After the party, I went home, drowned my disappointment in some harder liquor, and tried to forget about Avian.
To say my attempt was unsuccessful would be an understatement: even after the night had long passed, I kept finding myself wondering about him. Where was he? Was he okay? Why had he seemed so damn scared? I wasn’t one of the more intimidating men on the planet, after all; I was tall and perhaps broader than average, but for the most part, my lengthy limbs didn’t have much strength behind them. Even if I had wanted to hurt Avian, I wouldn’t have posed much of a threat...
But why would Avian even think I would want to? I wouldn’t dream of it. I’d been dreaming of much different things—of holding Avian, dancing with him again, even just being near him would be enough at this point. I had never really had a crush of this calibre before, nothing so quickly or entirely consuming that I couldn’t learn to ignore it. But this was different, somehow; I felt like I needed to see Avian again.
Still, months passed with no sign of the beautiful, mysterious man. It was starting to seem like he had never even existed. I’d talked to Kael about it briefly, but he wasn’t sympathetic; there was no way anyone could possibly understand why I was so determined if they had never met Avian. There was just something about him that was captivating.
It was well into December. I was walking home from class, my mind to myself, when I spotted a figure leaning against a pole a block ahead. Normally, I would have thought nothing of it, but the sight of bare arms made me do a double-take: it was below freezing temperature outside, with a thick layer of snow over the ground, and I was freezing my ass off in a thick coat and scarf. Upon closer look, the body didn’t appear to be moving, and there was no bus stop nearby that I could recall. My brow furrowed as I approached, suddenly recognising the figure. It was him... I nearly forgot to breathe as excitement welled in my chest.
“Avian,” I called, but there was no response; he didn’t even move a muscle. I quickened my pace to a jog, calling his name again with the same lack of luck. It wasn’t until I was nearly close enough to touch him that I realised why he wasn’t responding: he was completely unconscious, propped up against the pole. Hesitantly, I placed my hands on his shoulders and shook him, but he didn’t stir. “Oh, come on, Av,” I muttered, looking around. I wasn’t sure if I could get in trouble for stealing an unconscious boy off the streets, but I wasn’t going to take any chances. On the other hand, having someone around to help me carry him back to my apartment might have been nice.
I looped his limp arms around my neck before winding my own arms around his waist. He was even slimmer than he looked, I recalled now; he bordered on unhealthily thin. He was more easily lifted than I’d anticipated, and I carted him off the ground and into my arms. His head rested lightly against my shoulder, black strands of hair falling across his face. It took almost everything I had not to kiss him again, but I knew better than to take advantage of this moment with no guard.
Even though he wasn’t heavy, I still wasn’t fit. By the time we’d reached my door, my arms were beginning to ache, and I could do little more than kick at the door and pray that Kael was listening.
Luckily, my prayer was quickly answered as the door swung open. “What the hell?” immediately spilled out of Kael’s mouth.
“Don’t ask; just help me get him on the couch,” I muttered.
Obediently, Kael also latched onto Avian, and we lowered him to the floor before carting him to the couch. We laid him down, and Kael bustled off to grab a blanket. As he returned, drawing the blanket around Avian’s shoulders, I pulled up a chair next to the still-unconscious form. I brushed my fingers across his calm face, dusting over his freckles. I couldn’t help but smile.
Unfortunately, Kael apparently wanted an explanation. “So?” he all but demanded, although his voice was quiet. His fingers tapped against his thigh, and I sighed; there was no getting around this.
“I found him outside,” I explained.
“Like this?” he asked, gesturing to Avian. I nodded, and he frowned. “You could have called for help.”
I struggled to find a legitimate reason I hadn’t—in reality, the thought merely hadn’t occurred to me. How could I have stopped to call for help, when I could help him myself? All I wanted was to take care of him and watch over him; he was too sweet not to care for.
Eventually, I realised I had absolutely nothing to say that would excuse myself, and I merely replied, “I didn’t think of it...”
“What do you mean, you didn’t think of it?” he asked.
“I don’t know, Kael,” I sighed. “It’s... complicated.”
“Complicated?”
I ran my hand back through my hair. “Do you remember me telling you about that guy I met at the party?”
“Wait, wait, this is him? I thought he’d be...”
“Thought he’d be what?” I urged, bristling a little.
“I don’t know. More lively?”
“He’s unconscious,” I pointed out dryly. “How lively can you expect him to be?”
“I don’t know,” he sighed back. “It just feels weird.”
“What does?”
“Having an unconscious person in the apartment doesn’t seem just a bit strange to you?”
I opened my mouth to respond, but my voice fled at the sound of a quiet groan from the couch’s springs as Avian shifted. His hazel eyes were open, dulled slightly by his bout of sleep, and he’d raised himself to sit. He was clutching the blanket around his arms, though it didn’t seem he’d figured out where he was.
“I don’t...” His eyes narrowed at me. “You’re... you’re that guy, from the party. Glenn.”
He remembered me... I cleared my throat to hide how much that affected me. “Yeah,” I said. “You were outside in the cold. I couldn’t leave you there.”
He shrugged. “Why not?”
“Why not,” I repeated. “You might have frozen to death.”
Avian only looked away, pulling the blanket tighter, and an awkward silence reigned. I didn’t know what else to say, particularly with Kael still hovering nearby, and Avian was clearly done talking to me. I couldn’t say I blamed him much; he had wanted to stay away from me, regardless of how I felt about the matter. He probably worried that I was going to become some sort of crazed stalker. It was probably not too far-fetched a fear, I supposed, with as strongly as I had come onto him previously, and considering the fact I’d brought him, unconscious, into my home.
