Leo hummed lazily. “Yeah. Are you?”
“Yeah.”
They didn’t speak again for a long while. Charlie amused himself with Leo’s crazy hair, and then, when he’d run out of curls to wrap around his fingers, turned his attention to Leo’s arm.
The sight of it made him want to wrap Leo in his arms and never let go, but they’d done that already, and their reality seemed all the more real. Leo’s arm was just the start of his wounds, and for him to stand any chance of healing, their confession needed to happen as soon as possible.
“Stop staring at it.”
It was a phrase Leo had thrown at Charlie before, but there was no bitterness in his tone now, only a gentle admonishment that stirred Charlie’s soul. “Did it hurt when it happened?”
“When it was burning?”
“Um, yeah . . . I suppose.”
Leo shrugged, and his sleepy eyes flickered with an emotion Charlie couldn’t quite decipher. “It didn’t hurt at the time, or even when I first saw it. Adrenaline kept me moving until Lila was safe, and then I hit my head falling out of the window. At least, that’s what they said when I told them that I couldn’t feel it.”
“You couldn’t feel it at all?”
“Nope. Not until I got to the burn unit at the hospital and they started messing around with it. I screamed the bloody place down then.”
Charlie shuddered, hardly able to imagine the pain behind the burned wreck of Leo’s arm without screaming himself. “I bet you waited for Lila to be taken care of before you showed any pain.”
“Not on purpose. I lost my shit as soon as I felt it.”
Charlie knew he was right, though. There was much he still didn’t know about Leo, but his protection of his little sister was absolute. And now Charlie had to protect him. “I’m going to speak to Dad in the morning.”
“Uh-huh.”
Leo’s tone gave nothing away. Charlie held Leo’s head up and slid down the bed. “Do you want to come with me? I can do it by myself if—”
“Charlie, I’m coming with you.”
“You are?”
“Course I am. You think I’d let you do it on your own?”
Charlie hadn’t really thought about it. In the hours he’d spent tonight simply holding Leo, he’d imagined only a world where they could always be like this—free and happy, the only complication the threat of the rising sun. “I’d like you to come,” he said. “And it will be easier. Mum and Dad will want to hear it from you anyway. They won’t just take my word for it.”
Leo grunted and rolled onto his stomach, his face smushed against Charlie’s ribs. He was clearly fading, and it wouldn’t be long before he fell asleep.
Charlie didn’t have that luxury. Reg would be up soon, and he needed to be back in his own bed by then. But there was one thing he needed to know before he tore himself from Leo’s arms. “Leo?”
“Yeah?”
“Look at me.”
Leo raised his head, squinting into the faint light that was beginning to filter through the open curtains. “What is it?”
Charlie chewed on his lip until he tasted blood. Leo swiped at it with his thumb. “Come on. Just say it. Can’t be worse than the shit we’ve already been through.”
And there it was—the glimmer of hope Charlie so desperately needed every time he met Leo’s eyes. “Do you honestly believe that? That it’s all going to be okay . . . in the end?”
Leo held Charlie’s gaze for a long moment before he slowly nodded. “I believe itcanbe, if I want it enough.”
“Do you? Do you want it enough?”
Leo smiled tiredly, his eyes barely open. “Course I do, mate. I want it all.”
