(break for tonight bc theres no drafts here 🙃)

"Quite," he says and goes to his usual machine. Wriothesley is already on one, ready to join in on the machinery treck (and to adjust Neuvillette's resistance, he is a PT after all).

Splashing his face with cold water doesn't help as much as he wishes, but he cannot stall any longer. He takes his water bottle and goes to join his PT for warmup.

"News alright with you?" Wriothesley asks, remote in hand. He needn't ask, but Neuvillette appreciates it all the same.

Only behind his locked apartment door would he allow himself to listen to the dangerous whispers of the snake, touching himself with Wriothesley's name on his tongue, that wonderful body burning before his mind's eye.

But not yet, he needed to shove the snake into its cage once more.

betray him and those around him at any moment. He kept it hidden away in the dark, satisfied with scraps he'd allow to quench the hunger. A glance here, a brush of fingers there, a deep breath of the aroma of sweat when he could be discreet. The serpent would scream for more, ignored.

His attraction to Wriothesley had been instant from their first meeting. Even before their hands shook in greeting Neuvillette was sweating with unfamiliar warmth, something dormant rousing from the depths of his soul for the first time. He called it a snake, an ambush predator ready to

Slightly lightheaded, Neuvillette fled into the changing room, throwing his things into a locker and slamming the door shut. The violent actions served to ebb the sudden rush of adrenaline he felt, giving him a chance to collect himself before he became a brute.

Not just any patches either, oh no. Scent blockers. Two vertically strips from black baby hairs, under the black leather collar to the hem of the t-shirt the man wore.

The serpent's fangs extended inside Neuvillette, eager to sink into what was so obviously hidden from sight.

As a PT Wriothesley had a gorgeous body and Neuvillette wound himself unable to resist the way his eyes /needed/ to rake over those defined lines and plump muscles. And while his glutes were usually the main focus, something else caught Neuvillette's attention today.

Patches.

"No need, my car was warm," it stands in a heated garage after all, not that Neuvillette needed to brag about that, "let us begin right away."

"Alright, put your stuff away and meet me at the crosstrainers,"Wriothesley said casually and walked in that direction, unaware of purple eyes following.

It was a little inside joke of theirs, almost too insignificant to remember how it started yet here he was feeling his heart flutter at the thought that this was something only the two of them shared.

"Do you want to take a shower to warm up before we start?"

Not that Neuvillette had really wanted that, but a hundred years of loneliness would be better than Wriothesley getting hurt in the precarious weather.

Wriothesley shook his head in amusement, "you are quite unique, Monsieur."

"Thank you," Neuvillette replied automatically.

that he'd have a chance to meet the one he so desperately wished to see.

"I could say the same to you, Wriothesley," Neuvillette unzipped his raincoat, revealing a second layer of his heavy wool coat, "I would have suggested we postpone if you did not live some stairs up."

However it wasn't mere leisure, it was a /need/. Not the same as half a year ago when he came with stiff hips and an aching back, but a need to soothe his instincts, to satisfy the hissing serpent deep in his soul. The holidays were fast approaching and this would be the last time in weeks

"Oh good evening, Monsieur. I was expecting you'd heed the warning and not go out in the poor weather."

Usually Neuvillette wouldn't. He was a rule follower and risk averse; driving through a snowstorm for leisure activity was something he'd normally decide against.