Chapter Text
“I can’t believe this is actually working,” Rusty said.
“So far, anyway,” Zill added, reading through Jack’s texts. “This is what you wanted, right? Once the two of you have some time alone, you can figure things out from there?”
“Yeah, I think so.” Rusty took a deep breath. “I just need one chance. That’s all I need. One chance to tell the truth. And hopefully get him back in my life.”
“Uh huh, sure, but are you actually going to help us?” Damian demanded from above his head. He wove another loop of twinkle lights around the tree branch he was sitting on. Meanwhile, Zill was circling the trunk, pulling his own line taut.
“That part wasn’t my idea,” Rusty reminded him, gesturing at the tree. “You guys didn’t have to set this part up, and I could do this without the Christmas decor. Whose idea was this, again?”
“Mine, and yes, you do need to do this,” Zill said. “Or maybe not, need, but it’ll really help. Trust me, seeing this will make Autumn feel special. When you get the chance to treat him like a queen, take it!”
“Like a… queen?”
“I feel like ‘king’ has different implications. Like royalty, basically. He’ll notice when you do.”
“I didn’t know you could be a romantic.”
“That’s because you only see the part of me that’s trying to resist the urge to fight with you.”
“Okay, fair.” Rusty held out a paw. “Pass me one of those.” When Zill obliged, he gently placed his flower bouquet on the grass and scaled the tree, then began to wrap a yet-unadorned branch. “Hey, is this even legal?” He asked. “It being a public park and all?”
“Probably,” Zill said. “It’s not like we’re leaving these behind. Once we clean up, this place will be just like it was when we arrived. No trace. I’m sure it won’t be a problem.”
Damian froze. “Hold on, this is just probably legal?”
“I’m sure it is.”
“I don’t think you understand. If I get in trouble with the law, it’ll be way worse for me than any of you. Because I’m a demon. I’ll cover up a murder for you when you ask, but this is not worth the risk for me.”
“It’s okay, Damian.” Zill released his end of the lights and called upon his powers, levitating up to match the young demon’s height so he could look him in the eyes. “If the authorities give you any trouble, I’ll protect you from them.”
“Same,” Rusty volunteered.
“Oh. Well, I didn’t know that.” Damian got back to work, but swiped his paw at his eyes.
“…Okay, I think we’re done.” Zill sank back to the ground and picked up a plastic box on one end of the wire, flipping a switch. Some of the lights turned on.
“Good thing you have these battery-powered lights.” Damian flicked the switch on his own line, then flew from branch to branch, getting the others. Rusty climbed down and retrieved his flowers.
Upon hearing a beeping sound, Zill checked his messages again. “Hey, Jack’s almost here. Looks like it’s time for me and Damian to go. Y’know, I can’t believe this is working, either.”
“I’m insulted,” Damian said as he floated back to Earth. “I’m the son of the Devil himself! The most legendary manipulator in all of time! I know how to figure out what people want. And how to use that to get what I want.”
Damian’s plan was alarmingly straightforward and even more alarmingly effective. At the start of the day, Jack asked Autumn if they could hang out together, claiming that he was worried Rusty would bother him today and that he would feel safer with Autumn around. Perhaps it was Autumn’s concern for Jack, or maybe his inability to resist the chance to yell at his ex, but he immediately agreed.
The second part of Jack’s mission was to get Autumn on his own at the end of the school day and bring him to this park. The moment Autumn saw Rusty waiting was the most risky part of the plan. He might decide to turn around right then. That’s why Jack’s last job was to explain that he was doing a favor for Rusty, and to ask that Autumn hear him out.
Then, Autumn would either agree to listen to what Rusty had to say… or he wouldn’t.
“Good luck with everything,” Zill told Rusty, backing away from the glowing tree. “I really hope you win him back.”
“Yeah, you get ‘em!” Damian cheered.
