#scasonofthevvitch

[gravitysrainbow-1x1]

@scasonofthevvitch​

He was running out of excuses.

Missed dates. Cancelled plans. Ignored Texts and voicemails. The list was tallying up against him. Dominic fought with all of his might to be with Rian as he could, but time was not on his side. There was an understanding that the both of them had busy lives with their work. That aided him in his efforts, but it’s effectiveness waned after so long. He was desperate to keep the fair blonde that had stolen his heart the moment he’d set eyes on him, but there was someone who refused to get out of his way.

All in due time. His plan would work out in the end. They always did. That was his gift, after all. It got him where he was now, and it wasn’t over yet.

But for now, he had to do damage repair with Rian. Again.

“I suppose flowers aren’t going to make up for the phone calls and text messages I missed,” Dominic said, his deep voice soft with remorse as he kept his head low. He glanced up briefly at Rian, an apologetic, sheepish look his bright blue eyes. “But I thought it wouldn’t hurt to have them. I’m sorry I was gone and quiet for so long. My connects didn’t tell me that I couldn’t have my cell on me until I boarded the plane.”

[gravitysrainbow-1x1]

@scasonofthevvitch​ Waking up was a shock to his system.

Sebastian gasped for air, his hand grasping his throat as if he fought against an invisible noose that threatened to suck the life out of him. When his breathing settled and his heart beat calmed, he realized that he was back again.

The first passerby he came across on the street, he asked for the date. “February 17th,” the woman replied politely before continuing on her way. Not much time had passed since he’d last been awake, and sad as it was to say, that was unusual. It felt like he’d sunk into the habit of losing a couple of weeks and months now. He couldn’t remember the last time that he’d blinked and just a few days had gone by. Something was different. Something had changed in their power dynamic, shifting it to Sebastian’s favor temporarily. 

Opening up his journal, he brushed off some of the dirt that had slipped between the pages. After he’d met Rian, he was wise and buried it in a hidden place to hide it before his grip on reality loosened. Tucked carefully between a page filled with sketches of the charming man was a napkin with his private phone number neatly written across it.

It took him a few days to act on it; fear and anxiety filled him to the brim as he fought with himself while he avoided every reflection he could to avoid an even louder fight with his other self. But finally, as his clean shaven face filled with a light bristle of facial hair, he shook off his fear and took in a deep breath to find his courage.

Not knowing when - or if - it would happen again, he knew he needed to take full advantage of his time awake. 

It was late when he called, but he kept it brief and didn’t give Rian much time to ask questions after he’d given him a location to meet him at.

The park was empty at that hour, save for a few late night walkers and the occasional drunk and homeless person. Sebastian stood beside a bench, too nervous to sit and paced back and fourth. When he noticed someone coming down the path, he stopped and stood still until he recognized the confident stride of Rian approaching. “H-hey,” he said, not sure what ground he stood on to be more forward with the gentleman that he’d watched through the glimpses of reflections that Dom could not avoid. “I’m sorry it’s so late. I didn’t know if you’d be home or even awake, but I wanted to try. I don’t have a lot of time and I apologize for sounding so forward but... I wanted to see you again.”

[gravitysrainbow-1x1]

@scasonofthevvitch​

The roar of the big city was deafening to Micah for the first few minutes of their arrival. A migraine cracked his skull in two, forcing them to take a break in a quaint hole-in-the-wall coffee shop for an hour after landing. “I’m so embarrassed,” Micah admitted, rubbing his forehead as he tried to will away the alarm still going off in his head. He felt uneasy and anxious in the way he wouldn’t stop moving in his chair. ”I used to live here. I knew it was loud, but wow. That caught me off-guard. Hearing everything all at once... I didn’t know what to focus on.”

[gravitysrainbow-1x1]

The tears had stopped, but Ira couldn’t stop shaking. He sat on a stool beside the bed in the witch’s bedroom. Face buried in his hands, he stole quick glances of the unconscious man lying peacefully underneath the sheets to watch the rise and fall of his chest - fearful of it stopping. Fearful of him dying.

