Colors of Love

Six

Over the next month, Bobby got completely settled into his best friend's guest suite, usually keeping himself pretty scarce. He was still grieving for his late boyfriend, so he generally didn't wanna be around a whole lotta people, and his Morn sickness didn't help that. Another thing was that he didn't wanna have to try explaining away that Morn sickness by claiming to've given himself a case of food poisoning, which was pretty hard to do. In being part-Fox, even his human form was literally built to eat a lotta shit without making him sick that humans simply couldn't get away with.

        Selling the house he'd bought with Nikki a few Years ago hadn't taken nearly as long as he'd thought it'd take, either. Almost as soon as he'd put it on the market, there was a buyer willing to write a check for it–site unseen–and the offer was just too much to turn down. It was actually well above listing price, and he knew the extra money'd come in handy for all the baby shopping he was soon gonna be doing.

        But even as he seemed to be moving on with his Life after such a traumatic loss, the young bassist was still a bit stuck in the Past. He felt lonelier than he'd ever felt in his Life, particularly at Night when he'd go to bed and realize just how much he missed having his mate there to cuddle him. Even when he hadn't felt up to sex, just the older bassist's mere presence'd been enough to lull him into a deep sleep full of good Dreamsta tell him about the next Morn. Now, he was lucky to have any Dreams at all, and the sad Truth of the matter was that nearly all of them were more along the lines of Nightmares. And even if he did have the occasional good Dream–usually something about their kit–there was no one special to tell about it once he woke up.

        During that month as he was getting settled, Duff seemed to be hanging around Bret's house a lot more than he'd have thought normal. It was almost like the slightly-younger bassist was drawn to him, but he couldn't figure out the reason why–at least, not at first. Waking up one Morn after the blonde'd cuddled him to sleep 'cuz he'd started crying and realizing he could see in Color again'd shocked him fully awake. He was confused, 'cuz he hadn't thought he'd been around anyone who could trigger that kinda reaction lately, but maybe he'd been sorely mistaken due to his Grief.

        "Ugh, since when did earthquakes hit just the bed?" the younger bassist grumbled as he cracked open his eyes.

        "Duff, be honest with me," Bobby said, his tone coming out a hair more desperate than he meant for it to.

        "What's wrong?" he asked, pushing himself up onto his elbow. His other hand came up to cover his mouth so he could muffle the yawn he let out at least somewhat.

        "When didja start seeing in Color?" the older bassist asked. "And who were ya around when it happened?"

        Duff closed his eyes, and he wasn't sure what to make of that as he leaned forward to rest his forehead against his own.

        "Duff, answer me," he pleaded.

        "How 'bout I answer those questions in reverse of how ya asked them?" the younger bassist chuckled, slowly opening his eyes again.

        Bobby wasn't too sure what to make of that, so he just nodded slightly, despite their current position.

        "You, and..." he trailed off, starting to seem nervous.

        "And, what?" the older bassist asked.

        "And it was the Day of Nikki's funeral," Duff answered, trying to keep his tone gentle.

        He couldn't help a gasp as those words hit him like a barrel of bricks, and he thought he already had the answer to his next question.

        "I haven't toldja, not 'cuz I was trying to hide it, but 'cuz I wanted to give ya Time," the younger bassist started. "I'd never think you'd use me as a rebound after losing Nikki, but I didn't think you'd wanna go jumping from one serious relationship straight into the next, either."