A/N: Maybe my time of shine has just disappeared or something or it could be the site. Not as many people read my stories anymore that saddens me, not much encouragement haha. But thank you to those who do!

“Hay! Hayden, come here!” Frankie called across the soccer field. Charlie had ordered Hayden to participate with the other boys in some sort of sport. Misha and Frankie, they said, were too fragile for it, and so they sat on a blanket watching them.

Hayden jogged over to them with a smile. Andrew watched him with a glare.

“Here, this is for you,” Frankie said, handing him a small plucked flower. Hayden blushed.

“Thanks,” he whispered, tucking it behind his ear.

“You’re very welcome, sir.”

Misha flipped his hair from his face and watched the two boys exchange some sort of look that he didn't understand.

When Hayden walked away, Misha huffed.

“You like him, don’t you?”

“What?! No, I-I….he doesn’t even look like he’d at least be bisexual,” Frankie confessed, slouching.

“Oh, but he is. I can tell from the way he looks at you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Frankie asked.

Misha laughed. “No straight guy is gonna accept a flower from another boy if he wasn’t at least somewhat interested or curious, Frankie. I thought you of all people would know that.”

Frankie shrugged, following Hayden with his eyes.

“I don’t want to ruin our friendship if I say something to him. I like him, but I like him as a friend more. Does that make sense?” he asked.

Hayden looked back over at Frankie who waved energetically, just as Hayden returned the favor. Andrew took it upon himself to shove Hayden forward, knocking him to the ground.

Frankie gasped and was about to get up, but Hayden got right back to playing, locking his cold eyes on Andrew.

“I think Andrew’s jealous too,” Misha said, picking out flower pedals. Frankie glanced at his friend briefly noting his freckles.

“Andrew hates me.”

“Maybe he hates you because he loves you.” Misha smiled. Frankie rolled his eyes.

“I think you should tell Hayden that you like him, you never know how long you have with this kind of life,” Misha whispered darkly, and yanked a flower pedal and threw it to the ground.

“Yeah, I know.” Frankie sighed, and crossed his legs, sitting up straight and opened his book.

Misha opened up his notebook and started to write.

Hayden had to stop a few times to catch his breath from all this running. It was fucking ridiculous, who the fuck would want to chase a ball back and forth like this?!

He leaned over with hands on his knees coughing when he caught sight of Frankie’s worried eyes. He smiled for him, giving him a small wave.

Frankie did the same and then everything after that seemed to happen in slow mo and at the same time as fast as he had ever seen.

Andrew watched the pair wave at each other like little childish girls, it made him sick, and angry, and jealous all at the same time. So what else could he do when he had a soccer ball at the tip of his foot—well, he kicked it.

He kicked it dead at Frankie, hitting him in the face.

Frankie cried out, hovering over, using his shirt to wipe all the blood coming from his lip.

Andrew didn’t even have time to laugh at what he had done before he felt Hayden’s crushing weight on him with fighting fists. The two rolled around in the grass hitting wherever they could before the other boys finally jumped in to stop it.

Misha helped his friend to the clinic, glowering at Andrew. What was his problem anyways? He specifically went out of his way to hurt Frankie.

“He is the biggest closet case I know,” Misha whispered to himself.

--

“You’re very, very lucky you didn’t lose a tooth,” Charlie said as he cleaned up Frankie.

Frankie sat frozen in the chair.

“Your lip is going to bruise pretty bad though, so expect that much,” he continued. His fingers accidentally brushed Frankie’s cheek and Frankie whimpered, flinching away by habit.

Charlie frowned. “I’m just trying to help you.”

“I know,” Frankie said, eyes downcast. “How are Hayden and Andrew?”

“Bruised up as well,” he answered with a sigh. “The blood on your shirt is worse than your hit.” He smiled, pushing up Frankie’s chin with his hand. Frankie didn’t make eye contact.

Charlie nodded and turned to throw away the cotton balls. “I can’t have you walking around with a bloody shirt back to your room, so take that one off.”

