Come Bac

Main Story

Author's Note:

This is actually fully standalone! No, really! All new characters and no running plotlines or previous character development to worry about.

I don't know that there will be ongoing plotlines for these two, but I really like them. Maybe I'll write some slice of life scenes if y'all like them, too. Thanks for reading!

-

Fletcher

-

Ah, shit.

I could still hear the wail of police sirens behind me even over my pulse roaring in my ears, my boots pounding the pavement, and the cans of spray paint rattling in my backpack. Someone was chasing me on foot, too, but that wouldn't last very long.

I hooked into a familiar alley and cleared the wooden board fence at the back of it in a scrambling vault. Ok, that could have been a lot smoother, but it did the trick. I crouched behind it until I heard my pursuers pass the mouth of the alley. Their flashlights lit the other side of the fence and spiked my adrenaline, but no one actually entered the alley. I used the fire escape to clamber up the building to a specific window where I tapped on the glass.

It was late. So late. Way too late for Dahlia to hear me tentatively tapping, but Dolly never failed me. The window slid open to her deathly glare. She stared at my hopeful, grinning face for a moment, listened to the receding sound of the police car, and let me into her kitchen with an annoyed sigh.

Dolly was wearing a fluffy robe and had a silk bonnet hiding her hair. She pointed angrily at her couch and started back towards her bedroom.

"You're not even going to ask what I did?" I joked breathlessly.

"I don't give a fuck about what you did," she snapped. "It's not like you're going to change your behavior if I yell at you about it. Maybe next time I should just let you get caught."

"It was just graffiti," I defended myself.

"Ok," she said and rolled her eyes. "And you're clean right now? Is that why you turned vandalism into evading arrest?"

I shut my mouth on any response to that. Dahlia had a point. She took care of all the misfits, she kept us fed and offered help when she could, but she knew well enough that most of us had given up on ourselves.

"I'll be gone in a bit," I said quietly. "Just letting the heat die down."

"Do whatever you want, Fletcher," she scoffed. "Just lock the door when you leave. I'm going back to bed."

I settled on her couch and listened to my pulse slow as she slammed the door.

...

Levi was trying to make the shower work when I got home the next morning. He looked up from banging on the pipes and arched an eyebrow at me.

"Where the hell have you been?" he asked.

"Dolly's," I said and took the wrench from him. Levi was cute and smart, but he was useless when it came to fixing anything. "I got spotted painting last night."

"Ah, well praise Dolly," Levi muttered. "We need to get our phones working again. I had no idea where you were."

My stomach dropped into a pool of acid. Fuck. I hated making Levi worry.

"Sorry," I said and reached for him. Levi jerked away from my touch and shrugged off my apology. He stalked out of the bathroom and out to the hall.

"Let me know if you get the shower working," he said coldly.

"I'm sorry," I tried again, but he shook his head and left me there. I fixed the shower and let it run until I was sure it would actually warm up before I went to find him again. The apartment had a single room that was the entirety of our space, with a strip of cabinets with a hot plate and a mini fridge serving as a kitchen on one wall and the remainder of the room housing all of our worldly possessions. The small handful of banker boxes full of our clothes, a mattress on the floor, and the art supplies scattered around the room didn't make for an impressive account of our lives.

Levi was sitting on the mattress with his knees pulled up to his chest. He was wearing sweatpants that were actually mine and way too long for him along with his ragged black hoodie in that chilly room. He had a wild, feral beauty to him. I'd never met another man with that same edgy charm. His messy black hair and nearly black eyes made his pale skin look absolutely ghostly. He was thin and small under all those layers. I was thin and tall under mine. We generally chose to spend our money on rent instead of food. He didn't look up at me when I joined him on the mattress.

"Fox, I really am sorry," I started, using the nickname he only let me call him and hoping he would listen, but he interrupted me.

"We need to talk."

I should probably have felt something beside numb when he said that. I just nodded stupidly and watched myself from somewhere far above.

"I love you," he started with a tight, measured tone. "But I can't keep doing this."

"I'm sorry I came back so late," I tried. "I'll get our phones turned back on, ok?"

"It's not just that," he sighed.

"Is it the graffiti?" I asked. "I can stop."

"I love that you're an artist," he said. "I would never ask you to give that up."

