Hello! Sorry for the long break! Here's chapter 5, I hope you all like it :)
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After Earth Went Dark: Chapter 5
It was a simple thing that awoke Elliot from his coma-like sleep on the comfortable bed. In fact, it was probably the only thing on earth that could have roused him after he, exhausted in mind and body, had fallen into the cocoon of sheets and blankets. It was of course, nature's call.
The restrooms were only a short walk down the hall from the rooms they were using. After once again admiring the commodity that was running water, Elliot returned down the hallway with fantasies of a soft mattress on his mind. However, when he got to the door he paused. Through the curtain that covered the windows in the center of each room door, he had seen a flicker of light in Tyr's room. Curious, he stepped back to investigate further and found that indeed Tyr's bedroom was still well lit, despite the late hour. He could not see inside of course, because of the thick curtain, but the distinctive glimmer of an oil lamp was unmistakable.
What was Tyr doing awake at this hour? He wondered. Or had he simply fallen asleep with the lamp lit? Elliot eventually dismissed this thought. Tyr was fastidiously attentive to his surroundings. The thought of someone like him forgetting to douse the lamp before falling asleep was, after some consideration, absurd.
Thinking maybe he should just ignore it, Elliot began to step away, but his curiosity was peaked. Tentatively, he stepped up to he door, raised his fist, and knocked gently three times. After a moment, he heard the sound of the door unlocking. That was all though. It did not open. Taking that as an invitation, Elliot slowly opened the door himself.
Tyr was sitting on the far side of the room in a chair. He still wore his combat boots and cargo pants, but he had removed his black tank top, and Elliot could see his lean muscles by the soft glow of the lamp. A low table had been pulled over in front of him and all of his assorted weapons were laid out on top of it. He held one of the smaller knives in his hand and was polishing it with a cloth. As Elliot entered he did not even look up.
"You should be sleeping." Tyr told him, still looking intently at the knife.
"I was." Elliot closed the door behind him. "I saw the light though. I wanted to make sure..." He paused. He wasn't sure what his concern had been. "You need sleep too." He eventually said quietly.
It was impossible to be sure, but Elliot almost thought he saw a twitch at one corner of Tyr's mouth. If there had been a smile there, it was definitely gone when Tyr looked up.
"I prefer the outdoors." He said simply.
Elliot frowned. It was hard to imagine someone would choose to sleep out in the woods rather than in soft beds.
"You barely sleep there too." Elliot protested softly, remembering how Tyr was always the last one to sleep and the first one awake.
This time there was definitely a faint trace of a smile. "You don't need to worry about me."
"Can I stay here?" Elliot asked impulsively. Suddenly the idea of leaving Tyr all alone seemed very sad to him.
Tyr looked at him for a moment, considering, then said, "I don't think your mother would like that."
Elliot sat down on the edge of the bed. "She won't care. She trusts you. Or I can go back before they get up."
"Why do you want to stay?" Tyr asked, looking him in the eye until Elliot had to look down shyly.
"I don't know." He admitted eventually. "I don't want you to be lonely."
The ghost of a smile was back. "That's very considerate."
Elliot realized that this was the longest conversation he'd had with Tyr. The man usually spoke in single syllables. He lay back on the bed, forgetting that he was only wearing a robe. Tyr obviously noticed though and sat back in his chair a bit.
Blushing in embarrassment, Elliot made sure he was covered in the right places, but his entire leg up to his thigh was clearly visible, and it had opened at the chest a little bit. He realized that Tyr had stopped polishing his knife and was now just looking at him.
"Maybe you can stay." Tyr said slowly, setting the knife down.
The way Tyr was looking at him made Elliot feel slightly vulnerable and exposed, as if the robe wasn't even there at all. He had to admit that he really liked the way Tyr looked without his shirt on. Remembering the cold night that the two of them had spent cuddled under Tyr's fur cloak, Elliot felt a small shiver run through his body. Tyr stood up and walked over to sit on the edge of the bed close to him.
Elliot didn't move when Tyr sat next to him. His eyes kept flicking from the unreadable but handsome face, down to the perfectly toned body. Although... maybe it wasn't totally unreadable... Elliot noticed a flicker of uncertainty behind those greyish eyes.
Tentatively, Tyr reached out a hand and put it on Elliot's exposed leg. Elliot still didn't move. He watched the hand with something like surprise. The fact that a hand, so hard worked and rough, could place a touch that gentle was not what he would have expected. Again, he dove into Tyr's eyes, searching for some clue about the silent figure beside him. There was emotion there, deep down. Uncertainty and maybe even embarrassment.
The moment was sensual, but in a way, it was innocent. Elliot did not understand the feelings he had for Tyr, and it certainly seemed like Tyr was dealing with a similar problem. They sat for a long time, staring at each other, with Tyr gently caressing Elliot's smooth thigh.
Finally, and quickly, Tyr ducked his head in and kissed Elliot gently. It was not a deep or passionate kiss, but just a simple peck; uncertain and almost child-like. Blushing deeply, Elliot felt a smile spread to his face unintentionally. Tyr's other hand moved up to the side of his neck and cheek and Elliot sighed in contentment.
Laying back on the bed, Tyr pulled Elliot down with him. The smaller boy followed without complaint, nestling his head against Tyr's shoulder with one powerful arm wrapped around him. They stayed like that for a while, satisfied to simply be close to one another.
"Thank you." Elliot eventually said, looking up at his protector and gently tracing a finger across his well-defined abs. "For protecting us."
A look of uncertainty passed over Tyr's face. "Is that..." he began awkwardly. "Is that why you..." He stopped again, searching for the words. "What I mean to say is... Is that the only reason that you're here?"
