“I have stitches in my back from the accident”—he was sure Doc Donovan knew about it like the rest of the town—“and I need to get them out. Could you help me if you’re not busy?”
“Absolutely. Do you want me to drop by, take a look at the kittens while I’m there?”
Makai thought for a moment. “Yeah, I was prepared to come over to the clinic, but you can come here too.”
“I don’t have any appointments this morning, so I can drop by. Besides, I think it’s better for the momma if we don’t move her and the babies yet.”
“Okay, sounds fine. I’ll be here all morning. I was supposed to take Emil to town with me, but I doubt he’s in a rush.”
“He can ride back with me if he needs to go by then,” Doc Donovan promised.
“That’s great. See you soon?”
“Yes, I’ll be there within an hour.”
“Great, thanks!”
Makai put the phone on the bedside table and went to tell Emil.
“That’s fine by me. I don’t have anywhere to go really.”
“Oh…,” Makai breathed when something occurred to him. “He’ll know you spent the night. I hope that’s okay?”
Emil smiled. “I don’t care. Besides, he’s gay. It’s not like he’ll be disgusted or anything.”
“No, I know that, just… I don’t know how you want to spin this?”
“Makai, I stayed over because it was too late to go home after watching movies. It’s pretty innocent, and if it wasn’t, who cares? I like you and you like me, right?” He waited until Makai nodded slowly. “We’re adults, and last I checked, adults get to have sleepovers too.” And then Emil blushed.
“I’m gonna go take that shower now,” Makai said and hoped it didn’t sound like he was going there to think of a possible future sleepover. However, when he glanced at Emil, he could tell that wasexactlywhat he had thought too.
For two seconds, they stared at each other, then burst out laughing. Yeah, they were pretty in tune with each other. It wasn’t a bad thing, amusing as it was in this particular case.
BY THEtime Makai came out of the shower and pulled on some underwear and sweats, he decided to go without a shirt. He couldn’t rub his back dry anyway with the stitches there, so he might as well air-dry the area. What he hadn’t thought about was Emil’s reaction.
“Uh….” Emil gawked at him when he came out of the bedroom.
Makai frowned in confusion at first, not understanding why Emil stared at him with a blush spreading on his cheeks, then—“Oh….”
“It’s… it’s okay. I’m just—you’rejust….” And then he ducked his head and looked really uncomfortable.
“Hey, if you want me to put a shirt on—”
“No! No, I don’t mind like that. It’s just….” Makai stood still, waiting for Emil to put together the words he wanted to say. “You’re hot, okay. My body seems to like yours a bit more than I expected it to.”
Oh.Oh.
“What do you want to do?” Makai asked, gesturing at the space around them.
“I… I think I’d like to watch something? Until the doc gets here?” Emil sounded hesitant, and he seemed truly conflicted and uncomfortable with his body’s reaction to Makai.
“Sure. Go ahead and figure out what you want to watch. Then tell me where I should sit.” He went to get water from the kitchen, just to be far enough so that Emil didn’t see—and then it hit him. He couldn’t hide this from Emil, even though he wanted to. He took the water bottle and walked back to the living space where he could look at Emil sat on the couch. “Emil?”
“Yeah?” Emil turned to look at him with a slight blush still smudging his pale cheeks.
“The thought of you wanting me like that, even if it’s sort of involuntary, it… I feel it too. It’s not just your body that reacts, and I think you should know.” There, he said it.
“Oh, okay,” Emil said and ducked his head again. “I guess that’s good. I mean, we don’t owe each other anything just because this stuff happens, but I think it’s nice to have it happen in a way.”
“The potential is there?” Makai grinned.
Emil huffed. “Yeah, I suppose so.” He turned back to Makai’s laptop and pushed Play. “You missed Bo Burnham. I know he’s not for everyone’s tastes, but I think he’s funny. So we might as well use this time and see if you like him too.”
And that’s how Makai ended up watching the weirdest stand-up comedy show he’d ever seen. Some of it was slightly uncomfortable for some unnamed reason, but a lot he enjoyed and found himself laughing his ass off. He was literally crying with laughter when a car pulled up outside.
“Oh my God, can you pause that,” he managed to say, and a very delighted-looking Emil did as asked.
Time to get the stitches out.
