Fic: Home is....where? (2/?)
Wow, another chapter already @_@ Thanks to everyone for all the great feedback. This stuff is really starting to flow now. Though it's not quite as long as the last chapter.
Title: Home is....where? (2/?)
Author: ellelee
Pairing: Adam/Kris
Rating: pg-13 (will change in later chapters)
Summary: A day back home causes Kris some confusion, and returning to the mansion doesn't make it any better.
"If you're gonna neuter me, you're gonna have to start here." Adam's voice was playfully seductive, and Kris could only stare at him, completely baffled, his heart racing in his chest. He couldn't even put together the brain cells necessary to pull his hand away. Then he felt that hot bulge beneath hsi hand shift, grow, and the panic kicked in, sending him rushing from his bed to the bathroom so fast that he didn't even remember fleeing. The next thing he new was he was in the bathroom, the door locked behind him, gasping for breath.
THAT was not a freaking joke.
~~~~
A long, bracingly cold shower had done very little to clear Kris' mind, and he was lingering over everything, terrified to go back out into the bedroom and confront his roommate.
Sure, he knew Adam was gay; everyone knew that. But somehow, the way the older man always flirted with everyone, was always so friendly and open and teasing, he had always thought of him as more asexual than anything. He'd never even considered that Adam might have an interest in HIM. Hell a part of him was still trying to convince himself that it had all been some joke taken too far.
But his palm still burned with that almost unnatural heat, and he couldn't help looking down at his hand, remembering the way the man had twitched and hardened beneath the jeans he'd been wearing. He felt his face go scarlet and nearly groaned as he splashed it with cool water from the sink, washing his face. What was wrong with him? He'd never been uncomfortable with another guy before. He'll, he'd been in college, and done stupid college things, drunk and sober, had probably been touched in ways he preferred not to remember. But it had always been in that condescendingly straight way that guys had to feel more secure of themselves. He'd never been touched by a guy who might actually be seriously touching him before.
Hell, the only other person he'd ever touched, who'd ever touched him back, intimately, was Katy. And the reminder of that had him looking down at the wedding ring on his finger. It felt almost a little too tight, and he was getting sick of himself. He loved his wife. He loved his home, and this was going to be all over in a week or two so there was no reason to dwell on any of it.
Of course, looking down at his hands, he saw the painted thumb on his right hand, the chipped polish glaring at him accusingly. He must have scraped it against one of his guitar strings during the day without noticing. He rubbed his index finger over the nail, then groaned in frustration to himself. He had a painted fingernail. For Adam.
Some juvenile part of his brain wondered if that made him one-tenth gay.
Certain he was going crazy, Kris dragged a hand over his face, and told himself resolutely that he was going to go back out there, and pretend like absolutely nothing out of the ordinary had happened. They only had a little more time left to spend together this way, at least until they went on tour, and he didn't want to waste it feeling awkward and flustered.
Nodding, he pulled on his pants and shirt, not having brought clean clothes in with him, and went back out to the room, toweling at his hair. And there was Adam, STILL laying on his bed, and looking quite at home there. And everything Kris had told himself went right out the window.
"What the hell was that about?" He demanded, then kicked himself, over and over again as Adam looked up at him, a lazy smile on his face. He might have missed it, if he hadn't spent months with the other man, the slight glimmer of uncertainty in the eyes hidden by a messy fringe of bangs. He'd always wondered how Adam's messy hair could look sexy, and his messy hair just looked...messy.
"Well....I've been thinking." Adam patted a space on the bed beside him, and Kris wanted to laugh at the audacity. He was being invited over to sit on his own bed. And it was a very dangerous invitation, all things considered. He hesitated, then went over to sit on the very edge of the bed.
"Haven't we told you about that? Nothing good ever comes from it." He huffed, trying his damnedest to keep this from being awkward. But he didn't really see how it could be avoided. This whole day had simply been awkward and stressful, and he almost wished he was back in Arkansas....Almost.
