Death and Pestilence

Chapter 10: Not Exactly Boyfriend Material

A/N: I am sososososo sorry this took so long. I had been working on my next installment since before I posted the last chapter, but nothing was really planned out so I literally wrote what was on my mind and edited it as I went along. Then next semester rolled in and I got writer's block and oh man was it crazy.

I also have an explanation for why I'm posting three chapters all of a sudden and not at more convenient intervals. Chapters 10-12 were originally developed to be just one chapter 10. But I write the drafts for my stories in the notes app of my iPod, so I never know the word count of individual chapters. When I finished chapter 10 and migrated it to Microsoft Word, however, I found I had a 13800+ word tome on my hands. So I split it in thirds to sort of match the chapter lengths of this series' previous chapters. In short…I am really sorry for taking forever.

On a final note, originally I had planned to make the smut scene (which is not in this chapter specifically, but between the next two) quick and easy, but that would be incredibly out of character for my plague knight, who's both a virgin and a prude. So uh...have at you? (Please don't kill me if it isn't to your expectations. You can kill me for being late in the delivery, but man I can't write smut. And I especially can't take smut seriously. So if you find something annoying or boring (or etc.) about my word porn, I would totally appreciate it if you left a note in the reviews about it! I would love to improve the way I write smut since I'm new to writing that kind of thing.)

So there you have it, my lovely readers, a little adventure into the developing sex lives of these naughty knights. Enjoy, and thanks for reading!

The morning (or noon, rather. Seemed I'd over-slept) after, I awoke to a blaring hot sun yet no warmth. My...newfound lover, as it now seemed, was nowhere to be found. Though at my side I found a rose, blacker than twilight and still dangerously thorned, serving as paper-weight to a letter. I delicately picked the rose off the ground, careful not to add to the bloodstains scattered haphazardly across the thorns (wonder how they got there). Gods, he sure knew how to pick 'em.

Gazing back down, my eyes were drawn to the sun bleached white letter. I eyed its contents while plucking the rose's thorns. 'Dearest Plague Knight, I...' yadda, yadda, yadda. Once I finished de-weaponizing the flower, I snapped off a portion of its stem and fastened it between the crook of my feathery ear. Satisfied, I finally lifted the epistle off the ground and read it in full.

"Dearest Plague Knight,

I would have loved to remain with you 'til you awaken, to watch the steady rise and fall of your thin frame with each meagre breath you took, to bask in the simplicity of your tranquil slumber, to hold you in my arms until first light, or at most until your heavy lids finally opened, blinking out coarse sleep from your shining eyes..."

Goodness, what a train-wreck of a run-on sentence.

"...Unfortunately, however, I was summoned to duty by the Enchantress herself long before the sun arose. As always, the usual run of adversaries or near-dead men to slay and reap of life and soul. However, she did comment on how precious we looked together, if that is anything to smile at."

My eyes grew wide with horror and mortification. No, no, NO that is nothing to smile at! Why EVER would I want my boss knowing I'm a homosexual?!

...Now I knew how my employee, Garrett, felt…

"Anyhow, I hope you aren't too upset by my disappearance. I apologize sincerely, and leave you with my regards and a sweet rose, the fragrance and symbolism of which can only do but remind you of our fresh love."

Pfft.

"So do take care, and have a marvelous day.

-Forever yours,
Specter Knight"

I tilted my head in pensive thought. His parting note reminded me of our exchanges from the previous night. The cheesy, yet undeniably sweet promise rang still in my head: that he will follow me 'til our end (if ever that shall occur) as naturally as death follows pestilence.

Though touching...it honestly seemed a tad too early to possess such an ambition. Nevertheless, no matter how dubious his conviction, I still appreciated it dearly. The persistent intent behind it was so authentic, so undeniably...Specter Knight...that it had to mean something.

That I wasn't simply some passing affection or fling, some toy he'd throw away once he grew tired and bored of it.

...Right?

With a heavy sigh, I gazed up at the intense afternoon sky. Within it, I searched for a profundity, an answer, which only the heart could suggest. Though even then I found nothing. Nothing to brag about, nothing to aid me.

I sighed. Love must be...much simpler than this, then. Perhaps I was over-thinking things, as always.

