Lilacs

[maderr]

Gene was drunk. He was more than willing to admit that. It had been his goal, and given the amount of piss he was leaving in the bushes, he had more than reached that goal.

Zipping up, he continued to stumble his way through the woods. He shouldn't be wandering around dark woods at night while pickled, some part of his brain said, but the rest of his brain liked being pickled and didn't much care for the spoilsport in his head.

Ignoring said spoilsport, he continued on his way.

Stumbling, he reached clumsily out for balance and instead only took a branch of something with him.

Flowers. Purple.

When the stupid damn sentence echoed in his head again, Gene flipped slowly over onto his back to glare up at the trees and stars. "Shut up," he said.

He shivered as a breeze picked up, and he could see his breath again and he should probably start running but he wasn't really certain he could move…

You looked like that once, as I recall. Not your finest moment, sweet.

I believe I told you not to let me have quite so much rum.

Ah, but you do wicked wicked things when you indulge in rum.

One indulgence does generally lead to another.

I suppose we should not leave him here.

He's made of sterner stuff than that, love. It was not the rum that killed me, after all.

You are really quite hopeless.

"I don't want to hear more voices," Gene said plaintively. He slowly sat up, bracing himself on his arms, and stared blearily at the figures before him. They looked like they'd fallen out of a history book, made all the more surreal by the way the white clouds of his breath gave brief illusions of mist.

Fuck fuck fuck.

He hadn't slunk off and gotten drunk just to put up with more of this shit.

Standing up, only falling down once in the process, he turned away from the ghosts and moved as quickly as his drunk ass permitted.

He swore as he realized he'd gone to the tower – downhill, dumbass, not uphill, was the way home.

"Gene?"

Jumping, letting out a startled cry, Gene whipped around. "Don’t fucking do that!" He groaned. "Shit, I think you just mostly killed my buzz, asshole."

"What the hell are you doing out here while you're drunk?" Teddy hissed.

"Why are you following me?"

Teddy hesitated, something flickering across his face that Gene was still too drunk to figure out. Not that he wanted to, mind. "I saw you drinking on the balcony, then suddenly you were gone. Given the way you like to crash pretty much anywhere, I figured I'd go make certain you weren’t sleeping in the fountain or the kitchen or something. I thought you'd gone to bed, but when I went outside to make certain you weren't out there, I saw you walking out of town."

"Brilliant, Sherlock," Gene said, slumping against the heavy wooden door.

"Come on, idiot, let's go back to the hotel."

"Fuck you," Gene replied, and jerked – stumbled – away as Teddy tried to touch him. Keeping one hand on the tower, he moved around it to the areas that were picketed off as being where the original house had lain.

The tower, he recalled, had only one door. It could only be accessed from inside the house. John and William had fled to the tower in hopes the blaze would not reach that, except that didn't make sense because didn't William try to kill John and they wound up killing each other or something?

Probably he was forgetting something.

Giving in to a drunken impulse, he ducked under the ropes that warded off where the house used to be and stumbled around. Weren't they talking about rebuilding the house? He thought mom had said something like that, once. Or maybe he read it. Hard to remember.

He stopped, sniffed. Why did it suddenly smell like smoke?

"Gene!"

"Go away," he snapped. "I came out here so I didn't have to put up with you, you know."

"I know," Teddy said.

Even drunk, Gene was struck hard by the pain in those two words. What? Stopping his aimless wandering of the nonexistent house, he turned to face Teddy, not pulling away when a hand wrapped around his upper arm.

"Come on," Teddy said. "We need to go back."

Gene didn't move. "Why?" he asked, hating that his voice cracked. His hand moved of its own volition, reaching up to touch Teddy's cheek, his lips.

Teddy drew a sharp breath, and Gene suddenly wished they had more than a full moon and flashlights by which to see. Maybe it was better not to see clearly, though, because if it was in the dark it didn't count, right? Or something.

The lips beneath his fingers were warm, almost hot, and so soft. He'd wondered before, alone where no one could catch him, if Teddy's lips would be soft. Unable to help it, Gene leaned forward, hearing Teddy's breath hitch again, puffs of white in the dar—

Oh, fuck.

