Eye to Eye

The ride home is silent, almost oppressively so; the rumble of the road protects Isaac’s ears from the dreadful ringing of silence, but nobody says a single word to mitigate the tension in the vehicle. When they arrive home, Vin helps Isaac get his bag out of the back compartment and they all go inside, where Brandon lopes up the stairs almost immediately. Vin, though, follows his mother into the living room and waits as she grabs a can of diet soda from the fridge in the kitchen, puts it on a coaster on the coffee table, and relaxes into her recliner to watch television.

"Mom, I…​I’m sorry for the way I acted at the restaurant, but…​I’m really just not ready to talk about it all right now."

"Clearly," she says, not taking her eyes off the TV.

"…​Right," he says eventually. "…​Me an' Isaac are going upstairs."

"Hold on," she says, muting her program. "Look." As if following her own command, she stares up at Vin. "I get that you’re not ready to talk, but you gotta understand: I almost lost my son, and I only barely know why."

Vin watches her silently, almost unmoving.

She takes a shuddering deep breath and says, "Just…​please, baby, tell me when you are ready. Please. For your mother."

He nods. "Yeah."

"A’right," she says with a long sigh as she gets up out of the recliner. Walking over to Vin, she extends her hands to him. "You’re my child, Vin. I care about you more than anything. …​I’m sorry if…​if it doesn’t seem like that sometimes, but I love you."

He responds with his own hands, embracing her. Though taller than Isaac, she still doesn’t measure up to Vin; speaking into his shoulder, she repeats, "I love you. I promise."

"I love you too, Mom."

They hold the hug a few seconds longer. She lets go and sighs again, wiping her eyes with a finger. "A’right, you boys go play. I’m just glad you’re back home safe."

Isaac looks expectantly at Vin, who gives a nod with his head toward the stairs. "C’mon, let’s go up."

Isaac goes up the stairs one at a time, dragging his suitcase with him, while Vin waits at the top of the stairs for him. They go into the bedroom, putting his luggage in the corner near the trophies and their shoes in the closet, as before. Vin hops on the bed effortlessly and looks over at Isaac, who follows suit, if a bit less gracefully.

They sit cross-legged, looking at each other silently for a moment. Emotions flow back and forth between them: warm comfort, buzzing excitement, pulling attraction, and a large, pressing blanket of guilt mingle with each other in the boys' eyes.

Vin breaks the moment by looking down at his legs, and Isaac suddenly makes a connection: Vin does that when he is about to talk about unhappy things. Sure enough, Vin starts out by saying, "I’m sorry."

"Why, Vin?" Isaac asks, honestly unsure.

"For putting you through everything that I have. For, y’know…​almost killing myself. You shouldn’t have to deal with my drama like that." Vin sighs.

"But it’s not drama, Vin." Isaac replies.

"It really is," Vin insists. "I mean it’s not between me and other people, but it’s…​" He shakes his head. "Anyway, I’m sorry."

"You don’t have to be sorry, though, Vin." Isaac can’t figure out how to explain why not, but he hopes that that was sufficient.

Vin seems to take it. "Thanks," he says a half-smile, though it quickly slips. "Also, I don’t really feel like I’m being a very good boyfriend yet. I take you out to dinner and mess the whole thing up by fighting with my parents."

Just being reminded of the fact that they are boyfriends suffuses Isaac with glee. He doesn’t get to respond, though, before Vin continues, "But I swear to God, they just don’t get it. These all right here?" He gestures to the trophy case. "I like playing sports. I’m good at it. I like my teammates, and I mean, I really, really like winning, not gonna lie. But I don’t care about the trophies, I really don’t. It’s not like I have to look back and think, 'Gee, I won a lot of games.' I was there. And it’d be nice if my parents were there too, y’know…​to actually cheer for me at the game instead of just, just showing up to say 'congrats' or maybe 'what happened' or whatever." He stares off toward the wall for a moment. "My dad’s the one that puts the trophies in the case. When he does, maybe I get a congratulations again, a pat on the back. And then…​that’s it. Not another mention of it. I literally never touch them after that." He looks at Isaac, and his eyes are filled with exasperation, frustration, and a touch of a feeling, akin to disappointment, that to Isaac feels like when he finds out that Vin isn’t at school. "Besides," he says with a tiny shrug, "what’s the use of keeping a trophy, if they didn’t even see the game where I won it?"

"I want to watch your games, Vin," Isaac says. "I’m going to ask my m-mom if I can watch the game on Wednesday. Um, in, in two Wednesdays."

The tapestry of emotion is wiped away in a tide of warm, fuzzy happiness. Vin reaches over and takes Isaac’s hands, holding them softly. "I swear, I don’t deserve you."

Isaac frowns as multiple questions jockey to be the first out of his mouth. Eventually, the neutral candidate wins out: "I don’t get it, Vin."

"I’m sorry?"

"Don’t be sorry, Vin."

Vin blinks for a moment before breaking out in a grin. "Nah, I mean, what don’t you get?"

"I don’t get why you don’t d-deserve me."

Shaking his head, Vin grins even wider. "I’m serious — you are such a good person, I dunno what I did to get you as a boyfriend. I don’t deserve someone like you. You’re too good for me."

"I’m not too good, Vin. I—​I mean, I…​" Isaac struggles to put together a rush of conflicting thoughts, but as the moment quickly passes, he surrenders the fight with a sigh. "I want to be your boyfriend."

"And I wanna be yours." His grin grows as he pulls Isaac’s arms toward him and wraps him in an awkward cross-legged hug. Isaac doesn’t need to see Vin’s eyes to know that they both probably feel the same way right now.

They sit back down, but Vin slides his hands down Isaac’s arms and grabs back on to his hands. "So…​I’m seriously glad you were able to come over today," Vin says, his lips curling slightly on the left side. "I hafta admit, not a minute after I took the pills on Thursday, I was already thinking about how it wasn’t fair to you for me to do that, but…​I also was, y’know, too busy hating myself to think about telling anyone or trying to go, I dunno, throw 'em up or something. Even after I woke up — like, all the way; being on that much Benadryl apparently makes it where you can’t even tell what’s real, heh — but after I woke up, I was still thinking about you, basically non-stop. Before I talked to the therapist there, I kept thinking that…​eh, I don’t really wanna go there; I don’t wanna put that on you."

"Put what on me, Vin?"

"The thing I was gonna say, it’s…​it’s not really fair for me to, I mean, it’s not really something you should have to deal with. Sorry."

Isaac flaps his hands a bit, jiggling Vin’s arms. "I can deal with it, I promise."

Vin looks at Isaac, and his eyes speak of amusement, surprise, and a touch of respect. He shrugs and replies, "A’right, fair. I kept thinking of you because you were the only thing that I felt was keeping me alive. I mean, the therapist talked some sense into me, once I was over my, er, 'episode,' but the whole time I was there, you were the main reason I wanted to get out. I was dying to see you — wait, lemme rephrase that: I couldn’t wait to see you again." He rolls his eyes and laughs, "Heh, that was a really bad choice of words, my bad."

It takes Isaac a moment to realize what Vin was referring to; he has heard the expression "dying to…​" enough that he understands what it represents, even if he doesn’t know particularly why it does. He laughs along with Vin, though, if only because the feeling of giddiness he has from Vin’s admission nearly tickles with its intensity. After the moment passes, though, it leaves a burning question on Isaac’s tongue: "Vin."

"Yeah?"

"Do you really…​you don’t really want to die anymore, do you?"

Vin purses his lips and breathes out through his nose as his eyes convey a feeling that Isaac recognizes as the sort of moment when you realize you have to admit to breaking your mom’s favorite mug. "I would be lying if I said I didn’t still hate myself, but…​no. I don’t. I mean, like I just said, if I couldn’t find any other reason, there’s you." Suddenly, his eyes widen dramatically. "But—​but I don’t wanna be like, or, I don’t want you to think that, like, if something happened with us, that I’d go kill myself or something. I don’t—​that would be messed up. I just…​wanna make sure that that’s clear."

Isaac hadn’t even considered the prospect, and so he nods. "That’s clear, Vin."

He takes a deep breath and lets it out. "Good. But seriously, though, the therapist had some really good points. Mostly that if I recognize it now, then I won’t, y’know, be likely to do those kinds of things again. Like, after I did what I did to Cade,I’m never gonna bully someone again. And now if I get in a fight, I can remember not to…​go psycho. Maybe. I’m not really convinced on that one, if I’m bein' real here, but the therapist said that I’ll be just fine on that if I work on it in therapy. That, and your name came up in our talks, and…​well, he made some good points on that part, too."

"You talked about me, Vin?"

"Yeah. Don’t worry, though, he promised that he keeps things confidential, so he’s not gonna, like, rat us out or anything. But he asked me what sorts of things make me happy, and whether I make other people happy, and…​yeah." He squeezes Isaac’s hands as he looks down at them. "So no, I definitely don’t want to kill myself, but…​I guess I don’t really like myself yet."

"You should like yourself, Vin. You, you’re…​" Isaac growls lightly at his ineptitude with words. "I like you. There’s a lot of things that, that people can like about you."

"I know, I know," he says with an eye roll. "It’s hard to explain. But how about we change the subject? I don’t wanna bring everything down. So, we’re boyfriends now."

Without fail, hearing those words excites Isaac to the point where he finds himself rocking away the intensity of the feeling. "Yes, Vin. We’re boyfriends," he says with an irrepressible grin.

Vin looks upward to the side, an expression that Isaac has seen people do often while in the middle of saying something, or when they’re about to say something. "So, just curious, but…​have you ever had a boyfriend before? Or girlfriend, I guess, either way."

Isaac shakes his head. "I haven’t h-had a girlfriend or boyfriend b-before. I don’t even really have a lot of friends."

"Aw, I’m sorry."

Isaac hesitates. "Do you mean that you don’t get it, or that you’re really sorry?"

"What? Oh, heh, I was actually saying that I’m sorry."

"But why?"

