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That's a Wrap!

Part 8

For DuskCypher

By Draconicon

I'm going to end this man's whole career...

Charlie made a show of looking at the new settlement offer on the table, doing his best to keep his smirk from getting too big. He knew precisely what was written there, knew that it was a fairly generous offer. It had to be: Henry knew better than anyone just what sort of things could come out if this actually went to court, particularly with all the digging that Charlie's lawyers had done in the last twenty-four hours.

Ring ring.

Ring ring.

"Are you going to get that?" Henry grunted.

"No, I think I'll let that go to voicemail."

Ring ring.

Ring ring.

Ring ring.

As it clicked over, he went back to reading. That would have been Maurice calling. The hamster had been dead-set on getting in touch for the last day or so. Obviously, something had happened, and he was either trying to find a way to get Charlie to settle with him so that they could move on with the series, or he had found a spine. Either way, the black cat didn't want to deal with that. He was done working through middlemen. He was taking care of this one himself, particularly with what he actually wanted.

The settlement on the table had gone from one million to three. Considering that Henry's net worth was somewhere in the neighborhood of eight million, and all the cash was going to come from the lion's accounts directly, it was a bigger jump to the settlement than it sounded. But the cash wasn't all that Charlie was after.

He gave it a show of perusing it for a moment, then passed the paperwork over to the lawyer on his left. Mr. Middleton, of Middleton, Uppercrust, and Lowbrou, was a shrew, and as shrewd as one might have imagined. The lawyer gave the paper one glance, then nodded at Charlie.

"I think that we need something more than this."

"More?!"

Thump! The lion was on his feet on the other side of the table, only to be pulled down by the rat lawyer that he had brought along. Charlie didn't lose his smile. If anything, it got that much broader as he realized just how rattled his old 'colleague' actually was. Henry must have realized just how far this could go, finally.

No more deluding himself.

No more hiding behind all these excuses.

Finally, a reality check for the Hollywood big-shot. It was so satisfying. He chuckled under his breath, shaking his head as he tapped the sheet of paper.

"The money is a good offer, but we both know that there's something even better that you can surrender."

"I'm not losing my house," the lion said. "And if you think that I'm giving up any of my other...privileges..."

Ring ring.

Ring ring.

They both ignored the phone, though Charlie refused to mute the thing. He wanted it on the table, keeping it clear that there were others that wanted to give him offers, others that were no longer on Henry's side. After all, Maurice wasn't calling the lion. He was calling Charlie. That was good enough for the black cat.

Charlie laced his fingers together as he leaned forward. If there was one thing that he had learned in this role, it was that you should never, ever settle for something less than you were worth. If you wanted something, you didn't go for second place. You went for that, and you found a way to make yourself worth it.

"I don't want the money."

Henry went quiet. The lion was finally listening, then. Good. Charlie continued.

"I want something better."

"Like what?"

"Like your shares of the studio."

"..."

"Not all of them, of course." Much as he would have wanted them, but even Mr. Middleton had been clear that asking for that much would have been inviting the pair of them to be laughed out of the room. "But a majority. 55% of your share."

"...You're kicking me out."

"I'm removing a problem."

"Removing - you think I'm the problem?!"

Once more, Henry jumped to his feet, and this time, his lawyer was no use at pulling him back down. The lion jabbed a thumb against his chest, gesturing at himself again and again.

"I was the one that kept FDN running ever since Maurice took the helm. I'm the one that kept his vanity projects from sinking the studio. I'm the fucking one that made sure that the studio didn't die when the IRS came running in, and when his investors wanted their money back.

"If it wasn't for me, Game of Bones would never have gotten out onto the worldwide market. The studio wouldn't be a household name."

"And if it wasn't for you, the studio would have been successful enough with Game of Bones that it could have written its own ticket anywhere. But because of you, four actors had to quit, you got the writer fired halfway through the show, and the whole thing crashed and burned around you because you weren't good enough to carry the show on your own after fucking it up for your own perverted desires."

"Perverted - we're a goddamn porn studio in all but name."

"Because of you," Charlie said, slowly crossing his arms. "And we both know that, with how much you're putting out, you're not exactly keeping up on the paperwork, are you?"

"..."

