" last night "

Chapter 22

For once, Overholt actually had something important to tell Windham. Well, important enough to drag him away from the hounds, at least.
Shockingly enough, he actually wasn't trying to train every hound there was. He was fast asleep, leaning against one of the pipes. It took him a few tries, but eventually Overholt woke him up. When he came to, he wasn't very pleased.
"Ugh—Really now? Come on, I've been awake for eighteen hours straight, you can't let a man rest a bit?"
He frowned. "It's a bit urgent, y'know. Someone wants to meet with you."
Windham pushed himself up and rubbed his eyes. "How urgent? Sleep is of utmost importance to me as of right now." He grabbed his mask, picking at the slashmark on its side.
"Trust me," the trainee insisted, "you're gonna want to talk. So I suggest you stop moping and get to the riverbank."
Before he let irritation push a snappy comment through his mouth, Windham asked, "Who wants to meet with me?"
"You'll see."
He narrowed his dark eyes at the kid, but relented and stood up.
"Alright, alright, you got me. You said riverbank, right?"
Overholt grinned and nodded. "Yessir indeed."
"Well, lead the way. Stubborn bull."
"Hey!"

*

Overholt insisted on Windham meeting this person alone, for some odd reason. He felt like he was being set up for something, and it didn't exactly make him all that comfortable. He kept his footsteps light and limbs loose in case he had to run.
Then again, it was just Overholt that told him to meet this person. The worst that could happen was a push in the river. Still, he felt uneasy.
The uneasiness quickly faded into fearful shame when he recognized Darion's familiar outline. It took everything he had in him to not run and never speak of the man again.
In fact, that's what he started to do.
Unfortunately, Darion noticed him before he could walk back up into the main streetways and managed to stop him.
Before Windham knew it, his left foot was on the first step back into the streets and his right arm was yanked back, causing him to lose his footing and fall backwards. Darion easily caught him, considering he was as light as a bird despite how tall he was. With his arm secured around Windham's waist and his hand gripping his forearm, he helped steady him back on his feet. Like that wasn't a blow to what's left of his ego.
"Hey, hey, easy. I'm not gonna bite your damn head off, okay? I just wanted to talk—"
"About what, huh? How all these months I've gotten to know you, and I did the one goddamn thing I said I wouldn't do."
Darion sighed and looked up at Windham, facing towards him. "And what might have that been?"
"The hell do you think it was? I'm so awfully infatuated with you that I—" He stopped dead, running a hand through his hair. His eyebrows were furrowed and his eyes downcast in distress.
Darion sighed. "You gotta tell me why it's making you so emotional, I never said I hated you because of it. I never even said—"
"It's not just that, okay? Look, relationships...relationships never go well with me, I've purposely avoided them since I was nineteen. I'm just..."
Darion took a step closer towards him before he sat down on an old barrel, hunched over in defeat.
"You don't have to tell me right now, okay? Just tell me why you think I'm mad at you."
After several moments of silence, Windham looked up, his eyes, dark as the night sky above him, full of sorrow. "Why wouldn't you be?"
"Because you didn't do anything wrong!" He said suddenly. "All you did was be honest with me about how you feel!"
"Which was a mistake."
Darion stared at him blankly, until his expression suddenly became a bit more aggravated. "So you think loving me was a mistake?"
"Is, not was. Is." He bit his lip nervously. "And why do you even fucking care? It's not like the feelings are requited."
At that moment, Darion felt like an absolute damn idiot. So that's why he was so worked up about it.
"Who says they aren't?" He countered, staring Windham dead in the eyes.
"You. How you reacted before, and how you're reacting now. How you're touchy-feely around a lot of other people, not just me," the overseer responded somberly. "You're just a friendly person, maybe a bit overly so. Not—Not that that's a bad thing at all!" He caught himself, making a point to avoid looking at Darion now.
Darion sighed loudly. This was going down south, and it didn't look like much could be done about it. He could feel his heart aching. To be honest, he wanted nothing more than to just tackle Windham to the ground and kiss him until they were both gasping for air.
"Alright, well— Let's say, in a hypothetical situation, none of that mattered, and I just react badly to things, and I tried hiding the fact that I love you."
Windham froze. He said love, not loved. There was nothing hypothetical about that. Either he slipped up or he's genuinely trying to tell him something.