Vin stops for a moment. "Yeah, I shoulda seen that coming." At Isaac’s blank stare, he explains, "I keep forgetting that you look at things a lot differently than I do. Uh, so does it bother you that you don’t have a lot of friends?"

Shaking his head, Isaac replies, "No, Vin. It doesn’t bother me. I have Christian, and then we play Clash Royale sometimes, and then I think Juan is my friend now, and, um, Charlie and Dalla in gym class, and then I used to have another friend, but he didn’t go to Adler Intermediate with me."

"Do you still hang out with him?"

Isaac frowns and shakes his head. "No, Vin. We don’t go to the same school anymore."

"No, I mean like, did you ever hang out at your house or his, or go to the park or anything?"

"No, Vin. He never came over to my house, and then I never went to his house or to the park with him. We only saw each other at school, and then we would talk at lunch, and, um, that was it."

Vin nods slowly. Suddenly, he chuckles a bit and says, "Still, you just mentioned four other people, not counting me, as your friends. That’s a lot of friends, my friend. My boyfriend." He gives a toothy grin.

"Oh." Isaac thinks about it for a moment. "That…​that’s a lot?"

"Well, sure. Some people only have one person they can call a good friend. Why, how many did you think counted as 'a lot'?"

Isaac contemplates it, realizing that he hasn’t ever put a lot of thought into it. "Maybe ten?"

"Damn, dude!" Vin says with a chuckling grin. "I don’t even think I have that many actual friends."

Isaac, incredulous, responds, "But you have, you…​you’re really popular!"

Raising an eyebrow, Vin cocks his head a bit to the side and replies, "Yeah, but just because somebody likes me or thinks I’m cool doesn’t mean that they’re my friend. Sometimes people know me and I don’t even know who they are, and that’s, I dunno, kinda weird to me. Honestly, these days, I can count on my fingers how many people are really good friends to me, and I wouldn’t use all my fingers. Wouldn’t even have to go to my toes." He wiggles his toes in illustration.

The idea makes Isaac giggle. "Why would you need to count on your toes? Just do math instead."

Vin’s expression goes very flat as he says, "Okay, first off, some of us can’t just 'do math' in our heads like you can, and second…​I mean, if I got 'em, why not use 'em?" He leans back on his hands and extends one leg like a crane, using his toes to grab onto the leg of Isaac’s shorts and tug at it.

Isaac grins and swats at his foot. "Stop it! Let go!"

"Whatcha gonna do about it?" Vin says, still tugging.

Isaac narrows his eyes at Vin; quickly, he reaches underneath Vin’s foot and starts to gently wiggle his fingers like playing a four-note roll on the piano.

Vin squeals, his voice cracking hoarsely at the top, as he whips his legs back out of the way. "Tickling! How did you know the Foot Monster’s only weakness?!"

Isaac stares at Vin for a moment, and the amusement and playfulness running between them is addicting. Still, Isaac tries to keep a straight face as he remarks, "You’re weird, Vin."

Vin responds with a wide grin and a seated bow. "I live to serve."

Isaac simply laughs and sighs. After a moment of silence, he asks, "Um, so have you had a boyfriend or girlfriend before, Vin?"

"I went out with a few girls, one in third grade, one in fifth." His eyes open a bit wider as he continues, "Oh, speaking of not knowing people that know me, there was this one girl who was obsessed with me last year, spread rumors that we were going out and I’m like, I dunno who this chick even is!" Laughing, he says, "So at the winter dance, she comes up to me and just starts dancing with me like we came there together or somethin', and she whispers to me, 'Just act like we’re going out.' Me, bein' the stupid idiot like I am, say, 'Hi! Do I know you?' but the music was real loud, so I had to yell it. Problem is, I didn’t know that the song had a sudden stop in it, so right in the middle of the song, I’m all o' sudden yelling 'HI, DO I KNOW YOU?!' in a quiet room!"

Isaac gasps, "Were you embarrassed?"

Vin laughs heartily. "Nah, man, that’s not it. I mean, it was a little awkward for me an' all, but all her friends heard her 'boyfriend' just say that he didn’t even know who she was. She almost sprinted out of the cafeteria, and I’m standin' there like, what did I do?"

The image of Vin yelling a happy greeting at a girl and her running away catches Isaac in the best way, and he breaks into peals of laughter. Vin laughs along with him, crying, "Right?! I mean, imagine someone doing that to you — it’s super awkward! So yeah, that, uh, that didn’t count as going out with someone."

Isaac cracks up, even having to remove his glasses to wipe his eyes. "That’s too funny, Vin!"

Vin just shakes his head, smiling. "Sad part is…​I don’t even think I ever learned her name. If anyone told me, I don’t remember it, heh. But anyway, yeah, I’ve dated two people."

Isaac asks, "What, um, what things did you do as boyfriend and girlfriend?"

"Like…​together? Heh, in third grade, basically nothing. I think we were going out just to say we had a boyfriend or girlfriend. It lasted like a week and then we both forgot about it." He shrugs. "In sixth grade, she was a pretty nice girl, Karina. We hung out after school in the library, talking and sneaking cuddles. Sometimes we’d head a few blocks down to the little burger stand and grab a meal, if it was okay with our parents. They’d just come pick us up from there instead of the school, and it worked out. I’m kinda surprised her parents trusted us, but it’s not like we did anything…​like that. Mostly."

"Oh. What about your parents?"

"What?"

"Were you surprised that they trusted you?"

Vin stares at Isaac, and Isaac feels a bristling irritation poking through drooping disappointment. "Not one bit," he says in a flat tone.

"Oh."

Vin shrugs, "But yeah, we hung out and stuff, actually were together for a few months. Real nice girl. Not gonna lie, I coulda stayed with her for a whole lot longer; too bad she decided to go date Thuggie McDruggie behind my back. Then she stopped showing up for school a few weeks before summer…​rumor was she got pregnant. At twelve."

"What?!" Isaac exclaims. "But—​but a twelve-year-old can’t have a baby!"

Vin answers with a shrug. "Dunno what happened. Never saw her again. I hope things turned out okay for her — she deserves better than that — but I dunno."

Isaac contemplates the idea of someone younger than him having a baby and trying to raise it. The very concept boggles his mind. Clearing that distraction out of the way, he asks, "So did you…​kiss them?"

Vin cocks his head a little bit at Isaac and replies, "Well, yeah. I mean, not the one in third grade, 'cuz kissing was gross to me back then, heh. But yeah, I made out with her, with Karina, a few times. Maybe more than a few. Times when the librarian would be somewhere else, or we’d go 'looking for a book' in a corner and smooch, or make out in the seating area by the side of the burger stand if nobody else was around, that kinda thing. Before you ask, though, no — we didn’t ever go very far after that. …​Okay, so, I did slip my hand up her shirt once, and she wanted to put her hand down my pants, but someone pulled into the parking lot at the burger place and we quickly, y’know, straightened up."

Isaac’s mind automatically goes to the expected place, so he decides to adjust himself before it gets too hard. Regardless, he had asked all those questions in preparation for what he really wanted to ask, hoping that maybe it would give him the courage to do so, but he still finds himself unable to form the words. He just wants to kiss Vin again, to feel that feeling and be that close to him again, but there is no way that he can figure out to ask the right question to make that happen. He also finds himself grateful for just having adjusted himself, or the image of kissing Vin would have left him pretty uncomfortable at the moment.

"Hey," Vin says, interrupting Isaac’s train of thought. "Do you mind if I change? Sweatpants are fine and all, but I just feel dirty bein' in the same clothes I was in at that stupid hospital." Before Isaac can answer, he shuffles off the bed and over to the closet, where he quickly tosses off his shirt and shucks his pants and boxers, leaving Isaac with a great view of his well-shaped backside. Isaac unabashedly stares as Vin changes into a pair of red basketball shorts with a black stripe running down each side. He forgoes boxers and a shirt, instead sitting back down on the bed just as-is. "Ah, much better."

Isaac’s eyes are drawn to Vin’s shirtless chest, so much so that Vin laughs and asks, "You there?"

Isaac blinks and quickly looks away, feeling the heat in his cheeks. "I’m sorry, Vin. I know staring is wrong. I’m sorry."

"No worries," he says with a smile, "I’m kinda used to it these days. Maybe if you watch long enough, they’ll put on a show."

Confused, Isaac looks back to see Vin flexing his pecs alternately, making them dance. Isaac laughs at the silliness, but looks away again to make sure he isn’t rude. When he turns, though, his muscles on the bruised side of his ribs spasm, making him flinch and hiss at the sudden pain.

"You okay?" Vin asks.

"Yes, Vin, I’m okay. Just…​my side hurts."

As Isaac gingerly rubs his ribs through his shirt, Vin asks, "So…​are you, y’know, okay overall? anything broken or anything?"

"No, Vin, nothing is broken. I’m okay. It only hurts a little, sometimes when I move."

Vin winces. "I’m so sorry that I couldn’t have been there faster. I didn’t know…​rrgh! I just wish I could’ve done something to make it not happen."

"It’s okay, Vin," he says, lightly rubbing his nose. "You stopped it."

He sighs, "Yeah…​but I almost killed Jason, and…​hm. You know what, no. I’m not going there." He squints and shakes his head. "Nope. Moving on. I wanna have a good night, not a damn pity party."

"I heard your mom say that, too," Isaac notes.

"Hm?" Vin frowns for a quick moment, but his eyes pop wide as he says, "Oh, right. It’s, it’s just an expression. Never even thought about what it sounds like, but yeah, basically I just don’t want to have this turn into a sad night that’s all about me being depressed. That’s not what I need right now." He pats the side of his legs and looks around the room. Focusing on his sweatpants on the floor, he hops off the bed, digs in the pockets for his phone and wallet, checks something on his phone, and then places them both on his dresser. "So," he announces. "We should do something."

"What do you want to do, Vin?" Isaac asks, turning toward him.

"I dunno. Cards, maybe? Video games? Piano?"

Isaac considers the options, but asks, "Do you have chess?"

