Otherside of the Game

Fandom: The Fantastic Four (2015)

Pairing: Victor/Nedra

Rating: NC-17.  I'll surprise myself if I can write anything with a rating lower than this.

Timeframe: A couple of days before Victor takes his fateful trip to Planet Zero

Disclaimer: Victor ain’t mine, but Nedra is.

Summary: Nedra is determined to keep away from Victor, but he is determined to explore their tenuous connection.  

A/N: Sometimes when I play in a fandom, I don't know how to leave it alone.  *shrugs*  Author problems.  Besides, Toby Kebbells is sexy as hell and I'm having a hard time not lusting after him. He's moved up into the Pantheon of Men Who Can Get It.

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1.  "I Like"  --Kut Klose

Nedra worked six to 11 four days at week at Baxter.  She preferred the later hours, when it was fewer people and she could work in relative quiet with the four or five members of her staff who thought and worked the way she did.  Nedra was able to get an enormous amount of work done because she didn’t do much talking and others knew to leave her alone.

She was running the mass spec while listening to music.  Ever since her encounter with Victor, she found herself listening to Nine Inch Nails’ ‘Closer’ many times throughout the day.  She couldn’t help it.  He had used the lyrics “I want to fuck you like an animal/I want to feel you from the inside,” and all she could think about was the line, “You bring me closer to God.”

Sometimes the weirdest things work their way in and then become impossible to dislodge.  ‘Closer’ was a perfect song for that night they shared.

Nedra stood up to stretch her back and drop 50 squats.  It was a way to work out and give her mind a break.  She was on 42 when she saw a figure standing outside of her lab.  She squinted and removed her earbuds. 

It was Victor, staring at her.  He had found her after all.

Nedra stood up and gazed at him, wondering if she should say something.  The last time she saw him was at one of the vending machines and he whispered in her ear that he wanted to have sex with her again.  Specifically, he had said that he wanted to lick her pussy.

The man was certainly good at it.  The memories of the many times he worshipped at her altar made her face burn.  She wondered if it showed.

He put a hand on the glass and Nedra focused.  She put her earbuds in and went back to work.  It would not do to engage him; not at all.  She was the only one in the lab that night; if she engaged him…or even worse, let him in, there would be no doubt in her mind that he would have found a way to do exactly that and she did not need that.

Wanting it, though, was another story.

Nedra did not know how long Victor remained at the glass and she didn’t want to.  She didn’t even want to know how he’d found her.  At her request, Franklin had her name removed from the registers, the walls, and the reports.  She required a certain level of anonymity so she could not figure out how he found her.

Nedra elected not to think about it and to continue to shove him into the furthest recesses of her mind.  It was hard because they had established a connection that night.  But she had to.  Victor was an unstable genius and while he was great at sex, there was nothing more to be had with him.  Nothing comparable to what she had with her boyfriend.

She spent the next hour at the mass spec, not looking at the glass; not looking at anything other than the results of the tests she was running.  When she finally stopped for another squat break, he was gone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A month later, she was at home.  It was a late Friday night and she was settled in on her giant couch with a Mystery Science Theater 3000 marathon, junk food and a bottle of good wine.  She was fresh from a hot bath, hair in two pigtails, and in her most comfortable sleep attire: a ratty pair of cutoff sweats and her oldest USMC T-shirt, shredded for sleep comfort. 

Her doorbell rang.  Nedra turned and looked at her door.  The last thing she expected was company, so she was suspicious.  Nedra went for the drawer nearest the door and pulled out her .380, making sure one was in the chamber.  She walked towards the door with the gun behind her back.

“Who is it?”  It was midnight, for Pete’s sake.

“Housekeeping.”

Nedra knew that voice.  She kept her gun in hand, however, and opened the door.  Victor stood there, dressed in black jeans, a hoodie, and a black jacket.  He was freshly shaven and looked absolutely delicious.  He was holding a dark blue velvet bag.  She closed her eyes and seventy different emotions crossed her face.  Victor read every one of them and smiled before she looked at him again.

