The Void

Fic links

Baby, You’re a Haunted House (completed)

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

All This Time You Knew

Chapter 1

Oneshots

Dewdrop stared at the ceiling. He was in his and Rain’s room. They would be summoning new ghouls that night and he was not even close to ready. They were summoning a new quint and all he could think about was Aether and what he did. He knew the other ghouls were a little apprehensive as well. None of them were ready for a new quint in their pack. It would be hard for them the adjust when the last one went and fucked with all their heads.

He knew the rest of the pack was more concerned about him than their own problems. Especially since what Aether did nearly killed him. He forgot what it was actually called, medical terms hurt his head, but he remembered someone calling it broken heart syndrome. He was fine now but the pack had never stopped worrying about him.

He had never wanted to be in a relationship after Aether. If that almost killed him, the next one definitely would. He couldn't help it though. Rain had been there for him through everything and he could feel himself falling for him. He tried to ignore it but it was too hard to. Now he’d been sharing a room with him for almost a year now.

They had wanted to be mates, and Dew was a little hesitant about that. His last mate was awful and there was the fact that they were still technically mates. He didn’t know how to fix that other than one of them dying. Because for all anyone knew, that’s the only way a mate bond breaks.

He’d been up for a couple hours now, ever since the light started pouring through the window. Even if he wasn’t the only early riser in the pack, he was usually the first one up. He usually didn’t get out of bed until he heard someone else was awake.

He heard some noise out in the hall which usually meant one of his packmates was up. This led to his least favorite part of the morning, getting out of his partners hold.

He wasn’t sure what happened in the middle of the night. He was always under at least two covers and essentially made his own little oven to stay warm in. Rain was usually not under those covers, at least in the summer, but he always woke up with the covers off him and Rain wrapped around him.

He hated accidentally waking him up. So he started his routine of trying to slip out of Rain’s arms. It took a couple minutes but he was successfully out of bed without waking him.

He wandered out into the kitchen and smiled when he saw Mountain in there making breakfast and a full pot of coffee. He went right over to make himself a cup.

“Not even a good morning?” Mountain looked over at him.

“Well it’s not a good morning.” He already started to make a second cup of coffee.

“Didn’t sleep well?” He went back to focusing on the pancakes he was making.

“I only got like an hour.” He sighed. Jumping a little as he felt arms wrap around his waist and a head rest on his shoulder.

“What about you?” He looked over at Rain now.

“My heater left me.” He was pouting a bit but he smiled when Dew handed him one of the cups of coffee.

Dew walked over to the table and sat down. Now that he was actually up he was dreading that night even more. He didn't want a new quint in the pack. It was honestly scary what they could do with their powers. Who’s to say this one wouldn’t be worse than Aether?

“You okay?” Rain sat down next to him.

“I’ll be okay.” He leaned against him.

“Wanna talk about it?” He kissed the top of his head.

“Maybe later.” He looked up at him. “I’m just being dramatic.”

“You’re not being dramatic. I’m anxious about this too.” He looked down.

“I know.” He wrapped an arm around Rain, nuzzling into his side. He knew everything affected Rain a lot too. It seemed out of everyone them two and Cirrus were affected by it all the most. Especially because she didn’t fully recover from what he did to her. He still hadn’t forgiven himself.

“I have some things I need to do today. I’ll be back before we have to leave” he kissed Dew’s cheek.

“Okay. I love you.” He kissed him.

“Love you too.” He kissed him back then got up.

Dew got up as well. He didn’t really feel like eating right now. He might come back later though. He needed to keep himself busy so he didn’t start spiraling.

Dewdrop managed to make it through the rest of the day without freaking out over the new ghouls. He was currently getting his uniform on. They got to wear their new uniforms for tonight and it was only his third time having it on.

He was checking himself out in the mirror. It was definitely more interesting than the old ones but he did like it. He walked out of the bathroom and smirked when he saw Rain.

“You look nice.” He walked over to him and gave him a kiss before grabbing his ass, making Rain squeak. “Makes your butt look nice too.”

“Does that mean you’re gonna be staring at my ass all the time on stage now.” He kissed him back.

“I might.” He looked him up and down “if we didn’t have to be there in ten minutes I’d already be taking these clothes off you.”

“Well you can always take them off me after.” Rain headed towards the door before looking back at him, then leaving the room.

Dew quickly followed him out of the room. He would be lying if he said he wasn’t turned on at the moment. He frowned when they entered the common area and the rest of the pack was there.

“You both look great.” Cumulus smiled at them.

“Well I’m just gonna have to take your word for it.” Cirrus looked at Cumulus. “She said I look nice too.”

Dew looked down. This was why he still hated himself for hurting her. Her peripheral vision was almost completely gone. It was caused from the brain damage from him slamming her head into the ground. The not nearly as bad thing was the chronic back pain she had.

“Well actually I said she looked hot.” She kissed Cirrus.

“You can all fuck each other later we’re going to be late.” Mountain started to head towards the door.

“You should get someone to fuck you later. You look hot too.” Dew walked past Mountain, smacking his ass.

“I hate you.” Mountain rolled his eyes.

“Maybe you wouldn’t be so grumpy if you got laid more often.” He smirked back at him. Mountain just rolled his eyes again.

He could tell how excited the rest of the pack was over this and even now he was starting to get excited too. The dread was still there but he couldn’t wait to meet his new packmates.

Usually, these summonings would pull a large crowd. Everyone wanted to see the new band ghouls when they were summoned. But all five of them, Aether included, had said that so many humans around when they were summoned was awful and made the whole situation even harder and scarier. So, now that Copia was Papa, he made it so only ghouls could attend. Well only ghouls and whoever was doing the summoning.

When he walked in the room, it was still somewhat packed. And he could tell they were a little late by the way Copia was looking at them as they entered.

The pack took their place near the front, ready to help their new packmates. Copia was saying something but he wasn’t paying attention. He had caught eyes with someone else in that crowd. Aether.

Aether was there and he was staring at him. He stared back for a moment before finally looking away. He looked down in his lap, not looking back up until the first too was summoned. And even then, he could still feel Aethers eyes on him and it was taking everything to not freak out.

His eyes went to the summoning circle when he felt the new ghoul, or rather ghoulette was summoned. She was on the shorter side and the first thing he noticed was her hair. It was so light, basically white at the top, but the further down it went, the more blonde it looked. She seemed to be a fire and air multi.

They decided together that one of them would take care of each new ghoul at first until they were ready to meet the new pack. It was less stressful that way. They decided it would be him and Mountain. Rain would take over if he felt like he couldn’t do it. So Mountain went up to her and helped her calm down before leading her out of the room.

He watched as the next ghoul was summoned, trying to shake the feeling of being watched away. But this time, a ghoul and a ghoulette showed up in the summoning circle.

They looked like they were related. The first thing that caught his eye were the beautiful star shaped freckles they both had littering their bodies. But he didn’t pay much attention to the ghoulette other than she seemed to be a quintessence and air multi. His eyes were on the ghoul. Fully quint.

They were beautiful. Their ears reminded him of bat wings. Their eyes were pitch black, both the iris and the sclera. It wasn’t common, but sometimes ghouls had eyes like that. What fascinated him the most was the scar. It covered the left upper side of their face, covering their left eye and ear. And even the left horn and some of their hair seemed to be affected as well. The skin there was pitch black, like their eyes, and it almost sparkled with specks that looked like stars. It reminded him of the night sky.

He was examining the ghoul until a wave of anxiety and panic hit him. He couldn’t do this. He couldn’t fall in love with another quint. He hurried out of the room, Rain following close behind him. He felt like he couldn’t breathe.

“Dew, what’s wrong?” He was concerned.

Dew couldn’t say anything. He heard the door open and looked over to see Cumulus and Cirrus leaving with the two new ghouls. But the quint seemed interested in what was going on with him. They were probably just trying to help, but when they started approaching him, he only freaked out more.

He backed away, he needed to get away. He was feeling lightheaded now. He kept his eyes on the quint until it all suddenly went black.

Dew started to wake up. He couldn’t have been out for long because when he looked to the side, he could see one of the infirmary quints talking to Rain.

When Rain noticed he was awake, he hurried over. He seemed relieved.

“You had a panic attack.” He frowned a little. “I was worried that it was something with your heart. You can’t do that again it scared me.”

“I’m sorry..” he looked down.

“What happened?” He sat down on the side of the bed.

“I was looking at the new ghoul… and… they’re cute.” He hated himself right now. It sounded pathetic. He had a panic attack because he found someone cute.

“And it made you think of him?” He held his hand.

“It did…” he began to cry. “I can’t do it again. I can’t be with another quint.”

Dew ran. He had to get away from there. He hurt Cirrus, Aether betrayed him, and he didn’t know who he could trust right now. He had no one else he could go to right now.

There was one place he thought no one would look because he rarely went there anymore. He stopped once he made it to the dock, collapsing onto his knees. He was so out of breath. He hadn’t ran that far in a long time and his body was not enjoying it.

He laid down on his back and stared up at the sky and just cried. He got lost in his thoughts because suddenly it was starting to get dark, and he sensed someone else there.

He sat up and saw Aether at the other end of the dock. He didn’t know what to do but he didn’t want to be anywhere near him right now.

“Leave me alone, Aether.” He glared at him.

“Just let me talk to you.” He stayed right where he was. “Let me explain”

“There’s nothing to explain.” He looked back, debating on jumping into the water to get away. It was too cold though.

“She would have killed you if I didn’t do what she said.” He took a couple steps forward but stopped once Dew growled at him.

“I would’ve rather died than go through this!” He started to cry again.

“I couldn’t lose you!” He decided to close the gap between the two of them.

“Well congratulations because you lost me anyways!” He took a step back, only leaving a few inches from the edge of the dock.

“I’m sorry.” He looked down.

“Sorry? Do you really think sorry is going to fix this?” He cried harder. “You were there weren’t you? When she changed my element?”

Aether didn’t say anything, but he refused to look at Dewdrop.

“I can’t believe you.” He shoved past Aether. He wasn’t going to listen to this anymore. But he turned back towards him. “You’re my mate! You’re supposed to protect me! And instead you put me through that! I wanted to die! I didn’t even want to survivestarted it! But I didn’t give up because I didn’t want you to lose me! I fought for you!” He couldn’t say more because he to sob.

He couldn’t do this anymore. He needed to find somewhere else. He decided there was no point in trying to hide somewhere he wouldn’t be found, because there weren’t many places like that. He hurried back to his room, not listening to what Aether was yelling to him.

