Chapter 3: Denial

"What did he decide?" Harrison asked, intensely aware that Dexter had stopped the tale where he did for a reason. The position he described near mirrored the one they were in now. His dad's arms loosely draped around his back to hold them together, Harrison pressed against him until there was barely space for his arms on Dexter's chest.

"He decided he didn't care if I was rough." Dexter told him truthfully, Harrison knew it because there was no reason to lie now "He said he had this gut feeling thay he needed me inside him. Needed my hands on his neck again."

"That does sound nice." The boy hummed, a coy smirk curling his lips "Did you? Fuck him rough?"

Dexter shrugged and one of his hands idly slipped up the back of Harrison's shirt. When he'd removed the glove was a mystery, but his touch was warm "I stripped him in the hall, took him to my bed and did him slow but hard."

"Why slow?" Harrison breathed, gaze going hazy as he imagined it.

"His body felt good." Dexter shrugged "I figured I may as well enjoy that."

"And why hard?" The boy whispered curiously, gazing up at his father. He was looking for something, expecting an answer and curious if he was right.

"Because it didn't feel like he would break." Dexter answered. Harrison blinked in surprise. Not so good at reading a killer then. That ammused Dexter as he continued "He took me well. I liked making him cum over and over because his insides squeezed me so tightly I thought I might actually bruise. I didn't strangle him but I could have and, by the end, he would have let me. It was a rewarding experience, but it couldn't happen again."

"Because uncle Brian would have been angry?" Harrison asked, subconsiously pressing their hips together and Dexter found him hard "Or because Aunt Deb would have reamed you for fucking a criminal."

"Because he killed himself a week later." Dexter told him, reaching up to brush Harrison's fringe out of his face before gently but firmly pushing them apart "We did it face to face and he knew there was no feeling in it. He saw what I was and I think he was scared he'd become that hollow."

"You're not hollow." Harrison insisted bitingly, turning his hands in Dexter's shirt tightly in an attempt to prevent their seperation "I've seen you. The way you stare at chief Bishop when she isn't looking."

"It pays to be good friends with law enforcement." Dexter arched an eyebrow, his tone deadpanned.

"I saw you flah your fangs when you realized there was another killer in your turf." Harrison's voice had turned breathy and his eyes were bright with something Dexter couldn't place as he insisted "Gods, you were practically salavating for it."

Dester laughed and ruffled the boy's hair "What can I say? My cub had come back and there was a monster in my woods."

Harrison scoffed and slapped the offending hand away before gesturing to the bloody mess he'd interrupted the clean up of "You did all this to connect with me, not protect me." He shook his head hard and tried to slither back on but his father was stronger and kept him at arm's length as if it were easy "And because you needed to." Harrison tried more desperately "Mom said you had a darkness inside you that matched hers. They were just different enough to co-exist, she said. She was all emotion and precision, you were all desperate need and meticulous, but both black as sin."

The boy shivered and Dexter wondered if - "She'd go out every once in a while." Harrison interrupted his thoughts "Get all dolled up and not be home until late. I liked to pretend she was going to see you. I'd lay in bed and get off to the idea of you two fucking like animals, and then retreating back to your own territories again until the next time."

"That isn't normal." Dexter hushed him, because the visual, the idea of him and Hannah prowling near one another was a nice one.

"Doesn't matter." Harrison shook his head, finally letting go of his father to wrap his arms around himself against the rejection "She just about broke my nose one night. She came back and I crawled into her bed. Just put my mouth on her and she woke up horrified. I thought that, if I could just be where you had been, then I might feel like I could touch you."

"We're together now." Dexter told him, attempting for reassuring but it fell flat because he clearly didn't understand... was incapable of understanding. Dexter reached out to predictably tug the boy back to him, but the hug was only familial and it wasn't what Harrison wanted "It doesn't have to be sexual to be real."

"But I want it to be." The boy snapped, and surged forward to kiss him hard. It was infuriating; this man who was so present, so controlling, so vicious he had just toppled the long established predator of Iron Lake...

He had the gall to sigh like it was a chore to let his son get what he needed from him. He wasn't stopping him though, maybe that would be enough to push. Harrison locked his arms up over Dexter's shoulders. Standing so tall on his toes to reach misaligned them but he couldn't stop, even if Dexter barely returned the kiss.

"I need it to be." He hissed against Dexter's lips "You need to feel blood on your fingers, wet and warm and sticky, to feel even somewhat connected "I need this!" He hooked one knee up onto the sopping red table and Dexter...

He turned them, lifted his son so easily to sit on the dge of the blood soaked furniture and slipped out of his grasp. He grupped Harrison's wrists hard enough to bruise and forced him back over the table top, pinned him there and he was done being passive "Stop it now, Harrison." He told him firmly, voice so low it was almost a growl "This game ends now."

"It's bullshit that you fucked that whore and you won't fuck me!" Harrison screamed, anger and rejection and vile rage spilling out of him and shattering the smooth mask he had been faking to hide his desperation.

"You want to know why?" Dexter hummed too damned calmly, unphased by his son's violent outburst and refusing to match his level. Almost like he knew it had been coming. Maybe he had "Why youre different than him?"

"Because I'm your son?" Harrison shrieked, straining to try bring their bodies together again but the angle was off and he just couldn't do it "Who fucking cares! I don't! It's not fair I can't even have a real fucking kiss from you and he got-

"Because he wasn't a fucking minor, Harrison." Dexter interrupted the boy's rant, stunning the tirade into disbelievingly silence. But he leaned closer, eyes so dark the boy shook from true fear this time. It was the Dark Passanger's turn to speak and the pray would listen "I understand the need." It didn't have to be said that their needs were different yet born from the same place "I have lived with it far longer than you have, and I have put it in its place. You will keep a fucking lid on yours, or I will vanish. I will leave you alone again."

"You wouldn't dare." Harrison hissed, part fury part fear as the demon above him grinned.

"I would." It promised, leaning down to brush a gentle kiss to the boy's forehead "Because you are mine. Because I love you. I would rather put a knife in your heart physically than fuck you up even more mentally."

"Even more?" Harrison choked on a sob, the fucker had said it out loud. He wasn't supposed to confirm...

"What's wrong with us can't be fixed." The Dark Passenger told him gently, and it frightened the boy that the darkness sounded more genuine than the man it inhabited "So it must be controlled. Your grandfather tried to control me and it only ended in disaster. You are the only one who can control your own passenger." The darkness slowly faded with its words of wisdom and Harrison watched, utterly entranced as his father's features softened towards him. The man squeezed his wrists comfortingly before pulling back and scooped his gloves back up from edge of the table. He bent over to retrieve his apron from where Harrison had dropped it and the boy felt his dick twitch at the way the jeans stretched over his dad's ass.

"I'll be seventeen next year." He hedged, sitting up slowly, grimcing at the squelch the congealing blood made when he peeled away from it "That's legal in New York." He pressed, licking his lips nervously.

Dexter, the fucker, had the gall to shake his head at him endearingly and chuckle as he pulled his gloves back on "If you still want it then, I'll let you do whatever you want." He shrugged.

"Seriously?" Harrison barked, nearly flying off the table in his haste to confirm.

Dexter shrugged "Why not? Our passengers can't stay locked away forever. It isn't healthy."

Harrison nodded and bit the inside of his cheek hard to keep from appearing too excited about it. Instead, he grunted out a curt "Fine." and grabbed a spare pair of gloves to help clean up what remained of the late Mr. Cladwell.