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It was custom at this point.
Pierrot and Harlequin fight, Jester gets mad and as a punishment he keeps Pierrot away from you, confined at the circus, meanwhile Harlequin is dropped at your place, usually still a little bloody.
“I trust you know what to do at this point, Y/N.” Jester’s voice lets out a veil of tiredness inside his usual commanding tone. It’s almost midnight and you can well guess both of you’d rather be sleeping than deal with this situation. Again.
But yes, it wasn’t the first time it happened and it sure won’t be the last, so you just sighed seeing the two clowns on your porch.
“Sure. I’ll return him tomorrow morning on my way to work.” You reply, making some space so the sulking green and black form can enter. He winches a little, you notice.
“Hm. I’ll swing by for a cappuccino. I already know I will need it.”
Jester’s humor is dry, but you chuckle at it as you wish him a good night before closing the door.
You shiver in your pyjama as the cold February air finally stops clawing at your body.
“I just bought new bandaids yesterday, lucky you huh?” You yawn, walking to the bathroom.
“Useless.” Harlequin replies grumpily.
“I don’t care if you all heal super fast, you are still getting at least disinfected.” You stand your ground.
A grumpy growl is your sole answer.
You gather the bottle of disinfectant, cotton dabs, gauzes as well as your basic sewing kit before reappearing in the living room. He is sitting on the sofa without his cape on. You notice immediately a series of slashes running all over his back, the now dried red blood clashing with the green of his outfit. He is examining his arms as you round the corner, inspecting the entity of the damage on his sleeves, tongue clicking in annoyance.
“I need to buy some more black and green threads, but I think there should be enough to decently close those cuts.” You put all the stuff on the coffee table in front of him.
“I’m going back to bed to finish reading. If you need something, just ask.”
“Will do, dear. Go back to bed.” He reaches for the sewing kit winching again at the motion, but pushing through it.
Not wanting to pry further, you turn to go back to your bedroom, flicking one of the bells of his jester hat on your way. A thing you did every time you were around him.
On your pillow your phone lays unlocked, still on the page of this graphic novel you have been binging: a lonely girl finding herself in a domestic life with a powerful mage whose face… was an animal skull. You liked this kind of stuff, as a monster appreciator, but it was the soft, romantic vibes that got you hooked.
It was kind of ironic how life got to sneak into your life not one, but five actual non-human creatures, two of which harbored romantic feelings for you.
They knew you knew. They also learned that you were worthy of their trust. It took you some time, lots of scares and even more coffees, but eventually they learned that you were indeed pretty chill and not as problematic as they thought you were initially.
You still had a lot to prove to them to safely proclaim they are comfortable with you, but you could say that steps forward were made. Even just having Jester trusting you with the green clown -because leaving Pierrot with you for beating up Harlequin would be too much of a reward for the red clad clown- was something you initially were surprised to hear. Now it became a habit whenever the violet ringmaster just had enough of their quarrels and wanted to read in peace. You didn’t blame him at all, in fact you understood him way too well.
Suddenly your phone disappeared, snatched from your hands without you noticing until your hands didn’t feel the familiar weight of the rectangular object.
“What are you reading, dear?” A familiar low voice came from beside you. You jumped up, trying to catch the green thief as he elegantly avoided each and every swing of your grabby hands while scrolling the pages you were reading.
“You grinch! You are gonna mess up my bookmark!” You tried to jump at him, but he avoided once again with a side step. Luckily for you, you managed to not land on the tv.
“Hmmm hmmm~ My my dear, what a peculiar character you have in this story. A little too similar to Pierrot, but these horns sure fit me more~”
“How should I know!? I have never seen them! And leave Elias alone, he’s a sweetheart!”
“Oh my, so defensive of a fictional character, I might get jealous.” He handed you back your phone with his usual elegant bow. You snatched away your precious device from his bright green claws, stashing it in your pyjama pants pocket.
