Ten

by Tia Fielding

  As soon as he stepped over it, though, the kitten closest to the bedroom ran to him on unsteady feet and meowed loudly.

  “Hey, buddy,” Emil cooed at the darker orange boy. “How’s it going?”

  He would’ve scooped the kitten up, but the meow brought the tortoiseshell kitten, a girl, running.

  “We need to give them placeholder names, Makai,” Emil called to the kitchen where he could hear Makai puttering around.

  “Any thoughts?” Makai asked; then Emil could hear him grumbling at a kitten to stop trying to trip him.

  “Not really, no.”

  “How about we both name two?” Makai peered around the little corner, the only stretch of wall the kitchen had that the previous owners had left standing for whatever reason.

  “Works for me.” Emil dodged the kittens as he went past Makai into the kitchen. “I’ll start the sal—oh.” Makai had made half of the prep already.

  “You do the rest, I’ll go shower,” Makai said, and without thinking, leaned in to kiss Emil’s temple.

  They both froze. And then relaxed, chuckled awkwardly, and Makai went to shower.

  The casual way Makai had touched him was nice. Easy. Safe. Despite the conditioned way they both had tensed, nothing in Emil’s body or psyche had actually gotten alarmed. It had felt… natural.

  He was taking the seeds out of some tomatoes—because who wants those in their salad—when tiny pinpricks started to travel up his leg.

  “Oh, ouch, Mouse! Your kid is misbehaving!” he called out and carefully extracted the gray kitten from his pants leg. “No, little girl. You’re going to make someone chop their finger off one day,” he told her and carefully went to place her on the couch where her siblings were wrestling.

  Then he finished making the salad and went to sit with the kittens. The shower turned off in the bathroom, and soon Makai walked in, looking much less sweaty and painty.

  “Do you mind checking my hair now?” Emil asked, and Makai turned around to go get a comb from the bathroom.

  “Sit on the floor?” Makai sat on the couch, mindful of the kittens, and let his thighs fall open.

  He was making as much room for Emil as possible. Smiling, Emil plopped down between Makai’s legs and turned his back to him.

  “So I had some there, but no idea elsewhere. Also, if you don’t have to, don’t comb through the curls, otherwise it goes all fizzy,” Emil advised.

  “Okay. Tell me if I’m pulling or you need a break?” Makai started to go through his hair with such gentleness and patience, Emil wanted to purr like Mouse was doing on the armchair by the fireplace.

  He must’ve sighed, because Makai chuckled.

  “What?”

  “You like this.”

  “Well, obviously. I haven’t had anyone play with my hair in a very long time,” Emil said, realizing it sounded wistful.

  “Can I?” Makai asked quietly, tugging gently at a curl.

  Emil nodded. Then he groaned when Makai slid his fingers into his hair and pulled them out, finger-combing his curls. He could feel the warmth of Makai’s skin in contrast to the way the cool air of the room penetrated his thick hair and caressed his scalp as it dried.

  He tilted his head this way and that and made a helpless little sound when Makai started to give him an impromptu scalp massage. It just felt so damn good being touched like this.

  It wasn’t even sexual, at least not right then. It could’ve been, he knew that, but the way Makai was still giving him space to retreat if he needed to made it less erotic and more… nourishment to his touch-starved state, he guessed.

  “I gotta do this to you later,” Emil said drowsily.

  Makai chuckled. “I won’t say no to that.”

  “Mom’s gonna be here soon,” he murmured. “She said she’ll take allergy meds so she can come see the beasties.”

  “It’s a shame she’s allergic.”

  Emil hummed in agreement. Then Mouse perked up in the chair, and soon after they heard the car.

  Makai got up and lifted the two awake kittens into Emil’s lap. “Hold on to those while I let Nora in.”

  Emil felt happy and grateful about having Makai and his mom get on so well. They were almost like old pals now. Then again, she wasn’t much more than a decade older than him, so it wasn’t a stretch that they might be friendly.

  “Hiya,” Mom said as Makai let her in. “Here, you take these.” She thrust the food containers into Makai’s hands and cooed. “Where are my babies?”

