Space Warlocks, Sexy Professors, and Soup
Rusty
It wasn’t nothing. TheAviahadspiked 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 hadexperienced, 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 dosomething.
“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?
