Elias

by Amy Aislin

Maybe it was one of the neighbours come to welcome him to the neighbourhood. He already had a plate of homemade chocolate chip cookies from the couple who owned the soy farm across the street and homemade oatmeal raison muffins from the lady who owned the horse farm a kilometre south. God, please don’t let it be his family coming to surprise him on his birthday.

  It was neither a neighbour nor family. Ty knew his smile was mushy, likely resembling that of a lovesick puppy's, but Elias's matched his—though it was combined with a heavy dose of tentativeness—so he didn't feel too silly about it.

  Reaching out, he cupped Elias's bearded face in his hands and brought his mouth down for a kiss. It was the softest kiss Ty'd ever given anyone. His heart beat so hard in his chest, and little wings of happiness and nervousness brushed his stomach. He couldn't help himself. He was just so happy to see him.

  Mouths clinging, tongues dancing, Elias palmed Ty's back and pulled him in to his body. Elias's hands were gentle even as they held him firmly. The dichotomy of the warm air from the house at his back and the chill clinging to Elias’s winter coat made Ty shiver. Elias was here, here, here! And Ty hadn't even had to do anything! Pulling back only an inch when he needed to breathe, Ty stayed plastered against Elias and met his liquid brown eyes.

  "Hi," he whispered past the stupid nerves in his belly.

  "Hi," Elias said, matching his whisper.

  "What are you doing here?" Ty asked it with a smile, so Elias would know that it was totally, completely, one hundred percent okay that he'd shown up unannounced. Because Elias was exactly the person he'd wanted to see today.

  "Um…" Elias looked adorably confused. "I'm not really sure. Just wanted to see you on your birthday."

  It was the most honest and vulnerable thing Elias had said since they'd started this relationship/dating/hanging out/whatever this more-than-friends thing was, and Ty melted. Right there. At Elias's feet. A puddle of heart-shaped goo.

  Ty stepped backward over the threshold and into the house, bringing Elias with him with a hand in his coat. Elias's mouth landed on his again as he used a foot to shove the door closed behind him. Without removing his mouth from Elias’s, Ty unbuttoned his navy wool coat and pulled his dress shirt out of his pants so he could slip his hands underneath. The combination of hot skin and cold shirt made him moan. He licked into Elias's mouth, tasting a hint of coffee and a lot of Elias.

  They stood next to the door, kissing without urgency like they had on Saturday when Elias had stayed over. But unlike on the weekend, Ty knew exactly where the lube and condoms were.

  Kisses slowing, they separated only to smile stupidly at each other. That dazedly smitten look from Elias shot a bolt of fire into Ty's heart, and he stepped back toward the stairs, bringing Elias with him.

  In Ty's bedroom they stripped each other, but since neither of them seemed to want to stop kissing, it was slow going, their hands getting tangled. It made them both laugh.

  Naked, finally naked, Elias's beautiful, toned body on full display, Ty couldn't stop running his hands down his smooth skin. God, he wanted this so bad. Wanted Elias's skin on his, body on his, mouth on his. He craved him, wanted to inhale him. On his back on the bed, Elias on top of him, Ty wrapped his legs around Elias's waist. Not that Elias appeared to be going anywhere, but still.

  Head tilting back as Elias kissed a path down his neck and across his collarbone, he got as far as Ty's nipple before Ty needed that mouth back on his. Palming the back of Elias's head, he brought him back up. Their gazes locked for a half second before their lips met and the heat in Elias's eyes... Fuck. It sent a current of lava straight from Ty's belly down into his aching dick, which was trapped between their stomachs and desperate for attention.

  When Elias let his lips go, his eyes traced over Ty's face, looking for all the world like he was trying to memorize him. The tenderness with which Elias was looking at him caused a lump to form in Ty's throat, and he let out a shaky sigh. He ran a hand through Elias's hair, marvelling at how, despite the use of gel to spike it up, it was still soft to the touch, not hard and sticky.

  What was sticky? Ty's belly, which he could feel was streaked with a mixture of both their pre-come. As if by mutual agreement, they shot each other wicked grins and reached for the lube and condoms in the night stand. Elias had more maneuverability, so he got to them first.