..Perhaps.

Regaining the smile I had mustered a few minutes prior, I stood up from the roots of the damaged birch, careful not to let the rose slip off my ear. With a nimble flick of my foot, I kicked up my cane into my hand, and, resting it in the crook of my elbow, began to fold up Specter Knight's letter. Upon folding it in on itself, however, dark, messy scribbles caught my eye. Seems he left a message on the back of the...page.

Dammit.

"Post Scriptum:

Sweet Hades. I'm not going to lie, I was INCREDIBLY determined for morning sex.

Curse our boss for being such a killjoy."

Good gods above. I sure knew how to pick 'em...

Shaking my head, I let out a little chuckle as I made my way back to the Explodatorium. No matter how hard I believed, Specter Knight was going to be...well...Specter Knight. I supposed I'd just have to accustom myself to his fickle, perverse nature, if I still wished to maintain our bond.

I ceased my step, brows quirked and body paralyzed in thought.

...Did I still wish to maintain our bond?

Well...

Shrugging my heavy shoulders, I kicked up a steady pace. The walk spanned about three hours, given that I wanted to take it slow this time, and ponder the rustic scenery of the forest. To hear the mockingbirds sing in the canopy, and the rabbits dash in the bushes. It was all so different, so serene, and...

Actually, incredibly boring. My workers have no idea what they're saying when they tell me to 'get out more' and 'enjoy some fresh air.' And the 'profundity' of simplicity gave me no insight on my inquiries, either.

...Oh well, at least I gave it a try.

Finding myself at the doors of my lab, I tapped a claw to my chin. Oh, of course!

I just had to give Specter Knight a try!

But...hadn't I already opted to do as such? ...Dammit. My mind is just a cesspool of doubt. I must stop vexing myself.

Opening the door and stepping inside, I was greeted by my hysterically decrepit lobby and the hustle and bustle of explosive lab rats. Careful not to attract their attention, I quickly hopped up the stairs to the highest floors, to my study. There, I caught my breath, finished the cannonball model blueprints in literally five minutes, and subsequently ordered my crew to begin production of the nuclear cores. After everything had been completed, the materials and products were shipped to their respective locations the next day, leaving me to my own devices.

Which involved...doing nothing at all. Life was boring for me without commission. Days just dragged on and on. But there was no substance. No challenge.

Hmm. What could I do for the rest of the day? Perhaps I might...visit Specter Knight?

A raucous squawk shocked me out of my musings.

