Lucas turned to the instrument, which sat next to his closet in the corner of his room.
“Sing me a song, Daddy.” Shawn batted his eyelashes. The Shawn he knew was back, not the closed-off scared man who’d walked into his house a few minutes ago.
Lucas chuckled, and the tension eased a bit. “Can I get dressed first?” Lucas turned back around and grabbed a shirt off its hanger.
“Not that one.” Shawn sighed. The bedsprings groaned as he scooted to the edge.
Shawn touched the center of his back. Lucas sucked in a breath at the fear coursing through him. He instantly knew it all belonged to Shawn.
Shawn took the shirt from him even as Lucas moved away. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I’m fine. It’s fine.” Lucas’ words came out in a rush.
He bent over at the waist and breathed in slowly through his mouth, letting it out through his nose. Once. Twice. Shawn took a step toward him. “No! Don’t touch me.”
“Okay, man. Sorry.”
Who had Shawn running scared? Someone was hurting his friend. He could tell that much for sure.
The thought pissed him off.
His headache built at the top of his head as if his emotion was bringing the magical ball of light to the surface again.
He really needed to experiment with it a little more, somewhere safe. Maybe in a forest, away from people. After all, he had no idea what it would do to a person.
Could he kill someone with it, or would it heal them like it had the plants?
He’d go to the park off M-43 that hardly anyone ever went to and experiment tomorrow.
Shawn turned back to the closet, rummaging through Lucas’ shirts without a word. A quiet Shawn was never a good thing.
Lucas straightened and decided to put as much distance between them as possible. He would have left the room if he could have, but he still needed to get dressed.
Lucas opened his dresser drawer and grabbed underwear. He pulled them on under the towel before discarding it.
The socks he chose had penguins on them. He loved their silliness and maybe he needed to lighten up a bit. After shutting the drawer, he opened the next one down and randomly selected jeans.
Maybe Shawn finally had been dating someone and hadn’t told Lucas about it. Maybe the person was abusive or something.
He dressed as he asked the question. “Are you going to tell me what’s going on with you?”
“Nothing is going on. And ditto, man.” Shawn turned and threw a button-down shirt at him.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Lucas took the shirt.
“You haven’t been telling me shit either.”
“There’s nothing to tell.” Lucas buttoned his shirt. He wasn’t paying attention to what he was doing. His entire focus was on Shawn.
“Well, then I guess we have the same fucking story, don’t we?” Shawn walked over to him. Lucas held up his hands, letting Shawn know he didn’t want to be touched. “Relax. I’m just going to button your shirt for you. You have it all messed up.”
Shawn’s fingers were a whisper down the center of Lucas’ chest, but no skin actually touched.
“Is someone hurting you?” Lucas asked.
Shawn’s eyes widened. “I got it handled.”
“Just tell me, Shawn.”
