Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/4593168.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      No_Archive_Warnings_Apply, Underage
  Category:
      F/M, M/M, Multi
  Fandom:
      My_Babysitter's_A_Vampire
  Relationship:
      Ethan_Morgan/Benny_Weir, Ethan_Morgan/Sarah_Fox, Rory_Keaner/OC
  Character:
      Ethan_Morgan, Benny_Weir, Sarah_Fox, Jane_Morgan, Rory_Keaner, Erica
      Jones
  Additional Tags:
      After_the_Lucifractor, Magic, Vampires, Friends_to_Lovers, Polyamory,
      First_Time, Male_Slash, Prophetic_Visions, Protective_Benny, Happy
      Ending, no_one_dies
  Stats:
      Published: 2015-08-17 Updated: 2016-12-21 Chapters: 14/? Words: 24975
****** Mermaid's Tears ******
by inosine
Summary
     Ethan's gift leaves him wrecked, but pushing the limits of his seer
     abilities may be the only way to save his sister's life. Increasingly
     he needs Benny's support to just get through the day. What happens
     when Ethan discovers he's in love with two people? Established
     Etharah, eventual Bethan
Notes
     Spoiler alerts: this story takes place approximately two years after
     the show ends, so all the spoilers basically. I try to keep to
     cannon, but I did make Jane older than she is in the show.
     Normally I finish more of a story before I start posting chapters, so
     I apologize in advance for the slow update schedule. I might also go
     back and radically edit things
     Also, I'm really bad about warnings so please let me know if I should
     put a warning up for something.
See the end of the work for more notes
***** Nightmare *****
===============================================================================
"But a mermaid has no tears, and therefore she suffers so much more."
― Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid
 
Ethan jolts awake, desperately sucking in cold air. He can't register his
surroundings, his chest feels too tight to let air in -- so tight his pounding
heart threatens to break his ribs. Remembering what woke him up, Ethan stumbles
out of bed only to fall into a pile onto the wooden floor when his legs won't
work.
Strong hands on his forearms pull him into a sitting position. "E, You're
awake. Nothing bad happened. Just my room." The hands disappear and Ethan lets
himself slump forward, trying to count his breathing to calm himself down.
Short, hitching breaths sabotage his efforts.
Stupid with sleep, Benny only manages to navigate the crowded floor plan by
habit. That it’s become habit, that his best friend routinely wakes up in
discoherent terror, is worrisome; Grandma has yet to find something that will
dull the stress without blocking the dream visions. At least tonight, Ethan
fell out of his trundle bed on the side littered with dirty clothes rather than
the side with the sharp corners of Benny’s bed and dresser.
Retrieving Ethan’s dream journal, Benny positions himself on the floor with his
back against the wall so that he can reach forward and pull Ethan next to him,
angling his friend to lean against him. Ethan is tense and shuddery but he does
relax enough to settle his head into the hollow of Benny's chest.
"Ben-’s-Jane’s’s-died-I-hafta-backa-fix-car-an-blood-blood," Ethan explains in
a frenzied rush.
"Whoa there dude. You have to write this down." Benny was trying to attach a
clip-on book light to a blank notebook with Ethan still in his arms. Getting
the light on, Benny molds one of Ethan's hands around the book. The hand falls
away slack.
"Wather-chasing-shapeshiffer-horse-destroyin-protect-Jane-shouldn't've-car-no-
seatbeld," Ethan continues, undeterred by Benny's efforts to get him to write.
Benny relents, letting Ethan babble at him. Instead, he grabs Ethan's wrist and
presses his fingers firmly into the veins. The hummingbird fast pulse is echoed
by the quick shallow huffs between long strings of words. No surprises there.
He’s blanking, but there is something he’s supposed to do to help Ethan get
through the panic part. Benny's head lolls back and bangs softly against the
wall. As much as he wants to be there for Ethan, he’s half asleep.
"You know," Benny muses, interrupting Ethan. "Vision dream' is a lame name.
Seer dream? Prophecy dream? Profit-ream… that sounds like a drug. Di-mexal
profetiream…"
Ethan laughs, but it’s strained. Laughter that breaks into short choked sobs.
Benny’s stomach turns.
“Hey E,” Benny jostles the huddled form of his friend, finally remembering what
he’s supposed to say. “E, exhale. You need to breathe out.”
Contrary to the desired effect, Ethan’s breathing deteriorates into even
shallower gasps as he attempts to suck fresh air into already full lungs.
Because the urgency of oxygen deprivation overrides his normal breathing
pattern, Benny has to force him to breathe out.
“Breathe out,” Benny insists, manually compressing Ethan’s chest. Ethan follows
Benny’s guidance with an exaggerated huff. After that, his frenetic breathing
calms into a regular, if somewhat labored, rhythm.
"Those are all awful," Ethan announces, seemingly at random.
"Ah, a real sentence!" Benny exclaims. “Wait, what are awful?”
“Your names for my visions,” Ethan explains.
“Well the dreams are different. We can’t call everything a vision,” Benny
argues. “But forget that. You need to write your dream down, Seer.” Benny puts
the book back in Ethan's hand. This time Ethan takes the notebook, folding his
pajamaed legs up to prop the book on. Benny then hands him the pen. Click. The
book light creates a small pool of warm light around the boys in the otherwise
dark room.
Ethan begins furiously scribbling on the page. And scribbling really is the
appropriate word for his completely illegible handwriting. Ethan's frame is
still stiff, but now also shivery from cooled sweat. Benny finds himself
scratching Ethan's scalp behind his ear. At some point he'll have to tell Ethan
to start over.
Benny closes his eyes for a ‘moment’ only to find that Ethan is reclipping the
little red lamp onto the journal after turning a page. Who knows how many pages
Ethan has already filled up. Benny blinks a couple of times to ward off the
thick mantle of sleep hazing his mind.
"Start over," Benny commands groggily. He can feel Ethan nod, his head still
pressed into Benny's shoulder. Propping his head against Ethan, Benny settles
in to read what Ethan writes "Use this page," Benny taps the left page, "to
make a timeline."
Making a timeline was something Ethan had asked Benny to remind him to do.
Ethan had been having these vision dreams a couple times a month for all of
senior year. His first prophecies had, in true oracle fashion, been useless
gibberish that not even Ethan could remember or decipher. Because, like normal
dreams, seer dreams faded quickly.
Eventually Ethan half figured out, half remembered that in the dream he would
loop through the same day(s) several times, making different decisions in an
attempt to prevent something bad. His own personal 'Groundhog's Day.' Sketching
out a timeline helped Ethan order his memories so that the different loops
didn't get squished together in his retelling.
Ethan drags a long line down the page. At the top he writes, "alarm," and at
the bottom, "Jane dies."
Benny winches; he had assumed when Ethan said it earlier that the words had
been unrelated. "You okay?" he asks softly, moving his hand back to Ethan's
shoulder to give him a half hug.
Ethan shakes his head but nothing in his body language changes as he simply
continues to write. Benny feels lost. Jane is upstairs sleeping in her attic
bedroom. Would it be redundant to remind Ethan of that? Honestly, saying
anything would just distract Ethan from writing down important details that
could actually prevent Jane's death. In the end, Benny just rubs his thumb back
and forth over Ethan's shoulder in what he hopes is a comforting manner.
"Rewrite that word," Benny instructs, catching a word more illegible than most.
He has to fight his eyes from unfocusing as they move across the page after
Ethan's pen.
As the night wears into lilac-tinged morning, Ethan’s body slumps into a
relaxed, heavy weight. Under different circumstances this would be rather cozy.
Like maybe with his girlfriend Trisha, watching some chick flick.
When he's finished, Ethan clicks off the little light and pushes the book onto
the floor, tossing the pen after it. Even in the dim light he looks as tired as
Benny feels.
"Nmm," Benny groans, realizing it's time to relocate.
Benny's butt is sore from sitting on the hardwood floor, and he discovers his
knees don't want to bend right. Ethan curls into a ball around his legs. He
doesn't seem particularly motivated to move either.
"Alright," Benny seeks out and grabs Ethan's hands to pull him up.
There's a moment when Benny has Ethan standing directly in front of him that he
looks down to find Ethan's face vulnerable and hurt. Benny gapes. Ethan starts
to say something but shakes his head.
"Goodnight Benny," Ethan says finally.
Benny considers asking Ethan what he was going to say, but the other boy has
already pushed past him to the trundle bed. The squeak of its metal wheels
emphasizing that the trundle was never supposed to become a permanent feature
in Benny's room. But considering how rung-out Ethan is after vision dreams,
Benny is a little glad the Morgans were forced to move into the Weir household.
This way Ethan doesn’t have to deal with them alone. Benny can vaguely see
Ethan's silhouetted form faceplant into the mattress.
"You need anything, dude?" Benny asks instead. While he really has no energy,
he would attempt almost anything if it would cheer Ethan up. The offer is only
half hearted, Benny really too tired to do anything.
"No." Ethan's voice is muffled by his pillow.
Uncertain but unwilling to question his luck, Benny climbs back into his
welcoming nest of blankets and cushions. He's asleep as soon as his head hits
the pillow.
Ethan, on the other hand, can't seem to drift off. Only flashes of imagery from
the dream remain, but the feeling of loss lingers.
Jane isn’t dead. Jane is fine, Ethan reassures himself, fighting the urge to go
wake her up. Horrible things always happen in vision dreams, but this is the
first time Ethan has experienced the death of someone he was close to. Instead
of crying, he shivers.
Yanking the blanket out from under himself, Ethan lethargically tosses it over
his legs and attempts to tuck it under his feet. He wishes he had been brave
enough to actually ask to sleep with Benny. But, besides being super awkward,
admitting how emotionally wrecked he feels would be extremely embarrassing. Let
alone admitting that Benny’s physical presence provides effective comfort. It
would've been warmer, though.
Birds start chirping their morning chorus to accompany Benny’s deep regular
breathing. Ethan groans in dismay. Right now the only thing he can feel
grateful for is the privacy night affords him. Benny is the only witness to
Ethan’s breakdowns, and thankfully Benny doesn't judge him for it.
Working through his breathing exercises, Ethan reminds himself he will feel
better in the morning. He always does.
***** Meticulous Preparation *****
Chapter Summary
     Benny has plans that need to happen.
Chapter Notes
     Some of you have noticed that I'm posting this here and at fanfic dot
     net. I'll post my chapters here first, but they may be a rougher
     version. If you comment (first omg thank you) I'll reply to your
     comments on the site you posted them at.
See the end of the chapter for more notes
Benny groans in response to muffled ba-na-na-nahs emitting from inside his
pillow case, from his cell phone. Mindlessly groping the device, he manages to
hit a button that silences it. A quick check over the foot of his bed confirms
that Ethan remains unconscious, his chest rising and falling evenly.
Stage one cleared.
A mere hour has passed since Benny climbed back into bed. And there's another
hour before Ethan has to get up.
The phone screen blinks off while Benny is staring at it, struggling to
remember why he chose to wake himself up this early. The blood potions. Right.
Crazy idea 271 to free Sarah from the shackles from vampirism is make blood
better so she doesn't have to drink as much. They're still hammering out the
details of exactly what "better" means.
Mornings are the most magical,Benny reminds himself of Grandma's favorite adage
as he half rolls, half falls out of his bed. It's totally worth it to get up
before the sun does.
From the floor, Benny untangles his foot from the sheet with one hand while
groping around the pile of clothes for his sweatpants. Ever efficient, he
combines standing up with stepping into the pant legs. On a particularly hard
step, Ethan snorts.
Stage two: leave quietly!
Benny freezes listening to Ethan's breathing and his movements. No shifting;
that's always a good sign. The breathing eases back into the gentle snuffling.
Three steps and Benny's out the door, which shuts silently against the foam
weatherstripping lining the door frame.
Admittedly there is something about this time of day, the patient calm of the
world waiting for people to wake up, that appeals to Benny. As if any actions
completed in the emptiness of the morning are less scrutinized. And, oddly the
freedom to fail more completely has resulted in the success of many of Benny's
far-fetched endeavors.
The young spell caster pads down the hallway, his bare feet alternately
slapping on the hard wooden floor between rugs. He drags his fingertips along
the wall to guide himself, a habit to guard against tripping when he sometimes
forgets to keep his eyes open-basically still asleep.
The Morgans are definitely still asleep. Even the house itself seems sleepy,
dreaming its own house dreams. Grandma's around somewhere though.
Only the furniture sits in the near complete darkness of the living room.
"Morning guys," Benny mumbles in greeting as he passes through, his hand
walking along the top of the couch like a handrail.
The kitchen is equally devoid of intelligent life. Grandma's probably out in
the garden then.
The basement door, however, waits innocuously at the back of the kitchen. When
Whitechapel's supernatural population had still been secret, the basement had
been where Grandma hid everything overtly magical.
Opening the door reveals the plain wooden staircase descending into cold
darkness. The rather typical sight still inspires a twinge of fear in Benny's
nearly-adult heart.
He yanks the pull cord just inside the door frame, setting the single bulb into
motion and creating dancing shadows. Not bone-shiveringly terrifying at all.
Benny shambles down the worn wooden steps, which creak slightly. In retrospect,
his fear of the basement may have been one way Grandma had kept magic under
wraps for so long.
Grandma has long since moved her workroom out of the garage, and like raccoons
Benny and Jane have infested the empty space. Mostly Benny. Jane could be
described as 'neat' and 'welcome.'
There are two windows set high in the wall where thin morning light diffuses in
illuminating the cold concrete floor and heavy wooden worktables. Benny opts to
supplement the light with his desk lamp rather than turn on the overhead
lights. Jane has her own desk and set of shelves pushed up against the adjacent
wall. She has even hauled down a floor lamp with three colorful cone-shaped
shades on repositionable necks.
Benny shoves a clear spot on his desk using his forearm. Grandma keeps warning
him that his mess will result in mixed up spells and unintended consequences.
Benny scoffs to the empty room, clicking on the magenta cone on Jane's lamp.
The light is just a normal white CFL-the plastic cone is colored just for
kicks.
Benny sets to work mixing up his potions. Frankly it's amazing Grandma hasn't
had issues with unexpected results. Benny carefully measures out all of his
spell ingredients by weight, whereas Grandma she uses teaspoons and intuition.
Too tired to focus on anything but the task at hand, Benny places a new small
metal bowl on his digital scale and tares the weight. He keeps a jar of clean
metal scoops, and he uses one now to dump small increments of powered fox bone
into the bowl until the scale reads 0.35 grams. So not a lot.
He tips the fox bone into a graduated test tube that already has 1.7 grams of
ground thyme and 10 mL of Ethan's blood. He tosses the used bowl and scoop into
his bin of dirty labware.
Modern equipment can't replace everything. He had still had to use a mortar and
pestle to grind the thyme because an electronic grinder (aka coffee grinder)
leaves too many whole bits.
Fox bone and thyme is the last combo. He couldn't find glass graduated test
tubes with screw caps, so seals the test tube with a black rubber stopper, and
gives it a shake before placing it in the rack of the test tube rocker with the
other mixtures. The blood sticks to the sides of the glass, running down in red
rivulets as it gathers.
The fox bone and thyme mixture joins nine other mixtures on the automatic
rocker. Each test tube has 10 mL of blood and some combination of magically
potent ingredients Benny had a reason to believe effective.
Satisfied, Benny turns the rocker on. True to its name, the devices rotates 45
degrees off center in each direction, gently ensuring the mixtures remain
homogeneous. Benny sets the speed to low as they have at least the whole school
day before they're using them. The whole test tube rocker is placed in the
mini-fridge on the floor next to his desk.
Benny runs through his mental inventory of his equipment and supplies, trying
to determine if there is anything he has to clean now. After badgering the
coven to fund the couple of thousand dollars worth of lab equipment he now
possesses, he plans to actually take care of it.
Benny is wiping out the mortar with a wet rag, when the workroom door opens and
Jane bounces in. She still dresses like a normal teenage girl-a loose blue
blouse, which Benny figures looks stylish but understated, and jeans. Ethan
talked her into wearing a thin silver chain with a citrine teardrop pendant,
but it's not even charmed. It just stores excess magical energy that Jane would
otherwise give off.
"What are you up to?" Jane asks. She's already awake and functional. Hopefully
she won't be expecting intelligent responses.
"Enchanting blood samples," Benny informs her gesturing his head towards the
mini-fridge.
Jane crouches down in front of the fridge and peaks in, only opening the door a
crack like she's worried about letting the cold air out. She probably is.
"Ethan's not up yet?" Jane asks. It's a layered question.
"No he had a dream last night," Benny explains rubbing his hands up and down
his face.
"Bad?" Jane has to repeat the question before Benny responds.
"Wha? Yeah. Really bad," Benny answers simply.
"Oh, I'll make coffee," Jane decides. At the door, she turns around, "Shower's
free by the way." It's her polite way of telling him to get his ass into gear.
Benny has gotten out most of the thyme dust from the stone bowl of the mortar.
Enough that it can wait at least.
Jane has taken to pre-making potions and storing them in a well labeled
cabinet. She has reasons, they're probably good ones. Regardless she won't mind
if Benny takes a couple if it's for Ethan's benefit. It's a better excuse than
'it looked cool.'
Despite how badly the vision dreams drain Ethan, he has not yet taken the day
off. Which is where Benny comes in. He will physically drag that boy through
the halls of Whitechapel High if it comes to it, but why do things the hard way
when he could do them the awesome magic way.
