wallowinbloodywaters - Tumblr blog

wallowinbloodywaters · 2 years

Text

When I Look at You, I Can See the Stars

Caleb is stuck in traffic on his way home when he sees him. A young man, pale and sweaty, stumbling along an idle sidewalk. Caleb would have written the man off as a drunk if it wasn’t for the brilliant orange aura surrounding him. It looks as though it’s alive all on its own, twirling and twisting around the figure’s stumbling form, climbing into the sky. As Caleb watches, the man stumbles into an alleyway and disappears. Intrigued, Caleb gets out of his car, leaving it idle in the middle of the road. Something’s not right, he thinks. He rushes towards the alleyway and stops dead in his tracks from a sweltering, skin prickling wave of pure heat. He looks ahead and sees the man from before leaning heavily against the alley wall. The heat is suffocating. Fighting against his instinct to turn away from it, Caleb slowly approaches the man.

“Excuse me. I couldn’t help but notice you. Are you in pain?”

The man turns towards him, and Caleb can see his pained expression. The stranger is gasping shallowly, and he looks at him with wide, panicked eyes.

“You can’t help me; I’ll burn you. Please go,” he whispers, sounding tortured. Somehow, the heat seems to get hotter.

“You can’t burn me,” Caleb reassures. He’s not even sure if that’s true, but he’ll be damned if he leaves this man here alone. “Are you in pain?”

The stranger looks up at him and nods, a shiver running through his body. “It hurts so much; I can’t control it. Please leave, I don’t want to hurt you,” he begs again. Caleb watches as the man’s breathing accelerates, and he can feel the air get impossibly hotter around them. The orange blaze struggles higher into the sky in response and widens its reach. Caleb doesn’t know why, but he feels drawn to controlling this light.

“I can take away your pain. Is it okay if I touch you? I promise you won’t hurt me,” Caleb declares in earnest. He stops in front of the stranger and stares into his eyes. Golden brown eyes stare back at him, fearful, but Caleb can see the twinge of hope in them. The man nods, and tentatively reaches for him. Caleb grasps the extended hand firmly and tries to absorb some of the energy radiating from the man. As they connect, the orange flames of light begin to swirl around them in a tornado of brightness, but the heat begins to ebb from it. Caleb feeds off the energy from the doe eyed stranger and manipulates the heat until it has dissipated completely. The stranger looks at Caleb sharply, and pain begins to edge out of his features as he regards him in wonder.

“How did you…?” His question trails off as he looks around them to see orbs and tendrils of orange light circulating around their bodies. They’re surrounded by the shimmering brilliance and as the heat dies down, the light wanes into a soft, warm glow. As Caleb holds onto the man’s hand and looks into his eyes, he knows he can’t leave him.

Moonlight shatters across a bedroom, illuminating two figures lying in bed with a shimmering, silver glow. In the dim light of the room, a glowing cigarette is brought to pursed lips. Caleb shifts his gaze over to his lover, drawing a deep breath, contemplating. Smoke billows from his nostrils and flits away towards heaven. Jesse is going to bitch about him smoking in bed again. He doesn’t care. Reaching his hand out, Caleb caresses his boyfriend’s naked shoulder and manipulates the silvery tendrils of light in the process, bringing them to life in the still air. Swirling orbs of white light flit about in absently space in front of him, and he ponders. Sometimes, he wonders where Jesse would have been without him. Dead, probably. Undoubtedly, really. One of the biggest unsolved mysteries of the universe is how Jesse managed to survive past puberty with his power wreaking havoc on his body the way it does. Caleb frowns, and tries to banish the thought. He’ll be fine. He has you now. As if on cue, Jesse shifts in the sheets, seeking the solid warmth that Caleb’s body provides. A light sigh leaves his body as he connects with Caleb’s, and he nestles farther into his side. Caleb takes a final drag of his cigarette and extinguishes it, sighing in tandem. As he shifts his focus to Jesse, the orbs of light scatter and disperse, no longer held by his spell. He presses a kiss into his lover’s forehead. I’ll always be there for you. No matter what.

