The Apprentice Assassin (Complete but editing) MxM

"Let's take a break Thomas," Alex suggested as Thomas wobbled slowly beside him. "It looks like you could use a second to catch your breath. You know I could always give you a li-"

"I can take care of myself!" Thomas spat back at him between ragged breaths. "It's not safe here. If a Cantorian finds us out in the open like this, we won't have a chance!" His pace began to slow as his breaths began to come more in gasps.

Stopping casually, Alex turned and looked at Thomas with concern. "Look I don't disagree with you, but you don't have the strength you're used to! It's a side effect of almost dying. Trust me, I've died many a times, and each time I wake up, I feel sluggish. This is your first time, so I understand! I want to get to safety as badly as you do, but I don't want you to pass out on the way! We've been keeping this pace for almost three hours. The inn is just over that hill. We can afford a ten minute breather."

"Maybe, just a few minutes..." Thomas mumbled before collapsing to his knees. "The sprint to the bunker, seemed much shorter, when they were getting away from Sarthon."

Alex let out a little chuckle and squatted down beside Thomas and looked at him with a strange glint in his eyes. "You know Thomas. If I didn't know better, I could swear you kissed me back at the hilltop. I mean call me crazy, but I think you have some feelings for me that you aren't telling me about." 

A small gasp echoed through the chilly morning air, and Thomas's cheeks began to burn. "I don't know what you're talking about. You keep going on about, how you want me to do these things to me-"

 "So you decide to do them to me instead?" Alex interrupted with sly grin.

"No, yes, I don't know!" Thomas clenched his fingers together, frustration beginning to leak into his voice. "You're the first person who has ever been so blunt with their intentions. With regular people I can see they are trying to flirt, I play oblivious, we both move on. Like that innkeeper, he wanted me so badly he was willing to risk his life for me. What did he get for trying to defend me? Death, Sarthon killed him in cold blood." His voice began to shake as a vibrating tone began ringing in his ears. "My commander dead, my squad mates dead, the innkeeper dead, hell even you died for me! Why is it that those who care about me die?" The ringing in his ears began ringing louder, making Thomas clench his fingers tighter. 

"Surely not everybody who cared about you." Alex said in a soothing voice. "What about your parents? Where are they?"

The image of his parents bloody bodies lying lifeless on their bed made Thomas's voice grow cold. "Some psychopath with a knife decided to visit." Letting out a broken sob, a single tear began rolling down his cheek before freezing solid near his chin. "That bastard tied me up, and forced me to watch as my parents were carved like fucking pumpkins! Then when he was finished with them, he turned to me. 

Another tear began sliding down the frozen path of the first. Suddenly a warm hand touched Thomas's shoulder making him look up. Alex was looking at him with the same painful emotions. They were broken, and filled with grief. "You're not alone anymore Thomas. I understand what you're going through." 

"Do you!" Thomas spat back, his rage instantly replacing the grief. How would you know the first thing about what I've gone through?"

"Because I have to live with the fact that I came up with a way to save everybody in my life who I cared about on the day of their slaughter." Alex responded in a bitter voice. "I could have saved them all if I had been smarter. Instead I had to watch as they all died, knowing I would be the only one to come back."

Thomas looked up from the ground at Alex, frozen tears sticking to his face. "How did you get over the pain of losing them all?"

"You never do," Alex responded with a sigh. "You will feel the pain for your whole life. Loss, grief, anger, and all the other emotions that come with death. It all stays with you. The only thing you can do to lessen it is find somebody who helps you feel something else. You may have times when you remember just how bad it hurts; but that's when you need that other person the most." He falls silent for a moment and takes another breath before reaching towards Thomas and brushing his cheek, wiping the icy tears away. "And that person for me is you Thomas. When I'm with you, I forget all of the pain. You help me see that there is something worth fighting for in this world, and I will do everything in my power to protect that." Falling silent for a moment, they listen to crickets chirping in the early dawn as the sun begins to rise, casting long orange beams of light towards the world around them. "My hope is that you feel the same way as me."