Combat (8/15)
Previous Chapter
"Can I ask you something?" Scotty asked softly in the dark room.
"Hmm?" Kevin murmured in response.
When Kevin had first arrived, Scotty had been too embarrassed to talk about the issues at hand. He had just asked Kevin to make sure he didn’t leave the apartment. They sat on the couch, flipping through early morning TV, making fun of infomercials and trying very hard not to linger on anything remotely resembling porn. Eventually Kevin had convinced him to go back to bed, to at least try to sleep. So Scotty was curled up in bed, and Kevin sat next to him, back against the headboard.
"How...how did your parents react when you told them you..."
"That I was gay?"
Scotty nodded, unable to find his voice even though he knew that Kevin couldn’t see him in the dark.
Kevin took a deep breath. "Well, my mother claimed she was perfectly fine with it, but there was some overcompensation there. She immediately joined PFLAG. And put in a pool, apparently so I could have lots of pool parties."
Scotty smiled. "That’s kind of sweet."
"Sweet? I was her cause célèbre. I felt like an exchange student in my own home."
Scotty laughed softly. After a moment, he asked, "What about your dad?"
Kevin was silent for a long moment. "He didn’t take it too well. Wouldn’t talk to me, wouldn’t even look at me. We had started to patch things up later. He made more of an effort to...ask me about my life. But we never fully - and then he died, so."
"I’m sorry," Scotty said quietly.
"Don’t be."
"I, uh, I was always close to my parents," Scotty said after a few moments. "I didn’t know how to tell them. I’m an only child and... When they shipped me back to the U.S., my parents were there at the hospital, waiting. They didn’t know any details, not even that I had been discharged. I had to tell them. My mom, she - she looked so disgusted. She said to never come home."
Scotty paused, raising a hand to wipe at his eyes. The bed shifted as Kevin scooted down, positioning himself behind Scotty and wrapping his arms around him.
"My dad seems slightly better with it," Scotty continued. "But he won’t - he’s so torn between us, you know? And my mom’s the one he has to live with, so I can’t even really blame him. I just...aren’t parents supposed to love you, no matter what?"
Kevin sighed. "I don’t understand it myself," he said softly.
"I miss them so much," Scotty said, voice catching.
Kevin hugged him tighter, edging closer so he was pressed up along Scotty’s back. He leaned forward and lightly kissed the back of his head. "It’s OK," he whispered. "It’ll be OK."
***
The sunlight shining on his face slowly woke Kevin up. He was so extraordinarily comfortable. Well, comfortable everywhere except there, which was quite insistently pointing out that he should cuddle closer to the warm body next to him. Kevin moaned quietly, tightening his arm around the man’s waist and pressing his groin against his firm ass. He opened his mouth, sighing, before resting his lips on the back of the man’s neck. He smelled so good. Somewhere in the back of his still half-asleep mind, Kevin knew it wasn’t Jason, knew it was someone he shouldn’t be doing this with. But he couldn’t stop. It had been too long, and this felt too right.
And it felt even better when the other man started to respond. When he pushed back against Kevin, when he started rocking his hips. Kevin moved his hand down, sliding it further underneath the sheets and then underneath the pajama bottoms. He started rubbing, but he doubted it would take long. The man was already close, fluid leaking from the tip and easing the motion of Kevin’s hand. Kevin would bring him over the edge, then roll him onto his stomach, pull down his pants -
"Wha - !" The other man sat bolt upright, dislodging Kevin’s hand and waking him fully. Kevin sat up as well, shocked and embarrassed and still incredibly turned on.
Scotty turned to face him, relaxing when he realized who was in bed with him. That relaxation quickly faded as he flushed red with embarrassment and turned away.
"Hi," he said quietly.
Kevin pulled himself further up the mattress, increasing the distance between him and Scotty. He, as subtly as possible, wiped his hand on the sheets and made sure his quickly diminishing, but still present, arousal wasn’t obvious.
"Hi," he replied. "How..." he wanted to ask how Scotty was, but that opened too many possibilities. "Did you sleep OK?" he asked instead.
"Yeah," Scotty said, swallowing as he nodded. "Thank you again for being there and - everything."
"It was my pl - it was no problem, really."
Scotty finally managed to look up at him, to make eye contact. Kevin wondered if there were as many emotions racing across his own face as there were on Scotty’s.
"I should go," he finally said.
"Oh! Um, OK," Scotty said, and Kevin refused to allow himself to believe he sounded disappointed. "Did you want breakfast?"
Kevin swallowed and closed his eyes. "Can’t," he said, pretending not to notice how strangled his voice sounded. "I’m...meeting Sarah."
