by Tia Fielding
After a while longer, Makai got off the couch and went outside. He sat on the stairs and laughed at the sight of Buffy sitting in front of Emil, intently listening to him play.
“How does it feel?” Makai asked when Emil’s song ended.
“Good. I can play if I don’t look at my hands. It’s weird, but the muscle memory is kicking in,” Emil said, smiling a bit sadly.
“You’ll get to a point where your hands don’t bother you so much. Maybe not soon, but eventually.”
Emil’s smile looked more fond and grateful then. “I hope so.”
“Okay, I think these ones are getting tired,” Makai said when Willow came to him, climbed onto his lap, and curled up.
“Yeah, let’s go inside. Did you send the email?” Emil put his guitar inside and came to collect Spike, who wasn’t following Mouse and Makai into the house on his own.
“Yeah, I don’t know. It still feels weird to think about all of it, but from the stuff your dad forwarded, it seems like she wants me to have a say about what people write about me. If I choose to do this, I’d rather have it be about a regular guy with shitty fucking luck who ends up doing a good thing or two, you know. I don’t want it to be some sort of sob story or act like the world was always against me, but even then I became this hero.” He made a disgusted face. “I’ve just tried to be a good person.”
Emil came to him and took his hand, then pulled him toward the bedroom. “Come on, hero mine, let’s go nap.”
ALICE KANE seemed like a great person. She asked if she could come do the interview face-to-face while she was visiting family in Minneapolis in a couple of weeks’ time. Makai said sure, and by the time she made it to Acker, his lung and gunshot wound were healed, although he still had to keep an eye on his body for a while more. His arm was in a lighter cast; they had changed it during a checkup when Makai had complained about it being a bit too much.
He didn’t have to keep the arm in a sling anymore, either, unless it started to ache or he got tired enough that he forgot to watch how he twisted it, just in case. He’d stopped taking painkillers for now, just to remind himself that he really did need to keep an eye on every movement he made.
They met Alice Kane at the diner while they took the photos of the kittens to Leah.
Kane wasn’t there yet, so they chatted with Leah, who cooed over the large framed photos and propped them in the corner of the counter so everyone could see.
“So Joie picked which one?” she asked, looking at the group photo.
“They wanted Xander, the darker orange boy,” Emil said, pointing at the kitten. “His fur will be a bit longer, so they’ll have to brush him and so on.”
“I know Doc would take one, but he works a lot, so he says he’s not at home enough.” Leah sighed, then perked up again. “But they’re all so very cute that I’ve no doubt someone will want them.”
“Yeah, and Doc said that if we don’t find good homes in a reasonable time, he’ll have his sister do some legwork for us, because she’s the cat person and responsible for the kittens being around anyway,” Makai recounted the deal with Doc.
“Oh, right, one of hers wasn’t neutered when it was supposed to be?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Hey, I think that’s her,” Emil said, tugging at Makai’s sleeve.
He turned to look and saw a no-nonsense-looking woman in jeans, button-down shirt, and sensible sneakers walk in. She immediately noticed them—but then there weren’t many others around, and Makai wasn’t easy to miss.
“Hi, I’m Alice Kane, please call me Alice.” She came to them and held out a hand. “Nice to meet you.”
“Makai Stone, this is my partner, Emil Newman.” He shook her hand and waited for Emil to do the same. “This is Leah. She and her husband own the building and all the businesses in it. We can tell her our orders and go find a booth.”
“Okay, that works for me,” Kane said and gave her order of coffee and BLT with avocado, then followed Emil to the corner booth they preferred.
“The usual for Emil, and I’ll have large fries instead of the usual stuff. Make me a blueberry shake and maybe a bit smaller one for Emil, since we’re not sharing?” He added a latte to his list, then walked to his doom.
Except that Alice turned out to be really nice and friendly.
“Oh,” she said when Leah had brought them their late lunches. “Did you see those kittens on the photos?”
Emil threw his head back and laughed. “They’re ours, actually. We just finished putting the photos up before you arrived.”
