Page 112 of Untouchable

"Parker," Harp says gently when Parker doesn't move. "Come on."

Parker keeps sleeping heavily, even as Harp scrambles over him to stand up, even when Harp puts a hand on his shoulder and says his name again.

Well, fuck it, Harp thinks. He doesn't want to sleep here but he can't bear the idea of letting Parker sleep alone after this night. Gently, Harp lifts Parker off of the couch like an overgrown kid.

Parker whines as he feels himself being lifted into the air. “I don’t wanna,” Parker murmurs.

“You’ll sleep better in bed,” Harp insists.

Parker curls his head into Harp’s chest, pressing his face into Harp’s neck.

“I don’t want to sleep alone,” he says.

"I wasn't taking you to a guest room," Harp says. It's not easy to ascend the stairs with Parker in his arms, but Harp manages to do so very carefully. He nudges the door open with a toe, crosses the dim room, and finally sets Parker down on the side of the bed next to the window. Harp gets undressed slowly, the way he would after a long but satisfying day of work. When he's down to his boxers, he turns to get in bed, assuming Parker will still be dozing. Instead, he's on his side, watching Harp with a sleepy grin.

"What?" Harp asks, self-conscious and exposed. He slips under the sheet quickly.

* * *

“A lot of things,”Parker says. As soon as Harp is in bed, Parker attaches himself to him, throwing his leg over Harp’s hips and an arm across his bare chest, tucking himself into the crook of Harp’s arm. “Kissing you. And, you know… other stuff. But also… I really, really thought you were gonna kick me out and make me sleep downstairs and that made me…. sad.”

It’s easy to be vulnerable like this, with Harp’s bare skin blazing hot against him.

“Actually—” Parker says.

Parker rolls away and Harp gives him a strange look, watching as Parker sits up and strips the flannel over his head before diving back under the blankets.

“Much better,” he says as skin meets skin. He shivers happily. He pauses for a moment, thinking. “You know, it’s funny—I’ve seen you without a shirt on so many times but it’s like… it’s like it’s the first time.”

He doesn’t even bother being embarrassed at the cliche.

"That's because you're good at what you do," Harp says. "Because you only let yourself see me as a client—like you said—when I asked about... Christ."

Harp shakes his head.

"You're so damned good at what you do it probably is the first time you've really looked at me without a shirt on."

“I mean…” Parker says, blushing “I’m not saying… I mean… there were… like… I mean, there was….”

Parker stops himself and grins, giving himself permission to accept the compliment.

“I guess. Kinda, anyway. I tried. It was… harder with you than most people,” he says. He rolls to prop himself up on his elbow, tracing his hand through the soft hair on Harp’s chest. “It’s kind of like… this different brain? Like, there’s Therapist Parker, you know? And then… just… regular me. So I just would get myself into that brain. And honestly, I was too busy thinking about the muscles and the flow of it and what I was doing, you know? There kind of… isn’t enough room in my head for anything else.”

He pauses, not sure if he should admit this. But he wants to make sure there is no shadow of a doubt in Harp’s mind about Parker’s feelings.

“That time you came to town and got lunch, though… that was hard. To… stop myself from wishing it were a date.”

He smiles shyly.

* * *

Harp hasn't thoughtof that day in a long time, but the memory is unpleasant because of what had happened after their lunch. Harp had ended the night inexplicably drunk off his ass and more emotional than he'd been in a long time because...

He hadn't been able to admit it to himself at the time. He had blamed the bad mood on the fact that he'd come to town and been inconvenienced—but now, looking back....

Obviously it had been because he thought Parker had a girlfriend.

His mind is muddy with sleep already now that he's horizontal again but the thought strikes Harp hard. He's had... something brewing inside of him for Parker at least since then, when he'd felt the abrupt surge of some emotion he refused to call jealousy.

---