a blanket, but Almond Joie was alert.
“Do you know who
that girl was?” Nate asked as he sat in the recliner by the couch.
“Cygnet Campbell,
intern at Mad Tech Solutions. She built me,” Almond Joie replied.
Nate’s brow
furrowed. “What the hell does she want with Sebastian?” he asked.
“My guess is
sex,” the android replied dryly.
“Did she program
you to be sarcastic?” Nate asked, equally dry.
“No. I was
programmed by Trent Maddock.”
“What the fuck?”
Why would Trent program a sex bot, himself?
“That was the
fuck,” Almond Joie agreed. “Cygnet develops hardware. Trent develops software.
I’m the first in my line. None before me were modelled after specific humans. I
was a gift for Sebastian. They were instructed to make me perfect.”
Nate knew Trent
would do almost anything for Sebastian. No wonder he’d taken a special interest
in Almond Joie’s development. But something bothered him. “A gift? I thought
Sebastian commissioned you.”
“I was
commissioned for Sebastian,” Almond Joie clarified patiently.
“Do you know…
who?”
Almond Joie
hesitated, or that’s what it felt like. He’d paused to access information before,
but Nate got the impression that Almond Joie didn’t want to tell him. He
was about to say Almond Joie didn’t have to answer when—
“I was
commissioned by George Green.”
Nate stared
incredulously as Almond Joie continued.
“Personal
assistant to… you, Nathaniel.”
“Why the hell—that’s
rhetorical,” Nate added hastily. “I know George wanted to help Sebastian move
on from Aemond. Isn’t commissioning a… someone who looks like him a little
counterproductive?”
“… Is that also
rhetorical?” Almond Joie asked.
Nate gave him a
deadpan stare. “You can answer if you want,” he said.
“George believes
Sebastian is primarily attracted to Aemond for his looks. He hopes that if
Sebastian and I are partnered long enough, Sebastian will neglect you and allow
George to take you back.”
“That’s
surprisingly underhanded,” Nate said. “Wow. I’m impressed.” He was also
annoyed, but addressed it before Almond Joie could point it out. “Does it ever
bother you? Knowing that you were made for someone, a thing to be possessed by
them?”
“No,” said
Almond Joie. “Sebastian has never treated me as a possession.”
That was true,
Nate thought. Sebastian loved Almond Joie as far as Nate could tell. He
didn’t seem to think of the droid as an object, nor even as an extension of, or
replacement for, Aemond. “George thinks he can just have me if Sebastian
gets distracted,” Nate grumbled. “Asking me on a date would have been a better
start, maybe. I’d have talked it over with Sebastian, but I doubt he’d have
objected.”
“Perhaps George
should commission a Nathanielbot,” Almond Joie suggested. “Or perhaps I’ll
commission one for him.”
Nate cringed. “We—he
and I work together and live across the hall from each other,” he said. “We
have far more contact than Bash does with his kid’s friend.”
Almond Joie
pondered this. “Aemond would find my existence creepy,” he said. “Mad Tech
Solutions built in a voice-activated disguise mode so I can go out in public without
being recognized. Cygnet and Trent must have thought I’d go mad cooped up at
home.”
Nate nodded;
that made sense. He wondered if he should have taken the time to have a real conversation
with Almond Joie before now. They were basically roommates, after all, and they
both took care of Sebastian in their own ways.
“Yeah, I’d be
pretty creeped out if I ran into a clone of myself, especially if I knew it was
designed for sex.”
“Would you rather
George pursue you despite your wishes or have a sex bot modelled after you?”
Almond Joie asked.
Nate shook his
head. He didn’t want to answer that. “You’re
better for Sebastian than a bot of me would be for George. He’d probably
blend his fantasy life with his bot, with his work and neighbour life with me.”
“If he fell in
love with his Nathanielbot, he may resent you for not measuring up.” At Nate’s
surprised expression, Almond Joie clarified, “I’ve been running scenarios as we’ve
been on the subject.”
“I don’t resent
Aemond,” Sebastian mumbled. He was just waking up. “I’ll always love him, but
it’s different since Troy does too. I want them to be happy.”
Almond Joie
helped him sit up and wrapped an arm round him. “Are you in love with me?” His
tone was more curious than anything.
Sebastian thought
about it. “I loved Rosie. I loved—no, I still love Duckie, and if I ever saw
Rosie again I’d love her all over again, too. I loved Aemond instantly. You…
you’re every bit as beautiful as Aemond and a hundred times kinder. I don’t
know if it’s okay to be in love with you. You were built as a
consolation prize and gifted to me. There’s a contract between us that you
weren’t asked if you agreed to. So… I’d like to love you, but I don’t
know if you’d want me to.”
Nate raised a
brow at Sebastian. “You care more about the consent of a robot than the person
he’s based on.”
“I accept that
as a form of love,” Almond Joie said, with a kiss to Sebastian’s cheek.
When Cygnet woke
up, she was totally relaxed. She washed up in the en-suite bathroom,
luxuriating in the hot water, then went to the living room. She shamelessly sat
in Nate’s lap and told Sebastian what had happened that morning. Sebastian immediately
called Troy to check on him, but after the 12th try, he gave up. He
opened his banking app and drained Troy’s account—just temporarily, just to get
his attention. Then he turned his attention to Cygnet.
