Limewah's Hypnovember 2025

Day 15 - Infatuation (Taiko)


 "I'm not here to fight. I'm here to bargain."


Every eye in the warm server room was trained upon the bull. None of them could take their eyes off his bright red matador's clothes, his long glistening hair… or the golden blade he held expertly in his hand. He looked like he'd stepped out of a painting by some old master.
All of them looked frightened too… understandably so, since none of them were armed, and he, well… had a sword. Plus… supervillains normally broke into banks, not server rooms for a company that served basically every news organisation in the country.
The heat wasn't ideal for the bull's wool and linen clothing, but… he'd put on a brave face.
"Do not look so fearful, my soon-to-be fans!" The bull said. "I, El Aguijón del Amor, just have one little task for you. A favour, a trifling one… ah-ah!"

He could see someone peeling off, racing for a bright red alarm panel on the wall. A capybara with a greying moustache that made him look a little older than he likely was. He was stocky, and slow… and Amor closed the gap in an instant, pricking him between the shoulderblades with the tip of his blade.
The sword didn't even break the skin. It bent a little, as if it had connected with a plate of armour. But the worker stopped in his tracks. Frozen for a moment.
He then turned to look up at the bull. A wide smile had spread along his face, along with a deep blush. His eyes had turned golden and red, concentric hearts pulsed through them, and he looked like he might melt into the floor.
Especially when the bull reached down to cradle his face in a gloved hand, his sweet breath falling over him.
"There, mi amor… no need for that. Don't betray your love…"
"I love you," the capybara croaked hoarsely.
"Your love is a gift…" Amor replied. He looked over his shoulder at the rest of his… well, he supposed they were his hostages now. "And I think you all have gifts to give! It shall make this ordeal far more pleasant… and it might make it easier for you to do as I command."

Before there could be any objections, Amor leapt into action, metaphorically carving his way through the dozen or so employees still within the room. Each civilian he pricked with his sword immediately started cheering him on as he went for the next one, and the next…
When he was done, there was not a heart that wasn't fluttering with infatuation, not a face that was blushing and beaming…
"There we are!" With a little flourish and spin of his blade, Amor slipped it back into his belt. "Now… my adorers, I have a simple, but important request for you all. And the best part… it involves looking at my beautiful face~!"
That would be a good motivator. He needed every second of footage of him scrubbed from these servers. Obviously, the genie was out of the bottle, he'd been caught carrying out some villainous business on camera… but he could contain the spread somewhat. The last thing he wanted was some group of megalomaniac psychopaths showing up on his doorstep and insisting he join their cabals or somesuch.
If this continued, and everyone kept their mouths shut and their minds on-task… he might be out of there within the next hour or so. How long could it take to wipe a little footage from… a room full of hard drives, each one full of raw footage…?
-

"You are surrounded! Please release the hostages!"
….Things had gone from bad to worse. There was definitely no escaping notoriety now…
"I'm scared," the mustachioed capybara whimpered, huddling his soft body close to Amor. The bull was sitting on the floor, bags under his eyes… this whole process had gone late into the night. Every time someone came across footage of him, they spent a bit too long making goo-goo eyes at it before they remembered that the real thing was in the room, and he wanted that footage gone…
Someone had raised the alarm. Some loved one of one of his new lovers, perhaps. And now, every rival news station in the city was covering the 'hostage situation.' Amor stared at the capybara's phone, and the ongoing coverage, with a constant undercurrent of dread.
And with this publicity, came…
"It looks like Nor is on the scene!"
…Him again.
Amor had a… strong reaction to seeing that alien donkey, covered in red and blue stripes like some cross between a zebra and a poisonous frog. As always, his body was bare, save for a tight pair of black shorts. Undignified. Provocative.
Amor hadn't quite decided if his feelings stemmed hatred or its cousin…
"Now, Deborah, Nor's dealt with this particular villain before, hasn't he?"
"That's right, Minh, and it looks like he's going to head in on his own! El Agugon del Aymor works …."

He didn't hear the rest. He just saw red. They mangled his name!
"Ah…~" He realized he was squeezing his first 'love' a little bit too tightly… not that he seemed to mind all that much.
"Forgive me," Amor said, shoving him aside and standing to brush himself off. "Very well. You-"
He pointed at a little waif-like starling.
"Go out and escort Nor to me. I'll talk with him. But only if everyone else backs off."

They did as was requested. Amor waited by the open door to the server room, standing tall and dignified. He needed to ensure that when the mule laid eyes upon the bull, he'd be putting his best foot forward.. He faced the elevator at the end of the long grid of cubicles, waiting for the chime of the bell and the slow sliding of the door…
Only to see Nor emerge right next to him, from the fire exit in the stairs.
"MIERDA!" Amor leapt back and swung his blade, coming an inch away from the brightly coloured mule's body. Nor took a step back, his hands raised, his opaque eyes widened.
"No need for that," Nor said, quickly. "I'm not here to fight. I'm here to bargain."
Amor's eyes narrowed, his teeth bared in an annoyed snarl.
"What sort of bargain might that be? What would keep me from giving you a kiss with my blade and making you my doting love-slave?"
"A hostage exchange," Nor replied.
"What is this? Are you trying to mock El Aguijón del Amor? Do you think I'm doing this for some sort of ransom? I have no demands to be satisfied by some simple hostage trade!"
"Not even if it was me you took in their place?"
"One life for two dozen?" Amor tutted. "You all have such strange codes of honour, hero and villain alike… besides, what am I even to do with you? How will you help me disappear?"
"The nanites within my body will be able to help. They'll work far faster than these civilians ever could, and the technology within is far more robust; my work will be thorough."
"Hmm." Amor scratched his chin with his free hand. "And why should I trust you?"
"…I'll let you cut me with your sword." Nor said. "If that makes you feel less nervous."
"What?" the bull laughed reflexively. "Really?"
"If it means those innocent people can go home… yes."