He could see Teddy realized it at the same moment he did, and broken out of his stupid fucking trance, Gene realized the smell of smoke was even stronger.

"Oh shit oh shit oh shit," Teddy said. He stumbled back, dropping his flashlight.

Gene spun around, not quite sober enough to remember he didn't want to turn around, and tried to cuss but couldn't remember how to make his jaw work.

A ghost. A different ghost. Not the ones he'd seen before. This one was fat, and kinda prissy – and sort of looked like David if David were fat and prissy, what the fuck was he doing thinking that – and oh shit the guy had a gun pointed at them.

Wait, were ghost guns dangerous?

Filthy sodomite. You won't continue to corrupt my son.

"What?" Gene demanded. He tried to move, but between the cold and the fear and the tequila he was not so much with the being able to move.

The ghost cocked its ghost gun and stomped toward him, and Gene wondered what people would say when they realized he'd died of a heart attack. Probably something about too much tequila. Right now he'd really like more.

Filthy sodomite.

Gene whimpered and told his legs to move, damn it.

"Move!" Teddy said, jerking him back, pulling him, shoving him over the rope barrier and then following after him – catching his foot on the rope and Gene abruptly found himself with a lap full of Teddy.

Pushing Teddy off, ignoring the part of him that mourned the loss – not the time, dumbass, not the time, ghosts were kind of a big fucking deal – he scrambled to his knees and looked at where the ghost had tried to put a ghost bullet in his brain.

Gone.

Gene groaned and slumped on the ground. "What the fuck, man?"

"Hell if I know. The next time you get drunk and wander off into a forest, I'm not coming after you."

Though his heart was still beating fast enough it felt like it might pop, other issues were beginning to drown out the ghosts. "Why the fuck did you come after me?"

"I told you—"

"Fuck that, man. It's not your problem if I'm drunk and stupid."

Teddy frowned. "I was worried, excuse the fuck out of me."

"Excuse me if I don't want to be helped by a backstabbing asshole!"

"So you don't want my help, but you were more than willing to kiss me before the ghost showed up?"

White hot fury poured through Gene, and he knew most of it was anger at himself, but god damn it did Teddy not get what he'd done? How much it had fucking hurt to see—

Snarling a curse, he shoved Teddy back and stood, then ran as fast as he fucking could back to the hotel, stumbling and tripping and crashing his way through the dark and the dirt and the falling were making his eyes sting and he so wished this fucking vacation was over.

Ignoring the looks of the night clerk at the front desk, flashing his hotel card so the asshole wouldn't try to ask him to leave, he stomped through the halls and up the stairs to the third floor, and only with an effort didn't slam his door shut.

Not caring that he was filthy and needed a shower, Gene dropped down on the nearest bed and promptly passed out.

*~*~*

It didn't matter how many times he told himself it wasn't true, he just wasn't buying it. Even to himself, he could only tell so many lies.

He'd tried to kiss Teddy last night.

Maybe he should stop getting drunk when surrounded by backstabbing friends and ghosts.

Oh, god, he was so not thinking about the ghosts. He'd rather think about stupid Teddy….

No, no, the ghosts were way less confusing.

The fat ugly ghost had called him a sodomite. So the old dude was a gay basher. Most people were back in those days. Fire and brimstone about it, really. Gene sniggered at the idea of the founding fathers at a gay pride parade.

Of course, that still didn't explain why the fuck he was seeing ghosts. Or hearing them.

Why the fuck did he remember last night? Wasn't it just like stupid alcohol to erase the fun stuff but let you remember the bad stuff? Maybe he should stop drinking.

Yeah, right. Fuck that. He'd just lock himself in his room next time. Drunk self attempting to remember where sober self had put the key would probably amuse him for hours.

Rolling his eyes, Gene stopped to take a drink of water, then capped his water bottle and continued walking.

Not that he really wanted to be back in the woods, but his only other options for carrying out Operation Avoid Teddy Like the Plague were to stay in his hotel room all day, or stay in town where his mother could locate him for debriefing, since as per usual his mother knew something was afoul in Denmark.

