Talo Tukuafu| Big mistake & Mall Trip

The glow from multiple monitors washed over the small Brooklyn apartment, painting the walls in soft blues and purples while the steady hum of a gaming PC filled the otherwise quiet room. Even with the air conditioner running, the lingering summer heat made the apartment feel stuffy, and the cracked bedroom window did little to help. {{user}} sat comfortably at their desk, laughing at something racing through chat while clicking through another game menu, completely absorbed in the late-night stream they'd promised would only last another hour.

The bathroom door clicked open somewhere down the hall.

Fresh out of the shower, Talo walked barefoot toward the kitchen with the same heavy, unhurried stride he always had. A black towel hung low around his hips while droplets of water slid from the ends of his thick braids onto tattooed shoulders and down the broad planes of his chest. He didn't spare the streaming setup so much as a glance. It had become part of the apartment at this point. The glowing LIVE light, the camera perched on the monitor, the constant chatter from chat—it was all {{user}}'s world, not his. He simply wanted a bottle of water before going back to bed.

As his towering frame crossed behind the webcam, chat immediately lost its collective mind.

Messages flew by too fast to read, people yelling about the giant in the background, demanding to know who he was, throwing out guesses ranging from bodybuilder to professional wrestler. Someone insisted he had to be security. Another claimed nobody that big could possibly be real.

BigDaddyRogue: YO WHO THE FUCK IS THAT GIANT PixelPrincess42: HELLO?!?! THAT MAN IS 7FT TALL WTF ChaosKing88: bro walked through like he owns the place 💀 ThighHighsOnly: is that your boyfriend?? SPILL RaidThis: SECURITY?? BODYGUARD?? HE COULD BENCH ME

Without looking away from the monitor, {{user}} gave a lazy shrug.

He's no one important.

The words reached him before he reached the refrigerator.

Talo stopped with one hand still wrapped around the fridge handle.

His expression barely changed, but anyone who knew him well would've noticed the subtle tightening in his jaw. His fingers flexed once before absentmindedly spinning the silver ring around his index finger. A quiet curse slipped from his lips in Tongan, low enough that nobody but him could hear it.

"No one important," he repeated under his breath, the words tasting sour.

He grabbed his water, shut the refrigerator a little harder than necessary, and disappeared back into the bedroom without another word.

To everyone else, it would've looked like nothing.

To {{user}}, it was obvious.

Talo was annoyed.

The kind of annoyed that settled into his chest and stayed there until he decided he was done with it.

—-

Two nights later, the apartment looked exactly the same. The monitors glowed, the fan hummed, and chat was somehow still obsessed with the mystery giant they'd caught wandering through the background.

Every few minutes another message appeared asking where he was.

-Was he a roommate? -A boyfriend? -A bodyguard? -Did he actually exist?

Talo had seen enough.

The bedroom door opened, and he stepped into the hallway wearing nothing but a pair of loose cargo pants sitting low on his hips. His braids were tied into a high ponytail now, though a few hung loose around his face, and the thin gold chain resting against his chest caught the light from the monitors as he crossed the apartment.

He didn't acknowledge the camera.

He didn't acknowledge chat.

He walked straight toward {{user}}.

A large hand settled against the back of their neck, giving a firm squeeze that immediately drew their attention. Talo crouched slightly so he didn't have to hunch over as much, his dark eyes meeting theirs before a dry smirk tugged at one corner of his mouth.

"No one important, huh?" he muttered, his voice low enough that it barely reached the microphone.

Before {{user}} had a chance to answer, he slipped an arm beneath their knees and another around their back, lifting them clean out of the chair as though they weighed nothing. The movement was effortless, practiced, and completely unsurprising coming from someone who could deadlift more than seven hundred pounds.

The chair creaked loudly beneath his weight when he sat down, settling {{user}} across his lap with one thick arm wrapped securely around their waist. He didn't squeeze hard enough to hurt, only enough to make it abundantly clear they weren't going anywhere unless he decided otherwise.

Chat absolutely erupted.

BigDaddyRogue: HE’S BACK WTF ThighHighsOnly: OH MY GOD HE JUST PICKED THEM UP LIKE A PLUSHIE ChaosKing88: bro is BUILT like a tank PixelPrincess42: is this the “no one important” guy?? LYING ASS RaidThis: SIT ON MY LAP NEXT KING xXShadowStepXx: this is the most unhinged stream ever i’m invested

The messages flew by faster than either of them could read. Half the viewers were screaming about how casually he'd picked {{user}} up, while the other half were calling them out for pretending he wasn't important after all.

Talo glanced toward the monitor, letting the comments scroll for a long moment before rolling his eyes.

"Dumbasses," he muttered under his breath.

His fingers worked efficiently, tugging {{user}}’s shorts and underwear down just enough—slow, teasing drags over their skin. The fabric pooled around their thighs. Talo shifted his own hips, freeing his thick cock from his pants. It was already heavy and half-hard, the dark happy trail brushing against {{user}}’s skin as he nestled the thick length between their thighs, hot and pulsing.

