Chapter 12: Chapter Eleven

Darren felt particularly beautiful that night…and domestic. He was in the bedroom refolding the laundry that the servants had delivered. He hated the way they folded clothes as it always created wrinkles. He had insisted on doing the laundry when he and Daniel first moved into the complex, but Daniel wouldn’t let him. In his opinion, it was servile, and service was provided. Therefore, there was no need for Darren to do work. It still bothered Darren though. It agitated him that someone else was touching his man’s clothes while he could put so much love into the task. Moving his hands over the soft tee-shirt he lifted it to his face and inhaled its scent. Daniel’s natural masculine scent wafted from the fabric along with the servants' annoying cleaning products. It was supposed to smell like sunshine, but it failed miserably. Nothing could replicate the sun. The artificial scent would only depress a vampire even more.

Gathering the tee-shirt and Daniel’s other folded clothes, Darren placed them in his dresser drawers. Next, he began the task of removing the wire hangers from the dry cleaning and replacing them with soft satin cushion hangers. He hated wire hangers, and it had nothing to do with the movie Mommy Dearest. Wire hangers damaged clothes and were flimsy.

As Darren continued to tend to the clothing, he recalled his mother in the backyard hanging the laundry and him playing with his toys. Such a blissful moment. He remembered how beautiful she was with a scarf over her hair. To honor her memory, he mimicked her with a scarf tied over his hair, though his was black leather and edged with pyramid studs. He had to put his own Darren Hayes spin on it.

Coming to one of Daniel’s white shirts, Darren halted. The servant who delivered the laundry had begged forgiveness for not being able to remove the blood wine stains. Darren assured him that it was all right and gave him some money for his troubles. He knew someone else would have ripped the servant a new asshole for something beyond his ability. Removing the plastic from the shirt, Darren examined the splotches of pink left over from the blood wine. His hand touched the stains, and he thought about finding Daniel lying in the doorway last night.

When night arrived, Darren woke and found an open bottle of blood wine on the floor whose contents had leaked out adding yet another stain to the carpet. He sat in the living room chair watching Daniel until he woke up. He asked him about passing out drunk with the door open and he muttered some incoherent derisions leaving the apartment in the same clothes he had slept in.

The stain on the shirt was more than what it was. It was a stain on Darren and Daniel’s relationship. It was a darkness that hung like an ever-present cloud to remind him of the daily hell they lived in. If only Darren could reach into Daniel’s mind and find out what was hurting him. He was medicating with the bottle, that much was obvious. He was a man through and through. He had never talked about his feelings and always managed to dance around the subject when the issue of sharing came up.

A mournful sigh passed Darren’s lips. The shirt was ruined and had to be tossed in the trash. As he started to ball the shirt up, he halted as he noticed a red smear on the inside of the collar. Moving his fingers over the smear he tried to rub it out, then he scratched at it with his nails. His mind began to race. One substance that was hard to get out was lipstick. His world began to crumble, his hand shook, and his chest clenched. Was this proof? Was Daniel unfaithful? Pressing his nose to the smear he was unable to detect a scent. If the servants had found a hex bag in the laundry, they would have returned it.

No, no, no, Darren’s mind chanted. He had suspected it and now he was confronted with it. Perhaps Daniel had the hex bag in his closet. He stared at the closet door. Part of him wanted to know, needed to know, but another part of him just wanted to ignore it and blame it all on a paranoid mind. Tossing the shirt onto the bed, he entered Daniel’s closet.

The closets in Darren and Daniel’s bedroom weren’t as big as the one downstairs but it was still big with four sections in each one. It would take Darren all night to search all the clothing, nooks, crannies, and boxes. Jumping into sonic speed mode, Darren flashed around the closet turning out Daniel’s pockets and shaking his shoes. He was nearly done when he heard Daniel downstairs.

“Darren!” Daniel shouted.

Darren flew out of the closet closing the door behind him and continued to change the hangers of the dry cleaning. He would act as if things had been perfectly normal like he hadn’t been snooping. He hadn’t found anything, but he didn’t get to finish his task. Also, there was the possibility of Daniel having the hex bag on him at that moment.

“Darren! Bring me my goddamn wine!” Daniel’s voice boomed again.

Aggravated, Darren tossed the laundry on the bed and went to the door. “I left an open bottle in the kitchen!” He called before returning to his task.

Darren prayed that Daniel would sit downstairs and nurse his bottle but that was too much like right. Soon he heard him stumbling up the stairs and mumbling hateful words. As much as he tried, Darren was never able to prepare himself for Daniel’s abuse. With every step that he took up the stairs and toward their bedroom, his body grew tense.

“Who the fuck have you been fucking?” Daniel demanded after opening the door and stumbling into the room with the bottle of blood wine in his hand.

Darren looked at Daniel and frowned. “What?” He asked in disbelief as he had just found what looked like lipstick smeared on his collar.

Daniel took a swig of the bottle and moved into the room. “I said, who the fuck have you been fucking?”

“No one,” Darren replied. “You’re mad.”

“You must be fucking someone. You’re not fucking me, that’s for sure.”

“Well, that’s because you’re always drunk,” Darren stated and shrugged. “Don’t blame it on me, love.”

