Hello there!
This is an idea I've had in my head for a while and only just got around to doing it. So um, if you read it and like it, that's awesome! If you read it and don't like it, then just say. Constructive criticism is the best criticism!
-Oh and there will be some heavy angst down there, so if you don't like that stuff, don't read it.
Disclaimer: I do not own Glee nor do I own the character's Nick and Jeff.
"So, are you gonna tell me where we're going now?"
"Jeff, how many times do I have to tell you, it's a surprise." Nick laughed lightly at his boyfriend's impatience.
Jeff huffed and let his head hit the back of the seat. "Surprises suck." It was barely a whisper but it carried around the quiet car.
"I know, but I swear you're gonna love it." Nick confidently looked over at Jeff, watching as he slowly seemed to warm to the idea.
"I trust you." Jeff smiled back at him. That beautiful smile that never failed to take Nick's breath away. After momentarily forgetting where he was, he turned back to concentrate on the road in front of him.
They fell into a comfortable silence for a few minutes that was then broken by Jeff leaning forward and playing with the dials on the radio. He settled on a station and sat back in his seat, quietly humming along to the song now playing and occasionally tapping his fingers against his thigh.
The rest of their journey was filled with Jeff's soft singing and Nick sometimes accompanying him on the choruses of songs he was familiar with.
Nick pulled up into a parking space that was conveniently placed behind a bush, blocking any view from the building behind. "We're here now Mr impatient," Nick lightly teased as he climbed out of the car and made his way around to the passenger side door.
"Ha ha. I still have no idea where we are though."
"Just wait a little bit longer okay?" Nick took Jeff's hand and helped him out of the car.
"Look who's being proper gentleman tonight." Jeff chuckled and accepted the assistance. As soon as his feet hit the ground below he was pulled into a tight hug by his boyfriend.
"Happy one year anniversary Jeff," Nick murmured into Jeff's ear. He squeezed him a little harder before letting go to join their hands together.
They began to walk in the direction Nick had pointed them towards. When they had rounded the corner Jeff stopped and let out a little gasp.
The Italian restaurant was small, but insanely beautiful. It had been decorated with bright yet still tasteful colours, green plants were crawling up the sides of the walls. It was stunning. It had also been the host of their first date.
"Well now I feel a bit stupid." Jeff turned to Nick will a smile on his face. "I probably should have recognised it."
"Considering I'm the one who drove on both occasions, you had no need to really." They continued to take each other in for a few moments before Jeff leaned down and captured Nick's lips in a kiss, Jeff broke it a few seconds later with an "I love you."
"I love you too." Even though they said it to each other constantly, it never stopped being true and it always made his heart flutter.
Nick pulled on Jeff's hand to signal that they should probably get a move on and hurry inside. Their reservations had been made and this was a busy place.
The restaurant was warm inside, so there was no need for the thick coats and scarves they had been wearing out in the evening air. The aroma of the delicious food had hit them as soon as they had passed through the door and their mouths had already begun to water as they were shown to their seats.
Somehow Nick had managed to book the same table as last time; he briefly wondered how long his boyfriend had been planning this for. He was brought out of his thoughts by the waiter who had arrived to take their orders.
"I think I'll just have the pasta special and a glass of water thanks." Nick flashed the waiter a smile before focusing his attention on Jeff.
"Make that two please." Jeff finished their orders and the waiter took off towards the kitchens.
"So," Nick brought his elbows up to rest on the table, but brought them back down again when he caught Jeff's reprimanding glare. "Do you like it?"
"Are you seriously asking that? It's perfect." Jeff responded. "And you know what? It's our first year anniversary; anything you organised would have been just amazing." He smiled and took Nick's hand over the table.
They mindlessly chatted about anything they could think of until the waiter arrived with their food.
"Enjoy your meals." He gave them a smile before leaving again.
They both responded with thanks before starting on their pasta. "Wow, this is just amazing." Nick started gushing about the quality around a mouthful of food.
"It really is, we've got to start coming here more often. The food is awesome." Jeff took a long sip of water.
