Downworld

Chapter 17

Content Warning: attempted suicide by a teenager around the middle of the chapter. The last paragraph contains a non-graphic mention of Jay having a dream of violently raping the teenager. Both paragraphs are marked with ***  at the beginning.

The man naked in Malik's bed was not Malik. It took me a long moment to realize that as I stood in the doorway. Not that it wasn't obvious; though there was a certain resemblance. He had black hair, long where Malik's was short, and I was certain Malik's skin would look that amazing oiled like that as well. The corner of a sheet only barely covered the main attraction, but I could see everything else, and it all was marvelous. All and not Malik.

It was much sooner than I'd expected, and much more blasé than I expected. I had to remind my dick that this wasn't a good thing. It didn't listen; I gave myself points for trying though.

I opened my mouth to say something. Probably something like, 'oh fuck,' but I was interrupted before the words could come out.

'Jay?'

Snapping my mouth shut, I turned to see Isamu coming down the hall. I turned back to the man in the bed, who was smirking. 'Just one minute,' I said to him, and slammed the door.

'What's up?' I said to Isamu, checking my watch, 'we're not supposed to meet for another hour, right?' For therapy up above, which I took him to every week because his parents didn't think he needed it. Or rather, his parents wanted to ignore the problem, and I wanted to tell them they were the stupidest cunts in the history of parentage, or at least tied with my own pair. I didn't though, I'd bitten my tongue and offered to take responsibility, after which, Malik had offered to take responsibility because they wouldn't trust me with their son. I'd had to remind them I hadn't kidnapped him, he'd come with me on his own to get away from the asshole rapist who was abusing him, but it had been like talking to a wall.

The fourteen year old looked right at me, right through me, as he shrugged. 'I needed to get out. Do you mind if I say with you for a couple days? I just need some space.'

'Ah, sure. Are you okay?'

He nodded. 'My parents are just putting some pressure on me, you know?'

'Okay.' I wasn't convinced, but with a naked temptation in Malik's bed, this was hardly the time to ask probing questions. 'If I give you a key, you want to go up? I'll just be a minute. And then we can talk.'

He nodded again, and took the key from me. 'I can help myself to whatever, right?'

'Yeah.'

Then he turned and left and I turned back to my problem. I slipped into the room and shut the door behind me, not approaching the bed.

He wasn't smirking anymore, he was pouting in a way that reminded me way too much of Malik when he was sulking.

'You one of the Smoke Princess' sons?'

'I am.'

'Okay. Here's the deal, I'm going to leave, then you're going to get dressed and leave too, and you're not going to come back. I suggest you do this before Malik finds you.'

'Are you sure that's what you want?' He pushed off the corner of the sheet and stood up to begin making his slow way over to me. In another circumstance, I would have been more than tempted; I would have been all over him without another thought.

'Yes, I'm sure. I don't fuck desperate little boys like you,' I said, partly to remind myself that I shouldn't be thinking about fucking this guy.

'Only Malik.'

He was smirking again; he thought he could get me to do this, get me to betray Malik for nothing but sex. Sex that, I told myself, would not be as good as the sex I'd had with Malik that morning. Probably.