Once he got back, he locked the door behind him. For all he knew, his pack wasn’t back to normal, but if they were he didn’t want them bothering him right now.

He slid down to the floor, back against the door. He was starting to calm down, but then he looked up and he was hit with a swirl of sadness and anger and confusion. This was a horrible choice. His and Aether's room that was filled with their things. The room that he had felt so loved in and the person who made him feel that way betrayed him.

At first he felt overwhelming sadness, distraught over the situation. He sat there and cried for a while. He blamed himself for this. He should’ve known something was going to go wrong. Every partner he had ever had turned out to be shitty and he thought he lucked out with Aether. But he was wrong.

He never got anything good and now he didn’t think he deserved anything good. He would never find the person for him. Aether was supposed to be that ghoul.

His sadness was turning to anger because Aether had the audacity to say that he was protecting him. Protecting him? He put him through the worst months of his life so he wouldn’t lose him. What it was was selfish.

What he went through was worse than dying. It was torture. If Aether wanted to protect him he would’ve made sure he never experienced that. And then he hurt not just him, but their entire pack to further protect him. He betrayed everyone who cared about him.

He was angry at himself too. He saw signs that something was up. The times that Aethers emotions seemed wrong. Or that fucking call in the bathroom that night in the hotel. He had been suspicious then but he didn’t question it because he trusted him. This was all his fault too.

He felt the rage bubble up inside him. He was more angry than he had ever been before. He went on a rampage, grabbing anything he could find of Aethers and doing his best to destroy it. Breaking what he could, ripping his clothes to shreds. Some of the clothes he unintentionally set alight. He wanted every memory of him gone.

He was about halfway through the closet when he felt a sudden pain in his chest. It felt like he couldn’t breathe. He tried to call out for someone but he already felt too weak. It wasn’t long before he was on the floor, writhing in pain. The last thing he heard before he lost consciousness was someone breaking through the door.

Dew was starting to wake up and he had no fucking clue where he was for a moment. However, the familiarity of the infirmary didn’t take long to penetrate through the fog in his brain. It looked to be one of the private rooms thankfully. Well, it was supposed to be private but there was another bed in there.

He tried to get a better look at who it was and he quickly realized it was Cirrus. She wasn’t awake and he hoped she was just sleeping.

That didn’t answer the question of if the rest of his pack was okay. He was still very distraught over Aether but after the breakdown he had, he had the room to worry about his pack now.

Not even a minute passed before someone walked in and he nearly cried. It was Mountain and if he was okay it likely meant the rest of his pack was okay. He tried to say something but the only sound that came out was a whine. Within seconds Mountain was by his side, wrapping his arms around him in a hug.

“I’m so happy you’re okay.” Mountain sat down in the chair next to the bed.

“I can say the same about you.” He managed to get something out.

“You know, you nearly burned down the entire dorm.” He gave him a stern look, jokingly.

“I should’ve.” He didn’t have the energy to be angry right now even if he could feel it bubbling up again. He gestured over to Cirrus “Is she gonna be okay?”

“She will be.” Mountain already knew how Dew was going to feel about it “it wasn’t you. It’s not your fault.

Dew didn’t respond. It was his fault. It was his hands that hurt her, even if he hadn’t been in control. He didn’t get long to stew in it though because the rest of his pack had just arrived.

Cumulus only waved at him as she was very quickly at her mates side, making sure she was still okay. Rain, however, hurried over to his side, hugging him. No words were exchanged, but he could feel how much they all cared about him.

Dewdrop had been stuck in a cell for days. The fact that Aether hadn’t come for him yet, only continued to solidify the fact that he probably betrayed him. But there was still the possibility that he may be in the same situation.

He was still in a lot of pain from being thrown around. There was still a little sense going around the clergy though as he did now have a cast for his wrist. There was no reason for them to fuck up the wrist of the best guitarist they had.

He didn’t know if the rest of his pack was okay. He knew Cirrus was somewhere down there but she was too far to actually converse with. He hated the cells. It was in another part of the basement, different from where the ghoul dorms were, but it was somehow 10x more freezing.

Even if he tried to fight when they tried to take him, it would be no use. He was too hurt and he couldn’t use his powers. He could barely even warm himself up with them at this point. He was hoping Aether was looking for him, and that all of these worries were for nothing. Aether would never hurt him.

He was curled up on his side on the shitty uncomfortable cot they had. He was starting to shiver from the cold. His eyes were drifting shut. He had been doing a lot of sleeping since there wasn’t much else to do and the cold was draining him.

He was on the edge of sleep when he heard a noise that caught his attention. It sounded like there was fighting in the direction of the door. He sat up when he heard the door to the cell block open. Then Aether’s scent hit him.

He quickly got up and went to the front of the cell. He only felt relief when Aether opened up the cell. He quickly wrapped his arms around him, starting to cry. He was so scared and overwhelmed and he just wanted his mate.

He felt a bit more relieved as Aether used his quintessence to relieve the pain. It didn’t make all of it go away, but it helped.

“I’m scared…” he was gripping onto Aether.

“I know, sweetheart.” He kissed the top of his head.

“Is Rain okay?” He didn’t know what happened to him. Was it the same that happened to everyone else? Did something else happen to him?

“He’s like the others…” he sighed and looked down, holding Dew a little tighter.

“We need to get Cirrus she’s somewhere else down here.” He let go to head further into the cell block but Aether caught his hand.

“I found a way to protect us from Sister.” He let go of his hand “if we all get caught, it’ll be no use. We can come back for her later.”

Dew was a little suspicious. He didn’t want to leave Cirrus here and he thought it was weird that Aether would do that. But why would Aether be breaking him out if not to help? He really didn’t know what to think now. He wanted to trust Aether though.

“Are you sure it will work?” He knew if they did any kind of ritual, someone would find out and it would put them in danger. If whatever this ritual was didn’t work, they would be screwed.

“I’m sure.” He grabbed Dew’s hand and started to head back to the main floor.

He stayed close to Aether, worried about being ambushed again. He would hate for Aether to have to protect him along with himself.

They walked quickly. He hadn’t actually know what time it was but based on the darkness outside and the deserted halls, it was likely the middle of the night. That was good. It meant they were less likely to run into someone else.

At this point, he didn’t think Aether had betrayed him. He did sense something a little off through their bond though. He was riddled with anxiety at the moment which wasn’t too weird, he was too. There was something else there too, but he couldn’t place what it was. He could think about it later once they were safe.

The ritual rooms weren’t far from the basement entrance so they made it there within a few minutes. It didn’t seem like anyone else was there either so that was a good sign.

“In this one.” Aether walked to one of them and opened up the door. “I already have everything set up.”

Dew walked in. It didn’t seem like it was set up for a ritual though. Maybe it was the wrong one? He was turning around toward Aether when he was suddenly grabbed from behind.

He immediately tried to get out of their grip but it was no use. He wasn’t strong enough. There was something he could still do though. He maneuvered himself around enough to bite.

The ghoul yelped in pain and slapped Dew hard enough that he fell to the ground. He let out a whimper. He had landed on his injured wrist.

“Dew, stop fighting.” Aether was still standing by the door.

“What do you mean, stop fighting?” He looked over towards him to see him standing by the door. At that moment his heart broke. He was betrayed. This had been a trap.

Aether was refusing to look at him and it was fucking pissing him off. He just broke his mates heart the least he could do was look at him as he did it.

In the time he took to process what was going on, the other ghoul had grabbed him again. He tried to get free again but it was still no use. He only had one more thing he could do to get away.

He started to heat his body up but the other ghoul didn’t even react. They must also be a fire ghoul. He wouldn’t give up though and continued to try and get away as he was forced towards the altar.

He tried again when he was shoved down onto the table, trying to kick at the other ghoul as he was chained down at it. He smirked as he manage to land one, only to be smacked again, this time his head hitting the stone beneath him, making his head pound.

He knew it was no use trying to get away at this point so he just gave up. His mate betrayed him and now, he didn’t know what was about to happen. The last time he was in this room, he was forced to become another type of ghoul. This time it could be something worse.

He heard the door open and he recognized the scent of who it was immediately. Tears started to flow down his face, silently.

“Dewdrop. Nice to see you aren’t fighting it this time.” Sister Imperator approached the altar. “There’s no use in doing it anyways.”

He didn’t say anything back to her. Didn’t even look at her. He wouldn’t give her that satisfaction.

“Not saying anything? That’s new.” She stopped once she was next to him. He only cried harder when Aether came over as well. He was hoping this was a dream and he would wake up soon.

There was a silent look between Sister and Aether and Aether put his hands on Dew’s temples. Dew closed his eyes, accepting what was coming. But then he felt his hands leave.

“I can’t do it” Aether looked like he was about to cry along with him.

“You know what the deal was.” She was reaching into her pocket. “You do what I say, or I kill him.”

He whimpered when he saw what she pulled out. It was a gun. She placed it up against the side of his head. It was only then that the sobs came out.

“Do it, or I’ll blow his brains out right here.” She had her finger on the trigger. He braced himself for it to happen because, even if he was terrified, he would rather be killed than have Aether do whatever this was to him.

He closed his eyes and waited.

Aether placed his hands on Dews temples again. Dew barely had time to react to it. He felt like he was drifting in nothingness. The thoughts of what had happened were drifting away until no new thoughts popped into his head.

It felt normal when new thoughts popped in. About how he should obey. How he was only there to obey Sister Imperator and that he would only do what she told him too. And if he wasn’t told to do anything, he would wait for her instruction. Because he was hers now.

He heard the door open again and some shouting but he did pay it any mind. He didn’t need to pay attention to that. But a voice broke through the fog.

“Kill her.”

He didn’t know who said it, but it was probably Sister, so he listened. There was only one other person that could have been referred to by that. There was a ghoulette in there now and she seemed to be causing problems.

He stood up, despite all the pain and lunged at her. She didn’t seem to be fighting back, only defending herself. He bit at her a couple times, biting deep and viciously, tearing out chunks of flesh. She was yelling something but he didn’t pay any mind.

Despite the pain in his wrist, he grabbed her by the shoulders and slammed her down into the ground multiple times before specifically slamming her head into the ground as well. He could hear the sounds of pain but it didn’t stop him.

His mind started to clear up all of a sudden. He looked down at the ghoulette beneath him. It was Cirrus and she was hurt pretty bad.

Dewdrop was starting to wake up. It was only a couple weeks after that fateful day when his element was changed. He was still in the infirmary and still too weak to even move much.

He felt a hand on his cheek and he assumed it was Aether, so he leaned into it. But he realized that it wasn’t his hand. He looked up to see none other than the bitch that caused this.