"As tempting as that sounds dear, I think this is probably best left as a venue for special occasions." Jeff made a hum of agreement and returned his attention to his pasta.
The rest of the meal was eaten with light discussion about school work and previous Warbler meetings. Nick had nearly choked on his food when Jeff had made an inappropriate joke about Wes and his gavel.
Their empty plates had been cleared away and the bill was now resting on the side of the table. Nick reached out to collect it, but his hand was slapped away by Jeff's. "You are not paying for this, no way. You've done enough tonight and I want to do this."
"Jeff, please don't, toady is my treat." Nick began to plead but lost out when Jeff had successfully taken the bill from the table and slipped some notes from his wallet into the book. He handed it over to the passing waiter and turned back to Nick with a smile on his face.
"Sorry, were you just saying something?" Jeff continued to smile as Nick just shook his head. "You should have let me take that."
"Yeah, well I didn't want you to and that's the end of that okay?"
"Yeah, okay, fine." Nick smiled back at Jeff and wondered just how he managed to get such an amazing boyfriend. He got torn away from his thoughts when he noticed Jeff leaning down to retrieve his bag from underneath the table.
"Are we leaving now?" Nick asked, not really wanting Jeff's answer to be yes, he wanted to be able to sit here with him and talk for a little while longer.
"No silly," Jeff's answering smile was brilliant, the twinkling in his eyes made Nick believe he was up to something.
"Um, I was going to give this to you a bit later on, but I don't really feel like waiting any longer so," Jeff pulled a small, square box from the front pocket of his bag and placed it onto the table in front of him. "Here."
Nick could see that Jeff had put as much effort as he could into the appearance of the gift that had been presented to him. It was wrapped to the best of his ability, which still left something to be desired, in shiny, metallic red gift paper and then wrapped around with a blue ribbon, that if Nick had to guess, had probably been tied up by his sister.
"Are you going to look inside?"
"Jeff! Give me a second." Nick laughed and grabbed his coat from the back of the chair, pulling it across his lap. "If you'd just let me give you your gift, we can open them together." He fished inside his coat pocket and retrieved from inside, a deep blue box.
He slid the box across to the opposite side of the table and took the box that Jeff had given him in hand.
"...I can open this now right?" Jeff asked sheepishly.
"Jeffrey Anthony Sterling, you are the most impatient person I have ever known."
"Yeah but you love me for it. Well, that and the fact that I'm super awesome."
Nick lightly swatted at Jeff's forearm that was resting on the table. "You're just lucky I can put up with you."
Jeff took Nick's hand in both of his much larger ones and looked directly into his eyes. "I do love you though, so, so much."
"I love you too Jeff." Nick raised himself from his seat slightly and leaned over the table to drop an affectionate kiss on his boyfriend's cheek. He would have done more but hey, this is still Ohio and any public display of affection from a gay couple would not go down particularly well, and Nick wanted this night to be as perfect as possible.
Jeff smiled back at him, letting go of his hand to gesture to Nick's gift. "You first."
"Are you sure you can wait that long?" Nick teased.
He gently tugged at the ribbon holding the two halves of the box together, watching it fall to the table in a flowing mess. Nick took the lid from the box and put his hand inside, his fingers grasping around a cold, slightly spherical object.
Jeff watched happily as Nick awed over his gift. "I know you were pretty bummed about losing your old one and I realise I can't replace the sentiment that came with the one your grandfather gave you, but I thought maybe this one could have new memories."
"Jeff it's absolutely beautiful," Nick grazed his hand over his new pocket watch. The front was made from glass so the hands and face could be seen clearly, but another feature that made it so pretty to look at was that the cogs and inner workings of the watch could be seen from underneath the face. Nick turned it over and ran his fingers across the engraving on the back, an addition to the watch. It was probably Nick's favourite part of the whole gift, 'For Nick, Love Jeff xx'.
"I.. thank you Jeff. It's just .. thank you." Nick was struggling to find the words to express what he was feeling. Staring at the watch, he realised that Jeff must have gone to a lot of trouble to give him this. He suddenly felt as though the gift he had bought in return wouldn't be enough, not after seeing this. What if Jeff thought that he hadn't tried as hard? What if he didn't even like it?
