50 Shades of James

Mejor Amigo

Things had been rough the past few weeks. Eddie had apologized to Aleks profusely, several times, even bought him an Alpha entry code for that game he’d had an eye on, until, begrudgingly, Aleks began to talk to him with more than polite salutations. The Russian even slept at the apartment sometimes—and Eddie didn’t mind when he didn’t, because he knew who his friend was with and thought that James was probably most of the reason why Aleks was on the path to forgiving him.

            They were best friends, and Eddie was patient. He could wait. He could give Aleks space. He could let him heal from his anger.

            But that was before Aleks stormed into the apartment with a scowl on his face and shining eyes and bloody knuckles.

            Eddie had paused the Metal Gear game he had been playing when he heard the door slam so hard the TV screen wobbled, and cautiously crept into the hallway to intercept Aleks before he retreated to his room. The brunette nearly ran him over, with how aggressively he strode, but stopped a few inches before Eddie with a glare and a hiss of angry breath.

            Before Aleks could say anything, Eddie wrapped him in a hug. In a glance, he had taken in the red on his hands and the wetness of his eyes and fuck giving Aleks space, because Aleks clearly needed his best friend right now.

            “Get off of me,” Aleks commanded into Eddie’s shoulder, but he made no move to remove himself from the embrace and his voice sounded drained, like Eddie’s touch had chased away all of the anger and left him with a tired emptiness. Eddie slowly pulled away anyway, leaving one hand on Aleks’s shoulder while he grabbed one of his friends wrists with the other.

            Sympathy traversed his features as he examined the dried blood on Aleks’s knuckles. “What happened, chico?” He asked softly,  sadly. “I haven’t seen you this angry since…well…ever. And you clearly didn’t get into a fight, because, no offense, but there’s no way you of all people could get away from any sort of fight without at least a black eye or some shit. Back in Puerto Rico, if me or my friends had bloody knuckles, we also probably had a sprained wrist or broken nose.”

            Aleks had closed his eyes. Russia was a very different place to grow up than Puerto Rico, but he for whatever reason, he always liked hearing about life there. After a moment, he opened them again, and Eddie could see the anger sparking up again.

            “I punched a wall a few times.” The hand whisked out of Eddie’s grip and disappeared into a black jean pocket, mirroring as Aleks’s other did the same. Brown eyes fell down to Vans, staring at the shoes as their owner rocked them back and forth.

            “Wh—“

            “Because I’m fucking STUPID, that’s why!” Aleks stalked into the living room and over to the couch, the light from the Metal Gear pause screen illuminating how wet his eyes still were.

            Aleks sat, then stood back up and paced back and forth in front of the couch, hands in pockets and feet savagely kicking controllers and game cases out of his way.

            “No, you know what, it’s not even me that’s stupid. I didn’t even fucking do anything. I’m the victim here, I did absolutely nothing wrong, I don’t…goddammit!” Pale forearms smashed into the dark wall, and hung there, Aleks’s head suspended in between.

            Slowly, Eddie approached the wild animal his friend had turned into, and hesitantly put a comforting hand onto one of Aleks’s shoulders.

            “Did…did something happen with James?” Gentle, like how he spoke to his little cousins when they were crying.

            There was a loud silence before Aleks took a shaky breath. “He didn’t even hear me out…didn’t let me explain, just fucking ran off with Seamus…”

            Distant memories of comforting another angry friend, another person who happened to like James, rose uneasily in his mind. “What, uh, what does Seamus have to do with any of this?”

            Aleks shook his head weakly. “Nothing. Everything. I don’t fucking know. I just know…James thinks I’m a fucking asshole, and he won’t let me explain, and he won’t pick up his phone…God, I fucking…how did I screw up without doing anything? I didn’t do a fucking thing and now James…”

            Eddie felt his heart starting to tear. Aleks was a fucking wreck, and the last time James had been mad at Aleks, he and Seamus…

            How could he be a good friend to all of them with this shit going on? If James betrayed Aleks…if Seamus convinced James to betray Aleks…

            Deep breath. Your best friend needs you. You can’t be panicking over it, not now. You don’t even know what happened or who’s to blame for what.

            “Hey…” Eddie pulled at Aleks’s shoulder until he turned to face him and pulled his friend back into another strong hug, which Aleks returned this time. “Hey…let’s not think about it, okay? Let’s, let’s, let’s play COD or something, play some of that music you used to listen to in High School, stuff like that, okay? Heavy bass and fucking over eleven year olds ‘ll make you feel better.”

            “I guess…”

            Eddie wrapped an arm around Aleks’s shoulders, guiding him gently towards the couch and gathering up the scattered controllers

            The only thing I can do is be there for him.

AN: So...as we're all aware, things have changed drastically in the last week or so. I wanna make this clear: I am writing as though this occured in early 2013-ish. That means: they're in the second Creature House, Dan and Seamus and James live in the house, Eddie and Aleks live in their apartment together, Dex is not yet a Creature, and Eddie is still a Creature. In the future, yeah, I'll probably incorporate those developments, but this series will continue as is. 

ALSO, for those of you who haven't heard, I started a secondary blog soley for my writing! That includes everything on Wattpad, and maybe even some ficlets that don't make it onto here, plus updates, easy navigation, ect. Please check it out!

Please check out my writing blog, Spencer-the-intern.tumblr.com Feel free to message me there, here on Wattpad, or on my main blog, Captainthief.tumblr.com. On that blog, I follow every person who’s read this story. You can also email me at Therealsabertoothtigress@gmail.com. I love to hear from you guys! Thanks again for reading!