When September Ends

Chapter 6: Ticking Clock

Harry had fallen asleep some point after the gathering of all of the necessary equipment for his coming flight was finished and had lain quite comfortably curled up on his side atop the expensive mattress but he was dragged back to partial wakefulness when a large warm body pressed gently against his and soft lips brushed the shell of his ear. Warm breath fanning across his skin.

"Darling," Harry burrowed deeper into the mounds of sheets and pillows to get away from Tom's baritone purr, "how did you unlock the door?"

The barest edge of danger to his otherwise smooth voice was what finally pulled him fully back to the real world. Forcing himself not to cringe away in fear, body twinging at the memory of the punishing blows which the other had delivered the last time he'd attempted to make an escape, Harry opened his eyes and raised his head slightly. Blinking sleepily at his captor while still keeping a safe distance between his face and Tom's.

"What are you talking about?" he grumbled, voice still heavily laced with his disturbed sleep. All too aware that his heart was pounding and praying that Tom couldn't feel it where their chests pressed together. "What do you mean how did I unlock the door?"

"I mean precisely what you think I mean." The older man hissed like a serpent, eyes slowly beginning to turn black again. "How. Did you. Unlock. The door?"

"I didn't unlock anything, Tom! Come to think of it, I didn't even know that you had locked me in!" Better to play it safe and act as he expected Harry Riddle-hell, anyone-would have on learning that their significant other had locked them in their bedroom from the outside. A fact which they'd prior been oblivious to. "And what the bleeding hell are you doing locking me up anyway? I'm your husband, not Rapunzel!" Smacking him in the chest with as much force as his position would allow he rolled onto his side and curled up again. "You don't trust me."

It worked like magic. Tom's eyes widened, clearing from black to their usual blue, and then his expression became one of shame. His shoulders slumped slightly and he buried his face in his hair.

"You're right, dear. You're right." He said. "I'm sorry. I really am, Harry darling, and I know I shouldn't lock you up as if you were some pet-you're not-but please believe me when I say that it's for your own safety. You're not weak-don't ever think I consider you that-but the illness and treatment has left you fragile and every time I leave I'm terrified that I'll come back to find you hurt or worse. Please forgive me."

One of his arms wound around his chest, pulling Harry somewhat unwillingly back against him. "I must have forgotten to secure the door on my way out."

"And I didn't leave, did I?" he grumbled. "So you don't need to lock the door anymore, Tom."

"Nice try, darling, but like I said your behavior is not the reason that I keep it locked remember? It's for your safety, love." He pulled him even closer still, pressing his body tighter against his own larger one. Gently trailing his hot, velvet lips down along the back of his neck. Tracing the column of his spine. "It's for my own peace of mind. And for your safety. Because I love you."

His mouth was so dry that his tongue almost glued itself to the roof of it. "I love you too, Tom." The words tasted like saw dust and something twisted deep inside him.

The brunet looked at him as if he were the second coming and beamed; a toothy bright-white grin of pure and unadulterated happiness. Knowing that he was lying to him, the sight of the expression hurt.

Why was he feeling bad for saying what circumstances forced him to? For lying to his kidnapper. The man who had torn him away from his happy life and his parents and his friends in a selfish effort to assuage his own pain. The man who was entirely out of touch with reality because of the death of the man he'd loved who just so happened to look almost identical to him. The man who had treated him so well.