Title: The Hunter and the Hunted 16/?
Title: The Hunter and the Hunted 16/?
Part 16: “Ain’t Afraid of the Shadows”
Authors: art_of_mayhem and candygramme
Rated: R for language and M/M canoodling.
Pairing: Dean Winchester/Alex Krycek
Spoilers: Vague for the X-Files “Terma” and “Requiem”
Warning: Slash
Word count: 2,767
Disclaimer: Dean and his family belong to Eric Kripke and Supernatural, and Alex belongs to Chris Carter and the X-Files. We own nothing. We are doing this for love and not money.
Author’s notes: After losing contact with each other during the time Sam was at college, Alex and Dean meet again, but now Sam is back and dad’s gone missing.
The quoted song is “I Ain’t Superstitious,” by Megadeth.
The beautiful icon is by art_of_mayhem.
Part 15
Part 14
Part 13
Part 12
Part 11
Part 10
Part 9
Part 8
Part 7
Part 6
Part 5
Part 4
Part 3
Part 2
Part 1
~~~~~~~oo(O)oo~~~~~~~
I ain't superstitious,
When a black cat crosses my path.
And, I ain't superstitious,
As I break the looking glass.
Ain't afraid of no demons,
Don't make me laugh!
I ain't superstitious,
Under the ladder I go.
I ain't superstitious,
It's all bulls**t, don't you know!
Ain't afraid of the shadows,
I like the dark anyway, and that's a fact!
Outside, Sam had found Dean leaning up against his car, brooding.
"Dean? Dean, I'm sorry."
Dean had his arms crossed, the distress on his face evident as people passed him by on their way into the diner. Green eyes stared at his watch, seeing anything but the time. He didn't even raise his head when Sam came out; it wasn't till his brother spoke that he stirred.
Dean pushed away from the car with a graceful motion, dropping his hands, he looked past Sam to see if Alex was coming. "Yeah, whatever. Is Alex paying for the check? He did say he was buying." He turned away, digging in his pockets for his keys.
"Yeah, guess so." There was silence between the two of them, then Sam said, "He told me to come say I was sorry. He didn't follow me or anything, so I guess we're good." He studied Dean's closed face, wondering what was going through his mind. "Look, Dean, you have to admit that this is a new departure for you, isn't it? Who is he? Why did you trust him? I thought you were into girls...?"
Dean pulled his keys out and just looked at Sam. "You don't know, do you? You’ve never even cared to get to know me. The whole world revolved around you. Didn't matter what was going on around you." He looked down at his keys then back to Sam. "You wanna know why I trusted him? Because I found him in a silo, scared, dirty, needing protection. And I took care of him. The fucking sad thing about that is, at first I did it because, well because I saw you in him. Those same puppy dog eyes you used to give me. That same pleading voice that just..." Dean looked away. "But I fell in love with him. I fell in love with him because he loved me for me. He was the first person that didn't abandon me. Didn't push me away. That actually gave a rats ass what I thought. What I wanted. Me. Not himself. Me." He gave a shrug of his shoulders, "It's all I ever wanted. From you. From dad. But you two..." He shook his head, "It was always about you two."
There was a long pause. Sam really didn't know what to say, how to answer his brother. All he could concentrate on were those words of his. 'I fell in love with him.' Dean loved this knife-wielding smartass with the green eyes and the missing arm, and at the end of everything, Sam adored his brother and wanted him to be happy.
"I didn't know," he said, softly. "You really love him, eh?"
Dean looked down, fiddling with his keys, "I do love him." He mumbled the words out with a nod, "But I love you too, Sam." Looking up at his little brother, Dean’s eyes showed the meaning behind his words. "And I'm not going to choose between you two, if that is what you are expecting. I’d rather be unhappy than hurt either of you."
"Jeez, Dean, it's been so long that it was just us. I don't even know how to share you with anyone else." Sam smiled sadly. "Guess I have to, don't I?" He hugged himself as if he were trying to come to terms with an entirely new idea and finding it difficult. "Okay, I'll give it a try. I can't say that I'm going to find it easy, but I'll try." He was about to go back to the diner to summon Alex, when the door opened, and the one armed man appeared in the doorway, face schooled into a polite mask.
"A thought occurs," said Sam quickly as Alex started walking over towards them. "Does Dad know? Are you going to tell him? I'd like to be a fly on the wall when you have that conversation."
