Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Welcome, Mat,” Alex says, ushering Mat into the bungalow. “Let’s get you to makeup—”

“You make it sound like you’re going to wipe your shoes on me,” Mat says. When Alex gives him a strange look, he adds, “Welcome, Mat? Welcome mat?”

There’s a pause, just long enough for Mat to feel the hairs on the back of his neck start to prickle. Finally, Alex sighs. “I certainly hope you’ve got better jokes for when we’re actually filming.”

“Right, yeah.” Mat lets out a strangled laugh. It’s a little nerve-wracking, being on a new set like this. He’s been here once before, when they filmed all the team tasks about a month ago. It had been a little stressful, but enjoyable, working with two other contestants. Surely he’ll be just as effective working on his own. He’s blocked out ten days of filming, two straight weeks of being given stupid tasks for the audience’s enjoyment. He hopes he doesn’t get sick of it.

He says hello to some of the workers as he enters: Rex the costume director, Amy the prop master, and Lizzie the camera operator. He’d been having second thoughts already about those tight short shorts, but getting into them again makes his nerves prickle. Alex gives him the rundown on the tasks as he’s getting his makeup done. He nods along—follow the directions, read out loud, focus on the task. All standard stuff.

“Right, then,” Alex says. “Shall we get started?”

Mat nods. “Please.”

The first few days of filming go smoothly enough. Some of the tasks take a bit of lateral thinking, but he completes them all fairly quickly—well, other than the lockbox one, that one was a disaster. But they’ve got to have some failures. After all, it’s more interesting to watch him fail than have him succeed all the time.

And then he gets to the fucking fishtank.

He’s gone through every room fifty times. He’s on the verge of tears. His voice is getting all high and shaky as he frantically tears through everything again, holding two rather large jars of vinegar. It’s got to have been two hours at least. Alex is following him around, and the crew is all looking rather sick of it. Mat feels horrible for pushing them this long. He just can’t find anything vaguely resembling a fishtank.

“You can always give up, Mat,” Alex says eventually.

Mat shakes his head. “I’ve—I’ve been at it for this long. I can’t just take a zero, I can’t.” He pulls at his hair. “Please, I need to—I’ll go mad if I can’t find it. It’ll haunt me for life.” He glances behind him at Lizzie. She’s been following him around with a camera for ages. A twinge of pity goes through him.

“Well, then,” Alex says. “Continue.”

“I—I just don’t know where to look,” Mat says. “I’ve tried everywhere—I know it’s got to be staring me in the face. But I just can’t fucking see it.” He’ll feel so stupid when he finds it, he knows. But there’s got to be something. He knows there’s something. The task wouldn’t just be impossible, would it?

He sets the jars down on the table, trying to recentre his thoughts and take a deep breath. He has to find that fucking fishtank.

“Can I…” He exhales slowly. “Can I have a hint?”

“No,” Alex says. “I can’t give you hints. You know that. All the information is—”

“—is in the task, yeah, I know. But I’m just—I’m too fucking stupid to read the task.” Mat walks over to Alex. “Please, something, anything. I just need—I just need a hint.”

Alex stares at him. He glances to Lizzie, then back at Mat. Lizzie angles the camera away.

Alex licks his lips. “Well, I—I can’t give hints. That’s not how Taskmaster works, Mat. You know this. It’s cheating.”

Mat stares at him. His chest is rising and falling. He just wants to be done with this task. He’ll do anything for it.

“But if, perhaps, I were to be given a… favour… And perhaps I were to let some information slip, unintentionally… I would think that you could use that information.”

Mat’s breath hitches. He stares up at Alex—Little Alex Horne, still somehow managing to be a good three inches taller than him. “What sort of favour?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Something that would show you… really meant it.” Alex glances down significantly.

Mat follows his gaze down to his trousers. His stomach clenches. “No. No, you can’t possibly mean—”

“You have to understand, Mat, we can’t just go around giving out hints willy-nilly. It would go against the rules we’ve put in place to begin with. It wouldn’t be fair to the other contestants, would it?”

“I’m not going to fucking suck you off!” Mat says. Even as he says the words, though, his resistance is growing smaller and smaller, and his desperation to do something, anything to end this godforsaken task is growing.

