L'aire (BoyxBoy) (Watty's 2018)

Twenty-Two

'Single quote' = signing

"Double Quote"= speaking

Bold = writing/typing

Italics = native language

It seemed like the man was going the starving route, but he hadn't yet given up on trying to get Sky to scream. There were always long pauses between sessions so Sky assumed he only came down once a day to see him. He would start off by stabbing Sky roughly as he ranted about the follies of love and marriage, then he would move on to flaying him alive. The first few slices always came from his neck, right where his bond bite was, and then he would move on to other parts. There was enough skin piled on the ground that Sky could use it as a pillow if he wanted, but the thought of that made him want to vomit. He could handle what was happening to him, but the byproducts made him sick. On days when the man was extremely frustrated, wither with Sky or with his own demons, he had taken to actually removing body parts from Sky.

Sky himself didn't even know what would happen if larger parts of him were removed, and in that moment his curiosity alone allowed him to deal with the pain. He wanted to know if his limbs would grow back, and if so how fast would it be? Would he have to grow an entirely new hand? Or would it regenerate as it was removed. The started small with fingers and toes, and when he saw that they indeed grew back almost instantaneously he moved to bigger parts. He removed a hand, then an arm, then one leg. It disturbed the man to watch the limbs grow back, but he had to be extra careful with the boy when he removed them. The disembodied legs and arms were still attached to the chains, so when they eventually regenerated he had to remove the links from the old parts and attach it back to the living body.

After the man would leave, Sky would try to sleep until Elijah came. Elijah was shy and sweet, but after many nights of cleaning up the man's mess and learning how to sign from a distance the younger boy began to open up. Sky learned that he's actually 15, but he wasn't fed properly when he was a kid so he's always going to be a little smaller than he should be. The man that was hurting him was actually his father, and he wasn't much nicer to Elijah just because he was his son. Sky saw that the boy often sported bruises on his arms, and he would place good money on idea that his body was probably covered too. It also became apparent that he had a prosthetic leg, and Sky would bet anything that his father was the reason for it. Elijah was actually fairly intelligent and picked up sign language pretty quickly. He was nowhere near close to being fluent, but he got to a point where he could understand what Sky was trying to say and respond to him in English. He was a freshman in high school, and despite what was happening to him at home he did well in school and actually had a close circle of friends he could rely on. He told Sky that sometimes when his dad was really angry he would stay the night with his friend Jessica, but he wouldn't risk sneaking out and making his dad even angrier as long as Sky was still in the house. The older boy told him that if he felt like he needed to get away for even a few hours that he was welcome to stay in the basement with him. He enjoyed Elijah's company quite a lot.

In return Sky told the boy about his brothers and business and Dom. He talked a lot about Dom. He told the boy about how they met, how it felt to curl up beside him in bed and wake up next to him every morning. He told him about when Dom told him he loved him for the first time. He told him about what he wanted to do for their first anniversary. He told him about their plans for the future, how they eventually wanted to adopt a child with a disability and give them as good of a life as Sky had growing up. He talked about his parents and how supportive they have always been. He talked about how he never really appreciated what they gave to him growing up, the world they created for him, and how good it felt when he finally stopped running and spoke to his mother for the first time since he left. He told him about River and Fury and told him when they come for him, because he was certain that they would, to help them. If he was helpful and told them the truth they wouldn't hurt him. If anything, Fury might even want to get revenge against Elijah's father for his treatment of both of us.