Decadence [Poptart]

If there was ever anything to describe Lei the past few months, it was glowing. For the first time in his eighteen years of existence, Lei wasn't feeling so bad about himself. How could he, when he was loved so much? It was difficult to hate yourself when someone so important found you to be the most lovable person in the world. All of his fears and reservations, all of his shame, diminished under Deith's love. Lei found smiling was easier. Lei found he had a reason to get up every morning. And on this lovely November day, Lei got out of bed for a special reason.

He was going to surprise Deith!

Lei instinctively touched the blue pendant around his neck that Deith gave him so many months ago before spending the morning and noon cooking up a small feast at the dorm kitchens for Deith, swatting his spatula angrily at the plebeians who didn't understand true love and claimed that he should "let other students use the kitchen, too." Man, what the fuck were their problems? Takeout and eating at the cafeteria were a thing, people.

As soon as Lei finished stacking his feast in bento boxes which, he had to note, was the wrong kind of Asian but were damn useful anyway, he went back to his room and changed into something well... shamelessly cuter. His fingers skittered over the dresses his friends (and, what he could only assume, a handsome angel) got him for his birthday, tempted, but pulled out the safe black jeans, polished leather shoes and a tight-ish shirt with a dark blue vest. It was chilly out, so Lei picked out a scarf to go with it.

There weren't a lot of buses that took Lei to the outskirts of the forest. For a brief moment, Lei debated on calling Clarence for one of his fancy cars or Sid to walk with him, but then he decided, hey, maybe he should stop being a goddamn wimp and walk there himself even if the forest gave him the heebie-jeebies. He took the bus to the edges of the city, playing trashy pop music in his earbuds and scrolling through his twitter which was, for the most part, inundated by stupid arguments between the three of them. His bento rested on the seat next to him. It was frustratingly getting less and less warm but smelled good nonetheless.

His stop came. Lei stepped out of the bus and was met by the cold chill and the steadily setting sun. It was downright pitiful how he had to heave and take a few rests to get on top of a hill. Briefly, he wondered if he should get a gym membership and get swole, but then he remembered how Sid bench presses him sometimes and that was just nuts. He was never ever going to do that.

He got to the front door. It wasn't locked, but it was empty save for Deith's lonely. So that meant he was inside...?

Lei went inside, sneaking, feeling like a robber but instead of robbing, he was going to give Deith food so that cancels out. Maybe. Huh. He wondered if that was a crime. Placing the bento in the kitchen, Lei quickly checked the bedrooms. Nothing. Maybe he was at the back? Lei went outside to the front door and checked the back of the house. He saw Deith's silhouette... And he saw...

Was Deith cheating on him!?

FUCK, NO.

"Hey!" Lei yelled, his good mood and underlying disappointment getting washed over with pure, unbridled rage. "What the fuck do you think you're doing!?"

Lei's walls were way, way up, tall and imposing and impenetrable. When normally he was a wilting flower around Deith even when he was yelling in his usual manner, this was different. Lei was hurt.

He thought what they had was special. He tried to look past Deith's flaws, but it turned out the red flags were so glaringly obvious. He just refused to think much of them — the different social status, the quiet anger, the mystery. Lei disclosed all of his fears, hopes and dreams to him, and he couldn't shake off the feeling that Deith was only giving him scraps.

Apparently this? This was why.

He was a side bitch. Or maybe, that girl was the side bitch. Either way, he made a fool out of him. Sid was right. Deith was a total mong.

The temperature around them dropped, turning the chill into something heavier, nearing frostbite. Small glaciers of ice began to form from under Lei's feet and crawl around the area. His eyes were red around the edges, but they were dry and glowed ever so faintly.

"Long enough to see you humping your floozy," he said, voice sharp. His stance was combative. His posture, self-assured. "You know what? I would've been fine with this, Deith. I knew from the beginning that you were too good for me. But you could've been upfront about it. Hey, Lei, wanna date all casual? I would've said yes to do that too, because that's how much I — I liked you."

Lei began to pace. The surface of the ice cracked underneath their master's feet. "You made a complete idiot out of me. All those presents, all those letters? I love you, Lei? I wanna be with you, Lei? Fuck. If you really love me, then why the shit was your dick up her love tunnel? Asshole!"

