The Majesty of Choice

Trio

"Come on, Patrick. Time to wake up," Gerard whispers hurriedly, shaking him awake against every muscle in his body telling him to stay asleep. Patrick woefully blinks his eyes, sleep clouding them, and groans when he remembers where he is. He's in some virtual strangers upsettingly lonely little house, far from home, and on an adventure that he may very well die from. He just wants to be home where the only thing he has to worry about is the constant smell of candle wax. This fear was mostly to do with living above a candle store, and the thing about candles is that they tend to burn. And his house had almost burned down one before. He misses the days when his only real threat was that he might burn alive in his sleep.

"Now?" Patrick groans.

"Yes, now," Gerard says, hushing him. "Before Pete wakes up."

"What? I thought he was... is he not coming with?"

"I don't want to get him killed," Gerard says.

"But you're alright with getting me killed?" Patrick says, grumpy in the morning and wishing he were waking up in his own room rather than this place. And several hours later.

"I don't want to get a stranger who doesn't know that he's agreeing to die. You agreed, that's on you," Gerard says.

"Ugh, fine," Patrick sighs, pulling himself up and stretching before Gerard's already trying to hurry him up.

"Will you quit it?" Patrick says, "I'll be ready in a moment."

Gerard makes a disappointed sound, ignoring the sound of his stomach groaning. He may have accepted Pete's kindness as far as a roof, but there's no way he wants to be the bitch who steals food. He'd never allow himself to be that kind of person, no matter how low on supplies they are.

Gerard looks over at Pete, he's fallen asleep in a chair on the other side of the room, looking perfectly ignorant of the fact that Gerard's somewhat betraying his trust. To be fair, Gerard never promised Pete that he could come with, but he certainly never agreed to allow him to come either. If he sneaks away now, he won't have to face the awkward situation of having to tell Pete that he's not invited. He doesn't like confrontation, especially not with someone whose been so kind to him thus far.

Gerard only brought so many provisions, but he concedes that they'll have to skip any sort of breakfast. They'll have to ration what little food he brought with him, and only if they run out will they think about buying more.

"You ready?" Gerard asks after a minute, glancing over at Pete once again, careful not to wake him.

"I suppose," Patrick shrugs, not looking entirely happy about being awake, or being here, or really happy at all. He doesn't look angry though, and that's what matters. Gerard doesn't like him being upset, but he'd feel awful if he'd pissed Patrick off. All he wants is to make amends for what he said to Patrick only yesterday.

In a way, this whole trip is for Patrick, or at least triggered by what Gerard was forced to say to him. Gerard's lived his whole life settling with what he's been forced to do and it took pushing Patrick away to make him realize that it has to end. Gerard would rather find himself killed than to have to say anything like that to the guy he cares the most about out of almost everyone. Hurting Patrick is the last thing he ever wants to do.

It's ironic then of course that he's bringing Patrick with him to take back the curse because he might very well get Patrick hurt which is exactly what he doesn't want, but Gerard can't deny that he's a coward when it comes to being on his own. He claims he doesn't need anyone and he hates all the people in his town, but that doesn't change that he's still so afraid of being out there on his own without anyone there to help if something were to happen. What if Gerard gets his foot stuck in a fox trap? What if he meets an ogre? Gerard would easily be dead in either of those situations if he didn't have company, and Patrick's the only company he could ever consider.