He stepped up behind Benji, sliding an arm around Benji’s waist and dropping a kiss on his bare shoulder. “Not even if I use that bath bomb you liked?”
“Nope,” Benji said. He paused, his body stiff against Noah. “Uh. Can you ease up a little?”’
Noah had been squeezing him. He hadn’t even noticed.
“Sorry,” he said, before letting him go.
Benji kept moving around the bedroom, putting his phone on the nightstand and kicking off his shoes. Noah’s hands twitched at his sides. Benji was right there, and he was still too far away. Noah wanted to press him down, to be inside him, deeper than fucking. He wanted toownhim, wanted to know Benji was his, like he knew his heartbeat.
This is what your partners warned you about when they said you were too much, he told himself. Benji liked that side of him, but there was obviously a limit.
Which was… fine. Healthy, even. Never mind that it made Noah want to pin Benji onto the bed and fuck him until he begged to be his.
A distant creak made them both look up.
Max’s voice echoed down the hallway. “Helloooo! Anybody hoooome?”
Benji frowned. “What the hell? He’s supposed to be at JJ’s all night.”
He grabbed a sleep shirt off the bed. It was one of Noah’s old gym shirts, so baggy that it fell off Benji’s shoulder, exposing a tantalizing glimpse of collarbone.
Noah wanted to bite it. Instead, he followed Benji out into the hall, where Max was kicking off his sneakers with just as much enthusiasm as Benji had, the shoes bouncing off the wall and coming to a messy stop around the shoe rack.
Max brightened as he spotted them. “Oh, hey, youarehome.”
“So are you,” Benji said. “Prematurely. What gives?”
Max’s face scrunched up. “Can’t a guy come home without getting the third degree? Get off my back, man.”
This was distinctly un-Max-like. Usually, Max wanted to talk about everything, all the time. If he was hiding something, it meant he was deeply uncomfortable. Dead Aunt or Absent Parents levels of discomfort, one of the only subjects he actually got squirrely about.
“Excuse me for being surprised,” Benji replied. “What, did JJ’s smart fridge talk back? Did you make the fridge sentient and now it’s on a rampage, and you have to hide out here while it ravages the city?”
Max’s phone rang. He groaned, tugging it out of his pocket and glaring at it in disgust.
“Who is it?” Noah asked, making sure to keep the sudden suspicion out of his tone.
“No one,” Max said, still scowling.
Benji’s eyes narrowed. Benji was having the same thoughts as him; he could see it on Benji’s face.
Benji marched down the hall and stole the phone out of Max’s hand.
“Hey!” Max yelped, grabbing at it.
Benji held him back easily and put the phone to his ear. “Hello? Who is this?”
Noah was standing several feet away, but he could still hear Chet’s voice come over the speaker. He sounded… surprisingly put together. Like he didn’t get carted out by security after harassing his eldest son an hour ago.
Benji’s face twisted up in a scowl that looked so similar to Max’s that Noah would have smiled if they weren’t both so obviously upset.
“Yeah, you don't get to talk to him,” Benji barked into the phone. “You remember the judge gave me custody for areason, right? Now you suddenly want to show up and start yelling at me about morals? Fuck off, Chet.”
He hung up and rounded on Max. “The hell, Max? When did he start calling you?”
“He only called a few times! It started about an hour ago. It was weird.” Max swiped his phone back and stuffed it in his pocket with a troubled expression. “He can’t really take me away from you, right?”
“No,” said Noah and Benji as one.
