Title: Fluorescent Adolescent
Chapter: 1 of 2?
Rating: Er, PG-13? Let's say PG-15.
Warnings: My own stupid version of backstory being established. Also, Unbeta'd, so I'm obviously feeling masochistic today.
Pairing(s): Nothing overt but NickxEllis (as always) with undercurrents of past KeithxDave. Yes, really.
Summary: Ellis sees the parallels, but doesn't quite make the connection.

A/N: This is more of me testing the waters, as I'm not certain anyone would really be interested in this. I haven't written fanfiction in 6 years and what I wrote back then was horrible drivel by a 12 year old who thought animu was TEH COOLEST THING EVAR. So, uhm, I hope you guys like this. If there's a second part, the NickxEllis would be far more prominent there.

When they first meet, Nick's eyes are like venom.

Ellis knows this the moment their eyes meet, actually meet and see into each other in that smoking elevator, and even through the haze he can tell Nick is going to be a right ornery bastard from the start. Ellis himself has much softer eyes, if one could use such words to describe eyes; his mama always cooed over them and called them milk chocolate, but then again ma had always been a tad strange.

It's almost instantaneous, the way his own eyes light up in recognition, because he knows that look and is familiar enough with it to know that he probably doesn't want to get on Nick's (or anyone else in that elevator, to be honest) bad side, but in all honestly he probably will.

He knows it because he knows those eyes, and he wonders if Nick's are the same, if they rarely light up in happiness and will always flash rapidly in anger. It's almost like he's stepped into another dimension, like one of the ridiculous old shows Keith used to watch when he was laid up in the hospital.

(Which, incidentally, was a lot.)

But their gaze is suddenly broken when the elevator comes to a screeching halt and it's almost impossible to see anything in this god awful smoke, and he feels his grip on the already bloodied and bent baseball bat imperceptibly tighten.

He looks back at Nick, and Nick slowly nods. Coach is already at the door, and Rochelle takes a step back before steeling herself for another fight.

None of them are really ready when Coach wrenches the door open, but no one says anything in the face of the roaring flames.

When Ellis is six years old, he meets the boy who will become his best friend.

Keith Whitaker is charming for a seven year old, as charming as they can be at least, minus the dozens of never ending trail of bruises and bumps that seem to be attracted to him by sheer bad luck. Keith's eyes are a pale, cotton candy blue, but his hair is a fiery red that almost acts as a warning to others, "Be warned, this kid gets hurt a lot.".

They meet on the first day of primary school, during snack, Ellis in kindergarten with Keith in already in first grade. As such he should be playing with the other first graders but he ignores them in favor of the tiny boy sitting on the steps by himself, trying hard not to cry because another boy called him a girl and said that he couldn't play with them.

But Keith doesn't pick on him for being smaller than everyone else and he shares his animal crackers with him and even lets him have the kitty ("It's a lion!") and Keith never ever calls him girly because that's what all the other kids do and so Ellis secretly wishes for Keith to be his best friend.

Keith gets hurt quite often, though, and a lot of the time his mama keeps him at home in some desperate attempt to keep her darling son from damaging himself further. Ellis can't really do anything those day except kick dirt around with his toy tractor.

(Keith is his only friend then.)

When Ellis is six ("And a half!"), he meets the boy who will become his second closest friend, but before that, what can only be described as his and Keith's long suffering nanny.

David Brookes is the complete opposite of Keith. Pitch black hair framing somewhat scary green eyes (Keith thinks they're cool) on a face that Ellis has seen smile twice. He's quiet, but not shy; Ellis can count (maybe; he can get to 9 before confusing himself and repeating numbers) on his tiny starfish fingers how many times Dave has actually started a conversation without being prompted or picked on or goddamned asked. However, Ellis just assumes this is what older kids are like (Dave is way old, like waaaaay old, like almost nine!), and he hopes he'll never be as quiet as Dave because that would be boring.

They meet when Keith is stuck inside one day and Ellis is desperately lonely, so when he sees Dave (who aimlessly walks around town, because God knows that Dave is never home if he can help it) he nervously makes his way to him and shyly asks if Dave would like to play with him, holding out his dirty yellow tractor as some sort of peace offering in case the other boy deems him unworthy of his attention.

Ellis is still surprised that not only did Dave spend the day with him, he never called him stupid, or girly, or anything like that, and that Dave lives only a few houses down and maybe they can play again when Dave isn't doing older kid stuff, because gosh, Dave is real busy cleaning a whole lot of the time what with all the sounds of stuff breaking coming from inside his house.

