Day 13: Your Breath Fills My Lungs

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As part of a yearly tradition with yabamena, we write each other drabbles for the 12(+1) days of Christmas. Day 13: More surprise fanfic! This is also the bonus day, and the last day ;_; SADS. Anywhere here. Have some Covenant fic.

If there was one thing everyone knew about Reid Garwin it was that he was a reckless skirt-chaser. He took chances none of the other sons of Ipswich would -- not even Pogue -- and flirted with every attractive girl who passed by. He went through relationships like he went through tissues and considering he was a young man with a healthy sex drive, he went through a lot of both.

But this one thing that everyone knew, thought they knew, wasn't the truth. The real truth was buried so deep, Reid didn't even realize it himself, not for years. Why he chose Tyler's company over anyone else's, even Pogue who, with his own reckless nature, should have been the obvious choice for mayhem with Reid. But Reid told himself it was because Pogue listened to Caleb too much, and Tyler, on the other hand, almost always went along with everything Reid suggested.

He told himself he liked Tyler's company because Tyler listened while Reid rambled, like no one else would really do. He told himself he sought out Tyler because Tyler balanced him, fit him. He had no idea how right he was.

Maybe Reid had just a little too much tequila in his system after the fifth bar, and he didn't really remember when he stopped holding onto Tyler for support and started holding onto him just to hold him. The alcohol was out of his system, well and truly gone, when he kissed Tyler and suddenly a million things made sense in his head.

That's when he realized that the Covenant wasn't just a promise made, a vow of a secret to be kept at all costs. That's what it was years ago, when it was first made. But now it was more than that. It was the four sons of Ipswich themselves. It was the bond between them, that no matter how stretched and strained it could get -- especially between Caleb and Reid -- it could never break. That was proven when Chase showed up, tested them, and he himself was the one who failed.

But to Reid, it was still more. The others were like parts of him. Caleb was the conscience he ignored, but secretly knew was often right. Pogue was his impulse, the reckless standard he measured himself against and tried to take a step farther. But Tyler, Tyler was his very breath. He needed them all, but it was Tyler that made him feel alive.