Snake Eyes

Chapter 20

20 Years Later

He winced as the alcohol was dabbed on the second set of scrapes. The desire to curl his tail up was more pressing than his desire to have the wounds treated, but he understood the necessity of it all. He gently pet his surviving Egg Boi, #839, of the 200 he had taken with him to cause havoc. He could feel the cracks along the Egg Bois shell, some of which were being held together by bandaids from the home bound Egg Bois. The first 40 of their creations stayed at home, since they were the ones that trained, taught, armed, and protected. They were also more meaningful to them than the others. He still cared for the others and he hated losing them, but he'd begun to see them as more replaceable than the first forty. He heard the front door open and close, then the dropped keys, the shifting of fabric, and he smiled. Leaning back over the arm of the couch, he watched his spider hang the fedora and run his ringers through his dark hair. His lover's hair was, as always, wild and getting much too long. When those blood red eyes landed on him, he resisted the shiver of pleasure. After all these years, Arackniss could still get to him. His lover strode across the room to him and lightly cupped his face from above. "That's a lot of damage. She did a number on ya today." He sighed and rolled his eyes.

"That bombastic bitch didn't do this. She got a few of the Egg Bois, but she didn't do anything to me." He watched his arachnid move around the couch and scoop up the bandaged Egg Boi. "This was Alastor." He heard the heavy sigh and shifted stiffly to make more room on the couch. Arackniss sat down beside him and held the Egg Boi in his lap, petting the creature like one would a dog or a cat.

"One of these days your scuffles with Alastor aren't gonna end in a way you can bounce back from, Pen." The spider entwined their fingers before pulling him closer to kiss his hand. "I hate seein' you get hurt." He smiled and pulled himself all the way up to kiss his lover. They had now been living together for at least fifteen years, which meant this man had been dealing with all of his insanity for at least twenty years. They were still very careful, since they were still a secret from Don Henroin, but mostly their relationship was what he would describe as natural. He honestly thought that, at the very least, they would run out of things to talk about, but they never had.

"I know, but doing this keeps up the impression that I couldn't possibly know what I'm doing." Putting the Egg Boi down, Arackniss shifted and scooted closer. His lover pressed a kiss to his palm, then his wrist, the sensitive underside of his forearm, all the way up to his shoulder and neck. Pentious complied and let his arachnid spread the fiery little kisses across his skin, embracing the heat that had him more than ready for a round or two. The spider cupped his cheek and kissed him in his favorite way. Gentle, soft, and filled with love.

"Soon enough, I swear. I've got almost everything moved into my name, and nowadays that Culo doesn't do shit anyways. I can count on one hand the amount of decisions the Don has made this year. Besides, he's got no one left." Pentious sighed with a homely satisfaction he only got when Arackniss was around. This was his spider, his lover, his husband, and he wouldn't have it any other way.

"And once he's gone, it's all yours." The spiders smile turned viscous, and he'd learned to love that too.

"Of course, but getting rid of him ain't gonna be that easy." He pressed their foreheads together and they both closed their eyes. "But once he's gone, his rules go to shit. Once he's gone, I swear, we make this official." They'd already agreed that once Henroin was gone, they'd have a ceremony, they'd sign the papers. They would take the last twenty years and finally say "I do".

Walking into the lab, he looked around at the wall to ceiling chambers on every wall. This lab was much larger than his lovers previous situation, but then they'd needed to upgrade once they'd made enough Egg Bois. Moving out of his nice little apartment had been bittersweet, but moving into the compound had allowed numerous things. The first was that most thought he bought and renovated the large abandoned warehouse as a show of wealth and power, which worked for him. The second was that he got to spend every day he was home with Pentious, which he had never thought was a bad thing. He sighed looking at the scraps that used to be the 200 man battle orb his lover had made. The large steel creation had sported everything from guns to trackers, had been meticulously designed in his snakes style, and had been airborne so it wasn't constrained to the unbearable traffic in Hell. "Don't worry, I'll make another." He turned his gaze to Pentious, who was already typing in the code they had perfected for the Egg Bois.

"You shouldn't have to, Caro. You shouldn't have to continue to play this game for the rest of these cowards." He walked passed the destroyed ship to stand beside the snake at the control panel. After over 1800 Egg Bois made, this was still one of his favorite things to do. They'd altered the recovery time, so now they didn't have to wait the ten minutes or so for the newer Egg Bois to wake up after creation. He watched as Pentious started the button pressing and knob turning. Reaching around his love's hips he pushed the last lever up before he could get to it, prompting Pentious to swat at him. He looked around as the process started; the electricity, the viscous liquid, the slow bubbling as the temperatures rose to a boiling point. The orb, the growth, and he was walking around the lab to inspect the chambers. Glancing behind him to the opposite wall, he found Gregory doing the same, ever vigilant and loyal. Once they'd reached the end, and the doors opened, he watched as they all jumped out and hobbled around a bit. Gregory clapped a few times until he had all of the Egg Bois looking at him, and then pointed toward the door.

"Follow me single file out that door to get your number assigned and clothes. Then we'll start on skill association." The Egg Bois looked at each other and started to form a single file line that followed Gregory out of the lab and down the hall to the training facility. He smiled and continued walking around the perimeter of the lab, just in case there was a straggler. They'd had one or two in the last few batches, so he wanted to be sure. His eyes caught sight of an egg still inside the Chamber and he went straight for it.

"Come on, you don't want to be last, I promise." He tapped the egg, but pulled back at the feel. It was a bit softer than the Egg Bois, and it wasn't moving, even though they had fixed the recovery time. Kneeling down, he took a good look at the egg and found the differences. This egg was more yellow in color, more oblong in shape, and much smoother, not to mention the almost soft nature of the shell. "Thomas!" He picked up the egg and cradled it in his arms as his partner slithered to a stop behind him. "I don't think this is an Egg Boi." He looked up at his husband, who lightly pet the egg and smiled. Pentious wrapped his arms around him.

"Then let's hatch it and see what happens."

The End?