Butterbean and the Pretty Princess Make a Home

R. Cooper

Copyright © 2014 R. Cooper

Second Edition 2019

Cover art by Erin Gamble

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Content tags: some body shaming, anxiety, mention of Hitler, misogynistic insults

Butterbean and the Pretty Princess Make a Home

Riley picked up his jacket from the back of the couch and tried to put it on while also grabbing his phone. He got the phone to his ear right as Eli turned around and saw him. Soft brown eyes swept over Riley’s hair and his leather jacket before coming back to his face. For a moment, Eli stared hopefully at him, but then he blinked and turned away before Riley could think to say anything. Too late, he noticed that Eli had been getting out food to cook something, and that he hadn’t been pulling out portions for one.

“You were making dinner?” It was such a useless question, but then, Riley tended to say useless things around Eli. It was like just being around him shut off most of Riley’s higher brain functions. “What were you making? I can stay.”

Eli shook his head and closed the fridge. He smiled over his shoulder.

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll have some for lunch tomorrow.” He pulled out some resealable containers from the cabinet where he kept them arranged by size and color and set them aside for later. Then he moved back to get some arborio rice for risotto from the pantry.

The kitchen was a tiny open space connected to the apartment’s living room. Only the line of tile meeting carpet marked the end of the “room,” so Eli didn’t go far, but Riley stared at him anyway, watching Eli roll up his sleeves to expose his furred and freckled forearms and wash his hands with care before touching anything else. Then he realized that he was staring and looked away. He also realized that his phone was at his ear and Chase had been complaining for a solid minute now without Riley hearing a word.

“Are you even listening to me?” Chase tended to get nasal when he was at his bitchiest. Riley moved the phone farther from his ear and ran his other hand through his hair. He’d just put product in it, more for the shine than for anything else. His short hair looked styled no matter what he did to it. It was like his clothes—he could wear anything, and Chase or the others would lament that he still looked like he’d stepped off a runway.

Riley thought he looked good, but though his looks had gotten him the ability to get laid when he wanted, that didn’t mean much to him these days.

“No.” Riley looked back over. Eli was pretending not to listen, though Chase’s voice was loud enough to carry across the apartment and then some. Riley watched Eli’s measured, sure motions and tuned Chase out again. Eli didn’t make dinner all the time, just when the mood struck him or on the nights when Riley was home too. Riley had never had a roommate who cooked for him before. He had never had a roommate like Eli before, period. It was nice to have someone who didn’t leave the bathroom a mess and who let him put up Magritte and Kandinsky prints without complaining that they were weird, someone who actually wanted to talk to him during those times that Riley could find his voice around him.

Eli talked as he cooked, about all kinds of things, like the news and what book he was reading. He set out place settings for both of them at the counter and poured out wine—expensive wine that he kept trying to get Riley to appreciate. Riley liked that about him too. Eli wasn’t the type to make fun of someone for not knowing something; he just shared what he knew about it and seemed happy when somebody listened.

Riley had only ever read about risotto before moving in with Eli, like he’d only ever heard about all the types of wine, but one bite and he’d known Eli’s cooking was special. His risotto alone was reason enough to blow off Chase and the others and stay home, but even without it, Riley would have wanted to stay in. Chase wasn’t his favorite person, whereas Eli would actually give a rat’s ass if Riley told him about his day.

Probably not anymore, however, not now that he’d seen that Riley was heading out. Eli was frowning down at some chicken breasts as if they had personally offended him.

Riley’s gaze traveled down the tense line of Eli’s back and then around to the slope of his chubby belly and back over to all the brown hair on his forearms. He looked up quickly when Eli and Chase both starting speaking at the same time.

“Did you forget something?” Eli asked quietly, glancing at him before returning to the chicken. Without the sound of his voice, the whole apartment seemed silent.

“I could stay.” Riley said it again, maybe a little too forcefully, because Eli paused as he reached for a knife.

He didn’t look over, but he shrugged, and his tone was deliberately light. “I wouldn’t want to keep you from your friends.”

“It’s no big loss.” It was the first thing that came to mind. Riley only remembered that one of his friends could still hear him when Eli looked at him with his eyebrows up and a hint of a smile.

Riley smiled back without thinking.

“Riley, goddamn it, you had better not be ignoring me to talk to the Bernstein Bear.” That got Riley’s full attention. Eli’s shoulders went up, though Riley wasn’t sure if Eli had heard that or not. It wasn’t Chase’s first time making the Berenstain Bear joke with Eli’s last name, so it was possible that Eli could guess what Chase was hissing about him. Chase never would shut the hell up, no matter who told him to.

“Chase, try being quiet for once,” Riley tried again anyway, and moved toward the door, which put him by the counter and in Eli’s line of sight, if Eli looked over. Eli was focused on cutting up the chicken, working carefully with one of his expensive knives. He was a careful guy. Riley had never met anyone else their age who was that careful. It was like caution had been bred into Eli at age two, along with a love of math and the urge to wear worn plaid button-downs. Sometimes he seemed so much older than twenty-nine.

Riley hadn’t understood him at all when he’d first moved in a year and a half ago, which was the only reason he’d ever complained about Eli to anyone, and probably the reason why Chase kept thinking his jokes about him were appreciated.

“I don’t know why you like him.” And yet Chase kept talking.

“I mean it this time, Chase.” Riley sighed into the phone. “Shut the hell up.”

“Your friends are truly spectacular. Have I mentioned that before?” Eli remarked from over by the sink. He glanced over as he washed his hands. He wasn’t quite frowning. It was more like he wanted Chase to hear his sarcasm, but didn’t want to start a fight. The look on his face stopped Riley cold again all the same, because maybe Eli didn’t want to fight with Riley, but he’d obviously heard that “Bernstein Bear” comment, and it had hurt him.

Eli’s gaze was on him, and for another second Riley was struck by how big and warm Eli’s eyes were, how soft all of Eli’s expressions were, really, even when he was angry, as if he really were a kind of teddy bear, the kind kids hugged when they were scared and cuddled up to in the dark. Then Eli did level a frown at him, and Riley had the fleeting thought that sometimes Eli was more like a real bear, a snarling, wounded grizzly.

“Really. Total charmers.” Eli’s tone would have been hard to miss, even through the phone. Chase immediately started squawking in Riley’s ear.

I’m not like him. Riley wanted to say it so much that he raised a hand to cover the phone so Chase wouldn’t hear, but Eli saw the gesture and stopped him before he could manage a word. His expression was fierce and disappointed and sad before he turned back to face the food he was preparing.

“He’s angry because I’m late.” Riley heard himself saying something useless again, something that wasn’t what he’d wanted to say. He tried to offer a smile, something sexy or charming. It came out embarrassed and apologetic and he knew it. It was hard to act sexy around Eli, especially when he was like this. Eli was sexy without even trying to be, whatever Chase thought. Eli shaved twice a day and still had scruff at his jaw. His eyes were like hot cocoa and his hair was the kind of wavy mess that could have been straightened with product if Eli were the type to wear any, which he wasn’t. Eli was the sort to wear plain shirts and look good in them. He looked like a man, like a real man, and Riley looked away before he could get caught staring again.

