Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2024 23:00:18 -0600 From: Fang Saito Subject: Welcome to Avernus - Chapter 21 This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to any real people or places is purely coincidental. This story is the property of the author and is protected under copyright laws. The author retains all rights. No reproduction is allowed without the author's consent. Conversations and feedback are appreciated to Greyson B. via email at hokkaidohotel86it@gmail.com. I love hearing from readers. As always, special thanks to Johnny Kape for the excellent editing assistance he always provides me. If you enjoy this story, please support the Nifty archives today with a thoughtful donation by visiting https://donate.nifty.org/. Thank you for everyone who has written with words of appreciation for the story, and words of care for my health. If you can find an opportunity to help out a favored author, it would be appreciated. https://www.buymeacoffee.com/GreysonB. You can find my other Nifty stories at: https://www.nifty.org/nifty/gay/adult-youth/cadence/ https://www.nifty.org/nifty/gay/highschool/a-ghost-finds-a-body/ I have a mailing list to notify people when a new chapter is posted. If you would like to be added, feel free to write and let me know to add you. Welcome to Avernus Chapter 21 I turned Boots away from me, placing my hand on his shoulder and guiding him into the spacious shower. Keeping my hand on his shoulder, I used my other hand to squeeze some body wash on the wash cloth hanging on the rack, then held it under the spray to soak it in the hot water and lather it up. I could see him tense, then visibly relax as I started scrubbing his back. When I let him go so I could begin on his hair, he reached out to brace himself against the wall. He did that thing where he put all his weight on one leg, which firmed up that one butt cheek, causing it to tense, lift, and get that amazing dimple. This let the other cheek relax and round out, standing in amazing contrast. I ran a healthy amount of shampoo onto the washcloth and began lathering up Boots' hair. It was getting longer. I'm not sure he had cut it since I met him, and it had already been longer than mine then. I liked it though. It made him look soft, without being girly. His hair wasn't quite blond, more of a light brown, but it was thin, and soft, and straight. Even dry, it had almost no curl at all to it. I was also able to admire his body. Maybe he was hitting a little growth spurt, or maybe he was just starting to finally get regular meals or something, but he seemed to be filling out a bit more. Don't get me wrong, he was still skinny as hell, but he didn't seem as bony as I remembered. He still looked good as hell. Having already done his back, once I finished his hair, I began washing Boots' chest. I didn't turn him around though. Instead, I pulled him against my front, wrapping my arms around him and using the washcloth to rub him down from neck to bellybutton. I had to pull him in tighter to reach lower, so I was able to nuzzle his neck as I ran my hands over his hips. I must have tickled him, or maybe just overstimulated him, because he giggled and squirmed out of my grasp, stepping back to stand under one of the shower heads. I watched in awe and lust as the water cascaded through his hair, across his face, and down his torso. It was easy to see that whatever had happened, Boots didn't really mind it, because he was hard as a rock, his stiffy ramrod straight and pointing to his bellybutton. I reached for him again while his head was under the spray, but he caught me somehow and danced away, laughing. I moved forward, trapping him in the corner. I intentionally slowed my movements so that I would be less threatening, but then decided to have some fun, and pulled the opposite. I reached for my super speed, looking around in awe as the water droplets seemed to freeze it place. I picked Boots up by grabbing his upper arms as gently as I could, moved him where he was a hair's breadth from the wall, then moved against him. Letting time rush back, I made sure things were moving again, before pressing him against the wall and going in for a kiss. He let out a gasp, letting my lips find his, and my tongue invade his mouth. His gasp turned into a moan, but when he started shaking his head, I realized it was a moan of pain."What's wrong?" I asked, taking a step back. He crossed his arms over his chest, grabbing his upper arms, feeling them tenderly. I winced in sympathy as I could already see red discoloration on each arm despite the heat of the water. Discoloration clearly the size and shape of my fingers. I wanted to cry when I realized I had hurt him. Note to self. Better not to touch people during super speed. "Oh my God," I said softly. "I'm so sorry." I reached out to hold him, and for the tiniest moment he flinched, but he just as quickly relaxed into my embrace. "I'm