Unfortunately, to his dismay, Dylan's fatigue was not due to a concussion. Now that he was sitting inside his own home with his sisters and Markus gleefully chatting at breakfast, by force of his sisters, Dylan prayed that his concussion-based coma was just very delayed.
Dylan had two sisters, both taller than him, with longer hairstyles and more welcoming voices, but sharing his same brown hair and glassy eyes. Their names were Astra and Iris, both much more original and more extraordinary names than fucking Dylan.
Dylan still loved his sisters, though– no, he adored them. All three had an abnormally healthy relationship, were very closely knit, and rarely ever snapped at each other, regardless of how many disagreements they'd had. Dylan could never bring himself to be annoyed by their presence, but that love did not extend to Markus. Although he was glad his senses were his own again, dealing with the hypersensitivity only stimulated this sensory hell.
No matter how hard he tried to ignore it and tune him out, Markus' voice had completely dominated poor Dylan's hearing. He could hear every change in tone and pitch, every breath he took, every slight stutter. If Dylan hadn't had his head down, his vision would have been preoccupied with him too. Regardless, it drove him downright insane.
None of Markus' vocal mannerisms felt endearing as they pierced Dylan's consciousness, irritating his already dry patience. Through the joy-filled conversation of his sisters and that plague of a man, Dylan whined in discomfort.
"Can I please go upstairs? I'm not doing jackshit to 'entertain my guest,' and I'd rather not stick around to see him leave," He begged, dropping his head face down onto the table as his arms sprawled out to his sides.
Astra rolled her eyes. "This dude saved your ass, and this is how you treat him? Jesus, Dylan, you were raised better than this." Iris laughed a bit at her sister's remark as she looked up from her book, adding onto it as she did, "If you want to go upstairs so badly, then take him with you! I love interrogating your little friends, but they are still your friends."
"Sorry, when did I say we were friends?" He asked as he raised his head, shooting Markus a confused look. Markus grimaced and shifted uncomfortably in his seat.
"Hey, hey… I didn't- um…." He coughed a bit before looking back over to Astra and Iris. "Thank you for inviting me in, but I don't wanna be a bother if he's not feeling well–"
"C'mon, he's just being dramatic," Astra interjected haphazardly, which seemed to startle Markus silent. "This boring ass kid never has friends over, leaves the house for fuckin hours at a time, and then comes home all battered and scuffed up like some abused dog. I'm so tired of playing nurse for him. So consider it a favor to us by being a thorn in his side." She chuckled before standing up from her seat and walking over to Dylan. She tugged at his hair, hauling him out of his seat as he gawked and squirmed.
"Astra!"
"If you wanna go to your room, you're going with your friend!"
She huffed before dragging Dylan up the stairs, ignoring his attempts to hit and jab at her. Markus was once again hesitant but quickly headed after them, following the sound of rebellion from Dylan until he located the room the other two had entered. The room was bland with off-whites and grays, with barely anything decorating the walls besides a few shelves, a full-length mirror, and a coat rack. A plain queen-sized bed rested towards the right, with a desk parallel to it on the other side of the room. A bookshelf stood against the wall between the bed and desk, its shelves filled with boxes, CDs, and much more unidentified crap. A half-opened backpack and a loose pile of clothes sprawled across the ground, but besides a few other miscellaneous items, the room was pretty barren.
Astra continued to berate Dylan as she tossed him onto the bed, "And if I hear anything rude in here, I swear to god," She crossed her arms and continued, "You'll be lucky to become a missing person case." She spoke in such a severe tone, convincing Markus that she meant it. Oddly enough, Dylan seemed completely unphased as he continued to revolt against her with sloppy punches.
Astra rolled her eyes, exiting the room with a slammed door, letting the two ruminate in the stillness of the bedroom. Markus stood stiffly in his position for a few moments before looking at Dylan, whose brows had furrowed with annoyance. His eyes stayed unfaltering in their emptiness as they stared forward, completely negating the emotion their user expressed.
“So…Sorry about uh…” Markus' voice wandered off in his little apology, allowing Dylan to interrupt easily.
"Shut the fuck up."
"Yep, ok, got it."
Markus responded hastily, having expected Dylan's response. Interrupting the silence, they were both startled by the sound of something hitting the other side of one of the walls, followed by Astra shouting, "If I don't hear you two start bonding in the next minute, I'm going in there and kicking BOTH of your asses!"
With that shock, faint TV sounds also began to play from the other room. Markus was still shell-shocked by this entire experience, but Dylan groaned and turned to face him. His hair fell oddly over his forehead, but neither he nor Markus seemed to care. Instead, they both stared at each other for a moment before Dylan spoke.
"Well? Do you seriously have nothing to say?"
He asked honestly, the skepticism in his tone almost smacking Markus in the face with disillusionment. It caused his stutter to worsen, but he spoke anyway.
