#I've been in a real shadow monster mood lately

[bucketsofmonsters]

Ace in the Hole

cw: sensory deprivation, gambling, drinking, vaginal penetration, oral sex, nonhuman genitalia, tentacles, slight degradation

male shadow monster x afab reader

Some beautiful art of the main character

Word count: 4k

You wouldn’t be surprised if you were the worst poker player in the world. 

Not that that fact ever stopped you. Here you were, every other weekend, with all the spending money you could spare, losing all of it every time. You considered the money a sunk cost. You knew you’d lose it all, just like you did twice a month. 

One would think you’d learn over time, become a better player. Maybe you would have if you weren’t so distracted by the dealer. 

You were always at his table. You knew you’d probably have better odds elsewhere but he was half the reason you came here. More than half, if you were being honest with yourself. 

You’d come in with your money that you’d already written off and draw out the game for as long as possible. 

Nocturne had always been your favorite dealer, without a doubt. On the odd occasion your friends came they would move around the tables more than you ever did and sometimes fawn over various workers, but your attention never wavered. 

He was a shadowy figure, a little taller than you although you weren’t certain how solid his form actually was. Tendrils of shadow shifted off of him absentmindedly as he worked, forming and dissipating, occasionally helping him handle cards or chips. 

The shadow was more playful than the rest of the dealers, teasing you when you lost, which was often. It almost made the defeat sting less as you handed your money off to whoever the lucky player happened to be that night. 

On the odd game you did win, he’d started giving you compliments about how maybe you were actually improving. You knew they were usually just setups for later teasing but they made your heart flutter nonetheless. 

Today, you weren’t getting any compliments, set up for teases or otherwise. In fact, you were burning through chips even faster than usual, your dealers shadowy tendrils sweeping them away, losing hand after hand. 

The other players were unfortunately not always as charming as your dealer was. Tonight was particularly difficult. The patron to your left seemed intent on hitting on you and refused to take the hint that you weren’t interested. You had half a mind to get up and move tables and god knows it took a lot for you to do that. 

Nocturne was pretty good at shutting them down. That was what had drawn you to his table initially, one of your friends had told you about the dashing shadow man who had saved her from some creep and you’d decided that you’d had nothing better to do, you might as well go see this knight in shining armour.

It didn’t take long before you were smitten with him too. You refused to tell said friend about your bimonthly trips here, knowing she’d get smug about it. 

You folded again, ceding the game as you looked down at your abysmal cards. It just wasn’t your night. 

“Rough hand,” he said, one of his shadowy tendrils already coming to sweep your cards and chips away from you. 

The man next to you muttered, “I’ll show you rough,” clearly and intentionally loud enough that you could hear it. 

You grimaced at the crude comment, quietly picking up your new cards and refusing to dignify his words with a response. 

One of the tendrils lazily drifting off of the shadow flicked in annoyance as he dealt out the next hand. 

“All in.” The guy stared right at you as he made his bet, clearly posturing and not caring that you weren’t interested.

You declined, dropping out of the hand you definitely would have lost anyways. At least this way you still had chips to play with, although admittedly not many. 

And then he flipped the cards. It was a good hand. Not a winning hand, but a good one nonetheless. You wouldn’t have gone all in on it but you never went all in, it was counterintuitive to your goal of sitting quietly at the table and admiring the dealer. 

The second he realized he’d lost, his cards and chips were gone, his place at the table completely empty as Nocturne pulled them away, clearly eager to be rid of the man. 

“Tough luck, better luck next time bud.”

You heard the man muttering expletives to himself as he left and you shot Nocturne a grateful look. He was impossible to read considering he had no visible features on his face, more a silhouette than anything, but you liked to think he’d understood your gratitude.

But with no real way to tell, you picked up your new hand of cards and prepared to lose another round. 

A few hands later, you had lost all your chips and left the table after lingering for just a bit too long. Normally you headed right home, not having much to do in the casino other than hover around your favorite shadow monster but tonight you decided to hit the bar. It had been a long week, you’d earned a drink or two. 

You ordered something light, content to just sip at it as you looked absentmindedly around the casino, letting your mind wander. 

You were brought out of your quiet daydreams by the sounds of arguing right next to you. As you turned, you saw the guy from earlier with your favorite dealer standing between you and him. 

You tuned in mid conversation, just barely catching what the belligerent man was saying as he tried to push past Nocturne. 

“-just wanted to buy them a drink, nothing wrong with that.”

Nocturne was unmoving. “You’ve clearly had too much to drink yourself, I think you should leave the bar now.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about, I’m feeling just fine.”

