Sweet Clematis

by R. Cooper

  “Not exactly.” Flor ducked his head. “But he doesn’t see things like we do, and I need to find a good time, when he isn’t distracted by his work or Tulip. I don’t know what to do, so I need to talk to him. Soon.”

  David and Flor did not keep secrets from each other. Flor was going to talk about him with David. Clematis would come up because Flor had concerns about him, and they were friends, and they were fucking. And David was going to tell him no. David would tell him to stop. Because Clematis was shallow and forgetful, and still couldn’t decide if he wanted to go to college. David would be clever and reasonable and point out that Clematis was barely a part of their group of friends, and he probably wasn’t even sure how Clematis ended up there. And then David would draw his eyebrows together and push up his glasses and tell Flor that Tulip had seen that Clematis was broken and cursed him so he couldn’t hide it anymore.

  David would be very sorry about that, but he would care more about Flor and Flor’s feelings. He’d remind Flor of what Clematis had done to him, and Flor would finally know that Clematis wasn’t worth all this trouble.

  He would admit the truth, and he would leave.

  Clematis took a deep, shaky breath, then dropped his hand to drag it up Flor’s thigh. Flor tensed, choking down some of his drink and swiveling toward him. His eyes were wide. Clematis slipped off his stool while putting his other hand to Flor’s hip and hiding his face in his shoulder.

  “Please,” he begged softly, hoping to be heard above Flor’s shocked, fast breaths. “While I can.” He was shivering. “I need you. Please, Flor.”

  “You’re touching me,” Flor said with wonder. He skated his hands over Clematis’s shoulders to the back of his neck. Someone whistled. Someone else shouted. “You never touch me without me having to ask you first.”

  “Because I always want to,” Clematis confessed, inhaling the earthy, floral scent of Flor’s work clothes. He cupped Flor’s cock through his coveralls and the shouting behind them got louder.

  “Sweetheart.” Flor let Clematis tuck his face into the crook of his neck and then spread his legs to give Clematis more access. “You didn’t have to wait.” He smoothed down Clematis’s hair. “It’s okay. Shh. I’ve got you.”

  “I have customers!” Lis called from somewhere that seemed a million miles away from Flor crooning in his ear.

  Flor nodded and kissed him just at the pointed tip of his ear, breathing heavily as Clematis groaned into his neck and got him hard. “Come on, beautiful. Come with me. We can’t do this here because it would make Lis mad, and you don’t want that, do you?”

  “Want you,” Clematis sighed at him, clinging to Flor when Flor stood up and began to step away.

  “Yeah, I’m getting that.” Flor laughed softly but then grunted when Clematis kissed the column of his throat, mouthing wetly along the vein. “Fuck. Baby, come on. A few more steps.”

  “Flor,” Clematis panted at him. “You still want me?” He found the zipper of the coveralls and yanked it down.

  “Sweetheart, stop,” Flor ordered, voice high, and Clematis stopped, shivering. “No, no, no,” Flor went on immediately. “Stop thinking that. I want you, but not here. Lis, remember?” He curled a hand around Clematis’s wrist and tugged. Clematis raised his head in time to realize he was being urged into a bathroom, and Flor was with him, letting the door swing closed behind them. He saw two stalls and a mirror, and then Flor was backing him against the sink. “Now you can touch me. All you want.”

  “Fuck me.” Clematis licked skin already wet from his tongue and pushed Flor’s coveralls down around his wings as carefully as he could with his hands shaking. He parted his lips and opened his legs, drawing Flor in greedily. “However you want. Bruise me. Fuck me dry. I’ll heal, and I want you. Like a fairy, like my Flor.”

  “Your Flor,” Flor growled in return, spurred into tearing at the fly of Clematis’s pants. “Seduce me. Like a fairy. Like my Clematis.”

  “I ache, Flor.” Clematis left the tremor in his voice, tipped his head back for Flor to kiss the juncture of his neck and shoulder. He shoved Flor’s shorts until they were out of his way, then grabbed his ass to pull him in. “I need you,” he whispered weakly as his pants fell to the floor. “For so long, Flor. I need you, only you. Flor, please. Won’t you take care of me? For this, you’ll take care of me?”