Dean knew he should reassure Sam that he was his brother, his first love. He would always love him because blood bound them together, but Sam had hurt him so many times in the past as had his father. So he swallowed the words back, keeping them to himself. Instead he sighed through his nose and lifted his head until he could look at Alex.
He murmured words to himself, not really caring if they were heard or not, and met Sam’s eyes, a bland expression on his face. "What difference would it make? Just another disappointment for him, because let’s face it, I'm not you and therefore not perfect." He pulled the door open as he spoke, the creaking of it covering up most of what he said. "Get in the car you two," he growled as he turned the motor over, getting ready to put it into gear.
Sam looked stricken as he got into the car, as usual sitting in shotgun position. He didn't make any further move to comment on Dean's last words, but they left him looking very thoughtful indeed.
Alex was cheerful as he hopped into the back seat and passed Dean a cardboard cup of coffee. "I didn't think you'd had quite enough, so I brought you this in case," he said, smiling fondly at his lover. "Let's go find the fairies, shall we?" He settled himself back against the upholstery and prepared to enjoy the scenery as they hit the road.
Dean couldn't bring himself to look at Sam as he heard the two car doors shut. They were solid thumps of metal to old metal closing them in symbolically. Dean was backing the car out as Alex passed the coffee forward, and he smiled, glancing at his lover in the rear view mirror. "Thanks. Still remember how I took it?" he asked, putting the car into drive before taking a sip. Alex had indeed remembered. Dean had to give him a warm smile.
"We'll stop by our rooms first, get our stuff and go," he commented, heading back towards the motel to make that stop. It wasn't long before the car was loaded down with his and Sam's bags along with additional ones from Alex.
Northern California was soon left behind, and Alex dozed as the car ate up the miles on their way to Kingfisher, Oklahoma. The driving was shared between Sam and Dean, neither thinking that a one armed man could handle the vehicle, much to Alex's disgust. It was late afternoon on the third day when they finally arrived where they were going and checked into a motel.
Alex was tired, his back kinked from lack of exercise, and he wondered if Dean would stay with Sam that night, or come to his bed.
Dean was stretching his back, working the kinks out after he’d tossed his bag onto one of the beds. He was mentally bemoaning the fact that there wasn't a room with three beds, although he could have asked for one to be brought in. Instead, he’d settled for two rooms again because he couldn’t quite bring himself to trust the two loves of his life to be in the same room. And that was yet another thing to pity himself over.
"Hey, Sammy, why don't you check the internet see what you can come up with on fairies, I'm gonna go check on Alex, see how he is settling in." He pulled open the door and paused, looking back at his brother. Sam seemed to be ignoring him at the moment, so he headed out, making the short trek to the room next door. With a quick tap upon the door, Dean walked in.
"Hey you one armed bandit," he said with loving affection in his tone, "How you feeling?" He closed the door behind him, gazing at his green eyed lover, a teasing smile on his face.
"Horny," murmured Alex, looking up and smiling as Dean appeared. "How're you doing?" He rose to his feet and sauntered over to push Dean back against the door and capture his mouth in a long, sweet kiss. "I'm sorry about the altercation with your baby brother, love," he murmured against Dean's lips. "I promise not to rise to the bait again. Want me to come round to your room and bond, or do you want us to stay separated for the sake of your sanity?"
Dean stepped back, hands reaching behind him to feel for the door. Once he’d come into contact with it, his arms rose around Alex, and he opened his mouth to return the kiss with one that was just as sweet, just as lazy and long. He moaned softly as Alex pulled back, gazing with half closed eyes at his lover. He raised his hand to brush through Alex's hair and gave a chuckle, "Sanity, right!"
Alex laughed and took Dean by the hand, leading him over to the bed and patting it invitingly as he sat down. "If anyone ever told me that I'd be playing third wheel to a pair of brothers out fairy hunting, and enjoy it, I think I'd have shot them, but my babushka used to tell me about the fairies around Lake Baikal, where she came from. She said that they would come out at night and dance by the lake, and I believed her, ‘til I grew too cynical." He smiled at Dean and nudged him. "Then I realized that I was one myself!"
