Breakable

Mellow Soulmate AU.  Who is really the victorious prevailing in this battle of wills?  Celebrimbor addressed with his Sindarin name, but Sauron calls himself Mairon throughout.  This is, basically, a continuation of "Lust", "Disaster" and "Lies", an arc which I haven't touched in a rather long time.  I suppose it's also vaguely related to "Drought" as well.  I have no idea where I'm going with this pairing, but it has to go somewhere eventually, yes?  Takes place in Eregion mid-Second Age (during the Fall).

Disclaimer: I don't own the Silmarillion or the Lord of the Rings

Pairings: Sauron x Celebrimbor (consensuality is debatable)

Characters: Sauron, Celebrimbor (mentions Morgoth briefly)

Warning: canon-compliant AU, non-canon pairing, slash, canon character death, major character death, torture, rape, interrogation, world domination plots, evil lord being evil (or not?), shameless sadism, possible masochism

Song: The Dark Colossus Destroys All

Words: 981
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breakable (adjective): capable of being broken
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/breakable

It was one thing all mortals had in common.

So easily did they fall to prey to pain and suffering.  So easily did they falter in the face of their greatest fears and desires.  So easily did they crack when pushed to the brink of sanity.

So beautifully, wonderfully, easily breakable.

A little glass window with all those thoughts lying exposed underneath, ripe for the plucking and the reaping.  And naught but a thin shield between the tasty little morsels and his grabby, eager fingers.

Like the crackling of dried, dead leaves underfoot was the sound of their shattering.  Of a finger pressing harder and harder to the thin plane of glass that ensconced their consciousness until, beneath the unforgiving pressure, the delicate structure imploded.  Was crushed with that sort of finality that ground the pitiful remains into little more than dust.

And that was when all their thoughts and feelings gushed out, like blood from an open wound, spilling and pooling in a shower of gore.  Running over his hands in a sensuous, hot slide.

Never had Mairon met a mortal who was not as delicate as the petal of a flower.  Whose deepest, darkest secrets could be spilled within hours of torture or wormed loose of their bindings with a few sultry glances and nights of passion.

No mortal who would not be broken beyond recognition in the afterglow.

He loved to watch them writhe.  Watch their minds slowly unravel.  Watch their spirits disintegrate beneath cruelty and their hearts dissolve beneath blow of unforgiving malice.  Mercilessness was his specialty and sadism his finest wine.

Mairon was good at his job and always had been.

He was, after all, no mortal soul.  Not so easily tarnished or corrupted.  Not so easily torn apart or smashed to bits.  Not so easily dashed to death against a brick wall of twisted half-truths and white lies.  Not even the Dark Lord himself had been able to unravel Mairon from the inside out through manipulation or punishment or false reward.

But this mortal...

Celebrimbor...

Staring at the limp body strung up from the ceiling, Mairon felt his hands clench tightly, nails ripping ragged holes in the palms of his gloved hands, shredding their leather protection with ease and slicing through the trembling flesh and muscle beneath.  Within seconds the open wounds began to heal, the skin sealing over, cutting off the scarlet drops raining down to the stained stone below.

But they still ached and stung, as though salt had wormed its way inside to inflict penitence.  Around his chest, the constriction stifling his ragged, infuriated breaths grew sharper.  His eyes followed the rocking of that body, swaying and swaying, all weight upon the broken wrists chained to the ceiling and the wrenched shoulder bent at odd angles.  Followed the trails of crimson running in tendrils down the creases of powerful muscles and thighs.  Dripping sluggishly from a tangle of half-sheered raven hair.

Even like this, he was so utterly beautiful.  Even with his skin bloodless and gray from lost blood.  Even with his eyes wide and dull, an echo of triumph in their depths.  Even with his chest frozen, last breath caught on a grimace of pain and unholy satisfaction.

He had not spoken another word.

"I hate you!"

Not a single one.

That brittle glass had not shattered beneath beatings or touches.  Reinforced with mithril, it had held steady beneath the torment.  Beneath the whips and the brands and the rape.  Beneath the kisses laid like open flame to trembling shoulders and bites marking up that slender throat.  Beneath the softly breathed words of comfort and promise against a gracefully pointed ear.

Celebrimbor was supposed to be breakable.  He was supposed to look into the eyes of his betrayer and lover and be filled with despair and horror at the knowledge of his downfall.  Still, the terror of Annatar flaying him open, whispering to him in sinful love, was supposed to bring him over the edge, past a point from whence there would be no return.  Make him surrender, and in that surrender bind them more tightly than any mere night in a lover's bed between the sheets.  And, in the end, he would stay... stay by Mairon's side forever...

For Mairon would not give up his goal--the only desire he had ever possessed--for the sake of pleasing those catlike smile and those starry eyes.  But neither could he surrender his need to touch and stroke, to kiss and fuck... throw the demon haunting his dreams away...

Except the object of his obsession had chosen death.  Death rather than a throne at his side.

And Mairon's teeth bore down sharply upon his lip.  Until the copper tang spread across his tongue and scalding heat slithered over his chin.  Yet, when normally he would have grin diabolically at the pain in scorn and amusement, instead his body flinched sharply.

He was immortal.  A creature beyond the comprehension of the Children of Eru.  A maia.

He was not supposed to be breakable.  He was supposed to be invincible.

But as he stared at that body hanging at his tender mercies, empty of spark and devoid of life, the fire wrung from its spirit with his own two hands... Mairon could not move for the agony of its sight.  Could only stare and wonder...

Wonder why it was that shards of glass were boring their way into his thoughts.

Why it was not the dead body before him--torn apart with callous intent and battered nearly beyond recognition--that seemed broken beyond all repair.

Why the words "I hate you!" seemed more potent than any punishment his mind could conjure.  Than any suffering ever before heaped upon his shoulders or punishment ever endured at the feet of his master.

And why his traitorous eyes burned as acid.
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I have some new ideas for this pairing, especially considering that Sauron (obviously) is not gone forever.  I'm sort of excited to see the portrayal of the Necromancer in The Hobbit so I might gauge if I want to use that time-frame for any future stories.  In any case, this will hopefully be going somewhere int he Third Age since everyone (including Celebrimbor) is back from the dead.  Fun right?

As for the rest of it... I don't want to make Sauron feel to human or make him seem like he has a working conscience, because he doesn't.  He's a psychopath--the very epitome of the word, in fact--except for the possibility of him loving someone and being afraid of something.  Psychopaths are not afraid of punishment and do not love, or so the specialists say.  In any case, maybe he's just a sociopath?  Who knows, the terms are used so interchangeably that it's difficult to define one without defining the other.  In the end, though, Sauron doesn't believe he cares about Celebrimbor, but maybe is possessive of him?  I'll figure it out, but it might take a while to wrap my head around this insanity.

The song is one I randomly found.  The NieR Gestault and Replicant OST is, of course, amazing (thank you Keiichi Okabe and friends).  The Dark Colossus Destroys All was both dark enough, violent enough and depressing enough for this piece, especially considering all the turmoil involved.  I didn't want to pick something sad, because Sauron isn't sad, but I didn't want to pick something too diabolical (like a certain waltz with that certain word in its name) and so this is where I ended up.  Most of the OST is amazing anyway, so enjoy. :3