What This Means

Summary: Follows Knowing When To Stop. Ives contacts Neil about a mission. Neil decides his partner doesn’t need to know and leaves on the mission, after lying to the Protagonist about where he’s going
Warning(s): Spanking; spoilers for the whole movie Tenet; AU; references to violence
Pairing: The Protagonist/Neil

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As Neil approached the other man, pulling his helmet on over his head, Ives nodded to him and then glanced back, over his shoulder, frowning slightly. “Where’s your partner?”

Neil settled on the rise above the burning opera house, glancing towards it and then at Ives. “He’s not coming. I didn’t think he needed to know about this.” He was feeling a bit disorientated, having gone through the Turnstile. But he noticed the black van and he noticed the familiar figure who was moving backwards, away, from it. He stood up, grabbing one of the guns Ives kept next to him.

“You can’t let him see you.” Ives looked up at Neil. “You can’t talk to him.”

Behind his helmet, Neil snorted. “It’s not like this is my first time doing this, Ives. I know what I’m doing.” He paused. “What intel do we have?”

“The opera house is going to be blown up,” Ives answered. “The reports I have indicate he’s going to be blown up. Someone from the future is trying to make it happen. Destroy Tenet before it can even begin.” He paused. “You know what that means.”

“The end of the world, because who will have the knowledge to stop it?” Neil nodded. “But you know that whatever happens here has already happened. At least as far as I understand things.”

“I know what you believe. But either way, this is the intel we’ve got.” Ives glanced towards the figures, running backwards towards the opera house, the flames beginning to get sucked back in. “Be careful anyway. I don’t want to be the one giving him the news that you won’t be coming back.”

“There’s nothing to worry about. He already told me where I would die. And as you saw…that didn’t happen. I’ll be fine.” The other version of his partner was inside the opera house and the explosion hadn’t happened yet. He began to run, heading into the building.

No matter how used he was to seeing people dying, sometimes in horrible ways, it was hard to see all of the unconscious people sitting in their seats and slumped on the floor and know that he had to let these people die. Know that he couldn’t do anything for them. No matter what he said to the man he loved about fate and things that had already happened…there were a lot of innocent people here who didn’t deserve to die.

His partner was being grabbed by another masked soldier. Someone sent from the future? Or just a normal enemy? Neil didn’t know. He didn’t care. He fired and watched the attacker slump to the floor. Let himself stare at the Protagonist for a split second, wondering what would happen if he spoke to the other man now. It was tempting…but what had happened had happened already. He turned and he jogged away. Knowing what he did about what was to come, he didn’t want to risk getting caught up in an inverted explosion.

He jogged back to his colleague and nodded to Ives. “It’s taken care of.”

“Good.” Ives stood and brushed himself off. “We’d better get back through the Turnstile. Before your partner comes through looking for you.”

“I told you. He doesn’t know that I’m here. I told him I was going for a job interview.” Neil shrugged. “By the time we get back through the Turnstile, enough time will have passed that I can return to him and he won’t think anything’s amiss.”

Ives held up his radio. “You didn’t lie to him very well, because he made his way to the base. I’ve sent instructions back for him to wait for us.”

Neil winced. “Well, he’s going to be angry with me,” he said ruefully. “You might be getting another eyeful of how he handles things, if I can’t convince him to discipline me in private.”

“Hmm.” Ives was silent as the two of them reached the Turnstile, held in position by the helicopter hovering. He then turned to look at Neil. “You’re far more fortunate than you might think so, Neil. He cares about you enough to stop you doing something that might put you in danger.” He shrugged. “I told you to bring him along. You chose not to. So if he punishes you for it, that’s something you’ve brought on yourself.” He turned and walked through the Turnstile.

“Thanks for that,” Neil muttered under his breath, before stepping through the Turnstile after Ives.

On the other side of the Turnstile, there was a moment of disorientation and then of suffocation before he tore his helmet and oxygen mask off, taking a big gulp of air and blinking several times to clear his vision.

The sound of his fellow soldiers permeated his consciousness, but Neil’s attention was drawn to the Protagonist, striding forward in his direction with a serious, nearly stern look on his face. He drew himself up and spoke quickly, not wanting Ives to bear any of his partner’s irritation. “It was my decision to lie to you. Ives didn’t tell me to leave you out of this. He told me to bring you in.”

The Protagonist paused, eyes moving over Neil’s body with obvious heat. It wasn’t clear whether the heat was from anger or desire; quite possibly a combination of both. He locked eyes with Neil and took a step forward. “What did I say would happen if you lied to me again?”

“That you’d spank me.” Neil’s response was steady. He’d expected this to happen. And Ives had witnessed him being punished by his partner, so what was the point in refusing to answer? Or asking to wait until they were in private?

The Protagonist’s voice crept towards stern as he asked, “And what did I say would happen if you did something that would put you in danger?”

Neil paused and frowned. His eyes tracked towards Ives and then back to the Protagonist’s face. “This wasn’t dangerous.”

His partner narrowed his eyes, glancing past Neil and towards the Turnstile. “It was you who saved me in the opera house at the start, wasn’t it? I didn’t put that together until I saw this.” He stepped forward and tapped the red token dangling from Neil’s pack. “I didn’t realise you were there right at the beginning for me.”

“It still wasn’t dangerous,” Neil protested softly.

“What if you’d been caught in the explosion?”

“I was inverted. I made sure I didn’t even enter the opera house until the flames were completely gone.” Neil didn’t raise his voice. He wasn’t arguing; at least, in his own mind, he wasn’t arguing. And if his partner truly believed he needed to be punished for endangering himself, he’d accept his sentence with good grace.

The Protagonist frowned and glanced towards Ives.

The other man nodded. “He got in when there was no danger from the explosion. Was in and out within a couple of minutes. No injuries. Not even a tear in his suit.”

