They reached Merry’s house and Quinn followed
Merry up the steps of the porch to the front door.
Merry
dug the house key from his pocket and shyly glanced up at Quinn, nervous. He’d
never had a friend over and certainly not a boyfriend. Or a non-boyfriend as
the case may be. “Um, if-if you can’t be my boyfriend, then what are we?”
“We be friends.”
“I know, but we
like each—”
Quinn silenced him
with fingers to his lips. “Say naught aloud, me Merry,” he whispered.
“’K,” Merry
breathed, a bit dazed. Man, Quinn’s touch did something to him. It was as if
even his mind could tingle. “Do you want to, um, come in?”
Quinn smiled, his
brilliant green eyes filling with mischief. “What ye think?”
Merry giggled and
his cheeks heated. He wasn’t used to laughing, let alone giggling like a girl,
and it embarrassed the heck out of him.
Quinn chuckled
softly. “I like to hear ye laugh.”
Merry giggled
again. “It’s not a laugh,” he said lamely. It took three tries before he was
able to insert the key into the lock. How freakin’ typical. He
finally managed to open the door and stepped inside, tripping over the doorsill
in the process.
Quinn caught Merry
with a firm grip on his arm before he face-planted into the worn carpeting. “Ye
be a right moppet, ye be.”
Merry withdrew his
arm from Quinn’s grasp and set his backpack on the coffee table. “Which one?”
“They be more than
one?”
“Ah, yeah, quite a
few Muppets ®.”
Quinn went to the
front window and opened the curtains with panache. Dust filled the air as
afternoon sunlight filled the room. He waved it away. “Be a century since ye
let sunshine in?”
Merry sneezed
twice. “It’s been a while.”
“Mbeannaí dhuit.” Quinn moved to the
second window, did the same, and dust billowed in the air again. “Ye need
sunshine in ye life, Merry. Open ’em every day.”
Merry rubbed his
eyes. “Yeah, okay. What’s many-gwit mean?”
“Bless ye. C’mon.”
Quinn walked down
the short hallway, and Merry idly wondered how Quinn was confident in where he
was headed when he'd never been in his house before.
Merry entered his
room as Quinn opened the curtains above his bed. Merry sneezed again, reached
for a tissue, and knocked the box off the milk-crate desk. He bent to pick it
up, smacked his head on the corner of a crate, and couldn’t prevent the soft “ow”
that escaped him.
“Ye be as clumsy
as a drunken gnome,” Quinn said as he picked up the tissue box and set it on
the offending milk crate.
Merry sighed. What
could he say? It was painfully obvious he was uncoordinated in the extreme. He
sat on the edge of the bed, blew his nose, and threw the tissue—missing the
trashcan in the corner of his room. He hadn’t expected to
hit it.
Quinn picked it
up, put it in the trashcan, then sat on the bed beside him. “Ye room always be
neat as a pin?”
Merry nodded,
suddenly nervous again. He was sitting on his bed. With... Quinn.
Quinn chuckled
softly as he drew Merry into his arms and fell backward on the bed bringing
Merry with him.
Merry ended on top
of Quinn and he couldn’t roll off Quinn fast enough. In doing so, his elbow
connected with Quinn’s chin, a shoe tangled in the blanket, and he fell off the
bed. He hit the floor with a dull thud, bruising his sore side anew. He
mentally shook his head in disgust. He was more of a liability to his wellbeing than
Rick was.
Quinn laughed
outright as he turned onto his side and peered over the edge of the bed at
Merry. “Ye be fierce in ye awkwardness, mo chroi.”
Merry’s cheeks may
as well have gone up in flames. He had no idea what to say or do, and he was terrified
the blanket would turn into another toilet paper situation. With his luck, the
blanket would come alive and try to eat him, and Quinn would have to rescue him
from that too. He kicked at it angrily, trying to dislodge his foot, and Quinn
reached down to help him.
Mistake. Merry’s
foot connected with the side of Quinn’s face.
OHMYGOSH!
Quinn burst into
laughter. “Blessed be, Merry! Be still!”
Mortified, Merry
froze. “S-s-sorry.”
Quinn only laughed
harder as he dislodged Merry’s foot, pulled his tennis shoes off, and set them
by the bed. He sat up, pulled his own shoes off, and set them next to Merry’s. “C’mere.”
Quinn lifted Merry as if he weighed nothing and brought him back onto the bed.
He settled Merry beside him, with Merry’s head resting comfortably on his
shoulder.
Merry tried to
turn onto his back and almost fell off the bed again. Quinn caught him in time
to keep him from falling, but his lower half still did a slow slide off the bed
until he hit the floor again.
Quinn broke into a
full-bellied laugh. “Goddess preserve us. Why layin’ on ye bed be such an
impossible feat for ye?”
