Pull you away from the spiders

“Weird,” Thom says and Jon turns his head toward him, waiting for him to continue. It feels a bit awkward, so Thom stares ahead and Jon gives his cheek a look before returning to watch Colin speaking. Thom sighs and continues with his thoughts, which are circled around the dreams and him waking up to feel his foot jerk involuntarily from the image of spiders on it earlier.

“Weird,” Thom says again and sees Jon’s eyes on his face again and Colin’s speech hitches for a moment because he is watching them, so Thom ducks his head and pretends that he didn’t say anything. Jonny’s eyes travel languidly up and down his face before tearing away to meet Colin’s again, while Thom bites his tongue.

Colin proceeds and Jonny puts in a word here and there, while Thom is obsessed with the brick wall behind him – scratching at the compound and raking his knuckles against the stone, putting his ear next to it so hear nothing. The sound is so small, he thinks, so small and so trapped. “Weird,” he says again and freezes, hoping nobody heard. Jonny turns to him once again, his face vacant and ready to listen, and Colin stops abruptly and leaves with a few unfinished gestures and words.

“You should really ignore me at times,” Thom says, kicking an empty can when they walk back home.

“I never ignore you,” Jonny says matter-of-factly, staring at the pavement, “I sort of…watch you all the time.”

“What a bloody spectacle.”

“It’s interesting. I wish I could get into your head. Roam through the drawers, steal a couple of things.”

“And then?”

“Curl on a rug and sleep during the day. Then haunt your dreams at night. Visit your memories, put my mark on each, so that there’d be no way for you to hide anywhere from me. Take your hand and pull you away from the spiders.”

“I quite like them.”

“That’s why your leg jerks, yes.”

“I love you,” Thom says, looking at Jonny from underneath his forehead and seeing him smile.

“I love you too,” Jonny says, stopping and placing his hands on Thom’s waist, “C’m ‘ere.”

Jonny leans against the scorched brick wall and Thom smiles, falling to him, not moving his feet. Their chests and stomachs collide and Jonny runs his hands up and down Thom’s sides, placing small kisses on his smiling lips. “I love you,” he says between each of them, his dry palms landing on Thom’s cheeks and fingertips brushing his temples while he watches Thom close his eyes.

“I had a dream,” Thom says, his eyes closed tightly, “I had a dream that we were together since the beginning of times, living together, knowing everything, and loving each other. We could go back in time or change history, or play with the dimensions or anger the Gods, or alter the Earth, or disappear – you know, just pop out of the reality for a bit, only to pop back. And when we popped back, we were always on our bed, with the sun beaming into our eyes, which we fought, because we heard the other laughing and just wanted to see his face.”

“Since the beginning of times…” Jonny smiled, putting his arms around Thom, “I like your time dimensions for us…since the beginning of times.”