Hi everyone. Thank you to everyone who has favorite and followed this story ^_^ Thanks as always to fiercetiger333 for all your lovely reviews and comments! ^_^ I also just want to again say a massive thank you to all of you who favourite and followed this story! You're all so amazing ^_^ Have a nice day/night wherever you are. Warning: Story contains boyxboy, swearing, scenes of violence.
Crunching of snow filled the air as through the dense blanket and labyrinth of trees, three figures gently made their way along the forgotten path on their extending never ending journey. Three of them almost linked together by their hands as they were huddled together in the gentle fall of snow flakes. The only ounce of colour which was showing was the fading brown bark of the trees.
Newt was huddled underneath a blanket, trembling slightly against the cold as he thought jealously about the three they had just left back in the cabin with such a warmth and comfort of a bed and fire. But he knew that they had to leave, the three had the respectful wish that they shouldn't be part of the pack which Newt, Thomas and even Fox was a part of. After their sweet comfort and all that they had been given. The three boys even vacating their home cabin so that Fox could recuperate and Newt could heal. It was only fair right now that Newt and the other two respect the wishes of the boys.
"Bloody hell. It's cold enough out here to freeze your bleeding dick off!" He growled, pulling the blanket around himself closer. His normally dirty blond hair was decorated with cold perfect flakes of snow. His cheeks were puffed out a rose red but certainly not from any blush this time around. Even so with his eyelashes cold as they blinked down lightly on his cheek and the cold of the winter trembled in his bones. He could help but smile internally as he looked over to where Thomas was taking it slow and careful, his eyes locked onto Newt and Fox with every step that they all took together.
Thomas had a blanket like the other two wrapped around his shoulders, making a hood out of it like he had done for Newt, he shielded himself from the fall of snowflakes, making heavy crunches into the snow and taking a slight step in front of the others, always to make sure that the path was clearing or to at least make a trail. To be honest, Thomas and Newt had an idea of the direction they were heading in, but other than that, everything was clouded over. Every tree stump looked the same, every inch of fallen snow seemed to be an eternal stretch in the same direction.
Fox though was now the worry of Newt. Though the blonde guessed, with the boy's new... problem. That maybe he would always be that now. The one thing that Fox never wanted. Not when he was Harry and not now when he is his forgotten self. He never wanted to be the porcelain doll of the group which they were in. He never wanted to be the weak link in the chain which made them up.
From the moment Newt had met him and the boy had taken the bite of a Wicked for him. He had knew that Fox was special.
When he had held the boy and gently washed him free of his burns, cooing softly he had felt his heart slowly burn and spark to life again.
"S-Shove off Newt." Fox muttered jolting slightly with a flinch.
The blonde hadn't even realized that he had reached out and gently caressed Fox's neck, gently pulling the clothing around his body slightly tighter to shield him from the cold. But he guessed he should have known to at least warn Fox.
For the obvious reasons.
"Sorry." Newt sighed gently and watched as Thomas took a step closer. The taller boy standing sentient as always over both of them like their own personal body guard. Nothing escaped his soft, dark eyes. Especially when it came to either Fox or Newt now. "Sorry." He said gently, wrapping an arm around Fox's waist and sharply pulling the boy out the way of a tree, which he had been about to walk into.
Fox growled slightly under his breath, bawling his fists as he pulled his covers closer around himself. His eyes danced about, for the first time showing the severity of his condition. The red head cried out slightly, flinching back only into Thomas' arms as the taller brunette closed his arms on him, grabbing him from either side. "It was just a tree." Thomas said softly. "You have to slow down and calm down."
"Your feet!" Newt exclaimed.
Thomas glared down slowly, his eyes a little sad but he had guessed that it would have gone like this.
Fox's feet were almost blue with the bite from the snow.
"You can't carry on like this." Thomas said softly, gripping Fox's arm a little tighter as the boy gritted his teeth. The black brands on his face stood out about as much as the red on his cheeks. The boy may have been blind but he seemed to be growing more and more cautious with just exactly how much he said. With what emotion that he allowed to show. With just how much of himself he gave away.
He was becoming colder, harder and altogether less and less like the boy that either Thomas or Newt knew.
"We're about two hours or so out from the camp. You look like you've got about five minutes or so before those feet freeze solid." Thomas stated.
"Which basically means." Newt grinned as a sparkle of mischief grew between his and Tommy's eyes.
"That we're just gonna have to find out another way to get you back to the camp."
Newt made a mental note later to check where Fox learnt such foul language from, because as Thomas grabbed the boy and lifted him up onto his shoulders as a piggyback, Fox unleashed quite a few expressive exclamations about something that Thomas and Newt anatomically wouldn't be able to do. So for the sake of conversation. Newt would replace certain words that Fox used, with the word 'puppy'.
