by Aidan Wayne
The tea did, thankfully, take effect soonish, which helped a lot with the pain and most of the nausea, but also made Darren kind of want to spend hours staring at the cracks in his ceiling. He had vague memories of doing that exact thing when he was twelve, which might have freaked out his parents and also might have been the reason why magic pain tea was a rare-occasion thing.
He honestly had no idea how long he had been staring into space when his phone rang, startling him enough to make him jump. He flailed to answer it but got his hands tangled in his blanket on the way, and then someone else turned it off.
“Hello, Mrs. Qh’lothital.” That did not sound like someone had turned off his phone.
He squinted. Vlad was in his phone. No, his room. Vlad was in his room.
“That’s my phone,” he said. “You have your own, now.”
Vlad quirked his lips at him, in the way he did when something was amusing but he didn’t feel like going for a full-on smile. “I just, um, stayed after Tabitha sent me over…. He’s doing fine,” he said to the phone. “I was going to try to have him eat something soon.”
“You can’t feed my phone anything,” Darren said. “It gets plugged in.” It was important for Vlad to know this.
Lip-quirk again. “A little out of it, I think, because of the tea.” Pause. “I can do that. Of course…. It is no trouble. I was not busy… after he eats, I think. Yes, ma’am. Okay. Goodbye.”
Darren stared at Vlad as he set the phone back down on Darren’s night table. “What do you think?” Vlad asked. “Could you eat something?”
Darren blinked at him. “Didn’t you leave after the tea?”
“I was already here,” Vlad said, shrugging. “So I thought I might keep you company. It is not fun, being sick and also alone.” He quirked his lips again. “Even if you want to be left alone.”
“To die,” Darren said solemnly. “That part’s important.”
“Of course,” Vlad said. “How could I forget. Now, food? I could bring you something, or we could go to the kitchen…?”
Darren extricated himself from his tangle of blankets. “Kitchen. I’m going to drown myself in nectar. Also potato chips.” He stopped, looked at his floor. “Where’d my sheet go?”
Vlad averted his eyes. “I, ah, I filled the bathtub with cold water and put it in to soak.”
“Okay,” Darren said. “Cool. Kitchen. Nectar. Potato chips. Plan.” He wiggled his fingers and almost face-planted into his doorjamb. “Bluh. No pain good, no brain bad.” He shot Vlad another questioning look as they—carefully—made their way down the stairs, Vlad maybe hovering to make sure Darren didn’t slip and kill himself for real. “Why are you still here, again?”
“Because clearly you needed someone to be,” Vlad said, voice wry as he led Darren into the kitchen, a hand on his back.
“Not true,” Darren said, going straight to the refrigerator. He stared at it for a minute before remembering he needed to open it to get inside. “Not this bad usually. It’s the tea.”
“And before that, you were in a great deal of pain,” Vlad said.
“Pain happens,” Darren said, triumphantly pulling out a half-full pitcher of nectar. “All the time. Also monthly. Sucks. I deal.” He looked at the pitcher and frowned.
“You need a glass,” Vlad said, holding one up. Darren made grabby hands at it.
Vlad shook his head. “Perhaps I should pour. You can get your potato chips.”
Darren shrugged because, all right, potato chips were a good idea. He gave the pitcher to Vlad and went over to the pantry.
Vlad had to come get him a minute later. Darren had gotten distracted by the silver foil on the bag and was using it to move a patch of light around on the floor.
“Why don’t we go to the living room,” Vlad suggested. He sounded like he was trying not to laugh. “Maybe watch some television?”
Darren put a hand on Vlad’s shoulder. The one not holding the chips. “That,” he said, “is an excellent idea. Let’s do it.”
They plopped on the couch in the living room, Vlad picked something to watch because Darren seriously couldn’t care less, and Darren took turns drinking nectar and eating chips. At some point, Vlad got up and made Darren eat some toast and jam. At some other point, Darren fell asleep.
He woke up with his face mashed into Vlad’s thigh, way more lucid, though, thankfully, still fairly pain free.
“Oh man,” he said, gingerly sitting up. “I am so sorry.”
“For what?” Vlad asked. He’d gone and gotten Darren’s World History textbook, and was paging through it, the nerd. “How are you feeling?”
