Master, my Master | boyxboy | [alternate happy ending]

XVI - Lonely Road

"I can't believe this!" Jasper growled.

Eli rubbed the back of his neck nervously, "Wait, and just listen to me. I didn't mean it like that."

Jasper laughed, almost evilly, "Oh, I can't wait to hear this. How the bloody hell are you going to explain you didn't mean to say you're in love with someone else?"

Eli tried to piece things together.

"Elijah, please tell me why you'd say something like that."

Again, here Eli stood in front of a wrathful Jasper Lancechester, and just like the first time, it felt awful and frightening. The first time was completely understandable, but this time, Eli could only hope hearing about Silas didn't draw out the fullest extent of Jasper's fury.

Raising his hand again, fire in his eyes, just before Jasper could bring it down, Eli grabbed his wrist, "The authorities are looking for Silas."

Jasper quirked his brow, taking his hand back, "Authorities? Who – who is Silas?"

Here goes nothing.

"I met him when I was a young teenager." Eli was speaking quickly now, so fast he wasn't giving himself room to breathe. "I had fallen for him long before I loved you. He was the first person to ever enter my heart. When I was sixteen, he disappeared and I told myself I hated him for leaving me behind, alone and heartbroken. I thought I hated him for leaving me with myself after we'd finally found something in one another. Only, come to find out the other day, he's come back with the authorities hunting him, because they found out about his desire for men rather than women, and if they find him..." Eli sucked in a chest of air, letting it out slowly and shakily, "...I don't know what will happen to him when they come."

Jasper was speechless when Eli finished. He didn't know what to say either, so he stood there, running everything that'd been said through his mind. Silas, whoever this boy was, Eli had loved him, and just knowing that pushed a pin needle into Jasper's chest. To think there was someone else out there that made Eli's heart race, bones quake in possible desire, and made him susceptible to this kind of vulnerability, felt...well, it didn't feel good.

Obviously from the manner in which the red haired boy had spoken, quickly and indicating distress, this Silas still meant something to him; a great deal, too, from how Eli's voice had shaken.

Jasper seethed within himself, shrouding his anger to the best he could. He wasn't sure if it would be selfish of him to hate this Silas boy, and not feel pity the way Eli was probably hoping he did. The authorities were after him, too? Good riddance, the devil on Jasper's shoulder said, but the other side of him leaned more towards, how terrible...

Eli took Jasper's hands, pressing them to his lips, "If you hate me, I understand."

"I do not hate you," Jasper said, dully, "I just...despise the notion of you wielding feelings for another."

"But, please, you must understand I do not love him the way I love you. I fell for him long ago, but right now, at this very moment, and for many years to come, I will be in love with only you." Eli sighed, his breath warming Jasper's knuckles, "It is awfully difficult for me to simply dispose of all the love I did have for him, especially knowing there are people out there who may want his head."

Jasper took his hands back, making sure not to come off as upset, "I understand, Elijah," he said.

"Do you, honestly?"

He nodded once, "This Silas was your first love. Who knows, maybe I'd feel the way you do if I were in your position." Moving to the other side of the bed, Jasper fiddled with the pillows, fixing them, and asked, "What's going to happen now?"