"You two 'puppies' put me down right now! Before I kick you in your 'puppy' face, you two, 'puppy' faced, short 'puppy', sons of 'puppies!' then go and 'puppy' yourselves!"
"I'm getting just the smallest hint that he's not entirely happy with us doing this." Newt grinned like a Cheshire cat.
"You blond shuck! Let me down right now! I can walk!"
"Oh great, we're all bloody inspired." Newt rolled his eyes as he wrapped their last blanket around Fox's feet. Rubbing the frost and snow off of them first and listening to how Fox albeit unwillingly, purred at the warmth kindled into him. "I think we should change your name to Kitten." Newt smirked, watching a blush explode across Fox's face.
"I am a hunter! I am the cursed puppeteer! I will end you!"
"Yeah, yeah." Newt laughed, watching at how both Fox and Thomas had froze for the briefest of seconds.
Had Newt not known himself or the other two better, then he probably would have thought nothing of it. It had been such a small lapse that it could have hardly been noticed by any other eye. But Newt had grown increasingly used to having to see through people. Especially when it came to Tommy and even more so to Fox.
That's why when he watched Fox just go back to a quiet glare and pout his lips slightly in indignation, while Thomas laughed, smiling from ear to ear, Newt just put on a smile, keeping it up for the other two. He still wondered what had been that single briefest moment of hesitation. What had it been that Fox had said which had caused both him and Thomas to look like that.
He let out a quiet sigh under his breath, watching the other two out the corner of his eye as Thomas continued to laugh and Fox cuss both of them.
More secrets.
-Break-
Newt smiled to himself as he watched Fox slumped forward on Thomas' shoulder, sleeping soundly while Thomas hummed gently. "Seems you found the best way to calm our little kitten." Newt mused, watching how Fox's breath came out in small misty puffs. With those black marks on his cheek, he really was like an adorable little kitten. Newt knew to say such a thing aloud meant a beating from Fox and not the good kind.
"You realize he will kill you, if you embarrass him by calling him that in front of people?" Thomas grinned, speaking as softly as Newt but keeping up the tune of a soft hum between what he said.
"Oh, he thinks that. But we both know that he's too stubborn too. His bite is worse than his bark."
"I think you got those the wrong way around-"
"Oh no." Newt grinned, his eyes sparkling brightly with amusement. "I know what I said." He looked back at the soft sleeping face. He ran a hand slowly through the crimson spikes of hair which fell as a fringe over Fox's right eye. They felt soft as silk under Newt's fingertips but slightly and strangely warm... no probably just his mind playing tricks on him. "Although he may not like to show it. The little Kitten does have a heart. The one thing that he would never do, is harm those who he loves. That's why he stayed away from me when he thought that we both were... you know."
"Ah. Yes." Thomas sighed and nodded.
Newt could still see the sadness in Thomas eyes at the thought of what had happened to them over the period of the last five weeks. It had all just been so confusing, all of it so strange, so-
"Hang on." Newt frowned deeply.
He reached out slowly to where Fox's hand rested limp against Thomas' chest. Something had caught Newt's eye before but he hadn't said anything, thinking that maybe it had been something simple as maybe a sprain. But now he could see it a lot clearer. Along the length of Fox's forearm, a long angry stretch of lines, some crisscrossed. They were all too even and exactly placed to be something simple as a cut.
The blond, using the lightest touch he could, slowly raised Fox's arm to get a better look at the markings, seeing how far they stretched, or the extent of just how much they were bleeding. They didn't look too deep on appearance. Well, at least beneath the cover of the bandages they didn't. "I'm growing more and more sick of these secrets, Thomas." He said quietly, shoveling a handful of snow and then placing it against the bleeding patches on the white material.
"Is it a secret if it wasn't mine to tell?"
"Aren't all secrets that?" Newt returned quickly, staring out across the distance.
He fumbled for a minute in the snow, digging around till he found a loose rock and hurled it directly above him, watching for a moment as it vanished completely, before coming back down with a heavy thud. "We're at the edge of the camp. We're about fifteen or so minutes from home. Which means..." He turned slowly and drew a deep line in the snow. "This is where I make my stand Tommy." He said, a sudden hardness etching itself into his eyes. "You finally tell me everything, or I turn around right now. I swear I'll take Fox with me and I'll leave you here. You're not telling me something Tommy!"
"Just as you're not telling Fox something. Something you want to spare him, because he can't remember how he got here, you want to make sure that he stay's ignorant of it. But you can't Newt, because we both know you don't have that right."
