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Jul. 19th, 2016 12:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
technomancer[ Vivian and Lethe more or less grew up in each other's pockets. Best friends almost since they could walk, they lived in the same neighborhood for over a decade, two houses apart. The kind of childhood where after a while Vivian showing up at Lethe's every morning for breakfast was just a given, where in the summer the two would say farewell and vanish to go play in the woods that were right down the road, and in the evening play video games until Lethe's mom shooed Vivian home.
It was always Vivian visiting of course, not that Lethe wouldn't have, it was just Vivian took the initiative. And around when they turned eight, when Vivian's parents started fighting and his dad started drinking, Vivian spent a lot of nights at Lethe's as well. When he was ten, when his mom left him and his dad, he spent the whole summer at Lethe's house, and after that more or less appeared every morning like clockwork. Lethe's parents fussed at him a bit, but he was always cheerful, and if he was often a fixture at breakfast and dinner, often being sent home with leftovers for his dad, that was just how their families worked.
It worked out in school, as well. Vivian was a friendly kid, even with his family trouble, and though he was sometimes scrappy, he was mostly liked. Lethe, in contrast was pretty shy, probably would have gotten bullied if Vivian weren't constantly with him, but they made a good pair. Lethe could cool Vivian's head, and when it came to studies Vivian found boring, Lethe was the only one who could convince Vivian to try. They evened out as they got older, Vivian took school more seriously, Lethe got more popular as it turned out he was growing up gorgeous, and they both ended up admired for being genuinely nice but not in any particular group. A more or less regular sort of childhood.
By the time they hit high school Vivian had a part time job to pay for an old car he was trying to restore, but he always stopped by even on busy days. Lethe had his own hobbies, which were a bit less greasy. But they spent their evenings hanging out, either doing homework or playing games.
Vivian honestly thought their lives would continue in that way forever. Until the scales started appearing. Until he could feel his teeth, canines just a little too sharp, cutting at his lips if he bit them, until he started biting his lips a lot to taste that sharp metallic tang of blood. The craving for more of it growing in the back of his mind like a slowly building wave of need. Vivian stopped thinking his life would stay normal when he started having to trim his nails every morning because they grew too long and sharp in the night, and he stopped thinking life was fine when he picked up a pan of Lethe's mom's reheated leftovers, right out of the oven, with his bare hands, and it didn't even hurt.
It was in late spring, when the weather was already getting hot, and Vivian's odd behavior was fairly noticeable. For one, he wore long sleeves all the time. Not exactly great for working on a car, but even worse in the weather. He also started wearing sunglasses, and gloves, stopped smiling so much--that didn't get much notice from anyone in their class since summer vacation just started, but Lethe was in a unique position to see Vivian go from open smiles to sharp, thin-lipped ones.
Lethe's parents were on a month's vacation in Europe when Vivian knocked on his door at one in the morning, promptly opened it because he'd had a spare key since he was nine.
Vivian didn't know why, exactly, he had ended up here, in Lethe's home in the middle of the night, except that he woke up starving and trying to eat anything in his own kitchen made his stomach turn. That'd been happening a lot too. And he was tired, and desperately freaked out by the rapid changes in his body over the past weeks. He needed to talk to someone, he needed to talk to Lethe, because he was terrified, and Lethe was his best friend, and he couldn't keep it secret and pretend it would go back to normal anymore. He hadn't actually eaten in three, or was it four, days now, and yet he wasn't collapsing. But he did feel sick, and hungry, and Lethe was the one who always knew how to calm him down, he really needed that, he couldn't deal by himself anymore.
So here he was walking into Lethe's bedroom in the middle of the night because he had nowhere else to go and no one else to talk to and he couldn't stand feeling alone as he turned into some kind of monster. ]
It was always Vivian visiting of course, not that Lethe wouldn't have, it was just Vivian took the initiative. And around when they turned eight, when Vivian's parents started fighting and his dad started drinking, Vivian spent a lot of nights at Lethe's as well. When he was ten, when his mom left him and his dad, he spent the whole summer at Lethe's house, and after that more or less appeared every morning like clockwork. Lethe's parents fussed at him a bit, but he was always cheerful, and if he was often a fixture at breakfast and dinner, often being sent home with leftovers for his dad, that was just how their families worked.
It worked out in school, as well. Vivian was a friendly kid, even with his family trouble, and though he was sometimes scrappy, he was mostly liked. Lethe, in contrast was pretty shy, probably would have gotten bullied if Vivian weren't constantly with him, but they made a good pair. Lethe could cool Vivian's head, and when it came to studies Vivian found boring, Lethe was the only one who could convince Vivian to try. They evened out as they got older, Vivian took school more seriously, Lethe got more popular as it turned out he was growing up gorgeous, and they both ended up admired for being genuinely nice but not in any particular group. A more or less regular sort of childhood.
By the time they hit high school Vivian had a part time job to pay for an old car he was trying to restore, but he always stopped by even on busy days. Lethe had his own hobbies, which were a bit less greasy. But they spent their evenings hanging out, either doing homework or playing games.
Vivian honestly thought their lives would continue in that way forever. Until the scales started appearing. Until he could feel his teeth, canines just a little too sharp, cutting at his lips if he bit them, until he started biting his lips a lot to taste that sharp metallic tang of blood. The craving for more of it growing in the back of his mind like a slowly building wave of need. Vivian stopped thinking his life would stay normal when he started having to trim his nails every morning because they grew too long and sharp in the night, and he stopped thinking life was fine when he picked up a pan of Lethe's mom's reheated leftovers, right out of the oven, with his bare hands, and it didn't even hurt.
It was in late spring, when the weather was already getting hot, and Vivian's odd behavior was fairly noticeable. For one, he wore long sleeves all the time. Not exactly great for working on a car, but even worse in the weather. He also started wearing sunglasses, and gloves, stopped smiling so much--that didn't get much notice from anyone in their class since summer vacation just started, but Lethe was in a unique position to see Vivian go from open smiles to sharp, thin-lipped ones.
Lethe's parents were on a month's vacation in Europe when Vivian knocked on his door at one in the morning, promptly opened it because he'd had a spare key since he was nine.
Vivian didn't know why, exactly, he had ended up here, in Lethe's home in the middle of the night, except that he woke up starving and trying to eat anything in his own kitchen made his stomach turn. That'd been happening a lot too. And he was tired, and desperately freaked out by the rapid changes in his body over the past weeks. He needed to talk to someone, he needed to talk to Lethe, because he was terrified, and Lethe was his best friend, and he couldn't keep it secret and pretend it would go back to normal anymore. He hadn't actually eaten in three, or was it four, days now, and yet he wasn't collapsing. But he did feel sick, and hungry, and Lethe was the one who always knew how to calm him down, he really needed that, he couldn't deal by himself anymore.
So here he was walking into Lethe's bedroom in the middle of the night because he had nowhere else to go and no one else to talk to and he couldn't stand feeling alone as he turned into some kind of monster. ]
