It was on one of his hikes up the ridge when Finn saw something out of the ordinary. Not that out-of-the-ordinary things were surprising in Hazleton. It didn't take long for Finn to learn that this place was... magical. It had a lot of old, ancient magic soaked into its soil, growing from its forests and its hills. Finn could feel it, even if he didn't have the power to use it.
But he and Atlas were just taking a walk up the ridge when Finn felt some kind of strange energy coming from one of the cliffs. Atlas must have sensed it too because he raced up the ridge, so fast that he kicked little rocks down the side and managed to get some dust in Finn's eye.
"Ah!" Rubbing at his eye, he cursed under his breath but continued up the ridge to see just what had Atlas so excited.
There was some kind of energy. Blood, but a different kind of blood. It had been left staining the grass and dirt in an area close to one of the cliffsides, one where a lot of people came up to make out or watch stars. Finn had been up here quite a few times himself. But he couldn't remember coming across this strange power. It was unlike anything he knew of.
Atlas barked intensely at the spot and Finn came up, a hand on his hip, the other shielding his gaze from the piercing sun. The rust colored stain definitely indicated somebody had been hurt here. But the energy was strong. Stronger than a human. Something supernatural. Finn crouched down before the bloody spot.
It was kinda gross but... He bit his lower lip and then after a moment, he reached out to touch it with just one fingertip.
"WHOA!"
He fell backward on his ass, literally knocked back from the intensity of the vision. Somebody had died here. The blood belonged to... somebody that died. Or something. Atlas barked again, louder.
Jumping to his feet, Finn grabbed onto Atlas' collar. "I think we'd better get the fuck outta here, boy..."
This—this was the place where it happened. Toby sensed the magic of a Prince as soon as he came upon the area, but he also sensed death. He had heard from the other fixer—Charles—that something happened here and he came to investigate because this was still his assignment. Sort of. At any rate the elders would want to know what happened out here to the Dream Prince, Brayden Smith, so he had to pry and poke around a bit.
But as soon as he came up the path, he felt the blowback of magic. Even now, after so much time had passed, it was strong. The area reeked of death, too. Toby pressed on, perhaps foolishly, because if Brayden Smith was indeed in danger, the elders needed to know. They were all aware that the Fallen were on his heels but Charles had assured him that the Prince was safe. For now.
So he crept up, almost gagging at such a strong blend of magic, when the sight of a short man (short compared to him, that was) and a dog greeted him as he turned the corner. Toby first froze. Then he froze some more when he realized that this man was... not like other men. He was not a man at all, as a matter of fact—he was something far more dangerous.
"Hello," he tried to say casually, like he was just a lone hiker, as he put up a hand to hide his eyes. "Did you know that your wings are showing?"
It wasn't very well-hidden, as a matter of fact, because there was a crack in his glamor. Also saying that probably didn't make him seem like an innocent lone hiker but heck if he knew how to talk to anyone out here! He had grown up in the fae realm—the best realm!--and in that realm everyone knew that glamors needed to be properly maintained.
Not having it on or having it only partly on was like... wearing a shirt with one nipple showing. Scandalous to say the least!
Shit.
Somebody else was coming up the path and Atlas barked, warning them off. It was a good thing that Finn was holding onto his collar or the dog would have charged; he wasn't fond of strangers. Finn ordered him to sit and Atlas did so. At least he was an obedient dog. Slowly, Finn let go of the collar and straightened up, eyeing the kid.
Was the kid fucking with him? As far as Finn knew, he didn't have wings. He knew he wasn't entirely human; he'd learned that shit as he grew up with super powers. Honestly, he didn't know what he was, but he figured maybe some kind of witch was in the family tree somewhere. What he did know was that he didn't have wings.
So he laughed.
"I don't have wings." But the way he was looking at him, the kid seemed to be looking at something behind him, which he didn't care too much for. It made him glance over his shoulder, half expecting to see whatever made this mess come forward. No such thing. But... He looked the kid over more critically now.
"You know who did this?" he asked, pointing to the stain. It was killing the plant-life around it. If the guy saw imaginary wings, he had to see this.
What a cute cat! Well it was making an aggressive noise but it was still very fluffy and adorable and it listened to the demon, so it couldn't have been all bad. Honestly, Toby was of the opinion that this demon was responsible for the aura of death lingering in these woods. It seemed rather too coincidental for him to be here, when his kind were known to go hand-in-hand with chaos and death.
"Oh, well..." He did have wings and they weren't like the beautiful gossamer wings of the fae. They were intimidating things, although only a part of them showed thanks to his incomplete glamor. Toby couldn't help staring because he had never seen demon wings before. Not even celestial wings, either. He knew tons of fae wings and he liked them well enough, but this was a rare opportunity to study a demon up close! And as long as he didn't make any threatening moves, he thought he could get away unscathed.
Toby looked where the demon directed and frowned. "I'm not sure but... it appears to be corruption. See the way it spreads? The pattern?" So... a fallen was killed here? But the magic wasn't entirely fallen either because he caught strands of a fae Prince and even a bit of celestial magic. Such a strange mixture! Toby glanced around, following the lines of mana that wove through every living thing—even the blood-drenched Earth.
"I think I can contain it, though. I suppose I should before it contaminates the entire ridge..." Toby hesitated to step forward; what if the demon didn't want it contained. He cleared his throat politely. "That is, if... you will permit it." Best not to be rude with one of the most powerful entities out there...
"...even I can tell that," he said. That it was some kind of corruption. Some kind of nasty magic. He could practically smell it. Actually, he could kinda smell it and it was like a dead animal. It wasn't from any normal creature, and this guy seemed to know non-normal creatures. Still, what was that crap about the wings?
Maybe he was talking to somebody else. But... he'd been looking right at him when he said it... He could ask about it later. Right now, he was grinning widely.
"You can contain it?" He raised a brow, not because of the containment thing--that was a pretty cool super ability. It was the other part. "Uhh... Why would you have to ask for my permission?"
What a frightening, blood-curdling smile.
On his human face, it was quite a handsome smile but with his part-way exposed wings and with the dark aura of the fallen angel about him, his grin sent a shiver down Toby's spine. The specialty of the Third House of the Fae—and a Prince of it, too! Though a minor one—was to be able to see past glamors. Right now, that was an ability he rued. He would have preferred to only gaze at the pleasing human shell.
"Oh... for... to be polite!" Haha that was a good explanation wasn't it? Toby couldn't tell. He laughed in a way that maybe made him seem creepy, the same way he found the demon creepy. It was far too forced, and a little too loud. Toby approached cautiously and tread softly in case loud footsteps set this one off.
"I'll just... need a little space," he said as he drew mana from the earth into his wings. He drew from the surrounding trees too, from the wind brushing through his hair, from the rocks dotted about here and there. Every living thing had mana and if he collected a tiny bit from a lot of places, he wouldn't do much harm—better than draining all the life force from one single entity!
As a fixer, this was Toby's sole job in life. He had a lot of practice pushing back corruption; as a lesser Prince, he could also banish it. And so he did, weaving mana back into the dead earth and resuscitating the plantlife that the corruption had blackened. It wasn't particularly difficult when this corruption had been sitting out for so long; its source seemed to be quite far away, which made his job much easier.
