Complex
Title: Complex
Chapter: 4
Length: 1852 words
Summary: The foundations of Hezekiel's world collapse
Both Hezekiel's parents use the singular they as their pronoun of choice.
Master list: lj DW
Hezekiel trudged up to Penelope's dorm room, straightened his shoulders, and knocked politely. Her roommate answered, but instead of calling Penelope like she normally did, she just smacked her gum and stared at him.
When he tried to look past her, she rolled her eyes. "Pen doesn't want to talk to you."
That wasn't right at all. "She does."
"The least you can do is acknowledged that you hurt her."
"I didn't do anything."
"Pen ran a marathon today, missing all her afternoon classes and dinner, then she fell into bed without even a shower. Not like her at all. Whatever you did must have been a doozy."
Hezekiel took in a deep breath. Penelope's sweat, but none of the idiot's, so perhaps he hadn't been lying. Hezekiel wanted to go in and check for himself, but if her guard dog called campus security on him, he'd been even worse off than he was now.
"I'll talk to her in the morning."
"You do that." The girl shut the door. People had no respect for demons anymore.
Hezekiel wandered the campus and found himself outside the idiot's dorm again. Which room was his? And were the sounds of sex coming from it?
He reigned in his temper. The very idea of anyone else touching Doll hurt more than the burns on his hand and arm. They just throbbed. Steele with his hands on Doll, Doll wanted it, hurt to his very soul.
Maybe he'd been wrong. Maybe Doll had been his true Mate all along. But then why did he felt the soul crushing need for Penelope?
~~~~
Hezekiel sighed as he arrived at his parents' door for their weekly family dinner. Last Thursday, he's brought Penelope over for the first time and now she wasn't talking to him. But staring at the door wasn't making any of his problems go away. Time to demon up.
"Salathiel, Cunobelinus, I'm home."
Cunobelinus looked up from the paperwork scattered table. "Alone?"
Hezekiel nodded.
Salathiel came in from the kitchen. "That's for the best. We have questions."
"Questions?"
"Like why did you smell like a young male familiar for so long, then introduce a young female wizard as your Mate?" He looked back into the kitchen. "Don't answer yet."
He hurried into the kitchen.
Cunobelinus stacked up the papers without looking up. "Set the table."
Hezekiel did. Normally his parents would joke with and tease each other. The most he got tonight, when Cunobelinus went in to help Salathiel, was a whispered, "I didn't raise him to be like this."
An eon later when food was set before Hezekiel, he wasn't hungry. Salathiel glared at Cunobelinus then put on a placid face. "Eat your dinner."
"Salathiel didn't slave over the fire for you to just stare at it."
Hezekiel looked back and forth between his parents. "But don't you like to cook?"
Salathiel laughed. Cunobelinus shook their head. "They hate cooking."
"But you can only cook the fancy stuff and desserts."
"And a growing demon can't live on foie gras and chocolate mousse alone."
"So I cook when you're home."
Hezekiel's world had shattered. "What do you do when I'm at school?"
"Eat out."
"Live on foie gras and chocolate mousse."
"Drink each other's blood in a pinch."
His parents said that like it was the most normally thing in the demon realm.
Cunobelinus grinned. "You only do that when you're mad at me."
"But Salathiel never gets mad at you."
Cunobelinus laughed loud and long. Salathiel scowled. "That's why I think we shouldn't have hid our relationship problems from him."
"You agreed at the time."
"At the time, I wasn't sure how long we were going to stay together. I didn't want to break his little heart until I'd packed."
"You packed every month."
"I kept a bag packed." Salathiel took a bite as if he wasn't throwing rocks into the rubble of Hezekiel's world.
"You." Hezekiel struggled for breath. "But you're Mates."
"That's what I said." Cunobelinus pointed his fork at Hezekiel before taking another bite.
"But…"
"Just because we're Mates, doesn't mean we both don't have hot tempers and strong personalities." Salathiel looked him over. "But I'm sure you know that, seeing that you're alone tonight."
