Wanted to write some vampire!Demetri x werewolf!Eli again after @baldwinboy5ive dropped a werewolf fic and put me in a Spooky Mood XD This takes place sometime after my fic Nocturnal!
***
“This’ll end in flames someday.”
“What do you mean?” Eli looks up from patching Demetri’s wounds.
Demetri sighs. “People like us don’t get happy endings. We’re the monsters slain in the final battle so the hero can prove their worth.”
It isn’t the first time they’ve played this scene. Hiding in a hotel room, cleaning up after slayers did a number on them.
A cycle that does seem doomed to snuff them out eventually.
Nevertheless, Eli scoffs. “Why do they decide how the book ends? You know, in some stories, the villains win.”
The rest of this AV100 prompt that I didn't have time to finish before the prompt closed XD This one is a 7-parter--700 words total! Only fitting they should get a happy ending for the last AV100 post I write for them <3
***
Day 38
Talked to Eli about his…interesting new lady friends. They’re making me miss when he was hung up on Moon, honestly.
Anyways, turns out they’re just some exiled lesbians he took pity on. Families disowned them for kissing women, growing fangs, etc etc. Last I heard, Yas is single—maybe she’d want their numbers?
Woke up with a couple (bite?) sores on my neck, so I asked Eli about his pest control situation. He says everything’s fine, but I have my doubts.
Side note: Are metal allergies possible? Had to toss that silver crucifix—damn thing gave me hives.
*
Day 40
Confession: I’m worried about Eli.
There was an…incident a few days ago, and I hoped if I mulled it over enough times, it’d start making sense. Wishful thinking.
Was shaving the other morning when Eli barged in. Funny, I didn’t see him coming in my shaving mirror—can those things glitch? Thought that was only Smart Mirrors™️.
He started ranting about how “mirrors are for pussies,” and threw mine out the window??? Incredibly inconsiderate.
He insisted I didn’t need to shave because I’d look hot with a beard. How do you tell if someone’s joke-flirting or actual flirting?
*
Day 45
Have I mentioned Eli’s weird about blood now? Unsure I like it.
Cut myself on some loose board (this castle needs renovation), and he freaked out. Wouldn’t even look at it! Wailed about “blood being too precious to waste” and ran away. Huh.
Townsperson banged on the door today, telling Eli to stop eating people. I opened to tell him that was nonsense, but I noticed he smelled...appetizing? Like a gyro wrap.
He made himself scarce before I could say anything, but…kind of hurtful, honestly. I know I’m a bit gangly, but I’m not that ugly, am I?
*
Day 47
Finally got a wifi signal in here! Only took 4 hours of fiddling to make Eli’s TV work.
We binged Castlevania today. Eli’s favorite character is Dracula, supposedly because he’s “such a badass and is gonna kick the asses of every one of those lame humans.” I think it has more to do with Dracula having a soft spot for a smart, good-hearted human who he goes absolutely batshit avenging, but Eli’d never admit to this.
Side note: Is it hypothetically possible for one’s reflection to gradually grow more and more translucent and dead-looking? Asking for a friend.
*
Day 50
Bad news: Eli ate the mailman today, and I…may have helped.
Walked in on him draining the guy’s blood, and naturally demanded an explanation. Eli said to settle down because “there’s plenty to share!” What an insane suggestion.
But since the mailman was already dead...
In my defense…best AB positive I’ve ever had. Not that I’ve had much. I’ve dabbled a couple times, but who hasn’t?
In better news: Wearing the “amnesia” down! We’ve been reading through the library together, and Eli’s instinctively remembering what kinds of fantasy and sci-fi I like. He remembers me—I FEEL it.
*
Day 60
Okay! Know what’s going on now.
We were reading Buffy comics when Eli clutched his head and started shrieking. Everything came back at once.
After I calmed him down, he spilled everything. Getting involved with a Kung-Fu-practicing vampiric “organization” promising nigh-unlimited badassery. Being taken to Europe, undeadified, and given a blood-only diet…none of which sharpened his memory.
Admitted I’m not inheriting a Greek estate, and I only came to find him. He tearfully told me that’s a shame. He imagined us building a life there. Maybe raising some goats?
Fuck it—if he wants, I’ll make that happen.
*
Day 140
Been a while! Busy, busy!
Surprisingly easy talking “distant family members” into giving us a land plot. Maybe it’s superstition. Maybe it’s healthy fear. Regardless, people don’t like saying no to weird, sharp-toothed out-of-towners.
Made Eli promise he’ll discuss with me before joining any new martial arts-related cults (especially ones that strand him in isolated castles as soon as he “isn’t evil enough”). Now he only feeds every so often! We’ve gone through some neighbors, but it’s an improvement over Transylvania.
Also, our eldest nannygoat gave birth! Eli named the kids Hellraiser, Slayer, and Wrathchild. I love them.
HERE IS THE FIRST HALF OF THE FIC THAT HAS TAKEN OVER EVERY LAST ONE OF MY LIFE OBLIGATIONS FOR THE PAST WEEK AND A HALF
I STG I DID NOT MEAN TO GET THIS INVESTED BUT
@ckhalloween22 spoopy season Elimetri for the “monstrous transformations” prompt, as promised!!! Chapter 2 will hopefully be up later this week!
Fun fact: I actually made that moodboard ages ago (like...early 2021??? Purple Hawk did not even exist yet :O) and just never got around to posting it. Mainly because I was planning on posting this long list of vampire/werewolf headcanons to go with it, and I just...was too lazy to, RIP. But now there’s a whole-ass fic to go with it, so it seemed like a good time to post it XD
Spoilers ig that there are in fact werewolves in Chapter 2 lmao
Hopefully this will be on AO3 soon!!! Just gotta like. Recover from binge-writing this entire 14k-word fic in a few days, whoops. Y’all this was originally gonna be a one-shot and then it turned into a MONSTER (no pun intended) and now it’s a two-shot XD
Anyways enjoy the exact kinda angsty nonsense that I have been using as Daydream Scenarios for months now to entertain myself before I go to sleep. I never thought they would leave my head, but here we are.
ALSO @lizziefanconfessions I vaguely remember you saying you liked my vampire!Elimetri content, so. Come get fed!!! Highkey went all out with this one XD
EDIT: Chapter 2 is HERE!
Nocturnal
Chapter 1 - Before Daybreak
There’s a strange smell coming from the hallway.
Demetri clutches at the lavish bedsheets. He should feel spoiled, but he knows it’s just another taunt.
He’s willing to bet Terry Silver has 15 identical guestrooms, all lavishly furnished. Each costing maybe 3 thousand dollars—or more.
A reminder that Terry Silver has enough money to do whatever the hell he wants. Even kidnap teenagers. Even…
Demetri’s hand drifts to the sores on his neck. They still hurt like a bitch.
He tastes the air again. There’s so much more than there used to be, and it’s unnerving. Lacquer. Candle wax. Velvet. Carpet cleaner. Marble. Stonework.
The one in the hallway is new, he can tell that much. Different enough from the olfactory default he’s gotten used to. Now if he could just tell what—
He chokes on his breath.
It’s Eli.
He’s not sure how he knows. Perhaps he’s always been able to recognize it, on a subconscious level. But every scrap of his fucked-up body is suddenly certain.
Eli, leave! Just fucking leave! Demetri wants to scream into his bedsheets.
When he screamed at Silver that his friends would come for him, he was bluffing. Always bluffing. He didn’t want any of them anywhere near this place, Eli least of all.
And yet here he was, strolling in on some convoluted rescue mission and about to get himself killed. Or…worse.
Eli’s scent draws closer. Demetri wants to shout a warning, tell him to get out of here…but with dear old Terry’s cronies and guards and henchmen behind every decorative statue, calling attention to his best friend’s presence would be about the most morally reprehensible thing he could do.
A discordant clicking fills the room, and Demetri realizes Eli must be fiddling with the electronic padlock.
It won’t take long to hack. Unfortunately.
The door swings open, and Demetri forgets how much he isn’t supposed to want this.
Eli’s face is glistening with sweat, scar flaring up red the way it sometimes does when he’s out of breath. Long hair—down, undyed—is plastered to his skin.
He must not have wanted to stand out. He must have insisted on being the clandestine part of the operation.
The one who found Demetri.
He drinks in everything about Eli Moskowitz—wiry limbs, track pants, gray jacket, blue eyes, panicked face. All things Demetri was convinced he’d never see again.
“Demetri.”
Eli whispers his name. A tactical maneuver, meant not to alert any hostile presences nearby.
Nonetheless, Demetri gets the feeling Eli wants to shout.
“I—”
There are too many things he wants to say. I missed you. You shouldn’t be here. I just want to hold you. Get the fuck out. I need you. You’re in danger.
“You need to leave,” he manages. He sounds raspy, unsure, and probably desperate. Fucking pathetic.
Demetri shakes his head, eyes wild. “No—no, you have to stay away from me. You have to. You—”
Eli’s scent is overwhelming now. Something vaguely bringing to mind Mrs. Moskowitz pulling fresh-baked hamantaschen out of the oven.
Tantalizing.
And Demetri wants it. All of it.
“You’re not making any fucking sense!” Eli is scowling, and Demetri shoves the hunger down.
He slides off the bed, starting to back toward the wall. “He did something to me,” he gasps out. “Silver. I don’t know what, but now I want—there’s a part of me that wants—”
There’s a part of me that wants to kill you.
He can’t say it out loud. It wouldn’t be his first thought of Eli that never makes it into the spoken world.
“Demetri.” Eli slowly moves toward him, as though approaching a scared wild animal. Not that far off the mark, really. “What happened to you? What did he do?”
Demetri’s back hits the wall. He realizes with a prick of dread that there’s no way to run to the door without Eli intercepting him.
“Please.” His voice is barely a whisper. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Whatever it is.” Eli is as calm as ever—a jarring change from his usual demeanor. “We can figure it out. Just let me get you out of here.”
He shakes his head. “I can’t. I can’t go. Something’s wrong with me. I don’t—I don’t know what I’ll do out there.”
Eli steps closer. Demetri’s about to be cornered.
He knows he’s sick in the head, for letting this happen when he knows the risk.
Eli’s blood could be on his hands. A beautifully, terribly layered statement.
“I’m not leaving until you tell me what he did to you.” Eli’s voice hardens.
Panic sears through him, and he feels like he’s on the verge of collapse. The hunger is hissing at him to pounce, to slice a hole in Eli’s neck…
Shut the fuck up.
Not Eli Moskowitz. He’ll tear through the rest of humanity if he has to, leave a trail of carnage wherever he goes…but he’ll be damned if he ever lays a hand on Eli again.
“Hey.”
Eli doesn’t break Demetri’s gaze. Another step. Demetri holds his breath.
“You think I’m afraid of you?”
Eli doesn’t sound scornful or dismissive when he says it. Not like the way Demetri spat it out in the comic book store, all those months ago.
He only seems worried.
“You should be,” Demetri says. “I’m not the same. I’m not who you remember, I’m just…” He struggles for an appropriate metaphor.
“I’m just corrupted data.”
“That’s not true.” Eli smiles. “I come in here, and not 10 seconds later you’re freaking out and fussing over me doing some reckless shit you’re not cool with. That’s exactly who I remember.”
Slender fingers wrap around Demetri’s wrist, and he gasps.
Eli’s hand is warm. Not in a burning way, but…a cozy way, almost. Like coming inside on a rainy winter day.
“Don’t flatter yourself,” Eli says cheekily. “You have a mental breakdown every time your mom puts too much coriander in the shawarma. One time you stepped on Heracles’s tail and prepared an apology soliloquy. Like, ooooh, I am quivering in terror.”
Demetri laughs, and Eli looks at him with a fondness that makes him ache with longing.
It’s then something clicks.
Eli’s close enough to see Demetri’s teeth, now honed to unflattering points. He’s felt Demetri’s skin, which now looks and feels like a bedsheet left by an air conditioner.
He has to know by now what’s going on.
Why is Eli still here? He’s smart enough to run. At least Demetri hopes so.
Eli’s hand slides down his wrist, slowly weaving their fingers together. It’s the type of soft gentleness Demetri hasn’t experienced for a long time.
And it’s enough to make him shatter.
He crumples into Eli and erupts in sobs. His hands knot into gray fabric, clinging to it like it’s the only thing left in the world.
Strong arms wrap around his back, hands tracing circles along his spine. He almost wants to laugh at the irony.
It’s always been Eli who needs this. When the panic attacks or the meltdowns hit, or when the world just gets to be too much, Demetri holds him until he feels safe again.
Now Demetri’s on the inside of it all, frantically trying to stabilize.
“Shhhh. It’s okay.” Eli’s voice slides out in a soothing whisper. “I’m here. I’ve got you.”
Demetri shakes, and Eli holds him tighter. Everything about him is warm and steady and secure, and the anxiety and sheer terror of the last several days finally starts to drain away.
“Please let me take you home.”
Demetri knows he shouldn’t say yes. He nods anyway.
***
“So he held you down and…” Eli trails off.
“Drank me.” Demetri shudders at the memory. “Bit a hole in my neck and started gulping down my bodily fluids like they were Mr. Pibbs.”
“Ew.” Eli scowls at him. “Bodily fluids? Just say your blood, dude. I don’t need that mental image.”
Demetri scoffs, bumping Eli’s shoulder. “Still gross, either way.”
“So…what then?”
He freezes, going rigid as the image of snakelike red eyes boring into him comes trickling back. “He, um…”
A thin arm snakes around his neck, and Demetri feels Eli’s hand on his shoulder. A couple quick squeezes, and Demetri can breathe again.
“I guess I was kind of out of it by the end. My head felt all fuzzy. I remember someone dragged me into that room, and then I started feeling…hungry. And I could smell everything.” He turns, smiling weakly. “I could even smell you coming to get me.”
Eli smirks. “Do I smell good?”
“You smell amazing.” He nudges his friend’s side. “An absolute snack.”
Demetri leans into Eli as he laughs. His hand roams up his chest, clutching at the hand still squeezing his shoulder.
“‘Metri.” Fingertips brush against his neck, and he winces at the sudden pricks of pain. “Do they still hurt?”
He sighs. “Not as much as they did, but…yeah.”
“I can get a cream or something. My mom’s got a whole cabinet full of that shit.”