“Way better. Still hurts but so much less. Also I can think straight, so that’s cool. That’s a cool thing. What are you still doing here? What time is it?”
“It’s a little after one,” Vlad said. “And it’s not a big deal. I’m doing the same thing I would be doing at home: watching television, studying.”
Darren rubbed at his face. He needed some water. Also a bathroom. And he probably needed to empty his cup. He always bled heavy the first couple days. “Hold… all of those thoughts,” he said. “Be right back.”
“Mm.” Vlad turned his attention back to the textbook.
“Okay,” Darren said, upon his return as he sat back down on the couch. He folded his hands together and looked at Vlad, making sure he had his attention. “First of all. Thanks.”
Vlad blinked at him. “You are welcome.”
“I mean it,” Darren repeated. “Thanks. I am grateful to you, for this. Okay?”
“Okay,” Vlad said, brow furrowed.
“Second of all,” Darren said. “Why? I mean,” he added, at Vlad’s face, “I just—you didn’t have to. I know I probably looked pathetic, but I do go through this every freaking month. You didn’t have to feel obligated or anything.”
“I just wanted to help,” Vlad said. “You help me all the time.” He shrugged. “I did not think it was a big deal.”
Darren looked at him for a long moment before he nodded. “Okay,” he said. “I mean, far be it from me to keep you from playing nursemaid if you want.” He yawned and rubbed at his arms. “It’s only the first couple days that it’s really bad, anyway, so at least there’s that. I’m lucky. I’ve heard that some people hurt the entire time. I don’t even want to imagine how much that must suck.”
“Aren’t there… things you can take to stop them?” Vlad asked. “Medicines? Something?”
Darren sighed. “Plain humans, yeah, there’s stuff. A lot of girls go on birth control, yadda yadda. And guys in my situation have hormone blockers, or testosterone or something, but I can’t take any of that stuff. They’re all made for humans. My body basically considers them poison and tries to heal them out of me.”
“Oh,” Vlad said, frowning. “So… what are you going to do?”
“You mean long-term?” Darren shrugged when Vlad nodded. “More of the same, probably; bleed freely and glamour. Same thing any guy does when they can’t or don’t want to take meds. At least I can glamour—that’s something right there that helps a lot.” He leaned back on the couch, crossing his arms behind his head. “There’s a ritual that I can have performed to change my body over, but it’s really long and complicated and requires like, two liters of my blood collected over various months at different times, and I can’t even start it until I turn eighteen. Because of ‘government bylaws of adulthood and magic safety.’ Also it’s kind of dangerous, and the results aren’t definite.” He splayed his legs out and slouched farther into the couch cushions. “Same as with modern medicine, I guess. I’m still not sure if I plan to do it. Periods suck, but I can deal, and like I said, I’ve got the glamour. I mean, I want top surgery one day, but even that is going to be tricky, since I can’t take most anesthesia. Still, stupid fae genes aside, I’m pretty happy the way I am, considering what I’ve got.”
“That’s really good,” Vlad said after a moment.
“Mm-hm,” said Darren.
“Besides, it’d only really matter if, you know, I wanted to date someone. I can’t glamour up a penis.”
“That shouldn’t matter,” Vlad said sharply.
Darren raised an eyebrow. “Matters to a lot of people, Vlad, dunno if you noticed.”
“Did….” Vlad searched Darren’s face. “Did someone you date…?”
“Ha! Nah, nothing like that. I haven’t dated anybody yet,” Darren said breezily. “I’m living vicariously through Beth and Trish right now. Mostly Trish. Haven’t really been into anyone, which is good since no one’s really been into me.” He was trying for light, but he knew he sounded kind of wistful. “There was one guy back in like, the eighth grade who had a crush on me, but… turned out that he thought I was a girl. So no. And he got all mad after the not-a-girl thing came up. I was pretty mad too. I mean, I thought he knew I was a guy, so. It wasn’t fun.”
“You would have reciprocated if he had known you were male?” Vlad asked, sounding careful.
Darren shrugged. “I dunno. I was like thirteen. He did give me chocolate once,” he added with a grin. “So maybe? That’s how all good relationships start, right?”
“With… chocolates,” Vlad repeated.
