the guardian
pairing: sova/viper (soviper)
The moment Viper steps foot onto awaiting Vulture at the end of her mission is the first time she feels she can breathe.
She’s out of breath when she collapses against the metal floor of the vehicle, ignoring the wide and concerned eyes of Sova manning the ride. “Go!” Her voice is a hiss as she glances back, sees a flicker of movement when a kunai suddenly trims the end of her hair and clatters off the wall, just before the doors of the Vulture close.
Sova heeds her command, but she notices his furtive looks over his shoulder as she’s rasping for breath. She shuts her eyes, does her best to ignore the burning gaze of concern that sears her cheek; she knows she looks like a disaster — after all, the mission had gone wrong — and the last thing she wants is to be stared at.
She hangs her head down and uses her hair to curtain her face off from Sova’s eyes, but it does nothing to ease the intensity of his gaze. It’s frustrating, and Viper just wants to be alone, but in the end figures that this is the best it gets. Sova is quiet and composed, not the type to intrude her space; she can find solace in not being disturbed at least.
And for the remainder of the ride, it is silent minus the labored breathing of Viper’s.
Littered with scrapes from messy free running, scratches from kunais, and bleeding from grazing bullets, it’s a miracle Viper is alive — at least, according to Sage who had nearly combusted at the sight of Sova dragging an injured Viper at midnight. Viper had been ordered a week of bedrest, a recovery plan enforced by everyone in the protocol when the news broke out.
Among the cluster of people who had taken her injuries more personally than Viper did is Brimstone. Years of working together, the two of them had been each other’s rocks, a beacon of familiarity in the unknown expanse known as their lives. Viper can remember Brimstone from a time before Valorant, before callsigns, dimensional travels, and everything on the line. When the biggest scandal is whatever Human Resources is hiding that week, when sharing beers and cigarettes after work on Fridays becomes a weekly tradition. It had made sense for Brimstone to take care of her, with that shared history and desire to share more of life.
But alongside Brimstone’s care had been Sova’s, and that confuses her a little more. He had been the one seen in her most destroyed state, a one-woman army brought down, and she had wondered if that had been the reason why he hovered around her during her week of recovery. As time goes on, Viper quickly figures out that’s not why he hovers around her, even now, after the supposed week.
She respects the man’s abilities, but she hadn’t known much besides whatever gossip was going around and the brief greetings shared in common rooms grabbing coffee or during protocol-wide meetings. Over the week, she learns more of Sova, and she quickly gains a growing penchant for the man. From cooking food for her with handed-down recipes to taking care of her less secretive paperwork, the man had been nothing short of kind.
Viper would deny the help normally, but the first attempt in doing so had yielded nothing but a quiet scolding from Sova. It had taken the whole week to whittle Sova down into accepting a compromise of allowing Viper to gift him one thing in return.
They’re holed up in Sova’s bedroom, where he had insisted they stay for the day, lying in bed together where Sova presses fervent kisses down the column of Viper’s neck. Viper is on her back as Sova is above her, and his lips are cold against the warmth of his bedroom.
Even his hands are cold as he touches her more, fingertips tracing faint lines and shapes against Viper’s skin, trying to send an abstract message of want, of desire. One hand holds onto Viper’s hips, thumb rubbing circles, and the other keeps her head thrown back with her throat exposed.
“Viper,” he murmurs back as he tugs at the front of Viper’s tank top, exposing her chest for him to see and admire. He kisses her collarbone, a light kiss that makes Viper squirm at the gentleness, and down her chest to her nipples. He pays the jewelry no mind besides an appreciative noise the moment he takes her into his mouth. Rolls the jewelry bar between his tongue and sucks at the nipple until Viper is moaning softly. “I am so grateful for your safety.”
Viper wants to scoff, but the noise is caught behind a stream of sighs and low groans. Her skins feels electric, a different kind of healing from Sage’s geomancy that feels cold, all-consuming. Sova’s electricity is warm, only pointed to where he wants to aim at — he can choose to be overpowering, but Sova chooses to be kind.
“It takes more than them to kill me,” she responds when Sova finally lets up and gives her a moment. The change in temperature is immediate, the way Viper’s own warmth calms down from the attention and takes the heat from the room. “I’ve lived this long, haven’t I?”
Sova shakes his head. He cups Viper’s cheek, and the intimate touch freezes Viper. Both of them feel so cold. “It only takes one. You must be more careful,” Sova warns.
The look in his eyes is one part passion from the kissing and touching, one part concern at the lack of care of Viper about her own life, and a third part that is indistinguishable. Sova has always been mysterious about himself, whether intentionally or not, but Viper can see it clearly in the moment. Kind with his behavior and giving as much as he can, it’s easy to forget the type of beast that lies asleep within Sova.
