Ablaze - Pudd & Flones - chapter 1, part 1
One.
Tom can faintly feel the cold gravel and sand underneath him dig into his shoulder as he trembles with concentration, curled up on his side on the ground. He can feel his nerves and senses burn with the sensation as people hurry down the street and step over them or near them, and a light electric crackle reaches his eardrums as the red protecting glow of energy comes to life and expands around him, engulfing the blond boy clinging to him. His eyes are tightly shut to save his energy and to keep himself focused, though he knows he probably didn’t have to, but he doesn’t want to take any chances - not now, not with Dougie’s blond unruly and tangled hair tucked under his chin and dirty fingers ghosting over his hip underneath his shirt. He relaxes and lets the bright guard down as no one’s near but the second one of the passersby come too close, the field of energy grows larger around the pair.
Tom knows that to keep the field up constantly would burn him out, and drain him but left flickering and flashing - jumping between the two levels of concentration is soon leaving him drowsy. Dougie doesn’t notice though… or maybe he’s asleep Tom thinks, and the sudden and short lived change of direction in his mind ‘causes his body to think it’s lost control and his muscles strain awkwardly - his senses heightened again.
Harry digs the toe of his shoe deeper into the dirty sand, eyes flashing dangerously, reflecting the red glowing ball that is Tom and Dougie. He can feel the stinging in his stomach that is jealousy mix with the panic soaring through his veins with every beat of his heart. He doesn’t like the protection of Dougie to fall into anyone else’s hands than his own and the more he thinks about it the more ridiculous does it seem to have Tom sparking and flashing like a damn broken Christmas decoration in the middle of the street - or what’s left of it. They’d only managed to travel a few miles; in other words back to where they started… more or less nowhere. Harry can sense and feel the ocean being close and his jaw clenches and he thinks that he should know where they are. Danny said he’d been here lots before after all… then again, maybe that was just the brunettes way of trying to calm them down?
No one minds or takes time or the risk to notice the two electrically highlighted blond boys in the middle of the dirty street as the sun dips its orange peel down into black fumes and that thick slick poisoned sea. Danny sits, leaning back against what he thinks used to be a monument of some sort, a celebration of a past time they’re supposed to have forgotten surely. He flicks brown dirty curls out of his eyes and blinks away the soot that is irritating his eyes. He remembers the first time Dougie had noticed how no one cared anymore. Harry lay clammy with fever and with a steel arrow impaled in his side, bloody and dirty on a street that could have been this very one, Danny thinks, or any other street in the country, maybe the world, screams of pain stuck in his throat as his lips parted with silence. He choked on his breaths and cries, slithering and trembling in Dougie’s arms, the bassist, the youngest of them holding on the best he could his fingers spread, trying to make his small hands as big as he could. He looked up at the world around them, only smoke, sand and dirt, skeleton houses - shells of old lives and homes - looking back at him and his eyes were piercingly blue with fear. He’d demanded to know why no one helped them and Danny had lied and said he could protect them and make them invisible. If people knew, they’d help.
Dougie did believe Danny could make them invisible for months and months afterwards, thinking about it Danny doesn’t actually know how long ago it had been now. He didn’t know when yesterday had turned into today. It didn’t matter.
No one that could help them in any way would waste valuable time stopping. Darkness was falling and the dangerous day, turned into a lethal night. As dusky grey darkness fell over them like a dusty soot Danny tears his eyes from Tom and Dougie on the ground a few meters from his feet, he looks away quickly, grimacing as a faint memory of dropping a light, warm white duvet over the two blondes after coming in with Harry late on a Saturday finding them asleep on the couch or on Tom’s big bed creeps into his head. He remembers blond strands and tufts of hair fanned out on white crisp sheets and dimming the lights slightly before sitting on the balcony with Harry, smoking and sharing another few beers. He remembers how they used to fear Tom getting nasty colds while touring and Dougie forgetting sandwiches in his room before they went on trips, molded lumps of what at some point had been a Panini stuck to the carpet to Tom’s great dismay as opposed to now getting a few hours of sleep in their worn out van fearing waking up face to face with creatures out of Tom’s comic books, and not the good guys either, a knife pressed to his throat.
Memories of what they used to have, used to be are starting to fade a bit in the edges, get a bit blurry to Danny. He knows that trying to chase the memories is hard, and it hurts to think of when the world used to be soft and clean… and not as lingering as it is now, days and nights tangled together and never seeming to move forwards. At the very same time he’s scared that if he doesn’t think about those days he’ll forget even faster. Looking up and across the street the darkness of the empty night is looming even lower over their heads now and maybe he spent a bit too long inside his head again? He can just about make out Harry in the shades and shadows, his sweater crumbled and stained where he’s standing, half hidden in the dust, leaning against a dirty and cracked wall.
