Page 27 of Winter Ends
Daniel nodded. “With a girl, yes. Lots of times. But I need you to understand that I’ve not even kissed another guy before, no matter how much I’ve wanted to...”
Oh.
Oh fuck.
My heart beat a million times faster at the admission. Daniel and I had a reputation for fighting, and now I was taking many of his firsts. Then again, he’d been the one to kiss me for the first time in the hall.
“Holy fuck!” Daniel’s eyes shot wide, and he jumped at me, arms wrapping around my neck as he scrambled to climb up my body. The move only caused us to both tumble back to the bed.
“What?”
Daniel continued to stare at me, those deep brown eyes swirling with panic.
And then the kitten jumped onto the bed next to us, sending Daniel scrambling off of me and onto the floor.
“How did I forget that thing was in here?” Daniel pointed a shaking finger at the kitten as I picked it up and held it against my chest. He rubbed his soft orange head against my chin, purring loudly, happy to have gotten some attention.
“You were upset. I would have reminded you, but then...”
Daniel rolled his eyes. “You started thinking with your dick?”
I shrugged my shoulders before placing the cat back on the bed. “Can you blame me? No one has ever handled me like that before. It was kind of hot.”
That was all it took to break the tension of the moment as we both started laughing. The kitten hopped off the bed and made his way over to Daniel. Daniel didn’t notice at first until it started sniffing his hand. He jumped, but didn’t scramble away from it this time.
When Daniel tentatively lifted his hand, he rested it on the kitten’s head. A shiver raced through his entire body at the contact, but he didn’t pull away.
“He’s so soft,” Daniel mused as he stroked the kitten’s head slowly. It was like watching some sort of small miracle, the boy who was absolutely terrified of the animal he was touching coming to accept that it wasn’t out to hurt him.
“Most baby animals are. Do you want to name him?”
Daniel’s gaze snapped to mine. “But that would mean that I’m keeping him, right? I can’t keep a cat. It’s taking everything in me not to get up and bolt right now.”
I laughed before sliding off the bed and sitting with them on the floor. I picked up the cat, who let out a tiny squeak but didn’t fight me. Daniel continued to pet it gently as I set it in his lap. He still seemed really tense but was loosening up the more he got acquainted with our new little friend.
“No one said anything about you keeping him. I can take care of him. Think of it as doing me a favor.”
Daniel let out a low chuckle, scratching the kitten under its chin as it nuzzled into him and circled into a ball to take a nap. “I don’t know. You wouldn’t want to name your own pet?”
I didn’t know what possessed me to do it. It was stupid and impulsive. There was no way to tell how Daniel would even take the insinuation, but I leaned forward, kissing his cheek. “Why? It’s not like I got to name you.”
There was that blush again. But he didn’t seem to hate what I was implying. Not that I really viewed him as a plaything. He was fun to mess with, sure, and he definitely wasn’t mine.
“I don’t know, Shawn. It’s a lot of pressure.”
I laughed again. “Don’t think too hard. It’s a cat. I’m sure he won’t be offended by whatever you come up with.”
Daniel sat in silence for a few more moments, petting the kitten as it slept. It was nice to see him not freaking out about the creature being in his lap. He gnawed that bottom lip again, and I was quickly figuring out that was his tell that he was thinking really hard about something.
“I keep thinking about food. We can blame that on Chase and the fact that he named his cat Oreo.”
“We can give him a food name. What are you thinking?”
Daniel was quiet again, the blush deepening. His uncertainty about his choice was adorable. It wasn’t the end of the world if he picked a name for the cat. It was just a cat.
“Cheddar, Cheeto... Chester, you know, like the Cheetos cheetah? Or even Nacho...”
“Nacho?”
