Letting Him In

Chapter-42

"It's all me in my head
I'm the one who burned us down
But it's not what I meant
Sorry that I hurt you
I don't wanna do, I don't wanna do this to you
I don't wanna lose, I don't wanna lose this with you"

-Afterglow, Taylor Swift
________________________________________________________________________________

Elijah

It took a few minutes for Elijah to realize that the hand softly running through his hair wasn't part of a dream. A yawn escaped his lips as he peeled open his eyes, the dryness from crying before making his surroundings blur for a moment.

Crying. He seemed to be doing that a lot lately, and to be honest, he was getting tired of it.

"Hey," he mumbled, giving Dean a tiny smile.

"Hey," Dean's soft voice said as Elijah sat up, stretching his stiff limbs.

He winced his arm stung a little, dropping it back to his side. One look at it confirmed that it had been his IV, which was currently hooked to his second dose of chemo for the day.

"Careful there," Dean murmured, gently taking his hand, and rubbing the skin around the bandaged drip. "Are you okay?" he asked after a minute.

"It was just a slight sting," Elijah shrugged.

It had been a long day. His fight with Kaeden was still eating away at him, but right there, right now, he wanted to kiss his boyfriend.

So he did.

Leaning forward, Elijah pressed a soft kiss to Dean's lips, and the other boy immediately leaned into it, scooting closer and putting a hand on the back of Elijah's neck. He smiled into the kiss, pulling away to nuzzle his face in Dean's neck.

"That's not what I meant, Li, and you know it," Dean said, but didn't make a move to pull away. Instead, he ran soft circles along his back, his other hand resting in Elijah's wavy hair, and added, "I meant with everything that happened today. I was with Gray, and it was clear he said some pretty shitty things to you. So, are you okay?"

"You found him? Is he fine?" Elijah asked, immediately pulling back to look at Dean's face, his eyes wide.

"He's fine, babe," he reassured. "I'm asking about you."

Elijah looked away, his eyes darting to his lap before looking back up. "I'm fine," he shrugged, giving him a small smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "He didn't say anything that wasn't true, so it doesn't matter."

Dean sighed, his eyes softening.

"From the way Gray was talking, I have a hard time believing most of whatever he said was true," he said. "Even when he wasn't outright saying it, he looked guilty when he brought it up."

"Yeah, well, he shouldn't," Elijah muttered. "But I don't wanna talk about that, please."

Dean nodded, pushing back the blond locks falling into Elijah's eyes. "Okay."

Before either of them could say anything else, the door opened, and Dean immediately scooted away. Elijah felt almost sad, but it had been their mutual choice to not tell anyone just yet. Although Christian, Lily and Leo already did know, but still.

Raine came in, stopping short as she realized Elijah wasn't alone.

"I didn't know you had company," she said, before turning her attention to Dean. "Dean, right?"

He nodded, giving her a polite smile. "Good to see you, Mrs. Gray."

"Call me Raine," she said, coming inside. "I just came by to check on Elijah."