There’s a dryness in Viper’s throat, one that won’t go away with a simple swallow of her throat or a gulp of cold water, at the sight of Sova’s bright eyes looking at her expectantly. “I…” She hesitates, but Sova is unrelenting. “I will do better,” is what she settles on.
Sova frowns, obvious that he’s not quite pleased with her response, but before Viper can continue, he hums. “If that is what you can give, then I shall take it. I will accept whatever you give me, Viper.”
“You shouldn’t just say things like that,” Viper scolds, her heart hammering in her chest.
A familiar feeling from years ago, she’s rebuilt herself into a woman who doesn’t need such things anymore, and to experience the sensation again is disconcerting. She’s curtained her entire self away, and here Sova is, whispering words she had wished from someone years ago and unlocking old desires. “Those are dangerous words in and of itself. You need to prioritize yourself more.”
And it’s true. Sova can lecture Viper all he can, but Viper knows the type of agent he is. She remembers the weariness and sleep deprivation that had plagued him before Fade joined, the hours of overtime that rivals Viper’s own workaholic nature. The man is a hard worker, integrity strong and confident in his abilities, and he hates squandering potential as much as Viper does.
She shifts from her position on the bed, sitting up more as she props herself up on her elbows. She winces as she places pressure on a fresh injury. And Sova, in an instant, is by her side. He helps her sit up, shifts their positions until Viper finds herself sitting on top of Sova’s abdomen. He even makes sure she’s comfortable at his own discomfort as he supports Viper’s weight partially. It’s an uncomfortable manifestation, realization, of Sova’s devotion.
“I am also a dangerous man,” Sova reminds her in a soft whisper, the cold tone sending goosebumps running through her skin. “Do not forget that.” He cups Viper’s breast in the palm of his hand, leaning forward to press a kiss against her bosom. It freezes Viper to her spot, the way his touch is so tender against his chilly words.
She’s detracted from her thoughts when Sova starts to play with her chest again, hands rough and calloused against soft and milky skin. The contrast is striking, one that has Viper moaning quietly as he plays with her more, until she pulls away.
Viper lets Sova yank the shirt over head, an impatience in the way he tugs as it ruffles her hair. The gentleman he is, Viper almost shudders as he fixes her hair for her and pecks her on the forehead. Everything is so unfamiliar.
Her voice is quiet as she asks, “What do you want from me?”
Viper turns away, avoiding eye contact. She folds her arms across her chest, and she pretends she doesn’t hear Sova’s sigh of sadness at her now hidden chest. “You can’t tell me you only brought me here for a lecture. What else do you want?”
At her question, Sova quirks a brow before he chuckles. His mechanical eye, as it blinks and whirs, sounds like it laughs at Viper too, and she huffs. The noise must have been enough cause for concern that Sova stifles his chuckles, bringing his hand to grab a handful of Viper’s ass as his other hand starts to tug her shorts down.
The answer is obvious now, and Viper is a bright red at her idiocy and Sova’s forwardness. Distracted enough by her thoughts, she makes no fuss as Sova carefully helps her out of her clothes to sit on him again.
His eyes are wide when Viper leans back, exposes the column of her throat leading to a heavy chest and wide hips. Her flesh is pale and milky, a symptom of holing herself up in her lab for months, but it remains unscarred from Sage’s treatment. Viper knows she’s easy on the eyes, the desire that floods Sova’s eyes tells her that it wouldn’t have mattered, and that starts a fire in her gut. Sova looks at her almost reverently, as if a prophet seeing his deity in full glory.
He litters kisses across her chest and down to her stomach, before he nips at firm skin and starts to suck marks. The sensation tickles Viper as she squirms at the intimacy, breathless by the fifth love mark from what she can see. “Was it not obvious already, from the kisses and your naked form?” He asks, humor in his eyes.
“It does no good to assume, especially as a scientist,” she says, almost huffy in her remark.
Sova laughs quietly, before he places a brief kiss at Viper’s temple. “Of course. I am only joking in my tone, however…” His words trail off, and the humor in his eyes is replaced with something else. Instead of looking at Viper with mischief, his eyes are dark, and his smile follows. “I am serious about the words. Seeing you so injured…if I do not speak up now, then I fear what I can lose.”
He brings Viper in for a kiss, before she can respond, but the reciprocating pressure against his lips is an answer enough. His hands, once gentle, now feel bruising when he holds onto her hips, as if she’d disintegrate if he didn’t keep her together — as if he’d lose her like on the mission.
