Sympathy From The Devil
By Tinque Abelle
Author's Note: Again, I'd like to thank every single one of those who have read and reviewed. Sorry this chapter took a bit of a while; I am on the verge of writer's block. Meep! Well, hope you enjoy this one and do keep reviewing and tell me what you think. ^_^!
Disclaimer: All characters except Jez are copyrighted by Almighty Thinnest Jhonen Vasquez. Jez is mine. I do not write this for profit. Oi, these disclaimers are a pain to write over and over again. ::faints::
Chapter Five
Sitting in his dimly lit room and listening to music, Pepito examined the little flickering flame from his lighter, reflecting on the fun he had at the "Six Sixty-Six" dance club with Squee and Jez's words. Was he in love with Squee? He constantly licked his lips, trying to taste the last few traces of Squee's soft lips. He wanted to express the intensity he felt when he was around him by doing so much more with him but he also wanted to slow down for him. The little flame wavered as he sighed.
His father entered through the opened door, glancing around. "Pepito, do you know where I left my trident? I could have sworn I left it in the kitchen but it's not there."
Wearing an emotionless expression, Pepito merely shook his head.
"Ah. So, how was school today?"
Pepito shrugged.
"Dinner starts in ten minutes. We're having meatloaf!"
"Are you going to be there?"
"… Well, no ..."
He rolled his eyes and sighed. "Of course ..."
"You know how busy work can be--"
"Hardly a worthy excuse."
Pepito flinched, seeing the scarlet glow in his father's eyes looking down down him as he loomed up and spoke in a menacingly deep voice, "You may be my son, Pepito, but you are still my subordinate. I will not tolerate any impudence."
Reluctantly, Pepito bowed his head, nodded, and watched as his father exited the bedroom. He rushed to the door and slammed it.
...
Squee felt his heartbeats deepening when heard footsteps infiltrating the house as he lied in bed, trying to sleep. Slowly, he carefully crept out of his room and down the stairs, trying his best to avoid making a sound. The light from his father's computer room suddenly turned on. "D-Dad?" he whispered. Quietly, he skulked down the staircase and peeked into the room, in utter relief that it was only his father, facing the computer as usual with his keys lying beside the keyboard. "Where were you?" He walked up to him nervously. "Where's Mom?"
"I had to take your mother to the emergency room and then they sent her to the mental institution. She's gonna stay there for a while. Now just go back to sleep so I can at least live under the delusion that I do not have a child." He did not even glimpse at Squee; he just kept staring at the screen, listening to the continuous clacking of the keyboard.
With his jaw dropping in disbelief, he returned into the comforting embrace of his bed and hugged his knees under the blankets. His mother was at the mental institution? He twitched, remembering all of the horrible things he had been through during his time there. There, he was forced to stay in a small padded room, strapped down in a straightjacket. He remembered hitting his head against the walls repeatedly as he felt himself drowning into a quiet insanity from utter boredom. The only light you received was from one little bulb and it was a sickly yellowish green color that caused a relentless dizziness. At night, he would be kept awake by incessant screams from down the hallway, constantly haunted by the pained cries. Clutching onto his pillow, he hoped that his mother would be okay …
…
During the following days, he spent every afternoon at Pepito's house, trying to accomplish homework but they were always getting sidetracked by the X-Box or television. During lunch, Squee's attention was always diverted onto Pepito when he was trying to complete his story. Whenever Squee was picked on, Pepito would defend him. On Friday night, they attended the "Six Sixty-Six" dance club again and unlike their previous visit, a live band was providing the music and the dancefloor was almost overflowing with adolescents; they were fortunate enough to find a spot for themselves. Squee found himself growing more comfortable with dancing and they had reached such a stimulating summit that the two of them rushed into a bathroom stall and began making out feverishly. One unfortunate employee had his face burned off when he walked into the stall, cutting their little session short. "Okay, okay, sorry; I forgot," Pepito said as they exited the bathroom.
Sitting on the steps of his porch on a cloudy Saturday noon, Squee was laboring over his notebook, completely transfixed in writing the story he had been working on for the past week. The skies were colorless and it looked like it was definitely about to rain. Squee loved a light rain. It always seemed to give him inspiration for his stories; the steady pitter-patter of the raindrops was so soothing. He hesitated as a shadow emerge onto his page and looked up, finding Pepito wearing a long, jet black trenchcoat and looking down at him with a charcoal online around his eyes . "Hi, Pepito ... what's that on your eyes?" He tilted his head.
"Eyeliner," Pepito answered, sitting himself beside him and looking over his shoulder. "What're you writing?"
Abruptly, he closed the notebook and said not another word. "Nothing."
"Come now, amigo, we hide no secrets from each other." He smiled and kissed his cheek.
Squee felt himself blush. "It's just a story. My writing's horrible; you probably wouldn't want to read it ..."
"How could it be horrible? Can I read it?" He looked at Squee shaking his head shyly and decided not to bother him about it any longer. "Well, Mom and I are about to go grocery shopping. Wanna come? It gets so boring when you're all alone."
"Uhm ... sure! Yeah, hold on, let me just put this away," he said with a mixture of surprise and eagerness in his voice. He stuffed his notebook into a small bag that lied behind him, which also carried his tattered old teddy bear, Shmee. Pepito glanced curiously at the little bear and shrugged to himself as Squee tossed the bag into his house and faced him, all ready to go. They held hands briefly until a shiny, crimson car pulled up.
...
While Pepito's mother went into the store to pick up the food, the two boys waited outside against the entrance, talking. Squee could not help but glance or stare at his dark, outlined eyes, finding them eerie but hauntingly attractive. "Looks like it's about to rain later," Pepito remarked, looking up at the thick, silvery clouds. He looked around the nearly deserted parking lot and noticed a messy line of shopping carts. He smirked. "I have an idea."
