#terzonga

Decided to write a bit about Terzo and Omega just for fun. Who cares if I have a fic on my main I have updated in months, this was Important (ie writing fanfiction for a band I know a lot about only because my roommate is super into them). I hope the ghesties enjoy this one, I’d love to know your thoughts :))

The lights dimmed and the cheers of the crowd slowly ceased while Terzo held the slightly uncomfortable position of his final bow. He could feel beads of sweat flowing down the sides of his face, the roar of the audience slowly dying as they filed out, and his jaw clenched. Even if the spotlight was gone and the crew began dismantling the equipment, his performance was far from over. As the lights faded out in their entirety, dooming the stage to an almost pitch black as Terzo finally stood from his bow. He took a deep breath in before he turned to join the ghouls back stage, his show must go on, however much he wanted to collapse into his soft duvet back at the ministry, all that was awaiting him was the hard twin mattress of the tour bus.

His feet ached more than usual, the edges of his shoes biting at the skin, no doubt leaving blisters for him to treat later. He continued on despite the lingering pain, skirting the edge of the group of ghouls crowding the backstage area, clapping Mist on the back with an easy smile sliding onto his face. She turned to acknowledge Terzo with a nod and his smile turned a bit genuine at her response. Getting the ghouls to recognize his presence proved to be a challenge sometimes, with them being wrapped up in their own little world, too occupied with each other. His role as their “boss” didn’t help either, with most of their interactions with Terzo being stilted, stiff, and all too formal. It was isolating, Terzo was all too ready to admit, and he often found himself falling into bed with a fan or two, sometimes strangers instead, to feel a warm connection and a soft bed on tour.

Terzo was not unused to loneliness, growing up in the ministry with the dry clergy members at every corner certainly did not make for a friendly childhood, but the feeling still gnawed at him. Moments like these, where he bore witness to his ghouls chatting excitedly among themselves, glamours slowly fading as they removed their masks, while Terzo lingered on the outside of their all too strongly structured circle. In moments like this, he could feel the loneliness biting at him, snaking its way up his body, wrapping around his heart like vines, puncturing it with its thorns, and squeezing. He could feel it in the pit of his stomach, the ever growing dread manifesting in his shaking fingers at the thought of having to return to his empty tour bus bed with thin linen sheets and bare walls. It was moments like this that made Terzo seek warmth elsewhere.

Tonight, unfortunately, that wasn’t an option. With the structure of the tour schedule, they needed to get on the road almost immediately to make it to their next stop in time for the sound check. Terzo watched on as the ghouls continued chittering, a tail or two appearing with a wag before fading into transparency once more. He needed to get the ghouls to the bus, but how could he interrupt them? While he was technically their leader, Terzo had never felt in charge of the ghouls. Maybe it was all in his head, but he felt that they looked down on him sometimes. It felt most prominent when he would stumble back into the bus with mussed hair and smudged lipstick, a mark or two or three on his neck, but that felt too hypocritical for Terzo to not be imagining it. Lust was intertwined with a ghouls very essence, a natural sensitivity, and they copulated often, sometimes openly, but only with each other. Terzo swore they looked down on him anyway, he could feel it in their stares, their dismissal of his presence, their quiet agreement to his every word without a bother for eye contact.

With this doubt of his authority settling into the back of his mind, clamping his mouth shut at any attempt to grab the ghoul’s attention, his easy smile began to feel more shaky, becoming stiff at the edges. Just as he was about to squeak out a command, his back was enveloped by a new warmth, a gentle hand resting at the small of his back, and a loud but firm voice overtaking his ears.

“Alright, everyone, let’s get back to the bus. We need to get ready to move,” Omega stated, removing his hand from Terzo only seconds after placing it there, breezing past the man to guide the small ghouls back to the bus as if Terzo was merely an obstacle in his path. Teetering between being grateful for Omega’s rallying of the ghouls, succeeding where he could not, and infuration at being brushed aside so easily, Terzo gave a weak smirk instead, nodding at the passing ghouls. His performance was still continuing after all, and Terzo could not afford to let his audience down. The ghouls filed out, hushed conversations still present, with Omega closing out the line, nodding at Terzo.