Viper’s noises are muffled as the man sneaks a tongue into her mouth, and her tongue joins his as they kiss themselves breathless. She can feel the growing erection pressing against her back, and it’s with a soft moan from Sova that she finally pulls herself away from the man.
Sova had never given much of an indicator that sex is important to him, or that he had been left touch starved in the protocol, but in this moment, Viper admits she’s wrong.
His build is broad and bulky, even without the thick and furred-coat he wears everywhere. Tonight he dons nothing but a thin, form-fitting turtleneck, and Viper can see every ripple of muscle as he moves. His pajama pants are just as thin as his shirt, as he moves to sidle them and his briefs down his legs.
“Please,” Sova breathes out with a smile. He runs a hand through Viper’s hair, and she listens to Sova’s siren call as she rests her head against his palm. He grinds languidly against her figure. “You are beautiful.”
Before Viper can bark out an embarrassed denial, Sova presses two fingers into her mouth. His calm smile is still as present as evergreen, but his words are firm as he states, “Wet them, please.”
Without much choice other than biting off his fingers, Viper tentatively starts to lick and suck at the digits. She feels how roughened up the fingertips are beneath her tongue, and she wonders about the story behind every scar she comes across. Sova watches her the entirety of the time, gaze unrelenting as if to capture every second of the act.
She shuts her eyes, focuses on the task at hand instead of Sova’s stare. She hesitates none at all when a third digit is pushed into her mouth as she grips onto his wrist, a quiet moan spilling from her lips as she swirls her tongue around him. She almost snarls when the man pulls his fingers back, chasing after them before Sova pushes her head back.
“This will be better in a moment, beloved,” he reassures her. “Patience now.”
Viper feels her heart twist itself into a knot at the epithet, the warm fire from before being stoked the more he murmurs sweet words. It’s an unfamiliar but not uncomfortable feeling, one that Viper has decided that she’s willing to accept. She doesn’t know if she’s any good at being a partner, but she does know the way that ‘beloved’ rolls off Sova’s tongue is criminal.
“Let me stretch you out.”
Viper offers no words, just a barely perceptible nod that Sova returns with an appreciative hum. His openness in this moment is refreshing, a contrast to the friendly but walled-off behavior Sova exhibits outside, and it’s one Viper acknowledges with a heady moan as he slips two digits into her. It slips in easily with her spit and slick, but the fingers are thick, and Viper can’t easily ignore the slow rhythm they start to build up. He opens her up gently. Does it in such a fashion that has Viper moaning with every single thrust of his fingers as he opens her up.
It glides perfectly over her bundle of nerves, sets her body on fire with sensitivity. Tingles run up her spine as she grips onto Sova’s shoulders to stabilize herself, and her hips start to match the same pace of his fingers. Tiny puffs of noises leave her mouth, turning into a choked-off groan, as he presses another digit into her. She pants as Sova fucks her gingerly with fingers made strong from the constant plucking of a bow, hard work evident in every single expanse that is Sova’s body.
He curls his fingers, and Viper’s body lurches as if struck by lightning. She peers down at Sova who watches her like an eagle — no, a hawk. His eyes flitter about to take in every inch of her visage, unable to stay still as if he would lose precious memories. The thought flusters Viper, just how strong Sova’s silent affection for her is. Another curl of his fingers sows a breathless noise from Viper, and she flushes pink at the state she must be in. She closes her eyes and turns away, letting black strands of hair hide herself from the man.
“No,” Sova intervenes. His gaze is steely, as cold as the metal that resides in his eye, and his words are firm. “Let me see your face.” Posed as a request, the intent is clear when Sova grips Viper’s chin up and brings her close to his face. Viper lets him, her eyes still squeezed shut.
“I will make you open your eyes in a different way then.”
Viper stifles the grunt that threatens to escape her lips when Sova pulls his fingers out, her hips bearing down to seek the lost sensation; like this, she feels emptier with the fire from before dimming to a small ember. She wants to ask about what Sova means, but it’s interrupted by one’s messy fumbling with the nightstand, and the noise of a drawer sliding is harsh in the soft, muted air of the bedroom.
The answer reveals itself when Viper feels a heavy tip poking at her entrance, and her eyes fly open only to see a proud smile gracing Sova’s features. The smile is small and hidden, but a smugness twinkles in his eyes — a look that Viper wants to wipe off his face, but the heavy length that pushes into her distracts her and blurs her rationale.
While the grip on her hips are harsh, the slide down is slow and sweet. Sova peppers kisses anywhere he can reach, anywhere that Viper lets him touch her, as he leaves behind a cluster of love bites across Viper’s chest before sucking at a nipple. When Sova begins moving his hips, Viper can’t stifle the moan as her legs start to tremble. The stretch from his dick, the nips along her skin, and the deft tongue that plays with her piercings — every single touch sends Viper’s brain into overdrive, senses hyperactive and hypersensitive. It’s been a long time since anyone has made Viper feel alive, old senses coming back online as it adds to the rising excitement that coils in her gut.