“Or—hear me out—Chase is a complete tool.” Once riled, Eli was relentless. Riley couldn’t blame him. Chase was an asshole. Riley didn’t even know why he was friends with him, except that they used to party together when they were younger and he was still good to go get a drink with some nights.

Not tonight, obviously. Now Chase was going to rant about Eli all night until Riley got a headache and had to leave. If there hadn’t been other people expecting him, he wouldn’t even go.

He hesitated anyway, trying to think of a reason to stay. He pulled the phone from his ear while Eli looked him over again, from Riley’s tight jeans to his equally tight T-shirt to the worn creases in his leather jacket. For a second, when their eyes met, Riley thought that maybe Eli liked how he looked. Most people liked how Riley looked. He was tall, with tattoos that showed no matter what he wore and just enough muscle to be interesting. His hair was black and his eyes were almost the same color. Guys and girls hit on him when he went out, even the girls who knew he was gay. Everyone hit on him, except for Eli.

Sure, there were times that Riley had caught Eli looking at him, but Eli had never said or done anything about it. It gave Riley the feeling that Eli thought he was pretty, but not much more. He didn’t think Eli liked pretty. Chase was pretty and knew it. It was why he treated people the way he did, why he made fun of Eli’s body hair or his weight. But Riley wasn’t like Chase. He’d hoped Eli had known that.

But Eli wasn’t even looking at him anymore, so Riley dropped his gaze while he told Chase that he was on his way and then hung up. He thought about asking what Eli had planned for the night besides dinner, but if Eli wasn’t going out, he usually fell asleep on the couch watching TV. Sometimes on those nights Riley would stay home and watch with him. Right now, it sounded so much better than going out with Chase.

If there was a way to ask to stay without sounding as desperate to curl up next to Eli as he was, Riley had yet to think of it. When he didn’t say anything, Eli closed his mouth and walked over to the stove.

“Don’t forget it’s your week to take the garbage to the curb,” Eli reminded him, with enough irritation in his voice to make Riley shrug his leather jacket into place and run his hands through his hair again.

“Sure, whatever.” He grabbed his keys and his wallet. “I’ll be back late or not at all,” he called out despite not wanting to go out anymore and heard Eli’s flat response just before the door closed behind him.

“Don’t expect me to wait.”

The door clicked closed on the last word.

Riley’s hands were full, so he had to bang on the door with his shoulder. Eli opened it looking irritated and mussed, like he’d been halfway to passing out in front of the TV. Riley wished he’d been there with him, falling asleep tantalizingly close to Eli with some comedy news show in the background. If Riley hadn’t been busy wrangling two unhappy, filthy kittens and keeping them from falling out of his arms, he might have spent another moment regretting choosing to go out and missing the sight of laughing, drowsy Eli.

But the kittens were insistent and unbelievably flexible, so he pushed his way inside the moment Eli opened the door and tried not to think about how despite his frown, Eli had seemed happy to see him. It didn’t last. In the next second, Eli was way too alarmed to be called happy. He stepped back out of Riley’s way and closed the door, then followed after him.

“You’re back earlier than I—Riley, those are kittens!” Eli blurted and Riley turned to stare at him with his mouth open, because apparently Eli could say useless things too. Riley gaped at him until one of the kittens, the slightly bigger one, complained.

“Yes, Eli. These are kittens. I’m glad you noticed.” Riley could be just as sarcastic as Eli under the right circumstances. He fought the wriggling, protesting bundles in his arms and moved toward the couch only to run into Eli, who jumped in front of him. His eyes were huge, and he kept looking from Riley’s face to the cats and back again.

“Those are kittens!” he hissed, as if they were wild animals and Riley had lost his mind. For a moment, Riley didn’t know what to say, but the kittens did not have that problem. They howled at the way he was holding them, so he tried to put them down on the couch. Eli immediately yelped again. “That’s the couch! Don’t put them there! They’re dirty!”

Eli had probably never stated the obvious so much in his life. Riley kind of liked it, even if he thought Eli might be about to have a panic attack.

“Are they feral?” Eli hovered in his way, peering down at the two cats and then reacting as though their quiet mewing was the roar of two lions. He flinched and looked at Riley with shock all over his face. “Did they scratch you?”

Riley’s fingers stung with a dozen tiny puncture wounds and stripes, but he felt like he’d survived a brutal stabbing when Eli gave him that sorry, wounded look.

“They’re a little feral,” he admitted in a quieter voice than he’d meant to use, then spent a second wondering if that was why Eli frowned at him.

“What does that even mean? Why do you have kittens, Riley? When you left here you didn’t have any kittens and now, now you have kittens. And you’re back early.”

“Wow.” Was really all there was to say to that. Riley had never seen Eli like this. He looked completely thrown by the sight of two half-starved baby cats. Riley lifted his arms to hold them up to Eli’s eye level and watched Eli focus on them. “I came home—” early, because he hadn’t wanted to go out at all anymore “—and remembered the garbage. I found them when I went to get the can and pull it to the curb.” He knew he had Eli’s attention from the way Eli wet his mouth at the word garbage. “I don’t think they’ve been on their own longer than a day or two.” He took a deep breath. “Look, I know you probably don’t want them here, but I couldn’t leave them out there.” He would beg if it meant keeping them here until he could find them homes or take them to a shelter. Hopefully a no-kill shelter. He thought there was one in one of the suburbs outside of the city.

“In the garbage?” Eli repeated on a warm exhale. His eyes met Riley’s. “Who would do that?” He looked at Riley as if he really wanted an answer, as if the possibility that someone would abandon something helpless had never occurred to him before. Maybe it hadn’t. Eli was from one of those suburbs after all, one of the cleaner, wealthier ones.

It should have been annoying how naïve Eli was about stray animals, of all things, but Riley could only think how he kind of wanted to keep Eli that innocent forever.

But the kittens squirmed again, swiping at Eli, who backed away. Riley turned and, for lack of a better place, set them both on the kitchen floor. Eli hovered uncertainly behind him for another few seconds, but then knelt down with him to watch them.

The kittens were both black and white, though the bigger one was mostly black and had a fluffier coat. The smaller one had a white underbelly that was coated in so much dirt it was almost brown, and white paws and a white face except for the dotting of black beneath its nose. They both had tails that looked cropped, and they were both looking back at the two humans with wide, frightened eyes.

Riley had a feeling Eli’s expression was about the same. It made him want to smile so much his cheeks hurt.

“What happened to their tails?” Eli was practically pressed against his back. Alarm was rough in his voice. Riley reached back to reassure him, then stopped when he realized his hand was on Eli’s knee and that Eli was looking to him to explain something.

Riley tried to think so his words could come out how he wanted them to.

“They were probably born that way. It happens to some cats.” He cleared his throat when Eli did not seem calmed by that information, then lowered his voice and leaned back. “Relax, okay?”

“Relax?” Eli demanded. He wasn’t pulling away from Riley’s hand, Riley couldn’t help but notice. “Relax?” he asked again. “With my allergies?”

