Chapter Fourteen

Chris felt the anger rising in his chest, but he decided not to do anything about it just yet, at least not with Ty so near. As a baby, he shouldn't have to be subjected to such sorts of negativity, especially not when it involved both of his parents having a shouting match.

Chris turned to Jonathan and tried to smile. It was weak and obviously fake, but Jonathan didn't pay it much attention. “Jay, could you take Ty back to the house for me?”

Jonathan nodded and carefully took Ty from Chris. Making sure he had a good hold on the baby, Jonathan walked away, only glancing back once to give Chris a reassuring smile.

Kirsten stared at her feet, her hood sliding back a little as her head was pulled forward. She could sense that Chris was angry, and she understood that. He had a right to be, even though she felt that if she could explain he might feel differently. But she wanted him to speak first.

“Kirsten, how the hell could you do that?” Chris eventually asked. His voice shook like he was trying to keep calm, but having immense difficulty doing so. “How could you just run away?”

Kirsten felt Chris's bright blue eyes trying to pierce through her skull and penetrate her mind, trying to find some meaning in all of this. Kirsten kept her head down.

“Did you even bother to think about Ty? Or is that why you-”

“Oh, what, you couldn't handle taking care of Ty for an entire day? Is he too much for you?” She hadn't meant to say it, and she instantly regretted lashing out when she looked up and saw the expression on Chris's face, his mouth slightly open in shock.

“I didn't say that,” he said, raising his voice a bit. “I just meant that if you had never come back, Ty would have grown up without his mother.” Then he quieted down and added, “I would love to take care of Ty more often.”

Kirsten frowned at him, hoping that he would realize she was sorry for snapping at him. “I know you would. I only did this for Ty, anyway.”

“What do you mean? What does Ty get out of not having his mum around?”

“It's just that Ty's almost always with me, and so he doesn't really know you well, does he? But at home, Devon's constantly telling him that you're awful and a bunch of other stupid stuff. I can't really stop him, especially if he says those things to him while I'm still in school. So, I figured...” Kirsten shrugged and looked off into the distance. “If I ran away, then you would have to take care of him, and he would know what a great person you are. He would be able to see that what Devon tells him isn't true. And then you have Jonny, and he'd only say good things about you, too.”

Chris stared blankly at Kirsten for a while, then shook his head. “Why couldn't you just tell someone you felt that way instead of actually leaving? Or ask me to watch Ty more, I wouldn't mind.”

“I don't know, Chris, because I'm fourteen? I don't know how to handle this stuff.”

“Maybe you should have thought about that fourteen months ago,” Chris quietly told her. Then, as if he regretted saying it, he added, “Though I guess you couldn't have known about Devon, and... whatever. You're here now, and that's all that matters. Actually I think you should go see your parents, because they are so worried about you.” Kirsten silently nodded, and Chris sighed deeply. “Kirsten?”

“Yeah?”

Chris ducked his head and in a low voice asked, “Is it all right if I watch Ty for the rest of the weekend?”

Kirsten smiled at him. “I think that would be good.”

“I'll see you tomorrow, then,” he said with a hint of excitement. He then left Kirsten, assuming that she could be trusted to return to her home while he returned to his.

Almost instantly upon Chris's arrival and the sound of the door closing, a frazzled-looking Jonathan appeared in the narrow hall separating the living room from the kitchen. In his arms was Ty, head laying against Jonathan's shoulder and eyes shut tight.

“He fell asleep,” Jonathan expressed with wide eyes. “When we got back I didn't feel like sitting down, so I walked around the house a bit, and he fell asleep while I was holding him, but then I didn't want to sit down or put him down or anything because I was afraid that he'd wake up and start crying and I had no idea when you'd be back and I wasn't sure that I could get him to stop crying if he did and he is so heavy when he's asleep!”

Chris stared at Jonathan for a few moments, trying to comprehend all of the words being thrust in his direction. He took a breath, a step forward, and said, “OK, I'll take him.”

Carefully he slipped his hands underneath Ty's arms and pulled him from Jonathan, hoisting the tiny baby over his own shoulder. Ty woke and, as Jonathan had predicted, made some noise, but, realizing that he was now being held by his father, he fell quiet again shortly thereafter.

“So, what happened?” Jonathan asked, rubbing the shoulder where Ty had just been resting.

“Come on, let's go sit down,” Chris said, nodding to the living room. They walked in and sat on the sofa as Chris had suggested, Ty already asleep once more by the time Chris began to explain. He took a few minutes to tell Jonathan everything, and when he had finished his last sentence, Penny joined their company.

“They found Kirsten-” she began, but was cut off by both boys.