alright," he said into my shoulder. "Learning curve and all that, right?" I couldn't see his face in our hug, but I could hear his grin in his voice. "Right," I said, stepping back to let him see my smile. "Let's rinse off and I can make it up to you in b---" The world flipped sideways, my vision going crazy as my foot flew out from under me. I reached out to catch myself, feeling Boots scrambling to grab my arm. Then I felt a contradictory cold spot on my shoulder, and a warm spot centered on the back of my head. Seemingly retroactively I heard a dull 'thunk', like a watermelon being torn open. Then nothing. When I began waking, I fought to figure out what I was feeling. I was warm, but not really. It was almost like when we had a really muggy day back in Alabama. There were times when the air was so thick with humidity that it didn't matter what the temperature was, even in the air conditioning you were going to sweat. It was just inevitable. It felt like that, but not quite. That's when I realized that I was all warm in bed, under the blankets, but that the bedding was damp. That was the cooler, wet discomfort I was feeling. I stirred, trying to figure out what was going on, and felt Boots shift against me. He mumbled something incoherent, pulling me against him. I realized we were laying face to face, asleep in my bed. The room was awash with the harsh white light of the bathroom at my back. The sheets we were laying in were soaked, and as my brain started working again, I worried we might get sick, laying here like this in a wet bed. Gently extricating myself from Boots' grasp, I climbed out of the bed, shielding my eyes from the bright bathroom lights. I went to the little closet behind the door and grabbed a fresh towel, taking a few minutes to pay down my damp skin. I felt incredibly weak, almost feverish, but drying off helped with some of it. I went around to the other side of the bed, pulling back the blankets. Boots mumbled and shivered a bit as I exposed him to the room, but I helped him groggily stand, and finished patting him dry as well. We were both naked, so there was no damp clothing to worry about. "Fuck Jason," Boots muttered. "I was so worried about you. You fell, and there was so much blood. And then there wasn't." "Shush," I said, turning him around and guiding him ahead of me, around the bed, through the bathroom, and out the other door into the guest bedroom. Before I cut off the bathroom light switch, I did notice several pink swirls in the shower tiles on the floor. Easily deciding it was something for tomorrow, I pulled back the blankets of the unused bed in here, and helped Boots into the bed. The sheets were cold as we settled into the new bed, but we cuddled together, and quickly warmed the sheets, along with each other. I woke up later to a more normal sensation, the need to pee. Boots was still cuddled up with me, and the sun was shining in through the curtains. Time to get up. I pulled Boots against me, waking him up with a hug. He started to stir, then opened his eyes. "Get up, slug-a-bug," I said. I wanted to kiss him again, but felt self conscious here in the daylight. "Slug-a-bug?" he laughed. "What the hell?" "I don't know," I said with a bit of embarrassment. I started climbing from under the blankets as I muttered, "It's something my mom used to say when I was a kid and being lazy." "So now I'm being lazy?" Giggling, Boots raced me to the toilet. He was on the closer side, so even with my head start, he easily beat me while I ran around the bed. He was already standing over the bowl, letting his stream fly, by the time I got there. Just as I was getting my morning wood to relax enough to start releasing, he reached over and pinched the head, stopping me in my tracks."Hey, no fair!" I cried, even as I did nothing to stop him. It seemed that night time was for sexy fun, while morning was for silly fun. After giggling for a moment and seeing that I wasn't going to give in and fight him off, he gave the head a quick flick and let go. It had been building to a subtle burning, not totally unpleasant when he was holding my tip clamped shut. He caught me off guard when he let go, though, and I had to quickly adjust to start hitting the bowl. I was laughing and muttering about how gross it was that I was making a mess for Mrs. Sinclair to have to clean up around the bowl. I finished up and was shaking the last bit off, when I realized I was the only one laughing. In fact, I was the only one making noise."Boots? What's ---" I couldn't tell whether Boots was messed up about last night, so I spoke softly. "What happened? You said something about there was blood, and then there wasn't?" I didn't have to mention that there was obviously still blood in the floor of the shower. Diluted into a pale pink lined in the spaces between the floor tiles, but still obvious. He didn't respond. I put my hand on his bare shoulder and he didn't do much jump as