#oh right I forgot to mention I changed Gideon and Warner's last name lol

[artdecosupernova-writing]

OC Kiss Week Day 5: Darkness

WIP: Shadow Tamer Pairing: Gideon x Blake Timeline: not part of canon, but likely toward the end of the book if not after it completely idk CW: none Rating: T Words: 1,030

***

"I'm hoping you have a good reason to ask me here," Gideon said, his struggle for breath apparent in the clouds of vapor puffing out of his mouth. He reached the crest of the cemetery hill, hands stuffed into his coat pockets, nose and fingers already numb. "Not that I necessarily have a problem with being surrounded by the dead. And don't expect me to unpack that."

Blake, standing at the peak in his signature perfect posture that made him seem considerably long and regal, turned to Gideon with a warm if not mischievous smile. "Mr. Mendel. I'm happy you could join us."

Gideon stopped beside Blake and forced air into his own lungs, taking in the black and white striped mod suit Blake wore as he had the first time he ever saw him. "...Us?"

Blake's grin appeared to have frozen to his face. He cast a feline glance in the direction of the graves shadowed by night and the various elderly magnolia trees towering over the land. "We were just having a lively chat before you arrived. And the irony of that is very attractive."

"Okay." Gideon nodded and peered across at the darkness, a familiar tingle swelling at the base of his skull. "I should be used to this by now, shouldn't I?"

"We haven't known each other long," Blake said, slipping his fingers into the pockets of his own jacket.

Gideon peered sideways at him. "It's felt like our whole lives, hasn't it?"

His concern that the true nature of his unfinished statement wouldn't have been picked up was assuaged a moment later. Blake's enigmatic grin folded gently into a bittersweet gaze over the tops of the headstones.

Blake carefully removed his black tourmaline from his pocket. He stood in silence, smoothing his thumb over a facet and narrowing his focus onto the individual graves.

Thin wisps of fog seeped out of the ground, lifting no higher than an inch into the air before tumbling back down and swiftly accumulating. The headstones soon bathed in it, bright, bubbling fog caressing moss-covered granite and cold, packed dirt.

Though Gideon had witnessed this before, he didn't think he would ever get used to it.

"You're free to join us," Blake said to someone other than Gideon. "...I know none of you have much strength right now."

The fog began to form vague shapes hovering over the graves, twirling in the frigid air and bouncing what little light was available.

"Come, now," Blake whispered, removing his other hand from his second pocket. With it he pulled out a piece of quartz eerily clear enough to be mistaken for glass, and he swept his thumb over its facets as if it were a worry stone. "...Don't make me look like a fool in front of this man."

Gideon let out an unexpected laugh, not loudly enough to disrupt Blake's concentration. He then watched in awe as the vague shapes phased in and out of discernable forms, ambiguous yet human though they were.

They shifted and undulated, gliding in Blake's direction. Without warning, they all sank into the ground, spreading through the grass at a breakneck speed. One spirit remained, wide at the feet as if wearing an old gown from an undeterminable era, still inching closer.

"They've been here a very long time," Blake said, this time to Gideon. "Their resting places have been upset by hurricanes and floods, over and over for decades. Their tethers are frayed and irreparably strained." A foreign scowl of frustration pinched at his face. "She's got a few minutes with us at most."

"I'm...sorry," Gideon murmured to the spirit as her cold finally reached him. It bit into his skin, much sharper than the night air. "I can't imagine it's been easy for you."

She elongated near the top of her form—an arm held out to Gideon in wordless question.

Blake kept a firm eye on her, and while his face portrayed suspicion and caution, his tone conveyed sympathy. "She wants you to hold her hand as she falls away."

Gideon knew falling away wasn't an unpleasant concept as it merely meant disappearing until summoned again, but it didn't stop a pang of sadness from curling in his chest. He couldn't hold onto her hand in any real sense, but he mimed it, imagining that he grasped it with love and assurance.

As she faded into the fog, Gideon turned to look at Blake. Blake had his eyes on Gideon, just as suspicious and cautious as he'd been with the spirit.

"Why d'you think she wanted me to do that?" Gideon asked.

Blake returned his crystals to his pockets. "I'd say she could sense your energy. The warmth and the compassion you exude that even I could sense very quickly into knowing you. Or she sensed your amazing paternal instincts and hoped to be comforted as well as you'd comfort Warner."

Gideon's cheeks burned. "You know...I've wanted to kiss you since I first got up here on this hill, and you're not making me want to any less."

Here, the enigmatic grin returned. Blake tilted his head, his eyes dropping to Gideon's mouth for the briefest of seconds. "At least there's no chance of transferring my makeup this time around."

Gideon leaned forward without another thought and pressed their lips together. Blake cupped his jaw in his hands, and Gideon wasn't prepared for the albeit small amount of hunger in the way he deepened the kiss, his minor stake on Gideon making him dizzy with a sudden and quick spike of desire.

But Blake took his time. He remained unbothered as Gideon snaked his hands around his waist, was in no rush to step back when he broke their kiss with much hesitance.

"Mm," Blake grunted, and for a thrilling second Gideon thought the atypical sound was in relation to their kiss.

Before he could reply, however, Blake reached a thumb up to stroke across Gideon's cheekbone, holding it in front of Gideon's eyes with a cheeky smirk.

White face paint covered the pad of Blake's thumb. Fog curled around Gideon's feet and he could not ever explain where the makeup came from.