Vin blinks a few times. "Actually, yeah, we do, but I’ll have to ask permission — it’s Dad’s display set, so it’s kinda expensive." As Isaac wonders what Vin could mean by that, Vin beckons him toward the door. "Lemme show ya."

Isaac follows Vin out into the game room, where they head over to the board game shelves. "See?" he says, pointing to the top shelf.

On the top shelf, sitting just in Isaac’s view, is a checkered board made of marble; on it sit the opposing armies, the white ones made of some sort of whitish-clear crystal, and the dark ones made of a shiny, opaque stone, darker than the squares on the board. From what Isaac can make out, the workmanship is exquisite: the rooks, being the only pieces he can really see from this angle other than pawns, look like miniature towers, complete with brick patterns etched in them all the way down. Even the pawns are well-made, each one crafted to look like a reptilian hand grasping a small glass globe for the pawn’s head.

"Wow…​" he says under his breath. "Those are…​really cool."

"I know, right?" Vin agrees. "Gimme a sec." He walks over to the railing at the side of the game room overlooking the entry hall. "Hey, Dad!"

Downstairs, a chair creaks, and shortly afterward, Isaac hears, "Yeah?"

"Can we play on your chess set, if we’re really, really careful?"

"What are ya, nuts?" his dad answers back. "No. I can get it down for you to look at, but that one ain’t for playin'. You know we got a set down below."

"Oh yeah," Vin mumbles. "Forgot we even had that one."

Shortly, though, Isaac hears a few of the stairs announce the imminent arrival of Vin’s dad. He comes over and opens the cabinet, gingerly sliding the chess set out and placing it on the pool table for a better view. "Yeah, even I don’t play with this baby," he admits. "Got it as a gift from the CEO of one of the businesses I consult with. They do mining and stonecutting, among other things, and I got this as a ten-year anniversary present." He picks up a black knight, an elegantly-carved horse’s head with a spiraled horn sticking out its forehead, and examines it idly. "He knew I liked a good fantasy book — the ol' swords-and-sorcery bit’s a guilty pleasure o' mine — and he presented me with this little beauty. Dragons, unicorns, wizards, crystals, all made of quartz and onyx, on a marble board." He nods at nobody in particular. "Real beaut, ain’t it?"

Isaac just stares in awe at the pieces; the fanciest chess board he’s ever seen barely even had wooden pieces and a wooden board; this was on a wholly different level of quality. Vin, though, glances over at his dad and says, "Tell ya what, if we play on the pool table real softly, would ya let us use it? That way the pieces can’t really fall anywhere 'cept on the soft table, and there’s no chance of the board or the pieces goin' anywhere."

Vin’s dad opens his mouth for a moment, but he closes it again and chews on his lip for a moment. He looks over at Vin; they meet eyes for a moment, and his dad gives the "not-bad" frown as he looks back toward the board. "Y’know, I suppose the thing could stand a little action, and Isaac seems to be the gentle type. You, too…​well, for the most part. Sure. But do me a favor and let me put it back up, cool?"

"Cool, dad." He goes and grabs the chair from the electric keyboard and another one from the corner nearby and brings them over to the table, setting them up for both himself and Isaac.

His dad takes one last look at the setup and says, "Now remember, this is a one-of-a-kind set, and it’s worth…​well, let’s just say it’s unique, eh? Be careful."

"Will do," Vin responds as he rotates the board to face both himself and Isaac. As his dad goes back downstairs, Vin asks, "White or black?"

Isaac shrugs. "I don’t care, Vin."

"Well, I’m already sitting on the black side, so why don’t you go first?"

Isaac looks at the board, considering all the options he has. Without a better first plan, he recalls Vin’s initial move from the previous game they played and hops his king pawn up two squares.

"Ooh, good move," Vin comments. "Most people do dumb things like move the rook pawns out, and I’m like, I’m just gonna snipe your rook, so whaddya even doin', y’know?"

Isaac shakes his head. "I don’t…​I don’t know, Vin."

Vin blinks and laughs. "Right. Anyway, good move. Now lessee…​" He decides to mirror the move on his own side.

"I did it because that’s what you did when you started," Isaac explains.

Furrowing his brow, Vin responds, "You remember what we did the last game?"

"It wasn’t that long ago."

"Yeah, but…​I mean, I remember that you were doin' okay at it, and that you didn’t make many mistakes, but like, I don’t remember the entire game or anything."

"Oh." Isaac recalls the two games almost move-by-move, each with their own explanatory story in his head. "You did this move next," he says, moving his right knight forward to threaten the black pawn.

Vin barks a laugh and moves his own knight to guard the pawn. "I know I say it a lot, but you’re really somethin' else."

Isaac smiles a bit at the comment, knowing that from him, it’s a compliment. "And then th-the next move you did was this," he says, moving his queen pawn up two ranks.

"Well," Vin points out, "keep in mind that it doesn’t work to just do the same strategy all the time; if black player does different things, white player is gonna hafta respond differently, and vice-versa, yeah? See, now you just started the war, since my pawn can attack yours."

Isaac thinks for a moment. If he takes my pawn, and I take his pawn with my knight, then he can take my knight with his knight. And then I can…​ "Oh."

"What’s up?"

"Can I take that move back?"

"Now wait a sec, just 'cuz I can kill your pawn doesn’t mean you can’t just do something right back to me. It’s okay if you lose pieces, as long as you lose something that’s the same importance."

"But Vin," he remarks, staring at the board and replaying the sequence he predicted, "you’re gonna take my queen."

Vin stays silent long enough that Isaac looks up to see what’s the matter. Instead, he meets Vin’s narrowed eyes and open-mouthed smile, and his chest fills with a combination of feelings: disbelief, like when someone actually does something that Isaac was sure they wouldn’t do; amazement, like seeing someone ride a motorcycle over a flaming pit; and a hot sort of attachment, the same pulling sensation as before but fresh out of the oven.

Vin breathes, "Are you seriously already looking three moves ahead?"

Isaac considers it. "Do you mean one move for each of us, or every move?"

Vin just leans his head back and laughs. "God…​damn, Isaac, you friggin' genius. You haven’t been watching chess videos on YouTube, have you?"

"No, Vin."

"Reading chess books?"

"No, Vin."

"Learning from the pros?"

Isaac giggles, "No, Vin! I haven’t…​done any of that!"

"So this is your third game, you’re tellin' me, and you’re sittin' here lookin' at the fact that if you move your pawn, then it goes pawn, pawn, knight, knight, queen, and you’re…​Jesus, dude, you really, really need to be in Chess Club."

Isaac laughs nervously, not sure how to answer, except to say, "So…​can I move this piece back?"

"Yeah! Yeah, sure, go ahead." Vin just laughs and shakes his head.

Isaac instead picks up a bishop, which looks to be a small human holding a large beaker atop his head, and moves it to protect the spot where he would have put his pawn.

Vin nods, moving his other knight out toward center. "I see what you’re planning, there."

The game continues, with Isaac holding his own quite a bit better than he did the previous times. Within the last few moves, when Isaac’s king is near a wall, Vin moves his queen — a long-necked dragon perched on a stone — near, but just out of the reach of, Isaac’s king. "Check."

Isaac looks at the board for a moment, noting the position of Vin’s remaining rook. "I think I lose the game in two turns," he says.

"Once again, you’ve seen into the future," Vin says loftily. "All hail Nostradamus, predictor of defeat! …​What, never heard of Nostradamus?"

Isaac stares blankly. "No, Vin."

"Oh. Well, he was supposed to be able to predict the future. Anyway, good game." He reaches out a hand, which Isaac happily shakes. "Hope you don’t mind losing."

"I want to win, Vin," Isaac replies, "but I don’t mind losing. I like chess."

With a grin, Vin remarks, "Well, at the rate you’re goin', that’s gonna start happenin' soon." Isaac smiles, proud of his progress so far. Vin asks, "Did you wanna play again?"

"Yes, Vin. I wanna play again."

They do so, but Isaac’s mind is more occupied with other things: the occasional twinge of pain in his side, the fact that Vin’s pecs are strangely alluring, and the thought that, though chess is in fact fun, there are other things that Isaac would rather be doing, a thought that isn’t made any weaker by seeing a shirtless Vin. He loses somewhat quickly, though he still manages to take a few good pieces out. He ends up losing by taking the bait of killing Vin’s queen, but being checkmated by a rook and two bishops.

"Good game again, Isaac." He offers his hand.

"Good game, Vin," he replies, accepting the handshake.

"So…​we done here?" Vin asks.

"Yes, Vin, we’re done here."

Vin walks over to the railing again. "Dad! We’re done with it!"

"Already?"

"It’s been like over half an hour."

"A’right, be there in a sec. Just leave the board where it is, yeah?"

"A’right." He turns back to Isaac. "So, what’s next?"

Ask the question, Isaac! he prods himself. Just say it! "Um…​can we…​can we talk? In your bedroom?"

"Yeah, sure — is everything okay?" Vin looks at Isaac, but Isaac chooses instead to focus on his lips, not his eyes.

"Yes, Vin, everything is okay…​I just want to, um, I don’t want to play anymore games."

"Ah, a’right, sure." Vin hesitates a moment, but he heads off past the stairs to his bedroom, Isaac following shortly behind. Isaac heads straight to the bed, on his customary side, while Vin closes the door behind them. "What’s up?" he asks, his face strangely blank.

"Mm." Just ask the stupid question already! "Vin." Stupid! Stupid! Just say it!!

Vin sits next to Isaac on the bed. "Yeah?"

"S-so, at the, um, hospital, you said that we could 'wait 'til later for kissing.' I…​is it 'later' now?" Having finally asked the question, Isaac’s face and neck burn with the utterance, almost to the point of starting up his apologetic chant. He looks up just enough to see a wide half-smile on Vin’s lips.

"Yeah, I think it can be 'later' now," he says in a smooth, softer voice. "And hey, at least nobody’s gonna catch us in the corner of the library, or drive up in the parking lot, and make us stop, heh."

