*✞ ·˚. nocturnus .˚· ✞*

bird-boned boy with the mouth made for prayer and the soul w a i t i n g to ignite, have you ever w o n d e r e d if maybe you are h o l y?

[moonwhxte]

cassius-rath‌:

Cassius almost wanted to laugh at Harper’s stubbornness. He wanted to hold the other’s hand again, yet Harper wasn’t letting him. So he followed, shaking his head slightly as he the slightest of smiles graced his lips. “I thought it did, for a while. I did everything I wanted with a tad bit more freedom than I had, because I thought they cared less for me then, but one day I had a meeting with my father. He said he’d let me do anything now, with some restrictions, but someday I’d have to get back on track again,” Cassius told Harper. “I mean, you just can’t handle your family business over to someone else that isn’t family, I get that part, because my sister can’t and won’t ever… But I’ll have to leave here, maybe this year, and I don’t know what would happen then.”

The son of Cybele still tried to hold his hand out for Harper as he continued. “I want to stay with Chainsaw. She’s still adjusting, and I don’t trust anyone else to care for her for more than a few days. She doesn’t speak much except to yell a bucketful of curses, and I rely a lot on cues to know what she’s thinking. She looks tough, but I think she’s a really fragile and sweet creature. I want to protect her, let her know that the world isn’t as cruel as the cage she grew up in…” Maybe that was why it was all Cassius had understood about the gryphon when he found her—she had uttered endless cussing, with barely any other word to explain herself, but that was actually a cry for help, because those curses were all the words she knew. Two weeks after rescuing her, from the moment she wouldn’t leave Cassius’s side, she can already say more words, with cussing in between. “Okay, here’s a random fact about me: I wanted to have a pet fish. I did momentarily have one, but I can’t remember what happened when I said I didn’t like it. The fish wouldn’t talk to me and wasn’t interested to me at all, which struck me as odd because all dogs and cats were sweet to me.”

Walking along side Cassius, hearing the stories. The delves of his life. Harper could only recall experiencing such a thing twice in his life before. The first was Abigail, back when the wind tussled his hair and his skin was clean of ink. When the forest was all he knew, the two would wander for hours on end just talking. It never was about much, or really anything at all. Their native tounge feeling so foregin now. Yet it still came more natural that Harper would hope.

The second was confined to the concrete walls of a ring. His hands were bloodied and bruised, and his face faring much of the same damage. The stinging resulting from the coach that sat opposite him cleaning the wounds. Harper hadn’t said anything to him at this point, instead nods in agreement and silence in place of disaproval suficed as their communication. However he insisted.

My folks never were much for the fighting, not this fighting anyway. Lord knows they were at it more often than not. He’d flinch at lord. But the rest- blank. So the man would continue. The fish I could chat to though you know. He ain’t the talkative type though.  The man in turn would talk to fill the silence.

A tradition that felt how children often do about bed time stories was how Harper felt towards the ramblings of his coach. He loathed it. But the nights it wasn’t there, he missed hearing them.

Harper’s only stories to tell were the visable ones across his skin. He never had to open his mouth for those.

“Then you do not have to leave. For Chainsaw, not for fish.” 

[moonwhxte]

cassius-rath‌:

Cassius turned to Harper, a look of surprise in his face. Was that not what he had just asked him to tell? And to pull his hand away from Cassius, when the son of Cybele was getting used to the warmth they had a second ago. He would have felt disappointed, if he just didn’t find Harper’s actions child-like but interesting. He was going to spoil him, if the other kept asking him.

“I can’t tell you where I’m from,” Cassius answered, as if there were a lot of living Raths in this world. “But I’m not from here—New York, I mean. But I’d love to live here now. I don’t think I can live in another city where Chainsaw can’t fly freely. I was also thinking of finally going to uni, after holding it off for so long.”

He was going to add more, until he remembered what Harper said. Did he mean bits of what happened with the life before Camp? He’d give him that. “Still a nobody at school, with all the other boys like me in it.” He held out his hand to the other, wanting to hold Harper’s hand again as he continued. “I…was an okay student—just doing enough to get by, and not overdoing it that I’d get higher expectations by my family. But I did my best with fencing, though I still didn’t push myself to do more with it.”

