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The passing of June and July also brought the passing of the warmer weather. While the weather was still mild, Seattle was starting to cool down in order to prepare itself for fall in a little over a month. From the slightly open window, the cooler air carried the sounds of birds chirping and the locals chattering even as it drizzled outside. Dampness and wetness never really affected the residents of Seattle as they were so used to the semi constant rain. Fetch thought she could faintly smell the familiar aroma of frying fish from the local restaurant that always kept its door open, but that also might have been coming from the little kitchenette where Delsin was frying salmon on the stove. Still sitting in the chair next to the open window, she looked up from her book of Brontë poetry to look at her boyfriends. Eugene was lying on the couch playing his PlayStation Vita looking very comfortable in khaki shorts and his red Heaven's Hellfire shirt. Fetch rolled her eyes fondly, fully aware that the blonde was fully immersed in whatever game he was playing and probably wouldn't stop until he beat the boss or advanced to the next level or whatever, and moved her focus to Delsin who was wearing a long sleeved navy shirt and black jeans.
Even in the warm weather, Delsin preferred to be covered up (2). She and Eugene had noticed that the only way he could cope in the warm weather was to wear clothing of thinner material that still covered up his skin, like now for instance. The navy long sleeve he was wearing was made of thin cotton, and she knew that because he often declared it his favorite shirt. On a day-to-day basis, the only skin he didn't mind showing ranged from his hands to his elbows. Even when it was just them, be it in the bedroom or just hanging around, Delsin still had trouble comfortably showing skin.
Fetch drummed her fingers along the spine of her flimsy paperback, only vaguely aware of her surroundings as she became lost in her thoughts. It had taken about a month and a half into their relationship that she realized that Delsin was actually very insecure. It took a lot of careful observing, patience, and understanding, but she had come to realized that the confident front that Delsin often wore in front of the general public was just that, a front. When Delsin was just with the two of them, away from everyone else, he didn't have to be strong because they were strong for him.
She remembered a few weeks ago when she came home from the library to see her two boyfriends lounging half naked on the couch wrapped around one another—with Delsin hugging Eugene like a teddy bear—with a blanket covering them as well…
"You guys had sex without me?" Was the first thing she said with her arms crossed and a raised eyebrow. "I thought we agreed to do it all together, not bang each other separately."
Eugene's face blushed a bright red and Delsin let a little smile tug on his lips, though just wrapping his arms around Eugene even tighter and burying his face in his neck. While she knew Eugene was behaving characteristically at her crass language, Delsin on the other hand was acting very shy, which confused her as he would normally take humor in Eugene's embarrassment at her bluntness. She took notice of most of their clothes scattered on the floor, the fact that they were only in their underwear(1), and the way that Delsin was clutching onto Eugene the same way a child would clutch their stuffed animal for protection. The last thing she noticed and paid the least attention to was all the scars she could see all over Delsin. But, she could ask about those later when he seemed more like himself.
She dropped her stuff on the kitchen countertop, kicked off her shoes, and wriggled her way to fit comfortably with them. In her sleeveless tank top and spandex athletic shorts—which were extremely comfortable in this hot weather—she looked at the two of them and pecked each of them on the cheek. "Now you guys wanna tell me what's up?"
"Not having sex," mumbled Delsin into Eugene's shoulder, making the other male lean back against Delsin's chest.
"Gathered that." She grabbed each of their hands and rubbed their knuckles with her thumbs. Eugene's hand was very milk-pale and his fingers were long and thing. Delsin's hand was the color of caramel and he had a lot of little, pale marks on his knuckles which she assumed were from fighting a lot. "Underwear party?" she guessed, trying to put a smile on their faces.
Eugene snorted and Delsin let out a light breath. With her body against them she could feel how tense Delsin was, muscles tight and fingers slightly shaking. "We…we had a trying day while you were gone," Eugene said as he angled his head to press a kiss on Delsin's face. "You know you can tell her, Del, like you told me. If I didn't judge you, she definitely won't."
"Tell me what?"