"Yeah... okay..." Finn gave the kid a weird look. Polite? Or did he just want to warn him he knew magic~? What a weirdo. And what was with that laugh? Like half maniacal or something. Finn backed up a few paces, whistling and beckoning for Atlas to follow him. He didn't know how far he had to be, but part of him was starting to think he should just leave this kid to do his thing on his own.
Finn crossed his arms and watched the kid do his magic thing.
"My mum's a witch," he said. "A healer. Witches seem to run in the family, so you don't have to be weird about your magic in front of me."
His magic was different than his mum's though. Always had been. His mum healed minor wounds and she cast her spells with ingredients, enchanting her balms and ointments to enhance their abilities. Her relationship with Finn had always been different than it had been with his sister, though. Finn figured it was them being girls, being healing witches, that kind of thing. His mum didn't know what to do with a boy, especially one with such... volatile magic.
They weren't close, him and all of his family. They were like this kid. Scared of him. Sometimes, it really bothered him but most of the time, he let it roll off his back. Not much he could do about it, could he? He was born this way and if they couldn't accept it... then he had to go. And so he did.
"Never seen somebody heal the land, though. What kinda corruption you figure it is?"
"A witch?" Oh no—no no. Noooo this one was not merely a witch. Perhaps half—perhaps. But that other part of him was so dominant that Toby couldn't even detect the healer. That stood to reason because demons were far more powerful than witches, so their magic tended to be overpowering.
"I don't usually heal land." Toby straightened, having finally swept away all of the corruption. "But if a Fallen died here, then its corruption is too dangerous to leave alone, in case someone comes along and touches it. Good thing you didn't, or you'd be... melted by now!"
Well, he wouldn't be totally melted. Demon blood offered a lot of protection against darker forms of magic so even if he did touch the area, he'd probably only feel a tickle or a tingle or just melt a tiny little bit. But if Toby touched it—hoo boy! He'd be in a lot of trouble! He could heal himself but it would be so painful!
Also—it was definitely Fallen. He got a better sense of that as he banished it. Toby looked around absently and peeked at the bushes. "Do you think the body is still here? I'm seeing a trail of some kind going that way." He pointed deeper into the woods. "It's not easy to kill a Fallen though, you know? Er... sorry what's your human name? They said I could be Toby. I'm not sure how I feel about that though. Toby... It doesn't sound very noble, does it? Toby?"
"Uh, welllll..."
Finn lifted his finger and turned it, looking it over. He had only touched it with a single finger but it knocked him on his arse when he did! Now that he looked at it, there was a tinge of disgusting blackness to his skin that most definitely hadn't been there before.
So he touched it and... it didn't melt him. Finn looked the kid over skeptically. But before he could say anything, the kid was still going on, about a body, about a trail... Finn turned to look where he was pointing, then started heading that way.
"My name's Finn the Human," he said humorously, thinking of the cartoon character. "And if you don't like Toby, then change it. Who cares what 'they' said, whoever 'they' is." He half turned as he walked, pointing his finger at Toby but with the pad of his blackened finger facing up. "Check this out, will you? I touched that shit and I didn't melt but it turned my finger black. What's it mean?"
Toby laughed. "Finn the Human?!" Like... Atilla the Hun? That type of name? He shook his head and caught up quite easily—by use of his longer legs. When he did, he lightly swatted Finn's shoulder in a playful manner. "That's not your actual name, humans don't name themselves that way!" Even he knew that! But—gasp—he touched a demon without permission! Toby fell back again at a respectable distance, so as not to further offend.
Ooh but it looked like he did touch the affected area! Toby caught up and took his hand to steady it, so that he could have a closer look. His pace slowed as he cradled Finn's finger in one of his hands. The other passed over it, probing the extent of the corruption. Luckily it hadn't gone far and Finn's natural resistance was more than enough to keep it from aggressively burning his hand to ashes.
"Good thing you have demon blood in you, Finn the Human!" He exclaimed, chipper as anything, despite the gruesome quest they had set out on. Toby drew mana again to try and remove the corruption. A finger tip was manageable, although he encountered resistance due to the opposing nature of their magic. "This is much easier with Fae," he sighed when the corruption receded—a little. "I don't think they ever covered purifying somebody like you... But I think I can still do it."
"And that's Atlas the Dog." He nodded toward Atlas.
He cracked a half grin. Of course his name wasn't actually Finn the Human. And at least the kid was treating him like a person now, giving him a playful smack and jesting with him. That whole staring at him like he had a monster sitting on his shoulders business was bothersome.
And then just as he was thinking that, Toby fell back, like he didn't mean to go around smacking him. Finn just shook his head to himself. Weirdo. Up ahead, Atlas led the way, tail up in the air like a banner, ears erect and alert.
Then Toby drew close again to look at Finn's black finger. It didn't really hurt but it looked pretty creepy, he had to admit. Like a... curse. Or corruption. He stopped walking to let Toby get a better look and then he seemed to be doing something. Casting a spell that made the darkness begin to disappear.
"Demon blood? Is that what they call it?" he asked, still thinking it was witch blood. What, did witches make a pact with the devil for their power? The way old horror stories claimed? Kinda cool, honestly, but...
"So you're fae, right?" he asked, since Toby brought it up. "Not a witch? And what do you mean you think you can do it? You're doing it! Look!"
Although he did feel a strange resistance, a tingling feeling in his finger, like it had fallen asleep. It didn't seem to care much for Toby's magic but as much as it wanted to resist, Toby's power seemed to be enough to push it back. Lucky it had only been the fingertip... He didn't like what it might have meant if he ended up spreading that shit.
Well now calling a cat Atlas the Dog was just funny! Toby grinned despite himself. This was an elaborate joke, wasn't it? Yes, yes he got it now. Finn was a demon, but he called himself 'The Human.' And Atlas was a cat but he called him 'The Dog." Or she? Was Atlas a girl name or a boy name? Toby couldn't tell; he didn't want to look weird searching for genitalia so he dropped the thought for later.
"Yes. Demons have demon blood," he replied absently while working hard on the small concentration of corruption. It took a lot of energy because Finn's natural magic didn't want to work with him; it kept pushing him out and it wouldn't let his magic wrap fully around the finger. Good thing Toby was a fixer, otherwise he would have stood no chance against even a half-demon!
Briefly glancing up, he nodded—yes, he was a fairy. Fae. They had odd names for him out here and they seemed to think he should be little and sparkly and fly with his wings while carrying a wand. Absurd! Nobody flew with their wings! But he thought he did sparkle when he did magic, even if that was nothing more than an optical illusion. Mana being collected and all—the particles glimmered. It was very pretty. Toby didn't care if everyone else thought it was a nuisance, he liked it.
