__A Vague Haze of Delirium__
By Cathryn
Wesley Wyndham-Price was among the first to arrive at the play being performed at his little sister's school. It was "Tommy," a rock opera - the kind of thing that Wesley had very little taste for, but Carrie was so proud of her part - a girl named Sally Simpson - that he could do nothing besides attend every show. What else could a doting older brother possibly do?
Ethan Rayne sauntered into the auditorium moments before the play began. He'd seen "Tommy" over and over again - mostly during stoned or drunken sojourns with his magickal companions; LSD really played hell with the special effects - but here he was, yet again, to see his kid sister, Lily, perform as the Acid Queen. Nearly twenty years younger than he, Lily
was the only person Ethan loved. And on those rare occasions when Ethan did love someone, he was as intense about it as he was when he hated. He completely idolized his thirteen year old sister, which was why he was here to see a watered-down version of his favorite play.
Wesley watched proudly as Carrie performed. Perhaps he was a bit biased, but he was certain that, if the Council hadn't already had a line on her as a future trainee, Carrie could have had a smashing career onstage.
Ethan swallowed his laughter during Lily's moment with considerable difficulty. It was, after all, overwhelmingly amusing to watch his young sister act so seductively. Suddenly, his amusement disappeared as it occurred to him that she was doing a damned god job of it.
**********
"Wesley!" An eleven-year-old cannonball hurtled itself at Wesley and hugged him fiercely round the waist. "Did you watch? Did you watch?" it demanded. Wesley laughed affectionately at his little sister, ten years his junior.
"I propped my eyes open so that I wouldn't miss a second," he assured Carrie, kneeling down and hugging her tightly. She giggled, then suddenly grabbed him by the hand.
"I want you to meet my friend. The Acid Queen. C'mon!" Carrie had skipped the first and sixth forms, and was holding her own quite well in the eighth, both academically and socially. Wesley had consulted the program many times, and had taken special note of Lily Rayne's name - she was the girl who Carrie mentioned most often. Wesley wasn't entirely sure he liked the prospect of Carrie spending time with a girl whose family was rumored to practice the black arts, but he also knew how truly out of hand rumors could get in a small hamlet like theirs.
**********
"I didn't look too silly, did I?" Lily asked Ethan anxiously. "I felt so silly dancing around like that!"
A considerable relief swept through Ethan - this ensured that she wouldn't be practicing those seductive wiles anytime soon. "No," he assured her, "you looked fine. Completely in character."
"Oh, good." Lily looked equally relieved. Then, she lit up as something occurred to her.
"Hey, you finally get to meet my friend Carrie! She played Sally, you know."
"I know." Ethan had noted the girl's name on the program on purpose. Because of the Rayne family's reputation - a well-earned one, at that - all the children in Lily's form had snubbed her. When Carrie was moved up into that level, Ethan was absolutely delighted to hear that the girls had bonded instantly. "She believed me when I said I don't like black magick!" Lily had told him ecstatically. "No one *ever* believed me before!" Lily's unbounded joy over the friendship had made Ethan extremely grateful to this little girl, and to the open-minded family that didn't attempt to intervene with the friendship, as so many had.
Lily grabbed Ethan's hand and started towing him along. A few seconds later, she'd collided with another girl - Carrie, Ethan recognized immediately.
"I was just coming to see you!" each girl squealed simultaneously, then giggled. Ethan smiled warmly at the two.
"This is my brother, Ethan," Lily announced proudly.
"I'm Carrie," the girl introduced herself.
"It's lovely to meet you, Carrie," Ethan said sincerely, solemnly shaking the small hand held out to him.
"And this is my brother, Wesley," Carrie continued, mostly to Lily.
"Hello, Lily," Ethan heard a cultured voice say with a smile to it. "Your performance was excellent."
Naturally, this set both girls into gales of giggles. Ethan began to suspect that Lily had shared her anxiety about "looking silly" with Carrie already.
Wesley found that the two girlfriends' laughter was contagious, and couldn't repress a chuckle as he looked for the first time at Lily's brother, intending to remark, "I didn't imagine I was *that* funny."
Instead, what came out of his mouth was precisely nothing, as he found himself looking into the most amazing pair of eyes he had ever seen.
They were dark, intense, magnetic, more - he could never quite describe them adequately afterwards, but they drew him powerfully. He forgot to speak entirely, forgot the long years of having "It's rude to stare" ingrained into his psyche. Forgot everything but those eyes.
Ethan scarcely noticed that he was being stared at, as he was too busy staring back. This young man - years younger than himself, he could tell instantly - was not conventionally handsome, and very few people would have looked twice at him on the street. But, for Ethan, that was a strike *for* Wesley. He had never been the conventional type. It occurred to him gradually that he was being studied as intently as he was studying, and a smile crossed his face as he instantly divined that any future advances would not, at least, be spurned in disgust.
Wesley watched Ethan start to smile, and instantly gave himself a good mental shake, embarrassed beyond all telling to have stared so blatantly. Hastily, he offered his hand. "Wesley Wyndham-Price."
Ethan took hold of that hand and promptly experienced an amnesia similar to Wesley's a few moments ago. Ethan had always been fascinated with hands - Ripper had mocked him more than once about his "fetish", but it wasn't that.
Ethan simply appreciated a beautiful hand the way an art lover appreciated a well-done Monet. He was hard pressed not to simply lift Wesley's hand up and stare at it, but instead to satisfy himself with the way the elegant shape fit perfectly into his own hand, and with the exquisite texture - a softness that had undoubtedly garnered Wesley no end of teasing from his fellow youths during his teenage years. To Ethan, though, it merely made an already incredible hand nearly perfect.
Carrie and Lily had long since calmed down, watching their brothers scrutinize each other with avid interest.
"By the by," Carrie remarked casually, under her breath, "Wesley's gay."
"Really?" Lily replied, equally quiet. "Ethan's - what the word? . . . Both."
The girls smiled at each other in delight as the same idea hatched in both their heads.
"Ever play matchmaker before?" Carrie whispered. "It's great fun."
* * *