Curiously raising an eyebrow, Squee followed him. "What are you doing?" he asked, seeing Pepito taking one of the carts from the row.
"Here, just get into the cart."
Squee looked at the little toddler's seat in puzzlement. "Erm ... it's a little small, don't you think?"
"No, no, I mean right here!" He pointed at the gaping portion of the cart in which food was to be stored.
"What's the point in--"
"Aww, come on, it'll be fun!"
Squee peered at him in uncertainty and then awkwardly climbed in the cart, scrunching himself up to fit into it. "Okay, Squee, you'd better hold on!" the imp exclaimed, grinning mischievously. Squee felt his body shooting back as Pepito rushed the cart through the parking lot with an unnaturally lunatic speed, the scenery turning into blur. The sudden rush delivered a euphoric jolt down Squee's back; he wanted to stop and yet he wanted to go even faster. He almost had a heart attack when Pepito almost crashed the cart into a car but quickly turned, barely touching it. The cart skidded to a stop and Pepito laughed aloud at his unruly hair and shaken expression. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm okay," Squee stammered, laughing a little at himself as he climbed out of the cart. He was brought into Pepito's arms and he hugged him back.
"Look over there," Pepito whispered, lightly jerking his head to the side. Squee quickly glanced towards the direction and found a group of four teenaged boys, gawking at them. "Why don't we give them a little show?" He winked and traced his tongue up his face.
Squee smiled and gave a subtle nod, kissing Pepito's neck tenderly. The two gave a light snicker as they heard groans coming from their spectators. Stroking his hair, the imp's lips met Squee's again and they persisted until their little audience finally left in utter repulsion. Both of them broke into a raucous laughter, falling onto their bottoms in the middle of the sparking lot. "Offending people is always so much fun," said Pepito, sniggering.
...
The skies had finally poured with rain when they arrived at Pepito's house. After helping Pepito's mother organizing and putting away the grocery, the boys retreated into their rooms, locking the door. The music was not on, which was atypical of the demon boy, because he always had his heavy metal crashing through his room but instead, the sound of rain filled the silence. Squee was sitting on his bed, trembling just a little bit in the shadowy room lit only by a few lava lamps and the dim, white light from the window.
"Is this your first time?" whispered Pepito as he removed his trenchcoat and sat on the bed, facing Squee.
"Y-yeah, it is," he stammered, looking into Pepito's eyes.
"Don't be so nervous, amigo. It's always awkward the first time, but at least I'm here, right?" He smiled.
Squee nodded, still softly trembling.
"Close your eyes and try not to move too much. I'll be gentle."
Closing his eyes, Squee slightly twitched at the touch of the eyeliner pencil running delicately along his eyelids. This was his first time wearing makeup, after all. He hoped he wouldn't look too hideous ...
"Don't move, don't move," Pepito whispered, applying the eyeliner onto the other eye carefully, striving for precision. "Okay ... open them."
Slowly, Squee opened his eyes and gasped at his reflection in a handheld mirror before him. For a moment, he didn't believe he was looking at himself; he observed how different he looked with the black eyeliner around his eyes and for the first time in a while, he really loved how he looked.
"Muy caliente," Pepito remarked, putting down the mirror and gazing at him in quiet awe, licking his lips.
"Do I look okay?"
"Okay? Are you kidding? You look absolutely sexy!"
A warmth lit up Squee's cheeks; he had never been given such a flattering compliment. The two of them sat there, just gazing at each other until a knock on the door startled them. "Pepito? Your father said he's not going to be home tonight but if your friend wants to, he can stay for dinner!"
Looking down at his knees, Pepito muttered, "Carajo. Okay, Mother."
Footsteps descended down the stairs and Squee turned to Pepito. "What's the matter, Pepito?"
"Father is always away at work. He's never around; I'm beginning to think he's forgotten he even has a son." Pepito faced the window with an frustrated face.
"I know how that is ..." Squee looked down and held Pepito's hand.
"It gets so terribly boring here sometimes. So boring that my usual routines of torturing the souls of the damned can't even quench it. At least you're here with me, Squee. I don't know what I'd do if you weren't." They both looked at each other without knowing what to say yet again. The drumming of the rain upon the window grew louder and vague sounds of thunder rung through the clouds.
"Pepito ...?"
"Yes?" He looked at him questionably.
Squee paused in apprehension. "I think I ..."
Pepito blinked.
"I think I love you," he admitted in a soft tone, pressing his lips gently against his.
The thunder become faintly louder; Pepito felt a tickling commotion in the back of his neck. Those words echoed in his ears like a melody. "I love you too," he admitted, pinning his onto the pillow and licking his lips seductively before engaging in liplock again. Running their hands up each other's shirts to fondle their beloved's soft flesh, they began to duel with their tongues wildly, ignoring the sudden loud crash of thunder. Pepito caught Squee's lips with his teeth and shuddered in surprise as he felt the zipper of his pants undo. "Squee, you little devil."
...
The thunder had died down but the skies were beginning to darken. Rain still rattled the window, scrambling the faded light that Pepito and Squee's faces bathed in. They lied beneath the plaid-printed blankets, their eyeliner smeared, their bare bodies tangled with each other, and their breaths heavy. Pepito grasped Squee's hand and kissed it. "Be with me forever."
Squee looked at their hands and smiled. "Always."
There was a knock on the door, causing both of them to leap up in panic. "Dinner's in five minutes, boys!"
Pepito and Squee looked at each other and snickered.