"The drugs? I had some speed last night, but that's just because Hosner gave it to me," I said. "I'm not buying anymore. I can stop entirely if you want."

"I would like it if you stopped," Levi said carefully, "but I want you to stop for yourself, not me. It's not that. This isn't working. I feel like an afterthought to you. You're just living your life and I'm the houseplant you occasionally look at. Did you even notice this was the first time you've spoken to me in three days?"

Three days? That didn't seem right. We worked opposite shifts the last few days, but surely we had a meal together? A conversation? Did I not even say hello to him?

"That's... that can't be right?" I said softly. "I saw you, we were both here on Tuesday night."

"Yeah, I got home and you had your headphones on and your sketchbook open and then you disappeared. I get that you need your art and we both have to work, but I'm not just another project you can pick up when it interests you. I'm supposed to be your partner."

"I, um," I swallowed the whimper threatening to escape my mouth. I had no defense to that. He was right. Levi usually was. "I'm sorry."

"I'm... I'm going to move out for a little while. I need some space to think," there was a hitch in his voice that sent me deep into the dark. I barely heard him explaining that he had arranged to couch surf for free so he could keep helping me with rent until we figured out what we were going to do. I shook myself when it finally landed

who

he was moving in with. Oh. Oh, no.

"Wait, Scotty?" I said.

"Yeah? You like Scotty?" Levi said in confusion.

"Scotty's the best, but Scotty lives with

Grimm

," I said. "You stay here. I'll see if Scotty will let me stay there. Grimm won't fuck with me."

"He hasn't bothered me in ages," Levi pointed out. "I'll be fine."

"Just, please, just stay here and I'll go. Give me like half an hour and I'll get my shit out of here."

"Listen," Levi shuddered and put his head down on his knees for a moment. His eyes were wet when he looked back up. "I need you to really think while we're apart. I need you to decide if I'm important to you or not. I... I can't be just another distraction. I can't."

"You aren't, Levi," I said. I gripped the blanket beneath me hard to stop from reaching for him. I wasn't sure I could handle it if he flinched away again. "I swear you aren't. I love you so much."

"Is that true?" Levi said bleakly. "Or are you just comfortable with me in your bed?"

"It's more than that," I insisted. "I promise you're more than that."

Levi looked around the dreary mess of our intermingled lives and sighed.

"I have to go to work. I'm sorry. I wanted to have this conversation with you before now but..." he trailed off. Yeah, he couldn't have that conversation with me because I was out playing at being a street artist in a town where no one gave a shit instead of appreciating the man who loved me.

"I fixed the shower," I said like that was anything worth offering him. "I'll fix the light and the fan before I leave." Levi finally looked at me with a ghost of his usual sharp smile.

"Thank you, B-," he stopped himself from calling me by the nickname that only he used. I saw him shudder again before he forced a smile so fake that it finally shattered me.

"I'm not even Bo anymore?" I gasped out around my helpless sob.

"It's too hard right now," Levi whispered. "Maybe you'll be my Bo again, but I need time to think."

"Ok," I whimpered and put my head down. Levi got up without another word to shower.

-

Levi

-

Robert Fletcher, Bo to me up until about twenty minutes ago, was the kind of dangerous, mad artist that I dreamed about as a closeted, artsy teenager. He was tall and wiry, with a body made of bone and gnarled muscles covered in an explosion of tattoos that ran the gamut from self-inflicted stick and pokes to jaw-dropping works of art. He burned the candle at both ends, spending his days packing boxes at a warehouse and his nights tagging the town with the art he somehow dreamed up in between.

I was obsessed with him immediately. It was a stupid, young crush. I liked his mohawk, handsome face, and his ripped jeans. I liked the way he fearlessly claimed his place in the underground punk spaces I was just dipping my toes in. He was a couple of years older than me and generally well-liked. I was going to just admire him from afar. He was a nice fantasy for a loser trying desperately to be cool.

I stayed on the peripherals until the day Grimm noticed me. Paul Grimaldi, the bully who liked being the big guy more than anything else. I tried my best to keep well under his radar.

"Hey, Fletcher! You're a fag, right?" Grimm shouted across the bar. There was an awkward silence as Fletcher stood up from where he had bent over the pool table, making a tricky shot and holding my complete attention. Fletcher's eerie blue eyes flicked up and down Grimm.

