Hello!

*throws magic dust at you to make you like this*

Edward gave a small sniffle as he staggered into the small apartment he and Harvey were currently sharing, Harvey had pulled some strings with one of his former 'friends' to get them into the tiny place. It only had one damn room; bedroom, living room and kitchen in one, they didn't even have a bathroom: it was communal, they shared it with some almost-homeless… ' A wimp of a man' Harvey had called him…

'Wimp', hah, if he were a wimp then what did that make Edward?

He'd not been doing anything.

Just sitting there, waiting for his clothes to come out of the dryer.

All he'd said was a simple hello, and then suddenly that stupid idiot of a man had been on him, Edward swore he'd felt something break…

He'd dashed away in a bleeding mess, he'd left the clothes… Harvey would be mad about that.

Edward gave a shuddered sigh as his quickly locked the door behind him, and flopped onto the bed, curling himself into a ball.

He wanted to leave this place.

He hated it, it was too small, and it smelled of feet…

Harvey had insisted it would only be for a short time. But the first time he'd said that was 8 months ago.

8 months of this place.

8 months of being cooped up in this shit hole…

8 months stuck in this one room, no one to talk to. He'd tried to talk to that man next door, the one who'd just beat him senseless, but after a couple of minutes he would just shrug Edward off.

There was Harvey of course, but he was nearly always out. They needed food, and Harvey was the only one able to earn the necessary resources.

Edward had tried, dear god he'd tried, but no one would take him.

No one.

Not one of his ideas had worked, none of his plans.

He'd been almost killed the last time…

Harvey had been so upset.

He wasn't going to try again.

He didn't want to fail.

So he just wouldn't try.

Juddering gasps came from him as tears ran down his face.

He wished Harvey were here.

Harvey always made him feel better.

Edward wasn't sure how he did it.

Harvey would put his arms around him and suddenly all that negativity would leave him, just sucked away.

He'd sob into Harvey's shoulder, sometimes Harvey wouldn't even know why Edward was upset, other times it would be blindingly obvious.

Now however, Harvey's pillow would have to do, at least it smelled of him.

Not like when he was young.

He'd had no one then.

He would lie by himself and sob silently.

It would have to be silent.

If someone had heard him…

He'd been so scared of what they'd say, what they'd do.

He shivered at the thought, falling deeper into tears.

He lay for almost half an hour, jumping out of his skin each time he heard a noise outside the door, just like he used to.

Listing all the things he'd done wrong.

He felt like he was falling into a hole.

Deep and black and cold.

And lonely.

He didn't like being alone.

"Harvey…" he mumbled to himself through his tears.

"Come home now, please…"

He clung to the pillow, squeezing it tightly, wishing it were him.

He curled in on himself suddenly, tightly, as he heard the door click open.

"…Edward?" a familiar voice forced Edward's eyes open.

"H-Harvey…?" Edward asked gently, still holding himself in a ball.

Harvey took a few steps into the room, staring down at Edward's small cowering frame, "Edward what's the matter? What happened?"

Edward's sobs suddenly became audible, loud in fact, he couldn't reply to Harvey's question, but suddenly he felt himself engulfed by the larger man's arms, and Harvey gently shifted him from the bed, turning to embrace him.

He shushed gently, "Edward it's ok, calm down."

It didn't work, hearing Harvey's voice, soft and caring. It just made him sob more violently.

He didn't deserve him, all this attention, he'd done nothing to deserve it.

"E-Edward?" Harvey said gently, surveying the bloodied mess, "You got blood on my pillow case."

"I-I'm s-sorry." Edward sobbed harshly, his words sharp and jagged as he forced them out.

Harvey grasped Edward's face; his face had a couple of cuts that were already starting to scab over, his nose was swollen and still bleeding slightly. "No, Ed… I'm not mad. I need to know who did this to you."

Edward swallowed roughly, only watching as Harvey pulled a piece of cloth from his pocket and started dabbing up the blood on Edward's face, "T-The guy next door… I don't know why, I wasn't doing anything. Why would he attack me for no reason?"

"Edward. That guy is crazy. He tried the same thing on me a week ago. Why do you think I told you to stop talking to him?" Harvey looked down at the cloth; covered in thick, drying blood. Then looked back up at Edward, concerned and loving.

The bloodied man gave a half-hearted shrug, "Maybe you thought I talked too much…"

Harvey chuckled, pulling Edward towards him, cradling his head on his neck, pulling him into a soft hug. "You do talk too much. I think that half the time, when you get beat up, it's because you've shot your mouth off. There's nothing wrong with silence."

Edward nuzzled into the other man, just enjoying his company, having a presence with him…

"…He's been arrested for unprovoked hate crimes and assaults 7 times." Harvey added a few minutes later, stroking gently up and down Edward's back as the man leant into him.

Edward hummed slightly, confused, "Hate crimes…?" he asked, still holding the larger man.

Harvey nodded, his chin mussing Edward's hair as he did so, "Most against gays, some against blacks or Asians."

"A homophobe?" Edward asked, things starting to become a little clearer in his mind.

Harvey nodded again, grunting in agreement.

Enough, he'd had enough, enough of these people harassing him, enough of being alone, enough of feeling this useless.

"…I want to get out of here Harv." Edward said softly, almost whispering.

This time Harvey didn't nod, but his entire frame seemed to soften, "Only a little while longer Ed. I promise."

Edward shook his head, pressing harder into Harvey as he felt tears begin to come from him at the mere thought of having to stay here any longer, "No. Harv. I want to leave."

Harvey sighed, "You know we can't do that yet…" He pulled Edward's face from him to look into his eyes, "Would it make you feel better if that guy was gone?"

Edward nodded, lifting a hand to wipe his eyes.

A dashingly handsome smile came to Harvey's face as he took something from his pocket, his coin. "How about this: Heads we break his arms, tails we break his legs."

Edward chuckled gently, "Really?"

Usually Harvey's coin-based decisions were either do it, or don't do it, not do one or do the other. Not unless he felt he should do something good or bad either way, and just wasn't quite sure what.

"Yeah. I'm not having some crazy gay-basher attacking my boyfriend and getting away with it." Harvey gave Edward a firm pat on the back and a soft kiss on the forehead.

"'K." Edward smiled, pushing against Harvey's kiss as he received it.

Harvey gave a short chuckle as he flipped the coin, Edward watched attentively as the object span in the air, and landed on tails.

This would be fun.

I hope you liked it!

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