Geir shrugged. It didn’t sound like much, but he didn’t really keep track.
Declan looked the other way. Geir couldn’t see anything of interest except for Declan’s backpack, leaning against the couch. Declan kept his sketchbook and pencils in there, and usually took it with him when he went out.
If this was a puzzle that Geir was supposed to solve, he was doing a poor job of it. His mind didn’t move quickly like Declan’s. He needed more clues.
Finally, he had enough and walked around the table to pull Declan into his arms. He’d expected a fight, or at least a sarcastic remark, but Declan only seemed relieved.
He sat down on the couch and pulled Declan sideways across his lap. Declan squirmed restlessly and, taking a risk, he partially shifted to wrap his two tentacles around him. After the first day, he’d only done this once, when Declan seemed to ask for it and fell asleep in his arms. He was trying to keep things normal, he supposed.
But Declan was upset, and until he figured out why, he wanted him close.
Declan tensed up when he was first restrained, and then his whole body went limp. “Thank you,” he murmured.
Declan gave an experimental shift, and Geir tightened his tentacles and arms. He didn’t mind letting Declan wander or dance away as long as he was happy, but when he wasn’t, he wanted him close.
“This week has been like a dream,” Declan finally murmured.
“A good dream?”
Declan nuzzled his chest. “The best dream. Thank you.”
That sounded good. “I’ve enjoyed this week as well.” There weren’t words enough to explain how he felt alive again with Declan in his home and in his arms.
Declan only sounded a little morose when he spoke again. “Are you allowed to tell me what you do for work? Or is that forbidden, too?”
Had that been part of the conversation? Geir was going to have to start thinking faster to catch up. Or maybe Declan would be patient with him. “I don’t work. I mean, I used to fish and trade with the neighbors.” How long ago had that been? “I helped build things sometimes, when someone asked.” He couldn’t remember the last time, though.
“So, should I get a job do you think?” Declan seemed to be begging for something with his questions, but Geir didn’t know what it was. “Maybe I could go back to programming, though I never liked that as much as I thought I would. Maybe editing or proofreading? Or I could be one of those medical transcriptionists in all of those internet ads.” Declan laughed darkly, but Geir had no idea why that was funny. “I wanted to get back to doing my art, but I suppose that will have to wait until there’s more financial stability.”
Geir felt his chest tightening up. He didn’t know what most of those careers were, but there certainly weren’t jobs like that nearby. The medical job sounded like something at a hospital. And he had only a vague idea of what programming was. He realized that Declan hadn’t ever actually said he was staying. Was that what this whole conversation was about? Was Declan leaving?
He looked at the backpack near his foot. It looked ominously full. “So, you’d go to Cleveland or Toledo?” he asked hesitantly.
It would be a two hour drive each way. Or maybe Declan would just move there. Could Geir move to a city? Would Declan even want him to?
He was so lost in his own thoughts, he didn’t notice at first that Declan was pushing out of his arms until he roughly shoved the tentacle that was coiled around his middle. Geir loosened it to let Declan escape, even though it was the last thing he wanted to do.
He jerked his head up to find Declan standing trembling and gorgeous, his tight shirt and tiny shorts doing more to display than cover the round, red welts and little scratches that covered his body. Geir’s marks.
Though they were starting to fade.
He looked miserable with his arms crossed over his chest and mumbled something that Geir was almost sure was “I should have known.”
“What should you have known?” he asked sharply. How had this all gone so wrong so quickly? Why was Declan standing on the other side of the room in the hazy light of the window instead of in his arms?
“What you said before. That was just a sex thing, I guess. Which is, like, fine. Because it’s not like you know me anyway. I’m just some stupid pretty boy passing through town. I’ll, um, I’ll be on my way tonight.” Declan forced a wobbly grin onto his face, but it didn’t match his sad eyes. “We can still have fun until then, right?”
Geir still wasn’t sure what was going on, but Declan was his. He needed Declan closer to him because he couldn’t bear those sad eyes. He needed to figure this out.
He reached out his tentacles and drew Declan back to his lap, catching him in his arms when the movement made him stumble. He wrapped each tentacle around as far as it would go, two or three times around Declan’s squirming body, and then pulled with the suckers at the tips, too. It was instinctive. Declan wasn’t getting away.
Declan stopped squirming. He wasn’t fighting the entrapment or the pressure, but he was still tense. “I guess that’s a yes on the fun?” he said, his voice too bright. He didn’t do a good job of hiding his emotions, which was lucky for Geir because his words sometimes went too fast for him to follow. Declan definitely wasn’t as happy as his smile suggested.
Geir needed a moment to think. It sounded like they were talking about jobs, but maybe they were just talking about Declan being his. He had to figure this out. “Do you want to have a job?”
Declan shrugged, but it was more of a push against Geir’s shoulder and tentacles, since he was so tightly bound. “I mean, I don’t really have a job that I want, but it’s what grownups have to do, right? To make money? And be independent?” He sounded bitter, though. Which meant that he didn’t want a job.
Geir had discovered that he was confused a lot around Declan. He was still convinced that it was worth it.
“But you don’t want those things.”
“I…” Declan started to speak and then buried his head in Geir’s chest, his lips brushing the top of one tentacle. “I thought it would be helpful. But I guess it doesn’t really matter, does it?”
Geir still felt like they were speaking two different languages. He knew more than a dozen, but this was something else. Language and society had shifted more in the past century than ever before, and he hadn’t kept up. He thought that maybe that was part of the problem, but he just didn’t know enough to work around it.
“Declan,” he finally tried. Maybe direct was best. “Do you want to be with me?”
His hummingbird looked wary, but hopeful. “Do you want me to?”
“Of course. You said that you were mine. But I would find it very difficult to let you go each day. And there aren’t any jobs around here. I’m not sure that I could live in a city, either. I think maybe you could reconsider having a job?”
Declan looked confused, and then his expression visibly cleared, like a storm breaking into sunlight. He laughed with abandon, squirming around like he wanted to free his arms, and then subsiding when Geir didn’t let him go.
He was completely limp now, relaxed and happy. Geir wasn’t quite sure what had changed, but this was the way he should always be.