by Luna, David
“Here, let me pull it out so you don’t have to struggle to get under it, and I’ll put a pillow on the floor and behind you.” He helped Asher down on the pillows. “How’s that?”
The boy glanced up at him and smiled. “Good.”
He arranged all the coloring things in front of Asher. “I’m going to go get started dumping everything out, okay?” The solemn look on Asher’s face tore at him. “I want you here with me. It’s as simple as that. Most of the stuff I’m getting rid of I’ve had for years. I won’t miss it.”
When Asher’s shoulders relaxed, he reached to clasp him under the chin and tilt his head up, kissing those sweet lips. He headed into the kitchen, and when he opened his liquor cabinet over the fridge, he realized he had a lot more than he’d thought he did. His house was a good party house, so he’d thrown parties often enough he’d wanted to be fully stocked. Shaking his head at the absurdity of the quantities he’d collected over the years, he dove into his task.
He started with the bottles that were less than halfway full. Pulling them down, he shut the cabinet after he was done, not wanting Asher to come in and see how much was there. He dumped those without thought and put the bottles in the recycle bin drawer. Next came the ones that were opened but not even halfway empty. He was in the middle of pouring out a large bottle of bourbon when Asher walked in, a small smile on his face. “Can I have someth—”
Asher’s eyes popped wide at the three large bottles he had out, one of which he was holding above the sink, pouring. The boy’s face got ashen, and then he was covering his nose and mouth and running.
Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck.
He set the neck of the bottle into the sink drain and ran after the sounds of retching he heard coming from the bathroom down the hall. Jesus. He hadn’t expected such a visceral reaction. He should have been dumping them in the laundry room sink, farther away from his boy.
“Baby, I’m so sorry.” He leaned over Asher, rubbing his back, a slow up and down motion meant to soothe. “I didn’t know you’d react that way to seeing it or smelling it.”
Asher took deep breaths, and Thornton cringed, knowing those breaths and all that heaving had to be killing his ribs. His heart was breaking, and he felt like the biggest failure. Once the vomiting stopped, Asher just leaned his head on his forearm on the seat of the toilet, trying to slow his breathing. He knelt, Asher’s small body between his knees.
Leaning forward, he flushed the toilet and pulled Asher back against his chest. “I’m sorry. I know how awful it feels to be sick, but to be sick when your ribs are fractured…” He let out a sigh. “I can’t even imagine.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“I should have known.”
Asher shook his head against Thornton’s chest and turned his head sideways to look up at him. “I didn’t even know, Thorn.”
He loved hearing the shortened version of his name coming from Asher’s lips. “I still feel awful I didn’t think about it.”
He stood and pulled Asher up with him. He grabbed Asher one of the little paper cups he kept in the dispenser by the sink and filled it with water. As Asher swished his mouth out, he reached into the cabinet above the toilet and pulled out a small bottle of—thank sweet fuck, alcohol-free—mouthwash, meeting Asher’s eyes in the mirror. The boy handed the empty cup back to him, and he poured a generous amount inside, handing it back.
He stayed with Asher, his hands on the boy’s sides, rubbing up and down in a gentle caress, lending his support the only way he knew how at that moment. When Asher was done, he crumpled the little cup in his hand and tossed it in the trash beside the toilet.
They walked back to the family room, and he sat down beside Asher, who was fidgeting with his fingers in his lap. “That was my mom’s favorite. That drink, whatever it was. It’s the same bottle, same color liquid, and smelled the same.”
God, would he ever know the depths of shit this boy had needed to crawl his way out of? “I’m sorry. What made you come in the kitchen?”
“I was going to ask for a snack and a drink.”
“Do you want food right now?”
“Ugh, no.”
He smiled at the sound of Asher’s disgust. “How about some ginger ale?”
Asher nodded. “Yeah. That sounds good.”
“Let me go grab it for you. Do you think you can settle down to color for a bit, or are you too upset?”
“I think I’m okay.”
