And in This Small World

"But lest you are my enemy,
I must enquire."
"O no, my dear, let all that be;
What matter, so there is but fire
In you, in me?"
William Butler Yeats, The Mask

Gemlin ran all the way home. His feet hurt and his lungs were bursting but he'd made it. Pounding on the door in the old wall, he yelled "Momma, Papa I'm back. I'm alright." but no one opened the door for him. He kept pounding until he heard the window open. His younger sister's head popped out. "Gem," she whispered "mamma said not to open it. You got in trouble with the Esper." Gemlin moved along the wall until he was under the open window. "But, he wasn't angry at me. I didn't do anything."
His sister shook her head. "Only mama and papa know he took you, they will not tell but they do not need His attention, Gem. They want you to leave." Gemlin stared at his sister he couldn't believe what he was hearing. Sure he'd heard of other underlings turning their family members away once they had been singled out by the Esper, but this was his own mother and father surely they wouldn't..." just then his sister was pulled in the window and his step mother's head came out. "Leave boy, I knew you were trouble since I saw you, be gone now, if He starts giving us trouble because of you we'll all be dead by sunrise. Now go." With that the window was closed and locked shut. Gemlin crossed the road shuffling his feet. "Gemlin?" He turned and saw his sister hanging out the window again. "The bridge tonight! Its the meeting." With that the window and closed she was gone.

Gemlin didn't remember the last meeting; he had been too little to know what was going on. All he knew was that once every 20 years all the underlings and neighboring underlings, including their Espers met in one region or another and had fun, got drunk, did bad things, or all of the above. He didn't really want to go but his sister would be there. The meeting had once been used for the Espers to discuss peace with one another but now they just walked around and surveyed which region leader was stronger. Gemlin had never known a time when their current Esper had not been in power. He had taken the region long ago and since then expanded it three times its original size without even having a single battle with any of the neighboring regions. He had been told that it was because the Esper they had been given was the most powerful of all. Though having met the guy he really doubted it. He hadn't felt so much as a tingle of energy when he had been in Seph's presence.

Up ahead Gemlin saw the bridge. He also saw the masses of underlings and tents with who knows what purposes packed underneath it. Gemlin had often wondered what humans would think if they could actually see the underlings or their homes all over their cities. Perhaps then they would not think so highly of themselves. He entered the crowd and began looking for his family.... or his two sisters at least.

Seph walked around the crowd. This was the one time the underlings didn’t run away from him. Sure they didn't come running up to him, but they didn't disappear either. He spat on the ground thoroughly annoyed. All the loud noise of underlings screaming and yelling this and that "haven't seen you since the split how’s the family muffins for sale momma where are you" pounding his ears and all at the same time. "Momma I’ll take a muffin oh they're good Gemlin did you see the candy tent" suddenly his mind flipped and he did a replay of the last sequence, looking around he finally spotted the green boy. Gemlin's eyes were unsure and his whole body seemed to slouch slightly. His hair flipped out from under little brown hat and he was still wearing Seph's jeans and t-shirt. Seph wanted to go over there and.... well do what, he wasn't sure but he wanted to be over there.
Gemlin turned and smiled his face lighting up and his body straightening. "Lissy!" He called, and then he hugged her. Seph narrowed his eyes. He didn't like this girl hugging the underling. He circled around so he could see the boy's face again. They began talking about "their" family, so Seph figured that this was one of the sisters who had made Gemlin wear the dress. He didn't mind the girl so much anymore if that was the case. Just then a thin and slimy looking underling woman grabbed the girl and pushed her away. She began yelling at Gemlin almost immediately. He stared at the woman with tears falling down his cheeks. Seph found that it was as if someone had lit a fire deep inside him and it was beginning to boil his insides.

Gemlin stared at his step mother. The words she was saying! Never come home. No longer family. Not a part of his life? He didn't understand and yet part of him did. Suddenly someone stepped in front of him and blocked his view.

Seph smiled at the underling woman. "Shut it Slimy" The woman's mouth might have fallen off her face if it hadn't been screwed on by her jaw bone. He couldn't help but notice that she had put on way too much makeup and ultimately looked like a clown. Clowns were always unnerving. "How dare you young man....." Seph flared. He hated to be condescended. He let out the fire that was inside him and it burned around his body like a green glow physically menacing the woman. "You 'young man' me again and I'll feed you your words untill you choke." The woman shrieked and fell to her knees the girl beside her cowering in fear and awareness of what was going on spread through the underling's revels like ripples in a pond.

