Gentle Love (Sal x Travis Angst/Fluff Fanfiction)

New clothes

Travis' father picked him from school afew days earlier. He had another trip he had to take for one of the church families. He told him he was to find something healthy for diner and not to touch anything that belonged to his father for the next six months would be home alone. Once Kenneth dropped Travis off he went to his room. A woman with similar features to Larry stood in his room. "Travis Phelps?" Asked the woman. Startled Travis nodded. "I'm Lisa Johnson, I was a friend of your mothers." Travis looked at his shoes at the mention of his mom. "I just cant believe someone could do such a thing to his own wife and get away with it." Travis looked up in surprise. "What?" "Well I know how horrible than man treated her, and you too, so I assumed he was the reason for her death." Travis felt tears stabbing and scratching at his water line begging to be set free. Lisa must have noticed this because she wrapped her arms around him gently. Travis noticed the sweet smell that clung to her hair. Lavender. He hesitantly wrapped his arms around her and cried. He needed to cry. He felt so bad for what he did to Sal this morning. "Sorry-" he wormed hisnway out of the hug and rubbed the tears from his face. "I never asked why you're here." Travis didn't look at her. He looked at his feet. "Oh yeah, I'm here because you're staying with me and my son. I heard him and his brother talking about you, nothing negative I promise, and of course since I knew you mother I asked your father when his next church trip would be. I offered to take care of you and he said that I should just stop by after school on weekdays and bring you diner on the weekends, but I've decided I want you to stay in my apartment. We have a pretty comfortable couch, and maybe my son, his friends, and you could all hang out." Travis looked towards her but not directly at her. "Who's your son and his brother?" Travis asked his arms gently wrapped around his stomatch. "Oh, my bad, Larry Johnson and Sal Fisher. They said you sat with them at lunch earlier in the week." Travis smiled a little bit before the nerves of staying with Larry started to act up. "Thats cool. Can we go now?" Travis said already stuffing a bag full of pajama pants and long sleeved pajama shirts. He opened his closet to grab every day clothes and paused. "Damn it." "Whats wrong?" Lisa said walking up beside him. "I'm out of long sleeve shirts." he said while grabbing some of the jeans and jean shorts thar hung in his closet and shoving them in the bag. "Dont worry, I'll buy you some new ones." Travis smiled and thanked her.