Dean followed Alex over, sitting next to him. Now Alex had really piqued his interest, and he shifted, folding a bent leg under him to face Alex more easily. "Really, what else did she say about them? I should get Sam to look up that lake. You know really... Fairies are not something I know about. Zombies, werewolves, shape shifters, strigas... I can handle. Every time I think of a fairy, I think of Tinkerbelle. Damn, I always wished she was bigger." He smirked at Alex and waggled his eyebrows.
"I don't know if Russia has the same kind of fairies as Oklahoma," said Alex. "I know about the striga - we have those back in the old country, but I'm not sure about fairies. They apparently take a liking to a mortal from time to time and lead the mortal away, bemuse them and keep them until they tire of them. I know that for every year they are with the fairies, seven years pass by on earth, so when they come back all that they knew has changed, and they've been forgotten." He scratched his chin as he thought. "And they dance in a ring, so if you fall asleep in a fairy ring the fairies will claim service from you." Shrugging, he smiled at Dean. "That's pretty much what I know."
Dean had sat the whole time just watching Alex's lips move and how his lashes closed over his eyes when he blinked, how those little lines at the corner of his eyes would appear when he smiled. Watching Alex, to Dean, was like watching a train wreck - he knew it was gonna be bad but he just couldn't look away.
"Yeah, I know about strigas - too much so," he mumbled, looking up at Alex, wondering if he would ever tell this man about the things he’d seen. "Well, I guess we should head over to the computer and see what we can dig up. That is unless you’re too horny to go?" Dean smirked as he stood up.
"You want a little something to take the edge off, baby?" asked Alex, voice husky, "...or is the knowledge that tonight I'm gonna screw you until you think that my name is Jesus Christ something you want to anticipate?"
Alex smirked. "Personally, I kinda like the idea of you anticipating. You should see yourself when you get horny. Your eyes glaze over and you radiate sex. If I could bottle that and sell it, I'd be a fucking millionaire." He rose to his feet and pulled Dean to him, kissing him hard. "So I vote for unrequited passion, and give you time to think about the things I'm gonna do to you, when you and I get into bed tonight."
Dean raised his eyebrows, looking at Alex. He swallowed as his body tingled from the mere thought of Alex doing just that. God but the man could twist up his insides almost as badly as Sam. Dean closed his eyes for a moment, and he seemed to have that look when he opened them back up. Kissing Alex, he let a bit of his hunger show through.
Dean sighed softly, nodding at him, "Okay, I know you are a glutton for punishment," he smirked as he ran a hand down Alex's back, "But don't think I'll make it easy for you. You gonna make me wait, I'm gonna make it so you can't." He leaned in to kiss Alex again, but before their lips could meet, Dean pulled back, winked then turned and pulled open the door.
Dean sauntered his way over to the next room, opening the door and smelling coffee brewing. Damn but Sam knew his weakness for coffee; he knew - none better - that having coffee ready could make Dean smile and more. "You’re brewing my song, little bro." Dean walked over, smacking Sam on his butt as he grabbed a cup to pour himself some coffee. "So what are we finding on the computer besides porn?"
"Got some reports about the teens that disappeared," said Sam, turning the laptop to face his brother. "They were all messing with séances and stuff, Dean. Looks like they summoned up something that they shouldn't. One of the kids reappeared a couple of days later, but he doesn't seem to remember anything about the day they all disappeared."
"You got any addresses?" Alex was the one speaking. "Maybe the kids kept diaries or blogs or something. If we can run those to earth, we might be able to find out more."
Sam hadn't thought about blogs, although he did have the home addresses, after hacking into the high school computer. Reluctantly he nodded at Alex. "Good thought," he said, turning the computer round again and starting to type.
Dean was sipping his coffee, watching his brother work his magic on the computer. "I think we should pay the kid a visit, maybe talk to his other friends. He may not be willing to talk to us, though I'm sure once you flash him those puppy dog eyes of yours, Sammy, he will sing like a bird. He might have told one of his friends about what happened though, and if he has a blog or whatever, if we can get into it, there might be something there."
Dean looked over to Alex, "Proud of you, window licker." He ruffled Alex's hair with a smile, "Gonna make a hunter out of you yet." He gave a chuckle as Alex batted at his hand. Glancing at his watch, he grinned. "Okay, it’s still early enough. Maybe we should head around town, find the local hangout and see what we can pick up? Wha'dya say boys, wanna go cruising?"
