Should he attempt to wake him up with a kiss?
The fairytale would be all well and good, up to the moment Cinn woke up and punched him. He laughed, a tiny hollow sound that echoed through the space, and the shake of his body caused two teardrops to fall on Cinn’s cheek.
Who was he kidding? Cinn wasn’t going to wake up. Julien would either remain trapped here forever, or have to go back and face telling everyone Cinn loved he’d failed and Cinn would die.
“I’m sorry.” Julien ran his fingers through Cinn’s curls. “I’m so sorry I couldn’t save you. I tried. And I’m sorry for Tyler. God, I’m so sorry, Cinn. I’ve never regretted anything more in my life. I know it’s my own stupid fault. I wish I was normal. I wish I could have treated you how you deserved from the beginning.”
Julien pressed a kiss to Cinn’s forehead, before continuing to caress his cheeks.
“Now you’ll never know how special you are. Because you are. So special, to everyone, especially to me. And the more I realised it, the more I acted stupidly. I wish I’d told you. I should have, a thousand times, until you believed it.”
He interlaced their fingers, bringing Cinn’s hand to his lips.
Then the miracle occurred: the slightest flutter of Cinn’s dark eyelashes.
The tiniest stir of his body, shoulders rolling backwards.
The quietest groan from his lips.
When his eyes cracked open, Julien wrapped his arm around his back to pull him upright. “Cinn,” he half choked out, as he pressed his palm to Cinn’s chest, watching every precious dazed blink of Cinn’s eyelids as he took in their surroundings.
“Julien? Why the fuck are you crying?” Cinn’s voice was croaky and hoarse, as if unused for a hundred years. His expression morphed into one of tender concern as he reached up to cup Julien’s face, swiping away a tear. “Why are you here? Why arewehere?Howare you here?”
“Don’t worry about that now. Are you alright? Are you hurt?” Julien’s hand slid up to grip the back of Cinn’s head, rubbing a thumb in slow circles.
“I…” Cinn’s eyes fell shut for a moment as a shudder racked through his body. He scraped his teeth across his bottom lip. “Are you real? I don’t know if you’re real. I’ve been trapped in this horrible endless cycle of different versions of reality. My memories…”
“I’m real,” Julien said on an unsteady exhale. “I’m real, I promise.”
Cinn’s hand pulled the collar of Julien’s shirt to reveal his bare chest. “Your locket is missing,” he said, with panicked suspicion.
Yeah, and this isn’t even my shirt, and you’re buck naked. The clothing rules in this place seem pretty loose.
“It’s back at the hospital. Where we’re all waiting for you to wake up.”
“This is just another trick,” Cinn said, alarmed panic creeping into his voice, as he clutched at Julien’s shirt, holding it tightly. “You’re about to kill me. You’ve done that twice already. Kill me, or just leave me here alone forever.” His face crumpled in desperate fear, making Julien want to do anything in his power to make Cinn okay, to absorb his terror for himself.
Julien pressed his forehead against Cinn’s. “I’m not going to leave you. Ever. Not even if we have to live in this cave for the remainder of our days.”
A weak chuckle.
“We’ll eat maggots and grow our own weeds.”
Cinn’s mouth twitched upwards; he felt it under his fingertips.
“Darcy will be so impressed when we tell her.”
“Julien,” Cinn whispered, before crushing their lips together in a kiss so fierce, it was a collision of stars, an igniting of a wildfire of passion that bloomed blindingly bright. Julien savoured each press of Cinn’s mouth, each firm glide of his tongue, searing them into his memory, lest this be the last kiss he ever received.
“Cinn,” he protested weakly, pulling back. It seemed highly probable Cinn had some sort of memory loss, forgetting that he currently hated him.
An exhale of breath. “I’m just checking that you’re really real.” Cinn tangled his hand in Julien’s hair and tugged as if to test its legitimacy.
“And how’s that going for you?”
“Pretty well. There’s no way anything could imitate the way you kiss me.”
Julien stilled. “Which is?”