"You ARE feeling catty. I like it." Adam grinned, leering up at him from where he was, sprawled on his stomach. Kris' own stomach gave a funny little jump that he didn't know how to interpret. That was just the sort of casual flirting Adam had always done. He didn't know why it felt so different this time.
"I just bet. Can you answer the question already?"
Rolling his eyes, Adam stretched, then sat up. Kris couldn't help but feel impatient. This was one of the best friendships he'd ever had, and it looked like it was starting to unravel right in front of him.
"Like I said, I've been thinking. This is all gonna end soon. Hell, there's a damn good chance one of us is going to get cut this week. The holy child across the hall seems to have an entire army backing him. We're not going to have a lot of time left together."
The fact that Kris had been thinking pretty much the same thing wasn't helping matters any.
"It's just for like a month, then we'll be back together for the tour and all." He insisted, though it came out rather weak. A month away from Adam; from everyone, it would be hell.
"But it's not gonna be the same, is it?" Now it was Adam who looked impatient, and Kris wasn't sure how to handle it. Adam had always seemed to have an endless supply of patience. "We're not gonna be here, in the mansion, we're probably not even going to be rooming together on tour." Kris had to cringe. They'd probably all get put up in their own separate rooms in hotels. Though there was nothing to stop them from going to each others' room to hang out.
"Reality is coming back quickly, and I don't like it."
Kris had to blink. "You don't like reality?"
"I hate it, and try to avoid it as often as possible." The comment sounded so ridiculous, but coming from Adam it almost seemed to make an odd sort of sense. He was an actor behind the musician. He'd probably spent more time 'in character' than he had just being Adam. Which sounded a little sad to him.
"And because you hate reality, you decided to make me grope you?" His cheeks went a dark red just thinking about it. And Adam's grin was so shameless he wanted to squirm. Where did all the man's confidence come from?
"That was just a nice side benefit. I just decided that I don't want to waste my time with you anymore." Adam chuckled, and tugged at Kris' arm so suddenly the younger man didn't have time to brace himself, and ended up falling forward, next to Adam on the bed. His blush darkened considerably. "I want to get everything I can out of this before reality comes back." Adam's voice had dipped into that insanely sexual purr, and he couldn't quite stop the shudder that went down his spine. This couldn't really be happening, could it? Adam, his roommate and close friend was coming onto him, right in his own bed?
"Adam....you...you can't just.... I'm married!" The fact that that seemed to be his only argument struck him as unsettling and lame all at once. For a moment Adam's expression flickered, then that grin was back again, and he was taking Kris by his left hand.
"Well, yeah, in reality. But we're not in reality now, are we?" That purr was getting seriously annoying, and his head was starting to spin. "We're in our own little make-believe world. And it's going to end soon."
That deep pool of regret welled up inside him, and he couldn't quite stop it. He didn't want the contest to be over. Maybe he didn't want reality back either. A thought that made him feel painfully guilty.
"Still, come on, you can't just...Hey!" He yelped, wide-eyed, as Adam slipped the simple wedding band off his finger, carefully tucking it away in his nightstand. he was so stunned by the action he couldn't move.
"See, now, in reality, you'd still be married. But since we're not in reality, and you're not wearing a ring, clearly you're not married right now."
Adam's voice sounded so logical, and so at odds with the completely ridiculous nonsense he was saying, that Kris couldn't even find words to argue. At least not until Adam was pushing him back against the bed, leaning over him. He was close, far too close, and Kris' heart started racing in his chest. He could feel Adam's warm breath, just inches away, and those messy, tousled bangs were brushing against his forehead, tickling him.
"Adam, you can't.... Stop..."
The grin disappeared now, and there was an intent look he couldn't quite interpret. All he knew was that it was so much more intimidating than the older man's usual leer. He couldn't think, couldn't quite get his bearings, and Adam was simply TOO CLOSE. He knew he should be pushing him off, but his arms refused to work, hands clutched in the covers of the bed.