They both left together, but didn’t go too far. At this part of the plan, they were supposed to just go home, their contribution (finding a way to make sure Autumn would notice where Rusty was waiting) done. But of course they’d already decided they were going to find another good tree nearby and spy from its branches. Finding their tree and the best spot to watch from took a minute, but once they did they made themselves as comfortable as one could get in a tree and looked in the direction of the lights.
“Are you sure this is going to work?” Zill asked once they were hidden in the canopy. “I didn’t expect Autumn to agree to be Jack’s bodyguard for the day, but it seems even less likely that he’d give Rusty a second chance.”
“That’s why Jack needed to be the one to ask him to do that,” Damian answered. “He’s been victimized by Rusty more than anyone. And the fact that he’s forgiven him enough to do a favor for him carries a lot of weight. It’ll get Autumn thinking about Rusty healing and growing on his own, without his help. Ideally, this little occasion will remind him of all the reasons he loved Rusty when they were dating, and make him think of some new ones.”
“Wow.” Zill stared at Damian with awe and a little fear. “I think we’d all better hope you don’t ever actually turn evil, because if you did, none of us would stand a chance.”
“Why, thank you!” Damian said, pleased. “So, where exactly are Jack and Autumn?”
“From what he messaged me, they should arrive any second.”
“Or maybe a little sooner?”
Damian and Zill looked down to find Jack at the base of their tree, already climbing up to join them.
“So, how’d it go?” Damian asked.
“Autumn and I weren’t too far away when he noticed the lights,” Jack explained. “We were at an angle where the tree trunk blocked Rusty, so we had to get way closer before he realized it was him.”
“Did he see —?”
“Nah, neither of us saw you guys anywhere around. After I left Autumn, I had to look for a bit to find your tree. I’m sure Rusty will tell him about how you helped him out at some point, but, like, when it comes up.”
“And?”
“And what?”
“What happened?”
“I don’t know! You’re all caught up to where I’m at.”
“Shh! Look!” Zill interrupted them and pointed.
From their angle, they could see Rusty under the tree. He was clutching his bouquet, frozen, with a fixed stare at a spot outside their view.
“Was it his idea to get flowers?” Jack whispered.
“Yeah,” Zill said. “Red chrysanthemums, he said. Apparently, they’re Autumn’s favorite.”
“And speaking of whom…” Damian nudged Jack’s shoulder.
Now they could see Autumn, approaching Rusty under his tree. Walking at first, but they picked up his pace as they got closer before coming to a stop in front of him.
They were too far away to hear what was said, but they could see the gestures that they made to each other as they talked. Autumn was looking and pointing at the lights in the tree, speaking emphatically, and in response, Rusty said something with a sheepish look and held out the flowers.
The three people in the tree held their breaths.
Autumn accepted the bouquet, and Rusty gestured at the ground under the tree. They both sat down.
Damian pumped his fist. “Success!”
“Not quite,” Zill corrected. “We still don’t know if Autumn would take him back.”
“It’s a success for us,” Damian said. “Our job was just to get them talking to each other. As opposed to, you know, fighting. I see this as a win.”
“So, we’ve already heard this story,” Jack said, as if he were only talking to himself. “This part isn’t new. I just wonder…”
He trailed off as they saw Autumn suddenly lunge toward Rusty and hug him tight. They sat together like this, not moving, for a long minute. Since the pair was mostly facing away from the trio in the tree, they couldn’t tell if they were still talking or not.
At last, Autumn released Rusty and stood up, then offered Rusty his hand. Rusty took it and rose as well. They stared at each other for a beat, and then —
It was impossible to tell who leaned in first to initiate the kiss, but either way the result was the same. The two boys braced themselves away from each other, only their lips touching, until Autumn’s hands reached to hold Rusty’s face, and Rusty responded by taking their hands in his and lacing their fingers together.
“Aw, that’s sweet,” Jack said, leaning on the branch in front of him and propping his head up on his palms.
“That’s what I call a win,” Zill said. “I think Rusty’s got this. We can leave now, right?”
“I think…” Damian began to look away from the lit tree and his eyes fixed on something in the distance. “I think you’d be right, if luck were on his side today.”
