The Trials of Being Loved

Part 18 - What Now, Orca?

You don't yell at people who want to do good deeds!

It was the wrong move, because now Newwie wanted more responsibilities in the apartment. Tay was going to die! He was so stressed out. "But New, I love to clean. I love to cook. I want to care for you. Please," He begged, "Please let me."

"But Tay," New said, satisfied, "Look at how happy you were that I attempted to clean the bathroom!" He sat there, with a smug look on his face. Tay had forgotten all about the pain in his body and was with him. 

"You were washing the walls with a toilet brush. A toilet brush, Newwie!" Tay took a deep breath. "The whole shower needs to be re-washed. Don't you know which brush is used for what?"

"Well, no. Mom cleans everything. I figured it can't be that hard. It's just elbow grease, soap and water after all."

Tay gritted his teeth and reminded himself that, once again, he did love New. His obsession with being in a clean environment was his issue, not New's. "Please, babe, leave the cleaning to me." He dropped it there as he went and pulled on old clothes to finish the bathroom.

Re-entering the bathroom, he took the scrub brush, mixed up the correct solution and started at the top, carefully making his way down. He was quick and thorough. Each sweep of the brush covered a good arm's length. 

New stood in the doorway, taking careful notes. He was not about to let Tay's bathroom defeat him. He would successfully clean it one day. He didn't understand why Tay didn't want him doing it, but he would one day.

"So, how do you feel now, Tay?" He asked, as casually as he could.

"Hmm? About what?" Distracted, Tay didn't notice the slightly evil look on New's face.

"Oh, you know. Your ass?"

The tips of Tay's ears flushed. "It's better, thank you."

Ha! So we're going to be that way? New grinned even bigger as Tay scrubbed harder. It was sexy to see his muscles working this hard. He walked over and unclipped the shower head. "At least, I should be able to rinse the soap off?"

"No! Not yet..." as New began to spray the walls with hot water. The soap ran down and made the floor slippery as the room began to fill with steam.  Tay slipped and landed on his sore bum. "Fuck!" 

He slid to the taps and turned off the water. He glared at New. "What? Why? Did I do something wrong?" Carefully, cautious of the wet slippery floor, he pushed him out of the bathroom. "Out! Before I loose my temper."

New sighed when he heard the lock click on the bathroom door. He felt alienated. Alone. It was the first time ever that there had been a locked door between them. And it was his fault. 

He wanted Tay to see him as sexy as he did in that moment. What went wrong? Tay kissed him first... Pouting, New slowly walked to the sofa and collapsed, drawing his legs to his chest and went into deep thinking mode. 

What had gone wrong? All he'd done was try to help... by stepping on Tay's toes! It may have been early in the day but feeling as foolish as he did, there was only one place in the small, cramped apartment for him to escape - the bed! 

New unfolded his long legs and practically ran for the bedroom, careful not to draw any more attention to himself. It was bad enough he had been thrust out of Tay's life. He would not make that mistake again! Diving on to the bed, he pulled the duvet over his head and let his jumbled, overworked brain drift him gently back into an exhausted sleep. 

Tay stretched and sighed, looking at the sparkling clean bathroom. It always gave him peace of mind to clean. It was one of his rituals, his way of dealing with his stress, working free of worry. In some ways, even better than the gym. He unlocked the door, feeling bad but for his sanity, he needed to do it.

A toilet brush! On his tiles... he shuddered slightly and then let it go. The shower had been properly sanitized, so had his toilet. He gave a smile, looking forward to sitting down to a cup of coffee with New. But where was he?

The common area and the kitchen were so small that it took mere seconds to verify that he wasn't in there, so he headed to the bedroom. Had he cleaned for that long? New was once again buried under the duvet. 

Tay reached for the bottom and pulled. It swept off of Newwie, leaving him exposed in all his sleeping, peaceful glory. Sighing, Tay sat on the edge of the bed and stared. Where was the solution to this issue to be found?

This was a first in his life, maybe in New's too. Even if New wanted a relationship, he never had one before. At least, Tay was sure that was what he implied. The girls were always friends. At some point, however, somewhere, something had happened. He had much more experience than me.

Tay really didn't like thorny problems. He much preferred being blunt and working through them together. If New thinks that he can escape me, he's wrong. I'm not letting go! Misunderstandings, miscommunications, you can use all the 'mis' words you want, Newwie, but it's all excuses! I'm going to keep hammering at your walls until I break them all down!

Having made peace with himself and in a way, the sleeping man in his bed, Tay carefully covered him back with the duvet. He pressed a light kiss on his forehead and sighed. These past few days were some of the most memorable he'd ever had and it was all thanks to this man. Why can't he see how special he really is?

New moved restlessly under his kisses. Dreaming, Tay told him he was his man and he was loved and special. He argued until Tay left him, alone on a cliff. Desolate, he couldn't bear the isolation and... woke up! 

Sweating profusely, safely tucked in Tay's bed! The memories of earlier came crashing in and he started to cry.