Comfort

Can you please come and get me?

Gray was furious. He couldn't begin to describe just how angry he was. A Friday night he could've spent comfortably in his own home either studying, reading, or watching a movie with his boyfriend was wasted. Honestly, his options were endless. He could've been doing anything else. Yet here he was. Storming his way out of a night club Ben had begged him to come to. In all honesty, it wouldn't have been too bad if he had actually stayed with Ben, but Alex had wandered off and his tall, strong friend followed diligently.

He wished Stephen had come, but Stephen's legs weren't as good as they used to be and since he went over the edge he couldn't move as well. More often than not, he would need help getting up stairs, or he would need to lean against something when standing for too long. A painful reminder of what Gray had been unable to protect, unable to save, and unable to keep. He shook his head quickly as if that would magically make his thoughts go away.

It didn't work.

They still rushed at him.

But the sight of the door, black and sleek and practically glowing in angelic light, though that might have been his imagination, stood about 6 feel away from him. He could've cried from joy. Less than a lying Gerard away was his freedom. Yet, he wasn't moving closer. In fact he was moving farther away. It took him a moment, in his anxiety riddled brain, to understand why. Understand that the hand gripping his arm was beginning to hurt, and he didn't know whos hand it was. Understand that among the anxiety was fear settling in his chest and brain.

He watched as dark eyes met his, darker than any he had known, and realized that there was nothing about him that stood out. Dark hair, dark eyes, dark clothes, plain face, and absolutely nothing that caught his eye. Those same dark eyes turned to slits as he tried to yank his arm away, and his hand dug deeper into his arm. It wasn't until Gray's eyes started darting around did the guy pick up his leisurely pace. That was when true panic began to set in. Soon they passed the bar, and the bathroom door was flung open.

As Gray took a closer look, determined to find some way out of whatever this man was trying to do, he noticed his dark eyes, the only thing that really seemed to be different about him, were only so dark because of pupil dilation. Gray searched his mind, trying to figure out what drug caused the worst dilation, when this man finally got tired of just staring.

"You look... just like her...." Said the man, his voice young yet cracking and gravelly. "It must be her, just some weird trick." Gray inched back as this guy took a step closer. "They told me she was dead, everyone said she was gone, but she couldn't be! She has to be here, be alive, or something!"

Gray wanted to scream. He had no idea what this fool was talking about, who the she was, or who he supposedly looked like. All he knew was this was a fear he hadn't felt in a long time. Something in him told him to run. And that's just what he did. The second there was a gap, a stumble on the high man's part, he ran. He ran and flung open the door only to run into someone's chest. The impact was hard enough for him to fall on his ass and to grasp his nose which took the brunt of the hit. It also didn't help that whoever he had hit was muscular enough for his chest to be hard as a rock.

"Woah, I'm sorry!" The voice, sounding rather familiar, laughed out. "I didn't see-," the voice paused, "Gray?"

The silverette looked up, only to meet brown eyes looking back at him from behind messy auburn hair. "Ben."

"Sorry 'bout that man, don't know what's gotten into her lately." The man, still in the bathroom, called out. "We just came in for some fun, if ya catch my drift. Think you coulf find a different bathroom?"

Gray was on his feet in a flash as his blood ran cold and his veins turned to stone. Shoving Ben out of the way, he would apologize later, he was out the door. He wasn't sure where he was in the club, where the exit was, or, to be honest, where anything was, but he was scared. He had plans. That strange man... he wanted....

Gray cut his thoughts short as he saw the door across the sea of moving bodies. Thankfully, it was late enough for most people to have blacked out or just left and he could easily make his way out the door and into the nearly empty street.

The night was cold, they always seemed to be now that autumn was nearly gone and winters cold grasp had taken over, and it was welcomed. Blood was rushing in his ears, and it was making it hard to hear his own thoughts. He was scared, tired, and alone. Any anger toward Ben had diminished and only gratitude was left though somewhere in his mind he heard a voice reminding him that he was only there, and alone, because of Ben. Thankfully for Ben, his need for air pushed those little thoughts out of his head if only for a short while.

As his breathing slowed and the cold sunk is claws of ice into his chest, he began to walk back to his apartment. He didn't want to go back since his home would be empty and cold just like the streets he walked currently. It would've been warmer, his apartment that is, if he had been there keeping an eye on the thermostat and plugging in his portable heater whenever he would begin to shake under his blankets. Instead, he was clutching his arms, only protected by the white button up he wore, trudging along the quietly, buzzing city bumping into people who were just as cold as him.

He was only two blocks away from the club before his fingers went numb. It was around then that his phone rung. He almost didn't hear it over the chattering of his own teeth, but the buzzing in his back pocket caught enough of his attention to force him to pull out his phone and check the caller ID. If he had thought logically, he could've come to multiple he different answers on who it was, but instead he was only confused at who it could be.

"Stephen"

He looked at the screen for only a moment, admiring the lack of his last name and the picture of his boyfriend smiling at him, before swiping his frozen finger across the green button in the corner and placing the phone by his ear.

"Hello?"

"Hey! I know you're hanging out with the guys, but I want to let you know that I was on my way to your apartment. I'll be there whenever you... get back..." Stephen paused for a moment. "You're breathing like your sick. Are you alright?"

"Y-yeah, I'm fine. I'll be back around th-the time you get the-there."

"What?" Stephen's voice was confused. "You guys are heading back already?"

"No," Gray inhaled slowly, "it's just me."

"What happened?"

"I just wanted to come home. "

Stephen was quiet for a moment, an unusually long moment, as if he was trying to figure out just the right way to say what he was thinking. Stephen had always been deliberate in speaking, and he never wanted to hurt anyone with unnecessarily harsh words. It was one of the many things Gray loved about Stephen, but his silence was reminding Gray of the ache in his arm due to the forming bruise and the real reason he was waking, alone, at an unholy hour of the night in the cold.

"Can you please come and get me?" Gray's voice cracked as tears filled his eyes. "P-please?"

"Of course of course. Where are you? Are you safe?" Stephen paused, his breathing becoming harsher through the phone. "Are you warm enough? I can go get a spare jacket, I'm not super far from my house and-"

"I'm fine! I'm warm enough! Please just hurry.  I-" Gray's body shuddered, "I just don't wanna be alone."

"Okay I, ah shoot, I'm on my way. Just stay where your are okay?" Stephen's phone jostled a little, the speaker rubbing against his face. "Do you want me to stay on the phone?"

"Please."

"Alright."

They continued to talk for the next 15 minutes it took for Stephen to find Gray. When Gray saw his boyfriend, legs stiff from the braces that curled around them and hands clasping the supports the doctors had given him, his frozen legs moved quickly toward him into warm, open arms. For Gray, it had been a long, uncomfortable, anxious night and this, being held tightly by someone who made him feel safe, was all he needed. It didnt make the problem go away, but it sure hell made it easier to face whenever that time came about.

"I'm here."

"I know."

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