“Hey, thanks big guy,” Terzo started, already regretting opening his mouth, but feeling the need to say something anyway, “I was wondering how I was going to corral them all back.”

Omega only nodded in response.

Terzo continued on anyway, the awkwardness of the conversation seeping into his stature, “You were so commanding, it was impressive. I’ll have to take lessons from you some time.”

Omega didn’t respond, but Terzo could’ve sworn that he was likely raising an eyebrow under the mask. He couldn’t stop the words from spilling out of his mouth under the ghoul’s intense gaze.

“I’d be a good student, I’m great at taking direction. Especially from people like you,” Terzo couldn’t stop the flirty lilt that crept its way into his words, making him cringe internally. He just couldn’t help himself, could he? Terzo could feel himself curling inwards, he always had to make everything awkward, he always went a step too far. This is why everyone kept their distance from him, his overtly flirty nature was bound to make everyone in his circumference uncomfortable, even if the teasing nature didn’t feel all that authentic anymore.

Terzo huffed out an awkward chuckle, trying to salvage the situation, blatantly avoiding eye contact with the domineering ghoul. Instead, he squeezed in front of him, trying to beeline for the bus to escape the situation as fast as possible. Just as he was leaving earshot, Terzo heard the low vibrato of the ghoul’s voice, washing over him in calming waves but exciting his fingertips to a tingle, “You should prove it.”

About an hour or so later, Terzo stood in front of the tour bus bathroom mirror, finishing wiping off the last bits of makeup and completing his meticulous skin care routine, but he was noticeably absent in his actions, his mind fully occupied. He couldn’t tear his brain away from Omega’s words. They had sunken into him, carving a place for them in his skin, beneath his body, a heavy presence in his mind. What could the ghoul have meant? If anyone else had said it, Terzo would immediately picked up on it as flirting and have had a witty response ready, aiming to bed the initiator, but Terzo did not know how to interpret it coming from a ghoul, much less Omega.

He had to be reading into it too much, there was no way Omega was flirting with him in any capacity. Terzo splashed his face with water, reeling back at the unexpected cold temperature. He closed the faucet and rubbed his face with a towel more aggresively than normal. A quick glance in the mirror showed the aggressive toweling had left red blotches over his face, a pleasant flush to his cheeks if he wanted to view it more positively. Whether the flush was from the towel’s slightly itchy fibers or Omega’s words, Terzo could not say confidently.

A sigh escaped his lips as he closed the bathroom door behind him, this was all too much for his exhausted brain to comprehend at the moment. His performance was finally over, in the security of his small bed at the back of the bus, a curtain closing him off from the rest of the ghouls. Initially, he had hoped to have his own proper room on the bus, perhaps to be the only one there, surrounded by moving trunks and boxed up clothing, but he understood that wasn’t possible. His ‘room’ was cozy enough, sparsely decorated save for some drawings and flowers fans had thrown on stage taped to the window beside his bed covered in a thin black blanket and grey sheets. Past the black curtain were the ghouls’ beds, leaving him uncomfortably close to them when he wanted to relax the mask he constantly wore.

When the tour had first began, he felt he could never slip, keeping the flirty visage active even after changing into his black and purple silk pajamas, winking a goodnight to the ghouls. Quickly, he realized maintaining that over the course of the tour was not feasible, his exhaustion burning bright and fast. He drew the line once his performance on stage began to suffer, he had been so angry with himself that night. He remembered glaring hard at his reflection, red both in his eyes and around them, his makeup clinging to the folds in his furrowed brows. Tears had built in his eyes at the knowledge that his audience had seen him falter, all because he had tired himself out trying to be one part of himself all the time. He could still remember the cold feeling of the metal sink under his clenched fists, the sound of the faucet running continously in a backdrop to his growing ire, his angered expression reflected in the mirror, and the sudden knock that startled him out of his furious brooding.

“Papa,” Terzo recalled Omega’s voice calling softly through the bathroom door, “Are you alright?”

Terzo hadn’t answered, his tears spilling over onto his cheeks at the sound of Omega’s concern. He was focused on calming his breathing, making sure that Omega could not hear his quick and shallow breaths through the wooden door.