"Wha–...well, um…why did you– why were you out walking at 4 am last night?" He questioned, his posture relaxing more as he looked around for somewhere to sit. Dylan had been caught off guard by the time proposed to him. 4 am? That didn't sound right. He left the house at 6 pm, and there was no way he was out for 10 hours last night. His gaze dropped from Markus, adjusting his arms to push himself up into a sitting position while he thought. Meanwhile, Markus found his way to the desk on the other side of the room and sat on the chair that was pushed out near it, swerving it around to face Dylan.
It took a bit for Dylan to think of an excuse that wasn't something like 'fuckin your mom' or 'exorcisms' since those felt too immature for the situation. "I think I was hanging out with some friends, but some were drinking; the cops had got called. So, we had to disperse pretty quickly, and I couldn't find anyone to drive me home."
In his opinion, it was a good excuse, but Markus narrowed his eyes at him questioningly. If he'd just done that, it could have sent Dylan into a cold sweat, but once he spoke, it was clear that his skepticism was misinterpreted.
"You were drinking?"
Any fear that could have poisoned the air had immediately dissipated. Dylan scrambled together a response that wouldn't allow Markus to keep questioning, trying to pull out his master manipulation tactics to disarm the interrogation swiftly.
"Yes."
It was a shame he always spoke before he thought.
Markus' expression dropped instantly, pushing the rolling chair over to the bed. "What?! You're only like 16 or 17, right?? You know drinking can seriously stunt your physical and intellectual development, right? Also, that's super dangerous, especially if you're alone at night! No wonder you were so tired and thirsty, god! You're lucky you landed on my lawn and not in the middle of nowhere!"
His hands had clasped firmly on Dylan's shoulders, causing him to cringe and gag at the contact. The truth was that Dylan wouldn't ever even think of touching alcohol, but it wasn't like telling the truth was any better. Instead, it was better to have this guy lecture him like a worried mother, so Dylan sucked it up and retorted sharply at the other boy.
"Jesus, we barely know each other, and you're already acting like a fucking helicopter parent. I meant that I may have had a few sips of beer. I'm not getting blackout drunk at fuckin random. Calm your tits DARE." His expression crinkled as he talked, his shoulders caving into his chest as he tried to pull back away from Markus' death grip.
Markus let go after hearing the insults, crossing his arms and leaning back in the chair with disappointment. "Still! How would your sisters feel when they heard you were drinking?"
"I don't know; I don't really think they'd care as long as I was being responsible?" Dylan talked like it was common sense, but Markus was utterly baffled by this response. Dylan scoffed and rolled his eyes, waving his hand dismissively before getting off the bed and walking over to his bookshelf.
"God, fine, fine. I get it. I'll stop drinking if it hurts your feelings that much." He concluded his lie and rolled his eyes, squatting in front of the bookshelf before pulling out a small box on one of the bottom shelves. "Wanna play a game or watch a movie or something? You're not exactly the easiest person to talk to." He spoke with disdain before rifling through the box. Markus huffed in response, seeming to get more comfortable with the commonality of Dylan's rudeness.
"... I'm good with whatever." He spoke audibly under his breath, allowing Dylan to hear but still pick up on the sourness of his tone. Dylan casually ignored it before pulling out a cd and a small, old tv box. He turned around and handed the tv to Markus. "Put that on the chair where you're sitting, be careful of the cord, though, so you don't trip."
As he handed off the tv, he took its cord and plugged it into the wall behind his desk, checking to make sure it wouldn't strain as it reached over to the chair. Then, seeing it was all good, he returned to the chair and gave Markus a light jab on the shoulder to push him toward the bed.
"Sit down; we're watching Interview with a vampire." He said as he pressed a few buttons on the tv box, then inserted the cd into a little slit at the bottom of the tv box. Markus could barely even think of objecting before being pushed back onto the bed, followed by Dylan sitting beside him.
"It's an older movie, but it's fuckin perfect, and I've met maybe only two people who've watched it, so I'm forcing my superior taste in movies onto you now." He spoke with a tone of grandiosity as his upper body fell backward, hitting the pillows behind him. Markus looked back at Dylan and stared for a second before sighing and adjusting his position to sit at the edge of the bed.
A pillow was soon through at the back of Markus' head, causing him to let out a small 'ow' as his head snapped back to give Dylan a mean glare. Dylan just laughed and patted the space next to him on the bed. "You're not gonna be comfortable sitting upright the whole time. The movie's like two hours long."
Markus was easily defeated, timidly crawling back over to Dylan and sitting down next to him, making sure there was a sizable distance between them before hugging the pillow that'd been thrown at him. Dylan had already watched this movie so much that he'd lost track. He'd mostly just put it on as an excuse to get some sleep since it was one of the longer movies he owned.
Conveniently, he also forgot the aggressively homoromantic undertones in the movie.
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