The steps came nearer and Tyler tried to slow his breath. He shivered so much with fear that he was afraid that the other would hear his bones rattle. The steps stopped and Tyler held his breath, held himself so still that his muscles hurt. He pressed backwards against the pipes, cold and hot water both burned into his skin and Tyler bit his lips so hard that he drew blood.
The steps diverged from his hideout, he could hear voices, near but far enough that Tyler could breathe again. A door closed.
Aaron's face told him that he was safe for another day.
One moment they had been the Sons of Ipswich and in the next they were hunted. On the bright side they knew now that they weren't the only families with magic in their blood, on the downside most of them were dead and the pitiful rest hunted. Who had tried to save themselves with their powers had played right into the witch-hunter's hands: Using the powers was easily detected even over long ranges.
Aaron wrinkled his nose at the smell of burnt flesh.
‚Take off your shirt.' He said. It wasn't the first time this had happened, Tyler's shoulders and upper arms were covered in burns. The witch-hunter's didn't come every day but they came often enough. Even though everyone could attest that Aaron had never shared anything but hostilities with the Sons of Ipswich the witch-hunter's were still suspicious and the result of suspicion was control, imprisonment and ultimate death.
The ointment Aaron smeared carefully on Tyler's back smelled dry and dark but his gentle touch was belied by his voice.
‚You need to be more careful.' Aaron snapped harshly.
Tyler had seen Caleb, Pogue and Reid more than a year ago. Caleb and Pogue had wanted to separate, one of them to Canada the other to Mexico. It was expected that the Sons of Ipswich would stick together, so the farther they were away from each other the higher were the chances that they would survive.
Reid hadn't wanted to hear anything about it. He had wanted to fight. Now his head hang with several others from a display at Hunter's Cross.
Tyler didn't know if Caleb or Pogue had made it and if Aaron knew then he had never mentioned it to Tyler.
Aaron's hands left Tyler's back after they put a bandage over the new wound.
'I need to work. You can make dinner in the meanwhile.' Aaron didn't look at Tyler again before he left the room.
Aaron was a comic book author and a moderately successful one from what Tyler could tell. Everyone else had gone to Harvard or Princeton after school, Aaron hadn't and now Tyler knew why. Aaron's talent and passion for art hadn't been public knowledge when they had been in school and Tyler had held his breath the first time he had seen Aaron's work. It had been and still was hard to reconcile with what he knew about Aaron Abbot, but then most things about Aaron didn't add up to one person but rather two different ones.
Tyler went to the kitchen and rummaged through the fridge and some of the cupboards. Fortunately he and Aaron shared a similar taste in food and the last 20 months had made Tyler a half-way decent cook. He had nothing else to do around here: cooking, cleaning and staying hidden, staying alive.
Tyler didn't know and never asked why Aaron had saved him on that day where he had found Tyler in the woods, famished and half-frozen in a ditch. Maybe Aaron, while being an asshole, never wanted any of them to burn at the stake, especially since his and Tyler's relationship had been more on the rivals than enemies' side, but in the end it was one of the things that didn't add up with Aaron.
'I got contact to that guy in Montreal I was talking about.' Aaron said conversationally over dinner.
'Another month maybe, then you're out of the country.'
'That's good....isn't it?' Tyler asked when he himself wasn't so sure. On the one hand he was euphoric to get out, to get a life again after all he hadn't left Aaron's flat for the past 20 months.
On the other hand he had been living in close quarters with Aaron for said amount of time.
'Yes, it's good. It's the best that happened in a long time.' Aaron said coldly and gave Tyler a sharp look: 'The sooner you're gone the better for me and you.'
'Yes', Tyler answered softly: 'the sooner the better.'
They fought a lot. Not as much as they could have but enough. One time Tyler hadn't been able to control himself in his rage and had flung Aaron against a wall with his eyes tinged black.
They had been incredibly lucky then. The hunter's had attributed the outbreak of magic to another warlock that was caught only minutes later in the same area. Incredibly lucky.
Owen Weir would cross the US-Canadian border tomorrow afternoon, maybe chat a bit with the guard controlling his passport about his vacation in New York before he would be picked up by friends and vanish with a new name as soon as they reached Montreal.
'Why can't I keep the name 'Owen Weir'?' Tyler asked as soon as Aaron had explained the plan to him.
'In case the hunters ever chose to interrogate me I won't be able to tell them your name.' Aaron snapped.
Tyler said nothing.
'So, after tonight we'll never see each other again.' He told the table rather than Aaron. He didn't know how he felt about that.
'Why would you want that?' Aaron's eyes became small and his voice dripped with suspicion.
'You saved my life.'
Aaron stood up fast and the chair made a nauseating, screeching noise on the wooden floor. The noise the key made when Aaron locked his study seemed to echo through the flat.
They had shared the bed from day one on. Hunter's controls came unannounced and at every time, night or day, so everything in the flat had to look like only one person was living in it. This was also the reason why Aaron wore clothes that were slightly too long for him but fit Tyler. It was easier than the other way around.
Back to back they had slept for 20 months, that was sixhundredsixtyeight nights.
The blanket was pooling in Tyler's lap when Aaron came into the bedroom, his long hair wet from the shower. A few drops of water ran down over his naked chest and back when he climbed in next to Tyler.
Aaron watched Tyler for a long time until he came to a decision. It was weird what details one's mind kept: Tyler looked down on the sheets where Aaron's right hand was splayed out with all five fingers stretched against the sheets and supported his upper body when Aaron's left hand slid around the side of Tyler's neck, leaned in and kissed him.
'I didn't know.' Tyler said.
'I know. That's what made it worse.'
'Why didn't you do this sooner?'
'I'm not that desperate.'
'I wouldn't have turned you down.'
'For the wrong reasons.'
The morning came, inevitably.
'You could come with me.'
'You know I can't.'
'If it hadn't been for the witch-hunt...'
'I would have been over you by now.'
'And now?'
'I'll be over you someday.'
Tyler gripped Aaron's underarm tightly as if to force him to go with him, let go and they both went their separate ways.