It was easy for Cello to have the house spotless before his stepfather left his bedroom because he always got an early start to his morning. It meant he had a little more free time to play with Lucky.
While he was out on a walk one day, a couple of years ago, he heard soft whining in a nearby bush. Going over to investigate he found an abandoned puppy, cold and malnourished. He scooped the puppy in his arms and rushed home to take care of it. Knowing how his stepfather would react to the weak animal, he hid him in secret in the barn. He carefully fed him their cow's milk in hopes that it would be enough to keep him alive. As the days dragged on with Cello sleeping in the barn with the puppy, it seemed like the dog wouldn't make it.
As Cello awoke one morning, he saw that the dog was missing from where he had been sleeping. Cello rose quickly, desperately searching for the missing animal. He found him outside the barn chasing the chickens and his own tail. As soon as the puppy laid eyes on Cello he rushed his way, tiny legs taking him as fast as they could go. He stood on his hind legs, pawing at Cello's own legs in order to get petted. Cello scooped the dog up who eagerly licked his face. It seemed the puppy was very grateful to Cello, and he laughed at the hyperactive dog in his arms.
"You are lucky I found you, aren't you, boy?" Cello laughed again as the dog's tongue tickled his face. "You need a name now, don't you?" The dog yapped twice while he panted looking up at Cello. During the time of taking the utmost care of the dog, Cello worked rigorously to keep his stepfather and stepbrothers out of his hair. He never felt more needed in his life. Something depended on him. Something would not have survived without him. The simple validation of being truly needed by someone or something gave him the strength to wake every morning.
"I suppose I was just as lucky to have found you too, boy," Cello told the dog. He held him in his left arm while scratching the pup's ears with his right hand. "Then that's what we'll name you."
Lucky ran ahead of Cello while they were on their morning walk in the wooded area outside their home. Lucky would stop for a minute and sniff a flower or chase a butterfly into the nearby bushes. He enjoyed their walks as much as Cello did. Cello always leapt at the opportunity to get away from his home. As much as he loved it there as a child, when it was just he and his mother, he only felt dread while there as an adult. He was now thirty years old and most men his age were already married with families of their own.
Seeing how he had no blood relatives alive or even friends, he wasn't hopeful that he'd be able to get out of his current situation. Whether he liked it or not, his stepfather and stepbrothers were his only family now. He needed them, otherwise he'd be left out in the cold alone.
Cello looked over to his right towards a clearing in the woods. The grassy area was home to a few different woodland creatures. He noticed a family of deer as soon as he spotted them. A buck, a doe, and their fawn were eating grass together. The sun peeked in through the leaves of the trees casting a ray of light on the family. It was a very majestic scene. Cello crouched down low as he got closer to get a better look at the deer. Lucky crept beside him low to the ground ready to pounce. Cello leaned towards him ready to grab him when he charged. Before he was able to stop him, Lucky sprinted towards the deer bouncing and barking happily while ultimately scaring away the deer. Cello ended up falling all the way forward on the ground in his attempt to hold back his dog.
"You are just the absolute worst, Lucky," Cello said, voice muffled by the ground. Cello laid on the ground with his face in the dirt defeated while Lucky hopped on his back.
"He'd make a wonderful hunting dog one day," a gentle voice said above him. Cello quickly rose from the ground attempting to make himself look like less of an idiot to whomever the voice belonged. Cello was met by a towering figure whose beautiful blue eyes looked right into his soul. His olive skin almost sparkled in the sun that still peeked through the tree leaves. A gentle breeze began to blow around them as the man ran a hand over his dark, buzzed hair. It felt as if time stopped for Cello. He forgot to breathe.
"Um...hello," Cello finally got the nerve to say. It seemed as if they had been staring at each other for far longer than necessary. It wasn't an awkward silence that befell them but a calming one instead. It was as if their eyes said everything that needed to be said between them. At least that's what it felt like to Cello. Lucky sat in between the two standing men, looking back and forth at both of them.
