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Alchemist had been hunched over her desk for hours, papers and beakers scattered around her in a chaos only she understood. Her quill scratched furiously, notes filling page after page as her candle burned low. She hadn’t noticed the temperature dropping, nor how rigid her own shoulders had grown from fatigue.
Brute noticed. She always did. The werehound had padded in quietly, bringing a steaming cup of bitter tea, the closest thing Alchemist would allow to nourishment when she was consumed by her work.
“You’ll freeze before you finish that page,” Brute rumbled, voice low and warm.
Alchemist stiffened. “I’ll be fine,” she muttered, not looking up. But her fingers trembled slightly as she dipped the quill again, betraying her chill.
Brute sighed, setting the tray aside. “You’ll say that until you collapse. Again.” She gestured with her muzzle toward the small spare bed shoved into the corner of the lab. “Why not use that? It’s why you keep it there, isn’t it?”
“It’s for emergencies,” Alchemist shot back, tone sharper than she meant. Her lips pressed into a thin line, but her shaking hands had already stilled on the paper. She hated how cold she felt, how the air bit at her skin like needles. A poor side effect of being a dhampir, probably the worst one if it wasn’t for the dryness that water couldn't fix that was always at the back of her throat.
Brute stepped closer, her fur brushing Alchemist’s arm as she leaned in. The contrast made Alchemist jolt; Brute’s body was blazing hot compared to her own half-frozen one.
Alchemist clenched her jaw. “You’re… persistant.”
“And you’re shivering,” Brute teased gently, her deep ruby eyes gleaming in the dim light. “Don’t tell me that you are too proud to admit you need me.”
Color rushed to Alchemist’s cheeks, a betrayal she hated. “I don’t-” she started, but her words caught. Her body betrayed her before her pride could save her. She stood abruptly, pushing past Brute toward the bed, and yanked the thin blanket aside.
“Fine. Stay. If you insist on hovering, then make yourself useful.”
Brute followed, unable to hide her wide grin. She lowered herself onto the creaking mattress beside Alchemist, the bed groaning under her weight. The warmth radiating from her was immediate, seeping into Alchemist’s chilled body as she hesitated, fighting the urge to curl closer.
It wasn’t until Brute murmured, “Careful, I might think you like having me here,” that Alchemist finally huffed and pressed into her side. The heat was overwhelming, addictive.
Her fingers gripped fur, tentative at first, before she buried her face against Brute’s chest. “Shut up,” she muttered, mortified at her own desperation.
Brute chuckled, wrapping an arm gently around her waist. “Embarrassed already? I’ve barely done anything.”
Alchemist’s body went rigid at the teasing, but then slowly relaxed, her cool frame softening against Brute’s blazing warmth. She could feel every thrum of Brute’s heartbeat, every shift of muscle beneath thick fur. The closeness made her skin tingle, her breath catch.
Brute tilted her head down, voice softer now, nearly affectionate. “You could’ve asked, you know. You don’t have to make excuses.”
Alchemist’s throat worked, but no words came. Instead, her hand curled tighter into fur, her face flushing as Brute’s warmth wrapped around her completely.
Alchemist had finally relaxed against her, pale cheek pressed into Brute’s chest, the cold from her skin slowly seeping away under the werehound’s heat. For a while, there was nothing but quiet, the low crackle of candles burning down, the faint scratch of Alchemist’s breath.
And then she shifted. Just slightly. Her thigh brushed against Brute’s lower belly.
Brute went rigid. She prayed Alchemist hadn’t noticed the faint swell pressing against her hip was subtle enough to go ignored. But Alchemist stilled, then slowly tilted her head up, her sharp purple eyes glinting with something wicked.
“Well, well,” she murmured, voice low and cool. “What have we here?”
Brute’s ears flattened instantly. “I- it’s nothing,” she stammered, heat rushing to her face even hotter than the rest of her body. “I didn’t mean-” She tried to move away, but there was no space in the tiny bed, nowhere to hide.
Alchemist’s lips curled faintly, not quite a smile but close. Her cold hand slid down, fingers brushing against thick fur, dangerously close to the hardening ridge beneath. “Nothing? This doesn’t feel like nothing.”
Brute let out a low, strangled sound, trying to pull away again. “Alchemist… I should go. I didn’t come here for-”
“No.” The word was sharp, demanding. Alchemist’s grip on her fur tightened, holding her in place. Her cheeks were flushed, her body trembling faintly against Brute’s. “Don’t you dare move. Don’t you dare leave me half-warmed like this.”
