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Riley sighed as he let his feet skim over the gravel beneath the swing set. The sun had long since set, and the only light was coming from the streetlights around the park. He should be happy right now, elated even. Koda had won them the championship just like Riley had always dreamed of. But instead, Riley just felt sick. The rest of the ranger team had gone back to the base to continue in the festivities for a while longer, but Riley had feigned being tired after the battle and the excitement of the baseball match and said he was heading home early. Instead, he had wandered off to this park so he could gather his thoughts in relative silence. But he had been there for a couple hours now, and still he couldn’t shake the horrible feeling out of himself.
“Honestly, I’ve never been more proud. Seeing your performance for the past few months was just so…satisfying.” A voice behind him purred.
Without missing a beat, Riley was already up on his feet with his dino saber clutched tightly in his hands, the blade pointed right at Heckyl’s throat. The other man still had an easy grin on his face, though he was holding his hands up in surrender.
“Is that any way to greet an old flame?”
“You are not an old flame.” Riley muttered, his cheeks tinged with pink.
“Oh, whatever you say. But I’m not here to fight you Riley Griffin, so I’d kindly like for you to maybe...put that away?” Heckyl almost playfully swatted away the blade of his dino saber.
Riley stared at him for a few moments, neither of them moving an inch before he finally let his arms fall slack at his sides, the dino saber clattering to the ground. “What do you want, Heckyl?”
“I came to congratulate you of course!” Heckyl laughed, holding his arms out a bit wider.
“Congratulate me?”
“Of course, with all the nasty work you’ve been doing. Being so attention hungry that you’d manipulate a close friend that you full well know has a different mental capacity than you, just to play a sport that you failed at? Pushing them so hard and shirking your ranger duties just so you could have that sweet taste of victory? You mentally got revenge on those little league coaches who made you sit on the bench because you just weren’t good enough? How could I not think highly of you after all that?”
That stung him. He didn’t even question how exactly Heckyl knew that information, but no matter how hard Riley tried to spin it, Heckyl was right. That was why Riley had ended up here at this park, with the guilt hitting him suddenly after the disgustingly sweet feeling of seeing Koda win anyways and feeling like he proved someone wrong had finally faded away. He had been controlling Koda, there was no denying it. He took away his favorite foods, he took him away from ranger training, he had a monster run free and nearly endangered an entire stadium because of his selfishness. He had been so focused on his own goals that nothing else around him could even stop him.
“I...I learned my lesson though. I’m not going to do it again.” Riley mumbled, looking away from Heckyl’s gleeful expression. “Koda set me straight.” And Heckyl could see right through him.
“Have you though, have you really learned your lesson? What about what happened with Burt? Shouldn’t you have learned your lesson about personal gain then too?”
Riley snapped his head back to glare at Heckyl. “You coerced me into doing that marathon, and even then I didn’t use my energem for that!”
“But before then, you seemed perfectly happy to use your energem to try and get revenge on him. And it didn’t exactly take much coercion on my part to get you to enter that race. I have a feeling you would have anyways. Face it Riley, the only thing playing on those pink lips of yours these days are lies as pretty as you are.”
Riley felt his cheeks getting hotter from anger. “What are you trying to do? Why are you doing this?”
“You have potential Riley. You have so much stirring within you just waiting to break out. Even someone as dense as Curio can see it. Is it so bad that I want to help you bloom instead of living in the shadows of your family and friends for the rest of your life?” Heckyl moved closer, the swing still the only thing between them.
Riley took a step back. “I don’t trust you.”
Heckyl smiled. “Another pretty lie, because here we are speaking to each other even though you had your chance to slice my throat. Instead, you drop your weapon as soon as I said I wasn’t here to fight.” Heckyl’s smile looked almost...gentle. Fond. “Unless our little romp in the storage room of the Dino Bite affected you more than you thought?”
Riley’s cheeks were still hot, though this time for a different reason. “It wasn’t a romp.”
“Call it whatever you want Riley, but you have to admit you seem to have a bit of a…weakness for me.”
Heckyl swept the swing between them to the side, and suddenly he was incredibly close against Riley. Despite some weak protests from some deep part inside his mind, he didn’t move. He still stared straight at Heckyl, trying not to shiver from the warm touch as he wrapped his hands around Riley’s gently moving his thumb over Riley’s cold hands. It was eerie. Even though he knew that Heckyl was very much a living being, and had felt him before, it was odd feeling how warm his skin really was. It was as though he assumed because he now knew he was the ‘bad guy’ that his touch would suddenly be as cold as the crimes he had committed, but instead it felt as calmingly cozy and addicting as he remembered it. It was familiar. He blushed, remembering what Heckyl had referred to as their little ‘romp’ in the Dino Bite storage room.
Heckyl’s hands had moved away from his own and a hand had reached up to start running fingers through his hair. “I only want what’s best for you Riley. Come with me and I’ll give you everything your heart could possibly desire.”
“I...I don’t know.” Riley gasped slightly as Heckyl nuzzled his neck. “I...I need to think about it.”
And suddenly, Heckyl let go of him. He was still very close, and he still had that gentle look on him as he nodded. “I’ll let you think about it.”
“W-wait, really?” Riley’s eyes widened slightly.
Heckyl leaned down slightly and pressed a chaste kiss to Riley’s cheek. “I said you had a weakness for me, and so it seems that the weakness may be mutual.” Heckyl straightened up again and looked around them. “If you ever need to see me again, just come here. We can meet again”
“How will you know I’ll be here?”
“Oh, I’ll know.”
Riley couldn’t help but smile a bit. “That’s kinda creepy you know.”
Heckyl’s face brightened slightly at the sight of Riley smiling. “So it is.”
Riley suddenly felt very cold as Heckyl finally backed away from him and disappeared back into the night, leaving Riley alone again with his own thoughts. He could still feel the lingering warmth where Heckyl had been only moments ago. He wasn’t sure how long he stood there before he finally managed to get his legs working again so he could return back to his room to think about the offer he had been given. He still had no clue what he wanted, but the fact that he was even seriously considering it made him realize how much he was faltering.
That feeling of being right, of getting what he wanted. There’s no denying that he liked it, and he liked it a lot. Being cocky and feeling superior. It was tempting, to be able to get more of that feeling. To not have to worry about trying so hard to get out of his teammates’ shadows. They were so much brighter than he was, so much more noticeable. But Heckyl, he was noticing him. He was singling him out from the crowd, and he had done that even before then, when Riley just knew him as the eccentric man who started working at the Dino Bite.
So maybe that’s why after a few days he ended up slipping away from the team again to go back to that park, sitting and waiting at the same swing he had been at before. He put his hand on his chest, pulling up the necklace that kept his energem and looked at the dark green stone. It started glowing slightly as he looked at it. It comforted him for a few moments, but his heart skipped a beat as he watched it flicker slightly, just as a pair of hands pressed up against the small of his back and he had to catch himself, letting the energem back against his chest.
“Sorry I scared you.” Riley didn’t have to turn around to know who it was. “So, have you--”
“No, not yet...Let’s just...spend a little time here, okay?” Riley looked back at Heckyl.
Heckyl didn’t say anything, but he smiled and nodded, gently brushing his fingers against Riley’s neck before going back to pushing him on the swing. Riley was still slightly shell-shocked from his energem, unsure if he actually saw it flicker because Heckyl had appeared so suddenly that it could have just been a trick of the eye. But he soon relaxed again, because it felt nice being there in silence, feeling Heckyl’s presence near him. And he knew that he shouldn’t be doing this, he shouldn’t feel so relaxed. He shouldn’t already be planning his next meeting with Heckyl.
And yet he was.