Page 14

Chapter six

Space Warlocks, Sexy Professors, and Soup

Rusty

It wasn’t nothing. The Avia had spiked Gem’s drink, and what followed was a terrible night of drama and dragging a drugged-out Gem back to Toni’s penthouse and barely sleeping because Oliver and Liel were getting frisky in the spare bedroom while Toni snored loudly from the main bedroom where Gem slept heavily.

In general, Rusty didn’t sleep a lot, but that night, he didn’t sleep a wink.

Lying on the couch in the fancy living room, he kept his ears trained on the bedroom door and his gaze on the ceiling until it started to lighten with the coming dawn. His eyes itched with the need for rest, but his mind was too stressed to allow it.

He knew what lay in store for Gem, and it made him want to claw the Avia’s eyes out.

Even after all this time, with everything Rusty had experienced, he couldn’t quite fathom how people could be so ugly.

The fact that Gem—who was everything good and bright in this gods-forsaken universe, even if Rusty would never admit it out loud—had been the victim of such evil somehow made it all the worse.

Saturday was worse than even Rusty expected. Because he’d never seen Gem like this. He’d seen Gem happy; he’d seen him annoyed. He’d seen him angry, drunk, and even sad. But Rusty had never seen Gem broken, and he felt like he was splitting apart right along with him.

“Is this what death feels like?” Gem asked from the ball of limbs and blankets he’d curled himself into. “Never mind, it’s worse. Even death would be better than this.”

Whining deep in his throat, Rusty crawled up onto the bed and carefully, so carefully, slipped his fingers into Gem’s curls.

Gem shuddered, then he groaned as Rusty’s claws scratched gently over his scalp.

Toni had left some time ago to get more medicine, and, though Rusty didn’t want to know what the Elas would do if he came back and saw Rusty and Gem sitting this close to each other, he didn’t push Gem away when the Araknis shifted just enough to lay his head on Rusty’s thigh.

“It gets better, right?” Gem murmured as Rusty continued to rub his head, unsure how to go about comforting him but knowing he had to do something .

“Yeah, it does,” Rusty said, and one, tiny eye blinked up at him. Something unsaid passed between them, and that eye filled with moisture. Because Gem was more perceptive than anyone ever gave him credit for, and without Rusty having to say it, he knew.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, and Rusty’s throat thickened.

He had to swallow several times before he managed to croak out, “Yeah, Gem, me too.”

This time, when Gem started to cry, Rusty had a feeling he wasn’t crying for himself. For some crazy, ridiculous reason, Gem was crying for him. And that more than anything made him want to scream.

After Gem bathed and fell asleep later that evening, Rusty headed home.

He was more tired than he’d been in a long time, and staying at Toni’s penthouse—with only the Elas who hated him as company—was not his idea of a good time.

He took refuge in his bedroom, engaging the deadbolt he’d installed to ensure his roommates couldn’t get in.

Then he collapsed into bed fully clothed and fell into a dreamless sleep.

He woke early and spent several hours working on the next chapter of his graphic novel. His followers expected monthly updates, and he was behind schedule. Not that it mattered in the grand scheme of things. It wasn’t like he got paid, but he didn’t want to disappoint his readers.

It had been a few years since he’d first posted a couple pages of his novel on a webtoon forum, and his following had grown substantially.

He had nearly ten thousand subscribers who read his stupid story about alien warlocks in space, though they knew him only as Rosheen—an English play on his last name, Róisyn.

Humans and Hellians alike loved his characters and his art, even if it was all in black and white.

“Retro,” some called it. Others said it was a “fresh take on noir,” though Rusty didn’t know what that meant.

He just liked drawing, and he’d found a way of sharing that with people who liked it too—while remaining anonymous and safe behind his tablet screen, of course.

As he was detailing Jewyl’s leg warmers, his phone vibrated on his side table, and he pushed his glasses up his nose and unlocked the screen. It was a message from Gem, and he set aside his tablet and opened their text chain.

Hey.

Hey. How are you feeling?

Like literal shit. But shit is better than death, so it’s an improvement.

Gem’s text was accompanied by a selfie of him looking like shit, though he was purposefully making a disgusting face, like he was about to vomit. Rusty chuckled and typed out a reply.

Hot. That should be your new Cock’d profile picture.

OMGs I would get banned immediately.

Wait, how do you know I’m on Cock’d? Are YOU on Cock’d? Ahhhh! I’m gonna search for your profile.

I’m definitely not on Cock’d. You showed me your profile once when you were drunk and asked how bone-able it made you look.

