Partially

Fluff And Then...No Fluff

   Vio's on top of him—he is topless, he has Shadow pinned down, and he's wearing a grin that makes his blood rush south. His skin is warm...Shadow reaches out, cups his cheek. Vio leans forward and right as their lips brush against each other and they're about to kiss, Vio pulls away and presses his mouth to his right shoulder. He bites down hard—his mouth fills with blood. He chews the flesh and muscle in his mouth, Shadow isn't making a sound—

   The door to his bedroom creaks open and Vio sits up. He wipes at his brow—his shoulder is throbbing. "Shadow?" He's standing in the doorway. "What is it?"

   "Can't sleep." He steps closer. "The rooms are so dark. I like the dark and all, but they feel so empty." He closes the door behind him and sits on the edge of Vio's bed. "I keep thinking about you."

   If Vio's really infected, Shadow shouldn't be in the same room as him—what if he turns? Shadow's unarmed. Vio's larger. But the fact that Shadow doesn't want to leave him alone, paired with the fact that he doesn't want to be alone has him not arguing. "So you want to crawl in bed with me?" Vio asks.

   Even in the dark, he knows Shadow's smiling. "Of course." The bed creaks and shifts beneath the new weight—A warm body is next to him, his head on his chest. Shadow's sigh is almost content sounding—this shouldn't feel right, but it does. Vio can turn any second—no one knows what's going on anymore. They could never get a cure. Vio could turn into a zombie and turn on Shadow in an instant, it should not feel good to have a potential victim he doesn't want to hurt so close to him when he could be so dangerous, but the warmth chases any lingering nausea from his dream away, soothes the pain in his shoulder, calms his heart. This is new—usually it beats quickly around Shadow. Slowly, Vio brings his fingers through Shadow's hair—it's soft, still damp. Vio's dried forever ago, and he had put clothes on before going to bed, instead of going to sleep naked which had kind of been tempting, but he was very glad he didn't do that, that'd be weird.

   "I've had a crush on you," Shadow says. "For years. Ever since Drama, freshman year, the class..." Vio keeps playing with his hair, letting Shadow talk. "I knew you didn't want to be there. But we had that...dumb assignment, where we were supposed to talk about something important to us, and I remember...You brought a photo."

   "I remember that," Vio says. His voice is a little hoarse. "It was of some holiday party I went to with my friends, and it was the first time I had ever been allowed out of my house to visit someone else's. I was in the eighth grade, and I put the photo in a frame one of them gave me for my birthday."

   "I remember...Zelda was there," Shadow recalls. "And you hesitated and then turned to ask her if she remembered whether the frame was given to you on your birthday or over the holidays, and she said birthday, and you were like, 'oh, yeah, she's one of the people in the photo.'" He nestles into Vio more, his arms wrapping around his waist. "I remember it so much because everyone talked about what the object was and they would either give a really funnny story or a really sad one that usually had them in tears...your's wasn't either of those. You weren't easy to read. You always seemed so...stand offish, and cold...but you sounded so genuine, talking about how much you loved them and how they were your best friends and you just really enjoyed yourself then. And you were being so honest and you just sat down, and everyone seemed to think it was boring, but I thought it was the best one there."

   Vio remembers that—even Zelda in drama had recounted a sad story. It was about the necklace she got from Green, back when she was a kid, and she had been diagnosed with an illness that had claimed her mother and everyone had thought she was gonna die, and she hadn't felt like herself, so Green used to bring different shades of lipstick and would help her put it on, so she felt a bit better about everything, and it had been heart wrenching. Someone had talked about their first time skiiing. Someone had talked about when they got their set of drums. Someone had talked about the death of a loved one and what they left them. Yet, Vio can't remember what Shadow talked about.