the silence

bonus: a surprise for brett

     brett and eddy laid on the couch, the taller boy lazily dragging his fingertips across brett's soft skin. he'd fallen asleep hours ago, exhausted from yet another night of terrible dreams. toy story played on the tv, but eddy had stopped paying attention. his focus was on brett now, on the slow rise and fall of his bare chest as he slept on top of eddy's. the younger boy had become somewhat of an expert at telling whether or not brett was having a nightmare, and he'd been having to use that talent a lot recently. it seemed that they were worsening despite the medications brett was on, and eddy was worried. but that wasn't the only reason for his concern.

     eddy had not heard his boyfriend's voice in four days. he hadn't been extremely talkative since leaving the hospital anyways, but he'd had some good days in the last two months. they'd talked for hours one night just weeks ago, conversing until their eyelids fell shut and their sentences turned to mumbled i love you's before fading into sweet nothingness. their lips had remained inches apart all night.

     that hadn't been the last time eddy had had the pleasure of brett's sweet voice against his ears, but he hadn't heard it much after that. he'd slowly diminished from a few short conversations every day to absolute silence. it was almost unsettling. they spent their days using wordless communication, and eddy understood everything brett was telling and asking him. it was as if they'd developed their own language, making it easy not to speak.

     eddy still didn't like it, but he would never mention it, of course. not only had jamie told him never to utter a complaint about brett's silence and strange ways, but eddy also just knew it wouldn't go well if he said anything. upsetting brett was the last thing he wanted in any situation.

     when eddy's eyes had closed and he found himself extremely close to drifting off, the doorbell rang.

     "shit," he muttered, rubbing his eyes and sitting up carefully. he laid brett down on the couch and covered him up before walking to the door, not bothering to put on a shirt.

     a delivery man stood at the door to what was now eddy and brett's house, a smile plastered on his pale face. eddy squinted as he opened the door, sunlight filling the large room. brett did not stir.

     "packages for you, sir," the man said politely, handing eddy a clipboard to sign. eddy eyed the large boxes sitting on the ground next to him and wondered what on earth they could be.

     after the delivery man left, eddy picked up the boxes and brought them inside. he then found that they were addressed to brett. one of them was marked fragile.

     and they were from nicolas.

     eddy was both nervous and excited for the contents of the boxes as he debated on whether or not to wake brett. he sat down on the couch and put the packages on the floor, looking over at his boyfriend's sleeping face. the dark circles under brett's eyes had worsened over the past few weeks and eddy gently stroked his soft cheeks with his thumb, sighing gently. he needed to wake him up. brett would be upset if he found out that eddy had waited.

     "baby," eddy said softly, lightly pushing on brett's shoulder. unsurprisingly, brett did not react. waking him was never an easy task.

     "baby, wake up," eddy sighed, his voice a little louder and his push a bit more forceful. brett grunted and shied away from the taller boy's touch.

     "can you hear me, bretty?" eddy asked, running his large hands up and down brett's back. the smaller boy whined almost inaudibly and tugged at eddy's hands, trying to pull him down onto the couch.

     "some things came in the mail for you," eddy said, trying not to laugh at sleepy brett and his need to cuddle. he whined louder and climbed onto eddy's lap without opening his eyes, sighing contentedly as he laid on the other boy's chest. eddy chuckled lightly and put his arms around him.