A/N: This story is now rated M! Trigger warning: rape scene ahead. I originally planned to finnish up in one last chapter, but I got this far, realized I was probably only about halfway done, and decided to cut it off here. Next chapter will be the last.

Oh man, that was so hard to write. Next chapter will be full of much more happy stuff, I promise!

Chapter 4

The funeral was a minimal affair. Todd felt horrible that he couldn't provide enough funds for more than the bare minimum of a service, and he had practically starved himself for a week to save up more money. Now he watched silently from his father's side as the plain casket was lowered into the ground. So few people came. It was basically him, his father, and a few relatives he never knew he had. Plus, he thought maybe a couple of the people there were just dropping by to see if there was any free food, especially that girl over there eating a sticker off a water bottle. As it was time to shovel the ceremonious first bits of dirt into the hole, a warm hand on his shoulder reminded Todd of Pepito's presence. The half-demon volunteered to come as emotional support, and so far was surprisingly providing it.

Todd stepped out from under the shade of the tree, squinting in the sunlight, and dumped his shovelful into the grave. Then he and everyone else turned away.

Pepito followed him silently for a few minutes before speaking, "I'm sorry."

"Not your fault."

"It's not your fault either Squee, you know she practically hated you right?"

He rounded on Pepito, "I know she didn't like me Pepito! She never wanted to have me in the first place! Neither of my parents wanted me! I was a curse to them! I ruined their lives just by being born! At least your parents wanted you." The last part was almost a whimper as his shoulders slumped and he brought his arms around himself in a sad attempt at self-comfort.

Todd was startled into letting out a short squee as he felt warmth envelope him. Pepito was hugging him close, Todd's arms trapped between their chests.

"I'm sorry amigo, I always say the wrong thing."

Todd was stunned. No one had ever hugged him besides Rosemary. Ever. He had no idea what to do, so just decided to stand there until it was over, though the gesture was pretty comforting, and Pepito's warmth was helping to stave off the chill of the cool wind.

"Usually when people are hugged, they hug back." The light smirk was back in Pepito's voice.

Slowly, Todd extricated his arms from between them, awkwardly shifting them around his friend's back. Then Pepito tightened his hold, pulling Todd up under his chin. For some reason the close contact brought up a great big bubble of pent up pain in him, and he found himself uncontrollably clutching at the back of Pepito's shirt, clinging to it desperately, pressing his face into the taller boy's shoulder. Though no tears or sobs came, he stood like that for a time, a small part of him amazed that Pepito was letting him do this for so long. Another tiny part of him in the back of his brain was reminding him of the looks the other teen had been giving him still when he thought he wasn't looking.

Slowly, he let go and pulled away, wiping at nonexistent tears awkwardly to give his hands something to do since he found himself wanting to go right back to clutching at his friend. Now he was confusing himself, he did only want to be friends with Pepito, right? He didn't want his soul to be taken or to be cursed forever, but increasingly he was getting this funny feeling in his stomach every time he was near Pepito, like he was nauseous, but different. Less bad somehow, and it wasn't quite like he was going to throw up, instead of chills it was always accompanied by a warm feeling. It was weird, but not too unpleasant. It kind of spooked him that his body seemed to have a mind of its own.

Strong fingers slipped into his own for the second time, bringing him out of his thoughts. Todd glanced up at Pepito as the son of Satan lead him out of the cemetery. The look on his face was again unreadable, but in a blank sort of way, as if he was trying to hide whatever he was thinking about. Todd didn't question him about it, just followed him to the dark red car waiting for their return from the parking lot.

Todd had hugged him! Really hugged him! Well, it was more like a strange clinging-in-desperation kind of hug, and Pepito himself initiated it, but Todd didn't run away and even allowed him to hold his hand after! Pepito felt like roaring his happiness to sky. Every bit closer he was allowed to get to the fearful teen was a small victory for his growing feelings. He felt that finally, maybe, Todd saw him as possibly being more than a friend. He wasn't sure how the other would respond to his uncontrollable impulse to hold him close, but the response was positive and it increased his hope that Todd could shed his fear.

Just as he was thinking of Todd, the skinny male in question walked by in the hallway on his way to class.

