The Hounds Of Love: Chapter 13

It was now Tuesday, October thirty-first - Halloween. For once in his life, Sören set the alarm early so he could have extra time to get in his Halloween costume, donning the leather armor and breeches with wolf breastplate, and the thick black cloak modified by furry-looking black rugs from IKEA, to become Jon Snow, complete with a replica of his sword Longclaw. He still couldn't believe he was doing this, but then, he had asked Dooku to dress up as Dracula and that was contingent on Dooku picking out his costume. Dooku knew how much Sören was annoyed (albeit affectionately) by his students calling him "King in the North" and "Lord Commander" due to his striking resemblance to Jon Snow's actor, so Sören supposed he had walked into it, payback long overdue for the months of trolling his best friend. He was secretly proud of Dooku finally revealing his hidden troll side.

While he'd thought Dooku would make a nice-looking Dracula, nothing could prepare him for when Dooku came to his door - instead of Sören going out to Dooku's car - and there he was, all six feet five inches of him, lean but muscular, powerful, in a long black velvet cape with a red interior, a black tunic sporting a delicate red trim on the hems, and black breeches. He hissed at Sören, showing fake fangs, and Sören giggled, but also felt his cock stirring and his hole twitching around the buttplug he wore under his Jon Snow costume. Oh shit, he's hot.

"Where is Ghost?" Dooku asked, giving Sören a stern look.

"Er," Sören said, shifting his weight awkwardly from one foot to the other. "I don't know."

"Of course you don't know..."

Sören picked up the bucket of assorted, wrapped fun-sized candy he'd bought for his students and was sitting by the front door. Dooku led Sören out to the car and when Sören got in, Dooku reached in back and pulled out a large white wolf plushie. Sören squeaked and found himself throwing his arms around Dooku's neck, screaming, laughing and crying, as Dooku smiled fondly.

"Look," Dooku said, taking one of the wolf plushie's paws. "He has velcro on his paws, so you can clasp him around your neck and take him for piggyback rides."

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA THAT'S SO CUTE I'M GONNA DIE."

"No dying," Dooku said.

Sören hugged the plushie wolf, rocking him in his arms as Dooku drove to campus. "You're so good to me," Sören said to Dooku.

"You're very dear to me, Sören," Dooku said quietly, keeping his eyes on the road.

"You too." Sören put a hand on his arm, and withdrew after a few seconds as heat flooded him, fingertips tingling. If only you knew. "AAAAAAAAAAAA, what a good puppy."

Mark had told Sören that he was leaving his own Halloween costume as a surprise but Sören would see it before the day was over. Sören still took a walk around campus, hoping he could catch Mark before Mark decided to show him. There was no sign of Mark, but Sören stifled a laugh as he passed by Professor Mace Windu dressed up as Nick Fury, who gave him a fearsome glare before Sören was out of the range of his sight.

Usually Karen got there before the first few early bird students showed up, but today students were starting to show up first, some in costume, some not. His students took a moment to laugh as they piled in, and Sören, trying to stay in character, gave them stern, brooding looks in return, but then the brooding became genuine as the time got closer to when class would be in session and still no Karen.

Finally, when his back was turned to the door as he got out the notes he would be using for the day's lesson, he heard the word, "Crow," but it sounded more like "Cruh." Then he felt something hit him in the arm, and when he looked, he had a velcro dart attached to his arm.

He turned around and saw Karen in a grey faux fur coat over a wooly white sweater and grey pants, wearing a red wig with half the hair in a ponytail and the rest worn loose, carrying a toy bow and arrow set. Sören completely broke out of character, doubling over laughing when he recognized who she was supposed to be, which just made Karen give him a fierce scowl. "Ya think I'm playin' games wit' ya, Crow?" she snarled, taking her bow and arrow and aiming for Sören's forehead.

"Think of the children," Sören said, taking Ghost off from where it was wrapped around his neck, holding it between himself and Karen.

Now Karen was giggling. She reached out to hug the wolf plushie - and then she snatched it away from Sören, scowling at him again. "Mine now... Crow." She made off with the plushie, stealing away to the back of the classroom.

It was now exactly time for class. The students were in hysterics, and Sören gave them a moment to calm down before he started, going back in-character to get everyone's attention by slamming his palm down on the desk. "Right, so Professor Sigurðsson and Ms. Swanson can't be here today. I'm Lord Commander Jon Snow and this is my assistant, Ygritte, you will refer to me today as Commander Snow. Does anyone have any questions before we begin?"

A raised hand. "What happened to Professor Sigurðsson and Ms. Swanson?"