"Why? You offering?" he scoffed.

There was laughter around the room, and Grimm's bully grin turned into a snarl.

"Nah, man, but the little emo fag over here is staring at your ass," Grimm laughed and shoved me hard enough to send me tumbling off my barstool. My face went hot with shame and my stomach icy with fear. Panic alarms were screaming in my head as I looked around for an exit before I became a blip on the evening news.

But Fletcher was already there, standing between me and the door, wearing a concerned smile and offering me a hand back up.

"Hey, Levi, yeah?" he said quietly and pulled me back to my feet.

"Yeah," I squeaked out around my panic.

"Cool," he physically turned me to the pool table and gave me the lightest nudge to get moving. "Play me next game. I'll be there in a minute."

I glanced back to see him turn a vicious smile on Grimm.

"The rest of you leave Levi alone. Come here, Grimaldi," he snickered. "Let's chat."

Fletcher came back a few minutes later with his knuckles bruised and an easy smile for me.

"Hey, I'm Fletcher," he said and picked up a cue.

"I know," I chuckled nervously.

"And I definitely fuck around with guys," he added. "Especially cute emo twinks who stare at my ass."

"Oh, um," I stammered, completely lost for words under his attention. Fletcher saved me from having to speak by racking the balls and offering me the first shot.

I thought about that night as I walked to work. Fletcher was charming and his attention was addictive. I moved my silly crush to a full on infatuation right around the time he realized I was going to wipe the floor with him in that game of pool. Instead of making it a joke or dismissing it, Fletcher laughed and tossed an arm around my shoulders with a big, happy smile.

"Emo twink pool shark? Ah, shit, Christmas came early!"

Yeah, Christmas came early for me, too. We had two years of happy nights, just Bo and Fox against the world, until Fletcher's intense attention waned. He still loved me. I did believe that. He was sweet and loving when he remembered that I was there. But I wasn't new or interesting anymore, and I could no longer charm him away from his sketchbook. I became a beloved piece of decoration in his life. Unfortunately, the same painting you loved when you hung it up easily becomes the frame you pass daily without even seeing.

Work was waiting tables at the mid tier Italian place that counted as fancy dining in Monroe. I switched on the version of me that delivered service with a dazzling smile and turned off the aching, broken pit in my heart. I let that customer service persona carry me through my shift, through my sidework, and all the way back home.

I stayed distant until I opened the door to a practically empty apartment. Fletcher had cleaned the place on his way out. There was nowhere to actually put anything away, so everything that had been in piles was just in tidy stacks. The countertops were gleaming, the mattress was made up with clean sheets. Fletcher's piles of paint cans and his terminally leaking markers were gone, but all my pencils and india ink pens were lined up on top of my sketchbook.

I took a shaky breath and shut the doors behind me to take in that painful, tidy void. My cell phone was plugged into the outlet and sitting on the counter on top of a folded bit of Fletcher's heavy sketch paper. That was odd. I hadn't bothered to charge it since our service got cut off. I picked up the paper to see what Fletcher had written.

"Fox - Your phone should work now, but mine doesn't yet. If you need me, call Scotty, ok? I love you. I'll miss you every day. You can have me back any time if you miss me too.

"

He'd signed off on the bottom with 'Fletcher', but I could see where he had first written and then scratched out 'Bo'.

I clutched that note to my chest like that might stop the ache there that threatened to swallow me.

"Oh, Bo," I sighed. "You fucking idiot."

-

Fletcher

-

"What, did your whiney little wifey finally kick you out?" Grimm laughed at me the moment he realized I was sleeping on the couch in the apartment he shared with Scotty.

"Say some more shit about Levi," I snapped at him. "I would

love

a reason to knock a few more of your teeth out."

"Hey! Not in here," Scotty stepped in between us and gave us both pointed looks. Scotty was bigger, older, and he had soundly beaten both of us before. He could be bossy when he knew he was the boss. "Fletcher's here for a while. Get used to it. Fletch, don't antagonize him."