The Protagonist looked at Neil and said, very quietly, “But you still lied to me.”

“I still lied to you,” Neil agreed. “I understand I shouldn’t have done that.” His hands moved to his own belt. He undid it and pulled it through the loops, then held it out to his partner.

Ives cleared his throat. “I’ve got an office here in the temporary base, if you want to have some privacy.”

Neil didn’t say anything, He just held his belt out, waiting for the Protagonist to make his decision. He knew his partner didn’t remember, as it had happened in his future, but there had been two very memorable occasions where his partner had punished him outside, where everyone walking by had been able to see. Of course, those specific occasions had been when Neil had acted dangerously and with little thought to his own safety.

The Protagonist took the belt from Neil and then turned to Ives and nodded. “Yes. I would like the use of your office.”

Neil let out a quiet breath as he followed his partner and Ives to the office. He didn’t speak until the three of them were inside the office, the door closed behind them, leaving them in relative privacy. He leaned against the desk and looked seriously at his partner. “I shouldn’t have lied to you. I know you don’t accept it and it’s one of the things that makes you seriously angry with me.”

“Then why did you do it?” he asked.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Ives spoke up, drawing both of their attention to him. He shrugged. “Your relationship is different now. You’re testing the boundaries, Neil. Pushing to see where you stand now that you’re with an earlier version of the man you were in.”

“That makes a lot of sense,” Neil admitted. He took a deep breath and straightened up, hands moving to his pants. He shoved them down and then hesitated, glancing towards his partner.

The Protagonist didn’t say anything, but he moved over to Neil’s side. Sitting down on the edge of the desk, he pulled Neil up and over his propped-up leg, settling him in place before tugging his underwear down as well.

Neil took a deep breath and stretched his hands out, gripping onto the far edge of the desk to steady himself. The silence was a bit unnerving. He was used to being scolded. Lectured. This version of his partner didn’t do that so much. It was a slight difference in the man he loved, but sometimes it was hard not to compare his relationship with the Protagonist now to his relationship with the Protagonist then.

A cool breeze wafted over Neil’s buttocks as his partner tugged his underwear down as well. He took a tighter grip on the far edge of the table as his own belt rested against the fullest part of his backside, then was lifted and brought down in a firm stripe that left a line of fire where it had landed.

Neil drew in his breath sharply and gripped the desk so tight, his knuckles turned white. The breath escaped him in a sharp gasp as a second line of fire was delivered almost on the same spot as the first; and he couldn’t help but whimper as the belt continued to fall, painting lines of fire all over his bottom and down to his thighs.

And then the belting started over from the top, covering skin that had already felt the sting of the belt once. Neil felt the hot burn of tears welling in his eyes and he made no attempt to stop them from falling. The punishment hurt and he didn’t try to pretend it didn’t.

Neil lost count of how many times the belt landed and fell on his stinging, aching bottom. It was enough that he could no longer feel the burn of the individual stripes; only the throbbing, pulsing ache that covered every inch of his bottom from the crest down to mid-thigh.

It hurt, like he was being branded by fire. His grip tightened on the far edge of the desk, because if he didn’t cling on, he knew he’d throw his hands back over his bottom to shield it.

By the time the belting paused, Neil couldn’t hold back his tears. He felt his partner’s hand on his backside and whimpered softly. Even that gentle touch made his bottom throb.

“You don’t lie to me.” The Protagonist’s voice was low. He gave light pats to Neil’s bottom, emphasising each word he spoke. “I don’t care what your reasons are. I don’t care if you think you’re in the right, or that you’re protecting me, or whatever other excuse you tell yourself. You don’t lie to me. Do you understand me?” His voice was serious, stern, and with the final words, the pats became firmer; not full fledged swats, but still painful enough.

“Yes!” Neil fought to get the words out through his tears. “I’ll try! I promise…!”

“Good.” He rubbed Neil’s back for a few moments and then pulled up his underwear before helping him to stand.

Neil straightened up and carefully pulled his pants back into place, wiping at his eyes. The Protagonist held his arms out and Neil quickly moved into the hug, wrapping his arms tightly around his partner and pressing in close.

It didn’t take long for the tears to die down, but Neil didn’t pull out of the embrace, even as he glanced apologetically towards Ives. “I think I made things difficult for you too. I’m sorry about that.”

“Consider it dealt with,” Ives answered. He walked towards the door. “Take as long as you need to calm down and settle. I’ll be briefing the soldiers.” He slipped out of the office, closing the door softly behind him.

Neil breathed in deep and cuddled in closer to his partner, closing his eyes and letting the other man’s scent comfort him. “I love you,” he whispered.

“I love you too.” The Protagonist pulled back enough to look into his eyes. “When I told you that the first time, why did it make you tear up?” he asked.

Neil took a deep breath and admitted, “Because you never used to say that to me. I knew it, but…sometimes, it’s nice to hear the words.”

His partner frowned. Leaning forward, he brushed his lips against Neil’s.

Neil responded, pressing deeper into the kiss, holding on tightly. He smiled when the Protagonist pulled back and let his head rest on the other man’s shoulder. “You make me feel good,” he murmured. “So very good.”

“Even when I punish you?”

“Well, that part of me doesn’t feel so good,” Neil allowed. “But the rest of me? Even when I’m in trouble, it feels good. Because I know you respond due to how you feel about me. And having someone care that much about me, enough that they’d step in when needed, gives me a huge sense of security.”

The Protagonist kissed him a bit more firmly, before saying, “What do you think about leaving and going home? So that we can spend the rest of the day together?”

“That sounds perfect.” Neil finally stepped back, smiling when his partner wrapped an arm around his waist and drew him against his side. He snuggled in close, enjoying the contact as they walked together towards the door.

The End