Chapter 16: Ethan?
AN: In my not-so-defense, this chapter is over 8,000 words and full of feels and hormones. Sorry for the long wait, and I know I keep saying that, and honestly I keep meaning it. Here's chapter sixteen. A lot of interesting stuff in this chapter, people. Thank you to all who have reviewed so far- you know who I'm talking to! If you'd like a reply to your review, just say so and I'll gladly reply. More notes at the end. xx
X
"Do you remember that time we got lost in that huge mall when we were visiting your uncle?" Ethan asked, smiling fondly as he looked up from the magazine he was currently staring at.
Ethan wasn't much of a magazine person...but this one was one of Grandma's and there were a lot more items of interest than in Vogue or Home Living.
"That was a good trip." Benny was holding his own magazine ridiculously high in the air and Ethan could just see his teeth when he grinned.
"You almost cried."
"Did not!" When Ethan raised an eyebrow, Benny scowled. "In my defense, I don't take you to dancing food stores every time we go out! Those wind-up teeth had it in for me."
"I really needed a new waxed mint floss." Ethan resisted the urge to bare his teeth at his friend- wasn't sure if there'd be a noticeable difference between human teeth and werewolf teeth in human form. He was probably being paranoid- and with all of their talking earlier, Benny should be expecting some kind of changes...right? He was the kind of person to look for details in a situation like this.
On the brighter side, Ethan was feeling happy for the first time in what seemed like forever. He'd gotten through the hard stuff...now all he needed was to come clean completely. If there was anyone who would understand, it was Benny. And if the seer's courage held, Benny would know the full truth in a matter of hours. The night was young after all.
Absently, he circled a few items in the magazine, marking them with small blue sticky notes.
"I'm up for a smoothie." Benny got up suddenly, and walked around the counter. "You?"
"I could drink." Ethan smirked and looked back to his magazine, wondering how long it would take Benny to ask for help.
Watching Benny (totally not creepily) out of the corner of his eye, Ethan was contented with the sight of his best friend acting so normally. Almost like they used to before all of this craziness happened. Soon, he found himself getting up to fetch the blender and sugar.
"Smells like smoothies in here!" A cheerful voice floated from the entrance to the living room, and a smiling Cody poked his head into the kitchen.
"You must have a good nose." Benny commented.
"I thought you were out today?" Ethan asked as he pulled strawberries from the fridge as well and handed them off to Benny.
"I was going to take a trip over to weird-town but ass- I mean Tyson woke me up early from my nap and I was forced to procrastinate from my nightly duties." The raven-haired man held his hands up as he stepped fully into the kitchen. For once, not completely dressed in black. "I had a long enough day as it is."
"Tell me about it." Tyson walked into the room as well, and all three younger males held their grimaces and scowls. "Been to hell and back since six this morning."
'Tell me about it.' Ethan thought dryly.
"So, I was hoping we could go over a few things before dinner, Ethan?" Tyson stepped forward and pulled something from his pocket- what appeared to be a collection of papers. "If you don't mind, that is, I'm willing to make a confession or two-"
But as soon as the papers. were fully in view, Cody was snatching them away with a look that simply screamed 'not amused, not in the slightest'.
"This conversation can wait for another time." Cody said blankly, demeanor switching abruptly from the friendly, conversational tone he'd shown the boys to a cold, end-of-story one. He seemed to be trying to communicate with the taller man through eye contact alone. "Don't you think?"
"Maybe you're right." Tyson's eyes didn't stray.
"What was that?" Ethan asked, eyeing the papers curiously, though with an underlying sense of anxiety. He noticed it happened a lot when something had or unusually stressful were about to happen- like spidey senses, only...well, wolf senses.
Were those...the pictures Benny had been talking about? If presented before him now, he knew he couldn't lie. Not in the face of Benny, who he'd confessed nearly everything to just hours ago, and Grandma, who'd surely want to hear the explanation herself, and Cody, who'd always treated him so kindly. He would simply HAVE to tell them who was in those pictures with him, and one thing would lead to another, he wasn't sure he was ready for that.
Wait, Cody must have know that...somehow. Is that why he was insisting that they not talk about it? He was a proven psychic after all, and he seemed to have a soft spot for Ethan in particular.
"Nothing important." Cody shrugged, looking back at Ethan with a forced smile. "Not right now, in any case."
As Cody sat down at one of the kitchen stools around the island, Benny nudged him and Ethan resumed gathering smoothie supplies. Deciding to play dumb and take Cody's word for it, Ethan exchanged a few sidelong glances with Benny as the two tried to continue a normal conversation.
The issue settled for now...why was there pressure in the air around Ethan? As though telling him to be ready to bolt within a moments notice?