Viper nods with a desperate fervor, hips bearing down, and she moans as his dick pushes into her deeper. She’s thankful at how observant Sova is when his hands cup her rear to support her, and he’s off to a blistering pace. Her breasts bounce with every motion, as her ass shakes from the rhythmic pounding. Viper can’t stifle the noises anymore, moaning quietly with every upward thrust.
Sova is no longer the freezing man that he was earlier; now, heat emanates from him as a thin layer of sweat accrues and turns both their skins sticky. It sends Viper into a fever pitch, moving her own hips and keening at the new angle as she lays down on Sova’s chest.
The coil in her gut is taut, ready to snap at any moment, and she’s impatient. If Sova is willing to give her everything like this, then so be it — she’ll take. And now, she wants nothing more than for her breath to be taken away, feel the unsteady tremble of her legs as she tightens around Sova’s dick.
She gazes at Sova with blown pupils, eyes half-lidded as she struggles to focus the man in her vision. He pays no mind as he offers a lazy but sharp smile in between moans. Unlike his usual demeanor, Sova in bed is louder. He freely makes noises, pretty ones that ring in Viper’s ears and rattle in her brain to haunt her for the rest of her life. She knows when she leaves the room, Sova will be imprinted into her mind forever, and she wonders if that’s what the man wants.
The way his muscles flex and work as he takes care of Viper’s desire is a tantalizing sight. It’s one that breaks Viper’s control, has her telling herself to enjoy it for once, as she squeezes Sova’s biceps. The flesh is firm under her touch, but muscle ripples as he flexes under her touch. The feeling of hard muscle on a man who treats her so is dizzying.
“If they lay a hand on our radianite, they will get a bullet in their jaw,” Sova murmurs. Aftershadow scrapes Viper’s cheek, and she swallows the heavy lump in her throat at the feeling; the anger that surrounds Sova is heady and oppressing, an anger that sets off every warning bell in Viper’s brain and reignites a fire in her gut at how protective the man is. “If they lay a hand on you, they will get a bullet through their brain.”
Viper scoffs, mirthless and bitter. Even with the accelerated healing and the flawless repair of her skin thanks to Sage’s work, the aches of the injuries don’t fade. If she closes her eyes, she can pinpoint all of the injuries and imagine them blooming again. How badly she had wanted to fire bullets in their brains herself, then maybe she would’ve returned victorious in her mission. “I’m afraid they’ve already done so.”
Sova’s gaze hardens, his hand coming up to grip Viper’s chin. He looks her dead in the eyes, and Viper is forced to keep contact; she feels like prey stuck in a web, unable to do anything but watch Sova’s composure unfold in front of her. His hips slam into Viper as deep as he can, and he keeps still and seated as Viper pants from the sudden fullness. “The next time I see them, I will gift them those bullets.”
Sova is kind, calm. Often the peacemaker and crowd control alongside Sage, very little ruins his firm composure and aggrandize him, even with the blend of interesting personalities surrounding him. He speaks slowly and softly, a moment of peace in a sea of chaos that Viper knows all about. She’s been the one saved by Sova’s presence more times than she can count.
Now, Viper is the stable lighthouse in a sea of rough waters. Sova’s aura threatens Viper’s steel walls, makes her wary of man who holds so much power behind kind intentions. Now, with kindness not an option, Viper sees the strength in full force.
“This is my promise, beloved. No one will hurt you without me knowing, without me seeking their misery,” Sova breathes out. “I will always look out for you.”
His promise is as breathless as Viper’s response, a choked off whine as he pounds into her harder. The fierceness of his declaration invokes itself in his rhythm, a messy sort of desperation starting to arise with his stuttering hips and ragged moans into the shell of Viper’s ear. Both of them work in conjunction, sharing the fast and deep rhythm as their bodies dance together.
Viper gasps as a pulsating feeling fills her cunt, a wet warm spreading from her core to her whole body. Sova doesn’t stop even as his own body trembles, and his gaze is distant as he stares at Viper with a cloudy passion in his eyes, mind dissociating as he comes. Viper’s own release is a sudden affair, hips bucking up at the tail end of Sova’s climax when he fucks his cum inside her and twitches his dick; when she comes finally, a whine drips from her mouth as mixed cum drips from her cunt.
“Remember this well, beloved,” Sova pants out, bringing their forehead close together. “I vow to be your protector.”