Isaac laughs a little bit with him, though it doesn’t feel funny as much as just nervous. He feels a sharp pain in his thumb; looking down, he realizes that he’s been pulling at his skin enough to make it bleed slightly. "Oopf," he says as he puts the side of his thumb in his mouth. "I’m bleeding."

"Oh, what happened?"

"I pick at my fumb fumtimes." He checks again; the bleeding is very minor, right under the side of his nail.

"Heh, you shouldn’t do that." Vin looks at his own nails, drawing Isaac’s attention to them: they line up exactly with the pads of his fingers, and each one is perfectly shaped; his fingers also don’t seem to have any scars or callouses from messing with them, unlike Isaac’s chewed-up thumbs.

Isaac sighs, "I know, Vin, but I can’t help it. I juth do it."

Shrugging, Vin responds, "Eh, I suppose we all have our weird habits."

"Do you have a weird habit?"

Vin stares off. "Hm. I sometimes do this thing where I just blink one eye. Like, if my left eye was bothering me, I would blink only that eye. Other people have called me out on it, like it’s the weirdest thing they’ve ever seen."

"But ithn’t that juth winking?" Isaac demonstrates by squeezing his left eye shut a few times.

"Not quite." Vin looks at Isaac with amusement and another emotion, a kind of playful 'I know a secret' sort of emotion. Then, Vin blinks at Isaac, but with only one eye; it looks as if the other eye is paralyzed or otherwise unaware that the other is blinking. He switches to the other eye, fluttering his lashes completely independent of the other side of his face.

"What?!" Isaac blurts, busting into laughter. "You look like a lizard!"

"Well, I definitely can’t lick my eye or anything, so you’re safe. I’m no lizard. Just weird, heh."

Isaac tries a few times to see if he can blink one eye, but stops after he realizes how much of an idiot he must look like.

"So…​" Vin continues, "I dunno. Can you think of any weird habits of mine? You know me well enough."

Checking his thumb, Isaac takes it out of his mouth and scans his memory for anything of note. "At the end of what you say, you say 'yeah' or laugh a lot of the time."

"…​Huh. I guess I do, heh."

"See? You just did it now."

"Yeah, I guess that is a weird habit. I dunno why I do that. I guess I can watch for it and try to stop."

With a nervous laugh, Isaac admits, "I like it, Vin."

Vin looks into Isaac’s eyes just long enough to refresh the emotions from before. "Well, maybe I won’t stop, then," he says with a playful smirk. He scoots a bit closer to Isaac, so that their knees are touching, and puts his hands on Isaac’s. "So. You wanna try kissing again, yeah? --Ah, see, I did it again. …​Eh, whatever—​you wanna try?"

Isaac’s heart kicks into high gear. "Yes, Vin, I want to t-try kissing again." He feels as eager as he does nervous; he doesn’t even dare look at Vin’s eyes for fear of not being able to process it all. He instead focuses on Vin’s soft lips, wanting to do…​whatever they’re going to do, but unsure exactly what all that entails.

"Then…​" Vin leans in, closes his eyes, and slowly places his lips on Isaac’s. The warmth and softness makes Isaac inhale sharply through his nose. Vin holds the kiss for a moment and then opens his lips slightly, taking a bit of Isaac’s lower lip in them and caressing it lightly before breaking the kiss. He leans back and smiles, though his eyes meet Isaac’s with a twinge of uncertainty and a war between concern and amusement. "Are you…​okay?"

Isaac breaks eye contact and continues staring at Vin’s lips. "Yes…​Vin. I’m okay."

"Good, 'cuz you kinda…​froze up, there. I don’t even think you moved a muscle, heh."

Isaac relaxes his shoulders, which he wasn’t even aware were tensed up. "Oh. I’m sorry, Vin. I just…​I don’t, um." The words burn a bit too much to say.

"You don’t know how to do it, huh."

"…​Yeah. Um, no, Vin, I don’t. I’m sorry."

"My man, it’s fine, really," he says with a hand on Isaac’s arm. "I only know 'cuz I’ve had a chance to practice a few times. Let’s just say I wasn’t Casanova the first time I did it, either, heh."

"Who’s Casanova?" Isaac inquires.

"Oh, uh, apparently some famous romantic guy from a movie. I actually don’t really know all that well — he’s just, his name is, y’know, tied with romance an' kissing an' all that. So anyway, all ya gotta do is lean in and kiss, right, except instead of it being like one of those wet, sloppy granny kisses, or the tight, puckered-up kiss on the cheek that moms give, it’s real soft, tender. Kinda like…​like running your fingers gently along someone’s lips, only it’s with your own lips." As he says this, he demonstrates with two fingers gently touching Isaac’s lips. Isaac watches the fingers to the point of crossing his eyes to study them as they draw away. He’s already lost count of what tempo his heart is at, but he could probably play the third movement of the Moonlight Sonata to it. "Make sense?"

Isaac consciously slows his breathing down a bit. "Kind of, Vin."

"Then why don’t we try it again?"

"Okay, Vin." Isaac closes his eyes as he saw Vin do; momentarily, he is lightly surprised by the touch of Vin’s lips again. This time, though, he tries to emulate what he felt last time: he lets Vin’s lips brush across his, and then he tries to do the same to Vin’s lip, but it ends up more of a traditional "smooch" than a sensual kiss.

Vin laughs and opens his eyes. "Nah, nah, that’s just a regular kiss."

Clenching his fists, Isaac grits his teeth and grumbles, "I’m so stupid…​"

"What? No!" Vin exclaims. "You’re not stupid — good God, man, you’re freakin' brilliant! You just haven’t ever done this before. It’s okay, really!"

"But everyone else knows how to do it but me."

"Oh, no they don’t. I promise you, it’s not just something that people automatically know. Look, just try again, but don’t, y’know, smooch. Don’t suck in. …​Actually, idea: how do you eat an ice cream cone?"

Isaac stares blankly. "I don’t know, Vin."

"Just imagine you have an ice cream cone in your hand. A nice, tall one, like two scoops. How do you eat it?"

Isaac imagines it, and bites down into an imagined ice cream scoop.

"Okay, so you bite in with your teeth," Vin comments. "Do you ever do it without your teeth?"

"I think so, sometimes." Isaac tries again, but it’s still very awkward without an actual reference object in his hand.

"Oh! I got it. Ever eaten a sour straw? Like those Sour Patch things."

"Yes, Vin."

"So, I like to lick off all the sour stuff first. It’s fun. Ever done that?"

"Yes, sometimes." As long as he could finish it in three bites, he was fine having fun with them.

"So some people just do, like, y’know…​" He illustrates with one finger and licks up the side of it. "But I usually do it like, I put it in my mouth and then I pull it out, and I get the stuff off that way." He pantomimes lowering one into his mouth from above, puckering his lips, and pulling it out. "So, I’m not 'sucking' on it, right? But I’m using my lips to…​you know what? Lemme show you." He takes one of Isaac’s hands in both of his. He lifts Isaac’s index finger and puts the entire thing in his mouth; then he slowly and softly moves his lips from the last knuckle back up to the tip, pressing in with his lips as he does so. When he finishes, he sits up and looks at Isaac, who feels the echoes of his own excitement and desire surge into his chest. "Heh, damn," Vin says. He switches position to lean to one side, and as he does so, Isaac can clearly see Vin "chubbing," as he calls it. "So yeah, kinda like that, but just…​on lips. I dunno, it’s hard to explain. Wanna just try again?"

"Yes, Vin."

"Let’s do it this way: I’ll do something to you, and I want you to do it back to me." Vin leans in again, and Isaac closes his eyes in excited preparation. Soon, he feels the delicate touch of Vin’s lips on his own, the same way he did it on Isaac’s finger. "Now you."

Isaac tries to do the same, bringing his lips together on Vin’s, as if his lower lip were ice cream. It may as well be as sweet to Isaac; Vin sighs in pleasure, and Isaac is so proud that he has to stop himself from bouncing in place.

Suddenly, Vin darts forward again, planting his hands on either side of Isaac’s head and his lips on Isaac’s own. He does the same move as before a few times; each time, Isaac does the same in return. We’re kissing, Isaac tells himself in disbelief. I’m making out with Vin. He can’t make the words feel true, but it doesn’t matter — he has a job to do. Vin makes a move, Isaac returns the favor.

Then Vin changes things up; Vin’s tongue slips between Isaac’s lips and begins to explore their texture. The feeling of it is incredibly arousing; he is fairly certain that his underwear has a sizable spot of precum on it by this point. Vin’s tongue slides in further and begins to caress Isaac’s. Isaac has to concentrate in order to get past his emotional overdrive and focus hard enough to emulate Vin’s actions, when everything else in his brain is telling him either to masturbate or to just give in to the pleasure and shut down. He begins to move his tongue along Vin’s as if he were tasting it, feeling its texture, enjoying every little bump, when suddenly, Isaac feels Vin’s hands start to move up against the grain of his hair.

Isaac takes in a shuddering breath and his eyes shoot open, unprepared for the overload on his senses. He freezes in place, aware that Vin is still trying to kiss him but unable to will himself to do anything. Vin breaks the kiss and opens his eyes narrowly with a half-smile on his lips, but even his eyes fly wide when he looks into Isaac’s. Even their emotions seem dull in comparison to the sensations brought on by the simple act of someone else playing with his hair.

Vin finishes moving his hands all the way up, and then both boys exhale heavily. "Holy shit," Vin says quietly, "I forgot how intense that was."

Isaac just sits and stares forward, so many things going through his mind and tangling up in his chest that he doesn’t even know where to start. A few moments pass before he can even function, but eventually he looks at Vin, and his emotions say everything better than he could in words.

Vin smiles. "One sec." He stands up and checks his phone at the dresser, saying, "Hm. They’re probably making themselves ready for bed by now, if not really soon…​hold on." He opens his door quietly, so quietly that Isaac doesn’t even hear a click, and listens for a moment outside. He closes the door equally quietly. "Okay. TV’s off, which means they’re probably both in bed by now, or at least getting ready."

"What if they come to say goodnight?"