Harper wondered what he’d wanted as an answer. He wondered what words he truly thought would leave the other’s mouth at the time. But to hear of family somehow was anything but what he thought.  Perhaps it was because if you were to ask Harper, those weren’t the facts he’d recall. He wouldn’t talk of his father’s job on the farm, or his mother’s allergies in the spring time. Perhaps though because those were details he wished to forget.

But should he not be contempt in the small truths he received, just as the small truths he gave. 

Those small hints of something more to the being before him. Even if he did not wish to tell the whole story. A nobody from nowhere, with a family somewhere out there in the world. A real human being somehow struck Harper harder to believe. 

He stared at Cassius’s hand for a moments time, allowing to words he spoke to settle in. When they finally did, he didn’t reach out to the other’s hand, instead simply crossing his arms before continuing to walk. Tell me more. He wished to ask. Let me know you.

“Did it work? The lower expectations?”

[moonwhxte]

cassius-rath‌:

Cassius figured ‘here’ meant forest, because he does think he had at least belonged here, in his mother`s domain. He could walk barefooted here and never mind the dirt, the noise, the smell of leaves and animals living in perfect harmony, like the fated, natural process of life.

“I had to lie a lot,” the son of Cybele started. “I only realized it was only me who could talk to animals, and little me thought I was just being immature and just thinking of everything they`re saying. But it never stopped. They always called me, wanting my attention or keeping an eye on me, but most of the time I try to ignore them. They get really happy when I come closer, even crocodiles, to be honest, that I`ve somehow learned to speak discreetly?” He chuckled, sounding foolish even now. “I can talk to fishes too, but they don`t really care about me. But I think why I`ve survived this long without knowing what I really was was them–maybe they were protecting me.”

He was quiet for a few seconds again before he continued. “It was more difficult because I wasn`t allowed to have a pet because of my sister`s allergy. It just stayed that way, and because my father likes to hunt as his sport…” He was no different from Chainsaw–a creature made to explore the land and air but was chained and caged, leaving them rooted in one place and unable to do what they wanted. 

The words began to fill the air and drown out the silence of the forest. Talks of animals, of trivial facts. What he can talk to and hear; the creatures that swarm the forest and flutter through the skies. The impersonal details of who one was. A child of Cybele if you were to believe in gods, you would believe was able to talk to animals. This was a given.

Yet Cassius insisted on talking of this. Of his sister’s allergy, of his father’s sport.

It felt to be the answer you give to anyone passing the street, something Harper involuntarily took anger to. The bite in his sentence was felt as it left his lips, “That is your life now.” He demanded more than allergies and faint talks of his sister. Harper wanted more than passing small talk. He never did care for it.

“You- I want to know about you. If you were not from here, where did you come from? Your life.” Harper didn’t bother with the insensitivity of the words leaving his mouth as he pulled his hand from Cassius’s own, to draw them crossed at his front.  The warmth that lingered was lonely, but it was a dangerous thing to think of. Instead he thought of the trivial words Cassius filled the space with. He thought of the puppy Cassius would want growing up, of the animals he’d talk to as he passed.

[moonwhxte]

cassius-rath‌:

A small laugh escaped the son of Cybele’s lips. Almost no one believes his answer, but it was the truth. He doesn’t think he was any more important than being a child of one of the 0.6% of population who held almost 40% of the world’s wealth before he arrived in Camp and found Chainsaw.

But what struck him was that Harper was still thinking he was a god when he clearly isn’t. They were just the same, with Cassius looking like he got the better side of luck and a smoother hand. Still, he didn’t try to correct the other Camper again. “My life was boring and too repetitive. I’m starting to think I belong here, but I don’t think I can stay here forever,” he mused. “I may have found some sort of light here, but I’m still lost, still going through the darkness… Do you think I belong here?”

A small laugh was it took to bring the slightest of scolds to his face as he studied the other boy. Cassius was and always would be a god, no matter what ground he stood before. He’d always hold the power, the poise. He’d always be able to move tides with his voice and challenge the moon with his gaze. Blessed at birth, the would would never allow him to be no one.

To be no one would be to have no name. No word to call yourself by as you rest on the concrete, clothes bundled to form a pillow. To be no one means to throw your life, for you have nothing else to give. There’s no weight to your existence, so you so willingly give it away.