"How do you think that I'd begin that conversation." The blond stated, walking forward so he was face to face with Thomas, his arms ready to snatch out and claim Fox. His eyes was locked on that soft, slumbering face. So innocent of the truth. How could Newt break that innocence?
He didn't want Fox to bear in the burden which Newt and everyone else around here shared.
No person should have to burden that.
"Maybe with the complete truth."
"Throwing stones in glass houses there Tommy."
Both stood there, either side of the line, staring the other down. Unspoken words, dividing the line all the more between them.
"Fine then you want me to start explaining?" Thomas said softly, crushing his foot down slowly onto the snow line as he took a step forward. Newt's eyes locked onto him, studying him, completely.
"Fox was honest with us. It's only fair we're honest with each other."
"Agreed." Thomas nodded, raising Fox on his back slightly so that the smaller boy was comfy. "The look from before. The one that you've been dying to ask me about for the last two hours." Thomas grinned slightly watching a momentary burst of shock go through Newt's eyes. "Please. Did you really think that I didn't notice? I know you Newt. Your curiosity is like that of our little kitten." Thomas grinned and watched the blonde tense his body. He let out a sigh and slowly looked back up at Newt. "There's a lot still I haven't told you. Especially about the part of the story of how me and the Kitten got here. Unfortunately, before me and him got here, the poor kitten had to deal with his own horrors. "
"The Cursed Puppeteer." Newt recalled, frowning upon the name as he thought about it.
It reminded him... actually, he remembered back in the forest. Not long after he had found Tommy. In the forest when they had almost been ambushed. Fox had set a trap for those who would call themselves his soldiers.
Thomas nodded, his eyes set on the ground for a long drawn out moment. "That was the nickname that people gave to our little Kitten." Thomas gaze snapped back up. "I look like that because-"
"You think that if the Kitten can remember that, maybe even subconsciously, then he could remember everything else." Newt said softly, his eyes easing up as he followed Thomas train of thought down it's path. "You think that he could truly remember you and everything that happened."
"Not all of it. Some of it is way better off forgotten. Some people are-" Thomas skimmed over his word his eyes becoming harder again. "Somethings, are better forgotten."
"What do you-"
"I answered that truth Newt. Now it's your turn." Thomas stated firmly.
"And that truth would be?"
"What do you want now?"
Newt froze in place, his mouth slightly agape.
"Wh-What do you mean?" The blond stammered, a blush painting his cheeks as he looked into Thomas' eyes.
"You know my blond angel." The boy returned, looking over his shoulder slightly at their little Kitten who both held dear. "Back when Fox came home to us. That night the three of us slept together that way. Then every night since Fox returned to us again. The three of us have been together. What am I supposed to think Newt-"
"What am I supposed to say! That I-"
"That you're in love with Fox." Thomas said in a matter of fact tone. "Or that you're still in love with me?"
Newt stared again, letting the winter wind roll him by, coldly biting into him and brushing his golden hair upwards for a long moment. His heart labored and burned with the answer. The words slid through his throat, desperately trying to clutch their way back to stay hidden. The truth he had been holding back from the moment that he had seen Thomas, or the moment that he had laid with Fox in his arms and Thomas next to him.
"Both." He answered.
Thomas smiled softly.
"Now your turn." Newt snapped coldly. The embarrassment at having the truth finally out and exposed. The truth that he had been trying to understand for over the last month, the truth that he had quietly conceded to those who had hosted them when he had looked for advice on what to do.
The truth that he was in love with both boys.
The truth that from the moment he had held their little Kitten in his arms. From the moment that he had seen the once blond boy leap like a gazelle and fight one of The Wicked, even as the boy had burnt and almost danced in his fight with the fire. From every single moment that Newt had nearly kissed the boy, held him, watched him. Newt had fallen in love with him.
From the moment that he had watched his Tommy come out of the box in the maze. To the moment that one night during the camp fire after a drink, Thomas had looked at him, smiling like an idiot with half lidded eyes till Newt had lent in and kissed him slowly and sweetly, unable to stop laughing with happiness afterwards as he and Tommy had kissed more. He had known he loved him.
Now Newt sat here, his heart not fighting for love with one or the other but only spread itself with equal and growing love for both boys.
Thomas smiled a little sadly as he could already feel the words coming from Newt, even before the blond had thought to ask the question and demand the truth.
"Why do you care so much about the Kitten! What aren't you telling me! What are you to him!"
"Well." Thomas smiled and Newt could tell it was a sad one and yet one of such a fond memory. "That is the part of the story which I hadn't gotten around to telling you yet. Officially, you could say that I'm Fox's Fiance. Unofficially I guess you could say."
Thomas smiled as he looked at Newt, laughing slightly as he said it.
"I'm his husband?"