Ira felt helpless as he watched Grey’s attempt to break his curse fail miserably. He begged him to stop the moment it became clear that it wasn’t working, but his cries fell on deaf ears. When the witch collapsed, the ghoul scooped him up into his arms immediately to try to wake him, but the dark magic had drained every last joule of energy from his body.

In the back of his head, he could hear his tormentor, Cecily, cackling at the failure. ‘Be damned for eternity, then.’ Her final words to him when he refused to submit to her demands rang in his ears.

The panic and fear in Ira had been so thick that he couldn’t bear it. Watching the witch come close to the brink of death at his expense overwhelmed him to a point that he could not cope in his human form. For hours, he laid by Grey’s side in the hyena form that he’d been cursed with. Once, he’d despised it, but it’d become a crutch for him to hide and bury the flood of human emotions that he ran from.

But even in that form, now, small whimpers escaped the beast as its large head rested against the sleeping man’s side, peering at his handsome face with beady, yellow eyes.

Ira lost track of time. It could have been a few days. Maybe a week. He didn’t know. When color returned to Grey’s cheeks and his breath became steadier, he returned to his human form to sit patiently beside him. Hunger clawed at his stomach, but he forced down the hunger pangs. A single eye had become murky black in the whites, and his hazel pupil now yellow. Dark veins visibly crept up his neck from beneath his hoodie and snaked all the way down to his fingertips. Internally, he was screaming for food, but he would allow nothing to take him away from the man’s side ever again.

“Please wake up,” Ira murmured, a trembled in his voice. “I can’t -- I can’t lose you again.”

@scasonofthevvitch​

[gravitysrainbow-1x1]

@scasonofthevvitch​

Angry didn’t begin to cut it.

Fury wasn’t strong enough of a word.

Rage was an understatement.

When Dominic opened his eyes, he’d expected to see the usual surroundings: a cafe that Sebastian had finally dozed off at (after trying to overdose on caffeine) or an art museum that he’d linger at. Hell, even a park bench or behind some trash cans would have been more acceptable of an environment to wake up at than his lover’s bedroom when he had not been the one to bring him to bed.

A shadow hung over Dominic’s furrowed brow as he sat on the edge of the bed, starring straight ahead while he entertained how many ways he could grind Sebastian’s soul into a fine ash in his head. He’d already caused enough problems for him by simply revealing that he existed at all -- right at the cusp of Dominic’s near victory over his body. Had he minded his place, his plan would have executed flawlessly and Rian would be happy that he’d get more time with him, as he promised. Now he had to entertain him with more lies than would have been necessary. More time, however, he would still deliver on. He was hellbent on that.

Dominic sneered at the grey hoodie that Sebastian had been wearing, suppressing the urge to groan at the man’s poor man’s clothing preferences. He made a mental note to leave a button down shirt and freshly pressed pants at Rian’s. Even one of his rare, but more casual attire would look be infinitely more preferable than the hoodie, jacket, jeans and sneakers. He reached into the pocket of the jeans and pulled out his leather money clip to find the $500 dollars he remembered having now gone. His fake ID thrown away. “Bastard,” he couldn’t help but mutter to himself under his breath, but refrained from speaking out loud further, thinking to himself, ‘You had $500 dollars, and you clearly spent 20$ on clothes from a damn thrift store. What the fuck did you spend the rest on? Coffee?’

Admittedly, as he thought about it in correlation to how physically tired their body felt, that was a possibility. 

After he finished putting on the clothes, he glanced back at Rian, his anger directed at him now. His hands clenched the edge of the bed hard enough to threaten breaking the seam. Dominic knew that he could not control Rian - not completely - but this... He was insulted. He’d slept with the lesser of the two, validating his existence and giving him worth he did not deserve in Dominic’s eyes.

When Rian turned over in the bed, Dominic froze for a moment to avoid waking him. He frowned briefly as he watched him sleep, annoyed at himself for the ache he felt over this beautiful man.

Grabbing the shoes from the floor, he quietly snuck out before the sun came up and Rian woke up. His sick brother was fickle, unreliable and unpredictable, after all.

