Homecoming Hearts Series Collection

by HJ Welch

  Once the four of them were inside, Levi pressed the button to close the doors and jabbed several times at the first-floor button. There was already too much smoke filling up the car and the flames were reaching out into the corridor. Most of the office was now a roaring inferno.

  The fire had to have spread to other floors by now and it was absolutely not safe to use the elevator. But Levi knew they had no choice. As the doors finally closed, he crouched down to hug Raiden to him. “Hold on,” he told Pearl.

  He expected her to grab the railing. Instead, she latched on to his arm.

  He held his breath, watching the numbers that glowed through the smoke as they ticked down too slowly. “Come on, come on.”

  The elevator lurched and he and Pearl both cried out. Levi hugged her and Raiden closer to him. He’d get them out, he would, they were so close…

  The three turned into a two. Levi didn’t dare blink. Surely, even if the car fell from this height, they’d still be okay?

  He’d never know. Two flicked to one, and the doors opened.

  “Go!” he roared at Pearl. He wouldn’t let her stick around for Glenn this time.

  She did as she was told and bolted out of the elevator, sprinting for the front door. Levi did Glenn the courtesy of pressing the hold door button again, but after that, he only cared about Raiden.

  He cradled him to his chest, grateful for every puff of breath that touched his damp neck. “Nearly there, baby,” he whispered. He managed to get to his feet and stumble into the lobby.

  The whole building creaked and felt like it was swaying. Levi staggered towards the door, daylight streaming through the cracks between the boards on the walls, beckoning him forward.

  Part of the ceiling gave way to his left and he almost tripped to steer clear of it. He could hear sirens wailing outside. Using his shoulder, he slammed into the door and broke into the fresh air.

  Pearl was waiting at the bottom of the steps on the sidewalk, her hands in her purple hair as she hopped anxiously from foot to foot. As soon as she saw them she cried out and ran forward, but Levi was already down the steps, laying Raiden on the ground.

  The sirens were almost as deafening now as the blaze raging above.

  The firefighters were the first to disembark at the scene, running to the three of them almost as soon as Levi placed Raiden on the ground. “Is there anyone else inside?” the first guy to them asked.

  “One male adult, in the elevator,” Levi said through his coughs. “He’s injured but alive. He started the fire and shot my partner, so be careful. And the staircase is out.”

  The firefighter nodded and he and his colleagues disappeared into the building. Others were already aiming the hose from the truck at the flames, dousing them with a powerful blast of water.

  Pearl sagged and wiped her face, smearing her makeup around further. Levi grabbed her hand.

  “Will he be okay?” she asked with a sob.

  Levi looked up towards the EMTs tearing towards them through the smoke. “Yes,” he said simply.

  Because it had to be true.

  31

  Raiden

  The room was made of beautiful colors.

  Raiden hummed and swam in his contentment. Had he ever felt so wonderful?

  “Baby?”

  He knew that voice. He loved that voice. Even when he was being a Grumpy McGrumpypants. “Hmm, baby,” he purred, wriggling in the crisp bedsheets.

  Someone touched his face, stroking it. Raiden liked that. He leaned into the hand, feeling the coarse fingers and large palm. He loved that too. He was filled with so much love, he was so lucky.

  “Raiden? Can you hear me?”

  “Levi,” Raiden mumbled. He smiled, then felt his lips crack. They must be dry. Did they hurt?

  “Raiden, take a drink for me now, please.” The voice was firm. Raiden liked doing what the voice said. It made him feel whole. He trusted that voice so much.

  A plastic cup met his lips and he obediently swallowed as water trickled into his mouth. It tasted amazing.

  “Raiden, I’m going to go get a nurse. You’re in the hospital and had surgery on your leg. Do you remember getting shot?”

  Raiden giggled and managed to blink his eyes open fully. The gorgeous, slightly scary face swam into view. He reached up, batting at the mouth on the face. “Love you,” he said, knowing it to be true. “All mine. All yours. Promise…promise…”

  The face laughed and rolled its eyes. “Do you remember all the drugs the nurses gave you?”

