Redemption (boyxboy) (18+)

Chapter Forty

Nate wakes slowly, the way you do on lazy Saturday mornings when you're wrapped in fluffy blankets and can't imagine that there's any better place on earth than right there, warm and safe and snug. Sunlight filters through his eyelids, lighting the world a strange pink-black and he sighs, a small contented hum, and stretches his arm across to Reid's side of the bed.

And then he finally opens his eyes, frowning, because the sheets are empty and cool. They almost always are - Nate likes to sleep in and Reid almost never does - but he'd hoped that this morning would be one of the rare exceptions. One of the days when he could slide across the soft sheets and wrap himself around Reid, push his nose into the crook of his neck and lull himself back to sleep with the comfort of warm skin and the smell of home.

Instead, Nate sits up, the comforter sliding down his chest and pooling in his lap, everything fuzzy beyond the white canopy of mosquito netting draped over the bed. He pulls on boxers and follows his nose to the house's small kitchen where there's coffee brewed and an omelet in a pan on the stove. He pokes it experimentally - still warm.

So, armed with caffeine and food, he strolls out the open double doors onto their deck, or at least the part that they call by that name. The first time Reid used the term Nate had argued because, technically, the whole house is a deck - built on stilts a hundred feet off the island's shore line, the ocean stretching behind and beyond and beneath them.

That's why Nate had fallen in love with it in the first place - the constant rhythm of the waves against the pillars, the salty breeze rolling through the open windows and doors, the sea life he could watch swimming beneath his feet between the boards of the deck.

He knows he will find Reid out here, sitting at the edge of the deck with his feet dangling off the side, the turquoise ocean stretching farther than either of them could have imagined; thousands of miles of mysterious depths, rocking ceaselessly until it ends on the California coastline.

On the first day they came here, weary from traveling for days, going thousands of miles out of the way and taking random flights to make sure they weren't followed, Reid had been unsure about living on a house built out over the ocean. But then he'd stepped out here, onto this deck, and taken one look at the view. It was this deck that made it a home.

It was where Nate had found him that first morning, and it's where he has found him every day since.

Because Reid slides out of bed before dawn nearly every day and sits here, with his coffee and a fishing pole, just quietly watching the sunrise. And Nate knows that some part of Reid is still on the other side of that vast ocean, with Ben and Andy and Kansas, and that it always will be.

For a second, every morning, he hesitates here at the doorway and wonders if he did the right thing. If it wasn't too selfish of him to take Reid away from all of that, to hoard him here in his own little version of paradise.

But then Reid hears his shuffling footsteps on the deck and he turns, his whole face lighting up as he stretches his free hand back to reach for Nate. And there's no trace of regret, of sadness or questioning. It's just love, comfort and contentment. So Nate takes his usual place at Reid's side, silently sipping his coffee and eating his eggs.

The pale morning sunlight warms Nate's face and sinks into Reid's shoulders, making his skin look like honey, golden and delicious. It glitters on the waves until the whole ocean seems to catch fire, swirling turquoise sparks stretching to the distant horizon.

After a few minutes, Reid has reeled in a couple of fish, enough for their dinner, and Nate has enough caffeine in his bloodstream that he can think about something other than curling up and going back to sleep. He sets his empty dishes to the side and leans over, kissing softly over the jut of Reid's collarbone, and Reid cranes his neck to give him better access, his eyes falling closed as he sets the fishing pole to the side.