So the nature trails it was, and he fully intended to stay out here until almost dark – and he was not going anywhere near the fucking tower. Oh no. He was going exactly opposite the stupid tower with gay bashing ghosts and gay ghosts and—

Oh, hey, that was right. Angry ghost had said something about not corrupting his son. Had… Gene frowned, some part of his brain wondering what the fuck the rest of it was doing even thinking about it.

Just pretending, for the sake of argument, that the ghosts in the tower were definitely John and William, and they had been gay, then that would mean the trigger happy ghost was John's father, Thomas. Oh, damn, maybe he'd caught them. Fuck, he bet back then the penalty was a hell of a lot worse than it was now – and now could get pretty damn awful.

Wow, what a story that would make. Daddy killed dirty sodomite son and son's sodomite friend, hides evidence with fire!

Laughing out loud at the dumb idea, Gene shoved away stupid thoughts of ghosts. No, if he was going to think up crazy forest ideas then he was going to daydream about camping with a whole slew of pretty boys at his disposal—

Except even in his head, they all bore a striking resemblance to Teddy. That was entirely unfair. The asshole was screwing up his real life, did he have to screw up Gene's fantasies too?

Damn it, what had he been thinking?

Angry that his afternoon was being ruined by fucking Teddy anyway, he stomped through the forest, wishing he'd taken the red path instead of the beginner's green because he probably would have killed himself by now.

He was jerked from plotting Teddy's demise for the millionth time by the sound of thunder. Looking up, Gene swore loudly. That was certainly going to make the day more interesting. Well, fuck it. He'd rather catch pneumonia and die.

"You know, as much racket as you make, I wouldn't blame any hunters for mistaking you for a grizzly."

Gene stiffened, then turned around and glared. "Yeah, well, grizzlies don't live around here, and that land is protected. So there."

Teddy looked at him like he was an idiot, then bent to take a picture of only a fellow weird artist would know what. "Go away."

"It's a public forest."

"Well – I was here first."

Teddy's replied was drowned out by a nasty crack of thunder. Fuck, it hadn't been that loud a minute ago. Of course, he realized too late how much quieter the forest had gotten as he walked, and quite suddenly it was getting really damn dark.

"Shit."

"Agreed," Teddy said. "Come on, we'd better head back or our parents will freak. Did you bring your cell?"

"I don't get reception for shit out here," Gene said with a grimace.

Teddy sighed. "I forgot mine when I left this morning. So we'd better get back on the double, before—"

Even as he spoke, thunder boomed, as though on top of them, followed by lighting. Shit, he never wanted to see lightning that up close again.

He started to head back the way he'd come.

"No, this way," Teddy said. "We're three quarters of the way done with our trails – I assume you were on green, I was on yellow – so it'll be faster to finish them than back track."

Gene would have argued, but the sudden arrival of hard, heavy rain forced him to admit there were better things to argue about and they could argue them later. Teddy had started jogging, and Gene chased after him, swearing whenever he slipped and nearly wiped.

There were times when he absolutely hated his life.

Ahead of him Teddy abruptly stopped. Too late. Gene crashed into him, arms wrapping around his waist for balance, barely managing to keep them both upright.

"What the hell man?" He yelled as loud as he could.

Teddy didn't reply, merely yanked his arms away and continued forward.

Then Gene figured out the problem. They'd somehow managed to loop around to the tower. The stupid evil haunted tower.

"No, no, no!" He bellowed, but Teddy either didn't hear him or was ignoring him.

Swearing, Gene swiped his wet hair from his face and followed Teddy. He wasn't sure what the hell the point was, because obviously the tower was closed and locked. Whoever ran it had obviously paid attention to the weather and gotten home in time.

Except when they reached it, Teddy pushed and the door opened smooth as anything. It didn't even creak. Well, it might have. Gene didn't think he'd hear even a damned gunshot in rain like this.

They were both panting as they stepped inside, and god Gene hoped they weren't around when the owners or whatever returned cause he was pretty sure dripping all over an historic monument was not fly.

"Man, I don't like being back here."

"Just see if you can tell your folks we're okay," Teddy said. "That storm is only getting worse, and even at a run it's a good hike back into the town itself. We're better off waiting it out a bit here, even if here is Spook Tower."

