The Killing Kind

[Kang Taebin]

It was done.

Josh twirled the keys of his car as he stepped out into thin, watery sunlight, breaking cover from the woods and leaving the site of his sordid deal with Savas behind. He smiled to himself. There was nothing that he couldn't get--by hook if not by crook. Having almost no moral scruples to begin with made this so easy. So painless. Soon that fox would be out of the picture and Rae...

Well, Rae never stood a chance.

His dalliance with the lesser species was a momentary thorn in Josh's side, but now Rae was right where he belonged. Safe in Josh's hands, and those were hands that never let go once the claws had sunk in deep enough to pierce the skin and bone and heart. Josh unlocked his car with the key fob and slipped inside. The engine purred to life--only luxury cars for Josh, thank-you. Nothing as crass as a pickup truck or a jeep, despite the fact that roads in and out of Hazleton tended to be rough. It wasn't like he couldn't afford it.

His sleek silver car pulled out of the pebbled parking lot and he headed into town. A twenty minute drive later, he was pulling up to the palatial mansion that he called home. Josh showered, changed and spritzed just the barest hint of cologne onto the side of his throat. He dabbed it delicately and checked himself out: sleek dark hair, pale skin, eyes that burned with the hidden light of madness, the seed of which was planted when, as an innocent child, he was infected with the sickness that made him feral.

Somewhere downstairs he heard a door closing. A car engine roared and the crunch of gravel indicated that one or the other of his parents had left. Which was it now? His mother to meet with another lover? Or his father, to while away the nighttime hours in the embrace of alcohol? Josh sneered at his own reflection. It was a wonder he didn't end up more twisted, with loving role-models like that. They barely seemed to register his existence inside their own house. If they bumped into each other once a week, Josh counted that as frequent.

His nostrils flared briefly and the sneer faded, leaving a blank slate. Only the eyes remained bright as ever. He couldn't ever remember a time when his parents noticed him. When he was a baby, nannies hovered constantly by his side. As a child, he had tutors and managers and was whisked away on tour. As an adult, he had the run of his own life. Their family was rich--old money, as they said. There was more than Josh could spend in two lifetimes, even with his excessive habits.

And yet. He latched onto someone like Rae. Hm. No accounting for fate, he supposed. He could have had his pick of the men in his social circle but he wanted someone born to such humble beginnings, here in this backwoods little hole. That, however, was his choice.

Josh had things his way, or he destroyed the things he couldn't have so that no one else could have them either.

Josh didn't stand there for long. He grabbed his keys and headed out, and soon pulled up to Rae's apartment. Josh eased back in the driver's seat and idly picked at a pack of cigarettes, lighting up and sending a plume of smoke out through the crack in the window. He picked up his phone and typed into it as the smirk returned.

Reagan Ryang

[Reagan Ryang]

Fancy things were not Rae's thing. Fancy places, fancy clothes, fancy talk. Yes, his entire closet and dresser was filled with the basics: underwear, socks, and then lots of tank tops in various types of cloth and colors, some emblazoned with favorite musical bands, some with stupid or crass quotes. Jeans, yeah, lots of jeans in different colors and different states of ripped and torn, some at the knee, some in the thigh or whatever. Most of them didn't come that way; Rae was just rough on clothes.

And hoodies, yeah. The only thing remotely fancy he saw was that stupid suit he wore at funerals and much to his relief, Josh didn't insist on him pulling that thing on.

The part about not wearing the hoodie for long didn't escape him.

Rae didn't know what to think about it anymore. There used to be a driving force in him. He remembered it for so long that it stuck to him hard. He remembered it was always on his mind. It left a big hole in his heart and it still hurt so much when he thought about it or tried to. It hurt his head, too. Something happened, fairly recently. But whenever he tried to think about it...

But although it had been erased, the evidence was still in his phone, which had carelessly been left untampered. He saw the exchanges between himself and "Alva" even if he couldn't remember "Alva" anymore. He knew he was the hole in his heart but he couldn't understand why he could no longer remember him when he once could, when he stubbornly held hard onto him. It was there in the messages. Other people didn't know him. Alva didn't even know him. And Rae kept accusing someone, a witch. Susumu.

Rae switched over to those messages again, as he had done for the past couple of days. He stared until his head hurt so much it felt like it was going to blow from the pressure. Maybe Josh knew. Josh, he remembered very clearly. As far as he could tell, there were no holes there. He hated Josh sometimes. Really just... hated him. But he wanted him, too. He remembered so clearly the way they kissed. Even now it made his blood heat up.

