#peepshowverse tag

[christotokos]

7. Fake relationship

Your choice on who

peepshowverse.

In order to make this whole thing work, you've gotta pretend to be my broad out there. Not just someone I'm flauntin' around for luck, but someone Cherry's gotta be jealous of.

Dallas' words circle around Ponyboy's head as he looks at the clothes that have been left in the closet for him to choose from, able to hear the sound of everyone else in the other room. They're still about this heist's technical details, while he's been left here to pick out the clothes he'd need to wear throughout their time in Vegas.

Clothes he was meant to wear to show that he was Dallas'... equal? His plaything? His new omega to show off? All of them are technically true, and he ponders over the clothes in front of him.

The first event they were going to was a ball. Cherry would be there with Randy, and Dallas had emphasized that Cherry always wore whatever was newest in fashion, whatever was most expensive. Randy indulged her all the time, too. So what she would be wearing was generally predictable for a woman of her stature now, but it wouldn't be very adventurous. She was someone with status, where she could show herself off, the alpha woman in this relationship, the one with everything. But she couldn't really be fun, and she couldn't really be eye catching in a relationship built on what was supposed to be an equal partnership.

Ponyboy had to be the opposite. It should make Dallas look better, should make it seem as if Dallas had all the power to show him off — and that Ponyboy could have fun. It should dig under her skin, that Ponyboy could be shown off in the kind of thing Dallas had never spent money on for Cherry. It should get underneath her skin.

He reaches for a glittering dress — and thinks better of it.

She'd be angrier if only one thing was accentuated. And... and maybe Dallas might like it, too.

His hand moves towards a giant pink mink coat. From the doorway, Dallas calls out, "You sure of the mink, kid?"

Ponyboy turns around, looking at Dallas, at the frown on his face, at the way he's not averting his eyes anymore. He's still keeping them mostly on Ponyboy's face, not acknowledging anything below the neck, real respectful like.

Ponyboy wishes he wouldn't be as he says, "I'm sure."

[christotokos]

✨ Fate as faith, On the sea and Undressing ✨

fate as faith — snake cult au

Dallas watches as Ponyboy goes through the aisles of the church basement, his cigarette tasting damn good as he takes a drag. "So, what, you think you and Menelaus were always gonna meet?"

He skeptical. Most things about the situation make him skeptical in the first place, and to hear Pony tell it didn't necessarily sound right, the idea that he was always fated to meet him. It sounds like something a backwater preacher would say, as Dallas watches Ponyboy peer into a box.

Whatever is in there isn't satisfying, and Ponyboy hums. "Yeah. We're twins, why wouldn't be fated to meet each other?" That irritates Dalals too; they aren't twins, they just resemble each other. Ponyboy doesn't notice the look on his face, continuing with, "What would be the point of me if I couldn't meet him?"

"What about Darry or Soda?"

Ponyboy looks up, eyes connecting with his. "It's not the same."

on the sea — selkie au

"I have to take them out to the ocean," Ponyboy says, his voice hitting those odd melodic notes that Dallas has gotten used to now. He cradles the small bundle, the baby's soft cries quieter than ever. "It's the best way we can bond, and it's what makes them truly selkies."

"What happens if they don't get out there?" Dallas asks, wiping his forehead and leaning against the library wall.

"Then they're human, and can't ever know me or the ocean itself," he says, his voice hollow, sad. "The way they've all been."

undressing — peepshowverse

Ponyboy laughs — well, giggles, really, as Dallas leads him off of the elevator and back to the suite. Everything's gone to plan so far, from Cherry's obvious surprise and jealousy to the scouting of the casino to Antonio's contact with the game commission.

Everything was going... good. Really good in a weird way that Dallas knows can't go to his head. The point of all this was to undermine Cherry and Randy, to get his money back, and to ultimately take Vegas for himself. That was the end of all this.

But he can't help how he feels, leading Ponyboy with his hand in the small of his back to the suite. He likes that Ponyboy is fun, in his own way — that he had visited the library while they were out here for books to read while they were planning, that he had talked so avidly with Dallas when he was in the mood, how smart and quick he'd been on the floor.

It makes him so interesting as Dallas leads him to the suite, to help him strip down from the pink mink, the beautiful top, and say to him, "C'mon, kid. Let's get your teeth brushed, get some water, and get you to bed."

"You comin'?" Ponyboy asks, as Dallas helps undo the buttons on his bellbottoms, pulling them down, his fingers grazing his skin. The light from the bedroom looks like twin lights reflecting in his dark eyes, a smile on his face, sloppy and sweet and wanting. "You bought the time, didn't you? I think we earned it."

Dallas thinks about arguing with that.

Then he looks at Ponyboy's smile, feels his hand running up his wrist, tugging him closer and Dallas thinks the champagne tastes better on Ponyboy's mouth.