Chapter Text
It was sometime mid-July, the sun was tinting the world in soft, warm light when they met for the first time. Two young men running into each other on the street.
“Forgive me, please. I must have been distracted. Are you alright, boy?”
Olli looked up, brushing the dirt off his clothes, an embarrassed blush spreading over his cheeks. “I-I assure you the fault is entirely mine, sir, I didn’t watch my steps,” he quickly mumbled as an apology, hands fiddling with the hem of his shirt. A shiver ran over his body when he looked back up at the blond man in front of him, something about the intense stare of the blue eyes made him feel…weird. A yet unknown heat building up in his body.
The second time they met was at a park, the blond man handing Olli a red rose he had just picked at the shore of the small river. “Almost as beautiful as you, and the color matching that of your lips.”
Again Olli couldn’t help but blush, feeling a weird fluttering in his chest. He knew his lips were still stained slightly red from some weird thing his sister had tried out on him - a lipstick as she had called it. To hide the blush he quickly looked down, feeling fingers tucking a wild curl behind his ear. “So young and innocent, it’s endearing,” the older man whispered, suddenly very close to Olli. “Tell me, did somebody already do the honors of tasting those pretty red lips of yours?” There was a hand resting on Olli’s waist and slowly but surely the blond man was completely disarming him, webbing him into his charm and there was nothing Olli could do but fall for it, too inexperienced and naive for his own good.
When Olli stumbled out of the park he cautiously wiped his lips with the back of his hand. There was a sweet taste lingering on them, the thought of what had just happened making Olli’s head spin. The first piece of his innocents had been taken, a sweet kiss stolen from his lips.
He felt dizzy, stupidly giggly, his fingers grasping around the single red rose in his hand.
Was this what it felt like to fall in love? Was he falling in love?
While Olli was trying to figure out what was going on with him since what had happened in the park, and basically since he had seen the handsome stranger for the first time said stranger - Joel - was getting twisted up in a dangerous game.
Since the moment Joel had seen the pretty boy in the streets he wouldn’t leave his thoughts anymore. Joel was always thinking about him, in lonely hours even more than in others, the innocent face engraved in his mind like a mark burned into the skin of an animal.
At first, Joel tried satisfying his longing by continuing to charm the boy, meeting him as often as he could, by now mostly official invitations - or as official as possible with the boy, Olli, barely being older than a child. 15, if Joel remembered correctly, which was old enough.
His mind drifted off, back to them meeting at a small lake, Olli getting oh-so-flustered when realizing Joel was looking at him while he was partly getting undressed for a swim. It was adorable. The boy was so young, so naive and inexperienced, too innocent not to blush at every opportunity. Skin flawless, never having been touched by anyone except Olli himself.
Joel bit his lip, trying to resist the urge to touch himself at the thought of the boy wading into the water, body covered by nothing but thin underwear.
He wanted to be the one taking this innocence from Olli, from Olli’s body, and he didn’t want anyone else to get what he had gotten after him. Never.
It only took a couple of weeks before Joel would get what he had longed for, even if he had partly forgotten about his thoughts by then. It was far too easy to seduce Olli once Joel had gained his trust and more importantly his love. It was hard to miss that the boy was head over heels in love with him, not minding the age difference at all - what were 6 years after all?
Joel had invited Olli to his place, urging him to tell his parents he’d stay at a friend's place overnight so he could stay with him. Of course, Olli did exactly that, something telling him he’d miss an opportunity if he didn’t.
Now, Olli’s back was resting against soft white sheets, hands on Joel’s body, not entirely sure what to do, so he simply followed his instincts.
Olli let Joel undress him willingly, every light touch sending a hot shiver through his body. When Olli was naked, Joel sat back on his heels, taking his time to fully take in the picture in front of him. “You’re beautiful. My beautiful wild rose.”
“S-stop, you’re flustering me…” Olli mumbled, a blush rising to his cheeks. Joel only chuckled softly before taking his own shirt off, pants following soon after.
Joel took his time practically worshipping Olli’s body with his hands and lips, wanting to make this special, and Olli gave Joel everything he could have possibly wanted.
It didn’t take much to send Olli over the edge just by this, the sweet noises spilling over his lips like music in Joel’s ears.
They went further than that that night, as far as two humans possibly could, and Joel couldn’t imagine anything more beautiful than the sight of the young man lying underneath him, moaning his name, sweat shimmering on his skin, the once innocent body contrasted by the pure white sheets underneath and lips kissed red, a color like the leaves of a rose.
Olli fell asleep soon after, covers only partly pulled up, leaving enough naked skin to see light patches of reddened skin Joel’s lips had left on their way. He was beautiful like this and Joel wished he could somehow preserve this picture forever.
The next day, Joel took Olli to a small field of roses by a lake.
There was no way Olli could have known what was about to come, could have seen the danger emerging, and when he finally saw the stone in Joel’s hand and heard the whispered “All beauty must die” it was too late, the world going dark and quiet around him.
Joel stared at the limp but still warm body in his arms, gently brushing a few messy curls off of Olli’s face. He then made sure to carefully place the body on the grass, surrounded by wild, red roses, feet almost touching the water of the lake. He took Olli’s shoes and linen pants off, leaving the dead boy in nothing but light, partly sheer, white clothes. Red and white contrasting each other and to Joel, Olli looked as beautiful as the day he met him, maybe even more beautiful than that.
Nobody would ever be able to take this beauty away from Joel, it was his to keep in his mind forever, from now on frozen in place.