  “Fuck,” Flor swore, hands already under Clematis’s thighs to help lift him onto the sink. “Sweetheart, you’re going to be tight.” He briefly rested his forehead on Clematis’s shoulder. “Yes, I’ll take care of you,” he gritted out. “I want to. You know that. You always know. You always know what I want. How much I like to hear you say those things. How much I want to be the one you need.”

  “I can be better, do better,” Clematis promised, wriggling out of his shoes. His pants slipped off his feet. “Will you?” Clematis lay back, wings flat and probably already torn, edge of the sink cold and painful against his spine. His skin was burning from how Flor looked at him. He reached down to stroke himself and exhaled roughly for how Flor watched that too. He picked up one of Flor’s hands and brought it to his mouth. He sucked on his fingers, getting them as wet as he could.

  “You aren’t going to make me beg?” Flor demanded hoarsely, his bottom lip red and bitten. He looked at Clematis, at his stillness, at the flutter in his trapped wings. “I would. God, sweetheart. I’m… I’m just like everyone else. You could make me do anything.”

  Clematis made a small, half-stifled noise and shook his head. He laved Flor’s fingers and then his palm with his tongue and hitched his legs around Flor, drawing him closer.

  “Clematis—” Flor began, eyes falling closed for a moment at the work of Clematis’s tongue. “Please,” he added, louder, making Clematis go still again in disbelief. Flor tilted his head back, words echoing off the tile on the walls. “Give it to me. Please.”

  “You’re the one.” Clematis turned his head and closed his eyes, though he could still see Flor shining and pretty above him. “You’re the one I need, Flor,” he whispered, and wondered if Flor thought he was pretending. His breath caught and he dropped Flor’s hand to cover his mouth. “Flor,” he continued anyway, always too much when Flor was near.

  “Sweetheart,” Flor said breathlessly, stopping to sweep hair from Clematis’s face, to cup his cheek. He was shaking. “You always know. Good boy, sweet boy, open your eyes.”

  Clematis obeyed, breathing hard through his fingers.

  Flor stared at him while sliding his wet hand over his cock. He groaned. “Anything,” he promised.

  “Just you,” Clematis repeated, words torn out of him when he meant them to be soft.

  Flor bent down to pin Clematis beneath him and then kiss him when Clematis said his name again. He filled him, painful and all at once, and then held them both still, sharing breath and offering kisses for Clematis’s every shuddering gasp. “So good,” he whispered, back muscles taut beneath Clematis’s hands, his glitter overwhelming. “Tell me. Tell me when you’re ready.” His voice was rough. His hands were firm. He wanted Clematis.

  Clematis hitched his legs up to lock them around Flor’s waist. He tangled his fingers in the soft hair at the back of Flor’s head and sighed as the ache faded.

  “Flor,” he murmured, shivering and impatient, and held Flor tight as Flor began to fuck him.

  “OPEN UP.” Flor punctuated this quiet command with a slight wriggle that put him even closer to Clematis’s side. They were already pressed together, legs touching, Flor’s head on his shoulder, but Clematis didn’t mind. Evening was approaching, and there was the faintest chill in the air. Flor’s hair was soft on his bare skin.

  Flor held out a small chocolate, silver foil and paper wrapper already removed, and sighed when Clematis bent to take it in his mouth. Then Flor unwrapped one for himself and ate it with another sigh.

  The bag was in his lap. He might have been cold, wearing just shorts and sitting on the low, cement retaining wall, but he
had refused to put his coveralls back on. They were currently folded up and in use as a cushion for Clematis alone, although Clematis had recovered before they had even left—been shooed out of—Sugarbuns.

  Lis had not waited long to start scolding them through the restroom door. She had customers, human customers who needed to use the restroom occasionally and who were easily shocked. Flor had snickered into Clematis’s neck, and then whispered for him to stay put while he had grabbed some paper towels and quickly wiped up the area around the sink.

  He’d cleaned them both up as well, letting the water run warm and taking his time washing Clematis up as though Lis hadn’t returned to hurry them along.