Vin laughs with closed eyes. "They stopped that years ago." Turning back to the door, he twists the lock on the knob and immediately drops his shorts. Isaac is transfixed watching his penis sway back and forth as he walks back over and sits on the bed. "Okay. Let’s get you undressed, yeah?"

"Yeah, Vin." He hoists his shirt off so rapidly that he knocks his glasses onto the bed. He smiles sheepishly as he puts them back on, folds his shirt, and places it near his suitcase. He slips quickly out of his shorts and tighty whities — now with a thumb-sized sticky spot in them — and folds them up relatively well, if a bit hastily, before climbing back up on the bed and imitating Vin’s cross-legged posture. "What do you want to do?" he asks as he wipes away a bead of precum from his glans.

"So, I kinda liked what you did with me last time," Vin says as he rolls to the side, "when you explored my body all over with your hands. I was wondering if I could do that to you."

The thought of Vin’s long fingers all over his body makes it a brainless decision to make. "Yes, Vin! You can do that." He scoots himself so that he is able to lay flat. He stares up at the texture on the ceiling, preparing himself; he feels the bed shift, and then Vin’s fingers each find their way down the tops of his toes, down his feet, inward to cup his calf muscles, and around cascade over his knees.

Vin suddenly stops. "Aw, Isaac…​" he sighs. Isaac looks up to see Vin staring at his bruised knee. He very lightly moves his fingers across it. "Does it hurt?"

"No, Vin, it doesn’t hurt, except if I push on it."

Vin doesn’t answer, instead moving on in his exploration. Vin’s soft fingers and palms send goosebumps all along Isaac’s body and up his spine as Vin scoots up, brushing his hands along Isaac’s hips and then inward to his groin.

Isaac gasps as Vin’s fingers brush across his pubic area. "That tickles!"

"Heh, sorry. Here." He presses down a bit more firmly with both his hands, rubbing the area on both sides of Isaac’s groin. "How’s that feel?"

Isaac realizes that he has been making a steady, low moan with each breath, similar to but much lower than when he is nervous or stressed out. He finds it a good way to keep his brain and emotions centered, so he just emphasizes it with a louder "Mmmmmmmm," hoping that Vin will tell him if it’s bothersome or otherwise inappropriate.

Vin skips over Isaac’s genitals, moving up his belly and gently massaging his ribcage, but he stops again when he sees the sore spot on Isaac’s side. "Y’know," he mutters, "I’m beginning to wonder if I shouldn’t’ve…​mm. Never mind. Not goin' there." Isaac doesn’t have much time to contemplate what he could mean before Vin’s fingers rub across his nipples, sending electric impulses through Isaac’s chest. Up Vin’s hands go, across Isaac’s pecs, to his shoulders, and down his arms. Vin turns Isaac’s hands palms-up and places his own on top. He then repositions himself so that he is straddling Isaac’s thighs; he grabs Isaac’s wrists, smoothly stroking them with his thumbs, and he looks down at Isaac. "I like your body," he says, smiling broadly.

"Me too," Isaac breathes. "Um, I mean, I like your body, too, Vin." The minor embarrassment (and amusement) is quickly swept away by the other rampant emotions running between them, though, and is completely forgotten when Vin scoops his hands underneath Isaac’s head and leans in for another kiss.

This time, Vin forgoes the tongue, instead spending all of his time on Isaac’s lips. Isaac completely loses track of time during the kiss; it could easily have been two seconds or twenty minutes, for all he can figure. Vin finally breaks the kiss, though, and scoots back off of Isaac. Isaac props himself up to see what’s going on, just in time to meet Vin’s eyes and watch his mouth descend on Isaac’s penis. The feeling is divine; he can’t see what Vin is doing with his tongue, but he does get a distracting play-by-play on his own tongue of how his penis would feel in his own mouth. He closes his eyes to instead focus on the feeling.

"Aw," Vin says. "I was kinda liking giving myself a blowjob, heh."

"Oh! Sorry, Vin!" Isaac quickly opens his eyes, but feels only playfulness from Vin.

"Nah, I’m kiddin'. It’s pretty awkward to suck your dick and look at you the whole time, anyway, heh." He closes his eyes and goes back to work; Isaac lets his arms drop and flops his head back into the pillow, reveling in the sensations.

Shortly, Vin stops; the wind from the ceiling fan cools Isaac’s penis as Vin sucks on his own finger for a moment. Isaac watches, strangely fascinated by the sight, even if he’s not sure why Vin is doing so. Then, Vin reaches behind himself and begins to finger himself, which is even more exciting to watch. Isaac stares intently at the display, never really having seen anyone do anything to themselves like that — he hadn’t even thought of doing it to himself, for that matter.

"What?" Vin asks."

"N-nothing," Isaac stammers. "I just…​I haven’t seen anyone do that before."

"Have you done it to yourself, though?"

"No, Vin."

"Really?" Vin asks, wide-eyed. "Well, okay, I guess you did only figure out you were gay just a little bit ago. I mean, even before I knew if I was bi or whatever, I had experimented with it a bit. Probably shoulda told me something about myself, now that I think about it." He sucks on his finger again and goes back at it. "Hm. Did you…​want to see how it feels?"

"It looks like it could hurt," he admits.

With a smile, Vin looks into Isaac’s eyes and starts to move his finger around. Isaac reflexively squirms at the sensations he receives, but they are definitely not unpleasant, just new. "That’s weird!" Isaac exclaims, instinctively putting his hand over his butt.

Vin just laughs as he takes his finger out and sits back up. "So…​" he says slowly, "I was wondering if maybe you wanted to try something new." He starts to crawl slowly toward Isaac.

"What do you want to try, Vin?"

"Well, not new new to me, 'cuz I’ve done it with a few things before…​my finger, pens, coupla other things…​" Vin plants a hand on Isaac’s chest and lowers him back down to the pillow, and then goes down on him for a few seconds, sending Isaac into bliss space once again. It stops abruptly, though, and soon a shadow descends over Isaac’s closed eyes. He opens them in time to see Vin situate himself just over Isaac’s penis and, using his hand to line everything up properly, begin to sit on it to where the tip is poking just inside. "Is this okay?" Vin asks softly. "I can stop if you don’t want to."

"It’s okay, Vin," Isaac manages to say, though each word feels like it has to push through a field of overthinking and overanalysis.

"…​Wow, that feels way better than a finger," Vin admits. "And, uh, on the other side, too. Wow. Uh, I don’t think I can take feeling both of those at once, heh." As he looks down, away from Isaac’s eyes, he asks, "You okay?"

Isaac finally remembers to breathe as he replies, "Y-yes, Vin. I’m…​good. Really good." I’m having sex, he tells himself. I’m having sex with Vin, and I’m inside him. I’m screwing Vin. There are a million different thoughts he could have had regarding Vin when he first met him, but this one would never have even registered.

The thought is actually a little overwhelming to him; he feels out of control of his own thoughts for a moment, and as Vin slowly moves up and down on him, he instead starts to feel a weird sort of fear, the same sort of feeling he gets when several people ask him multiple questions at the same time. The sensations themselves are incredible, but his brain begins to find itself stuck in a loop going the opposite direction.

He doesn’t feel that way for long, though, since the door opens into the room to reveal Brandon, dressed in a white tank top and baggy black jeans.

"Hey, Vin—​oh."

He doesn’t get any farther than that before Isaac screeches in surprise and Vin practically springs off of Isaac, crying, "Oh shit!" The two boys scramble to cover themselves up with the well-made sheets on Vin’s bed, but only Isaac manages to get a pillow to cover himself. Vin does his best to sit on his knees and tuck his erection between his legs. "How the fuck? My door was locked!"

Brandon calmly looks back at the door. "Was it? I mean I guess the doorknob didn’t turn, but it wasn’t closed all the way." He closes the door, making it click, and then pulls it back open. "Hm. Door’s not lining up right."

"Get the fuck out of my room!" Vin hisses. Isaac turns the pillow upright and grasps it to his chest, hoping that somehow it will help him out of this situation. He feels the urge to cry in fear, but he does everything he can to maintain a straight face. It almost succeeds, a quivering jaw and slightly misty eyes being the only visible evidence.

"Mm, no, I don’t think so," Brandon drawls out slowly. "Looks like we got somethin' to talk about."

"I swear to fucking Christ, I will beat the shit out of you if you don’t--"

Brandon speaks over Vin in a deep, commanding voice, "Would you fucking calm the fuck down for a moment?" Bending down, he picks up Vin’s shorts and tosses them to him. "Here."

Vin grabs them out of the air and gives his brother a strange look, one that looks maybe between angry or confused to Isaac, but he isn’t sure. Vin quickly slips them on, his erection already soft enough to stop pointing straight out. Vin swallows and breathes heavily a few times. "I swear to God, if you tell Mom and Dad about this…​"

"You’ll what? Try to kick my ass again? You got in a good hit last time, but no. You’d die trying. Besides, I don’t give a fuck — I’ve had more dick than you have, I’m sure."

Vin blinks, and his face drops all expression. "…​What?" he asks after a significant pause.

Scooping up Isaac’s shorts and underwear and tossing them on the bed, Brandon scans the room for something. "You need, like, a chair in here or something." He looks behind himself at the dresser; scooting a few pictures and Vin’s pocket contents aside, he hops up and sits on the top of it. "Yeah. I messed around with my friends at your age, too, and some after that. A couple more than once." He shrugs. "Fuck if I’m gonna tell the parents 'bout you doin' the same. I couldn’t care less who you fuck. Or, I guess, who fucks you."

Vin stares forward and begins to look at various nothings in particular. Brandon continues, "Yeah. Didn’t expect that, didja? Now could you stop acting like such a little bitch around me all the time? It’s getting on my nerves."

Vin keeps staring silently; Isaac finally gathers the courage to move the pillow and scramble to put on his briefs and shorts. Vin finally says, "So you don’t care if I’m bi?"

Brandon takes a moment to answer. "I mean, I just figured you were messing around. But you do whatever the fuck, or fuck whoever the fuck, you want. I really don’t care."