"Normally I can do it faster, but... as long as it's working! Don't tell anybody though. Fixers like me aren't really supposed to help outsiders like Fallen and Demons. It's the war and all, but... you seem like a nice person." He glanced up again and winked in a meaningful way. He thought. Somebody did that to him out here; it looked quite serious and secretive to him. The other person was grinning but the wink looked serious, so it struck Toby as being very odd and out of place at the place called 'The Bar.'
Okay. Demons had... demon blood. All right. Finn honestly didn't know what to do with that information but Toby started off by saying weird things from the start. So he didn't really think much of it now. And he didn't know why he was grinning like that over the name Atlas. Did he think it was a dumb name for a dog? Or was it the 'the Dog' joke? Heh, well, it was kinda amusing, he guessed.
So a fae, then. Huh. Although he was firmly entrenched in the community of the supernatural, most of Finn's friends were more like... vampires and incubi. Creatures of the night. He figured he wasn't like his mum; a good witch. He was more like a warlock. A bad witch. Not evil, really. Just... not good, for sure. Troublesome. Troublemaker. He heard that one a lot.
"What war?" he asked, because he wasn't aware of any war. Again, although he was in the community, they apparently were in much different circles. Sure, the vampires had it in for humans, there was a love/hate thing going on there. But as far as he knew, they weren't, like, at full on war with anybody.
Finn turned his head slightly at the wink. Oho, what now?
"Are you hitting on me, Toby the Fae?" he asked, in his most posh, hoity-toity accent.
"The war," Toby said very unhelpfully, because there was no information to be gleaned from the way he said it. But he was focusing on the last bit of corruption, so he was distracted. Just one... more... push! And the darkness faded away, leaving Finn's finger the way it was before. Pinkish, not black. Corruption really was nasty.
When he looked up, Finn was looking at him funny. Sizing him up? Was that the saying? His voice had gone funny too, but Toby recognized that as putting on an accent. Toby sized Finn back up, smiling mildly. He didn't actually know what it meant to 'hit on someone.' It sounded violent. But Finn didn't appear offended by it, so either he liked to be violently struck or it meant something else.
To be safe, Toby nodded. "Yes." Humans out here really despised the word 'no' so he used it as little as possible, because he didn't want anyone to get angry and make trouble for him. No meant denial; yes meant acquiescence. Generally if the other person wasn't angry, he went with yes.
"I am... hitting you. On." That didn't sound right but Toby smiled again and strode off further into the woods to follow the trail, eager to leave his awkward blunder behind.
WHAT war? Finn didn't bother asking. It didn't seem that important. If it was, then Toby wouldn't be helping him, and apparently they were on different sides of said war. SHRUG. Finn liked trouble but he wouldn't say he was warlike or anything like that. Yeah, maybe when he was drunk, he picked fights on occasion but he was more the teasing shithead that dodged and fought dirty more so than the guy who just straight up decked people.
And he never signed up for any war so whatever Toby was on about, was all in his head. Maybe he was a little touched in the head. He seemed weird like that. Like his head was in another world. For example, his yes sounded weird when he admitted to hitting on him. And even weirder was the way he said it back to him in an odd order. And then smiled, like it was all natural.
For a few seconds, Finn watched him stride off after the trail--and Atlas--and then he looked down at his finger. All better. He flexed it. Nothing different. Just a finger, like it always was before he went and touched that blood.
Putting his hand down, he half jogged a few paces to catch up to Toby. Atlas was still way ahead of them, sniffing excitedly, tail still way up, ears still alert.
"You're not very good at this, are you?"
Aaahhhh he was making a fool of himself in front of the handsome demon that he wanted to impress, so said demon wouldn't eat his soul!
That could have gone much, much better but Toby wasn't the smooth-talking type. He was also not the hard-studying type because there had been a book of common human phrases that his tutors told him to learn off by heart, and of course he didn't listen. He got lazy and thought he would learn as he went out here. Turned out—that was a horrible way to do it.
He glanced sideways at Finn out of the corner of his eyes. Toby had never heard of a short demon before... It might be the witch part of Finn taking hold. His diminutive size made him seem cuter somehow, though. Well okay he wasn't a dwarf or anything but smaller things automatically seemed cuter.
"I'm quite terrible at this," Toby agreed almost immediately, nodding. "What... am I terrible at again?"
"Yeah," he said, because he had already made that observation. But then Toby had to ask what he was terrible at and Finn had to fight the urge to put a palm to his face. Whaaaat? This guy wasn't just weird. He was a total space cadet! Was that a fae thing or a Toby the Fae thing?
"Hitting on people," he explained. Because he had been kinda clumsy with it when he winked and said something secretive, like... keep it secret, you're a nice guy, WINK WINK. That was totally hitting on somebody. Clumsy but cute. The part after, though, he got weird. Squirrelly.
"It's because I called you out on it, isn't it?" Some people didn't like it when other people didn't play the game and were too blunt about it. Maybe he should have just played along. He smirked.
"Maybe I'm not good at it, either." Of course, he wasn't doing the hitting on. "Most people are better at it with a pint in them."
He stepped over some thick brush and then noticed that Toby was heading straight for--"Watch out! Poison ivy!" He grabbed onto Toby's arm and pulled him away from the telltale leaves. Luckily, Atlas had pranced right past them and not through them and had stopped some ten feet ahead of them, sniffing something.
Hitting on people. Being called out on it. Toby was sure those words meant things, he just... wasn't entirely clear on what that meaning was in relation to what he did. It was the wink, wasn't it? He tried to be secretive but it made Finn think he was being hit on...
But Finn confessed to not being good at it as well, which was funny because he didn't wink. Oh wait! Was he supposed to wink back? Was that how it worked, like a pact? Toby winked and then Finn winked, and they both agreed not to let anyone know that Toby had helped an enemy of his people. The Fallen had persuaded some of the Demons to work with them—the result was... bad. Very bad. Catastrophic, actually, which was why Toby was here to ask the Dream Prince for help.
Only he was now caught up in their quest and at the mention of a pint, his eyes lit up. "I love milk!" Milk came in pints! Right? Or liters? Quarts? What were any of these things?! "This is probably... a good time to tell you that I'm—" He was about to say 'not of this world' when Finn suddenly yanked on him and he went careening side-ways into Finn.
Toby latched on around his neck, breathing hard. "Wha? What is it?! Is it a Fallen?" He looked around fearfully before noticing that Atlas was sniffing at a spot up ahead. Toby let go of Finn immediately and sprinted off as fast as he could, alarmed.
"No Atlas! No get away!" He scooped Atlas up hastily and scuttled back and away from the massive patch of corruption staining the area. "Atlas?!? Oh-oh Finn! Finn come quick!"
"What?"
Did he just--why did he just proclaim his love for milk? Finn had no idea, man. There were a lot of strange people here in Hazleton but he was pretty sure that Toby was the weirdest by far. At least he wasn't a dangerous kind of weird. Unless maybe to himself, if he went around talking like that to the wrong person... Hell, Finn knew people personally that might have been a danger to somebody like Toby.
And shit. It sounded like Toby had something interesting to say but now it was gone, since Finn had pulled him away from walking right into a patch of poison ivy. Finn looked at Toby, who clung to him a little like a damsel in a Disney movie. And he was about to ask him what he was going to say when, again, the attention span of a squirrel took over and Toby was off, running over to Atlas in alarm.