Nedra brought the gun up and aimed at it him.  “What do you want?”

“And a hello to you too, Nedra.”  He eyed the gun. “That really necessary?”

“I told you I never wanted to see you again, Victor.”

“As you well know, I don’t agree with what you want.”

“Why are you here?  It’s midnight.”

“I want to see you.  You play hard to find and then hard to get at work.  What’s a man like me supposed to do?”

“Stay away!  You were supposed to leave it where we left it!”

“You left it there.  I didn’t.”

“Victor, does it even matter what I want?”

“You want what I want.  You don’t want to admit it; you have a need to keep that secret, but we both want the same thing.”

Nedra lowered the gun and sighed.  At the moment, she hated Franklin for sending her to recruit Victor in the first place.  “I told you why that would be a problem.”

Victor adjusted his stance, swinging the velvet bag over his shoulder.  “Your man’s in Kosovo right now, engaged in loss verification.  He left a couple of days ago.  He’ll be gone for the better part of a month.  You don’t live with him, and you’re not real big on having outside company other than your small circle of friends...um, Tracy, Holly, Shar, Reginald and Rick.  And they’re not currently available because all of you have demanding jobs and shit like that.”

Nedra aimed the .380 at him again and cocked it.  “How the fuck do you know that?”  But really, she wasn’t surprised.  The man was extremely resourceful.

He smiled at her.  “Aren’t you going to invite me in?”

“What’s in the bag, you demented Santa Claus?”

“You’ll find out when you let me in.”

“I’m going to need you to remove your boots before you come in.  My carpet’s eggshell.”

Without batting an eye, he bent down and untied his boots.  He took them off and handed them to her.  She dropped them on the inside of her door, groaned, and then stepped back from the door, uncocking the gun.  Victor entered casually, gazing at her with a look in his eye she immediately recognized as a hunger that had absolutely nothing to do with food.  She closed the door and locked it, and put the gun back in the drawer.  “What am I going to do about you?”

Victor turned to face her.  “I know things.  I have access to information.  Being rich allows that.  Since you want me to play Where’s Waldo at work, I decided to cheat.”

“You’re a stalker,” she said, incredulous.

“I want you,” he said.  “Simple as that.  You’re the one who’s making all this so tedious.”  He looked her over.  “By the way, you look good.”  She wore no bra and her nipples poked up like knobs on a dresser.  There was even a little camel toe tease.

Nedra walked past him, talking more to herself than him.  “All I wanted was to watch MST3K, get buzzed and fall asleep on the couch.”

“MST3K?  I’ll watch it with you.  We can get buzzed together, but I don’t think you’ll want to go right to sleep.”

“Victor, seriously…what do you want?  I told you why I wanted you to leave me alone and you don’t care about what I want at all, do you?”

“You said, and I quote, ‘I’d give you the time you require; I’d do every dirty, nasty thing you like.  I’d be your bad girl and proud to be so.  You’d have your own place in the Promised Land and I’d make sure Jon wouldn’t have access to it.’”

Nedra sat on her couch and glanced at the screen to see Joel and the ‘Bots crack-wising over some shit movie and gulped her wine.  “Fuck.”

“You said that, Nedra.  You did.  Your words.  And I don’t need to tell you the fantasies I had after you said it.  I thought of silk whips, candle wax, ball gags, handcuffs, lubricant and latex and you tied to my bed, us fucking like we were trying to make babies…”

“You took it out of context!”

“No I didn’t.”  He dropped the bag on the floor and then jumped the couch like a hurdle and sat beside her.  “They’re your words and I believed you.”

“You know good and fucking well I was talking about why WE couldn’t have anything! You asked me to describe what would go wrong if I allowed you into my life!”

“Like it or not, you did just that when you came a-knocking on my door, beautiful.”  He took her wine from her hand and sipped it.  “Good stuff.  Let’s drink.”  He gulped the rest and poured more.  Nedra had chips, dip, cookies and finger sandwiches laid out for snacking.  Victor grabbed one of the latter and popped it into his mouth.

Nedra watched him.  “Victor, you don’t know how to stay in your lane.” Clearly.