"Oh man, this is so awesome!" Nick's head snapped up when he head Jeff's exclamation. Noticing that while Nick was going through some inner turmoil, Jeff had already opened the box in front of him.
"I love it! Thank you." The leather band was already adorning his slender wrist, he had chosen to wear it on his right arm so as not to get lost in a sea of other bracelets and wristbands that lived on his other arm.
It was a simple band, with slightly patterned leather and a small, circle charm next to the clasp that had been inscribed with 'I love you'.
"Are you sure? It seems so small compared to this," he picked up his pocket watch, "I, maybe, I should get you something else.." Nick trailed off, thinking of anything else he could give to his boyfriend that would make his gift seem better.
"Nick. Nick look at me."
Nick stopped thinking and watched as Jeff got up from his chair and gathered his things. "I think it's perfect, and wonderful, and you know what? I wouldn't have cared if the box you gave me was empty or you hadn't given me anything at all. All that matters to me is that we're together today and that we got to spend time together."
Nick smiled at Jeff and not for first time wondered if it was even possible for anyone to be that sweet and kind to him. Maybe he wasn't even real. This thought was crushed when Nick felt his boyfriend's hand latch onto his and pull him up from the table.
"And now we're going to bust this place so I can thank you properly." Jeff winked and led them out of the restaurant. Nick thanked the waiter by the door before being whisked away into the cold.
Jeff stopped abruptly a few feet away from the car and Nick slammed into his chest, he was about to move away but was caught in a bone crushing hug by his boyfriend. He returned the hug before leaning up to kiss Jeff.
It was a soft slow kiss but it spoke so much. All of the unspoken thanks just for each other and unending amounts of love. Nick was glad Jeff had brought them outside because he could continue doing this for ages and no one can stop them out here where they couldn't be seen.
Unfortunately it seemed like Jeff had other ideas because after a few minutes he pulled away. "We should go for a walk."
"Jeff, it's getting dark now and we're not as familiar with this area."
"When has that ever stopped anyone Nicky? Plus I think I saw a park on the way in, we could just stroll through there."
"But what about curfew?"
"Look, we've still got time, but if we get back late David or Wes can cover for us."
"..Fine, you win this time. But if anything happens to us it's on your head."
"Great! So I, uh, I think it's this way." Jeff pointed to the left of the car park entrance. "I think."
Nick laughed, "come on then, as long as we know how to get back."
Jeff gestured wildly with his arms. "Jeff and Nick's great adventure!"
"If that's what you want to call it dear." Nick took one of Jeff's hands in his own and set off towards the road.
They had been walking for about ten minutes before they arrived at what Jeff had described as the park, for once, his sense of direction had not failed him.
It was a really beautiful place with plenty of nice looking Victorian style lamps that lit them a way down the muddy paths. Every now and again there were benches to the side that faced off in different directions that gave separate, stunning views of features in the park.
Jeff made sure they sat and looked at all of them before progressing on their walk.
"I'm actually really glad you convinced me to come, it's so nice here." They were sat down facing one of the park's three ponds. By this point, the moon had risen in the sky and it was shining brightly down onto the still water, throwing off iridescent sparks that hit the boy's faces in the light.
"Maybe you should listen to me more often then." Jeff turned to look at Nick with a smug smile on his face.
Jeff's pale skin was glowing in the moonlight, made even more stunning by the contrast of his rich brown eyes. "It's awfully hard to do that when your stupid face is so distracting." He pressed his forehead into the side of Jeff's neck, feeling his skin heat up slightly at the comment.
"Well that's me all over isn't it?" Jeff chuckled lightly. "But you Nick, you're amazing. Inside and out. Your personality is written all over your face, and that's why you are and always be the most beautiful person on this planet."
"Stop it." Nick flushed and hid his face deeper into Jeff's collar.
"I'd only stop if it wasn't true, and it always is, so you're going to have to put up with it." Jeff placed his cheek on the top of Nick's head and closed his eyes. He wished that the curfew at Dalton wasn't so early, he wouldn't mind sitting here with Nick by his side for hours.