There was a moment of silence. Amor considered the offer, his jaw moving slightly as if he was chewing cud.
"Very well, then." he cast his gaze over his cadre of love-struck minions, all of whom were staring at him with wide, pleading eyes. "As much as it might pain you, my darlings… you must go home."
Amor winced as each and every one of them cried out a plea to stay.
"But I don't want to leave!"
"My life isn't complete without you!"
"It'll break my heart…!"

Amor rolled his eyes and sighed.
"You might have to drag them kicking and screaming out…" he said, idly.
Before Nor could react - perhaps he chose not to - Amor's blade whipped forward and nicked him square in the chest
Nor stiffened, just as the others had… and within the white depths of his eyes, a pink heart appeared. As it grew, a red one appeared at its centre and expanded… then a white gap… then pink, then red, then white. They grew exponentially faster. Nor's knees buckled and he slumped forward, a lopsided grin spreading along his muzzle as he stared at the bull…
"My love…" he gurgled. The other love slaves repeated him… out of sympathy, or jealousy.
This wasn't the first time Amor had heard Nor say those words. This hero had a knack for breaking free of mental control of all sorts… so this wouldn't last. And yet… he'd essentially given himself willingly, and from the way he was swaying, the way his feet stumbled as he rushed to embrace the bull… it implied there was more than just the blade's magic at work. At least to Amor.
The bull sheathed his blade and took hold of Nor, sweeping his momentum into a tango dip, before spinning him back up to standing. His big paw held the side of Nor's face.
"Now… mi Amor…" Amor said, his lips pursed in a sweetly flirtatious pout. "Be a dear and turf the rest of these poor lovesick puppies out for me…"
"Yes, My love…!" Nor said, excitedly.

Once the quick - if unpleasant - job was done and the former hostages were safely deposited outside, Nor hurried right back to his matador paramour. The way he practically raced over to Amor was… deeply attractive. Not to mention satisfying.
…Amor tried to keep himself under control. Having this power over someone's heart was potentially corrupting, and he was here to reduce his villainous footprint, not make it worse.

"The police have agreed to back off," Nor said, happily. "We'll be left alone…"
"Well then, mi Amor…" Amor stroked under Nor's chin, cupping it in his index finger and letting his thumb rest on the donkey's parted lips. "Get to it for me, will you?"

Nor didn't waste time. He entered the server room, pacing through the halls of racks, until he found a spot at their centre. He turned his back to it and stepped backwards, his body seeming to sink into the metal, his striped flesh seeping and sticking to the whirring devices held within. As he put his hands out to the side, they too stuck into place. Arterial tendrils spread from them, slowly snaking out through the room and finding ingress. 
He was left exposed, wide open… with a very pronounced bulge in his dark shorts.
Amor licked his lips.
"I'll… be stuck here for a while, my love," Nor said shyly, for he could see exactly where his love was looking. "This will take time."
"And we have plenty of that, now…" Amor said, a smile playing along his face.
He glanced at a screen that had been hooked up. The footage was moving faster than the eye could see - he did see brief flashes of bright red, the shape of his body… in an instant, its form was changed. Shape, size, everything was manipulated into an unrecognizeable figure, and the same one never repeated more than once.
"Once this is done, all your works will be nothing more than hearsay… and you'll be able to keep your privacy," Nor said. His heart-shaped pupils still pulsed and rippled as he stared.
…Yes, Amor's thoughts and feelings towards him were starting to clarify.
He moved in close, placing his hoof-tipped hands on either side of Nor and gripping the racks of the server. From there, he let his hips continue onwards until they pressed right into the mule's own bulge.
"A-ah…" Nor gasped happily. "A-Amor…"
At this distance, Amor got the scent of Nor's breath. It was rather sweet.
"This doesn't… distract you at all, does it?" Amor murmured.
"No," Nor said. "I just have to stay here, and…"
"And let me take advantage of your current state, yes…"
As he spoke, Amor brought his own lips closer, tilting his muzzle, letting his breath meet the hero's in the closing space between their mouths.
When he kissed, Nor's body squirmed and surged beneath him… 
Nor hadn't taken the blade off of him and countered him. Amor knew that much. So this thumping of the heart, the sudden desire to kiss his lips…
It wasn't hatred they shared. It was an intense desire. One that he could no longer resist diving into.
As they kissed, Amor pressed his bulging trousers against Nor's, feeling the squish and firm throb of what was beneath.
Well, he now had an excellent way to pass the time…