Fighting Butterflies (BoyxBoy)

Twenty Three

"Ryan. Ryan, wake up! I know you're awake," the boy's father stated later into the night after his husband had gone to bed.

Ryan felt the side of the bed dip, indicating that his father had sat down next to him. He breathed in, finally aware that he couldn't pretend any longer, and opened his eyes. Slowly, the blond boy sat up and faced his dad.

"Here," said Henry, giving Ryan the heated-up bowl of chicken soup that Dan had made earlier. "Take that. You'll feel better soon."

"Thanks," Ryan whispered.

Henry licked his lips and breathed in silently as he watched Ryan take little spoonfuls of the soup. There was so much he wanted to talk to his son about, but even at his age, Henry wasn't sure where to start. It wasn't an easy conversation to begin with, especially when it had to do with falling out of love with somebody you cared so deeply about.

How exactly was he going to tell Ryan that his father had fallen out of love with his mother? Henry took another deep breath, which was much louder than he thought it would be, and made Ryan raise a brow at him.

"Everything okay?" the boy asked.

His father shook his head, giving him a small smile. "Of course, I'm just worried about you. How are you doing?"

Ryan shrugged. He was aware of his mistake and knew that he'd have a week of medicine to go through which he absolutely hated to think about, but luckily, he didn't feel too sick after waking up. "I'm okay," he answered. "I don't feel like my usual self, but I'm much better than I was when I got home."

Henry nodded, glad to hear that Ryan was okay. Still, it felt strange to hear Ryan speak to him as though their relationship wasn't strained. "Y'know, this is the longest sentence you've said to me in weeks."

Ryan gulped, suddenly guilty by the pain he heard in his dad's voice. "Well... it's not like I don't have a reason," he said slowly. He didn't mean to sound like a brat or a mean kid, he knew his dad loved and cared for him as any father would. He just didn't understand why his mother had to leave and why his father had to marry Dan.

"I understand. Really, I do. I just wish you'd let me explain without walking off whenever I try to talk to you."

"Is that why you locked the door when you came in?" Ryan asked, glancing toward the door of his bedroom and back at his father. "To keep me from walking out?"

Henry bit his lip. "You heard that, huh?"

Ryan rolled his eyes. "I'm sick. I'm not going anywhere."

His father nodded. He realized that this was Ryan's way of asking him to explain. The boy was never going to ask for answers outright, never going to mention what bothered him. They were alike in that way too, other than their features. Henry hated confrontations, and he hated to ask anyone for anything. It was why he had held out so long with Ryan's mom and ended up ruining their relationship when he could have just communicated and made things better. Of course, it didn't mean that they would've still been together if he had just talked to her, but maybe things between them could've ended somehow amicably, he thought.

He sighed, watching Ryan as the boy ate and finally decided now was the time to make things... somehow right.

"Did I ever tell you how I met your mother?"

Ryan cocked his head. "Yeah... you said you were a senior in college and she was a graduate assistant."

"Yeah," Henry nodded, slightly surprised that Ryan remembered that detail. Though he shouldn't have been that surprised, he realized. He and Susanne were the boy's parents after all. "Did I ever mention how beautiful I thought your mom was?"