Gemlin watched the fire that seemingly seeped out of Seph's body. It was almost as if it was his hate embodied. It glowed green like the color of his own skin and it moved too. It snared itself and roiled around like snakes trying to bite at his step mother. He felt it too. His body felt electically charged like putting your finger in an wall socket only without the pain. It was strong, but when the green tendrils touched him they seemed to change as if it could sense him. The snake heads seemed to slide around his waist and push at him lightly as if playing with him. He looked around, people were watching. Hunching his shoulders he tried to keep the green glow from touching him. He looked up at Seph and saw that the Esper's eyes were also glowing. He had lost his pupils and all that was left was the angry green. Gemlin knew he was the cause of this and wanted to hide in his bed only to wake up and realize it was all just a nightmare, but that didn't happen, he was still standing there and more and more underlings were beginning to notice that he was standing behind an Esper.

Seph let the fire grow inside of him and spill out of his being. The woman cowered on the ground as he contemplated the best way to punish her. He could sense the other Espers power but as this was one of his own subjects he knew they would not try to interfere unless he began to harm there own.
Then he heard it, a soft whisper begging him to stop. He didn't want to stop. He didn't want to listen, but the voice seemed to be pleading with him. He didn't want to care but the voice was so gentle and so afraid he felt he should. Without realizing it he had let the fire die down. The glowing stopped and he was able to focus on a dripping sound. Turning around he saw that the underling was crying. Just as he had the day before. Suddenly the big black eyes snapped onto his. "Don’t, please." He realized he had the woman's shirt gripped in his hand and also that there was blood on his fingers. Listening to both the eyes and the voice he let go. The underling woman jumped to her feet grabbed the girl and ran off. Seph wanted to follow but the eyes still held him. They looked away. He realized the boy was trying to leave. He grabbed Gemlin by the collar and pulled him through the crowd to one of the pillars in the bridge. There was a door there that seemed to be Seph's best bet. So he pulled the boy through it and shut the door.

They were inside the hollow bridge supports, possibly a maintenance route for city workers. To the right there were stairs that led up to the underside of the bridge. Seph let go of Gemlin and watched as he used his fists to wipe the tears away. "y-you shouldn't have done that." the boy hiccupped. Seph found part of himself agreeing with the boy and another part of him wanting to tell the kid off. He chose the second one. "And why shouldn't I? Cause you said so?" The underling’s black eyes met his again and the boy seemed to be struggling with something. "Listen kid, if I want to do it then I 'should' do it, if I don't want to then I won't. It has nothing to do with whether it was smart or not, or if it was what you wanted or not."
The boy looked down. "You do know that you just ruined my life, right?" Seph frowned at him
"I'd hardly call freaking a woman out ruining..."
"NO!" The kid was looking up at him again. He was clearly angry enough to forget that a few seconds ago he had been afraid to look at him. "Now everyone knows you are somehow connected with me. Now that I have come to your attention everyone is scared of me."
"So"
"SO? I CAN'T GO ANYWHERE BECAUSE OF YOU! I have no home to go back to. Because you don't care a wink about life or death everyone’s afraid if they associate with me they'll be dead. You even threatened my own mother just because she was angry with me! People are going to run away from me. They are going to shut there doors and I'll have no way to buy food, no way to buy clothes, I have no where to go anymore."
Seph wanted to argue with the underling, but in this case he had no ammo, nothing to throw at the boy that would make him win the fight. Seph shrugged. "Why should I care about a snotty little runt. You're an amusment nothing more." he was turning to go when the boy reached out and grabbed his arm. "You can't..." Seph turned back, and the boy stopped mid-sentence. "d-don't... I don't know what to do." The boy looked so pitiful. Seph found out that he did care even if it was just that he wanted something from this kid, he wasn't sure what and he didn't know why but he did. He looked at the boys fingers on his arm. Gemlin not sure what that meant, pulled his fingers off quickly incase that had been the wrong thing to do.

It was. Seph stepped toward him and slammed him against the wall. His hands on either side of Gemlin’s torso. He moved his arms up lifting the boy of the ground by his armpits. Gemlin thought that he was going to die, and was not prepared to feel Seph's mouth on his neck. He gasped in surprise his eyes closing and his body tightening for a moment. He felt Seph's tongue and couldn't help but wonder how he had gotten himself into this position in the first place. Gemlin's arms began to hurt and he squeaked in protest as Seph bit at his shoulder. Seph stopped for a moment realizing the underling was in pain. He lifted his leg and made it so that the boy had most of his weight on Seph's knee rather then hanging from his arms, and then he pushed him harder into the wall. One of his hands moved from the wall to the underling’s shirt. He slid it under and let his cold fingers warm up on the boy’s skin. Gemlin struggled against him but whenever he moved too much the Esper would move his knee slightly and push him harder into the wall.

