Page 44 of Soar

No…wait. This wasn’t his home.

A chill went through Salem when the realization hit. This wasn’t Gregori’s home. His home was on a beautiful beach on a completely different continent. He was only here because Salem was here. No other reason.

If Salem rejected him hard enough, Gregori wouldn’t stay. He’d leave. It was as simple as that. The thought impacted him like a punch to the gut, panic quickly chasing it. Salem had resolved to try and trust Gregori, but he couldn’t very well do it if Gregori had finally gotten sick of him.

A pained breath escaped him and he looked around frantically for some sign of Gregori still being there. Surely their argument earlier hadn’t been the breaking point. Not when Salem had regretted it so, so much. Ugh, dammit, he couldn’t even blame Gregori if ithadbeen the tipping point. They’d fought so much over the past month; today’s incident could very well have been the straw that broke the camel’s back. Salem wouldn’t even be mad at him for it.

The doctor in him, the one trained in emergencies, kicked him into gear. First, put the food down, then canvass the apartment; he might very well be in the bedroom, it wasn’t like Salem could see through to the room with the door shut. Don’t panic just yet, he could just be out getting dinner or?—

“Salem?”

He whipped around, spotting Gregori coming out of the bathroom, sleep pants on and nothing else, damp hair loose around his shoulders. Relief sucker punched him in the sternum so hard he bent a little under the force. Still here. Gregori was still here. Thank fuck.

The takeout boxes hit the table a little harder than he intended as Salem dropped them. He also didn’t care. Reaching this man was the absolute priority.

Salem more or less threw himself at Gregori. The dragon didn’t expect it, rocking back on his heels, almost losing his balance. Salem locked his arms around Gregori’s waist and held on tightly, face buried against the bare skin of Gregori’s shoulder.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. He wanted to speak louder, but Salem’s throat was so tight with emotion it was hard to force anything out. “I’m so sorry.”

Those large, warm hands pulled him in, Gregori wrapping himself around Salem.

Normally Gregori was effusive and talkative, so this silence from him was strange.

Panic made Salem babble. “I didn’t think of it as flirting. I was trying to de-escalate the whole thing without pissing him off. You know how men get when they’re rejected, most don’t take it well, but I didn’t think of how it looked from the outside. I’m not interested in him, but I should have been clearer on it. More firm, I guess. I’m so sorry. Next time this happens, I’ll shut it down immediately.”

He could feel it in Gregori’s body language when he accepted it and settled.

“I’m sorry—” Gregori breathed.

“What?! No, don’t you dare apologize. This wasn’t on you.”

“Still—”

“No. Okay? No. This really, truly isn’t on you. This was my screwup. Hell, if our roles had been reversed, I would have done more than yell.”

A hint of a smile lurked in Gregori’s voice. “Is that right?”

“I’m the bad tempered one, this is established, you know damn well I’d have been throwing something. Hands, tables, something.”

Something of a laugh might have come from Gregori before he impossibly tried to hug Salem harder.

There was something about this moment. Some sense of foreboding. Like something was out of place but Salem couldn’t put a finger on it. There was a sense of desperation in Gregori’s grip, and he wasn’t saying much, when normally he’d make the first move and not shut up. This whole thing felt very, very wrong.

Had Salem screwed up so badly? Was that it?

And why had Gregori come out of the shower? It was kind of the wrong time of day for it.

Salem’s doctor brain kicked in. Was Gregori sick? Could dragons even get common colds?

Leaning back, he put a hand to Gregori’s forehead. No, temperature felt fine. Breathing sounded fine, too.

Gregori caught his hand, smile more genuine. “I’m fine, doctor.”

“You’re damn fine, but that’s not my concern right now. You’re acting kind of off. Why are you coming out of the shower? Are you feeling cold, or?—”

Gregori shook his head, smile increasing a little. Like Salem’s concern pleased him. “I went for a flight earlier. I was washing off the sweat.”

All right, that sounded plausible on the surface. It could very well be the truth. Still, his doctor sense insisted something was very wrong. It just wasn’t readily apparent. People took longer hot showers if they were battling loneliness or depression. The heat and water helped allay the symptoms. Was that the other reason for the shower?

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