“I don’t know if it’ll work on undead skin, but I guess it’s worth a try.”
Eli walks out of the room, and Demetri is alone with the moonlight streaming through the window. He reclines on Eli’s bed, letting out a long breath.
It’s 3 am now. At least a few more hours before Demetri has to figure out what the fuck he’s going to do about his mom and Heracles. About his Tech Town shifts. About Miguel and Sam and Chris and Nate and Mr. LaRusso and everyone else who he can’t go near ever again.
That was supposed to be Eli too, but he was a stubborn fucker. Getting a redwood tree to budge would be easier.
He stretches out his arms, and his hand hits something plush. He turns, smiling.
He didn’t notice when he first came in, but Raptor Reynaldo, the stuffed hawk he won for Eli at a carnival when they were 7, is perched on his best friend’s pillow. Demetri spent an hour getting the damn bird out of a claw machine, and he’s been a scowling Eli Moskowitz bedroom presence ever since. Eli got his mom to sew a stupid red mohawk onto Raptor Reynaldo’s head during junior year, and he still hasn’t gotten around to taking it off.
Edgy idiot.
Despite himself, Demetri grabs the bird and pulls him in. It’s nice to have something soft to squeeze. Gets some of the tension out, at least.
Besides, maybe Raptor Reynaldo’s ridiculous new hairdo will pop off and go flying across the room. Perhaps into the garbage.
“Demetri.” A tired voice from the doorway. “Please don’t tell me you added Raptor Reynaldo to your legion of the undead.”
“Mmmm. I tried.” Demetri smirks. “Little hard to suck cotton stuffing, though.”
The bed compresses next to him. “Okay, sit up. I need to put this on.” Groaning, he reluctantly complies.
As Eli coats his fingers in some type of unpronounceable soothing lotion, he looks at Demetri with narrowed eyes. “Are you…are you going to let go of Raptor Reynaldo?”
Demetri scoffs. “Make me.”
Soft fingers brush his neck, and his eyes slip closed. They rub gentle spirals and curls, careful to never press too hard.
Demetri has no earthly idea whether the gel Eli picked is actually helping or not, but his best friend has a warmth that he could drink in forever.
His stomach tightens, arms tensing around the plush hawk. He grabs at his shirt and squeezes, trying to banish the thought of how badly he suddenly wants to grab Eli.
Get the fuck out of my head.
He’d sooner run full-speed into the sunrise than hurt Eli again.
“See if that helps.” Eli’s fingers slip away, and Demetri wilts in disappointment. “You want me to kiss your booboo better?”
“Oh my god, Eli.” The taller boy snorts out a laugh. “What am I, five and a half?”
“You sound pretty offended for someone cuddling a stuffed animal.”
“How could you!” Demetri does his best to sound aghast. “Raptor Reynaldo understands me, Eli.”
“I’m sure he does.”
Before Demetri can process it, Eli is swooping in and pressing warm lips to his bitemarks. The fragility he felt earlier comes rushing back.
It’s almost cruel, he thinks, Eli taunting him with what he can never have now. Not that Eli even realizes he’s doing it.
Tears threaten to leak out of him again. He gathers his resolve and holds them back.
Not twice in one night. He needs to have some standards.
“Fuck.” He leans his head on Eli’s shoulder. He feels he’s allowed that sort of small pleasure, at least. “What do I even do?”
“About…?”
“About everything. What the hell do I tell my mom?! ‘Oh, hey, sorry, I need to drop out of high school, can’t go to college, and have to work graveyard shifts at Ralph’s for the rest of my life?!’ And I know fucking Silver’s up to something, too. Betting he bribes the Hunter’s Guild not to go after him. And now he can tell all his buddies in there that there’s a new vampire on the loose. Oh, boy!”
“Demetri,” Eli murmurs into his hair. “I’m not going to let anyone hurt you ever again. You know that, right?”
The scent of Eli—so torturously close—wraps around him. Something dark roils up inside Demetri, like a snake making its way through his intestines.
“I shouldn’t even be here with you.”
His voice is breaking again. Humiliating.
What’s even left to break?
“Says who?” Eli demands.
“Uh, says every piece of vampire lore since the dawn of time? I’m a resurrected corpse with no soul.”
“Like you would ever be cool enough to pull off the ‘resurrected corpse with no soul’ descriptor. You’re like…an anxious zombie with less skin falling off.”
Demetri laughs, and some of the stones in his stomach lift. “Then it makes even less sense why you’d want me around. You can’t get into an Ivy League if I eat your brain, Eli.” He jabs at Eli’s temple, and the shorter boy scoffs.
“Oh, please. You’d spend so much time worrying about eating my brain that you’d never get around to actually doing it.”
If he was wondering before, he’s sure now. Eli has no intention of letting him go.
In better circumstances, he’d be flattered. Ecstatic, even. But as of this moment…
If he wants to run away—if he wants to put as much distance between himself and Eli Moskowitz as possible—he’ll have to do it by himself. If he wants to keep Eli safe, there’s no way in hell Eli’s going to help with it.
Eli’s loyal. He’s stubborn. He’s reckless. He’s an utter pain in the ass.
And when Demetri loses him again, it’s going to gut him a thousand times harder than the last time.
He has to leave. He knows this. Anything less would make him deplorable.
The embodiment of the very monster he’s turned into.
After all, who is he to put his own happiness above Eli’s safety?
“I can get the spare blanket,” Eli says. “You can stay here tonight. We’ll…I don’t know, we’ll watch the Star Wars prequels and make fun of them. Get your mind off shit for a while.”
He uncurls himself from Demetri. As he stands up, Demetri grabs his wrist, pulling him back.
If he doesn’t say something now, he might never get the chance.
“I love you.”
Eli turns, eyes bright with shock. “You what?”
“I love you.” His voice trembles as he repeats it. “And every second, I’m so fucking scared that I’m going to lose my grip on this…thing Sensei Targaryen made me into, and I’m going to hurt you. Or kill you, I don’t know. And it’s destroying me.”
A moment of silence. Demetri feels like a clogged drainpipe about to burst.
Then Eli steps back and sinks onto the bed beside him. Wiry arms wrap around his neck, and Eli presses their foreheads together.
“You don’t have to be scared,” he whispers. “You won’t hurt me.”
“How do you know?” Demetri’s voice croaks as he says it, and he feels another sob rising in his throat.
“Because I trust you. Well, I mean…”
Hesitation. If Demetri still had a heartbeat, it would stop.
“Not with Raptor Reynaldo’s hair—I see you over there, giving it the stink eye. Basically everything else, though.”
Despite everything, Demetri laughs again. How strange, he thinks, to be the one who needs to be distracted from his misery by stupid jokes. Stranger still that Eli learned the tactic from him.
Warmth fills his stomach. All those years of his inane comedy routine to get them through the hellhole of middle school and high school, and it’s the first thing Eli pulls out when he’s hurting.
Then again, how could it be any other way?
Demetri was always the one who looked like he had it together. Making wisecracks, rattling off Doctor Who fan theories, steering lunchroom conversations toward Dungeon Lord so Eli wouldn’t notice people staring. Eli was the one who broke easily, and Demetri was the one who put him back together. And when Demetri’s own defenses finally did give way…
Well, it’s not like Eli was around to see.
And now Demetri’s fraying apart like the world’s flimsiest pipe cleaner, and the only model Eli has to pull him out of the darkness again is the only one he ever saw. The only one he knew, for years and years and years.
Demetri’s.
Something about the thought soothes him.
“You’re the strongest person I know.” Eli’s voice grows serious again. “You never gave up on me when I gave you every reason to. You were the only one who got all the squabbling rival dojo kids to see any damn sense. You see the best in people even when they treat you like shit. And some pony-tailed fuck isn’t going to bite you one time and make all that go away. I’m not abandoning you.”
“But…Eli, I…”
“We can work with this. I know it sucks balls right now, but you’re going to be okay. I’ll make sure you’re okay.”
His eyes blaze, and Demetri chuckles. “Is that a threat?”
“It might be. Don’t make me follow through. I—I…” Eli chokes on his words. “I won’t let that fucking asshole take you away from me. Not now, not ever. Get used to it.”
Eli takes a breath, and Demetri feels it ripple through his entire body.
“I love you too, Demetri.”
Demetri is still processing this when Eli closes the space between them.
Eli kisses like a hurricane—a whirlwind of ferocity and passion and power, and Demetri’s stomach may as well be swirling right toward the eye. The gales are howling in his ear, and he could swear he’s being lifted off the ground.
He’s not sure if vampires can actually do the bat shapeshifting thing, but if they can, he imagines this is what it feels like. Swooping through cool clouds, wind rushing across his small, lightweight body, starlight shining on his wings, a world of sparkling lights below him and eternal stars above.
It’s the best thing he’s ever felt.
Nonetheless, he holds back. He doesn’t give in to Eli’s vigor all the way.
He’s terrified of how far he might go if he does.
So as Eli kisses him like he’s dissolving, he returns it slower—gentle, steady, slightly tentative. His hand slides up, cupping the side of Eli’s face and rubbing his cheek with a cold thumb.
How funny is it, Demetri thinks, to have their old roles so drastically reversed. He remembers again of when he was the abrasive one and Eli was the timid, fragile one.
There’s a thump, and Demetri pulls away to see a stuffed beak glaring up at them from the floor.
Eli lets out a cry of despair. “No! Raptor Rey!”
“Now you’ve done it.” Demetri shoves Eli’s chest playfully. “Look what you’ve done to our only son.”
Eli sticks his tongue out—a tongue that Demetri now knows tastes very nice. A little bit like the Chinese food leftovers he had for dinner.
“You were the one who dropped him!”
Demetri sighs, leaning off the bed and scooping up the stuffed bird. When he puts Raptor Reynaldo back on Eli’s pillow, he pointedly faces him toward the wall.
“There. We don’t need to soil his innocent eyes.”
Eli snorts. “You’re such a fucking dork.”
“Yeah, but you love me.”
It feels strange to say it. Demetri likes the sound of it though.
He scoots across the covers, wrapping long arms around Eli’s waist. Something giddy rises in his chest, briefly overpowering any of the dark impulses still churning around down there.
“You love me,” he says again.
“That’s what I said.” Eli jabs him in the chest accusingly. “What, did Silver bust up your hearing or something?”
He swats Eli’s hand away and pulls him in, stealing another kiss. “You love me,” he hums against his lips.
“Ugh. Don’t let it get to your head.”
Demetri grins. “You love me.” He lets his voice adopt an annoying singsong cadence, and Eli groans. “You love me, Eli Moskowitz.”
He kisses Eli again, and the other boy leans into it. Demetri’s grin grows so big his face hurts.
They slump onto the bed, Eli sprawled on top of him. His arms lock down on either side of Demetri’s waist, effectively caging him in.
Apparently, Eli’s taking precautions to make sure he can’t dart away like a scared rabbit. He wants Demetri to stay that badly.
The thought is strangely flattering, if frustrating.
“You love me,” Demetri whispers in between kisses. Because it’s true. Because he can. “You love me, you love me, you love me.”
If he hadn’t already risen from an early grave, he’s sure he would have died of shock by now.
They end up a tangled mess of limbs and blankets, Eli’s head under Demetri’s chin. He feels Eli trace his chest with one hand and his arms with the other, and for a moment, everything seems like it’s going to be fine.
Demetri kisses Eli’s hair. “I’m sorry I got bloodstains on your hoodie.”
His tears have blood in them now. It’s such embarrassing edgelord nonsense right out of a middle school scene kid’s poetry. Nonetheless, it’s a sad reality he’ll now have to make do with.
Hopefully in a way that doesn’t involve ruining half of Eli’s closet.
Eli only laughs, taking it in stride. “Oh, that? Please. I have like fifteen others just like it. Went out and bought a shit ton when I stopped wearing polos.”
“That’s just as well. You looked a little dorky.” Demetri kisses his head again. “I miss the sweaters, though. Those were cute.”
Eli snorts. “I can’t wear those around you. Do you know how much of a bitch it is to clean blood out of knitted shit?!”
“Well, then, don’t make me cry. Extra incentive to make sure I’m not sad! That, and. You know.” He snickers. “You love me.”
Eli groans again. “God, shut up. Smug asshole.”
He shuffles against Demetri, turning his head slightly. Moonlight glows off his skin, washing it in a sleek silvery-white.
Demetri’s stomach contracts.
Eli’s exposed neck suddenly looks a little too clean. A little too…unmarred.
He shoves the impulse away. Nonetheless, the reminder worms into him, putting the stones right back in his chest.
“It’s dangerous, you know,” Demetri murmurs. “Being with me. Being around me at all.”
“Mmmm, don’t fucking care.” Eli pushes a hand into Demetri’s hair, gently twirling a strand around his finger. “I stole a venomous snake from a zoo, Demetri. I also backstabbed a literal war criminal who could probably make my death look like an accident. And I may have survived rabies. I can handle danger.”
“This isn’t the same.” Demetri shakes his head. “People will hunt me. Maybe…maybe forever. And if they find out we’re together, they’ll hunt you, too.”
Eli scoffs. “Yeah, I know, genius.”
Demetri looks at the boy wrapped around him. Cozy, comfortable, completely relaxed.
Perhaps putting a tad too much faith into Demetri’s Vampire Hunger Regulation Abilities.
He takes a breath. “I don’t know if I’m going to keep being…me. I could still hurt you. Without…without even meaning to or wanting to or anything.”
Eli has no idea what he’s getting into. Not really.
Demetri at least owes him that out.
“I know.” Eli presses into his chest. “But that’s my decision, isn’t it? You can’t make that for me.”
“Maybe not, but you have to know it’s ill-advised to—”
“You’re not getting rid of me,” Eli cuts him off sharply. “Stop trying.”
“Just…if I get worse…” He rubs gentle circles along Eli’s back. “You need to—”
He can’t finish. He should tell Eli to run, but the words won’t come out.
“We’ll worry about that later.” Eli pulls him closer. “Just…let me try and help you. You shouldn’t have to go through this alone.”
“Okay.” Demetri exhales, fingers brushing through light brown hair. “Okay.”
***
A disgusted shout fills the cool night air as Eli’s arm flies over the boat railing. Two bright spoons plummet from his hand, plopping into the starlit ocean.
