Legend Series AU

Chapter 18-Day

Eden leans against me, closing his eyes and sighing. His breathing is shaky, I think he knows what I'm talking about. "I want to talk about today." I say, putting my arm around him.

A few tears slide down his cheeks. He looks angry again. "Are you mad at me?" I ask, worries flooding back.

He shakes his head vigorously. "No..." he struggles to get words out. "No I'm mad at, I'm mad at myself. For how I acted today. I'm sorry Daniel, I know I'm being stupid."

"You're not being stupid." I say matter-of-factly. "I will never ever think anything you do is stupid. I may think that some of your actions aren't the smartest but I will never think you're stupid."

"That's the same thing." He sniffles.

"No, it's not. And today, I thought that your actions were completely reasonable."

"How?" His voice is heavy with sadness.

"Here, let me tell you what I think. I think that I scared the shit out of you last night, and I also think that another terrifying situation was not what you needed. You pretended to brush it off but it was actually a bigger deal than I thought. I think that today you were struggling with the idea that I could leave you too and that is a perfectly good explanation for your actions. Am I right?" I ask looking down at him. He nods. "You know how I figured that out?"

"How?" He burrows his face into me.

"Because I've felt the exact same thing for the past few days."

"Really?"

"Really." I take a deep breath. What on earth is the best way to go about this? "Ok, I'm not going to give you any bullshit. I'm not going to promise that everything will be ok, or that I'll always be around, because I don't think that's going to help you. I also just can't promise you that. It's impossible.

"What I can do is tell you that I will do everything in my power to stand by you. I will always support you and always do my best. I can also tell you that your emotions are valid. Don't ever think that your feelings are 'stupid' because they aren't. Express them in the ways you know how and the people around you will help in any way that they can. That includes me too because I don't plan on leaving any time soon." I finish, smiling at him.

"You should be a freaking therapist." he says, sighing. "Thank you Daniel. That helped. It really did."

"I'm glad, I wasn't sure I was saying the right things." I laugh

"You always say the right things"

"That is so, so very wrong. Oh my lord is that wrong."

"Ok fine, but you know, you said express my feelings right?"

"Yeah, as much as you can. It can only do good."

"Well, there's one thing you missed. After last night, I woke up this morning and millions of bad thoughts just like flooded my head." He has dried his eyes now, talking from the heart. "I think that not being able to see was making them worse. I know that's not an emotion but it's what I felt."

I nod against him. "This is good, keep talking."

"It was like I couldn't see you so you weren't really there in my brain. The only thing that made me feel better was physical contact. Actually feeling you right next to me." Suddenly I feel bad for trying to get him to let go at all today.

"How do you feel now?" I ask tentatively.

"I feel better. It feels less like if I stop touching you, you just get, I don't know, sucked away into a black hole or something."

"That's good. That's really good. No damned black holes for me." I say and he giggles. "Now how about we go spend our last night sleeping at June's place in style. I was thinking, blanket fort sleepover?" He grins at this, sitting up and hopping off of the bed.

"Sounds great!"

When we get out June is seated on the couch, watching tv. I'm proud of Eden because he reluctantly lets go of my hand, sitting down next to June. "What're you watching?" He asks her, shooting a glance in my general direction.

"Well, the other day, Day and I started watching Lord of the rings so I figured we might watch some more tonight." I smile, walking over to the couch and making sure that I'm loud so Eden knows I'm still in the room.

"What the heck is Lord of the rings?" He asks.

June looks at me, disgusted. "Wait, you're joking right?" Eden shakes his head, curls flopping. "How the hell do you not know lord of the rings?! You are Day's brother right?" She waves her arms around, looking like a crazy person. "Day! How could you not have shown him lord of the rings?! An education is not complete until you've seen lotr. Eden tonight we must round off your education. Day, I'm disgusted by you right now but explain to your uneducated brother what I'm watching." She turns her head away from me like she's simply done with the conversation.

I sigh, laughing. "Lotr is like the nerdiest movie you can possibly find. It's also basically the king of all fantasy stories. There's like a total of 15 hours of film based off of the book trilogy by JRR Tolkien."

"That is correct and we will be watching all of it in near future. I have the bonus set, which has audio commentary." June says and Eden laughs.

"I'm not sure there's enough time for all of it but we can watch while we build our blanket fort."

"Oooo are we doing that tonight? That's a great idea I'll go get the chairs!" June hops up from the couch, anger at me seemingly forgotten. Eden laughs again and I switch out the disks, starting at the first one.

June comes back with a few chairs and a huge stack of blankets. We set up the chairs and throw the blankets over the top, leaving a gap to see the tv. Stuffing pillows inside out fort we climb in and snuggle up together. I lay practically on top of June and Eden sits on the other side, reaching out to hold my hand again.

I grab it but focus my attention on June entirely. "So, are you still mad at?" I ask quietly, smiling and adjusting my position so my chin rests on her belly.

"Of course I'm still mad, what you did was unforgivable." We both laugh and I lay my head down, feeling her stomach rise and fall when she breathes. She runs her fingers through my hair, pushing it back from my face and twirling it. "I've always loved your hair, did you know that?"

"I did not know that." I give her a small smile. I hear Eden fumbling with the remote, turning up the volume. "I love your hair more I think."

"Impossible." I smile.

"June, can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"Do you want to go on a date with me?"

"Only if you start calling me your girlfriend."

"Fine by me." I grin at her, sitting up and leaning in for a kiss. She stops me though, jerking her head toward Eden who is staring at the tv with an amused look on his face.

"Oh continue on with your lovey dovey smooching. Just pretend I'm not here." He says, trying not to laugh. June rolls her eyes but kisses me anyways. Somehow, it's better than the first one, and the second, and the one after that. Somehow it's even more magical, full of more emotion than I thought possible.

I fall asleep in our blanket for our last night there with the two people who mean the most in the world to me.