"FUCK."

Rae slammed the phone face down on the table beside his bed.

"FUCK!"

He slammed it again. It was whatever was left of Alva but he didn't know why he wanted to hold onto it when it just brought pain.

"FUCK!!!"

One last slam and the screen shattered. Rae swept it off the table in one harsh swipe, letting it hit the wall with a satisfying crunch. His fists clenched and he grabbed his hoodie. Josh should be pleased; at least his jeans were clean and free of holes and the tank top he wore was devoid of any logos and quotes. He swept the hoodie over his arms and grabbed his keys from the living room table before heading outside.

Josh wasn't kidding. He was really out there and it looked for all the world like he'd been there for hours. His sleek, new model car looked like a diamond next to a turd in relation to Rae's battered old truck.

Rae opened the door and slid into the passenger's seat, eyeing Josh with some degree of suspicion. Well, he was dressed nice. He looked every bit the rich boy that he actually was, except for the eyes. Nothing could hide that savage stare, not the expensive clothes, not the neat hair, not the shiny car.

"We're not really going to some fancy playhouse, are we?"

[Kang Taebin]

Carelessly, Josh let his phone fall sideways out of his hand. It clattered into the cupholder by his side as he brought the cigarette to his lips one last time, and then he tossed it out of the window. His dark eyes flicked up as though he could watch Rae's progress out of the apartment--apparently, he could not.

Sometimes Josh wasn't sure what he wanted. Oh, he knew that he wanted Rae. Physically, bodily, in mind and soul. But he didn't know if he wanted Rae to love him. He didn't know if he loved Rae. The kinds of feelings that swirled through him--mixtures of lust, obsession, craving and possession--didn't feel like love. They were much too dark, too impure.

When most people thought of falling in love, they thought of sunsets and holding hands and sweet kisses. When Josh thought of love, he thought of having. Claiming, Clawing his way into significance until he was the first, last and every thought in between.

Obviously, that wasn't for everyone. There was a reason that Josh remained an eligible bachelor for so long. He didn't think that there was anything wrong with him, though. He didn't need psychiatrists or pills to subdue him, to make him feel remorse or guilt. He was fine just the way he was--as God made him. Or maybe the devil, if those hunters were to be believed.

Yet, he found something in Rae that he never had before. Acceptance. Similarity. Rae was just like him, twisted and impure. Josh wasn't sappy enough to claim that they were soul mates but he had to admit that Rae came closer to his black little heart than anyone ever had.

As the apartment doors swung open and Rae stepped out, Josh's smile widened. He schooled it back into a smirk before Rae slipped into the car, though, affecting his usual derisive calm. Almost before Rae closed the door, the car was taking off, shooting out of the parking lot in a screech of tires and burnt rubber.

"Of course we are. Everyone's going to be there. It'll be... amusing." He reached over, eyes not even on Rae, and slid his hand over Rae's thigh, feeling the dense muscle underneath his nails. Oh yes, Josh always led with the nails. "We'll have a great time." And he was telling Rae, not promising him.

[Reagan Ryang]

Before Josh got all crazy obsessed with him, Rae had seen him with others. His last boyfriend was... there wasn't much left of him after Josh was done with him. When Rae tried to talk to Aldon about it, he said as much, too. Run the other way. Anybody with a brain would. Rae should have told Josh to stuff his head up his ass and let him go to his playhouse alone. But that hole was eating him alive. It was fucking with his head.

The messages hurt to read, physically, they hurt. But they hurt emotionally, too. And Rae, he kind of sucked at emotions. He was kind of stupid, too. It annoyed him when people called him out on it but he'd heard it all his life and he knew that it was true. His capacity for wisdom and knowledge was capped out to dumb things. Loyalty, usually his strong suit, loyal to the family, loyal to this "Alva," loyal to his friends. People did and said things that pissed him off all the time; it happened when one possessed a hair trigger temper like Rae's.

Josh pissed him off more than most people and he didn't know why. Sometimes he thought it was because he was painfully aware that Josh was better in every fucking way and knew it. And he hated that; he hated that Josh was better and he hated that he knew it and he blew it in his face every opportunity he could. He lorded it over him and he had this way about him, where he could just look at a person and he knew exactly what to say to hurt them most. And Rae, when he hurt, he lashed out. Anger always came first for him. No matter what emotion it masked, the anger was always at the forefront.

"Fuck."

