After a while, Damian emerged, a small alligator on his back. He flung it near the fire, grinning. “I guess he was after the piglets.”
“There could have been more…”
“And they would all be dead by now.”
Gabe knew, watching Damian gut the animal straight away, cut it up and fling the meat on their grill. None of them spoke. After four years, they didn’t need to, both knowing that they had to eat the animal not to let it go to waste.
“I’m going fishing tomorrow.”
Damian looked at him. “Good idea. We can’t eat the piglets yet… and this one will be enough for dinner.” He stoked the fire up, the flames dancing in his steel eyes. That lush black hair laced with white strands, something Gabe had a hard time accepting. Thinking back to the day when the first white hair had appeared in that lush darkness.
“Hey… hold on…” That silver glint made Gabe’s heart stop as he reached up to Damian’s hair.
“What?”
“You have a white hair…” Their eyes meeting.
Damian grinned above that pang to his heart. “Tear it out. Show me.”
Gabe gingerly caught it and found the base, plucking it out. He held it in front of Damian, the sun glinting in that white, silvery color.
“Wow… I guess that’s aging for you… are there more?”
Gabe ran his hand through his hair, looking carefully. “Not that I can see… not yet…”
Damian smiled, wide. “Well, this was bound to happen. No big deal.”
That single white hair followed by others, until it had been impossible to count, until they rallied in strands, mingling with that black color.
“What are you thinking about?”
He raised his eyes at Damian’s voice, meeting his amused eyes. “Does aging scare you?”
Damian watched him, swallowing what he had in his mouth. He put another log on the fire. “It scares you?” Grinning at that shadow of irritation crossing Gabe’s face.
“I asked you first!”
“You’re fuming? I don’t know, ok? It’s part of the process. Not much we can do about it here.”
“Do what?”
He shrugged. “Dying your hair, Botox, plastic surgery… you name it…”
“Botox? What the fuck!”
Damian grinned. “A lot of people do it. Men too. Hell, they do way more.”
“Would you have done it?”
Damian rubbed the stubble on his jaw. “I might have. My friends did. All part of the rich’s games.” The sun-kissed wrinkles crinkled up around his eyes. “Why does this bother you now?”
Gabe shrugged. “One of us will die first… I am not sure if it’s you, I want to live alone… here…”
Damian smiled lightly, the flames dancing on his face. “Deal with it then. When the time comes.”
“I’m not sure I can.” Dead scared, he tossed some twigs in the fire, avoiding his eyes. “I’m already thirty-two… seems still young, but then, time goes by, and I’m not sure what I’ve done with it…”
“You’re alive, we built our home, made a life… together?” Gabe met his eyes. “Not sure you could have done better back there.”
