Moonlight Monday 1-6-14
Author's Note: Happy Monday everyone! Here's the newest chapter of Moonlight. I'm afraid it's another short one, due to the holidays and a stint of house-sitting I'm doing. I didn't have a lot of time to write. No cliffhanger, though. ^_^
Izeri was still fuming when the lunch line finally delivered him to the serving window, and he quickly grabbed some food and stalked to the back of the cafeteria, to his and Charias' empty table. Setting his tray down with a bang, he sat, alone, and stared down at his food. Stupid mage.
It took him a moment to realize that he'd picked up a plate containing a cheeseburger and greasy fries. Son-of-a-bitch. And he was too hungry to simply not eat it, after being interrupted in the middle of breakfast. He had a bowl of fruit and some cold pasta salad with cranberries and ulano nuts, but he'd really wanted a thick, savory baked kaitira root sandwich, which was what he'd thought he'd grabbed. With a sigh, he lifted off the top bun and carefully removed the layers of lettuce, onion, tomato, and pickles. At least those were edible. He dropped the greasy, cheese-smothered beef patty on the corner of his tray and stacked the rest back on the bun. It still tasted of animal fat, but it probably wouldn't make him sick.
"Hey; do you want this?"
Izeri glanced up as Jakil set his tray down beside Izeri's and offered him a bowl of mashed kaitira roots topped with browned garlic and melting butter. The rich aroma made Izeri's mouth water, but he turned back to his tray.
"No," he said, taking a big bite out of his vegetable sandwich.
"Are you sure?" Jakil asked, setting the bowl down on the table between them. "I mean, I don't want it, either. I grabbed it by mistake, so it's not like you're sharing my food or anything."
"No," Izeri said again.
Jakil sighed, but instead of taking the hint, he sat down at the table beside Izeri. After a moment, Izeri heard Maika sit down on the other side Jakil. "Look," Jakil said, "I'm sorry for what I said about Charias, but even you have to admit this is really sudden. Aren't you guys moving kind of fast?"
Izeri gave a bark of bitter laugher. "This from the guy who let Zaiden suck his dick on the first day of class?"
"Yeah, but I never said I loved him," Jakil said, his tone hard, like Izeri had hurt his feelings. Izeri supposed that wasn't necessary. One insensitive remark did not deserve another.
"Sorry," Izeri said. "I shouldn't have said that, it's just...Charias means a lot to me. He has for a long time, but now...now he means everything."
"And you love him."
"Yes," Izeri said.
Jakil slowly shook his head. "I thought you didn't like guys in that way."
"It was a convenient lie. I even started to believe it myself. But everything changed when I saw that notebook, when I realized-" Izeri glanced over at Jakil. "Did you-or someone you might know-find that notebook and put it on my desk so that I would find it?"
"What?" Jakil asked, frowning. "No. If I had found it, I'd have turned it over to the dean and gotten the pervert expelled. You know, 'cause that was before you fell in love with him, or whatever. Hey, Maika, did you-" He turned to the dazed-looking faerie beside them, staring down at his tray, his food untouched. Jakil sighed, a worried look on his face before turning back to Izeri. "No, he didn't do it, either."
"I didn't think so," Izeri said, watching as Jakil picked up Maika's fork and put it into Maika's hand. The drugged faerie stared at it for a long moment, then slowly began to eat. How awful. "Is he going to be like this forever?" Izeri asked, his voice quiet.
"No," Jakil said. "Just a couple of weeks, then he's supposed to adjust to the medication and he should even out. We hope." They regarded Maika as he ate, seemingly oblivious to their surveillance. After a while Jakil turned to back to Izeri. "So, if it wasn't us, who do you think put the notebook on your desk?"
"Well, Charias thinks it was that were-elk who has it in for him, or one of his werewolf lackeys, trying to get rid of him, but thought maybe it was someone trying to be helpful, giving me a nudge so I'd wake up and see how Charias really felt about me."
Jakil seemed to hesitate, then he cleared his throat. "Look, I don't want you to be mad at me, but you do realize that under any normal circumstances, what he did was creepy and obsessive, right?"
