Chapter 13

Usually, Newt scoffed down his breakfast and obsessively watched the clock on visit days, but it wasn't a usual visit. He pushed away his mismatched toast and tried to sip his tea before giving up and pouring it down the sink. Leo's mug of tea joined his down the plughole, and his porridge was left to dry out on the desk.

He didn't say anything, but Newt could tell he was nervous too. Leo had a visitor, Stone to be exact, and it had taken a lot of coaxing and begging from Newt for Leo to agree to send him a visiting form.

Newt's nerves came from the unknown. He'd assumed Robin would accompany Mickey on the visit, but Mickey, breathless and disturbingly serious, had asked him over the phone if he could bring someone to the prison to meet him. Alarm bells had begun chiming at that, and the gut feeling that Mickey had a prank in store meant his knee-jerk reaction was to say no.

But then Mickey sounded rather desperate, and disappointed, and against all Newt's previous knowledge of his brother, he agreed to the mysterious visitor.

Newt had seen the name on his form, ‘Aaron Fletcher', and although it sounded familiar, he couldn't work out why.

Their cell door swung open on a smiling Jude. "Time for your visit." He stepped back, allowing them room, and when neither Newt nor Leo rushed to the gate, he frowned and entered the cell.

"Okay, so, I thought you'd be a little more enthusiastic."

Leo didn't respond. He'd stopped actively hating on Jude but hadn't warmed to him and denied him eye contact at all times.

"Who is he?" Newt asked.

Jude pondered the question. "Well, I believe he was adopted from a yeti, but you know him as Mickey, your brother."

"You know I wasn't talking about him. Aaron. Who is Aaron?"

Jude sighed. "He's someone who's very important to Mickey."

"It's not a prank then, this…this Aaron guy isn't going to throw himself down on the table, start convulsing and have an alien pop out from his chest?"

Jude's eyebrows went into his hair. "I'm sorry? What?"

"Alien was on last night," Leo explained, not looking at Jude but at least talking to him. "The TV curfew meant we only saw up to that part. Newt didn't get to see how it ended."

Newt nodded. "But Leo assured me it was all a misunderstanding. The alien and the humans learned to co-exist and found a new planet to populate together as equals."

"That is…" Jude's eyebrows still hadn't come down. "An interesting interpretation of Alien."

"I'm not sure what goes wrong, though." Newt frowned. "There's a sequel called Aliens."

Jude folded his arms. "You know, I've seen it, but I can't remember what happens. Maybe Leo can divulge the plot of Aliens and put us out of our misery."

"What happens?" Newt turned to Leo, only to stagger back at his flushed cheeks.

He spoke through his teeth. "The alien and the humans breed."

"Oh yes, now I remember." Jude preened. "It's similar to Cheaper by the dozen, but with more goo, guns, and if we're honest, laughs."

"Get a move on, Aster!" Jenkins bellowed.

Jude sighed and retreated from the cell. "Come on. You know the rules. If you're late to the gate, no visit."

Newt stepped out of the cell first. Leo followed close at his back, and they got in the queue by the gate.

The entire process of visits was a silent affair. They were moved from room to room, searched both before and after, and Newt had learned that if you were right outside the room with your loved ones sat at the table, they could still be cancelled.

It had only happened to Newt once, but he'd barely kept it together being marched back to his cell, knowing Stone and Mickey had only been a few metres away and he'd not got to touch them.

Shaw told him if contraband had been found on any of the visitors, or the prison had received a tip-off, the visits were cancelled for everyone, not just those breaking the rules.

Bull disagreed, murmuring that the officers used visits as a means of control and to keep them all in line by reminding them who had the real power.

Whatever the reason, the tension mounted throughout the process, and suspicious looks and threatening faces were exchanged across the holding cell.

The door opened, Riley waved them closer, and they slotted themselves in a line before being led into the visiting room.

Newt spotted Stone first, then Mickey at the table next to him, then Aaron. He tripped. Leo steadied him with a hand on his shoulder.

"You good?"

Newt nodded and approached the table with Mickey. Mickey surged to his feet and closed the distance between them to give Newt a hug. He lifted Newt's feet from the ground, clutching him tight around the middle.

He put Newt down, then gestured to Aaron, who'd got to his feet. Aaron pulled an awkward face, rubbing his hands up and down the back of his jeans before holding one out to Newt.

Newt stared at the offered hand. Mickey looked at it too, growing visibly more tense the longer it took for Newt to shake the hand.

Newt put his brother out of his misery and took it.

"Hi," Aaron said. His eyes were dark, but his smile seemed genuine. "Mickey's told me so much about you."

Mickey smirked. "Not strictly true, I've only told him the bad about you." He gestured for Newt to take his seat. He did, flashing a look at Stone who was already locked in an intense conversation with Leo.

