Chapter Text
Once they race away from The Twister, Seth and Kate travel from town to town for five months before they decide to kill the culebras like the culebras killed their loved ones.
It's takes another eight months before they finally grow tired of sleeping in the sketchy motels they stumble upon in the middle of the night after driving for hours and eating from food carts or gas stations for every meal. They decide to lay down some temporary roots. Kate chooses the town after doing some research at a library outside Toluca while Seth sleeps off a hangover. The one she chooses is small and near the ocean so she can swim and enjoy the Mexican sun. It’s also isolated, free of tourists and has been terrorized by hungry culebras for the last few decades.
It's perfect.
They rent a small house near the town centre. After some convincing from Kate, Seth finds a job by putting his love of cars to good use working part time at a mechanic shop while she works afternoons in a panderia washing dishes. It takes no time before Kate makes friends with her co-workers, their neighbours and pretty much everyone else she meets during her day. So when she meets a local boy who she likes (and likes her back), Seth isn't surprised. He never even complains when he spends his evenings alone, drinking warm beer instead of trading stupid stories about their pasts with Kate like he had been for the last year.
The boy she meets is named Javier. He is 19, tall, skinny and is still struggling to grow any trace of facial hair. He obediently helps Kate master her spanish and she helps him improve his english. He holds her hand, brings her flowers from his family's garden and is the only person other than Seth to make Kate laugh. He is exactly what Kate needs.
So, of course, Seth hates him.
She’s been seeing him just shy of three weeks when she decides she wants to have sex. She's tired of waiting, knows that the way she and Seth live means any day could be their last and is tired of missing out. She already missed graduation, prom and going off to college. So she decides to stop putting off things she wants to experience, not even if she thinks her daddy would disapprove. She did things his way her whole life and look where she is now. So she borrows the old, rusted car Seth got after they lost the convertible and drives down to the beach at sunset with Javier.
It's over quickly.
He apologizes into her shoulder when he finishes quickly but Kate just kisses to top of his head, whispering to him that it's fine. "It's not like we can't try again", she says it with a smile and wiggles her eyebrows in what she hopes is both cute and sexy, and when he laughs and smiles back, she thinks about how this is something she could get used to.
---
Seth would never admit it out loud but he's lonely, and that loneliness makes him realize just how dependant he's become on Kate since they left the Twister. At first, he tried to act like she was just someone to keep him company and to help keep the fear that he’d spend his life alone at bay but it didn’t take Seth long to actually care for her. Hell, he prefers her with him over anyone else now. He’d start to catch himself going out of his way to make her smile, felt a strange sense of pride when he could get her to laugh and never seemed to mind when he had to hold her while she cried for her everything she lost.
Fuck, he actually really likes holding her and he wishes he didn’t just get to do so when she was upset. Everything is so alive when she’s there with him, like she somehow has the power to make colours brighter and those goddamn gas station burritos taste like a 5-star meal. She isn’t around so much anymore and everything seems so dull. Sometimes it feels like the only real quality time they spend together is hunting culebras, getting all bloody and bruised. But he’ll take facing actual demons with Kate then having no Kate around at all.
Seth knows Kate is sleeping with him. He hears her sneaking him in when she thinks Seth is asleep and she spends a few nights a week over at his family's house.
Fucking Javier.
Sure, Seth is no prize but if there is one thing he’s positive of is that that kid is nowhere near good enough for Kate. She deserves someone who takes care of her, can actually protect her and treats her like she’s the fucking sun.
So maybe he’s jealous of a kid who hasn’t even seen two full decades yet. And maybe that pathetic, jealous feeling is why Seth spends night after lonely night knocking back shitty beer until he’s about to fall asleep. He’s doing just that, almost ready to doze off when he hears the front door open, sees Kate creep in quietly through the shadows and shut the door as gently as she can.
“Have fun, princess?” He sees Kate jump, knows she didn’t expect him to be there and and think to himself how pretty she looks as her cheeks blush. “Sorry, I didn’t think you were home.”
“Didn’t answer my question. Did you have fun?” He’s getting up now and sauntering over to Kate as she crosses her arms. He walks right in her personal space with a wicked, smug smirk on his face. He sees her grow defiant, stand up taller to show she’s not intimidated by him. “None of your business.” She spits out. “You’re drunk. Go to bed.”