He tried to move his head away but Sister Imperator had grabbed him by the chin. He still tried to get out of her grip but he was too weak.

“You’re finally awake.” She forced him to look at her.

He wanted to say something back but he had been struggling to talk since the transition. His throat still felt raw and any attempt to talk just filled him with more pain. He decided to glare at her to get his point across.

“I can get why you’re mad at me, but I don’t get why you aren’t mad at your mate. He’s been with you the whole time hasn’t he?” She had a mischievous smirk on her face

Dew was confused by that. Why would he be mad at Aether? He hadn’t done anything, right?

“You must not remember. I might as well tell you. He was-“

Dew woke up, sitting up in his bunk. That was a new dream. Of course he had to wake up right then. It had him thinking though. Why was he supposed to be mad at Aether at that time? He was supportive throughout the entire ordeal. This was going to bother him for the rest of the day.

They were almost home now. He’d decided to take a nap on the bus. They’d be on break for a few months then they would hit the road again. He needed this break.

He climbed out of his bunk and decided to go and find Aether. He wasn’t going to confront him yet. He wanted to do something else first.

He saw him sitting in the lounge area in the front. He didn’t want it to seem like something was off. He sat down next to him and leaned into him.

“Are we almost back?” He looked up at him.

“Just a few more minutes.” He leaned down to kiss his forehead.

“I need to do something when we get back. Can you take my stuff in?” He was hoping Aether wouldn’t get suspicious.

“I was already planning on it.” He wasn’t going to pry. If his mate didn’t want to tell him, then he wouldn’t ask. “Did you have another nightmare?”

“I wouldn’t call it a nightmare.” He knew Aether would n is if he flat out lied about it. “It was new, though. Another memory. I’m still trying to make sense of it.”

“You can tell me about it when you’re ready.” He kissed his forehead again.

They sat in silence the rest of the way there, which thankfully wasn’t too long. He was trying to hide his anxiety, knowing Aether would be able to sense it.

As soon as the door on the bus opened, he was already on his way inside. He knew everyone else would be distracted long enough for him to do what he needed to do.

He couldn’t believe he was doing this but he needed answers. He needed to know what she meant before he would start questioning his mate. Aether would never hurt him.

He stopped outside the door. He was thinking about knocking but he didn’t feel like giving her that courtesy. He walked right in, smirking at the shock on Sister's face.

“Dewdrop. I didn’t know the bus was back yet.” She hid her shock, quickly. “I don’t enjoy ghouls coming in here on a whim. You’re supposed to make an appointment.”

“Screw your appointments and screw you.” He was already starting to lose his cool. “I have some questions and you are going to answer them.”

“Well, that’s just tough luck.” She went back to the paperwork she was doing, deciding not to give him more attention than needed. “I don’t let ghouls boss me around.”

“Fuck that! You’re going to answer my questions” he was not giving up on this. He needed to know what she said. “You visited me when I was in the infirmary. What did you tell me about Aether?”

“That’s what you came to talk to me about?” She was still keeping her cool “you really don’t remember it at all? What if I don’t tell you again?”

Dew was really trying to not lose his shit but he couldn’t help it. He was already on the edge of spiraling due to the fact that Aether may have betrayed him, and this was his one chance to not sound crazy by going to Aether and accusing him of that with no actual proof. He jumped onto the desk, wrapping his hands around Sister's throat. He didn’t put enough pressure to actually choke her, but enough to make it uncomfortable.

“Tell me what he did!” He started to heat his hands up, wanting to cause some pain before hopefully getting to choke her out. He smiled a little as she started to squirm from the pain.

“Get your hands off me or you won’t like what’s going to happen.” She kept her voice just as steady as it had been before “besides, your should be worrying about the rest of your pack right now. I mean, everyone wandering around alone in the halls when there’s a threat. Especially for a water ghoul.”

Dew let go. What did she mean by that? Was Rain in danger? He wanted answers but he needed to keep his pack safe. He hurried out of the office and headed back towards the ghoul dorms.

He could smell blood before he saw what was going on. He rounded the corner, knowing Rain was there, but he was suddenly knocked to the floor from a punch to the gut. He crumbed to the floor with a whimper. He looked up and saw Rain at the other end of the hall. He was bleeding and being restrained by a few ghouls.

“Dew!” He tried to get out of the hold of the ghouls but it was no use.

Dew tried to get up and run after him but he felt a hand in his hair, yanking him back. He let out a yelp and started to claw at the hand in his hair. The other ghoul quickly let go and he got up. He looked back towards where Rain had been but he was already gone. He wanted to run after them but he knew he couldn’t do it until he took care of the ghoul dealing with him.

He finally looked towards his assailant. It was an Earth ghoul who was much larger than him. Not exactly a fair fight, but he had to try. He went to claw at the ghoul but they caught his hand, snapping his wrist back. He yelled out in pain. There was no way he was doing anything to this ghoul.

Once the ghoul released his hand he made a run for it. He made it halfway down the hall before he was slammed into the wall. He couldn’t even make a noise of pain. He tried to get back up but the whole right side of his body screamed in pain. He couldn’t do anything when the ghoul grabbed him and took him somewhere else.

Aether could feel Dews panic and pain. He had to figure out where he was. He had gotten Cirrus and they were looking for Dew. Then he smelled it. He rounded the corner and saw Dew’s blood on the floor. He looked further down the hall and recognized the blood down there as Rain’s.

“We need to find them” he was already heading down the hall. He heard a noise behind him and turned to see four ghouls starting to corner Cirrus.

“I could use a little help, Aeth.” She was strong but there was no way she could take on four ghouls by herself.

“I’m sorry. I have to find Dew.” He hurried around the corner and started to follow the trails of blood. But he didn’t follow Dew’s. He followed Rain’s. It led him down to where the ritual chapels were.

He walked into one of them, closing the door behind him. Inside were a few other ghouls, Sister Imperator, and Rain chained down to the ritual altar. Poor thing was still trying to get away.

“You told me you would leave Dew out of this.” He walked over to Sister.

“Deals changed.” She walked over toward the altar.

“And if I change them all back? Stop all of this?” He didn’t follow her.

“I kill that little mate of yours” she said it like it was nothing. “Now get over here before I decide to kill this one too.”

Aether looked down. He had no choice. He had to protect his mate. He didn’t want to hurt his pack but he didn’t have a choice.

He walked over to the altar, standing by Rain’s head. The other ghoul stilled.

“Don’t do this Aether, please. Don’t do this.” He pleaded.

Dewdrop was sat on the side of the bed in Cumulus and Cirrus’ room. Rain was in there now too and everyone else was discussing what was going on. He was thinking though.

The clergy had to be behind this. There was no other explanation. There was a few clergy ghouls that would come on the tour with them to oversee some things, though they were on another bus. And of course one of them was Sister Imperators. They were a quint too and if a ghoul was doing this, it obviously had to be a quint doing it.

He leaned into Aether, who had been sitting next to him, and looked up at him. He didn’t really want to be thinking about this. He didn’t want anything to be wrong with his pack.

“I’m going to kill whoever is responsible for this!” Cirrus was pacing around the room.

“Stop yelling we’re going to get in trouble” Aether pulled Dew a little closer.

“I’m not going to stop yelling!” She did stop pacing for a moment to glare at Aether. “I have been in love with her for years! I was going to ask her to be my mate when we got back from tour! And now there is something wrong with her and I don’t know if I’m going to ever get her back! And we don’t even know who’s behind this!”

“We do know…” Dew finally decided to join the conversation.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” She flopped down on the bed, finally calming down a little.

“Well there’s no way it’s not the clergy’s doing and there’s a high chance the worst woman we all know is behind it.” He thought that gave enough information. He didn’t like speaking about Sister.

“She wouldn’t do this…” Rain interjected, also having decided to join the conversation.

“Really? She wouldn’t? This seems pretty tame seeing that she changed my entire fucking body and nearly killed me in the process” he had enough of his conversation. He had enough of speaking about her. He got up and left the room, heading back to his own. He only then realized he didn’t bring a key out with him.

He knew Aether would be following him out so he waited outside the door. He was pissed off and there was no way he was going back to sleep. At least not for a while.

When he heard Aether walk up he didn’t say anything and he apparently got the memo because he said nothing as well. Once the door was open, he walked in. He stood there for a moment before turning around and starting to kiss Aether.

He had a lot of pent up anger at the moment and there was one thing that helped him release it that he really enjoyed. He continued to kiss him, ravenous.

He stopped for a moment when Aether didn’t kiss back. “Please… I need this…”

“I don’t know if it’s a good idea. You’re not in a good head space.” Aether scooped him up and brought him over to the bed.

“I will feel better after you rail me into this bed.” He was desperate.

“Are you sure?” He was worried about him but he knew this would help him calm down.

Dew didn’t even respond. He went back to kissing him, just as desperate as before. He started to undress himself, only breaking the kiss when he needed to. He also helped to get Aethers shirt off because he was that desperate and he thought he was being too slow.

It had taken him a while to be comfortable having sex again after everything that happened. He still wasn’t comfortable with his body, but seeing Aether looking at him with so much love in his eyes, looking at the same body that he was disgusted with, it made him feel a little more confident with himself.

He let out a whine when Aether had to move away to remove his pants. He wanted this to go faster. He didn’t want to have to wait.

“Always making me wait.” He shifted around some, it was taking a lot of his focus to not lose his shit with the anger bubbling just beneath the surface.

“Well where’s the fun in that.” As soon as he got his pants off, he went right back to kissing Dewdrop.

He then trailed kisses down his neck and chest, stopping over a nipple, beginning to suck on it.

Dew let out a soft moan. He could feel his body heat up more though. He hadn’t gotten used to it yet. How his body actually heated up when he was angry or when he was aroused. This time it happened to be a little too hot.

“Ow, shit,” Aether had scrambled back from Dew, having been physically burned from touching him.

“I-I’m sorry I didn’t m-mean to…” he looked down. This had been his worst fear. That he would hurt Aether somehow with his new powers. He was trying not to freak out but it wasn’t working.

“It’s okay. I promise.” It did hurt but he knew Dew didn’t mean to. He didn’t blame him. He tried to pull Dew close but he stopped when he just avoided his touch.

Dew was afraid of hurting him more. He didn’t want to touch him. Not right now. He started to cry. He always fucked things up.

“I-I didn’t…” he felt cornered at the moment. He wanted to be alone but he couldn’t get any words out to tell Aether what he wanted.

Aether tried to reach out to him again, but Dew only moved further, getting up and backing towards the wall.