Benny selects Ducerebra, Consurge, and Virgis alligatos et foliafrom Jane's
shelf. One of these has to work.
Benny shuffles back up the stairs, tugging off the light before exiting out
into the kitchen. Jane is loading up the coffee grinder next to where Mrs.
Morgan appears to be making pancakes. Benny's stomach rumbles greedily, but he
has other things to do before eating.
He'll check in on Ethan quickly before jumping in the shower and finishing his
more mundane morning rituals. It'll be a good day. He'll make it be a good day.
Chapter End Notes
     Thanks for reading!
     PS I will appreciate anyone pointing out parts that are boring or
     confusing, as I may still edit this chapter.
***** Kissy face kissy face shrugging emoji *****
Chapter Summary
     The day after a seer dream, Ethan is really tired.
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
Through the death-grip of sleep, Ethan indistinctly registers his shoulder
being shaken. Groggily an eyelid peels back, and immediately snaps shut against
the assault of bright. This effort isn't sufficient for phantom-shaker, who
then grabs an arm and tugs. Ethan resists, folding his body back into the
covers.
"Come on, E. Wakey, wakey, eggs and bac-y," Benny's voice cajoles.
Ethan grunts in acknowledgement. Benny yanks harder this time and... ka-thunk.
"Uugh..." Ethan complains from the floor, rubbing his head where it hit the
hardwood. They need a rug in this room. A nice plush rug.
"Do you want me to ask your mom if you can stay home today?" Benny asks,
towering above Ethan, his hair in wet messy strands around his face. Ethan had
been amazed to discover that Benny actually spends a good twenty minutes on his
hair everyday, putting in some sort of volumizer and blow drying it. Guess he
hasn't gotten to his beauty rituals yet.
"No," Ethan groans. "I don't want to miss school."
"It's not like you'd learn anything today, Snorlax," Benny reasons, clearly
amused by his best friend balled up on the floor. Benny nudges Ethan's side
with his toes, chuckling with Ethan swats at the foot.
"Well," it takes Ethan an extra moment to form his response, "I could not learn
something here, or I could not learn something there and hang out with you and
Rory." And considering everyone has senioritis, it's unlikely the teachers will
really cover much material anyway.
Benny snorts. "Are you hoping to get points for being alive, because it'll take
a sizable miracle to keep you conscious."
Ethan raises his arms in the universal 'pick me up' gesture. "Be my miracle,
Benny," he implores facetiously.
"Alright, come here." Benny grips Ethan's hands and hauls him up. To return the
favor, Ethan valiantly attempts to not fall while Benny is holding him up.
===============================================================================
"I'm fine, Mom," Ethan protests.
Samantha pulls her hand away from Ethan's forehead. "Well you aren't feverish,
but you look like you might fall over." Her motherly concern bleeds into a
worried frown.
Ethan may have fallen asleep against the door frame. Feeling suddenly
overwhelmed by basic hygiene requirements, he had only meant to give himself a
short pause. However if Mom had found him sleeping on his feet… It didn't help
his case.
Ethan shifts his weight over his own feet and peers into the bathroom.
The bathroom is warm and muggy and lit with an overly yellow glow. It's likely
that Ethan is the last of the five household members to bathe. Although his
mother and Benny's grandmother use the master bathroom, there's only one hot
water tank in the house. Cold water might wake him up a little, though.
"I'm just tired. I'll be fine." He hopes it sounds convincing; he really
doesn't want to be stuck home all day.
"I really don't like how much all this magic stuff takes out of you kids,"
Samantha laments half-heartedly. Both Morgan parents had reached agreement on
the current arrangements, but that didn't stop Mom from repeatedly voicing her
opinion, "If I had my way, we'd all move out of Whitechapel, and you and Jane
would just live normal lives."
"Going to school is normal," Ethan argues, with what he considers is a fairly
strong point.
"Okay..." Samantha inspects her son critically. "Well, hop in the shower and
I'll have coffee and breakfast ready for you when you get out. I think Benny
can get your school things together for you." She gives Ethan's wobbly form
another glance over. "You won't die in the shower, right?"
"No, mom." Ethan musters all his will if only to prove his mother wrong.
===============================================================================
Ethan is just pulling his shirt on when Jane knocks on his door. "Are you
decent?"
"Yeah," Ethan answers.
Jane walks in carefully, carrying a very full mug of coffee. Seeing her alive
makes something in his chest relax. "Mom asked me to bring you this," she says
handing him the coffee. She holds the mug a beat long, making sure that Ethan
really has it.
The shower roused Ethan from dead-walking to miserable, and he hopes the
caffeine will bump him up to functional.
"Thanks. I need it," Ethan manages to say before gulping down nearly the entire
mug of lukewarm coffee.
"I can tell," Jane says teasingly, but her eyes look worried.
"I'm fine Jane," Ethan snaps reflexively.
"Whatever." She's about to walk away, but Ethan grabs her arm and pulls her
into an awkward hug that nearly sloshes coffee down her back. Jane tenses
initially, but then eases into the atypical show of affection, hugging him
back.
"Are you really okay, Ethan? I know I'm your little sister, but you can still
count on me," Jane says quietly.
Ethan hums. "I think I liked it better when you were extorting me for money. I-
" Ethan considers if he should really tell her. She'll find out eventually. "I
saw you die in my dream last night."
"Oh." Jane sounds shocked. Her arms slacken but she leans into her brother.
"How?" she asks timidly.
"It doesn't matter, it's not going to happen," Ethan affirms. Honestly, he
doesn't know how, he never never remembers the dreams and he hasn't read his
report yet, but he means it. He holds Jane at arm's length to look in her eyes.
"I won't let anything happen to you."
She smiles weakly. "I know you'll do everything you can. Aera solem siccare
capillis." Jane waves a golden ball of light at her brother's head. "And I'll
do everything I can." The spell heats his scalp momentarily, after which Ethan
touches his head to discover Jane has dried his hair.
Benny's footsteps pound up the stairs announcing his presence before he barrels
into the shared bedroom. He snorts. "Nice hair."
Somehow he's found time to coif his hair into that perfect bad-boy-that-still-
does-homework look.
Ethan pats his head again. "What's wrong with it?"
===============================================================================
Ethan and Jane have already loaded themselves into the station wagon while
Benny hangs back to compose a text.
The chilly morning air is still heavy with thick lavender fog, an artifact of
the Lucifractor explosion. The purple mist mostly condenses at ground level
creating a cloud carpet, but it also coils around trees and mailboxes, it
crawls up the sides of the house, and clings to the car. Benny kinda loves it.
Behind the window being molested by lavender fog, Ethan munches on dry
pancakes, sitting in shotgun. Jane is in the middle in the back, her nose in a
book. Benny and Ethan take turns driving everyone to school, but as Ethan is
too tired to operate heavy equipment, Benny is by default driving them to
school today.
Benny reads over his text. "S can u fly into town today? E had a bad night
could use some gf luv :-* :-*"
Send.
"Hurry up, idiot," Jane yells from the car. Benny pockets his phone and jog-
steps to the car, the purple fog parting in his wake.
===============================================================================
Ethan eagerly accepts his third cup of coffee, freshly delivered by Rory no
more than two minutes into the break after first period.
"Did you know a latte is just coffee?" Rory asks, joining Benny and Ethan at
their lockers where the boys were supposedly switching out books for the next
class. Instead Ethan is distracted with his coffee, and Benny is sucked into
his phone.
"You're a lifesaver." Ethan sips carefully to avoid burning his tongue,
unnecessarily. Apparently a trip at vamp speed across town takes the edge off
of 'caution: contents are hot.' Irregardless the potent full-bodied liquid
elicits a deep whole-body exhale.
"No problemo amigo! You need it-you look awful," Rory comments with his large
cheerful smile.
"Thanks," Ethan answers sarcastically.
"I'm glad you're not actually a zombie, though," Rory says, referencing this
morning when he had mistaken Ethan for the brain-hungry undead and valiantly
tackled him into the bushes to save Benny.
"Aw fuck," Benny exclaims loudly, drawing passing curiosity from other students
in the hallway. Benny, Ethan, and Rory all draw extra attention these days as
active Coven members. Not only had this lent to Benny's success with girls, but
it also made students nervous when the trio acted agitated.
For the moment nothing is amiss, and the crowds quickly resume. Despite the
drop in student numbers two years ago, right after the Lucifractor exploded,
the halls maintain a respectful density of now mostly supernatural high
schoolers. It helped that the administration had closed off half the school.
Benny was still grimacing at the offending text on his phone. "Trisha just
broke up with me! By text!"
Ethan rolls his eyes, but Rory is slightly more compassionate, "That's totally
lame."
Benny reads the text, "Listen to this: 'We're over. I guess you were a good
kisser, but the new guy is way hotter. Shrugging emoji."" Benny sounds equal
parts hurt and insulted.
"Ugh, Benny... You went on a total of two dates with her, and you didn't even
like her that much." Ethan grumbles, sipping on his coffee irritably.
"Three," Benny corrects, pocketing his phone. "And she was babelicious."
Rory nods dreamily in agreement.
"Rory! You have a girlfriend! And Benny, this is why you've never had a real
girlfriend. You only go after the pretty, shallow girls!" Ethan chastises. It
comes out harsher than intended. He misses Sarah.
Rory still looks dreamy, but this time for better reasons, "You don't know what
you're missing. Ann makes me snickerdoodles and we sneak into the attic to eat
them."
Benny and Ethan give Rory a curious look. Neither is quite sure how his
relationship with Ann works.
"Right. That sounds awesome and everything, but as you already know there are
no spells for a doting, cookie-baking girlfriend. My charming personality,"
Benny demonstrates a wide smirking grin and eyebrow waggle combo. "is all I
got. Besides hot girls who are willing to make out with me has been my dream
since freshman year." Benny adds, closing his locker.
"Leave this to me," Rory points at this chest proudly with both thumbs, his
smile showing all his teeth. "Rory, vampire matchmaker. Just describe your
dream girl, and I'll do the rest!" His vapid nodding is not confidence
inspiring.
"Mmm. Blonde, busty, great fashion sense, thirsty for adventure," Benny rattles
off. That sounds an awful lot like a certain vampire they haven't seen
recently.
"Erica isn't an option," Ethan says, jiggling the lever on his locker. He can't
get the lock with only one hand. "Even if she wasn't Anastasia's glimmered
personal assistant now, she was only ever nice to Sarah. Or when she wanted
something."
Benny winces, "Yeah... Ror, how did you escape that fate?"
"Easy. Anastasia said I was too brain-dead to keep around." Rory replies
matter-of-factly.
"Keeping it real." Benny fist bumps Rory. If their academically-challenged
vampire friend hadn't discovered his talent for the arts, Ethan doubted Rory
would have had any kind of future despite being immortal.
"Whoever Benny dates should have the patience of a saint. And she has to get
your dumb jokes," Ethan snarks. Giving up on one-handed unlocking, he holds his
cup out to Benny, "Hold this."
"I'm not that bad." Benny says indignantly, taking the cup.
Rory is jotting this down in a notebook he pulled out of his backpack, "What
else?"
"Uh... Well going on Ethan's advice: not-shallow?" Benny adds. He glances at
Rory's scribbles curiously.
"I guess that means smart," Ethan translates, "Or like cares about stuff."
"Doesn't do that girl thing where she says one thing and means another, and
then gets mad at me for not getting it," Benny continues. "Or gets mad at me
for not doing some 'boyfriend' thing she expected but didn't tell me about."
Benny takes a sip of Ethan's coffee. As they've discussed before, Ethan can't
expect Benny to not consume food items he's been asked to hold.
"Don't write that." Ethan tells Rory quickly. Obligingly, Rory scratches out
the line. "Write straightforward and honest," Ethan instructs, stuffing his
history book into his backpack.
Seeing Benny going for another sip of his coffee, Ethan uncharitably snatches
at the cup; however his haphazard grab is only effective at knocking the cup
out of Benny's hand. Benny points at the paper cup midair, silently floating it
with green sparkles upward and firmly into Ethan's grip. A couple drops splash
on the floor, but otherwise the coffee is unharmed. Benny smirks at Ethan,
good-naturedly putting up with his grumpiness.
"Okay what else?" Rory prompts.
Benny taps his chin thinking, "Doesn't talk ad nauseam about boring stuff like
clothes or girl drama or her pets."
"I have a cousin that talks about being nauseous a lot. It's a total bummer,"
Rory replies sympathetically.
"No, Ror. 'Ad nauseam' is Latin for 'until you get nauseous;' I meant that
girls talk just on and on and on..." Benny makes a rolling hand gesture to
emphasize his point. Ethan hadn't realized the expression was so literal.
"So... someone who shares interests with you," Ethan suggests. "Maybe a gamer?
I mean considering how much time you spend playing video games, she's gotta be
at least a little into them." Ethan is critically watching Rory write. Knowing
Rory, even matchmaking could become a runaway train wreck overnight.
"Did you get everything you need?" Benny asks, his hand on Ethan's open locker
door, ready to close it for him.
"Yeah," Ethan answers offhandedly. He might be slow today, but he would've
gotten around to it.
Benny closes the locker. He also zips up Ethan's backpack. "But not Mathlete
girls. They glare at me when I try to flirt with them."
"Yeah. Do you know what you sounds like when you "flirt" with girls? Stupid,
and sexist, and borderline harassment." Ethan admonishes Benny with an 'I
expect more from you' glare over his shoulder.
"Since when did you get so touchy?" Benny asks, backing off with his hands in
surrender.
"Since Sarah talked some sense into me. I mean you don't even treat girls like
people," Ethan continues to grumble. "If you did, you wouldn't get dumped so
often." Ethan recognizes that it's cruel to attack his best friend's weak spots
like this, but sometimes he feels like it's the only way Benny will listen to
him.
"You're one to talk," Benny replies. "You just got lucky with Sarah!"
Rory breaks the tension, suddenly reading out the summary of his notes, "Okay
so a hot, patient, smart, straightforward, honest, geeky gamer who laughs at
Benny's jokes, cares about stuff, and can't be a vampire." Rory scratches his
head with the pen thoughtfully.
"What I didn't say anything about vam-" Benny asserts, but is cut off by Rory.
"Except for the hot part that describes Ethan," Rory concludes.
Ethan blinks dumbly at their very blonde friend. His brain short circuits
trying to decide between the many issues he could point out with Rory's logic.
Benny snorts, "Some matchmaker you are."
Rory's undeterred. "It doesn't matter how hot the new guy is, Benny, I'll find
you the perfect girlfriend!" With a flash of vampire speed he's gone, likely
thinking he might find someone before the bell rings.
Ethan shakes his head looking at Benny to confirm he isn't insane, "New guy?"
"The guy Trisha dumped me for," Benny clarifies, shrugging.
The warning bell resounds through the hall causing the semi-aimless movement of
the hallway to coalesce into a directed rush.
"Oh shit," Benny starts, "E, give me your coffee." Benny pulls something out of
his messenger bag as Ethan reluctantly hands the cup over.
Benny tips the sparkling cobalt ooze out of an unlabeled vial into the cup and
re-secures the lid. Ethan suddenly regrets trusting Benny, "What was that?"
"A little extra kick," Benny answers, a smug gleam in his eyes.
Chapter End Notes
     I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please let me know if you find any
     errors!
***** To Know Oneself *****
Chapter Notes
     In case you haven't noticed, the previous two chapters were
     significantly updated some time after they were initially published.
     Read and enjoy!
Ethan follows Benny down the hall towards their math class. With the reduced
number of classes Whitechapel High could afford to offer the small student
body, Benny and Ethan ended up sharing all but one class this year. A rare
upside to living in Lucifractor ground zero.
Nearly at room 314, someone energetically taps Ethan on the shoulder from
behind.
“Gah!” Ethan jumps splatting doctored coffee on himself. "Hi Jessica," Ethan
smiles nervously, turning around to face the rather petite werewolf. Benny
stops to wait for Ethan, not particularly concerned with being late for class.
Ethan self-consciously wipes at the coffee stains on his shirt, knowing it will
do no good.
"Hi Ethan. I was wondering if you could tell me if Dominic was going to ask me
to the end of the year dance?" She looks very hopeful, her bouncy black curls
only emphasizing her enthusiasm.
"It doesn't work like that Jessica," Ethan replies. While he’d had some varied
success at triggering visions, he doesn’t really want to expend the effort on
small favors.
"Oh," Her whole form deflates, "Could you try anyways maybe?" She pleads with a
head tilt and glossy lips in a pout.
"Fine." Ethan holds out his hand, realizing it will be quicker than arguing
with her.
Jessica happily grabs Ethan's hand. Her werewolf grip is painfully strong.
Surprisingly Ethan does get a vision off of Jessica.
A pack of silver-grey wolves are drinking from the lake's edge. One of the
wolves is Jessica; she’s petite as a wolf too. A heron lands in the reeds near
the wolves, and they all back up. One of them howls. As a group they run off.
Ethan refocuses on the real world, and sees Jessica's expectant grin.
"Uh... well,” Ethan hedges, “I don't know if Dominic will ask you out. Like I
said it doesn't work like that. I didn’t know you were a full wolf, that’s
cool." Ethan tries tempering the bad news with a smile.
Jessica's face does this weird acrobatics between letdown and polite. "Yeah.
Thanks for trying I guess."