shiver. "You slipped on the soap," he said in a voice near dead of emotion, pointing to the offending bar in the corner. "You went down so fast I couldn't catch you. I nearly fell on top of you, trying to catch you." Boots' voice was still devoid of emotion, but began picking up in speed and volume, as if he was expelling the words forcefully. "Blood began spreading out across the ground, almost black. It looked fake, like a bad movie. And the water was still spraying down and hitting your face and you weren't reacting and I grabbed you up and was yelling for you to answer me!" I grabbed Boots from behind, pulling him back against my chest. He wasn't much shorter than me, so I rested my chin on his shoulder, forcing his head to the side. His voice was breaking, beginning to show his panic, and I felt like I needed to hold him, to ground him. To remind him I was still here. He tensed up for a split second, then relaxed back against me. After a moment he continued talking, this time more relaxed, but also with a more normal amount of emotion. "At first there was so much blood. I put your head over in my lap, trying to get you to respond. The shower was so loud, I couldn't even tell if you were breathing. My hands were getting sticky and my legs were getting covered in blood. There was so much." His voice caught as he choked up for a second. When he continued, his voice was more settled. "But then you gave this loud, deep inhale of breath. I had to turn you away so you wouldn't swallow a ton of water or something. So then you were obviously breathing, but still unconscious. That's when I realized the water was running more pink than red. The color was weaker and weaker. I felt the back of your head and couldn't find any wound or anything. "I did what I could to clean us both up, and dragged you into the bedroom. It was all I could do to drag you into there and lift you into the bed. I think I was still out of it, because the last thing I remember was climbing in behind you. I seriously don't even remember us switching beds." "Well I seem to be fine now," I said, giving his body a squeeze. "But let's rinse off real quick and go get some breakfast. We still have school this morning." We showered off real quick, neither of us in the mood for playing around, instead we seemed to be equally concerned about getting rid of every trace of blood still visible in the shower. By the time we got cleaned up and dressed, I was ravenous. I ate a banana and a granola bar while waiting for the eggs to cook, then ended up grabbing an orange and a pop tart for the walk to school. I guess whatever healing I did last night needed some replenishment today. I sent a quick text to Mrs. Sinclair, telling her there had been a bit of an accident, and both my bathroom and bed were going to need attention. I was real apologetic, telling her I would do it myself, if I knew where the supplies and new sheets were. I only half meant it. Cleaning up was kind of her job, right? The school day went by as they all do, slow as molasses yet ending as fast as it starts, with nothing retained. I had asked Boots if we needed to skip a day to recover from what happened the night before, but that seemed to make him nervous somehow, so I let it go and away we went. After school we swung by the house to grab snacks and our boards. It was cold and drizzling, but that wasn't going to stop us from at least trying to get out and rip up some concrete, even if we only stayed out about an hour. Back at the house again, I saw that the upstairs was all cleaned up, the bathroom spotless and my bed stripped and remade. I shot Mrs. Sinclair a quick thank you while we started making dinner. I even managed to tease Boots about us making a "cute little domestic couple". He blushed a bit and grinned, but didn't knock it. We were just cleaning up our dishes and discussing a possible game of Hammer & Hoards when my phone sounded with a text. Checking it out, I saw it was from Montgomery's number. M -- Did something happen last night? Mr. Tsui says he felt something.-- Hmm. I took a minute to figure out how to answer that. Finally I sent my reply. J -- Bit of an accident. Someone else took care of me though.-- I thought about being snarky, but decided one, it wasn't worth it, and two, I really didn't want either one of them too far up in my business. M -- As long as you're okay. I was asked to check on you.-- J -- Surprised it took a whole day. What did Dom lose some power to me or something?-- So I couldn't help myself after all. So sue me! M -- Nothing that was a problem. And if you were in real danger, he would have known.-- J --Would have known just about danger? Or just known if I was injured bad enough.-- M -- He's not psychic! Well, not in the way you are implying. Lol-- Oh, so he's got jokes, huh? And I still loved how nobody wanted to give any real answers still. J -- Im fine all the bloods been cleaned up. I even dressed myself and tied my own shoes today!!!