This was the first Riley had heard of any cat allergies, and he twisted around to get a look at Eli, but Eli wasn’t flushed, wasn’t breaking out in hives, wasn’t even sneezing. He was studying the kittens with a kind of horrified curiosity until he noticed Riley staring at him. Then he frowned and huffed a breath.

“Could you be any more hysterical?” Riley’s ability to be sarcastic seemed to have left him. He was quiet and he knew he was still smiling. “They’re just kittens.”

Eli huffed again. “They could be diseased!” He pointed at the two cats and they renewed meowing. Eli spoke louder, as if he had to win the argument he and the cats were apparently having, and then turned to Riley. “They could have worms!”

Riley had never wanted to smile and roll his eyes at the same time. Out of everyone and everything in the kitchen right now, Eli was the one puffing up and trying to hiss. But his eyes narrowed when he saw Riley grinning at him, so Riley tried to be serious.

“Calm down. What do you want me to do, put them back out there?” He thought of the soggy cardboard box that had probably been what the kittens had been dumped in. They were no more than two months old, if that, and small. Someone had probably given up on finding them a home and decided to get rid of them. He scowled, but he didn’t have to say anything because Eli obviously hadn’t forgotten that the kittens had been thrown out like trash.

Eli’s lips parted. Riley tried not to stare at them or notice how soft and red they were.

“But they would starve to death,” Eli protested.

Riley reached out again. When his hand landed on Eli’s knee for the second time, Eli looked at him with need all over his face. Riley had to take a moment to remember that Eli needed him to answer a question and that was all.

“That’s why I have to feed them,” Riley told him as gently as he could, and was grateful when the mention of food made Eli blink and finally, finally stop acting like Riley had brought dangerous killers into the house. He leaned back enough to let Riley breathe.

“Food. Okay. I can handle that much.” Eli pulled away from Riley and got to his feet. A second later, he was pulling a tuna steak from the fridge.

“Are you serious?” Riley gaped at him and regretted it when Eli clutched the container of fish to his chest and got defensive.

“They need protein. I thought cats liked fish.”

“They’re kittens.” Riley tried to object, he really did, but Eli looked so determined and stern, and it was his tuna steak, after all. At least Eli took his mild protest seriously.

“Well, I’m all out of breast milk, Riley.” Eli was just being sarcastic now. “What do you suggest?”

“I am not even going to go there with that image.” Riley realized he was whispering as if he was afraid to spook Eli. He was having a hard enough time keeping the bemused smile from his face. Luckily, the expectant cries of the kittens helped him stay on track. “What about regular milk?”

Eli stopped without opening the container of tuna and then stared into the fridge. “All I have is non-fat. Wait. I have whipping cream.” He held up the pint. “It’ll have to do.”

Riley stood up and accidentally scared the babies into the corner, but it let him move enough to get into a cabinet for one of Eli’s soup bowls. Eli made a noise behind him, but when Riley turned he was biting his lip. He didn’t say anything when Riley put the bowl on the floor.

“I will get them something better to eat tomorrow,” Riley promised him. “And I’ll wash the bowl.” He took the pint from Eli and crouched back down to pour the cream.

The kittens must have been starving, because it didn’t take longer than a minute for both to approach the bowl and start lapping up the cream. They went to town with little growls and a swipe at Riley’s hand when he didn’t pull it away fast enough. He handed the rest of the whipping cream up to Eli, who put it away and then hesitated before dropping to his knees. He waited a second before leaning in closer again, then he exhaled.

Once again, Eli was almost pressed to Riley’s side. He was warm, though Riley couldn’t feel much of him with his leather jacket in the way. “They’re so little. Who would do that to anything so harmless?”

“Bad people.” Eli deserved a better answer, but when Riley looked over, Eli looked like he was taking him very seriously. His expression hardened until Riley almost felt sorry for whoever had dumped the cats if Eli ever found them. Eli came from a family of rich doctors, and he was a lawyer specializing in tax law. He would probably sic the IRS on them.

Riley wanted to touch him again, even just his knee, but didn’t move. He tried another question instead. “How are your allergies?”

Eli glanced down at himself and then back up in a quick, alarmed inventory. He blinked, and his expression seemed more confused than anything.

“Any redness? Itching?” Riley wondered out loud, though Eli was obviously already noticing his total lack of a reaction. “Maybe you aren’t allergic to cats.”

“But growing up, my mom always said I couldn’t have a pet because….” Eli trailed off and met Riley’s gaze before jumping to his feet. “I need to call my mother.”

Riley stared after him for another second. “Tell her I said hi.”

It earned him a Look. They both knew, even though Eli usually denied it, that Eli’s parents hated Riley. It could have been his tattoos, or his job of giving other people tattoos, but Riley had a feeling it was probably the proudly homosexual part of him that they didn’t like. They probably thought he was out to get their precious baby boy.

Riley watched Eli paced by the front door as he called his mother, and then remembered his reaction to Eli’s fussing about the kittens and let out a breath. Eli’s parents had a point.

Of course, Eli’s parents had yet to accept, or figure out, that Eli was gay, and Eli wasn’t about to tell them or make them see the obvious, so he probably wasn’t interested in seriously dating anyone, much less Riley. Eli didn’t even bring anyone home. He always went out of the apartment to hook up.

Riley scowled and then tuned back in to Eli arguing with his mom.

“No, I know you stay awake to watch the late news, so I didn’t wake you up. No, I haven’t called Mrs. Parker’s niece back yet. Mom, can you please focus on how you lied to me through my entire childhood? Lying isn’t nice.”

He looked over and saw Riley’s dark expression. For a long moment, he looked more like a hunted deer than a bear, then he turned away to growl something at his mother that ended with the fiercest, “Dinner this weekend. I love you too. Good bye,” that Riley had ever heard. The next moment, Eli spun around with one hand in the air and his eyes on Riley.

“Not a word,” he warned as he came back. His color was high.

“I didn’t say anything.” Riley lowered his eyebrows and crossed his arms and tried to look non-judgy even if he felt a little judgy.

“You don’t know them.” Eli was staring at the kittens when Riley turned to look at him. He was motionless, but Riley didn’t think he was any calmer. Eli’s mother didn’t have that effect on him. It had probably taken all of Eli’s balls just to tell his parents he was going into tax law and not something nobler. Helping the rich stay rich was what they called it, as if they weren’t wealthy themselves. Eli’s work for non-profits and other organizations never seemed to matter to them. But though they had their own ideas about Eli’s happiness and future, they did love him. Anyone could see that.

“Eli,” Riley breathed out. Eli eased back down to the floor at his side, then looked at him. Riley tried to think of the right thing to say. He wanted Eli to be happy too. “I didn’t say anything.” Maybe it wasn’t what he said but how he said it, with their gazes locked and his tone soft, because after a pause Eli relaxed enough to give him a small, sheepish nod.

Riley turned to the cats so he wouldn’t get caught staring. Eli made a sound but then looked at the cats too.

“Riley?” Eli began cautiously. “Is that—?”