  “I’m here, Mom,” Emil deadpanned, and she gave him the stink eye but giggled nonetheless. Makai, on the other hand, laughed as she took the dishes into the kitchen.

  “Do you want me to plate up, Emil?”

  “Yeah, sure. Thanks!” Emil put the kittens on the couch next to where Mom had sat down and caught the look she was giving him. “What?”

  “You seem happy,” she stated. If her eyes glimmered, neither mentioned it.

  Emil knew she didn’t just mean his expression or body language. She meant he was letting someone else handle his food, and he had obviously showered and in general was at ease in Makai’s little house.

  THAT EVENING, after Mom had gotten her kitten fix and left, and Emil and Makai had had dinner, they settled on the couch together. Since the kittens could climb onto the couch now and neither of them wanted to take them into the bedroom, they had to improvise. Or maybe that was just something Emil was telling himself and was pretty sure Makai told himself too.

  They ended up at one end of the couch, Makai leaning on the armrest, and Emil next to him with kittens climbing all over them. Mouse had moved onto the couch, so she took all the available space.

  “What should we watch?” Emil smiled at the gray kitten who sat on the back of the couch and batted his hair with a tiny paw.

  “Can we do more stand-up?” Makai grabbed the remote control and his iPhone and smoothly turned the TV and the Chromecast attached to it on, and then started Netflix from his phone so that it showed up on the TV screen.

  Emil couldn’t hold in a little snort.

  “What?” Makai looked at him, baffled.

  “Nothing, nothing at all,” Emil managed, then giggled and rested his temple against Makai’s shoulder. “I’m not laughing at you. More like with you. It’s just the fact that a while ago you could hardly use a modern laptop and certainly not a smartphone.”

  “Oh,” Makai breathed, then blushed. “I’ve had a good teacher.”

  Emil let the happiness wash over him. “Okay, so, I’ve watched some of the stand-up specials on Netflix. Are you looking for weird, witty, sarcastic, what?”

  “I can’t remember the guy’s name, but there’s this really funny British guy, really sort of… blunt and inappropriate. Ring any bells? Could he be on Netflix?”

  Emil thought for a while, then grinned. “Oh yeah, I think you mean Jimmy Carr. He has a new special I haven’t seen yet. Seen the old stuff, though. He doesn’t probably even know what politically correct means.”

  As soon as Makai found Carr’s special on Netflix and saw his face, he brightened. “Yeah, this is the guy!”

  “Alrighty, let’s settle in for some horrible humor.”

  The kittens soon tuckered out and went to their milk bar that purred loudly in the corner of the couch.

  Emil and Makai laughed their asses off, and at one point, Emil was laughing so hard he cried and then instinctively hid his face in Makai’s shoulder to calm himself down a little.

  They had tea and sandwiches for a late-night snack, and eventually it came time to go to bed.

  “Can I sleep in the bedroom with you and the cats?” Emil asked. Then before Makai could ask if he was sure, he added, “If I feel bad about it or wake up and panic or something I’ll just come here.”

  Makai’s face did something complicated, but he nodded. “Okay. It’s your choice. I just warn you, from what I remember, when I last slept with someone in the same bed, I was a cuddler in my sleep.”


  Emil snorted. “I might be able to handle that.”

  They carried the sleeping kittens into their little nest and Mouse went to the kitchen to eat a bit, and then they heard her using the litterbox in the utility room. The domesticity of it all made Emil’s stomach flutter. They made sure the bed was ready, and then Emil went to brush his teeth—he’d brought a spare toothbrush at some point. When he got back, he texted his mom not to worry. She’d asked if he’d come home for the night, but he hadn’t had an answer then.

  Now, as he sat in bed in his underwear and T-shirt, waiting for Makai to come to bed, he felt… anticipation. The good kind. He wasn’t ready for anything sexual, but oddly, it wasn’t really what was on his mind right then anyway. He wanted the closeness, the cuddling.

