The Death Of Me {Jamilton}

Even When I'm Cold, Don't Leave Me Alone

{A/N: Holy crap, I am in awe that this book has reached almost 250 reads, I never thought I'd get past 100! Thank you all so much for reading, and please continue to enjoy :)}

{Thomas's POV}

It'd been a couple of days since Alex had temporarily moved in, we went back to his cousin's apartment once to pack some stuff up, the rest we gave the okay to dump or donate. I was laid on my bed, staring up at the ceiling, it was the middle of the night yet I couldn't sleep, I kept feeling like I'd forgotten something, but I knew I wasn't. Was my brain simply playing tricks on me?  Probably.

I shut my eyes again, trying to get myself to just forget about my unfounded worries and just get some well-needed rest when I heard quiet cries. I sat right back up, grabbing my phone and unplugging it from its charger, turning on the flashlight, sweeping it across the room, and I noticed movement from where Alex was laying, he'd been set up with several blankets and a pillow, along with a little stuffed lion that he'd told me he'd had since he was a young child.

"Alex?" I whispered, not wanting to get all the way up from my bed, I was really comfortable, so sitting up was about as close to standing as I wanted to get.

Alex sat up quickly when he heard me and glanced around, wiping his eyes with his arm, he seemed surprised to have heard me, but then again it was around one in the morning, he probably thought I was asleep.

"... Thomas?"

"Yeah, are you okay?"

"It's—" He paused to sniffle, "—shit, it's nothing... Sorry..."

"Liar."

"... Excuse me?"

"Get over here, come on."

He seemed confused, but after a moment stood up, his little stuffed lion held in one arm, and he walked over to my bed, "What is it?.. I-I'm fine... Really..."

I looked at him as best I could without just straight-up shining my phone flashlight in his eyes and blinding him, "You were crying..." I mumbled, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing..."

"Alex."

"It's nothing..."

"Alex!" I whisper yelled, I didn't need to wake up the rest of the house after all.

"... Fine... What isn't wrong? Tom... Christmas is in a week... I've never spent Christmas without my family..."

A frown formed on my face, and I patted a hand on my bed, signaling him to sit down, which given his stubborn nature it was almost surprising that he did. When he did though, I wrapped my arm around his shoulders.

"I'm sorry... I know I'm not much of a replacement at all, but I'll be with you." An idea suddenly sparked, well, two actually, but only one of them I wanted to bring up right now, "Most places are closed on Christmas, but maybe a day or two after we could go around town and we could go places your mom wanted to go... If there are any places you know of that is..."

"Really?" He looked at me with those round soft eyes, he seemed so vulnerable, it was a huge change from when I first met him, but it was nice.

"Yeah, really." I glanced down at the bed a moment then returned my gaze to him, "Why don't you just sleep here tonight? I'm sure it's more comfortable than a pile of blankets on the ground."

His eyes widened at the suggestion, "A-are you sure? I'm okay with the make-shift bed... You don't have to–"

"I'm sure. Look, I'm not kissing you again unless I'm sure it's okay with you, but if it isn't obvious, I like you, Alex, I like you a lot, and I want you to be comfortable."