He stormed up to Deith and shoved him at the middle of the chest. "Hey, let's get your side bitch up in this argument too, so you guys can coordinate your excuses together!"

Lei hissed and slapped Deith's hands away from his face. More pretty words. Pretty lies, more like. Lei hated this. He wanted nothing more than for him to drop the damn act because being reminded of the Deith he'd fallen in love with... it made his chest constrict painfully in his chest, like a fist squeezing his heart. This whole damn mess was full of shit, almost literally, considering there was something around them that stunk. (What the hell was that?)

"Not cheating?? You need to fuck other people to feed??? Holy fucking shit, not even fuckboys could get away with stupid lines like that! If you need to have sex with people to feed, then why don't you do it to me, huh? We have sex, too, or does that not count somehow!?"

Lei sucked in a breath, chest trembling as the whole process felt like inhaling sharp air. He couldn't help but feel tears form at the edges of his eyes. He raised a finger to continue his tirade... and saw blood around the digit. He was stopped, for a moment, and looked at his hands with wide eyes.

What on earth...

His blood ran cold. Paling, he began to inspect the skin around his hands. Was he bleeding? It didn't feel like it. There were no open gashes. What else did he touch other than...

The anger dissipated from his face and made way for cautious fear. He took a step away from Deith. "W-what is going on..."

Lei had never been so stressed his entire life. His head was a mix of feelings screaming all at once to grab his attention — fear, anger and sadness, and to some degree, disgust, shame and overwhelming regret. He regretted picking Deith. He regretted opening up his cold, bitter heart because he'd always known that no matter how nice people were to him, in the end, they were going to hurt him. His limbs were trembling, his eyes were watering, and his powers flickered and stuttered, unsure of how to respond to their master's mood. Ice turned into steam turned into cold, and waves of sharp water began to dance around the area.

When Deith grabbed his arm, tightly, like shackles, and all he could think was no no no let GO of me. They were past this, this whole cute, lovey charade. Deith had taken a hammer and smashed on the pretty little thing they had — or it was smashed already, or it was never real in the first place. Whatever the reason, Lei was done.

He was broken. Betrayed. All of his happiness crumpled into a million pieces, but that was all right, everything was ok, because he still had his anger.

He still, always, had his anger.

The light blues of his eyes flared dangerously. The tumultuous and erratic patterns of his leaking powers stopped in an instant. It was funny how they worked. When he was in danger, everything fell perfectly into place. Lei felt all the flow of water in his surroundings — the moisture in the air, the water in the grass, in the clouds. The blood inside Deith's body. "Don't touch me," he growled. Lei willed the blood inside Deith's arms to let go of him, and his legs to walk backwards. "Don't you ever fucking touch me again."

With that, Lei walked forward to advance on the person Deith was absolutely determined to hide.

Lei didn't know why he insisted on meeting the woman face-to-face. A part of him was angered by how she chose to just lie there to avoid the confrontation. He knew it was kind of uneven, given that Lei was a guy that just appeared spitting acid, but if she had the guts to sleep with a man that was already spoken for, it was a given that she should have the guts to turn and face the music. It was all partially because Lei honestly wanted to fight to justify his anger, and in doing so, maybe find some closure.

This was not what he expected.

Lei stood over a sight out of a horror movie. Gore, organs, viscera. Blood everywhere; her clothes, Deith's clothes, Lei's hands. A stench that filled his nose and overwhelmed his senses. The woman was sprawled on the surface, rigor mortis settling in, eyes white and mouth settled on a horrific 'o' mouth.

Corpse. A bloody fucking corpse. Deith was FUCKING A CORPSE.

This wasn't a normal cheating situation. This was — fuck. This was out of a horror fucking movie, and Deith was the damn monster.

Lei's knees gave in and came into contact with the ground, his hands covering his mouth to keep himself from screaming/vomiting/whatever else his mouth decided to do, because today was just chock full of disgusting surprises! So, not only was Deith cheating, he loved to cheat on him with fucking dead people, because apparently corpses had more game than he did. Lei thought about how Deith's same corpse-fucking parts came into contact with him, and he felt dirty, with the kind of filth that would never ever wash off.

His powers broke. He stayed there, kneeling on the dirt, and cried and cried and cried.