And?

Rusty snorted and sank lower against his headboard.

And what?

*annoyed emoji* And how bone-able am I?

Ew

Asshole!

He could practically hear Gem’s shriek of outrage as he sent numerous laughing emojis back.

I’m super bone-able, you know? I may not FEEL bone-able right now, but give me 24-48 hours and I’ll get there.

Still gross.

Gem replied with another selfie of him flipping the camera five middle fingers, and Rusty immediately made it Gem’s contact image. He screenshotted the update and sent it.

I love that so much! You need to send me a pic now, so I can give your contact an image.

No

Why are you always so contrary?

I’m not contrary.

Is this another attempt at being a comedian? It’s not cute.

Your face isn’t cute.

Words hurt, you know? Even untruthful ones. Don’t you know you should be kind to the infirm?

I don’t think untruthful is a word.

Eat my giant, sentient ass!

Instead of responding with words, Rusty snapped a quick selfie of himself pushing his glasses up with his middle finger as he glared at the camera. Before he could second-guess himself, he sent it.

It took Gem almost a full minute to reply. Text bubbles appeared, then disappeared. Then appeared again.

YOU WEAR GLASSES???????

Warmth prickled along Rusty’s scalp as he typed back.

Yes. I thought you knew that.

NO! I DID NOT!

Why are you yelling at me?

Because I am shooketh! You have shaketh’d me.

Again, not real words.

That is so clearly not important right now! Why don’t you wear glasses at work?

I dunno. They look stupid. I don’t like wearing them out in public.

The health of your eyes is more important than your pride. Either wear your glasses or get contacts.

NO contacts!

Oh, right. Your weird eye-thing. That’s okay. We can practice putting your contacts in together.

Hard pass.

Then wear your glasses!

They. Look. Stupid.

They absolutely do not look stupid. They look hot! That picture you just sent should be YOUR Cock’d profile picture.

And… Rusty did not know what to do with that. He stared at his phone, the word hot screaming at him. He shifted uncomfortably, checking his surroundings like he expected witnesses to start judging him, even though he was alone in his room.

He started, then deleted, a reply numerous times before finally settling on, “Now who’s the fucking comedian.”

I’m being serious. You look good in glasses. It’s giving… sexy professor. I kind of want you to give me detention.

Firstly, gross! Secondly, professors teach in uni, so I don’t think they give detention.

It’s my fantasy! If I want a sexy professor to give me detention and spank me with a ruler, then I deserve that.

I hate everything about this conversation.

You need to learn how to take a compliment.

And you need to keep me as far away from your weird fantasies as possible!

Ew, I’m not fantasizing about you. I was speaking more generally. Your glasses just offered inspiration.

I don’t want to inspire your fantasies, Gem!

Then don’t send me sexy pictures!

Since Rusty really didn’t know what to do with any of that, he simply replied with a middle-finger emoji before setting his phone aside and refocusing back on his main character’s leg warmers.

He hated feeling flustered, and he especially hated how easy it was for Gem to get under his skin and do the flustering.

Half the time, Rusty wanted to throttle him within an inch of his life.

The only reason he hadn’t done it was because he physically couldn’t reach Gem’s neck if he tried!

Another text came through, and Rusty groaned as he tucked his stylus behind his ear and picked up his phone.

Did I go too far? Are you mad? Sorry.

I’m not mad.

Promise?

With a harrumph, Rusty took another selfie, this one focused on his hand, pinky finger curled like he was offering Gem a pinky-swear, then typed out, “I promise.”

Gem’s response was a picture of him offering his pinky back, his face alight with a grin. His eyes were bloodshot still, and he looked exhausted. But the smile was genuine and bright. It settled something in Rusty’s chest.

Good. Now I gotta go. I’m trying to convince Toni to stop mothering me long enough so I can go home.

He was really worried about you. We all were.

And I appreciate it, but it’s getting a bit smothering. So now I just wanna go home and suffer on my couch. Maybe watch The Stranger by the Shore to make myself feel better.

That brought Rusty up short.

You watch anime?

Um, duh! BL is my jam. Do you like it? You should come over and watch with me! Toni doesn’t like anime, so I always watch alone.

We probably watch different kinds of anime. Ever seen Chainsaw Man ?

No. Is it sexy?

Depends on what you define as sexy, I guess. It’s mostly violent and bloody.

Oh… I mean, I’d give it a try. I’m open to expanding my anime tastes.

So I’ll watch a BL with you, then you’ll watch Chainsaw Man with me?