Sean laughs nervously. “I don’t know. Just like… home. Like… home.” He runs his hands over his face and groans. “Oh, geez. Just ignore me, okay? I’m tired, I had a headache yesterday that I’m still getting over, and here I am just dropping this all on you like a crazy pers—”
“No,” Mike says, and he knows his eyes are wet. There’s nothing he can do about that now. “No. We’ve never met.” It’s easier than saying I’ve loved you before. I love you today. I’ll love you tomorrow. And every day after.
“Okay,” Sean says. “I guess… I don’
t know. You’re just… here. And I’m being weird, and I’m sorry. You didn’t come in here for this.”
“It’s okay,” he says, because it is. All of this is. “I don’t mind.”
Sean searches for something in his face, and he must find whatever he’s looking for, because that smile comes back, that beautiful smile that’s just for him. “You sure?” he asks, sounding shy.
“Yeah,” Mike says. He is.
“Yeah,” Sean says, and it’s like it’s a joke, like a little secret, just between them. “Come on, then. Let’s get you fed. Can’t have you starving to death.” He takes a step backward, never taking his eyes off Mike, like he’s afraid he’ll disappear the moment he looks away.
Mike knows that time is against them. That this won’t last forever. That one day, and maybe one day soon, one of them will be gone like they never existed at all. Maybe they’ll be lucky and go at the same time. Maybe they won’t. One day, it will happen.
But that day is not today.
Today, all is right in the little town of Amorea.
The sun is shining.
There are birds murmuring their songs in the trees.
And Sean is smiling at him like he’s the only thing in the world. “You wanna follow me, big guy?” he asks.
And with a bittersweet ache in his heart, Mike Frazier does the only thing he can.
He follows.