by KC Burn
Humiliating himself by telling Stefan—or anyone—what an idiot he’d been, how this awful situation was mostly his fault, wasn’t something he was looking forward to at all.
Shifting again, more forcefully, a waft of air from under the covers hit him, and he wrinkled his nose. Holy fuck, but he stank. Since he was covered in grime and his mouth tasted like he’d been licking Lucifer’s ass, he was going to take advantage of Stefan’s invitation to shower before he showed his face. Having a few more minutes to gather the remnants of his courage wouldn’t go to waste either.
With a groan, he levered himself to a sitting position. If his doctor was to be believed, one day soon he’d feel like his old self. He snorted. He already felt old; he wanted to feel like his young twenty-four-year-old self again. Or at least he wanted to feel as young as a twenty-four-year-old should. He couldn’t imagine that almost hitting the quarter-century mark meant feeling like death every day.
The unopened bottle of water on the bedside table and pile of folded clothes and towels on a chair by the closet indicated Stefan had come back into the room sometime after Dallas had passed out. The relief of having a place to stay—however briefly—that wasn’t his car let him sleep more deeply than he had in a long time.
The pain in his temples pulsed, and he grabbed the water, gulping it down in a couple of swallows. He had some painkillers in his car, but he hoped this was simple dehydration rather than the precursor of another tension headache. If water and a shower provided no relief, he’d grab his new meds. He couldn’t exactly afford to take them heedlessly. As he stumbled over to the chair, he wondered what had happened to the suit he’d worn before he went to bed.
Clutching the clothes and towels to his chest, he went in search of the bathroom, uncaring that he was wandering around his brother’s house in his boxer briefs.
An hour later he was clean, had shaved, and was mostly refreshed. If the water washed away more tears along with all the grime, there weren’t any witnesses. On weakened, trembling limbs he made his way downstairs. Hunger gnawed at his belly for the first time since he’d left the hospital. He needed to get something to eat before he passed out, which meant braving whomever he could hear rattling around in the kitchen.
Paul stood in front of an opened cupboard, staring at its contents, but he whirled around as soon as Dallas walked into the kitchen.
“Oh good, you’re awake.”
Dallas smiled weakly. The clock on the stove read 6:12, but it was the tropics. Might be Thursday evening or Friday morning. He hadn’t thought to check his phone, but he didn’t remember plugging it in before he passed out, so it was about as useful as a shiny oblong rock.
“How long did I sleep?”
“A long fucking time. Boy, you must have been exhausted.”
Didn’t answer his question, but then again, it wasn’t exactly like he had a job to get to.
Dallas shrugged. He’d been exhausted for the past two years. He didn’t remember what fully rested felt like, but he hoped to find out.
Paul strode over and gripped his chin, peering intently into his eyes. Dallas tried to backpedal, not sure what was going on, but Paul simply smiled and let him go.
“Looks like a solid night’s sleep did wonders, although you still have a ways to go.”
Okay. It was definitely Friday, although morning or night was still in question.
Paul wasn’t done talking. “I’m just amazed you slept through dinner last night. We ordered pizza, and the smell of pizza would rouse me from the dead.”
The mere mention of pizza triggered Dallas’s stomach, and the sound of rumbling rose up between them.
“Sorry.” Dallas’s cheeks heated. He didn’t think his stomach could handle pizza just yet, but it felt like eons since he’d had some.
“Nothing to be sorry for.” Paul’s tone was matter of fact, rather than pitying. “You sit down, and I’ll whip up some eggs.”
Eggs had to mean morning, right? “Oh, you don’t have to do that. I can get my own breakfast.” It might take him forever at his current shuffling pace, but he could do it.
“Honey, you look like a stiff wind would blow you over, and you’re in Florida during hurricane season. Sit down and let me feed you up some. You’ll have plenty of time to fend for yourself this weekend.”
“Fend for myself?” Dallas decided to follow Paul’s direction, as he got the impression it wasn’t optional, ignoring the bit about hurricane season. He had enough to worry about without adding Mother Nature to his list.
“Hey, look who arose from the dead.” Stefan strode into the kitchen and kissed Paul before coming back to the table. He gave Dallas a one-armed hug around the shoulders before sitting down.
“Paul was saying something about fending for myself? I don’t want to be a bother. I can get out of your hair.” He didn’t want to, though, and the thought of getting back in his car again might kill him dead.
Fortunately, Stefan looked at him like he was an idiot. “Don’t be ridiculous. We booked a shoot at a house on the beach this weekend. I’m just glad you woke up before we had to get on the road.”
Dallas blinked, blindsided by the knowledge his brother was going to film attractive men having sex all weekend, while he still had no idea what he was supposed to do or where he should go. “And you’re okay with me staying here?”
Stefan’s cheery smile fell away, leaving him looking stern and surprisingly like their mother. “Dallas, I’m not going to deny that I want to know, exactly, what’s up with you. If only because I’m worried about your health. But you’re my brother and, as far as I’m concerned, the only blood relation I’ve got left. Stay here as long as you need. Let me help you out.”
