White Lies
By: Ariadne
-W..M..W..M..W..M..W..M..W-
Title: Double Trouble with a Side of Shi-
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, foul language, and bodily fluids of the grossest kind(okay, they're all pretty gross). Quick updates ftw, eh? I think I've finally got Twitchtip's character right where I want it. I even figured out how to translate her being a scent seer into this AU, which is pretty cool. Okay, so, quick question: Would you prefer to have an update at a certain day of the week or for me to update as soon as I finish the chapter? Without further ado, I present you with: Angst. I mean White Lies. (same difference.)
Beta: Zombie Vampires from Outer Space (With tentacles)
-W..M..W..M..W..M..W..M..W—
Halloween day dawned crisp and clear with more than a little bite in the wind. Bane had no idea how it was outside because he was tangled in a mess of sweat soaked sheets, trying desperately to fight off the demons in his fever fueled dreams. It had started at three in the morning, he had almost missed the toilet and vomited all over the bathroom. Even though he was deep in his delusional nightmares Bane woke with a violent shudder and fled to the bathroom again. There was nothing left in his system to expel and he just writhed and heaved against the toilet. Finally his body stopped its convulsions and he slipped to the floor. The cold tiles felt good on his sweat soaked skin and he was completely exhausted. His eyes drifted closed as he curled up on the bathroom floor looking like a two week old corpse.
This was how Twitchtip found him after he failed to answer the urgent knocks on his door. Terrified that something had happened to him, she knelt and felt his pulse. His neck was hot but the river of blood beneath the surface continued to pump, albeit a little quick for comforts sake. "Bane, wake up," she urged, shaking him gently and then roughly when he didn't respond.
He twitched and shivered slightly, the heat of his fever giving way for the clammy internal frost that accompanied it. The cold woke him up as he instinctively reached for his blankets and found Twitchtip instead. "Twitch?" his voice was quiet and wavering. He struggled to sit up, leaning against the wall to stare at her like she was one of his fever dreams. "Why're you here?"
"Because, you idiot, the three of us were going to the HorrorFest but you look like you're on death's door," Twitchtip explained. She sounded irritated but the tender touch on Bane's forehead belied her less than kind tone. "Come on, let's get you back in bed, huh?"
The smile he gave her was more genuine than any expression she'd seen on him since they first met. He looked like a small child that had just been given a present after weeks of neglect. With Twitchtip's help Bane stumbled back to his bed and collapsed on it, swaddling himself in blankets immediately. The girl complained about it the whole time, but under her gruff exterior he could sense a genuine concern. After all, she'd gone through all this trouble to come find him when he didn't show up at Ares's apartment.
"Ares?" he asked quietly, wondering where his friend was.
She laughed a little bit, "Probably waiting for me to come back and tell him why you were late. He said he'd gather the tickets and the snacks we're sneaking in while I came to get you. I don't think you're up to going out tonight though, huh?" Bane shook his head weakly, looking indescribably disappointed. The HorrorFest was his idea, three of the best horror flicks of all time back to back on Halloween night, he'd been looking forward to it for months and had splurged on tickets for it the second they went on sale. He muttered something about food poisoning along with a stream of swear words.
"Food poisoning doesn't give you a fever like this," Twitchtip said, wishing she had a thermometer to check just how high it was. It didn't seem dangerous, but she wasn't a nurse and really couldn't be sure. "Probably a twenty four hour bug."
She stood and immediately went to wash her hands, then called out that she would be right back. Bane put his head under the pillows and pretended he was at the HorrorFest in the middle of Brains or Blood: Zombies vs. Vampires.
When Twitchtip came back she was wielding a bowl of soup and an incredibly worried Ares. He immediately came into Bane's room and checked his temperature, back of the hand on forehead. Then he proceeded to fluff pillows, tuck blankets and tidy up the room that had been completely demolished by something resembling a hurricane. Bane almost liked the attention but decided that it was annoying to have Ares fretting like an old nursemaid, and he hated people touching his things. He was too weak to protest though, and eagerly took the soup from Twitchtip.
"Slowly, or you'll just toss it back up," she warned, then watched Ares bustle around the apartment trying to do anything to help the sick boy. It was almost cute. Twitchtip rolled her eyes at the thought and went back to assisting Bane eat. "You're really pathetic, you know."
The word jarred the white haired boy to his core. He hated the word pathetic, especially when it was applied to him. 'How pathetic,' a voice from his past echoed disdainfully in his head, 'it must be your mother's fault you turned out to be a useless piece of shit.' Bane scowled, pushing the bowl away, suddenly full of cold rage. "You don't have to be here, I don't need you to help me do everything. And stop messing with my shit," this last comment was directed at Ares who immediately dropped the pillow he was fluffing for the fourth time.
