L'aire (BoyxBoy) (Watty's 2018)

Thirteen

'Single quote' = signing

"Double Quote"= speaking

Bold = writing/typing

Italics = native language

The next few weeks passed relatively peacefully. Dominic's mom absolutely adored Sky and made it her goal to teach both herself and her husband how to sign. When he first came to this world he would have found the gesture sweet but unnecessary, but spending so much time around people who don't sign has made him understand just how hard communication can be. Sure he can read lips, but no one can understand what he's saying. He was only able to learn how to speak his home language because of his brothers, and they weren't around to help teach him to speak English. It made him happy that he was being accepted by his partner's family, but he was starting to realize just how much he missed his own. At home he felt suffocated by the love of his family, but now he found himself daydreaming about swimming in the lake near their home and eating his own mother's cooking. All he had now was Arika, and she wasn't exactly the picture of familial affection.

To assuage his homesickness, Sky found himself spending more and more time with the Silver-Lakens. He cut down his breakfasts with Chris to Monday and Friday and he ate two dinners a week at Dom's family home. One of those dinners included Aiden and his family, all of which had slowly started to warm up to Sky's presence. Grey no longer seemed to hate him, he mostly pretended he just wasn't there. Sky tried almost desperately to connect to the people in his new life without overwhelming himself with the amount of social interactions, but he found that he was slowly needing more time to himself while simultaneously craving the affection he can only get from family.

'Sky, why don't you just call your family?' Dom asked on a particularly stressful day. Sky felt the worst he had so far, and it was taking a toll on everyone. His control of the atmosphere is greatly affected by strong emotional states, so the entire city had been plagued by wind storms as a result of his growing anxiety. He felt badly for the people of the city who had to deal with it, but more than anything he felt hated that his partner had to feel even a fraction of his affliction. He leaned back against Dom's bed and signed.

'And say what? "I'm sorry I ran away and haven't spoken to anyone in over a year, but I really miss you guys so do you think you could find a way to travel to a different world and come visit me? I can't come to you because I've enrolled in college and basically have gotten married." I don't think that would go over very well.'

'Baby I don't think they're going to be mad at you or anything, they probably miss you just as much as you miss them.' Logically he knew that was probably true, but he couldn't help his uneasiness.

'I don't think they'll be mad either, but my parents would probably cry and my brothers would interrogate me about you and as much as I miss them I just don't think I'm ready to deal with all of that.' Dom nodded

'You know that I'll support whatever decision you make. I love you Sky and I just want you to be happy.' Despite all of the negative feelings growing inside him, Sky smiled wide and felt his heart swell.

'I love you too, so much' Dom returned his smile, pulling him in close and pressing his lips hard against his partner's. Sky returned the kiss with just as much passion, and wrapped his arms around his love.

This was the first time either of them had said they loved each other outright. They showed it in the ways that they interacted and how they supported each other, but neither of them had spoken that particular word. That night as they laid in bed, Sky decided was going to use the glass to call his parents the next day. It didn't feel fair to him that he regularly spent time with his partner's parents and his didn't even know that he had someone in his life, let alone someone that he loved and had committed his life to. He owed it to them after everything he'd put them through to come clean about the most important person in his new life. Saturday night after dinner with Arika, he finally steeled himself and hid away in her guest room to contact his parents.