“D-dont… please…” he could feel himself starting to tremble. He needed Aether to go. He needed to be alone just for a little bit. He needed some space before they were crammed back onto a bus.

“I… I should go tell Copia what happened with Cumulus” he looked at Dew for a moment, deciding if he should leave him alone or not, before getting dressed and heading out the door.

As soon as the door closed, Dew fully broke down. Even if it hadn’t been on purpose, he still couldn’t believe that he had hurt Aether. He didn’t know if he could forgive himself for doing that.

He deserved to be punished for doing that. He knew Aether wouldn’t do anything. He was sure he was already forgiven. He had to do it himself.

He knew that he was limited in his options. He couldn’t do anything that would make him bleed, surely one of the other ghouls would smell it. That's also why he couldn’t do anything loud. He wouldn’t have much time either. He was sure as soon as Aether felt something was off, he would come running back.

Aether headed down the hall. Copia’s room was the farthest from theirs. He didn’t want to be that far from Dewdrop but he knew someone had to tell Copia what was going on.

He knocked on the door and, after a couple minutes, a disgruntled Copia opened the door. He always forgot that humans weren’t nocturnal, like Ghouls were. This couldn’t wait until morning, though.

“Aether… what..?” Copia was not awake enough to be dealing with any bullshit his ghouls were causing, but he knew it had to be important if he was being woken up before the sun was up.

“Something happened to Cumulus.” Aether got straight to the point. There was no reason to beat around the bush.

Copia stared at him for a moment, trying to process what he said before stepping aside and letting him in the room.

“What happened?” He was concerned. Even if he had only had his own ghouls for about half a year now, he already cared for them all deeply. He didn’t know if he could stand something happening to another one of his ghouls.

“Whatever happened with Mountain, it’s happened to her too.” He looked down “I can’t feel anything wrong with her either so I don’t know what it could be. I’m worried about it happening to the rest of us… and I’m pretty sure Sister has something to do with it.”

“Is she okay?” He knew that she obviously wasn’t okay, but he wanted to know if anything else was up with her.

“I didn’t sense anything else wrong but I don’t know.” He sighed.

“I’ll talk with Sister, see if I can figure anything out.” He didn’t see any harm in doing that.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea. It’s better if she doesn’t think you care about us.” It was hard to say, but it was the truth. “It won’t stop her. If anything, she’ll just do more to hurt us.”

Neither of them knew how they could fix this. But that wouldn’t stop them from trying to figure it out together. Even if it meant they would get less sleep.

Dewdrop was standing in front of the hotel bathtub. He was glad this one had a bathtub. The last one just had a shower, and while being much more spacious than the small bath in front of him, it wouldn’t have worked nearly as well for this.

He made sure the water was as cold as it could get. For anyone else, it would most likely just seem uncomfortably cold. For fire ghouls, water this cold would sting a little bit.

He was already freezing from how long he had been sitting on the cold bathroom floor, shivering from it. Another new thing that sucked from being a fire ghoul. Even on an 100 degree day, he could enter a bathroom and still find it cold. Stupid tile and ceramic, always fucking freezing.

He stuck his finger into the bath. It could be colder but he didn’t have any time to wait longer. He got up and got into the bath, hissing at the cold.

It was working for now, the pain the water was causing would be enough punishment for hurting Aether. But it wouldn’t last for long. Eventually, it would stop hurting.

There was something else he could do. It would hurt a lot more. He was scared to do it though. It was too painful and a reminder of the horrible thing he went through. He needed to hurt though. This was the best way.

He dunked himself under the water, counting down the seconds to when he ran out of air and his body switched to using his gills. He knew it would work. This is how he found out how much it hurt to use them now. It’s why he avoided it. He couldn’t even force himself to use them, the pain of it creating some kind of mental block to using them.

It honestly felt a little peaceful at first, laying under the water, looking up at the ceiling above him. It was a way he used to decompress when he was overwhelmed. It seemed to work even now because he felt calmer.

Then it hit him. The pain as his gills started to work. It shot through him and he couldn’t withstand it for even another second. He struggled under the water for a moment before sitting up in it, scrambling to get out. He slipped in the process, hitting the ground hard.

He started to sob. On top of the pain of his gills, now his elbow hurt from where he slammed it into the tile. There was also a bruise already starting to form on his leg. His shivering was bad enough at his point that it was visible.

In less than a minute, Aether came barging into the bathroom. The sight of his mate on the floor, in pain, hurt him. He quickly scooped him up, setting him on the toilet and grabbing a towel to dry him off.

“Sweetheart, what happened?” He already had an idea of what had been going on in here, but he wanted to give Dew the chance to tell him.

“I-I hurt you…” was all he could get out. He could barely get a breath in from how hard he was hyperventilating.

“You didn’t mean to. I’m not mad at you.” He knew there wasn’t anything he could say. If this is how Dew was going to deal with it, it would take a lot to change his mind.

Dew shook his head, trying to get more out, but all that came out was a distraught whine.

“There’s still a few hours before we need to be up. How about we go cuddle in bed and you can get a few more hours of sleep?” He kissed his forehead and got up, picking Dew up and bringing him out to the bed.

Dew wanted to shake his head, say no. He didn’t deserve this. However, the thought of being curled up with his mate behind him, under a bunch of warm blankets, sounded amazing.

Aether sat him down on the bed and started to dig through the bags. He pulled out Dews warmest clothes and even grabbed a jacket. He had to get him warmed up before he could turn into a personal heater.

“Do you wanna talk about it?” Seeing as Dew had calmed down a little, he was going to try and get him to talk again. He started to dress Dew, being careful not to make him hurt more.

“I hurt you…” he had to think for a moment to know how to continue. “I hurt you so I had to hurt too.”

Aether stopped for a moment, before kissing Dew on the forehead, looking into his eyes. “You don’t need to punish yourself for an accident. You didn’t mean to hurt me. I don’t blame you.”

“But… I still hurt you…” he didn’t know why Aether was just forgiving him. Any of his previous partners would’ve beaten him if he’d done that to them. “You’re too nice to punish me… I have to do it myself…”

He had been in many relationships before he was summoned. None of them had been healthy. Being a runt, he couldn’t really protect himself from other ghouls. He had to get other ghouls to protect him. He usually would get them to do that by being in a relationship with them. Most of them know that’s what he was doing, so they treated him like shit. They knew he wouldn’t leave. Part of his ruined self esteem stemmed from that.

“Dew. I don’t want you to hurt yourself. Not for any reason.” He climbed into bed, pulling Dew down against him. “I don’t like it when you do that. You didn’t hurt me on purpose. There’s no reason to hurt yourself because of that. It was an accident and I’m fine.”

Dew didn’t say anything else. He knew Aether was right. It was ingrained in him though. It was a hard mindset to break out of. He started to cry again.

Aether kissed the top of his head, starting to use his quintessence to calm Dew’s pain. He wanted to make him feel better.

Dewdrops eyes shot open as he woke up, feeling like he couldn’t breathe. He clutched at his neck. It felt like he was being strangled. No one was there. He didn’t know what was going on.

He tried to call out for Aether but he couldn’t get a single noise out. He knew where the pain was coming from. It was coming from his gills. It felt like they were spasming. He tried to drag in air through his nose and mouth as it was obvious his gills were at the bottom of them, but whatever was happening made that feel impossible too.

He was starting to feel light headed by the time he finally got a full breath in. The pain and tightness began to melt away. He sometimes forgot that breathing through his gills wasn’t really an option anymore, so he wasn’t surprised that his body forgot that too. He was rattled though. What if this kept happening? Or it happened when he was alone and it didn’t stop until it was too late.

Dewdrop woke up and he was exhausted and still a bit spooked. He’d had a terrible night riddled with nightmares. He had no clue what time it was but he could see that it was daylight out, through the curtain. He had to have been really exhausted if he slept past the sun coming up.

The bus felt quiet and it was stationary so he was sure they had stopped somewhere. He was a little disappointed that Aether still wasn’t squished into the same bunk with him. He didn’t really feel like being alone right now. Even if that last nightmare hadn’t been too bad, he’d had a lot of bad ones that night.

He felt bad for the rest of his pack and Copia. He was sure he kept them all up too. His throat was still raw from the times he woke up screaming and inconsolable. They were probably glad to be off the bus and away from him.

He decided to get out of the bunk and look for one of his packmates. He needed comfort right now. Or just to be close to someone. He started to poke around at the bunks to find someone until he heard a voice coming from the front lounge area.

“They all went out for a little while.” Copia was sitting at the table, doing work on his laptop.

“Oh.” Was all he decided to say. Even if he was still giving him the cold shoulder, he cared about the guy. The fear of getting too close just for him to be ripped away was too large. He couldn’t get close to him.

He really yearned for comfort, though. Maybe just being close to him would be enough? He walked to the front and sat a few spaces away from him.

It turned out that wasn’t enough though and he slowly scooted closer to him. He could still act like he didn’t care even if he got close, right?

It still didn’t feel good enough, so he laid down with his head in Copias lap. That did feel a bit better. He was ready to bolt at any moment. He was on edge. From what he knew, Copia had never laid a hand on a ghoul or done so much as yell at one. But everyone had a breaking point.

He heard some shifting above him and glanced up to see Copia’s hand starting to drift towards his head. He let out a growl, not wanting to be touched by him. He seemed to get the message as he went back to working.

He was starting to drift off when he suddenly felt a hand in his hair. He tensed up, ready to run off. Though, he relaxed as he felt his hair being stroked. He was still ready to take off but it felt nice. He could indulge for a little bit. He couldn’t help the soft purr that started emanating from him. This was nice.

It didn’t take Aether long to return the bus. He hadn’t wanted to leave in the first place but being crammed into a bunk with someone else was only comfortable for so long. He was sure Dew could use some kind of pick me up as well. He had gone out to get them both some food and he made sure it was something Dew loved.

He was surprised when he got back on and saw his mate curled up on his side, head in Copias lap. It did make him feel bad because if Dew was cuddling up with Copia. It meant that he really needed some kind of comfort.

“Did he do alright while I was gone?” He sat the food down on the counter to put it in the fridge. He didn’t want to wake up Dew when it looked like he was finally getting some peaceful sleep.

“He had another one after you left. It didn’t seem too bad.” He was still stroking Dew’s hair.

“How did he end up in your lap?” That’s what he was most worried about.

“Well, eh, he just came out here and did it after he woke up”

He could sense Copia's hesitance with being this close to Dew. He thought he should tell him more about Dew because he knew that he probably thought Dew hated him.

“He doesn’t hate you, you know?” He sat down next to him. “He’s scared to get close to you because he’s worried that something will happen to you.”