Jeff hummed contentedly, the vibrations gently tickling Nick's hair against his neck.
It had started to get a bit colder now, and Nick huddled closer into Jeff's side for warmth, both arms clutched around Jeff's, keeping him close.
Jeff felt rather than saw Nick shivering, he lifted his cheek from his boyfriend's head and immediately felt the absence of his warmth, the cold slapped him hard in the face.
"Jeff?"
"Yeah hun?"
"There's a café in amongst the shops and things just at the end of this path, can we maybe get some coffee or something?"
"That sounds really nice." They both rose from the bench, the cold now whipping at their exposed lower half's that had previously been sheltered by the wood of the seat.
"Your hands are like ice." Jeff stated before reaching into his pocket to pull out his gloves. "Take these." He handed them over to Nick.
"But won't your hands be cold too?"
"Nah, I'll be fine."
"You're cold as well and that's not fair because they're your gloves."
"Well how about you take the left one and I'll take the right," Jeff reasoned. "Then our outside hands will be warm and then we can share body heat if I take your right hand." Jeff smiled at his own ability to overcome the problem.
"Well done." Nick patted the top of Jeff's head and handed back the right glove.
Once their hands were covered they set off towards the opposite entrance of the park.
The cluster of buildings named 'The North Village' must have been made for a specific purpose as most of the places were open throughout the night. A couple of diners and cafés for what must be night shift workers, and then an English-looking public house in the middle of it all.
They quickly darted into the nearest café to escape from the cold, but much to their dismay, it had seemed like there were others who had the same idea and all of the inside tables had been taken. Nick reasoned that the outside tables were still under shelter and with a hot drink in their hands it wouldn't be so bad.
They collected their orders and ventured back into the cold to sit down. Nick was right, it wasn't nearly as cold with the steam from their drinks swirling around their heads and with him, once again, compressed against his side.
They sat in a comfortable silence while waiting for the warm liquid that ran down their throats to start warming them from the inside. After a few minutes, Jeff slammed his cup down on the surface of the table which earned a giggle from Nick.
"What?"
"You've got some," Nick gestured to his own nose and Jeff started swiping at his face with his hand. "There's cream on your nose Jeff."
After failing to wipe his own face clean, Nick reached over with a paper napkin and gently took away the remaining cream from his boyfriend's nose.
"There you go silly." Nick crumpled the napkin into a ball and placed it in Jeff's empty cup, he could throw it away before they left.
"Considering this happens almost every time you have hot chocolate, we should really be more prepared."
"We did this on a whim so I think we can be excused." Jeff yawned rubbing his eyes, causing his fringe to fall over them, "oh man I'm so tired."
"Mmm me too, we should probably head back now."
Nick got up and bent over slightly to brush Jeff's bangs out of his line of vision. "Maybe you'll be able to walk back without tripping over now." Nick smiled and dropped a kiss on Jeff's forehead.
"I'm coming." Jeff followed as his boyfriend scooped up the empty cardboard cups and headed towards the trash can.
Jeff swung his arm over his boyfriend's shoulder and used him as an arm rest. "Look at that, perfect height. I knew I picked you for some reason."
Nick snorted. "I'm only a couple inches shorter than you and you're abnormally tall, so you can stop with the short jokes." He swung his arm backwards, grabbing onto Jeff's opposite side and leaned his head on his shoulder.
"Do you think we should text David and give him a heads up in case-"
"Hey fags!"
Both boys froze on the spot when they heard the shout and their arms dropped to their sides.
"Yeah that's right. You two!"
The sounds of heavy footfalls could be heard coming at them from the direction of the English pub. It was obvious that whoever owned that gruff voice had been drinking, heavily.
"Jeff what de we do?" Nick's whispers were forced out hastily, and Jeff could tell that the younger boy was terrified.
"Just carry on walking, once he sees we're not interested he'll leave us alone."
They marched forward, trying desperately to pretend they didn't care about the man behind.
"Hey Joe! Look at that, the homos don't want to stay and play!"