Darren raised an eyebrow. “You’re not gonna be weird over the me being bi thing, are you? ’Cause that’d be pretty dumb. Also, so’s Trisha. And you can’t hate her she’s nice.”
“Wha—no!” Vlad glared, insulted. “No, of course not. That is fine. Your preference is your preference.”
Darren looked at him before nodding. “Okay. Cool. Anyway, now it’s a little more obvious that I’m, you know, me, so no mistakes. But I’ve got a plan for when I start dating anyway.”
“Oh?”
“Mm-hm. I’m going to make sure they’re into guys first. That way I know they’re into me. Obviously I’ve got nothing against anything else, duh, but….” Darren swallowed. “I don’t want someone to be attracted to the wrong… person. Especially since I’ve, you know, got different parts.”
“But it would still be you,” Vlad said. “Wouldn’t it?”
“You’d think so,” Darren said. “But… some people have… uh, preconceived notions and stuff. I—” He cut himself off. “Look,” he said, voice a little lower, “what I am about to tell you I have never told anyone else, you got that? Not even Beth and Trish. Especially not Beth and Trish. So it is a total and complete secret that I am trusting you with here.”
Vlad nodded quickly. “I will not tell a soul.”
“And you… you can’t make fun of me for it either,” Darren said after a moment. “Not—just no, okay? It’s not a big deal but… no. Okay?”
“I wouldn’t,” Vlad said. “Ever. Whatever it is. I promise.”
“Okay.” Darren looked at Vlad and then glanced away, letting out a breath. “Here goes. Last summer I went on a fae-circle exchange for a month. Sort of an in-depth training camp for kids that have fae blood in them. I could glamour by then, had been doing it for a while already but, you know, fae kids, fae teachers, all with different power levels. It was kind of a mishmosh of people who could see through it. It wasn’t too bad. I mean, my parents made sure I was put in the right bunk, that the right name was on all the paperwork. I made a couple of friends that I still keep in touch with bemoaning our stupid fae genes. Anyway. I—there was one girl a couple of cabins down. My group and hers had plant communication class together, and she was tops while I was the worst at it, so we got paired together a lot. And we got to talking, since, you know, I talk, and then she offered to help me on our downtime.”
Darren shifted on the couch, leaning forward a little, hands between his knees. “Anyway, she, uh, she was my first kiss. And it was really nice, and she was really pretty, and I was super happy that this cool, pretty girl was into me, especially with the—” He waved a hand at his chest. “We hung out a lot, talked… it was nice. I thought, ‘hey, look at me, being all normal’ you know? So a couple days before the end of camp, we, uh, we snuck out to one of the nature clearings, to—take advantage of our last few days together, right? So we’re kissing, and then she… uh. She dispelled my glamour.”
Vlad’s face was doing something complicated. “She—”
“Dispelled my glamour,” Darren said again, before Vlad could finish. “It’s usually a lot harder to take glamour off another person, but I told you, I’m not, uh, very good at it. And I was worse at it then. And she smiled at me and said she was sorry, that she knew I liked the tomboy look, but looking through the glamour was giving her a headache. And then she tried to kiss me again.” He was still looking at the floor. “So like I said, it wasn’t—it wasn’t a big deal but… I’m not doing that again. I’m not gonna feel that way again. So. Yeah. I ever date someone, I’m gonna be sure they’re into guys. Even if I have to look them in the eye first and outright ask.”
“I’m sorry that happened to you,” Vlad said eventually.
Darren shrugged a shoulder. “Yeah, well. Learning experience, right?”
The silence that spread was awkward and sad, and for once it was Vlad who rushed to fill it. “My first kiss wasn’t good either. I mean. It’s not a good… memory. The kiss was fine.” Darren nodded, interested like he always was when Vlad talked about himself. Vlad continued. “We were at my home on a project for school. We had liked each other for a while, I think. But my parents caught us. They were not… happy.”
Darren winced. “Oh man, that sucks.”
Vlad nodded. “They kept me at home for two weeks. I wasn’t even allowed to go to school.”
“What? Why? Oh my god, you weren’t kidding. That’s awful. They house arrested you for kissing someone?”
Vlad tried for a wry smile. “As I said, not a happy memory.”