The car was in drive before the door even clicked shut. Rae glared in Josh's direction.

"And you criticize my driving?"

Like either of them were considered good drivers. Josh was fast but he did drive smoother than Rae. Mostly because his car could afford to--he was pretty sure if Josh drove his truck, he'd be as jerky and bouncy as Rae was.

Out of sheer habit from hearing it from somebody else, Rae slid his seatbelt on. Probably for the best, given the driver.

And there was a hand.

A hand right close to the family jewels. Rae looked sharply at Josh, another force of habit. Something in him wanted to snap at him and tell him to take his damn claws off him but he couldn't see why he should even care. Because of somebody he forgot? The name still stuck in his mind but the things that went with it were relegated only to words on a shattered phone. For some reason, Rae zipped up his hoodie, like that was going to protect the rest of him from Josh's hand. It burned a hand shape where he touched him. Like some kind of wanton whore, his legs slightly parted, as if inviting Josh to slide his hand elsewhere. The heat in his blood could have rivaled the fucking sun.

"Who's everyone?"

[Kang Taebin]

"At least you'll die in a luxury car," Josh drawled, amused that Rae of all people was lecturing him on his driving. But that was the norm for their level of interaction. This was considered civil. It was practically flirting--for them. As the car tore down the street, Josh retracted his hand from Rae's thigh because once the legs opened and he knew that Rae wanted it, Josh was no longer interested in giving it to him.

It was the chase--always the chase--that held fascination for him.

"Everyone is everyone. Why? Do you think you'll meet your little prince charming there?" The snort that accompanied his jibe was purely vicious. Rae was doing a good job pretending that he didn't know Alva, and Josh was content to let him carry on the deception, but it annoyed him that Rae went to such lengths. It meant that he still cared, didn't it? Josh dislike that on principle alone.

Playhouse, though, would help take their minds off of their respective troubles. It called itself a nightclub but Josh thought that venue was a more accurate description for it. There was the usual--bar, dance floor, VIP lounge--but there was also a pool and spa out back. They even had a hot tub filled with natural hot springs water, and Himalayan bath salts. The real stuff, not the knock-off shit. Playhouse was the playground of the rich and idle, and tonight Josh wanted to play.

He was in a rare good mood--his pest problems were about to disappear.

[Reagan Ryang]

Ugh. Fuck Josh. He was such a goddamn tease. The minute he invited him in was the minute Josh took his hand back and denied him any sort of enjoyment. Asshole. Rae glowered at him, tempted to slip his hands down his own pants and get himself off. It wouldn't be the first time he'd done it just to spite Josh for being a stubborn shit.

"...no," he said tightly, knowing somehow that Josh meant Alva and still not sure who he was to him. Alva must have been his once but now he wasn't. Big fucking deal. Now he was just a name ringing around in his head with nothing else attached but a few crybaby texts. Rae didn't like what he saw of himself there. He didn't like what kind of person he must have been with Alva. That version of him sounded like a fucking baby and that didn't feel like him, like the red hot anger and the passion for whatever drove him in the moment.

Fuck it. He slid his hand down his own pants, frustrated on so many different levels that he could hardly think straight. He didn't need fancy playhouses and Josh to have a good time.

[Kang Taebin]

"What. Are you doing?"

Josh was torn between amusement and annoyance. Rae was so hard up that he needed to resort to desperate measures? His hand started to snake out, to stop Rae, but Josh paused. Smirked. Retracted the hand.

"If you finish in here, I'm not touching you again for the rest of the night."

Which he hardly thought that Rae wanted. But now Rae had a definite problem—he had already aroused himself and if he stopped, it would be... frustrating. If he didn't wait, then Josh was keeping his hands to himself and, well, that could very well end up being more frustrating. It was either the immediate payoff, or holding out for more.

[Reagan Ryang]

"Getting off," he said, annoyed that he even had to say it. If Josh wasn't up to the task, Rae certainly was. He'd pleasured himself a time or two. Or more, being a guy. Also, for other reasons that he couldn't fully grasp at the moment. All he knew was that he had spent a good number of times jerking the meat for himself and he didn't have any shame in doing it in front of Josh. In fact, he kind of got a sick satisfaction out of it. It was like saying he wasn't good enough. Yeah, take that, Josh.

