Devil's Fate

Past Repeated

Chester wasn't sure how he ended up in the police station, or why Mark was sitting next to him eating tostadas. He could smell the refried beans and the sour cream. His stomach grumbled. Mark had all of Chester's favorite toppings piled up on two toasted tostada shells, along with a glass of champagne, all sitting neatly in front of him on a delicate looking table for one.

Mark was cutting into the first tostada with a knife and fork, and that was weird. "Mark," Chester said as he watched his former boss stick a big bite into his mouth before dabbing his lips with a fancy embroidered napkin, "what are you doing here? Why are we here?"

Chester looked away from the food and around the jailhouse. It only took a second for his attention to zip across the space to the actual jail - a 10x10 space closed in with thick black metal bars. And Mike.

He sat forward as he watched his boyfriend pace back and forth on the other side of the bars. Mike was dressed head to toe in a black and white striped outfit that looked a little like pajamas and a lot like a prison uniform from the old cartoons Chester loved - Tom & Jerry and Looney Tunes.

His first thought was that Mike looked adorable in the outfit. They were kinda like zebra stripes, and he knew his boyfriend loved anything zebra print. But his next thought was sharp as he watched his lover pace, and ball his hands up into the bottom of his shirt. "Mike!" Chester yelled as he went to get up, but stopped. Something pulled hard on his wrist. Chester looked down to see a set of silver handcuffs around his left wrist, tying him to the blue padded chair he was sitting in.

"What the fuck?" he whined as he yanked on the cuffs, and it hurt. He winced at the feel of metal against his tender skin. He looked back across the room, as he yelled for Mike again, but there was no reaction, like his boyfriend couldn't hear him, even though he was less than ten feet away.

"Those aren't padded cuffs like the nice ones at work," Mark said as he picked up his champagne flute and sipped the bubbly liquid. "Those are real."

"Why?" Chester asked again as he twisted in his seat and he grimaced when more pain shot through his wrist. "Why am I cuffed? And why is Mike in jail?" He watched Mark for a minute, as his boss took another bite of tostada, before he tried to look around him. There was a desk on the other side of the room, and the door to leave, but no other officers. "Mark, what's going on?" he begged again.

Chester could be such a drama queen, and Mark rolled his eyes as he set his cutlery down and fiddled with the cuffs of his white dress shirt. "You know why Mike's here. It's that temper of his. He beat that nice Matt kid up. He's getting what he deserves. And I'm here because you obviously need me. I guess some things never change." He shot Chester a look with his cold gray eyes before he went back to eating.

"Mike didn't beat him up," Chester defended immediately. "And Matt's the opposite of nice! He attacked me," Chester informed his ex boss as he leaned a little closer trying to get his point across. "And Mike just punched him once, I mean...there was a lot of blood."

Mark waved his fork Chester's way as he spoke. "Like I said, he's got a violent temper, Chaz. When you're like that, it's going to land you in jail eventually."

Chester looked from Mark to Mike before he sat forward. "Mike!" he called again, but his lover didn't even look his way. "Mike, can you hear me?! I'm right here!"

"Stop yelling," Mark ordered, and he was pleased when Chester sank back in his chair. "He can't hear you because you're not important to him right now. Right now he's worried about himself. He's worried about Matt. He feels bad about beating him up. If you ask me," Mark said, slicing off another crunchy bite with his knife and fork, "I think Matt was right. Mike never said no. All those coffees and dinners and times when Matt was over at the apartment while you were off busting your ass working just to give all that hard earned money to Mike. It's not your fault you didn't know someone else was courting your man." Mark shrugged. "You've always been naive."