Fic: Substitute Dreams 8/?
Oct. 27th, 2007 06:27 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
princessacadra.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
mag7fansTitle: Substitute Dreams - chapter eight
Category: Delinquent AU (aka ATF Teen AU)
Characters: Vin, Ezra, Buck/Chris
Rating: R/PG-13
Warnings: Slash, mentions of child abuse, profanity
Summary: Sequel to "Delinquent" part of the Delinquent Universe which is a spin off of Mog’s ATF universe. Ezra has joined the Larabee/Wilmington/Tanner household. Life with Ezra is anything but dull.
I will respond to comments... later. Today's a busy day (and I don't have to work! yay!), but I wanted to post this and hope I can write the next chapter(s) quickly. :P I'm so not making the Halloween Challenge (plus it really doesn't work right now with where I'm at in this 'verse), but I will probably finish/post it later, possibly after the next sequel is complete...
"Chapter One", "Chapter Two", "Chapter Three", "Chapter Four", "Chapter Five", "Chapter Six", "Chapter Seven"
Chapter Eight
They were all stunned by Ezra's sudden disappearance, but they went ahead with lunch assuming that Ezra would surface eventually. When he didn’t Buck and then Vin tried to get him to come out to eat – Ezra refused. Chris tried to reason with him, reminding Ezra that the cat would need food and water, too, and that if she was going to stay in Ezra’s room that she would need a litter box. Ezra had yelled, nearly hysterical, that he was not coming out, they could not have the cat, and that he wasn’t going to let anyone hurt her.
“Ezra, they aren’t going to hurt her.” Vin had stretched out beside Ezra’s door, occasionally scratching at the wood to try to get his attention again. “Chris really likes cats and so does Buck. Nothing is going to happen to her.”
It was an hour or so later that Ezra cracked open the door for Vin so that he could bring food, water, and a litter box in for the cat. The cat was held tightly in his arms as Vin left the room briefly to get some sandwiches and a drink for Ezra. When the door was locked again Ezra released the cat.
“She’s a nice cat.”
Ezra nodded as he watched her lap up some water.
“Ezra. They don’t want to hurt her.”
“I don’t know that.” There was more emotion in Ezra’s eyes than Vin had ever seen before – fear, confusion, anger, and more fear.
“Have you ever had any pets?”
“Yeah.”
Vin bit his lip as he guessed, “A dog?”
“Yeah.” Ezra’s eyes seemed to vibrate even as they looked at nothing.
“Did someone hurt your dog?”
“No.”
Ezra’s breathing had quickened so the next question came easily. “Did someone say they were going to hurt the dog?”
“Yeah.”
Vin sighed at the one-word responses. “Talk to me, please. I want to know what’s wrong even if I can’t do anything to help. What happened to the dog?”
“Nothing.” Ezra avoided looking at Vin as the cat scrolled back over to him and rubbed up against him. “I gave the dog away to a friend so he wouldn’t get hurt.” His voice grew rough and Ezra made an effort to clear his throat and shake it off, his eyes glittering though no visible tears formed. “There was a stray, though.”
Ezra liked to touch things like Buck did. Vin has seen that with his friends Ezra always seemed to be in contact with something or someone – his hand on someone’s arm or shoulder or even inanimate objects like a wall, table, or a basketball. There were certain people Ezra avoided touching like teachers and most adults, but he never shied away from being touched, at least not as far as Vin had seen. So when Vin offered his hand he wasn’t surprised when Ezra latched onto it immediately.
“She was pregnant and really friendly. There was no reason to hurt her except that she was there and he was angry and drunk and he wouldn’t hurt me.” With his free arm Ezra dragged the cat into his lap and held her against him, his hand curled over her rounded belly. “I forget what he hit her with but it knocked her out and he dragged her inside and said we didn’t need any more damn dogs. He made me watch when he cut her open and all the blood and the puppies came out and they flopped around and most of them died pretty quickly. There were a few that might have survived, but he bashed their heads in with a pot or a pan or something. The dog bleed to death on the floor.”
