Ooooooh, look at all the pretty colours

[Anonymous]

There was nothing Xavier liked better than a crowded room. They...pulsed. They were alive with the beat of the people inside them, and it was beautiful.

Here, in the bar attached to the Peach, the room was alive with several other things. Uncertainty. Bravado. More than a hint of delicate, powerful lust. Patrons drinking peach schnapps - he sipped his own drink quietly, enjoying the lazy golden spark it raised in his mind - in tiny cups or cider in mugs, watching as the boys and girls not already otherwise engaged worked the room trying to reel them in.

They were so pretty. They would make such beautiful colours. He didn't know which colours yet, but they would shine.

Some of the patrons were pretty too.

He turned to Wolfram.

Privately, he'd always wondered what colour would come out if he collected Wolfram. He doubted it would ever come to that, or at least not yet, but he'd wondered. Pearly white, like the horn? Turquoise? Magenta? Would Wolfram have a paisley pattern?

"I like those three." He pointed. "That one, that one...and that one. I can't choose. What do you think?"

[Anonymous]

"Hy tink hyu tink vit you dick too moch. Three? Vot are hyu gon to do vit three? Und it had bettah be jusht sex. Hy em not cleanink op anodder mess." Wolfram took another long swig. He was a striking creature and the vivid coloring made him hard to ignore. Though he was doing his best to ignore the rest of the room.

He never understood his masters desire for all this...trash. Selling sex and making something so wonderful so cheap.

"Take de vun vit de pritty eyas und de nize ass." He took a drag on his cigarette and gestured to the plump girl. "Some meat iz goot. Got to hef someting to grab onto."

[Anonymous]

"it's not about what I would do with them. It's...what they would do with each other, how beautiful they could be. Besides, you know perfectly well I don't even have to have this anatomy unless I wish it so."

It was true. He'd passed through several forms over the years - he changed regularly, in fact - and had still fundamentally been just as he was. This body, this name...they were temporary. He kept them only because he liked the way people looked at him sometimes when he wore this skin, he liked the familiarity of a body that had worn into the pleasures of certain routines. Sleep. A good meal. Alcohol. Sex.

"What will you let me do with them? I swear, if I had a mother, you would be it. Next thing you'll be telling me is that I shouldn't even DRINK."

He threw his head back to punctuate this, draining the peach schnapps in one smooth shot. The tiny cup made a satisfying, surprisingly heavy thunk as he slammed it back down on the polished bar. He'd had about nine of these so far tonight. Wolfram hadn't said anything he'd been paying attention to, but...well, this was Wolfram.

Any moment now, the vocal disapproval would come.

[Anonymous]

"Hy tink dot hyu vouldn't lishten to me if Hy told hyu not to drink. Cause hyu are gon to hef some vice, zo Hy might as vell let hyu hef de vun dot requires less clean op."

Wolfram wrinkled his nose, several shots in his system as well. He liked the strong alcohol, it hit his system well, made things warm for just a moment.

"Und schtop actink zo special. Plenty uf pipple can change deir shapes. Now find you slot und finish op. Hy hate dese places. They are too real for my likink."

[Anonymous]

"You have no poetry in your soul, Wolfram. None whatsoever. It breaks my heart, when I have one."

Wolfram did have excellent taste though. The girl he'd pointed out was...yes, she nearly danced with potential. There was a riot of colour simmering under her skin.

She'd be so pretty when she was dead.

[Anonymous]

"Hyu vouldn't hef kept me zo long if Hy deed."

[Anonymous]

"You wouldn't have stayed."

Xavier stood. Despite the quantity of alcohol in his system, he was perfectly steady on his feet. Quiet, too, unusually so considering what the floor in this room was laid with...but then, with so many people here he'd have to be earthshatteringly loud to merit even a second look.

He smiled. It wasn't a very nice smile. Something about it was...off, as though he was showing more teeth than were usually found in just one mouth.

"You won't turn me in, will you Wolfram?"

[Anonymous]

Wolfram snorted, "Hyu know Hy never vould. Try not to make a mess."

He loved Xavier. Not romantically, not really. But Xavier was his chosen one, his bonded soul and he would stay with him throw anything.

[Anonymous]

Time warp!

**************************

He'd been right. She was lovely.