With a strange look, he eyed the people around him. Only one couldn't be ruled out as the one who was causing his instincts to run rampant.
X
Hours Earlier
X
"I'm getting too old for this." Ethan sighed to himself before picking up the cookie sandwich and taking a big, crumbly bite out of it.
For once, he hadn't woken up feeling like a complete jerk- for once in a long time, he'd woken up warm and comfortable with the reassuring slumbering sounds of his best friend in his ears. He'd actually been able to face himself in the mirror this morning! But of course, if it wasn't one thing, it was another, and he found himself tired as hell.
He supposed it was his own fault, Ethan mused as he finished off his cookies and washed it down with the milk he'd poured himself. He had stayed up all night and then woken up at the break of dawn- something he'd been doing since the later days of when he'd first turned. And if he was being honest, he was tired of it...what teenager woke up at first light every single day?
Even on weekends...god he was tired.
And still hungry, he noted to himself and began rummaging around in the Weir's fridge. A minute later, he had successfully located and pulled out a carton of eggs. Upon grabbing a pan to start frying, however, he noted to himself that what he wasn't craving eggs right then and instead raided the fridge further, coming up with a plastic wrap full of bacon.
"I remember when I wanted to cook these." Ethan sighed almost sadly, but his stomach ached at the scent of raw animal flesh. Instead of mourning any more over his lost human habits, he tore open the plastic and bit into one of the strips almost savagely.
Before he knew it, he had consumed a quarter of the bag's contents. He had half a mind to maybe begin making breakfast for the others, but damn it, this bacon was good. Raw meat...who knew? Then, of course, his mind began wandering to the first time he'd actually hunted, following the path of a hellish red werewolf in front of him. The refrigerated pork strips were good, but he couldn't help but compare it to how the deer had tasted, fresh.
Sometime during his memory, he'd wandered back over to the sink, and didn't miss the footsteps walking into the kitchen. Quickly, thanking his lucky stars he was still awake enough to have any sense, Ethan shoved the rest of the bacon strip he was eating into his mouth and began filling a glass with water. The footsteps stopped at the entrance to the kitchen.
"...Tyson?" Ethan asked as he turned around, a bit surprised.
"Morning Ethan." The tall hunter nodded to him with a friendly smile. He nodded to the half-empty package of bacon. "Hungry much? I thought you had to cook that stuff before you ate it."
"So did I." Ethan smiled in what he hoped was a convincing way, side-stepping the question. "I don't think it would be very good raw, but I thought I'd make some breakfast." He paused and eyed the taller male as he pulled plates and pans from the cupboard. "You're up early."
"I could say the same about you." Tyson hefted a bag Ethan hadn't noticed over his shoulder. "I haven't been to sleep. Been looking over some photographs all night."
Ethan froze, remembering what Benny had told him the night before- about Tyson having pictures of him in the company of Sylvan.
He recovered quickly- the last thing he needed was to have anyone be more suspicious of him. What kind of stories had they came up with already, if they'd caught him in a moment when he thought he was alone?
"Really?" Ethan's throat was suddenly dry. "Photographs of what?"
"Oh, I'm sure Evelyn will want to look them over with you sometime." The man said as he began walking out of the kitchen. Ethan looked properly confused, as convincing as he could, while Tyson called back, "I've gotta run, Ethan, I have to see a man about a bike. See you later!"
"Bye." Ethan called weakly, mentally kicking himself. What was he going to do about those pictures? He couldn't lie to Grandma, and he wasn't sure if he wanted Benny to know the whole truth yet. Ugh, this was a mess. The whole situation was just a great big mess that got messier and more dangerous the more he avoided it.
He needed to come clean about it...all of it, and he knew who he had to begin with.
Benny was asleep upstairs right now...and the thought of even mentioning it to the spellmaster terrified him, for some unknown reason- he'd always told Benny everything, he'd never been afraid before. How badly could it go?
With turmoil still churning away in his subconscious, Ethan took out a pan and began cracking eggs into it. Scrambled eggs or sunny-side up?
At the last moment, he poured he eggs into a big glass bowl and started beating them with a fork.
He had to come to terms with this...this was his best friend he was talking about. The one who'd always had his back, who he could always count on...and hadn't Benny always been a priority? Hadn't their friendship meant everything to him, before the change? Didn't it still?
Of course it did, and there was only one thing to do about it. Benny meant more than any curse to him. He deserved to know...but would it affect his safety..that was the real question...it was the reason he'd kept everything a secret for so long- the thing's he'd had to go through to get to where he was...it wasn't absolutely horrible, but it wasn't something he'd ever wish for Benny. It wasn't something he liked to talk about, not to Jason or Katee or anyone; Sylvan had to practically force him to talk.
