Ten

by Tia Fielding

  “Hey, don’t diss the arm. It might’ve just saved you,” Emil snapped as he grabbed the bag and started for the door.

  “Sorry.” They’d had the discussion about the arm a couple of times before. The medical personnel, doctors and nurses, and the surgeons who had treated Makai had all agreed that if Makai’s arm hadn’t been in the exact position it was when Frank shot him, the bullet would’ve most likely gone straight through his heart. Having a useless arm for a while and maybe some issues with it in the long run was a small price for being alive.

  “Now get inside so I can unleash the terrors on you,” Emil commanded but couldn’t help the smile that stole its way onto his face when he saw the enthusiasm in Makai’s expression. Someone had missed his kitties a lot. “Wait until you see how much they’ve grown.”

  Earlier that morning, Lotte had stopped by with Joy to feed the kittens and then put them into the bedroom with a litterbox. They had become fast and agile and were often trying to run out of the door without concern of what lay out there.

  Emil and Makai made it inside safely, and immediately there was a scratching sound and a familiar meow from the bedroom.

  “Do you want to sit on the couch or go to bed?” Emil asked Makai who was starting to look a bit gray.

  “Bed, please. I can watch something on the laptop if I want to.” They went to the bedroom door, and as soon as Emil opened it, what seemed like an avalanche of cats rolled out.

  “Were you idiots leaning on the door?” Emil asked fondly, picking up the kittens so that Makai could make it to the bed without them underfoot. “Stop squirming, hellions. You need to let Daddy get to the bed first.”

  Mouse jumped on the bed and stared at Makai as if he’d been gone for months. She meowed at him tentatively, and as soon as he made himself comfortable, she rounded him and went to sit by his head as if taking stock of where she could step and where not.

  “Oh, Mousey,” Makai sighed and petted her gently. “Missed you too.”

  She headbutted his face and purred loudly, and then Emil had to let the kittens go because they were starting to get too clawy.

  “Ouch, for fuck’s sake, Spike.” He gently unhooked the tiny claws from his shirt and placed Spike on the bed where his siblings were already making their way to Makai.

  “I can’t believe how quickly they grow. They’re so much steadier on their feet now,” Makai murmured and lifted the closest kitten—the darker orange boy—onto his chest.

  “Doesn’t that hurt?” Emil asked, immediately worried.

  “Not really. It’s just pressure. They’re still so light.” Makai sat against the headboard, half reclining into the pile of pillows Emil’s mom had bought them, among other housewarming presents that she’d gotten. “Everything looks so different.” Makai looked around, smiling slightly.

  “Yeah, Mom, Lotte, and Evy basically decided the house looked like it belonged to an old lady and modernized it a bit. Thus, the mirror and the other framed things, and throw pillows and whatnot.” He looked at Makai worriedly. “I hope it’s okay? I told them not to go overboard. It’s your house—”

  “Hey, sweetheart, it’s okay. I like it,” Makai assured him and nodded at the empty side of the bed. “Come join us for a while. Maybe nap a bit?”

  “Yeah, give me a sec, be right with you.” Emil went to get a box of tissues and a bottle of water for Makai’s bedside table. “There. Remember you need to cough, so….” He knew he made the icky face that had made Makai laugh at the hospital too.

  “Thanks. Now, nap?” Makai carefully slid down on the bed so that his head and shoulders were still higher than normal. His breathing was pretty okay, considering, but they still had to be careful with it.

  “We’ll take it easy today. Get settled and rest. Walks tomorrow.” Emil curled up on his side of the bed, facing Makai, and petted the closest kitten.

  “Who would’ve thought we’d go from planning another longer hike to making sure I can walk three hundred feet without passing out.” Makai’s tone wasn’t annoyed or even whining. He was stating his genuine, calm surprise at the fact.

  “Yeah. Well, I wouldn’t have thought you’d get shot, so…,” Emil snarked a little, but they both knew it was the residual fear of losing Makai talking, nothing more.

