slashing_lorne | October 10 Challenge: Lorne / Parrish

Title: The Bad Men
Author:

imagechild
Pairing: Lorne/Parrish
Word Count: 578
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Human Touch
Warnings: none
Prompt: Oct 10 - Bruce Springsteen releases his 9th album "Tunnel of Love": write a drabble/ficlet inspired by one of the album's songs or song titles

Disclaimer: I'm not.....quite sure where I was going with this....it's 12 a.m and I'm soooo tired >_<
the bits in Italic are the Springsteen Lyrics--Human Touch

The story is set in a Semi-AU world.
really, I have no idea what went on here :P

I aint looking for praise or pity
I aint coming round searching for a crutch
I just want someone to talk to
And a little of that human touch

Some days it's as if his skin is no longer his--some days his flesh crawls even at the familiar touch of his clothes against his body. Some days it's enough that he has his own skin, his own place to be, his own soft and pliable armor.

Some days, it's not enough. Some days he has to touch someone else, someone warm, someone who's armor is stronger, if just for a little while. David's skin is smooth, unbroken, whole--and some days, he just wants to crawl inside with him--and be safe.

Aint no mercy on the streets of this town
Aint no bread from heavenly skies
Aint nobody drawing wine from this blood
Its just you and me tonight

David never asks why he wakes up, not screaming, not crying out, but laughing. He doesn't need to know that finally, when it came down to it--the only way Marc could handle it all--the only way he could survive, was to laugh as he slaughtered dozens...as he fought a losing battle, as men and women fell around him, and left him bloody but untouched. He doesn't say how he shot Sheppard through the throat--how the Colonel's eyes had been wide with fear--and thanks--no one deserved to live that way.

David never asks--but it doesn't matter--Marc couldn't say the words if he tried. David wouldn't understand...shouldn't understand.

Oh boy that feeling of safety that you prize
Well it comes at a hard hard price
You cant shut off the risk and the pain
Without losing the love that remains
Were all riders on this train

Sometimes Marc wakes to tears--not his, he's long since lost the ability--but David's, pooling at the hollow of his cheek, running down his collarbone to create an uncomfortable damp spot on the neck of his tshirt. Marc doesn't ever say anything, just watches David watch him, those pale eyes filling again and again with tears he cries for Marc--in lieu of the ones Marc can no longer manage.

"I wish things had been different for you...that you hadn't had to..." David always trails off, there aren't any words for what war does to a man. But Marc knows...he knows David's grateful..and he's quietly grateful David doesn't understand the horrors he's seen.

Yeah, I know I aint nobodys bargain
But, hell, a little touch up and a little paint...
You might need something to hold on to
When all the answers, they dont amount to much
Somebody that you could just to talk to
And a little of that human touch

"You're perfect..I swear. I swear."

Marc never believes him, he knows the truth, sees his own scars. After years, he's stopped trying to convince David otherwise....let him have his delusions, if it makes him happy. Maybe they'll go a lifetime without him having to see that dark part he's become so adept at hiding away. Maybe they'll both die and David won't have had to glimpse that terrifying darkness.

Marc holds David as he sleeps, eyes open wide to the darkness, listening to the little sounds that used to be a comfort--but now just mean Atlantis is failing them. She used to be home--she used to be safe. Now she's a prison none of them can escape. When the gate failed, no one could tell them why....but Marc knows...he's always known.

It's punishment...

It's punishment for letting her Favored Son die.
It's punishment for having raised a hand against him.
Even though it had been a mercy.