"What? What? What is it?!"
Atlas squirmed in Toby's arms and he was a big dog and an unhappy dog. Finn raised his eyebrows.
"You're lucky he didn't just bite off your face. He hates strangers." Normally anybody came close to him that he didn't know, he gave off a warning bark and then all bets were off. Finn couldn't even count how many "friends" of his ended up with a nasty dog bite for not listening to the warning bark.
But at the moment, Atlas was letting out a soft whimper. Apparently he wasn't so fond of the dark patch in the woods, either.
"More of that corruption shit?" Finn looked down at it but this time didn't crouch over it or poke it like an idiot. "You can heal it, too, right?"
Unbeknownst to his tutors back home, cats could grow to quite large sizes out here. Atlas was a very large cat and he was very heavy, so holding on to him was a feat in and of itself. Toby stumbled back into a tree and leaned against it while hugging on to Atlas to stop him from going back to the corruption again.
Maybe Finn got away unscathed when he touched that small patch earlier, but he was a demon. Atlas would have stood no chance—the corruption would have seeped into him faster than anyone could blink, if he went too close to it! For such a nice big fluffy creature like this, it was a fate that Atlas didn't deserve.
"I don't know about this one... I don't think I have enough power to get rid of all of this! Look, at the center there. It's so concentrated." He sensed death there too, so he was willing to bet a body laid underneath the ground there. Once it disintegrated, it let out all of the corruption and so this wide patch of blackened earth and dead trees happened.
"The Fallen's probably buried there. That would explain the death I sensed coming up here." Toby finally let Atlas down because his arms were hurting. He patted Atlas on the head absently and felt the nice cat nudge up into his palm. Aww... maybe Atlas knew that he wasn't a bad man. Just a scared fixer. Because... now he had to deal with the death thing on top of the corruption thing and he wasn't equipped to do that today.
Yeah, Toby was right. It was densely concentrated in a certain area, so when Toby said somebody was buried there, he had no doubt he was right. Shit. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes, sliding one out and putting it between his lips. He glanced over at Toby, then held out the pack to him to offer him one.
"What do you do with the dead ones?" he asked around the cigarette. If there was a dead thing in there and it was spreading its evil corruption, he assumed some kind of blessing or exorcism would have to take place.
Seeing Finn put a thing in his mouth and offer it to him, Toby took one as well and put it into his mouth. He didn't know what it was. Maybe like a breadstick. Why Finn had some on him in a small pack was a mystery to Toby but he was discovering that humans were very odd creatures, with very odd habits.
So he took a bite of the white breadstick and chewed on it absently while studying the corrupted patch. Hm. It tasted... interesting. The texture was terrible but the taste wasn't all that bad. It wasn't a breadstick though...
"I'll have to come back with my kit," Toby sighed, swallowing the mouthful of... whatever thing Finn had offered him. He took another bite as he cautiously tip toed towards the corruption and felt it out. "Hmm... no, I can't do this today. I used up a lot of energy on the other patch back there, and on you. I'll have to come back another time."
As he pulled out his lighter, his eyebrows went way up. Toby was... eating the cigarette. What the hell was up with this kid? He was all kinds of fucking weird! Shaking his head slightly, he lifted the lighter to the end of the cigarette and flicked it, firing it up. Taking in a deep pull, he held it for a long moment before slowly releasing it, looking away from Toby because he wasn't a total asshole.
Ah... it always relaxed him, the art of smoking. He flicked the ashes into the dirt, stepping on them just in case one sparked a little fire.
"You have a whole kit?" he asked. Atlas no longer seemed interested in the corruption. He'd locked eyes with a rabbit and went loping after it. "ATLAS!" he called. The dog gave chase for a few more feet before the rabbit must have hidden away. He came back with a wagging tail, panting.
"Well, whatever, let's get out of here if we can't do anything about it. Atlas' gonna end up stepping in it and melting or something."
"Yes! All fixers have kits. We're only the best fae healers... ever," Toby said with excessive pride, as he swallowed the last of the thing that Finn was lighting up and inhaling... Oh... That was how it was done? He wished he'd known that before he ate all of it. The genuine human experience, that was what Toby was after, and he had apparently missed out this time.
"I'll just put a quick ward on this area, so nobody else comes here and steps in it. Once I clear the area, we can dig up the corpse and purify that, and then it'll be all good, my man!" Haha, he heard someone say that—my man—and thought it sounded cool. Hopefully Finn would also think he was cool because right now, all he was getting was a weird look. Looks. Plural. Many weird looks.
A quick flick of the wrist later, the area was blocked off and Toby turned back to Finn with a bright grin. "Say. Finn. Do you know what... skinny dipping means? I was invited to go but I have no idea what that is! What's skinny that we're dipping?"
"Nice."
He didn't know what any of that meant but they were on equal footing now, from the sounds of it. Toby must have grown up sheltered. Super sheltered. In one of those communities that some supers were raised in, so they didn't know anything about the outside world. That had to be it, because Toby was very, very strange. Cute, though. He was very, very cute, too.
He watched Toby perform his spell with a flick of the wrist and he could feel the ward as it came up. It was the same energy that had been used on him earlier but it came a lot easier than it had on his stupid finger. Must have something to do with that... demon blood. It made sense, though, what Toby said. That he had demon blood in his veins. That explained why it was explosive. Corrosive. Why it was basically poison to others.
He took another drag from the cigarette. Another flick of ashes, another heel to stop it from sparking. He laughed aloud.
"Who invited you?" he asked. "Because somebody wants to see you na-ked~"
"Whaaat? Naked? Why would that nice old man want to see me naked?!"
It was an older man he met at The Bar who seemed very friendly towards him. He came up to Toby and offered him a drink, which Toby of course accepted because he wanted to make friends! He drank it while the older gentleman watched him with some intensity and he liked it quite a lot. It was sweet and fruity!
Strangely, the man seemed disappointed when Toby said that he liked it and asked for another. Then they got to talking and the offer of dipping skinny things came up, and Toby again accepted because hey, why not! If a human did it, he should do it too! For the full experience.
But if it involved being naked, Toby didn't want to do it. Even he knew that that was... ahem... not to be engaged in with just anyone. Soul mates only! His mother insisted on that. He was only to be naked with his soul mate, and no one but his soul mate!
"We met at The Bar... I thought he wanted to be my friend..."
"Gross, did you say old man? Gross! What's an old man doing picking up guys like you with lines like that? What a fuckin' perv."
Just the idea, jeez. Fucking disgusting. See, this is exactly what he was thinking earlier. This kid was so going to be taken advantage of! Walking around not knowing when creeps were perving on him. Inviting him to go skinny dipping? Did that shit even work on normal guys?
"Don't go anywhere with somebody you meet at a bar, kid," he said. "That's my best advice to you. You're not gonna meet friends there, just people looking to fuck. And some of them are going to try and do it in fucked up ways, like inviting you to skinny dip. Alone. With drugs involved, probably."
