#kaycestarter

Alek was alive and his brain wasn’t corked, he had to call that a win but the alpha was still far from done, really he was just getting started. While he tried not to let his frustration bleed out onto Kayce, it was something that Alek just inherently wore. This was a festival, it was meant to be fun, but with so many familiar scents that he remembered from the lab wafting around this place it was driving him insane. “I got you something.” Alek held up a keychain of Mercury’s cock, “Nice, right?”

“They’re coming, they’re coming.” Atlas insisted, if his friends could do anything it was drink like sailors. Artisanal drinks took time and love and these heathens were throwing them back like they were G&T. A sprig of mint, a picture for his timeline, and the pair of drinks were ready - Kayce hadn’t really left the bar since he’d got here. Obligatory free booze at least one of the reasons why the mechanic was here. In the den Atlas could distantly hear the nephilims starting to get into a debate over whose sword was bigger, the things they fought about these days were getting stranger by the day. “Are you going to let him turn you?” The druid asked idly, he imagined Kayce didn’t remember much of anything from the labyrinth. “Your boyfriend, he’s that alpha, right?” Andreas’ psychopathic brother. 

A self-appointed King of a pack that ravaged the city and tore through it to its core. Alek had made himself clear, but there were many who still remained within, civilians, warriors, sentinels and whatever fucking else. The Eye had tricked them, but the fire did nothing but give the dogs of war all the more reason to fight. Bloodthirsty and ravenous, what would have been dawn rose over the third day and Alek grinned as his body shifted from the changed alpha volatile to something more in line with humanity. His boot crushed the skull of some witch underneath as he ground down his heel, laughing something heinous and monstrous as their skin stitched together and he got to do it again and again until Alek got bored.

"We did it." Alek grinned, his features obscured by violence, "Rome is ours." How many had died? How many had come back? The city screamed as they reinforced the Pyramid, but that would be next. The Eye hid behind the power of the senate, as they should, because the wolves that had descended upon the city were all out for blood.

Alek didn’t want to be a footnote, some story passed down from one to another. What would they say about him when he was gone? Brother killer, cannibal, selfish upstart and failed alpha? A myriad of hopes and dreams were pinned on him, not least of which was the future he’d started to consider with the man next to him. Kayce was the only person who didn’t ask for anything, didn’t expect anything, he was just there. Cheeky, comforting, and familiar. That stupid shit-eating grin on his face, a mechanic that laughed at his own jokes. Former crook gone straight. Murderer, like Alek. 

“I uh-” Alek finished pulling his clothes back on, a smoke between his fingers before he looked over at Kayce, “there’s something I need to tell you.” 

Nature had been something he’d been pushed into a lot growing up, his parents were druids so they were big on camping and their bullshit rituals which usually left a very human Alek to his own devices. He’d liked swimming, skipping stones, shit like that. For years he’d avoided places like this, told himself that he was meant for a concrete jungle rather than a living one. But the city was... Loud. Smelled like shit and sounded worse. Even the town they’d built out here was more alive than Alek liked, coming and going, skin slapping in the back of the waffle house. The lake was nice, the river, the woods. Alek found more and more that when he needed to be with his thoughts it was best to be alone, it was everyone else that made him violent. Everyone but Kayce, anyways. 

Oars dipped into the water as Alek rowed the two of them towards a lake island, it was little more than a giant rock that had gotten covered in moss and trees. It made the ground soft, fallen brush that had been compiling for years into something unnaturally quiet. There were some birds in the trees, but that was it. Alek looked to the other now, Kayce seemed about as out of place as he was sure Alek did, but it was nice, being together. Alone without any distractions. “So, everything you thought it would be?” 

While Alek had passed this place a few times, he’d never actually been inside. The shop in question seemed quieter than Alek might have expected but he was in the neighbourhood so he figured he’d stop by to check in on his friend Kayce. Finding the human was easy, the lycan was attuned to him, his scent, his heartbeat, even over the sounds of compressors and traffic outside he could hear the steady rhythm as it came from somewhere in the back. The alpha had been spending a lot of time with Kayce, maybe too much - but they were friends, and his pack was always... They just always wanted something. The peace talks were a headache, he’d sat there wanting to rip the throats out of most of the people in the room while the others told him to play nice. Kayce was the one thing in his life that remained simple, there was no pressure or expectation. He appreciated that. 

An easy lean had him linger in the doorway to the cramped office, Kayce bent over his desk writing - something - a work order maybe. Accounts? Alek didn’t care, some kind of paperwork. For a moment the  lycan just lingered, watched the intense way that the man focused on the task, the slight part to his lips, listened to the sound of the human breathing as air filled his lungs and fell out again. Whatever this was, Alek wasn’t running from it. It was easy, that’s what he liked about it. The alpha cleared his throat to announce his presence before he moved in and set a black coffee down, he didn’t know how the other took it so the Americano order mirrored his own. “You taking breaks these days or are they gonna stage a walkout if you keep slacking off?” Alek asked before he resumed his position in the doorway. 

All feral and unbridled energy, Alek lept at the other's shoulders and half talked him before he slid off his back and settled with an arm slumped across Kayce's shoulders. "We should do it." Came the alpha's remark, satyrs dancing around, nymphs frolicking, wolves howling at the... Well, there was no moon. Weird, but anyways. "Tonight: I want to turn you."

notes: he said: I smell spit and lube

location: BATHHOUSE 

A bath could do wonders for a person. Alek hadn’t been back to his apartment yet, the place he’d shared with Sabina and Vinny was probably not his anymore. Three months and nobody had come looking for him, his friends were fake, and whatever loyalty was meant to exist within a pack clearly didn’t amount to shit. The lycan didn’t have any plan to speak of, so instead of trying to grasp at straws he went somewhere familiar. Sunken into the warm waters of the bath he tried to shut out the outside world: the stench of the old fucks in the room next to his and the sound of skin slapping against skin, it wasn’t the worst place to rest his eyes.  In the days since his escape he’d slept in barns, in the woods, next to rivers and on abandoned mattresses. The water was nice, relaxing. 

The sound of footsteps drew his eyes open as he looked out into the steamy chamber, names and faces were still something of a blur. His mind from what had happened before was foggy, like the life he’d led had belonged to someone else, but Alek remembered Kayce. Ne breathed in, deep, he wasn’t sure what he was expecting to smell but what came first was the sharp and acrid scent of engine fuel. “Kayce.” Alek greeted as he leaned against the edge of the tub and rested his chin against the lip.