Nodding, Gene obeyed – swearing at his phone for a good ten minutes before he finally got a text to squeak through. Shoving the phone in his pocket, he looked at Teddy.

Who, despite being water logged, looked insanely good. Or maybe because he was waterlogged. Yeah, he remembered he'd had problems with a wet Teddy before – okay, thinking about something else now.

There was a flash of light, pulling Gene from his thoughts, and he blinked at what he saw. "You're taking pictures now?"

"Have to do something to pass the time," Teddy said, voice curt – and Gene realized he probably wasn't the only one playing the avoidance game today.

Mouth tight, he turned away – and wound up facing the door. "Brilliant, Holmes," he muttered to himself. Without really thinking about it, he reached up to pull down the lilacs over the door – but the voice didn't echo through his head.

It was a dried bundle, kinda like what his mom did with her roses. They smelled flowery, but not in a bad way.

Heaving a sigh, realizing he was more bored and agitated than he felt like admitting, Gene turned away and quickly climbed the winding stairs to the top of the tower.

He really hoped the ghosts would stay the fuck away; as wet as he was, adding a spooky chill to the mix would not be fun. In fact, he was starting to think he'd be warmer if he was actually wearing less. Stripping off his t-shirt, Gene hung it from the railing that had been added – not historically accurate, but nobody liked a lawsuit.

At the top of the stairs, he waited to see if the temperature started to drop, then called himself a wuss and finally entered the room.

He supposed he should be grateful the fake people weren't moving – but the day wasn't over yet, and neither was the vacation, and if he got attacked by gay bashing ghosts, why not fake people too?

Sighing, he moved to the encased journal – the pages had been flipped. Bored enough this time to puzzle out what it was saying, he bent over the case and shoved back his stupid dripping hair, squinting to make out the old words.

Some time later, he jumped at the sound of sneakers on stone. "Stop doing that."

"What?" Teddy asked.

"Sneaking up behind me."

"Stop living with your head in the clouds," Teddy retorted.

"Whatever, man," Gene said, and turned back to the journal, listening to the faint sounds of the camera as Teddy took pictures of every part of the room.

Eventually he made his way to Gene and the journal. "I'm amazed they leave this out – don't they usually keep that sort of thing under heavy lock and key?"

Gene shrugged, trying not to notice the way Teddy's t-shirt ever so slightly was touching his bare arm. They were close enough he could feel Teddy's body heat. Shivering, telling himself he was cold, he made himself focus on the question. "Usually, yeah. But this has never been a major major hot spot. Yay, noble colonial dying for the cause, tragically killed by best friend – but it's mostly one of those things which manages to get overlooked. I mean, there wasn't a big showdown or battle or anything, and only one house burned down, not the entire town. So it gets missed; I guess no one cares enough to damage property. Hell, I haven't even seen anyone but us visit the tower."

"True," Teddy said, then lifted his camera, adjusted something, and took several pictures. "What's it say?"

"He's talking about lilac – how lately he's noticed that John has been hanging a sprig of it over the door from time to time, and it makes him smile and think of Elizabeth, and he wonders what girl his son is sweet on but won't tell him about. He says he'll bide his time, and not pester John, but he is mighty curious."

Teddy snorted. "Girl. Ha! If we what we saw last night actually happened, and while I don’t like seeing ghosts it's kinda hard to play the denial game at this point, then it sounds to me like ol' Thomas caught his son doing the nasty with dear William."

"I was thinking the same thing, earlier today," Gene said. "It would make sense, especially with the way they tried to escape the fire. I mean, if William was trying to kill John, and they both wound up shooting each other, why would they try to save themselves by climbing the tower?"

"Death by fire would certainly make me reconsider my options," Teddy said. "Even if I was a traitor who was shot by and then shot my best friend."

"The fat guy looked like you, and I realized later that John sort of did, too. Well, the fat guy looked more like your dad, but you know."

Teddy shrugged. "I didn't notice. I was too busy noticing that William looked an awful lot like you."

"Huh," Gene said, and couldn't think of anything else to say. Maybe they were both just crazy.