“The lane you gave me was this: Be my bad girl and enact every dirty, nasty, filthy thing that comes to either of our minds.  I want that so bad.  I can’t stop thinking about you and how real you are to me.  So yeah, maybe I’m a tad bit mad, but I’m that because of you.  I’m addicted to what you are, who you are and that magical place between your legs.  You’re a goddamn fool if you think I’m giving that up so easily.”

Nedra closed her eyes and took back her wine.  “And what about Jon?”

“What about him?  I keep telling you he has nothing to do with me.”

“What will you do when he comes back?”

Victor rolled his eyes.  “What will you do?  I dance to the tune you play, or have you forgotten that?”

Nedra stood up and glanced longingly at her giant-screen TV.  Crow was saying something silly and she pouted that she missed the reference.  She turned off the television set.

“You won’t leave, will you?”

“I drove an hour across town for you.  No, I’m not leaving.”

“I should shoot you in the dick and call the police, tell ‘em you trespassed.”

“Now why would you want to damage a thing you like, something that pleasures you in a way your man’s can’t?”

“God, you’re a fucktard.”

Victor ate a potato chip and changed tactics.  “I’ll do whatever you want, Nedra.  In bed, that is.  I’m not leaving.  I want your kisses; your hands and your mouth on me.  I want to take a shower with you and have you bathe me and I you.  I want all that sexy stuff we did when we weren’t having sex.  You do it with him, don’t you?”

“Of course.  Don’t be ridiculous.”

“Treat me like I’m him, then.”

Nedra cocked her head and side-eyed him so hard she felt a twinge in her neck.  “I’ve had my bath for tonight.  Too late, darling.”  She grabbed the bottle of wine and her glass and walked towards her bedroom.  He was so difficult and his level of assholism was hard to deal with at times.  But he wasn’t wrong.  She enjoyed all the fucking they did.  She enjoyed their diabolical banter and the way he manhandled her.  She was torn.

But she knew he’d follow her and couldn’t help but smile.  “You can’t be anywhere near me when Jon is here.  And when I say here, I mean in the city.”

She turned on the lights in her bedroom, which was far nicer than Victor’s.  She had a huge bathroom with a deep garden tub with Jacuzzi jets.  And after her encounter at Victor’s, Jon bought her a rainfall showerhead…after she mentioned how much she’d like to have one.

“Nice place.  Little too much for my taste, but you are a woman.”

Nedra faced him.  “I’m a woman you want bad enough to do stupid things for.”

He stared at her.  “You’re right about that.”

“So, what do we do?  Or maybe should I ask, have you taken a bath?  Cause you ain’t getting your dirty ass in my bed.”

“I know.  A clean big dick is required to enter the Promised Land.  That part’s taken care of.”

“Again, what do you want to do?  I’ve had a long day and I just want to relax.  I don’t feel like fucking.”  Then she thought she’d throw a wrench in his plans.  “My period’s about to start.”

Victor looked at her as if she were merely commenting on the weather.  Nedra sighed and turned on the TV.  “I’m going to bed.  I guess you’re welcome to join me, since your dumb ass ain’t leaving.”

“I thought we were going to snack in front of the TV and get drunk off that fabulous vintage.”

She turned and looked at him.  Nedra shrugged.  “Why not?  Go get the food.  I have the wine.”

Victor disappeared and Nedra pulled a short table away from the window and by the bed so he could put the snacks on it.  She set the bottle of wine and the glass down and it took moments for Victor to return with the snacks.  She directed him where to put the food.

Nedra removed the elastics that held her pigtails in place and fluffed her hair.  She started to twist it but he said, “Don’t.  Leave it free.”

She looked at him.  “I won’t be able to comb it tomorrow.”

“Please.”

Nedra’s eyes widened as she looked at the man across the room who was removing his jacket and hoodie as if he belonged in her bedroom.  She didn’t recall ever hearing him say that word before.

“Okay then.”