  Makai had changed into sleep shorts and a tank top. He came to the bedroom and looked at Emil almost shyly.

  “Is that side okay to you?” he asked, even though it was obvious Emil was on the side he didn’t normally use, based on the stuff on the bedside tables.

  “Yeah.” It warmed Emil’s heart to know Makai would’ve changed sides with him, just to make him comfortable.

  “Okay.” Makai slid under the covers, then settled down with his hair falling around his head like a black halo.

  Emil made himself comfortable, too, then looked at Makai. “Do you mind if I come closer?”

  “No, not at all. Just… you know, I want you to feel comfortable.”

  Something about the way Makai said the words gave Emil pause. He frowned as he tried to parse together the message he wasn’t sure Makai even knew he was transmitting.

  “Wait,” he said and got into an awkward half-sitting position. “You do realize that this is also about you. That if at any point you’re not comfortable with something, you need to tell me. This isn’t just about me, Makai.”

  Makai looked… surprised, and then relieved, and then surprised again. As if the fact that he relaxed hearing the words were somehow weird for him, only in a good way. “Okay.”

  “So now, let’s try this again,” Emil said and smiled. “Can I come closer to you? Is there anything you don’t want me to do?”

  “Uh… I gotta be the big spoon, and I might freak out if you sleep too tightly behind me. Maybe also if I’m on my stomach and you roll too close….” He seemed to be thinking about worst-case scenarios, and Emil understood.

  “Okay. Let’s try it this way, then.” He moved until he was against Makai’s arm and then burrowed closer to him, head on Makai’s shoulder and waited for Makai to get the hint. He did, and soon Makai held him close, and they both relaxed.

  “Light on or off?” Makai asked quietly. “I don’t mind either way.”

  “On, then. Just in case one of us startles. And there are always the kittens who might climb in, so it’s easier to see them like that.”

  They didn’t speak after that, just soaked in the warmth and closeness. Emil found that he liked to play with Makai’s chest hair and trace the tattoos he could see better now. He didn’t ask about them; he knew Makai would tell him if he felt like it.

  When he started to get sleepy for real, he hummed. “Do you wanna be the big spoon?”

  Makai smiled and kissed his hair. “Sure, turn and make yourself comfy.”

  Emil found a good position where he could see the cats’ box and the window, then pulled Makai’s arm into where he wanted it. Makai moved closer, but not close enough for them to be pressed together.

  “Is this okay?” Makai whispered.

  “Yeah, I think this is perfect,” Emil murmured, and in the next few minutes, he was asleep.

  HE WOKE once in the night, when Mouse batted him in the face with a well-aimed paw. “’S okay, girl, ’m fine,” he grunted and patted her with sleepy coordination.

  Makai jerked awakeish. “Wazzit?”

  “Mouse,” Emil said, turned around, and curled against Makai’s side.

  “Oh,” Makai hummed, and fell right back asleep.

  In the morning, Emil woke up to heavy rain pelting the metal roof.

  He stretched carefully, somehow mindful of the kittens asleep between his legs. Both Mouse and Makai were nowhere to be seen.

  Emil loved Makai’s bed. It was just the perfect firmness and didn’t feel old like his own mattress at home. He’d needed a new one for a while, but it never seemed a priority. Maybe they all thought that he’d get a new one when he finally moved out or something, after all they’d bought him a new one when he turned sixteen and had a growth spurt that warranted a new bed.

  This one, though. He could get used to sleeping here. He just hoped Makai was on the same page with him.

  He carefully slid out from under the covers and the kittens started to wake up too.

  By the time he came back from the bathroom, they were all rolling around on the bed, play-wrestling and being general annoyances at each other.

  “Makai? Do you want me to let the menaces out there?”

  “Sure, I have their breakfast ready.”

  They’d been feeding the kittens once a day for a couple of days now and getting them on solids was going to be a relief for Mouse at least. The litterbox cleaning wasn’t going to be quite as much fun, but oh well.

  Emil took the cardboard off the doorway and went to find Makai instead of waiting for the kittens to make it down the bed. They would be underfoot—quite literally—in no time anyway.