Benny edges into the conversation, physically leaning over Ethan’s shoulder,
and shoots his beaming smile at the pretty were, “So Jessica, if things don’t
work out with Dominic, I’m single.”
Jessica giggles awkwardly, her shoulders hitching up, “Well, bye.” She turns
and quickly retreats.
“She totally wants me,” Benny boasts, squeezing Ethan’s shoulder before backing
off.
“Sure,” Ethan eyes his best friend in disbelief, “Let’s get to class before--”
But the final bell rings out as he’s saying it. The boys bolt through the
classroom door, and crash land noisily at the empty table near the back.Benny
and Ethan have an unspoken claim to the table in the back right corner.
The boys settle into class amongst the cacophony of zippers and rustling
papers. Technically they’re tardy, but Mr. Swets doesn’t comment. Mr. Swets’s
leniency may just be him being nice, but it’s equally likely that he’s too
preoccupied hunting for the attendance sheet mixed into the scattered piles of
homework on his desk.
“Hey check this out,” Benny says showing off an equation on his graphing
calculator. It’s the bat symbol, but it’s a little pinched.
"You got that equation online?" Ethan asks to humor Benny while he pulls out
his book and blank paper for notes.
"I modified it," Benny says defensively. "The formula I found wasn't accurate."
“Well that one isn’t either,” Ethan chides. He has a pencil in his backpack
somewhere.
"Alright everyone settle down," Mr. Swets calls out as he shuts off the lights
in the front half of the classroom--something he does everyday so it'll be
easier to see the overhead projector. Another way the school had dealt with
budget cuts--not upgrading equipment. Unfortunately the change in light level
mercilessly renews Ethan's exhaustion.
'Hopefully my notes will make sense later.' Ethan hears himself say.
'What the hell?' 'Can other people hear that?' Two identical sets of Ethan say
simultaneously.
Cautiously Ethan pokes Benny's shoulder with the crumbly pink eraser of his
pencil, "Hey B, did I just say something?"
"No..." Benny looks at Ethan with startled saucer eyes, and then around the
classroom to see if anything is obviously amiss. After four years, the one
things the boys have definitely learned was to not ignore something weird.
'So much for that,' Ethan tells himself.
"Okay well I'm apparently holding a conversation with myself in my head," Ethan
informs Benny quietly. Seeing Benny's suddenly guilty grin, he adds, "This is
your fault, isn't it?"
Tapping the table with both hands, the spell master explains, "It might
possibly be the Ducerebra potion. The book really made it sound like it would
help you think faster, but the name literally means 'two minds.' So..." Benny
gestures helplessly.
Ethan is about to retort but Mr. Swets turns on the projector and instructs the
class to open their textbooks to page 497. At this late point in the school
year, he cared less about enforcing rules in their senior classes, which was
evidenced by him giving up on taking attendance, but Mr. Swets drew the line at
anything that would distract other students. If you don’t want to learn, that’s
your choice, but don’t take that choice away from your classmates.
'Hello me?' Ethan think-says hesitantly, while obediently opening his book to
497. Most of the class seems to be copying something out of the book.
'I guess I--we’re like this for a while... Are you really me? I can hear myself
think, and I can hear you talk, but I can’t hear you think.' Other Ethan
responds.
'Your guess is as good as mine,' he informs himself. ‘Possibly in the most
literal sense.’
Ethan scratches the side of this head while considering the current situation,
and he feels a slight resistance that makes him aware of the habit. Like his
hand is lagging behind the signals his brain is sending. The sensation is
disconcerting, though painless.
While pulling the hand away from his scalp for inspection, Ethan’s gaze catches
across the historical political cartoon in his math book. Also startling out of
place. And the conflict of interest materializes in his body as immobility. His
head freezes mid-turn, mouth agape in confusion and curled fingers hovering
awkwardly near his face. Wearily determined, Ethan pours his force into
twisting his body.
‘Are you…?’ Ethan hears moments before the hold on his body dissolves, leaving
the built-up force to fling him into his rowmate, Rose, sitting at the next
table over.
Rose’s serpentine reflexes redirect Ethan’s fall onto the floor.
Condescendingly, Rose hisses above him, her snake tongue angrily flicking out
from between scaly green lips. Dazed Ethan watches the delicate pink blur,
trying to comprehend what just happened. Rose seems to expect an apology so
Ethan gives her a weak smile. His greatest weapon.
‘What just happened?’ Ethan rubs the spot where his head hit the metal leg of
Rose’s chair. ‘I was trying to figure out why my math book has a political
cartoon in it, and suddenly I couldn’t move. Well until we ended up on the
floor obviously.' Ethan explains.
‘Our math book has a political cartoon in it?’ Other Ethan asks sincerely
surprised. Apparently Other Ethan hadn’t processed the images when their eyes
had passed over the page.
‘Not important,’ Other Ethan refocuses, and Ethan feels a twitch in his neck
like his head wants to shake. ‘I realized we were fighting for control of our
body. So I tried playing dead and that seemed to let you move. I’ll just keep
doing that. Playing dead.’ Other Ethan proposes. Ethan appreciates that he can
be so pragmatic in this situation.
‘Well I guess that settles it, we’re the same person—same body at least…’ Ethan
concedes finally struggling up to sitting.
“Oh shit!” Benny exclaims in a hushed tone, as if only just noticing Ethan
piled on the floor. He scoots Ethan’s empty chair back so he can offer his hand
palm up.
'Benny is so thoughtful,' Other Ethan responds automatically as he lets Ethan
haul their body to standing. Ethan chooses to ignore Benny’s assistance.
Benny withdraws his offered hand, but his calculating gaze stays on Ethan until
the seer gives his friend a reassuring half-smile.
'Yeah... I guess I do.' It was weird to hear the sentiment out loud. Bizarrely
saccharine. Ethan's pretty sure Other Ethan coughs awkwardly.
‘Um, so you have to play dead for me to move?’ Ethan asks nervously as he
resettles in his seat. ‘Why didn’t we immediately have that issue?’
He surveys the room. Besides Benny and Rose, the class in general hasn’t
reacted to Ethan’s tumble. Tyler is asking Mr. Swets about question 13. Mr.
Swets nods his head a couple of times before answering, uncapping the vis-a-vis
pen with a snap.
'Maybe our psyches are drifting further apart the longer we exist as separate
entities.' Other Ethan suggests helpfully.
'Yeah I was thinking the same thing--so we aren't that far off yet,' Ethan
agrees.
Ethan nods to give the conversation some finality. Mr. Swets announces a new
topic in big sloppy letters on the overhead:
“intermed-
iate value
THEOREM”
He picks up his pencil, it’s a good time to start paying attention. Maybe today
won’t be a total wast--
The door slams open, banging against the wall like a gun shot.
The surprise knocks the pencil from Ethan’s hand. Benny momentarily takes a
defensive stance, which for Benny is loosely pointing his fingers towards the
door.
And in struts an unfamiliar face. Pale skin tinged slightly red from sunburn
phases into lanky strawberry hair. A hooked nose provides visual focus in an
otherwise unremarkable visage. He's tall with abnormally long legs and arms--
something his dark clothes can't quite handle, revealing strips of that too
white skin at his ankles and wrists. He's done something complicated and vain
with his hair, slicking it back in a way that still looks wet.
The newcomer hands a crinkled slip of paper to Mr. Swets, whom seems too taken
aback by his abrupt and unexplained entrance to do more than silently accept
the note.
"This must be the new guy," Benny whispers. "I'm way hotter than him!"
Ethan shoots his friend an incredulous glare. Admittedly he agrees with Benny--
the new guy comes off as awkward trying for bad boy--but Benny’s insistence
still prickles.
‘How can Benny still be hung up over Trisha?’ Ethan scoffs.
‘Right? Like did he forgot all of the relationship advice we gave him this
morning? Competing with some guy isn’t going to help him build an actual
rapport with a girl,’ Other Ethan agrees emphatically.
‘And not to be mean, but why does he always brag about things he’s terrible at?
Like he’s not actually that good at getting a date--girls are only interested
because he’s in the Coven,’ Ethan goes on.
‘And as soon as I call him on his BS he gets all quiet and shuts down,’ Other
Ethan adds but regret is creeping into his voice. ‘I mean if he’s so insecure
why does he act like so braggy?’
‘Right,’ Ethan barrels on, ‘Like I don’t care that he’s playing the field and
making terrible decisions. But then he acts like it’s not his fault or his
choice. And you know if he was just honest about himself, I would support him.’
Mr. Swets shoves the note into his pocket. His voice breaks Ethan out of his
internal rant, "Okay class please welcome Sean. He's new to Whitechapel. Sean,
why don’t you take the empty seat in the front row."
'Benny’s our best friend… That’s kinda harsh. Maybe we aren’t really as nice as
we think we are?' Other Ethan asks himself.
'No. Of course we are,' Ethan replies, 'We're just practical and honest.
Someone has to be after all.'
'Yeah. Okay... But it does kinda sound like you're justifying us being a jerk,'
Other Ethan says, and Ethan can’t help but feel like this is his own tendency
to play devil’s advocate biting him in the ass.
Ethan hasn't written a word in his notes despite Mr. Swets being well into the
lecture. 'If being a jerk means not trusting a potential enemy, or wanting
Benny to face the truth then maybe it's not so bad.' Ethan is actually gritting
his teeth. Shouldn't another copy of himself get his point?
'I'm not sure I like you--me,' Other Ethan throws back. Ethan feels his body
stiffen up; Other Ethan is fighting for control again. It doesn't matter, Ethan
wasn't going to get anything out of this class anyway.
'Do I have to explain myself to you? To me?' Ethan fires out.
'Maybe you should,' Other Ethan replies.
'Fine. How about I remind you of all the shit I have to deal with. Like the
fact that we only see Dad on weekends because the insurance company can't
operate in Whitechapel anymore. Or how about six months ago when our house got
attacked and we had to move in with the Weirs--'
'We like sharing a room with Benny,' Other Ethan inserts.
The class at large is oblivious to his internal struggle, with Mr. Swets
droning on in even tones. Ethan speaks more calmly than he feels spacing the
words out at an even pace, 'Right, but I don't like sleeping on a lumpy trundle
bed, or not having space for my stuff or my clothes, or feeling like it's not
our house. And not having anywhere to be alone with Sarah, the one weekend a
month at most she flies back--'
'She's busy with college. We can't be mad about that,' Other Ethan argues.
The more Other Ethan interrupts, the more Ethan seethes, 'I still miss her! I
get stuck with these god-awful vision dreams more often than I get to see her!'
'The Coven relies on the information we give them with our prophecies. We're
saving lives!' Other Ethan's volume is similarly increasing.
'That would be great, except I'm pretty sure I'm getting the weirdest type of
PTSD where I can't actually remember what's haunting me.' Ethan says bitterly.
'Nightmares and stress is a far cry from a psychological trauma. Besides
knowing that we are the only thing keeping us from all of those horrible
possible futures... It makes being a seer, even with the suffering, sound
pretty good,' Other Ethan reasons. It's a winning argument--better to be
tormented by something that never happens than actually live with tragic
consequences.
Cowed, but not willing to give in that easily, Ethan weakly adds, 'And all this
stupid purple haze all over Whitechapel gives me a headache when I'm outside
too long...'
Seemingly unsatisfied, Other Ethan continues his argument, 'I'm not saying we
don't have it hard. But everyone has it hard. I think even Rory has problems.
Maybe just... sometimes we can just be nicer? Tell Benny his bat symbol is
cool?'
When Ethan bangs his head on the desk, he realizes Other Ethan has released
control of the body again. Rose hisses at him again, irritated by the scare.
Benny pats his shoulder. He responds with a thumbs up so Benny won't worry.
'I thought I was nice. I feel like I always act in the best interest of my
friends,' Ethan laments.
'Those are two different things. But maybe we are? People are always hardest on
themselves right?' Other Ethan says, finally relenting.
'Yeah... Maybe I just... Am I crazy to say that sometimes it feels like it's
all on me to make things work out happily ever after and no one helps me with
my problems?' Ethan admits.
'No, obviously I feel that way too.' Other Ethan says reassuringly, 'Remember
what Jane said this morning? That we could count on her. Or how Benny does
basically anything we ask? If we asked for help, we'd get it.'
'But all that stuff I said earlier... I can put up with it. That isn't the
problem... I don't even know what's wrong with me! I just feel hurt all the
time.' Ethan feels dangerously like a hormonal teenage girl at the moment.
'I don't want to say this, even to you, so I know you don't want to hear it...
But what if you actually asked to sleep with Benny? Or If you asked for hugs
more often just after seeing Jane die?' Other Ethan suggests tentatively.
'I didn't want to hear that.' Ethan opens an eye to make sure he can still get
away with not paying attention. Math, pencils scribbling, mostly quiet focus.
Okay good.
'Either you ask for things or you ask for emotional support. I mean those are
the options, right? You have to admit we aren’t doing that great on our own.'
Other Ethan says with a touch of apology in his voice.
Ethan doesn't immediately acknowledge his other self, letting all his weight
rest against the table... pliable.
'I trust Benny and end up putting myself through therapy,' Ethan remarks dryly
into the silence in his head. The words could come across bitter, but he
figures Other Ethan will recognize his defeated humor.
'Speaking of therapy, let's do those breathing exercises Grandma Weir gave us.
If we fall asleep, Benny will wake us up.' Other Ethan suggests.
'Go for it.' Ethan tells himself. After all Other Ethan currently has control.
'Do it with me,' Other Ethan insists. 'You need it too.'
'Fine,' Ethan concedes.
Other Ethan inhales through their nose breathing into their belly, where he has
placed one of their hands to feel his diaphragm push down. As Ethan echos the
motion, it feels like his brain is lagging behind his body.
Other Ethan counts out loud to him, ‘1… 2… 3…” Reaching full lung capacity he
pauses. Ethan joins in on the exhale, breathing out through their mouth. ‘1… 2…
3...’ Together, they begin another inhale through the noise.
"E, are you okay?" Benny asks suddenly, bending his head down to try to meet
Ethan's eye level.
'Uh... Were we breathing loud?' Other Ethan asks.
'Ask Benny,' Ethan replies.
"Was I being loud?" Ethan hears himself ask quietly.
"No, but dude I can tell you're doing those Vader breathing exercises." Benny
whispers back, and this time Ethan catches a tinge of guilt in Benny’s voice.
Embarrassed Ethan covers his head with his arms, pushing past the initial
reluctance in the movement.
"I'll explain later," his voice mutters to Benny. Feeling his vocal cords
constrict without his conscious effort is moderately unsettling.
Conversely when Other Ethan glances around the room from under their arm fort,
the unbidden visuals feel more like watching a video than losing control of his
body. The new guy, Sean, is looking back at Ethan from the front row with an
aggressive half-snarl.
Ethan starts. Regaining the facade of composure, Ethan grins back nervously--
does Sean already know that Ethan works for the Coven? While Benny benefited
socially from his association with the Coven, many students feared that Ethan,
as a seer, would discover and report their secrets.
Sean's face shimmers; the features morph. His eyes grow into dark, round pits,
and his smile becomes a wide lipless tear in his face. Ethan blinks and the
illusion blinks off too. Sean’s brows furrow in consternation, prompting Ethan
to avert his eyes to avoid further infuriating the obviously hostile student.
'That can’t be good,' Ethan sighs.
Other Ethan must share his overwhelmed apathy as he lets their body slump
further in their chair. Ethan rag dolls along with him. Either Sean is the
cause of last night’s seer dream, which means Jane’s death could occur far
quicker than Ethan feared, or he’s an unrelated problem that Ethan will have to
split his attention to deal with. Sean is an uninspiring essay topic that’s
worth a letter grade.
When Other Ethan begins counting again, Ethan just closes his eyes.
Theoretically the breathing exercises should make time pass faster. Grandma
Weir claims the meditative practice cultivates an expansive awareness beyond
the concept of time. In practice Ethan continually wonders how many minutes
have passed. Checking the clock is guaranteed to be disappointing.
Sean isn’t helping. Or rather Ethan’s gaze is repeatedly drawn to the slick
reddish mane that promises supernatural trouble.
Ethan finds himself disproportionately grateful when Benny jabs him in the ribs
at the end of class, “We should go talk to the new guy. Show him who’s boss
around here.”
“Right… yeah.” Ethan agrees, leaving his stuff out to follow Benny’s rush to
the front of the classroom.
“Sean!” Benny calls out, trying to head the taller boy off before he can leave.
Benny fails to notice when he knocks Tamara over.
Her friend Katie helps her up as Ethan edges by. “Sorry about that,” Ethan
apologizes for his best friend as he edges by.
Sean watches the boys approach slightly agitated, but he’s complacent enough in
waiting.
“So, Sean, welcome to Whitechapel,” Benny begins with cheeriness that seems
sincere. Ethan suspects it’s more about Benny enjoying his role than any actual
feelings of kinship. At least he hopes. “My name is Benny I’m a spell caster.
And this is Ethan, he’s your friendly neighborhood seer.”
“Hi,” Ethan says, extending his hand to shake Sean’s. The other boy squints his
watery blue eyes suspiciously at the offered hand as he takes a step back and
shoves his fists into pockets. Ethan scratches his nose nervously with his
abandoned hand.
‘He’s onto us,’ Other Ethan remarks consideringly.
‘Benny did give it away,’ Ethan responds. ‘Although Benny didn’t see Sean’s
face morph.’