She got in bed and flicked to the channel running the MST3K marathon and poured more wine in her glass.  Fuck it.  She was going to keep to her master plan and Victor was going to adjust.  She didn’t watch him undress, but when he pulled back the covers, she saw that he was totally starkers.  And not limp.

“Where’s your T-shirt and boxers, or whatever the fuck you wear to bed?”

“This is it.  I sleep in the nude.  Problem?”

Nedra turned her attention back to the television set and tried to focus on the show.  She grabbed the plate of food and offered some to him.  He took another sandwich and settled in.  Nedra tried to ignore his washboard abs and hard dick and closed her eyes.  Then she heard the theme song to MST3K.  A new episode was starting and she ran down the Robot Roll Call like the diehard fan she was.

“Cambot, hey, Gypsy, hey, Tom Servo, hey, Croooooow!”

Victor watched her and couldn’t help but grin.  “You like this show?”

“Hell yes.  I got into it back in college.  I mean, we got a captive janitor and two wisecracking sarcastic robots riffing the hell out of Z-grade shit movies.  What’s not to love?  Crow’s my favorite.  Now are you going to watch or are you going to get on my nerves?”

“Pass that wine,” he said, and she did.

A little while later, Victor was laying on his side, his head perched in one hand, watching Nedra laugh her ass off.  She was definitely buzzing, but he wasn’t even remotely close to tipsy.  She turned and grinned at him and quoted a line from the episode, “Bitch, don’t you ever outdress me!”  Then she erupted into tipsy giggles and fell back into the myriad of pillows on her bed.

“Lightweight,” Victor said, but he was enjoying watching her laugh.  She was a geek and it was adorable.  This was a moment he was going to cherish.

“You better not EVER outdress me, Victor!” she cackled.  Then she turned and smiled at him.  “See why I like this show?  It’s got great lines!”

“Honestly, I like watching you watch it.  You’re a dork.”

She stared at him.  “Nerd, thank you very much.  And don’t you have something to geek out to, Mr. Mensa?  Life’s much better when you can geek the hell out.”

He chuckled.  “Not crappy shows like this.  I’m a gamer.”

Nedra punched him in the arm.  “This show is genius; you just don’t have any taste!  No wonder your life sucks.”  She giggled again, good and fuzzy from the wine.  Her tolerance was shit.

It took her a moment to realize Victor wasn’t laughing with her.  She turned and looked at him.  “Was that an insult?  If so, I didn’t mean to—”

Nedra felt his hand underneath her shirt, moving in slow circles.  He had large hands and they were warm.  “You said you wouldn’t—”

His voice was low.  “Nedra, I’ll die if I don’t kiss you,” he said, rolling her on top of him and cradling her cheeks.  “I’ll lose what sanity I have left if I don’t taste your lips right now.”

The laughter had gone clean out of her.  His hands were on her cheeks, then in her hair…and then she was kissing him.  Victor devoured her mouth, wrapping his arms around her body.  He was lost.  It took moments for Nedra to lose herself as well.  Victor craved her kisses.  She recalled how foreign it had been to him when she first did it and it took him no time at all to want and expect it from her.

In between kisses, he moaned, “You feel so good, Nedra.  So good.  I would drive all night for this…”

She broke the kiss and looked into his rich brown eyes.  “Victor, what’s really going on?”

“I need this,” he said.  “I need you.”  Then he kissed her again.  Nedra allowed it to go one because it was very pleasant and very satisfying.  Victor rolled so that she was underneath him.

He looked into her eyes.  “I want you to make love to me,” he said.  There was something in his voice, something just shy of desperation.

Nedra was confused.  Months had passed since that night and while she knew they were steadily working on the matter transporter, Victor didn’t spend all his time there.  “Haven’t you met a girl yet?  I told you there were plenty of women at Baxter who would throw a fuck into you if you so much as winked at them.  Quite sure there are plenty of women on the street who would throw so much pussy at you you’d need a catcher’s mitt.   You’re an asshole, but you're not unappealing.”

He claimed her mouth again while rubbing her spread thighs.  Nedra was grateful her cutoff shorts were of the snug variety; he’d have to pull them completely off if he expected a trip to the Promised Land.  Plus condoms.  

