Gunslinger

He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t sitting at his laptop three days later, practically begging the Skype call to come through.

He’d done as Matt had asked last time, and turned off the news and distracted himself with other things…but when another blast had happened just a day later he couldn’t help himself. It was being covered on almost every single channel as breaking news, but he’d had to turn the TV off when he saw vision of the city where Matt was stationed. He saw what they were saying about it…that it wiped almost the whole neighbourhood…they were mentioning that massive amounts of troops had been killed or seriously injured and he’s sure he whined at least once.

There are chat windows all along the bottom of his screen on his Facebook page, and the numbers above some of them keep increasing. His phone is also slowly vibrating its way across the coffee table, but he can’t bring himself to answer it. His nerves are already on edge and he really doesn’t wanna talk to anyone until he knows Matt’s ok.

The minutes keep ticking by and he’s getting more and more worried.

Matt always calls him at 3pmLA time, every three days when he’s away. It’s now 3:33…something is wrong…something is really wrong.

He keeps his laptop balanced on his knees, but reaches for his phone. Immediately it starts buzzing with an incoming call and he decides to answer it when he sees that his best friend Zacky is calling.

“Zee, he hasn’t called me yet.” he answers with a whine.

“Syn, calm down. You know he might not, but you also know that he can’t always call you straight away sometimes either. Take a breath.” Zacky tells him and he forces himself to take a deep breath, no matter how shaky it is.

“I’m scared Zee. What if he doesn’t call?” he croaks. “I can’t lose him. He’s my everything.” he says and feels the tears starting to prick at the back of his eyes.

“Matty, you can’t say that.” Syn sniffles as he looks down at his boyfriend in a hospital bed. “I know you got hurt…but the world is not better off without you.” he says and looks up to blink tears away quickly. “You know why?” he says and looks back down at Matt. The others mans face is bruised and he has a large cut on his forehead that’s been stitched and he’s completely miserable.

“Why?” the other man mumbles and looks down.

“Because you’re my world.” Syn tells him and lifts his chin so their eyes meet. “You’re my fucking everything Matty and it’s gonna kill me when I have to say goodbye to you.” he says and smiles sadly.

His boyfriends tears have spilled over, and he’s determined not to cry himself so they both don’t turn into blubbering messes. Matt had gotten caught in the middle of a stampede and from what the doctor’s told him, he’s lucky his boyfriend isn’t more seriously hurt.

“You don’t have to…say goodbye yet.” Matt tells him with a hiccup.

“I know I don’t baby, but it could be coming one day. For now, lets be glad that you’re alive and I get to take you home for a little bit yeah?” Syn tells him and he finally get a little smile out of his battered man.

“For how long?” Matt asks him quietly.

“You gotta stay here for another couple of days still, but then they’re gonna send you home to me for about a week.” he says and sits back down next to the bed.

“A whole week?”

“A whole week hot stuff. I get you Sunday morningand you go back the following Sunday night.” he smiles and is glad his boyfriend seems at least a little bit happier.

***

Three weeks he’d waited.

Three whole weeks with no other news than an email saying they were sending Matt’s unit home and details of the flight arrival.

If it wasn’t for Zacky, he’s sure he would have gone insane too. Three weeks is a long time when you don’t know whether your soldier boyfriend is alive or dead.

“Would you stop fucking fidgeting. I’m gonna crash the fucking car!” Zacky chuckles. Syn has been getting increasingly fidgety, the closer they get to the airport.

“I’m sorry!” the other man cries and then chews on his thumbnail again.

“You are so not, but it’s fine, I get it. Just wait until I park the freaking car before you start vibrating yeah?” Zacky chuckles and glances sideways at his friend. The other man is nervous beyond belief and if Zacky were in his situation, he would be too.

He’s done what he could over the last three weeks to keep his friend occupied and distracted. It’s worked for the most part, but he’s also had more than one completely hysterical phone call over the three week period from his friend and he’s had to do everything he could to stop Syn getting on the next plane to search for Matt himself.

About a half hour later, they’re at the arrival gate that had been mentioned in the email from Matt’s commanding officer, and he and Zacky are met with a scattering of people and Syn recognises a few of them as the girlfriends of other troops in Matt’s unit. He should probably go and see how they are, but he knows there will be tears if he does. He needs to stay strong for as long as he can. Until he gets news saying otherwise, his boyfriend will be walking towards him within the next half hour or so.

They get the announcement of the plane landing ten minutes later and as people and soldiers start trickling through the gate, Syn’s heart is in his throat. He watches the soldiers rush to their loved ones, sees the tears, and tries not to get upset that he hasn’t seen Matt yet. There’s more people and soldiers and when he sees Matt’s commanding officers come through the gate, but not his boyfriend, his breath catches and he hangs his head.

The tears are prickling at his eyes and he feels Zacky’s sympathetic hand on his shoulder. He’s sniffling a few seconds later and the tears are about to flow when he hears it.

“Syn!”

His head snaps up at that and he starts searching the faces swarming in front of the gate frantically. His heart is racing a mile a minute and he can feel Zacky’s grip on his arm, which is probably a good thing, because he’s super close to pushing people out of his way. Finally, the crowd parts enough, and he catches a glimpse of the face he’d been sure wasn’t coming back this time. He looks tired as hell and he has creases in his brow, but he’s smiling and….it’s him. It’s finally him!

Zacky notices after a split second too and the grip on his arm is gone and he makes a beeline for the uniform and were Matt not ready, he would have bowled him over. A second before Syn ‘hits’ , Matt drops his bags and suddenly has a double armful of his sobbing boyfriend…legs wrapped around him and everything. His own tears have spilled over and he squeezes Syn as tightly as he can. He knows it must have been torture for the other man while he didn’t know what was going on.

“Matty, I was so worried.” comes from his neck and is accompanied by kisses all over his face, finally finishing on his lips and Matt can practically feel the relief radiating from him. “Fuck, I missed you.” he sighs after a minute and Matt sets him on his feet. Neither of them have let go of each other and after a minute of staring at each other and sniffling, Syn wraps his arms back tight around Matt’s neck and nuzzles his face right into the other mans collarbone and just breathes him in.

“I’m sorry. I wish I could have told you I was ok….but with the blast, and the clean up and the de brief…by the time it was all done I was on the plane back.” he babbles and the arms squeeze tighter for a second.

“I know….it’s ok. I forgive you.” Syn tells him and pulls back to cup Matt’s cheeks. “I’m just glad you’re back.” he sighs and kisses Matt again.

Notes