"So you’re…​not gonna tell Mom or Dad?"

Brandon puts his palms up, brows furrowed, and then points to himself. "Me? If I could go a week without having to say a word to them, I’d be thrilled."

An awkward silence grips the two boys on the bed, while Brandon checks one of his nails; Isaac notices that they are all painted black, and are slightly longer than Vin’s. "So. Gotta say, didn’t expect a whole lot of what I just saw. First, that you’d be fucking around with an autistic kid, and second, that you’d be the one getting fucked." He puts on a lazy-lidded half-grin at the last comment; Isaac notes that they both seem to smile on the same side of their face.

"Oh my God, Brandon, really?"

Brandon just laughs. "What? With a dick that size, I just expected--"

"BRANDON!"

"Hey, keep it down or you’ll wake the parents. None of us want that."

Face flushed bright red, Vin takes a deep breath and shuts his mouth.

"No but seriously," Brandon says with a raised eyebrow, "I think you’re bigger than I was at your age."

"God dammit, Brandon, did you come in here to embarrass me, or did you have something to say?" Vin asks through gritted teeth.

"Well, I came in here to ask if you had been using my deodorant, but we’ll get to that — this is way more interesting. So yeah, I kinda figured with the way you’ve been acting ever since you started hanging out with this kid that there mighta been something up between you. I’m betting this isn’t the first time you two have fucked around, am I right?"

Vin stares toward the door, stony-faced. Isaac can see his jaw muscles working.

"I’m just curious," Brandon continues, "what’s up with the fact that you’re with an autistic kid. Seems kinda…​I dunno. Off. Are you, like, trying to make up for the other kid? What’s going on here?"

Vin rolls his head back, wild-eyed, and stares away from Brandon for a moment, purse-lipped, breathing forcefully through his nose. "No, Brandon," he says deliberately, precisely, "it’s not…​like…​that."

"Then what is it like?"

"It’s none of your fucking business," Vin says, turning to stare Brandon down. "That’s what it’s like."

"Actually, you defensive little prick, it is." Brandon hoists himself off the dresser and walks over to stare at Vin. "It’s my business because my little brother just tried to off himself, and now I see him doing pretty suspicious things. It’s my business because — and I don’t know if this ever really registered to you, but — I care about you. I didn’t scare the shit out of bullies for you in third grade just because I liked being scary. You know why your 'friends' stopped talking to you after the other kid killed himself? I told them if they said a single word to you ever again that I would find them and make sure the same thing happened to them. Nobody fucks with my brother." He stares at a speechless Vin for a moment. "So then you attempt suicide, which I still don’t really know why, and then when you get back home, you take advantage of an autistic kid --"

Vin snaps, "I’m not taking advantage of him! He’s not a fucking retard, okay?!"

Brandon turns to Isaac. "What’s ten times ten?"

Isaac, even though terrified of Brandon, immediately responds into the pillow, "One hundred."

"Sixty four divided by eight?"

"Eight."

"What makes bread rise?"

"Yeast. And heat."

"Nice. What’s the capital of Vermont?"

Isaac stares down. "I don’t know."

"Heh. I don’t know, either. A’right, fine, you sound like you know what’s going on. I apologize. So, you know what happened with Vin and the other boy?"

"Yes, sir."

Brandon rolls his eyes. "Call me Brandon. I’m not gonna bite you, I swear. So you do know what happened, though?"

"Yes, si—​yes, Brandon. Vin bullied another boy and the boy committed suicide." Isaac cannot stop himself from shaking, but he also feels almost compelled to answer Brandon.

"And you know the boy was autistic?"

"Yes, Brandon, I know that he was…​different."

Brandon cocks an eyebrow. "Hm."

"Stop. Just stop." Vin says with his eyes closed. "Why do you care?"

"Honestly? I wanted to make sure you weren’t screwing someone else over just to make yourself feel better about what happened back then. I’m worried you’re doing something stupid, and going about things the wrong way, and you’re gonna end up worse off than you started. And you’ve already tried to kill yourself, so that’s a bit of a red flag, a’right?" By the end, Brandon’s inflection has changed to a softer tone; Isaac suspects that the change is significant, but there are too many reasons that people speak softly for him to be able to know the reason for sure.

Vin’s shoulders slump, and Isaac suddenly realizes what Brandon means by "screwing someone else over." He thinks back to Brandon’s previous warning, and even though he understands what it meant now, the idea of Vin using Isaac for his own gain is still a hard anxiety for Isaac to quell completely. Vin takes a slow, deep breath, and replies, "At first, I think…​I think you’re probably right. I wanted to help him out so that, y’know, the same didn’t happen to him. But…​" He sighs deeply. "Can you promise me, promise me, that you’re not gonna tell the parents anything?"

He blinks a few times at Vin, but he cracks a small smile and says, "A’right. I promise I won’t tell the parents a single thing that we’ve said in this room tonight. Happy?"

Vin still takes a moment to respond. "So it mighta been that way at first, but now…​me an' Isaac are going out."

Isaac’s heart drops, and the world nearly stops. Before he can panic for long, though, Brandon replies: "Oh. Y’know, I kinda figured that was a possibility."

Vin frowns. "Whaddya mean?"

"Well, gee, the fact that you immediately started guarding him with your damn life at the dinner table; the part where I haven’t seen you happier with anyone else at the house — yes, I do pay attention; the part where you guys slept in the same bed--" Vin opens his mouth, but Brandon puts a finger out near it and continues, "I know you said it was 'cuz he was scared or whatever, but c’mon. There’s always the floor, and you take up that whole bed. Also? When’s the last time you went to a friend’s house other than Isaac’s?"

"Like…​all throughout the summer."

"Yeah, and that all stopped the moment you started hanging with Isaac, yeah?"

"Look, that doesn’t mean--"

"And then the first day you’re home, who do you insist gets to sleep over, hm? Mal? One of the other kids? Nah, I see it." He looks between the two of them; Isaac is extra careful not to look into his eyes. "Just figured maybe you guys were something more. Maybe just really close friends, but, well, tonight kinda put the pieces together." He goes back to sit on the dresser. "So. Bi?"

Vin looks up at him and shrugs. "Yeah, I guess so."

"Sure it’s not just gay?"

Vin actually laughs a little. "Pretty sure. I definitely woulda gone farther with Karina if she didn’t dump me for that drug addict."

"Yeah, she was pretty hot, not gonna lie."

"Little young for you, don’tcha think?"

"Hah!" Brandon barks. "I just call 'em like I see 'em. Not gonna fuck her or anything." Grinning, he adds, "Pff, she fucked herself, anyway."

Vin laughs again; Isaac accepts that a joke was told, and continues listening. Vin says, "But yeah, I’ve definitely found more than one girl and boy attractive, so I’m going with bi."

Brandon nods with a look of approval. "I mean, if you go by what I’m attracted to, I’m straight. If you go by what I do, I’m sick."

Vin snorts a laugh and gives him a strange expression. "Whaddya mean?"

"I’ll save you the details, but I’ve done plenty."

"I’m afraid to ask, now."

"You should be."

Vin breaks into a long laugh. "Fair. But, uh, could you do me a favor?"

"Hm?"

"Could you leave, please? Isaac an' me were, y’know. Busy."

"If you can try to do me a favor. Actually, two."

"Well, that ain’t fair."

"Yeah, well, I got leverage."

Sighing, Vin rolls his eyes and says, "Well?"

"One: stop bein' a little bitch all the time. I liked you better before you got all defensive an' shit."

Vin closes his eyes and takes a slow, deep breath. "Okay, fine. I’ll do what I can. Sorry."

"Apology accepted."

"So. Two?"

"Two: can you at least tell me why you tried to kill yourself?"

"Look," he says, examining his thumbnail, "I’m gonna talk about it tomorrow with everyone. Can it wait 'til then?"

"Yeah, that’s fine. I won’t push ya on that. But if you ever feel like you’re gettin' those thoughts an' you need someone to slap the shit out of you an' set you straight, you know where to find me." He half-grins; Vin matches with his own half. "A’right. Don’t be stupid." Brandon heads to the door and tries it a few times. "Y’know, I can fix this, if Dad’ll lemme use his drill and dremel." He messes with it a bit, closes it, and pulls up hard; there is another click and the door stays closed to Brandon’s tugs. "A’right, cool, so just needs a little adjustment that way."

"Brandon?"

"Yeah, yeah, I’m leavin'."

"No." At Vin’s pause, Brandon turns around. "…​Thanks," Vin says. "For bein' cool about stuff. And…​I’m sorry for bein'…​"

"A li’l bitch?"

"…​Yeah."

Brandon nods. "And I’m sorry for walkin' in on my little brother having sex. ..Mostly." He shrugs and leaves, solidly closing the door behind him.

Vin calls after him, "What’s that mean?!" but gets no response. He quickly gets up and locks the door, checking it for security. "Well, that was interesting. Sorry about all that. I feel like an idiot, now." He sits on the bed next to Isaac.

Isaac volunteers, "You’re not…​what he was calling you."

Vin shrugs. "He’s kinda got a point; all this time I’ve been fighting him, thinkin' he was gonna bring that shit up from the past and use it against me or somehow mess up what, y’know, what we got goin' on. Guess I was too busy fighting him to see that he was, or is, on my side. That basically qualifies as 'bein' a li’l bitch' as far as what he’s sayin'. It’s all good, though. How 'bout you? You okay?"

"I’m okay, Vin. I’m tired, but I’m okay."

"Yeah, I guess it’s about that time. I’ma take a quick shower before bed. You, uh…​wanna join?"

"But showers hurt my skin, Vin."

Vin tilts his head and shrugs. "Well, I was thinking that, since you were okay in the shower at school that one time, that I could maybe do something like that in our shower. 'Cept that it’s easier, since we got one of those shower wands with all the different settings — there’s probably one that’ll work for ya."

Isaac considers it for a short moment; it would definitely help him feel more comfortable if he were smooth and clean. "I can try."

