He hadn’t trained long enough.
That had become apparent when the first punch had hit him square in the jaw, sending him reeling. He was too Simple, too new to all of this. Abel was clocking the other guy well enough, but seemed too focused on that to help him. He threw a punch back and landed it on his attacker’s gut, earning a satisfying groan. The short reprieve was quickly over though, and soon he was pinned. He could’ve kicked himself. “This is what you fucking get when you mess with us, kid.” He strained against the man atop him, panic rising as he felt the cold metal of a gun barrel press against his forehead. “Move and I’ll blow your brains out!” The snarl was loud enough for Abel to hear, and sure enough, Matt watched him freeze.
“Stop.” God, he loved Abel. He squeezed his eyes shut and waited, hearing Abel protest as he was probably getting shoved into a brick wall. “Lay off! Let us go, and we won’t show up here again.” The guy on Matthew barked out laughter, pressing the gun harder onto Matt’s head.
“Should’ve thought this through before you came around here then, huh?” Matt held his breath for a surprisingly long time, tensed and preparing for the gunshot to ring in his ears. He didn’t want to go, he didn’t want to leave Abel behind without telling him--
“Abel, I lo--”
BANG!
Things were surprisingly quiet now.
Abel wasn’t screaming for him to just wake up; it was just... Quiet.
* * *
Abel had managed to strangle the man who had him held against the wall, and attacked the guy on Matthew, and he only saw red as he ripped the gun out of the guy’s hands. He was shaking. “You should’ve taken my offer, you fucking piece of trash,” He snarled, and shot the man in the gut, the arm, the leg. The screams didn’t quite reach his ears. Abel punched him and kicked him over, and over, and over. “You killed, him, you fucker, you killed him!”
BANGBANGBANG!
Three shots to the head, and Matthew’s killer was gone. Abel dropped the gun, his head slowly turning to Matthew’s stupidly tall form, just laying on the cement. There was so much blood. It had pooled around Matthew’s head, staining his blonde waves a bit. His eyes were already closed. He wished Matt was asleep, with everything in him. “Come on, Matt... Just wake up. Please, please just wake up...” Matt could just sit up and finish what he’d been saying before and give him a sweet kiss and Abel could sleep knowing that at least things were the way they were supposed to be. A shaking hand held Matt’s cheek, and Abel felt his eyes welling up with tears for the first time in what felt like years. This wasn’t happening, not to Matthew. People like Matthew didn’t die like this. They didn’t just get their brains blown out. Abel sucked in his tears. He didn’t cry in front of Matthew. He wasn’t weak. Carefully he picked up Matthew, cradling him at first, and then softly placing him over his shoulder. Matthew had done that to him, once, when the stupid Simple had knocked Abel out. It had only been a couple months, but... It might as well have been years. “Damn it, Matt. Damn you.” It was so much easier to be angry than sad.
It was some time before he ended up back home, greeted by Matthias, who knew exactly what was going on when he saw Abel’s face. They didn’t say a word as they started digging a long, rectangular hole. It was about as deep as Matthew was tall when they were done. “Hey, Abel? Do you want to say anything?”
“No.”
“Okay, let’s... Let’s get him in there, then.”
And they did just that, lowering Matt’s body into the grave. The sun was already setting. Abel noticed with slight anger that his face was bruised, and the bullet hole was in the center of his head. They hadn’t set him down yet, and Abel abruptly jerked up, pulling Matthew out. “I’m going to clean him up first.” And with that, he started towards the river that was a couple hundred yards away, leaving Matthias looking a little confused. They hadn’t ever opted to clean someone before burying them.
Abel took his time, cleaning out Matthew hair and knowing he couldn’t do much about his clothes or bruises, which upset him. He was silent too, not giving in to his childish need to speak to his fallen friend. Green eyes, once much greedier, lingered on Matthew’s lightly tanned face for too long, and soon he felt like he was going to start crying. He chided himself and held it in, looking away from Matthew, and finished washing out his hair. He carried him back, where Matthias was still standing by the grave. It took at least several hours to fill the hold back in, and get a small wooden cross to mark the grave. Abel had taken great care in carving Matt’s name on the cross, and pulled a few tulips from his little garden to plant there.
He didn’t sleep that night, but cried, and broke a few things. By the time the sun had risen, his room was in shambles, and there were a few new holes in his wall.
“I fucking love you too...”
For spookytulip's AU. This is way, way longer than I thought it would be, haha. Anyways, hope you like it.