“Yeah.” Riley looked at the skinny one, who had finished eating and was staring at Eli as it cleaned itself. The black spots under its nose looked like a mustache. It looked like—well it didn’t look good.

“It looks like Hitler.” Eli said it. The kitten stopped at the sound of his voice. “It is so wrong on so many levels that I am looking at Cat-Hitler right now.” Eli’s voice rose. The kitten didn’t take its yellow eyes off him. “Cat-Hitler is staring at me.”

Riley controlled the urge to laugh, barely, but couldn’t stop his smile. Eli raised his head in time to see it. But though a line formed between his eyes, after a second he smiled back and looked back down at, as he called it, Cat-Hitler.

“I’m hoping as the baby get older it morphs into more of a Dali ‘stache. Maybe Groucho Marx. Do you want to pet it?” That one had claws that Riley had already felt, so he reached out to the plumper one, who was trying to get any remaining cream from the bowl. Its fur was matted and clumped, but it raised its head and then without warning plopped onto its side so Riley could scratch its belly. Someone had been kind to it once, at least. “Like this.” He gently rubbed the spot between the cat’s eyes and watched them close. The fur was warm, like the belly fat with milk. Eli barely seemed to be breathing.

“What now?” he asked at last. It was so surprising that Riley froze.

“Because I have all the answers?” He’d never thought about explaining anything to Eli before. Not that Eli hadn’t asked, just that he’d always thought Eli was so much smarter than him.

“You know more than I do,” Eli defended himself in a low voice, looking for all the world like he’d failed somehow. Riley touched his shoulder, rubbing a circle for a moment before Eli looked down at his hand and he remembered what he was doing. He pulled his hand back and focused on the kitten in front of him.

“I grew up with pets, that’s all.”

“Oh.” He heard Eli swallow. “That must have been nice. I guess it would be, I mean. Having pets around. Like a puppy or even a goldfish. Of course, you can’t pet a goldfish.”

Eli still hadn’t petted the kittens. Riley would have given up his leather jacket to see him try it, and he had bought this jacket with his very first adult paycheck years and years ago. He watched Eli freak out and thought about Eli as a kid, wanting a puppy or a kitten of his very own. He frowned, then cleared his throat.

“Now”—he put his hands together, startling Eli and the cats—“we clean them up a bit and go to bed, unless you want to keep watching TV.” Eli was staring at him like he’d lost his mind. “What?”

“We?” Eli sounded alarmed again, though not nearly as panicky as he had a few moments before. “Cats hate water, don’t they?” Eli looked into Riley’s eyes like he had visions of being mauled to death and he needed Riley to save him.

Riley wanted to pull him close and kiss it all better. He wanted to run his thumb over the line between Eli’s eyes until he wasn’t frowning anymore. He wanted to give Eli a kitten and be there to watch him raise it.

He sucked in a breath and kept his hands to himself with a lot of effort.

He moved quickly to get away from temptation and to grab a dishtowel and wet it with warm water. It occurred to him in the next second that a wet towel wasn’t going to do much good, so he put the plug in the sink and filled it with enough tepid water to splash it around a little.

“You don’t need soap?” Eli was up and peering over his shoulder. His breath tickled Riley’s neck. Riley shivered and looked up, startled at how close they were. Eli blinked and pulled away first. He knelt down and awkwardly reached out to pat the head of the plumper kitten.

“No.” Riley’s tone was too warm and he knew it. “Eli.” It was a whisper, so he shook his head and tried to do better. “We don’t have any soap that’s safe for them to lick off, so no. Can you hand me a kitten, please?”

“Okay.” Eli didn’t sound so sure. He took a second to obviously marshal his courage and then scooped up the bigger one and held it out away from his body and face as he stood up and handed it over.

“It’s not a grenade, Eli,” Riley teased quietly and grinned when Eli told him to shut up without any force in his voice at all. Riley took the cat, then stopped and handed it back to a worried Eli before stripping off his jacket and setting it aside. He took the kitten back and held it by the scruff of the neck as he splashed some water on it and went to work gently wiping off the worst of the dirt.

The kitten flailed out with its little paws and then went still and only whined at him as he rubbed it all over with the wet towel. Riley was grateful. A fighting cat wouldn’t have done Eli any good.

Eli was looking from Riley to the kitten and then back again. “Do you need another towel?” He didn’t wait for an answer before running to the bathroom and returning with a huge bath towel. It was one of his, not Riley’s. He held it up, only to look surprised when Riley pressed a wet kitten into his hands.

“I can’t! It’s wet! It’s through the towel! It’s through the towel, Riley!” It wasn’t quite a howl, but it was close. Eli hurriedly wrapped the kitten up like a mummy in the terrycloth and then went completely still when Riley stepped in to help. He put his hands over Eli’s, meaning to show him how to move the towel through the kitten’s fur but running a soothing touch up Eli’s arms instead.

The air was hot and wet, and both the kitten and Eli were shivering.

Riley raised his eyes to meet Eli’s and almost couldn’t breathe when he saw how wide they were. “Like… like this.” He moved his hands back down to guide Eli and used the towel to wipe at the little mewling face until it was fluffy. “It’s scared.”

“Yeah, I can see that.” Eli rolled his eyes but didn’t raise his voice. After a pause, he took over, gently fluffing up fur and supporting a squirming kitten at the same time.

“Look at you.” Riley realized he hadn’t stepped back and quickly did so. “You’re a natural.”

“You’re teasing me.” Eli scowled and wiped at each kicking foot as best as he could before looking over again. “You really think so?”

“Eli, you have no idea.” Grabbing the kitten to put it back down on the floor was safer than saying anything else. Riley took hold of kitten number two and immediately had a struggle on his hands. It might have been smaller, but this one was a fighter. He got it in the water for not even a second before it was kicking and reaching for the ledge to pull itself out. He tried talking to it in a low voice, which didn’t work, and holding it down on the countertop instead of in the sink, stopping when the white fur seemed whiter and when the kitten got away from him and took off toward Eli.

He couldn’t stop it in time. Eli froze and then gasped when a wet, desperate kitten climbed, claws out, up his shirt and then clung to his shoulders.

Riley froze too. He wasn’t sure what had Eli more frightened, the wet, dirty mess soaking into his shirt or the scared, shivering, dangerous baby cat with its claws in the back of his neck.

“I’ll just—” Riley grabbed the towel and moved in.

“Yes, please.” Eli nodded and then winced. “Now.”

Riley used to the towel to grab the wet body and ignored the plaintive cries as he gently pulled the kitten off, claw by claw. Eli made a pained noise at the last one.

“I think she likes you,” Riley tried as he finally pulled the cat free. He rubbed it down quickly and then let it go before turning to face Eli. “You’re her safe place,” he started to add, only to forget everything he was saying because Eli was struggling to get his shirt off, yanking at buttons and trying to pull it over his head at the same time.