***
"What? Oh my God, what, Kevin?!" Sarah exclaimed as she opened the door. "It’s 7:30 on a freaking Saturday, and the kids are at Joe’s. I’m not allowed sleep anymore?"
"Just...shut up," Kevin said as he pushed past her into the house. "This is...I can’t even...I’m - "
Sarah grabbed him by the shoulders and forced him to turn to face her. "Breathe!"
Kevin stopped babbling, took a large breath and slowly exhaled. "I nearly slept with Scotty," he said.
Sarah did a double-take in surprise and Kevin groaned, bending to bury his face in his hands.
"Wait," Sarah said slowly. "So...he is gay?"
Kevin straightened again in annoyance. "Yes! Not the point! I have a boyfriend, and he’s not even six months sober. Focus, please!"
"OK! Sorry." After a second, Sarah shook her head. "I need caffeine for this."
***
Scotty, thankfully, had managed to avoid any and all Walker-related topics and issues for the rest of the weekend. Unfortunately, it was Monday morning and he was back at work. Tyler had just arrived, extraordinarily happy and excited. She showed him the ring, and he made the appropriate comments of admiration, and then she informed him they were having a meet-the-ring dinner that night. Scotty, of course, was invited.
"Oh, Tyler, honestly. It’s a family thing."
"Haven’t you realized that they have the most bizarre definition of family ever?! You’re a part of it now, and there’s no escaping it. Besides, my parents are out of town, so if nothing else, you can be there as my family."
And she was so happily insistent that Scotty literally couldn’t say no. He agreed, even as he started to feel ill. He wondered what the chances were of coming down with the flu sometime between 9:00 AM and 7:00 PM.
But that evening, he found himself standing in front of the door. He tried to calm himself and then he reached out to ring the bell. Almost immediately the door opened.
"Hi Scotty! Come on in!" Sarah said. She turned around quickly to tell Paige and Cooper to take their shoes off, and then faced Scotty again.
"How are you?"
Scotty nodded. "I’m great. You?"
"Really good. Exciting news about Justin and Tyler, huh?"
"Yeah. I heard all the details at work today," Scotty said with a laugh. "Everything was apparently very romantic. And she knew he was the one right from the beginning. Something about a ball and the Wicked Witch...? I don’t know, she was kind of babbling."
Sarah laughed. "Yeah, their first date was this charity ball for the children’s hospital. Mom organizes it every year. This year’s is actually next week."
The door opened again and both Scotty and Sarah turned to face the new arrival. It was Kevin, and Scotty thought he was going to pass out. His mouth went dry, and his heart started pounding, and he felt for all the world like he was back on drugs.
Kevin stared at them both for a second. "Hi," he finally said, turning around to close the door.
Scotty swallowed. "Hi Kevin," he said softly.
He turned back to Sarah, who was staring at him. She started to smile. "You know, why don’t you come with me? You can be my date."
Scotty started. "Excuse me?"
Sarah shook her head, waving her hand in front of her. "Not like that. I just think you could really rock a tux."
"Uh," And despite his best efforts, Scotty couldn’t help but glance over at a very surprised Kevin. He thought about Kevin in a tux; he thought about going to a ball where there’d be fancy clothes and good food and music and maybe a little romance. He turned back to Sarah. "OK," he agreed.
***
Dinner went smoother than Kevin expected. That might have been because he and Scotty were on the same side of the table, on either side of Kitty. He couldn’t actually see (stare at) him; he could just pretend Scotty wasn’t there. As Scotty stayed relatively quiet, it was quite simple, really. Until the end of the evening when everyone was preparing to leave, and Kevin found himself once again in the foyer with Scotty, this time alone.
Scotty smiled at him nervously. He opened his mouth to talk, but Kevin beat him to it.
"Look," he said quickly. "We should probably just acknowledge what happened and move on."
Scotty exhaled. "Yeah, yeah. I mean, it was nothing."
"Right. Certainly unintentional. It doesn’t mean anything."
"We were both asleep. It would have happened with anyone."
"Exactly."
Scotty took a deep breath. "So...we’re OK?"
Kevin nodded. "Absolutely. Friends."
"Great."
***
Scotty had to admit he was actually having a fun time. The meal had been amazing, and he had spent the last hour dancing with Sarah, as well as Tyler and Justin’s half-sister Rebecca. He also had spent the last hour sneaking glances at Kevin, admiring him in his tuxedo. Kevin had had several drinks and was starting to get tipsy, and, as attractive as he had been at the beginning of the night, now - with a loosened tie and twinkling eyes, with a wide smile and frequent laugh - he was downright gorgeous.