"I don't know," Sören said. He saw Karen giggle in the back of the classroom.

Another raised hand. "I heard that instead of White Walkers, we're potentially in danger from vampires and zombies. Can you confirm?"

"That might be an issue, yes. We should remain vigilant but keep calm, panic only breeds chaos."

The same student asked, "OK, but what about the threat of clowns?"

"...I don't know."

Another raised hand. "How can you teach us if you know nothing?"

"I don't know," Sören said, trying not to grin, scowling harder. Karen was losing it now.

Towards the end of the class, Karen came back to the front of the classroom, and Sören reached out for Ghost. "Can I have my wolf back now?" he asked.

"Come and get him... Crow." Karen stuck out her tongue at Sören and ran away with Ghost again.

Sören chased Karen around the classroom while the students were at work drawing, which made a bit of a scene, his students howling and laughing and cheering them on. Karen shot Sören with another velcro arrow, and Sören took out the Longclaw replica, brandishing it.

"Ooooh, look at ya with yer fancy lad sword," Karen jeered. "Nice big, long sword that ya got there."

Sören's mind immediately went in the gutter, especially considering the nature of Jon Snow and Ygritte's relationship, but he thought she was just acting in-character, not wanting to get his hopes up over her. "Give me back my wolf and no one gets hurt."

He grabbed Ghost and he and Karen got into a tug-of-war, marching to the front of the classroom where they continued to pull on Ghost in front of the class. Sören managed to wrench Ghost away from Karen, and then he proferred the bucket of Halloween treats. "You fought well, milady. A consolation prize."

"I ain't no lady, Crow," Karen sneered, eyes laughing, and then her face lit up as she grabbed toffee out of the bucket. "Oooh."

As class wrapped up and the students began clearing out, Sören shook the bucket of candy and told them, "Don't forget to take provisions since, you know... winter is coming."

Once the students were gone, most of whom had taken candy, and it was just the two of them, Karen leaned on Sören's desk, taking another piece of toffee, laughing out loud now.

"Jesus Christ, Karen," Sören said. "I can't believe your costume. I had no idea you were going to be Ygritte. I would have thought you'd be Dany, with your platinum blonde hair and all."

"Ya know nuthin', Jun Snuh," Karen said in her Ygritte accent, before flashing Sören a grin.

Sören's face was on fire. "Nico asked me to be Jon Snow, since I made him dress up as Dracula." He patted Ghost. "He got me this. I wasn't expecting it."

"Awwww, he's so sweet to you. And that's a great Jon Snow costume, so accurate to the original!"

Jæja, with a buttplug under my clothes. Sören tried not to snicker to himself about it. "Takk. Your costume is... great... too. Wow."

Karen tossed a caramel at Sören, who caught it, unwrapped it, and put it in his mouth. "I'm going to the canteen," Karen said. "Are you staying here...?"

Karen nodded. "I gotta clean up before the next class."

"Can I bring you back anything?"

"A Sprite if you don't mind..." Sören got out his wallet. Karen waved her hand.

"It's on me," she said, "for being a good sport." She smiled. "I didn't know you were actually going to be Jon Snow, I wanted to dress like this to pick on you since the kids call you King in the North and Lord Commander anyway..."

"It's pretty funny," Sören said. His face was still on fire. He felt so confused now, but he once again doubled down on his resolve to not trigger Karen or make her feel sexually harassed, that if the spark he'd felt between them wasn't just wishful thinking she'd have to say something to him.

"All right, back in a few."

Once again for their second class, Sören and Karen stayed in-character as Jon Snow and Ygritte, albeit with less rowdiness than before - this time Karen just shouted out the occasional "Crow" at Sören as he was speaking. Then, partway into the class, the rowdiness came from a different source.

Professor Mark Lauer arrived at the doorstep to Sören's classroom, dressed in a white ruffly, frilly blouse, black leather pants, and a black tricorn hat set with large black and grey feathers. Sören's jaw dropped when he saw Mark's hair down to his thighs, knowing everyone on campus would assume it was a wig, but Sören knew the truth that it was not. Sören assumed that the unglamoured hair was part vanity on the one day he could get away with it in public, and part to compensate for not wearing his glasses today to assist with glamouring his eyes, one of them covered by an eyepatch.

Karen's jaw also dropped at the sight of Mark, her face turning pink.

"Arrrrrrrr," Mark growled. "We do not sow."

Sören facepalmed. That's not anything like how House Greyjoy dresses, Sören spoke into Mark's mind.

