The Loving Silence

Chapter 44

Breathless and dripping with sweat, they both fell back against the white sheets.

"That was..." Rue panted, unable to say another word.

"I... concur..."

Rue knew his whole body would be aching in the morning, and he was thankful he was still on his pain medication to help his injuries heal. He hadn't been taking them properly, so it was about time he did. There was so much going on, so much to worry about, and right now the pain offered a well-deserved distraction. When he was in that much pain, it was impossible to focus on anything else.

"You're not hurt, are you?" Luca asked him.

"It wasn't my first time, Lu. I'm fine." Rue smiled, staring at the ceiling as he waited for his heartbeat to slow down.

"No, I didn't mean— I wasn't thinking—"
He sighed. "I meant your injuries. But that's good too. That you're not hurt." He nodded to himself.

Rue laughed lightly. "Are you jealous?"

"No! No. Well, maybe a little. Let's talk about something else, shall we? You don't discuss other men when you're in the afterglow."

Rue chuckled. "Of course. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."

"You didn't," Luca answered a little too quickly.

"Good then," Rue smiled. "How about you? Are you feeling okay?"

Luca's eyes sparkled mischievously and he smiled crookedly as he said, "Okay doesn't begin to describe it, love. You brought me to the moon and back again."

"Rue's moon travel, open for business." Rue grinned cheekily.

Luca leaned forward and gave him a long hard kiss. "No," he pecked his lips before he laid back down. "Definitely out of business. Open only on special occasions."

Rue giggled. "So you were jealous?"

"That... is for me to know," he checked his clock and then he looked out the window. He could still see part of it from bed, which was another good thing about living small. Everything was easy to access. He saw that it was still dark outside and that could only mean one thing. "Rue, it's dark out, not yet morning... Want to go again?"

Rue pretended to consider it and enjoyed seeing Luca stew. "Well..." he said in a drawn out sort of way, torturing him a little. "Of course I do."
He sat up, turned to him and winked. "Ready or not, here I come."

—-

Luca still had to go to work in the morning. He wasn't supposed to, but Layla got the stomach flu from one of her nephews. Luca was the only one who knew the place well enough to take her place. At six am, he placed his aching feet on the cold floor. On trembling legs he stumbled to the bathroom with about as much grace as Bambi on the ice. He lost his balance and smacked his nose and forehead into the door post and swore up a storm.

Rue woke up suddenly and sat up a bit too quickly. His injuries felt as if they had just been inflicted, and every inch of him was searing with pain. He looked around, trying to figure out where the threat came from and what it was. Seeing Luca leaning over the door frame with his head in his hands spiked his anxiety. But when he realised there was no one else in there, that there was no threat and that he had only tripped, he was able to calm down some.

"What happened to you?"

Luca grumbled and kept the string of swearwords to himself. "I hit my face on the doorpost." He laughed once with frustration. "I don't want to go anywhere. I want to stay. Why do they keep making me come back at the worst of times? Adulting is a pain and I hate it." He sounded like a grumpy child that had to do their chores when they really wanted to go out and play.