Chapter Two: Halcyon - July, 1992
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Two weeks into July had passed without them speaking a word to each other, and Aaron was pretty sure that was just how Spencer wanted it. With Aaron curled into his favoured spot between the crook of two branches on the sprawling maple tree, and Spencer over the other side of the narrow alcove busily working on his 'Rhosgobel', which a cursory exploration in the library encyclopaedias had shed no light on.
Today, it was hot, sticky, and the book Aaron had brought along with him was completely failing to be even a tiny bit interesting.
The kid quietly knotting branches together with precise twists of his fingers into a rough scaffold shape… that was much more interesting…
Aaron realized he'd been staring, stomach twisting oddly. It did look far more fun than curled up reading. Especially now it actually looked like something, and not just a weird box-shape of wood leaning against the inclined fencing.
Spencer flopped to the ground with a huff, clearly irritated. The branch he was trying to tie, a young, green branch that whipped back out of place as soon as he released it, rolled away. Aaron examined it.
"Need a hand?" he asked, voice cracking. It sounded odd, to talk in this place. He'd never talked here when he was alone, for obvious reasons, and he hadn't talked since it had become a shared space because well…
They weren't friends. No matter what Aaron had wistfully allowed himself to hope now that Tony was acting weird about hanging out and Elliot had moved away.
Spencer jumped, turning to him with a wary look. There was a thin slice of blood across the meat of his thumb, where the branch had lashed him. "No," he said. Stopped. Glanced at the branch. "Well… maybe. I know what I want it to do, it's just…"
Aaron was quiet. He knew this frustration.
"It's okay to ask for help if you're not strong enough," he said finally, sliding out of the tree with a thump, watching as Spencer picked the branch up again and ran his hands over it thoughtfully. Stop crying, don't be weak, whispered a harsh voice in his mind, and he shoved it away roughly. It wasn't his voice. It would never be his voice. "I don't mind. It actually looks like tons of fun and my book is… not."
Spencer glanced at the book. "It picks up more towards the end," he said with a half-smile, tilting his chin back towards his fort. "I'm having trouble with the structural integrity of the back wall. It's taking the weight of the sloped roof I need to stop from water or snow collecting, and I can't use the surroundings to remove tension like I can with the front supports."
Aaron examined it. "What if you don't have a back wall?" he suggested, inching closer, keeping an eye on Spencer's reaction to make sure the kid wasn't intimidated by how close he was getting. He didn't seem to be. A bit wide-eyed and confused by Aaron's idea, but not frightened.
"We'd have pile of broken branches, probably with me inside it," Spencer replied, "That doesn't sound fun." It was almost a teasing tone, and he flushed red at it.
"Or, we could shift it back a bit and have the fence as the back wall?" Aaron moved forward, illustrating what he meant with his hands, forgetting his caution. "See, and just have it incline like this, and then you can do this—" He sprawled onto the fence, grinning up at the other boy. "Comfy. In built hammock-thing. Come on, try it!"
It was a thoughtless gesture, like something he'd do with Tony or Elliot, not this kid he didn't even know. He reached up and grabbed Spencer's shirt, tugging him forward onto the fence with an oomf, sneakers scuffing the dirt.
Spencer twitched, eyed him, and… flopped down on his belly with a soft hmm, pressing his nose to the chain-link and staring down without fear to the drop below. "This could work," he mumbled into the fence. "This could work brilliantly."
"You're welcome." Aaron craned his neck back, squinting at the painfully bright sky through the thin leaves ahead. "That's what I do. Lead Rhosgobel to brilliance."
"Rhosgobel is a place," Spencer said finally, lifting his head. Aaron snorted at the chain-link impression on his forehead, earning a scowl. "Lord of the Rings. Well, sort of… it's only mentioned a little. The forest where Rada—I'm being boring, I'm sorry, I'll… not."
It was a weird flip. He'd gone from rambling and excited to bright red and miserable looking. Aaron knew that feeling. It was the same one he had whenever he'd overstepped at home, gotten too excited about something that didn't fit into what his dad thought he should be interested in, and Sean never helped… "Lord of the Rings, huh?" he asked, standing with difficulty, Spencer bouncing and sliding down the fence as it protested the weight shift. "Big book for a kid. That's cool."
His answer was a cocked eyebrow. "Why do you call me that?" Spencer said, standing as well and brushing his pants down. "'Kid'. I'm the same age as you. Within a year, anyway."
Aaron blinked. "But you're—" Short? Scrawny? Tiny? Barely up to Aaron's chin? All of the above? "—really?"
"Ten in October," Spencer replied quietly. "We're both just kids."
Aaron wasn't so sure about that. Sean had said it, as he'd left. You gotta grow up and stop expecting people to help you out just because you're a kid. But then he'd run away, and Aaron knew that that was more childish than anything he'd ever done. Running away was wrong.
"I'm not a kid," he said instead, and to cover the awkward bubble of emotions in his stomach he worried was showing on his face, he slugged the other boy's arm, ignoring his protesting ow. "Come on. We gotta move this before it gets dark in case the wind picks up tonight."
Spencer rubbed his arm, frowning. "Is that normal?" he asked. "Physical violence to show comradery?" He paused. "You didn't tell me your birthday."
"Yes, I don't know, I guess so?" Aaron grunted, hefting one corner of the rough structure up, fingers tight on the smooth bark of the branches. "And I'm not going to. You're so clever, guess it. I have to keep some mystery; you know? Grab that corner, come on."
His only reply was another raised eyebrow and a muttered, "Sure thing, boss."
On his way home that night, he detoured past the library again. The librarian looked up, smiled offhand at him, a little thrown that she'd seen him twice in the one week. He slunk past, unsure where to even begin to look. But after finally getting Spencer talking… well, after three hours of only following half of what he was talking about, Aaron was feeling a little out of his depth.
And a lot intrigued. He'd never known anyone this… well, clever? He guessed. There wasn't really words for the never-ending rush of information his new friend managed without stopping for breath.
But he was determined that tomorrow he'd have something to talk about. Because maybe Spencer still didn't think they were friends, but Aaron was utterly determined they would be.
"Excuse me?" he asked, standing on tiptoe to lean his arms on the front counter, elbow nudging the bell. The librarian beamed at him. "Do you have a copy of The Lord of the Rings?"