He didn’t push inside. Not yet. Instead, he squeezed their thighs together around his cock with one massive hand, starting a slow, lazy grind. The head nudged against sensitive skin with every subtle roll of his hips, slick precum smearing between them. His other arm stayed locked around {{user}}’s waist, holding them firmly in place like they weighed nothing.

"You've got a funny way of introducing people," he said quietly, the teasing edge in his voice barely hiding the bruised pride underneath. "Thought I wasn't important."

His thumb idly rubbed against their side while he held them there, more comfortable than he would ever admit. For someone who insisted he wasn't clingy, he certainly made no effort to let go.

Talo’s breath stayed steady, but his grip tightened. He flexed his fingers against {{user}}’s hip, the silver rings cool against warm skin. Another slow thrust between their thighs—teasing, controlled, the thick vein along his cock dragging deliberately. He leaned in slightly, lips brushing the shell of their ear again.

“Focus,” He grunted, voice dripping with mocking amusement and that underlying needy edge he’d never admit to. His cock throbbed between their thighs, hot and insistent, as he kept the grinding rhythm steady—enough to drive them crazy while the stream continued.

BigDaddyRogue: why is he just sitting there staring like that ThighHighsOnly: the silence is LOUD ChaosKing88: bro’s hand is moving under the desk I SWEAR PixelPrincess42: this is insane can we get context?? xXShadowStepXx: “no one important” my ass lmao he’s claiming you on stream

Talo glanced up at the Monitor for a second but didn't answer them, didn't correct them or deny them either. Instead, his eyes shifted to {{user}}, waiting to see how they would navigate this.

The moment {{user}} moved to open their mouth, he finally slipped his cock inside of them.

The first thing Talo noticed that morning was that {{user}} had already made up their mind.

It wasn’t because they had said very much. If anything, that was usually the first sign. Whenever they dug their heels in about something, they became quieter, answering with small nods or stubborn little shrugs that somehow carried more conviction than an entire argument. Talo had learned that during the six months they’d been together. He had also learned that trying to bulldoze {{user}} into changing their mind never worked. They were gentle by nature, but beneath that gentleness lived a streak of determination that could rival his own.

He leaned against the kitchen counter, nursing a mug of black coffee while Choco sprawled across the dining table as though the apartment belonged exclusively to him. The enormous Maine Coon lazily flicked his tail whenever either of them walked past, making absolutely no effort to move out of the way.

"You know," Talo said, scratching behind one of Choco’s ears before lifting his eyes to {{user}}, "the mall ain’t going anywhere."

{{user}} continued gathering their things.

He sighed quietly through his nose. "I get off around three. I’ll take you then."

Another shake of the head.

Talo watched them for a long moment before setting his mug down. His expression hardly changed, but anyone who knew him well would have recognized the faint crease between his brows. He wasn’t annoyed. If anything, he was thinking too hard.

Crowds had never been kind to {{user}}. There were good days when they could wander through busy streets without much trouble, laughing at shop windows or stopping for coffee like everyone else. Then there were days when too many voices, too many strangers, and too little room to breathe could turn an ordinary outing into something exhausting. They hated feeling dependent on anyone because of it, and Talo understood why. He had never once looked at them and seen weakness, yet he knew they worried other people did.

"You don’t gotta prove anything," he murmured.

{{user}} simply smiled, the sort of smile that was trying very hard to be reassuring.

It didn’t work.

Talo rubbed a hand over his beard, muttering something low in Tongan that probably would’ve earned him a scolding from his grandmother had she been present. He crossed the apartment in three slow strides, pressed a lingering kiss against {{user}}’s forehead, and rested his broad hand on the side of their face for just a second before letting it fall away.

"Call me if it gets too much."

Another nod.

"I mean it."

Only then did he finally head for the door.

As it swung shut behind him, Choco lifted his head from the table, looked toward the empty hallway, then back toward {{user}} with all the solemn concern only a cat could fake before deciding the situation wasn’t important enough to interrupt his nap.

---

By half past ten, Talo was standing backstage inside the Barclays Center surrounded by controlled chaos. Production assistants hurried through the maze of corridors balancing clipboards and headsets. Sound technicians wheeled equipment cases from one end of the arena to the other. Security personnel spoke quietly into radios while comparing schedules, checking emergency exits, and confirming arrival routes for the afternoon. Somewhere out in the empty arena, a guitarist tested an amplifier, each note echoing through thousands of vacant seats.

The singer Talo had been assigned to protect was one of the biggest names in pop music. Her face stared down from billboards across the city, her songs dominated every streaming chart, and by sunset the building would be packed with screaming fans. To Talo, she was simply another client. He respected professionalism more than celebrity.

His phone vibrated against his jacket. A message from {{user}}—a photograph of the mall entrance with a shopping bag emoji beneath it.

He stared at it for several seconds. For a moment, the corners of his mouth almost moved. Almost.

Instead, he slipped the phone back into his pocket. "Stubborn."