An idea brewing in his head, he stood to grab the boy some soda with a straw. He very nearly put it in a kid’s cup with a lid and straw but caught himself just in time, knowing Asher wasn’t quite ready for that. He’d had enough thrown at him for the day. “Here you go. I’m gonna finish up with this. If you need something, call me in here so you don’t have to see any of it.”
“Thank you.”
He gave Asher a reassuring smile. “You’re welcome, sweetheart. Do you want to watch a movie? I’ve got all the regular channels, movie channels, Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, and Disney Plus.”
Asher bit his lip as if thinking whether or not he should do what he really wanted to do. Those shy eyes met his, though, and he asked, “How do I watch Disney Plus?”
God, those pretty eyes, so earnest, would be the death of him. He was thrilled Asher felt comfortable asking to watch Disney Plus. He dealt with switching the TV over to the Fire Stick and loaded Disney Plus. He thought maybe the shy look meant Asher was embarrassed by what he wanted to watch, but when he was nearly vibrating with energy, toggling to episode one of The Mandalorian, Thornton grinned and then chuckled when the boy clapped his hands in excitement.
God, he was the perfect little already. Not wanting to get ahead of himself, he crouched down. “I’m on episode three myself, so when you get there, we can start watching together. I’m going to make a phone call, okay?”
Asher nodded absently, and he headed into the kitchen, knowing a better way to handle the alcohol problem. It was going on seven o’clock, and he was getting hungry. He hoped Asher would be feeling well enough to eat in just a little bit, but in the meantime, he had to make a call.
“Thornton, you better not be calling to cancel tomorrow.”
Shit. “Well, I wasn’t, but yeah, I guess I’m doing that too.”
“Aw, come on, man!”
“It’ll make sense later, but listen, I need a favor. Are either one of you free right now?”
Damon had obviously heard the seriousness of his tone. “Uh, yeah. We both are because we’re getting ready to come over. You wanted Syed to check your boy over, remember? We were gonna fix a quick dinner and then head over, but we can bring something to eat or eat when we get home if you need us to come right away.”
“Jesus, I forgot about that. It’s been… quite a day. Why don’t you come over and eat chili with us? There’s plenty here. And I’d like you to pick up a couple of boxes of booze.”
The snort on the other line had Thornton rolling his eyes. “You think we need booze? Have you been to one of our parties?”
“Listen, brat, I’m being serious. For reasons I can’t really go into right now, I can’t have any alcohol in my house.”
Several long moments tick by. “Uh, that’s weird, Thorn. But—”
He heard muffled voices and knew Syed was probably asking what was going on. “Thorn, everything all right? We were gonna head over there soon, but do you need us to come right away?”
He sighed. “Hey, Syed. I told Damon you guys can come over and eat chili with us. Least I can do for you stopping by to check on Asher. And I think everything’s gonna be fine, but I just learned Asher can’t be around alcohol. I opened a beer earlier, never drank it, but he saw it, and it’s some sort of trigger for him. He was packing his shit to go home when I went to look for him.”
“Packing to leave because you had a beer out?”
“Yeah, it was bad. I gotta get it outta here. I can’t dump it all in the drain because the smell…” Fuck, he shouldn’t
have been telling them this, but they were his closest friends, and he wanted them to understand the seriousness of the situation. “I don’t think it’s enough to put it in the trash in the garage. It might work, but he’s feeling vulnerable right now, and I don’t want to chance it not being enough to make him feel safe here. I just need it gone.”
“We’ll be there in ten minutes.”
“Thank you.”
He went to the garage and dragged out a couple of large plastic totes. Bringing them inside, he began filling them both with bottles of alcohol and the beer from the fridge. He made a mental note to grab the two cases of beer he had in the garage. The doorbell rang, and he walked into the family room, seeing Asher frantically trying to put away his coloring things, his expression panicked. “Hey, hey. It’s only Syed and Damon. I’m a Daddy, remember? They’ve seen my boys playing with their toys, and they’ve been to my playroom. Coloring books aren’t even going to register as anything but normal with them. I promise you.”
Thornton paused the show as Asher gazed at everything on the table—the crayons, pencils, markers, pens. He must have come to the decision he was going to leave it because he stopped trying to put everything away. “Are they coming for dinner?”
