On Top of the World, at the End of the World

Party Poison is driving too fast like he always does when Jet lets him borrow his bike and Fun Ghoul squeezes his waist tighter. This is the game they’ve been playing for years- Party moves too fast and Ghoul clings to him for dear life, desperate to hold onto him. It scares him, but they’ve all forgotten how to be safe. There’s no safety out here, only survival, only coping. The survival part is required, the rest? Optional. For Party, it was definitely optional. Like many others out in the Zones, this had turned him into quite the adrenaline junkie.

Ghoul thought it was so incredibly stupid. You fear death so you seek it out at every possible opportunity just to try to stick it to the universe and prove that you’re invincible? Stupid. So so stupid. It had been the subject of many of their fights, but Ghoul knew he was being a hypocrite. He’d done his fair share of idiotic, life-threatening things but that was before he’d had a crew, a family who needed him alive and not bleeding out alone in the desert after being shot by raiders or cornered by Dracs.

The desert blurs past them, the fading sun painting the horizon vivid oranges, reds, and pinks. You can’t see the sun setting in the city where the buildings block out the sky. Ghoul remembers it, forces himself to recall every twisting corner, every alleyway, every sharp, monochrome detail. It’s a form of rebellion, forcing himself to remember everything because they had made him forget so much. He couldn’t remember his childhood, his parents, or any traces of his life before the war. They’d try to make him forget everything after it too, to drug him into submission. That’s when he started planning his escape.

The memories come back in jagged fragments that don’t always make sense to him. The smell of lavender brings back flashes of soft, hazel eyes, the press of soft blue sweaters against his cheek, a woman’s laugh. He spent his entire first year in the Zones immobilized by his guilt and all he couldn’t remember. But Poison had assured him that they’d all gone through it, that he would remember eventually. The more time they spent together though, the weaker the desire was. Why did he want so badly to recover the old when there were so many new memories to cherish and cling to?

Party Poison’s voice breaks him from his thoughts as he parks the bike. “Ghoul? You good?”

“Oh. Y-yeah...” Poison gets off the bike first and then offers a hand to help Ghoul off. He pulls Ghoul’s helmet from his head and sets it on the ground gently.

Ghoul’s hair falls in his face in a nest of tangled and Party laughs as he smooths it back into place and out of his face. “Even helmet hair looks sexy on you,” he says with a smile just before their lips meet.

Poison’s hands are cupping his face, holding him so gently, their kiss sloppy and so full of warmth. They’re so caught up in kissing that they don’t notice Jet waving them down from the door of the diner.

“Hey, lovebirds! Get your asses inside before you get dusted!” he calls.

Poison just pulls Ghouls closer to him and flicks Jet off with the hand not wrapped around his lover’s waist, his hot palm pressed against his bare back beneath his shirt. They eventually peel themselves off of each other and sling the packs of supplies they’d gathered throughout the day over their shoulders. When they get inside, they drop the bags on the floor and collapse into a booth on top of each other. Jet grabs the packs and starts to sort through them.

“Thank God, you guys are back. I’ve been hiding out in the garage all day.”

Ghoul raises an eyebrow. “Why?”

Jet sighs and gives them a pained look. “Loverboy finally hooked up with Show Pony. Like… over five times. Today.”

Poison whistles and looks absolutely overjoyed. “Have they really been going at it all day?” A series of very loud, high pitched moans and the sound of rattling a few rooms over accompanies his question.

“For hours.” Jet says flatly, looking a little more dead inside than when they left this morning.

“I’m honestly surprised this didn’t happen sooner,” Ghoul adds.

Poison snorts. “You kiddin’ me? That boy couldn’t do anything but stammer and drool whenever Pony walked into the room. And Pony is well-”

“A massive slut?” Ghoul deadpans.

“Easily bored?” Jet chimes in

“Yes. And yes. But what I was going to say is that Pony is constantly surrounded by guys drooling over them, wanting to get their dicks wet. That’s not new and it’s definitely not interesting. They just needed to know that Kobra is down for well more than just that.”

“So you meddled?” Jet gives him a hard look.

“Well, duh! But it obviously worked out.” As if to emphasize his point, the rattling and thumping noises get louder. Party Poison just grins wider as Jet grimaces.

“You know Kobra isn’t going to talk to you for at least a month, right?”

Poison waves a dismissive hand. “Whatever. I’ll take one for the team if it means my little brother gets to be happy.”

“And you’re sure Pony isn’t just in this for the sex?”

“Jet, hun. I know Pony. Very intimately. Mindless sex is fun for them but it’s boring. There’s so much more tension and fire when you’re fucking someone you give a shit about.” Ghoul blushes as his mind starts to wander, only half listening to their conversation.

“So, let me guess. They got bored fucking you and moved on to your younger brother?”

Poison just rolls his eyes at him. “Pony’s been in love with Kobra for years. They’ve been doing this whole “mutual gay pining from a distance thing” for like forever. It needed to end. Also, I was getting tired of hearing my own brother’s name whenever I was sucking Pony’s dick so.”

Jet makes a disgusted face. “I don’t know why you think I’m even the slightest bit interested in hearing the details of your conquests, Party…”

“Because you’re a prude who never gets any action since you’re no fun?”

“Right, okay, Mr. Runs-away-from-commitment-and-responsibility-at-every-chance-he-gets.”

Poison was trying to think of a good comeback when Kobra stumbled into the front of the diner wearing only his boxers, blonde hair disheveled and hickies littering his neck, chest, and thighs. He doesn’t seem to notice them as he quickly rummages through the cupboards and is halfway through the kitchen with his arms full of soda and energy bars when he realizes that he’s being watched.

“Oh um… hi guys.”

Ghoul slipped out of the room as Party began to loudly congratulate his brother on getting laid (repeatedly in one day, too) and Jet started a lecture about respecting other people by not having really loud obnoxious sex one room over and “Dear God go put on some clothes Kobra before I gouge my own eyes out with a rusty fork!”

Twenty minutes later, Party Poison finds Ghoul curled up on his mattress, draped in blankets with his long, dark hair spilling over the pillow, looking like an angel. Party shuts the door softly and goes to lay down next to him, trying not to move the mattress much.

“I’m awake, you don’t need to be quiet,” Ghoul says with a sleepy smile.

“Long day, huh?” Poison asks softly as he wraps his arms around his waist and tangled their legs together.

Ghoul hums in response. “Wasted most of my energy worrying about you.”

“Why? I wasn’t even being particularly suicidal today.”

“You drive too fast. It scares me.”

“What? Come on, Ghoul. Everyone drives too fast out here.”

“But I don’t give a shit about everyone. I give a shit about you. I can’t lose you, Poison. I won’t.” Ghoul pulls him closer, wraps his arms tighter just to prove a point.

Party Poison just sighs with a smile that Ghoul can’t see as he runs his hands through his hair. “Well, you’re not going to. I don’t have any plans to leave this world any time soon.”

“Good because if you were dumb enough to get yourself dusted, I’d bring you back to life just to kick your ass and kill you again.”

Poison chuckles. “Go to sleep, Ghoulie.” He presses a kiss to his temple and they both drift off to sleep in each other’s arms.