The second man, Joe, shouted after them. "Don't walk away from us."
Al right so there were two of them now, two sets of feet pounding towards them. They weren't outnumbered but they were definitely outmatched.
Nick's heart started pounding much quicker and he could feel the blood pumping in his veins, the throbbing in his head. "Jeff, please, we need to leave right now."
"I know Nick, we're going too, don't worry."
The sound of the men's footsteps were getting louder, Jeff knew it wouldn't be too long before they were in touching distance. They wouldn't do anything though, they couldn't, this was a public place, someone would see what they're doing. It pacified Jeff's fears momentarily before he realised, wait, this is Ohio and homophobia was everywhere. Helping a gay person was just as bad as being one in some people's eyes. He just hoped there was someone here who would see through that.
"What you rushin' home for? Surely the fairy clan don't want you back so soon."
"Pssh who the hell would want 'em back at all. Shouldn't even be here, let alone have a place in the world." Both men let out a shriek of laughter, obviously the whole thing was highly amusing for them.
The jeers were getting louder and no matter how quickly the boys paced themselves, they were always just a short way behind.
Nick had started to whimper and the other boy could feel him shaking in fear, he wouldn't even be surprised if he had started crying. Jeff was afraid too, the encounter was bringing back memories from being bullied in his Freshman year, unfortunately his parents weren't here to offer some sort of escape from it this time.
He was angry though, very angry. How dare they think they had the right to this to them, to anyone. He then wondered vaguely if this was a common occurrence on a Friday night, if the people in 'The North Village' were actually used to drunken men shouting abuse at others.
They had just passed underneath the sign in the entrance when Jeff felt a presence behind them, he really hoped they hadn't advanced on them that quickly, they were out of the complex now. Anything could happen now.
Nick's breathing became shallow and rushed and Jeff could hear him trying, and failing, to keep in the tears that were now falling on his cheeks.
He heard Nick's cry of shock just a mere second before his back slammed up against the wall and the air got knocked from his chest.
"You know it's rude to ignore someone when they're talkin' to ya." The guy got right up close to Jeff's face, suffocating him with his rancid, alcohol stained breath.
He was still gasping for breath when another cry escaped from Nick's mouth, this time it was one of pain and it crushed Jeff to know that at the moment there was nothing he could do to stop this, to stop his boyfriend being in this situation.
"Just let us go, please, we haven't done anything wrong, please just let us go and we'll leave right away!" Jeff struggled against the man pinning him to the wall.
"Oh but you see ya have, you can't just come swanning in here acting faggy with another floppy haired fag, rubbing it in our faces. It's not natural!" He punctuated every few words with a hiss, getting even closer to Jeff's face.
"Jeff please help!" He couldn't just stand here and listen to Nick's whimpers of pain, he heard his involuntary shouts and it became obvious that the other asshole that followed them here was beating the crap out of him. He had to do something fast.
With nothing around him to grab onto, Jeff acted as quickly as he could and brought his knee up to make contact with the attacker's groin. He let go of Jeff and doubled over in pain, cursing as he went. He only had a short amount of time to find Nick and check on him.
He started blindly fumbling around in the dark, hoping to catch onto any part of Nick he could, he was about to fear the worst when Nick pulled him into his arms, sobbing into his shoulder. "Jeff, oh my god Jeff are you okay? We need to go Jeff, please. Where are they, where have they gone?" Nick's voice was slurring, coming out so quickly that Jeff couldn't even understand him, he was gulping and swallowing for air so much he was choking.
"Nick, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry I brought us here, please don't cry honey. We're going to get out of this." Jeff was holding onto Nick as tightly as he could, if he could just protect him from this, he didn't deserve it. Neither of them did.
There was a brief moment of quiet and both boys hoped foolishly that the men had backed off and left them alone.
"Come on Nick, we're going to have to get up now."
Nick reached up with both of his hands, feeling around his face, not being able to see him in the dark of the alleyway they now found themselves in. "Jeff I'm so scared," Nick whispered into the dark. Jeff didn't doubt it for a second, all of the emotion he heard in his voice broke his heart.