"Hey Squee." He flashed a friendly smile.

"Hello Pepi." Todd returned the smile.

Pepito grinned as he turned back to his locker. He really was turning into a love-sick fool wasn't he? In the past week since the funeral, Todd was recovering well and going on about his life much as he had before. Pepito did the best he could to be supportive without being overly obvious in his adoration of the smaller boy, refusing all party invitations on weeknights so Todd could stay over at his house and get plenty to eat since he knew the other was still paying off the funeral parlor and the cemetery. Of course, it was a selfish want too. He craved having Todd sleep next to him at night, even if they never touched. His steady breathing and that glimmer of a beautiful soul at rest was comforting to the boy who spent his whole life so far training to bring nothing but pain to humans.

The bell rang, and he slid quickly into class, claiming his seat next to Zita.

"Hey Pepi, so what are you planning to do for your birthday next week?" She smiled suggestively.

"Well, I have this big thing with my family on my actual birthday, so I was thinking on Saturday night this upcoming weekend I'd rent a hotel and invite practically everyone." He smirked.

She smiled gleefully, a smile that held just a hint of predatory instincts, which is what attracted Pepito to her in the first place. Though now he found it paled in comparison to that little pure smile of happiness Todd graced him with every once in a while.

"Are you inviting Squee too? I know he never goes to any of the other parties, but this is your birthday. And it would probably be good for him to go, everyone would probably think he was less of a weirdo, and he could loosen up a bit."

He almost laughed at that last remark. Todd would do anything but loosen up at a party. But then he thought about it, "Maybe. It probably would be good for him to get out more. I'll ask him."

"You sound like you'll give him a choice in the matter," She chuckled.

He glared, "I will. He is my friend you know."

Now she looked confused. "But, I thought you were after everyone's servitude, no matter how pathetic they are."

He twitched, hiding his flare of anger at her insult, smoothing it over with a fake evil smirk, "Oh, I'm just taking the long road with him. I'll get him to sign himself to me eventually."

Todd waited quietly until the rest of the students shoved their way out the door, pushing and bleating like sheep. There was no way he was going to risk getting trampled just to go to lunch a fraction of a second earlier than someone else. Besides, he was headed to the library again today anyway. It was too cold outside for his thin jacket.

As he stepped into the library he could hear Pepito and Zita chatting in the back. Shortly before he rounded the bookshelf to the corner their voices stopped. Then when he could see them he wished he didn't. Ugh, they were practically sucking each other's faces off. He coughed politely.

Pepito was the first to pull away from the embrace, though Zita stayed sitting on his lap. "Hey amigo."

"Hi Squee." Zita acknowledged his presence.

"Hi." He sat down in a chair at the table and pulled out another delightful sack lunch made by Rosemary, shuffling through it to pull out the sandwich. He started to sort through a pile of books while chewing.

"Squee, what do you think about coming to my birthday party on Saturday? You could take the night off of work."

Todd was a little bit confused, "What? Sex, drugs, and rock and roll?" He smiled a bit, realizing how silly that sounded only after it was out of his mouth.

Apparently the Anti-Christ thought it was funny too, because he burst into laughter loud enough to get a distant-sounding shush from the librarian. "Yes, and there'll be drinking too, but it really isn't that hard to avoid those things if you want. Well, you can't avoid the music that easily, but it will be fun."

"I don't know Pepi, parties really aren't my thing…"

Zita joined in, "Oh, come on Squee, how do you know if you've never tried it? Besides, if you show up there like everyone else people will think you're a little less weird."

He didn't miss the slightly annoyed look Pepito flashed her, through Zita obviously didn't see it.

"Well…"

"Please amigo? It is my birthday." Pepito smiled.

Dang that smile. Todd was finding it harder to resist the more he saw it. He sighed, "Ok."

Pepito's smile turned into a grin.

Then Dekker and the rest of the gang strolled in.

"Sorry we're so late, Lucian here thought you guys would be outside because it's sunny out." Dekker glared at the annoyed looking teen.

"It's where we always sit on sunny days!" Lucian retorted.

"Yeah, but it did, like, rain really hard yesterday, so everything is still like wet." Samantha supported.

