dusk • brance

.;14;.

luckily, when bruce got home his parents were gone at work. so after vance helped them a bit, the other two left, leaving bruce alone. his parents would be at work until midnight, so bruce would be alone until then.

he spent what seemed like an hour laying in his bed, but after hearing his front door creak open, then slam shut, he knew his one hour had really been five.

bruce stared back up at his ceiling, feeling his eyes begin to be heavy. he allowed them to shut, ready for sleep. however he was woken up just three hours later at the sound of a small banging.

he abruptly sat up in his bed, turning his head towards his window where the sound was coming from.

he waited a moment, seeing a small pebble bounce against his window, making a slight dinging noise before falling back to the ground.

bruce made his way towards the window. the numbness in his leg had gone away, so now he could walk almost normally. bruce opened his window and stuck his head out, only to get hit in the forehead with a smaller rock.

bruce silently gasped as he looked to the ground, seeing vance standing below at the ground.

"sorry," vance whisper-yelled. "it's fine, what the hell are you doing here?" bruce asked. "just wanted to uh.. i don't know, can you come down here, or could i get up somehow?" vance sounded desperate.

"yeah, wait there i'll come get you," bruce said as he shut his window. vance impatiently waited at the bottom of his window for bruce to come. he arrived just a minute later.

"come on," bruce said as he took vance's hand and dragged him inside. "bruce i-"

"be quiet! my parents will wake up" bruce whispered, cutting him off. he slowly shut the door, still holding onto vance's hand. "okay, okay, jeez," vance whispered back. bruce locked his front door and slowly walked up his stairs.

"you can let go of my hand now," vance whispered. bruce quickly dropped his hand, being thankful the darkness hid his pink cheeks. "sorry," bruce mumbled awkwardly.

"it's fine," vance said in a flat tone. when they reached the top of his stairs, bruce heard his parents' door being opened slowly as a figure stepped out.

bruce internally panicked as he quickly shoved vance into the first open room he could reach.

"bruce, honey? what are you doing up?" his mother asked quietly, wrapping her housecoat tightly around her waist. "i was just er.. getting water," bruce excused.

"i heard the front door open," erik pointed out. "right, sorry. i thought i saw something outside and wanted to check," bruce lied once again. he didn't really like lying to his mom, but what was he supposed to say? he had snuck a boy in, in the middle of the night? no way.

"oh, okay. well, get back to bed," she waved her hands at him, signalling for him to go back to him bedroom. erik walked back into her room and slowly shut the door.

bruce sighed out in relief as he opened the door to the room he had recently pushed vance into, and helped him out.

"sorry about that," bruce muttered as he directed vance out of that room and into his own. "no worries," is all vance told him.

"so, why'd you come here?" bruce asked, shutting his bedroom door. "just uh, wanted to tell you something," vance mumbled.

"it couldn't wait until the morning?" bruce asked tiredly. now that he was back into the comfort of his room, he was feeling tired again. "no, not really," vance spoke quietly.

"alright then, what is it?" bruce asked nervously. vance was starting to worry him, what was going on?

"i uh-" vance paused. he didn't want to wait until morning because he was worried he would change his mind and not tell bruce. he wanted to tell him. he needed to tell him.