She felt Delsin grip her hand even tighter and he looked like he was trying to gather all of his thoughts. Fetch didn't want to rush him or say something that might make him upset; she could tell that he was very vulnerable now, in their arms. When he did speak, his answer was very plain and simple, almost how a child would answer a question, "I have really bad scars and I hate them. A lot. I hate them…" The way he said it, the utter disgust in his voice made Fetch shiver slightly. Eugene's arm the curled around her waist offered her little warmth.
Their artist fumbled with his words as he explained where he got his scars, but he explicitly avoided mentioning the ones on his thighs. Those ones were lighter than his dark skin tone, very pale-looking, and were quite large and long. Fetch held in her gasp—in order not to make Delsin uncomfortable—and she was hurt by the fact that something hurt their Delsin enough to make scars that appeared to be a surgeon's worst nightmare and a movie-slasher's art piece. If she was still the person that she was before crashing into Akomish land, she would have gone on a warpath to track down whoever or whatever did this to Delsin and make them pay. But, she was not that same person. She was reformed, shown that anger and revenge wasn't the way to go and that there were better ways to channel her emotions and energy.
She had a Phoenix and an Angel to guide her moral compass.
Fetch held eye contact with Delsin all the while she moved her hand from his palm and brushed the pale, and raised from what she felt, marks on his thighs. "You don't have to tell me now, but I hope when you're ready to so, you're comfortable in telling us." He didn't smile, but she could tell from his expressive brown eyes that he was grateful and that he would be smiling if he felt like doing so, just by the slight crinkle at the corners of his eyes. She would have offered to show him scars of her own, but the only ones she had were the dot-like ones and extremely hair-thin ones that peppered her arm, and she knew that he had seen those before. She had shot herself up so many times with the needles when she had used the drugs that they had eventually stopped healing. The hair-thin marks were from her own nails that had scratched her arms to the point of profusely bleeding in order to alleviate the sensations of bugs crawling under her skin, another side-effect of the drugs she had been on. She refrained from touching her arms right now, the phantom feelings of those bugs lingering like a bad memory—she had to remind herself that the feeling wasn't real, and that she was clean."Let us know if we gotta kick someone's ass though," she winked at him, finally eliciting a full-out barking laugh from Delsin. Eugene choked on a snort, but did hum in agreement with her.
Delsin wiped a tear of mirth from his eye and shifted so that he could wrap his warm arms around them two. "I don't really say this enough, and I know I should say it more, but I am so freaking happy to have you guys. Like, dammit, I love you guys."
"We know, Del," Eugene replied as he pressed a kiss to his forehead. "You don't have to tell us more than you already do."
"Yeah, cuz I for one am not all for that sappy, lovey-dovey confessional stuff, "Fetch said as she made herself comfortable. "Just stick with bein' you, Smokes."
"…Thanks," Delsin said flatly, though grateful.
" Eloquent as ever, Fetch."
"I try, 'Gene. I try."
They had squashed themselves together into some sort of human sandwich, legs tangled and hands held interweaved. After only a few minutes, however, Fetch had complained of feeling cold—despite Delsin's heater-like body temperature due to his powers—and announced that someone was going to have to grab the blanket they had folded on the arm of the chair across from the coffee table. No one was willing to move, so she hinted (demanded) to Eugene to summon something that could grab the blanket. An eyeroll and a mass of flickering blue pixels later and they were covered by a cozy blanket brought to them by what looked to be a baby angel.
She watched Star Wars with her boyfriends and she was warm—not just from being tucked in a blanket with two other bodies, but from the fact that one of her boyfriends was like a human heater. Delsin looked happier than earlier and Eugene seemed at ease. With a content sigh, she snuggled closer to them and closed her eyes for a moment, appreciating this moment of peace.
"..tch? Fetch? Fetch? Abigail!"
"Huh, what?!" Fetch jumped a bit in her chair, book falling from her hands. She looked around to see Delsin and Eugene staring at her, Delsin with a raised eyebrow as he leaning against the kitchen counter with a plate of salmon in hand and Eugene with a slight frown as he tapped his fingers against his game in an unconscious motion. "What?"
