by Helen Juliet
Riley rubbed the back of his hand over his eyes. It was a very child-like gesture. “I’ve got more food, actually,” he said. A small smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
As much as Kai was more than willing to tough it out, he was immensely relieved to hear that. He already had the munchies again. “You legend!” Riley brightened at the praise. “That settles it then, we’ll be fine. It’s even pretty flat here, and these rocks give us a bit of privacy.”
Why they would need privacy he wasn’t sure, but he felt like Riley would appreciate it. They were by a natural wall formation that would shelter them from view on one side at least and also help shield them from any winds. It might keep them a bit more comfortable overnight, even though being July the temperature wouldn’t exactly plummet in the dark.
Riley’s shoulders seemed to have lost a little of their tension. “I guess,” he said slowly. “It would probably be good for Bia too if we stopped for a while.” The small dog was sound asleep by his leg, her paws twitching as she chased imaginary rabbits. She’d done well to keep up with them so far, but she wasn’t exactly a pup anymore.
Kai nodded. “Yeah,” he said, latching on to the idea. “Bia’s not going anywhere. Her joints definitely need a rest. We’ve got no choice.”
It was obvious that Riley saw through his excuse, but the watery smile he gave Kai was still sweet. It made his heart swell.
“If it’s for Baby Bee’s sake,” he said. “Then I’m happy to struggle through one night.”
Kai wrapped his arm around his waist and squeezed. “It won’t be a struggle, I promise. I’ll make it fun.”
Riley turned so they were face to face, their noses only a couple of inches apart. His mouth was slightly parted, lips wet, and Kai was struck by how easy it would be to lean in and kiss him.
“Thanks,” Riley told him sincerely.
The moment hung in the air another couple of seconds, then Kai came to his senses and gave his waist another squeeze before letting him go. “Let’s get settled, shall we?”
It was possible the ache he now cradled in his chest was worse than the erection he’d narrowly avoided earlier. He was upset that Riley was in pain and probably blaming himself for getting into this predicament. But he was even happier that he’d been able to offer him comfort, not only to treat his wounds but to cheer him up too. It mattered to him how Riley was feeling.
He obviously wanted to be friends quite badly, more than he’d hoped with anyone else in a good long while.
“Wash your feet off,” he said, handing over one of the small bottles of water. “They can dry out overnight, then we’ll put the plasters on in the morning.”
“Thanks,” said Riley again, doing as he was told.
Kai only had a single bedroll in his rucksack. It was reasonably wide; he knew from experience it could just about fit underneath two people if they were tangled together like octopi. But if he opened out the sleeping bag that would give him something to sleep on, then Riley could have the other half and the bedroll to himself.
They wouldn’t be sleeping for ages anyway, so they had something to sit on for the afternoon. He brushed over the ground, sweeping away any stones or twigs that might dig into them from underneath.
“So,” said Riley. Kai looked up to see him rummaging through his own, smaller backpack. “You just happened to have a sleeping bag on you?” he asked, incredulous.
Kai chuckled. “I’m a former Boy Scout, remember,” he said. He gave Riley the same salute he’d given him yesterday; three fingers by his temple. “Always be prepared.”
“There’s being prepared and there’s being a prepper,” Riley ribbed him good-naturedly. “Were you expecting the zombie apocalypse?”
“Maybe I just wanted to get you out here so I could have my way with you?” he teased. Brendon would have laughed at that, but of course, it was a bit different with Riley, who blushed. Kai was surprised that that made heat rise in his cheeks too. He needed to be careful what he said.
“What do you want for dinner?” Riley asked, tactfully changing the subject.
Kai finished laying the still closed bag on the roll, then came over to crouch beside him. “What have you got?”
There were plenty more peanut butter sandwiches, cereal bars, slightly melted chocolate, dried apricots, cashew nuts and a few apples. Kai had to restrain himself from telling Riley he loved him or giving him a bear hug. Instead, he grinned at him over a gooey Snickers.
