Of Hair Loss & Heartthrobs

Cove got dressed, turning around to see Leon struggling. He stepped over, helping the boy untangle himself from the many cords.
"Sorreh love." He sighed, helping him get ready.

Leon shook his head, gently pushing his lovers hands away. He wanted to do something for himself...
"Cove..." Leon glanced up at him, his voice soft. "Thank you."
Leon wanted to thank him for staying around even when he was hard to handle. Leon wanted to thank Cove for making him feel like he was special. He wanted to thank Cove for making his life worth living, for the sheer happiness he had experienced since knowing Cove.

"Love, ah can help. Ah don't mind." Cove insisted, his hands once more lightly reaching for the cords. He just couldn't let Leon overwork himself, even with something so simple.

Leon frowned up to his lover, looking much as if he were a puppy who had just been kicked. He was tired of not being able to do the littlest things by himself...
"I wish I was better Cove..."

Cove swallowed, fighting hard to hold back the tears as he thought of the fact that Leon would never be better.
"Ah wish ya were too, love." He said simply.

"You think that when I get better me and you can live happy? Be married and everything?" Leon had never been the type to dream of that but with Cove he yearned for it.

"Of course love." Cove nodded his head before looking away from the other, resting his forehead against the doorframe, willing his tears away.

Leon watched Cove closely, reaching out for the larger boys hand. He let his trembling fingers curl around Cove's, his smile almost not there at all.
"Will you remember me?"
Cove could not look him in the eyes...Could not talk about a forever without looking away.
Leon knew.

Cove squeezed Leon's hand tightly, turning to face the boy.
"Of course, Leon. Ah'll always remember ya." His voice was a whisper as he wrapped Leon up in his arms, pressing his lips to the top of the boy's bald head. He couldn't take this. But he couldn't cry. Not now. He couldn't let Leon see him break. And yet, tears began dripping down onto Leon's head.

Leon wrapped his arms tight around Cove's neck, his heart feeling as if an icy hand was squeezing it, trying to crush it. "Cove...." Leon was not quite sure what to say...Cove was crying... "I love you, okay?" He wanted that to be known. "And...You dont feel bad please. You are the only person to make me feel like I really....Like im special. Not just some slow kid...You make me feel like im more than that...like I am better than anyone thought I could be." Leon's voice was warm, washing over Cove's cheek. "You let me experience what it was like to live and be happy...and I could never thank you enough." Leon's eyes welled with tears but he didn't want them to fall, he just wanted Cove to know it was going to be alright. "You are the only love ill ever know...And the best I could ask for and I love you so much...And I want you to know its okay Cove." Tears spilled down his cheeks, over his sickly gray skin. "Its okay because you made it okay for me. You can miss me but I...I dont want you to ever feel like you didn't do enough....You did everything..." His voice was hoarse, rasping and weak but full of all the love he carried around with him.

"Ah'm just..." Cove's voice was strained as he feebly attempted to keep the tears out of it. "Ah'm soh sorreh Leon." He had failed. It was his job to keep Leon alive and he had failed his lover.... Deep down he knew there was nothing else he could have done but he felt it had been his job to help Leon and he hadn't done it...

Leon hugged onto Cove tighter, hiccuping into the crook of his neck. "No...Im not sorry...Please don't you be sorry." The boy asked in his soft way. Always how Leon was, he could never truly be mean, never be forceful.
Just sweet little Leon.
And the cancer was breaking him down as if he were nothing but fragile glass.

"But ah am." Cove whispered. "Ah tried ta help ya Leon... ah'm soh sorreh ah let ya down." He felt like he could barely breathe... he couldn't imagine living without his Leon...

"L-Let me down?" Leon pulled back enough to stare into Cove's eyes, his own wide and utterly lost. "You never...Never ever, let me down." Leon shook his head, slinging tears with him. "You always m-made everything better! I-I...My life...I...Cove I wouldn't have made wit this far without you! M-Maybe you couldn't save me...B-But because of you i-its okay...Were going to be okay...Your going to be okay." Leon needed his Cove to be okay. If he were to die, the only thing he could ask for was his lover to be okay. Maybe not okay that he had died, but okay in the long run.
He wanted Cove to be at peace.

"Ah shoulda been able ta save ya... ah'm yar boyfriend, et's mah job ta protect ya from everything... and ah couldn't." Cove sighed, his shoulders trembling around Leon.

"Y-You did save me though?" Leon tried to press Cove closer to himself. Cove had saved him from the life he had led, the one where he was just slow little Leon, the one where he was treated as nothing more than a child. Cove had come in and he had given Leon a life that was worth living...

"From what? Ah'm lettin ya... ah'm lettin' ya goh Leon. Ah didn't save ya and ah should have." Cove sniffled lightly, his lips pressed to Leon's temple.

"You saved me from a life worse than...death." Leon tried to figure out how he wanted to put it. "And I don't think your letting me go....Ill always be with you..." The boy smiled gently. "You can always remember me...And I think...you will always love me. And so ill be here."

"Ah love ya soh much Leon." Cove sighed heavily, squeezing Leon as tight as possible without hurting him. he was going to miss this.

Leon said nothing, just letting himself be held by Cove as fear seeped into his heart. He was going to die and he wondered how badly it would hurt...
"Im going to miss you..."

"Ah'm gonna miss ya too love, soh soh much." Cove whispered softly, tears still dripping onto Leon's body.

"Cove...Will you let my daddy cry on you?" Leon asked softly, looking up to his lover. "And if you need to cry you can cry on your daddy and your daddy will be happy." Leon was well aware of Rhett's dislike toward him.

"Course, Leon... yar daddeh can cry on meh all heh wants." And he meant it. He would help Cade if that was what Leon wanted, even if the man despised him.

Leon smiled genuinely up at Cove, wrapping himself tight around the other. "And I want to be buried with pictures of me and you, and some of me and daddy, and momma and grandapa....But I want you to keep my camera and take pictures all the time." Leon nodded his head, though he didnt want to make Cove feel obliged, he was just talking to keep the hurt at bay.

"Of course." Cove nodded. He would fulfill Leon's every last wish. "Ah'll keep takin' pictures far ya." Leon's camera would live on even if Leon himself didn't.