It’s unspoken but while Tom and Dougie are useless to the world Danny and Harry’s taken upon themselves to cover one side of the road each, making sure no one can get to them from either side without one of them catching sight of it in time. The evening’s events had been too much for Dougie or Tom, Harry and Danny didn’t really know but after having hidden the van and fled by foot the two blondes had parked themselves in a tight clasp and grip on each other, as they’d stayed for the last few hours, cracking and flickering defensively on the ground. Enveloped by Tom’s arms and field of energy Danny could see Dougie’s body heaving lightly in calm and even breaths. He was asleep.
In the distance a foul looking orange fire, the last of them is tamed and extinguished, leaving them in almost complete darkness. Grey clouds traps them in above and space and stars are now part of fairytales and fantasies Tom tells at night when they’re all curled up together in the van and when Danny asks Tom says it’s just a story. Danny can’t help but think though that once the glittery lights of infinity and fragile dusts of time had burned and guided the nights over his head. Tom shakes his head sadly and whispers the tales of something new in the cold night, something about dragons and mermaids and it sometimes takes weeks for him to ever tell their favourite story again - about the millions and millions of friendly dots of light dancing in the sky.
Harry’s too far away from Danny for the brunette to be able to talk to him. Shouting across the distance between them after curfew would be too risky and dangerous and after all, it’s not needed. Harry’s eyes flash like ice in the darkness and Danny’s own aqua pupils collect the sparkle in his own, locking their gazes. He can now hear Harry’s worries and fears. It’s a white noise, a rumble of sort or maybe tension cracking through his head but Danny swallows hard - it’s there and it takes some time to get used to, every time.
“We’re going back to the van,” Harry says determined, only his lips aren’t moving at all and he’s dead quiet. Only Danny can hear him and the ruins of the monument is growing cold under his touch as he scrapes his nails over the worn surface.
“Kitten is asleep though,” Danny flashes Harry a quick grin, teeth white against the night.
“Danny don’t,” Harry says warningly, his tone deep and vile in Danny’s head. It’s a touchy subject. Whether Harry likes it or not Dougie is his weakness. The Achilles heel that could break him - all of them, and Danny knows… that Harry knows. “This,” and Harry motions towards the two blondes on the dusty ground, Danny knows, though their gazes are firmly locked, “isn’t doing us any favours. It’s not safe!”
“At least here we can run. We’re trapped if we go back to that van. It won’t move Harry!” Danny feels himself getting agitated. Why can’t Harry just be a bit patient and trust them all? They had things under control.
“Someone comes after us, finds us and we’re dead out here!”
“We can defend ourselves and Tom-“
“Is slowly killing himself at your feet! This is ludicrous Dan, look at him! His nose is bleeding, can we please put an end to this?!”
“You’re just angry because Dougie’s feeling safe with him! You’re scared someone’s going to come and take Dougie from you before you get to fuck him one last time, is that it?” Danny’s screaming through Harry’s head now and he’s flinching with the physical and mental sensation as well with the impact of his harsh words. They’d pushed each other too far and if Dougie was Harry’s weakness then Tom was Danny’s and it was no secret. For Danny to bring up the sexual part of Harry’s and Dougie’s relationship was unusual and a warning sign - a way to defend himself and Harry and Danny tear their eyes apart, the locked bond between them broken. Danny wipes away the tears of blood that are running from the corners of his eyes down his cheeks harshly with the back of his hand and glances at Harry as the drummer does the same on his side of the road.
They didn’t know when it had happened or why, but as they fought each other their bodies would physically protest and whenever their minds would tug in different directions, blackening one of the others with insults their hearts didn’t share - they’d cry blood. The bleeding didn’t normally bother Harry much, though he could have lasted without the tears but he was sensible enough to in the middle of all the madness understand their symbolic value - no Harry was more concerned with the way they in intense situations seemed to share other things, such as hunger and fear. Eating something on your own had become impossible as you could feed yourself and still feel the lurk of the others hunger tug at the corners of your stomach. It had ultimately resulted in them only eating or drinking when there was enough for all of them - which was rare these days.
Harry walked over to Tom and as the half conscious weakened oldest member by instinct and pure will power in his dozing state enhanced the field of energy around himself and Dougie Harry defiantly kicked the older blonde, electric energy crashing with the field and with a second kick and a loud groan from Tom and a hiss from Danny Tom and Dougie were separated and Tom was left shaking slightly in the sand, his skin a flurry pink, the soft, weak glow lingering close to his skin, too weak to do anything else but frizz and illuminate his complexion.
The sound of patrolling feet bounced between the dead walls of the abandoned houses suddenly and Harry scooped Dougie up from off the ground, not looking Tom’s way, not wanting to see… of course regretting his violent ways but to get through to Tom and get him to let his guard down as his body is that close to killing itself off, burning out, energy taken from his pulse, slowing his heart rhythm down to a minimal vibration in his ribcage would have taken too long.
Part two.