Welcome back to our second update of the week! I wanted to do this one as a treat since the last chapter was so short, and we'll be reintroducing a character in this one!

To the lovely guest requesting smut: I don't want to give anything away, but I will say you MOST DEFINITLY WON'T BE DISSAPOINTED. *wink wink, cough cough.* I think you'll, hopefully, really enjoy what I put together soon!

THIS CHAPTER IS UNBETAED BECAUSE I ONCE AGAIN HAVE LOST MY BETA READER! LOOKING FOR A NEW REALIABLE ONE :)

Chapter rated strong T for suggestive themes, past mention of PTSD, brief light language, and general adult content. Wanted to give you a small break from the agony but next chapter will be TERRIFYING!


Purple slung himself free from the cozy comfort of the bath with a sigh, grabbing at Red's towel and burying his face into the smooth dampness he'd left behind. His pulse was still thumping a mile a minute as he drained away the now stagnant bromine swirling at his ankles, refreshing him and breathing life back into who he once was. He felt…strange. Strange in a sense that he didn't know how to rationalize his own feelings.

What was he thinking?

He kissed Red. Red didn't kiss him. He had leaned over, slung his arms up around his lithe neck and drug him down into a tender embrace to capture him on the mouth and dissipate into the sensation of venerability that had never been so delicious. He felt awful for still feeling so apprehensive and fearful about his now boyfriend's motives, cursing himself under his breath when he ran the fabric up over his antennae and realized how much of a fool he must have looked before Red left to find them provisions. He was only two hundred feet away, if that, but the blizzard outside combined with Flicky's peacefully slumbering girth plastered over the window made it impossible for Purple to see his progress when he exited the cleansing room still dripping to half-dry in front of the fire of the wood stove crackling against the far wall. He gingerly smoothed the towel down on the floor and went to grab the fluffy blanket the two had shared, wrapping his bare shoulders in the first softness he'd felt since his crash over rural Callnowia almost a week before. It really hadn't been that long, but the time that he and Red had spent together battling their ways through the darkest of turmoil was agonizingly soul-shredding, weaving each piece of their fragmented lives together to form something unsure but stronger than he had ever expected in such a short stint. He knew Red felt it too, the nervously enticed look in his bottomless cherry eyes enough to captivate Purple beyond rationality and pacify the beginning fringes of his own concealed trauma, forcing him to curl deeper into the woolen blanket with a tiny frown as he stared into the eddying flow of the formless fire dancing in his retinas. He grabbed for a titanium poker nearby, stoking the blaze and allowing air flow to lift it back up and grant him access to a resurgence of striking heat bleating against his cheeks and reminding him of what little good there truly was in this disturbing world. He couldn't wait to get off this planet and return home.

Home?

Purple carefully set the forked poker aside and rested his chin on his knees, the thought festering and bubbling inside his mind when he realized he didn't have a home to go back to. When he was stripped from Irk to reside upon the Massive until his transfer to Sen, he was instructed to sell off his material belongings and residence to allow him to buy opulent gifts for his eventual beloved, giving him a much needed edge in the materialistic world of Callnowian arranged marriage. At the time, he had gladly complied, excited for a chance to eventually become Tallest of the Empire he had once adored and help end a perceived war that had turned out as nothing more than a mass kidnapping plot to ruin the lives of thousands all for their blood. Oh, how ignorant he had been. So, so ignorant. He couldn't return to Irk anyway, knowing in the back of his still exhausted mind that he and Red would be wanted for treason and plastered over every electronic billboard for their perceived war crimes against the puppet of a public waltzing without a care under Del's malicious antennae. Did their people even know that he and Ipi were married? Did they realize that the war was a complete, nauseating farce? How had anyone not noticed the disappearance of most of the purple-eyed population, or had they been silenced with lethal means? Purple brought his antennae down to his fingertips, toying with the feathered end and rolling it between his claws as he thought long and hard about what connotations this held for his race, an epiphany striking that Del and his cabinet probably had some form of surveillance aimed at each and every Irken citizen to keep them in line. But, if that was true, wouldn't that mean that their malicious Tallest was also keeping an eye on him and Red? Surely, Ipi and her cubed up daughter would report back and relay the details of their failed overthrow and attempt to undermine their ploy to Del himself and Purple could almost see the elder face of the demon that made him terrifyingly weak in the knees calmly thrumming his claws over the lip of his desk as he sorted out their location and destroyed what little privacy they thought they had. Irk, this was terrifying. But, Del also didn't know about Lavender Fire or Red's infiltration of his cabinet as a faux General in the past, so maybe he didn't have eyes and antennae on everyone.

