Pastabilities

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It was a relief to actually not be held by Orion. Zachary wasn't afraid of him, but at that moment he didn't want anyone touching him, even though he had his palms pressed against the man's chest along with his forehead. He took about two minutes to steady himself, then leaned back with one final, relaxing sigh. His eyes rose to meet Orion's once he was completely calm, a small, embarrassed smile on his face. "Thank you, Orion."

The man mirrored his smile with one of his own, though embarrassment was nowhere to be seen on his face. What could be read with just the short amount of time Zach managed to keep his eyes from lowering was a look of pride and possibly a bit of intrigue.

I don't know why anything about me would be intriguing.

"You are welcome, Zachary. I got your clothing while the chef cooked your meal and put them in one of the washers."

When Zach felt his face drain of color Orion chuckled, raising a hand to cover some of his own mouth, as if the gesture was a little embarrassing.

"It is alright. I took the money out, it's on the nightstand. Come." He said, guiding Zachary out of the room. Relief flooded his system when he saw his meager change sitting on the nightstand right where Orion said it would be.

"Here ya go, these should fit until your clothing is dry."

Before he could reply Zachary had to jerk his hands up to catch the pair of shorts being tossed to him. His eyes widened when he held them up, noticing that there wasn't a single hole and the colors weren't faded or stained.

Wow.

He couldn't help but grin as he tugged them on. Compared to his one pair of pants, they looked brand new! A shirt swiftly followed, not giving him any time to dwell on the shorts before he had to catch the other article of clothing. When he tried to get it over his head he paused, because Orion had walked over and was now tugging at the drawstrings Zach had missed. Orion's fingers deftly got a nice knot tied, making the shorts fit much better on his narrow hips.

"There," he said, smirking up at Zachary. "Not that I would mind them falling, but I believe clothing should only be removed when someone wants sexual attention or is going to sleep."

Zach's face immediately lit up, eyes widening and mouth gaping. He could tell that Orion wanted to say something in response, or do something, but the man instead cleared his throat and stood, licking his lips before turning to walk over to a nightstand. Zachary followed him once Orion had sat down, joining him a moment later only to have a huge plate of food set in his lap. Broccoli was the dominant item on the plate, but there was also a lot of pasta, Parmesan cheese, and a bunch of chicken.

"It's Alfredo, but I told the cook to only use a little sauce because it can be hard on your stomach if you're not used to it."

He didn't care if there was or wasn't sauce. Heck, the food itself was a blessing. Even if they had just given him back his broccoli he would have been ecstatic and thanked them to no end. Staring down at the food, he let his nose take in the delicious smell and had to bite back a moan.

This is too much... but it's already made. Asking him to take it back would be rude and a waste.

After a moment of silent thought Zachary set the food aside on the blanket and got up, taking one step toward the nightstand and grabbing four crumpled-up ones from his meager savings. When he sat back down and offered Orion the money, he could see the conflict in the man's eyes. What he decided to do was actually surprising though. He took on the money, but handed him back two dollars.

"We're a restaurant as well as a club so we can get ingredients cheaper than most. It only took about two dollars to make that, so you take these two back."

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