"I heard there was Vikings here," Mark said in a very exaggerated fake lower-class British accent, looking around Sören's classroom. "Y' know anything about that?"

"I know nothing," Sören said, with a sly glance at Karen.

Mark gave Sören a suspicious look, and then he saw the bucket of candy on Sören's desk. "Arrrrrrrrr, booty," he said, with a pointed look at Sören as he snatched the bucket of candy, letting Sören know exactly what he was thinking by the word "booty". Sören's face was on fire again and his hole twitched around the plug inside him.

"You can't take that!" Sören said.

But before he could draw Longclaw on Mark, he pulled his own replica sword, and walked backwards out of Sören's classroom with the bucket of candy. Karen shot an arrow at him, which just barely missed Mark before he was out.

"Hey!" Sören yelled to his students, deciding a little break for fun was in order. "Are we gonna let him get away with that, or are we going to raid him right back?"

"Let's raid him!" Karen shouted.

A couple of the students began pounding on their desks, which led to the rest of them doing it. "Let's go do a raid, Viking-style, make Professor Sigurðsson proud of you when he gets back," Sören said.

"KING IN THE NORTH!" the students cheered. "KING IN THE NORTH!"

Sören grabbed Ghost, put the plushie around his neck again to ride piggyback, and he and Karen gestured for the class to follow him. Sören and Karen led their students across the art-and-music wing of the campus, down to Mark Lauer's classroom, where he was giving a lecture in his usual voice.

"HEY!" Sören shouted, interrupting, barging in. "CANDY THIEF!"

"Arrrrr," Mark said, drawing his replica sword. He returned to the deliberately horrible "pirate" accent. "Shiver me timbers, matey."

Sören and Mark began dueling with their fake swords - the homoerotic subtext was not lost on Sören, and was apparently not lost on Karen, blushing fiercely, as well as some of the students of both men, who were wolf whistling and giggling. Sören and Mark still weren't out as a couple - yet - but it was hard to hide the attraction as their swords clashed, eyes locked.

At last, while Mark's back was turned, Karen rushed and stole back the bucket of candy from Mark's desk, and the candy that Mark himself had brought for his own students. Mark moved his sword towards Karen, who got out of the way just before he could score a "hit", and she thrust Mark's bucket of candy into Sören's free hand, rushing towards the door, putting down Sören's bucket of candy beside her, and readying her bow and arrow. As Mark reached to grab back the bucket of candy, Karen shot him with two of the velcro arrows, one of which knocked his hat off. For a split second Sören panicked, hoping that Mark's ears wouldn't be revealed with the movement of his hair as the hat fell off, but Mark deftly snatched up the hat and put it back on his head, and Sören and Karen used the distraction to start exiting Mark's classroom with Sören's bucket of candy safely returned.

"Ye may have gotten away this time," Mark yelled, "but I'll get you, my pretty... and your little dog too."

Sören's face burned and he couldn't help flashing Mark a grin, mischief returned in Mark's own eyes.

Then, just before Sören and Karen could step out of the classroom altogether, Karen shot Sören with an arrow and took the bucket of candy from him.

"Hey! What was that for?"

Karen smirked. "'Cuz ya know nuthin', Jun Snuh."


_


After school, Dooku offered to drive Sören to Mark's house that evening instead of Mark picking up Sören as usual, which Sören thought was a kind gesture.

While Sören was still at home, he arranged Mark's KISS action figures, in their Halloween costumes, around Hells, who was now sporting a wizard hat and spectacles and had a Harry Potter replica wand near him. Hells was guarding the bucket of candy that Mark stole, which had a few pieces of candy left after his second class. Sören snapped some photos to show Mark later, the last one being of Gene Simmons and Ace Frehley riding Hells while Peter Criss and Paul Stanley rode in the hot pink Barbie Corvette.

When Sören was ready to go, with Snúður in the cat carrier, he got in Dooku's car and they began the drive to Mark's place. Sören was still in his Jon Snow costume, and noticed Dooku kept looking at him on the way there.

"I'm going to Portland again this weekend," Dooku informed him.

"Will you need me to watch Beowulf again?"

"I don't want to disrupt whatever plans you have. He can manage being left alone overnight. He'll sulk, but he shall manage."

"OK. This for a protest?"

Dooku nodded. "When I went down the weekend before last it was a planning meeting. This Saturday is one of the actual demonstrations coming up."

"Good luck. Please be careful."

"I will most certainly try."