As the egg mixture just began to solidify, Ethan found himself rummaging around for some cheese or salsa or something. In the back of his mind, he knew he was being out-of-character, and he was probably going to spoil Benny the whole day, but the spellmaster deserved it.
Deserved every crushed eggshell on the floor and every burn that Ethan acquired when he leant a little too close to the pan.
And then, there was Sylvan. That werewolf was insane, that much was for sure, but he was also Ethan's own cunning and powerful Sire- who happened to basically have Ethan's life in the palms of his hands. What would it mean for Benny to be brought into this? Sure, Sylvan seemed to...care for Ethan on some weird, possessive level, but how far would that care extend? How did Ethan know that Sylvan wouldn't jump at the first chance to use the spellmaster? To hurt him?
Even so...it was time to fess up. He had to talk about it, or risk losing Benny further. Did he have a choice?! The truth had to come out!
Right?
"Right." Ethan whispered, trying not to burn the eggs and then placing them carefully on a plate next to the bacon. After a few more minutes of finding salsa and orange juice in the fridge, he was ready to head up with the food and drink.
And was surprised to see Benny already awake.
"Hey." Ethan greeted, surprised, and Benny looked up from where he was gazing sat Ethan's rolled-up bed on the floor.
"Hey." Benny greeted and smiled. The sight of it made Ethan feel warm. "What's all this?"
"Breakfast." Ethan pushed his nervousness down and set the plate in Benny's lap and the juice on the table next to the bed. "I already ate." Ethan added and then sat down, noticing how Benny didn't normally dig in like he thought he would. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing." His taller friend was quick to reassure with a small quirk of his lips. "Just...this is kind of unexpected."
"I know." Ethan started, gearing himself up mentally to come out with the truth about all of this- where to start? "Benny-"
"It's just weird, you know?" Benny interrupted, looking apologetic for it, but anxious as well. "Just...you being back here..." He looked down with slightly furrowed brows and a small frown, though he was trying to hide it. He didn't say it, and might not have even meant to imply it, but Ethan could hear the unspoken ending to that sentence: If you really are back.
"Yeah." Ethan agreed softly, shaking his head and trying to clear his mind, push the sadness from his expression. Trying not to be such a girl and act on these urges he suddenly had to reach out and physically comfort his friend. To let himself show how much he actually felt. To buy himself time, he tried for something that he hoped would pass as a pleasant expression and nodded to the neglected breakfast in Benny's lap.
The (now only slightly) taller teen looked down at the salsa and omlet-like concoction that Ethan had whipped up and took a tentative bite that still lacked his usual gusto. When he looked up, though, his expression was just a little lighter, and he began forking himself another bite.
"It's alright." Benny teased, and took a sip of his orange juice. He looked back down and away as he fed himself and chewed, but Ethan thought it was less of an involuntary thing and more of an excuse not to meet his gaze. "Thanks, E."
"So, I thought we could take a walk in a while." Ethan shrugged, trying to look casual when all he really wanted to do was fidget or maybe make a run to the bathroom until the churning in his stomach went away. The one that made him feel like he was standing at a cliff's edge ready to jump off. "It's a nice day."
"Since when do we ever take walks at half-past eight in the morning?" Benny asked, grumbling but with a bit of surprise in his voice as well, and for the first time, Ethan noticed the look in Benny's eyes- the pink rimming of his eyes and the sleepiness.
"Benny, are you even awake?" Ethan asked suddenly, surprised and faintly amused at the slightly dizzy-puppy look Benny had as he ate a little more and drank his juice.
"Of course I'm awake." Benny shrugged, and looked up with slightly red-tinged eyes and a smirk. "But it IS too early to be awake. What are you doing up, E? We went to bed late last night."
"Nerves, probably." Ethan shrugged, and sighed when Benny set the plate aside onto a bedside table. "Ben, I've been thinking of what to say to you all morning, and I still don't know where to start."
With that, Ethan was the one looking away. He knew he'd messed up...and he had no idea how he himself would feel towards Benny, had the situation been reversed. Steeling himself, and deciding to be honest from there on out, he quietly added, "I'm just glad you're not mad enough to kick me out."
"I'm not mad." Benny's answer was immediate, though not necessarily enthusiastic, "Just...I don't blame you, E. I just wish you could trust me."
"I do trust you!" Ethan promised gently. "It's me I don't trust. I don't know how much of what I have to say will actually make a difference, Benny...but I said I'd tell you everything, and I will."
Not to his surprise, Benny looked doubtful, but took a drink of his juice and nodded. Ethan had never wanted to kick himself more.
"Do you wanna sleep some more?" Ethan asked almost gingerly after a few more seconds of silence. It wasn't the awkward or uncomfortable sort of silence, but...delicate. Bated, maybe.