  Since he lay on Makai’s left side, the injured hand in the cast and sling was in the way of them holding hands, but Emil moved closer and pressed his forehead against Makai’s bicep, then hummed with sudden weary contentment.

  The kittens played on the bed, batting on their hair and fingers, until they all, cats and humans alike, fell asleep one by one for an afternoon nap.

  IN THE next couple of days, their life living together and dealing with Makai’s recuperation fell into a nice, easy groove. They took walks three times a day, as per the doctor’s instructions. Makai rested a lot in between and coughed his lungs out—almost literally—bit by bit.

  The kittens loved that they were home and were turning into social little monsters.

  “I have names for them,” Makai said thoughtfully one afternoon as he lay on the bed and petted the two yet unnamed kittens that lay on his chest and stomach.

  “Oh?”

  “I decided to stick with your theme. He’s Xander and she’s Willow.” He poked at the dark orange and the tortie respectively until they threw kitten glares at him.

  Emil grinned. “Works for me.” He played a game on his phone for a moment, then almost dropped it when it rang in his hands. “Holy shit,” he gasped. “Hi, Lotte.”

  “Hi,” she said brightly. “I have an idea for your kittens.”

  “Oh?” Emil blinked.

  “Yeah. See, I was in the garage getting something, and I noticed Joie’s old play pen in there. It’s plastic and really sturdy, and we rigged two together, so it’s really big. Do you think the kittens would like it outside the house?”

  Emil smiled widely. “That’s a really good idea, Lotte. How much do you want for it?”

  “Nothing at all, it’s old and battered, and it would help me to get it all out of the garage, to be honest.” He could hear the smile in her tone.

  “Okay, well when you’re driving past us, can you drop it off? Or should I come get it? Is it heavy?”

  “Jason can put it in the back of the SUV, and I’ll drop it off on my way to town tomorrow morning, if that’s okay?”

  “Sure, works fine. We’ll be here. Thanks so much!”

  “No problem, see you then. Tell Makai I said hi.”

  “Will do, bye!”

  Emil chuckled as he put the phone away.

  “What?” Makai looked curious.

  “She has Joie’s old playpen she wants to donate to the kittens so we can take them outside!”

  Makai seemed stunned. “Really?”

  “Yeah, and it’s a big one, apparently. So I hope we can sit inside with them, or at least one of us can.”

  It warmed Emil’s heart to see Makai so grateful and moved and even a little bit amazed at the kindness people were showing him.

  Makai’s expression when he’d opened all the gift cards and started to read the little notes attached was priceless, especially when he found that most of them were to Amazon and worth a few hundred dollars total.

  They lounged on the bed most of the time when they weren’t actively doing anything. It made sense because it was the best flat surface for Makai and he could doze off without thinking about getting a crick in his neck like on the couch.

  “Hey,” Makai said after a while of silence.

  Emil, who had been checking his Instagram, glanced at him and then put the phone down when he realized Makai had his “serious conversation” expression on his face. “Yeah?”

  “When you said most of your stuff is now here, did you… did you also bring your guitar?” Makai looked uncomfortable asking, but it seemed significant that he did.

  “Uh, yeah. It’s in the work shed closet with my other random stuff. Why?” Emil didn’t know how h
e felt about any of this.

  “I just thought that the kittens might get a kick out of it. If you wanted to try and play one day. But only if you want to,” Makai hastened to add the last bit.

  “Oh….” Emil fidgeted, playing with his splints in the way some people played with their rings. It had been him who wanted to bring the guitar here. He could admit that much. So some piece of him wanted it there. “I’ll… I’ll think about it?” He glanced at Makai.

  “There’s no rush. None. If you never want to, that’s okay. I won’t ever pressure you to do that.” Something was off with Makai’s expression, and Emil stared at him until he caved. “It’s just… these days when we listen to music, your fingers twitch a lot more.”

  Emil frowned. “What?”

  “It took me a few days to figure out why, when they don’t do it normally. I think your hands are playing a guitar in the same way some drummers tap at everything.”

  Emil felt stunned. He hadn’t noticed anything.