Jeff took one of Nick's hands from his face and lightly kissed his palm. "We can do this, it's going to be oka-"
A huge hand fisted in the back of Jeff's coat, yanking him backwards so hard he fell backwards onto the floor. In the next moment a foot came into contact with his stomach. He spluttered onto the floor, spitting out what he believed to be his own blood.
"How dare you!" The guy had come back again, it would seem that he'd regained composure after Jeff's attack. "Think you're gonna get away with that? Stupid fag."
"JEFF!" He could just about hear Nick screaming his name in the background, but he was lacking in the strength to move or do anything.
Before he even had time to register what was going on he was picked up off of the floor by the other man and hit directly in the face. He landed against the wall and slumped back down onto the floor.
He could still hear Nick struggling in the distance, begging for the men to let them both go, but it wasn't working. The men were shouting at him, but in the struggle Jeff couldn't make out the individual words they were saying.
"Nick. Nick where are you?" He barely came out as a whisper, everything had happened so quickly and he was in so much pain. It would be so much easier if he were to just close his eyes and drift off to sleep, maybe he'd wake up in a better tomorrow, where this was all just a horrid dream. They would both be okay, Nick would be by his side and he'd never have to hear his cries of pain again.
He was just about to close his eyes and shut down completely when he heard Nick scream. It was unlike the shouts and protests that he had heard earlier, this was different, so much more different. It was pure pain. A loud, piercing sharp cry that caused Jeff's hair to stand on end and his blood to boil.
"Nick! Oh god please be okay Nick." Jeff was now aware that he was crying. Trying his best to get up, he wiped his sleeve hastily against his eyes. He had to find Nick, but with no light it was practically impossible task.
Jeff was stumbling as he made his way around in the dark, desperately hoping that he'd be able to find Nick without stepping on him. He wasn't about to make matters worse.
He was getting more and more terrified as each moment passed with no sign of his boyfriend, until he finally saw him.
Nick was slumped over on his side, bathed in the light from a street light at the end of the alleyway. Jeff could hear him moaning in pain from where he was and wasted no time in getting over to him as soon as possible.
It seemed that the attackers had had enough of beating the two boys senseless and moved off, they weren't worth their time any more.
Jeff dropped to his knees at Nick's side, rolling him over onto his back to check him over. At least he was still breathing.
"Nick," Jeff's voice was shaking, he'd never been so afraid before. "Nick can you hear me, please, I really need you to talk to me."
"I'm still here." Jeff placed his hand on Nick's chest, earning a wince and a hiss of pain from the younger boy.
A fresh wave of tears overcame Jeff. They were going to be okay. "God Nick, I thought they were gonna-" He didn't want to think about it so he left the sentence hanging in the air.
"Jeff, I need you to listen to me for a second." Nick's eyes were glistening with tears he was refusing to shed.
"Not now Nick. I'm going to call us an ambulance okay? We're going to be fine." He reached down to retrieve his phone from his pocket, the bruises covering his body slowing him down, but a weak hand shot out and grabbed his wrist.
"No Jeff, now."
Why was he forcing this? They needed medical help urgently, Jeff could smell blood everywhere, something had to be done.
Nick withdrew his hand from Jeff's arm, leaving a warm, sticky residue behind. Jeff felt it and immediately looked down. It was blood, and a lot of it.
His heart sped up and he started to panic. "Nick, where's this coming from? What's wrong?"
The boy laying on the floor lifted the hand currently cradling his side, revealing a deep wound that was still seeping blood.
"Nick, did they.. did they do this to you?" Jeff was in a state of shock, not being able to say anything more.
"I couldn't.. I couldn't stop them." Nick took a shuddering breath. "I'm sorry Jeff, I'm so, so sorry, I tried I promise." He started to cry, not really caring any more.
"Shh sweetie, just don't speak right now. I'm gonna get help." Jeff felt like crying too, but he had to keep it in, he was being brave for the both of them now.
With shaking fingers, he dialled the emergency number, asking for an ambulance when the options came up.
"Sir, what's the problem?" The man's voice was calm, Jeff was irrationally angry at him for a moment before remembering what he was doing.
