WIP - Understanding the Bridge

Aeryan wasn’t sure what to do with the young man he’d stopped from jumping off a bridge. He’d never encountered someone intent on ending his life. He wasn’t equipped to handle the emotional rollercoaster that was Niklys Davenport.

What do you do with someone who was withdrawn, tight-lipped, scared and yet now considered you their savior? Aeryan was uncomfortable with that title, though Niklys had never actually called him that. And what possessed him to bring the troubled young man back to his home?

Days into having Niklys there, Aeryan’s family grew concerned, his sister urging him to send Niklys on his way. But Aeryan couldn’t do it. What if Niklys tried again? And succeeded? Aeryan would have to live with that the rest of his life. And, honestly, the man was too damn beautiful for his life to be snuffed out.

Aeryan’s only solution was to take one day at a time. What he hadn’t counted on was Niklys eventually opening up to him. The man had major trust issues. Just one more thing Aeryan was not familiar with.

And when he learned why he’d found Niklys on that bridge, his heart broke for the life Niklys tried to end.

*~*~*~*~*

Niklys was surprised, then angry at the man who’d stopped him from ending his misery. How dare he? Niklys didn’t have anything to live for and he certainly hadn’t expected the handsome man to offer him a place to stay.

Niklys didn’t know what to do. Aeryan was so kind, so patient in the face of Niklys’s drama. He didn’t push to know why Niklys wanted to end his life and Niklys didn’t want to burden Aeryan with the things that had happened and why he was the way he was.

Yet, he found himself relaxing around the man. Not something he would have done with anyone else. Niklys didn’t trust him, trusted Aeryan’s family even less, but he couldn’t hurt him. And Niklys was certain that if he followed through with what he wanted to do, he would hurt Aeryan.

What shocked him the most, though, was the attraction he felt towards Aeryan. At first he thought it hero worship, except he was not happy that Aeryan had interfered. Then he feared that Aeryan would be disgusted and revolted by Niklys’s orientation, just as his family had been. Except he wasn’t. When Niklys figured out that Aeryan was attracted back…that scared him even more. Aeryan was much too good for the likes of Niklys. Aeryan deserved a man who was confident and stable. Not the emotional wreck that he was.

So he left.

Better to hurt the man now and let him move on, then hurt him later with his emotional baggage.