“Right...” Benny continues. “The White Mages Coven of Whitechapel, that we’re a
part of,” Benny adds smugly, “has alliances with the Greater Rainy River
District Vampire Council and the Crescent Forest Were-Confederate. We don’t
require that you align yourself with any of the authorities in this area, but
if you don’t choose one then by default you’ll be under the jurisdiction of the
Coven.”
Sean wordlessly stares at Benny, plotting murder with his eyes. Benny does have
a tendency to get carried away with his explanations.
“The Coven wouldn’t ask much of you,” Ethan promises cutting off Benny’s longer
explanation of how law enforcement works with three authorities claiming rights
over the same piece of land.
“Right, aligning with the Coven isn’t hard,” Benny agrees. “We just need to
know what you are, what you can do, and where you live. In exchange we’ll give
you a shiny protection amulet.”
Said amulet also acting as a signal amplifier in case they needed Jane to track
them. An ability they hadn’t had to use yet, and were keeping under wraps.
“No,” Sean says thickly, and bolts headlong out the door.
“That went well,” Benny decides, heading back to their table at a more
leisurely pace.
Ethan opens his mouth to respond-- ‘Nicer. Remember we’re being nicer,’ Other
Ethan interjects.
Ethan swallows the sarcastic quip. “Yeah, totally Benny.”
***** Pink Teeth *****
Chapter Notes
     As always, I welcome any feedback about errors, confusing or boring
     sections!
Ethan gingerly holds the still mostly full, now cold coffee in his left hand
and gestures generally towards the water fountain down the hall, “I need to
dump this.” Benny nods.
“Why?” Rory asks, suddenly popping up on Ethan’s left, effectively blocking the
path to the water fountain. The vampire menace snatches the paper cup away
while before Ethan recovers from the jump-scare enough to react.
Rory, of course, immediately downs half the doctored coffee. “It tastes fine,”
Rory remarks, confused. Ethan watches in horror as Rory’s pupil’s dilate into
his glowing golden irises.  
“Man, I haven’t had coffee in a long time,” Rory says smacking his lips.
“No, Ror…” Benny swipes at the cup. His face falls into a grimace when Rory,
oblivious to the attempt, shotguns the rest of the coffee.
There’s a moment of tense stillness, where Benny and Ethan watch Rory blink at
them with black and gold eyes.
“ I-should-hold-auditions-for-Benny’s-girlfriend-Canada’s-Got-Talent-style, ”
Rory blurts out. Taken aback, Rory looks around as if to see who said that. “
No-I-should-paint-a-love-sonnet-for-Anne-and-get-those-chocolates-she-likes-
from-the-shop-on-main-street, ” Rory continues, his speech becoming manic and
blurred. “ Why-not-both?-And-a-pizza!-That’s-a-great-idea! ”
In a gush of wind, Rory is gone.
Insides his head, Other Ethan groans wearily. ‘What could we even possibly do
right now?’ It’s a fair question. They don’t have any allies at school fast
enough to catch Rory. And even if they miraculously catch hyperspeed-Rory,
Ethan would bet money that Benny doesn’t have the antidote.
The boys share a look of horrified bafflement. Benny shrugs. “What could
possibly go wrong with letting the hyperactive ADD vampire drink a full vial of
Ducerebra... .” Ethan winces even though he feels fairly confident they
couldn’t have prevented this tragedy.
“Letting Rory drink what?” Jane demands, stepping out of the general hallway
crowd into their personal circle. Her unexpected arrival causes Ethan to jump
again, Other Ethan blames it on being too tired to notice their surroundings.
Benny shrugs again, this time meekly offering his defense, “It  was  for your
brother!”
Jane pinches the bridge of her nose, “You didn’t give Ethan any of my
Ducerebra  that you stole from my shelf ,  did you?”
Ethan watches the exchange silently. Jane and Benny have an odd rivalry. Jane
frequently playing both the rolls of the responsible adult figure and the
student struggling to catch up with Benny’s natural talent.
“For Ethan! It was for Ethan!” Benny emphatically sweeps his open palms to draw
Jane’s attention to her brother. As if Ethan’s physically presence lent
credence to his argument. From Jane’s expression, this is not a winning
strategy.
“You don’t know what  Ducerebra  does, do you?” Jane accuses, the fragile
features of her face scrunching up in mental exhaustion.
“I do now!” Benny defends.
“Riiight,” Jane says, her voice an eye roll. “How much did you give him?”
“I’m not sure.” Benny shrugs helplessly.
Jane looks incised. Her whole body puffs up with the sharp intake of breath
that precedes a rant. Before she can rail on Benny, Ethan interjects, “Benny
put the whole vial in my coffee, and I had about five sips before I noticed the
effects and stopped.”
Jane checks her cell phone, “And that was about an hour ago?”
Ethan nods, and then when he realizes that Jane isn’t looking at him, “yeah
that sounds right.”
Jane nods, mumbling under her breath. Ethan thinks she’s using the calculator
on her phone. “And your coffee was sixteen ounces?”
“Twenty,” Ethan corrects. Jane seems mildly pleased with that answer. The boys
watch her expectantly.
After a moment, Jane’s eyes bug out. “Ethan sit down,” Jane demands. Ethan
balks momentarily. But he gives in to Jane’s mini-mom glare.
“So E sitting on the dirty floor is helpful how?” Benny argues.
“Oh, like you care if the floor is dirty,” Jane ribs, and shoves the phone back
into her tiny girl pocket.
“Guys!” Ethan barks from the floor.
“Sorry,” Jane amends before launching into a technical explanation of how the
potion affects the human mind. Something about a time loop. Benny nods along.
Ethan would normally try to follow the lesson as well, but the exhaustion is
making his mind foggy.
‘Jane’s going to die if we don’t prevent it,’ Other Ethan muses sadly as they
watch her prim gestures. ‘And right now the seer dreams are too unreliable.’
It’s the true and chilling thought that Ethan has been avoiding all day. ‘Not
for lack of trying.’ Ethan reminds himself. Grandma, Benny, and Jane have all
tried various magical means of improving his seer abilities. But they’re just
making guesses in the dark. The ancient tomes the coven collectively owns on
the subject read like the garbled cryptic garbage that Ethan writes in the
middle of the night. And it’s not like they have anyone to ask. Current intel
claims Ethan is the only living seer in North America.
‘But you know what this means,’ Other Ethan insists. There’s a desperation in
voice, like he knows his time is limited and he really wants to get this one
point out.
Ethan doesn’t respond, not actually sure what his other self might mean.
‘The dreams take a lot out of us,’ Other Ethan begins his explanation with a
slightly patronizing tone. ‘Which means when we wake up, we’re not capable of
remembering anything. The issue isn’t with the magic, isn’t with the seer
dreams. It’s with us! We need a way to like relax or something while we dream.’
‘Okay,’ Ethan agrees. The reasoning seems logical enough. ‘But how do we fix
that  problem?’ As he’s asking the question, Ethan feels Other Ethan slipping.
For one overwhelming smothering moment Ethan is aware of the entirely of his
and Other Ethan’s memories. Then everything goes black.
===============================================================================
The bed dipping rouses him back to consciousness. For a moment, he thinks Benny
is climbing over him for some reason, but then fine-boned hands slide up the
bare skin of his chest. Fingers splaying as Sarah transitions the caress into a
cuddle, settling her weight against him gently.
“Mmm, hi” Ethan greets, feeling satisfyingly refreshed from his involuntary
nap. He’s still wearing jeans, so Benny must’ve taken his shirt and socks off.
Sarah would’ve stripped him down to boxers.
“Hi,” Sarah replies teasingly as she gives him a light kiss. It’s a sweet kiss
that matches the sweet vanilla flavor Ethan gets from her chapstick.
“How long was I asleep?” Ethan asks, sitting up and looking around. Benny’s
digital alarm clock is askew from the last time Benny’s big ham-hand slapped it
off. It was Thursday when he zonked out. Sarah had been planning to fly into
town on Friday after her last class.
“I’m not sure, Benny didn’t really give me a lot of details.” Sarah runs her
fingers through his hair, her fingernails pleasantly scratching his scalp.
“Is it Friday?” Ethan asks, sitting up. Sarah shifts with him, wrapping her
legs around his torso and resting her chin lightly against his shoulder.
“No,” Sarah giggles quietly. “No, Bunny. Actually Benny asked me to come early
because you had a rough night? Prophecy?”
Ethan nods. So he couldn’t have been out that long--just a couple of hours at
most. He’s not that hungry so it probably isn’t dinner time yet.
“And…?” Sarah prompts.
Ethan sighs heavily, hugging her arm closer to his chest. Normally he would put
off talking about his prophecies until he felt confident he knew what was going
on and what to do about it. But that self-burdening habit is exactly what he
had discussed with himself earlier. “Jane died. In the dream.”
“Ow, that’s not good.” Sarah comments with bland sympathy.
Irritation spikes in Ethan’s blood. “I read the report, and it’s garbage!” he
continues hoping that Sarah will understand. “I kept mentioning a smiling
woman? Woman with smiling eyeballs?”
Sarah is quiet. Waiting. Her sweet honey eyes brimming with unaffected concern.
“I’m pretty sure she’s mostly likely to die in a car crash, but there’s another
part of the prophecy that says ‘car no car same,’” which I think means I have
to really figure this out. I can’t just have Jane avoid cars for the next
couple of days.” Ethan runs his fingers through his hair in frustration.
Sarah hugs him with all four limbs, “Don’t worry Bunny, I know you’ll dream the
answer before anything bad happens.”
“No! you don’t know that!” Ethan snaps. “The answers don’t just ‘come to me.’ I
have to work for them! It’s me doing my best  all the time  to make sure
horrible stuff doesn’t happen  all the time !”
Sarah pulls back, her expression honestly shocked. “Hey this isn’t like you.”
She gives him a little shake, gentle with her vampire strength.
“I’m sorry,” Ethan relents immediately. “I um… Benny gave me this stupid ‘two
minds’ potion today that made me talk to myself. Other “me” said I need to ask
for help, but I dunno.” Clearly this isn’t working.
“Okay,” Sarah says diplomatically, scratching his back in soft circles. “What
do you need, Baby?”
“I don’t know,” Ethan replies with a shaky breath. His eyes sting; he’s not
going to cry.
“Okay…” Sarah begins.
“What if I can’t fix it this time? What if Jane really dies?” The consuming
empty feeling edges in along with the thought.
“We’ll... cope. We’ll have to,” Sarah states finally. “But before we get too
caught up with that, let’s brainstorm stuff we can do, we can  all  do, to help
Jane.”
“Okay,” Ethan agrees and is too relieved to worry about how shaky his voice
sounds. “When I was talking to myself today, I realized that the seer dreams
are working right, but I wake up before I have an answer. Like seeing Jane die
stresses me out too much.”
Sarah nods against his shoulder. “That makes sense.”
They breathe together for a moment. Sarah's silence is contemplative, but Ethan
just feels defeated.
“Would a potion that keeps you asleep help? Do you think it would help?” Sarah
asks seriously.
“We already tried that. We tried a couple of different potions, and they all
seem to block the seer dreams. I really don’t think  anything  magical will
help,” Ethan adds impatiently.
“Okay, what kind of things would help?” Sarah asks instead.
Ethan shrugs. “I mean the theme of the day has been I can’t go it alone. So
maybe this? Having you there when I’m dreaming?” Ethan muses, brushing his
fingertips lightly against the fine hairs on her arm.
“You know I don’t sleep, Bunny,” Sarah says apologetically. Ethan is confused,
and about to ask what she means when she continues. “Besides I can’t spend that
much time flying back and forth. And your mom definitely would not be okay with
that.”
Sarah must’ve thought Ethan meant sleeping with her, when Ethan meant having an
ally in the dreams with him, which he isn’t sure is even possible.
 “I know. It’s okay,” Ethan replies, not feeling the need to clarify what he
meant to Sarah. It’s not like she could share his dreams. She follows the
apology up with gentle kisses on his neck. Ethan hasn’t said anything, because
he thinks it would make Sarah self-conscious, but she’s really into kissing,
licking, and nibbling his neck.
 Sarah pulls back locking eyes with Ethan. “Hey I’ve got an idea!” Sarah
proclaims.
 “Eh?” Ethan laughs out nervously.
 “I can't, but, Benny could,” Sarah says finishing her thought.
 “Benny could what?” Ethan asks.
 “Benny could sleep with you!” Sarah exclaims. She obviously believes she’s hit
upon a fantastic solution.
“Sarah, no.” Ethan argues.
“Just think about it?” Sarah wheedles.
“Fine, I’ll think about it,” Ethan agrees so she will drop the subject.
“Good,” Sarah rewards him with a smile and a kiss.
Jumping on the chance, Ethan runs his fingers through her hair, cupping the
back of her head to pull her closer to deepen the contact.
“I missed your kisses,” Sarah breathes, mouth not quite leaving Ethan's, before
pushing in again.
This kiss ends with a sharp sting that Ethan recognizes as Sarah’s fang
piercing his lip. Ethan dabs his lip, so he can see the blood on his fingers.
“Damn,” Sarah swears looking contrite. For nearly three seconds. Until she
wraps her mouth around Ethan’s finger to clean the blood off. They haven’t
risked fellatio because Sarah almost always fangs out when things get heated,
but the sensation of her hot mouth and tongue, even the scrap of her teeth, on
his fingers is still shoots sparks down his nerves.
His arousal doesn’t flag when Sarah sucks his cut lip. Ethan considers shoving
a hand down his pants, or down hers. They probably shouldn’t get that involved
at the moment. Ignoring his own good judgment, Ethan twists her hips around so
he can pull her down against his erection.
Sarah hums appreciatively, moving to lick his neck, her fangs dragging against
his skin delicately. Ethan shudders.
“Hey guys?” Benny asks, barging into the room that is admittedly his. Sarah
looks up in shock, her eyes and mouth still vamped-out. Her teeth just so
slightly pink. Whatever Benny was saying dies in his throat.
“ Recesserimus, qui transiens commiscetur rixae lamia! ” Benny shouts.
Sarah flies off the bed and hits the wall hard.
***** Forgiveness is Painful *****
Chapter Summary
     The trio resolves the fight in a way that leaves Ethan's face bright
     red.
Chapter Notes
     I edited this chapter on 6/1/16. No major plot changes. Took away the
     blood test reveal to Sarah.
“Sarah!” Ethan screeches, dumbfounded that his best friend just attacked his
girlfriend. As quick as he hops out of bed, Benny bodily blocks him. A wall of
chest and shoulder pushing him back till his shins hit the metal frame of the
trundle.
“She vamped out!” Benny explains, resisting Ethan’s attempts to shove him off.
“You’re bleeding!” Benny continues, which apparently is the preamble to Benny
shoving his fingers in Ethan’s mouth.
“Beeny,” Ethan garbles angrily, batting at his arms. He can’t even see Sarah
anymore.
“ Abluere vulnus vampiric tactus. Sanare vulnus quod feci, ” Benny barks out,
pinching the puncture on Ethan’s lip. His aggressively clumsy fingers inflame
Ethan’s injury, but the incantation sears like a hot nail jammed into his face.
Ethan hisses in a sharp breath of pain. Fast healing is a deep sting that
whites over your vision and makes it difficult to sit still. Being subjected to
the well intentioned torture only infuriates Ethan further.
“Get off!” Ethan shoves Benny off. The spell caster steps back, his eyes
darting back and forth between Sarah and Ethan, assessing the situation. He
holds his bloody fingers away from his body.
Sarah’s fine. Standing a little hunched over with her hands up in a placating
gesture. Wary, but clearly not injured. Ethan doesn’t want to let go of the
anger.
“Ethan, Benny’s right.” Sarah’s calming voice strikes Ethan as condescending.
“I lost control and that’s dangerous,” Sarah reasons. “In fact we probably
always play it a little too dangerous when we get intimate.”
“Always?!?” Benny sounds mildly terrified, his eyeballs saucers in his putty
face.
Ethan glares at him. Out of all the things wrong in Ethan’s life, a couple
small nicks and cuts are nothing compared to the implication that he wouldn’t
be allowed to kiss Sarah.
Sarah, for her part, looks sheepish.
“So…” Benny looks supremely uncomfortable and also extremely reluctant to
leave. “On a scale of Fluttershy to Kylo Ren how likely is necking going to
turn into  necking ?” Benny emphasizes the second ‘necking’ with a fang-biting
hand gesture.
“Uh…” Sarah hedges, brows furrowing. Ethan rolls his eyes at Benny’s antics.
“You know I would never hurt Ethan,” Sarah answers finally.
“Remember the time I accidentally love-potioned all the girls in school? And
when it wore off you tried to kill us?” Benny asks.
“Right, ‘accidentally,’” Sarah mocks. “But that wasn’t me that tried to kill
you, that was the magic.”
“And what if you were really hungry? Today is your feeding day.” Benny asks.
Sarah frowns. “I can’t stop the fangs, but I never want to bite him!” her voice
laced with indignation.
“I know you’re a good guy!” Benny replies. Ethan wonders if he really does.
“But like maybe we should set up precautions…” Benny rubs the back of his neck
nervously.
“Like what?” Ethan snaps challengingly, spinning around to face Benny. His foot
slips on the blanket hanging off his bed. Ethan saves himself with a quick step
backward--
“FUCK!” Ethan yelps. “Jegus fucking fuck.” Ethan is yelling and he doesn’t
care. Ethan balances on one foot to knock off the lipstick red plastic block
with the sharpest corners.
