|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2025 6:42 pm
"Had?" Eles followed. He assumed the past-tense was due to death or divorce — probably death, if he had to guess, since Faustite hadn't been seen or heard from in a while. Then again, the dumpster fires calmed down, so perhaps they were reunited again? "So what, his parents signed the consent form?"
Oh, but Malory had to go on about it like it was their business. Or like it was business worth knowing, but it didn't sound very scandalous to Eles. It just sounded, well, sad. Sad enough that Eles didn't want to think about what it must have been like to live Araullo's life right now. But that tense changed back to present, so Eles was a touch more befuddled than he assumed he should have been in following Malory's telling of it.
"Pretty sure crazy's a requirement for marrying someone on fire," Eles pointed out helpfully. With a put-upon sigh, Eles pulled Malory close with their next bob-and-weave and wrapped his arms about the boy to tuck neatly against his opposite hip. He tried to rest his head against Malory's shoulder, but the moving target proved a touch too difficult for his state of inebriation. All he got from it were a few knocks to the temple by one very prominent acromion process.
"So he found himself an ephebophiliac arsonist. Good for him. Why are we giving him air time, again? Rather discuss that ******** youma we just let live. Did you see the ******** teeth on that thing? Wonder what that would've felt like…"
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2025 6:42 pm
Malory just kept laughing, quiet near giggles all along the way, and he realized it must be due to the lingering effect of fight or flight still tickling along his heart, limbs, and the muscles of his mouth that couldn’t stop smiling. It was just a youma, the sort of thing he’d run from any number of times. This one was no different, except maybe finding and using a bit of new magic gave the incident a new bit of color. Or…
He glanced over at Eles and let out a breath. Well. The altercation did go in a direction he wasn’t at all used to.
Clearing his throat, trying to smile with a few less nerves involved, Malory insisted, “The acid was much scarier than the teeth. Actually…I wonder if it got seen by some local designers, I swear I saw a handbag at a show that looked almost exactly like it once the fur peeled off and the teeth came out.”
Arriving at the venue, the staff thankfully took the clothing in stride, recognizing The Medraut Boy and leading the two to the box seats that had been reserved. The wine service for the evening was arranged and eventually the two found themselves seated, semi-privately above the crowd, the stage only just coming to life. The box itself held six seats, but they were alone, unless one counted the box directly across the theater from them, which was quite full and had several eyes fixed on the extremely fashionable latecomers. Or the boxes to either side of them, separated by a thin wall that did little to mute their neighbor’s voices.
Settling in, eyes fixed on the stage below, Malory admitted quietly, mouth nearly brushing Eles’s ear, “I don’t like hurting youma. It feels somehow meaner than nearly anything else.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2025 6:43 pm
Eles had found it quite easy to get used to being treated like something special. Compared to grabbing a tea at one of the many teahouses in the city, they needn't wait in any lines. They were recognized on sight and called by name. They were even led back to their seats and ushered in without so much as a peep about their timeliness. And, perhaps best of all, Eles needn't say a word to any of the service staff, for Malory was quite used to ordering precisely what they wanted. What Eles wanted in that moment, apart from another glass of wine and maybe a snack to prevent a terrible bathroom scene in the morn, was to luxuriate in the plush chair.
Eles had shut his eyes before he felt the brush of breath against his ear, itself a soundless hello accompanying Malory's voice. Somewhere beyond, what sounded like an older man's voice kept encouraging a whisper to speak up, speak up, I can't hear you, but Eles caught the gist of the message.
Turning toward the boy, he rested his head against a much more stationary target just past that damned acromion process. "Why?" Where Malory watched the stage, Eles watched the unbothered curls that fell around Malory's ear shudder softly in the air conditioning.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2025 6:44 pm
On stage, a woman with a powerful voice enticed the audience with the promise of transformation and perfection as dancers in nearly painted on costumes offered their own taste of perfection. Canvas sneaker tapping along with the beat, Malory kept his torso still, the same way one might try to avoid dislodging the sleeping pet in their lap.
Shifting focus for only a moment’s worth thought, he just made an uncertain noise in his throat. “They just seem sadder. Maybe because they aren’t part of the natural order anymore? Not able to be a person, but not able to live simply as an animal, either. They can’t even eat the way living things were meant to eat.” The thought of hurting one had all the appeal of kicking a homeless, starving puppy into a river.