She touches his shoulder to lead him to his room but he shrugs her off, takes a step closer to her and she backs up against the wall. “I think it’s my business. I live here.” She tries to shove him but he's got his arms on either side of her, caging her in as he keeps her pressed against the wall. “What happens in my room is my business.”
He smiles at her but it’s vicious and laughs like she just told him a hilarious joke when he grabs her wrists, pins them above her head then runs his nose along her jaw. “Does he even make you come, Kate?” He’s trying to taunt her but his voice comes out strained and desperate.
She gasps in shock at his question and he’s captivated by the shape of her mouth and the rosy shade of her cheeks. “It’s not- it’s none of-“ She stammers. “Yeah, yeah. None of my business. It is though. You should be taken care of. I’d make sure you came before we even fucked, princess. Twice.”
He feels her shiver at his words, watches as goosebumps cover her skin. "Seth?" She sounds quiet but not afraid, curious even. "I'd take care of you, Katie. Lick between your pretty thighs, make you come so hard you'd scream. Make you feel so good."
His forehead rests against hers, his breathing heavy in anticipation. He looks down at her mouth, licks his lips and for a moment he thinks he's finally going to do it, he's going give in to his desires and kiss her because, jesus christ, does he want to.
But then he remembers her laughing with her boyfriend the other day and how happy she looked. So he let's go of her wrists, watches as they fall to her sides, stops to catch his own breath. After a moment, he starts to pull away but freezes when he feels something stop him. He looks at Kate like he’s waiting for something, hoping. It's not until he looks down that he realizes she's gripped his shirt so tight that her knuckles are white. Her cheeks heat up and she drops her hand away like it burns before she backs up as far as she can against the wall away from him. When he looks up at her again his hope fades, and is replaced with something that makes his heart ache before it turns to anger.
"Night, princess." It comes out as a growl before he heads to room, door slamming shut behind him leaving a stunned Kate to try to catch her breath.
---
Kate lays on the bed, head on a pillow with her legs hooked over Javier's shoulders while he goes down on her. She sighs, feels him smile against her thigh thinking it was for him and not out of frustration she's feeling.
She can't get Seth's words from last week out of her mind. She knows she's not just stuck on them because he's right (and she hates that he is). She has never come, not from Javier's touch, or from sex and even now, with his mouth. It's vaguely pleasant now as he licks at her but she doesn't feel it under her skin like she did with Seth and all she had then was his words.
She's stuck on his words because she wants. She wants Seth to make her come over and over just from his mouth, while she tugs on his hair and calls out his name. If just the idea of being with Seth makes her feel so heated then actually kissing him, touching him.... oh god, fucking him, must be even better.
But the next morning, Seth had acted as though it never happened. He just mumbled his usual good morning, thanked her for making coffee and then asked her how her night was like he hadn't been there afterwards. So she didn't mention it, put on her usual smile, told him her night was uneventful and tried not to notice that he looked at her so much like he did before he walked away last night.
She tells herself Seth was drunk and it was forgotten.
She tells Javier that she's coming.
Both are lies.
---
Kate's alone in the house, laying in her bed. She told Javier that she wasn't feeling well and needed to catch up on some rest but what Kate really needed was some time alone or at least some time with Seth. She'd barely seen him lately, knows it’s her own fault but she misses him. Even with the strangeness that’s gone on between them lately she still wouldn’t give up what she has with him.
She is, however, about to give up waiting for him and go to sleep when she hears someone at the front door. She cracks her bedroom door open and looks out to see Seth stumbling into the house with a woman following behind him. Her heels clack on the floor as he leads to his room next to Kate’s but he stops before they go inside. “So, do I pay now or… after?”
“Up to you, honey.” The woman sounds like she’s trying to be flirtatious but Seth just grumbles a response even Kate can't decipher.
She quietly shuts her own door and creeps closer to wall that separates their rooms. The thin walls had never been a problem for them before, not after living in motel rooms together for over a year. They had shared a bed more often than not even after first moving to town. Neither could sleep alone after going through so much and with Seth having the bigger bed, Kate would knock lightly on Seth’s door but whenever she opened it, he had already pulled back the covers and moved to his preferred side. That had all changed since Kate had met her boyfriend.