They were on the next table, but they were both leaning so far forward in their chairs and mumbled so they couldn't be overhead.

Newt looked back at Aaron, who looked as nervous as he felt, gnawing his lip and fidgeting with his hands on the table.

"I recognise you from the hospital."

Aaron's face had been blotchy and swollen, but it had been him all the same, tight black curls and dark eyes.

"You were Mickey's opponent in the fight. The fight that almost…"

He glanced at Stone.

"He was my opponent," Mickey said softly. "He was once worse than that."

Newt frowned at Mickey. "Worse than that?"

Aaron hung his head.

"A long time ago," Mickey said. "Aaron made my life hell, and I wanted to fight him. I wanted to beat him and hurt him, but we're long past that now. I don't want to hurt him or beat him—well, maybe beat him off?—"

"Mickey," Aaron blurted, checking no one else heard.

"The point is," Mickey said, then he looked like he was eating air, biting it. His face tugged and pulled as he struggled to speak.

Newt pointed to the other table. "Do you need Stone?"

"No." Mickey recovered, shaking his head. "I… The point is this."

He stilled Aaron's fidgeting hands, then slipped his fingers through one, holding on. Even Aaron looked stunned for a moment before he gave Mickey a crooked smile.

"We're together." Mickey finished by pulling their joined hands up to his mouth and kissing the back of his hand. Newt realised Mickey had meant to kiss the back of Aaron's hand not his own, but he decided not to mention it as he darted his eyes between the two men in front of him.

"But…" Newt began. "Aaron is a he…"

Mickey waited a beat, then flung Aaron's hand away, and at the top of his voice shouted, "Is she?"

"Settle down," Riley said firmly.

Mickey was too busy laughing to hear him, and Aaron was covering his face with both hands.

"Yeah, Aaron is a he," Mickey said, wiping his eyes. "I still fancy women, but turns out, I kinda think this is hot too." He gestured to Aaron as if displaying him on a sales channel.

"Thanks," Aaron deadpanned.

"We're together," Mickey said. "Boyfriend and boyfriend, and it's going really well."

"Amazingly well," Aaron said under his breath.

"Exceptionally well," Mickey replied.

Aaron's smile quirked. "Sensationally well."

Mickey hummed. "Too far."

Aaron elbowed him in the ribs. Mickey smiled and wrapped an arm around Aaron's shoulders. He froze as if forgetting himself and lowered his arm.

"I know it's probably a bit of a shock, your immediate big brother, the successful ladies' man, suddenly thirsting over dic?—"

"Mickey," Stone interrupted from the other table. "I know you're nervous as hell, but try to tone it down, you know, like we practised in the car."

"Sorry." Mickey took a deep breath. "Aaron means a lot to me."

Newt nipped his lip. "Do you love him?"

Even Stone looked over to await Mickey's reply.

Mickey smiled. "Oh, absolutely."

"Then I'm really happy for you."

"Really?" Mickey asked. "Stone and Jude took a lot more convincing, Stone in particular, but you're…you're okay with this."

Mickey snatched up Aaron's hand again.

Newt frowned. "Of course I'm okay with it, as long as you don't mount each other in here and make me watch."

Leo laughed. When Newt looked over to the next table, Leo and Stone were no longer straining to have their secret conversation. They were both slumped in their chairs, looking vaguely amused.

Leo smiled, and his eyes were golden. Newt's stomach somersaulted.

"I mean…" Mickey shrugged. "It's not all rainbows and uniforms."

Aaron cringed. "You mean rainbows and unicorns."

"No, I'm pretty sure it's uniforms. Stone knows what I'm talking about. He makes Robin dress up as a priest all the time."

Stone squeezed the top of his nose. "Jesus Christ."

"Yep, I've heard that coming from your bedroom."

Newt scrunched up his nose. "Yeah, me too."

"But what I mean to say is," Mickey continued, "it's been a learning curve, and some things I'm still getting to grips with."

Stone narrowed his eyes as he smirked. "You having problems with your DIY enema again?"

"What?" Aaron asked, looking at Mickey with wide eyes.

A red-faced Mickey stabbed a finger out at Stone. "I will kill you. I will kill your whole family, and I wasn't talking about sex."

Newt leaned forward. "What were you talking about?"

"Things that I thought would be a relationship killer that I've had to look past and not judge Aaron on his bad life choices."

Aaron groaned and stared up at the ceiling. "If you're talking about that damn show."

"Show?" Mickey pointed at Aaron with his thumb. "This guy, this man I love, he hates The Star. Can you believe that shit?"

Newt was about to express his disappointment and outrage, but Leo interrupted him with a grumbled-out, "I'm with him there. It's shit."

Newt snapped his head towards him. "What? I thought you just…weren't keen."

"I hate that show." Leo lifted his shoulders in an apologetic hug. "Sorry, Newt."

