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“Open hand or closed fist would be fine.
The blood is rare and sweet as cherry wine.”
He knocks on the door, excited to see Charlie after Christmas break. Oh how does he miss his boy. He doesn’t hear Charlie’s muffled “go away” before turning the knob.
His back to Knox, Charlie unpacks his suitcase and the other smiles as he finally gets to see even a shadow of Charlie after 3 weeks apart. He sneaks up and hugs him from behind, making effort to surprise him with a little jolt. Charlie says a cheerful “Hey!”, even when his stoic, slumped body says otherwise. Knox tries to peep at his face ,in hopes to land a kiss on the center of his lips and as if on cue, Charlie turns his head and pretends to look for a book. Knox scrunches his eyebrows, detecting something’s off.
“Charlie?” No response.
“Charlie.”
“What?” Charlie grumbles.
Knox, with a hint of annoyance, raises his voice a bar higher. “Charlie, look at me.” And Charlie, stubborn as ever, ignores him and absentmindedly organizing his desk, when there was hardly any mess.
Knox, now fully intrigued and irritated, walks up, tries to twist Charlie’s shoulders to face him and with enough force, he does. Knox then swallows a gasp when he sees his boyfriend in his entirety.
His face was the same as normal, looking handsome as ever, except inhabiting in his face is a nasty black and blue bruise, in it’s early stage, starting to form on his right cheekbone. Knox looks at his lip and sees it has a small cut as well, the wound looking deep enough that it must have bled.
“Who did this to you?” Knox softly asks, worry filling his throat that he could hardly speak. “Nobody, I fell” the other replies, shrugging his shoulders.
The anger that once dissipated, comes back to Knox “Don’t bullshit me, Charlie. You don’t get injuries like that when you fall”, his words falling onto deaf ears as Charlie continues to unpack, Knox’s mind goes through a rolodex of possible names; his first guess was Nolan, who must have gone a tad too far with the paddle but knowing that Charlie just arrived from home only meant…
“...did your parents do that?” he asks softly.
Charlie stiffens at the mention of his family and momentarily forgets about his luggage, which gave Knox all the confirmation he needed. Knox knew there were problems at home but he didn’t think it ever escalated to become physical. And while Charlie’s silence about his family is partly to be blamed, Knox can’t help but feel the the guilt weighing him down, mentally hitting himself for not seeing the signs that Charlie was showing on the days leading up to break. A thick silence envelope the both of them and all Charlie could say was “a hand is better than cup…or a knife”
If hell was real, this is what Knox felt like it might be. His heart drops to the floor and he’s pretty sure he can hear it clattering. Scums. All of them he thought. The thought that Charlie had to endure this for three weeks, the thought that Charlie will forever be scarred, the thought of him on a kitchen floor, crying, pleading…
Knox winces and with feeling overwhelmed with emotion, comes up to him and with an ever light touch, grazes his fingertips on Charlie’s face, being delicate like Charlie’s face was fine china. They rest foreheads and he could almost feel Charlie’s breath on his face and for a second, could feel this serenity both needed.
No hate, no anger, no thrown cups, just love. And Knox could cry thinking how someone so beautiful could endure such abuse and still make everyone smile. When both men can’t take it any longer, they hug with an embrace so warm that it brought comfort. Knox hugs tightly to pour out all the love he could muster in every part and every cell in his body and transfer it to the other and within a few seconds, Charlie sobs on Knox’s shirt as the flood gates swing open, his emotions taking the better end of him. He cries out all the frustrations and all the sorrow in his heart that pent up over the last few weeks, and with his eyes brimming with tears as well, all Knox does is hug just a little longer and just a little tighter.
So this is what home feels like, Charlie realizes.