“Yeah yeah, sure, whatever. Are you done patching yourself up? You had a pretty nasty gash on your back.” You ask him, worried about what you saw earlier.
“Ah, that. Yeah that will take at least the whole night to heal. In fact…” he stepped closer to your bed, patting the messed up sheets you were laying on before. “I was wondering if we could share. I need to sleep without laying on my back, but the couch is terribly uncomfortable, so I thought your big, spacious bed could fit both of us. A win-win situation.”
“We are not doing anything.” You stated, glaring at him.
“Who said we will? But if you are offering~”
“Pipe down, Harley, you are horribly wounded, remember?”
“Then we’re not doing anything, dear.” You stare at him, holding his half lidded gaze in a staring contest, ultimately taking his word for good. You circle your bed and plop back on it.
“Take off your bloodied clothes, I just changed the sheets.”
“Freaky~” he winks at you.
“That or you sleep on the carpet. Pick your poison, green boy.” You sigh, taking back your phone and resuming your reading. He did mess up your bookmark…
You ignored him as he got rid of his green and black jacket thing. You tried even harder to ignore him as he crawled on the bed, hovering over you on his hands and knees. From your point of view it looked like your phone had a silly green and black jester hat covered in hearts. You snorted, patting your chest in invitation before focusing back on your novel.
Raising a brow to your gesture, you felt him slowly lowering on your body, getting himself comfortable. You appreciated his effort in trying not to just crush you under his weight.
He crossed his arms over your ribcage, careful in not pushing too much or rest over sensitive points.
Once settled down, he kept staring at you in silence, studying your expressions as you were reading, secretly reveling in your steady breathing, lulled by the raising and falling of your chest.
Minutes passed by as the both of you laid in unusual, but comfortable silence. A nice contrast from the daytime chattering, where whenever you two were together it was a constant of teasing and talking.
He felt at ease with you, still adjusting to the new sensations that you presence alone made flourish in his heart. You felt like a long overdue dose of balm coating his old wounded soul. It stung at first, finding himself reluctantly exposed to this strange warmth, but soon the sensation enveloped him and he started realizing that maybe these feelings and sensations you blossomed inside his thorn-filled heart weren't so bad after all. Maybe he could finally lay down his walls for once. Trust for him was something almost utopic, but you were slowly making him believe in it again.
“I can show you.” He mumbled out of the blue, but as focused on your novel as you were you almost missed it.
“Uh?” You turned your attention to him, finding him looking away a second too late. His crossed arms muffled his words.
“My horns. You said you never saw them. Want to?” His emerald eyes fell on your face once again. His usually green slits were now two circles in the middle of a rich black darkness staring at you, bare and vulnerable.
“Really? I mean I’d love to, but I don’t want you to feel pressured in exposing yourself to me.” You offered him a way out, closing your phone and setting it aside.
His gaze moved away from yours, contemplating your offer, then he lifted himself off of you, straddling your lap as he sat on his calves.
You propped yourself up as well, fixing the pillows on your back so you can sit more comfortably.
He lifted his hands, then froze, still unsure if this was the right thing to do. His eyes changed back to slits for just a second before he closed them shut and gently dragged his fingers under his black curls. The bells hanging at the end of the tips jiggled in protest as he lift up the garment and slowly, with a long exhale, he removed the piece of his costume.
Your eyes were wide in admiration as he dared to reopen his own eyes. The primeval fear deep inside him screaming at him that this was wrong suddenly disappeared once he saw the sparkles shining in your pupils as you looked at his now bare horns.
“So cool!” You muttered in awe, so engrossed by the sight that you missed the rare blush blossoming on Harlequin’s face.
“I-it’s not that big deal…” He tried to play it cool, shrugging it off.
“To you maybe. To me they are absolutely stunning!” You reply in a heartbit, no hesitation. He bit his lip at your blunt honesty, sharp teeth grounding him as he resisted shying away from your attention.