Perhaps for that reason, or perhaps because he was still embarrassed about recent events, Scotty had actually avoided too much interaction with Kevin that evening. Things had become increasingly out of control lately, and Scotty needed to take a step back, remind himself of his priorities, remind himself that he was supposed to be focusing on his sobriety, remind himself that Kevin had a boyfriend. Remind himself that he valued his friendship with Kevin too much to risk it with sex. For so many reasons, Kevin wasn’t an option. No matter how desperately horny Scotty was beginning to feel.
He sighed, leaning against the bar, as he waited for water for himself and a glass of wine for Sarah. He looked around the ballroom and smiled when he saw Kevin attempting to dance with Sarah. He wasn’t a very good dancer, and Sarah was clearly mocking him. They both laughed as they tried to figure out the steps.
"Ugh." Scotty tipped his head back in annoyance and forced himself to look away.
"Everything OK?"
Scotty started and turned in the direction of the voice. The man next to him was looking at him curiously, and Scotty blushed. "Yeah, fine," he said quickly.
Then the man smiled more sincerely, taking a small sip of his drink before holding out his hand. "Andrew Kent."
"Here you go, sir."
Scotty glanced at the bartender and thanked him. He looked at the drinks, then back to his neighbor. Then he smiled and held out his own hand. "Scotty Wandell."
***
"So things are completely back to normal, then?" Sarah asked.
Kevin nodded. "Yep. We talked about it, agreed it was an accidental, natural reaction and wasn’t worth worrying about. Everything’s fine."
"That’s probably for the best. He is still in recovery, after all."
"And I have a boyfriend."
"Right," Sarah said. "Him."
Kevin laughed. "What’s that supposed to mean?"
Sarah shrugged. "It means nothing."
Kevin stared at her suspiciously. They were silent for a moment, and then Sarah began speaking again.
"So you really have no feelings for him whatsoever?"
Kevin exhaled. "No," he said firmly.
"So it wouldn’t bother you at all to find out he’s, at this very minute, being hit on?"
"What?" Kevin immediately twisted around. Sarah and Kevin stopped dancing as they watched Scotty leaning closer to a strange man at the bar, talking softly as the other man added information to his cell phone. The man said something, and Scotty laughed. Kevin felt something in his stomach clench.
"No," he said unconvincingly. "No, it doesn’t bother me."
Next Chapter
Main Page
"Can I ask you something?" Scotty asked softly in the dark room.
"Hmm?" Kevin murmured in response.
When Kevin had first arrived, Scotty had been too embarrassed to talk about the issues at hand. He had just asked Kevin to make sure he didn’t leave the apartment. They sat on the couch, flipping through early morning TV, making fun of infomercials and trying very hard not to linger on anything remotely resembling porn. Eventually Kevin had convinced him to go back to bed, to at least try to sleep. So Scotty was curled up in bed, and Kevin sat next to him, back against the headboard.
"How...how did your parents react when you told them you..."
"That I was gay?"
Scotty nodded, unable to find his voice even though he knew that Kevin couldn’t see him in the dark.
Kevin took a deep breath. "Well, my mother claimed she was perfectly fine with it, but there was some overcompensation there. She immediately joined PFLAG. And put in a pool, apparently so I could have lots of pool parties."
Scotty smiled. "That’s kind of sweet."
"Sweet? I was her cause célèbre. I felt like an exchange student in my own home."
Scotty laughed softly. After a moment, he asked, "What about your dad?"
Kevin was silent for a long moment. "He didn’t take it too well. Wouldn’t talk to me, wouldn’t even look at me. We had started to patch things up later. He made more of an effort to...ask me about my life. But we never fully - and then he died, so."
"I’m sorry," Scotty said quietly.
"Don’t be."
"I, uh, I was always close to my parents," Scotty said after a few moments. "I didn’t know how to tell them. I’m an only child and... When they shipped me back to the U.S., my parents were there at the hospital, waiting. They didn’t know any details, not even that I had been discharged. I had to tell them. My mom, she - she looked so disgusted. She said to never come home."
Scotty paused, raising a hand to wipe at his eyes. The bed shifted as Kevin scooted down, positioning himself behind Scotty and wrapping his arms around him.
"My dad seems slightly better with it," Scotty continued. "But he won’t - he’s so torn between us, you know? And my mom’s the one he has to live with, so I can’t even really blame him. I just...aren’t parents supposed to love you, no matter what?"
Kevin sighed. "I don’t understand it myself," he said softly.
"I miss them so much," Scotty said, voice catching.
Kevin hugged him tighter, edging closer so he was pressed up along Scotty’s back. He leaned forward and lightly kissed the back of his head. "It’s OK," he whispered. "It’ll be OK."