His eyes lock on them until they sink out of sight, lip curling.
Demetri nervously taps a finger against the railing. “Is that the last of them?”
Eli turns and walks over to the unzipped silverware pack, lying on the deck a few feet away. He crouches down, peering inside.
Demetri can sense his heartbeat slow down a little as he relaxes. “Yeah. They’re all gone.”
He reclaims his spot next to Demetri, staring out at the inky water with a furrowed brow. Demetri inches closer to him, pressing into his shoulder.
He sighs. “You know, Moon wouldn’t like this shameless environmental degradation you’re causing.”
Eli rolls his eyes. “Silver’s a naturally-occurring metal. It’s fine.”
Demetri pulls his lips into an exaggerated pout. “Oh, Eli, the bottom-dwellers are weeping at your disrespect! What, you want the giant isopods to break their teeth trying to eat metal?!”
“If an isopod breaks all their teeth eating metal, I think it’s like…natural selection. The species’ll manage.”
Eli leans into Demetri’s shoulder, and Demetri feels him tense up.
“I couldn’t let that shit anywhere near you.”
Demetri’s hand inches across the railing, finding the other boy’s. He weaves them together in a fluid movement that has become second nature.
“You know I wouldn’t dissolve in a puff of smoke, right?” he murmurs. “I’d probably just get a nasty burn. A little antiseptic and I’d be right as rain.”
Eli grunts disapprovingly. “No one says that anymore. And do you know for sure you wouldn’t turn into smoke?”
“Well, if silver evaporates us, that would’ve been helpful to know earlier.” He throws an arm around Eli and jostles his shoulder, earning a reluctant chuckle. “Someone could’ve chucked one of those $4000 ladles at good old Terrence when he showed up at Mr. LaRusso’s door. Would’ve solved at least half of our problems.”
Truthfully, Demetri shouldn’t have even known what was going on at the LaRusso residence. He should’ve been gone from their lives weeks ago.
But, of course, his attempts to freeze out the dojo have been a resounding failure.
It was easy enough to have his Tech Town shifts “keep interfering” with daytime practice, but people weren’t about to let him get away with bailing on every single social event. The house parties, the game nights, the pool hangouts…eventually nothing short of working 60 hours a week could account for missing all of them.
And by “people” he means Miguel. It was always Miguel.
Another beautiful spectacle of irony, he thinks. That’s twice Miguel Diaz has nagged him not to quit karate…although he likes to believe his reasons are a little better this time around.
Still, the guy missed his terrible puns more than Demetri was anticipating. So to the nighttime events and get-togethers he went, attached at the hip to Eli and wallowing in the strange melancholy of being surrounded by friends who loved a version of him that didn’t fully exist anymore.
“So let me get this straight.” Eli’s voice brings him out of his thoughts. “Terry Silver just…rings Mr. LaRusso’s doorbell, says he ‘hears he’s having vampire problems,’ hands him a box of antique silverware, and then fucks off?”
Demetri shrugs. “That’s what he told me. Sensei Toxic Waste Scandal loves his little mind games.”
Eli wrinkles his nose. “How did he even carry the box without hurting himself?”
“He has minions, Eli. I’m sure they help haul around all the garlic and stakes and crucifixes and anything else he might need to antagonize his many vampire karate rivals. Guy seems good at making enemies, so I’m betting he has at least 15.”
Although Eli forces a chuckle, it quickly gives way to a concerned frown.
“Did Mr. LaRusso know? About you being…”
“Not before that, no.” Demetri sighs. “But it wasn’t exactly hard for him to put two and two together. Me never being out in the sunlight anymore. Only showing up for movie nights and pizza parties. Not eating many of the snacks. Not using that Pizza Hut garlic dip anymore. Making some excuse to leave if someone got a cut. Not…smiling with my teeth for group photos.”
He winces. Eli clutches his hand a little tighter.
“Word gets around.” Demetri shrugs, trying his best to look indifferent. “The whole dojo knows now. Don’t know why they’re still protecting me, to be honest.”
“Because…they care about you?” Eli knits his brow.
“For now.” He lets out a tired breath. “Wait until I accidentally do something creepy, and someone ‘spills’ the garlic dip. I don’t know. They’re going to figure out I’m more trouble than I’m worth.”
“You’re not.” Demetri feels Eli’s thumb brush against the back of his hand, and his skin flutters.
“Not…” He looks away. “Not according to Silver, I don’t think.”
“What do you mean?”
Eli’s voice is suddenly terse with worry—the exact kind of concern that would be much better spent on the land of the living.
“Don’t you get it?” Demetri turns back, giving him a morose look. “That’s why it was so easy to rescue me. He let you. He figured I’d go crazy eventually and try to eat everyone, and then Mr. LaRusso would remember who swooped in like a knight in karate armor and gave him the very MacGuffin he needed to save the day. You know, the…vampiric Excalibur. Good way to get Mr. L in his debt, I guess.”
“But…Sam’s family’s already pretty rich.” Eli sounds dubious. “Don’t they have their own fine silver?”
“It was probably more a symbolic thing. But I mean, who better to know what kind of silver is actually lethal to vampires than…vampires?”
A silence falls over them. Demetri stares down at the lapping waves below, following the curves in the moonlight.
Eli presses closer to him, and he drinks in the warmth.
“He was wrong, though. You haven’t tried to eat everyone. You haven’t touched anyone.”
His voice is soft, hopeful. Demetri can’t stand to crush it.
But he knows he has to.
“Not yet.”
“Do you need to feed again?” Eli’s tone is casual. “Because you know, Sam and I could just scam another blood bank—”
“And is that okay?!”
It comes out with more ferocity than he intends.
“Probably more okay than draining our friends? Or…random people on the street?”
Demetri looks up to see Eli’s lips slightly apart, the way they always are when he’s genuinely confused.
“But people need that for blood transfusions. Aren’t we like…indirectly killing them or something?!”
Eli snorts. “Yeah, well, you also need it to not die. Why are you any less important?”
“Because I’m a blood-sucking monstrosity with evil dagger teeth?!”
“If you’re trying to sell me on how horribly undeserving of life you are, you should stop using the coolest possible descriptors for yourself.”
Demetri rolls his eyes. “Not my fault you’re turned on by everything even slightly morally-depraved.”
“Hell yeah I am.”
Eli brushes a kiss against his cheek. Demetri smiles at the boat railing, the edges of his unease ebbing away.
“Cheer up.” Eli bumps his shoulder. “Mr. LaRusso’s not an idiot. He wouldn’t have given us that box to get rid of if he thought you were gonna go on a rampage.”
“Hmmm.” He squeezes Eli’s hand, trying to push down the growing worry. “Maybe that’s his mistake.”
“I think the only one here who doesn’t trust you is you.”
And just like that, Eli is giving him the doe eyes again.
Curse this kid’s faith in him. There’s no way he deserves it.
Still, he can’t help but be grateful.
He kisses the side of Eli’s head. “Thank you. I love you.”
Another silence passes over them. Demetri closes his eyes, letting himself hear nothing but the ocean and the wind and feel nothing but Eli’s heartbeat.
Steady. Slow. Relaxed. Unafraid.
It’s one of the only things that can calm him these days.
“Nice of Yas to help us rent this boat,” Eli pipes up after a while. “Must’ve had to really pull some strings to get the guys to give it to us at 2 in the fucking morning.”
“And nice of her to check if the silver’s real, too,” Demetri adds. “Growing up in the most bougie part of Encino has its perks.”
Eli glances behind them, and Demetri follows his gaze.
The boat cabin is lit up, giggling trailing out of the windows and weed smoke wreathing through the cool night air. Whatever Yasmine and Moon are doing, the girls seem to be having a lot more fun than them.
“You wanna go upstairs?” Eli asks.
Demetri smiles. “Read my mind.”
His boyfriend shoves him playfully. “Don’t I always?”
He clicks his tongue. “Goes both ways, love. Didn’t need fabled vampiric mind-scanning abilities to get access to yours, though. Memorized the keycode ages ago.”
For a moment, Eli looks thrown off.
“Can you read minds?”
“Ha! No.” Demetri snorts. “I’ve already got the enhanced strength and speed and rapid tree-climbing thing. They had to give us some nerfs.”
“Oh, yeah. Otherwise I know you’d take over the world.”
Eli ducks out from Demetri’s arm and turns to the boat cabin, pulling his boyfriend along.
“You know…” Demetri plants his feet in the deck, gaze straying toward the empty silverware box. He lets out a long, weary breath.
“That won’t be the last time that happens. People are going to keep trying, Silver and whoever else.”
Eli scoffs. “I knew what I was getting into, Demetri. I’m not stupid.”
“I know, but are you sure you want to—”
“Yes, idiot. For the millionth time. I…” His voice cracks slightly. “I meant what I said, you know. The night you got turned. No one fucking touches you. And if they try…”
His eyes darken, taking on a sheen that Demetri used to dread. The kind of No Mercy look that’s still hardwired into him.
“I’ll end them.”
“Oh, I know.” Demetri chuckles. “If I know you, you’ll do your damndest. But I suppose not everyone has a giant karate trophy to back up that kind of claim.”
“Not a bad weapon, either.” Eli smirks. “All else fails, I can smash them over the head with it.”
“Oh, that would be a sight.”
Eli laughs, and Demetri pulls him in. He plants a lingering kiss before smiling against his lips.
“Have I ever mentioned that I love you?”
Every time he says it, he means it a little more.
***
“It’s a terrible idea, Eli!”
Eli rolls his eyes, pulling Demetri out the back door. “Come on, man. I’ve done the math. If we stay on the west-ish side of your house, the sun won’t touch you.”
“But—”
“You haven’t seen sunlight in...what? 3 months now? That’s depressing.”
“Fine.”
Demetri’s loathe to admit it, but it doesn’t turn out to be a terrible idea.
The sunrise is gorgeous, all rich golds and peachy pinks. It glints off his neighbors’ windows and bathes the street’s murky trees in a soft glow.
Of course, Demetri hides behind Eli the entire time, clinging to his arm with pale, freezing fingers.
“See?” Eli weaves their hands together. They’re intertwined more often than not these days. “Told you I wouldn’t let anything happen to you. Like seeing daytime again?”
A deep yearning stirs inside Demetri. His fingers twitch, suddenly wanting more than anything to poke out of the shadows.
He kisses Eli’s shoulder. “Yeah. Thank you.”
They stand in silence for a while, watching the sky go from light gray to orange-rimmed to blue. The yearning only tightens its grip.
Before the change, he never had a preference for day or night. You could watch TV or play Crucible Control or read comics in either. But now…
He realizes he missed the sunshine. He missed the fluffy cotton clouds that he and Eli used to watch at recess, lying on the grass next to the playground. He missed the sound of birds, as much as he once complained about them waking him up at ungodly hours.
Sharp pain seizes his toes, and he jumps back with a hiss.
“Shit.” Eli’s brow furrows. “You okay?”
He sighs, glancing down at where the house’s shadow has started to rescind. “Yeah, yeah. Just wasn’t paying attention.”
“You want to go inside?”
Demetri shakes his head. “We can spare a few more minutes.”
They back up, sitting against the wall. Demetri drinks in the growing morning, wondering how he convinced himself he was content to never see this again.
“Dude.”
Demetri frowns. “What?”
“Are you crying?”
He notices the wet sensation around his eyes a few moments too late. His entire body burns with embarrassment.
“I…” He does his best to sound nonchalant. “…have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Look at me, Demetri.”
“No. Fuck off.”
He feels Eli’s hand on his cheek and swats it away. “Leave me alone,” he grumbles.
Vampirism is already bad enough without him bawling like a 4-year-old because the sky turned blue. As in the color it had been Demetri’s entire fucking life. This is beyond humiliating.
Eli reaches for him again. He turns away, only for his boyfriend’s other hand to slip from his own and shoot up to catch Demetri’s cheek.
“Hold still, moron. People are gonna freak out if they see you leaking blood out of your eyes. They’ll think it’s some shit from The Exorcist and douse you in salt or something.”
Demetri lets out a defeated sigh, letting Eli brush gentle thumbs across his cheeks. “You’d better not use this as blackmail.”
“First of all, I’ve got better shit for that.” Eli pauses to wipe off his fingers on the grass, creating what will inevitably end up looking like a squirrel crime scene. “Second of all, like.”
He gives Demetri a searching look as he continues to gather up the tiny, blood-filled droplets. “It’s okay to be upset about this, man. It sucks. I mean the teeth are badass and I’m kind of jealous, but yeah, I mean…shit’s hard.”
Demetri hums thoughtfully. “You should bribe your dentist to file your teeth into little fangs. What with all the hair dye and the tattoos, what’s asking your parents for a few more hundred bucks?”
Eli laughs, giving him a look so soft that he’s now at risk of crying more. Absolutely unfair, not to mention counterproductive.
At some point, Eli pauses, hands resting on Demetri’s cheeks and scarred-knuckle thumbs in mid-swipe.
“I’m glad your eyes didn’t change,” he says suddenly.
Demetri blinks at him. “Huh?”
“I thought they’d turn red or yellow or something. But they’re still green.”
“Are they?”
He chuckles. He’d wondered here and there how different he looked now, but it wasn’t as though his house’s mirrors were going to be much help figuring that out.
“Yeah, like…” Eli inspects him through narrowed eyes. “Slight gold-ish tint, but that’s it. Thank god. I’ve always liked your eyes.”
Demetri’s face goes hot. “Can you stop saying cute stuff for like…10 seconds? You’re making me too flustered to function.”
“No chance in hell, asshole.”
They settle back against the house wall, fingers entwined again. The morning continues to crawl in, and Demetri knows they’ll have to go inside soon.
Regardless, he’ll drink up every nanosecond of daylight until the time comes.
Demetri takes a long breath.
“I told my mom.”
“What?” Eli turns, eyes wide. “What happened? What’d she say?”
He chuckles. “She was…surprisingly unsurprised. I guess it checks out, her growing up in Orestiada and all. All the folklore and whatnot was right next door. She just never put a lot of stock in it. Woman of science, as you know.”
He smiles weakly. He never knew his dad, but he imagines he has Ms. Alexopoulos to thank for most of his good traits.
