Blue ain't your colour (It is mine)

11

Adam stood to his word and returned the rest of the painkillers to the doctor when he went to get his foot and arm checked. His ankle seemed to be healing alright, but getting the bandage on his arm changed was a painful process. Even with the secret assistance of his ice it took a lot of deep breathing and self-control to not cry out and freeze the medical assistant into the next century. When he was finally done, he started roaming the ship in search of a distraction from the disturbing sensation of ice and fire carrying out a battle underneath his burnt skin. It was weird to not be on duty. For as long as he could remember, he had hardly spent a day aboard the ship without something to do. But today, Chance threw him out of his office and told him to rest, Tim was working and Rob was asleep, resting himself for the show and the late shift. He resolved to go and look for Austin. He already had a fairly good idea where the younger man might be spending his break.

Austin threw him a small smile when he stepped through the glass door out into the open. The wind was stronger here at the bow of the ship, blowing the hair out of Adam's face and letting Austin's golden curls dance in the pale sunlight. For the first time he realized what a beautiful day it was.
"Nice weather, huh," he said with a grin. Austin snorted. "You're a dork, Adam, you know that? Tim was right."
"He has his moments."
Adam went to stand next to Austin. He winced slightly when his right hand accidentally brushed the railing. The younger man's eyes were drawn to the bandage. "How's your arm?"
Adam shrugged. "Feels nasty, to be honest, but it's better than before."
"I'm so sorry... if I hadn't been such a clumsy idiot, you wouldn't have gotten hurt." Austin looked incredibly contrite.
"Nah, don't take all the credit, I was just as bad. I mean, there was no need for me to lose my balance after catching you, was there?"
"Still..."
Adam shook his head. "Please don't beat yourself up over it. I would do it again; at least you didn't crash into the cabinets or head first into a pile of cutlery." He was only partly joking.
Austin sighed and looked down into the churning water. There didn't seem to be a way to dissuade him from feeling guilty. Instead, Adam did something he had been meaning to try again since that moment in the kitchens. He extended his good hand and put it on top of Austin's right, which rested on the cold railing.

This time, he was prepared for the violent onslaught of coldness, the empty and desolate sensation. 'What has happened to you?' he wondered silently. He had seen the warmth and the light in Austin's eyes when he had been singing and laughing with them on Christmas Eve. He couldn't begin to imagine what had the power to take this away, turn it ice cold.

It might not be his place, yet he had to ask. But where to start? Finally, he settled on "Why did you leave, the other evening? You know, the performance?" Austin sighed and shook his head, somewhat impatiently. "It was nothing. I was being stupid." Annoyance and self-deprecation were in his voice, but the pained expression in his eyes told a different story. So Adam just waited, looking at his friend in silence. He absently played with his fingers, and when he continued speaking, his words were slow and heavy.

"The song you were singing. Do you remember it?"
The song? Adam frowned in thought. He hadn't done anything special that night, just the usual repertoire, and he wasn't completely sure which one he'd been singing when Austin left. It couldn't have been too old, he still had to concentrate on the words – oh, right! There was one fairly recent song that had been increasing in popularity lately, 'climbing the charts' if you could take Tim's word for it. The bass was the only one of their group who bothered with buying that music magazine, Billboard. Whenever they had time to go ashore during one of their stops, he would unfailingly return with the latest issue, informing the rest of them about the most popular songs of the past weeks and adjusting their show accordingly. Last time that had happened was at the start of December, when Austin had come aboard. 

"You mean the new one by Guy Mitchell? 'Singing the Blues?'" He started humming the melody under his breath. Austin nodded, looking embarrassed. "Look, I told you it was stupid." Adam stopped humming and looked at him questioningly. Austin picked up where he had left off, supplying the end of the verse.