Only Happy When It Rains

Chapter 6

The entrance hall alone was bigger than Can's parents' house.

He stood in the middle of the spacious hall, like an ancient Roman atrium with a skylight, if his reading of Asterix and Obelix had taught him anything substantial, and Can felt abandoned.

If he had thought his outburst back in England against Tin might have changed anything about his husband's attitude towards him, he would have been mistaken.

Tin had remained cold and distanced throughout the rest of their stay in England, and they were barely on speaking terms – though Can sometimes imagined... it had to be imagination... Tin watching him with a pained expression on his face.

Only ever until Can turned to look his way, though.

That was why Can was sure he was imagining it.

Not as if Can had given him much of a chance to set things right. He had begged his parents to allow him to stay in another room at the mansion in England, and the Medthanan's domestic workers had quietly prepared one for him.

Nobody had said anything. The fact that they had had to share the room on their first night had probably just been a pointless nod to tradition. And a whole lot of good it had done to them, too.

They hadn't sat together on the flight back, either, and Can had actually managed to sleep through most of it, sprawled over the reclined seat in Business Class.

And now... he was... home. Such as it was.

Tin had disappeared up the stairs on the left side of the atrium, and had taken two nervous maids with him to help him get settled, leaving Can alone with barely more of an explanation than that the entire top floor of the right-hand side of the mansion belonged to Can now, while the upper left-side would be Tin's, and out of bounds for him.

Given this explanation, Can figured that the entire ground floor would be their shared space – not that he was expecting Tin to share anything with him if he didn't have to.

Somewhere deep down, Can still missed the warm comfort of Tin's body lying next to him, and yes, even his lips kissing him, the hot body sprawled underneath him, begging him for more.

But it must have been a fluke... maybe, Tin had had some peculiar kind of pornographic fantasy about his wedding night, and Can had just been stupid enough to play along, and blurt out that he liked him.

He would get over it – they would hopefully find some kind of arrangement to at least uphold a pleasant façade while they were outside. Upholding pleasant façades seemed to be very important for his new family in law, Can had seen enough of them to get that.

There was some hope that Tin would cooperate to that extent at least.

Now... Can wasn't even really jealous anymore that Tin had asked the maids to help him with such an ambiguous tone in his voice that Can would probably catch them naked sprawled over the bed if he breached the privacy of Tin's floor.

Okay, who was he trying to fool...

Can was... jealous.

Stupid.

Tin was probably heterosexual to begin with. He had been promised to get married to a girl, and just because he had had half of a night of fun with his husband, it didn't change anything substantial.

And Can... well... he was confused.

He didn't even know what he liked anymore. He had never been drawn to any body quite like he had been drawn to Tin's... and he still couldn't explain how, and why, this had happened.