And he was damn smug about that--up until the part where Josh threatened not to touch him if he finished. His heart leapt with dread and a definite fear that Josh would make good on that threat. Josh loved to threaten and he loved to make good on threats. In fact, he was pretty fucking good at it. When was the last time Josh ever made one and didn't follow through? And it wasn't like Josh needed Rae at all. He was rich and good looking. If he wanted to, he could fuck that whole stupid theater and make Rae watch.

"...oh fuck you."

He removed his hand, even though his body throbbed for more. Rae could get somebody if he wanted, too. It didn't have to be Josh. Fuck, he could just go find some hooker if he had to. He hated playing into Josh's hands. He hated that when he thought he had to upper hand, he was really just one flip away from being butt-fucked, and not in the fun way.

[Kang Taebin]

"You'd like to," Josh replied smugly. They were literally ten minutes away from the damn nightclub and Rae couldn't even wait that long? It wasn't as if Josh was a prude—or a cripple. He scoffed inwardly and shook his head. Rae was probably making up for lost time. Five years of forced celibacy could make anyone a little nutty.

The car eased into the parking lot of Playhouse and Josh cut the engine. He leaned over and gave Rae the lightest, most chaste of pecks. Then his hand slipped around to the back of his head and he plied him with a hard kiss full of promises for the evening.

"Come on, puppy. We're heading in through the VIP entrance." If it wasn't obvious already, Josh was a VIP. His friends were, too, which made getting into places like these easy. All he had to do was drop a name—Ella Belmont, for example—and doors opened. The bouncer barely gave him a glance but he eyed Rae beadily, before Josh pulled him through to the other side.

[Reagan Ryang]

God
fucking
damn it.

It was like he was always a step ahead of him! What the fuck, man? No matter what Rae said, he couldn't seem to get to Josh the way Josh got to him and it drove him fucking crazy! He closed his hands into fists on his thighs, not even sure now what to do with his own stupid hands. Worse still, the engine was all revved up and had nowhere to go and it was all he could think about. It begged to be touched but no, it was left alone. He slightly crossed his legs, as if that would relieve the pressure built inside but really it just made it worse.

Oh good. They were here. It didn't look like the fancy theater that Rae had been imagining and he was suddenly glad he hadn't been dumb enough to actually wear his fucking funeral suit out. Josh would have laughed him off the face of the earth. Now he didn't feel that under-dressed. Sure, it was a rich people's club but it was still a club and a pair of nice fitting jeans and a tank top weren't that bad, even if they weren't Gucci or whatever.

Rae unclipped his seatbelt and was met with a kiss. A weirdly gentle kiss. Well--but it was followed up by the kind of kiss that played prelude to something way more hands on. Unfortunately, the hands stayed well above the belt but it left Rae's head spinning all the same. He licked his lips afterward, following Josh into the fancy-ass club with his head still somewhere in outer space.

Everyone, huh? Rae didn't know any of the faces that blurred around him. This wasn't his crowd, these weren't his people. Some of them looked him up and down with a curl to their lips. One with a lick and a wink. Rae supposed it took all kinds.

"Is this your way of keeping me on my toes?" Rae asked, somewhat irritably because he was exactly that. Not physically, of course, but he was definitely not anywhere near balanced.

[Kang Taebin]

"No," Josh laughed with genuine amusement as he pulled Rae in close. Playhouse was crowded, as usual, with rich people and their toys. The music was loud and the bass heavy, but it wasn't at the level of obnoxiousness that most normal clubs blasted in the hopes of deafening their patrons. It was enough to establish a rhythm and a beat, to get bodies moving on the dance floor.

"I'm just here to show you off." His lips by Rae's ear, he nipped at the lobe. When he pulled back, he was grinning. "Come on, puppy. I don't like the way that guy's looking at you." Murder wasn't on Josh's mind tonight--but Rae's ass was. He cupped it and groped it as he made eye contact with the man who had leered and licked his lips at Rae.

Mine, the gesture said, and the man laughed but Josh didn't. He was a wolf and wolves were fully territorial.

"Let's get a drink!" He wound his arm around Rae's waist and steered him to the bar. Drunk Rae was fun Rae--and a Rae of infinite amusement. He might even start a fight at some point, and Josh might actually enjoy it himself.

[Reagan Ryang]

Oh, come on. Show off the mongrel in the tank top and hoodie? Rae was pretty sure Josh could have brought some killer model with swanky clothes and ice around their neck. Some famous brat with a penchant for drama. They would be more inclined to be showed off, too, actually. Rae liked attention up to a point, but he liked it for other reasons. Like... being cool. Like being bad-ass. Not really so much as somebody's purse.

