Devil's Drop

Given Up

Mike leaned his forehead against the window as he fretted. Two weekends had passed since the incident at YRS, since Mark had cornered Chester alone in their room and forced him to his knees, and Mike felt the change in his boyfriend. Chester wasn't as talkative at work. He kept his eyes down and his body close to Mike's side, and in their shoots he was overly subservient and distant. I've tried, and he doesn't want to talk about it. And he's fine here, until we have to go back. And then he's quiet again. And nothing I do or say is helping. He told me I was hovering. I'm not hovering. I'm just worried.

The sound of Chester's key turning in the lock was final, and Mike didn't move from the window where he was staring out at the early morning haze blankly. It's good. We should spend time apart, right? He's right, I know he's right. But why does everything feel so wrong?

He blew out a breath that fogged the window with his frustration, and dropped his eyes to the sidewalk below. Any minute now he would see Chester's carefully spiked mohawk as he walked out to the car, on his way to his mother's and leaving Mike behind. Maybe I am hovering. I need to practice. I should take advantage of him being gone most of the day. He'll be at his mom's and then karate this afternoon. Karate is good for him. He needs that, that confidence that he really could protect himself if he needed to. If he just didn't freeze around Mark. Fuck Mark. I hate that guy.

The options were painting or practicing, and neither sounded particularly appealing at the moment. Mike looked over at the spotless kitchen, then turned to look over the loft. Everything was neat and orderly, controlled. Chester was almost militant when it came to their home. Everything had a space and everything needed to be clean, and Mike had learned early on when Chester was cleaning to stay out of the way, especially in the kitchen. There was a load of bath towels he could wash, but that was really it in terms of chores that needed to be done. Together they managed to keep things pretty tight at home.

Mike flipped on the lights in the bathroom and went for the hamper, gathering up the towels to take to the washer. Chester's gel was sitting on the vanity, and he frowned as he popped open a drawer and put it away. He must have really been in a hurry to get out of here this morning. He never leaves things out.

Once the towels were in the wash and he'd made another restless pass through the downstairs, Mike wandered back into the kitchen to put the kettle on for coffee before he settled down at the piano. He was only part of the way through his warmup routine when there was a light knock at the front door.

I'm not expecting anyone. I'm meeting Anna later, but she wouldn't come here now. Mike heard the water boiling in the kettle as he made his way to the door, ready to turn away whoever wanted to bother his alone time. He wasn't expecting to see Jason on the other side of the door.

"Hey, Mike." Jason stood in front of him, both hands stuffed into the lightweight black jacket he was wearing. "I... well, I was out and thought I'd stop by and make sure everything is okay here." He peeked around Mike uncertainly, looking over the spotless loft he and Mark owned. "You know... anything needing repair or anything? One of us usually comes by every quarter or so, just to check on things."

Mike looked at his boss and cocked his head to the side. "Um... yeah, I think everything is fine. We had an issue with the hot water a few weeks ago but apparently it was the whole building, and it got fixed the same day. Chester said we didn't even need to tell you." His expression dropped into a worried frown and he said, "I figured he knew if we needed to, I'm sorry that we didn't."

"No, no, it's fine," Jason rushed to say, pulling one of his hands out of his pocket to wave off Mike's concern. Neither of them said anything for a minute, and Jason was about to turn to go. He wasn't exactly sure why he'd come here, and Mike was looking at him with a mixture of confusion and concern.