The next morning, Dirk awakes to find that Jake is already up and nowhere to be seen. Standing up, he gets dressed quickly and leaves the room. Hushed voices seem to echo through the house.
He makes his way down the hall and to the kitchen, where the voices are coming from. Jake and Roxy sit across from each other talking.
"And you think..." he trails off, a distant look.
"I think that if they don't already know that you are here," she says certainly, "they will find out soon." He shakes his head slowly.
"I don't understand," he says quietly, "why do they care?" He continues to slowly shakes his head, as if his denial will make it go away.
"I could easily be that they are mad at themselves for not seeing it and are taking it out on you," a touch of comfort in her voice. Dirk moves over a couple inches into the darkness that surrounds the outside of the door so he can see but cannot be seen.
"I do not want to be a burden," Jake looks up at Roxy with an apologetic look. "I can leave if-"
"No," she says cutting him off, "You are not a burden, stay as long as you need." He nods, giving her a thankful look.
"Thank you," his voice remains quiet. Seeing that the conversation probably won't progress much further, Dirk comes out of the shadows and steps through the door.
"I see you two are socializing," he says with a yawn, pretending like he had not been eavesdropping. Jake looks up at him and his lips turn up slightly in a smile.
"I was just telling Jake about the news," Roxy says, giving Dirk a look saying that she knew he was listening in even if Jake didn't. Jake's small smile turns into a frown and he cast his eyes to the table, where his hands were folded in front of him. Dirk sits down next to him and places a comforting hand on his. The dark-haired man doesn't look up at the other.
"And?" the blond directs his question at Roxy, not taking his eyes off of the younger.
"And," she says looking between the two, "I said that they are already pretty upset, they are bound to find where he is eventually. When that happens, I don't think that it would be very wise if you..." she gestures between the two. Jake, not looking up, pulls his hands from under Dirk's, letting them fall into his lap. Dirk clasps his hands in front of himself, training his eyes upon Roxy.
"A bunch of catholics," he says with an amused smile, "what's the worst they could do?"
"Anybody can do anything in the right situation," Jake says quietly. "I should know." All amusement vanishes from Dirk's face as he looks at the other for a moment before looking back at Roxy. Roxy leans back in her chair crossing her arms, and tilts her head toward Jake, not taking her eyes off of Dirk. He gives her a weary look before standing up and leaving the kitchen.
The pink-eyed girl looks at the man still sitting at her table before standing and retreating back into the house leaving him staring down at the table alone. The emerald-eyed man presses his forehead to his hands. He didn't know what they were going to do, but he didn't want to think about it. All he know was that it would probably not be good. He didn't want to think about it, but he knew that he had to come up with a way so that they would hurt the least amount of people.
Sighing, he doesn't move. He didn't want to move, he wanted to stay alone forever, at least that way nobody would get hurt. He also doesn't want to be alone, he wants to be with Dirk. He felt like, when they were together anything could happen, nobody could tell them not and nobody could hurt them, but he knew none of this was true.
Looking out the small kitchen window, he sees the quiet Sunday morning streets. Nobody would be coming today. He leans back, watching the birds fly past and the small children play on the street, and his mind begins to wander. A small, sad smile creases his face as he thinks back to his own childhood, before the incident. A voice in his mind kept asking if his little sister ever missed him, if she even remembered him. He ignored it, it was better this way, he repeated to himself, I won't be able to hurt her again.
He remembered every detail clearly, exactly of what happened. He had been playing with his double pistols, hunting small creatures he found and blowing them away like Lara Croft, from Tomb Raider, one of his favorite movies. He was walking back, holding his things, and he didn't see her laying down in the tall grass. She didn't hear him either; she was watching some show. Squidles, he remembers. He had tripped over her, dropping everything. His gun went off and grazed her head. He had to carry her back to his house. That was when they decided he needed more discipline.
She probably doesn't even remember how she got that scar. He puts his head down, closing his eyes tightly. He feels a hand on his shoulder, then someone squeezing him from behind, but he does not look up. Dirk kisses the top of his head, and Jake turns, putting his face in Dirk's shirt.
They stay that way for a long time, then go back to where Roxy was.