Dallas’s eyes burned at the unreserved offer. Stefan had said something similar when he’d arrived, but it had sounded so perfect, Dallas had almost convinced himself he’d dreamed it.
“Thank you.” His voice crackled as he tried to speak through tightened vocal cords. While he was trying to think of something else to say, Paul slipped a plate in front of him. Fluffy scrambled eggs with perfectly browned toast looked like they’d been prepared by a professional chef.
“I can make up some bacon or sausages, if you’d like, but I thought quick might be better than trying to get a full breakfast together while you’re probably starving.”
Dallas could hardly believe Stefan’s boyfriend had cooked him breakfast and was waiting to see if he should cook even more food. “No, thank you. This should be perfect.” Bacon and sausage weren’t on his eating plan yet, either, but eggs and toast were ideal.
“Orange juice? Coffee?”
For just a moment, the idea of coffee made his stomach flip. “Water will be fine.”
Paul grabbed a bottle from the fridge while Dallas started eating gingerly. “It’s delicious. Thank you.”
The compliment earned him a warm smile. Paul was probably as much older than Stefan as Stefan was older than Dallas, maybe about the same age as Hugh, but aside from age, there were no obvious similarities between Dallas’s one and only boyfriend and Stefan’s.
“I’m afraid we pretty much cleaned out the fridge, but there are plenty of canned goods in the cupboards, and a bunch of stuff in the pantry and freezer as well. We’ll do a big grocery shop when we get back, and we can find out what kind of food will work for all three of us.” As he spoke, Paul gestured at the relevant parts of the kitchen—almost as large as the one in Dallas’s parents’ home.
Dallas sighed. Grocery shopping with his dietary restrictions wasn’t going to be difficult. Simple, wholesome, and easy to digest. Even some of the things his doctor told him he could eat again turned his stomach now.
“Do you have a computer or phone or anything?” Stefan asked. Sad that he should have to; most times it would be a given. Dallas hadn’t gotten himself into such dire straits that he’d had to give those up, but if he didn’t find work soon, he’d have to pare down his phone service even more. The laptop was esse
ntial for his work—if he got to the point where he had to sell it, all those years of college, fighting his father over his choice of major, would have been a complete and utter fucking waste.
“I have both. My laptop’s in the car.”
Stefan nodded and slid a piece of paper to him. “This is the Wi-Fi password and network name. And don’t worry about unpacking your car.”
Those words had Dallas’s shoulders drooping. Why would there be any reason to unpack? He wasn’t going to be here long enough to bother.
“Dallas. For fuck’s sake.” Stefan’s irritated tone brought Dallas’s head up, and made Paul frown.
“What?”
“Listen to me. You can stay here. As long as you need. Don’t read any hidden meaning into my words. I know that dealing with Walter and Mom has probably trained you to think that no one says what they mean, but I waded through a lot of shit to make sure I wasn’t under their influence. I’m not like them and I never will be. I don’t want you to unpack the car because I don’t want you to overexert yourself this weekend when we’re not here to help you.”
Shit. Dallas must look even worse than he thought, if Stefan was worried the stuff in his car might kill him.
“Okay. Sure.”
Stefan lifted an eyebrow. “You better not be lying to me. Paul and I will help you unload the car when we get back. If you’re worried about keeping it all safe, you can pull the car into the garage. We should be back sometime Tuesday.”
“Thank you.” Dallas had a feeling those words were going to get huge workout over the next little while. “I’ll get started on the job hunt right away. So I can at least pay you some rent, or contribute to expenses.”
A glare the likes of which Dallas hadn’t seen in over a decade graced his older brother’s face. “No. You will not. You will sleep, eat, and relax. Sit out by the pool, maybe. There is no rush, I promise. And besides, I might have a few ideas about that. We can talk when we get back.”
“Really?” Dallas bit his lip. “I guess it’s just as well. I’m not supposed to work full-time yet, and it’s not easy to get part-time jobs in my field.”
Stefan’s eyes widened. “As in, medically not supposed to work full-time?”
Dallas nodded.
“Then I better not see you having done one thing to exert yourself when I get back.”
They’d had a weird relationship when they’d both been living with their parents. Dallas had idolized his older brother, but with almost eight years between them, they’d had little in common. Dallas had, by virtue of being a kid, ended up annoying his brother more often than not. And he’d been frequently left in Stefan’s care in lieu of having an actual babysitter when his parents went out. This situation reminded him of those times, and he experienced a minor brat resurgence.
Dallas stuck out his tongue. “Or else what? You gonna ground me?” He made sure his tone was teasing, though, because he was grateful down to his toes that Stefan was even more gracious and helpful than Dallas could have imagined.
Stefan just smirked. “Oh, I’ll think of something suitably awful as a punishment. Dall-ass.”
The emphasis of the last syllable of his name was one of Stefan’s few available avenues of revenge when they’d been younger, since Stefan got in shit for things Dallas did all the time. Such was the disparity of affection Dallas’s father had doled out, a disparity Dallas hadn’t even quite been aware of until he’d grown and was able to examine his childhood with more objective eyes.
“Okay, okay. Don’t start calling me that again!”
