[ An echo of words, cheerfully toned to suggest he'd like nothing better in all the world.
Enri laughs at the feint, at the way Darius spins away from him; the sound comes free and untroubled, as though nothing can touch him. Nothing can steal between them, not even hopeful would-have-beens like Joyce and Preston.
Those two, Enri thinks, don't know what they've really lost because they never knew it in the first place. They never saw Darius this way, playful and loving and deadly. They got to know the terror and pain, the momentary flickers of thrill like lights in the dark, but they never knew the fullness it could be with him. They never felt themselves cherished or held safe at the heart of all that destruction. If they had experienced that euphoria even for a moment, they'd have fought harder. They'd have stayed there and let Enri rip them apart just to show Darius how badly they needed him.
Their loss.
Never mind them. Darius is leading him into a bedroom that is their bedroom - because all bedrooms are theirs. All rooms, anywhere, belong to him and Daddy, as long as Daddy says.
Without being asked, Enri locks the door behind him - and then, on second thought, grins and unlocks it again. He holds Darius's hand still in his other and gives it a squeeze.]
no subject
[ An echo of words, cheerfully toned to suggest he'd like nothing better in all the world.
Enri laughs at the feint, at the way Darius spins away from him; the sound comes free and untroubled, as though nothing can touch him. Nothing can steal between them, not even hopeful would-have-beens like Joyce and Preston.
Those two, Enri thinks, don't know what they've really lost because they never knew it in the first place. They never saw Darius this way, playful and loving and deadly. They got to know the terror and pain, the momentary flickers of thrill like lights in the dark, but they never knew the fullness it could be with him. They never felt themselves cherished or held safe at the heart of all that destruction. If they had experienced that euphoria even for a moment, they'd have fought harder. They'd have stayed there and let Enri rip them apart just to show Darius how badly they needed him.
Their loss.
Never mind them. Darius is leading him into a bedroom that is their bedroom - because all bedrooms are theirs. All rooms, anywhere, belong to him and Daddy, as long as Daddy says.
Without being asked, Enri locks the door behind him - and then, on second thought, grins and unlocks it again. He holds Darius's hand still in his other and gives it a squeeze.]