Troy/Aemond - The Experiment [WIP]

Written December 5, 2022. Fore-dated to sometime after Troy turns 18 for ...obvious reasons. Roughly transcribed from a dream.

 "Guess who?" Troy had come up behind Aemond and covered his face with both hands, then pecked his cheek and sat down beside him, taking back his hands.

"Aegon," muttered Aemond dryly. He always gave a different incorrect answer, just to keep things interesting.

"None of the above," Troy said with a grin. He took a peek at what Aemond was working on.

"Sociology," Aemond explained before Troy could ask. "I'm auditing."

"Ahh." Troy nodded and rested his chin comfortably on Aemond's shoulder. "I already finished my homework for this week, so if you want to study this together, I'm game."

"I'm good." Aemond checked his phone. "Aren't you usually at football practice right about now?"

"Mm." Troy made an unhappy noise. "I was, but one of my teammates tried to kiss me in the shower, so I ran for it."

"Hm." Aemond wasn't surprised. Troy was pretty touchy-feely with all his friends, so it was really only a matter of time before one of them made a move on him. They sat in silence for a while, then Aemond got up to get a soda.

"Hey." The teammate who'd tried to kiss Troy slid into the seat across the table. "Listen, man, I'm sorry about earlier. I didn't realize you had a boyfriend."

Troy looked at him, brow puckered in confusion. "Hey, Arthur. Actually, I don't date at all." He held up his hand so Arthur could see the purity ring.

"So, what, One-Eye isn't your boyfriend, but you still rub up against him like that?"

O... kay... that was weird. "Either way," Troy pointed out, "should you really be kissing people's mouths out of the blue like that?"

"What's the big deal? I thought you'd be into it. I mean, even if that guy was your boyfriend, you have to admit, I'm--"

"Okay, cool, so you're taking back your apology? I'll see you on the field. We're done here." It took a lot to make Troy irate, but here he was.

"--" Arthur had been about to say something when Aemond sat back down next to Troy, plopping a root beer in front of him. Troy smiled his thanks.

"Who's this?" Aemond asked.

"He was just leaving," Troy answered curtly. Aemond turned to face Troy and, with just a look between them, he knew. He pulled a knife out of his pocket and casually started cleaning his nails, making and maintaining eye contact with the man across the table. Arthur took the hint and left. Once he was gone, Troy visibly relaxed and Aemond put the knife away.

Troy took a sip of his root beer. "Can you believe Arthur thought you were my boyfriend?" he asked, trying to be lighthearted about the encounter.

"Most people do," Aemond replied. At Troy's shocked expression, he said, "When I go anywhere without you, people ask where my boyfriend is. They mean you."

Troy put his elbows on the table and his chin in his hand. "But I treat you the same way I treat all my friends," he said, bewildered.

"Some of them have crushes on you. Cygnet, for example. I would not be surprised if your teammate thought you'd led him on."

Troy frowned contemplatively. "I turn down everyone who asks me out. I'm clear about the fact that I'm not dating anyone. Why would they...?"

"Most men aren't so handsy with people they're just friends with." Aemond hadn't mentioned it before now because he'd noticed Troy was just touchy-feely with everyone, but did he really not know how people saw him? "Would you be comfortable with everyone touching you the way you touch them?"

Troy nodded. "Of course," he said. "Why wouldn't I be?"

Aemond wanted to demonstrate, but the quad was packed and he didn't want to draw unnecessary attention. "Hm." Then an idea came to him: Blaine had never reopened the church. Surely it would be deserted. He took out his phone and placed the call.

"This is Aemond. I need your help with a little experiment. Can we use the church? .... Thank you. And can you call Cygnet, and someone we don't know? .... Mm. We'll be there soon." Aemond ended the call and led Troy to his truck, and they drove to Blaine's church together.

Once inside, Aemond explained, "I want to do an experiment with you, Troy. I'll want to draw a boundary map on your body of places you feel comfortable being touched by a male friend, a female friend, an acquaintance, and a stranger. We'll start with how you normally interact with friends. When you start to get uncomfortable, tell us to stop and we'll mark the boundary with a piece of duct tape."

Troy took all this in and nodded. Cygnet clicked her pen, opened to a fresh page in her notepad, and began jotting down notes. Aemond led Troy to a simple foldaway chair and had him sit, then circled behind him. He draped his arms over Troy's shoulders, leaned in to rest his chin, and kissed Troy's cheek. Troy smiled but didn't otherwise react. Aemond brought his hands to Troy's shoulders, then ran one hand down each arm, pausing only to hold hands at the end. He moved one hand round to Troy's stomach, then up his chest, then his throat. When he lingered there, Troy looked back at him and raised his eyebrows. Aemond chuckled, Cygnet wrote something down that Blaine was whispering in her ear, and the experiment continued.