Riley had seen Eli shirtless before. Of course, he had, they were roommates. But usually Eli was too self-conscious to stay like that for long. Riley’s gaze wandered from his shoulders and the always surprising hints of muscle in Eli’s arms to the broad swatch of chest hair that narrowed down at Eli’s hips into something much more than any weak, little treasure trail. His skin was pale and untouched by the sun and he was just a little damp. His stomach looked so soft.

Riley’s mouth was open and he was breathing hard and he looked up a second too late as Eli got the shirt off. Eli’s disgruntled frown stayed in place when he stopped moving, though it changed the longer Riley kept staring. Riley did his best to shut his mouth and then put his hands down at his sides. His shirt was wet too. He would have taken it off if he thought it would do any good.

He finally reached for the hem anyway, and Eli burst into motion again, dropping his arms to put his wet shirt over the curve of his stomach. “We can’t all live at the gym,” he offered with a grimace and turned around. “I’ll go change.”

“Eli!” Riley practically shouted it and swore at himself when Eli disappeared into the bedroom as if he hadn’t said anything. “Eli.” He took a step toward Eli’s bedroom, right next to his, but stopped when Eli came back out in his Einstein T-shirt. Seeing his tense shoulders made Riley feel useless again. “Are you hurt?”

There were bandages and ointment in the first-aid kit in the bathroom—Eli’s doing of course. Riley went to get them without waiting for Eli’s response, only to lose his momentum once he was back in the kitchen. Eli wasn’t holding a grudge. He’d put more cream in the cat’s bowl and was watching them drink.

He looked around at Riley as he came in, then shrugged. “I did call it Cat-Hitl—” His words ended abruptly when Riley came up behind him and peeled back the collar of his shirt to see his injuries. Eli had some hair there too, enough to make bandages painful to remove. Riley pulled out some ointment and a cotton swab instead and lightly dabbed at each puncture and scratch. Thankfully, nothing was bleeding too seriously.

Eli’s skin was under his fingertips. Riley still couldn’t seem to breathe right or find the proper words. Eli stared down at the cats. His voice rose and fell with a breathless lack of rhythm.

“Is this how you imagined your night going?” he asked wryly, if softly. Riley thought about being out with everyone and wishing he were back watching TV with Eli. He swallowed and shook his head. Eli probably took that to mean he was disappointed. “Oh, come on, dinner, bathing psycho felines, talking about my mother, tending to my wounds. It’s what you always wanted, I know.”

“You forgot TV and your risotto,” Riley got out and then turned away to pack up the kit and wash the ointment off his fingers.

“That is true. I can cook.” Eli gave a short, not entirely pleased laugh. Riley glanced over at him before bending down to pick up the empty bowl and put it by the sink.

“I don’t just like the food, Eli. I also like the company.”

His phone rang the second the frightening words were out. Riley snatched his phone from his pocket and saw Chase’s name on the screen. Chase probably wanted to know what he doing and why he’d left the bar so early. Riley got rid of the call and shoved his phone back in his pocket.

Eli was staring at him like he didn’t know what to make of him. He’d given him the same look last year when he’d seen Riley trying to do his own taxes.

“Thank you, by the way, for fixing me up,” Eli said, sincere and flushed around his ears in a way that made Riley feel both tall and strong and weak at the knees. “I fed them again,” Eli added unnecessarily and gestured at the two kittens, who were huddled together and hard at work cleaning their faces and paws. “Should we dry them some more? They look traumatized.”

“Nah.” Riley had to clear his throat to speak. “Now they’ll clean themselves like their mom taught them.”

“So, what now?”

Riley made himself look at the kittens. He hadn’t had a plan when he’d found the kittens out by the trash cans other than making sure they were okay. He hadn’t had a pet since he’d moved away from home, but getting one, getting two now, was a lot to ask, even if he had a feeling Eli would let him keep both cats.

That meant getting rid of them, which Riley didn’t want to think about. But he could hardly keep them without Eli’s say so, and that was a big commitment for a roommate to make.

Riley ran a hand through his hair.

“I think there’s a no-kill shelter in Valley View,” he murmured finally. It was about an hour away. He’d need a car and the time to go, but he could do it. Eli had a car, but he couldn’t ask that too.

Eli seemed to disagree. “This weekend? I’m free this weekend. If you want me to help you take them to—that place.” He didn’t suggest a closer, regular shelter, so Riley didn’t either. He nodded. “Okay, then.” Eli didn’t sound very certain. Riley put his back to the counter and watched Eli watch the kittens. He was startled when Eli looked up at him with the same fascination. “I’ve never seen you like this,” he remarked, and then tore his gaze away without explaining himself.

Riley pushed away from the counter. Eli was right—around him Riley was usually a lot less sure of himself. “I guess I normally don’t know what to say to you,” he whispered while staring at the plump one. He looked up again to see Eli stock still and staring at him.

“Really?” Eli had that perplexed, lost look on his face again, as if he couldn’t imagine how Riley would find him intimidating. It was both adorable and frustrating. “Why? You’re all… you.” Eli waved up and down at Riley’s body, or maybe at his face. “And your friends certainly never seem to have a problem talking.”

“My friends are—they aren’t all like Chase. He’s an immature idiot. He’s just part of the group when I go out and, to be honest, these days, he gives me a headache.”

“So, it isn’t just me,” Eli remarked lightly. Riley laughed a little anyway, mostly just relieved that Eli was listening. “That’s why you came home—back—early?”

Eli was listening, Riley realized and looked down. He didn’t think Eli was aware that the mustached kitten was delicately rubbing against his ankles. “In fact, he doesn’t seem to get that lately I don’t want to do what he wants to do.”

Eli cocked his head. “What do you want to do?”

“Stay in.” Riley swallowed dryly and settled on an incomplete truth. “Watch TV.”

“Get a herd of cats?” Eli scoffed and knelt down. The kitten froze, then sniffed his knee for a good ten seconds. “You—you haven’t been bringing guys back as much anymore. I was getting worried about your health.” He put out a hand and got nipped, which seemed to startle him. Riley stepped forward, exasperated and desperate for a new topic at the same time.

He picked up both kittens and jerked his head toward the couch. “Might as well be comfortable while you two get to know each other.”

“You don’t get to know a kitten, I’m pretty sure. How much personality can they have?” Eli called after him.

Riley ignored him and set both damp, fluffy bundles on the couch before falling into it with a small grunt.

“Elijah Bernstein, this is Cat-Hitler. Cat-Hitler, this is Eli.”

“Stop calling it that. It’s pretty and innocent, not an evil piece of shit.” Eli scowled at him as he came over and sat down at the end of the couch. The kittens looked confused and then lost, and then both of them made a beeline for Eli’s lap.

“Why? Oh God, why?” Eli demanded, almost twitching with anxiety. The chubby one padded over his legs and then ran back to the center of the couch, but the other one stayed where she was, staring imperiously into Eli’s eyes. Eli was right—she was pretty. The mustache gave her character.

“I told you, Eli, I think you’re her safe place.”

“You keep saying ‘her’.” Eli reached out to do the same awkward head pat he had done before. The kitten only continued to regard him steadily, clearly wanting more.

“Do you see any balls on either of them?” Riley wanted to laugh so much.

