cuttingremark | Salon buddies for @favoriteanalyst

Salon buddies for @favoriteanalyst

It started about a few months ago. Loki needed to relax after making the mistake of spending his winter holidays with his 'family' (which ended in another spectacular fight with Odin that resulted in one broken window and a lost snow globe Loki has thrown through said broken window), but his normal esthetician was booked solid for the next year and couldn't fit him in outside of his own pre-scheduled appointments no matter how much money he offered to throw at her. Wanda was the best in the city, probably the whole country, so it made sense, but there's still the issue of Loki needing something to relieve his tension so he didn't strangle his paralegals. The thought crossed his mind of setting up a tindr profile for a quick fuck, but he isn't in law school anymore and that was just a disaster waiting to happen.

Wanda saves him from making a bad decision by texting him the information for another technician she helped train. She claims he's new, but very talented, which he figures will do in a pinch. The link she sent him takes him to a rather outdated looking webpage for the "TVA Salon and Spa", an older establishment that apparently started in the 50's as a barber shop, but recent made the jump to full salon under new management. Despite the clunky UI, he's able to schedule an appointment for a basic manicure the very next day with the young man Wanda had told him about.

Casey is a nice young man. Not anywhere as skilled as Wanda, but his nails come out looking acceptable with their basic black polish and the hand massage he gets to begin with is utterly divine. He doesn't go into detail about his family problems, but the other gets the gist that the holidays were strained and is more than willing to play the oh-so-important role of listening ear even if his platitudes do ring a little hollow.

When the appointment is over, Casey hands him a card for a free deep conditioning treatment or 30 minute shoulder massage.

"These are really just for family and friends," he explains, "but you really seem like you need something to help you relax." He thinks about declining, but decides it isn't polite and takes the card anyway before handing the young man a $400 tip.

The stern looking woman at the front desk gives him a serious look as Casey nearly passes out in the background. "I'm going to be checking those to make sure they're real."

"But of course, I would expect nothing less." His usual winning smile does nothing to lighten her glare as she rings him out. She asks if he wants to use the card to schedule something today. Why not? It's a charming establishment and he has some free time coming up.

The masseuse the card is good for, Bee, is apparently booked solid for the next month, but the stylist, Mobius, just had a cancellation in the following week that fit perfectly in his schedule.

That appointment was the beginning of the end for Loki.

So in he walks six months later, having ditched his normal high-end stylist for a middle-aged man who looks like he works in a cubicle rather than a up-and-coming salon. It isn't his normally scheduled appointment, but his cases have been crazy and Thor just left for his "journey of self-discovery" aka backpacking across Europe, so all of Odin's attention is now on his youngest.

Joy.

If Loki were the sentimental type, he'd think it a shame that the lobby area of a salon is more comfortable for him than his childhood home.

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"Sure," Mobius says mildly. "Nice place." And then, because it's nagging at him: "Are there going to be orgies and gangbangs while we're a thing?"

"No," Loki says emphatically. "Not unless we discuss it at length beforehand and are both in agreement about what is going to happen, where, and with whom."

He takes Mobius' hand and gives it a squeeze. "I know this seems like a lot, but I promise I'm not some insatiable sex maniac. While I enjoy it, I don't need any of this-" he gestures to the lists resting side by side, "-to be happy."

He tries to squash down that traitorous voice in the back of his mind that says this was a bad idea, that Mobius won't trust him after this. That this is what finally made him realize that Loki isn't someone worth spending his time with.

Maybe if he holds his boyfriend a little tighter the voice will go away.

It's a bit similar to his asking if all this would be fine if he was a little vanilla boy. Same answer. Loki is happy to be with him, and everything else is secondary.

Which soothes something in him. He's enough. (He's enough for now, anyway.) They'll both stumble through this relationship thing together and figure it out as they go.

He kisses Loki on the cheek, returning the squeeze of hand with his own. "Okay. I believe you."

"And if you ever doubt or are uncomfortable with something, promise you'll tell me immediately?" To Loki, Mobius is more than enough. More than he could have ever hoped for.

That'll net him another kiss, to the worried furrow between Loki's brows. "I'll let you know whether it's by safeword or just bringing it up."

"Thank you." Loki leans into the kiss a bit, taking another moment to hold Mobius before standing up.

"Still up for that tour?"

"Definitely. Probably good to have a better idea of my way around if I'm going to be over with some kind of regular frequency."

...Which maybe begs some questions, so. "You're welcome to come to my place, obviously. It's just...not nearly so nice."

"I would love to see your place." Loki thinks if Mobius could have seen his dorm in law school, he wouldn't be nearly so concerned with how 'nice' his place is/isn't.

Once Mobius is up, Loki gestures around the room. "Obviously this is the main living space. Through here is the balcony..."

The condo is large without feeling overwhelming. Loki's design aesthetics mesh a sleek contemporary look with the gilded comfort of much more ostentatious design. The furniture is all dark, favoring blacks and dark greens. Even the jacuzzi on the balcony is a dark emerald.

The study, where Loki will occasionally work from home when the case allows, is lined with overstuffed bookshelves featuring titles of every genre.

His bedroom feels similar to the design of the hotel they stayed in in Asgard. A beautifully carved bedframe holding a king sized mattress with honest to god furs draped over top it. The attached bathroom is likewise just as luxurious, with a large shower big enough for three adults and a deep soaking tub right in the middle.