Oh, that's true! I still had that electric crow I needed to work on...

~~~

"Sir Plague Knight, you have a visitor!"

I jerked up from the book I had been studying. It was a compilation of fascinating articles detailing the breakthroughs and novel research studies of scientists across the world. Truly a riveting read! Nice to know not all creatures were consumed by the illusion of 'magic' nowadays.

"Oh, hello Robert. Whom do I have the opportunity to grace with my presence today, my dearest aide?"

"Your goddamn lover, you cocky crow." Growled a certain phantom.

Dropping my book in alarm (and losing my page- rats!) I turned to the undead man, shrouded by his veil of darkness, to see his arms crossed and eyes glowering with sass. Behind him, Robert shrugged.

"Good sir, are you so in a rush to neglect formal introduction? My word...and...your lover, Plague Knight? I thought before he was simply visiting you for...when did-...ah, never mind." Robert sighed in disdain, shaking his head. "Meet me later, sir plague knight. You are in desperate need of some proper coworker etiquette."

Specter Knight lost it at that.

Rolling my eyes, I grabbed the book off my desk. Damn pages were bent. "Thank you Robert. You're dismissed." I grumbled, loudly enough to combat the other knight's boisterous laughter. Once the door shut, signaling my aide's departure, I mumbled impassively. "Make yourself at home, dear."

I continued to peruse the material in my book. Air shifted as skeletal hands ghosted up my sides, and an instant later, I was seized and dragged out of my chair.

"KEH?!" I flailed about in his bony arms, feathers ruffled. "GODS, Specter Knight, you set my heart running! Put me down you lunatic!"

"Such caustic words could only belong to a caustic man."

"Yes, yes, chemical humor. Now unhand-...you know what, I don't require your allowance for this." Kicking off the breastplate beneath his robes, I propelled myself out of his grasp and flipped gracefully behind him.

Taken aback by his emptied hands, he turned around and frowned. "Oh, Plague Knight, how could you? Just as I was preparing to engulf you in a warm embrace..."

"Hee, hee. How could I trust the 'warm embrace' of death?"

Specter Knight groaned in annoyance. "Oh please, does that even concern an immortal? Goodness, Plague Knight, when did you become so...difficult? Grouchy, distant...I miss that timid and vulnerable side of you! What happened to him?" He asked, floating over to me.

"Eh...seems he left once he realized how damn CREEPY you are."

Specter Knight laughed, pulling off his hood and visor to illuminate his pallid face. "Creepy? Oh, how you insult me! You love me all the same, regardless."

I pursed my lips and tapped a talon to my chin to feign deliberation. "Do I? Do I truly love you all the same? Perhaps I might make slight altercations to some of your attributes..."

"Why?" Specter Knight grinned in amusement. "If you did, then I wouldn't be the Specter you know and love. I'd simply be an ideal, a fantasy of your imagination, and not an authentic being. That's no fun."

"Hee, hee, of course not! Calm down, stop being so touchy, I only jest! What brings you here, Specter dear?"

"What do you mean, what brings me here? It is you, of course."

"I understand, but...do you seek something in particular? Something material, to clarify."

The reaper shook his head. "Why would I desire something of you besides affection? You are my lover, after all."

I shrugged, hopping back into my chair. "I...don't know. I'm simply making sure."

In passing him, I noticed Specter Knight quirked a brow, his smile falling. "How much longer shall this persist?"

"How longer shall...what persist? Excuse me?"

"You're demeanor. You treat me as you would a friend: not intimately."

"Excuse me? I do not! Such is a fabrication of your anxious mind."

"Oh? Truly? Then why did your lips not meet mine, perhaps, upon my arrival? Why did I have to initiate an embrace, while you ignored me in favor of your book?" With each word his temper rose.

"Soft now! I was approaching a study's particularly fascinating find, I had to continue!"

"How trivial." The ghastly man hissed, then in a softer tone. "If you're finished, why don't you come kiss me now, or hug me at the least?"

"I just began another abstract. Don't request such things of me as a child would his mother."

"CASE IN POINT, PLAGUE KNIGHT." He roared. "Why do you refuse me so?!"

I sighed. "Well, ehm..." He was right, I supposed. I couldn't worm my way around this one. "I...don't know. I'm dreadfully sorry. I verily do love you, it's just…I'm just...still not fully used to..this..us...yet. Us as an item. Your...actual personality." I shuddered, reminded of my lover's lewd and eccentric behavior. Both in private and in public.

With a huff, Specter Knight bent over the back of my chair and whispered above my ear. "It's been a month, my sweet."

"Keh?! A-a month? A month since what?!"

"Since we began this relationship, more or less. Have you not been keeping track?"

"I...no. Why would I?" I looked up at him in bewilderment. He seemed to chuckle, though more in disdain.

"My, my." He droned, shaking his head. "What a shame. All our outings and nights together...are you to say they meant nothing on your behalf? Might this relationship have been one-sided all along?" He mumbled, audible enough yet hushed, and I could tell he was more upset than trying to tease me.

"N-no! Of course not, what a spurious...no! I...erm, here." Grabbing hold of his face from above me, I planted a chaste kiss on his cold, thin lips. "There! How's that suit you?"