“I kind of had to explain why I wanted to drop out of school and get an online GED,” he adds, grimacing. “And even before that, um…well, I couldn’t hide this forever.”
He pulls up his flannel sleeve to uncover a crisscross of burned skin, seared into his upper arm. Eli winces.
“Shit, right. What did you tell her happened that night, anyways? No way you’d come home roughed up and she wouldn’t throw a fit.”
“Said we got jumped by some Cobra Kais. It’s the standard explanation for being a victim of violence in the Valley these days.”
“You’re lucky she didn’t look too much into it.” Eli traces delicate fingers across his skin, brushing over the branded crucifix. “On your bad luck arm, too.”
His right arm. The one Eli broke what seems like a lifetime ago.
“God.” He laughs. “It really is.”
“So is she…okay with it?” Eli bites his lip, giving Demetri’s bad luck arm a small squeeze. “Not just the crucifix burn, but like…everything.”
“Seems like it.” Demetri chuckles again. “She did a garlic purge as soon as I told her. Said she was actually a little relieved because she was worried her skordalia had been really shitty lately. I mean, I told her she could still eat it, but she was adamant that she intended never to touch a clove of the stuff again.”
“So she didn’t disown you, then.” Eli laughs. “Thank god.”
“Well. It’s not like I came home and told her I want to re-decorate our living room to look like Mrs. Hasapi’s. Now that is a disownable offense.”
Eli snorts. “What even is your mom’s beef with her?”
“Oh, none, really. She just thinks her armchairs look like they were unearthed from the local landfill.”
They both laugh for a while, leaning into each other and taking in the neighborhood coming to life. Eli rests his head on Demetri’s shoulder, letting out a small sigh.
“I looked into some online colleges, by the way. They’re not bad. UMass has a pretty good online CS program.”
Demetri doesn’t allow himself to indulge in Eli’s hopefulness.
“Oh, yeah?” he mutters forlornly. “And what tech company needs night watch guys, may I ask?”
Eli shrugs. “You could do contract work. Just charge people independently to fix their shit. Might be a pain in the ass to get customers at first, but you’d probably make bank eventually.”
Demetri purses his lips, thinking.
“I…guess it’s not a completely unreasonable idea. But you know you don’t have to do all that for me.”
“Yeah, I do.” Eli’s thumb rubs along the back of his hand. “I love you, stupid. And you’re too busy moping and crying blood everywhere to do it yourself.”
He beams.
He should be used to Eli loving him by now, but he doesn’t think he ever will be.
***
So I was joking with some friends in a discord server before S5 dropped that maybe the reason Dem wasn’t in a bunch of the trailer scenes was because he got kidnapped by Terry Silver and/or turned into a vampire and can’t be in direct sunlight and then it just kinda. Became a fic. Against my will. Like I do not at all have the time to write this AND YET.
Also, yes, Demetri did indeed fight off his vampire impulses just by being like “hey fuck off” and then they did. And that’s on the power of gay love <3
I am an evil god who loves writing Demetri angsting and having breakdowns because if the show will not let him McFucking Lose It, then I will <3 <3 Peace and love on earth!!! Anyways, if Eli’s a lil bit more gentle with him than usual here, that’s why. Boy is Going Through It to the highest degree.
Enjoy the abundance of “I love you”s here, because these idiots are not going to get there for several more chapters of the road trip fic XD Kinda my first crack at writing Established Relationship Elimetri, but don’t worry!!! There will be angst and drama aplenty!!! I am putting them through horrors >:3
This goes with this, this, and this!!! Most I was able to work into the actual story except for the last one :P Also Raptor Reynaldo is from this post!!!
Already wrote a little thing for Were-Eli, so figured I’d give Vampmetri a turn <3
Also why was the first place my mind went upon seeing this prompt “supernatural horrors”???? There’s very definitely something wrong with me whoops
***
Demetri swore it was a bad toothache. Now, looking at the blood in Eli’s bathroom sink and the two canines lying in the drain, he realizes he should’ve been more concerned.
He touches where the fangs pushed his teeth out, shuddering.
The door creaks, and he realizes he forgot to lock it. He stares down, not meeting Eli’s eyes.
“Holy shit.” Eli’s shoulder bumps his, and Demetri tenses.
“Please don’t stake me,” he whimpers.
“Wh—dude, I’m jealous. You look badass.”
Eli entwines their hands, and Demetri finally smiles.
“Now. Clean this shit up before my mom throws a fit.”
@ckhalloween22 BEHOLD, chapter 2 of my “Monstrous Transformations” prompt submission!!! AKA the chapter where I somehow make things even more fucked up and crank the suffering up to 11 :D And also the werewolf chapter. The very graphic and probably very disturbing werewolf chapter. Oops.
Here is Chapter 1 btw!!! This bad boy will also get an epilogue sometime next week because
My condolences to Hawk and Dem, they probably deserve financial compensation for all the absolute agony I am laying on them. At least they’re in love???
Big boi CW for some uh...fairly graphic body horror/transformation horror in this. Like I said, there’s werewolves this chapter, and uh...well, you know how it is. Full moon comes out and the trauma begins! Also CW for just general blood and gore. Werewolf morphing is not pretty. Where’s the fun in that?!
There’s also some kind of gross-out/twisted/black humor in this, I guess? The boys are traumatized and then use sarcasm to process it, as per usual. They don’t have to only be endlessly miserable about every terrible thing I throw at them XD
Fic under the cut--be warned, it’s another longboi! Even longer than the last one :O And moodboard pic credits available upon request, as always!
Nocturnal
Chapter 2 - After Dusk
“What the hell were you thinking?!”
Demetri’s fingers dig into Eli’s shoulders so hard it probably hurts. Right now he’s too livid to care.
“Asshole, let me explain—”
“What is there to explain?” Demetri snarls. “You knew this shit was permanent. Like…incurable, life-ruining permanent. And you did it on purpose?! Just…Jesus Christ, Eli.”
Tears well up in the corner of his vision. He doesn’t stop them.
A little guilt-tripping wouldn’t hurt right now.
“I’m already so fucking scared all the time, running away from all the assholes who want to kill me. And now they’re going to hunt you, too.”
“They already were, moron!” Eli’s eyes flare, and he shoves Demetri away. “You said it yourself: I can’t be with you without putting a target on my back. And I already made that decision a long time ago.”
“I just…” Demetri’s voice comes out in a choked sob. “I didn’t want you to get this deep in all this. I thought maybe you could still have a normal life. And you throw that away?”
“What if I don’t want that?” Eli snaps. “I told you I’m not abandoning you. I see you keep giving me outs, like you think I’m suddenly going to run away like a fucking pussy. You think—what? I’m going to stop loving you because of something out of your control? It’s fucking insulting.”
“I…” Demetri shakes his head slowly. “I wanted to protect you. Always. I never wanted you getting hurt on my behalf.”
“And what about you, huh?” Eli takes a step toward him, fists clenched. “Who’s supposed to protect you when you’re running from killer mobs for the rest of your life? All alone?!”
“We’re not talking about me—”
“Yeah, we are! Because you don’t think you matter and I’m fucking sick of it. You don’t care if you die as long as I make it out. Because you don’t know how much it would fuck me up if you died, Demetri. And I can’t keep you safe if I’m just some…some weak, useless bitch!”
Eli takes a shaky breath, and moonlight catches the moisture under his eyes. When he speaks again, his voice is softer, more fragile.
“Do you have any idea how fucking terrified I was when we got ambushed by those slayers, and—and they held you down and burned you?! I thought I was going to lose you. And then I couldn’t—” His voice breaks, lip curling in disgust. “I couldn’t do shit. I threw everything I had into getting them off you, and there were still too many.”
Something about Eli’s panicked, desperate expression makes Demetri’s anger melt away. He steps forward, cupping his boyfriend’s cheek in his hand.
“You did throw them off their game enough for me to break out,” he says gently. “If it weren’t for you, maybe we wouldn’t have gotten away at all.”
Eli scowls. “We got lucky. What, were we supposed to do that every time? Run away and hope they don’t catch up? I’m done living like that.”
Demetri looks away. He’s right—it isn’t that different from how they used to be, running from every bully and praying they were faster.
“It was stupid, anyways,” Eli mumbles. “Thinking I could fend off trained monster killers with fucking karate.”
“Well, I blame our senseis for giving us the impression that karate is the most valuable and indispensable weapon in the entire world.”
Eli snorts. “Yeah, turns out there are scarier things in the world than kids with blackbelts.”
“Who would’ve thought?”
They both laugh, and Demetri’s agitation continues to gradually trickle away.
“Dem.” Eli breaks into a slow smile, his hand sliding over Demetri’s. “I can protect you now.”
His eyes are shining, bright like they used to be when he puzzled out a tricky line of code or beat his high score in a game. Nothing but innocent delight and pure, unabashed hope.
Demetri sighs. “Stop looking at me like that. You know I can’t stay mad at you.”
“Yeah, that’s never been your strong suit, has it?”
He huffs in defeat and pulls Eli into his arms, burying his nose in a now-rather-weathered blue mohawk. It smells like dust and dirt and leaves tonight, the usual faint blueberry aroma of the dye nowhere to be found.
“It’s just…” He noses Eli’s hair. “They’ll kill you on sight now. They’d at least hesitate if you were still human.”
Eli scoffs into his chest. “I’m a lot harder to kill now.”
“I suppose that’s true.”
He runs a hand along Eli’s back, trying to let the last of his biting anxiety ebb away.
“I don’t want to lose you,” he murmurs. “I don’t know what this’ll do to you, but…I want you to still be you. I don’t want it to turn you into something I don’t recognize. I…” He holds Eli a little tighter. “I felt you slipping away a year ago, and it scared the shit out of me. I felt like I didn’t know you anymore. I don’t—I don’t want that ever again.”
“Demetri, I did this for you.” Eli works his fingers in Demetri’s flannel. “Why would I leave now?”
“That’s not what I mean. Just…” He exhales. “Promise me whatever happens, you’ll try to hold on to yourself. Because…well, it’s selfish as hell, but I am so fucking in love with you, and I don’t want this whole thing to…kill that person.”
Eli laughs softly against him. “I promise. Guess it’s only fair, since you managed.”
“I also just…I’ve heard it really hurts, what with all the realigning bones and what have you. I don’t want you to have to go through that.”
“I mean. Didn’t yours hurt too?”
Eli suddenly pulls away, fingers trailing up to the scars on Demetri’s neck. They don’t sting anymore, although they’re still pretty unsightly.
Good thing his mom usually has spare foundation when he needs to go out.
“Yeah, but I couldn’t exactly opt out. And it was just the once.”
Eli shrugged. “I’ll be fine. If I can survive the ‘pain does not exist’ dojo, this’ll be nothing.”
“Speaking of, though.”
Demetri pulls Eli’s arm close, inspecting it.
He only glimpsed the wound when Eli first walked into his living room, and didn’t have time to get a good look before he was already yelling. The complete lack of evidence of any crying—or rather any indication that Eli was upset about this at all—was proof enough that the bite was no accident.
It’s ironic, really. Demetri took them into the backyard to avoid waking up his mom, but their shouting probably woke up the entire neighborhood instead.
The bite’s a nasty thing—a semicircle of deep toothmarks, the skin around them puffy and inflamed. They’re starting to seep red again, as if Eli had initially managed to stave off the bleeding only for it to pick up again.
“I put pressure on it,” Eli says. Reading his mind as usual. “Kind of calmed it down for a while.”
“Come here.”
He guides Eli down to the grass, pulling over the Ralph’s bag he set down earlier. He was pissed when Eli came in, sure, but not too pissed to raid his mom’s first aid cabinet and grab a few essentials.
He digs out a tube of disinfectant and antibacterial, starting to carefully spread them over the wound.
“So let me get this straight. Your plan was to wander around Topanga Canyon on the full moon, find a werewolf, and…bait them into attacking you?”
“Pretty much.”
Demetri scowls. “I do not know where to even begin with that, but first of all, you know there are actual dangerous nocturnal pumas out there, right? Like lycanthropy aside, the wilderness at night is one of the least safe places you can possibly be.”
Eli snorts. “Yeah, well, my chances of finding werewolves in a fucking Costco aren’t great.”
Demetri purses his lips. “You’re impossible. If I still had a fully-functional digestive system, I’m certain you would’ve given me a stomach ulcer by now.”
“Love you, Dem.”
He pauses to see Eli giving him the most innocent possible look and groans. “Stop using that to get out of trouble, Moskowitz.”
“It’s so effective, though. Can’t kick it if it works.” Demetri only rolls his eyes.
He squints at the wound as a new fear bubbles up.
“And you’re sure this was a werewolf, right? Not just an actual wolf? Or a coyote? Should I take you in for another rabies shot?”
Eli wrinkles his nose. “Nah. This thing looked too weird. Definitely part human.”
“I have to confess, I don’t get it.” He shakes his head as he continues to rub cotton pad circles over Eli’s skin. “If you wanted to be strong enough to back me up, why didn’t you ask me to bite you? I’m sure you’d turn out to be a more badass vampire than me, anyways.”
“Because you never would have gone for it.”
Demetri stops, glancing up. Eli looks so confident in the statement that it’s almost insulting.
“What—how do you know? Did you ever think to ask, Eli?!”
“You would’ve given me a speech about how your existence is a curse and you’d never subject me to that because you love me, blah blah blah. Never would have convinced you.”
“You didn’t even try!”
“Didn’t need to.” Eli scoffs. “Seriously dude, you are so fucking predictable. Like you’d ever ask me to give up my mom’s hilbeh dip for you. I’d do it, by the way, but the fact you’d act like it’s the tragedy of the century and throw me the world’s biggest pity party makes me like…not want to. More than all the actual annoying vampire shit.”
“And this is better?” Demetri gestures aggressively at Eli’s upper arm—undoubtedly one of the most disagreeable injuries he’s ever seen. And he’s broken an entire limb.
“Jesus, Eli. You could have at least told me you were doing this. I could’ve…I don’t know, given you a sword or something in case things got gnarly.”
“What, that decorative one you got during your 4th grade Aragorn phase? I’d swing it once and it’d break in half. Besides, you’d never have let me even go.”
“That’s not—”
“Yeah, it is, asshole.” Demetri curses Eli’s ever-present ability to read his mind.