"Sweet." Vin springs off the bed forcefully enough to bounce Isaac a bit. As he stabilizes himself, Vin unlocks the door and looks outside. "Yeah, parents are definitely asleep. C’mon."

Isaac follows him into the bathroom. Once they’re in, Vin locks the door and quickly slips back out of his shorts. Isaac, though, hesitates. "What if, um, Brandon finds out?"

Vin looks back at Isaac with a raised eyebrow, a half-smile, and a complicated mix of emotions of varying intensities: a slight, bristly annoyance; strong reassurance; a fading amusement; and more than a touch of the sort of feeling Isaac recognizes as being told that it’s okay to do something he knows is normally wrong, like eating dessert first, or staying up late to watch a movie. "Eh, he already said he doesn’t care, so we’re good. The parents aren’t gonna come up unless, I dunno, we break the tub or somethin'." At Isaac’s wide-eyed expression, he adds, "No. We can’t break the tub."

Isaac looks away sheepishly, with the same How do they always know? thought rumbling through his head. "Okay, Vin."

Vin just laughs as he tests the water. "Is this too warm for you? I usually put it on super-hot."

Isaac puts his fingertips under the flow of water; though forceful, it doesn’t sting like shower spray. "It isn’t too warm for me, Vin. It’s good."

"Great." Vin closes the shower curtain enough that when he turns the shower head on, it doesn’t spray outside the tub. The hiss of the shower almost hurts Isaac’s ears, and his skin prickles at just the sight of the multiple needle-sharp sprays of water. Vin reaches up to the shower head, though, and rotates a dial on the side; the spray goes from a cone of needles to a more central set of thicker streams, each one coming out at a much gentler arc. "See? How’s this?"

Isaac ventures a palm underneath the stream; it feels very much like when Vin was his personal shower fountain. "It’s good, Vin."

"Awesome! Come on in!" He smiles and beckons Isaac.

Isaac, an only child, had never even considered sharing a tub with someone else, barring his mother’s arms when he was much younger. He tentatively steps in behind Vin, using him as a barrier to the shower water. Vin, though, lets the water stream into his hair and down his body, creating rivulets between his pecs and and down his arms. Isaac already finds himself more than just visually interested in the display.

After Vin thoroughly hoses himself down, he wipes the water out of his face and says, "Here."

Isaac looks up from Vin’s midsection in time to see him remove the shower head from its holder and bring it over to Isaac. For some reason, even with the long tube attached to it, Isaac did not even consider the fact that a shower head could be removable, and the idea strikes him as somewhere between amazing and hilarious. He squeaks in laughter as the water cascades over him.

"What’s funny?" Vin asks. "I don’t get it."

Isaac just giggles, reveling in the soft feel of the water and the subversion of his expectations. "It’s just funny, Vin," he responds, putting his hands in the falling stream.

Vin chuckles and shakes his head and asks, "Could you hand me the body wash right behind you? …​Great. Now hold this." He swaps the body wash for the shower head, and Isaac is left with what seems to him like an over-glorified garden hose while Vin lathers himself up. Isaac once again admires the display, though at least part of his mind is analyzing the similarities between backyard hoses and removable shower heads. Distracting, but not enough to stop him from going erect yet again.

Vin scrubs the sides of his neck and his face with the body wash, but he stops when his eyes fall on Isaac’s erection. "Enjoying the show?" he asks with a grin.

Isaac looks down at the floor instinctively. "I’m sorry, Vin."

"Hey, we’re boyfriends now. It’s okay to look at me." Isaac sees Vin’s feet move closer, and he looks up to see Vin staring down into his eyes; the mixture of emotions is remarkably similar to how it was earlier on the bed. "Hi there," he says with a wink. "Can you do me a favor and rinse me off?" He steps back and closes his eyes.

Isaac gets flashbacks of himself and his mother washing her car, when she would occasionally "accidentally" soak him with the garden hose while rinsing the soap off the car. With a grin, he clicks the shower back to the normal spray and goes to town rinsing Vin off from top to bottom. He can’t help but laugh with giddiness at the entire thing, though he tries to keep it quiet for the obvious reasons.

Vin stands on his tiptoes and slowly rotates with his arms up like a ballerina as Isaac aims for any suds he sees. After a full rotation, Vin opens his eyes and reaches for the shower head. "All right — your turn." He hangs the shower head back in its holder but turns it so that the spray is directed at the wall instead of himself. "So…​I had an idea."

"What is it, Vin?"

"Could I lather you up?" When Isaac stares back in confusion, he clarifies, "I mean like soap you up with the body wash."

Isaac’s breath catches as all of the times he’s imagined Vin doing this to him during bath time come back to him. "Um…​y-yes. Yes, Vin. Please."

"Wow, I even got a 'please' outta ya, heh." He squirts the body wash into his palm and lathers it up a bit. He starts out by placing his hands on Isaac’s shoulders, working inward up the neck to the jawline, and back out, down his chest and stomach, pressing in just firmly enough for Isaac to feel it in his muscles. Vin takes Isaac’s arm and wraps his hands around it, working the lather all the way down to his fingers, and then does the same to the other arm. Isaac closes his eyes, following the tactile map in his mind as Vin once again explores each region of Isaac’s body. The feeling is more relaxing than it was in the bed, since Vin’s firm grasp makes every motion part of a full-body massage.

Isaac’s eyes shoot open as Vin spends only a tantalizingly short moment lathering up Isaac’s genitals, which have been pointing almost achingly upward this entire time. Still, intense though the feeling is, Vin moves on down the thighs and shins, and finally across the top of the feet. Isaac is mesmerized watching Vin kneel down in front of him and continue washing him.

When Vin speaks, it startles Isaac slightly; he almost feels as though he were waking from light sleep. "Here. Turn around so I can get the back side."

"Okay, Vin," he says lazily, turning his back to him. He hears the cap flip open and closed on the body wash again, and he feels the cold gel start in the middle of his back, making him flinch slightly.

"Sorry," Vin says quickly, spreading the lather outward across his back and under his arms; though it should tickle, Isaac feels so relaxed at this point that his body barely responds. Vin’s hands slide smoothly down Isaac’s sides and lower back, rolling over his cheeks and down his hamstrings and calves. He feels the faint tickle of Vin’s breath on his tailbone as Vin finishes up. Just as Isaac expects it to be over, though, Vin’s hands start climbing back up Isaac’s legs, and each one rests on one side of Isaac’s rear for just a moment before snaking around the side to Isaac’s groin. He hears Vin stand up behind him, and he is pulled in by Vin’s hands to rest against Vin’s body. Isaac feels Vin’s penis poke him just above his tailbone and slide its way up his spine. Vin’s fingers, just long enough to reach down to the base of Isaac’s pelvis, begin to massage both sides of Isaac’s hips, eliciting a deep breath and a long moan from him.

"This is nice," Vin sighs.

"I can feel your penis flexing on my back," Isaac comments, which elicits a few more twitches from it.

"Well, I can feel your dick in my fingers." He drops his fingers down on Isaac’s penis from above and grabs it, dragging his fingers up and down it and wreaking havoc on Isaac’s ability to control his lungs. He lets go, though, and Isaac hears the shower head slide free from its holster. "Here, let’s actually finish the washing part, heh." With a click, Isaac hears the shower go from hissing to splashing again, and warm water starts to pour down Isaac from his neck and shoulders as Vin wicks away any remaining suds and wipes Isaac down. He turns around, and Vin finishes up with the rest of him. For a moment, they both stare at each other’s bodies, eyes occasionally meeting and conveying the obvious intentions.

"Oh," Vin says, breaking the moment, "you know what else this shower head is good for?"

"What, Vin?"

Vin answers by taking the shower head and, with a playful grin, places it underneath Isaac’s balls. Isaac immediately squeals in surprise and stumbles back, almost slipping before stabilizing himself. "That tickles!"

Vin laughs and puts it underneath his own sack, which pulls up a bit in response. "I dunno, it feels pretty good to me." He holds it there a sec before putting it back up. "Actually, I’ve used that to get off before, heh."

"Really?"

"Yeah, like pointing it at this little spot," he lifts his penis and points underneath the glans, "and turning the water on high. It’s pretty intense, but I came doing that a few times. It, uh, might be too much for you, though…​but, um, yeah." Hanging the shower head up, he points it toward the wall and continues, "Anyway…​I really liked the, y’know, sitting on your dick, but I don’t think that’s gonna work so well in here, so…​I was wondering if I could maybe try something else with you, since, y’know, Brandon isn’t going to interrupt us or anything." He laughs nervously and gives a half-smile as he gets down on his knees, but his eyes say a whole lot more than just amusement. "C’mere."

Isaac picks up the idea immediately and walks over, where Vin plants his hands on Isaac’s hips and puts his mouth on his penis. Vin actually has to hunch a slight bit just to line up properly, making Isaac acutely aware of their height difference. The feeling is just as wonderful as before, if a bit strange to him to do standing up. Nevertheless, Vin begins a steady back-and-forth rhythm, his soft lips and warm tongue making Isaac’s knees weak.

Isaac catches himself making that weird moan-whine sort of sound again, but he does his best to keep it quiet. Meanwhile, Vin moves one hand down between his legs, giving Isaac a fascinating point of view where he can watch Vin give him a blowjob as well as jack himself off below that.

Vin begins to speed up a bit; Isaac notices that he makes a sort of three-to-one rhythm — three jerks for every one back-and-forth on Isaac. His brain latches onto that pattern, giving him an unintentional internal counter as he loses himself in the sensations.

Waves of excitement and pleasure course through him, bringing him up to the point of no return. "Vin," he breathes, "I’m going to org—​to cum."

Popping off momentarily, Vin grins and says, "Good," before resuming his motions even faster than before.

Isaac, unprepared for that response, has only a moment to decide what to do before he feels everything begin to tense up; he stabilizes himself on Vin’s head and takes a deep breath as he feels himself pulse directly into Vin’s mouth, the waves of sensitive pleasure lighting every nerve up in his groin. He keeps his eyes on the spectacle, though, transfixed by Vin’s tandem motions.