And then there was what Ipi had said before he was able to flee; she was creating an army. What the hell did she mean by that? Had she used the five thousand missing Irkens she and her pathetic excuse for a husband had stolen away from their homes and occupations to bleed dry to nothing more than withered husks of who they once were all to inject her own people with the liquid lifeforce of the innocent? She had claimed to be invincible, with skin as hard as diamond and nails as sharp as stone, and it definitely showed when she had engaged in ruthless combat with Red and hadn't broken like a twig in her old age. She had modified herself beyond belief, and Del had probably done the same…maybe. Something still wasn't right biologically when Purple looked back to what had happened with Lire. His advisor was born with sickly green eyes, a rarity in their population and also prized by the Control Brains for the strange connection the color had to the fundamentals of intelligence that it granted the host. Lire had seemed to have a different reaction than Ipi, turning to dust and crumbling when he was stabbed through the spooch during Red's protective killing spree and dying in cold blood when his PAK was ripped from his nervous system by Zim. Maybe the mixture wasn't as stable as the Callnowian Empire led it on to be? Ipi had also mentioned his own purity and the presence of antigens floating in Red's blood that made him something of a mutt to her, rudely labelling him as nothing more than a flea and laughing in his face. Ugh, this was all so confusing and unseemly. He didn't like the idea of Ipi constructing an invincible army, but it did seem like they were still cycles away from creating a viable dosage that would be able to hatch the same results.

Maybe Purple's internalized paranoia was getting to him.

Yeah, that was it.

He needed to relax for once before he made himself ill with worry, laying on his side when the pangs of vicious hunger struck once more and rippled through his body like a knife, forcing him to squeeze his tired eyes shut with a sigh. Red was out in the frigid snow by himself and the thought of him getting caught wasn't making anything better, spiking his anxiety through the roof and only confusing him further about what he felt towards his…well…his boyfriend. Purple had always thought men were attractive and adorable in their own ways, the ruggedness of the male physique drawing him in over the soft curves and svelte attitudes women typically portrayed to fit in with what society willed them to be. Men were so different and intensely fun, throwing hands over the dumbest of issues and clouting one another for the status of maintaining a violent winning streak, the competition catching him off guard in the best of ways and making him swoon into the feeling of protective dominance. He was part of that once, sparring on impulse with his colleagues and bunk mates in the Elite when they would call him out for tiny things that annoyed them or just because, openly swinging and pinning opponents against walls in good natured fun as they snarled back and let it turn into laughing hilarity. In a way, he and Red had already been doing that with words the entire time they'd come together, fighting with little, well-placed jabs and spiteful glances while overcoming their distances and falling deeper and deeper into what they had now. It was sensual and loving, doing things to Purple's delicate senses that he hadn't been expecting and filling him up with a sizzling warmth he'd never felt and didn't quite know how to describe to himself. He was so painfully nervous and riddled with apprehension for their future every time Red had spoken to him since their blisteringly life-changing first kiss, but he couldn't help himself from replaying the scene in his mind on a repeated, longing loop. He wanted to do it again, to run away with Red and forget the Irken Empire altogether to take him to the Green and dance through the amorphous waver of vaporous peace fluttering around their ankles and drawing them forward into the tranquil unknown together.

Together.