  As Elias slicked up a couple of fingers, Ty let his legs fall to the side and mentally told Elias to hurry. He almost came off the bed when those lubed fingers stretched his hole, and Elias bit down on his nipple at the same time.

  "Mmmmph," Ty said through a moan. How had Elias figured out his little pain kink so goddamn fast?

  He lost his breath when Elias pegged his gland, his whole body going rigid, pleasure stealing his thoughts. His nails dug into Elias's back.

  "God, Eli, please."

  Surprisingly, Elias listened. He was sheathed and lubed within seconds, thrusting into Ty in one smooth motion that had Ty biting his lip.

  Stretching himself out over Ty, Elias tugged Ty's lip out from beneath his teeth and sucked it into his own mouth. Ty moaned and wrapped his legs around Elias's hips again. Elias threaded their fingers together next to Ty's head.

  Then he moved, slowly at first, eyes never leaving Ty's. Ty felt that hooded, lust-filled look arrow right into his chest. It made him feel safe and wanted, and he tried to convey those feelings to Elias. Must’ve worked, because Elias's entire face softened and he brought his lips down to Ty's again.

  It felt like he was surrounded by Elias in every direction, and he came undone at the thought, toes curling, shooting without ever having laid a hand on his dick. Elias was right behind him, tearing his mouth away to bury his face in Ty's neck.

  Elias slumped on top of him, the best kind of weight on his chest, both of them breathing hard. Lifting his head, Elias looked at Ty, smiled, and said, "Happy birthday."

  Chuckling, Ty hugged him close and kissed his cheek. Withdrawing gently, Elias got up and headed to the bathroom. He came back with a warm washcloth and wiped Ty down, then threw the cloth into a corner and snuggled up to Ty.

  "Don't fall asleep on me," he said when Ty laid his head on his shoulder.

  "I won't," Ty reassured. His eyes fell closed.

  "I'm serious," Elias said, giving him a nudge. "Don't you want your birthday present?"

  Ty opened one eye, curious. "Are you just saying that to keep me awake?"

  "Don't you want to find out?"

  Yes, damn it.

  Elias hopped out of bed, yanked on his suit pants and coat and disappeared downstairs.

  "Don't fall asleep while I'm gone!" he yelled before the front door open and slammed close.

  Ty snorted and made no promises.

  Elias was back within a minute, shivering, holding a cloth grocery store bag. Stripping quickly, he settled himself against the headboard, pulling the covers up to his waist. Ty sat up next to him, otherwise he really would fall asleep.

  Elias pulled a small gift bag out of the cloth one and handed it over.

  "Happy birthday."

  "You really did get me a gift." Ty couldn't help his delighted smile. He'd expected a text from Elias this morning. Instead he'd gotten a mid-morning phone call, a surprise house visit, birthday sex, and a gift? Who was this Elias, and how did Ty ensure he didn't disappear?

  Yanking out the tissue paper, he reached in for the present and—

  "I love it!"

  It was a white mug with a picture of a young Korra and the phrase "I'm the avatar. You gotta deal with it!" which were the first words Korra said in Legend of Korra.

  He couldn't help but laugh. "Seriously, this is great. Where'd you find it?"

  "Etsy," Elias said. "But that's, um…" For some reason he looked nervous. "It’s more like a gag gift."

  "Gag gift? Are you kidding? This is my new hot chocolate mug."

  Elias smiled, but it lacked its usual killer punch. He reached once again into the cloth bag and pulled out
a flat, square package, roughly eight by ten. Colour high on his cheekbones, Elias hesitated another second before handing it over. Ty set the mug on the nightstand so he could take it.

  "This is your actual gift," Elias said.

  His nerves made Ty all the more curious, but he was careful tearing the wrapping from his present, conscious that this—whatever it was—was important to Elias.

  Ty gasped when he got a look at the black-and-white image in the heavy, wooden frame. It was him. In profile, taking up about two-thirds of the photograph, head thrown back in laughter, laugh lines around his eyes, nose scrunched.

  "This… When…" Overwhelmed, he couldn't even find words. This picture was obviously one Elias had taken. And he was sharing it with Ty.

  "On Sunday," Elias said.

  When they'd gone snowshoeing.

  "I…"

  Joy. That was what this picture conveyed—joy and freedom and love and a wild sense of belonging and security.

  "It's how I see you," Elias quietly admitted.