"We've said your name, like, fifteen times and you didn't respond," Delsin said.
"Are you okay?" Eugene asked, his PS Vita tucked away somewhere.
Fetch picked up her book from the floor and put it on her seat as she moved her way to the couch and plopped down right next to Eugene. She plucked the Vita from his hands, ignoring his indignant 'hey', and flicked through his game library. "Just thinkin' about stuff. Can't a girl get lost in her head for a bit?"
"Not when the girl starts to day dream like a ditz," came the smart remark from the kitchen.
A snort escaped Eugene's mouth and she rolled her eyes. "Thanks, assholes."
"Love you, too~."
Eugene rested his chin on her shoulder as he looked at her behind his glasses. "In all seriousness, though, are you okay?"
His pure consideration made her smile, and she pecked a kiss on his cheek while giving him back his Vita. "Mmhm. All good. You're too cute for your own good, ya' know." Laughter robbed her of her breath as it bubbled from her lips when Eugene scrunched up his face in slight irritation and gave her a flat look. "I'm not cute," he whined, chin still on her shoulder, "I'm handsome. Get your adjectives right, Fetch. Cute makes me sound wimpy!"
Sudden added weight to the couch made the two of them dip up and then down like a cloth seesaw. She felt a warm body lean on her other side as Delsin snickered. "He's got a point, Fetch. He's manly as hell! You've seen his body, am I right? Super studly, like stud-muffin level of studly."
"Oh my God, you two are insufferable," came the mumbled complaint as Eugene buried his face into Fetch's shoulder which shook with her giggles.
Out of the corner of her eye, she could see that Delsin's hands were fidgeting with the T.V. remote—since he always had a hard time sitting still—as he flicked on Star Wars (which they still hadn't finished) and she couldn't help but notice the blue color that tinted the beds of his fingernails near his cuticles, a color that was definitely not natural and looked to be from some kind of paint. Curiosity jabbed at her like an annoying friend who wouldn't leave her alone and it was only satisfied when she finally asked. "Hey, D," she got his attention and then jutted her chin at his fingers, "you been painting or somethin'?"
He looked completely clueless at the question until he looked at his own nails. A little surprised 'oh' left his lips as if he had not noticed it before. He looked back up at her. "O-oh yeah! Yeah, I have. I had bought some new spray paints the other day and I was testing them to see how I liked them. They were really good, but they got all over my hands—the blue especially. It washed off my hands but ended up staining my nails." (3) He gave a jiggle-like shrug of his shoulders as he let out what sounded like a forced laugh, "Really stupid, huh?"
Other than giving an eyeroll—which she was doing way too often—at his typical Delsin-ness she didn't say anything, but Fetch knew that he wasn't telling the truth. Well, maybe not lying to be exact, but not telling the whole truth in the least. He only ever stuttered when he was nervous and the abysmal eye contact he was making was not with her but with the T.V. instead. Plus, she knew for certain that Delsin hadn't even left the apartment in the last several days to do anything, and the paints he already had didn't stain. But she would go with it as it seemed harmless enough.
How important could stained nails be anyway?
Speaking of nails, she had to repaint hers as they were starting to chip. She wriggled her arm behind Eugene who let out the cutest giggle ever—which he would later deny—as she brushed his back when she dug her fingers into the crevice of the arm of the couch where she stashed a few bottles of nail polish and nail polish remover. She pulled out two bottles, one of remover and the other of Pretty Purple 7, and was about to begin the process of doing her nails until she realized she didn't have any cotton balls to wipe her nails with. Luckily she kept a little baggie of them in between the seats, and she couldn't help but laugh when Eugene incredulously asked where on earth all this stuff was coming from. She could feel Delsin's heavy stare on her as she cleaned then painted her nails, but she figured it was his interest in how she could meticulously and cleanly paint on such a small area with such a steady hand—his past words, not hers. She rolled her eyes. Boys.
Two boys on either side of her, Star Wars keeping them entertained, and Pretty Purple 7 to make her nails look fierce. What more could she ask for?
Published: 12/21/14