Harper knew what it was to not exist. And Cassius didn’t bare any of the same lines.

Perhaps Harper only dared see what he wished to see.

He didn’t care to answer the question, he didn’t care to think that gods walked through their lives blind. But then again, he didn’t want to believe in gods, yet here he was. Starting to think perhaps they were more than the lies he once convinced himself he was afraid of. Yet he answered, “Yes.” Did Cassius dare be human?

“Tell me about it, your life before.” The words that left his mouth scattered as a demand but it didn’t falter his stare back to the other, now hard and unyielding. It wasn’t how Harper looked to Cassius moments ago, rather it dared to rest hard lines back to his jaw. 

[moonwhxte]

cassius-rath‌:

The unexpected question made Cassius look at Harper, his expression surprised. Still, he kept walking, lost in thought for a few seconds before he answered, as if it took him some time to pick the words to say. “Caged. And then lost, when I got out,” he answered. He was not that different from his gryphon he saved from her cruel captors, albeit his torture was not physical but emotional and mental. The golden boy, being the only child left of Augustus Rath, had to be protected and kept polished for the other people that were both predators and investors. Cassius had to endure a lot of things such as going to social events he wanted no part of, or attending meetings where he was not allowed to leave until he came up with a decision. He was thankful for boarding school, as he was able to manage his own time and had a bit of freedom. But when he graduated from high school, it was then that he realized he didn’t know what to do outside his mapped out life for him. The son of Cybele was always getting an earful of sermons from his father for still not going to a uni.

“I was no one,” he added not long after. Until he found Chainsaw, that is. The gryphon had become both his child and his mother at the same time. “Why did you ask?”

If Harper was surprised at his own words, his face did not dare show it. Instead he listened intently to whatever it was the other had to say as they walked hand in hand, side by side. Silence settled for the moments passing, he wasn’t even sure he could hear the trees rustling behind them or the animals call in the distance- for all his attention lie in Cassius’ hands in that moment.

Caged. 

The words struck the boy harder than he thought anything Cassius was about to say would. No gods had deserved to be caged and captured. That was a thing of animals, of angels, or boys. To be confined, torn of their wings and talons. To be left bloodied and bruised. The sheer memory of where wings once were. That wasn’t for those with ichor coursing through their veins. With sunlight speckled on their face and radiating through their skin. 

It was not for boys such as Cassius.

“I do not believe you,” his answer was immediate. “I do not believe you were no one.” How could a boy like Cassius be no one when he was Cassius. “Gods are always gods, even before a time they found their name.”

Words never came so boldly from Harper’s mouth, often where silence lie and grins threaten. Words were not needed. But fingers entwined with the other, he managed to forget his silence. “It is hard to imagine you outside of here.”

[moonwhxte]

cassius-rath‌:

Cassius flashed a soft smile at Harper upon hearing his answer. He was glad the other said yes, because he wasn’t sure they’d be completely safe here in the forest without Chainsaw around and both the boys looked like they didn’t bring any weapon.

He started pulling Harper beside him, keeping him close as they walked in silence towards the direction of the cabins, specifically the Cybele cabin. His thumb was lightly tracing Harper’s hand, as if he didn’t mind any imperfections the other had.

Harper could feel the uncertainty settling deep within him as the two walked. So close to another, for the first time in a long while he was afraid. Not afraid of the boy who traced his hand and lingered his affection, rather he was afraid of the connection. It was one of those things the daunting forest seemed to hold with it. Intimacy. 

The way the trees loomed overhead, he could hear their taunting. With wind dancing through, carrying whispers of ridicule in a way the cement city never would. Isolated and cold was where he was comfortable. But there was something here he never knew. Possibility.

“What were you before this place?”  The sentence struck from the silence in the air, passing his lips before he knew the question he was asking.

[moonwhxte]

cassius-rath‌:

Cassius flashed a soft smile at Harper upon hearing his answer. He was glad the other said yes, because he wasn’t sure they’d be completely safe here in the forest without Chainsaw around and both the boys looked like they didn’t bring any weapon.

He started pulling Harper beside him, keeping him close as they walked in silence towards the direction of the cabins, specifically the Cybele cabin. His thumb was lightly tracing Harper’s hand, as if he didn’t mind any imperfections the other had.

