echolls_cursed | Halloween Plot

Current Location: Logan and Neil's hut

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Halloween Plot

They'd been spared.

It was Halloween morning, and there wasn't a pair of hooker-boots between them. It was a huge relief, one which they promptly celebrated with a little roughhousing and a lot of kissing. Both of which were going well until Logan backed into one of Neil's shelves, knocking it down and banging his head.

That sort of killed the mood.

After a brief argument about who's fault it had been, Neil had left in hopes of borrowing some nails and a hammer from the building crew, leaving Logan to tidy up and get dressed. He wasn't alone for long though, and when Logan heard the door open behind him, he instantly assumed it was Joe, coming to see just what the hell they'd been doing.

"You know, in some cultures, they have this thing called 'knocking'. Apparently it stops people from walking in on one another while they're getting dressed," Logan quipped, pulling on a t-shirt and turning around.

He really wished he hadn't.

""Nothing I haven't seen before," Aaron replied, his voice laced with that carefully practiced tone of a loving father. "I spent a good six years bathing you after all."

Something told him that Aaron wasn't going to simply vanish this time, and Logan struggled with himself for a moment as he tried to decide how to react. "You mean the Nanny spent six years bathing me," he corrected, forcing himself to stay casual and relaxed. "Rosalita always had a softer touch than you anyway."

Aaron laughed, a forced and cold sound that Logan was all too familiar with. The calm before the storm. "I've missed you, Logan. I'm really looking forward to becoming a family again."

Logan just shook his head. "You're not my family anymore," he said firmly, voice level and calm. "I'm twenty now, and you're not my father. You were never my father. Just the asshole that..."

He was promptly cut off by the back of Aaron's hand as it hit his cheek, snapping his head to the side with a sound that seemed to echo off the hut walls. "Don't be disrespectful," his father said simply. "I don't care how old you are, you are my son, and you'll show me some respect. You're right, you're not a child anymore, and I won't treat you like one if you don't act like one."

Rubbing his cheek, Logan glared, fighting back the feeling of fear that sat deep in his gut. "You're not my father," he said again, looking up at the older man for a long moment, and then trying to push past him so he could leave.

He really should have known better, but after all this time, he didn't want to be the weak child he'd been two years ago. He didn't want to cave and let Aaron shove him around. He'd built a new life here, and if would take more than a slap in the face to get him to give it up. When Aaron grabbed his arm though, fingers digging into his forearm as he shoved him roughly back into the room and onto the bed, Logan couldn't fight the fear any longer. In that moment, he was seven again, and Aaron... Aaron was the most frightening person in the world.

Mouth open slightly, there was an obvious look of panic on Logan's face as he watched Aaron move closer.

"Is this how it has to be?" he father asked. "Twenty years old, and you still need to be taught how to treat someone with respect? It's embarrassing, Logan, I hope you know that. You should be ashamed of this." Fingers moving to his belt, Aaron just shook his head as he slipped it free from the belt loops on his jeans. "We'll do it this way then."

Logan didn't even argue. He knew better than that. In the long run, the belt tended to be the better option. It was usually enough to calm Aaron down, preventing bloody noses or broken bones. That didn't make it any easier to swallow though, and Logan's stomach turned as he got to his feet and pulled off his shirt. He didn't need to be told to face the wall, he just did it, forcing his mind to go blank as he heard Aaron step up behind him.

"You know I only do this because I love you," he heard his father say... right before the first lash fell.

When it was over, Logan's back burned, and he wasted no time pulling his shirt back on. "I need you to leave," he said calmly, glancing at his father. "You can go to the compound... that big building... you can get a room or something. You can't be here though. Alright?"

Aaron just raised a brow. "Don't want to introduce me to your boyfriend then? You're lucky you're mother's not alive to hear about that. It would have killed her."

Logan just frowned, knowing that wasn't true. "Lucky you drove her to suicide you mean," he corrected coldly. And this time... This time he waited to hit the ground.

(Locked to those close to Logan, If you want to tag in and didn't already get an okay from me, just drop me an e-mail.)

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Logan shuddered a little, but kept quiet. He wasn't sure if Joe wanted to talk about it.

As they passed by Logan and Neil's hut again, Joe shot it a quick glance, still on guard for Aaron, but no one came out or moved in the trees nearby.

He couldn't say the same for his own hut, of course.

Logan was too busy watching Joe to notice anything at first, but he did snap to attention when he saw the door to Joe's hut open from the inside.

Joe had been about to say something when Bucky came out, Joe's skull held in one of his hands. And he knew that if he'd seen Aaron, that meant Logan could see Bucky.

"Nice of you to come back home, Joseph," Bucky said, leaning against the door frame. "Your boyfriend ran off."

Logan frowned deeply, his eyes flickering from the skull to Bucky's bony face. He didn't say anything though, not yet, he just reached out and rested a hand firmly on Joe's arm, squeezing in a silent show of comfort.

"Come on, let's just grab that stuff, okay? Then we can go wherever."

"He didn't run off, you don't have any fucking idea what he does or where he's gone," Joe muttered darkly, stomping up the stairs and shouldering past Bucky. He regretted that decision as soon as he was inside. The skeleton was still there, stinking and rotting, damp dirt clinging to the bones.