"Do you want me to stop?" Oh god, that whispery tone should be absolutely illegal. There was nothing fair about it, and the way it washed through him, weakening him. He was married, dammit. He was straight. Well, at least nine-tenths of the way. He couldn't do this...He couldn't...
He couldn't say yes. Dammit.
".....No."
He hated himself for the strangled word that escaped him. Hated himself for the jolt of excitement that went through him when Adam's eyes lit up in triumph. Absolutely despised himself for the way, when Adam closed the distance between them, those full lips brushing against his own, he groaned and immediately wanted more.
It was nothing like kissing his wife, was the absent thought, one that made him feel just a little ill with guilt. Adam's lips were soft and full, but they were dominant, and they absolutely knew what they were doing as they grazed over his, enticing little gasps from his mouth. He'd never been kissed like this before. Never had it feel like someone was building him up with just their mouth on his. It was like foreplay leading up to a kiss, however ridiculous that was. In his mind kissing had always been the most basic foreplay. He'd never even considered foreplay for foreplay.
But Adam's lips were teasing his, just little wisps of contact before drawing away and doing it all over again. It left him breathless, panting, and wanting so much more than just that little taunt.
He heard a strangled sound, plaintive and desperate, and was mortified when he realized it had come from his own throat. But he was rewarded with those lips that had been teasing him finally coming down on his fully.
And it was like no kiss he had ever known. It was a full frontal assault on his senses; Adam's scent, flighty and clean, just tainted with the scent of makeup. The feel of that larger body looming over his. And the taste of that wily tongue slipping past his lips to explore and conquer.
His hands finally remembered how to move, uncurling from the sheets he'd been clutching so desperately. But they didn't push the man away. They reached up, diving into that messy, flat-ironed fringe of hair, feeling how silky smooth the inky strands were. Letting them slide through his fingers, then grabbing hold again. he'd never known hair that short could be so sexy.
He had no idea how to fight this. All he could do was surrender to the assault, offering up a desperate apology to whatever god was probably glaring down on him at that moment. He was only human. And he wasn't entirely sure any human could resist this side of Adam. Resist the feelings the older male was provoking in him.
He was breathless, dazed and gasping as Adam pulled back, a somewhat unreadable expression on his face as he pulled back, just staring at him. Kris felt a shiver run from the top of his spine, all the way down to his toes, which curled pitifully. Had anyone ever looked at him like that before? He didn't think so. He was fighting the absolutely unreasonable urge to reach up, grab that silky hair again, and pull that mouth back to his own. His body was hot, uncomfortably so, and he thought he had probably melted into a puddle on his bed.
Then Adam pulled back entirely, and he wanted to whimper at the unfairness of it, just staring, dazedly at the man. He felt like someone who had just narrowly avoided a painful death, and was too stunned to move or react.
"You think about that for a little bit now. You can tell me what you decide."
Before Kris could even find his voice, Adam had disappeared into the bathroom, the cheating bastard, leaving him hot, unsettled, and torn between guilt, and the irrational desire to follow the other man into the bathroom, to what would almost certainly be a crime. Or at the very least one hell of a sin.
He heard the sound of the shower start, and, unbidden, images of Adam's body, lean, pale, and freckled assaulted his mind. What would he look like under the cascade of water? How would that hair of his cling to his face and neck and ears, undoubtedly looking painfully enticing. What color was the hair on the rest of him. As a child it looked red, from the photos he'd seen, but Adam's high school pictures had been blond. Had the California sun bleached it over the years, or was it done chemically?
Just thinking about it had Kris feeling like the worst kind of bastard, and he hurriedly dug his wedding ring out of the nightstand. But he couldn't quite bring himself to slip it back on. Not when his head was so full of Adam. Not when his lips still tingled from the kiss and the taste of the man was still on his tongue. Somehow that would be an even worse betrayal, he thought, frowning down at the band.