There was something so casual about the way the two boys walked, something so dangerously normal that for a moment Harper could have forgotten everything. He could have forgotten they were encased in woods, and he walked along side a god. He could have forgotten how mortal he was in this world of beauty.

He couldn’t help but bite his lip as the other traced circles over and over against his hand. He couldn’t help but feel ordinary. Like perhaps they were two average teenagers.

“Your hands are so- smooth..” 

[moonwhxte]

cassius-rath‌:

“You don’t have to apologize for anything,” he said softly. Cassius moved closer again, not letting go of Harper. His hand had slid down to hold the other’s hand, feeling its warmth and the callouses on his skin. “Would you like to go to my cabin?” he asked quietly.

To be held so gently, so softly. It was something Harper didn’t know how to react to. His body stiff, his jaw clenched as the other camper moved closer again. Their fingers entwining.  He could feel the brash nature of his own hands against the other. The scars, the callouses against perfection. He’d like to be anywhere but this dreaded forest.

“Yes.” His answer was as soft as their touch, the caution in his voice breaking through his stoic stance. The uncertainty of the boy. For he hadn’t allowed this kind of affection in a long time. 

[moonwhxte]

cassius-rath‌:

“What? No, I…” Cassius frowned, taken aback by Harper’s words. What had he done to make Harper think it was all he wanted? He racked his brain to remember, but all he could think of were the feelings that happened a few moments ago, nothing that could indicate he wanted anything else. If he did nothing, then…maybe Harper was really done with him, or that it was what he needed from Cassius.

What did both of them really wanted?

“Do you really have to go now?” he asked again, his tone hinted with pleading for the other not to go.

Harper wasn’t sure why he thought that, if not for the fact that well, he was himself. And what would someone like Cassius want to do with him? What did a God want with the devil, if not to just play his game for a moments time.  ‘You’re not cursed at all.’ The boy’s words from earlier replayed in his head. How little they truly knew about each other.

“I do not have to go..” There was something so reassuring about having the other’s hand wrapped around his arm, yet something that settled a reminiscent fear deep in his stomach.  Why was he so eager to hold on? “I am sorry-”

[moonwhxte]

cassius-rath‌:

Cassius watched quietly as the other’s expression shifted slightly. It was difficult to read him again, to know what he’s thinking if their lips weren’t touching. It was almost sad that they’d be left to that—two boys not knowing anything else about each other.

He grabbed Harper’s hand to stop him, looking into his eyes. “..Do you really have to go?”

It was true they were nothing more than intimacy and tension, two boys who knew nothing about the other. They were left shrouded in mystery, in anticipation. In wonder. And perhaps that was for the best. For Harper when he was brash and temperamental, thought at least he was better than everything else there was to him. 

Nothing is more boring than your naked self after all.

Yet, he was caught by the other as he tried to walk away. His talons retracted, and teeth in no snarl. He was nothing more than a boy. Plain. Boring. Vulnerable. Cassius kept managing to do that to him.

“Wasn’t this what you wanted?” 

[moonwhxte]

cassius-rath‌:

Cassius opened his eyes when their lips parted, only to find Harper looking done with him. Was it over, then? He shouldn’t have expected so much when their affair had started as an accident caused by Chainsaw. He leaned down to pull his pants up, waiting for Harper to say anything.

Done was the wrong word to use to describe Harper in this situation. Standing before Cassius he wanted nothing more than to press his lips against the other once more, to take this to somewhere more private. But fear settled inside him.

But fear never was anything new.

He wanted to say thankyou, and sorry, and nothing he should have said in a moment like this. “I... I should go..” 

[moonwhxte]

cassius-rath‌:

Keep reading

Harper couldn’t quite catch his breathing before the other pushed his lips against his, and his heart beat didn’t dare slow for even a moment. He was so very aware in that moment of the ethereal being in front of him, the being he didn’t deserve to have his lips pressed against in the moment. To be handled so gently once again.

So he pulled back, straightening his clothes and dusting off the dirt. However it didn’t help his dishevelled look. 