A shiver went through Vin as he edged closer to Ezra for his own comfort. “One of your stepfathers did this?”
Ezra nodded, but didn’t offer a name.
The question Vin dreaded was forced past his lips. “How old were you?”
“About five.”
“Was that the same one that…?”
“Yeah.” Suddenly Ezra was turning into Vin, the cat leaping from his lap as Vin gasped into the lips that were suddenly pressed against his. When Ezra’s tongue slipped into Vin’s mouth he jerked away in surprise. “Don’t you want me?”
There was a hurt expression on Ezra’s face and of course Ezra had seen Vin’s interest even if he hadn’t appeared to be responding to it. “I just don’t think we should…”
“Why not?”
What would Ezra understand and accept? What was the right answer? “I just… I’m not ready…”
“To kiss?”
Vin nodded. “Or anything else.”
“Oh.” Ezra’s head dropped onto Vin’s shoulder. “I wasn’t either.” They didn’t move from their spot on the floor for at least an hour – it took Vin that long to control the tears that threatened to spill. Ezra looked perfectly at peace with no hint of any unseen struggle. Then again, to Ezra it had merely been a statement of facts.
Ezra did come out for dinner, but then immediately went back to guarding the pregnant cat and refused to allow Chris or Buck into the room. Though Ezra would have allowed him in Vin needed to be away from him for a while and he found himself mindlessly watching a TV show he wasn’t sure he even liked. When Chris joined him on the couch Vin scooted closer until Chris’s arm came around his shoulders. It was like opening the floodgates, Vin’s tears soaking Chris’s shirt.
“Vin, hey, what’s wrong? Did something happen?” Chris fell silent after that as if realizing that Vin was crying too hard to speak. When the tears died down Vin’s arm came around Chris’s stomach in a half-hug, the first time Vin had ever done that before.
“Let him keep the cat.” A stray tear slid down Vin’s red and puffy cheeks.
“Vin, did something happen?”
He shook his head in refusal because he wouldn’t tell Ezra’s secrets. “Just let him keep the cat in his room. He’ll feel better.”
“Okay, but we are going to have to have a vet look at her. Dr. Sayr will be out to check the mares so Yosemite can have him look over the cat, too.”
That was something Vin thought Ezra could handle, so he told Chris that he would let Ezra know because he didn’t want him to be surprised. It was getting late so Vin went back to his own room, grabbed a blanket and pillow and scratched on Ezra’s door again. “It’s me.”
The door unlocked and Vin edged inside then closed and locked the door behind him. “How’s the cat doing?”
“Fine.” There were two books on Ezra’s stand “The Great Gatsby” and “The Picture of Dorian Gray” that Ezra appeared to be taking turns reading. He never took them to school, but Vin had seen him reading every once in a while when he was in his room. “She’s just been wandering around.”
It was probably better just to go ahead and say it instead of waiting. “Chris said that their vet will be out to check on the horses on Monday and he wanted the cat to be looked at, too.”
Ezra yawned as he dropped onto his bed. “Okay. They can’t really do much until later when she’s not pregnant, right?”
“I guess.” He was taking it a lot better than Vin would have suspected.
“You don’t have to sleep on the floor.” Ezra was scooting over on the bed. “There’s room up here if you want. It can’t be that comfortable on the floor anyway.” A smile appeared on Ezra’s face as he laid down, his eyes following Vin. “Just to sleep, promise.”
Vin hesitated for a few moments before moving toward the bed and perching on the edge. “Are you sure?” He’d never slept in the same bed as anyone else before and he had no idea what sort of memories it might spark for Ezra. That and Vin wasn’t sure that it was a good idea at all. In the end it was Ezra’s seeming ease with the offer that made Vin settle into the bed because if Ezra was okay with it then he should be too.
