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“I can’t believe someone really gave you this,” Roger mused, turning it over in his hand. Freddie had managed to get it back from Ratty, somehow, because he was far too good at getting his own way.
“I wouldn’t say gave, darling,” Freddie mumbled from under the huge towel Phoebe, his latest acquisition, was rubbing him down with. “I’d say threw. Although maybe you’re right that I should take it as a well-meaning present, I do like those.”
“No one ever chucks this kind of thing at me!” Roger fitted it over some fingers, fiddling with it like a rebellious teenager.
“Oh no,” Brian scoffed. “Just… what is it? Five hundred and forty pairs of knickers by now?”
“Can’t help it,” Roger said, grinning. “Animal attraction, mate.”
“Neanderthals,” Freddie groaned. “Phoebe, rescue me.”
“Find you another flavor of Neanderthal, you mean?” Phoebe said, and Freddie giggled violently, almost collapsing against the other man. “Careful now,” Phoebe warned, steadying him.
“You’ve got Fred struck all of a heap with your dirty minds,” John said, as he looked at Roger and Brian with a stern air. “Don’t forget you’re in the presence of royalty.”
“I did forget,” Roger said, pretending to feel very guilty. “Oh no… Freddie, can you ever forgive me?”
“I might,” Freddie said cautiously. “If you give me back my cock ring. If you haven’t ruined it, you nosy bloody bastard…”
“Oh, so it’s your cock ring, now, is it?” Roger couldn’t hold in the laughter any more. “You’ve asserted your rights…”
“He gave it to me!”
“Threw it at you!”
“It was still me!”
Roger was laughing too hard to speak, merely at the expression on Freddie’s face. Like an outraged cat who’s expected to go and piss in the rain, he thought, but didn’t dare make the comparison.
Freddie stalked into Phoebe’s welcoming arms and said not another word as he was helped into clean, dry clothes, and wiped clean of makeup. Obviously, he wasn’t going to lower himself to talk to Roger again…
But in the end it was impossible for Roger not to take pity on him, looking both tired and excited… He knew it would be another long night, that when they got their Freddie back, he’d likely be bruised and scratched. So he relented, catching his friend in the emptying corridor, outside the toilets, and grabbing one thin hand before Freddie could give him another nasty look.
He closed Freddie’s cold fingers around the toy and grinned at him. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do, Fred,” he murmured, winking as he let go almost at once, and walked away.