He'd been in love with Katy for as long as he could remember. He'd been so sure of it. He'd been downright giddy when he'd bought the ring he'd used to propose to her. But....had kissing her ever felt like this? This down-to-the-toes excitement, mixed with a little bit of fear, and a whole lot of uncertainty? It was a deliciously heady mix.
With his wife it had always been sweet, warm and gentle and sometimes just a little bit playful. There had never been any fear or uncertainty. But there had been excitement....hadn't there?
When he couldn't remember, he felt like slime, and silently tucked his ring back in the drawer.
By the time Adam emerged from the bathroom, wet hair meticulously combed dry with the help of a blow dryer, Kris had turned out the lights and huddled under his covers, his back to Adam's bed, pretending desperately to be asleep. He wasn't ready for this confrontation yet. He wasn't sure he would ever be. Everything was so mixed up in his mind that his head was throbbing from it. He wanted to just wish it away, to put everything back the way it had been before they'd gone home for a day. But at the same time, he didn't want to let go of these new memories, despite how traitorous they were.
He held his breath as he heard the soft footfalls padding around the room, then the sound of Adam sitting down on his own bed. Clothes rustling stood out painfully to him, and he willed himself not to think about what Adam was or wasn't wearing to bed. He'd never wondered these things about him before, he didn't need to start now. But he couldn't seem to help himself.
Then, finally, the room was painfully quiet, and he slowly let out the breath he'd been holding, struggling to relax. There was the majority of a room between them. They were in separate beds. But he thought he could STILL feel the warmth that he'd felt so clearly from Adam's body. It was enough to make him shiver.
After several long moments of absolute silence, he heard a shifting in Adam's bed, tensed, then told himself to stop being ridiculous and go to sleep. But the other male's voice cut through the quiet, making him jump.
"Goodnight, Kris."
He had to clench his eyes shut tight, but it did nothing to hold back the surge of images that assaulted him, just hearing that quiet voice, that damn whispery sound, alone in the quiet room.
".....Goodnight, Adam."
Title: Home is....where? (2/?)
Author: ellelee
Pairing: Adam/Kris
Rating: pg-13 (will change in later chapters)
Summary: A day back home causes Kris some confusion, and returning to the mansion doesn't make it any better.
"If you're gonna neuter me, you're gonna have to start here." Adam's voice was playfully seductive, and Kris could only stare at him, completely baffled, his heart racing in his chest. He couldn't even put together the brain cells necessary to pull his hand away. Then he felt that hot bulge beneath hsi hand shift, grow, and the panic kicked in, sending him rushing from his bed to the bathroom so fast that he didn't even remember fleeing. The next thing he new was he was in the bathroom, the door locked behind him, gasping for breath.
THAT was not a freaking joke.
~~~~
A long, bracingly cold shower had done very little to clear Kris' mind, and he was lingering over everything, terrified to go back out into the bedroom and confront his roommate.
Sure, he knew Adam was gay; everyone knew that. But somehow, the way the older man always flirted with everyone, was always so friendly and open and teasing, he had always thought of him as more asexual than anything. He'd never even considered that Adam might have an interest in HIM. Hell a part of him was still trying to convince himself that it had all been some joke taken too far.
But his palm still burned with that almost unnatural heat, and he couldn't help looking down at his hand, remembering the way the man had twitched and hardened beneath the jeans he'd been wearing. He felt his face go scarlet and nearly groaned as he splashed it with cool water from the sink, washing his face. What was wrong with him? He'd never been uncomfortable with another guy before. He'll, he'd been in college, and done stupid college things, drunk and sober, had probably been touched in ways he preferred not to remember. But it had always been in that condescendingly straight way that guys had to feel more secure of themselves. He'd never been touched by a guy who might actually be seriously touching him before.