Jesse wakes to the smell of smoke damn near choking him to death. Groaning, he rolls into Caleb and shoves his nose into his chest. His partner startles awake. “Hmm?” He sounds groggy and confused, but Jesse’s not letting him off too easy.

“You fucking smoked in bed again last night,” Jesse accuses.

“Hmm,” Caleb hums, noncommittally. “If you don’t wake up while I’m doing it, then it clearly doesn’t bother you that much,” he reasons.

“I don’t like waking up to the smell of smoke in my nostrils, it makes me worry about if I burned the house down in my sleep, you asshole. I’ve told you this so many times.” He’s not really mad, but he’s annoyed enough to bitch about it for a while. He knows Caleb doesn’t care.

“Trust me Jay, if you burned anything in your sleep, I’d be the first to wake up and do something about it. You have nothing to worry about,” Caleb rolls onto him and stares into his eyes. They look deep and trustworthy, like always. Jesse melts under his gaze and stretches to press a kiss to his boyfriend’s lips.

“I know. I just worry. My power causes more harm than good to either of us,” he complains, apologetic. Jesse always feels guilty about how much his power causes Caleb to sacrifice and adjust. He would have been dead a long time ago without him.

“Hey, speak for yourself. It’s pretty useful to me; you light all my cigarettes,” Caleb jokes. Jesse grunts in mild annoyance and shoves him off, mood effectively quelled.

They lived out in the woods, which was both a security measure and a danger; they knew. Jesse constantly fretted about accidently burning the forest down around them, and more often than not he’d have chilling nightmares in which towering trees glared down at him with gnarled, inky charred faces as they crumbled around him raining fire from their billowing crowns of leaves. Why? They’d ask him, as they fell. I’m sorry! He’d scream. I couldn’t help it, I’m sorry! Jesse tries his best to stay inside most of the time, especially during the summer when it gets particularly dangerous. But sometimes, he can’t help it.

Today is one of the rare days Caleb has to actually leave the house for work. Something about a meeting or whatever, Jesse doesn’t really know. But now he’s home alone, and he’s feeling stifled and distracted from his own work. He contemplates whether he should take a walk in the woods to get some inspiration. He knows he should probably wait until Caleb gets back, but he wants to go now. Besides, he’s tired of feeling weak and helpless. He can manage his power better now than he could when Caleb met him. Breaking himself from his reverie, he steels his nerves and begins getting dressed. Just an hour in the woods, that’s all, he thinks. You’ll be fine, and you’ll get back before Caleb even comes home.

Minutes later, Jesse has a bag packed with essentials and his sketchbook. He needs inspiration to paint, and he won’t find it by twiddling his thumbs inside. He steps out onto the porch and takes a deep breath, deliberating for one last second before closing the door and heading off for his walk.

The sun’s begun to set when Jesse’s phone rings. He’s startled away from his canvas and picks up his phone. As he looks at the glowing display, he sees that it’s been much longer than an hour since he left the house. Much longer. Ouch. Caleb’s gonna be pissed, he thinks with a wince, while answering the phone.

“Hey babe, what’s up?” He tries the innocent approach.

“Hey babe?” Caleb repeats, his voice chillingly calm. “Where are you?” he asks.

“Okay, hear me out, I’m in a clearing in the woods. I was just doing some painting; I couldn’t focus inside,” Jesse explains quickly.

“Jesse,” Caleb sighs. He doesn’t even sound mad, he sounds disappointed, and a little relieved. That hurts Jesse more than any explosion of anger could have. “I know you can take care of yourself and I get that it’s hard to stay inside all the time but at the very least send me a text before you do stuff like this. I nearly had a heart attack when I came home and you weren’t here,” he admonishes gently. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Jesse whispers. “I’m sorry I didn’t let you know, I thought it would be a quick little walk, but I found inspiration and I sat down and started painting and I totally lost track of time, you know how I get.” Jesse begins packing his supplies. It’s getting dark and now that Caleb’s home, he’s eager to get back.