Brute’s breath caught, her chest heaving as she looked down at her, torn between shame and want. “But… you don’t-”
Alchemist cut her off with a low murmur against her chest, her lips grazing heated skin as she tried to act casual, like she was going to make a normal request. “Just rub it out. On me.”
The sentence slipped out sharper than intended, but her eyes burned with hunger when Brute met them.
Brute swallowed hard, her claws flexing against the sheets. “You… you really want that?”
Alchemist’s hips shifted, grinding subtly against the thick warmth under Brute’s fur. Her answer was a hissed, “Do I sound like I’m joking?”
Brute’s chest rose and fell too fast for comfort, every breath heavy with heat. Alchemist’s words rang in her ears as her face burned.
“Alchemist…” Brute whispered, voice fraying. “I don’t want to… take advantage-”
That earned her a sharp laugh, low and sultry. Alchemist’s hand pressed down harder into her fur, nails digging lightly against muscle. “You think you’re the one taking advantage? That's pathetic.” Her lips brushed the edge of Brute’s jaw, cool and teasing. “If anything, I’m the one using you.”
Brute shuddered. The admission, the raw need behind it, sent a fresh wave of heat surging through her. She tried to hold herself still, to stay composed, but the ache between her legs pulsed hard against Alchemist’s thigh.
Alchemist shifted deliberately then, sliding her slender body up until her hips aligned with Brute’s. The contact was immediate — her cold, firm thigh pressing right into Brute’s half-hard length beneath the fur.
Brute groaned, low and helpless, yearning to bury her head in Alchemist’s mess of curls
Alchemist smirked, her breath almost icy against Brute “It’s okay Brute… We both want this.”
Brute’s claws tore faintly at the sheet as her hips rolled forward before she could stop herself. The friction was heaven and hell all at once, the drag of her hardness against Alchemist’s cool thigh, the shock of sensation she hadn’t let herself want, not like this.
“Good girl,” Alchemist whispered, her voice soft and teasing. “I can feel you. You’re burning up.”
Brute whimpered at the words, a satisfying shame flushing her face hotter than her body already burned. “Don’t- don’t call me that…”
Alchemist’s hips bucked deliberately against her, drawing another sharp gasp from the werehound. “Why not? You’re trembling already.” She caught Brute’s gaze, her crimson eyes glowing faintly in the candlelight. “Do you know how warm you feel against me? How badly I want more?”
The bed creaked beneath them as Brute’s restraint crumbled, her body betraying her. She thrust forward again, harder this time, grinding into the line of Alchemist’s thigh. The friction built, hot and messy through the thick fur, every movement dragging a broken groan from her chest.
Alchemist gasped softly at the pressure, her hands clutching fur to pull Brute closer.
Brute lowered her head, finally pressing her face against Alchemist’s hair muffling her sounds as she rutted helplessly. Shame still lingered, but Alchemist’s breathless encouragement, her gasps and mutters for more burned through it, stoking the fire until Brute couldn’t think of anything but the feel of her body.
The tiny bed groaned with every desperate movement, Alchemist’s small frame arching against Brute’s heat, Brute’s claws clutching the sheets as she ground harder and harder, chasing release.
“Look at you,” Alchemist murmured lovingly, tugging Brute’s face down so their eyes locked. Her lips were parted, her cheeks flushed. “All that strength and you’re still at my mercy.”
Brute whimpered, her rhythm faltering as the words hit her. She buried herself against Alchemist, grinding faster, rougher, until both of them trembled at the brink.
Alchemist clutched her tighter, her cool body wrapped in Brute’s burning heat. “Don’t you dare stop,” she breathed. “I want to feel you.”
So Brute continued until she finished hips snapping forward, fur slick with the proof of her need as she let out a ragged, broken cry against Alchemist’s skin. The sound echoed in the cramped lab, drowned only by the bed’s desperate groaning beneath them.
Alchemist’s own body jerked against hers, riding the wave, letting the heat she craved consume her in Brute’s arms.
When the frenzy finally slowed, Brute collapsed against her, panting hard, fur damp with sweat.
Alchemist smirked faintly despite her own trembling legs. “See? Was that so hard?”
Brute groaned into her neck, mortified. “Go to sleep.”