Redemption (boyxboy) (18+)

Chapter Fifteen

They claim it's the happiest place on earth, but Reid's inclined to believe that Mickey is a lying rat bastard.

Because even though it's nearly October the air is hot enough to boil the meat right off their bones, and the press of sunburned tourists crowding the Magic Kingdom does nothing to help.

But then Reid looks at Nate, who's grinning like he's a six-year-old who has suddenly found himself in Narnia or some shit, and Reid can feel his heart melting like the sweat sliding down his back.

It should be weird, walking through Disney World with a 30-year-old former mob boss, but Reid's learned that Nate is really so much more than that.

Witnesses usually come to him because they're scared - they heard a rumor that their people were going to kill them or the cops have busted them and they've cut a deal. They're just saving their own asses, really. And they usually miss their old lives, happy to wax on nostalgically for hours about their work, their family and friends.

But for Nate there's only now. He clams up the moment anything else is broached; he takes no pride in who he once was. And Reid respects that. (It does make him worry about how Nate will do on the stand, but that's the prosecutor's problem.) All Reid has to do is make it through this day at Disney where Nate is determined to give them both a bit of the childhood they missed.

And even though they've never done it before, it feels natural when Nate reaches over to take his hand, keeping Reid with him as they thread through the crowd on Main Street.

Reid wants to move his fingers until they're intertwined with Nate's, or better yet, shoved into the back pocket of his jeans, but he contents himself with the loose contact of their palms, the feel of his fingers wrapping around the side of Nate's calloused hand.

And he manages to keep his cool for the better part of the morning - until Nate buys a chocolate-covered frozen banana from one of those stupid ice cream carts and proceeds to slurp on the thing in a manner befitting a porn star. Then Reid has to shove his hand into his pocket and pinch his thigh viciously until the pain forces his traitorous blood to route itself back up into his brain.

But it's like Nate is spending the day intentionally taunting him with a hundred tiny touches and lingering glances, like when he slides right next to Reid in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, their legs pressed together from hip to knee, Nate's arm resting behind Reid's shoulders along the back of the boat.

Reid's heart is fluttering in his chest and his cheeks are growing warm; he's never felt more like a girl.

He's got no problem with the fact that he's attracted to a dude. He accepted his sexuality a long time ago, simply considering himself an equal opportunity fuck. What he's not okay with is what he became aware of on that mountaintop with Nate's hand in his and the fantasy of a simple kiss. This is more than sex; this is romantic. He can even feel a word that he won't allow himself to think yet dancing at the far edges of his consciousness.

An "L" word.

Which is foreign and terrifying and horribly confusing, because Reid doesn't do crushes, doesn't even date beyond a single night. He's always moving on, always with a new assignment in a new town, and never able to tell the truth about what he does for a living even on the very rare occasions where he'd actually like to grow closer to someone.

But on some level he thinks he must have known, fucking had to have known, that this would happen when he volunteered for this roaming bodyguard gig. Because how could he not fall for the brave idiot willing to go up against his entire family in order to do what he thinks is right? Especially with that messy sex hair and ridiculous, soulful eyes and those long, elegant fingers that promise sizable other appendages.