He hates that Eli’s right. He shouldn’t get the satisfaction, after doing one of the stupidest things known to mankind.
“You would’ve bitched at me until you got your way,” Eli goes on. “And if I tried to go anyways, you’d follow me into the fucking werewolf-infested forest and get yourself killed.”
“And—and you wouldn’t get yourself killed?!”
“Clearly not, or I wouldn’t be here talking to you.”
Eli glowers at him. The sight has always reminded him of a chihuahua—undeniably adorable, but fair warning that the boy would bite if you pressed him any further.
And mind him, Demetri’s experienced enough of the bite of Eli Moskowitz to last a lifetime.
Demetri sighs. He really hates when Eli’s right.
The downsides of having someone who can so precisely predict your every move is that it’s nearly impossible to be crafty. Whatever your brand of cleverness is, it’s already been accounted for, with every last possible decision and outcome analyzed. What with the rainbow hair and the hammy, loud persona he still puts on in public, it can be easy for Demetri to forget Eli’s brain runs on mathematical probabilities, too.
Logicians are many things, but “charismatic and vibrant” aren’t usually among them.
Nonetheless, the more mortifying aspect of Eli’s intuition doesn’t outweigh the perks. Few things compare to the odd euphoria of having someone remember that his favorite flavor of fruit snack was sour cherry, and that as a preteen he insisted on having his ice cubed rather than crushed for the sole reason of liking the aesthetics of it.
He settles for an extremely annoyed eye roll before returning to wiping Eli’s wound. “Well, next time you decide to do something that will drastically alter the course of your entire life, please talk it over with me first.”
Eli won’t, of course. But perhaps he’ll at least consider it, and that’s a start.
Demetri frowns suddenly, something unsettling occuring to him.
“Do you…do you know who it was?” he asks softly. “Anyone we would know?”
“Kyler Park.”
“Wh—Eli!” He smacks Eli’s uninjured arm. “Are you insane? He’s a steaming shitbag! You really trusted him not to actually maul you to death when he got the chance?!”
“Demetri, Kyler is dumb as fuck. All you have to do is play dead once and he’ll think he annihilated your entire existence with a half-assed arm bite.”
A snicker bursts out before Demetri can stop it. “That’s all you had to do?”
“Deadass. I lie still for like a minute and he prances off into the bushes, howling like he won the AVT.”
And then they’re both laughing, holding each other and giggling and wheezing, terror and anger forgotten.
Eli’s right again. Demetri doesn’t know how to stay mad at him.
He slips a used paper towel back into the bag and pulls out a roll of gauze, starting to wrap it around Eli’s arm.
“Did you turn tonight?” he asks quietly, voice serious again. “Before you came over.”
Eli shakes his head. “I think it takes a while for it to, uh…get into my system.”
“I want to be there, then. The first time you change. I want to be with you.”
Silence. He looks up to see Eli frowning at him.
“That’s dangerous, Demetri. I can’t control it yet, I might—”
“—hurt me, yeah, I know.” Demetri snorts. “You can’t just steal all my catchphrases and shoot them back at me.”
“Doesn’t mean I’m wrong!”
“Eli.” He leans forward, sneaking a quick kiss. “I’m a horrific undead fanged monster that parents tell their kids creepy bedtime stories about. I think I can handle myself.”
Eli looks away, but not quick enough to hide a small smile. “You almost say that like you’re okay with it.”
“If it means I get to stay with you when you need me, then…yeah. Could be worse.” He scoots forward, leaning into Eli’s side.
“You stayed with me when I was going through all my crap,” he murmurs. “Even, yes, when it probably freaked you out. Let me return the favor.”
He feels Eli tense next to him, heart speeding up. Pure, raw fear.
Demetri recoils, concern rippling through him.
“Do you think I’ll hurt you?” he whispers. “On instinct or something?”
Eli shakes his head rapidly. “No, of course not! Never.”
“Then why are you scared?”
A silence.
“It’ll be ugly.” When Eli finally speaks, his voice is barely audible. “The whole thing. You won’t look at me the same way. I don’t want you to stop—”
He doesn’t finish, but Demetri knows what he means.
I don’t want you to stop loving me.
Demetri wraps long arms around Eli’s waist and pulls his boyfriend into his lap. He leans down, planting a soft kiss on Eli’s scar.
“Nothing about you can be ugly to me,” he murmurs, lips ghosting over the little line of raised skin. “You know that. And for the record, you could melt into a puddle of…I don’t know, toxic, stinky slime mold and I’d still be in love with you.”
He feels the scar stretch as Eli grins.
“Thank you.” Demetri’s fingers brush through Eli’s buzzed hair, massaging his scalp. “For sticking with me through everything. For having my back. I promise I’ll always have yours, too.”
Eli presses their foreheads together, looping thin arms around his neck as naturally as though they’ve always been doing this.
“I know.”
***
“You don’t have to do this.”
They’re leaning against Demetri’s car as dusk falls over Topanga Canyon, fingers interlocked. Eli’s eyes dart around nervously, scanning over the inky outlines of the trees over and over again.
Demetri squeezes his hand. “I’m not going anywhere, Eli Moskowitz. Deal with it.”
Eli huffs. “You’re already a nervous wreck. You don’t need more shit to haunt your nightmares.”
“What, like you being out in the creepy woods all by yourself, sad and alone, wailing in agony, without your wonderful boyfriend around to comfort you? Yeah, that would be a bad one.”
For a moment, Eli’s anxiety melts, giving way to a small snigger. “Do you ever stop running your mouth?”
“Not really. You should know this by now.”
Eli takes a step toward the darkening trees, eyes flicking up at the emerging stars. “Okay, last chance, Demetri. Drive home.”
“Not in your wildest dreams, pal.”
Eli turns with narrowed eyes, as though debating arguing more. Finally he huffs, shaking his head.
“Fine. But if it looks like I’m going to attack you—at all—you need to fucking run. Okay? And if I come to and find out I’ve gored you because you didn’t listen, I’m going to be pissed.”
Demetri shrugs. “Sounds reasonable. I’d rather not be wolf dinner if I can help it.”
“Do you promise?” Eli turns and grabs his other hand, squeezing tight. “Swear on your life or some shit. I need your word you won’t get yourself mauled trying to talk me down.”
“All right, all right! I swear on the honor of House Arryn. That was always your favorite, right?”
Eli sighs. “I’ll take it. Let’s just get away from the road.”
He pulls Demetri into the forest, grip on his hand vicelike. Demetri can feel the nervousness pulsing off every fiber of his boyfriend’s body.
“You don’t have to wait for me, by the way,” Eli mumbles. “If the sun’s about to come up and you need to leave, I can find my way home. I’ve done it before.”
Demetri frowns. “How?”
“I can track your scent.”
Despite himself, Demetri chuckles a little. “Oh, yeah. I guess now we can bond over how weird that is. What do I smell like, anyways?”
“Flannel and silicon. Like 5 different types of your mom’s body lotions. Sometimes stale tortilla chips.”
He blushes a little at how fast Eli answered.
“I, uh…yeah, I guess that tracks.”
The trees part ahead, silvery light trickling through. Eli stops, and Demetri feels his heartbeat pound through both of them.
“Shit. I think it’s starting.”
“Okay.” He squeezes Eli’s hand. “I’m here. I’m right here.”
There’s a sudden cracking and Eli’s spine distorts, twisting in unnatural jerks. He lets out a scream, doubling over.
“It’s okay.” He keeps his grip on Eli’s hand, guiding them both down to the ground. “I’ve got you. Just breathe.”
Eli’s entire body is trembling as they settle on the dirt. He meets Demetri’s gaze, eyes wide and panicked.
“Demetri, I—” He’s interrupted by more spasms, ripping down his sides. More snapping of bone, and Eli gasps.
“Eli!”
Demetri shouts his name without thinking. Eli’s panic has become his own now, surging through him like a California wildfire.
“Shit, Eli, are you okay?”
Eli shakes his head, pained tears starting to trickle down his face.
“I, um…I brought peanut butter balls with ibuprofen in them. You want me to get them from the car?”
“N-no.” His voice is shaking as violently as his body. “D-don’t l-leave me. Please.”
“All right. I’m not going anywhere.”
“Hold on, lemme just…”
In what looks like a taxing movement, Eli shrugs off his jacket and pulls his t-shirt over his shoulders. The outline of his lotus tattoo is just barely visible, hidden under a newly-sprouted layer of gray-brown fur.
The fur is crawling up his arms, into his face. It’s an odd sight.
And then Eli’s face starts to reshape itself.
Cracks and pops ring out as his skin ripples, stretching into something elongated and grotesque. “D-Demetri…”
He doesn’t have any follow-up. It’s as though he’s saying Demetri’s name to remind himself Demetri is a person. Somebody he knows.
Not just another piece of prey.
His mouth starts to extend, drifting open to reveal rows of gleaming, sharp teeth. The skin around it stretches, making an unsettling ripping noise.
“Oh, look at those chompers!” Demetri gives Eli a full-toothed grin, showing off the latest addition to his own dental assortment. “We match now!”
Despite everything, Eli laughs.
It’s a strange noise, a ragged mixture of a snort and a growl. Nonetheless, the quickly-morphing werewolf appears to be smiling.
Something sharp jabs into the back of Demetri’s hand, and moisture trickles across his skin. He glances down to see long, honed claws have torn out of his boyfriend’s fingers, blood pooling around every hole in the flesh.
This only makes Demetri hold onto him tighter.
“Demetri.”
Eli whispers his name over and over as he morphs, like it’s his last lifeline. Demetri feels a bulky, thickened finger brush against the back of his own, stroking almost frantically.
And that’s about when the real nightmare begins.
Eli starts convulsing, the cracks and pops and rips speeding up until he’s screaming in pain. Fur sprouts from every pore, bloody pieces of skin peeling off and fluttering to the ground. His muscles bulge, rippling just beneath fresh fur like they have a mind of their own. His face elongates more and more until a snout bursts from the center, stretched wide in a guttural wail.
It’s terrifying, but not for the reasons it would terrify most anyone else.
It’s Eli lying motionless on the mall floor. It’s Eli stalking through the computer lab in a frenzied rage, calling his name in a breaking voice. It’s Eli crumpled by the trophy case, glass pieces in his face. It’s Eli holding him down with shaking hands in the arcade, his peers goading him to crush any kindness left into dust. It’s Eli held down on the mat, about to be punched out by Robby Keene.
It’s the particular agony of knowing Eli’s in pain—deep, throbbing, terrible pain—and being absolutely fucking helpless to do anything about it.
That’s Demetri’s greatest weakness, he supposes—the one thing that always trumps over everything else. He can’t stand to see Eli Moskowitz hurting.
Now all he can do is try to be the anchor he never quite could before. Show Eli that he can’t make the pain go away, but he can help him through it.
He holds Eli’s hand until he can’t anymore. Eventually his fingers are pushed free as the bulky paw takes shape, the gaps between the toes narrowing too much for anything to fit.
When the worst of the shifting is over, Eli is a hunkering mass of mostly-wolf, whining softly. His ears, now stretched to unnatural points, are pressed flat against his head. He stares at the ground, working impossibly long claws in dirt and leaf litter.
“Eli.” Demetri takes a shaky breath. “Look at me.”
The creature doesn’t budge.
“Please look at me.”
Eli turns.
His face is pulled in strange ways. Slightly contorted, like someone tried to make a clay figurine and didn’t quite know what a wolf looked like. It’s a patchwork of fur and twisted skin, a squished nose that’s a blend of wolf and human. There are bits of skin and sinew and blood strewn around where fur forced its way out—and Demetri winces, because that looks like it really fucking hurt.
His eyes are still undeniably human, at least. Pale blue and spilling with emotion, just like they’ve always been. But the look in them is enough to shatter Demetri.
Regret. Fear. Shame.
He starts to turn away. Demetri reaches out and cups his cheek, stopping him.
“I love you,” Demetri whispers. “And I don’t—I don’t know how much of yourself you’ll hold onto tonight, but I need you to remember that. Promise me.”
He feels like an idiot as soon as he says it. Eli probably can’t even talk anymore.
But then he hears a tiny, rasping voice, its single word almost indecipherable.
“Promise.”
Eli collapses. One final convulsion, and any trace of humanity is gone.
For several moments the wolf just lies there, sides heaving. Demetri scoots back, rising unsteadily to his feet.
“Eli?” he calls tentatively.
The wolf’s ears prick up. That’s probably a good sign.
The enormous creature rolls over slowly, getting to his paws. He eyes Demetri skeptically, whining.
It’s very strange, looking at this great beast that has Eli’s eyes. Trying to figure out if Demetri’s imagining the recognition in them or not.
“Eli, do you know who I am?”
The wolf prowls toward him, growling softly. Demetri holds his breath and extends a hand, palm out and fingers shaking.
Please don’t be gone.
The wolf gives him a long look, ears twitching. Sizing him up. Demetri tenses his legs, ready to make a run for it.
Then he feels something soft against his skin.
Demetri looks down to see the wolf pressing a furry forehead into his palm, and he lets out a laugh of relief. “You do know me.”
The wolf grunts and looks up at him again, blue eyes almost annoyed. The sort of No shit, moron look he’d know anywhere.
He cups the wolf’s cheek and lets his fingers trail down, tracing the huge jawline. The beast lets out a puzzled growl.
“Hold on. I just…”
His fingers brush against a familiar line of raised skin, curving from under the wolf’s nose to the start of a long canine tooth. Buried under fur now, but unmistakably there.
Something soft flutters inside of him.
“Sorry, I just…I had to make sure it was really you.”
He leans forward, pressing a kiss to the scar. The wolf whines uncertainly.
He smiles, gently cupping the wolf’s huge face and bringing their foreheads together. “I’m glad you’re okay, love. I’ll stay as long as you want.”
They settle into a pile on the ground, Eli curled around Demetri’s skinny form. Demetri buries himself in the mass of gray-brown fur, stroking it over and over.
Eli’s okay. Eli’s going to be okay.
Right now, that’s all that matters.
***
It’s a while before Demetri gets another scare.
He honestly thought he had enough for one night, and would just as soon capped it at Eli contorting every which way and screaming in pain. Still, the universe seems unable to throw him any kind of bone without also making those bones look rather tasty to his boyfriend-turned-megafaunal-carnivore.
