salvation sequel [rafe x barry]

long long way from home

"Yeah, me too, man", Barry agreed, walking back over.

The first bite Rafe took of his dinner damn near made him throw up again, and he barley managed to reach for a napkin and spit into it.

Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes for just a second, his gag reflex had pushed tears back into them immediately, but he didn't get the moment to catch himself.

Rose had thrown her fork into the plate with a loud clink, before she snapped: "I didn't even cook this"

At some point, Rafes constant insults and complaints just reached a limit even she could not tolerate. He'd never quite had the manners, but it seemed like sometimes he acted even worse on purpose, just to piss her off. Usually more so when his father wasn't there to scold him about it.

Rafe needed a moment to process that his involuntary reaction to the food had been read as disrespect, something he preferred indefinitely to the loss of control it had actually meant, in every way.

"Yeah well seafood fucking sucks", he just spat back.

They cut dinner short as always. It was always at least one of them who got up and fled the constant argument over pointless shit. Usually Rose, because it was three against her, but sometimes Wheezie, when both Rafe and Rose had picked her as the target of the day for their complaints, while Barry was spared, and his mere presence to jump into arguments when it got to it, spared Rafe of being the sole target too.

Rafe scraped most of his dinner into the trash, bent down over the can his neck flashed red where Barry had held him down, and he reached out his hand to let gentle fingertips trace the irritated skin. Rafe only twitched ever so slightly, before holding still.

"You got me a little rough earlier", Barry barley apologized, his thumb stroking lightly at the side of Rafes neck, so painfully soft he felt like crying. He made a gesture with his hand as if to display it didn't matter anymore, although he couldn't find the words or strength to say it, so Barry continued.  "But this don't have to happen again. I'll help you through it, you know?"

How kind. Barry would help Rafe not to drink, so Barry didn't have to punish him again. Wasn't he getting such a good deal. Every other addict had it harder than him, for sure.

"I was wrong", Rafe admitted, the words rolling of his tongue ever so slowly, as if he wasn't ready to let them go. He turned around to see Barry smile softly.
"You are a bad person"

"You too", Barry whispered getting closer, before connecting their lips.

Rafe didn't draw back nor did he react to it, and who the hell gave a fuck if Barry looked concerned about it. Rafe didn't have it in him to pretend he didn't have to be.

"I..need to check up on my dad", he said. Right now, it was the only room in the house Barry couldn't follow him into, or at least had the curtesy not to. And he needed to be alone.

He remembered Wards expressions of disappointment when Rafe showed him his burned wrist. Deeper, around the eyes, and more pained, than it had been when it was just about the stolen watch in his hands. Why didn't you just fight back?

He remembered Ward telling him at 14, as the men of the family, they needed to protect his sisters from bad boyfriends. Men that would hurt them. Rafe had stubbornly done the opposite, cause fuck his sisters.

He remembered Ward beating Barry to pulp. Even now, in a coma, the man was protecting him more than Rafe could ever protect himself. The kicks to Barry's stomach had hurt Rafe as if it was his own, one after the other, a manifestation of his own weakness, that his father had to fill in for.