Vin, as soon as Isaac grabs his head, stays completely still as Isaac buries himself. His other hand, though, picks up the pace and starts furiously pumping on his penis.

Suddenly, he stands up, making Isaac jerk from the sudden stimulation on his penis. Vin aims straight at Isaac’s chest at almost point-blank range and exhales deeply as a glob of semen hits Isaac between the pecs; another darts out and lands on his belly, and a third spurts out just far enough to clear Vin’s thumb, splatting on the tub floor. Isaac looks up at a widely-grinning Vin, who takes a few breaths before saying, "Damn, that was fun, heh."

Isaac smiles and looks away; the hyperactive sensations from both of them is too much for Isaac to deal with. "I…​came in your mouth."

Vin licks his lips. "Yeah. I wanted you to. It was pretty awesome. I think you came more than the last time, too. Musta been really excited, heh."

"You wanted me to do that?"

"Well, yeah. That’s why I sped up. I kinda wanted to see what that was like."

"But…​you shouldn’t…​you should always use protection."

Vin shrugs. "I mean, yeah, normally, that’s what they say and all. But…​I mean, have you been with anyone else?"

"No, Vin."

"I haven’t really, either, other than that one chick, and that was over a year ago, so…​I mean, I’m pretty sure I’m good."

Isaac mulls over it. He wonders how it would feel to use a condom or to suck someone wearing one.

Vin gets the shower head and breaks Isaac’s zone-out by rinsing his midsection off, rubbing to make sure all the semen is gone. "There. So, uh, we done in here? Oh, wait, I never washed my hair, heh. One sec." He grabs a green bottle and squeezes out a pearlescent glob of shampoo, working it through his hair with one hand as he offers the bottle to Isaac. "Need it?"

"Yes, Vin. Thank you, Vin." He takes the bottle, but he stares at it hesitantly; he’s fine washing his hair with different shampoo, but he can’t help but remember his own fantasies, and the potential to live those out is a hard opportunity to resist.

"What’s up?" Vin asks, already rinsing his hair.

"I…​c-could you do me a favor, Vin?"

He raises an eyebrow. "Yeah, 'sup?"

"Could you…​shampoo me?" He catches himself picking at his thumb and grips more tightly onto the shampoo bottle to stop himself.

"I mean, yeah, if y…​oh. Yeah, sure. I’d love to." Vin’s tone of voice changes dramatically on the last bit, and he says it a bit more slowly than the rest. Taking the bottle from Isaac, he squirts a bit into his own hand and says, "A’right, uh, close your eyes. Might wanna keep your head up, too, yeah?"

"Yeah, Vin." He follows instructions, his heart picking up the pace already. He hears Vin rub the shampoo vigorously between his hands, and then Isaac feels Vin’s fingers grace his forehead and slide through his hair and down the back side of his skull. Then he feels them creep up along his right temple, then the left; up from the base of his skull in the back, then the front again. He takes in a shuddering breath as he begins to feel fingers from all angles, almost as if Vin had more than two hands working his scalp. "How do you do that?" Isaac asks slowly, eyes still closed.

"Heh, it’s kinda how I work shampoo through my own hair sometimes. You just start at the bottom and go upward each time." He demonstrates by continuing; first in alternating assaults, and then in joined, opposing strokes up his temples, meeting in the center of his head. Isaac wonders how he can feel both excited and ready to fall asleep at the same time, but he is too busy enjoying the moment to think deeply about it.

Vin keeps at it for another half a minute, and by the time he’s done and Vin rinses him off, Isaac has to uncross his eyes when he opens them. Vin laughs and says, "That good, huh?"

"Yeah." He just stares through Vin’s midsection, unable to focus on anything in particular.

"You, uh, you done?"

Isaac nods, still staring off, counting the beats of his heart as they slowly go from near-explosion to something more manageable. Vin hangs the shower head up and turns off the water, but he stands for a moment before exiting the tub. Isaac looks up to see that Vin is staring down at his hair. "What’s wrong?" Isaac asks.

"Actually…​nothing’s wrong. I have an idea." He puts his hands back on Isaac’s head, but instead of using his fingers, he places both palms on his hair and brings them inward together. He does this a few times and takes a step back. "Heh. I kinda like it."

"Like what, Vin?"

"Don’t mess with your hair. Lemme show you." He pushes the shower curtain aside and steps onto the bath mat. Grabbing a hanging towel from a hook on the back of the bathroom door, he scrubs himself dry and wipes a section of the mirror clean. "C’mere. Don’t worry about dripping."

Isaac gets out of the tub and leans close to look in the mirror, where he sees Vin’s handiwork: Isaac’s hair is in a gentle fauxhawk, creating a finger-thick ridge down the middle of his hair. Vin asks, "Whaddya think?"

He stares at it for a long while. He has never really cared about his own image much, but for once, looking at himself, he gets a momentary glimpse of his entire face and hairstyle together as one unit, like he sees others. It almost seems as if he is looking at a stranger, one that he doesn’t find too unattractive. He frowns and mats his hair down, looking again in the mirror; now he just sees eyes, a nose, a mouth, some hair. Ears. Pieces of a face. "Rrgh," he grumbles as he analyzes what’s going on in his brain.

"Aw, you don’t like it?"

His eyes go wide. "No, no, Vin, I—​just, just do it again!"

"Hey, it’s okay if you--"

Isaac reaches behind him and grabs Vin’s wrists. "Just, rrgh, do it again, Vin."

"O…​kay, heh." Vin works Isaac’s hair the same way as before; Isaac watches him in the process, hoping to get a good idea of how to do it himself if he wants to. When Vin is done, Isaac looks at his image again, and just for a fleeting second here and there, Isaac gets the impression that he is looking at Isaac’s face. His face. Just as quickly, though, the feeling fades, as if his eyes uncrossed and the optical illusion disappeared. He sighs.

"Really, Isaac, it’s okay if you don’t like it. I was just messing around--"

"I like it, Vin. I like it a lot."

"…​Oh. Well, what’s the problem?"

"I…​I saw my face."

Vin stares at Isaac through the mirror; even blurry, Isaac gets a strong feeling of confusion from looking at his eyes. Isaac explains, "I, when I look at my face, like in a mirror, I don’t, um, I just see the pieces of it. But, and then, and then when you did this to my hair, I saw, I saw my face."

"I’m so lost right now," Vin admits with a strange smile.

He stares one more time to see if he can see past the separate chunks, but he reads nothing but squinted eyes, a wrinkled nose, lowered brows, and a mouth with bared, clenched teeth. Giving up before he throws himself into a meltdown, Isaac just growls to himself. Huffing, he instead says, "I’m cold."

"Oh! I’m sorry! Here, lemme get you a towel."

"I have a towel, but um, it’s in my suitcase."

"I can go get it — wait here." He wraps his towel around his waist and exits the bathroom, letting in a breath of cold air. He comes back momentarily with Isaac’s fluffy, turquoise towel. "I see why you like it. That is one seriously soft towel."

Isaac busies himself drying off as well as he can; Vin takes the opportunity to brush his teeth and hang his towel up to dry. They both mostly wordlessly engage in their nighttime rituals, Isaac getting in his pajamas and brushing his teeth, Vin putting on a fresh pair of boxers. Afterward, they head back to the room, where Vin pulls back the sheets and sits down. "So, uh, did you wanna do anything else, or were you ready for bed? I didn’t ask, I’m sorry."

"I’m ready for bed," Isaac states, "but…​do I have to…​am I sleeping in the other room?"

"What? Oh God, no. There’s no reason—​no. We can share my bed. …​I mean, I’d kinda like you to share my bed, y’know, if that’s cool with you."

Isaac breaks into a grin. "It’s cool with me, Vin." He joins Vin on the bed, and Vin opens up the covers enough that they can both slip in. "Which side you want?" he asks. "Wall or room?"

"I sleep near the wall at my house, so…​wall."

"Cool, cool. C’mon in."

Isaac slips in and turns to watch Vin settle in under the covers. For some reason, the moment fills Isaac with an almost restless joy, leaving him smiling and rocking himself in place.

Vin turns and looks at him, and the feeling between them both is almost uniformly that of love and belonging, with spikes of excitement over something new, of giddiness about the situation, and a more-than-minor need to pee.

"I have to go to the bathroom," Isaac laments.

"Actually, no, I think that’s me," Vin says; as he gets up, the feeling disappears from Isaac. "Be right back."

Isaac reflects on the events of the last couple of days; they’ve been full of crazy ups and downs, but all in all, Isaac has never felt happier than he does in this specific moment. He snuggles into the covers, warmed by his emotions as much as the bedclothes.

Shortly, Isaac hears a muffled conversation outside the door, similar to the other time he spent the night. When Vin comes back in, before he turns off the light, Isaac notices that his face and neck are very red. Vin clicks the light off and situates himself back in the covers. "Sorry," Vin says quietly.

"…​What happened?" Isaac asks.

"Hm? Oh. I just—​Brandon lemme know something."

"What did he let you know?"

"Heh. He said that next time, we should be a little quieter in the shower."

End of Chapter 16

Ooooooops. XD

So our lovely couple finally gets to spend some time together. Quite an adventure for the both of them, I’d think. I bet tomorrow will be interesting, as well. Let’s hope, eh?

As always and forever, I love all y’all for reading my work, especially since this chapter marks the 200,000 word milestone! Two hundred thousand. In fact, it overshoots by quite a margin, bringing the total words in this story to over 212k! That’s an estimated 770 pages of paperback published material, over two novels worth of Isaac, Vin, and company. That’s a much longer journey than I expected this to go, and I’m not mad about it in the least; hopefully you’re not looking for the end lurking around the corner, because it’s not there. Yet. ;) Please write to me at phillipbontemps@gmail.com if you enjoy the work — I’m a hopeless extrovert locked in my house and could use the interaction I always love to hear from my readers, as it reminds me of one of the biggest reasons I continue publishing (and you are all amazing people and deserve to have your opinions heard). Either way, stay safe, stay amazing, and stay tuned! <3 XPud