White Lies

By: Ariadne

-W..M..W..M..W..M..W..M..W-

Title: Eggplant Arsenic

Chapter Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: Plot mine. Characters are Ms. Collins's. Don't sue me.

Summary: He never knew what he was getting into. He never expected that such a small thing could affect his life so drastically.

Author's Notes: Rated for (homo)sexual reference, language, vegetarian rants and eggplant burgers. Oh yeah, I'm still going for it. Check this shit out. Things get pretty good in this chapter, I think.

Beta: none.

-W..M..W..M..W..M..W..M..W—

Ares was coming back from setting up his P.O. box with the…person at the front desk when Bane got back from school. He was obviously furious, pushing Ares out of the way as he went to go into the elevator. He stood there fuming as Ares stumbled in, glaring at the pale boy. Bane began kicking the wall of the elevator as it dinged its way up the floors. Each kick dented it slightly and made the whole elevator groan, and Ares would flinch every time this happened. When he looked over at the wall he noticed it was completely dented in a two by two foot area, some of them small little nicks, others far larger and many looking quite old. His eyes followed up the wall and saw, at perfect fist level for the tall teenage boy, another collection of dents, even a few larger ones about the height of his forehead. Ares shivered slightly at the obvious display of violence and the perfectly mapped history of previous losses of control. Cute or not, he was starting to reconsider the truth of the serial killer comment from the night before.

The doors chimed open at the floor and Ares quickly exited before Bane decided to utilize the potential punching bag. He flinched as he heard one final blow, from a fist most likely, that Bane landed on the wall before following. Seeing his new acquaintance up in front of him he bounded toward the dark young man.

'Oh god, here it comes,' Ares braced himself and was stunned when he felt the shockingly gentle touch on his shoulder. When he turned he was greeted by a completely different person from the one in the elevator, and even the shy awkward person who had spoken with him last night.

"Ares," he greeted simply, a smile on his face. He seemed far brighter than Ares had ever seen him, practically bouncing on the balls of his feet. A black eyebrow arched slightly as he turned around.

"The hell was that about?" Ares demanded, gesturing toward the elevator. Bane looked confused for a little while then the lightbulb clicked on and his face darkened.

"That was about complete bullshit," he responded. Then his mood lightened again, voice bordering on cheery. "My old counselor, the only one I really liked, gave me that idea. Instead of taking things out on people around me, I associate release of anger with one space. Elevator's not gonna get a hole in it like my wall will, and it's such a short ride I don't have time to do anything too crazy. Makes me feel hella better."

He grinned at Ares, happy to tell someone something of his own volition instead of being forced to do so like normal. Ares shook his head in disbelief at the snap of the fingers change the boy was going through. "Your favorite, huh? How many have you been to see?"

He was joking, but Bane completely shut off. Blank slate, completely emotionless, and actually turned away and began to walk off, shoulders hunched like he was carrying a weight from those simple words. Ares realized his mistake within seconds.

"Wait!" he tried to grab the pale boy's wrist or arm, but only managed to tug on the sleeve of his t-shirt. Bane turned, looking irritated, obviously just wanting to leave now. "Wanna come by my apartment and hang out?"

There's the bright look again.

-W..M..W-

"Got any food? I'm starving," Bane lolled on the mattress that was the only real place to sit in the entire apartment. Knowing this, Ares controlled his automatic gross out response at the thought of someone else in his bed.

"You're lucky I've got leftovers from last night," Ares responded with an eyeroll as he put the food in the microwave. "So why're you here so early, don't you have school?"

Bane made a disdainful noise, "Yeah, I did. Left early. There's no point to that place. I stayed long enough to be counted as present, so it doesn't come close to mattering. And don't roll your eyes at me."

"Geez, with an attitude like that are you even on track to graduate?" Ares asked, walking over with the plate of food and a bag of chips for himself.

"You on track to butting out of my personal life?" Bane huffed, and rolled over to face the wall, arms crossed.

Ares scowled, and sat down, "Alright, look, if you don't want to talk about something just say so, stop being a drama queen. Now here's your stupid food."

Immediately, Bane turned back around, sitting cross legged and snatching the plate from his friend. "Mmm, burger," he purred, letting out a sigh of satisfaction that was almost sexual in nature.