Finishing off his cigarette after that little diatribe, he flicked it to the ground and crushed it under his heel like creepy old bar trolls.
"Come on. Let's get out of here. This place is giving me the shivers." He whistled for Atlas to come along with them and he came bounding over and past them, always wanting to be ahead.
Wow! What a vehement response! It took Toby aback; he stared at Finn during the outburst, not quite understanding why it was bad for an older human to want to be friends. Toby was probably older than the human, to be honest; ages didn't work the same way for fae as it did for humans. So really, he was the older one chronologically, even if he didn't look old.
But... point taken. He trotted alongside Finn while Atlas bounded ahead of them, seeming in much better spirits now that the ward had been put up. It contained much of the corruption, so Toby wasn't surprised that Atlas was no longer quite so spooked.
"Um..." He tugged on Finn's sleeve lightly to get his attention. "What kinds of places are okay to make friends in?" Should he go to The Club? Or The Park? The Lake? The Woods? Here? Right here? Was Finn a friend? He didn't ask to go skinny dipping and he didn't offer drugs—unless that other thing Toby ate was one, which seemed doubtful as Finn partook as well.
"Huh... well, let's see..."
Where were good places to make friends and not fuck buddies? He half laughed at it all; he wasn't the best person to ask this kind of question. The kinds of people he made friends with could be found at the bar and he might have even made some there. But... guys like Toby? They didn't make friends with those kind of people.
"If you go to school, it's where most people make their friends. Study buddies, roommates, whatever." He looked Toby over. He looked like he would fit right into a college campus, all wide eyed and bushy tailed.
"Or you know, the community center... there's hobby clubs if you're into learning how to cook or do karate or something. Oh! Theater. You can do all kinds of things there, even if you don't want to get onstage. Paint backgrounds, make costumes, lighting, music. Normally, I'd say the library but everybody here kinda agrees it's a no-go place. The old one, not the new one, but I just steer clear of both, in case."
"Ooh..." It sounded like just about everywhere was good for making friends, except the bar. That was a no-go from now on; he noted that quite seriously because of Finn's previous reaction. Very angry reaction at that, on his behalf! Actually that was nice. Not the anger—being angry for him that someone had tried to get him naked.
"What about... the woods?" Toby smiled expectantly—hopefully—over at him, hands in his pockets as he picked his way around a thorny plant. Finn didn't list the woods or the trails but hey, why not? Why couldn't a fae and a half-demon be friends out here? Would anyone back home even know that he was breaking protocol?
Oho, there he was again. He sounded like he was hitting on Finn again but he wasn't despite earlier saying that he was. Call him crazy but Finn didn't think the answer meant what Toby thought it meant. Especially after hearing about old men and skinny dipping. At the bar! Who even did that?!
"The woods," he said, looking at their surrounding area, "are an excellent place to make friends with either magical creatures or hippies, take your pick."
And he paused to bow elegantly, like a posh magical creature, knowing full well he was really more a mix of the two. Even if he was a witch with demon blood in him, he wasn't human. But he could be a hippie. He liked a little weed and a little hiking and communing with nature. And he wasn't hyped about the government, that much was for damn sure.
Aha, a positive response! Toby studied Finn's hips, since he mentioned them. Hippy? His hips looked fine to Toby! (More than fine, actually. Very much more than fine.) "I would get along better with magical creatures, since I'm one too," he laughed as Finn bowed in a very gentlemanly, courtly manner. "That's the kind of thing a Prince would do! Bow like that! Have you been to our realm, Finn?"
Most likely not, or he might not be standing here today, but also Toby didn't know for sure. Safer to ask—it was always safer to ask and be sure than to leap to conclusions on his own. He learned that most humans were easy to talk to here and lots of them didn't hesitate to leap in with their opinions and advice. In fact, some even offered without being asked! What a friendly race!
Not that the fae were unfriendly—far from it—but Toby was kind of kept at the fringes of royalty, so it was difficult to make friends. Those of the actual court didn't pay him much mind; those who were not royalty had mixed feelings about the ones who were. Trapped in an uncomfortable middle ground, Toby was actually glad to be here where nobody knew who or what he was.
Haha, whooooa now. Toby was eyeing him in a sensitive area. Could be he was wrong about the hitting on him business. Not that he minded. One magical creature to another, Toby was probably the most naive he'd ever met. Most of them were pretty... well, vampires and incubi, they weren't all alike but the ones he hung with were definitely nothing like Toby.
Fae, he thought, must be softer. Toby, at least, looked soft. Soft hearted. Maybe a little soft in the head, too. Finn let out a laugh. There was a whole realm of them?
"Nope," he said, shedding the princely act. "Never been, but I've watched Disney. And I'm betting you haven't but you'd fit right in as a Disney princess. You know..." He watched Atlas happily chase a squirrel up a tree. "There's never really been a movie based around the Disney prince. What's up with that?"
Toby gasped—Disney!
He despised Disney. All of the films he watched had the women completely helpless, waiting for 'Prince Charming' to come along and rescue them, which was completely untrue to the reality of Fae Princesses. Because the Princesses of his realm... they were... um... not like that. Several of the Houses used to be matriarchal (before they fell to Fallen attacks); Toby in fact lived in fear of his mother, a stern, no-nonsense woman who ran the house like she ran the military forces she commanded.
"I have watched several films," Toby sniffed, reaching up immediately to tie his hair back so that he looked less like a... a helpless waif. To be compared to a Princess was an honor but a Disney Princess! No! "I am a Prince, I'll have you know!" A real one, but he didn't say that because it made him sound like a braggart. (Ooh look at Toby—a real prince, wasn't that an accomplishment? Only he had no choice in that so it was actually just luck-based.)
He side-eyed Finn afterwards, not really offended to the core (or at all) but unhappy with his portrayal. Did he look like he was waiting to be rescued? Maybe Finn thought he was pretty...? He liked the thought of that but still! Still. "Disney Princes are nothing like Princes in real life anyway. They're always so... bland and uninteresting. Our Princes are much better. I'm hoping to meet one soon, in fact!"
"All right, all right, chill~"
He didn't mean to offend anybody with the whole Disney Prince thing. But some people didn't like them... Toby here included. Personally, Finn had grown up with Disney and there weren't a lot of awesome dude role models. It was like Disney was catering just to the little girls in the audience. At least, until there was Simba (not even human but hey, neither was he), and Shang and Flynn/Eugene. What about Maui? None... none of these were princes, except Simba. Well, shit, maybe Toby had a good point.
"Didn't know you were one," he said, another point taken. "And you're hoping to meet one in... what capacity, exactly? Like to kiss and have a happily ever after thing or..."
"Oh! Oh no! Goodness no, never!" Toby laughed--easy to rile up, easy to appease--and lightly, playfully shoved Finn in the shoulder for his outrageous guesses. 'To kiss and have a happily ever after thing' would imply that his soul mate was a proper royal and that was just an impossible thought! Most often the royal houses were tied in with one another. Toby wasn't part of that elite crowd, unfortunately.
