There is no sweeter innocence than our gentle sin [Closed to Caleb, Pre-Dated 8/23/15]

[overdrawing]

When there is nothing else, there is work. After falling into the ocean, Gabe has stopped sleepwalking but that's the least of his problems now. Everything feels like a punishment, even when he wishes he could feel safe. The ocean is half a place of comfort and also a void of mystery. He doesn't know if accepting that he is a siren means he'll have mastered his nature or succumbed to it.

But at least there's work. There are still plates and glasses to wash, counters to wipe down, his hands blistered ad aching. He knows split knuckles and dishpan hands, the endless reel of work that propels him on beyond his own confused thoughts.

It's where Sunday finds him. Not at church or taking a day of rest. At work, at the bar. Sometimes he thinks the bartenders hear more confessions than any priests in town.

Comments

[overdrawing]

Gabe frowns minutely, mind suddenly suggesting several terrible possibilities that might befall Caleb as he tries to get there. Or once he gets there. Or on the job. "Is that safe?"

As if that matters when someone is desperate. Gabe can hardly make a comment, not when he works for cash because he's afraid of his parents finding him through pay stubs.

"Are you going to stay here first?"

[freefromsin]

"I don't know, honestly," Caleb quietly admits. "Maybe just doing demo or putting floors in or something." It's not something he's super eager to do, but he doesn't have a ton of options.

"I...hadn't planned on it. I think he's expecting me soon," he doesn't look at Gabe when he says it, absently rubbing the knuckles of his left hand with his thumb.

[overdrawing]

He nods, because he can understand the impulse to leave. It had overtaken him, after all. That doesn't necessarily make it easy. "I didn't think anyone would come looking for me," he admits. "Not if my parents found out what I did. They wouldn't want me anymore."

Maybe it doesn't matter to Caleb, but it matters to him.

[freefromsin]

"Do you want your parents to come looking for you?" Caleb asks, glancing over at him. It's not like he knows Gabe's parents beyond his father's furious yelling, and his mother's scared expression. "They were worried about you, for what it's worth. When I saw them."

[overdrawing]

"What good would it do?" Gabe asks. "If they find out how I've been living and what I am, they won't want me back. If they know why I left, they still won't want me back either." There's no winning in that situation. All there is left to do is to go forward.

"There's not much of a point."

[freefromsin]

"I'm sorry," Caleb says quietly. He feels responsible. It feels like this is his fault. He kissed Gabe first, at the time he hadn't known it would go as far as it did, but he still had wanted something to happen. And anyway, in their world, a kiss was bad enough.

"You probably have to get back to work," he finally says, shoving his hands in his pockets. "I'll let you get back to it."

[overdrawing]

Gabe nods, chewing on his lip a little bit. "I do but...I get off at ten." He looks somewhere between penitent and hopeful and he finds himself troubled by the idea that Caleb might be so near but also very far away.

"If you want."

[freefromsin]

Caleb looks over at Gabe, not even bothering to hide his surprise. "You want to see me again?" he blurts out, quiet, but a little disbelieving. He was pretty sure Gabe would be glad to be rid of him.

[overdrawing]

"You're my friend. Or you were," Gabe says. His ability to maintain eye contact gives out and he glances down, thumbnail pressing against his teeth. "I'm surprised you wanted to see me."

[freefromsin]

"You're my friend," Caleb echoes. "I didn't know what had happened to you..."

Also, there's the matter of what he won't say: that that night at the hotel meant a lot to him. He can guess from Gabe's reaction that it probably falls under the Regret category, that thing that was nice at the time but overall probably should have never happened. But for Caleb, despite how tangled everything had gotten, it was a different story.

"Okay. I'll see you at ten."