-- I was shocked and surprised when I didn't get a response back. Not. The evening went as well as can be expected, as did school on Friday. Then I had the whole crew over Friday night. We were going to go skating that afternoon, but it was seriously overcast and we started getting some freezing rain by sunset. Liam was quiet, and part of me was worried that he might be slipping loose of the mesmir again. As much as I wanted to see him and everyone else free of it, I had also seen that he was prone to get moody and loud if that happened. At one point I was able to mention my concerns to Boots, and he promised to keep an eye on Liam when he could. I got talked into everyone staying over Saturday night as well, and without me realizing it, Wheeler and Liam both ended up using the master bedroom shower instead of upstairs. It kind of pissed me off, because even though she was gone, in my mind that was "Mom's room". But I reasoned that they didn't really know and in the end, it wasn't like any of her stuff was still left in there. We were all sitting around eating pizzas and playing some video games, when I suddenly realized Boots wasn't there anymore. Taki laughed that he was surprised it had taken me so long to notice, but he had slipped out when the delivery guy showed up, saying he needed to do something at home. I assumed he meant his parents' house, and was just surprised and a bit disappointed he hadn't said anything to me. I mean it's not like I own him or anything, but I thought we were closer than that. Especially with everything going on lately. Trying to let it go, I relaxed and goofed off with the guys. It was really cool that I was able to hook everyone up, provide tons of snacks and offer a stress free place to hang out that wasn't lame. Even better, the crew didn't fawn over me, trying to thank me all the time or act like they owed me. They were cool, said "de nada", and let it go. Nobody made out like I was buying my way in or anything. We started a fighting game tournament, while the guys not playing that round hopped around between the second TV and the pool table. I mean for real, how sweet was all this? Wheeler got into a big debate with Scott about who were some of the hottest girls in our school. Apparently they varied widely on what they each considered "hot". Taki quickly joined in, even as he solidly trounced my character on the screen in front of us. "Nobody needs to ask my boy Liam here about his opinion," said Wheeler, laughing and throwing his arm over Liam's shoulder. "We all know he's all about the freak girl at the comic store!" Liam turned fifty shades of red as I looked over at him with my jaw on the floor. Surely they didn't mean-- "You mean the crazy white haired twin chicks?" asked Scott in confusion. If Liam was red before, his face was positively scarlet now. Wheeler doubled over in hard laughter, which set everyone else off to laughing. It took a few minutes, but finally Wheeler calmed down enough to wave Scott off. "No, no, man. One of 'em's a dude!" "Huh? The twin girls?" " Fo real, yeah. One of the white haired chicks is a dude." Wheeler looked over at me. "You've been hanging with 'em, Jase. Tell Scott here I ain't lying!" The whole room was looking at me now. It was quieter, but you could tell everyone was still on the edge of laughter. I didn't know how to take things yet, so I just nodded without saying anything. "Let me guess," joked Scott. "Did you find out the hard way?" Now it was my turn to blush a bit, my body instantly remembering Wren and his magical touch. But I was also getting a bit defensive. We hadn't really touched on sexuality and opinions as a group that much. Taki looked over at me, not pissed, but not really laughing anymore. "By that reaction, I'd almost think you've been stepping out on our boy Boots." "Say it ain't so," exclaimed Liam. "You're the best thing that's happened to Boots in forever! Are you cheating on him with the twin?" "Guys, guys!" I threw my hands up in surrender, tossing down the controller. "First, it's none of your fucking business who I'm with or not with." I was trying to keep it light and not get pissed. Still, I was surprised things were that open. "If you really must know, not," I threw a smile and some southern charm into my words, "that it's any of your -fucking- business, but even though I am not exclusively dating -anyone-, not naming ANY names... I haven't been with anyone else since I've been with a certain someone else." I ended with a smirk, and after a beat of dead silence, everyone busted out laughing. "You dog!" yelled Taki. " So you really have hooked up with someone else besides Boots?" "For real, did you actually hook up with Wren?" asked Liam. Then a bit softer, "Or Erin?"I got up off the couch, saying, "A gentleman doesn't kiss and tell." Halfway across to the pool table, I added, "And neither do I!" Which got another laugh. Then I put my hand on