Slow burn, you say? Who me?

He did feel safe with Josh, as much as he felt safe with anyone anyway. It wasn’t easy to believe anyone would stay when the person who had always had his back had vanished in an instant. For a long time, he’d been furious at his father for leaving them. For leaving him. Because it had felt personal. His mother and his siblings had been left too, but he couldn’t help how it felt.

Ray was always quiet, but precisely because of that, Josh knew his silences. The heavy ones after school were nothing like the times when he was so caught up in drawing he wouldn’t even notice if Josh watched him. Lately, he seemed lighter somehow, and more than once Josh had caught him smiling for no obvious reason. And he couldn’t help but wonder if it was because of Iesu. Josh knew he should have been happy for his friend, because being in love was a nice feeling, wasn’t i

He could see Josh’s plan from a mile away. It was classic Josh to step in when Ray was having a bad day.

Josh didn’t remember becoming Ray’s friend. Family lore had it that they’d bonded in the pack school because Josh had defended Ray from another child who’d taken a toy from him. So other people might buy the seventeen-going-on-seventy role his best friend played now, but Josh knew better.

He let Josh follow him home. That’s how it felt. He had mentioned he had an art assignment for an upcoming county-wide competition he wanted to work on right away, but his friend had kept walking by his side, idly sharing pack gossip.

His parents always insisted on inviting people over the morning after the full moon. By the time he got home, the patio at the back was full of chatter and food. And he just wasn’t feeling it. It’d been a good night for him, really, but a shitty week. He and Ray had fixed things, but he was still feeling unsteady. It didn’t help that Ray wasn’t quite able to look at him. He scooped some risotto and some ribs onto his plate, then took it back inside to the living room for some

He was grateful Josh had asked him to stay shifted or at least hadn’t asked him not to.

A/N: This is my favourite chapter so far...

His mum had agreed he could skip school. It seemed like nothing, given the enormity of what had happened. He couldn’t decide what was worse—that Josh had seen the drawings or that he’d said they were beautiful.

Leaving Ray alone had been one of the hardest things he’d ever done. Just seeing him in such a state had been torture, knowing Josh was the cause… But he did know, he couldn’t ignore that, and so he’d dragged himself away after giving what little he could think would help. On his way out, he bumped into TJ and nearly knocked him off his feet.

this is the one you were waiting for...

The nearly full moon guided him through the dark and got him home in the end, chilled and exhausted. Even in June, it got cold fast once the sun went down and he hadn’t dressed for it. His parents had gone to bed, as anyone with any sense would have. He’d have liked someone to receive him in the cold kitchen, it was all. He’d have liked someone of his own. Someone he wasn’t borrowing and always knew he had to give back. Was that why Ray didn’t get it? What he meant to Josh? O

Note: I ended up moving this scene and rewriting it since I think it fits better here, leaving the original on chapter 11 for now in case you wanna compare :)

Ray’s mother had just left a pile of clean laundry on the desk. Including a pair of shorts she’d reprimanded his friend for getting all muddy playing football. “When did we play football? Josh asked. Ray straightened where he sat on his bed “We didn’t.” “Oh, did you play with the boys?” TJ and Harry could be a bit of a handful and Ray spent a lot more time parenting his siblings than playing with them, but he couldn’t think of another explanation. Ray was licking his lips, ey

Ray didn’t think much of it when at the end of the party, Iesu asked for his number. Their houses weren’t close and they weren’t in any of the same classes at school, so it wasn’t like they’d cross paths unless they made plans.

It wasn’t often Ray slept over at his place and even when he did, he tended to wake up before Josh, some deep-seated instinct to check on everyone else shaking him from slumber.

The dinner party had been a success. For that much, Ray could be glad, but he couldn’t quite get over the shock that he was part of it. He’d stayed afterwards to help clean up the worst of it—his mum had waved him away when he’d checked if she needed his help with the kids. “Juliet needs you more, dear,” she’d said with a glance around.

After much discussion, they had settled on having three tables, since otherwise the older Halley kids would end up babysitting instead of enjoying themselves.

He didn’t want to see Josh after what he’d said. Or he did, with an appropriate apology so Ray could let it all go. Except he couldn’t stop thinking about why Josh would say that. Had Iesu really been trying to, like, chat him up? Only it didn’t matter, did it? It was a shitty thing to say anyway. Ray knew he wasn’t popular in his pack. He was too quiet and too busy and too unwilling to go wild with other kids his age. And it wasn’t even something he could blame on having to