~25~

"This is surprisingly not terrible." Bryan murmured when they started to eat dinner.

Kieran threw him a look at this. "Keep taking jabs at my cooking and I'll keep you on a diet of plain crackers and fresh air." He threatened with an absolutely straight face.

Bryan choked at this and it wasn't from the worrisome threats but the implications of Kieran's words.

Had he just casually admitted to wanting Bryan to move in with him?

He decided to let it go though. "Do you have family that live in Pine Creek?"

His question seemed out of the blue but it had been bothering him for a while now so he decided to go for it.

Kieran didn't seem caught off guard by this question, he had been watching Bryan eat with hawk eyes the entire time.

"I'm just teasing about your cooking, Kieran." Bryan was quick to say with a soft smile when he noticed it as well. "Your cooking is so good that I'm definitely going to put on weight." He said honestly with a hint of wistfulness.

"Good." Was all Kieran said, looking pleased with himself. "The rest of my family all live in the city, they think I'm crazy for choosing to remain here." He said casually.

Bryan frowned at this, troubled. "Even your grandparents?" He had to ask, he could understand if that came from uncles, aunts or cousins but his grandparents would at least try to reach out to their grandchild no?

"Both dead, it's nothing to worry about really, they abandoned my mom when she went senile after being heartbroken. We were never close to begin with." Kieran explained, eyeing Bryan's plate again. "You should eat more."

Bryan did as he asked but was still bothered, family were supposed to stick by each other right? At least he always thought so.

"No need to look so devastated." Kieran cut into his thoughts. "They did offer to help, well if you can call threatening to take me away from my mom and put her in a mental hospital help." He muttered with old traces of anger and pain.

Bryan made a soft sound of dismay, he couldn't bear the thought that Kieran had to carry such a burden at such a young age.

"I wasn't about to leave my mom, she didn't ask for her heart to be broken." Kieran shrugged, he glanced up at Bryan and then frowned.

"I'm not asking for pity." He added in cold tones.

"I wasn't pitying you." Bryan said clearly, he could tell that Kieran needed verbal encouragement, good thing he was a writer. "Do I feel bad for what you had to go through? Absolutely but you were a really strong kid, you're even stronger now, I would be wasting my pity on you."

He noticed Kieran's expression lighten up at this. "Help clear the table." He muttered gruffly, getting up quickly so that Bryan could see his face.

Bryan got up with the ghost of a smile on his face, he still hadn't resolved the issue of where he would sleep.

It would be nice to ignore it till it was too late for him to leave but he wanted to be sure that it was what Kieran wanted, he wasn't about to take advantage of him being in a vulnerable state of mind.

"Hey, do you mind driving me back to the Pack House?" He asked while they both did the dishes together, Bryan trying hard and failing to ignore how domestic it seemed.

Kieran glanced at him. "You don't have to go back to get your clothes, I'm pretty sure I can find something for you to fit in." He said bluntly without mincing his words.

Bryan's eyes went wide at this, had Kieran taken his words literally when he said he wasn't going to leave him?

He couldn't see any bad side to this.

"You say that like I'm one feet tall." Bryan complained.

Kieran made a show of coming over, his hands still covered in lather to place his jaw on Bryan's head. "Well I wouldn't say one feet tall." He replied thoughtfully like he was still thinking it over. "I'd say one feet and six inches at least." He said with a straight face.

Bryan was caught off guard by this, throwing him a betrayed look. "I can't believe you said that." He gasped amidst Kieran's chuckles.

"Don't you need to write tonight?" Kieran asked when they were all done with the dishes.

It was still early enough that they didn't need to head to bed immediately.

Bryan shrugged. "A single night off wouldn't hurt anyone, do you have work to do?" He found himself asking.

He didn't want to be the reason that Kieran didn't get any work done considering that he had managed to take up his entire day, he wouldn't even mind just hanging around while he worked, it was comforting at this point.

"I'll stay with you while you work." Bryan quickly cut off Kieran's next words, already knowing that he would ditch work for him.

"Really?" Kieran's eyes went round.

"Sure, we can hang out in the living room, I'm reading a book at the moment, I won't be bored." He reassured him, answering the questions evident in his eyes.

Bryan made Kieran get comfortable, then laid on the couch where he was seated, propping his head on Kieran's legs.

It was a bit awkward at first considering that they had just started to experiment with being in each other's personal space.

But Kieran was very comfy, Bryan breathing deeply when Kieran's hand occasionally found its way into his hair. He could get used to this.

"You're really not going to leave?" Kieran's quiet voice filtered into his thoughts making him put his phone away and look up.

"Not unless you want me to." Bryan was quick to reply. "And even then it would be a lot of work getting rid of me, you're stuck with me you kno…" He went off on a heartfelt ramble, meaning every word he said.

Bryan didn't get all of his words out because Kieran leaned forward and cut off the rest of his words with a kiss.