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Troy wakes up at sunset.
They’d landed on Sobieszewo Island at some ungodly hour of the morning, when the sky was still dark and nothing felt real. It was a long flight, and Troy is always thrown off by the time difference, meaning Abed had had to more or less carry him up to bed by the time they got to the house. He’d been asleep before his head even hit the pillow. Panic be damned, he’s spent the last week in a near-constant state of it, it was only a matter of time before he crashed.
Now, waking up in the master suite to a hazy orange sky and a cool ocean breeze, he’s still groggy as can be. The salt air and beautifully soft, fresh bed sheets nudge him gently back towards sleep, and it’s so nice here that a big part of him wants to follow their siren song and slip back out of consciousness.
There’s just a smaller part of him that won’t allow it. The part of his brain that won’t shut off, that says, this is nice, but what the fuck am I doing here? That’s the part of him that musters up just enough energy for him to sit up and look for his husband.
He doesn’t have to look far. Abed’s standing just outside, French doors to the balcony wide open. He’s facing away from Troy, leaning his forearms on the bannister and looking out over the water, and it’s really such a gorgeous view - the ocean sunset, and just... Abed. Troy can’t not be dazzled by the sight of him, even if he is a little frightened of, well, everything at the moment. Slowly, he drags himself out of bed, bare feet on the cool hardwood floor waking him up a bit more. He’s still in the same rumpled t-shirt and basketball shorts he’d worn on the jet, but he can fix that later. There are more pressing matters to attend to now.
Abed doesn’t turn around at the sound of him getting out of bed. He must be deep in thought - from the back, at least, he looks contemplative.
Troy takes a deep breath and pads slowly and quietly across the bedroom, out the French doors, and onto the balcony.
“End of the line, babe,” Abed says, his tone nice and even. “I was really hoping you'd come clean before we got here.”
And as calm as Abed’s voice is at the moment, there’s a certain darkness in his tone that Troy’s never quite heard before. He wants to say something, but he’s dumbstruck, standing with his knees weak and his heart pounding.
“Abed,” Troy rasps and steps forward, ignoring the broken glass under his bare feet and reaching out to grab the front of his t-shirt. “Baby, I’m… I can explain, please.” The blood from his hand soaks into the soft cotton of Abed’s shirt, leaving an angry stain in the center of his chest. “Please let me explain.”
Abed looks down, brow furrowed as he draws Troy’s hands away from his chest. Blood trickles down his wrist, all the way to the crook of his elbow. He feels a little queasy looking at it.
Abed makes a discontented noise. “That’s a pretty bad cut,” he says, gently holding Troy’s wounded hand in both of his own as he examines it. “You’re gonna need stitches.”
Troy’s a little lost for words, opening and closing his mouth a couple times in search of something to say in response to Abed’s drastic change of subject. He looks down at his hand, then groans and glances away.
“Um, I guess you’re right,” he says for the sake of prioritizing. “Just… Do you think we could wait til morning to go to the hospital? I’m so tired, it’s not like I’m gonna bleed out…”
“Hospital?” Abed cuts him off, then shakes his head. “No, no hospital. You’re not going to one of those… glorified death factories, no. I’ll call Dr. Bennett and see if she can do a house call.”
Abed walks off before he can respond, leaving Troy dizzy from all the questions running through his mind. Questions that he’s too weak to actually ask.
He will, though. He has to.
Maybe once he’s done bleeding.
“It’s beautiful,” Troy says quietly as he joins Abed at the bannister. The sunset sparkles on the water, all golden and bright. He bites his lip apprehensively before stepping in closer, hugging Abed’s arm to his chest and pressing a soft kiss to his shoulder. “I forgot. We haven’t been here since our honeymoon.”
Abed doesn’t move away from him, which is what he’d been afraid of, and half-expecting. Not knowing where he stands with Abed at the moment has taken a heavy toll. So he can’t help but breathe out a sigh of relief when Abed nods and turns his head slightly in Troy’s direction.
“Yeah,” his gaze flits down to Troy’s mouth briefly. “That was a good week.”