Aemond brushed his hands over Troy's ears. Troy pulled back and wrinkled his nose. "That feels funny," he protested. Blaine walked over and handed Aemond a Sharpie; Aemond marked the area just before Troy's ears. Then he took up a chair beside Troy and settled a hand on his stomach, slowly moving down. Troy grabbed Aemond's wrist before he could move below Troy's lower stomach. Blaine handed Aemond the roll of duct tape and Aemond marked a line on Troy's shirt. Aemond sat back down, ready to continue, but Troy held up a finger.

"Just give me a moment," he said softly. His heart was pounding like a hammer and he had to catch his breath. He avoided looking at the others in the room, so he couldn't see that they were politely averting their eyes.

When his breathing and heart rate returned to normal, he nodded for Aemond to continue. Aemond rested his hand on Troy's knee and slowly inched it upwards-- very slowly, in fact; he was surprised Troy didn't stop him until just before he would have touched crotch. Again, Troy asked to take a moment before continuing.

Aemond had to wonder if Troy was enjoying this experiment. His face gave nothing away, but Aemond noticed while marking off his inner thighs that Troy's body was somewhat less stoic. Still, he hadn't broken the rules. He'd stopped Aemond at the last possible second, but he had stopped him, and he took time between markings to calm down rather than make things more awkward than they needed to be.

When Troy had calmed down, Aemond asked, "I assume the inner thigh is off-limits?"

Troy considered it. "Mm, like this, yes. If I was sitting cross-legged"-- he put one ankle on the other knee-- "it would be okay up to a point."

Aemond wasn't sure he wanted to go that far, but he slowly settled his hand on the side of Troy's knee and moved up. This time Troy stopped him halfway up his thigh. That was a surprisingly normal reaction, for him. Next was the outer thigh and hip, then up his sides. No reaction. Aemond moved his hands back to Troy's knees and down his shins and calves.

"Can you take off your shoes?" Blaine asked.

Troy shook his head. "No. My feet are ticklish."

Cygnet marked that in her notes. Blaine rolled out a yoga mat and had Troy lie on his stomach. To Aemond's surprise, Troy didn't react to anything, not even Aemond's hands on his rear. Then again, Troy was a jock. Guys on some of his teams probably smacked each other's rears as a show of camaraderie. When Troy sat up, he showed he was also fine with Aemond patting his head and combing fingers through his hair.

"Hand test, male friend, concluded," Cygnet announced. "Aemond and I will switch places. We'll use a different color tape and marker to indicate my test. May I cross the lines set by the previous tape?"

Troy thought about it. "What happens if the tape overlaps?" he asked.

"Each test is marked on a different diagram," Cygnet replied, "but I can't cross the previous tape without your permission."

Troy nodded. "Okay. New boundaries. I'll let you know."

Cygnet's touch was, in a purely tactile sense, similar to Aemond's, but with much less familiarity. She conducted her part of the experiment as she did everything else: businesslike and without emotion. Troy wondered if Aemond had been mistaken about her having feelings for him. Still, his boundaries with her overlapped exactly from the previous test. The only difference was that Troy only told her verbally to stop, and this time he didn't need a cool-down period. Both these differences were noted.

"Hand test, female friend, concluded," she said when she was done. "Blaine and I will switch places for the acquaintance test."

The acquaintance test went exactly like the female friend test, as did the stranger test, conducted by a relative of Blaine's called Denise.

"Hmm," Cygnet murmured ponderously. "Troy, do you have any other male friends who'd be willing to see through the rest of this experiment?" she asked.

Troy shrugged. "You could ask some of the guys on the football team," he suggested. "Why?"

Cygnet shook her head and shrugged. "It's not a big deal, but I'd like to control for aberrations as much as possible."

"Aberrations?"

"Well...." Cygnet hesitated. "No, let's continue. If we notice any other, um, oddities--"

"What oddities?" Tory asked, thoroughly confounded as he sat up on the yoga mat.

Blaine, Cygnet, and Denise exchanged a look, then Blaine said gently, "We're wondering if maybe Aemond requires his own category."

"Well, why? He had the same markers as everyone else."

The testers minus Aemond exchanged another look, then Cygnet gave a minute head shake.

"Let's move on to the lips tests," Cygnet decided. "We'd rather not mark up your clothes too much, so--"

"Oh! No problem," said Troy, promptly removing his T-shirt, leggings, and--

"No, please keep your briefs on!" Denise exclaimed hurriedly. "We actually had a change of clothes prepared for you."

"Oh." Troy blinked. "Actually, is it okay if I just put them on after? I don't really want to walk around covered in tape?"

The four testers exchanged glances again, then nodded.

"Okay," said Cygnet, "so the lips test will go in reverse order from the hands test. I'm sure you were already doing this, but let's make it official that arousal is a parameter for stopping."

The next part (in orange) was snipped after I decided Troy needed to be 18 for this. There will be another break when returning.

"Is there an NDA in place?" Troy asked, almost before she'd finished speaking. "It's just, I'm 17 and you guys have been approaching illegal territory."

"You're bringing that up now?" Denise asked, looking horrified. "Why didn't you say something earlier?"