Eli swung a wide-eyed look his way, as if girl cats were even more alarming to his sense of order and caution. “They’re young. Maybe they haven’t dropped yet?” He let his head fall back onto the cushions without waiting for a reply and studied the cat staring at him.

Cleaned up, she was a underfed, dainty thing, with tiny white paws and long, curved whiskers. Only the black spots under her nose detracted from how pretty she was. Her sister had a lot more black and slightly shorter fur. She also had a completely different temperament. She sat where he’d put her and went back to cleaning her legs as if she was fine where she was.

“It’s beautiful but it knows it,” Eli whispered.

Riley wiped at his mouth to hide the return of his smile. “She’s beautiful,” he corrected. “And yeah, she does. So, pet her. It’s what she wants.”

Eli shot him another Look, this one part intrigued, part pissed at being told what to do, but he raised a hand and ran a finger slowly down the kitten’s back. She lifted her rear end in delight. Someone had definitely been kind to these kittens once before tossing them aside. Riley thought it might be crueler to have been kind to them first, but then, without that, he wouldn’t be watching Eli pet a kitten for the first time.

Eli’s expression was fierce and captivated as he repeated the gesture, sliding a fingertip ever so gently down the slender body, and when the kitten responded again, his lips parted. He trailed his finger along the kitten’s spine until she curved her tail at him and moved her face to follow his hand.

After a few minutes of staring too intently, Riley made himself look down and gently rub the warm, furry belly of the second cat, who rolled over onto her back, submissive and happy about it. The way she was laying, she looked like a fat black bean.

“I always thought that pets help make a home.” When Riley said it, Eli went quiet. Riley glanced over to find Eli watching him pet the other kitten. His throat tightened.

“My mom used to say that whenever we’d drag some animal home. ‘Pets make a house a home’. Except for snakes. She drew the line at snakes.”

Eli seemed fascinated, or horrified. “Drew the line at snakes? What else did you have?” He was usually concerned with manners and prying too much. Maybe now he was too distracted by the cats to care, not that Riley was offended. He was happy to keep talking. He felt like he could talk to Eli about anything now.

Riley glanced over again. “My sisters had some turtles, some fish. A lizard. Hamsters, of course. My brother had a rabbit. Then there was Buster, our dog since I was two, and a few cats.”

He thought Eli would be alarmed at that, but Eli bit his lip and looked thoughtful before offering a small smile. “It sounds like chaos.”

“Controlled chaos, but yeah.” Riley shrugged, because he didn’t want to imagine the kind of house Eli’s family lived in, but he’d bet it was clean and hypo-allergenic.

Eli surprised him again by letting out a breath. “That sounds wonderful.”

Riley looked over without thinking. “You could have that if you want it.” He didn’t mean to sound so serious and quickly went back to petting the plump little sweetheart rolling toward his leg.

“Me? I can’t even stop organizing my Tupperware.” Eli moved for another shrug and then finally smoothed his whole hand down over the small cat body on his lap. When he tried it again, his kitten rubbed her face on his fingers to claim him.

“I like it that way.” Riley shrugged too but couldn’t shut up. He felt warm all over. “It’s easy to find stuff.”

“Some people would say I worry too much. Or I’m anal.” Eli let out a long breath but didn’t seem to notice that he was now gently scratching the kitten under her chin. “I can’t even handle a baby cat,” he said mournfully. He sounded so upset about it that Riley spoke without thinking.

“I like you like that,” he murmured, and lowered his gaze when Eli turned toward him. “You’re the best roommate ever, is what I mean. You’re quiet and you listen and you don’t treat me like I’m stupid.”

“People treat you like you’re stupid?” The displeasure and surprise in Eli’s voice made Riley look up. “Haven’t they seen your work?”

Riley went speechless. He actually forgot his words for a moment and let his gaze openly skip over Eli’s body before looking back into his eyes. Riley designed tattoos because he was good at it, though he had other sketches that he’d sometimes left out around the house. Somehow, he didn’t think Eli was talking about those, not from the way Eli glanced at some of his visible ink and then away as his ears got slightly pinker.

Riley’s tats were all his own designs except for his first one, a faded version of a dragon on the inside of his forearm that he’d gotten when he was younger, thinking it was cool. The rest were more abstract twists on things he’d read or seen, with colors used sparingly.

Eli didn’t have tattoos—not with his parents—but Riley had never been bothered by that. Eli shouldn’t have tattoos. There shouldn’t be anything that spoke of pain on him. It was a silly idea, but Riley liked him as he was, as if having no ink meant Eli was pure, or old-fashioned, or sacred, somehow. The assumption that Eli was uninterested in tattoos had stayed with him because, unlike the people who used his tattoos as a way to strike up a conversation with him, Eli had never expressed any interest in Riley’s artwork.

But maybe he was wrong. Maybe Eli had noticed and been interested, impressed even.

“You like my tattoos?” He knew there was astonishment in his voice. Eli gave him a mild frown. Then the pink spread down from his ears to most of his neck.

“They’re incredible. Not that I like that look on everyone. But they make you, uh—” Despite coughing between every few words, his voice got strangled. While he waited, Riley spread his fingers out over the fur on the kitten’s warm belly and it meowed in approval. Then Eli finally got his thoughts out. “You know how you look.”

Riley shook his head. It was the best he could do.

“You’re—” Eli took his hand off the kitten but didn’t look up. “You’re pretty, Riley. You’re sexy.” He made a tsk sound and then rolled his eyes. “I know you know that. Your dates have told you often enough how hot you are.”

“Eli.” Riley breathed out and then stopped as something occurred to him. “You could hear that?” There was a wall between their bedrooms. Evidently not a very thick one.

Eli suddenly resumed petting the kitten. “I got earplugs!” he defended himself. “And you’re loud. I couldn’t help it.”

Riley was loud, he knew that. He just hadn’t known that Eli had known it too, or that he’d been listening on his side of the wall. “You perv,” he teased first, more on reflex than anything. It made Eli mumble something about his earplugs again. Then Riley had another thought. No wonder Eli didn’t bring anyone home—he’d known that Riley would hear it. “That’s so unfair. I never got to hear you.”

“Anyway.” Eli was going to start hissing again in a minute, just like a wet, pissed off kitten. “It doesn’t matter lately, because you’ve been staying in a lot. And if, you know, I hear noises, I really do wear the earplugs now.”

That now was the most tantalizing word Eli had ever spoken. Eli thought he was hot, Riley repeated to himself, and Eli had been listening to him with other men, and judging from his furious blush, it had turned him on. Riley wished he’d known that before. The things he could have said, done, to get Eli excited.

Had Eli been jealous too? Riley would have been if he’d heard Eli with someone else. He would have been driven out of his mind with it, knowing Eli was so close but with another man.

“No fair,” he said again in a croak.

Eli went still, then gave him a thoughtful, cautious, Eli look.

“I’m not as loud as you,” Eli answered at last, flicking that look away and then back again carefully. Eli would flirt carefully. Riley should have realized that before. Eli could have flirted with him back in those early days and he wouldn’t have known it.

