Changing The Future
Summary: Follows If I Can’t Trust You. The Protagonist acts to change things
Warning(s): Spanking (in front of an audience of one); spoilers for the whole of the movie Tenet; AU; some references to violence; sexual situations between two men
Pairing: The Protagonist/Neil
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He watched as Neil flashed one last cocky grin at him before turning to follow Ives. The other man was accepting his fate. Accepting that he was walking into his death. And he was expecting the Protagonist to just let him walk away?
He didn’t know how much the future had changed him. If he would reach a point where the collateral damage of Neil dying would be anything approaching acceptable. What he did know was that it wasn’t acceptable to him now. The memory of Neil’s soft, warm mouth on his own sparked in his mind and he was moving, leaping into action, before he could think about what he was going to do.
Neil hadn’t gone more than a few steps with Ives before the Protagonist caught up with him. He spun the other man to face him; pressed his lips hard, almost savagely, to Neil’s. It wasn’t comforting or gentle. He didn’t get the angle quite right and their teeth clashed before he adjusted and then bit Neil’s upper lip; not hard enough to draw blood, but firm enough to be possessive. In control.
When he finally pulled back, Neil’s eyes were glazed, his cheeks flushed, his lips swollen. “You’ve never kissed me like that before.” His voice was hesitant. Uncertain. Not quite as suave and confident as it normally was.
“I’m changing the rules,” the Protagonist informed him. “I’m changing the game. I don’t know who you knew in the past, who you met in my future, but I’m not going to just step back and let you walk right into your own death.”
Neil shook his head. “Who knows what you’ll change if you won’t allow today to play out like it’s supposed to? Sator could win. You need to let me go.”
“Like hell.” The Protagonist didn’t so much as glance at Ives. He knew the other man was standing there, but most of his attention was taken up by Neil. And if he wasn’t getting through to Neil with his words, then he was going to try a different way.
When he reached to grab Neil’s shoulder, the other man didn’t move. Maybe he expected an embrace; another savage kiss. Instead, the Protagonist propped his foot on the side of the vehicle and hauled an unresisting Neil across his propped up leg.
Ives’ expression was unreadable, but he didn’t turn round or even glance away as the Protagonist lifted his hand and brought it down in a firm smack right in the center of Neil’s bottom.
The other man’s body jerked and the Protagonist smacked him again and again. He covered every inch of Neil’s bottom, from the crest down to mid-thigh, before covering skin that he’d already smacked. After three full circuits of smacks, he paused and rested his hand on Neil’s bottom, speaking in a voice that sounded harsh due to the fear threatening to choke him. “You’re not going back in there without me.”
“You can’t save me.” Neil’s voice was certain. He didn’t try to struggle free; staying in place with one hand grasped around the Protagonist’s ankle for balance. His other hand was braced on the side of the vehicle. “But if you need to do this, I’m not going to stop you. You will let me go. We both know there’s no other way.”
He hadn’t known the body had belonged to Neil when the inverted soldier had saved him, but had regretted the necessity anyway. Now that he knew it did belong to Neil…he wasn’t going to let the man go. Not without him. He looked at Ives.
Ives was frowning, eyes fixed on Neil and the other man’s position. He then raised his eyes to the Protagonist’s face. “There’s no evidence to say you can’t change his future. If you go with him, you’ll probably be able to save him.”
“And if you’re wrong, Sator will kill himself and destroy the whole world,” Neil protested. “You can’t put one life ahead of the whole world. I’ve resigned myself to this. Why can’t you?”
“You’re a coward.” The Protagonist spoke bluntly, even as he hooked his fingers into the waistband of Neil’s pants and pulled them and his underwear down. He could see some pink marks already on the pale backside, but didn’t let that deter him as he began smacking the bare skin, turning Neil’s entire bottom a uniform shade of pink before he began to turn it darker.
“How?” Neil’s breath hitched on the word and his grip tightened on the Protagonist’s ankle.
“It’s easy for you to say you’ll sacrifice yourself.” His hand didn’t pause in the hard, steady smacks. Now, every time he brought his hand down, he could feel the heat radiating from Neil’s bottom and the other man was beginning to shift in response to the spanking. “You aren’t the one who’ll need to deal with the fallout. Who will need to deal with the grief of losing someone you care so much about.”
Neil’s squirming eased abruptly and he twisted his head round to stare at the Protagonist. His eyes were already damp and shiny with tears. “You’re saying you care about me?”
The question startled a laugh out of him. Not that there was any humour in it. “The first time I tanned you, you kissed me. You can’t tell me you aren’t aware I have feelings for you. And I’m not going to lose you because you’ve made up your mind you’re going on a mission without me.”
“I just don’t want this mission to fail!” Neil protested. “You’ve worked so hard on it!”
“Maybe I have,” the Protagonist agreed. “Maybe in the future, I’ll consider losing my partner an acceptable cost. But not now. Not today. Who I am in the future isn’t dictating my actions now, even if he has been dictating yours.” He lowered his leg, grasping Neil by the shoulders and pressing him against the vehicle. “Bend over the hood,” he ordered.
Neil took a deep breath and bent over, reaching out to grasp onto the far edge of the car.
The Protagonist placed a hand on Neil’s back and undid his own belt. He doubled it over in one hand and brought it down firmly against the bare backside, leaving a wide red mark and eliciting a sharp cry.
Six stripes from the belt left six vivid red marks against Neil’s skin and he was shifting from one foot to the other, crying quietly.
The Protagonist placed a hand on Neil’s lower back and spoke in a quiet voice. “Are you going to give in and let me come with you?”
Neil’s breath hitched and he whispered, through his tears, “I can’t. I can’t risk things changing and our world being destroyed just because I don’t want to be separated from you.”
“Wrong answer.” He delivered six more stripes and paused once more, listening to the increased sobs. “Are you ready to agree?”
“I can’t.”
The Protagonist rested the belt against Neil’s bottom and heard the other man’s breath hitch in a sob. But he didn’t immediately start bringing it down again. The other man’s bottom was bright red now, with a few spots that might bruise later. And he didn’t want to break Neil. All he wanted was to save his life. “I’m not saying we just go in and wing it, Neil. We’ll go in and make sure the door’s unlocked. Make sure nothing changes apart from you living. That’s all we’re going to do.”
Neil’s whole body slumped and he buried his face in his arms. When the Protagonist wrapped his arms around him, Neil responded, clinging to him in a strong grip.
The tears took longer to die down than they had the first time, but eventually, Neil was only sniffling quietly. He still clung on, but there was no longer a sense of desperation in his touch. Eventually, he lifted his head and let his lips brush against the Protagonist’s.
This kiss was light, gentle, almost tentative and the Protagonist could taste the salt of Neil’s tears on his lips. He kissed back, pressing more firmly, and then reached round to pull the clothing back into place.
Neil whimpered as the clothing settled in place over his bottom, but didn’t voice a protest. Instead, he moved back into the Protagonist’s arms, giving him one last hug and kiss on his lips before rubbing his bottom and then turning back to Ives.
“We ready to go now?” Ives asked, not showing any obvious reaction to what he’d just seen.
The Protagonist wrapped his arm around Neil’s waist, the movement possessive, as he nodded to Ives. “We’ll plan on the way.”
The End