"I'm here to serve and protect one of them, as his fixer. Every high-born Prince has a fixer, just in case something happens. Only by the time I got here, somebody else had already been assigned. But I'll get an audience eventually because I really want to meet him in person." And so here he was, roaming the town and taking in the sights--an otherworldly tourist. Toby was thoroughly enjoying himself out here, no doubt about that!
He grinned over at Finn, almost a little embarrassed still at the thought of being with a proper Prince. "Besides... I'm more interested in meeting other types of beings." He looked away, still grinning. Finn was much much much more interesting than any of the Fae he knew back home!
"Like the type I find in the woods maybe..."
An audience? Did they have those even here? In Hazleton? It was a strange concept to wrap his head around. Finn loved fantasy everything but he couldn't imagine the world of Hazleton with bowing princes (but apparently they did) and audiences with royals. In his head, it was like something out of a fantasy, what with the extravagant throne room and guards and servants and everything. Where did they hold them in Hazleton? In somebody's apartment?
Oho. There he was again! Finn took a page out of Toby's book and veered toward him, shouldering him rather than shoving at him but grinning nonetheless.
"You're such a flirt! I take back everything I said about princesses, all right? You're nothing like them."
Toby grinned at the shoulder-check and although he twisted to get away, he still caught the brunt of it. (Or was he only pretending to, because he wanted Finn to get in close? The world may never know.)
"I told you, I'm a prince! Not a princess, and definitely not a Disney princess!" As for being a flirt... Some might call him that. Some might already have. In both realms. He sidled in close but this time there was no physical touching. Toby just walked beside him, hands in pockets, grinning away. There was something rather exhilarating about flirting with danger—in the form of a half-demon.
"Unless you're offering to be my prince." And he said that with a straight face because he didn't know better. Or he did—and he said it anyway, which might have been worse.
What?
Finn laughed; he couldn't help himself. Did Toby just say he wasn't a Disney princess unless Finn was offering to be his prince? The very idea of Finn as a prince was laughable. People never, ever equated him to that. He was the furthest thing from royalty that a person could be! Unless royalty liked smoking a joint while walking his dog through the mountains. Personally, Finn likened himself more to a mountain hippie than a prince.
Merriment remained in his eyes as he eyed Toby. He had been so wrong when he called him a Disney princess. Toby was something else entirely. A prince, he said. But a lower prince on the rung or something. Hell if Finn understood the whole deal.
"I would," he said, "but Disney is too PG for my tastes." He winked mischievously but he still took hold of one of Toby's hands and lowered his head as if to kiss his hand before glancing up, lips a hair's breadth from making contact. "Is it time for a musical number to interrupt us?"
Ahaa... he laughed! It was such a cute laugh! Toby laughed too, drawn in by the sound of Finn's amusement, the sparkle of mischief in his eyes—even if it was at his expense. He didn't mind that though. Finn wasn't laughing at him in a mean way, Toby could tell.
"Ahh... You would prefer to be... rated R..." Hopefully that was what Finn was talking about, because Toby didn't know any other PG. He paused when his hand was taken and—okay he expected it to be kissed. True royal princes had their hands kissed; Toby saw it being done! Not him though, he wasn't high up enough so this whole thing was... maybe a little strange. But also it made his heart skip a beat, especially when Finn looked up at him and their eyes met.
"I don't see a band around..." Toby stepped in closer. His fingers curled around Finn's, a little tighter, then he pulled Finn's hand to his own lips like a little tug-of-war—also not quite kissing it. He was uniquely poised to be Finn's prince, actually... because he was a prince (if only in name). "So we can't be interrupted, can we?"
He only smiled, amusement still dancing in his gaze. So Toby knew things. He knew more than he let on. Such a strange mixture of things he knew about: Disney and movie ratings but not how to smoke a cigarette. If he'd ever seen anything rated R, Finn thought he must have seen somebody smoke, at the very least. But maybe he knew the rating in name only. After all, he'd only admitted to watching a few Disney films and he seemed less than impressed by what he saw.
His blue eyes flicked from one side then to the other side, half expecting a band to come bursting from the tree line to come and sing at them. But thankfully, this wasn't a Disney film and the only animal companion around was Atlas, who was thankfully running around like the young dog he was. He'd barely cleared the first puppy year and it showed in his still overly big ears.
Those blue eyes flicked back to meet Toby's gaze when his hand was tugged toward Toby's lips instead. Interesting; he hadn't expected Toby to try and turn the tables on him. Slowly straightening up, he watched Toby.
"I don't suppose we would..."
They just met but Finn was a YOLO type of person and he was attracted to Toby. It seemed to be mutual so... He used his free hand to slide up over the side of Toby's throat and then the back of his head, drawing him in closer. Their noses brushed first and then... a kiss. But not a brush of lips. A genuine kiss, a real kiss.
Some things could be read about and some things needed to be experienced. Toby had access to their information network—he found the library early on—so he knew bits and pieces of odd trivia. But his knowledge had definite gaps in it and it probably showed at various moments.
For example—how humans courted one another. Was it so different from the ways of his people? A coy glance, a meaningful smile, easy banter, all of those things were universal. Toby knew when he was being flirted with; he knew that Finn found him pleasing. Finn hadn't run off on him yet, right? That meant he enjoyed Toby's company, at least in some part.
And Toby thoroughly enjoyed Finn's company, too. It went without saying that he thought Finn was madly attractive, although he wasn't entirely sure that didn't have a little something to do with the fact that he was part-demon. The thrill of danger appealed to Toby; he wouldn't be out here otherwise.
But. Ah. Other things were universal too. A hand to the back of the neck, that irresistible pull. Toby was surprised he moved so quickly; they were kissing before he knew it, before his mind had time to organize all of this new information. His own hand slid up too, fully intending to gently ease Finn off of him because this... was not a good idea. If Finn wasn't his soul mate, he shouldn't be doing this.
All that hand did was slide up and keep sliding up, to Finn's shoulder and up the side of his neck, around to the back of his head too, mirroring his movements. Toby kissed back; he knew how to kiss. Just because he shouldn't do something didn't mean he hadn't experimented before... "Ah... ahah..." His laugh was breathy and soft as he leaned his forehead down against Finn's, eyes still closed. "Oh they won't like this back home..."
"They don't like men kissing men there too?"
Finn wasn't going to say gay people. He wasn't gay. He was bisexual. Or pansexual. Or whatever the new lingo was for he didn't give a fuck about what the sex organs were as long as there was an attraction, it was what it was. Finn didn't go in for "types." He liked what he liked.
But there was still controversy over that, even in this day and age for whatever reason. Finn had no idea why it mattered so much to people who had literally zero stake in what they were doing. Like, cool, you don't like dick. But don't tell him what to like. But maybe Toby had other reasons, like being a prince. Maybe there was pressure to bring on the babies. But... kissing a random man in the woods wasn't a marriage proposal. It wasn't like they were locked into anything.
"No kissing other men is okay! We're not that strict, thank goodness. But..." Toby eased back, although he kept a hand on Finn's shoulder and lightly stroked it as he spoke. "My people are at war with the Fallen. Dark Fae, you might call them here. They cause what happened back there—the corruption. Lately they've teamed up with Demons... and you're half-Demon, Finn, sooo..."