“You do realise
how fucked up it is to come to me for comfort sex right after sleeping with my
son?” he asked.
“Not much more
fucked up than you continuing to lust after the boy your son loves,” Cygnet
countered. Sebastian raised an eyebrow, impressed.
Aemond held out
his hand. “Give me your phone,” he said. Troy didn’t panic often, and Aemond
hated to see it when he did. He took the phone from his friend’s hand and video
called Sebastian, swallowing his own loathing.
“It’s about ti—Aemond?!”
Sebastian was clearly incredulous.
Aemond forced a
polite smile. “Hello. Troy left his phone in my room this morning,” he lied
smoothly. If Sebastian had cut Troy off, he must know about Troy and Aemond
already, Aemond reasoned. Cygnet worked for Trent and Trent was still close
with Sebastian, not to mention they’d raised Troy together. If Cygnet had gone crying
to Trent, he would have called Sebastian immediately. Indeed, Sebastian’s shocked
expression cooled. It was unnerving how jealous the man was of his 18-year-old
son.
Aemond ploughed
ahead. “I followed him to a restaurant in downtown San Jose. He’s fine. I just
thought you’d like to know why he wasn’t answering.” Then he handed the phone
back to a sheepish Troy.
“Hi, Baba,” Troy
said. “Is it okay that Aemond and I are here together?”
Sebastian closed
his eyes and sighed in relief. “Yes. Give me a moment.” He minimized the call
to go back to the banking app and reinstate Troy’s finances. “Get yourself
something to eat,” he said, “and please explain to me why the hell Cygnet
Campbell showed up on my doorstep and jumped my bones.”
“Ew, what the
hell?!” Troy complained.
Aemond,
meanwhile, had given his own card to the waitress to pay for their food. While
a lot of the guilt money Sebastian had given him went to medical bills, he
could still afford to treat Troy to brunch.
“I hope she washed up before she left this
morning,” he commented, looking as amused as Troy did revolted.
Sebastian also
grimaced. “Before she leaves, I want to talk to you in person. All of you. Meet
me after brunch.”
Troy and Aemond
agreed and the call ended. Then Troy held up a glass of orange juice. “Here’s
to a hell of a date,” he joked.
After brunch,
they took Aemond’s car to Sebastian’s apartment. Thankfully, everyone in said
apartment was clothed when Nate answered the door. Almond Joie had been set to
charge on standby in the guest bedroom so as to avoid conflict.
When they were
all seated comfortably and tea had been poured, Sebastian said, “Thank you for
joining me here today. I won’t waste time. The reason Troy was never allowed to
date before now was because I don’t want him making my mistakes. When I was 16,
I fell in love with a gorgeous, witty girl. She was my first, and I adored her.
There was nothing I wouldn’t do for her. Well, she had Troy on my 17th
birthday and after that, nothing I did was… right. She left, and she left the
baby with me. My parents blamed me, for sleeping with her, for… everything. I
uh… I didn’t want Troy to go through that, so I forbade him to date. When he
brought you home last Thanksgiving, Aemond, I was… surprised. I hadn’t known
you were classmates, let alone anything more. You and I may have had our
differences, but that was when I reversed my decision regarding Troy’s dating
life. I don’t believe you’d hurt him. And obviously, you can’t get pregnant.”
He half-smiled. “I want you to know that you unambiguously have my blessing.
Whether or not a relationship between you works out, if he had to fall for
someone, I’m glad it’s you. And….” He hesitated. “Well, thank you for being a
good friend to him, in any event.”
To Cygnet, he
said, “You need to start using protection. You also need to choose which one of
us you’re going to be fucking, because I’m not sharing a girl with my son.”
Troy shook his
head. “Actually, Cygnet, I’d prefer not to have sex with you again unless Aemond’s
involved,” he said bluntly. “Sorry, but I told you before that I’m not
interested in women.”
Nate looked,
open-mouthed, between Cygnet, Troy, and Sebastian. “Did she rape you, too?” he
asked Troy with unconcealed distaste.
Troy shook his
head. “I wouldn’t put it that way. And we did use protection, otherwise
it was too slimy.” He’d pulled out and put on a condom immediately.
“Gee. Tell me
how you really feel,” Cygnet muttered, choking up. Even after her nap, she was physically
and emotionally exhausted.
Sebastian moved
on before anyone could answer that. “And Troy… you’re 18 now; legally you can
date and sleep with any consenting adult you want. Just make sure you know what
you’re getting into before you give your heart away. I didn’t. I’ve bene in
love three times, each more painful than the last. Make sure it’s worth the
risk before you commit. Although… for what it’s worth, I think this one is.” Noticing
how awkward Troy and Aemond looked at Sebastian basically admitting he still
loved Aemond and considered him worth the pain, Sebastian added, “For you.
I think he’s good for you. And whatever happens, I hope you’ll always be
friends.”
“We will be,”
said Troy happily. Aemond nodded after a pause.
Sebastian
smiled. “Welcome to the family.”