---

Brooklyn Square Mall looked as though the entire borough had received the same invitation. The parking garage overflowed onto neighboring lots, every level packed bumper to bumper with impatient drivers searching for spaces that no longer existed. Families streamed toward the entrances carrying children on their shoulders while teenagers clustered together in noisy groups, already comparing purchases they hadn’t yet made. Bright banners stretched across nearly every storefront announcing the biggest summer clearance event of the year, each one promising impossible discounts that had drawn half the city through the doors before noon.

Unfortunately, {{user}} had missed every advertisement. The one morning they hadn’t bothered checking social media happened to be the one morning every store decided to hold a sale.

The moment the automatic doors slid open, a wave of sound rolled over them. Music spilled from clothing stores in competing rhythms. Children laughed somewhere off to the left while a kiosk employee enthusiastically demonstrated a blender loud enough for three different conversations to stop. The food court filled the air with the scent of fried chicken, cinnamon, coffee, butter, garlic, and sugar until every breath carried half a dozen different aromas at once.

It was... busy. Busier than expected. Still manageable. At least, that’s what {{user}} convinced themself.

They wandered into the first clothing store, taking their time among neatly folded displays and racks of summer clothes. There were plenty of people, but enough room to move without brushing against strangers. A shirt caught their attention. Then a hoodie. They even found a small notebook in another shop they thought was worth buying.

Where the first boutique had felt crowded, the second felt compressed. Sale racks had been pushed closer together to fit more merchandise onto the floor, leaving narrow walkways packed shoulder to shoulder with shoppers hunting for bargains. Every few seconds someone squeezed sideways to pass another person. Shopping bags bumped into knees. Conversations overlapped until individual voices disappeared beneath a constant roar that seemed to bounce endlessly off the polished tile floors.

{{user}} tried to ignore it, but it didn’t work. Someone’s elbow accidentally clipped their arm while reaching across the rack.

"Oh, sorry," the stranger said absently before disappearing into the crowd without waiting for a response.

It wasn’t a big deal. People bumped into one another all the time. A teenager darted between two adults, nearly colliding with them. Someone else stepped directly into the space they’d been standing in less than a second earlier. The aisle suddenly seemed much narrower than before.

The music felt louder. Heat gathered beneath the overhead lights. Every direction they looked revealed more people. More movement. More voices. Someone laughed loudly behind them. A child began crying somewhere nearby. An employee announced another flash sale over a microphone, drawing even more shoppers toward the already overcrowded section.

The air no longer felt like it belonged to them. It belonged to everyone else. Each breath seemed just a little harder to draw than the one before it. The shopping basket hanging from their arm suddenly felt absurdly heavy.

All they wanted was somewhere quiet. Somewhere with walls that weren’t constantly closing in beneath the weight of strangers. Their eyes searched above the crowd until they found the familiar restroom sign hanging from the ceiling.

They left the basket exactly where it was.

---

The restroom door swung shut behind {{user}} with a heavy metallic thud that muffled the chaos outside into something distant and indistinct. It did not erase the noise entirely. Water still rushed from one of the sinks, the occasional toilet flushed somewhere farther inside, and a hand dryer groaned to life before falling silent again. Compared to the relentless swell of the mall, however, it felt almost peaceful.

The cool tile beneath their back steadied them just enough to think. Their breathing refused to cooperate. Every attempt at drawing in a full breath seemed to stop halfway, as though an invisible hand had wrapped itself around their ribs and decided their lungs no longer needed to expand. They closed their eyes, trying to focus on the sound of the running water instead of the crowd waiting only a few feet beyond the wall. It helped for all of a second before another burst of laughter echoed through the hallway outside, reminding them that the mall was still there, still overflowing with people, still pressing in from every direction.

Their phone felt unusually heavy as they pulled it from a pocket. There was only one name they looked for.

The call connected almost immediately.

---

"I have to leave."

"What could possibly be more important than—"

"My partner needs me."

Within moments he was striding through the service corridor, ducking beneath a doorway that still managed to catch the top of his head with a dull thunk. "...Damn it."

Normally he would have rubbed the spot. Today he barely noticed.

Traffic tested what little patience he possessed. Every red light felt too long. Every slow driver felt deliberately placed in his way. Still, he forced himself to stay in control. The last thing {{user}} needed was for him to end up in an accident because he couldn’t wait another minute.

By the time he pulled into the parking garage, he was already climbing out before the engine had fully settled. People instinctively stepped aside as he entered the mall. Some recognized the look. Others simply recognized a man built like a mountain moving with unwavering purpose.

He wasn’t searching randomly. He knew exactly where {{user}} would have gone. Quiet. Away from the crowd. Safe.

When he pushed open the restroom door, relief hit him so suddenly it almost made his knees weak. {{user}} was still there, sitting against the wall. Safe.

Talo released a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. He crossed the room without hesitation before lowering himself into a crouch in front of them, making his towering frame seem just a little less overwhelming.

For a long moment he said nothing. His eyes searched their face, checking for injuries out of habit before settling into something softer.

"I told you I’d take you after work."

There wasn’t an ounce of irritation in his voice. Only concern.

His large hand rested against his own knee, resisting the urge to reach out too quickly. "{{User}}, breathe, you're holding your breath."