Page 40 of Cross the Line

“I just know.” Alec smirks, shooting Theo a wink before hopping out of the car with Rio, leaving him no other choice but to trail after them both. He shoves his keys and wallet into his pocket and hurries after Alec. For someone so much smaller, he’s quick on his feet, and he’s halfway across the parking lot by the time Theo catches up with him.

“What is it, a race?” Theo asks.

“If it was, you would’ve lost.”

Theo isn’t sure if he‘s turned on by Alec’s cocky attitude or if he wants to laugh. Possibly a little bit of both, which is unexpected to say the least. There are people Theo enjoys, mostly only Jason, and then there are people he gets turned on by. There is usually no overlap, which is possibly why Theo’s few attempts at dating over the years have failed so miserably. He doesn’t find it hard to find people attractive, but he’d gone out of his way to pick people he wouldn’t have picked as friends to keep things easy.

Nothing about Alec is easy, and while he should probably hate it he doesn’t, not even a little bit.

“Considering I’m standing right next to you, obviously not.”

“Not for long,” Alec replies, taking off. It’s hard to tell if Alec is trying to take it easy on him or if he’s sore from his fall, because even though he’s running, there’s something stilted about his movements. What Theo lacks in speed he makes up for in having really long legs, and he catches up to Alec just in time to catch sight of his profile and the pain on his face. The expression is there and gone, replaced with an easy smile by the time Theo’s stopping beside Alec in front of the large double doors. Before he can get a chance to ask Alec about it he’s holding Rio out, much the same as he had when Theo had first opened the front door this morning and found them standing there.

“Look at her, Theo. Isn’t she the cutest thing you’ve ever seen?”

As if to prove his point he presses his face into her side and rubs his cheek into her fur, prompting the kitten to turn and attack Alec’s curls.

“She’s cute,” Theo laughs, grateful Alec is too distracted to notice his flush.

It’s painfully embarrassing at how equally taken he is with the man holding the kitten. Alec’s cheeks are flushed pink and his smile so earnest and uninhibited that it robs some of the air from Theo’s lungs. He can’t imagine living life with your feelings just out there all the time for anyone to see. How can Alec stand to be perceived so often? To have people just know how he feels? It makes him vulnerable. And brave.

Thinking about that bravery sparks a train of thought Theo isn’t sure he likes. What if he’s not attracted to Alec? What if instead he’s jealous of him. It would make more sense than anything else. Somehow the thought isn’t very comforting. Alec is a great guy who has worked his ass off to get where he is and despite his easy-going demeanor, he’s endured some stuff that would’ve made other people lose their spark. Being jealous of his happiness and light, of how easy he makes life look, kind of makes Theo feel like a dick.

“Let’s go, Theodore. Little Miss needs food.”

“Just for the record, I have no idea what we need. You’re going to have to be in charge, sorry.”

“Oh, no,” Alec sighs dramatically. “Me be the boss? Whatever will I do? How on earth will I cope? This is a lot of responsibility and work. I’m not sure if I can handle the pressure. I might crumble. I might?—”

“Alright, alright.” Theo snorts. “Point made.”

“Is it, though?” Alec grins, disentangling one of the kitten’s claws from his hair and pulling her back towards his chest. “If not, I can keep going.”

“I have no doubt you could.”

The thought makes Theo strangely happy. His life is quiet, at least when Jason isn’t around, and he’s always liked it that way. Or so he thought. He likes this time with Alec too, noisy and unplanned as it is.

“As long as we’re both in agreement, I win and I’m the boss. By the way, did you know cats have thirty-two muscles in each ear?” Alec announces, hip checking Theo. He leaves Theo no time to actually reply before he’s moving into the store. “Come on, Theo, we don’t have all day.”

Theo scurries after him for the second time that day, doing as he’s told and withdrawing a shopping cart from the row of them that line the front door. Theo’s eyes trail all over the store, the bright lights and sparkling white linoleum floor at odds with the shelves, overflowing with animal supplies. There’s an entire aisle dedicated to birds, another for reptiles and even one for small rodents. Theo’s senses are overwhelmed by the scent of hay for the horse feed area on the right, and something else that Alec assures him is merely pet food smell. Whatever it is, he’s not a fan and he wrinkles his nose, sticking close to Alec, who meanders through the store like it's a second home.

Forty minutes later, the cart is full of more things than seems possible for something as small as Rio. There are the basics like the pet bed, though, why Alec insisted on getting one that looks like a banana is beyond Theo. There’s also food of various kinds, including wet food and formula, both of which Alec insists are necessary along with a litter pan, a pooper-scooper because this is apparently going to be Theo’s life now, and finally, food dishes. All of those things had been easy enough, but then they’d come for the collar last, which is where they’d been stuck for the last twenty minutes.

“Do you like the blue or the green?” Alec asks, holding up two options.

Five minutes ago he’d been debating between a pink one with a bell, and a red one with soccer balls. The soccer one had nearly made it into the cart, but then Alec appeared to have some kind of internal argument with himself and put them both back, leaving them at square one again.

“Blue seems fitting.”

“That might be too on the nose though,” Alec sighs, as if the color choice of the collar is life or death.

“You know you can just get both? Or buy one and change it later.”

“No, I can't. It's your kitten. I’m not gonna just change her collar because I want to.”

“And yet you’re the one picking it out now,” Theo points out. “You picked out the food bowls and the bed too.”

“Shit,” Alec curses. “You’re right. You pick.”

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