Sweet Sorrow

"Hopefully this will take some of the tension off... or maybe, it'll just make it worse, but..." He sighed. "Of all of the infinite people I could've wound up here with, I'm glad one was you...."

Wow. Had anyone ever said anything even remotely close to that to him before? Likely not. No, he was replaceable, expendable. Always has been. But Dillon, Dillon saw different, didn't he?

"I'd probably lose my mind a lot quicker. I mean, place like this, I'd say it's inevitable, but..."

He was rambling. He started to trail off, and for the smallest sliver of a second, T looked at his lips. This would be a perfect time to kiss. It'd be so romantic, if he just swooped in right now, it'd take his fucking breath away! But he bit his lip and averted his eyes. Not yet, we promised. He knew, though, they couldn't rush it. They had to be sure, compatible. T had seen first hand what two incompatible people could do to each other in a relationship. Especially when they had grown to love each other.

T then looked at Dill. No, that's not us. I won't let that happen to us. Not even here. He smiled. He smiled back. He squeezed, and he squeezed back.

The smile faded slightly, Dillon had that look on his face, like he wanted to say something but was debating on whether or not he should.

"Hey, can we, uh... hug?"

T's surprise was visible, but the look soon melted into that same stupid smile from earlier. Awww, he wanted to say, but decided against it, he didn't want to embarrass Dillon out of giving him the hug.

"Uh...yeah! Yeah, that's cool."

T's arms were longer, so his arms went over Dillon's. He could feel the man's head on his shoulder, this was the closest they'd ever been. The closest they'd be for a while if they stuck to their word. T somewhat expected the hug to be sort of awkward. But it was warm, it felt good. He thought he might never let go. Hell, it was by far the most relaxed, the most stress-free he had felt since he got here. Eventually, though, he did let go, and parting truly was such sweet sorrow, as cheesy as that line was. Sweet sorrow because T could feel himself growing closer to Dill by the second, and he knew Dill would have been a total stranger in any other situation. He knew full well that it was the uncertainty of this place that drew them together, and so quickly. They needed something to hold onto, and the best thing they had was each other. But, at first, weren't most relationships like that?

"We should... probably start getting to know eachother, huh? I guess I'll start? I was born and raised in Denver, Colorado. Something I guess I should tell you sooner than later is..." he sighed. "Not that it matters here, but my dad is a world renowned surgeon, so... I'm basically rich."

T's eyebrows raised, yet another surprise, Jesus. He was full of them.

"Woah, you're rich? I mean, yeah, it doesn't really matter here, but...still...."

He didn't say it, but a thought crossed his mind.

So what went wrong? It wasn't hard to see that Dillon was hurt, to some degree. Perhaps quite a considerable degree. T wasn't stupid enough to think that wealth alone would make someone happy, in fact, it seemed the rich ones suffered the most. T would take a plate of cheap chicken and canned beans over emotional trauma any day.

I wonder if it was his...fuck it, not right now. My turn.

"Well, uh, me, I was born and raised in Houston, Texas. And, shoot, Colorado ain't that far either, "

So when we get back to the real world, maybe...

"But, uh, yeah, I've lived there for all my life, the farthest I've ever been out of state is Louisiana. It was a... ah casino. A family trip... cause I got family out there, and I guess there ain't no good casinos in Texas or something..."

T rested his hands on his knees. he didn't want to hold Dillon's hand again just yet, lest he give in and pull him into another hug.

"And...my family, my immediate family at least, isn't nearly as...uh, fortunate. Well shit, I mean, we used to be, at least...decent. But, uh...shit happened."

He sat there with a look on his face that honestly looked a little sad, but his eyes met Dillon's, and the expression morphed into an exaggeratedly emotive expression of puppy dog sadness, and then a comparatively tame smirk.

"What, you didn't sound too happy about what you said either..."

They both had probably been through a lot, now that he thought about it. Maybe it was that which drew them together. In truth, Dillon's wealth only made T respect him more. The way he saw it, it took a lot of kindness in one's heart to not turn out as a snobbish prick under those conditions. Dillon was anything but. Would T be able to say the same? Today, at least, T was pretty sure he'd have his head buried in a sketchbook if he didn't have to live by a paycheck.

There was a knock at the door, and a small jolt from the two, they obviously weren't all that used to this whole together thing, even if they were taking it slow. T gave a small chuckle, jumping for nothing, man, chill.

"Well, if it was my other half, he probably would have just kicked the door down," T said heedlessly, before standing and approaching the door.

"Pauling? What's up?"

"It's your other half, he's requested that you speak to him."

T stopped, hands on his hips, and stared at the door for a bit.

"God, I hope this ain't drama-Dillon, you uh...tryna come? You could also just...I dunno... wait up, too. Y'know, if you want."