Young Writers Society

"Hello, brother," I called out, my ailing nerves rejoicing at the prospect of more company. "It's been such a while, why don't you come join us, spend some time, before our host plays her next hand?

Auryon opened her mouth to protest before Boris spoke. Kratzer wove his way through the crowd and came over to his brother and his...comrade, for lack of a better word.

"It'd be my pleasure," he agreed, raising his glass.

"And then you owe me a dance, Silberfuchs," Auryon said, tipping her head back and gulping down the rest of her punch.

"Ja, ja," he waved her off. "How goes your night so far, Boris? Aside from the chaos."

"We do," Second confirmed, wrapping his arm around Lorcan's. Lorcan's mind immediately flashed back to that earlier moment where both had gotten flustered about people misunderstanding their relationship. He wanted to pull away, but knew that he couldn't do it without upsetting his best friend. And how could he ever do that?

"Lorcan's my best friend," Second declared, casually resting his head up against Lorcan's arm. Lorcan's face immediately turned a bright shade of red, but he couldn't risk trying to get space between him and Second. "We've known each other for years."

How was my night? Now that was a question.

I had doomed the one I held dearest to an eternity of mourning, the extent of which could never be fully comprehended by my mortal faculties, and the best that I could do for him was to be nothing more to him than all the countless other souls he had lost.

The closest thing in me that ever resembled hope had finally recognized itself for the farce that it had always been, and gave in to die.

"Oh, splen, splendid. It's been just, riveting. I'm dreadfully tired already, but I'll surely recover before much else occurs."

I used to be a good liar.

"But how, dear Engel, are you?"

Auryon raised an eyebrow and smirked, about to make a comment before Engel cut her off in his response to Boris.

"Ah, well, quite well, aside from the spontaneous deaths and being trapped in this rather curious building," he said. "Of all the places we could've been captured, I daresay this is far from the worst."

Damascus smiled brightly, truly warmed by this display. See? he thought to himself, best friends can be close and affectionate.

"That's wonderful. I'm happy you two have each other." He glanced around the room, a small smile still held on his lips. His spirits were already restored. "My dearest friends- brothers, really... I don't get to see them very often. As a matter of fact, it's been, oh, fifteen years since I've seen them last?"

A lot of things happened that James didn't have much time or the bandwidth to respond to. The moment Damascus hurried over to them, the conversation seemed to break off into several different pieces, none of which he knew how to follow, or desired to. He knew the polite thing to do would be to turn to Tasha and catch up with her, but at that moment, all he wanted to do was escape the crowd. Everyone felt very close, and suddenly he found himself wishing for another body to fall, for the lights to go out, or for something to happen to save him from the dreadful pause as he stared out into the crowd, somewhere between Tasha and Maahes, searching for socially acceptable words to say to start a conversation.

It would've been so much easier if he was just... pretending not to be himself. But Rendra made putting on an act impossible when she confirmed his identity - not that it would've helped. He had friends and people who knew him surrounding him. The mask was useless. They knew who he was.

He desperately grabbed at meaningless words.

"Well..." he started, giving Tasha and her friends a bow of his head. "How -uh- long have you been here?"

"Came over here the moment we, uh...appeared or...whatever," she answered. "So not long." She'd travelled with James enough to know that small talk was a) not his strong point and b) not something he reverted to unless he was desperate. She glanced back at Thana and Evron. "Feel free to wander. No fighting, please, and if there's trouble, holler." Now that her men had been dismissed, she turned back to James. "Want to go grab a drink?"

James let out a quiet sigh of relief and nodded. “I don’t drink if I can help it, but sure,” he said with a nod. “I’d personally like to remain sober for this event, but I’m sure they have water.“ He paused, looking up and over at Maahes. Wordlessly, he found himself asking for permission to depart from the group with a quick glance. He knew Maahes had Vala, and though he wanted to invite them both, he... well, he just wanted to not be with more than one person at the moment.

"As would I," she agreed. "But after drinking through most of my adolescence it'll take a helluva lot more than one or two to get me tipsy." Tasha wove through the crowd to the wall where the punch was, cocking her head at the strange red liquid. What in the stars' name was that?

I smiled at Engel, dead, ignoring it, and praying that he would, too.

"I'm very lucky, it's only my second inter-dimensional kidnapping, and it just so happens to be a party."

