Lux in Tenebris - Tribulatio - Chapter 20
Wiping The Other's Tears Away for @badthingshappenbingo
Thank you so much to @twigsofmanyfaces for letting me borrow your boy Trouble and shake him like a cocktail shaker. If y'all haven’t read their work yet, you should do that immediately!!
The bar Trouble frequents sees all types: humans, non-humans, and a certain subset of both that Trouble just loves getting his teeth into. Tonight is no different. Three of the usual assholes can’t seem to take their eyes off him. Trouble is happy enough to go along with their schemes for long enough to get his meal - until he realizes he isn’t the only one in the angels’ basement.
This takes place during an alternate version of Dee’s first captivity.
Lux in Tenebris Masterlist here
AO3
This is a series. Start here, continued from here.
Contents: stashing a dead body, broken spine, mild gore, kissing, past noncon, self-loathing, past murder, past demonic possession, past drugging, past kidnapping, guilt
~
The demon slept like a rock, and that was probably for the best. It meant he slept through Trouble sliding out of bed in the middle of the night and sneaking out of the room. He slept through Trouble wandering down to the giant superstore down the street and purchasing the biggest suitcase they carried. He slept through Trouble bringing the suitcase back to the room and rolling it to the closet where the asshole fratboy still lay in a heap. He slept through Trouble stuffing the dead asshole into the suitcase - and the sound of the asshole’s back snapping in two, when he wouldn’t fit the first time.
Trouble took the suitcase back out of the room while the demon slept, and rolled the damn thing right out of the hotel lobby and out onto the near-empty street. He rolled it all the way to the angels’ place and dumped the asshole on the floor, right next to Brent. He set the suitcase by the door and walked back to the hotel.
No use leaving the asshole in the suitcase and letting him rot there. They might need the suitcase again.
So when Dee stirred and opened his eyes to the faint light poking around the edges of the blackout curtains, Trouble had been back in bed and sleeping for hours. Trouble smiled and kissed Dee’s hair.
“Mornin’, you,” he said sleepily.
“Mmm.” Dee flopped onto Trouble’s chest and nuzzled into his neck. “Morning.”
“You sleep okay?” Trouble’s fingers slipped under Dee’s shirt, and he gently scratched his back with blunted nails.
“Mmm. Really good.” Dee’s breath warmed Trouble’s neck. His lips crept higher, brushing Trouble’s jaw, finding the corner of his mouth.
Trouble inhaled into the kiss, hand drifting up to cradle Dee’s face. “You… you don’t have to, Dee… I mean…”
You were assaulted last night. Almost raped. You thought I was going to sell you to the man who was going to do it. You don’t owe me anything.
“You don’t have to,” he said again, lamely.
“I want to,” Dee said, pushing himself up until he was straddling Trouble’s hips.
Trouble groaned. “Dee…” His hands settled on Dee’s hips. “Wait…”
Dee froze. When Trouble opened his eyes, Dee was staring at him, eyes wide, pupils round with fear.
“I-I’m sorry,” Dee whispered. He began to tremble. He slumped off of Trouble.
“Hey, no,” Trouble said. “It’s not… It’s not you, Dee. You’re not… the bad one. Okay? I just… I want to explain. So that you… know.”
“Know what?” Dee hadn’t stopped shaking. He hugged himself tightly.
Trouble whined softly. He knew he had to tell Dee, but everything had been so nice up until now. That had to end sooner or later. May as well be sooner, so he didn’t keep deluding himself that this could be… something.
That they could be something.
He reached out and gently took Dee’s hand. “You watched what I did to Jude… right?” he said.
Dee’s eyes went a little wider. “When he–” He motioned, briefly, to his mouth.
Trouble flinched. Of course, that’s what Dee would remember, instead of the part where Trouble had become a monster after. He swallowed hard. “Well, I was… feeding on him. After I took you upstairs, I fed on Lucas, too. I fed on them both. It’s how I… eat.”
“You… ate them?” Dee breathed.
“No. I eat their… energy, I guess,” Trouble said. “Their pain. Or their, um. Orgasms. I like those, too. It’s how I’ve lived… pretty much since I was a teenager. I… I just feed on people. That’s how the angels found me. I was finding more people to feed on. I’m… a fucking parasite, Dee.”
The demon flinched back, releasing Trouble’s hand. “But you… you feed on people who want to hurt you. You killed the angels. You took the man who kept trying to kiss you at the bar. You killed the man… the man who…” His voice began to tremble. His eyes flicked to the doorway, where the man who had tried to rape Dee had stood yesterday. “You killed them. I don’t think that’s bad, Trouble.”
Blood flooded Trouble’s cheeks. He squeezed his eyes shut as he said, “I haven’t always killed… bad people, Dee. There have been good ones in there.”
The silence stretched out for an uncomfortable amount of time. Dee drew in a deep breath and said, “the body I took… she was good. She was a good person. Funny. She liked wearing dresses, and this… specific color purple. I don’t think she lived here; I think she was visiting. She liked smoothies and this one actor - she had a lot of pictures of him in her phone.
“When I took her body… she was frightened. I kept telling her I was only borrowing it and I’d be gone in a few days. She let me take us to a park and to a… a big fountain. I put our hand in the water and it felt so good. It was summer, I remember that. I took us to a bar because I heard music inside. I liked the music. We danced, and I liked that, too. And then someone asked if he could buy us a drink.”
Trouble opened his eyes. A tear rolled down Dee’s cheek.
“Lucas,” Dee rasped. “That was Lucas. He bought us a drink. She told me not to take it, but I drank it anyway. I liked how it tasted. She said it didn’t taste right. I finished it.” He whimpered softly. “I started to feel strange, and tried to leave. Lucas followed me out, and she started to scream at me to run. I didn’t - I couldn’t. I was too dizzy. When he reached out, and burned me…” Dee’s chest hitched. “She never stopped screaming, after that. She screamed when they cuffed us. She screamed when they put us in the trunk. She screamed when they whipped us, beat us… and then they drowned us, and she… she stopped.”
“Dee,” Trouble whispered. “I’m so–”
“I just mean that… I’ve killed someone, too,” Dee said. He took a deep, steadying breath. “Someone good. Someone who didn’t deserve it.”
Trouble shook his head. “That’s not the same–”
“It is to me.”
Trouble moved in close and brushed the tears from Dee’s eyes. He wrapped his arms around Dee and held him tight.
After a long moment, Dee spoke again, his voice muffled against Trouble’s chest. “Do you want to feed… on me?”
“No,” Trouble snarled in horror and disgust, his body going rigid.
Dee recoiled. Tears brimmed in his eyes. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I didn’t… does that mean you don’t… want… me?”
Trouble’s stomach dropped. The demon looked so small, huddled on the bed. He swallowed hard. “I don’t want you to feel like you have to do anything,” he said, finally. “But… yeah, Dee. I do want you.”
Dee nodded meekly. “Could I… Am I… allowed to kiss you?” he said.
Trouble lurched forward and caught Dee’s mouth in a kiss. “Forget this ‘allowed’ bullshit,” he said against Dee’s lips. The demon whimpered against his mouth. “We can do whatever the fuck we want, Dee.” He kissed his way across Dee’s cheek, down his neck, his teeth nipping Dee’s collarbone. “So tell me what you want, honey, okay? Is this okay?”
Dee inhaled sharply. “Trouble… yes, it’s… could I have… more?”
Trouble grinned as the spicy scents of Dee’s happiness floated in the air. “Yeah, Dee,” he murmured. “We can do more.”
Continued here
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