Did he truly want to be with Red? They'd only just come together in a deeper way, connecting as gentle, understanding palms trailed along bare collarbones and freckled cheeks to smooth away the dripping gloom trapped beneath their skin and holding them prisoner to their own misunderstanding and depressive pasts. It was so bizarre, as if the painful recollections wouldn't come when Red touched him, lighting him up like a ray of hot plasma and showing him the inner core of who he could be if only he could crest the ridge of his adopted panic. But that was just it, all the fear and animosity Purple held towards his own timeline was caused by others who he vehemently blamed with all his veracity for his insecurity and self-loathing, but only he had the willpower to change that. He wanted to change and grow, to be able to fold forward and pepper tiny kisses over the cheeks of the only man who had ever treated him like he wasn't an object but rather a fully-fledged individual with opinions and emotions, nurturing them both in the gentle sea of rocking healing and energizing affection. He wondered if Red understood what was happening inside his mind and hoped with every fiber in his beating spooch that he didn't think it was his fault when Purple would carefully pull away or push him back when the stimulation and love became too much to handle at the moment. He had a long way to go, but, for the first time in the past two, grueling cycles, he finally felt like he had some semblance of a chance to feel normal again.

Red had given him that chance.

"Irk, will you hurry up already, you idiot?" Purple mumbled under his breath with a yawn, shivering a bit and scooting closer to the blast of churning heat wavering forward from his raging fire. "Please?"

He was so hungry, his body virtually starving for both physical nourishment but also for the exploration of what other affections Red had waiting for him to heal his unseen scars. He wanted another hug, another kiss, another tender word. He wanted to lay next to him as they formulated plans for their escape from the icy rock that had been their collective undoing but also their new beginning, wanted to hold him closer than he'd held anyone and finally capture the elusive scent lingering in his quarters on the Massive for six months and giving him the spark of hope and resilience he needed to keep going through the horrendous torment. He wanted him. He wanted him here so bad that it ached, drawing a condescending eye roll from Purple as he labored to push himself back up to little avail. Ugh, had he really become so weak that a little physical labor over a few days had taken what little bodyfat he'd kept precariously accumulated through Lire's hideous training? He realized now that it was part of ensuring that he wouldn't be able to fight back against his fiancé's bloodletting, but he'd made drastic efforts to keep himself from becoming a virtual skeleton when his PAK would hum out warnings that his BMI was dropping at a steep, rapid rate and keeping his organ function at a minimum. He'd sneak donuts and pastries from the cafeteria when he was allowed to practice public eating during peak downtimes of the day, stuffing the gooey deliciousness in the pockets of his concealing robes to ravenously devour as soon as he was locked away once more. It wasn't enough to keep him from becoming perilously thin, a bit of a sore spot stamped over Purple's wounded pride that he couldn't seem to overcome and forcing him to avoid mirrors whenever possible out of fear for what he would see. But now, Red was out amongst the enemy to find him something warm to eat, to fill him with nutrition and keep him safe like a life mate should.

Life mate?

Was Red his life mate?

What an interesting thought. Where had that even come from? Life mates were such a rarity in Irken society but captivated the minds of young and old couples alike to draw them into the sanctity of marking before the Control Brains in the form of a bodily scar to dedicate one another to the love and devotion of forever partnership. It was the ultimate promise and not something that should be taken lightly, a rarity in the flightiness of Irken society and the need of most typical Irkens to take many mates as a lingering instinct to mate and produce offspring before the innovation of Smeeteries were introduced. Huh…Red as a life mate? Purple smiled weakly to himself, grinning under the edge of the fuzzy blanket and trying to hide away the temptation of yelling out the epiphany to the rest of the world when he realized how giddy and complete the notion made him feel on a fundamental level. At this point, he couldn't imagine his life without Red around to pester the daylights out of him, to hold him through the night, to make love to him when he was ready to transcend the deep set, lingering fears etched onto his morality and give himself over to the precious claws of his ever-so-patient lover. It felt incredibly light and airy, almost like he was floating through life and Purple couldn't tell if it was the lack of sugar in his bloodstream or the beginning beat of lovesickness coursing through his veins and introducing him to a world he'd never known but wanted to slowly dip his toes into before taking the plunge of no return. He knew Red would be patient…he knew he would be everything he'd ever wished for and more.

