Asher pulled back an inch. “You’re hungry?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m going to cook you something,” Asher said with a brilliant smile. He nodded to himself once, kissed Levi on the cheek, and stood up.
“The tube —”
“Not through the tube. Real food. We’re going to figure out the eating thing, baby.” His eyes fell to Levi’s lips and lingered. “Then everything else.”
Asher began humming as he started cleaning up the kitchen.
What the fuck is happening?
It was the first normal thought he had had since he walked back into his apartment.
37
Difficulty Mode: Expert
Player One
Levimadeitthroughtwo bites of eggs before he tried to rush to the bathroom. He ended up throwing up into the sink. Asher was behind him before the second heave, one hand on Levi’s back, patting it gently like he had seen people do in movies when comforting someone who was sick.
It felt nice.
“You’re okay,” he said softly. “It was a good try.”
Levi shuddered, his head hung low as he gripped the countertop for support. Asher really wanted him to move his hands, to have Levi hold ontohimfor support like he did back in the game, but he knew it would be harder to get Levi to cling to him out here. He’d figure it out, though. Once Levi was done being nervous and shocked, they could be inseparable again.
Levi’s pajama pants had caught on his foot in his rush towards the bathroom, and Asher could see a strip of exposed skin on hislower back he definitely wanted to put his mouth on. He ran his hand down Levi’s back until his fingers brushed along the bare flesh, just to feel it. It had been so long since he got to touch Levi in the places he hid under baggy clothes; those were his favorite, because he knew Levi didn’t share them with anyone else.
Levi flinched.
Asher’s hand didn’t stop, he stroked the spot again, slower, dipping his thumb beneath the waistband..
“I need a shower,” Levi gasped, pushing away from the sink and away from him.
Asher frowned. “Okay.”
“I need —” Levi shook his head and walked toward the bathroom — fast, faster than he had rushed to the sink to throw up. The bathroom door closed and Asher felt his skin crawl as the lock clicked.
The fast-walking was interesting. Levi’s body knew how to move when it needed to despite the discomfort and weakness...
Asher stayed where he was, looking at the hand that had touched Levi’s bare skin, feeling the warmth fade.
Why did he flinch?
He’d beengood.He’d been patient. He held Levi all night and didn’t do anything pushy. Even when his cock had been against Levi’s back for hours, stiff and aching, he could have rolled Levi over and reminded him how great they were together. He hadn’t. He’d been so good, because Levi seemed a little surprised last night and he knew Levi always needed a little time to adjust.
But he flinched AGAIN, after I made him breakfast…
He thought about the forest.
The first time. Levi running through trees withthatface — terrified, thinking, alive. Asher couldn’t remember the moment when he forgot who he was in there, he barely remembered deciding to test the game, but he remembered Levi pinned against the tree, looking up at a stranger, every muscle decidingwhether to fight or freeze. That look was the look that reorganized his whole life in there and made him want more than the fun, and Levi had done it with one expression in a fake forest. And then every time Asher went looking for him, Levi kept giving him that look, across all the resets: the fear, the strategy, the eventual lean-in. That was how Levi loved him. Asher just had to tear down the walls that held Levi back, and he did it brick by brick.
Oh...I see now.
He could do it again. No…he was going toget to do it again.Asher had lost who he was in the game, and Levi made him remember. Now their situations were just reversed, and Levi was the lost one. Asher could make Levi remember.