“Listen, leave now and I won’t have you banned, alright?”

He rolled his eyes. “Whatever, it’s not worth it anyways.” The guy stormed off, clearly upset but not quite willing to pick a fight with the shadow, leaving just the two of you in his wake. Nocturne’s shoulders were tense, clearly still wound up from the interaction as he hissed out, “asshole,” under his breath. He turned to see you looking up at him, wide-eyed, from your chair. 

“Sorry about him,” he said, visibly relaxing as he saw the worried look plastered across your face, “he’s been a nuisance all night.”

“No need to apologize, I should be thanking you for stepping in.”

He dismissed your words with a quick shake of his head. “Someone needed to tell him to get lost. Shame it wasn’t you, I was kind of hoping you’d snap at him.”

“That’s not really my style.”

“No, I guess it isn’t. You’re pretty quiet, it's sweet. Still, he would’ve deserved whatever you might’ve done.”

You couldn’t help but get flustered at the fact that he’d been picking up on your habits, let alone him calling you sweet. “Well, thank you anyways.”

You thought that’d be the end of it, that he’d just walk off, but instead he pulled out the chair next to you and sat. You could feel your heart pounding in your chest. You’d never actually had a real conversation with the man and felt woefully unprepared. 

“You’re here pretty often aren’t you?”

You felt your face heat at the question. It felt more like an accusation, although his tone was as playful as ever.

“Yeah, I guess.” 

He chuckled. “I was worried you’d stop coming with how you’ve been doing. Do you lose that bad at everyone’s table or just mine?”

You blurted out, “I don’t play anyone else’s table,” before you could think.

His head cocked to the side, his curiosity clear despite his difficult to read face, made of the same shifting shadows as the rest of him. 

“I’m only here every other week, what do you do when I'm not here?”

You sighed, well aware that you’d been caught. “I don’t come.”

He let out a faint laugh. “Looks like we’re on the same schedule then. What’re the odds?”

“Yeah. Crazy coincidence.” You could tell neither of you believed your little excuse but you were glad he wasn’t pushing, you knew you would’ve crumbled immediately.

“You know, one would think you’d get better at poker over time but you don’t seem to be improving, might want to try another game.”

You laughed. “I’ve thought about it. I know I’m garbage at the game but I like poker.”

“What about someone else’s table then? Maybe I’m unlucky.” You could tell he was teasing you, testing how far you would go. 

“I don’t think that’s true. I like your table.”

“Good. I like having you there. You always run out so quickly though, I never get the chance to talk to you after. I should thank you sometime, you’re my most loyal customer.”

“There’s no need to thank me, I just like playing with you. At your table, I mean.” You were barely making sense at this point. Frankly, you were just glad you hadn’t made a complete fool of yourself yet. 

He thought for a minute, clearly sizing you up before he spoke. “I could teach you, you know.”

“What?”

“To play better. Maybe that way you won’t lose every hand. I wouldn’t want to lose my most loyal customer because they got discouraged. Besides, you're so sweet, never cause any problems, the best player a dealer could wish for, you’ve earned a lesson or two.”

“I won’t stop coming even if I keep losing.”

“Sweet even now. Let me teach you anyway?”

You managed to squeak out an “Okay” which was a minor miracle. 

“Alright.” He stood up and began to walk away, leaving you sitting uncertain behind him. He turned, his shadowy face unreadable but his head cocked to the side. “Are you coming?”

Now? This had escalated very quickly. You thought back to what he’d said, about you running off too quickly. Had he wanted to do this before? Talk to you and invite you home? You quietly cursed yourself for not staying sooner to find out. 

You hopped up from your seat and chased after him as he left, not wanting to get left behind as he led the way, leaving your barely started drink sitting at the bar. 

This was admittedly ill advised. But to be fair, it wasn't like he was a complete stranger, you had been talking to him regularly for months and months, even if it was just at the table. You trusted him, you decided as you trailed behind him back to his apartment that he’d told you was nearby. As ill advised as that trust might be you couldn’t help it. 

He invited you inside his apartment and you sat on the edge of his couch, uncertain of how the evening was going to go. As you watched Nocturne, he sat next to you and pulled a deck of cards seemingly out of nowhere. 

“You’re not supposed to bring your work home with you, you know,” you said. 

“Don’t worry, I don’t make a habit of it, only when my cutest customer needs some lessons.”

That was it. You were certain you couldn’t get any more flustered. You could feel your heart hammering in your chest, still half convinced that you must be dreaming.