Darren watched as Daniel’s eyes moved over his form and he knew what he was thinking. He was dressed lovely in a pair of skin-tight sateen black slacks, dress boots, and a sheer lace shirt that had a few of the top buttons undone to show a bit of his furred chest. On top of it, he had dolled himself up a bit by curling the ends of his hair up into a pretty bob.

“Where the fuck are you going?” Daniel demanded.

“Out,” was Darren’s simple reply.

“You’re going out to fuck, aren’t you?”

Darren sighed and just shut down as he continued to tend to the clothing. He was not going to entertain Daniel’s bullshit that night.

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“You think I’m fucking stupid, Darren?” Daniel crossed the room and stood over Darren making him flinch with his threatening pose. “I can smell him all over you. A fucking human.”

Flipping his head up, Darren looked into Daniel’s twisted and fierce face. Drool was running down his chin making him look crazed.

Realization kicked in Darren’s head. “Oh, I had a meal last night,” Darren said nonchalantly. “Went hunting.” He continued with his task thinking nothing of it.

“Hunting? Alone?”

“Yeah.” Darren shrugged.

“You fucked him? Didn’t you?”

Darren tossed the slacks he had hung on the pile of clothes and closed his eyes. He tried to stay calm, but Daniel was being the ever-persistent prick that he always was. Darren had to admit that he felt a bit guilty about entertaining the victim, but Daniel knew exactly what lines they had to cross to trap prey.

“I didn’t entertain him more than I needed to get what I wanted,” Darren informed. “I didn’t fuck him. I didn’t even touch him below the waist.”

“Right.” Daniel’s voice was filled with doubt.

“Look, I didn’t fuck him!” Darren shouted. “I don’t want anybody…” He trailed unable to finish his sentence which would have been assuring Daniel that he only wanted him, but he couldn’t tell him that. He had hurt him so much and yes, he still loved him, but he didn’t deserve to hear it.

“You’ll tell me anything,” Daniel mumbled as he sat on the bed right on top of the clean clothes. “Out there fucking and killing up a storm, aren’t you?”

Darren snapped his head around and glared at Daniel. There really wasn’t any use arguing with an irrational mind.

“You’re all dressed up to the nines, and got a bag packed.” Daniel tossed his head back at the duffle bag sitting at the head of the bed.

Damn, Darren had forgotten to hide that. It was stuffed with items for his dressing room at Raw. Piggles had called him earlier and told him he could come in and get settled. The bag was full of makeup, some spare clothing, posters from his and Daniel’s days of being famous, and whatnot.

“I have something I need to do,” Darren replied.

“You mean someone.” Daniel sneered. “Who is he?”

“I told you.” Darren tried to stay calm. “I had a meal last night and that is all.”

Suddenly, Daniel bolted to his feet. His body was hard, tense, and full of aggression. Alarmed, Darren cried out, flew across the room, and pressed his back against the wall. He stared at Daniel with his eyes full of fear. He trembled and his mind raced. He was a little human boy again playing with his Star Wars figures a little too loud when his father jumped out of his chair and slapped him across the face.

The two dysfunctional lovers stared at each other. Darren felt weak and afraid. Any minute now, he was going to be hurt. Any minute now the pain would start, and the tears would fall. However, Daniel sat back on the bed and chugged on the bottle of blood wine. Still shaking, Darren felt his way along his dresser making his way to the bed. He grabbed his leather belted coat from where it hung on his closet doorknob and the duffle bag from the bed. On shaky legs, he rushed to the bedroom door. He opened it and started to leave, but Daniel’s words halted him.

“While you’re out there doing whatever it is you’re doing, lose a couple of kilos off that big arse of yours.” Daniel’s words aimed to wound Darren.

Darren stood there contemplating. He could keep going but something in him just couldn’t let this one insult go. Turning his head, he looked at Daniel. Their eyes met and he said, “Funny, you weren’t complaining all the times you were smashing your face between my cheeks.” Then with his signature silky flow of swaying hips, he strutted out of the door leaving Daniel with all of his loathing and self-disgrace.

By the time Darren got to the lobby, he had his coat on and the duffle bag slung over his shoulder. As he walked, he felt triumph at not letting Daniel’s jibes about his ass ruin his night. Truth was, he had a perfect ass. Not too big and not too small. It was round and soft, fitting perfectly in a man’s hands. In the past, Daniel had commented that his ass was as soft as a marshmallow. Even still, he remembered when Daniel relayed the truth to him that he had homoerotic feelings toward him before he became a vampire.

Back when they were human and doing rehearsals for their first tour, Daniel never paid Darren much attention. However, during the first night of the tour when Darren did a routine with a No. 14 chair while singing “I’ll Bet He Was Cool”, Daniel became a tad bit excited and had to adjust the strap on his guitar to hide the massive hard-on he had. Darren was tickled and couldn’t stop laughing, recalling that when they took a break before the last part of the show, Daniel was in the bathroom for a ridiculously long time. Daniel told him that he wished his face had been the chair.

Anyway, Darren wasn’t about to let Daniel ruin his day and his high self-esteem vibes. In the tunnels, he ran to Raw. He expected the bouncers to give him shit but they ignored him. Once inside the club, Darren didn’t let one belle or beau sang approach him. He jetted backstage only stopping when he reached Piggles’ office. The office was empty, and Darren frowned.

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