Defeated Ethan just sits on the ground.
Benny shrugs, which must have been a signal for Sarah because her arms wrap
around his sunken frame. She nuzzles into his back affectionately. Benny
slouches down against the dresser, sitting obliquely from the lovers. If he
pushed his socked foot out, he would bump Ethan’s toes.
“I’m fine,” Ethan announces unnecessarily. He only stepped on a lego.
His friends have nothing to say that that.
“I guess we don’t need to borrow trouble,” Benny says. “Obviously Sarah doesn’t
want to hurt you and if it hasn’t been an issue yet, then I won’t worry about
it”
Sarah more thoroughly wraps herself around Ethan, like a cuddly boa
constrictor. Sarah was never mad.
“Yeah, thanks, Benny,” Ethan answers. His “I forgive you” to Benny’s “I’m
sorry.”
“Benny?” Sarah queries, her chin hooked over Ethan’s shoulder so she can see
Benny.
“Yeah?”
“Will you sleep with Ethan?” Sarah asks earnestly. Ethan chokes on spit.
“Uh…” Benny stalls. The corners of Benny’s eyes crinkle mischievously.
“Ethan needs someone to help keep him calm during the seer dreams. And it can’t
be me,” Sarah digs a golden nail into chest, the finger bowing the wrong
direction, before she turns it to point at Benny. “So I think it should be
you.”
Ethan hides his face in a hand, knowing full well that both of his companions
could see the flustered coloring of his ears.
“Sure,” Benny agrees immediately. “What do I do?” Of course Benny wouldn’t
bother to wait to hear what he was agreeing to first.
“Just sleep with him,” Sarah replies easily. “No funny business required,”
Sarah teases. “Although Ethan said that cuddling helps.”
That is not what Ethan said. Ethan tries to communicate as much with poignant
raised eyebrows, although twisting strains his neck.
While the expression is lost on Sarah, Benny jumps on the opening. “Aww does
little Teethan need some cuddles?” He bites his bottom lip in a way he means to
be condescending, but could easily be flirtatious.
“Not like cuddle, just… Uuhhhgg,” Ethan buries his head in hands again; Benny
outright laughs at him.
“Sure  baby , you can snuggle up with the B-man” Benny coos, seductively
stroking Ethan’s arm. Now Sarah is laughing too. So unfair.
“It’s just that physical contact is really grounding,” Ethan justifies before
remembering that his original point he had tried to make to Sarah had nothing
to do with physical contact. The words ring true though.
“Ouch is that all I am to you? Physical contact?” Benny feigns hurt, his hand
over his heart. Evil bastard.
Sarah interrupts the torment train before they get too far away from the
original question, "So that’s the plan then? Sleep with Ethan to help him
through the prophecy dreams?”
“Yeah, sure,” Benny says, fidgeting. “I mean I want to help Ethan, so no big
deal.”
The day is quiet around them, cementing the sense of calm that has settled
around the three friends. Outside a bird calls.
“Good,” Sarah says, “I am really glad Benny is there for you. And honestly I'm
not too surprised. You guys are very touchy-feely, you know for guy friends."
Sarah explains. Benny shifts away from Ethan.
“I mean it’s not a big deal!” Sarah tries to backpedal, but it’s too late. Now
both boys are embarrassed.
***** Brief intermission for snacks *****
Chapter Notes
     Updated on 6/12/16. No major updates, mostly just added some more
     sciency stuff at the end of the chapter.
"If I can direct your attention here," Benny says adjusting the focus on the
projector lens. The large papyrus words 'The Vampire Curse: Blood & Power'
sharpen on the basement wall. The projector itself is balanced on bar stool
stabilized by a wedge of folded paper under one leg.
Instead of addressing the obvious hazard, Sarah asks, "How do you have a
projector?" They have her set up in the comfy desk chair with a bowl of
popcorn.
"I snuck it out of the AV club storage room," Benny answers briefly before
jumping right into the presentation the boys had prepared. "The Vampire Curse:
Blood & Power, by Benny Weir and Ethan Morgan."
Sarah chuckles softly behind her hand, trying to hide her amusement. Sarah has
always been more of an action-taker, but somehow she still gets drawn into
Ethan's long explanations. Admittedly Ethan plays up his nerdiness for exactly
this reason.
Benny, however, doesn't have the same levity about his own geeky tendencies. He
clears his throat pointedly, and Sarah responds by schooling her expression
into a mask of serious focus. Gratified, Benny taps the spacebar and reads the
title off the next slide, "Initial Blood Need."
Ethan takes his cue as Benny hits the spacebar again, triggering the next
bullet point to to spin into view. "The vampire curse kills the victim's body
but then maintains its normal functioning through the use of magic. In this
case blood-based magic."
Tap. In spins the outline of a human with a drop of blood placed in its chest.
Tap. Benny explains the next slide, which is movie vampire holding his head in
pain, "Fledglings need human blood at least once to power the transition to
full vampire. After that other types of blood can be consumed."
Benny taps through a list of examples, including their cartoon illustrations:
rat, cat, dog, racoon, old roadkill, and blood substitute. Blood substitute is
a juice box with a blood drop photoshopped over the apple.
The next slide, entitled 'Sarah vs Rory,' has a picture of Sarah holding up
Rory's severed head. In her comfy seat, Sarah's open mouth gaping appears to be
caught between emotions.
Ethan hopes at least one if those emotions is impressed. Ethan spent a
considerable amount of time finding a picture from when she was still human
where had an arm raised, and even more time finding a picture where her
characteristic beaming smile was replaced with a more neutral expression.
Apparently there were no pictures in existence where Sarah was screaming in
enraged victory over her fallen enemies.
Luckily, the boys' youthful exploits had resulted in a bevy of pictures where
Rory was pulling an 'I'm dead' face.
Benny had photoshopped the pictures of their friends together in front of the
erupting volcano background. Out of the two of them, Benny was more artistic,
which meant the final product left a lot to be desired.
Ethan calls Sarah's attention back, chuckling, "Pretty epic, right?"
Sarah laughs, "Sure. Yes, epic is definitely one word for it."
Her smile is genuine, so Ethan continues on with the presentation, "The side
effects of not drinking human blood include reduced vampire abilities; thus you
would win in a fight against Rory. I mean we would need to perform more
thorough tests. This is based on observation only."
"Hey Ethan," Benny stage-asks. "iif most vampires drink human blood, then why
are some vampires stronger than others?"
"That's a great question Benny," Ethan answers. "We think vampires can retain
excess magic, so they should get stronger over time. It's also possible that
vampires just learn more tricks as they get older. We've also discussed the
possibility that vampires have lineages with different strengths." Ethan
rotates his splayed fingers in the gesture of maybe-maybe-not.
Tap. The text in the next slide bounces in all together. Benny had argued with
him about that actually, insisting that it was better showmanship to have each
bullet point bounce in as you were talking about it. Ethan won by reminding him
that Sarah didn't want to sit through an hour long presentation.
Benny takes this slide. "We have several additional theories on what could
cause some vampires to be stronger. I could go over then I'd you're
interested…"
Benny's puppy-dog-eye-beam-of-hope combats Sarah's hesitant smile. "Maybe
another time"
Benny's jaw clicks shut, biting the thought off before it leaves his mouth.
Ethan would feel bad for his best friend expect that Benny had already talked
through all his theories with Ethan.
Tap. "Which brings us to the purpose of today's activity," Benny continues
easily.
"Making you stronger!" Ethan enthuses.
Sarah flinches. "What? Why?" Sarah crosses her arms over her chest, her
expression defensive and hurt.
"Uh, because it would be awesome," Benny replies.
Ethan grimaces, realizing that they've managed to hit a nerve. Hindsight
reminds him that some part of Sarah still wants a normal human life no matter
how much she's accepted being a vampire. "Well we also thought that the same
things that would make a vampire stronger might also decrease the reliance on
blood." It was true, they just hadn't thought it would fit with the theme of
the slide show.
"Oh, that would be good, " Sarah unfurls with the simple statement.
"Good..." Benny's stiff posture and guilty smile betray that he may picked up
on Sarah's reluctance. Asking Sarah if it was okay that they doctored her
weekly food source may have been prudent.
Instead of addressing the situation, the spell caster stoops down to retrieve
his handiwork from the mini-fridge.
Ethan taps the spacebar, the next slide showing a list of strange latin words,
"These are the additives we put into each of these twenty test tubes. We're
going to have you try each one and answer three questions: Does it give you a
surge of energy? Does feel like it quenches your blood thirst? Does it taste
better than blood by itself? Then we'll wait until you feel as hungry as you
did before you drank the sample."
"Okay," Sarah crunches up her brow in consternation. "I'm not sure exactly how
this will work. Normally a pint of blood lasts me a whole week…"
"So a tenth a pint could last 16 hours," Benny follows the thought to its
conclusion. "16 hours and 48 minutes," he corrects.
The boys had been thinking the wait would be in minutes not hours. This makes
the logistics considerably more difficult.
"Well," Ethan says starting to think about what this means. "If our first
assumption is right, then we'll be done with all of the samples before the end
of the weekend. If not, then we can test as many as possible before Sarah
leaves. At least we'll get some data."
"We're testing two variables at once though," Benny replies. "The blood
additives and drinking a pint of blood over a longer time period."
Sarah pops a kernel of popcorn in her mouth watching the boys bounce ideas back
and forth. "Okay so to have a true control," Ethan thinks out loud, "We'd need
to have another week where Sarah drinks her blood one tenth at a time, only
without additives. Just to determine if the amount of hunger satisfied is
constant for each portion of blood dranken or if there's a cumulative effect."
"It should probably be the same blood, too," Sarah adds. "I mean blood from the
same donor."
She's right. At least this week they used Ethan's blood for the experiment
instead of an anonymous blood donor's.
Benny pulls out a Bunsen burner, placing a beaker with water on a stand above
it. "So that means we can't perform the control for another eight weeks. But
you're down, right?" Benny asks Sarah.
"Yeah, of course. Whatever you need me to do, I'll do my best." Sarah does look
more interested now, trying to read the labels on the still rocking test-tube
rack.
Ethan retrieves the clipboard with the printout he made to record Sarah's
answers. "Any of them look tasty?"
"Well it's all blood. So, yes?" Sarah responds with a half shrug.
Benny grabs the first test tube out of rack and places it into the beaker of
water in order to bring the blood back up to body temperature.
There are only two chairs in the basement, so Ethan sits in Sarah's lap while
they wait. She locks her arms around his waist like a seat belt.
"So have you seen the latest Avengers movie yet?" Benny asks, settling in to
wait.
***** Broccoli and Twix *****
Chapter Notes
     Updated this chapter: Major changes include a bit at the end where
     Benny drags Rory out of a ditch.
The metal tines of the fork scrape lightly on the plate as Benny discretely
pushes another broccoli to the side. Grandma is indulging Mrs. Morgan’s small
talk, which gives Benny respite from her dirty looks. Besides, he ate all of
his mashed potatoes. Potato’s a vegetable.
“So, what were you three up to in the workroom?” Samantha directs the
conversation towards Benny’s end of the table. Her encouraging smile is a scrap
of normalcy that Benny has never been familiar with. Grandma’s disappointed
caught-you look, on the other hand…
Startled, Benny mashes the broccoli head.
“Uh…” Ethan stalls. Mrs. Morgan‘s stance on vampires and vampire-related
activities is lukewarm at best.
Under Grandma’s scrutiny, Benny guiltily scrapes up the broccoli guts and
tentatively shovels them into his mouth. Ethan seems similarly uncomfortable
under his mother’s considerably more friendly gaze.
“We were testing blood potions,” Sarah steps in, ending the silence before it
had a chance to get truly unpleasant. They weren’t potions, but Benny doesn’t
feel like correcting her.
“Oh,” Samantha smiles nonconfrontationally. “That’s nice,” She adds, and
promptly drops the subject.
“Did you get any positive results?” Jane asks with genuine interest. Her
broccoli is gone. She cannot actually  like  broccoli.
“Venus flytrap and fly wings were the most promising. Purple capped mushrooms
were pretty decent too.” Benny reaches for the bowl of mashed potato. “Newt
skin wasn’t bad---”
Zing!  Without hand motions or verbal incantations, Grandma zapped the hand
going for mashed potatoes. With one pointed eyebrow, she chastises, “Eat your
broccoli.” Effectively the reprimand functions as a ‘shut up’ as well.
“Tell you later,” Benny conspicuously whispers to Jane, rubbing his hand. She
nods seriously and tucks back into her chicken.
“Ethan, dear, we need to talk about the prophecy you wrote last night.”
Grandma’s calm voice  commands attention. This serves to deflate Samantha’s
dubiously-sincere cheeriness further.
“Uh… yeah.” Ethan hunches into a nervous smile. Sarah butts her shoulder up
against Ethan’s in a show of solidarity. Benny is glad one of them knows what
to do.
Grandma begins her questions. “Can you tell me anything more about ’The Smiling
Woman?’” Benny vaguely remembers reading those words in Ethan’s scratchy
handwriting.
“Sorry,” Ethan cringes, biting a piece of chicken off his fork with his teeth
in lieu of any further explanation. Benny feels like maybe he should try to
contribute something, but if the seer mastermind doesn’t know what’s happening
then Benny definitely doesn’t.
“That’s alright dear.” Grandma reassures, already moving onto the next point.
“From the other things you wrote, It sounds like there’s a water-based
shapeshifter in Whitechapel, but you didn’t say anything about his or her human
form or what he or she is trying to do. So we want you to try to concentrate on
anything to do with a horse, or simple water based spells.”
“A horse?” Benny says through half chewed broccoli.
“Don’t talk with your mouth full, Benny. Ethan described the shapeshifter as a
horse, so we know that the shapeshifter has at least a horse-form.”
Sarah looks thoughtful, as if trying to remember if she’s seen a horse around
town. Her plate is clean and with now else to do she brushes her fingers
through Ethan’s dark mop, her elbow propped on his shoulder.
“Okay I’ll try. To concentrate on a horse.” Ethan promises. The words are
undermined by the crease in his bro. Ethan is too high-strung.
“Not to be self-centered, but will Ethan concentrating on a horse really help
me?” Jane asks, her voice equal parts reasonable and self-righteous.
“My first priority is still keeping you safe,” Ethan assures her. The
conviction in her eyes momentarily breaks into sad gratitude before she walls
herself off again.
“Wait what’s this about?” Mrs Morgan demands. Benny can hear the sirens going
off.
“Jane died in my dream,” Ethan mumbles.
Mrs. Morgan’s face pales. Life was so much easier when the adults in their life
didn’t know anything, or let them screw around unsupervised to “learn” how to
deal with the supernatural.
“What? Why am I just hearing about this?” Samantha asks. Full parent mode
engaged.
“Mom, we don’t even know what’s going to happen yet.” Ethan’s hand-waving
explain as much as he does. “My prophecy is useless. There wasn’t any reason to
tell you.I mean there’s nothing you can do.”
It doesn’t look like Ethan has eaten any of his broccoli. Or very much of
anything really.
“Thank you for reminding me how useless I am,” Mrs. Morgan states with a slight
warble in her voice. Benny really wishes he could disappear. Well he literally
could, but that wouldn’t get him out of the conversation.
“I understand perfectly well that there’s nothing I can do. But if you don’t
tell me, I just worry about what you’re keeping from me. I want to do
everything possible to keep my children safe!” The calmness of Mrs. Morgan's
voice only betrays how angry she is.
“I didn’t mean it like that! It was last night’s dream so it wasn’t like I was
trying to keep it from you.” Ethan says, attempting to reassure his mother.
“Right dear, you just haven’t had a chance to tell your mother.” Grandma says
in a placating tone. Samantha seems a little thrown.
“I think Jane should skip patrol this week,” Mrs. Morgan says definitively,
meeting Grandma’s eyes in direct challenge.
“The coven needs Ethan to patrol. I can’t say the same thing for Jane,” Grandma
concedes.
Benny has some twix bars under the bed. A couple of those would make up for
Ethan skipping dinner.
“Fine. Good.” Samantha says, sharing a smile with her children. “So did
anything interesting happen at school today?”
“There was a new kid,” Jane offers.
“How did you know about the new kid?” Benny asks, reaching for the mashed
potatoes again now that he’s finished his broccoli.
Jane shrugs, “It’s a small school”
“So what’s the new kid like? Did any of you make friends with him?” Mrs. Morgan
inquires.
“He wasn’t the make-friends type,” Benny replies.
“Yeah, it might have been the  Ducerebra , but his face looked… demonic,” Ethan
added.
“ Ducerebra ?” Grandma asks, pointedly. She’s zeroed in on Benny, even though
she knows Jane made that potion.
“I won’t do it again,” Benny replies. “Shi-- Dang. Dang it. I should check on
with Rory.” Benny hastily excuses himself, driven both by his desire to escape
awkwageddon and his reluctant responsibility for Rory.
Sarah opens her mouth, possibly thinking about volunteering to join Benny, but
ultimately remains quiet. She probably wants to take advantage of alone time
with Ethan after dinner. Benny can’t blame her. He can call her if he ends up
needing backup.
No one questions the quick exit, picking up the conversation again.  As he’s
shoving untied shoes onto his feet, Benny hears his grandma say, “It sounds
like Sean might be the human shapeshifter. You should watch him.”
