You & I [Kier/Shane]

Chapter Twenty-four - Kier

Kier’s POV

I wasn’t going to give up on Shane, not for a second. I knew the man needed help, whether he’d accept it eventually or not in the end was unknown, but I knew I wanted to help him. I was determined to at least get Shane into the garden or out on the front porch. It’s just a matter of making him feel safe and comfortable enough around me to assist him in doing it is the problem.

Sitting myself down on the sofa one morning I turned on the TV, mug in hand. It was currently surprising quiet at this time, due to Luke, Laurence and Drew being either at work or fetching the weekly groceries, meaning I had time to watch something that wasn’t ‘Come Dine with Me’ or ‘Pointless’ and that when Shane wakes up, we’d have time alone together. Whether Shane was going to come downstairs at one point though was unknown, it was already 11am and I was yet to even greet him; I hadn’t seen him since last night when he was determined to teach me how to draw a human eye without making it look like some form of anime creature or a rotting potato on its side. It’s safe to say that my childhood dreams of becoming an artist had been shattered. It ended up with him and I getting quite a few complaints from the other residents in the house for laughing so much at my attempts at drawing; Shane was happy anyway.

It wasn’t until around two hours and four mugs of coffee later when Shane emerged from his room, hearing the soft patter of his light footsteps shuffle down the stairs and his socks rubbing against the carpet as he entered the room, still dressed in his pyjamas – that I swear are at least a size too big for him – and his A4 sketch pad in hand.

“Afternoon, Shane!” I grinned, unable to hold back my happiness at the sight of the timid blond. His mouth was covered by the paper but I could still see his dimples from behind it, causing me to giggle softly.

“M-Morning.” He mumbled, moving to curl on the sofa beside me and I felt the subtle movement of something being slid onto my lap. Looking down I saw Shane’s sketchpad, an intentional page turned onto it so I can have a look at a new drawing he must have done recently – He’d shown me all of his work the previous day.

“What’s this?” I asked, lifting the page to my eye line so I can take a more assessive look. It was what appeared to be a large skull, Helicopter blades sprouting from the top of it.

“I-I drew it this morning,” He mumbled, voice slightly muffled from his curled fist being intentionally placed in front of it. “I-I had a dream with them in.”

“It’s really imaginative.” I commented, feeling the presence of the blond closer as he shuffled towards me so out formed were touching as he looked at it too.

“I-It’s more of a cartoon type thing really.” He muttered, taking the pad from me and turning to the next page. “L-Like a swarm of Helicopter Skulls…” He commented, giggling softly at his own words; there literally was a swarm of those drawings on a single page, covering every space of white, clear paper imaginable.

“You’ll need to think of a better name for them though.” I mumbled, grinning at him to show I didn’t mean it to be cruel; he nodded in agreement anyway.

Soon after he closed his sketchpad and placed it gently on the floor at his feet, moving to rest them up on the sofa while he leant his upper form against my own, watching the TV with me. At one point he must have gotten thirsty and he slowly took the mug of coffee from my hand with a feather-like touch and drunk the last of it before returning the mug to my own hands. I didn’t say anything, even when he was giggling to himself as if he didn’t think I even noticed, because Shane was happy. I wasn’t going to do anything to rip that smile away for even a second.

“When are y-you going back?” I heard Shane ask against me, playing with my fingers while my arm was comfortingly wrapped around him – I’m not entirely sure when I started to cuddle him.

“I don’t know,” I replied honestly, chuckling at my own ridiculous answer. “I didn’t buy a return ticket.”

Shane nodded, running the pad of his thumb down one of my fingernails. “Y-You could always s-stay here, you know, like l-live here.”

I shook my head; no matter how tempting that sounded I knew I’d never get much work here. “There are better opportunities for work in America.” I replied sadly.

“B-But there are o-opportunities here t-too…” He replied, a small frown on his lips at me previous response.

“Only small ones; the bigger companies are all based where l live; if I could make a living here, believe I would have a long time ago.”

Shane reluctantly nodded, having given up the debate and accepted the fact that I was only here on a short term basis, no matter how painful that was for me too.

We went silent for a short period of time after that, appearing to be deep in thought when I glanced over at him, rather than staring at the TV and watching old reruns of ‘F.R.I.E.N.D.S’.

“W-What did you tell y-your manager when you asked h-him to come here?” He eventually spoke, a confused look on his face as he looked up at me. “I-It must have been a lie of s-some sort for him to grant you this m-much time off; you haven’t even g-got a return ticket so you might be here for a w-while.”

“I said I had an ill partner over here.” I merely replied, still slightly ashamed of my own excuse.

“S-Seriously?”  He asked in disbelief, trying to work out where that excuse came from; I was still asking myself the same question.

I nodded, releasing a light, but still nervous, chuckle. “They usually give people as long as they need so I thought I’d use it to spend some more time with you.” 
“R-Really?” He gawked, eyes unusually wide as he looked over at me, causing me to nod and giggle more. “Y-You lied t-to your manager t-to hang out w-with me? Y-You could g-get into s-serious trouble.”

“I won’t.” I confirmed confidently. “He doesn’t know or care about anyone I’m in contact with. He’ll never know if I do have a partner, let alone where they live.”

“I-I don’t understand…” Shane stuttered, refusing to turn his gaze away from me, which in turn caused by cheek to burn to a bright shade of red. “W-Why did y-you d-do that?”

“I wanted to.”

“W-Why?”

I felt as if we were going around in circles but his bright emerald eyes were gazing into my own; I didn’t really pay attention to what his lips were trying to tell me.

“I-I l-like… y-your company.” I stumbled out, controlling myself at the last minute to stop from saying something I know I would have regretted.

Shane chuckled breathily, closing his eyes and turning away, causing me to frown. I should have said something, it would have been the perfect time but I missed it. I wasn’t exactly sure what would have been the outcome anyway; Shane might not have thought along the same lines as me.

“K-Kiss m-me...” I heard in a soft whisper and my eyes shot towards a red faced blond, his hair covering the entirety of his face.

“What?” I murmured, not entirely sure that Shane did in fact speak those words or whether it was my own wishful imagination.

“K-Kiss m-me… Y-You d-did b-before a-and I-I k-know I-I f-freaked o-out b-but-”

I didn’t let him finish his nervous rambling, pushing his hair out of his eyes before cupping his cheek gently in the palm of my hands and meeting our lips for a sweet kiss.