A Shade of Cool

XXXVI: Like Father Like Son

Waking up to see Noah staring back at me was the biggest gift of the day, our hands holding at our fingers entwined together and our bodies came close. The sheets coiled around us as we lay together. The entire night had been a rather surreal blur but I remembered talking with him. A lot of talking. Yet a lot of kissing, too. And after going well into the wake of dawn; we had said as much as we wanted or could say to each other. Never had I felt more relief and relaxed. Slightly stupid that all I had to do was to talk to him and try to see his point of view in it all. But now he knew how I felt and I knew how he felt, all that anger seemed to just fade into the abyss. We were okay.

"I could never understand what I put you through or how I made you feel," He had said, "But if I could you in my place for one moment, that moment in particular I would have. It was terrifying to have that happen. Especially when my family is there and no one knew who i really was. I was scared and I ran."

"If it wasn't for me being so stupidly in love with you maybe I'd have a harder time in forgiving you... but, uh, yeah. I kinda do forgive you," I accepted his explanation with a simple nod, releasing a sigh of relief, "It's been so good to talk about this with you and just put this past us like we should've a long time ago."

He reached over and took my hand in his, "Well that is something I can a hundred per cent agree on!"

I chuckled, "It's just so stupid to think that... I don't know. How stupid this all was. Me ignoring you and just, I don't know, trying to run from the issue. It made me no better than you and I'm honestly so sorry-"

"Don't be," He shook his head, "We both did stupid things but we both needed that break. As painful as it was, it was probably what was best for the both of us."

I nodded and looked into his eyes, "Could you kiss me again?"

He laughed quietly, as to not wake up the others, before leaning toward me, our lips pressing together that once more as his hands ran through the hair at the back of my head and my hand ran over his shoulder. I moved forward and felt our bodies press together as the kiss deepened. It was perfection. Just the two of us together was enough to make me the happiest person alive, I didn't need apologies or a mended relationship (at least not entirely) I just needed him. And spending that time with him in my arms and me in his arms, it was just like my world had been placed together again.

So there we were, laying in bed and facing one another. Smiles on our faces as we recovered from a mere four hours of sleep in total. The smell of Mom's pancakes filling the air, being the wake up call we needed.

"Morning, Green," Noah grinned.

"Morning, Armstrong," I replied with a small smile.

My hand slipped from his and I ran it through my hair and rolled onto my back, stretching as he started to get up himself. Groaning as I stretched I watched him slowly get up, running his own hand through his messy hair. I suddenly had the image of a married couple waking up together in their own house, preparing for a new day. He'd go to work, I'd stay home. It was weird but it was the only thing in my head right then.

"How did you sleep?" He asked as he stood up and turned to look at me.

I sat up and shrugged, "As well as you can sleep on just four hours, I guess," I replied hearing the sound of music from the kitchen downstairs as Mom played her records once more, "What about you?"

"Eh," Noah shrugged.

We both looked over at each other and laughed a bit.

"You know, I'm glad we talked about stuff last night. It really helped put things into perspective and in a way... it helped me alot," I said, "I hope that we can just try to start anew and put all of this behind us-" Noah sighed, walking around to my side of the bed and sitting beside me, cupping my face as he stared me in the eyes.