All That Glitters

Only Me

" Jesus Fuck, Kie! " JJ's voice rang throughout the Chateau followed by yet another loud pained hiss. They'd both been going at his stitches for the past hour.

Pope rolled over several times trying to find a place where his head didn't feel like it was splitting in two from JJ's continuous cries in the other room. Every so often, particularly when JJ was in the middle of letting out his various pleas and shouts, Pope's headache seemed to worsen for a few seconds and then his mouth felt noticeably numb before he drifted back into the headspace he'd entered the Chateau with.

It was getting annoying.

" Just take it out! I don't care—Gwah! Kiara!" 

That was it. Pope couldn't take it. "Would you shut the hell up, JJ?!" He shouted from the pullout.

" Sorry, Pope!" Kie called out.

Pope didn't hear JJ cry out for a good ten minutes after that. No doubt because he was struggling to keep everything tight around his lips so that he didn't slip. A little piece of Pope hated himself for yelling at him.

But at least he could think clearly now. Well, as clearly as one can with a headache on the verge of becoming a migraine.

After that ten minutes though, that was when Pope's head started throbbing. He heard a particularly long stretch of JJ fighting off the urge to scream in pain through a throaty groan that scratched at his eardrums.

That was the moment he knew something was wrong. His eyes shot open under the mound of blankets currently wrapped around his head. He shouldn't have been able to hear that through the layers of insulation.

The (not) goosebumps were back in full force. Pushing out along his bare skin as a wave of nausea swept over him.

Saliva filled his mouth. He ran his tongue along the backs of his teeth to ease the sensation and dispel as much of the urge to throw up as possible.

Huh... wait, Pope thought.

That's not supposed... Oh.

Oh no.

He needed JJ. Right now. Screw getting those fucking stitches out. This shouldn't be happening. He needs JJ.

"Jay?!" Pope managed to say through sore vocal chords. Panic edging on the single syllable. He grasped at the side of his head over his ear, waiting for the onslaught of voices in such a closed space.

" Sorry, Pope!" JJ responded as if he were out of breath.

" He's probably got a migraine and you making so much noise isn't helping, JJ." Kie said in a hushed voice. Obviously trying to keep it down.

Pope gripped his ear rather hard. Digging his nails around the soft skin, leaving half moon imprints in his flesh.

"I know. I know. I can't keep everything locked up, Kie. Y'all know I'm loud."

"Jay?!" Pope's voice was frantic now. Gripping the sides of his head with both hands. Everything was wrong .

JJ snuck his head through a crack in the door. His face worry-stricken and bearing the early stages of hair growth around his cheeks and jaw. Pope caught a glimpse of his long canines through partially parted lips. His own breath sticking to the back of his throat was the only thing keeping him from spewing bile.

"Pope?" JJ's brows were furrowed.

Pope untangled his body from the blankets as another rush of tingling (not) goosebumps puffed out against every inch of his skin. Needless to say, his breath was ragged as he met JJ's gaze.