"Come in, take off your jacket. Relax," Stephen instructs Calum as they walk into his house. "Would you like a drink?" He asks as he pours himself one.
"No, I think I've had enough. That was some party huh?!" Calum replies a little quietly. It's the longest sentence he's spoken since leaving Michael's.
"It had its moments!" Agrees Stephen, taking a large gulp of whisky.
"Like when you punched him."
"He deserved it."
"He deserved worse!" Calum watches Stephen pacing around the room like a caged lion, taking sips of the rather large glass he poured for himself. "I missed you..." He tells him, catching hold of Stephen's arm, worried that he'll wander off again if he doesn't.
"Have you?" Stephen asks, not really believing him.
"Yeah, I have," Calum assures him before reaching his hand up to the back of Stephen's neck, going up on tiptoes to kiss him.
"I'm not sure what's happening here right now," Stephen whispers, his lips having just pulled away from Calum's.
"I want to take you up on your offer...if you'll still have me. I want to give it a shot."
Stephen looks at Calum sadly before turning away and sitting down, "I'm not a consolation prize."
"I know that," Calum says, needing Stephen to know he's serious. "You're first prize."
"You sure about that?"
"I'm thirty, it's time I settled down and took on some responsibility."
"Now you're making me sound like life insurance!" Stephen says incredulously.
"Well, in a way you are!" Calum says, smiling slowly at him. "Do you still love me? Because I love you..."
The sofa creaks when Stephen pulls Calum towards him, encircling him with his arms as his strong hands stroke his back whilst they get lost in a kiss, everything else forgotten.
~~~
Luke lies fast asleep on Michael's bed in exactly the same position he was when he collapsed there, fully clothed, only a few hours ago, the last of the party goers having been forced out of the door.
Michael though had been unable to get to sleep, instead he'd been prowling his apartment, consuming cigarette after cigarette until he felt sick and ran out. In the end he must have dozed off for a little while next to Luke because when he awoke and came out of his bathroom, Joy had arrived, presumably letting herself in with Calum's key.
Michael pauses for a minute on his bedroom steps, clothed only in the jeans that he was wearing the night before, watching her place present after present into several large shopping bags that she must have brought with her.
"He asked me to pick up the stuff he left," She says defensively when she spots him watching her silently. Michael just shrugs and nods in reply, his eyes dulled and hooded.
"Hey Sunshine!" Joy calls, seeing Luke passed out on the bed behind Michael, "You've got some tables to wait on!"
"I don't feel sick!" Luke says a little too gleefully as he starts to wake up, wrigging around on the bed as he stretches his legs and back, groaning with sleep. "Margaritas are definitely my drink!"
"Get up!" Michael barks, already out of patience, wanting them both to leave so he can have space and thinking time to himself.
Taking a large gulp of whiskey straight from the bottle, Michael leans on the bar with his elbows, not looking at anything in particular but the twitching of his hand and his clenched jaw indicate to Joy how wound up he is.
YOU ARE READING
Queer as Muke
Fanfiction"The thing you need to know is, it's all about sex. It's true. In fact they say men think about sex every twenty-eight seconds. Of course that's straight men. With gay men it's every nine." Twenty nine year old advertising executive Michael Cliffor...