Abed doesn’t lean in any further to close the gap, so Troy does, hesitantly. When their lips touch, though, Abed kisses him back right away. Troy barely refrains from whining in relief.
“Abed,” he breathes as soon as the kiss breaks, before he can lose his nerve. “What are we doing here?” He keeps his hold on Abed’s arm so he stays close, and his eyes are dark and pondering. Troy watches him carefully; he’s used to discerning microexpressions, but even so, Abed can’t seem to settle on an emotion.
Eventually, Abed breaks eye contact to look out at the water again.
“We’re on vacation,” he says simply. “Like you wanted.”
Troy doesn’t know how to respond to that at first. Maybe he’s beating around the bush a little, but Abed must know he’s asking more than that. He just doesn’t know how to literally ask.
The silence that hangs between them for a few brief moments is all too loud. He bites his lip while he tries to find the right words to say, so hard he ends up tasting blood. Then, Abed looks at him again.
“Do you remember when I asked you to marry me?” He asks.
The question catches Troy off-guard. Still, he nods, if only because that’s the honest answer. Of course he remembers.
“It was the first time I brought you here,” Abed says anyway, the tone of his voice tinged with nostalgia. “I never told you this, but I’d been thinking about proposing to you for a while. Everyone I talked to about it said I was crazy, we’d only been dating for five months, and I knew they were right, but… no matter how much I tried to logic my way out of it, I couldn’t shake the feeling. I didn’t mean to do it when I did though.”
Troy doesn’t know if he’s supposed to say anything back; he kind of doesn’t want to, doesn’t want to interrupt Abed’s flow and wherever he’s going with this. Also, his marriage proposal being an accident is news to him. He rests his cheek against Abed’s shoulder to show he’s listening.
“I was gonna do it when we got back,” Abed continues. “I had reservations at that rooftop steakhouse you really like. I figured if I was gonna give you such an early proposal, I’d at least make it worth your while - you know, wine and dine and have this whole speech ready about how I couldn’t picture the rest of my life without you. I wanted you to know that I really, really meant it.”
Troy swallows down the lump of emotion forming in his throat, even though he’s still not exactly sure where this is going. He still doesn’t dare speak - he just nods and waits.
Abed’s stare gets a bit more distant. “When we got here, you were so tired, kind of like this morning. I thought I’d be able to show you around the island a little, show off my Polish, stuff like that. But you were so, so tired and jetlagged from the flight, you just crawled right into bed and passed out.”
Troy breathes out a laugh. He does seem to have a habit of doing that.
“Anyway,” Abed shrugs, “I wanted to just let you rest, so I got into bed with you, but I couldn’t fall asleep. I couldn’t stop looking at you, thinking about how much I love you. And you know what happened then.”
Troy nods. He doesn’t know whether to smile or cry; he kind of feels like both.
“Yeah,” he says eventually. “You whispered ‘marry me,’ and I rolled over into your arms and said yes and then we barely got out of bed all weekend.” He thinks for a moment, then frowns. “You didn’t mean to ask me then?”
“I didn’t think you were awake,” Abed explains. “I wanted to practice saying it in front of you. Like, see how it felt to say out loud. I didn’t expect you to hear it. Or answer.”
He smiles, just a bit, but there’s a sadness in his eyes that makes Troy’s chest hurt. “Not that I’m complaining. Either way, I got what I wanted.” The smile fades. “But it was too fast, like everyone said. I knew that, I just didn’t care. I was so gone for you.”
Troy’s definitely leaning away from smiling and towards crying, at this point. He’s got a twisting feeling in his gut telling him he doesn’t like where this is going.
“Abed,” he tries his best to keep his voice steady, reaching up and placing his hands on Abed’s cheeks so he stays looking at him. “What are you saying?”
Abed only meets his eyes for a brief moment before looking away.