"Did he really look like me?" Teddy said. "Cause my great-great grandmother always said we have revolution in our blood, it'd be kinda cool if she was actually right."

Gene didn't know why he did it – they were talking again, despite everything. But he was mad about the almost kiss, mad about the ghosts, mad about being fucking betrayed. "Oh, probably. If he really did betray the British by siding with the revolution, well – we know where you get your habit of backstabbing friends, don't we?"

"I didn't backstab you!" Teddy snapped, and Gene drew up short as he realized that in his anger, Teddy had almost thrown his camera.

Angrily turning away, Teddy carefully put the camera away in his bag. When he stood, his face was pale, and he wouldn't look at Gene. "Believe whatever the fuck you want, but I didn't backstab you – not – oh, forget it." Stalking away, he made for the door.

Gene opened his mouth to say something, though he didn't know what, but even as he started to speak the door to the stairs abruptly slammed shut. And just like that he could see his breath.

"Not again," Teddy said on a moan.

Moving away from the fake bodies and the journal, Gene headed for the window – but halfway there, it felt like his arm was grabbed, and as easy as that he was all but thrown at Teddy.

They crashed into the door, both swearing loudly.

Gene attempted to move away, shivering in the awful cold. "S-sorry."

"Not your fault," Teddy managed, doing plenty of shivering of his own.

Making a face, Gene stepped back – and found himself shoved forward again.

"This would almost be funny, except it's not," Teddy said in a strained voice.

"No shit," Gene said. "What the fuck?"

He realized suddenly he still held the lilac, completely crushed now in his fist.

Talk.

Gene frowned, and could see from his face that Teddy had heard it as well. He attempted to move away again, and once more was rather rudely shoved up against Teddy.

Talk.

"Are they fucking butting their noses into this?" Gene asked in outrage.

Teddy laughed weakly. "I think so."

Gene sighed, shifting slightly to glare at the ghosts he could just see on the far end of the room – one holding a nosegay of lilacs, and the way they stood next to each other made it plain they were definitely evil, evil sodomites.

Talk.

It was William talking – and Teddy was right, the ghost did sort of look like him. That was double plus freaky.

"Fine," he snapped. If he was going to be crazy, then damn it he was going to be crazy his way. "Go the fuck away."

Smirking, the ghosts faded.

Gene shoved away, letting his arms fall to his sides, balling his hands into fists. "So talk."

Teddy just glared at him.

"Man, I don't want to be here the rest of my life, and I'm pretty sure that's what the damned ghosts were threatening. So just tell me what the fuck happened, then I can call you a liar, and we can go on our merry way."

"You are such a bitch," Teddy said, but rather than snap the words, he merely sighed them. "Fine. Whatever. I'm so doing the exchange program to Australia now, and I'm not leaving it." He swallowed and started attempting to stare a hole in the floor. "He said you guys had broken up."

Gene blinked. "Fuck what?"

Teddy sighed again. "It made sense at the time, especially since I'd had more than a little jungle juice. I mean, you hadn't seen him or talked about him all fucking day. You guys had done nothing but argue all fucking summer. He'd gone to the party ahead of you, and you guys avoided each other all night."

He looked up briefly, then his gaze skittered away again. "I'd gone upstairs to get away from the noise and rest a bit. Robert came up a little while later. He looked gloomy, and I asked what was wrong. He said – he said you'd broken up with him, that you'd—" He laughed bitterly. "He said you'd fallen in love with someone else. It hurt, god it hurt, because I'd kinda been hoping you'd break up with Robert so I—"

"So you could hook up with him?" Gene asked bitterly, feeling that knife in his gut all over again.

"No, you dumbass!" Teddy snapped, green eyes blazing as he finally looked up. "So I could hook up with you – I fucking hated you were with him, when you guys couldn't go a day without bickering about something and we had such fun together and I thought—Then he said you were in love with someone else, and I sure as fuck knew you weren't in love with me cause wouldn't you be with me if you'd finally dumped Robert?" He sighed and rubbed his forehead. "I was feeling sorry for myself, and I thought Robert was feeling sorry for himself, and we'd both drunk just enough to be stupid – or at least I had – and so we decided to…and it was stupid, and I'm sorry, but I thought you'd chosen someone else and I thought Robert actually got why I was upset. I didn't realize…"

"That he was using you to get to me," Gene said quietly. It made an awful sort of sense. Robert had always had a nasty streak that flared up when his ugly jealous streak stirred. Hell, that's why they'd been fighting so much that summer – Robert thought he was sleeping with practically everyone he talked to, and he'd said more than once that Gene needed to stop hanging around Teddy.