The rat finally pulled Henry back down, and Charlie smiled. That was just what he was looking for. Mr. Middleton and his associates had made it very clear that there was less paperwork being filed by the studio than there should have been, less of the releases and legal paperwork than should have been coming out of a studio that was producing that much adult material. That meant that Henry had gotten a little lax about that stuff, relying on the fact that FDN wasn't a true porn studio to be able to keep the paperwork down. Probably looking for ways to enforce his own desires on the actors more often than not, keeping them from getting compensation that they were entitled to, and fewer rights for what they could get out of him for using them.

Charlie hadn't been that stupid. He had looked through his contract, and he had gone through various other little bits and bobs with Maurice afterwards, ensuring that his privacy was under strict protection. The moment that Henry had gone behind his back, it had opened the floodgates.

And now, the lion had to pay the price.

Charlie smiled as he cocked his head to the side, fixing the lion with the biggest grin that he could summon.

"Now, here's what's going to happen."

"You're dictating to me, now?"

"No. I'm giving you two possibilities."

"...I'm listening."

"For once."

"Just tell me what you're asking for, Charlie."

"I will."

As Charlie snapped his fingers, Mr. Middleton pulled out a folder. Inside were all the papers necessary to sign over Henry's shares - or at least, just over half of them - of FDN to Charlie. There were other little pieces of paperwork, ensuring that this would be the end of the lawsuit, that the rest of the court work would be buried provided that Henry never came forth to challenge this acquisition of shares, but by and large, it was a folder of surrender. They passed it across the table, and the rat started reading through it as Charlie explained.

"Option one. You sign that, I take most of your shares, and we get on with our lives. You go back to the studio, neither of us ever brings up what happened again, and you never show another one of those cut tapes to any investors or anyone else ever again. Other than that, your life goes on the way that it always did, and you get to keep what's left of your career."

"...And option two?"

"I take this to court, and I bury you."

"You will have to convince a judge."

"I might be a star in the studio, but that doesn't mean that I have a reputation. I have shown my body. But that was always when extremely drunk. I have a list - a goddamn list - of all the pharmaceuticals that you guys shoved down my throat to get me to perform on stage. How will that play out for the court, hmm? Drugging your actors to make them perform?"

Henry gritted his teeth, and if there weren't claw marks on the other side of the table at that point, Charlie would eat his metaphorical hat. The lion was as angry as he had ever seen the other feline, and clearly wanted any other option than the pair of them.

But there wasn't. Charlie had seen to it that there was no clear way out. There was no easy way out. For once, all the power was out of the Hollywood Man's hands and in the hands of the common people.

And the rat knew it. The lion's lawyer's face fell, and he pushed the paper to Henry. He whispered in his client's ear, and Henry's face fell, too.

"...Fine. You fucker."

"You've been the fucker. Now you know how it feels to be fucked," the black cat said.

"Just...give me a pen."

Charlie produced one, and the signing was done. No problems, no further words exchanged. Henry stood up with all the anger and frustration washing off him like he had just taken a cold shower, and he walked out with a blank expression on his face. The rat watched him go, turned to the cat -

"Don't even offer," Mr. Middleton said. "Outside of LA, there's no need for your kind."

The rat bobbed his head, running out after Henry. Charlie, on the other hand, let out a long sigh of relief as he slumped back in his chair.

"Well, that worked."

"Yes. Indeed," Mr. Middleton said. "I trust that our fees will go through later today?"

"Of course, of course."

"Good. A pleasure working with you, Mr. Dusk."

"And you."

The shrew packed up and followed the others out through the door, leaving Charlie alone in the meeting room. They'd booked it for the day, but they'd barely needed it for a half hour. Shows what happened when someone knew what they were doing, he supposed.

Ring ring.

Ring ring.

Heh...Maurice...

He picked up the phone and tapped the button. For the first time in twenty-four hours, he took the hamster's call.

"Charlie? Charlie, please tell me you're there."

"It's me."

"Oh thank god. Look. Don't do anything stupid. I've figured out a way to take care of the whole thing. I promise."

The black cat arched an eyebrow at that, pulling the phone away from his head and looking at the screen. This was Maurice, right? There was just about a small chance that the hamster would have found a spine in the intervening few days since he walked out of the studio, but an actual solution to removing Henry as an investor and main member of the studio? That seemed to be a little...odd. He pulled the phone back to his head.

"I made some phone calls. I don't need to have Henry involved as an investor anymore, we have money coming in for that. I - I can take care of that. I promise. Just don't leave. Don't take this further. I don't know how we're going to keep this going after this, but I don't want you to -"

"I took care of Henry."

"...You what?"

"You don't have to worry about him anymore."