Ares rolled his eyes and opened his bag of chips, "Cheeto?" He offered the crunchy orange thing to Bane. He was surprised to see the pale teen balk at the proffered morsel.

"No thanks, man. Seriously. I don't eat anything that's orange."

Ares stared in disbelief, "What?"

"Food isn't supposed to be orange, it's a gross color and it makes gross food. I'm not touching that shit," Bane turned away signifying the end of the conversation, and focused his attention to the food on the plate before him. Salivating, and near starving, he took an enormous bite of the burger. Then gagged violently, spat it out on his plate, threw said plate onto the floor, then stood and pointed accusingly at Ares.

"You're trying to kill me!"

"What the hell, Bane?"

"I should be asking you the same question, what's the big deal trying to poison me? What the hell was in that burger?" He pointed with two fingers now, feeling that one finger just didn't convey the intensity he felt.

"It was just a grilled eggplant burger you crazy bastard."

Bane backed down ever so slightly, letting one of his hands drop to his side, but keeping the other finger pointed at Ares just in case. "Are you sure there's no arsenic in it?"

Ares scowled, "No, there's no arsenic. No poison. Just eggplant, tomato, cheese, lettuce. Tastes just like a real burger."

"LIES!" Bane screamed, and the other arm came right back up, both fingers pointed right in his face, "Nasty veggies do not taste like meat. Why the hell would you have eggplant in a burger instead of cow. Cow, Ares. Delicious, dead cow."

Ares gagged slightly, "God, why do you have to say it like that? It sounds so gross. I'm a vegetarian, chill the hell out."

The pale boy grabbed the other by the shoulders and shook him violently, "Blasphemy! Heresy! Madness! I will drive the demon out of you! Purify the lips through which no meat has passed! You must know the truth. Truth I say!"

"Ah, let me go!" Ares pulled away, shocked by the display, however humorous. But Bane wasn't going to let go, and the harder Ares jerked away, the more the other boy would shake him. Ares won the tug of war, but instead of letting his hands fall, Bane kept tight hold of the dark young man. So Ares fell backward onto the mattress, and Bane fell on top of him in a tangle of limbs, the eggplant sandwich lay forgotten. Bright crimson spread from the back of his neck all the way to the roots of his hair, the position the two were in clearly making him uncomfortable in an oddly comfortable way. "C'mon, man, get off."

Bane didn't even seem to notice, instead he leaned back, still straddling the other, and laughed triumphantly, fists raised into the air. "I have won! Eat meat!"

"Shut the hell up, I don't want to eat meat, that's why I don't!" Ares continued to struggle, but the pale boy was stronger than him as well as larger. The fact that Ares was uncomfortable didn't even register on his radar. He shifted into a more comfortable position, knees on either side of Ares's stomach, sitting between his legs, and he appeared to be settling in for a long stay.

"So, why're you a veggie face?" He poked his friend on the forehead.

"A what? Look, I don't really love the taste, and I hate the meat industry because it's abusive, what does it matter?"

"Aw, don't get offended, Ares," Bane purred softly, ruffling the soft black hair like one would do to a child. "But don't you know that the more an animal suffers, the better it tastes?"

Ares gagged again, "Why do you keep doing that?"

"I will get you to eat meat, mark my words," he declared ignoring the question directed toward him.

"You're barking up the wrong tree," Ares informed him coolly. The white haired teen shifted again, trying to stay comfortable despite the studded leather belt that was digging into his leg and how bony his new chair was. Ares, who had almost gotten to the point of ignoring the boy straddling him in favor of righteous indignation, turned bright red again. The shifting and squirming having reawakened that uncomfortably warm sensation from before.

"That's it!" He announced grabbing Bane by the shoulders and tossing him to the side off the bed. He sat up quickly in case Bane had any thoughts about pouncing on him again. If there was any chance of keeping this relationship innocent that squirmy lap thing couldn't happen anymore. To distract Bane from noticing just how red and out of breath he was, Ares began tossing Cheetos at him. Bane squealed as one hit him in the head, backpedaling quickly to get away from it, finally standing up and running away from the vengeful Ares who was intent on pelting him the in back of the head with the hated orange food.