Merry was
defensive and beyond embarrassed. “It’s n-not.” He tried to stand, his socks
slipped on the polished wood floor, and he landed on his rear with a soft
grunt.
Quinn rose from
the bed and stood over him, shaking his head. “Hold ye whist, Merry,” he said
through another laugh. “Be still. Don’t move a finger.” He bent, lifted Merry,
and set him gently on the bed. “Ye think ye can manage to lie back without
breakin’ somethin’ or I need help ye with that, too?”
Despite utter
humiliation, Merry let out a small laugh. “No, I’m good,” he said as he lay
back against the pillow with his hands tucked safely to his chest.
Quinn nodded his
approval. “Now, put ye arms and hands at ye sides.”
Merry complied.
“Now, we be makin’
a bit o’ progress. Hear now, no matter what happen, ye not move a muscle. Ye
take me meanin’?”
Merry nodded.
Quinn pulled his
T-shirt over his head and let it fall to the floor.
Ohmygosh! Quinn
was half naked! Merry’s breath sped, and his heart began to dance in his
throat.
With a wary look
at Merry, Quinn climbed onto the bed and carefully lay on his side next to him.
His long red hair cascaded around them and cocooned them in warmth and sweet
smell. Quinn smelled of flowers, and cinnamon, and his own brand of musk. Merry
began to squirm, certain one final indignity of epic proportions would take him,
and he’d die right there on the spot.
“Whist, Merry.”
Quinn looked down at Merry, his emerald eyes bright with silent laughter. “Why
ye think ye body be public enemy number one and ye must use all manner of force
to contain it?”
Merry found his
voice and dragged it out kicking and screaming. “Ohmygosh, I can’t believe you said
that!”
Quinn chuckled. “Well,
ye do. I be fearful what ye do to it with a sword.”
Merry gaped at him.
“Ye be all right?”
He was better than
all right. Then realization set in. “You’re doing it.”
“What?”
“You’re making me
so I don’t feel bad.”
“Am not.”
“Are to.”
Quinn propped his
head on a hand. A small sadness seemed to take the glimmer from his
eyes. “Nay, Merry, not be me. Ye begin to grow a wee bit. Ye be so preoccupied
with feeling worthless for so long, some of ye maturin’ be left behind. Ye
confidence not grow as it should.”
Merry knew he was
preoccupied with feeling worthless. Who wouldn’t be with a life like his? He
just hadn’t considered that it would mess up his development. Though, being
stunted in yet another way didn’t surprise him. “Stunted” may as well
be his middle name.
Quinn traced the
side of his face with a fingertip and his cheek tingled beneath Quinn’s touch.
“Whist, Merry,
stop ye self-criticism.”
Merry reached for
Quinn’s hand and held it against his chest. “What’s wisht mean?”
“Hush, calm yeself,
be still.”
Merry rolled onto
his side to face Quinn and looked into his beautiful eyes. He had a million
questions. Questions he couldn’t ask for fear the queen would hear him. He knew
he and Quinn were more than friends, but what, exactly, did that make them?
Quinn laughed
softly and shook his head.
“You can read my
mind,” Merry whispered.
“Every twice in a
while.”
Merry mustered his
inner strength and thought his question hard. Are we boyfriends?
Quinn winced. “Ye
needn’t shout, Merry.”
Merry
half-laughed. “Sorry.”
“Ye may think of
me as ye wish, mo chroi.”
“Yeah?”
“Aye.”
A boyfriend! He
had his first, honest to goodness boyfriend!
Quinn winced again.
“Ah, Merry, don’t shout.”
It was Merry’s
turn to laugh. “Sorry. That thought was, ah, meant for me.”
Quinn smiled
warmly. “If ye wish it, so be it.”
Quinn’s face
suddenly took on a surprised and pained look, and he sat up quickly, his face pressed into his hands.
“Quinn?”
Quinn struggled to
speak and Merry sat up too. “Quinn, what’s the matter? Are you okay?” Stupid
question. It was obvious he wasn’t okay. Merry reached to put a hand on his
shoulder to comfort him but hesitated when he saw the muscles in his back flex
and twitch. “Quinn? Are you gonna—” How do
I ask this politely? “—are you gonna change?”
Quinn’s entire
body abruptly stiffened, his back arching away from Merry as if he were in
pain.
Panic quickly
built in Merry’s veins. “Quinn, what’s happening? What is it?”
Quinn stifled a cry as his body tensed and arched again.
“Quinn! What’s
wrong!”
“I must—”
Quinn’s answer was
cut off with another jerk of his torso. A gruesome welt streaked his back, and
blood began to run.
Hysteria filled
Merry at the speed of light.
“Quinn! What’s happening?”
Another welt
appeared, and another, and yet another, and Quinn’s back swiftly became a red
ruin.
“I must go, Merry.”
Quinn’s choked words ended in a cry of pain right before he disappeared.
v.10.7.20
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