(no subject)

[amicably_absent]

Glitch had swum for hours, chasing fish and insects and bubbles and sunbeams. Eventually, worn out and tired, he had swum to shore and curled up on the bank on the sun warmed pebbles, grumbling about his lack of coat until he fell asleep.

He woke up with Rennie shaking him, a scolding voice telling him he had to come in, he was all wet and dirty and needed a bath and clean clothes, and was she going to have to strap him in the chair.

Glitch reacted predictably.

He screamed at her, judo flipped her while sitting down, dove into the water, swam to a far edge and took off.

Rennie asked Cain to go find Glitch and bring him in before he froze or hurt himself.

Glitch had retreated to the rotunda, sitting on the seat and swinging himself back and forth, watching the sun setting on the lake. He was soaking wet again, but his trembling didn't seem to worry him at all.

Comments

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"It's okay," Glitch whispers. "The last ten years just started catching up, I think." He keeps holding Wyatt. "I'm here."

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He swallows tightly, leaning away to wipe at his face. "Doesn't make it any less embarrassing."

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"Why's it embarrassing?" Glitch tries to not let him move, but eventually relents.

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"Macho complex."

It's fine. He isn't going anywhere, he's fine, and he won't let Glitch escape either. The moment he's done, he's right back there, cheek pressed to Glitch's chest, arms wrapped snugly around his too thin frame.

"I don't want you to think I'm weak."

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Glitch giggles and hugs him again, the broad shoulders almost too much for him to wrap his arms around. "Weak? The man who survived ten years in the iron suit, who was shot, drowned and still climbed out of the lake again and refused to give in to hypothermia, who faced his nemesis and came out on top, morals uncompromised... weak?"

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"Yeah."

Okay, so that puts things in a different perspective like nothing else. A smile tugs at his heartstrings, mirrored in the corners of his mouth.

"You know what I almost told you that day, about my hand and trading it for something else of equal or greater value?"

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Glitch smiles slightly and leans his head on the wing of the chair. "No. What did you almost tell me?"

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"That you're not the best of tradesmen if you don't know what you already have. You don't need my hand when you already have my heart."

He shrugs, thinking back. "It was silly, and the more I thought about it, the weirder it felt, and I just couldn't say it."

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"Might've been a bit odd then," Glitch agrees. "Now I'm just going to blush and be all stammer and ramble because you're saying those lovely things again no one has ever said before."

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He smiles, breathing deep, just letting another wave of comfort slip over him like a blanket.

"It's about damn time."

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"About time what?" He snuggles in a bit closer.

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"It's about time someone counted the ways for you. Told you all those things you should've heard a bunch of times already."

He doesn't think he knows the words, but that won't stop him trying. "You have a great smile, with these beautiful laugh lines that lead right up to your eyes. I like how dark they are. That they're big and warm when it matters, and full of fiery determination when that matters. I like that you keep surprising me. I thought I'd seen it all, and there you go, proving me wrong time and again."

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Glitch almost says that maybe someone did and he doesn't remember, but that doesn't feel right to him. He knows they didn't. He was loved and he was wanted, but he never had anyone special like that.

Like this.

"Thank you," he says sincerely.

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"You're welcome."

This is the best he's felt after dark in a very long time, feeling no need to escape to the outdoors. He's perfect right where he is.

He hugs Glitch impossibly closer, one hand moving up his back in firm strokes until he can tangle his fingers in dark, dark curls.

"You know what's most important to me, Glitch?"

[amicably-absent.livejournal.com]

Glitch is sinking and relaxing. He's used to this. On the road, with Wyatt and DG and Raw, he often woke up cuddled into someone. Raw a lot of the time, the viewer reflecting his own desire to be warm back at him. DG and Wyatt as well, just close enough to feel warm.

He hums questioningly, opening his eyes from half closed. "What?"

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"Not your marbles or your courage, but your heart. Your heart is in the right place."

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"So's yours, Wyatt, when you let it be." He closes his eyes again. "You should invite... oh bugger." He knows who he wants to say. "The... person. He's important. He has your eyes."

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"Jeb? My son."

He blinks, not sure where Glitch is going with this. "You really want him to come here?"

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"Jeb! That's him!" He knew one of them would click on.

"He should. You need time together, and I've gone dragging you up here. And he needs a break."

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"Short for Jebediah, but..." 'Jeb' just stuck. He clears his throat quietly, following another line of thought.

"I farspoke with him earlier tonight, actually. I needed some advice...about you. And feeling strange around you, what I should do about it. Told me to go for it, life's too short."

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"Jebediah..." He rolls the name. "I'm more likely to remember Jeb."

Glitch smiles slightly. "He's not at me, for being here with you?"

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"Jeb's good. It's what we've always called him."

Again he thinks he could kiss that smile, right here and now. It's precisely what he does, finding the soft lips unerringly even with his eyes closed. His hand moves up to comb through the soft, damp hair by his temples, and he sighs deeply. It's answer enough.

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Glitch's eyes close as he's kissed, lashes fluttering at the soft, gentle press of lips. It's all the answer he needs. Jeb's okay with them, or Wyatt wouldn't be so okay with them.

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To have a warm body in his arms again, lips on his lips, a handful of hair in his hand and bunched up clothes in the other, Wyatt moans softly. It's so different from what he remembers it; all angles, no curves. It's so familiar, so very much the same; just as heavy, just as good, perhaps even just as slow and careful as every last one of his relationships started. He hasn't had many, but they were all women. That Glitch very much isn't is new.

It's exciting. Nerve-wrecking.

He's hot.

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It's all wonderfully new to Glitch. There's sparks of sensory memory, but he has no memory of anything so good, so warm and close and good.

He's never been touched with so much love before.

He gasps slightly.