A/N: Hey, folks! I return with a smut for you! Namely, something of the Raven!Fakir/Heartless!Ahiru variety. :) Please heed the warnings if it's not your cup of tea, though!

Tangled Web features Raven!Fakir and Heartless!Ahiru from my AU (Alternate Universe) story "Beneath Black Feathers", but I felt the content was more appropriate here, since this is hard NC-17 material.

For those of you not familiar with this AU, I basically switched Fakir and Rue's roles, as well as Ahiru and Mytho's. There's more to it than just that and the characters still grow and change differently, but that's the gist of what the idea of the AU was. And I freely admit that I find it rather fun to twist the characters into these other roles and situations. (Eventually, I have a piece of Knightress!Rue and Prince Siegfried that I'll be sharing, as well, though that one is not smut-related.) This one takes place after Ahiru has already regained some emotions, but the progression of it doesn't happen the same way it did for Mytho in canon (she gets Curiosity before Fear, for instance).

Anyway, if the premise confuses you or there's something you want to ask about it, feel free! (I may not have all the answers yet, though. So far, I have just been writing a lot of snippets from this AU.)

Rating and Genre: NC-17 | Dark smut

Warnings!: Manipulation + Dub-con (dubious consent)

Notes: I'll admit this outright: I do not like the idea of a "lust" heart-shard. I never have. So my approach to this scenario is different... I hope you'll enjoy it. (Also, I have not proof-read this. Sorry for any mistakes!)

Oh, and see if you can put together what happened in this fic, readers. :) Though it's not too hard, I promise. I would explain further, but that might spoil it.

Tangled Web

She had awoken from a light doze to the distinct sound of the scraping flourish of a quill against parchment. Blue eyes blearily blinked half-way open as she squirmed in the bed of feathers, feeling uncomfortable for a reason she couldn't name.

It was strange getting accustomed to her emotions again. Not all of them were yet returned, but the ones that Prince Siegfried had given back to her were not feelings she had fully adjusted to yet.

And yet this... this was different. Her emotions felt like they were stronger and not exactly the same, somehow. And they were linked to the heavy discomfort she felt within her body. Was that what had roused her from her dreamy slumber?

"Are you awake, princess?" Fakir's voice was like a sultry syrup being poured over her as a set of fingers came to rest on the crown of her head. Never before would she have thought such a thing, but her emotions were telling her that was how he sounded. And she could smell... fresh ink. Yes, his fingers carried the scent of ink.

Clearly, he had been writing. Even the heartless girl could put that much together with ease. Many times she had fallen asleep to that lulling scritch-scratch of his pen on the page. And she knew how often he wrote stories.

"Mm," she replied softly, lifting her head. Before any words could come out, she felt the impulse to lean her head up and nuzzle her cheek against his hand.

Contact. Yes. That was pleasing one of her emotions. Perhaps it was affection?

A low, amused chuckle issued from the man beside her. "Do you like the feeling of my hand so much?"

Ahiru nodded her head, feeling warmth collect in her cheeks. "I like it. Keep touching me." The words were foreign on her tongue, but the princess didn't care to think on why she said them. Curiosity wanted to know about other things, instead.

Had she glanced up just then, she might have seen the smirk upon his features as he rolled two fingertips down her jaw before his full palm cupped her chin. "Like this?" he questioned. "Where do you want me to touch you, princess?"

Where...?

Her emotions didn't have a clear answer for her. The chaos inside only seemed to beg for- "Everywhere," she breathed, feeling that unease and warmth within her grow tighter and hotter. "More."

Why did her feelings want this? What was it doing? Why did it feel so pleasant? Curiosity stacked question after question, but the only thing that came out of her mouth was a whine as his fingers moved to trail down her thin neck, sliding down beneath her adam's apple and further to the groove just above her collarbone.

Ahiru shuddered. She was not cold- in fact, she was quite warm, but her body reacted on its own.

"Fakir," her voice was starting to strain, the need for and unnamed, unidentifiable something climbing up inside of her. "I feel hot. Something... something is not right with my emotions...?"

"Everything is fine," he answered her swiftly, leaning into her ear. She gave a short yelp when he bit edge of it, sending a spark through her. "Let it out, princess. Express to me what you are feeling."

"I need..." How could she put this into words? Frustration was growing and it seemed that as it grew, she felt even warmer and more aching than before. "I-I don't know!"