  “It only happens when it’s a very sort of acoustic guitar­–heavy song. When the guitar is very obvious.” Makai looked a bit sad. “Some part of you might miss it more than you think.”

  Sighing, Emil nodded. “I’ll talk to Evy about that. Unconscious shit like that is like catnip for her.”

  Makai chuckled. “So, which casseroles do we have left? I’m getting a bit hungry.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  MAKAI WOKE up, coughing. That was all fine and normal, according to everything he’d read online. He didn’t, however, care much about way the kitten sleeping next to his head on the pillow startled and dug its claws on the closest thing—Makai’s shoulder.

  “Ow, fuck!” he hissed, mindful of Emil sleeping next to him.

  The kitten, Makai thought it was Willow, got off his pillow and went to curl up with her siblings by Emil’s feet.

  Makai sighed, coughed a couple of more times, spat some disgusting stuff into a napkin, and took a drink of water. He rubbed his chest and hoped the ache would settle soon. He wasn’t on any heavy pain meds anymore, just the over-the-counter stuff, and he didn’t want to have to take more than the bottle instructed.

  He checked his cell for the time and saw it was already almost eight. They slept a lot, both of them, which meant they were healing.

  Makai wasn’t stupid enough to think his hospital stay hadn’t affected Emil at all. In fact, he knew that Emil had done pretty damn bad at one point during the first four days or so. He’d looked much like when they’d met, actually, which had alerted Makai to how much Emil had changed since then.

  The almost sickly pallor of his skin and the way he seemed fragile was back. He shied away from people again and ate only when prompted to. Once, a machine of some sort had started to beep violently somewhere nearby, and it made Emil press his head against Makai’s side and tremble where he sat by the bed.

  So yeah, Makai needed to take better care of himself and Emil too.

  He did the creeper thing of watching Emil sleep for a while. He couldn’t help it. Emil just looked so lovely, with his curls wild after last night’s shower and the way he sprawled, ever mindful of Makai and the cats even in his sleep.

  Makai felt his chest ache, but this time it was the good kind. He could feel the love there for Emil. Thing was, he’d never really thought about love before. He’d certainly never thought he’d find it, and not in a place like Acker, Wisconsin.

  He’d come there to relive some vague childhood memories and be a hermit in his little cottage. Instead, he’d gotten a small-town family and… love.

  Eventually, on day three or so, Emil had told him about his call to Makai’s mother. While it stung, it didn’t really feel too bad. If he’d been awake, he wouldn’t have bothered to make the call. He wasn’t sure what it was exactly that made his mother act like she did, other than the clearly affectionless childhood of hers even Mr. Miller seemed to remember.

  She hadn’t known how to react to Makai’s conviction, and at that time, Nakoa had never been in jail. Now, the situation was much different, but back then Makai had gone from the slightly favorite and less problematic son to the one she didn’t want anything to do with. She’d been overwhelmed, and with the way she’d been raised, she hadn’t had the tools to process what was going on.

  Even if it had been half a decade after Makai’s dad died, she’d still been grieving too. They all were. Makai had had a good father and an emotionally distant mother, and with Evy’s help, he’d started to see that more clearly.

  She’d made him have a session with her right there in the hospital on a day when Emil had been moving his stuff over to Makai’s.

  Evy was… pretty great. She was intimidating as hell when she wanted to be, and the whole hippie thing was both very much her and something to lull people into a false sense of security. Makai bet you couldn’t see her wit and insight and professional experience coming most of the time.

  She’d agreed to come over in a few days to have another session with him. It would do him good to talk about this shit.

  Emil rolled over onto his back and continued to sleep. The way the sheet covering him shifted showed more of his body. Emil had been skinny as hell in the beginning, but he’d hidden it well with hoodies and layers. It wasn’t until Emil started to sleep over that Makai truly understood how skinny he really was.

  He’d gotten better and then worse in the week or so of high stress with the hospital. When you didn’t have much to spare, any weight loss showed. But they’d get back to where they’d been, both physically and mentally, Makai was sure of that.

