Cradle This Moment
Written By Twin Kats
Idea By AnihyrMoonstar
Beta'd By Crystal Dragon's Lament

Chapter Seven
Hope

Skulker frowned at the knocking coming from the front door. Grumbling curses and other not so nice things under his breath he stood up from the couch and made his way to the entrance of his apartment.

He swore if it was one of Andy's friends he was going to gut the brat. He was missing his me time!

"What?" he snarled, ripping the door open with a glare. Next thing he knew he had his arms full of the kid from earlier and Technus running away after having run his mouth about something that went vaguely like:

"I need you to watch the child while I begin moving for four days thank you bye!"

Skulker stared down at the boy who was stiffly standing with his face in Skulker's chest. He stared for a long moment before shrugging and turning back into his apartment. He headed right over to the couch, ignoring the boy who was standing in the doorway with wide violet eyes.

"Shut the door on your way in," Skulker uttered, "and don't make a sound. I'll deal with you later, whelp."

When there was no response he glanced back at the door to see it shut and the child settled down by the window, eyes distant. Skulker snorted softly and turned back towards the television.

"Mary is pregnant with Brian's kid," the kid muttered and Skulker almost didn't catch the words. He frowned for a minute before shrugging it off.

An hour later when the show ended Skulker was floored.

Mary was pregnant with Brian's kid. Dang.


He didn't understand why Skulker wanted to watch that show, honestly. It was entirely too predictable! He didn't even need to see the ending to know how it would end. It was that obvious. Still, the quiet was nice; it wasn't all consuming and there was just enough noise to make it feel safe.

He glanced from the window and blinked; looks like Skulker was ready to talk to him now. Great. Maybe he could figure out why Nikolai shoved him into the bulkier man's arms. Or why Nikolai kept calling him child.

He may be short damn it but he wasn't younger than that brat! He was twenty-four! Twenty-four! And he was annoyed, wow. He blinked, trying to focus on his emotions and figure out just what had happened. Had the calm Nikolai gave him affected him this much? It took a second before he realized that yes, Nikolai's calm affected him much more than he thought.

It was disturbing.

"Whelp," Skulker started to say and he quickly turned his attention back to the bigger man. "Apparently Tehcnus has decided I am to watch you while he moves. As long as you don't bother me I don't care. You'll sleep on the couch, make your own food, and find your own entertainment. Am I understood?"

He nodded, slowly.

"Seeing as it is Technus that decided to drop you off I should make one thing perfectly clear," Skulker continued. The bigger man leaned forward, leering at him, and pulled a knife from booted feet holding it tightly against his neck. Violet eyes went wide. "Mention a word of what I do to Andy and I'll gut you like the prey you are. Are we clear?"

He nodded quickly.

Skulker grunted and re-sheathed his knife before returning to the couch. From the window he watched the other with wide, shocked violet eyes.

What the hell was Nikolai thinking leaving him here with this nutjob?


Andrew sighed as he left the confines of his bedroom and moved towards the coffee pot in the kitchenette. He barely registered someone letting out a squeak and the sound of some sort of tumble with a glass. Whatever caused the noise obviously left a second later as there was a rushing sound of footsteps leaving the kitchenette. This of course was followed by his brother yelling.

"ANDY PUT SOME CLOTHES ON GODDAMMIT!"

Andrew grumbled to himself, took his cup of coffee, and retreated to his room. Stupid Malcom was always testy on the weekend.

He didn't even register the completely red faced, purple clothed man standing half-behind his brother as he walked past.


Two hours later, as Skulker headed off to the bedroom (after tossing a blanket and pillow in his direction) and he settled down onto the couch, he came to realize that the next four days would be interesting.

If only because Skulker was a nutjob and his brother apparently liked to walk around nude. He was beginning to wonder if this plan of his was a good idea or not.

Then again, the possibility of truly existing…it was so tangible, here, in this apartment. Tangible and real and he could almost taste it. It was tempting him, taunting him, and eating away the red into a strange pink color.

He didn't mind the pink so much; it was better than the red. Purple however would have been best. He liked purple.

He stayed awake until the dawn-light filtered through the window, thinking, pondering, musing, wondering, and planning. Then he finally drifted off feeling, for the first time in years, hopeful.

He wanted that bright future so bad…he wanted to taste it instead of seeing it in his dreams.

Most of all he just wanted to live.


Note:

Summary:If there was one thing he was good at, it was killing. It was not taking care of an apparently accident-attracting man-child. Especially when said man-child had freaky psychic powers. So why was he looking out for this brat again? Oh, right, the guy saved his life. Damn it all to hell. / AU / Clockwork/Skulker

Previous:

If you guys hadn't guessed I ran into a bit of a block here. That's all I really have to say. Really. Well that and Skulker apparently likes drama shows.

I really don't get why, I'm not a fan of them. I much prefer NCIS or House, really. They're not so much drama as they are mystery. Then you get Doctor Who, Merlin…yeah. Sci-Fi rules.

And yes, Andrew does walk around naked. Thank you Andrew. Don't believe me on this being typical guy behavior? I have a younger brother who forgets other people live in the house. He does this. Hasn't been so far as being bare ass naked in years but…well, when you see your younger brother wandering around in boxer shorts with a tent…trust me you'll get annoyed. Fast.

And this happens almost every morning…douche. Guh, I'm glad I'm leaving for Uni come January…no more seeing my brother naked because he's an idiot. Yay.

…wow, tangent. Whoops? Heheh…what else can I say about this chapter…? Yeah I got nothin'.

Enjoy~