*~~~*

"Larry I'm home!" Lisa called as she held the door open for Travis. Travis had a few bags filled with new sweatshirts. Most were purple but he did throw in some electric and royal blue ones. Larry opened the door and saw Travis with all of his things standing there awkwardly. "Church boy?" Travis looked up. "Oh- hey Larry." Travis said awkwardly. "Why are you here?" "My father is out of town and so Lisa offered to take care of me for the next few months." "How many." "He said six, but I don't have to stay here the whole time." Larry smiled. "Nice. Well Sal was headed down here for a bit if you want to hang out with us." Travis smiled. He couldn't tell if Larry really hated him or tolerated him just enough, but this was good. "Thanks for keeping the door open Lisa." Sal said walking in. Lisa said your welcome and closed the door. "I'll be in my room if you guys need anything." "Sounds good!" Sal said. Lisa walked into her room and Sal turned to Travis. "Whats in the sack?" Travis looked at the bags of clothes then at Sal. "Some new clothes." Sal looked at Travis. He had one a black sweatshirt with a big white cross on it. It seemed ti be a size and a half too big. "Is that Kenneths?" Sal pointed at the shirt. "Yeah- all of mine were torn up." Travis said awkwardly. "Damn- you really like fucking up your shirts huh?" Travis jumped to his own defense flbefire he registered the joking ton in Sals words. "It's not like I want to him shread my shit!" Travis blinked as he read the confusion and concern on the others faces. "Him?" Larry and Sal said in unison. "Uh- my.. my dog! He gets really playful sometimes." "I didn't know you had a dog" Sal said confused. "Oh uh- hes not mine- hes a family from the churches. I take care of him when he shows up in my back yard." Travis felt bad for lying but he would feel worse telling them his dad had gotten bad about tearing Travis' clothes during almost every daily beating. Travis blink his way out of thought. "We were going to go up to the fifth floor if you wanted-" Sal began but was cut off by Larry, "If you wanted to stay here and get settled in!" Travis picked up on how they were hiding something but ignored it. "Yeah- I'll stay down here. You two have fun." Travis smiled a little. He didn't smile much around the group and when he did he covered his mouth. Smiling and being happy was basically illegal in his home. It had been since he was 6. Thats when he found out about Momma. That's when it started. Travis was lost in his disturbing thoughts and worries, so he didn't hear Larry and Sal leave. Travis sat on the couch beggining to worry. He wasnt supposed to be here and he knew it. What if his father had left something and found out Travis wasnt there. Travis grabbed one of the purple sweatshirts he had bought and rushed into the bathroom. He closed the door and locked it. He took his father sweatshirt off and threw it into the trashcan. He then put on the purple shirt. He liked purple. It was his mothers favorite. He missed her so much. The thought of her almost always brought him to tears. He hugged himself ignoring the pain of squeezing and pressing on his stitches. He felt safe in clothes that reminded him of people he loved. He walked into the living room and held one of the electric blue ones. He smiled and hugged it. He began to wonder. Who did this shirt remind of. It was someone he coulnt quite picture. He wrapped his arms around it. "Who do I love enough to associate the color blue to?" He thought outloud. Thats when it clicked. Sal? No no no! It couldn't be! He only hardly tolerated Sally face... who was he trying to fool? Himself? He knew he wrote that note and he knew who it was for. 'This isnt the way a boy should feel' the sound of Sal reading his words echoed through his head. He kept on whispering almost silently 'I'm not gay' over and over again. He knew it wasn't true but he refused to admit it. He shoved the blue shirt back into the sack and layed down on the couch. He closed his eyes for a second and opened them to Sal. Sal was shaking Travis. "Finally you're awake." Travis sat up in a minor panic. "What?" "Oh- sorry.. I was just wondering if you wanted to go to my appartment tonight instead. My dad has been staying with Lisa since the wedding so his room won't be occupied and his bed is alot better than a couch." Travis rubbed his right eye avoiding the black eye on his left. "Yeah- sounds good. What time is it?" "Eight pm." Sal relied looking at travis his prothsetic sitting on his face akwardly. Some his bangs were partially pulled out from under it and it seemed as if he had just put it on and in a rush. "Was your thingy off?" Travis asked not sure if that was to personal. "Yeah- it was just me and Larry and hes already seen me without it so I dont really mind taking it off around him." Travis smiled a little. He was still half asleep and not thinking properly. "Maybe you and I could be like that some day." Sal perked up more shocked than anything. "I mean- not that i care about what you like under that, I just want you to feel comfortable enough around me to take it off. Sal smiled agenst the prothsetic. He giggled and rolled his eye. "Sit up you big dummy" he said gently pushing Travis into a sitting position. He sat down right beside Travis and sat his head on his shoulder. Travis looked straight ahead his eyes wide and his face flushed. "Maybe one day." Sal said closing his eyes. Travis smiled. He smiled a huge and full smile. He fought back the excided giggle. Sal considered him to he some form of a friend. He sounded like he liked the idea of showing Travis, and Sal did. Ashley had kind of forced it and Larry saw it because the prothsetic flew off. Sal wanted to show someone he trusted by choice, although Travis wasn't someone he trusted like that yet. "Well, dinner is waiting in my appartment, lets go." Travis nodded as Sal stood up and grabbed Travis' hand. Travis stood up and followed Sal to his appartment.

*~~~*

After finishing diner Travis changed into a large purple long sleeved shirt and some black pajama pants then went into Henry's room. He awkwardly crawled into the large bed. He curled up under the blankets and drifted off the sleep. Meanwhile in Sal's room Sal was taking down his bisexual flag and gay flag. He had both since he thought he was gay before he realized he was actually bi. He folded them and tucked them into his closet. He didn't need them to feel comfortable being himself, however he didn't want Travis to see them and go full homophobe on him. After he closed his closet and changed he layed down. He couldn't sleep. Usually Gizmo slept in Sal's room with him but this time Gizmo was at the vet. Sal stood up and walked into his dads pitch black room. He tapped Travis who woke up and started to turn towards Sal. "Hm?" "Don't look!" Sal said. Travis kept his eyes closed. "You ok?" Sal gulped. "Can I sleep with you? Usually Gizmo stays in my room but he's at the vets and I'm alone and I'm not-" "yeah sure. I don't care." Travis said scooting closer to the wall. Sal curled up next to Travis who wrapped his arm around sal slowly. Sal smiled and held Travis' hand. "Sal?" "Yeah?" "Can you not tell anyone about this? It's just a friend helping the other sleep. Nothing else." Travis said. "Yeah of course. Thank you." Sal finished. "Anytime Sally Face."

(Word count 1,800+ thank you for reading my part, don't forget to vote for this chapter if you enjoy!) -Adi