Reaching up, Miles put a shaky hand on Ian’s lean cheek. “You’re really here,” he whispered, his eyes filling with tears again as his trembling fingers mapped Ian’s face.
Ian’s eyes softened. He leaned into the touch, kissing the tips of Miles’s fingers.
Miles shivered, looking at him hungrily.
“Miles,” Zach said, sounding a mix of exasperated, irritated, and amused. “Let the man inside the house.”
Tristan chuckled. “Yes, Miles, stop feeling up the bloke before your brother has a stroke. Ha, that rhymed!”
Zach and Tristan continued bickering and saying something in the background, but Miles barely registered it. He completely lost himself in Ian’s eyes, his chest warm and full. I missed you so much.
“Miles Hardaway!” Sandra said exasperatedly. “You’re letting the chill in. Close the door, for God’s sake.”
Slowly, reluctantly, Miles pulled back, letting Ian step inside the house and close the door.
“Later,” Ian said hoarsely, looking him in the eye.
Miles nodded, feeling dazed and drunk and ridiculously, stupidly happy.
Slipping his hand into Ian’s, Miles finally turned around to face his family.
All of them were staring at him as if he’d grown a second head in the span of a few minutes.
“Eh,” Miles said intelligently, his face hot. “This is Ian. As you can see, he’s alive.”
“We have gathered,” Zach said, his tone very dry and his gaze sharp and assessing as he eyed Ian.
Ian looked back at him steadily. If Zach’s gaze bothered him, he didn’t show it.
Miles squeezed Ian’s hand, his eyes returning back to Ian’s face, no matter how hard he tried to keep his gaze on his family. Ian was alive. He wasn’t going to disappear if he looked away from him. But Miles’s heart didn’t listen. His heart wanted to just drag Ian upstairs and touch him everywhere, to make sure he was real.
“Don’t even think about it, kid,” Zach said when Miles glanced at the stairs.
Miles pouted.
“You should take off your coat,” Zach said, looking at Ian. While his gaze wasn’t very friendly, it was far from hostile. If anything, there was something like relief in Zach’s eyes. “And come on in.”
Miles had to let go of Ian’s hand to allow him to take off his coat, but he grabbed it back as soon as he could. He was aware that he was being incredibly clingy in front of his entire family, but he couldn’t bring himself to give a damn.
Ian’s eyes smiled at him, and he didn’t object as Miles dragged him around the room, introducing him to his siblings and their significant others. It went relatively well. Miles could see curiosity in his family’s eyes, but they all behaved well enough. Of course it helped that Ian toned down his natural haughtiness, actually making an effort to sound friendly. It caused a warm, giddy feeling to spread through Miles’s chest and he was this close to just kissing Ian right there.
From Ian’s conversation with his siblings, Miles found out that Ian had woken up from his coma a month ago, but after months of inactivity, he’d needed extensive rehabilitation.
Zach was talking to Ian about it when Tony, John’s eldest, tugged at Miles’s sleeve.
“You dropped your phone, Uncle Miles!”
“Thanks,” Miles murmured and unlocked his phone with his free hand, only now remembering the strange text he’d gotten from Harry.
I know you asked me not to Google him, but I’m kind of really bad at not being curious. Sorry? Anyway, the important thing is, he’s alive. He’s alive and awake! Apparently his family had been considering taking him off life-support when he woke up. It’s something of a miracle, isn’t it? I think things like that happen for a reason. Call him. Call him and tell him you love him! Stop being a chicken, Miles!!
Miles snorted softly. “Stop being a chicken” was Harry’s new favorite phrase. He now used it at every opportunity.
But Harry wasn’t wrong, was he?
Life was a fragile thing that could be taken away from you any moment.
Putting his phone into his pocket, Miles lifted his gaze back to Ian’s face. His heart clenched when he thought of how close he’d come to losing him.
Suddenly uncaring that Ian was in the middle of a conversation with Zach, Miles wrapped his arm around Ian’s waist and leaned into him.
Ian turned his head to him slightly. He was still talking to Zach, but now his attention was mostly on Miles. As it should be, always.
“I missed you,” Miles said softly. The words seemed so inadequate to describe the aching, hollow feeling in his chest that he had lived with for months.
It felt like Ian’s eyes were looking right into his soul before Ian squeezed his hand, leaned in, and kissed him on his temple. “I missed you, too,” he said.
Miles laced their fingers together and grinned at him helplessly.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Zach said.
Miles flushed, realizing that Zach was standing just a few feet away and had watched the entire exchange.