Fate Is Never Kind
By Alex Lyons3
Disclaimer: Gargoyles belongs to Disney. I own nothing, for once I'm not using any original characters. Fear me and my ability to manipulate the canon characters.
Owen snuggled closer to the warm body beside him in the bed. It had been several weeks since he and Brooklyn had started sleeping together and several months since they had finally realized that they were attracted to one another. Mister Xanatos had a hand in that, though he had no idea that they'd both go so far as sleeping together. After all, no one but Brooklyn had known about his attraction to males until he'd come in delirious with fever one night and the only one at the castle to tend to him was Owen in his other form of Puck.
Puck had immediately transformed back into Owen and taking care that Alex was safe, he led the wounded and sickened gargoyle to one of the rooms. Owen smiled fondly down on his lover as the gargoyle slumbered and as the human remembered that night.
Flash Back
"You're lucky that I was here." The majordomo said slightly miffed about having to cut his lesson with Alex short to tend to the gargoyle. "I should have been out with everyone else, however, Miss Maza was rather busy and we weren't going to call just any sitter in when you've been gone for days without word. Goliath is worried about you."
Brooklyn, who seemed to not be paying the slightest bit of attention to what Owen was saying to him, snapped his glazed eyes from the tiled floor of the bathroom to Owen's face. "Were you worried?" He asked, not sounding particularly curious, just a strange question that caught the other man off guard.
"I beg your pardon?" Owen asked, looking confused for a moment, but quickly schooled his face back into it's impassive mask.
Brooklyn lowered his gaze back to the floor and sighed. Not bothering to repeat himself.
Owen was getting extremely angry with the other being and snapped, "What in the hell was that suppose to mean?"
Brooklyn looked back up at Owen and the next words that came out of his mouth confused the human even more than before. "You know, you really should show your emotions more. Your cheeks are all rosy right now and your eyes are really bright. You'd look better if you'd show some emotion. You stand around looking all bland and it just steals the color from your face."
Owen looked at the gargoyle as though he'd grown another head. He went to get the thermometer, but as he was leaving he heard a whispered, "Figures." pass under the younger male's breath.
He came back and took his temperature, noting that he had a fever, he breathed what could have been interpreted as a sigh of relief. If he hadn't been wearing a particularly sad expression on his face.
Owen led the gargoyle back to the main part of the room and tucked him into bed. He was about to leave to check up on Alex when he was caught by the arm. "Please, don't go."
Owen was becoming fairly irritated with the gargoyle, "What would you like me to do?" He asked in a flat voice, "Read you a bed time story?"
Brooklyn blinked and let go of his arm, "No...I just...I just don't feel like being alone...right now."
Owen looked at the gargoyle a bit confused, "I'm sure that Miss Maza will return from her duties soon. I'll have her check up on you when she gets here. I need to go tend to Alex."
Brooklyn watched him leave and sighed with muttering, "Brat," under his breath.
Owen shook his head, confused at the gargoyles behavior. He returned to the nursery only to note that Alex was sleeping. He sighed and decided to check on the gargoyle, after all, it seemed he'd be up for a while. Walking down the hallway he began to think about what the young brash second-in-command of the Wyvern clan had said. Truthfully, he could throw it off as just fever talk. However, there was something about what the gargoyle said that stirred him deep inside. He walked into the room and made note that the gargoyle was asleep as well. Owen sighed, well at least he'd sleep through the rest of the night. However, as he turned to go the gargoyle began to thrash and whimper. Running to him Owen shook him.
"Wake up!" He snapped at Brooklyn, acutely aware that he was having some sort of nightmare.
"No...n-noooo!" Brooklyn whispered, whimpering softly.
"Wake up, Brooklyn!" The majordomo said angrily.
The gargoyle sat up, his breath ragged as though he'd just run a race and his heart racing in his ears. He groaned and leaned forward, into Owen's shoulder, his arms circling the man's waist.
Owen stiffened. Wondering what the hell was going on he had finally asked Brooklyn, "What happened tonight? Gargoyles, to my knowledge don't get sick and have fevers."
Brooklyn looked up at him and answered, "I got shot. A dart. I thought at first it was just something to make me tired, but after a while I felt dizzy and weak. I started to glide back to the castle. I glided into a few walls. No major injuries from that though. I felt really warm sometime after. Luckily, by then I had made it back to the castle."
