the killing kind - (lgbt | onc 2022)

6

word count: 2025
total word count: 13674

Kavi opened his eyes to darkness. Curses slipped from his mouth as he sat bolt upright, dislodging Jasper, who blearily came awake. The orange light of sunset was gone; through the missing slats in the barn wall, he could see stars.

"Fuck," he muttered, rubbing at his eyes. Drowsiness hung heavily in the corners of his mind, making him wish he could lie back down amidst the smells of hay and Jasper's old t-shirt and let his consciousness drift away again. "Fuck, we fell asleep."

Jasper sat up, running a hand through his short hair and blinking at his surroundings. "Laura—"

"Yeah, she'll be scared shitless. Let's go." Eyes adjusting to the darkness, Kavi got to his feet, wincing as his body protested. Apparently the top of a hay bale didn't make the softest bed.

"One sec." Jasper reached out and plucked a long spike of hay from Kavi's unruly mess of hair. His heart suddenly felt like it'd jump out of his chest.

"Thanks," he said weakly.

The dark streets of Ashwell appeared to be empty of soldiers, a small relief as Kavi urged Jasper into a sprint to the home they'd spent the second half of their lives so far in. They fell through the front door and into a small crowd.

Laura leapt from her spot at the table. "Where the hell have you two been? Are you alright?"

The grogginess from his nap made it hard for Kavi to muster the same urgency. "We're fine. We—found a place to hide."

The rest of Ashwell's council was there—a handful of adults, all of which Kavi had known since he first came to Ashwell nine years ago. Declan and Mandy hovered there as well, the latter watching Jasper warily.

"A pretty damn good place, apparently. We've been searching."

"I'm sorry." Kavi glanced between her and the rest of the group. "We didn't mean to be away for so long. Did they—did the soldiers leave?"

"Only after asking us all the same questions about twenty times." Jana pulled out a chair and slumped into it, looking exhausted.

Anxiety crept into Kavi's stomach. "You didn't tell them anything, did you?"

"We all insisted we hadn't seen anything. So far, though, that general was pretty determined not to reveal it's a person they're looking for, so we were able to use that to our advantage."

Kavi nodded and opened his mouth to speak.

"Kavi?"

The interruption was soft and nervous, but it got his attention faster than any shout would have. He turned to Jasper.

"Yeah?"

A pallor had fallen over the angles of his face, leaving him with that wide-eyed, trapped-animal look he'd worn when Kavi first saw him again in Declan's kitchen. He held his arms defensively around his body; with how close they were, Kavi could make out the involuntary twitching of his muscles under his shirt.

"Can we step outside?"

The anxiety spiked into a paralyzing pit of dread. Kavi struggled to keep his expression neutral, not wanting to send Jasper's impending panic into a spiral.

"Of course," he said, trying to muster as much confidence as he could. "Is it alright if I touch you?"

He got a half-nod that he briefly mistook for a tremor in response. He placed a hand on Jasper's elbow and pulled the front door open, gently manoeuvring him around the obstruction before glancing back at the people clustered in the dining room.