Still, he couldn't say no to those lips on his ear because that felt damn good. Probably too good for the current... state of his lower body.

"Can you stop with the puppy thing? You're making me feel like freaking Aldon."

And he liked Aldon, he was a pal and all but he was definitely no Aldon. He didn't just roll over and let people give him belly rubs. Literal ones, too! Aldon loved them! Meanwhile, Rae wasn't baring his damn belly for just anybody. And there was the ass groping. His entire lower body reacted to the motion. God damn it. He briefly bit his lower lip and used every ounce of will power not to moved up against Josh. No way was he giving him any more satisfaction than he already had back in the car.

"Oh yeah, that's the only thing these places are good for." He was all for getting drunk. Rae liked his liquor, even if it didn't always like him. Liquor was great. It meant not giving a fuck who was looking or if Josh was groping him. Getting drunk meant getting blitzed and that meant having a good time.

Other than that, clubs, they weren't his style. Rae wasn't into club style dancing or club style music. He preferred rap, hip-hop, that kind of scene.

At the bar, he immediately called out for their strongest shots and he wanted two-no, three of them! Stat!

[Kang Taebin]

"Yeah, yeah," Josh waved aside Rae's protestations as nothing more than idle grumbling. Complaining for the sake of complaining because Rae was out of his element as the only one here in clothes that cost less than the ticket price of a new car. There was shine and bling and status and wealth all around them, and poor Rae stood out like a sore thumb.

Josh liked it, though. The notoriety that came with strolling in with Rae was amusing. He liked that others disapproved, because he knew that they were also dead curious. Why this one? Why Rae? Wouldn't they like to know. Sometimes, he thought that all Rae needed was confidence.

Oh, Rae was plenty confident on his own, but he had no conviction behind it. There was a lot of bluster, backed up by a hair-trigger temper and a penchant for swinging first and asking questions later. But give him someone like Josh, who wasn't afraid of the fists and the cursing, and Rae was reduced to--puppy.

He was a cute puppy, though. Josh's arm remained around him at the bar, as Rae ordered three shots and Josh just laughed and waved for the bottle. Why scrimp and save? Was he going to take his inheritance with him when he died? The bartender plonked down a brand-new bottle of Gran Patron and two sparkling clean shot glasses.

"Cheers, puppy," Josh grinned as he poured two glasses and lifted one. The shot went down smooth as butter with none of the bitter after-taste of cheap tequila. It tasted pretty good on Rae's tongue, too, when Josh leaned in for a heated kiss.

[Reagan Ryang]

"We're going for the whole bottle, huh?"

Rae didn't ask how much it cost because it probably cost more than the rent at his apartment. Hell, the shots themselves that he'd tried to order on his own probably were way beyond his ability to pay. He hoped to hell that Josh's plan wasn't to get him dead drunk and then leave him to pay off the bill because he'd be here until the day he died.

But since Josh seemed to be in such a rare good mood, he decided to just take the drink that was poured for him, raising it and then shot it back like a pro. Not that it took much because it went down surprisingly smooth. None of that burn and death that the cheap stuff always did to him. All it did was warm his chest as it went down. The warmth bloomed under the kiss and Rae reached out to grasp the back of Josh's neck to hold him there, to deepen the kiss. With reluctance, he let go, heart beating faster, blood running hotter.

"Nice," he said with a growing smile as he clumsily set his shot glass down. "But I'm going to need a lot more than that before I like you calling me puppy." He pushed the glass a few inches in Josh's direction as a hint.

[Kang Taebin]

Josh smirked; he was sure Rae could feel the smirk on his lips, since they were a hair's breadth from his. "Who said I wanted you to like it?" Without looking, he poured. Some of the liquor went into the shot glass; some of it splashed onto the counter and the term pissing away money really did apply just then, but Josh could have cared less.

Once he set the bottle down, he maneuvered himself closer to Rae. Close enough to be on him. Close enough to ease a thigh between Rae's legs and to nudge the juncture of them teasingly. Close enough to practically pin him against the bartop. Josh didn't need to be drunk to have a good time. Something about Rae always made him a teeny bit tipsy.

"Maybe... I like it when you hate it," he continued, still smirking, still pressing closer. There could have been no doubt that they were together, and in the most indecent of ways, too. Josh's hand slid up against Rae's abdomen, over his clothes, and then down. His fingertips hooked into the waist of Rae's jeans and pulled at it meaningfully.

"Drink up, puppy. Plenty more where that came from."