Oh, right. At the fundraiser. And every other time he was forced to interact with his family.
Didn’t really matter whether it was a mountain cave-house or a Boston function room when you had nothing to offer anyone, but also couldn’t leave.
He debated the wisdom of offering to sleep out in the car. He’d honestly prefer it, but he didn’t want to sound like a petulant child.
His roving gaze came back to Damon, and found Damon watching him.
“I didn’t think to ask,” Damon said. “Were you hungry?”
Because he couldn’t ask for food himself if he needed it? Cain rolled his eyes. “No. I’m good.” He couldn’t hold Damon’s gaze. He was on the edge of some emotional precipice, one hard push away from going over. He rolled his shoulders, wincing as his injured arm pulled. “Tired, maybe.”
Damon nodded slowly. “Of course you are.”
Of course, weak creature that he was. Weak body, weak will.Weak.
“So… Eli, huh?” Cain said lamely.
Damon looked startled. “What about him?”
Cain shook his head.Shut your mouth, shut your mouth, shut your mouth.“I didn’t realize you guys were so close.”
Damon blinked, then frowned. “Well, yeah. In a way. I mean, I haven’t seen him in months. We don’t exactly keep in touch. But…” He shrugged. “He’s a good friend.”
A friend.Right. So Cain had just imagined the something-else he’d seen in Eli’s eyes, the casual way they touched? He looked away.
“When Eli comes down, I’ll ask him to look at your arm,” Damon said, shifting in his seat to get more comfortable. “I didn’t like the way it looked earlier.”
“It’s fine,” Cain said. The very last thing he needed was to have the great and wonderful Eli tending his nicked arm. He’d probably tell Cain to stop being such a whiner and suck it up. Eli would probably have been able to carry a hundred bags from the car with both arms amputated, because he was magic like that.
“Yeah? You a doctor now, Cain?” Damon said, one eyebrow elevated and his arms crossed over his chest.
Somehow, even from this distance, even from a seated position, the guy managed to be intimidating and hot, which annoyed Cain, too. The injustices were piling up all around him tonight.
“I said it’s fine.”
“Don’t be stupid,” Damon said. He raised his voice and shifted forward, like he was trying to get to his feet again.
“But that’s me, right? A stupid kid.” Cain nodded, swallowing hard. There were actual fucking tears behind his eyes, and this day needed to be over,now.
Eli came down the stairs at exactly that moment, becauseof course he did.“Problem?” he demanded, looking back and forth from Cain to Eli.
“Nope. No problem. I just need a place to crash,” Cain said evenly.
Eli’s eyes narrowed and he flitted a look at Damon. “You can have my bed. Upstairs, second room down.”
“No, I can’t do that. Where would you sleep?”
Eli shrugged and flashed Cain a smile that showed even white teeth behind his beard. “Down here with Damon. Wouldn’t be the first time.”
And, there it was.
Cain looked at Damon to see if he had any objection.
Please object, please object.
But Damon just nodded, and the strands of gray hair around his face burned silver in the glow of the fire. “Yeah, that’s probably good. Cain needs some sleep.”
A pacifier, perhaps, and a warm blankie. Cain nodded once and grabbed his bag from the base of the stairs.
