The air felt lighter the next morning, but the weight in Damian's chest was still there. He had barely slept, his mind running over the events of last night like a broken record. It wasn't that he regretted it—he didn't. But the reality of what had happened, of where they stood now, hadn't fully sunk in yet.
He had kissed Alex. And Alex had kissed him back. With every passing minute, the thought settled deeper in his mind. It wasn't a mistake. But the question now was: What the hell did it mean?
Damian sat up in bed, rubbing his eyes, trying to shake off the remnants of sleep. The room was quiet, still—too quiet for his racing thoughts. He pulled on a t-shirt, his mind still tangled in last night's conversation. There had been something raw, something unspoken in Alex's words, but Damian couldn't quite figure out if it was enough to change everything. Could it? Was he ready for that?
His phone buzzed on the nightstand, pulling him from his thoughts. Damian picked it up, expecting some random notification, but when he saw Alex's name on the screen, his stomach twisted.
You up?
Damian stared at the message for a moment, his heart skipping a beat. He didn't know what to expect from Alex now. What was he supposed to say? How was he supposed to act? His fingers hovered over the screen, unsure of how to reply.
Yeah. What's up?
The reply came quickly. I was thinking maybe we should talk.
Damian let out a breath, feeling both relieved and anxious. Talk? About what?
About last night. About... us. Where we go from here.
Damian's heart pounded in his chest. He couldn't remember the last time he'd felt this nervous about something as simple as a conversation. But it wasn't just any conversation. It was about everything—the past, the present, the future. It was about them, in a way that was both terrifying and exhilarating.
He typed back, his fingers moving almost automatically. Okay. Where?
My place. I'll be waiting.
Damian stared at the screen for a moment, unsure. The words felt like a challenge, an invitation, and a question all rolled into one. What would this conversation look like? How would it change things?
He didn't have an answer. But what he did know was that he couldn't keep running from this, from him, from what they both knew had been building for so long. Maybe they didn't have all the answers yet. Maybe they weren't supposed to. But they had to start somewhere.
Damian threw on his sneakers and grabbed his keys, walking out the door without a second thought. His heart raced in his chest, and he tried not to think too much about it as he made his way to Alex's place.
When he knocked on the door, the silence that followed was suffocating. Alex opened it after a moment, looking almost as nervous as Damian felt. His hair was messy, his eyes a little red, like he hadn't gotten much sleep either.
"Hey," Alex said, his voice softer than usual. He stepped aside to let Damian in, his gaze never leaving him. "You okay?"
Damian didn't know how to answer. He wasn't okay. But he wasn't not okay either. He was somewhere in between. Somewhere where everything was changing, but nothing was clear.
"Yeah," he muttered, glancing around. The room felt different this time. Like something had shifted in the air, in the space between them.
Alex didn't wait long before he spoke again, his voice tight. "I don't want to make this weird, but... I can't stop thinking about last night. And I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to do with all of this."
Damian nodded, his eyes briefly meeting Alex's. He could feel the tension hanging in the air, but he wasn't sure how to break it. "I'm in the same boat," he admitted. "I don't know what we're doing, but... I don't want to pretend it didn't happen."
Alex let out a breath, his shoulders relaxing just slightly. "Me neither." He stepped closer, their proximity suddenly making Damian acutely aware of the heat between them. But this time, it wasn't so much the physical closeness that made his heart race. It was the weight of their words, their uncertainty. "I'm not asking you to have all the answers, Damian. I'm not asking you to figure this out right now. But I do want you to know that I'm here. I'm not going anywhere."
Damian felt something in him shift, something that had been tense and tight for so long. For the first time, he didn't feel the overwhelming fear he'd had before. Maybe it was the way Alex was looking at him, maybe it was the honesty in his voice, but in that moment, Damian realized that it wasn't about having all the answers. It wasn't about figuring everything out in one go. It was about taking the next step, whatever that was. Together.
"I don't know where this is going," Damian said, his voice barely a whisper. "But I want to find out. With you."
Alex's lips curled into a small, relieved smile. "Then that's all that matters."
For the first time in a long time, Damian felt like maybe, just maybe, he didn't have to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders. Maybe, for once, he could just be.
And with Alex by his side, maybe it wouldn't be so hard to figure out what came next.