Abel's moans filled the small bedroom. He hadn't stopped since we started. They were soft and sounded oddly melodic. They drove me absolutely nuts. It wasn't even because he was loud. He wasn't. But his mouth was right next to my ear, and every time I thrust my hips forward, he'd make that soft noise.
And then his hands. He'd consistently run them up under my shirt, over my stomach, further to my ribs and then across my back and down over my thighs, giving my ass a squeeze on the way.
I was covered in sweat. So was he, but it didn't matter. None of it did. Only the sound of his voice and the way his body clenched around mine. He'd roll his hips under me, and I'd help him lift up with my hand on his thigh. It also helped ground me a little and not get entirely lost in it all. I wanted to be present. Present to hear his voice, to feel his hands on me.
"Gael," he moaned, digging his fingers into my back.
I lifted up a little, looking down at him, gently running my thumb over his cheek.
"Kiss me."
Honestly, he could ask me to do whatever if he asked that way. I did as told and kissed him. He eagerly kissed me back, lifting his head a little from the pillow. I pushed him down again, gently so he wouldn't strain his neck. He didn't have to do anything but lie there and enjoy it. I wanted to do everything I could to please him. By the sound of it, I was.
I had never been super confident in bed, but with Abel I actually felt confident. I liked how he made me feel beautiful. Desirable. I don't think anyone had ever wanted me as much as he did. No one clung to me like he did, almost desperate to keep me as close as possible. Especially not on an entirely regular morning, where we had woken up and started kissing. It had been such an organic progression. It was lovely and it felt so normal. Waking up with your boyfriend and then make love because it just happened. Because the way he kissed you awoke something within you, and you had to be with him.
I was madly in love with this boy after only knowing him for some months or so and I realised that sounded entirely impossible. And probably stupid too, but I had a hard time caring. Especially as he finished, pressing me to him. The way he groaned my name undid everything in me and it felt like all air was forcefully punched out of my stomach. He pressed me to him and eased up once I was done. I still stayed on his chest though, because honestly, moving an inch right then and there seemed like an impossible feat. I couldn't do it. I just wanted to lie there, my head moving up and down with his heavy breath, and his hand resting comfortably on top of my head.
"Ridiculous," Abel murmured after a while.
"What is?" I whispered back.
"How long I was able to wait until we did this. I mean, holy shit, I don't get how I had that sort of self-control."
I moved up a bit and kissed him. I couldn't help but smile. "I mean, you didn't know me. I might've been a huge asshole and that's a bit of a turn-off I imagine."
"Oh, you imagine that?" he chuckled and pulled himself up in a seated position. I grabbed the covers and a pillow and put it all in his lap. Then I grabbed his hand and placed it in my hair. He chuckled softly and massaged my scalp.
"If I were ever in doubt, you're a wolf, I no longer am. All you require is a good scratching."
"You know it."
"Cutie."
I chuckled in response.
"Are you going back to sleep?"
"No, I'm just relaxing. You wore me out good."
"As if." He chuckled and really dug his fingers through my hair. I couldn't hold back a content sound and it only made him laugh. "You did all the work, so honestly, you wore me out."
"You don't seem worn out at all."
"I'm never too tired to play with your hair."
"If you ever grow tired of it, it's a deal breaker." I snuggled closer.
"I'll try and remember that."
I fiddled with the collar on my shirt, trying to smooth out a wrinkle. I had never met anyone's dad. Not like this.
Abel didn't look very nervous. I wondered how many boyfriends he had introduced to his parents. Was I just another number? But then again, he did say he hadn't had much experience. Which was honestly hard to believe. But I also didn't think he'd lie. It was all my insecurities speaking and I was man enough to admit that.
We were meeting his father at the bakery. For coffee and cakes. Abel kept saying he loved cakes. He'd said it maybe five times since we got here.
I glanced up at him and he had this almost stoic mask on his face. I took his hand in mine, realising he was even more nervous than I was. He was just not a fiddling idiot, he became a weird chatter head, repeating the same thing over and over again.
"He likes cakes," he said again.
"We'll order all of them then."
He smiled at me. "I've said that a lot huh?"
"A bit. But I'm nervous too."
Abel was about to say something but then he shot up to his feet as a man approached our table. He was smiling widely, the man, and Abel was kind of grimacing back at him.
When I imagined what a very old vampire would look like it wasn't... This. He was plump, wore a bright blue polo shirt paired with red shorts and a pair of striped socks in sandals. He looked so... Normal. Like, he looked like such a dad. Everything from the slightly greying dark wavy hair, to the weathered golden skin, down to the sensible watch and cover for his phone, hanging in his belt.