He slowly lowers himself back over you, moving cautiously like any wrong movement might scare you out of your stupor. He cannot help but feel a bit of fear in amidst of all the pride you had swelling in his chest. So when he hears your next question he had to choke back a gasp.
“Can I touch them?”
Were you for real?
“I- …uh… gently.”
He flinched for a moment as he felt your fingers tracing the top ridge, so gentle it felt like a the tickle of a butterfly’s fluttering wings.
Closing his eyes once again, he lowered his head on your chest, submitting to your touch as his body nestled with yours, adapting so you were most comfortable.
“They are rough, but not in a bad way.” You stated, tracing your fingers on the border where the horn curled on itself before sticking outside. You felt him shudder against you as you moved.
“Do you feel it when I touch them?” You ask him, innocent curiosity in your tone.
He let out a low, wobbly groan as he nodded. You got alarmed by this, fearing you pushed him too far, demanded too much from him.
“Is this too much?”
“NO!”
He jumped up, facing you as soon as he didn’t feel the ghost touch of your fingers anymore. His green eyes were desperate, wide, shining.
You cupped his masked cheek tenderly, swiping your thumb over the green triangle panited under his eye.
“Just making sure.” You smiled at him warmly.
“But if it will ever be too much, please tell me and I’ll stop.” You added sternly. You wanted to make sure he always had a way out. Boundaries were sacred.
You placed a kiss on his forehead, a loose curly strand of hair tickling your nose, then your hands slowly raked through his silky black waves, tracing his scalp until your fingertips registered the rough edge of the horns base.
His hands, that until this moment gripped your sheets at your sides, finally relaxed and instead snaked to circle your form, resting comfortably on your hips and holding you in a tight embrace.
His expression softened as you held his gaze, infusing in your mute conversation all the love and appreciation you could possibly convey.
To say that he melt the longer you touched him would be a simple statement.
You caught a fluttering of eyelids and a poorly restrained moan as you started drawing circles with your thumbs at the base of his horns. His masked face fell on your chest, snuggling against it. His black curls splayed all over you, moving like a velvety dark sea as you moved your hands underneath them.
“Feels good?” You ask in a whisper, chuckling at his cute reactions.
“Mmmngh~”
Yeah, he was definitely enjoying this. Who knew the great green-clad seductor with a silver tongue would absolutely melt under your hands rubbing his horns.
His reactions spurred you to go bolder, raking your fingers all over the ridged lengths, pressing into the hard cheratin with your fingertips from the base up to the bright green pointy tip.
The motion resulted in him wriggling all over you. A deep sigh escaped from him, released in a throaty moan muffled by your clothes.
You chuckled, cooing at him, whispering lovely praises at how good he was, how he deserved this, how lovely his reactions were. Every word accompanied by a gentle caressing on his horns, appreciating each curve, each dip, each lovely ridge of the unveiled secret he graced you with tonight.
You kept going for a while, feeling his body relax against yours.
You could swear you even felt him start to purring at some point, the vibrations coursing through your body from his broad chest, laying on your thighs.
“So cute, Harlequin.” You cooed, unable to resist. He squirmed, squinting his eyes in protest, but not daring to deny himself the pleasure of your fingers united with the words coming from your heart.
“Pretty, pretty, pretty boy.” You really wanted to smother him right now.
“Mmmnh~ Keep it up and I might–” he opened one eye, revealing a bright heart shaped emerald pupil surrounded by bright red blushing cheeks aimed right at you.
“Ok ok, I got it.” You interjected before he could finish, blushing furiously. Not that you minded, but he does still have his back wounded...
He chuckled at your flustered reaction, coddling back on your lap, inhaling your sweet grounding scent, truly comfortable for the first time in a while.
He could feel your heartbeat.
So strong and calming.
So you.
Sleep eventually came to claim him under the premise of your fingers never stopping tracing patterns all over his horns.
The tiredness eventually caught up to you too, slowing your ministrations until you sighed into slumber with a hand holding him against you and the other laying nestled in his heart shaped curls.