"Zane and Theo: Ch 2 (WIP)"
“Weapons out.” Calls the house of a man in front of Zane and Theo as he sets his cross bow. The electric lantern that hung from his tree trunk arm swung lazily as he adjusted his posture to better accommodate his weapon.
Theo pulls an arrow out of the dark green quiver strung across his back, Zane draws his broad sword, and the willowy girl with short, curly, dark hair behind them unhooks a whip from her belt.
The cause of all of this caution was due to the fact that the four Hunters had heard a sort of animalistic screaming ––similar to the way a cat would sound if you gutted it alive–– emanating from the tunnels in front of them. The noise was so loud that it sounded like the source could have only been a few feet away, despite the lantern’s one thousand candle light power telling the team of Hunters otherwise. The four Hunters had almost finished their sweep and hadn’t run into anything unusual, and the abandoned subway tunnels were unusually empty.
Suddenly, there was a glint out in the darkness ahead, a reflection of light behind eyes.
“Spread out.” The giant man whispers. All this really meant was that he, Theo, and Zane would spread out across the tunnel to prevent anything from getting past them, while the girl behind them would watch behind them in case something tried to ambush them.
“Want me to fire a warning shot, Darius?” Theo says through his teeth. The words were just below a whisper.
Darius nods.
Theo silently draws back his arrow and fires into the darkness ahead of them.
Another animalistic shriek tears through the passageway and Darius shoulders his crossbow.
A dark form hunched over on four legs came charging towards them from the darkness ahead and rams into Darius’ chest, almost knocking him to the filthy ground and causing the lantern to sway wildly. The creature retreats into the darkness, and this time Darius fires another shot at it.
The creature lets out a howl before charging out towards Zane. He raises his sword and makes a wide slash at the beast, effectively beheading it, despite the thundering roar of his heart in his ears.
The beast had been a Hellhound.
Zane glanced over at Theo through the mist of evaporating demon’s blood. He swallowed and Theo gave an understanding nod.
“What the fuck?” whispers the girl behind them, “That’s the third one in two weeks.”
Theo nods again, this time in agreement; “We should probably report this after we finish our sweep, then. I-I mean, outside of our regular mission reports.”
Darius heaves a sigh. “Jasper is right. Now that I think about it, Hellhounds have been showing up more and more in the last month, which means that someone somewhere has got to be screwing around. Let’s move on up to the surface.”
***
“This is fucking insane!” cried Theo from his twin bed. “Three Hellhounds in half a month? Something’s up.”
Zane was leaning against Theo’s dresser, which was stained a light brown. Most of the things in Theo’s room were earth colors, mostly because he thought his room should be a place that was calming and that he could retreat to. It has a very nice stereo system that can play vinyl records, cassettes, and CDs. There is also a tidily kept desk that has a typewriter on it and a small safe in one of the drawers. Theo used to keep drugs in that safe, but now he just hides money in there, as well as scraps of paper containing small poems or short stories. Zane knows this.
Theo’s room is a stark contrast to Zane’s room, which is carefully decorated in the colors of space: mostly black, with some purple, red, orange, and white accents. Zane just wanted his room to look cool and to make it aesthetically pleasing to him. His room also contains a nice stereo system, but no typewriter. He keeps a small keyboard on his desk that he occasionally plays, as well as some pens, pencils, sticky notes, note cards and papers for writing whatever on. To Zane, a desk just isn’t a real desk if it doesn’t have office supplies. Zane also owns a laptop for various purposes that include making mix CDs and sometimes dabbling in a little online gaming.
Zane shakes his head absently. “Who the hell would want to fuck with Hellhounds? Those things are a pain to keep loyal.”
Zane had his suspicions, but he kept them to himself. No use in accidentally making a false accusation.
Theo caught onto Zane’s reserved body language. He leaned toward his boyfriend. “What is it? Do you think you know who’s been fucking around with portals?”
“Well, I, uh––” Zane starts, holding up his hands, “I don’t know. Matilda was wearing red lipstick today and she only does that on special occasions. It’s a bit weird for her to change her makeup like that. She’s such a creature of habit…”
Zane taps his bottom lip with his index finger.
“Weird.” Theo says. He is unsure what to say about all of this. He hadn’t noticed Matilda’s lipstick and if anything, he really didn’t want to think about the awkward situation this morning.
Zane pushes off of Theo’s dresser and pulls a CD case out from his inside jacket pocket and opens the case.
“New mix CD?” Theo raises an eyebrow mischievously.
Zane smiles down at the disc in his hands. “Yeah. It’s called ‘Fidelity’. I’ve been working on it since October.”
Zane switches out the Rolling Stones CD in the slot for his own disc and gently pushed the tray in with his fingertips. He plops down next to Theo and leans his head on Theo’s shoulder. A soft and gentle song begins to filter through the room.
“What is it, Zane?” Theo asks as he scoots behind his partner and lets him lean on his chest. He runs his hands through Zane’s hair. “The hound?”
Zane rolls over and hugs Theo. He nods into Theo’s chest.
The taller man smiles down at Zane’s hair before rolling up his sleeve to reveal a thin bite mark on his upper arm. “Don’t worry about it. The medics did a very good job with fixing my arm.”
Theo plans a kiss on the top of Zane’s head. “I am fine and I love you, okay?”
“I love you so, so, so, so much.” Theo awkwardly tilts up Zane’s head so he can see Zane’s face and kisses it with every word. He pauses.
“I like this song.” He says finally.
Zane pushes up on the bed on either side of Theo so he is sitting in Theo’s lap. He touches their foreheads together and sighs out of his nose. His eyes were intense and focused directly into Theo’s.
Theo smiles, his voice a quiet whisper, “So needy.”
He kisses Zane on the lips softly and Zane reaches up to run his hand through Theo’s curly hair. Zane lets out and groan against Theo’s mouth and Theo puts both of his calloused hands on either of Zane’s hips and pulls him closer, closing the gap between them. Zane nabs Theo’s bottom lip between his teeth and pulls it gently before letting go.
(fyi its going to take me 4958 years to finish this scene im so shy about writing non-cuddle romance scenes smh)