After that, Todd tuned out the conversation. Thinking about having to go to Pepito's party filled him with dread. He didn't have to go to one to know he wouldn't like it. Just thinking about so many people he didn't really know crammed into a small space - with music blaring and everyone being drunk or high, or both, the smell – made him shrink into himself more. But there was no getting out of it now. If Todd was anything, he was true to his word. He made the promise, so he would have to face the unpleasantness.

Pepito was starting to think it might have been a bad idea to invite Todd to the party. The other teen was quieter than usual when Pepito had picked him up earlier to drive to the hotel. It still seemed ok as they entered the lobby of The Pickled Inn, as they were early to make sure the reservation still held and to check in with the person at the desk. Pepito made sure to add a bit more persuasion magic to get the staff to leave so it would be possible to openly serve drinks to minors. He had grinned at Todd as the boy watched the staff leave in a daze. The lobby was quiet for the next fifteen minutes it took for the first batch of people he invited to get there with the food, drinks, and music system, taking another half hour to set up. He watched Todd carefully the whole time, taking note of how the skinny teen slowly relaxed more with the very small crowd, though he continued to sit silently in a chair that had been pushed off to the side.

As the official start time for the party went by, more and more Hi Scoolers flowed into the room, filling it with noise. Pepito relished in all the fresh meat, instantly throwing himself fully into greeting everyone and setting up people with strong drinks. His father would be proud if he could get more than half the souls in the room tonight, and he felt completely up to the challenge. Out of the corner of his eyes he checked up on Todd every few minutes, each time his friend was still standing by one of the walls, refusing offered drinks and fidgeting awkwardly. Pepito decided he would let him get used to the atmosphere a bit more before trying to draw him in to any group conversations.

As the party grew more rowdy, which it did almost surprisingly quickly with this crowd, he was more and more preoccupied with chatting up his guests, Zita hanging off one arm. Then he looked around to glance again at Todd and was hit by a pang of worry. Zita was immediately forgotten as he wordlessly separated himself from her and pushed into the crowd, looking.

Where was he?

Todd watched the other guests starting to filter into the hotel lobby with trepidation. The set-up crew was mostly Pepito's core group of followers, but this incoming mass looked to be half the student body. He recognized some faces seen before in the hallways and classrooms, but it was still unnerving to be stuck in a building with them at night when he could see many of them were coming in already influenced by drugs or alcohol.

So he stuck to the wall, using it as a shield against his back. This way he could visually fend off the growing number of teens. Luckily most ignored him as if he was part of the hideous wallpaper.

One girl actually cam up to him, and he was confused until he noticed the almost empty cup in her hand and the weird stumble to her step.

"You're that guy that followz Pepito around, righ?" She slurred.

Now Todd recognized her as the girl who always ate nothing but Nutraflow for lunch. He had spent too many hours staring at the stuff in the refrigerated goods section of the 24.7. Nutraflow: for people who like their yoghurt a little more stringy. Yuck. Though he was aware that not eating the cafeteria food (or making it pass through your system too fast) probably made her a little bit less zombified. Then he came to the conclusion that she was probably never all that bright to begin with as she spoke again.

"Sho, you wanna dance or somethin'?" She moved her hips in what she probably thought was a provocative way, but just made her resemble one of those dashboard hula dolls.

"No thanks." He had to shout to be heard over the suddenly blaring music from the band Nine-Inch-Heels.

She shrugged sloppily and sauntered off.

The noise was starting to make his head hurt. Looking around, Todd spied a hallway over to the side leading to rooms with key cards hanging off the handles. It would probably be quieter in there. Slowly he made his way over to the hall, hugging the wall and dodging drunken teens. The hall itself wasn't completely empty. A couple stood kissing and groping each other in the far corner, oblivious to the world around them. A few of the rooms had no key card hanging off the handle, and Todd cringed away from the gross noises he could hear from within.

Finally he chose an unoccupied room about two thirds of the way down the corridor, sliding the key card through the reader and entering the room. He was right; it was much quieter in here, though the music from outside still blared loudly to his gently throbbing skull. Leaving the door unlocked, he wandered over to sit on the edge of the bed, hands nervously twitching. He wished he'd brought his notebook. Resolved to waiting out the party so he could probably escort a nearly passed-out Pepito home again, Todd sat and watched a doomed fly buzz frantically around the ceiling light.

