Young Writers Society

Catching Boris out of the corner of his eye, Taber leaned down and whispered into Damascus's ear, "Do you want to go back to your dance partner? It's fine if you don't feel like it, but he looks like people look like when they're trying really hard not to be nervous, and I dunno what that's all about."

"Oh..." Damascus tore his gaze from Auryon, figuring that he should just give her some space, and glanced over at Boris, who was standing by Engel and indeed looking a bit troubled.

"I think- I think that would be a good idea, yes." He finally said, taking an unconscious and yet hesitant step forward.

After he had said it aloud, a sudden resolve filled him, and he strode purposefully across the room. The reasons he had been avoiding Boris were self-centered and ungrounded, he knew, and he didn't want something as trite as that to come between Boris' welfare.

As he approached, he pushed down his uncertainty and focused on his brothers with a clear gaze.

"Is everything alright?" He murmured softly.

"No, I'm alright." I told Damascus, automatically.

He had seen me. Why had he seen me?
That was not a fair question, when it was I who had watched him to begin with, but this prospect made me uneasy, all the same. I had gotten too close already, and still I was drawing him in, tangling the both of us up far beyond what could be safely undone.

But if there was even a chance that he could need me, as a brother, then what right had I to refuse him? Was it not my duty to offer him this, if nothing else?

I swallowed my apprehension, and looked up to meet his eyes.

"Forgive my intrusion, but, the way that woman circled you...

I won't ask what happened, only... how are you feeling?"

Damascus held eye contact with Boris as longs as he could, until it became unbearable and he had to break away. His gaze landed on his hands, which were twisted tightly together in front of him.

"I'm feeling fi-" he cut himself off from this lie, and in a much quieter voice, delivered an honesty. "...I'm a bit shaken up, really."

He let out a long breath and, with difficulty, looked up once more, a sad little smile tugging at his lips and begging for him to reassure Boris.

"It's nothing I can't recover from." He amended. "I'll just- have to tread lightly from now on, is all."

He didn't miss the twisted strain of his voice at the end of this, and the double meaning wasn't lost on him, either.

He carefully boxed this wrenching feeling away, and kept it safe for when he was stable enough to take it out and look it over again.

Kratzer put his hand to Damascus' shoulder. "Don't pay Apophis too much heed. She can't do much here and she can't very well follow you back to your own reality." He gave him a small, comforting smile, then glanced back towards Auryon. "I need to go make sure Auryon's alright. I'm sure Boris will take care of you." He gave him another smile before slipping across the floor to Auryon.

Hnnng. It had been a long time since he'd used the word, but 'frustrated' summed up Taber's thoughts about this conversation. There was an obvious tension between them - in their pauses, in their stammers, in their inability to look at each other. But he knew that he couldn't really do anything about it. He'd been in this kind of situation enough times to know that he'd scare them both away if he tried to pull them together (literally or otherwise). They cared about each other; a lot, from the looks of it. And they'd be the only people who could do anything about it.

Still, that didn't stop Taber from putting a hand on Damascus's shoulder and saying, "But we'll make sure you don't have to do that alone." He used the other hand to shrug. "Like, with our luck, this probably isn't going to be the last time we meet up, which is kinda neat. You're both pretty neat dudes."

Auryon surveyed her surroundings with the nervous demeanor, twitching at every unexpected sound like a startled songbird.

"Hey, schatz," Kratzer said softly as he approached and put a hand on her shoulder. "Are you alright?"

"I'm afraid," she murmured, stepping in towards him and putting her face against his chest. Her voice was hardly more than a trembling whisper.

The vampire wrapped his arms around her and held her close. "You're safe here. No one's going to hurt you. I promise."

"Don't leave me." There was a plaintive, almost begging tone to her voice.

"I'll be beside you through Hell and back again, be it frozen or filled with fire," he assured her.

Damascus smiled gently, a bit of the tension written in his expression fading at the wolf's hand and reassuring words.

"Thank you, Taber." He said softly. His gaze shifted between his and Boris'. "I dearly hope this isn't the last time we meet. Brothers, friends, companions. The company here is the finest I've ever had the pleasure of knowing."