I let it go and sat down heavily on the couch. All my clothes were shoved into a single overflowing box on the floor. I'd finally trashed all the empty paint cans and dried up markers, which whittled my art supplies down to a single backpack containing a mostly complete set of markers, some pencils, three cans of paint, and my sketchbook. I left everything else behind for Levi. It would be there if he could bring himself to forgive me or, in the more likely scenario, he needed all the house shit I left to live there by himself. I was still trying to figure out how to get money to him to help with the rent, though he didn't struggle as much on that front as I did. He was a great server, he made good tips, and he wasn't compelled to spend more money than he had on cans and cans of paint in some misguided attempt to shove art where it wasn't wanted.

I had the urge to text Levi. It was probably for the best that I only had enough cash to get his number turned back on. The last thing I needed was to prove to him that I really hadn't been paying attention. He asked for space. I had to give him space.

I was too tall for the couch. I curled up with my knees bent to try to sleep. It was pointless. I wondered if Grimm or Scotty might have some pot I could bum, but that wasn't really what I needed.

I had slept alone since meeting Levi. That was just the reality of him working hospitality and me in distribution. But even with our weird schedules, I would always find him in my arms at some point in the night. I missed the way his slight body fit perfectly against mine. My beloved Fox. I called him that originally as a joke, but the name fit him. He was graceful and wild, quiet, but dangerous in his own way with his sharp intelligence and confidence.

That first night, we walked back to the place I was sharing with some people I found on Reddit. I was lucky enough to have a room to myself at that place, though I was pretty sure it had once been a large closet considering it had no windows and barely fit the full sized bed that came with the room. Levi had stopped being nervous around the second time I completely missed my shot in that first game of pool. He was cute when he was shy, but the sly, sharp smile and his quick wit was even better. He had a hand on my arm that moved straight to my chest as soon as my bedroom door shut.

"Hey," he chuckled and looked up at me. "I've been fantasizing about you for months. Want to make my dreams come true?"

A corny line like that might have ruined the moment, but Levi delivered it with such confidence that I could only groan in response. I tilted his chin up and kissed him hard. Levi growled deep in his chest and gave me back the same energy, biting down on my lip and pulling at my shirt with growing urgency. His feral looks perfectly matched the glint in his eye when he pulled back and yanked my shirt off like it had insulted his bloodline.

I eased his shirt off while he felt along the muscles of my torso with an appreciative groan. Levi didn't have muscles. He was pale and thin and lithe, with the most tempting, graceful neck. I distracted him from trying to get my belt unbuckled by latching on to his neck and kissing a bruise into his gorgeous skin. Levi trembled in my arms and let out a moan that hit me right in the guts.

Levi let me walk him backwards the two steps to the bed where he sat and wriggled out of his own jeans, looking up at me expectantly until I did the same. He looked so good there, spread on my bed with his dark briefs wet with pre and barely containing his erection. I forced myself to calm down enough to crawl over him and offer him a much more gentle kiss. Levi purred into the attention and stroked my back.

"Top or bottom?" I asked him.

"If you'll eat me out, I'll take your dick like a pornstar," Levi giggled. "If you don't eat ass, I hope you take dick."

"I mean, I'll lick your hole until you beg for my dick," I said and started running my hands down to grip his thighs. "But I like it both ways."

"Oh, good," Levi said with an almost giddy laugh. "You fuck me first. I'll do you for round two." He was panting a little already and his hips twitched as my hands drifted up to squeeze his ass. Fuck, what a great ass. Levi dragged me back down with a firm grip at the back of my head to bite another kiss into my lips.

"Ooh, ambitious," I chuckled. "Hands and knees. Show me that ass."

Levi grinned at me and complied, arching his back like the pornstar he promised to be. I groaned and slowly dragged his underwear down. Levi had just the barest hint of dark hair on his body. He was a little too thin everywhere except that ass he was so proudly displaying for me. He shot a smirk over his shoulder when I paused a little too long.

"

Fuck

," I whispered. "Fuck, Levi. Do you know what you look like right now?"

"Oh, I know," Levi laughed. "It's intentional. Come on, Fletcher. Get to work."

I spread his cheeks to look at that hidden pink pucker. Levi shivered at the exposure. I expected him to jump in surprise when I swiped a long lick from his taint to his hole, but that sexy man gasped happily and pressed back against me. Shit, he really loved it. I didn't try to be clever or surprising and just dove in, licking and kissing and loving the way he moaned and trembled.