(Closed to Gabe - Sirens Gone Wild plot~)

[freefromsin]

Caleb wakes up with the overwhelming feeling that he needs to see Gabe.

It's one step away from thinking Gabe is in trouble, that urgent. There's no explanation, but the panic, the desperation, the longing are a physical ache in his chest that's impossible to ignore. He scrambles from bed, pulling on shoes while stumbling for the bathroom to take a quick piss. He manages a five second teeth brushing, but doesn't bother with his hair. He went to bed in cotton shorts and a tank top and he figures he's dressed well enough, he doesn't have time to change, he has to go.

He slips quickly and silently out of the house. It's pouring but that doesn't stop him from sprinting down the driveway to the sidewalk. It's a brisk five or ten minute jog to Mira's house, and surely the most exercise he's had in awhile, but he hardly notices. He's panting and drenched by the time he reaches their block. Shivering, he rubs a frantic hand over the back of his neck; it's early and he doesn't want to piss Mira's family off by knocking at the door and potentially waking anyone up, but he needs Gabe. Gabe needs him, he just knows it.

After some manic pacing in front of Mira's house, he finally walks to the porch and gives a determined knock. Or two.

...Three when no one answers right away.

Comments

[freefromsin]

Caleb feels a flush of guilt, because he'd kissed other boys - and more - after Gabe had disappeared. It wasn't the same, it wasn't near as good, but he'd wanted to know what it would be like. He doesn't say so, though. There's no reason to tell Gabe.

"Would it be so scandalous that I stayed over?" he asks with a small grin. "Nothing happened."

[overdrawing]

No, Gabe realizes, shaking his head slowly. It occurs to him just then that that isn't what he's concerned over. "Just worried it'd be rude, inviting you over when I'm their guest," he admits shyly.

[freefromsin]

Caleb thumbs at the skin between Gabe's eyebrows. "Careful, or you'll get lines for all the worrying you do."

He stretches, and then just flops closer to Gabe, resting an arm loosely around him. "Mira said it was fine, but I'm okay with hiding out here until they leave. ...They do go to work, right?" He didn't have a shift until noon, so he wasn't in a hurry to leave.

[overdrawing]

That provokes a laugh out of him and Gabe ducks his head, blushing a little.

"Just stay here. I don't want to get going or anything. I don't need to."

[freefromsin]

"Okay. Right here," Caleb says, smiling warmly and gazing across the pillow at Gabe.

He realizes, then, that they're laying on the floor when there's an even more comfortable bed available to them. "...We could probably move to the bed, though. No reason to stay down here." He sits up, stretching again, and scrubs a hand through his hair.

[overdrawing]

"Okay, right there," he says, shuffling reluctantly away only so he can stand up. It shouldn't surprise him, Gabe realizes, how much more complete he feels just by having Caleb nearby to help.

"Thanks...for all of this."

[freefromsin]

"For what?" Caleb asks, laughter in his voice. Not cruel, just...happy.

He flops down on the bed on his back, scooting all the way over to the side to make room for Gabe. It isn't a very large bed, but it's enough for them to share comfortably if they don't mind laying close. Which Caleb absolutely does not.

[overdrawing]

"Finding me," he says again. Caleb found him in a lot of different ways and in the end, Gabe thinks he'll be grateful. He can't go back to the person he was or the family he had, but he has a new life here.

[freefromsin]

"Then thanks for wanting me to stay," Caleb says softly around the bloom of warmth in his chest and face, sitting up and taking Gabe's hand to pull him onto the bed with him.