“No kidding. Wow, okay, well this is morose. I vote for a change of topic.”
“If you’d like,” Vlad said. They sat in silence for a moment longer before Vlad quirked his lips and held up the history textbook. “We could always use this time for you to get more studying in.”
“Oh my god,” Darren groaned. “You are actually the worst.”
DARREN WAS feeling better the next day, mostly because he had the warning to keep himself dosed up on his herbals in advance. School wasn’t the greatest, but he was able to deal all right, and the hands-on magic classes were a good way to expend some of the pent-up energy that wouldn’t stop for some reason.
Vlad still came over after school, though, to check on him, which Darren thought was totally uncalled for, but nice. And he brought a bar of dark chocolate with him too, which hello, yes, this was a good week for chocolate.
Vlad also tried to get Darren to pay attention to physics, which was less fun but no less appreciated. He was taking his makeup test tomorrow at lunch and could probably stand another review.
They were flopped on Darren’s bed, heads together as Darren worked his way through a word problem, when he jerked up into a sitting position, cutting himself off.
“Hold up, wait, wait, shhhh!”
Vlad stilled.
“Did you feel that?” Darren asked.
“Feel what?” Vlad whispered, looking from side to side. “What’s wrong?” His voice had gotten higher, scared, and Darren felt a spike of rage at the vampire who’d turned him, even amid his excitement. If he ever met her, he’d—he’d—
Well, he didn’t even know what he could do, but he’d make sure it was awful.
Maybe he’d feed her garlic.
He quickly held up a hand, and Vlad obligingly fell silent. And he only looked, like, half trepidatious now, props to him. There was a faint boom of thunder, and Darren leaped to his feet.
“Yes, thunderstorm yes yes yes! Oh man, finally!” He grabbed at Vlad and pulled him up. “C’mon, we gotta go outside. Come on come on come on!”
Vlad actually allowed himself to be manhandled out of the room and down the stairs, probably too concerned by Darren’s weirdness to do anything, but if it was getting them outside f
aster, Darren didn’t care. He ran to the back door and flung it open. The only thing that stopped him from leaping out was Vlad, who had grabbed a handful of Darren’s shirt. “Oof strong, yes, okay, I’m stopped, what is it, hurry up, I’m gonna miss the storm!” He flailed a little, trying to will himself onto the porch.
Vlad raised an eyebrow. “It hasn’t even started to rain yet. What is going on?”
“Not just rain, thunderstorm!” Darren emphasized the importance of this by pointing outside, where the sky had darkened promisingly. “Lemme go, it’s gonna start, c’mon Vlad!” He twisted around enough that Vlad either had to maybe choke him or let go. Vlad released his shirt.
“Will you explain?” he asked, following Darren out of the house. There was another crack of thunder, and Darren was pretty sure his grin had taken over his face.
“Sure, sure, in a sec, lemme just—”
Vlad shrugged, and Darren took that as permission, making a beeline off the porch and into the backyard. He stood there and beamed at the sky for a second before realizing that Vlad had stayed outside and was watching him, expression unreadable.
“Rain makes everything happy,” Darren tried to explain, breathing in the atmosphere. “And thunderstorms are just—it’s just power, you know? It covers everything, washes it down, and it’s wet and messy and awesome.” He might’ve possibly sighed that last sentence out, sounding a bit too lovestruck but whatever. Vlad had already judged him on everything else.
“It is… a big deal to you, I see,” Vlad said, voice hesitant.
“This one’s the first thunderstorm of the year! It’s been a long time coming too—we should have had one back in, like, April. I have actually been going a little bit crazy. Oh man, I’ve been buzzing for weeks. I bet it’s gonna be a doozy.” He beamed up at the sky again and was rewarded with another loud peal of thunder, right overhead. “Oh man, okay, yes, here it comes!”
The skies opened up and drenched him. It was awesome. Darren threw out his arms and laughed and spun in a circle and grinned up at the sky and got well and truly soaked. The crackle of energy he’d been carrying around finally let loose, wind whipping up around him and blowing water around wildly as the whole backyard garden writhed. Vlad didn’t brave the storm, but he sat down on the porch and stayed outside, alternating between watching Darren and the rain.