The way Harrison told the story reminded Syx that the other blue man was a dad. He listened quietly as Harrison spoke, slowly stirring to rub his head against the other man. In many ways he was everything Syx hated. A powerful and rich man with more money then was reasonable. Yet his heart hurt for him. It sounded lonely. Lonelier then Syx’s life even with the long stays in solitary and the hard cruelty of his early years. The Blues were family and good to him.
He didn’t speak, but instead pressed a kiss to Harrison’s neck before lifting his head again enough to put their foreheads together, focusing on love and trust. He’d bared himself to this man and hadn’t been hurt. His arms were a safe place. He hoped Harrison could feel the same.
“One day the blue man moved to Metro City and met a hero. He was funny and sweet and bashful and an alien just like him. He’d never met another alien before, unlike the other blue men he would meet. The hero wanted to take things slow and that was new for the blue man. But they went to dinner and the hero took him flying and gave him sweet hopeful kisses. So the blue man let himself believe that maybe this time, things would be different.” Harrison could feel his eyes getting a bit moist, but he blinked it away.
“Until one day, one of those one night stands showed up on his door and told him that she was pregnant. The blue man didn’t know what to do. He had a wonderful hero who he was starting to fall in love with, but a child would mean he wasn’t the last of his kind any more. The more understanding the hero was, the more the blue man felt like he didn’t deserve him. So he broke up with him in the worst way, over the phone, because he was a coward. He knew it was only a matter of time before the hero left him anyway and this way, he could save himself future hurt using his baby as an excuse. He tried so very hard to be happy with this woman and their coming child…. until one day she miscarried. And then he was even more alone.”
“He started to drink. She left. He drank some more. And one night he was drunk standing out on the terrace of this ridiculously overpriced 26th floor penthouse and all he could think about was what he had lost. He’d had love and he’d thrown it away. He’d had a child but now that was gone. And now all he wanted to do was fly one last time.”
Syx knew the story ended happily, he knew it did, he’d already seen the baby photos. Oh he felt that pain though. Knew so very much what it was to feel like you didn’t deserve your happiness and push people away. He wrapped his arms around Harrison, pulling the man tightly against him, rubbing their foreheads together as had been done to him earlier, “It hurts. Oh god I know.”
Pressing soft kisses to his forehead Syx asked, “Why did he stop?”
He hadn’t, when it had been him in that state of mind. The only reason he was alive was because Warden found him, laying in his own blood. He’d been so close to death. But there was no way the man in his arms would have survived that fall, blue or not.
RP backup 