After Lover for Pay: ONESHOTS

Scar Tissue Pt2

Dark circles hung like thick shadows under Henry's brown eyes. Morning had arrived faster than he could remember time passing, and as he lay there in Daniel's bed, the other boy was still clinging to him as he had been the entire night. They hadn't stayed awake the whole time like he planned they would, but he hadn't been able to close his eyes for longer than a couple minutes either, woken up several times throughout the night by haunting memories he couldn't get rid of.

He had one arm around Daniel as he slept, his other behind his head until the boy beside him began to stir. A hand reached or him and touched down his cheek, Daniel leaning over to press a loving kiss against his upper jawline. After one more kiss, Daniel kept his groggy voice low, and said, "Are you feeling better?"

Henry sat up, rustling the back of his black hair. He was still very much shaken by almost being in another accident, and with how fast he and the other driver had been going, he knew for a fact he wouldn't have made it out alive like last time. He touched a hand at his chest, fingering the healed lesion running down the side of his ribcage. When he was younger, naïve, he hadn't taken into full account what this scar meant to him. It was a reminder of that time, a reminder that his life could have ended years ago, and although he was glad that's all it was, he wanted it gone. Henry didn't want to look at it anymore.

Smoothing his thumb over the six inch scar going down the side of his bare chest, Henry said, "I was almost hit. Last night when I was on my way here, some idiot was driving on the wrong side of the highway. I swerved out of the way just in time, but if I hadn't looked up when I did, I don't think I'd be sitting here with you."

"Oh, Henry," Daniel spoke softly, he sat up as well and brought the boy's hand away from the scar. "I'm so sorry you had to go through that again." Worried for his lover and best friend, Daniel said, "Is there anything at all I can do for you? If you want to, we can skip class and just stay here."

"As much as I would like that, I probably shouldn't risk having my GPA drop any lower. Besides, I still have those papers that are due in my first class, and I should probably get started on finishing those before we leave." Henry finally looked over at Daniel, seeing the fervor the boy had spoken of the night before. "Aren't you still going to tell me," he asked then. "You said that you would."

Unsure of what Henry was talking about for a second, Daniel knitted his brow in thought, running through their conversations from last before realizing what he was referring to. Smiling lightly with flushed cheeks, Daniel pressed his lips to Henry's shoulder before then kissing his cheek. When he turned the boy's face to meet his lips, Daniel said, "I love you, Henry Dawncraft, and you will always be my best friend. So I suggest you get used to having me around for a really, really long time."

Trying his hardest to shove the incident from the previous night away, Henry allowed a heartening smile rest on his lips before meeting Daniel's again. "You have morning breath, but I love you, too."

As Daniel attacked him playfully with a gentle shove and a round of kisses all over his face, Henry almost couldn't believe he'd said what he had. He would never deny that he was in love with Daniel, more like deeply, but to think of himself as the kid he'd been growing up, the idea of falling in love with someone was a bizarre notion. But right now he couldn't imagine falling head over heels for anyone that wasn't Daniel. When he was younger, he'd had crushes on people before, girls more than anything, but to think the one person he felt destined to match up with had been by his side for nearly half his life...it was dreamlike...falling in love with the person who already knew everything there was to know about him. In a way, Henry preferred it that way. There was no worrying about if they'd click, because they already did. Always did. The only thing Henry was sure he hadn't known about Daniel through their entire friendship, was that the other boy was pansexual.