Page 8 of Sugar

“Come on. The burritos are going to get cold.” He opened his door, and Juno followed suit, clutching the bag of food to his chest like it was a delicate newborn. It made Piper want to kiss him. Instead, he overtook his stride as he led the way to his front door and turned the key, pushing inside to make sure the air was on nice and cool.

It was only a little muggy, but he adjusted the thermostat before kicking off his shoes, and Juno closed the door behind him before removing his own. The foyer was dimly lit, the light coming in from the arch that led to his living room, and the curtains were drawn.

“Do you have pets?” Juno asked, shuffling from tile to carpet.

“Not yet.”

Juno glanced over his shoulder. “Big plans? Going to become a cat-dad?”

Piper laughed as he held his hands out for the food and set the bag on the coffee table. “I’m actually on a list for a service dog. It’ll be trained for cardiac alert tasks and medication retrieval, stuff like that.”

Juno’s eyes widened. “Wow. I…uh. I didn’t know about your heart.” Instead of sitting down, he wandered to the bookshelf where Piper kept several signed biographies his colleagues had written on one shelf, and the rest were covered in photos. He had two earth rising photos he’d taken from the station and a handful of him and the guys floating upside down.

“My time in space wasn’t very kind to my body,” Piper explained. “Hopefully, with all the forced retirement rest I’m getting,” he said, not quite bitterly but not as kindly as he wanted to be, “it’ll continue to heal and strengthen. But the dog was an agreement I made with my brother when he wanted to move to California with his boyfriend. He was afraid to leave me, and I was afraid to hold him back. So we made a compromise.”

Juno looked over his shoulder. “Oh. Damn. That’s good for him, though, right? Moving in with someone?”

“It’s wonderful,” Piper said, and he meant it. “He’d never really been in a relationship before he met Maddox. I didn’t want him to hold himself back just because he was worried about me.”

And he only worried about Phoenix because the world was unkind, and Phoenix was unrelenting when it came to being himself. He’d never been capable of masking the way others were, and the fact that Mads loved him as much as he did was one of the only reasons Piper slept so well at night.

“You sound like a really good big brother.”

Piper laughed and watched as Juno leaned in closer to the photos. “I tried my best.”

Juno was silent for a second, then grabbed one of the larger frames of him in his uniform with the NASA logo on the breast, standing next to the President. “Holy shit. Is this you?”

Piper laughed. “Yeah. Ten years ago, when I wasn’t as grey.”

“But you’re…” Juno turned slowly. “Are you a fucking astronaut?”

Piper sat on the sofa hard enough to make his jaw click, and he shrugged. “I was a fucking astronaut. Then I was an astrophysicist. That photo was taken way after I was done going to space.”

Juno blinked at him, then carefully set the photo back. “And now you’re a mall cop? No offense, but why?”

“The stress of this job isn’t going to kill me,” Piper said flatly.

Juno deflated and walked over, taking a seat a cushion away from him. He stared for a long moment, his eyes bright and hazel-green, and his soft curls rested near his temples, making Piper want to reach out and twist them around his fingers. He wanted to cup Juno’s cheek and draw his thumb over his lush, gorgeous lips.

“I knew you were smart. I knew you looked too wrong in that ridiculous uniform.”

Piper chuckled and shrugged. “I am smart. But only in one specific way. I’m kind of a moron when it comes to literally everything else.”

Juno’s lip quirked up in the corner. “Why do I feel like that’s the first real lie you’ve told me?”

Before he was even aware of it, Piper had lifted his hand, and he brushed a curl away from Juno’s cheek. “I won’t ever lie to you. I might not spill my guts in the first couple of months we know each other, but if you ask, I’ll tell you anything.”

Juno’s expression said he was taking that as a challenge. “Do you want me even though I’m falling apart?”

Piper swallowed heavily, nodding. “Yeah. And I feel like that makes me a filthy old man, but cards on the table, Juno? I’ve wanted you from the second you first smiled at me.”

Juno blinked, then burst into laughter. “You had blue slushie in your hair.”

It was true. It was his first day, and a kid on a skateboard plowed right into him. He’d been holding a massive Jolly Rancher slushie, which had ended up covering Piper from head to toe, and he’d taken off before Piper could get back on his feet.

Juno had laughed at him. He laughed so hard his face went red, and he looked like he was going to be sick. But even in the throes of his utter humiliation, Piper had chuckled along. Juno’s brightness was infectious, and the thought of losing it to anything now terrified him.

“You were so sweet,” Juno said.

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