He Loves Him Read online

  Chapter 37 – Kit

  February 20th, 2017

  I had ended up falling asleep for a little while in Riker’s room after he fell asleep on me, luckily waking up before my own alarm went off in my pocket and woke him up. Unfortunately, even though I wanted nothing more than to stay there with him, I did have to go to class. I tucked him back under his covers and went to get ready for class. Before I left, I went back to his room and left a Gatorade on his nightstand for him.

  I knew he’d only sleep in fits and he wouldn’t want to eat anything, but his mouth would be dry, and he’d want a drink, but he wouldn’t get up for anything except maybe the bathroom. He was very much one of those people who didn’t function when sick unless absolutely necessary.

  I had two morning classes, then a lunch shift at the café, and a third class after that. Riker was certainly capable of taking care of himself for that long—I believed that a hundred percent. The problem was that by the time I was sitting in my second class, I knew that I wanted to be back home with him. He was sick, and that meant he was miserable, and I hated that. I wanted to take care of him and make him feel as better as I possibly could.

  There was no way I could trade my shift at work. It was already a short-staffed shift to begin with. Not many of us were available for that shift. Knowing that made me frown. My last class though didn’t have an attendance policy, the professor worked off the belief that at our level in the major if we weren’t there we had a good reason and that we’d manage to stay on top of the material and our work one way or another. I’d ask Elyse for the notes and if she refused, hopefully someone else would be willing to let me copy them.

  I was antsy during both of those first classes. It was a new sensation for me, being completely impatient for the class to be over and time to move faster, not being able to fully pay attention. Work wasn’t any better. I screwed up at least two orders that I know of. It was possible I messed up others and the customers just didn’t say anything. I apologized profusely to my boss before I left. I never messed up that bad, especially not on a short-staffed shift. Finally, I made it back to the apartment though.

  Riker was lying on the couch with what appeared to be everything off of his bed. He had one pillow under his head and the other clutched to his chest. His comforter and three other blankets were piled on top of him. I dropped my bag on the dining table then walked over and knelt by his head.

  “Hi,” I said softly.

  “Hi.” He smiled up tiredly at me.

  “What are you doing out here?” I rubbed his shoulder through all the blankets.

  “The TV. Couldn’t sleep,” he said as he rubbed at his face with a blanket-covered fist.

  I turned to see what he had on. “American Pickers, huh?”

  “They picked a castle,” he said matter-of-factly.

  “I bet you loved that.”

  “Mhmm,” he hummed.

  “Did they find any dragons?” I asked.

  “No,” he said with the saddest pout I had ever seen.

  “Aww, well that’s unfortunate. Everyone likes a good dragon.”

  “I want a dragon,” he said wistfully.

  “Maybe I’ll get you one for your birthday,” I said, filing away a mental note for later, “For now though, I brought you some orange juice.”

  “No pulp?” he asked.

  “Of course. What are we, heathens? Only heathens drink pulp.” That got a smile and a giggle out of him. “Alright, let me grab your juice. You can have some more medicine too if you want.”

  “I want.”

  “Yeah, I thought so,” I said as I leaned forward and planted a kiss on his forehead, “be right back.”

  When I returned a few moments later it was with both juice and medicine, but also a small container of goldfish. I was certain he hadn’t eaten anything yet today. There wasn’t much that I was confident he could keep down or that he would want to eat in his condition, but I was hoping goldfish would be the exception. Of course, it wasn’t the best thing for him given his lack of food recently, but it was better than nothing.

  “Think you can eat some of these?” I said as I held the container out to him.

  After struggling for a couple seconds, he managed to free one of his hands from the blankets to grab the goldfish and bring the bowl back close to his chest.

  “If I puke, you’re cleaning it up,” he said before cautiously putting two in his mouth.

  I cringed at the idea but agreed anyway. He certainly wouldn’t clean it up. I sat down on the other couch with the readings I needed to get done and quietly read while he slowly ate the goldfish and continued to watch American Pickers. I was impressed he was managing to stay awake as long as he was. It wasn’t until I finished my first chapter that I realized he was watching me and not the TV.

  “Are you enjoying your view?” I asked, amused.

  “Of course,” he said. I noticed he had curled up a little more under his mound of blankets.

  “You want me to hold you, don’t you?” He usually did when he started curling up and staring. Sometimes I said no, most the time I didn’t. It was nearly impossible to deny him when he was in the mood to be a cuddle monster.

  “Well you’re already out here, but only if you want to. I know you have homework to do.”

  I was already up and moving over to the couch by the time he stopped talking. “I only have reading, and I can do that and hold you at the same time. You’re going to have to lose at least one blanket though.”

  “I’m cold,” he whined

  “Yes, but I’m warm. I’m at least the equivalent of one blanket’s worth of heat.” I tugged his thinnest blanket off him then moved his legs so that I could sit down. Riker was still bemoaning the loss of the blanket as he clambered into my lap with his last two blankets. He settled sideways against my chest, head tucked in as low as he could comfortably get it, legs pulled up slightly, and still wrapped up as tight as he could get in his blankets. I curled one arm around his middle, underneath all the layers, and could feel the heat radiating off him.