  “I’ll send Randolph in. Don’t think I won’t,” she’d threatened shortly before walking away. “The only reason I haven’t come in myself is that I’m a mother. I might not judge, but I know there are things I don’t need to see!”

  Flor had snickered for that too, saying his mom had once said something similar. Then they’d gotten dressed, more or less, and left the restroom. Flor had held his hand as they’d gathered up their things and smiled when Randolph wouldn’t look them in the eye, and stayed close to Clematis as they’d walked to a convenience store to grab some dinner and then to this small playground. The playground was empty now, with the sun going down.

  It would get dark soon. They would have to go inside or find more clothes. Flor would have to do that anyway. He had somewhere to be tonight, which was why he’d wanted to meet up for dinner.

  “You could come with me?” Flor offered again, speaking around the chocolate in his mouth. “You could sit in the back. It shouldn’t be too loud or anything there. Not that I think it will be loud. It’s just a meeting. Meetings of any kind are usually pretty dull.”

  Clematis doubted that watching someone like Flor interacting with other people like Flor was dull. If anything, a space filled with Flor and other activists, especially activist beings, was sure to be full of color and noise and brilliance to the point of chaos unless someone strong was there to reel it in. Which might be Flor himself. Flor did not have much patience for mess. His apartment appeared overflowing with plants and chaotic, but every one was placed where it needed to be to get the best light, and on a schedule of food and water that Flor kept in his head easily, as though everyone could.

  Tonight he was “hanging out” with a group of amateur athletes—beings who were not allowed into human leagues and teams for various reasons. This denied them access to academic scholarships, which Clematis could admit was an issue with the high cost of education, but a lot of them seemed to just want to play their sports of choice. He had no answer for that. Playing with the humans in contact sports would likely lead to a lot of broken humans. But in noncontact sports, he felt as though they were being kept out by humans afraid the beings would play better than them.

  Fortunately, it wasn’t up to him to decide anything.

  He imagined Flor in a room filled with trolls and weres and other giants, and wondered how many of them would fall in love with him before the night was over.

  He closed his eyes. “Be careful when you go,” he said lightly, as if anything would change the fact that Flor could have anyone.

  “I don’t think any angry humans will be there,” Flor mused, making Clematis open his eyes. He hadn’t considered that. “There are some humans who want to play against the trolls and weres, did you know that? These tough rugby types who think it’s fun? They don’t even heal quickly. The other humans around them must worry so much.” Flor unwrapped another chocolate and held it up for Clematis to take. “But in case there are, I will be careful. I don’t want you to worry either.”

  Clematis’s throat clicked when he tried to swallow. “That isn’t why I’m worried—although please be safe.”

  Flor twisted a little, almost trying to peer up at him before settling back into his restful pose. “Are you still bothered? About earlier? I don’t know why you thought you had to wait to touch me, and I’m sorry if I made you think you had to. But I don’t mind. I like it. Even when you’re weird and shy about it. Maybe especially when you’re weird and shy about it.”

  “Don’t be sorry.” Clematis carefully rested his hand on Flor’s thigh. No one was around to see or to hear Flor’s happy laugh. Someone had cooed at them in the convenience store, and Flor had responded by tugging Clematis down to kiss his flaming red cheek.

  “We’re not here for their consumption, but, fuck, I don’t know; I just like kissing you,” Flor had explained later, as if Clematis had needed an explanation.

  “Do you have to go soon?” Clematis huffed as his question was answered with another chocolate. But he accepted it and let it melt on his tongue with all the words about how much he’d miss him. “I’m sorry I’m not braver.”

  “Silly.” Flor nuzzled his shoulder. “Probably because you didn’t finish your coffee. You won’t be hungry later?” He had been fascinated and disgusted to watch Clematis choose a flavored coffee from the push-button machine at the convenience store, even though the drink was almost entirely sugar. He had also then paid for it, pleased for no obvious reason when Clematis let him.