  Tears came, fast and unexpected, because although Elias didn't talk about himself much, didn't share his feelings, his hopes and dreams… This gift, it was everything Elias couldn't say, wrapped up for Ty to either accept or reject. The courage it must've taken for him to share something so personal…

  Ty set the frame on the pillow next to him and crawled into Elias's lap to hug the shit out of him.

  "Hey," Elias said, hands soothing up and down Ty's back. "Why are you crying?"

  "Fuck you, I'm not," Ty said, voice choked.

  "Oh." Elias smiled against his neck. "My apologies."

  Ty pressed a series of kisses to Elias's face, making him chuckle softly, and then cupped his hands around his jaw, rubbing his thumbs on Elias's stubbled cheeks.

  "Thank you." For the gift, for showing yourself to me, for giving yourself to me.

  "You're welcome," Elias said.

  And Ty swore some of those walls came down.

  Twenty minutes later, Ty was drinking hot chocolate out of his new birthday mug while Elias called a Thai restaurant in Guelph for delivery. They were both starving, and neither wanted to cook. It was dinnertime and—

  Doing a double-take, Ty's eyes practically bugged out of his head at the time on the microwave. 5:30 pm? He checked the time on the stove to confirm. Well, shit. Elias had already been here for an hour and a half at least, which meant he must've left work early, three o'clock, if not earlier to beat the traffic.

  There Ty went, getting all gooey and lovesick again. His high-powered guy, who was angling for the open VP position at his company, had cut out of work early to come see him.

  "What are you smiling at?" Elias asked, putting his phone down on the table. He looked seriously hot in a pair of suit pants and nothing else.

  "Nothing," Ty said, nabbing a cookie from the plate between them. "Just thinking that you're hot."

  Elias grunted, like, yeah, I know.

  "You're going to spoil your appetite with those," he said.

  "Doubtful," Ty said, polishing off his cookie in two bites. "It's just sugar, and that's not filling. Besides, it'll be, what, an hour before they deliver?"

  "Yup, or we can pick it up in half an hour."

  "That'd be much more tempting if it wasn't minus a billion outside."

  "It's minus seven at the most," Elias corrected.

  "Minus a billion with the windchill," Ty said, standing firm.

  Elias just laughed at him.

  "Do you want a beer?" Ty asked him.

  "No, I'm good, thanks," Elias said, stealing a sip from Ty's mug.

  Ty gasped in mock outrage. "Thief!"

  Elias moaned at the taste of the hot chocolate, the sound shooting into Ty's balls. "Damn, this is good."

  "'Cause I use real chocolate pieces instead of powder."

  "Huh." Elias took another sip. Ty glared at him. "How was your day?" Elias asked, not giving Ty his mug back. "Did your friend come for lunch?"

  "Yeah, we went to an all-day breakfast place in Guelph."

  Those damn brown eyes of Elias's twinkled with humor as he continued to sip Ty's hot chocolate out of his cool new mug.

  "Gonna make me a new one?" Ty asked, nodding at the mug in Elias's hands.

  "Nope." Elias shot him a sunny smile. "You're the expert."

  Pretending to grumble under his breath, Ty got up to make himself a new drink.

  "I wanna use my new mug." Ty stuck out his bottom lip in a pout.

  "Tough," Elias said. "And anyway, technically it's mine since I bought it."

  Ty pointed a wooden spoon at him. "I hate your logical mind."

  Elias laughed. "Says the guy who had post-its everywhere on moving day?"

  "Hey, that's just simple organization, and I made everyone's lives easier."

  Except his own. All because his mother insisted on reorganizing based on her own sense of how a home should look. But he'd kept a running list of everything she'd moved and had spent the last two days putting things to rights. Which meant he now had the next four days free to do nothing but sit in his window seat and read and drink hot chocolate.

  Well, three days free. He had his own birthday party on Saturday, which reminded him…

  "Eli…"

  "Yeah?" came Elias’s voice in his ear, making Ty jump. Elias’s arms came around his waist, and a kiss landed on his shoulder. "What's up?" Elias asked, voice rumbly and warm in Ty's ear.

  "Erm…" Ty focused on stirring the milk warming in the saucepan.

  Elias leaned sideways and peer at him.