“I don’t want them.  I want you.  Make love to me.  Show me how it is between you and him.”

After receiving another kiss, she gazed at him.  “You’re not him.  It’s not the same.  There has to be a connection...and…”

“Don’t you think we have one of our own?”

She couldn’t deny it.  There was a pull between them; something he was more inclined to act on than she was…but it was there.

“We’re connected,” he said, smoothing her hair.  “Use that.  Show me how to please you.  Show me how to love you,” he said.

Nedra was trying not to gape at him.  He had actually said something significant.  “Tonight?”

“Whenever you want to, but I won’t leave until you do.  Right now I’m satisfied with holding you and kissing you.”

Nedra felt him pressed right up in her crotch.  “Are you sure?  You’re hard.”  Blessedly so.

“It doesn’t matter, “ he said, kissing her cheeks and forehead.  “It’s a state of being when I’m around you.”

“Turn on your side,” she said.  When he did, she pressed right up against him and asked him to put his hand under her shirt.

“Play with my breasts,” she said.  “Softly.”

He obeyed.  While he moved his hands slowly between her tits, she reached down and curled her fingers around his erection.

“Do we need oil?”

“No,” he breathed.  “It won’t take long…”

Nedra stroked him and brought his head closer so that she could kiss him.  The rumble in his throat was sexy as hell and she brought one of her legs up over his hips and to be surrounded in her warmth was enough to bring him to climax.  His breathing roughened and he sighed.

“Better?”

“You always get me off,” he said.

She kissed his nose.  “I’ll be right back.  Go to sleep.”

Nedra washed her hands and entered the bedroom to see that Victor was indeed, asleep.  She put away the food and straightened up before getting back into bed.  She curled next to him and felt a warm sense of peace when he put an arm around her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next morning, Victor woke up alone.  He scratched his head in confusion but then took a deep breath.  Smells were coming from the kitchen and his eyes widened.  He got up and went to take a leak and wash his face.  Then he pulled on his shorts and wandered into Nedra’s kitchen to see her…cooking.

She was cooking.

“Hungry?”

Victor stared at her as if he’d been hit over the head.  He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had a home cooked meal.

“Sit down at the table.  Pancakes, sausage, eggs.  Juice is on the table, but you’re serving yourself.  A maid I’m not.”

She brought out a platter of hot food and set it in the center of the table.  “I figured you needed something with more substance than Yang’s.  Not the best diet, all that MSG.  Eat,” she prodded.

Nedra sat next to him and speared three pancakes and some sausage and eggs.  She spared Victor a glance before tearing into her food.  It took him a moment to take in everything that was happening and then he began to eat.

“I know what you want, Victor.  I’ll give it to you.  You need it and I want you to have it.  Who knows, right?”

Victor spoke around a mouthful of pancakes.  “This is good.”

“Calories always are.  Eat until you’re full, and then you’ll help me clean the kitchen.”

Victor devoured most of the food and covered his mouth when he uttered a belch like a gunshot.  Nedra grinned at him.  “Good, wasn’t it?”

“It’s nice,” he said.

He helped her clear the table and instead of cleaning the kitchen, she took him by the hand and led him back to the bedroom.

“Where are we going?”

“Let’s take a bath.”

Nedra began running water in her enormous tub.  Victor stood behind her, rubbing her ass.  “This looks like a swimming pool.”

She turned and gave him a sultry glance.  “I like things deep.”

Victor gripped her ass.  They were both thinking of the Erotic V.  “I know.”

She grabbed a bottle of bubble bath and dumped a good third of the bottle in and soon the tub was filled with bubbles.  Nedra went to the vanity and used a headband to pull her hair back so that it wouldn’t get wet.  Then, looking at Victor, she removed her clothing.  He stared at her longingly, unable to find the right words to express what he was feeling.

Nedra turned the water off and slipped into the tub.  “Come in.  The water may be a bit too warm for you, but you’re man enough, right?”

Victor came out of his shorts and got in, wincing, but not backing down.  Nedra put her legs on top of his.