"Stay out there, Logan," he called, although he doubted that he could keep Logan out if he really wanted to. And he wasn't sure he wanted him out there with Bucky either.

Logan scowled a little, not liking that he was being told to stay put when Joe had so brazenly wandered into his own hut. He behaved though, at first, hanging by the door and sizing up Bucky.

"You don't think dragging around a dead body is a little less punk rock and a lot more serial killer?" Logan asked Bucky.

"Or is it really just that hard to find a girlfriend? You know, they sell dolls now..."

"Never had to worry much about women," Bucky said thoughtfully, lifting Joe's skull so that he could look at it in the face. "Not with Joe around, practically panting to please me in any way he could. Any way."

From inside the hut, Joe shouted, "Shut the fuck up, Bucky! That's fucking bullshit." And it was. But there had been a point where he'd wondered if he would've made Bucky happier by offering him absolutely anything.

A moment later he came out with the bandages and a towel, scowling deeply.

Joe's word was good enough proof for Logan, and he shot Bucky a look that made it clear he didn't believe him.

Fingers curled into fists, he was itching to hit the guy. Still, he wouldn't, not unless he said the wrong thing. He could hold back... he could behave. If only for Joe.

Still scowling, Joe walked down the stairs toward Logan as Bucky headed back into the hut. "Have you been scuffling, Joe?" he called and Joe could hear bones banging together as Bucky collected the rest of the skeleton.

"We should go," he said to Logan.

Logan looked back at the hut, obviously not happy about Joe having to leave his own hut... But he'd go back later. He was going make sure Bucky didn't fuck up the life Joe had worked so hard for.

Bucky returned a moment later, before they'd had a chance to leave and he lobbed what looked like a rib at Joe. It hit his shoulder and bounced off, then fell to the ground, stinking, rotting, in the way.

"You didn't answer my question," he pointed out as Joe turned away, his jaw set hard.

"Fuck off, Bucky," he hissed again.

Logan felt his stomach turn as he looked down at the bone, and in that moment he wasn't sure who pissed him off more. Bucky and his lame and not at all subtle attempts to piss off Joe. Or... Joe. Joe and the fact that he'd killed himself.

"So what if he did?" Logan asked, turning to look at Bucky. "Does it matter to you? You mad that he won't waste his energy on you instead? That he has better things to do than sit around talking to a dying man who has nothing better to do than carry around some bones. You ask me, Joe's not the one who clung to you... You're clinging onto Joe."

"That's what Billy said," Bucky murmured in a mock-contemplative tone as he flipped another bone in his hand. "After I dug up Joe's body, he accused me of not being able to let go, but he didn't care much about it for long. Not after he and I started working together."

"You didn't fucking work with him," Joe snapped. "C'mon, Logan, let's go."

"What?" Bucky asked. "You don't want to show the boy the hole in your skull?"

"Billy wouldn't... He wouldn't have let you keep the body," Logan insisted, stepping away from Joe and back towards the hut. Back towards Bucky.

"He wasn't like that. I knew him. And there's nothing you can say about Joe that I don't already know, so whatever you think you;re playing at, give it up. Fuck this, Joe," he said, looking annoyed. "We don't have to go anywhere. That's your home. Your hut."

"And we're gonna just hang out here while he throws bones at us?" Joe asked, his voice tired and resigned almost. Bucky smirked from where he was, then walked down the steps and held the skull out for Logan.

"See that?" he asked. "That's where the bullet entered."

Logan looked a little uneasy at that, but he didn't back down. "It was a lot more disturbing watching it happen on film. You're not showing me anything new, old man."

He reached back with one hand though, hoping Joe would take it.

Joe hesitated when Bucky offered Logan the skull and his shoulders relaxed in relief when he didn't take it. It didn't even seem like Bucky could get to him, which he was grateful for.

Stepping closer, he nudged Logan's hand with his own. "Let's get you cleaned up," he said simply, glaring hard at Bucky.

Logan caught Joe's fingers with his own, squeezing lightly. Almost as if he was making sure joe was still there and alive.

"Okay," he agreed, letting Joe lead the way.

Joe turned his back on Bucky, forcing himself to ignore him, and led Logan toward the small bench that was outside the huts. "You're gonna need to take off your shirt if you're bleeding," he said, his jaw still tense.

Logan looked a little unhappy about that, but nodded a little as he peeled his shirt off, exposing the marked and cut skin that Aaron's belt had left behind.

"Fuck," Joe murmured, looking at the cuts on Logan's back. He could feel Bucky looking on, but a moment later he was gone back inside, collecting the bones as Joe cleaned up Logan's back.

Logan jerked away when Joe hit one of the really sore spots, but for the most part he was still.

"Where do you think he's going?" he asked Joe.

"Collecting the bones inside," Joe answered, because he could hear them clacking together noisily. It shouldn't have bothered him, not after he'd been seeing it for so long, but it did. It was like it was happening all over again for the first time.

Logan was quiet after that, sitting slightly hunched over.

Halloween Plot

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