~~~~~~~oo(O)oo~~~~~~~
Part 16: “Ain’t Afraid of the Shadows”
Authors: art_of_mayhem and candygramme
Rated: R for language and M/M canoodling.
Pairing: Dean Winchester/Alex Krycek
Spoilers: Vague for the X-Files “Terma” and “Requiem”
Warning: Slash
Word count: 2,767
Disclaimer: Dean and his family belong to Eric Kripke and Supernatural, and Alex belongs to Chris Carter and the X-Files. We own nothing. We are doing this for love and not money.
Author’s notes: After losing contact with each other during the time Sam was at college, Alex and Dean meet again, but now Sam is back and dad’s gone missing.
The quoted song is “I Ain’t Superstitious,” by Megadeth.
The beautiful icon is by art_of_mayhem.
Part 15
Part 14
Part 13
Part 12
Part 11
Part 10
Part 9
Part 8
Part 7
Part 6
Part 5
Part 4
Part 3
Part 2
Part 1
~~~~~~~oo(O)oo~~~~~~~
I ain't superstitious,
When a black cat crosses my path.
And, I ain't superstitious,
As I break the looking glass.
Ain't afraid of no demons,
Don't make me laugh!
I ain't superstitious,
Under the ladder I go.
I ain't superstitious,
It's all bulls**t, don't you know!
Ain't afraid of the shadows,
I like the dark anyway, and that's a fact!
Outside, Sam had found Dean leaning up against his car, brooding.
"Dean? Dean, I'm sorry."
Dean had his arms crossed, the distress on his face evident as people passed him by on their way into the diner. Green eyes stared at his watch, seeing anything but the time. He didn't even raise his head when Sam came out; it wasn't till his brother spoke that he stirred.
Dean pushed away from the car with a graceful motion, dropping his hands, he looked past Sam to see if Alex was coming. "Yeah, whatever. Is Alex paying for the check? He did say he was buying." He turned away, digging in his pockets for his keys.
"Yeah, guess so." There was silence between the two of them, then Sam said, "He told me to come say I was sorry. He didn't follow me or anything, so I guess we're good." He studied Dean's closed face, wondering what was going through his mind. "Look, Dean, you have to admit that this is a new departure for you, isn't it? Who is he? Why did you trust him? I thought you were into girls...?"
Dean pulled his keys out and just looked at Sam. "You don't know, do you? You’ve never even cared to get to know me. The whole world revolved around you. Didn't matter what was going on around you." He looked down at his keys then back to Sam. "You wanna know why I trusted him? Because I found him in a silo, scared, dirty, needing protection. And I took care of him. The fucking sad thing about that is, at first I did it because, well because I saw you in him. Those same puppy dog eyes you used to give me. That same pleading voice that just..." Dean looked away. "But I fell in love with him. I fell in love with him because he loved me for me. He was the first person that didn't abandon me. Didn't push me away. That actually gave a rats ass what I thought. What I wanted. Me. Not himself. Me." He gave a shrug of his shoulders, "It's all I ever wanted. From you. From dad. But you two..." He shook his head, "It was always about you two."
There was a long pause. Sam really didn't know what to say, how to answer his brother. All he could concentrate on were those words of his. 'I fell in love with him.' Dean loved this knife-wielding smartass with the green eyes and the missing arm, and at the end of everything, Sam adored his brother and wanted him to be happy.
"I didn't know," he said, softly. "You really love him, eh?"
Dean looked down, fiddling with his keys, "I do love him." He mumbled the words out with a nod, "But I love you too, Sam." Looking up at his little brother, Dean’s eyes showed the meaning behind his words. "And I'm not going to choose between you two, if that is what you are expecting. I’d rather be unhappy than hurt either of you."
"Jeez, Dean, it's been so long that it was just us. I don't even know how to share you with anyone else." Sam smiled sadly. "Guess I have to, don't I?" He hugged himself as if he were trying to come to terms with an entirely new idea and finding it difficult. "Okay, I'll give it a try. I can't say that I'm going to find it easy, but I'll try." He was about to go back to the diner to summon Alex, when the door opened, and the one armed man appeared in the doorway, face schooled into a polite mask.
"A thought occurs," said Sam quickly as Alex started walking over towards them. "Does Dad know? Are you going to tell him? I'd like to be a fly on the wall when you have that conversation."
