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"He put his jacket 'round you."
"And held your hands to keep them warm."
"And gave you food off his fork."
"And had an arm around you all night."
"And helped you down those rocks."
"And wiped dirt off your face."
Aris hadn't been so sure, but Harriet and Sonya insisted that Gally had feelings for him, especially after the overnight hike Thomas and Minho had led the Maze survivors on. When Aris had pointed out that, "He's always like that," the girls had grabbed his hands and told him they definitely weren't wrong. That Gally was flirting with him.
Despite his own reservations, Aris needed to talk to Gally. He'd never thought anything of it, just enjoying Gally's company and care. But if Gally had feelings for him...
He didn't want him to think he was leading him on.
Across the camp, sitting on a bench by the cabins, Gally was working with a piece of wood in one hand and a knife in the other. Aris had a small collection of Gally's carvings sitting in his cabin beside his bed, which Gally had slowly been giving him over the last few months in Safe Haven.
Had they meant more than Aris realised?
Deep breath.
Aris made his way over to the bench, bracing himself as he settled beside Gally. "Hi."
With half a glance up from his work, Gally offered him a smile. "Hi."
"Um..." Fidgeting with his hands, Aris swallowed the nerves brewing in his gut. "I uh... wanted to talk to you."
"Well, this's a good start, I guess," Gally chuckled, blowing wood shavings from his carving.
"Yeah, I..." With another deep breath, Aris began, "I really like you. Like, to be around."
Gally flicked his eyes up. "Yeah?"
"Yeah, but uh... I don't..." Aris clenched his hands into fists. "I don't have, like... romantic feelings for you. I don't think I get those. For anyone." When Gally didn't answer, Aris plowed on. "The flirting is nice, but I'm... y'know... I don't want you to think I'm leading you on or anything, because I do genuinely like being around you, just... not... like that."
Somehow, having said his piece didn't ease the tension in Aris' chest. He sat watching Gally frown at his hands, holding his breath as he waited for some sort of response.
"Oh," Gally said eventually. "Okay..." He seemed lost for words for a moment, then added, "I don't, uh... I don't feel like that about you, either, so..."
Aris' stomach dropped. "Right..." Heat crept into his cheeks as he darted his gaze away. "Right. Yeah, that's... that's good," he nodded, shuffling his feet. "I... Cool, that means everything's... everything's fine, then." He jerked to his feet, looking anywhere but Gally. "Um... Bye," he blurted out, then hurried off towards the nearest building, darting around the back and burying his face in his hands.
Gally had no idea what he meant. As far as he was concerned, that came out of nowhere.
With a pathetic little groan, Aris sank down against the wall of the building, hiding his burning face from anyone who might pass.
He just made himself look like an idiot. In front of the one guy on the island he felt comfortable around.
Well, not anymore.
Taking a few moments to pull himself together as much as he could, Aris climbed to his feet and set off quickly for Harriet and Sonya's cabin. He barely knocked, pushing straight through the door, sitting on the end of their bed and pulling his knees up to his chest.
"Hi?" Harriet half-laughed from her seat against the headboard, lowering her book.
"I hate you both," Aris mumbled, burying his face in his knees and covering his head with both arms.
"Excuse me?" Sonya, who had been drawing at her desk beside the bed, moved to Aris' side. "What did we do?"
Without moving, Aris mumbled, "I went and talked to Gally."
Two gasps, then Sonya shuffled right up into Aris' side. "And?" she pressed excitedly.
"And he doesn't feel that way about me."
Silence.
"And now I look like an idiot, so thanks for that."
A pause, then, "...what?"
Aris huffed a sigh and lifted his head to find his best friends wearing matching confused expressions. "He doesn't like me like that," he repeated. "He wasn't flirting with me."
Eyes going wide and sympathetic, Sonya wrapped both her arms around one of Aris'. "Oh, Ari..."
"No, I don't like him like that, either," Aris clarified. "But now I've made it awkward."
Harriet frowned slightly. "What do you mean you don't like him?"
"I mean exactly what I said." Rubbing his eyes, Aris huffed, "You guys got me all confused, and now Gally thinks I'm weird... I just didn't want anything to change, what's so wrong with that?"
"But..." Givings Aris' arm a squeeze, Sonya said gently, "You were flirting back."
Aris' face fell into a scowl. "No, I wasn't. And he wasn't flirting in the first place."
Looking between each other, Harriet and Sonya both shook their heads. "That totally looked like flirting," Harriet confirmed.
"Well, it wasn't, and now it's all gonna stop." Covering his face with his hands, Aris mumbled, "And I didn't want it to stop."
"But you don't like him?" Sonya asked slowly.
"Not romantically!"
A moment of silence, then Harriet shuffled across the bed to sit by Aris' other side. "You guys looked like a married couple."
Aris wrapped his arms around his legs and propped his chin on his knees. "So?"
"So... we assumed you should date?" Sonya frowned. "But you don't want to?"
Closing his eyes, Aris shook his head. "I don't think so."
"But you're not sure?"
"Can we stop talking about it now?" Aris huffed. "I just came here to tell you I'm mad. And mortified. And confused and frustrated. But mostly mad."
Patting Aris' back, Harriet suggested, "Walk?"
Aris breathed a long sigh through his nose, then nodded.
He wasn't sure walking would help, but the more time he put between himself and that interaction, the easier it might be to forget.
Gally hadn't joined him at dinner. Or breakfast the next morning. Or walked him to his cabin, or touched his arm, or spoken to him, or even looked at him.
