† breathe me †

kass knows that tristan wasn’t expecting a hug. after all, kasey had an aversion to touch for the longest time. in fact, he was still hyper sensitive to touch. but with tristan, he felt safe. maybe it was unfair that he’d attached himself to tristan. after all, the younger male was seemingly his replacement for austin—well, both he and raylee seemed to do that job together. he doesn’t mention how much he misses his former cell mate, because he doesn’t want to let on the fact that he misses that torturous place some days. “h-hey, tristan?? d-do you think kat’s gonna fix me—be-before I have t-to leave ??”

kasey takes the younger girl’s pinky with a smile, hooking theirs and punctuating the action with a nod. he wants to make sure it’s true—wants to make sure she gets at least closer to the happiness she deserves. kasey knows he spends most of his time with younger kids, people most of the patients his age didn’t associate with as much. but kass took comfort in the younger patients—they were so much closer to the life he once knew, before all the pain. he doesn’t want his life to be dictated by a series of unfortunate events. “okay. I-I can try.”

“ w-why is she avoid-ding you ??”

“Ah well you see– I come from a rich dad and she was the nanny’s daughter, and basically someone kidnapped us for ransom and the whole time we were kept captive she didn’t talk to me and blamed everything on me– so we got here and she is still avoiding me.”

“ s-sorry—I’m not l-looking —”

“Okay– you can look now.”

kass’s face mirror’s tristan’s nervous smile. he’s trying so hard not the be afraid anymore. but it’s so hard for him, so hard to stop thinking about everything. he can’t help the way his hands shake, or he reaches for the other boy. he sits up, scooting closer to tristan, and throwing his arms around him. he wants to make sure Tristan is okay before he does anything else. the boy was an angel on earth, someone who could bring him into happy times. he was so afraid of making the other male upset—he didn’t want that in the slightest. he places a gentle kiss against tristan’s nose, and whispers, “it’s okay. you’re okay. we’re okay.” he’s trying his best to make Tristan smile, because kass couldn’t imagine why tristan could even remotely deserve to frown. he was so kind—so sweet. Kasey didn’t want him to be upset in the slightest.

“ okay— that- that would be good, right ?? if i c-came every day– m-m-maybe we could fix th-th-the stuttering too…” kasey pulls his lower lip in, biting down to calm his ever present nervousness. “ you’re– you’re gonna f-fix me, right ??”

“Mhm we could work on a lot more if you started to come everyday– I think it’ll be good for you.” She said with a small nod. She frowned though at his last sentence and shook her head. “You don’t need to be fixed sweetheart, you just need to heal.”

his own heart shatters in his chest at the utterance of the word love. kass yearns for affection, and always has. the younger male’s attention, the gentle caress of his hand through kasey’s hair—that was what had him weak. his eyes look past the other male in the room, back towards a similar scene. a scene where he stood, creating beads of crimson in his arm. he didn’t like that. in fact, he said the only person allowed to hurt kass was him. things like that were hard to forget, but he so wanted to. when he blinks back into reality, tristan is saying something he hardly understands. “I-I’m not p-perfect. you're—what do y-you mean I’m p-perfect? have you e-ever even l-looked in a mirror? you’re p-perfect.”