“Oh yeah, my brother was the athletic one. I was inside playing video games and reading.”
“You haven’t gotten any games yet. Will you?”
“I’m not sure what to get. A PlayStation would be nice, I guess. Might have to order one online when I reacquaint myself with using a laptop and so on. It’s so weird how different everything is only ten years later.”
“It doesn’t feel like it on the surface,” Emil admitted, nodding thoughtfully. “But I’m gonna take your word for it.”
His fingers were starting to ache, and he flexed them once he was mostly done with eating.
“They were broken?” Makai asked carefully.
“Yeah, both hands, almost all fingers. Two days before they found me.” Emil frowned. “I used to play the guitar in my teens. Can’t anymore. Or probably could but haven’t felt like trying.”
Makai nodded solemnly. “Maybe one day. I’m a big believer in never say never.”
Emil gave a noncommittal shrug. “I guess. I’m getting splints in the mail at some point soon. They should help with the everyday stuff.”
Makai pushed his plate away a little and leaned back in his chair. He looked massive in the small wooden chair.
“What?”
“You just look so big. I mean I get that you’re tall, but it sometimes seems like the house was made for someone much smaller.”
Makai snorted. “It probably was.” Then his expression got serious. “I…,” he started and went quiet again, looking away from Emil. He seemed to be gathering the words he needed to say, and Emil, knowing all about that, let him. “Are my looks a big deal for you? I mean, the muscles and stuff?”
For a while Emil sat quiet. He didn’t know where Makai was going with the question, but he said honestly, “I mean, you’re attractive, but it’s not really about your looks. I can appreciate them, but I really like your brain a lot, and your heart.” A blush heated his cheeks, but he’d sworn to be as honest as he knew how to when it came to important people in his life.
Makai cleared his throat. “It’s just… working out, getting to look like this, it was a prison thing. I exercised every day because it gave me a routine and it made me less vulnerable.” Makai got up and took their plates to the sink. “I don’t even know if I really liked it, you know? Or if it was something to fill the gaps I had in my days.”
“Okay…?” Emil still wasn’t sure where this was going.
“I don’t know if I’m going to work out much from now on, at least not anytime soon. I have other things to do. I just wanted to put that out there, in case you liked my looks. I will lose muscle mass slowly but surely if I don’t exercise.”
Emil got it then. Makai was insecure.
“Hey, as I said, it’s what’s on the inside that counts. The muscles are awfully pretty, but they’re just a small part of you. If they’re gone one day, then the rest is still there, right? It won’t change how protective and funny you are, or how….” Emil stopped and looked away. Then he steeled himself and turned his gaze back to Makai. “Look, we need to talk about sex, and I’m not drunk enough for that.”
Makai dropped the forks and knives he’d been rinsing and had to pick them up again.
“Okay, yeah. I agree. There’s a bottle of Fireball in the cabinet over there. There’s Coke in the fridge and ice in the freezer.”
Emil grinned. “Let’s do this.”
LIKE HE’Dsaid before, Emil had never really been a drinker. He’d been drunk a few times, just like other teens had been, before the kidnapping. After getting out of the psychiatric hospital, he’d never felt like it. He’d had a couple of beers with his dad while watching sports or whatnot, when they were trying to bond, but that was about it.
The cinnamon whiskey went down smoothly with the Coke, but it also made itself known pretty damn fast.
“You know who you remind me of,” Emil said as they sat on either end of the couch.
“Who?”
“There’s this wrestler, like pro wrestling. My dad watches it sometimes to wind down from shifts, anyway”—he waved a hand—“there’s this wrestler you look like a bit.”
“Could be the build?” Makai mused.
“Well that, but I think he’s from Hawai’i or something.” Emil tried to remember the name of the guy but couldn’t.
“You’re not talking about the Rock, are you?” Makai looked at him funny.