Hezekiel looked at his plate. "Penelope isn't talking to me."
"What did you do?"
He looked up at his parents. They had to love him, right? No matter what he'd done. Right?
"I made a mistake about who my Mate was."
His parents looked at each other. Salathiel spoke first. "Your son seems to have a problem."
"He's my son now, is he? I seemed to recall he was your son when he graduated with honors."
Salathiel preened. "It was the angel blood showing through."
"Angel?" Where had that come from?
Salathiel closed his second set of eyelids. "Cunobelinus, this is your fault." He turned to Hezekiel. "As you may have noticed, our names end with iel, which is how most names end where I'm from in the demon realm."
"They call themselves angels." Cunobelinus rolled his eyes.
Salathiel ignored him. "Our wings are feathered."
Hezekiel thought back to the last time he'd brought out his wings. He didn't do it often, because the kids used to tease him, and really if magic could float you, why go through the effort of flying? His chest would hurt for days afterward.
"Mine are… feathered?"
Salathiel rolled his eyes. Cunobelinus laughed and pointed at Salathiel. Salathiel crossed their arms. "Better fluff up your pillow. You're on the couch tonight."
"Cunobelinus can't sleep on the couch."
Cunobelinus leaned back in his chair. "Done it hundreds of times."
"That's because you refuse to sleep in the guest room."
"But if I slept in the guest room, you'd have moved me in there. Hezekiel, remember when you were about ten and we stopped letting you leave your room at night?"
"That's because I was old enough to sleep alone."
Salathiel snorted. "It's because Cunobelinus didn't want you to see him sleeping on the couch. Remember the month you spent with Cunobelinus's parents?"
That had been his funnest summer ever.
Cunobelinus sighed. "It could have been longer than a month, but Salathiel finally agreed to move back home."
Hezekiel shot to his feet. "You moved out!"
"I went to visit," he used air quotes, "my parents."
"I wasn't sure I was ever getting Salathiel back." Cunobelinus put his hand on theirs. "But they finally forgave me enough to finish raising you."
"What did you do?"
"Something stupid."
Salathiel shook his head. "You are your parent's son." They took a deep breath. "Now what are we going to do about you?"
Hezekiel slumped back in his chair. "Nothing can be done."
"Start at the beginning."
Hezekiel took a deep breath. "Two years ago, I stopped in to see a friend teach, because my first TA class was starting the next term. I smelled something so good that I couldn't concentrate."
He went on about meeting Doll and quickly seducing him. He'd wanted to bring Doll to meet his parents, but everything was so new. "And by the time I'd decided to do it, you started dropping hints about how immature I was and how I couldn't handle a Mate, so I kept him away."
"Your son is an idiot."
"My son?" Cunobelinus shook their head. "I was trying to get you to prove me wrong."
"Instead he proved you right."
Cunobelinus put his hand over Salathiel's. "Perhaps we should cut our losses on this one and start over."
Salathiel pulled his hand away. "You're not saddling me with another eighteen years of dinners and placid faces when I want to strangle you. If you find a way to get pregnant again, this kid is going to know you sleep on the couch."
Hezekiel sat up. "Cunobelinus carried me?"
"Of course they did. Imagine me giving up my flat stomach." Salathiel shook their head. "Even for a few months. What do you take me for?"
Now that Hezekiel really thought, he couldn't imagine it. "But you fed me. Everyone called you my carrying parent."
"Cunobelinus is a terrible parent of a baby. They tried to feed you foie gras and my first day back to work, they ignored you the whole time I was gone: no food, no diaper changes, no cuddles. The spell they were working on took all their attention. You probably screamed the day through. If I wanted you to survive infanthood, I was going have to do everything myself. Which is why we aren't having any more."
"Salathiel darling, I was so young. I'm more mature now."
Salathiel turned to Hezekiel. "I raised an infant and a baby-adult. Two children were always going to be enough for me."