Owen looked at the gargoyle curiously and more than a little angry, "Might I inquire what you were thinking when you brought a potentially dangerous disease into the castle with an infant?"
Brooklyn blinked confused for a moment and then grimaced at what he had just done. "I wasn't thinking."
Owen snorted, "Obviously!"
Brooklyn looked at him, "I didn't mean...I just thought...it was a dart! How was I to know!"
Owen snorted, "Let me get a blood sample. There is no way, I'm letting you go traipsing around the castle when you could be contagious."
Brooklyn nodded and released Owen. He got up and got the syringe, withdrawing a tiny bit of blood he took it to the doctor. A while later, the doctor called back. Apparently, it was nothing but Brooklyn's immune system fighting off a poison that had been injected into him. Nothing contagious, for which Owen was thankful. Of course, the others had arrived home and had been forced to wait until he got the final word on Brooklyn's condition. Lexington was the first in there after that. By then, Brooklyn was sleeping peacefully, given some medicine earlier by Owen.
End Flash Back
Owen had messed up that night. Had messed everything up by not seeming to give a damned about Brooklyn's condition. By only caring about Alex's well being he had inadvertently pushed the gargoyle away. He hadn't wanted that. He had started fantasizing what might have been. It was only the brief lapses of remembering that night that he'd been so cold that brought reality crashing in around him.
Owen stared at the truly empty spot next to him in the bed and clutched the cold sheets to him. Mister Xanatos had demanded that Owen take some leave from his duties. He'd been reluctant, but had agreed to go upstate for a little while.
There was no warmth beside him really. There was no broad back to put his arms around. No leathery red flesh to snuggle against. No softly smiling beaked face to kiss and no silvery white hair to run his hands through.
There was nothing except his own fantasies of what might have been and his memories of that damnable night.
He sat up, the sheets pooling around his waist and looked down at his hands, remembering what Brooklyn had said after he had awoken the next night from his stone sleep, fully healed and while still slightly weak at least he was no longer running a fever or delirious. He wanted to break down and throw something.
Flash Back
Brooklyn had given him a rather embarrassed smile that night when Owen had brought him something to eat. He dug in and after a few bites, set the spoon down. Owen had stopped in the middle of the room as he heard the spoon clink against the bowl. He knew he was going to get an explanation for last night. He just hoped that it was the one he wanted to hear. He looked expectantly at Brooklyn waiting and hoping that the next words would be a confession of love and attraction. However, fate is never kind.
Brooklyn cleared his throat and said softly, "I'm sorry."
Owen raised a brow, "For what?"
Brooklyn looked at him, "For saying those things. For disgusting you. I didn't mean them."
Owen's heart started to break, but he kept up his cool composed facade, "What things? Be specific, gargoyle."
Brooklyn glared at him a bit angry at being referred to as only 'gargoyle'. "I didn't mean a lot of what was said last night. I was delirious with fever."
Owen nodded, all the while wanting to scream at Brooklyn to just shut up and rush over to him and circle the gargoyle's waist with his arms. To touch the gargoyle's back and chest with his finger tips. To hold that beaked head in his outstretched hands and kiss those lips until they were swollen. To have that beak parted and moaning out his name as he pleasured both of them beyond their imagining. However, fate is never a kind mistress and oh how he loathed his sister now.
Brooklyn sighed, "I said a lot of things last night that most likely didn't make much since. I, well, I didn't mean them...like they sounded."
Owen waved him off, "Understandable. You were, of course, delirious, as you have said. It is nothing I have not encountered before. Many a time people say things they do not mean when having fever dreams. You aren't the first person to speak to me in such a manner about my so called attractiveness when so sick that it is hard to tell just exactly whom your speaking too. I wouldn't be surprised if you thought it was Angela and you were trying to woo her yet again." Owen smirked slightly, it was a low blow. A very low blow, but Owen decided that he didn't care. The gargoyle was ripping him up inside and he just felt that he needed to strike back.
Brooklyn blinked at him in shock, "I suppose you could be right." He said softly and turned back to the soup as Owen walked out to go tend to Alex.
End Flash Back
He should have rushed him. He should have tackled Brooklyn to the sheets and taken him right then and there, but Owen was not emotional and neither he nor Puck were rapists. He sighed and cupped his own face in his hands.
"Damn it, Brooklyn, I wished you had never said a thing." Owen said to the walls angrily.