So for as long as Ellis can remember, it's always been him, Keith, and Dave, though Dave is more of an older figure trailing along behind them to make sure they don't get into too much trouble, because God knows they need that, especially after Keith fell down that well and Dave had to fish him out. The age difference between the three of them is not vast enough to really cause problems, but sometimes.

Sometimes, Ellis remembers that Dave can be really scary when he wants to be, like when Dave and his dad argue like wild dogs fighting and he leaves the house, angrily slamming the front door, and it's then that Dave's eyes are as a sharp and acrid as poison.

But then it drifts from his memory, and Scary Dave is just back to being normal, quiet, sometimes kind (or bored) enough to fix Ellis and Keith's broken toys Dave.

Nick can be a lot nicer than he lets on.

" Here, let Dr. Nick fix you up."

It hits him when Nick is bandaging up his chest after a nasty encounter with a hunter, deft fingers gently applying pressure where needed, never going past the threshold and putting Ellis in what he knows could be horrific pain. He smiles almost stupidly, realization lightly rapping him over the top of his head while Nick raises an eyebrow at his odd behavior (of course, to Nick, Ellis is always odd but that's not the point.).

" Something wrong, Overalls?" The mocking tone is back in full force, but Ellis sees past it, ignoring him and chuckling slightly to himself.

" Nuthin', nuthin'..." As Nick continues with his ministrations, silence falls over them once again. Coach and Rochelle have long since passed out in the cleaner corners of the current safe room they'd found themselves using for shelter, while Nick offered to patch up Ellis. Ellis still wonders why he volunteered, but after watching Rochelle stumble dangerously a few times after an ill fated meeting with a smoker, he decides to not to comment on it and accept the hand graciously offered to him.

He takes the time to look at Nick, really look at him and take in all the wrinkles on his forehead (not that there are a lot; Nick has taken impeccable care of himself but it's not like Ellis, who lives day to day, knows this) and the bloodstains on his once white suit; he carefully maps every groove and line on the conman's face, as if Nick will suddenly disappear and Ellis will lose that comforting sense of familiarity he has with Nick.

It's not that Ellis isn't fond of Coach or Rochelle either, but there's a quality about Nick that reminds Ellis of something he's known since he was a child, and being reacquainted with it during such desperate times lets Ellis relax just a little.

He's fully aware that he doesn't know jack shit about Nick, aside from little can be gleamed from their (at times childish) banter, but even then, even if it comes back to bite him in the ass, even if his hands get burned from playing with fire, he wants to trust Nick, he wants to be able to trust Nick.

" Holy shit, can't ya be a lil' more gentle-." The words are cut off by a strangled yowl, as if someone was trying to drown a cat. It wasn't too far off from the truth, but...

Ellis doesn't admit it often, but yeah, Keith can be a bit of moron when he gets bored sometimes.

" What have I told ya 'bout dickin' around in the marshes?"

On the other side of the spectrum, however, Ellis has no problem with saying Dave can be a bit (okay, a lot) of a sadist when he wants to be. In retrospect, this is often directly proportional with the results of Keith's boredom.

" Darlin'-"

" Don't ya "darlin'" me!" Christ, did they fight like an old married couple. If Ellis ever pointed this out, however, he's fairly sure he'd end up face down in the well behind Keith's house. To be honest, though, calling Dave anything even remotely feminine has never worked and he wonders why Keith thought it would now of all times.

He's sixteen now, idly playing with the edges of the frayed gauze Dave used to bandage up the small cut on his left hand. Ellis got away with just a slight scratch, while Keith, as per usual, was not nearly so lucky. Keith's hat lay off to the side, bloodstained and dirty, and Keith's oft hidden mop of fiery red hair was as messy as always. Ellis's own cap was secure on his head, and though Dave's hat wasn't perpetually glued to his head like the other two, it was actually perched atop his head for once.

" Ya never said a thing 'bout the southern marsh! We was just checkin' sum stuff out-."

He's watching the show unfold before his eyes while sitting on the only real piece of furniture the garage has; a stained, ratty old couch Keith had picked up from the side of the road a year back. Ellis never thinks too much about where the couch has been and what it's probably been used for, and his sanity is probably better off that way. Dave had offered them full time jobs at the auto shop that he'd opened the very second he'd graduated high school, but only if the two of them graduated themselves. This was more on account of a plea from Ellis's mother, who'd worried that if Keith dropped out, then Ellis would too.