"Shhhh..." he hissed into the curve of her ear, wrapping his arms about her torso. "Relax, princess. Let your body feel your emotions. Let your emotions tell you what you want..."

Though it was incredibly hard to focus enough in her current state, Ahiru tried. All of her emotions just felt like they were not working properly and not acting the same as she had felt them before. And there was one emotion that seemed to burn brighter than the rest-burning with an intensity that was scorching her from the inside out.

Desire.

That feeling was definitely the one setting fire to the rest. She wanted-she knew she wanted desperately-but she didn't know what she wanted so badly. Frustration flamed up again.

"I can't-can't tell... I don't know. I don't understand-ah!"

She was cut off by the sudden grip of his hands around the small mounds on her front, which took her by such abrupt surprise that she jerked back against his chest.

"You don't?" Once more, she felt his voice held a thickness to it-something that she found that desire wanted to hear more of. "Well, princess... what if I helped you understand? Would you like that?"

Ahiru turned around far enough in his grip to blink astonished blue eyes at him. "You can help?" Curiosity left a desire to know more. "How?"

"I'll show you," he responded. His fingers gave her chest another squeeze before rolling the flimsy nightgown material over the flesh beneath. Her eyelids fluttered and heat flooded through her middle. "I can ease what makes you ache, princess. And it will feel good. Do you want that?" As if to coax her to answer, he ran his thumbs over the peaks beneath her cotton covering.

"Yes," she spoke without barely considering. Desire had spoken for her. She wanted that-she needed that.

"That's what I wanted to hear..."

And no sooner had the words left his lips before those lips were upon her neck, latching to the skin at the back and sucking. Ahiru arched automatically, feeling those oddly pleasurable shivers roll their way down her back again. He was licking and sucking, alternating between the two and sending wave after wave of heat up through her face and down her neck. There was something damp upon her forehead, but she couldn't even bring herself to lift a hand and check.

As he continued to fondle her and lay attentions all across her neck and upper back, Ahiru could no longer sit still. Her body was still very discomforted, bothered by all of her emotions and the heat that resulted from their overactive state. She shifted back and forth, moving her legs to tuck in and then spread out again.

No position eased the feelings that ran amok within her. They refused to be quieted.

"Do you feel it?" Fakir leaned back far enough to purr into her ear. "The heat of desire, coiling up inside of you?"

"I feel it!" she choked out on a pant. "I feel too much of it!"

"Too much?" he sounded what she could only liken to the feeling of disappointment. "Should I stop?"

Ahiru hesitated, and during that small lapse, he disengaged his mouth and hands from her body. And almost instantly, the ache increased dramatically. She did not feel better. She felt worse. She was lonely, she needed, she wanted, affection yearned for contact, she was frustrated and disappointed that he stopped-!

"No! No, don't stop!" the voice that emitted from her was no less than a plead. Fear joined the mix of emotions, making her afraid of being without his hands upon her. To anyone else, it would not have made sense, but Ahiru didn't try to question her own emotions. Her lips parted on a yearning whine, "Touch me! Don't leave me alone!"

Not even a second passed before his hands were back on her, touching and caressing down her sides and arms. The heat within her constricted and spread, overwhelming her small form. And yet she could not bear for him to pull away again. She did not want that.

"Look at me," he abruptly ordered, his tone having lowered to a deeper rumble. And Ahiru did as she was commanded, turning in his grip to set her gaze upon his.

She saw the deep red depths of his eyes for just a bare moment before his mouth came crashing into her own, applying an intense, heated pressure. This act was familiar, as he had done it just one time before, but...

This time, he was not trying to pull an emotion out of her. She did not feel fear from him, as she did that night. The heat of him-his hands, his mouth... it almost matched her own.

Ahiru could do little more but melt right into the contact. And that seem to be exactly what he wanted, as she responded with more force and pressure, one of his hands leaving her side to grasp at the back of her head and fist into the red hair at the nape of her neck. His other arm latched more securely around her frame and tugged, guiding her body around to settle into his waiting lap.

She did not realize how badly she needed to breathe until Fakir finally released her lips and oxygen flowed in, which she took gracious gulps of. Her forehead and bangs were even more damp and... and there was a stiffness beneath her that suddenly made her aware of how heated and aching the area between her legs was feeling.

And it was damp down there, too.

