Turncoat
Chapter Two

Summary: Tom tries to navigate in his new life now
Warning(s): Spoilers for the book series Animorphs; AU; references to violence; references to suicidal desires
Pairing: Elfangor/Tom

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I’ll be honest. I didn’t really remember much of my trip back home after I separated from Prince Elfangor. I was too nervous, expecting that at any moment, I would be grabbed by the Yeerks. I’d have a slimy slug forced into my head again and I’d be under their control. A Controller. And I’d end up betraying my brother…betraying Elfangor…because I knew who the Andalite bandits were.

It was just as well Elfangor had separated from me. He was a warrior, a commander, a Prince. Better able to protect himself than I was. If I did get compromised, or captured, at least I wouldn’t be able to give up his location.

It would be impossible to give up what I didn’t even know.

But I must have got home without being captured, because I woke up the next morning with weird dreams running around in my head. Not nightmares. I kept dreaming of a centaur-like body, with blue fur and incredibly strong arms that had held me so gently and….

Yeah. To say I was confused would be an understatement. I’d never been attracted to a male before. And certainly never a male alien.

As I dressed, it occurred to me I was ravenously hungry. A holdover from the Yeerk starving inside my head, maybe? Or maybe it was just that I was finally free. To eat and taste food without having it filtered through my enslaver.

That was probably why I headed down the stairs more forcefully than normal.

Mom and Dad were in the kitchen and Mom cast a glance towards me, raising her eyebrows. “Got a bit too much energy today?” she asked.

“That obvious?” I laughed and glanced towards my little brother.

Jake was sitting at the table, shoulders hunched over as he ate a piece of toast and scribbled frantically on a sheet of paper. I couldn’t see his face, but the tension in his body was obvious. I’d seen it before, while I was held prisoner. But I could never have imagined that the tension came from the fact he and his team were attacking the Yeerks whenever they had any free time.

I couldn’t tell him the truth. He had to carry on believing that he couldn’t trust me. In case the worst happened and I was captured by the Yeerks again. If I could, I’d take my own life rather than become a Controller again.

But I still wanted to spend time with my brother. Even if I couldn’t tell him the truth. Even if I couldn’t beg him to step out of the fight. I didn’t really have the right to make that request anyway. After all, I was planning to stay in the fight myself. Even though there was a big part of me, that I hated, that had been tempted by Elfangor promising to take me somewhere safe.

Pushing away those thoughts and the memory of that temptation, I reached out and ruffled Jake’s hair. “Hey, Squirt. Want to shoot some hoops with me outside?”

Jake looked up at me, his brow furrowed in confusion. It was heart breaking, to see the wariness in my little brother’s eyes. He had to have known I was a Controller. He would have seen me at the Yeerk pool, when he and the others had attacked it. I’d come so close to freedom then. It had been such a devastating blow to be recaptured when I had come so close….

“I’m busy.” Jake turned his eyes away from me, looking back down at the paper he was scribbling on.

“Doing homework?” I took the seat next to Jake and reached over to steal a piece of toast from his plate. It was hot and buttery and I took a big bite, chewing and swallowing. Because I could. Because I now had that control over whether I ate or not, or if I took food from my little brother’s plate. And I had control over what I said next. “Why don’t you leave it for now? It’s been a long time since we had a game.”

“Don’t you have a meeting of the Sharing to get to?”

I tried very hard not to wince. Was fairly sure that I succeeded, though my smile remained fixed on my face. “That’s later on.” And I would have to come up with a story for what had happened yesterday. Hopefully, Visser Three wouldn’t be there. But Chapman was a high-ranking Yeerk and fooling him would be nearly as difficult as fooling Visser Three.

I just needed to spend a little bit of time thinking of something else.

“C’mon, little bro.” I forced my tone to sound teasing. Light-hearted. “I’ll even go easy on you,” I added.

Jake stared at me and I just looked back at him, forcing my face to stay relaxed. He glanced over towards our parents, then focused back on me and finally gave a kind of jerky nod. “Fine. Let’s go shoot some hoops.” He stood up and headed towards the front door.