Nobody did. He reached out for the folder, looking down at it and tossing it up and down against the palm of his hand. The idea that he had most of Henry's shares in FDN was a huge thing, and the fact that that meant that he and Maurice could just outvote Henry on anything from now on meant that the studio was going to be on a much more even keel. Hell, the whole workplace would probably be a hell of a lot more comfortable for all of them after this, all things considered.

"What did you do?" Maurice asked. "Charlie? Charlie, what did you do?"

"I told him the truth."

"Henry doesn't care about that."

"He does if it'll get him in trouble." Charlie chuckled. "And he was going to get in a lot of trouble this time, if this went to court."

"But...it's not going to?"

"Nope. You're talking to your new partner."

The silence on the other end of the phone told him that he had pulled a move that had surprised Maurice, too. He didn't blame the hamster. Henry had been something of a monolith inside the studio, someone that you just accepted could never be brought down or shifted, no matter what you did. All you could do was manage the asshole.

Until now.

"I'll be in tomorrow to talk about new ideas."

"You're...my new partner?"

"I have 55% of his shares."

"Holy...holy..."

"I think that should make it a lot easier for us going forward."

"You have no idea. I got merchandising stuff to talk about with you later, but...yes, tomorrow. Tomorrow will be good."

Merchandising. So, Maurice had been busy. That would explain how they had the funds to deal with Henry being kicked out of the picture, at least, and it meant that they weren't so vulnerable to all the predators that he had been inviting in to invest in the studio. They had other ways of funding it.

All the better for my future.

"Anyway. I'm going to celebrate."

"Just as long as you're not -"

"I'm the one with the 'shy dick,' remember?"

"...Sorry, Charlie. I didn't mean it like that."

"It's fine. Just don't start talking about me like that with anyone else. The Madame is the only one with that sort of permission."

"Understood. And...can't wait to work with you."

"Goodbye, Maurice."

Ending the call, he pushed the phone to the edge of the table, shaking his head in disbelief. In one day, things had gone from Hell to Paradise, and they showed every possibility of getting even better. The fact that the studio was in such a better place was down to him and Maurice, and they were going to run it successfully. No more fucking with the professionals, no more making life hell for those under them.

This was going to be different.

And he felt...good. He felt better than he had since he started on his life of weight loss and recovery. Hell, he felt like he used to feel back when he was thin the first time, when he had the chance to party all the time, when he had people looking at him without knowing who he was, just knowing that he was hot and was worth their time. It was a feeling that he hadn't had for so long that he barely knew what to do with it.

Barely, but still did.

One more phone call...

He reached for his phone and speed-dialed the Madame. The lioness picked up, and from the sound of it, she was still at the studio. Sound-checking, it seemed like, and working with the tuners for the in-studio orchestra, getting the soundtrack for the second season written.

"What do you want, Charlie?" she groaned.

"To party."

"What, you? Party? Since when?"

"Since now."

"Heh. How much have you been drinking without me?"

"Not enough. I want to get something good going. Where do you want to meet?"

"...You're serious?"

"Deadly serious."

"...Meet me in an hour at Andy's. We'll make a go of it."

Andy's happened to be a bar down on the river, one of the old dives on the border of the French Quarter where people went to get drunk, get down, and have a good time in the old part of town. There were places there that had lasted since the old colonial times, and there were parts of the bar that touched on them and kept them in good condition...mostly as back-rooms where people could go and fuck like the debauched fools that they were.

Charlie had never been that interested in them in the past, considering that they were still rather public, but for the first time in his life, he was actually considering it. He'd had no less than five offers for a night of fun since coming out to the bar, and that was with the Madame filtering out the worst of them for him. She was pulling wingman triple-duties today, and the lioness was still working through a queue of different men for him.

Charlie had even taken the route of dressing up for the occasion, changing out his usual dark trousers for something more form-fitting, showing off at least a hint of his bulge and the cut of his legs, running back to an ass that didn't have that much experience but could still do a bit. He smiled as he pulled at his jacket, surprised at himself that he had bothered putting on a tighter shirt, too, one that showed off all the muscles that he had worked so hard to get.

As a matter of fact, he felt good. Overall, he felt great, particularly since it had been over twenty-four hours since he'd had Viagra shoved down his throat. The lack of that was definitely something that made him feel better.

He shook his head as he declined the company of the latest guy, however, sending the wolf back to the crowd. The Madame joined him afterward, sitting down on the barstool beside him.

"So what was wrong with that one?" she asked.

