nealuchi | you'll forget who I have been

Title: you'll forget who I have been
Fandom: Fate/Grand Order
Character(s): Dantes, Ritsuka
Pairing(s): Dantes/Ritsuka
Genre: Dark
Word Count: 1,275
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: Non-con, dub-con, somnophilia
Summary: It would be nice if Dantes had gained his power and influence from an unclaimed fortune on an uninhabited island. Unfortunately, that part of his story was a little embellished.
Notes:

chapter one Dantes has always found the ‘unclaimed fortune on an uninhabited island’ story to be a bit ridiculous.

Dumas had been right, though, when he said that his readers wouldn’t find him sympathetic if they knew what Authority he bargained with to gain the power and influence necessary for his revenge, and that the story of his life would suffer from its inclusion. So that was the version that passed into history.

If Dantes were a wishing man, he would have hoped that summoned as a Servant, the story where Edmond Dantes was strictly a human would take precedence over reality. But his curse persisted, and he was not lying to Ritsuka when he called himself a demon.

It’s not something he’s unused to managing, at this point. If anything, the only new hurdle is how his fellow Servants do not sleep, but there are enough human staff members at Chaldea that he can afford to feed off their mana at night without taking too much from any single person.

He is a being of hatred and revenge, without a hint of goodness, but he can still choose what kind of evil to be, and he finds the idea of killing an innocent this way distasteful.

Dantes does not take what he needs from Ritsuka. He finds the deepest sleepers in Chaldea and feeds from them, the only evidence of his visits the wetness on their thighs in the morning. No one is the wiser, and Dantes can sustain himself indefinitely this way.

And then he can’t. The number of living Chaldea members drops significantly and their living space becomes far more confined. Even if the Shadow Border were not under constant watch, the fact of the matter is that he could not feed on so few people without causing them to fall ill or perish entirely.

Ritsuka is, as in all things, an exception. The mana he drains would loop back into her as his Master… but he refuses to even consider it. She trusts him, tasks him with guarding her from nightmares despite how easily he could become a nightmare himself. He cannot betray her trust this way.

Besides, the young da Vinci would spot him immediately and have his neck. The only thing to do is to starve.

“Dantes,” Ritsuka says, peering down at him. “Are you okay?”

He could laugh, if he weren’t so tired. He can survive for a few months without feeding as long as he has a different supply of mana, but his strength is rapidly plummeting. Right now he’s not much stronger than Ritsuka herself.

“Just tired,” he lies. “The cold of Scandinavia doesn’t suit me well.”

She pats his shoulder, and even that chaste touch stirs a heat in him. “If you need to huddle up for warmth, I won’t tell anyone that the Count of Monte Cristo is a cuddler.”

“Hah! I believe I’ll pass.”

The Wandering Sea is a different kind of torture.

The surveillance there isn’t equipped to keep an eye on Servants. There are still too few humans to feed on, but Ritsuka has her own room now, and he could take what he needs from her without consequence.

But. But she trusts him.

Dantes knows, with the same certainty that he knows his own nature, that if he told Ritsuka frankly what he needs to regain his strength, she would offer her body to him. She’s not the kind of person to let her Servants suffer when she can do something about it.

He knows with the same certainty that she deserves better than to sacrifice her virginity out of a sense of obligation to him. He has seen the shape of her nightmares, and does not wish to join them.

So he can’t ask. But neither can he continue to waste away and become useless to protect her. With the mana debt he’s running, if he fed on anyone but her he would most certainly kill them even without meaning to. He could wait for a Lostbelt to have access to the already doomed, but with how weak he currently is she won’t summon him to a Lostbelt to begin with.

Her dreams tonight are heated ones that leave her skin flushed, and they call to him. She would never notice anything amiss - there is no better time than now.

Is it better to ask permission, knowing that she would grant it despite how painful the sacrifice was, or to take without her ever knowing? Surely the latter is the gentler option?

Dantes settles on the bed. She doesn’t stir at the shift in weight, nor at gloved hands spreading her legs apart. Her nightgown bunches at her hips.

She bites her lip when he presses inside her. There is resistance, as he knew there would be. Were she awake he would break it quickly, the sooner to get it over with for her, but instead he has to drag out the pain. He kisses her forehead in apology.

Eventually, her body gives in. Mana surges within him, his strength returning in waves as he moves. His thrusts are slow and deep, and she whimpers in pleasure.

He’s tempted to look at her dream, to see who she’s imagining in his place, but… no. He can allow her that privacy, at least.

Ritsuka is warm and tight, and he’s gone so long without that it doesn’t take much for him to spill inside her. She sighs when he pulls out, and starts to squirm when he licks her clean.

No evidence left. She didn’t stir once. The only sign anything happened is the guilt that hangs over Dantes like a shroud.

He brushes another kiss over her forehead, then slips out of her room.

(After he’s gone, her eyes flutter open.)

chapter two

“Cold again?” Ritsuka asks.

Dantes is reluctant to feed on his Master more than he has to. Knowing that his strength was required for the Chinese lostbelt and that far worse would have happened to Ritsuka if he had not done what he did does not soothe his heart much. He must have let himself slip for too long if she’s noticed him becoming weaker again.

“Something of that sort,” he says. “You needn’t concern yourself with it.”

She turns her head, staring at a point on the wall. “If you’d wake me up first this time,” she says, slowly, levelly, “I’d really appreciate it.”

“…What. What?” Dantes is aware that he is gaping, but: what?

“I can sleep through a lot of things, but not that.” It’s almost a huff.

“You could have stopped me.” Her Command Spells are unbreakable no matter his nature. “Why didn’t you stop me?”

Ritsuka finally turns back to look at him. Her face is carefully blank. “I’m a magus, even if I’m not a very good one. I learned about mana transfers before I knew what a condom was. You needed it, so it’s fine.”

Somehow this doesn’t make him feel much better about what he did.

“If you have to do that with someone anyway, I want it to be with me. And trying to pretend to be asleep was a pain.” She sighs heavily, and holds out her hand to him. “Come to bed, Dantes.”

“I am not that man,” he snaps. “I have not even been a human for far longer than you know.”

“You’re you,” she replies. “Are you going to fuck me or not?”

He does. He pins her to her bed and takes her hard and fast, and doesn’t kiss her once. That is the privilege of a lover, and he is merely a demon devouring her.