"And this," Loki says when they reach the only unopened door in the hallway, "is the 'guest' room."

It's decorated, much the same as the rest of the condo, in blacks and deep emerald. It might look like a normal guest room if it weren't for the x-shaped cross with attached cuffs, spanking bench, and green leather sex swing hanging from the ceiling.

"For a very specific type of 'guest.' Obviously."

Upper class and classy as a whole. Leaning, of course, toward Loki's preferred color. The jacuzzi is a nice touch, and they'll definitely be using that, as well as the nice large tub and shower. He raises his eyebrows about Loki's bed being draped with furs, but to each their own? It's a quirk.

Naturally, it's the "guest room" that's saved for last for all the right reasons.

"Obviously," he echoes. "Not sure why I didn't think you'd have a sex dungeon in here, but I didn't. So...no hanky panky in your bedroom, huh?"

"Excuse you, this is not a dungeon." Loki's smirk says that he isn't at all offended. "This is a sex room. And no, I am absolutely fine with 'hanky panky' happening in the bedroom. This is mostly for the specialized furniture and atmosphere."

He takes a seat on the dark curved lounge, watching Mobius carefully.

"Again, we never have to use this room if you don't want to, but I did want to at least show you. Do you have any...questions? About the pieces, their functions, perhaps a demonstration..."

"Guess it would be easier to have a place with all the gear set up instead of setting it up and taking it down in the bedroom proper every time."

Does he have questions, boy does he ever, but let's just start with actually pertinent ones.

"Well. I'm definitely seeing a bunch of places to get strapped to." Light and heavy bondage, check. "Or hang from." Suspension, check. Points to the bench. "Or get medieval tortured with?" No he has no earthly fucking clue what the spanking bench is on sight. But it sure does look like something that came from medieval times.

"It's a spanking bench." Mobius should remember how much Loki enjoyed that, even without the lists. "It can be used for other things, obviously, but that's it's primary purpose."

Spanking and light pain, check. "I'll take your word for it. Not exactly an intuitive design." Which end?? goes to which end?? He motions to the closet. "May I?" Just to see what other goodies there are to work with. Presumably a whole range of toys.

"Of course." The closet is, of course, filled with all kinds of toys and tools. Everything is neatly organized and stored, both for ease of access and hygienic reasons. Silicon dildos are all packaged in their own silk bags to keep them lint and dust free, organized into little drawers. Floggers of all different sizes and materials hang on hooks on the back wall. There's clamps, gags, harnesses, neat bunches of roap of all materials.

He's had a while to collect, and it shows.

"I don't use it all regularly. Obviously. But it's nice to have options."

That's...impressive. Loki has certainly put a lot of time, effort, money, and thought into this whole thing. "Sex is really important to you." Safe, consensual sex, of course. Does Mobius seem very boring in comparison? He thinks he must.

He reaches out of curiosity for a riding crop, gives it an experimental swing.

"Bet you never get bored."

"You'd be surprised."

Loki stands and walks over to Mobius, pressing his chest to his boyfriend's back as he slides lithe arms around his waist.

"I don't think I've ever had as good a time as we did in that hotel room."

"Mmm," leaning back against Loki, "now that's a lie. I'm sure you've met people who indulged your every whim before."

"I have," Loki murmurs, lips against the shell of his ear, "but it still didn't compare to the bliss I felt laying there next to you."

"Tell me, what did you have planned for tonight? Before you saw that list?"

"Sweet of you to say, loverboy." He lifts the crop and strokes Loki's cheek with it. Given he knows exactly where his boyfriend's face is at right now.

"I was hoping to get you as thoroughly relaxed as possible after what sounded like a rough week. Rub your shoulders, maybe a nice hot shower or soak. And then see where we wanted to go from there."

Loki shivers at the touch of the leather to his cheek, groaning a bit at the mention of a bath and massage.

"I'm starting to think you don't know you're a dom because you've never heard of a 'soft dom.' Gods that sounds amazing."

"Well, you'd be right, because I didn't know there were terms for degrees of dom. We can get in that enormous tub of yours, I'll rub you up and down, maybe rub you off to boot, wash you up all nice and clean, and then, who knows."

"Lets discuss it as the tub fills. It takes a few minutes anyways." Loki hums, turning to press a quick kiss to Mobius' head. "Lead the way."

He sets the crop back where he got it but leaves the closet open. In case they need it later, after.

The bathroom is so fucking nice. And the tub, yes, quite large, and once he turns on the water and adjusts it to just the right temperature, it's clear they really will have time to let that fill up. He reaches for the top button of his shirt--and then stops. Turns to Loki.

"Do you want to undress me?"

"I would like that very much." Loki reaches forward and begins to slowly unbutton Mobius' shirt.

"Let's keep tonight simple. You tell me what to do, and I do it. I won't even give you a hard time this go around." He smirks, leaning forward to place a peck on his nose.

"Do you know about the stoplight system?"

"Red, yellow, green. You'll have to tell me what your safeword is sometime when we get to do anything complicated or heavy. But lights work for me."

He caresses Loki's face until the shirt comes off, letting it slide from his arms. "Mm, suppose I'll have to take time in the bath to think of what I want you to do, instead of doing all the...doing."

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