Chapter 49 49

Chapter 49 49
“Can I be alone?” Azxel barely registered that he made a statement. He was still fuzzy from the event earlier.

Sky quickly loosened his hand at his wrist without argument and resistance, “I’ll check up on you later,” He whispered with a smile Azxel called reassuring, but for Sky it was something different.

The walk back felt unreal. The hallway lights were bright for Azxel because the earlier event had shown him a shade of red and black, the floor was too clean for him, there was no blood stains. His feet moved because they were guided, then because they remembered how. By the time the door to his room opened, his body was already shutting down.

Inside, Jaelen was there sitting on his bed, he pulled his shoes off as soon as Azxel made his way in. He quickly folded his legs and leaned his back against the wall like always.

They didn’t acknowledge each other.

Azxel closed the door and crossed the room slowly, every movement was slow as if sudden motion might shatter him. He sat on his bed, then lay down on his side, with his knees drawn up without thinking. He faced the wall. His thumb found his mouth again. He didn’t realize it until his teeth were already worrying the nail.

Jaelen didn’t look over. Minutes passed, maybe longer, time felt thick and unreliable.

Eventually, Jaelen stood and moved to the window, pushing it open just enough to let the night air in. He lit a cigarette, the small flare of orange briefly reflected in the glass. He leaned one shoulder against the wall, his eyes on the dark outside, he looked so loosed and detached.

The room stayed quiet.

A shallow breathing came from Azxel’s bed side. It sounded uneven and shallow. Jaelen frowned slightly, tilting his head slightly. He took another drag, listening.

The sound came again, broken this time. A hitched inhale. Then something shakier like a sob.

Jaelen turned slowly.

Azxel was still curled on his bed, facing the wall, his shoulders twitching faintly. His face was buried in the pillow, but the sound slipped out anyway soft, fractured, like it hurt just to make noise. His body jerked in small, helpless motions, his breath catching and stuttering as if he were running while asleep.

Jaelen stayed where he was.

Another sob tore out of Azxel, sharper this time. His hand clenched in the sheet, his fingers twisting the fabric tight. His legs drew in closer, his knees pressing to his chest as if he were trying to fold himself smaller.

“No —” Azxel whispered into the pillow.

The word barely made it out.

His brow knotted in his sleep. Tears soaked into the fabric beneath his face. His thumb slipped from his mouth, leaving a smear of blood on his lip where the skin had split.

Jaelen’s cigarette burned down between his fingers.

He stepped closer, slow and careful, stopping just short of the bed. Close enough to hear the way Azxel’s breathing rattled. Close enough to see the tremor running through his back.

Azxel shook harder now, a soundless cry tearing through him. His mouth moved again, forming something that never fully became a word. His head jerked once, then again, like he was trying to pull away from something only he could see.

Jaelen didn’t touch him.

He didn’t wake him.

He stood there, watching, his chest tightened and his jaw clenched, the smoke curling uselessly above his head. After a moment, he reached back and crushed the cigarette out against the window frame, the ember dying with a soft hiss.

Azxel let out one last broken sound, a whimper that cracked halfway through then went still.

His breathing evened out slowly, uneven at first, then quieter. His body relaxed by degrees, tension bleeding away until he lay limp against the mattress, tear streaked and exhausted.

Jaelen stayed where he was.

After a while, he stepped back, returning to his side of the room. He sat on his bed and leaned forward, placing his elbows on his knees, staring at the floor.

He didn’t look at Azxel again.

But he didn’t sleep either.

Azxel didn’t stop crying.

It came back in again, quiet at first, then sharper, his breath breaking apart in his chest as if something inside him kept reopening. His shoulders hitched again, small and frantic, the sound of it muffled by the pillow but impossible to miss.

Jaelen noticed immediately.

He stood again and crossed the room, slower this time, like he was approaching something fragile that might shatter if he moved wrong. He stopped beside the bed, looking down at Azxel’s curled form.

Azxel’s face was twisted in sleep, his brows drawn tight and his lashes clumped with tears. His fingers clawed weakly at the sheets, bunching them in his fists as if he were holding on to something slipping away.

Jaelen hesitated.

He lifted a hand just a little and hovered it over Azxel’s shoulder close enough that he could feel the heat coming off his skin.

Then he stopped.

His fingers curled back into his palm. His hand dropped to his side.

Azxel’s mouth moved.

At first, it was only breath and broken syllables that didn’t quite form. His lips trembled, parting again and again, like he was trying to speak through water.

Jaelen leaned in without thinking, bending at the waist, tilting his ears closer to him.

“—no…” Azxel whispered.

His voice was thin, barely there.

Jaelen stilled.

Azxel shook his head weakly against the pillow, tears leaking fresh from the corners of his eyes.

“No… no…” he murmured again, breath hitching. “Please…”

Jaelen leaned closer.

“Stay,” Azxel whispered, the word cracking apart. “Stay, please…”

His hands clenched hard in the sheets, knuckles whitening, arms trembling with the effort of holding himself together.

“Don’t go,” he breathed. “Don’t—don’t leave me…”

Jaelen’s jaw tightened.

Azxel swallowed, a small, broken sound catching in his throat before he slipped out, soft and desperate and aching.

“Sky…”

Jaelen went very still.

Azxel’s lips quivered as he whispered it again, like a prayer. Like a plea carved straight out of fear.

“Please stay… Sky… don’t leave me…”

Jaelen’s hands clenched at his sides.

His fingers dug into his palms, nails biting in hard enough to hurt. His mouth pressed into a thin line, his lips trembling despite the effort to keep them still. Something dark and sharp flashed behind his eyes like anger, hot and sudden, burning low and controlled.

He didn’t speak. He didn’t move.

He stayed bent there, listening to Azxel whisper that name again and again, watching him cling to it even in his sleep, watching the way his body twisted in quiet desperation around the idea of being abandoned.

Jaelen straightened slowly.

His hands were still clenched.

His face was tight, rigid with something he didn’t let show.

Azxel sobbed once more, a small, broken sound, then sagged into the mattress again, breath shuddering as the nightmare loosened its grip but the name stayed on his lips, fading only when exhaustion finally dragged him deeper under.

Jaelen stood there a long time.

Long enough for the room to feel colder.

Long enough for the anger in his chest to settle into something heavier.

Then he stepped back, sat down on his bed, and stared at the wall, his  jaw locked and his hands still fisted listening to uneven breathing and knowing, with sickening clarity, that whatever had hold of him was already wrapped too tight.

Azxel was desperate to be with Sky. He had gone in too deep and to say, he was obsessed. Azxel was far more than obsessed. He had learnt to love the darkness radiating from Sky. It was something, Jaelen didn’t expect to do but….

Jaelen quickly wrote something down in a paper and kept it down on Azxel’s bed. He had enough of it.