"Hey Dad!" Abel said with a cracking voice and went around the table, to give the man a hug.
"Abel! You never stop growing, boy, you'll be as tall as a house in no time." He had a bit of an accent. Very melodic. He was also much smaller than his son, about my height actually. "And you must be Gael, I'm so happy to meet you. I'm Charon."
He held his hand out towards me and it took me an awkwardly long time to grab his. I was already being a total dork.
"H-hi."
He gave a firm handshake with that massive hand of his and then sat down opposite of us, picking up the menu. "Oh, I love cakes."
I suppressed a smile. "They're very good here. We know the baker."
"It's our friend's older sister. Remember I've told you about Creek? It's their sister," Abel chimed in.
"I remember," he said and then turned, smiling at me. "Have you met my wife yet? I'm sure she'll love you."
"No, we haven't had the time. She's on the other side of the globe, right now," Abel said before I could answer.
"Oh, right. I can never keep track of where she is." He laughed a little and looked back at me again. "It happens when you've been in this world for a while."
"I can imagine," I tried. I honestly couldn't imagine. How did someone lose track of their wife's whereabouts? Seemed entirely foreign to me.
"I reckon she's home?" Charon asked and glanced at Abel.
"Yeah. Complaining about how much it has changed." He rolled his eyes a little. "My mum is from what was Siam once. Thailand now."
"Oh," I said in lack of something better to say. I hadn't considered just how old Abel's parents were but if she referred to Thailand as Siam... She was at the very least eighty years old. And I didn't think she was even that young. Not when Abel said she considered the industrial revolution something of newer times.
"The weather agrees with her though. I reckon it must've been hard for her to come here." Charon spun his cup of coffee around a little in his hands.
"She hasn't been here yet."
He rolled his eyes and shook his head. "I'll give her a call. You're not in university forever, and if she wants to see her little boy while he's in school, she needs to hurry."
"She struggles with it, it's fine." Abel shrugged a shoulder stiffly. It wasn't fine. I could tell it wasn't fine. "Gael studies painting and printmaking," he said then, out of nowhere.
"Oh, is that so? How're the classes?" Charon asked, after having sent his son a bit of a sceptic look.
"They're really good. I'm having a really good time."
"And how did you two meet?" He leaned back.
"Abel decided we should be friends," I said and smirked at him.
"Didn't wanna give him too many choices, to be honest." He smirked back.
"Didn't really need many either. He's been good too."
Charon snorted a bit and took a sip of his coffee. "Good. Then I won't have to smack some sense into him. I've always told him to be kind to others. You get further with kindness."
I nodded in agreement to that. It wasn't hard to see where Abel had gotten much of his personality from. He seemed so much like his father, if not by looks then by mentality.
The cakes arrived and we got a top-up on our coffee. It was really nice and honestly, I wished Abel's dad lived closer so we could all hang out more. I felt comfortable in his company.
We said our goodbyes outside the bakery, and Abel and I went back to his, his hand in mine.
"He's nice," I said.
"When he's here, he is," Abel muttered. He looked almost surprised by his own words and glanced down at me before clenching his jaw.
"Wanna talk about that, or should I pretend I didn't hear it?"
He groaned and shrugged. "I don't know. It makes me sound like a baby to complain about this. But I wish my parents were around more like Creek's. I barely see them and haven't since I turned eighteen, and I don't like that. I feel like I still need them sometimes, but they're never around, except when they occasionally remember I exist and show up here. Which still hasn't happened for my mum. My dad's better. This is like the twentieth time he has visited. But neither were there when I graduated from my undergrad, and they probably won't be there when I finish my master's either."
"I don't think that makes you sound like a baby at all. I miss my dad all the time."
He softened and stopped, pulling me in for a hug. "I sound ungrateful, don't I. Like at least I get to see mine sometimes."
"No, you don't sound ungrateful." I hugged him back and rested my cheek on his chest. "Have you considered talking to them about this?"
"I have considered it, yes, but I know what they'd say. My mum would lecture me on seeing the world and how important it is, because we live forever and in a blink of an eye, we've entered a new era and I'll have missed out on something somewhere. My dad would apologise and promise to do better and like, he'd totally do better. Which would make me feel guilty because I know how important it is to travel too."
"Okay, but they chose to have a kid though. You're important too. And they're missing things here and now." I kind of wished I hadn't said that because Abel froze. His body became stiff but then he almost crushed me to him.
"Thanks, Gael," he said softly and kissed my hair. "Thanks for listening."
"Always." I stretched to my toes and kissed him softly. "Come on. Let's go home."