Don't Tell My Brother

Chapter 41 - Drive

His hand found Damien's in the dark. Damien took it without hesitation, warm and slightly calloused against his own.

"Took you long enough."

"Well I didn't think you'd lied to me."

"So sorry, mi tesoro. Can you ever forgive me?" Damien didn't sound very sorry. "If you'd prefer something that actually meant dumbass, there are lots of words I could've—"

"No. I like it." Lucas squeezed his hand, once, like the beat of a heart.

"Suits you." Damien said, and squeezed back.

They arrived in the clearing. It was empty, again. Mallory must've gotten tired of waiting, assuming he'd found him, and had gone back to the car with Mark. For a brief moment Lucas wondered if they'd driven off, but consoled himself with the fact that not even Mark was stupid enough to forget them.

"Come on. Mallory and Mark are waiting with the car."

"Mallory and Mark? They're both there?" Damien paused, looking at Lucas incredulously.

"Well, yes. I can't drive, so I had to get here somehow. Mark drove me."

"So I'm about to run into Mallory and Mark, two people who are...not too happy with me right now. And I'm going to have to get in a car with them?" Damien glanced left and right, looking for another way out.

"Do you have a better way of getting home?" Lucas asked, but he could see the situation wasn't ideal. His brother, who really, really didn't like Damien, and Mallory, who was in love with Damien and really didn't like Lucas, were not exactly ideal passengers. "Seriously, how were you and Mallory planning on getting home? I didn't see another car."

"Yeah, obviously. We were drinking, so we couldn't drive. Mallory was going to get us an Uber."

"Mallory was going to get it?" Lucas gave Damien a very pointed look. He wondered how much he knew about how she felt. If Mallory had told him, surely she'd told Damien too.

"Yeah. She's too good to me, really." Damien said, either intentionally ignoring the way Lucas looked at him or tipsy enough to not pick it up.

"Do you know why she's so good to you?"

"Yeah." Damien breathed out the word like a sigh. "I know. I just...don't want to deal with it, so we don't really talk about it. Not a very fun conversation, y'know? I was sort of hoping if I ignored it for long enough it'd just go away, and she'd stop...feeling like that."

Lucas put his free hand on his hip, looking up at Damien. "Damien. You have to deal with this."

"I know, I know." Damien held up his hands in defence, a little abashed. "I'll have a talk with her, I promise. I don't want you to have to deal with any of this shit."

"Good." Lucas smiled, grateful that Damien was going to try, especially because Damien's go-to strategy for anything he didn't like was just to avoid it. "Now come on, they'll be waiting."

"They can wait like a minute more, can't they?" Damien reached out and pulled Lucas to him, looping his arms around his waist. His clothes were still damp and cold, but Lucas didn't mind. It was enough to just be close to him.

Until Damien started shivering.

"Jesus, Damien. You're freezing. We need to get you home." Lucas fussed, pulling away and taking Damien's hand again. He was prepared to drag him to the car if he had to. Swimming in a freezing cold lake, of all the stupid things he could've done...

"I'm fine." Damien protested, but he let Lucas lead him down the path until they arrived at the roadside.

Only Mark was there, sitting in the car and repeatedly checking his watch. It was nearly midnight, and the streets were deserted. Wide expanses of empty tarmac stretched in either direction, lined by the scrubby outskirts of the forest and the yellow glow of the streetlights. He looked up as they approached, brows drawing down into a frown when he saw Damien. Lucas tapped on the window, and he rolled it down.