Page 27 of Sanctuary
“Oh, good.” Rustling noises sounded from the general direction of where the humming had been coming from, and then a hand touched his arm. “It’s really dark now.”
“The moon will be out soon.”
“Hmmm.” Ori’s hand on his arm tugged and Patton knelt and set his load of branches down. “The pit’s right here,” Ori said. “I found some dried leaves and other things that will be easy to light and put them at the bottom.” Ori slid a hand down Patton’s arm and pressed their lighter into his palm. “Here, you start it. I’ll stand by with wood.”
Carefully, Patton flicked the lighter and held it to the tiny pile of grass in the bottom of the fire pit. The light flickered on Ori’s face, highlights of gold and orange as he fed short bits of twig and dried leaves into the flames, nursing it along until the fire was strong enough for bigger pieces of wood. He’d found some stones too and scattered them around the bottom of the pit, tucking the tinder in around them. They’d hold some of the heat after the fire died and Patton nodded in unconscious approval at the idea.
“We should finish the last of the cheese tonight,” Ori said quietly. “It’ll mold if we don’t.”
“We can get more.”
Ori shrugged and nudged some more wood into the fire. “Two days down, forty to go.” He winced as he shifted his weight. “Can you get the pot for me? It’s in my bag, I think. Grab the cheese and the noodles too?”
Patton dragged the bag over and dug into it, coming up with the pot and the cheese, and a bag of noodles. “Do you want a can of tuna or chicken or something to put in with it?”
Ori made a face. “I don’t care.”
They had more tuna than chicken, so Patton fished around in the bag until he came up with one of those cans. “Just dump it in the pot?”
Ori nodded and reached for the water jug. “Might as well. Cook it all up with the noodles.” He poured the bare minimum of water into the pot and shook a couple of handfuls of noodles into it. “It’s not fancy.”
“I don’t care,” Patton told him honestly. “I’ve gotten to spend more time with you since we left the enclave than I have since you turned thirteen. This is nice.”
He seemed to have startled Ori with his sudden honesty. Ori paused in his cooking and stared over at Patton, his mouth open. “Thank you,” he said after a long pause, then looked away. It was hard to tell in the firelight, but Patton thought he might have been blushing.
Patton opened the can of tuna and dumped it into the pot, then set the can aside so they wouldn’t cut themselves on it. He watched Ori poking at their meal for a moment, until Ori set the spoon aside and stretched out his legs in the warmth of the flames. “Let me see it,” Patton said quietly.
“See what?” Ori said, clearly trying to pretend he didn’t know what Patton was talking about.
“Your foot. Let me see it.”
“It’s just a blister,” Ori protested, and tried to yank his foot back when Patton took hold of his ankle. “Patton!”
“You’re limping,” Patton insisted. “At least let’s see if we need to wrap it up.” He got the sneaker off despite Ori’s determined efforts to stop him, and his palm hit damp cotton while the smell of blood rose to his nostrils. “Dammit, Ori!”
“We couldn’t afford to stop,” Ori said mutinously. “It’ll be fine.”
“You’re fucking bleeding!” Patton peeled the sock off Ori’s foot and held it out so he could see it in the light of the fire. “That’s a hell of a blister.”
“Yeah, well, it’s my fault. I put my new sneakers on, figuring they’d last longer than the old ones, and I didn’t know how long it would be before we could afford more.” Ori winced and pulled the sock toward him. “That blood’s never going to come out.”
“I’m not too worried about that.” Patton reached for one of the bottles of water poured a little over Ori’s crimson-stained foot. “You won’t be able to walk on this tomorrow.”
Ori dropped the sock. “I have to! We can’t stay here! What if they come back?”
“Ori!” Patton snapped, then shook his head. “I’ll make you a deal. You let me do all the extra walking and packing and everything tomorrow, and we’ll see. There’s another town not far, I think. We can get something to put over that and maybe find someplace not too far to hole up. Or we find a spot just before we get to town and you let me go in and see what I can find, okay?” He sent Ori a hard look, because Ori could be stubborn. There was a tendril of fear creeping into Ori’s scent, reminding him that, yes, Patton would be in trouble if they got caught, but Ori would be ruined and worse. He had a lot more to lose. “Promise me? I won’t let them find you or take you. I’d die before I let that happen.”
Ori looked up sharply at that, then leaned forward to trace the line of Patton’s jaw with his fingertips. “Don’t do that. I’d rather know you were alive and happy than have my freedom.”
Why did those few words make him want to cry? Gruffly, Patton told him, “Well, you’re going to get both freedom and me happy about it, so let’s not talk about that.” He poured a little more water over Ori’s foot. “That feel better?”
Ori laughed softly. “Yes. Thank you.” His hand moved from Patton’s face to settle against the back of the hand holding Ori’s ankle. “And thank you for helping me with this.”
Patton carefully set Ori’s foot down on a rock and pulled his backpack over to look inside it for something he could wrap Ori’s foot up in. “Do you know how long I’ve been in love with you?” he asked, his heart up in his throat but the words so determined to leap out into the world there was no stopping them.
“How long?” Ori asked softly.
Patton smiled crookedly over at him and pulled out one of his own clean socks. “Since before I knew that that kind of love existed. I think I’ve been in love with you all my life.”
