Better than We've Had (boyxboy)

Chapter Sixteen

I woke up with a gasp blinking my way into semi-coherency. I was on a soft surface with a blanket over me. A bed, no doubt. Looking around I realized I was in a cabin of sorts, and in the bedroom of his cabin, but not just any cabin. It was Sebastian's little cabin by the sea. Perfectly quaint as it had been when he first brought me here. It seemed strange that my heaven would be this place. Strange but fitting, this was all I wanted for my future. A place in Sebastian's future. The only thing that could make it better is if the man himself walked in the door.

As if reading my mind, there were footsteps gradually getting closer to the room I was in.

Sebastian walked into the room. My breath hitched in my throat at just how good he looked. But then, this was my afterlife, and I supposed he'd look however I wanted him to look. Never in my wildest dreams did I think he's look so amazing in farmer's garb.

"You're awake," he breathed, barely louder than a whisper. He sounded worried, as if he was afraid I'd never wake up again. Although, I'm confused, last I remembered we were thrown overboard, walked the plank, on Intrepid with our hands bound. Surely...

"Aren't we dead?" I voiced my innermost thoughts out loud for the first time. My throat was scratchy and my voice cracked from lack of use. Okay, I definitely wouldn't want to sound like that for my eternity.

Sometime in my musings, Sebastian had moved to sit beside me on the bed. He picked up my hands and caressed them gently before kissing each in turn. "We're not dead, William."

A relief coursed through me so sure and strong that I almost wept. I had not even realized throughout all the hardships that I truly did want to live. Now that I had a second chance at life I was grateful. "How?" I managed to choke out past my almost crippling emotions.

"How indeed," Sebastian mused seeming to get lost in his thoughts as he absentmindedly stroked my hands with his thumbs. "Would you like me to tell you what happened?"

I nodded, eager to hear how we survived.

"It was the night before we walked the plank...

Sebastian's POV

After I had left William in the brig, for what I hoped was the last night, I went to see my brother prepared to beg for William's safe release. For the first time ever, I knocked on the door to his cabin instead of just barging in, standing there awkwardly until he answered.

He moved aside to let me in, a resolute look to his face. Whatever he expected me to say to him, he already had an answer. Nothing I did would sway whatever master plan he had put into action.

"Please don't kill the man I love," I begged with a conviction I didn't even know I possessed.

"I won't kill him," my brother spoke the sentence as if it physically hurt him.

"You're not going to make him walk the plank?" I asked scarcely believing his words.

"Oh, he's walking the plank," I opened my mouth to argue. After all, he had just said he wouldn't kill William, yet my brother said he'd walk the plank. Those two things didn't really go together. Walking the plank did not equal living. He stopped my protests before they even had a chance to leave my mouth, "And you'll walk it with him."

I couldn't believe his words. "So, that's your solution? Kill both of us? You're disgusting."

"Sebastian," my brother growled out getting annoyed with my words, "I already told you, nobody's dying."

"I don't understand."

"Then shut up and let me explain what's going to happen tomorrow," my brother snapped with an upward turn his lip. "I'm actually surprised you didn't notice it."