“It’s your choice,” Alex says. “You can simply try to complete the task on your own. I’m sure you’re fairly close now.”

“I—” The rushing in Mat’s head is only growing louder. He’s not close. He has no idea where to go. But he can’t give up. Not now, not when he’s already sunk two hours into this stupid fucking task.

He stares back at Lizzie, who’s aimed the camera back at the pair of them now. He wets his lips. He’s already embarrassed himself quite a lot on television. It’s not like this is different, is it?

“Fuck. Fine. You win. I’ll—” Mat drops to his knees, letting out a weak sob. “I’ll do it. I’ll suck you off.”

“Excellent.” Alex hardly smiles as he reaches down to unzip his flies. “It won’t have to be long. I won’t make it painful. You just have to give me a good time and we’ll be done.”

“Yeah, see, you say that, but—” Mat’s cut off by the appearance of Alex’s fairly long and very hard cock. He gulps. It’s been quite a while since he’s sucked a cock. He’s not sure if he’ll remember what to do.

“Go on, then,” Alex says. He gives himself a few strokes, then gestures to Mat.

Mat gulps. He reaches out, pressing a hesitant kiss to the tip. Alex inhales sharply, but gives no further feedback as Mat makes shallow, delicate laps around the head. Even as Mat takes him down further, he stays silent, observing.

Mat focuses on giving Alex pleasure. Make it good, Alex had said. He’ll most certainly try to. It would be horrible if he got to the end of this degrading task, only to realise that he hadn’t performed well enough to receive the hint. All his work would be for nothing. He can’t possibly let that happen. So he keeps licking long stripes along the shaft, and pleasuring him deeper and deeper, making sure Alex couldn’t possibly want for anything.

Mat knows, deep in his mind, that this really could only possibly mean the difference between zero points and one. He’s giving a blowjob, ruining his integrity, for one measly point. But also, he’s not willing to let that one point go. Alex would have stopped him, if he truly thought that he was undeserving of that one point. But he hadn’t. His hand is on Mat’s head, not guiding him, just reminding him of who’s in control.

Finally, Alex comes, gripping Mat’s head just a little tighter. Mat thinks about spitting it out, but then thinks that Alex might like it if he swallowed, so he swallows it all down, making eye contact all the while. Alex’s breathing slows, his cock softens.

Mat pulls off slowly. All the weirdness is really sinking into him now. “So?” he manages.

“I think,” Alex says, making a show of buttoning up his trousers, “that you may have earned a hint.”

Mat’s shoulders relax. Yes, it had been impossibly degrading, but it was all worth it in the end.

“The object you are looking for…” Alex pauses. A wry smile twitches at his lips. “Is in a room you’ve already been in.”

“Oh, fuck off!” Mat gets to his feet in an instant. His face is hot. He stares at the camera crew and hopes that they’ll have the decency to edit out all of this. “That’s not fair! I tried my best—”

“Well, I’m sorry, but that’s the way things are going to go,” Alex says. He sits back down, crossing his legs. “You’re going to have to keep looking.”

“Fucking ridiculous—” Mat’s halfway to giving up. He’s been in every room a thousand times. These stupid rules, these stupid prizes—all for one point—He covers his face with his hands, drawing in another breath.

“Unless.”

Mat pauses, staring at Alex. “Unless?”

“Unless you were to happen to bargain for another hint.” Alex looks away, hiding a smile. “I’ve several hints that may be more helpful—for the right price.”

“What would it take?” Mat asks.

Alex arches an eyebrow. “What are you willing to offer?”

Hm. The ball’s in Mat’s court now. He thinks for a minute. Sucking Alex off was barely enough to get him a hint. He’ll have to do more if he wants an answer. Then again, perhaps he should just take the loss and get out of it with his dignity intact—well, as intact as it could be. He’s already lost a fair part of it. And won’t it be worth it to get that prize in the end?

“You can fuck me,” he says before he can stop himself. His heart’s racing; his limbs are quivering. “Hard. As much as you want. Name the position, we’ll do it.”

Alex says nothing.

Mat fidgets. “Um—in front of the whole crew? Where they can all see—film it, even.”

Alex inclines his head, just slightly.