  I put my book down to the side so that I could reach up and brush a hand through his hair. He was burning up. If he got any hotter it would really start worrying me. I wished I could’ve gotten another blanket off him, if not both. He definitely didn’t need the extra warmth.

  “You gonna go back to sleep?” I asked softly.

  “Yeah,” he said.

  I smiled and held him tighter.

  Chapter 38 – Kit

  February 21st, 2017

  I had one email open in my laptop in front of me, and two letters spread out on the desk. Two of them were job offers, and the third was a rejection. The first offer was only an hour away. It would be manageable to commute to and from for a year while Riker was still in school, but the pay and benefits were minimal. The second job was absolutely perfect, except for the fact it was in Houston.

  I hadn’t planned on applying to any jobs that would mean us having to be long distance, not until one of my professors told us about the job opportunity in Houston. It would be a dream job for anyone in my major. It was my dream job. It was everything that I always wanted in a job. And I couldn’t pass up a chance to apply for it. Except I hadn’t really expected to get it. I hadn’t thought about what would happen if I did. If it was just me, I would take it in a heartbeat, but it wasn’t just me, there was Riker, who was passed out behind me in my bed.

  Riker knew I had started applying for jobs after graduation a little while ago. We had talked about it, not in any great amount of detail, just that I was doing it. He knew that I had done a few interviews here and there. Except we hadn’t talked about where I was applying or how any of them would affect us if I got them. It seemed like one of those things we were both putting off talking about until we absolutely had to, and so far, that had been fine, but now we had to talk about it.

  If only I hadn’t been rejected by that one job. That was the one that would’ve made everything so much easi
er. It was local, the pay and the benefits were above average. It wasn’t the dream job, but it was still a perfectly acceptable job, and the perfect compromise between work and Riker. Without that job as an option, the decision about my future suddenly became difficult.

  Long distance certainly wasn’t ideal, and I didn’t want to do it, but I would be willing to try and make it work for this. I was pretty sure Riker wouldn’t be willing to go down that road again unless he had too, and I really didn’t want to make him. It was all just horrible timing. Riker was still sick, and the few hours he was awake didn’t exactly feel like a good time to do it. Responding to the offers wasn’t an urgent concern, I had some time, but I didn’t know how long it would take to work it all out with Riker once we talked about it. That could honestly take days to figure out, and I couldn’t make the decision without him.

  A coughing fit erupted behind me, but quieted down before I managed to get up. When I finally got to Riker, he was asleep again. I pressed my hand to his forehead. He was still feverish, but it wasn’t high enough for me to be overly concerned. I sighed as I looked at him. Letting him sleep in my bed probably wasn’t the best idea, but he had asked, and I couldn’t say no.

  “What’re you doing?” he mumbled suddenly.

  I brushed my hand softly through his hair. “Just checking on you. How you doing?”

  “’m tired.”

  “You can go back to sleep, Ri.”

  His hand snuck out from under the blankets and latched weakly onto the hem of my shirt. “Time is it?”

  “About five in the afternoon,” I answered quietly.

  “No work?” he asked, clearly having lost the ability to use full sentences.

  “No, no work today. Just getting some assignments done.”

  For a long minute he didn’t say anything. Assuming he had fallen back to sleep, I tried to free my shirt from his grasp, but his fingers just tightened in their grip.

  “You’re not gonna let me go are you?” I asked in amusement.

  “Don’t want to,” he said.

  “I’m so going to regret this,” I said as I pulled the blanket back and nudged him further away from the edge of the bed so that I could lie down next to him without breaking his grip, “Now will you go back to sleep?”

  “Blanket,” he mumbled as he nuzzled into my shoulder. I rolled my eyes, but pulled the blanket up over us anyway. His hand finally released my shirt in favor of sneaking up under it and flattening over my heart. It wasn’t really the most comfortable position for me, but then again neither was being underneath a blanket while I was pressed up against a human furnace. Oh well, there were worse positions to be in, and it worked for Riker, so that was the most important. There was a good chance I was going to catch whatever he had though.

  After a little while he relaxed completely against me, and I knew he was asleep again. I sighed. I wasn’t staring at the job offers anymore, but I was still thinking about them.

  Chapter 39 - Riker

  February 24th, 2017

  I groaned and flopped over onto my back. Was it too much trouble to be able to breathe through my nose? Or to have enough energy to do anything other than roll over in my bed? I was on the tail end of my cold, flu, whatever it was, and I knew that probably in another day I’d be back up on my feet, but that was too long for me. I wanted to get up and do something. Well I did want to, until I thought about doing something and immediately thought that, no, I’d rather be in bed. I’d turned my bed into a nice, comfortable, nest, and I wasn’t going to leave my nest. I had every blanket I owned, and one of Kit’s along with all my pillows, and one of Kit’s. It was perfect. He had even let me wear one of his hoodies. So not only was I nice and warm in my amazingly soft nest of bedding, but I was surrounded by Kit’s smell as well. Which was nice since he was in class and apparently, I miss him twice as much as usual when I’m sick.