"Will you still be here when I wake up?" Benny's smile was teasing, but there was an underlying seriousness and frailty that called for nothing but loyalty. Loyalty that had always been right there between them, and Ethan had no intentions to break that bond soon. No more than he already might have.
"Of course." Ethan smiled a little and seated himself back down on the floor where he'd slept. It took Benny a few moments, and Ethan was sad to see a look of what seemed to be resignation in his spellmaster friend's eyes. "I'll be here when you wake up."
"Kay." Was the response, and a Benny settled into his own bed, and almost seemed to hesitate before pulling the covers over himself. "Night, E. Or morning..whatever."
"Morning Benny." Ethan smiled, and listened as Benny murmured something intelligible before falling asleep almost alarmingly fast.
Something struck Ethan then, and abruptly the smile dropped from his face. The thought wasn't even a bad one, in fact it was pleasant..but it was strange, because there was no reason he should want to be lying on that bed with Benny. He'd seldom had the urge before, seldom thought about it, and it was confusing, just popping up out of the blue.
But he couldn't deny it to himself, because the want was right there...all he wanted to do suddenly was comfort his friend, and just sitting there was less than satisfactory when what he could be doing was watching Benny while he slept, closely, making sure the bad dreams he was prone to having were leaving him alone. In some semi-awkward moments in the past, Benny had told him it felt good to have Ethan running his fingers through his hair...would it still be awkward? Would it settle his nerves?
Ethan never gave himself the chance to find out, and eventually, the seer shook it off and dismissed it as the mad need to make things okay between him and Benny. More than anything, he just wanted things to go back to the way they were, before everything got so complicated and stressful.
He wasn't even spared his restless thoughts when he curled up on his own bed, some rude inner voice mocking him snidely: That's it, lay there like a good dog. A sidekick is all you're ever gonna be useful for.
Heaving a sigh, the seer-slash-werewolf turned and twisted while his demons laughed at him, and after another half-hour or so, fell into a restless sleep.
X
The image of Samuel's arrow struck him almost as suddenly as Benny did when he nearly tripped over a twisted root.
"Careful." Ethan chimed, smiling when Benny glared at him playfully. It turned out to be a chilly morning, and the spellmaster's face flushed brightly as his body attempted to warm itself. There was an almost gnawing need in Ethan to take off his jacket and demand that Benny wear it, because he sure as hell didn't need it. While it wasn't hot under his own afghan, the cool air sure wouldn't feel bad.
"Are we almost there?" Benny asked, but he didn't sound impatient, just curious. Ethan sucked in a breath, noting how much faster he would've gotten there running instead of walking, and nodded.
"A minute or so more." He estimated, and felt guilty when his friend shoved his hands in his pockets. "You cold?"
"Not at all." Benny quipped, and just the sound of familiarity made Ethan smile. "I'm sweating over here. No, I really am. Actually, my hands and face are cold but my body is hot and sweaty. It's gross."
"Eww." Ethan agreed and laughed. Benny grinned, and then pointed ahead somewhere, his expression falling into one of puzzlement. "Is that where we're going E?"
Looking ahead, Ethan saw an all too familiar clearing and his own expression fell.
"Yeah." He sighed. "So this is where I'll start the story...and it is a story." He gave a weak grin that didn't at all stem from happiness or amusement. "So settle in."
When they reached it, the spellmaster did a quick look around, and with a look that told Ethan everything he needed to know, the taller teen found himself a boulder and settled down. Then, after a moment of seeing that Ethan would have nowhere to sit, he sat on the ground with a strange, pleasant look.
"You don't have to do that." Ethan smiled slightly and sat down across from him. He would've been fine standing up while Benny sat on the rock; however, the spellmaster looked contented to sit on the chilly ground.
"It's whatever." Benny shrugged and twiddled his thumbs. Absently, Ethan looked to Benny's smooth, slender hands and had another faint urge in the back of his mind to maybe run back and get a pair of gloves. Or, you know, he'd never been opposed to holding Benny's hands before, and he definitely had enough of his own body heat to share. It was kind of unfair, wasn't it? He wasn't affected by the air at all.
"Okay..." Ethan breathe in gingerly, and looked around, suppressing a wince when he found the spot where he'd been broken and bitten in the middle of a thunderstorm. It seemed so long ago now. "I know you know where we are...I seen it when you first looked at this clearing."
"Yeah." Benny affirmed quietly, looking over at that same spot with a haunted look lurking behind his hazel eyes. "This is where it happened."
After a moment, Ethan added, "I don't think it's best to start from the beginning. So..."
"Somewhere in the middle, then?" Benny teased weakly, grinning with something that was more like stress than anything else. "Wherever you feel is best."