***
The sunlight shining on his face slowly woke Kevin up. He was so extraordinarily comfortable. Well, comfortable everywhere except there, which was quite insistently pointing out that he should cuddle closer to the warm body next to him. Kevin moaned quietly, tightening his arm around the man’s waist and pressing his groin against his firm ass. He opened his mouth, sighing, before resting his lips on the back of the man’s neck. He smelled so good. Somewhere in the back of his still half-asleep mind, Kevin knew it wasn’t Jason, knew it was someone he shouldn’t be doing this with. But he couldn’t stop. It had been too long, and this felt too right.
And it felt even better when the other man started to respond. When he pushed back against Kevin, when he started rocking his hips. Kevin moved his hand down, sliding it further underneath the sheets and then underneath the pajama bottoms. He started rubbing, but he doubted it would take long. The man was already close, fluid leaking from the tip and easing the motion of Kevin’s hand. Kevin would bring him over the edge, then roll him onto his stomach, pull down his pants -
"Wha - !" The other man sat bolt upright, dislodging Kevin’s hand and waking him fully. Kevin sat up as well, shocked and embarrassed and still incredibly turned on.
Scotty turned to face him, relaxing when he realized who was in bed with him. That relaxation quickly faded as he flushed red with embarrassment and turned away.
"Hi," he said quietly.
Kevin pulled himself further up the mattress, increasing the distance between him and Scotty. He, as subtly as possible, wiped his hand on the sheets and made sure his quickly diminishing, but still present, arousal wasn’t obvious.
"Hi," he replied. "How..." he wanted to ask how Scotty was, but that opened too many possibilities. "Did you sleep OK?" he asked instead.
"Yeah," Scotty said, swallowing as he nodded. "Thank you again for being there and - everything."
"It was my pl - it was no problem, really."
Scotty finally managed to look up at him, to make eye contact. Kevin wondered if there were as many emotions racing across his own face as there were on Scotty’s.
"I should go," he finally said.
"Oh! Um, OK," Scotty said, and Kevin refused to allow himself to believe he sounded disappointed. "Did you want breakfast?"
Kevin swallowed and closed his eyes. "Can’t," he said, pretending not to notice how strangled his voice sounded. "I’m...meeting Sarah."
***
"What? Oh my God, what, Kevin?!" Sarah exclaimed as she opened the door. "It’s 7:30 on a freaking Saturday, and the kids are at Joe’s. I’m not allowed sleep anymore?"
"Just...shut up," Kevin said as he pushed past her into the house. "This is...I can’t even...I’m - "
Sarah grabbed him by the shoulders and forced him to turn to face her. "Breathe!"
Kevin stopped babbling, took a large breath and slowly exhaled. "I nearly slept with Scotty," he said.
Sarah did a double-take in surprise and Kevin groaned, bending to bury his face in his hands.
"Wait," Sarah said slowly. "So...he is gay?"
Kevin straightened again in annoyance. "Yes! Not the point! I have a boyfriend, and he’s not even six months sober. Focus, please!"
"OK! Sorry." After a second, Sarah shook her head. "I need caffeine for this."
***
Scotty, thankfully, had managed to avoid any and all Walker-related topics and issues for the rest of the weekend. Unfortunately, it was Monday morning and he was back at work. Tyler had just arrived, extraordinarily happy and excited. She showed him the ring, and he made the appropriate comments of admiration, and then she informed him they were having a meet-the-ring dinner that night. Scotty, of course, was invited.
"Oh, Tyler, honestly. It’s a family thing."
"Haven’t you realized that they have the most bizarre definition of family ever?! You’re a part of it now, and there’s no escaping it. Besides, my parents are out of town, so if nothing else, you can be there as my family."
And she was so happily insistent that Scotty literally couldn’t say no. He agreed, even as he started to feel ill. He wondered what the chances were of coming down with the flu sometime between 9:00 AM and 7:00 PM.
But that evening, he found himself standing in front of the door. He tried to calm himself and then he reached out to ring the bell. Almost immediately the door opened.
"Hi Scotty! Come on in!" Sarah said. She turned around quickly to tell Paige and Cooper to take their shoes off, and then faced Scotty again.
"How are you?"
Scotty nodded. "I’m great. You?"
"Really good. Exciting news about Justin and Tyler, huh?"
"Yeah. I heard all the details at work today," Scotty said with a laugh. "Everything was apparently very romantic. And she knew he was the one right from the beginning. Something about a ball and the Wicked Witch...? I don’t know, she was kind of babbling."