“What are you talking about?” Jack asked.
In response, Damian pointed. “That guy, over there. If he’s who I think he is, well, it’s going to be a problem.”
The other two looked where he was pointing: at a man who was striding purposefully across the grounds of the park toward the young couple. He was a Labrador retriever with messy, golden-brown fur that was starting to turn gray in places.
“I’m not crazy, right?” Damian asked. “This has got to be the worst coincidence in the world, but doesn’t he look kinda like…?”
Zill was already on his way out of the tree. “We’ve gotta stop that guy!”
“Wait!” Jack started after him. “Have you thought this through? That might not be his dad! You might be about to confront some random person!”
It was hard to know what Zill might have answered, because at that moment, Jack lost his grip on the tree and fell onto him.
From the ground, somehow still whole after the fall, Jack continued: “Could you please just consider the consequences? If it is his dad, maybe you could stop him from bothering them now, but would it be better if he ambushed Rusty about it when he gets home today?”
“I…” Zill sat up with a growl of frustration. “Okay, fine! You’re right, that’s worse. But we have to —“
“Too late,” Damian interrupted.
The man they’d spotted reached the two boys and pushed them apart, breaking up their kiss. Autumn fell to the ground, Rusty stumbled into the tree trunk and gripped it for balance. Once he had it back, he went to help Autumn, but his father grabbed his arm and stopped him.
At their distance, they couldn’t hear the things he was yelling at his son, but they could tell that he was being loud. Rusty recoiled, trying to make himself seem smaller.
“Well, now he knows,” Jack said, standing up.
In the distance, Autumn also stood and forced himself between Rusty and his father, making him let go of his son. Hands in fists, he stared the man down.
“Should we help now?” Jack asked.
“Nah, they’ve got this,” Damian said confidently.
“They could get hurt!”
“But they won’t. Have some faith, cousin.”
Now, Rusty’s father was arguing with Autumn, both of them becoming increasingly furious, while Rusty himself seemed frozen by fear.
Something changed in the air. A breeze stirred up, rustling the fallen leaves on the ground.
Rusty’s dad didn’t notice, and tried to muscle his way past Autumn, reaching for his son.
All at once, every one of the leaves on the ground — and some of the ones in the trees — swarmed him, pasting themselves over his fur. He was almost instantaneously mummified, frantically ripping at the ones that covered his eyes.
Autumn yelled some last, angry parting shot, then took Rusty by the hand and ran. They took off together, sprinting out of sight, while the man they left behind fought with the ever-increasing barrage of leaves and tripped over tree roots that moved across the ground to catch his ankles.
Up in his tree, Damian had a grin on his face. “I knew he had it in him,” he said, descending the tree to join the others. “See, it all turned out fine! Come on, let’s go.”
Zill met Jack’s eyes. “It’s not over, is it?”
“No,” Jack agreed.
He nodded and turned to Damian. “We still have work to do. Autumn might have protected Rusty now, but if his dad is as ‘rough around the edges’ as he seems, Rusty’s going to pay for it worse later. He lives with the guy.”
“Great,” Damian growled, immediately going from relaxed to sullen. “I don’t like the idea of Rusty’s dad hurting him at home, but what are we supposed to do about it? Could you, I don’t know, intimidate him into leaving Rusty alone? Like you do all the time for Jack?”
Zill gave him an exasperated look. “That’s different. When I do that, people know I can and will follow through on what I say. To him, I’m just some guy.”
“He’s right,” Jack agreed. “He won’t believe him. Zill can’t fix this… but you might.”
“Me?” Damian asked.
“He’s right,” Zill agreed. “You’re the friggin’ Antichrist. If he sees that you’re in his corner, he’ll back down in a hurry and leave Rusty alone for a long time.”
“And what happens after that?”
“I have a couple ideas, but first you have to get over there! Come on! You’re a demon prince — just pull rank with him!”
“He’s not a demon,” Damian pointed out. “He doesn’t live in Hell.”