[moonwhxte]

broken-daughter-of-the-night‌:

It’s been just over 6 years since Esmee stepped foot, more like got tossed, into the camp and things still seemed so hard for her. She was well ahead in training and she felt at home for once, but she always felt like something was missing and she still had a hard time trusting people. It was around 3am when she decided to head out of her cabin and walk through the woods. Her mind was a fog and she couldn’t concentrate on her studies. She needed to talk to them. The animals of the night have always listened to her and were around to help her since she was a young child. Some even followed her to the barriers of camp to talk to her when she was in need. “Mokena, Graysen, are you there? I need you”

No matter how long a boy like Harper would spend inside a camp like this, he knew he could never truly feel home. Trapped in invisible walls, and monsters lurking it was hard to decipher where the true terror of the night was. Alone he sat admits the forest, the trees. The hell that disguised as a haven for people he was supposedly like. But he knew this to not be the truth, he would never be anything more than well- this.

As the call echoed through the silence of the night, the boy did not dare answer. He sat in silence, waiting. Listening. But the world had different plans as he adjusted, twigs crackling beneath him.

[moonwhxte]

broken-daughter-of-the-night‌:

It’s been just over 6 years since Esmee stepped foot, more like got tossed, into the camp and things still seemed so hard for her. She was well ahead in training and she felt at home for once, but she always felt like something was missing and she still had a hard time trusting people. It was around 3am when she decided to head out of her cabin and walk through the woods. Her mind was a fog and she couldn’t concentrate on her studies. She needed to talk to them. The animals of the night have always listened to her and were around to help her since she was a young child. Some even followed her to the barriers of camp to talk to her when she was in need. “Mokena, Graysen, are you there? I need you”

No matter how long a boy like Harper would spend inside a camp like this, he knew he could never truly feel home. Trapped in invisible walls, and monsters lurking it was hard to decipher where the true terror of the night was. Alone he sat admits the forest, the trees. The hell that disguised as a haven for people he was supposedly like. But he knew this to not be the truth, he would never be anything more than well- this.

As the call echoed through the silence of the night, the boy did not dare answer. He sat in silence, waiting. Listening. But the world had different plans as he adjusted, twigs crackling beneath him.

[moonwhxte]

cassius-rath‌:

Keep reading

Harper couldn’t tell if it was fear or desire that sent his heart racings. The gentle thudding so constant, so present. Standing so close to the other boy, his knees digging into the dirt and sticks beneath them. He could feel the rocks that jabbed at the opening through holes in his jeans. Yet all he could concentrate on was the way Cassius looked down at him. Dangerous, daring. With lips plumped and bruised, and eyes  could distill fear in another. He feared to let Cassius touch him, he feared he’d explore too much of his body. So instead, he took control.

With the tugging of the fabric, Harper leant in kissing the boy’s skin ever so gently. Almost cautiously, while he ripped his pants down further. With one last kiss, he shot a final glance up to Cassius, with something that could have been seen as a smirk before he placed his mouth around him.

[moonwhxte]

cassius-rath:

If anyone asked, Cassius would answer that he didn`t know what they were doing and why they were doing this, because he really did not know, and the longer it goes, the more the answer seem so far away, like it was from a whole different world. He could only keep going, as if stopping would make him feel anything else, like his bleeding lip.

He did not stop the hands that went to his pants. He just fueled them to go on, like he was saying, keep your hands and lips on me, let`s not stop. The golden boy`s lips followed the trail of his fingers–tracing the jaw, going back to the other pair of lips, and then going down the neck again. Sometimes it was his soft, swollen lips, sometimes it was his teeth grazing on the skin of the boy who thinks he was cursed. 

It was a dangerous intoxication that engulfed the two boys. Flooding their thoughts, and ignoring common sense. The kind of intoxication that lead boys to fall from cliffs, or abandon homes. Treacherous. Wild. Savage. It did not care what it destroyed. And nor did the boys that tore at flesh, and grasped for someone to hold so tight.

Harper pulled his neck from the other’s reach, and pushed him away. His hands never leaving his shirt, he found the slightest moment to catch his breath. Staring at the other, eyes skimming his eyes, his jaw, his neck. Cassius would never not be beautiful. For he would always be ethereal. He had no scars, no signs of horror. No marks of hell. But the moment didn’t last too long, before Harper pulled him in closer and pushed him against the tree. Their positions switching.

The thud was hard, ferocious. Yet there was no apology. Cassius’s jeans unzipped, Harper knelt before him. 

[lnternetkid]