Page 41 of Fire
“Sometimes you do,” Toby muttered. “You like to start shit. Sometimes for no reason.”
“Hey, I always got a reason.”
Toby turned his head and bit the top of Jake’s ear, lightly, but enough to make him jump and grab Toby's hip. “Dude!”
“Sometimes,” Toby murmured, and he met his eyes as Jake turned toward him, “your reasons are not very good.”
Jake chuckled, working his hand farther under Toby's undershirt to lay his palm against the warm skin of Toby's back, well out of sight from anyone looking their way. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, my reasons are awesome. But I’m not starting anything tonight. This is your night, and I’m not gonna leave your side. When we go, we’re going together.”
“Unless,” Toby said, with very precise pronunciation, “one of us is going to the bathroom.”
“Well, yeah. We can make that journey on our own.”
Toby tapped his glass. “One more. Then we’re going home.”
Halfway through the second cosmo, Toby asked abruptly, “You know my favorite m’seum exhibit? It was German. Kal—Kalckreuth. Him. We saw ’em in Los Angeles. Do you remember? All the paints, paintings of the ocean. The big ones, with the waves.”
“Oh yeah,” Jake said. “Yeah, Toby, I remember those.” They’d been larger than average, but Jake probably wouldn’t have remembered except Toby's glee had been less contained than usual, even in a crowd.
Toby seemed to have a hard time focusing on his face, but he was trying, his manner intent now, except for the distraction of Jake’s hand between his. “Those are just like the ocean. You showed me the ocean. That’s what they remind me of, that first whoa! That’s why I like to look at them, it’s like . . . being there again. And he understood that, he got it, that Kalckreuth dude.”
“Huh.” Jake tipped his head back, doing some quick calculations. “We could check out that museum again. Only take a couple of days.”
Toby snorted, warm breath against Jake’s neck. “Exhibit’s pro’ly gone. Pro-bab-ly.” He enunciated carefully, but his eyes fluttered shut.
“You think I can’t track it down?”
Toby laughed, and the sound moved down his body in a shiver. Shit, Jake needed to get Toby home.
“’S time to go,” Toby announced.
No surprise they were on the same page. “You ready?”
“Mmhmm. Not ’cause I—feel different, like, bad—just. Not sure I can walk right.”
“Okay, I gotcha.” Jake didn’t ask what Toby meant by feeling different-like-bad, but he had a feeling Toby wasn’t talking about needing to puke.
Getting out of the booth required some coaxing, support, and a few contortions that reminded Jake of the time he’d played Twister in junior high, but they managed it. Then, with his arm around Toby's back and Toby's around his waist, they made their way out of the restaurant and into the night.
* * *
Tobias wokewith sunlight streaming through their window, his head heavy and the smell of bacon in the air. He felt groggy, confused, and blurry, and for just a second worry tried to push through the haze. Then he remembered. The old fashioneds, then the cosmos. The sharp taste of alcohol and the soft blur of the world as it faded out. The unshakable feel of Jake at his side, under his arm.
He didn’t feel any different. There had been water, a couple proactive pain pills, and slow making out last night before they tumbled into bed, and today he felt like himself. It had just been a few hours where everything had felt a little less sharp, softened in a way that he’d never felt outside of a head injury.
It could have been terrifying. Looking back, it didn’t feel like it would be attractive at all. Except for how he could remember Jake smiling at him, Jake’s arm around his shoulders. That had given everything a joy that easily made it . . . good.
He untangled himself from the covers, stretching as he got to his feet, and wandered down the hall to the kitchen. He was just in time to see Jake pour batter into the griddle for their first pancake. He saw Tobias, and a grin broke out over his face. When he reached out, Tobias let himself be pulled into Jake’s arms for a good morning kiss. Like every morning, it felt like coming home.
“Hey, beautiful,” Jake said. “How’re you feeling?”
Tobias made a face. “Thirsty. Head’s kind of thick, but it doesn’t really hurt.”
“Awesome. Get some coffee and knock back some more aspirin, I left it out on the counter.”
Tobias grabbed the meds and a mug of coffee and settled at the table to munch on bacon and wait for Jake to finish the pancakes.
They had consumed nearly the whole stack, and Tobias's proto-headache had faded, when Jake knocked his foot. Tobias gave him a look, and Jake grinned.