Oh he'd be in so much trouble if they knew! But Toby couldn't deny that there was some kind of spark between them. Mutual attraction, definitely. He smiled ruefully as his fingertips drifted down the length of Finn's dreads, toying with them.
"We're supposed to be enemies. I think this was in a story once, wasn't it? Romeo and somebody?"
Huh. So that corruption stain was made by the Fallen, were they? Finn looked over in the direction of the stain they'd left behind. It did look pretty nasty and demons liked nasty. But... Finn looked back at Toby as he began playing with his dreads with idle fingers.
"Juliet?" he supplied with a slight quirk of a smile. His fingertips played, too, with the back of Toby's neck, since his hand was still there and he could feel wisps of Toby's dark hair, fine little baby hairs that hadn't made it into the ponytail.
"But I'm not teamed up with anyone. I do what I want. I don't take orders from some dark fae corruption crew."
"Yes. Her." Ah, star-crossed lovers. How tragic. But Toby wasn't putting himself in their shoes; he just wished to never be found out by his stern mother or by his equally stern father. Or by the King of his House, a distant uncle. Or by—by anyone, really. Not only would he get in trouble, he didn't want to drag Finn into things either.
"Well I know you're not a bad person, Finn." He was still feeling kind of giddy from the sudden kiss and now from Finn's fingers at the nape of his neck. It felt so nice. His insides were all kinds of warm and gooey, like a delicious chocolate chip cookie right out of the oven—all melty.
Toby's wandering fingers made their way to the front of Finn's jacket and pulled him back in. The goofy grin had turned into a little bit of a mischievous smile. "And we're in the woods... not back home... right?" So maybe it was okay to mingle with a half-demon out here, where there were no prying eyes. Toby leaned down to kiss him again, wanting to feel that exhilaration from their first kiss. The tingle and the way his pulse kicked into high gear.
"I'm all right."
He was kind of middle of the road, really. Not pure but not evil, by some miracle, since he apparently had demon blood flowing through his veins. It answered some questions he had growing up, but like most things, Finn took the information in stride. So he was a little different than he imagined. He was still Finn.
"...right," he said back, smiling with the same mischief as Toby. "Nobody here but us and Atlas. And he's not gonna tell anybody..."
His words were stolen by another kiss and his fingers curled inward, behind the nape of Toby's neck. For a supposed Disney princess, Toby was a good kisser. Somebody wasn't as pure as the driven snow, either. Finn smiled into another kiss and tilted his head slightly when he needed air, nuzzling Toby's jaw.
"I've never been this close to a demon before," Toby whispered as they parted ways, getting a few breaths of air in himself. Whew! Did all demons kiss like this? Because if they did—that went hand-in-hand with their supposedly carnal natures. It wasn't only sex, though. Lots of demons had other and more perverse fetishes. Torture, death, blood, all of that.
Not Finn though. His hand was gentle at the back of Toby's neck. The way he kissed made Toby's knees weak but in a good way. No one could be bad who kissed like that, Toby was sure of it. "I would like to get to know you better, if that's okay. You're so handsome, Finn. And so fascinating."
"How close have you been?"
Were demons normally hard to be around? Or were they silver-tongued devils, like the stories he heard growing up? Was Toby worried he might be charming him? No... He wanted to get to know him better. If that's okay. Finn's lips formed into a smile as he let out a soft snort of amusement through his nose.
"Why wouldn't it be okay?" Like Finn just kissed people he didn't want knowing him. His thumb traced down the top of Toby's spine. "We can get to know each other, since I think the feeling is mutual."
And Atlas chose that moment to rush over and shove his nose against the back of Finn's leg before wagging his tail and giving Toby's shoes a concentrated sniff.
"He wants to get to know you too, apparently..." Finn finally lowered his hand, though he brushed Toby's chest in the process. "Where are you staying around here?"
"Umm... I've seen pictures..." He had never seen one up close, no. Because he wasn't placed onto the front lines where the real action was; he served in field hospitals that were located well away from the thick of the action. As the fixer to a Prince, he needed experience but he also was loosely affiliated with the royal family, which meant he had protection.
At any rate, he asked to be polite because... what if Finn decided that this was a one-time thing? Humans had sex in the woods; Toby knew of this. He accidentally bumped into a pair once, so he knew it was a thing. "It's mutual?" That made him grin; so Finn felt the same way!
Toby reached down to touch the top of Atlas' fluffy big head. "He's such a cute cat!" Aww so friendly! He gave Atlas a scratch behind the ears for good measure. "I live in a motel in that place called Little Asia! What about you? Can I come over and visit you? You can come visit me too but I don't think the motel room's very interesting. It's always cold, they said the AC unit is broken."
There were pictures of demons? Like real ones or the kind people showed on the internet and shit? Finn wanted to ask; he was curious. If there was demon blood in his family line, where did it come from? Did his family know? Was it some kind of deep, dark secret? Or did the demon just look like any other person?
But the conversation moved onto the mutuality of their attraction and then to Atlas... Atlas the dog. Toby really did have a strange mixture of knowledge about things, didn't he? Finn laughed at the idea of Atlas being a cat. More like a cat chaser.
"Oh no. Really? That place is so gross!" Finn made a face at the idea of poor Toby being stuck in that shitty motel. There were better places to stay in town but that motel was one of the cheapest ones.
"Come on," he said with a head tilt down the path, taking Toby's hand. "We'll go to my place. I live in a double wide not far from here. And by the way, Atlas is a dog."
"Is it? I thought it was quite nice. I was hoping to catch some of those dust bunnies..." Dust bunnies sounded cute! He even bought tiny cages for them and set out traps. Toby followed Finn closely, eyes on Atlas as he frolicked around them, seeming to find every bush, leaf and twig of the utmost interest.
"What's a double wide?" It sounded like an insult to a fat person. Toby didn't think Finn meant that though... He looked at Atlas again, frowning. "They call themselves cats though. Well I've only spoken to a few but that's what they say."
Honestly, Toby had no idea why humans insisted on calling them by the wrong name, and then insisting that others do it too, to add insult to injury. The cats were quite annoyed by it all, from what he understood.
"What?" He didn't know why he was so taken aback by that comment. Toby was trying to catch dust bunnies? Who even told him about those? Dust bunnies obviously weren't what Toby must be thinking, which was that they were literal bunnies and not... clods of dust.
"Oh, it's a house that you can move. They're cheaper than regular houses, hence why I live there." Way, way cheaper than regular housing, especially here in this little town, where they got away with making people pay exorbitant costs for the smallest digs.
"What do you mean, they call themselves cats? Are you saying you can talk with Atlas?"
Toby gasped. "I didn't know you could move houses!" Magic? They must have had all sorts of magic here! Of course there were all kinds of different beings out in this human world, all mingling together—Toby had yet to meet all of them but he was seriously trying to!
