Kik Me, I'm Irish

Too tired

Mark looked like shit.

That was the first thought that came to Sean's mind as soon as he saw Marks rumpled clothes and red rimmed eyes. When he saw the greasy state of Marks hair. When he saw how tired and worn Mark looked.

And it was the first time he had ever seen him that way.

Mark had always seemed to Sean to be immovable. The set in stone man, who was muscular, and angry, and sweet when he wasn't being an idiot, and kind when Sean was hurt by others.

Mark was the one who had caused Sean so much pain for years, but Sean had to think hard to remember when that was, as the person who stood in front of him was barely a ghost of who he once was.

Its amazing what two weeks can do.

"Can I come in?"

Marks voice, broken and vulnerable forced its way to Sean's thoughts, as quiet as it was. He blinked, his focus switching from how much of a mess Mark looked, to how sad he sounded as he spoke.

Sean stood back from the door. "Sure" he said, expressionless. He was curious now as to what Mark was doing on his doorstep. It wasn't exactly normal for Mark to simply drop by, unannounced, especially in the past while.

Mark muttered a quiet "Thanks." And squeezed by Sean, entering the hall. The two of them walked in silence to the sitting room, the loud locking of the door echoing, alongside their footsteps on the wooden floor.

Once they were sat on the couch, pretty much exactly thirty centimetres away from each other, as Sean recalled from the length of his school ruler.

It was over twenty minutes, and still neither of them spoke, both lost in their thoughts, unique to themselves. Both thinking only of each other, but in some ways harsher than others.

It was too silent.

Sean noted this, as he realised the quiet sound he had presumed was Marks breathing, was actually almost silent sobs, shaking his body with both the effort of crying and the attempt to keep it quiet.

Not knowing what to do, Sean broke the thirty centimetre gap between them, and took Mark into his arms, holding him close. For the first time in the past few weeks, instead of wishing harm upon Mark, Sean instead wished for him to only smile once more.