===============================================================================
“Hey there buddy,” Benny calls down the ditch. Spiky blond hair is the only way
Benny can identify the prone figure as his third amigo. He’s hoping he won’t
have to climb down and fetch Rory.
Benny considers his surroundings, pocketing the enchanted compass that he had
set to lead to Rory’s tattoo. On the side of a back road surrounded by
evergreens and grass. He might have some rope in the car, but it would be
easier to levitate Rory out of the ditch.
Rory’s a fair deal bigger than a cup of coffee, but Benny cracks his knuckles
ready to give it a try. Rory is, after all, immortal.
Levitating items feels a little bit like swinging them on a rope. Swinging a
small cup back into the hands of its owner when you’re standing right next to
him is fairly simple. A good direct trajectory. Attaching a rope to a 180 pound
ragdoll down a steep ditch and then hauling him up is tricky.
Benny first tries a hard upward tug that succeeds in pulling Rory off the
ground. But when Benny attempts to reel him in, it pulls Rory face first into
the slope of the hill. The sun is threatening to set, but it’s still too bright
to be a valid excuse.
Benny tries throwing his arm back in a wide casting gesture. This is more
successful in that Rory’s body clears a larger section of hill. But still
unsuccessful in the sense that Benny’s hears a crack when he pile drives the
vampire into a rock.
Giving up, the spell caster drags Rory up along the ground the rest of the way.
He kneels down to inspect the damage, grimacing at the number of small bleeding
cuts on his face and arms. There’s even a small stone lodged in Rory’s
cheekbone. Reflexively Benny checks for a pulse before remembering that he
won’t find one. The only confirmation he has that Rory will get better, is the
fact he Rory is not currently a pile of dust. Benny shrugs. He’ll heal.
Benny opens the car door. Scratching his head he thinks through how he can get
Rory into the backseat by pulling on a rope with no leverage. In a fit of
brilliance, Benny opens the car do on the other side, so he can just pull Rory
towards himself. This actually works. This looks like what levitations is
supposed to look like.
With Rory splayed across the backseat with all of limbs inside of the vehicle,
Benny slams all of the doors shut. Mission accomplished.
Buckling himself into the driver’s seat, he announces to dead ears, “All aboard
the Benny express, leaving now for the Keener residence.”
He turns the ignition and the car rumbles to life. Ethan was out for several
hours when the  Ducerebra  wore off. Rory might be out all night. His rescue-
related injuries might very well be healed by then. The gravel of this remote
country road crunch under his tires.
“Benny?” Rory’s voice chirps from the back seat, startling the driver.
“Yeah Buddy?” Benny asks, glancing into the rear-view mirror before remembering
he won’t see anything. Instead Benny brakes so he can turn around. Rory’s body
hasn’t moved at all. His eyes are closed.
“Just wait until tomorrow!” Rory promises, his lips barely moving. Rory has
been unsupervised for 10 hours now. That could mean anything.
Benny waits, but Rory has apparently succumb back into unconsciousness. He will
have to wait until tomorrow.
***** Sweet Dreams *****
“Jane?” Ethan pleads in disbelief. “Jane! No no no nono.” Ethan’s voice dies
out.
Bloody glass shards protrude from Jane’s forehead, her eyes unequally hooded.
Ethan wedged a flat hand under her shoulder to move her out of the wreckage,
but the broken way her body bends makes him think better of it. He bitterly
remembers reading the prophecy that told him this would happen, that was
supposed to tell him how to prevent this. Prevent his dead sister.
His peripheral vision darkens as Ethan cannot tear his eyes her bird-boned
corpse. Some vague sense of self-preservation tells him he should not loiter in
a crashed car.
kwiwzzz-stitsss.  The hissing static cuts in through Ethan’s conscious.
Blinking, he finds that he can see another picture overlaid onto the smashed
car seat and… his sister. It’s not a vision. In visions he completely checks
out from real life.
It’s… The overlay is a cooking show? Some bizzare and outlandish sandwich is
being made. This is… Chocolate syrup is squeezed generously over bacon slices.
Why is that familiar? Benny’s dream sandwich! That isn’t a cooking show and
this isn’t the horrible future his prophecy was unable to prevent. This is
another seer dream and Benny’s REM cycle is another channel that Ethan can
apparently switch to.
The sudden elation washes out the queasy horror. While at least the horror.
Ethan focuses on the surreal sandwich tower, willing the seer dream to fade.
Benny’s hands are smoothing peanut butter onto another piece of bread. Both
sides.
“Ethan!” Benny enthuses, looking up from his masterpiece. Consistent with
Ethan’s theory, the sandwich, the counter, and the various sandwich ingredients
visually diminish when Benny’s attention is drawn away. Ethan watches as the
items not only bleed color, but lose detail. In fact, Ethan’s perceives the
word ‘sandwich’ superimposed over the object, as if Benny’s mind stored the
object as a word when he wasn’t actively imagining it.
“Are you hungry?” Despite the massive sandwich, Benny is holding out a Twix
bar.
Ethan shakes his head, as much conveying that he doesn’t want candy as
adjusting himself to this new reality.
“Uh… I think I’m inside your dream?” Ethan responds instead.
“Oh, you haven’t been able to do that since the lucifractor explosion,” Benny
replies. Judging by the way the kitchen scene dissipates from existence, he’s
already forgotten about the dream sandwich.
“Do what?” Ethan has never entered someone’s dream before. Maybe Benny’s
subconscious is making some random non-sensical jumps.
“The go-inside-people’s-heads-when-you-touch-them thing. That’s what you’re
doing right?” Benny asks.
“I don’t know how I did it,” Ethan replies as a way of half agreeing, half
presenting a counterpoint. “I was in a prophecy dream, right after Jane died,
and then I appeared here.”
“Where were you?” Benny asks. At this point, the boys are just floating in a
nondescript void.
“In a prophecy dream,” Ethan repeats, wondering about the difference in Benny’s
comprehension while asleep.
“No, I mean where were you when Jane died in the prophecy?” Benny asks.
“Oh…” Ethan strains to remember where he was. “The school parking lot. I
think.”
“Okay so not on patrol, but in a car. Who was driving?” Benny asks.
“I was,” Ethan answers. “It was just me and Jane in the car.”
“What day was it? Was anyone outside the car? What did you crash into?” Benny
continues trying to reconstruct the events in the prophecy.
“Not sure what day it was,” Ethan answers honestly. “A car rammed into the
passenger side. It was silver. Didn’t see who was driving... I didn’t hear
sirens. That’s weird, right?”
Ethan looks to Benny who shrugs. “Maybe, but I mean if no one was around then
there was no one to call an ambulance.”
Ethan bites his thumbnail willing more memories to surface. “I heard hooves.”
Benny mimes banging two coconut shells together, to which Ethan nods
confirmation.
“Grandma said you wrote about a water-based horse-shaped shapeshifter in your
last prophecy. Water-based could mean either like mostly lives in the water or
has water spells. I mean we could try charming everything with water-resist
spells.”
Ethan blinks. Ethan blinks and now he’s at home twirling the car keys on his
index finger. The day has started over in his prophecy then. Before Ethan gets
too emerged in this reality, he calls out “Someone has to help me with water-
resist charms.”
===============================================================================
When Ethan’s eyes open to the pitch black, it’s with a sharp clarity.
Benny’s pleasant warm gravity rests in the bed alongside Ethan. Despite the
artificial distance of the memory, Ethan knows where his laptop is--in his
backpack under the desk.  Why did I ever use a pen?  He wonders as he folds
back the covers and swings his feet onto the floor.
Ethan pads softly to the other side of the room, foxstepping around scattered
obstacles hidden in the dark. He settles onto the trundle bed, pressing the
start button on the side of the laptop.
Elated from a sense of accomplishment, Ethan feels energized, calm, and giddy.
For the first time since the dreams began, for the first since any of his seer
powers materialized, he feels like he knows what he’s doing. The startup chirp
of the computer rouses Ethan from reverie. It apparently also rouses Benny, who
shifts in the bed.
“Need help?” Benny mumbles, his mouth pressed into the pillow.
“No, I’m good,” Ethan replies. He opens up Word and begins to type a summary of
the night’s discoveries. This time he begins with the actions he knows will
save his sister’s life, and then follows up with a bulleted list of any clues
he has about the perpetrator. And the horse. He records any time he saw or
heard a horse.
"Good." All of Benny's words are thick with sleep. He flops onto his back, and
seems to fall back asleep. Ethan makes a new section for the theories he and
Benny came up with. A second later Benny sits up and peels his shirt off.
"It's hot sleeping with another dude." Benny falls back onto the bed heavier
than he needs to, making the springs creak. He’s quiet for a moment before the
implication hits him. "Not like that."
Ethan snorts. Benny starts snoring before Ethan finishes the report. He emails
it to himself, Benny and Evelyn. After the conversation at dinner, he considers
sending it to his mother. Ultimately he decides against it considering the
amount of speculation he included in the email.
He’s about to shut the computer off when guilt stabs him in the gut. Ethan
opens his report up again and created a considerably abbreviated version: “Hey
mom, good news! In my prophecy tonight, I found out there’s charming the car
tires and Jane’s math book against water will prevent the accident I saw
previously. Already told Evelyn the details. Love you mom!”
Ethan’s truly nightblind when the screen turns off. He’s also completely
unburdened.
Ethan considers where he should go back to sleep. He's already in the cot and
he's past the point where he would normally have had a panic attack. Warm
enough, he could sleep on his own bed--trundle bed. He wouldn’t wake Benny
again.
Ethan closes the laptop and flops back on the cot, his legs still hanging over
the side. Not really expecting a response, Ethan laments, "I'm so tired but my
brain won't stop thinking."
Benny grunts and shifts on the bed. He might be gesturing at Ethan but it's too
dark to see his  own  hands in front of his face let alone Benny's across the
room. "E come back. You can dream with me." Benny manages.
Ethan stares at the darkness in Benny’s direction, not sure what he means. He
isn’t sure Benny knows what he means.
"I'm really good at falling asleep,” Benny clarifies, “Get inside my head and
ride me to dreamland." After a pause Benny chuckles, "not like that."
Ethan outright laughs, immediately slapping a hand over his mouth to keep
quiet.
He’s still giggling when his shins hit the bed frame. Benny’s arm snakes out
from the bed to wrap around Ethan’s waist and pull him onto the bed. Ethan
falls onto the bed awkwardly, faceplanting into a squishy part of his best
friend’s autonomy.
"Shhh, sleep time," Benny admonishes as Ethan climbs into the bed properly.
Benny must be lying at an angle because Ethan can’t find space for his legs.
Space becomes altogether a luxury when Benny wraps sleep-heavy arms around
Ethan's chest and pulls him closer. The heat of Benny's body quickly overheats
Ethan, but with his arms pinned all he can really do is kick off blankets.
Ethan waits until Benny's breathing evens out and turns into soft snoring
before he lets his consciousness enter Benny's mind to see what’s waiting for
him. More sandwiches as it turns out.
***** That one chapter *****
Chapter Notes
     Edits ~ nothing big changed, just made it better
When Ethan wakes up, he's on the couch.  A  couch, not the couch in the Weir
living room, which makes strange sense as he’s clearly not in the Weir living
room.
Wait... He isn’t even actually here, in a physical sense. Ethan recognizes the
sensation of riding shotgun with his probable future consciousness, now after
switching between Benny’s dreams and the prophecy dreams a bazillion times.
This probable future Ethan is curled in a blue fleecy blanket in his PJs,
leaning into a curve his video game car is making. Benny is sitting next to
him, elbows propped on his knees, almost edging off the couch.
Ethan himself doesn't recognize the game as he watches through his future
self’s eyes, but it's a pretty standard racing game. The graphics are  amazing
though. It starts raining and beads of water roll off the glossy bodies of the
cars.
“Haha! Victory!” Benny crows, having crossed the finish line a full two seconds
before Ethan’s red ferrari. The race begins replaying as their stats scroll
onto the screen. “Another round?”
Future Ethan considers this a moment, but instead proposes, "Sex?"
Ethan mentally chokes. Never has the seer felt more disassociated from the
emotions and thoughts of possible version of himself. Earlier in the night, the
seer dreams had given him ripples of unfamiliar feelings, but ultimately his
future-self’s reactions had been so similar to his own as to barely register a
difference.
This future Ethan feels warm and fuzzy and a little aroused as he makes eyes at
Benny, poking the other boy’s thigh with this toes. Ethan himself feels
powerless in this body, confused and trepidatious.
Ethan freaks out more when Benny replies, "Yeah sounds good." And without
further preface he pulls Ethan into a full-on passionate kiss. Ethan's body
responds readily to Benny's touch. Even the filtered sensation is intense.
But Benny pulls back abruptly, the crease in his brow looking a little
uncertain and concerned. Benny’s large hands frame Ethan’s face, thumbs gently
stroking his cheeks. He uses the hold to maintain direct eye contact, his
intense stare searching.
Ethan can feel Future Ethan’s confusion mirroring his own. Ethan is grateful
for the reprieve.
There’s a moment where he feels like Benny can really see him. Benny coughs.
"Uh.. I want to roleplay."
Ethan feels himself chuckle, "Yeah, like what?" Future Ethan likes Benny’s
hands, likes feeling held. Tries to snuggle closer to Benny, his legs now
folded under under himself, his knees pressed against Benny.
"I'll be the older experienced guy and you're the younger, not too much
younger, virgin guy." Benny's face gets more and more red and embarrassed as he
says it. His hands fall away and run through his hair nervously, causing his
already messy bed head to stick out oddly at the side.
"You want to deflower me?" Future Ethan asks incredulously.
"Yes..." Benny squeaks, smiling like he's done something wrong.
"Okay.” Future Ethan is already on board. His brain buzzing with plans. “So I'm
younger. How much younger? 20?" Ethan asks earnestly.
"Uh... more like 18." Benny says still tentative. Ethan is 18. Benny  must
know.
"And would you just be 22?" Future Ethan asks.
"Should I get out character sheets?" Benny jokes.
Future Ethan laughs. "This was your idea! I just want to flesh out the
background story, so I can do this right. I mean, how did we meet? How was I
unlucky enough to remain virgin but lucky enough to get your attention?”
Benny leans his head against the back of the couch. "Not a total virgin. You've
done stuff with girls, but not guys. We've known each other for a while. We're
friends" Benny is describing Ethan’s actual life. “And, um… we’ve been here
before,” Benny adds cryptically.
“Here?” Future Ethan asks.
“Exactly here.” The implication is clear to Ethan. “Like there’s all this,”
Benny waves between them unable to find the word.
“Sexual tension?” Future Ethan offers.
“Yeah, but you always freak out and leave before anything happens.” Benny
explains. “Which is fine,” He adds quickly. “ I don’t want to force you into
anything. But we keep getting back to… here.” Benny ends the explanation
lamely.
Oh.
If Benny is actually talking about Ethan being stuck in a sexy seer dream, then
that implies this seer dream had happened before in this timeline. That it kept
happening and not having sex didn’t stop the seer dreams.
“So this is the time the tension breaks and we do it,” Future Ethan asks. He
then gestures to his pajamas. “Should I get dressed?”
"We're friends, so maybe you just spent the night." Benny seems uncertain how
to move forward into the actual roleplay.
Future Ethan pauses thoughtfully. "Thanks for letting me stay the night Benny,"
he says sweetly.
Benny blanks for a second before fumblingly replying, "You're welcome here any
time."
Ethan can feel his future self’s exasperation.
"Um, last night," Future Ethan begins, "You were kinda drunk," Ethan isn’t
quite sure where he’s going with this. "Do you remember saying that you thought
I was... attractive."
Benny runs his hand through his hair again, "Yeah, sorry about that."
Future Ethan huffs, frustrated.. "Was it true?"
"Yeah," Benny says it in this breathy smitten way. Future Ethan bites his lip
waiting for Benny to say more. Benny is just giving him these lovesick eyes, so
Future Ethan nods his head as a prompt to continue.
"Oh." He seemed to get it, "Um, can I kiss you?"
Future Ethan nods. Benny cups Ethan's head and ducks his gaze down to meet
Ethan's eyes. Benny keeps the gaze. "Don't overthink it, dude. Just emotions
and sensations." The sugary words dissolve into a soft brush of lips. So gentle
and careful compared to before.
Ethan tries to focus on Benny’s advice. Emotion and sensation.
Future Ethan is brimming with affection that’s dripping through the porous
barrier like sweet juice. Unsure of his own emotions, Ethan drinks up the
borrowed affection. The feathery touches zing through Ethan’s body inciting
hunger for deeper caresses.
Benny directs Ethan onto his back, following to blanket him. His hand sliding
sweetly along his jaw and into his hair. The kiss melts into a slow confession.
Ethan registers the kiss breaking before the searching flicker of Benny’s eyes.
It’s an eerie consideration. “Good, relax,” Benny entreats.
Future Ethan baulks for a second, buzzy with thinking. “I guess I’m kinda
overwhelmed. You feel so good.” Future Ethan means it. “Can we take our shirts
off?”
Benny’s dark brows scrunch together. He hesitates.
Being barechested doesn’t really phase Ethan. Future Ethan, on the other hand,
is impatiently tugging on the other boy’s shirt until Benny finally gives in
and peels it off. Future Ethan runs his hands up Benny’s torso, his fingers
worshiping the soft heat of his skin, thumbs following his sternum and running
through the course hair until his fingertips hit his collarbones.
He catches one of the hands and kisses the palm, his adoring eyes holding Ethan
in thrall. Pouring a thick warmth into Ethan that coats his ribs and envelops
his heart.
