Wake of the Dead | One

Chapter twenty-seven

The third morning since Jasper had left, Killian woke up to the sound of excitable shouting outside his motel room. It was early, so early that the sun wasn't even up yet. Knitting his brows together, he staggered up out of his bed and over to the door. Pushing away the barriers was difficult without help, but he was getting the hang of it. When that was out of the way, Killian's heart skipped a beat as he heard a familiar voice. "Jasper!" Killian almost tripped over himself to get out of the door and ran to where he saw the other man speaking with Tom. 

Right as Jasper turned around with surprise, Killian skidded to a halt with a big smile. Jasper laughed, and to Killian's annoyance, wrapped a big bear hug around him. Killian was fairly certain Jasper could just pick him up if he wanted to. A wave of relief washed over him when Jasper didn't, in fact, pick him up. Instead, the man pulled back and tousled his hair playfully. "Did you stay out of trouble while I was gone, Boy Scout?" Jasper's voice was warm, his blue eyes soft. That dumb smile made butterflies flutter around in his chest, making his heart race and having it hard to find words. 

Clearing his throat to hide his grin Killian muttered, "Yea, yea whatever. Did you?" He crossed his arms with narrowed eyes, looking Jasper up and down carefully. He scrutinized every single detail, looking over all the places his friend could have gotten hurt. Jasper appeared only to have a few scrapes here and there, nothing too major. When he was done fussing over the other man Killian demanded, "How did your mission go?" He had completely forgotten his anger about being left behind, that didn't really matter anymore because Jasper was back. He could see his friend again. 

There were a few moments of awkward silence, then Jasper simply let out a long sigh. "I'll tell everybody at the camp fire later," The other man relented, "But for now, I'm just happy to be back." Killian didn't want to look away from Jasper, almost as if looking away would make his friend disappear. Instead, Killian grabbed onto Jasper's arm and dragged him away from the others. Jasper only followed him because he wanted to; Killian knew full-well that he couldn't actually drag Jasper anywhere. For one, the other man was too big. For two, Jasper was a lot stronger than him. 

Something about Jasper avoiding the conversation of what happened while they were out made Killian a bit uneasy. His friend had always been honest with him, so why would he need to wait for the whole group to gather around and hear what he had to say? Maybe it would just be better to address everybody like that instead of repeating himself several times over. Or maybe the place the group was planning to raid was surrounded by a bunch of biters, and they needed to work out a good plan to take them out. Whatever it was, Killian hoped Jasper wasn't keeping anything too serious from him. 

Just to make sure, Killian still dragged him away from the others. When they reached the front of their room door, he faced Jasper with crossed arms. Killian hated the way he had to crane his neck up a bit to talk to Jasper. Silently cursing the other man and his tall genes Killian said, "You know whatever it is, you can tell me." He made sure to keep his tone blunt and firm. "If you're going to be my friend you can't keep secrets from me, Jasper." Something in Jasper's blue eyes changed the moment Killian said 'friend,' but he wasn't sure exactly what had. 

It somehow felt wrong to call Jasper just a friend. They were more than that, weren't they? They'd been through hell and back together. If they weren't friends though, what were they? That question made Killian's head hurt too much to think about. He looked up at Jasper when the other man let out a long, low sigh. Jasper hesitantly reached out to take Killian's hand and pushed open their motel room, closing the door behind them. Being alone with Jasper made Killian's heart speed up, a flush cover his cheeks. 

What Jasper said wasn't what Killian had expected to hear, "We ran into another group. The deal was helping them clear out a shopping center in the town, then we grab what we need and move on." His arms crossed, "I was going to tell Tom so he could address the rest of the group about it." Killian knit his brows together, the beginnings of a frown tugging at his lips. Making deals with other groups? That wasn't the smartest thing Jasper could have done. Just from Killian's expression, Jasper caught wind of exactly what his friend's thoughts were. "Yea, not smart, I know. But what else was I supposed to do?"