He dealt the cards to you just as naturally as he did at the table. You couldn’t help but stare at his hands as he flicked cards between them effortlessly. You knew he was showing off so you didn’t even bother to try and hide your staring which seemed to amuse him. 

He let you look at your cards and you were uncertain as to what you were meant to be doing. Ultimately, you spent most of the time staring at him and completely ignoring your cards when his hand fell on your knee. 

As soon as he touched you, your vision blacked out.

It was massively disorienting. You knew that this was what happened when you touched any shadow creature, some old evolutionary trait they used to hunt prey that they couldn't control, but you'd never experienced it before. 

His hand rested on you patiently, waiting for you to gather your bearings or to push him off. You opted for the former, slowly adjusting to your newfound lack of sight.

Eventually, his patience wore out. “Play the hand.”

“I don’t know what cards I have,” you stuttered. You could practically hear the blood rushing in your ears as your heart raced, the pressure from his hand the only thing you could focus on. 

“You're trying to learn to play and you’re not even keeping track of your cards?”

“I was distracted.”

You could hear him snicker, his grip on your knee tightening slightly. “I’m sure you were. No wonder you keep losing, maybe this will help you stop staring at me and actually play the game.”

Somehow, his firm grip on your leg was not helping you focus. His touch was all you could think about, despite him listing off your cards to you, much closer than he’d been before. 

His hand drifted up to cover your eyes, as if your sense of sight wasn't already entirely severed just from his touch. “Half the time you lose it seems like you don’t even remember what you have, you know. Maybe if you spent less time looking at me with those big, sweet eyes you’d actually be able to play a competent game.”

“Odd teaching technique,” you managed to squeak out, trying to cut the tension in the air with a joke and decidedly failing.

“It seems to be working for you.”

“I still don't even remember my cards.”

“You know that's not what I’m talking about.”

He listed off your cards again, his hand covering your eyes. You didn’t remember any of it. No matter how hard you tried you just couldn’t focus. “You’re a worse student than you are player.” At the sound of the mockery in his tone, you couldn’t help but push your thighs together, hoping he didn’t notice the gesture. 

“You’re very distracting, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.”

And then his lips were on yours. You sunk into the kiss, the cards dropping from your hand to the floor, immediately forgotten, and your eyes falling shut, despite the fact that you’d already been robbed of your sight. 

You parted your lips for him, letting his tongue explore your mouth. It felt not unlike the tendrils that you could feel brushing against you, the ones you’d been staring at for so many months.

The kiss was desperate. Before long, your clothes were being pulled off frantically. You were helping him as best you could in between kisses, quickly being left in only your underwear as he pressed you into the couch. 

He pulled away and you could feel his gaze on you as you sat in the dark, desperate for more. 

“I’d guessed you had a little crush on me but I didn’t know you were only playing at my table. Do you get all pretty just to come and see me?”

You let out a whine, unable to form words and he laughed at you. 

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

You felt the shadowy tendrils begin to extend from him. One curled around your ankle, slowly wrapping all the way up your leg, feeling longer than you’d ever seen them before. How many could he even make? Surely there must be some end, but the further they ensnared you the more it felt like they must be infinite, how else could they feel this all encompassing. As they finally finished their meandering journey up to your thighs, you felt them pull your legs apart, forcing you open. Your eyes opened to no avail, you were still shrouded completely in darkness. 

He tore your underwear, or maybe he cut it, you couldn’t tell, all you knew was he was eager to get to you and you couldn’t care less about the state of your underwear right now. 

Nocturne took advantage of your newly freed core immediately as his legs slotted between yours, still pinned open for him. You could feet another tendril pushing against you, this one not growing and snaking around you like the rest, instead sitting where his dick would be.

You wondered if he could feel things through his tendrils, if it felt the same as sex would for a human. Or maybe he just got off on watching you squirm and come undone beneath him. 

Your hips jerked forwards, begging for friction, but the tendrils wrapped around your legs, as well as a new one snaking slowly around your waist, held you firmly in place.

He tutted at you, shaming you for your desperation. “You're normally so well behaved for me, I touch you and you lose all your manners? Ask nicely.”

“Please,” you choked out and mercifully, that seemed to be enough. He thrust inside of you and you couldn’t help but let a cry escape from you as he did, his mouth immediately crashing into yours to smother the noise.

He must be able to control it because you felt the tendril inside you flicking to hit that perfect spot inside of you, your back arching up as it did. 

You could barely keep track of all the places you were being touched, hands and tendrils covering you. Occasionally he would drop down to kiss you and you when he did you clung to him like he was your lifeline. 