“Oh wow, well I gotta say, it’s a great idea to do that.” She gestured at the photos and took a bite of her sandwich.
“Mm-hmm, my dad came up with it.”
“That doesn’t happen to be the sheriff?” she asked when her mouth was empty again. “Excellent food by the way.”
“Yeah, it’s his dad,” Makai answered for Emil who was drinking his blueberry shake.
“There’s bound to be a story there too.” She seemed intuitive and curious but didn’t press when neither of them seemed to be into sharing anything about that.
“I grew up in a town about this size in Minnesota. That’s part of why I wanted to talk to you, see if there’s a story here.”
“Oh, so you’re not set on writing an article even though you came all the way here?” Emil asked, surprised.
“No, I don’t think it would serve any of us any good if I tried to make up a story if there isn’t one. I also think that before we get into talking, we could go somewhere more private so I can ask questions about the heavy stuff if I want.” Before Makai or Emil could react, she held up a hand and added, “Which you are completely free to ignore. You just tell me you don’t want to talk about it, or if there’s something you’d rather not have in the article even if you do talk about it with me, then that’s completely fine. I’m not here to exploit you. Any of you.” She looked at Emil, and something in her eyes told them she knew a lot about Emil’s history too.
“Yeah, Emil’s off-limits.” Makai couldn’t have made his voice any more growly if he’d tried to.
Emil snorted. “Down, boy. I can speak for myself. But yeah, I agree. What happened to me has nothing to do with Makai. The only way you can tie it to him is the place and then the fact that we’re in a relationship. That, on the other hand, is off-limits. You can mention he’s in one with someone local, sure, but….”
Makai nodded. “Completely agree.”
“That’s fine. I can work with that,” she said, and they dug into their meals as if they’d agreed that they wouldn’t talk shop in the diner.
Half an hour later, they parked at the cottage. Alice got out of her car and looked around curiously.
“Let me show you the lake,” Emil told her and left Makai to go let the kittens into the pen while he and Alice walked to the edge of the yard.
Makai could hear them talking and felt pretty good about her being there. Well, at least better than he’d thought he’d feel. They’d agreed that if she didn’t seem like the person she’d been in her nice emails and then on the phone, they wouldn’t have asked her to come to the cottage at all. Emil had said that he didn’t want any negative energy at their home, and Makai had very much agreed.
“Oh, this pen is pretty awesome,” Alice said when she and Emil got closer.
The kittens noticed someone new was there and made inquisitive sounds at the source of her voice.
“Yeah, Lotte from across the lake is a friend, and her kid is old enough not to need this anymore. So they gave it to us.” Makai smiled as he sat down on the grass and Mouse came to him to be petted. “This lady is Mouse.”
Alice, who still had her messenger bag slung over her shoulder, chuckled. “Okay, now I gotta come meet these kitties. How do I get in?”
“Can you go over? We can open the end by the door, too, if you’d like.” Emil held a hand out for her to balance her a bit when she stepped over the fence that was almost too high for
her.
Alice cooed over the kittens who were very interested in her and her bag, and they spent a while just chilling out together.
Eventually, Makai sighed. “I think we should get to work.” Anyone could’ve heard the pure resignation in his tone.
“I’m not going to lead you to slaughter,” Alice said in a kind voice. “We’ll talk about stuff and I’ll record you if you’re not against it, that way nobody can twist your words. Then I’ll write the article and send it to you to read. It will never go live if you don’t approve it. I’ll make sure my editor in chief understands that, I promise.”
She sounded so sincere that Makai relaxed a little. “Okay, then let’s talk?”
THEY ENDED up chatting nearly three hours total before Emil told them to come get coffee and snacks from the kitchen.
They’d talked and walked around the property, and Makai had shown Alice where the boat shed had been, his work shed, and even the dock. For the final hour they’d sat on the couch with the kittens asleep between them—or in Buffy’s case, on Makai’s lap.
“Do you have people in your past that you miss?” Alice asked when they settled back on the couch with their coffees.