It had been like unwrapping a present, peeling away those sweet rounded lines to get to the bones underneath. He'd left her lying on the bed, stripped clean. Someone would find her in the morning.

Don't judge. He'd been gentle. He'd cradled her soul in his arms, tucking it carefully away in the deep pockets of his coat while it danced off her skin to escape the cold; a rich, green tinge like a tropical sea in the sunlight, lighting up the room with fireworks no one else but him would ever know existed.

Oh yes. This was what he did it for. It wasn't the blood - he hardly saw the blood, it was just...black, slick mess. It wasn't their fear. They were often afraid, and it never meant anything to him beyond the occasional curiosity. It was their soul, their colours, the moment when his world flicked a switch away from black and white and rainsilver grey.

His hands were still bloody, soaked to the elbow. There were damp stains on the skirts of his coat. Spatters on his white shirt. Spatters on his face. It didn't matter. No one would see it unless he let them see it, and only Wolfram got that privilege.

[Anonymous]

Wolfram had been enjoying his drink when Xavier came back. He glanced up and sighed at the blood, shaking his head in disgust, "Hyu are a mess. Ve aren't gon to be able to come beck here, hyu know dot, right? Now Hy hef to go find hyu a bath! Hy hope it vas vorth it."

He stood, still scowling. Xavier might be able to look how he would, but people tended to remember the teal unicorn. Snuffing out his cigarette, he headed for the door, "Alvays makink soch messes und never vit de clean op."

[Anonymous]

"All right then. I have a challenge for you."

Xavier smiled, pushing his hat firmly down on his head as he stood to leave. He was done here. Wolfram could stay if he liked, but...personally, he was itching for something new.

"Find me someone to collect. Someone with a bit of life in them, you know what I mean. Tell me how you'd prefer me to do it, find me a catch and I'll show you I can be tidy."

[Anonymous]

"Vy vould Hy vant to do dot? It jusht makes more vork for me. Und hyu jusht had vun. Soch a spoiled vun hyu are." Wolfram snorted, shaking his vivid hair, "Hyu are jusht hopink hyu can collect all night."

[Anonymous]

"It doesn't have to be now. You can take as long as you want to find the right one."

He'd love for it to be now, but sometimes Wolfram could be a little...prissy about these things. He had funny little rules that he would not bend.

"I won't go out collecting again until you find a perfect catch. I give you my word. The next kill I make, you'll see how tidy I can be."

[Anonymous]

"Ho yah? Maybe Hy vait years huh?" Wolfram snorted, though he moved closer to Xavier, enjoying the close contact. There was an inn he liked nearby and he was going to get Xavier scrubbed up and his clothes hopefully cleaned up. Such mess.

"Spoiled. Dot's vot hyu are. Alvays vantink de collections. Bot Hy look und see vot Hy find, hokay? Und Hy don't vant to see a drop uf blood or bile. Und ven hyu make a big mess und Hy vin, vot hyu gonna give me?"

[Anonymous]

Xavier cocked one eyebrow lazily.

"What would you like?"

[Anonymous]

"Dot's cheatink. Makes me feel all under appreciated. Hyu don't even know me vell enough to know vot Hy vould like." Wolfram snorted and rummaged around in his pocket for tobacco. He actually had very little wants and needs in the world, but he always had a weakness for food. His food tastes ran to the very expensive.

[Anonymous]

"Oh Wolfram..."

Xavier's fingers whispered over Wolfram's hair, the shadow of affection.  This was as close as he came to friendship.

"I know you. You want some obscenely expensive meal that you can't get anywhere else except with me. Pearls dissolved in vinegar like a god-king, rare wine...I know you. I know what you like. I just want to hear you say it, to know how inventive you could be. I could get you anything in creation if I lose this bet, you may as well ask for something special."

Sometimes - not often, but sometimes - Xavier wondered if Wolfram saw the colours too. Spark-seeker, pleasure chaser...

[Anonymous]

That motion, the soft touch and the whispered words caused Wolfram to freeze, dark skin just slightly flushed. The affection, if that's even what it was, was so rare from his bonded. It pleased something deep and primal in him.

"Hy vant someting zo delicious dot it vill make me cry. Bot Hy don't tink hyu can be clean Hyu lose youself in those pritty colors und den blood und flesh iz all over de place."