dontknowtheworld-blog

[dontknowtheworld-blog]

(18+)

[dontknowtheworld-blog]

“Make yourself comfortable Tiernan! These chairs are probably the best wood you’ll ever drop your ass on,” said Dawn with a wink. Bristling at the inappropriate comment, Tiernan continued to stand and stare at the ground, glancing at the people in the room only briefly and when he thought they’d forgotten him.

He was just as tall and dark as Sin but that’s where the similarities ended. Dawn’s body and face were covered in so many scars that Tiernan almost wondered if he was just an Imperfect with some horrible skin condition (when he asked, Dire assured him that they were indeed scars).

“Crow! You call this gruel dinner?! It’s just garlic and asparagus grilled in oil! Who the fuck do you think I am?!” Blade’s screaming had brought Tiernan back to reality. He sighed at Blade and shook his head. He thought that it was pretty good.

Dawn continued to grin, wiggled his last piece at Blade and winked as he took a bite. “No one said you had to eat it darling. Now that I think about it, maybe you shouldn’t eat any,” he paused and clapped his oily hands to his face and mocked fear. “If you’re not careful you might weigh more than the feathers that stuff my pillow!”

Blade turned bright red and rounded on Sin who was laughing so hard he had to steady himself on Dire’s shoulder. Tiernan tried to make himself disappear behind Dire but Blade directed her fury at him anyways: “Are you just gonna stand there and let him attack me like that?! You’re my boyfriend so make yourself useful and show Crow why a filthy Imperfect like him ought to show respect to his superiors!”

Thankfully, Sin interjected and stepped between them, blocking Blade’s view of Tiernan. “That’s enough Blade. You’ve been here for only an hour and you’ve managed to insult both my brother and his cooking in his own home and now you have the audacity to order one of his other guests to fight him?” Sin slowly stepped closer, towering over her and growled, “I think it’s time for you to leave my dear.”

Any hint of the lighthearted man who had kept up with Blade since their arrival was gone and in his place was a man who sounded like he could very well hurt Tiernan’s girlfriend. Why wasn’t Tiernan more upset? He watched her slowly back out of the shack and was… relieved? Tiernan was alone with these strangers and somehow didn’t mind that as much as he had minded Blade being here with him.

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    Dawn pulled Dire aside, asking her to help him clean up the dishes and kitchen while Sin saw Blade back to the station. Whispering over the suds, Dawn asked “What’s the deal with this Tiernan kid? He hasn’t said a word since you two came in and he wouldn’t even acknowledge Blade. Aren’t they dating?”

    Dire shook her head sadly and glanced back at Tiernan awkwardly glancing around Dawn’s hut. “He’s been through a lot. I don’t think my sister is the worst he has to contend with. He seems to be choosing his battles but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t care. He’s scared Dawn.” She went back to drying the dishes as she said the next part barely above a whisper, “He thinks he’s alone here. We have to help him.”

 ��  Once they finished and Sin had returned alone, the three of them sat down in different parts of the room so that Tiernan wouldn’t feel ganged up on. “So Golden Boy,” Dawn began, “you like wood carving?”

Sin shook his head as Dire cut in, explaining that Tiernan didn’t like to be called that since he wouldn’t say so himself to Dawn. This was going to be a long night.

[dontknowtheworld-blog]

Lea’s Downfall

TW: This story contains blood, attempted rape, and domestic abuse 

Sinestair dropped to his knees, clutching his stained shirt and groaning in agony.

“Surrender Uncle Estair! You’re no match for the great Max!”

Sin suppressed a smile as the small child with fiery hair stood on his race car bed, “towering” over him. Playing Knights and Wizards with Dire’s children was just about the most fulfilling thing he had ever done and so he acted with every fiber of his being, hoping that the feeling of triumph each would get along the way could be last after he would have to leave. 

“Fear not Sir Estair!” Max’s older sister came charging into the room to tackle him onto his own bed and proceeded to tickle him mercilessly. “I, Lady Anastasia, smight thee in the name of her majesty Queen Dragonfire!” With that she flopped on top of him, effectively pinning him until he conceded that she was victorious. 