She listens and hears Seth unbuckling his belt and the creak of his bed followed a giggle. “Well, look at you. Didn't realize you carried a six pack." The woman sounds impressed and Kate imagines Seth’s taken off his shirt. She can’t blame her since she’s stared at his muscles more than she’d like to admit. Seeing Seth shirtless had become a daily occurrence but she never stopped feeling the same twist in her stomach as she followed the tattooed flames along his arm as he performed any mundane task. But Kate liked his back the best, how broad it was and how lately she couldn’t stop thinking of dragging her nails down it.
She does her best to push those thoughts aside to focus on what’s going on in the next room. Seth has been quiet but the woman talks more and more, complimenting Seth’s body and telling him he can do whatever he wants. Kate knows the woman is prostitute. She may not be very experienced but it isn’t hard to figure out and it makes her angry even as she tells herself it's irrational. Seth isn't hers. Right?
But the more she talks about what she wants to do to Seth, the more sounds of frustration she hears.
“No… stop.” Seth sounds tense, angry even. “What’s wrong? You want me to….” “No, just- you’re new to this. Just-Fuck…I don’t know. Be shy. Jesus christ.”
Kate hears the bed creak, and them moving around but it stays quiet until she hears a groan from Seth. “Yes, like that.” She hears his heavy breathing and the way he sucks in deep breaths every so often. She wonders if that’s what Seth likes, someone shy and just a little unsure. She knows he has plenty of experience and always assumed that he would want his partner to be the same way. But maybe he’d want someone inexperienced? Kate tries to ignore what that could mean for her but can’t. Instead she lays back on her bed and focuses on the noises coming from Seth and how they compare to what she imagined.
The louder he gets the more she feels herself blush. That heat that she usually only feels when she’s been in bed with Javier for awhile quickly overwhelms her. Her hand slips into her underwear and she bites back a gasp and shuts her eyes tight as she listens for Seth. “Goddammit. Fuck.” He sounds desperate, like he needs something but he isn’t sure what and it makes Kate’s muscles clench as she slowly rubs herself. She’s already so close and all it’s taken is her own hand and Seth’s voice.
Seth groans and she hears more movement along with the sound of a wrapper being opened. It’s quiet until she hears the woman start talking about wanting Seth inside her, asking him to fuck her. “No. Don’t say that shit.” He grumbles. “Turn over.” It’s quiet aside from the bed springs and Kate stops her touching, holds her breath and hopes Seth isn’t done.
She lets out a sigh of relief when Seth moans loudly. “Fuck.” He draws the curse out and Kate briefly wonders how long it’s been since he’s been with someone. She’s almost certain he never brought anyone back to their motel on the road and he rarely seems to leave the house here but abandons the thought as he get more vocal. He’s moaning loudly now and it goes right through Kate. She turns onto her stomach, careful to avoid making noise and starts touching herself again. She grinds her hips down into her hand and listens for more from Seth, feeling close but needing to hear him to continue.
God, she wishes it were his hand. She even dares to imagine it was her in Seth’s bed, thinks about how she could do a better job at satisfying Seth. She may not be experienced but she knows him, and thinks how good it’d feel to be touched by him. She’s close now, finding it harder to keep quiet she buries her face in her pillow and she works herself on her hand to Seth’s loud moans.
“Jesus, shit… shit. Oh god….” Seth’s close, she knows enough about sex to know the desperation in someone’s voice means they’re nearly there. She moves her hand to rub the spot she knows will make her come, wanting to hold off until she can hear Seth finish. She feels that final pull when she hears Seth call out. “Fuck…. fuck, Kate!”
Her name on his lips is all it takes as Kate shakes through her orgasm, face in her pillow wanting to call out his name back to him, worries that she has. But it’s quiet as she catches her breath. A minute passes before she hears the woman speak, “Are you okay?”. But there’s a beat before Seth gives a breathless reply that he’s fine. There’s a rustling of clothes and a drawer being opened and shut as Kate recovers. She rolls onto her back and waits, unsure what she should do now.
“Who’s Kate?”
