"Where are you going?"

Jethro smiled.

"I won't be long." He murmured, back-stepping towards the bed to take Clark's outstretched hand. "You won't even realise I'm gone." He assured.

Clark pouted childishly through sleepy features, causing Jethro to chuckle fondly. He dropped and shook his head, hair falling into his eyes and lips pulling into an endearing grin that had Clark infatuated.

He softly squeezed Clark's hand, leaning to press his lips to the boy's forehead in a lingering kiss. "I'll be back soon, call if you need me." Clark let out a protesting whine but let go of Jethro's hand regardless, watching as he slipped from the room with a warm smile.

It wasn't long, Clark felt, before Jethro's place was filled in. That could be, however, on accounts of the fatiguing effect that at least one of whichever medications the hospital was having him take had to have.

"Knock knock." A voice roused and Clark didn't realise his eyes had closed until he had to open them to identify the distinctly-not-Jethro figure. "How are you feeling?"

He smiled and blinked the sleep from his eyes, awkwardly shifting, pushing and shuffling until he was sat properly upright. "The hot nurse says I'm almost talking as much as I used to." He grinned.

Selene's eyes widened, blood running cold, and Clark's act broke in devilish giggles. "I'm kidding, I know it's Ro." He dismissed and Selene let a relieved smile reshape her lips. "The feeling's definitely come back to my body but he does a good job of distracting me from the pain. It won't be long before I'm out."

"That's good." She smiled, taking up the seat beside Clark's bed and debating taking his hand in hers again. She did, if only to properly assure herself that the boy really was alive. "Auri misses you."

Clark's face warmed initially before dropping cold. "You're supposed to be in England right now taking care of her." He more stated to himself but Selene squeezed his hand in reassurance anyways.

"She's with Jethro - I'm not supposed to know but I think he's taking her to get ice cream." She said calmly. "He and Mrs Bosko have agreed to help taking care of her while we're here dealing with everything." Clark couldn't help his fond smile.

"You knew I'd take the case as soon as I was out." Selene nodded easily.

"And I knew you'd need all the help you can get. I picked up everything from the house that looked remotely important to him and downloaded all the footage from the home cameras in case there was anything to be found there - Darryl and Zak are looking through it all for us." She retold, watching the way Clark's face flowed through surprise into soft awe.

"You didn't need to do that." He mumbled, squeezing tight to her hand. She shook her head lightly.

"I've been idle for too long, shying away and turning a blind eye to everything he does to you when I could have tried to help even a little bit." She dismissed. "This is the least I can do. I didn't speak out in the past but I can now."

It was silent for a moment as Clark focussed on not choking up, breathing ragged.

"Can I have a hug?" He asked, all too small and young sounding.

"Of course." She answered, leaning forward to carefully slide her arms around the boy, wary not to hurt him. He returned the embrace tightly, whispering a lost little thank you into her shirt.

////:\\\\

gang sign
are you alive?
11:07am

Idiot 1
mostly
11:07am

gang sign
damnit
11:09am

Idiot 1
you were worried about me and you know it 🥰
11:09am
just admit you care about me Megs 🥰
11:09am

gang sign
no ❤️
11:09am

Idiot 1
GASP
11:10am

gang sign
oh no
11:10am

Idiot 1
IS THAT
11:10am
WHAT I THINK IT IS???
11:10am
IT IS
11:10am
BABY MEGS DID HIS FIRST MEME 🥰
11:10am
[Idiot 1 took a screenshot]
11:10am

gang sign
DONT YOU DARE SHOW ANYONE
11:11am

Idiot 1
MY 11:11 WISH IS THAT MY LOVELY LITTLE MEGS CONTINUES USING MEMES LIKE HIS PROUD FATHER
11:11am

gang sign
YOURE NOT MY DAD
11:12am

Idiot 1
ANOTHER
11:12am
HAHAHAHHAHAHA
11:12am
YOURE MAKING MY DAY HERE BABES
11:12am

gang sign
SHUT UP
11:13am
I came to tell you some good news but now I'm just being bullied
11:13am

Idiot 1
actually it's "I came out to have a good time and I'm honestly feeling so attacked right now"
11:13am
but close!
11:14am

gang sign
I'm about to kill you and finish the job.
11:14am

Idiot 1
I'd like to see you try <3
11:15am

gang sign
anyways
11:15am
ItS aCtUaLlY n E wAyS
11:16am

Idiot 1
It's actually n e ways
11:16am
...touché
11:16am
continue
11:17am

gang sign
I have a lawyer for you
11:17am
he has an "100% win rate" whatever that's supposed to mean
11:18am
and he owes me so it should be cheap
11:18am

Idiot 1
not gonna ask why he owes you
11:18am
what's the catch?
11:19am

gang sign
kids.
11:19am

Idiot 1
his own?
11:19am

gang sign
I hope not
11:20am
they call themselves his apprentices
11:20am
probably around 16
11:21am

Idiot 1
HE HAS SIXTEEN KIDS????
11:21am

gang sign
NO IDIOT
11:21am
PROBABLY AROUND 16 YEARS OLD
11:22am
there's two of them
11:22am

Idiot 1
oh
11:22am
that's chill, I'm assuming he's gotta bring the kiddies?
11:23am

gang sign
please don't call them kiddies, you sound like a perv
11:23am
yes
11:23am

Idiot 1
sounds pretty pog champ chief
11:23am
send me his contact deets?
11:24am

gang sign
he's already on his way to meet you
11:24am
he doesn't ever leave the house so try not to scare him off
11:24am

Idiot 1
no promises 🤩
11:25am
Seen

////:\\\\

"What are you working on?" George asked, waddling his way into their room, upon noticing the guitar cradled in Clay's lap. Clay simply smiled, beckoning George to sit beside him on their bed with a soft pat to the unmade covers. George complied almost nervously.