To make up for lost time, Riley took a deep breath and tried to answer in the same tone.

“I guess I’ll have to find out for myself.” He took a second to better pretend that he was thinking about what kinds of sounds Eli might make in bed for the first very time right now. Eli twisted to stare at him, looking startled, then curious, not that he asked what Riley was thinking.

Too bad, because Riley had always imagined that the smallest swear word from Eli would sound like the filthiest dirty talk ever heard outside of porn.

“I call people ‘baby’,” Eli blurted out, wincing. He stared down at the kitten when Riley said, “What?” in an honestly shocked voice. “I can’t help it,” Eli went on and smiled through his obvious embarrassment. “I call everyone baby, even though I know their names. It just… comes out.”

“Wow. I was not expecting that.” Riley took a moment, but he couldn’t fight his amusement. “Baby.” He didn’t think he’d mind if Eli called him that. “What about babe?”

“So much babe.” Eli was grinning and ashamed at the same time. Riley laughed out loud. “I use their names too,” Eli assured him in the next second, as if the damage hadn’t been done.

“Maybe it’s a good thing you haven’t ever gotten to name a pet.” Riley tried and failed to be serious.

“Oh, really?” Eli put his shoulders back. “Every pet you’ve owned had a brilliant, original name?” The kitten on his lap wasn’t settling down, but she wasn’t moving either, maybe because it was clear that while Eli didn’t know what to do with her, he was willing to keep petting her.

“Yeah,” Riley agreed, then sighed because he had to be honest. “Our first cat’s name was Kitty—Mama Kitty,” he specified over Eli’s snort. “But my cat, the first pet that was really mine, was Orange. He was gray.”

Instead of bursting into laughter, Eli gave him a long look of disbelief.

“You can’t just name a pet anything you want.”

“Eli, you can do anything you want to.” That was too serious and Riley knew it, not that Eli seemed upset. After a few moments, he exhaled and angled his head down. Riley didn’t think Eli was looking at his kitten, even if she was meowing to let him know he had stopped petting her and could he start petting her again please, now.

“So, theoretically, if a cat reminded someone of something, say… a pretty princess? That name wouldn’t be too weird?” Eli rubbed gently at one side of the kitten’s face and she stopped whining to appreciate the moment.

Riley couldn’t breathe. If he breathed, he might laugh or say or do something wrong and he couldn’t, wouldn’t, do that to Eli. There were teasing remarks on the tip of his tongue, but he had heard that whispered, shy hope in Eli’s voice and shivered as if he could feel it on his skin.

Eli had never had a pet before, never gotten to name one and keep it for his very own. Riley looked down at Eli’s T-shirt, at Einstein and the words Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new, and then looked back up.

“Eli.” He didn’t want to spook him so he kept his voice low. “Eli.”

“Stupid?” Eli asked before facing him. The word trailed off into nothing, as it should have. Riley shook his head without taking his gaze from Eli’s face.

“I like it.” If Riley moved over, if he scooted the chubby kitten out of his way and if Eli didn’t pull back in horror, he’d be close enough to kiss him. Riley leaned in as much as he could and felt a rush of heat when Eli turned his head toward him.

Eli licked his lips. “But it’s silly.” Riley could almost hear Eli’s parents in the words. “It’s soft.”

“I like silly,” Riley whispered back. “I like soft.” He curled his fingertips into a warm, furry kitten belly and watched Eli’s eyes widen. His mouth moved.

“No, you don’t,” he said finally, only to go still when Riley slowly shook his head again.

“I like it a lot, Eli.” He was barely even scratching the surface of how much he liked it.

Eli stared at him.

“You like when I nag you about trash, and how I don’t go out nearly as much as you, so, of course, I’m here when you bring some other stupidly hot man home with you? You like it that I haven’t told my parents yet that I’m gay?” he questioned tightly and then put his hand back where the kitten could get at it. She licked his fingers before rubbing her face all over him again. “When you first moved in, I tried— But your friends— Chubby, hairy, constantly worrying Jews aren’t the kind of thing you should like.”

Eli’s face was a hard glare and trembling, full lower lip. If this were a movie, this would be the moment Riley would move in closer and kiss him to shut him up. He raised his hand and ran his thumb along the edge of Eli’s soft, soft mouth.

“You really think I’m stupidly hot?” He couldn’t help it.

Eli only rolled his eyes. His cheeks were ruddy.

“Yeah,” he admitted after a pause, glancing away and then back at him. Most people never got to see the determined frown he leveled at Riley, the one that said Eli could do anything, as if he had no fear at all. “Yes.”

Riley couldn’t hear, his heart was so loud in his ears. He shut his eyes, then opened them. “Eli, please,” he began in a shaky voice and caught his breath a second before Eli slid over and drew him in for a kiss.

Their mouths barely touched. There was a single moment of warm breath and the sensation of Eli’s lips parting under his, and then Eli yelped and pulled back and picked up the kitten on his lap, or tried to, but her claws were stuck in his pants.

Riley hoped they were just in his pants. Eli was swearing and the kitten looked freaked. Riley hopped forward, pushing his lazy little buttered bean out of the way so he could save Eli’s—save Eli.

He winced in sympathy as he got each claw unstuck, but Eli seemed okay when Riley finally got the kitten free. The Pretty Princess had ruffled fur but seemed undeterred in her quest for love, because she sat against Eli’s thigh and went to work cleaning herself.

Eli put a hand over his balls and exhaled. “That might have been the scariest moment of my life.”

For a second there, Riley had been worried that the kiss was all he was going to get and that he’d be spending the night watching Eli ice down his crotch. He still wasn’t sure he’d be getting more.

“Would you do it again, though?” he blurted out, not caring now if Eli thought he was useless or not.

Eli squinted at him. It was so silent that Riley was abruptly aware that the TV was still on, that it was getting late. Then Eli spoke.

“At risk of life and limb and testicle, yeah, I would, if it was worth it.”

“Okay,” Riley instantly answered instead of anything smarter and urged a very agreeable little kitten to the side so he could come in closer to Eli. The Pretty Princess he left alone so he could focus on Eli’s expression as he leaned in, the wide melting eyes and the warm, open mouth.

“Are we going to do this in front of them?” Eli was scandalized and the most adorable thing Riley had ever seen in his life. Riley grinned and pressed to a kiss to the corner of Eli’s mouth. Eli huffed but turned his head to make the kiss longer.

“Yeah, baby, we are, and we are going to be very loud about it,” Riley whispered with his cheek to Eli’s stubble and laughed when Eli made an annoyed sound but didn’t actually object when Riley pressed him into the cushions.

Riley woke up on the couch. His pants were gone and he’d been drooling onto a discarded Einstein shirt. His phone was buzzing somewhere, and he could also hear movement in the direction of the kitchen. He had cat hair in his nose.

He wiped at it and rolled over to pull his pants to him so he could check his messages and the time. He was surprised to see Chase up this early, but not at the pissed tone to his texts at being ignored. Riley ignored him some more by dropping the phone and then shifted up and around to peer over the back of the couch.