“Could I use this bathroom, please? Mist is using ours up front.”

The oddness of the situation made Terzo huff out a laugh even though tears were still pearling down the rounds of his cheek. He figured he had made Omega wait long enough for a response, and cleared his throat, though his voice broke anyway, “Yes, of course. Let me finish cleaning my face.”

Then commenced Terzo’s quickest facial cleanse he’d completed ever before, but it gave him an excuse for his red tinged eyes and flushed cheeks. When he’d opened the door for Omega, the ghoul was standing politely a small distance from the door. His expression was unreadable, his coal like skin glistening in the bus’s warm yellow lighting. The ghoul nodded at him before pushing past into the bathroom, Terzo staring after him.

Recalling it now, Terzo could swear he had heard Mist just past the curtain, very much not occupying the bathroom. Just as back then, Terzo found Omega confusing, indecipherable, and all too attractive. As he made his way to his bed, shucking off his clothes and rummaging in his few drawers to slip on his most comfortable silk pajama set. As the fabric melted into his skin, he admired the silly print of little ghoul masks littering the cloth. He had had it custom made, wanting something to make him smile on the tour, a real genuine smile, and it was working.

His smile was shocked from his face when Omega pushed aggressively past the curtain, the thin veil falling pathetically past his shoulder. Terzo found his eyes, mouth slightly open in shock at the sudden entrance, and he saw an unfamiliar blaze in the obsidian orbs set dead on his figure. Omega stalked toward him, making Terzo stumble backward on instict, hitting the frame of his bed and making him fall onto the hard mattress. He could feel his heart pounding against his chest, the sound filling his ears and taking up residence in his brain. His other senses were taken by Omega, capturing his eyes and the scent of cologne overflowing his nose. Omega soon caged him in on the bed, his arms encasing and dwarfing Terzo’s body, and bringing his face only inches away from Terzo’s, his hot breath brushing Terzo’s skin. They sat in this moment, with Terzo only seeing, smelling, and feeling Omega, hearing only his heart slam against his chest.

The seconds marched on with Omega saying nothing, only staring deeply into Terzo’s eyes. The smaller man continued to maintain eye contact with the dark eyes boring into his own, getting lost in the swimming galaxies held in them. Finally, Terzo could not hold it in anymore.

“Omega…” He breathed questioningly, seemingly snapping the ghoul out of his reverie.

The large ghoul pulled back, making Terzo exhale deeply and collapse further onto the bed, “Apologies Papa, I don’t know what came over me. I was worried about you since you seemed off earlier.”

Did he? Terzo had thought he had hid his anxiety pretty well, but maybe his mask was slipping more than he thought. But with Omega right here in front of him, he couldn’t bring himself to be worried about his exhaustion potentially leaking through.

“That’s okay, thank you for checking on me, tesoro,” Terzo said jokingly, a lazy smile painting his face. Even if he wanted to be comfortable around Omega, that didn’t mean he was allowed to. Besides, this was technically part of him, just not the part he felt the most in his skin in.

Omega, however, seemed unimpressed with Terzo’s answer, only raising an eyebrow.

This must’ve been how he looked earlier, Terzo thought absently.

Omega’s eyes traveled down Terzo’s body, alighting the feeling of flame wherever his eyes touched, tracing the folds and drapes of his pajamas atop his body. The pattern seemed to catch his eye, making the ghoul return his gaze to Terzo’s and a small smile formed on his face.

The visage sent Terzo reeling, the sight of a gentle smile painting the ghoul’s expression making him weak at the elbows supporting his weight and pull on the corners of his own lips. He had never seen Omega like that.

“It seems like you’re doing fine, Papa,” the large ghoul stated firmly, starting to turn toward the curtain, “But let me know, Terzo,” a pause, “if you even need any direction.” With that, he turned fully, leaving Terzo to breathe shallowly atop his bed, with much less confusion about Omega’s intentions, or maybe it was more confusion, Terzo couldn’t say for sure.

Just a short little something something, you know? I really wrote this for my roommate even though Copia is their favorite and Terzo is mine, I wrote it for them because they like Ghost so much.