Page 7 of His Plaything

Clark pushed back off the counter to get it. “There’s a carafe of water in the refrigerator, could you bring it to the table for me?”

“Yessir,” Seth said, hopping to do it. His whole body was buzzing like he’d spent the last few minutes on a very intense game show, trying not to get booted. He got the glass container from the fridge and took it to the kitchen table.

Taking in the two neatly arranged place settings closer up made something in Seth pause as he set the carafe of water down. Clark had been with him the entire time since Seth had gotten to his house. So the table had to have been set up before Seth had even arrived.

Why…?

He stood there long enough that Clark came up next to him, a warm press into Seth’s side as he placed the dish in the center of the table.

“Allow me,” Clark said, pulling a chair out for Seth.

Seth sat, and a hand passed over his hair. It felt decidedly like a pat of approval. He looked at the dish, turkey resting on a bed of roasted vegetables, and felt a strange deja vu. This was turkey instead of fish, but everything else was sliding along much the same as it had before.

Clark took his own seat next, at the head of the table this time instead of across from Seth. Seth hadn’t really put together where the place settings had beenputon the table, but like this, Clark was so much closer.

Seth had been the one to set the table last time. He’d placed them across from each other. But this time, presumably, Clark had been the one to set the table. And he’d chosen this.

Something warm brushed against Seth’s ankle, making him sit up straighter in his chair. “Pardon me,” Clark said, as he reached to take Seth’s plate and started to serve him a generous portion of food. “Long legs.”

“It’s okay,” Seth said. He went for the water and poured himself a glass, automatically filling Clark’s cup as well, once he’d finished with his own.

“Thank you,” Clark said, smiling at him as he set Seth’s now-full plate back down in front of him. “I do hope you enjoy.”

“I’m sure I will,” Seth told him, taking in the food. “It looks great.”

“I’ll be sure to pass along your compliments to Lydia,” Clark said, as he settled with his own plate.

There was another warm press to Seth’s ankle–Clark’s socked foot, Seth realized. He hurriedly picked up his cutlery. “P-please do.”

The turkey, when Seth took a bite, was warm and moist and flavorful. He made a sound of appreciation, and caught Clark’s gaze and approving look. He flushed and helped himself to another forkful.

“Good?”

Seth nodded enthusiastically.

“Have as much as you’d like,” Clark said, accenting that with a casual brush of his foot against Seth’s ankle. “So, how is your coding course going?”

Seth blinked at him, taken aback that Clark had remembered and thought to ask. “It, uh, it’s going pretty well. Although I haven’t been able to get as much work done as I’d have liked to.”

“Why’s that?” Clark looked nothing but interested, even on such a mundane topic.

“The library has adjusted winter hours for the holidays,” Seth explained. “So it’s not open on Fridays or Sundays, and it was closed Christmas and yesterday. So it’s been kind of hard trying to get work done. I couldn’t even really take advantage of having Christmas off, you know?”

“I see,” Clark said, consideringly and not at all judgemental. “It sounds frustrating, wanting to work on something and not having the resources to do so.”

“Yeah,” Seth sighed. “But I’ve been saving up for a new computer. I’ve almost got enough for the one I’ve been looking at.” Something Clark had helped greatly with, Seth thought. He wondered if he should say something about that. Only, he didn’t want to make it sound as though he was after Clark’s money or anything.

“I’m, um, I’m hoping that there might be some after-Christmas sales still running in January,” Seth rambled on. “I’m only two paychecks away from being able to buy the model I want with the specs I need, so if nothing else comes up, I should be all set.”

“Do surprise expenses often come up?” Clark asked casually.

“Sometimes?” Seth hedged. “Or sometimes it’s just an inflation thing. Like, I rent a room in a house right now, and I pay a portion of utilities, so the heating bill went up because it’s winter now.” Even with what he paid, the house was old and drafty and still too cold for Seth. “I also still need to get a better winter coat. I had planned to look back in October, but that’s when my laptop up and died, so I’ve been trying to save anything extra for that. I was kind of hoping I could skip a new coat but…” he shrugged.

There was a careful pause. Then, “It’s a colder winter this year.”

“Yeah,” Seth said morosely. “And January’s supposed to be worse, so I can’t put it off any longer. If I can’t find a good one at the thrift store, I’ll have to start checking eBay and Facebook marketplace. I kind of wish Ihadjust gotten something back in October though. All the secondhand sellers up the prices on coats once winter sets in.”

Abruptly Seth realized that he’d been complaining about buying things–and not having enough funds to buy said things–which was exactly what hehadn’twanted to do. He was all but explicitly telling Clark that he was broke and in need of extra cash. Seth didn’t want to draw attention to that, to how different they truly were, even though it was glaringly obvious.

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