Week One: Pie-Eating

nikolai beckett

Johnnie Walker's lips are hard and unforgiving, and he's got a bite like nothing else Nick's ever felt. He's felt all kinds of mouths on his own: hard, soft, broken, strong, weak - but none of them ever compare to the burn from Johnnie, whose kiss is a gift in itself. 

Left in this rare situation, Johnnie alive in every cell of his body, Nick presses hard into the kiss. Walker knocks clumsily against his teeth in the throes of their passion, the warmth of his love dressing Nick to the point of discomfort. He's left flushed and sweating in the wake of Walker's unrelenting grasp. Fiery liquid races down his throat in a single shot.

He feels alive.

"You smell lovely," a girl says, the noses of her and Siamese twin both turned up in poorly disguised disgust. What's her name? Something... something... Rhyhorn? Rhiannon? Ryan? Something Rion, like the guy at school. Nick grins at her until she lists sideways, becoming a single person as a wall shoves itself into his side. "Aw, shit."

Nick has echoing sentiments when he notices Johnnie clinging to his skin - not in ways that Nick would've liked Johnnie. "Fuckin' stupid wall," he says, feeling the sinking sense of disappointment at Johnnie's betrayal, "Wha'kind'a wall is movin' useful-?"

"You're dead drunk," Ryan-Rion says, irritation in her voice as she pulls uselessly at his arm. "Jeez, if you puke later..."

"M'not'gon'pu-" Nick tells her around a mouthful of liquid. Rion leaps backwards to avoid getting her feet covered in the remains of Johnnie Walker. "You're disgusting," Rion informs him, eyeing the seeping puddle around them. Nick squints at her, his head starting to pound with increasing ferocity. "I'm going to find you a bucket of water." His appointed caretaker leaves, muttering darkly to herself. 

Groaning quietly, Nick presses the heels of his palms against his eyes. He's sobering fast - too fast, it feels like, because at the forefront of his mind are the kids he feels like he's letting down. Kid, he reminds himself, gazing up at slow-moving clouds. It's not kids when only one of them is still breathing, and it's like losing a half of himself when he's not even one of two.

Water hits him hard, and for a moment Nick's spluttering for breath, drowning in concentrated downpour. When the rain stops all Nick can see is Rion, who has a shit-eating grin and no trace of apology on her face. 

"You're being summoned, Nikolai Beckett." Her voice is wrong on his name, deepening like she's a man. A blink of an eye later, the mayor is moving on, the echoes of his grim voice mirroring the names spoken during the Reaping. Nick squints at the man, wishing Johnnie were at least in arm's reach for this damned game. His gaze slants towards Arbor at his side, an innocent question for alcohol at the tip of his tongue.

"Ready?"

Everyone else has their hands like claws and eyes on the prize, but Nick just stares dumbfoundedly at the array before him. There are a lot of fucking pies. 

"Y'know, I'm not really hungry," he mutters out of the corner of his mouth at the victor.

Still at go, he's eating like he's a starving man.

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3.25 pies

But even starving men have their limits.