  “Hmm, yummy,” said Raiden, snuggling down under his comforter. “Grumpy baby. Love you, baby.”

  The face – Levi. Levi was the face. Levi leaned forward and kissed his forehead. “You’re safe, Raiden. You’re on the mend and everything’s okay. Just sleep now.”

  “Yes,” said Raiden very seriously. He liked doing what Levi told him. “Promise. Sleep.”

  “See you soon,” Levi said as Raiden floated back into the lovely blackness.

  “Soon,” he said. And he meant it.

  Raiden shifted in his wheelchair. “Oh, Levi,” he moaned. “Can’t I use the crutches, just for a bit?”

  Levi ran his hand through Raiden’s hair, then tugged just a bit too hard as he reached the crown. Raiden looked up and they shared a grin together.

  “Doctor’s orders were to stay in bed,” Levi said with a raised eyebrow. “I let you come to Madison Square Garden. You’ll sit in the damn chair.”

  Raiden wanted to kiss him so badly. But the backstage area was frantic and Raiden hated being confined to the chair. It was only the second time he’d tried to use it, to be fair. He’d probably get used to it if he had to. People did it every day, after all. But he didn’t feel as confident as he usually did.

  Levi stroked his neck instead, then let him go. Glittergasm were going to play their next song, and he probably knew that Raiden wanted to pay attention. This was the one he and Pearl had been slaving over for weeks.

  The wings were a hub of activity. Dyrnoir’s people were scrambling around trying to get everything ready for their big performance. But even if the seats were only half full, this was by far Glittergasm’s largest show ever.

  Pearl was strutting around on stage on platform boots with skin-tight jeans, a big, furry cape and glitter on everything as usual. “So,” she drawled, filling the break while the guitarist changed his instrument over. “Last week I had a bit of a thing. It sucked.”

  She glanced over towards Raiden and Levi. They hadn’t gone public with anything that had happened in Philadelphia, but Raiden had sworn to pay for any therapy she needed and help in any way possible after that fucked-up shit. She was doing okay for now, but he suspected after the tour, it would hit her like a steam train.

  The bassist came over and the two girls held hands. Pearl smiled, but Raiden could see she was fighting back tears. “Do you guys have heroes?” she asked the crowd. They were the act on directly before Dyrnoir, so actually, the place was way more than half full. She laughed into the microphone. The bassist kissed her cheek, and Raiden wondered if he’d missed something there.

  The crowd was screaming. It was deafening. As usual, Pearl had them eating out of her palm, and Raiden felt a surge of pride.

  “Yeah,” said Pearl, rubbing her nose and swinging her foot. “Heroes are pretty damned important, aren’t they? I…I have a couple of my heroes here tonight. It doesn’t matter what they did exactly. But how about we just scream our fucking lungs out for a couple of seconds for the heroes in our lives, huh? Wanna do that?”

  She pointed the microphone out into the stadium, letting thousands of people just roar themselves hoarse. From the wings, Raiden watched as she inhaled deeply, then let out a battle cry that made his skin tingle.

  She wiped her eyes then laughed into the mic. “See, isn’t that awesome? Feelings are great, dudes. Don’t bottle them up. Okay. This is our new single, Shadow. Go fucking nuts.”

  The drummer attacked her kit and the guit
arist wailed as hard as his strings would let him. Raiden felt that unique, sick excitement that only came from hearing one of your compositions come to life. Man, he loved this song.

  Amid the din, he realized he wasn’t the only one singing along. Raiden stopped and looked incredulously up as Levi joined in with Pearl on the chorus.

  “You’re singing,” Raiden said, utterly delighted.

  Levi blinked, like he hadn’t been aware of himself. “It’s a good song,” he said bashfully.

  Warmth filled Raiden’s heart. After all the time they had spent listening to the radio, the song that finally got Levi Patterson to sing for him was Raiden’s own.

  “Damn right it’s a good song,” he said. He looked back at the stage so Levi wouldn’t see his eyes get glassy. But he might have spotted something anyway, as he reached down and took Raiden’s hand, rubbing his fingers with his thumb.