“Yeah, I offered to share the chili I made. I forgot I’d asked Syed to come over to check on you since you took that fall last night. And they’re going to take the alcohol. I didn’t want it in the house or the trash in the garage. But I didn’t want to dump it all out in the sink if it’s going to make you sick. This way they can make use of it, so it won’t go to waste, and it’s all out of the house.” He saw his boy get ready to apologize again and cut him off at the pass. “Don’t apologize. I want to do this.”
Asher nodded, picked up a purple pen, and then put it down, folding his hands in his lap. Thornton smiled as he walked towards the foyer. “Watch. Damon’s going to want to stay and color with you.”
Asher looked like he wanted to ask something but decided against it when Thornton moved to open the door. He waved his friends inside. “Hey, guys. Thanks for coming. I’ve got the totes in the kitchen.”
He hugged them both, appreciating they’d drop everything to lend a hand. Damon walked through the foyer into the family room. “Hey, Asher. Oh man, coloring and Mandalorian? Best Friday night ever.”
The grin on Asher’s face went a long way towards reassuring Thornton things were going to be all right. As he watched, Damon pulled the nice, large, leather-bound sketchpad Thornton kept for him out from between a coffee table photo book and Thornton’s iPad. He sat down on the sofa on Asher’s left side, taking off his shoes and reaching for a few of Asher’s colorful pens. “Can I use these?”
Asher, taking it all in with wide-eyed wonder, nodded. “Yeah. Sure.”
Damon brought his legs up onto the cushion to sit criss cross, flipped the sketchpad open to the last page he’d been working on, and started drawing. “Do you wanna play the show?”
He had to hand it to Damon. He’d changed tactics with Asher, not giving him too much direct attention that might make him uncomfortable. He hadn’t even looked up from his sketch when he’d asked about the show. Asher glanced at Thornton, smiled, and shrugged, pushing play on the remote. As he and Syed walked further into the room, he watched, bemused, while Syed gripped Damon’s thick hair and yanked back his head.
Damon didn’t make a sound, obviously used to being manhandled like that, and closed his eyes as Syed kissed him quite thoroughly, before whispering in Damon’s ear, causing him to shiver, bite his lip, and say, “Thank you, Sir.”
That got Asher’s attention, and he turned to see Syed letting go of Damon’s hair and smoothing it out, blushing when Syed kissed his boy again and then turned a wink on Asher. Thornton chuckled and waved Syed towards the kitchen. “I think your boy is fully ensconced on my sofa for a while. Thank you for coming by to help. I’ve got chili keeping warm in the crockpot.”
“I’ll never turn your mama’s chili down.”
They carried both heavy totes through the garage so Asher wouldn’t be upset. They loaded them in Syed’s SUV and then grabbed the cases of beer and did the same. Back inside, Thornton leaned into the family room. “You boys want some chili?”
They both turned towards him, smiles on their faces, and nodded. “You boys wanna keep watching and drawing while you eat?”
When they both gave him more smiles and nods, he chuckled and asked what they wanted to drink. Back in the kitchen, he got everything ready for the boys and took it in; coming back, he filled two bowls and brought the remaining cornbread muffins to the table. Sitting down with Syed, they ate and chatted while their boys enjoyed their show, drawing, and dinner.
After they ate, Syed grabbed his stethoscope from the car, and Asher sat on the barstool in the kitchen waiting, tension obvious in the set of his shoulders. Syed walked back in, a smile on his face. “Asher, I’m sure you have your own family doctor, so you can set up an appointment with them for your follow-up, but Thorn told me about your fall last night and would like me to check you over. Is that all right with you?”
Asher glanced at Thornton and then back to Syed. “Yes. It’s fine.”
“Okay, I’m going to listen to your lungs, check your breath sounds, and make sure there aren’t any breathing issues. Then I’m going to palpate your ribs to make sure there are no further issues as a result of the fall.”
“It’s gonna hurt, though, right?”