Eli was showered and recently shaved and dressed for work in a plain white collared shirt with the sleeves rolled up. He was standing over the two kittens, who were looking up from the bowl of cream he’d probably given them and meowing for the bowl of cereal Eli was trying to eat. He scolded them in a whisper, “Don’t wake Daddy Riley.”

Riley felt his mouth turn up.

The kittens, naturally, didn’t understand a word of that, so with a sigh, Eli went back to the fridge to get them more cream, struggling to do that and keep his cereal from spilling as they both slid between his legs.

There was no way those kittens were feral for more than a day. Riley ought to do the responsible thing and put signs up around the neighborhood on the off chance someone was missing them, but he didn’t want to. He wanted to keep them. He missed having a pet but more than that, without those kittens he would never had seen this side of Eli. And he probably never would have gotten up the courage to tell Eli how he felt, and then Eli never would have kissed him and last night never would have happened.

He thought of Eli’s hands on him and falling asleep against Eli’s body, then cleared his throat to get Eli’s attention.

“Good morning.”

Eli straightened and froze and then moved to put his bowl of cereal in the sink. He took a deep breath before looking over, his gaze sweeping slowly and seriously over the parts of Riley not hidden by the couch. That was Eli’s way of checking him out. Riley really, really should have noticed that before, but he couldn’t help it that being around Eli made his brain stop working.

He smiled and felt some of the tension leave him when Eli smiled back.

“You slept okay?” Eli asked over the sound of kittens lapping up cream. “I didn’t want to wake you.”

“You could have.” Riley ran a hand through his hair and yawned and smiled through all of it.

“I will keep that in mind.” Eli rolled his eyes, but his attempt at bitchy didn’t work with how he was smiling back. If only he weren’t so far away.

At the thought, Riley leaned back and stretched and pulled at the T-shirt that had somehow stayed on him despite his best efforts to get naked last night. He looked expectantly at Eli as he did it. It had worked for a kitten, after all.

Eli took an immediate step toward him and nearly tripped on a cat.

“Your, uh, phone was ringing earlier.” Eli made it to the back of the couch unharmed but stopped once he was there. Riley tried not to frown.

“Probably Chase.” He shrugged. He couldn’t care less about Chase at the moment. “So?”

“‘So?’ he says.” Eli shook his head at him, but then paused and looked down, maybe watching a kitten. “So, I’ve been thinking.”

Riley went still. “Yeah?” There was a scampering sound and then the bigger kitten appeared, scrambling to get up the couch on its own. Riley twisted to scoop it up and put it down somewhere far away from his exposed dick.

Eli coughed. “We can’t have them around here with nowhere to, uh, go. I found a mess this morning in the kitchen.” Riley was sure the spot had already been disinfected, but waited without speaking. “They need a litter box.”

Riley should have thought of that. Well, he had, but he’d thought it might sound too permanent and scare Eli off. He nodded and waited without saying a word. Eli nodded too and rubbed at the back of his neck before he hit the scratches from the night before and winced and stopped.

“So… we should get that. And some real food for them. Of course, they will need bowls for the food, and for water. And I don’t want them to tear stuff up in here, so… they will need toys too.”

Eli had been thinking. Riley stared at him for a minute and wondered if the happy, hopeful warmth he felt was all over his face. He did his best to seem as serious as Eli was trying to be.

“That sounds good.” He felt a furry body press against him and then a rumble that could have been hunger or the purr of a kitten. He reached out so he could hold it and felt some of his happiness disappear. He sighed. “But Eli, that’s a lot for just a few days. I don’t want you to go out of your way, or to get hurt when you give them up.” As far as he knew, they were still going to the shelter on Saturday.

Eli’s fierce look stopped him. But his glare only lasted a second before Eli was shifting and looking incredibly uncomfortable.

“About that,” he started.

Riley raised his eyebrows. “You’ve been thinking about that, too?” He was almost sorry he’d missed it.

Eli made a face at him but there was no anger in it, just nerves. “The thing is, you know, with my parents coming over, I’m going to be busy this weekend. I can’t drive out to Valley View, I think. Not this weekend. But Pretty Princess—I mean, they can stay here longer, if that’s okay.”

“Pretty Princess?” The grin broke out of Riley. He tried to crawl up higher on the back of the couch, anything to get closer to Eli. The way his heart was pounding, he had to do something.

Eli was blushing. “Oh, shut up.” His princess was no doubt at his feet. For a kitten, she had a lot of sense.

Riley spread his fingers out over his kitten’s plump belly and picked it up. He put it on the back of the couch. “I’ve been thinking Butterbean.” He scratched the belly and Butterbean stretched and curled into it. Eli’s expression was vaguely disgruntled.

“Butterbean?” he repeated. “That is ridiculously cute.”

“So are you.” Riley decided to be generous, in case that was jealousy bringing Eli’s eyebrows together. His tone was embarrassingly fond. “In other words, it’s beyond okay with me if they stay.”

“Beyond okay?” Eli straightened up. His frown vanished, but only to be replaced with alarm. “My mother is going to have thoughts about this.”

“Probably,” Riley agreed.

Eli took a minute and then carefully scratched the top of Butterbean’s head. He got the same amateur attempt at purring as his reward.

“You could—” He stopped and started over. “You could help explain it her. During dinner on Saturday.”

“Me?” Riley tossed his head and neglected to mention that he hadn’t been invited to dinner until that moment or that Eli was going to have to explain to his mother why Riley was there with him at a family dinner. “She hates me.”

“But I don’t.” Eli looked into his face with that stubborn, determined light in his eyes. He put his hand down over Riley’s on top of the kitten. It was too much for Pretty Princess at his feet. Riley heard her start to meow and claw at the couch. Eli didn’t even seem to notice.

Riley would have turned on his back to let Eli rub his belly if he could have moved. Instead, he swallowed and heard himself whispering.

“I could dinner.” It came out more eager than he’d meant it to. It also wasn’t even a sentence, but judging from his small smile, Eli didn’t mind. Riley never had been able to think clearly around him.

Eli waited another second, obviously debating something before he finally went on. “You don’t mind? I never saw you bring anyone here more than once.”

Riley suddenly understood exactly why Eli had been so cautious with him. He opened his mouth, then shut it.

“They weren’t you,” he answered finally and ran his hands through his hair before he looked back up. “They weren’t you, so why would I bring them home?”

Eli licked his lips at the word home and then moved forward, squashing Butterbean as he leaned over the couch. He steadied the cat with one hand and put the other to Riley’s jaw, and his caution seemed so much like hope that Riley stayed right where he was. There was no reason to go anywhere else.

The End

Other short stories by R. Cooper:

Checking Out Love

The Other Side of the Roses

My Man Godric

R. Cooper is a somewhat absentminded, often distracted, writer of queer romance, probably most known for the Being(s) in Love series and the occasional story about witches or firefighters in love. Also known as, "Ah, yes, the one who writes the dragons." She lives among the coastal redwoods of Northern California in a tiny house with two greedy black cats and one possible ghost.

www.riscooper.com

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