And Gene had felt guilty, because he had sort of secretly wished at times that he was sleeping with Teddy, and in his heart of hearts he knew why he'd really been mad that night. It was sort of hard to deny it now. "I was avoiding him that night because I didn't want another fight, since I sort of dreaded it would turn into one of us dumping the other and I didn't want to do that at a fucking party."

Teddy eyed him warily. "You…believe me?"

"Yeah," Gene said, and it was hard to meet Teddy's eyes but god damn it. He hesitated – then said fuck it and went for it. "To be honest, I think what hurt me most was that you chose Robert instead of me. Hell, I hadn't thought you guys even liked each other, really."

"We didn't," Teddy said. "It was just…a lot of fucking stupidity that night."

Gene didn't know what to say. "I'm an asshole."

Teddy laughed. "Yeah, well, that night wasn't exactly a stellar example of my character."

"Why didn't you say anything?" Gene asked, reaching out despite himself to touch like he had the night before, stroking Teddy's cheeks, and then the soft lips.

The laughs were warm puffs of air against his fingers. "You kept insisting you and Robert were a done deal. I flirted like crazy, and sometimes I thought…but I figured I was wrong."

If he ever saw Robert again, Gene decided, he was going to kill the son of a bitch. "I'm sorry."

"It—it's okay. I mean we both were really fucking stupid that night."

Gene shrugged. He cupped Teddy's cheek, unable to stop touching, and in his defense Teddy really didn't seem to mind. "So can I kiss you? Or am I on probation or something?"

The temperature in the room abruptly dropped.

Teddy laughed. "I'd say probation, but I waited a long fucking time for you to kiss me and I think the ghosts are saying you don't have a choice."

"Well, even I know when to shut up and do as I'm told," Gene said, and closed the space between them, sandwiching Teddy between him and the door, kissing like he'd always kinda sort really wanted to kiss Teddy.

How long the kiss went on, he didn't know, but when he finally pulled away he realized the rain had slowed down – and the room was much warmer than it had been.

He let out a startled cry as they abruptly tumbled forward – and onto the floor, and he realized the fucking ghosts had opened the door just so they'd fall again. "I don't like ghosts."

Teddy laughed and yanked his head down, and Gene forgot all about stupid ghosts.

"We should get back," Teddy said finally. "Now that the rain is slowing, I bet your mom is harassing every official she can find.

Gene snorted. "Probably." Standing up, he held out a hand and helped Teddy to his feet.

Retrieving his damp shirt from the banister, he pulled it on with a grimace, then led the way downstairs. It was only as he saw the archway that he realized he'd lost the lilacs somewhere in the fray.

Well, the ghosts liked them more than he did. Let them have them.

He started whistling as they walked through the light drizzle, sunlight already beginning to peek through the lingering rain clouds. The lilac bushes had suffered in the storm, they were strewn everywhere across the path to and from the tower.

"You should take the posy with you, to remind you of me when we part."

"My love, I have no need of reminders, for you never leave my thoughts. I need only know when it is safe to come to you."

"One day I will plant them everywhere, and you will know it is safe to come, and stay, and never leave me."

"For a day such as that, I would wait an eternity."

"Stupid ghosts, shut up already," Gene muttered. "They're as sappy as my mom."

Teddy laughed and reached out to take his hand, tugging him close and kissing his cheek.

Gene smiled despite himself, and reached up to brush a stray lilac petal from Teddy's hair, and did not let go of the hand in his as they walked back toward town in a silence that was pleasant, and happy, and so much like the way they used to be he was half afraid he was dreaming.

Close to town, and he could already see his mother, sheesh, Teddy broke the silence. "So—is this, like, incest or something?"