"Continue," he eventually choked out, his voice and muscles taut with anticipation.
Darion began pacing back and forth. "And let's say I love you back, and I tell you that I love you back in the most obvious form possible. What would you do?" He stared, unblinking, waiting for Windham to respond.
He was silent for a good five seconds. "I'd be the happiest man alive, which is saying a lot."
It was getting dark, and cold. It would likely rain too, it's been a rather wet winter.
     Darion leaned against the bricking of the stairs leading into the main streetways, standing directly opposite Windham.
"Say again why you don't think I'm in love with you as well?"
Windham glared at Darion, getting a bit annoyed at this back-and-forth game with his emotions. Either Darion was really subtly trying to hint at something or he was being straight up malicious.
"Why the hell would you? I'm literal garbage."
The way Windham's lip curled in distaste when he talked about himself in that manner wiped any distant expression on Darion's face. It took everything he had to not run up to the overseer and pull him in to a tight hug.
     Everything he had clearly still wasn't enough.
     Before Windham knew what was happening, he felt a hand grab his and pull him up from the crate. He expected cold mud to the face, but instead felt a warm body against his.
     "Please, please don't say that about yourself. It hurts so much to see you like that," he mumbled against Windham's chest. "You have no idea how much I care about you, and...It just fucking hurts so much to see you put yourself down like that when you're clearly so much fucking better. I know you, Windham." He pulled away for a moment and placed both hands on either side of Windham's face, forcing him to look directly at him.
     He nearly lost it when he felt Darion run his thumb over his cheekbone.
"Why do you think I compliment you all the time? Flirt with you all the time? Besides..." Darion paused and closed his eyes briefly. "Besides the fact that I'm absolutely fucking head over heels in love with you—"
     He almost laughed when he heard Windham inhale sharply.
     "—You're the most wonderful person I've ever met, and I want you to believe that! You've experienced more pain and suffering than any ten people I've ever met. And by the Void, despite all of this, you're still one of the most compassionate people I've ever known. For fuck's sake, you saved my life. That's compassion, that's courage."
     Windham couldn't even begin to describe the emotions pummeling his mind. He could hardly think.
     "Not to mention the fact that you basically adopted a kid, Windham. You could have just left Overholt to fend for himself because that's what happened to you, but no. You gave him hope, you gave him someone to believe in." Darion smiled at him, his finger catching on one of his earrings.
     "You gave me hope, too. Hell, you are my hope. I never thought I'd get past a few drunken kisses and a one-night stand with any man, but... I met you. And I have hope."
     To say the least, Windham was speechless.
     Darion continued onward. "You've got a cold exterior, but I haven't met any overseer that doesn't. But I also haven't met any overseer that's had the ability to open up and smile and actually live a little bit. You physically brought me back from the dead, and mentally kept me going. You've done so much for me, and you haven't even batted an eye."
     Now Windham couldn't help but smile, just a little. It was difficult to believe, but Darion was being as sincere as humanly possible.
     "The night you stayed at my place, and you talked to me about Burke? That's the first time I'd ever gotten anything involving him off my chest. And I'm so glad that it was you that listened to me."
     By now his forehead was pressed against Windham's.
     "And when you were about to go to sleep, and I rolled over? Remember when I said, 'Ты мое все'?"
     Windham carefully reached up and brought his hand to Darion's, intertwining them.
"Yeah, I do. Tyvian, right?"
     "Mhm. Know what it means?"
     "Do I look like I know Tyvian?"
Darion grinned. That's the Windham he knows. "It means, 'You are my everything.' Your compassion, your hope, your selflessness," he paused, grinning, "Even your sarcasm."
     "I'm sarcastic? Astonishing."
     That made them both laugh a bit.
     "All that you are, Windham. It's everything to me."
     It was dead silent for several moments.
     Windham laughed breathlessly, exasperatedly. "I'm a goddamn idiot."
     Darion shrugged. "We both are. But you're my idiot."
     And with that, Windham wasted no time kissing him with everything he had: all the pent-up emotion, all the awkward, heart-wrenching encounters, all the love he hidden for so long that he could finally let out, everything in one breathless, passionate exchange.
     Darion didn't hesitate winding his fingers through Windham's hair and kissing back.