An Argument Under The Stars
"Things smell good in here…"
"Thanks." Bryan smiled widely. "I got some recipes from Kai's attic, he had a ton of crap up there from his mom. Some kind of fancy soup, an even fancier main meal, and a pudding-cake thing for desert." he explained as articulately as he could. Truth be told he had no idea what his friend had prepared – only that he had to take it off the stove in half an hour.
"Sounds…interesting. Bry, are you sure you know what you're doing in here?" Tala asked with a frown as he lifted the lid on one of the pots to have a look inside.
"Yes, I do." Bryan insisted, wrapping his arm around Tala's waist to pull him away from the stovetop. The redhead suddenly yelped in pain though and Bryan instantly dropped his arm.
"Oh shit, Tala I'm so sorry." Bryan apologized vehemently when he realized what he'd done…
Tala's face was contorted in pain and he placed a hand on his abdomen where his friend had accidently grabbed him. "It's fine…" Tala groaned out through clenched teeth and casually moved away from the other, still holding onto both his wound and the counter for support. "I'm just going to go and sit down. Get me when dinner is ready."
Bryan was silently ecstatic that his dinner had turned out flawless. He was even more determined to make sure it was perfect considering he had inadvertently caused Tala so much pain earlier. The other ate almost everything and had praised his friend excessively once they were both done with the meal. Bryan cleared the plates and set them on the sink for him to clean up later, even though he knew it would most likely be Tala who would end up doing the washing up again. Although he had the intention of doing everything for the boy for the next few weeks, when it came to keeping the whole house clean, it was hard to make Tala stay put.
After dinner the couple retired to the balcony, where they reclined in a papasan chair under the stars. Tala sat on Bryan's lap with a blanket over his legs to keep him warm. His head was resting in the crook of Bryan's neck, and the younger blader had one arm draped over Tala's ribs and the other resting on his thigh. They both silently stared up at the clear sky, Bryan enjoying a beer whilst Tala just rested quietly in his arms.
"This is nice." Tala whispered, closing his eyes and relaxing further into Bryan's chest.
Bryan hummed in agreement, taking the last sip of his beer before setting it aside altogether since the alcoholic smell had been tempting to the redhead who couldn't have any because of medication, giving Tala a gentle squeeze of affection and gazed up at the stars contently. Carefully he slid his hands up under the hem of Tala's shirt and peeled back the layer of fabric so he could examine the creamy flesh of his friend's slender stomach.
Tala frowned uncomfortably. "Don't look at it." he whined and tried to squirm away self-consciously. The raised scar was a few centimeters in length, a terrible bright red in color and had ugly black stitches sticking out of it like painful spikes. It ran along his lower abdomen before sliding beneath the waist of his pants. "Please, Bryan. It's hideous." He grabbed the his hands and tried to pry them away but Bryan was too persistent and he'd become scared that Bryan's hand would recoil and hit him in the stomach.
"Shut up, it isn't." he grumbled, holding Tala's hands aside so he could inspect the wound curiously without any further interruptions. "It's just something I don't normally see on you." Although admittedly Bryan would have preferred it were it not there, he did not find it as repulsive as the young singer did. Gingerly, he traced his index finger in a circle around the wound, feeling Tala's skin quiver underneath his touch.
"Stop it, Bry, please?"
"Am I hurting you?" He asked but Tala shook his head.
"No. It just feels strange." He whimpered and buried his face deeper in his neck.
The younger boy smiled gently, continuing for a little while longer. He ceased his gentle caress of his lover's abdomen when he felt his body jerk away a little, but continued to stare at it curiously. "It's amazing how one tiny thing could have killed you." he mused softly.
"It's pretty extreme for someone to die from appendicitis, Bry." Tala said bluntly. He pulled his shirt down so he no longer had to think of the mark on his stomach and he rolled over slightly so he could snuggle into his lover's chest.
"Even so," the younger man started, "I can't imagine what I would have done if you had." Bryan moved his hand up to cup Tala's shoulder, thumb caressing it slowly as he stared up at the sky. "But I guess in a way I'm grateful. Had this not happened I never would have realized just how much you actually mean to me."
"You don't know what you've got till it's gone." the older man quoted sleepily, nuzzling his cheek into Bryan's shirt, taking a deep inhale of his distinct scent. "I knew you cared about me anyways so it doesn't matter."
He smiled weakly and lowered himself back down onto his friend's chest and Bryan carefully pulled the blanket over his shoulders. "Are you still cold?" He asked.
"No," Tala whispered, "Your body's so warm."
Bryan said nothing and just smiled, shifting slightly in order to get comfortable, but not so much that he would disturb or make Tala feel too uncomfortable. He noticed the deepening of the Tala's breath and was pleased that he was once again resting. He suddenly remembered that he'd forgotten to get Tala his second dose of pain medication and he wondered for a moment if he should go get it but decided it best to just let him sleep for now. It obviously wasn't bothering him too much, and if it was, he probably wasn't letting it show because he didn't want the medication anyway.
Stroking the soft skin of Tala's arms gently, Bryan cupped his other hand over Tala's, which clung to his shirt desperately. The redhead had a habit of grasping onto Bryan's shirt whilst he slept against his chest and Bryan found this to be the most endearing of his cute mannerisms.
"Bry?" Tala mumbled drowsily, wiping hard at his eyes.
"What is it sweetie?"
"You didn't cook dinner, did you?" He asked with a smirk.