  "Why are you looking at me like that?" Ty asked.

  "Since when are you ever at a loss for words?"

  Elias had a point, but Ty hadn't had a chance to rehearse or to come up with the perfect wording.

  "I just...uh…" He added the chocolate pieces to the milk and continued to stir. "You know my parents are throwing me a birthday party on Saturday?"

  "Uh-huh."

  "Do you maybe want to come? You don't have to…if you don't want… I get that we just started…uh…this, so I won't be mad or anything, if you don't want to."

  Now Elias looked even more confused. "I don't understand," he said. "Do you want me to come, or do you not want me to come?"

  Yeah, Ty could see how what he'd said would make no sense to anybody but him. His throat closed off, a sure sign he was getting annoyed with himself. Removing the saucepan from the stovetop, he turned in Elias's arms to face him.

  Running his hands up and down Elias's biceps, he went with honesty and hoped it didn't kick him in the ass.

  "The truth is, I would love for you to come. But I know we just started this…thing…dating…whatever this is, and I don't know if it's too soon to invite you to a family function."

  "I don't know if it's too soon either," Elias said, thumbs hooking into the top of Ty's boxers. "To be honest, I don't have a lot of relationship experience. The last time I had an actual boyfriend was in my first and second years at Queen's, and that was quite a while ago."

  Did that mean he thought of Ty as a boyfriend? Damn those stupid butterflies in his tummy making him feel like a twittering teen. He squeezed Elias's arms, sincerely hoping he was right.

  "Since then," Elias continued, "it's been casual hookups, nothing important, not like this." His smile was a bit rueful. "I've also been worrying about doing the right thing, wondering if I'm going too fast, but… What if we just stop? Stop pretending we know what we're doing or not doing, stop worrying about rushing or not rushing and just…go at our own pace, whatever that might be for us?"

  What was with all the honesty Elias was throwing at him today? It was making Ty's heart do funny things in his chest.

  "That sounds perfect," Ty said. "Because I have no idea what I'm doing." They just had to be honest with each other. Hopefully it would help cut back on the anxiety they both seemed to be feeling.

  "That surprises me," Elias said.

  "What does?"

  "That
you don't know what you're doing," Elias explained. "I don't understand why guys haven't been lining up at your door, waiting to take you out."

  Ty snorted. He'd always been picky, so sue him. "I could say the same about you," he pointed out.

  Elias grunted. "I would love to come to your party," he said, changing the subject.

  "Yeah?" Ty smiled wide. "You don't have to, you know."

  "Are you trying to convince me not to?" By the look in his eyes and the smile he couldn't hide, Elias obviously meant it as a joke.

  "No, I just don't want you to be uncomfortable."

  "First time meeting a whole bunch of new people?" Elias said, one eyebrow raised, like, and you expect me not to be uncomfortable? It was amazing how loudly his non-verbal body language spoke. "How many people will be there?"

  Ty hesitated, trying to think of a number that wouldn't overwhelm Elias. But he had a feeling that number was five or less, and since there were going to be way more than five people at his parents' house on Saturday, he opted for honesty again and hoped for the best. "Twenty-five?"

  Elias's eyes went wide. "How do you know so many people?"

  "It'll be mostly family," Ty reassured. Brothers, sisters, in-laws, parents, nieces and nephews, grand-parents, cousins, aunts and uncles. Throw in a few friends popping in randomly throughout the day. To someone like Elias, who didn't seem to have any family, it probably did sound like a lot.

  "Hey, when's your birthday?" Ty asked Elias.

  "On the first," Elias said. He pecked Ty's lips quickly and returned to the table.

  "A New Year's baby?" Ty turned back to the stove to finish making his hot chocolate. "That must be lucky."

  Elias laughed, a harsh, grating sound that lacked anything resembling amusement, a blunt-edged knife that clawed at Ty's insides. "Not really.”

  Ty turned. Elias stared hard into his mug, rubbing his jaw with one hand.

  "Eli?"

  Brown eyes flicked up to Ty's then away. The hand on his mug spasmed briefly before he got it under control.

  "My mom left when I was two," he said. "When I was five, my dad went to jail for selling drugs to minors. He died in there three months later."

  Turning off the burner, Ty abandoned his hot chocolate and sat at the table across from Elias.