[Oh, Titan, he's in trouble. He'd expected this to just be fun, not... not...]
[Thrilling.]
[(And it's all his own fault for starting it in the first place.) The intensity of it's throwing him a little. Logically, he knows this is a normal thing teens do. Or at least they do it in the books he's read.]
[They dance. They flirt. They feel things. Like all kinds of things because of crushes and friendships. Because there's room for things other than duty.]
[In a way, it hurts just as much as it feels good. His devotion to his uncle and fear of failing him had been all-consuming. Not just because failure was sometimes punished, but because who wants to show someone they love, someone that took them in, ingratitude? Who wants to fail enough to be cast aside, forgotten, relegated to un-importance? Serving Belos had been far more than a full-time job. (He's read that some humans have more days off than one day a year!!!) Belos had also just taken up so much space in his head that there wasn't room for anything else.]
[In the end, it hadn't even been that Belos' love was conditional, he just...hadn't been loved at all.]
[It feels nice to fill all that empty space with normal feelings, like putting up the very first picture on the empty walls of a new room that's all your own.]
[Even if it's just one special moment on one special night, it feels so much better to be the center of someone else's world the same time they're the center of yours. To be looked at with something other than indifference and disapproving disdain.]
[It feels like it'd felt getting dunked with apple blood by the team after winning at flyer derby, or fighting side by side with Willow, or developing his special handshake with Gus.]
[Just...a lot more tingly in the stomach. And flushy in the face.]
[With Dylan's head tucked in close he can't see Hunter's half-lidded eyes and soft expression as he tries to think of something to say back.]
[But the music...stops. The party is ending. Hunter looks into the building and sees that people are starting to disperse, moving slowly towards the secluded little paths they'd taken in to pick up the masks. He draws away enough to look at Dylan.]
no subject
[Thrilling.]
[(And it's all his own fault for starting it in the first place.) The intensity of it's throwing him a little. Logically, he knows this is a normal thing teens do. Or at least they do it in the books he's read.]
[They dance. They flirt. They feel things. Like all kinds of things because of crushes and friendships. Because there's room for things other than duty.]
[In a way, it hurts just as much as it feels good. His devotion to his uncle and fear of failing him had been all-consuming. Not just because failure was sometimes punished, but because who wants to show someone they love, someone that took them in, ingratitude? Who wants to fail enough to be cast aside, forgotten, relegated to un-importance? Serving Belos had been far more than a full-time job. (He's read that some humans have more days off than one day a year!!!) Belos had also just taken up so much space in his head that there wasn't room for anything else.]
[In the end, it hadn't even been that Belos' love was conditional, he just...hadn't been loved at all.]
[It feels nice to fill all that empty space with normal feelings, like putting up the very first picture on the empty walls of a new room that's all your own.]
[Even if it's just one special moment on one special night, it feels so much better to be the center of someone else's world the same time they're the center of yours. To be looked at with something other than indifference and disapproving disdain.]
[It feels like it'd felt getting dunked with apple blood by the team after winning at flyer derby, or fighting side by side with Willow, or developing his special handshake with Gus.]
[Just...a lot more tingly in the stomach. And flushy in the face.]
[With Dylan's head tucked in close he can't see Hunter's half-lidded eyes and soft expression as he tries to think of something to say back.]
[But the music...stops. The party is ending. Hunter looks into the building and sees that people are starting to disperse, moving slowly towards the secluded little paths they'd taken in to pick up the masks. He draws away enough to look at Dylan.]
Sorry. Looks like we don't have all night.