Finally, tired and out of Cheetos, Ares sank to the ground. Bane turned around and gave him a quizzical look. "Awww," he whined, flicking his mussed hair out of his face. "No more playing?" He cocked his head to the side with a slight pout, and looked so much like a disappointed puppy that Ares couldn't help but laugh. And after he started he couldn't stop, slowly Bane started laughing to, and they both ended up in a puddle on the floor.

Bane pushed himself up on one arm with a contented sigh, then turned to his friend. His sharp eyes caught the distinct square package in Ares's back pocket and instantly his hand shot toward it. Ares gasped and flushed for the third time that day as he felt a large warm hand fishing around in his back pocket. As he turned to scold the perpetrator he saw Bane shove one of the cigarettes in his mouth, holding it tight in his lips in case Ares decided he wanted it back.

"You thieving bastard!" Ares exclaimed, snatching his half full pack from the boy's hands. He was going to take the one in his mouth too for good measure, but wasn't certain the reaction he would get. After his dietary preferences got him an indignant half a lap dance, Ares didn't want to risk the reclamation of a cigarette.

"What?" Bane said innocently, slightly distorted by how tightly he was holding the cigarette.

"Are you even old enough to smoke?" The dark haired man questioned skeptically. He was met by earnest red eyes and rapid nods. He laughed a little and stood up, offering his hand to Bane. "You could've just asked if that was the case."

Bane grabbed the proffered hand, resisting the temptation to just drag Ares down onto the floor next to him, and stood. A sudden thought hit him and he began to tug Ares toward the door saying, "C'mon, I can get us up onto the roof, let's go!"

Ares looked nonplussed, but shrugged and followed behind the boy as he strode excitedly down the hall. He bounced in the elevator as it took them to the top floor and nearly bolted to the maintenance crew only door hidden at the far end of the hall in an alcove. As he jerked at the handle to the ceiling hatch, Ares grew more nervous. "We're definitely not supposed to be here."

"Where's your sense of adventure? Does not eating meat strip you of that?" His red eyes rolled, and with a final push he opened the hatch and clambered up the ladder. Looking down at Ares through the hole in the ceiling he added with an arrogant grin, "It's not like they can stop me."

-W..M..W-

"I love vegetarian smokers," Bane observed with a smirk, taking a drag of his stolen cigarette.

"You what?" He was certain that he had misheard, or just not understood what Bane was trying to say. After the events of today things were all just muddled up in his head. The knowledge that Bane was eighteen had been a relief, but also a curse, because now he kept having 'what-ifs' wander annoyingly through his head.

"It's just so deliciously hypocritical," he flicked the butt off the edge of the building that his legs dangled from and looked back at Ares who was reclining safely a few feet behind him. "You don't eat meat because of the horrible things they do to animals, and the environmental consequences. And yet, you never stop to consider all the people dying of cancer from second hand smoking, or how you're fouling up the air with the smoke. Trees have to breathe this air, Ares, you dick."

Ares was surprised by this tirade, and was too stunned to be upset that he was being called a hypocrite. He was hard pressed to find an argument to counter Bane's. "There aren't any trees around here," he pointed out, grinding the remnants of his cigarette on the roof top. "So I'm not hurting anything, except you, and you're killing yourself without much difficulty."

"Well put," Bane acknowledged. He stretched his arms up, then lay back on the roof, hands beneath his head. "D'you eat fish?"

"No," Ares replied. The constant questions about his dietary habits and morals were starting to wear on his nerves.

"Good. Screw those people. Oh, I'm a vegetarian, but fish don't count as animals because they aren't cute and fuzzy. Racists," he spat. He flipped his shaggy white hair in front of his face and let out a contented sigh as he reveled in the warmth of the sun.

Ares rolled his eyes, "I hardly think that counts as racism." There was silence from behind him where his companion lay, and he assumed that he was being ignored. Then he felt a plucking at the back of his shirt, finally, tired of waiting for Ares to get the hint, Bane grabbed him by the waist and pulled him back onto the rooftop. His dark hair mingled with the white strands of the boy behind him. Bane's eyes were still closed; the only acknowledgment of the other's presence beside him was a brief pat on the head before he brought his hand back to join his other. Ares took this chance to get a closer look at the boy now that he wasn't being terrorized by him or arguing with him.