"My boyfriend and I just got attacked and my, he.. he's been stabbed." Jeff's voice came out high and rushed into the receiver, the reality of the situation was setting in and causing Jeff unmentionable pain.
"Okay, is your friend unconscious?" Jeff let out a whimper, this was a matter of life and death and this homophobia issue was still happening.
"No, he's still conscious, but I don't know how long-" He couldn't finish the sentence, not right now.
"Are you hurt in any way?" His voice was still calm and official sounding.
"Jeff.." Nick's moan was nearly inaudible, sending Jeff into a more heightened sense of panic.
"Please!" Jeff spat into the phone. "You have to come quick, please, he's in so much pain." His voice was faltering as his emotions set in.
"Sir, where is your location?"
"Um, I," Jeff racked his brain for the answer, "The North Village! It's by the park. Please hurry!"
"The paramedics have been dispatched and are on their way now. Son, do you think you could tell me your name?"
Jeff hit the end call button, he'd done what was needed and now he had to look after Nick until the medics came.
He took Nick's bloody hand, holding it as tight as he could. He'd hold him here, there's no way Nick would leave him. He loved him with all of his heart, and Nick loved him back, it would be enough.
Nick gave a slight shake of his head, indicating for Jeff to come closer. "I don't think I'm getting out of here with you Jeffy." Nick hiccuped, "I'm not strong enough."
"Nick please don't talk like that." Jeff was sniffling and stumbling over his words. " Of course you will, there are people on the way that can help."
"Please Nick." Jeff brushed his boyfriend's bangs out of his eyes and inched him slowly onto his lap. He hugged him but not too hard that it would hurt him.
"Hey. You be careful of yourself." The corner of Nick's mouth twitched upwards. "You're not looking too good."
Jeff had completely forgotten about his own injuries, but now he could feel the aching in his joints and insides.
"Don't worry about me Nick, you're the priority right now." He wondered how he was managing his joking tone, he was slipping now and Jeff could feel it.
Nick adjusted himself slightly, crying out in pain as more blood spilt from his wound.
"Please don't move, not yet." Hot tears pricked at his eyes as he watched his boyfriend squirm.
Nick closed his eyes for a moment, sending Jeff into a panic. "Nick no! Stop it." He reopened them when he felt Jeff's tears hit his cold face.
It took every ounce of energy Nick had left to reach up and touch Jeff's face. "Please don't cry sweetheart. Don't let me ruin that beautiful face of yours." Nick started humming very lightly underneath his breath, but the deafening sound of the blood pounding in Jeff's ears stopped him from knowing what it was.
"I love you so much Jeff."
"I love you too Nick." The words were drowned in Jeff's broken crying.
No, he wasn't about to have him taken from him, not the best thing that had ever happened to him. It just wasn't going to happen.
The sounds of the paramedics sirens could be heard now. Just a little bit longer.
Jeff leant down and pressed a kiss to Nick's lips, pressing their foreheads together. He could just feel Nick kissing him back, but it was weak.
He pulled his head back slightly to see that Nick had closed his eyes again. His breathing was shallow and Jeff was savouring every single one. He knew now that these would be his last.
The tears were coming thick and fast now, he wasn't going to try and stop them, they were his release.
"Jeff.. 'm so sorry." One last shuddering breath and that was it, his heart stopped.
The words were swimming around in Jeff's head as he looked down at Nick's face. How could he be sorry? It was his own fault they were in this mess not Nick's.
Wherever he was now he wasn't hurt, only a small consolation in the bigger picture. He couldn't believe this was happening. That this was real. But it is, and now Nick's gone away. His love and more importantly his best friend, gone.
"I love you Nick, more than you would ever know. More than anyone could ever understand."
He took one last look as his face before gathering him in his arms and letting everything out. He buried his head into Nick's chest, shaking uncontrollably with audible sobs over Nick's broken body.
The mix of words and hiccups escaping his mouth alerted the paramedics of his whereabouts.
The last thing he could remember before blacking out was the team of medics tearing him away from Nick kicking and screaming.