Then something else brushed against your lips, something you quickly identified as another one of his seemingly endless tendrils.

“Open up for me,” he said, his voice coming out strained as he clung to your sides, his thrusts getting more and more erratic. 

You let your mouth open and immediately the tendril pushed inside, filling your mouth. You moaned around it as the tendrils holding you down tightened and the ones inside of you curled. You rubbed your tongue over the bottom of the one in your mouth and you could hear what sounded almost like a whine escape him, immediately feeling pride rush through you that you’d been able to pull the noise from him and repeating the action. 

He didn’t last much longer than that, his pace becoming punishing as he neared his climax, you hurtling towards yours as well. 

Another tendril moved to rub your clit, or maybe it had already been there. It was hard to tell at this point. You had a feeling that this would be disorienting even if you could see but in the darkness you felt mindless, unable to focus on anything but what you were feeling. 

You finally reached the edge, you back arching up into him, fighting against the control of your writhing bindings as pleasure burnt through you, clenching down around him as wave after wave hit you. If you thought that you were barely able to think before, now you were entirely gone, lost in the sensation. 

As your orgasm began to fade and sensitivity started to take over, he thrust into you one final time and you could feel him come, your mouth and your cunt filling with the sticky substance as he came inside of you. You swallowed it, feeling the tendril flex as your throat constricted before it pulled out of you. 

As you came to, you realized he hadn’t come just in your cunt and your mouth, but out of every tendril that had been wrapped around you. Your upper thighs took the brunt of it, an absolute mess left behind. You still couldn’t see but you could imagine what you looked like based off of the sensations alone. 

A fond chuckle escaped him as your bindings unwound. “I made a real mess of you. Come on, let's get you in the shower.”

You could barely stand and so instead his arm fell over your shoulders while a tendril snaked around your waist, holding you steady as he walked you to the bathroom, removing the minimal clothing that was left over. 

Your mind was slower on the recovery than your limbs were, regaining the ability to stand long before the ability to think returned. He didn't seem to mind. Even after your ability to stand properly came back, he kept you pressed up against him, head resting on his chest and his arms and shadowy tendrils keeping you safe as you showered in the pitch black than had started to become comforting.

After the showder he gave you a towel so you could dry off, leaving you to do the same and for the first time since this had all begun, you could see again. You gave yourself a once over in the mirror and saw quickly that you indeed looked like a bit of a mess. You couldn’t seem to shake the dazed look in your eyes. 

Just as quickly as your sight had returned it was gone again. The second you were back in arms reach his hands were on you again, thumb brushing over your cheek. 

“You going to stay the night?”

“If that’s alright.” Despite everything, you still felt shy around him, not wanting to impose. 

“Of course it’s alright. Honestly, I’d rather you did.”

Despite his eagerness to have you stay, he seemed kind of distant as you settled into the bedroom, keeping his distance from you as you both laid down.

“Is everything alright?” You were worried you’d done something wrong, said something and messed this up. 

He quickly shook his head, dismissing your fears. “It’s just that sometimes people are off put by the whole not being able to see thing, I figured I’d give you your space.”

“Oh.” You weren’t sure how to respond to that. You supposed it was a little disorienting, but you didn’t want him pulling away from you and thinking that you didn’t like it so you put your nervousness aside and piped up. “It’s not off putting to me. I kind of like it, it’s hot and like… safe? I guess? I don’t know, there’s something kind of comforting about it. So you don’t have to keep your distance. If you don’t want to, that is.” You were stumbling over your words a little but you managed to get the sentiment out and that was what counted. 

Per usual, he seemed to find your nervousness very amusing. He grabbed your arm and pulled you over so you were basically laying on top of him, his arms and a tendril or two surrounding you. “How did you get so cute?”

You managed a shrug, already drifting off in the darkness. “I dunno, I just am.”

After a moment of consideration, he spoke again, his words sounding very intentional, like he’d really thought them through. “You know, you're god awful at poker, you're going to need a lot more lessons if you ever want to get better at this.”

You snorted. “Oh please, I'm hopeless, I don’t think I’ll ever get better.”

“We’ll never know if we don’t try.” Somehow, despite his words, you imagined you were going to be playing a lot less poker than normal in the coming weeks.

“My knight in shining armor, thanks for all the help.”

“Anything for my favorite customer.”

#terato #terato writing #teratophillia #monster x reader #monster x human #monster boyfriend #monster bf #shadow monster #shadow monster x reader #I've been in a real shadow monster mood lately #love them