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Andrew lowered his head so his mouth was close to Thomas’s ear. “Wake up. I need you to tell me if we’re real.”
Thomas didn’t open his eyes, but his face had gone soft; all the fierce anger and lonesome fear slipped away.
“Kiss me,” he said, low and sleepy. “Then you’ll find out.”
Andrew's hands cradled Thomas’s head carefully. After all it was his very heart held between them; his freckled boy with the autumn crown.
He leaned down to press lips against Thomas’s unmoving mouth. His skin buzzed; like a weed that had grown in the dark, cold and aching, he had finally reached upwards and breached the roof of shadowy branches. For the first time he felt the sun on his skin, both palms caressed in the warmth. Thomas had always been the source of light in Andrew’s darkness, but now the thrashing depths of gloom the boys had been fighting to survive for weeks had finally dissipated. Like stormy waves they had been trying to hold their heads above, the water eager to drown them was at last peaceful.
For a moment Andrew felt neither breath or life from Thomas’s skin. The forest was silent, as though every creature in the vicinity were watching the exchange. Whether it was because of the breath he forced from his own lungs into Thomas’s awaiting mouth, or the protective hands forcing warmth onto Thomas’s still cheeks, Andrew woke Thomas from his slumber.
The chapped lips pressed to his own suddenly stuttered open, and Thomas’s eyes mirrored the motion. Neither moved; they weren’t really kissing, instead breathing into eachothers mouths, as though two sets of lungs had synced into one rhythm. Their eyes were locked, and Andrew felt like they were being reunited, though hadn’t been parted for long. A limb removed and then reattached is still a piece of yourself momentarily lost.
For a moment Andrew was alone again, but then Thomas’s expressionless face transformed. A smile lit his features, and in them the boy Andrew loved had returned. Andrew brushed his thumbs along Thomas’s cheekbones. Thomas pressed his own hand to Andrew’s, entwining their fingers like ivy on a trunk.
“Am I dead?” Thomas didn’t sound scared, only curious, like every time he had listened with bated breath for the next part of one of Andrew’s stories.
Andrew shrugged, pulling their clasped hands up and pressing them to his own chest. “You’re here.”
Thomas stared at their hands, silent. He flexed his fingers, stretching them out to search for the rise and fall of each breath. But there was none.
For so long these woods had been filled to bursting with ravenous beasts desperate to feed on their misery. Death had held them within a steely grasp they could not escape. That endless fear gave way to life; a noise had them both turning, and they watched as a trembling bush burst forth a deer with her stumbling fawn. Her eyes fell upon both boys and she froze, blinking curiously. The baby skipped towards them unconcernedly and stopped at their side. Thomas’s mouth turned into an awed grin as he reached a hand up and the creature pressed it’s twitching nose into his palm. Andrew thought he would happily live in this moment forever, watching Thomas interacting with the soul of the forest, happy to be in her arms once more. It was as though the forest were sending them an apology for every slash of pain it had caused them, every scar that still littered their skin.
Tiredness clouded Andrew’s thoughts, but before he could give in to sleep he had one last thing to check. Andrew lightly tugged Thomas to standing and together they wordlessly climbed the Wildwood tree once more. Their limbs brushed peeling dried blood, fingers twisting around gnarls and feet finding knots. They reached the top of the tree, moving to sit together perched on the thickest branch, hands clasped once more. Andrew didn’t think they would ever part again. He didn’t know if they could.
Andrew and Thomas were no longer two separate beings, instead one beating heart. One story told in two parts.
Thomas’s finger rubbed Andrew’s knuckle reverently as they watched the rising sun transform the forest’s landscape. A crack of a stick underfoot startled them both looking down. Stood within the sprawling roots of the tree below them was Dove, her face smiling up at them. A year had passed with his other half missing, and now Andrew could feel himself pieced back together, wounds finally beginning to close.
“I’ve been waiting for you.”