It seemed that they’d only been asleep a short time when an awful howling started and jolted both Vin and Ezra from sleep. “What’s that?” Ezra asked even as he flipped on the light to find that their quiet tabby cat was the one making that sound. “What’s wrong with her?” The cat howled again and paced across the room while panting heavily.
“Maybe she’s having the babies?” Vin was unlocking the door to get Chris, but found that the man was already at the door, having heard the noise. “Chris…”
“Yeah, go get some blankets from the hall closet. There’s a cardboard box in the laundry room, too that we’ll need.” Chris made soothing noises for the cat that continued to whine and howl pitifully. “Ezra, come over here.” Further words froze in Chris’s mouth when he realized that as soon as Vin had left the room to retrieve the items that Ezra had dropped to the floor, nearly cowering by his bed. Still, Ezra crept across the room at his request, his eyes darting toward the cat and then toward Chris as if not sure where he was supposed to look.
Ezra cautiously stroked the cat’s fur as he watched the man out of the corner of his eye though he tried to appear unafraid. “What should I do?”
“She’s probably scared, this could be her first litter of kittens. For the most part we’ll just watch and make sure that she’s doing okay.” The cat didn’t cause too many concerns for Chris, but the boy beside him whose hand trembled almost imperceptibly was another matter entirely. “We’ll just have to stay calm and keep out of her way. Guess we could also think of a name for her.”
It was a relief when Vin returned to the room, carrying the cardboard box and several blankets. Chris set one of the blankets into the cardboard box and put the cat gently in after it, draping the other blanket over top, partly covering it. There was already a cutout hole in the front of the box so they could look in and so the mama kitty could get out without her kittens being able to follow.
Ezra and Chris spent the rest of the night watching the cat give birth to four kittens and though Vin lasted most of the night he ended up falling asleep on Chris’s shoulder. The name that they had come up with for mama cat was Maddy, one Vin had picked out because Ezra appeared to want no part in coming up with any name. From what Vin had said there had been a baby girl named Madison in one of his foster homes that they’d all called Maddy. She had been severely underweight when she had arrived and her arms frozen in place from disuse, but they had worked with her to get her to move and helped Maddy to gain weight. Vin said he liked the name so the cat became Maddy.
When Chris attempted to wake Vin so that he could get up, tapping the boy lightly, Ezra suddenly reached over, grabbed Vin’s arm, and jerked jolting Vin immediately upright. “Hm? How’s Maddy?” Vin glanced at both of them before turning his attention to the partly covered cardboard box and the cat with her kittens. “Four kittens.”
After breakfast Chris pulled Vin aside and made it clear that Vin was not to sleep in Ezra’s room if the door was closed and especially if the door was locked. Vin protested weakly that nothing had happened, but Chris was adamant so he gave in – the door had only been closed and locked because of the cat, anyway. All three of them went outside to muck out stalls, though Buck sent Chris back in when he started to fall asleep on them. Ezra sat by the fence in his usual spot and fell asleep.
Buck and Vin made and ate lunch together, neither one of them wanting to wake Chris or Ezra, though Buck said they would keep an eye on Ezra – it was impossible to miss Chris’s loud snoring on the couch. They talked about the new kittens and possible names for them when they got older, then about the horses, and finally about Ezra. “He would be able to visit his mom sometime, wouldn’t he? She’d be at the women’s prison, right?” It was what Vin would want if he were in Ezra’s shoes, though it might be a good idea to wait awhile if what Ezra said about her just getting off of drugs was true.
“Not sure Vin. We’d have to ask Amber if we could do that, but I wouldn’t have a problem with it and I’m sure Chris wouldn’t either. Boy needs to see his mama while she’s still around.”
The curious tone to Buck’s voice made Vin ask, “Is your mom still alive?”
“She died years ago.” There was a smile on Buck’s face when he looked up at Vin. “Still miss her, though. Now, Chris’s parents are still around and he’s quite the mama’s boy, believe me.”
Vin laughed even as he noted the omission of Buck’s own father. But he didn’t ask. They weren’t there yet.
