Sky dismissed that point, hands in motion again. “Irrelevant to this discussion.”
“A decade older with a home, and skills, and probably money and a career. So I doubt he would tolerate it if I did getpushy,” Trevor continued despite not liking that word. “Horny artist who has nothing big to his name who lives with his grandmother. Nothing to respect there. No reason to allow any… pushiness. Not that it was my plan to even try. It’s stupid that I’m bothered.”
Sky nudged his glasses up with an unconsciously elegant gesture. Trevor would have sketched it if he hadn’t already done that at least a dozen times.
“You have a lot of…” Sky stopped. “What are you drawing?” He changed the subject without any subtlety. “Is this for the new thing?”
Trevor flipped the pages until he was back to what he had been drawing before he’d asked if Sky had wanted to talk. He looked at his work and sighed heavily. No one was ever going to take him seriously. “A barbarian,” heavily scarred and clad mostly in impractical scraps of leather and fur, with splashes of blood along his chest and on one cheek, “…with a cat companion.” The cat was on his shoulder, back arched, teeth bared. “Maybe the cat is magic. But a barbarian isn’t right. A warrior maybe, but this isn’t someone mindlessly violent.”
“Not with that many books,” Sky remarked thoughtfully.
“And a catio,” Trevor added.
“And a catio,” Sky agreed. “You should ask him about that, and maybe get his name as well before you start in with the Brian Trevor brand of concern.” Sky saw everything, or close to everything. “And we both know what I mean byconcern.”
Trevor looked up to meet Sky’s eyes in the screen.
“It might only be concern,” Trevor answered at last.
“Some of us are fine with it,” Sky went on lightly as though Trevor hadn’t said anything. He put down the tablet, rolled backward in his chair to pause the movie, then rolled forward again. He checked his phone before setting it aside. “So. If you have somepushyou need to get out of your system at the moment, then I’m willing, Brian.”
Trevor went hot inside and out. “You’re more than willing.” He waited, not cooling down any but counting to five to ensure no trace of heat was in his voice. “You haven’t been sleeping. Call me to help you next time. If nothing else is working, I mean.” He didn’t mean that at all. But he didn’t have the right to demand more.
Sky eased back in his chair, both feet flat on the floor, his hands in his lap. They wouldn’t stay there unless tied or held down.
Trevor held onto his frustration about his inability to take care of that through a computer. “Say yes, Sky, or I’m not going to do anything but watch you.”
The faint smile at the edge of Sky’s mouth disappeared. Sky sank his teeth into his lower lip but a small whine escaped anyway. “Yes.”
Trevor did not give in. Sky could be tricky and this was important. “Yes,what, Sky baby?”
The nickname made Sky swallow. His gaze was still sharp. He wasn’t ready to give in yet, but he wanted to be, which was probably why he finally nodded. “Yes, I’ll call you to help me sleep next time I need it, Brian.”
The secondBrianwas overkill, but Sky must really need this.
Trevor put the sketchbook aside. “Good. Thank you, smart boy.”
Sky opened his mouth as if prepared to argue or to share or some genius thought that had occurred to him. He stopped himself when Trevor raised a finger. Then a flush carried down through his chest. “Yes,” he agreed quietly, following rules established years ago.
Trevor got up to lock the door.
Chapter Five
Once their video call ended, once Sky had blinked his eyes open and smiled sweetly at Trevor from just under a thousand miles away, and Trevor had clenched his hands below the edge of his desk so Sky wouldn’t see and told Sky he was wonderful because Trevor had no way to pet him, and coaxed Sky out of his chair to go get a cup of tea, Trevor stayed in his room until hunger and necessary household chores drove him out. He ate, then cleaned the bathroom, content at least to know that Sky had probably slept for a while after that.
He sent a message for Sky to find when he woke up, asking—not telling—him to eat something.Have it delivered if there’s nothing in the house. With juice, not only coffee. Please.
Thepleasemade Trevor itch, but it made the request marginally less of an order.
He looked in on the family chat, saw some of the earlier drama had spilled over there. Something about a cousin’s wedding later this year, and the cousin crying at anyone not willing to go to a cramped indoor wedding in the fall with a bunch of her future in-laws who were apparently against even moderate safety precautions.
Trevor read through all of that, then turned toward his grandma, who was on her laptop, peck-typing as she looked something up.
Fuck that cousin, he decided. He mildly internet-stalked some of his cousin’s future in-laws, saw their political views, and then dropped into the family chat to say,They are also bigots. I’m out. Knowing that his sister, for all her faults, also wouldn’t attend for that reason, and that since Trevor would be expected to drive his grandma, his grandma could use Trevor as an excuse not to go if she didn’t want to.
“Anne,” Trevor said abruptly, then waited.
His grandma glanced up. Her reading glasses were on the top of her head, not on her nose where they should be. “She used to pull the heads off the roses and try to shove them in her brother’s mouth.”