Liam's shoulder, leaned in, and whispered, "I'm just friends with Erin. I'm no rival there." I felt his shoulder relax a bit, and he was smiling when I pulled back. The conversation moved back to lighter topics, but I also noticed that the time was slipping away and it was getting later. I kind of looked around at everyone else. "Guys, did Boots really not say anything else about why he was going out?" Everyone kind looked around at everyone else, shaking their heads. "You guys know his address?" Taki gave it to me, saying, "Is there something we should know?" "No, I don't think something's necessarily wrong," I said. "Still..." They all laughed as I started up the stairs, shouting out catcalls and whistles as they laughed me good-naturedly out of the basement. I threw on my heavy coat as I stepped out of the house, throwing up my hoodie and dreading the freezing drizzle outside. Did I really think something was wrong? Not necessarily. If I had, I wouldn't have been downstairs playing games and eating pizza, discussing chicks, and dudes, for the last two hours since Boots had left. Still, it seemed out of character for the Boots I had come to know, for him to not have said something if he needed to go over to his parents' place. Maybe something was going on with them that he didn't want me to know about. Maybe he thought I would think less of him. I remember how messed up my head would get when keeping shit about my parents from Alen back home. But on the flip side, I really was worried that something from my problems might have happened to him. And that was something I couldn't live with. Fuck, it was cold. It wasn't raining exactly, more of a mist at the moment. But the wind was swirling it around, making it impossible to keep out of my face, and making it feel ten times colder. My eyes were stinging and I was looking down at my feet as I trudged along down the street. My GPS said it was a little over twenty minutes to walk there. I thought about pulling out the super speed, but I'd never done it in the rain, and my luck I'd slip in a puddle and get 80 yards of road rash to the face sliding to a stop. So instead I walked. I was a bit over halfway there when I got a text. I pulled out my phone, and saw it was from a number I didn't recognize. --Where are you? You need to circle the wagons.-- What the hell? I guess that meant trouble, but they didn't identify themselves. Was it Garrett or Bai? Someone else? I guess it should have been obvious they were trying to stay secret, since they were texting from an unknown number. Then I remembered Wren saying his number was one digit off from Montgomery's. Maybe a bunch of Vampyre had a big group of numbers, like maybe the Si Jing Fu had a business account or something. But I checked and no, this number wasn't even close. I kept going, but when I turned onto the street Boots' house was on, I saw someone just standing in the middle of the street. They were tall, and wearing a long, knee length coat. It made sense, considering the cold and rain, but the way they were just standing there in the street. It was like they weren't at all worried about cars, although that was fair, considering how dead this street was. In fact, considering how inactive this whole town was, it seemed almost reasonable. The funny part was, they weren't watching any of the houses. No, they were watching me turn the corner. It seemed pretty obvious they were waiting for me. Did this mean they had done something to Boots? I wanted to run, to save myself, to avoid whatever Vampyre bullshit this was going to add to my night. But I could just walk away, unless I knew what was on the line. I needed to know that Boots was okay. That he wasn't involved. That he didn't need my help. As I approached, they raised their hand in greeting, and I recognized that it was Montgomery. I would have waved back, but I didn't want to pull my hand out of my pocket. I kind of half waved my pocket at waist level as a compromise. "It's good to see you are okay," he said as I approached within earshot. "Why wouldn't I be? What are you doing here?" I tried to keep my tone from being accusatory, and instead went for curious. "Dominic sent me to find you. He didn't say why. I didn't ask." His voice was pleasant enough, but I could also see he was being snide and condescending. I couldn't tell if it was him being annoyed at being sent on an errand on a miserable night like this, or if it was something more personal with me. "Why are you looking for me here though? Seems out of both of our ways." He smiled. It was almost like he thought I was being a moron, and missing something obvious. "Just following the GPS on your phone, and saw you had a friend in this direction. I took a chance, and guessed right." He looked around now, as if he had heard something. "Now come on. We need to go." "Sure thing. I just need to check on my friend first." "There's no time. Dominic wants you back before --" He