-to be continued-
Next Chapter
Category: Delinquent AU (aka ATF Teen AU)
Characters: Vin, Ezra, Buck/Chris
Rating: R/PG-13
Warnings: Slash, mentions of child abuse, profanity
Summary: Sequel to "Delinquent" part of the Delinquent Universe which is a spin off of Mog’s ATF universe. Ezra has joined the Larabee/Wilmington/Tanner household. Life with Ezra is anything but dull.
I will respond to comments... later. Today's a busy day (and I don't have to work! yay!), but I wanted to post this and hope I can write the next chapter(s) quickly. :P I'm so not making the Halloween Challenge (plus it really doesn't work right now with where I'm at in this 'verse), but I will probably finish/post it later, possibly after the next sequel is complete...
"Chapter One", "Chapter Two", "Chapter Three", "Chapter Four", "Chapter Five", "Chapter Six", "Chapter Seven"
Chapter Eight
They were all stunned by Ezra's sudden disappearance, but they went ahead with lunch assuming that Ezra would surface eventually. When he didn’t Buck and then Vin tried to get him to come out to eat – Ezra refused. Chris tried to reason with him, reminding Ezra that the cat would need food and water, too, and that if she was going to stay in Ezra’s room that she would need a litter box. Ezra had yelled, nearly hysterical, that he was not coming out, they could not have the cat, and that he wasn’t going to let anyone hurt her.
“Ezra, they aren’t going to hurt her.” Vin had stretched out beside Ezra’s door, occasionally scratching at the wood to try to get his attention again. “Chris really likes cats and so does Buck. Nothing is going to happen to her.”
It was an hour or so later that Ezra cracked open the door for Vin so that he could bring food, water, and a litter box in for the cat. The cat was held tightly in his arms as Vin left the room briefly to get some sandwiches and a drink for Ezra. When the door was locked again Ezra released the cat.
“She’s a nice cat.”
Ezra nodded as he watched her lap up some water.
“Ezra. They don’t want to hurt her.”
“I don’t know that.” There was more emotion in Ezra’s eyes than Vin had ever seen before – fear, confusion, anger, and more fear.
“Have you ever had any pets?”
“Yeah.”
Vin bit his lip as he guessed, “A dog?”
“Yeah.” Ezra’s eyes seemed to vibrate even as they looked at nothing.
“Did someone hurt your dog?”
“No.”
Ezra’s breathing had quickened so the next question came easily. “Did someone say they were going to hurt the dog?”
“Yeah.”
Vin sighed at the one-word responses. “Talk to me, please. I want to know what’s wrong even if I can’t do anything to help. What happened to the dog?”
“Nothing.” Ezra avoided looking at Vin as the cat scrolled back over to him and rubbed up against him. “I gave the dog away to a friend so he wouldn’t get hurt.” His voice grew rough and Ezra made an effort to clear his throat and shake it off, his eyes glittering though no visible tears formed. “There was a stray, though.”
Ezra liked to touch things like Buck did. Vin has seen that with his friends Ezra always seemed to be in contact with something or someone – his hand on someone’s arm or shoulder or even inanimate objects like a wall, table, or a basketball. There were certain people Ezra avoided touching like teachers and most adults, but he never shied away from being touched, at least not as far as Vin had seen. So when Vin offered his hand he wasn’t surprised when Ezra latched onto it immediately.
“She was pregnant and really friendly. There was no reason to hurt her except that she was there and he was angry and drunk and he wouldn’t hurt me.” With his free arm Ezra dragged the cat into his lap and held her against him, his hand curled over her rounded belly. “I forget what he hit her with but it knocked her out and he dragged her inside and said we didn’t need any more damn dogs. He made me watch when he cut her open and all the blood and the puppies came out and they flopped around and most of them died pretty quickly. There were a few that might have survived, but he bashed their heads in with a pot or a pan or something. The dog bleed to death on the floor.”
