Reid pov:

I knew I had issues with leaving. Watching someone walk away even when I knew it was only temporary cracked my heart open. I had some deep rooted issues that I rather not look at too closely.

With Adam I was doing the leaving and it felt like I was leaving a piece of me right there next to him. The more time we spent together was just making the whole thing worse. I had feelings for the boy, strong feelings I was almost scared to put into words. I hadn't even made it out of the car and into my house before I was texting Adam to plan when we were going to see each other next.

Luckily my wait wouldn't be too long and he'd agreed to make the trip to see me this coming weekend.

Things were good between Adam and I, great even. The only thing I had left to deal with was my relationship with Ronan and after therapy it felt like maybe that was headed into a better direction too. I'd needed some time to process everything and Ro had been the person to tell me to go. He understood the space I needed for the last two days and now returning home it felt like a real home I was about to walk into.

Things weren't perfect and there was still a lot needing to be said but I felt that flicker of hope I thought I lost a long time ago.

I stepped into the house and for once it wasn't silent. There was soft music coming from the kitchen and I followed it until my eyes landed on Ro and Tiffany.

Ronan was sat at the kitchen table scooping out cookie dough laughing at something Tiffany said. He looked happy, happier than I'd seen him in a long time.

"Reid you're home!" Tiffany raced over yanking me into a hug.

"Hey Tiff." I smiled wrapping my arms tight around her.

I heard a thunk and I turned to see my brother trying to wrestle himself up. He'd stumbled trying to get up without his cane.

"Ro, let me help." Tiff moved towards him but he waved her off.

"I'm fine." He repositioned getting himself upright.

I'd forgotten about the bad days, the days Ro's pain was high and he had a hard time standing for long periods of time. Even moving around was difficult, my brother locking himself away made it so I saw those bad days less. But now watching him wobble slightly on his feet, his face grimacing as he moved. It was obviously a bad day but the guy was too stubborn to accept help.

"You don't have to get up." I tried to tell him.

"We need to have a chat." He gestured towards the living room and I was happy to follow of he meant he was going to sit back down.

"We could have chatted in the kitchen." I told him.

"I just wanted to thank you for coming to therapy with me. I know I haven't been the easiest to talk to but I'm trying." His words seemed to tumble out of him as his gaze seemed to look everywhere but me.

"I can see you're trying and I'm trying too. I think we both have things to work on when it comes to communication."

"I talked to my therapist and if you want you can continue to come to a session with me once or twice a month. I want things to be better between us." He offered.

"I think that would be good for us." I agreed.

Ro stood up from the couch he'd settled into. I let him take his time as he got his feet under him. He finally looked at me, a dozen emotions flashing across his face. He seemed to open his mouth like he wanted to say something but closed it instead.

I gave him a minute remembering what his therapist said about giving him the space to find his words.

"I wanted to apologize, I know I should have told you about dad and the motorcycle accident. It's wasn't fair of me to keep you in the dark for as long as I did."

Those were words I hadn't ever expected to hear from my brother. Ro didn't apologize very often. He didn't talk about his feelings with me at least. Maybe this was just another side of him he hadn't let me see until now.

If he was going to apologize maybe it was my turn to do so as well. I'd failed him over the years and if I could go back there was a lot I'd change.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there for you when you needed me." I said.

It felt like the same apology I had to give everyone around me. I knew I tended to avoid things or run when shit got hard. I knew that about myself but I hadn't really stopped to think about how that affected those around me. It left a list of people who I had failed to see were struggling.

"You were, even if you didn't know it. You've always been exactly what I needed even when I didn't deserve it. Id probably be dead right now if I didn't have you as my brother."

It was like Ro had finally destroyed all those walls. He opened the door and let me in to see him exactly how he was. I hadn't heard him be this honest with me in forever.

I didn't want to imagine a world where things were different, where Ronan hadn't lived to be where we are right now. I'd almost lost him so many times without even knowing.

"I can't lose you, I can't handle that."

Despite everything, Ronan was my brother. He was the most important person in my life. I couldn't handle having to live without him around.

"I'm planning on sticking around if you'll let me." His lips tilted up in a smile.

It only took a second to make the decision. I was reaching forward closing that gap between us as I pulled him into a hug. His hand went to my shoulder keeping himself on his feet as we hugged.

It was the first one we'd shared in years.

I felt something click back into place, that broken piece within me finally started to heal.

A/n:

This is a day early because I just love you guys so much. I am sad to announce that this book only has about three chapters left. I'm so not ready to start wrapping this up but I'm so proud of myself for never giving up on this story even when my mental health was rough.

I sat down last night and wrote out a whole outline for the next book. The outline ended up being 3 pages on google docs, I might have gotten a little carried away. I'm really excited about it though and it will be hopefully the first sapphic book I actually finish. And I have officially started writing chapters for that book so it will be ready for you when this book is completed.

I'll be posting all the information for my future works in the epilogue of this book and I'll make a post on my profile with all the information and official dates of my works.

I'm excited for you all to read the rest of this book and see how these two boys stories end :)

Love you all

-Cora Leigh