Purple tried to shoot up when his pulse lurched into his throat at the sound of the hatch jiggling, setting alight the ingrained need to run as he scrambled back and prepared for the worst, cocooning himself in a tight swathe of blankets when he realized he was too frustratingly feeble at the moment to properly defend himself against any sexual predators lurking in the grimy, grungy shadows and corners of his deepest, bottomless nightmares. Lire? Was it Lire come back from the dead once more to seek revenge and force him into the torn mattress to eat the box spring while he fucked him against his will? Was it? W-Was it? He couldn't speak, couldn't yell, finding himself frozen in time as the world slowed to something dissociative and wrong when the sound of a keycard outside buzzed over the electronic pad and granted access to the intrusive marauder coming for his flesh to sink his teeth into the sensitive nape of his neck like a monster and keep him from screaming as he rode out his release. Calm yourself, c-calm yourself and breathe. There was no one here who would do that to you! The owner of this place seemed so nice and simple in the mind, and Red was just across the way if he needed him.

Red would protect you.

Red will protect you.

Please…please, no. No. No? He had control. No, he definitely had control. Purple could take a chance to defend himself and overcome everything that he'd been conditioned to think, feeling Red's prowess surround him and give him something profound to live and fight to the death for even if it was the end of him. He grabbed for the poker, thrusting it into the fire and standing to his unstable feet to thrust the now red-hot metal before him to brand whoever thought they could come in here and take. This time he would take like he'd learned he could do for himself, opening up his instinct to battle his way back through the cosmos as thick adrenaline poured back through his system once more and made his antennae ring with the lingering sensation of vicious survival instincts. He held his breath when the door swung free and revealed his attacker, completely pacifying the mind-numbing anger and terror contorting together into something new and unstable when a familiar, utterly confused voice chuckled back at his completely nude battle stance.

"Purple? You really think you're gonna be able to destroy me while you're totally naked?" Red laughed, quickly closing the door before anyone could walk by and catch a peek of the raw gorgeousness staring back at him in more ways than one. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you or anything."

Purple gave an exhale of deep, guttural relief, setting the poker to the side and stooping to grab for his cover once more as Red stared and drunk in rare sight of him without some form of covering. He shrouded himself back in the woolen grace of his literal safety blanket with a tiny smile before striding forward and helping his partner sling the incredibly overstuffed backpack free from his now sore spine before folding forward and giving him a nervously apprehensive hug. He held back his voice when Red met him with equal enthusiasm, halfway picking him up from the floor and spinning him a bit before pressing an ecstatic, loving kiss to the side of his jaw. He hoisted him up completely before Purple could vehemently protest, slinging him over to the mattress and gingerly lowering him down to tuck him into a fluffy tangle of cozy goodness before bounding back to his pilfered backpack and happily tugging the zipper free.

"You'll never guess what I was able to score for us! There was so much convenience food in there, it wasn't even funny!" Red spoke rapidly, his own bewildering hunger getting the best of him as he plucked free burritos and instant noodle bowls, followed by handfuls upon handfuls of packaged, powdered donuts and candies that set Purple's mouth into a dangerous, ravenous water. "I got enough food for two weeks, which should be enough time for us to figure out what the hell we're gonna do next. I figured we could have our first good meal since we met, and I'm gonna make you something gourmet." He teased, holding up a faux teriyaki bowl with a childish beam before tossing him a package of snow white donuts.

Purple tore into the plastic, moaning into the taste as he shoved a handful of sugary deliciousness over his tongue and chewed as fast as he could, his body desperate for the much-needed spike in saccharine fat and grease. "Red, you're a genius and I don't know what I'd do without you! Irk, I'm so hungry I don't even care what I put in my mouth at this point as long as it's edible. But this…this is so much better than I could have ever expected!" He mumbled around his food, swallowing and taking another, slower bite as he watched his partner stand and move to the stove. "You better eat too or I'm gonna have to force food into you. I don't wanna be the only one stuffing my face over here like a mess."

Red nodded, tugging free a pan and setting up a few cups of chilly bromine to heat over the plasma burner before turning back and stealing a single donut from Purple's wrapper to infuriate him on purpose. He giggled when he protested and instinctually reached back out to scramble for it back, a deep grumble echoing up the back of his throat to initiate a challenge when Red held it up out of his reach and dangled it just out of his fingertips. He fell backwards over the pillow when Purple tossed his now empty wrapper to the side as his ingrained instinct to feed kicked in and told him that single fried piece of nonsense would be the life or death of him if he couldn't get it back, crawling his way over Red's lap and forcing him down as he hissed and blinked at the hilarious giggles tainting the air beneath him.