"Hmmmm..." he sighed longingly, ghosting his wispy fingers along my jawline. "Not enough."

"Well. I suppose that's to your tastes."

"...My, my, my. How rude." His void, almost malignant voice rang in my ear. A shiver phased through me. "This is a fine situation I have myself in. What am I going to do with you? What am I going to do to get you 'used to us'?" He asked, scorning the phrase with a hiss of the tongue.

Staring at my desk, I mused over his question. Giggling, I replied. "Hee, hee. What else? Just give me some time and space."

I glanced back up at him, still with a teasing smile. It fell, however, when it was met by his gorgon glare. I cringed.

"What..." He finally uttered, and an ice-cold breath from what seemed like the most abysmal depths of his lungs chilled my very bones. "...Do you think I've been DOING for the past month?!" He roared.

Terrifying. It were as though I were staring into the merciless gaze of a Beholder. "Uh-...erm...being an...understanding lover?"

"Precisely! Though now I've been driven to the point where I DO NOT understand! Do you not strengthen a relationship with proximity, rather than distance? Affection, rather than apathy? You are by far the strangest lover I have ever had! I cannot fathom how to proceed from here!"

"…Ehm..." He had a point, I hate to admit. But honestly, I don't believe I knew how to be in a relationship to begin with. "Then, we are both lost. I have no idea how to proceed either, I was just acting in ways by which I felt comforted. Thus said, I suppose...this discussion has come full circle." I mumbled, still numb.

Although Specter Knight wasn't visibly shaking with rage, anyone could tell he was nearly imploding from it. With a frown gouging out his pretty face, he continued to glare at me with those frigid orbs, boring holes in my very soul (or the equivalent for something such as myself).

Taking a deep breath, he turned towards the end of my study. Confused, I followed his actions with my eyes. Seemed he'd found solace by one of my many bookshelves.

"Specter-"

"Test me no more, you wretched creature."

I furrowed my brows. Damn. Harsh. "F-...fine, then." Why was he so volatile...what slipped in his trousers, all of a sudden?

I blinked. Was it...me?

After a few moments of silence, I could hear Specter Knight gently sliding a book off a shelf. He seemed to peruse it quickly, hence the pages were being turned as though a relentless gust of air pummeled them. In fact...

I turned around, finding no Specter Knight on the ground. Bewildered until I remembered the reaper could levitate, I craned my neck up to find him floating before one of the highest shelves. A dark magic enveloped the book in his hand.

"Specter Knight, please don't tear the pages."

He opted not to respond.

I shook my head and shrugged. The other knight was just peeved. That's all. I'd have to give him time to calm down. "Might as well return to these articles. At least they don't demand things of me." I grumbled to myself, but instantly regretted it in case Specter knight possessed some sort of enhanced hearing or whatnot.

More silence. He hadn't seemed to have heard, so I was fine- for now. After trying and failing for at least five minutes straight to read ONE blasted abstract because the reaper wouldn't stop flipping pages, I had had enough. Slamming the book shut, I hopped out of my chair and stomped over to the shadow the undead man cast on the floor.

"HEY!" I squawked, craning my neck up to reach his height with my eyes. He was scanning titles. "CAN YOU BE QUIET?! This IS a study, you know!"

Still no response. But at least he was actually reading a book. I watched him, curious as to what read could possibly draw the attention of a tipped off man for more than five seconds, where by others he was disinterested. With a slight, amused chuckle, however, he slapped it shut and slid it back in its nook on the shelf. Then he selected a book near it. Curiosity sated, I stomped a little foot to the ground.

"SPECTER KNIGHT, could it be possible for you to STOP IGNORING ME FOR ONCE?! You know, it's rather annoying how earlier you desired my attention, though now you-"

"I was not talking."

Surprised at the low sound, I strained to catch the noise projected from high above me. Hearing what seemed as such, I replied. "Keh? What do you-...expound on that."

Thank goodness his voice was louder this time around. "You told me to be quiet earlier, though obviously I had not spoken a word prior since our little disagreement." He said apathetically, enunciating each hard syllable. He hadn't even bothered to glance at me in favor of reading.

"Are you daft?! Don't kid with me! Handling my books noisily is just as boisterous an activity as speaking!"

"As an educated man, that is your prerogative. However, as an unruly and undead warrior, I could care less for such etiquette."

"ArrrRGGHH...GET DOWN FROM THERE, SPECTER KNIGHT, LEST I DRAG YOU DOWN WITH MY BARE CLAWS."

Finally removing his eyes from the book, he directed them toward me. Even from over nine feet below I could see the glint in those seething orbs.

"...Do not request such things of me as a mother would her child." He mocked sternly, though the mood faded given he was unable to retain his laughter afterwards. "Heheheheheheh..." Rang his dull, husky chuckle in this vast, silent room.

And as he closed the book in his hands shut, I stole a glance at the title.

Oh no.