Redeemer

Chapter Eleven

It was only minutes before Remington felt himself break. For the second time tonight he went to Daniel's bunk, this time with no explanation to himself. He just needed Dan.

Remington softly pulled back the curtain, only a couple of inches but enough to see Daniel.

"Hey," he said, his voice a soft raspy whisper. He couldn't meet Daniel's stare, his teary eyes burning holes into the floor "I... I'm sorry," were the only words of the long speech he could've said that made their way out of his mouth before another wave of tears choked him up.

Daniel didn't hesitate to pull the singer to his chest, whispering reassurances that in his mind didn't need to be said. Remington did nothing wrong. Remington still droned on even though Daniel couldn't hear him.

"Rem, it's okay," he soothed, saying those exact words for the seventh time in the past minute. "Hey, can you look at me for a second?" He asks while running his hand through Remington's soft hair. It was so soft when there was no product in it.

Remington finally looked at him. Daniel could se his chocolat brown eyes that still shined with tears that were still falling down the tracks on his face.

"You don't need to be sorry," Daniel said. It broke Daniel's heart seeing how guilty Remington looked, how sad his eyes were.

"I was so mean to you though," Remington cried "And now you probably hate me and I didn't want you to hate me but I fucked it up."

"No you didn't, you did nothing of the sort."

"I did though," Remington said, at this point his voice was a mere whisper.

The tension that has been so tight between them was nowhere to be found in that moment. Everything felt so raw and unfiltered yet so fragile, it felt so real. Daniel looked at Remington's shadowed features in the darkness behind the closed curtain. The way his pale skin looked. The single panel of light that illuminated his eyes. He looked so beautifully broken, and Daniel didn't know how to fix him. He held him close again, hoping to at least fix the damage he inflicted.

After what could have been several minutes passed, Remington leaned back to meet Daniel's eyes for one of the first times tonight.

"I didn't want it to just be a dare," he said in a soft tone, leaning forward and capturing Dan's slightly chapped lips for the second time in his life. The kiss was so soft, so gentle, but when they pulled away it still felt like every word that needed to be spoken was said in that kiss.

Remington moved to straddle Daniel's thighs, one knee on either side of them, leaned in for a slightly more heated kiss. The intimacy of the act was the best part, almost gratifying in the way that Daniel was finally holding Remington the way he had wanted to for upwards of a year. It was everything he wanted, it was more than he imagined. It was Heaven and Hell in the same moment, but he has an angel with him.

They pulled away again, Remington pressed his forehead to the other man's and rested there, his breathing noticeably heavier than the previous moments. Daniel felt like it was finally time to say what he had wanted to say;

"It wasn't just a dare to me."