Gemlin wanted to scream but it wasn't coming out of his throat. He didn't want to be here he didn't want to do this. He felt Seph's hand moving along his stomach. He closed his eyes as it moved slowly down to the belt of his jeans. Gemlin came across the sick realization that they were in fact not his jeans, and that the Esper had probably already done this before only this time he was awake to feel it. He bit his lip as Seph put his hand down to the band of his underwear. His whole body rigid with fear. Seph let both his body and the underling’s body slide to the floor moving the underling so that he was on top of him. Seph began thinking again, what was he doing? Why? What would this accomplish? Did he want to go there? Leaning against the wall Seph took his hand out of the boy’s pants and looked at the boys face. Gemlin looked completely shocked and terrorized even though Seph had never actually touched him, though he had come incredibly close to it.

Gemlin stared at a point over Seph's head. He could still feel where Seph had touched him. It seemed to burn his skin like little pins and needles poking at him. Realizing Seph was no longer holding him he jumped up and stepped to the door. He was about to open it when he looked back. Seph just sat there watching him; he made no move to stop him from opening the door and leaving again.

The great bigger powerful Esper that killed underlings like they were human's beneath his feet was just looking at him. Gemlin was swallowed his tongue felt heavy and thick. "Are you........I don't know...."

Seph blinked, "What's there to know?"

"ARE YOU KIDDING????? Everything! I mean should...."

"What do you want, kid? There is no shoulds or shouldn'ts"

Gemlin bit his lip. He didn't know what he wanted. "Gemlin," He looked at the Esper. "Trust your instincts, if you wanna run, then run." Gemlin's fear turned to an irrational anger that made him ball his fingers into tight fists.

He marched back to the wall and straddled Seph's torso. "I don't run from everything you know." His heart was beating fast and it took him a moment to realize what he had just done. Seph made no move to touch him in fact he stayed perfectly still. Gemlin hesitantly moved his hand forward. He reached out and touched Seph's spiky red hair. They didn't feel hard or stiff but when he mussed it up a bit it seemed to go back into place. "How do you do that with your hair?" He asked. Seph gave him a small smile "hairspray" Gemlin felt stupid for asking and he tried to get up, not sure that he wanted to finish what he started. In fact he didn't even really know what he had started or where it was supposed to end. Seph put his hands on Gemlin's thighs and stopped him from standing. "I don't think it was a dumb question" He whispered as if he had read Gemlin's mind.

Gemlin took a deep breathe and reached out again. He put his fingers back in Seph's hair, but soon zeroed in on something else. Touching Seph's ears he gasped "You have human ears!" His green green fingers touched uncertainly at the rounded tips. Seph just smiled. Slowly the boy saw other things he wanted to know about: his ear piercing, Seph's eyes (the same color as his skin), and a time-glass necklace that he was wearing. Gemlin worked his way down until the only thing he really hadn't seen was Seph's skin. He bit his lip again. Slowly he put his hand under himself and pulled up the edge of Seph's shirt. He was sitting just below Seph's bellybutton and Seph was an innie.

Gemlin couldn't help but compare Seph with himself. Gemlin was an outie. Seph had lots of muscles but yet was still skinny where as Gemlin was just skinny. Carefully he moved his fingers over Seph's chest until he had pushed Seph's shirt right over his head. Gemlin stared at Seph's right nipple in shock. "It’s pierced!" He squeaked. Seph's laugh shook the boy on his stomach. "Wow, I didn't know that."

Gemlin's cheeks turned bright pink. "Well, yeah I know you know, but I didn't...." he looked at Seph "How was I sposed....."

Seph laughed again "Your fine kid, settle down."

"But" Gemlin tried to stand up again but ended up only making it to his knees before he stopped. Seph sat up against the wall and pulled Gemlin between his legs.
"You really are like a little girl you know that?" Gemlin made a face and flapped at Seph's hands. Seph let go and took Gemlin's hat off his head and placed it on his own. He began braiding Gemlin's hair into tiny green braids.

Seph's fingers in his hair calmed him in a way they shouldn't have. He tried to remind himself that this was a strange guy known to be dangerous but he couldn't bring himself to believe that an Esper would braid his hair. Gemlin slowly relaxed and leaned his back against Seph's body.

"Young little Gemmy, runs through the town.
Up streets and down streets in his ball gown"

"Shut up."