“I run very fast now, though,” he assured Eles, lest his boy feel another thread of worry start to coil.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2025 6:45 pm
Eles drew in a breath through his nose, allowed it to unspool, and made a perfunctory effort to sit up enough to see the stage. The dancers looked quite appealing; he considered taking mental notes of their costuming, but decided that was ultimately Sakura's responsibility. Any niche choreography was Nik's responsibility. All he had to do was be pretty and take orders.
So his head settled back on that shoulder, his arm snaking around the back of smooth cotton as it traipsed down, down, down along a longer spine than his.
"Sounds like they've no choice but to seem pathetic when you think of them like that." The corners of his mouth lifted for it; Malory feeling pity for anything was worth snagging his attention. And his waistband. "Maybe they don't want to be a part of the natural order. Even if they're some nth thing that deviated from some white a*****e's taxonomy, it doesn't mean they're miserable. That one was perfectly happy to attack us. And I would have been perfectly happy to fight back.
"Being scared away like that was the pathetic part." He paused, his attention temporarily stolen by the show.
"Oh, I could see you getting married to a plastic surgeon."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2025 6:45 pm
“Did it seem happy?” Malory asked, pleasantly surprised at the thought. Maybe they were happier like that, separate and outside. He wasn’t particularly familiar with how youma were made, or how a half youma was even possible. When he thought of the Negaverse, it was often swathed in the relentless march of a ready military alongside dark labs, churning starseeds into unimaginable weapons and beings. Which is to say, he tried not to think of it all too often.
It worked well for him up to a point.
Glancing over fondly at said point, Malory sulked, “As if I’d need it. But…” his voice trailed off into a nod. “In my little wedding book, there’s two. Well, one’s retired, but everyone thinks he has rooms full of dirt on the city’s one percent and celebrity hopefuls.”
After a thoughtful pause as he listened to the dialogue, he added, “Menville would have been a good last name.” Though oi Ekthrónismenoi did have its charms. Such as the face people made when confronted with it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2025 6:45 pm
"Think it would've been happier to chew off your leg. Don't know how to tell, honestly. But it might be premature to assume they're not." The question of its happiness lingered inside his head for longer than he liked. He wasn't really sure why it bothered him to think about youma in such a manner. He didn't know any personally. As far as he was aware, they only ever tried to kill the people close to him. They answered to an organization that Eles felt no particular need to respect. And it wasn't as though he could invite one to sit down to a cup of tea with him and have a conversation about all of that.
They were anomalies. Eles preferred them to be anomalies not worth thinking about when he had a boy in easy reach and enough privacy to walk his fingers along a spine. Enough privacy that his fingers found their way past his waistband.
"Probably does." Eles shrugged lopsidedly. "I don't get it. Going under the knife like your body's a restoration project. Maybe it makes more sense if you were pretty in the first place." He'd have to defer to Malory on that.
He clicked his tongue for the last name. "Too on-the-nose. Sounds better following your name than mine."
It was a terrible reminder — one that had him sitting up and behaving for once. "'Eles' wasn't supposed to be permanent. Was hoping I'd have a real name again after a couple weeks and a missing person's report. What a fool I was."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2025 6:46 pm
“I try not to think about it,” Malory admitted. “I don’t know if surgery would help me feel more in control or less, and once you do it, there’s no going back. If you regret it, you have to keep doing it, right? Until you can live with what you have?”
Shifting, he looked over at Eles, lifted his hips to better accommodate that hand. It was hard to say that the other boy had body dysmorphia. Well, hard to know at least, as the result of discomfort led to avoidance rather than fixation. But would he, Malory, be the same if he had a little work done and found something too unfamiliar looking back in the mirror? Somehow, with a little shudder that was only partially due to a wandering hand, Malory felt he’d take that with so much less grace.
It really didn’t bear thinking about, especially when he intended to enjoy himself tonight.
Swaying over to lean closer, he offered, “You can be Eles Medraut if you feel all too tortured about it.” It couldn’t be easy to spell, and the chance of having to pronounce it would likely keep him non verbal for a few more years. “Bring our scandal to its ultimate culmination.”