“We know,” they simultaneously said, then Chris turned to Jonathan and smiled.

“Well, that must make you two the brightest and most special boys around, huh?” Penny sarcastically asked as she took a seat in one of the arm chairs in the room. “I see Ty is completely unaffected by all of this.”

Chris looked down at his son, the tiny black curls falling around his eyes, a most peaceful expression drawn on his small face.

“That's good,” Penny continued. “It's better that he's too young to understand when things like this happen.”

Chris shook his head a little, and he lightly brushed Ty's hair out of his face. “I think he understands a lot more than anyone thinks. Maybe more than anyone else understands.”

Penny did not argue with Chris; she too knew what it was like to be a parent of such a small, promising child. Not that Jonathan was a failure in any way, but she had believed when he was a baby that he would be impossibly more than he had turned out to be. Her son was fine the way he was, and she had learned to accept that her dreams were nothing more than that- just dreams, and outlandish ones at that.

The sparkle in Chris's eye as he looked down at his son, possibly imagining Ty as the world's next super-genius, continued to shine as he glanced up at Jonathan. In that moment Chris was overcome with a sense of serenity, like everything in his life was finally going right. He was spending time with his wonderful, albeit currently unconscious, son, whose mother only intended for them to get to know each other better, and sitting beside him was the loveliest boy he could have ever hoped to meet, let alone date.

And it was in that moment that the one thing that had weighed Chris down most over the past year suddenly disappeared, and he no longer cared about the loss of his parents' approval. What he had now was enough for him.

“Jay,” Chris suddenly said, “you're looking very gorgeous today.”

Jonathan blushed a little, which only made Chris smile and admire him even more. His green eyes wandered around the room for a while, then when he looked back to find Chris still staring at him, his cheeks flushed an even deeper red. “That was kinda random, but thanks.” He glanced furtively at his mother, then leaned forward and said in the lowest voice he could muster, “You look really... gorgeous, too.”

Chris gave a small laugh, and if it hadn't been for the baby in the way, he would have kissed Jonathan. Instead, he winked and saw Jonathan bite his lip as the corners of his mouth twitched upwards. And what Chris would have given then to be back in the safety of his dreams, or perhaps of Jonathan's; he had never actually heard any of the details of Jonathan's provocative dream, though he was willing to bet that it was good.

“Of course, I think you look gorgeous everyday.”

Jonny exhaled frantically and shook his head, as if those movements would remove the red that was only burning hotter on his face. He lowered his head, and Chris knew that Jonathan's embarrassment was a sign of his gratitude, and that it was most likely caused by the presence of his mother. When Chris looked over to Penny, though, he noticed that she seemed to be experiencing the same sort of drowsiness that had plagued Ty, for her eyes were closed and her head was rested upon her hand, dangerously close to slipping as her breathing evened out.

So Jonathan and Chris were alone, yet not, all at once. They could at least say whatever they wanted, though neither would for fear that one of the room's other occupants would overhear and cause a fuss. Penny was obviously more likely to do so than Ty, but either way it was a risk neither boy was willing to take.

Chris rested against the back of the sofa and just watched Jonathan breathe and generally live. It was always an amazing concept to Chris that every person had a heart of their own that beat and kept them in this world, but he thought it was even more astounding in Jonathan's case, simply because he was Jonathan, and Chris loved him.

An hour or two passed this way, and sometimes Chris would stop looking at Jonathan and Jonathan would take over, staring at Chris and marveling at his existence. Then there were times when they both looked at each other, and Jonathan sat nearer to Chris, but he couldn't grab Chris's hand or lay his arm around Chris's shoulder, so he settled for edging his foot closer to Chris's.

When Jonathan set his eyes upon Chris, he felt like he had so much to say, but he needn't actually say any of it. There was some sort of telepathy between the two boys that required nothing to be spoken, even over the span of a few hours. Everything was just thought and felt by both.

Eventually the tiredness slipped into their bodies as well, and Chris found his eyes closing on the image of Jonathan curled up against the armrest of the sofa, already gone into the world of dreams.

Then the next thing he knew it was dark in the room except for a lamp illuminated by Penny's seat, Penny leaned towards it with a book in her hands, and he looked down to find that Ty was awake as well. Ty's bright blue eyes were directed at Chris's, his tiny hand trying to grab at Chris's collar.

“Well,” Chris drowsily began, still trying to blink away the tiredness in his eyes, “there goes my Saturday, huh?”

Chris readjusted his position so that Ty was sitting, facing him, on his lap. Ty laughed at him, and made some incoherent noises.