Benny nips on the meat of his thumb, playfully smirking. Future Ethan
chuckles.“I might be sweet but you can’t eat me.”
He rubs the palm against his cheek. “You are sweet,” Benny agrees. He sucks
Ethan’s pointer finger into his mouth, eliciting a groan from Future Ethan who
closes his eyes in pleasure.
"No! Kee’ your eyes o-pin," Benny requests around the finger.
Ethan blinks his eyes open. Benny draws another finger into his mouth and then
pulls away sucking. His sparkling green eyes maintaining contact is intense.
Soft wet mouth and tongue are answered with gasping, whimpering breathes.
"I'm going to do this to your dick," Benny announces before drawing the fingers
back into his mouth. Future Ethan gasps loudly. His legs scrabbling against the
couch. His hands run up the of Benny's back.
Benny spares a hand to rest halfway up Ethan’s thigh gently massaging. It
agitates the fabric of sweatpants, drawing Ethan’s awareness to his very
interested lower member.
Future Ethan curls into a half-crunch to pull his shirt off. Benny continues to
pepper kisses on his arms and belly. “Mmmm-aaaAahh.” Future Ethan throatily
approves of the attention.
Arousal is boiling in his groin, so he bucks up to chase contact. But Benny
doesn’t give him anything more.
"Oh god, sorry to break character, but I seriously can’t take going this slow
anymore" Future Ethan begs. Ethan is… starting to agree.
“Yeah? Yeah! Good.” Benny answers, increasingly enthusiastic he hops off the
couch and trips out of his jeans. His gray boxers are loose and impressively
tented.
Benny hauls Ethan off the couch by his wrists, which unsurprisingly is not as
effective as Benny apparently thought it would be and causes Ethan to nearly
faceplant into the coffee table. Benny catches him. Averting the disaster he
set into motion.
Setting Ethan to standing, Benny takes his place sitting on the couch. Benny's
long torso and broad shoulders are soft from his slouchy posture and look so
invitingly delicious.
"Um, you're really hot, Benny. I'm uh surprised I'm attracted to a man," Future
Ethan offers. His hands lovingly run over the knobby parts of Benny’s
shoulders.
Benny nuzzles Ethan’s crouch, which is roughly at his eye level. “Is this
okay?” he asks pulling back to receive approval. Future Ethan hums an
affirmative. Benny is watching his eyes.
“And this?” Benny licks along the line of Ethan’s sweatpants.
Future Ethan only groans in response.
“Try to keep your eyes open,” Benny requests. Future Ethan does his best to
comply, but feeling loose-limbed with arousal, his eyes are half hooded at
best.
Benny’s wide smile is flirty. "We need to get those clothes off you."
“Yeah. Fuck, I’m so hard. I can’t believe how hard I am,” Ethan moans in
response.
Benny waits a tick, his green eyes staring up, before tugging the elastic bands
of his sweatpants and underwear down together. His bright eyes snap up to meet
Ethan’s gaze. Ethan watches his own hard bouncy dick stab Benny in the face,
before the other boy shallows Ethan down.
His mouth is soft and slow and gentle, and driving Ethan absolutely crazy.
Benny pulls back. “You’ve never been sucked before, right?” Benny is smug when
he asks.
“I haven’t?” Future Ethan’s brain is fried, but this is  present  Ethan’s first
time experiencing this sensation.
“I want to finger you,” Benny requests and Future Ethan enthusiastically
agrees. “I’ll go slow and watch your eyes and make sure it’s okay.”
“I’m not going to break,” Future Ethan pleas. His whole body is hot and nearly
vibrating. Benny’s hand slides up Ethan’s thigh gently nudging his legs apart.
Future Ethan is unsurprised when Benny’s lubed finger circles around his hole,
instead the sensation layers onto Ethan’s growing arousal. Anticipation making
his muscles clench, he pushes back eagerly.
Future Ethan groans loudly when Benny’s finger breaches into his body. The
second finger is uncomfortable, but Ethan can barely tell with Benny’s mouth.
Ethan taps Benny’s shoulder as get starts to get close.
Drool makes Benny’s lips glossy when he pulls back. Quickly he strips out of
his boxers and lubes himself up. Present Ethan has only now noticed the lube
bottle on the side table.
“I want you on your back for the next part,” Benny says standing up.
“Will it hurt?” Ethan asks as he positions himself on the couch at an angle,
his legs on either side of Benny.
“What?” Benny asks momentarily confused. “Oh, ‘cause it’s your first time.
We’ll go slow-uh careful,” he corrects when Future Ethan grimaces.
Benny considers the couch for a moment, while Future Ethan runs his hands over
his stomach and thighs. Ethan can feel the itch to wrap his hand around his
very ready cock and finish. Benny decides to remain standing, and hitches both
of Ethan’s legs over one arm. Ethan wonders at his own flexibility.
Biting his lip, Benny pushes in slowly watching Ethan’s eyes the whole time.
The novel sensation of being so completely encompassed is soothing and intense
simultaneously. Ethan drinks it in.
Benny waits until he’s fully seated before he asks, “Hard or slow?”
“Hard! Please, I’m going to die,” Ethan moans.
After a couple of testing thrusts, Benny hammers into Ethan’s body. Full and
hot and definitely hard. The couch shakes beneath them, the joints protesting
the vigorous treatment.
When Ethan comes, he comes loudly. His senses white-out to the point where he
can no longer hear himself.
Blinking wetness out of his eyes, Ethan refocuses on the world around him.
“Benny,” Ethan says, using the name to express everything that’s boiling
through his blood.
Except no sound escapes his mouth.
“Oh sorry,” Benny pulls his hand off Ethan’s throat. He’s still standing over
Ethan, but blurrily Ethan realizes that Benny is now on his left.
And... When did Benny put his hand on his throat?
“You were getting loud and I couldn’t wake you up,” Benny explains. Younger, 18
year old Benny, who is fully dressed. Fully dressed in the middle of his
bedroom in the Weir household. With Ethan waking up in Benny’s bed that he
shared last night.
Ethan blinks in wonder at the quiet normalcy he finds himself in suddenly.
“It sounded like you were having a really good dream that you probably didn’t
want your family hearing you have,” Benny continues.
Ethan can’t quite process that his best friend, who he hasn’t actually had sex
with, just heard him climaxing, touched him to magically silence him, and then
watched him while it was happening. Vaguely he’s aware that his chest is
heaving while he stares at Benny with caught-out frightened doe eyes.
Benny shrugs, seemingly unaffected by the situation. Then he just walks away.
***** Being Good *****
Chapter Summary
     Ethan struggles to make it through the morning after waking up from
     the dream.
“I’m a good person,” Ethan reminds himself as he efficiently washes under the
cold rush of water.  I didn’t actually cheat.  Ethan tells himself this in his
head, too aghast to say the words aloud in case someone could hear him over the
drone of the shower. “It was just a vision dream--a possible future. That
doesn’t mean it’ll come true.”
The cold water is making his body shiver. For a harsh moment he thinks that he
deserves this. “No, everything is fine. I didn’t actually do anything wrong,”
Ethan reassures himself. “In fact, the prophecy is a good thing. Prophecies are
warnings. My gift is giving me the heads up to prevent…”  Prevent having really
amazing sex with Benny.
Despite his mantra of assurances, it seems like this time the prophecy has
actually caused the problem. Has sparked an longing in Ethan he didn’t know he
had. Worse, this budding need has an biting urgency to it. Both ways. Both he
needs to shake Benny and beg him to love him back, and he needs completely kill
the emotion in himself so.. So nothing breaks. So he doesn’t destroy his
friendship with his best friend. So he doesn’t break Sarah’s heart.
Ethan bangs his forehead against the linoleum shell of the shower. Just letting
the cold water run down his back. He wishes he could devise a plan to solve
this problem.
Sudden pounding on the door is followed by Benny yelling, “Dude you’ve been in
there for like twenty minutes. I thought you slept all right last night.”
Ethan turns off the water. “Yeah, sorry.”
===============================================================================
Benny bursts into the room, catching Ethan by surprise with only one leg in his
jeans. He clearly doesn’t care about seeing Ethan’s superman boxers. Nothing
has changed for Benny.
Still Ethan feels self-conscious remembering the sensation of Future Benny’s
fingers slipping inside him. His face burns with arousal and shame as he
haphazardly yanks his jeans up, tripping himself.
“Ow,” Ethan remarks over Benny’s laughter. He struggles into his pants before
standing up. The pants being the bigger priority.
Benny is stripping off his shirt.
“What are you doing?” Ethan asks dumbly as he watches the curve of Benny’s
spine.
“I gotta change,” Benny explains. “Rory texted me and said I need to look
tasty. I’m assuming that means a button-up shirt and not Worcestershire sauce.”
Benny is pulling shirts out of his closet. “Orange or green?” he asks holding
up two choices. He’s bare-chested with all of the mage pendants clanking
against his skin. Current Benny is slimmer and softer than his older self, but
still gorgeous.  
“The green one,” Ethan answers without really thinking about it.
Ethan shoves his own shirt on quickly, and is about to rush out of the room,
when Benny grabs his arm. “Dude, your lips are blue!” Benny exclaims in
concern. “Why are you so cold?”
“Ran out of hot water,” Ethan explains pulling himself away from Benny.
===============================================================================
Ethan joins Jane at the kitchen table with his bowl of oatmeal. “Morning.”
“Morning,” Jane responds. “Thanks, you know, for dreaming how to save me,” she
clarifies with a genuine smile.
After the shock of this morning’s dream, he had almost forgotten the prophecy
to prevent Jane’s death.
As if on cue, Evelyn strides into the kitchen with a tea cup. A misshapen hand-
thrown mug with no handle glazed in earthy colors “Here, dear, I need you to
drink this.”
Jane accepts the mug from Evelyn and sips at it tentatively. Her grimace
vanishes, “It actually tastes alright.”
“Water magic always tastes good,” Evelyn says off-handedly.
“Really? Why?” Jane asks curiously while continuing to sip the tea.
“Just does,” Evelyn replies in a helpful tone.
===============================================================================
Ethan and Jane are waiting in the car with the electricity on to play the
radio. Ethan also has the heat blasting because he left his coat in Benny’s
room. The cold seems content to stay in his bones.
The purple smog is more aggressive today, too, climbing up the wheels of the
car and lashing against the windshield. Ethan turns the windshield wipers on to
disperse the fog.
“Don’t run the windshield wipers when there’s no water,” Jane complains. “It
wigs me out.” Jane has claimed shotgun in Benny’s absence, but she’s not much
conversation.
Ethan sprays the windshield wiper fluid to oblige his sister.
Part of Ethan still thinks of Jane as the wisp that couldn’t sit in the front
seat for safety reasons, her feet swinging off the ground as she sat resigned
in the back. But then again, Ethn couldn’t drive back then.
Finally Benny bursts out of the house, running to car.
===============================================================================
Benny tries to make jokes in the car, but Ethan only finds himself able to
smile weakly in response.
===============================================================================
 
“Holy fuck,” Benny comments flatley from the back seat
“Uh…” Jane adds.
School is bright orange. A hideous glaring orange that was slapped along the
walls and leaving gaps that show the brick.
“Rory?” Ethan asks, but the question is really more hypothetical.
From the backseat, Benny breaks out laughing. “And to think I was worried about
what Rory would do.”
“Yeah, I’m sure that’s all he did,” Ethan agrees hopefully. He shuts the car
off and pulls the keys out of the ignition, holding the keys in his lap while
he contemplates Rory’s handiwork.
“Right, well this is your guy’s fault,” Jane says as she opens the car door.
“You can deal with the consequences.” The door shuts with a snick before she
trudges off across the parking lot.
“You don’t think they’d make  us  clean the paint off the walls?” Benny
questions slightly horrified. Now that the car is stopped, he’s unbuckled and
wedged his mass between the seats. Somehow he’s able to get his face very close
to Ethan’s face.
Ethan shrugs before hurrying out of the car himself. He just hears Benny’s huff
before he closes his own car door.
===============================================================================
What could loosely called flowers decorate butcher paper posters every meter
down the hallway, along with hearts, chocolates, cupids, lips, and puppies. The
handwriting isn’t much better on most of the posters, but a couple of them have
the neat-rounded hand of Anne. Apparently morning classes have been canceled in
favor of an assembly.
“I thought Rory was a better painter than this,” Ethan says and instantly
regrets how belittling the remark sounds. “I guess no one would paint good if
they were going that fast,” Ethan adds in an attempt to take the words back.
“Are you kidding, these are amazing.” Benny looks enthralled. ”He portrays
every trite romantic gesture with the exact same effort that people put into
them. It’s a commentary on how empty and meaningless route expressions of love
become.”
“Right,” Ethan agrees unsure what else to say.
Maybe Rory meant that. Maybe Benny is letting his own unfulfilling experiences
with love color his interpretation. Ethan can’t help the bitter aching thought
that he could make Benny believe in romance.
Deep breath.
Benny bumps his shoulder to indicate they need to turn down this hallway to get
to the gym, where the assembly will be held.
Ethan shies away from the contact, but it makes his heart skip. Painfully
addictive.
He has to keep some physical distance from Benny if he’s going to keep his
sanity, but the practice only serves to highlight how close they normally walk
together. How often Benny bumps him or grabs his arm.
Or maybe he does it on purpose , Ethan thinks with a thrill. Like a sheepdog
guiding and guarding Ethan through the crowded hallways.
Stop.  Benny is just your friend. Benny is just a little careless.
“Are you listening to anything I said?” Benny demands.
“What?” Ethan replies, completely off guard.
“Guys!” says the gust of wind that becomes Rory. Said vampire has one hand on
each of their arms looking between them.
“Okay, so Benny is in the throne and Ethan you’re at the judges table,” Rory
directs. He has a headset on.
“Throne?” Benny asks, thoroughly distracted. He tries to peek over the crowd of
students shuffling into the gym.
Ethan’s not tall enough to really see anything. Ironic for the seer.
Rory seems content to follow them with the sluggish flow of bodies until
something of over headset informs him of a problem. “Gotta fly guys. See you in
there!”
Ethan can’t help it the moment he sees what used to be the gym he stops dead in
his tracks. The gym is a garden of butcher paper: flowers, roses and forget-me-
nots and tiger lilys twining around all of the bannisters and piling up onto
two thrones, and a table labeled “Judges”. The waxy boards of the gym floor
have been carpeted with green paper cut like grass. Rory has made some life-
size animals too. Some peacocks and tigers.
Benny walks right into Ethan, his whole chest pressing up against Ethan’s back.
“Whoa,” he agrees with Ethan’s unspoken amazement, but he doesn’t move away.
Instead he grabs Ethan’s shoulder like he’s going to move him out of the way.
Except he just ends up holding onto the other boy.
The affection Ethan can’t afford to enjoy triggers him into action. “Uh…
judge’s table,” Ethan’s explains pointing at the table, before walking away
from Benny.
***** Moar Ninjas *****
Chapter Summary
     Let the games begin
There are three chairs at the judges table. Ethan takes one of the far end near
the door.
Ethan sits, nervously aware that as students settle into the bleachers he’s in
the main point of focus on the stage. He has a deep seated fear that in a
situation like this he’ll start picking his nose.
Matilda walks up to the judge’s table.
“Hi?” Ethan offers.
“Hi,” Matilda bites back. With a look of contempt, she falls into the chair on
the far end of the table, leaving an empty seat between them. Arms crossed and
slumped in her chair, she clearly doesn’t want to be here. Ethan wonders both
how Rory got her to agree to judge and why he would even ask her.
Oh wait, Benny dated Matilda on and off over three months last year. It might
be considered his longest running relationship.
If Ethan remembers correctly, the relationship ended with a massive fight where
Benny had said something that could be misconstrued as calling her fat. And
then everything he said to explain himself only made the misunderstanding
worse.
“Guess who?” Sarah voice lilts as her hands cover Ethan’s eyes.
Turns out Sarah is the third judge.
“I feel so self-conscious with people watching us. On top of feeling self-
conscious as a college junior participating in a high school function.” Sarah
sits uneasily in the middle chair, and scoots her seat closer to Ethan.
“Do you know what this is?” She asks.
“Something about getting Benny a date” Ethan shrugs. Benny dating would
actually be really good for Ethan. Ethan won’t wonder what would happen if he
confessed his own feelings, it he knows that Benny is off the market.
“Yeah,” Ethan continues. “Rory did say something about being a matchmaker, but
I didn’t think that would involve a school assembly. At this rate, Benny will
become a crazy old cat man.” Ethan jokes, although he seriously means it.
“Oh thank god.” Sarah smiles “I worry about the same thing! I hate to admit it,
but I’ve kinda hated every girl he’s dated.” Sarah leans her head in closer to
Ethan when she catches Matilda listening. “Like really hated them.” She taps
the table not knowing how to follow it up.
“All of them?” Ethan asks. “That’s like half the school.” Well half the girls
at the school.
“Well I don’t hate hate them, like as people.” She pauses to think for a
moment. “Maybe it’s more that I hate the way that they are with Benny.”
“Yeah… ” Ethan agrees for a different reason. Only yesterday he had been
frustrated because he felt like the answer to Benny’s love life problem was the
way Benny approached love. So he voices that opinion. “Benny’s smooth boyfriend
moves can’t have anything to do with that,” he deadpans.