Mat isn’t sure how much more he has to offer. His voice rises, growing more uncertain. “You can, um, come inside?”

There’s a barely-there twitch to Alex’s lips. “I believe we have a deal.”

Chapter Text

The next day, Mat comes to the studio bright and early. He sits patiently as the crew do his hair and makeup. He’d got the clue, finally, and solved the task. His sense of accomplishment was fleeting at best. He was very, very sore when he woke up, but a little paracetamol helped solve that.

Alex walks him to the first task. His face is deadpan and professional. They’re just going to pretend that yesterday didn’t happen, Mat supposes. He can do that. He smiles, getting ready to attack the tasks anew.

“Now, then,” Alex says as he’s walking out to the first task. “We’re on a bit of a time crunch for today and tomorrow, as you took a lot more time than expected yesterday.”

“Yeah, I know,” Mat says. His arse still hurts. But he’s resolved to reset the day and focus entirely on the tasks before him. “I’ll try to hurry.”

The first couple of tasks go quite well. He breezes through them, relaxing into his role as a performer. But then, with the third, he’s got to put wetsuits on mannequins, and he’s found the mannequins, but the wetsuits are nowhere in sight. He’s searching around, but he can’t find anything, anything at all.

“You’ve got ten minutes left, Mat.”

“I know—” Mat feels a buzz on his wrist. He shushes loudly, blinking to will the tears away. He feels like such a failure. He turns to Alex with frantic panic. “Can I—can I have a hint?”

Alex’s eyes widen minutely. He looks away, rubbing the back of his neck. “That was just a one-time thing.”

“It can be a two-time thing,” Mat says, falling to his knees. He did so much for one point. He can’t let another one go without a fight. He looks up at Alex through lowered lashes. His cock is stiffening, both from humiliation and anticipation. “Please. I’ll do anything.”

Alex hums. Lizzie looks away.

“Well, then,” Alex says. “Trousers down. We won’t stop the clock during this, you know.”

Mat hastens to comply, pulling his trousers down around his waist. He’s already hard and leaking before Alex even touches him.

Alex makes a motion to one of the staff members. She hands him a bottle of lube. He uncaps it, coats his fingers, and thrusts into Mat without much haste. Mat yelps as he’s suddenly being scissored open. He leans back into the touch, trying to stifle his whines without much success. He’s on the clock, has to get this done as quickly as possible.

“It really would be easier for the both of us,” Alex muses, “if you had prepped beforehand, wouldn’t it?”

Mat moans, nodding frantically as he pushes himself back on Alex’s hand and wills himself to relax. Anything to make Alex happy, anything to make him more willing to give that little bit of information that would make the task solvable. It’s hard to keep his balance with one finger pressed to his lips, but he lets Alex thrust into his waiting hole and prays it’ll be over fast. The feeling of Alex’s trousers pressing up against his bare arse feels nice, but that’s secondary to the thrumming inside him, pushing him to succeed.

Alex comes inside him. It’s quick and messy, leaving him gushing when he pulls out. Mat whimpers, trying to piece his mind back together. He pulls his shorts up one-handed and turns around to look at Alex.

Alex finishes doing up his trousers. “Three minutes left. You might want to check above the hutch.”

“Fucking hell.” How had Mat missed that? He’s off in a flash, his momentary embarrassment forgotten.

The rest of the tasks for that day went well, and now Mat’s heading into day five of filming. As he steps into wardrobe, however, the costume director places a package into his hands.

“What’s this?” Mat asks. He tears open the package. It’s a good weight, not too heavy.

“From Alex,” Rex says. “In case you’re in need of any more hints.”

“What?” Mat pulls off the wrapper to reveal a large anal plug and a bottle of lube. “What the fuck? No! He’s mad. He’s—”

“You don’t have to. However, Alex has made it clear that you will not be receiving any more hints without it.”

Mat’s protest dies on his lips. He closes his eyes, thinking. Surely—surely he won’t need another. Surely it’s unreasonable to think that he’ll miss another task, three days in a row. Surely he can figure out the tasks, and if he can’t win, surely he can simply lose gracefully, taking those zero points with a smile.

But what if he can’t?

