Connected To Him (ManxMan)

Part 1: High School Days

(A/N: Please read through the end, it gives a nice bit of context for the first part :))

"In all the wild world, / there is no more desperate a creature, / than a human being / on the verge of losing love." ~ Atticus

"It's not the goodbye that hurts, it's the flashbacks and memories that follow" ~ Unknown

Part 1: High School Days

A deep sigh left his lips as he came up to the front door. His day has been long with assignments being given left and right and countless clients that needed to be attended to.

He loved consulting and getting to interact with tons of different people and computer program challenges every day, but it was a stressful job at times. Today, he ended up staying at work for over two hours later than usual. Now, he found his feet dragging the floor as he walked.

Ethan's dirty blond hair was tousled, the long strands hanging around his wide face. His soft jaw was littered with the remains of not shaving for a couple of days and his eyes ached a bit from exhaustion.

His broad shoulders were slouched down and his short, lean body was barely staying up. Gosh, he was tired. He could have been having delusions with how vividly he was imagining his bed right now.

Ethan wondered if Clark was still up or if he had retreated to his room already. He pulled out his phone, checking the time, and assumed that Clark would still be awake. He doubted that the teen would be jumping into bed any time soon.

Ethan wasn't sure if Clark would feel like talking to him when he saw him or just leave him in peace. Either way, he was tired and hoped that he would be able to get into the apartment, and possibly his room, without interacting too much.

To do this, he entered the apartment quietly and attempted to slide in invisibly. His stomach was clenched tightly as he tiptoed through the doorway. He was holding his breath and trying to carefully pull off his shoes, but all his efforts proved fruitless the second the door clicked shut. Clark immediately heard and was running into the entryway to find him.

There was a bright smile on his face when he saw Ethan and at the sight of it, Ethan relaxed. It was nice to see Clark happy after all that he had been through, and Ethan suspected a part of his happiness was the frequent messages he had been exchanging with his parents.

A couple of years back, Ethan had met Clark on the streets of Toronto and decided that he would take him in and treat him as some sort of brother. Clark had been on the street because he had run away from his hometown and hadn't kept in touch. In recent months, Clark had rekindled to relationship and was happier than ever. Plus, Clark's boyfriend Santiago certainly didn't harm the efforts by meeting up with Clark any chance he got.

"Hey, Ethan. How was work? You were out pretty late." Clark said energetically, moving to take the bag from Ethan's hand and put it over his own shoulder. Ethan rolled his shoulders and released the invisible tension with a deep exhale, happy to have the weight off of him.

"Stressful." Ethan supplied with a short chuckle. He finally got his shoes off and was rolling his ankles. "Was kept busy all day and I still have some stuff I should do while I eat dinner."

Clark winced, unable to imagine what work Ethan could be doing. Clark would frequently talk about how he would never be able to work with computers as Ethan did. And, whenever he happened to glance at the work Ethan had, he would pale.

"Don't they have other employees where you work?" Clark asked as he and Ethan walked into the living room. Ethan shrugged while he unbuttoned the top buttons on his shirt and rolled up his sleeves.