His first indication that something is amiss is the licking.
It’s endearing at first, if a little gross. He makes no secret of his gripes about having to shower when he gets home, and he’s pretty sure Eli licks him more after just to annoy him.
After a while, they get more insistent, and he feels less like an object of affection and more like a Trader Joe’s sample.
“Hey! Knock it off!” One lick too many, and Demetri squirms out from under Eli’s snout, pushing his massive paw aside. “I keep telling you you’re making a mess! You—”
He stops. Eli is giving him a strange look.
A chill ripples through him.
It reminds him of the looks Eli used to give him when they fought—cold, intense, ruthless. Although less angry this time, and more…hungry.
There’s something almost primal in his stare that Demetri’s never seen before. Swallowing, he takes a step back.
The wolf follows, uttering a low growl. His tail is raised, eyes bright and alert.
Ready for the hunt.
“Eli. It’s me.” He takes a shaky breath, dread starting to crawl through him. “It’s Dem. You don’t want to hurt me.”
Perhaps there was a time when that wasn’t true, but those days are long gone.
Aren’t they?
The wolf snarls, fur starting to bush up as he continues to advance. His haunches are wiggling, almost like he’s…
Getting ready to charge.
One last time.
Demetri tenses his own legs, preparing to sprint.
“Eli, it’s me.” He smiles weakly. “Codename zer0. Remember?”
The wolf stops.
He flattens his ears for a moment, looking confused. Then the realization seems to dawn.
He stumbles away, whimpering. Tail sweeping in low, anxious circles.
“Hey, it’s okay, it happens.” Demetri steps forward, extending a hand. “You didn’t mean t—”
The wolf turns and high-tails it into the forest. Demetri wants to follow, but he knows better.
He trudges over to the dirt patch where Eli first changed, clothes still scattered across the ground. Crouching, he picks up Eli’s black-and-red jacket and slips it on.
It’s the one he wore during the school fight, Demetri realizes. He looks over the striped sleeve with a small smile, shaking his head.
He wonders what the Eli from a year ago would think if he knew where his jacket was now, wrapped around the boy he claimed to hate while he prowled the woods as a monster he became to protect said boy. The irony is really too much.
Would “Hawk” find it funny, too? Would he be glad he and his best friend smoothed things out, figured out years’ worth of tension? Or would he just be disgusted with himself, knowing he’d end up letting someone like Demetri love him? Knowing he’d reciprocate?
Was he always in love with Demetri, even back then?
He never thought to ask Eli when it all started. He’s still wrapping his head around his boyfriend loving him in the present.
A long, mournful howl peels through the night, and a deep yearning churns in Demetri’s chest. He suddenly wishes he had the vocal cords to answer.
“I’ll see you soon.”
He says it to no one. He doesn’t know why. Perhaps to comfort himself when, right now, he’s all he has.
Demetri gathers up the rest of Eli’s discarded outfit. For a long while he sits with his back against a tree, holding it close.
***
It’s 10 am when Eli finally shows up at Demetri’s bedroom door, disheveled and dirty with his blue hair hanging down in a sad heap and reeking of raw meat. He doesn’t seem too bothered by his state, leaning in Demetri’s doorway with a casual suaveness that should infuriate him.
Right now, all Demetri can feel is relief.
“Holy shit, Eli.” He props himself up on his elbows, gesturing almost frantically to the spot beside him on the bed. “You’re okay.”
“Yeah, toughed it out like a champ.”
Demetri opens his arms. In a familiar ritual, Eli wastes no time darting across the room and crawling into them.
He might get dirt on the bed, but Demetri can deal with his mom’s lectures later.
“Sorry I had to leave,” Demetri murmurs, plucking a couple twigs out of Eli’s hair. “I wanted to wait for you, but…sun was coming up, and I didn’t want to roast alive. Or…roast undead, I guess?”
Eli laughs, nuzzling into his shirt. “Nah, man, you did the right thing. I also don’t want you roasting undead.”
“You feeling all right?” He brushes a hand through Eli’s hair, unearthing several leaves. “You were having a pretty bad time last night. I wanted to help more, but…I didn’t know what to do.”
“You being there helped.” Eli grabs one of his hands and starts playing with it absentmindedly. “Thank you. I know that was probably a lot.”
“I hate seeing you in pain like that.” Perhaps without meaning to, Demetri’s grip tightens. “It scares me. But I hate you being in pain by yourself more, so. I deal. Reminds me too much of when we were being kicked around growing up, and I never knew how much it was hurting you. I…never really forgave myself for leaving you to deal with that on your own.”
Eli sighs. “I didn’t tell you. You’re not a mind reader. I just…I don’t know. I thought I should be able to deal with my shit on my own.”
“Well, you never have to again.” He strokes Eli’s back. “And I’m sorry if I wasn’t there for you before. I will be from now on.”
“I know.”
Eli’s hand works in the fabric of his shirt, making its way up to his collar. He gives an abrupt grunt of disapproval.
“Demetri, is that my jacket?”
“I, uh…” Demetri blushes. “It smelled like you. Helped relax me while I was waiting.”
“So you’re the reason I froze my ass off the entire walk home.”
He laughs, pulling a wad of blankets over both of them. “Sorry, love. Didn’t know you’d lose all your fur before the sun came up.”
“S’fine. I guess if it stops you from flipping out all night.”
“Glad you got all the glass out,” Demetri teases, gently poking Eli’s side. “I’d feel kind of bad if I knew I ruined it.”
“Wait. Was that the one I—” Eli stiffens. “Shit. I’m sorry. I didn’t remember, I just grabbed it—”
“Eli.” His hand finds Eli’s shoulder, giving it a reassuring squeeze. “I’ll keep telling you until you believe me. I’m not mad about any of that stuff anymore. It’s just a jacket. And besides…” He pecks the top of Eli’s head. “It’s cute, and it smells like you, so positive associations outweigh negative ones. I wouldn’t be getting cozy in it if it gave me terrible karate war PTSD.”
“I know. I still hate that I did all that, though.”
“And I hate that I told the entire school you piss the bed, but. You now turn into a colossal murderous beast once a month and I have to drink human blood to survive. I think we have slightly bigger concerns.” Eli mumbles disapprovingly, but doesn’t try to argue.
Demetri frowns suddenly, looking down at Eli’s small, bedraggled form. “How much do you remember from last night, anyways?”
Although he can’t see it, Demetri can imagine Eli scrunching his face up in concentration. “Just bits and pieces, I guess. I remember you holding my hand and telling me you loved me like a sappy bitch.”
Demetri snickers. “Yeah, yeah, guilty as charged.”
Although Eli’s tone is nonchalant, it sends a pulsing wave of relief through Demetri.
So some part of it all stuck. The monstrous wolf roaming the forest alone into the wee hours of the morning still knew he was loved. Still knew he would have someone to come home to. Someone who would hold him even when he was at his most…well…conventionally unattractive (i.e. in the process of transforming into a giant terrifying creature).
“I also remember you making me fucking ibuprofen peanut butter dog treats. Like who does that?”
Demetri snorts with laughter. “Offer still stands for those, by the way. I could also try Tylenol. That helps a lot with broken bone pain.”
“Ah, shit.” Eli tenses again. “This of all things I don’t deserve your advice for.”
“Oh, my god.” He jostles Eli’s shoulder playfully. “Are you still on about that? I think you breaking several of your own bones for my benefit, repeatedly, once a month, outweighs you breaking one of my bones one time.”
“Mmm.” Eli hums thoughtfully. “When you put it like that, it sounds like you need to sacrifice a few more limbs for me so we’ll be even.”
Demetri scoffs. “Well, unlike some people around here, my bones don’t fix themselves after they mold into giant wolf bones and back.”
“Weak.” Although it comes out like a taunt, Eli kisses Demetri’s chest as he says it.
Demetri laughs, giving his back another rub.
“Remember anything else? You still sore at all?”
“Nah. The aches stopped like an hour after I turned back.” Eli suddenly looks up at him with a tenderness that could euthanize him on the spot. “I remember you touching my scar, though.”
He’s hit with a surge of emotion, coursing through him like good coffee on an early morning and making him wonder how it’s cosmically possible to love a single human being with the sheer magnitude and intensity with which he loves Eli Moskowitz.
Demetri smiles, brushing a thumb over the rough skin. “It’s beautiful. I’m sorry anyone ever made you feel like it was something to be ashamed of.”
Although Eli rolls his eyes, his cheeks go unmistakably pink. “Ugh. You’re biased. Pretty sure you’re the only person who actually likes it.”
“Yes, and I’m the only person ever whose opinion actually matters, because I’m right.”
“You always think you’re right!”
“I have yet to be wrong. Well…in a broad sense. Why would I be wrong about your beauty mark?”
“Please. It’s a facial deformity.”
“Oh, what, you put stock in that?” Demetri’s lip curls in disgust. “Counselor Blatt’s entire visage is a facial deformity. And anyways, the woman completely believed you were a wholesome pillar of purity while you were wearing your hair in blood-red death spikes, so I don’t think she’s getting an invite into MENSA anytime soon. There are much more credible opinions to trust.”
Eli scoffs. “Like yours? You’re not subtle, Demetri.”
“Oh, I’d never try to be. But yes, like mine, because I’m correct. It’s a beauty mark.”
He leans down and pecks the scar. Eli groans, but thankfully doesn’t try to argue further.
“What else did I do last night, anyway? I remember you petting me, I think and then everything’s kinda vague, until—” Eli stiffens. “Oh shit.”
“What?”
“I tried to hunt you, didn’t I?”
His voice comes out in a strangled whisper, and Demetri’s heart breaks all over again.
“Hey. It wasn’t like that.” He kisses the top of Eli’s head. “You only looked like you wanted to eat me for like…a few seconds, tops. And I snapped you out of it pretty fast.”
“You…” Suddenly he’s being seized by his shoulders and slammed down into the bed.
“You moron!” Eli spits. “I told you to run if I started doing that kind of shit!”
“You weren’t really!” Demetri tries to shove Eli off, but his boyfriend holds fast.
“You just said I looked like I wanted to eat you! Is that not a good enough reason to haul ass out of there?!”
Demetri decides that perhaps he should omit the part about the repeat licking. Eli doesn’t need more ammo.
“That’s not you,” he says fiercely, clutching Eli’s wrist. “I know you. I know I can get through to you, and I know you’ll never lay a hand on me again. Or…a paw, I guess. Same difference.”
“You can’t count on that!”
Demetri sees wetness trickling in at the corner of Eli’s eyes and feels a twinge of guilt.
“I know you’re scared.” He reaches up, gently brushing the tears away. “And I’ve been there, too. I know what it’s like. But let me trust you the way you’ve been trusting me. Please.”
Eli shakes his head, sniffling. “I just don’t want to wake up and find you dead.”
“And you won’t.” He runs a thumb over his boyfriend’s skin. “These gangly legs are no joke. I know I used to complain about them killing my sex appeal, but they can take me very rapidly away from werewolves if needed.”
“For once in your life, be serious, Demetri!”
Eli glares down at him with an intensity he hasn’t seen in a while. He feels the other boy’s heart hammering through him, every muscle in Eli’s body squeezed as tight as it can go.
“I am,” Demetri says softly. “I promise I am. I need you to trust I can take care of myself. Okay?”
Eli exhales, some of the anger and panic seeming to drain out with it.
He pats Eli’s cheek. “I’m made of tougher stuff than I used to be. I think unless you start growing silver teeth or eating a bunch of garlic bread before you transform, we’ll be fine.”
“Still. You can’t be reckless like that—”
“Oh, look who’s talking! I don’t want to hear a peep from you, Mr. Rabies Shot Cobra Heist Cement Truck Vandalism Underage Drinking Breaking-and-Entering Getting-Intentionally-Bit-By-Werewolves Moskowitz.”
Eli releases a long sigh. “I hate that you have a list ready.”
“Yes, and for the love of god, do not make me make it longer.”
Eli huffs—a defeated noise that sends a ripple of satisfaction through Demetri. “How did you get through to me, anyways?”
Demetri snickers. “Oh, you’ll love this.”
“…oh no.”
“Demetri and Eli, binary—” Eli smacks him before he can finish.
“Come on, dude, that?!” His boyfriend looks at him in abject horror, and he bursts out laughing. “That’s so freaking—out of all the things I could remember about you, it had to be ‘Codename zer0.’”
“‘Codename zer0’ got you back into karate with that video and indirectly won you a trophy, as I recall.”
Eli lets out long groan, face pressed into Demetri’s shoulder. “Is that even our catchphrase anymore? It’s super weird now that we’re dating. We should be like…the Binary Badasses or something.”
“Like that sounds any less ridiculous.”
Eli elbows him in the stomach. “You’re ridiculous.”
“Fine, fine!” He raises a hand in defeat. “Binary Badasses it is. For you.”
Eli slides off him and nestles into the crook of his arm, finally releasing Demetri from his death grip. As tousled blue hair brushes over his chest, he notices something strange.
Eli isn’t exactly spotless—wandering around Topanga Canyon at night as a giant carnivore did a number on him. Scrapes, cuts, bruises, plenty of dust and forest debris still mixed into Eli’s luscious cerulean locks. But other than that…
No evidence of any ripping skin. No gougemarks, no deep lacerations, no lines of marred, torn flesh, carved open and shredded to make room for fur and snouts and claws and everything else. Eli looks just as tan and polished as he did yesterday evening.
Apparently he regrew everything with little trouble. It’s difficult to conceptualize—such a rapid myriad of creation and destruction, all in one night.
“I saved your skin,” Demetri blurts out.
Eli lifts his head to give him a baffled look. “You what?”
“All the skin and sinew and whatnot that peeled off when you morphed. It was lying around in the dirt and I didn’t know if you’d want it back, so…I washed it and put it in that bag over there.”
He gestures at the grocery bag leaning up against his desk—probably the reason why the stench of Eli’s hunting trophies hasn’t bothered him all that much.
“Wh—DUDE! What the fuck?! That’s disgusting, what—” Eli looks like he’s just witnessed a war crime. “Why the hell would I want all my own peeled-off skin back?!”
