Blending Into Gray

Chapter 17

As we walked back to the house, Roman and I were silent.

His emotions were a little jumbled, but still as loud and heartfelt as usual.

There was a tinge of something deep down, possibly a type of fondness, though he kept shoving it away.

I chortled aloud at his attempt to deal with his emotions.

"What?"

His question was genuine, but also concerned.

"Nothing," I replied, a smile on my face.

"It's just that you're so caught up in your emotions that you nearly walked into that tree."

He looked up to see that he had, in fact, been right near a tree.

He stepped to the side, a little closer to where I was walking, and resumed the path with me.

"Asshole," he muttered.

I snickered.

"No, I would've been an asshole if I'd have let you run into it. Or just didn't say anything."

Still, his emotions were back, the fondness appearing more frequently whenever I talked to him.

I'm sure I'm imagining it.

The remainder of the walk was quiet, with me occasionally making sure he didn't run into any rocks or some other shit.

As I walked into the house, I noticed my dad standing at the counter.

"Hey, dad!"

His emotions were distracted, and a little upset. When he realized it was me who spoke, his gaze shot up quickly.

"Hey, son," he gave me a strained smile.

"Why don't you and Roman go upstairs for a bit? I was thinking of making dinner, do you want anything in particular?"

Roman shook his head, but I realized what my dad was doing.

You can't hide deflection from me, dad.

Still, I did as he asked, taking Roman upstairs with me.

We both sat side by side on the bed, mostly quiet.

Once I reached back to pull my hair tie out and fix it, and I saw Roman watching me.

"What? Wish you had long hair?"

I grinned, teasing, and he shoved me with his shoulder.

"No, dumbass. Only thinking that it would get in the way if you were fighting."

I chuckled, even as his embarrassment remained.

"Well I did fine with it earlier, didn't I? And any other time we've actually fought. That was mostly once, but still."

He shrugged, not having any other remarks, but grinned cheekily.

His face was tinted a bit, but I had caught him watching me, so it was likely that he was ruffled to be called out.

After a minute or two, the embarrassment of his receded, but the fondness remained.

Why?

It's like every time I look over at him he just -

Oh.

Shit.

I did indeed look over at him, noticing that he had turned away, the fondness bleeding into what it could very well actually be.