[gravitysrainbow-1x1]

 journal entry #1

@scasonofthevvitch​

Ira hunched protectively over the tattered journal sitting open in his lap. He thumbed carefully through the brown, aged pages with gentle care, afraid that one wrong move might cause it to crumble or tear. He bit his bottom lip, sighing with eyebrows pinched together as his gaze cared for every scripted, forbidden word in his ancient, weathered journal. ‘I know I ought not to write of him here; should my parents or prying siblings find it, it would be the end of it. Of us. 

But I must. Memories fade over time, and I want none of this to fade, but writing doesn’t fade. Ink may lighten, and pages age over time, but to let my beautiful experiences with Sebastian fade into extinction because fear kept my quill from touching paper would be an inexcusable sin to our love.

Love, yes. I love him. I have had many helpful people in my life, but no one can begin to rival Sebastian in the way his caring and compassionate soul has touched mine. And should someone find my blasphemous writings, what did you expect? I’ve known the gorgeous man since we were both small lads. The forces of heaven and Earth could not separate us. If something pricked his thumb, I’d pull out the thorn. If I wept, he’d comfort me. There is nothing that we would not do for each other, and I’ve not experienced such genuine thoughtfulness from any other. It was inevitable that I’d fall for him; no, it was fate. Heaven forgive me if I am wrong in my judgement, but I care not. To ignore it would be a blasphemy to my soul, and I aim to be true to myself and no one else.

Call it a sin if you will, but whatever others may name it, it is love. When he looks at me with his kind, dark eyes and his cheeky smile, I have never felt more seen in my life. So forgive me please, Lord, if you are synonymous with love, you must understand that what we have is pure of heart and good in nature...’

Sighing, Ira smiled tiredly, his fingers loosening against the journal’s pages as he leaned his head back and rested comfortably in his memories. Keeping Sebastian alive and remembered distracted him from his reality, and even in moments of pure disappointment (and sometimes terror) - his lover still comforted him in the aftermath within the confines of the ghoul’s longing imagination.

[gravitysrainbow-1x1]

“Don’t touch the roses unless you want to lose a hand, they’ve been grumpy ever since we stopped feeding them human flesh.”

@scasonofthevvitch​

[gravitysrainbow-1x1]

@scasonofthevvitch​ Festive fall fun; The leaves began to turn into deep colors of red, yellow, and orange, like each leaf had been meticulously dipped into the sunset overnight. A chill fell over the city. Citizens bundled up into jackets and plaid scarves and clutched an apple cider, pumpkin spice, or hot chocolate tightly to their chest as they scurried about to prepare for the holidays. 

Ira sat on a hay bale, one leg drawn in close to his chest while the other rested on the ground. Stalks of corn in the corn maze reached up towards orange sky surrounding him while he waited on Grey to return with his warm beverage of choice. Ira wondered briefly what the holiday treats that his generation raved over might have tasted like, but then he quickly let the thought go. It didn’t matter. He had very specific preferences and his body would be damned if he let himself get too curious. It was easy to remember not to indulge in his curiosity; it was painful to vomit it - and some of his insides - back up when he rejected it.

But that didn’t matter. Long ago he’d gotten over the preferences that were forced upon him. All he cared about was the pretty, black-haired young man that inconceivably came into his life. For hundreds of years, he’d been haunted by his memories of Sebastian’s face, and, somehow, here he was. Still, Ira held his breath, fearing it too good to be true, but his suffocating heart couldn’t bare to be alone anymore. 

Despite the festive fun they were having, when he was separated from Grey for even a moment, the sad, distant look in his eyes as he could not help but ruminate on the countless years that he’d spent alone this time of year, watching others enjoy their families and holidays traditions with gleeful enthusiasm. When Grey returned, he forced himself to smile briefly, looking up to meet the other’s gaze as he tried to shake it off. “What drink did you decide to get?” He asked curiously, “If you’re still cold, you can take my jacket. I don’t need it. I don’t want you to be uncomfortable.”