Sequel

This started off giggle-worthy, then got creepy. I've never had a character who has self-mutilated before and it makes me want to give him a hug and a lollipop and maybe a teddy bear.

Rel and Muan are both of dominant personalities. Rel can and does dominate Muan whereever he wants, but when Muan gets to the point where he's acting out and Rel has been pushed to the point of acting out... well.

The thing to note here is that if Muan was really pissed at Rel, he would have snapped at him, like a dog does when poked too often. The growl was more of a warning off. Muan didn't want to hurt Rel, but would have if Rel had tried to physically manhandle him.

Reading the last chapter of Partners and THEN this makes the first bit adorable and giggle-worthy. Otherwise, it's more of just odd. So I suggest that those of you who read both, read the last chapter of Partners and THEN this.

Read, Review and Enjoy.






“Oh, Muan, don’t do that…” Rel grimaced as Muan filled his mouth full of white glue, “that’s not edible.”

Muan said something around the white glue, making it dribble out of his mouth. The Sidhe jabbed at the bottle’s label before making an obvious effort to chew and then swallow the liquid glue. Muan’s long tongue came out of his mouth and lapped up the white glue that had dribbled out of his mouth.

Rel snatched the bottle from Muan. The label stated that it was non-toxic.

“Just because it says non-toxic doesn’t mean you can eat it! It means that if you happen to be stupid enough to eat it, you won’t die of stupid.”

“Day oo sshtupee?”

“Die of stupid.”

Muan swallowed several times and tried again, “die ohhhf stupid.”

“Yes, as in you. Are. The stupidest person I know. And, I’ve met Mik,” Rel growled, closing the white glue bottle and dropping it into the craft box, “white glue is not edible.”

Muan plucked up the glue stick, opened it and turned the dial on the bottom. Rel groaned as Muan bit the end off of the stick and began chewing heartily. The Sidhe allowed Rel to snap the glue stick from Muan’s hand, recap it and drop it back into the craft box. Rel jabbed a finger at Muan, annoyed.

“Stop that. Stop that right now.”

Since their ‘parents’ announced that they would be leaving that night, right before bed, Muan had been eating everything in sight. Crayons, plants, teabags, papers, a bottle of glitter.

“Should let him eat what he wants, usually for the best,” Violet murmured calmly to Rel.

“But he ate glitter, glitter may be non-toxic, but,” Rel turned and growled at Muan, “it is not good for you. Besides making your poop sparkle, it could tear up your insides, glitter has very sharp edges, you know.”

“But Muan is a bit… not like us,” Ashun murmured, “Paw has recalled us to speak in private about him. Perhaps he needs,” the young woman grimaced, “to eat glitter and glue to fulfill his dietary requirements.”

Muan flopped down by the box and began chewing on the cardboard. Rel folded his arms and looked down on the Sidhe, absolutely annoyed with the stupidity of Muan.

“Maybe he’s acting out because his parents are leaving.”

“Or.” Ashun folded her hands in front of her, “maybe he’s acting out because you need something to be angry about. When Tuhn get’s upset but doesn’t want to snap at me, I poke her until she yells at me. We can react to you like you react to us. You know, that whole. Bit. Thing.”

“Bit thing?” Rel snarled at her.

“Like. Where… how do I explain this delicately? Is that even possible?” Ashun muttered to herself, looking down for a moment, “we know what you want and what you feel. But most people have sticks up their asses and won’t react to what they want, because your society states that you have to hide what you want and so we,” Ashun motioned to herself, then to Rel, “react in such a way to get those emotions out of your system. Most of the partners are happier for it.”

“Well I don’t want anyone meddling in my life, so stop it, Muan, stop it right now,” Rel snapped at Muan, stomping his foot even to try and get his point across.

Muan growled at him. Not the growl that Sidhe use when they get exasperated, but the growl of an angry dog. At the end of the growl, there was a clicking sound. Muan’s mouth hung open, lips drawn back from the teeth and eyes on Rel’s legs.

“Okay,” Ashun murmured very quietly, “you just crossed a line, apologise. Apologise now,” the last bit was hissed out through clenched teeth.

“No.” Rel folded his arms and glared down at Muan, “that is no way to treat someone you are trying to court. You act crazy and then growl when I tell you to stop, how does that make sense? No amount of sense, that’s how much. And. And I’m the one who has to apologise? No. How often do I put up with your crazy? How often?”

Muan growled again.

“Oh gods,” Ashun put her face in her hands, “you’re both alphas, aren’t you?”

Osht said something in Sidhe. Ashun snorted at him, “Muan was only beta before because there was someone stronger than him to be alpha. Now he’s all alpha bitch and this one’s all alpha bitch and both of you are going to end up either hurting each other or fucking each other and I will beat you both black and blue if either of you hurts the other one or if you fuck each other because that is not how courting works. He’s not even paying attention to me.”

“I am.”

“Not you, stupid, the two hundred pounds of lethal muscle you pissed off,” Ashun jabbed a finger at Muan.

Rel threw his hands up in the air, giving up, and turned, storming off to the bathroom. He locked himself in the bathroom and sat on the lip of the bathtub.

There was silence through the apartment. And there he was. In the bathroom.

Again.

Rel let out his breath, fighting off the flow of emotions. There was little to nothing that he could do that would ever change the fact that he was always the one who threw a fit and locked himself in the bathroom. He lowered his head into his hands and clenched his jaw. Sitting like that until everything hurt, Rel stood and then began pacing the bathroom.

Little to nothing. Little to nothing. He was just worthless. Useless.

He stopped at the sink, clenching the sides as he bent his head towards the ceramic. His stomach was doing loops and knots and going absolutely mad. Head buzzing in agony. He couldn’t tell if he wanted to puke or pass out. His legs felt weak.

Rel opened the medicine cabinet, flicking the mirror towards the door. He took the razor out of there, the razor they seemed to have forgotten to take away before letting Rel into the apartment. A few deft flicks and he had it broken apart, blade in hand. He dropped the bits into the garbage and glanced into the medicine cabinet. There was a sort of crack down the side of the cabinet where he could hide the blade when he was done.

Though it was highly likely that they would search the bathroom for it later.

It was the only way he knew how to deal with those emotion.

He swallowed and then drew the blade over his forearm. The pressure and then the glorious pain. Rel closed his eyes and wallowed in it. He let the blood flow freely from his arm while he turned on the water with his other hand. Rinsed off the blade, dried it on his pants and then shoved it into the crack in such a way that it wasn’t really noticeable but was still accessible.

The stress bled out of him, turning the sink bottom a bright red colour with a puddle of it. Rel let it bleed a moment longer than was really necessary before he grabbed a bunch of toilet paper and dabbed at it. Slowly the bleeding came to a stop.

Just as it did, there came a knock on the door.

“Rel, are you all right?” Ashun called through the wood.

Rel swallowed, rolled down his sleeve and dropped the bloody paper into the toilet, “fine. Just… give me a minute.”

He sounded hollow. But that was better than overflowing with emotion. Rel flushed the toilet, closed the medicine cabinet and washed his hands. When he snapped open the bathroom door, Ashun looked spooked. She had a deer in the headlights look on her face, hand raised to knock again.

“I’m fine,” he said sternly to her.

“I can see that.” Ashun squeaked back at him, stepping out of his way.

The Sidhe, all of them, watched Rel cross the apartment. Watched him crawl into his bed and roll towards the wall, ignoring them all.

They wouldn’t understand.


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