"Yes, Jak," Izeri said. "Charias and I already had this discussion. He feels terrible, but I understand why he did it, and I'm okay with it. He made a mistake. He had feelings that he couldn't, or didn't know how to express, and he dealt with it by drawing lewd pictured of me to use as one-handed reading material. Is it a story we'll tell our grandchildren? Probably not, but it is what it is, and even mistakes can be good things if they lead you to where you need to be."
"And are you where you need to be?" Jakil asked, looking thoughtful as he glanced over at Maika, who was trying to scrape the last bite of coleslaw out of his bowl, but only succeeding in pushing the bits of cabbage around with his fork.
"I think so," Izeri said. "He and I need each other. I mean...he's so different. He's always been someone else when he's with me, less angry, less brooding, but now...he's happy, Jak. I've seen him smile, and laugh, and the way he touches me..." Izeri shut his mouth, suddenly aware that he was over-sharing. His silence, however, only seemed to attract Jakil's attention.
"Really?" Jakil arched an eyebrow. "You let him touch you?"
"Jak-"
"No, I didn't mean it like that," Jakil said. "I meant...you're not a touchy guy. Did you like it?"
"Well, yeah," Izeri said, feeling his face - and his ears - heat up. He tried to think of a new subject they could talk about, but his mind was flooded with memories of Charias' hands on him, touching him, holding him, stroking him - He shifted uncomfortably on the bench, suddenly noticing how restrictive the front of his jeans were.
"Did you have sex with him?" Jakil asked.
"Jak, please," Izeri said.
"Right, right - Sorry, none of my business. Just...is he as big as he looks like he should be?"
Izeri groaned. Horny mage.
"C'mon, it's an innocent question," Jakil said. "I'm just curious. I won't tell him that you told me. Or don't tell me, just nod your head. Is he bigger than this?" He held his hands up, about six or seven inches apart.
Izeri gave a small nod of his head.
"Bigger than this?" Jakil moved his hands a couple of inches farther apart.
Izeri heaved a great sigh and reached over, taking one of Jakil's hands and moving it back about two more inches.
"Really?" Jakil asked, his eyes wide as he stared at nearly a foot of space between his hands. "So you didn't have sex with him."
"Jak!" Izeri gritted out through his teeth, but after a moment, curiosity got the better of him. "How did you know that?"
"Because you're not walking funny," Jakil said with a laugh. "Even with a normal-sized guy, the first time leaves you sore. I hobbled around for days." He suddenly got serious. "So if- when- if you guys do, you can come see me afterwards. I won't have to touch your asshole to heal it."
"Thanks, Jak," Izeri said, because he could tell that Jakil meant well, even if this was just about the most uncomfortable conversation that Izeri had ever had. Thankfully, Jakil decided it was time to eat and let the conversation lapse. Izeri finished his cheese-and-burger-less cheeseburger, then emptied his bowl of fruit in an effort to cleanse his palate. He knew he should just keep his mouth shut and finish his lunch, but something Jakil had said itched at the back of his mind, until he couldn't ignore it any longer. "So, why were you so certain that Charias and I didn't have sex? Why couldn't he have been, um...'walking funny'?"
Jakil chuckled. "Because big guys don't bottom," he said.
"He said he wanted to."
"Well, maybe he does," Jakil said with a shrug. "Everyone's different, right? But from my experience - and I've dated a few big guys over the years - if a guy has a big cock, he wants to use it. But don't worry, you'll be getting the better end of the deal, anyway. There's nothing in the world that feels as good as having a cock in your ass. Once you get used to it, of course."
"That might explain why you never top, bottom boy," Maika said suddenly from the other side of Jakil. Izeri had almost forgotten that he was there. His words were a little slurred, but it was obvious that he wasn't a complete zombie.
"Only with you," Jakil said, leaning over slightly to give him a playful nudge. Maika didn't respond, but Jakil didn't seem hurt by it. For a moment, Izeri considered the odd couple - though they weren't any more odd than he and Charias - and Izeri's earlier question, where he had wondered what could possibly make a sidhe voluntarily give up their control to a drug, came back to him. Perhaps the answer was Jakil. Perhaps Maika had gotten on medication so he could be a better, or at least a more stable person for Jakil. And if Maika could do something so hard and so brave for the human that loved him, then maybe Izeri could too.