"Hello," the man said back. He gave a smile showing pearly white teeth. The bottom half of his face was covered in a neatly trimmed dark beard that was slightly peppered with some gray. He was otherworldly handsome. "I didn't think anyone ventured this far away from the village."
"My home is nearby," answered Cello. "I was taking my dog here for a walk." The man looked down at the brown and white dog that looked at him with curiosity. "He's not...very good with strangers."
"The dog or you?" The man questioned Cello. Cello looked away as the man continued to smile at him. He knelt in front of Lucky who panted while wagging his tail. "He doesn't seem too bad."
"He doesn't look like it, but he can get vicious." Cello told the man. "I've seen the way he attacks bacon." The man laughed while extending the top of his hand to Lucky. Lucky walked forward beginning to sniff the man's hand. As soon as he got acquainted with the new smell, Lucky immediately pounced on the man and began licking his face.
"Lucky!" Cello called at him, pulling him off the now laughing man who was forced on his back in the dirt.
"I can definitely see how vicious he can be." The man laughed again.
"I'm so sorry!" Cello apologized. "Let me help you up." Cello extended his hand which the man gratefully took. As soon as their hands touched a literal shock shot up Cello's arm. Once the man was up on his feet again, he was inches from Cello. Cello was staring directly at the top of his chest. He could see a light patch of hair sticking out of the man's white tunic.
"Thanks," he said softly, he could only see the top of Cello's head. Cello looked up to meet the man's gaze whose lips were awfully close to his own. He smelled of lavender combined with a manly musk that set off all of Cello's senses.
More sunlight peeked through the leaves again casting a ray on Cello's eyes. The man could see how brown they truly were. His coarse black hair was cut low, and the man noticed dirt on his brown skin. He knew immediately that he was a farmer. He seemed a bit timid and soft-spoken, however. Not traditionally like the other farmers on the countryside who were rather boisterous about their gardening techniques.
"My name is Gabriel" the man said, shaking the hand he still held.
"Violoncello," Cello said back to him shaking his hand back. For some reason, neither wanted to let the other's hand go so they let their hands rest in between them. "But my family calls me Cello."
"Cello," Gabriel repeated his name. "A beautiful name... for a beautiful man." Gabriel whispered the last part of that sentence. It was as if he meant to say that in his head, but Cello heard him loud and clear. Gabriel's eyes grew wide when he realized that he let those words slip from his tongue. He was mortified, petrified even. He had no idea what came over him. He was terrified of how this man would react to his words.
Cello only smiled softly at him and slightly squeezed the hand he was still holding. Gabriel said no more. He was worried what else he'd accidentally say as his heart reverberated in his chest. This man in front of him, this Cello, was affecting him now in ways he couldn't explain. He wanted to get to know him better. He wanted to know what made him happy, sad, what his hopes and dreams were. He wanted to fiercely protect him from all pain and heartache. As these thoughts crossed his mind, he also became horrified that he was thinking them to begin with. Why was he having such feelings about another man? Unbeknownst to him, Cello shared very similar thoughts of his own.
"There you are, sire," a man in chainmail armor came walking up behind Gabriel. Cello noticed the kingdom's crest on the man's breastplate. "Shall we continue on with the rest of the group or shall we head back?" Gabriel looked back at the guard then turned his attention on Cello again.
"I'm-" he began to say.
"Nobility." Cello gasped feeling the color drain from his face. He began to panic as he immediately removed his hand from Gabriel's grasp. "I am so sorry!"
Cello noticed how physically filthy he was. He noticed how perverse his thoughts were. He didn't deserve to share a country with someone as esteemed as Gabriel, let alone touch his hand. He was a poor farmer in the presence of nobility. If his stepfather knew he was within a mile of nobility, he would surely suffer another beating. He whistled for Lucky who was in the clearing lying on the cool grass. Cello began sprinting towards his home with Lucky running close behind him. He could faintly hear Gabriel pleading for him to wait.