Aidan

The minute he had cried in James' arms, Aidan had known everything had changed. James was there for him without expecting anything in return. It was a foreign feeling for Aidan. To surrender to his emotions, to confide in someone. James had witnessed him breaking and he had not turned away. He had offered him a space to exist without fear or shame. And then he had supported him, listened to him.

Like a friend. Something Aidan had never had and never thought he could have. Aidan had talked to James about his life, not without difficulty at first because he felt exposed, but he trusted him and he felt understood.

It had been so unexpectedly comfortable Aidan was afraid it would not last. Hours had passed and he was over the shock. As he recovered, his thoughts were now free to whirl again in his mind and he almost feared to move or to do anything that could break the safe and warm space that had formed around them.

It felt right. It didn't before. There had always been something off. Now he couldn't help to believe he was not alone anymore.

"I'm sorry," Aidan finally said, without any plan about what words would come next.

James locked his eyes on him. "It was half a century ago. It's fine. I'm over it."

Aidan took a step forward. "No, but I shouldn't have left like that. I... I was lost. I didn't understand what I was... feeling. But it was not fair to you. I didn't want to hurt you."

James rolled his eyes and laughed.

Aidan tried again. "No, I know I did it anyway, but..."

"Listen. When I saw you yesterday with Stanislas, it became clearer to me. I understand what you tried to tell me. I just wish you would have, instead of just leaving me. But at the same time, I don't know if I would have been able to hear it back then and I do know I could not have talked to you like that either. Time has passed. We've changed. So, bygones, right?"

Aidan looked around and ran a hand in his hair awkwardly. "Yes. Bygones."

James felt there was something more Aidan wanted to say. "What?"

"Thank you for being there for me last night," Aidan said, lifting up his head and looking him in the eyes.

"That's what friends are here for, right? You were there for me too, remember? Well, sure, just for a minute, and then you ran away. But what can I say, I'm better than you."

James smiled mischievously and Aidan laughed. The sound surprised him as he had not heard it for such a long time. "You are."

"So now what? Do you want to go back to London?" James asked.

Flashes of his time with Rhys crossed Aidan's mind and the image of Stanislas despising smile. He shuddered. "I want to go as far as I can from here."

"Okay, then. Let's go."

"You mean... you would come with me?"

"Yes," James said as if it were obvious. "You don't think I'm going to stay in Bristol, right?"

"No, but I mean..."

"I know what you mean, love. You can't get rid of me so easily."

And Aidan laughed again.