AXIS

HELIOCENTRIC

The feather falls from his loosened grip, and Akellos watches its slow descent to the rich burgundy carpet beneath his dress shoes. The speck of white disturbs the sea of blood, and Akellos steps on the feather to hide it.

☀︎ IS THIS ANTEMORTEM OR POSTMORTEM?

THIERRY Farren looks exceptionally exceptional in a charcoal suit.

Akellos observes him from afar. He trails after the other boy's movements, eyes following the hand that had just risen to comb through his hair, the small nod of acknowledgement done towards another. And when Thierry is not moving, Akellos studies the curve of his neck, outlines Thierry's silhouette in the tailored suit.

"You know, this much staring can be toxic." The voice is sultry and feminine, just low enough to make you look. But Akellos does not need to to recognize who it is speaking.

Lilou Blanche is plenty pretty. Fluent in more languages than Akellos has the time to learn and skilled in multiple arts, it can be said that she is a talent. But there is one thing that Lilou Blanche is not. Benign.

Her honey eyes lack warmth as if they are mere crystals, hard and jagged from a bad job of carving. Her lips are soft bows, but all of a sudden, her cheeks seem too sunken to call pretty which is ridiculous because everyone knows that Lilou is stunning whether you think her simpatico or not.

So why doesn't she appeal to me? She should, shouldn't she?

Lilou offers Akellos a wry smile as if she can see into his head before strolling away, her steps stable and confident. It feels like there is a crack in his head, running from his forehead to the nape of his neck, allowing Akellos's vulnerability to pour out as it pleases.

It does not get any better as Lilou had been headed for Thierry. She reaches him and slips her arm through his, angling her body so that Akellos has a clear view. Lilou laughs, exaggerating her movements further, but if it seems obvious and shallow to Akellos, the middle-aged couple they are conversing with only seems charmed.

Thierry removes his hand from his pocket, and Akellos exhales, but the next breath is caught in his throat again when Thierry instead snakes his arm around Lilou's waist.

Akellos tips back his glass of champagne, hoping that the liquid will make it to his heart and extinguish whatever emotions he does not want to feel.

☀︎ I AM GRIEVING FOR A (NON)EXISTENT BOY

IT is three in the morning when Akellos's phone sounds, the rings bouncing off the four walls that make up his room. He lies awake and unmoving like a corpse, staring at the ceiling but not quite looking. Akellos makes a move to answer the phone on the fourth ring. He actually picks it up on the sixth.

"Hello?" his voice comes out husky and rough from being kept caged up for so long, but the person on the other end does not have a care.

"Come outside. I'm under your bedroom window." He hangs up right after, as if knowing that Akellos will obey as commanded without any more reason, and he is right.

Akellos pushes himself off of the bed, moving as silent as liquid to pull his navy jacket from his closet, leaving the hanger to swing back and forth before he turns his back. Slipping the clothing on as he jams earbuds and his phone into the right pocket, Akellos pulls open his window.

He does not look at the boy standing at the bottom, hands deep in the front pocket of his black hoodie, hair still wet from a recent shower. He does not note that the boy has a particularly dead look plastered on, as if there is nothing behind it or rather that there is nothing to veil it. Akellos does not know which is worse.

His feet land on the grass in a muffled thump, and then the two are moving. Thierry walks ahead of Akellos, and the former does not have to look back to know that he is trailing him.

"You'll catch a cold," Akellos says in regard of the hair sticking to Thierry's forehead.

"I know."

They fall silent.

"Porch swing?"

"Yeah."

There is a park a good five blocks from Akellos's house and only one from Thierry's. In the wide expanse of green, there is a worn wooden swing hidden on the edge of the property where no one ever ventures to anymore. No one except Akellos and Thierry. It has been theirs for years now, although it is rare for Thierry to want to go nowadays. Akellos wonders what set him off this time, heart wrenching in opposite directions; one for pain at Thierry's torment, the other for joy from the call he had received, and the boy walking in front of him in this moment.

If emotions were tangible, Thierry would have Akellos's heartstrings by the reign by now, and maybe he does. Perhaps the invisible threads have simply been woven into the other boy's skin so that when he moves an arm, he tugs on something within Akellos; a hidden ventriloquist.

Thierry leads Akellos to his car, the sleek white BMV jutting out against the black. They slip into their respective seats, the night's silence filled with only the song of chirping crickets.

Akellos waits for Thierry to turn on the ignition, but it does not happen. In lieu of the expected action, he speaks.

"Want to drive around with me?" Thierry asks, hesitancy seeping into his voice as if he is not sure of himself, which is a rare occurrence that only Akellos has experienced.

Akellos jerks his head forward in a nod, and Thierry turns towards the other boy, his lips tilting up at the corners. It is not until he swivels back that Akellos realizes that it was a smile. And no matter how small, Thierry Farren had smiled at him.

☀︎ THE NOT SO FINAL FINALE IS DRAWING TO A CLOSE

AKELLOS does not want to enter the room. He does not want to see a distant Thierry Farren, especially not after yesterday, or rather today, simply very early in the morning. Still, his hand reaches for the doorknob as if someone else is in control. Still, he turns it and the door opens.

Lilou is sitting on Thierry's desk when he enters. Akellos walks to his seat, eyes straight forward. When he passes Thierry and the latter still has not acknowledged his presence, Akellos's stomach falls, but not as violently as expected. He has been bracing himself for it to happen because he had known it would, and it did.

His eyes, once light blue and icy, darkens and darkens until it has become black. Funny how the blue had been more capable of possessing heat than the black.

*

a fic that can be both au and canon! this one follows - or precedes, both work - FIVE PERCENTS on @bleuveined (external link) because i found myself missing these lovelies. it does not quite fit with the actual story, so i left it here in AXIS + there are similar things that happen (ie. car). this was whipped up last night in a sleep-deprived state, so it's probably plenty choppy.