Suddenly, the door was almost slammed open, making Todd jump in surprise and stare in a deer-in-the-headlights sort of way at the intruder.

It was Dekker, and Todd felt himself tense with fear at the other boy's body language. He was half tilted over, squinting through drug-clouded eyes.

"I though I sah ya go in huh." He broke into laughter that brought an unpleasant chill to Todd's spine.

"Thin you coud avoid meh foreveh Squeh? Yuh and yuh damn self alwuhs tempten meh."

Todd's eyes widened even further, he felt frozen to the spot in fear. Dekker was blocking his only escape and the guy was quite a bit larger than him. Dekker stumbled forward a bit, and Todd finally found the strength to stand, trying to edge away from the bed to circle around the intoxicated teen.

That was when Dekker lunged. Todd let out a strangled yelp as the heavier weight shoved him back onto the bed.

"Uh no yah don, yeh mine." The last word was practically a growl as Dekker roughly grabbed Todd's arms, pinning them up above his head as he crawled up onto the bed over Todd's struggling form.

Todd let out a loud stream of "no"s as he felt the suffocating weight of the larger boy settle over him, trapping him completely. Dekker brought his other hand to Todd's throat, pressing down until all that would come out was a frightened gurgle as he struggled to breathe, tears streaming down his face. Figuring he got his point across, Dekker moved his hand roughly down Todds side, reaching the waistband of his pants.

Todd jerked away as much as he could, renewing his struggling with vigor. "NOOOO!" he screamed, "NOOOOOOO!" His throat felt raw.

"Shuddup!" Dekker yelled. He yanked Todd's jeans down to his thighs.

Todd cried out in pain, which was quickly cut off into a wheezing gurgle as Dekker once again closed his free hand over his windpipe in a choking hold.

"I sai shaddup!"

Worry gnawed at his innards as Pepito worked his way through the crowd, looking for Todd. He knew his friend probably wouldn't chance leaving the safety of the walls for the middle of the room. But there was no sign of him. Then he took notice of the hallway. Ah. The noise level was probably too much for him and he just slipped away to someplace quieter. No big deal. But why was some uneasiness still crawling around in his gut? He made his way to the mostly empty hallway and stood there a moment, closing his eyes. Focus. Dull gray souls flickered all around him, made duller by the drugs and alcohol, base emotions swirled in the air. Then he reached a bit farther, focusing on the one soul he was looking for. There it was, nearby, just as he thought, but as he focused on it he got the sudden, wrenching impression of absolute terror.

Todd was in terror. A fear he didn't know he could feel gripped Pepito, propelling him down the hallway. Slamming open the door, he was momentarily stunned by the sight before him, anger rising to an uncontrollable boiling of his blood.

Dekker was pinning Todd to the bed, one hand bruising his wrists and the other unzipping his own pants. Todd was looking in Pepito's direction, but obviously not really seeing, his eyes so wide they looked like they might pop out of his head and red with tears, his face was a blank, withdrawn from feeling as his body still trembled under the weight of the other teen.

Pepito roared, an inhuman sound that had Todd's face twitching towards him as he pounced across the room, putting all his demon strength to digging his clawed hand into Dekker's chest, right under the ribcage, and tearing him off Todd, smashing him into the far wall. Dekker hit with a smack, head cracking into the wall, but leaving no blood behind. Pepito, still growling, approached the prone form, focused on the need to rip the boy's chest cavity open and tear his beating heart out.

A quiet whimper from behind stopped him. Todd. His Todd needed help. He turned, sparking energy dying around his claws, and carefully approached his friend.

Todd had managed to pull his own pants back up, but was now sitting in a daze, arms wrapped tightly around the legs pulled protectively up to his chest. He whimpered again, tears still leaking slowly from his unblinking eyes. He didn't seem to really see Pepito as he came closer, cautiously. The protectiveness in Pepito had taken over, he was running on pure instinct now, wrapping himself partially around the other boy, he drew upon what magic he could remember and teleported them to safety. His room. His place. His human would be safe here. And that was the last conscious thought he had before slipping entirely into feeling.