Too much to believe, too much to deny, you fool me again to quiet my pride

[plaguedrat]

He'd stubbornly avoided the city's latest mischief. Any glimmer of glass or crystal had sent him walking in the opposite direction, determined not to get involved. Didn't want to see his future, didn't trust destiny or fate or any preconceived future.

But lately it seemed as though the damn things were following him. The more he walked away, the more Rat found the glinting spheres in his other directions. Apparently, they had a message for him.

"Fuck you," he muttered, even as scooped the stone into his palm.

Grey. Grey back but his rat tattoo nowhere to be seen. Grey who lounged by Curtis, exchanging lazy kisses with the devotion he used to think he would enjoy forever. Now he had no interest, no memory of Rat. All he wanted was Curtis.

Curtis pinning Grey to the bed with his good arm, forearm across his shoulder blades, marking him up with bites. Kisses. Fucking him.

Rat, unloved, alone.

Snarling, Rat threw the crystal aside. "It's not real."

Comments

[plaguedrat]

"You," Rat said, gritting his teeth. The sight of Curtis when Rat had just seen him, just watched Curtis pin Grey to a bed and fuck him.

"Did you ever sleep with Grey!?"

[manwiththeknife]

"Did I what?" Curtis said, because whatever he'd expected out of Rat's mouth, it hadn't been that.

"What in the hell are you talking about?"

[plaguedrat]

"He looked pretty fucking familiar with you in this," Rat said. He pointed viciously toward the stone. "Like he was used to crawling into your bed. Like he could come back and never remember me at all because he knows you."

[manwiththeknife]

"Of course he knows me. He's known me his whole life," Curtis said, and if he was avoiding the real question, it was only because it pissed him off, being asked in the first place.

"And I'm not sure it's any of your fucking business, Rat. You might want to back off."

[plaguedrat]

"Then answer the fucking question. Tell me that none of that was real. That he would never crawl into your bed, if he came back. That you wouldn't fuck him just because you could," Rat snarled, pointing an accusatory finger first at Curtis and then at the orb again.

[manwiththeknife]

"I never fucked him just because I could," Curtis snarled, angry and feeling dangerous, for the first time since he'd lost his arm.

"I fucked him because he wanted me to. Because I wanted to. And it's still none of your fucking business."

[plaguedrat]

Rat was feral in that moment, angry and hurting. "And did you here?" he asked, somewhere between viciously angry and deeply afraid, hurt. "Did he...did he go to you when he and I...?" He couldn't finish that sentence.

[manwiththeknife]

"Yes," Curtis ground out, from behind clinched teeth. "Before you laid out any ground rules. Before he knew you wanted... whatever you wanted. Look, like I said, I don't owe you anything. Grey loved you. You were fucking lucky, so get the hell out of my face."

[plaguedrat]

For a second, all he saw was red; all he felt was the longing for violence. To hurt Curtis for what he'd said.

But even he wasn't naive. Even he should have known better. God but it still hurt.

"I never knew. I never even..." Stupid. He'd been so stupid.

[manwiththeknife]

"Yeah? And it's too fucking late now," Curtis said bitterly, his face turned away.

Curtis had never been the type to run from a fight, but in that moment, all he wanted was to turn and walk away.

[plaguedrat]

"Of course it is." Rat spoke with his jaw clenched, swallowing down all of his emotion. "Of course."

He wanted so badly to fight him, especially when Curtis turned his back. Instead, he went the opposite direction, determined not to see Curtis' face.