Miles woke to the sound of his name on repeat, coming from a different source each time.

When he first opened his eyes, he couldn't move. Pain started returning very slowly to eat of his injuries first and then to his whole body, an odd buzzing feeling worse than he'd ever experienced.

When he lifted his head, the world was spinning and full of stars.

"Miles." He heard the word a little clearer this time and could detect the tone of it, filled with fear and grief.

He was about to ask, What happened? but then he remembered on his own.

Immediately, Miles started to cry. He latched onto Ty's shirt and didn't let himself acknowledge how cold and limp Ty's body was at this point. His vision was clearer now, but he almost wished it wasn't. "Ty," he choked, grabbing the boy with both of his hands even though one of them was burning with pain. "Wake up!"

Ty remained helplessly unresponsive despite Miles' furious shaking of him. Lia and Percy exchanged solemn glances while Eira wrapped her arms around Aaron and clung to him. Miles brushed Ty's sweaty hair from his forehead and lifted the boy, heart breaking a little more at how easy it was to lift the light body. "Ty," he moaned urgently, clutching Ty close to him and tucking the boy's head under his chin, "please wake up. Please wake up. Please." He couldn't let himself think about the nauseating hole in the back of Ty's neck that he'd inflicted - or that Ty wasn't even breathing.

Aaron said very gently, "Miles," and touched Miles' arm. At once, Miles slapped Aaron's hand away, not ready to accept the reality of what had happened just yet. Aaron, not deterred by the violent reaction Miles had given, crouched down beside Miles. "Miles, we need to get out of here."

"I can't leave him," hiccupped Miles, casting his watery gaze to Aaron. "I can't leave him here."

Aaron glanced at Ty pitifully. "He can't come with us."

Miles let out another choked sob and pressed his face into Ty's hair. "I didn't kill him," Miles promised through an unsteady voice - a lie. "He'll wake up. He will."

Aaron reached for Miles' hand to pull it away from Ty. "Okay," Aaron said softly. "Okay. But we don't have time to wait for him to wake up. And he won't be very happy to see us."

Miles let Aaron take his hand, but only because the blond was trying so hard to let Miles keep believing that Ty wasn't completely dead.

"Shit, Miles," Aaron breathed, eying the jagged wound that was deep in Miles' palm. "We really can't stay."

From somewhere behind Miles, Eira was collecting all of the first aid items she could find on the shelves and shoving them into a backpack; an activity Miles had failed to do before Ty had found him first. All of the group members had backpacks with plenty of contents. Except Miles.

"Please cooperate," Aaron muttered, starting to get to his feet and attempting to help Miles up too.

Miles fought against Aaron's gentle tugs encouraging him to stand for about a minute before he finally lost the last of his strength and will to protest any longer. With Aaron's help, Miles managed to pry himself away from Ty.

Almost instantaneously, Miles collapsed against Aaron and lost control over his tears. Aaron caught Miles before he could crumple to the floor and held him like a fragile doll as he wept. Miles didn't have the spirit to feel embarrassed about crying or guilty about wetting the shoulder of Aaron's nice shirt.

They stood like that for what felt like, to Miles, hours, but must have only been a few minutes. Aaron didn't seem to mind that Miles was sniffling or crying onto his shirt, and if he did, he didn't say anything.

"I killed him," Miles said finally, his voice muffled.

"You didn't mean to," Aaron said, but it did nothing to calm the hysterical mess of Miles.

Lia's voice sounded very distant despite how near she was. "Miles, can you walk?"

Her voice was softer than usual. Miles couldn't confirm if that was because she was intentionally speaking that way or if his head was simply in too much fuzzy pain to comprehend everything with clarity.

"My legs aren't hurt," was Miles' answer, because he didn't actually know if he could walk.

Aaron very slowly pulled himself away from Miles, but kept their hands linked so Miles could stay upright. "Are you okay with leaving Ty here?" Aaron questioned gently.

Miles' bottom lip wobbled and so did his knees, threatening to give way. He locked his eyes on Aaron's big, warm sapphires in order to keep himself from looking back down at Ty. "No," said Miles, inwardly tensing at how his voice became pitchy when he was frightened or upset, "but we can't... we can't bring" - a sob - "him with us."

Aaron gave Miles his best version of a shakily comforting smile. "We'll be a lot safer when we're back at the library."

Miles wanted to believe that. Aaron took one small step backwards to guide Miles forwards, but when Miles followed with a step of his own, he felt another wave of pain wash over him and stopped in his tracks with a groan.

His head hurt and his limbs hurt and his heart hurt.

"You're okay," said Aaron, taking a few more steps back. Miles followed a little faster this time, getting slowly used to the shards of pain that jittered through him with every small step he took. He didn't know how he was going to lead the group back to the library, but what choice did he have?

After a few more small steps, Aaron let go of Miles' injured hand and just held his other one, moving to stand beside him instead. He kept leading Miles slowly until the latter seemed to get the hang of it, and followed Aaron at a faster pace. Miles found that the faster he walked, the dizzier he got, but he almost didn't mind. When he was dizzy his mind was scrambled. Frazzled thoughts were better than coherent ones, right now. If he let himself think straight for too long, he'd sink back to the ground and probably never get up again.

Lia and Eira and Percy gradually fell into place surrounding Miles and Aaron, and as a pack, they moved towards the exit. There was only one time when Miles attempted to glance over his shoulder, but when that happened, Lia rapidly touched his swollen cheek tenderly and turned his head back the other way. That reminded him first of all of how much pain Ty's punches had caused, and second of all how getting another glimpse of Ty's body was exactly what he didn't need right now. He didn't turn around again.

Walking wasn't as hard as it had been at first, with the further away Miles and his group got from Ty's body. Though each and every step still called for a burning pain to shudder through him, the easy rhythm of his feet hitting the ground was a much more relaxing sound than the hammering of his heart.

A whole fucking solar system was dancing in his vison; stars and light and rings that he couldn't blink away. Aaron kept a firm hold of Miles' hand, which came in especially handy with every time Miles tripped over thin air and needed a pillar of support.

The journey home proved itself much harder than it had been on the way to the store. Not because of the Altered, which the group sighted frequently but was miraculously never disturbed by. The complications arose more so because of Miles' continuous stopping and starting to catch his breath or let his vision focus or give his muscles a rest.

They were about halfway home when Miles stopped dead in his tracks once more. He'd stopped five minutes ago to have a brief rest, but this time it wasn't a reset he was looking for.

He dropped Aaron's hand and leaned back again the wall of the apartment block right behind him. His eyes were glassy and unclear as he slid down the wall to the ground.

Miles' whole body started to shake until, finally unable to contain it, he burst into tears again. This time, he did manage to feel humiliated, but once he was crying, he couldn't stop. His body made the decision to break down, and though the middle of the city was an inconvenient place for that to happen, he couldn't fight it.

When nobody else did anything, Lia moved straight to Miles' side and wrapped her arms around one of his, comfortingly pulling him in close to her.

As Miles rested his head on Lia's shoulder, tears streaming, Aaron's question from yesterday repeated itself over and over in Miles' mind.

Do you think you still love Ty?

It didn't even matter anymore. Ty was dead.

And Miles had killed him.

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+1514 Words.