"Salathiel dearest, had I known-"
Salathiel raised a hand. "One more word about this tonight and I'll be the one finding another bed."
Cunobelinus clicked their teeth together. Salathiel watched them for a moment, then turned back to Hezekiel. "You haven't got to Penelope."
Hezekiel explained living with Doll, including some but not all of the things he regretted. Salathiel was wearing that placid face again. It no longer brought Hezekiel comfort.
Then he got to Penelope. "I saw her run by and I knew. I knew I had to be with her. She was the one for me. I followed her scent and flirted with her outside her dorm. Then I went home. To Doll. He smelled as good as he always did, but I wasn't getting the thrill I'd gotten with Penelope, so I told him it was over. I'd been mistaken."
Salathiel opened their mouth, shut it, then stood up and strode from the room.
Cunobelinus watched them go. They finally pulled their gaze back to Hezekiel and took his hand. "Had you gotten a thrill when you first met Doll?"
Hezekiel nodded. "And in the weeks since we've been apart, I've gotten hungrier and hungrier. Nothing feeds me like he did. Like his smile, the touch of his hand, his body beside mine."
"My poor boy. My precious little child." He pulled Hezekiel into his lap, making himself bigger until Hezekiel fit. "My son has made rather a bungle of things."
"And Penelope won't do more than kiss me. Wouldn't do more than kiss me. Now she's talked to Doll's new lover and she won't speak to me at all."
"New lover?" Salathiel's voice sounded odd When had they come back?.
"He's imperious to my magic and he wears a charm that does this." Hezekiel showed off his hand. Cunobelinus gently touched the places between the blisters. Four days of ointment had made them look a little better, but they still hurt like his broken soul.
"Hezekiel, you will stay here until that's healed. By then we'll know what to do."
Salathiel left again.
Hezekiel's eyes filled with tears. "He's mad at me."
Cunobelinus patted Hezekiel's hair. "I'm mad at you. He's mad at me. Let's give him a while to cool down, then I can teach you to grovel."
"Demons don't grovel."
"They do if they don't want to sleep alone."
Chapter: 4
Length: 1852 words
Summary: The foundations of Hezekiel's world collapse
Both Hezekiel's parents use the singular they as their pronoun of choice.
Master list: lj DW
Hezekiel trudged up to Penelope's dorm room, straightened his shoulders, and knocked politely. Her roommate answered, but instead of calling Penelope like she normally did, she just smacked her gum and stared at him.
When he tried to look past her, she rolled her eyes. "Pen doesn't want to talk to you."
That wasn't right at all. "She does."
"The least you can do is acknowledged that you hurt her."
"I didn't do anything."
"Pen ran a marathon today, missing all her afternoon classes and dinner, then she fell into bed without even a shower. Not like her at all. Whatever you did must have been a doozy."
Hezekiel took in a deep breath. Penelope's sweat, but none of the idiot's, so perhaps he hadn't been lying. Hezekiel wanted to go in and check for himself, but if her guard dog called campus security on him, he'd been even worse off than he was now.
"I'll talk to her in the morning."
"You do that." The girl shut the door. People had no respect for demons anymore.
Hezekiel wandered the campus and found himself outside the idiot's dorm again. Which room was his? And were the sounds of sex coming from it?
He reigned in his temper. The very idea of anyone else touching Doll hurt more than the burns on his hand and arm. They just throbbed. Steele with his hands on Doll, Doll wanted it, hurt to his very soul.
Maybe he'd been wrong. Maybe Doll had been his true Mate all along. But then why did he felt the soul crushing need for Penelope?
~~~~
Hezekiel sighed as he arrived at his parents' door for their weekly family dinner. Last Thursday, he's brought Penelope over for the first time and now she wasn't talking to him. But staring at the door wasn't making any of his problems go away. Time to demon up.
"Salathiel, Cunobelinus, I'm home."
Cunobelinus looked up from the paperwork scattered table. "Alone?"
Hezekiel nodded.
Salathiel came in from the kitchen. "That's for the best. We have questions."
