Love Me Like You Do (Ianthony AU)

Chapter 22: Hurt.

~Ian's POV~

It was the next day that I received the phone call.

Anthony called me around nine at night, surprising me when his named showed up on my screen.

"I-Ian. Can I..can I come over?" He sounded close to tears as he spoke, voice hoarse and tired.

"Sure, but why exactly?"

He hung up, not giving me the answer I was expecting. I sighed, placed my phone on the coffee table and cleaning up the house a little bit before he got here. Gotta be presentable for Anthony, right?

When the knock on the door came, I was hovering nearby. I got it open, noticing the state Anthony was in stopped me in my tracks though. His hair was disheveled and he had a bruise swelling on his jaw line, another on his eye.

I covered my mouth to stop my gasp, swiftly ushering him inside without a word. I guided him, with a hand on his back, to my couch. He flopped down, head lowered in sadness as I sat myself so close next to him that our sides and legs were pressed against one another. Seeing him like this made me want to be close to him, to comfort him and keep him from harm.

I didn't want to pry into his life, but I just had to ask. "Anthony, who did this to you?"

His shoulders started to shake and I reacted fast, grabbing his right hand in my left and giving it a squeeze of comfort. "It-it was Sawyer and his buddies. I threw the first punch, so I guess I should have seen it coming." He let out a dry laugh after speaking, no humor contained in the sound I usually found so beautiful.

"Why were you getting into fistfights with Sawyer and company in the first place?"

"They were insulting you, Ian. When I tried to tell them off about it they..started saying all of the things I was afraid people would say. They called me a fag, weak. I just couldn't help myself." I didn't say another word, just pressing myself ever closer against him, fueling the feelings of connection between us.

I felt my heart deflate, he said this kind of thing would happen; that we would get made fun of. And now he had the bruises to prove that they weren't afraid to take it further then just name-calling. "Anthony, did you call the cops or anything?"

He chuckled that same hollow laugh. "And say what? Hey, can you arrest these people because I hit one of them and they all hit back harder? Yeah, that'll go over just great."

I sighed, getting up from the couch to go retrieve the first aid kit from my bathroom. I'm pretty sure I've got some bruise cream in there. When I sat on my knees in front of where Anthony stayed, he barely glanced at me. I took the cream out and put a little bit on my finger, instructing Anthony to look at me as I did so.

I reached forward slowly, carefully covering his bruises in the relieving cream. He sighed, leaning his head into my touch before I retracted my hand. "You got any scratches or anything?"

He shook his head which in turn lead me to put the bruise cream back in it's place in my kit and getting up to put it back in my bathroom.

When I came back out Anthony hadn't moved, I need to distract him somehow. "You hungry? We could order your favorite vegan pizza."

He shook his head. "Not hungry."

"Well what do you want to do then?"

He just shrugged his shoulders, causing me to let out a sigh of frustration. I sat back down on the couch, as close to him as I was previously. I leaned closer slowly, pressing my lips against his neck. He breathed in sharply and I knew I was accomplishing my goal. I left my lips there as my hand moved up to draw through his hair once before dropping back down to his arm again. He surprised me by coming to life all of a sudden, grabbing me by the waist and swinging me around to face him as I straddled him. I laughed as I looked into his eyes, one normal and the other ringed with purple. I leaned forward, putting my head against his neck as we sat contentedly.