Sören felt an icy grip in the pit of his stomach, worrying about Dooku again. He felt stupid worrying about him, knowing Dooku could take care of himself, but that made the thought of something happening to him no less devastating... Sören swallowed hard, trying to push those thoughts away. He didn't know what to say that wouldn't result in him having feelings overload and possibly crying, and he really didn't want to get like that now on what had been a fun, lighthearted day.

"I'll see you tomorrow?" Sören said when they got to Mark's house.

"You shall. Goodnight, Sören." Dooku gave him a small smile. Then, with a bigger smile, he said, "My apologies. Lord Commander Snow."

"Night, Drac." Sören patted his shoulder on the way out.

Sören knocked on Mark's front door. "Trick or treat," he yelled.

Mark opened the door and made the "come in" gesture. Mark was still in his pirate costume - he and Sören were going to pass out candy to trick-or-treaters later, if there were any.

"I can't even with you stealing my candy," Sören said as he kicked off his Doc Martens, letting the cat out of the carrier.

"Oh that's rich, from the guy who stole my unicorn and my KISS dolls." Then, as Mark saw the wicked grin on Sören's face, he facepalmed, catching himself. "Action fig - fuck it."

Sören howled.

Mark put a hand on his hip. "So, are you ever going to return them to me? I would kind of like them back at some point. Hells is of sentimental value to me, considering who gifted him, and the KISS dol - action figures -" Mark's brow furrowed as Sören howled again. "Are of nostalgic value."

"They've been having so much fun." Sören produced his phone and showed Mark the pictures. "Look, they're doing Halloween! Hells is taking them to a party."

"That is seriously disturbing." Mark was trying very hard to keep a stern expression on his face and not laugh, and failing at it.

"Not as disturbing as whatever the fuck that accent was you were using earlier."

Mark kissed Sören's cheek and reached under Sören's cloak to slap his ass, still in leather trousers. "But seriously. Sören." Mark gave him a look. "Gimme back my stuff."

"I'll think about it. Slave labor isn't very nice..." Sören cackled as Mark's glare intensified. "So you should, you know, maybe think about compensating those poor KISS dolls for all their years of performing non-stop."

Mark folded his arms. "And what would you propose as back pay, Lord Commander?"

Sören thought for a moment, stroking his beard, deciding he needed to go with something silly and random to go with the silly randomness of this journey so far. "Cheezits."

"...OK."

"And you should let them take breaks sometimes. No more slave labor."

"Sören, I can't even with you."

"You love it."

Mark rolled his eyes, but the twinkle in his eye and the slight quirk of his lips indicated he did, in fact, love it. "I thought it would be hard for you to top the ridiculousness of this afternoon."

"That was fun," Sören said, his face lighting up. "I think our respective students loved that."

Mark raised an eyebrow. "Karen's costume was a bit brazen, was it not?"

Sören's face burned. "It was just a costume."

Mark covered his face with his hands for a moment and he made a dying whale noise. Then he glared at Sören. "You know nothing. Seriously."

"I know that I have to be really careful -"

"Sören, I swear..." Mark looked out the window, and for a moment it seemed like he was looking not outside at the immediate neighborhood but at something far away. "I wish you would... just..."

"What? Just what?"

Mark gave a deep sigh. "Never mind." He patted Sören's shoulder.

Sören felt a little stung, and wanted to press it, wanted to know why Mark seemed frustrated with him all of a sudden, but then Mark pulled him into a tight, fierce hug. "I love you, little flame. Even if you don't see how lovable you are, you are very, very loved." Mark pressed a kiss to Sören's brow.

The stung feeling melted into a surge of love for Mark, his tenderness and compassion, being gentle with him when he needed it. Sören reached up to take Mark's face in his hands and gave him a little kiss, which deepened, lips parting, tongues swirling, teasing, both men groaning into the kiss.

Sören found himself pushing Mark against the wall then getting down on his knees, undoing Mark's breeches. Mark laughed, guiding them down.

"I did say trick or treat," Sören said.

"Yes, you did, little flame." Mark cupped Sören's chin in his hand as he got his cock out with the other, springing to hardness at the eager look in Sören's eyes.

"Oh, what a nice big lollipop." Sören took a lick at the head of Mark's cock, then his tongue slid down the length of Mark's shaft and back up again, teasing the slit.

Mark groaned, eyes narrowing, darkening, grabbing Sören's curls, and groaned louder as Sören gave a few more slow, deliberate licks before taking Mark's cock into his mouth, sucking slow and sweet, wanting Mark to see the worship in his eyes. The gratitude for the simple gift of Mark's love, which had made all the difference in his life.

chapter 14 | return to Under The Rose | return to index