“Well, I didn’t know it would all grow back!” Demetri puts his hands up. “And I didn’t want you to—I don’t know, wander around LA as some shambling skinless mess trying to hold all your organs in or whatever.”
“Demetri.” Eli presses his palm into his forehead. “How would any werewolf survive more than one full moon if they didn’t grow their fucking skin back?”
“I thought it might be like…a reverse selkie thing, all right?! Look, I read up a lot on werewolves, but none of the Wikihows mentioned what to do with all the skin and muscle bits lying around. I thought if I just left it there, it’d get eaten by a raccoon or something. And who knows what that would do to you?!”
“Probably the same thing as if your finger got cut off and a raccoon ate it? It’s no longer attached to your body, who cares?”
“Okay, but what if not all your skin grew back? What if you were stumbling through the forest covered in holes—which, by the way, all kinds of microorganisms and viruses can just climb on in through—and then you try to reattach your old skin but it’s covered in dirt and you get super infected—”
“Demetri.” Eli buries his face in Demetri’s chest, groaning for perhaps the 17th time that morning. “That’s not—how would I even do that? By fucking supergluing it back on?”
“I don’t know, you tell me!” Demetri waves his hands in exasperation. “I just didn’t want to be in a situation where you needed your skin and I left it to the mercy of the elements like a terrible boyfriend.”
Eli sighs, crawling back onto his chest and looking at him with an almost pitying expression. “‘Metri, did you think werewolves had to get skin grafts once a month? Is there any insurance on earth that covers that?”
“It was just a precaution, all right?!” Demetri huffs. “I’m still figuring out how all this works. I don’t want to screw it up.”
“Then use your brain, dumbass.” Eli thumps him on the temple, and Demetri rolls his eyes. “Something that shapeshifted once a month and wasn’t able to self-repair would be a biological nightmare. How would that shit even function?! Gather up all the ripped flesh and cram it back in? Werewolves wouldn’t be around long enough for people to tell horror stories about them if they were constantly dying of tetanus.”
“For all we know, they could be.” Demetri shrugs. “Or septicemia. Or osteomyelitis. Or—”
“Hey. Relax.” Eli presses a kiss to his neck. “I, uh…I guess I appreciate you saving a bag of my gross-ass severed skin in case you needed it for like…emergency repair, but I promise you don’t have to do that. I looked into this shit too, and I think if we were supposed to keep my skin, the internet would’ve said something about it across like 15 sites. Now you really need to get rid of that shit before your mom sees.”
“Uh, well…”
Demetri bites his lip, and Eli wilts.
“Oh no. Did you tell her I’m—”
“No, no!” He shakes his head vigorously. “She walked in on me washing it, and I was about to bullshit something, I swear, but then she said that next time I needed to hide a body, I should let her know and she’d help.”
“Jesus.” Eli snorts out a laugh. “What the hell was she up to back in Greece?”
He grimaces. “Whatever it was, she evidently did a very good job of hiding her tracks. So much so that she can offer advice.”
“All right, well. We’re covered if the blood bank scams stop working.” He smirks.
“Oh, you fucking love me, Demetri Alexopoulos. Dog stink and all.”
He swoops down, grabbing Demetri’s lips in his own. As he pulls away, Demetri wrinkles his nose.
Although Demetri’s come to appreciate Eli’s initiative, he’s not sure it’s ideal right now. The shorter boy’s breath is abysmal.
“You do stink, though,” he mutters. “What were you doing all night?”
Eli gives him the same meek grin that always seems to get him out of trouble. “I…may have eaten a couple deer.”
“Ah! That explains the stench of rotting venison.” Eli gives him another apologetic smile, this time with some bits of deer meat still visible in between his teeth. “And next full moon, I’m leaving you breath mints.”
“Mhm.” He traces delicate fingers over Demetri’s arm. “That’s rich, coming from the human mosquito.”
“Your favorite human mosquito, though.”
“Dem.” More gentle brushing before Eli’s fingers stop at the base of his neck. “We match now, yeah?”
He looks down to see Eli’s hand on his bite scars. Suddenly he wants to cry.
His own hand flutters off Eli’s back, drifting up his boyfriend’s arm until he feels the slight bump of raised skin. His fingers ghost across the wolf bite, once something so insurmountable and now nothing more than a bit of skin that doesn’t fit quite right.
Not that different from his own fading bitemarks. Something he’ll get past eventually. Something that stays, but not in a way that has to hurt.
He smiles. “Yeah. I suppose we do.”
“You’re not alone.” Eli presses soft lips to the same place vicious fangs had once been. “You never were.”
Demetri pulls Eli in, kissing his hair. “Neither are you. I wanted to chase after you last night, but…”
He trails off. No matter—he knows Eli knows what he’s trying to say.
It wasn’t safe. They can’t always be safe for each other, as much as they wish they could. It’s just part of their natures—their new natures.
“You never would have caught up, anyways,” Eli mumbles. “Soon as the wolf wanted to hunt you, I got so fucking scared. I ran as far as I could.”
Demetri feels an ache in his chest.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean t—”
“Not your fault,” Eli cuts him off. “I should have made you leave sooner. Chased you off or something. But I wanted you to stay. Kind of selfish, I know.”
Demetri smiles. “Good to know I’m not the only one. I should’ve done the whole ‘drive you away for your own safety’ thing with you ages ago. Was…the rest of your night okay, at least?”
“S’fine.” Eli shrugs against him. “Did some hunting. Enjoyed all the scents. Howled really loud. Ran around.” He sighs. “Got old, though. It was lonely. Kind of wished not everything that saw me cowered and ran.”
“Oh, you would’ve loved that last year, though.”
“Ugh. Don’t remind me.” He feels Eli’s face twitch into a scowl. “I guess that’s the thing about being at the top, isn’t it? You just feel alone.”
“I can imagine. I’m sorry.” He massages Eli’s scalp. “And…I’m sorry I flipped out at you last month. I know you were trying to help, and I know you can make your own choices. I guess I just…I worry about you. And I’m probably always going to worry about you. Hard to kick a habit I’ve had my entire life.”
Eli hums into his neck. “I’m sorry I worry you. I don’t mean to.”
“I know. If anything, I probably smother you too much. I used to try and shelter you away from every bad thing that could happen. I was never very good at it, though.”
Eli snorts. “Used to annoy the shit out of me. Not…when we were kids. I needed it back then. But when I dyed my hair and stopped taking shit, you acted like I’d been…I don’t know, corrupted, and you needed to heroically save me or whatever.”
“I kind of did, though.” Demetri snickers, flicking Eli’s shoulder. “You saw poor little Demetri in an arm bar, and that triggered your whole ‘Simba, remember who you are’ moment.”
“Well, you looked so pathetic I couldn’t help myself. Never seen a sadder sack of disproportionate limbs.”
“Oh, you take that back!” He grabs Eli’s shoulders and easily rolls on top of him, pinning him down. Eli cackles. “You are such a little—!”
“Demetriiiii.” Eli does his best pout. “I was out being a sad, lonely wolf monster all night. You wouldn’t get mad at me, would you?”
Demetri smacks his shoulder. “You’re such a brat.”
“Oh, but you want to be my knight in shining armor so fucking bad.”
It’s Demetri’s turn to pout. He looks away, feeling his cheeks heat up.
“It was…kind of flattering, you know.” He feels Eli’s fingers start to comb through his hair. “You being all fussy and suffocating. I didn’t realize I wanted it back until I was in Cobra Kai.”
“Classic Eli Moskowitz.” Demetri clicks his tongue. “Always wanting what he can’t have.”
“It felt nice, though. Knowing someone cared that much. Even after everything.”
Demetri refuses to look at him. Eli is undoubtedly hitting him with the doe eyes, and he refuses to give his boyfriend the satisfaction of watching all Demetri’s annoyance melt away in real time.
Besides, it won’t exactly help how much his face is still flushing.
“I’m not an anomaly.” He sighs, shaking his head. “Lots of people care about you, Eli. Yas, Moon, Miguel, Chris, Mr. LaRusso, Sam, Bert and Nate, your parents…”
“Yeah, and could any of them stomach that shit at Topanga?”
Finally, he looks down. Eli is gazing up at him with a thoroughly dubious expression.
“Could they?” Eli asks again, eyes flaring.
Demetri sighs.
“Probably not.”
“And that’s why I love you.”
He pulls Demetri’s neck down and kisses him like it’s the most vital thing he’s ever done.
Eli tastes wild—like fur and wood and leaves and berries and streamwater and fresh-killed deer. It’s a far cry from what Demetri used to fantasize about, all warmth and cinnamon and old books and cable-knit sweaters. It’s different from how he used to taste too—the kisses with reckless adrenaline and fresh sweat and sharp, chemically-scented Axe.
Eli Moskowitz never runs out of ways to surprise him. Demetri is finding he doesn’t mind at all.
He’s not even that bothered by deer breath. Not really. It’s Eli, and Demetri loves him with his entire being. Even when he stinks.
He cups Eli’s cheek in his hand, holding it like it could dissolve at any moment. It has to be the hundredth time they’ve done this, but regardless.
If Demetri had a heartbeat, it would still be racing.
“Demetri.” Eli is the first to pull away, hand loosening against Demetri’s neck as he leans back. For a moment they both hover there, lips only an inch apart.
“I’ll always come home to you,” Eli whispers against him. “No matter what.”
Demetri beams, bringing his forehead down to meet Eli’s.
“I know.”
***
Y’all remember when Trader Joe’s had samples??? Before the pandemic??? Because I do. Different times, goddamn. (Also CK canonically takes place in like 2018/2019ish so Trader Joe’s does indeed still have samples lmao)
I’m kind of obsessed with the idea of Demetri kissing Eli’s lip scar while he’s in wolf form. Idk man I Just Think It’s Neat.
Actually added a bit more to this than there originally was concerning Eli rewearing his S2 school fight jacket. I kinda like doing introspection with these boyos where they think back to the “enemies” phase and are just like “Well that was stupid” while also being morbidly fascinated and trying to psychologically untangle whatever tf was going through their heads XD
I really love writing Demetri in these kinds of AUs because you will subject the boy to horrors beyond human comprehension and he’ll just be like. Aggressively practical about them. “You shed your human skin in a bloody, disturbing mess when you transform into a werewolf??? Better hold onto that, you might need it later.” The best part is that his neurosis actually overrides his rationality half the time (not unlike myself lmao), so he’ll be over here catastrophizing while Eli is actually chillin and thinking things through logically (since he’s over the whole “get mad about everything” thing). They share a brain cell. Demetri thinks he’s the one who usually has it, but he’s wrong.
This goes with this btw!!! Basically took this bit and turned it into a whole scene. Demetri does indeed stay with Eli while he goes into wolf form so he doesn’t feel alone <3
Still giggling over the fact that for once I made Demetri the Red Gay and Eli the Blue Gay in the moodboard akajidpwbaiyvf
Eli chucks the last spoon over the boat railing, watching in disgust as it plops into the starlit ocean and sinks from sight.
Demetri sighs. “Moon wouldn’t like this shameless environmental degradation.”
“Silver’s a naturally occurring metal. It’s fine.” Eli scowls. “I can’t let that shit anywhere near you.”
Demetri’s life has become a fucking joke. Kidnapped by Cobra Kai, vampirized against his will, not rescued three days before Terry Silver shows up at Daniel’s door with a fine silverware “peace offering.” “Heard you’re having vampire trouble,” he’d said.
Now, for the first time since being turned, Demetri feels safe.
***
(...so before S5 dropped, we were joking around on on one of my Discord servers about how Demetri isn’t in the trailers that much because Terry Silver kidnapped him and made him into a vampire, and now he can’t be in direct sunlight. Then I took that idea and ran with it and now I can’t stop writing Vampmetri help
@ckhalloween22 here’s the final chapter/epilogue of my “Monstrous Transformations” prompt submission!
Fun fact: This was originally supposed to be the end of Chapter 2, but like. Chapter 2 just got too gotdang long XD So I shaved this bad boy off and made it its own thing.
Enjoy the boys getting to be just a little bit evil <3 Although YMMV on how morally unsound they actually are??? What’s a boy to do when monster hunters won’t stop attacking him??? Anyways, there is some nice murder to be had here, bless <3 <3 <3
CW for some (pre-established) body horror, general violence, blood, and gore, and implied human-eating. Cannibalism??? Idk if it counts since Dem and Eli are not technically human anymore lmao. But anyways, like. Yeah. There are a bunch of corpses and it’s implied our favorite vampire and werewolf do in fact feed on them.
Chapter 1 is here and Chapter 2 is here!!! They’ll also all be posted on my AO3 SummerPhlox pretty soon!
Fic is under the cut! Moodboard pic credits available upon request, as always!
***
Nocturnal
Epilogue: Operation Blood Moon
Tssk.
Blade hits skin, and a long gash glints bright red in the moonlight.
Tssk. Tssk.
Demetri lunges again. Cutting a chest, cutting a face, cutting a throat. The movements have become second nature.
He knows he shouldn’t delight in the screams. He shouldn’t relish the terrified eyes of the surely well-meaning monster slayers, unaware of the honed end of a kama speeding toward them until it’s far too late.
Nonetheless, it’s a special kind of high, seeing in real time that you’ve been underestimated. Not that it’s an uncommon occurrence these days.
A choked gasp as his kama slices through another jugular, this time belonging to a young man not much older than him. Tall, sturdy, toned. Athletic. Future frat boy type. The very flavor of guy that might have bullied him and Eli at school.
Or on a college campus. Or at work. Or anywhere, really.
Now he’ll never get the chance.
Behind him, Demetri can hear teeth ripping into flesh, the tearing and pulling of skin amidst ragged snarls. More screams, because apparently humans don’t know how to do anything else in the face of death. Even seasoned beast slayers.
It’s so boring.
Still, there’s something beautiful about such tangible evidence that these people have bitten off more than they can chew. And now, as is only fitting, they’re getting bites taken out of them.
Oh, the wordplay he could do with that. Maybe another time.
Demetri wonders how Eli does it. Fighting with teeth is far too messy for his taste—requires him to get much further into the enemy’s personal space than he would prefer. But Eli is a mass of fangs and claws and destruction, emanating the kind of burning, carnal rage that could tear all of humanity to shreds if it needed to.
Demetri’s the only one who can reel in The Fury of the Hawk, and he takes a great deal of pride in it.
