When The Nights Get Long

Selfish

Potential Trigger Warning!

"Luke, you just got engaged. Is it really the best option for you to have Blue live with the two of you? They're perfectly content here," Andrew argued over the phone.

"It's not about that," Luke replied. "As you know, when I was eighteen and Blue was ten, our parents were in a car crash and died."

"Yes."

"Well...Blue took it really hard. They blamed themself for their deaths. If they hadn't asked for them to hurry home from work so they could show them the present they bought them for their anniversary, then maybe they wouldn't have sped down the road and lost control and be thrown off the side of the road," he explained.

"What?" Andrew exclaimed. "That's not their fault."

"Yeah, I know it. Sara knows it. Blue doesn't. They still blame themself every day for it. And my parents weren't Blue's real parents," Luke added. That part Andrew didn't know. "We found Blue when they were one. They were left behind in a garden of Bluebells where they had a note with them claiming their parents couldn't take care of them anymore. My parents fell in love with them, and so did I. They're my emmer, and they always will be. But because they were my biological parents and not theirs, they blamed themself and claimed that they stole something from me that didn't actually belong to them. It was why they ran away."

Andrew remembered that day. During the memorial service, Blue ran away, and no one could find them. But he did. He found them near their elementary school, and he was able to convince them to go back to Luke. It was then that Luke chose to take care of Blue and have them grow up in a house where people would love them just like their parents.

"Ever since that day, Blue refused to ask for selfish things. They don't want to be an inconvenience to anyone, so they keep to themself. Unless they're completely passionate about the topic, they remain quiet and won't say anything to avoid being a bother. They're quiet around me...and I'm their brother.

"If they move in with me and Sara, I hope they'll experience a family again and learn to be selfish and ask for things and not be passive towards the world. I want for them to know and learn and understand that we are family no matter what, and no matter what, I will love, support, and care for them. I need them to have a happy family, and if they stay with you...they won't."

Yet they did, Andrew thought. Blue called him, begged him to ask them to stay with him. And he wanted them to stay with him. He loved them more than they understood. But he loved so much that he was willing to let them go and move back in with Luke so they could learn to be selfish and experience a family. He only hoped that the passion they felt around him would transcend into their familial relationship.

"Just promise you won't tell Blue. I don't know if they'll learn if they're told," Luke asked.

"I won't," Andrew promised.

^^^

"Blue!" Luke yelled as he ran up to his emmer, who sat crouched in front of the convenience store bawling their eyes out. "Blue, buddy, come on, talk to me," he pleaded.

The shook their head, continuing to cry. Blue couldn't tell him they fell in love with Andrew. They couldn't tell him about everything the two did while they were together, how they were heartbroken to leave him, because he didn't seem to want them around anymore. The feelings were intense, far worse than when Hayden left them. That was how they knew they were in love with Andrew.

"Blue," Luke cooed. He sat against the wall, pulling Blue into a hug. They sat outside the convenience store for twenty minutes as their sniffles began to subside. Through heavy pants, they apologized. "What's wrong? What happened?"