Aris wanted to climb into a hole and never get up.
Instead, he had grabbed his net-tying gear and wandered to the furthest end of the beach, setting himself up in the sand at the foot of a cliff. He needed to do his part for the settlement, and they were in need of more fishing nets, so he would tie some new ones.
No one said he needed to do that where everyone could see him.
Head down, listening to the waves, Aris breathed the smell of the sea and prayed that the disappointment of losing something good wouldn't crush him for too long.
The sun was beginning to set when someone warm sat in the sand beside him. "Hi."
Aris shivered. "Hi, Gally," he whispered, eyes on his net, almost finished and ready to join the other two he had completed while he was out here.
"You... said some stuff yesterday."
Stomach turning, Aris mumbled, "Sorry."
"No, I..." Gally shifted, Aris glancing to him out the corner of his eye to find him fidgeting with his shoelaces. "It made me think." Gazing out across the water, he sighed, "Remember what you said about not feeling that way? About anyone?"
"Yeah," Aris nodded, hands still working.
"Well, I..." A pause, then Gally explained, "Minho and Thomas keep telling me I'll find someone. Y'know, that one of the guys or girls on the island will get my attention eventually and I'll settle down, and then I can understand how amazing the thing they have together is..." He shook his head. "And then you said you just don't feel that way at all." He dropped his eyes to his hands. "I didn't know that was an option."
Aris shrugged one shoulder. "If someone asks if you want water or juice, you're allowed to say you're not thirsty."
Nothing for a moment, then Gally breathed a laugh. "Yeah... I guess you're right." Bracing his hands in the sand behind him and leaning back, Gally supposed, "Guess I'm just not thirsty."
"Same." Tying the last knot in his net, Aris sat it to the side. "I like being around you, though."
"Yeah."
With a shake of his head, Aris huffed, "Harri and Sonya said you were flirting with me. I didn't want you to misunderstand how I see you; that's why I said what I said yesterday."
Gally nodded slowly beside him. "Thomas got really mad at me this morning. Said he saw us talking, wanted to know what the hell I did to upset you so much. Asked why I'd reject you..." Glancing to Aris, he pointed out, "But you kinda rejected me. And now all day I've felt really bad, because I feel like I messed something up, but I'm pretty sure I didn't actually do anything."
"You didn't," Aris sighed, eyes fixed on the horizon. "Harri and Sonya made me do something stupid."
A moment of nothing, then Gally nudged him with his shoulder. "But you are upset."
Lowering his gaze, Aris nodded. "I liked how we were before. You were protective of me without making me feel useless. Just made me feel... cared for."
"Well, you normally make sure I eat and stay hydrated. And that I go to bed," Gally chuckled. "Think we're both taking care of each other."
Aris hummed, turning to look at Gally. "Can we... go back to being like that?"
With half a smile, Gally nodded, then lifted his arm in offer. When Aris shuffled into his side, Gally curled the arm around him, leaning his cheek against Aris' hair.
"Harriet said we look like a married couple," Aris commented, happy to soak in Gally's warmth.
"Maybe we are," Gally shrugged. "A married couple without the romance."
Something swelled in Aris' chest. "Yeah... I like that. It's just nice to have someone that's, like... a safe place."
Gally gave Aris a supportive little squeeze. "Tell you what; I'll be your safe place if you'll be mine, yeah?"
"Deal," Aris murmured.
"And if anyone else wants to stick their nose in, I'll bite it off."
Aris snorted, leaning more into Gally's side. "They don't have to get it. Long as it works for us, right?"
"Exactly."
Closing his eyes, Aris murmured, "I like getting to be this close without expectations." When Gally hummed curiously, he sighed, "Back in our Maze... I used to be a bit like this with Sonya. But she told me one day that she like girls, and some of the other girls were telling me I should kiss her... Spent a lot of time thinking by myself, trying to work out why I didn't want to."
"But you just don't feel like that," Gally nodded thoughtfully. "I'd just never thought about it. I'm not... like, an affectionate person. Don't really like it when people touch me. Minho kept saying I must be in love with you if I like being so close to you."
Shifting a little closer, Aris hummed, "Your subconscious must've realised I was like you."
Gally rubbed Aris' shoulder, clearly lost somewhere in his head, then chuckled, "A non-romantic married couple."
Taking Gally's free hand, Aris found himself grinning. "My platonic husband."
"Right," Gally laughed, giving Aris another squeeze.
"And..." Closing his eyes, Aris murmured, "We can stay like this?"
"Well, maybe not right here," Gally snorted, rubbing Aris' shoulder. "It's getting dark, and you're freezing."
"And we should probably eat," Aris supposed.
"Yeah." With a sigh through his nose, Gally dropped his arm to loop it around Aris' waist, then stood and hoisted Aris up with him.
"Whoa!" Aris laughed, Gally's grin warming him from the inside out. "Lemme grab my stuff."
Aris could see the looks they received as they returned to camp with arms around each other. He saw the way Sonya was itching to run over and ask what the hell was going on. He even caught a glimpse of Thomas' confusion on the way past.
It didn't matter. What they thought wasn't important.
Gally ate with him. Touched his arm. Shared his jacket. Walked him to his cabin.
And if Aris grabbed his hand and pulled him inside, it had nothing to do with anyone else. No one needed to know that they talked for hours, lying side by side on Aris' bed, Aris wrapped in two blankets and Gally with one only pulled up to his waist.
Falling asleep together wasn't the intent, but it didn't matter. They had each other. They knew what they were.
Only they mattered.