  A commotion to their right caught both their attention. They naturally let go of each other as they waited to see who was coming through.

  “Hi! Yes, sorry, excuse me, yes, I’m looking for – RAIDEN!”

  Joey pushed his way between a throng of people, still in his makeup from a day’s filming. He spotted Raiden and his face crumbled at the sight of his bandaged leg.

  “I’m fine,” Raiden cried quickly, but Joey was already throwing himself at him for a hug. “Oh, careful,” Raiden said with a laugh.

  “Sorry, sorry,” said Joey over the music. He pulled away and wiped his eyes, flapping his hands over the wheelchair. “Fuck, dude, I heard you were here and I came straight from the set.” He turned to Levi and his lower lip wobbled again. Bless beautiful Joey, Raiden thought with a smile. His heart was permanently on his sleeve. “Oh my god, you saved him, didn’t you?”

  Levi looked bashful. “No,” he mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck. “I was just doing my-”

  Joey flung his arms around Levi’s neck, tugging him down for a proper hug. “Thank you, thank you so much. He’s so important. He means so much to us.”

  “I know,” said Levi as they pulled apart. He looked at Raiden, who felt his love very keenly.

  “Oh my god,” said Joey. He stepped back and looked between the two of them. “Are you…is this…?”

  Raiden bristled. “Don’t make a big deal, okay? Blake isn’t the only one who gets to be queer.”

  Joey broke into the biggest, happiest smile. “You are, aren’t you? Well…fuck.” He laughed again and covered his mouth.

  Raiden glanced at Levi and arched an eyebrow. “Dude,” he said as evenly as he could. “I thought you’d be cool about this.”

  Joey cackled behind his hand. “Oh, I’m ecstatic. I just owe TJ twenty bucks now,” he added with an eye roll.

  “TJ?” Raiden spluttered.

  “Y’all bet on us?” Levi asked, incredulously.

  “Hell yeah,” Joey said. He grinned and slapped Levi on the shoulder. “So you’re coming to the wedding, yeah? It’s no problem at all. I’ll just need to fudge the seating plan sooner rather than later.”

  Levi’s mouth dropped open. “I…uh…”

  “Yes,” said Raiden, laughing. “Yes, he’s coming.” He took Levi’s hand and kissed his knuckles. “Because I told him so.”

  Levi’s expression softened. “In that case, I have no choice.”

  Joey made a gagging noise. “Okay, all right, knock it off.”

  Raiden laughed wholeheartedly. “See, it’s not so fun when it’s someone else being a bucket full of mush, is it?”

  “Shut up,” said Joey. But he swept down to kiss Raiden’s cheek and squeeze his shoulder. “I’m so unbelievably happy for you, buddy.”

  Raiden squeezed his hand back. “Me too,” he said honestly.

  For a while, the three of them watched Glittergasm tear it up from the wings. Then Raiden tugged on Levi’s hand to make him lean down so they could talk. “When will you know your next assignment?” he asked. He’d been dreading asking since Glenn had been caught and Raiden had been discharged from hospital. But he’d need to know if they were going to make the wedding together.

  To his surprise, Levi beamed down at him like Christmas had come early. “Actually, I got a new job offer this morning. I wanted to talk to you about it.”

  “Oh?”

  Levi played with a lock of Raiden’s hair. “It’s a training facility just outside of Lexington. About half an hour’s drive from the ranch. They have day events where they train government agents or just do bonding exercises for corporate teams. You get paint guns and have to storm buildings, that sort of thing. They need someone to coordinate the events as well as work with the more serious clients, like the FBI and Homeland Security.”

  Raiden couldn’t find the words. The band was so loud it was difficult to talk anyway, but right then, he had to swallow a couple of times. “A day job?” he clarified. Levi nodded. “No traveling?” Levi shook his head. “No one actually firing bullets at you?” Levi shook his head again.

  Raiden pulled him down quite violently for a hug. “If it works out,” Levi said into his shoulder, “I thought, maybe, we could think about getting our own place. Not that your folks don’t have a lovely home-”

  Raiden yanked Levi’s ear to his mouth. “I want you to fuck me in every single room of our own home. Any time you feel like it.”

