405 - Plunge - And If My Love Had Never Let Me Go - dragonypoenix - BtVS

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

Title: And If My Love Had Never Let Me Go 8/15
Fandom: BtVS
Prompt: 405 - Plunge
Warnings: None
Rating: PG
Summary: Trekker wrote a series called In Another Life where Rupert went back to the Council but never broke up with Ethan. In the chapter “The Dark Age, Postscript”, Ethan is drawn into a universe where his and Rupert's relationship had ended. It was such a fascinating idea I couldn't help but play with it. This is a remix of that chapter.
Note: The story shifts between the two verses but headers are included to orient the reader.
Note: It's easier to read in AO3

Whedonverse

“You honestly believed this pathetic tosser was me?”

Ethan glared and started struggling against the ropes although it did little more than increase the numbness in his hands. He resolved, then and there, to refer to his doppelganger by his surname. The man didn't deserve Ethan's given name and there were plenty of bastards in the world who went by Rayne. “Pathetic tosser,” he mumbled. “I'll give you pathetic tosser.” Neither Rupert nor Rayne seemed to be paying him any mind.

Rupert stared at Rayne the way a man would stare at the Grail, the way a man would stare at the one thing that could both fulfill his greatest desire and destroy him in the same instant. “What is this?” Rupert asked.

Ethan watched himself grin in delight. “Really Ripper, don't be stupid. It's already been explained.” Rayne gestured toward Ethan. “Alternate universe. Inferior copy of me. Domesticated. Tamed.”

Rupert burst across the room and plunged a fist into Rayne's gut. Ethan winced as he saw his other self go down, almost chocking as the air was forced out of his lungs, but Rayne came back up laughing. Rupert raised his fist. “Let's try this again.”

Rayne's hands flew up as if he was surrendering although he didn't look at all penitent. “But I did it for you.”

As Rupert's fist hit Rayne's jaw, Rayne's head jerked to the right. “Fine, fine.” Rayne winced as he brought his head back around. “You wondered, just for a moment, what it would be like if we'd gotten back together. I have to admit to being surprised as well as touched. I didn't know you cared.”

Ethan shut his eyes against the love and pain he saw on both their faces. This … whatever it was between them seemed like a mockery of the devotion he shared with his Rupert, the Rupert he might never see again.

“You brought him over,” this clean-shaven Rupert said. “It's just your speed. Malicious. Cruel.”

“But Ripper, I gave you exactly what you wanted.” There was a sound of triumph in his voice, as if hurting Rupert had been his goal all along. “Of course it's a pity he won't be here long enough to replace me, but one can't have everything.”

Ethan opened his eyes at the threat he heard in those words. Rayne was staring directly at him, a cruel grin stretched across his face. “What are you planning to do to me?” Ethan asked.

“Planning?” Rayne tried, and failed, to look innocent. “Nothing more than I've already done. Why? Are you offering? How outré. We could certainly start with bondage, seeing that you've already been tied up by Ripper's expert hands.”

“I wouldn't touch you with a ten foot pole.”

Rayne tossed a kiss toward Ethan. “How delightfully phallic.”

Rupert grabbed Rayne's shirt and shoved him back into the wood of the staircase. “Is that why you dragged him across dimensions? So you could fuck yourself?”

“Don't be tedious, Ripper. I dragged his ass here, as you so eloquently stated, for you. Besides, hypocrisy doesn't suit you, my dear. It's not as if you don't want him yourself.”

Rupert sputtered in response.

“Don't try to deny it. You bound him to a chair the first chance you found. Honestly, you could have at least offered the man dinner first. He has been dragged across multiple dimensions. It must have been terribly exhausting.”

At the words “you bound him to a chair,” Rupert turned from Rayne and stopped and stared at Ethan. His stare was uncomfortable, intense. Ethan realized that Rayne hadn't been far off. He felt as if he were a dessert that Rupert wanted to slowly devour. When he spoke, it was to get Rupert focused on something else. “He's very good at escaping, isn't he.”

Rupert glanced to where Rayne had been and swore. “Damn.”

“Now that you know I'm not Rayne, I don't suppose you'd untie me.”

“I have to assume you're just as good at escaping.”

“To where and why?” Ethan asked. “Remember, I came looking for you.”

“Because you thought I was him, your Rupert.” He stared off into space and a look of wonder interspersed with a bit of terror took over Rupert's face. He fell into a chair. “In your dimension, we're lovers aren't we? You and I, or you and another me.”

“Yes,” Ethan told him. “And I'd like to get back there if you don't mind. Mine is a much nicer dimension.” You don't hit me, for starters.

Rupert was staring at him again, and Ethan had the sneaking suspicion that if Rupert had listened to what he'd just said Rupert would mind, possibly so much that he'd try to keep Ethan here. “Rupert?”

As Rupert pulled off his glasses and gave Ethan a distracted “Hmmm?”, he looked so much like Ethan's Rupert that Ethan's heart fell.

It was the last straw. “Damn it, Rupert. Untie me right now. I don't give a flying fuck what happened between the two of you. It has nothing to do with me. I just want to go home.”

Rupert blinked and untied him and even said “Sorry.”

Ethan rubbed at his wrists and had started shaking the feeling back into his hands when Rupert reached over and took one of Ethan's hands in his. Ethan closed his eyes a moment and sank into it, feeling Rupert's hands on his. He might never have this again, not with his Rupert. That was enough to break the spell. “You can't keep me,” he said. “I will find a way back to my own Rupert.”

Rupert dropped Ethan's hand as if it had burned him. “Of course not. I wouldn't dream of keeping you here.”

Ethan chose to ignore the lie and the pain underneath.