Chapter Text
The boy knew, he knew the stuff Tera did wasn’t just helping out businesses. It’s mentally draining to act like he doesn’t know. Acting like the world around him doesn’t bother him, acting like he doesn’t miss his brother, his parents. His family.
He loves his uncle dearly, and his grandma even more, they had a special place in his heart. But acting as if they were enough, it's hard.
Mostly his days used to just be focussed around school and therapy, of course. Sometimes he’d wish he could actually talk to his therapist. Tell him the problems he had. Not just hope his cryptic way of wrapping his words away in unawareness was understood.
Right now he’s sitting in his room. Just got home from a babysitting gig. Tired to the bone, aching to just collapse on his bed and sleep the rest of the night away. But, he’d made it a habit to take a shower before he went to bed. It’s a way of gaining control and washing away the stress of the day.
Setting up his speaker, so he can listen while showering. It’s always nicer to shower with music in the background.
Showering isn’t always a fun experience, having to stand and be completely naked, both in the literal sense. But also in the way that, if something were to happen, he’d have nothing on his person to defend himself. But also being left with his thoughts. He didn’t like washing his hair in the shower, having to stand with your eyes closed, feeling like something’s watching you as you wash out the shampoo in your hair. Though the music does make showering a nice experience.
The boy stands back a bit, looking in the mirror as he inspects his face. Inspecting all the traits he likes about himself, and the ones he dislikes.
He starts to undress, shedding his layers and throwing the dirty clothes in the wash bin. He turns on the shower and lets it warm up a little before he gets in. He watches as the steam starts to accumulate and transform into condensation on glass and mirrors of the bathroom.
The music plays lowly in the background, its always loud enough to distract him from the loneliness of showering, but never loud enough to disturb anyone. His music taste was always changing, right now Soledad y el mar was playing comfortably. The beats of the song blending together with the taps of the falling water on the shower curtain. Music is a good way to cope, the dark doesn’t seem as scary when the music was playing around him. He could protect himself from the horrible sound of darkness.
He grabs the black bottle of way too expensive shampoo, putting a generous amount of soap on his hand. A soft thud is heard from his room, it could be anything. Though, over the weeks the boy has learned to not rule out Tera from that pool of “anything”.
Tera had started to become a stable presence in his life, always being there when he needs it. Also sometimes getting him in to trouble when he doesn’t need it.
Being in the same room as Tera was like being on a different planet. Tera was a calculated person on the outside. Everything seemed seamless and planed out. But getting to know Tera also meant getting to know the extreme amount of chaos around Tera. Nothing he did was fully calculated, he was just very good at acting. And irritatingly good at making the best of a situation. The boy could almost always had to be high-alert if Tera was near, or at least if they were on the streets.
Tera was nice to have in his room, sleeping wasn’t a problem with Tera. The boy felt safe if Tera was there, Tera looked out for him, he’d gotten him out of every bad situation he’d been placed in lately.
Tera also never asked questions. Or well, he never asked bad questions. He knew when to ask and when to just be there. It was nice, to have a shoulder to turn to when the dark got to be too much. When he needed to look away and know that someone was looking for him.
He washed the conditioner out of his hair, he liked the feeling of his hair as he worked the conditioner out of it. It was silky and smooth, no tangles or kinks in it. He liked the contrast of his hair against his skin, it was nice. Made his eyes stand out, clear blue against pale skin and charcoal hair.
Cariño plays softly in the background as he steps out of the shower, he was well aware of the fact that the soft thuds he heard from his room was Tera. But he wasn’t all that worried about it, his uncle was working late, and his grandma was asleep by now. So he basically had the house to himself. Together with Tera of course. He’d probably end up making some sort of food with him. Tera had the appetite of a starved labrador, but the cooking skills of an armless toddler. So he always ended up throwing something together for him.
Feeling a bit more energized from the shower and, hopefully, ready for whatever Tera had to throw his way today, he walked out of the bathroom, towel around his hips and a smaller one lay’d over his shoulders to catch the drip of water from his hair.
“I’m not descent so close your eyes!” He warned lowly before walking into his room. Tera sat on his bed, eyes fully open not giving a second thought to his warning. “What’s the point in warning you if you don't listen?” The boy says, flinging his wet hair towel at Tera before he walks over to his closet and finds his pajamas.
“Why warn me when I already know what a guy looks like in a towel. And less, for that matter?” Tera asks, as he picks the towel off his head. The boy hears a whooshing of the towel, and then he feels it hit his head. He lets it hang there as he pulls his pajama shorts up. He dries his hair off so it’s as dry as it as can be. And then he hangs it over the back of his chair, together with his other towel.
“I don’t know, I might value my decency, especially in front of big bad scary men like you. Who knows what you’ll do if you saw how beautiful I am underneath my layers of stylish clothes?” The boy says, a cheeky smile on his lips. Standing in front of the laying Tera, the boy puts his hands on his hips, ready to open his mouth again.
But just as he takes the breath in he was going to use on the sentence, he sees a shit eating grin start to form on Teras face. Fwhoosh. And then the boy is laying on the bed. Tera sprawled out on top of him, laughing his ass off.
“Oh no, you’ve gotten it all wrong. I’m here for the stylish cloths, and the stylish cloths only.” Tera starts rolling over the boy, now on his back horizontally on top of the boy. “Just you wait, in a bit im going to steal it all from you, and you’ll have to walk around in your undies only” Tera rolls again, this time he rolls over the boys stomach and gets a painful groan squized out of him.
“Get off me you big oaf! I know you’re here to steal my food and use me for my great cooking skills.” The boy wriggles under Tera to no avail. “It’s not fair, what were you fed as a child? You’re way too big.” Tera is no help, and just laughs at the boys struggle.
The boy suffers two painful minutes under Teras godforsaken muscly body before it has remorse on him and an empty stomach starts to growl. “Alright, get off me so i can make some food.” The boy continually slaps Tera’s chest before the mountain of muscle finally moves.
“Thank fuck, I’m stavin’!” Tera exclaims, getting up at the speed of light. “I haven’t eaten all day, the boss has kept me on my toes today, didn’t have any time for a meal or a snack.” Tera smiles and winks at the boy
The boy smiles and gets up himself, he has a hard time replying anytime Tera’s work is brought up, the boy knows it’s some shady shit he’s doing, and that it’s better to act clueless about it. “What do you feel like eating? We have some leftovers from dinner? Please tell me that it’s enough for your empty pit of a stomach? I really don’t feel like making anything right now!” the boy whines as he walks into the kitchen.
“Leftovers are fine to me. Honestly, you could throw a pile of shit at me and I’d probably eat it. That's how hungry I am right now.” Tera says, lowly. A little weary of the boys grandma, she’s a heavy sleeper, but you never know.