Somehow, the thought of not being able to have hints at all makes him worry. Yes, it’s degrading, and he doesn’t want to do it again… but he’d like the possibility. Sure, none of the other contestants are getting hints—at least, unless they’re as slutty as he is—but they don’t need the hints, unlike him, who’s too stupid to complete the tasks any other way. He’s earned the hints, really. He’ll earn them again.

He takes a deep breath. “Do you have a toilet I can use?”

Rex smiles indulgently and doesn’t comment on how they’ll all see so much more in short order. “Over there to your left.”

Mat preps himself quickly, stretching himself out as much as he can. The plug’s a bit thinner than Alex is, so it’ll still be a bit of a jump when—no, if—he has Alex fuck him. He slides it in, then pulls up his shorts and goes to find Alex.

“Morning, Mat,” Alex says. “Did you find out about your costume change?”

In response, Mat turns around and pulls the fabric of his shorts flush against him. The circular outline of the plug’s flared base stands out in vivid detail.

“Excellent,” Alex says. He turns away. “Well, then, shall we get started?”

As he settles into the tasks, Mat discovers that he may have made a miscalculation. The thing about wearing a plug is that he isn’t able to think about anything else. No matter how easy the task is, he finds his attention completely drawn to the plug inside him, how it shifts with his movements.

Make as many holes in this piece of paper as possible. You may only use the hole punch once. Most holes wins. Every ten seconds, you will have to switch positions from sitting to standing and vice versa.

Fuck. Mat stares down at the task. Alex is evil.

He starts the task, and tries his damnedest to fold up the paper as quickly as he can. With every change in position, he feels the plug pressing up inside him, maddeningly close yet not quite reaching his prostate. He’s not used the hole punch yet, but he feels like he’s the one getting his hole punched. It’s taking all his focus not to grind against the chair like a whore every time he sits down. It’s a tie-breaker task, it’s got to be, it’s too simple not to. It probably won’t even matter if he fails, and yet…

He can’t take it any longer. He drops to his knees in front of Alex with a questioning whine.

“What’s going on?” Alex stares down at him, unflinching.

“Please,” Mat says. “Please, please, please—I need a hint, please, give me a hint—”

“You still have time left on the clock,” Alex says. “You’re close.”

Mat whimpers. “Please, no, just—just give me a hint, I need a hint, please—”

“There, now.” Alex pulls him up and bends him over the table. He pushes his trousers down just slightly, pulls out the plug, and slips in.

Mat groans. It’s quick and brutal and fast. Alex isn’t focusing on Mat’s pleasure; he’s trying to satisfy himself as fast as possible. Mat’s nearly crying with need. The cameras are following every thrust.

Once Alex comes, he pulls out and adjusts his suit. He grabs the paper and folds it up twice more, then hands it over. “Ten seconds.”

Mat flies forward. He reaches for the hole punch, stuffs the paper in, and presses with all his might until he feels the metal meet metal. He unfolds the paper, letting it flutter open, holes on holes on holes. He feels like crying.

“Congratulations, you’ve completed the task,” Alex says. He holds out the plug.

They’re getting close to the end of the tasks, and Mat—Mat’s still trying, honest. But his brain seems to be broken, he can’t focus on anything anymore. He’s so preoccupied with the dread over needing a hint that he can’t hardly try to solve the tasks by himself any longer. Every time he tries to focus, his heart starts racing and his mind starts running a million miles per minute, and he’s thinking about Alex fucking him raw like he deserves, just pulling his shorts to the side and slipping in, and he only realises he’s been standing motionless for about fifteen minutes when Alex says, “You’ve run out of time.” And then he really needs the hints, because he can’t lose, can he?

One particularly embarrassing time, he’d got his head so turned around that he couldn’t even find the task. He fell to his knees in front of Alex, looked up at him with the most pleading eyes he could muster, and begged for help. Alex fucked his face, come down his throat, and held him tightly enough so it all went down. Then he let go, smiled, and said, “It’s on the table.” He was right. It was. Mat was so mortified he could cry.

He’s walking into the room now, making sure he checks the table first—the task is on there, thank God. He opens up the envelope. There are words typewritten on it, but they’re swimming in front of his eyes. He can’t even read the task anymore. He doesn’t know what’s happened. His brow knits. Alex is right there, so close…

He stares at Alex.