“It's just as well, I don't think I'd have done anything more important anyway.” Beside him, Jonathan twitched, his leg hitting Chris unintentionally, but with a decent amount of force nonetheless. “Oi, do you see this?” Chris asked Ty. “Domestic abuse, I think.”

It was probably the ridiculous tone of Chris's voice that made Ty laugh a little more. Chris snapped his head and shot a look at the baby. “Oh, I'm glad you find my injuries amusing. I suppose it's best to find out now just what kind of son I have.”

Ty, oblivious, continued smiling. Chris laughed back at him, and gently kissed the top of his head. Then he turned to Jonathan, who appeared to be still curled up and sleeping as if nothing had ever happened. But Chris thought he looked really cute; he realized then that before this day he had only ever seen Jonathan conscious. It was almost like a new milestone for him.

“Aw, Ty, look at Jay sleeping,” Chris whispered. “How adorable is he?”

“Gaa,” Ty replied. It may have not actually meant anything, but Chris seemed to understand what Ty was saying.

“Yeah,” Chris agreed, his tone riddled with admiration, “he is.” Chris smiled, and at that particular moment Jonathan's eyelids fluttered and he looked around to identify where he was. He quickly realized, and as he turned his head he saw that Chris was watching him.

“That's kinda creepy, you know.” Jonathan sat himself up, stretching as much as he could given the limitations of the sofa.

“Oh, you wanna see creepy?” Chris asked, widening his eyes and leaning as close as he could to Jonathan. Then he smiled without parting his lips, and Jonathan tried to move back some.

“OK, you can stop doing that,” Jonathan told him, but Chris was not going to let that stop him. He just kept moving further and further until he had Jonathan squished up against the arm of the couch. For a few seconds he stayed perfectly still, smiling, then he moved forward one last time and kissed Jonathan square on the mouth. Then he laughed and sat back, allowing Jonathan to reposition himself as well.

“You two have to be the weirdest kids around here,” Penny said from across the room without looking up from her book. “Seriously.”

Chris thought this over for a while, his eyes wandering ponderously up to the ceiling. They were a little odd, he had to admit, though it was probably he who was the stranger of the two and usually the source of their interesting ventures.

Then suddenly Chris stood up, holding firmly onto Ty, and began to walk out of the room without so much as one word.

“Wait,” Jonathan called, “where are you going?”

“My room,” Chris replied, not looking back or stopping. As he rounded the corner and headed for the stairs, his voice carried into the room, “I have this urge to write now, and I feel that I should not ignore it.”

Jonathan sat around for a bit longer, twiddling his thumbs, then decided to join Chris. When he entered the room at the end of the hall, he found Chris sitting on his bed, Ty next to him leaning back against some pillows to help him sit up. Chris was already fervently scribbling words on a paper, but as soon as he sensed Jonathan's presence he stopped and looked up.

“Hey, Jay,” he said, and then went back to writing. Jonathan admired Chris from the doorway for a few seconds, then walked over to the edge of the bed and took a seat.

“What are you writing?” he asked.

“Something new,” Chris said. Jonathan took that to mean that Chris had only just started the story that very same day, but Jonathan noticed that there were at least three pages laying beside Chris that were filled entirely. “Wanna read what I have so far?”

“Sure.” Chris gave Jonathan the few pages and Jonathan began to read. It was, in Jonathan's opinion, much like the rest of Chris's stories- not in plot, though, but in the fantastic quality of writing. Something like pride always swelled inside of him whenever he read anything Chris wrote. It was almost as if he knew that one day Chris would make it big with his writing, and Jonathan would be extraordinarily grateful to be able to say that he was there in the days when Chris would stow away in his room and write for hours without telling anyone what he was doing.

Jonathan sat in Chris's room and read until he finally decided that he should go to bed, even though he'd taken a rather long nap earlier. He said goodnight to Chris and Ty and went off into his room. As he looked at his unmade bed, he remembered the dream he'd had the night before, and almost hoped that he didn't have another dream like that. Not that the dream hadn't been enjoyable, he just felt too uncomfortable with it during his waking hours.

But as he tried to fall asleep, he found it difficult to think of anything else except that dream, and the way it felt to be so close to Chris in a way he never had been before. Then, thinking back to what Chris had said about them not always being together, he wondered if they would ever even get to that point, if their relationship would even survive long enough for it to happen. Jonathan decided that it would.

The last thing he pictured before he finally drifted off was what his life would be like in the future; he knew Chris was right, but he couldn't help thinking what it would be like for them to stay together even when they did hit thirty, and maybe even after that. Chris was such a great person- what if the family Chris mentioned Jonathan would want was theirs? What if they ended up married in some way? Jonathan wouldn't mind that.