Sweet Surrender [MxM]

Chapter 16

"Come see me plz"

Nathan sighed at the text from Andrea as he got out of his car at school. What did she want? Granted he told her he'd explain, but he didn't feel like it this morning.

Rolling his eyes, he walked to where he knew her home room was. He had half an hour before he had to be to his own, which should be enough time to explain things.

Andrea was sitting on top of her desk when Nathan walked in, and jumped slightly when she saw him. "Oh. I didn't think you'd actually come." she said nervously. Nathan stared back, and she slipped off the desk and sighed.

"Look, Nate, I know you're probably mad at me for everything. And I don't blame you. What I did was shitty and impulsive." she said sincerely. Nathan stood quietly and listened.

She was right. Shitty and impulsive. He had no intention of disproving it. But she also didn't know about him and Varian. Or how mad Varian would get.

That reminded him of the fact that Varian had used that elemental thing of his on her. Shit...

Nathan thought about it for a minute. He could tell Andrea the truth- which meant everything- or he could lie and say she was hallucinating or insane or something and pretend it never happened.

But he was a bad liar.

Sighing, he sat in the desk closest to him, motioning for Andrea to sit in the one beside it. She did while giving him a slightly confused expression, but didn't comment.

"... Andrea... What I'm about to tell you... You probably won't believe. Well, you might, after... Yeah... But you need to promise me something."

She looked worried, but nodded, to Nathan's satisfaction.

"You can not tell anyone."

"... Alright..."

Nodding back, Nathan tried to think of where to start.

It took roughly twenty-five minutes to explain everything. And he meant everything; Mortal vampires, Changed vampires, him and Varian, the elemental control, Grant (which he probably shouldn't have mentioned), his father, and what had happened while Varian was away.

At the end of it she was staring back with wide eyes. Working her jaw, she tried to speak several times, but it wasn't working. Finally she managed a two-word sentence.

"... You're serious?"

Nathan nodded back again, glancing to the clock. He moved to leave, but was stopped by Andrea's hand on his jacket sleeve. He have her a questioning look.

"... I'm sorry, Nate."

He smiled back slightly, patting her hand. "It's fine. I'm not mad at you. A little disturbed, maybe." he said the last part as a joke, which at least got her to smile as she let him go. "I'll see you in first period."

She nodded back, and he left the room, sprinting down the hall to his own.

Varian switched shoulders with his bag and walked into Marine Biology. So far nobody made any more comments about him when he walked in a room. A major improvement to say the least. Glancing around, it wasn't hard to spot Justin with his short lankiness. Still looked gay to him, despite his denial. Whatever, he'd let him live in his delusion.

Justin was sitting on his side of the table and flipping through a notebook, and very obviously trying not to look at him. Fat lot that'd do him. Varian was going to talk to him whether he liked it or not.

Throwing his bag down, Varian slipped into his seat and noticed that the teacher wasn't in yet. Good. More time to talk.

"How many more times are you going to try not looking at me?"

Justin slowly raised his gaze to stare at Varian. "Until I figure out how in the hell you did it."

Varian furrowed his brow in thought. "How I did what?"

"Made my sister go insane."

Varian winced at Justin's reply. "How bad is she?" he asked. He hoped she wasn't contorted and drooling all over herself, babbling some nonsense. That would definitely be his fault, and he wouldn't be able to look Nathan or Justin in the eye again.

Justin seemed to think about it for a minute. "Well, she came home last night looking absolutely terrified and was trying to convince mom that you tried to kill her with dirt. So I'd say pretty bad."

"My intention was to frighten badly. Not kill."

He had in no way tried to kill Andrea. He just wanted to insure that she never laid a hand on Nathan like that again.

"She was convinced otherwise. What the hell did you do?"

"I find it amusing that you're taking my word. I just pulled her away from Nathan forcibly since it didn't look like she'd remove her mouth from his face anytime soon."

Justin's eyes went wide and he stared at Varian. "... She kissed him?" he asked, his voice soft and not carrying far.

"Why else would I bother her? I don't pick on people for no apparent reason," he responded, huffing slightly at the accusation that he was a bully. Quite the opposite actually. "Speaking of which, you still look gay to me," he added, wanting to distract Justin a little bit.

"Hey, don't try to distract me, okay? I have taken my medication," Justin said with a slight glare before it morphed in a confused expression. "Alright, forcibly removed her from Nathan, but.... What the hell did dirt have to do with anything?"

Varian sighed. Distraction failed. Alright, back to plan A, tell Justin everything. "Earth is my element. Since dirt comes from the earth, I can control it."

"... What in the hell are you talking about?"

Varian wondered just how much he was going to have to explain. "I'm different than most people...I can do things that humans don't really get the chance to."

Justin sighed before quietly commenting. "Great. Guess I'll tell Nathan he's dating a nut job."

Varian didn't think it was intended to be heard, but he was tired of run-arounds. "Come on, let's go."

"Where are we going? You're not gonna kidnap me are you?"

Varian rolled his eyes. "Yes, that's exactly what I'm going to do, because I think you're hot and I want to have man-sex with you," Varian said sarcastically. "No! If I wanted to kidnap you I would have a long time ago. Now just trust me and let's go already," he finished, getting up and heading towards the door.

"Aw! I thought you were serious for a second," Justin said, getting up from his seat and following him.

Varian led Justin down the hall and out through a side door that opened up to a little flower garden that some Seniors liked to go to escape class. Stopping he turned to see Justin had indeed folowed him.

"I apologize ahead of time if what I'm going to do freaks you out."

Justin didn't respond, he chose to stay quiet instead, and a frown pulled down his lips.

Varian breathed and concentrated on reaching out to the earth around him. None of the plants were germinating. Good. Glancing around, Varian decided on the flowers. A daffodil would be good. Going over to it, he knelt and scooped up the flower as well as a bit of dirt. Turning back to Justin he held it out to him.

"Hold this."

Justin took it and smelled it several times, holding the flower delicately.

"Watch it closely, dirt and all," Varian instructed. Directing his will towards the dirt.

He watched the flower grow, quickly. Growing taller and bigger than any other daffodil in the area. It became brighter, and it's sweet scent drifted around them. Halting it's growth, Varian made the dirt around it's roots move in Justin's hands, coating the roots and forming a hard shell, which then made the roots wrap around the stem in an intricate spiral, the hard shell of dirt stuck to the roots receding to show parts of the white roots in a lovely lace pattern. The bits of dirt that fell away from the roots to make this pattern traveled up the stem, flowing in brilliant little wispy waves until it reached the leaves, fringing them in brown lace patterns as well.

The finished result, an extremely beautiful decorated daffodil. Capable of standing on its own, not going to live or die anymore, it was as indestructible as rubberized plastic, but as fragile and beautiful looking as stained glass.

"Do you believe me now?"

Justin decided to stay quiet once again, looking between Varian and the flower.

"To put it simply, I'm a vampire, but not the silly cliche vampire. I'm Changed. I drink blood and eat normal food, and I can go out in the sunlight without burning. Well...the burst into flames kind. I can still get a sunburn. And I can control the earth. You are welcome to keep the flower."

"... Holy shit."

Varian frowned. "Is that the best response you have?"

"... Would you like me to start screaming?" Justin asked quietly.

"No, I'm good. So are you okay with that?"

"... Well.... I don't know... it's... weird."

Varian smiled. "Are we good then? Or do you need to see more?"

"Oh no. I'm good. Possibly for the rest of my life," Justin said quickly, shaking his head.

"Good," Varian replied. He didn't really want to explain or show anymore. He'd had enough.