“Yet,” Zill said. “I’m pretty sure he’s well on his way.”
“Hey.” Jack leaned forward and took Damian’s hand, meeting his eyes. “You talked about not wanting to be seen badly for being a demon. And I get it — what you are doesn’t make you inherently evil. And I know we all have… complicated feelings about Rusty, but right now, stepping in to help him is the right thing to do. You want to show people you can do good? This would be a good place to start.”
Damian bit his lip, gazing across the park, where Rusty’s father was brushing off the last few leaves. Autumn’s nature powers must have worn off once he got too far away.
“Alright, I’ll take care of it,” he said, heading over.
“Good luck!” Zill called after him.
Rusty’s father was now free of the leaves and looking around for his son, who was now, thankfully, out of sight. He noticed Damian when he got close, especially because Damian shouted at him to get his attention. Jack and Zill didn’t hear exactly what Damian said, but it made him pretty mad again.
He seemed about to respond, when he backpedaled with a startled look instead. Right before his eyes, the short, red jackal had turned into something that was monstrous and unnatural.
Jack tried to imagine what he was thinking at the moment, but came up empty. It was around four thirty in the afternoon, on a bright, sunny day, he had just been harassing his son and their boyfriend, and now he was face-to-face with an eldrich horror under a tree with twinkle lights in its branches. What had the world come to.
Damian looked for all the world like he didn’t give a damn what they thought. Or at least, that was as near as Jack could guess, given that he currently seemed to be made from tentacles. And eyes. And, in many cases, eyes on tentacles.
After backing away only to stumble over another tree root, Rusty’s father looked up to find what remained of Damian’s former face only inches away. Leaning in, Damian whispered into his ear. He crawled away, looking terrified, before getting up and taking off running. Damian let him go, and returned to his friends.
“You were right, that was easy.” The thing that could allegedly still be called “Damian” spoke with at least six different voices at once. Then he noticed how his friends were looking at him. “What?”
“Dude, that form is awesome,” Zill said, gaping. “How have I never seen it before? You should use it more often.”
The horror blushed. “That’s nice, but I think that people would be scared of me if I did. I’m surprised you’re not.”
“Of course not. There’s no body-shaming here. So, what did you say to him?”
“Oh, just some specific, visceral threats about what I’d do to him if he bothered Rusty about this.”
“Nice,” Jack said.
“So, now would you say that we’re done here?”
“Now I would,” Jack agreed. “Job done. Now, let’s take down those lights and go home.”
When Jack arrived at school the next day, he was about to go inside when he was unexpectedly hugged.
Since this was definitely one of the nicer unexpected things to happen to him, he decided it wasn’t worth it to tell Autumn that he’d scared the living daylights out of him.
“Thanks, Jack,” Autumn said, letting Jack go from the hug and holding him by the shoulders. “For convincing me to give my best friend a second chance.”
“It was my pleasure,” Jack answered.
“And I heard you had some help, too.” Autumn waved at Zill and Damian, who had coincidentally arrived at the same time. “I wouldn’t usually like electrical lights in a wooded area, but… it was pretty okay, just this once.”
“We really didn’t do much,” Zill said.
“Speak for yourself,” said Damian.
“Seriously, thank you,” Autumn repeated. “I didn’t realize until now just how much I’ve been missing my Ruben.”
“Oh, so he’s cool with you calling him that, now?” Zill asked.
“Only if it’s me,” Autumn said with a wink. “I’ve always liked his real name better, so he lets me use it.”
“And I”m guessing he wasn’t so okay with that when you were broken up,” Jack reflected. “Okay. Some things are starting to make more sense now.”
“So, you’re officially back together?” Damian asked.
“I’m not sure yet. Maybe if we could have kept it from his dad, but that plan went to hell when he found us in the park. I don’t know exactly where we stand now, or what our relationship is, but before we went home Ruben promised that no matter what happens, he wants me back in his life.”
“That sounds nice,” Jack said.