"Questions?"
"Like why did you smell like a young male familiar for so long, then introduce a young female wizard as your Mate?" He looked back into the kitchen. "Don't answer yet."
He hurried into the kitchen.
Cunobelinus stacked up the papers without looking up. "Set the table."
Hezekiel did. Normally his parents would joke with and tease each other. The most he got tonight, when Cunobelinus went in to help Salathiel, was a whispered, "I didn't raise him to be like this."
An eon later when food was set before Hezekiel, he wasn't hungry. Salathiel glared at Cunobelinus then put on a placid face. "Eat your dinner."
"Salathiel didn't slave over the fire for you to just stare at it."
Hezekiel looked back and forth between his parents. "But don't you like to cook?"
Salathiel laughed. Cunobelinus shook their head. "They hate cooking."
"But you can only cook the fancy stuff and desserts."
"And a growing demon can't live on foie gras and chocolate mousse alone."
"So I cook when you're home."
Hezekiel's world had shattered. "What do you do when I'm at school?"
"Eat out."
"Live on foie gras and chocolate mousse."
"Drink each other's blood in a pinch."
His parents said that like it was the most normally thing in the demon realm.
Cunobelinus grinned. "You only do that when you're mad at me."
"But Salathiel never gets mad at you."
Cunobelinus laughed loud and long. Salathiel scowled. "That's why I think we shouldn't have hid our relationship problems from him."
"You agreed at the time."
"At the time, I wasn't sure how long we were going to stay together. I didn't want to break his little heart until I'd packed."
"You packed every month."
"I kept a bag packed." Salathiel took a bite as if he wasn't throwing rocks into the rubble of Hezekiel's world.
"You." Hezekiel struggled for breath. "But you're Mates."
"That's what I said." Cunobelinus pointed his fork at Hezekiel before taking another bite.
"But…"
"Just because we're Mates, doesn't mean we both don't have hot tempers and strong personalities." Salathiel looked him over. "But I'm sure you know that, seeing that you're alone tonight."
Hezekiel looked at his plate. "Penelope isn't talking to me."
"What did you do?"
He looked up at his parents. They had to love him, right? No matter what he'd done. Right?
"I made a mistake about who my Mate was."
His parents looked at each other. Salathiel spoke first. "Your son seems to have a problem."
"He's my son now, is he? I seemed to recall he was your son when he graduated with honors."
Salathiel preened. "It was the angel blood showing through."
"Angel?" Where had that come from?
Salathiel closed his second set of eyelids. "Cunobelinus, this is your fault." He turned to Hezekiel. "As you may have noticed, our names end with iel, which is how most names end where I'm from in the demon realm."
"They call themselves angels." Cunobelinus rolled his eyes.
Salathiel ignored him. "Our wings are feathered."
Hezekiel thought back to the last time he'd brought out his wings. He didn't do it often, because the kids used to tease him, and really if magic could float you, why go through the effort of flying? His chest would hurt for days afterward.
"Mine are… feathered?"
Salathiel rolled his eyes. Cunobelinus laughed and pointed at Salathiel. Salathiel crossed their arms. "Better fluff up your pillow. You're on the couch tonight."
"Cunobelinus can't sleep on the couch."
Cunobelinus leaned back in his chair. "Done it hundreds of times."
"That's because you refuse to sleep in the guest room."
"But if I slept in the guest room, you'd have moved me in there. Hezekiel, remember when you were about ten and we stopped letting you leave your room at night?"
"That's because I was old enough to sleep alone."
Salathiel snorted. "It's because Cunobelinus didn't want you to see him sleeping on the couch. Remember the month you spent with Cunobelinus's parents?"
That had been his funnest summer ever.
Cunobelinus sighed. "It could have been longer than a month, but Salathiel finally agreed to move back home."
Hezekiel shot to his feet. "You moved out!"
"I went to visit," he used air quotes, "my parents."
"I wasn't sure I was ever getting Salathiel back." Cunobelinus put his hand on theirs. "But they finally forgave me enough to finish raising you."