A shiver went through Vin as he edged closer to Ezra for his own comfort. “One of your stepfathers did this?”
Ezra nodded, but didn’t offer a name.
The question Vin dreaded was forced past his lips. “How old were you?”
“About five.”
“Was that the same one that…?”
“Yeah.” Suddenly Ezra was turning into Vin, the cat leaping from his lap as Vin gasped into the lips that were suddenly pressed against his. When Ezra’s tongue slipped into Vin’s mouth he jerked away in surprise. “Don’t you want me?”
There was a hurt expression on Ezra’s face and of course Ezra had seen Vin’s interest even if he hadn’t appeared to be responding to it. “I just don’t think we should…”
“Why not?”
What would Ezra understand and accept? What was the right answer? “I just… I’m not ready…”
“To kiss?”
Vin nodded. “Or anything else.”
“Oh.” Ezra’s head dropped onto Vin’s shoulder. “I wasn’t either.” They didn’t move from their spot on the floor for at least an hour – it took Vin that long to control the tears that threatened to spill. Ezra looked perfectly at peace with no hint of any unseen struggle. Then again, to Ezra it had merely been a statement of facts.
Ezra did come out for dinner, but then immediately went back to guarding the pregnant cat and refused to allow Chris or Buck into the room. Though Ezra would have allowed him in Vin needed to be away from him for a while and he found himself mindlessly watching a TV show he wasn’t sure he even liked. When Chris joined him on the couch Vin scooted closer until Chris’s arm came around his shoulders. It was like opening the floodgates, Vin’s tears soaking Chris’s shirt.
“Vin, hey, what’s wrong? Did something happen?” Chris fell silent after that as if realizing that Vin was crying too hard to speak. When the tears died down Vin’s arm came around Chris’s stomach in a half-hug, the first time Vin had ever done that before.
“Let him keep the cat.” A stray tear slid down Vin’s red and puffy cheeks.
“Vin, did something happen?”
He shook his head in refusal because he wouldn’t tell Ezra’s secrets. “Just let him keep the cat in his room. He’ll feel better.”
“Okay, but we are going to have to have a vet look at her. Dr. Sayr will be out to check the mares so Yosemite can have him look over the cat, too.”
That was something Vin thought Ezra could handle, so he told Chris that he would let Ezra know because he didn’t want him to be surprised. It was getting late so Vin went back to his own room, grabbed a blanket and pillow and scratched on Ezra’s door again. “It’s me.”
The door unlocked and Vin edged inside then closed and locked the door behind him. “How’s the cat doing?”
“Fine.” There were two books on Ezra’s stand “The Great Gatsby” and “The Picture of Dorian Gray” that Ezra appeared to be taking turns reading. He never took them to school, but Vin had seen him reading every once in a while when he was in his room. “She’s just been wandering around.”
It was probably better just to go ahead and say it instead of waiting. “Chris said that their vet will be out to check on the horses on Monday and he wanted the cat to be looked at, too.”
Ezra yawned as he dropped onto his bed. “Okay. They can’t really do much until later when she’s not pregnant, right?”
“I guess.” He was taking it a lot better than Vin would have suspected.
“You don’t have to sleep on the floor.” Ezra was scooting over on the bed. “There’s room up here if you want. It can’t be that comfortable on the floor anyway.” A smile appeared on Ezra’s face as he laid down, his eyes following Vin. “Just to sleep, promise.”
Vin hesitated for a few moments before moving toward the bed and perching on the edge. “Are you sure?” He’d never slept in the same bed as anyone else before and he had no idea what sort of memories it might spark for Ezra. That and Vin wasn’t sure that it was a good idea at all. In the end it was Ezra’s seeming ease with the offer that made Vin settle into the bed because if Ezra was okay with it then he should be too.
It seemed that they’d only been asleep a short time when an awful howling started and jolted both Vin and Ezra from sleep. “What’s that?” Ezra asked even as he flipped on the light to find that their quiet tabby cat was the one making that sound. “What’s wrong with her?” The cat howled again and paced across the room while panting heavily.
