Notes: At last, the end. It’s a little sad since I’ve worked on this story for a long time. I’m not through with these characters just yet though. I was listening to ABBA while writing this, XD.

Dedications: To Faith Adeline,Demena, CaseyBear, fusedtwilight, JerryOnigiri and The Innocent Demon, and everyone else who has been reading, but kept silent. Thanks!

Last Caramel

That particular evening was a busy Friday, and the night club was chock full of people dancing their evening away. They got drunk, found love for a few moments in the arms of strangers that kissed and half shouted in their ears to drown out the music. It was loud and crowded, yet there was a line of people outside waiting to come into the warmth and pulsating music.

“Hey, that’s cheating!” a girl whined. She hardly looked old enough to drink.

“Move your ass to the back of the line, boy,” the bouncer barked, a large, bulky man whose head was bald.

Gary ignored the cries and complaints of those who had spent hours waiting and took another step forward. There was no expression on his face, no emotion to speak of, and the bouncer frowned for a moment and was uncertain.

“Move it, boy. I don’t want to use force on ya,” he warned.

“There is no need to.”

Surprise flickered in the large man’s eyes before they rolled into the back of his skull. He sagged to the ground in a pile of limp limbs and did not get back up. Those who noticed went silent, staring in puzzlement at the fainted man, and began to whisper amongst themselves while glancing at the strange, silent boy whose eyes were unnatural.

“A telepath,” someone whispered, fright in their voice, and fingers were pointed in his direction. “He controls minds!” said another. Their eyes were round and large when Gary turned his head and gave them a once-over with a flat expression.

“Stay here,” he told them. “Otherwise you end up like him. Got it?”

Some nodded, hesitantly, but not all were so eager to accept the order. A tall, slinky man pushed his way past two girls who puffed their cheeks in offence, and his muscles were tense with annoyance. “And who’d you think you are, huh? I don’t take orders from freaks like you!” he hissed angrily. When Gary didn’t reply, just kept staring, several of the others found the courage to speak up.

“Yeah, I wish the government would take your kind out!”

“Leave us regular folks alone!”

More people chimed in, shouting their complaints and insults with rage or disgust twisting their faces.

Gary smiled thinly. “You are so full of shit,” he said. “Your kind is the one that gathered us like little animals and stuck needles in us just to see how we’d react. Your kind is the one that strapped me down and injected stuff into my veins or pressured me just to see how strong my powers were.” His face was calm, but there was a bitter edge to his voice. “And you call yourselves normal people?”

The shouting slowly came to a stop. People were growing uneasy and unsure, and for many of them it was the first time they’d seen one of the Abnormals.

“Go to sleep, the lot of you.”

A woman opened her mouth to protest, but as soon as she did she fell against the person in front of her, knocked unconscious. Panic flickered in people’s eyes, but they soon enough fell over each other in a large lump on the snow clad ground.

Gary turned, thought no more of them, and entered the night club.

Instantly the noise that had been nothing but a low buzz at the back of his mind intensified and filled his head with fragmented and incoherent thoughts. Voices whispered and cried, shouted and laughed, drawled and trembled, coming together in a chaotic medley that he had no patience for. Blocking them out was impossible, but he could to some extent tune them out. He filled his mind with imaginary silence and hushed them enough that he could concentrate on the task at hand.

Sweat broke on his skin, his hands grew clammy and his stomach did uneasy flip flops. There was so many people here tonight…How was he supposed to…? He silenced his doubt and put on a brave face. This was for Poppy, for Raitei and Naji, for Peach and everyone else that had suffered at Lucian’s hands. It was for him.

He’d break the chain that seemed so intent on forcing him back together with Lucian.

This confidence was one he’d paid early for, and he was intent on making every moment of this night worth it.

The crowd melted together within his mind and became one large entity with endless voices, thoughts and wishes. He listened, tried to gather them in his hands, gently persuading them to come to him. The effort it took had him sweating bullets, but his skin remained cold to the touch.

‘Sleep,’ he whispered to them, ’Sleep deeply.’

‘Don’t wake up until I leave.’

He squeezed his eyes shut while he wove the bonds of sleep around the entity and lured it to put down its doubt and reluctance. His lips parted to let out shallow breaths, his hands clenching and unclenching at his sides. He was a strange sight to anyone there, but no one would notice. No one could notice.

Shivers took hold of him, and he felt the floor tremble under the weight of every human that went boneless and fell forward. Every single one of them were sound asleep when his eyes opened again. He did not hesitate, but maneuvered his way through the lumps of sleeping people on the ground. The music still pounded, but he paid it no mind. As soon as he ascended the stairs that lead to the second floor it faded and became background noise.

His resolve was strong, his mind made up. Nothing could make him turn and walk back out until he’d gotten what he came here for.

“Sleep, every bloody last one of you,” he whispered. “Sleep, sleep, sleep.”

There was a vague resistance, and it increased the pressure in his skull. He pushed harder, intent on knocking every person in the building unconscious.

“Gary?”

