Wipeout

Second Wave: Rip

When it began to get light Karl got up and made coffee and waited for Viggo to wake up. Then he ate some cereal and waited some more. Viggo was on the sleeper in the living room. Karl felt weird about just watching him so he took a walk on the beach. The beach was beautiful, of course, in that way beaches are just before the sun is comes up. Even beaches that are covered with oil and dead birds still have the right to be beautiful in the gray mist. It must be a fucking law of nature.

When he washed the sand off his feet and came in again, Viggo was still sleeping. Karl sat on the floor by the sleeper and watched him for a while. His face looked sharper when he was still.

"Viggo? Hey Viggo."

"Mmm hmm."

"Hey, can I talk to you about something?"

Viggo's eyes opened. "What is it?"

"Ummmm... I'm fucking up, Viggo."

Viggo yawned. "What are you fucking up?"

"You said... " Hesaidsaid he understood enough. "I mean... it's someone I'm seeing. A dominatrix."

"Oh that." Viggo touched his wrist again. "The one with a fondness for metal cuffs."

"Yes. And the thing is, she wants to take pictures of me... like... cuffed."

"Is that something that excites you?"

"I...." Viggo was beginning to look at him in a way that made his stomach clench. "She says that they would be for her only, but I know what she would do. Eventually she would put them on the net... I know she wouldn't be able to resist that. If not now, sometime. Or she would sell them. It's not what I want."

"And you've told her no."

"I have. It's not a word she likes. She keeps asking."

"And you can't stop seeing her?\>
>

"Viggo... she... " Karl's throat closed.

Viggo reached out for him. His fingers found the back of Karl's neck.

"What does she do that you can't do without? Tell me."

Karl almost couldn't answer. "I like it when she hurts me." His voice was a bare whisper. "That's all I want." So much of the rest of it was bullshit... to be endured for that.

Viggo looked at him for a moment. "Come up here." He flipped back the bedcovers, and moved over to make room. Karl climbed in and lay on his back, covering his face with his hands. And then fuck if Viggo's hand wasn't on his stomach like it was no big deal.

"I want you to do something for me." Viggo's voice still sounded sleepy.

"What?"

"I want you to make a promise and make it your bond." Viggo paused, but it didn't seem to be a question. His hand had found its way under Karl's tee shirt and was soothing the tightness of his stomach and chest. "Swear to me you won't see her again."

"Viggo." Karl didn't know exactly what he'd expected. A lecture, maybe. Logic or pity. Not this. Not Viggo's fingers trailing across his nipple, circling, pinching... hard... just on the tip. "Christ!" Since when had he grown fingernails? It hurt like an acid. Karl breathed, felt his mind turning it into something else. Something that made him breathe faster. Karl searched for some bit of defiance, some part of himself that wouldn't roll over and die if Viggo asked him to.

"Is this all it takes to get intor ber bed?"

Viggo let go... went back to caressing Karl's stomach. "For you, yes. In any case, it's your bed." It was the same touch as before, but it felt a hundred times more sexual. "Give me your promise."

"I promise."

"Good. Now go to sleep. You look like crap."

"I know."

"It'll be alright. Go to sleep."

Oh sure, he'd drift right off, no problem. But Viggo yawned again, and his breathing slowed to a sleeping rhythm. Karl listened, and then he was gone.