Copia was a little worried by the comment because why were any of the ghouls worried about something happening to him.

“Look, he had a little fling with Terzo right after he was summoned. It didn’t last very long. Everyone knows they were close but barely anyone knows they were close like that” he sighed. “It hurt him a lot when Terzo… you know… even if they weren’t together anymore. And he likes you. He doesn’t want to get close to you because if something were to happen to you, it might ruin him. He can’t lose anything else.”

“Well I don’t plan on going anywhere.” He continued to run his hand through Dew’s hair.

Aether was about to say something else but Dew was starting to wake up. He got a bit more comfy in Copia’s lap before sitting up, realizing who’s lap he was in.

He looked between Aether and Copia for a moment before scooting away. He didn’t really want to talk about what he was just doing.

“Did you get food? I’m starving.” He was bouncing his leg anxiously. He couldn’t believe that he had fallen asleep in Copia’s lap. He couldn’t get close to him. He was already close with his new pack he couldn’t add someone else to the list just for them to be taken away from him at some point as well.

“Mhm. I went to that bakery you liked the last time we came here.” He started to pull what he got out of the bag. He of course had gotten some sweet treats for the two of them and a few sandwiches they sold as well.

He was already starting to calm down. He needed to calm down. The last thing he needed to do was freak out right now. He just needed some food and to relax more and he would be fine.

They were nearing the middle of they first leg of the tour and Dew finally felt like he was getting back into the swing of things. For the first time this tour, he felt energetic and lively and he was really giving this show his all.

He felt fine until the last few songs of the show. He felt really hot all of a sudden, even sweating a little. That wasn’t weird though. It was always hot under all those stage lights and all the movement. He forgot that he was a fire ghoul for a moment, because starting to overheat like that during a show wasn’t abnormal for a water ghoul.

He could push through the last few songs. He didn’t feel that bad. Not for the first song, at least. By the end of the last one he felt dizzy and lightheaded and he just wanted to get off stage already.

He barely processed anything during bows, not even realizing all the worried glances his pack was giving him. He didn’t even process the words of concern from Aether who was quickly following after him as he left the stage.

His head felt all fuzzy. He had no clue what was about to hit him. He hadn’t made it far before he fell to the ground, his muscles tensing up as he began to seize.

Aether hurried over to his mate, looking for anything at all to place under his head for protection. He was thankful for the crew member who brought over a pillow from he didn’t even know where.

He always hated seeing this. Dew had a few seizures while recovering in the infirmary, but he hadn’t had one since he was discharged. This worried him. Why was he having one now?

He kept his focus on Dewdrop until he settled after the seizure was over. He quickly checked over him with his quintessence to see if there was anything seriously wrong. He let out a sigh of relief when he didn’t sense anything glaringly wrong. That didn’t make him any less worried though.

“He’s okay. I think he just overworked himself.” He looked up at the rest of the pack who had gathered around at some point. He could tell they were all still worried, so at least he wasn’t still alone in all of that.

“Mmm, Aeth…?” Dew started to shift around a little as he woke up, still having no idea what had happened. Honestly, he didn’t really know what was going on at all. He felt fuzzy and sore and confused. All he wanted to do was cry so that’s what he did. He tried to say more but he was too distraught to get a word out.

“I know, I know” Aether scooped him up and started to walk out towards the bus, not even bothering to go back to the dressing room. He knew someone else would get their stuff. He wanted to get Dew comfortable. Thankfully they would be staying at a hotel that night.

Dew whined as he started to wake up. He didn’t remember what had happened after the show, so he was confused to be waking up surrounded by soft blankets in a somewhat comfortable bed. He looked around for Aether and frowned when he didn’t see him. But he heard his voice drifting in from the bathroom, clearly on the phone with someone.

“Can’t I do this some other night? I have other stuff to deal with….. no I understand….. yes…. I’ll get it done”

He had no clue what this call was about based on what he heard. Maybe it had something to do with unfinished stuff from the infirmary? He could ask him some other time. He wanted to go back to sleep now.

He was starting to doze off again when Aether walked out from the bathroom. He wanted some cuddles as he fell asleep so he made grabby hands.

Aether got in bed next to his mate, wrapping his arms around him and pulling him close “how are you feeling?”

“Like shit.” He nuzzled against him.

“I can imagine” he kissed his forehead “you had another seizure. I didn’t sense anything wrong though. I think you went a little too hard during the show. I know you want to give it your all and be all crazy but you need to tone it down for now. We can’t have this happen again. And you know Sister will be pissed if it happens during a show.”

Even though he didn’t want to agree, he nodded. He knew he was pushing himself too hard and he knew if he continued he could end up hurting himself or making himself worse. “I know.”

“Get some sleep, sweetheart.” He kissed his forehead again and smiled as he watched his mate drift off in his arms.

Dew woke up to the sound of someone yelling in another room. He woke up and frowned when Aether wasn’t there. And if he wasn’t in there, then he was probably already checking what was going on.

He wanted to know what was going on though. If it was danger, he needed to be prepared. He couldn’t make out what he was hearing, but it sounded like Cirrus. She and Cumulus were in the room across the hall.

He frowned when he left the room and saw the door to their room wide open. He hurried in and was a little relieved to see that Aether was already in there.

“What’s wrong with her?!” Cirrus gestured toward the bed. But he hadn’t gone in far enough to see what was actually going on.

“I don’t know what’s wrong,” Aether was trying to calm her down.

Dewdrop was excited. It was the night before they left for tour and he couldn’t stay still. This is probably the most he’d moved around in one day in he didn’t even know how long. He was currently in position number five on the couch. He’d only been sitting there for two minutes.

“Fuck, I hate waiting for things.” He shifted around again so he was now laying with his head in Aethers lap.

“Is this supposed to be new information?” He looked down at the other and raised an eyebrow.

“Can’t you just knock me out until we have to get up?” He already knew the answer, but it wouldn’t hurt to ask.

“Yeah, and then your already fucked sleep schedule will be worse for who knows how long,” he sighed.

Dew groaned and rolled so he was now on his side. He was still working on controlling his new found temper, and it wasn’t always easy. His tail was thumping against the couch, irritated.

It was a few minutes before he rolled back so he could look up at Aether. Even with his excitement, he still had worries. “Aeth..?”

“Yeah?” He started to stroke Dew’s hair, trying to provide some amount of comfort, picking up on what the other was going to talk about.

“Do you think… do you think they’ll get rid of Copia at the end of the tour?” He still wasn’t fully on board with Copia now leading the band, but he would be lying if he said he didn’t care about the man.

“I don’t know.” He didn’t want to lie to him.

“What about the pack? Do you think they’ll send some of us back?” He was trying not to get upset about it but he was traumatized by what had happened before. “I can’t lose this family too…”

Aether's heart broke a little hearing that. “I will do whatever I can to make sure this pack stays together.”

Dew shifted around again but this time to shove his face against Aether's stomach. He wrapped his arms around him and held on tight. He must have dozed off at some point because he could all of a sudden hear more of his packmates talking in the room.

He sat up and stretched out before snuggling up against Aether’s side. Both of the ghoulettes were in there now. They seemed to be just as excited as he was.

“I can’t wait for tomorrow night. It’s going to be so much fun isn’t it?” Cirrus was basically in the same position he was at the moment, just curled up into Cumulus’ side on the other couch.

“I wonder how the fans are going to react to the three of us?” Cumulus did seem a bit worried about that.

“I’m sure they will love all of you.” Aether chimed in, having started to stroke Dews hair again.

He looked around the room for a moment to find the third pack member that Cumulus was talking about, but he didn’t see him anywhere. He knew Rain was beyond anxious about going on tour. He should go find him.

“I’m.. gonna go do something. I’ll be back in a minute.” He gave Aether a quick kiss before getting up and heading down the hall. He wanted to check in on Rain.

He knocked on his door and waited for a response. He didn’t know why he cared about the other water ghoul so much. When he didn’t get a response, he decided to just go in.

He was a little concerned at first when he didn’t see him but then he saw the light was on in the bathroom. He knocked on the door even though it was open to announce his presence.

The water ghoul had been peacefully soaking in the tub and startled at the sound of the knock. He looked about ready to fight until he processed who it was. “Hey…”

“Hey… sorry I didn’t mean to scare you.” He walked in and sat down next to the tub. He didn’t mind that Rain was naked. Ghouls were naked a lot in the pit. Water ghouls were usually naked all the time in the pit. So it wasn’t weird for the water ghoul or the ex-water ghoul.

He would’ve joined Rain in the bath, he had before, but it didn’t always work great. He was a fire ghoul now, he liked it warm. Water ghouls liked it cold. The closest they could get to both being comfortable was them both being mildly uncomfortable.

“How are you feeling about the tour?” He decided to continue the conversation, noticing the other didn’t seem to want to talk that much.

“Worried.” He thought for a moment “I’m excited too… it’s just… there’s gonna be a lot of people…”

“You never really get used to it. I don’t think any of us were ready for our first shows.” He smiled, reminiscing “it gets better and then you can’t wait for the next show or the next. And then you have a little ache in your chest when the tour’s over. You never stop getting nervous, though.”

“What if I don’t like it?” He wanted to sink into the water and forget about it all.

“Then you don’t like it. But it’s just the anxiety.” He was doing his best to cheer up his packmate. “I see how you get when you play during practice. Performing in front of a crowd feels even better.”

“I just don’t want to fuck it up for everyone.” He did actually slip under the water this time.

Dew sighed. He knew he would have to wait to continue the conversation. He knew what Rain was doing. He was going to stay down there and hope Dew would get bored and leave.

Rain didn’t win though because 15 minutes later when he decided to come up, Dew was still sitting there. He wasn’t letting Rain get off that easily.

“You’re not going to fuck it up.” He started the conversation right where it left off. “We all make mistakes. You’ll make mistakes on stage, but you’ll get over it.”

“I don’t want to make mistakes on stage..” he sounded defeated.

“No one ever does but that’s just part of performing.” He smiled a little bit. He had a similar breakdown before his first tour. He understood his fears. But he knew it would be alright.

The conversation ended after that. Not awkwardly. Just a comfortable silence. Eventually, sitting on the floor was bothering Dews back, so he said goodnight and headed toward his own room.

For once, Dew woke up without having a single nightmare. That hadn’t happened once since that night. He didn’t sleep for long though. Aether had decided they needed to be up at 6 in the fucking morning in order to be ready in time. The bus didn’t get there until 10am. They didn’t need 4 hours to get everything ready. They already had everything packed.

“Can I just go back to sleep?”

