Work Text:
Anti-Everything
by duointherain
Disclaimer: I do not own The Sentinel or the song ‘Anti-Everything’ by Lost Kings, Or Iron Heart by CM Alongi, which everyone should read.
‘I hate drinking coffee in the morning!’
Jim’s eyes opened. Well, that wasn’t fucking true. The world did not work without coffee. His bed, in fact, felt like it had become a gravity well and he might need cocaine or a canon to get him out of it.
There was no way he was putting his hands up in the air. What the fuck was this shit? Young people. Blair.
Was Blair ‘young people’? Blair had such pretty hair! His eyes were like this blue that had to be young. Surely people’s eyes clouded and darkened as they aged. And how his lips parted so frequently, so soft and tender and suddenly it wasn’t the bed that had all the mass.
Blair was gravity pulling Jim up and forward.
‘Everything but you... I hate every second you’re not with me! I hate when we have to say goodbye!’
Jim was out of bed then, an imaginary microphone in his hand, “I’m fucking miserable until you walk into the room! I talk a lot of shit, swear you’ll get used to it!”
Standing made him remember why he hadn’t made it home the night before. He’d been at the hospital. That’s right and it still hurt. He ran his fingers over the bandage on his side. He’d checked himself out and made it home just a little before dawn. He hated hospitals! He hated fuckers who shot cops! He staggered a bit and then grabbed the railing to get down the stairs.
Sandburg. ‘I’m fucking miserable until you walk into the room!’
Yes, Sandburg!
“Sandburg,” Jim yelled as he slowly made his way down the stairs. “I’m home!”
He couldn’t even remember what he’d been doing the night before. Work. It had been work. Some investigation. He peeled the bandage off of his side and while there was a hole, it was only half a hole, just along the side, as if the bullet had just taken a half moon out of him, just a flesh wound. Painful, but not life threatening. “Sandburg!”
The loft was quiet. Too quiet. Sandburg was many things, but not quiet. “Blair!”
Then the phone rang and Jim picked it up. “Blair, where are you?”
“He’s at the hospital,” Simon said, “Where you should be! You just stay at the loft. I’m coming to get you, Jim.”
“I’m fine! I’ve never felt better. I wish Blair was here.”
“You’ve been exposed to an other worldly chemical and are not thinking clearly. Remember golden? Please just wait for me, okay?”
“Yeah, yeah, okay,” Jim said. He didn’t know what Simon was on about. He wasn’t high. He was just happy.
“You’re the only one who makes me feel things,” Jim sang. He found a shirt, in Blair’s room. It was Blair’s shirt, but it smelled nice and he liked it, even if it was a bit tight. Then he stole one of Blair’s smoothies out of the fridge and he just stood there drinking it and like no time passed at all, but Simon was letting himself in the front door anyway.
Simon grunted and went straight for him. “Come on Jim, we need to go!”
“I’m fine! Really! I’m having the best day!”
“You are not fine! Blair is not fine!”
Jim let himself be pushed towards the door. “Of course Blair is fine!” Jim said, sliding his feet into his shoes right before Simon pushed him out the door. “Why wouldn’t Blair be fine?”
“Well, when your head is clear, you’ll remember,” Simon said as he shoved Jim into the back seat of the police car. The child safety locks were on and Jim was stuck. Every time the car stopped at a stop light, he tried to get out and was shocked each time that the doors would not open.
“Oh that’s right, there was a flower, wasn’t there, some great big thing! And fairies are real!”
“So it seems,” Simon said, finally pulling into the parking garage. “Now I’m going to release the door and you’re going to go up to the sixth floor and go straight to Blair, right? And you’re not going to freak out and say anything mean when you see him, right?”
“Why would I say anything mean to Blair? I’m in love with him, but you knew that already, didn’t you?”
“Of course I knew that, but I’m not sure you knew. Now, sixth floor, be nice! He saved your life, even if you don’t remember it.”
“He did,” Jim said enthusiastically. “He has been saving my life for years. Let me out!”
Then the door released and Jim was out! He skipped the elevator and ran all the way up to the sixth floor. “Blair!”
The nurses pointed towards a door at the end of the hall and Jim sprinted.
Blair lay on a hospital bed, gown open in the back, but those light little blankets mostly covered him. “Jim?”
“I’m here,” Jim said slipping in. He felt like there was stuff he should remember, but he didn’t want it to be important.
“Please don’t run away again.”
“Never. I’ll never run away from you.”
“You will,” Blair said, voice so soft Jim needed sentinel hearing to hear him.
“I’m sorry if I ran before. I don’t remember. I won’t do it again. Why would I run?”
“Because I’m a changeling. I’m not human.”
Jim was close enough to lay a hand on Blair’s shoulder then. “Humans are boring. I love you.”
Blair rolled a little and his soft brown curls fell away from a pointy ear. “You mean that still?”
Blair’s skin turned to a soft blue like the gentlest spring sky. “Because I’m really not human. I’ve never been, but I also love you.”
Jim reached out and touched Blair’s face, feeling the normal feeling texture of it. “You’re beautiful, Blair. I talk a lot of shit, but swear you’ll get used to it?”
“I love you, Jim,” Blair said. “I’m still your guide.”
“The world wouldn’t be right if you weren’t.”