"No! N-No! I-I won it fair and square!" Red shouted on a repeated loop, stretching to keep just out of his grasp and rolling onto his side only to feel the precious air knocked free from his lungs when Purple elbowed him ruthlessly in the ribs. "Ouch you asshole, what the hell was that for?" He toyed, popping the donut in his mouth and audibly smacking on the doughy, honied glaze beneath the sugar as Purple's jaw went slack with visible betrayal. "Looks like you don't get to have it unless I feed it to you and I'm pretty sure you probably don't want my spit in your mouth."

Purple gasped in mock hurt, flattening his antennae to his skull and forcing Red further into the mattress as he maniacally laughed beneath his thighs. "You're the absolute worst guy I've ever met in my entire life! How dare you steal back the food you stole for me?!" He kidded, flopping forward in the heat of the giddy moment and draping his still stark nude form over his partner. He kicked his feet aimlessly into the air, satisfied when Red went to tap out under the weight of his chest crushing his own and keeping him from taking a decent breath, grabbing for another package of frosted donuts and tossing them back in Purple's place to turn the tables.

He yelped and tried to catch them with his teeth, breaking focus just long enough to allow Red to gain the upper hand and flip him, grumbling in defeat when he grabbed him by the cheeks and squeezed lightly to distort his voice into something pathetically immature and ridiculous. "Don't let your guard down, dumbass. Everything in this room can be used as a weapon, so don't forget that."

Purple tried to speak through Red's puerile, infuriating squishing, spitting out a few syllables before all but freezing when he realized where they'd ended up in their risqué play-fighting. He hadn't tousled with anyone in a long while and the electric innocence of it was gloriously beautiful and refreshing to his exhausted senses, leaving him with a nothing more than sweaty palms and shallow breath as he stared back up at the vision of Irken perfection hovering above him with a flushed grim stretched over his flawless face. He exhaled, accidentally spitting when Red let go of his cheeks and backed up when his nerves hitched once more and boiled over, a firm palm to Red's shoulder sending him rocketing backwards in a tumble over the covers to land in a heap at the foot of the bed. Purple clasped both of his hands over his mouth and followed, humiliated that his heightened twitchiness still seemed to have a dire hold on his ability to be intimate, reaching out with careful hands to take Red by the jawline and turn him to the side.

"Sorry! I didn't mean to push you off without any warning. You just got a little close and my mind sort of reacted before I could think about what was happening." He explained hastily, tugging away when Red took him by the wrist and flashed him a sympathetic smile of his own. "What? Don't look at me that way! I-I don't need your pity, Red."

"It's not pity." Red breathed simply, leaning up on his elbows and ghosting his antennae forward over his partner's to draw a thick shiver from his spine as he growled and slung himself over the edge of the bed, crossing his legs to pout. "You're cute when you get all flustered and angry at my teasing. I've always thought that you were…um….beautiful."

He stood and kicked off his shoes, digging back into his bag and laboring to hoist free the hidden package of underwear he'd stolen before tossing them in Purple's direction, satisfied when he caught them despite his fervent tantrum. He also passed him a thermal jacket and a pair of fuzzy leggings, holding back a laugh when his partner pinched them between his fingers with a disgusted sneer and held them up with passive interest.

"Thanks? I don't really like being called beautiful, though. I'd rather you call me handsome or something manlier than that. Speaking of manly, these are literally women's clothes." He looked up and let his jaw go slack when he realized that Red had kept the pink set for himself to save him some of the humiliation of having to don the ridiculousness of feminine attire. "Woah, wait a second. Is yours…pink?"

Red shrugged and began stripping himself free of his old, soiled suit jacket and button down to zip the obnoxiously vivid pink over his chest. "Yeah, this is all I could find in the back. They didn't have any men's clothes besides the underwear, but I figured this would be better than nothing anyway. I thought about giving you the pink one as a joke, but I'd rather you feel like the manly one for once since it's such a big deal for you." He swallowed his own wounded pride with an eye roll, quickly tugging on his leggings and going commando when the tender sound of a rolling boil grazed over his antennae. "Don't worry about it and never tell anyone about this or I'll literally kill you."