A party which required us to wear visual representations of secrecy and artifice, which was not clever the last time I thought about it, and was especially not amusing now. I did not approve of this trite symbolism, and I wanted God to know that.

"How many times has this sort of thing happened to you?" I asked both Engel, and Auryon.

"That's awhile," Second commented. He glanced back in the direction of the man Damascus had been dancing with earlier. "Is he one of your brothers, or are you in a relationship? You seem really close. I would guess that you're friends, but the way you were-"

Lorcan loudly cleared his throat.

"Second," he hissed, face steadily growing redder with each passing second, "we've danced like that before."

Second's eyes widened behind his mask.

"But we're just best friends," Second hurriedly said, glancing frantically between Damascus and Lorcan. When he realized that he was very, very close to said best friend, he stopped leaning his head on his arm. "R-Right, Lorcan? And b-besides, you like Juniper."

Lorcan blinked.

"What?" he asked. "No. I don't. What are you-"

"I saw you talking with her the other day," Second said. "You were talking about love. I overheard some of the conversation."

Lorcan frantically shook his head. "N-No. It wasn't like that, Second. We were talking about love, but it was different. We were just trying to figure out our feelings for other people, and trying to see what exactly the other person saw a crush as, since I've never really had someone I could rely on to teach me that information."

Second tilted his head ever so slightly to the side. "So do you have a crush, then?"

Lorcan's gaze dropped down to the ground; Second didn't know his face was capable of growing so red. "...Yes."

"Do I know them?"

"Y-Yes," Lorcan stammered. "Second, could we please change the topic?"

Damascus smiled, unfazed. He had long since collected and reassured himself, and so he reveled in the ease of answering this.

"Oh, Boris is one of my brothers. Or, rather honorary brother. He's also a friend." He clarified, feeling rather good about himself.

And then Lorcan and Second, who he had been comparing himself and Boris to, made something very obvious. With just a short conversation, he knew exactly what was going on between them.

Lorcan had feelings for Second, and Second remained oblivious to this fact.

With this revelation, Damascus' resolve deflated slightly. He gave a small sigh and hung his head. What was he going to do now? What should he believe?

Changing the topic. That was something he could do.

"Would you both like a drink?" He paused a moment, and his gaze wandered over to the table, where Boris, Engel, and a woman with red hair were standing. He balked. How could he have forgotten?

"I- or, nevermind, let's not."

Second, who was in fact very eager for a change in topic, was just about to nod when Damascus changed the topic a second time. He followed Damascus's gaze over to the drinks' table. There was Boris, the man he had been dancing with, and two other people. One of them had to be the reason for his change of heart.

Then he followed his gaze even further, and realized exactly who Damascus was looking at.

Boris was the reason for it.

They hadn't been arguing. It hadn't seemed like that from what he had overheard and seen out of the corner of his eye. So why was Damascus trying to avoid him now? He tried his best to come up with an answer, but it was more than a little difficult when the equally intriguing problem of Lorcan's red face was coming into question.

Second frowned and crossed his arms. He might have used this form on and off for years, but it wasn't what he had been born into. It was hard reading the expressions on human faces, and he often had to think about why someone's skin color suddenly changed. Red met anger and embarrassment. Lorcan wasn't angry; he rarely could get that way. So that meant he was embarrassed.

But embarrassed about what? Lorcan didn't usually get flustered. Even with Charlotte and the many mishaps that had happened since their arrival on Earth, he had never gotten this red. And when he had seen him talking to Juniper about love, he hadn't gotten red at all-

Oh.

Oh.

"D-Damascus?" he suddenly asked, hurriedly trying to change his train of thought.

Lorcan raised his head and glanced over at him.

"Do you like Boris?" Second blurted. Then he immediately regretted it; it was a good way to change the focus of the conversation, but it reminded him too much of his own situation with Lorcan. He couldn't...He couldn't have a crush on him, right?

...Right?

With a nod and a smile from Maahes, James released himself from the group to follow Tasha. He was a few feet behind her until he finally caught up, looking at the bowl of red juice - or whatever kind of liquid it was - that appeared to be some kind of foreign beverage. Not knowing whether or not it was alcoholic or not, he'd already chosen to keep from drinking it. He looked over to Tasha, raising a brow beneath his mask.

"Are you going to try it?"