He unlocked the door, holding it open for Julian to go inside first.
“There’s, uh… there’s a spare key under the mostly-dead succulent outside, if you ever… you know, if you…”
Julian turned to look at him, his face softening. “Thank you,” he said softly. “Now, where do you keep that cream?”
“Upstairs bathroom,” Isaac said. “I can-”
“Nope,” Julian interrupted. “You can go sit in the kitchen and take your shirt off. I’ll get it.”
Even if Isaac wanted to argue with that, he was too slow. Julian was already bounding up the stairs, and it wasn’t as though the bathroom was difficult to find.
He followed Julian’s orders instead, heading for the kitchen and pulling his shirt off as he went, wincing as he had to raise his arms above his head to do it.
Hewouldbe fine. The soreness was expected, and he knew that his shoulder would never be quite the same again. He’d heard the tear when it happened, felt the sudden pain that had been like a punch to the gut, a wave of nausea washing over him.
All he could do was baby it a little, and hope for the best.
Julian returned within a minute or so, brandishing the extra-strength warming cream that Isaac used. He’d come to love it more than most things in the world. If marriage between a man and an ointment was legal, he probably would have gotten down on one knee.
“Sit,” Julian ordered again, since Isaac hadn’t gotten to that yet.
Isaac turned one of the kitchen chairs around, straddling it and leaning over the back so Julian had full access to his shoulder.
He’d expected the first touch to hurt, but Julian’s fingers were light, spreading the cream delicately on his skin in a thick layer. Isaac sighed as the tingling started, his sore muscles already beginning to relax.
“I’ll give that a couple of seconds to work, then rub it in for you,” Julian said. “Let me know if it hurts, okay? I don’t wanna make this worse.”
“So considerate,” Isaac teased, but hewasgrateful for it. Usually, if he could convince anyone to do this for him, they just slapped the cream on and gave it a quick rub with the heel of their hand.
Not that he hated that, but Julian was being alotmore careful about it.
Isaac grunted as Julian dug his thumb directly into the worst of the knots, jolting forward in the chair. It only hurt for a split second, the pain eased by the warmth of the cream, and once it was gone, it was…gone.
“Wow,” Isaac murmured. “Where’d you learn to…?”
“Dated a yoga instructor for a while,” Julian said. “He knew a thing or two about muscles, and I paid attention.”
Isaac chuckled. “Bet the sex was amazing,” he said, though he couldn’t quite bring himself to imagine Julian having sex with anyone else.
Which was weird, because normally he was pretty happy to accept that his partners had been with andwouldbe with other people, and that was fine. And it wasn’t that he was mad about it, or even uncomfortable with the thought of Julian being with other men, it was more…
Isaac shifted his weight on the chair. He was starting to think the reason was bigger and scarier than he was ready to deal with.
Being around Julian felt so damnedgood. There was no getting away from it. When Julian was there, Isaac was happy. When he wasn’t around, Isaac spent most of his time thinking of the next time he would be, or what kind of excuse he could make to see him sooner.
That meant something. Isaac was even starting to think he knewwhatit meant.
He was also sure he wasn’t ready. Not yet. This was all happening so fast, and yeah, maybe these were old feelings, feelings he’d pretended he wasn’t having when he just wanted to be as normal a teenager as possible, but…
It meant a lot to him that kids would see him as normal now. He could tell himself all he wanted that he was just being a good ally, standing up for what was right, but…
Maybe, if he’d seen someone out and proud and doing what Isaac wanted to do when he was a teenager…
Isaac swallowed, afraid to follow that thought. It was one thing to have a fling with a guy, even if it was his best friend.
It was another thing if, like Julian said, this was a fundamental part of himself. Something he wasn’t pretending, something he couldn’t get away from, something that he’d spent a lot of his life being too scared to even think about.
He moaned softly as Julian worked a knot out, the release of tension running down his spine and pooling in the pit of his stomach, a tiny curl of heat coming to join it.
