Kiss & Control

Ignite it: part 3

After their little messy session in the conference hall, and once in proper clothes again, Austin had rushed out of the room, not even saying a single word. The rest of the day went by without hearing from his boyfriend as well and when James read the text from him, he had to stop on his track and think whether he had really overdone it this time with this punishment.
'I'll meet the guys and head to the gym after. Don't wait up for me.'
The lack of any affection in the message was what really made him frown in the concern that he might have broken something between them.

Throwing his jacket off, James sat there in the living room without even showering or doing anything whatsoever as he waited for Austin to come home. He didn't know when his consciousness slipped away, but when he heard the door, the clock was showing 11:50.
He rubbed the drowsiness away from his eyes, watching the beautiful man walk in.
"Why are you sleeping on the couch?!" Austin questioned with a raised eyebrow, putting his gym bag down and walking toward the kitchen. Without even giving him a kiss!
"I was waiting for you." James replied, turning around as his eyes followed his lover's every movement.

"I told you I was gonna be late tho?" The younger said, sipping on water slowly.
Frowning because the air was just so cold, James stood up and walked to the kitchen, standing right next to Austin.
"Baby?" He hesitated, one hand on the counter blocking the other's way without him even noticing it.
"Hm?"

"Are you mad at me?"
With that, Austin turned to the side, standing face to face with him. "No? My nerves are just all over the place."
"You sure?"

The other only hummed in reply, turning his back to him as he put the bottle in the fridge. When he turned to him again though, James went in for a kiss but was stopped with a hand on his chest.
"I'm all sweaty. Didn't shower in the gym."

He was so shocked by the rejection that had never happened before, no matter how 'sweaty' either of them ever was, that he only stood there like a total idiot as Austin pushed his hand off the counter, walked toward their bedroom, and said he'll shower first. First! As in, don't come shower with me, I want to shower alone. Shit, what if he had really gone too far? All he could do now was to respect his partner's wishes and stay back.

Taking off his tie and throwing it somewhere on his way to the bedroom, he unbuttoned his shirt infuriatingly and sat at the edge of the bed for Austin to come out. It didn't take more than ten minutes for his boyfriend to appear in all his mesmerizing naked glory with just a towel wrapped around his hips.
"Aus-" He wanted to talk, but the younger immediately cut him off.
"Go shower." Austin said, a faint smile at the corner of his lips as he only kept the eye contact for a couple minutes and then went to get dressed. His head was in chaos. What if he had triggered some old traumas unknowingly again? Sighing, he stood up to go shower like he was told.

He found his sweet muscular man wrapped in their fluffy white blanket on the bed, deeply asleep, once he was out. He was admiring the view until he noticed the giant pillow Austin was cuddling. The pillow was in the middle of the bed like a wall, leaving no room for James to be in any sort of contact with his lover's body once he'd get to bed. For the first time in years, he felt like punching something, crying even. Taking a deep breath, he bit on his lip hard as he planned a whole apology dialog in his head for tomorrow morning. They'd also have a small vacation to anywhere Austin would choose, and then he'd make it up to him. He had to do everything he could to make it up to his angel. The fact that he was acting so cold toward him showed just how bothered he was with all this, and that was not okay. Making Austin uncomfortable in any way was never what he wanted or allowed himself to even consider.

***

The next morning James woke up an hour early, went out to buy a flower bucket, and then tiptoed to the kitchen to make waffles and the caramel latte which was his boyfriend's favorite on cheat days. He was just done with the whole breakfast thing when Austin walked out of the bedroom.
"Morning, baby." James was smiling so wide, he felt the corners of his lips stretching!
"Morning." Nothing could beat his baby's husky, grumpy morning voice. "But I worked out so hard last night!" Austin whined, his hands already reaching for the fork.
"Eat up, sugar. You've had a rough couple of days and you deserve something delicious as a treat."