"Of course I did." Bryan answered, his voice full of hurt.
"I'll bet anything that you didn't."
Bryan chose to give in there and then, he hadn't really thought he could fool Tala for very long to begin with, "What tipped you off?"
"For starters, you barely being able to tell the ingredients of the food. Then there was the thought that you actually baked a cake and the final, most important point, the food didn't make me sick." Tala lifted his head a little, being surprised at seeing Bryan's stone cold face, expecting a smirk or something but got none.
"I just wanted to take your mind off everything. You always do everything around here and I never really thanked you for all that. While you're recovering I don't want you to stress out about things like making food, or cleaning things up, or…just anything that involves physical exertion for that matter."
"I won't break Bryan, I'm fine now."
"You aren't. You aren't and you know it. Look at what happened when all I did was put my arm around you."
Tala got off Bryan slowly, leaning back against the balcony's railings with crossed arms while he tried to ignore the fact that a part of Bryan was right, "You never worried about me this much before."
"I was never actually living with you when you ignored every possible symptom your body could throw at you trying to tell you to set your ass down." He sat forward, growing a little more frustrated by the minute but not raising his voice, "For weeks you were sweating fevers, dizzy, not being able to move around for longer than two hours at a time, throwing up, screaming in pain whenever I got close to you and touched you and the whole time I didn't think much of it because you kept toughing it out so much."
"I know…I should've listened to what my body had to say, I get it but there's no sense arguing about it now."
"I'm not arguing about what happened before. I'm arguing about it for now. You just said you're fine and you know that you aren't, and…even if I begged, you probably wouldn't let me help you out for the next few weeks."
"I don't need weeks of you helping me."
"It takes twenty-eight days for a person to fully recover after an appendicectomy as bad as yours, you've been in the hospital for three days after surgery; that leaves twenty-five days left which, in case you don't know, is three weeks and four days left." He got up and walked over to Tala, making his best friend turn away from him and stare out at the scenery to avoid him, "I will try my best and help you in ever way I can, but I am not your body, I don't know what it goes through. The only thing I ask of you right now is to let me know when you're feeling sick or when you're hurt and we'll figure it out. Come on, you know that you take care of yourself as much as I take care of myself; I barely take care of myself and you've got to agree with me on that one."
"I've made a mess of things, haven't I?"
"No…I just want you to tell me when something's wrong; you already do so when something is wrong emotionally, mentally and I know that's tough for you as it is but please tell me when something is wrong physically too. Don't be afraid to tell me that you think you need to see a doctor; I know you have a high threshold for pain, if it get's too bad then you need to get checked out and even if you don't want to see a doctor, I won't force you to one unless I know it's serious. I'm not going to overreact or anything."
Tala turned his head to stare at Bryan, biting on his lip with his hand to his mouth but moving it away to speak, "Will you take your own advice and do the same?"
Bryan knew for a fact that Tala would bring up that question if he started this argument and so had thought about it for days. With all the thinking he'd done, he therefore didn't regret the answer he was going to give him. "I will try my best if you will try yours."
Tala nodded hurriedly, hoping the tears would fall right out of his eyes at the same time, and turned round completely, biting down hard on his nail, "Then I will, I promise."
He stepped a little closer, extending his long arms around the boy's skinnier and weaker form and embracing it hesitantly, "I didn't mean to make you cry." He murmured with a bit of a smirk, "I just care about you far too much to lose you to something as mortal as this. You are my best friend, the person I've gone through my whole life with and no matter what we were always there for each other; I can't imagine that ever changing, it'd kill me if something happened to you."
"Bryan, I'm not going anywhere and you should know that."
"Maybe you won't go anywhere intentionally but if something happened to you…if you got sick then you wouldn't be able to help what happened to you."
Bryan felt Tala tiredly rest against him more, embracing him back as best he could, "I'll take better care of myself."
"Hey, still remember I'm here to you know."
"I know."
Bryan brushed the red hair away from Tala's face, pulling him away from him gently, "We could go back to relaxing if you prefer it and forget this whole awkward conversation ever happened as long as you remember what you just promised."
"Actually, if you don't mind I think I need to go get some sleep."
Bryan smiled a fraction and nodded, "Sure."
"Don't worry about me. Thanks for tonight; dinner was great, even though you didn't make it, it's the thought that counts." Tala made his way inside, off the balcony.
"Hey Tal, don't forget your medication." Bryan cut him off and when he turned round, gave him a look that said 'remember your promise' which worked as Tala nodded, not very happy about it but silently agreeing nonetheless.
They spent their whole lives making up the beautiful personalities, they did that together and for each other. Now for each other, they were willing to change parts of their attitudes to be able to live better lives and keep the friendship that was so cherished. Their friendship and love for each other was their life line. Without one there never could have been the other, for when they were hurt or dying they never could've gone through it without each other. If they had never met, then they would have both been gone a long time ago.
A/N: Another random one. Again this is one that could be interpreted which ever way you like it. Whatever floats your boat. I think the randomness of this one came from the fact that I'm rather well known for balcony and window scenes(Childhood Hell: Tala and Serenity talking on the windowsill and Karina telling Bryan she loved him in front of the living room window when they were looking outside. Cats And Dogs/People Error: Talks between Kai and Tori, Denzelle and Kai, Denzelle and Bryan and so on.) so I thought that I should have a oneshot with the main scene out on the balcony. Random I know.
Hope you all enjoyed it though. Please leave a review and let me know what you thought. Keep safe.