Thomas looked and sounded baffled, his eyebrows raised in surprise and his eyes wider than usual. There was no smile on his face, and the man frowned suddenly when someone fell through a doorway and landed in the corridor, sleeping like the dead. “This is your doing, isn’t it?”

“I need the code to the apartment, Thomas.”

Thomas was not afraid to look him in the eyes even as Gary was trying to force his mind to go to sleep. His eyelids grew heavy and began to fall shut, and Gary watched him sink to his knees while twitching.

“You came ba….”

A ‘thud’ sounded when he hit the floor.

All potential enemies had been stopped- he was free to move around as he needed, and he only gave Thomas’ still body an apologetic glance before stepping over it.

The only way to access the third floor was through the elevator that connected to the top floor, and it required a code to work. Gary was not discouraged- Lucian was the one that decided the passwords, but they only changed every fourth week. He strode over to the elevator and opened the numbered panel on the wall. His fingers typed the needed combination of digits without fail, and the doors slid open to let him inside seconds later.

The space was small enough to make anyone feel claustrophobic, and Gary’s skin crawled and tingled with unease. It was a short ride, one floor only, but when the doors finally parted again he couldn’ get out of there fast enough. He breathed a relieved sigh and rubbed one hand along his arm to ease the goose bumps.

Silence stretched out and enveloped him, thick and heavy, and his own breathing sounded too loud and intrusive. He licked his lips anxiously, his eyes on the metal door that separated him from Lucian, his knees locked and unwilling to move. This was it, he realized, because right behind that door was the root to all his misery and anger, his grief and shame. Could he even do this? He could still turn back and vanish without a trace- Lucian was unlikely to find him if he left the city and settled down elsewhere. It was the wise thing to do, to disappear, but the tight bundle of emotions in his chest cried out for payback, and he knew he would not be able to move on without it. Lucian would continue to infect him and turn him rotten and spoiled inside out.

He dearly wished that Peach was here to smile and reassure him that it was alright.

But there was only him now, and he needed Lucian to know that he could stand up for himself.

“Peach…”

He drew a deep breath and put one foot before the other.

The door was made from solid steel and could survive attacks from bullets and God knew what else, a result of Lucian’s paranoia and wish to keep his home private. There was another electronic panel on the wall next to it, but this one also contained letters to lessen the risk of anyone making the right guess at the code. He entered the code he had obtained from Thomas before he knocked the man unconscious, a green light blinked, and the door slid open with ease when he pulled it aside.

Nothing was out of order in the neat, stylish apartment within, and Gary stood in the doorway for a couple of minutes and surveyed the living room. It was empty, and the only sign that anyone had been in there recently was the fresh cigarette stumps in the ashtray on the table. There were too many of them, he thought, Lucian must have been chain smoking like mad lately.

This particular room held many memories for him.

He walked up to the red leather couch and ran his fingers along the top of it with a far away expression, and the leather felt good under his fingertips. He’d had sex on this couch. Lucian had sat right here, watching him with hooded, green eyes while he danced and tried to seduce him under the influence of caramel. They had moaned and made out like wild animals in heat, touched and fucked and glared at each other while their naked skin stuck to the leather. This was where Gary had taken one of his little games too far and humiliated Lucian, and in turn become humiliated himself by crying and pleading for Lucian not to abuse him.

Too many memories.

Gary pursed his lips and moved on. Nostalgia was one thing he had not expected to feel when he returned, but the emotion was rooted deeply in his chest and ached dully when he reached the door to Lucian’s bedroom. It had not been entirely closed; Gary nudged it open with a hand and took a moment to let his eyes become used to the darkness.

No light found its way through the heavy curtains that covered the windows, and Gary had to squint his eyes to see anything at all, even with the light from the living room. He listened closely and felt his heart pound in his head, a deafening noise that he somehow managed to hear Lucian’s steady breathing through.

He’s asleep. How many times did he let me see him this way?

Paranoid and tense- two words that described the man perfectly. Gary chewed on his bottom lip through the rush of adrenaline that was coming at him faster now. He moved slowly, afraid of making any noise that might wake the man, but he came to a stop once he reached the bed.

Lucian needed to be awake.

Gary swallowed. It was a dangerous thing to wake Lucian from his sleep, one that easily could cost him his own if he went about it the wrong way. The bed creaked under his weight when he put down his knee on the mattress, and Lucian stirred and mumbled in his sleep. He felt braver with every little movement, slowly settling himself with one knee on either side of the still body, hands pressed down next to the head.

“Lucian…”

His voice was soft and low key, not enough to wake the man. He lowered himself and felt the warmth of Lucian’s skin through his sweater, chest to chest, and closed his eyes as he planted a kiss on the sleeping man’s mouth.

Lucian frowned, coming awake slowly, and Gary did not see his eyes open or the brief uncertainty that flashed in them. One of his hands touched Lucian’s cheek tenderly and let the fingers stroke the stubble while he teased the tense mouth and coaxed it into returning the kiss. It was a game, one that had his heart pounding like a drumstick and beads of sweat to break on his forehead.