"Too keen."

"Too keen? Is there such a thing?"

"Come on. You turn down the desperate guys, too."

"Yeah, but not before riding their faces."

"I don't want to start a legion of stalkers, though," Charlie said, shaking his head as he watched the wolf go. "He wanted to be boyfriends."

"...Ah, shit."

"Yeah."

That was the downside to being famous. A lot of people didn't just want to get laid. They wanted to take it further, have all that intimacy and fame to go along with it. There was something rather horrifying about that, actually; you felt like you were less another person and more an elevator for someone else to ride to the status of fame and fortune. He was starting to get why celebrities tended to date other celebrities rather than the common people. It wasn't that they thought that they were better than their fans, it was just hard to trust their fans to like them for them.

He shook his head, holding out his shotglass for a refill. The bartender brought over the vodka and poured it, and he took a few slow sips. It was nice to enjoy it slowly sometimes, even though it was mostly just a burn down his throat.

As he looked over the room, he saw a few men eyeing the lioness. He chuckled.

"You might get lucky before me tonight."

"Oh, I do that every night," she said, waving her hand dismissively. "I'm just quicker about it."

"You have another advantage too, you know."

"What's that?"

"You're a woman."

"Heh, that's true. There's always someone that wants it; you can just lift your skirt and get it on a street corner, if it comes down to it."

He nodded, biting off a chuckle. The Madame had never gone home alone that he had seen. She always had at least one guy on her arm at the clubs and bars, and another one on her arm when she was leaving. Considering how much she put herself out there, that wasn't any real surprise; she didn't have the sort of shame that other people did about being seen as a slut. She just got what she wanted, and that was all that mattered to her.

Got what she wanted...

He looked down at his own shotglass. He was getting what he wanted, wasn't he? All that money, that new position...

But not someone for me...

Maybe there was something to be said for that sort of partying. Maybe there was something fun to be had with some of these hook-ups, one-night-stands, and things like that. He had avoided the groupies that had come up with the show, wanting to be a little more of a stand-up guy than the average actor, but maybe it was time for him to start taking advantage of it. Maybe he could -

The door thumped open, and through it stepped a familiar face. Charlie's eyebrows went up as he saw the dark-skinned orc in the doorway, though he wasn't surprised when Johnny turned to him and made a beeline towards the bar.

Yet, despite the last time that they had 'talked,' he didn't get up and run. If anything, he felt rather curious, particularly with that slightly worried face that Johnny had on him. There was something new here, something...interesting.

The orc sat down at his side, tight jeans framing a cock that was barely concealed. But at least it was concealed this time, which was better than the last time that they had been out at a party. Charlie rolled around, facing the bar rather than the rest of the building. Johnny leaned in, whispering.

"So, after I say how sorry I am for last time, how much vodka do I gotta buy you to make it clear I mean it?" Johnny asked.

"Six bottles."

"Done."

"High-end."

"Easy."

And so, they sat, and they drank. It was casual, and it was something that Charlie was used to. There were plenty of times in the past when he and the Madame had gotten drunk as could be, doing stupid things that they would never remember the next day. More than once, he had gotten up on a pole and danced the night away when they were at those sorts of clubs, but they were always doing that when he was so black-out drunk that there was no chance that he would remember it the next day.

Today, he was making sure that he kept his drinking slow. Sure, over a number of bottles, but it was better than just slamming them down and remembering nothing. It kept a good buzz going, and while it was definitely leaving him a little on the inebriated side...

Well, there was always that pleasurable feeling of his cock sliding down the front of his pants, getting stiffer the longer that he was next to the orc. The big guy was just friendly enough to keep his interests going, and...

Well, he couldn't deny that those leather pants were perfect for showing off the orc's shape. He might not have been one for the public sort of play, but he didn't mind clothed show-offs.

Charlie glanced down the side halls of Andy's bar, once more reminded of the other things that the bar offered. Back rooms where people could go to work out some of that drunken lust. Rooms of old time and old debauchery, specifically kept for those reasons. They were cheap, too, and out of the way. Everyone knew what you were going to do, though...

But if nobody saw...

His cock twitched at the idea of having some fun again. Natural fun this time, not the sort of stuff that was filmed for the studio. He tapped his finger against the bar as he considered it, and this time, through all the alcohol in his system, he felt...willing. Not entirely excited, of course, but willing.

"Johnny."

"Hmm?" The orc had been warming to some topic or other, but had stopped the moment Charlie said his name. "What's up?"