“I’m walking back now,” he tells Caleb. “I should be there in 30, I didn’t wander too far in.” As he’s speaking, he pulls a flashlight from his bag and shoves it into his pocket. The sun had begun to set, and he didn’t want to end up fumbling in the dark for his flashlight if he needed it. Caleb groans over the phone.

“Jess it’s going to be fucking dark by the time you get here.” He sounds entirely ticked, with a twinge of worry. “I’m coming to find you.”

He wants to argue, but he knows Caleb is right. If he gets scared or something happens and he loses control of The Fire, it won’t end well.

“Thanks,” he says instead. “I pretty much stayed on the path until I veered off to sit in the clearing, so just follow it and we’ll run into each other eventually.”

He hears a sigh crackle through his phone’s speakers, and then a door slam shut.

“Stay on the phone until I can physically hold you in my arms and strangle you,” Caleb threatens menacingly.

“Hey there, you wouldn’t want to strangle me,” Jesse tries to placate, “Who’d light all your cigarettes?”

Caleb chuckles. “Really, how did I light my cigs before meeting you? The world may never know.” Sarcasm laces his voice. Asshole. As Jesse’s about to respond with something equally scathing and witty, he hears a twig snap to his far left. He comes to a sudden halt. Shining his flashlight in the direction of the sound, his eyes pierce the darkness looking for the source.

“Jesse? What’s going on? Why’d you stop?” Caleb is so perceptive to his every move and it makes Jesse feel so loved it almost hurts.

“I don’t know, I just thought I heard something,” he says, shining the flashlight back towards the path. He begins to quicken his pace. It’s pitch black out now, and only the dim light of the moon and his flashlight allow his eyes to see.

“Jesse, keep walking and don’t look back. We should be meeting up soon,” Caleb assures. Jesse can hear him breathing quicker over the phone, and he can only guess Caleb is all but running down the path.

Jesse keeps walking but as he looks around, he begins to feel panic creeping up the edges of his conscious. Every sound is that much more terrifying, and his body feels tense as it builds up with terror. Another twig snaps around him, and he almost explodes out of his skin.

Caleb must hear a change in his breathing because the next thing he knows, his soothing voice is coming through the phone again. “Hey babe, relax. Calm down and keep walking, just focus on my voice,” he soothes.

“Cale, I’m scared. I don’t think I can control it.” Jesse’s control over The Fire is directly in tuned with his emotions. It’s harder to reign in his power when his mental state is shaky. That’s the first thing he learned when it developed.

Just as he feels his control slipping, he hears Caleb’s voice echo through his phone and ahead of him.

“Jesse!” he calls out, and Jesse looks ahead to see twins snake-like swirls of silvery light approaching, orbiting around the most handsome man he’s ever seen.

Jesse hangs up his phone and runs into Caleb’s arms, breathing a sigh of relief. Caleb’s strong arms crush him in a hug, and Jesse’s mind absently thinks that this may be what Caleb meant earlier about strangling him. The thought makes him smile. As he pulls away from his boyfriend’s chest, he looks around to see that their powers have intertwined the way it did when they had first met, when Caleb had saved his life. All around them, silvery tendrils and crystals of light twist and turn, enveloping them in a soft, warm glow. The forest fades.

Later that night, after passion and love met in an incandescent dance, Caleb sat up in bed with a lit cigarette resting idly between his lips. He breathes in deeply and looks over at Jesse’s sleeping form. What happened tonight could have ended a thousand times worse, and Caleb’s overactive imagination doesn’t fail to pester him with at least a few hundred different renditions. But it didn’t, he tells himself. You were there for him. Just as you’ll always be. With a sigh, Caleb puts out his cigarette and slides under the sheets to entangle himself with Jesse’s sleeping form. He falls asleep to the feeling of warmth and moonlight draping over him.

#super powers #romance #boyxboy #boyslove #fear #hurt #comfort #fireandlight #love #poetic #oneshot #my ocs #writing #wip wednesday #wip #author #smoking #cigarrete

1 note · View note