Mal would be more upset about it if it hadn’t forced Clayton to admit that he cared about Mal.
Mal stumbled to a halt. Why the fuck did he care what Clayton thought? He should be nothing more than an easy meal to Mal, but at some point after arriving in Boston, it had shifted from that to something far more interesting.
Mal actually liked Clayton. He genuinely enjoyed being around him. Clayton, with his weird family and his broken boat that stayed afloat due to the friends Clayton had made without even trying. It was charming, to say the least, but it shouldn’t have been enough to stop Mal from pulling a dine and dash, considering how hungry he’d been.
Not two days ago, Mal had been ready and willing to eat Clayton whole and walk away without another thought.
Uncontrollable rage swelled inside him at the past version of himself who’d come close to ending Clayton’s life. It was a living, pulsing creature, and it wanted blood. There was no one to attack but himself, and the emotion raged and tore through him impotently. Mal was all but drowning in it.
Would he really have killed Clayton? Black ichor dripped from the hand not holding Clayton’s as his claws dug into his palm.
“What’s the matter? Why did we stop?” Clayton tugged on Mal’s arm, and the hint of panic in his voice told Mal it wasn’t the first time he’d asked.
Mal turned to face Clayton and examined him. His anxious face held wide, pretty eyes and pale skin that showed off every precious freckle. Mal touched Clayton’s face, careful not to cut him with his claws. Mal could have drained him to a husk many times over without trying.
“I won’t ever let anything happen to you,” Mal stated.
Clayton’s skin went from white to an adorably flustered red in an instant. “Wh… what..? I-I don’t need you to protect me. Don’t be an asshole.” He glared down at his feet, but Mal saw a hint of a pleased smile around the corner of his mouth.
Mal had meant it. He would keep Clayton safe from everything, including himself.
“So, what are we going to do when we get there? If you didn’t murder everyone around the boat and rescue the kids, there must have been a reason, and we both know it wasn’t a sudden burst of morals.”
See? If Mal ate him, who else would give him so much sass? He just wanted to wrap Clayton up inside his body and never let him out again.
“There are two demons with the kidnappers surrounding the boat. The kidnappers are fae, by the way,” Mal said to Naerith and Elena. “I think they’re using this dimension as a hideout.”
Elena scowled. “That would explain why Astraea hasn’t done anything. The gods don’t have control outside their own realms. So if some of our people wanted to kidnap children, they’d need a safe place to operate from. They wouldn’t be able to operate under her nose. ”
“Hold on, we need to rewind back to the demons,” Clayton interjected. “That’s one hell of a detail to gloss over. We can’t fight demons. Even you would have a problem with them, Mal.”
“Is that so?” Mal gave Clayton his best smug smile, and Clayton completely missed it, causing Mal’s smile to become a pout.
“Dammit, we need to get Marshall and Jack back here, and I just alienated Marshall. What are we going to do?”
“We don’t need them.” Mal tried to interrupt Clayton’s freakout session, but was ignored.
Clayton began to pace between the stalagmites and stalactites, weaving agilely through them without paying attention to the terrain. Mal was about to intercede to make sure his accident-prone lover didn’t take himself out by mistake when he realized there was no need.
In the Real, Clayton was an awkward, stumbling mess, and Mal had quickly grown accustomed to it, but since they’d left, Clayton hadn’t needed the constant catches and interventions necessary to keep the man from falling flat on his face.
Mal glanced at Clayton’s parents. Perhaps it was a fae thing? If Astraea didn’t like the god of the Real, the feeling was likely mutual. Marshall had lost his powers when he’d arrived in the fae realm, so if Clayton had been similarly affected in the Real, then returning to the fae realm would likely only benefit him.
Being in a pocket dimension wouldn’t have a negative effect because it was unaligned with the gods. The only problems they faced here were from the hostile environment itself.
Just as Clayton turned to pace back toward Mal and his parents, a section of the ceiling broke away and landed just behind him.
“Holy bloody kittens, that was close!” Clayton yelped and threw himself at Mal, huddling under his arm like a frightened child.
By all the laws of Clayton, he should have been flattened, or at least severely damaged, but as Mal ran his hands over his lover, he found Clayton completely unscathed.
Hypothesis confirmed.
“I told you to stay close, Red. This entire dimension is going to actively work against us, so we all need to stay vigilant. Anything could happen.”
“So we have kidnappers and demons to deal with, and the land itself is trying to kill us? Fantastic.”
“We’ll be fine. You have me, after all.” Mal poked Clayton’s nose and chuckled when Clayton went cross-eyed and wrinkled his nose.