"Shut up," Gene said, and gave him a playful shove before bolting towards his mother, a laughing Teddy hot on his heels.

Comments

[zeffy-amethyst.livejournal.com]

Purty. And the ghosts...what else can I say except that they're evil, matchmaking sodomites and we love 'em for it.

[spurious-sanity.livejournal.com]

omfg, squeeeeeeeee~~~!!! this is so adorable~~! what do you mean, you can't do contemporary? Silly girl, it's wonderful!!!! ^__________^ I'm happy now! You made me forget about my achy tooth!! or, lack of tooth, really.

soooo pretty!! thank you so much for writing this~~! ^______^ *happy happy happy*

[cynbaby.livejournal.com]

YAYAYAYAY! Oh, this was so much fun to read!

[maderr.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Cyn ^__^ Your praise always means a lot.

[mechante-fille.livejournal.com]

Win!!! This was so great! I love the whole mystery, and that I really hadn't pieced it together until the other ghost showed up. Harsh, man. At least they are together always now. ^_^

You always have such a way with words. I laughed happily and often, but restricted myself to one copy/paste quote: they were definitely evil, evil sodomites. Ahaha, Gene is so funny.

^____________________________^

[gossymer.livejournal.com]

Aww, didn't get to read it through frst time around do this felt very...polished? Your contemporary stuff is lovely though fantasy!world fics will always be special :)

Is it odd that I kept wondering what type of camera Teddy was using?

[maderr.livejournal.com]

Heh. Probably should have said, but cameras mean nothing to me and I really didn't feel like saying one thing and then getting fifty people telling me I was wrong and he would totally use X or Y or Z. He's definitely has something super shiney? ^^; His dad bought it for him.

[gossymer.livejournal.com]

Hahaha, that works for me ^__^

[anialove.livejournal.com]

I recommend either a Canon Rebel Xti (not a professional SLR, but a good one - common for younger people and hobbyists) or something from the Canon EOS line, if you want to be more specific.

[dameange.livejournal.com]

"So—is this, like, incest or something?"

{cackles}{claps} excellent! excellent! thank you for a wonderful story!

[lokiloo.livejournal.com]

Fwuuuuuh~<3

This was so cute. I about died from the fuzzies. X3
But awwww, the poor pretty ghosts! At least they get eternity together, and their desendents are happily commiting tecnical incest, so everything is OK! :D


Also, the lovely, lovely lines William and John had were....well, lovely. I couldn't pick out my favorite, because they all were just so sappy and poetic ad I LOVED THEM. <3<3<3<3<3

[ruselkie.livejournal.com]

short and cute! although the best part is how the evilsodomiteghosts reminded me so much of the ghosts in the enchanted forest stories. i kinda wish we had had more of them. although that it was a pretty slick move that we got the story of the ghosts without actually outright stating it.

thank you! (that was FAST)

[mcartel.livejournal.com]

"So—is this, like, incest or something?"

It very well might be. But dammit if it ain't hot! ^o^ *cheers*

[bleedtoblue.livejournal.com]

Oh, that was so nicely done. I really enjoyed it, thanks so much!

[mordred-risika.livejournal.com]

I realy liked this. I was a little worried at how Gene would be able to forgive Teddy, but it seemed to work. The last exchange between the ghost was gorgeous, and almost made me cry. There is just somethign in the words that is really beautiful, and I'm a totally sap for tragic old time love stories that get a second chance! And hte flowers really got me too!

[maderr.livejournal.com]

God, I keep forgetting to reply to your email. Would love to hang out again, my dear. Just let me know what works for you, I think my schedule is pretty clear the next couple weeks.

[skylark97.livejournal.com]

XD You should so write contemp more often. ^_____^ *tackle hearts*

Aw, I love the way that Gene had to keep reminding himself that he was pissed at Teddy. I love the temperature changes too, each time the ghosts appeared and I loved Teddy and Gene's aversion to them. XD *snickers* And their matchmaking attempts, FTW!!