"It gets worse," Mickey said. "Not only does he hate The Star, but he also loves The Street. That goddamn horrible soap opera with that bimbo Cindy."

"Hey," Aaron snapped.

Leo crossed his arms and glared at Mickey. "Cindy is a good woman."

Newt narrowed his eyes. "That's not what you were saying about her yesterday."

"Well, she is," Leo said. "It's not her fault the scriptwriters have no idea what to do with her."

"See," Aaron said, holding out his hand to Leo. "That's exactly what I said. The show would be so much better if I wrote the storylines."

"Alongside me," Leo said.

Aaron nodded. "If we wrote the storylines."

Leo lifted his chin. "Agreed."

"God help us," Stone muttered.

But he was smiling, and his eyes met Newt's.

Newt smiled back.

* * *

Newt gasped in a lungful of air as he woke. His hand, pinned under Leo's pillow, flexed weakly as he scratched his nails against the material. The cell was dark, expect for the perimeter lights illuminating their scratched window and the red light of the TV on standby.

He wanted the pendant. He wanted to squeeze Neptune in his palm and think of home, but it was inside the pillow on the bed above.

"You all right?" Leo asked, sidling up behind Newt. He moulded the front of his body to Newt's back and slung his heavy arm over Newt's side.

"Bad dream," Newt answered.

Leo hummed. His warm breath caressed the back of Newt's neck.

"Want to talk about it?" he mumbled.

Newt heard the sleepiness in his voice, the drag and drawl of his words. He didn't know how with-it Leo was, but when he didn't respond, Leo hooked his heavy arm around Newt and dragged him even closer. He nuzzled his nose into the back of Newt's neck.

"This help'n?"

"Yes," Newt whispered.

Leo groaned into the back of his neck. "Good."

Newt relaxed in Leo's hold, tracking his eyes back and forth across their cell. Leo was semi-conscious behind him, and a sharp cough or a shout of his name would've brought him back to full consciousness, but then he'd stop wrapping Newt up in his arms and puffing hot breaths against his skin.

And if he woke up, Newt wouldn't be able to tell him about the dream.

"I was drifting into the dark, and I couldn't come back."

"The dark?" Leo mused.

His bristling chin scraped like sandpaper against the top notch in Newt's spine. It sent a pleasant tingle down his back.

"Space."

"Ah," Leo said. "Your brother said you were a space lover."

Newt blinked. "What?"

"He told me how you love the stars and the planets, and you've told me about your telescope before. Stone said you get lost in the stars sometimes."

"I'm glad you and him sorted things."

"Me too." Leo yawned. "Now tell me about this dream."

"But—"

"No buts, speak."

Newt swallowed. "When I look up at the stars—at the universe, it's beautiful, it's amazing. I get to see it from the safety of earth with my feet firmly on the ground. If I look up, and I see the stars in the sky, I know I'm okay, I'm here. I know I'm real."

"Course you're real." Leo squeezed him tight.

"But sometimes I dream about being in the dark, surrounded by stars, drifting further away. My feet aren't on the ground. I'm all alone, and I can't find my way back. I can't do anything but exist, and there's no time, and nothing is real?—"

"Shh." Leo slid his other arm beneath Newt's neck and curled it around him too.

"You're not floating away. You are here, and you are real."

"I know." Newt exhaled. "Because I woke up. What if one day I can't? I'm not talking about death?—"

"I know you're not," Leo said softly.

"But what if one day I drift off inside my own head and can't find my way back? I don't want to exist in the dark, unable to feel with no concept of time." His breath hitched.

"Listen here, Starman, there will be no drifting off into the void while I'm around." Leo ran his hand up Newt's arm. He shackled his thumb and his forefinger around Newt's wrist. "Feel this?"

Leo squeezed.

Newt didn't just feel it. He stared at Leo's hand on him while his stomach began to fizzle.

"Yes."

"This is your tether."

Newt frowned. "My tether?"

Leo hummed, burying his face in the back of Newt's neck. His voice was muffled as he spoke. "All astronauts need a tether, right? They don't just fly out of their spacecraft with nothing attached."

"I guess."

"Well, the Starman needs one too. You don't have to worry about floating off into the void. You can't, not with me right here beside you. This"—he squeezed Newt's wrist again—"is your tether, and I am the spaceship that takes you home."

"You're my spaceship?"

"Sure am."

Newt lifted his head an inch off the pillow to ask a genuine, well-thought-out question, "How do I get inside you?"

Leo burst out laughing, muffling the sound against the back of Newt's neck. His breath was hot, and he vibrated all over as he smothered Newt in a hug.

Newt closed his eyes, feeling warmth down to his toes, and pressed his smile into Leo's pillow.

They didn't speak again.

Leo didn't retreat or let go of Newt's wrist. He still had a weak hold of it when they woke in the morning, and Newt instantly missed the warm band of his tether when he finally let go.