"Wow, someone's grateful," Twitchtip immediately flared in response to the angry tone.
"Why should I be grateful, I was doing fine myself," Bane snapped back, sitting up somewhat bolstered by his anger. "Look, you obviously don't want to be here, and I really don't need your fucking pity, so leave. Get out!"
Ares's face fell, despite his attempts to hide his hurt. Twitchtip on the other hand was rallying to the fight, seeming to have no qualms arguing with a sick person. "Why are you being such an ass all of a sudden? A few minutes ago you could barely put a spoon in your mouth and now you want the only two people who give a shit about you to leave you to wallow in your own misery. Fine, I don't care if you die of dehydration on your bathroom floor." With that she stood and stalked out of the room.
The dark haired man made to follow behind, but stopped and drew a glass of water for Bane who was still simmering in his bed. He set the cup down next to the sick boy and gave him a nervous smile, then wished him well and left. A red eyed glare followed him out the door, but Ares told himself that his friend would be back to normal when he was better.
Out in the hall Twitchtip still looked furious. She very rarely put herself out there for anyone and she hated that Bane threw it back in her face like that, and she was frustrated that she had even allowed herself to care that much. Let the pasty bastard rot in there for all she cared, but when Ares gently closed the door behind him and shook his head indulgently, her anger softened slightly.
"Now what?" Ares asked, looking at the girl and realizing this was the first time they'd been alone with each other. She thought for a moment, having assumed that they would just return to their own apartments. That wasn't right though, she decided, it was Halloween when evil spirits ran rampant in the streets and she couldn't stay cooped up in her apartment studying all night.
"Well, the tickets are already paid for," Twitchtip observed, pulling her long hair into a messy updo. "I say we go enjoy the HorrorFest. It's not really my thing, but it's fitting for tonight, I think."
"Together?" Ares asked, surprised. Neither of them had ever actually sought out each others' company, Bane was normally the connection they shared, but he had just kicked them out the door.
"Well, aren't we friends?" the girl didn't realize she had said that until the words were already gone. Friends was a good thing to say, she found, but wasn't sure whether or not Ares fit that title.
He laughed and nodded, shrugging the back full of smugglable goodies back over his shoulder and pulling out the tickets. "We are, and we might as well enjoy our night. Bane'll sleep through the whole thing and be a lot nicer when we get back. And, hey, I need more female friends years younger than me."
"You have a lot of those?" Twitchtip looked curious, she hadn't ever seen anyone in Ares's apartment and hadn't heard a word about a girlfriend.
"Too many," Ares lamented as they left the apartment to get on the bus. "I've known Nike for a long time. I met her throught a…guy friend that I had in college. Through her I also know Pandora, and the two of them are both younger than me by a couple of years. Full of trouble, too. Then, of course there are all the girls from college that used to call themselves my friends but were never there when I needed them. At least Nike lent me a couch when I needed it. But, I'm rambling. Sorry."
Twitchtip just laughed and shook her head, then checked the bus map. Fifteen minutes until their stop, she observed. She spent the time listening to Ares regale her with the tale of he and Pandora's meeting which had involved a fifth of whiskey, pool toys and strip poker.
-W..M..W—
Ares and Twitchtip exited the move theater that had hosted the HorrorFest somewhere around one in the morning. They strode to an all night diner, desperate for sustenance since their smuggled snacks had run out somewhere in the second movie and they hadn't had time to catch dinner because of the emergency with Bane. Ares ordered coffee and Twitchtip sipped at ice water as they stared quietly at each other.
The movies had been quite enjoyable, although the fun was dampened slightly without Bane there to ooh and aaah at the spurts of blood, brains, and other bodily fluids that smeared the screen. There had even been a point where Twitchtip and Ares jumped at the same cheap scare and turned to each other, both hoping to seek comfort for their pounding hearts. They'd laughed and drawn disapproving stares from their neighbors who were all the type of horror buffs who demanded respect for the 'art.'
But now that they were alone together and responsible for making the conversation things got slightly strained. Ares seemed to only be able to think of things that would be inappropriate conversation and Twitchtip wasn't the most sociable of people on her best days. Finally she voiced something that had been bothering her for a while. "Why do you wear eyeliner?"
Ares's black eyebrow arched curiously, "Because I like to, and I think it looks good."
"And the dark clothes with chains and rivets, the piercings, the crazy hair? You just like looking like that?" Twitchtip wasn't sure the answer she was looking for, but she thought there must be another reason. "Doesn't your job not like that? Poorly representing the company and all?"
"I don't exactly work for a gospel label," he laughed. "I wear nicer clothes to work, but they don't really care about a couple non facial piercings and the fact that I spike the back of my hair and straighten the front. They care more about the work I do, and since I'm not really seen by the public it doesn't matter. I started dressing like this when I was young because it made me comfortable, and it tells people a lot about who I am without having to say much."