"You still...interested?"

Thump.

"Heh...that answers that question," the cat said, tossing back a shot to kill that slight disdain that came from the public display. He pushed the glass away, muttered something to the bartender about the remaining bottles, then offered his hand. "Come with me?"

"...Yes, sir."

There was a grin in the orc's voice, a happy tone that he rather liked to hear. He took the big guy's hand, leading him down the side halls to the very back of Andy's bar. He caught sight of the Madame as he did, and the lioness gave him a grin, and a thumbs up. He ignored it; there was no point in drawing further attention just yet.

They went down the old stone hall, marked with old murals and newer bits of spray-paint that some drunk asshole had left behind. Charlie ignored all that, making his way to the last room at the end of the hall and sliding inside. Johnny followed, but rather than immediately shutting the door, the orc paused.

"I, uh, thought of something after last time," the big guy admitted.

"Huh?"

"Madame told me you hated people knowing what you did."

"...Yeah?"

"So, uh..."

Johnny pulled a pack off his shoulder, something that Charlie had been a little too drunk to notice last time. He cocked his head to the side as the orc slid some sort of foam runners over the top and bottom of the door, and - after shutting it - applied something similar to the part near the handle. Suddenly, all the noise from the bar outside went away, the sound completely blocked out.

"Noise-Out," Johnny explained. "Thought we could have some privacy."

"..."

"Got a black-out blind for the window, too, if you -"

One moment, Charlie was in the middle of the room; the next, he was sliding into Johnny's arms, kissing the orc on the cheek, grabbing his ass, and dragging him back to the ratty little bed in the corner of the room. He wasn't sure what had come over him, but he was harder, hornier than the alcohol could explain, and he needed to get his dick in something right then, right here.

The orc didn't do anything to slow him down, either. They were soon in bed together, stripping off their clothes. Johnny managed to get his cock out without ripping his clothes this time, showing off a remarkable amount of restraint, while Charlie got his own clothes off and grinned as he flexed his cock, bobbing it up and down now that there was no risk of them being seen, or overheard.

"Wow..."

Johnny's grunt of surprise went without response as Charlie grabbed their cocks together, holding them, stroking them, grinding them against each other. Despite the orc's greater size, the cat was on top, holding them both down, narrowing his eyes and staring right into his co-star's pair.

"Mmph...you can listen..." Charlie muttered.

"Yeah...guess I can."

"You're going to get it tonight..."

"I better."

"Oh, you will."

He squeezed tighter, knowing that it wasn't dissimilar to a scene that the pair of them had done together for the tv series. Him as the devil, Johnny as an incubus, and the devil properly claiming his property. Fuck, that had been a hot idea, and would have been all the hotter if they hadn't been on camera.

But they weren't on camera now, were they?

With another growl of pure lust, he pushed the orc backwards, shoving Johnny's head back to the pillow. The tusked man couldn't stop him, or at the very least, did nothing to slow him down, and Charlie huffed and puffed, deep in the throes of his own need at that point.

There was no hiding what Johnny wanted. The orc's pucker was, well, puckering, and the cat's cock was eager to take that hole and see how it felt now that there was nobody watching them, now that they were off-script. He rolled his hips down, pressing against his co-star, and he slowly pushed forward.

Either Johnny had pre-lubed or he was just that practiced, because Charlie slid right in. He moaned under his breath, his hands reaching out to grab hold of the other guy's ankles, bending him nearly in half.

"I'm going to take you so hard..."

"Heh, I can't wait," Johnny said.

"No, you don't get it...I'm going to fuck you hard enough that you're not coming to work tomorrow. I'm going to fuck you so hard that you can't think of any dick but mine. And I'm going to do it all...night...long..."

There was just enough of a questioning look on Johnny's face, just enough of that expression of wondering whether the cat could actually pull that off, that Charlie said nothing else. There was no point in saying more. All that he could do now was prove it. He rolled his hips back, taking his time to really feel that pucker sucking along his cock, enjoying the feeling of it wanting to pull his hips right back down.

And then he slammed in again...and again...and again. As soon as he got his rhythm, he sped up, and it didn't take long before those Noise-Out things were proving their worth.

After all, in private, Charlie was as randy as they came...

The End

Summary: Charlie gets what he wants. That's all.

Tags: M/M, Blackmail, Cat, Lion, Lioness, Orc, Anal, Fondling, Frotting, Negotiations, Drunk, Legal, Triumph, Series,