Hell, the only other person he'd ever touched, who'd ever touched him back, intimately, was Katy. And the reminder of that had him looking down at the wedding ring on his finger. It felt almost a little too tight, and he was getting sick of himself. He loved his wife. He loved his home, and this was going to be all over in a week or two so there was no reason to dwell on any of it.
Of course, looking down at his hands, he saw the painted thumb on his right hand, the chipped polish glaring at him accusingly. He must have scraped it against one of his guitar strings during the day without noticing. He rubbed his index finger over the nail, then groaned in frustration to himself. He had a painted fingernail. For Adam.
Some juvenile part of his brain wondered if that made him one-tenth gay.
Certain he was going crazy, Kris dragged a hand over his face, and told himself resolutely that he was going to go back out there, and pretend like absolutely nothing out of the ordinary had happened. They only had a little more time left to spend together this way, at least until they went on tour, and he didn't want to waste it feeling awkward and flustered.
Nodding, he pulled on his pants and shirt, not having brought clean clothes in with him, and went back out to the room, toweling at his hair. And there was Adam, STILL laying on his bed, and looking quite at home there. And everything Kris had told himself went right out the window.
"What the hell was that about?" He demanded, then kicked himself, over and over again as Adam looked up at him, a lazy smile on his face. He might have missed it, if he hadn't spent months with the other man, the slight glimmer of uncertainty in the eyes hidden by a messy fringe of bangs. He'd always wondered how Adam's messy hair could look sexy, and his messy hair just looked...messy.
"Well....I've been thinking." Adam patted a space on the bed beside him, and Kris wanted to laugh at the audacity. He was being invited over to sit on his own bed. And it was a very dangerous invitation, all things considered. He hesitated, then went over to sit on the very edge of the bed.
"Haven't we told you about that? Nothing good ever comes from it." He huffed, trying his damnedest to keep this from being awkward. But he didn't really see how it could be avoided. This whole day had simply been awkward and stressful, and he almost wished he was back in Arkansas....Almost.
"You ARE feeling catty. I like it." Adam grinned, leering up at him from where he was, sprawled on his stomach. Kris' own stomach gave a funny little jump that he didn't know how to interpret. That was just the sort of casual flirting Adam had always done. He didn't know why it felt so different this time.
"I just bet. Can you answer the question already?"
Rolling his eyes, Adam stretched, then sat up. Kris couldn't help but feel impatient. This was one of the best friendships he'd ever had, and it looked like it was starting to unravel right in front of him.
"Like I said, I've been thinking. This is all gonna end soon. Hell, there's a damn good chance one of us is going to get cut this week. The holy child across the hall seems to have an entire army backing him. We're not going to have a lot of time left together."
The fact that Kris had been thinking pretty much the same thing wasn't helping matters any.
"It's just for like a month, then we'll be back together for the tour and all." He insisted, though it came out rather weak. A month away from Adam; from everyone, it would be hell.
"But it's not gonna be the same, is it?" Now it was Adam who looked impatient, and Kris wasn't sure how to handle it. Adam had always seemed to have an endless supply of patience. "We're not gonna be here, in the mansion, we're probably not even going to be rooming together on tour." Kris had to cringe. They'd probably all get put up in their own separate rooms in hotels. Though there was nothing to stop them from going to each others' room to hang out.
"Reality is coming back quickly, and I don't like it."
Kris had to blink. "You don't like reality?"
"I hate it, and try to avoid it as often as possible." The comment sounded so ridiculous, but coming from Adam it almost seemed to make an odd sort of sense. He was an actor behind the musician. He'd probably spent more time 'in character' than he had just being Adam. Which sounded a little sad to him.
"And because you hate reality, you decided to make me grope you?" His cheeks went a dark red just thinking about it. And Adam's grin was so shameless he wanted to squirm. Where did all the man's confidence come from?