"I wanted to do this at a better time but... well, there probably won't be a better time for a while now." Clay began, distinctly looking everywhere but at George. George, however, stared straight at tentative green eyes. He urged the other to continue with the barest nod. "I'm sure you've figured out by now that I'm hiding something." George nodded once more with the hint of a fond smile in his eyes and on his lips.

"Clay, now probably isn't the time to tell me you're pregnant." George joked, if only to alleviate the tension that was clear in Clay's shoulders. It worked, however, and Clay broke out in a breathy laugh, shaking his head. George felt rather accomplished, if you asked him.

"I'm not pregnant," Clay denied before giving George a teasing look, raising a single brow "...unless?" George giggled and made a high pitched hum, pulling an equally teasing face. "Okay, I'm just- I've never played for- or to someone so-"

"Clay, it's just me." George assured, placing a hand over the one of Clay's that had been scratching nervously at his guitar. "I'm not going to laugh at you or anything. Just, you know, go for it when you're ready." He finished somewhat awkwardly, squeezing Clay's hand lightly before leaving it to rest over the guitar again.

Clay nodded, taking a deep breath and focussing down at the guitar once more. "Uh, for ease of lyrics, you're my she." He muttered and George bit back a remark, smiling encouragingly instead. "I called it fair but I might change it." He stalled and George simply laughed, urging Clay to please just get on with it in a joking tone. He carefully stretched his fingers into place over the fret board and leant to pick his plectrum up off of the sheets. Counting eight racing beats of his own heart, he began.

"It's what my heart just yearns to say, in ways that can't be said," The melody was delicate and gentle and the words were little more than a huffed whisper. George felt them coil softly around the base of his lungs, settling more as a comforting weight than anything else.

He watched the way Clay's fingers shifted and stretched, watched the way he picked around each string with a memorised, light ease. Watched the way Clay's face twisted and turned with each word uttered, always more true and more meant than the last.

Something George had noticed near a hundred years ago, when he'd first ever watched Dream perform, was the way in which you could read the meaning of every lyric he sang in the pinch of his brows, the curve of his lips, the crinkle of his eyes. It all amounted to a beautiful portrait that spoke of a thousand lives long since lived and loved.

George quietly admired the heart that Clay bared so freely to him. It was ragged, a little worn around the edges and a little cracked in the centre but it was full and it was beating a song so utterly coated in love.

Clay had been watching his own fingers play as well - not out of necessity but more out of insecurity. Out of fear for what he'd find in George's face, should he search for it. Now, though, as he reached for those six words that had ached and beaten at the walls of his heart since he'd very first seen George, he let himself look.

And what he saw only served to affirm his utterance. George's face, decorated with soft red splotches, small indents that only appeared when you smiled just right and the tell-tale signs of overwhelm, was so entirely taken over with love that Clay felt no need to be afraid in his confession.

"Christ, you'll be the death of me."

George chuckled something teary and Clay found it hard to not do the same, pushing on strong and bringing his gaze back down to his hands. It was easier, now, to bring the words that tumbled off of his lips up louder and clearer.

George didn't bother hiding his grin, nor did he bother swiping the pinprick tears from the corners of his eyes. He simply held his hands in his lap and watched, enraptured, as Clay began to fade the softly repeating instrumental into silence. They sat frozen in a delicate state, barely breathing, before George broke it with a choked sob, throwing himself bodily at Clay.

They fell back, Clay awkwardly manoeuvring the guitar from between them to the floor in order to wrap his arms around George more solidly, pretending he couldn't hear the way George sniffled into the crook of his neck. If it was any consolation, Clay wasn't any better. He nosed his way against George's shoulder, pretending he didn't do so just to clear the tears from where they traced the curve of his cheeks.

"You're such an idiot." George murmured, punctuating his point with warm, chaste kisses to wherever he could reach. Clay laughed, pulling George just far enough back to look him in the eye.

"I love you too." He answered and George didn't wait before dipping to cover Clay's lips with his own.

It really wasn't fair, how much George loved Clay. But it was okay, because Clay loved him back just as much.

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1.8k words

For those that would like to listen to the song Dream sang; I ripped the song from an incredible band called The Amazing Devil and the song is called Fair. I didn't feel it necessary to include all of the lyrics - I didn't with any of the other songs - but as this song isn't all that well known, I thought I should put it at the end and at least one lyric, just to make it easier to find :]

Feedback is welcome and appreciated!!

Yours, Dandelion