Dean knew he should reassure Sam that he was his brother, his first love. He would always love him because blood bound them together, but Sam had hurt him so many times in the past as had his father. So he swallowed the words back, keeping them to himself. Instead he sighed through his nose and lifted his head until he could look at Alex.
He murmured words to himself, not really caring if they were heard or not, and met Sam’s eyes, a bland expression on his face. "What difference would it make? Just another disappointment for him, because let’s face it, I'm not you and therefore not perfect." He pulled the door open as he spoke, the creaking of it covering up most of what he said. "Get in the car you two," he growled as he turned the motor over, getting ready to put it into gear.
Sam looked stricken as he got into the car, as usual sitting in shotgun position. He didn't make any further move to comment on Dean's last words, but they left him looking very thoughtful indeed.
Alex was cheerful as he hopped into the back seat and passed Dean a cardboard cup of coffee. "I didn't think you'd had quite enough, so I brought you this in case," he said, smiling fondly at his lover. "Let's go find the fairies, shall we?" He settled himself back against the upholstery and prepared to enjoy the scenery as they hit the road.
Dean couldn't bring himself to look at Sam as he heard the two car doors shut. They were solid thumps of metal to old metal closing them in symbolically. Dean was backing the car out as Alex passed the coffee forward, and he smiled, glancing at his lover in the rear view mirror. "Thanks. Still remember how I took it?" he asked, putting the car into drive before taking a sip. Alex had indeed remembered. Dean had to give him a warm smile.
"We'll stop by our rooms first, get our stuff and go," he commented, heading back towards the motel to make that stop. It wasn't long before the car was loaded down with his and Sam's bags along with additional ones from Alex.
Northern California was soon left behind, and Alex dozed as the car ate up the miles on their way to Kingfisher, Oklahoma. The driving was shared between Sam and Dean, neither thinking that a one armed man could handle the vehicle, much to Alex's disgust. It was late afternoon on the third day when they finally arrived where they were going and checked into a motel.
Alex was tired, his back kinked from lack of exercise, and he wondered if Dean would stay with Sam that night, or come to his bed.
Dean was stretching his back, working the kinks out after he’d tossed his bag onto one of the beds. He was mentally bemoaning the fact that there wasn't a room with three beds, although he could have asked for one to be brought in. Instead, he’d settled for two rooms again because he couldn’t quite bring himself to trust the two loves of his life to be in the same room. And that was yet another thing to pity himself over.
"Hey, Sammy, why don't you check the internet see what you can come up with on fairies, I'm gonna go check on Alex, see how he is settling in." He pulled open the door and paused, looking back at his brother. Sam seemed to be ignoring him at the moment, so he headed out, making the short trek to the room next door. With a quick tap upon the door, Dean walked in.
"Hey you one armed bandit," he said with loving affection in his tone, "How you feeling?" He closed the door behind him, gazing at his green eyed lover, a teasing smile on his face.
"Horny," murmured Alex, looking up and smiling as Dean appeared. "How're you doing?" He rose to his feet and sauntered over to push Dean back against the door and capture his mouth in a long, sweet kiss. "I'm sorry about the altercation with your baby brother, love," he murmured against Dean's lips. "I promise not to rise to the bait again. Want me to come round to your room and bond, or do you want us to stay separated for the sake of your sanity?"
Dean stepped back, hands reaching behind him to feel for the door. Once he’d come into contact with it, his arms rose around Alex, and he opened his mouth to return the kiss with one that was just as sweet, just as lazy and long. He moaned softly as Alex pulled back, gazing with half closed eyes at his lover. He raised his hand to brush through Alex's hair and gave a chuckle, "Sanity, right!"
Alex laughed and took Dean by the hand, leading him over to the bed and patting it invitingly as he sat down. "If anyone ever told me that I'd be playing third wheel to a pair of brothers out fairy hunting, and enjoy it, I think I'd have shot them, but my babushka used to tell me about the fairies around Lake Baikal, where she came from. She said that they would come out at night and dance by the lake, and I believed her, ‘til I grew too cynical." He smiled at Dean and nudged him. "Then I realized that I was one myself!"
