Kipine Boyfriend: Enoch (special preview)

Enoch stills over the coffee press and glanes back your way. “Something lovely.” He stops and clears his throat. “Not to give myself away. But uhm-” he starts the kettle. He then motions to the supplies he brought it. “I wasn’t sure what you liked. So I sort of went overboard.” He clears his throat again. “Let’s begin work shall we! I do hope you were better able to form your ideas.”

“I was. I even did some research.” You walk over to the desk and pull out your sketchbook. “Since this is to be a haunted gallery, I was thinking that we sparse out our more possessed pieces like a song.”

“A song you say?” Enoch turns from making his coffee.

“Yeah, for pacing. You want to disperse everything so it flows well. Like, I thought, we place some pieces at the front that make people question. Is it scary? Is it not scary? Slowly we build, bringing in more and more uncertainty. Then the crescendo, it crashes and overtakes, assuring that the gallery viewer has to run forward through the rest of the hall. Then a lull, a moment of respite and melody, then another crash!”

Enoch nods his head excitedly. “There are so suits of armor that will be just perfect for this. We can have them stand still at the entrance and secretly follow after the guests the entire time!”

Your eyes light up and you break into a grin. “There are suits of armor?”

Enoch claps his hand together. “They just got delivered last night, would you like to go meet them?”

“Yes!” You gasp excitedly.

You and Enoch spend the rest of the day getting to know the artwork for the gallery. Some has been donated by friends of Mr. Faire, or have come from his own personal collection. The suits of armor are from different parts of the world, but have all known each other a long time. You feel odd talking to paintings and having them respond, even shaking their hands, but all the while, you feel nothing but joy.

As the day comes to an end and you and Enoch are settling on ideas, you realize you’ve not felt that nagging feeling once all day.

You start to clean up the desk when Enoch takes his mask off. For a moment, you don’t look, you just stare at the mask he sets down on the table. You then glance up, seeing his fingers brushing away his long black hair. His skin is pure white with pitch black freckles all over his face and neck. He has piercing black eyes that are perfectly round and surrounded by pure white lashes. His nose is long and hooked while his cheekbones are high and sharp. His appearance is striking, but not one you’d consider worth hiding.

Enoch looks at you and smiles softly. “Wearing it is a comfort for me,” he says. “But, since we will be working close together, I want to learn to be myself around you without having to hide.” He clutches his mask in his hand again. “Although, this is a glamour, it will take time for me to show you that side of me.”

“You don’t need to worry about that.” Your face is burning, as his expressions are so sweet, while at the same time, you find him strikingly lovely. “As long as you’re comfortable and happy while we work, that’s what matters most to me.”

Enoch smiles. “I know you’re used to werewolves, but I hope you can grow used to me.”

You want to ask him what he is, but decide that’s a conversation for when you’re closer. “You don’t need to worry about that!” You say to him. “I already like you.”

Enoch’s smile becomes even more shy and he glances away, letting his long hair fall before his face. “Thank you, I like you too.”

“Let’s get cleaned up so we’ll come into a tidy office tomorrow. We’ll start refining our late out plan then.”

Enoch nods, tucking his hair away behind his pointed ears. “I’ll be excited when we run test trials of the exhibit. Mr. Faire usually asks to be the first one to try it. Now that he has his daughter Echo, I’m sure he’ll want to try the ‘kid friendly’ edition.”

The mausoleum museum had two separate events, kid friendly shows between the hours of opening and eleven, then starting at twelve they had more adult oriented shows, in which tours were much more frightening. It was during all of October when Scarebrooke became the main attraction that all of the carnival took this motif. Already, you and Enoch were discussing what to do for Halloween, and between working on layouts and talking with the artwork, you’d been spitballing ideas for then.