"I never thought about it that much," the girl observed as the grumpy night shift waitress gave them their food.
Ares nodded, observing that more of his order was wrong than right, but decided to ignore it. "Why do you wear the clothes that you do?"
The girl just shrugged, "I go to thrift stores and get whatever looks good on me and hasn't been too worn out. I've got a few clothes my parents bought me when I was younger. Always figured it didn't matter what I wore as long as I was warm."
"You talk about clothes like a guy," Ares observed, thinking about Nike who gladly fueled his fashion consciousness. To her you could arrive late to just about anything as long as you looked good, and she would readily endure a bit of discomfort as long as she got to wear the shoes she wanted. But then, she was the girl who insisted she was a princess in a past life. More like a warrior princess, Ares had always thought.
"And you talk about them like a girl," Twitchtip responded sarcastically. She smiled anyway though, and vaguely wondered if she should be more conscientious about what she wore or if it would be too much trouble.
The dark haired man just shrugged it off. "What was the name of that last movie? I want to rent all three so Bane can watch them later since he had to miss the fest."
"Aw, that's kind of sweet," the girl smiled. "The last one was Ratpocalypse. Why're you so concerned about him anyway, huh? He treated both of us like shit today, and from what I've seen and heard about he causes you a lot of trouble."
"Yeah, he's a piece of work," Ares replied. He had eaten all he had the stomach for and was now pushing his food around on his plate, making little designs with it. "But he can be really nice sometimes, and he shakes things up whenever life gets boring. He was the first person I met when I moved and since then we've kind of been inseparable. You just have to avoid him when he's in his moods like this."
"And I thought women were supposed to be the moody ones," Twitchtip huffed. She nodded when the waitress asked if they'd like the check. A yawn split her pretty features, she wasn't used to staying up this late unlike the insomniac across from her. "It's nice to have you two as friends though. I thought I'd be lonely, the only high school student in an apartment."
"Between you and Bane that shit hole's going to get a reputation for teenagers instead of crack dealers," he replied with a quiet laugh, then picked up the solitary check that the surly woman had dropped on the table. It included both his and Twitchtip's meal on the tab. "I love how people assume that a man and a woman eating together means they're a couple. My treat, it seems."
Twitchtip scowled, "No way, she put us together?"
"We didn't tell her not to, I guess."
"I'll pay my way," she insisted, grabbing for the check to see how much she owed her friend.
"Don't worry about it," he dismissed, pulling the slip of paper out of her reach. "I said my treat and I meant it. I'm the one with a job."
They walked out of the small diner, leaving it with only two other customers. Luckily the bus pulled up to the stop just as they neared it. Ares was glad he didn't have to call a cab so they didn't have to wait. His companion seemed dead on her feet as it was nearing two thirty. Twitchtip pulled her hair out of its updo and tossed it over one shoulder, then turned to stare out the window of the bus. She was busy reformulating her opinion of Ares who had been somewhat of an enigma to her before, and still halfway was.
"Why do you live in the apartments?" Ares asked. He knew Bane's reasons, or thought he had the gist of them, but the slender girl had been quiet on the whole issue. "If you don't want to tell me, you don't have to. I don't want to butt into your privacy."
Twitchtip just shrugged a little, as if it didn't matter, even though for her it was kind of a big deal. For a moment she sorted things into 'to tell' and 'not to tell' categories in her mind, then turned and spoke. "I was homeschooled for my freshman and sophomore year, but managed to complete the requirements for the third year of high school as well by the time I was fifteen. Then my parents kicked me out of the house. I stayed with a friend of the family for a little while, but eventually she said she couldn't take care of me anymore either because I couldn't land a job. I stayed at a homeless shelter for a while, and the only reason I'm at the apartments at all is because of government aid."
The bus dinged and their stop flashed on the screen at the front. Ares stood and helped Twitchtip to her feet, he squeezed her shoulder gently to convey his sympathy, but felt that her sadness deserved a bit of respectful silence. On the elevator ride up Twitchtip turned to look at him and said quietly, "I just want you to know that I wouldn't tell that kind of thing to just anyone," then there was fire in her eyes and steel in her voice. "So you better not make me regret it."
As she walked toward her own apartment, Bane came stumbling out of his unit and caught sight of his two friends returning. He had been heading to Ares's place to apologize for his behavior earlier, having just woken up from his intense sleep, fever finally broken.
The meaning of Twitchtip's words sunk deep into Ares at that moment, just as her door closed behind her. 'Just anyone' huh? Shit. Then he looked up into Bane's face which had turned red and it wasn't from the sickness.
"You two went out together."
It wasn't a question. As Bane stalked back into his room, Ares buried his face in his hands, collapsing tiredly against the wall and sliding down to sit on the floor. Double shit.