The Secrets Behind Them

‡{Love At It's Finest}‡

"Hey! Come Back!"

Yelling out at what feels like an illusion, I call for a being who ran off in distress. A soft hand touches my shoulder, leading to me looking back.

"Don't bother. He tends to freak out like that often." Tahain says with a sigh. "Besides, he's on edge because of the present situation." I turn around completely, my head turned down. The scyra pushes my chin up, offering his awkwardly adorable grin to reassure me. I smile down at him, leaning my face into his for a kiss. I pull away and he giggles.

"What tattoo are you getting, babe?" I ask, Tahain shrugs. I tilt my head. We take each other's hands.

"Gross."

A familiar yet foreign voice reaches my ears. I look to the door, where the boy who ran off is now standing. His messy curls and hood conceal his face. He faces away from me, staring at Tahain as if he speaks to the mind reader without actually speaking.

"Jerem-"

Tahain begins a whine but then freezes. The other scyra turns fast to glare at Tahain. I get a better view of him, finding that he has freckled cheeks. I make eye contact with Tahain after his nose twitches with irritation with himself. I cross my arms.

"Don't tell anyone, Lyra! Especially my brother!"

The scyra demands, stepping towards me with a firm yet weak voice. I give him soft eyes, then pull the kid in for a hug.

"Miah, why'd you run away?" I question. Miah slips out my arms, wiping dirt off of his arms while giving me a heavy glare. He huffs, taking himself to the door but pausing when Grayson pops his head out through the door. They stare at each other for a moment, having their faces only a few inches away from each other. Miah moves back, letting Grayson out.

"You dropped this, bud." Grayson hands Miah a white mask, smiling fondly to Miah as well. The freckled scyra bites his lip, taking the mask and then removing his hood. "You okay?" Grayson wraps an arm around the taller being, making Miah have to force a frown.

"Yeah. I'm okay." Miah whispers. I flatten my lips, wanting to laugh.

"Gee, Grayson, what happened to Arthur?" Tahain throws out a  snarky comment. Grayson turns pink, grunting and rolling his eyes. I giggle.

"Man, there's a lot of shit I could say about you, but you'd get too butt-hurt and throw a tantrum." Grayson groans, hurrying to turn back into the mansion with Miah. I look to Tahain, finding his violet eyes slanted with fury. I turn to the gate, finding a small group of people heading our way. A ferrous, tall with violet hair, an urian with blue hair, and a fairly short and chubby scyra with red dyed hair. They walk forward, Tahain invites them into the mansion. It isn't too long until it's time for the deeds.

"Holy fFFFuuck-!"

With his hand gripped to mine, Tahain screeches in agony. His face is brighter than a strawberry and veins are popping out of his forehead. Grayson holds the scyra's other hand, experiencing all of Tahain's energy flowing into his body. Sonya and Aaron both watch, Aaron sits in his girlfriend's lap. After just under a hour of the tattooing process, Tahain has proven that he has zero pain tolerance.

"It's alright dude, I'm almost done." The urian goes on, getting zapped by a lightning bolt. Tahain gasps, going to apologize before the urian stops him with another another stroke of the needle on Tahain's chest. "And there we go! Just a few things before I'm done." The urian says, grabbing a bottle of purple liquid from his bag along with another bottle labeled "Salted Water". This is the cleansing process I take.

"Grayson, have you...figured out...what you're getting?" Tahain makes a weak attempt to question Grayson. The pointed-ear scyra shrugs, slipping his hand out of Tahain's grasp to point at his nose.