Hands took him by the hips and slid up along his ribs, then returned to cupping his ass through the pants. Gary moaned softly into the kiss and sucked on Lucian’s bottom lip while the man squeezed him and pressed their groins together.

“Gary…You-“

“Shhh. Be quiet.”

Lucian claimed his mouth in a needy kiss, and Gary handed over the control without protest. They kissed like long lost lovers that had found one another, like desperate teenagers with no control over their hormones. It was hard to hold onto his sense of self through the haze of arousal.

He extended his telepathy to touch Lucian’s mind, slowly and gently not to give himself away. The little touches ghosted along the wall that kept the man’s mind safely locked away from intruders and searched for the tiny crack he had felt before. It was elusive, slipped away from him once he thought he had it pinned down, and Lucian’s ability to turn him into a puddle of needy, turned on teenager clouded his judgement.

For Peach, he reminded himself, this is for her.

The little fingers he pictured in his mind worked quicker and divided into more entities to cover the ground faster. They prodded and poked carefully across the impenetrable surface.

There.

Lucian threw him off and pinned him down to the bed, arms trapped above his head and his legs around the man’s waist. The close proximity had Gary gasping and rocking his hips into him, and Lucian was happy to oblige.

“Lucian…Please,” he moaned, putting on an act that wasn’t entirely false. His cheeks were flushed and warm and pin pricks of pleasure washed over him. A hand moved under the pillow and took hold of something. Gary felt the contours of something hard through it, and he remembered then that Lucian slept with his beloved gun ready at hand.

His telepathic fingers slipped into the crack in Lucian’s defense and wormed its way through. The man shuddered, a reaction to having his mind invaded, and Gary felt both triumph and disappointment at the loss of Lucian’s skillful mouth. The crack widened and crumbled under the pressure he applied, and Gary’s eyes shot open when countless memories flooded his mind. His mouth opened but did not let out any sound, a feverish look on his face.

Lucian’s own eyes were wide and unfocused; he was paralyzed while Gary leart the inner workings of his mind.

The fragmented thoughts and pictures made no sense to Gary- there were too many, too painful.

“I hate you.”

Gary grit his teeth and took Lucian’s head in his hands to press their foreheads together. Sweat was breaking all over his body, tremors shook him while he concentrated on forcing his own emotions into the paralyzed mind. The flowed through the connection flawlessly and tore through Lucian’s mind that blades, leaving destruction in their wake.

“You’ll know now…what it feels like to be me,” he croaked. “What it’s like…to be beneath you.”

The sense of time was lost to him; minutes or hours might have passed while the two men were locked together in a trance, and Gary moaned from distress and the strain such use of his telepathy put on him. He let Lucian feel how much he had loved Peach, how it had felt to see her body go limp in death. He let him feel the hatred and self-disgust he had, how Lucian’s stare and words affected him and made him cry.

Gary poured every last bit of these things into Lucian’s mind.

The connection broke with a ‘snap’ inside his head, and Gary gasped for air and pushed Lucian’s body off him before the man collapsed atop of him. For the longest time he lay there panting while attempting to regain his composure, his limbs far too heavy to move yet. Tears trickled down his cheeks. He wiped them away with the back of his hand.

“I did it,” he said, breathless from the exchange. “I did it, Peach.” His laugh was humorless, the voice cracking more with every second.

By his side Lucian was motionless. His eyes were open, as though he was dead, but his chest rose and sank in rhythm with his breaths. Gary looked at him with a lost expression and felt a lump grow in his throat. It was over now. Lucian’s mind had been torn apart like Gary had ruined others before, and even if he should return to his senses things would be different.

“I hope you understand now.”

He wiped his nose on his sleeve and sniffled. “This wouldn’t have happened…if you had listened, you know?”

His chest was tight and constricted; Gary wanted to break down and bawl then and there.

But he didn’t. Instead he rose from the bed on shaky legs and stared down at the man that for four years had both tortured him emotionally and cared for him when he was sick. His breaths were shallow and hurt to draw in because of the tight bundle of emotions in his chest.

“We won’t meet again, Lucian,” he said slowly and raised his chin. “I’m leaving your town, and I’m probably never coming back.”

Something in his chest stung.

“Tell Thomas I’m sorry.”

His eyes lingered on Lucian’s wide, green eyes for another moment.

I’m not sorry.

He turned his back to the bed and left.

The End

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Notes: Someone cheer me up, please?

I want to thank you all for sticking with me and leaving me such enthusiastic and loving reviews. I enjoyed every single one of them!

There are a lot of stories I want to write and post, and I’m working on another slash story, a lighter and more humorous one than Caramel ever was. It is called Death under a pink umbrella, so I hope you’ll give it a try when I post it in the near future. The summary is up on my profile. Also, please do read the story I am co-authoring with my wife, Arianna Sterling, called A moment’s temptation. The link is on my profile too.

Again, thank you. And don’t forget, you’ll get to see Lucian and Gary again in new stories.