Not Yet Corpses. Still, We Rot.

February 15th, 2024.

Alain woke up in a cold sweat. He checked the time and saw it was not even 4 AM yet. Goddammit. He looked over at his boyfriend, who was still fast asleep. He slowly maneuvered himself out of Eliza’s grip, and went to the bathroom. After his eyes had adjusted to the bright bathroom light, he looked in the mirror. He was covered in sweat, and he could still feel his nightmare under his skin. He also had a bit of a hangover, but that was a separate problem. He turned on the tap and splashed his face. The cold shock woke Alain up a bit, but he still could not shake the creeping feeling that something was wrong. He felt as if his skin were about to burst, his skeleton digging its way out of his back, yearning for freedom. He swiftly took off his shirt, and he looked at his sides in the mirror. He saw for patches of irritated skin, two on each side. He figured he must’ve been scratching himself in his sleep, and it had started to itch, as if something was genuinely trying to get out. It was starting to swell, so he decided to see if he had an ice pack somewhere. When he got downstairs, his mom was stood in the kitchen, drinking tea and staring into space. This is when Alain became very aware of his lack of a shirt. His mom noticed him come in, and immediately noticed the irritated skin on his sides. “Are you alright? Has your eczema come back?” She asked, putting down her tea to take a closer look. “No mom, it’s just irritated.” He said, slightly embarrassed. That’s the curse of having a nurse for a mother, she knows the most embarrassing ailments. “Oh we might have some cold compresses in the first aid kit. That should help with the swelling too.” She picked her tea back up and almost took a sip, before deciding it was still too hot and putting it back on the counter. “Alright.” Alain said, starting to walk back to the door. “And get some sleep mom, it’s like 4 AM.” She nodded, and Alain walked back up the stairs and to the bathroom again, where the first aid kit was in the cupboard above the sink.
His nightmare was starting to fade from his mind, all he could remember were spiders crawling all over his body and getting bitten all over, until he turned into a spider hybrid himself. Like a more fucked up version of spider-man. He felt as if the spiders were still crawling over him as he thought about it, and he shuddered, as if he was trying to shake the non-existent spiders off. For now, he just silently slipped back into bed, wrapping his arms around his gorgeous boyfriends waist, burying his head in the crook of Eliza’s neck, and slowly slipping back into a light sleep. This time he did not dream though, which might’ve been for the best.
As the sun started creeping in from under the blinds, shining into Eliza’s eyes, he started waking up from his deep rest. He and Alain were yet again intertwined like a spider’s web. He decided that this was way too comfortable, and he shut his eyes again, hoping to fall back into the deep sleep that he had been in. Eliza had never been one to remember his dreams, but this time, he could remember his dream clear as day. He remembered his entire body shattering into stardust, which was horrifying in the dream, but pretty fucking cool thinking back on it. He felt Alain shift under his arms, and Eliza opened his eyes again, just to be met by Alain’s tired brown eyes looking back at him. He still had some eyeliner on his eyelids, which he had only haphazardly taken off the night before. To be fair, Alain had been pretty fucking drunk. Now though, Alain was just left with a pretty bad hangover, and his head was throbbing. The blinds being unable to properly cover the light did not help either. Eliza let himself get lost in his boyfriend’s eyes, a smile cracking through on his face as he thought about how Alain was indeed his boyfriend. Alain smiled back, happy to see Eliza smile. Oh that smile, he thought, that authentic smile that reminded Alain of the sunrise, slowly illuminating the dark that encompassed all. Alain could feel his worries about his hangover fade, as if the pain became just a bit more bearable. That smile worked like a painkiller, and he wanted to overdose. For that smile to take his worries away was all Alain asked for. For Eliza to smile, to be truly happy, for him to smile, was all Alain needed to live. Unfortunately, Eliza’s smile was not actually a magical cure for hangovers, and Alain suddenly shot up, clutching his hand over his mouth, ready to vomit. He ran over to the bathroom and promptly threw up in the toilet. That moment was slightly ruined now, but it’s better for one to take care of themselves when sick, than to keep the moment alive at the expense of one’s well being. And it’s also better than vomiting all over your boyfriend. Ew.
A very greasy breakfast later, the two were casually chatting about whatever, when Alain got a notification from the discord group he was in with all of his friends. He glanced over to his phone to see what was up, and it was Moss talking about a nightmare they had had the night before. Alain brought it up to Eliza. “Apparently Moss and I both had a nightmare last night. Do you think it was the same one?” They both snickered at the thought, before Eliza realized he had had a nightmare as well. “Wait what was your nightmare about? Because I had one as well…” Alain’s face dropped, slowly starting to believe everyone on earth had just had the same nightmare. This was not the case. Alain explained about his dream, and Eliza about his. After they had come to the conclusion it was a coincidence, (much to Alain’s dismay, as he was already theorizing like he was the new Matpat,) they just continued chatting about everything and nothing.