“You’re better at this than you think,” he said. Riley frowned at him in confusion. “Roughing it,” he elaborated.
Riley rolled his eyes. “Tell that to my feet,” he said, waving his hand over them.
“Oh please,” said Kai. “Do you know how many times I’ve eaten the wrong mushroom and given myself food poisoning? Or sprained an ankle? Or, fuck, put my bag or tent on top of something’s shit?” That made them both laugh. “All of us learn as we go along. But you even thought to bring Bia’s dog food. That, with all our water, means we’ll be fine until tomorrow no problem.”
Riley swallowed his bite of apple. “I think your first aid kit is the best thing,” he said. Kai took that to mean the painkillers he’d insisted he take were kicking in.
“You text your family yet?”
“Oh, no.”
Kai watched as Riley faffed around taking the best photo he could to show off how awful his feet were. Kai had a few female friends who never posted anything without ten different filters, but Riley took so much effort with the composition of any given shot as well. Like he knew the perfect photo was out there and he wasn’t afraid to spend time trying to find it. Even if it was of his bloody, blistered toes.
“I told Brendon about the golden signal spot,” Riley said. “So hopefully he’ll think to check there later if this doesn’t go through. I’ll post it on the group WattsApp, then just text them all without the photo. That way they’re bound to get the message one way or another, and not call out a search party.”
He looked amused as he tapped out the message, which he then showed Kai. It explained their predicament, but thanks to Kai being ‘crazy prepared’ they were okay to spend the night out. It was followed by lots of emojis including several crying faces, a skull, a wolf, praying hands, snowflakes and the moon.
“We’re not going to die out here,” Kai chided gently.
Riley grinned as he started sending the messages out. “Yeah, but they all know I’m a wuss, so it’s funny. They also know I’ve got Bear Grylls Jr to watch my back, so it’s fine.”
“You’re not a wuss,” said Kai pulling at the grass.
Riley just shrugged. “I’d be screwed by myself.”
“But not hungry,” argued Kai, helping himself to some dried fruit. “Right, that’s dinner covered. What’s on Netflix?”
He was only joking, but bugger it if Riley didn’t hold up his finger and pull a battered looking tablet case out of his backpack. “You’re not the only one who had useful things just hanging around in his bag,” he said, clearly pleased with himself. He held the power button down. “I remembered I had this earlier and was cursing the extra weight, but now I’m totally glad.”
Kai shook his head. “Dinner and a movie. That’s not bad goings for a Sunday afternoon.”
He didn’t even care that that sounded flirtatious now. Maybe he enjoyed flirting with Riley a little bit. He certainly liked the way it made him squirm and bite his lip.
“Don’t get your hopes up,” Riley replied. “I’ve only got so many things stored on here that aren’t porn.”
“You minx,” Kai said, laughing and poking his ribs. “Porn’s fine by me.”
Riley poked him back. “I was joking. At least the battery is full. Seriously, what kind of films do you like.”
“Anything from the Eighties,” said Kai without missing a beat.
Riley raised his eyebrows. “Seriously?”
Kai nodded. “Oh yeah.” He started ticking them off his fingers. “Lethal Weapon,
Die Hard, Big Trouble in Little China, Terminator, Ghostbusters, Aliens, Rocky, Indiana Jones, Back to the Future – need I go on? All the best films were made in the Eighties!”
Riley looked like he might debate him on that, but he just smiled to himself. “Well, I haven’t got anything like those. Um.” He concentrated on the screen, flicking through options. “I’ve got some James Bond. Captain America. Moana-”
“No Disney,” Kai growled.
Riley laughed. “Okay, okay. Oh! The latest Fast and Furious?”
“Holy fuck yes,” cried Kai. He scooted over to look at the screen himself, as if Riley would make it up. “You like those films?”
Riley rubbed his hand through his hair. The sun was still beaming down, but at least it had lost some of the midday heat. “Fast cars, hot guys, great soundtracks. What’s not to love?”
“Yeah,” agreed Kai, looking at Riley as they rearranged themselves on the sleeping bag. “What’s not to love?”