Ethan smiled, and felt something inside him lift. Felt a liberated feeling come over him suddenly, when he seen that beneath all of the apprehension Benny was feeling, and definitely under all the doubt, the spellmaster was still there. There and loyal, underneath all the inner uncertainty and bold fronts- not understanding yet, but willing to be explained to.
Through it all, Ethan couldn't help but be so grateful to have someone like Benny as a best friend.
Though, somewhere in the back of his mind, Ethan could still feel a darker part of him sneering, wondering when it was all going to be torn away...and the real question was: would it be torn away by his unknown enemies? Or by himself?
For a while, he struggled with where he would start. Steeling himself, he began his story the best he could.
X
"Knock-knock." A falsely cheery voice said from the end of the hotel room bed.
Cody groaned and pulled the covers over his head. "Go away. It's too fucking early to be knocking at my bed like this."
"It's eleven thirty."
"My point exactly."
"Okay, come on." Tyson clapped his hands and thunked his bag down on the table next to the window. The hotel room was dark and luxurious, and when Tyson tore the curtains back from the windows in front of the bed, sunlight streamed in from the massive ceiling windows just outside. "Time to wake up."
"How the hell did you even get in here?"
"Se-"
"Go away." Tyson was abruptly cut off and struck by a flying pillow before he could answer. Cody had gone still again under his shelter of blankets.
"Senna gave me a key yesterday."
"She gave you a key?" Cody's narrowed eyes emerged from under the blanket, framed by wild raven hair. "I'm going to have a talk with her."
"Seriously." Tyson gave his own glare, and threw off his jacket as he stepped closer to the end of the bed. Suddenly, he bent down, twisted the thick bedding in his hands and ripped the covers away completely. "While you've been goofing off- oh...whoops."
Sighing, Cody shook his head and swung himself up and off the bed in one graceful movement, even in his tiredness. There was a look of deep discontentment in his eyes, matching the bruises just under them as the psychic stood there in front of Tyson, clad in only a pair of black boxer shorts.
"Uh, sorry." Tyson averted his eyes quickly with an uncomfortable look, the faintest shade of pink tinging his face. Paying no mind, Cody only gave an almost inaudible disgusted sound and walked around him to snap the shades back with a sound that made Tyson flinch.
"Nothing at all to be sorry about." Cody's voice was soft, but akin to acid, and Tyson looked sheepish before he remembered what he was supposed to have come here for. "I couldn't sleep anyway."
"Well, I'm here because you haven't been doing your job." Tyson accused, not giving Cody a minute to think he was off the hook. "I've been out, investigating the odd goings on, while you've been making zero progress-"
"I don't need to explain anything to you." The words were spoke quietly, but with a hard edge, and made Tyson feel that it was meant to be a deep insult. Cody looked over at him with red-rimmed eyes, a straight back and look of regality, even as he stepped into grey sweatpants and pulled a dark, nondescript tee over his head.
"No you don't." Tyson glared still, as Cody walked away into the kitchen area. "But I think you should be a little more personally concerned, considering some invisible freak tried to hurt you just the other day."
"First of all, if he'd wanted to hurt me, he would have." Cody held his arms out and raised his shoulders as if to say 'look!'. "Second of all, you want to call him a freak? You say you've been busting ass? All you've been doing is stalking those boys! How perverse is that?! I'm surprised Evelyn still allows you in her home, she looked ready to ask you to leave when you showed us those pictures of Ethan."
Tyson opened and closed his mouth for a few embarrassing seconds, caught in a state between shock and outrage, and finally snapped when Cody raised an eyebrow. The psychic then made to turn away, but was stopped by an odd sound by Tyson. The taller of the two then jabbed a finger in the angry but still-sleepy man's chest.
"Now, hold on a second!" Tyson pressed. "There is nothing perverse about wanting to get to the bottom of this! The fact that he's a teenage boy has nothing to do with what I do. For you're information, I really hope Ethan has nothing up his sleeves. Something's happening, and none of us will get any closer to it if we can't trust each other."
"Right." Cody nodded as though they were having some kind of casual talk. Talking down on Tyson, as an adult humoring a child as he poured steaming black liquid into a tall insulated cup. "And that is totally justification for your stalking and asshole behavior. My mistake."
Before Tyson could answer, there was a soft sound from the dining area of the hotel room, and Senna poked her blonde head out from around the corner, evidently just having gotten out of the shower. Her hair was wet, slightly darker than normal, and bound in a high ponytail with an elastic band. She wore a look of concern on her face, but still smiled when she seen the two men.
"Boys." She greeted. "Is everything okay?"
"Mighty fine, Sen." Cody winked at her with slightly less tired eyes but an exhausted smile. "Just having some coffee."