“You need to go. I’ll get your money.” His bedroom door opens and Kate slowly creeps across the floor to crack open her own door and peer out. Seth walks out in only sweats, grabs his wallet and hands the woman a handful of bills. “This is more tha-“
“Yeah. Can you just go?” The woman tilts her head and stares at Seth, who does everything he can not to look at her. “Please!” He spits out the word and the woman can tell it’s not a request so she walks out the door, strappy heels dangling from her fingers.
Seth sighs as he leans his head against the closed door. Minutes pass with nothing but silence when he finally pulls away before he stops and with a startling ferocity Seth punches the wall as hard as he can. The plaster cracks and there’s a fist sized hole when he pulls back. Kate covers her gasp. “Fuck! Goddammit. Fuck. Fuck.” Seth’s pacing, shaking off his hand and continuing his tirade before he storms off into the bathroom, slamming the door so hard it feels like the whole house shakes.
Kate hears the shower turn on and grabs her sandals and bag before quietly making her way out the front door. She sits on the front steps and finally let’s out the breath she had been holding. She’s not sure whether she wants to cry or scream so she settles on laughing. How did this happen? She had finally found some semblance of normality with this small town, her job and the kind of boy she had always thought she wanted but now she’s getting herself off to an ex-con having sex he paid for as he calls out her name. She laughs because it’s so ridiculous that she has no other choice.
But when she waits for the guilt to come from lusting after a criminal, or for disappointing her daddy or worst of all, committing some kind of emotional betrayal against her boyfriend she finds it doesn’t come. All Kate can think of is Seth calling out for her as he came and how she would give anything to hear it again.
She waits until she hears Seth moving around the kitchen and heads inside, acts as though she had been out all evening when she opens the door and steps inside. He’s in his boxers fixing himself a snack and offers her some when he notices her.
She never asks about the fist sized hole in the wall or the bandage on his swollen hand the next day.
———
Kate giggles as she comes into the house, followed by a deeper voice asking if she’s sure no one’s around. “I told you, it’s just us”.
She knows he’s home. He fucking told her he would be.
She knows that the wall that separates their rooms is thin. That was a comfort to them at first. If one had a nightmare the other knew and would save them from whatever torture their minds had for them that night. And that was only on the nights they didn’t spend together.
But now Kate is using that knowledge to drive him insane. He knows he deserves it but hearing her with her boyfriend makes his heart hurt along with his dick and he has to take care of one of them so he slides his hand under the waistband of his boxers and slowly works his hand up and down his cock.
He tries to block out the grunts and pants of her boyfriend and focuses on her. It isn’t hard because Kate is putting on a show.
Jesus christ, Kate is putting on a show for him and that thought is enough to make him come right away. Instead, he slows his hand, closes his eyes and let’s his mind go where it wants.
Kate is naked above him and she’s smiling at him as he runs his hands along her sides up to her breasts. She sighs when he cups them and leans forward into his touch. He rubs his thumb over her nipples and she moans.
Then Javier grunts her name. God...dammit.
Seth is kissing up Kate’s thighs, his palms pushing her legs further apart until he reaches her center. She’s looks down at him from where she’s propped up on the pillow and he holds her gaze as he licks at her clit. He smiles as her head drops back to the pillow and she moans loudly for more. “Please, yes!”.
“Oh, Kate!” A squeaky voice calls out. Fuck.
She’s on her knees, making these cute little noises for him as he kisses along her back and parts her legs with his knees. She grips at the sheets as he slides into her, his chest against her back and his hand reaching out for hers. Her breath hitches each time he snaps his hips into her and it isn’t long before she pushes back, taking him deeper. “Oh god, please. Ohhh… yes!”
“That’s it, Katie. Come on. Come for me” He whispers into Kate’s ear. She turns her head to kiss him and when he licks into her mouth he tastes strawberry lip balm.
“Oh, yes. Oh god, Se-….. yes!” Yes, Katie. You feel so good.
He comes hard, fisting the sheets and fighting to stay quiet when all he wants to do call out to her. He lays in bed and catches his breath as he listens to Kate shuffle around her room before walking her boyfriend to the door and saying goodbye.
He’s nearly asleep when he realizes he didn’t have to imagine the sound of her voice as she came with his name on her lips.
Fuck.