Dean followed Alex over, sitting next to him. Now Alex had really piqued his interest, and he shifted, folding a bent leg under him to face Alex more easily. "Really, what else did she say about them? I should get Sam to look up that lake. You know really... Fairies are not something I know about. Zombies, werewolves, shape shifters, strigas... I can handle. Every time I think of a fairy, I think of Tinkerbelle. Damn, I always wished she was bigger." He smirked at Alex and waggled his eyebrows.
"I don't know if Russia has the same kind of fairies as Oklahoma," said Alex. "I know about the striga - we have those back in the old country, but I'm not sure about fairies. They apparently take a liking to a mortal from time to time and lead the mortal away, bemuse them and keep them until they tire of them. I know that for every year they are with the fairies, seven years pass by on earth, so when they come back all that they knew has changed, and they've been forgotten." He scratched his chin as he thought. "And they dance in a ring, so if you fall asleep in a fairy ring the fairies will claim service from you." Shrugging, he smiled at Dean. "That's pretty much what I know."
Dean had sat the whole time just watching Alex's lips move and how his lashes closed over his eyes when he blinked, how those little lines at the corner of his eyes would appear when he smiled. Watching Alex, to Dean, was like watching a train wreck - he knew it was gonna be bad but he just couldn't look away.
"Yeah, I know about strigas - too much so," he mumbled, looking up at Alex, wondering if he would ever tell this man about the things he’d seen. "Well, I guess we should head over to the computer and see what we can dig up. That is unless you’re too horny to go?" Dean smirked as he stood up.
"You want a little something to take the edge off, baby?" asked Alex, voice husky, "...or is the knowledge that tonight I'm gonna screw you until you think that my name is Jesus Christ something you want to anticipate?"
Alex smirked. "Personally, I kinda like the idea of you anticipating. You should see yourself when you get horny. Your eyes glaze over and you radiate sex. If I could bottle that and sell it, I'd be a fucking millionaire." He rose to his feet and pulled Dean to him, kissing him hard. "So I vote for unrequited passion, and give you time to think about the things I'm gonna do to you, when you and I get into bed tonight."
Dean raised his eyebrows, looking at Alex. He swallowed as his body tingled from the mere thought of Alex doing just that. God but the man could twist up his insides almost as badly as Sam. Dean closed his eyes for a moment, and he seemed to have that look when he opened them back up. Kissing Alex, he let a bit of his hunger show through.
Dean sighed softly, nodding at him, "Okay, I know you are a glutton for punishment," he smirked as he ran a hand down Alex's back, "But don't think I'll make it easy for you. You gonna make me wait, I'm gonna make it so you can't." He leaned in to kiss Alex again, but before their lips could meet, Dean pulled back, winked then turned and pulled open the door.
Dean sauntered his way over to the next room, opening the door and smelling coffee brewing. Damn but Sam knew his weakness for coffee; he knew - none better - that having coffee ready could make Dean smile and more. "You’re brewing my song, little bro." Dean walked over, smacking Sam on his butt as he grabbed a cup to pour himself some coffee. "So what are we finding on the computer besides porn?"
"Got some reports about the teens that disappeared," said Sam, turning the laptop to face his brother. "They were all messing with séances and stuff, Dean. Looks like they summoned up something that they shouldn't. One of the kids reappeared a couple of days later, but he doesn't seem to remember anything about the day they all disappeared."
"You got any addresses?" Alex was the one speaking. "Maybe the kids kept diaries or blogs or something. If we can run those to earth, we might be able to find out more."
Sam hadn't thought about blogs, although he did have the home addresses, after hacking into the high school computer. Reluctantly he nodded at Alex. "Good thought," he said, turning the computer round again and starting to type.
Dean was sipping his coffee, watching his brother work his magic on the computer. "I think we should pay the kid a visit, maybe talk to his other friends. He may not be willing to talk to us, though I'm sure once you flash him those puppy dog eyes of yours, Sammy, he will sing like a bird. He might have told one of his friends about what happened though, and if he has a blog or whatever, if we can get into it, there might be something there."
Dean looked over to Alex, "Proud of you, window licker." He ruffled Alex's hair with a smile, "Gonna make a hunter out of you yet." He gave a chuckle as Alex batted at his hand. Glancing at his watch, he grinned. "Okay, it’s still early enough. Maybe we should head around town, find the local hangout and see what we can pick up? Wha'dya say boys, wanna go cruising?"
~~~~~~~oo(O)oo~~~~~~~