"Oh, poor baby." Senna nearly cooed, and the thing that stumped a still-fuming Tyson was that she actually sounded sincere. When Cody made to move from the kitchenette, she reached up with both hands and rubbed slender, gentle fingers over his temples and forehead, stroking over his now closed eyelids with her thumbs. Cody seemed to lean into her touch, and Tyson had to look away, feeling like an intruder on a private moment when she kissed the space between his eyes.
"I told you that last stretch was a bad idea. You shouldn't work yourself so hard. You need more sleep." She chided, and Cody sighed.
"Yeah, well..." When Tyson glanced back, having no idea what his blonde friend was talking about, the other man was shrugging. "What can you do?"
"Why don't you take a couple more hours to rest?" Senna demanded softly. "Please, Cody, you're dead on your feet."
"I'll rest when I'm dead." Cody dismissed with a grin, and a kiss to her forehead. "Besides, I'm psychic, remember? I run on, like universe juice. All the time."
"You're taking a nap later." Senna promised, taking Tyson's mind for a reel when she continued to play mother hen. "Here or at Evelyn's."
"Sounds wonderful. I'm gonna go get breakfast." Cody smiled a little more genuinely, and then moved past Senna and into the center room. A couple seconds later, the sound of a heavy door opening and then slamming shut could be heard.
"What is that man doing awake..?" Senna asked to the silence moments after his departure.
Tyson, caught in a mix of anger, regret, and deep discontentment, only hung his head, brought his hands up to his face and groaned.
.
"It was really bad." Ethan murmured as he and Benny sat against the giant rock- to better look at the place that he'd been lying unconscious on the night that Benny lost his family arrow. "I mean, I told you how bad it was, but it...was worse than that." The seer shivered. "I still have nightmares about this place."
"You don't have to talk about it." Benny responded- but wasn't that what anyone would have said? Ethan knew Benny wanted to hear it, even if he also didn't want him to relive his nightmares. For his best friend, he would do it. He wanted him to understand.
"I want you to know." Ethan swallowed. "You have to know, this effects everyone, not just me. But..."
He looked over at his best friend, just for a moment and then looked back down. "I don't want to tell you...everything, just yet. Not all at once, okay?"
"That's fine." Benny assured, sounding like he meant it. Ethan knew that this- whatever they were having, a heart-to-heart?- it was all probably new to Benny as well as it was to himself. Benny sounded hesitant...but sure. "Say whatever you need to."
And Ethan was once again reminded why conversations like this, explanations and such were usually never needed- because despite everything, Benny trusted Ethan.
And now Ethan had to trust Benny. No matter how reluctant he was to drag him into his problems, no matter how much all the new information Sylvan had given him might have scared him...Benny deserved to know, and damn it all if the events of last night weren't proof enough that his friend was hurting. Benny was theist person he wanted to hurt on his behalf.
"...After I seen the eyes in the trees...and after I ran here, I...there was something following me.." Ethan sighed though it was kind of a gulp as well as an excuse to gather his courage. He had met said monster, and even with that knowledge, the memory still gave him chills. "That thing with the green eyes followed me here, and I fell somehow. I think over that steep little hill over there." The seer pointed and shrugged, pushing aside the dread he felt, actually saying out loud how it had all gone down. All of it. "I tripped and I tried to get up..I-I think, but it was on me, and it...broke me. It just started clawing me and breaking things-"
"E." Benny was looking at Ethan with concerned hazel eyes when he glanced back up. He didn't realize his hands had begun to tremble. "I don't want you to tell me if it scares you too much."
"I know." Ethan struggled and took a deep breath. "Okay, it doesn't...it's a long story, but it gets better, a little." He took a deep breath. "And then, after he was done, you know, scratching and breaking me up, he was going to...well, I don't know what he would've done. Killed me? But then, something white came running from the trees and knocked him aside. Started fighting with him...and I passed out."
"That was all I could remember for weeks." Ethan explained, feeling only a little guilt after omitting one crucial detail. "I would have flashes of what came next in my dreams, and..." He looked at Benny, trying for the most earnest look he could muster. "Benny, I was never the same after it happened. Physically and emotionally, I was so different. I've been trying to get it together."
"E, you said that thing was scratching you..." Benny mentioned suddenly, as if he'd been thinking seriously about that detail, and Ethan was surprised when the taller boy reached out and grasped his forearm, in an act of comfort. "Harmful conditions and poisons from monsters can be contracted so easily-."
"It got me" Ethan affirmed, nodding, swallowing. "I've left out a few little details, and I don't want to tell you what IT did right away, because I was in so much denial myself at first, but...I'll never be the same." Ethan looked down at his hands, feeling shaky now not from the air but from his nerves being pushed into overdrive.
"Oh E, all those weeks you were sick..." Benny surely must have pieced it together earlier on, but it was like he was just now realizing it.