“Doesn’t it? But I was really worried about what would happen with his dad. I can’t say I endeared myself to him the first time we met, and if anything I made things worse yesterday. But Ruben texted that his dad didn’t even mention it when he got home.”
“Wonder why,” said Damian. He hoped he sounded sincere, because explaining the spying and subsequent turning into a beast could get complicated.
At that point, Rusty showed up, confused to see all the people hanging out outside the school. “Hi, everyone? What’s going on here?”
“Hi, Ruben.” Autumn waved his fingers shyly.
Rusty waved back, just as shy. “Hi, Autumn. I think you and I have some things to talk about. Um, could we find someplace where we can be alone…?”
“I promised Daphne I’d check her homework,” Autumn told him. “Actually, I’m already cutting it close. Can we meet later? In the physics classroom?”
“That works.” Rusty longingly watched Autumn hurry on his way, then faced Jack and held his paws in his own. “I can’t thank you enough for your help. How can I repay you?”
“Not making fun of me anymore would be a nice start,” Jack said.
“Of course. I’m done with that. I promise. And that goes for all of you,” he added to the others.
“Honestly, it would at least be nice if you could stop making fun of me for being Hispanic.” Zill told him.
“You’re Hispanic?” Damian asked.
“That’s over,” Rusty said apologetically. Then his eyes hardened and he let go of Jack’s hands. The honest, vulnerable version of himself that they’d managed to lure out of him in the elevator was gone again. “But, you know, this favor should just be a one-time thing. It’s not like we’re friends.”
“Are you sure?” Jack asked.
Rusty growled something that the others couldn’t hear.
“Autumn told us that your dad saw you two together, but didn’t say anything about it,” Zill said. “Do you know yet what you’re going to do about that?”
“For one, I’m moving out of my dad’s place,” Rusty said.
“Wait, is he kicking you out?” Damian demanded, palms lighting on fire. “Listen, if he tries that, I can —“
“No, nothing like that,” Rusty assured him.
“Maybe getting him comfortable with using authority wasn’t the best idea,” Jack whispered to Zill, staring at the flames in Damian’s hands.
“I decided this on my own,” Rusty continued. “So, I can still stay with him until I find somewhere new. But when I do, I’m getting out of there. It was, um, Miss Cameron’s idea.”
“You’ve been seeing her, too?” Jack asked.
Rusty gave him a coy smile. “Well… I figured that if the three people in this school who hated me the most would still have my back after hearing my story, maybe she really could help me. And she helped a lot. She told me that my personhood was something that already belonged to me, and that it’s his responsibility to recognize it, not mine to earn that from him. And that if someone treats me badly without remorse or any sign of changing, it’s not on me to change them. That there’s nothing wrong with choosing to protect myself, and that a person like that doesn’t deserve to be part of my life anyway.”
“That’s… that’s great!” Jack said.
“It was nice to hear,” Rusty agreed. “But it’s not great that I’m stuck at my dad’s place until I find anywhere else.”
“Didn’t you tell me the other day that one of your roommates was moving out?” Jack asked Zill.
Zill gave him a desperate, wide-eyed look that said something like: Bro, don’t do this to me.
Then he glanced at Rusty, winced, and nodded. “Yeah, that’s true. If you want to stay with me, we’ve got room.”
“Are you sure about that?” Rusty asked. “Until a couple days ago, ‘someone who treats you badly without remorse or change’ would probably have been one way you could’ve described me.”
“Yeah, I’m sure,” Zill said. “So… what do you say?”
Instead of answering, Rusty suddenly hugged Zill, who froze up and accepted it, looking uncomfortable.
At that moment, Kayla happened to be passing by, and, noticing what was going on, she tapped Jack on the shoulder. “Is that Rusty hugging Zill?” She asked him.
“Yeah, it is,” Damian told her before Jack could answer. “Rusty needs a place to stay, so it looks like they’ll be living together now.”
“Okay, seriously. What in the Breakfast Club happened to you guys?” Kayla demanded.
Damian and Jack exchanged looks.
Jack shrugged. “Sorry. Elevator Rules.”