“No, because if you went back to sleep, I don’t think I’d be able to get you up on time.” Aether was already laying clothes out on the bed for him.

“Ugh, I hate that you're right.” He stretched out before sitting up. “Not like I could’ve gone back to sleep anyways.”

He got up and went into the bathroom. He just needed to get ready enough to not feel gross all the way to the first show. His hair was a whole mess so he threw it up into a bun. He was going to deal with that later.

He still felt sleepy so he decided to splash some water in his face and he was spooked by what he saw when he looked back. He quickly backed away from the mirror, tripping over his own feet and falling to the floor.

He had blinked and everything was back to normal, but, for a second, he saw his old self standing there. He kind of forgot how much he had changed. It had been jarring at first but by now, he was used to what he looked liked now.

There had been so many changes. In general he was at least shaped the same. A little skinnier, but really that was the only thing that hadn’t changed.

The first time he looked in the mirror had been in here. Soon after he had gotten home. He’d already known some of the changes at that point. His skin had a blue tint before, now it had a soft orange tint. His fins had burned off and his gills were burned and scarred and virtually useless. He had been slender before, but he’d even noticed he’d lost even more weight.

When he first looked into that mirror, he really saw that he was no longer that same ghoul. First, he noticed his eyes. They had been a beautiful sparkling, deep blue. They’d reminded him of the deep oceans. Now they were a bright orange. His horns had been this beautiful black, obsidian like substance. Now they were white, or his one remaining horn was. The other one had become brittle and shattered. He was sure it happened early on as he didn’t remember that happening.

The thing he hated the most though? His hair. He hadn’t noticed as most of his hair was still the wavy black he recognized. But the first few inches of his roots were blonde. His black hair hadn’t lasted much longer after that. Aether had left him alone and he was spiraling and one thing led to another and he chopped off all the black hair. He had regretted it as he loved his hair long. He was still trying to grow it back to that same length. His hair grew fast so it was already at about his shoulders. Made his bun look pathetic though and not the giant mess that he still somehow made look good.

It was jarring to remember what he used to look like. He tried to forget it. He didn’t want to be reminded about that. He had to keep moving forward.

He was broken from his thoughts when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He jumped a little but he calmed down when he realized it was just Aether.

“Are you okay? What happened?” He seemed very concerned and it was only then Dew realized there were tears streaming down his face.

“I’m fine…” he quickly wiped his tears and got up, heading back into their room.

“You’re clearly not fine.” He was trying not to push. He had learned not to do that.

“I’m just… I’m not ready to talk about it.” He was starting to get agitated.

“Are you sure-“

“Yes I’m sure! I don’t want to talk about it just drop it!” He looked down and took a couple deep breaths. It wasn’t long before the tears started flowing again “I-I’m sorry… I-I didn’t mean to yell…”

He felt vulnerable now, standing in the middle of the room, refusing to even look up at Aether. He only did once he saw him approaching. He was surprised by the hug he was offered. He hadn’t expected that after having just yelled at him. He quickly hugged him back and began to sob into him.

It took a while for Dewdrop to calm down enough to feel like he could function. He wanted to have a little alone time though.

“I’m gonna go make us some coffee.” He stepped away from him and wiped his eyes. He didn’t wait for him to say anything. He left the room and headed out to the kitchen.

He wasn’t surprised when he saw that none of his packmates were out and about. They weren’t usually up this early. He wouldn’t be up this early if his stupid body hadn’t changed so much that he couldn’t even sleep once the sun was up.

He started some coffee and hoped that no one else would wander in there. He decided to think more about what happened. Even if that was the last thing he wanted to do, he knew he wouldn’t heal mentally if he continued to ignore what happened to him every time his brain decided to remind him.

He had worked through a lot of it, but there were still things he didn’t want to touch. This was one of them. He could only ignore the fact that he used to be a water ghoul for so long.

His body had changed inside and out. He had looked very different right afterward. His internal temperature had skyrocketed when the change happened. He had actual burns over parts of his body because of how hot he had gotten. According to Aether, it had probably happened before he fully turned into a fire ghoul, so his body wasn’t ready to handle that kind of heat. He had also said that if that had happened after his body was ready to handle it, he could’ve had working gills. The scar tissue from the burns had damaged them beyond repair. But even then, they were fragile. He would’ve been lucky if they still worked and it was clear that luck wasn’t on his side.

The outward changes had him spiraling for months. He looked in the mirror and it wasn’t him. He didn’t look like this. Even if he was used to seeing what he looked like now, it still wasn’t him. He didn’t know if he would ever feel like himself again. He felt like an imposter in his own body. He hadn’t told anyone that.

He wanted to feel normal again. He knew he would never feel the same but he wanted to feel normal. He knew deep down that he was the same ghoul. Even after all these changes, he was still the same ghoul. That’s why Aether still cared about him and loved him.

He heard footsteps in the hallway and it dragged him back into reality. He realized the coffee was done. He glanced at the time displayed on the microwave and realized it had been done for a while.

He grabbed his and Aether mugs and started to fix it the way they both liked it. He didn’t want Aether to worry too much about him being gone so long so he was trying to do it quick.

He turned when he heard the footsteps stop in the doorway, expecting to see Aether, only to see an unhappy air ghoulette standing there.

“I don’t like being up this early.” Cirrus walked in and picked up one of the drinks Dew already fixed, taking a drink out of it.

“You know, you could’ve made your own.” He did his best to sound like he wasn’t on the verge of breaking down again.

“Wheres the fun in that when this one was already made.” She leaned against the counter.

“I’m not the one who’s going to be irritable when he doesn’t get his coffee. Well… I would be irritable but that wasn’t my mug.” He got down another one and started to fix Aethers coffee again.

Somehow everybody got onto the bus fine and nobody complained the whole way to the first venue. That wouldn’t last for long though. They would all start to go a little crazy after being crammed together for so long.

After load in, Dew had gotten ready quite early. He was too anxious to sit still again and it was the only thing he could really do in there. He was terrified of fucking up now. He was playing a whole new instrument and his body was still all fucked and he knew something bad would happen.

He was sat with his knees pulled up to his chest on the couch in the room. He didn’t want to use too much energy so he had given up on pacing almost an hour ago. With showtime being only half an hour now, his packmates were doing all their finishing touches.

He was thinking again. His insecurities were seeping in again. He was worried the fans wouldn’t like him anymore. But it wouldn’t be like they would know anything had changed after he put up his glamour. All they would know is that he played a different instrument now.

“What’s on your mind?” Aether was suddenly sat in front of Dew. It took him a moment to even process what he said.

“Nothing. It’s stupid.” He didn’t think it was a big deal.

“I know it’s not nothing.”

“I’m just thinking about what the fans are going to think. It’s nothing, really.” He looked down.

“They’re still gonna love you.” He wrapped an arm around him and pulled him close.

“I know,” he sighed “but it’s not just me.”

He glanced back towards Mountain, who seemed to have also gotten ready earlier than the other two in the room. They would surely know something was up with him.

“I’m sure it will be fine. I’m looking into how to fix it. Copia is too.”

“Well I don’t think Copias trying very hard,” he tried to hide the bite in his tone “he barely even knows any of us. I doubt he even cares that much.”

“He does care. He cares about all of us.” He got up to continue getting ready as they were starting to run out of time.

Dewdrop was currently sat down in the infirmary. He’d been getting a checkup a week for almost five months now. Nine months since everything changed for him. He could’ve had a whole kit in that time. But that’s besides the point. He was trying to not freak the fuck out.

For the first couple of months Aether had to basically drag him to the infirmary even though he begged him to do everything in their best but no he wanted someone else’s opinion too. The last few months, though? He’d been able to go just fine. He was currently freaked out because this would determine if he would actually be able to go on tour or not. He needed this. This was the only thing stopping him from curling up in bed and staying there forever.

“Dew, sweetheart? You need to calm down.” There was a tinge of pain in his voice, and he was confused for a moment, but then he looked down and realized that he was digging his claws into Aethers hand, which he had been holding the whole time. He quickly stopped. “If you’re about to freak out they may not let you go.”

“Sorry…” he looked down. “I don’t want to be freaking out but… what if they don’t let me go? What do I do then?”

“Then we’ll figure it out.” He wrapped his arm around Dew. “They’ll give you another chance too. Trust me, they’re all rooting for you.”

“What if I’m still not better…?” That was the one thing he always worried about each of these check ups. “What if they find something else wrong?”

“They we’ll deal with it.” Aether pulled him in closer. “You went through so much and you’ve come so far since it happened. If you can live through this, you can live through anything.”

“I don’t want anything else to happen,” He tried to hold in his tears but they began to spill out. “My body may be able to handle it. But I don’t think I will.”

Aether somehow managed to pull him even closer despite the arms of the chair being between them. It was time for the appointment, however and he quickly wiped his tears as he was called back.

Dewdrop was almost vibrating with how excited he was as they were entering the den. He’d been given the green light to go on tour. He couldn’t wait to tell the whole pack.

It seemed he didn’t have to, though. As when he walked into the den, they were all standing there, party hats on, ready to celebrate the news. They even painted over a happy birthday banner to say ‘happy cleared to go on tour day’. Well he assumed that’s what it was supposed to say. They only got the D in day before they ran out of space.

It didn’t take him long to notice that the ghoul who would be happiest for him, besides Aether, wasn’t there. He was worried about Mountain. He was sure the whole pack was, even if they new ghouls didn’t know him as well. It had been weeks and none of them knew what was wrong with him. It was stressing him out.

“Congrats, Dew! I guess we will get to see you in action,” Cirrus started to lead him towards the kitchen.

“Yeah. Maybe you can keep up with us, now, old man.” Cumulus couldn’t help but join in on the teasing.

“I’m not that much older than you” Dew did have about 50 years on her, but ghoul wise, that was nothing at all.

“Keep telling yourself that” she lead them into the kitchen “we convinced one of the kitchen ghouls to make cupcakes for you.”

Dew was feeling a bit better now, seeing how happy the rest of the pack was that he was able to go on tour. Even if most of them had only known each other for a few months, they were already so close.

He grabbed the first cupcake and bit into it. It tasted delicious. However, when he went to take a second bite he almost couldn’t stomach it as a sudden wave of sadness and emptiness washed over him.

“I think I’m gonna go take a nap…” he began to hurry out of the kitchen “that appointment made me tired.”

He didn’t wait for anyone to say anything before he started down the hall. He had to get out of there. He wasn’t headed to his room though. He went into Mountain's room and quietly shut the door behind him.