"I can, sure. I mean I haven't yet because he was working and it would have been rude to interrupt him, but..." Toby waved to Atlas, whose head popped up to look at them. He had been busily nosing around a pile of loam. "Do you want me to ask him something? For what it's worth, he must quite like you, so I don't think you have anything to worry about."
"Er..." Finn didn't even know what to say to that. Toby seemed almost impressed by the idea of a moving house but it was really... not that amazing. But hey, if Toby liked it! It wasn't a bad little home, especially for a bachelor like himself, living with his dog. Better than some of the shitty apartments in town, that was for damn sure. Finn had lived in apartments and he knew he damn well never wanted to go that direction again.
"Working?" Finn looked over at Atlas in confusion. Atlas was working? But he just looked like he was being a dog. Playfully checking the landscape, the woods, marking his territory where he saw fit.
"I'm not worried. I just didn't realize you guys could communicate with animals. Not even sure what I'd ask Atlas if I could. Except I don't think he thinks he's a cat. What does he think a cat is, then?"
"Protecting you." Toby nodded. According to the cats he met, they were kind of serious about protecting the humans that took them in. It made sense; the relationship was entirely reciprocal, after all. Humans protected and fed them, and they did the same in return. Sweet.
He smiled gently at Finn and shook his head. "No one asked them what they were called, humans just made up their own names. And forced everyone else to follow their conventions. It's an insult to them that you gave their name to the nasty hissing things. Don't you wonder why they never get along?"
Atlas resumed snuffling around the undergrowth, while Toby sighed. "I can't tell you what they think a cat is. It's... kind of rude."
"Is it just English?" he asked, because he didn't understand how dogs would care what word was assigned to them if they didn't speak English. Or any other language, for that matter. Was the word for cat an insult in other languages, too? Besides, Atlas seemed pretty damn happy whenever Finn called him a good dog. Maybe fairy dogs were just different.
"And I just assumed it was because cats are assholes," Finn said with a shrug. He was clearly a dog person. Not that he hated cats but he wasn't nearly as fond of them as he was for dogs. Hence the pet dog and not a pet cat. Besides, Atlas was a real chaser; a cat would be miserable in his home.
"Is it as rude as what I just called them?" he asked with an impish smile.
"English and I think Swahili. They're very intelligent beings." He grinned and nodded though to confirm Finn's assessment of cats. They were assholes, yes. And one of the Fallen army's supporters, which made them the enemy. Like Finn but... but Finn wasn't like that at all!
"I think worse." Toby laughed. There wasn't an accurate translation for what Atlas might have called a 'cat' but it was pretty vulgar. English was kind of limited in the range of colorful curses that one could make up. Toby tried not to learn many of them in case he had to go back home and was caught muttering something like... donkey kicker! Or purse snatcher!
As they cleared the woods, he fell back a step to let Finn lead the way to his house that could be moved. Exciting! The side of his hand brushed the side of Finn's as they walked, and he sneakily curled his fingers around Finn's hand. Just so he wouldn't get lost! Ahem. He didn't want to get lost.
The whole thing was strange to him. And if Atlas had any issues with being called a dog, he wasn't showing them right now. He seemed altogether happy enough to sweep the entire area, sniffing and snorting and investigating every single thing that came his way. Maybe he really was working. Finn never thought of it that way, but maybe Atlas was checking for things like that corruption back there.
Finn smiled to himself as Toby took hold of his hand. It was such a small gesture but it felt nice. Somehow, it felt like his hand and his smile and his laugh and his eyes and everything about him curled snuggly somewhere inside, around his heart. A little strange; Finn had felt attraction before. Ever since he hit puberty! He was a red-blooded man! But this was different somehow.
His home was about a mile out from the ridge itself. As they walked, Finn told Toby a little about the area, how there were only a few others living in the area, some in actual trailers. It was a popular camping area and occasionally, when unexpected storms overtook the area, Finn would house people out hiking while they waited out the storm together.
"Voila~" He pointed ahead to where his manufactured home sat in its nicely located property. There was a small but thick grove of trees, plenty of bushes for Atlas to pee on, and the sound of birds chirping as they drew closer. The fence around the home was made of stone but the gate was a flimsy old wooden thing that he never locked. (Hence the visitors.)
"Home, sweet home," he told Toby. Atlas ran toward a huge tin bucket filled with water to lap some up. There were tons of wind chimes hanging from the eaves of his home and as a breeze flowed through, they tinkled noisily.
He bounded up the steps with Toby, opening the door without a key. Maybe he was too trusting but... he didn't usually lock up around here.
Everything Toby heard about demons was everything that Finn was not. He had his doubts when they first met, and he noticed the magnificent wings partly exposed, but now those doubts were gone. As soon as their hands curled around one another, it felt like his heart curled around too. Toby couldn't rightly describe it, except that it felt like something finally clicked into place inside.
He happily walked alongside Finn as they made their way to his house, listening attentively to him speaking of storms and lost hikers—such a noble thing to do, really—and about the area. It was the less affluent side of town, Toby could see that in the cracked roads and pebbled sidewalks and abundance of greenery all around in wide open spaces. When they reached the spot where Finn's double wide was located, Toby's eyes stretched open as wide as they could go, trying to take it all in.
"It's cute! Look how cute it is!" He exclaimed while bouncing up the steps, as if Finn couldn't and had never noticed how cozy the place was. The wind chimes made him feel happy inside; their music was tinkly and wonderful. Toby kicked off his shoes at the door to be polite and then eagerly walked inside with his head on a swivel, to look at all the things that belonged to Finn. Possessions said a lot about a person! Posters and musical equipment and some funny looking coveralls all told their own stories.
"Oh I want to stay here! Can I stay here? Just for one night?" Finn was right—this was much better than his motel room. It was different and special and it belonged to Finn, so that made it automatically the best place to be in. Toby turned to him pleadingly. "Please??"
Finn laughed. Yes, wasn't it cute? Finn loved his place, he had to admit. The free spirit in him liked being out here near the wilderness. His home was definitely the kind that was lived in and told a story about the person who lived inside it. All those posters of random things he liked, he saw Toby looking at them in awe, at the musical equipment. Finn tried to see it from an outsider's point of view but it was just home to him.
"Of course you can stay," he said. He just got done telling him about how he let random hikers stay. Why wouldn't he let a cutie like Toby stay overnight? Or however long he wanted; Finn had the room if Toby would rather stay here than in that gross motel.
"As long as you want," he added. "For free, even. Mi casa es su casa."
"For free? For as long as I want? Thank you thank you Finn!" Money wasn't a big deal for Toby—he had an entire duffel bag of it back in his hotel room—but this was much appreciated! Overjoyed, he leapt onto Finn and hugged him tight. Partly to thank him, partly because now that they were actually alone together and nobody could see them unless they peeked in through the windows...
"And I'm not sure what that means but... you can teach me..." He nuzzled against Finn, cheek to cheek. Maybe there was a lot that Finn could teach him about this human world and all of its strange customs. And maybe maybe maybe Toby could teach him a few things too, about how a very grateful young Fae could thank a very nice half-demon who had shown him nothing but kindness.
Even if he did let him eat the white little stick thing instead of explaining that it should be inhaled through.