Sarah laughed. "Yeah, their first date was this charity ball for the children’s hospital. Mom organizes it every year. This year’s is actually next week."
The door opened again and both Scotty and Sarah turned to face the new arrival. It was Kevin, and Scotty thought he was going to pass out. His mouth went dry, and his heart started pounding, and he felt for all the world like he was back on drugs.
Kevin stared at them both for a second. "Hi," he finally said, turning around to close the door.
Scotty swallowed. "Hi Kevin," he said softly.
He turned back to Sarah, who was staring at him. She started to smile. "You know, why don’t you come with me? You can be my date."
Scotty started. "Excuse me?"
Sarah shook her head, waving her hand in front of her. "Not like that. I just think you could really rock a tux."
"Uh," And despite his best efforts, Scotty couldn’t help but glance over at a very surprised Kevin. He thought about Kevin in a tux; he thought about going to a ball where there’d be fancy clothes and good food and music and maybe a little romance. He turned back to Sarah. "OK," he agreed.
***
Dinner went smoother than Kevin expected. That might have been because he and Scotty were on the same side of the table, on either side of Kitty. He couldn’t actually see (stare at) him; he could just pretend Scotty wasn’t there. As Scotty stayed relatively quiet, it was quite simple, really. Until the end of the evening when everyone was preparing to leave, and Kevin found himself once again in the foyer with Scotty, this time alone.
Scotty smiled at him nervously. He opened his mouth to talk, but Kevin beat him to it.
"Look," he said quickly. "We should probably just acknowledge what happened and move on."
Scotty exhaled. "Yeah, yeah. I mean, it was nothing."
"Right. Certainly unintentional. It doesn’t mean anything."
"We were both asleep. It would have happened with anyone."
"Exactly."
Scotty took a deep breath. "So...we’re OK?"
Kevin nodded. "Absolutely. Friends."
"Great."
***
Scotty had to admit he was actually having a fun time. The meal had been amazing, and he had spent the last hour dancing with Sarah, as well as Tyler and Justin’s half-sister Rebecca. He also had spent the last hour sneaking glances at Kevin, admiring him in his tuxedo. Kevin had had several drinks and was starting to get tipsy, and, as attractive as he had been at the beginning of the night, now - with a loosened tie and twinkling eyes, with a wide smile and frequent laugh - he was downright gorgeous.
Perhaps for that reason, or perhaps because he was still embarrassed about recent events, Scotty had actually avoided too much interaction with Kevin that evening. Things had become increasingly out of control lately, and Scotty needed to take a step back, remind himself of his priorities, remind himself that he was supposed to be focusing on his sobriety, remind himself that Kevin had a boyfriend. Remind himself that he valued his friendship with Kevin too much to risk it with sex. For so many reasons, Kevin wasn’t an option. No matter how desperately horny Scotty was beginning to feel.
He sighed, leaning against the bar, as he waited for water for himself and a glass of wine for Sarah. He looked around the ballroom and smiled when he saw Kevin attempting to dance with Sarah. He wasn’t a very good dancer, and Sarah was clearly mocking him. They both laughed as they tried to figure out the steps.
"Ugh." Scotty tipped his head back in annoyance and forced himself to look away.
"Everything OK?"
Scotty started and turned in the direction of the voice. The man next to him was looking at him curiously, and Scotty blushed. "Yeah, fine," he said quickly.
Then the man smiled more sincerely, taking a small sip of his drink before holding out his hand. "Andrew Kent."
"Here you go, sir."
Scotty glanced at the bartender and thanked him. He looked at the drinks, then back to his neighbor. Then he smiled and held out his own hand. "Scotty Wandell."
***
"So things are completely back to normal, then?" Sarah asked.
Kevin nodded. "Yep. We talked about it, agreed it was an accidental, natural reaction and wasn’t worth worrying about. Everything’s fine."
"That’s probably for the best. He is still in recovery, after all."
"And I have a boyfriend."
"Right," Sarah said. "Him."
Kevin laughed. "What’s that supposed to mean?"
Sarah shrugged. "It means nothing."
Kevin stared at her suspiciously. They were silent for a moment, and then Sarah began speaking again.
"So you really have no feelings for him whatsoever?"
Kevin exhaled. "No," he said firmly.
"So it wouldn’t bother you at all to find out he’s, at this very minute, being hit on?"
"What?" Kevin immediately twisted around. Sarah and Kevin stopped dancing as they watched Scotty leaning closer to a strange man at the bar, talking softly as the other man added information to his cell phone. The man said something, and Scotty laughed. Kevin felt something in his stomach clench.
"No," he said unconvincingly. "No, it doesn’t bother me."
Next Chapter
Main Page