How to answer that? He can’t very well say he wants to devour Izz. Wants to peel off his skin just to slide under it so there is no barrier left between them.
“ . . . Protective. I do not want anyone else to be near you, to touch you. I want to keep you.”
That’s a normal answer, yes?
It must be, because the tightness in Izz’s body visibly releases. He can see the uncoiling of muscles and the walls around Izz’s inner conflicts crumbling.
“You’ll protect me . . .” Izz whispers under his breath, speaking as though to himself and not to Sinn'ous.
Then the boy shocks the shit out of him by curling over to rest his head in Sinn'ous’s lap, pressing his body in tight. A touched starved puppy looking for warmth the only way it knows.
The affection demonstrated towards him is a thrill of endorphinsstitching themselves into his pride. Pride at himself for manifesting this result. In closing in on Izz’s trust and trapping the boy behind walls of Sinn'ous’s making.
“Is this your version of loving someone?” The hopeful lilt in Izz’s words pricks the edge of Sinn'ous’s lips into a smirk he smooths out instantly.
“Perhaps.” Sinn'ous absently digs his fingers into Izz’s hair, petting through the hazelnutstrands. “Is that what people do, who care for each other.” He idly wonders. He isn’t after an answer to this. He doubts anything given would be something he can see or relate to.
“I guess,” the tone is off putting, skirting close to disappointment and relief tainted by acceptance. “I feel safe with you around. Best sleep I’ve had since I arrived here. ‘Cause I know you’d never let anything happen to me while I sleep.”
Not from anyone else, no.
“I would not.”No one but me will ever touch you again. You are mine to keep, and I do not let go of what is mine.
“But what about when you’re not around? Everyone in this place seems hell bent on making my life a living Hell.”
This is true. And has been shown more times than Sinn'ous cares to admit. Too many think they can step near what doesn’t belong to them. Pushing boundaries Sinn'ous is not willing to have pushed. And as much as he would love nothing more than to kill everyone in SandstoneCorrectional, it is not practical. Culling a few here and there is doable, but once you start mass killing them that’s when they swarm together and start fighting back.
He can not take on an entire prison.
There might be a way to visibly stake his claim.
“I could mark you.”
Inking the boy might have the desired effect to publicly claim him, leaving no room for misinterpreting Sinn'ous’s stake on Izz. You can not argue with a tag of ownership and cannot cry over deaths to those who ignore said tag.
Izz makes a face, scrunching his nose in a combination crossed between disgust and curiosity. He’s not sure what Izz’s thinking but he opens his mouth to put him at ease. Can’t have an active imagination screwing up all the work he has done breaking down the boy’s defences.
“I can have my mark tattooed on you. No guards or inmates will dare touch you, they’ll know whose wrath it will invite if they so much as disrespect you.”
Relief flows from the boy. A tangible wave clouding the air around them. An unexpected reaction, but pleasing.
Sinn'ous allowsfor time. Letting Izz chew on the idea.
This will be a momentous steppingstone, and if Izz agrees. . . it will be a door opening that Sinn'ous will take the hinges off and remove entirely.
Izz’s gentle smile accompanies the response Sinn'ous was waiting for. “Yes. I’d like that.
39
SINN'OUS
Loose ends are a fluttering annoyance overtaking your daily routine until the time you say fuck it and tie them down. Some loose ends are a little more hands on and messy to clean up. Two of Sinn'ous’s loose ends will plait into an intricate knot connecting to the end of another lost strand. Getting rid of three problems in oneknot pulled taught.
The problem when one kills a guard is all the others take it personally and make everyone suffer for it. The tension between uniforms and prison greys is stacking by the day, into a game of jenga threatening to topple. You can’t so much as fart without the entire guard operation breathing down your neck in question.
And when the guards are tense it rubs off on the incarcerated men, and when you trap anxious animals in an overcrowded cage it’s boundto bring trouble.
So, in viewing everyone’s outlooks of the situation you could say Sinn'ous is doing them all a favour.