“Yeah. The cell mate I mentioned, K. He felt more like a brother than my own actual brother ever did.” He drank from his mug and added, “The latter part you can leave out. I still don’t want to hurt my family, estranged or whatever it is we are.”
“I won’t publish it, but you call him K, what’s his actual name?”
“Kaos.” He spelled the name out for her. “And no, it’s not his actual name either, but it was his tag when he did graffiti as a kid. He’s a pretty good artist, wanted to do tattoos.”
“Okay, just in case someone contacts me and claims he’s ‘K.’ I can check them out.”
“Does that happen a lot?” Emil frowned from the armchair where he sat with his mug and Mouse curled up on his lap.
“More than you’d think, probably. Random people come and say they’re actually the person mentioned somewhere, and if I would be interested in hearing something from their point of view, or even claim they have the right to have the whole thing pulled because they aren’t represented fairly. Half of the time it’s not even the person in the story, just a wannabe troublemaker or a troll.” She looked mildly disgusted at the thought, and Makai could understand.
“But, yeah, even though I had other people in prison that became friends, Kaos is the only one I wouldn’t mind getting in touch with.”
“Why haven’t you?” Alice asked.
“I don’t know… I mean, it was me who told him that he shouldn’t contact me once he got out. He did send me a few letters, but I stopped responding. He had his life ahead of him, and I was looking at twenty years, you know.”
“And this is why you’re an idiot, Makai Stone,” Emil said in a fond tone. “But you’re my idiot, so….”
Alice chuckled and changed the subject to something else.
THAT EVENING, after Alice left with a promise to stay in touch, and they’d had a dinner and a walk, Makai saw something different in Emil’s expression.
By the time they were getting ready to shower and go to bed, it was obvious that Emil had something on his mind. Makai didn’t have time to ask about it, because Emil was going to grab the first shower.
Except he stopped in the doorway of the bathroom and turned to look at Makai, who was lounging on the bed.
“Do you want to come with me?” he asked, looking hesitant but hopeful.
“What?” Makai knew he looked surprised.
Emil seemed to steel himself for a few beats. “Do you want to come shower with me?”
Makai didn’t ask if Emil was sure. It had taken them time to get to this point, and even now it hadn’t really been that long. “Okay,” he said and smiled. “Can you help me get the shirt off?”
Emil came to him, then helped him out of his T-shirt. Together, they wrapped his cast and secured it with some tape, and then Emil promptly turned on the shower, took off his own clothes, and stepped into the cubicle.
Makai had seen Emil naked before, sort of. While he was fresh out of the shower and changing his clothing, a few times Makai had been present. But not like this. Not with clear permission to look.
Emil was skinny, but not skin and bones. His curls turned dark as soon as they got wet, and when Emil ran his fingers through his hair to get the water and hair off his face, Makai realized that he was gaping, not taking his sweats and underwear off and joining.
He snapped his mouth shut and undressed, then got into the shower. They could just fit, but because Makai’s shower chair he’d had for after the hospital was still there, Makai decided to take their height difference out of the equation by sitting down.
Emil shot him a shy smile when he turned around. “Remember your cast,” he said, when Makai forgot about it and almost let water sluice down his bicep.
“Oops. I guess I’m just liking what I see,” he said honestly, because this kind of thing would never work between them without honesty.
Emil blushed, then ducked out of the way of the water. “Wet your hair. I’ll wash it for you.”
Having Emil do just that was oddly sensual, and Makai couldn’t help but to moan at the pleasure of Emil tugging at his hair a bit. He got hard but ignored it. What he couldn’t ignore, though, was Emil’s erection that got harder and harder with every passing moment.
“You want me to do something about that?” he asked, not needing to specify what he meant.
Emil’s fingers stopped; then he swallowed audibly and nodded.
“I need words, Emil.”
“Yes, please.”
