In the Beat of a Wing {boyxboy}

Chapter Nineteen

"Coffee, please," Malcolm mouthed with a smile, leaving Eden to figure out the fancy coffee machine. Luckily, there was a clean mug already in there and it seemed simply enough but buzzed angrily at him when he pressed a few buttons.

"Couldn't just own a kettle, could you?" Eden muttered under his breath, trying to understand what he had done wrong.

"Try adding more coffee grounds," Malcolm suggested, placing a bag down next to Eden's left hand, standing awfully close to the boy, trapping him there with his hands resting on the counter either side of him. Eden chewed on his bottom lip, trailing his fingers over Malcolm's left hand, following one of the pulsing veins up his arm to the crook of his elbow.

"Got any tattoos?" was the only question Eden could think of, his voice tiny, as his trembling hand opened the bag of grounds and poured some into the coffee machine.

"Nope, never interested me. Have you?" with the coffee machine whirring quietly, hopefully working, Eden ducked out under Malcolm's arm, perching on the counter. He pulled off his left-hand sock, presenting his foot to Malcolm, who ran a thumb over the little silhouette of a man pulling back an arrow in a bow.

"Archer," Malcolm murmured quietly, not taking his eyes off the tattoo.

"It would have cost more to have lettering done, and Audrey came up with the idea. She's got one too, the bribe was worth it," Eden put his sock back on, collecting his drink and going to sit on the couch, turning on lamps along the way.

"You act like you live here," Malcolm chuckled as he joined Eden, sitting next to him on the couch with his mug in hand. Eden simpered bashfully, with another blush.

"If you finally talk to me maybe we'll get there in the end," Malcolm lost his smile almost instantly, guilt covering his face instead, "I get it, it's my fault. I shouldn't have overreacted. I assumed since we both admitted our feelings that meant we were like exclusive but, it's OK, you didn't have the same views," Malcolm's brows furrowed into a bemused frown.

"Eden none of this is your fault. I agree with you, and if it had been the other way around I'm not sure I would have been able to walk away like you did," Malcolm drew in a deep breath then sighed heavily, "you're gonna hate me when I explain, a part of me feels like it's not worth it, like the explanation will make everything ten times worse."

"Mal," Eden said softly, moving closer so their knees touched and clasping the man's free hand, "unless you like to kill puppies in your spare time, I could never hate you," Eden liked to make Malcolm smile, it was so much better to add some humour into a serious conversation than allow it to dive into the morbid depths.

"If you say so," Malcolm didn't sound very convinced, nevertheless he continued, "you remember Rei saying the guy who burned you must have been a shifter that really didn't like you?" Eden nodded, not entirely sure where Malcolm was taking the conversation, "well, about a month ago, I was on my way to Arian's for dinner with the guys and I stopped off at a store to pick up some wine. There was this guy watching, I thought it was harmless at first, he was just a kid, a little younger than you probably.

"He approached me, saying he thought he could help me. I didn't know what he was talking about until he changed his eye colour. He was showing me that he was a shifter, making everything blatantly out in the open. I rejected him immediately, paid for the wine and left. But when I got to my car, I don't even know how he got in-"

"Wait, stop," Eden interjected, laughing briefly at the stupidity of the past two weeks, "I think I know where you're going with this. You made him look like me, right? And, what, screwed him? So he was the redhead you were kissing too?" Malcolm blanched, nodding sullenly as he stared down into his lap, "are kidding me, Mal? That's why we haven't been talking for two weeks?"