25
Riley
Once the pain killers started kicking in and his feet stopped oozing quite so badly, Riley had to admit he was having one of the best days of his life.
He and Kai were sat on one of the flat tops of the many valleys that made up Scafell Pike, the ground rising and falling around them making him feel enveloped. They’d only seen a few clumps of other hikers making their way back down towards the town. Now as the heat of the day mercifully gave way to a beautifully mild evening it was easy to imagine they were the only ones around for miles.
Kai was fun to watch films with. Between crunching cashew nuts, he’d talk to the characters as if they could hear him, telling them off or encouraging them to blow stuff up. “That’s it, Toretto,” he cried at Vin Diesel’s character, pumping his fist in the air. “You show ‘em how it’s done!”
The tablet’s battery started to get low, but Riley used his portable charger to juice it again. After stretching their legs for a bit and nipping off for a toilet break each, they were ready to watch something else. They were all films Riley had seen before, so he let Kai pick. He was pleased when he went for the latest Star Trek, as he practically knew it off by heart, so he could focus more on enjoying Kai’s company rather than the plot.
Was it his imagination, or was Kai becoming more touchy-feely? He kept gracing his fingers against Riley’s knee when he talked to him, and he was definitely bumping shoulders whenever they agreed on something. Largely how cool the special effects were, and how awesome Kirk was.
“I always wanted to join Starfleet when I was little,” Kai admitted as dusk fell around them.
“Really?” said Riley. “Me too.”
That was putting it mildly. There had been a whole summer when he’d been nine or ten when he’d hung out of his window every single night, looking up at the stars, praying the crew of the Enterprise would come beam him up. Or maybe the Doctor would whisk him off in his TARDIS for adventures on a far off planet. Somewhere where he wouldn’t stick out so badly.
In the future, people wouldn’t care he was different. They wouldn’t even really see his sexuality of anything of note. He could just be him, not second-guessing if everyone he met was bothered or not by his nature.
“Okay,” said Kai. He threw a cashew nut up and caught it in his mouth. “What job did you want?”
Riley tried not to answer too quickly so it didn’t look like he’d given this serious thought over the years. “Communications, maybe?” He reached over and took a couple of nuts from the packet to nibble. “That’s all marketing is really; helping people to understand one another. There’s no money in the Federation, so I wouldn’t need to sell things to aliens. I could stop them misunderstanding each other though. Klingon can’t be much harder than German, right?” he joked.
Kai barked out a laugh. “People actually speak it, don’t they?”
Riley declined to share any of the phrases he knew. He figured there was adorkable and then there was just plain loser.
“How about you?” he asked instead.
“Security,” Kai answered immediately with a grin. “I always loved the phasers. You get all the excitement of running around shooting people, but as long as you’re set to stun, no one dies.”
He wasn’t sure why, but that really moved Riley. “You big softie,” he teased, punching Kai lightly on the arm.
Kai looked bashful, but kind of pleased too. It warmed Riley’s cheeks. He quickly scrambled around for something else to say before he swooned.
“Okay,” he said. “If we’re getting our geek on, I have to ask the most important question. Hogwarts House?”
“Gryffindor!” Kai cried, as if there could be any other option.
Riley shook his head though. “Hufflepuff, through and through.”
“Naw, man,” Kai said. He laid his hand on Riley’s thigh, squeezed and let go. “You’d totally be a Gryffindor too.”
Riley’s brain had got stuck on the sensation of Kai’s hand touching so high up his leg, but it had been over in a flash. It obviously didn’t mean anything. “Uh,” he said. “No, I’m not brazen enough to be Gryffindor. It’s cool though, we can still be friends.”
Kai grinned at him. “Okay. So long as we’re friends.” He crunched down another nut. “Alright, on the subject of houses: Game of Thrones.”
“Oh that’s easy,” said Riley.
“House Stark!” they cried in unison, laughing together.