“It’s okay really! I don’t mind, it’s already dry anyways!” Frankie rushed nervously.

“Frankie,” Charlie now locked eyes with his. “Take off the shirt.”

Frankie’s breathing instantly quickened as his shaky fingers went to the hem of his shirt.

“Please,”

“Frankie,” Charlie hissed, and Frankie squeezed his eyes shut.

--

“You’re lucky that Andrew kicked the ball from far away.” Hayden said the next day as he and Frankie walked outside. He was quiet today, real quiet and he hadn’t slept in his room last night either.

Hayden was going to ask why, but for some reason he didn’t feel like it was his place. He was probably being watched by the people in the clinic to make sure none of his teeth fell out or something.

“Yeah,” Frankie whispered, dragging his feet on the pebbles.

Hayden licked his lips. “Are you okay?”

“Hmm. Yeah, I’m fine,” Frankie whispered.

“You don’t seem fine,” Hayden replied. Frankie paused and looked up at him before forcing a smile. Hayden glared. That wasn’t a Frankie smile.

“Can I show you my secret hiding place?” Frankie asked with childlike wonder.

“Yeah,” Hayden smiled glad that he at least sounded somewhat like himself just then.

Frankie smiled a big, real smile this time and grabbed Hayden’s hand. “Come on,” he said, running. Hayden barely kept up: he was fast for a little thing.

‘His hand’s so small. Warm,’ Hayden thought. He ducked from branches and leaves that hit him in the face before they suddenly cleared up to reveal a wide circle where the sun shined through.

“Wow,”

“Isn’t it pretty?” Frankie asked, letting his hand go and circling around with arms wide open.

“This is where I come when I want to run away, I can’t really run away so this is good enough. Only my roommates know about it,” he said.

A pang of jealously hit Hayden because he was hoping that he was the only one that Frankie had shown this spot to.

“We should spin around!” Frankie suggested.

Hayden chuckled. “Why?”

“Because, silly goose, it’ll be fun. I always spin here by myself, or with Misha, but never with you,” Frankie enlightened and took both of Hayden’s hands in his own.

There was something special about Frankie. Maybe it was his childlike attitude. Whatever it was it made Hayden want to crush him with his arms; he wanted to protect him with whatever power he had.

The two spun and spun and spun. Hayden couldn’t help but laugh with Frankie’s contagious giggles. The sun was shining just right on the both of them until finally they collapsed with Frankie on top of Hayden.

Hayden held his breath by reaction, and gawked up at Frankie.

‘Oh, God, oh God, his knee is by my crotch. I can feel his knee against my crotch!’ Hayden thought. He closed his eyes just to miss Frankie’s frown.

‘He really doesn’t like me,’ thought Frankie as he watched Hayden squeeze his eyes shut.

“The Warden wants to see you.” A new voice broke the two boys up instantly. Hayden popped up, dusting off dirt and leaves. Frankie just sat there with legs spread out awkwardly. He was staring blankly at the grass.

“Why?”

Jonathon shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know, he just told me to come find you.” He said.

Frankie was stuck. Literally, his mind had stopped. Hayden didn’t like him that way, and now Max wanted to see him. With limp limbs he picked himself up and followed Jonathon. For a second he looked back at Hayden whose face was red, and yet he wouldn’t look at him.

Frankie held his head down as he walked.

That was the last time Hayden had seen Frankie in almost two weeks. A week and four days to be exact. Hayden had counted.

No one knew anything, or so they said. It was like Frankie had just disappeared. All his things were still in his room, but it wasn’t the same. Hayden didn’t feel the same. He should have known something like this would happen.

In foster homes, nothing was permanent. Just when you connected with someone, they were gone.

“He’s gonna come back,” Jonathon had told him. “He wouldn’t leave his books. Frankie would rather die than leave his books.”

Hayden nodded, cuddling up in his bed.

He missed Frankie’s laugh, so soon had they met, and connected that he wanted him back instantly.

Hayden could barely sleep from the loud thunderstorm outside. What was with all the storms?