"It was like my body was fighting itself." Ethan babbled on. "That's why I would get all those crazy hot flashes and headaches and...the nightmares, I-"
"Hey, slow down." Benny interrupted Ethan's rambling suddenly, and Ethan felt himself flinch before he realized Benny was grasping him on the side of his neck. There was something familiar about the gesture- it was something Sylvan often did in his sick way of affection or intimidation, but it was different when Benny was doing it. Without thinking about it, he let go of a sigh, a partial weight on his chest and let himself relax a little.
It was embarrassing to admit, but Ethan almost felt..safe when Benny touched him like this. He wasn't an idiot, he knew Benny had no idea how he was feeling, but...
It was the strangest feeling. The feeling of not being alone.
"You don't need to go at this all at once." Benny's voice snapped him out of it, and Ethan's eyes abruptly opened. He'd had no idea he'd even shut them. His slightly taller friend was looking at him with something soft in his eyes. Steady.
"You might never be the same, E." Benny made a 'what can you do?' face as he shrugged lightly, and his hand moved from Ethan's lower neck to grip his shoulder comfortingly. "But some things will never change, and I'll always be your best friend."
Ethan couldn't describe what came over him then, or what kind of sound left his throat, but in the back of his mind, he thought that he had read somewhere that supernatural beings, or those exposed to supernatural forces occasionally suffered temporary bouts of insanity. The next thought was that this must have been correct, because he definitely wasn't in complete control of his actions when he lurched forward to latch himself onto Benny in a firm and almost desperate embrace.
Hell, what was that sound? Was that him?
"Ethan?" Benny asked, startled as said teen clung to the taller male. It took the spellmaster a few moments to recover from his surprise, but strong arms were soon wrapping themselves around Ethan securely.
"Sorry." Ethan managed to mutter, still not believing his own actions and face warming more than a few degrees. "But...uh, thanks B."
A low sound of acknowledgment was the reply, and Ethan shifted a bit but found himself sighing deeply into his friend's shoulder, almost contented with this new position.
Didn't Benny say he was cold earlier? Wasn't the seer just debating himself wether he should run back home to get gloves for him? Odd, because Benny didn't seem or feel cold, his arms were holding steady across his back, and his skin was warm where it touched Ethan's. He felt nice...he smelled nice...
"E?" Benny asked quietly, after a few more comfortable moments. The taller male shifted beneath him. "Um...not to ruin the moment, but...are you...uh..."
"Mm?" Ethan hummed in question, and for the second time in five minutes didn't realize that he'd closed his eyes until he'd opened them. "What?"
"Nevermind." There was a smile in Benny's voice, and also a breathlessness Ethan found confusing. It was so easy to breathe...he'd noticed once or twice recently how simply charming Benny's scent was, and it surely must have been his werewolf senses getting to him, because he'd never noticed prior to being bitten. It was one of the rare welcomed changes.
"It's just..." Benny hesitated as his voice was a little incredulous when he spoke next. "E? Are you falling asleep?"
"Mm." Was Ethan's only reply, and gasped suddenly, rearing back as though a bucket of cold water had just been thrown on him.
"E?!" Benny's arms let go of him only to clutch at the seer's arms as he pitched backwards, off from where he'd just been practically sitting in Benny's lap. "What is it?!"
"Nothing! Sorry!" Ethan's face was a bit flushed, but mostly he'd shocked himself out of embarrassment. How easy it had been to just lull himself into a such a serene stupor...he hadn't even felt tired before he'd hugged himself to Benny.
'And what was that all about in the first place?' Though even as he thought of it, Ethan was warmed by the same feeling he'd had just a minute earlier. However weird it was to hug his best friend like this...he knew he should never feel ashamed of it. Even if physical affection was out of character for them, he was proud to be so close to Benny.
Weird, huh?
"Umm." Ethan looked anywhere but at his best friend for a moment, trying to get his emotions under reign. A moment later he looked at the spellmaster with a small and uncharacteristically bashful smile. "Guess I'm just really tired. Sorry Benny."
"Oh." Benny blinked. "Yeah, that's okay...but E, if you're really that tired, we should probably head home."
Only then did Ethan realize the mild pink that tinted Benny's face, probably mirroring the tone of his own skin.
Benny had never been able to hide it when he blushed, however rare those instances were, Ethan recalled suddenly with a smile. Though it could've just been the cool air.
"Yeah." Ethan stood on stiff legs, not offering a hand up to Benny as the taller teen stood. It would probably be best not to. "Probably. I need a power nap."
"No kidding." Benny's smirk was genuine when he stood, now just a couple inches taller than Ethan. Absently, the seer wondered if Benny had noticed at all. "With all the growing you're doing, that freaky system of yours should need all the sleep it can get."
