V (boyxboy short stories)

Wish & command

Eyes on the grandfather clock, Valerio could feel his palms sweat under his mat white gloves. The time was near, just a few more minutes.

He pulled back his shoulders just to make sure his back was rigid, though his spine hadn't slumped an inch for about two decades now. From wearing books on his head at 5, to rolling in the military at 18 and then training to become a butler at 21, he never got the privilege to just breathe out, slump a little, loosen up.

The door opened.

It wasn't time. The pointer of the grandfather clock was far from striking 12 to make it 8 sharp. It wasn't unusual for his boss to be late, but early? His job just wasn't the sort of work that allowed him to leave early. Not that Valerio knew anything about the man's job, or... the man himself.

He could feel his heart beat erratically in his chest from being caught off-guard. Well, he's had his guard up and yet he still felt unproper for some reason, like he wasn't standing straight enough, like his posture hadn't been just right. But the man didn't even look anywhere near him as he stormed into the hotel suite, making his way straight to the balcony overlooking the warm pink sunset.

The man slid open the glass door and stepped out, wasting no time in lighting up a cigarette. Some of the smoke trailed inside the suite through the open door, and Valerio breathed it in hungrily. He was a smoker himself, despite his training forbidding it. After all, who wanted a walking ashtray to be serving them breakfast in bed, or handling their freshly laundered suits?

He went out of his way to hide it by rubbing evergreen twigs all over himself (the tree conveniently close to the balcony) and also keeping coffee beans in his chest pockets to chew on (they absorbed all mouth smells).

Valerio reached up to fix his bow-tie, the knot feeling tight against his adam's apple all of a sudden. He was doing a poor job of becoming one with the wall as instructed. He was just sort of nervous... the way a loyal dog would reflect its owner's mood.

"Come, have a cigarette."

Valerio felt cold sweat crawl up his body in the form of goosebumps. So then, he hadn't been as clever about hiding his bad habit as he had thought. He's been serving his boss for well over 3 years now, since when did he know?

"Come."

As if things weren't bad enough, he had made him repeat himself. Nothing was going right anymore. The safety of routine, repetition was broken. The clock had yet to strike 8, the man was inviting him on the balcony- where Valerio had never been at the same time with his boss. It was the only place in the suite other than the bathroom where his boss could have time away from his butler, so he had always respected that.

Valerio walked in quick strides, hands behind his back only so he could hide how they trembled. Something had gone bad at work, that much was clear. He managed the man's calls and appointments, but more than names, places and ridiculous sums of money he had no clue what he was actually working as.

His boss was holding open his pack of cigarettes for him. Camel Blue cigarettes. With the money he made, he could've smoked any brand out there, could've even started his own, and yet he smoked the same cigarettes you might find an old librarian smoke in between bookshelves on his break, or a farmer as he stood watching his herd of sheep.

"Thank you, I have my own, you mustn't..."

"Just have a taste. Nothing compares to them."

Valerio picked one between two gloved fingers. His hand was still shaking stupidly enough, and he almost would've dropped the cigarette if his boss hadn't caught it. The man had been frowning all that time, only now did one of his eyebrows raise.