Someplace Not Quite Home
wantedinicelandâ:
âYour name? Blake? What does that have to do with anything? Youâre not making sense,â Hardison said, frustrated. There was a growing sense ofânot terror, exactly, but something similar, the same feeling of something dawning over his soul but not necessarily horrible. He twitched and flinched away minutely when Blake moved a hand toward the box again, but to counter that he bit out, âThatâs just a stupid phobia. It has nothing to do with anything.â
He gave in to the pull and walked closer to Blake, cautiously. âWhat do you know about my parents?â Of its own volition, his hand reached out and grasped Blakeâs forearm. âWhat do you mean, âtimingâ?â His pinky slipped past the end of Blakeâs sleeve and made contact with his skin. Hardison stared at him. âAre you really my brother?â
âNo,â rasped from Blakeâs throat, less a spoken word than a dry creak like moving a rusty hinge. All he wished was to clear his throat, but he hadnât the control over his body to do even so. âNot âBlakeâ...â His head shook side to side at Hardisonâs denial of the metal allergy. He knew, he knew it wasnât a phobia, not with how powerful his reaction had been.
A gasp sucked thick air into his lungs as Hardison crossed the small distance between them, no, as the world closed its distance, all of existence collapsing towards Blake until a hand grasped his arm, shocking like lightning through his body, shaking his core. There were suddenly too many questions at once, each of them the tip of a bladeâs edge prying at his brain, demanding answer. His tongue dry, his throat closed, it was not so much his body that answered, and yet the answers came out all the same.
âIf Iâm right, theyâre mine,â he began, hearing himself say the words despite not intending them. âYou should be younger,â continued, answers without full explanation, âand... and I donât know.â Skin hit skin, and all light faded away as Blakeâs mind was transported back to his own childhood, to the moment he first held his brother, and then he knew. â...Yes.â
