  Another thing that had changed recently was making itself known under Emil’s sheet. Makai thought it must’ve been the safety and the belonging that made Emil’s body react in the mornings. Before Emil, Makai would’ve thought morning wood was something that just happened to all guys, regardless. Now he knew better. Sure, a lot of the time it had nothing to do with arousal at all, but he was starting to think that for Emil, it did.

  And it wasn’t only the morning wood, either. Just last night after they showered separately, Emil first, and then he’d helped Makai out with everything he needed help with, he’d realized Emil had been hiding a chubby while he dried Makai where he couldn’t reach with one hand and an achy chest.

  Makai hadn’t been unaffected, either, but he knew anything sexual would have to wait until he was healed and, more importantly, Emil was as ready as he could be.

  They hadn’t talked about sex much. They’d agreed on taking it slowly, one step at a time, in whichever way the situation and mood directed them.

  Makai slid out from under the covers and cats and padded to the bathroom as quietly as possible. It wasn’t easy, especially when he managed to make himself cough in the echoing space. Eventually, he made his way to the kitchen, noting that Emil was still asleep.

  The cats, however, weren’t. They were all very vocal about starving and needing sustenance right now, and Makai felt grateful for Emil’s insight of making sure the cat food was in containers Makai could operate one-handed.

  Even with the flannel pajama pants on, he grunted at the claws digging into his legs through the fabric. “Can you not? Wait for one goddamned second, you beasts,” he said, trying to shake the kittens off, but all four—two on each leg—hung on until he made it to their bowls by the wall. “Here, now go eat and leave me alone, you maniacs,” he scolded them but smiled anyway.

  “You’re such a softie,” Emil said fondly.

  “Can you make the coffee?” Makai asked, putting away the extra cat food and batting his lashes at Emil.

  “Yeah, sure. How’s the chest?” Emil went to put the coffee maker on. Makai could’ve done it with one hand. He’d practiced enough times now, but it was about ten times faster if Emil did it instead.

  “Achy. Nothing new, though. Do you wanna go for a walk with our coffees?” he asked.

  Nora had bought them both fancy travel mugs for their walks so they could always have a drink with
them when they wanted something else than bottles of water.

  Emil flicked the percolator on. “Yeah, sure. I’ll go brush my teeth first.”

  While Emil was in the bathroom, Makai went to pull on some sweats and one of the hoodies he’d grown to love. This one had a zipper and was already worn from being used in the shed and washed regularly. The mornings weren’t that warm, and he didn’t need a cold while battling the other stuff. His left arm needed the sling and getting a top on was still on the painful side, but then again, he had instructions that he should use the arm if needed, to a point that didn’t feel too bad.

  He managed to get the hoodie halfway on and then had to wait for Emil to come help him.

  “Can you roll the other sleeve for me?” he asked, sitting on the edge of the bed.

  Emil smiled at him, then leaned in to kiss him and hummed contently. He didn’t say anything, just proceeded to roll the sleeve for Makai so that it was easier to get it over the forearm cast. Then he rolled it back down for him as much as he could with the way the cast almost touched Makai’s elbow and was clunky, even though much better than the one Makai had had as a kid when he’d broken his other arm while falling from a tree.

  When Emil was about to step away, Makai caught the hem of his long-sleeved tee and pulled him back. Emil took the hint, smirked in a pleased way, and sank his fingers into Makai’s hair before kissing him again. They made out lazily for a while, until the coffee maker gurgled in the kitchen.

  “Can you tie my hair back?” Makai asked when they separated. “You messed it, so….” He teased, mostly because even without the messing, Emil would’ve had to help him. There was no way to turn his arm in a way that wouldn’t hurt like hell with the cast.

  Emil smiled, his lips all pink and swollen from the kissing. “Sure.”

  He grabbed a brush off the dresser—it really did look great dark green—and used it to tame Makai’s now shoulder-length hair. Then he tied it neatly back with one of the hair ties Makai had gotten from Joy. This one was bright pink, and Makai loved it.