" I meant EVERY marsh, ya big idjit!"

When they stumbled back into the garage after the ill fated meeting with that alligator ("Think I'mma call 'im Sparky!"), Dave had shrieked like a banshee and, after checking Ellis for any bumps and bruises (he rarely came back from these 'adventures' with more than a scratch, but it was a force of habit Dave had never been able to break himself out of), he'd immediately rounded on Keith and practically hogtied him to a tire they were going to use for a monster truck to keep him stationary.

Whenever Keith gets injured, which incidentally is a lot, it's better than going to the goddamned circus watching Dave chase him around with gauze and medical tape. This time Keith's arm had nearly snapped but it wasn't broken so Dave had deemed him unworthy of being sent to the hospital, but he still had deep gouges on his back from when he'd been dragged into the murky water. Those, Dave had most certainly noticed, and was currently embroiled in the process of dabbing them with alcohol before stitching up the deepest ones. And making Keith spit and yowl like a five year with a scraped knee.

" Dave, it's cool,I'm alright!" This was the part where Keith gave up trying to defend himself and started to formulate a plan to escape Dave's calloused fingers, though Ellis couldn't remember a time where he actually had gotten away. Even if he ever did, it wouldn't be hard for Dave to find him; he just had to follow the trail of blood.

It was a bit surreal to watch this circus act follow through sometimes; the moment Dave had hit thirteen he'd shot up to 5'8 but he'd stayed the same lean boy he'd always been, albeit with more well defined muscles. Keith, on the hand, had needed another year before his growth spurt had hit, giving him two inches on Dave and additionally being bulkier in general, making Dave lose whatever advantage he'd had for four years.

Ellis was somewhere in between Keith and Dave when it came to body type, for all the good it did him, but he was still the shortest though at least he was only an inch shorter than Dave now. They'd all matured in their own ways, but in the end, Ellis was still as cheerful as he'd ever been, Dave was more talkative but still a sarcastic asshole, and Keith was apparently still the unluckiest guy in town.

So, yes, watching a man who had hips (and lips, but Ellis never made fun of them anymore because Dave had once pointed out that his were just as girly; Keith had no such restrictions however and the mockery commenced as usual) that could put most teenage girls to shame incapacitate another man who was effectively both bigger and stronger was always fun, and never got boring. Because, damn, it happened a lot these days.

" Keith Whitaker, if ya dun shut yer trap this very instant yer going home with more than a few measly stitches."

Of course, Ellis noted with great mirth, the only way for Dave to properly clean Keith's wounds and not slice up Keith's back even worse was to have the man lie on his stomach, hands still tied to the tire in front of him. He'd then firmly parked himself on Keith's ass to keep the rest of Keith's body from wildly flailing around, though once Dave pulled out the needle to stitch up his back Keith gave up altogether for fear of Dave stitching insulting words into his flesh again. So, not only was the whole thing absolutely mortifying for Keith, but Dave just didn't fucking care and that seemed to make it all the worse.

Because Dave was nothing if not vindictive, and that was when Ellis decided he was never going to make Dave angry ever again (the promise to himself was forgotten the following week when he and Keith had nearly driven off of a cliff and Dave had nearly rung both their necks for it).

Ellis himself usually stayed quiet during these moments. He never left before they ended because he was usually the one helping Keith get home, as Dave had all but marched out of the house the moment he'd turned eighteen and lived alone in the sole room above the garage. When Dave had still been in high school, he'd worked at the shop part time before the previous owner had left town, effectively leaving Dave with ownership of it after he'd spent every penny he'd saved up to buy the place. From the way things were going with Keith's parents, however, Ellis had a sneaking suspicion that Keith would soon be joining him.

He let a small smile cross over his face though. As much as Dave and Keith fought, as much as Dave complained and Keith mocked, they were still friends, and never once had Dave refused to patch up Keith to the best of his abilities.

Sure, Keith could be an idiot sometimes, but he still somehow ended up at Dave's when he was injured, even with the threat of further bodily harm hanging over his. It had taken Ellis a few years to realize this, as ever since they'd been children Keith had always subconsciously gone to Dave for his injuries.

And Dave could be a nice guy when he goddamned felt like it.

[To be continued?]