jamie and eric-30-Jamie's reaction

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Later Dahlia regretted having brushed Daniel off so quickly. It was just she had to get to class. If he really wanted to talk to her, he should’ve given her his cell number so she could text him. Maybe he didn’t have a cell. Whatever, Dahlia would she him tomorrow. Still she felt a little hesitant to tell Eric that his brother, who he apparently hadn’t seen in ages, was in her class, but she had no idea how to contact him otherwise.

* * *

Jamie knew that pain would come when he touched Eric. Six months without touching Eric. At first it had been hard. He was so in the habit of squeezing his shoulder or tussling his hair in passing as he worked around the lab. But then it became just an issue of avoiding accidently bumping into Eric.
Jamie didn’t know that the pain would come so completely, so quickly. He was only up one flight of stairs before it became difficult to move. Even though the hallways were typically empty, Jamie wanted to avoid embarrassing questions. Using the hand-rail to pull himself up, Jamie decided to sit on the windowsill of the next landing. He could pretend to be deep in thought while holding his pained body still.
But he was still shaking a little bit. Jamie could imagine a intensely-focused Master striding up the stairs not even seeing Jamie, not hearing him even. An old musty man in dusty black robes muttering to himself, or nose buried in a book, as he climbs the stairs. Crazy, except for that boyish curiosity bubbling, burning, flaring, in his eyes. But that man was so lost in his internal world that only out of habit was he able to safely navigate the stairs back to his suite. Jamie wasn’t afraid of scholars like that.
Jamie was afraid of their students. He was afraid of their students. Students who were still new enough to the world of grown-ups to want to conquer all problems. Including a solitary figure shaking with pain on the windowsill.
Jamie’s vision began to fuzz over. Before he had been sitting sideways, looking out the window to hide his face, but he was afraid that he may lose control of his body completely. He brought his feet up sinking his weight into both sides of the window frame. Nausea turned his stomach, he felt feverish but his body was chilled with sweat, and invisible needles he could not brush away pricked his skin. He willed himself to stay quiet.