HELPING HANDS

Chapter 14

"Yes?" Tim asks innocently.

"TIMMY, I KNOW YOU'RE OUT THERE!" Austin yells through his laughter. "Chance? Babe, look in that drawer and get me a pair of scissors."

A few minutes later, they hear Austin stab the wall of tape with the scissors. He begins to try and cut a way out of the sealed room.

Once he gets a slit cut into the tape, he could see his friends sitting in the hallway.

"Oh. I hope yall are having fun." Austin laughs.

"Mhmm, we're having a blast." Tim smiles.

"This is awesome." Austin continues to laugh as he tears the tape away.

"Why thank you." Tim chuckles.

"How long did this take?" Austin asks.

"Not that long. I had help." Tim answers.

"I should have known." Austin says as he steps through a hole that he and Chance had managed to cut. "EWE!!!! What's this sh*t? TIMOTHY!!" 

He had put his foot down on one of the sticky mouse pads.

"Yes?" Tim once again answers innocently.

"Okay, I give. Let's call a truce." Austin says as he tries to clean the sticky substance off his foot.

"I'm not sure that I can trust you." Tim says.

"I promise. I'll stop if you stop." Austin says.

"I'll stop. But I'm not letting my guard down. And don't think you can pull something because I can't see. Cause Adam will be my eyes." Tim says. "And I will be locking my door from now on."

"Well, I'm going down to start breakfast while you KIDS clean up this mess." Chris says as he stands up from his seat on the floor.

"I'll help you." Rob says, heading for the elevator.

"I'm going to go get a garbage bag." Chance signs before heading downstairs.

"He's getting a garbage bag." Austin says, relaying the message to Adam and Tim.

Adam begins to pick up the sticky pads before anyone else could step on them. Chance returned with a garbage bag and they begin removing the tape from the door.

"Is that all of it?" Tim asks as he ran his hand along the wall.

"Yeah, that's it." Adam answers, placing the last of the tape into the garbage bag.

"Good, let's go eat." Austin says.

As they walk into the kitchen, Chris and Rob were putting the breakfast on the table.

They all fill there plates and begins to eat with idle conversation.

"Babe, can you pass me the salt?" Tim asks softly.

"Here ya go." Adam says, placing the shaker in Tim's hand.

As he starts to put some salt on his eggs, Tim feels a sudden weight change in the shaker.

"Uh, what just happened?" Tim asks, drawing everyone's attention to the pile of salt in his plate.

"Honey, the lid came off the shaker and all the salt is in your plate." Adam says as he reaches for Tim's plate.

"Austin? I thought you called for a truce?" Tim asks as he looks in Austin's direction.

"I swear. I did not do that." Austin says.

"Oh, sorry. I guess I did that." Rob confesses. "I filled the shaker earlier but had to go get the biscuits out of the oven. Guess I forgot to tighten the lid."

"Yall excuse me." Chris says, excusing himself from the table when the doorbell rings.

"Wonder who that could be. We don't ever get any visitors." Rob says as he refills his coffee.

"Adam? Look who I found." Chris smiles as he re-enters the kitchen leading a man by the hand.

"Nate?" Adam smiles as he stands up and hugs his brother's boyfriend. "This is a surprise. Good to see you. When did you get back?"

"Last night. I wanted to surprise Chris." Nate smiles as he slips his arm around the older Rupp's waist.

"Babe, these guys are occupants here. This is Rob, Chance, Austin and Tim." Chris introduces them as Nate shakes their hand.

Nate extends his hand to Tim, who only smiles and nods a hello.

"Okay?" Nate chuckles softly.

"Sorry, Nate. Tim is blind, guess I should have told you." Adam says.

"Oh, were you wanting to shake hands? I'm sorry." Tim smiles as he extends his hand.

"That's quite alright." Nate says as he shakes Tim's hand.

"Would you like to join us for breakfast?" Chris asks.

"Don't mind if I do." Nate smiles as he takes a seat.

"Nate, just to fill you in, each of the guys have a disability. Rob, as you can see, is cripple. Austin is deaf, Chance is mute and of course Tim is blind." Adam says. 

"So how did you guys end up at the same place?" Nate asks.

"Adam and Chris's grandmother took us in. We were all homeless too." Tim answers.

"She was a very sweet and caring lady." Nate adds.

"So, you said you just got back? Where have you been?" Austin asks.

"I'm a photographer for a magazine and my job calls for me to go to other countries every now and then. I've been in Rome for the past month and a half." Nate answers.

"Wow, bet you hated that." Tim says with a smirk.

"Every minute of it." Nate laughs.

"What kind of magazine?" Chance asks in sign language.

"National Geographics." Nate answers before Austin has time to relay the message.

"I didn't know you knew sign language." Chris says with a smile.

"Yeah, I had to learn it for my job. I meet all kinds of people with disabilities." Nate says as he sips his coffee.

"Sign language is definitely something Adam and I need to work on." Chris says as he smiles at Chance.

Chance smiles and nods.

"Chris, since it's been a month and a half since you two have seen each other, I'm sure y'all have a lot of catching up to do. So, don't worry about the breakfast dishes. We'll clean up the kitchen." Tim says.

"Thanks, y'all sure you don't mind?" Chris asks.

"Of course we don't mind." Austin answers.

Chris takes Nate by the hand and leads him upstairs so they could have privacy.

"Those are some cute guys." Nate smiles. "Do I have anything to worry about?"

"No." Chris chuckles. "Austin and Chance are a couple. And Tim? Well, I think little brother has staked claims on him."

"Really? So Adam has a crush?" Nate asks.

"Oh, I think it's much more than a crush. They, you might say, 'hooked up' not long after we moved in." Chris chuckles as he does the finger quotations with hooked up.

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