Elliot understood now that Tyr was worried he was only allowing the interactions between them to repay some sort of debt. While he had to admit that he felt like he owed Tyr a great deal, he could say unreservedly that it did not account for them laying in bed together.
He smiled and shook his head, then kissed Tyr's cheek. "No, that's not it." Thinking about it further, he frowned. "I feel... safe because of you." He told Tyr awkwardly, causing the faintest trace of a smile to touch his handsome face.
As Tyr's hand reached around his shoulders, Elliot realized that his robe was almost entirely open except for the tie at the waist. It just barely hid his more private regions but left everything else exposed. Tyr had seen it all before anyway in the shower, Elliot thought, so he supposed it didn't matter. Still, it was strange being so close to Tyr while being practically naked.
Tyr's strong hand moved inside the opening of the robe, stroking Elliot's chest gently. It felt good having the hand on him, and he could tell without looking up that Tyr's eyes were glued to his body as well. Elliot decided to take his turn as well and studied the toned chest and abs that he lay next to. Turning to one side, he traced a long scar that ran down the side of Tyr's torso.
"What are they all from?" He questioned, again looking up at Tyr's stoic face.
His eyes held a far-away look as he replied. "Various things. Mistakes."
"You? Make mistakes?" Elliot asked playfully.
Elliot's smile faded quickly then as he saw an unmistakable flash of great pain blink across Tyr's face. It was gone almost instantly though, hidden behind the perpetual mask he wore.
"Often." Was the one-word reply.
Realizing he must have touched on a sensitive matter, Elliot changed the subject. "What does your tattoo mean?" He asked, looking down at the muscular arm that held him tightly.
Elliot had not thought much about Tyr's tattoo since noticing it at their first meeting in the forest. Now, with it close to his face, he examined the dark, angular symbols more closely.
"They're runes." Tyr eventually told him. "The one in the center is my name, `Tyr'."
Running his finger over the crude lines in the rune resembling an upward-pointing arrow, Elliot then examined the ring of smaller characters surrounding it.
"What about these ones?" He asked, touching the ring gently.
Tyr did not answer for a while and for a second Elliot wondered if he would, then finally the powerful arm squeezed him tight.
"Maybe I'll tell you someday." Tyr said cryptically.
Despite and perhaps because of the intimacy in Tyr's gentle touch, Elliot felt himself losing the battle to stay awake. He did not know what exactly he wanted Tyr to do, but he knew that it was not going to happen that night. That was ok, he thought. It was enough to just lie with his guardian and be held by him, for now anyway.
Groaning and stretching, Elliot finally woke up. The bed was so comfortable though that he did not want to move. Slowly he probed around with a hand to see if Tyr was still lying next to him, but he found only empty space. Cracking his eyes open, he was surprised to see that he was back in the room across the hall. Tyr must have moved him back to his own bed after he had fallen asleep... That is if the whole thing hadn't been some kind of dream. He discarded the idea quickly. The feeling of Tyr's hand on his leg and his chest had been too real. Also, he knew how silently Tyr could move and how strong he was, it would have been no trouble for him to slip in unnoticed, even while carrying Elliot.
With a half-yawn half-whine, Elliot swung himself up and out of bed. It was amazing how good he felt. The night's rest on a real mattress behind a locked door had rejuvenated him. The sound of the lock turning caused him to jump. Being out in dangerous territory for so long had left him on edge. It was only Kara though and she smiled when she saw him up.
"We were getting worried you were going to sleep forever." She teased. "It's got to be almost four o'clock by now."
Elliot's eyes widened. Four o'clock? It had been early in the evening when they had gone to bed. That meant that, excluding his short time with Tyr, he had been asleep for nearly twenty hours. That realization caused a sudden pang in his stomach. It had been some time since he had last eaten. He looked around the room.
Knowing what he was looking for, Kara pointed. "Mom brought you some toast and sausage. It's not hot anymore but it's something. Dinner's not for a little while yet."
Finding the plate, Elliot wolfed the food down without pausing to breathe. "Where's mom? And Tyr?" He asked his sister. "And where are my clothes?" He looked around in confusion.
"Hanging outside the window." Kara pointed again. "Mom washed them all this morning. And they're down at the gym still I think."
His clothing was mostly dry when he found it and had a nice fresh scent to it. "I'll meet you there." He told Kara, and then turned to get dressed.
When he arrived at the gymnasium, he found Tyr and his mother standing in the small gym lobby. They were talking with another man, short and stocky, and in his early thirties with thinning hair. It seemed like a serious but friendly discussion.
Elliot was going to approach but another man brushed past him to join the group. This one was younger, about Tyr's age, and had a badly bruised black eye. He clapped Tyr on the shoulder warmly.
"That was amazing!" The young man said, loud enough for Elliot to hear. "I've never seen fighting like that."
Apparently a fan, the young man shook hands with Tyr awkwardly and then moved on his way. The gym doors opened loudly behind Elliot, causing him to jump and turn. Two men limped into the lobby, supporting a third one between the two of them. They were badly bruised and bleeding in several locations. The one in the middle had his left arm bent at an unsettling angle. The two on either side cast angry glares in Tyr's direction as they lumbered through but said nothing. It was then that Elliot recognized them as the men that had harassed Kara and their mother the night before. He winced as he put two and two together and imagined what Tyr had done to them.
Elliot stepped forward to join the group of Tyr, his mother and the strange new man just as Kara rounded the corner.
"Good, you're both here." Their mother said bringing them in close. "We've got some important news."
Giving his sister a confused look and receiving a similar expression in return, Elliot turned his querying gaze to Tyr, who simply redirected it towards their mother with an incline of his head.
"This is Rob." She indicated the short man who offered a small wave and a friendly but awkward smile. "He is going to put Tyr into the Tournament."