Totally just remembered I made this.

I didn’t like it much, so I didn’t post it earlier.

“You’re a God amongst insects, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”

Courtesy of X-Men 2.

It all happened so fast.

Holding hands.  They were just holding hands.  It was completely innocent, inherently romantic, making it clear that the entwining of their fingers was because they were together, not because of any other reason you would hold onto someone’s hand.  They’d done it before.

And contrary to what had happened, they would do it again in the future.  Theo, however, would never understand how something so harmless could cause so much pain.

The man seemed to come out of nowhere.  In the area they lived, getting heckled for holding hands or a quick kiss on the cheek or lips was not uncommon, but most people just got over it and walked away.  Some pushed pretty far.  This one took it the farthest he could.

Ignoring him wasn’t working— and he seemed to be targeting his insults onto Theo more than Harvey, even though they were equally “guilty” of loving each other.  Theo would blush out of nervousness and avert his gaze, but Harvey wasn’t standing for it.  He called insults back, attacking anything the typical bigot would consider sacred, unknowingly pushing the man over the edge.

Theo couldn’t keep track.  Perhaps, predictably so, the man  had come after him— clearly the easier target, dispute being slightly taller and more muscular.  He carried himself with less confidence, and the man had picked up on it.  Each hit came before Theo could think.

It only stopped once Harvey managed to grasp the situation, pulling the man off of Theo and throwing him to the ground.  He couldn’t feel much, still too much in shock to process pain.  Theo was, however, aware of the slick, oily feeling of something dripping down the side of his head and from his nose.

Blood.

And then he was in the hospital.  There was no in-between memory for Theo from the moment Harvey started attacking the man to the moment he woke up in a bed, gauze wrapped around his head and Harper sitting at the foot of his bed.

“Wh-Whuh?”  Theo groaned, pulling himself up in the bed.

Harper was crying— and maybe more importantly, Harvey wasn’t there.

“Where ‘s he?”

Harper looked up and wiped her eyes, trying her best to regain her composure for Theo’s sake.

“When he called for an ambulance, the police took him in for beating the douchebag up.”  She explained.  ”There’s no way he’ll stay longer than overnight once it’s clear that it was in self-defense.  Or… well, you-defense.  Not that you should blame yourself, he told me to emphasize that, but I’m sure you know that, right? ‘Cause if you don’t by the time he gets here he’s going to be really mad at me and after seeing what he did to that guy I really don’t want to get him angry ever again or… Yeah.”

“I know. I w-won’t.”  Theo replied quietly, although it was impossible to tell whether or not he believed himself.

(thanks to Marissa for editing the Theo picture)

RJ had expected Rob to keep his cool, but not keep this much of it.  When his boyfriend pulled the door open and saw him, he just raised an eyebrow and said “You look pale.”  RJ couldn’t help but laugh— there he was, a newly fledged vampire, standing in the doorway, and Rob’s only thought was that RJ’s skin was a little whiter than normal.  Forget the red eyes.  Forget the eerie smoothness in his steps and the new found grace in his movements.  Nope, RJ just had some clammy skin.

The meeting was drastically different from RJ’s perspective, however.  He’d woken up barely an hour ago, with a searing burning feeling in his throat.  The woman who’d bitten him was waiting nearby, in the shadows of an archway, grinning.  She explained it all— the hunger, the sickness, the burning, and the freezing.  Then she left.

And RJ went straight to Rob’s.  Unlike the other boy, RJ was having a much more difficult time understanding what was happening.  He could see the blood running in Rob’s veins; hear it rushing through his boyfriend’s body.  Every sense in RJ’s body was tearing at his nerves, urging him forward, filling RJ’s head with thoughts he’d only entertained in passing before.

“Kinky.”  He muttered, accidentally speaking aloud.

Rob finally looked confused, but stepped back to let RJ inside— as much of an invitation as he would get, which apparently was good enough that RJ was able to cross the barrier he’d been told of and step into the Rydell household.  ”What’s kinky?”  Rob asked back, pulling RJ out of his own head for a brief moment, away from the rush of Rob’s blood and the smell on his skin of… RJ wasn’t sure what it was, but it drove his motionless heart crazy.

RJ, however, didn’t answer.  He stepped forward, placing his hands on Rob’s hips and holding the boy close, eyes grazing over his skin.  The energy between them was severely intimate— far more so than they ever tended to go without some sort of reason to.  Rob shifted uncomfortably in his hands.  ”…RJ?”  The boy shifted again, but RJ just wrapped his arm around Rob’s waist and held him even closer, brushing his nose against the warm skin of Rob’s cheek.  With his one free hand, RJ snaked up Rob’s back until he reached up, grabbing a fistful of his brown hair.

Rob tensed in his arms, and RJ could literally feel the boy’s blood pumping faster through his veins, pumped in double time by an anxious organ.  RJ just chuckled, moving his face closer down to Rob’s neck.  Almost out of control of his own actions anymore, RJ yanked Rob’s head sideways by his hair, watching the veins throb in his throat.  RJ couldn’t resist licking up the contour of Rob’s neck muscles, starting at his shoulder and running his tongue up to the back of the boy’s ear.  The feeling of Rob’s warmth on his cold tongue was insane.  A sharp, pointless breath shot out of RJ’s lungs, burning with desire.

Rob shivered, a sound not unlike a whimper, his breath catching in his chest.  Whatever Rob was feeling, it was hard to read.  Fear, lust…  They both felt the same to RJ’s heightened senses.  All he knew was the boy in his arms was blushing redder than he ever had, turning the burn in RJ’s throat into a searing, all consuming fire.

He barely heard Rob’s shout as he bit down, turning everything slick, hot, and red.

This was a good idea, this was a good idea, this was a good idea.

RJ wasn’t expecting to need to repeat this in his head the whole time they were in the state of Arizona.

Yet he was.  It was hot.  The stupid truck he’d gotten as a graduation present from his Dads was being a bit tempermental, and the Air Conditioning seemed to be teasing them, going on a near arctic blast one minute to being flat out broken the next.  And this state was RJ’s territory, predetermined before they even left Ohio in the first place on their cross-country adventure.  If it weren’t for the fingers entwined with his, RJ probably would’ve intentionally trashed the truck on a brick wall or something.  But Rob was here.  So it was alright.

Gas was running low, so they pulled over at some run down old gas station on the side of the highway in the middle of the godforsaken desert.

The one downside of the trip was also the upside— Each state had a different opinion of their relationship.  Some ignored it.  Some they had to hide it from.  Others would wish them the best and offer them support.  RJ lived for the smiles Rob would try to hide after people were so accepting.  A little, side of the mouth smirk he would try to keep from RJ, turning slightly to the side or looking down at his shoes.

Arizona wasn’t one of those states.

Yet… Rob still seemed happy.  Truly, honestly, genuinely happy, in a way RJ had never seen when they were in school.  The conflicted boy was gone, and although Rob was still a long way from the pride RJ had, he’d loosened up enough to just move past it all and let himself smile.

And RJ wouldn’t have it any other way.  The heat was tolerable as long as Rob was grinning the way he was.  It was a friggin gas station after all— and yet there he was, smiling at the pump, grinning at the cashier.  Free from pressure and prejudice and people they knew, Rob was just happy to be.  Be on this trip.  Be away from home.

Be with him.

So when Rob jumped back into the passenger seat, grabbed RJ’s hand and smiled, RJ forgot the heat and the ache from hours of driving and grinned right back.