FellPoth Short Stories and One-Shots

Conflict of Interest: Chapter 7

Chapter Warnings: Injuries, blood (marrow), implied/referenced experimentation, swearing

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Lotus couldn't see their expression from where he rested on Rurik's back, but he could hear the tightness in the skeleton's voice as they asked, "Everything you said out there was true, wasn't it? About your Family, I mean." It wasn't until they crossed the room, set him down on the couch, and turned around that he got a good look at their face.

Rurik looked... conflicted? Guilty?

"Yeah...," Lotus confirmed quietly, seeing no point in keeping secrets any longer, "I always hated working under Death; related or not, he treated everyone like shit. When I finally told him I wanted to leave, he knocked me around, then..." He took a breath, his eye light wandering to a small snag in the arm of the couch just to avoid looking at Rurik, "He carved a chunk out of my sternum... he said his mark was too good for a deserter like me. After that, he had his goons throw me outside the grounds with threats that I could expect worse if I ever showed my face again... then they shut the gates in my face, and I was left to pick up the pieces on my own.

"Honestly, I don't know what I expected, but...," Lotus huffed, a bitter smile trying to cover the ache he thought he'd long buried, "maybe I hoped he would care at least a little bit; that he wouldn't throw his own kid away. It just goes to show how naive I was back then... and it turns out I didn't learn a damn thing."

Shuffling feet drew his eye light back up... Rurik was leaving. Well, their mission had been a wash, so he supposed it only made sense... at least, it did until the taller monster rounded the back of the couch instead of heading for the entryway.

Lotus watched, silent and confused until they ducked into his kitchen; he could hear them rummaging through cabinets and running water from the sink. A minute later, they reappeared and set a bowl full of water and a washcloth on the table.

"The past two weeks, I thought you were putting on an act, just like me," Rurik sighed, taking a seat next to him. Reaching out, they pulled off the remains of Lotus's tattered shirt, seemingly oblivious to his agitation at being undressed, "But the whole time, I was seeing the real you... you were being genuine with me, and that's pretty damn rare where I come from. I..." They reached for the washcloth and paused; their eye lights flickered with indecision as they finally admitted, "When Diz ran you through, I realized I was about to lose something special; that's why I stepped in when I did."

No way... they couldn't be saying what he thought they were saying...

Rurik wrang out the cloth and pressed it against Lotus's exposed back; he hissed as the coarse material made contact with his bones, prompting a murmured apology from his guest. The soft tone stunned him into silence as the monster quietly wiped down his bones and the water in the bowl slowly grew a deeper shade of red with each rinse.

Their voice had been so... he wanted to say tender, but it had to be his imagination playing tricks on him; what could Rurik possibly see, much less want in someone like him? Lotus idly watched the accumulated dirt and bits of grass his guest had collected swirl around the bottom of the bowl, trying to figure out what was happening.

"Weird...," Rurik mumbled behind him.

Lotus craned his skull toward them, "What's weird?"

"Some of the wounds are still leaking," the taller skeleton stated, draping the cloth along his back and pressing gently.

"That's...," Lotus puzzled through the words before replying, "You're cleaning the area with a rough washcloth; that shouldn't be weird."

"But the pill I gave you should've closed the wounds," Rurik countered, "They shouldn't be reopening like this."

The pill? Right, Rurik gave him... a pink pill... 

"Wait, you have more of those pills, right?" Lotus inquired, turning as much as he could to face his guest.

"Yeah, but the Doc was pretty strict about not taking more than one every twenty-four hours," Rurik warned; that only made him want to see them more.

"I just want to confirm something," Lotus clarified. The taller skeleton nodded after a moment's hesitation, setting aside the cloth and pulling a small black case from their pocket; inside was a small stash of light pink pills. Grabbing one between his fingers, the smaller scrutinized it as Rurik set the case aside. Finally, he said, "Where did you get this?"

"I got connections... why?" Rurik supplied unhelpfully.

"Because this is a DT designer drug that my Family created," Lotus declared, "It's something only my Family and a select few allied Families should have access to."

Rurik's sockets widened, "Really? And here I thought they were so expensive because of how effective they were."

"Whoever sold them to you did so at a huge risk to himself. He probably wouldn't risk getting caught for anything short of a small fortune," Lotus surmised, glaring at the pill between his fingers, "These things are one of the main reasons I despised Death so much; his scientists experimented on my mom to figure out the chemical makeup of DT in their system so he could reproduce their recovery abilities to gain an advantage over other Families. Of course, each pill can only contain a microdose of DT and still be safe to consume; the asshole when through plenty of test subjects to figure that one out."

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Word Count: 938