Purple stared down at his own deep grey set, a spark of appreciation driving him to finally shroud himself in something comfortable for once. He couldn't remember the last time he'd been given clothing that fit properly and didn't rub his now soft skin raw with distasteful textures that were considered opulent and expensive. These were simple and plain, giving him a tiny bit of reassurance that he could eventually reintegrate properly into society as a successful member of a greater whole somewhere.

Somewhere.

He jolted when Red tugged open two packages of dry noodles and tossed them without care into the pot, crunching them with a titanium spoon and pulverizing them to something that was easier to eat before ripping open the flavor packets with his teeth and spilling them into the simmering concoction as he tossed the used foil to the ground. Purple finished dressing himself and struggled to his still weak gait, stopping to warm his hands in front of the wood stove before traipsing over and venturing a burst of unexpected confidence when he reached out for Red's waist from behind, hesitating a moment before drawing back. He shuffled awkwardly on his feet and watched him obliviously taste their first warm meal in ages with focused scrutiny, mumbling something to himself under his breath when it needed something else and hunting through the cabinets for more salt but unfortunately finding none. He threw a hand on his hip and scratched at his antennae with the other as he tried to figure out what to add, giving Purple the opportunity to break out of his shell as he forced himself forward on light toes to let his fingers land stiffly on his partner's waistline, curling into his leggings and hooking his claws into his waistband when he panicked and didn't know what to do next. He felt Red go rigid in return, blinking in mounting suspicion when he all but ignored his touch, leaning back slightly and obviously aware of Purple's plight but letting him move at his own place and explore the gorgeous confidence he knew would present itself if he was patient enough and gave him time to figure himself out. Purple moved forward with a yelp when Red all but fell backwards into his arms, fumbling and blubbering out an apology when his partner glanced cheekily over his shoulder and went to say something before Purple realized it had been on purpose and glared back, letting go and dropping him hard to the floor. He bent down and stole the spoon away when Red groaned and rolled onto his side with a heated look of his own followed by a short twitch of his antennae, instead focusing his attention on the finished soup and reaching up to grab for two bowls.

"You didn't have to be a total prick about it!" Red snapped, pushing himself up and plucking a foreign crumb from his tongue with a shudder. "Ugh, forget it, is the soup done yet?"

Purple nodded and beamed smugly down from above, holding a bowl of piping hot soup above the heap of a man he'd reduced his partner two before passing it down and condescendingly flicking his antennae with this finger. "That's what you get for scaring the literal hell out of me and thinking you can get away with it. Here, you big smeet, it smells pretty good, too. I can't believe I'm this excited about instant noodles but hey, here we are." He leaned back against the counter and took up a fork from a side drawer, curling what was left of the broken pasta around the prongs and stuffing his mouth with the salty, spicy musk typical of Callnowian cuisine. "Wow, this is delicious!"

