A Rose with Thorns

Secrets and Sacrifices

"A couple struggles to find trust in each other whose relationship is also put to the test when they discover shocking secrets about each other's past."

Song Selection: Death of a Bachelor—Panic! At the Disco

CW: Brief allusions to drug use

***

SIX YEARS AGO.

Niall didn't remember the last time he'd slept, but he knew it had been at least three days ago. The hotel room was a crush of bodies, every inch of air perforated by the stench of sweat and cheap booze. When he looked down at the carpet, the crusty diamond pattern was a kaleidoscope of salmon and blue, all of it moving. And all the eyes in the room were on him.

He was standing on the bed. He was at a convention party, that he knew. Anime characters, Captain Kirks and adults of every age and gender in thigh highs and cat ears watched, smiling. His mouth moved. Was he laughing? Was he talking? Big holes ate up his memory; his life felt like a book of pictures with the words, the bindings, burnt way. The drinks. The parties. The other things. This was what he'd always wanted, to bend his mottled brain until with one drink it fell apart into bits like dandelion spores in the wind.

He didn't see a future for himself. He didn't care. He just wanted to enjoy what was here, what was now, whatever the cost. And now he could just see the dark shadows that began clumping at the edges of his vision with every clumsy slip of his mouth. His lips parted again, sounds tumbled out, and at last, Niall couldn't keep upright. He swayed, smiling like an angel, and dropped hard onto the twisting floor.

***

Michael was a tiny man, so tiny that he got carded buying scratch-offs and turned away at bars. It was why he'd taken Jiu-jitsu all of his life, why, despite pursuing his quiet degree in business administration, he'd taken several night-gigs in the security industry. It was why there was a bat in the back of his car.

And it was also why he was sitting on the floor of a hotel party, playing Uno cards with cat girls, all while his heart clenched and unclenched like a fist against his caging ribs.

Two men were looking at his thighs, murmuring from the other side of the room; he could feel their eyes. 

 Michael smiled to himself. He wore long leather bunny ears and a fluffy tail safety pinned uncomfortably close to the crack in his ass. This was his ritual; look cute, find a creep, and beat him shitless in a hotel bathroom. He'd done this every year since he turned eighteen at multiple different parties. The conventions were the easiest though; find the most drug-ridden dens, look small and demure with makeup covering the worst of his scars, and escape into the haze of costumes.

It was to make the world a little better, he'd told himself. But he knew why he did it; not just to give the creeps a little comeuppance, but the rush. He loved it. The look of fear in a larger man's eyes, the sickening crunch of something coming undone when his knuckles met their flesh. The gush of blood. It was a spark of darkness, incongruent with every other trait Michael possessed. He was the kind of guy who ate bacon and eggs every morning. The kind who was the first to rush to his friends' sides when they had car trouble, and the kind who always cut himself off after one beer. He wouldn't even kill a cockroach; he'd scoop it up and gently place it on the grass outside.

But here he was.

He stretched out his leg, placing a hand firmly on his thigh. 'Come into my parlor,' said the spider to the fly. He turned his head to cast a sultry glance at the leering men when he was stopped.

There, standing on one of the twin beds, was the silliest angel he'd ever seen.

It was a man with a soft, sweet face. A man who was all glittery green glances and wild hair. He wore beige khakis, a crisp white shirt, and sang loud sea shanties. Odd, but joy clung to each word, and it was infectious. So infectious that Michael smiled while the catgirls hissed for him to play a card. Just for that one moment, he lost focus. He was no longer at that party but in one of those old tv shows he liked to watch with his breakfast.