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“Riley, heading out already?” Riley turned to see Chase looking at him with a puzzled expression on his face. “I thought we were all going to head out and get pizza together since Philip is in town for a while.”
Riley shrugged, looking apologetic as he slipped on his jacket. It had been unusually cold in Amber Beach for the past few days. “I forgot I promised I was going to meet up with someone today. Can’t really cancel.”
Chase gave him a rather sly grin. “Meeting someone, huh? Got a secret girlfriend you haven’t told us about, mate?”
Riley shook his head. “Not everyone is girl crazy like you, Chase. Anyways, I’m so sorry I have to miss this. Tell Philip I’ll make sure to make it next time.” He held his hand out, and with a flash of green light his energem was in his hand. He frowned slightly at the sight of it.
“Well, have fun bro.” Chase hadn’t seemed to notice the change in Riley’s expression.
Riley turned and exited the base at a brisk pace, wrapping a dark green scarf around his neck as he went. As soon he had exited the museum, a sharp wind hit his face and he looked up and realized that large white flakes had begun falling steadily from the sky. There was already a thin layer of snow on top of the ground, and many museum-goers had stopped in their tracks to gawk at the sky above them. Many more who were already inside the museum were crowding around windows to marvel at the strange weather with a couple more running outside hollering with joy. It never snowed in Amber Beach, and yet here it was, piling up all around them.
Riley only took a few moments to appreciate the snow, with fond memories of his home flooding into his head. He could almost smell his mother’s homemade hot chocolate and hear his older brother excitedly calling him outside because he and the other neighbor kids wanted to make a snow fort. It almost made him hesitate slightly. He had made a promise to this person he was meeting, but the memories of his family made him actually consider what he was about to do.
Because it was quite obvious that he was the reason why it was suddenly snowing. He wasn’t sure how exactly he did it, but he knew it had to be him. He shook his head slightly, knocking the snow out of his hair. And even though his mind was telling him this wasn’t a good idea, he continued onwards anyways. Just like before, there was just something about him that Riley couldn’t help but get drawn towards. It had been there ever since he had first seen him in the Dino Bite and it had continued even after they discovered what he really was.
Which is how he ended up at the park, just in time to see the last of the parents grabbing their kids and herding them back home away from the playground, finally deciding that it was too cold for them all to play outside. It created a surreal feeling, standing there completely alone in the middle of the park with snow falling gently around him. Riley closed his eyes, lifting his head up slightly to feel the snowflakes falling and melting on his cheeks. He reached up idly and put a hand on his chest, the small lump that was his energem radiating heat into the palm of his hand. He felt a twinge of guilt. He pulled it out from underneath his jacket and looked at it intently. He was positive that it looked dimmer than it had before. Not as badly as when the team suddenly lost their bonds of friendship, but he was positive that it wasn’t glowing as brightly as it used to. It’s like it knew what Riley was doing. And he really wouldn’t surprised if it really did know.
“Y’know, I never thought you’d be the sappy type.” Riley said suddenly, gripping the energem tightly in his hand before tucking it back into his jacket.
A pair of arms snaked around his waist. “What can I say? I’m a sucker for theatrics.” A cool voice purred in his ear.
“Enough to completely fuck with the natural climate?” Riley tried hard to keep his voice steady, but the hot breath against his ear was making it a bit difficult. “Care to explain how you managed that?”
“Oh, you should know me well enough by now. I have plenty of monsters at my disposal. It was either helping me add a bit of winter flair to our date or being blown into a million pieces and blasted into space.”
“How romantic.” Riley quirked his lips slightly, leaning backwards into the embrace.
“Anything for you, my pretty boy.”
He felt a nibble on his ear.
“Heckyl.”
Riley was suddenly turned around sharply, and he was now eye to eye with a pair of startlingly blue eyes. Heckyl’s arms were still tight around his waist, drawing him in even closer than before. He had a sly smirk on his face, and snowflakes were clinging onto his eyelashes and coating his blue and blond hair. He didn’t seemed bothered by the cold at all, not shivering in the slightest. Not like Riley was. Though he wasn’t sure if he was shivering at the cold anymore or if it was for something else entirely. Heckyl leaned in close to Riley, their warm breath mingling together as his lips barely brushed against Riley’s.
“Have you decided yet, pretty boy?” Heckyl whispered in his ear.
Riley shivered. It was definitely not the cold doing that. “I…I’m not sure yet.” The energem dug painfully against his chest as Heckyl drew him in even closer, their chests pressing together tightly.
“You’ve been taking so long to decide…” Heckyl murmured. “I have half a mind to just throw you over my shoulder and just take you with me anyways.”
“I-I can’t help it. This is a big decision for me to make. Just up and leaving my family? My friends? I’m betraying everyone just for—“ Riley was silenced with lips pressing against his own.
“You came all this way just for me. You’ll have family with us. With Poisandra, Curio, Wrench…Hell, even with Fury and Singe.”
Riley turned his head away from Heckyl. “But…”
“Don’t you want to get away, Riley? Just get away from everything that was holding you back on this lonely worthless little world? Come with me and you’ll never have to worry about people holding you back from your dreams ever again. You won’t even need your little energem to give you the upper hand anymore.”
The offer was tempting. It was so, so tempting. Riley let out a tiny gasp as Heckyl leaned down and bit his neck, though the sudden pain was soothed immediately by his hot tongue running over his aching skin. He did it again. And again. Sucking and biting at that spot on Riley’s neck that he had to throw his hands up and cling tightly onto Heckyl’s hair, pushing him further onto his neck.
“Je t'aime très beaucoup, est-ce que tu m'aimes aussi?” Heckyl’s voice sounded like a distant murmur.
“W-why me? Why did you pick m-me?” Riley nearly whimpered, he could feel one of Heckyl’s hands pushing up underneath his shirt.
He had felt so cold before, and even though the snow was piling up even higher around them, he felt hot. He felt so, so hot.
“Je t'aime très beaucoup, est-ce que tu m'aimes aussi?”
Riley tried to choke back a moan.
“Je t'aime très beaucoup, est-ce que tu m'aimes aussi?”
“…Y-es…”
“Personne ne peut venir entre nous?”
“Y-YES…!