Flavor burst over his tongue as he quickly shoveled another mouthful of goopy, well-done noodles in his mouth, leaning forward to keep them from smacking him in the chin and swallowing thickly around his first heaping bite before going for another. He wanted to cry at the sensation of comforting warmth spreading down to his toes and lighting him up as his cells drank in and filled with nutrients, instantly revitalizing Purple on a molecular level as he nodded and hummed out his praise. Red did the same, scooting up against the cabinet and drawing his knees to his chest as he furiously piled food in his mouth like he hadn't eaten in cycles, dribbling warm, spiced bromine down his front without a care in the world as he tipped his head back and chugged what was left of the liquid to focus on the noodles instead. They ate in genial silence, each going back for a second helping and giggling at how dastardly messy they both seemed to be when they were desperate for a quick bite, pointing out the stains dotting their once pristine jackets and the powdered sugar lacing their lips like they were rapidly eating in the chow line back in the Academy. Purple eventually sunk down to sit next to his partner, brushing their shoulders together at a comfortable distance and finishing off his midnight meal as he set his bowl aside with a satisfied sigh. He didn't feel physically empty anymore, his mind and body screaming out their thanks in the form of sleepy cognition and tingly energy racing through his fingertips as Red did the same and reached out with his free hand and slid the pads of his fingers over his palm. He was desperate for contact it seemed, cluing Purple into a tiny morsel of his fractured past without true love and urging him to meet his featherlight touches with a few of his own, moving against his calloused hands to slowly entwine their fingers together. They fit perfectly like two interlocking puzzle pieces, as cheesy as it sounded in his now racing mind, swallowing down his need to run and telling himself on a repeated loop that he was safe for once. Here, in Red's hold, he was completely, wholly safe. Instead of fleeing and thrusting back against him to shove him violently away, he took a deep gulp of stale air, holding it for a few seconds and letting it go in a slow cascade of satisfying understanding for what he needed to destroy. It would take cycles for him to fully heal, and even then Purple already knew he would never be able to mend his fractured soul completely no matter how hard he tried. But he wanted to try. He wanted to try and overcome the reflex to bawl and plead for forgiveness when the sound of Red's ceramic bowl clinked softly against the floor followed by the massage of his free hand against his forearm as he turned to the side. Purple squeezed his eyes shut and focused on the obscure touch he'd expected but still didn't quit know how to process, feeling his forcibly calm breath hitch in the back of his throat at the sheer kindness of his partner's massage. His fingers were so rough and dotted with the lingering slices of knives and blowback from plasma rifles leaving deep scars through his tissue, each raised pinprick like braille cluing Purple in to his horrid past as a soldier and the need to protect himself and his planet with every shudder left in his bones. He was a minefield of bloodshed, a story screeching out torment and agony from chemically bleached retinas down to the sore ache in his feet that could never sit still, twitching aimlessly as he crept ever closer and closed the mountain of a gap between them. As the space diminished, Purple could feel himself blindly drawn forward like a magnet, following Red's lead as he began to sweat from a combination of the thermal heat rebounding against his skin under the collar of his fluffy jacket to and the spice simmering in his system to heat him from within. His mind swam when he picked up on something he hadn't noticed lingering against Red's antennae and faintly grazing his own as he leaned in and screamed through his own thoughts to pull back, still urging himself on to weather the storms of affection and love despite his own blinding, mind-numbing demons scratching and digging their razor sharp teeth into every organ in his body to flip his stomach and set a shudder into his hands. Red noticed, smoothing a thumb over his knuckles and whispering something unexpected that nearly made Purple's precarious, swelling emotion capsize and sink into the swelteringly warmhearted gaze he was met with when he nervously peeked through the low light of the fire crackling tranquility across the way.

"Can I kiss you?"

Purple sniffed and scrunched up his face, beyond infuriated with himself when he once again burst into tears at something so simple and typically normal for new couples to do. But…they weren't a normal couple, were they. He rubbed at his cheeks with the back of his free hand and wiped away the gooey, salty waterfall of fat, thankful tears rolling down to drip from the peak of his chin to the back of Red's razed hand resting delicately over his, audibly sobbing through the dark and shattering it like glass when his partner remained sympathetic and understanding, giving him much needed space to process the incredibly, glowingly brilliant feeling of being given a choice. Red had asked permission instead of grasping him by the shoulders and indulging in his body like icecream, giving him the chance to back out if he wanted to.

He didn't want to.

Purple nodded wildly and choked on his shorting emotion when Red tenderly took him by the chin and sealed the deal for the second time, a faint ghost of a brush hatching over his shuddering lips before deepening into something that had Purple seeing stars. Soft, perilous, confusing, visceral. Too many words and not enough meaning to describe exactly what he was feeling, gasping and leaning back when Red followed him down and continued to lightly pepper tiny smooches over his mouth that only grew sweeter as time sluggishly drew on. There was no torturous agony, no harrowing abuse, no mind-bending, excruciating rape. There was only deliciousness and the lingering taste of chili and sugar combined with the occasional graze of Red's ribbed tongue cautiously prodding against him before drawing back when Purple pulled away for an overstimulated gasp. It was all too much, but in a good way. Myabe? Yes…y-yes…this was good. This was most definitely good.

Red stood without a word and extended a hand down as Purple cleaned himself up, leaving the bowls behind like messy bachelors and guiding one another on towards the mattress before Red lowered him back down with careful intent. He pressed against him once more and entangled their bare feet for warmth before dipping back in and smoothing another infinitely loving kiss to his partner's now delirious, tear-streaked smile, giggling when he earned a trophy of breathy chuckles at his efforts and sighed when Purple deepened the attack on his mouth. He was picking up speed, gaining surprising waves of confidence and crashing over Red's form like a gentle ocean and digging his claws into his collarbone like his whole world would come crashing down if he let go, afraid of what would happen should he ever lose his grip on the divinity he felt inside right here, right now.