“The North remembers,” quoted Riley, putting on his best Yorkshire accent, delighting Kai. “Winter is coming. You know nothing, Jon Snow.”
“I wish I could do that.” Kai shifted so he was lying down, his head propped up on his hand. He looked at Riley with something akin to marvel. It made his insides flutter. “Can you do any more impersonations?”
Riley took his time trying to remember some of the other lines from the show as he sorted Bia’s dinner for her. He used one of the blades off of Kai’s Swiss army knife to chop the jellied meat up in the packet so she could eat it easier, while trotting out his best caricatures.
He only had a few from Thrones. But then he did some old Monty Python ones, remembering their Faulty Towers moment from the game the night before. Followed up by a Christopher Walken he was particularly proud of.
“I just canne do it, capt’n!” he cried in his best Scotty as Simon Pegg ran around the screen. “I don’t have the power!”
Kai was laughing so hard he had tears in his eyes. “I love it,” he said, shaking his head.
An air of fatigue settled on them after that, meaning they naturally quietened down and paid more attention to the film again. Bia had a burst of energy after her food, running around like a mad thing for five minutes before flopping down by Kai’s side. He seemed inordinately pleased she’d chosen him to sit by and he stroked her fur as she dozed back off as old dogs were wont to do.
“Zachary Quinto’s gay, isn’t he?” said Kai. Riley suspected he was trying to be casual, but he was staring avidly at the film. Riley didn’t mind, so far Kai was doing well at being a bit more tactful and sensitive with the LGBT – queer – issues. Besides, Zachary had been their final answer together in Name in the Bowl, and Riley felt even more fond of him than he had before.
“Yeah. It’s nice, you know. That more actors are coming out. It’s amazing to watch an action film and think ‘he’s like me’.” He loved that Sulu had a husband and kid in this one too. That little detail definitely played a factor in how many times he’d watched the movie again and again.
“Plus,” added Kai seriously. “He’s hot. I wouldn’t kick him out of bed.”
Riley laughed a little too enthusiastically.
Kai had just said, out loud, that he’d be open to the idea of sleeping with another guy. It was just a joke, but Riley’s entire body temperature rose by several degrees in the blink of an eye.
Thankfully, Bia was there to break the mood.
“Jesus Christ,” Kai cried suddenly, sitting up and away from the dog. “What
is that smell?”
Riley laughed. “Oh my God, sorry. That would the after-dinner farts. I’ll move her.”
Kai shook his head and hopped to his feet just as the pungent aroma reach Riley’s nose. It was certainly a traffic stopper and he frantically waved his hand in front of his face.
“No, you’re the patient,” said Kai. “I’ll just relocate the little stinker.” His smile told Riley he didn’t really mind, which was good. He’d hate if Kai was actually mad at Bia for just doing her doggy thing.
Instead, he carefully scooped her sleepy form up and placed her by the rock formation. There was a little nook, so she had her own sort-of kennel for the night which Riley liked. His parents had brought her basket with them, but obviously, that was back in the campsite. Having a few rocks around her forming a protective space would hopefully help her feel less confused when she woke up somewhere unfamiliar.
It wasn’t that late, but it was getting darker and they’d had quite an active day. As the film got closer to the end, Riley couldn’t stop yawning. “Ready to sleep?” Kai asked him once the credits began.
That sent a flurry of nerves through Riley’s insides. He’d been putting off the reality that he was actually going to spend the night beside Kai, but he couldn’t avoid it any longer.
“Yeah,” he admitted. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”
Kai got to his feet. “Oh,” he said, something occurring to him, and he delved in one of his bag’s side pockets. “Chewing gum,” he said, proudly presenting the packet to Riley. “I know it’s not an actual toothbrush, but I figured it’s better than nothing.”
Riley took the proffered gum silently. He couldn’t believe Kai had remembered his stupid quirk about brushing his teeth. It made him feel sick if he couldn’t, and he knew he’d lie there stressing over it, running his tongue over the grittiness instead of sleeping.
“Thanks,” he managed eventually. “I – I appreciate it.”
