Someone Like True

IX

The apartment was silent save for the city sounds. Dusk had long come and gone, but Marlowe couldn't sleep. Beside him, nestled beneath the blankets, was his better half. Only a pale hand and silhouette of a perfect Adonis face could be made out.

His mind was a compartment of live wires, buzzing and electric that wouldn't let him sleep. He'd agreed to meet Nick for coffee. Honestly, he wasn't sure why. True was right- he really didn't owe Nick anything. But he did owe it to himself.

It'd been so long since he saw his brother. Something about the entire situation felt ethereal, falsified somehow. Yet he couldn't bring himself to back out. This was something he needed to see through. Closure with this unknown era of his life was something that he'd always wondered about. How could life have been different if Nick had just been around? He could never be sure. But maybe he could start filling in some of the blanks.

A soft brush of fingertips on his arm pulled him out of his own head, tamed the live wires and brought him back to his boyfriend on a winters night.

"Why are you awake?" True's sleepy voice never failed to make Lowe feel warm and adoring. It was slightly low, scratchy, and almost pathetically whiney. In short, it was absolutely freaking adorable.

"Thinking."

"'Bout Nick?" The mumbled question was coupled with a shift on True's side of the bed. Soon enough, he was curled into Lowe's side, tucking the blanket around the two of them. The clock on the nightstand breathed one more minute away and read 1:33 in the morning.

"Yeah, about him." True pressed warm lips against Lowe's shoulder, coaxing Lowe's own lips to brush against True's temple.

"It'll either go well or it won't. But either way, you'll find a way to continue going on. It's not really about what happens, you know. It's about how you move on after that." True's words sometimes held so much more than Lowe could comprehend. Nonetheless, he hummed softly in response, turning to wrap his arms around True and tug him to lay down.

The blankets snug around them, he closed his eyes, his forehead pressed smoothly against True's, and his mind at ease as he fell asleep.