"...took the words right out of my mouth."
X
Now
X
"Blueberries or raspberries?"
"Uh, both?"
"Don't you think that's a little too much sugar?" Cody asked curiously, leaning forward from his seat at the counter. "I mean, do you even put sugar in smoothies?"
"Ah, who knows?" Benny shrugged as he poured a generous amount of the crystalline grains into the blender. Ethan emptied a glass bowl of berries into the blender and Benny added some of Grandma's cream into the mix before pressing the blend button. "It's going to taste good, that's what matters."
It was just beginning to feel normal again after Ethan's weird bout of suspicion. Cody was chatty, Benny seemed to be content to be tossing fruit into the blender, and Tyson was cleaning the slim barrel of a dart gun with interesting looking tools. Senna had stood in the doorway to join them, and Ethan even thought he heard the doorbell ring once or twice. All in all a very...normal setting. It was so weird.
"The red darts paralyze." Tyson was explaining to Senna, letting her examine one skim cylinder with a blade-like needle on one end and balancing protrusions on the other. "Specializing specifically on supernatural beings- a serum created by a good friend of mine. The blue ones are regular sedating darts."
"Hey, Ethan, you used to hunt when you were younger, didn't you?" Cody asked suddenly, looking over at the smaller boy whilst looking through the same magazine Ethan had been flipping through earlier. Benny slid a glass of the homemade smoothie to Cody, who thanked him with a smile.
"I wouldn't go as far as to say that." Ethan responded, unable to have heard much of the others' conversation over the blender. He took a sip of his own smoothie and set the glass down on the table as Benny handed him the used dishes to place in the sink. "My parents took me to the family camping grounds in the mountains a few times to practice, but I could never bring myself to kill any small woodland animals-"
Ethan gasped, unable to process what had just happened as Benny handed him an antique knife from the counter. Benny and the others looked to him in curiosity and blooming worry as Ethan dropped the utensil to the counter top and clutched his right hand with his left. Where he'd grasped the handle, his skin was a nasty, violent red and smoking.
Silver.
His instincts spiked with renewed force, and his burning fingers flexed involuntarily as he let out a low growling noise. He felt his fingernails harden considerably almost on their own accord, felt his sight sharpen to intense wolf vision, and only had time to look up before the firing end of a gun was pointed at him.
"Tyson!"
"Ethan!"
"Look out!"
"What do you think you're doing?" Ethan heard somebody cry, but there was a very real threat in the room- a man very much smelling like he meant harm to those around him...or more specifically, Ethan himself. In a pained daze, he thought slyly that this must have been the instincts and seventh werewolf-sense Sylvan had been raving about.
"No!"
He imagined that the others in the room had just managed to get their bearings and connect the dots before Ethan snarled and shot a hand out to knock the barrel away from his chest. Ignoring the cries of those in the kitchen, filled with adrenaline, Ethan turned -as quick and graceful as any vampire- and launched himself out of the kitchen window just as three red darts were fired and embedded themselves in the ceiling and two more on the window frame, one flying out of the open window itself.
Tyson turned and glared at Cody, who'd jumped and pushed the dart gun off target just as Ethan leapt for the window. The raven was glaring murderously as well, and Senna was rushing to the window to stand next to a shocked Benny.
"Ethan?" Benny asked in a daze, before blinking and turning away from the open window. Away from Senna's alarmed calls, through the glaring match and arguing, and past Grandma's worried voice, Benny ran out the door and into the yard as quick as he could. Evelyn could only stare after her distressed grandson, who was now shouting several things, but a name struck her- Ethan. Hadn't he just been here a second ago?
Somewhere, in the general direction of the forest, a wolf howled.
X
AN: OMG guys, how about it? :D There is nothing more beautiful than that last AN when you finally finish a chapter. It didn't turn out as I had hoped, of course, the beginning and end (how weird) was a rushed job, but I am so sorry! I haven't updated this story in over a year, what's wrong with me? I apologize profusely. Sincerely. Believe it or not, school is a pain in the ass, I've recently discovered anime, and I believe I've contracted a bit of Senioritis.
Anyway, tell me what you think, even if you'd like to curse me out. Really, I've missed this story, and the crowd who reads it. Is anyone actually interested in this story? Like, does anyone still follow it? Really? Off the subject, but I've read a couple comments about love triangles...what are you're opinions on this? Sound like a good idea? :D Yes? No?
Once again, very sorry. Truly, very sorry, and I'll do my best to complete this story, because I have a continuation planned that takes place years after the events of this story and it's going to be kickass! Maybe. Correct my errors, please. Sorry for any mistakes (and there will be). xx Review!
Uploaded March 26th, 2016. Saturday. :D