I could not help him. I could not save him. I could comfort him, maybe. If I could give him even that, only that, if I could give him something good to take away from this, along with the memories of blood and deception, if I could be something, anything good for him... please.

"I feel the same way." I told Damascus, with no signs of my prior stammering.

"To meet you again, my brother, I feel truly blessed. For all that time has done to us, I find it difficult to hold anything against it, for days like this.

Whatever comes next, the past few hours alone were worth it."

Even if it was the last time.

"It was wonderful meeting you as well, Taber."

I scoffed and laughed, when I heard the words out loud.

"God. Why does this sound like a farewell, already?
We should be off pestering James with well-intentioned congratulations. He does not fall in love every day, and it is a miracle from heaven that so many of his brothers should be there to see it, and we've barely bothered him at all, in the grand scheme of things.

What do you say we go fulfil our brotherly duty?" I suggested, grinning wickedly.

"Oh! You can join us if you like, Taber. Today, you can be an honourary honourary brother."

"Oh," Taber said, "That'd be wonderful! Haha, I have lots of brothers and sisters, so what's a few more?"

"But of course," Damascus returned the smile, a sneaking feeling of relief filling him. "It is our duty, after all. Please do join us, Taber." He extended his smile to the wolf next to him, and gently linked an arm through one of his.

Taber nodded eagerly. "Let's do this!" he said

Hah. For most it would be unsafe to prod James so, but I was his brother, and there was nothing he could do about it. If I got on his nerves, what would he do? Un-swear?

Oh. He could do that. Bah, this was a special occasion! and surely he would not disown me in front of his lady. I approached, and greeted him with a wave, and a bright grin.

"James! James, how are you doing, you charmer, you. Knew you could do it."
I winked at him, and whispered non-discreetly. "Well done."

"Did you think you could get away without telling the story of how you met? Adorable.
But I'm sure you're dying to tell the story for your good old brothers. -And Taber. Everyone loves Taber."

The worries of Kratzer's demon companion and her mysterious existence and odd behavior were all but dispelled the moment Boris called him a charmer. James had to keep from cringing as he turned around to his brother.

He was expecting something like this eventually. Auryon had been a fortunate distraction, but it only delayed the inevitable. He wasn't going to pretend to enjoy the teasing, though. Not in front of Tasha, and not in front of his brothers. He was wearing a literal mask, but that didn't mean he had to put on another one underneath. That would be exhausting.

So he smiled, but it was strained, wholly insincere, and followed by a sigh.

"No. Of course," he said with a nod of his head towards Damascus and Taber as they approached. He looked over to Tasha, with whom his fingers were still intertwined. "She found herself in my world, by whatever magical phenomenon brought her there. At the time, I was taking refuge in the middle of a dense jungle that was the home of a very large beast called the Grangor. It'd been several months of attempting to escape it, but being alone and underfed left me underprepared to face a fierce feline predator probably four or five times my height. All that to say, it was a bad time. With that preface, then came in Tasha. It was raining, and I happened to see Tasha outside the cave, and invited her in for shelter. The short of the story is that together we slayed the Grangor and escaped that dreaded forest, and after a few days of travel, we ran into a few others who were in the same boat as her - people who'd been plopped into my world by whatever mythical means, who needed to get back to their homes. I found a way to get them home, but that's... besides the point."

"It would probably also be fair to mention that upon first meeting her, even though I was the only one in the forest for miles, by far, I'd... used a fake name. She found that out the hard way when some old enemies of mine ambushed us after our escape from the forest and called me by a different alias. Needless to say, she wasn't happy and there was a lot of rightly earned dirty looks thrown my way and a lot of tension at first. Obviously, we're past that now, but I was a paranoid fool and still am, so some things haven't changed."

Oh, people liked him? That was odd. It wasn't something he thought about too much. Taber pressed his paws against his mask, cheeks growing warm. He could only partly pay attention to James's long (and very good) story, choosing instead to step behind Boris and nod his head at the appropriate points.