On the stage, a seduction begins in animal print.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2025 6:46 pm
"Mm." It was a theoretical that needn't bear out. Eles didn't know enough about it and Malory seemed almost scared to consider it. If there was some type of surgery that could let him feel at home in his own body, would he do it? Well — the answer didn't matter. No such surgery existed.
"Think you just live with what you've got. Even if you don't like it." He left the topic there so neither of them would have to consider it further.
As his hand explored further, finding precisely where it wanted to be, he folded a knuckle against warm skin and maneuvered in small circles. All the while, Eles feigned interest in the show below, but the storyline was a little preposterous for him. Sad, too, for all that vanity destroyed lives in this play. No — it irked him, actually. Beyond the humanizing connection to the characters, a systemic sickness dominated in the society that raised them. And yet, people kept obeying this broken machine. Van Horn fed it. So was it any surprise that it would yield broken results?
"Oh, you don't get me to wear your last name that easily," Eles warned as his eyes remained on the show. "I know how much that scandal means to you." His knuckle pressed more insistently against flesh.
"Make me an offer. Something worth 'til death do us part'."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2025 6:46 pm
There was a small, tight inhale, followed by an extremely measured exhale. Shifting in his seat once more, Malory tried to focus at least enough of his attention on the show to feel like he’d actually attended it. But Eles liked to make things hard, and when a new bottle of wine arrived, Malory found himself in the midst of a pleasant, slightly tense, acting challenge.
Taking a sip to swallow down a sound that threatened to pry its way out of a clenched jaw, Malory finally began his offer. “You would be promoted to First Best Boy.” A very strong start. “And you would be stepdad to three wonderful children.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2025 6:47 pm
"Hmm." He eyed the wine, but ultimately decided against it. He needed to concentrate.
He added a second knuckle. "What else?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2025 6:47 pm
An engagement is broken and a wedding begins to take place on stage. Flushed, adam’s apple bobbing, Malory’s eyes briefly flutter shut. No, no absolutely not! He is going to watch these people spiral into ridiculous, self-inflicted tragedies. Opening them back up again, he very sternly didn’t look at the boy currently coaxing him apart.
“You can have a nice house with a pool, and full rights to redecorate.” He wondered, breathing once again picking up, how many mirrors he’d be left with if Eles took it all very seriously. “A boat? A motorcycle?” A light gasp and then a breathless, “A car? I have a very expensive car or three also in need of a step dad.”
He almost offered his bank account, but Eles already had his card. “An all-access pass to a beautiful young actor?” As if he didn’t already have that as well.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2025 6:47 pm
After a deliberative hum, Eles shook his head. All this bribery and the options weren't even good. Ironic that he watched the stage blossom into the brilliant whites of a wedding in motion, of vows and success and having some coveted thing at last. A last name displayed ownership. A ring displayed ownership. Some universal sign to onlookers of I'm owned or this is mine.
Briefly, he wondered if he was married before. No, that was preposterous — he was young, not stupid.
So he dug in a little harder, then eased off on the pressure, then laid it back on again. All the while, he let the silence hanging between them do the talking for him. "It's really sounding like it won't work out between us. What a shame, what a pity.
"But I guess I could give you one more chance before I turn you down, Malory Medraut."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2025 6:48 pm
It was, to be sure, an incredibly comfortable sort of torture. And eventually Malory stopped trying to fight for control and simply gave in to being stirred and pulled along the waves of Eles’s every gesture. If the people in the box opposite got a a glimpse of something off, well, they were either welcome to the bonus show or properly punished for not paying attention to the stage.
Dogs, house, vehicles, money, sex. Nothing was enough then? He wanted to smile for his boy’s picky tastes. He’d spoiled Eles right out the gate, now hadn’t he? There was only one thing left really, and in all honesty it was really the only thing he had to give anyone, ever, and simply chose not to.
He began to say it and then stopped abruptly, grabbing Eles’s free hand to clap it over his mouth and take hold of the muted cry that burst out. Eyes glistening in the dark with the tears that began to well up, he stared over at the other boy for a long, silent stretch of pleading.
More. More and more and more. Always more, please and forever. Until there’s nothing left.
With his free hand, Malory signed, All that’s left is me. So take it or leave it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