He wasn’t surprised by what he was met with. Mountain sitting on his bed, staring forward, not really responding to anything going on. Every time he went in there, he was hoping that maybe things would be different.

He sat down his partially eaten cupcake down on the nightstand and climbed up on the bed next to him, curling up with his head resting in Mountain's lap. He always found Mountain's room comforting. All the plants, which the pack had somehow managed to not kill while watering them for him, and the quietness.

He’d been going in there the past couple weeks when he needed to decompress. Even if it really wasn’t Mountain there, he needed the comfort of his packmate sometimes. Besides, what if when they fixed whatever happened to him, he remembered it all? Now he would know he wasn’t alone the whole time.

“I get to go on tour… and I should be happy… but I just…” he had to think for a moment “it’s not going to be the same and I don’t know if I’m ready for that…”

He barely noticed the tears that had begun to fall. He was filled with insecurities. Some of them old, some that came after his elemental change.

“What if the fans don’t like me anymore…? Or I fuck up and let everyone down…?” He could barely hold in his sobs “what if I’m not good enough…? And they get rid of me and I went through all this fucking bullshit for nothing…?”

He glanced up towards the other ghoul, half hoping that he’d see some sort of reaction from him. He was met with the same blank stare and it only made him sob harder.

Even if he hadn’t immediately gone to sleep when he got in there, he hadn’t been lying about needing a nap. It didn’t take him long to tire out

Dewdrop had snuck out to go to the lake. Ever since Terzo got dragged off stage at the end of the tour, the whole pack had been on edge. They had decided that no one should go out alone. He did listen, for the most part. But tonight he really wanted to spend some alone time out at the lake. He needed some time alone away from the dorms and the rest of the ghouls.

He was just heading back in. It was approaching midnight but he and Aether, well just Aether, had gone to bed early. After he went to bed, he just had to time it where all the rest of his packmates were in there rooms to sneak out.

He was hoping that Aether would still be asleep by the time he got back. He wouldn’t be that lucky though. He was about to turn the corner but he saw Aether down the hallway. He quickly hid back around the corner and poked his head around the side to watch him.

He knew he was in deep shit because for some reason Aether was headed down the hall that housed the ritual rooms. He had to have been searching a while if he thought he would be anywhere near those rooms. It only made him feel worse, though. If Aether was checking the ritual rooms, he could be thinking that they decided to send him back without telling anyone. He didn’t feel panic through their bond though, so he didn’t think it was that.

He decided to hurry back to their room so he would hopefully get in less trouble. The door to their dorm was in view when he was suddenly grabbed from the side. He turned to see a couple of imperators ghouls.

He didn’t know what was happening but he knew it wasn’t good. He growled loudly and tried to pull his arm away. Great fucking time to be a weak little runt, wasn’t it? Once he was pulled close enough he kicked the ghoul in the side which thankfully made them let go.

Unfortunately, the force of being let go made him fall to the floor. He quickly stood back up and ran towards the door. Before he could make it, a couple more of imperators ghouls blocked his path from the adjoining hallway.

He turned and started to run the other way, nearly losing his balance in the process. He hadn’t even thought to call out for his pack, he was so fucking stupid. He was surprised how far he made it before he was grabbed again.

He tried to pull the same move but a second ghoul grabbed his other arm and made it nearly impossible to do it. He had to think of something else. He tried to make it harder for them to take him, thrashing around as much as he could but these ghouls were stronger and larger than he was. It was useless.

His panic only worsened as he saw where they were headed. The ritual rooms. Fuck, maybe it was a good idea Aether went down there looking for him. Maybe he’d still be there.

He knew that waiting for Aether to maybe save him was going to cut it close, and he didn’t want to know what they had planned for him. He had to try something else. He managed to turn and bite one of them in the shoulder. The ghoul let go and he tried to get out of the grasp of the other one, but one of the accompanying ghouls quickly grabbed a hold of him.

They stopped walking for a moment, and it confused him. And then he saw it. One of the other ghouls was walking up and they had something in their hand. He let out a growl when he realized what it was. It was a fucking muzzle. They were treating him like a dog. He did what he could to stop that from happening, even attempting to bite their fingers, but a fourth ghoul grabbed onto his head and held it still. He hated all of these hands on him. He was going to tear them apart.

He was desperate at this point. He needed to get away. He kept thrashing around once they started walking but nothing. He let out a whimper once they reached the room. When they walked in, everything was already set up for some kind of ritual, but he had never seen anything like this.

He already knew who was behind this. He growled as soon as she came into view. “Let me go!” He looked around the room and his eyes landed on someone else. But right now they just looked like a blur. He coukd make out the deep sense of betrayal, though “What… what’s going on.”

“Hello, Dewdrop. It’s nice of you to join us tonight.” She seemed completely calm, even a little happy. It made his blood boil. Little did he know that idiom was about to become reality. “You’ve been chosen for a great opportunity.”

“Fuck your stupid opprutunity, let me go!” He still tried to free himself as he was forced near the altar. “I swear, I will tear you to pieces as soon as this is over.”

“You’re not going anywhere.” She walked closer to him, looking him up and down for a moment, seeming absolutely disgusted. “I always thought you ghouls were… interesting… creatures. And while I was looking for easier ways to summon ghouls, I found something I wanted to try.”

“Why not choose someone who wants to do it? Why me?!” He whimpered as he was shoved down onto the altar. He wasn’t going to let them chain him down though. He was going to make this as difficult as possible.

“Because no one would want to volunteer for this.” She was getting frustrated with his persistence on being a nuisance. “As you are probably aware, it is usually quite difficult to summon a fire ghoul. And they have a tendency to be very feral. So why not make it easier by making a fire ghoul. You will be our new fire ghoul.”

“What the fuck does that even mean?” He had no clue what she was talking about and on top of that, they didn’t need a new fire ghoul? They had Ifrit. Unless they were going to get rid of him… he looked towards the blurry figure again. “What does she mean?”

Dewdrop woke up in a panic. That was a new memory. He hadn’t even remembered that when he was awake. He’d blocked out most of that night. But now he had even more to think about. Who had been that blurry figure? Why didn’t he remember them? Maybe he didn’t even want to remember who it was?

However, his brain didn’t really want to focus on anything at the moment. His panic felt suffocating. He sat up and that’s when he realized he wasn’t even in the Mountain's room. He was in his own bed. Aether must have found him and brought him in there.

He reached beside him for Aether but he wasn’t there. Fuck, be needed him right now. He must’ve left for work. His panic was only growing worse. He tried to get up so he could go and find another packmate but when he set his feet on the floor, his legs gave out from under him.

He started to sob. He didn’t want to think about this. He didn’t want to remember that night. He was breathing hard and fast, every breath straining and painful.

He wasn’t thinking very straight at the moment and he wanted the panic to stop. And he only knew one thing that helped him calm down every time. He had promised to not do it anymore but he wasn’t thinking about that right now.

He dug his claws into his arms, probably deeper than it should have, but the pain cleared his mind enough to have him start calming down. In his mind, that pain felt good right now, so he did it again and again and again and he only stopped once he heard the door open.

He looked over and saw none other than his mate standing there, out of breath, clearly having sprinted across half the ministry to get there.

Dew looked down at himself, seeing all the blood pouring from his arms. He felt ashamed. He broke his promise to Aether. He started to sob again.

He was too distraught as Aether came over to pick him up to say anything. All he let out was a pathetic whine. He held onto him tightly as he was scooped up.

“You’re okay. I’m not mad at you.” He held his mate closely as he took him into the bathroom. “Tell me what happened.”

Dew tried to get it out but he was still too overwhelmed. It took a couple minutes but he finally got something out. “I-I remembered some-something else… I-I remembered that n-night…”

He noticed Aether pausing for a moment but he quickly went back to the task at hand, getting Dew patched up. He didn’t really feel like talking anymore. He was exhausted and he just wanted to go back to sleep.

“You don’t need to talk about it if you don’t want to.” He already knew his mate so well. “I’m sorry for not being here.”

Dew already knew Aether was going to beat himself up over not being there for him. He could worry about that later though. He zoned out a bit as Aether continued with the cuts.

He helped Aether to get his clothes off after all his wounds were cleaned and stitched up. He did feel a bit better as Aether started to clean off the blood with a wash cloth. It was warm and felt nice against his skin.

Perpetua was sat down on the grass. There was a slight breeze and a chill in the air. December was finally there. He finally got to meet his twin. He’d been waiting for this moment ever since he knew Copia existed.

“I can’t believe it’s finally here” he took a deep breath in to try and calm himself. “I’ve had… so much I’ve wanted to tell you.”

He looked down and sighed. “The tour went great. I can see why you didn’t want to give it up. And your ghouls. I don’t think they liked me at first. They can still be a little stubborn at times but they like me.”

“Especially Dewdrop. I… I feel a little silly admitting this… but I watched videos of you performing. As many as I could find.” He chuckled. “To think I could ever be as good as you. I think you would’ve liked my ghouls too.”

“Back to Dewdrop. I could tell he liked you a lot. He was cold to me at first. He missed you a lot…” he could feel tears starting to fall. “Once we got closer he told me… he told me he was worried they would kill you like they killed Terzo.”

Perpetua looked away for a moment before looking back at the headstone in front of him. It was weird seeing his birthday up there. Thinking about how his twin was beneath him at the moment.

“I was so happy when I found out I had family.” The tears were freely flowing at this point. “I wish I got to meet our parents. But getting to meet you. It kept me going.”

Dewdrop watched Mountain walk down to his room and walk in like nothing was wrong. He didn’t know if he should go in and talk to him and find out what was wrong or if he should wait until someone else in the pack was back.

He thought about it for a moment before heading down to Mountains room. He knocked on the door and when he didn’t get an answer, he decided to walk in. He was confused by what he saw. Mountain was just standing in the middle of the room. “Hey, Mountain. A-are you doing okay?” He couldn’t stop the shake in his voice. He would be lying if he said he wasn’t frightened at the moment.

He flinched at the speed Mountain turned to look at him, though he said nothing. Everything about him seemed wrong. The way he was standing, his facial expressions, the way he moved. It was all wrong. It had all of his hairs standing on end.

The only thing he sensed right now was danger. What if the clergy had done something to him? What if Mountain hurt him because of what they did to him? He had to get out of there. He needed someone else’s backup. He was not in a state to be protecting himself at the moment.

He started to back out of the room, keeping his eyes locked on Mountain. Once he was clear of the doorway, he turned to hurry to his own room, only to knock straight into Aether. He had to figure out how to explain this all to him and not sound crazy.