Syed nodded, his smile sad. “I’m afraid it won’t be comfortable. I’ll be asking you to take deep breaths, which is going to hurt, and then I’ll be putting pressure on your ribs to check them. I’ll do my very best to do it all as quickly and as gently as possible.”
“Okay.” Asher nodded, his shoulders sagging, and Thornton’s heart broke for him. He wished like hell they could avoid this altogether, but he needed to make sure Asher hadn’t hurt himself even more.
Syed donned his stethoscope and asked Asher to take deep breaths as he listened. “Good job, Asher. I know it’s uncomfortable. I’m going to have you lie down on the sofa, so I can palpate your ribs.”
They headed to the family room. Damon moved over to the chair next to the sofa and ignored the goings-on as he continued to draw, which most likely helped Asher not feel like a bug under a microscope. Thornton sat on the coffee table and held Asher’s hand during the exam, the boy’s grip stronger than he thought possible for a boy his size. He made a few small noises of discomfort, but when a tear slid out of his eye, Thornton knew he’d been holding his reactions back.
Finally, it was over, and when Syed apologized for any discomfort he’d caused, Asher merely nodded and sat in the corner of the couch clutching his ribs. “I don’t think you did any further damage, Asher. Your ribs will continue to ache for a while tonight. Take your next dose of pain meds as soon as you’re able. Your lungs are clear, no punctures, and your breathing is fine. Did the hospital give you instructions about deep breathing several times a day to avoid getting an infection in your lungs?” When Asher answered that they had, Syed continued, “Good. Make sure to follow those instructions. We don’t want you to catch pneumonia.”
Asher nodded. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, Asher. We’re going to get going. It was good to see you again.”
“You too.” Asher smiled, kindness radiating from the boy even as exhaustion weighed him down. Thornton watched, a warm feeling in his chest as Syed shook Asher’s hand and rubbed the boy’s shoulder as he said goodbye. Damon, always more exuberant and demonstrative, leaned down and gently hugged Asher.
“I’m gonna walk them out, sweetheart. I’ll be right back.”
Asher nodded and sat back on the sofa to wait for him, looking through Damon’s drawings in the sketchbook after having shyly asked permission. He walked his friends out to their car and hugged them both. Damon hugged him longer than normal, and, when he pulled away, said, “He needs you, Thorn. He’s a little, and he doesn’t even kn
ow it. He’ll be good for you.”
He appreciated those words, especially coming from Damon, as he was often a bratty sub that didn’t take too many things seriously. “I think we’ll be good for each other, if we can work things out.”
Chapter Thirteen
Asher
Stretched out, trying to get to sleep, his mind was moving a mile a minute. He’d had a good ending to a long, rough day. But the day hadn’t all been bad. He’d cuddled with Thornton, shared some of his past with him, which felt like he’d unloaded a heavy burden, he’d learned about what type of relationship Thornton desired, and he’d had the best bath of his life.
He smiled to himself, remembering he’d had fun talking to Damon. The man was seriously talented with a pen and paper and not too shabby on the eyes. He was enormous and so muscular, but the most striking thing about him was his dark facial hair coupled with his dyed gray hair with light purple undertones, which was a moppy mess on the top of his head. His facial features were angular, his gray eyes piercing.
In contrast, Syed had dark tanned skin and wavy, thick, dark brown hair, his skin shaved smooth, and his eyes a deep, warm brown. He was probably at least six feet tall but had a runner’s build. They were a striking couple, to be sure. Syed was definitely the more dominant of the two, while Damon seemed pretty laid back. He felt comfortable around both of them, which was so rare for him.
But the reason both Syed and Damon had been there in the first place was the worst part of his day. He’d been so humiliated by his own actions before Thornton’s friends had arrived. The way he’d treated Thornton was awful. Guilt was plaguing him.
But instead of being upset or resentful, Thornton calmly found a solution so Asher could stay with him. Thinking about it made his heart feel full, it humbled him, and it gave him so much hope. After everything that had happened, he realized how much he’d truly come to trust Thornton. He’d never been cared for like Thornton cared for him.