  Oh well. Kit would just tell me to go back to sleep anyway. I groaned at the thought. I didn’t want to sleep anymore. I knew I would though, I still felt tired, but I wanted to hold out at least a little while. I groaned and rolled around again until I could see my phone, then I reached out for it. Multiple times now I had made the mistake of just reaching out for it without looking only to drop it and then spend hours completely sad and without my phone because I didn’t have the energy to get up and get it. Lessons were learned, and now I made sure I could see my phone first.

  Once it was safely in my grasp I rolled again until I was on my side. Then I burrowed under my blankets, giving a contented sigh once I settled. I yawned then immediately pouted. No, I would not fall asleep. I was going to watch TV, well, whatever I had on my phone anyway. I was pretty sure I still had a few movies I could access.

  “Ohhh,” I said excitedly to myself once I opened up the correct app. Dad had added more movies to our digital library. I scrolled through the library for about five minutes before excitingly selecting the Lord of the Rings, Fellowship of the Ring, extended edition of course. It never got old. I wondered if Kit would watch the other two with me later. He had actually read the books, but we had never sat down to watch the movies together. He says he likes them, but I always wondered if he was one of those people who liked to watch but spent the whole time pointing out what’s wrong with it. Eh, he’d probably be cute getting all grumpy about it.

  That was what I was thinking about as I watched the hobbits make their way to Rivendell. Then suddenly I was blinking my eyes open, unaware of the fact that I had ever closed them to begin with. The blankets had been pulled back a little ways so that my head wasn’t underneath them. I blinked curiously and rolled onto my other side, facing my nightstand. There was a Gatorade sitting there, and my phone was there plugged in. I didn’t do that.

  I grabbed my phone and shoved it into my hoodie pocket then climbed out of my bed and yanking a blanket off as well. I wrapped the blanket around my shoulders and opened my door, pausing to listen and figure out which room I should head to. Based on the sound of the TV I started walking to the living room. Kit was sitting with his back against the couch arm rest and his legs pulled up and slightly stretched out in front of him.

  I walked over and mimicked his position on the other side of the couch. Our feet overlapping a little.

  “You’re awake,” Kit said.

  “You’re home,” I said.

  “I am. Came in as Galadriel was going all crazy. That was three hours ago.”

  I pouted. I was supposed to stay awake, and now I really wanted to finish the movie.

  “Being sick sucks,” I grumbled.

  “You sound better than when I left,” he pointed out.

  Now that he mentioned it, yeah, I felt a bit better. I didn’t feel ridiculously hot or cold, and I could almost breathe normally. My throat wasn’t scratchy, and even more importantly, “Kit, I’m hungry.”

  “Really?” he sounded pleasantly surprised.

  “Yeah. I mean I don’t think I could eat a full meal or anything heavy, but like a sandwich. A peanut butter and jelly sandwich,” I said.

  “You want a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?” he asked.

  “Yeah,” I answered.

  “Right,” he said and stood up heading for the kitchen.

  “I didn’t mean you had to make it!” I called after him.

  “I know, but I am,” he yelled back to me.

  I stretched my legs out fully across the couch and listened to him bustle around the kitchen. A couple minutes later he came back, looked down at me, then tapped my shoulder. “Come on, make some room,” he said. I sat up just enough for him to slide onto the couch before I leaned back against him. He handed me my sandwich on a plate then looped his arm loosely around my torso.

  “Thanks, Kit.”

  “You’re welcome,” he said with a kiss to my cheek.

  I took a bite of my sandwich and hummed in appreciation. It tasted glorious after days of not eating anything but goldfish. I ate half of it before I tilted my head up to look at
Kit.

  “Kit?”

  “What?”

  “Will you watch the Lord of the Rings with me?” I asked hopefully.

  “But you just watched it,” he said.

  “But I didn’t finish it,” I whined. “I can’t start and not finish.”

  “Alright, I guess we can watch it,” he agreed.

  “And then the other two?” I asked.

  “Riker, it’s like seven o’clock already. We are not staying up to watch all three,” he said.

  “Oh,” I said, having lost track ages ago of what time it was. “Can we watch the other two tomorrow then?”

  “Sure.”

  I flashed him the biggest smile I could then returned to the last half of my sandwich. I didn’t notice how tense he was underneath me until I had finished eating, set my plate aside, and he said “Hey Riker, before we watch the movie can I talk to you about something real quick?”

  I sat up and turned to face him, my knees pulled up, and trying as hard as I could to not look worried. “Yeah, sure,” I said, putting as much forced happiness into it as I could. Kit sat up cross-legged across from me and smiled comfortingly.

  “So, I got a couple job offers this week,” Kit said.

  I smiled genuinely at him. “That’s amazing Kit! Congratulations.”

  “Yeah, thanks,” he said happily before deflating a little, “Uh, the thing is though that the one job I would have to commute every day, and with the pay I would just be scraping by on all my bills and loan payments, but the better offer, the best one I applied for, is in Houston.”

  My smile dropped. “Oh,” I said.

  “I didn’t think I’d get it. It was a one in a million shot, that’s why I didn’t tell you about it when I applied,” he explained.