"Shouldn't we have parental consent?" Blaine muttered, with unknown values of sarcasm. 

Troy laughed. "Good luck with that," he remarked. "Can you imagine how my parents would react if they learned Aemond Targaryen was involved in a scientific experiment requiring him to put his hands and lips on me? Baba would have a heart attack if we were lucky."

Aemond, who'd been observing silently, frowned and looked away uncomfortably.

"Yes," said Cygnet, "that's another reason I thought we should find an alternate male friend to test you. If your family found out--"

"Wait. You considered that as a possibility and didn't tell us?" Blaine asked, clearly annoyed.

Cygnet frowned right back at him. "I thought it was obvious enough to go without saying."

"I'd say we all have pretty good incentive not to speak a word of this to anyone," Denise put in.

"Indeed, and that would preclude finding another tester," Aemond said quietly, eye still averted.

We now return you to your regular self-indulgent cringe.

Denise looked round at everyone. "Can I suggest something?" she asked. Without waiting for an answer, she continued, "What if the rest of us who aren't testing at the moment leave the room and allow the testers to make their own notes?"

Cygnet shook her head. "I don't believe in the honor system, especially when an experiment has the potential to turn intimate." She blushed slightly at that thought.

"I think that should be up to the subject," Denise countered.

"That's convenient, as you're up first. What happens if he says to stop, or signals it nonverbally, and is ignored?"

Denise glared at Cygnet. "I don't think I like the accusation."

"It's a supposition, not an accusation."

"You know these rooms aren't soundproof, right?" Blaine asked.

"Um-- I'm okay with having an illusion of privacy," Troy said, "but can I borrow... hm, I want a book." At the confused expressions of the others, he explained, "Well, if someone's kissing me, it'd be while I was doing something else, not just sitting and chatting like with regular, um, hand touches."

That didn't make a whole lot of sense, but after a quick discussion it was agreed that Troy could have a book.

"Any book in particular?" Cygnet asked.

"Yeah, an illustrated textbook on diseases of the human body. I'm considering bio next semester and I'd like to get a head start."

"Nerrrd," Denise intoned.

"I'm pretty sure Désmoda has that textbook. I'll go get it," Cygnet volunteered.

When she'd left, Troy went over to Aemond and gently touched his shoulder. "You good?" he asked.

Aemond gave a brief nod. "I'll be pleased when it's all over and we can start mapping each other," he said, "instead of just you."

Troy nodded. He was both looking forward to, and not looking forward to, mapping Aemond.

When Cygnet returned with the book, Denise was only too eager to get started. Everyone else cleared the room so she and her clipboard could have Troy all to herself. Troy lay on his side, head propped up on one elbow, and opened the textbook, reading from the first chapter. Denise kissed up, down, and around his entire body. He only asked her to stop at his ears, his lips, his bum, and his privates. She looked disappointed, but tried to hide it as she made her notes, left, and sent Blaine in. With Blaine, Troy also asked him to stop at his inner thigh, just past the knee. He flinched slightly when Blaine approached his genitals, a reaction he hadn't had with Denise. With Cygnet, he was apparently comfortable enough to have zero boundaries other than lips. When she'd made her notes and was turning to leave, Troy asked to use the bathroom before Aemond's test.

"Remember to wash your hands," Blaine replied as he pointed the way.

Troy returned half an hour later, having clearly washed more than just his hands. He let his damp wavy blond hair fall out of the grey towel on his head, bending down and shaking it out. 

"I hope it's okay that I used your shower," he said to Blaine.

"It is, but you forgot to put your briefs back on," Blaine pointed out. Troy half-shrugged and went to lay on the mat, flipping ahead to some diagrams, which featured the most gruesome diseases and their effects on the human body. He chanted their names in a quiet mantra as Aemond began his work.

Denise's kisses had been eager. Blaine's and Cygnet's had been businesslike and clinical. Aemond's were... different. Yes, he was only doing this as part of an experiment, to prove a point about Troy's boundaries vs. everyone else's, but they were still rather close friends and Aemond's touch had a familiarity that the others' did not. His presence was comforting, and Troy felt relaxed with him.

Unlike the others, Aemond introduced little licks and bites into his kisses, seeing if or when Troy would stop him or react. Troy didn't, at least, not until Aemond reached his lips, which he'd saved for last. Before their lips could touch, Troy pressed a hand to Aemond's chest and gently pushed him away.

"No lips?" Aemond whispered.

"No lips," Troy whispered back.

"But everywhere else?"

"Did I stop you anywhere else?"

Aemond chuckled. "I'm surprised you didn't," he said. Troy smiled wryly at him and went back to reading.

"Okay," Cygnet announced, as the rest of them filed in. "Thank you, Troy. Since we don't want to be here all week, we've decided the rest of the experiment will just be us deciding our boundaries with you."

Troy nodded. "So, just the one marker for all of you?"

"Tape," Cygnet corrected. "We're not all nudists."

I did dream up the rest of this, but I never got round to transcribing it. I'll probably finish this later.