Misha was curled up, hovering over his notebook.

“What are you doing?” Hayden asked him.

Misha’s head went up, he hadn’t been that talkative since Frankie left either. “Just writing,” he mumbled, and Hayden’s eyebrows went up. Obviously he didn’t want to chat.

He looked to Jonathon who had his left knee hiked up.

“What are you doing?” Hayden asked him. Jonathon didn’t even look up at him and held up his magazine. “Well, okay then.” Hayden sighed, and threw a squishy ball up and down.

Up and Down.

Up and Down.

“Can you stop that? It’s really distracting,” Jonathon requested. Hayden rolled his eyes and stopped.

“You know you guys really are—” He stopped himself when he saw the small figure coming into the room.

“Frankie!” Misha screamed jumping up.

‘So now he wakes up,’

Hayden cocked his head a little squinting at Frankie, he looked so—different. His hair was the same, maybe a little wilder, his clothes looked the same, but it was his face, his eyes looked—dead.

His skin was paler and pasty and he had these dark rings under his eyes. He didn’t even reach out to Misha as he hugged him.

“Where were you? What happened?” Misha whispered. Frankie just looked at him, saying nothing. He looked so worn out. His every move looked like a struggle, Hayden sat up more, afraid that he might collapse or something.

“Frankie?” he murmured. Frankie finally made eyes with him. His plump bottom lip trembled. He was trying so hard to keep from crying. He walked over to Hayden who never moved his eyes off of him.

Frankie stood in front of his bed now, right in between Hayden’s legs that hung off the bed. He heaved; taking shaky breathes as he shoved forward and wrapped his arms around Hayden’s neck.

Hayden stiffened; he wasn’t use to the contact. Did he even know how to comfort someone? He could feel Frankie tense up and start to pull away but he couldn’t miss his chance so he squeezed him back abruptly, holding him close.

Frankie continued to cry, his salty tears and snot smudging against Hayden’s shoulder.

“I-I missed you,” Frankie said in his ear. His breath felt hot.

Misha saw the two and snapped at Jonathon who groaned but got out of bed and left the room with Misha.

“I-I missed you too, Frankie.” He said honestly, bringing up a hand to hold the back of Frankie’s head as he leaned his body against him.

Frankie snuggled his face closer to Hayden and took a deep breath. He felt dumb about doing this but he couldn’t help it. The whole time that he was gone he thought of nothing else but Hayden.

Hayden had been the image in his mind and had saved him so many times from reality. All he had to do was think of Hayden and he had escaped, he was free. This boy that had suddenly walked into his life and saved him, so what if they hadn’t known each other for months, it didn’t matter.

Hayden sat comfortably actually holding onto the small Frankie, he enjoyed it so much and he took in Frankie’s soft smell of vanilla.

“I was scared that you left.”

“I’d say good bye first,” Frankie promised, squeezing more. Hayden snuggled his cheek against Frankie’s arm.

“Where were you?” he asked. He had to ask.

Frankie didn’t answer, so he thought he hadn’t heard him. “Where did you go?”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” he answered sharply. Hayden nodded.

“Well, I’m glad you’re back.”

“Me too.”

He smiled.

--

Everything was swiftly bright again in Hayden’s life. Classes weren’t so dull once Frankie was back and better with that smile of his. Hayden watched Frankie smile at other people and maybe it was just wishful thinking but he swore there was a smile that Frankie saved especially for him. It was a secret smile and Hayden longed for it.

Hayden felt eyes on him and looked to his left seeing Frankie waving at him with that smile. Hayden laughed and waved back, blushing. Everything seemed to be looking up now, so why was it that he had a nightmare that night?

(This is the nightmare, it should be in italics but that hurts my eyes so yeah)

“Ugh,” Sean moaned, his lips biting up at Hayden’s lips as he pulled up from his face. Hayden smirked and ran his hand down smoothly down Sean’s side, gripping at his hipbone.

Grinding down his hips, he hovered over Sean, his hair tickling the other boy's face. Sean leaned up and pushed his lips harshly against Hayden's.