  “So, hey, listen,” he began after Clematis finished the last of the french vanilla cappuccino. He cleared his throat. “The nursery is going to start selling some black flowers for the magic crowd and people who like to pretend they are in the magic crowd. Black pansies and tulips, hellebore, that type of thing. We’re also going to get a—very carefully curated—selection of plants for magic. Well, we already have some, of course, like rosemary or lavender. But these magic plants will be special. They want me to go to this magic shop in Los Cerros and pick up the seeds and bulbs. Apparently this shop will only trust a fairy for things of this nature. The nursery will pay for gas or the bus ticket as well as lunch or whatever, so I was thinking, since Los Cerros is your town, that maybe you might want to come with me? This Saturday? You could show me where you grew up or where your favorite places are that tourists don’t know about. Or we could just get some candy at Zucchero, although, ugh, the prices. I am so poor after going there, but it’s totally worth it.” Flor seemed to remember he had to breathe. “So”—he squeezed the bag of chocolates, now mostly full of wrappers—“does that sound like fun? Spending the day with me?”

  It sounded like Flor in Anise’s empty apartment. Flor at any of the fast-food places and kiosks where Clematis had worked and been fired from after sleeping with his boss or for forgetting his apron. Flor looking over the high school Clematis had almost failed out of because standardized tests went on too long for him to focus. Flor at the bluffs where Clematis had spent a lot of nights freezing and staring out at the black water.

  Clematis took his left hand from Flor’s leg and clasped it with his right one in his lap.

  “It’s been so long since I lived there,” he replied tightly. “Most things have changed.”

  “Oh.” Flor pulled away from him. He lifted his head from Clematis’s shoulder but didn’t look up. “You don’t want to go? That’s okay. I just thought, maybe I could…. Yeah, no, it’s okay.”

  “Zucchero,” Clematis said abruptly, then cringed. He gripped his hands together tighter and tried again. He wanted to be what Flor wanted for a little longer. “Zucchero is in the nice part of town. It only got really popular after I left, so I haven’t been there much. We could go there. If you still want to.”

  Flor glanced at him. “Are you sure? If you don’t want to come with me, you don’t have to.”

  “I like spending time with you.” That part was easy to say. Clematis nodded to give it strength. “I like spending as much time with you as I can.”

  Flor held his breath. “Yeah?”

  Clematis didn’t understand how Flor could seem so surprised, but he pulled his hand away to put it back on Flor’s leg. “You’re very good to me, Flor.”

  “Yeah?” Flor asked with a wobbly sort of smile and fell gently against his side once more, as thoug
h Clematis was brave or affectionate or good and worthy of so much of his attention. It was selfish of him to bask in it when he knew Flor’s happiness was still out there, and nothing he could do or say would make it him.

  Because Flor couldn’t see him, he closed his eyes again. It narrowed the world down to the parts of Flor he could feel, the warmth of his skin. He let his heartbeat slow, then licked his lips. “When you talk to David, are you going to tell him you’ve been fucking me?”

  Flor wouldn’t hide anything, not from anyone and especially not David. But perhaps, if he waited….

  “Fucking?” Flor sat up straight, and Clematis jerked toward him and opened his eyes. “You think I’m fucking you?” Flor tossed his head, lifted one hand in protest, then froze. “Oh, crap. I forgot to finish what I was talking about last night, didn’t I? And you don’t understand. Shit.” He took a deep breath, then released it. “I am more than fucking you.” He met Clematis’s gaze and held it. “We are more than fucking.”

  “We’re also friends now,” Clematis added, but it did not lessen Flor’s piercing stare. “And you’re keeping me, a little bit, so you feel better,” he tried again, the words drifting into almost a question at the end. Flor didn’t speak. “Unless you’re tired of that part?” Clematis finished, going cold.

  Flor grabbed his hand as if he thought Clematis was about to run away. “I’m doing this wrong.” He shook his head. “I thought I was clear. That, um, that I think we can try this—do this—together. If you’d like. Crap, I am terrible at dating.” He put his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. “I need to talk to David.”

  “Dating?” Clematis echoed. “You want to date me?”

  “All those things I said… did you think that was just sex?” Flor perked up, then dropped down again. “Okay, some of it was sex. But most of it was, yeah—yes—I want to try dating you.”