The Cruciboob

What The Hale

"John?" 

"Oh! You startled me..." John had been expecting this visit ever since he found out Hale had come back to the town. Expecting, dreading, perhaps even hoping to see him again, even after all those years. Even knowing what he'd done to him. To see that smile again, it made the world around John disappear, and the walls he built crumble and fall.

"Where's the wife?"

"Out."

"You could've sent for me any time, John."

"I know--"

"I would have come running. I would have demanded the fastest coach in town and I would have run, run like the wind and still it would not have been fast enough. I would have cut down any man that stood in my path and I would have come here, to you."

"Hale--"

"Why did you not send for me?"

"Hale I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry--"

"I don't want your apologies, John. Please. Why?"

"I just couldn't, Hale, I couldn't." Oh, how good it felt to let that name roll off his tongue once again. "Hale," he murmured, "I had to think of Elizabeth."

"No, no, no. Don't do that."

"Don't do what?"

"That thing you do, when your voice goes soft and you look at me so... so tender. It hurts too much. It almost makes me feel as if-- as if--"

"As if what, Hale?"

"As if you might love me again."

"Those days are long faded and you know it."

"Then act like it. Please. It-- it makes me hope... and false hope is a cruel thing to grab hold of." Hale slumped down on an armchair and hid his head beneath his hands. John studied him carefully, this man from his past that had never truly left his mind and had since lingered in the deepest corners of his heart. He lifted Hale's face so their eyes would meet, and John's eyes bored into his lover's. He was looking for something, and he wasn't sure what. Perhaps... assurance, making sure that he was doing the right thing.

"Maybe," he said tentatively, "Maybe your hope is not ill placed."

"Oh, John..." Hale whispered, gazing back into the harsh stare of this soft man with wonder and a deep, rooted sadness, "I sent you so many letters. All it would've taken was one back, and maybe those seven dark years would have been just a little brighter.

"A word from you, John, is so much more than a word. It is a treasure, that I will keep right here." He guided John's hand to rest upon his heart. "Right here, in my chest." John's eyes never wavered, and he brought his hands up to caress the man's face as he drew ever closer to him, perched on the edge of the old armchair like a raven getting ready to fly.

"Hale," he purred, "I have made so many mistakes in my life, and I refuse to let myself make another." He slid off the chair and sat snugly in Hale's lap. "I have made you wait for far too long, and I promise you will never have to wait again. I would climb a hundred mountains and brave a million demon forests before I let myself leave you again. I let you down, but never again. Reverend John Hale..." John could feel Hale's hands were shaking against his hips, and he pulled his lover closer as to comfort him, to let him know it was okay. It was more than okay. Their faces hovered just inches away from each other and in that moment John let loose a whisper that Hale never even dared to dream he would ever hear again.

"...I love you."

Their lips collided in a mix of compassion and devotion, and in that moment everything in the world seemed to stop. After all that time, after all they'd been through, they were together again, and just as John promised he never did leave Hale's side in the years to come. 

Hale stayed by John in the village until Elizabeth passed away, when they finally fled the place to go make a life of their own somewhere out in the new country. 

They lived alone in the mountains with nothing but love to go on, and they got on quite well. 

They never looked back, they only really ever looked at each other.

John and Hale, lovers, fighters, and above all--

Witches.

Author's Note: Hoe did u think i was gonna be funny with this one oh hell to the no this is my literal OTP i ship it sO HARD OH MY SEXY JESUS also feel free to proofread lol this is such shit