Seth wants to do better, Roman wants Mox, and Mox doesn't know what he wants. Oh, and Cody Rhodes— monster hunter and (maybe) vengeful ex— wants to find Seth.
After so much hurt has been passed around, someone will have to pay the piper.
(preview under the cut)
Mox wasn't sure if it was worth waiting in Florida anymore. Three days after escaping whatever the fuck the stunt was that Roman pulled, after being so close to Seth, drinking from him even. He should be high-tailing it out of this swamp-ass state from Hell. But he was holed up in a shitty highway motel.
It was a stupid idea to think Seth would leave his young, hot, human boyfriend for him, yet here he was. Flipping through the channels on the crappy TV, he settled on the local news, the reporters struggling through some technical difficulties.
Something to distract him from the memory of how Seth’s blood tasted on his tongue. Or how comforting his touch was. Or how soft Roman’s memory of their love was…
A warm feeling washed over him, and he took a deep breath, distantly smelling salt and coffee. He welcomed the experience with open arms, wrapping himself in it like the warm blanket it was to his mind, allowing himself to be lost in the serenity.
Thirty minutes of terrible local car dealership commercials, boring news stories, and oversaturated theme park ads passed by, and then someone was knocking on the door.
His lip twitched at the disruption, but he approached the door cautiously and looked through the peephole.
“Seth?” He blinked, opening the door, almost certain his eyes were playing tricks on him. But no, Seth was there, standing in front of him, “What are you doing here?”
The other glanced down, sheepishly, “Looking for you.” Seth looked like shit– was that mud in his hair?
“Took you long enough.” Mox pulled him into the motel room, careful not to hold him too tight or intrude too much. Sure, it was Seth, but he couldn't assume Seth was okay. Or trustworthy.
“You're in danger.” Typical Seth, straight to business when the emotions were too much.
Mox scoffed, sitting on the bed and turning his attention back to the commercial playing on the TV, “I'm always in danger.”
A deep breath, Seth almost on the verge of tears. “Cody wants to kill you.”
So like what if the ancient vamps really want to know what a cupcake tastes like?
----
“Eat it,” Santh says, encouragingly.
“What? No,” Gregory replies. “No way.”
In his hand he holds a small confection. Something called a cupcake. It has a thin pink paper lining around it, a sweet-smelling frosting of whipped white layers, and brightly colored little pebbles all over it, like little drops of colorful stars. They’re at a festivity; a party for one of Gregory’s companies. Gregory says he has these parties yearly, a holiday event every winter. Santh finds this amusing. That he throws these celebrations for his mortals and then gives so much of his money to them.
In their little huddle at this party are several other of their ancient friends as well as the tall and way too serious Seth and his young fledgling, Dr. Fareed. “But what does it taste like,” Santh asks as they all stare at this confection in Gregory’s hand as if it was a small miracle from the Gods. “It’s sweet,” Fareed tries to explain. “It’s like… Well, I’m trying to imagine foods from your time and what it would compare too. I mean six-thousand years ago, what would compare? Like really sweet honey and dates and bread, spongey, soft, milky…?”
“And what are the little colorful dots like,” Gregory asks, looking seriously at Fareed for his input.
“Oh, come on,” Santh says impatiently. He grabs the small cake from Gregory’s hand and quickly shoves it into his own mouth, feeling it squish and mash around. It’s very hard to avoid the vampire gag reflex and swallow it down before it tries to come back up again. The others are staring at him in horror. Except Fareed, who appears fascinated.
“Well,” Gregory asks. “What does it taste like?”
“So bad,” Santh says. The sweet sickly taste of it stuck in his mouth now.
“Well, you don’t eat the paper part usually,” Fareed observed with amusement.
Seth was silent, watching with his placid, always slightly disinterested but still hanging around anyway, look on his face.
“It’s just sticky and those little color pebbles are like sand, and –” Santh felt it all come back up and out. He watched it all land back on the floor at their feet in a colorful squishy, cakey mess with confetti colors and some blood from a recent hunt mixed in. They all stared down at it together in silence.
Gregory began laughing and laughing. He slapped Santh hard on the back. “You are so crazy! I love you!”
“It had to be done, for Fareed’s science,” Santh defended.
“Well, I know a vampire can’t eat a cupcake, Gundesanth,” Fareed smiled, shaking his head.
Seth sighed lightly and looked away from it all, as if he were so far above this childishness. “Why do I hang out with you?”
So curious to know what the deep gulf is between Seth and Gregory. Like does Gregory still have some deep resentment that Seth escaped the Queen's court so quickly after she made him a vampire, when he was meant to be taking on the role of Prince in that Court? And Seth resents Gregory for being his mother's favorite (and her chosen for the bed chamber) and doing her bidding at all times.
“I want to though,” Seth tightens his grip on Dean’s waist, his lips moving to the back of Dean’s neck. “I really want to. Just you and me,” His mind flashes to Nikki and her argument before he lets out a soft breath that ghosts across Dean’s neck, “And Nikki, I could never leave her here alone. Just you, me and Nikki, we’d go somewhere far away so that they couldn’t find us. You’d never have to go through any of this again, I’d never hurt you and we could be together and Nikki could be the strong, independent woman that I know she is.”
Dean breathes out slowly, pressing back against Seth more even though Seth knows his back must be killing him. “Don’t believe in fairytales.” He says voice full of sadness. Seth noses behind Dean’s ear and presses a soft kiss there.