Dallas glanced over at Paul, who had his lips pressed together against a laugh while he stared at the ceiling. Dallas allowed himself a little smile. Things had taken a definite turn away from bleak, and it was going to take a while to adjust. Waking up every day filled with dread and worry had become a habit he needed to break, and staying with his brother might give him the chance to do that.
Chapter TWO
WILL DAWSON scrubbed a hand over his face. He was beat, and it was only Wednesday. A derisive snort escaped him. Now that he was working just about every day including weekends, and often long into the night, the actual day of the week had almost ceased to matter.
Kyle looked up from his computer. “What’s up, boss?”
Will gritted his teeth. He’d forgotten he wasn’t alone anymore. Having an intern should have been a relief, but he couldn’t stop himself from wondering if Kyle planned to try and steal his job.
“Oh. Nothing. Just a stray thought. How are you doing on those password resets?”
“All done. Did you want me to work on that security patch?”
“No, no. It’ll have to be done overnight, and the server rebooted. I’ll schedule it and monitor it from home.” Maybe. He’d been spending more hours in the server room at Idyll Fling studios than ever before. But that didn’t mean he was letting Kyle have enough access to apply security patches.
“What else did you want me to do?”
“Why don’t you just go for lunch? It’s early, but I’ll have something else for you when you get back.”
The real answer was nothing. Will wanted him to do nothing at all, but he already had time-management issues. By rights, he should have a minimum of one other full-time system administrator and a database administrator, but realistically more like three or four or five additional team members. The owner of the studio, Stefan, asked repeatedly if he needed more headcount—which, given that he worked for a porn studio, always made him giggle a bit—but aside from Kyle, the part-time intern, Will had always declined.
Idyll Fling grew bigger every year, and the strain on the servers, never mind just keeping up with the various attempted security breaches, got worse and worse. Asking for more staff would bring more people into his little fiefdom, and he wasn’t sure he could bear it. Not after the fiasco of his last job. Idyll Fling had been a refuge, and sacrificing sleep to make sure no one else got their grubby mitts on his servers was a price he was willing to pay.
Of course, if something catastrophic happened, he’d be screwed six ways over, but his mom always told him not to borrow trouble. Which was good advice, since more than his fair share of trouble seemed to find him.
Kyle scampered out of the server room, the door closing behind him with a bang. Two years ago when Stefan had reached out through a professional networking site and offered him what seemed like a dream job, and not only because he’d had to move back in with his parents, Will decided to set up an office in the server room, partly for convenience, partly because he liked having the privacy, but mostly because it was cold in there, a welcome escape from the oppressive Florida heat. When he’d agreed to take on an intern, he’d had to jury-rig another workstation, but if he hired more people? It would involve renovations and setting up a proper office space. Seemed like a lot of trouble for no good reason.
Alone again, Will sighed. No matter how much he tried to recalibrate his thinking, Kyle was an intruder, and Will could only relax when he was gone.
Nevertheless, he’d have to find Kyle something to do. It made even less sense for Stefan to pay Kyle to be a doorstop, and not even a particularly interesting one at that. They got a lot of e-mails related to tech issues, usually requiring password resets or updating browsers. But Kyle was working toward a degree in software engineering, and this job didn’t even take up three full days, nor was it challenging for Kyle in any way. But better him than Will. That’s what interns were for, right?
Will sank into his chair and spun around. He had a shitload of work to do, and that wasn’t even taking into account his second job. Hobby? Because for sure it was more fun than work, but the added responsibilities were weighty nonetheless. But the peace and quiet that came from being alone? That deserved a few moments to just sit back and enjoy.
Like his thoughts had conjured up a demon, a knock sounded at the door, and Will scowled. Fucking figured, the second he had a minute alone, someone had to come along and bug him. Personal visit
s usually meant someone fucked something up, which was never good news.
He launched himself out of the chair and whipped the door open. “What?”
His best friend, Raven, stood on the other side, one eyebrow raised. “Really? That’s how you greet people now?”
Will snorted. “That’s how I always greet people, and you know it.”
Raven tilted his head to the side. “Yeah, I know. Can I come in? Or are you able to take off the shackles and go out for lunch?”
He thought about it for a minute. He’d rather stay in, but he didn’t want to curtail any conversation with Raven when Kyle returned. Will was probably just as jealous of his friendship with Raven as he was about his servers. “Let me send a quick message to Stefan, and grab my phone. Got any place in mind?” Will had to ask.
Idyll Fling had converted a large industrial space to make sets and changing rooms and bathing facilities as well as a few offices, but it was surrounded by a big swath of jack shit. The bordering land usually had cows grazing, for fuck’s sake. Raven was an Orlando native, and he’d assured him more than once that it was normal. Zoning or taxes or something, but as a transplant from Connecticut, it was still weird. Regardless of how strange it was, “going out for lunch” meant driving at least a few miles away.
“Feel like Chinese?”
Will shuddered. “Hell no. I can’t believe Chinese food would taste so different down here, but no. Thai, maybe? Or Indian?”
Raven laughed. “I’ll have to take a trip to your hometown and check out the Chinese food. Why do you suppose it’s only Chinese that’s so different?”