“Okay, then. Just… maybe take your fingers away from my head,” Makai said gently. He wasn’t sure which of them he was trying not to spook. He let his bad arm rest on the armrest of the shower chair and used his other hand to pull Emil closer by his waist. “Just say stop or no and I will stop immediately, okay?”
The answer came out breathy, “Yeah.”
Makai leaned closer, grateful of the way Emil had turned his body so that the water didn’t hit Makai. He watched as Emil’s abs contracted, making his cock bob.
“I don’t know how even this bit of you is so fucking pretty,” Makai blurted out, then hid his weird embarrassment by kissing the tip of Emil’s cock. He tasted sweet and salty, and nothing about it was familiar at all. It was such a fucking relief, Makai didn’t hesitate to slide his lips over the pretty cock.
Emil made a wounded sound, and the way he made fists in lieu of touching Makai was pretty damn sweet and even hot on some level. Makai hummed at the feeling of the weight of the dick in his mouth. It was good, all of this was good.
Emil started to pant and, to Makai’s surprise, babble a little. “F-fuck, right there. Yeah, I… oh my God this is going to b-be over so soon.” It was obvious he could barely keep his hips from thrusting, but Makai felt the pressure of the aborted movement against his hand where he still held on to Emil.
He slurped up and slid down with ever-changing tempo. And, yes, it was over soon. The first burst of come made Makai pull away and bite Emil’s hip bone instead. It seemed to spur Emil on, and he whined loudly, unable to keep himself from grabbing Makai’s shoulders.
“Oh fuuuuuck,” Emil groaned, his knees shaking as he finished coming—partially in Makai’s hair. When he opened his eyes and noticed the come against the jet-black, he burst out in laughter that was just a little bit hysterical.
As Makai waited for him to clean up his mess, his own erection twitched at the gentle yet firm touch Emil used once more. “Never knew I had a kink about someone playing with my hair,” he said quietly.
Emil smiled, then winced. “The water is starting to get cooler.”
“Okay, you wash yourself and we’ll be done,” Makai said and got up, then did a quick scrub of himself and got out of Emil’s way so he could wash his hair.
He was taking off the plastic bag around his arm
when Emil came out of the shower. When Makai touched his shoulder, it was cold and he frowned. “Get dry and get under the covers. Summer colds are a pain in the ass.”
“What about you?” Emil glanced at his now half-hard cock. There was something like fascination in his gaze, and Makai realized that there couldn’t have been many cocks Emil had seen before either.
“If you still want to when you’re in bed, we’ll figure it out. Now dry yourself before you freeze.”
Emil rolled eyes at him but did as he was told, mostly because his teeth were starting to chatter. “I swear, we need a bigger water heater if we want to do sexy stuff in the shower ever again,” he managed to say before bolting into the bedroom.
Makai dried himself as much as he could with mostly one hand, then took a dry towel from the cabinet and rubbed it against his hair until it started to feel dryer. He walked into the bedroom, holding the towel to his hair, still rubbing, and heard a gasp.
He moved the towel out of the way, and saw Emil sitting in bed, staring at him.
“What?”
“Enjoying the view,” Emil said, grinning. “Can I try to help you out?”
Makai’s cock perked up at the thought, and he got into bed and lay back against the pillows.
“Okay, I’ve held one other cock that isn’t mine, and let’s just say we were sixteen,” Emil started, grinning. “It was in the locker room at school, and there was no time to take a look, so….”
“Be my guest.” Makai relaxed further. Well, most of him did. When Emil began to examine him like he wanted to learn every bit of him, it felt oddly touching, no pun intended.
Emil leaned closer and kissed his bare stomach first, making his abs jump. Then he moved downward and nuzzled Makai’s cock carefully.
“I like how you smell here,” he murmured, then almost hesitantly moved his hand to Makai’s inner thigh, near his balls.
Makai realized Emil was stopping for himself. Giving himself time to do something with his hands. Hesitantly, in an almost tickly way, Emil stroked the skin of his groin, figuring out the different textures on different parts, from the juncture of Makai’s thigh to his balls and then his cock and cockhead.