*twirls you about* Oh, so so SO much love. ^________________^

[twilight-angel.livejournal.com]

Much cuteness. I do love the ghosts' last exchange: perfect for every romantic. :)

[miikarin.livejournal.com]

Ha! The last comment about incest was very amusing. *hugs* Thanks for a wonderful story again.

[alice_montrose]

and the way they stood next to each other made it plain they were definitely evil, evil sodomites

Nice ghosts. *pets them* Though now I'm really curious about the story there, even if it ends tragically. *sigh*

[saaski-moql.livejournal.com]

The dialogue and the thought patterns were great and amusing. I love reading how well you work with different verses, though you manage to keep banter in every one. One of my favorite parts was how Gene's mindset on the ghosts stayed very much the same. Heh.

[cobecat.livejournal.com]

Eee, this was wonderful! I don't think it suffered at all from how fast you wrote it, and I'm a fan of the modern setting so it's great to see you use it, however infrequently.
The ghosts shoving them together like that and just going 'talk' until they gave in? Priceless.
Much love from the person who most certainly did not make a juvenile joke out of the 'lilacs mean its safe to come' line. Of course not.
...
^_^;

[avalon13.livejournal.com]

I still love the flowers thing. *love love love*

One day I will plant them everywhere, and you will know it is safe to come, and stay, and never leave me."

I love that. I love how wistful it sounds in my head, how it sounds just a little sorrowful at the end. I love how it holds meaning.

I love you're never told what exactly happened to John and William, but it's pretty easy to guess. I loved how Gene touches Teddy's cheek and brushes his lips, because touching someone's cheek and brushing their lips always seem more intimate to me then say, a kiss, becuase it always reminds me of memorizing every imperfection and perfection.

I think also, that if you had done something totally out of your normal style, Something a little abstract, you would have killed me with this. Something all sharp corners and bright edges. But I loved this. I really did. I love all your fics, but this? Definitely something to add to the memories. Your flashback scenes made me swoon.

[mailechan.livejournal.com]

Wow. That was great! I had been wondering about their death. So it was the father! The same man whose journal the current generation is trying to glean from. Wouldn't the people of the town be horrified if they knew. What irony. *hugs*

The ghosts are so mischievous. And such matchmakers. And I love that they finally talk directly to them. And I wonder if, at the end, they were protecting the two boys from interference by the father.

Eeeee! I loved it so much! Thank you for sharing it with us!

[stardance.livejournal.com]

Cute :)

[broken-moons.livejournal.com]

Oh, I love this. Those ghosts crack me up, they really do.

Now I can't wait to see what Nikery has done with this idea. I know how I'd have done it, but I probably like your version more than what I'd write.

Hey, the four of them could go on double dates! Uh, not the ghosts, obviously, though that would make for a hilarious drabble, but David and Anna, and Teddy and Gene, I mean. I probably find this funnier than I should. >.>

[bitchypixii.livejournal.com]

...I feel kind of bad because the ghosts were definitely my favorite part. But Teddy was adorable, and they were both pouty and angry, and just <3. This was definitely cute.

[charisstoma.livejournal.com]

The beauty of this is that the ghosts aren't parted from each other, they are eternally together, and the lilacs are all over the place. For that matter, through Gene and Teddy, "it is safe to come, and stay, and never leave me."
Am warm fuzzy happy.

[kiyoshi-chan.livejournal.com]

The closing line WINS. XD XD XD Also aw, boys you're both twits. *pokes them*

[aqua-eyes.livejournal.com]

<3

[flamebyrd]

Haha, you know, I believe it may indeed legally be actually incest.

Anyway, I liked this! Nice mix of angst and funny and the characters were all very likeable (you know, except for the ones that weren't supposed to be). I particularly likely the portrayal of family relationships (except for the ones I wasn't supposed to like... you know the story).

As an aside, I am so glad that you aren't the kind of writer who goes for the total angst fest that could have been an option for explaining Teddy and Robert sleeping together. *cheers*

[jladi.livejournal.com]

I love this!!!

"One day I will plant them everywhere, and you will know it is safe to come, and stay, and never leave me."

"For a day such as that, I would wait an eternity."

I'm such a sap, but that was the best ^___^ I just hope that stupid old fat ghost never gets near William and John now.