Most of his friends seemed fully aware of his ridiculous feelings for Mat. In fact, Mat was about the only one who was oblivious.
River had been been in love with his best friend for most of the three years he'd known him. But Mateo was bright and f...
A/N: some sensation play with Xander and River - light reminder that all this takes place before Xander is with Tim, nothing shady going on. Heads up that River is voluntarily taken out of his busy head, so there are no verbal consents happening with the different acts, but they are all aspects River has previously expressed interest in.
Living with Mat was nothing like as tense as River had feared it could be. He was out at rehearsals most afternoons and late into the evening, often going out with his cast mates afterward to unwind. If River wished Mat would come home to unwind, he wasn't going to say anything about it.
Then River himself was out several evenings early in the week playing guitar at the club, and several other evenings later in the week for a different kind of playing. During the day, he was focused on compositions, some requested, some speculatively produced in the hope it would make him more contacts. From the outside it may have looked like he spent his days tinkering on the high-end keyboard Mat had bought him as a welcome present, but it was draining to have to work to the requirements of others, and to network so heavily, and River needed the release the club brought.
Master Xander had left him a message asking for a scene, so River prepared himself fully, before debating on a very sexy gladiator-style kilt that one of the Doms had bought him in the hope he'd agree to a contract. He hadn't, of course, but the man had taken it extremely well – he had to, those were the rules, after all – and River knew there'd be no issue in wearing it. In the end, though, he decided to save it for the Halloween idea it'd given him, and instead slunk into an elasticated harness with multiple bands across his chest and arms, with matching bands for his thighs.
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He knew Xander would love it, though he did pull on loose-fitting soccer shorts in a slinky black fabric, that should neither have been sexy nor have gone with the harnesses but totally did. River had found himself increasingly drawn to dressing up for his nights at the club, beyond the relatively simple leather shorts and combat boots a lot of the other subs stuck with. Maybe some of Mat's drama was rubbing off on him.
He was just throwing on a loose t-shirt that he'd leave in his locker at the club when the door went.
"You're home early," he said to Mat, as he shoved make up into his bag, checking the time.
"Yeah, they were planning on going clubbing. Will be the last time before the run's over, probably. Didn't feel like it."
"You didn't? You haven't been clubbing for ages. Think of all the sweet twinks and pretty co-eds missing out on your chat up lines."
River laughed as he wrapped his arms around Mat's shoulders, surprised when Mat gently pushed him away, going to the kitchen and putting the island counter between them.
"Didn't feel like it," Mat repeated, turning to pull orange juice from the fridge.
River paused. He needed to leave if he wasn't going to be late for Master Xander – the man hadn't had need to punish him yet, but based on what he was into River didn't want to do anything intentional to find out what he'd do – but Mat was more important.