The two children crawled out of bed once they’d finished and walked with Sin into the laundry room so he could deposit his shirt into the wash. It’s amazing how well red paint stained his flowery shirt but he didn’t mind. He had plenty of time to wash it before Lea came home. In the meantime, maybe he could convince these adorable heathens to help him clean the house while their poor mother slept. 

They crept about the house, the children dusting any surface they could reach and (in between wet rag fights) washed the various tables that spotted the main room. Sin effectively took care of every “wifely” duty in the house short of cooking. They were finishing setting the placemats on the dining table when she finally woke up.

“Estair, what on Spriteland do you think you and my little peaches are doing?” she asked with a soft laugh.

“We cleaned everything for you mom!” Max shouted, running to hug her legs.

“Well, Max and I cleaned a bit, and Sin took care of basically everything,” Ana said, gathering the remaining of the cleaning materials and putting them away. 

Dire came to stand by Sin while fixing her hair into an elegant updo and eyed Sin curiously. “And where did Uncle Estair’s shirt disappear to?” she asked quietly. 

Despite the blush that spread across his dark, freckled face, Sin calmly explained that he’d stained it in a Knights and Wizards accident and would leave once he’d washed it.

“Stay for dinner,” said Dire, practically commanding him.

“But Lea-”

“Hardly shows up anyways. It’s a 50/50 chance that he’ll actually come home tonight. I’m making dinner and I say that you’ll stay and have some Estair.”

“If you say so.”

___________________________________

About halfway through dinner, Lea arrived home. He froze, fixing his red gaze on that shirtless twink of a man that Dire insisted the children call uncle. “Well hi there Sinestair. Didn’t expect to have you joining me and my fine family for dinner tonight.”

As Dire wordlessly prepared a dish for him, Lea sat down in her place next to Sin and addressed the children, asking them what they’d accomplished that day. They’d been advised  by their mother to never mention Uncle Estair’s visits so they recounted the events of the day, pointedly omitting him or substituting their mother in his place. 

Once she replaced her own meal with his, Dire stood to the side and watched Lea, anxiously fiddling with the folds in her poodle skirt and repeatedly checking the state of her hair when Axel wasn’t looking.

Once they’d finished dinner, the kids excused themselves and Sin offered to wash the dishes once he’d retrieved his shirt from the laundry room. Lea nodded his consent and then approached his wife, gently taking her in his arms and whispered in her ear, “Let’s have a chat, shall we?”

With his arms around her shoulders, they disappeared into their bedroom off of the main room.

Dire was shaking but trying to maintain the smile that she knew her husband liked to see. There had been times when they were kids where he’d make a complete fool of himself just to see that smile and she hoped it would protect her now.

_______________________________

As soon as the door closed she was thrown to the floor. 

“Why the fuck is he here? Did you seriously think you could bring him into our home without some consequences? You fucking slut you were probably planning on taking him to our bed weren’t you?!”

“No! He was just-”

Lea screamed in anger and threw the back of his hand across her face, destroying the updo she’d carefully maintained and pushing her back onto the floor. She started sobbing into her hands, hoping the kids were far enough away to not be able to hear them. 

Her husband grabbed her by the shoulders and threw her up onto the bed. As he began to undress he growled, “You better hope he likes to listen to you with other men because-”

The next thing she knew, Lea was on the floor with his nose bleeding everywhere and Sin’s knuckles were covered in blood. Was he hurt? Was that Lea’s blood? Her head was swimming and she could barely feeling the stinging on her face anymore as she watched her best friend attack her husband.

As if returning from somewhere far away, Dire came back to reality and regained control of her body. She screamed and threw herself between the two, forcing Sin to stop. He grabbed her off of Lea and held her to him, restraining her arms as she struggled to tend to her husband. Tears streamed down her face as she fought to tend to her husband. She owed him her life and more, she had to help him.

[dontknowtheworld-blog]

Tiernan's First Friend

         Tiernan sat down begrudgingly and dropped his face into his hands. "I could be asleep right now. This is an awful idea and I hate you for even considering convincing me to do it," he mumbled into his palms while his sandy curls slipped between his fingertips.