What did it all mean? Curiosity wanted very much to know, but desire smothered it out. And even with Fakir this close to her, she could not seem to get close enough. No matter what he did, she could not be put at ease and none of the heat subsided. Her body simply refused to cooperate and the emotions only expanded, making it all so overpowering...!

"Hnnnahh!" she gasped sharply as his fingers found their way under her nightgown, one rising to grasp one breast in hand as the other reached down and stroked her thigh. She rocked back and forth over him, her eyes slipping shut.

"Your loneliness aches for something more than this, doesn't it?" His question almost sounded as though he already knew the answer. And he probably did. Fakir did say that he would help her, after all. She could rely on him.

His hips then gave an upward thrust, letting her feel that hardness below. Heat spiked and collected in her abdomen. "What does it ache for, princess?"

Why did he keep asking her questions that she could not answer? Both curiosity and frustration were in turmoil. And her body continued to spiral further into the heat and deep-seated discomfort that invaded her body.

She couldn't take it.

"Tell me!" the redhead cried. Frustration was now warring with desire again, while affection swelled from every smooth motion of his fingers over her thigh. The loneliness did not subside from his touches. It was something deeper-much deeper inside of her. "Fakir, please tell me!"

"I'll tell you," he assured her, pressing her body into the black feathered bed. "You need me. You need what I have to ease that loneliness, my princess. That ache can only be relieved by me."

Blue eyes stared at red. "Really?" It wasn't disbelief, but honest curiosity that answered.

"That's right," he declared, a smirk on his lips as reached down and gripped the hem of her nightie. In one swift motion, he pulled the entire thing up and over her head, carelessly discarding it off to the side. "You will feel better soon. Just do everything that I tell you to. Accept everything that I do for you."

"Everything... okay."

She was complacent-willing. There was no feeling of embarrassment or shame present to make her question about being naked underneath of him, save for her panties. And in all truth, it felt a little better not having the cloth of the nightgown sticking to her skin and trapping more of the heat in.

It wasn't all better, of course, but she knew that was coming. Fakir knew what to do. He understood what these emotions were doing to her and he could make it right again.

"Good, good..." His voice continued to caress her just as much as the digits running up her arm. How a voice could touch her when it was just sound, she did not know."You're going to like this, princess. We're both going to like this..."

Like the flip of a switch, the reverent touch changed to a rough grasp on her wrist, pinning it down to the feather bed. Ahiru could not feel pain, but she could feel that there was force and pressure behind the movement. Her body... seemed to like it. And she craned her neck back on a moan the instant that his wet mouth descended on one side of her chest, lathering the bared flesh down with his tongue and pulling the bud between his lips.

It was Fakir who pulled back shortly after, breathing hard as he rested his face against her breasts. Ahiru felt as though their emotions were acting similarly-as if he must have felt the same things that she did.

That thought made her feel a little less lonely, though it did not make any part of the ache inside of her subside.

"Dammit, I can't wait-" he groaned into the valley between her breasts. On a grunt, his body hefted up over her and he snatched one leg in a vice grip on either side, pulling them further apart and scooting in between them. She watched with hazed eyes as he reached down to his bulging trousers and all but yanked them open, pushing the frabric down with frantic fingers.

Again, there was absolutely no semblance of embarrassment as she stared curiously at the long piece of flesh he pulled out. The heated center between her legs pulsed at the sight of it.

"This," he spoke through heavy, labored breaths, easing himself closer with one hand and brushing the tip of his hardness against the front of her panties. She could see him shudder from the contact. "...is going to fill you. I'm going to take your ache away. And in return..." His eyes rolled up and met hers with a smoldering fire in their depths. "You will give yourself to me, princess."

Ahiru blinked up at him before she nodded once. Exactly what his words meant, her feelings did not understand, but it didn't matter. Her feelings told her that it didn't matter. And they had full reign of her actions and reactions by now.

He did not respond verbally. Instead, his free hand whisked down and all but ripped her last bit of covering away, not even taking the time to remove them properly. Ahiru felt his fingers flex over her wrist as he leaned down to nudge himself up against her wet center, which immediately pulled a deep-throated moan from him.

That ache... the ache in her-it was throbbing now. Didn't he say it would get better? Didn't he say that he would help her? Why was it becoming so much more...?

"Say my name," he commanded, pushing himself just a tiny bit more between her folds.

"Fakir," she answered automatically, but layered with the need her body was submerged in.

"No!" his voice was sharp, an agitated bite that she couldn't feel. "That's not my damn name!"