Sarah giggles, triggering a smile on Ethan’s lips before he realizes it. “No
you’re right. Benny is probably the worst boyfriend. But I don’t know them and
I-- Benny’s kinda been my best friend too. Since Erica left. I talk to you two
dorks more than any of my college friends”
“No that’s-- good.” Ethan blurts out.
“If he could just find someone that wouldn’t take him away from us. You know?”
Sarah looks out thoughtfully over the crowd of students shuffling up into the
bleachers. “Someone who would treat him right. Admittedly it took me a long
time to get you guys, you know. But now that I do, I know Benny’s a really
heartfelt sweet person, and I want him to have someone who appreciates that. I
mean I would miss hearing the drama.” Sarah admits in a conspiratory whisper.
Her eyes darting in the direction of Matilda behind her without actually
looking at her.
Matilda’s chair scuffs the floor, but she doesn’t react beyond that. Maybe she
didn’t hear.
“If I could get everyone to settle down, please.” Rory calls above the racket.
The assistant principal scuttles across the stage and moves the mic and mic
stand in front of Rory.
“Hey kids, you’re in for a real treat today,” assistant principal Rogers
promises after he pulls the mic out of Rory’s grip. Despite how mousey he acts,
assistant principal Rogers is a were-bear. “Rory put together something
special. A really swag assembly filled with yolo and lit. So hold onto your
fleck bae!”
A couple of weak laughs and groans emit from the throngs of unimpressed
teenagers. “Okay then” assistant principal Rogers gives a thumbs up and hands
the mic back to Rory.
“Welcome to ‘So you think you can date Benny Ninja Warrior!’ Romance has been
hard for this woebegone bachelor, but he’s ready to settle down with his one
true destiny. Each phase will test our lovely candidate’s compatibility with
Benny. Phase two is-” Rory cuts himself off, dramatically gesturing at the
largely empty gym floor.
Nothing happens.
“B-man,” Rory whispers into the mic. “You’re supposed to summon it now”
“Oh right, sorry” Benny calls out. He’s too far away for Ethan to hear the
words of the spell he casts, not that he’d be able to understand them anyways,
but the gym floor is overtaken with an obstacle course.
The edge of a jenky wooden frame holding a series of offset slanted boards
lands no more than 30 centimeters away from the edge of the table. A paper
tiger four meters away is mercilessly crushed.
“Did I mishear or did Rory say this was phase two?” Sarah asks, apparently
unphased by the sudden appearance of the death trap.
Ethan shrugs. His heart is still beating hard.
Rory’s calling girls down from the bleachers--the contestants that will run the
obstacle course. Each girl has a sentence introduction that Rory reads from a
note card.
“Sabrina Carter,” Rory calls out. “So cute even puppies are jealous.” Clearly
the girls wrote their own introductions.
Sarah is passing the time by drawing on Ethan’s arm. She does a heart with
their initials and and an arrow. More little hearts. She draws a circle and
writes BFF in the middle. Around the edge she writes her name. Ethan’s name.
She has to twist his arm awkwardly to write the third name. It’s Benny. All in
neat script. Ethan worries that Rory would feel left out.
Gasps and laughing bring Ethan back to the moment. “Wait what just happened?”
“Huh?” Sarah looks up from his arm. “I don’t know. I missed it to.”
“Rory just called down Evan Millers, you twits,” Matilda hisses.
“Why?” Is the only thing Ethan can think to respond.
“Oh my gawd,” Matilda rolls her eyes. “Evan just came out last week. He’s
competing for Benny!”
Confused, Sarah turns to Ethan for answers. “Is Benny…?”
“No?” Ethan answers, but the his voice is lacking certainty. He doesn’t want to
think that this dream his affecting his judgement. Benny has never said
anything…
“And that’s all of our contestants,” Rory concludes trying to tuck the note
cards into a pocket. He misses and the note cards scatter onto the floor. “To
prove that they share Benny’s interests, they must complete the obstacle course
in under 5 minutes! And go!”
The contestants start scrambling up a ramp. Benny and Ethan like to watch
Canadian Ninja Warrior, but it seems extreme to make the girls run an obstacle
course to prove it. And boy.
Nearly half of them fall off of the rotating walkway. It’s a ten foot drop. One
of the rope swings breaks completely. Whole sections of it squeak ominously as
the bodies climb over.
Sarah seems to catch onto the imminent danger as well. “The girl with purple
hair?” She asks.
“Banshee,” Ethan replies.
“I didn’t think banshees were especially impervious to damage,” she presses.
“They aren’t,” Ethan answers, suddenly a little more concerned. “I’m pretty
sure she would know if she was gonna get hurt though.” Ethan winces. “Pretty
sure.”
In the end three girls make it through. Evan’s hand got impaled on a loose
nail, which he yanked out right afterwards and tried to keep on. Werewolves do
have accelerated healing after all. But was knocked off the course by Rose
while he was distracted.
“Let’s hear it for our three finalists,” assistant principal Rogers calls out.
He tugs on his collar with a finger. “That was certainly a thrilling
challenge.” He laughs but it’s strained.
“We have the cheer team doing a dance for us, while we get the obstacle course
cleared out.”
“I wonder what Phase three will be,” Sarah wonders. Her neat doodles have
traveled to the palm of Ethan’s hand. “Or maybe we’re going to mysteriously
skip to Phase Four.”
***** This should've been part of chapter 12 *****
Chapter Summary
     A more complete way to end chapter 12
Ethan holds his hand out to the first girl who scowls at the offering.
“Uh, I don’t want you reading my mind,” she sneers, her arms crossed tight
against her chest.
“That’s not how it works…” Ethan replies weakly. Even when he enters the
subconscious of another person, which he can’t voluntarily do, he really is
only talking to that person’s subconscious. A more honest, more suggestible
version of the person, for sure, but a far cry from free access to every
thought a person has.
Regardless, Molly just shakes her head.
“Molly is disqualified!” Rory calls out cheerfully over the mic. There’s some
booing, but at this point the majority of the student body has lost interest in
the proceedings entirely, focusing instead on their own conversations.
Jessica eagerly sticks out her hand, taking Molly’s place. The girls had been
instructed to concentrate on why they like Benny, which will theoretically
allow Ethan to read their intentions.
Ethan gingerly grabs the fingers of Jessica’s hand in an awkward half-
handshake. He immediately flashes to Benny and Jessica’s wedding. Kisses and
big smiles. Babies at some point. A lot of babies, in fact. In all of the
flashes, Benny and Jessica are the highschoolers, reminding Ethan that they
flashes are not the genuine future.
Ethan feels uneasy as he pulls away. Jessica looks hopeful, but Ethan doesn’t
address the unasked question in her eyes and instead turns to the third girl,
Tiffany.
Tiffany’s tank top is cut to sit a couple of centimeters below the frilly edge
of her bar, but she’s pulled it up, leaving the straps slack against her
collarbones.
Tiffany holds out her hand reluctantly after casting a disgusted glance up and
down Ethan’s body, making it clear that the issue she has with this procedure
is with Ethan himself and not his seer ability. Her long neon pink fingernails
come threateningly close to Ethan’s eyes.
This time Ethan sees flashes of Benny and Tiffany dating. Benny is wearing much
nicer clothes. And he’s taller. Flowers and teddy bears. Dances. Smoking, which
concerns Ethan. Oh, and that’s not Benny. Tiffany’s intentions betray her as
nearly all of her flashes feature a not-Benny male lead.
Ethan pulls back, having seen enough. Tiffany has a death grip on his hand, but
releases it after drilling his soul with her icy purple glare.
In the relative silence, the seer swears he can hear the Jeopardy theme
playing.
“Tiffany,” Ethan blurts out, and feels awful the moment the name leaves his
lips. Jessica looks disappointed but steals her expression when Tiffany smirks
at her.
Rory relays the announcement aloud over the mic. Benny steps down from the
throne and offers his hand in a kingly manner. Girlishly, she places her hand
in his palm and he bends down to kiss her knuckles. She smiles big and smug.
Ethan grimaces. One thought running through his head.  I am a terrible person.
***** Petting a wrench flat *****
Lunch is a subdued affair. Especially considering the reason Benny is MIA.
Jane has joined them and is trying to ask Sarah questions about college, but
she seems as morose as Ethan feels.
“But, it must be so boring to come back here. I bet you have really interesting
conversations with your college friends,” Jane presses.
Sarah has pushed up against Ethan’s side, twining her arm into the crook of
Ethan's. Her fingers absently stroking his bicep through his sweatshirt.
“Sometimes I guess,” Sarah admits. She sighs and continues. “Mostly I have to
avoid people. The more time I spend with people, the more people are likely to
notice some key details. Like I don’t have a reflection. Here I don’t have to
worry about that.”
Sarah has been staring off into the distance, but closes her eyes leaning her
head against Ethan’s shoulder. It makes it a little harder for him to eat the
fish burger the school has provided today, but the comforting weight is worth
it.
Jane huffs. “You can’t possibly mean that taking to numbnuts one,” She gestures
towards her brother, “And numbnuts two,” She gestures vaguely in a direction
behind her, “is adequate social interaction let alone better than a cohort of
peers honestly interested in learning and sharing knowledge.”
Sarah chuckles. “You make college sound like some intellectual utopia.”
“Hey!” Ethan pipes up, squirreling his half eaten bite into his cheek. “You’re
gonna let the numbnuts comment stand?”
Sarah pulls herself to eye level with Ethan, a clear twinkle preceding the
words, “No, I would say your nuts are quite sensitive.”
“Aaah,” Jane complains covering her ears. “Gag! Why would you say that?!”
Sarah laughs completely satisfied with herself. Ethan can feel his face heat
up, but can’t help smiling at her joy.
His face heats up even more when Sarah discretely digs one of her manicured
nails hard into the soft flesh of his forearm. Blood rushes to more than just
his face, and Ethan takes an overly large bite of fish burger to regain his
composure. Sarah knows just the kind of pain that gets Ethan aroused. From her
cocky smile, she clearly enjoys unbalancing Ethan.
“Whatever you guys are doing, stop,” Jane admonishes.
“Sorry,” Sarah relents, but doesn’t sound contrite. “College isn’t that great.
I like my classes, but it can be hard to make real connections. Or have real
meaningful conversations. So yes, I miss being in Whitechapel High.”
Jane screws her face into a thoughtful frown, and shrugs. “I guess I can see
why  you  would say that.”
There’s an uncomfortable silence pulled taut between Sarah’s melancholy and
Jane’s disgruntled malaise. Ethan coughs on a dry bite of his burger.
“Do you think Benny is going to skip out on taking me to the nursery?” Sarah
asks.
“Yes. Why was Benny going to take you to the nursery?” Ethan responds.
“He was going to help me pick out a plant for my dormitory. Maybe even magic it
for me so it doesn’t die.” Sarah answers, pulling on her own hair. “I mean it
doesn’t matter,” She adds.
“Benny always blows everyone off if there’s a chance he’ll get some nookie. You
shouldn’t take it personally.” Ethan says, but doesn’t really feel the
sentiment.
===============================================================================
Ethan isn’t finished with his fries when the alarm goes off. It's 'just' the
fire alarm, but it sets off a charm Ethan on Ethan’s bracelet. Sarah had given
him the bracelet with a red-enameled heart charm. It was crazy girly, but Ethan
at first wore it because it made Sarah happy. And continued to wear it as the
mages in his life kept adding charms to it.
The charm in question is a small amethyst wrapped with wired to form two
concentric circles on its face. It’s blinking and flashing.
“That’s the charm for the school’s protection circle?” Jane asks unphased by
the loud blaring siren, accompanied by flashing lights for deaf students.
“Yeah…” Ethan says holding his wrist out while Sarah’s slender fingers inspect
the purple stone lighting up from within.
Assistant Principal Rogers is trying to calmly direct the supernatural horde
out of the cafeteria. Many students would be unharmed by rampaging fires, and
many others would have no issue escaping from a collapsing building. Needless
to say they aren’t very motivated to leave.
“Jane, can you find your friend Serendipity?” Ethan asks, trying to think of
the best way to handle the situation. Officially, the school was supposed to
wait for the adult members of the coven to deal with magical emergencies.
“She’s not my friend,” Jane spits out automatically, but then adds, “Yeah
sure.”
“Good, you find Serendipity and meet us there. With any luck, Benny will
already be there when we get there. He’s not so far gone as to ignore the call
of adventure.” Ethan muses standing up from the table. Sarah stands with him,
ready to follow.
Ethan leads her down to the basement. As they descend the stairs, Sarah
mumbles, “Of course it’s in the basement.”
As predicted, Benny is waiting in the hallway at the base of the stairs. Rory
is making finger guns at invisible enemies. Pivot. “Pew pew!” Pivot. “Pew pew!”
“Good, everyone is here,” Benny says in way of greeting.
“No, we’re waiting for Jane and…” Ethan begins, but the girls come thundering
down the stairs. Serendipity excitedly leading the way. “Serendipity....”
Serendipity beams up at Benny, straightening the stereotypical mage robes
around her. Today she’s wearing maroon robes with silver appliqued stars. Ethan
thinks she has a bit of a crush on him.
“Okay then, forward march.” Ethan says pushing past Serendipity who has
awkwardly blocked the hallway to get into a good staring-at-Benny position.
Ethan leads the way into the storage room that had been cleared out for the
protection, but Rory and Sarah blurr in past him, clearing the area. Instead of
enemies, they find a broken pipe in the ceiling spraying water everywhere. One
directed stream has washed away the pigment forming the intricate mandala on
the floor. Knocked away a couple of crystals as well.
“Well there’s your problem,” Benny comments helpfully.
“So we call the janitor to turn the water off,” Ethan says as the rest of the
humans file into the room.
“Or, I can fix it,” Benny offers.
“Okay Benny you fix the water. I’ll…” Ethan looks around the room.
Benny motions Rory over to the broken pipe, where he directs him to unbend the
pipe. Rory complies getting sprayed with water while Benny dryly watches.
“You should touch stuff around the room,” Jane offers. “To see if there was any
foul play.”
Ethan nods, “Right. If this were a videogame, something would just shimmer
suspiciously.”
"It doesn't?" Rory asks sadly, his feet softly landing on the ground.
"Actually I kinda agree with Rory. I have spells that mimic your seer powers
Ethan and 'true sight' let's me see things as they really are. It seems like
that would be the first power you'd get." Jane remarks. Her real concentration
is on carefully marking the concrete floor.
"Seeing things as they really are is different from seeing what happened to
something." Ethan says irritably.
Jane shrugs, "Seer is a very literal title. Anything that looks off to you is
doubtless worth investigating."
Ethan considers this. The dripping pipe probably looks off to everyone, but he
decides to touch it anyway. He has to climb onto a desk to reach it, and when
he does he immediately burns his hand. It was a hot water pipe.
"Fuck" he exclaims to himself.
"Aow, dude you okay?" Benny winces sympathetically.
"Just burnt my hand." Ethan says with breathy pain. "Turns out that is the hot
water pipe."
Benny’s face twists in empathic agony. He’s petting a wrench, which seems
ridiculous but the the metal is flattening out into a sheet with every pass. “I
can hook you up with some heals if you give me like five minutes.”
Ethan nods, taking a seat against the wall. Ethan's hand throbs with pain but
Ethan focuses on breathing through it knowing the pain won't last too much
longer. If he reframes the pain as a sensation it feels less immediate and more
like a bizarre tight thrumming.
“See anything at least?” Rory chirps. His hair and clothes wetted down to the
point of looking like a fluffy dog in the bath. Ethan can almost see a sodden
tail wagging.
He shakes his head.
Benny’s wrench is now a quarter inch thick rectangle of metal. He lifts his
hand up, and with a brief incantation, the thin metal slab flutters up and
wraps itself around the hole in the pipe. It melds to the pipe leaving a thick,
but functional segment.
The floor is still sopping though.
“Do you have a spell to mop up the floor?” Ethan asks.
“Uh… no.” Benny admits. “For that, we’ll need the janitor.”
“On it,” Rory offers and disappears.
Benny crouches down next to Ethan and grabs his burnt hand.
"Ow, fucker be careful." Ethan hisses. He's not feeling very charitable.
"Sorry." Benny more gentle pulls Ethan's injured hand towards him. "I have to
touch the burn." He says apologetically.
"Yeah I know." Ethan relents.
Benny sandwiches Ethan's hand between his palms. Merely having his hand
stretched out flat hurts, but this time Ethan knew it was coming.
" Trahere ignem ex carne ." The pain intensifies for a moment before the sweet
coolness of Benny's healing spell takes hold.
Ethan takes a deep breath, flexing his newly healed hand. "Thanks."
"Wait," Benny says firming his grip on Ethan's hand. "Did you not realize that
you have a hairline fracture on this," Benny pokes a bone on the back of
Ethan's hand. Ethan hisses in pain. He knows Benny is just throwing around a
medical term, but clearly something is wrong with the bone.
"I think it's from when Jessica grabbed my hand. I thought she just bruised
it." Ethan explained. Benny raises an eyebrow. "Badly." Ethan adds.
Benny repeats the spell. Ethan think he picks up a slight difference in the
incantation, but the spike of pain followed by cool relief is the same. Maybe
deeper.
“Thanks,” Ethan says drawing Benny’s gaze. “I mean it. You’re always looking
out for me and I don’t say… thank you… enough”
“Don’t mention it,” Benny smiles back, and it kills Ethan’s heart a little.
End Notes
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