When We Were Monsters (Magnus 359)

[questionsonly]

[ Death is a funny thing.

For normal people, it's an end. For people like them, like him and Jacobi and others... it's a choice. It's a moment when you decide whether you want to rest... or if there's something stronger in you. A need, a drive that's stronger than what your body can't handle. Something that defies the End, sends you towards a different path.

A path with teeth.

A path with claws.

A path that has him experiencing the most agonizing pain he's ever known, that has him burning and freezing and screaming wordlessly into the empty vacuum of space. Even the burn of the whiskey down his throat is lost in it, in all of it, flavor and meaning and words and thoughts and everything, everything lost to the drive, the need

the Hunt.

It's agony. Agony as he reaches and holds. Agony as he floats and burns and dies and does not die. And when the Goddard follow up crew finds him, moves to recover his body, he gives one of their officers the scare of their life when he sits up on the table.

Not for long, though, because their throat is in his teeth before he can even think.





Suffice to say, things on board do not go... peacefully.

But that's not really the important part. That's just the inbetween. That's just the how. It's not the why. It's not the what.

The what comes months later.

The what comes in a knock on Jacobi's door from a man in sunglasses and a Goddard Futuristics uniform that most people wouldn't realize has blood on it, but the man behind the door? There's no way he'd miss it.]

Comments

[questionsonly]

"I put. exactly the right level of faith in you," he says with a crooked grin before he's taking another of those kisses from Jacobi and returning it right back to him. He makes a soft, happy growl at the hands under his shirt and there's definitely a bit of flexing going on for Jacobi's benefit.

"The fact that you could stab me straight in the heart? Only makes me love you more. The fact that you did? I know. it's because of how much you need me. And I need you."

And then he's lifting a hand to cup Jacobi's jaw to pull him in for a more extensive kiss.

[mrballisticsdummy]

It's odd to feel what his eyes have memorized. So many cumulative hours on watching and staring behind sunglasses or from under his hat or from across the room. So many pangs of jealousy when someone else's hands were on him.

Now they're Jacobi's deft fingers, and all he wants is to keep going, and take all of him in in at once.

Without saying anything, without needing to, he drags himself away from the kiss and off of the couch. He takes his hand and gives him a guiding tug.

[questionsonly]

And Kepler's moving like he's on a greased track, practically sliding to his feet as he lets Jacobi pull him.

"Let me say: I'm glad? You. Got a sturdy bed."

[mrballisticsdummy]

"Don't get ahead of yourself, " he mutters. "You might still get kicked to the floor. Mm, remember that tiny hotel in Reykjavík? We slept on the floor and it was so goddamn cold? That could be your life."

And he emphasizes that point with a poke to the chest before opening the door to his barren bedroom.

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Which is when Jacobi is going to get scooped up, put over his shoulder, and he's going to carry him into the room before tossing him on the bed, exactly like he said he would. There's a kiss blown his way.

"End of the bed work for you?"

Calling your bluff, Jacobi.

[mrballisticsdummy]

He lands back on the bed with a whoosh of escaped air. "That was not necessary," he mutters. He sits up, meticulously emptying his pockets and setting everything on the nightstand.

His time away from Goddard had only made him more paranoid, so there's a significant number of small capsules.

"And you can go where you want, but you know, better than anyone, how fickle I can be."

And he gives him a grin.

[questionsonly]

Kepler gives him a wolfish grin as he watches Jacobi empty out his pockets. Once it looks like he's all empty, he'll kneel on the end of the bed and start crawling his way up the bed to hover over Daniel, at least before he's leaning down to kiss him into the mattress.

[mrballisticsdummy]

He settles down, slinging one arm around his neck. His eyes slide closed, letting all of Warren cover him. "You made the right choice. I would have let you be stubborn there," he says between gasps of air.

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"I've waited long enough," is panted quietly between kisses, while Jacobi's getting air. Then he's returning to the kiss and definitely starting to let his hands wander and start working on Jacobi's clothing.

[mrballisticsdummy]

"It's been an hour," he protests when he can, though he knows very well that's not at all what he means. Jacobi feels it, too. Years of waiting. Years of deliberate teasing and frustration. Years of other people enjoying the person he loves while he's forced to watch. No more. His heart is hammering in his chest so hard that he's certain it might just leap out of his throat.

He runs hands underneath Kepler's shirt again, this time with the intention of taking it off. "You had to pick a day I wore buttons, didn't you?"