They were laid down on the bed, and due to the fact that they were bored as all hell, Alain was looking through baby boy names and asking Eliza which ones he liked. Alain knew he would be incredibly attracted to his boyfriend anyways, but if he named himself something like ‘Kevin’, he would find that a red flag. A very small red flag, like the kind you get on cupcakes, but still a red flag.
“Liam?” Alain asked, and Eliza wrote it down in his notes app.
“Noah?” Eliza shook his head.
“Oliver?” “Meh.”
“Benjamin?” Eliza looked over to his boyfriend, cocking an eyebrow in slight offense. “Do I look like a fucking Benjamin to you?” He said sarcastically. Alain smiled at that. He did in fact not look like a Benjamin.
“Finn?” Eliza wrote that one down too.
“Micheal?” “Eh.” Eliza said, unsure about it. He just wrote it down with a question mark after it. “I have quite a bit of names written down now,” (12 names) “I think this is a fine selection.” Eliza said, looking at the names he had. He was this close to just making a picker wheel and getting it over with, but he decided that would be plan B. Alain turned off his phone, and tossed it behind himself, roughly into the direction of his pillow. He then ignored the thud he heard when his phone hit the wall at terminal velocity. That was a problem for later.
Alain’s mom knocked on the door of his room. When given the ‘what’s up?’ of agreement, she opened the door to ask that dreaded question. “Do you guys want anything to drink? You really need to hydrate, especially after that hangover of yours.” She glared in Alain’s general vicinity, not trying to single anyone out, but still being utterly disappointed in bearing a child that was such a light weight. “Some coke for me, d’you want anything?” Alain said, looking at Eliza. This was the dreaded question, as asking for bare necessities at someone else’s house is the most horrifying thing in the history of ever. Luckily, he was given some time to think, since Alain’s mom grinned at Alain and in a fake stern voice she said; “There will be no cocaine in this house young man. You will do that in the alleyway like the rest of us.” All three of them giggled, and at this exact moment, Eliza realized where Alain got his humor. When their laughing had ceased, Alain’s mom looked at Eliza, and he realized he hadn’t thought about what he wanted to drink yet. “What do you guys have?” Eliza asked, and Alain’s mom started summing up the drinks she knew off the top of her head. “Water, lemonade, cola, sprite,” She counted on her fingers. “I think we have cassis too, but I’d have to check. Milk, orange and apple juice, coffee, tea, wine… I think that’s it.” Eliza was slightly taken aback with the options, and with the fact that Alain was allowed to drink this on a weekday. “Ehm, can I have some sprite please?” Eliza asked, hoping this wasn’t some sort of trick question to figure out whether Eliza was worthy of her son or not, but Alain’s mom just nodded and left, even going as far as closing the door behind her. The second she was gone, Eliza turned to Alain to confirm his suspicions. Alain just laughed, and Eliza immediately turned fifty shades of red as he realized how dumb that must’ve sounded. “Nah, she thinks you’re cool. If she had a suspicion that you weren’t good for me, you wouldn’t be allowed in this house.” Eliza was shocked, but slightly intrigued at this. Alain could tell that from his face and went straight into talking about one of his exes who was not allowed to come in when his mom opened the door. Essentially, his mom had some sort of sixth sense, and she had felt a bad ‘vibe’, as Alain put it, about that girl. Alain would later find out that she had cheated on him the night before. This struck Eliza as strange. Not the part about his mom seemingly just knowing, but the fact that this was the second person that he’d heard about that had cheated on Alain. Right before he could question it though, their conversation was interrupted by a pair of shoelaces being flung at Alain’s head. They both snapped their heads to see where the attack had come from, just to see Alain’s mom standing in the doorway. “I almost broke my neck going down the stairs because I tripped on these. You need to clean up after yourself.” She said, before handing the pair their drinks. Eliza thanked Alain’s mom, and she gave him a kind smile, being happy for her son finding a polite person to date. God knows some of his exes weren’t. Not all of them had been awful, but from the six people he had dated before, four of them ended up being bad people. She had known from the start that Eliza was a kind and well-meaning person, and she hoped this relationship would stick. She wanted grand kids one day, and for those hypothetical children to be happy was very much preferred. She left the room, again shutting the door, which made Eliza think this was not a once in a lifetime occurrence.
“I think I might go with Finn.” Finn (formerly Eliza) said. He had been going over his list again, picking off the ones he liked least. He had been a bit divided between Finn and Liam, but after thinking about it he realized Finn simply fit him better. It wasn’t like he was immediately changing it on all of his legal documents, so he could always switch later if he decided on something else. “Ooeehh, okay Finn, that fits you really well!” Alain responded. Finn. He liked it. It ultimately wasn’t up to him, but Kevin still wouldn’t have been ideal. What mattered the most though, was that his boyfriend was happy with his new name. The smile that shined out of Finn when Alain used his newfound name told him enough. No matter if it was she or he, Eliza or Finn, that smile would always have a grip on Alain. Not the forced smile that Finn gave to customers, but that radiant smile that showed true glee. That smile that shines through whenever they hold hands, or when he goes to get fries at his favorite place. That smile, oh, Finn’s smile.