When You Crashed In The Clouds/ VII

When you crashed in the clouds/ part VII

"You promised me you wouldn't send him away!"

Billy freezes at the sound of Johnathan's voice. He'd just come down to get a few books he'd forgotten for his last minute packing frenzy.

"I don't make promises to whores" his father's voice is as sharp as a knife and Billy presses against the wall to listen.

What?

"I did everything you asked. I didn't tell him anything...please" Johnathan's pleading voice reaches him and Billy closes his eyes.

Everything he asked?

"Think of it this way. You got yourself a good bargain. You've tasted the cocks of both Slater men so count yourself lucky"

"Do you think I have anything to lose now? All you had over me was him and now he's leaving. I will tell him everything. How will you look your son in the eye then?"

There is silence for a moment and Billy's brain tries to put together what he'd just heard in to something he can understand. He flinches when he suddenly hears something knocking against the book shelves. Billy is not sure when he moved but he finds himself tearing open the library door and storming in to the room. He freezes at the scene confronting him.

Johnathan, clutching his shoulder, is curled against the old bookshelf and his father poised over him, ready to strike again.

"William…"

Any other time, Billy would have loved the look of surprise on his father's face.

"Is it true?" he asks his father, knowing the answer but dreading it anyway.

His father takes a step towards him.

"William, I hardly-"

"It was you" Billy says quietly but his father freezes.

"The bruises on his body. That was you? All that time I wondered. I thought that…" he can't look at Johnathan. He thought that Johnathan had betrayed him. He'd been so wrong.

"William, he's nothing. He's trash" his father's voice is cool and Billy is probably just imagining the tremor behind it.

"Then why did you want him? If he's trash then why did you touch him?" Billy yells. At the corner of his eyes, he sees Johnathan flinch. He's never been the cool one, never known how to hide his emotions. He stopped wanting to be like his father long ago.

"You knew I loved him" Johnathan's head lifts up at his words.

"You knew I loved him and you still did this" Billy sees Johnathan straighten up, eyes fixed on him.

"William-" his father's voice is losing its patience. But Billy will have none of it. He had almost lost Johnathan. He might have still lost him but he knows now and he can fight for him.

Billy remembers all the times he'd seen the marks on Johnathan's body and never said anything. Until he couldn't ignore them anymore.

"You had him beat up"

The sight of Johnathan asleep on the white hospital bed with bandaged ribs and a broken arm had given him nightmares for weeks.

"He did everything you asked and you still hurt him" he takes a step forward and is surprised when his father takes a step back.

"I am your father"

Billy looks at him, the perfect aristocrat.

"You lost me when you touched him for the first time" he looks away from his father's white face to Johnathan. He finally looks at him, the beloved dark eyes and the too-long hair.

"I'm sorry, Jay…" his voice breaks and he takes a deep breath and tries to hold the tears at bay.

"I'm so sorry"

Johnathan smiles and Billy feels like a man seeing the sun after a lifetime of darkness. Johnathan smiles at him and Billy feels his heart set free from the fear that had been weighing it down. He hasn't lost him forever.

Billy reaches out a hand and Johnathan doesn't hesitate when he takes it with his own. Billy holds tight and looks back at his father, whose shock has given away to anger. But Billy will not be swayed by his anger anymore.

"We are going to leave. You will let us go and not interfere. I am done with this life"

---

Billy unlocks the door with his key and pushes, using his shoulder for extra force when the door jams like it always does. He throws his bag on the couch and goes for the fridge. Jay won't be home for at least another hour since he has training for the game on Saturday. Billy grabs a beer and goes to check on their mini-herb garden. It was Jay's turn to water the plants and he better not have forgotten because Billy will totally kill him if he has. He opens the door to the balcony and the plants are still alive so Jay hasn't forgotten.

He sits down one of the chairs on the balcony, making sure it's not the dodgy one with the crook leg, and looks out at the city.

It has been three months since they moved out of Johnathan's family home and in to the apartment.

Six months since Billy walked out of his father's house.

He'd left with almost nothing and had been so lucky that Johnathan's mom let him stay at their house. A month after that his mother's attorney had come to see him, letting him know that he still had her side of his inheritance available to him. His father still hasn't done anything, hasn't even cut him out of the Will. Billy isn't sure what he's thinking but knows it'll be a long time before he could even think about forgiving him. He can't. Not when Billy knows what he did.

He is incredibly thankful that his mother hadn't combined her fortune with his father's. They wouldn't have been able to afford the apartment otherwise. They could have gotten a better place but Jay had been reluctant to let Billy pay for anything extravagant. So here they are. In their own apartment, with their own herb garden, which was Jay's idea by the way, even if Billy looks after it more often, and both of them going through university and Jay his rugby apprenticeship as well.

He loves it. It had been a bit difficult at the start but Jay's mom had been incredible, coming over and teaching them the basics of running a household and making sure neither of them set the house on fire or drowned in the washer.

Billy has to admit that this is not the life he would have seen himself leading if you had asked him a year ago. Don't get him wrong, he doesn't regret anything. Doesn't think about the could- have-beens. This life, the one he has with Jay, is the only one that matters. This life is the one he'd choose every single time.

---

Johnathan's eyes flicker open at his touch and Billy finds himself transfixed by the colour of his eyes. He traces his fingers over Johnathan's face, over the smooth dark skin, the full lips and the dark hair. Then his hands move lower, over the bare chest, brushing over the dark nipples until they come to rest low on his hips. Johnathan's eyes are dark and his breathing has quickened and Billy can't help but lean forward and catch his lips with his own. Johnathan is still for a moment and Billy smiles against his lips when he feels Johnathan's hands come up to curl against his chest. He deepens the kiss, drawing Johnathan closer. His heart is beating so fast in his chest and everything feels so incredibly unreal. It feels like the first time and every single time that had come after and he knows he will never get enough of this. Seeing Johnathan on the verge of being undone, all darkened eyes and beating heart and it is all the things Billy could ever want in one place.

The End.