          Blade plopped into the trolley seat next to him and clapped him on the back with one of those smiles that she always flashed when someone had something she wanted. "Relax Golden Boy. I'm sure my sister and the twins will adore you. Plus, you said you wanted friends and this is how normal Sprites make friends."

        "But isn't one of the twins a Shadow?"

        "Details darling, details."

         They rode to the end of the line and Blade grabbed his wrist and pulled him off the Trolley, out of the remote station, and into the woods. Imperfects were said to live here and attack any Sprite idiotic enough to venture this far out from the cities. Tiernan was always getting into sketchy situations just because Blade flashed him a smile and he was getting pretty sick of being the only one to deal with the consequences. "What's in it for you anyways," he asked, stopping abruptly in the path.

          He was untouchable but she wasn't, so why not make her aware of the risks of being out here?

She clenched her jaw and then slowly exhaled a breath neither of them realized she'd been holding. She hated this part of getting to that imbecile's house and didn't enjoy the fact that Tiernan chose the forest (of all places!) to ask her. "If you really must know, Dire and her little boy toy feel that I'm keeping you all to myself so that you feel obligated to always help your one and only friend," then pausing to sigh and finally look him in the eyes. "The only thing about you I'd want to keep to myself is the sex, and that's not because you're good but rather that I don't share."

Tiernan chose to ignore the fact that he found everything she said to be insulting and press for a straight answer: "If you expect me to believe you're doing this because you've seen the error of your ways and are spitefully getting me friends, you're sadly mistaken."

          Blade threw up her hands and stormed off up the trail shouting back "I'm sick of you and at this point I'm just trying to pawn you off on my sister and Crow so that I can get at Sin."

          When Tiernan didn't respond or move, she stopped and looked back. He had tears running down his face. When they made eye contact she simply raised her eyebrows and tapped her foot impatiently. Tiernan wiped his eyes but the tears didn't stop so he kept his head down and followed her to Dawn's shack.

_________________________________________

          Dire was lounging on the weathered couch that provided the only outside decoration to Dawn's porch. She'd started to dose off but the smell of Sin walking onto the porch with dinner was enough to bring her back to reality.

         "Dawn insisted on making us food before you get too wasted," he said, gesturing to the drink that marked her fourth cocktail of the evening.

         She laughed and grabbed a piece of grilled asparagus and tapped Sin on the nose as he carefully sat next to her. As they both quietly are their dinner, waiting for Blade and her poor boyfriend to arrive, Dire watched Sin's careful and calculated movement. Everything Sin did was purposeful because growing up in a celebrity household that beats the shit out of you meant there was never any room for error in one's behavior.

          Blade and Tiernan's arrival startled them both out of their stupor. Blade was dramatically stomping along the path while this poor man in tow was stifling sobs the whole way.

         Sin stood and rushed out to hug Blade. Giving a pointed look to Dire, he put on his TV smile and guided Blade into the hut. Tiernan moved to follow but Dire called out to him to come join her on the couch.

         Tiernan was the picture definition of being obtrusive. Despite his best efforts to fit in, everything from his golden hair, eyes, and freckles to the fabric of his clothing being laced with gold, screamed royalty. He was obviously the son of the eternals that ruled over their planet, something Blade had failed to mention.

          "I'm Blade's sister Dragonfire, but most call me Dire. You are?" she asked, offering him an asparagus.

           He smiled, taking the vegetable and answered between small bites, "I'm sure you know who I am, though I appreciate you trying to give me a friendly introduction." He sat for a moment and then wiped his eyes for the final time (that evening) and looked into her's for the first time. "You can call me. Tiernan. Blade calls me Golden Boy for obvious reasons, but I'm not fond of it honestly."

          "Well she calls Dawn a nickname he's not fond of either, if that makes you feel better."

          "Crow?"

           She winced and nodded. "I'd avoid saying it loudly, if at all…. Assuming you want to get on his good side that is."

          "I'd like to try. I've never been on someone's 'good side' before."

          Dire's eyes softened and she gently squeezed his hand as she pulled him up off the couch. "Stick with me kid, and that'll change."