Ahiru paused her restless movements, her chest heaving up and down with every erratic pant. Usually, he did not mind when she called him Fakir. That was his name, she thought. It was the name he introduced himself as when she met him as a boy. There was something else that he called himself when they met again years later, but that was not his name, was it?

"What... do you want me to call you?"

"Prince Nacht," he stated, clear despite the tension in his tone. "Your prince. Your only prince, just as you are my princess."

"My prince..." she echoed. "Prince Nacht. My prin-AUUUH!"

Amidst her fulfilling his wish, he had slammed that long, thick part of himself right into the space between her legs. And the onslaught of heat and chaos of her emotions overtook her, flooding her body so thoroughly that she could not even move. If there was pain involved, she would not know, but she could feel frustration kick up with how big his size was compared to her and loneliness... was appeased.

He was closer to her than she thought possible. And finally, that emotion had been put to rest, satisfied with the connection they now shared.

"Say it again!" he barked, sliding himself back until he was almost out and then instantly shoving his hips forward to penetrate her once more. "Who is your true prince? What prince do you belong to?"

"Prince-prince Nacht-!" As many times as he wanted to hear it, she would say it.

"NNNNGHH!" He half-grunted, half-growled, leaning down to steal her lips in a fierce kiss. And not once did his body stop the back and forth jerking thrusts below, filling and unfilling her, driving the heat higher and higher in her body...!

Ahiru still did not understand. The wild movements were not relieving all of the need or all of the ache. Only part of it had gone away. The wanting part of her didn't stop wanting-and she could not determine what it wanted!

Affection was the voice of reason, telling her to trust in Fakir. It didn't matter what he wanted to call himself-he was still Fakir. And he would do exactly as he said he would.

Kiss after kiss, thrust after thrust, Ahiru thought her body may not be able to withstand much more. At some point, he had taken her other arm to join the first above her head, like leverage as he pounded into her center. The dampness of perspiration that clung to her brow had dotted other parts of her body as well, slicking down much of her naked skin.

Finally, his mouth pulled away from where he had been feverishly sucking one particular spot on her neck. And he licked his lips as he arched himself into her, growling breathlessly into her skin. "Now listen to-me, my princess. It's time to let go-let your emotions out. Come on me. Do it-!"

It was not a demand that she understood, and yet, something in her body felt triggered, as though it had reached a point it could no longer reach past. The climb was over and something was happening. All of her emotions... they were... something was-!

A scream erupted from Ahiru's throat as the threads burst apart-and her along with them. She could not tell exactly what she was feeling at that moment in time, but it was... so many good feelings-! Desire received what it wanted, frustration met with relief, devotion was utterly fulfilled-!

Time must have passed before she could think straight again. Along the way, Fakir had flopped to lay over her, and there was a wet stickiness between their bodies.

Her need for breath was granted as she took in all the air she could. And she noted that there was no longer a feeling of intense heat and ache that had attached to her other emotions. Now, she felt... just affection. Lots of affection.

And devotion to Fakir-to her prince. Lifting her arms, she wrapped them around his body and heard a heavy sigh in response. The sound no longer made her feel discomforted or strange.

"Thank you," she said. And though she could not feel true gratitude without the feeling itself, the sentiment seemed proper. He had helped her like he said he would. She should therefore thank him.

It was a moment or two before he rolled off to the side of her, pulling her with him and staying embedded inside of her, even with the change in position. She did not mind the closeness. Loneliness and affection both preferred it.

"Remember, my princess," his breath expelled across the crook of her neck as his arms tightened further around her middle. "Whenever you feel like that again... I am the person you will come to. I am the only one who can help you with those feelings."

"Yes..."

"Now sleep, princess."

The last thing she saw was the flutter of a piece of parchment before his tall frame obscured it and the lone candle in the room was blown out, shrouding the enclosure in darkness.

A/N: And that concludes this new installment of Behind Closed Doors! There will be more to come with time, since I just looooove writing smut ideas out with these two. And I know I still have a lot of requests to sort through, but please send more if you like! (After reading the guidelines within the last chapter, of course.) I'm always looking for fun smutty ideas for Fakir and Ahiru, especially my guilty pleasure of writing them with kinks involved.

Any feedback is most welcomed and appreciated! I hope there are still some readers out there for this fic. I know I haven't been updating here, but I'm really trying to make it a point to change that.

And as always, thank you so much for reading my work!