"He never did a damn thing to me," Randy VIII explained quietly. "I started it all. The first time I heard about him, I wanted him. Then I found him... I started getting to know him. It felt so weird, but it was like I could smell it on him. How he was like me... I could practically taste it in the air around him." He pulled Seven's hand down his face absently as he spoke, trailing the fingers over his lips. "I knew what he could do, I knew he'd be the best challenge I ever got. Maybe even the last one. But I was already starting to like him even then. I convinced myself that what I felt... when I almost felt like I wanted to eat him... was just the same kind of urge I feel when I meet any good challenge. It was just a little stronger because he was better than the rest and I could sense it. So I decided to take it before I changed my mind. But even when it happened, it just didn't feel the same. It was good..." He licked Seven's fingers. "It was so good... but it also made me feel bad in a way I never really felt before."

"Bad huh...." Seven whispered tracing Eight's lips with the pads of his fingers, "You never feel bad..."

"I know," said Randy VIII. "Sometimes I wonder... if that's not all that feeling really was. But what else is there? He never liked me. That was all we really had in common."

"Maybe he would have liked you given the chance, you never know," said Seven.

Randy VIII frowned again. "Doubt I'm his type... but either way, it's too late for that," he said quietly.

"Yeah, kinda to late for much of anything now...." said Seven, "I'll talk to our brothers, but I can't promise all of them will keep away from Kurt."

Eight sighed, knowing it was the best response he could have expected. "I really hope they do." Still holding Seven's hand, he pushed it back into his hair and gave it a nuzzle. "Mighta blown any chance we had of bein' friends... but I gotta wonder if that would have been anywhere near as exciting. Friends don't try to kill you."

"But is all this worth Kurt's life? I mean, even if he doesn't end up dead, his life doesn't belong to him anymore, he's trapped in this with you..." said Seven.

"I don't know," Randy VIII responded truthfully. "If I had known I'd feel this way about it, things might have been different. But that's not how it happened and now all I can do is try to make the best of it. Part of me wants it to be that way. I do want him to be stuck with me. But then I feel... wrong. 'Cause I know he can't enjoy bein' trapped. I guess I have the option to just leave, hope we never cross paths again, but... that don't feel right, either."

"You'll have to work it out....but I could tell just from the look of him. He's a man that won't stand for being caged up, he will hate you and fight you until you let him go or he dies,"

"Of course... That would have to be what I love about 'im," sighed Randy VIII with a roll of his eyes.

"I hate to tell you this Baby Boy, but your kinda love'll get a person killed," said Seven.

"I know." Eight gave his hand a squeeze. "But what would you do if you was me?"

"Well I'd let him go, keep him chained up and his destruction is inevitable, but I think it's to late for that....I don't know, if you could just be friends it would fix everything...but it's to late for that too," said Seven with a sigh.

"I'll just hafta... try to keep an eye on things without gettin' in the way too much, if I can," muttered Randy VIII. "It's the best I got."

Seven wrapped his arm around him and held him, "We can always hope things might change..."