Fighting with kamas was Eli’s idea, still reveling in the image of Demetri swinging them around at the AVT. Although if anyone told Demetri a year ago he’d be using that demonstration to fight vampire slayers, he would have laughed them out of the room. And also expressed some worry that he was going to get pitted against Buffy Summers, one of the coolest people alive.
That hadn’t been an issue so far.
He and Eli move in perfect sync, circling each other back-to-back and subconsciously coordinating short, devastating strikes and quick finishes. Attacks that leave no room for a second wind.
It took a while for them to learn how to fight together with their new bodies. Demetri is faster than he’s ever been, more power behind each lash than he could have possibly dreamed. Gangly legs that once only ever seemed to get in his way are now a terrifying advantage. Eli, for his part, is down on all fours with quite a bit more bulk than he used to carry, not to mention the significantly more dangerous mouth. It’s a dance they got wrong more than a few times, even as deeply as they’ve always known each other.
But they adjusted. They figured out how to move in tandem, because they always do. That’s their relationship—always fluid and elastic and changing, but no easier to destroy than any matter in the universe.
Now, they’re a well-oiled killing machine, brutally efficient at its job. Far too many morons have found this out the hard way.
They’re big names in the monster-slaying community, and they know it. Their defeat has become the ultimate boss battle, the trophy of a lifetime. No greater mark of status among the hunters than to finally earn enough seniority to go on “Operation Blood Moon,” as they call it.
None of them ever come back.
Demetri almost feels sorry for them. Even the efforts of the best monster hunters fall nothing short of pathetic.
Hard to gather much sympathy for anyone who just keeps making the same mistakes, though.
They never bank on the sheer viciousness. The synchronicity. The absolute world of hatred they can inspire in one target by hurting the other.
Sometimes the monster slayers don’t scream as they die. Sometimes they spit venom—a last verbal attack so they can still go out swinging when they can’t move their arms anymore.
Murderer. Monster. Demonspawn. Brute. Evil piece of shit. You’re not human, you’re a filthy THING. Demetri’s heard them all, and frankly, he thinks the accusations are a little unfair. He has some standards.
He and Eli have no interest in going after people who haven’t done anything wrong. They’re not those kinds of monsters.
They remember what it was like. Having families. Having friends who loved them, even after they started to slip into a darkness none of their peers could hope to understand. Demetri still thinks about them sometimes, and how much it must have hurt to lose him and Eli both.
He’d prefer not to put other people through that kind of pain. At least not if they don’t deserve it.
People who came after him and Eli for the terrible crime of existing, though…
They were a different story.
Behind him, Eli’s snarls stop. Another slayer charges from the edge of the forest, screaming a battle cry. Ponytail flapping in the wind, sword brandished. Loathing leaking from every pore in her body.
Demetri charges her right back.
The sword is easy to neutralize. He catches the blade with a kama handle and thrusts it to the side, leaving the hunter’s chest exposed. In goes the other kama, puncturing straight through the heart before she can process what’s happening.
She stares at him in shock, spluttering and coughing up blood. He yanks his other kama free of her sword and raises it to her throat, finishing the job.
Silence. Demetri scans their surroundings, tasting the air for any approaching human scent.
Nothing but trees, grass, wolf musk, and the reek of several corpses. Another hunting party taken down.
He hunches over, panting. He’s a mess—completely covered in blood, hands sticky against his thighs.
None of it’s his, of course. It rarely ever is.
A familiar cracking and snapping fills the air behind him. He reaches into his jacket, extracting a Ziploc bag and plucking it open.
The contents—peanut-butter-and-beef-jerky balls stuffed with morphine tablets—fly over his shoulder one by one. He hears still-very-large jaws snap them up.
Demetri surveys the damage. It’s one of the bigger parties they’ve had to get rid of, but hopefully they’ll send a clear enough message that the Guild will leave them alone for a while.
“Demeeeeetri.” Hairy arms wrap around his waist, pulling him in.
He loves when Eli drags out his name like that. It makes him laugh to think there was ever a time when it gave him the creeps.
That was before he learned to embrace the darkness, he supposes.
There’s something foul and rotten in them both. A sort of cruelty, a spite for a world that has always rejected them. Demetri tried to push his down—bury it where no one would ever see, even when Eli didn’t.
He doesn’t bury it now. If the world comes for him or Eli, he’ll burn it to the ground.
Eli rocks him back and forth, and Demetri slumps against him. It’s nice to have someone to hold you after a battle—give your tired, aching muscles somewhere to rest. He feels along Eli’s arm, hand brushing through soft fur until he arrives at thick, gnarled fingers and long claws. He smiles, tangling them with his own.
Eli’s wolf traits rarely fully go away these days—a consequence of learning how to access the form outside the full moon. Even when he shifts back to what used to be human, there tends to be fur or claws or part of a snout or tail that stays.
Demetri’s come to love it. There’s a wildness about Eli that almost reminds him of “Hawk,” although this time it’s curled around Demetri like a protective shell. He wonders if this is the fierce, fearless person Eli’s wanted to be all these years, but the world (and possibly his own self-doubt) kept holding him back.
And then, of course, there are the practical benefits. The heat of extra fur, a bulkier body, and increased metabolism is more than welcome when the icy embrace of undeath gets to be a little too much. Demetri, meanwhile, is sure his own cold skin is an appreciated respite from the blazing California heat that slithers back every summer. It’s hard to find a better relationship than one that can provide perfect thermodynamic equilibrium.
They’re an ideal balance, as always.
“You all right?” Eli murmurs.
“I think I’ll manage.” He traces Eli’s claws with a finger. “I do kind of feel like someone drenched me in sundae syrup, but other than that.”
He feels small, sharp teeth begin to nibble at the nape of his neck. Rolling his eyes, he elbows Eli in the stomach.
“Have some class, Moskowitz. None of that until after we eat.”
Eli whines—a noise that sounds so endearingly canid. Demetri only shakes his head.
“Speaking of that, though!” Eli perks up, and Demetri feels a fluffy tail slap into him as it inadvertently wags. “There’s this new 24-hour Mexican fast food place, and they sell to supernatural abominations. Want to stop by later? Heard they have good nachos.”
Demetri raises his eyebrows. “Are you actually going to let me have any?”
“Uh, no.” Eli snorts. “But if you give me first dibs on that big meaty guy you shanked, I might buy you a cheap margarita.”
“Oh, yeah, I’m sure the margarita quality at this random fast food joint you’ve never been to will be unparalleled. Great motivator!”
Eli hums into his hair. “Well, I was going to make those jaeger bombs you like…you know, with that Cazadores canned shit and the Red Bull? But if you want me to make them and then drink them all myself…”
“Oh, you wouldn’t—”
“I totally would. I’d down every single one. Right in front of you.”
“Bastard.” He elbows Eli in the stomach again, and his boyfriend snickers. “Fine, fine. Nachos for dessert. I guess it’s been enough days since we ate people food that my stomach won’t throw a fit.”
“That’s my man.” Eli growls happily, and Demetri feels velvet lips against his shoulder.
“Now enough fooling around, Eli. I’m hungry.”
“Mmmmm.” Eli flips him around in one fluid motion, and suddenly he’s being inspected by impish blue eyes among a sea of gray fuzz. “Care for an appetizer?”
Demetri smirks. “Don’t I always?”
Eli slots their mouths together, and Demetri sighs into it.
It’s a ritual they’ve developed, kissing after battles. Celebratory as much as practical—Demetri is always famished after a rumble, and he has a boyfriend who fights with his teeth.
Sometimes it’s a tad awkward. Eli’s mouth often protrudes a bit, and there’s usually quite a few pointed gnashers in there to act as an obstacle for a hungry tongue. It’s human against wolf—a square peg in a round hole, as their kindergarten teacher would say. Two sets of lips not designed to fit together.
Nonetheless, they work around it. They always do.
Eli nearly always tastes like blood these days, and Demetri loves it. He’s wild and beautiful and ruthless and dangerous and there’s no one in the world that Demetri could feel safer with.
Eli Moskowitz is terrifying, and he’s Demetri’s. They belong together, and god help anyone who dares say otherwise.
A thick, clawed hand cups Demetri’s cheek, and he leans into it. It still surprises him, how Eli can tear a human body apart in seconds and then turn around and touch him as delicately as if he were made of glass. Even gentler than he touched Demetri when they were children, and Eli had years to go before he figured out how to be anything but soft.
You’d think there’d be more clawmarks and bite scars scattered across him—accounts of the times Eli got a bit too rough or a bit too handsy and didn’t catch himself until white flesh was already marred. Nonetheless, Demetri’s skin is the same pale, pristine expanse it’s always been. The only discolored spot is the little present Terry Silver gave him, all those moons ago.
Eli’s careful with Demetri in a way he never imagined. He hasn’t gotten a scratch in weeks.
It makes him melt in a way that’s borderline embarrassing.
So much of the time, Demetri feels like a freshman in high school again—the sniveling, hopelessly whipped boy with a protective arm around his best friend, wondering over and over again how anyone could think Eli Moskowitz was anything but beautiful. It’s only now that he realizes that was never a weakness—not just another thing for bullies to exploit to make him miserable. To make them both miserable.
He’s still in love with Eli Moskowitz. That’s been a fundamental truth since he was eleven, and it’s not going anywhere. But now…now it makes him feel like the strongest fucking person on earth.
They pull away, tilting their heads so their foreheads can press together. And Demetri grins, because he is never, ever going to get tired of this.
“Oooh.” Demetri clicks his tongue sarcastically. “The Guild’s really going to have our heads next time, I just know it.”
Eli laughs, despite the fact that Demetri hasn’t the faintest clue if they’ve had 50 fights yet. He’s honestly lost track.
The important thing is that their “lucky streak” hasn’t run out yet, and plenty of evidence shows it’s not going to anytime soon.
“These assholes aren’t even trying.” Eli shakes his head. “This group was even easier than the last one.”
“Maybe we’re just getting scarier?”
Eli laughs again, and Demetri make a mental note that he wants to keep hearing that laugh for the literal rest of eternity.
Demetri leans back, looking over his boyfriend’s equally scuffed-up form. His eyes dart to the perfectly-vertical crest of blue hair and he whistles.
“I’ll be honest, I still have no idea how you keep that thing so polished while you fight. At this point, I think the ‘hawk might weather the nuclear apocalypse better than the rest of you.”
Eli grins. “I’ve had a few years of practice. I used to never go anywhere without hair gel.”
“It looks ridiculous,” Demetri says, brushing the blue spikes affectionately. “When you keep that when you shift. I hope you’re aware of that.”
“Oh, please. Are you blind? A wolf with a mohawk is objectively the coolest thing.”
“You look like some 13-year-old scene kid’s DeviantArt OC.”
“Yeah, so?” Eli stares at him defiantly. “How embarrassing is it for these pricks to spend the last seconds of their life knowing they’re gonna be killed by a 13-year-old’s DeviantArt OC? It’s a sad way to go, and they know it.”
“Huh. I never thought of it like that.” Demetri breaks into a slow grin. “Not exactly an honorable Guild warrior’s death is it?”
“Hell no. The last thing most of these idiots ever saw was a wolf in a hairdo.”
And they both laugh, because somehow that’s a much more devastating end than even the most painful of kama punctures.
“All right, enough yammering, nerd.” Eli tangles their fingers again, dragging him to the edge of the makeshift battlefield. “I want some fucking lunch.”
They survey the mounds of corpses, piled haphazardly around them and staring lifelessly into the sky. Some scowling, some showing nothing but raw, primal fear. Some with now-useless weapons still clutched in limp hands. Another smorgasbord of failed attempts to destroy them—the two monsters that couldn’t be a more different flavor, united against all odds.
The smell hits Demetri in a heavy, overpowering wave.
Fresh blood. Soft, tender meat. The taste of victory. A feast fit for royalty.
Or at least a couple of fucked-up nocturnal nerds from the San Fernando Valley.
Demetri bares his fangs. “Let’s eat.”
***
Dumbass monster hunters really be thinking they can take down a couple guys who have karate, supernatural abilities, AND gay love on their side??? Smh. Darwin Award winners, all of them.
Did I have to have Dem and Eli murder every slayer who comes after them? Well, no, but as mentioned earlier, I think the boys should get to be a little evil during halloween season <3 <3 <3 As a treat!!! Anyways I still think it was the crime of the century to not show us Eli’s reaction to Demetri’s little kama demonstration at the end of S4 (I just KNOW he thought it was hot as hell), so naturally I had to bring the kamas back and have Demetri slice people up with them...at Eli’s gushing behest XD
The “Eli dragging out my name is creepy af” to “Eli dragging out my name is...actually kinda hot” pipeline is something that can be so very hilarious XD And oddly wholesome??? Like Demetri accepts even the most fucked up and slightly evil parts of Eli Moskowitz unconditionally, and I think that’s pretty neat <3
Also it’s important to me that y’all know I am currently getting Very Emotional over the idea of Eli essentially getting stuck in fucked-up half-wolf mode and having giant razor claws like 90% of the time and yet. Still being incredibly gentle and soft with Demetri ;_______; Like the POWER of Eli going “never fucking again” after that arm break, and then!!! ACTUALLY meaning it 4000%!!! These disaster boys are done hurting each other, terrible monster forms or not <3
Shoutout to @baldwinboy5ive for asking the very important question of whether, once Eli refines his abilities a bit, he’s able to shift the mohawk with him when he transforms. The answer is that he can shift it with him (with some practice), but the end result has huge Original Character Do Not Steal energy. At least he owns this.
Yes, even more vampire!Demetri x human (presumably?) Eli because I cannot be contained XD This is a direct prequel to this and kinda goes with this as well!
***
“That’s real silver all right.”
Yasmine slips another shiny utensil back into the lavish gift box. Eli frowns.
“You sure?”
“I grew up in Encino. I think I know expensive shit when I see it.”
Demetri eyes Sensei Silver’s “olive branch”—a cruel trick meant to take advantage of his new condition. He runs frigid fingers along his arm, sharp canines gnawing his lip.
“If we need confirmation…” Yasmine grabs a spoon, pretending to aim it. “Demetri, c’mere.”
Eli’s arm abruptly shields Demetri’s body. “Don’t you fucking—”