  Naturally, that was the moment Glittergasm finished their song. In the second of silence before the crown erupted into applause, Joey looked over at them in horror. “I do not need to hear that, buddy!”

  Levi looked somewhat abashed, but Raiden cackled. He was still mildly loopy on painkillers, but he knew really it was the thrill of Levi’s news that was making him high. It was as if the clouds had parted and the future seemed so much more certain all of a sudden. He and Levi were a real couple. They could get a place together, build a routine, a home.

  A life.

  They managed to keep their hands off each other for the rest of Glittergasm’s set. Mostly. But finally, the band was done with their last gig of the tour, and Pearl walked off stage to immediately hug Raiden and Levi.

  She picked up a bottle of water and downed half of it, not taking her eyes off of them both. When she finished, she wiped her mouth, careful of her lipstick, and smirked. “You sorted it out, didn’t you?”

  Raiden laughed and took Levi’s hand. “Yes. Very much so.”

  She turned to Joey, her eyes narrowing. “You used to be in the band too. And you’re gay.”

  Joey laughed. “Um, yes, that’s correct.”

  Pearl looked back at Raiden. “So, you’re all queer now?”

  “Not TJ,” Raiden said with a laugh.

  “Or Reyse,” said Joey a little too loudly.

  Pearl met her gaze with Levi’s, then laughed, sipping from her water bottle again. “Sure,” she said. “Love you guys. See you later.”

  They watched her walk backstage with her band. “She’s a funny one,” said Raiden.

  “Pretty much,” said Joey.

  “Hmm,” said Levi skeptically, then refused to elaborate.

  Before too long, Dyrnoir were taking the stage, and Levi moved Raiden back out of the way with Joey. “You want to see the show?” Levi asked.

  But Joey was already making noises about getting back home to Connecticut and his family. As much as it would be cool to stay, Raiden was totally shattered.

  “Take me home?” he asked, then realized what he’d said. “The hotel, I mean…”

  Levi smiled and kissed him slowly. “Home soon. Hotel for now. I’ve been thinking about all the things I could have been doing to you the past week. I think we need to catch up.”

  “Yeah?” said Raiden.

  Levi nodded but looked at his bandaged leg. “Of course, we’ll start slow, but-”

  Raiden rolled his eyes. “When have I ever liked slow?”

  Levi licked his lips. “Okay, then. Whatever you want.”

  “I want you.” Raiden didn’t care how cheesy it sounded.<
br />
  “You can have me,” Levi replied.

  Raiden entwined their fingers, staring into his icy blue eyes. “Promise?”

  Levi kissed him once more. “Promise.”

  Epilogue

  Levi

  “Keep still,” Levi growled, pulling Raiden closer.

  Raiden just grinned impishly over his shoulder at him. “I would, but it’s a little difficult with that enormous cock in my ass.”

  Levi swatted his cheek and gave a particularly hard thrust. “Someone’s being a bad boy today. In the mood for some punishment, are we?”

  Raiden snorted and tried to dig his fingers into the cloakroom wall. “Dear lord, yes,” he said, squirming back against Levi.

  They didn’t have long. Levi had locked the door, but he still didn’t want to risk anyone walking in on them. Part of the thrill, though, was that they could be discovered at any second with their pants around their ankles.

  “I’ll forgive you,” Levi said, nipping and sucking at Raiden’s earlobe. “But only because you thought to put lube in your pocket.”

  Raiden pouted and gave Levi his puppy dog eyes. “But I want to be punished,” he said, then grinned.

  Levi was happy to oblige.

  He bent him over and grabbed his hips, pounding his tight, perfect hole. After returning from the tour a couple of months ago, one of the first things they had done was to visit the clinic and get the all clear. Levi never wanted to have anything between him and his lover again, especially when Raiden was an utter minx for public sex.

  Levi was still worried about Raiden’s injured leg. But he’d made the mistake to fuss about it during sex only once, and Raiden had got so mad he never dared do it again. So instead, he did his best to hold Raiden up and take his weight as their orgasms crept closer.