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Daniel fished around in his pocket trying to find the key Darren had given him for emergencies. Quickly, he let himself in the house, making sure to lock the door behind him.
"Darren!" He called, his voice tinged with worry.
When he didn't answer, Daniel checked upstairs first, but found all the rooms empty. Next, he searched the downstairs, but still couldn't find Darren.
His worry was giving way to panic. Darren had called him; he had to be here.
"Darren! Where are you?" He called, standing in the middle of the kitchen.
Sliding open the large glass door, he stepped out into the backyard. "Darren? You out here?"
He made his way to the side of the house, sighing with relief when he saw Darren sitting on the ground, his back leaning against the building.
"Darren, what are you doing?"
"Hey, Dan."
"Are you okay?" Daniel asked, sitting down beside him.
Darren nodded.
"Then what...?"
"Remember when we planted those?" Darren interrupted, pointing casually in the direction of the rose garden that filled the better part of that side of the yard.
"We didn't plant all those," Dan answered misunderstanding.
"I know that, but we planted the first two, remember. Those two," Darren said, indicating the two blood red climbing roses wound around an arch leading into the roses.
"Yeah, I remember," Dan answered, not sure where Darren was going with this.
"We each planted one on opposite sides of the arch so that they could grow together. Sort of a symbolic way to start my rose garden."
Dan smiled. He did remember. He remembered that day very clearly. Darren had been so excited, so hed humored him. Agreed to help him plant the two roses. He could still see Darren with dirt all over him, complaining about pricking his finger on one of the thorns.
Darren had sighed and asked him how he had managed to stay so clean during the whole thing. When hed shrugged and stuck his tongue out at him, Darren had reached out and left a dirty smudge across his cheek.
"Remember what we said?" Darren asked softly.
Daniel struggled to come up with what Darren meant, but to no avail. He had no idea what Darren was talking about.
"Sorry, I guess I don't..." He answered, wishing hed at least made something up.
Darren shrugged, "I didn't think you would."
"So? Are you going to tell me?"
Darren took a deep breath and turned to look at Dan for the first time since hed arrived.
"We said that...the roses were like us, separate, but always working toward the same goal. Well, they finally made it."
Daniel looked at the roses again, this time noticing that two of the small stems at the top were barely touching each other.
"I guess they did," Daniel smiled.
"Too bad we didn't."
Daniel hadnt been expecting that. "What?" He asked, turning suddenly to face Darren.
Darren shook his head and looked away.
"We didn't what?" Daniel said softly, but forcefully.
"We didn't make it," Darren whispered, tears threatening his eyes.
"Of course we did, Dare. What more could you want?"
Darren hesitated slightly before Daniel prodded him to go on.
"You."
Daniel sat there silently for a minute, trying to put all the thoughts swirling around in his head into a sentence.
"Darren, I thought we'd decided..."
"I know what we decided, but that doesn't change anything. Daniel, I've tried...I mean really tried to make things go back to normal after...after...I just can't. I know it was a long time ago, but I never stopped loving you."
"And you think I did?"
"I'm not sure you ever loved me to begin with."
"Darren."
Silently, Darren shook his head.
"You know it's the truth, Dan. So, please, don't...don't lie," he finally said resignedly, with only a trace of hurt in his voice.
Daniel stood up, brushing off the back of his jeans as he walked over to the rose bush. He touched the crimson petals of one flower lightly, smiling sadly.
Quickly, and ignoring the pain as one of the thorns nicked his finger, he broke off one of the blossoms.
He knelt in front of Darren and trailed his fingers over his cheek. Darren only resisted slightly as Daniel nudged his chin up with his thumb. His lower lip firmly between his teeth, Darren finally looked up to meet Dan's gaze.
"I never stopped loving you either. And that's the truth," he whispered, placing a soft kiss on Darren's now parted lips. "But you know this is the way it has to be."
Daniel carefully handed him the rose and, with one more kiss brushed gently across Darren's forehead, hurriedly walked away from him.
He stopped once and glanced over his shoulder at Darren and then disappeared around the corner.
~finis~
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