"That was just a nice side benefit. I just decided that I don't want to waste my time with you anymore." Adam chuckled, and tugged at Kris' arm so suddenly the younger man didn't have time to brace himself, and ended up falling forward, next to Adam on the bed. His blush darkened considerably. "I want to get everything I can out of this before reality comes back." Adam's voice had dipped into that insanely sexual purr, and he couldn't quite stop the shudder that went down his spine. This couldn't really be happening, could it? Adam, his roommate and close friend was coming onto him, right in his own bed?
"Adam....you...you can't just.... I'm married!" The fact that that seemed to be his only argument struck him as unsettling and lame all at once. For a moment Adam's expression flickered, then that grin was back again, and he was taking Kris by his left hand.
"Well, yeah, in reality. But we're not in reality now, are we?" That purr was getting seriously annoying, and his head was starting to spin. "We're in our own little make-believe world. And it's going to end soon."
That deep pool of regret welled up inside him, and he couldn't quite stop it. He didn't want the contest to be over. Maybe he didn't want reality back either. A thought that made him feel painfully guilty.
"Still, come on, you can't just...Hey!" He yelped, wide-eyed, as Adam slipped the simple wedding band off his finger, carefully tucking it away in his nightstand. he was so stunned by the action he couldn't move.
"See, now, in reality, you'd still be married. But since we're not in reality, and you're not wearing a ring, clearly you're not married right now."
Adam's voice sounded so logical, and so at odds with the completely ridiculous nonsense he was saying, that Kris couldn't even find words to argue. At least not until Adam was pushing him back against the bed, leaning over him. He was close, far too close, and Kris' heart started racing in his chest. He could feel Adam's warm breath, just inches away, and those messy, tousled bangs were brushing against his forehead, tickling him.
"Adam, you can't.... Stop..."
The grin disappeared now, and there was an intent look he couldn't quite interpret. All he knew was that it was so much more intimidating than the older man's usual leer. He couldn't think, couldn't quite get his bearings, and Adam was simply TOO CLOSE. He knew he should be pushing him off, but his arms refused to work, hands clutched in the covers of the bed.
"Do you want me to stop?" Oh god, that whispery tone should be absolutely illegal. There was nothing fair about it, and the way it washed through him, weakening him. He was married, dammit. He was straight. Well, at least nine-tenths of the way. He couldn't do this...He couldn't...
He couldn't say yes. Dammit.
".....No."
He hated himself for the strangled word that escaped him. Hated himself for the jolt of excitement that went through him when Adam's eyes lit up in triumph. Absolutely despised himself for the way, when Adam closed the distance between them, those full lips brushing against his own, he groaned and immediately wanted more.
It was nothing like kissing his wife, was the absent thought, one that made him feel just a little ill with guilt. Adam's lips were soft and full, but they were dominant, and they absolutely knew what they were doing as they grazed over his, enticing little gasps from his mouth. He'd never been kissed like this before. Never had it feel like someone was building him up with just their mouth on his. It was like foreplay leading up to a kiss, however ridiculous that was. In his mind kissing had always been the most basic foreplay. He'd never even considered foreplay for foreplay.
But Adam's lips were teasing his, just little wisps of contact before drawing away and doing it all over again. It left him breathless, panting, and wanting so much more than just that little taunt.
He heard a strangled sound, plaintive and desperate, and was mortified when he realized it had come from his own throat. But he was rewarded with those lips that had been teasing him finally coming down on his fully.
And it was like no kiss he had ever known. It was a full frontal assault on his senses; Adam's scent, flighty and clean, just tainted with the scent of makeup. The feel of that larger body looming over his. And the taste of that wily tongue slipping past his lips to explore and conquer.
His hands finally remembered how to move, uncurling from the sheets he'd been clutching so desperately. But they didn't push the man away. They reached up, diving into that messy, flat-ironed fringe of hair, feeling how silky smooth the inky strands were. Letting them slide through his fingers, then grabbing hold again. he'd never known hair that short could be so sexy.
