d r e a m b o y | t. russell

10: b e t t e r

     Raymond's eyes immediately shot open and he lifted his head to look at Ty, who he had assumed was only sleeping. The calm, grey gaze was met with Raymond's aggressive, raging, orange one.

"What?" Raymond's harsh tone faltered, he was shocked, scared, confused, all at the same time. Ty gave a sheepish smile.

"You heard me." Ty replied, his tone exhausted, sleepy. He had previously gotten up to use the restroom and it had only been around ten minutes later that Raymond woke up. He was on the brink of falling back asleep when Raymond touched his face and heard the words he had always hoped to hear, but never believed he would.

At Ty's reply, it seemed that Raymond was still too surprised to even say anything back. But in all honesty, Ty had been the same exact way, he had only pulled it off because he was still deemed asleep at the time. After for what seemed too long, Raymond's face broke into a smile, it was slight, but Ty could see all of the emotions held behind it. Raymond shuffled to sit up as Ty did the same, they faced each other.

"You're not fucking with me? 'Cause you know I'd kill you if you were." Raymond still didn't find it believable. Ty shook his head and laughed, before wrapping his arms around Raymond's waist and pulling him closer, into a hug.

"Why would I lie to you about this?" Ty rested his head in the crook of Raymond's neck. Raymond sighed and wrapped his arms around Ty, returning the hug, he felt tears threatening to spill from his eyes. It all felt too good to be true to both of them, and they both knew that it was in fact, too good to be true, because they both thought that it was only a dream.

Then the floodgates opened, and Raymond released all the pressure and terrible, rotting, painful emotions. He hugged Ty closer, he could feel all of the emotions radiating from Raymond.

"Why are you crying?" He asked softly, as if his voice could shatter him into more pieces than what he already was. Raymond nuzzled his face further into Ty's shoulder, his cheek resting on his neck.

"I'm—I'm so sorry...." his voice shook. 'Why is he sorry? What is he sorry for?' Ty could sense that it was something else, straying away from their previous, brief conversation.

"Why are you sorry? You have nothing to apologize for..." Ty ran his fingers up and down his back, vertically, then in circles, tracing a random pattern. Raymond stayed quiet, apart from the sniffles and uneven breaths.

"It's just—I feel like I've always just been a terrible person, not only to you, but to everyone..." His grip loosened around Ty's body. "And you deserve so much better, so much better. With everything that has happened to you, what you have to deal with—" Ty interrupted.

"Don't you ever think that I deserve better, because in my eyes, there is no one better I could ever ask for. You are perfect to me, even your attitude and vulgar language." At this point, Raymond wasn't sure how his brain could even come up with this shit anymore, because in that moment, he felt like everything was going to be okay, no matter what happened; even though he was painfully aware that this was only a dream, his imagination, his brain's escape from reality.

Ty knew he had succeeded in making Raymond believe it was the truth, because it was, and he could feel Raymond's muscles relax as he slumped into Ty's grasp. An hour or so had passed, yet it felt like barely any time had passed at all. Ty was fiddling with the loose pieces of hair that fell from the two braids along Raymond's head. He smiled, remembering the almost domestic feeling of that moment.

"I like you~" Ty said in a mocking tone, an attempt to lighten the mood a bit, it was still too gloomy in his opinion.

"Tch." Raymond scoffed. "Damn right." He lifted his head from Ty's shoulder, giving him a slight smirk. Ty saw how his eyes flickered from their gaze set on his eyes down to his lips, a light pink dusting his pale complexion. He then felt his own face heat up.

{A/N: aaaand the chapter ends right here. Yep, sorry. This chapter was typed (and not finished) back in January of 2020, I apologize for never finishing it. A lot of shit has gone down this year and this story completely left my mind. Reading over my story now, I cringe at some of the older chapters. Anyway, I may find some motivation to pick this story back up, obviously I can't just leave it here. So maybe expect another couple of chapters in the future?}