  “Hey,” he murmured at Makai who was scrambling eggs in the kitchen.

  “Morning.” Makai’s smile was beautiful and somehow more intimate than before. He held his arm out, and Emil went to his side, cuddling against him.

  Emil looked out of the kitchen window. The weather was gray yet beautiful. The lake in the distance looked dark gray, and its surface looked like it vibrated with the power of the raindrops.

  Based on the meowing by their feet, the kittens had caught up with Emil. He took the prepared food dish from the counter and set it by the wall where Mouse’s food and water bowls were.

  The kittens were still new to this, but the minced meat alone—something Doc Donovan had told them to start with to get them to eat faster—vanished off the plate in no time.

  “What time is it?” Emil asked, realizing he had no clue with the weather being so cloudy.

  “Ten, a bit past now.” Makai put the scrambled eggs on the plate and gestured at one with remnants of yesterday’s chicken, on it. “Do you want half of that with the eggs?”

  “A bit macabre, but sure,” Emil said, smirking.

  Makai rolled his eyes fondly but continued to make the breakfast while Emil refilled Makai’s coffee mug and made one for himself.

  They had breakfast and talked about the day’s plans. There weren’t many, really. It was Friday, and they’d decided to stay in anyway. Emil had promised his parents to go home for the weekend, which felt oddly painful to think about, so he didn’t.

  After they were done eating, Makai grabbed an extra jacket of his and slung it over Emil’s head and shoulders. “I really need to get an umbrella or something,” he said as they stood at the door, mentally readying themselves to open it quickly and dash across the little yard to the shed even faster.

  “Rain poncho,” Emil corrected. “More useful in this situation. A stack of them.”

  “Because you’d rip them, right?” Makai made an educated guess, smirked, and opened the door. “Run!”

  Laughing like children, they dashed through the yard and into the shed where Makai had rigged some lights so he could work even when he couldn’t keep both of the double doors open.

  Now he propped one of them partially open, flicked the lights on, and pointed at a spot on one of his workbenches. “Park yourself there and find some good music.”

  “Aye-aye, Captain!” Emil grinned. It had become somewhat of a thing between them, the phrasing. He hopped up on the bench where Makai didn’t have the dresser-drawer parts spread out, and started to fiddle with his phone.

  They had a
large glass jar on top of the bench where Emil sat, and once he’d found one of his slightly older playlists, he placed the cell into the jar to amplify the sound.

  “That’s such a neat trick still,” Makai said, nodding at the phone.

  “I think so too.”

  Makai began to assemble the three wide and two narrow drawers, and asked for Emil’s help every now and then. Emil handed things over, helped hold something together, and eventually it was him who screwed in the hardware to the front of the drawers.

  “Will you stain this?” he asked, head bopping to the music.

  “Yeah, I was thinking the dark green stain, just so it’s not boring, what do you think?” Makai made sure the seams of the actual dresser had stuck together properly with the glue he’d used.

  Emil hummed and thought about it. He knew where the dresser would go in the bedroom and finally nodded. “Yeah, I think green is good.”

  He moved to his spot and watched as Makai worked. The way he concentrated yet still occasionally chatted with Emil felt nice. It didn’t feel at all like Emil was watching someone complete a task without nothing to do for himself. Instead it felt like spending time together, hanging out and just being in the same space.

  Makai started to fit the drawers into the dresser, and Emil clapped in admiration when the top ones and the middle ones went in easily. The bottom drawer stuck a little, though.

  “Uh-oh,” Emil teased, even though Makai had told him this might happen. All it took was a millimeter to make them not slide in as they were supposed to.

  Makai took the drawer to the other bench and went to find a suitable tool to fix the issue, whatever it was. Suddenly, he froze in his tracks.

  “Remember that one time when you and Joie were over and you showed me how to use Shazam? Because I wanted to know what that one song was that I’d heard?” Makai asked and turned to look at Emil almost shyly.

  He didn’t understand why Makai looked flushed, but nodded anyway. “Yeah, I remember.”