Alex looks at him softly. “Mat, would you like a hint?”

That’s all it takes. Mat drops the task to the desk. Alex is coming behind him quickly, pulling down his shorts, popping out the plug, and entering him. The cameras are following his every move. Before, Mat would be self-conscious about being so naked in front of the camera. He’d be concerned about who would get their hands on the footage, who could possibly make his life hell. Now, though? Now, he doesn’t care about anything other than Alex’s cock inside him, making him feel whole again. He has one purpose now. He’s pretty terrible at everything else, but he can be good at this.

Alex’s breathing slows after his orgasm. He pulls out, reaches over on the desk, and taps Mat. “It’s when you smile. Two seconds after you smile.”

Mat stares at him. His brain feels so slow.

Alex sighs. “Smile.”

Mat smiles.

“Stop smiling.”

Mat obeys.

Two seconds later, the light flashes on.

“I’ve stopped the clock,” Alex says. “Congratulations. You’ve completed the task.”

Mat blinks. What does that mean? Does Alex want something more out of him? He can’t keep track of all the words swimming in his head. Task—task means hint. Hint means he has to be good. He doesn’t know what Alex wants. Maybe if he bends over Alex will show him.

There’s a sigh behind him, a zipper pulling down again. “Oh, darling. Let’s give you what you need.”

By some miracle, Mat manages to finish all the tasks. His brain’s broken; he can’t think properly at all. He’s in Alex’s office now, sucking him off beneath the desk as Alex works on paperwork. It’s nice not having to even pretend to think about tasks now. He just has to be a good boy and take Alex’s cock. He can’t imagine why he was fighting this before, as it’s clearly the only thing he’s intelligent enough to do.

Someone knocks on the door. “Hey, Alex?”

“Hey, Mark,” Alex says. “Come in.”

Mark enters. Mat can’t see him from down here. He’s not worried about that, though. He licks up and down Alex’s cock again, pressing sloppy kisses along the shaft.

“We’re trying to edit Mat’s pieces,” Mark says, “and it’s—well, it’s not really coming together. It’s a little—well, you really didn’t let him do much of the tasks on his own, so—”

“Shut up,” Alex says. He grips Mat’s head a little tighter, forcing himself deeper down his throat. “I’m in charge. I get final say in how they complete their tasks, don’t I?”

“I—whoa, whoa, yeah, of course. Um—is now a bad time? Should I come back later? You seem a little—”

Mat stifles a moan. He loves the weight of Alex on his tongue. He moves his hands up to fondle Alex’s balls. It’s so easy to just take and take and take, let himself be used and abused. There’s precome and drool dripping down his chin.

“I’m fine,” Alex says. “Just get on with it.”

“Well, we have, um, this is our current cut.” Mark gets a little closer. Alex leans over to look at whatever Mark is showing him. Mat moves with him.

“That’s really short.”

“Yeah. There’s not really—we didn’t get a lot to work with, that wasn’t, y’know, pornographic.”

“Can you just blur it out?”

“I don’t think we can,” Mark says. “There’s—there’s a limit with how much they’ll let us get away with—I don’t think onscreen sex, even blurred out, will pass by the censors.”

“Yeah, I suppose you’re right.” Alex grabs Mat’s head and starts fucking it back and forth. His voice gets a little rougher. “Well, um… Just cut in clips from the other tries. I don’t care.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yeah, absolutely. I—” Alex groans. “Sorry, um, c-cramp. I think you can work something out.”

“I don’t know, it’s not really—”

“Figure it out, Christ. This is supposed to be your job.”

“Wow.” Mark sounds startled with that, but he doesn’t really seem aware of how Alex is pushing up into Mat’s mouth, actively bucking his hips now as he comes down Mat’s throat. “Wow, um, okay. We’ll figure out something. Sorry for bothering you.”

“No problem,” Alex says, but his voice makes it clear that it really is a problem. “Close the door on your way out, please.”

As soon as the door shuts, Alex looks down at Mat, a manic glint in his eye. “Come on, you’ll need to do a little better than that. You need me to rig the live tasks in your favour, don’t you?”

Mat meets his gaze and nods. He’ll let Alex fuck him again and again if that’s what it takes.