The rays of sun gave Bane's pallid skin and white hair a kind of glow, making him look almost like a normal person. Looking closely Ares saw that even his long eyelashes were stark white. His lips, the only color on his pale face, were curved gently into a smile of pure contentment. He looked like he was a cat who had found the perfect patch of sunshine. Ares had the urge to run his fingers through the shining white hair to see if petting would result in a purr.

Instead, he sat upright so quickly he thought he might have given himself whiplash. No, bad, Ares. He scolded himself mentally. The last thing he needed to do was freak out the only somewhat normal person he had met in this building. It was far better to have Bane's friendship than to risk it all on some ridiculous crush that would probably pass in a week or so. I'm just lonely, so I'm latching on to the closest person, that's all.

He heard a quiet yawn behind him, and Bane sat up next to him, rubbing his eyes. "Why'd you get up?"

"It was uncomfortable to lay on the roof," Ares answered glibly, glancing out at the buildings instead of back at Bane. He was paranoid that if he looked him in the eye he would know exactly what thoughts had been drifting through his head.

Bane ran a hand through his permanently mussed hair, as though he could tame it. "So, Ares," he began, dragging the dark haired man from his musings and worries. "What's your story?"

"My, what?"

"Your story. Why are you here? I've met enough people in this apartment to know that they all come here for a reason, and normally it's a damn good story." He reached out and grabbed Ares's shoulders, forcing him to look him in the eye. "Entertain me."

"You're more demanding than a three year old, you know," Ares observed, then shrugged. "There isn't much to tell, honestly. My parents kicked me out of the house when I was sixteen. For a couple years I lived with my best friend and tried to attend college. Eventually I left Henry's house after we had a falling out. I had an associate's degree under my belt, then, and I couch surfed for a while. I had an apartment for a while, but I got fired from both my jobs in and lived on the streets for a bit. My friend Nike eventually took me in and I stayed with her for a while, working odd jobs and saving for my own apartment. Then, magically, I landed a job after ages of searching. It's at this record label pretty close to this apartment. They're going to pay for me to finish my degree in music management if I stay with them long enough. I sold everything so I could live here and be close to the building, and get away from Nike's crazy mom. I start work Monday."

"Uh huh," Bane didn't look very impressed. "Got any vices, besides the smoking? Drink to blackout? Drugs? Sex addiction?" His eyes glimmered at this suggestion, like it was something exciting.

Ares blushed, something he swore he wouldn't do in front of Bane again. "No, none of those."

"Go to parties? You said you'd been to college, did you go wild?"

This time Ares just rolled his eyes. "No. Parties really aren't my thing." Anymore, he added silently. He didn't really enjoy parties, but they were excellent places to meet people. For a night at least.

"Liar," The white haired boy muttered, before continuing his cross examination. "Girlfriend?"

"What?" Ares choked out, bright red once more.

"Do you have one? A girlfriend."

"No, I don't have a partner," he replied, which was his stock answer for these kinds of questions. Saying he didn't have a girlfriend made it sound like he was only interested in girls, and if saying he didn't have a partner made it sound like he was gay, then so be it. What he was more concerned about was not jumping to conclusions. Asking if he had a girlfriend was probably just part of Bane's apparently boundless curiosity. He was struggling to keep his facial expression in control when he was thinking of all the other things he wanted to say. No, I don't have a girlfriend, but I'd like to get to know you. Like to mess up that hair, and pull that shirt off and lay you out on the roof and-Bad, Ares. Stop.

"Gawd," Bane huffed. "You're so boring."

Ares scowled at him, "I'm sorry I'm not entertaining enough for you. But I'm just normal."

"You should be sorry, but there's no way you're normal," He said, like he was passing judgment. "No one that lives here is normal. Either you didn't tell me the whole story, which I'm sure you didn't, or something will happen to you here. I'll guarantee it."

"Whatever you say," Ares replied, flipping his dark hair in front of his eyes. He was getting pretty desperate to get a break from this constant turmoil, but at the same time, he didn't want to leave. "So, what about your story?"

"Oh no," Bane said with a smirk. In a fluid motion he stood up, looking down at Ares with a smug expression on his face. "You're not getting my life story just like that. I'm not easy like you."

With that double entendre he left Ares on the roof, stunned, and strangely looking forward to their next meeting.