There was a knock on the door, making Cody look up from the pan he was stirring. Whilst he wiped his hands on a tea towel and took off his apron, the knocks persisted, gradually becoming more frantic. He went to the door and pulled it open. The sight that met his eyes made him gasp in horror.

"Noah!" he cried; for his boyfriend was half doubled over, stood on the porch, with blood staining his clothes and skin.

Noah turned his face upwards and took his hand away from his bleeding nose. "C-can I come inside p-please?" he asked in a hoarse, tired voice.

Cody blinked, and then quickly said, "Of-of course. Of course. It's your house too," He bundled Noah inside and into the sofa in the living room. "What happened?" he asked once he'd given Noah some tissues and dampened a cloth.

The dark-haired boy held the tissues to his nose and tried to speak, but he couldn't get the words out.

Cody put a hand on Noah's shaking knee and looked at him with tender, concern-filled eyes. "Baby, what happened?"

Noah didn't respond, but instead he suddenly burst into tears. Taking great, shuddering breaths that burnt his sore throat. Cody pulled him into a bear-hug and allowed him to cry into his shoulder, whilst he whispered, "It's okay. It's okay, honey." over and over until finally, after what seemed like forever, Noah started to calm down.

"It - it's just the shock," he stuttered, trying to regain his dignity, wiping his eyes with his sleeve.

"Of course it is," Cody agreed in a comforting tone. "Now tell me what happened. Who was it? Why?" Both of them knew the answer. They weren't stupid, and they weren't that naïve. They'd both been the victims of hate crimes before – one that had landed Cody in hospital with a broken rib – but… Noah was crying. Crying. He never cried! Okay, maybe that was an exaggeration, but it was close enough to the truth.

"What do you think, genius? It was the Pope, gosh," he snapped bitterly, the sarcasm dripping in his voice.

Cody dabbed at Noah's bleeding lip gingerly, making him wince. "Stop stalling," he said. "How did they know?"

"Oh, I don't know. But look! They ripped my shirt!" he cried, showing the tear at the collar of his black button-down.

"Aw," Cody made a sympathetic sound. "Wait – is that the one I got you for your birthday?"

"Yeah. I'm sorry," Noah said wretchedly.

"Hey, hey, don't worry about it! It's not your fault at all!" Cody looked at the cloth. It was stained bright pink.

"Yeah. I wasn't dressed like a fag at all, was I?"

"No, Noah, you weren't," Cody sighed wearily. Why did he get like this? He was usually so rational and sensible, so when something exceptionally stressful happened, he went like this. All… Needy and childish.

"Cody?" Noah interrupted his boyfriend's thoughts. "Can I smell burning?"

"Shit! It's the soup!" Cody cried and jumped up. Noah heard distant curses and shouts, and faintly heard a smoke alarm, but it went off seconds later.

Cody returned a minute later, sighing. "It's ruined, but I'll take you to A&E to make sure you haven't broken anything,"

Noah muttered something obscurely about being fine, but allowed himself to be led to the car.

"You'll be fine, baby," Cody said, turning the key in the ignition and pulling out of the drive.

A/N

So waddya think? I wrote this ages ago - in the Christmas holidays - but only just got around to editing and posting it. Hope you enjoy ^^

By the way, any feedback would be awesome :)

Rhi