He had no idea how to fight this. All he could do was surrender to the assault, offering up a desperate apology to whatever god was probably glaring down on him at that moment. He was only human. And he wasn't entirely sure any human could resist this side of Adam. Resist the feelings the older male was provoking in him.
He was breathless, dazed and gasping as Adam pulled back, a somewhat unreadable expression on his face as he pulled back, just staring at him. Kris felt a shiver run from the top of his spine, all the way down to his toes, which curled pitifully. Had anyone ever looked at him like that before? He didn't think so. He was fighting the absolutely unreasonable urge to reach up, grab that silky hair again, and pull that mouth back to his own. His body was hot, uncomfortably so, and he thought he had probably melted into a puddle on his bed.
Then Adam pulled back entirely, and he wanted to whimper at the unfairness of it, just staring, dazedly at the man. He felt like someone who had just narrowly avoided a painful death, and was too stunned to move or react.
"You think about that for a little bit now. You can tell me what you decide."
Before Kris could even find his voice, Adam had disappeared into the bathroom, the cheating bastard, leaving him hot, unsettled, and torn between guilt, and the irrational desire to follow the other man into the bathroom, to what would almost certainly be a crime. Or at the very least one hell of a sin.
He heard the sound of the shower start, and, unbidden, images of Adam's body, lean, pale, and freckled assaulted his mind. What would he look like under the cascade of water? How would that hair of his cling to his face and neck and ears, undoubtedly looking painfully enticing. What color was the hair on the rest of him. As a child it looked red, from the photos he'd seen, but Adam's high school pictures had been blond. Had the California sun bleached it over the years, or was it done chemically?
Just thinking about it had Kris feeling like the worst kind of bastard, and he hurriedly dug his wedding ring out of the nightstand. But he couldn't quite bring himself to slip it back on. Not when his head was so full of Adam. Not when his lips still tingled from the kiss and the taste of the man was still on his tongue. Somehow that would be an even worse betrayal, he thought, frowning down at the band.
He'd been in love with Katy for as long as he could remember. He'd been so sure of it. He'd been downright giddy when he'd bought the ring he'd used to propose to her. But....had kissing her ever felt like this? This down-to-the-toes excitement, mixed with a little bit of fear, and a whole lot of uncertainty? It was a deliciously heady mix.
With his wife it had always been sweet, warm and gentle and sometimes just a little bit playful. There had never been any fear or uncertainty. But there had been excitement....hadn't there?
When he couldn't remember, he felt like slime, and silently tucked his ring back in the drawer.
By the time Adam emerged from the bathroom, wet hair meticulously combed dry with the help of a blow dryer, Kris had turned out the lights and huddled under his covers, his back to Adam's bed, pretending desperately to be asleep. He wasn't ready for this confrontation yet. He wasn't sure he would ever be. Everything was so mixed up in his mind that his head was throbbing from it. He wanted to just wish it away, to put everything back the way it had been before they'd gone home for a day. But at the same time, he didn't want to let go of these new memories, despite how traitorous they were.
He held his breath as he heard the soft footfalls padding around the room, then the sound of Adam sitting down on his own bed. Clothes rustling stood out painfully to him, and he willed himself not to think about what Adam was or wasn't wearing to bed. He'd never wondered these things about him before, he didn't need to start now. But he couldn't seem to help himself.
Then, finally, the room was painfully quiet, and he slowly let out the breath he'd been holding, struggling to relax. There was the majority of a room between them. They were in separate beds. But he thought he could STILL feel the warmth that he'd felt so clearly from Adam's body. It was enough to make him shiver.
After several long moments of absolute silence, he heard a shifting in Adam's bed, tensed, then told himself to stop being ridiculous and go to sleep. But the other male's voice cut through the quiet, making him jump.
"Goodnight, Kris."
He had to clench his eyes shut tight, but it did nothing to hold back the surge of images that assaulted him, just hearing that quiet voice, that damn whispery sound, alone in the quiet room.
".....Goodnight, Adam."