When Red finally pulled away, lingering against his lips a moment longer and snuggling down into the blanket for a true decent sleep for once, Purple followed suit. He blinked, expecting himself to feel awkward in the aftermath of their second…well…sequence of close quarters kissing but feeling nothing but perpetual, never-ending trust and peace when his lover poked him teasingly between the eyes and never once let his hands wander. He was so caring, so compassionate, with that dorky, irritatingly lopsided smile and broken visage hitching behind his eyes as he tried to hide it. One day he would learn what made Red tick inside, what his past had done to him and how it had slit him in half like a vegetable to leave him without a sense of peace in his jaded spooch. They would both heal in time…they would both heal each other.

Purple went to open his mouth when he felt a delicate flush hit his skin, smiling and immediately letting it fade when a faint sound leaked through the night and alerted Flicky outside. She pressed her face into the frigid glass of the window and nearly drawing a panicked yelp out of Purple's mouth as his erratic blood pressure skyrocketed, feeling Red clamp a rapid hand over his lips to stifle his frantic breathing. Who? Who was out there and why had they decided to knock on this of all doors? Were they the authorities coming to arrest Red for stealing away hundreds of dollars of food, or was it something worse? Was it Ipi here to rake her claws over their backs and drink their blood from the floorboards like an insect while Flicky screeched and went on the defensive outside? She peeped and warbled outside, scratching and scratching at the glass with her front feet when she sensed something terrible lurking in the darkness, followed by the sounds of a food drumming impatiently on the metal of the hatch before the intruder knocked again. Red brought a finger to his lips to keep Purple from crying out when he pulled his hand back, silently instructing him to stay put before gingerly slinging himself up and cautiously waving for Flicky to stop her incessant howling from outside out of fear that she would give up their position. She didn't listen, continuing to pound her gelatinous legs and flick her nervous proboscis against the pane and slowly cracking it before Purple hopped up and frantically took over, pressing a reassuring, but internally terrified palm against the glass and worriedly hushing her from the inside. Red acted fast, rooting about in the kitchen cabinets for anything sharp he could use as a weapon when the mystery attacker began pounding their bodyweight into the hatch, slowly rocking it off its hinges as the two scrambled about in a terrified daze to make for the window and escape. Red gave up on finding a knife and instead scrambled about to grab any food he could manage to salvage and toss it wildly in their backpack as Purple extended his PAK lasers and motioned Flicky back, soldering a clean hole in the glass and scooting the nightstand up under the sill for leverage to climb through. They needed to leave, and they needed to get out and hijack a ship fast before whoever it was kicked their way in.

Bang.

The door rocketed free from it's already rusted, precarious hinges and slammed into the floor, awakening the rest of the hostel as confused shouts and worried stutters resounded from other rooms, freezing Red and Purple in mid climb when they were met with the very same nightmare they had been trying to escape for days upon days. She was zombified into a pallid beast of gnarled skin and flaking scales at best, stitched together with grimy, flesh-slicked sewing thread and wobbling on her icicle heels as she trudged over the mess of blankets and wrappers they'd left behind in their panic stricken wake, tumbling over one another as Red turned and bristled in the direction of the soul they could never seem to main harsh enough to put down for good.

"You. Why don't we have a talk?"

Purple felt Flicky tug at his side, trying to urge him to flee with her as he stared on to the hood-shrouded face of the one woman he didn't want to ever see again, half gagging at the hideous smell flooding from her grey, rotting flesh and festering wounds petrifying him to nothing more than a lump of frigid, unmoving stone.

Sen?!


Sen is back! But WHY?! Let's find out together on Wednesday! Love you all and I really, really appreciate all of the reviews and feedback you guys have been giving me! I consider this our fanfiction, not just mine, and I really enjoy putting your requests in the story! Thank you so much and have a lovely day!

Next Update: Wednesday, March 25, 2020 at 10:00 pm CDT (UTC -5)!