Troy had never felt more terrified than the moment he saw Nick surrounded by the dead, looking as if he were about to join them any time. But he had also never felt more breathless, more intrigued by a singular being, and it took him a few moments before he worked up his own courage to walk the distance, slowly, towards his unlikely friend.
Nick had told him to stare at the space between atoms, whatever that meant, but his eyes were fully concentrated on the still figure before him, the figure that turned his head and whispered to the corpse walking passed. The corpse looked at him, but didn't see him, in recognition of sound being made, but continued onwards, not smelling any meal waiting for it.
His hands reached for him Nick before he had even realized it. The younger boy ignored the way Troy grabbed at him, gently shushing him, his heart thudding at the thought of the dead figuring out they weren't part of them. His fingers fell through Nick's slicked back hair and he kept him held to his chest. Hugging him, showing him some sort of comfort, or at least trying. Troy wasn't sure exactly what he was doing, really. Giving comfort to someone? Him? It was an unusual concept, even to himself, but he was frightened for this boy, this boy who certainly needed to be protected.
When the dead cleared, he was still holding onto Nick, Nick who had his head buried in his shoulder, clutching at his blood covered jacket, and he wondered when it had become like this. When his urge to protect rather than to… notate had grabbed hold of him. He hadn't found him too horribly interesting that first date, not nearly as interesting as Madison at least, but things changed and as his arms tightened around Nick, the pungent odor of the dead wafting through his nostrils (it was so familiar at this point), he knew he needed to protect this boy, whose life, though he didn't know too many details about, had obviously been just as fucked up as his.
He didn't know how long they'd been standing there when the two of them finally pulled away from each other. Nick's eyes were still out of it, but the adrenaline and rush of being surrounded, the urge to protect Nick, it caused Troy's mind to clear just enough to usher Nick back the way they had come from. Nick didn't argue, although Troy could tell he was still a little hesitant, wanting to be out there more, walking amongst the corpses and he side-eyed him. He wanted to know how Nick felt in those moments. It was obviously something Nick had done quite often, but that was a story for another time and Troy wouldn't push it, not tonight.
In an ironic sort of way, Nick reminded Troy of a bunny rabbit. His lip almost twitched at the thought as they climbed back over the fence, the way that they had come. As a child, Troy had often grabbed hold of the rabbits in the fields and took them somewhere quiet. He was curious as a kid, wanted to know how things worked, how bodies worked, and he wouldn't lie, there was some joy in ending the life of something so easily, but he never ended it. He wanted to see how long it'd take something to die himself, but of course, a few times, Jake would find the rabbits and put them out of their misery before they could go on their own.
Nick reminded Troy of those rabbits. He couldn't say exactly why but before, he would've been a thing Troy wanted to experiment on. Hell, hadn't that been the original plan all along? But for the first time, he didn't want to experiment on a rabbit to the point of death, but rather the point of life. Troy didn't care much whether he lived or died-but he cared whether Nick did or not.
It was odd, what a person like Nick could bring out in him. Troy liked Nick, but he hadn't made up his mind how he felt about his feelings when he was around Nick. There were… too many of them, and feelings, emotions, were something Troy had long since tried to bury away.