“Maybe she’s having the babies?” Vin was unlocking the door to get Chris, but found that the man was already at the door, having heard the noise. “Chris…”
“Yeah, go get some blankets from the hall closet. There’s a cardboard box in the laundry room, too that we’ll need.” Chris made soothing noises for the cat that continued to whine and howl pitifully. “Ezra, come over here.” Further words froze in Chris’s mouth when he realized that as soon as Vin had left the room to retrieve the items that Ezra had dropped to the floor, nearly cowering by his bed. Still, Ezra crept across the room at his request, his eyes darting toward the cat and then toward Chris as if not sure where he was supposed to look.
Ezra cautiously stroked the cat’s fur as he watched the man out of the corner of his eye though he tried to appear unafraid. “What should I do?”
“She’s probably scared, this could be her first litter of kittens. For the most part we’ll just watch and make sure that she’s doing okay.” The cat didn’t cause too many concerns for Chris, but the boy beside him whose hand trembled almost imperceptibly was another matter entirely. “We’ll just have to stay calm and keep out of her way. Guess we could also think of a name for her.”
It was a relief when Vin returned to the room, carrying the cardboard box and several blankets. Chris set one of the blankets into the cardboard box and put the cat gently in after it, draping the other blanket over top, partly covering it. There was already a cutout hole in the front of the box so they could look in and so the mama kitty could get out without her kittens being able to follow.
Ezra and Chris spent the rest of the night watching the cat give birth to four kittens and though Vin lasted most of the night he ended up falling asleep on Chris’s shoulder. The name that they had come up with for mama cat was Maddy, one Vin had picked out because Ezra appeared to want no part in coming up with any name. From what Vin had said there had been a baby girl named Madison in one of his foster homes that they’d all called Maddy. She had been severely underweight when she had arrived and her arms frozen in place from disuse, but they had worked with her to get her to move and helped Maddy to gain weight. Vin said he liked the name so the cat became Maddy.
When Chris attempted to wake Vin so that he could get up, tapping the boy lightly, Ezra suddenly reached over, grabbed Vin’s arm, and jerked jolting Vin immediately upright. “Hm? How’s Maddy?” Vin glanced at both of them before turning his attention to the partly covered cardboard box and the cat with her kittens. “Four kittens.”
After breakfast Chris pulled Vin aside and made it clear that Vin was not to sleep in Ezra’s room if the door was closed and especially if the door was locked. Vin protested weakly that nothing had happened, but Chris was adamant so he gave in – the door had only been closed and locked because of the cat, anyway. All three of them went outside to muck out stalls, though Buck sent Chris back in when he started to fall asleep on them. Ezra sat by the fence in his usual spot and fell asleep.
Buck and Vin made and ate lunch together, neither one of them wanting to wake Chris or Ezra, though Buck said they would keep an eye on Ezra – it was impossible to miss Chris’s loud snoring on the couch. They talked about the new kittens and possible names for them when they got older, then about the horses, and finally about Ezra. “He would be able to visit his mom sometime, wouldn’t he? She’d be at the women’s prison, right?” It was what Vin would want if he were in Ezra’s shoes, though it might be a good idea to wait awhile if what Ezra said about her just getting off of drugs was true.
“Not sure Vin. We’d have to ask Amber if we could do that, but I wouldn’t have a problem with it and I’m sure Chris wouldn’t either. Boy needs to see his mama while she’s still around.”
The curious tone to Buck’s voice made Vin ask, “Is your mom still alive?”
“She died years ago.” There was a smile on Buck’s face when he looked up at Vin. “Still miss her, though. Now, Chris’s parents are still around and he’s quite the mama’s boy, believe me.”
Vin laughed even as he noted the omission of Buck’s own father. But he didn’t ask. They weren’t there yet.
-to be continued-
Next Chapter
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