“Mountain came back but he’s acting all weird. He’s just-… there’s something wrong with him. I don’t know if the clergy did something to him but there’s something wrong and it’s scaring me.” yeah, great job at not sounding crazy. He would’ve kept on going but he was cut off by Aether.

“Slow down. I’ll check on Mountain and see what’s going on. I think you should take a nap. You look tired.” Aether had started to guide him back to their room. He hadn’t noticed it before but a wave of exhaustion did settle over him. He had probably been tired before, he had never been the best at listening to his body's signals. It also tracked with how tired he had been lately. He couldn’t make it through the day without a couple naps with his body recovering from everything that had happened to it.

“I’m scared, Aeth…” he didn’t want to admit how scared he was, but he was fucking terrified. He didn’t want anything to happen to his pack. He wouldn’t know what to do if any of them suffered through what he did.

“I know. But I won’t let anything happen to any of us. Not again. If anything is wrong, we will fix it.” Aether seemed sincere about that and that was enough to ease his worries for now. He gave Aether a quick kiss and hugged him for a moment before climbing into bed. It only took a few seconds for him to drift off.

Dewdrop started to wake up. He didn’t know what was going on. But he was in pain. A lot of pain. He tried to sit up but his limbs only felt like heavy weights, keeping him down on the bed. He finally opened his eyes and looked around to see that he was in the infirmary.

He was trying to ignore the pain but it was becoming too much. He didn’t really remember what happened. Only bits and pieces. He knew who had done this to him though and he was going to kill her.

He tried to sit up, the pain suddenly worsening with the movement. He couldn’t help but let out a scream of pain as he fell back against the bed. He started to wail. It hurt so bad. He didn’t know what happened and he was scared.

He also felt hot. Way too hot. Or, it should’ve been way to hot, but right now it felt normal. Honestly, he felt a little cold despite being abnormally warm. He wasn’t going to think of that right now though because he was in too much pain.

He watched as one of the nurses came in and he tried to say something but it just came out as a sob. Then he noticed Aether come in behind her. He reached for him and finally started to calm down once Aether was holding him.

The pain started to fade away, he could feel Aethers quintessence starting to flow through him. He started to drift off now that the pain was subsiding. It was still there, but it would probably take ten quintessence ghouls and the hardest pain meds in existence to make his pain go away. The last thing he heard before he fell asleep was Aether saying “I’m sorry.”

Dew felt tears streaming down his face as he woke up. He wiped his tears away and took a few deep breaths to try and calm himself down. He looked at his phone and saw that he’d been asleep for a couple hours. He could hear talking in another room and he decided to was probably his pack talking about what was going on with Mountain.

He got out of bed and went into the bathroom to make sure he looked somewhat presentable. His hair looked a mess but he was too lazy to fix it at the moment. He ended up just putting it up into a bun. His eyes were still red and puffy from crying but he didn’t think of his packmates were going to question that.

He headed out into the common room where they were all at. The conversation stopped as soon as he walked in and he hated that. Hated how they all looked over at him and took in how rough he looked.

He walked over to Aether and sat down on the couch next to him, snuggling into his side. As much as he wanted to help figure out what was wrong with Mountain. He couldn’t follow the conversation once it started back up. He was too distracted, thinking about what he felt right before Mountain came back.

“I felt something weird… right before Mountain came back…” he hadn’t even listened to see if he was about to cut someone off or not. But everyone seemed to be looking at him again. He took that as his cue to continue. “A few minutes before he walked in, something felt off… I just… I had a bad feeling…”

“You could’ve just been anxious.” Cirrus didn’t sound like she believed what he was saying. And he didn’t blame her. He had been very anxious over the past several months. It didn’t feel like anxiety though.

“I don’t think that’s it…” he tried to defend himself but Cirrus seemed like she was ready to argue back again.

“Even if he was just anxious I think we should look into it more. It could be something.” Aether didn’t sound too happy about Cirrus acting that way towards his mate. He understood where Cirrus was coming from though. Both the new ghoulettes had gotten close quickly, and the two of them ended up getting close to Mountain too. He didn’t think they understood that he also cared about Mountain a lot. After all, he was one of the only ones left from the previous pack.

“We should get going… we can’t be late for the first band practice with the new guy…” Rain looked like he was a little scared to be inserting himself into the conversation “we can talk about it later.”

Dewdrop had completely forgotten about that. They had their first group practice with Cardinal whatever-the-fuck. He didn’t remember his name. He had too much going on.

He’d actually only met him one time. He had still been in the infirmary. He was doing better by that point. That guy had just come in and told him that he’d be in charge of him and the rest of his pack (which he didn’t even know were just Aether and Mountain at that point) and he’d be summoning new ghouls and, oh yeah, Terzo was dead. He’d lost it and attempted to try and kill him. He probably would’ve succeeded if Aether hadn’t grabbed him. Needless to say, there had been no contact between them since then.

“What are we gonna do about Mountain?” Cumulus sounded worried. “He’s gonna have questions with him acting all weird. What if he doesn’t come? We don’t know what he’s like, what if Mount gets in trouble?”

As if on cue, the sound of a door opening down the hall was heard, and they all watched as Mountain shuffled down the hallway and to what they all assumed was likely the rehearsal room. They all looked at each other, not even knowing what to say.

They wasted no time getting up and following after him. None of them wanted to leave their vulnerable packmate to walk in the halls by himself. Dewdrop wasn’t even allowed to leave the den by himself. The last time he did his life completely changed.

Dew stayed close to Aether. Even if it was annoying sometimes to not be alone anytime he left, it didn’t mean he wasn’t still worried about leaving the den. Honestly, with how late it was getting, he was surprised that Copia wasn’t in there yet when they all arrived.

Everyone hurried to their respective instruments, not wanting to waste any time. After everything that happened with Dew and what the clergy may have possibly done to Mountain, none of them wanted to risk pissing someone off.

Dew was still getting used to the guitar. It was funny, really. He never really believed in the whole ‘elements were tied to the instruments’ thing. That was until he changed elements. He immediately excelled at playing the bass after he was summoned. He had tried to play the guitar, attempted to play through a solo once and it was a train wreck. Now that he was a fire ghoul, playing those solos felt like second nature. He could fly through them so easily. But all that talent on the bass? Gone. Another thing he had lost. Another thing he had to mourn. He had thought that even though in the band he’d be playing lead, he could still go back and play his favorite songs on the bass. Do it to cheer himself up or just for fun. He couldn’t though. Eventually, maybe if he practiced hard enough, he could do it. But he shouldn’t have to work so hard to do something he could do flawlessly less than a year ago.

He heard the door open and turned toward it, quickly wiping away the few tears he hadn’t even noticed were falling. He half expected Terzo to walk through those doors, still not having fully processed the fact that he was gone. So when he saw Copia walk in, he frowned.

“Good afternoon, my ghouls. I’m glad to see we’ve all… eh.. made it here on time.” He was barely even making eye contact with any of the ghouls as he spoke. Dewdrop hated it. ‘My ghouls’? Well some of them were. But he wasn’t. He was one of Terzos ghouls. Even if he wasn’t there, he was still Terzos. Terzo was better anyways. He would’ve walked in here and just his presence would have commanded attention. No one would have noticed this loser walk in if it wasn’t for the sound of the door opening. It was pathetic really.

“I’m not your ghoul,” he couldn’t stop himself from saying something. He didn’t regret it either, even with the concerned glances his packmates gave him.

Copia did seem a little taken aback by Dew’s behavior. But he continued on like it didn’t even happen. “I was thinking we can start with some of the older songs. I haven’t… gotten around to anything new yet…”

No one seemed to have the guts that Dew had because they all nodded in agreement. They played through a few songs without incident. Until Copia spoke up about something. “Is he alright?” He gestured toward Mountain.

Dew was sure everyone else had noticed it. The way he was playing, he almost looked normal. Like nothing was wrong. But between the songs, he went back to that vacant look and sat there without really moving much.

Dew beat everything else to respond, though. “He’s fine. He just… he had a rough night.” He said it a bit more bluntly than he intended. He was trying to protect his packmate though. If Copia didn’t know what was up, Mountains behavior could get him sent back to the pit. He had to defend him when he couldn’t defend himself.

“I see. It would be appreciated if-“ he couldn’t even get the whole sentence out before Dewdrop was interrupting him.

“What would be appreciated is if you stopped acting like you care about us. Or that you know us.” He couldn’t stop himself from getting a bit pissy. “You don’t know anything about any of us or what we’ve been through and you come in here acting like you’ve always been in charge.”

Ask anyone who was close to Dewdrop what he was like and they’d tell you that he was loving and caring and kind. Ask someone who didn’t know him well? They’d tell you that was rude, mean, and asshole. Plenty of colorful words to describe him. But that’s because he put walls up around other people. He didn’t like being vulnerable. He did it to protect himself. He’d always been like that. He could care less what other people thought of him. So maybe he was being a little harsh to the Cardinal. He refused to be vulnerable in front of someone he didn’t trust.

Aether was gesturing for Dew to shut the hell up but he just continued on. “You come in here, acting like you’ve known us for years. So what if Mountains a little rough right now? Are you gonna push him? Probably not because you’re just a pathetic little man. You aren’t even trying to defend yourself.”

He shoved his guitar back in its case and hurried out of the room. He didn’t know if anyone was following him. He hoped no one was. He felt like he was about to lose it. Once he made it back to his room, he slammed the door behind him and started to pace.

He had tried to deny it. Even if he had only talked to Copia one time, he’d seen him while out and about. And maybe he did kind of like the stupid man. Maybe there was something about his patheticness and social awkwardness that kind of made it endearing.

The thought made him want to rip something apart. He started to throw things around his room, tearing things up that he could or smashing them onto the floor.

He couldn’t get close to him. He couldn’t like him. What if…. He couldn’t even finish the thought. It hurt too much. He didn’t know how long his path of destruction lasted, but he felt exhausted. He collapsed onto the floor and started to sob.

He felt gentle arms wrap around him and he leaned back into them. He had no idea when Aether had come in or how long he’d been there. He hadn’t heard him come in. The comfort only made him cry harder.

“Shhh. You’re okay.” He did calm down a little as Aether began to rock him. “What’s going on?”

It took a moment for Dew to calm down enough to get any words out. “I think I like the new guy.”

Saying those words out loud only made him sob again. He had been close to Terzo. It had been purely platonic but they were so close. So losing him hurt so bad. With everything else that had been going on when he found out, he had barely even processed it.

“I-I can’t get c-close to him. I-I can’t.” He gripped onto Aether and started to cry into his chest. “W-what if… w-what if they k-kill him too? I-I can’t lose any-anyone else.”