Since You've Been Gone. (boyxboy)

Chapter 13: Behind the door

"I guess I feel I still need to look out for you."

☆

The key turns in the lock of the old one story property on the outskirts of the village. The door gave much resistance, due to the mound of letters and flyers on the mat on the other side and also probably due to the slight warp of the doorframe. "Fuck! Come on!" Comes the frustrated cry from Thomas as his body weight pushes against the green paint chipped door.

"Here, let me do it." Jasper insists as he takes a step forwards, with Thomas standing back. Jasper pushes his upper body weight on the door, which eventually gives up the fight and suddenly swings open on it's worse for wear hinges. Just for a moment, he loses balance as his feet do a quickstep inside the property, before he eventually gains control of his feet and manages to stand up straight, with his hands upon his hips. "Just needed a little muscle, that's all." He grins at Thomas.

Thomas tries to hide how impressed he was with the display of machoness. "It's about time I saw you put those muscles to good use." He now steps inside the building. It causes Jasper to conceal his smile that he had somehow impressed the older. The kitchen area was dark, even in the late morning daylight. "Shit! This place is a mess." He sighs, taking in the thick cobwebs and kicking at the pile of unopened junk mail and papers on the mat. "Mol has got me good here, she really has."

"You said the place just needed a bit of decorating. It needs an overhaul." Jasper says as he takes a step towards the kitchen countertop. He runs his hand along the wooden surface before assessing the caked on dust on his fingertips.

"But you'll still help me right? You promised." Thomas says, looking at Jasper, his face lit up by the thin streak of daylight coming through the slightly parted curtains.

"I will, don't worry." Jasper smiles as he again steps towards Thomas. "Where do you want to start?"

"We need light." Thomas says as he makes his way towards the switch by the front door. With a flick of his finger, the switch is pressed and a flash of light fills the room, illuminating their faces for just a few seconds, before the bulb shatters and they are again left in darkness.

"Good start." Jasper chuckles.

"It's probably tripped all the lights." Thomas sighs. The fuse box is somewhere..." His boots make a shushing noise as he steps over the paper mess and heads to a built-in cupboard on the far wall of the kitchen. "If I remember correctly, it should be in here."

Jasper watches in the dim light as Thomas makes his way to the said cupboard, before turning around and taking in the kitchen space once again. He pushes a door to his left to reveal the small corridor which led to the bedrooms and he assumed the bathroom. He begins to walk down it, remembering the last time he had stepped this way. The one and only other time he had ever been in the property, to see Thomas after one of their more complicated fall outs.

He reaches the far room. Thomas' old bedroom. The door is pulled closed but is still slightly ajar. Jasper takes a hand to the door and pushes it open. It creaks at the action, to reveal an empty space. The floorboards are bare, with only a pair of dated patterned curtains half drawn at the dirty window.

"Aw, my bed's gone." Jasper turns to see Thomas has now joined him, just a fraction behind where he was standing.

"Wasn't it old anyway and a single?" Jasper says as he steps a little more into the room. "You can decorate it as you want now."

Thomas places a hand on his hip in thought. "Do you think this room can take a king-size, y'know, incase I want to entertain?" He looks at Jasper with a cheeky grin.

"I guess?" Jasper looks down. "Like I said, you can do what you want."

"Mmm." He hums, still deep in thought as he leaves his old bedroom, leaving Jasper to ponder on why he felt so botherd by what size bed Thomas would get. He finds himself following Thomas back to the kitchen. Thomas heads for the adjoined living space and pulls open the curtain. Plumes of dust billow from the fabric, causing him to choke. He turns on a free standing lamp and smiles to see the light fill the room with no more mini explosions.

"I guess we should clear this floor." Jasper says as the influx of light only highlights the mess by the door. He squats down and begins to gather up the loose papers. "Ah! Ssss...'' Jasper suddenly pulls back his left hand. He looks at his palm to see a tiny slither of glass embedded in the skin. He pulls it out, which instantly causes some blood to surface.

"What have you done?" Thomas instantly turns and hurries over to see Jasper still in a squatting position gazing down at the blood pooling in the centre of his palm.

"It's nothing. Just a bit of glass from that shattered bulb." He says casually as if it didn't actually sting like crazy.

"Why didn't you put on the gloves?" Thomas says as he squats down next to Jasper, he pulls the injured hand towards him to assess the damage.

"What gloves? I don't see any gloves!" Jasper replies as he looks around him.

"The ones..." Thomas stops himself. "The ones still in the four by four...Sorry."

"Why are you sorry? I'm an adult. I just didn't think." Jasper says with a chuckle.

"I guess I feel I still need to look out for you." Thomas says a little embarrassed. "But you're right. You're all grown up now. But at least let me take care of this. I'm pretty sure Jim keeps a first aid kit in the four by four as standard."

"I'm fine. It's only a small cut." Jasper insists.

"Listen. If your Beth learns I've damaged her beloved finacè then I won't hear the end of it from anyone." Thomas smiles, as he pulls a bandana from his pocket to stem the bleed. He takes Jasper's other hand to sandwich the material between his palms.

"My Beth?" Jasper says with curiosity. "She doesn't belong to me nor do I to her."

"Well, if we were together, I would tell everyone you were mine, so you would just have to deal with it." Thomas says as he gets up from his squatting position and heads for the green door. "I'll get the first aid kit....oh and the gloves."

Jasper watches him go, smiling to himself at his departure. It seemed to him that Thomas had softened a little over time. He seemed more caring and less brash. Perhaps his travels had taught him to be humble, or maybe Jasper just liked the thought of Thomas taking care of him once again and perhaps the notion that in another world, that Thomas would have called him his.