||The Secrets We Keep|| - Salvis

Chapter XXII

Travis and Sal lay against the blanket softly, gazing up at the stars and pointing up at them one by one, stating some of the names of the constellations and sometimes giving some individual stars silly names. "Thank you for showing me this place, Travis. It means a lot to show me something so private to you, where you go by yourself." Sal hums suddenly in the middle of the moment, looking at him with a smile hidden underneath his prosthetic.
Travis grins, nodding wordlessly to him, squeezing Sal's hand gently. "I love stars, space, all of it. I came here all the time when I needed to be alone, but I feel like I should share this place with you. I feel safe with you knowing." he says, his words seeming to be only a few words to him due to the speed of the words, staring up at the moon and stars that he seems to can't quite reach.
Sal listens to him ramble, letting him speak as much as he wants and just listening to him. "It is very nice. It screams 'you'.'' He says after Travis finishes (That's what he said), and laughs when he sees a firefly go into Travis's hair, it lighting up.
Travis laughs, agreeing and feeling the firefly, lightly running a hand through his hair, making sure to be slow so the firefly gets off and swatting it away softly.
Eventually, Sal feels himself get tired, unsure of how much had passed, his grasp on Travis's hand loosening slightly as he drifts off. The side of Sal's head gently falls into Travis's shoulder, and Travis looks over at him swiftly upon the sudden contact. He relaxes at the sight of Sal asleep against him, their arms rubbing against each other and their hands still intertwined. He slowly adjusts his position so as to not wake him up, now laying on his side and bringing Sal closer into him. "Je vous aime, mon étoile." (Translation: I love you, my star.) Travis whispers in his mothers tongue, a small amount of relief holding onto him for saying it, even if Sal wouldnt understand if he was awake.
    He tries to ignore the shame of his feelings towards Sal in the first place, his heart racing as he finally comes to terms with it: he was in love with Sal. His father would kill him if he knew, but his father was gone for now, right? He was safe, and with Sal, and he can be himself around him. He reassures himself, wrapping his free arm around Sal and resting his face in his hair, not minding his chin lightly touching the top of Sal's prosthetic. Sal unconsciously moves closer, his small even breaths being felt against Travis and through his clothes. Travis hugs him, groaning quietly as feelings battle against each other in his head. He was always told that it was wrong to be in love with a boy. What is he going to do about this? But it wasn't false, and it wasn't wrong. It never was. He shoves away the clash between two different consciouses. He looked back down at Sal, who was still resting comfortably, and slowly sat up, bringing the smaller boy up with him. He makes sure Sal doesn't stir, letting him sleep and swaying them lightly, rubbing his back slowly. He holds him, his face burning lightly, electricity seeming to energize him. He lightly kisses the top of Sal's head before he can tell himself all the stuff wrong with doing so, closing his eyes. When he moves away, his face flushes in realization of what had just happened, gently putting Sal back down. He stands, taking steps away, staring at the still sleeping boy and hiding his face as his mind spins with billions of thoughts at how wrong it is to have done that, to feel like this towards Sal, especially him. His spiraling is interrupted when he sees Sal start to stir, jolting and going still. He spots Gizmo, still on the blanket and watching him, almost as if he has known and understood. Sal quietly groans from waking up, rubbing his eyes through his prosthetic and yawning. Once he finally opens his eyes, he focuses them onto Travis, who was standing a few feet away against the tree. He sits up, groggily muttering to him, "Trav...? What's wrong, and what time is it?"
    Travis stutters an inaudible ramble, his face burning red, though not able to be seen from the darkness of the night. He finally calms himself, taking a deep inhale before speaking clearly. " uh.. Nothing is wrong, Sal. Just quickly doing something. When do you want to head back? It is..-" he pauses to check the time on his phone, looking back at Sal and continuing once he sees it, "-9:03 at the moment."
    Travis puts his phone away to his pocket after staring at it for a moment longer, and Sal thinks before mumbling to him, fixing his messy hair. "We can leave in a minute, just need to wake up fully, sorry."
    Travis nods in understanding, giving a smile, hidden from the dark, most of the fireflies gone now since it had gotten later. Sal looks up at the shining stars that they had been naming not too long ago, hearing the chirps of crickets erupt around them. After a moment of silence between the two boys, Sal stands and stretches his body, readjusting his prosthetic onto his face. He looks at Travis, fixing his bangs. "Okay, I'm ready, we can go now." He hums, walking over to him though keeping a short distance between them, Gizmo following behind.
    Travis nods, avoiding the urge to take Sal's hand, shoving his hands in his pocket to get rid of the temptation, the cool air calming his warm face. He exits the field with Sal and Gizmo, watching as Sal takes out the hair ties that seemed entangled in his electric blue hair. Travis tries to keep his energy the same as before, acting as if what had happened, what he had done, never happened. For the sake of Sal, and the sake of what would happen if he let Sal and him get closer to eachother, not willing to risk it. (Yet ;])

Word count: 1057 words