“Usually when I do this, I do it in the evenings and light candles and play music.  Like I did last night.  But now we got morning light and we don’t need music because we should talk, don’t you think?”

Victor relaxed, leaning back.  “You said you knew what I wanted.”

“Correct me if I’m wrong.  You’re working on two levels here: the sex and then the intimacy.  The sex is what you tell yourself to justify why you’re stalking me, but the intimacy is the real reason.  You alluded to it last night.  What I think is that your personality is so loud and so obnoxious that it dominates everything and drowns out the quiet things you need.  You are a man who hasn’t had any care in years and the walls you’ve built keep people away.  But you need to practice self-care, Victor.  Not doing hardens you and makes you an asshole who's hard to like.”

“So what you mean is that I need to take care of myself.”

“When I came to your house, you were holed up in that shitty ass dump, all contact cut off, eating garbage from a fast food restaurant.  You hadn’t bothered to keep yourself together and your only outlet was the Internet.  Human contact is important.  You’re no dummy; you know this.  You responded to me in more ways than one.”

“You’re not wrong,” he said.

“Take the sex out of it.  What did you like about that night?”

“The kissing and the way you took care of me.  You cut my hair and you gave me a bath.  I remember when we were in bed, you rubbed your legs over mine and touched me with your feet.  I remember us kissing and laughing and I can’t remember what it was about, but we did.”

Nedra took that moment to run her foot up his chest.  Victor closed his eyes.  "I remember us talking about Dr. Allen's bullshit comb-over."

Victor grinned.  "I hate that son-of-a-bitch and no one will tell me he isn't bald under that hairhat."

“Massage my foot,” she said, tickling his pec with her big toe.

He took her foot in his hands.  “I’m not sure I know what to do.”

“You don’t have to.  You dance to the tune I play, correct?  You asked me for something and I’m showing you.  Do as I say, follow my lead.  Don’t be afraid.”

“All right.”

Nedra removed her foot and moved away from her side of the tub.  She crawled towards Victor and got in his lap.  She smoothed his hair and began to caress his face, sliding her fingers over his forehead, lips and cheeks.  She kissed his nose, eyelids and the corners of his mouth.

“Mmmmn,” he moaned.

Nedra stroked his ears and was surprised to see him laugh.  She giggled in return.  “Sensitive ears, eh?”

He stared at her, a relaxed smile on his face.  Nedra continued to finger his earlobes and make him grin.

“Oh, I’m going to enjoy finding your secret spots,” she said, leaning forward to kiss him just after telling him to rub her ass.

After a few moments, she put her hands on his shoulder and arched her back, giving him access to her breasts.  Victor latched on to one of her rock-hard nipples as she gyrated her hips against his groin.

“Suck slowly,” she said.  “And there’s more to a breast than just the nipple…and you don’t always have to suck.  You can kiss and you've got teeth.”  She continued massaging his ears, closing her eyes in delight.

Victor held on to her ass, mouth full of breast, eyes closed as he was drawn into his secret, secret place.  Nedra continued to instruct him in dulcet tones as she stroked his beard, scratching gently.  Between that and her gyrations, it did not take long for him to rise.

“You ever had sex in the water before?” she asked.

He opened his eyes and looked at her.  “If I have, I don’t recall.”

Nedra put her hand in the water and adjusted so that she could slide down and ride him.

“Fuck,” Victor murmured as he filled her up.  

“Feels good, doesn’t it?  I love having sex in the tub.  Run your hands up my back; touch me like you mean it.  Been a long time since you’ve visited the Promised Land.”

“I’ve missed this place,” he moaned, moving his hips

Victor closed his eyes again but Nedra kissed his lips.  “Eyes open, sweet thing.  One of the secrets to what you want is in the eyes, so look at me.”

He stared at her and Nedra stared back as she rode him, hands curled into his shoulders, dropping kiss after kiss on his nose and lips.  There were no words he could find in his gifted brain to describe what was taking place.  All he could say was her name, over and over in spurts.  She was right there in his secret place with him…and it was gooooood….

more to come...