“I’m saying I couldn’t think of anything that would give me a reason not to marry you, but really, I think I just didn’t want to think of anything that would give me a reason not to marry you. I mean, even when I found out you worked for Jeff, I told myself it was just a weird coincidence. I really, really wanted it to be, even when it got more and more obvious that it wasn’t. I was so in love with you, I didn't even care that you were running a con, I just wanted you in any way I could have you. But... that’s why I gave you all those chances to tell me the truth. I wanted to think our marriage wasn’t just a sc—”
“Abed, stop,” Troy can’t help that his voice breaks when he cuts him off. It’s either that, or burst into full-on tears. “Please, I love you. I need you to know that, baby. I love you so much.”
Abed looks tired. “You understand why that’s a little hard to believe, right?”
Troy nods sadly. “I do. I understand.”
He strokes his thumbs lightly over Abed’s cheeks, and Abed leans almost thoughtlessly into the palm of his hand.
“I understand, you have no reason to trust me, or believe anything I say ever again. Because I built our marriage on a lie.” He steps in closer. “And then it turned into so much more than that. Then I really fell in love with you, and it killed me to think about what I was doing. To think that…” He pauses for a breath, because it’s hard for him to even stomach, let alone say out loud. “To think that one day I was supposed to ruin you. That’s why I’ve been crying every day, baby, I can’t stand it. I don’t know what Jeff’s gonna do when he finds out I don’t want to be his pawn anymore.”
He forces himself to shut up after that - Abed must need a little time to process, and honestly, so does he. He still doesn’t feel like he’s standing on solid ground. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath in through his nose. He opens his eyes again when he feels something wet trickle over his thumb.
“Oh my god, you’re crying,” he whispers when he sees the single tear track down one of Abed’s cheeks. He’s never seen Abed cry before. He quickly brushes the tear away and leans in to kiss him - which he’s a little worried is out of line, but Abed kisses him back again.
“Baby, I’m sorry,” he sighs. “I’m sorry. You don’t deserve any of this.” He kisses Abed again, and again. He seems to soften a little more each time. “I’m gonna get you out of this. I don’t care if I lose everything, as long as nothing bad happens to you.” He breathes in shakily. “And… I understand if you want nothing to do with me anymore, but I owe it to you to at least—”
He’s cut off gently, one of Abed’s fingers coming to rest on his lips. He blinks up at him slowly as Abed shakes his head.
“Want nothing to do with you?” He whispers. “Weren’t you listening? I still loved you no matter how many red flags I saw. That hasn’t changed.” He steps in closer, arms wrapping around Troy’s waist. Troy muffles a sharp gasp against Abed’s mouth when he lifts him into a slow, deep kiss, draping his arms around Abed’s shoulders for some leverage. He kisses him with everything he’s got, so much that he feels a little dazed when the kiss breaks. “And you’re not losing anything,” Abed adds. He sets Troy back down gently but keeps him close, noses brushing together with another kiss. “We’re getting out of this with everything we have. And Jeff’s not gonna touch you.”
Troy feels like his knees could give out - luckily, Abed’s holding him pretty steady. His heart thuds against his ribcage, hard and fast.
“Jeff can be really underhanded,” he says, a weak sort of warning.
But Abed shrugs.
“We’ll outsmart him. He’s already underestimated me once. In the meantime…” he glances over at the French doors leading back into the bedroom. “What do you think the chances are of him finding us on a little Polish island?”
Troy has to smirk a little at that. “Probably not great,” he breathes. “I never told him about this place.”
Abed seems satisfied with that answer.
“We’ll stay here for a little while, then,” he nods. “While we figure out what we’re gonna do about all this.” He takes a couple steps back toward the bedroom, keeping their fingers entwined. “And… maybe relive our honeymoon a little, while we’re at it. If you want.”
Troy lets out some ridiculous combination laugh-sob at the absurdity at all before throwing himself into his husband’s arms. The kiss they land in is a little messy and uncoordinated, but he’s beyond caring with everything else going on. He pulls back and then leans into another kiss, this one hotter and more purposeful than the last - because if they’re going to be here a while, then he’s more than happy for a honeymoon redux to be first on the agenda.
After all, it does feel like a new beginning.