I followed him outside and to where the hoop was set. Jake retrieved the ball and began to dribble it, watching me with a wariness that went far beyond a friendly competition between two brothers.

I watched and waited for my chance and then took the ball from him, jumping up to throw it into the basket. Then, I turned to Jake, raising my hands in a victory pose. “Got you!” I crowed, before grabbing the ball again and heading towards him.

Jake was still eyeing me with open suspicion, but he moved to take the ball from me, shooting his own hoop before saying, “You won’t best me for long. I’m catching up with you.”

“You’ll never be as good as me, Squirt.” I laughed openly at him, stealing the ball back and taking another shot. Tension seeped out of my body with every move I made. This was normal. Playing with my brother. I could forget the danger he was in. The danger we were both in.

“Tom.”

My name, uttered in a lightly accented voice, drew my attention from the game and allowed Jake to steal the ball from me, bringing our score to an even total.

There was a guy walking towards us. He was tall; taller than me, though not as tall as Elfangor. Was it even possible for a human to be as tall as the Andalite? I pushed away those unwanted thoughts as I stared at the newcomer.

He had tanned skin and long black hair that fell in a curtain over one eye. He wore jeans and a white T-shirt that somehow looked really good on him, showing off his muscled arms. He wore an earring in one ear and his eyes were a deep green that I could drown in.

He was hot. Really hot.

Before I could say anything, or ask any questions, the guy stopped in front of me. He placed his hands on my face. And he leaned forward and kissed me. His lips were hot and sweet and while the kiss was unexpected, it was certainly welcome…and a certain other part of my body stirred in interest, despite having never felt an attraction to any male since…well, since Elfangor, if I was being completely honest.

Jake cleared his throat and the stranger pulled back, leaving me dazed and confused, my face flushed and hot. I watched with bemusement as he turned towards Jake and said, “You must be Jake. I’m Tom’s boyfriend, Eli. He talks about you a lot.”

Eli…Elfangor? My eyes widened and I stared at the guy’s back, searching for a sign of the alien I’d seen only yesterday. Of course, he didn’t look anything like an Andalite prince. He just looked human. A human who’d kissed me and now declared himself my boyfriend.

Jake wouldn’t believe it. Would he? He’d assume that Elfangor, or Eli, was part of the Sharing as well. I risked a glance over Elfangor’s shoulder and saw my little brother eyeing him with obvious suspicion. “Are you here to take him to the Sharing meeting?”

Elfangor laughed and the smooth sound did something to my stomach. Made it clench and grow warm. He answered Jake’s question without looking at me. “The meeting isn’t until later. I thought I’d come and meet you beforehand. Like I said. Tom’s talked a lot about you.”

“I’m sure he has.” Jake got a dark look on his face, shooting me a narrow-eyed glance, before he headed back inside the house, his back straight and the tension clear in his shoulders.

I sighed and turned towards Elfangor, who’d turned back to face me. “You could have just said we were friends,” I said quietly.

“Being your boyfriend will arouse much less suspicion.” Elfangor walked over to me and reached out, taking my hand, looking into my eyes. “It gives me a good reason to be here and spending time with you. Besides,” he continued, his voice dropping even lower, “you seemed to gain a lot of comfort from me touching you yesterday. If you need that kind of comfort again, no one will question it.”

I had to look away, flushing, because he was right. And the thought of needing that kind of comfort was embarrassing. I raked a hand through my hair, almost nervously, rocking on the balls of my feet as I asked, “So do you plan on infiltrating the Sharing with me?”

“Yes.” Elfangor was moving his head from side to side, looking around.

I did as well, nervous even though there was no one around. It was just me and Elfangor. Then, I looked back at the Andalite prince. “I might be able to bluff my way through the Sharing meeting tonight, but we still need to figure out a way of pretending we’re Controllers.”

“I might have a way. Or some people we can approach.”

“Are you going to share who with me?” I asked.

Elfangor reached out and grabbed my hand. “I’ll do one better. I’ll take you to meet them.”