“I love you.”

“I love you too,” Hayden whispered in his ear. He licked the rim of it, and Sean bucked.

“Oh God, Hay, please,” he whined.

“Please what?” Hayden teased, watching him with admiring eyes. Sean bucked again holding onto Hayden’s sides tightly.

“Please, please, please,” he repeated, a growl deep in his throat.

Hayden laughed pressing his lips to his. “Shh, don’t wake anyone up.”

“What’s going on in here?!” an older woman asked, turning on the light. Both boys yelped and jumped apart. Hayden hurriedly tried pulling up his pants.

“What the hell is going on in here?!” the woman shouted now.

Sean panted loudly trying to grab his boxers.

The woman charged at them grabbing Hayden by the ear.

“Ow!” he shouted, unfortunately not being able to pull away from her tight grip.

“I knew it. I knew you’d be a bad one. I just knew it!”

“It’s not his fault!” Sean shouted, hopping out of the bed to follow them down the hallway.

“I tried to be kind, motherly instinct, you could call it, and what do you do? You mess up other boys who live here.” She accused. Hayden screeched from his red ear.

“Let go!”

“You better shut up!” she shouted.

“Please, it’s not his fault! I wanted to!” Sean shouted after them. The woman stopped, glaring down at him.

“You don’t know what you want. You’re a child that he took advantage of.”

“That’s not true. And I’m 15! I’m not a child! I knew exactly what we were doing!” Sean said.

The woman’s eyebrows went up. “Oh, so you gladly spit in God’s face?” she questioned.

Sean paused.

“What?”

She let Hayden go for a second, and he winced holding onto his ear. She advanced towards Sean, and he backed up by the stairs.

“You willingly did these things with him?” she asked. She had Sean from when he was a baby, and here he was changing for a new boy in the house.

“I-I,” he stuttered.

“Tell me, Sean, tell me you willingly sinned.” She said moving to him. Sean backed up more, and she pushed his small chest.

“Tell me, Sean!” she shouted.

“Leave him alone!” Hayden shouted, moving towards them.

“You stay out of this.” She said over her shoulder, and gave Sean another shove. The shove made him lose balance though, and he gripped onto the wall for safety but it was no use as he stumbled back.

His wide eyes met with Hayden’s. He knew that he wouldn’t survive this fall.

Hayden moved to try and grab him but it all just happened to fast. Sean had fell down the stairs, each stair breaking his neck more and more.

And then—he stopped.

He didn’t even reach the bottom. He just lied there in his plaid boxers with arms spread and a leg in a position that it shouldn’t be in. His eyes were wide open with that scared look he had given Hayden just before he fell.

Blood had tainted his brown hair and started to dribble down his face connecting with the blood flowing already from his mouth.

“Sean!” Hayden screamed sitting up in his bed alarmed.

His eyes widened when he saw Frankie’s scared face inches from his. He panted, holding onto his head.

“It’s alright. You had a nightmare. We all have nightmares here,” he reassured the other boy. Hayden closed his eyes and noticed his wet cheeks. So he had been crying in his sleep.

He was embarrassed now for Frankie to see him so vulnerable. Frankie took it upon himself to crawl into bed with Hayden and hug him.

“It’s okay to cry, Hay.”

Hayden just sniffled and tried to suck it up.

“I didn’t do it,” he muttered as he tried to fall back to sleep. Frankie was running his fingers through his damp hair and it felt so relaxing.

“I didn’t kill him, I swear.”

“I believe you.” Frankie whispered. Of course he had no idea what he was talking about but that didn’t matter, he’d believe Hayden no matter what. “I’ll always believe you.”

Thanks to: Ghostmoon Dancer, The Cowardly Lion, sasuke-naruto-forever, lexi v., hairy mushroom nose, ajin, Masochism and ducks, Justin s., xbringxmexthexhorizon, marymakeascenexx, wtfpillowpants, erin2468, Amber B., JakobJawbreaker, Lady Cross, Marin9, yoda, NSU.

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