Makai rolled his eyes fondly but continued to make the breakfast while Emil refilled Makai’s coffee mug and made one for himself.
They had breakfast and talked about the day’s plans. There weren’t many, really. It was Friday, and they’d decided to stay in anyway. Emil had promised his parents to go home for the weekend, which felt oddly painful to think about, so he didn’t.
After they were done eating, Makai grabbed an extra jacket of his and slung it over Emil’s head and shoulders. “I really need to get an umbrella or something,” he said as they stood at the door, mentally readying themselves to open it quickly and dash across the little yard to the shed even faster.
“Rain poncho,” Emil corrected. “More useful in this situation. A stack of them.”
“Because you’d rip them, right?” Makai made an educated guess, smirked, and opened the door. “Run!”
Laughing like children, they dashed through the yard and into the shed where Makai had rigged some lights so he could work even when he couldn’t keep both of the double doors open.
Now he propped one of them partially open, flicked the lights on, and pointed at a spot on one of his workbenches. “Park yourself there and find some good music.”
“Aye-aye, Captain!” Emil grinned. It had become somewhat of a thing between them, the phrasing. He hopped up on the bench where Makai didn’t have the dresser-drawer parts spread out, and started to fiddle with his phone.
They had a large glass jar on top of the bench where Emil sat, and once he’d found one of his slightly older playlists, he placed the cell into the jar to amplify the sound.
“That’s such a neat trick still,” Makai said, nodding at the phone.
“I think so too.”
Makai began to assemble the three wide and two narrow drawers, and asked for Emil’s help every now and then. Emil handed things over, helped hold something together, and eventually it was him who screwed in the hardware to the front of the drawers.
“Will you stain this?” he asked, head bopping to the music.
“Yeah, I was thinking the dark green stain, just so it’s not boring, what do you think?” Makai made sure the seams of the actual dresser had stuck together properly with the glue he’d used.
Emil hummed and thought about it. He knew where the dresser would go in the bedroom and finally nodded. “Yeah, I think green is good.”
He moved to his spot and watched as Makai worked. The way he concentrated yet still occasionally chatted with Emil felt nice. It didn’t feel at all like Emil was watching someone complete a task without nothing to do for himself. Instead it felt like spending time together, hanging out and just being in the same space.
Makai started to fit the drawers into the dresser, and Emil clapped in admiration when the top ones and the middle ones went in easily. The bottom drawer stuck a little, though.
“Uh-oh,” Emil teased, even though Makai had told him this might happen. All it took was a millimeter to make them not slide in as they were supposed to.
Makai took the drawer to the other bench and went to find a suitable tool to fix the issue, whatever it was. Suddenly, he froze in his tracks.
“Remember that one time when you and Joie were over and you showed me how to use Shazam? Because I wanted to know what that one song was that I’d heard?” Makai asked and turned to look at Emil almost shyly.
He didn’t understand why Makai looked flushed, but nodded anyway. “Yeah, I remember.”
“This was the song,” Makai nodded toward the phone in the bowl.
“Oh,” Emil said, then added, “Oh!It’s ‘Do I Wanna Know?’ by Arctic Monkeys!” He listened carefully to the lyrics, even though he knew them by heart. He bopped his head slightly and started to hum along to the lyrics.
It really was an excellent song, and he understood why it had grabbed Makai’s attention. Emil concentrated on Makai again and reached out a hand to him.
Makai let himself be pulled closer. They were both flushed, even more so when Emil pulled Makai to stand between his spread thighs in front of the workbench.
They looked at each other, held hands, and Emil slid his free hand around Makai’s waist. Makai lifted his to slide his fingers into Emil’s hair.
Emil felt dizzy with lack of oxygen as the song played in the background.
It felt like they both waited for the line about being constantly on the cusp of kissing, before they closed the distance and pressed their lips together.
Once, before meeting Makai, Emil had thought he’d never have this again. Then he’d thought he’d freak out and have a panic attack if he tried to kiss anyone, even Makai, ever again. Now that the moment was there, he found himself clutching Makai’s fingers and tilting his head, groaning against Makai’s lips until he got what he wanted, and Makai opened his lips.
The first touch of tongues sent fire into Emil’s body. He pulled Makai impossibly closer and felt overjoyed when Makai whined into the kiss.