stopped short, his eyes narrowing as he looked at something behind me. I had already half turned when I realized I had fallen for the oldest trick in the book. I stopped my momentum of turning, whipping back around. In my mind's eye, I already saw Montgomery rushing me, but in reality, he wasn't moving, still standing still. His gaze held something that was a cross between annoyance and dislike, but was directed past me, not at me. More cautiously I turned then, seeing that someone was approaching up the street toward us. I may not have recognized the designer trenchcoat, but I sure knew the long, white hair being thrown about in the wind. Wren. It may have been Erin, sure, but my money was on Wren. I'm sure if I could have seen a mirror at that moment, my face would have looked remarkably similar to Montgomery's. This was probably the last thing I needed tonight. I had enough on my plate, and did not need a fight with Wren to top off my evening. It occurred to me that I really didn't want my back to either of these guys right now. I didn't think Wren would physically attack me, but I wasn't taking any chances. I started backing toward the sidewalk, trying to get to a point where I could see both of them in my periphery. "Jason," called out Wren. And the way he said my name, I knew it was him and not his sister. "You need to come with me. Please." There was caution in his voice, but also fear. He was speaking like you'd talk to a person standing on the side of a bridge, or that was holding a knife at you. "Fuck you, pretty boy. Dominic wants him at the hotel. Jason, we need to go. Now." "Jason, please. I'm sorry and we can talk about everything. I'll try to explain and you can rant at me all you want. But please, I really need you to come with me." "Jason, we both have orders. Hotel. Now." Damn. Love-hate, or hate-hate? I was tempted to turn my back and go with Montgomery just to spite this arrogant, childish fucking bitch. Wren had hurt me, had thrown me off. Hell, he'd called me an enemy for even being friends with Boots. But then looking at Montgomery, I was filled with a sense of self righteous anger. I was not Dom's lapdog, to come running on command."Fuck you both," I yelled, whipping my hands out of my coat and giving them both the Middle finger. "I'm going to in there to check on my friend, then I'm going home." "There's no time," growled Montgomery. "We are leaving, now." "You keep fucking saying that, Monty, yet we clearly aren't. Now leave me alone so I can go see my friend." "He's not in there," said Wren from behind me. I jumped. I'd turned my back when I ranted at Montgomery, and he'd clearly taken the opportunity to move up on me. I was no good at this. If either of these guys were here with a weapon to hurt me, they could have. I spun around to face him, but realized that was just as stupid, so I stepped back and to the side of Wren, putting them both back in front of me. "What do you mean, he's not in there," I said angrily at Wren. "I'm sorry, but something has happened. Come with me and I'll explain." "If something big has happened, maybe I should check in with Dom anyway, just in case." I started to pull out my phone. "Garrett talked to me," Wren said quietly. "Don't go with Montgomery. You'll never make it to the hotel." I have no idea how much Montgomery heard of that sentence, but probably all of it, considering the super hearing most Vampyre seemed to have, but especially Vampires. Regardless, he burst into movement, whipping his coat open and reaching for something inside. Then my head exploded with noise. I dropped to the ground, my ears thundering, as Montgomery jerked backward and to the side. Blood tore from his torso as he spun around. He dropped to a knee, then with a leap, he vanished in a burst of speed. From my back I looked up to see Wren standing over me, a real-as-fuck pistol in his hand. I wanted to imagine smoke coming off the barrel in the cold, but I was pretty sure in was just the drizzling rain. I could see Wren's mouth moving, but I couldn't make it what he was saying over the ringing in my ears. He must have fired that damn gun right by my head! Finally he shook his head, putting the gun away inside his long coat. Then he reach his hand down, offering to help me up. I looked at his hand, then back up at his face. I didn't know what to make of him right now, and I didn't want to take his hand. It wasn't that I didn't trust him, although honestly I didn't. It was more like, I didn't trust myself with him. Cautiously I scrambled back and pulled myself to my feet. I felt a touch lightheaded, but my ears were quickly clearing. Natural, or super healing I didn't know. I've never had a gun shot right by my ear, to know how long it should take for your hearing to return. Once I was back on my feet, Wren gave me a sad smile, dropping his offered hand. "I was an ass. I get that. But I'll try and make it up after we save your life. Deal?"