"What did you do?"
"Something stupid."
Salathiel shook his head. "You are your parent's son." They took a deep breath. "Now what are we going to do about you?"
Hezekiel slumped back in his chair. "Nothing can be done."
"Start at the beginning."
Hezekiel took a deep breath. "Two years ago, I stopped in to see a friend teach, because my first TA class was starting the next term. I smelled something so good that I couldn't concentrate."
He went on about meeting Doll and quickly seducing him. He'd wanted to bring Doll to meet his parents, but everything was so new. "And by the time I'd decided to do it, you started dropping hints about how immature I was and how I couldn't handle a Mate, so I kept him away."
"Your son is an idiot."
"My son?" Cunobelinus shook their head. "I was trying to get you to prove me wrong."
"Instead he proved you right."
Cunobelinus put his hand over Salathiel's. "Perhaps we should cut our losses on this one and start over."
Salathiel pulled his hand away. "You're not saddling me with another eighteen years of dinners and placid faces when I want to strangle you. If you find a way to get pregnant again, this kid is going to know you sleep on the couch."
Hezekiel sat up. "Cunobelinus carried me?"
"Of course they did. Imagine me giving up my flat stomach." Salathiel shook their head. "Even for a few months. What do you take me for?"
Now that Hezekiel really thought, he couldn't imagine it. "But you fed me. Everyone called you my carrying parent."
"Cunobelinus is a terrible parent of a baby. They tried to feed you foie gras and my first day back to work, they ignored you the whole time I was gone: no food, no diaper changes, no cuddles. The spell they were working on took all their attention. You probably screamed the day through. If I wanted you to survive infanthood, I was going have to do everything myself. Which is why we aren't having any more."
"Salathiel darling, I was so young. I'm more mature now."
Salathiel turned to Hezekiel. "I raised an infant and a baby-adult. Two children were always going to be enough for me."
"Salathiel dearest, had I known-"
Salathiel raised a hand. "One more word about this tonight and I'll be the one finding another bed."
Cunobelinus clicked their teeth together. Salathiel watched them for a moment, then turned back to Hezekiel. "You haven't got to Penelope."
Hezekiel explained living with Doll, including some but not all of the things he regretted. Salathiel was wearing that placid face again. It no longer brought Hezekiel comfort.
Then he got to Penelope. "I saw her run by and I knew. I knew I had to be with her. She was the one for me. I followed her scent and flirted with her outside her dorm. Then I went home. To Doll. He smelled as good as he always did, but I wasn't getting the thrill I'd gotten with Penelope, so I told him it was over. I'd been mistaken."
Salathiel opened their mouth, shut it, then stood up and strode from the room.
Cunobelinus watched them go. They finally pulled their gaze back to Hezekiel and took his hand. "Had you gotten a thrill when you first met Doll?"
Hezekiel nodded. "And in the weeks since we've been apart, I've gotten hungrier and hungrier. Nothing feeds me like he did. Like his smile, the touch of his hand, his body beside mine."
"My poor boy. My precious little child." He pulled Hezekiel into his lap, making himself bigger until Hezekiel fit. "My son has made rather a bungle of things."
"And Penelope won't do more than kiss me. Wouldn't do more than kiss me. Now she's talked to Doll's new lover and she won't speak to me at all."
"New lover?" Salathiel's voice sounded odd When had they come back?.
"He's imperious to my magic and he wears a charm that does this." Hezekiel showed off his hand. Cunobelinus gently touched the places between the blisters. Four days of ointment had made them look a little better, but they still hurt like his broken soul.
"Hezekiel, you will stay here until that's healed. By then we'll know what to do."
Salathiel left again.
Hezekiel's eyes filled with tears. "He's mad at me."
Cunobelinus patted Hezekiel's hair. "I'm mad at you. He's mad at me. Let's give him a while to cool down, then I can teach you to grovel."
"Demons don't grovel."
"They do if they don't want to sleep alone."